Chapter 2 - Belly Of The Beast
Gail had freed the zipper from the sleeping bag a long time ago, but she had no idea what to do with it now. She'd thought for sure that Lucifer or his minions would have come to taunt her, or seize her, or torture her, or...something. But there had been nothing, nothing at all. It was a good thing she wasn't a human, or she would have been dead of starvation long before now. How long had she been sitting here? Days, weeks? Months, even? Who knew?
She had paced the cell many, many times, trying to keep her muscles from seizing up. She'd felt all along the walls to see if there was any sort of draft, or irregularity in its construction. She'd scratched the walls with the zipper, hoping to broach sigils she couldn't see. But even if she was successful, there was still the sigil that was painted on the outside of the door. How the hell was she supposed to broach that? She'd thought that maybe, just maybe, if she were able to compromise the sigils on the inside of the cell, the effects of the one on the outside would be weakened. But it was impossible. She was stumbling around in the dark like some kind of bumbling fool.
Lucifer must be icing her. But, why? If you were playing with a really fun toy, why would you suddenly just leave it alone? The only answer she could think of was this: because you had found a better one.
To a certain extent, that was true. Or at least, it had been, for a while. When Lucifer had originally brought Paul back to the mansion, he had toyed with the Demon, trying to get Paul to fall down on his knees and beg his forgiveness for stabbing Lucifer in the back. But Paul had been defiant. Lucifer should just give up, he said. He'd lost his army, and Armageddon had been cancelled. Lucifer had lashed out, punishing Paul, because he'd had to admit to himself that the traitorous son of a bitch was right.
So Paul was in a separate basement cell now, broken and bleeding, and Gail was stumbling around hers, fresh out of ideas. And Lucifer was bored. It was time to give away the farm. Well, so to speak.
Cas's cell phone rang. He had been all over Southern California, looking for a needle in a haystack. But he hadn't been able to just hang around the bunker any more. With every day that passed, he could feel the tension building. They all kept looking at him as if he was the actual Messiah. As if he could produce Gail with a wave of his hand. And Cas had been staring at Sam and Tommy, wondering why they couldn't just use their magic computers to come up with something more than an area that encompassed nearly a million square miles.
It was Sam. "We got another clue, Cas," he said.
Cas popped himself back to the bunker, making Sam and Dean jump when he just suddenly appeared. "You have GOT to stop doing that," Sam said with a grimace.
"Yeah, I think Sammy just peed a little," Dean wisecracked.
Frank sniffed the air. "I think that was you," he said to Dean.
"Next time, just tell me you're coming," Sam said, waving the cell phone that was still in his hand.
"Never mind that; what's the clue?" Cas said impatiently.
"It's a poem," Sam replied. He showed Cas the piece of paper. "'In the time of free love/Was a song about an old lady/Sung by a Winchester/and a girl named Brady'," Cas read aloud. He frowned. "What does this nonsense mean?"
"Let's analyze it," Jody said, thoughtfully. "Free love. As far as I know, that would be the Sixties. Hippies, the Pill, etc."
"That makes sense," Frank agreed, nodding his head slowly. "So, it's a '60s song about an old lady. Sung by a Winchester?" He looked at the brothers. "You guys have any musicians in the family?"
"Not that I know of," Sam replied, looking to Dean for confirmation. Dean shrugged.
"Maybe you're looking at it too literally," Chuck piped up. "Winchester's a fairly common name, you know. Maybe we should be Googling singers named Winchester fron the 60s."
"Already on it," Tommy said, typing away. A moment later, he said, "Here's something. Oh, wait. No. It's not a singer, it's a song. Winchester Cathedral. Cas is an Angel, and the song's about a cathedral. Could that be something, maybe?"
"Winchester Cathedral is in London," Jody mused aloud. "Is the compound in London, maybe?"
"I thought we'd already decided it was in California," Frank said, frustrated.
"Why wouldn't you guys know about it?" Riley agonized. "It's talking about dinosaur music, isn't it?"
Dean glared at him. "Remind me to kick your ass when this crisis is over, Junior."
"What's this about dinosaur music?" Bobby asked. He'd been napping in a room down the hall and woken up to the hubbub of excited voices.
Cas read him the clue, and Bobby said, "That's easy. Little Old Lady From Pasadena. Jan and Dean. 1963, I think."
They all stared at him. "What?" Bobby said. "You've got Google, don'tcha? The time of free love was the 1960s. DEAN Winchester and JAN Brady, of the Brady Bunch TV show, also from the 60s. Jan and Dean. They had a song called The Little Old Lady From Pasadena. There. Puzzle solved."
Frank was staring at Bobby with his mouth open. "You're a genius, Bobby."
Bobby shrugged. "Hey, just because I talk with a corn-pone accent don't mean I don't have a few brain cells rattling around up in here," he said, tapping his head with one finger. "I still say life is a way better educator than all of those kilobytes, or whatever they are," he added, waving his hand at the computers.
"Pasta dinner!" Cas said suddenly. Now, everyone's heads swiveled to look at him.
"Uh...what?" Dean prompted his friend.
"When I went to see Paul and searched his mind, he was thinking of a plate of spaghetti. Pasta dinner. Pasadena! He must have been fighting the modification!" Cas exclaimed. He was excited now. "I need to go back and see him again." Then he popped out.
They all looked at each other. "Pasta dinner," Frank said aloud. "I would find that funny if I weren't so damn worried about my sister."
"It'll be OK, Frank," Bobby told him. "Unfortunately, I know Lucifer pretty well, and he likes to play with people. He's dangling her as bait, which means he hasn't done anything to her." He sounded a lot more confident than he felt, but that was what Bobby had to believe, or else he'd be as nuts as the rest of them were.
But Frank wasn't so sure. Surely Lucifer must know that he was kind of on his last stand by now, and that kind of desperate situation never ended well. Look at Hitler, in his bunker. Look at Waco.
"OK," Sam said briskly. "Pasadena. San Gabriel Mountains. Time to check Google Earth."
Meanwhile, Cas was back at the church, looking for Paul. But Paul was nowhere to be found.
"I'm sorry, Yissa," one of the farmers said. "We last saw him at the fellowship meeting. He hasn't been back since."
Cas let out a frustrated breath. Where had Paul gone now? Where would he go? Back to Lucifer? Certainly not willingly. His blood ran cold. Lucifer must have found out that Paul had switched his allegiance. Great. Just one more thing to worry about now.
He had to believe that Gail was all right. He just had to. Lucifer was only taunting him, using her as bait. It was Castiel he wanted. Cas just kept repeating that to himself, as a mantra. She was all right. She was all right.
