Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Maddy Love Castiel, RachelPhobia, kb18142, CherylB1964, FireChildSlytherin5, Kirabaros, PercyJfan1802, Nicolene B, XxZessxX, eiahlaie, baileylovesyou0400, Fallen's child, random yet loveable, Chichi-10018 and Nyx Ro for last chapter's reviews!

Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!

13

Adam had waited until late at night to try and sneak out of the house. It was highly doubtful he stood a chance to get away from a bunch of angels that easily, but at least his half-brothers and their mentor were sleeping, so that was three people less he had to worry about.

Adam figured all he needed were a few minutes to paint that summoning symbol somewhere on the ground outside and then all this would be pretty much over for him. It wasn't that Adam didn't see what the others were going on about, he just didn't see a better choice. A lot of people would die in the crossfire when Michael and Lucifer had their fight, but ultimately it would be for the best. Besides, the alternative was to let the devil roam the Earth freely. How could that be better?

Sam had explained to Adam that there were two possible ways to stop the Apocalypse they were currently working on, but the reactions to Adam's question how well that was going for them hadn't been encouraging in the least. Nothing he had told him over the day had changed Adam's opinion on the topic. He was going to find a way to get to the angels and say yes to Michael, as he was meant to do.

Adam already had one hand on the door handle, when a soft voice stopped him.

"Please, don't leave."

Flinching was a completely natural response to getting a scare from the angel's sudden appearance on Adam's part, it wasn't that obvious why the other man flinched even harder than he did, though. It only took a moment for Adam to get a grip on himself. He was fully prepared to fight for his right to go through with his plan.

"Who's going to stop me? You?" Adam asked in a sharp tone, rising to his full height for good measure. It was probably a spectacularly stupid idea to challenge an angel, but Adam couldn't help it. He had made up his mind and he wasn't going to stay prisoner in this house, just because his brothers didn't agree with him!

"Once you s-say y-yes, you n-never get to s-say n-no again," Tarot stammered, trying and failing to look the other man in the eyes. There were things the seraph had to say and it would be hard enough to force himself to get the words out, if he also tried to maintain eye-contact the already hard task might very well become an impossible one.

Tarot had seen and heard Adam interact with everyone else over the day. The angel hoped that someone would find something to tell the youngest Winchester brother that would change his mind on saying yes to Michael, but apparently nobody had. Tarot hadn't found it in him to stand up and speak his mind while others were listening as well, but when Adam snuck through the house with the obvious intention to leave without telling anybody, the angel realized that he had to speak up that moment or regret not trying, forever.

Adam frowned in confusion. He had gone through a lot of possible confrontations in his mind while waiting for his chance to escape. There were a lot of different arguments or threats Adam had come up with that one of the people around might throw at him. What the angel had just said was far from anything Adam had expected to hear though. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"They… they are not… not the good guys," Tarot managed to say, hugging himself and clenching his eyes shut, "They are not."

Adam swallowed heavily. He knew who the angel was talking about. Adam had insisted that the angels wouldn't lie to him completely off the fact they obviously were the good guys in the story. Hell, even if they were lying to him, they were still the ones that needed to win the Apocalypse, because they simply were the good – or at least, better – guys.

"We've been over this; it's my destiny, okay?" Adam replied more defensively than he would have liked. There was some niggling doubt that had taken hold in Adam's mind over the day. If it was his destiny to be Michael's vessel and fight the devil, why had they gone for Dean first? If it was his destiny to step up because Dean wouldn't, did he really want to be second choice? If it really was Dean's destiny first, why would they have even had a second choice? Adam had pushed those thoughts away as quickly as they had come every time, but he found it hard to do the same now. It probably had helped that just about every conversation he had earlier that day had ended in argument and most of the time with raised voices. It was easy to push his own doubt away when he had something to be angry about, something that sparked his stubbornness and made him want to go through with his own plan even more.

