A/N: There's not much more to say that I haven't said already. MANY thanks to those that have left reviews and sent PMs! Those comments along with all the new followers and many tweets I've received have continued to encourage and inspire me to keep writing. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
And with that said, I'm way too excited about this chapter to say anything more, so let's just get on with the show, shall we?
**DISCLAIMER** I do not have any ownership stake in Supernatural, or the characters within the show, but I do have the utmost respect for those that do!
Sam ran outside, just in time to see his brother already in the car and peeling out of the parking lot. Running both hands through his hair, he stood and watched the Impala drive down the road and then headed back inside. "Oh no you don't!" he said, silently grateful Dean had taken the car instead of just disappearing to God knows where.
Sam opened his laptop as he sat down at the table and his fingers began flying across the keys. After a few seconds he shouted, "Gotcha!" as he brought up the GPS tracker he had activated on Dean's cell phone while he was in the shower just before the argument began. At the moment it looked looked like Dean was just driving aimlessly around town, but even though Sam knew better than that, he didn't know where Dean was headed specifically, so Sam let the window run in the background while he accessed every coroner's report he could hack into within a 50 mile radius. After what Sam had witnessed before his brother took off, he figured Dean would be out there somewhere, looking for something to kill. Sam scoured the coroner's reports as quickly as possible, trying not to miss any clues, but there was nothing there to indicate anything supernatural had occurred in the area within the last six months.
That left Sam with a uneasy thought, without anything supernatural out there to kill, he wondered if Dean would settle for something else, God forbid, maybe even something human! Just then the window tracking Dean's movements flashed so he brought it to the foreground. "Oh crap!" he said as he grabbed his backpack on the way out the door. Dean had stopped right in the middle of the seedier section of town.
After Cas and Gabriel left Hannah's office Cas looked at Gabriel and asked, "What happened to following my lead?"
"Oh come ON little brother! She more than had that one coming! Let's just chalk it up to the trickster coming out to play, shall we? Besides, there's too few of us archangels left now, these youngsters need to be reminded who they're messing with every once in a while, present company excluded of course."
"But of course" Cas responded with a smile. Then he got to thinking and his smile began to fade.
"Ok, it's time to get moving again. We still have to find the last two ingredients."
According to Metatron, unlike the feathers and the other items they had already gathered, the final ingredients had to come from inside heaven. So the angels walked along the stream of what should now probably be called Cas' heaven. "I've got a pretty good idea of where to start looking for the first one." Cas said, "We just need to follow the stream to get there. However, I have no idea how to find the other!"
"You just leave that one to me." Gabriel said as they continued to walk, straight to where every stream and river and road in heaven led, to the garden itself, in the very heart of heaven.
When they'd finally arrived they both took a deep breath of the clean, crisp air and Cas said, "I always forget how beautiful it is here."
"Yep, Dad definitely had a soft spot for this place," Gabriel said, "and Eden wasn't too far off the mark either."
"I'm so glad to hear you think so, I've worked very hard at keeping it just the way He wanted it." Joshua said from behind the angels as he joined the conversation.
Surprised by his sudden appearance Cas simply said, "Joshua, thank you for coming."
"It may surprise you to learn, I don't get too many visitors here, so when someone shows up, I tend to do the same." Joshua said, "How can I help you Castiel? Or is it Gabriel here that needs my assistance?"
"Actually, I think it's me this time." Gabriel answered.
"Good, I was hoping I wasn't going to have to explain again that I don't know where our Father is anymore than anyone else does."
"Yeah, well, as much as we'd love to know the answer to that question, it's not the reason we're here." Gabriel said. Joshua just stood waiting respectfully so Gabriel continued. "I'm afraid we may need something from your garden here."
"Oh?" Joshua asked, "What's that?"
"Actually, I'm not really sure it matters, it's more of a 'consent' kind of a thing. You see, we're trying to get new wings for our brothers and sisters, but the spell requires the 'consent of heaven' to do it. Castiel here is the one that figured the heart of heaven was a good place to start looking."
