"Twenty eight people have been killed. Four victumes every year, since 2009." Penelope began, showing mutilated bodies on her screen to the BAU's "A-team". "Two teenagers who know each other, and two adults who know each other are taken, tortured, and after a period of time they are killed viciously and thrown out like garbage."
"Is there a pattern to how long the Unsub holds them?" Emily asked, looking through her folder, flipping up photos to read extra information on the victumes and reports from police who have found the bodies.
"No, at first he started short, a week total. The last there's evidence of holding one of them for six months. There he physically and sexually assaults them." Penelope clicked the slides showing more people. "A Sheriff in Sioux Falls, South Dakota thinks that the Unsub has already taken the teenagers. She has asked us to come and find them."
"Alright, wheels up in thirty." Hotch stated, collecting his papers, watching as his team does the same and shuffle out of the room.
"Idjits can't keep their heads out of trouble for five minutes." An older man who looked like a junkyard owner or was a lumberjack, but had an accident was now in a wheelchair. The older man was flanked by two younger men, and two young adults.
"You positive this is not your specialty?" The sheriff asked, not noticing. "They could have just gotten lost in the woods."
"I don't think getting lost in the woods involves poetry... At least not the written 'Allen Poe' kind." The guy who looked like a buffer Reid stated, handing the Sheriff a stained paper.
"Alright, look, the feds are here, can you guys go into my office and I'll figure out something or whatever you guys do. But don't go after this guy." The sheriff bid her byes and walked over to the group of 'feds'. "Hey, I'm Sheriff Jody Mills, sorry for making you wait." She smiled, holder her hand out. Hotch took it with a firm grip, introducing his team.
"Family of the victumes?" Rossi nodded towards the group of people.
"Yeah, Cas and Dean usually find themselves in sticky situations, and sadly this one isn't even on the tip of their iceberg." Jody let out an uneasy laugh.
"Alright, is there anywhere you'd like us to set up?" Hotch asked, knowing the sooner they started organizing the information, the sooner they can find the kids.
Rossi went with the Sheriff to talk with the family members. Kevin, Charlie, Sam, Gabriel, and Bobby, known of them related, yet all of them claiming to be family. Rossi knew how they felt, knowing that's how he held his own team in his heart.
Rossi tried to do it in a group, but it was getting difficult, so he started one-on-one. First up was Bobby.
"Victim profiling." The man gruffed, he was about Rossi's age, but had that 'I still want respect, boy' look that the agent had to admire. "Alright, lets get this over with."
"How did the two meet?" Rossi asked.
"A few years ago, Dean was in a bad place, hellish, see-no-end kind of place. Castiel was there at the right time, dragged the idjit out kickin' and screamin'. It was a rocky start, Dean ain't a boy with too much self confidence. Castiel helped him see he was worth somethin'. Idjits finally got their heads out of their asses and started datin' good and proper 'bout three months back." Although the vocabulary and speech was cringe worthy, Rossi could see the place these two held in the man's heart.
"What happened with Dean before Castiel?" Rossi asked.
"What didn't happen. Dean's a good kid, but like I said, he didn't care too much for himself. His kid brother was sick, and to get him fixed up was expensive. A signature in the wrong place and it was like the kid sold his soul." Bobby sighed. "Don't go thinkin' we just let him do it. Didn't even know about it till it was too late, the kid was taken from us. Castiel brought him back."
"Bad place." Rossi nodded. "Did he ever tell you about this bad place?"
"Kid wouldn't say a word, neither of 'em." Bobby said.
"Alright, what about Castiel? Any family? What's his last name?"
"Castiel came from one of those real religious, christian families with a bunch of kids, parents were always absent, and the older ones pretty much ruled with an ironfist. Castiel was disowned, and Gabriel left years before. Kinda a miracle the two found each other."
"How are they doing in school?" Rossi asked.
"To be honest, Castiel was home schooled an' kicked to the streets. Dean's old man took his boys from crusty-motel to crusty-motel with his job. Boys aren't in school. We homeschool as best we can, but them boys are a little shattered, school is the least of our worries." Bobby sighed.
"Where is his father now?" Rossi asked. "Or mother?"
"Mary died when the boy was four. And his father died two years before everything went down. Is that all?"
"For now." Rossi sighed, looking at his notes. "How old are they now?"
"Both are fifteen." The man wheeled himself out of the little office. Bobby got up to relay the information to Reid.