But she was not all right, not really. A Demon had finally come for her. Just one, but she was in no condition to put up much of a fight. Despite her attempts to stay active, her muscles had cramped up. He told her to get up, but she was slow to rise. So he came forward and grabbed her, yanking her to her feet. She stumbled, and when he pulled her out the cell door, the light hit her eyes and she winced. She'd been in the dark for so long now that the adjustment was painful.
He dragged her up the stairs to the library, slamming her in the armchair. Lucifer was sitting in the chair opposite, having a drink. He made a show of taking his time putting a bookmark in the book that was on his lap and putting it on the table beside him.
"Oh, hello," Lucifer said to her. "When did you get here?"
Gail made no reply. She was too busy trying to stretch her muscles and get her vision back.
"I'm talking to you, and I expect an answer," Lucifer said harshly.
She rolled her eyes. "What do you want me to say?" she rasped. "It was a stupid question." She cleared her throat. Her voice was hoarse.
"What's that you said?" he mocked her, putting a hand to his ear. Then he affected a pout. "Oh, do you have a frog in your throat? You poor thing. I'd offer you a drink, but I know you don't like that. So, here you go." He leaned forward and threw his drink in her face.
That had been unexpected, and she sputtered, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands. Great. She had just been trying to get her sight back, and now, her eyes were stinging.
"Oh, sorry," Lucifer said with a smirk. "Well, look on the bright side: at least you don't have to worry about poison that way."
Still, Gail said nothing. She was still trying to regain her equilibrium. Besides, she was wondering what the point of this little exchange was, after all this time. Was he deliberately trying to pick a fight?
"You know, your husband is a moron," Lucifer said in a conversational tone. "Even Sam Winchester and his famous brain haven't been able to find me. Are you sure they even want you back? I've already given them four excellent clues about where we are. I even gave them the city. And still, nothing. It looks like I'm going to have to take Castiel by the hand and lead him here. You guys are beginning to bore me. When he gets here, maybe things will liven up a bit."
But Gail had keyed in on his phraseology. "'You guys'?" she echoed. "What do you mean, 'you guys'?"
Lucifer nodded at the Demon, who was still standing behind Gail's chair. "Bring our other houseguest up here," he ordered his minion. "Maybe HE'LL drink with me. If his mouth doesn't hurt too much, that is."
Gail's stomach was churning now. Who was Lucifer holding prisoner here besides her, and what had he been doing to them?
Her questions were answered a few minutes later when the Demon came back, with Paul in tow. He slammed Paul down into another chair beside Gail. Then Lucifer snapped his fingers, gesturing to the door, and the Demon left the room.
Gail was horrified. Paul's face was bruised and bloody, and one of his eyes was swollen almost shut. She could only imagine what the rest of him looked like.
"Hey, Boo," he said softly, out of the corner of his mouth. "How are you? Has this big old bully been mistreating you?"
"Have a drink with me, Paul," Lucifer said to the Demon. "She thinks she's too good to drink with guys like us."
Paul gave a half-shrug. He might as well; anything that might dull the pain right now would be most welcome. He got up and started to walk over to the bar, moving gingerly.
Lucifer cleared his throat. "My glass is here, boy," he sneered.
Paul stiffened. Lucifer had used that term on purpose, of course. Paul turned around slowly, walking back to where Lucifer sat.
Gail cleared her throat again, and Paul glanced at her reflexively. She gave him a quick shake of her head. Please don't, she tried to say to him with her eyes.
Paul sighed. He knew this wasn't going to end well for him, but he supposed he shouldn't stir anything up with Gail in the room. If he still wanted to get to Heaven, which he did, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to piss Lucifer off even further with her here. So he simply extended his hand to receive Lucifer's glass. Then he turned back to the bar and made the drinks, delivering Lucifer's to his. Then he made Gail a drink and brought it to her.
Gail smiled gratefully at him and took a sip. She needed something for her throat. Paul took his seat and knocked back half of his drink in one gulp.
"There now, that's more like it," Lucifer said. "We're all being very civilized now. Why don't you two catch up on your news, while I send Castiel yet another invitation to join us? Maybe I'll have to draw him a road map. Be right back." He snapped his fingers and vanished.
Gail turned to Paul instantly, rising from her chair to stand by him. She sank to her knees in front of his chair. "Oh my God, Paul," she said, reaching up to touch his face. "Do you have any injuries I can actually heal?"
He smiled, even though it hurt his face to do so. "If you weren't married to the scariest Angel in Heaven, I might suggest something around the nether regions. It's been quite a while for me, Boo."
Gail laughed, but the sound felt so out of place here that she stopped immediately. Still, she blessed him for it. "That's OK, Paul," she said. "When we get out of here and you get back up to Heaven, I'll have to see if I can fix you up with a nice female Angel. Unless, you know, you prefer the other flavour. That's perfectly OK, too."
He eyed her with amusement. "What is it about you ladies, wanting to fix everyone up?"
She shrugged. "Hey, when we're happy, we just want everyone else to be, too." Then she lowered her voice, just in case. "How are we going to get out of here, Paul?"
"I don't think we can," he said to her. "I've got no powers now. Zero. You?"
Gail shook her head. "No, I don't, either. But now that there are two of us, maybe we can fight our way out."
He laughed derisively. "With no weapons and no powers? I can barely move, Gail. They kicked the crap out of me, and then they hung me upside down and did it again."
She let out a frustrated breath. "Well, we can't just sit here on our asses and do nothing!"
"Why don't we let Castiel and those flannel-shirted bastards come get us, then?" Paul said wearily.
"You want to sit back and just let them walk into his trap?" she said angrily. "Are you SURE you want to get to Heaven? Don't be such a coward, Paul!"
Her rebuke stung, because it was partly true. He'd been defiant when Lucifer brought him here, but Paul was tired now, and he was in agony. He'd been ready to just give up and let Lucifer kill him. But if he didn't help Gail now, would he even deserve to go to the Garden? And, more importantly, would he be able to live with himself?
"OK, little lady," Paul said, standing slowly from his chair. "Let's you and I try to bust out of here."
Lucifer carefully crafted his last clue. If this didn't work, he was gonna have to conjure up some neon arrows, pointing the way. But he was sure this one was going to work. It had to. He supposed he could just give Castiel the coordinates for the location of the compound, but he wanted to make them work for it.
