SPN FIC: We'll Find a Way 2/3
Title: We’ll Find a Way
Author: last_winterrose
Recipient: jenab
Rating: PG-13
Genre and/or Pairing: A little bit of action, spell casting normal SPN. I guess you can say a little Per!Slash between Gabriel and Sam, and the always wonderful UST Dean/Castiel.
Spoilers: This is kind of an AU of Season Five, so there are mentions of events that take place in Season One through Season Four.
Warnings: Not really, rating is just for adult themed subject and language, and Dean and Gabriel jokes.
Word Count: About 10,200
Notes/Prompts: This was written for team_free_love Secret Lover Exchange Round 3, as a gift for jenab. Using the prompts Sam is the one who needs or has to claim Gabriel. Switching it around from Gabriel doing the claiming.
Summary: While trying to help the Winchester, Castiel learns of a way to at least slow Lucifer down until they can find a way to actually stop Lucifer for good. The problem is that it can only work with another Archangel and the only one that they can find isn't all too willing to help.
***
“You have got to be kidding me!”
“Not this time Dean-o,” Loki, or was it Gabriel, answered.
Dean couldn’t believe it, he wouldn’t believe it. There was no way that the annoying little trickster that had killed him over a hundred times was the Archangel Gabriel; there was just no way. He looked to Sam but his brother only stared back with a mixture of bitch face numbers ten, sixteen, and thirty-five; confusion, anger, and shock. So he turned to Castiel, “Are you telling me that this asshole is an archangel?”
“Dean, please,” Castiel said, “and yes, this is Gabriel.” He turned to Gabriel, “I’m happy to see that the rumors were true brother, that you are still alive.”
“Yeah, well, I was kind of hoping no one would try and prove them wrong. Don’t you think I left Heaven for a reason Castiel?”
“Wait, hold up.” Sam looked between Castiel and the trickster. “You mean he really is Gabriel?”
“Yes, Sam. Who else would he be?” Castiel answered.
“Who in deed? You see baby bro, the Winchesters here and I have met before. Only those times they knew me by a different name.”
“Remember that time that Sammy told you about? Where I got killed over and over again by that trickster? Well, meet the Trickster, Loki.” Dean waved his hand at the being in the fire, which he really hoped works on angels with tricksters as vessel.
Castiel eyed Dean, then Sam, “I see. Well, we’re both right. Loki is Gabriel’s vessel.”
“His vessel is a trickster? How the hell did that happen?”
“Well, Loki is a demigod Dean,” Sam said, “and demigods are part human.”
“Hole in one kido,” Loki jumped in. “But really if you boys wanted to know about me, all you had to do was ask.”
“Yeah? And would you have really answered our questions?” Dean asked. He finally moved closer to the fire.
“Depends on the questions,” he paused glancing to Sam, “and who’s asking.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dean snapped at the trickster, he wasn’t in the mood for games. He was cold, tried, and now, thanks to Gabriel, he was wet. He just wanted to find a nice warm bed and go to sleep.
“Dean, we do not have time for this,” Castiel said stepping in between him and the other angel. He was facing Dean and for a moment, Dean was shock that Castiel would show his back to an angel that they didn’t really know. Yeah, they knew the trickster side to this being and it was one that Dean didn’t care for; so he was just guessing but he probably wasn’t going to like the angel side of him either. “We should not make him mad; right now we need him to listen to us.”
“Um, Castiel, I can still hear you,” Gabriel said.
“Stay out of this!”
“Dean, Cass is right. We don’t need another pissed off archangel; we already have enough of those after us.” Sam said. Dean watched his brother moved in front of the fire ring, “So, which one should we call you? Gabriel or Loki?”
“Whichever one you want Sammy.”
“Okay, Gabriel then,” Sam said, Dean didn’t miss the roll of his brother’s eyes at being called his nickname by the angel. “We kind of started off on the wrong foot here.”
“That’s an understatement and an half,” Gabriel huffed out eyeing the flames dancing around him.
“We needed to talk you and…”
“You could have just called, you didn’t have to set all of this up for me. It’s not like you knew I was even alive. You were playing with a bet, and fire.” He gestured to the ring around him with the last part.
“Well, we haven’t had the best of luck with angels.”
“Most of all archangels,” Dean mumbled.
“Oh, I see. This is about old Mikey and Lucy. Well, you can forget it. If you haven’t noticed, I’m doing my own thing; a witness protection program if you will. I want nothing to do with anyone from the Host.”
Dean didn’t care for the way that he glared at Castiel when he said that part but he fought the urge to step in front of the angel; Sam would never let him hear the end of it. Instead he just verbally helped Castiel out, “Listen buster. If it wasn’t for the fact that we need your help right now, I would be throwing some more oil onto that fire for what you’ve done to us in the past.”
