Chapter VII

x~x~x

'Hawk21, all systems clear, ready for take-off. Over.' Cas said in the radio.

'This is Base, Hawk21 you got clearance. Fly safe, Angel. Over.'

'Roger, Base. Hawk21 taking off. Angel out.'

The helicopter lifted off from the ground smoothly, his crew and extra passengers all on board. Five medics and seven special troops to help with search and rescue in Denver. A cold feeling settled in Castiel's stomach the second he heard that a building collapsed in the city and he tried his best to squash it down completely. When they got the exact info on where it happened he managed to calm himself down a little as it was not in the immediate vicinity of either Gabriel's or Dean's workplace. He of course knew that if they called the base for help with medical evacuation than it meant that the damage was severe and there were a lot of human casualties. The air ambulances of Denver and the EMTs and the doctors the hospitals could provide were overloaded and not able to attend to everyone in need. It was the exact thing Castiel was trained for, search and rescue, and while he knew that they usually done a lot more work on civil grounds he really never expected having to fly to his own city for his first real ride.

The weather was flawless and the city was only 70 miles away so they were expected to arrive in 20 minutes to the scene of the accident. Castiel focused on the machine of course, taking care to fly as smoothly as possible, but his mind wandered to Dean and Gabriel again and again. He was sure that both were already in the middle of this mess. Gabriel was most definitely overridden with patients and he was also sure that the PD sent almost everybody to the scene to keep up the peace as much as possible, as things tended to turn messy in chaos if the law enforcement was not on ground zero.

He was not, by any sense of the word, an experienced pilot, but he found himself flying towards their destination and keeping up his short conversation with Pam by reflex. He also was aware of the other choppers flying not that far away from him, also heading towards Denver of course.

They arrived to the scene within the 20 minutes and it looked a lot worse than he imagined.

'Jesus' Pam commented as she looked out. The building mostly collapsed on itself, but about half of it tilted to the side and fell on the church and the parking lot in front of it, the dust was still big and everything looked broken all around it. Like someone took a large rock and threw it onto thin ice. The road, the pavement the parking lot was broken to pieces, large cracks were scattered everywhere under and around the remains.

Pam navigated him to the position they could land in and Castiel put down the aircraft with textbook smoothness. His first instructor at the academy told him he had a very good natural instinct when it came to flying, he had to learn a lot of course, but hearing that gave him the first affirmation he needed to know that he was indeed on the right path, that he chose right when deciding on aiming for becoming a pilot.

The medical team and the troops left the chopper and only Cas and his crew stayed. He had to help with transporting casualties to hospitals in Denver so they waited until they were needed. It couldn't have been more than four minutes before two EMTs appeared carrying a woman on a litter while a third guided several less injured, but obviously all in need of further medical help, towards the helicopter. They put the severely injured woman in first then two helped the others climb in while one attended to the woman, keeping an air balloon on her face and pumping steadily. Everyone was secured with some help from Rosso. Who was actually the gunner and had nothing to do on civil ground, but he said he didn't care, if they flew the whole crew flew. Castiel could agree with that, besides it would've been foolish to leave only one behind as Pam and Aaron – the flight engineer – were never superfluous. So Rosso tagged along this time too not caring that he didn't actually have to. Right now it was good that he was there, helping the EMTs to get everyone safely on board.

The second they were done Pam got on the radio to contact the Denver EMD as Castiel started to lift up again from the ground.

'This is USAF Hawk21 calling Denver EMD, over.'

'This is EMD, Hawk21. I can hear you.'

'We have one severely and nine moderately injured from the Broadway site, where do we bring them? Over.' There was a bit of silence in the other end then the male voice came back.

'Exempla St. Joseph can take them right away, Hawk21' came the answer.

'Copy that, we're on our way. Hawk21 out.'

He didn't even have to wait for Pam to get the exact location into their system Cas already turned North-East where he knew the Franklin street was.

'Advantages of home ground, is it Angel?' Pam asked while she finished putting in the location.

'I'd rather not have this advantage again' Castiel answered, because this was his home and he hated to see the chaos underneath.

x~x~x

They were on their seventh turn from the Broadway to various hospitals. They were waiting for the EMTs to get back from the hospital so that they can ride back with them, the rotors not stopping for a second on the high rooftop. Castiel felt like the flow of injured people would never stop. On their second ride the EMTs were doing CPR constantly on an older man and Castiel had no idea whether he survived or not after they took him out and rushed him into the ER. On this ride there were at least five children in his helicopter who got injured in the church, only one of them broken up so badly that there was more gauze an blood on her than clothes and skin. Castiel kept his attention on flying after that seeing that.

'Hawk21, this is Base, do you copy?' came from the radio, a bit unexpectedly.

'Loud and clear, Base. Over.' Pam answered.

'Incoming call, Turner from the Ivy Division for Angel, switching you over.'

'Copy that, Base' Castiel replied. He really should've expected it, so he was not that surprised.

