Chapter Seven

Here is an updated version of this story. I needed to add something in the talk between Dean and Michael.

Dean watched Angel slowly drop to the floor, staring in terror at his baby girl bleeding to death. He knew it was bad; sure, Angel could heal others, but she couldn't heal herself. Not even full angels could heal themselves.

Dean renewed his struggles to get away from Uriel, fighting to get to his daughter. "Angel! Angel!"

Anna turned from Angel's now unconscious body towards Mary, who turned so as to shield her sons from the angel. Little Dean cried as he clung to his mother as Baby Sam began to cry.

"Please…" begged Mary, "not my boys…please…"

"I'm really sorry," said Anna quietly, stepping towards them.

"Anna."

Anna turned in surprise, seeing John standing behind her. Dean stared in confusion at his father, seeing something different about him but not being able to place it.

"Michael," said Anna, fear in her eyes.

Dean stared at his father, possessed by the angel that—in another life—Dean would have been the vessel for. John reached a hand forward, placing it on Anna's shoulder. Anna trembled as fire burst from her eyes, burning her up from the inside. As Anna crumbled to ash on the floor, Uriel released Dean, staring in shock at Michael as he turned towards him.

"Michael…" said Uriel as Dean gathered himself. "I didn't know…"

"Goodbye, Uriel," said Michael, snapping his fingers and making Uriel vanish.

Michael turned towards Mary, who was still clutching her children to her. "What did you do to John?"

"John is fine," Michael told her.

"Who—what are you?" asked Mary.

"Shh…" said Michael, leaning over and touching two fingers to the side of her head.

As Mary's eyes slid closed, Michael reached a hand forward and caught her, gently easing her to the floor and making sure Baby Sam stayed safe on her stomach.

"Mom?" said Little Dean. "Mom!" He looked up at the angel. "What did you do to my mommy?"

"Your mom is sleeping," said Michael, gently touching his fingers to his head also.

Little Dean fell unconscious, and Michael eased him down next to Mary.

Michael then turned towards Dean, who was rushing over to Angel. "Well, I'd say this conversation is long overdue, wouldn't you?"

Dean pulled Angel into his arms, putting his hand to her face. "Angel?" He wrapped his hand around where the pole entered her stomach, trying to stop the bleeding. He looked up at Michael with a hard gaze. "Fix her."

"First…we talk," Michael told him, pacing away from him. "Then I fix your darling little Angel."

"How'd you get in my dad, anyway?" asked Dean.

"I told him I could save his wife and sons, and he said yes," said Michael.

Dean frowned. "I guess they oversold me being your one and only vessel."

"You're my true vessel, but not my only one," Michael said, turning back towards him.

"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Dean as he cradled his daughter closer to him.

"It's a bloodline."

"A bloodline?"

"Stretching back to Cain and Abel. It's in your blood, your father's blood, your family's blood."

"Awesome. Six degrees of Heaven Bacon. What do you want with me?"

"You really don't know the answer to that?"

"Well, you know I'm gonna try everything I can to save my mom, so why are you here? What do you want with me?"

"I just want you to understand what you and I have to do," said Michael.

Dean frowned. "You and me? What do you mean? Angel killed Lucifer. You didn't to jack squat."

Michael stepped a little closer to him, looking down at him in sympathy. "Who do you think God asked to give you your destiny?"

Dean frowned in confusion. "My destiny?"

Michael's gaze moved from Dean's face down to the daughter in his arms.

Dean looked down at Angel and then back up at Michael. "Angel? You're saying you're the one that got me pregnant?"

"I merely allowed the miracle to happen," Michael told him.

Dean looked down at Angel in his arms, holding her closer. "My daughter is here because of you?"

"Yes," Michael told him. "Lucifer defied our father, and he betrayed me. God asked me to give you a daughter, a daughter with such power that she would one day kill Lucifer."

Dean stared at Michael for a moment before bursting into a yell. "Then what the hell was with the rapist? The guy had no part in the whole thing! The rape didn't need to happen in the first place! You just snapped your fingers, and—bam!—there she was!"

Michael paused for a moment. "If an event that traumatic had not happened to you, what do you think you would've done?"

Dean frowned in confusion.