When he was done, he winked himself over to the bunker's property. He had no minion he could rely on to send here anymore. He'd disintegrated the Demon he'd sent here the last time in a fit of temper, when the black-eyed bastard had said something to annoy him. Lucifer couldn't even remember what the guy had said any more. And he'd exploded Quinton too, when the chemist had told him that it was impossible to come up with a dirty bomb that would kill humans, Demons, and Angels.
"Your last formula affected both humans and Demons!" Lucifer had yelled, agitated. "Why can't you just throw one more ingredient in there, then?"
Quinton had stared at him, incredulous. A chemical formula was a delicate operation, especially a toxic one. Did Lucifer think you could just throw an onion in the pot and call it a stew? Besides, his information was faulty. "The last formula didn't affect Demons," Quinton said, puzzled.
"Sure it did," Lucifer insisted. "That's why we stopped using it." But suddenly, he remembered: it was Paul who had told him that. Paul, the traitor. Lucifer saw red. He snapped his fingers and exploded Quinton, then gave an order for Paul to be beaten, but kept alive.
Now Lucifer was down to only a handful of Demon followers, so he'd had to go to the bunker himself. Because of those stupid golden candlesticks, he had to stand even further back from the place than his minion had, but Lucifer had powers that guy had only ever dreamed of, so he wasn't too concerned.
He stood there from afar looking at the metal door, seething inside. Gone were the days when he could just stroll up there and let himself in, like he'd done that one time. Damn the Pope, and damn his damn Holy objects. Sinead O'Connor had been right.
But he still had a few tricks up his sleeve. "CASTIEL!" he bellowed. The birds dropped out of the sky overhead, and the grass in the field behind the bunker turned black. It wouldn't grow again for five years after that date.
Cas's head snapped up. He had been sitting at the library table with his head in his hands. They had a city, a county, and a mountain range. Then why had he not been able to find the compound? He'd been searching non-stop for days, all day long, only stopping to come here briefly to see if there had been any further clues received. He'd had his head in his hands, clenching his hair in sheer anguish.
But as soon as Lucifer yelled his name, Cas sat up at attention. Everyone looked at him. No one else had heard the call, of course.
"What is it, Cas?" Sam asked him.
Cas winked himself outside, and his eyes grew wide. Lucifer was standing in the field behind the bunker, and he was grinning. "You'd better hurry up and find me, Cas," he taunted the Angel. "Your wife's beginning to think you don't love her any more. Here. Catch." Lucifer threw the note up in the air and flicked his finger, and it made a beeline for Cas, who caught it in mid-air. "See you soon," Lucifer said. He snapped his fingers and disappeared.
Cas looked down at the note, then winked himself back inside. He was enraged, of course, but strangely, he was also encouraged. The fact that Lucifer had come here himself to deliver the note signified to Castiel that the game was nearly at an end.
"It's a clue, and I believe it's the last one we'll need," Cas announced. He gave the piece of paper to Sam, who read it aloud: "'Nothing rhymes with it, but we don't care, because we're rich'." Sam looked at Tommy. "What do you think?"
"Orange," Riley piped up.
"What?" Tommy asked him.
"Orange," Riley repeated. "Nothing rhymes with orange."
"That's it," Tommy said excitedly. He zoomed in on the map. "There's an area on Orange Grove Boulevard called Millionaire's Row!"
"No, that can't be it," Cas said, frustrated. "I was there already. It looked like a likely area, because many of the mansions there have ample grounds around them. But I saw nothing."
"Doesn't he have the ability to shield things?" Sam speculated aloud. "Could he shield his whole compound, maybe?"
Cas pursed his lips. "I don't see any reason why he couldn't. But he has signified that he wants me to come, so he will reveal it to me." He winked himself out of the bunker abruptly.
They all looked at each other. Cas and his sudden exits. But they couldn't let him go it alone. What kind of friends would they be if they just sat here and did nothing?
"OK, now that Cas is gone, I'm in charge," Dean announced. His lips twitched briefly. "Since Gail isn't here too, that is. Anyway: Frank, Sam, and Jody, grab your weapons. We're gonna have Kevin and Riley teleport us to this Orange Grove place."
"I want to go, too," Chuck said to Dean. He was still feeling extremely guilty about not having fought alongside any of his friends the past year.
"No, Chuck," Dean replied. "I need you here, ready to roll. If Kevin or Riley call you on the Radio and we tell you it's a go, we still need somebody who can bring Metatron and Crowley there, to finish Lucifer off. Cas told me all about why he was leaving you behind when we went out there, and I think he made the right call."
Chuck was speechless. That was the highest compliment Dean had ever paid him. He took a moment to savour it.
A minute later, the humans came rushing back out from the hallway, weapons in hand. As Sam handed Dean two different kinds of knives and a gun, the brothers made eye contact with Bobby. Dean had deliberately left their older friend off the rescue team. Bobby had been saying, or more accurately complaining earlier that his body was aching all over. The rheumatoid arthritis that had been developing in him when he had previously been a human was coming back with a vengeance, and all that sleeping rough they'd done in the past year hadn't helped. Their friend had been moving gingerly around the bunker for a while, and he'd been napping a lot more often than they were used to seeing. So, unless an all-out assault was required on the place, Dean was electing to leave Bobby behind.
Bobby was frowning, but he realized why he wasn't being included in the group. He didn't like it, but he understood it. And he'd thought that being taken from this Earth too soon was going to be the worst of his problems. Now he had a do-over, but it wasn't exactly the fresh start he'd been hoping for. His body was betraying him, and there was nothing he could do about it.
"Good luck," Bobby said to the group. He sat down heavily at the library table, looking down at its surface, and a moment later the Angels popped out with the humans in tow.
Cas appeared just outside Lucifer's compound at one end of Millionaire's Row. As he had predicted, the shielding had been weakened, enabling Castiel to see the mansion and its grounds.
There was a Demon sentry posted on the grounds, and as soon as he spotted Castiel, he spoke into the walkie-talkie, advising Lucifer that their target was here. Lucifer was upstairs, preparing the bedroom. Once he was finished with the sigils, he popped down to the library to retrieve Gail and Paul. But there was only one problem: they weren't there.
Paul had finally been able to pick the lock on the door for the library, the one that led outside. He'd hoped to be able to just snap himself and Gail out of the room, but Lucifer must have put some extra mojo on his symbols, because Paul had been unable to do it, even though he should be unaffected by sigils. And he'd been reluctant to bust out of the other library door into the mansion proper, because that was exactly the move they'd be expecting.
He opened the doors slowly and looked outside. The library faced a brick courtyard, and there was a gate there leading to the rear of the property.
