Chapter 1 - Land of Confusion
Cas had never been this scared, not in his entire existence.
He had waited at the apartment for hours, but Gail had not come home. He knew the flight from Las Vegas would have taken a few hours, but she should have been home by now.
He grabbed his cell phone and called Dean.
"Hey!" Dean said. "How was the weekend? I thought you guys weren't supposed to be back till tomorrow. Did you come back early? Too much sin for you there?"
"Is Gail there?" Cas blurted out.
"What do you mean, 'is Gail here'?" Dean said, puzzled. "No, of course she's not here. Isn't she with you?" Dean put his hand to his head. Oh, no. "Cas, what did you do?"
"I don't know, Dean," Cas said, forlorn. "All I know is that she left me alone there, and she hasn't come home yet. I was hoping she was there with you and Sam."
Dean was really confused now. "Well, she isn't," he said, stunned. What the hell had gone on between those two? How badly had Cas screwed up? Had he tried to pull some kind of weird Angel crap on her, or something?
"Is that Cas?" Sam asked, walking into the library area. "How did the weekend go?"
Dean shushed him with a hand gesture. "I'm putting you on speaker, Cas." He put the phone on the table as Sam sat down.
"Tell us what happened, Cas," Dean said.
"That's just it; I don't know," Cas said again. "We had a wonderful night Friday, and a perfect day yesterday. Then, this morning, we woke up and talked, and then, when I came out of the shower, she was gone."
"Gone?" Sam echoed.
Cas was getting impatient. "Yes, Sam. Gone. Not there. Her bag was gone, too. So I sent out the eye and I saw her getting into a cab, and she was going to the airport, alone."
Sam was shaking his head. "Let's backtrack, Cas. So you say you were having a good weekend up till that point? You didn't have a fight, or anything?"
"No, Sam. We were very happy," Cas replied.
Sam mused aloud, "So, she was fine last night. How was she when she woke up this morning?"
"She was fine," Cas said. He smiled, remembering. "She was wonderful."
The brothers heard the smile in his voice and they looked at each other, bemused. They guessed they didn't have to ask now if Cas had achieved his goal of romancing her. But, he must have done something. She wouldn't have just packed up and left like that, otherwise.
"What were you doing this morning?" Dean asked him. "So, you woke up. And then, what?"
Cas didn't think he should say, exactly. "Nothing. We were just...being affectionate with each other."
Dean had to ask, though he didn't know if he wanted the answer. "Did you pull some kind of weird Angel crap on her?" he barked.
Cas was puzzled. What exactly would that be? "What do you mean, Dean?"
"I mean, maybe you guys have a different way of - I don't know. You know what I mean," Dean said irritably.
Cas thought a moment, then he became alarmed. "No, Dean. We don't. I would never do anything wrong to her. All right, we were making love. And it was wonderful. We were both very happy. Then she sent me to the bathroom to take my shower, and when I came out, she was gone."
"What do you mean, she sent you?" Sam asked him.
"Just what I said," Cas replied. "She said that I should shower, and then we would go to breakfast. So I did, and then she was gone. When I saw that she was going to the airport, I took a cab there, too. I found her walking towards the terminal. I asked her what she was doing, and she said that she was going home." He searched his memory for a moment. "Then she said something strange. She said she'd told me that she had to go home today. But she never said that to me. It makes no sense!"
Dean thought it was strange, too. But he was keying in on Gail's phraseology. "So she said that SHE was going home?"
"Yes, Dean," Cas said, nodding, even though Dean couldn't see him.
"Okay, well, I don't know about that other thing, but if she said that SHE was going home, that's not a good thing, Cas," Dean told his friend. "In female language, that means, 'get the hell away from me'. It means, 'get lost'. 'Take a hike'."
"'I don't want to look at your stupid face any more'," Sam chipped in. He was grinning. He couldn't help it. Cas had obviously screwed up, and he was oblivious. He got like that sometimes, and they'd had to enlighten him. Maybe Gail had tried to do the same and had gotten fed up when he didn't get it. He doubted this was serious, but Cas sounded really upset, so they should try to help him.
