Their walk back to Castiel’s house was slow. Every spot in Saran’s body ached. If they tried to walk too fast, she got dizzy and they had to stop for several minutes to let the world around her settle again. Ares walked next to them calmly, like there had never been any scene involving him.

“I’m sorry about this,” Castiel said after they had walked for a while. Sarah was starting to feel little better. The humming in her head had stopped but Castiel still had one arm around her just in case. She leaned heavily against the boy and shared moisture of her coat with him.

“It’s alright.”

“Ares didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m not blaming him.” If anything, she blamed herself for not letting go earlier.

Sarah’s words made Castiel relax. People were easily prejudiced against dogs like Rottweilers that had an unfairly bad reputation. He had worried that Sarah would blame Ares too because ‘Rottweilers were untrainable and unpredictable’. But he was happy he had been wrong.

“But I have to say, it was quite a flight,” Castiel grinned. “Haven’t seen a performance like that probably ever.”

“Oh, shut up,” Sarah muttered but laughed a bit afterwards. Her fall must’ve been a remarkable sight.

“Why didn’t you let go of the leash?”

“I was going to, but I didn’t have time. He’s really strong and everything happened fast.” She hadn’t had time to react. One second she had been sitting on bench, two seconds later she was swimming in the puddle.

When they finally arrived at Castiel’s house, the worst dizziness and nausea had dulled. Sarah was confident she would survive home.

“Thanks for your help. I think I’ll head home now,” Sarah said when they stopped.

“What? No way.”

“I’m feeling better already,” Sarah protested. She didn’t want to be a bother. And she wanted to change to clean, dry clothes as soon as possible.

“Well, if you say so,” Castiel said and stepped back leaving Sarah without support. He didn’t believe that Sarah was feeling as well as she said.

Everything went well for a few seconds; Sarah took a couple of steps, but suddenly her ears started ringing again and the dizziness returned. Castiel caught her when her steps staggered, and she started to lose her balance.

“Sorry, but I’m not gonna risk you passing out in a ditch on the way back,” Castiel said and walked her to the front door. “I’m not suitable to be a single father.”

Sarah laughed and followed Castiel in. The warmth of the house was welcoming after chilliness of outside and the wet clothes. Ares dashed to the kitchen and Castiel closed the door behind them. Sarah took off her wet coat and scarf, hanging them up on a coat hook. Her clothes were sticky against her skin.

“Do you want to take a shower?” Castiel asked and picked a piece of dead leaf from Sarah’s hair.

“No. I’m fine.”

“Really? You have mud in your hair.”

“I’m telling you, I’m fine. I don’t need a shower,” Sarah said but Castiel already headed towards the bathroom.

“If you’re worried that I’m gonna peek, don’t even think about it. I’m not interested,” Castiel said. Sarah sighed. She didn’t seem to have any choice in the matter. Castiel acted surprisingly kindly and she didn’t want to be unappreciative.

“Towels are in that cupboard. You can put your clothes in the dryer. It’s easy to use,” he instructed before walking out and closing the door. For a few moments Sarah stood still, looking around the bathroom. A few big-leafed plants sat on a shelf next to the towel cupboard. A big milk glass window let in a lot of natural light. Everything looked clean.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Sarah mumbled to herself as she started to undress. She couldn’t have even imagined she’d take a shower Castiel’s house. She left her underwear on a small stool with her towel and put her other clothes in the dryer.

She walked to the shower and drew the curtain as her cover. She walked slowly and was ready to lean against the wall for support. Bowing down to take off her socks had made her head hurt again. The last thing she wanted was to pass out in Castiel’s shower.

She switched on the water and comfortable warmth washed over her. It felt like she was being reborn. The warm water rinsed very piece of coldness and uncomfortableness from her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the refreshing feeling.

A loud knock on the door made her jump and close the shower. She covered herself with her arms.

“It’s me,” Castiel said. “I brought you dry clothes you can borrow”

“Oh, o--okay,” Sarah said. Her heart was fluttering when the door opened, and she saw Castiel’s figure through the shower curtain. But soon the door closed again. Sarah noticed she had been holding her breath. She turned the shower back on and rubbed her hair a bit to wash all the dirt out of it. She didn’t dare to touch any of the soaps or shampoos.

Ten minutes later Sarah walked in the living room wearing Castiel’s dark grey joggers and a red hoodie. They were too big for her but felt so soft and warm Sarah thought she might melt in them. Her hair was still damp, making the dirty blonde slightly browner, and to Sarah’s eyes a slightly more likeable colour. Her hair was a huge mess because she hadn’t found a hairbrush anywhere and there was only so much she could fix by using her fingers. She tried to flatten her hair a bit more to make it look better.

Castiel was sitting on the couch with Ares curled up next to him. When he heard footsteps, Ares jumped up and trotted to greet Sarah, sniffing her clothes carefully. She carefully patted his head. Castiel turned to look as well.

“Feeling better?” he asked, and Sarah nodded.

“Yes. Thank you for letting me use the shower. I really appreciate the help.”

“Well, I have to make sure you don’t die on my watch. They might accuse me of murder.”

She walked to the couch and sat on the other end of it. Ares jumped in the middle and rested his head on Sarah’s lap. Castiel handed her a mug of hot chocolate.