"If we can get out that gate, we should be far enough away from the sigils to get you out of here," Paul told her softly. Gail put her hand in his, and he looked at her in surprise. "No, Paul. WE'RE getting out of here," she said to him. "No way I'm leaving you here to be his punching bag."
Paul was silent. He'd known she was going to say that, of course. But he also knew that if it came down to only one of them getting out of here in one piece, it was gonna be his little Boo, going home to her husband. And if Paul were to die in the act of saving her, he was pretty sure his next stop would be the Garden. And, he was ready. He had helped the townspeople fix the roof of the church, and then he had knelt in that same church shortly before Lucifer had taken him and made his confession. His soul felt as cleansed as it was going to get.
They made it as far as the gate, but just as Gail was starting to feel the effects of the sigils lessen, Lucifer appeared in front of them. "Nice try, but that would spoil all the fun," he said, smiling. Lucifer looked at Paul, and his smile disappeared. "I'll deal with you later." He put his hand on Paul's forehead and pushed him back into his cell in the mansion's basement.
Then Lucifer looked at Gail. "Time to pretty yourself up, honey. Your husband's coming." He gave her the push to the upstairs bedroom, then winked himself to the vestibule to await Castiel's arrival.
Dean's group was standing at the same end of Millionaire's Row as the compound, but they couldn't see it. After Castiel had entered the property, Lucifer had waved his arms, dropping the veil over the compound again. He didn't want the whole cavalry charging in. This was between the Originals. Keeping it in the family, so to speak. No humans allowed.
"Son of a bitch!" Dean exclaimed, frustrated. They'd looked all over, but there was no compound, and no Cas.
"He must have lifted the shielding just long enough for Cas to get in," Sam mused aloud. "He obviously doesn't want Cas to have backup." He thought for a moment, then took out his cell phone.
Bobby picked up. "It looks like there was a reason for you to be in the bunker after all," Sam told him. "Can you check and see if there's any way to break the shielding on a property as big as this compound must be?"
Bobby frowned. "I doubt it, Sam. Not if Lucifer put the protection on, himself." He thought for a moment. "Sam? I'll call ya back. Just hang tight." Then he hung up, looking at Chuck. Now the debate was raging inside Bobby's head. If Lucifer had Cas now as well as Gail, time was of the essence. He needed to get them help, and he needed to do it fast. But how could Dean and his team help, if they couldn't see the place? Bobby knew of nothing in the lore that would override Lucifer's spell. But he might know a person who could.
Bobby asked Chuck to come down the hallway with him so they couldn't be overheard. "I might have a way to help them," he told Chuck, "but it's not exactly...kosher, strictly speaking. If I ask you to take me somewhere, will you keep it to yourself, if it's gonna help rescue Gail and Cas?"
Chuck nodded vigorously. Like Bobby, he was anxious to make a meaningful contribution. "Sure, Bobby. Whatever you need." Bobby told him where he wanted to go, and the two of them winked out.
Paul was pacing the floor of his cell. Man. Oh, man. What in the hell was he supposed to do now? He had a really bad feeling about this. He dropped to his knees and began to pray.
Cas had been able to make his way up to the porch of the main house without being accosted. As he looked around the ground, he was reminded of a documentary he'd seen once on TV. The show had been about the original Woodstock rock concert, the one in the late 1960s. They had shown pictures of the way that the campgrounds had looked after all of the festivities were concluded. Mud, abandoned tents and sleeping bags, and heaps of garbage. That was what he was seeing now. But no humans, and no Demons. Unless there were some remnants of Lucifer's army in a separate location, it appeared as if his numbers had been truly decimated.
Cas moved quietly over to where the lone Demon lookout was standing. It had Its back to the Angel, and It was staring off into the distance. Cas was puzzled. Either this guy was very bad at his job, or he was here to be a sacrifice. Well, either way, Cas was happy to oblige. He put his hand over the Demon's mouth and slit Its throat with the Demon knife he was holding in his other hand. Then he eased the vessel to the ground, so no noise would be made.
He approached the front door of the mansion with extreme caution. This smelled like a trap to him, all right. As soon as he saw that the front door of the house was slightly ajar, his suspicions were confirmed. There would be no need for stealth now.
Cas pushed the door open and walked into the house. He stood in the middle of the vestibule. "I'm here!" he shouted.
Lucifer appeared. "Well, it's about time," he said archly. "I thought I was going to have to draw you a map. As it is, you took so long to get here that Gail couldn't wait any more. She's upstairs in my bedroom right now. She said if you didn't love her enough to come and get her, to tell you to get lost."
Cas rolled his eyes. "You'll excuse me if I don't just take your word for that," he said dryly. "Take me to her. Once I have ascertained that she is all right I will send her home, and then you and I can get on with the business at hand."
Lucifer smiled coldly. "I'm sure that Gail likes it when you're masterful, but I call the shots around here, not you."
"Be that as it may, I know it's me you want," Castiel said calmly. "Gail was merely the bait. So let her go, and then we can begin the negotiation."
Unbelievable, Lucifer thought, shaking his head. His Brother just didn't get who was in charge here. But he would. Oh, yes. He would. "I'll tell you what," he offered, "let's both go see Gail. See which one of us she prefers."
Cas eyed him suspiciously. He wasn't making any sense. What kind of a scheme did Lucifer have in mind now? Still, if Cas could just see Gail and make sure she was all right, that was the most important thing, as far as he was concerned.
"All right, let's go and see her, then," Cas agreed.
Chuck popped Bobby over to the downtown hotel, as requested. "I'm gonna ask the Front Desk to call her room, and then I'm gonna have her meet me in the bar," he told Chuck. "Maybe you'd better make yourself scarce. She'll be more inclined to help me if she thinks I came alone."
Chuck was intrigued. "She"? Did Bobby have a lady friend? But if he did, why the secrecy? Who would care? But he melted into the shadows in the corner of the hotel bar, as he'd been asked to do. He kept an eye on the table where Bobby was sitting, though. Hey, he was curious. Besides, Bobby would need transportation back to the bunker, wouldn't he?
A few minutes later, a woman with long, flaming red hair walked into the bar. Bobby stood from his chair, and the woman smiled and walked over to his table. The two embraced and shared a quick kiss, and then Bobby started to talk to her.
Chuck had to grab the pillar he was standing behind with both hands to steady himself. Desiree? Bobby and Desiree?! What the hell?
