Chapter Seven
The unnatural baying of the hellhounds outside the small hardware store sent shivers of terror down each hunter's back; all but Jo fearfully eyed the windows and chained front doors, waiting for their arrival. She was too busy trying to keep what was left of her intestines in her horribly mauled abdomen to be afraid of anything else the hounds could do to her. Blood pooled under her limp body, despite her best effort to keep the wad of gauze pressed into her side to stop the bleeding. Her lips were blue and she was paler than any ghost she'd ever hunted.
Ellen kept pressure on the wound when she felt Jo's strength waning. She whispered empty reassurances to her dying daughter as she tried to patch Jo up as much as possible, but they all knew it was only delaying the inevitable.
Dean and Sam finished salting the doorway and windows just at the front door shook with a hard impact. The pack of angry and invisible demonic pitbulls was out for blood, and now they had the hunters' scents. It was only a matter of time before they found a way inside.
"Where the fuck is Cas?!" Dean shouted. They had lost the angel the moment they had gotten into the seemingly deserted town of Carthage.
Upon seeing Jo's life spreading across the concrete floor of the store, and Castiel nowhere in sight, Sam growled in fearful frustration, wondering if Gabriel hadn't been right in his anger at them. Carthage seemed doomed before they'd even arrived.
"He went after the reapers," Ellen told Dean simply.
"Do you think…the Devil got him?" Jo asked weakly.
Dean scowled, knowing it was likely but not wanting to acknowledge it. If Lucifer did catch Castiel, there was a good chance they'd never see the angel again. Even before his Fall Cas didn't have the power to stand up to the Devil.
Everyone's attention was drawn to the chained front doors when the hellhounds' baying turned into barking, snarling, yelping, silence. Sam, Dean, and Ellen had their weapons drawn when a figure slammed the doors open, blowing out the glass and ripping the chain apart like cooked spaghetti noodles.
Standing in the door frame was an old Hispanic woman, easily late 80s, a colorful shawl draped over her hunched back and her face nothing but wrinkles. Sam and Dean raised their weapons—the octogenarian grandmother's eyes were black as coal.
Without hesitation Dean pulled the trigger of the Colt in quick succession, firing two rounds—enough to kill any demon. Sam was already leaning down, about to haul Jo up in case they had to make a run for it.
"Whoa, kiddo! You might actually hurt someone with that thing!" the grandmother said, moving with supernatural speed and catching the bullets between her crooked fingers. She chuckled and tossed them to the floor. "I knew you had it in for me, but shooting me after I just saved your bacon? That's just rude, Winchester."
"Who the hell are—dammit, shoulda figured," Dean said when the old lady morphed into a disgruntled looking Trickster.
"Gabriel?!" Sam asked, completely incredulous. Too many emotions washed over him when Gabriel's eyes fell on him. Relief, anger, frustration, forgiveness…he didn't even try to identify them all. "You came," he said, partially an accusation while also in relief.
"I'm invested in you dorks," Gabriel said simply, but Sam could see the apology in his eyes. He snapped his fingers; the door was repaired and chained closed behind him once again.
"Gabriel, it's Jo," Ellen said loudly, bringing the angel's attention to the dying girl. His bright eyes dulled slightly at her disheveled form. Ellen tried to look tough, but Gabriel could see the tears leaking down her face. She dragged her hand over her cheeks to wipe them away, trying to keep Jo from seeing her cry.
Gabriel glanced behind Jo's crumpled and pale form and could see the Reaper standing over her shoulder, patiently waiting as her life bled out. Within a minute she'd be gone.
Dean helped Ellen stand up and move aside, allowing Gabriel and Jo a little space alone, though they watched intently as he knelt down in front of her. Jo fixed a pained grin on her face. "You should tell me about that…ex of yours. The fire-starter," she explained quietly between shallow breathes. She tried to chuckle but ended up coughing up blood. Specks of it landed on her lips and Gabriel's cheek but he didn't seem to notice.
"Your dying wish is to hear about my ex? Kid, you need to get out more," he told her with a wink. He grabbed the hand that wasn't trying to keep her insides from falling out onto the floor and looking her straight into the eyes, fully serious now. "Jo, I'm gonna heal you, alright? But, it might hurt a bit. I kinda have to put your insides back…inside," he said with an apologetic shrug.
"I'm not dying any less here," she said simply, and Gabriel could feel her hand grow colder. He touched her forehead and the ragged wound in her side. Jo hissed and moaned in pain when he applied pressure to her abdomen.
"Jo-!" Ellen gasped.
"Just a second," Gabriel said, eyes closed in concentration. Ellen, Dean, and Sam watched as warm golden light seemed to come from his hands and get absorbed into Jo's body, healing the hellhound's damage. Jo stopped squirming, and seemed to be simply asleep as her flesh knitted back together and her color returned to her skin. Gabriel even fixed her stained and shredded shirt for her.
Ellen gave him a bear hug that could almost rival Thor in brute strength before she collapsed next to her daughter, holding her in her arms and thanking him for saving her. Gabriel gave a haughty smirk to the Reaper as it silently stepped back and disappeared.
Dean held out his hand and after a wide-eyed moment of uncertainty Gabriel shook it. "Thank you," Dean said sincerely. It seemed that any hostility or caution Dean had was now gone, seeing Gabriel save on of his only friends from the brink.