"So strict-religious background, but still prefers a male partner." Reid nodded. "Might be origin of being disowned? Though it does help us narrow down. One of the victumes from the previous years has always been named after an angel. Castiel is the angel of Thursday and fallen kings. He's a Seraph, a warrior angel."
"Well that would make since, if there was anyone born in the last ever named Castiel who was related to a Gabriel. I had Garcia search up the names." Emily stated. "So either this family was off the grid, amish christian, or the merry-band of flannel wearers is hiding something."
"What about this 'hell-like-bad-place' that they all talk about?" Morgan asked, he just got out of his questions with Sam, who was 'like a big brother' to Dean. He knew a lot about the kid, but it seemed like they were holding back, pulling their punches.
"Actually, now that you say it, one of the group was in something bad, drugs, prostitution, alcoholics. But Dean could be also in another group, the abused group. The way they talk about the father makes you think." JJ said.
"And the final group are doctors." Morgan finished. "And they're all taken in the same area from each other."
"Tell me, Sinner, who do you serve?" A man yelled, cracking a barbed whip down onto Dean's already tore up back. The hunter would have screamed, but due to the drool soaked rag pressed between his lips it only came out as muffled whimpers. Dean didn't even know why the man asked him this everyday, especially with the gag.
Demons, Dean got Demons, but people were just crazy, they did things that made no sense and were all screwy. That's why Witches were so bad, they were the worst of both worlds. The latest witch had turned Cas and him into the size and emotional capacity of the average fifteen year old, just attached with all their old scars, both mental and physical. Then they are taken by this sociopath.
"HOW DO YOU SERVE!" The man screamed, tearing into Dean's back with the whip over and over. Dean wanted to say it was sweat that was dripping really close to his tear ducts, though right now he couldn't say anything. It lasted a while, until the man grew tired. He untied Dean's arms from where they hung, tied up above Dean's head, keeping him just centimeters off the ground. Dean was to bone tired to fight, letting the man drag him to the filthy metal cage that held him and Cas. It was small, barely enough room for them to sit down together, like a linen closet. Cas was in there, shying away from the rancid breathed man, who flung the blonde in the cage with malice.
Cas was having a better time with their unplanned vacation, though not by much. His grace was being bound by real enochian engraved cuffs that were magicked on so a powerful witch would have to take them off, they even had his name in Enochian too, somehow. Cas was tied down and onslaught of spells that are meant to bring out his wings, though he's not beat, and he's given food, so Dean's happy.
"Please, eat." Cas whisper, untying the gag and placing some soft buttered bread into Dean's mouth. "This is all they gave us."
"Y-you too?" Dean groaned out, pressing his face into Cas's thighs. They were both only clad in boxers, having to share body heat like everything else in this hell hole.
"Only half." Cas stated, ripping off a chunk and placing it in his mouth, doing the same to Dean, wishing he could heal the discrepancies on his best friend's back. They were getting infected, and Cas had nothing to help clean or wrap the wounds.
"Love you." Dean mumbled as he drifted off to sleep with Cas's hand combing through his hair.
"More than anything." Cas answered back.
They were interviewing today, but with so many people to interview, and only so many hands in the department, they were stretched thin. Hotch was with Reid and Sheriff Mills, they had a list of possible victumes, but they also didn't want to raise too much alarm right now.
"You know the boys don't you? Dean and Castiel?" Reid asked, as their journey through the country roads would take a while.
"Yeah, good boys." Jody nodded solemnly. "Though if anyone would be found, it would be a Winchesters, those boys don't die easy, and when they do, they don't stay dead."
"What does that mean?" Reid asked. Sioux Falls was a strange place, and everyone who knew those kids were no younger than twenty-two years old. They talked about them as if the teens were ages beyond their years, and then there was stuff like that. Random sayings that sounded more of an honest-to-god truth than a passing metaphor.
"World is strange out there, Dr Reid. It's best not to ask questions." Jody let out a humorless chuckle. "Though I will warn you, we might find those boys in a heap of hard to explain explanations. You just remember to be open minded or you won't survive."
With that they arrived at the farm house, Deja vu struct Reid. It reminded him too much like the Hankel epidemic. A bad feeling crawled up his back, and he inched just a bit closer to Hotch. They walked up the rickety porch, and the Sheriff knocked on the slightly warped door.