"Sorry, Cas," Sam said. "So, what happened after she said that?"
"I told her I would switch our tickets, if she wanted to go home immediately," he told Sam. "Then I tried to take her hand, but she wouldn't let me. Then she said the weekend was over, and she thanked me. But then, she turned to leave."
Dean thought about that. If Gail were a human girl, he'd say she was giving Cas the brush-off. That sounded like Dean himself, sometimes. In the past, if he'd had a hot weekend with a girl but then she got too clingy, he'd had to do the same thing. But Gail was an Angel, and she had spent nearly two years with Cas up till this point. If she had intended to use him for the sex alone, she had had the patience of a Saint. Besides, Dean knew her pretty well by now, and he was sure that she loved Cas. It all kept coming back to Cas. He must have done something wrong. That was the only explanation.
"So I took her by the arm, and I tried to touch her forehead so I could find out what was going on in her mind," Cas continued. "But she moved her head away from me. It was as though she were scared of me. Then she told me to let go of her."
"Did you?" Sam asked.
"Well, no, not exactly," Cas said, shamefaced. He could understand how that could have made her angry. But he had felt so desperate. So confused.
Sam and Dean exchanged another look. Maybe when he'd grabbed Gail, he'd done so a little too hard. But that wouldn't explain why she'd been mad at him in the first place.
Dean winced. He hated to ask Cas what he was about to ask him, but he and Sam had to get the full picture if they were going to get to the bottom of this. "Cas, we've gotta get back to this morning," he said, gritting his teeth. "If we're going to help you, we need more details. You've got to be leaving something out. So, you both woke up. Were you...in the same bed at the time?"
"Yes, Dean," Cas answered. "We made love the night before, and then she yawned and said she was tired, and then she fell asleep in my arms. I held her all night, and then once we both woke up and said good morning to each other, I asked her if she'd slept well. She said that she had, and then she asked me if I had. I said of course I had; I got to hold her all night."
Dean couldn't help but smirk at that. He could just imagine what kind of chick-flick, romance novel stuff Cas had said to her this weekend. Dean had warned him not to go overboard, but he was sure that Cas had mainly ignored him. The guy wore his heart on his sleeve. Dean was sure that Cas was safe to offer his heart to Gail, though. She was just about as tender-hearted as Cas was; even though she presented a wisecracking facade, Dean was sure she would never just take Cas's heart and stomp on it. So no matter what sickening Harlequin romance type of stuff Cas would have gushed out to her, Dean was pretty sure she would have been OK with. In fact, she had probably eaten it up with a spoon, and then asked for seconds. Women loved that kind of junk.
"OK, then what?" Sam prompted Cas.
Cas couldn't help but smile. "Then we made love."
Dean was impressed. First thing in the morning? Attaboy, Cas.
"The conventional way," Cas added pointedly, thinking about what Dean had said. Then it dawned on him. He thought he might know why the brothers thought that she might have been angry. "But I can assure you, once I was done, I moved down to her, to make sure that she was very happy, as well."
Dean rolled his eyes. OK, that had been a bit more information than they had needed. A mental image was trying to form in his head, but he pushed it away. He loved the both of them, but who the hell needed to see that every time he looked at them? When he saw Gail smiling, he wanted to think that one of them had just made a joke. He didn't want to be picturing Cas naked, on top of her. It was just too weird.
Sam had been thinking about the other thing that Cas had said. Or rather, he had been trying not to think about it. When Cas had said where he'd moved in the bed, Sam had a pretty good idea of where Cas had moved to, and what he had been doing there to make Gail so happy. Good for him. For a guy who'd had zero experience with women, he was obviously a quick learner.
"She was very happy," Cas emphasized. He didn't want the brothers thinking he had only thought about his own selfish pleasure. That would certainly have been a valid reason for her to have been angry. But it wasn't true.
"Okay, okay, we get it, she was happy," Dean said. He rolled his eyes as Sam grinned again. "Then what?"
