Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Maddy Love Castiel, AnninaSA(^2, you're awesome and I love you in a non-creepy way), CherylB1964, QuietCrash, emebalia, NicoleneB, LadyGrelka, Nyx Ro, LeeMarieJack, Treeni, parakeetwuvs, random yet lovable, Crazy as a Cheshire Cat, XxZessxX, nikadd, TARDISbluu and keacdragon for last chapter's reviews!
Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!
20
"You're on speaker," Sam told Bobby.
The Winchesters and Gabriel were on their way to Joplin. Raphael hadn't been out of prison long enough to disappear completely. In the very least they should be able to find the lawyer who bailed him out. The man should be interested in getting his money back and thus know about Raphael's whereabouts, if the Winchesters could ever be that lucky.
"It's bad news," Bobby announced in a gruff tone, "Jody pulled some strings and got a good description of Raphael's lawyer."
"That's not the bad news I assume," Gabriel replied impatiently. If Raphael was in trouble the former archangel needed to know. Gabriel was the one who forced his three older brothers to become human, everything they went through was technically his fault. He got lucky with Lucifer whose fall had given him a great chance for a fresh start -a chance Lucifer apparently wanted to take too- but if any of the others were less fortunate, Gabriel felt he had to do everything he could to make it better.
Bobby huffed out a long breath before he stated, "Sounds a whole lot like somebody we know..."
Raphael woke up in an empty parking lot, rain pouring down on him. The former archangel managed to get to his feet with difficulties, not bothering to straighten his skirt or shirt once he did. Somebody or something had attacked him, but that was all he was sure of.
Raphael started to walk toward the street, heading into a random direction. It did not seem to make a difference. Raphael only had to keep moving until he could figure things out. Whoever threw him out of heaven might very well be on his trail and he needed to lose them as quickly as possible.
"You look a little lost. Can I help you?" an elderly man asked in a gentle tone as he touched Raphael's shoulder carefully.
"Leave me alone!" Raphael demanded harshly, yanking his shoulder free. The former archangel had not even noticed that someone was approaching him until he was touched and he didn't like it one little bit.
"Of course, but if you change your mind..." the man held up his palms to show he meant the woman no harm before he reached for the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a pamphlet.
Raphael barely took the time to read the first few words before he scrunched up the paper and threw it away. The former archangel was not exactly sure what this so called Salvation Army was, but there was certainly nothing he needed that they could offer him.
Raphael had kept wandering long after his feet started hurting, long after he realized he was hungry and thirsty. Once the feelings became unbearable he was forced to consider that he really needed shelter, food and drink.
Maybe simply taking what he needed should not have been the first option that came to Raphael's mind, but he was exhausted, scared -though he would never admit it, even to himself-, angry and there was a family home that looked empty just across the street.
"But the name tag says Alfie," Gracie argued just as Lucifer walked into the kitchen. The little girl was sitting on a chair by the kitchen counter with her breakfast cereal while Samandriel stood on the other side looking completely out of place in his Wiener Hut uniform. Lucifer made a mental note to mock his brother over his wardrobe when the opportunity arose. The former devil did not give a damn about fashion himself, but there were things that were simply undignified.
"My vessel wore it when I..." Samandriel told the girl and was promptly interrupted.
"What does that mean?" Gracie asked curiously, not waiting for the angel to finish his statement. The little girl still was not sure what 'abomination' meant, but she was determined to learn the meaning of the new word she only just heard.
"Angels need to be inside a human body when they walk the Earth," Samandriel explained after a moment of consideration. The angel assumed that giving simple answers was appropriate when speaking to a human child. In a way that was similar to addressing a new, bright eyed cupid. Samandriel also assumed that a lot of things Balthazar mentioned during his lectures on humanity were in fact, not appropriate in everyday situations, but it wasn't like Samandriel was unwilling to learn on the job.
"What's Alfie doin' now then?" Gracie fixed Samandriel with a curious stare, forgetting all about her breakfast.
"He's essentially asleep," Samandriel replied a little awkwardly. One of the new rules established by Castiel and Balthazar clearly stated that all vessels had to give consent without being pressured into it in any way. Luckily Alfie seemed more than willing to allow his body to be used as a vessel, if it gave him a chance to flee from his life. Samandriel knew he had done nothing wrong, but the circumstances of his acception still bugged him a little.
Gracie nodded a couple times thinking about the new information. The little girl assumed Alfie would wake up some day then and Samandriel would be sleeping. Maybe it was a bit like the time share apartments her mother talked about sometimes when she spoke about her work to Gracie's grandmother.
"Can I call you Sam?" Gracie questioned once she was done with her considerations. Samandriel simply was a too long name to use it a lot and Sam was the logical abbreviation.
"Hell no!" Lucifer exclaimed, finally making his presence known; though he assumed his little brother long since noticed that he was in the room, "That name's taken and it doesn't have the best connotations for me."
Granted, the former devil held a certain amount of affection for his -former- true vessel, but Lucifer was trying to distance himself from his life before... before Gracie. Lucifer would not be caught dead admitting it out loud, but he had the honest urge to be a better person, to live a good life and not only for the little abomination either. The former devil realized that he liked the person he had become better than the one he had been, even if he was human. Being human did not necessarily mean having to be a disgusting cockroach after all.
"Good morning, brother," Samandriel greeted Lucifer with a curt nod. In all honesty, the former archangel scared the angel a little even as a human, but he vowed to try his best not to show it before he agreed to take the assignment Castiel proposed to him.
"Why's he not invisible?" Lucifer asked Gracie as he pointed toward his little brother. As far as the former devil knew Samandriel was meant to be a silent guard, not to interact with any of them outside of emergencies.
"'Cause I was bored 'nd wanted to talk," Gracie replied with a shrug, hugging Lucifer's middle as soon as he came close enough to her to do so. Nadine went to change the sheets on their beds and do some laundry while Gracie ate her breakfast. The little girl's thoughts had wandered to the second angel around after a minute and she decided to invite him to have breakfast with her or alternatively pay her some company. Lucifer had only just gotten out of the hospital and needed his sleep so she could not simply go to wake him up after all.
"Of course you did," Lucifer snorted before he patted the top of Gracie's head.
"Did ya know that Alfie has to watch whatever we do now? All day long," Gracie explained with a slight frown. The little girl would be so bored having to do the angel's job, but then again she would also be incredibly bored doing her mother's job. Gracie shrugged before she added, "Just not the bathroom, 'cause that'd be in... ina..."
"Creepy as hell?" Lucifer offered the description that seemed fitting to him. Actually, privacy was not exactly a valued good in heaven and they had a completely different understanding of nudity in their true forms as well, so it was less a matter of finding a fitting description and more of trying to get a rise out of his little brother.
"I assure you that I know when I have to look away," Samandriel replied seriously. Balthazar's lessons at the very least, had given the angel an overview of all activities humans generally considered private. