Chapter 1 - Power Trip

Anthony hadn't even had time to hang up the phone.

The huge tidal wave came crashing down, obliterating Anthony, his wife, and their beachfront home in an instant.

Seconds later, Agent Redding and his partner were also dead, along with much of the population of Fort Lauderdale. Low-rise homes and other buildings were destroyed by the force of the tsunami. A few concrete office towers remained standing, and the rushing green, slushy waters cascaded and swirled around them.

The occasional person had survived the initial onrush of the water, as people will, sometimes; due to fate, courage, or sheer, dumb luck. They were clinging on to anything stable that they were able to grab, just trying to keep their heads above the rushing waters and not get swept away.

It was these few fortunate people that Agent Redding had managed to save, although he would never know about it, of course. Because as the catastrophic wave ripped through town, four people appeared out of nowhere to help the victims.

They'd seen it on the news in the bunker, but none of them had had any idea how bad the situation truly was. Cas had popped them all right into the path of the wave, not realizing that all of them would be caught up in it, too.

They were immediately swept up in the rushing waters. Sam and Dean were carried a block or two away before they were able to wrap their arms around a couple of slender palm trees that were bending in the wind, but fortunately, they were still standing, at least for the moment.

Cas's heart was in his throat. What had he done? He should have taken the time to position them all better. Luckily, he'd been holding firm onto Gail's hand when they'd first appeared. The brothers had been torn from the couple's grasp, but Cas had automatically wrapped his arms around Gail to protect her. As Sam and Dean were swept down the street, Cas was fortunate enough to be able to snag his legs around a metal fence, holding himself and Gail in place. He made sure to hold her head above the water as the worst of the onslaught passed through the core of the city.

Gail was bedraggled and shivering in Cas's arms. There were huge chunks of green ice in the water they were submerged in. It was like being plunged suddenly into a blender with the ingredients for a giant Slushy, and then having someone hit the Puree button. Had she ever said she preferred the cold? If she survived, she was going to put on about fourteen blankets, find out where the bunker's thermostat was, and crank it up to the max.

The motion of the water lessened a little as the crest of the wave passed them by. But now, Dean became aware of another problem.

"Sammy!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "Ten o'clock!"

Sam looked to his left, and he saw what Dean was seeing: a huge alligator, rushing right towards them. Crap. This was exactly why he'd wanted to bring the weapons. But now, their guns were soaking wet, and the force of the rushing water was preventing them from doing anything at the moment except hanging on for dear life.

Thankfully, the same motion that was holding the would-be heroes helpless was also washing the alligators down the street, and incredibly, Sam now saw a shark rush by them, as well. He was reminded of those movies, the ones where the sharks got swept up in storms and terrorized the people on land, with hilariously schlocky results. A laugh bubbled up in his throat. If he lived, he would have to remember to tell the others about that.

Eventually the waters slowed down, and the men were able to loosen their death grips on the trees, and the fence. But now, they were presented with another problem. They were standing chest-deep in freezing waters, with guns in their pockets that wouldn't work, and the alligators that were being swept away a minute ago were swimming around leisurely now.

A particularly large alligator with huge teeth rose up out of the murky water beside Cas and Gail, and she screamed. Cas pulled his blade out of his blazer pocket with one hand, pushing her forward toward the fence with the other. "Grab on!" he shouted, putting her arm on the fence. The waters had subsided somewhat, but there was no way he was going to risk her being carried off.

As Gail grabbed hold of the fence, Cas leaped at the alligator and drove his Angel blade into its eye. Then he stabbed it again through the snout, as he'd seen in that Crocodile Dundee movie. Then he seized the carcass, and threw it aside with a big splash. "Sam! Dean!" he yelled, as loudly as he could. "Alligators! Watch out!"

But the brothers were already having their own battles with the creatures, down the street. They managed to kill a few with knives, as Cas had done, but as the wave petered out, they realized with a sinking feeling that there were way too many of them. And now that they were able to take a moment to look, they saw that there were other people around them here and there, hanging onto stationary items like they had been.

"Cas! There's too many! And there are people here, too!" Dean called out to their friend. Dean started to wade through the water towards a woman who had been lucky enough to have been carrying an umbrella when the storm had started. When the wave hit, she had been sheltered from its initial impact by a van which had been washed down the street. The vehicle had been upended and then turned on its side, then gotten wedged in-between two buildings. Beryl had been carrying an umbrella with a hooked handle, and the hook had somehow attached itself to the bumper of the van. So Beryl had hung on to her umbrella for dear life throughout the worst of the rushing water, and because she'd been protected by the truck, she had avoided being drowned, or swept away.

But now, she had finally been able to let go and splash her way out from behind the van, only to be confronted by a hungry alligator. It seemed to be grinning at her, contemplating what a great meal she would make.

"Oh, come on!" Beryl exclaimed. She couldn't believe this. She had just survived a tsunami, and now she was going to be an alligator's lunch. How bad had she been in her lifetime, anyway?

But suddenly, a man came splashing up out of nowhere. He grabbed the alligator's tail, taking its attention away from Beryl, and then he pulled out a knife. "Get back behind that van!" Dean yelled at her. Then he started stabbing the alligator, and Beryl splashed quickly back to her hiding place. Sounded good to her. The water might be freezing, but it was a million times better than being eaten alive.

Cas was also realizing that there were way too many alligators in the water, and that there were some survivors who needed saving. So he sprang into action. His first and most important priority was Gail, of course. He splashed back to where she was and said, "Put your arms around my neck." She did, and he concentrated for a moment. Then he felt his wings come out of his back, ripping through his shirt and blazer. He hadn't bothered to take the time to disrobe. He could always get new clothes, but Gail was irreplaceable.

He picked her up and flew her to the rooftop of one of the highrise buildings, setting her down gently. "Stay here," he said sternly.

"Cas, are there people down there? I need to help them," she said, agitated.

"No," he said shortly.

"What do you mean?" she shouted. "I can teleport too, you know!"

He could hear screaming coming from the street down below, and Cas's lips pursed with indecision. "All right," he said finally. "But be careful of the alligators. Please."

Gail smiled at her husband. He was so sweet. So protective. "I will. Now, go. Save some people."

Cas put his wings away. If they were wet, they would just weigh him down. He could have kicked himself. He had panicked when he had been looking to save her; of course, he could have just teleported her up here. He looked at Gail for another second, and then he winked himself back down to the street.

Gail looked down from her vantage point. She saw Cas, Sam, and Dean, fighting and killing alligators to get to people. And then she saw Beryl. The woman that Dean had saved had hoisted herself up on top of the van to look around. She had her arms wrapped around herself, and she was shivering. Now that the adrenaline had worn off a bit, Beryl was freezing cold. What was she supposed to do now? Beryl could see the men, fighting to rescue other people now. She could see why. Out of everyone, she was in the safest position, so Beryl didn't blame them for leaving her where she was, for now. Her teeth were chattering as she watched the tallest man grab a little boy and hoist him up on his shoulders, above the waterline.

Suddenly, Beryl felt a hand on her arm. She looked down to see a short, dark-haired woman, whose hair and clothes were also soaked. "Take my hand," Gail instructed her. Beryl looked at her blankly, and Gail let out a frustrated breath. She didn't have time for this. As it was, they would have to figure out how they were going to explain everything they were currently doing after everyone was taken care of.