“Oh, please, what could you possible need from me that would outweigh the hatred that you feel for me?” Gabriel’s gold eyes were dancing between the three of them and when they landed on Sam, Dean knew that his brother wouldn’t be able to put into voice what they needed to do; not after finding out who Gabriel was.
“We need you to let Sam claim you.”
There he said it for Sammy and he didn’t beat around the bush; it was straight to the point. Dean was waiting for Gabriel to come back with some witted remark but there was only silent as the archangel just stared at him.
“I’m not joking,” Dean added, not letting Gabriel even ask the question.
Gabriel looked to Castiel, that grin of his was nowhere to be seen on his face. “How could you Castiel?”
“It was the only thing that I could think of to help them,” Castiel said.
“So why don’t you let him claim you?”
“I’m already claimed by someone.” He didn’t say who but Dean saw the quick glance that the angel sent his way; they were going have to talk about that later, if they made it through this. “Also I would be no match against Lucifer, where you…”
“Let me get this right,” Gabriel held up his hand cutting Castiel off. The rain that had started to die down picked up a little, it seemed to be connected to his emotions. “You want me to let Samsquatch claim me so that it’ll be harder for Lucifer to get his hands on him?”
Castiel answered by nodding, Dean wasn’t sure but it seemed that Castiel wanted to say something but feared saying it to the older angel’s face. He shifted his eyes to Gabriel, he had only seen Castiel with one other archangel and at that time he wasn’t afraid to say anything to Raphael’s face. What was so important about this guy that Castiel was watching what he was saying; beside the fact that they needed his help. Yeah, Gabriel, or Loki at the time, had made Sam relive the same day over and over and had killed him so many times but he’s seen Castiel do some unbelievable thing too.
“What would you planning on doing if I wasn’t alive?” Gabriel asked.
“We were going to cross that bridge when we came to it,” Sam answered. “I know we’ve had some bad times in the past…”
“You try to kill me, twice!”
“Well, you did kill Dean over a hundred times,” Sam snapped back.
“You came after me first!”
“Well you were killing people!”
“Who deserved it!”
“No one deserved to dead! At least not like that!”
“And yet you’re trying to find a way to kill my brothers!”
“Okay, okay,” Dean shouted, to get their attention. It was one thing for him to have a yelling match with Gabriel; he wasn’t trying to get the archangel to let him claim him.
“We’ve all made mistakes Gabriel, but right now we’re offering you atonement from your past.”
Gabriel just shook his head, “I can’t believe this. You’re offering me,” he glanced between them. “That’s a good one Castiel, real good.”
“As Dean stated before, this is not a joke,” Castiel said, that emotionless mask on his face. “Brother, please, will you help us?”
“I was fine for all these years; off the grid, doing my own thing. Now, thanks to you three, the whole Host probably knows that I’m alive. You’ve pretty much dragged me back into this stupid little fight between Lucy and Mikey already.”
“You can hide your Grace, like you’ve done for all these years.”
“Doesn’t mean they’ll stop looking for me.”
“So then will you help us?”
Dean just stood there as he watched the conversation between the angels. He hated the idea of Sam being bonded to the Trickster but if Castiel believed that he could help, then he would put up with it; it wasn’t like Gabriel would to stay with them all the time. He and Sam have been through too much to stop now and he was sure that Sam was thinking the same thing. Dean noticed that Gabriel’s gold eyes were dancing between them as he talked to Castiel, he was probably waiting for one of them to pull a stake out; or would it have to be an angel blade, maybe that’s why they couldn’t get this guy to die.
He glanced out into the darkness of the field around them. It had took a few tries before Castiel agree to a field, the ones before were always too close to a town, even though they had all been in the middle of nowhere. Dean didn’t look away for long though, he learned long ago to never drop your guard around supernatural beings and if Gabriel was still controlling the rain somehow from within the ring, he didn’t want to put anything pass him.
The plan had been to let Castiel do the talking but it didn’t look like he was having much luck. Gabriel was proving to be like most angels that they’ve had dealings with; pigheaded. This wasn’t going to work.
“We’re wasting time here,” Dean shouted. “We could be somewhere warm, looking for another way to stop Lucifer. He’s never going to say yes to this.”
“We don’t need him to say yes, Dean,” Castiel said.
“You wouldn’t,” Gabriel said but by the way he said it, Dean could tell that it was a warning. In fact, there was even a hint of fear in his voice and in his eyes.
Castiel hadn’t really gone into detail about this whole claiming thing but it look like he just hit a nerve of some kind.
“Cass?” Sam asked, “What are you talking about?”