"Back here." A man, about mid thirties, scruffy blonde hair, and clear hazel eyes, walks out of the stought, chipping-red barn just off to the side. He's wiping blood off of his hands on an old rag, old blood stains cover his shirt and a bit of it in splattered in his cheeks. "Jus' butchin' up a hog in there, was 'bout to come out anyway. Names Jet, Jet Ashton."
"Sheriff Jody Mills, and these are SSA Aaron Hotchner, and Dr. Spencer Reid." Jody introduced. "You mind if you check up on your hog story?"
"I don' see why not. You mus' be here 'bout dim kids bein' missin'?" Jet stepped a side to let the agents and the sheriff into his barn. Reid grimaced as he saw a pig up on some racks. Another pig looked like it just went through the apocalypse, it's guts were bashed apart. "I make my dogs proper food, none of that crap made for money." Jet explained, and just then a large pitbull lumbered into the barn, sniffing at the newcomers, but not minding their presents. "His name is Lee."
Hotch nodded, letting his fingers brush the short hair of the large dog as it came to a halt in front of the Chief Supervisor.
"A'ight, you wantta bring this conversation into the house, or you gonna take me in for feedin' me an' my dogs?" Jet joked, leading the way back to his house. Like the man, the inside of the house was a little scruff, completely country, but altogether didn't raise any flags for the group. About midway into their routine questions, Jody's phone went off. She got up apologetically and walked just out of earshot.
"Mills." She answered.
"Ms. Mills, I am so sorry to call you, but Alex has gotten the flu, would you mind coming to pick her up from the nurse's office. She already threw up all over one of our students, and we don't want to spread too much germs, do we?" A peppy voice spoke from the speaker. Jody groaned, knowing she should have just let that girl stay home, but she was so sure Alex was faking it to get out of going to school.
"I'll see what I can do." Jody sighed, ending the phone call. She walked back into the sitting room. "I'm so sorry to do this, but will you be alright if I went back, my daughter is sick at school, and they won't let her drive back home on her own."
"It'll be alright, I think we have this covered. Reid can call Morgan to bring a car to pick us up." Hotch nodded, knowing how it was with kids, even if his was only in elementary, and hers was old enough to drive to school.
Jody thanked Jet for his time and the inconvenience, and left with the SUV. This is what she got for hanging around the Winchesters, their luck spread, and it would just be their luck to have to be pulled off a case for a sick kid.
Len hooped and hollered as he watched as large black wings elongated out of his angel's back. He finally found the right spell, and this one didn't die. He danced around the table the thing was attached to, tugging at the feathers and digging his hands until he hit flesh, feeling blood rushing and a pulse rhythmically proclaiming this was real. He picked up the angel and put him back with the sinner, the one who needed to be cleansed. The angel, now that it had its wings could now cleanse this wicked being.
"Cleanse him!" Len shouted, but all the angel did was pass out on top of the Sinner, wrapping the monster with his precious wings around the wicked. Len growled, stepping forward, but the sinner dragged the angel away from Len in haste, wanting to keep the pure thing to taint.
"Please." The sinner croaked. "Please, he's hurt, let him rest." Len bared his teeth at the wicked, smirking at it flinched away. "Please let him heal."
Len wanted to beat this sinner into submission, but with a glance at his watch he knew he was late. As he turned, he spat in its face and walked away.
He got into his junky old truck and drove it out of the woods, driving back to his house with his little brother there. Jet didn't quite like taken those who need to be, but he knew the prophecy and knew that they needed to find the chosen ones. He had already found the angel and the sinner, now it was for the victim and the healer. He watched as a shiny city SUV drove away from the direction of the house, carrying a uniformed woman.
Len swung open his door, walking in with heavy boots, warning his brother of his approach. He heard Jet explaining his arrival to some other people, and with a thrilling thought, Len stopped in the kitchen to grab a glass of water.
"I got 'em, Len." Jet hushed, pointing to Lee, a beaten pit-bull that had the keen sense of liking people with upsetting pasts. "Two feds, a'on their own, their partner had to leave with their car."
"The other a healer?" Len grunted. Sometimes they would only find one part of the match, and had to keep looking.
"Yep, is'a doctor. Tha's what the lady cop said." Jet smiled. He may not like the beaten, but if they had 'em this time, then they were the prophecy and him and Len would be cleansed for sure.