So Gail grabbed Beryl's hand and teleported her up to the roof of the office building. Then she popped back down into the street, and into Cas's arms. "Lift me up," Gail instructed him. He did, and she reached out to grab the boy who was sitting on Sam's shoulders. Once she had a hold of him, she popped him up to the rooftop. The child was crying now, and Beryl came forward to comfort him as Gail popped back down to the street. She had spotted a man who was standing on the fractured terrace of another concrete building, so she popped over to get him now, too. When the rescue planes or helicopters or whatever there would be came, she thought it would make sense to have all of the survivors in one spot.

Cas popped a few other people up to the rooftop, and then he put his arm around Gail and gave her a squeeze. "That's it, as far as I can tell. I'm going back to get Sam and Dean," he told her, kissing her on the forehead. "You were fantastic," he said softly. "So brave."

Right. Like she'd had a choice. It was a good thing Angels couldn't poop their pants, she thought wryly. He might not think she was so brave then.

While Cas went back down to get their friends, Gail started to make the rounds, checking the survivors. The little boy had a gash on his forehead and one on his arm, so she healed those, then dried his clothes. "Sorry, I can't do hair," she said to the child, chucking him under the chin.

Then Gail moved on to Beryl, who was still sitting protectively next to the boy. "Do you have any injuries?" she asked the woman.

"No, I don't think so. I'm just freezing," Beryl said.

"Here, let me dry your clothes for you, at least," Gail said, waving her hands over the girl. "I wish I could do hair, I really do. It's kind of silly, when you think about it. Oh, well. I'm sure the people who pick you up will have some towels and blankets."

"Who are you people?" Beryl asked, amazed.

Gail thought for a moment. "Just people who want to help," she said vaguely.

Cas came back to the rooftop with Sam and Dean, and Gail rushed over to them. "Are you guys OK?" she said, clutching at them.

"Yeah, we're fine, but we're gonna need some more guns," Sam commented with a half-smile.

"Now that I know we're not gonna die, I have to admit, that was pretty cool," Dean said. "Talk about Crocodile Dundee, times three. We kicked some amphibian ass."

Cas was much too happy that everyone was safe to point out that those had been alligators, and that alligators were reptiles. "I think we got a fair amount of them, but we'll have to tell these people to let the officials know to be careful," he said. Gail was waving her arms over him now, drying his clothes. His shirt and blazer were torn open in the back, where his wings had emerged. Gail tried waving her hands there too, but nothing happened. "Apparently, I can clean and dry clothes, but I can't repair them," she commented. "Oh, well. We'll get you some spiffy new clothes. You'll be making a lot of public appearances soon. Maybe we can ask Riley if he's done a poll on what colour the female Angels would most like to see you in."

Cas smiled wearily. "Don't laugh; he probably has," he replied. As Gail moved on to checking the Winchesters for injuries and drying their clothes, Cas looked up at the sky. "I can hear the rescue helicopters coming," he advised the others. "I'll check the rest of these people for serious injuries, but I don't think we'll have the time to modify them all."

Gail looked at him. "Then I guess we'll just have to channel Frank and Matty, and tell them the truth."

"That we're Angels?" Cas said doubtfully.

"Sure, why not?" Gail replied. "I don't see what the harm is. You hear stories like that all the time. People surviving natural disasters, thanking God or Angels for saving them."

Cas thought about that as he circulated amongst the people they had saved, checking them for wounds. He supposed she was right, in a way. What was the harm? Didn't people need a little light and hope in their lives every once in a while?

"There's only one problem," Sam said, lowering his voice. "We all know that this wasn't a natural disaster, don't we?"

"Yes, but THEY don't," Gail said, gesturing towards the people on the rooftop. "And until we can figure out what's going on, maybe they don't need to know anything else."

"Cas knows," Dean said tersely. "I can see it in his face."

They all looked over at Cas. He was healing the arm of a little girl who'd been in her mother's arms when Cas had lifted them both to safety. The child was staring at Cas, open-mouthed. He patted her on the head and gave her a gentle smile.

"Yeah, he knows," Dean said again.

"Well, at least we'll have first-hand knowledge when somebody uses that expression from now on," Sam said, opening his jacket to let Gail dry his shirt underneath.

Dean looked at his brother. "Yeah? What expression is that, Sammy?"

Sam grinned. "Being up to your ass in alligators."

The brothers laughed, and Gail shook her head slowly. She guessed that was funny now, but boy, things had been scary there for a few minutes.

Cas rejoined them. "Everyone's cuts have been healed, but some of them might have internal injuries. I think we've done all we can here. Gail and I will take you back to the bunker, and then we can discuss what we're going to do about this. I think we all know it isn't over."

The others nodded. Whatever it was that Cas knew or didn't know, they were aware that this couldn't have been a naturally-occurring weather phenomenon. Giant tidal waves didn't just hang in midair.

With one last uneasy glance at the survivors on the rooftop and the green, slushy water down below, the Angels winked the Winchesters back to the bunker.

As Sam checked his laptop for other odd weather reports, Cas was pacing the library floor.

"What do you know?" Dean asked him impatiently.

"I don't really know anything, but I have some very strong suspicions," Cas replied. He looked at Sam. "What have you been able to find out?"

Sam gave him a half-shrug. "I don't know, Cas. There are reports of unusual weather in a few places, but it's kind of hard to pin down. Weather patterns can be weird this time of year, anyway: spring like one day, wintery the next."

Cas's lips pursed in frustration. He had a very strong suspicion that he knew exactly what had caused that tsunami, but it would be nice to have a bit more to go on.

"I do have a geographical algorithm I've been working on," Sam remarked. His fingers were flying as he typed data into his laptop. "I might be able to pinpoint the source of some of these disturbances." He concentrated for a moment, then squinted at the screen. "Nevada. That's what the program is telling me."

"Isn't that where CNN said that terrorist was calling from?" Dean asked his brother, looking over Sam's shoulder at the computer screen.

"It's not a terrorist," Cas said, his heart sinking. "It's the U.S. Government." He stopped pacing and looked at Sam again. "I think, if you refine that algorithm, you will find that these so-called 'disturbances' originate from a place we might be a little familiar with: Area 51."

Gail and the Winchesters all exchanged glances as Cas continued, "I tried to call Gabriel before we left for Fort Lauderdale, but he didn't answer. I'm reasonably sure that there is still some of his essence at that military base, and that they have been using that essence to influence the weather, somehow."

Gail's mouth dropped open. Of course. That was the only logical explanation, wasn't it? Gabriel had told them that he felt deflated, and he had needed several days to recharge his powers before he could send them back to Creation to get the blood samples they'd needed for Dean's revival spell.

Cas had stopped short again, and he was looking off into space with unfocused eyes. His wife and friends recognized that look, so they waited patiently. A minute later, Cas's brow furrowed. "I can sense Gabriel," he announced.

Dean shrugged. "Yeah, OK. So what?"

"No, you don't understand, Dean," Cas said, growing agitated. "I can sense him in two places at once. How can he be in two places at once? Even Archangels can't do that." Then his blood ran cold as he realized: there could only be one way that could happen.

