Roadhouse Ink, Part Two

[epicycles]

Masterpost | Part One

~~~~

It's been two weeks, and Dean's almost forgotten about it.

Well, not forgotten. Even when Dean's life was at its most fucked-up, getting kidnapped by two djinn who want a custom magical tattoo job was not an everyday occurrence. But life goes on. Sam and Jo hauled him back to Roadhouse Ink and Dean got alternately yelled at and hugged by Ellen and Bobby. He told his story and convinced everyone that he was fine and they didn't need to form a posse to go after the djinn. He went home and told Sam the story again and convinced him there was nothing Sam could have done about it. Then he went to sleep, got up, and went back to work.

Sam hovered a bit, which Dean couldn't really blame him for. As much as it annoys him, Dean is essentially a civilian in Sam's eyes now. Dean getting attacked practically on his own doorstep was bound to result in some mopey over-protectiveness. At least it's not as bad as right when Dean busted his knee; he'd been worried he'd have to keep Sam from following him into the bathroom. Dean puts up with it for about two days before he starts yelling.

At first, he keeps expecting Gabriel to show up. Every odd coincidence, every stranger in the street, Dean feels a brief moment of, "is it...?" He'd felt the same the last time he met a djinn too, like reality was just a curtain that could be torn down at any moment. But, like before, the feeling eventually fades, and the incident stops being news and starts being just one more entry in the long list of strange shit that's happened to Dean, another story to tell to other hunters. It's kind of nice to have a new one, to be honest. After two weeks, life is completely back to what passes for normal.

So of course that's when Gabriel shows up.

Little bastard just pops up out of nowhere too. Dean's alone for once -- everyone else has gone out to lunch and promised to bring him back tacos -- and he's cleaning up the reception desk. He bends awkwardly to shove a box of markers into a bottom cabinet and when he straightens, Gabriel's lounging casually on one of the tattooing chairs.

Dean bangs his head on the underside of the counter in surprise. "Dammit! Why don't you ever learn to knock?"

"Doors are for humans," Gabriel says dismissively. He's wearing the same clothes as before, or close enough, but the tattoos are back in hiding. If Dean didn't know better, he'd think Gabriel was nothing but an ordinary man.

Dean rubs the back of his head and limps huffily over to sit down at the front counter. "You should be glad Sam's not here. He's been carrying a silver knife around all week and he's a lot jumpier than I am."

"So you told him about me." Gabriel sounds completely disinterested, like it doesn't matter to him in the least whether Dean emailed his identity to every hunter in the country.

"Yeah. Everyone here. But I also told them that Cas doesn't hurt people and you swore you'd gone on the wagon. No one's going to spread it around and no one's going to come for you, not unless you start deserving it again."

"Not even your pet Sasquatch?" Gabriel relaxes minutely.

"He's pissed off, but it's Sam. Tell him your sob story about Cas and he'll roll over in no time. You didn't actually hurt me, and that counts for a lot." There's actually a silver knife strapped under the front counter now, next to the guns loaded with rock salt and silver bullets, but Dean doesn't reach for it. "How is Cas, by the way?"

"Fine, no problems. You did good," Gabriel looks at him out of the corner of his eye, embarrassed by his own sincerity. "Thanks."

"Did that hurt?" Dean asks, amused. "What are you doing here, anyway? I would have thought you'd zap off as far from here as you could get."

"I will. But I pay my debts. I said I owed you a wish, so here I am." Gabriel folds his arms, this time in deliberate imitation of I Dream of Jeannie. "Your wish is my command."

Dean frowns. "Wait, you were serious about that? I thought you were just screwing with me."

"Dean, Dean, Dean, would I screw with you?" Gabriel doesn't let Dean answer that one. "Wishes are serious business for djinn. I say it, I mean it. You get one wish, uno, to use for whatever you desire. So what'll it be?"

"No thanks."

Gabriel blinks. "What?"

"I said no."

"Did you not hear me? What part of 'incredibly powerful genie offers to grant you a wish' didn't you understand?"

"No, I got it. And I said no."

Gabriel is looking at him like Dean is exhibiting a form of stupidity that has been previously unknown to science. "But..why?"

"Why? Because shit like this is too good to be true. Because you're the Trickster, however much you pretend that you turned over a new leaf for your baby brother's sake. Because I had a djinn grant my wish before and it ended with me hanging by my arms with my blood draining out. Because this is how it always starts, the universe dangles something good in front of me and if I grab for it I get slammed down into the mud." Dean's breathing hard, angrier than he's been in a long time. "Because wishes don't come true, dammit."

"This is different, Dean. I can give you anything you want, no strings attached. You've seen what I can do on my own, and I can do ten times as much to grant a wish. I'm not Robin Williams -- you can wish for someone to come back from the dead, for someone to die, for someone to love you. Isn't there anything you want? Isn't there something you always wanted, but you didn't think you could have?"

"You sound like a demon trying to make a deal," Dean says bitterly.

Gabriel recoils like he's been slapped. "I'm trying to help you, you ungrateful little shit."

"You've never tried to help anyone in your life. And you know what, I'm not sure I buy this whole 'I'm not like those other djinn who hurt people' BS you're trying to sell -- you're still a monster and a murderer."

The tattoos are suddenly back, black and angry on Gabriel's cheeks and neck. In an eyeblink, he's off the chair and right up in Dean's personal space, one hand fisted in Dean's shirt. "I was made from smokeless fire by God himself. You will show some respect."

Dean lifts his chin defiantly and says nothing.

Gabriel holds him there for a minute, eyes boring into him, then he shoves Dean back with a disgusted sigh. "Winchesters. Too stupid to know when you should be scared out of your wits."

"Nah, just too stubborn." Dean resists the urge to smooth down the front of his shirt, which is strangely warm from Gabriel's grip. He's pretty sure he just came close to bursting into flames.

Gabriel leans back against the counter, giving Dean a long considering look that makes Dean more and more uncomfortable as it goes on. "You know, you're not really reacting the way I was expecting you to."

Dean blinks. "I'm...sorry?"

"Most people love the whole genie-grants-wishes deal. They eat it up. They spend a few days trying to trick me into giving them freebies or infinite wishes, then they give up and use it on hookers and blow."

"Is this a thing you do a lot?" Dean can't quite picture Gabriel willingly granting anybody's wishes -- at least not without wringing every last ounce of ironic misinterpretation out of their word choice.

"Eh, not for a long time. It was all the rage back in Solomon's day, though." Gabriel makes an innocent face, or rather a face that's supposed to look innocent. "Turns out I wasn't very good at it."

"Now that I can believe."

"But you don't seem interested at all. I thought at least you'd be jumping at the chance to fix that knee."

Gabriel points at the damaged joint and as if on cue there's a twinge of pain. Dean doesn't rub at it; he knows it's all in his head. "Yeah, but if I asked you to fix my knee, you'd do something like replace it with a metal one, or a dog knee, or you'd fix my coffee-maker because that's 'knee' in Chinese. Or you'd actually do it and my knee would be fine, and then my life would turn to crap in every other way."

"Wow, you really are screwed up in the head, aren't you?"

"You're the Trickster."

"No tricks! I promise! You saved my brother's life, Dean, I'm not going to try to fuck you over."

"Look, what do you care? Cas is fine, I did what you wanted. You offered me a wish, I said no. We're square. Now would you just leave?"

The bell over the door rings.

"Dean?" Ellen calls, pushing the door open with her hip since her arms are full of bags. "We brought you some pie. Who are you talking to?"

Dean darts a look at Gabriel, but the djinn is gone.