“That’s one of the differences between a bonding and being a vessel, neither the angel nor the human need to say ‘yes’. “
“But you said it was how angels mate.” Castiel nodded at that. “So, if I were to claim him without him agreeing to it. Wouldn’t that be like raping?”
“Sam! Come on man!” Dean yelled, he didn’t need that image in his head right now.
“No, but Dean, really, that’s what it is. Right?”
Castiel remained silent just staring at Sam so Gabriel answered for him. “If you want to look at it that way, then yes, that’s just what Castiel is saying.”
“The bond would only be half way completed and it wouldn’t be as strong as if it was whole but it would still hold Lucifer at bay for awhile.”
“Wait, what?” Dean decided to step in, he didn’t like where this was going or how Castiel was talking. “You can’t be serious Cass. You didn’t say anything about that before.”
“It was not important at the time, I believed Gabriel would be willing to help us.”
“Guess you messed that one up, didn’t ya?” Gabriel had moved as close to the flames as he could and Dean was thankful that the oil still worked on him; otherwise he would probably be trying to get a pissed off archangel off of Castiel.
“You were always the first to help Father’s children. What has happened to you?”
“I’ve learned a lot from the human throughout the centuries. You would be surprised at some of the things I could tell you.”
Dean was shock, even though Castiel was even bringing up the idea of forcing a claim on Gabriel, Dean could tell that he was against the matter; plus the fact that Castiel was still holding back what he really wanted to say. Dean looked to his brother; Sam’s eyes were on Gabriel in the ring, there were confusion all over his face and Dean was a little surprised that Sam was even thinking about it. “Sammy?”
Sam turned to Dean, then back to Gabriel. The archangel and his brother were having a stare down, and, like he had so many times when they were young, Dean wished that he could read Sam’s mind. They stood like that for awhile, each one staring down the other as if the first one to look away would lose any say in the matter.
Finally Sam shook his head, “No, I’m sorry Cass, this was a good idea but…I won’t force something onto someone.” He turned, moving to one of the poles holding the cover up, “That would make me no better than Lucifer and the demons that we hunt.” He grabbed the pole and before Dean could stop him, moved the cover just enough that the edge of the ring was out in the rain; not enough to get any of them too wet but the flames of the ring slowly faded away. Dean’s hand slowly reached behind him to the Gluck that he had in the back of his jeans, even though he knew that it wouldn’t do a lot of good. He gave an inward sigh seeing Castiel’s angel blade sliding into his hand; but neither of them made the first move, they waited to see what Gabriel was going to do.
Gabriel in turned just watched the fire die down, he didn’t even looked towards Dean and Castiel. Once the fire was gone, he turned to Sam, “Just like that? You think you can out trick a trickster?”
Sam shook his head, “This is no trick. It’s clear that you want nothing to do with this and like I said, I won’t force someone to do something that they don’t want to do. Even if that person is a supernatural being and the only person who could possible save me.” He moved back next to the others, “You’re free to go.”
“Sam?” Dean was unsure about this. His hold tighten on his gun; he was waiting for this to backfire on them, like so many of Sam’s other ideas. Luckily, Gabriel just took one last look around at each of them and then he was gone; only instead of the snapping sound of his fingers, it was fatherly sound of angels’ wings.
Dean left go of his gun, looking between Sam and Castiel. “Well, that was weird.”
***
Gabriel wasn’t going to hang around to see what kind of bullets Dean had in that Glock of his, and he felt no reason to hide the sound of his wings; they knew who and what he was now; he booked it to his nearest home as fast as he could. He was having since a great day too and then the Winchesters had to go and mess it all up, like they normally do.
He had hear through the grapes vine that there was an angel helping the brothers against Heaven and Hell but he never would have guess Castiel to be that angel. The Castiel that he knew was loyal to the Host and would have never turned his back on them, even if it was an order from Michael himself; or Father for that matter. What could have happened to make him help the Hunters? To tell them about claiming, and bonds; that was rarely talked about among angels, it was just something that they knew but to tell humans about it.
“Wait? Bonds? That’s it,” he said snapping his fingers. Castiel had mention that he already had a bond with someone and for him to have pulled Dean Winchester from Hell….
Dean Winchester and Castiel…
That was all well and good, but Castiel had no right to pull him into their mess. Although the younger hunter didn’t have to free him like he did. They had Castiel, who was willing to show them how to do the bond; even without Gabriel’s permission and Gabriel never would have guessed that Sam would turn him down. They had Lucifer breathing down their necks everywhere they went, not to mention Crowley, Meg, and all of their minions.
He looked around the house, almost expecting Castiel to show up behind him; to have followed him. There was a slight sting from his left arm as he moved to the sofa, he hadn’t realized that he had gotten too close to the fire made by the Holy Oil but the top of his arm was red and it was going to hurt for awhile. Unlike with other wounds, he couldn’t heal it with his Grace; it would have to heal on it.