Cas rushed over to Gail, who was sitting in her usual seat at the library table. When they'd gotten back to the bunker, she had gone down the hall to the linen closet to get a couple of towels, and she had been sitting there towel-drying her hair while Cas had been pacing.

"I have to find out for sure," Cas told his wife. "Please stay here with Sam and Dean. I'll be right back." He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, and then, he was gone.

Gail threw her towel on the table in frustration. It had been a while since Cas had done something like that, just popped out without telling anyone where he was going or what he planned to do. He'd said he wanted to find out for sure: was he going to see Gabriel and talk to him? But if so, why couldn't Gabriel just come here?

She sighed. "If I make a pot of coffee, will you guys let me sniff your mugs?"

Cas reappeared in a small office just a couple of blocks from the Las Vegas Strip. This was the secondary location of the signal he'd received when he had sent out the feelers. He'd known this wasn't Gabriel, though the feeling of his essence was similar. It was hard to explain, and Cas hadn't wanted to take the time to try to articulate it. If what Cas thought what happening now was really happening, there was no time to lose.

He hadn't wanted the General to know he was coming, and luckily, Adrian didn't know how the sensor worked in reverse. The General had been sitting at the desk in his little out-of-the-way office off base. He had actually been spending a quiet moment there, before packing up his few belongings. There would be no need for this place any more.

Adrian jumped up from his chair when Cas appeared in front of him, out of the blue. "What are YOU doing here?" the General shouted.

"I'm here to get what you have taken from my Brother," Castiel told him calmly.

"And what do you imagine that to be?" Adrian answered in kind. He began to walk around the desk to where Cas stood.

"You know very well what I'm talking about," Cas replied.

Adrian faced him. "All right, maybe I do. But, so what? I'm not giving it back. I like it."

Cas's heart sank. So, it was as he had feared. "How much essence have you ingested?" he asked the General.

Adrian folded his arms. "Enough to kick your ass," he said boldly.

"You don't understand," Cas appealed to him. "Humans are not meant to possess that kind of power. Soon it will take you over, and it will control you, instead of the other way around."

The General looked at him with contempt. He had enough of Gabriel's essence in him to know now that Castiel was a screw-up, an Angel of such little import that God had sent him to Earth just to be rid of him. How dare he lecture Adrian about power? Maybe Castiel couldn't handle this kind of power, but Adrian certainly could. "I'm in the driver's seat, here," he told Cas. "My in-laws deserved to die in that tsunami."

Cas was starting to get very angry now. "Whether or not that's true, how about the thousands of other people you killed with what you did?"

Adrian shrugged. "They were only humans, Castiel. Turns out that Raphael had the right idea. Humans are insignificant little ants. We are the ones who should rule." He looked calmly at Cas. "So either get on board, or I will end you. Where do your human friends live, again? Maybe I'll brew up a nice, big earthquake, or make it rain brimstone and napalm there."

Cas withdrew his Angel blade from his jacket pocket. The garment was still tattered in the back, but the General hadn't commented on that. Perhaps he hadn't noticed. Or maybe, he already knew. Just how much of Gabriel's powers and how many of his abilities were present in this man's body?

"You know I can't let you do that," Cas told him. "I'll give you one more chance to stop. Let me bring my Brother here, and you can give him back his essence. Then, we will leave you alone."

Adrian laughed harshly. "That won't be happening. You stole him from me in the first place. But that's okay. I don't need him now. Our lab has the formula, and they can make as much of it as I need, to get what I want."

"And what is that, exactly?" Cas said wearily. "To rule the world? Make people bow to your will? What is the point of that?"

"The point is what I say it is!" Adrian yelled. "But I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand, Castiel. You're a pathetic excuse for an Angel. You come here to Earth possessing the power that you do, yet you let the humans walk all over you."

"They're my friends. My family," Cas said firmly.

"No, you're their pet," Adrian said scornfully. "If you're too stupid to see that, you're too stupid to be of any use to me." He threw his arms out, and Cas went flying across the room. He crashed into the wall, hard, and the Angel blade came out of his hand.

Adrian rushed over to the spot where the blade had landed. He picked it up and examined it. "If this blade could talk, I wonder what it would say?" he asked in a conversational tone. "Or would it just start to scream? One scream for each of our Brothers and Sisters you've killed over the centuries, maybe? That would go on for quite a while, wouldn't it?"

Cas was slowly picking himself up off the floor, and his eyes were wide as he looked at the General. The man had become unhinged. He was speaking as if he were an Archangel himself. "You have no right to speak about such things," Cas said in his quiet voice. "All you are is an essence thief. A human with delusions of grandeur."

Adrian shrugged. "That may be, but I'm still going to be the one who finally takes you down."

"Is that so?" Cas replied, slowly advancing on him. "Well, go ahead, then. I'm right here, and you have my weapon."

"So I do," the General said in an amused tone.

"But, as you pointed out, I have powers, too," Cas said. He pointed his finger at Adrian's hand and the blue ray of light came out, making the General drop the blade.

Adrian charged Cas, and the men began to fight. Cas punched Adrian and the General fell onto his desk, collapsing it. But as Cas jumped on top of Adrian and put his hands around the General's throat, choking him, Adrian reached out his arm in desperation. His hand felt around and closed on the telephone that had sat on his desk and he swung it at Cas's head with full force, knocking the Angel away from him and to the side. Then Adrian dove for the Angel blade and pinned a dazed Cas to the floor, holding it to his throat.

"I'm not a useless sack of shit, who'll never amount to anything," Adrian said through gritted teeth. The General was completely delusional now, seeing his father-in-law's face superimposed on Cas's. Taunting him. "I've got the power, and I'll kill you or anyone else who tries to stand in my way. I'm going to keep on taking my shots, and I'm going to live forever. No damn three-letter disease is taking me down. I won't allow it."

Now Cas understood. The General had received the same type of diagnosis that Wyatt had. With a probable death sentence hanging over his head, he'd felt like he had nothing to lose in letting himself be a guinea pig for whatever formula the technicians in the lab had cooked up, using Gabriel's essence as its base. And there was no one more dangerous than someone who felt like they had nothing left to lose.

As Adrian's mind went deep into his delusion, his grip on Cas eased slightly, enough for the Angel to regain the upper hand. He bucked the General off of him, wrestling the blade out of Adrian's hand.

"I'm sorry, but there's only one way this can end," Cas told him. "You should not have trifled with an Archangel of the Lord." He thrust the blade into Adrian's chest, killing him instantly.

As Adrian died, his mouth dropped open, and Gabriel's essence started to issue from it. The purple smoke startled Cas. It was one thing to realize intellectually what this man had done, but it was quite another to see it with his own eyes. This was his Brother's life force, and it was floating away. Soon it would dissipate, and Gabriel would never get it back. Cas looked around frantically, but he could see nothing to capture the essence in.

He had no choice. He bent over Adrian's body and put his mouth close to the General's, inhaling the escaping essence until every bit of it had left the General's body.

Cas lingered for a moment, just to be sure. Then he looked at his Angel blade, wiping the blood that was on it on Adrian's clothes. He stood, stretching to his full height, and then he reared back and kicked Adrian in the head, hard. "That's for keeping me prisoner all that time, dickwad," he said contemptuously.

