So Not An Angel!

Chapter 14

"What the hell do you mean, Uriel?"

Sam crouched at Dean's side, his face a study in protective fury. His eyes were wide with both the need to defend Dean from the angel's accusation that his power to heal was born from evil, and to protect his brother from Belial's wrath. He looked up into Uriel's ethereally pale eyes, anger evident in his blanched lips and unwittingly white-knuckled grip on Dean's shoulder.

The angel held his hands up in a gesture of peace, his eyes as pale as Sam's were dark, but no less passion within them.

"I'm saying that I think that Belial can communicate with Dean directly."

"How?"

It was a challenge and Sam's face was drawn with a mixture of fierce anger and barely disguised fear. He was too aware of how Dean had suffered, mentally as well as physically, at the daemon's hands and feared that he would not be strong enough to take that sort of punishment again. Sam was more than willing to go head to head with any threat to protect his brother from yet more pain and if that meant taking on the power of the archangel then so be it.

He could feel his composure ebbing away and his voice was a dangerous growl as it ground out his words.

"How the hell can Belial get to Dean if he's bound, like you keep saying he is? He's supposed to be locked down isn't he? Dammit! I won't have my brother hurt again."

Bobby could see Sam's increasing agitation and he moved to stand behind the young hunter where he knelt beside the stricken man. He rested his hand lightly on Sam's shoulder, trying to calm the situation.

"Do you know how Belial's doing it, Uriel?"

Bobby's voice was deliberately measured, trying to de-escalate the tension. Not that he felt calm, and when he looked down at Dean he felt even less so. The young hunter was visibly shaking as he lay on the couch. His hands were balled into tight fists and, beneath his closed lids, his eyes moved constantly. His mouth was moving too, but no real words came out, just distressed mumblings and moans of pain.

"I don't exactly understand how, I've never seen it happen before but I don't like it..."

The angel didn't get to finish his sentence as the furious hunter shouted him down.

"Oh, and you suppose Dean does?"

Sam spat the words furiously at the watching angel, his grip on Dean's shoulder unwittingly intensifying and the unconscious hunter cried out in pain as Sam's hand found the residual fragility of the dislocation. Sam, however, was oblivious to the pain he was unintentionally causing as rage flowed through him.

"You think my brother wants that fucking ...thing...in his head again?"

Bobby tightened his hold on Sam's shoulder, unconsciously mirroring the hunter's grip on his brother, trying to pull Sam back from his escalating fury.

"Sam."

He shook the hunter's shoulder to force his attention from the angel.

"Sam! Stop it. Let go of your brother now."

Bobby's voice was quiet but totally commanding as he pushed the tall man out of his way and crouched to check on Dean's shoulder. He glanced briefly at Sam, his hard eyes instantly deterring the hunter from any idea of challenge

"Jeeze, I'm sorry, Bobby."

Sam knelt next to the older man, his rage immediately dissipated to be replaced by agonised contrition.

"Did I hurt him?"

Sam's words were soft and sorrowful.

Bobby continued his stern glance Sam's way as he took stock of Dean's condition.

"Yes, yes you did, Sam..."

Sam's eyes spoke volumes and Bobby gradually relented and softened his tone.

"But whatever has hold of his head is hurting him more. We need to break this link, or whatever it is."

He looked up at Uriel who had maintained his position, silent but watchful, throughout the exchange. Sam's eyes followed too, an unvoiced apology in the contrite hazel. The angel nodded once to acknowledge Sam's gesture and then took his turn at apologies.

"I don't know how to...Hell, Bobby, I don't even know for certain if that's what's happening..."

Bobby's look of impatience and frustration stopped the angel in mid sentence.

"Son, what's the point of having an angel in the house if..?"

Uriel grimaced and raised his hand, the disappointment in the older man's gaze cutting an icy channel into his heart.

"Raphe will know, Bobby, or Michael...we need to..."

'Run to the hills

Run for your lives.

Run to the hills

Run for your lives'

Dean's cell tone startled all three of them with its intrusive intensity, Iron Maiden's ironic words unconsciously hastening their pace as they searched the room for its location. Uriel was first to Dean's discarded jacket and he snatched the phone from the tattered pocket and tossed it, still trilling, to Sam who snapped it open and pressed it quizzically to his ear.

"Dean?"

The calm, strong voice flowed from the tiny cell into Sam and he felt the biting edge of his over whelming terror abate as he barked out his reply.