Gabriel dropped onto the couch, his little dog, Steven, came running from the side room to jump up next to him. He held his left arm to his chest while the other rubbed behind the dog’s ear. “Hey boy, looks like we’re going have to move again.” He gave a huge sigh as he drop his head back, looking up at the roof. He didn’t want to leave right now, he was actually starting to like this little town but he knew that even if it hadn’t been the Winchesters, some other hunters would have shown up sooner or later. He guessed he should be thankful that it was the Winchesters, but he could have gone for them hunting him down for the deaths instead of them calling for ‘Gabriel’ and getting him.
He glanced at the clock; he had planned on going after another person the next day. Another collage professor that was teaching a little bit more to some of his female students for a higher grade. Now though, he wasn’t in the mood.
This whole event didn’t help, most of all, for some reason, he couldn’t get the yelling match that he had with Sam out of his head. Who was Sam to say who deserved to die or not, Gabriel is an archangel, it’s their job to pass judgment. So what if he’s throwing in his Trickster side in how that judgment is passed. Sam, it seems, learned nothing from his lesson. He was still trying to hold onto people, to help in everything; only there were just some things that you couldn’t help with.
Gabriel looked down at Steven, who had started licking his fingers, “What do you think?” The dog stopped and looked up, like he was going to answer but then he just went back to licking him. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
He couldn’t hide anymore, thanks to the Samsquatch and his little sidekick, the Host is going to know that he’s alive; and if Michael was still the Michael that he knew from the past, he was going to be looking for him. He was also guessing that Lucifer was probably going to be looking as well, if only to keep Michael from finding him and getting some more help.
Gabriel had thought that he would have been able to stay out of his brothers’ war but that had been wishful-thinking on his part.
“I need a drink,” he said giving a small push to Steven to let the animal know that he wanted up. Gabriel made his way to the kictken and started digging around in the refrigerator to see what he had to drink. He decided on just grabbing a beer and snapping a candy bar out of air to snack on.
As he leaned against the counter and took a sip, his mind roamed to the look that Castiel had giving him when Sam removed the cover over the fire; not only the look from his vessel but actually from Castiel. It was a look of hurt, as if Gabriel had let him down by not agreeing to help them in their quest to save the world. Castiel though, like many of their brothers and sisters, should have known better; Gabriel had let them down before when he decided to take off.
“He shouldn’t have even told them about bonds, it’s an angel thing.” He told Steven, who had followed him to the kictken, and was now looking at him but the look reminded him of Castiel, with his tilted to the side. “Don’t you look at me like that, it’s not my fight!”
The dog only barked once in answer before running off into the side room, “Fine! Run away!” Gabriel yelled after the little tail disappearing through the door, “What do you know anyway?”
He stared at the bottle in his hand, “It’s not my fight.”
He had been through enough the last time Michael and Lucifer went at it, and Raphael hadn’t been much help; picking Michael from the beginning and pretty much threw Gabriel under the bus. He and Raphael had agreed to not pick sides and then that went out the window. He sighed setting down the bottle, “What to do? What to do?” he mumbled to himself.
He heard barking coming from the other room. “What are you doing in there?” Gabriel yelled following the sound. “If you’re ripping the pillows again, I’m not going to clean up the feathers. You’re on your own. “ The sound leaded him the bathroom where he found that Steven hadn’t played with the pillows but with his soaps instead, “Really?”
It wasn’t like he actually used the soaps, being a trickster slash archangel, he didn’t really need to take bath and showers but it was fun to have them around anyway. His little friend found another use for them though. There, on the tile floor, four of his different soaps had been spread across in a design. Steven was sitting next to it, looking at him with his head tilted and tongue hanging out.
He stared from the dog to the design, wondering, yet again, why he had made Steven all those years ago. The little creature had most of Gabriel’s memories in him and although Gabriel made it to where Steven couldn’t talk back, he could actually understand the human language. So by looking at the design, Gabriel knew that the dog was trying to tell him what to do. It was a design that Gabriel knew all too well, and one that he had hope to never see again. Four rings joined together to form a kind of triangle, one in the middle with the other three along the edge.
Gabriel glanced at the dog, “Why would I tell them about that?”
Steven pawed at the design and at him.
“You want me to actually help them? After everything that they’ve done to me.”
The dog just stared at him.
“Like I said, ‘It’s not my fight’.”
Another bark.
Gabriel sighed, “You’re crazy. You know that? Although,” he studied the design, “if the Winchesters don’t stop Lucy or Mikey, the world isn’t going to be a fun place to hang out anymore. I need to think,” he turned to leave the bathroom, “I’m going out. Don’t wait up.”