"I see. Well to tell you the truth, I haven't always approved of everything our brothers and sisters have done in recent years," Gabriel started to argue, but Joshua just held up his hand and continued, "but, I suppose we all suffered for that, during and after the fall. Wait here just a minute gentlemen, I think I know just the thing you're looking for." Without wings himself, Joshua walked away, returning a few minutes later with an apple in hand.
"That's it?" Gabriel asked, "I mean, not that I don't trust you but, that's not forbidden or anything, right?"
Joshua answered by explaining that it was precisely why the apple was forbidden on earth that it was exactly what they needed in heaven now.
"You don't know the real reason why the apple was forbidden on earth do you?" Joshua asked as Gabriel and Cas shook their heads. "It's ok, not too many do. You see, the apple was God's favorite fruit, and the tree in Eden was actually grown from a seed taken directly from the tree found right here in this garden. So, since it grew from heaven itself, our Father forbade eating from it on earth."
Understanding completely now, Gabriel and Cas sincerely thanked Joshua and said their goodbyes, realizing that since the apple had been cherished by their Father and voluntarily given by it's guardian, it was the perfect donation to the cause. The angels then looked around the garden one last time before setting off again.
Sam left the motel with his slim-jim in hand, and walked down the street to a dark alley where a few cars had parked between a bar and an out-of-business retail store. Finding a nice, anonymous looking car, Sam popped the lock, and had it hot-wired and driving away within about a minute flat. He checked the GPS tracker from his phone this time and then followed it for about 5 miles to the area where Dean had parked the Impala. He parked the stolen car about a block away and made note of his surroundings as he approached the Impala and looked inside. Seeing Dean's duffle bag on the back seat, he opened the door and searched the bag finding the cell phone on top and as suspected, the First Blade gone. Sam hated that Blade with a passion and knew whoever might be on the other side of it was in mortal danger. Just then he heard a scream and the unmistakable sound of gunfire coming from an apartment building a block away. Sam ran towards it and just as he got there a woman all but knocked him down trying get away. Sam grabbed her and asked, "What apartment?!"
"Don't go up there mister!" She replied, "It'll kill you!"
"It's OK, I can stop him, but you have to tell me what apartment he's in!" Sam demanded this time.
The woman continued yelling as she ran away, "216, but it's probably too late! Nothing can stop that thing!"
Sam let the woman go and quickly moved inside the building where he almost tripped over a man lying on the floor. Sam bent down and rolled him over to check for a pulse. The man was beaten and bloody, with a knife wound to the gut. He was also dead."
Sam ran up two flights of stairs and heard Dean's voice yelling at someone inside apartment 216. Finding the door locked, Sam kicked it in without hesitation and found the apartment trashed with pictures and papers tossed about and broken furniture everywhere. With his shirt soaked in blood, Dean was standing opposite a man who was cornered in the living room. The hallway leading to the bedrooms was blocked by a dresser Dean must have shoved into place to keep the man from escaping to his right. On the other side, a bookcase was keeping him from bolting to his left. Sam then watched Dean as he started moving towards the man with his right hand gripping the First Blade and moving it up to an attack position.
"DEAN! Sam yelled, and his brother turned to see Sam standing in the broken doorway as hellfire lit the room.
Pleading with his brother, Sam said, "Drop the blade, please Dean!" but instead, Dean turned back again and began moving forward.
"NO!" Sam yelled, flying across the room to get between his brother and the man he was trying to kill.
Seeing Sam in front of him finally made Dean stop and the man started yelling, "I shot him! I SHOT him and he just stood there, and those eyes!"
Looking into Dean's black eyes himself, but speaking to the man behind him, Sam said, "It's ok, you can leave now."
Dean finally spoke saying, "I don't think so Sam." as he blocked the man's path, "Did you see the guy downstairs?"