He had to take a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down. His first impulse had been to rush over there and confront her. The last time Chuck had seen Desiree, she had given him that hexed sculpture of the Eiffel Tower, after which Chuck had tried to molest Gail and kill Cas, while under its spell. At the very least, she owed him an explanation. But on the other hand, Bobby must know that she was a witch, and that was why he didn't want anybody to know. If Desiree had a spell that would help them out, Chuck had better put his personal feelings aside and let Bobby handle it.
Bobby told Rowena what he was looking for. She was ambivalent about saving the Angels, but Bobby was telling her that if he could get his group into the compound, they might be able to take care of Lucifer, and that was something she did want. Rowena was still upset about Lucifer's attempt to betray her by giving her over to her son, and she had hated to see what the last year had done to her Bobby. The blame for that could also be laid directly at Lucifer's doorstep.
"I can help you, dearie," she said to Bobby, putting her hand on top of his. "I have a spell that should be able to break through the shielding," she told him. "It's on Page Number...let's see...sixty-two or sixty-four of my spell book, if I remember correctly. I'll give you one of my hex bags. Simply throw it on the ground, recite the incantation from the book, and the shielding should vanish long enough for you to get your people in."
"Thanks, Ro," Bobby said to her. "You wouldn't happen to have that hex bag on you, wouldja?"
She sighed. "I was hoping you'd have time to come up to my room, but I suppose you're in a mad hurry to save your Angels." Rowena rolled her eyes. "Only for you, Bobby." She looked around the room, but no one was looking their way, so she reached up her skirt and produced the hex bag, putting it into his hand.
"Where did you - " Bobby started to say. "Check that. I probably don't want to know," he added dryly.
Rowena smiled. "No, you probably don't. Off you go, then. Call me when you have a few minutes to yourself. The bed in my suite is very comfortable."
Bobby thanked her, without commenting on what she'd said. He'd deal with that once the current crisis was over. Something would have to be done, he knew. It was deja vu all over again. He had been sneaking around to see her, and his conscience had been nagging at him. Sooner or later, he would have to decide which was more important to him: Rowena's companionship, or his friends' opinions about it. And what about his self-respect? Rowena had been nothing but sweet to him since she'd come back into his life, but Bobby had no illusions about who or what she was. One day, if her agenda conflicted with that of any of the God Squad's, they were gonna have a problem.
But for now, Bobby kissed her on the forehead and walked towards the exit. Chuck reached out from behind the pillar and snagged him by the arm. "Did you get what we need?" Chuck asked him in a soft voice. Bobby nodded, and Chuck winked him back to the bunker.
Cas opened the door to the master bedroom, and there she was. Gail had been pacing the room from end to end and corner to corner looking for an escape route, but of course, there was none. Her head snapped up when she heard the door open, and when she saw that it was her husband, her face lit up. But as she rushed forward, she stayed silent. She'd better not yell and call attention to his presence here.
Cas closed the door behind him, and then he turned to her. "Thank God you're all right," he said quietly. He reached out and pulled her to him for a hug. "Thank God," he repeated.
Gail hugged him back, and then she pulled out of the embrace. "Are you here alone?" she asked him.
"Yes," he told her. "Lucifer directed me to come alone."
"I can't use any of my powers here in the house," she said anxiously. "How did you get in? How many guards are there? Where's Lucifer?"
"First things first," Cas said. His arms tightened around her, and he kissed her on the mouth. She responded for a moment. She'd been so scared, and she was sure he had been, too. But then, she broke the kiss. "OK, let's get out of here," she said to her husband. "What's the plan?"
"Wait. I want to talk to you, first," Cas said. He was frowning. "Is it true that you're still angry with me about Africa?"
Now she understood. Cas and Lucifer had talked, and Lucifer had gotten in Cas's head. "This isn't the time to talk about that," she told him. "We need to get out of here, before he comes."
Incredibly, Cas's lips twitched. "He won't be coming here, Gail. He's gone. Elvis has left the building, as I believe the expression goes."
Gail opened her mouth to speak, but before she could protest again, Cas was kissing her again, and this time his tongue was in her mouth. He moved in closer to her, and she could feel that he was in an excited state.
"We were apart for an entire year, and there's a nice big bed over there," Cas breathed, rubbing against her. "You're my wife, aren't you? I know how much you like it, and I like it, too." He licked his lips. "I'm taking charge, Gail. You like it when I do that, don't you? I think you should call me Daddy, and I'll call you Honey, or Baby Doll. How would you like that? I'll be your Daddy, and you can be my Baby. Maybe I'll whip you with my belt while you're taking care of me. I'll bet you would like that."
Cas's eyes were a sickly yellow as he picked her up and carried her over to the bed. He lay on top of her. "We're gonna finish what we started, Sarah. And you won't be able to wink out on me this time."
Bobby and Chuck popped back into the bunker. "I'll grab the book. You grab those," Bobby said to Chuck, gesturing towards the candlesticks on the library room table. He waggled the hex bag. "This'll only uncloak the place. We'll need all the help we can get once we get inside." He ducked into the shelves and stooped to look. Sure enough, Sam had the spell book filed neatly between Werewolves and Wizardry. Bobby smiled grimly. God had been very generous to Sam in the brains department.
"We'll be back soon," Bobby told Barry, Tommy and Rob. Chuck had one golden candlestick in each hand, and Bobby shoved the hex bag into his pants pocket. Then he grabbed Chuck's arm, and they were gone.
"Get out of my husband," Gail said with gritted teeth. Cas's yellow eyes were freaking her out. The Demon days had only happened in their minds, yet she was mentally and emotionally regressing back to that time.
Cas/Lucifer grinned. "You realize how dirty that sounds, right? Then again, everything sounds dirty to me right now. You and I have been long overdue for this date, Gail. And the beauty of it is, I AM your husband right now. So you won't even have to close your eyes. You can keep them wide open while Cas and I are doing all kinds of disgusting things to you. You guys probably already do most of them, anyway."
Gail was struggling to get out from underneath him, but he was too strong. Still, she managed to wrench one of her arms out of his grasp and pushed at his chest.
Lucifer looked down at her hand, grinning. "What's that? Foreplay? Well, aren't you cute. You're gonna have to do a lot better than that if you don't want us to get in your pants. But I don't know why you wouldn't, Gail. I'll tell you what: I may hate my Brother, but I've gotta be honest. He's got a lot to offer here, if you know what I mean." Then he laughed derisively. "But, look who I'm talking to. Of course you would know. And my respect for you just grew a little. But we're wasting time now."
