Hold it together, birds of a feather,
Nothing but lies and crooked wings.
I have the answer, spreading the cancer,
You are the faith inside me.
No, don't
Leave me to die here,
Help me survive here.
Alone, don't remember, remember.
Put me to sleep evil angel.
Open your wings evil angel
- Evil Angel, Breaking Benjamin
Sam stared at the grown creature in front of him. It curled in on himself, seemingly shielding itself away. Despite the submissive body language of the Nephilim, there was something extremely threatening about him. Maybe it was the eye's, or the fact that he'd just been born but was fully grown or perhaps it was the creepy ass noises it was making. Whatever it was that was threatening, it was making the hairs on Sam's arm stand on end.
What were they supposed to do about this? The Nephilim managed to create a tear in the fabric of reality before it had even left the womb, god only knows what he could do now he's on two feet. They had no idea what to do and they were one their own now. Sam's stomach sank at the thought of what had happened. Rowena, Crowley, Cas and now their mom, gone. They were on their own. Given a second to think of what they'd lost, Sam thought he may just fall to his knee's.
No, he couldn't think about that right now, he couldn't think about his family... There was a threat at hand. A possibly world ending threat so he needed to keep it together. He wouldn't think about how Crowley had killed himself to help them or Cas' face as the light fades from his eye's or the fact their mom was trapped in some crazy alternative universe with a pissed of Lucifer. No, instead he'd think of something that didn't break his heart. He'd think about dealing with the nephilim.
Sam considered what the hell he was supposed to do. He was no match against a nephilim. He didn't even know if he needed to fight yet. Just because Jack looked like something from a horror movie didn't mean he was dangerous.
Searching for his voice, Sam decided to try and talk to the newborn nephilim.
"Jack? I...I don't want to hurt you, okay? I want to help", began Sam with his hands up.
The Nephilim rose to his feet, eye's ablaze. Sam was waiting to get something back, some kind of reaction. He was hoping he'd accept their help and not be hostile. He just wanted something to go their way for once.
The Nephilim simply gazed at Sam which quickly became unnerving.
"Ja...", began Sam before the nephilim flicked his wrist and sent Sam hurtling through the air. Sam felt himself collide with glass that shattered from his weight and before he could do a thing to stop it, he knew he was heading out of the second storey window.
His body landed with a heavy thud and the sickening crack of a breaking bone echoed through the tense air. Black spots splattered Sam's vision and pain radiated through his body.
He'd landed not too far from Cas' lifeless body, where Dean was still kneeling over their fallen brother.
At the smashing sound, Dean's eye's had snapped from Cas' body, to the window as he saw his little brother come plummeting out of the window.
Cas was dead and Dean didn't want to leave his side but his little brother wasn't dead and he needed him.
Quickly rushing over to Sam, Dean grimaced as he noticed Sam's ankle bent at a unnatural angel and his brother's face creased in pain.
"Sammy?! What is it?", questioned Dean.
"It's the nephilim, it's Jack. He's not a baby", explained Sam through gritted teeth. Dean frowned in confusion but before he could question Sam further, he felt the presence of someone else.
Dean looked to the doorway of the house where Cas had been keeping Kelly. Emerging from the threshold was the figure of a grown man. He stepped further away from the house, his image becoming clear to Dean.
He looked around the age of a human in their early twenties but Dean had no doubts this man was Kelly's 'baby'. He was as pale as a sheet of paper and his eye's glowed golden. He walked closer to the brother's and Dean shielded Sam's injured figure in a protective stance.
The Nephilim appraised the brother's in, what almost looked like, apathy before turning from them and disappearing all together.
It had been a week since Jack had been born. A week since they'd lost so much.
After the nephilim had dismissed them and walked away, Dean had helped Sam into the car and then carefully placed Cas' body in the back seat of the impala.
They headed back to the bunker in silence. When they finally arrived, Dean lay Cas down in the bunker, in his home. He knew they'd need to lay him to rest but he couldn't do it. Not yet.
After Sam's fall, he needed the hospital. Dean left Cas' lifeless body in the bunker, covered by a blanket before insisting Sam got checked out. Sam had obviously broken his ankle but he'd also broken his leg in the same side. It was put in a cast and Sam got sent hobbling along on a pair of crutches. Broken bone's aside, Sam only sustained a concussion. He'd been lucky, unlike Rowena, Crowley, their mom and Cas.
After the hospital, they drove back to the bunker. They ended up burying Cas. Sam had suggested a hunter's funeral because after all, Cas was one of them but Dean seemed intent on burial. Sam wondered if part of him wanted to save his body in case he found some way back but Sam feared that there was no way back from this.
Thr brothers weren't hunting. Sam couldn't really hunt on crutches and he thought the rest might do Dean good too. However, with no hunt and no idea where the nephilim was, it gave Sam the opportunity to truly process what had happened. Cas was their brother, a Winchester where it mattered and he was gone. Crowley may have been a sneaky son of a bitch 70% of the time but Sam thought, as far as demon's go, he wasn't so bad. He was sort of a 'frenemy' and Sam was actually sad that he'd died. Then there was Rowena. A woman who was undoubtedly difficult to work with and would stab you in the back if there was something in it for herself but she was still an ally and she was gone too. And Mary...Their mom. They'd only just got her back and half of that time they'd been on completely different pages and when they finally got it together, she was gone too. She'd stood up to the devil for them and now she was trapped in another universe with him.
It had finally hit Sam, everything that happened and it hit him like a semi and sucked the air out of his lungs. He didn't know how to handle it. He'd tried alcohol but that just made him sadder. He'd tried talking to Dean but Dean was shutting down.
Dean. Sam worried for his brother. Sam loved Cas. He would have died for him and he saw him as family but it was just different with Dean. Sam wasn't sure if it was that they had a closer bond or just a different sort of bond but he knew how hard the death of Cas must feel for Dean. Sam was finding it hard enough, so he knew that Dean would be devastated.
