Author's Note - title taken from lyrics included in "I gotta feeling" by Black Eyed Peas (thanks to Live4StarWars for giving me the idea for that title in the first place! XD ) This story features a pairing I don't usually write for - Sam/Gabriel. I thought I'd try it at least once. :o) This will be the last part in my Blue Moon 'verse, and the stories in order of reading are - "Mating Season," "A Chance to Live again," "A Deal with an Angel," "A Baby Makes Four," and "The Last Night."
The rain fell from the skies as Dean followed Castiel through the trees, feeling uncomfortable in the too wet weather, raindrops filtering through the trees and splashing down upon his head and dripping down his neck. He shuddered against the feel of it, and pressed onwards, knowing he had no choice but to continue to follow his lover, his husband through the trees.
Sam followed Dean carefully, keeping his eyes trained on his brother and the angel, paying no attention to the discomfort of the weather, just continued to plow onwards through the trees and the underbrush, blinking back the rain whenever it dripped into his eyes and hampered his vision. He flinched slightly when Elisha drew up beside him, padding forward on soundless feet that he hadn't been aware of. Elisha could tread as quietly than her father and Castiel could rarely ever be heard when he walked.
The young half angel half human took no more notice of Sam than to give him a brief nod, usually cheerful face thinned out with concentration, looking even more like Castiel as she did so. Sam shook his head over the striking similarities between her and the angel; the only giveaway to the other half of her parentage was a ripe dusting of freckles liberally peppering her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Her bright blue eyes were intent, brows pulled down as her hair clung to her forehead and cheeks in wet strands.
Sam wondered if she ever minded having an unconventional family, for he'd never heard her complain once about her lifestyle, nor ask why she'd never had a mother like other people did. She'd just seemed to accept her situation without comment nor argument, just soldiered on without complaint. Sam shook his head at her tenacity and wondered why he couldn't have been more like her when he was growing up. All he'd felt was rage and the need to be normal; Elisha seemed to revel in the fact that she was different to all others. Sam wondered if it was the angelic genes in her that gave her the temperament he'd never had; all he'd known from an early age was demon blood, ever since Azazel had bled into his mouth when Sam was but six months old.
The young hunter turned his thoughts away, not wanting to think of what had happened that same night, the night his mother had died and the long journey to where they were now had started, or at least for him it had. He stumbled on a tree root, pulled himself upright with an effort before Elisha even noticed, too intent on her fathers to pay attention to her uncle right then.
Finally, they came to the edge of the graveyard they were after, threaded their way through the grave markers standing sentinel over their departed charges, several of which were in the shape of ever watchful angels, praying, wings outspread to the night, eyes blank and peaceful. Sam shuddered at the rain pounding down more fully upon his head, and carried onwards, ever onwards though the rainy night.
Elisha soon caught up with her fathers, standing quietly off to one side of Castiel, a gentle, more feminine counterpoint to Castiel's ever commanding presence. Dean was on the other side of him, soon joined by his brother who saw, at the last minute, that they were too late. The thing they were trying to avoid - the raising of two dead bodies with the intent of roaming the earth as ravening zombies - had happened before they'd even arrived.
"Son of a bitch," Dean cursed, as beside him, Castiel murmured something in Enochian that could have been a curse for all Dean knew.
"We're too late. They're long gone by now," Elisha said, scanning the grave markers around them and the trees that bordered the graveyard.
"D'you know where they've gone, Lisha?" Castiel asked, using her brother Caelum's nickname for her to attract her attention.
His abilities were hampered by his barring from Heaven, but even he knew where they'd gone. He'd just wanted to see if Elisha knew, tried to help her hone her skills for when he couldn't do it any longer.
"Into town, I think," Elisha replied, lips narrowing down into a displeased grimace by the news.
Castiel nodded, knowing that she'd picked up the scent as well as he did.
"We'd best try and stop them, before they do anything," Sam muttered, heading away from Dean, Castiel, and Elisha, back towards the relative shelter of the trees and the Impala.
Dean grunted, lips pressed together in scant disapproval of their situation before shaking his head and following his brother through the graveyard, soon followed by his daughter and husband, both as silent as ghosts behind him.
A scream cut through the air as they slowly patrolled the town's streets, emanating from a nearby alleyway and it sounded as though it was a woman in extreme distress. Dean hastily parked the car by the side of the road, before leaping from the still idling vehicle and heading at a run from the source of the screaming. He barely waited for Sam, Castiel and Elisha to catch up with him before plunging into the dark recesses of the litter strewn alleyway, cursing as his foot kicked away a stray can clattering towards the far wall and making an echoing noise ratchet down towards the end of the alley. He cursed again, sped up his pace until he was running full-tilt towards the still screaming woman, hoping that he wasn't too late, that he hadn't scuppered their chances by creating a noise inadvertently.
"Keep screaming sweetheart," he muttered hopelessly to himself, when the lady fell ominously silent.
A short sharp scream broke the air once again and he thanked a God he didn't quite believe in for small favors. He continued running, Sam's breathing harsh in his ears behind him, Castiel and Elisha running more quietly beside them. Both the angel and his daughter's matching blue eyes remained intent on their prize and they soon stumbled across the woman in distress, held by two zombies intent on clawing at her flesh, trying to strip the flesh from her bones mindlessly.
Dean shot at them, aiming for the head of one and distracting him from his quick snack to stare drooling up at the approaching hunters. He shot again, catching the zombie between the eyes and sending it keeling to the floor, stunned. Sam took over, bludgeoned the zombie at his feet with his shovel before chopping off its head with the sharpest edge of the tool. He kicked the head away viciously, sent it scattering up against the far brick wall as the body went shuddering into its second set of death throes.
