Chapter 14

Falling's Not the Problem

Emma and Drew started the walk home in silence, moving around people and watching the cars pass. They were silent for a while, both of them taking in everything that happened at the graveyard. Sadness was a heavy weight. But when Emma stuck her hands into her pockets she remembered something.

"Oh, I forgot to give you this," she said, pulling the gold coin that Gabe had given her out of her pocket. "It was your Dad's." Emma handed it over to Drew.

Drew took it hesitantly. Once he had it in his hands he smoothed the sides over with his fingers, tracing each and every curve and groove the coin had to offer. "I was captain of the soccer team, you know."

Well that was a little random. "But then everything…happened and I had to stop playing. I wanted to be a doctor too. I had my whole life planned out and now it's just…gone."

Emma thought back to her normal days, before everything happened to her. At that point in her life she never really thought about her future. She never really wanted to. Because the future is a scary thought. Growing up is a scary thought. And who wants to do that?

"That might not be entirely true." Emma grinned a little over at Drew. "You could still go finish school. You could go to college. You could become a doctor. The only thing holding you back is you."

Drew looked over at her in confusion. "But what about all this Angel stuff?"

"It will pass, if we make it out alive. But when it's all over you could go back to a normal life."

"I thought that all of that normal life stuff would put people in danger? And myself in danger too?" Drew had to swerve quickly so he didn't ram into a pole.

"Well, yeah, there's still the danger but you could live with it. You see, with me I have this whole destiny and a job of having to save the world. Hunters live their life like that because there job is dangerous. You aren't a hunter or a chosen one. You're just a kid with super powers. And you have a very nice guardian Angel watching over you," Emma explained, kicking a pebble.

"Guardian Angel?" Drew raised an eyebrow.

"Come on; don't tell me you haven't figured it out." Emma watched as Drew's confused face suddenly turned to realization.

"Jeremy," he sighed. Emma nodded.

"He's the one who saved you that day," she told him.

Drew smiled but stayed silent.

When they got back to the apartment, after Drew said a quick and quiet thank you to Jeremy, they saw Murdock and Lynn playing a game of cards on the bed.

"How was the walk?" Lynn asked. "Got any Kings?"

Murdock shook his head. "Go fishing."

"It's not go fishing, it's go fish, how many times do I have to tell you?" Lynn scowled at the warlock.

"Hey, I've never played this game before!" Emma and Drew laughed at the two.

"You guys want lunch? I could order Chinese," Drew offered.

"Oh, yes please!" Lynn said, throwing the rest of her cards down on the bed, obviously fed up with the game and the warlock playing it.

That's when everything froze. It was like time froze. Only Emma could move. What was going on?

"Hello." The voice sent a shiver down Emma's spin. She turned reluctantly to see an evil grinning Lucifer.

"What do you want?" she growled.

"Just wanted to pop in to give you a heads up. You have some unpleasant news coming your way."

"What is it?" Emma asked.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough," Lucifer said.

"Why did you send us here, to all these places? What's your plan?" Emma persisted. This may be the only time she would be able to ask that question.

"Ugh, you and your questions. Again, you'll find out later." And with a snap of his fingers everything was zapped back into motion, everyone unfreezing and acting like nothing happened.

Emma's phone rang when Drew started ordering the food. "Hello?" she asked as she put her phone up to her ear. Everyone looked over at her, surprised by the sudden call. Emma hoped it was Connor.

"Emma?" It was Dean. How could he call her?

"Dean?"

"Yeah, it's me. Listen I have some bad news to tell you." He sounded sad. That can't be good.

"W-What is it?" she asked hesitantly.

The other end was silent for a while until Dean finally croaked out, "Gabe is dead."

Emma stopped breathing for a few seconds as she had just gotten the wind knocked out of her. Gabe was dead?

"Listen, I'm sorry, and I don't know where you are but if you are able to get back to the safe house, we have something he wanted to give y-," The call cut out.

Emma dropped the phone. She couldn't move. She didn't want to.

"Emma? What's wrong," Drew hung up and walked over towards her.