"Raphe?"

He looked into Uriel's eyes as he spoke and watched as the angel smiled, pleasure and relief lighting up his angular features.

"Sam, where's Dean, why didn't he answer?"

The older being was calm but his tone was urgent and Sam could hear other voices in the background. He thought he caught a snippet of Jo's familiar soft drawl blending with Michael's deep bass.

"He can't answer, Raphael. He's not conscious."

"Damn..!"

Passion decorated the angel's response. Sam continued.

"We were just discussing how his healing powers manifested but Dean didn't really want to talk about it and he got upset and then he just passed out."

Raphe pondered the scant information that Sam had provided him as he glanced back to his companions where they were carefully preparing the texts. Michael raised his head from the pages of Latin and Hebrew before him and his face was both knowing and grim.

"I was worried this would be affecting Dean in some way, Sam."

Raphael's voice was soft and Sam increased the volume on the cell as he hit hands-free and rested the phone on the arm of the sofa so Uriel and Bobby could hear the angel's words.

"What do you mean, Raphe?"

Uriel's delight at hearing his brother's voice was evident even though his words were urgent.

"Hello, Brother, it's good to hear your voice. You are missed..."

Warmth and sincerity marked Raphe's tone and, despite their anxiety, both Sam and Bobby allowed the moment, understanding Uriel's need. Tears sparkled in the angel's mute-toned eyes.

"There has been a surge in activity here, Sam. Lots of unusual static in the area, a few minor demons making attempts at escape..."

The healer angel heard the collective intake of hunter breath.

"Don't worry. Jo, Raguel and Michael have it in hand, but we know Belial is behind their insurgence. He's testing the gate and, from our interrogation of the ones he has pushed through the boundaries, we know he is coming after Dean. I can feel his mounting agitation Sam, he is channelling power from somewhere and I suspect it's linked to Dean's collapse.

Uriel jumped in and asked the question on all their lips.

"But how, Raphe..?"

"It must be the binding, Uri. I think it's because we used Dean's energy to augment ours and to wrap and bind Belial. We were experienced enough to be able to keep his darkness from our light but Dean was unprepared, un-schooled in keeping the dark at bay. Amplify that with the colossal nature of Dean's raw power and the attraction for Belial of that. I think somehow he is tapping that power. It should have been obvious to us that he would try something like this. We put him at risk Uriel, it was unforgivable."

Bobby watched the blond angel wince apologetically as Raphael made his damming statement and he looked at Sam, checking nervously for the hunter's response. He was relieved however as Sam waved away Uriel's discomfort with a quick shake of his head as Raphe continued.

"Somehow it allowed Belial to latch onto Dean and now I believe he can 'connect' in some way, maybe even 'draw' power from him, even from the spiritual cage we have him in here. It requires Dean to be distracted in some way...pain, grief, fear...something has to take his focus so the daemon can find a way in. But let's face it, with the life you Winchesters lead those parameters are not going to be difficult to induce."

As he spoke Dean's litany of soft moans and indistinct whispers increased and Sam pressed closer to Bobby, his hand moving to his brother's sweating brow as he writhed against his invisible tormentor.

Dean's mind was flooded with images of daemonic laughter as white hot pain lanced through his trembling body. He could feel evil invading his being, creeping into his head leaving doubt and fear whe re it moved, seeking something that was the essence of him. He wanted to get up and run in terror from it but his body was outside his control, wanted to close his mind to the corruption it extolled, but he could not turn from its perversely melodic voice.

"So, Dean. Knowing each other as well as we do..."

The daemon chuckled, a corrupt, throaty sound.

"I hope you don't mind me saying that, but having seen you utterly broken and weeping was so pleasurable for me and I feel so drawn to you..."

Dean shifted his head, rolling it from side to side as he trembled.

"However, enough of pleasant reminiscing, Dean."

The daemon's voice took on a harder, crueler tone.

"I have finally come to realise that I will never persuade you to come to me, to taste the glory of my Master's kingdom, to be mine. I offer you all this and you will throw it away for the weak creatures you call family? You could have been infinitesimally powerful at my side and instead you chose this? I am disappointed in you, Dean, but I will still have my pleasure. What shall we do to you to punish you for your treachery?"

The daemon's voice purred through Dean's body making him shudder with revulsion. He clenched his teeth trying to find a way to block out the soft corruption that dripped from Belial's tongue, but he couldn't find a way to dull the sound. He searched for Sam's voice, trying to ground himself in his brother, but the reality of the corporeal world was lost to him, blocked by the daemon, and he trembled at Belial's mercy.

