AUTHOR'S NOTES: Aside from the regular SPN characters—Sam, Dean, Bobby—Balthazar is one of my favorites. I like watching him and I love writing him.

Also, in this chapter, SoulessSam rears his head.

The Third Man

The sun had barely risen as Sam entered the townhouse and headed for Fiona's bedroom. He'd hoped that someone would be awake by now, but apparently that wasn't happening.

Fiona was lying on her back, still snoring lightly when Sam sat down on the bed beside her. Even through Fi's tank top, he could feel the muscle knots in her back. Gently lifting the back of the shirt, Sam slowly started massaging Fiona's back with practiced movements. After a moment, he smiled when he heard her groan in both pain and relief. "Don't stop," she muttered, crossing her arms in front of her and resting her head on them.

"Don't plan on it," Sam replied with a smile as he dug deeper into Fi's back as he felt the knots deep in the muscle around her spine. When the knots began to loosen, he asked, "So how is Gabriel at this?"

Fiona could hear the jealousy in Sam's voice and shrugged. "Not as good as you," she admitted.

Helping Fiona turn over and sit up, Sam asked, "How long are you going to stay mad at me?"

Fiona didn't reply as she lifted herself into her wheelchair and headed out of the bedroom and across the hall to her bathroom. She wanted to be angry with Sam for hiding and not telling her he was alive. But she also wanted to lie in his arms again as they fell asleep. The previous day she'd decided that until she figured out what she really wanted, she needed to keep Sam at arm's length. Besides… something seemed off about him lately.

xx

In the kitchen, Sam and Fiona joined Dean and Ziva for breakfast but as they started to eat, they were startled by the sudden appearance of Castiel.

"Cas, what the hell are you doing here?" Dean asked, quickly standing.

"Celeste. Where is she?" Castiel asked, quickly.

"No idea," Sam replied, frowning. "She disappeared a few days ago. We haven't seen her since."

"No one has," Castiel said, partly to himself as he paced the dining room. Stopping and looking at the others, he sighed. "We have to find her. I need your help."

"Okay," Sam replied, not sure of what the big deal was. "But Celeste can take care of herself, right?"

Castiel's expression took on a look of extreme annoyance as he said, "Sam, Dean… my "people skills" are "rusty". Right now Celeste may be the only one standing between two armies of angels who would like nothing more than to kill each other before restarting the apocalypse."

"We know about Raphael," Dean piped up. "Celeste told us what's been going on."

Seeing that Cas was about to go on another rant, Fiona asked, "Is there any way to track where she might have gone?"

"No," Cas replied, sadly. "I've tried, but she's completely hidden from me."

Thinking as an investigator, Ziva asked, "Do you know anyone else Celeste might have turned to for help?"

Castiel was pacing frantically and he sounded impatient as he replied, "No."

"Think," Ziva pressed as she stood and went over to the angel, stopping him mid-pace. "There must be someone she trusts other than you or Gabriel."

The angel frowned, but he stopped and thought. Who might be shielding Celeste? With the war in Heaven, it was hard to find true allies. Even the angels who claimed to side with Cas and Celeste couldn't exactly be trusted implicitly.

But there might be someone… "There is one other angel that Celeste trusted more than me," Castiel said, finally. "But the problem will be finding him."

"Okay, then," Dean said, thinking. "Ziva, you and Cas go to NCIS and see if you can track down where Celeste might be. Fi—"

"Uh, I've got that doctor's appointment," Fiona cut it. "Later today."

Dean sighed wearily as he rubbed his face with one hand. He'd promised Fiona he'd take her but now it looked like he was needed to help find the missing angel. "Uh, Sam, do you mind, uh…?"

"Sure," Sam nodded, looking at Fiona. "No problem."

7 Months Ago

By the time Fiona had finished getting ready for her PT session that morning, the pain in her back had moved from excruciating to unbearable. And the pain was spreading through her whole body.

"Fi!" Dean said in alarm as he entered Fiona's room and saw the anguished look on her face. He hurried over to her but when he tried to help her back into bed, Fi cried out in pain. Dean stopped and got her settled back in the wheelchair, his mind racing as he tried to think of what to do. After a while, he dashed upstairs to his own bathroom and came back down with a bottle of Vicodin. After the briefest of hesitations, he tossed it to Fiona who managed to give him an incredulous look.

