"I'd be careful Gabriel," Balthazar finished his report with a note of seriousness that anyone who was less well versed in the arts of sarcasm would have missed. Gabriel caught it easily. "Long story short, Raphael walks the Earth."
Gabriel ran a hand through his hair. This was exactly what he did not need right now. The Winchester's trickster problem was still not dealt with, even after several days of fruitless searching. Plus, since Gabriel had managed to get ahead of himself and let slip to Sam that he knew something, the kid had been no less pestering. Whenever the two of them were alone he would ask a little off hand question. Just the one. Maybe just menial things like 'what was his hair colour' or 'more like Cas or more like Balthazar'. Those kinds of thing, Gabriel could blunder his way through with twisted descriptions of himself without drawing any kind of attention from Sam. The answers seemed to help bring Sam out of the darkness that the memory loss had left him. It was the deeper questions he avoided. Like 'where is he now' or 'is he happy'. The worst one was simply 'why'. Those ones were the ones that Gabriel outwardly refused to answer, plying the kid with some half-arsed excuse of 'he'd kill me if I told you'. But it was getting harder to fight that look of complete loss whenever Sam heard it.
Not only that but Dean was constantly glowering at him and muttering back handed comments at him at every opportunity. Cas had developed a habit of fussing over him and his wellbeing whenever he got the chance. It seemed like Bobby was the only one he could have any kind of normal conversation with. But the old hunter wasn't exactly talkative most of the time.
Overall it had been a stressful few days. And now the Raphael problem had just gotten a whole lot worse. Raphael without a vessel could be dealt within the celestial realms. Raphael with a vessel meant the battle was brought groundside.
"So much for keeping hold of his meat suit," he replied almost teasingly, were it not for the lack of smirk and the missing glint in his eye.
"We tried," Balthazar responded rubbing the back of his head and glancing around the old barn the two angels were meeting in. "But it turns out Raphael had a few unexpected tricks up his sleeve."
Gabriel smirked at that, but it quickly faded. "Where is he now?"
"Trying to find your softball team I assume," Balthazar replied with a nonchalant shrug, looking back to the Archangel standing across from him, "but exactly how far along he is or where that search has taken him we don't know. He's moving pretty quickly."
The Archangel nodded and pursed his lips as he processed the new information. His priorities remained the same, no matter what he needed to make sure the Winchesters were safe while they dealt with the trickster but while Raphael remained in heaven he knew he would only have to deal with his brother's lackeys at most. But now that Raphael was walking on his own two legs, Gabriel would have to revise that. "All right, keep him busy for now as best you can without getting yourselves killed, I'll be done with the hunter brigade soon."
"We'd all appreciate it if you could hurry that up," Balthazar replied shortly. "Forgive me, but I think your priorities should be elsewhere right now."
Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Look, the way I see it, Raphael and I are going to be meeting whether I go to him or he comes to me. This way, I can make sure the Winchesters are safe."
Balthazar snorted. "So you can make sure Sam is safe you mean. Oh don't look at me like that Gabe, it was never a secret. He would be safer if you dealt with Raphael sooner rather than later."
"There are other dangers out there Balthy," Gabriel replied. "I want to at least remove some of them before…well you know."
Balthazar looked away with a small note, thinking better of any biting retort he had lined up. "It won't come to that."
Gabriel shrugged. "It might," he replied carelessly, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Keep me in the loop, last thing I need is King Douchenose throwing me a surprise reception."
Balthazar gave a tight smile and small nod. "I'll do my best Gabe, but I'm not sure how much time we'll have spare for secret meetings and the pony express."
"I'll be done in three days," Gabriel promised.
"You'd better be, not sure we can hold him off that long," Balthazar responded before taking a deep breath. "See you round Gabe."
With that, Balthazar disappeared in a rustle of feathers, leaving Gabriel to gaze at his feet for a long moment, re-evaluating his plans for the next few days. There wasn't much of them to start with but the little that was there was suddenly on a much stricter timescale.
There was a thick air of hopelessness when the Trickster reappeared in Bobby's front room. Cas, sitting at the kitchen table, was the first to react to his presence, probably because he had noticed his approach long before he actually arrived. A quick shake of the Archangel's head quelled the questions on Castiel's mind and gave a silent promise to answer them later. The Winchesters and Bobby noticed a second later, each looking up from their respective research, well except Dean who simply rolled his head from resting his forehead on the open book to resting his temple on the open book regarding the Trickster with half closed eyes.
"Anything useful?" Sam asked as the Trickster strolled into the room and dropped onto the sofa beside him.
"Oh plenty. Nothing that would help us though," he replied with an apologetic shrug. "Sorry kid."
Dean groaned, sat up and slammed his book shut. "That's it. We've got nothing," he announced, standing up and heading for the kitchen, Sam watched with a small frown.
"You're giving up?" Sam asked quickly as Dean leant down to pull a beer out of the fridge.
"Sam we've got jacksquat, no leads, no clues, no freaking idea where she might be!" Dean replied shortly from the kitchen, twisting the top of his drink off and leaning against the kitchen counter. "What are we supposed to do?"
"I don't know, maybe keep looking?" Sam retorted as though it was obvious.
Dean scowled as he took a swig of beer and swallowed. "Looking where? We're out of options Sam. And we can't just bury ourselves in this forever."