"Well, I think we will have to go with destruction, annihilation from the face of the earth because if I cannot have you, then I cannot have you and you power abroad in the world to work against me."

The daemon's words were soft but they reverberated with hatred and the intensity of his intention was overwhelming.

"I thought first though that I would perhaps play a little with some of those pathetic creatures you think of as important. Maybe let you watch as I torture them, tear them apart before your eyes. That would hurt you far more than your own pain wouldn't it, Dean? To see them hurt, damaged, broken. To know that it was your fault? That would be a far worse torture than actual physical pain could ever be for you. "

Belial allowed the sweet fire of his anger to rouse a little further and he channelled his destruction at the helpless hunter, sighing with pleasure as he heard Dean's distant cries of distress.

Sam started as Dean suddenly spasmed beneath his hand, a loud groan of frank pain escaping his tightly pressed lips. He watched in horror as Dean's hand flew to his shoulder, blood blossoming around his outstretched fingers. Sam reached for the dressing covering the wound at his collar bone, and was horrified to see the carefully placed sutures popping one by one as the raw edges of the incised line peeled apart.

Sam placed his hand to the wound trying to halt the damage and Dean's eyes flew open, his cry of pain augmented by undisguised fear. The vivid green that was so characteristic was lost as his unseeing gaze became one of shining white.

"What's happeneing?"

Sam's face betrayed his anxiety as his wide hazel eyes flashed from the older hunter to angel and back again. Neither had an explanation to offer and Sam felt his panic as a rising heat in his gut. Somewhere in the distance he heard the tinny voice calling his name.

"Sam! Speak to me. What's happening...?"

Raphael's insistent voice cut through his panic and Sam scrabbled for the cell phone realising it had been dislodged as Dean had bucked against the pain. Bobby beat him to it and held the handset up towards Sam as the healer angel's words echoed around the room.

"Sam, what's going on? Is that Dean I can hear?"

"Yeah, it's Dean. His shoulder wound is somehow tearing open; I don't know how it's happening. It's just like something is ripping the sutures apart but there's nothing touching him. And Raphe, his eyes..."

Sam broke off, unable to find the words to describe the eerie opalescence of his brother's usually so familiar gaze.

"Are his eyes glowing as they were at the binding, Sam? When he was sharing power with us?"

Sam nodded, his voice stolen by his fear and the fact that Raphe could not see his response lost to his temporarily clouded mind.

Uriel reached across and took the cell from Bobby.

"His eyes are filled with white light, Raphe. Yeah it's just as they were at the binding. What can we do? Is there a way to break the contact?"

"Michael and Raguel are working on a permanent solution, Uri, but Dean needs help now. Do you remember the children in Krakow? The way we cloaked them so they could not be seen when they were trying to load them onto the trains? How we covered them so we could get them away and to safety?"

Uriel nodded, the words sticking in his throat at the memories that were heavy in his heart. He too forgetting that his brother angel could not see his face.

"He remembers, Raphael."

Bobby's gruff voice chased the unwanted images from Uriel's mind and he smiled weakly at the old hunter as Raphe continued.

"So we need to cloak Dean. To cover his power with ours so Belial cannot latch onto him. It will take all of us I fear, Dean's lit up like a spiritual Christmas tree so Michael, Raguel and I will arc from this end but we need you to pull the cloak toward him and settle it over him. Do you remember the words?"

Uriel smiled grimly.

"Yeah, Raphe. The words, along with the faces of those children, are never far from me."

Bobby could hear the sadness in the angel's cryptic response and he wondered what horrors this being had witnessed in his lifetime. The old hunter marvelled again at knowing that divinity was in his presence.

"Raphe! We're ready."

Raguel's rich, deep voice boomed over the cell's speaker; his massive frame resonating his words even through the poor production of the phone, and the occupants of the room took slight comfort from its melodic sound.

"What do we need to do, Uriel?"

Sam looked up from his kneel at the angel's feet into Uriel's pale eyes, and he was humbled to have the trust in his ability that Sam's face imparted.

"Nothing really, Sam. It's just the words...just keep an eye on him; once Belial knows what we are doing he might try and jump him with something else."

Sam nodded and glanced at Bobby, finding determination on the hunter's grizzled face.

"You want to be here? You need to be nearer to Dean?"