"Dean," Fiona said, feeling angry that she was actually crying. She hurt so much… Finally, she opened the pill bottle and shook out two pills, swallowing them dry.

The minutes ticked by slowly as Dean sat on Fiona's bed, watching her like a hawk for any sign that the painkillers were starting to kick in. When Fiona finally took a slow, deep breath, he relaxed, even though he knew what this would mean later.

xxxxxxxxx

Gabriel wasn't quite sure why Dean had warned him not to go into Fiona's room while she was recovering from the severe pain she'd been in earlier. But deciding that a quick check wouldn't hurt, the angel opened the bedroom door and stepped inside.

"Gabriel!" Fiona said, looking surprised as she lay on her bed reading. "What are you doing here?"

"Thought you'd want some company," Gabriel replied with a smile as he sat on the bed next to Fi. But he was surprised when Fiona suddenly grabbed the front of his shirt and jerked him towards her before crushing her mouth against his. "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," Gabriel said quickly, pulling away before fixing Fiona with a curious look. "Are you okay?"

"Gabriel, do me a favor," Fi said as she hastily pulled her t-shirt off. "Just shut up."

As their bodies intertwined, Gabriel found himself adding 'sex with Fiona' to his list of most interesting experiences. Fi was fairly frisky for someone paralyzed from the waist down and as he ran his fingers through her hair, Gabriel found himself wondering if he was making a mistake.

Present Day

Over the past year, Sam had somehow still managed to maintain his ability to charm information out of people. If anything, he was even better at it these days because he didn't have his conscience screaming at him while he coaxed police, doctors, and nurses into giving him information that would ordinarily be off limits to civilians.

So while Fiona went into one of the exam rooms for her appointment, Sam went to the cute nurse at the counter and ramped the charm up to 16 as he tried to talk the girl into giving him a copy of Fiona's medical records.

The nurse was hesitant to hand over the files and it wasn't until Sam showed her the Claddaugh ring he still wore and claimed that he and Fi were still waiting on an out of state marriage license that the young woman reluctantly made a digital copy of Fiona's medical records.

"I'm not going to get into trouble for this, am I?" the girl asked, frowning slightly.

Sam pulled his wallet and withdrew a business card. Handing it over to the young nurse, he said, "If anyone asks, just tell them it'd for a federal case."

"Right," the nurse replied, nodding as she pocketed the card.

At NCIS, Castiel watched as Ziva printed out copies of missing persons reports. He wished he knew some way of helping the NCIS agent find Celeste and/or Balthazar, but the simple fact was that once angels went underground, it was very hard to find them again.

Thus the reason why Ziva was looking for possible angelic vessels.

"Here are all the missing persons in the country," Ziva said, handing the angel the enormous stack of papers. "Do any of them seem like viable possibilities?"

Cas sat down at an empty desk and studied each face intently, considering each individual as a possibility. Many angels had the ability to recognize other angelic vessels, but knowing which vessel was meant for which angel was far more daunting. After an hour, though, he was able to narrow the stack down to 4 possibles for Balthazar and one missing woman whom he knew to be Celeste's current vessel.

While McGee ran down the 4 missing men, Ziva started working on tracking Celeste—or rather the woman Celeste was using as a vessel.

Blythe Richards was reported missing by her sister 3 years ago after failing to show up for a weekly lunch. According to the interview with the sister, Blythe had been seriously ill for nearly a year prior to her disappearance but suddenly recovered without any explanation. Shortly afterwards, she had vanished without a trace.

"Don't know about you, Ziva," Tony said as he eyed his partner and what she was working on. "But I miss the good old days when we'd just be working on normal stuff when Gibbs came in saying—"

"Grab your gear," Gibbs said at the same time Tony said the same words. Grabbing his badge and gun, he turned to look at his team who were getting their gear together. "Got a dead naval officer in an abandoned warehouse in Manassas."

Ziva was reluctant to leave the search alone, but she knew that her job couldn't take a backseat. Closing down the search she'd been running, she quickly followed the rest of the team onto the elevator.

Dean was PISSED!