He was about to wink out when it occurred to him: This dick in uniform might be dead now, but the job was not yet done. Hadn't he talked about a formula, one that they were making back at the base? How much of Gabriel's essence were they still holding there? That was a dangerous game they were playing, and besides, that stuff belonged to Gabe, not them. He was gonna need it back, too. Wasn't Raguel still out there, somewhere? If Castiel and his little Kitten and those flannel-shirted male models thought they were going to be able to take on an Archangel of the Lord without Gabriel to help them, they were dreaming. Gabe needed his mojo back.

Castiel looked down at the floor, regarding Adrian's body coldly for a moment. Then he knelt down beside it, gripped his blade tightly, and chopped Adrian's arm off at the elbow. He wrested it away from the corpse, as a person would pull a drumstick off of a turkey. Then he winked himself out of the office.

He reappeared in the library area of the bunker holding Adrian's arm, which was dripping blood all over the floor.

"What the hell, Cas?" Dean exclaimed, jumping from his chair.

"Who's up for a heist?" Cas asked them cheerfully.

Cas explained to his wife and the Winchesters what had happened with Adrian in his office, and they were astonished. But then he also told them that the job was not yet done. They had to go back to Area 51, destroy the formula, and get whatever remained of Gabriel's essence so that they could return it to him.

Cas had laid Adrian's bloody arm on the library table as he spoke, and the sight of it there was starting to turn Sam's stomach. "Cas, can you - " he said, gesturing to the arm.

"What?" Cas/Gabriel said. "Is this bothering you, Sam? You remember you're a Hunter, right?"

Dean grinned. "He's right, Sammy. We've seen way more disgusting things than that."

"Dean, we eat here, sometimes," Sam pointed out.

Cas shrugged. "Fine. We'll get Gail to clean it up later. Quit being such a baby."

As Sam did a Dean-like double-take looking at Cas, Dean nudged his Angel friend. "I don't think I've ever felt closer to you than I do right now," he told Cas, smirking at Sam's expression.

Gail was watching this exchange curiously. There was something off here, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"I trust you still have your ID badges that we wore to Area 51," Cas said to the brothers. As they nodded, he added, "We still have ours, too. We'll all change into our suits and put the badges on, like we did before."

Cas had picked up the bloody arm when Sam had seemed so upset to have it laying on the table, and he was unconsciously gesturing with it now as he spoke. Droplets of blood were spraying around from it, and one landed on Sam's computer screen.

"Dude! Come on!" Sam objected. "At least wrap that thing in something! God!"

Gail stood and brought Cas the towel she'd been using earlier to dry her hair. He took it from her, giving her a crooked smile, and began to wrap the arm in it. Gail waved her hands and produced the golden glow, cleaning the table underneath.

"Better?" Cas asked Sam, who was now looking at him as curiously as Gail had been. "Yeah," Sam said shortly.

"OK, Gail and I will go home and change, and we'll meet you guys back here in a bit," Cas said. He grabbed Gail's hand, then paused for a moment. He was more Gabriel than Cas right now, probably because an Archangel's essence was that much more powerful, and because Cas hadn't had much time to make the adjustment. He was supposed to wink them home now. Problem was, he had never been to Cas and Gail's house. He had even half-joked about them not inviting him for Christmas. To be honest, that had hurt his feelings a bit, although he guessed he could understand it. He hadn't always been the best of Brothers when it had come to Castiel. Gabriel had frequently insulted Cas and his human friends, and he'd sometimes messed with them simply for his own amusement. Then, he had disappeared for a few years. But that wasn't Castiel's fault. How was his Brother supposed to have known that the Army had decided to keep Gabe as their own personal pet, and essence dispenser?

Gail was looking at him now as if she suspected something. When he'd told them all about the altercation in the General's office, he had omitted the part about Castiel having had to ingest his essence there, at the end. Gabriel had just thought it might freak them all out, and besides, they would trust Cas more than they would him. And for his part, Cas was feeling a little bit guilty about it, for some reason. Gabriel had no way of knowing about the history that Castiel had hosting other peoples' essences, and the fact that it was a sensitive subject between him and Gail, still.

Cas reached out and brushed an errant lock of hair from Gail's forehead, enabling him to read the address from her mind. Then he winked them both there.

"Is it just me, or is Cas acting weird?" Sam asked his brother as they walked down the hallway towards their rooms to change.

Dean shrugged. "Yeah, maybe a little. He's probably just pissed off that we didn't get all of Gabriel's stuff when we were there before. You can't really blame him. If they're using it to do things like that tsunami, we've gotta stop them before they do any more damage."

Sam nodded. He couldn't disagree with that. He had read too many conspiracy theories and seen too many movies to deny that the military frequently sought to weaponize these kinds of things. They might be in over their heads when it came to something like the essence of an Archangel, but he doubted they would let that stop them.

"Meet you back in the library in ten," Dean said to Sam, entering his room.

Nice house, Gabriel thought. He and Gail were in the bedroom, and she was going through the closet, looking for her suit. She had already taken his out and laid it on the bed.

"Do you remember where we put those ID badges?" he asked her. Gabriel wouldn't know, of course, and Cas honestly couldn't remember.

"I'm pretty sure I put them in the drawer of the nightstand," Gail responded. "Check the drawer of the one where Ralph is."

Ralph? Gabriel thought, puzzled. He looked at both nightstands. The one on the closet's side had a lamp, and a picture on it. He picked the photo up and looked at it. Castiel and Gail dressed up, standing in front of a fountain somewhere. Las Vegas, Cas told Gabe. Hmm. Nice.

He glanced over at the other nightstand, noticing the stuffed penguin leaning up against the lamp. Ohhhh. Ralph. "Cute," he said aloud. He popped himself over to the other side of the bed and opened the drawer, taking out the badges.

"Did you find them?" Gail asked him. She had stripped down to her bra and underpants, and she was taking a blouse off its hanger.

Gabriel popped himself back over to the other side of the bed, dropping the badges on top of his suit. He shouldn't be looking at her. He really shouldn't. But he couldn't help himself. He walked up to her and put his arms around her waist from behind.

"Cas, we don't have time right now," she said, smiling. She turned around, putting her arms around his neck. "I'll definitely take a rain check, though."

Gabriel started taking off Cas's shirt. OK. He had himself under control now. It was just that it had been so long for him, and she was so cute. But now, she moved forward and kissed his bare chest as he was taking his shirt off. He closed his eyes. Give him strength. Her lips were so soft, and her hair smelled so good. He held his shirt in one hand and pulled her to him with the other, kissing her on the mouth.

"Well, maybe we could take an extra couple of minutes," Gabriel murmured, starting to smile. That was probably all it would take, too.

"Or maybe I should just kick your Archangel ass, instead," Gail snapped. She grabbed the shirt out of his hand, holding it in front of her with one of her hands, and pushing him away with the other. "Or, better still, we'll wait until you're out of my husband, and then we'll give HIM the pleasure of doing it."

He stepped away from her, smiling sheepishly. "What gave me away?"

"I knew you were acting weird, even back at the bunker," she told him angrily. "But I thought for sure that Cas would have told me he had another man inside of him before he would let me undress in front of him."