Sam wanted to talk to Dean. He wanted to be their for his brother and help him. He wanted for them to deal with their grief together but Dean was shutting down. Sam was walking on egg shells around him. He had the sense that Dean was angry with him. He wasn't taking it out on Sam or yelling at him like after their dad but Sam almost wished that he was. He could handle it better than the broken look in Dean's eye's.
Dean was drowning his feelings in whiskey and denial and Sam didn't know how to reach out to him. He felt useless. So when he couldn't do anything to take away his brother's pain at losing their family or his own, he decided to try and focus on something he might be able to do something about. The Nephilim.
He researched all day and by night tried to sleep until nightmare's came into play. Sam's nightmare's included old memories of the cage, of the nephilim's eye's and continous clipshows of Cas' death and their mother's disappearance. Sometime's in his nightmare, instead of Cas' body, it was Dean's. In his dreams, Sam was kneeling over his older brother's dead body. Waking up in a pool of sweat, Sam headed to the kitchen where he'd find Dean. Both, so obviously racked with night terrors but neither of them acknowledging it.
In the end, neither of them slept much. Sam would continue his research into the night and Dean would begin to help but usually end up paying more attention to the whiskey bottle then to the computer.
They were stuck in the cycle. Both brother's hurting but neither of them with a clue how to make things better.
After a week, Sam finally had some news.
"Dean I've found him", told Sam as he shook his brother awake. Dean had fallen asleep hours ago in a drunken stupor, his head resting uncomfortably on the table.
"What?" Groaned Dean.
"I've found Jack", stated Sam.
"Okay, I'm awake. What did you find?", asked Dean in a groggy voice.
"I was looking for signs of strange crap happening and ended up stumbling across several stories about events which seemed sort of biblical and then I pulled CCTV footage from those towns and searched out for him and I've managed to track all his movements in the past week. He's moving a lot but he seems to be heading in a pattern. It's like he's looking for something or someone and then I looked at the tapes again and I noticed that in almost every bit of footage he's in, there's this same girl in all of the footage too. At different times to Jack but it's too much of a coincidence that she just happens to be in all of the same places, right?", expained Sam.
"Yeah, so you think Lucifer Jr is tailing this chick for some reason? Why?", questioned Dean.
"I don't know but it doesn't seem good. Like I said, it seems to be in a sort of pattern and I think that, if he continues the pattern he's been travelling in, he'll be heading to Chardon, Ohio next", said Sam.
"So we head over there and try and find this girl, see what's going on with her?", asked Dean.
"Yeah, I can't think of any good reasons Jack would be after her", nodded Sam.
"Okay, let's go", agreed Dean.
Sam fidgeted in his seat as the impala slid across the smooth asphalt. There was a heaviness in the air and Sam was desperate to break it but he didn't want to trigger a blow up from Dean. But Sam couldn't take the tense atmosphere anymore, so he forced his throat to work for him
"Dean? I...I'm sorry man", stated Sam quietly.
For the first time on the trip, Dean glanced at his younger brother and a genuinely confused look plastered his face.
"What for?" Asked Dean simply.
"...All of it. Letting the nephilim get away. For Lucifer. For mom and Crowley and Rowena...and for C..Cas. I'm sorry for everything, man", breathed Sam tiredly.
"Sam, no, none of that crap is your fault. I don't blame you for any of it, Sammy", stated Dean.
"Really?", wondered Sam in disbelief. Sam was so sure Dean's anger at their whole situation had been directed at him. Dean had barely said two words to him or looked him in the eye, since.
"Why would I? None of it was your fault. The Nephilim sent you flying out of window, I don't think you had much of a choice in the matter Sammy and Lucifer? That wasn't on you, Sam. Crowley is the reason why he wasn't in the cage. As for Cas, mom and Crowley? They made their own decisions. None of it was one you", frowned Dean.
"You're not mad?" Questioned Sam.
"Damn right I'm mad! I mad at Cas, at Crowley, at mom and Lucifer. I'm pretty pissed off at Chuck himself right now but I'm not mad at you. I know I've been distant this past week but you know I'm not good with this emotional crap! I just need time to work through it my own way and my own way just happens to be solitude and alcohol but I don't blame you for any of this. We're good ", insisted Dean.
"Okay", nodded Sam, "I guess, wherever Lucifer is concerned, I always feel like that's on me. You know? Like he's my responsibility or something".
"Sammy, you're not his parent. The only person responsible for him is Chuck and himself. You don't owe anybody anything, especially when it comes to Lucifer, you've given enough and suffered enough because of him. As much as it sucks that mom's trapped in that bizzaro world, Lucifer is gone too. He can't end the world anymore", reminded Dean.
"Okay", stated Sam as he offered a small smile to his brother, "and I get that you need to deal with this in your own way...but you don't have to deal with this by yourself. I'm not pushing you but you're not on your own with this. I know that this has gotta be hitting you hard. So, I'm here. If you need me, I'm here".
"I know you are but talking about it isn't going to change anything. It's not going to bring them back. What I need to do is focus on the problem in front of us, on 'Jack' but, if I do need to talk...I know where you are", conceded Dean.
Sam smiled at that. He wasn't convinced that Dean would open up even if he did need too but getting Dean to even consider the option was a massive feat when his brother was grieving.
"So, what are we planning to do about him if we find him?" Asked Dean.
Glad that he was at least talking, Sam was willing to talk about whatever even if it was about the nephilim.
"I'm not sure what we can do at this point but he's after someone and we can at least figure out why. If she's in danger, we can try to keep her safe but we still don't know if we even need to do anything yet. He might not be evil", suggested Sam.
"Really? 'Cause he looks like he's walked right out of an issue of fangoria and he sent you through a second storey window. I thought we were pretty sure he wasn't a good guy at this point", countered Dean.
"I hear you but looks don't mean anything and he might have just felt threatened...he had a chance to kill us but didn't. Why would he leave us?" Wondered Sam.
"Maybe he didn't give a damn about us because he knows he's too powerful for anyone to kill him", replied Dean.
"Maybe...I guess we'll know more when we find this girl he's after", stated Sam.