He was trying to grab her free hand. If he could - just - His eyes flared red. "Keep still!" Lucifer roared. "This is gonna happen, whether you like it or not! Hey, I'm giving you a break, here. Just forget I'm in here and pretend it's just Castiel. It'll be fun, I promise."
Gail slapped him in the face, and Lucifer grabbed her hand by the wrist. "Really, Gail? S & M? Who would have ever thought you were into that? But, hey, I could make it hurt, if that's what you want. I'm pretty sure it's going to, anyway."
Suddenly, Cas's face changed. "You will not hurt her," he growled. "I won't let you."
Then his face changed again, and Lucifer grinned. "Really, Big Boy?" he said scornfully. "Then go ahead and stop me. I dare you." He grabbed Gail's free arm and transferred it to the hand that was holding her other arm, and used his free hand to take the sigil handcuffs out of his pants pocket. "This could actually be really sexy, if you let it," Lucifer said in Gail's ear. Then he gave it a lick. "Just think of it as exploring a different side of yourself," he continued. He shook out the cuffs, preparing to put them on her wrists.
"Fight him, Gail, please," Cas said through gritted teeth. "I'm not strong enough to expel him."
"Oh, but I'm strong enough to fight him?" she retorted, frustrated. "I mean, you? I mean...You know what I mean!"
Lucifer grinned again. "Oh, this is too good. By all means, keep on arguing, you two. That way, the sex will be even hotter." He clamped one of the handcuffs around her wrist.
"Fight him, Gail. Please, fight him, as hard as you can," Cas was pleading.
She was bucking under him now. "I don't - want - to hurt you, Cas!" she exclaimed. But she saw no choice. She raised her leg quickly and kneed him in the groin.
He cried out in pain, and his grip on her loosened. She pushed him off of her and jumped off the bed, running to the door. She tugged on it, but it wouldn't open. She looked more closely at the door. In the movies, the person always fumbled when they tried to unlock the door, enabling the bad guy to catch up with them. But there was no lock. She tugged again, with all her might. Nothing.
Lucifer slammed into her from behind, pushing her up against the door. Then he spun her around to face him. "That's it. I'm out of patience," he told her. He had Cas's Angel blade in his hand. Then he grabbed the cuff that was dangling from her wrist and yanked on it, dragging her back towards the bed. She had no choice but to follow.
"Lucky for you that Castiel's man parts weren't permanently damaged by that little move of yours," Lucifer sneered. He threw her on the bed and climbed on top of her again, but this time, he had the tip of the knife pressed to her chest. He straddled her. "But if you try one more little trick, the party's over."
Bobby threw the hex bag down on the ground and recited the incantation from Rowena's spell book. Sam and Dean were looking at him curiously, but they said nothing for the moment. The priority was to save Gail and Cas; any discussion of how that was being accomplished could wait.
Suddenly, they could see the compound. Amazing, Bobby thought. It had been there the whole time, they just hadn't been able to see it. Just like Brigadoon, rising out of the mist. He didn't say that out loud, though. He doubted that any of them would understand the reference.
The humans and the Angels rushed through the campgrounds to the house as quietly as they could, weapons at the ready. When they reached the porch, Frank looked down at the Demon whose throat Cas had cut. He flashed the others a brief grin. His brother-in-law had been here, all right.
They proceeded single file into the house, looking around. All was quiet. No Demons, no Lucifer. But suddenly, a door burst open straight ahead and to the right. Sam, Frank, Dean and Jody all raised their weapons. "Freeze!" Jody shouted, out of reflex.
"Oh, man, is it the Sixties again?" Paul quipped.
Paul had been in his basement cell, praying that he would be able to come up with something, anything, to save Gail. No matter what it took, he was prepared to sacrifice. He begged their Father to give him the opportunity. This wasn't about Paul, or his aspirations. He had finally had his epiphany in Africa. It was all about doing the right thing. She didn't deserve whatever Lucifer had in store for her. Paul had watched Gail go from town to town in Europe, leading her team, keeping them all alive, fighting valiantly every day, for a whole year. And now, she was still fighting. Please, Lord, let me help her, he prayed. Please.
Paul heard a noise, and he looked up. The door to his cell creaked open, as if nudged by someone on the other side. He got swiftly to his feet and edged cautiously over there, but when he peeked outside, there was no one there.
He silently thanked his Father, and then he hurried up the stairs and burst into the vestibule, just in time to encounter the God Squad.
"Where's Castiel?" Paul asked them, as they lowered their weapons.
Dean shrugged. "We haven't seen him yet." There was no sense in being quiet now. If they were going to be attacked, they would have been attacked by now.
Sam looked up the staircase, frowning. "We need to check up there," he said uneasily.
As the God Squad were ascending the stairs, Lucifer was still menacing Gail with Cas's blade. "You two ruined everything for me," he told her. "Now, I'm going to return the favour. I'm gonna rip your clothes off and do the same thing to you that you guys have been systematically doing to me, ever since I got free. Then, every time your Sainted husband reaches out for you in bed, you'll cringe, because it's me you'll be remembering. And every time he tries to...well, you know...he'll be remembering how badly he hurt you, and how you screamed for him to stop. Won't that be fun?"
"Kill me, Gail," Cas said. He was forcing the words out, fighting for control of his own body. "If you kill me while he's still inside me, he'll die, too."
"Actually, that's an excellent idea," Lucifer said cheerfully. He pressed the knife into Gail's hand. "Kill him. Kill him, and I'll spare you."
Gail looked at him incredulously. As if. Was he nuts?
"Do it, Gail," Lucifer exhorted her. "Do it, before we hurt you." He was excited now. If he could just get her to kill Castiel, while his Holy Brother's essence was draining out of his body, Lucifer could force his own essence into Gail. Then, he could use her to walk him down the hall to his own vessel and breathe himself back into...well, himself. Or maybe he would just stay in her for a little bit. See what that was like. But if he did jump into his original vessel, he wouldn't even bother to kill her. Leaving her alive would be far more cruel, because then she would have to live every day with the knowledge that she had killed her own husband.
But before he forced his essence into her, Lucifer still wanted to force something else into her. She owed him that. At least, that was the way he saw it. He pinned her to the bed, tugging at his belt.
"Kill me, my love," Cas pleaded with her.
"No!" she screamed. So, Lucifer was going to screw her; so what? Cas was in there too, and it was his face she was looking at, and his body. It would still be preferable to killing him. She knew what Lucifer was trying to do, and it wasn't going to happen. She flung Cas's blade across the room. "No!" she shouted again.
