We walked a million hills - Chapter 8
Title: Trinity Verse II. - We walked a million hills (8/?)
Author: scyllaya
Rating: R
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Dean/Castiel/Gabriel
Warning(s): cursing, graphic injuries
Spoiler(s): AU (characters up to S5)
Word Count: ~ 3 200 (this chapter) WIP
Summary: Dean, Castiel and Gabriel live the life they wanted to have. Their biggest problem should be synchronizing their crazy schedules, unfortunately life is never that simple.
Disclaimer: Nearly all names and characters in this story belong to CW/WB and Kripke. I’m making no profit whatsoever. It’s just for fun!Most places and establishments in the story are real, but I’ve never visited any of them, so I have no true knowledge about them. People (OCs) in the story are not real! Any resemblance to real life is just a coincidence.
AN: Second story of Trinity verse. Title from: Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World
Unbeta-ed. Trinity Verse I: Broke our Mirrors
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Chapter VIII
Gabriel could admit that he hated this. Hated the constant smell of iron and dust, hated the dried blood and dirt on his clothes and under his nails. And most definitely he hated that there were people, everywhere. It was not like the ER, where after a few hours he could take a shower and get into a new pair of clean scrubs and just sit down in the doctor's lounge for a little peace and quiet. This didn't stop for a second. And not just all the casualties - even if finally it seemed like they managed to get to all severely injured - but all the other masses of people. Paramedics and rescue teams, police, firemen, volunteers and the freakin' media. Naturally. It soon would be dark he knew, he guessed it was around 7-8 PM maybe, the sun would be gone completely very shortly. It would make everything even more difficult.
Seeing Cas was good, to know he was also here, it settled him down. Calmed that unpleasant feeling in his stomach that he felt after so many hours of being out here. It wasn't so bad, he was doing his job, he knew what he had to do so only the circumstances were different from his everyday life.
He hated the noise the most. The constant sound of the people, some yelling for help or in search of others, the sound of the helicopter rotors, the sirens of ambulances and fire-trucks and the smallest, but most jarring thing was the glass everywhere. People and vehicles moved and the sound of breaking glass followed and god, it annoyed him. The worst was closest to the church where the giant stained-glass windows shattered.
He found himself staring at a woman who was gathering glass-pieces from the pavement to make place for a few kids to sit down and the unwanted sight of Grace rushed into his mind. Michael always broke some of her more valuable possessions - vases and crystal glasses - whenever he was really angry. It was impossible to ever forget the sight of his mother kneeling on the carpet and cleaning up the mess the next day, picking up the shattered pieces of glass and porcelain carefully with thin white fingers...
'Gabriel!' He tore his gaze away from the woman and looked up at the tall frame of Victor Henricksen, Dean's squad-leader and partner, who was walking towards him.
'Hey Victor, need anything?' he asked.
'Have you seen Dean?' Victor asked in return without missing a beat.
'Um, yeah... a few hours ago, why?' he frowned.
'No one saw him in the past five hours,' explained Henricksen, his shoulders set in tense lines, rigid even if he stood and talked confidently.
'Well, he has to be around here somewhere,' Gabriel replied.
'Except we have a woman among the casualties who's looking for the doctor and the cop who got her out from under the building, she said the doctor went down to look for others and that the cop told her to find the paramedics, which she did, but now she started to search for them to thank them, except they're nowhere,' he paused as he took a larger breath. 'I looked everywhere, I asked around and Dean's the only cop on scene I don't know where the hell is. And the girl's description fits him. Noticed you here, hoped you saw him.'
Gabriel just kept looking at Victor for a bit as the news settled.
'No,' he answered then. 'I didn't see him... hell, maybe in 6-7 hours. I saw him not long after got here.'
'Goddamit' Victor cursed and Gabriel saw that his mind was racing with what could be the possible course of action.
'Where's this woman?' he asked and his voice came out a lot steadier than he expected it.