Dean and Sam were almost at the end of their 15 hour drive to Chardon, Ohio. They'd spent the rest of the drive making small talk and listening to one of Dean's tapes. There was a darkness hanging over them but Sam was just relieved that Dean was talking more and was actually sober for a change.
They were passing through Painesville, a town in Ohio that was just 20 minutes from Chardon. The highway was wide and empty. Sam was taking in his surroundings the way he always did when they were driving.
Dean's panicked voice snapped Sam from his thoughts.
"Sam!" Exclaimed Dean. Sam looked to his brother. Dean was focused on the road, eye's wide. Sam gazed at the road to see what had Dean so panicked. His stomach twisted.
The Nephilim stood in the centre of the road. His fierce gaze focused on the brother's. He was now fully clothed and fully visible in the day light. He didn't look any less threatening.
Dean pressed the brakes suddenly, causing both he and Sam to lurch forward. The nephilim didn't waver, continued looking at the brother's.
Without a word, the nephilim pushed his left hand in the direction of the right, almost like he was pushing away some sort of invisible force. Sam and Dean didn't have time to consider what the hell the nephilim was doing, before the impala flipped over, continuing to smash around in unison with the nephilim's hand.
They felt every smash, as the impala collided harshly with the ground before smashing into a tree at the side of the road. As his beloved car was being totalled with him and Sam in it, Dean briefly saw the nephilim walking away disinterestedly before sinking into the blackness that was sneaking into his vision.
Dean reclaimed consciousness some time later. He didn't know how long he'd been here or what had happened. His mind was fuzzy and unfocused but he had the sense that something bad was going to happen or had happened, he just wasn't sure what. However, he was aware of pain, a lot of pain which told him that his instinct was right. He just couldn't string the thoughts together to figure out what to do about it. He did know he needed to get to Sam. To find out if he was okay but his mind and body were not working well together.
"Sam?", croaked Dean before a coughing fit attacked him.
Dean wasn't sure how long he'd bee there but at some point, he felt strong hands pulling at him. He wanted to fight but he couldn't. Soon, the pain and fear vanished and was replaced with a sort of contentedness before he once again, drifted of into oblivion.
Sam didn't remember what had happened properly. One minute, he and Dean were driving to Chardon and the next, Jack was in front of their car and then there was nothing. Sam knew the car had gone over but he had no memories after that. He found himself waking up laying on something soft and comfortable. The air was warm and had a cosy feel to it. Some band that he'd never heard of were playing softly in the background and the smell of something good cooking, filled his nose.
Sam would have thought he was in hospital after what had happened but the thing he was laying on was much to comfortable and the food smelled just too good for a hospital. The surroundings also lacked the clinical smell that was so familiar with hospitals.
Sam pried his tired eye's open. He blinked and took in his surroundings.
They were in a small 'apartment' of sorts but there was no window's and the walls were stone, almost like they were in a cave or something but there were homey lamps and fairy lights illuminating the place. He realised that he was lying on a sofa that pulled out into a bed, covered by blankets. He looked and saw Dean lying on a pull out bed too.
Despite the comfortableness of where he was, panic built up inside of Sam. He had no idea where he was or how he and Dean wound up here. Dean wasn't awake but Sam was beyond relieved when he saw his chest rising and falling. Sam slowly began to get up of the bed.
"You should rest", called an unfamiliar voice.
Sam froze, the voice was female but wasn't in Sam's sight. He saw light coming from around the corner towards the end of the 'room'. He stood up, ready to fight as he headed towards the opening.
A women stood with her back to him, stirring something in a sauce pan. She glanced at Sam, smiling cheerfully.
Sam recognised her, she was the woman from the pictures. The woman who the nephilim was chasing.
"I'm sure you have a tonne of questions which I'll be willing to answer but for now all that you need to know is you're safe and I'm hella hungry. I'm gonna make some food. Do you like spaghetti?" She asked brightly.
Sam was about answer when he heard grumbling from behind him. Sam turned to see Dean waking. Sam could see the moment Dean's instincts kicked in and his eye's shot open.
Dean was up in an instant, taking in his surroundings.
"Sammy? You okay?", asked Dean.
"He's fine", replied the mystery woman.
Dean reached for his gun as he noticed the woman.
Sam took notice of the woman properly for the first time, finally being able to relax now he knew Dean was okay. He could see her much more clearly, off the CCTV footage. She was more of a girl than a woman. She looked in her early twenties. Her hair was a dirty blonde colour, that was cut above her shoulders. It was tied back loosely, several bits of hair falling out of the hold. Her eye's were green with flecks of gold. Freckle's scattered her face and dimples appeared on her face whenever she smiled. She was small but most people were small to Sam. She looked about 5"4. She was dressed in a severely oversized hoodie which looked worn with age. It was so big, it looked more like a dress and her hands were hidden in the long sleeves. She didn't look threatening but Sam knew that didn't really mean anything.
She glanced at Dean and his gun before continuing with her task, apparently unconcerned about the gun aimed at her.
"You know, it's sort of rude to threaten the person who saved your life", scolded the girl lightly.
"You what?" Asked Dean.
"You know? You were in a car wreck after the nephilim tried to kill you. I got you out of there, healed you and I even fixed your car", informed the girl.
"You fixed my car?!" Demanded Dean.
"Yeah, she's a beauty! I'm not a car person but even I know she's something special", she admired.
"Look lady, I appreciate that you saved our lives and fixed my car but you're obviously not human. You need to tell me what you are right now!" Ordered Dean.
"Fine", sighed the girl as she put down her utensils. She looked at Dean before raising her hand in front of her. When she did, Dean shot backwards and involuntarily sat on the sofa. The gun was swept out of his hand. She did the same with Sam. She wasn't hurting them but right now, they couldn't move.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to you. I'd just rather have this discussion civilly without a useless weapon being pointed at my face", stated the girl, "My name is Madeline but I prefer Maddie".
"Okay, Maddie. So what are you? An angel?" Asked Sam.
"Sort of. I'm a nephilim too, like Jack", answered Maddie.
"Is that why he's after you?" Wondered Dean.