This way to the next part
Author: last_winterrose
Recipient: jenab
Rating: PG-13
Genre and/or Pairing: A little bit of action, spell casting normal SPN. I guess you can say a little Per!Slash between Gabriel and Sam, and the always wonderful UST Dean/Castiel.
Spoilers: This is kind of an AU of Season Five, so there are mentions of events that take place in Season One through Season Four.
Warnings: Not really, rating is just for adult themed subject and language, and Dean and Gabriel jokes.
Word Count: About 10,200
Notes/Prompts: This was written for team_free_love Secret Lover Exchange Round 3, as a gift for jenab. Using the prompts Sam is the one who needs or has to claim Gabriel. Switching it around from Gabriel doing the claiming.
Summary: While trying to help the Winchester, Castiel learns of a way to at least slow Lucifer down until they can find a way to actually stop Lucifer for good. The problem is that it can only work with another Archangel and the only one that they can find isn't all too willing to help.
***
“You have got to be kidding me!”
“Not this time Dean-o,” Loki, or was it Gabriel, answered.
Dean couldn’t believe it, he wouldn’t believe it. There was no way that the annoying little trickster that had killed him over a hundred times was the Archangel Gabriel; there was just no way. He looked to Sam but his brother only stared back with a mixture of bitch face numbers ten, sixteen, and thirty-five; confusion, anger, and shock. So he turned to Castiel, “Are you telling me that this asshole is an archangel?”
“Dean, please,” Castiel said, “and yes, this is Gabriel.” He turned to Gabriel, “I’m happy to see that the rumors were true brother, that you are still alive.”
“Yeah, well, I was kind of hoping no one would try and prove them wrong. Don’t you think I left Heaven for a reason Castiel?”
“Wait, hold up.” Sam looked between Castiel and the trickster. “You mean he really is Gabriel?”
“Yes, Sam. Who else would he be?” Castiel answered.
“Who in deed? You see baby bro, the Winchesters here and I have met before. Only those times they knew me by a different name.”
“Remember that time that Sammy told you about? Where I got killed over and over again by that trickster? Well, meet the Trickster, Loki.” Dean waved his hand at the being in the fire, which he really hoped works on angels with tricksters as vessel.
Castiel eyed Dean, then Sam, “I see. Well, we’re both right. Loki is Gabriel’s vessel.”
“His vessel is a trickster? How the hell did that happen?”
“Well, Loki is a demigod Dean,” Sam said, “and demigods are part human.”
“Hole in one kido,” Loki jumped in. “But really if you boys wanted to know about me, all you had to do was ask.”
“Yeah? And would you have really answered our questions?” Dean asked. He finally moved closer to the fire.
“Depends on the questions,” he paused glancing to Sam, “and who’s asking.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dean snapped at the trickster, he wasn’t in the mood for games. He was cold, tried, and now, thanks to Gabriel, he was wet. He just wanted to find a nice warm bed and go to sleep.
“Dean, we do not have time for this,” Castiel said stepping in between him and the other angel. He was facing Dean and for a moment, Dean was shock that Castiel would show his back to an angel that they didn’t really know. Yeah, they knew the trickster side to this being and it was one that Dean didn’t care for; so he was just guessing but he probably wasn’t going to like the angel side of him either. “We should not make him mad; right now we need him to listen to us.”
“Um, Castiel, I can still hear you,” Gabriel said.
“Stay out of this!”
“Dean, Cass is right. We don’t need another pissed off archangel; we already have enough of those after us.” Sam said. Dean watched his brother moved in front of the fire ring, “So, which one should we call you? Gabriel or Loki?”
“Whichever one you want Sammy.”
“Okay, Gabriel then,” Sam said, Dean didn’t miss the roll of his brother’s eyes at being called his nickname by the angel. “We kind of started off on the wrong foot here.”
“That’s an understatement and an half,” Gabriel huffed out eyeing the flames dancing around him.
“We needed to talk you and…”
“You could have just called, you didn’t have to set all of this up for me. It’s not like you knew I was even alive. You were playing with a bet, and fire.” He gestured to the ring around him with the last part.
“Well, we haven’t had the best of luck with angels.”
“Most of all archangels,” Dean mumbled.
“Oh, I see. This is about old Mikey and Lucy. Well, you can forget it. If you haven’t noticed, I’m doing my own thing; a witness protection program if you will. I want nothing to do with anyone from the Host.”
Dean didn’t care for the way that he glared at Castiel when he said that part but he fought the urge to step in front of the angel; Sam would never let him hear the end of it. Instead he just verbally helped Castiel out, “Listen buster. If it wasn’t for the fact that we need your help right now, I would be throwing some more oil onto that fire for what you’ve done to us in the past.”