She didn't answer. Instead she vanished to the roof of the apartment building. She didn't want the others to see her cry twice in one day.

A million questions started to run through her head. What happened? Who-How-Why?! She had a feeling it was Lucifer since he was the one to tell her that she was getting bad news right before she got the phone call.

Tears started streaming down her face as she kept thinking about it. Why was everything so bad happening all at once?! Why did this have to happen to HER?!

Emma collapsed onto her knees, crying, just barley holding it together. This was her fault. Lucifer wanted to hurt her. So he killed one of her closest friends. They shared the same grace for fucks sake.

What made it worse was that Emma couldn't even remember the last thing she said to him. What was it? It felt like a million years ago since they had last talked. Gabe had been so distant after she changed to Emma. He looked so distracted and uninterested in everything. Emma should've talked to him more during that time, she thought. Maybe he wouldn't have picked a fight with the Devil.

Emma noticed the horseman's rings loosely dangling around her neck. In a fit she ripped the ring necklace off her neck and threw it across the roof. She didn't need it anymore.

And now this is was it…Gabe was just gone. Forever. He's not coming back this time, she could feel it. He had always been there for her and now when she needed him most he went and got himself killed.

Emma thought back to when she first met Gabriel. Back in her High School cafeteria, zapping her and the Winchesters away and getting rid of the Demon she recently learned had been Chief. Oh yeah, he's dead too.

Gabe had been the only one who understood her at the time, understood that she wanted some freedom, and understood how she needed a friend and not a teacher.

Goodbye Grace Buddy.

Emma stood up weak kneed, still crying silently. Everything hurt too much. Every single thing ached and oh god she wanted it to end.

So she walked over to the edge of the roof, stepping up on the ledge. She remembered back to when she first died, how free and pure she felt. She could go to Heaven where she would be happy. She could leave this horrible world behind. All it took was one jump.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Emma turned around quickly, teetering a little, to see Lynn staring at her wide eyed.

"I-I," she sniffed, already hating herself for what she almost did. But she still couldn't move down from the ledge.

Lynn, at first looking mad, now looked sad and worried. The Hybrid quickly ran over to Emma and pulled her down off the ledge carefully. "What's wrong? Were you going to kill yourself?"

"I don't know," Emma said quickly. "I just can't do this anymore."

"What did Dean say?" Oh yeah, she heard her talking to Dean.

Emma could barely get the words out. "Gabriel, the Archangel, is dead."

Lynn's eyes widened as if she knew him. "H-He is?" Her green eyes suddenly seemed shinier, like she was about to cry.

Emma nodded, still holding onto Lynn's arm as if she would collapse again. "You knew him?" God, she hated using the past tense.

Lynn nodded.

"How did you know him?" Why was she still talking about this? It was like the more questions she asked about him the more she would know about him. Like he was still alive. She needed the questions to hold on to him.

Lynn laughed sadly, "He's my Uncle, of course I knew him."

Emma laughed a little too, wiping tears from her eyes. "Yeah, forgot that you were Lucy's kid."

"You know, I don't really like my father."

"Never said you did," Emma told her.

"Good. It just seems like you're always on my case now ever since I told you who I was. I don't want that. I want to be your friend," Lynn said, looking down at the ground.

"Really? Oh, then I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was doing that. I want to be your friend too," Emma said.

"Well, that's good," Lynn swallowed, as if holding back something. "How-How did you know Gabe? I mean, he kind of lived with you guys but I don't know the whole story…"

"He gave me part of his grace so I could be the chosen one," Emma explained quickly.

"Gabe giving up part of his grace?" Lynn laughed. "Never thought he would do something like that."

Emma nodded and laughed.

"How about we go downstairs and wait for the Chinese food to arrive, okay?" Lynn suggested. Emma nodded in agreement.

"And for now on you are not allowed near any roofs, okay?" She added.

Emma was silent for a moment, wondering why she even got up on the ledge anyway. If she had jumped before Lynn got there then she would've missed out on this new friendship that was blooming. She would have missed out on kicking Lucifer's ass or seeing Connor again or save the world. And anyway, Gabe wouldn't want her to be dead.

"Okay."