Sam and Dean were the first ones to hit the landing, and they heard Gail scream. They ran down the hallway and tried to open the door, but it was sealed. There was a sigil painted on the outside of the door. "Dammit!" Chuck exclaimed. "I can't wink in there!"
"Break it down, boys," Bobby said.
"We're trying!" Dean exclaimed. He and Sam and Frank were all throwing themselves against the door, but it wouldn't budge.
"Oh, for God's sake," Jody said, exasperated. "Get out of the way!" The men moved aside, and she shouldered the shotgun she'd been carrying. She peppered the door with a barrage of shells, blasting it off its hinges.
"Remind me later to tell you how hot that was," Frank said to her. Then he rushed into the room, with the other humans on his heels. The Angels tried to pass through, but they still couldn't.
Paul was able to enter the room, but he moved slowly, as if he were underwater. He stood behind the others. They'd stopped short, looking at the bed. Cas and Gail were still on it, and they were still struggling. Cas's head had snapped up when they had all burst into the room, and his friends were shocked when they saw his yellow eyes.
"Cas!" Dean yelled. "What the hell?!"
"Jealous, Dean?" Lucifer sneered. "I imagine Sam is, too, but from a different viewpoint, maybe." He grinned. "You might as well put those guns down. But if one of you wants to take me on, man to man, pick up that Angel blade over there." He motioned with his head over to where Cas's blade lay on the floor. "Somebody should kill me, before I snap Gail's neck like a twig." He put his hand on her throat. "I'll totally do it, too. So, which one of you has the cojones to do it? Sammy? Jody, maybe?"
"Don't listen to him!" Gail shouted. "There has to be another way!"
"Shut up," Lucifer snarled. Cas's hand tightened around her neck, cutting off her oxygen. "You - need - to - shut - the - hell - up!" he roared, squeezing tighter with each syllable.
Paul looked wildly back into the corridor, where the Angels stood, helpless. Chuck was looking panicked, holding a golden candlestick in each hand. Paul had known right away when he'd seen them that they were heavy-duty sacred objects. "Toss those here!" he yelled at Chuck. The Angel tossed the candlesticks to the Demon, who caught them neatly. They felt a little warm in his hands, but not nearly as hot as he'd feared they might be. But right now, it wouldn't matter if they burned his hands right off of his arms. It was the only way. He walked towards the bed, extending the candlesticks. "I compel Thee to leave!" Paul exclaimed.
Lucifer's hand flew off Gail's throat. She coughed and retched, gasping for air. Lucifer got off the bed and retreated from Paul's advance. For a moment, Cas was able to break through, and he smiled. "Thank you, Paul." Then Lucifer regained control, but he was weakened now. Damn candlesticks. He was starting to feel sick now. How was Paul even able to hold them without them burning the flesh right off his hands? He was a Demon, wasn't he?
Lucifer had his back against the wall now, but there was nowhere left to go. "I can give you anything," he whined. "Money, whores, drugs, anything."
Paul laughed shortly. "Can you give me redemption? Can you give me salvation?"
"Redemption?" Lucifer scoffed. "Salvation? Why would you want those things?"
"Because they matter," Paul said, holding his head up. "Because, at the end of the day, they're the only things that matter. Now, get out of my friend!"
He thrust the candlesticks forward, close to Cas's face. The Angel opened his mouth and screamed, long and loud. Then Lucifer's green essence came pouring out of him. It shot up towards the ceiling, then across the room and out the door. The Angels leaped out of the way as the smoke shot past them and down the corridor.
"Holy crap," Riley breathed. "Are they OK, Chuck? Can you see?"
Chuck was the nearest to the door. He moved forward tentatively, but he found that he could enter the room now. "Come on, you guys. It's OK now," he said, beckoning to the other Angels.
Cas raced back to the bed. "Are you all right, Gail?" he asked her anxiously. He reached out to touch her face.
She was rubbing her throat, grimacing. She'd stopped coughing now, but he could see the vivid red marks on her neck. Cas looked at his hand, anguished. He had almost choked her to death. My God.
"Go after him," Gail rasped. "Remember Heaven. Go after him, Cas. Take the candlesticks. Maybe he'll be weakened enough. Go."
She was right. Cas looked at Frank. "Go," Gail's brother said. "If you can end that assclown, do it now. I'll take care of her." He sat down on the bed beside Gail. "Do you need anything, kiddo?"
Gail shook her head silently as Cas looked at Paul. "Come with me," the Angel said. "Do you want me to take one of those?" He gestured towards the candlesticks.
Paul was smiling. "No, I'm good, Cas. Let's go get the son of a bitch."
They turned around to leave the room, but suddenly, Lucifer reappeared. "You made a big mistake, Paul," he snarled. He snapped his fingers, and Paul went flying across the room. The candlesticks sailed out of his hands. Aw, crap. Paul looked at Gail. "See you on the flip side, Boo," he said, smiling weakly at her. Then Lucifer waved his finger, and Paul's head jerked to the side. His eyes started to bleed.
"No!" Gail screamed hoarsely. She pushed Frank out of the way and scrambled off the bed, running over to where Paul lay.
Cas was beyond enraged. He bent to the floor and picked up the candlesticks, thrusting them towards Lucifer. "I will take these and ram them down your throat," he said in his quiet voice.
"God, you're sexy when you talk like that," Lucifer said sarcastically. "Maybe I should have tried to put the cuffs on you, instead. I'll be seeing you again, real soon." Then he snapped his fingers, and then he was gone.
For a moment, the only sounds in the room were that of Gail crying over Paul's corpse, and Cas breathing heavily. The others were so stunned they had no idea what to do. Then Cas yelled incoherently, in pure rage, and he threw the candlesticks at the wall. They bounced off of it, then landed upright on the floor.
Frank felt a quip bubbling up in his throat, but in a rare moment of discretion, he held his tongue. He looked down at Gail. She was frantically running her hands over Paul, but there was no healing to be done. Lucifer had broken Paul's neck and burst a blood clot in his brain, and Paul had died instantly. He hadn't had time to exit his vessel, but then again, he hadn't really tried. Their Father was into sacrifices sometimes, and today, Paul had been God's Designated Hitter.
Still, Gail kept waving her hands over Paul, cleaning the blood from his face and clothes. It was the least she could do for him. But she was sad, and she was also very, very angry. What had been the point?
Cas knelt down on the floor next to his wife and put his arms around her, but he did so gently. He could see the bruises already coming in on her neck, and she had red marks and abrasions on her arms and wrists. She still had the cuff dangling from the one wrist, but Cas touched it now, and it fell harmlessly to the floor. Residuals of the candlesticks' sacred power, he supposed. The candlesticks' sacred power!