Dean thought it was a safe question to ask. They'd done the deed, and they had both been very happy. Great. What had Cas said, then? Something stupid, Dean could only assume.
"Then I was kissing her, and then she wrapped her legs around me, and then we were both getting excited again," Cas said innocently. He was lost in the memory, now. He hadn't meant to speak quite so frankly, but they had said that they needed details in order to help him. Dean and Sam were his best friends, and they were men. They would both know how these things worked.
"Cas!" Sam said, but he was laughing now. "A little oversharing, there."
But Dean was looking at the phone now, and he did a double-take. "Again?" he exclaimed. "But, didn't you say that you'd just - " He threw up his hands. Damn Angels. Maybe when Dean got a bit older, he'd just have somebody kill him, instead of taking a little blue pill.
"Yes, Dean, and I thought we were about to make love again, so I told her that I loved her, but then she asked me to get off her body," Cas replied. "Is that what was the matter, do you think? Do you think I was being too aggressive? But we made love twice the first night, three times the next morning, and twice last night. We probably would have done so again, but Gail said that she was tired. She joked that I was wearing her out."
Dean looked at the phone again, wide-eyed. Holy mother of...what the hell? He did the math in his head. The two of them had been there for just over one day. No wonder Gail was tired. That was what she got for falling in love with a guy who'd been a virgin since before the Ark was built. Maybe she'd left just so she could come up for some air.
Sam was thinking along the same lines. Maybe Cas had been a little too aggressive, in his excitement at this newfound discovery of his. "So, did you?" he asked.
"Did we what?" Cas asked him. "Make love again?"
"No, did YOU," Sam corrected him sharply. "DID you get off of her, as soon as she asked you to?"
"Yes, of course I did," Cas replied. "And then I apologized for my behaviour. Then I told her I loved her, and I asked her not to be angry. Then she suggested I should shower. So I did. And that was it. She was gone."
Sam and Dean looked at each other. Sounded pretty innocuous to them. She'd asked him to back down, and he'd done it. He'd even apologized to her.
"Did she say anything else?" Sam asked.
"No. That was all."
Silence for a moment. The brothers were baffled.
"OK, back to the airport," Dean said, trying to stay focused. "She's trying to walk away, and you've got her by the arm. Then what?"
"I had been calling her by her name, but she said she didn't know who Gail was, and that I knew that wasn't her name!" Cas exclaimed.
OK, that really WAS weird, the Winchesters thought. "Could she have amnesia, maybe?" Dean asked aloud.
"I doubt it," Sam said thoughtfully. "From what I understand, people who have amnesia don't know who they are. It sounds more like Gail thinks she's someone else."
"I thought she had had some kind of a breakdown, then," Cas said. "But, before I got the chance to find out, the airport security men arrived."
Sam and Dean winced. That must not have been good. Those guys didn't fool around, especially these days.
"Then they grabbed me, and she walked away," Cas said, and they could hear the sadness in his voice. They had to do something about this. No wonder Cas was so crazy. Gail had clearly gone nuts, and now she was missing.
And that had been it, Cas told them. Security had thrown him out of the airport, and Gail was gone. But she'd said that she was flying home, so he'd come home to wait for her. But she should have been back long before now. If she wasn't at home, and she wasn't at the bunker, where was she?
"Did you do that Angel hoodoo thing that you guys do?" Dean asked him.
"What do you mean? Do you mean, could I sense her? Can I see her?" Cas frowned. "No. No, Dean, I can't. And I've been trying, very, very hard." It was true. When he'd realized she wasn't coming home, he had started to concentrate. But all he could see was a pane of opaque glass, for some reason. Then he nearly kicked himself. "Bobby!" he exclaimed out loud.
"What about Bobby?" Sam asked.
"Bobby should be able to see her. He can see anyone, any time. He's God," Cas said. "I can't believe it took me this long to think of it."
So Cas popped over to the bunker, but he'd left a note for Gail first, just in case she came back and he wasn't there. Please come to the bunker, it said. Or, if she was too angry, or too confused, please just stay there, at their apartment. He loved her, and he just wanted her to be all right. Whatever was wrong, he would help her figure it out, and he would make it all right.