"I'm not sure if he's 'after me' as such...more like reaching out to me. We're linked somehow. I think it's because I'm nephilim too but whatever it is, I can feel what he's feeling and I know he can feel me too. He's terrified. I was on my way to find him when I found you guys. I think he see's you both as a threat", explained Maddie.
"I thought the angel's killed all nephilim's?" Questioned Sam.
"They thought they did but there's a few of us still out. None quite like Jack and I though. We have something in common", said Maddie vaguely.
"Care to explain?", snapped Dean.
"Well seen as you asked so nicely", scowled Maddie, "My father was an archangel too, like Jack. That makes us both considerably more powerful than other nephilim's", stated Maddie.
"That's not possible", denied Dean, "other than Lucifer, all the archangel's are dead or incapacitated".
"They're really dead?", asked Maddie in disappointment.
"Well Gabriel and Raphael are and the other two are unreachable", admitted Sam, "Sorry".
"It's okay. I always knew it was a good possibility. I mean, I could never find him but anyway, they might be dead now but I'm 24 years old and they weren't then", reminded Maddie.
"Gabriel", stated Sam in realisation.
"What?" Questioned Dean.
"Come one, Dean. When you think of the archangel's, who's the one who strikes you as the most likely to get someone pregnant? The angel that come's to mind for me is a certain trickster who had an apetite for candy, woman and messing with us", replied Sam.
"You knew my dad?" Interjected Maddie eagerly.
"So he's right? You're Gabriel's kid?" Inquired Dean.
"Yeah, he's the one", confirmed Maddie.
"Look kid, I want to believe that you're cool and everything but you need you give me more information. All of the information", bargained.
"Fine", agreed Maddie.
A day ago
Madeline sighed in relief as she flopped herself down on the comfortable sofa. The homely blue pull-out looked so inviting compared to the motel's, ugly looking bed sheets, that she was used to. Madeline was tired. Not the kind of tired that would ease after a good nap but the type of tired that seeped through to her soul and grace. She felt a little lighter now though. Finally in her home town of Chardon, Ohio where her parents had raised her.
She'd been back in America and on the move for the past year and she had resented having to lay low in grotty motels but it was the best she could afford whilst she was on the run. Madeline was warded from angels but it didn't stop supernatural creatures from being drawn to her and her power. There was a particular group of demons that had been after her for the past two years and after she'd felt the effects of Lucifer's child being conceived, she knew she needed to lay low but recently, she'd come to realisation that trouble would always find her wherever she went.
Due to who she was, her life was never going to be simple but running didn't keep the supernatural world away from her and it only made things harder. Maddie had decided that, if she was constantly going to be fighting for what most human's take for granted, then she could at least form some resemblance of a normal life for herself. She'd started to make her way back to her parents home town and once she'd gotten there, she's sought out a place to stay.
Maddie still wanted to stay under the radar so she went to a mountain range. There were some perks to being a nephilim. One of which was he ability to create things from nothing. She made a sort of, hallowed out space in the middle of the mountain. There was no entrance or door to get into it and only someone with supernatural abilities could make their way in. Inside, Maddie made a place for herself. Using her abilities to conjure up lighting and furniture. It was cosy and she felt like she had a place for herself for the first time since she was six years old.
Maddie had studied all aspects of her kind, of angel's, of witchcraft and of supernatural beings in general. She'd had to develop a skill set to put up efficient warding that would keep other's out but allow her in. It was a new situation and before now, Maddie's life had been a constant stream of crap.
Maddie had only found out that she was a nephilim when she was 16 years old. Before then, she had known she wasn't normal but she hadn't know what exactly she was.
She remembered her mother telling her she was special as a little kid but Maddie hadn't known her mom was being literal.
Maddie was 6 when her entire family had died. For the first six years of her life, she had lived with her mother, step father (who she'd believed to be her biological father) and her younger brother, who was 2 years younger, in Chardon, Ohio. Maddie's 'special' abilities made themselves known from day one.
When she was a young child, she had little control of her power, so her mom had taken her to a powerful psychic who helped Maddie to gain control and it had helped enough to allow her to live a normal life. Other than the grace swirling inside of her, she was normal kid. Her family was happy.
Until her sixth birthday.
It had started out great. Her little brother had woken her at 6:00 am, jumping on her bed, yelling happy birthday. Maddie had been desperate to learn how to ride a horse and despite their low incomes, her parents had saved up for her to take a lesson on her birthday. Her friends mom had taken Maddie and her best friend to the lessons whilst her parents were preparing a little party back at there home but the party never happened.
Maddie had burst through the door to her home with her friend and her mother, excited after her lesson. She'd ran through to find her parents. It was when Maddie was looking in the kitchen that she had heard a horrified shriek from her best friends mom. Maddie ran to her, seeing the bloody scene before her. Her parents lifeless bodies were strewn unceremoniously, crimson blood splattered the room like some kind of macabre birthday decoration. There were two stranger's in the room too, collapsed and unconscious but with bloody blades still tight in their hands.
Maddie hadn't realised she was screaming or crying until she was being picked up by a police officer. The gentle man had scooped her up, shielding her from the horrific sight as he whispered reassurances to her.
She had only been six years old but she remembered every detail. She saw it in her dreams.
The police declared it as a robbery gone wrong but her little brother hadn't been among the casualties in the house. He was never found. The men who'd killed her family had claimed that they didn't remember doing it. They both said the last thing they remembered was seeing black smoke, two weeks prior to the murders. Maddie hadn't known at the time but some years later she had realised that demon's killed her family. They came for her and her family had payed the price. She had been out, if she had only been home, maybe they'd have just taken her and left her family alone. She never stopped blaming herself and it wasn't the last time demon's came for her but she always handled them.
After her parents died, Maddie was placed in the care system. The only other relative she had was her mom's father but he was elderly and unwell so she was placed in foster care.