"Come on, Kitten," Gabriel wheedled. "Don't blame Cas for that. It's just been so long since I've seen a beautiful woman undress."

"Don't give me that," she said, rolling her eyes. "Now, take your suit and your ID badge out to the living room and change. And I'd better not catch you looking at me again, or you won't have to worry about getting your essence back."

"Yes, Ma'am," he said, his eyes sparkling. Gabriel went to the bed and picked up his suit and ID badge. He looked down at the bed for a moment, imagining Castiel and Gail in it, tangling up the sheets. Castiel would be on top of her, ardently making love to her, and Gail would be crying out his name. Then the next moment, she would be the one who was on top, and Cas would be whimpering, vowing his undying devotion to her. How amazing that would be. Their Father had blessed Castiel indeed, probably much more than he deserved.

Gabriel popped Cas's vessel into the living room, and he began to change clothes.

Gail tossed her husband's shirt on the bed, shaking her head slowly. She guessed she couldn't be too mad at Gabriel. It had taken her longer than it should have to figure it out. But as soon as he had kissed her, she had known for sure. Nobody kissed like Cas. No one. Not that she ran around kissing a bunch of guys, of course. But still, she had known the difference immediately.

She put her suit on, her lips twitching. For some reason, she couldn't stay angry with Gabriel. She knew he hadn't meant any harm, and she was sure he wouldn't have actually followed through, even if she hadn't busted him.

She attached the badge to the jacket of her suit, checked herself in the mirror, and then popped into the living room. Gabriel was fully dressed, waiting for her.

Gail snapped her fingers exaggeratedly. "Darn it. Already dressed," she quipped. She smiled at him. "My husband always did look fantastic in a suit," she remarked.

"It's me, my love," Cas said. "Yes, Gabriel is still here too, but he has promised to let me drive right now, so to speak. He did want me to apologize to you for his behaviour, though. You have our word that he will not be making any further advances towards you."

She inclined her head. "Apology accepted. Now, let's get going. I want my husband back, one hundred percent of him. If Gabriel wants, we can fix him up with a nice female Angel after this is all over." She came forward and took Cas by the hand, winking them back to the bunker.

Cas unwrapped Adrian's arm from the towel and regarded it for a moment. The towel had absorbed the blood, so the limb was no longer actively bleeding. They would need to bring it, but they couldn't be too overt about it, not until they had gained access to the base. So he shoved the arm down the back of his pants, covering it with his suit jacket.

Dean looked at him incredulously, but Sam smirked. "I have so many what's-in-your-pants jokes running through my head right now, I don't even know what to do with myself," Sam wisecracked.

"So do I, but there's no time right now," Gail said, smiling. "Remind me later, and we'll write them all down."

"OK, let's go get those military asshats," Dean said. "Sammy and I went to the weapons room and restocked, so we're all set."

"How are we going to get in?" Gail asked aloud. "Even with our ID badges, how are we going to pass those checkpoints without an escort? We all know we can't just pop in."

"True. But I should be able to pop us to the first checkpoint, with the extra juice I have in me right now," Cas remarked. "After that, we'll just have to use whatever means we can."

So the Angels popped themselves and the brothers over to Checkpoint Alpha. Sam and Dean remained hidden while Cas and Gail used the two-finger system on the guards, incapacitating them. The Winchesters got into the guards' jeep as Cas opened the gate.

They crept quietly forward in the jeep, headlights off, until they got near the second checkpoint. Cas took Gail's hand, but she shook her head. She was starting to feel the effects of the sigils, already. They must have reinforced them, making them stronger than they had been the last time. Cas understood. He popped himself over to the guard booth and incapacitated the guards himself, then opened the gate for Dean to advance the jeep to the final checkpoint.

But by the time they got to the third checkpoint, Cas could feel the power drain out of him, and Gail was starting to feel extremely nauseous.

"I - can't - " Cas whispered, and the Winchesters nodded. They remembered what it had been like the last time.

Dean coasted the jeep closer to the booth at Checkpoint Charlie, then parked it. He gestured to the Angels to stay there. Then he nodded to Sam, and the two of them eased quietly out of the vehicle and moved stealthily towards the booth.

Sam picked up a couple of medium-sized stones and chucked them at the booth. A moment later, one of the guards came out to investigate the noise. When he did, Sam grabbed him from behind, stripping him of his weapon. He knocked the man on the head with the butt of the gun, and the guard fell to the ground, unconscious.

Dean had slipped into the booth in the meantime. He had the element of surprise, so he was able to overpower the guard easily and wrestle the firearm away from him.

Sam appeared in the doorway of the booth. "Let's go," he urged his brother. "Our companions are starting to feel really sick."

"Sorry, buddy. Nothing personal," Dean said to the guard. He wound up and punched the guy in the face, knocking him out.

Sam had brought the jeep up to the gate, and Cas and Gail were in the back, clutching at each other. "Please hurry," Cas pleaded. "We're not feeling very well."

That was an understatement, Dean thought. Their friends were pasty white and trembling, and Gail was holding one hand to her head. Cas had his arm around her, but he was shaking from head to toe.

It was clear that Cas would be in no condition to open the gate. "Get in and hang on, Sammy," Dean instructed his brother. Once Sam was seated next to him, Dean mashed the gas with his foot and rammed the gate with the jeep, busting it open.

They drove onto the grounds of the compound. Dean parked the jeep by the quonset hut and he and Sam and got out. They went to the back and helped the Angels out of the vehicle. The four of them entered the hut. Dean was holding Gail up, because her knees were buckling now. Cas and Sam had their arms slung around each other, like two mates reeling home from a night at the pub.

Sam brought Cas to the elevator, and his Angel friend reached into the back of his pants and took Adrian's arm out. He slammed the hand on the panel and waited for the elevator to work. But, nothing happened. He couldn't believe it. They had come all this way and done everything they'd done, and now they were going to be turned away, just when they were so close.

"It's not working!" Cas exclaimed, agonized. "Why isn't it working?" He slammed the hand on the panel again. Still nothing.

Sam took the arm from him and felt the hand, nodding. "It's too cold," he said. "The panel must be heat-sensitive."

"What?! Why?" Cas exclaimed. He was slumped against the wall now, clutching his stomach. He looked at Gail sadly. She had sunk to her knees now. "We have to do something, and quickly. Prolonged exposure to the ancient sigils can be fatal," Cas moaned.

"Great," Dean said angrily. "What the hell are we supposed to do now? We're screwed! Why is the stupid thing heat-sensitive?"

"To prevent against this type of scenario," Sam commented. His brow was furrowed in concentration. "If a high-clearance officer is killed, his blood will stop circulating, so the hand cools. So even if the sensor was able to recognize the palm print, the door won't work unless the hand is warm, meaning he has to be alive in order to call the elevator."

"Wait. I have an idea," Gail breathed. "Help me up," she said, clutching at Dean. He bent down and put his arms around her, helping her up off the floor. "Take me over to Cas," she instructed Dean.

She faced her husband. "Cas, I need you to let Gabriel come out, all the way," Gail said to him, "and then, I need you to kiss me."

"Uh...do you think you could pick a better time to do that junk?" Dean said, cocking an eyebrow at her.