~~~~

"You said no?" Sam squawks.

Dean sighs into his beer. He knew telling Sam was a bad idea. "Of course I said no."

They're in Dean's apartment, sitting in Dean's seldom-used kitchen at his shitty dining table that's just a little too low for Sam to rest his elbows on. Dean let Sam eat and tell him about going gun-shopping with Jo before ruining his good mood with four short words: "I saw Gabriel again."

Sam took it all remarkably well, actually. Better than Dean really thinks he should have.

"But Dean, do you know how powerful djinn are? The things they can do?"

"Of course I do, Sam! And I remember getting strung up like a side of beef by one, and I remember being nearly chainsaw-massacred by this one in particular, so I'm pretty well-acquainted with what they can do, thanks."

Sam flinches at that, which makes Dean feel bad about being so flippant. Dean may have been the one the djinn was feeding on, but Sam had been the one looking for him, the one who found him - he’d thought Dean was dead.

"Look, Sam, you know better than this."

"No, I don't, Dean, why don't you explain it to me? Why exactly is this a bad thing?"

"Because you're not supposed to get what you wish for!" Dean yells. "You can't get something for nothing, Sam. How many hunts have we been on that started with someone trying to do that, to cheat the universe? It doesn't end well, it never does."

"But this isn't something for nothing! This is something for something -- you saved his brother, right? Maybe he's on the level."

"This is the Trickster we're talking about here. Come on." Why is Dean the only one who seems to remember that? "Why are you so dead set on this?"

Sam looks embarrassed and picks at the label on his beer. "I just want to see something good happen to you, Dean. You deserve to get your wish."

"What was that? I think you turned into a girl there for a second, Sammy."

"I mean it, Dean. I know things are better than they were, but you still got the short end of the stick in a lot of ways. I just want to make it better for you."

Dean sighs. "I know, Sam. But this is like making a deal with a demon, it's not how we do things. You with me?"

Sam nods, reluctant but understanding.