Bobby had come down right away, but he couldn't see her, either.
Cas was fuming. "That's impossible, Bobby. You should be able to see her, no matter where she is."
"Is there any place that God can't see into?" Sam said.
"Hell," Bobby answered shortly. The brothers thought he was swearing, but Cas looked startled. That was right. Bobby had never been able to see into Crowley's domain. His eyes widened. Had the King of Hell done something to her? Was she in Hell now? Then his eyes narrowed. She'd better not be.
Bobby and Cas took Sam and Dean with them to the crossroads, and they summoned Crowley, the old-fashioned way.
He appeared, looking at the grim expressions on their faces. "What am I supposed to have done wrong now?" he asked them, rolling his eyes.
"Do you have Gail?" Castiel demanded.
Crowley looked at him incredulously. Were they joking? But no one was laughing. "No, I don't have her," he said peevishly. "Why would I have her?"
"You have to admit, it wouldn't be without precedent," Sam said astutely.
Crowley looked at him sharply. Then he shrugged. "Well, I don't," he replied. "Misplaced her, have we, Castiel?"
Cas frowned. "That's not even the slightest bit amusing. She is missing, and we only have your word for it that you don't have her."
Gail was missing? Crowley had to admit that did not sound good. But he rolled his eyes. "Any one of you are welcome to come down with me and check, if you don't believe me. But you'll have to be dead in order to do it," he said to Sam and Dean, eyes glittering with amusement. Then he looked at Bobby and Castiel. "And I don't fancy being spied on by the competition. How about if I just swear on my Demon's Honour?"
"'Demon's Honour'?" Dean scoffed.
"Yes, I know, it's an oxymoron," Crowley said, flashing them a brief grin. "But you're definitely barking up the wrong tree here." Then he frowned thoughtfully. "Though, maybe not the wrong orchard."
Bobby looked at Crowley curiously. What did he mean by that?
But Crowley was on a roll now. He looked at Castiel, and then at Bobby. "Can't either of you see her? Even you, Bobby?"
"Of course not," Castiel snapped. "If I could see her, I wouldn't be here talking to you now, would I?"
Crowley sighed. "All right, Castiel. Point taken. Do you see anything at all, when you try to look?"
"Only a pane of opaque glass," Cas responded.
Crowley was startled. "Opaque glass?" he repeated. Now he felt really strongly that what he had suspected was correct. He remembered shielding Gail in the same manner when she hadn't wanted Bobby to see her, when she and the King of Hell had gone to Oliver's house. But that kind of shielding required the power of two Originals, joining hands together. Castiel wouldn't have done that with her, and Crowley hadn't. That only left Metatron, and...
"Lucifer has her," Crowley told them. "And he has shielded her from you." Just in case, Crowley concentrated for a moment, and then he sent out the eye. All he got was opaque glass, as well. "From us," he amended. "I just looked, and I saw the same thing."
Lucifer had done the reset for Castiel and Gail and all of their goody-two-shoes friends, but only as far as all the Demon stuff was concerned. He hadn't bothered to include Crowley in any of that, though. So as far as the King of Hell was concerned, all of those things had still happened. That was why Crowley remembered the incident with Gail at Oliver's house during her search for the cure.
But the world was the world, and it stood still for no one, not even the Alpha Original. So Lucifer, Metatron and Aurielle were still on the loose, of course. And now that Lucifer had Gail in place and working for him, he was ready to crank it up a notch.