Gail sighed, ignoring him. "Do you remember when you and I kissed when we got back from Heaven, when Lucifer was there? Do you remember what happened?"

Sam and Dean exchanged puzzled glances, but Cas smiled grimly. Gail's knees buckled again, and he moved forward quickly and caught her. He wrapped his arms around her. "I sure hope this works, Kitten. Otherwise, we're toast," Gabriel said softly. He kissed her on the mouth, and after a moment, his purple essence started to glow. It enveloped her lips, and then her face. Then it faded, and she broke the kiss, stepping away from him.

"Give me the arm, Sam. Quick," Gail said. He extended it to her, and she grabbed the General's hand with both of hers. She pressed her hands tightly on either side of it, and a moment later, a weak golden glow emerged. "That'll have to be enough. It's all I've got," she said wearily. "Put it on the panel, Sam."

Sam took the arm to the panel and pressed the hand to it, and the elevator door opened. The brothers helped the Angels into the elevator, and they took it downstairs.

The instant the door opened underground, Cas used the last ounce of his and Gabriel's combined strength to burst out into the corridor. He withdrew his blade from his jacket pocket and used it to scrape at the sigil that was closest to him, while Sam did the same to the one on the other side.

"Thanks, you guys," Gail breathed with relief. She gave Dean an appreciative squeeze, then stepped away from him tentatively. She smiled when she found that she was able to stand up on her own. It was funny how a few expertly-drawn red slashes of paint were able to make her and Cas so ill. Yeah. So funny that she'd almost died laughing.

Cas rushed to her side. "Are you all right?" he asked her. He held her gently by the upper arms, scrutinizing her face.

"Yes, I'm fine now, Cas," she replied. "How are you?"

"I'm all right too, my love. That was very quick thinking on your part," Cas remarked, and then Gabriel broke through for a moment. "And it was also the most action I've had in ages," he added, waggling one eyebrow comically. "Are you sure you don't want to trade up?"

"Shut up, Gabriel," Gail said with a half-smile. "As it is, when you come out of there, you're going to owe Cas an apology."

He shrugged. "Hey, at least I didn't slip you the tongue."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Umm...we just broke into a Top Secret military installation. Can you guys do your weirdo Angel crap on your own time?"

They moved as quietly as they could down the corridors towards the area where they remembered the lab to be. No one accosted them. In fact, the place seemed to be deserted. They exchanged puzzled glances. Where was everybody?

"Not that I'm complaining, but why is it so quiet?" Sam said softly.

Unbeknownst to the group, General Greene had had that entire wing cleared of soldiers. Only he, Generals Tanaka and Sizemore, and Doctor Exeter had remained. Adrian had wanted only the highest-ranking individuals present while the tests were going on. Loose lips sinking ships, and all that. But it had been a bad tactical move on his part. His two fellow officers were currently in the lab talking to Dr. Exeter, so there were only three obstacles in the quartet's way, and the Angels were back to full power now. This should be a breeze.

"Where is the General?" Dr. Exeter asked the Officers, his lips pursed in frustration. "He's late for his daily dose."

"I'm afraid he won't be coming," Cas said in a calm voice. The Generals and the Doctor looked towards the door of the lab, startled, and they were shocked when they saw who the intruders were.

Sam and Dean levelled the guns at them, and Cas and Gail had their blades drawn. They were taking no chances.

"You men know what we're here for," Cas told them. "We'll take whatever essence you have left, and then we'll be on our way. And, just so you know, we've breached the sigils, and I've already gotten some of my mojo back, courtesy of the late General Greene." Gabriel smirked. "So, you were right, he IS late. See what I did there?"

"There isn't any left," Dr. Exeter told him. "We used it all up, making the formula."

"Really?" Castiel said angrily. "Do you think I was born yesterday?" He strode up to the doctor and put one hand on the scientist's shoulder, slamming him down into a chair. He put his blade to the man's cheek, then pulled it down, creating a large gash on the doctor's face. "Care to try that answer again?"

"All right!" Dr. Exeter cried. "There's one tube left! It's in the fridge! I didn't need it anymore, because I was able to make up the formula based on the samplings that we already had."

"You're lying," Gabriel said aloud. "What are we gonna do, Castiel?"

"You know the answer to that question," Cas answered himself grimly. "Please go to the fridge and check, Gail."

She moved to the refrigerator and opened the door, rooting around in it. She pulled out a cylindrical tube filled with liquid. "That's all there is," she confirmed.

General Sizemore was edging closer to Dean now, but Dean saw the motion out of the corner of his eye. He swung the weapon he was holding in the man's direction. "Don't even think about it, Soldier Boy," he warned.

Sam was looking at Cas curiously. OK, so they had one tube of the stuff; so what? Even if they assumed that Dr. Exeter was telling the truth about that, and it was a big assumption, what about the formula he'd been talking about? And what about the fact that the guy knew how to make the stuff? If they left with that one little measly tube of Gabriel's essence, what was to prevent these men from starting the same crap all over again once they were gone?

Castiel knew that too, of course. He put his hand on the doctor's forehead now, searching his mind. He had been telling the truth about the single test tube of essence that Gail was currently holding in her hand. But he'd been lying about everything else. There were cases and cases of formula stashed in boxes in various places all over the compound, and just minutes before Cas and his group had gotten here, the Doctor had injected both of the Generals and himself with their first inaugural doses of the formula.

Gabriel removed his hand from the doctor's forehead. "You son of a bitch," he said softly. "You were gonna let us walk out of here with one little firecracker, while you have thousands of nukes all ready to go, right here at the base. What the hell is the matter with you people?" He sighed deeply. "Do whatever you have to do, Castiel."

Cas came back to the forefront now. "Keep an eye on these men. If one of them moves, shoot him in the kneecaps. I'll be right back."

He winked himself from room to room until he found the room where the MPs who had locked Sam and Dean up on their prior excursion here kept the handcuffs. He grabbed three pairs, then winked himself back to the lab.

The Doctor and the Generals were all still seated when Cas got back, but there was a fresh puddle of water on the floor beside them. "We'd better hurry this up, Cas," Sam said nervously. "When you were gone, there was a brief thunderstorm here in the lab, complete with thunder and lightning."

"Lucky I've got quick reflexes," Dean said, grinning weakly. He showed Cas the sleeve of his suit jacket. It was ripped open and, incredibly, it was smoking. "Lightning bolt," he said by way of explanation.

Cas gave one pair of handcuffs each to the brothers and kept one for himself. They cuffed the men to their chairs. Then the Winchesters looked at Cas. "What do we do now?" Dean asked him.

Before Cas had a chance to answer, the room began to shake violently. Glass beakers fell to the floor, smashing to bits, and the men had to grab onto the work table in the middle of the room to keep from being tossed to the floor.

Gail wasn't so fortunate. The only piece of furniture she had been near was the lab fridge. When the earthquake started, the refrigerator door flew open and its contents spilled all over the floor. Then the fridge itself was upended and went sliding over to the other side of the room. Gail could feel herself losing her balance, too. She dropped her blade and stashed the test tube in the most secure place she could think of. She went down to the ground, hard, and then she rolled to the other side of the room, right behind the fridge.

Cas dove for her as she went by, and he was able to grab her arm and pull her to her feet as the earthquake subsided.

