Pieces Left Behind 5/6
Title: Pieces Left Behind
Author: candylovinangel
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Seen Jericho Season 1 & 2? Know who Sam, Dean and Gabriel are? You're good.
Word Count: 6647
Summary: A mushroom cloud in Denver spells panic for the small town of Jericho, and when a storm that is suspected to be radioactive comes upon the town, Bill gets caught in it, even if briefly, and it changes his life along with other peoples' lives from then on...
Part 1| part 2 | part 3| part 4| part 5 (this one)| Part 6
Dean watched as the shirt ripped at the back along several different points, bright lights appearing at Bill’s back as golden wings came seamlessly from his back and stretched out in the room, Sam carrying Jessica away as Dean looked at how huge the wings were…not to mention there were six of them…He heard a flutter of wings as a man appeared, he was in his late twenties and he had black hair and blue eyes and was dressed in fading jeans and a black shirt.
“Who the hell are you?” Dean asked sharply and the man looked up and a light flared in his eyes.
“I’m Gabriel’s brother, Michael,” the man, Michael said clearly now and Dean paled.
“You!” And he launched at Michael and tackled him to the ground, the Archangel seeming shocked at this as Bill…Gabriel…whoever it was lay on the ground, wings air drying as he lay there limply…
Jessica ran to Bill’s side and started shaking him.
“Daddy!” She cried, “Daddy please wake up!” Her voice was scared, soft and sad all at once and Michael pushed Dean off of him and watched quietly as a wing twitched and stretched out and wrapped around Jessica and pulled her closer to bill, who reached out and hugged her close and let out a sigh.
“I’m here, Jessica,” He mumbled, “I’m here…”
“What just happened here, Michael? He isn’t supposed to be an Archangel anymore…right?” Dean said slowly and Jessica reached out and ran small fingers along the feathers and Bill started laughing softly.
“Well…I may have banished him…but my father just brought him back as what he once was…though he allowed the merging…But now he knows two different identities and he will be Bill and he will also be Gabriel…”
Bill opened his eyes; they were gold like his hair and his wings….
“Bill,” Dean knelt down next to him, “Hey…how are you?” He asked softly, ignoring Michael.
“I…I have wings…why do I have wings?” Bill asked in a tired voice.
“Because you are an Archangel,” Michael said calmly and Bill blinked and the wings flexed out a bit.
He looked to his daughter who he held and she giggled.
“They feel nice daddy,” She said softly and Bill smiled at her and his eyes went up to Michael and he tilted his head a bit.
“Hello Michael, aren’t you supposed to be up there laughing at me?” He said before grimacing a bit.
“Hey…you alright?” Dean asked and Bill nodded.
“Just…interesting, I have two sets of memories but Bill’s…they’re more dominant and ah… Yeah I’m pretty sure I’m not going to remember this conversation, it’s already slipping away as well as Michael was saying…my personality will finish melding with Bill’s in an hour…now was just when the wings had to manifest…and he has a cute kid…” Gabriel, now it’s clear it’s Gabriel says as he looks to Jessica who is cuddled up against her and he smiles.
“I’ll know how to fly still I hope,” He then chuckles and looks to Dean, “there’s gonna be some rather interesting days ahead for you…” And with that he looks to Michael.
“So dad’s back?” He asked quietly but Michael shook his head sadly.
“No, he made an exception for you…I felt him here and he was gone by the time I arrived…,” Michael sat down. Gabriel then frowned.
“He…said something…um…’It will be alright, you’ll be able to live a life, my son, and you will be able to help those of this town properly now,’” Gabriel said with a frown and he looked to Michael.
“How’s that soul doing that I sent up to you?” He asked and Michael then smiled.
“She is happy,” Michael says after a moment as Gabriel sits up and looks at his wings and smiles while keeping Jessica warm. She always had said lately that he was warm…It was because of his grace and the warmth it produced… Gabriel blinked at how easily he slipped into Bill’s memories and he looked up to Michael.