"Good, cause I got a positive on the angel an' the sinner." Len gave a grewllish smirk to his little brother. "Gots wings an' evera'thin'."
The brothers nodded and split off. Len flicked a switch, hearing the soft hiss of gas filling his sitting room. Jet walked around making sure that all exits were sealed and getting the truck prepped again.
Dean and Cas flinched as the creaking latch door above them creaked open and two men, their tormentor and another, his brother maybe, walked in, carrying another two men. Their tormentor showed the teens his yellow teeth, putting the newcomers in the cell beside them.
"Are ya gonna behave?" The man asked, kicking the cage. "Or dah-yeah need more time in that cage?" Dean shook his head clutching onto a still weak Cas, who shook at the weird angle his wings were forced into. "A'ight, get into that cell in five seconds, or I'll ripp those feathers from ya friend."
Dean barely made it, curling Castiel into him in fear as the door slammed shut, laughter echoed in the dungeon as the brothers got up and left, plunging the place into darkness once again, the only light was the glow coming from Castiel and Dean, having been cursed has its side effects.
It was a while before the two men started to stir. Dean had already pillaged their pockets, only to find their wallets, which was vitally useless down here, and a piece of gum in one pocket, but it was all melty and gross.
Right now Cas has finally gotten out of his shock, flexing and stretching his towering black wings as best as he could in this small space, but it was better than the cage, so Dean wasn't complaining. They had enough room to walk around, pace back and forth, even with the four of them in it, maybe not with Cas's wings just out like this though.
"They aren't aligned." Cas whimpered, and as Dean looked he could see the unnatural disjointedness they had on his angel's back.
"Alright, Cas. Deep breaths, just like popping in a shoulder." Dean couched, not paying attention to the men who seemed to be waking up. Dean climbed over the feathered appendages and onto Cas's back. He placed a foot on his friend's lower back, and used both hands on the new additions. "On five."
"Ok." Cas nodded, taking a deep breath.
"One.." Dean pulled with all his might, hearing a satisfying 'pop' and Cas groan in pleasurable pain.
"What the-?" A new voice came from the men's side of things.
"On five." Dean said again. Cas nodded, though this time when he got to one the angel subconsciously stiffened. "...two….three...four…" Cas unstiffened by then and with another pop, he lay like a gooey puddle beneath Dean's fingers. "That better, babe?"
"Is so good." Cas moaned.
"Dean? Castiel?" Another voice from the men had the teens looking up with questioning eyes. One looked like a paler, scrawnier Sam, with the same puppy-dog brown eye face and long floppy hair to make up for not having floppy ears. The one who had called their names was a stern looking man, with dark hair and strong shoulders.
"Who are you?" Dean defended, giving his best 'don't try anything, or else' glare.
"I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, and this is my college Doctor Reid." Hotch introduced. "It's ok, we won't let them hurt you."
"Too late for that." Dean scoffed. "Look, you guys feds? You talk to Jody yet? She's the sheriff, she tell you anything about what is really going on?"
"Uh, she said some weird, cryptic things, but not really." Reid supplied.
"It's always difficult tellin' people without full proof proof. But hey, we have Cas." Dean grinned.
"I'm Cas." Cas giggled, still in euphoria of having his wings placed correctly. Dean wasn't knew to seeing Castiel's wings, knowing they were like a direct line of morphine in some occasions. It was like a reserve of awesomeness that's brought into this world. Right now they were helping Cas recover from the trauma of the past few weeks.
"And Castiel has wings." Hotch noted.
"He is an angel. Though usually they're in a different plain. Unless we are having some kinky-ass wing sex." Dean smirked.
"You're like, fifteen." Reid reminded.
"No, a witch turned us younger, but we don't have time to go over who is how old, because Cas is oldest, being a Celestial Being of Light since before the Earth was made." Dean noted.
"I almost killed humanity when I was born, but Gabe… he stopped me from stepping on the funny fishy." Cas laughed. "Gabe has like six wings, an'... An' their golden. Mine are damaged. They're supposed to be dark-dark-dark silver, but then … idiot had to go an' sell his soul and he went to hell, an' I had to save him. I gripped him tight and raised him from Perdition. The hell fire burnt my wings. An' they weren't pretty like gabreil's to begin with, but now they-they're ugly." Cas whimpered at the end.
"No, Cas, we talked about this." Dean sighed, looking at the confused agents. "Look, we need to figure out how to get out of here. They think they found parts to a prophecy that doesn't exist. And I'm the Sinner part."