"That's just the beginning," General Tanaka said. "Let us go, or you'll wish you had."

"Is that right?" Cas said, his eyebrows raised. Then Gabriel took over. "You, and what Army?" he wisecracked. Then: "Sorry, guys. I've just always wanted to say that." As the others looked at him, shaking their heads and rolling their eyes, Cas asked Gail, "Where's the tube?"

She gave him a faint smile. "I put it where I thought it might be the safest during the earthquake." She reached down her blouse into her bra and produced the test tube.

Cas's mouth dropped open. "Gabriel said to tell you he's got so many jokes in his head right now that you've literally rendered him speechless," he told her.

"Thank God," Dean said, rolling his eyes again. "So, I repeat: What the hell do we do now?"

"The only thing we CAN do," Cas said in a serious voice. He took the test tube from Gail's hand, uncorked it, and inhaled the contents as the others watched, shocked. Then he threw the test tube down on the floor and smashed it, like a football player might spike a ball in the end zone.

"Well, it's been real," Cas said sarcastically. He waved his hand once, and Dr. Exeter slumped in his chair, bleeding from his eyes and ears. Another hand wave, and General Sizemore died instantly of a massive coronary. Cas faced General Tanaka. "Any more threats?" he sneered.

"Please don't hurt me," General Tanaka pleaded. "I have a family."

"Yeah, well, so do I, you asshat," Cas retorted. He stretched out his hand and touched General Tanaka's head, frying his brain inside its skull.

Cas turned to Gail. "I'm sorry you had to see that, Kitten, but it had to be done." He waved his hand again, and suddenly, the four of them were outside, standing on a hillside about a mile from the base.

"This'll only take a second," Cas told his stunned companions. He stood looking towards the compound for a moment, then raised his arms like a conductor preparing the orchestra to start playing. Then he thrust his arms out towards the compound and sent fireballs down from the sky, one after another after another, until the entire aboveground camp was in flames.

"What about - " Sam started to say, but Cas held up his hand. "Patience is a virtue, Gigantor," he said, smirking. Then they heard a series of explosions, and Cas grinned. "Might be I saw a bunch of cases of high-powered explosives when I was down there looking for the handcuffs," he said smugly. "Don't you worry. There won't be any Eau de Gabriel going out on the market any time soon."

They all watched the conflagration wordlessly for another minute or so, and then Cas winked them away.

The argument began the instant they got back to the bunker.

"Call Gabriel," Gail said tersely to her husband.

"What's the matter?" he asked her. "Have a seat. Have a drink. In fact, I think we should all have one. We've had a very traumatic day."

"You took that stuff on purpose, didn't you?" she asked him, her voice raised.

"Of course I did," Cas replied. "It was the only way I was going to have enough juice to do what I needed to do. And it worked. Mission accomplished. Problem solved." He sat down at the library table and hooked another chair with his leg, putting his feet up on it. Then he looked at Dean. "Dean, would you be a lamb and get my wife a drink? She looks positively frazzled. No, wait a minute: what am I saying? Nobody even has to move." He snapped his fingers, and drinks appeared in front of them all. "Now THAT's what I'm talking about," Cas said, smiling. He looked around, gesturing with his hand. "Sit, sit. Please."

Gail was glaring at him. "I hate it when you get like this," she hissed. "Call Gabriel. Now."

Sam and Dean were looking at each other uneasily. When Cas got like this? They weren't really sure what Gail was talking about, but Cas was behaving like a bit of a dick now. Must be all that Gabriel inside of him. Once he gave it back, he would be back to normal. So they shrugged, sat down, and picked up their drinks.

But Gail was livid. She wasn't going to sit down and she wasn't going to have a drink until Cas did what he was supposed to do. What he'd promised he would do. She continued to glare at him.

Cas took a casual sip of his drink. "Have a seat, Gail. Here, sit next to me," he said, removing his feet from the chair and gesturing to it. "I won't bite. Well, not unless you want me to," he added, smirking again.

"Oh, my God!" she shouted, looking at the Winchesters. "Are you guys hearing this crap?"

The brothers were uncomfortable. On the one hand, they didn't want to get involved in a domestic dispute between their two Angel friends. But on the other hand, now that they looked at Cas more closely, the expression on his face was making them feel a little bit sick. They'd been down this road with him before, years ago.

"Yeah, man. Gail's right. Call Gabriel, give him back his stuff, and we'll all have a drink to celebrate a successful mission," Dean said to Cas uneasily.

"Did you see what I did back there?" Cas said to his friend. "Wasn't it amazing?"

Truthfully, Sam had pretty much known that it would have to end that way, but he had been a little shocked by the callous way that Cas had gone about killing those men. It had reminded him of the way that Cas had just snapped his fingers and exploded Raphael, that time he had ingested all of those souls to keep Crowley from getting his hands on them, and to get enough power to try to win the War in Heaven. Cas had that same look in his eyes now, half cold fish and half gleeful megalomaniac.

"If you don't call Gabriel in the next ten seconds, I will," Gail told Cas. She also didn't like the look on her husband's face. She didn't like it one bit.

Cas shrugged. "Fine. You call him, then. He likes YOU. I'll just sit here and finish my drink. Well, at least I'll be facing him on an equal footing, when he gets here." He grinned. "In fact, I'm probably more powerful than him, now. Won't that be nice, for a change. He might actually have to speak to me with respect, for once."

Gail's eyes narrowed. She turned on her heel and marched over to the stairs, then began to climb them.

"What are you doing?" Sam called to her.

"I need a breath of fresh air," she told him. "And I want to make sure Gabriel hears me, loud and clear." She stomped up the stairs and exited the bunker, slamming the door.

Sam's lips twitched. Gabriel had better come immediately, or the next person who was going to be in need of rescue was Cas.

Gail stood outside in back of the bunker, fuming. Sam and Dean didn't seem to get it. But then again, how could they? To them, Cas had never been a Demon. But when she'd looked at the arrogant expression on his face just now, that was all she'd seen. Because of the shared delusion that she and Cas had had, they were the only ones who knew what that was like. But Cas was more Gabriel right now than himself, which meant that he also had the ego of an Archangel. Maybe Gabe was the best one of the bunch, but he still thought he was better than any of them. Look at the way Gabriel had talked about Cas, when they'd first brought him to the bunker. Like Cas was an insignificant nobody. It made her blood boil. So now, Cas was feeling the power of an Archangel. In a way, who could blame him if he wanted to hang onto that feeling a little bit longer? He was right; what he had just done in Nevada HAD been amazing. Yes, he had killed those men coldly and perhaps unnecessarily cruelly, but would it have been more acceptable for them to have died in those fiery explosions? Before the year of the death squads, Gail would probably have been very upset by the manner of those men's deaths. But she was more of a realist now. As soon as they had made the decision to make that formula and inject themselves with it, they had pretty much sealed their fates. It was Cas that she was concerned about now.

Gail sent out the call to Gabriel, and he appeared immediately. She explained the situation to him as succinctly as she could, and he looked at her speculatively. "What are you not telling me, Gail?"

She heaved a deep sigh. "Never mind," she said. "You'll see." She touched his face for a moment. "Just do me a favour and try to be a little bit understanding about it, will you?"