She spent the next 8 years being passed around from different children's homes and fosters families. It wasn't great. Some of the places she got sent were okay. Others were not so good and some were really bad. She hardly spent five minutes in one place. She mostly spent a couple of weeks with fosters family's and a couple of months in the kids homes. The longest she ever spent with one family was 3 years and that was the worst of all the places that she'd ever been sent. She never got a permanent home. Nobody wanted to take in a troubled preteen who'd witnessed a grizzly murder.
When she was 14, she got put in a adolescent psychiatric unit. They thought she was crazy. She would have done too, from their point of view. At the age of 16, her case worker had given her the letters from her mom. They'd been found in her mother's personal belongings, addressed to Maddie with the instructions that she was only to open them when she turned 16. It was almost like her mother wrote them in case something did happen to her.
She'd explained everything in the letters, including the truth about who she was.
When Maddie's mother had been 20, her parents had wanted her to marry their friends son. Her parents were old fashioned and wanted her to marry and settle down. Maddie's mom had been a free spirit and her parents weren't enthusiastic about her personality and interests which is why they wanted her to marry someone suitable. Maddie's mom hadn't wanted their future, so she ran away. She had been saving up since she was 16 and had enough money to catch a flight to France. She'd always wanted to go and she had known that it was the right time.
She got a job in a little cafe and the owner had let her crash in a box room at the back of the cafe. Her mother had wrote to Maddie about how much she had loved it there and it was there she had met Maddie's biological father. They met at a bar, he'd introduced himself as Gabe and they spent the next 6 months together.
They fell for each other and at first, her mom had no idea that there was anything different about the man she'd fallen in love with. That was until she was mugged and stabbed. She'd been bleeding out in an abandoned alleyway when Gabe had shown up. She was fading but she didn't miss her boyfriend using his own hands to heal her stab wound.
He'd taken her back home and explained everything. At first Maddie's mom hadn't believed him. Miracle healing hands were one thing but the archangel Gabriel was a whole different ball game but Gabriel had the power to back up his claim and she eventually accepted what he was telling her. She'd been mad at him for keeping it a secret but she had forgiven him and they'd continued their relationship. They lived together for a while and they were happy.
18 months into their relationship, Maddie's mom found out she was pregnant. Gabriel had panicked because nephilim's were a 'no go' area in his world but he wasn't worried about Maddie being an 'abomination', he was worried about her safety and the harm other's could bring to her. Maddie's mom wrote how he stayed all through the pregnancy and through the birth. Gabriel had protected Maddie's mom and made sure she survived the birth which was apparently a rarity with nephilim mother's.
They'd spent a week together as a family once Maddie had been born and according to Maddie's mom, Gabriel had loved her dearly which is why he had left. Gabriel had been hiding out from his family by pretending to be a trickster but he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to hide forever and that, if he stayed with them, he would bring harm to his daughter too. He had warded Maddie's bone's with Enochian sigil's to make her invisible to the angel's who would want her dead, just like he had concealed her birth. He made sure Maddie was protected and then he had left. Maddie's mom had returned back to America to raise Maddie. When Maddie had turned 1, her mom got married. The rest Maddie knew and didn't need her mom to write to her about it.
Before her letters, Maddie had thought that she could have been a Cambion. As soon as Maddie hit 11 years old, she had grown curious about who she was. She threw herself into finding out. It distracted her from the mess of her life and gave her a sense of control. She had learned about angel's and demon's, vampires and monster's. She knew about hunter's and the tricks of the trade. She knew everything but none of it provided any solid evidence about who she was. After her parents death, Maddie had stopped trying to control and keep her powers under wraps and had instead, started to explore them and she had begun to realise the extent of what she was able to do. She was powerful and after researching, she thought that her mom maybe could have been possessed by a demon. Cambion's were said to be of great power and that she was but she had never known for sure until her mother's letters had come along and told her the truth. She was the daughter of Gabriel. The guy little kids dressed up as in nativity plays.
She'd spent her time in the psychiatric unit, honing her abilities. The security of a human mental hospital wouldn't hold her if she had wanted to get out but she hadn't. She hadn't felt ready to face the world alone. She'd utilised her surroundings, feeling safer to find out the true possibilities of her power in the confined space of her sturdy walls.
When Maddie was 18, she knew that she needed to get out of there but she needed a fresh start. Maddie faked her own death. Being a nephilim made it possible. She had staged her own suicide and was even buried. As soon as she'd been buried, she'd fought her way through the dirt and into the fresh air again. She smoothed over the mess she'd made of her grave before moving forward.
Maddie dyed her hair and changed her look. She left behind Madeline Stone at the grave and became someone new. She left America, knowing she needed to get out of there.
She'd travelled all over the place, keeping a low profile and using aliases. She had tried to search for her father, desperate to connect with someone and find a family. After searching for years, she had suspected that he may be dead.
She never stayed in one place for too long and she was always careful but it was almost like Maddie was a beacon for supernatural creatures so she always found herself wound up in something. Maddie sort of became an unwilling hunter. She didn't go out looking for hunts but they always found her. Sometime's factions of demons would try to track her down, not really knowing what she was but aware of her capabilities, but she either outrun them or killed them.
It was only in the last year that Maddie had come back to America. She wasn't better off anywhere else so she had decided to come home. She had decided to stop running and try to find her own version of happiness.
She had realised that the other nephilim had been searching for her as soon as he started but a lifetime of having people trying to kill you, made her wary. She had soon come to the conclusion that he was just scared though and trying to reach out to someone he had a connection with. She was actually going to him when she'd found the Winchester brother's. Maddie hadn't really stayed in the loop when she was on the run in Europe but since she'd come back to America only a few months ago, she's kept her ear to the ground and did her research on hunter's and the creature's that were common in the US and of course, she had heard about the Winchester brother's. They were famous in the hunting community. The men who'd saved the world more than once and died even more time's.
She still wanted to connect with Jack. She had been the one to be alone and scared, with no one to help before and it sucked. If she could help him, she wanted too. Maddie was also convinced that he wasn't evil. He was a new born and afraid. He most likely just felt threatened by the Winchester's.
Firstly though, she wanted to make sure the famous hunter's were okay. They were both close to death, but she had fixed them and their car and then transported them to her new home. Which is where she found herself now.