"J-just an-another way of s-saying you d-don't have a… a ch-choice," Tarot stuttered, backing away from the human until his back hit the wall. The seraph's legs felt wobbly and he would have liked nothing better, but to just retreat into one of the corners he had gotten well acquainted with over the weeks. Tarot didn't want to talk anymore, but he felt that he had to say one last thing before letting Adam make his own choice. "Don't… don't l-let them… don't let them d-do that to you; n-n-not for your b-b-brothers, j-just for your… yourself."

If Tarot had been able to even imagine what his own brothers were capable of, he would have ran as quick and as far as he could at the first whispers of Zachariah looking for him. At the time, the seraph couldn't imagine that any angel would ever take another's choices away from him, like they had done to him over days or weeks. Tarot had lost sight of time in the sessions with Zachariah and Naomi. In a way, the fact that he couldn't remember how much time he had spent with them anymore was the worst part of it all, it felt like they had taken away his very essence. The seraph could hardly remember casting the spell to de-age Sam and Dean Winchester, he only knew that something had gone wrong and he had ended wandering around aimlessly until Castiel had found him.

"Okay, okay, easy man," Adam said quickly, trying to reassure the hyperventilating seraph. He wasn't sure what the vacant expression in the angel's eyes meant, but he obviously was in a lot of distress. Something about seeing the seraph break down in front of him called out to the side of Adam still dreamed of becoming a doctor, despite his newfound destiny. "I hear you, just… just take a few deep breaths."

The honesty in his own words surprised Adam. He had heard the angel's argument and it had struck a chord with him. It was pretty damn hard to just disregard somebody's words when they had fought so hard to even say them. Adam shook his head a couple of times to clear his thoughts. There still was time, nobody else had noticed what he was up to, so he could spare a few more moments to speak to the angel.

"What's it to you?" Adam asked in a calm tone, "I get it, I do, you guys think you can beat destiny, but if heaven wins, you win too. So what if I let Michael in? Maybe I'll regret it, but you'd still…"

Adam stopped speaking the moment Tarot's legs finally gave out. The seraph pulled his legs against his chest as soon as he hit the ground, rocking forward and back frantically as much as his own shaking limbs and the wall behind him allowed.

"Hey hey, calm down," Adam exclaimed, alarmed. He instinctively reached for the angel to comfort him with a touch, but pulled his hand back immediately when the gesture only upset the seraph more. "Okay, sorry, I'm not… just keep breathing."

Adam crouched down next to the angel - making sure to keep enough space between them not to cause another negative reaction in the distressed man – and started to take deep, regular breaths himself as if to demonstrate to Tarot what he was supposed to do. They stayed like that for what felt like hours to Adam but was nothing more than a couple of minutes.

"What did they do to you?" Adam mumbled to himself once the seraph looked a little more stable again. When Adam realized that he had spoken aloud, he decided that he might as well make it an actual question for Tarot to answer. "You said they weren't the good guys. What did they do to you?"

For a few long moments Adam thought that the angel was going to freak out on him again, instead then the other man looked up to him for a split second, before lowering his gaze again. It didn't look like the seraph was preparing for another round of shaking apart, it looked like he was trying to find the words to answer and Adam was happy to let him have all the time he needed for that.

"I d-did n-n-not want a-any of this," Tarot managed to get out, "I s-said n-no until… until… I… I couldn't…"

Even if the angel hadn't succeeded in giving Adam the full story, the human understood enough of what he had been trying to say. Adam swallowed heavily once more, trying to get his own thoughts in order again. The seraph obviously had said no to something and the other angels had made him pay for it. Looking at the sorry state Tarot was in, Adam suddenly found it rather easy to believe that the angels weren't necessarily the good guys in the story, at least not all of them were.

"Said no to what?" Adam asked nearly tonelessly, "What did they do to you?"

Adam realized his mistake immediately. He had pushed too far and the angel was shutting down again. At least that was what it looked like when Tarot brought his knees more firmly against his chest, resting his forehead on the top of his knees, still shaking.