He ducked as Dean was thrown through the air by the second zombie, Elisha and Castiel raising their hands to try and smite the zombie. Their faces were determined but their combined efforts weren't quite working. Instead of disintegrating the zombie into a pile of rotting flesh, all they were doing were immobilizing the thing and setting it frozen into place. Sam took the initiative and swung the shovel wildly, sending the tool crashing into the side of the zombie's head and toppling the frozen creature to the ground, where he proceeded to chop the zombies head from its putrid neck viciously.
Dean was standing by the time the second head joined the first shored up against the wall, rubbing his head where he'd hit against the brickwork, still feeling a little stunned from where he'd been thrown. He ended up staring into the eyes of the woman who'd been harassed and almost used for a fast food meal by zombies. Her face was white and frozen into a mask of abstract horror, a remnant of her ordeal rather than shock at her saviors.
Both Castiel and Elisha helped her up and a flicker of a warm smile skittered across the woman's face when she looked at Elisha. The young half angel smiled back and asked her if she was alright. The woman still seemed unable to speak, but she at least made the attempt to nod at the half angel's question.
"Where d'you live, sweetheart?" Dean asked, leaning in to attract the woman's attention, eyes earnest as though he wondered whether the woman would even remember her address.
She gestured to an apartment over their heads, at the fire escape which was the sole access to it and Dean grumbled at the close shave she'd had. If they'd been but three minutes later, she would have been zombie chow within meters of her own front door. He nodded and gestured for Castiel and Elisha to help up to her apartment, garnering a questioning look from both of them, matching in intent and curiosity. Dean smiled at how truly alike they were, before replying at their unspoken question.
"Go make sure she's settled, give her a cup of tea or something. Me and Sam will get rid of the evidence," he said, grimly.
"As you wish," Castiel replied, just as grimly, before he nodded to Elisha encouragingly.
Between them, they led the still shaken woman up to her apartment, and Dean watched them go, thankful for their presence tonight. He turned to Sam before smiling at his brother who was also watching father and daughter go.
"C'mon, Sammy, it's show time," Dean said, nudging his brother with an elbow on the way past him
Sam only grunted, turned to follow his brother from the alley, stooping to pick up a head apiece before returning to drag the bodies away between them. They were too far from the graveyard to inter them back in their graves, so buried them by the side of the road in a secluded spot, salting and torching their bodies before covering the remains by roadside dirt.
Neither of the Winchesters spoke while they worked, maintaining silence throughout. It was obvious to Dean that Sam had something on his mind, yet knew that if he asked, he'd get shut out or a meaningless platitude thrown his way by his brother. Sometimes, Dean thought, Sam acted more like Dean himself than he himself did at times. He sighed, then turned to scan the road, wondered how Elisha and Castiel were getting along with the lady, whether she was alright yet.
"I wonder why these zombies rose?" Sam broke the silence by asking.
Dean shrugged, then said - "They got hungry?"
"I think it's a little more than just mere hunger that brought them from their graves, Dean," Sam replied, lips narrowing into a thin line of dissatisfaction at his brother, which Dean merely shrugged off.
Dean was all too used to dissatisfaction from his brother; more so now since his pact for a baby with Gabriel remained still unfulfilled.
"Well, then, what do you suggest?" Dean asked.
"I don't know. That's the point. I have a feeling I can't shake there was a reason for this, but I only wish I knew what it was," the younger hunter replied, musingly.
Dean raised his eyebrows at his brother, before saying - "Okay, psychic boy. Wanna predict the lottery numbers as well, while you're at it?"
Sam typically ignored his brother's jibe, instead staring off into the far distance as though musing alone could call the answer forth from thin air. Dean shook his head, then turned away with a sigh, feeling weary from the long evening they'd just had. He was looking forward to returning to Bobby's, to having food, beer and a warm place to dry off from the rain, to see the sons and daughter left behind again. He smiled at his own domesticity, never imagined he'd ever be that way even now. As if thinking of his family still left at home, he thought of Castiel and Elisha still at the woman's apartment.
"Shit, I gotta call my husband," Dean murmured, with a smirk at the thought of being married.
Even Sam had to laugh at Dean's choice of words, as though Dean were worried about being late and missing the start of dinner or something. He watched as Dean made the call, told Castiel where they were, before disconnecting the phone and staring a little dreamily off into space.
"You really love him, don't you?" Sam observed, with amusement. "Wait, don't answer that. You're married to him, of course you love him."
"Damn straight," Dean replied, with a grin, as the sound of heavy wings fluttering through the rain soaked air sounded nearby, announcing the arrival of both Castiel and Elisha.
Dean closed the distance between them, dropped a kiss to Elisha's forehead, before pressing a more tender kiss to Castiel's soft, responsive lips. Sam and Elisha exchanged matching looks of gagging amusement, before they started to laugh. Dean gave them both the one fingered salute without breaking into his kiss with his husband.
Sam shook his head, started clearing away the tools they'd used to burn and bury the zombies remains, before waiting in the Impala for Dean and Castiel to return. The younger Winchester chose to sit in the back with Elisha, relinquishing the front seat readily enough to Castiel. A few minutes later, and the front doors both swung open, letting in a swirl of cold air, before the married couple swung into the front, shivering slightly with the damp and the cold. Soon enough they were on their way back to Bobby's, home, food and warmth ....