He had told Mark to go forth and tell all of the true believers in Reverend Devlin to get a tattoo. It should be on the backs of their hands, so that everyone would know whose camp they belonged in. The ladies could have it on the backs of their necks if they wished; he knew that they didn't usually like to mark up their bodies. The tattoo should consist of three simple letters: "REV". He had wondered what the tattoo should say, and then Gail had given him the idea. Most of his devoted followers called him "The Rev". He insisted on informality with them. He may be a man of the cloth, but he was also a man of the people. He wasn't snooty or hypocritical, like the other religious leaders. He couldn't imagine being called "Father" by a bunch of grown men. He didn't know how God had ever stood it. So, "REV" it would be. Not only was that his nickname, but it could also be short for "Revelation". Lucifer loved it when things worked out like that. That was about the only thing that he and Metatron had ever been able to agree on. Playing with words was a lot of fun sometimes, especially when you had a lot of down time and only yourself for company. He hadn't been lying when he'd told Gail that he'd had a lot of lonely nights.
The mark of the tattoo, on his supplicants. The Mark of Cain. That had been on Dean Winchester and then had been taken back by its rightful owner, Crowley, only to be nullified when Crowley had been killed by Castiel in the den. The painful marks that Demon Cas had inflicted on poor Gail's body. And Lucifer's most faithful underling, Gospel writer Mark. He was the Mark of the Beast. Lucifer supposed that made him the Beast, then. He shrugged. If that was the case, then a beast he would be. He was the Devil, wasn't he? What was a good story without a really bad guy in it? How could the heroes be the heroes, if they didn't have enemies to defeat?
He picked up the phone and buzzed Mark.
"Come into my office," Lucifer said. "And bring Aurielle with you."
"How do you know Lucifer's got her?" Dean asked Crowley warily.
"Well, I don't, but it's only logical to assume, don't you think?" Crowley said to the men. "Or, it could be Metatron. How the hell should I know? But, what we're seeing is opaque. She has to be with another Original, or at least, she's been with one long enough to get her shielded that way. Two Originals holding hands together can create that type of shielding."
But Castiel was skeptical. Gail would never hold hands with Metatron, or with Lucifer. She hated Metatron, and she had never even met Lucifer. But could Lucifer have kidnapped her somehow, and then forced her to hold hands with him? "If she has been abducted, that wouldn't explain her behaviour in Las Vegas, though," Cas mused aloud. "And how could Lucifer have gotten to her there? She and I were together the whole time."
"Didn't you say you were in the shower, Cas?" Sam asked his friend. "Couldn't he have just popped in and taken her then?"
"No, Sam, I told you. I saw her at the airport. She was alone then, and she said she was flying home!"
"What are you babbling on about?" Crowley asked them irritably. "If you want my help in the matter, it would be nice for me to know what the bloody hell is going on!"
Cas was burning with rage now. If Lucifer had Gail somehow, Castiel was going to slice the Devil into ribbons. He was too apoplectic to speak for the moment, so the other men gave Crowley a brief rundown on the circumstances surrounding Gail's disappearance.
He frowned. "That sounds like some pretty elaborate memory modification to me, if that's the case. But he would have had to put his hand on her head in order to do that," Crowley told them. He looked at Cas. "You were with her all weekend? Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure," Castiel said impatiently.
Crowley shrugged. "Well, I don't know what else it could be. Unless she just wanted to get away from you so badly that she pretended to have memory loss," he said to Cas, smirking. Then he braced himself, but instead of getting angry, Castiel looked like he was about to weep. HAD Gail wanted to get away from him? Had she just been going along with everything this weekend to try to avoid hurting his feelings? But they loved each other, didn't they? If he had done something that had bothered her, surely she would have just told him so. Gail had never been shy about expressing her pleasure, or her displeasure, with anything Cas had said or done before.
"Very amusing," he said to Crowley in a sarcastic tone. "Is there anything constructive or useful you can offer?"
Crowley considered a moment. He had no particular desire to help Castiel, but the idea that Lucifer might have Gail did bother him. Maybe Crowley could try to be the bigger man here.
"Actually, if you wish, I can help shield you in the same manner," Crowley said stiffly. "That way, Lucifer will not be able to see you, either."
Castiel thought about that. It was a good idea. He didn't want Lucifer to see him coming, when he came. "Yes, I would like that," he told his Brother. Then he sighed. "If you would, please."
