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And CHAPTER TWOOOOO!

After finding his way to town, his first mission was to find out where he was, where his uncle Michael had dropped him off. His eyes caught the bright sign above a little corner side coffee shop. Dusting his jacket and shirt off he stepped off the curb to cross the street, looking up in wonder as the door dinged when he pushed it open, there was a bell.

He liked bells he decided.

"What can I get for you sweety?"

Jack looked up down from the bell, startled, and met the gaze of an older woman. He hadn't had a lot of contact with other humans outside of the Winchester's and wasn't sure what to say.

"Would you like to try the latte?"

What was 'the latte'? A food? Some sort of a treat? He didn't know what these things were.

Only had to call his name.

'Uncle Michael?'

There was a bout of silence and for a second he was fearful he would not get an answer, 'Yes little one?'

'What is a latte?'

He heard him moving, resettling against the wall of the cage, 'Something little ones like you should not try. Do not get that. Perhaps a hot-'

Hands closed over his shoulders and he started, breaking his concentration with his uncle below.

"He would like a hot tea. To go please."

The lady jotted it down on her notepad, smiling at the pair, and nodded, "I'll have this right up for you."

"Thank you."

She walked off to get their order and Jack turned to look over his shoulder, meeting the green eyes of the dark man behind him, confusion and fear clouding his thoughts. He tried to call out to his uncle, scared of the unkown man behind him, but he couldn't get through.

The man spared him a half interested look, paying the woman when she returned with the steaming cup, telling her to keep the change, and guided the young boy out the door. Jack followed hurriedly trying to match his stride, it was difficult but he made due.

"Thank you."

"It is of no issue."

Still he followed, they stopped at another corner, waiting for the red to turn green, and he finally got the chance to try the drink. It was watery, flavored and sweet, but not overpowering. And it was hot. Jack made a face as his tongue burned. The man curled a hand over the top of the cup and he looked up.

His face was expressionless.

"Careful. It is hot. Drink it slowly."

Jack nodded and he lifted his hand away, "Come."

Together they walked down a side street, to the gate of a large lush garden, first the man stepped inside and beckoned the young one to follow him. Part of him questioned why he was having the child follow him, and the other part didn't care enough to answer said question, and the third part just didn't care.

The boy wasn't his. It shouldn't matter to him.

"My names Jack! What's yours?"

"You shouldn't tell people you don't know what your name is."

'I agree. It is dangerous little one. Mind strangers.'

'Do you know who he is uncle? He is nice.'

'His name is Raphael.'

"Raphael?"

The man spun to look at him, eyes narrowing dangerously, and above them in the cloudy overcast sky there was a boom of thunder. A flash of lightning. Jack gulped regretting speaking his thoughts outloud. It was something he would keep in mind for next time, learning something new everyday.

"What did you just say?"

Jack averted his gaze, "Um..Raphael? Your name is Raphael?"

"How did you know that? I never said so."

"My uncle Michael...told me..."

Raphael's eyes widened and more thunder, "Uncle Michael? That is impossible. He is locked in the cage. There is no way for him to contact you unless...", he looked the boy over, "Come."

He hurried after him as the man turned and walked away, trying to match his pace again, he didn't but he made do. They turned another corner in the massive garden, to a small house buried deep in a patch of willow trees, he'd read about Raphael too. As far as he knew this one was the Healer. Why he was in this garden didn't make sense.

Maybe it was the flowers. The flowers were pretty. He liked flowers.

Raphael opened the door to the little house and beckoned him in.

An arm blocked him from entering and he looked up, "Shoes off. You are not tracking mud into my house."

Jack looked down, lifting one foot to look and then the other, he hadn't even seen the mud he'd stepped in. He kicked his shoes off and stepped into the warm little room. It wasn't fancy, but it was spacious, bigger on the inside then it was on the outside.

"You can sit there and drink your tea."

He followed the finger to the small couch near the window and nodded, taking a sip of his drink and grimacing at the heat still radiating off of it. The older angel rolled his eyes and touched a finger to the side of the cup, "There, it should be cooler, go. Sit."

Raphael new of the nephilim as soon as he stepped foot into his town. And while he was indifferent to the offspring of his brother, not his responsibility to look after, not his child, he had made a point to find him once he got close enough.

As he wasn't going to go out of his way for him.

Watching him from afar, sipping at the cooled tea carefully, he knew that as an Archangel it was his responsibility to rid the world of the nephilim, they were forbidden and he had to enforce such a rule.

And then there was the other half of him, the half that made him the Healer of Heaven, drawn to the tears in the boys grace. The little marks on his chest from a smooth cut of a blade. The state of the boys premature wings was also to be put into question. There was a reason that Heaven had once had a rule, way back when, that fledglings could not use their wings to fly until their at least got through their first molting.

This little thing was still much too young to have even neared having his first molt.

His mask of indifference slipped if only for a moment.

"What happened to your chest?"

Jack looked up, over the side of the cup with large blue eyes, "What?"

"Your chest. It is covered in little wounds. What happened?"

He looked down at his cup again, setting it down in his lap, shame heating is cheeks a shade of red.

"I tried to see if a knife could kill me."

"What?"

'What?'

The little one flinched at the scolding tones, from both it was something he'd never experienced before, he wasn't sure if he liked it. Raphael set his mug aside and stood, "Why in Heaven and Earth would you try to do something like that?"

'I could have not asked that better myself, explain yourself, little one.'

He shrugged, obviously it had not worked so he did not see what the big deal was, he was fine. It hadn't done anything to him. Though the look on his uncles face and the tone his other uncle was using made him rethink this process.

"Nestling."