"What are we?" Hotch asked.
"Cas is the angel part, and I'm guessing Dr. Reid is the Healer one. Which makes you the victim part, like your childhood was CPS worthy and shit." Dean smirked. "Which we could run for money on that part, but this man is pretty sure I'm the sinner."
"What happens when they have all the parts?" Reid asked. Dean looked into the guy's face and shook his head. He didn't know, but he knew it would be bad.
The station was a mess, Jody was feeling horrible, but she knew there wasn't anything she could have done. Hotch and Reid were missing, but luckily they had the two men, Jet and Len, in interrogation rooms. Morgan and Prentiss was on that duty, trying to get the location of the agents and hunters from the kidnappers.
"They're somethin' mighter now, Mister." Jet nodded. "We found da' Angel, and he's gonna cleanse the Sinner. He's gonna save the world."
Sam watched as Morgan took on Jet in the small room. His stomach in knots, because he knew they were talking about his brother, and cleansing didn't sound to happy.
"What do you mean?" Morgan asked, because the more you know your enemy, the more you can plan their thoughts, and the more you can find the victims.
"The sinner needs to be cleansed, and the victim needs to be healed, and then my father will be free." Jet explained.
"Free from what?"
"Free from the curse the angels put on my father. They said if he said 'yes' he'd be happy. The angels took my father, and then we found 'im. He was died ina ol' shed in California." Jet whimpered. "The angel burnt wings around him, he mus'a been a sinner. So we're gettin' our father back." Jet explained, his eyes moist from unshed tears.
Sam turned to the guy, his eyes widening, because he knew he'd seen him somewhere, except a little washed out and older. Sam turned to Gabriel who was listening with intent.
"Zachariah's vessel." Gabriel whispered. "These must be his family."
"Yeah, well his family took my family, and I want them back." Sam growled.
"I do too. I tried contacting Cas, but something is blocking him. They might be hill-billy dumbasses, but they can read at least. They must have researched angels and gotten their hands on Enochian or something." Gabriel sighed.
Sam wanted to punch something, make something feel his pain of having his brother, and friend gone. He wished it was him, at least he would have been his actual age and height, giving him some sort of advantage. Really they needed to scare these people with the wrath of god.
"I know exactly what you mean." Gabriel gave a cruel smile. "Lets hand out some just deserts, Moose."
Reid gritted his teeth along the gag that pressed into his mouth. The only one not gagged was Castiel, but they did something that he couldn't utter a word unless it was Yes or No.
Muffled sobs came from Dean, who was just out of eyeline being torn apart by these monsters. Cas kept on repeating 'no' as tears streamed down his face in need for his friend. Hotch had bloody knuckles from trying to rip open the door and kill those sons of Bitches. Reid was just as angry, and pissed off, but right now none of them could do anything.
After a long time, the screams stopped and then a while after that the cell door swung open and the brothers walked in, dumping Dean onto the dirt floor to bleed out.
"Now, angel, cleanse this sinner. Make him confess." Len seethed. A shiver went down Reid, this reminded him all to much of Tobias Hankel, but instead of just him there were others.
Reid watched with wide eyes as Castiel walked to Dean, picking him up. Jet let out a toothy grin, only for it to disappear when Cas dragged Dean over to the far corner and wrapped them both up in his wings.
"No." Cas sighed, glaring at the kidnappers and tormentors.
"Why you little…" Len shouted, startling everyone with the sudden loud noise. "If that sinner ain't cleansed by the time we get back, we're gonna kill him." Jet walked over and took off their gags, keeping them chained to the wall still. Then they left.
"What does it mean to Cleanse him?" Reid asked, it didn't sound so bad, but Castiel was taking it as if worse than death.
"It's damning them to hell. It only happens to people who have done horrible things in their life. Hitler was Cleansed. An angel puts all of humanity, the past, present, and future into their mind, making them go mad in seconds. Then we show them our true form, burning their eyes out, and then we pray, asking for their forgiveness. It's a mark that they are damned to the Nether, folds in the universe were souls are put in emptiness. It's worse than hell, because if Dean goes to hell, I can get him back out again." Castiel spoke, tears streaming silently down his dirt-grime face.
"Again?" Reid asked.
"He sold his soul a while ago to save his brother from dying. Dean has 'abandonment issues'." Castiel quoted, hearing Sam say it one time.