Crowley smiled. A "please" from Castiel. He should mark this date in red on the calendar; it would likely never happen again. He reached out and took his Brother's hands in both of his. Castiel frowned, but he obeyed as Crowley gave him the same instructions as he'd given Gail that night.
Dean was smirking, and he opened his mouth to make some smartass remark about Cas and Crowley holding hands. Sam saw this, and he elbowed his brother in the ribs. But Sam's mouth was twitching, too. This had to be one of the strangest sights he'd ever seen.
Once Crowley's red glow and Cas's blue one had merged, Crowley looked at Bobby. "Pop over to the bunker, or to Heaven. See if you can see Castiel."
Bobby did, and he couldn't. Hmm. Impressive. He came back and nodded to them all. It had worked. Bobby wasn't particularly concerned about not being able to see Cas at the moment. He knew where Cas was most of the time, and he could always reach him on Angel Radio if he needed to. Once Gail was back in the fold, they could just combine to take the shields off each other, if needed.
Crowley looked at Castiel expectantly. He was hoping for the elusive "Thank You", to complete the bookends. But Castiel's eyes were flashing with anger now.
The King of Hell rolled his eyes. "What is it now? Did I not make you opaque enough?"
"Why did you not tell us about this before?" Castiel thundered. "She could have been shielded from him this whole time!"
"Wasn't she in the bunker, under your tender loving care?" Crowley fired back. "Why would she have needed shielding there? And I knew she wouldn't be going anywhere for a while, due to her injuries. Believe it or not, Castiel, I have no wish to see Lucifer have her. I bear no particular ill will towards Gail."
Something was bothering Sam about this exchange, though. While he could see the logic behind what Crowley had said as far as Gail having been safe in the bunker, Sam didn't know why Crowley couldn't have suggested the shielding when Lucifer first got loose. If the King of Hell hadn't wanted Lucifer to be able to find Gail, he could have done it right then and there. Then Lucifer wouldn't have known they were in the Secret Garden. Sam had no way of knowing that Lucifer had been after Kevin, of course; he and Dean and everyone else had just assumed that Lucifer had gone there to get Cas and Gail. Sam made his point now.
"Sam's right!" Castiel shouted. "You should have told us about it back then! Then she never would have been attacked by that - " he stopped suddenly. Wait a moment. He looked helplessly at Sam and Dean. "Why did Gail and I go on a holiday?"
Dean gave him a strange look. Did Cas really want to talk about that now, and in front of Crowley and Bobby?
Cas saw the look on Dean's face and quickly amended, "I'm not talking about THAT. I'm asking why we needed a holiday."
Sam and Dean exchanged puzzled glances, and Bobby shook his head. Was Gail's mental affliction contagious?
"To celebrate her finally being well again, after all those operations," Sam said softly, as if talking to a child. "It took almost a year, but then she was back to a hundred percent, after that panther attacked her."
"I sent you there for a few days, and I threw a protection shield around you so Lucifer couldn't get to you," Bobby said. He hadn't actually done that, as he was no longer capable. But Bobby couldn't admit that in front of Crowley, of course, and he knew the question would come up. Either Lucifer hadn't bothered to try to mess with them, or God Himself had protected them. No one here knew that Bobby was no longer God; only Gail did. And she hadn't had the chance to tell anyone. She obviously hadn't told Cas on their romantic weekend. He guessed they'd had better things to talk about than him. When Lucifer had sent Bobby back to Heaven that night, he had modified Bobby's memory so that Bobby would have no recollection of his having been there at the bunker, and he had planted the false memory of the altered timeline instead. Then he had gone to Robbie's room and, as Felicia had cowered in the corner, clutching her son to her, Lucifer had modified both their memories as well. Felicia and her son now only had the memory of being there under the bunker's protection because of Mark. Felicia didn't remember anything about what Ignatius had told her about why he'd felt he had to give up his Grace, or what Lucifer had said to Gail about being a Demon, or about Lucifer having even come to the bunker. Then Lucifer had popped over to Castiel and Becky's hotel suite in Miami, frozen everyone, and modified all of their memories, too. He'd cut the Demon period out of everyone's minds like removing a large tumour, but the rest of the timeline remained intact.