'C'mon,' Victor turned and Gabriel followed. Surprisingly they were not headed towards one of the groups of people who were gathered around the ambulances, but to where the police vans parked down. They were only a few guys standing around there, Gabriel didn't know whether he met them before or not.
'I don't need a doctor,' the woman spoke immediately after she saw Gabriel.
'That's not why I'm here,' Gabriel told her. He opened up his coverall on the front after he put his bag down and searched for his phone that was in his trousers underneath the whole get-up. He managed to fish it out and started searching through his folders. Normally, he would've been embarrassed about having photos of Dean and Cas on his cell, but to hell with it now. 'Was this the cop who helped you out?' he asked and turned the phone towards her after he found the right picture of Dean. Her eyes widened in recognition almost immediately so Gabriel didn't even need to hear her answer.
'Yes! That's him, very tall guy,' she answered.
'Shit, this is just what we needed,' Victor cursed again as he pressed the hell of his hands to his eyes. Gabriel put his phone away and took a few calming breaths when he felt that his pulse was rising, he needed a clear head.
'The doc was wearing clothes like you,' the woman added after a everyone fell silent. Gabriel looked down on her again.
'You mean this?' he asked as he pulled on his medical coverall.
'Yeah, just like this one' the red-head nodded. And Gabriel really wanted to curse now.
'You know who it could've been?' Victor asked him.
'Yeah,' Gabriel breathed out. 'Pete Colainn, I saw everyone else from Saint Anthony's in the past hour or so.'
Victor moved around the van until he could reach in for the radio and Gabriel heard him giving out the information about Dean and Pete missing, high chance of them being buried somewhere, and asking for help in the search, it was mostly background noise for Gabe. He just tried to breathe properly. It couldn't be that hard, right?
'A team should be here soon to help us. Miss Greene, are you sure you cannot lead us to where you last seen Dr. Colainn and officer Winchester?' Victor asked the woman.
'I told you,' she answered. 'I already went there, but the hole... it's just not there anymore.'
'We will still ask you to come with us and show us the place so that we know where to start our search,' Victor told her. 'You wanna stick with us?' he turned to Gabriel next.
'Um, yeah... sure,' he nodded. He didn't follow the conversations going on around him, Victor giving out orders to get some people who had nothing urgent to do to help out. Gabriel trailed along, his breathing even and slow again now that he paid attention to it. He didn't let his mind go through the list of possibilities, because no... they didn't know enough to guess. He felt the beginning of a headache, a low thrum of pain in his skull and that didn't really happen to him in years. Not a good sign.
The red-haired woman led them to a side that was closer to the church's main entrance. Not many people moved around here since this side was evacuated in the afternoon. It was strange in a way to stand there and do nothing, being still was never Gabriel's forte and his mind was already screaming at him for not doing anything. A few guys dressed in the NDMS coveralls joined them and they started discussing how to search and how were the chances to actually find Dean and Pete.
'So, how do we start?' he asked. 'I think we wasted more than enough time. It's already been hours with none of us noticing they were gone.'
'We need to wait for a few things if we wanna move the larger cement-blocks' one of the guys answered. Gabriel knew that, of course he did. It was not like they could start digging them up with their hands.
'So we just stand around doing nothing for now?' he asked and the short pause that followed his question was answer enough for him. 'Yeah, I don't have time for that' he stated. He had to do something. If he couldn't get to Dean, than something else, anything was better than standing there and looking at the mountain of debris. Staying still was not an option, there was no way he could handle that.
He turned his back on the small group and walked away to join the paramedics again.
Dealing with moderate injuries was only a bit easier than the long hours spent with the critical cases. There was also a lot more of them, and now they actually had time to check over some that were only lightly injured, even if only once in a while. This was more of the case of patching up gashes, resetting shoulders and cleaning and bandaging up people before sending them over to the hospitals.