“Oh, please, what could you possible need from me that would outweigh the hatred that you feel for me?” Gabriel’s gold eyes were dancing between the three of them and when they landed on Sam, Dean knew that his brother wouldn’t be able to put into voice what they needed to do; not after finding out who Gabriel was.
“We need you to let Sam claim you.”
There he said it for Sammy and he didn’t beat around the bush; it was straight to the point. Dean was waiting for Gabriel to come back with some witted remark but there was only silent as the archangel just stared at him.
“I’m not joking,” Dean added, not letting Gabriel even ask the question.
Gabriel looked to Castiel, that grin of his was nowhere to be seen on his face. “How could you Castiel?”
“It was the only thing that I could think of to help them,” Castiel said.
“So why don’t you let him claim you?”
“I’m already claimed by someone.” He didn’t say who but Dean saw the quick glance that the angel sent his way; they were going have to talk about that later, if they made it through this. “Also I would be no match against Lucifer, where you…”
“Let me get this right,” Gabriel held up his hand cutting Castiel off. The rain that had started to die down picked up a little, it seemed to be connected to his emotions. “You want me to let Samsquatch claim me so that it’ll be harder for Lucifer to get his hands on him?”
Castiel answered by nodding, Dean wasn’t sure but it seemed that Castiel wanted to say something but feared saying it to the older angel’s face. He shifted his eyes to Gabriel, he had only seen Castiel with one other archangel and at that time he wasn’t afraid to say anything to Raphael’s face. What was so important about this guy that Castiel was watching what he was saying; beside the fact that they needed his help. Yeah, Gabriel, or Loki at the time, had made Sam relive the same day over and over and had killed him so many times but he’s seen Castiel do some unbelievable thing too.
“What would you planning on doing if I wasn’t alive?” Gabriel asked.
“We were going to cross that bridge when we came to it,” Sam answered. “I know we’ve had some bad times in the past…”
“You try to kill me, twice!”
“Well, you did kill Dean over a hundred times,” Sam snapped back.
“You came after me first!”
“Well you were killing people!”
“Who deserved it!”
“No one deserved to dead! At least not like that!”
“And yet you’re trying to find a way to kill my brothers!”
“Okay, okay,” Dean shouted, to get their attention. It was one thing for him to have a yelling match with Gabriel; he wasn’t trying to get the archangel to let him claim him.
“We’ve all made mistakes Gabriel, but right now we’re offering you atonement from your past.”
Gabriel just shook his head, “I can’t believe this. You’re offering me,” he glanced between them. “That’s a good one Castiel, real good.”
“As Dean stated before, this is not a joke,” Castiel said, that emotionless mask on his face. “Brother, please, will you help us?”
“I was fine for all these years; off the grid, doing my own thing. Now, thanks to you three, the whole Host probably knows that I’m alive. You’ve pretty much dragged me back into this stupid little fight between Lucy and Mikey already.”
“You can hide your Grace, like you’ve done for all these years.”
“Doesn’t mean they’ll stop looking for me.”
“So then will you help us?”
Dean just stood there as he watched the conversation between the angels. He hated the idea of Sam being bonded to the Trickster but if Castiel believed that he could help, then he would put up with it; it wasn’t like Gabriel would to stay with them all the time. He and Sam have been through too much to stop now and he was sure that Sam was thinking the same thing. Dean noticed that Gabriel’s gold eyes were dancing between them as he talked to Castiel, he was probably waiting for one of them to pull a stake out; or would it have to be an angel blade, maybe that’s why they couldn’t get this guy to die.
He glanced out into the darkness of the field around them. It had took a few tries before Castiel agree to a field, the ones before were always too close to a town, even though they had all been in the middle of nowhere. Dean didn’t look away for long though, he learned long ago to never drop your guard around supernatural beings and if Gabriel was still controlling the rain somehow from within the ring, he didn’t want to put anything pass him.
The plan had been to let Castiel do the talking but it didn’t look like he was having much luck. Gabriel was proving to be like most angels that they’ve had dealings with; pigheaded. This wasn’t going to work.
“We’re wasting time here,” Dean shouted. “We could be somewhere warm, looking for another way to stop Lucifer. He’s never going to say yes to this.”
“We don’t need him to say yes, Dean,” Castiel said.
“You wouldn’t,” Gabriel said but by the way he said it, Dean could tell that it was a warning. In fact, there was even a hint of fear in his voice and in his eyes.
Castiel hadn’t really gone into detail about this whole claiming thing but it look like he just hit a nerve of some kind.
“Cass?” Sam asked, “What are you talking about?”
