Chapter 10

Castiel looked toward the door when he heard the clanking of someone opening it and quickly stood going on the defensive until he saw Dean and Sam coming down the steps.

"It's good to have you back. Did your hunt go as planned?" he asked when they got to the bottom of the steps.

"Pretty much, ganked the monster, and now hikers are safe again," Dean replied.

"How's Jack?" Sam asked when he didn't see him with Castiel.

"He was tired, thought he wanted to wait up for you. I sent him to bed to rest. He has been working very hard the past few days and it has taken a lot out of him."

"How's that coming?"

"Better than I expected. He wants to tell you or rather show you himself so I won't spoil the surprise."

"Want a beer?" Dean offered Sam as he pulled one out of the fridge.

"No, I think I'm calling it a night and heading on to bed," Sam replied tired from hiking, the tension and rush of killing the monster and the drive back.

"Suit yourself. See ya in the morning."

"I promised Jack I would have you look in on him when you got back. He was worried about both of you. It was hard to keep his mind focused on his training. I told him you would pray if you needed help. That appeased him for a while, but he was still worried."

"Sure Cas, no problem," Sam nodded heading down the hall toward the bedrooms.

"Cas wanna join me?" he asked waggling his beer bottle at him.

"I will keep you company," Cas replied not really caring for the taste of beer.

Sam stopped at his bedroom to drop his bag off before walking down to Jack's room. He pushed open the door and looked inside to see the small lamp beside his bed still on and several books laying around Jack's sleeping body. Sam smiled to himself as he quietly moved closer and got the books out of the way.

"Sam?" a young, sleepy voice asked. "Are you guys okay? I was wo-o-o-ed..." he yawned.

Sam looked down into Jack's sleep laden face and smiled at him. "Yeah, we're back and okay, go on back to sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

"I'm glad..." Jack mumbled before rolling over and sighing happily. He hugged Leo to his chest and his breathing evened back out.

Sam reached and brushed a hand over his unruly hair, touched with his concern. He turned off the lamp before leaving him to sleep, being sure the door was partly open so he could hear him. He trudged on to his room and shed his boots and clothes before slipping into bed ready for a good night's sleep.

spn

"How is he really doing Cas?" Dean asked once Sam was out of hearing distance.

"To be only this old and never have experienced life before, I'd say good. The powers are growing stronger within him, I can sense that. He's doing his best to learn as quickly as he can to please you."

"Why would he want to do that?"

"He has great respect for you Dean. He wants to win your approval and show you that he can be good."

"Damn kid doesn't need to do that," Dean mumbled feeling embarrassed with the remark. "Are you still going to heaven to see if you can find out anything to help Jack?" he asked wanting to change the subject.

"Yes, I will go tonight since you are back. I did not want to leave him alone just yet to fend for himself. He is still too new to this experience, and I didn't feel it was safe."

"Good choice. Just be careful up there. We don't know what's happening, and they may still be gunning for you. Don't need to have to break you out of angel prison."

"I know, I will be careful. Tell Jack I will be back as soon as I can," Castiel said getting up to leave. "You will watch over him for me?"

"Yeah, he's safe with us, don't worry."

With a nod, Castiel climbed the steps to the door and let himself out. He was going to have to drive to the portal to Heaven since he didn't have wings to fly there. It would take longer to get there but he didn't have much choice. He got in his car and headed out to find the portal and hoped there wouldn't be a fight with the angel guarding the way into heaven. He has no desire to kill any more of his brothers or sisters since there were not many left.

spn

It was late the following day when Castiel pulled into the park and stopped. There was no one around and he didn't even see the angel that was supposed to be guarding the portal. He got out of the car and walked toward the sand box carefully looking around.

"Hello is anyone here?" he called letting his angel blade slip into his hand.

"I'm surprised to see you here Castiel," a male voice replied from the top of the slide of the jungle gym.

"Indrea, is that you?" he asked shocked to see him guzzling a bottle of whiskey. "Why aren't you guarding the portal to Heaven?"