Maddie relayed her life story the brother's, well at least the cliff notes version but she was ultimately honest.
"Okay", processed Sam, "I don't get it though. You and Jack are both nephilim's born from archangel's but you grew up at the same pace as a regular kid. Jack pop's out as new born 20 something year old".
"I think Gabriel may have been responsible for that. My mom's letter's basically say that before he left, he took every precaution to keep us safe. That included the warding in my bone's, using his grace to protect my mother during the birth but I think he also did something that made me grow normally. My mom had a normal 9 month pregnancy and I grew normally as a kid...although my physical body hasn't changed at all from the age of 21. Being a nephilim, I can feel things that other people can't and that aren't visible to the naked eye. I can feel when my hair is growing and when my skin is renewing. My body hasn't changed a bit in 4 years. My mom didn't specifically mention what he did, just that he protected me and her. I guess that could have been why or maybe not all nephilim's are the same? According to the angel's, my kind should never even exist, so maybe there isn't a standard factory cut out that all of us adhere to. I don't know", admitted Maddie.
"Listen, kid, how do we even know that this is true? Maybe your mom got it wrong and you're something else", interjected Dean.
"No, it's true. It's hard to explain but I can feel it", insisted Maddie.
"I think so too, Dean. I thought that she reminded me of someone when I first saw her and now I realise that it was Gabriel. Maddie looks like his vessel but it's more than that. She has the same mannerisms, the way she talks and walks reminds me of him. Plus, her mother wouldn't have known about Gabriel hiding as the trickster unless he'd told her, himself", added Sam.
"Okay, so if you are who you say you are, how do we know if we can trust you?", asked Dean.
"I never asked you to trust me. I was looking for Jack and I found you guys, half dead and I saved your life. I never said I wanted anything from you. I brought you back here until you woke up and you've woken up, so leave if you want to", scoffed Maddie.
"Can you help us with the nephilim?", asked Sam.
"I'm not going to kill him, if that's what you're asking. I'm going to help him", stated Maddie firmly.
"How do you plan on doing that?", wondered Sam.
"I think he just needs guidance. Part of my power includes empathic psychic abilities and telepathy. I can read people's minds but I can turn it off and I usually keep it turned off because people's thoughts are sacred and I don't like invading that but I do turn to it in emergencies and the empathic abilities are something I can't turn off, I can always sense the way someone is feeling. I can sense their emotion's, their intentions, their aura. All of that means I can get a pretty good idea about the type of person someone is. Although I try not to read people's minds, Jack was searching for me and I needed to know if he was a threat so I looked in his head and all that I saw was fear and sadness. He's alone, his mother is dead and he has no idea what's going on. He felt his connection with me and he's trying to find me because he's looking for help, for someone to turn too. I know he hurt you but he was scared. There was some house right? After he was first born and he threw you out the window but then he walked away. He walked away because he didn't want you dead, he was just afraid of you but when you showed up again, he hurt you badly because he see's you both as a threat. He may look like an adult but he isn't even two weeks old. I know what it's like to be the one alone, not knowing how to deal with this crap. We didn't ask to be nephilim's. I'm pretty much the only person who knows how to help him and I can stop him from going down a bad path", explained Maddie.
"How do we know that you're not just trying to manipulate him so the two of you can run off and end the world together?" frowned Dean.
"If I wanted to end the world, I could do it by myself and if I was some evil monster, don't you think you'd have heard about me by now?", challenged Maddie, "I may be half angel but I'm also half human. This is my home too and I don't want to hurt anyone, I just want to live my life and maybe help Jack live his in the process".
Sam and Dean exchanged looks as they considered what she was saying. They'd been worrying about what they were going to do about Jack and if Maddie could help him, it could be the answer they've been looking for.
"Look, I have to go out for while and I can tell you guys need to talk. Sam, you seem to be feeling okay about me, relatively at ease but Dean, you don't trust me as far as you could throw me. I get it and no doubt you want to talk it through, maybe do some research before you decide whether or not you want to kill me. You can use this place. I have computer's and books and you can talk it out and decide how you feel about leaving Jack alone for me to handle", suggested Maddie, "I'll be back in an hour".
Maddie didn't wait for the brother's to answer and instead, simply disappeared.
"She's spirited", laughed Sam.
"That's one word for it", grumbled Dean, "What are you thinking?"
"I don't know, I think I believe her. I mean, she's powerful so if she was up to no good, she'd definitely have come under our radar before now. Maybe we should do what she suggested and research her, check out if her stories match up", said Sam.
"Okay, let's do it", agreed Dean.
"Find anything?" asked Dean. Sam had been appointed internet and book research and Dean was working his way through her make-shift apartment.
"Yeah, actually. Her story checks out, there's details online that she left out though", informed Sam.
"Oh yeah? Like what?", questioned Dean.
"Well I pulled up an old newspaper story about her families death. They were murdered on Maddie's sixth birthday whilst she was out with a friend. Maddie was there when they found the bodies. Poor kid saw her mother and step-father's bodies after they'd been stabbed to death. Although, her younger brother wasn't at the scene of the murder and he's never been found. The police declared it as a armed robbery gone wrong but the perpetrators were found at the scene, unconscious and when they woke, they claimed to have no recollections of the events and reported seeing black smoke so it seems like they were killed by demon's. After that, Maddie was put into the care system so I pulled up her CPS file. She was passed from different foster home's to different kid's homes. She barely stayed in one place for five minutes with one exception, when she was 8 she was fostered by a family who she stayed with for 3 years but she was eventually taken away from them when it was discovered that they were physically abusing her. After that it was more of being passed around until she was 14. At the age of 14 she was admitted to a adolescent psychiatric unit after she attempted suicide. Apparently she insisted that she didn't do it, that some had attacked her but they diagnosed her with psychotic depression. She stayed in the hospital until she was 18 and like she told us, she 'died' at 18. They reported that she'd killed herself and they even buried her but like she told us, she faked her death. I have manged to dig up photo's of her and it's the same girl we met. It's her and she has no police records and no criminal record. It seems like she was locked away for most of her life. Jeez, she's been through a lot of crap", sighed Sam.