Gabriel could imagine how the staff in all of the medical establishments were still overwhelmed and crowded so it was best if they did everything they could right on field before sending the people in for further tending. He very pointedly didn't think about how the search for Dean was going. He would be unable to work if he let himself think too long about it and he had a job here, there were still people waiting for hours on end for any sort of medical help, so he just couldn't do that. With Pete gone they couldn't afford him throwing in the towel. This he could do, nothing else, so he would do it.
Gabriel didn't know how much time passed, he wasn't paying attention to anything else but the injuries in front of him. He noticed that it turned dark and that besides the street lights there were large reflectors and lights put up to all available places to give all the extra light the medical corps and rescue teams needed. Gabriel was just glad that at least the weather was good, no cold or rain to make everything even harder for them.
'Gabriel!'
'One second,' he replied without looking up. He finished up the bandage on a teenager's leg and told him to get it properly cleaned and re-bandaged as soon as it was possible even if he knew that the kid would have to wait for a long while for that one. Castiel was standing not that far away from him, still in his USAF jumpsuit.
'Hey Cas,' he greeted.
'What are you doing here?' Castiel asked.
'What does it look like I'm doing?' Gabriel asked in return. 'I'm doing my job.' Cas brows furrowed very deeply at those words and he stared silently at Gabriel for a while.
'Dean is... buried somewhere under this, a lot of people searching for him, doing everything they can to find him... and you're working,' Castiel summarized. 'You're not even there.'
'Exactly,' Gabriel agreed. 'A lot of people are looking, it's better if I'm here.' Castiel's face turned incredulous immediately and his frown didn't disappear either. 'What?' Gabriel asked.
'It's Dean... and your friend in danger. Who knows how badly hurt... and you come back to work? Just like that?'
'What else am I supposed to do?'
'Just be there!' Castiel replied. 'I arrived back and expected you to be among the people looking for them and you're here, two corners away, I had to spend at least 30 minutes looking for you.'
'It's not like I can do anything,' Gabriel told him. 'So why exactly should I be there at all?'
'You're serious,' Castiel stated, he looked taken aback.
'Yes!'
'What is wrong with you?!' Castiel exclaimed.
'What?'
'You're just standing here, doing your job like nothing happened! You're not even upset, how can you be not upset?!' It was Gabriel's turn to be taken aback for a moment at those words.
'Well, you know what... yes, I'm doing my job, because that's the best I can do right now,' he said in a calmer tone, but then again compared to Castiel right now, it was not that hard to sound calm. He looked wrecked, his face paler than usual and he was a lot more fidgety and shaken up than Gabriel ever saw him before.
'Are you fucking serious?' Cas asked.
'I can't magically find him, Cas! Nor can I dig up the whole fucking building! But guess what, there are still dozens and dozens of people here, hurting and bleeding. So yes, I'm going to do my goddamn job and help them, because I can't help Dean, but this I can do! It's a lot better than sitting around doing nothing! So if this means there's something wrong with me, than so fucking be it!'
'Gabriel--'
'I don't have time for this,' he added and his voice dropped down back to its normal level, the edge of anger drifting away to nothing. Then he turned around and walked away. God-fucking-dammit.
Cas didn't follow him or called after him so Gabriel went on his way and he ended up going from one patient from the other until he found himself on the other side of the church, where most of the damage was. The people here got blankets and water, mostly from volunteers, and had the lightest injuries but Gabriel stayed to check over everyone. There were enough doctors for the more severe cases so he felt it was time to do this. Besides, he wasn't sure how successful he would be in doing something more complex than stitching up a gash or cleaning out and bandaging a wound. His hands were shaking a little the first time he got on gloves again and prepared the needle to make the stitches. He just had to focus on his breathing for a while again, he got himself that little extra time by fiddling around in his bag more than necessary, he didn't think anybody noticed. When he got to the wound his hands were steady again.
It took him quite some time to check over all people, but at least there was a lot of them whom he could tell that if it was possible they could go home as they didn't need to get into a hospital. Someone should've done this already to spare them from sitting around and waiting for hours, but they just didn't have anybody. Right now at least Gabriel felt like he was helping out a lot of people, so he continued to do this. He figured he could until he ran out of bandages or something.