"You would have continued hunting, putting both yourself and the baby you did not know you were carrying in danger," Michael told him. "This way, she was kept safe until her existence was brought to your attention." His face shifted slightly, taking on the tiniest expression of sorrow. "I am sorry I had to put you through that pain to keep her out of harm's way. I didn't want this anymore than you would want to kill Sam." He turned away. "You know, my brother, I practically raised him. I took care of him in a way most people could never understand, and I still love him." He turned back to Dean. "But I am going to let Angel kill him because it is right and I have to."

"Oh, because God says so?" Dean scoffed.

"Yes," said Michael. "From the beginning, he knew this was how it was going to end."

"And you're just gonna do whatever God says?"

"Yes, because I am a good son."

"Okay, well, trust me, pal. Take it from someone who knows: that is a dead-end street."

"And you think you know better than my Father? One unimportant little man. What makes you think you get to choose?"

"Because I gotta believe that I can choose what I do with my unimportant little life."

"You're wrong. You know how I know?" Michael squatted down next to Dean. "Think of a million random acts of chance that let John and Mary be born…to meet, to fall in love, to have the two of you. Think of the million random choices that you make, and yet how each and every one of them brings you closer to your destiny. Do you know why that is? Because it's not random. It's not chance. It's a plan that is playing itself out perfectly. Free will's an illusion, Dean. That's why you're not going to save your mother."

Dean clenched his jaw and looked back down at his daughter, who was growing paler and paler.

"Oh, buck up," said Michael, standing back to his feet. "It could be worse. I gave you a family, didn't I?"

"What about my dad?" asked Dean, looking back up at him.

"Better than new," said Michael. "In fact, I'm gonna do your mom and your dad a favor."

"What?"

"Scrub their minds. The boys, too. They won't remember me or you."

Dean's eyes widened as he thought back to the warning they'd given their parents. "You can't do that."

"I'm just giving your mother what she wants. She can go back to her husband, her boys—"

"She's gonna walk right into that nursery!"

Michael nodded. "Obviously. And you always knew that was going to play out one way or another."

Dean looked back down at his daughter, knowing that once Michael healed her they would be heading straight for 1983…again.

Michael frowned over at him, seeming to know exactly what he was thinking. "Do you even want to stop the apocalypse?"

Dean glanced up at him, frowning. "What?"

"If you save your mother and prevent Azazel from feeding demon blood to your brother…then your daughter will never be born. She was created for the sole purpose of destroying Lucifer. If you avert the apocalypse now, Angel will cease to exist."

Dean grasped onto Angel tightly, the thought of losing her almost unbearable. "I would give anything to stop that from happening…but if I've learned anything over the past nine years, it's that sometimes you have to let go for the greater good."

A tear slipped from the corner of Dean's eye.

"I love my daughter more than anything…" Dean muttered, "but I can't let hundreds of people die just to save her. She wouldn't want that." He gave Michael a cheeky smile. "So, I guess I am stopping you dick bags."

Michael walked towards Dean and smiled sadly. "Wish it were that easy, Dean. You can't fight City Hall." He knelt down and pressed two fingers to Angel's forehead.

Angel vanished, and the bloody pipe fell to the floor with a clunk, leaving Dean clutching thin air.

"She's home, safe and sound," said Michael, walking over to the unconscious Sam and sending him back. He turned and walked over to Dean. "Your turn. I'll see you around, Dean."

Dean closed his eyes as Michael reached for him. There was a jolt, and Dean found himself standing in his backyard in Lawrence. He glanced over to see Sam and Angel standing across from him.

"Angel…" Dean rushed forward and pulled his daughter into his arms.

Angel circled her arms around Dean, embracing him back.

After a moment, Dean pulled away from his daughter, framing her face in his hands. "Are you okay?"

Angel nodded. "I'm fine."

"Thank God." Dean pulled her back into his arms, tears of relief starting to fill his eyes. He looked over at his brother. "You good, Sammy?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

Dean released Angel and stepped back, looking between the two of them. "Can't believe we made it out of there."

"Yeah," said Angel.

Dean looked over at her, his face falling a little. He wanted for Angel to take them back to that night in the nursery so bad, but…Michael had made his intentions perfectly clear. No matter how hard they tried, how many times to tried to change the past, the angels would always be there to thwart everything.

"They're really not gonna let us save her…are they?" asked Dean.

Angel sadly shook her head, and the three of them stood in silence for a while.