It was bad enough that Sam had concealed being back. But now Sam had crossed a line.

"You stole Fi's medical records?" Dean shouted, angrily, as he stared at his brother in total disbelief.

"I asked the nurse to make me a copy," Sam corrected, looking slightly perplexed. "Dude, what's the big deal? We've done crap like this loads of times."

Dean shook his head, not believing what he was hearing. "Not when it's family! Okay? You don't invade the personal privacy of your family!

Sam gave his older brother a wry smile and cocked his head to the side a bit as he said, "And, uh… What about when you went through my bag after Lucifer got topside?"

Dean was fuming and he didn't say anything because he knew that Sam had a point. And at the same time, he felt suddenly worried. Sam's actions were extremely out of character. "Dude, what's going on with you? And don't tell me 'nothing'. Something is going on with you. I mean, it's like you don't even have a conscience anymore."

Sam considered that for a moment and finally shrugged. "I don't know, Dean. Honestly, it's like all the stuff I used to worry about doesn't bother me anymore." After a moment, he frowned slightly. "How'd you find out about Fiona's records anyway?"

Dean glared at his brother as he replied, "Bobby called me after he got a call from the doctor's office." Rubbing his face with one hand, he sighed, wearily. "Look, why didn't you just talk to Fi if you wanted to know what's going on?"

"Because she won't talk to me," Sam snapped. "And you're not exactly Mr. Chatty yourself." Sitting down at his computer, he flipped his laptop open and opened Fiona's files.

Watching how calmly Sam was reading, Dean scoffed. "You really don't feel even the slightest bit guilty about this, do you?"

Looking up at Dean, Sam shrugged again. "No, not really."

Dean felt his temper rising and finally snapping, he stormed over to Sam's lap top and slammed it closed before sitting down and facing his brother. "You want to talk? Fine, let's talk." But when Sam remained silent, Dean gave a derisive snort. "You don't even really care, do you?"

"Look, Fiona's using painkillers that are 10 times stronger than anything we've ever taken in our whole lives," Sam said, purposely dodging the question. "And I saw in her records that she was put on anti-depressants."

"That she's never taken because she doesn't need them!" Dean snapped, angrily. "A month after you fell into the cage, the first doctor Fi went to diagnosed her with severe depression. Put her on drugs and didn't even listen when she told him she had a problem with the painkillers he prescribed."

"So then what happened?" Sam asked, curious.

Dean sighed and rested his arms on the table. "About 7 months ago, Fiona had a really bad day. I mean, bad enough that she didn't even argue when I gave her a couple Vicodin."

Sam was more than a bit surprised at that. Usually Fiona resisted taking that stuff at all costs since it made her extremely whacky. "Seriously?" he asked, wondering if perhaps Dean was exaggerating.

Dean nodded, his expression somber. "She tried talking to her doctors again, but they still wouldn't listen, so she changed doctors and Dr. Laura McElroy is the one who prescribed the Fentanyl lollipops. She said that if Fi wasn't going to take the usual meds, then she'd have to use the other stuff."

Sam nodded in understanding but he still didn't understand why Fi hadn't just explained this. Had she not wanted to admit how much pain she was really in? But thinking about how Gabriel had seemed to know when Fiona was seriously hurting, Sam wondered if Fiona hadn't confided in him because she'd replaced him with the archangel.

Back at NCIS, Castiel had taken over searching for Balthazar. While Ziva and the others dealt with their case, the angel was doing his best to track down his brother angel.

So far, his best lead was the secluded estate of a retired actor named Sebastian Roche.

Winging to the estate, Castiel frowned when he sensed the Enochian warding magic all over the house. He would not be able to enter unless someone broke the sigils.

"What the devil are you doing here?"

Cas whirled around, swiftly summoning his blade and raising it in a defensive manner only to lower it when he saw Balthazar standing there. "Balthazar," Cas said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I need your help."

"My help?" Balthazar said with an icy tone in his voice. "How about—instead of relying on everyone else to help you—you get off your arse and try helping others!"

Castiel frowned in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Reining in his anger, Balthazar glared at his brother as he said, "Three days ago, Celeste shows up on my doorstep, beat all to hell and barely conscious. She told me she'd been running interference between you and Raphael and she needed a safe place to stay."