"Good. Now if you really want to make my life better, go get me another beer."

~~~~

It's a week before Dean gets another visit from a djinn, but it's not the one he would have expected.

One minute he's all alone in the back room, looking at Ash’s incredibly depressing computer reports on the increasing demon activity while he waits for some gear in the autoclave to get sterilized, the next minute there's a solid presence less than six inches behind him.

"Dean."

"Holy --" Dean spins around, finds a face far too close to his own and lurches backward, nearly overbalancing. "Cas?"

Cas grabs his arms briefly to keep him upright, then lets go, but he doesn't step back out of Dean's personal bubble. "Dean."

"You said that. Take a couple steps back there, okay dude? This is weird."

Cas looks down at their feet and takes two careful steps backward. "How's this?"

Now that he's far enough away that Dean doesn't have to cross his eyes to look at him, Cas looks much better than he had before. Less tired, and the lines around his eyes are less deep. He doesn't hide his tattoos the way Gabriel does; instead it looks like he tries to cover them up with a suit.

"Right there's fine. You're looking better."

"I am completely recovered. Thank you, Dean, for all your help."

"Sure. No problem." Dean casts an anxious glance at the door. He's pretty sure none of the other Roadhouse residents would shoot first and ask questions later, but Cas definitely can't pass for human the way Gabriel does. It's all in the body language.

"Why won't you accept my brother's gratitude for your assistance?"

"What, the wish? He's got you in on that too? Look, go tell him it's fine, I just don't want it. He doesn't owe my anything." Dean shuffles to the next graph - exponential increase in possessions over the last six months. He wasn’t really looking for djinn stalkers to add on top of that.

"It doesn't work that way, Dean."

"Why not? It seems pretty simple to me."

"Djinn have free will, but they can also be bound as servants to humans. By offering you a wish, Gabriel has bound himself to you until the wish is granted."

Dean's pretty sure he doesn't like the sound of that. "Bound?"

Cas nods. "There are rules. He cannot cheat you, harm you, or leave this area until the wish is granted and he is released."

"He can't trick me? He must hate that."

"Wishes are sacred, Dean. He couldn't violate the bond even if he wanted to."

It sounds entirely too much like a demon deal to Dean. "Can't I just release him? Or just wish for a cheeseburger or something?"

Cas suddenly looks angry. "This is a tremendous gift. Don't waste it."

Dean runs a frustrated hand through his hair. "I can't win, can I? I have to make this stupid wish, whether I like it or not."

"Your life is truly difficult," Cas says, deadpan.

Dean can't even tell if it's a joke. He feels his lips quirk up despite himself. "Hey, why are you so weird?"

Cas tilts his head, oddly birdlike. "Weird?"

"Yeah, Gabriel is like, more human than half the people I know, but you're...I don't know. Weird. Or are you the one who’s a normal djinn, and Gabriel's the one who's two poptarts short of a complete breakfast?" That would explain so much.

"I'm new," Cas says, and Dean would swear he looks embarrassed.

"New? What, like a baby djinn? Where do djinn come from anyway?"

"Most djinn are born as humans are. We can fall in love, marry, and die. But I was created from flame, like the first djinn in the old days. That hasn't happened in a long time. Gabriel was the last to be born in that way, thousands of years ago. Perhaps that's why he thinks of me as a little brother; we have no one else."

There's about eighteen things in there that Dean doesn't really know what to do with. So he says, "You want a beer?"

Cas smiles, so subtle Dean almost misses it. "Thank you, but I can't stay. Gabriel thinks I'm on a donut run."

Dean laughs. "Can't he just snap up his own?"

"He's never truly mastered the consistency of Bavarian cream." Cas turns to go, as if he’s about to walk away rather than simply vanish. "Think about it, Dean. That's all I ask."

~~~~

It's not even two days before Gabriel's back.

"So, Dean-o. Any thoughts?"

"I think Kim Kardashian’s marriage is definitely not going to last." Dean doesn't even look up from his drawing.

"The wish, Dean. Come on. Cas said you were thinking about it."

"Cas is full of shit." And a manipulative son of a bitch, as well, if he was doing what Dean thought he was doing. "I told him what I told you. No."

"Deeeeeeean," Gabriel whined. "He told you I'm stuck in this town, right? It's boring."

"Then go to the movies."

"I'd rather be here, if it's all the same to you." Gabriel's clearly formulated a new plan: if you can't win by force or by logic, win by annoyance.

"Dean, have you finished that sketch yet?" Ellen calls. "Ash is waiting on -- oh hello."

Dean's head snaps up. Ellen is standing in the open doorway, eyeing Gabriel who for some reason hasn't disappeared. He's changed clothes -- now he's dressed more or less like Dean, jeans and a dark t-shirt, tattoos marking every visible patch of skin -- and he's sitting backwards on a chair not far from Dean.

"Hi," Gabriel grins, holding out a hand to shake. "I'm Gabriel. I'm a friend of Dean's."

Dean chokes.

"Hi," Ellen says, shaking his hand, but her eyes are narrowed. "I didn't hear you come in."

"I just popped in to ask my buddy here a question, then I'm out of your hair, I promise." He gives a charming smile, completely devoid of his usual devious smirk. With the shirt and the tattoos, he makes a convincing picture of just another customer asking for a custom piece.

Please help me, Dean asks Ellen silently with his eyes, but apparently he doesn't look sufficiently in danger because Ellen just rolls her eyes at him. "Okay, but finish that design fast, Winchester, Ash is waiting on it."

She shuts the door behind her and Dean rounds on Gabriel.

"Oh my God, go away," Dean hisses.

"Not until you make a wish," Gabriel hisses back.

"Seriously, get out of here. There are like five hunters just outside that door, are you crazy?"

"Aw, you're worried about me. I'm touched. And I'm not moving."

"Fine, I wish you would go away! Happy?"

Gabriel sniffs. "I can take a hint."