Gabriel looked at her curiously for a moment. Then he took her hand from his face and snapped his fingers, winking them into the bunker.

In the few minutes that Gail had been gone, Cas had really started to worry Sam and Dean now. After his wife had stormed up the stairs, he drained his drink and smiled. "She's cute when she's angry," he'd commented casually. He snapped his fingers, and another drink appeared in front of him. Cas picked it up and looked at the brothers, raising an eyebrow. "Sexy, too. Maybe I'll encourage her to stay mad at me until I can get her alone."

"Come on, Cas," Dean said uncomfortably. "We don't want to hear about that kind of stuff."

"Fair enough," Cas said, nodding. He put his glass down and rose from his chair, stretching his body as if waking up from a particularly refreshing nap. "Boy, I feel great," he enthused. "What a terrific day!"

"Yeah, except for all those people who died in that tsunami," Sam said dryly.

Cas looked at him coolly. "Well, there's that," he acknowledged. "But still, I think it was a success, overall."

The brothers exchanged uneasy glances as Cas began to pace the floor. "So, help me out here, fellas," he said. "How do I convince my wife to let me keep it?"

"Keep it?!" Gail exclaimed. She let go of Gabriel's hand and rushed towards her husband. "You've got to be kidding me with this!"

"No, I'm not," Cas said to her. "You saw me back there. I was awesome. You can't tell me I wasn't. Wouldn't it be great if I had that kind of power all the time? I could vanquish all of our enemies with a single wave of my hand."

"Sit down," she said angrily. "You're vanquishing nothing."

Cas looked at Sam and Dean, grinning. "See? I told you. Sexy." Then he looked at Gabriel. "Hello, Brother. How's tricks?"

Gabriel was looking at Castiel with distaste. "Am I really this obnoxious?" he asked the Winchesters.

"Well, we weren't gonna say anything, but now that you've brought it up..." Sam said, his lips twitching.

Gail poked her husband in the chest. "Give it back to him," she instructed Cas. "Right now. All of it. Every drop."

He reached out his arms to embrace her, but she backed away from him. "Come on, Gail," Cas wheedled. "Why are you so angry? Why aren't you even looking at me?"

"BECAUSE YOUR EYES ARE PURPLE!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Cas paused in mid-reach, shocked to the core. Oh, God. My God. No wonder she was so upset. He saw the disappointment and reproach on her face. What was the matter with him? He was supposed to be better than that, now. He wanted to be better, for her, and for himself.

"I'm sorry, Gail," Cas said, anguished. "I'm so sorry. You're right. I'll give it all back, immediately. I never want to have purple eyes again."

Sam and Dean and Gabriel were all looking at each other, completely confused. Purple eyes? What the hell were those two talking about?

Gabriel strode forward. "You clearly have way too much of me in you, Brother," he said in a surprisingly gentle tone. "Let me help you with that."

He and Cas stood facing each other. Cas opened his mouth and released the purple smoke and Gabriel leaned forward, breathing it in. The process continued until Cas coughed out the last couple of puffs. Then he fumbled for a chair and sat down heavily, exhausted and overwrought.

Now it was Gabriel who was stretching his body to its full height. He patted his chest with both hands, breathing deeply. "Now, that's more like it," he commented.

"So you're back up to full strength, then?" Sam asked the Archangel.

Gabriel frowned. "Not quite. Since those five-star dicks took so much of it to do their experiments with, I'll never be back to full strength again. It's a real shame, too. I was hoping, once I got it back, that I'd be an equal match for Raguel. But there's no way I could beat him in a straight fight now." He smiled ruefully. "Hey, I might not even be able to beat Ammit. And, that other guy? Fugget about it," he said, affecting an accent.

"We'll back you, if it comes to a fight," Dean told him.

Wasn't he cute, Gabriel thought. Dean had no idea about the kind of power the Unholy Trinity possessed. But it was good of him to offer, anyway. Maybe Gabe had been a bit hard on these guys. "Thanks," he said simply.

Gail had drawn up a chair beside Cas, and she was touching him lightly now, attempting to comfort him. She knew what he was doing now; he was beating himself up.

Sure enough, he raised his eyes to look into hers. His beautiful, blue eyes. "I'm going to withdraw from the election," he said miserably.

"No, sweetie, please don't say that," Gail pleaded with him.

"Why not?" he said sadly. "This was my test, and I failed it. The spirit in black at Rudolph Valentino's grave said I would be tested by a danger from above, and from down below. The extreme weather was the peril from the sky, and those men and their plans were the peril underground. With all of your help, I did what had to be done, but I was prideful and arrogant about it. I let the power go to my head, once again. If I am God, I will have that kind of power, and more. I cannot be trusted with it."

"I don't agree," Gail said softly. "This wasn't the same thing. The essence you had in you wasn't you; it was someone else. It was like being under the influence of a drug, or something. And as soon as you realized that you were getting carried away, you checked yourself. That's real progress, as far as I'm concerned."

Cas smiled faintly. "I just didn't want you to shout at me anymore."

Gail smiled at her husband. He was joking now. She took that as a good sign. She picked up one of his hands and held it in hers. "When you're God, it'll be all you, sweetie. And look at how far you've come. I know you can handle it. You'll be a wonderful God."

He looked at her doubtfully. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because I know you, Cas," she said confidently. "You already know all the right things to do. All you have to do is just believe in yourself." Then she smiled. "And if you do get carried away, I'll just shout at you again. That should be enough incentive, right there. Who the hell wants to listen to THAT, all day?"

Cas smiled, opening his arms wide. "Please come here," he said. She got out of her chair and sat in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her, and they started to kiss.

Gabriel rolled his eyes, smirking. "Do they do that all the time?" he asked Dean and Sam.

"Yeah, pretty much," Dean replied. He was smirking, too.

"Well, as much as I'd love to stay and watch, I'd better get going," Gabriel said. He moved over to where Cas and Gail were, clearing his throat. They stopped kissing, but Gail stayed seated in her husband's lap.

"Thanks for the top-up, Brother," Gabriel said to Cas, extending his hand. Cas lifted Gail gently off of his lap and stood, taking the hand that Gabriel had offered him. "And, for the record, I think you'll make an excellent God, Cas," Gabriel added. "Your smart and very adorable wife is right. You just need to believe in yourself more. That's really all the mojo you need."

Then Gabriel smiled down at Gail. "It was good to see you again, Kitten." He looked at her chest, giving her a comic leer. "I'm sure I was well-cushioned in there. Thanks for the mammaries."

"I cannot believe you just said that," she said, trying not to smile. Then, she gave in and laughed. "I actually liked 'you and what Army', though," she told him. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear there was a little essence of my brother inside YOU." Impulsively, she moved forward and gave him a hug, and then he looked at Cas. "I'm sure you've heard this before, but you're one lucky son of a gun, do you know that?"

"Yes, I know that, Gabriel," Cas said, looking at Gail warmly. "I know that very well."

Gabriel released Gail from the hug and chucked her under the chin, then he looked at Cas again. "Knock 'em dead in Heaven, Boss," he said, grinning. Then he looked at Sam and Dean. "See you later, losers." Hey, he couldn't go too soft; he had a rep to maintain, after all.

Then Gabe snapped his fingers, winking himself away.