'Hawk21, Angel do you copy?' came his father's voice over the radio and hearing him within all of this happening in his city it was a bigger relief than anything else could've been. They didn't meet much at Fort Carson as the Army's Ivy Divison his Father belonged to and the Air Force 13 ASOS – Cas' squadron – was not located that close to one another in Colorado Springs. And when they had field training, the 13 ASOS going out supporting the Army's operations his Father was Lt. Colonel Turner, even for him, it was not the place and time for father-son bonding or anything like that. It never stopped to amaze Cas how his always cheerful and easy-going Father slipped into the commanding role once he was on field. He was intimidating in a way that maybe could've put even John Winchester to shame.

'Yes, loud and clearly, Colonel' he answered on the radio.

'How bad is it there, son?' he asked then.

'Severe. The casualties are in the low hundreds and they are still in the middle of looking for people. The PD is keeping the calm so it seems, the medical help is starting to be enough now that we brought extra help, but the personnel is still overwhelmed, especially the hospitals. The lightly injured still cannot have any medical help.'

'As I heard you'll be all out for a very long time and we're sending more people out as well' James replied.

'Sounds like a very good idea. No matter what, it's still mostly chaos and I don't see that changing anytime soon.'

'Unfortunately only time and hard work can do that.'

'Anything on what might've caused it?' Castiel asked. He was absolutely sure that there were people working on that already and his Father had a high enough rank and good connections to know anything almost immediately.

'Too early to tell' he answered shortly, which told more than enough to Castiel in itself. They probably had a few guesses, but it was most likely not something to discuss on radio. 'Gabe and Dean?' his father asked next.

'Couldn't talk with them yet' he answered. He couldn't reach either of them on their phones before he took off. 'I'm sure they both have their hands full right now.' He saw that the EMTs were back walking towards them on the roof. 'The paramedics are back, I'm taking off again.'

'All right. Fly safe, Castiel' his father told him.

'On time, on target' Cas replied and he heard his father huff out a small laugh in answer.

'Turner out.'

The EMTs jumped back into the chopper and Castiel took off to head back to the Broadway site.

This time when they took off the EMD called them and they got the instruction to land closer to the ruins of the building, almost in the middle of it as they had some patients that couldn't be dragged all over the place to reach a medical helicopter. And of course Cas' Pave Hawk was a lot better in precisions flying and landing and also had a lot more place inside so they could transport more people even if they had to be laid down.

He did not feel particularly good about landing half on the debris, but it was his job so he just made sure to keep his mind focused on his machine this time. This was not an idle landing on a completely secure surface so he had to be careful. The area he could land on was small, barely enough to put down the chopper and he probably took longer to position than normally, but it was only an extra minute or so, broadly speaking he felt comfortable with that much delay.

He took in the scene around them after he was down and his eyes focused on the several NDMS members carrying injured towards the chopper immediately, and he surprisingly easily spotted the one dark-blue medical coverall among the gray DMS jumpsuits. But he was sure that he would recognize Gabriel anywhere, anytime from afar. He was the one holding both of his hands on a woman's thigh, and judging by the amount of blood it was to stop her from bleeding out through her femoral artery. He didn't look up for a second, not at the helicopter or anyone for that matter, he was completely focused on his task at hand.

Pamela was already talking with the EMD about where to take the patients while everyone got in. Because of the noise of the rotors and him wearing his headset he couldn't hear what Gabriel and the DMS crew were talking about, he just waited until Rosso told him that they were settled and good to go. He took off immediately and headed this time towards east to the Rose Medical Center, the closest hospital that had enough capacity to take this round of patients. He was there within minutes of course and the hospital staff was waiting at the helipad. Gabriel along with the other DMS guys got out and rushed the patients inside. He saw Gabriel talking to the doctors awaiting them, but it was still him holding the injury, he was most likely giving them all information about the patient's condition and would probably run along with them until she was in surgery.

'Give him a headset when he gets back' he asked Pam as he looked over to her. She looked back at him with a raised eyebrow and held up the headset she was already holding in her hand. She knew him so well.

Castiel started to notice the metallic smell of blood inside the helicopter now and was sure that it was worse for Aaron and Rosso, but they would have to deal with that. They had to wait a bit longer this time before anyone came back out. Two from the DMS team arrived back first then he finally caught the sight of Gabriel getting back towards them. Seemed like he had the chance to wash his hands and face quickly as there was a lot less dirt and blood on him than there was when he got inside. Well, his coverall was still a mess, but he obviously couldn't change those. Pam headed the headset back, Aaron took it from her and most likely practically shoved it into Gabriel's hands when he got in.

'Gabriel' Cas called him.

'Cas. Thought it might've been you' came the answer.

'How long have you been on the field?' he asked then.

'No clue, six-seven hours...' he answered. 'Didn't really stop to check my watch' he added.

'How are you holding up?' he asked next, because he knew Gabriel was good at his job of course and that he was used to emergency situations, but this was different.

'I'm fine Cas, it's more tiring than the ER, but you also don't really have to think too much about diagnosis.' Cas was glad to hear his voice and being able to talk to him even if he couldn't get out of his seat and turn around to see him as well. He was lucky to catch him even this way. 'I could kill for a shower' Gabriel added. 'But that ain't happening for a while.' Castiel smiled at that and it was good that he could, despite the situation.