Cas turned his head. "Dean, please get the candlesticks and bring them here. Hurry! Maybe there's still time!"
Gail's mouth fell open. Could it be?
Dean retrieved the candlesticks and rushed over with them. Cas grabbed them from him and laid them on Paul's chest. He put Paul's hands around them, then laid his own hands on top of Paul's. Gail looked at Cas questioningly. "Go ahead, my darling," Cas encouraged her softly. She put her hands on top of Cas's. Both Angels bowed their heads and after a moment, his blue glow and her golden one combined, suffusing Paul's body. Their friends all held their breath.
Nothing. Not a blessed thing, Cas thought bitterly. "No," Gail breathed. "No. It's not fair." Cas started to remove his hands from Paul, sighing deeply. "No, Cas!" Gail wailed. She clutched at him. "No! It's not fair!"
"I agree, my love," Cas said sadly. "My poor, sweet darling. You've been through so much." He wrapped his arms around her and held her. He could feel her trembling.
Gail was shaking now, both from the ordeal she'd just been through and from anger over Paul's death. "Why didn't he kill ME, Cas?" she blurted out. "Or YOU?"
Riley gasped. It was almost as if Gail was saying that she would have preferred it that way. But Cas understood. If Lucifer had been smart, he would have killed Castiel. Because Castiel was never going to stop until he destroyed Lucifer. And Cas was going to stop at nothing to make sure that happened. Nothing was off limits any more.
Cas stood. "Let's go," he said wearily. "We'll leave for Egypt in the morning."
"I thought we would be going right away," Dean said, but Cas frowned at him. "Gail needs to rest from her ordeal, and she and I need to talk. We've waited over 3 months to go there; we can wait one more day."
"Three months?!" Gail exclaimed. Was that how long she had been gone?
"Yeah. It's been almost four, actually," Frank said. "It's the end of March. You missed spring training."
Gail sniffled back the tears, trying to smile. She and her brother were both baseball fans. When they'd spent all that time in motel rooms, during baseball season Frank had usually been able to find a game on TV in whatever city or town they happened to be, and he had taught her about the game, explaining the rules. Every spring, they would pick a team to root for, and then, they would see which of their teams had the most wins at the end of the season. That had been Frank's way of getting his sister interested in watching baseball to begin with, but then she had taken to the sport, and she loved it now.
Frank had said what he'd said to try to break the mood in the room, and to attempt to cheer his sister up a bit, if he could. He wasn't nearly as broken up about Paul's death as she was, but then again, Frank hadn't been in Paris for very long. Apparently, Paul had really bailed them out there. Cas and Sam and Dean were all looking really somber now, also. When Frank had met Paul in Romania, he had bailed their group out again at the castle, and he had saved Gail just now from being strangled by Lucifer, who'd been using Cas's hands. For a Demon, Paul had worn a white hat for the vast majority of the time that Frank had been aware of his existence. Though he'd started out on the wrong team. But as far as Frank was concerned, it wasn't where you started, it was where you finished that was important. Though it had been through no fault of his own, Frank had done some time as a Knight of Hell, so he would be one heck of a hypocrite if he didn't advocate second chances.
Gail stood now too, but she put her hand on Cas's arm. "We can't just leave him here," she told her husband.
Cas thought about that for a moment. Then he said, "I have an idea. Let me take care of it." He looked at their friends. "Can everyone please go back to the bunker?" Then he looked at his wife. "Please go with them, and I'll be there in just a minute," he said to her. She opened her mouth to protest, but he repeated, "Please." So she gave him a half-shrug, and then she took Frank and Jody's hands. The group of Angels and humans all began to wink out of the mansion, bit by bit. Cas supposed that the sigils had all lost their power, now that Lucifer was gone. He handed the candlesticks to Riley, who had hung back, with a concerned look on his face.
"Can I help, Castiel?" Riley asked him hesitantly.
Cas gave him a tight smile. He and his young protege had bonded while they'd been in Africa, and Cas had recognized Riley's great need to serve. He had been impressed by Riley's earnestness and devotion.
He put his hand on the young Angel's shoulder. "Yes, you can help me, Riley. Please return the candlesticks to their usual place in the library, and please make sure that Gail is all right until I return. I won't be long."
"I'll do that, Cas," Riley said in a hushed tone.
Then he winked out, and Cas stood there, all alone. He looked around the room. Now that everyone was gone, he took a moment for himself. When he and Lucifer had been speaking in the vestibule earlier, the Devil had taken Cas completely by surprise. Now Cas understood how every woman felt who had ever said that she had been violated by a man. Cas had opened his mouth to speak, and suddenly, Lucifer was forcing his essence down Cas's throat, and there had been nothing Cas could do about it. Then Lucifer had been in control of Cas's body, and Cas had been powerless to prevent it. They had entered the bedroom, and Cas had been so happy to see Gail alive and unharmed. But his heart had also been broken to see how roughly Lucifer had treated Gail, and the disgusting things he had said to her, using Cas's mouth to do it. But luckily, Gail knew her husband very well, and she'd known pretty much immediately that it wasn't him. That would hopefully make the healing easier, from her point of view. Fortunately, Lucifer had not had the chance to commit the ultimate violation, but Gail's body would be bruised and sore, and her psyche would be fragile. It was the Demon period all over again, only this time, it had actually happened. He had actually hurt her.
Cas was also concerned about what might have transpired between Lucifer and Gail mentally, and emotionally. Lucifer had held her captive here for several months, and they all knew how much he liked to play mind games. What sort of bad thoughts might he have tried to put into her head? How might he have played on her insecurities? When they'd first walked in the bedroom, both Castiel and Lucifer, Lucifer had said something to Gail about her still being angry with Cas about Africa, and she'd had a look on her face which had seemed to indicate that that was correct.
He sighed again. If Cas could take all of that back, he surely would. Well, maybe not all of it. He would still have helped the poor people there out, as best he could. He'd long felt as if that was what they should really be doing as Angels, not fighting, and killing. So he made no apologies for that particular aspect of their year away. But the milk of human kindness had turned sour, and his good intentions had turned to dust. Why did that always seem to happen with him?
And now, Paul had fallen, just when the Demon had seemingly reached the last metaphorical rung on the ladder to redemption. But, as they had been discussing before Gail had been taken, there was no actual, physical ladder to Heaven. Still, Paul's sacrifices had to count for something. They simply had to. Otherwise, what was the point?
Castiel bent down and picked Paul's vessel up in his arms, then winked out of the mansion.