"Yeah, I saw him," Sam said, relieved to find out his brother wasn't the one to kill him. "But you don't want to do this."
Dean stared right past Sam to the man standing behind him and said, "Like hell I don't, he killed that guy Sam!"
Sam then tried to reason with the demon in front of him, "Ok, maybe he did, but we let the cops handle things like this, remember?"
Defiant, Dean angrily replied, "Not this time Sam, now move out of my way, or so help me..."
But Sam wasn't moving and when Dean realized he wasn't going to, he shoved Sam to the floor and then shoved the murderer against the wall and bringing the Blade to his throat.
Sam then yelled as loud as he could. "DEAN STOP! HE'S HUMAN!"
Barely able to hear his brother screaming, the hatred and bloodlust raging through every cell of his being was drowning everything else out. But finally, Sam's pleading to save a human life resonated with something very deep inside, and Dean stopped the Blade just short of slitting the man's throat.
Sam picked himself up off the floor as quickly as possible for a man his size and stood right next to the man pinned against the wall. Just two feet away from his brother now, Sam saw him start to shake, gritting his teeth, and if he wasn't mistaken, he was sure he heard a growl escape from his brother's gut. Sam knew this demon wasn't just possessing his brother, he was part of him, but Sam continued to plead, "He's human Dean! Put the Blade down!"
"I can't Sam, I can't do it! He killed a human too, this guy deserves it. Why shouldn't I give him what he deserves?" Dean asked and pushed the blade into the man's throat causing it to bleed.
"Dean, NO! Ok, you want to know why, right? I'll tell you Dean, because that's not US man! That's not who WE are! You're better than this Dean! WE'RE better than this."
Not even knowing why exactly, Dean then moved the Blade back about a quarter-inch. "Ok, that's good." Sam said, "Now, look at me." Then Dean began darting his eyes back and forth, still holding the murderer against the wall with the Blade shaking in place.
Sam's heart broke seeing how hard his brother was fighting to stay in control. Feeling tears welling in his eyes, he knew he couldn't look away for even a second so he just let them fall, "We're in this together Dean, don't you see? You and me, just like always!"
"How do I stop Sam? He deserves it, you know he does."
"I'll tell you how, you just let it go Dean, remember? Just let it go and put the blade down, Ok? Then this guy's gonna call the police and confess."
"I am?" The man asked.
Dean pushed the Blade back into the man's throat as Sam asked, "Do you WANT to die?" Then he looked back at his brother and said "He'll call Dean, we'll stay here while he does and then we'll wait outside until the cops show up and take him away."
Dean continued to hold the man against the wall, but then folded his elbow, still shaking, but allowing the Blade to move away from his neck. Then he looked at Sam and with a cracked voice asked, "You and me?"
"You and me," Sam said, "just like it's always been."
Dean then hesitated for a minute and said, "There's things I haven't told you Sammy."
Sam shook his head and laughed just a little, releasing some of the tension of the moment and said, "And you think I didn't know that?"
"Ok, where to now?" Cas asked. "You said you had an idea of where to get the last ingredient."
"Just follow me brother. " Gabriel said as they walked along until they came upon a path that led through a wooded area, and then to what appeared to be rundown shack whose door had a warding sigil painted on it.
"Allow me." Gabriel said, "You have to knock in a very specific pattern to open the door."
After Gabriel had knocked Cas thought the pattern sounded familiar. "Wait, isn't that the introduction to a song? 'Smoke on the Water' right?"
"Well, color me impressed!" Gabriel said.
"Don't be, I first heard that song while driving with Dean on our way to interrogate Raphael." Cas said.
Gabriel knocked on the door a second time, in the same pattern and the door swung open revealing a young man holding a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in his hand.
"GABE!" He shouted.
"DOCTOR BADASS!" Gabriel shouted back as they grabbing each others hands for a shake and bro-hug.
Then Gabriel looked at Cas and said, "Little brother, I'd like you to meet Ash, also known as Dr. Badass!"