He snaps his fingers and vanishes. Dean gives a sigh of relief, then freezes as a voice whispers in his ear, You're not getting rid of me that easily.

~~~~

"Seriously, if I wish for a cheeseburger, will that work?"

Dean had definitely not appreciated his pre-djinn life enough.

Looking back, it seemed idyllic. He could go to work, eat lunch, take a shit without the ever-present threat of a sarcastic ex-Trickster popping up to provide unwanted commentary. Not that he believes in Gabriel's return to the Light Side of the Force, not after the past few weeks. His DVD collection replaced with weird German porn, his shampoo smelling like Froot Loops, his tattoo of the Impala replaced with a flower-dotted Volkswagen labeled “The Love Bug” -- it’s like the worst of his prank wars with Sam, except unlimited by human ability or good taste.

Cas isn't much better. He pops up from time to time, stands too close to Dean and generally acts like a space alien. Gabriel's gotten Cas to expand his cheeseburgertarian diet to include Twizzlers, which would be fine except he leaves the wrappers everywhere. Dean keeps finding them in weird places -- the glove box of the Impala, under his bathroom sink -- and it's freaking him out.

The worst part is they are stealing Dean's friends.

At first Gabriel had been content to just show up when Dean was alone, like he was Dean's own personal Great Gazoo. But after he met Ellen without getting shot in the face, he took that as permission to just drop in whenever he likes. Disappointingly he continued to not get shot in the face. Gabriel, with his tattoos and attitude, fit in disturbingly well with Ash and Pamela.

Dean tried to point out the whole "monster" issue, but for a group of hunters they're pretty laid back.

"Looks like he's telling the truth, boy," Bobby told him, holding up a photo close-up of Gabriel's face, where the tattoos clearly match those in the ancient Arabic book lying open on his desk. "He's yours until you make a wish."

Pamela did some kind of psychic mojo thing. She didn’t tell Dean what she found, but her new hobby is smacking Cas's ass whenever he's not paying attention just to see him jump.

Sam, the traitor, realized that Cas and Gabriel know everything and that Cas at least is willing to answer his questions and that was the end of that. Sam's always had a soft spot for monsters anyway and as Dean predicted, he fell hook line and sinker for Gabriel's earnest declarations of reform.

Ash was just thrilled to have someone to talk about Mexican wrestling with.

And Ellen, who had clearly lost her mind, encouraged it. "If he's in here, he's not causing trouble out there," was her logic, and Dean had to point out that he's causing trouble for Dean. Ellen just smiled and patted his cheek. "Oh honey, get back to work."

So this is Dean's life now. Whenever work is slow, he can count on a tattooed weirdo showing up to make his life difficult.

Right now he's got two. Cas is upstairs with Bobby, trying to discern a pattern in the demonic activity - it looks to be centered at very specific locations, usually where other terrible but seemingly unrelated things are happening, and they can’t tell why -- while Gabriel is down in the main studio with Dean. Everyone else is off on a hunt. Ash’s algorithm predicted the demons were about to strike at a town two hours away and it was all hands on deck. With any luck they could catch one of the demons and get to the bottom of the whole mess.

Dean hates this, hates it, these days when he can't pretend everything is normal. When all he can do is just sit and think about just how much his knee fucked up his life.

When Gabriel shows up, Dean's afraid he's just going to make everything worse, dangling a cure in front of him in malicious temptation. But he doesn't, he just lounges in the tattoo chair reading a magazine while Dean practices shading by inking a tattoo onto an orange.

Dean's the one who brings up the wishes. "A cheeseburger, then you're free to go. How does that sound?"

Gabriel turns a page, idly. He's reading the Weekly World News, which Dean is pretty sure went out of business a while back. "Nope."

"What do you mean, no? I wish for a cheeseburger. And some pie. Get to it."

"No can do, Dean. Try again."

"Aren't you supposed to grant my wish?" Dean grumbles.

"Ah, I offered to grant a wish, not any wish. I reserve the right to veto."

"You absolutely did not tell me that."

Gabriel drops the tabloid enough to eye Dean over the top of it. "It's a loophole to prevent stupid humans from wasting their wishes."

"This is bullshit."

"Anyway, you have to make a big wish or the magic doesn't recognize it. You'd need to wish for a million cheeseburgers to use up this much mojo." Dean opens his mouth and Gabriel cuts him off. "If you wish for a million cheeseburgers I will squash you with them. Then Cas will eat them all."

Dean holds up the orange, on which he has tattooed the words "Fuck You" in swirly cursive script.

Gabriel laughs. He snaps his fingers and the words rearrange into a lovely line drawing of a hand giving Dean the finger. Hiding a grin, Dean puts on a thoughtful look and examines the design. "Hmm, interesting linework. I think it would suit you. Maybe right in the middle of your forehead."

"Oh, this is definitely more your style, Dean." Dean laughs and starts peeling the orange. He tosses half of it to Gabriel, who abandons his magazine to messily eat orange slices and drip juice all over the tattoo chair.

"You don't have any actual tattoos at all, do you," Dean muses, sucking on a slice. "It's all magic."

Gabriel looks down at his hands. "It's hard to explain. We're born with some, we're given others. It's all part of who we are."

"Yeah, but you can change them, right? When I met you, you had all your tattoos hidden. You ever think about getting ink you can't hide?"

Gabriel looks horrified. "What, like permanently?"

"That's generally how it works, yeah." Dean looks down at his own arms, at the interlocking art that marks him and defines him. "It doesn't mean anything if you can change it, you might as well write on your arm with Sharpie."

Gabriel still looks like Dean suggested lopping off one of his arms. "That's the whole point."

"Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me," Dean says, amused. He supposes a creature like Gabriel, who changes his mind with every change in the wind and who has apparently lived for thousands of years, might have a different view of the values of permanence that an itinerant monster hunter who's never had a permanent address.

They don't speak again as they finish the orange. It's oddly friendly, in a way that Dean doesn't really want to examine too closely. Dean finds himself thinking that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if Gabriel did stick around once he got over this wish nonsense.

So of course, it all goes wrong immediately.

The phone rings.

Dean picks up instantly and he can hear Ellen yelling before it even gets all the way to his ear. "Dean! It was a trap, we need backup, get Bobby and tell him to--"

The connection cuts off abruptly. Dean shouts for her futilely, then slams the receiver back down.

"Fuck! Bobby--" he shouts at the top of his lungs. "They need backup!"

Gabriel grabs his arm and yanks him around. "Where are they?"

"What? County Line Road, the graveyard by the Mississauga River Bridge--"

Gabriel snaps his fingers and is gone.

Dean stares at the empty space where he was standing until Bobby and Cas come pounding down the stairs. "What's happening, boy?"

"Ellen called, she said it was a trap, they need help. We gotta go--"

"It's fine, Dean, I got it." Bobby goes for the gun cabinet, cleverly hidden under one of the countertops and Dean slams his hand against his leg in frustration.

"Dammit, Bobby, I can help, just let me--"

It's stupid and he knows it but he can't just sit here, he can't, not when Sam and Jo and Ellen and everyone are out there fighting without him. Bobby doesn't have time for this shit and Dean knows it, but he can't stop himself. "I can still shoot, Bobby, just let me --"

And then suddenly the room is full. Sam, Jo, Ellen, everyone, they just pop back into existence. Dean can see blood, but no one's on the ground.

Everyone's okay.

Dean switches tracks instantly from "emergency backup" to "triage and damage control." He's got the first aid kit out and he's taping up a gash on Ash's forehead when he realizes Gabriel and Cas are nowhere to be seen.