"From what? And why? It's not like anyone is going to storm Heave," he slurred before slipping down the slid and almost falling as he tried to stand.

"What has gotten into you? It is a great responsibility to be the guardian of the doorway to Heaven."

"Who cares? I mean, what's left for us? Oh that's right, you've haven't seen Heaven in a while have you?"

"Why? What is wrong?"

"Look, if you wanna say we fought and you go ahead and kill me now that's fine. You can put me out of my misery and get it over with," Indrea told him holding out his arms and exposing his chest.

"So you're not going to stop me from entering Heaven?"

"No, be my guest, but don't say I didn't warn you," he said waving his hand and opening the portal.

A swirl of light suddenly appeared over the sandbox as the sigil came to life and allowed entrance to Heaven. Castiel stepped into the light and was whisked away in the blink of an eye. He stumbled slightly when he found himself in the halls of Heaven. He looked up and down the white halls seeing no one in sight. Castiel began to walk toward the throne room searching and reaching out trying to find any angels.

He pushed open the doors and found the room empty and turned when he sensed someone behind him.

"Hello Castiel," Naomi said.

"Naomi? I thought Metatron killed you?" he questioned and looked at the five angels standing behind her. None seemed ready to attack and that was a good thing. He wasn't here for a fight.

"There are different kinds of death Castiel, you should know that. You have died a number of times but you were brought back."

Castiel looked up when suddenly the lights flickered all around him. He looked back to Naomi with a frown and before he could ask she answered.

"After the war and the fall, our numbers have dwindled Castiel. Heaven is run by our grace and that's what keeps the lights on shall we say. Now, there are so few of us that it is beginning to fail. We don't know how much longer we can maintain Heaven."

"How many angels are left?" he asked.

"A total of nine counting you. Our situation is dire, and you know what that means if Heaven's walls crumble? All the souls here will be thrown to Earth as ghost, hundreds of thousands of lost souls roaming the world. There will be no place for the souls in limbo to go except for the ones going to Hell. Pretty soon even there will be over run and it will be even worse."

"Isn't there some way to power Heaven again?"

"Only by angels and new ones haven't been made in eons."

"Maybe I can help with Jack's help."

"Jack, you mean Lucifer's son?" she asked as a gleam glistened in her eyes. "You must bring him here. He can help power Heaven. Maybe he can create new angels, Lucifer was the most powerful angel, besides Michael. You have to give him to us," she demanded stepping closer to him as the other angels dropped blades into their hands.

"I will not do that. You can't have him," Castiel stated firmly. He let his own blade drop into his hand ready to defend himself. "You don't have enough angels as it is, I do not want to kill anyone."

"He could be the answer!" she demanded as she motioned for the angels to take him.

"I think ya better let the angel go," a gruff male voice said from behind Naomi and her angel followers.

They turned to see three men and two woman standing there armed with angels blades, tense and ready to fight. They didn't seem scared of the angels and that had the whispering among themselves.

"What are you doing here? You should be in your Heavens," Naomi questioned not sure how they even got into the halls of Heaven in the first place.

"Well that's kind of hard when our Heavens are falling apart and souls are wandering free, lost and not knowing what to do," Bobby Singer said sarcastically. "So what the hell is going on around here?"

"Bobby, good to see you," Castiel greeted him as he moved to stand with them.

"Cas, you know what's happening in this joint?"

"From what Naomi has told me, Heaven is running out of power because of the death of all the angels. If it fails all the souls will fall to Earth as ghost."

"Balls, and what is anyone doing about it?"

"We are doing our best to keep it going," Naomi defended herself.

"Well ya're doing a piss poor job of it," Bobby sneered at her.

"Bobby how do you know this angel?" John asked as he eyed Castiel.

"He's the one who saved Dean from Hell and decided to fight on our side instead of the angels."

"You are Dean and Sam's father," Castiel stated looking at John with interest.

"Alright, I say we put our differences aside and work together on this problem. I'm not hankering to be a ghost again," Bobby said.