“Well…have fun then,” And he snapped his fingers and sent Michael away. He then sat back against the wall and looked to Sam and Dean.
“Hey Dean…by the way, that massage…it was awesome, if I’d been myself we would have been having a while lot of fun,” He grins at Dean who returns it.
“Yeah I know but…well you’re gonna be different soon you’re gonna be just…Bill and Gabriel being just a background story…” Dean said sadly and Gabriel messes up the kid’s hair.
“You’ll see. Bill’s coming around you just gotta give him some time…” He then lets out a breath and closes his eyes.
“Check on the food, Sam,” He said suddenly and then Sam cursed and went running into the Kitchen and Gabriel smiled slightly before he closed his eyes again and Dean noticed that the injuries had healed and he was healed. Grace must really be that awesome…
“I miss you, Gabriel, I miss your humor…your laugh…” He then trails his fingers along Gabriel’s wings and the Archangel shivered.
“I know…” He whispered and he opened his eyes and they were more hazel than gold now, “I think I could make food for them but I can’t now it’s far too late for me to like this I just hope we remember it…” And he trails off and he picks up Jessica and goes over to the couch and lays down on it and wraps his wings all around her and they spilled over the couch as he smiles at Dean and then his head falls back against the pillows as he passes out…
--
He woke later, his head no longer hurt and his back felt heavier… Before he even opened his eyes it felt like there were floodgate opened in his head… He felt warm and his chest felt warm everything was warm and it was like there was a constant hum for a long moment and then a word sprung to mind…Grace… That one word seemed to unlock a ton of other things, the feeling of flight under wings the rush of power as he conjured up food to eat… Bill’s eyes snapped open and he looked around, trying to keep from hyperventilating…
“Daddy?” Jessica…Jessica was there but… He paused and looked at the gold wings wrapped around him and Jessica and Jessica was looking at him and bill smiled at her.
“Hey…” He said softly and he wondered if he could move the wings…and he leaned his head back and searched for the information to do that and then when he found it he found it was like breathing, moving the wings even as they shifted and moved.
“Come on hun, lets eat,” He says softly and Jessica nods as Bill gets up and stretches out the wings and counts them. Three on each side…six of them…wasn’t that the number an archangel has?
Then the name Gabriel sprung to his mind and he paused and leaned against a wall, eyes closing as his breathing hitched for a moment and it all seemed to click. Gabriel…He’d…fuck he’d once been an archangel…now… He opened his eyes and looked to the kitchen and a sense of peace went through him.
Now he had a family that wouldn’t turn on him…
You deserve to have peace, both of you. Do as you please so long as you do not return to your old ways, Gabriel. A comforting and powerful voice said softly to Bill, who was also Gabriel….His head pounded a bit, he was confused so who did he think of himself as?
He went to the table with the boys and he shifted the wings and looked back at them.
“I’m trying to think all this out but I’m just confusing myself more…what name should I go by…Bill or Gabriel?” He asked after a moment and Dean started choking on his mac and cheese with hot dogs.
“Bill,” Dean gasped out with after he was done, “Go with Bill, everyone calls you by that, that’s who you are now, Gabriel was an Archangel who essentially…died saving you, Bill. He knew what he was giving up by healing you and taking you as a vessel. He was ready to die to save you…”
“But he-I’m not dead. Isn’t that what I am now? I’m part Gabriel part me…” He said as he figured out how to make the wings disappear from sight and from knocking things over.
Dean got up and went over to him and pulled him into a hug…
“You listen to me…you are who you are now…You’re Bill Koehler and you have three pairs of wings, awesome powers and a heart of gold, you got that? You’re a deputy and damn it you’re good at being that. You protect people and save them too…”
Bill blinked at the sincerity and honesty behind those words and how Dean meant every word and Bill hugged him back. He then patted Dean’s back and then went over to the table and ate the food. He was happy with it and he let out a happy sound and he stretched after eating and he settled on the couch after and he looked to Dean who had followed him.