“That’s one of the differences between a bonding and being a vessel, neither the angel nor the human need to say ‘yes’. “
“But you said it was how angels mate.” Castiel nodded at that. “So, if I were to claim him without him agreeing to it. Wouldn’t that be like raping?”
“Sam! Come on man!” Dean yelled, he didn’t need that image in his head right now.
“No, but Dean, really, that’s what it is. Right?”
Castiel remained silent just staring at Sam so Gabriel answered for him. “If you want to look at it that way, then yes, that’s just what Castiel is saying.”
“The bond would only be half way completed and it wouldn’t be as strong as if it was whole but it would still hold Lucifer at bay for awhile.”
“Wait, what?” Dean decided to step in, he didn’t like where this was going or how Castiel was talking. “You can’t be serious Cass. You didn’t say anything about that before.”
“It was not important at the time, I believed Gabriel would be willing to help us.”
“Guess you messed that one up, didn’t ya?” Gabriel had moved as close to the flames as he could and Dean was thankful that the oil still worked on him; otherwise he would probably be trying to get a pissed off archangel off of Castiel.
“You were always the first to help Father’s children. What has happened to you?”
“I’ve learned a lot from the human throughout the centuries. You would be surprised at some of the things I could tell you.”
Dean was shock, even though Castiel was even bringing up the idea of forcing a claim on Gabriel, Dean could tell that he was against the matter; plus the fact that Castiel was still holding back what he really wanted to say. Dean looked to his brother; Sam’s eyes were on Gabriel in the ring, there were confusion all over his face and Dean was a little surprised that Sam was even thinking about it. “Sammy?”
Sam turned to Dean, then back to Gabriel. The archangel and his brother were having a stare down, and, like he had so many times when they were young, Dean wished that he could read Sam’s mind. They stood like that for awhile, each one staring down the other as if the first one to look away would lose any say in the matter.
Finally Sam shook his head, “No, I’m sorry Cass, this was a good idea but…I won’t force something onto someone.” He turned, moving to one of the poles holding the cover up, “That would make me no better than Lucifer and the demons that we hunt.” He grabbed the pole and before Dean could stop him, moved the cover just enough that the edge of the ring was out in the rain; not enough to get any of them too wet but the flames of the ring slowly faded away. Dean’s hand slowly reached behind him to the Gluck that he had in the back of his jeans, even though he knew that it wouldn’t do a lot of good. He gave an inward sigh seeing Castiel’s angel blade sliding into his hand; but neither of them made the first move, they waited to see what Gabriel was going to do.
Gabriel in turned just watched the fire die down, he didn’t even looked towards Dean and Castiel. Once the fire was gone, he turned to Sam, “Just like that? You think you can out trick a trickster?”
Sam shook his head, “This is no trick. It’s clear that you want nothing to do with this and like I said, I won’t force someone to do something that they don’t want to do. Even if that person is a supernatural being and the only person who could possible save me.” He moved back next to the others, “You’re free to go.”
“Sam?” Dean was unsure about this. His hold tighten on his gun; he was waiting for this to backfire on them, like so many of Sam’s other ideas. Luckily, Gabriel just took one last look around at each of them and then he was gone; only instead of the snapping sound of his fingers, it was fatherly sound of angels’ wings.
Dean left go of his gun, looking between Sam and Castiel. “Well, that was weird.”
***
Gabriel wasn’t going to hang around to see what kind of bullets Dean had in that Glock of his, and he felt no reason to hide the sound of his wings; they knew who and what he was now; he booked it to his nearest home as fast as he could. He was having since a great day too and then the Winchesters had to go and mess it all up, like they normally do.
He had hear through the grapes vine that there was an angel helping the brothers against Heaven and Hell but he never would have guess Castiel to be that angel. The Castiel that he knew was loyal to the Host and would have never turned his back on them, even if it was an order from Michael himself; or Father for that matter. What could have happened to make him help the Hunters? To tell them about claiming, and bonds; that was rarely talked about among angels, it was just something that they knew but to tell humans about it.
“Wait? Bonds? That’s it,” he said snapping his fingers. Castiel had mention that he already had a bond with someone and for him to have pulled Dean Winchester from Hell….
Dean Winchester and Castiel…
That was all well and good, but Castiel had no right to pull him into their mess. Although the younger hunter didn’t have to free him like he did. They had Castiel, who was willing to show them how to do the bond; even without Gabriel’s permission and Gabriel never would have guessed that Sam would turn him down. They had Lucifer breathing down their necks everywhere they went, not to mention Crowley, Meg, and all of their minions.
He looked around the house, almost expecting Castiel to show up behind him; to have followed him. There was a slight sting from his left arm as he moved to the sofa, he hadn’t realized that he had gotten too close to the fire made by the Holy Oil but the top of his arm was red and it was going to hurt for awhile. Unlike with other wounds, he couldn’t heal it with his Grace; it would have to heal on it.
