Author's Note:
I'm back from my trip, so you get an update! Thank you all for waiting so patiently. Thanks to Nikkilouise, jojospn, FireChildSlytherin5, anna3311234, bespectacledfanwarrior, JessMust7, keacdragon, and Riceball-1989 for their reviews on chapter 9!
Chapter 10 - And Those Who Follow The Path Of The Righteous
Sam had spent the rest of the evening researching possible sites where grace could have landed. It was to be expected that locating something that had fallen from the sky would be harder when the entire world had been witness to fallen angels. At the moment, Sam was less concerned with finding the angels themselves. What good would locating an amnesiac fallen angel do? None, unless they found that angel's grace first.
By the next morning, Sam had a list of driving destinations, which he presented to Gabriel over breakfast, handing him a map at the same time. "See if you can plan a decent road trip that doesn't cause a lot of backtracking."
"Where are you going?" Gabriel demanded as Sam began to walk away, the drained archangel looking down petulantly at his homework assignment.
"I'm going to go steal a car," Sam griped. "Can you be ready to go in an hour?"
Lips twitching in amusement at Sam's unwillingness to steal, Gabriel nodded in response, turning his attention to the papers in front of him.
Dean and Castiel were already ready to leave, and were dropping Sam off in one of the smaller towns along their way so he could acquire a vehicle, then drive back to pick up Gabriel.
As Sam stepped out of the Impala, he reached forward to pat Dean on the shoulder. "Good luck, guys," he told them sincerely.
"Thank you, Sam," Castiel responded.
Dean nodded and gave Sam a look that clearly meant "Be safe," and then the door was shut and the Impala was driving away.
Eager to pick up Gabriel and get on the road, Sam didn't spend much time worrying over his car choice. He picked an old Toyota that looked like it was in good condition, and to his relief was able to get it running with a little work.
The drive back to the bunker was about twenty minutes, and Gabriel was already waiting outside when Sam pulled up, hopping into the car without comment and spreading out the road map Sam had given him.
"Where to?" Sam prompted, not sure which location was closest on the list he'd given Gabriel.
"Head North," Gabriel instructed. "Closest spot is a field in the middle of nowhere, but still in Kansas. I'm not really a map kind of person," he made a face at the piece of paper that, had his grace been replenished, might have set it on fire. "Anyway, I think I've got a decent idea of how to get there from here."
Sam found that amusing, but didn't comment. Instead, he messed with the radio until he found one of those stations boasting to be the best of the 80's, 90's, and today, and turned the volume down enough that conversation was still possible. Something he vaguely identified as Justin Timberlake was coming out of the speakers, but he ignored it, glancing at Gabriel periodically as though checking to make sure he was still there.
After about half an hour of this, Gabriel finally interrupted the relative calm of the trip. "Why do you keep staring at me, kiddo?" He asked with a sigh, looking tired all of a sudden. "I'm not going to fly off on you. My grace is still too low for that."
"No, it's not that," Sam countered, not sure he knew how to explain. "It's just...it's weird, you know? Having you here. In more ways than one, actually. I mean, you were dead. Like, actually really dead. So yeah, it's weird to have you sitting next to me in this car because of that, and it's kind of distracting. Weirder though, is the fact that you're voluntarily sticking around. I would've thought you'd be back to punishing douchebags the instant you were raised, but for some reason you went looking for us, and you're sticking around." Sam cut off his monologue and shrugged. "It's just...weird."
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "You need a new adjective, Samsquatch."
"My mental thesaurus goes to hell when I start babbling," Sam muttered.
Gabriel chuckled at that. "Well, I'll agree with you anyway. It is weird. You want to know how my last few days have gone?" When Sam shot him a curious look, he took that as consent and continued. "So, I wake up with really garbled memories, and I realize that my older brother killed me. Not exactly a fun realization. Then it occurs to me that I'm in the middle of nowhere, in some clearing for no apparent reason."
"That's where I buried you," Sam interrupted to explain. At Gabriel's dumbfounded look, he shrugged. "What? It seemed like the right thing to do."
"You went back to Elysian Fields?" Gabriel asked in shock. "Why in the hell would you do something like that?"
Sam shot him a scolding look. "Because I wanted to be there to see if I could do anything. Obviously I was too late, so I did what I could. If it makes you feel better, Dean wanted to just get the hell out of there and not look back."
Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Right, so Dean-o's the smart one. Well, we're doomed."
Sam's lips twitched at that, but he didn't comment. He knew that Dean was smarter than anyone gave him credit for, but arguing his brother's intelligence with Gabriel would be time consuming and pointless.
"Alright, so I woke up in the clearing where you buried me then. Thanks, I guess." Gabriel shifted uncomfortable for a moment, then continued his story. "As soon as I got access to the rest of the world, I caught up on world news. Good job with the apocalypse, by the way. How the hell'd you convince Dean to let you say yes to Lucifer?"
"I don't even know," Sam admitted. "He was dead set against it at first, then out of the blue he told me that he trusted me to be able to beat Lucifer. I couldn't have done it without him though. Lucifer was beating the shit out of him, and that was what gave me the strength to take over."
"Huh." Gabriel was quiet for a moment, considering that. "I saw the aftermath of that in my brother's memories. Do you still have nightmares?"
Sam was quiet for a moment, the soft beat of the radio and the running engine the only noises. "Sometimes," he finally answered. "Not as bad as before, when I almost died, but yeah, sometimes."