Castiel was surprised to hear that. He hadn't known about how badly Celeste was being hurt. "I didn't know," he insisted. "I didn't ask for her to—"

"Oh, I know you didn't ask," Balthazar replied, cutting Cas off. "Because if you had, I would have killed you the moment you set foot on my lawn." With a snap of his fingers, he transported the two of them inside where Celeste was waiting in an elegant sitting room. "Now," the other angel said as he went to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a drink. "I think we need to have a long talk about what we're going to do about Raphael. Don't you agree, Cas?"

xx

A few hours later, four angels sat at the long table in the dining room opposite Sam, Dean, Fiona, and Ziva. After a magnificent feast conjured by Gabriel, the hunters and angels exchanged looks.

"Raphael is pissed off royally," Celeste explained. "And he'll stop at nothing to get his way and restart the apocalypse."

"So what do we do about it?" Dean asked, sipping his glass of scotch. "I mean, what about God?"

"God is somewhere on Earth," Celeste reported. "Other than that… who knows? I've been trying to find him, but he doesn't want to be found."

"So how do we fight an archangel?" Dean asked, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

But instead of answering, Celeste turned to Balthazar with an expectant look and nodded in his direction. "Ask the Heavenly Hoarder."

Sam, Dean, and Fiona all snorted with laughter. "The 'Heavenly Hoarder'?" Dean said, looking at Balthazar.

"I may have… appropriated a few select items from Heaven's armory," Balthazar said, surreptitiously. "Just as an insurance policy, of course."

"Wait, what kinds of weapons are we talking about?" Sam asked, not liking the idea of angelic weapons being missing.

"Well, the Staff of Moses is one… There's a sword that's supposed to be able to kill God himself… and a handy little crystal thing that can turn anyone into solid rock salt…" Balthazar looked pensive for a moment and finally shrugged. "Honestly, I've forgotten what all else there was. I really should make a list."

Dean was flabbergasted as he looked from the kleptomaniac angel to Celeste. "This is the guy you felt safest with?"

When the power suddenly went out, the angels and hunters all looked apprehensive as they exchanged looks. "Oh, goody…" Celeste said, sarcastically. "Raphael's here."

Standing up, Balthazar seemed oddly calm as he pointed to Gabriel. "Gabe, if you would be so kind as to escort the ladies somewhere safe?"

"You got it, bro," Gabriel replied, raising a hand and snapping his fingers, transporting himself, Ziva, Fiona, and Celeste out of the estate and to the safest place he could think of.

"So what now?" Dean asked as he, Sam, and Castiel stood as well.

The other angel smiled, looking almost amused. "Now we evict a couple of home invaders."

While Ziva worked in Gibbs' kitchen—making dessert and coffee for herself and the others—Celeste and Fiona sat at the dining room table.

Downstairs in the basement, Gabriel watched Gibbs—aka: God—as he worked on the boat frame filling most of the room on the floor. "So what's the deal with the boat?"

Gibbs/God didn't answer as he finished sanding the side he was working on. When he finished, he turned to the archangel and said, "So Balthazar stole weapons from Heaven and Raphael wants to restart the apocalypse."

"And you're just hanging around down here, playing with the stupid boat," Gabriel snapped, irritably.

"What do you want me to do?" God asked without any anger in His voice. "I've tried everything, but you all insist on fighting about one thing or another. Why do you think I created Celeste?"

Gabriel sighed, knowing that God had an incredibly valid point. "Look, I know we're all a handful. And trust me, I wouldn't be asking for help if I thought we could deal with this alone."

God nodded, thinking. "Alright. You can ask for one favor."

The archangel wasn't sure about how to respond to that and considering he didn't want to waste his one favor, he decided to hold off on the request for the moment.

A/N: Next chapter will be just something a bit fun and will focus on the Ladies of SPN! Have a couple questions, though. If I pair Jo with someone from the NCIS team should it be Jimmy Palmer, Tim McGee, or Tony DiNozzo?

Also-There's a thought I've had since I started this series which is that I wanted to do a crossover with this story and the TV show 'Las Vegas'. Would that be too much of a stretch or is that something you'd like to see?

Please remember to read, review, and show your love!