"Naomi, you need to work with us and not against us. It's the only way to save Heaven," Castiel told her, waiting to see her response.

"So you would actually help us restore Heaven?" she asked the souls standing behind them.

"Of course. This is our home now and we'd like to keep it," Bill Harvelle told her. "I don't want to lose what I've got now," he said looking to his wife, Ellen, and their daughter Jo.

"Let's go into a conference room," Naomi suggested nodding to the angels that it was okay. "Go check to see if what they say is true." They bowed their heads and hurried off to do as they were told.

Naomi led the group to a room with a large white table and chairs around it. She took a seat and the others followed suit but kept their weapons in hand and John stood at the door to watch their backs and sound an alarm if needed.

"I may have a way to bring some angels back to Heaven," Castiel said making all eyes turn to him when he spoke.

"How would you do that?" Bobby asked cautiously.

"Lucifer's son, Jack."

"Lucifer has a son? That can't be good." Bobby commented.

"Yes, but he's not trained yet to use all his powers, but I think I can get him ready soon and we can try. He is nothing like his father. He's not evil or a danger. Jack wants to help and he wants to be good. He brought me back from the Empty so I'm hoping he can bring more of us."

"And what is this Empty?" Bill asked getting lost in the conversation.

"It's where angels and demon go when they die. We are put in an eternal sleep by the being that controls the place called the Entity."

"You sure about this?" Bobby asked. "You think Lucifer's son will help Heaven?"

"It may be our only hope. I know of no other way."

"Okay, you work on that from your end and we'll see what we can do here to shore up the personal Heavens. Maybe Ash can come up with something. He's pretty good at things like that. Maybe he can create a temporary battery or patch to stop Heaven from deteriorating further until you can put your plan into motion," Bobby said to Castiel. "Do you have a time frame on any of this?"

"No. Jack is still learning to control his powers but maybe if we focus on this he will be able to soon."

"You good with this?" Bill asked Naomi since she seemed to be the one over the angels.

"I'll have to be I guess. It seems the souls outnumber the angels and if there's more like you..."

"Oh yeah, there's more, but we don't want to fight any more than you do. I don't see how that would solve anything. So shall we strike a deal?" Bill asked.

"Yes," she said.

"I should return to Earth and talk to Dean and Sam," Castiel said. He got up to leave and John stopped him.

"How are my boys doing?" John asked.

"As well as can be expected."

"And Mary? Is she with the boys?" he asked eager to know about his wife.

Castiel looked down at the floor not able to hide his regret from John and trying to find the words to tell him what the brothers told him.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "What happened to Mary?"

"We will get her back."

"Back from where? What aren't you telling me?" he growled as his hand tightened on the angel blade as he gripped Cas's trench coat in his fist.

"All I know is what Dean and Sam told me. I had been killed by Lucifer so I wasn't there. She was defending them against Lucifer, and trying to force him into the rift before it closed and before they could stop him, Lucifer pulled her in with him and it closed. She's trapped in the other world with him."

John's face became like stone as he listened to the explanation. He knew Mary would give her life to save their boys so he couldn't fault her for that. And he was sure she wasn't dead, he would feel it even if she wasn't on Earth.

"We hope when Jack is stronger he can open the rift again and we can go through and save her," Castiel added.

"You do that. I know she's alive still. You save her," he insisted. "And tell my boys I miss them and take care of each other."

"I can do that. Do what you can here and we will work on it from Earth. We will find a way to save Heaven."

"Castiel, I am closing Heaven until we can find a solution to this. If you need to return you will have to contact me on angel radio," Naomi told him as he was leaving.

Castiel nodded his response and headed for the portal that would take him back to Earth with the urgent mission of saving Heaven. He couldn't let his home be destroyed and doom the world below. He could not imagine the Earth overrun with the spirits of Heaven who would be lost and not know what was going on with them.

A/N: Now Cas knows how bad Heaven is and has to figure a way to save it. Can Jack be the answer? Thank you for taking this journey with me. I do like reviews. NC