Gabriel thought of the image he'd seen in Castiel's head of Sam in a hospital bed, Lucifer doing his best to kill the hunter through sleep deprivation. "Call me curious, Sammy, but why'd you forgive Cas?"
Giving Gabriel a double take, Sam was too shocked to answer for a moment. "What, you think I shouldn't have?"
"I'm not saying that," Gabriel disagreed. "I've already forgiven him too, and he practically had a conniption fit over it. He doesn't think he deserves forgiveness, which is it's own problem. I know why I forgave him, and it's obvious why Dean forgave him, so I'm just curious why you did."
It took Sam a minute to formulate an answer he was pleased with. "Cas did some awful things," he admitted. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pissed at him for removing the wall in my head, but then there's part of me that think it would have happened eventually anyway. When Cas took Lucifer out of my head for me, that was what made me forgive him, even if I didn't necessarily admit it right then and there. Whatever Cas did, he always thought he was doing the right thing. I guess the fact that I knew he had good motivations helped me understand what he did. Not that I was at all okay with his decisions, but I couldn't hate him, I guess. Taking Lucifer out of my head was the only thing he felt he could do to apologize to me, and that was enough for me. I think more than anything he did it to prove to Dean that he wanted to make amends." Sam shrugged and blew out a breath slowly. "So yeah, that's why I forgave him. He tried."
Gabriel made an understanding noise in his throat and stretched slightly in the seat. "Thanks, Sammy."
"For what?" Sam asked curiously.
Gabriel shrugged. "Letting Cas be part of your family. It means a lot to him, I saw it in his mind. As far as he's concerned, you and Dean are the only people he cares about that he's positive won't try to kill him."
"That's depressing," Sam muttered, sighing tiredly. "I wish that wasn't true."
"Well, it is, and it probably isn't going to change soon, so thank you. As his big brother, I can appreciate that he found somewhere to call home. I don't think Heaven was ever really the right place for Cas anyway." Gabriel gazed upward contemplatively. "It's his home, but I don't think it's where he belongs."
Sam didn't have a real response for that, so he let the conversation drift into silence, and turned the radio up a few clicks, humming along to something he thought was probably ABBA. Only two hours to their first stop. With any luck, they would find their first angelic grace. Even if they couldn't find the owner, at least it would be safe from demons.
Dean and Castiel were driving to Maryland because they really didn't know where else to start looking. Castiel didn't know Michael's relationship with Earth well enough to know where the archangel might go, so they were headed to where he would have been released, at the entrance to Lucifer's cage. It was about a twenty hour drive, and Dean was determined to make it in two days.
"You need to teach me how to drive," Castiel pointed out.
Dean huffed out a sigh, rubbing his forehead wearily in anticipation. "Yeah, I know, but that's going to take time, and I'd rather you practiced on something else." He rubbed his hand over the steering wheel absentmindedly.
"I can understand that," Castiel assured him. "I would not want to risk damaging your car. I believe that scenario would end badly for me."
Dean shot him a look. "What, you think I'd beat you up or something?" At Castiel's shrug, he made a face. "Relax, Cas. I would never react like that to anybody I cared about, especially you. If you broke my baby I'd be pissed as hell, but I can't seem to give you much more punishment than the silent treatment."
"I am not a fan of that," Castiel informed him. "I enjoy conversing with you."
"Yeah, well." Dean shrugged. "I've never been able to keep it up very long anyway. I'm not good at staying mad at you."
"That is a character trait I would be relieved to see develop in my siblings," Castiel muttered.
"Worried about Michael or Raphael?" Dean asked curiously.
"Well, the archangels are a concern," Castiel acknowledged, "though I was thinking more of the angels I slaughtered in Heaven, the ones I murdered."
"Oh." Dean didn't have a good response to that. So many of the angels that would have been thrust onto Earth would be resurrected angels Castiel had killed himself. Once their graces were restored, how many would come after him?
Castiel sighed quietly and stared at his hands.
"You know, even if they don't forgive you, Cas, there will be ones who do. Gabriel did, didn't he?" Dean offered hopefully.
"I didn't kill Gabriel," Castiel reminded him, but his expression was moderately less melancholy.
"Well, I'm sure your siblings will forgive you, Cas. The ones that don't, that's their loss. Gabriel will back you up, and so will Sam and I." Dean tapped Castiel on the shoulder with his right hand, trying to be encouraging. "Don't get discouraged before we've even started."
Castiel allowed himself a small smile, and nodded at Dean. "Alright. I can maintain hope for now."
"Good," Dean said approvingly. "Hey, you can pick the music for the next hour or so of driving if that'll cheer you up."
Castiel raised an eyebrow, surprised. Dean didn't let anyone mess with his music in the car. Castiel had been witness to several slapping wars between Dean and Sam when Sam had decided he'd had enough of Metallica for one day. "Can we listen to something...classical?" He asked quietly.
Dean knew he didn't mean classic rock, so he fiddled around with the radio until he found a classical music station. Something was playing on a piano, and Dean had to admit it sounded peaceful. "What is this?" He asked, curious.
"Beethoven, I believe," Castiel murmured, his eyes closed and his head back in relaxation.
Pleased with the sudden lack of tension, Dean decided the classical music could stay, and focused on the road. He had a long way to go.