"You're telling me. I feel sorry for her, I do but that doesn't make me feel any better. I mean if anyone had an excuse to be bitter about life and want to hurt people, it's her", pointed out Dean.
"What about you, find anything around here?", asked Sam.
"I found the letter's from her mom and they say exactly what Maddie said they did but other than that, nothing", Informed Dean as he made his way over to a filing cabinet, "this is locked". Dean picked the locks to the filing cabinet and inspected what was inside.
"What is it?" wondered Sam.
"I think it's her medical kit or something", said Dean as he started pulling out pill bottle's, stitching kit's and other medical apparatus, "there's some hardcore pills in here, Chlordiazepoxide, Chlorpromazine, Amoxicillin, Clozapine, Valium, lorazepam, Penbritin, pregabalin, lithium, carbamazepine, Tramadol, dihydrocodeine, Oxycodone...Jeez, I don't even recognise half of these".
"Some of them are benzodiazepines which are sedatives used for sleeping problems, anxiety and pain. Some of them are anti-psychotic medication, some are antidepressant medication, some are mood stabilisers, some are antibiotics and some are really hardcore pain killers", recalled Sam.
"Why would someone with the ability to heal, need all of these? It doesn't sit right with me. Maybe she's drugging people ", spoke Dean.
"Yeah but why would she need to drug someone? She's a nephilim, I'm pretty sure she can just knock someone out with the grace if she wanted to", frowned Sam in confusion.
"You know, you could just ask me", interjected Maddie. Both Dean and Sam jumped at the sudden entrance of Gabriel's daughter.
"Okay, why do you have so much medication?", asked Sam.
"You're right, I have the ability heal human's. I can heal angel's, demon's even vampires and werewolves if I want, I can even bring them back from the dead but I can't heal myself. I think it's probably some kind of cosmic joke that I am one of the most powerful being's around but I can't heal my own scrapes. It's something about the mixture of grace and soul, that mixture was never supposed to happen and that seem's to mean that I can't be healed and no one can heal me. Maybe God himself could but he isn't exactly a hands on grandfather, never even met the guy. I do heal at an accelerated rate to human's but I can't completely heal myself, so that's why I have medical supplies and lots of them because in this life, I get injured a lot and I can't exactly go to the hospital and explain why a light glows from my body when it's cut", explained Maddie.
"I get the painkiller's, sedative's and antibiotics for patching yourself up but what do you need the anti-psychotic one's for?", questioned Dean.
"I steal these med's Dean, I just get in there and grab what ever I can. I don't stand their being picky about what I'm stealing", scoffed Maddie.
"Okay, fair enough", nodded Dean.
"So you're going to let me deal with Jack?", asked Maddie.
"Yeah, you can try to help him", agreed Sam.
"But if this goes sideways and he starts hurting people, we handle it", added Dean.
"Why, what are you going to do about it? You can't kill him. If he hurts people, then I'll deal with it", stated Maddie with no room to argue.
"You'll kill him if this goes badly?" asked Dean.
"If it comes to it, I'll do what I have to", sighed Maddie.
"Okay, that sounds fair", nodded Sam with a reassuring smile.
"I want you to keep us updated though. You don't just get to go off the radar", instructed Dean.
"What are you, my dad?!" scoffed Maddie.
"I don't trust you and I don't trust Jack either. It'll make me feel better and stop me from hunting you", reasoned Dean.
"Oh really? You don't trust me?! Such a big surprise to me, it's not like I can smell the paranoia coming from like a dead fish that's been left in the sun too long", exclaimed Maddie sarcastically, "oh and 'stop me from hunting you'? That's sweet, we both know that you haven't got a chance in hell at killing me sweetheart".
"Okay, we don't need to get worked up over this. If it means anything, I do trust you but you have to understand that when it come's to powerful and potentially dangerous beings, Dean and I are the one's who always try to handle it. It's not in our nature to turn our back on this kind of thing. It would helps us from climbing the walls, wondering what's happening, if you would keep us in the loop", interrupted Sam calmly.
Maddie appraised Sam with her eye's and allowed the emotions that came of Sam in waves, to wash over her. She believed him. She could tell that he didn't want to hurt her.
"Fine", conceded Maddie, "I'll keep you in the loop".
"So what now? We leave you to it?" wondered Dean.
"Yep, see you around", smiled Maddie as she rolled her eye's.
"Are you planning on going straight to Jack?", asked Sam.
"He's not in Ohio anymore. After seeing you guys, he freaked out and he's now in Sweden, I can tell", stated Maddie casually.
"Sweden?!" repeated Sam.
"Yeah, you see, as nephilim's we can snap our finger's and go wherever we want to but Jack isn't even two weeks old so he's not so good with controlling all of this yet. If I had to guess, he just wanted to get away from a threat and accidentally landed himself in Sweden. I'm going to go to him but first, I need to sort myself out. I came here because I thought it would feel safe and like home but it doesn't and if I'm going to help Jack, he'll be staying with me and this place isn't big enough. I'm going to try and find someplace bigger that's out of the way from busy town's so I can help Jack without having him accidentally flatten a whole village", explained Maddie, "But don't worry, I'll reach out to him telepathically first, try to calm him and get him to stay in one place until I get there".
"Fair enough", smiled Sam.
"So, I guess you're going to need my assistance in getting out of here considering there are no entrances", remembered Maddie.
"That would be good", nodded Dean.
Maddie had taken Sam and Dean to the impala, who was in one piece thanks to Maddie. Dean walked to the car but Sam stayed back a second to talk to Maddie.
"So, you have our number's", began Sam.
"Yep and I'll call you at least 3 times a week to give you updates on Jack", nodded Maddie begrudgingly.
"Thank you, by the way. For saving our lives", clarified Sam.
"Nothing to thank me for. I just did what anyone would do", shrugged Maddie.
"No, trust me when I say, not everyone would. I'm guessing that any experiences you may have had with hunter's probably wasn't great", guessed Sam.