~~~~

A few hours later, things are more or less settled down.

No one's in the hospital, for which Dean is so fucking grateful, but everyone's banged up a bit -- Sam sprained his knee, Ash has cuts and bruises, just general beat-to-hell for all of them. What's worse is the hunt itself.

It wasn't demons. It was an angel.

"Angels aren't real," Dean says for the third time. Everyone is crowded into the break room, talking over what happened.

"Well apparently they are, Dean," Sam says in exasperation. "We know how to fight demons, this was something different. Its eyes weren't black, holy water didn't do a damn thing -"

"It was bright," Pamela says. "Like looking at the sun. If I hadn't closed myself off, I think it would have actually hurt me."

"That could be anything!" Dean yells.

Pamela rolls her eyes. "Like what? A psychic flood lamp?"

"Gabriel knew him," Ellen says. "He called him Uriel."

Bobby taps at the open Book of Enoch lying on the desk. "Angel."

Dean can't really come up with a good rebuttal to that. Doesn't stop him from trying. "Yeah, but Gabriel hasn't turned up yet so we can't ask him. It could have been anything, maybe demons, maybe something else-"

"Dean."

That's when he notices the faint disturbance of air that marks a djinn appearing.

He turns around and Cas is there, too close as usual, watching him with those blue sorrowful eyes. "Bobby is correct. The man you fought was an angel named Uriel."

"What-"

"Why-"

"How did you-"

"I can't stay," Cas says. "I don't know much. Gabriel is looking for answers, I have to go back to help him."

"He's okay, isn't he?" Dean asks. He remembers that when they met, Gabriel had boasted of being as powerful as an angel, but was that true or just arrogant bullshit? He really hopes the jackass didn't get himself killed.

"He'll come when he can." Cas turns to the others.

"Ward against angels," he says, and vanishes.

Everyone stares at the spot where Cas had been standing.

"Great," Bobby says. "Any ideas how to do that?"

~~~~

They've figured it out, more or less, by the time Gabriel does turn up a few days later. Bobby's library is nothing to sneeze at.

Dean is sitting at the break room table, looking at the photos Ellen and Ash took when they went back to the graveyard (over Dean’s vocal and profane objections). There's a man lying on the ground dead. He's African-American, mid-40s, wearing a suit. Nothing special, except the massive span of wings burned into the grass around him.

When Gabriel appears beside him Dean doesn't turn around, he just holds up the photo. "Did you kill him?"

"Yes." He hears Gabriel pull up a chair. "In my defense, he tried to kill me first. He also tried to kill Sam, so I thought you'd approve."

Dean signs and looks up. Gabriel's slumped over, his chin resting on his folded arms. He looks tired. "You okay?"

"Some demons tried to kill me this morning," Gabriel says conversationally. Dean sits up straight but Gabriel just waves a hand. "I'm okay. Killed them too."

Dean gets up and retrieves two beers from the fridge. "You look like you need one."

Gabriel smiles at him, a pale imitation of his usual grin, and downs half the beer in one go. "I do. It's been a hell of a week."

"Well I'm all ears. We've been waiting on your sorry ass to come tell us what the fuck is going on."

Gabriel snorts. "Short answer? Bad shit. Demons everywhere. Angels are walking the earth for the first time in a thousand years. And Cas, the first new djinn God's made since me. Sounds like a Battle Royale in the making, doesn’t it?"

"That...does not sound good."

"No it does not. I would say it sounds downright apocalyptic." Gabriel downs the rest of his beer.

Dean stares at him. "You can't be serious."

"Can't I? What's one thing that demons and angels both want? Everyone wants to play that last game of Checkers." Gabriel throws the beer bottle at the trash can. It shatters with a sound that sets Dean's teeth on edge.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to try to find out exactly how screwed we are."

Dean catches his elbow before he can snap away. "Don't do anything stupid, okay?"

That earns a smirk that looks almost normal. "Hey, it's me you’re talking to."

"My point exactly," Dean says. "I still need to wish for that cheeseburger."

The smile fades off Gabriel's face. "I think you might want to save that wish, kid. You're going to need it."