"Oh… So why is he - here?" Reid asked, not sure how to put it lightly, but usually when someone died, they stayed dead.
"It was…. It's complicated." Castiel sighed.
"Can we help Dean?" Hotch said, taking off his shirt. Castiel took a second to reply, but nodded and handed over his friend, keeping a close eye on the agents.
Hotch ripped parts of his shirt into strips while Reid used his shirt to clean out the wounds as best as he could.
"He'll be ok, Cas." Reid said, watching as the angel's wings quivered behind his back. "We'll get out of here."
Gabriel marched into the interrogation room, not caring for the agents already in there. With a flick of his wrist, they couldn't move, only look on with widened eyes. Sam walked in with the archangel, rolling his eyes at the obvious display of power.
Gabriel's eyes lit up with his grace as the lights flickered, casting shadowy wings across the room. Jet started to scream, backing away till his back hit the wall.
"I'm done messing around." Gabriel's voice boomed through the whole station, shaking the room. "You took my baby brother, I want him back, you worthless, scummy, mud monkey. You are beneath me. I suggest you tell me where my brother and his boyfriend are now."
"The sinner must be cleans-" Jet's words cut off as Gabriel started to glow.
"Gabe, don't kill him, we need to know where they are." Sam shouts only barely penetrated the trickster's anger-hazed mind. He took a deep breath and a step back. Jet gasped for breathe, slumping to the ground, but not for long. Sam rushed forward and pulled the man back up, slamming his brother's kidnapper's face into the steel table. The two agents were still stuck in their chairs, their eyes moving between the three men like a tennis match.
"Who are you?" Jet growled.
"I'm Dean's brother, you douchebag. I'm going to give you exactly five seconds to tell me where my brother is, or I'm going to let Gabriel have at you. And being cleansed will be the least of your worries." Sam gritted, tightening his hold on Jet's hand, which was behind his back; it was wrenched higher up his back, making the man grunt in pain.
"What?" Jet's eyes widened as he tried to break free of the hold.
"One."
"No no no no no…"
"Two." Sam pulled the arm higher, hearing a sickening pop as it got out of socket.
"MAN!" Jet screached.
"Three." Gabriel hissed, stepping closer.
"Uh-uh, you can't..You're an angel, you can't.."
"Four." Sam lifted Jet off of the table to face Gabriel, whose eyes were glowing again.
"Fi-"
"ALRIGHT - ALRIGHT! I'll tell you, please just get him out of here." Snot and tears dripped down from Jet's face as he begged for mercy.
"Where is my brother." Sam ignored his demands and wrenched the arm higher still.
"H-he's in the back woods, a few miles off the road. Please!" Sam let go of Jet, who crumpled on to the floor in a lump of despair and disgrace.
Morgan and Prentiss were freed from their hold, just as Jody, JJ, and Rossi showed up to see what the commotion was about. Morgan and Prentiss were looking at the angel and hunter, still that shocked expression glued to their features.
"Well, go get your friends and my family back." Gabriel waved his hands in a shooing motion, as if none of this happened.
Morgan gave a stunned nod, and just like that everything was a blur of uniforms and cars and driving to the location.
It might have been a whole day that the brothers hadn't come for a visit. Dean had woken up again, and now they were just patiently waiting to see who would get here faster, the BAU team, or Team Free Will.
"So Free Will?" Hotch smirked.
"Yeah, taught Cas everything he knows about it." Dean smirked, placing a soft kiss to the angel's rumpled hair. "Greatest thing God has ever given humanity, agency."
"So you are Dean Winchester, FBI's most wanted" Reid stated. "But it's really because you protect humans from things that go bump in the night…. And other people don't understand?"
"See he is smart." Dean quirked a smile. "Yep, it's pretty insane sometimes. Don't get me wrong, Hunting isn't a clean job, in my baby I have more fake IDs than a freshman frat house, From journalists to State Marshals to FBI agents, have to put on monkey suits and all. It's to save lives, but you can't just go up to a person and say 'hey your dead husband is killing all these young girls, tell me where he's buried so we can desecrate his grave and perform a simple-safe salt-and-burn'."
"You guys are teenagers again. Can't you choose something else to do?" Reid asked.