"You can say that again. Every hunter that I've come across has tried to kill me", laughed Maddie.
"Yeah, well, thanks for saving us and not just putting us in the same category as every other hunter", smiled Sam.
They stood in silence for a few seconds and Maddie gazed intensely at Sam before breaking the awkward silence.
"Who was it?", asked Maddie softly.
"Who was what?" Inquired Sam in confusion.
"Who was it that you lost?" inquired Maddie, "Remember what I said about the empathic abilities? Well for me, it's like an extra sense. I can smell, feel, touch the emotions that come off other people. I can see people's souls and I'm not just talking about a ball of light, I can actually see someone's soul as a picture of who that person is. I can sense intentions and aura's, I can read people and grief? Grief is something I'm very familiar with and I can feel it coming from you and Dean like someone can feel being hit by a truck. I wasn't going to ask because it's your own business but I've never felt anything like this before. You've lost a lot of people haven't you? Lost more, recently?"
"Yeah, Dean and I, along with other family, fought Lucifer. He was trying to get to Jack's mom so he could get Jack once he was born and turn him into something dark. Lucifer is out of the picture now but we lost people", admitted Sam quietly.
"I'm sorry, I can tell you're a good guy. I sense it. One of the best that I've come across and it sucks that your life is so miserable", offered Maddie.
"It doesn't suck and I'm not miserable. I mean, at time's it has sucked but I'm lucky, I have Dean", breathed Sam.
"What happened, in the fight with Lucifer?" asked Maddie carefully.
"Well he got trapped in an alternative reality but he dragged our mom with him. Our mom died when we were young but she got brought back just a year ago and now we've lost her again. Then there was Cas, he was an angel and he was our best friend. More like a brother really and Lucifer killed him...I have no idea why I'm telling you all of this. You've just met me and you really don't want to know any of this", sighed Sam with a small smile.
"I think I could help you...Your friend, Cas, what did you do with his vessel's body?", asked Maddie.
"We buried him, why?" frowned Sam.
"I can bring angel's back to life if I have a small amount of their grace. If Cas' vessel is still intact, I should be able to draw out the little bit of grace that gets left behind in a vessel. I can use the little bit of grace to bring him back in full fighting form. I can't make any promises but I've done it before", explained Maddie.
"You think, will this work?", asked Sam, scared to hope.
"Yeah, if all goes well", smiled Maddie.
"He's at the bunker, where we live", told Sam.
"I'll take us all there, it'll be quicker than driving", smiled Maddie.
Dean wasn't so sure about this. It wasn't that he didn't want Cas back because he wanted that more than anything else but he still wasn't convinced that Maddie was legit. She was a stranger. Why would she help Cas or them? He didn't trust her but if there was even the smallest chance that she could bring Cas back than he had to take it but he wasn't getting his hopes up.
Maddie had brought them all, including baby, back to the bunker. Dean and Sam were busy digging up Cas' body whilst Maddie hung back in the bunker to give them some privacy.
When they dug up Cas' wrapped body, the carried him through to the room they'd set up for him in the bunker.
Sam went to fetch Cas some fresh clothes. His usual get up of a suit and trench coat, just not the one's that had been under ground for over a week.
With Sam gone, it left Dean and Maddie. Maddie focused on the covered body of their lost friend. She stepped closer, placing her hand on the body.
"I've healed his vessel so it's ready for him", explained Maddie.
"Why are you doing this?" Demanded Dean quietly.
"I know that you're still... apprehensive about me. I understand. I can tell that you've had a complicated life but I'm not hiding anything. I truly just want to bring your friend back", reassured Maddie.
"You don't even know us or Cas, why would you do anything for us?" Asked Dean.
Maddie sighed, considering her answer, "Despite what you think, I'm not a monster and I know what it's like to lose your family. I've lost everyone that I ever cared about. My mother and father were killed because demon's wanted me. I didn't know that I could bring people back until it was too late. Maybe I could still bring them back but as long as their related to me, they're never going to be safe. They're going to keep getting killed, because of me. And my brother...he went missing. I tried to find him but I never could, I failed", choked Maddie as she fought to maintain her composure.
"I couldn't save my own family but maybe I can save other's. I genuinely want to help you and Sam because as shocking as you nay find it, I don't get off on watching other's suffer", finished Maddie.
"Okay", nodded Dean.
Sam returned with a pile of clothes and Maddie pulled away the cover that Cas was wrapped in. She hovered her hand over Cas' mouth and her hand shook slightly with exertion as her face pinched in concentration. Cas' mouth opened as a sliver of glowing grace climbed out. Maddie held the small remains of Cas' grace in her palm. It was a tiny amount but Maddie seemed pleased with it. She cupped the grace before lifting a hand above the one that was holding it. As she pointed her hand towards the grace, trails of the same light began to swirl from the tips of her fingers. The new threads of grace began to bind with remains of the grace Maddie extracted from Cas. This went on for a couple of minutes until the tiny remains of Cas' grace became a large ball of glowing energy. It look kind of like a soul but instead of pure white light, it was the blueish white light of an angel's grace, of Cas' grace.
Maddie stopped adding to the grace and took the ball of energy to Cas' face and guided into his mouth. Cas' whole body began to glow and Maddie placed a hand on his head, closing her eye's and concentrating hard.
Eventually, the glowing stopped and Maddie removed her hand.
Nothing happened and Sam and Dean's stomach fell as they feared it hadn't worked. Dean sighed.
"Wait", instructed Maddie as she felt the disappointment rolling through the brothers.
They waited with baited breath.
Finally the familiar eye's of their fallen friend snapped open, glowing angel blue before fading to the regular blue of Jimmy's vessel.
"Cas", whispered Sam as a relieved smile spread across him face.
"You're alive", added Dean, the joy clear in his voice.
Cas frowned and began to sit up, almost as if checking that he could. He stood up, mentally assessing his body. He felt stronger than he had in years.
There was a rumble of sound and a ruffle of feathers as the lighting dimmed. Cas pushed out his chest as the healed and strong wings spread a dark shadow across the wall.
Cas was really back.