“Thank you,” Sarah said and took a sip. It tasted nice and warmed her up from the inside.

“He likes you a lot,” Castiel said looking at Ares.

“He’s a nice dog,” Sarah said and scratched him behind the ear.

“He’s usually reserved towards strangers, but he was curious about you from the start, even though you were afraid of him.”

“Why did you trust me with him? You knew I was afraid.”

“I shouldn’t have pushed him to you like that. It wasn’t fair from me and I definitely didn’t expect this to happen. But I gave him to you because I trusted you’d look after him. You seem like that kind of person,” Castiel said and Sarah looked at him surprised. Her cheeks felt slightly warmer. “But don’t let it get to yourself,” Castiel said and coughed a bit. “You still got dragged after him like a doll.”

“You are not gonna let me forget it, are you?” Sarah sighed but smiled a bit.

“Definitely not. Sadly, I didn’t get a video of it. It would’ve been even better.”

“Oh, I’m happy there’s no evidence,” Sarah said. “Now nobody’s going to believe you if you try to spread the story.”

“Dammit,” Castiel muttered.

Sarah chuckled a bit and took another sip of her drink. Ares snored loudly on her lap. He had fallen asleep quickly. A comfortable silence settled between Sarah and Castiel and they enjoyed their chocolate drinks in peace. Ares and the clock on the wall were only sources of sound. While Sarah relaxed on the couch, her muscles started gradually hurt more and more. Moving would be difficult in the morning. Luckily it would be Sunday so she wouldn’t have to go anywhere.

Over an hour passed while they sat in silence. Even though she ached, Sarah felt warm and comfortable and sleepiness began to creep over her. Her eyelids were heavy and closed by themselves, her head nodded to the side and she jerked awake. How embarrassing, she had been close to dozing off. Sarah peered at the clock with her tired eyes and realised how late it already was. She should go home. When she moved to stand up, Ares raised his head and left a slobber stain on the trousers.

“I should probably head home,” she said. She had been a bother for a long enough time. And mum would soon start to wonder where she was.

“Are you sure? Are you feeling better?” Castiel asked.

“Yeah. I’m alright,” Sarah replied and stood up. It hurt her back, but it didn’t seem serious. At least her head didn’t hum anymore. That had to be a good sign. Ares jumped down from the couch as well.

“You can keep the clothes. Return them whenever,” Castiel said and put his mug on the table.

“Oh, thank you,” Sarah said.

Her own clothes were already dried when she went to take them from the dryer. Castiel gave her a bag where she could put them. “Thanks. I’ll wash your clothes and return them soon.”

“Yeah, no hurry. I don’t use them anymore.”

“About Tim’s care shifts,” Sarah said as they headed towards the door. “I can take him tomorrow and you can have him on Monday. Easier to hand him over at school, don’t you think.” It’d mean three days of taking care of Tim for her, but she didn’t mind.

“Yeah, fine by me.”

“Cool. And thanks again for the help.”

“No problem. Take care and send me a message when you get home, so I know you haven’t died on the way.”

“I will.” Sarah smiled as she put on her coat which was still damp but would do for the fifteen-minute walk home.

“Well, bye,” she said and opened the door.

“Bye.” The door closed and Sarah was gone. Castiel sighed and returned to the living room. Ares had settled back on the couch and was sleeping on the spot Sarah had been sitting on.

“You like her, don’t you?” Castiel smiled when he sat next to the dog. Ares snorted and continued snoring. “She’s not too bad. She didn’t get scared by your little show.”

Sarah walked home slowly because she didn’t want to take any risks of dizziness suddenly returning, but she got back alive and well. Every inch of her body ached, but she was still quite happy. She had seen a different side of Castiel today and it made her feel good. Castiel clearly knew how to be nice when he wanted to.

“I’m home!” she announced when walking in. She couldn’t hear a crying baby or see any signs of chaos, so she assumed everything was alright. Unless they had managed to break Tim. She hung up her coat and kicked the wet shoes from her feet and hurried inside.

Mum and Steffie were sitting in the living room watching tv. Tim was seated next to them and looked to be in one piece still.

“Oh hello. We’re having a movie day,” mum said when she noticed Sarah. “Your doll is in perfect condition, don’t worry. We’ve taken good care of it.”

“We took it for a walk!” Steffie said. “I pushed the carriage.”

“Thank you. I knew you’d look after it well,” Sarah said. She picked Tim up and felt relieved he was fine. “I’ll go to my room,” she said.

“You won’t join us in the movie watching?” mum asked.

“I have homework to do.”

“Didn’t you wear different clothes when you left?”

Sarah was already out of the room and didn’t reply. How could she even explain all of it?

Sarah closed the door of her room and put Tim to sleep in his doll bed. She took out her phone but before she could open the message app, she received a message instead.

Are you home yet?

Yes. I just got in. I was just about to let you know.

Good. Sorry again about today.

No problem. I still enjoyed the day 😊

Sarah bit her lip over the last sentence. Maybe she shouldn’t have said that. But it was true. Despite the little incident, it had been a good day. Her phone vibrated again to sign a new message.

Me too.

A soft warmth filled Sarah’s chest and she smiled as she put the phone away.