Jack looked up again, "I don't know."

The Archangel sighed deeply, stepping forward, and took the cup from his hand. Jack looked up, tilting his head back as he got closer, and squirmed when he reached down to pull his shirt open, not used to this much contact.

"Wait! Wh-what are you doing!"

"Hush nestling and let me see to you."

Raphael knelt, pressing fingers to his chest, and he smiled at the tingly feeling that spread through him. He didn't understand why it made him smile, it was warm and his chest began to feel lighter.

The thing that annoyed him with Nephilim was that, while they had their grace it was close to the surface when newly born, and, he froze in his administrations looking up into those blue eyes that were one shade darker then his brothers had been.

No doubt from the mother.

"Nestling, how old are you?"

Jack wasn't sure why this was one of the questions he kept getting asked, honestly, he could think of a few better ones to ask. But who was he to tell Archangels what questions to ask and what questions not to ask.

'Little One.'

He mumbled softly. Raphael lifted his chin, not as gentle as Michael had, but not too firm either.

"Nestling."

Jack licked his lips, "Umm..." he thought having to count again, "One hundred-eighty nine days, twenty-two hours, and fifty nine minutes."

The elder made a disapproving noise, "Too young to be on your own." and refocused his healing, Jack watched in amazement as the skin glowed emerald green, and the small holes slowly knit back together again.

"How did you do that?"

Raphael smiled slightly, not even Gabriel had been as curious and amazed at his healing, it was a nice change, "I healed your grace, little nestling, lets not make a habit of this."

"Will I...Will I be able to do that?"

He looked up to meet the boys eyes, "All in time nestling, all in time, you are but a babe still.", he continued when the boys expression seemed to drop, "However, when you are older, passed your first molt, if you'd like I will teach you."

Seeing the expression brighten, the smile that graced the babes features was with it, though he doubted the boy would want that once he learned his true potential. No one really wanted to be a healer. Save for him of course.

"Did you plant the garden too?"

Curious little thing this nestling was.

He chuckled softly, a sound that had not been heard from him in some time now, something he had once thought he had forgotten to do.

"No, little nestling, but I did make it. I once owned a much larger garden. Perhaps one day I will show you it."

And perhaps he would introduce him to Joshua, the old Gardener was always good to the fledglings, halflings or not, he liked any and all people.

"Can I make a garden like that too?"

He chuckled again, "Perhaps, when you are older," he would never admit to it, but it was endearing when the boy pouted. There was much the boy did not understand being so new to this world, but pouting must be something all children must know, just as natural as they knew their parents.

Jack looked up when his hands pulled away, tilting his head when he focused on the others face focused on something over his shoulder.

"And your wings? Nestling did you fly?"

'You flew? Much too young to be flying, you haven't even had your first molt yet, no more of that.'

Raphael handed him his cup back, "finish this," and tugged him forward slightly. Jack took a sip from the now cold cup fo tea and found that he liked it much better like that then when it had been warm.

He wiggled as fingers stroked up and down his back, and something settled, something he wasn't exactly sure what it was, but there was a pressure that had been lifted and it was freeing.

"Nestling, what are you doing on your own?"

Jack took another sip, "I ran away because I killed a man."

Raphael looked down at him, "You ran away?", it wasn't so much he was ignoring that last part but well, as unfortunate as it was, with a fledgling left on their own with no one to teach them there was bound to be some deaths, "Why on earth would you leave the ones assigned to protect you?"

"Because I could hurt them."

He sighed, usually they did not teach such things like healing until after they'd mastered summoning their grace, but to hear a nestling so worried about something they had no control over (well until they could control it) and fearful over it was enough to melt even his heart.

Finished with his healing, he stepped back, motioning for him to follow, "Come nestling."

Jack hopped up from the couch and hurried after him, following out to the back of the little house, to the garden out back. Raphael motioned for him to follow to a little clearing in the flowers where he sat in the soft bright green grass.

"Come, sit," he pat the spot in front of him, Jack sat and crossed his legs, "Now, what I am about to show you, you mustn't do unless its as last resort, understood?"

The young nestling nodded his head watching him intently, Raphael held out his hands, "Give me your hands nestling."

Jack set his hands, palm up, in the Healer's palms. Long slender fingers curled slight. Even in this humanoid form his hands still dwarfed the nestlings.

"Now, the trick to healing is to want to heal. Focus on it, focus on the wound closing, the skin knitting itself up again, on them getting better again."

He nodded, understanding it, somewhat.

"Concentrate."

Jack nodded again, wanting to get it right, to be good at something. Raphael reached behind him, something behind his back, and when he pulled his hand back around it was dripping blood, and it was then that he noticed the large rose bush behind the Archangel.

The young ones eyes went wide, "What did you do! You're bleeding!"

"I know, and you're going to heal it. Concentrate. Remember what I said."

Focus Jack. Focus. The wound closing. The blood stopping. The skin smooth again.

He closed his eyes, focusing on that face like Michael had taught him, and he willed the little holes to close. The blood to stop. His hand to be smooth and warm and flawless again. Raphael watched him silently, eyes trained, and smiled when the little nestlings hands began to glow with grace. A chill covered his bleeding hand, frost spreading over his palm, melting as quickly as it formed.

"Little nestling, look,", Jack opened his eyes and his mouth opened in an awed, "Did I do that?"

"Yes you did nestling, yes you did, now remember what I said. Only as a last resort."

He nodded, smiling to himself at what he'd done, he'd actually done something with his powers that had actually helped someone instead of hurting them.

"Can you show me how to make the plants now!"

"Of course nestling. When you're older."

He still got himself a pout.

Nestlings.