Sam licked his lips and looked down at the book he had been reading through momentarily before lifting his gaze back to his brother. "Come on, I really need to deal with this Dean. I've lost a ton of my memories that I'm probably never going to be getting back." His eyes subconsciously ticked sideways to the Trickster who was looking around the room, anywhere but Sam. "This is the only form of closure I'm going to get."
Dean regarded Sam for a moment, bottle resting on his lips. After a moment he sighed and it lowered. "I'm just saying we've got nothing to go on Sammy," he lifted his arms slightly and let them fall back against his sides, futilely. "There's nothing else we can do."
The atmosphere seemed to somehow take on yet another layer of tension. Silence settled over the group as Sam went back to reading, heading hanging a little lower despite the determined expression on his face. Bobby had raised an accusatory eyebrow at Dean who just ignored it, focusing on his drink. The quiet stretched out for a long, uncomfortable moment until Trickster frowned and leant forward, peering at something on Bobby's desk. Suddenly, he tilted his head and pushed himself to his feet.
"What is it?" Sam asked, watching curiously.
The Trickster didn't reply until he had crossed the room and picked up the red knife that Sam had put on the table earlier that day when they were gathering together what they had on the second trickster. He turned it over in his hands, a small crease in his forehead as he did.
"Is this the knife you threatened me with the other day?" he asked, turning to Sam and holding up the weapon.
Sam nodded silently, quietly and surprisingly ashamed that he had threatened the guy in the first place. Over the last couple of days of talking to him and getting to know the Trickster, his opinion of the guy had shifted massively, to the point where Sam would call him an ally and, reluctantly, a friend.
The Trickster nodded to himself, continuing to inspect the blade apparently unaware of the hints of guilt that Sam was feeling. "She made it didn't she?" he asked, but it was clear he knew he was right anyway. He inwardly cursed himself. Human emotions really did get in the way. If he hadn't been so damn flustered when Sam had pressed it to his throat he would have recognised it then and they could have saved themselves a few days.
"What difference does that make?" Bobby asked, interrupting Trickster's thoughts.
He looked up from it to meet the old hunter's gaze, raising an eyebrow. "It really is in one ear and out the other with you human's isn't it?" Bobby scowled and the Trickster smirked. "The summoning ritual," he said plainly.
"I thought you said we needed something of hers for that to work."
The Trickster waved the knife in front of him. "This is hers."
Dean frowned. "It's just a knife."
The Trickster turned to look at him, half presenting, half pointing the knife at Dean. "It's a knife that she made. It's as much of a body part as an arm or a leg. When a trickster makes something they leave a tiny part of themselves on it. A bit like its very own signature. Just in case we have the misfortune to wander into occupied territory. Helps a lot when your fellows can be literally anyone or anything. Besides, don't want some schmuck taking the credit for your hard work."
Dean just rolled his eyes.
"So you're saying with that we can summon her?" Sam asked, renewed eager in his voice.
"Well we still need the other ingredients," the Trickster replied then smiled, "but yeah, with this we can summon her. Be warned though, she'll be pissed."
Sam couldn't stop the corner of his lip from lifting. It seemed things were finally going his way, even just a little.
"Quick question," Dean interjected, holding up his hand like a kid in class, "where are you going to be when this goes down?"
The Trickster raised his eyebrows and inhaled through his teeth, "That depends how quickly you lot can get this scavenger hunt done. I've got a life. Besides, an angel and two of the greatest hunters on the planet should be able to take down a trickster if the goings get rough. Besides, I wouldn't want to steal the thunder of your first trickster kill," he teased, smirking between the Winchesters. Neither of which were smiling.
"So you won't be there?" Sam asked, doing his best to ignore the sudden and surprising note of dismay that came with the thought of the Trickster's absence.
Over the last few days he'd found himself talking with him more than he would ever have expected. He was the only link he had to whoever it was that had been taken from Sam's memories. Well, that's how it had started anyway. Over time, Sam found their conversations turning away from his past towards everything else besides. Stories of the Trickster's life (some repeatable, some that he wanted to forget), quick bouts of exchanged banter that left Sam in an oddly cheered mood. And when he wasn't in such a great mood, as was more often the case, the Trickster was always easy to be found, just in the next room being unusually loud or coincidentally going to find Sam anyway for reasons he never actually mentioned. Thinking about it, Sam realised the note of dismay shouldn't have been all that surprising.
The Trickster turned back to face Sam with a casual shrug. "I'm on a tight schedule. This was never going to be a permanent gig anyhow."
Sam swallowed and looked to the floor.
"But the sooner you guys quit dragging ass and getting to it, the more likely I can spare a minute. I'm fairly sure Bobby found the ritual in one of the books on his desk yesterday," the Trickster said, glancing at each of them in the room. An expectant silence hung in the air until the Trickster clapped his hands sharply, making them all flinch. "Well come on! She's not going to sort this out herself!" he announced, sparing Sam a sly smirk as Cas descended on the books, with Dean and Bobby joining in a moment after, muttering begrudgingly.
Things were finally moving forward.
Hey hey hey. Sorry for the massive gap between chapters…again. Um…yeah no excuses really…Thanks for sticking around though! It really means a lot. Please review? You know you want to. Just a couple of minutes. One quick finger click and a few key strokes and you're done! It's a piece of cake. Although I wouldn't try typing with a piece of cake, that would only end messily…
Loves! xxxxx