“I can’t believe you have that much faith in me…” He said quietly but Dean just smiled.
“You have a lot of good qualities. I don’t doubt your ability to uphold what you think is right,” He said softly and Bill wrapped an arm around him and let out a sigh. He looked out at the lawn from his window and shivered.
“There’s a war coming,” He says after a moment, “And it’s going to end bloody for all of us…” He says softly and Dean rubs his shoulder.
“We’ll make it through then,” He said softly and he put his head on Bill’s shoulder… Bill let two wings show up and one wrap around Dean as Bill sought the comfort of the man who believed so much in him…
--
The next few days things started getting out of hand with New Burn…First they had taken Eric and Jake and then there were men trying to take the mine… Bill joined the Rangers that went out there to stop the chaos. Bill had told himself he wasn’t to use any powers unless it was a real emergency…so here he was holding a gun…
“If we’re not careful this is going to evolve into a full blown riot,” He told Grayson who nodded at that and he went about and started arguing with some of the New Burn men there and it all kind of blew up and shooting started and Bill let out a snarl of pain as a bullet ripped through his shoulder and he hid behind the truck he arrived in… He snarled and with his power pulled out the bullet and sent it flying aside and into the dist as he pulled off his shirt and pressed it to the wound as the fighting eventually stopped and he stood up and looked around. He was taken back to the med center and when no-one was looking he left in a flutter of wings and arrived in the living room, cursing as he sat down on the couch and Dean and Sam came running into the room.
“Shit! What happened?” Dean asked as Bill brought the bloody shirt away.
“Got shot in a fucking riot outside of town…New Bern and all that crap…” He muttered and even as he said that, the first soul came to him of a dead man and he looked up and the man looked to him and saw he was wounded.
“I’m sorry…” The man whispered and Bill just sighed and reached a hand out and sent the man to be judged. The man’s name was Jim Dawson. Several others soon followed and Bill sent them to Judgment, Sam and Dean listening to the conversations he had with them…
Bill sat back and looked to the wound, it was completely healed at this point but his clothes were still bloodstained. He muttered something angrily as he pulled the bloody shirt off and as just left bare-chested now as he rubbed his shoulder. He heard Dean’s breathing hitch for a moment and frowned at that and looked to the man and saw him pointedly looking the other way.
“Oh don’t be such a girl, Dean,” He said, rolling his eyes as Dean looked back to him and Bill chuckled at how red the other man was as he stretched his wings out in their other plane. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was still so calm about this. An angel had done this without his permission-No he’d had his permission to heal him…so okay he had given permission for that…But the angel had actually possessed him to do it? He blinked when the memory actually presented itself from Gabriel’s point of view.
He could feel the Archangel’s desperation, how he needed a vessel or he would die, weakened like this. This human here, Bill…He was dying and he needed help and if he could pull that off while taking him as a vessel? Well the risks of what would happen to him personally were far less that the guarantee of Bill being healed… Dean and Sam had told him it was part of the consequences of this world, you had to give up a lot in order to survive… Dean… Gabriel had hesitated for a moment before he decided….Dean would be angry if he didn’t remember anything about him…but well… Gabriel shifted a bit. It was like he’d just told himself. There’s going to be sacrifices…and if what he had with Dean was going to be one of them… Gabriel didn’t want to think of that even as he braced himself and put the hand to Bill’s chest…
A flash of him holding Dean and Sam as their world came shattering down around them, wings a protective shield against the blast of radiation, he’d been more powerful then and able to keep their fallout shelter intact as he shielded them. He wasn’t going to just let them die because of power hungry morons!
“Uh…Bill?” Dean’s voice cut through it all and Bill blinked and realized he hand Dean and Sam both in a protective barrier of the six wings and he blinked and brought them back and went upstairs to change… He changed into a tan button up shirt; probably a dress shirt and he got into tan pants and went down the stairs again though not after pausing by a mirror. Fuck his hair really was a shade of Gold wasn’t it?