"Sorry, no more questions right now, it's okay, you don't have to…" Adam stated in what he hoped to be a comforting tone. However, just a moment later he fell back on his butt, staring at the wall behind Tarot with big eyes. "Jesus!"

There wasn't much light in the room, but Adam could see the shadowy outlines of wings on the wall clear as day. After he managed to get over the first surprise and awe at seeing an angel's wings, Adam realized that something was wrong with the shadows. One wing hung lower than another, like he couldn't extend it properly. Some parts were clearly lighter than others, like a layer of feathers was missing and the bottom of the wings was too uneven to contain all the big flight feathers that should have been there. Maybe the worst part was that it looked like the bones on top of the wing had been broken at the ends.

"Does… does it hurt?" Adam asked what he was sure was a dumb question. What did you say when an angel was showing you his damaged wings, though? Especially knowing that other angels had done it, the very angels Adam had insisted where 'the good guys' all day long.

A few moments passed before the shadows disappeared and Tarot raised his head enough to peer at Adam from under his bangs. The seraph nodded ever so slightly. The pain didn't bother him as much as it probably should have, but it was there.

"Can I…?" Adam asked in a soft tone, extending his arm just far enough to show that he wanted to touch the seraph, but still far enough not to disturb his personal bubble. Suddenly, it made a lot of sense that the angel had freaked out at him when Adam had tried to touch him earlier, but he still wanted to try again.

Tarot looked at the human's hand warily for a few moments, like he thought Adam might slap him, before he took a deep breath and nodded his consent. The seraph was glad that the human continued to move slowly, giving him more time to prepare himself for the moment when the hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Hey, look, I can't keep calling you 'the angel'," Adam said, breaking the silence that had fallen between then. He couldn't help wondering, if the seraph would need him to spell it out for him, or if this angel could actually take a hint, but Adam didn't have to wonder for long.

"Tarot," the angel whispered, meeting the human's eyes for a moment before he looked into the general direction of his shoes again.

"Nice to meet you, Terry," Adam replied with a small smile. To tell the truth, he had meant to make a stupid joke about how Tarot's name sounded New Age, even though he was probably much older than New Age. While Adam's brain had been busy keeping all dumb comments in, the nickname had slipped.

"You… you gave me a n-nickname," Tarot observed, not sounding displeased by the fact. If anything, he sounded a little baffled by it.

"Sounded like you could use one," Adam shrugged a little awkwardly. Luckily, nothing more had been said on the topic.

They sat like that for some time before the light was turned on all of a sudden, causing Tarot to flinch slightly and Adam to blink against the sudden brightness.

"You boys sure are up early," Bobby stated in his usual gruff tone. The hunter's eyes said all too clearly that he had a good idea what Adam had really been up to originally, but he didn't comment on it. If the kid was anything like his brothers or his old man, there would be no faster way to make him run for real than to berate him on something he hadn't actually done.

"Yeah, I couldn't really sleep," Adam shrugged, getting to his feet. On second thought, he held his hand out for Tarot to take, if the seraph wanted to. "No promises for the future, but I'll stay for now."

Tarot took Adam's hand after a few moments of consideration. The other man had only just pulled him to his feet, when the seraph looked at him shocked. Of course, now that Bobby was awake and around Adam's chance to get out without anybody raising alarm had passed, but hearing the human say this clearly that he was going to stay, was a surprise.

"We're going to need more coffee for breakfast then," Bobby replied and nodded contently because of the new information. They could work with Adam at least giving them more time. The hunter wasn't sure it would be good enough for everyone else, but it sure was for him.

Tarot's whole face immediately lit up at the mention of coffee. Brewing coffee just the way the hunters liked it, was one more thing he could do to make himself useful. All in all, Tarot felt like he was accomplishing things that day. It was a strange feeling for the seraph, but not at all unpleasant.