Looking for a specific fic
Sorry to bother y'all, but it's driving me nuts. I recently started reading some more SPN again and I've lost a story I thought for sure I had saved somewhere.
It's a longer story, either novella or novel length. I'm 99% sure it was complete. I don't think it was a series (just a longer, possibly book-length story), but I don't actually remember a lot of details because I likely read it anywhere from seven to eleven years ago and I've read a lot of things for a lot of different fandoms since then. It was probably written well before season five ended, maybe even before season four finished airing (either than or it was just always meant to be wildly AU from the show). Dean turns out to have always been Michael. Michael's been missing from Heaven because he chose to fell and he ended up being born as Dean. Obviously, no one knows this (I think the other higher ranking angels have been deliberately hiding the fact that Michael's missing. Possibly they're hoping Michael will have to show up if Dean says "yes" to hosting him and that's why they're pushing Dean so hard?) and, when Dean figures it out, he's not happy. But I seem to recall that Castiel is the one who really freaks out about it (Dean and Castiel are already in love with one another by this point, even if the idjits won't admit it). I think even Sam takes it loads better than Cas (and Sam is still freaking out about being meant to be Lucifer's vessel and all the demon blood crap. I'm pretty sure Sam's just Sam, but I might be conflating that part with another story. I can't remember if Gabriel is in this or not, but I really do feel like he probably is). I can't remember if Dean's injured and somehow that's how he starts to figure out the truth, but somebody is definitely in the hospital at some point. It's not any story on AO3 with any tag indicating Dean is/has always been Michael, as far as I've been able to tell (I went through something like seven pages of stories already, trying to find this on my own. The story I'm looking for might very well be old enough that it wasn't ever on AO3). Does this sound at all familiar to anyone? At this point, I'm starting to wonder if I've imagined the whole thing and that's why my memories of it are so sketchy.
It's a longer story, either novella or novel length. I'm 99% sure it was complete. I don't think it was a series (just a longer, possibly book-length story), but I don't actually remember a lot of details because I likely read it anywhere from seven to eleven years ago and I've read a lot of things for a lot of different fandoms since then. It was probably written well before season five ended, maybe even before season four finished airing (either than or it was just always meant to be wildly AU from the show). Dean turns out to have always been Michael. Michael's been missing from Heaven because he chose to fell and he ended up being born as Dean. Obviously, no one knows this (I think the other higher ranking angels have been deliberately hiding the fact that Michael's missing. Possibly they're hoping Michael will have to show up if Dean says "yes" to hosting him and that's why they're pushing Dean so hard?) and, when Dean figures it out, he's not happy. But I seem to recall that Castiel is the one who really freaks out about it (Dean and Castiel are already in love with one another by this point, even if the idjits won't admit it). I think even Sam takes it loads better than Cas (and Sam is still freaking out about being meant to be Lucifer's vessel and all the demon blood crap. I'm pretty sure Sam's just Sam, but I might be conflating that part with another story. I can't remember if Gabriel is in this or not, but I really do feel like he probably is). I can't remember if Dean's injured and somehow that's how he starts to figure out the truth, but somebody is definitely in the hospital at some point. It's not any story on AO3 with any tag indicating Dean is/has always been Michael, as far as I've been able to tell (I went through something like seven pages of stories already, trying to find this on my own. The story I'm looking for might very well be old enough that it wasn't ever on AO3). Does this sound at all familiar to anyone? At this point, I'm starting to wonder if I've imagined the whole thing and that's why my memories of it are so sketchy.