~~~~

Nothing happens for a while.

Gabriel and Cas are AWOL, there are no blips on any of Ash’s monitoring devices, and no angels or demons come bursting through the doors of Roadhouse Ink. It lasts long enough that they all start to let their guard down, which is when everything comes crashing to the ground.

Dean's not even at work when it happens. It's Sunday and he's at home, so the game is on in the background while he and Sam leaf through some of Bobby’s books of angelic lore. But then, suddenly Dean's not sitting on the couch but standing in the main room of Roadhouse Ink.

Sam's there as well, as are Ellen and Bobby and everyone else, even Pamela who Dean is positive had other, less clothed plans for the weekend.

"What the--" Sam gapes.

"Weren't we in the grocery store a minute ago?" Ellen frowns.

Dean hears someone clap their hands and looks up to see Gabriel standing on the front desk. Cas is on the floor just in front of him and they both look like they're about to go to war. Their tattoos look strangely darker and more jagged and their expressions are hard.

"What's going on?" Dean pushes his way to the front of the group of hunters. "Why'd you zap us all here?"

"You're about to be attacked," Gabriel says flatly.

"When?" Ellen snaps.

"Soon," Cas answers. "Within the hour."

"Here?"

"Most likely, now that you are all together. We brought you here so that you wouldn't be picked off separately."

Ellen nods. "Good plan. We can defend this place against almost anything."

She catches Ash and Jo's eyes and they immediately move off to lock and salt the doors and windows. "You want to tell us what's coming?"

"The end of the world." Gabriel's eyes are dark, ominous.

Ellen frowns. "Be more specific."

"Humans with guns. Demons. Maybe an angel or two, I'm not sure. Cas will help you put up stronger wards against the supernatural but we can't keep everything out."

Everyone is just staring at him by now. Dean clears his throat. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"This isn't a trick, Dean. Fight or die."

"Well that's a no-brainer," Ellen snorts. "Cas, can you show Bobby and Pamela what to do to keep out whatever we need to keep out? Jo, guns and ammo. Sam, Ash, physical barriers."

Everyone scatters. "What about me?" Dean asks.

"You get the full story out of that djinn of yours," Ellen says as she heads for the back room.

Gabriel hops down from his perch on the counter to land next to Dean. Up close, Dean can see the tattoos pulsing in a rhythm like heartbeat. He feels different, powerful and barely contained, like he did that first day in the dream-Roadhouse.

"You fighting too?" Dean asks quietly.

Gabriel jerks his head in a nod. "Cas is better than me at this kind of prep work but I've got a few surprises up my sleeve."

He holds up a hand and a blue flame dances in his palm. There's a matching blue flame in the depths of his eyes.

"Thanks," Dean says, but Gabriel shakes his head against it.

"No, this is purely selfish. The guys who want to kill you want to kill us too and there’s a whole lot more of them than us; our best shot is here with you."

"What do they want?" Dean asks. "Just to kill us? Why?"

"I don't have time for this, Dean--"

"Bullshit. Answer the question."

"Fine," Gabriel snaps. "Angels and demons are trying to start the Apocalypse -- actual, factual Revelation of St. John end of the world. Those hot spots on your maps? Those are demons breaking the seals to free Lucifer.

"You idiots," pointing to Dean, "started getting in their way. I showed up to rescue you, now I'm in the way too. Plus they know the djinn wouldn't stand by and let them fuck everything up. And so the angels and demons are working together to accomplish pretty much the only thing all of them want: killing us so they can start their little war."

Dean's head is spinning but Gabriel's not done. "They want you gone because no hunter is going to stand by and let some archangel slapfight destroy the planet. And they want the djinn gone because we don't take any shit from Heaven or Hell and we have the power to back it up. They're trying to get rid of us before we even figure it out, they're on their way with human lackeys to screw up our wards and are we done now?"

Dean finds his voice. "Okay. How do we fight angels?"

"You don't. Cas and I will deal with anything with wings. You take the humans and we'll split the demons."

Dean hates it but it really doesn't sound like they've got much of a choice. "You need anything else from us?"

Gabriel smirks, and it's dark and ominous. "Nothing you can give."

Dean turns to go, he needs to go report to Ellen and help laying out their devil's trap tarps and a hundred other things, but there's something in Gabriel's face that makes him pause. Gabriel thinks they're all going to die, he realizes. That's what makes it sink in, finally. The end of the world.

Gabriel notices him watching. "Scram, kid. You have work to do."