"I guess that's it, then," said Dean. He gave a little smile. "At least I've still got my girl." He wrapped an arm around Angel's shoulders and squeezed her arm before glancing back at the house.

Dean's eyes widened as his smile grew bigger, and he hurried towards the house. He charged through the back door, looking around the kitchen. "Angel? Cas?"

The four-year-old girl came running from the staircase, hurrying towards Dean. "Daddy! Daddy!"

Dean knelt down, throwing his arms out. "Come here, baby girl!"

Angel launched herself into Dean's arms, and Dean wrapped his arms around her, standing and spinning her around.

"Oh, I missed you so much!" Dean exclaimed, hugging her tight.

Sam and Angel walked in the back door and watched the two of them with smiles. Castiel walked slowly into the kitchen from the direction Angel had come running from, watching the father and daughter with a miniscule smile on his face.

Dean hitched Angel over onto his hip, holding her close. "So, you guys have fun?"

Angel nodded. "Uh-huh! We saw movies, and we read books, and we had pancakes!"

Dean frowned. "Oh, you did, huh?" He glanced over at Castiel. "Uncle Cas cook for ya!"

"Uh-huh!" Angel exclaimed. "Bestest pancakes in whole world!"

"Really?" said Dean, looking back at his daughter. "Awesome!"

"And then we play dress-up!" exclaimed Angel.

The corner of Dean's mouth twitched as he slowly looked up at Castiel. "You played dress-up, huh?" He smiled as he stared at Castiel.

"Yep!" said Angel.

Dean laughed at the look on Castiel's face. "Well, I'll bet that was fun!"

Castiel avoided their looks. "She wanted to play princess."

Dean burst out laughing as the others joined in.

Castiel surprisingly began to blush a little and continued to avoid their eyes. "Did you accomplish your mission?"

Dean rolled his eyes and shook his head fondly. "Yes, Cas, we won. We're all safe."

"I am glad the three of you are safe," said Castiel. "I shall be in contact."

"Kisses, Uncle Cas!" called Little Angel, giving Castiel a smile with her arms stretched towards him.

Angel, Dean and Sam chuckled as Castiel walked over to Little Angel, unable to resist the girl's charms. Castiel leaned towards Little Angel, wrapping an arm around her. Angel gave him a little peck on the cheek, causing a genuine smile to appear on Castiel's face as he stepped away.

"I think you might have been right about Castiel's way with kids," Dean told Angel.

"Told ya," smiled Angel.

Castiel smiled at Little Angel. "Goodbye, Angel." He disappeared into thin air.

Dean turned towards his brother and older daughter, looking at Angel. "Well…I guess, uh…this is goodbye?"

Angel nodded. "Yeah…"

"You sure you don't wanna stick around for a little?" asked Dean.

"I'd like to, but I better get back," Angel told them. "I'll miss Christmas Eve dinner."

"Christmas, huh?" asked Sam.

"Yeah," said Angel. "Cas showed up for dinner with the news, so I took off."

"Well, you're a time traveler," said Dean. "You could take as much time as you want and still pop up at the same time there."

Angel smiled. "Maybe some other time. I, uh…I promised I wouldn't spend too much time here. It's, uh…it's our first Christmas as a family."

Dean and Sam frowned.

"Okay, I know for a fact we've already celebrated three Christmas's together, and we're about to celebrate our fourth," Dean told her.

Angel laughed. "No, I mean…with Kyle. We got married this summer." She held up her left hand to show them the new ring on her hand.

Dean smiled. "Congratulations!" He walked forward and hugged Angel. "That's awesome!" He pulled away.

"I'm so happy for you!" said Sam, hugging Angel also.

"Thanks, Uncle Sammy," said Angel.

"Me!" exclaimed Little Angel. "Me!"

Angel laughed. "You, huh?" She wrapped an arm around the little girl in a hug and then stepped back. She looked at her dad and uncle. "I'll, uh…keep in touch with you guys."

"You better," said Dean with a smile.

Angel smiled at the two of them. "See ya around." She looked down at Little Angel, who looked deep into her eyes. "Bye."

Angel concentrated and disappeared into space, aiming for a bedroom twenty-fix years in the future. As she landed, she found that she was still staring at her father, uncle and younger self.

Dean looked around the different room in confusion as Sam did also. "What the…"

Angel stared at them. "Oh, crap…"