Castiel stood stock-still, his mouth hanging open. Now he realized. Lucifer had done something to his mind when he had sent them to Las Vegas, making him temporarily forget that it had actually been his agreement with the Devil that had healed Gail's injuries. But Lucifer had obviously gone way beyond that. Sam and Dean and Bobby thought Gail had been healed by the medical profession, and that she and Cas had gone to Las Vegas to celebrate. And Crowley had no memory to modify, because he could not see into the bunker, and he had not been privy to any of these events. Lucifer didn't care if Crowley remembered Castiel's Demon period, which he did, of course. The Devil hadn't agreed to anything with the King, and that wasn't his problem.
Which led Cas to the inevitable conclusion: that Lucifer had altered Gail's memory to such an extent that she now thought that she was someone else entirely. But what about when they had first gotten to Las Vegas? She had been fine then, and they had been having an idyllic time. Then he remembered that Lucifer had said that he would give them the gift of a one-day honeymoon, of sorts. And they had certainly had that. It was even more cruel to have Gail's altered memory take effect the next morning. That explained her panicked demeanour at the airport, then. She'd had no idea that she was Castiel's mate. That had to be it. Gail had been right, yet again. He should never have made that agreement with Lucifer.
"It's my fault," he muttered. "It's all my fault. I didn't protect her at all."
Crowley was mollified. "There, you see?" he said to the men. "Not everything is my fault, you know." He sighed. "I'll send out some feelers. I'll let you know if I hear anything." He snapped his fingers and disappeared.
"Now don't forget, her name is Sarah," Lucifer was lecturing Mark and Aurielle. "She's been working here about a year, and she's an invaluable member of our staff. In fact, she'll be indispensable to me, very soon." He grinned.
"Why do we have to have her HERE, though?" Aurielle complained. She didn't care if Lucifer told her that Gail had blonde hair and green eyes now. She didn't care if her name was now Sarah and she supposedly had no recollection of her relationship with Castiel. Aurielle just didn't want to have to look at her stupid face every day. It wasn't marked with ugly scars, was it? How was this supposed to help Aurielle get Castiel?
She asked Lucifer this now. He frowned. "This isn't all about you," he said sharply. "You have to look at the bigger picture, here. If I'm going to make her my girlfriend, I need to have her near me, working for me, so that I can go to work on her. Then, when she finally succumbs to my charms, Castiel will be heartbroken, and you can give him solace. Now get off my back, Aurielle. And, needless to say, hands off her. You're to be sweet and kind to her. Remember, you're my sister."
Aurielle was steamed. Not only did she have to work with Gail, but she was expected to be sweet to her, too? If she thought she could get away with it, Aurielle would just march in there right now, grab the letter opener Gail used to open the mail, and slit her throat with it.
"What is she, now?" Mark asked Lucifer, curious. "A human?"
"No, she's still an Angel," Lucifer said, smiling. "She just doesn't know she's one. I extended her ability to eat and drink, indefinitely. I know she likes to do those things, and I want to keep her happy. If I'm not able to talk her into going to bed with me, I might just have to get her drunk one night, instead. I've heard that works on a lot of human women."
There was a light tap on the closed office door. "Come in," Lucifer called.
Sarah entered, holding a few letters she had culled from the stack. One of her jobs was to wade through all the mail and separate the hate mail from the ones that included donations, and she always picked out the especially effusive ones to show him. Gordon was a little insecure, she knew, and he needed the ego boost now and then. She had already locked away the cash and cheques she'd found for deposit in the morning and shredded the hate mail. What she had in her hand now were a few letters that were especially heavy in praise. There was even one from a woman who described, in fairly earthy prose, what she could do for Gordon to relieve him of the burden of his virginity. Sarah knew he would get a kick out of that one. She had thought about what he'd said about her being a prude, and it had stung just a bit. Look at the weekend she had just had. For some reason, she didn't want Gordon to think that about her. She could let her hair down as much as the next person. It had just taken a special guy to bring out that side of her, that was all.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Sarah said when she entered the office. "Hi, Mark. Hi, Allison. Do you want me to come back later?"