Dean does, so he limps off to do it.

~~~~

Ellen should have been a general.

Within five minutes, she has a battle plan, contingency plans, fortifications. There are devil's traps under carpets and on ceilings, there are barriers hammered over the doors and windows, there's even bloody finger-painting on all the walls that Cas says will keep out angels.

Everyone has guns, ammo, holy water, and cover. Dean and Sam are tucked under the front counter, Ellen and Bobby in the back, everyone else scattered for different vantage points. Gabe and Cas aren't under cover; they're just standing in the center of the room. Waiting.

"Now," Gabriel says, and that's all the warning they get.

All at once, everything erupts in noise. Demons breaking doors down, humans shooting, everyone shouting. Dean shoots back, he can feel Sam at his back doing the same thing. Crashing from the back rooms; they're coming in both ways. The humans must be defacing the devil's traps, tearing them down, because suddenly there are demons inside as well. One huge guy with black eyes shrugs off four bullets and goes for Dean but Cas catches him in the throat, slams him down. Gabriel is there, he's everywhere, it's like there's four of him and the demons don't know who to fight.

Dean gets them when they swing at empty air, holy water balloons or bullets to the knee. He's falling into a zone, like he hasn't felt in years, just focus and energy and purpose. He'd missed this, and maybe that makes him fucked up or a sociopath but it's true.

It only lasts until he hears Ash's panicked shout from the back.

"Ash?" Dean yells. "You good?"

There's no response so he risks a peek. Ash and Jo are still standing, thank fuck, but demons have reached them and the fight's getting ugly. Dean looks for Cas and Gabriel but they're out too -- Cas slams into the counter top just above Dean, shoving himself up and back to the fight in an instant.

"Sam--" Dean says but Sam's got about eight people pinned down and he can't even look up.

So Dean pushes himself to his feet and runs.

It's slow as shit and it hurts like a motherfucker but he hits the demon that's holding Ash in the face with a glass vial of holy water, the shards opening cuts that bubble and hiss. He shoves the demon back and it hits a devil's trap pinned to the wall, screaming as it's caught and held. He tries it on the second demon but the holy water doesn't do shit, it may as well be an April shower as far as the demon's concerned. They're fucked if they're getting demons this powerful.

"Save your holy water for the demons, Dean," the guy grins. He just looks an ordinary balding business executive but he punches Dean so hard he flies back into the wall. He lies there for a second, gasping; he's pretty that's at least one broken rib. The guy comes over and kneels by him while he gags and coughs.

"You can't fight the armies of Heaven," he says, almost apologetically. Angel, Dean thinks frantically. This is an angel. And he's going to die.

"We can try," Gabriel growls in his ear. He yanks the angel's head back and a blue glow surrounds them. "Cas!"

"Shut your eyes!" yells Cas from somewhere in the distance. Dean squeezes his eyes shut and there's a tremendous flash of light. When the afterimage fades, he can see Cas standing next to one of the smeared red symbols on the wall, one bloody hand pressed to the center of the circle. The angel is gone.

Gabriel hauls Dean up and Ash tosses him a gun and the fight goes on.

It feels like it takes days, but it’s probably less than an hour before the tide starts to turn.

One by one, the demons get caught in traps, or banished with some freaky djinn mojo that Dean doesn't really want to know about. Gabriel seems to be having fun, popping around to disorient his opponents while Cas just cuts them down ruthlessly, one at a time. Between them and Ash’s holy water catapult, the demons are whittled down slowly but steadily.

With no angel or demon backup the humans try to flee, only to run into the angry fists of a half-dozen hunters. Some escape but most get knocked on the head and dumped in the break room under Jo's sweetly vicious guard. They don’t put up much resistance, dispirited and uncomfortable as they sit in the puddle from the broken coffeepot.

Dean finally straightens up from his awkward crouch, his knee cramping like crazy but his heart pounding with giddy relief. Ash slaps his shoulder; Pamela grabs him in a hug that doesn't even involve his ass in any way. He grins, not quite believing it yet. They did it. They won.

And that's when it goes to shit. Dean should have known better.

It's one of the demons. It's well and truly stuck in a devil's trap, still steaming from holy water and hanging limp. They thought it was finished. Really fucking stupid.

One second they're checking each other over, putting barriers back in place, checking the captives. Then a sharp crack, almost muffled because Dean's hearing is screwed from the gun battle. Gunshot.

Since when does a demon use a gun?

Sam shoots the demon, catches it in the arm so it drops the gun, but it's too little too damn late.

Dean knows it must have hit someone, because when do they ever get that lucky, but he's still surprised when he turns to see it's Gabriel lying on the ground.

"Gabriel?" he asks, uncertain. Guns don't hurt djinn, right?

"Dean," Cas says, looking up from where he's leaning over Gabriel, and Dean knows it's bad.

He hands his gun off to Sam and limps to Gabriel, awkwardly and painfully sliding to his knees.

"Silver bullet," Cas growls. "Coated in lamb's blood."

"I didn't think it worked like that," Dean says.

Cas shakes his head. "Neither did I. But demons are creative."

Silver and lamb's blood means Gabriel can't heal it and neither can Cas.

"Shit," Dean says.