"Hunting isn't one of those kinds of things. Once you're into it, it's almost impossible to get out. Sammy did, he went to Sanford with a full ride, but then I dragged him back in. I was out for a year, but you go crazy. The apple pie life?.. With the knowledge we have? I've been raised on Salting the doors and windows, of sleeping with a buck knife under my pillow, and a gun in my sheets. We fight for the apple pie life…. But we don't get one." Dean scowled at the ground, like it personally gave him this life, like it was his father, who became obsessed with finding his mom's killer. "The only way you get out of hunting is if you die, and I rather die with a gun in my hand fighting, knowing I did everything i could so no one else gets the life I do."
Hotch sighed. It was crazy, but he couldn't really fault the kid. He could look back at odd cases that seemed to be from Grimms Fairy Tales, and before they got there the systematic killing would suddenly stop, a trial of grave-robberies, B&E's and names of agents that didn't exist. Yet the killings stopped and the town just thanked the FBI for it.
"You have another life, from all you told us, you've done alot for this world, and there are other hunters. Maybe not quitting, but you could slow down, get a home? Go back to school and get a real job." Hotch said. He knew one was really a grown man, and the other was an angel of the lord, but from their life stories that they've been swapping to pass the time, they never had a parent figure to guide them. One was raised a soldier, and one was born a soldier, they needed to know that not everything was an absolute Yes and an absolute No. "You lived a life as a hunter, so maybe it's time to live this life as something more?"
"Someone is coming." Cas looked up with his blue eyes, they flashed with a blue light that made Reid and Hotch blink.
"Cas?" Dean watched the eyes flash on and off like a car's signal lights. Before the angel could do anything the hatch was pried open and footsteps poured into the little dungeon under the ground. With them was Gabriel, whose eyes were also blinking. "Angel Trackers."
"Guys." An FBI agent let out a breath, but Dean didn't care, he saw Sam and felt relax. The door was open and they were out and into the sunshine in a whirlwind. Dean and Cas shied away from the bright light, having been in the root cellar for the better part of the month.
"Alright lets get you guys all healed." Gabriel smirked, tapping all kidnappees on the forehead, immediately their physical wounds were gone, like nothing ever happened. Dean was kind of surprised that there wasn't any oh-my-gosh-magic gasp from anyone, but to be honest they probably spent enough time with Gabriel that they already knew.
"Couldn't get us any clothes?" Dean whined, freezing in only his blood stained two and a half week old boxers.
"Picky this one is." Gabriel rolled his eyes, snapping his fingers and fresh clothes were supplied. "Happy?"
"No." Castiel muttered, holding out his wrists to show the metal bracelet-like cuffs that held in his grace. His wings fluttered nervously behind him, rustling some leaves on the ground.
Everyone watched, still in the middle of the woods, as Gabriel inspected the intrusions. His face started to pull in a deeper-and-deeper frown the longer he looked at them. Then he let out a suffering sigh, shaking his head in defeat.
"I'm sorry, kiddo." Cas crumpled to the ground in distress. Gabriel going with him, Dean already there, consoling his best friend. "Those hillbillies fucked up the sigils, and instead of having it come off, they stay or you die." Gabriel gathered the angel up into his arms, carding his hands gently into the soft feathers. Castiel sobbed into his brother's chest, shoulders shaking with his heaving breaths.
"What about his wings?" Sam asked, placing a hand on Gabriel's shoulder to show support.
"Because of the bindings, they ripped his wings into this realm, shutting the door behind them. I can make it so they can shrink and be a little more out of the way and unnoticeable, but other than that, Cas is going to have wings." Gabriel explained, his hands glowing over the onyx wings that shimmered different colors in the fading sun. They fitted onto his back, stopping at the small of his back and just below his shoulders. They resembled massive back tattoo of wings, tacky for a human to do, but damn Dean was not thinking it was tacky on his angel.
"Alright, we need to get back to civilization." Jody stated, placing a gentle hand on Cas's shoulder to get him up. Dean walked up to his friend, threading their fingers together. The agents were doing their agent-y things around the root cellar, and didn't much pay attention to the small family.
Reid walked up to them, handing them his and Hotch's card.
"If you need anything, just call."
"Bye, Reid." Dean waved, grabbing onto Gabriel, and then they were in Bobby's living room. Kevin and Charlie dragged Dean and Castiel into hugs, and Bobby called them idjits, and ruffled their hair. It was nice to be home. Dean looked around, remembering the agent's words. Maybe it was time to get a proper home.