Gabriel dropped onto the couch, his little dog, Steven, came running from the side room to jump up next to him. He held his left arm to his chest while the other rubbed behind the dog’s ear. “Hey boy, looks like we’re going have to move again.” He gave a huge sigh as he drop his head back, looking up at the roof. He didn’t want to leave right now, he was actually starting to like this little town but he knew that even if it hadn’t been the Winchesters, some other hunters would have shown up sooner or later. He guessed he should be thankful that it was the Winchesters, but he could have gone for them hunting him down for the deaths instead of them calling for ‘Gabriel’ and getting him.
He glanced at the clock; he had planned on going after another person the next day. Another collage professor that was teaching a little bit more to some of his female students for a higher grade. Now though, he wasn’t in the mood.
This whole event didn’t help, most of all, for some reason, he couldn’t get the yelling match that he had with Sam out of his head. Who was Sam to say who deserved to die or not, Gabriel is an archangel, it’s their job to pass judgment. So what if he’s throwing in his Trickster side in how that judgment is passed. Sam, it seems, learned nothing from his lesson. He was still trying to hold onto people, to help in everything; only there were just some things that you couldn’t help with.
Gabriel looked down at Steven, who had started licking his fingers, “What do you think?” The dog stopped and looked up, like he was going to answer but then he just went back to licking him. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
He couldn’t hide anymore, thanks to the Samsquatch and his little sidekick, the Host is going to know that he’s alive; and if Michael was still the Michael that he knew from the past, he was going to be looking for him. He was also guessing that Lucifer was probably going to be looking as well, if only to keep Michael from finding him and getting some more help.
Gabriel had thought that he would have been able to stay out of his brothers’ war but that had been wishful-thinking on his part.
“I need a drink,” he said giving a small push to Steven to let the animal know that he wanted up. Gabriel made his way to the kictken and started digging around in the refrigerator to see what he had to drink. He decided on just grabbing a beer and snapping a candy bar out of air to snack on.
As he leaned against the counter and took a sip, his mind roamed to the look that Castiel had giving him when Sam removed the cover over the fire; not only the look from his vessel but actually from Castiel. It was a look of hurt, as if Gabriel had let him down by not agreeing to help them in their quest to save the world. Castiel though, like many of their brothers and sisters, should have known better; Gabriel had let them down before when he decided to take off.
“He shouldn’t have even told them about bonds, it’s an angel thing.” He told Steven, who had followed him to the kictken, and was now looking at him but the look reminded him of Castiel, with his tilted to the side. “Don’t you look at me like that, it’s not my fight!”
The dog only barked once in answer before running off into the side room, “Fine! Run away!” Gabriel yelled after the little tail disappearing through the door, “What do you know anyway?”
He stared at the bottle in his hand, “It’s not my fight.”
He had been through enough the last time Michael and Lucifer went at it, and Raphael hadn’t been much help; picking Michael from the beginning and pretty much threw Gabriel under the bus. He and Raphael had agreed to not pick sides and then that went out the window. He sighed setting down the bottle, “What to do? What to do?” he mumbled to himself.
He heard barking coming from the other room. “What are you doing in there?” Gabriel yelled following the sound. “If you’re ripping the pillows again, I’m not going to clean up the feathers. You’re on your own. “ The sound leaded him the bathroom where he found that Steven hadn’t played with the pillows but with his soaps instead, “Really?”
It wasn’t like he actually used the soaps, being a trickster slash archangel, he didn’t really need to take bath and showers but it was fun to have them around anyway. His little friend found another use for them though. There, on the tile floor, four of his different soaps had been spread across in a design. Steven was sitting next to it, looking at him with his head tilted and tongue hanging out.
He stared from the dog to the design, wondering, yet again, why he had made Steven all those years ago. The little creature had most of Gabriel’s memories in him and although Gabriel made it to where Steven couldn’t talk back, he could actually understand the human language. So by looking at the design, Gabriel knew that the dog was trying to tell him what to do. It was a design that Gabriel knew all too well, and one that he had hope to never see again. Four rings joined together to form a kind of triangle, one in the middle with the other three along the edge.
Gabriel glanced at the dog, “Why would I tell them about that?”
Steven pawed at the design and at him.
“You want me to actually help them? After everything that they’ve done to me.”
The dog just stared at him.
“Like I said, ‘It’s not my fight’.”
Another bark.
Gabriel sighed, “You’re crazy. You know that? Although,” he studied the design, “if the Winchesters don’t stop Lucy or Mikey, the world isn’t going to be a fun place to hang out anymore. I need to think,” he turned to leave the bathroom, “I’m going out. Don’t wait up.”
This way to the next part