"I...completely agree," Gabriel says. He's breathing hard, on his back with blood staining the front of his shirt. Dean reaches for it but Gabriel slaps his hand away. "Not going to help, Winchester. Leave it alone."

Dean catches Gabriel's wrist; the tattoos on his hand are fading.

"There's gotta be something," Dean insists. "I still have the leftover ink from when I fixed Cas, I still have the design. Let me try to --"

The tattoos are fading on his cheeks as well. "No time."

"Cas, can you--"

"Dean," Gabriel says, his voice still demanding attention even if he's starting to pant. The blue light that's been in his eyes all day is completely gone. "There's no time."

Cas threads a hand in Gabriel's hair, so gentle it makes something twist in Dean’s gut.

"This is bullshit," he says, suddenly furious. "We won."

They won, and Gabriel's dying on the floor.

His hands and arms are totally blank now, the tattoos receding down his neck as well. Without them Gabriel looks naked. Smaller, more human. He's becoming less and less right in front of Dean's eyes.

"Cas," Gabriel says and Cas just nods. Dean's not sure whether it's some kind of telepathy or whether Cas just knows what Gabriel wants to say.

Gabriel turns his eyes to Dean, now back to their odd yellow-brown without a hint of blue. A shadow of a smirk crosses his face. "Last chance to...wish for that cheeseburger, Dean."

Dean wants to hit him for making such an awful fucking joke, when something hits him instead.

I can do ten times as much to grant a wish. I'm not Robin Williams -- you can wish for someone to come back from the dead, for someone to die, for someone to love you.

"I wish for you to be okay," he says without stopping to think about it.

Gabriel has about three seconds to stare incredulously at Dean before his eyes start glowing blue. So does the hole in his chest, blue smoke rising from it. The smoke turns to flame and Gabriel clenches his eyes shut in pain.

"Gabriel?" Cas shakes him, gets no response. "Gabriel!"

Dean just watches. This is either gonna work or it's not -- either Gabriel's wish-granting power is as all-encompassing as he promised, or he's going to burn himself out trying to grant an impossible wish.

For a long minute it looks like the universe is choosing the second option, as the flames extend to cover Gabriel's whole body, making him arch in pain. Gabriel's skin turns dark and Dean's heart drops, but the color moves -- it's not from burns, it's from Gabriel's tattoos restoring themselves along his skin.

Djinn are made of fire, Gabriel had told him.

The flames die down, retreating across his body until he holds the flames cupped in his open palms. He clenches his fists and the flames are drawn up into his hands. The blue light fades.

Gabriel sits up. "You just have to do everything the hard way, don't you Winchester?"

Dean laughs, and it feels like it's coming from somewhere very deep and warm inside him. "You are such an asshole, you know that?"

"Damn right!" Gabriel crows, and he grabs Dean and plants a huge wet smacking kiss on his cheek. Dean rubs at it in mock-disgust but under his hand his cheek is hurting from how wide he's smiling.

Cas grabs Gabriel with hands on both sides of his face. Dean thinks he's going to hug him, or maybe kiss him too, but they just stare at each other for a minute with those unnaturally glowing blue eyes of theirs. Cas doesn’t quite smile, but there's something about him that just looks happy. Until Gabriel reaches up and ruffles his hair, of course.

Dean laughs at the look on Cas's face, so Gabriel grabs for him as well, leaving Dean no choice but to punch him in the arm less than two minutes after wishing him back from the dead.

"We done with the floor show?" Ellen asks with wry patience. Dean suddenly realizes he's surrounded by his family and he's been having a pretty extended chick flick moment here.

"Uh. Yeah."

"Because we've got some demons to exorcize and some people to beat the shit out of, and apparently an Apocalypse to stop, so maybe you boys could get off your butts and come give us a hand?"

"Yes ma'am," Dean snaps a salute. He goes to stand but Gabriel stops him with a hand on his knee.

The hand suddenly heats up with blue flames. "What are you--"

"That was a freebie," Gabriel says. "Don't get used to it."

Dean stares down at his knee.

"Dean," Sam says above him, hesitant and hopeful. "Did he just--"

Dean straightens his leg carefully. It doesn't twinge. He pulls it back in. He slowly tucks it up underneath him in a way he hasn't been able to do since the accident and stands up.

It doesn't hurt at all.

"I'm fixed!" Dean crows. "You got a partner again, Sammy!"

Sam rolls his eyes in pretend exasperation but his face is split with a grin almost as wide as Dean's. Dean does a little dance step, grabs Sam in a twirl, jumps in the air and clicks his heels because that's what people do in old movies when they feel this fucking fantastic. "Yes! I have been repaired, they had the technology, I am better, stronger, faster -- "

Jo tackles him in a flying bear hug.

Ellen lets everyone get a squeeze in before she starts yelling again. "Okay, people, we'll take Dean out and get him drunk later. Right now, work."

Dean reaches a hand down to Gabriel, who's still sitting on the floor. "You staying?"

Gabriel and Cas have a silent conference, then Gabriel reaches up to let Dean pull him to his feet. "Okay. But only until the Apocalypse is over. And I'm not granting any more wishes, I'm not a magical vending machine and I'm not snapping up any food or alcohol for anyone but me."

It turns out Gabriel's lying about most of that, but it turns out Dean doesn't really mind.

~~~~ THE END ~~~~

Part One | Masterpost | Art Masterpost | Author Notes and Acknowledgements