"Sammy, I think we should splash some holy water on him, he actually said 'thank you' to me-" Gabriel started but was cut off as Sam reached his long arms around the shorter man and pulled him into his second would-make-Thor-red-with-envy hug.
"Thank you, Gabriel. You were right, this was…I was…God, I'm so…"
Gabriel could feel Sam's regret's and reliefs through the hug. "I shouldn't have left. It's obvious you idiots need adult supervision," he said with a huff once Sam let him go. "And I should've known better than try to make Winchesters stand by while people died."
"Is Jo going to wake up?" Ellen asked quietly, still holding the blonde to her chest.
"After a bit. Replacing blood is a little tougher to work, and wounds like hers take time for the body to bounce back from," Gabriel said.
"Is there any reason why you came in here looking like a possessed Spanish grandmother?" Dean asked gruffly, going through his bag for anything that could be useful in any upcoming hellhound or demon attacks.
"It's called a disguise, knucklehead. They're useful when you want to get from point A to point B without being noticed. Not that you'd know anything about subtlety."
"But, why not just zap in here?" Sam asked.
Gabriel poked him square in the chest. "Enochian warding sigils, remember? Also, if I just waltzed into town the demons deliver me to Lucifer for him to beat on like a birthday piñata. I'm not getting into it with big brother. I like living. So, I figured I'd search on foot. Not just anybody gets a pack of hell's finest sent after them, so I figured it was you. Now where is my little brother?" Gabriel asked, looking around.
"No idea. He disappeared the moment we got to town," Dean said.
"He said there was dozens of Reapers in the streets and went off to see what they were doing here," Ellen relayed.
Gabriel let out a frustrated noise and ran a hand down his face. "Great. Know what that means?"
"This town is screwed royally," Sam finished in a dejected tone.
"Look, guys, you did what you could," Gabriel said. "But all those reapers weren't just here for Big D's raising and binding party—they were here for the town folks. You have to have a pretty good pizza-with very expensive toppings on it-just to get the big guy to answer the door, ya know."
"So, what, we give up?" Dean demanded angrily. "Leave Cas to his fate as well as the town and ditch? We can't do that, we could still save them!"
"How? Send Jo out as bait?" Gabriel snapped.
Sam stepped between his lover and his brother when Dean's face grew red and he looked ready to deck the angel, the consequences to his hand be damned.
"Knock it OFF!" Ellen roared before Sam could say anything. Immediately all the men cowered before her. She gently laid Jo on the floor and stood with her hands on her hips and glaring at them. "We're here, let's finish the job at hand. We have a plan, we can still use it."
Gabriel crossed his arms over his chest. "What plan?" he huffed.
Sam took out the map Bobby had found of the town's layout and gave Gabriel the quick and dirty version of their plans.
"Huh," Gabriel said. "That's actually not too shabby of thinking there, Winchester."
"If the pizza doesn't show up, the guy's not moving from the lazy chair," Dean said with a shrug, continued Gabriel's earlier bizarre analogy. "If we get rid of Lucifer's entourage, he can't complete the ritual."
"The problem is, Jo isn't going to be of help to anyone right now," Sam said, motioning to Jo's limp form.
"Can't you speed up the healing process?" Ellen asked, surprising the archangel.
"Wait, you want your only child ripped apart by hellhounds?"
The older woman swallowed once as she steadied herself. "Jo's a part of this as much as anyone. She came here with us to finish this mission…she'll never let us hear the end of it if we just tucked her somewhere safe 'til after it's all said and done," Ellen said evenly. "Especially if we don't walk out of here ourselves."
Gabriel shook his head, but couldn't be helped by the strength of resolve in Ellen's heart. He touched Jo's forehead for several long seconds and the girl jerked awake, breathing shakily and patting her side frantically, trying to find the wound that was no longer there. "Mom!" she said, giving her mother a panicked hug.
"Thank you," she said to Gabriel as she got to her feet. She kept touching her side and seemed surprised whenever her hand came back unbloodied.
"Alright, alright, I get it, I'm the best. You can sing me praises later," Gabriel said and she simply grinned at him.
"Alright. You idiots keep to your plan, I'll go find Castiel and we'll join you."
Gabriel thought about it for a second, then reached up and dragged Sam down into a long kiss. Dean made gagging noises and Jo made a wolf whistle but Sam still melted into those smooth lips.
"You especially stay out of Luci's way, Sam," Gabriel warned. "You and Dean stay as far away from him as possible. There's no telling what he might do once we screw up his best laid plans."
"You stay safe too," Sam said quietly. "No one here can heal you if you get in trouble."
"Oh please. I've been getting my ass in an out of trouble for years and have yet to get a scratch. What could go wrong?"
Gabriel's body flew into a tree trunk and cracked it under the force of his impact. The tree fell behind him, sending up wood chunks and dirt into the air as it crashed into the ground. He tried to stand but he was seeing triples of everything, including three exceptionally angry Lucifers marching towards him, cold eyes flashing with righteous fury.
"I knew you were a coward, Gabriel," Lucifer snarled as he dragged his brother up from the tree's twisted form and held him aloft. The younger archangel's feet dangled several feet off the ground and though he struggled, Lucifer's grip was like steel.
"But this," Lucifer said with a snarl. "This is unforgivable."