He shrugged slightly and saw his eyes were still hazel…but he noticed something else as he got closer and yup there were specs of gold splashed through his eyes and he let out a breath. Well, gold must be Gabriel’s favorite color, since it’s the color of his wings…. He shrugged to himself and went downstairs, snapping his fingers and managing to conjure a candy bar, chocolate, a Snickers and he unwrapped it and started eating it as he looked around the house for…something.
He shrugged as he sat down on the couch next to Dean, who was eyeing the chocolate.
“Want one?” Bill asked with a smirk and Dean fidgeted.
“Sure, but I love apple pie-“ A snap and there was hot apple pie on the table and Dean’s eyes widened and he looked to Bill who just smiled and found himself being hugged to death.
“I haven’t had pie in forever, thank you,” He said happily as he picked up the knife and fork that came with it and started eating the pie, every sound catching Bill’s attention as Dean made happy noises as he ate.
Sam came out of the kitchen and came to investigate the sounds and then chuckled as he saw what had Dean so happy.
“You got him pie? Hah he’s gonna love you forever for that,” Sam chuckled and Dean ignored him but Bill just smiled and looked to Sam.
“I didn’t get it for him so much as snapped it up,” He said with a sly smile as he saw Sam blink at that.
“You figured out how to do that already?” He asked and Bill just shrugged.
“I do know how to use the powers, and I know some of the memories from my…other half that I need to know how to do some of it…Other bits I’m…figuring out on my own I guess…” And with that they sat around as bill snapped up food that would last them through the winter and Dean and Sam recommended some things and Bill frowned and then snapped those up too and then he remembered his kid’s favorite meal, speggeti-o’s and snapped them up.
“Jessica!” He called and she came down the stairs and pointed to the speggetti-o’s and squealed happily and she went running down the rest of the stairs and happily sat down at the table and started to eat them.
“Thanks, Daddy!” She said cheerfully and Bill smiled warmly at her as Dean finished his pie and leaned back seeming quite content and happy. Sam had been munching on what Dean had called rabbit’s food, aka a salad and Bill had shook his head as the two bickered playfully with each other and he himself ate another candybar. It had been a while since he last had chocolate before today. He didn’t notice how occasionally the boys would watch him and when he finished the chocolate, skittles were up next.
He was happy and pleased with himself as he listened to the boys talking and he dozed off after a while, hand in the candybag and he found himself being picked up and the sound of boots on the stairs and then he was being put on his bed and he looked to Dean, cause well, bill knew that man anywhere and he grinned at him and kicked off his shoes and then took off his shirt and lay on his stomach, back to Dean.
Dean was just standing there and Bill looked back.
“Well? Come on you haven’t given me a back massage since the first night. I feel neglected,” He said with a pout, lower lip out a bit and he swore whatever resistance Dean had melted at that as the man nodded and sat down next to him and started working on his back and Bill felt himself relaxing under the touch and his wings fluttered when Dean reached the muscles where they were and he looked to Bill.
“Ah…let me know if I end up hurting your wings and whatnot, I know you don’t have them…manifested right now but I know they’re still a part of well, you’re back…” He muttered and Bill nodded and felt his eyes drifting closed as he felt the skin and muscle kneaded expertly by Dean and he couldn’t help the moan of pleasure as Dean got to right where the wing muscles were and fuuuck that felt so good, he supposed it was a sweet spot, well two of them and Dean seemed to sense that too and fuck Bill didn’t think he’d ever end up this relaxed as his wings went lax and it was an effort to keep them out of Dean’s way even in another plane as they slowly came down to drape across his back and sides again, but Dean’s hands went right through them, thankfully.
He felt himself go warm in his belly and was glad his face was hidden in the pillow cause fuck he knew that sensation and he was pretty sure he was blushing… He fell asleep like that, the warm feeling deep in his belly and moaning and enjoying the feel of Dean’s hands on his back….