He was on his way from one group to another when an agitated voice yelled 'Hey' at him. It took him a few moments to recognize the overly worried jackass dad he encountered back in the afternoon. He didn't look any less irritated now, Gabriel had no clue what he was still doing here for one thing. He should've taken his daughter home already.
'Yes?' he asked as he stopped.
'We've been waiting... all day' he started.
'Is this about your daughter?' Gabriel interrupted. 'Sir, there's nothing wrong with her. You should've taken her home.'
'She hit her head' the guy insisted.
'Does she behave any differently from the way I last saw her? Besides being tired or scared? Is she disoriented? Does she have problems with her sight? Does her head hurt at all?'
'She has to be taken to a hospital and she is ignored by everyone, none of you bastards are doing your jobs properly!'
'She has such a small injury that can be treated with a simple band-aid, she doesn't even need stitches. Take her home and let her sleep. She is fine,' Gabriel explained again as calm and reasonably as he could muster in his current state. He counted it as a miracle that he didn't tell the guy to go fuck himself the second he opened his mouth. He looked at the guy pointedly and he really was hoping that he would finally get the message and go home. Then he turned around to continue his walk.
'She's just a kid and you don't care? Hey! I'm taking to you, you little prick!'
Ignore, just ignore. It was always the best thing to do.
'What kinda doctor are you, huh? Not giving a fuck about a kid? Huh, what the fuck is wrong with you?!'
He wanted to ignore him, he really did, but the second he felt a hand grabbing his overall and yank on him, he couldn't. He turned around the second he was pulled backwards. He grabbed the guy's wrist and twisted on it when he found his balance. The guy being obviously surprised didn't react, nor did he actually had time to react before Gabriel pulled one of his legs out from under him by hooking one feet in his ankle. The guy landed face-first on the clastic pavement with a heavy thud. Gabriel held onto his wrist now bent in an obviously painful angle, twisted behind his back, while he put his other hand on the guy's nape to keep him in place.
'Now listen very closely. Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna let you go and after I did, you get your daughter and take her home,' he told the guy in a low tone. 'And I dare you to try to pull some shit like this again and I'm gonna break your wrist instead of just straining it. You understand me?'
Gabriel waited until he guy nodded, completely silent but visibly freaked out of his mind, not even struggling. He let go of him and stood up at the same time. Apparently the guy fully intended to listen to his advice as he walked away hurriedly without looking back. He was clutching his wrist that would swell up very shortly, Gabriel knew.
He felt his own heavy heartbeat in his chest and heard the blood rushing in his ears, the adrenaline working its way through his body very swiftly. Maybe he shouldn't have, maybe he had to, he shouldn't care, or it would be bad if he didn't. He had absolutely no idea. What is wrong with him? ... Why did everybody seem to ask that same fucking question? He hated it, he hated this question more than anything. There was nothing wrong with him, nothing. He was doing his job, he was doing it perfectly. He was keeping it together, he was helping. He was not going to fail here, dammit. And just... what the fuck was he going to do if Dean was lying dead somewhere... the idiot getting himself in danger. Never listening to him, never. Fucking Pete and his stupid over-active conscience and fucking hero-complex... and fucking Castiel, looking so terrified... and angry...
He found himself at the half-fallen walls of the church and he had to sit down a little, just to catch his breath, just until the adrenaline cleared out of his blood. Just to think clearly again, until he couldn't feel the pumping blood in his veins and the throbbing pain behind his eyes.
God, he just... can't...
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AN 2: A great friend made some fanarts for the first story of the verse "Broke our mirrors" :)
Fanart by ~KraeHi: [Gabriel, Castiel, Dean - Chapter One] ~~ [Gabriel, Castiel, Dean - Chapter Fourteen]
Check them out! :D
AN 3: We will return to Dean next chapter do not worry... please leave a comment. I really rely on your feedback here guys. I like to know what you think.