Bobby began to rise indicating that Uriel should shift to Dean's side but the angel halted him.

"No, Bobby. You and Sam stay there, he should come to once the cloak is laid and he'll be more comfortable seeing you than me."

The older hunter nodded and resumed his position as Uriel stood and composed himself, reaching out to his brother angels and the light of god.

wWw

The words of the cloaking swirled around Dean, protecting him from Belial's torment like a cool awning would shade him from the fierce desert sun. He heard the daemon's howls of rage as the angel's wove their love into a cloth of light and loosed it over him, blinding Belial to his presence and chasing his evil from Dean's mind. Consciousness returned in a rush and he sat up from his sprawl on the couch, his breath coming in huge sobs and the room spinning before him.

Bobby's hand was warm against his chest, steadying him, and he could feel Sam's arm slip around his shoulder as he swayed between the two of them. He was dizzy and breathless and before his eyes, now returned to a rich green, the room spun a little on its axis.

He could hear voices, distant and vague sounding in his head, and the combination made him nauseous. He groaned and closing his eyes, leaned back against Sam's arm and the cushion that Sam proffered.

"Uriel? Sam? Is he ok? Has it worked?"

Dean knew the voice instantly and he lurched forward again, only to have Bobby push him firmly back.

"Raphe?"

Dean's slightly unfocussed eyes flashed around the room, confusion on his face as he failed to find the healer angel. Uriel lifted the cell into the hunter's eye-line as he answered.

"He's OK, Raphael. It worked. Belial has left him."

"Lemme speak to him, Uri."

Raphe's voice was calm but just beneath the surface Uriel could hear his brother's concern for the young hunter. A tiny pang of jealousy twinged at his heart but he leaned in and brought the cell close to Dean as he panted in exhaustion against Sam's grasp.

"Ra...Raphael?"

"I'm here, Dean. Are you alright?"

Dean felt the calmness of the healer angel's voice flow over him and he visibly relaxed a little.

"M'fine, Raphe."

"Sure you are, my friend."

There was a little gentle disbelief and a whole load of obvious concern in the angel's words, and maybe even a little knowing humour, at Dean's so familiar epithet. The sudden release of tension in the room painted small smiles onto the faces of the collected hunters and divine being.

"Thank you."

Dean's voice was losing its remaining energy with each word and Raphe could hear that even down the cell connection.

"You are more than welcome, Dean. Now I want you to sleep."

Green eyes shot open, wide with apprehension.

"No!"

Fear was apparent in the one word and in Dean's suddenly increased rate of breathing. Raphael rushed back in.

"Dean!"

Command rang from the cell and Dean's fluttering eyes found the little machine where Uriel held it towards him.

"You will be fine. We have you safe. You can sleep and he will not come to you."

Dean's brow creased in frustration.

"Are you sure?"

He rolled his head a little against Sam's chest as he leaned into him from behind, his eyes finding Uriel as he did.

"I'm sure."

Raphe's soft voice and Uriel's emphatic nod saw Dean hold the question for a couple of heartbeats before he sighed and returned the nod.

"And I will be with you by tonight."

An exhausted smile lit up Dean's face and he responded quietly, his words slurring.

"Gd. Th..nks, R..phe!"

During the conversation Bobby had risen and fetched a bowl of hot water and his suture kit and he placed them on the table next to the couch as Uriel withdrew the phone from Dean.

"Need to re-tie that shoulder, son."

He reached forward with the scissors and moved to begin cutting off Dean's shirt at the sleeve. The weary hunter jerked away, his head rolling back to make eye contact with Sam.

"Sam!"

The urgency in the cry suggested pain and Sam hastily propped his brother against the cushions and moved round to be in his eye sight.

"What is it?"

Dean's head lolled forward, pressing on his bleeding shoulder and he started, jerking against the pillows, as his head tumbled back.

"It's ...a good...shirt, Sam!"

Sam laughed, looking at Bobby who sat back on his heels scissors poised. The older hunter rolled his eyes.

"Running... out...outta shirts!"

Sam gave an exaggerated nod so his lightly conscious brother could pick it out.

"Well, it's gonna hurt to take it off, Dean."

Sam reasoned.

"You think?"

"Uh huh."

Sam took the scissors from Bobby and began carefully cutting Dean's bloody shirt from his arm as the angel moved away, talking quietly into the cell.

"Awh crap! I liked that shirt."

Chapter ends.