"No, of course not, Sarah. Come in, come in," Lucifer gestured. He looked at Mark and Aurielle. "We're done here."
They were being dismissed. Aurielle stared at Gail as she left the office. Her rival did look somewhat different, but her face and her body were the same. If Castiel were to see her, he would still know it was her, Aurielle was sure of it. How could he not know? He had kissed every inch of that face and licked every inch of that body. Aurielle's stare became a glare. How she would just love to rake her fingernails down Gail's face. See how she liked walking around with ugly scars all day, all the time.
When they'd closed the door behind them, Sarah looked at Gordon, puzzled. "What's the matter with Allison? She just gave me a really dirty look."
Lucifer shrugged, but inside he was seething. He had just told Aurielle to be nice to Gail. Perhaps he needed to reinforce the lesson. If Aurielle wanted a few more scars, he would be happy to oblige.
"Maybe she's just jealous that you got to spend the weekend with a hot guy and she didn't," he said to Sarah. "We have got to get that girl laid."
Sarah smiled, "Speaking of which..." She extended the letters to him across the desk. "Note the top one. I figured you would enjoy it."
She watched his reaction as he scanned the letter, and he did not disappoint. He threw his head back and laughed, loudly. Then he looked at her with an exaggerated leer. "Please tell me that you and your mystery guy did what she describes in Paragraph Two," he said.
Sarah rolled her eyes, but her lips were twitching. She held up her hand, giving him what looked like the peace sign. "Twice," she answered, and they laughed together.
Lucifer regarded her for a moment, still smiling. "You're really something, Sarah," he told her. "I'm so glad you came into my life."
She was smiling too. "Thank you, Gordon. What a sweet thing to say."
"Seriously, did this guy treat you right?" he asked her. "Are you going to see him again?"
Sarah frowned. "No," she said. "It was a wonderful weekend, but that's it." She wondered what Cas was doing now. She hoped he was all right. Now that she'd had some time to think about it, she didn't think he was a psycho, just a guy who'd gotten too attached too quick. It was a shame that they hadn't had a bit more time together. Maybe they could have gotten better acquainted, taken things slower. And she could have found out who this "Gail" woman was. Maybe she had broken his heart, and Sarah had been his rebound. Or, worse; maybe Gail had died, and he was so heartbroken about it that he was looking to replace her. But, wasn't that psycho? No, just sad. She had to quit thinking of him, though. It was over now.
Gordon said, "I don't mean to be mean, but I'm glad. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad you had fun, and I know I sort of pushed you into it in the first place." He had to restrain himself from grinning at that. Yeah, he'd given her the push, all right. But, he was trying to feign sincerity here. "But you're not a one-night-stand kind of woman, Sarah. You're quality. You need a guy who really cares about you."
Now it was her turn to shrug. "Well, thanks again, but until that day comes, it's back to books and Netflix for me," Sarah told him.
Gordon brightened. "I have good news for you. I'm about to make you an even more indispensable part of my team. I'd like you to start interacting with our flock more. Pass out some flyers, talk to people. We need to get the message out, Sarah."
She considered. "I guess I could do that. No TV though, right? You know how much I would hate that."
He smiled. "No, no TV. Don't worry about that. Allison's the one who brings in the donations, anyway. You're too cute for anyone to feel sorry for."
She smiled at the flattery. "Do you mind if I go home now, Gordon? I could use a good night's sleep. And I need to make the deposit tomorrow morning, when the bank opens."
"Sure, Sarah," he said. "I guess I was mean to make you come in here tonight." He smiled again. "I'm sure you could use a good night's sleep." He picked up the letter again. "Especially if he did Paragraph 3 to you. You'll probably want to think about that again tonight, before you go to sleep." His comic leer was back. "I know I'll be thinking about it tonight."
Sarah laughed again, shaking her head. "Goodnight," she said, and exited his office.
