.014 [AUDIO] [Locked to the SPN contingent]

[grace_optional]

[[Backdated to the morning of the 22nd]]

[Anna's disembodied voice over the comm is low, tired, and dispirited.]

Hey. I...don't want anybody to worry. I'm okay. I just...won't be answering calls for a while.

...

[There's a long silence, and the call abruptly ends, her presence dropping off the angelic 'radar.']

Comments

Audio; Private

[casaeroticafan]

When you need comfort food and booze, let me know. I'll hook you up. [Flippant words that contradict the melancholy tone of his voice. He's here for you, baby sister. Just say the word and he's there.]

Audio; Private

[grace_optional]

[Best big brother ever.]

Thanks, Gabriel. I will.

[Looooong pause, then, thickly]

Actually, what would really be great, if you could...would be a picture.

[There's nothing left at all; the place where the house was standing is now an empty field.]

Audio; Private

[casaeroticafan]

[A picture? She can't see it, but his face takes on a decidedly sympathetic expression; his eyebrows draw low over his eyes and his lips fall into an alien looking frown. Without even a snap of his fingers he has a picture in his hand; there's barely a thought required to bring it into existence. Anna features in it, bundle of joy held in her arms. It's a snapshot of one of his memories of those too-few days, in it his sister and his niece seem to glow.] Yeah, I think I can arrange that. Wanna show me where you are so I can Angel Express it?

Video; Private

[grace_optional]

[She turns on the video feed, looking wan and neglected and clutching Henry tightly to her.]

I'm at my apartment. [She gestures unnecessarily at her surroundings.]

Video; Private

[casaeroticafan]

[It's more than a little tempting to take flight and go to her; she looks like she needs someone and something fierce and protective flares up before he firmly tamps it down. He covers his sympathy with a clever smirk and mischievous eyes.

He holds up the photo for a second, letting her see that he's made it. With just the gentlest of nudges with his grace he sends it away to her.] Lemme Vulcan Mind-Meld you and I can get you as many photos as you want - right from your memories. I'll even throw in some free scrap-booking supplies.

Video; Private

[grace_optional]

[Anna catches the photo from the ether and blinks at it, and her lips start to quiver. She won't ask, but he'd hardly get tossed out on his ear if he did come over.] Thank you.

[She glances up, startled by the offer, and hesitates. Some of the other things he might see...]

I--you might not like everything that's floating around in there.

Video; Private

[casaeroticafan]

[He gives her a look of thinly veiled amusement; tries to let her know that if there's something she thinks would put him off her, it ain't gonna happen.] You want bad? I'll let you take a peek at what several thousand years of being a pagan god can do to your head space. [He flashes her a smile.] Whaddya say? Reenact some Trek scenes with me?

Video; Private

[grace_optional]

[She smiles a little, reluctantly.] All right. Might be better to do it over here, though.

[Okay, so yes, she is asking. Mainly because she's not too sure what various people in this place can pick up over a distance and would rather keep it private, if at all possible. It has absolutely nothing to do with how empty the apartment feels or how pointedly the whole incident's reminded her of all the things she's never going to have.]

Video; Private -> Action

[casaeroticafan]

Right on, sister. Be there in a jiff. [And he is, though the exact timely measurement of a "jiff" isn't entirely certain. He lets his grace unfold and takes flight, his landing in her apartment heralded by the gentle flutter of wings not fully manifested in this plane.

His first course of action? Archangel bear hug. He opens his arms in silent invitation, reaching out to her with his grace in a gesture of deep caring.]

[Action]

[grace_optional]

[Oh, now he's gone and done it. Caught off-guard by the gesture, Anna's face crumples, and she gets up, walks into his embrace and clings to him. She's shed tears over the Underworld's cruelties, more than once now, but she's never allowed the place to break her down to the point of full-blown weeping until now.]

[Action]

[casaeroticafan]

[Gabriel wraps her up in his grace and hugs her tightly; he presses a gentle kiss to her hair, feeling a little awkward and unsure. It's been a long time since he's been charged with comforting someone, and the differences between that event and this one are many. While Skadi was brought to laughter by obscenity, he thinks Anna might be deserving of a subtler kind of care. He murmurs quietly at her in Enochian - the language lightly accented by year spent estranging himself from it. Feeling that flare of protectiveness return full force he puts up a discrete barrier between the two of them and the rest of the Underworld. It won't keep out their Godly Wardens, but anyone else wandering by will get the distinct and overwhelming urge to make themselves scarce. After a few minutes he shifts his weight just a bit.] Wanna talk about it?

[Action]

[grace_optional]

[She makes an odd snuffling sound, then hiccups. This is ridiculous. She hasn't carried on like this since she was a human teenager. But oddly enough, it almost feels good, and so does being wrapped up like this and held close. Gabriel's grace is so much stronger and more intact than either hers or Castiel's; she'd almost forgotten what it felt like to be enveloped completely in holy energy.]

[Damply] I don't even know why I'm so upset. She wasn't real. Just another one of Hades' stupid games. But I can't stop thinking about her, and how tiny she was, and how p-perfect...

[Action]

[casaeroticafan]

She was real while she was here - it's impossible not to love something that's part of you. Something that's family. [He'd certainly been pulled in by her tiny hands and feet, and by the idea that she was his niece no matter how temporarily.] Kids are just sneaky like that. I think Dad made them irresistible on purpose, to make it harder for them to be left behind.

[Action]

[grace_optional]

Anna could say a few pointed words here about Dad and kids left behind, but there'd be no point, really, and she doesn't need something else to feel bad about right now.]

Maybe. But now I have to leave her behind. [And so does Dean; she hasn't talked to him since the incident, but she's pretty sure he hasn't been left untouched by the experience either. She sighs.] Maybe it'd be easier without the pictures. But I still want them.

[Action]

[casaeroticafan]

Just don't try to live in them. Remember there's a world out here that still needs you and don't let yourself get caught up in the scrap books. I'll take 'em away if I have to. [He lifts a hand and presses his fingertips to the Vulcan meld points on her face. Raising a dramatic eyebrow he intones solmnely:] My mind to your mind; my thoughts to your thoughts. Just remember her and I'll do the rest.

[Action]

[grace_optional]

I know. I won't. [And now she's giggling, just a little, with her eyes still seeping. How the hell does he do that?] Got it, Mr. Spock. [She shuts her eyes and brings to mind the bittersweet images of her tiny daughter, already starting to fuzz ever so slightly around the edges.]

[Everything else is elbowed into the background. But as with anything one tries hard not to think about, some of the stuff she'd rather Gabriel didn't see refuses to be repressed, here and there flashing to the surface before she can snatch it back.]

[Carving futilely at Hades' brand in her shoulder, stabbing Sam Winchester with a pipe, snarling at Zachariah as he moves in with a silver blade...burning up at Michael's hands. That one's all over the place, and Anna shoves the trauma, hatred and resentment she still harbors deep down and sits on it, resolutely focusing on the far more pleasant picture of a perfect baby girl with wispy red hair and wide, innocent hazel eyes.]