Her dark eyes turned toward Heaven for a moment, silently aching for home....
Her host whispered to her comforting her...." tis only temporary, your time here....."
"I know....it's just that....this level of existence is so....limited...so confusing....and yet...I see the beauty of my Father's creation,...I see the incredible potential they you and your kind possess...both for good and evil....I just miss home,...that's all...." she said,...her mind speaking to her host body's spirit, Sara, a very devote and wise woman...."I will work as efficiently as possible...."I do not wish to stay any longer than necessary...there is much work to be done...."
And with that,...Gadriel turned and faded into the night....
***
Day break....
***
Sam lay sprawled on top of the cheap, scratchy hotel sheets...the latest in a unfathomably long line of hotel beds....He was a sleep, his lanky form spread nearly from corner to corner,...just barely fitting on the bed...beside him...Dean slumbered...he prone form tense,...his muscles involuntarily twitching in response to an unseen stimuli...his eyes moved rapidly under his tightly clenched lids....his features twist in an pain-racked grimace....visions of the unforgivable deeds he had done in Hell played incessantly through his mind....haunting him,...tormenting him....small moans of heartache issuing from his lips as he was made to witness what he had done over and over again...his own private Hell a eternal reminder of the tainted, terrible monster he had allowed himself to become,...to save himself form the pain...he had turned against everything he had ever known...everything he had been taught....he let it all slip away and let himself become the thing he once hunted with an unabashed passion...he had let himself become pure evil....he couldn't reconcile himself to the fact that God, or any one would ever see him as anything other than the monster he saw staring back at him from the mirror every morning....
Gadriel looked upon the mortal men in the dim morning light....she studied intensely for a long moment....feeling the pain,...the anguish inside them both....a sadness briefly washed over her....she let it pass...she turned to the figure beside her....his human host was an equally devote man to her host,...his blue eyes lost in studying his charge....he spoke without turning toward her....
"These mortals,... the Winchesters,...they are good men....they have continually suffered in their service of good....of right...even Hell could not remove the purity in Dean Winchester's soul...he is lost...questioning everything around him,....he feels tainted...unworthy....we must return him to the pure-hearted warrior his meant to be....I worry that his salvation may have come too late....but we must do as our Father decrees...he has plans for Dean Winchester....as for Sam Winchester....he we must observe further....there is good in him...extraordinary compassion and kindness....if he can expel the taint that Azazel lay inside him....he could be a great force for good...that will be you task...you must expose to them the rotten core of the demon Ruby....her hold over Sam is most worrisome.....you must work quickly...she is gaining more control over Sam by the day.....she must be stopped...." Castiel finally turned to her....
"You have an important task to fulfill....you may take your leave and begin...." he said....returning his gaze to his mortal charge...then deeply damaged man tortured by his misdeeds and pain....
Gadriel looked upon Sam....she was determined to save him...."....he has the look of a strong,...good man....I see the grace in him....if it is as Castiel says....there is hope for him....I believe in you....you will save him from himself....." Sara whispered to her.....
"I will,...I must....I will bring Sam Winchester back to the path of righteousness...." she whispered back....
What that one last thought, she departed,...a fluttering rustle of invisible wings....
Castiel felt her go....he stood a few moments longer,...he walked to stand beside his charge....
"Be at peace, Dean Winchester....the Grace of God is in you...you are simply too blinded with pain to see it...but soon,....you will find your way again....I have faith in you...." his gently brushed his charge's brow with the tips of his fingers,...instantly peace washed over his features....able rest at last...free, if only briefly...from the grasp of his own private Hell....he sighed,...releasing the tension in his body....
Castiel's wings rustled momentarily...he longed to stretch them to their full expanse once again.....but alas...he had work to do....he shifted out,...the whipser-soft sound of fluttering wings filling the room for a moment and then he was gone.....silence ruled the dawn once more...