'How many people can still be out there?' he asked then.

'No friggin' clue, the fucking thing collapsed in the worst time possible and we have a bunch of casualties from the Church too. We're still in the middle of helping those with the worst injuries, but at least we can finally spare some time for others too.'

The rest of the DMS rescues were coming back now so they didn't have much time as they had to head back right away.

'Do you know anything about Dean?' Castiel asked.

'Saw him a few hours ago... he's out there somewhere. Told him to make himself real useful and help out the EMTs and doctors. He at least has a decent first-aid knowledge, the cops without that can deal with keeping people calm.'

'You two are going to be dead on your feet when this is over' Castiel remarked.

'I definitely have to stay for another twelve hours or so at least... or a lot more, depends.'

'You need to catch a break in all this' Castiel reminded him.

'I will, when we have this under control as much as possible and I can get home and sleep in my own bed' Gabriel told him. Everyone was inside again so Castiel took off from the ground to turn back.

'If you don't stop and rest, Dean won't either' Castiel told him because he knew it was true, if Gabriel was out here than Castiel was willing to bet anything that Dean would stay for as long as he did.

'I get him to rest if I see him next time and he looks real beaten up' Gabriel promised. Castiel almost had the urge to snort, because Dean was likely to listen, sure.

'You'll have to deal with me if that's not happening. Rest too once in a while Gabriel, you're more help that way.'

'Fine' Gabriel answered after a pause.

'All right, watch out for yourself' Castiel said as he landed and the DMS guys got out.

'Of course' Gabriel replied and as he saw from the corner or his eye Pam getting back the headset he felt a hand on his shoulder so he turned and caught Gabriel smile at him briefly with a quick squeeze to his shoulder before he too turned and left the helicopter, medical bag firmly in place and getting back in the middle of the chaos.

He didn't have much time to stay still as they had another group of casualties already waiting for them to take them to one of the hospitals. The way the building collapsed, the roads near-by could not be used so normal ambulances could only get to the edge of it and people just had to be taken away by helicopters from the middle of it all. The Pave Hawk could go around 500 miles with the external tanks in place so they still had a few circles in them before they had to get back to base to re-fuel.

He wasn't sure whether he would be sent back after they went back to the base or will another crew take over, but he had his bet on the latter. They had other pilots ready for such situations and it was unadvised for anyone to fly after a certain amount of hours, especially since in this situation much care and precision was needed. He was also sure that the second he was free to go he would jump in his car and drive back to Denver right to the Broadway site. Because seriously, if Dean and Gabriel were going to be out for who knows how long the least he could do was to volunteer and help and be there too. Not like he could go home and sit down on the couch or go to sleep while the other two was out in debris and dirt and blood. He could probably join the soldiers who were sent out to help on the ground.

He didn't see Gabriel again in his last turns, but again he didn't expect to. The sun was setting down already when they had to turn and head back towards Colorado Springs to get the helicopter re-fueled in Fort Carson. They already knew that they were done for now and another crew would go out to take over their role. The interior stank of blood mostly, probably that will have to be cleaned out as well. Castiel just couldn't wait to land and get back to Denver even if it would take longer by car than he was comfortable with.

They got permission to land and got down and Castiel could finally switch off the rotors for the first time in long hours. He only just got his headset off when he saw his Father hurrying towards them across the helipad. Castiel unbuckled himself and got out, an uneasy feeling settled in his stomach, because the way his Father moved, held his body, it just screamed worry.

'Dad. What's wrong?' he asked immediately. After Castiel reached his full height and put some muscle on in the academy he was astonished how much he looked like his father, he had of course gray in his black hair now and the wrinkles on his face got deeper, but he was still in very good form naturally, so they were still very similar. The look on his Father's face didn't promise anything good right now.

'Dean went missing' James said and Castiel was sure he actually felt the color drain from his face.

'What? How, where?'

'We've been I touch with the Denver PD and his squad leader reported him missing from the Broadway site.'

'But, how could that happen?' he asked, because Dean was with the EMTs, so how can he just go missing, it didn't make sense.

'One woman told the paramedics that she was rescued by a doctor and a police officer where she was trapped under the bulding, she knew the doctor stayed down to look for other people, so we assume that maybe they both went down... we don't know.'

'A doctor?'

'Not Gabriel, I talked with a... Henricksen, he asked Gabriel first when he noticed Dean was nowhere, but it's maybe one of his colleagues. I don't know.'

'How didn't anybody notice this until now?' Castiel asked as his hands clenched into fists.

'You know how the place looks like, Castiel' his Father told him in an understanding tone, because no matter how upsetting this was Cas knew exactly how two guys not being there could easily go unnoticed.

'I gotta get back to Denver, right now' he said firmly.

'C'mon, we catch a ride with the next helicopter going back' his Father told him and turned, Castiel followed. His heart was beating erratically in his chest as they hurried over to a different helipad. His father was also wearing a military combat uniform fit for field, and Castiel was grateful that he was coming along. Million thoughts rushed in his head, but one was the loudest. Dean had to be alright, he just had to be.

To be continued...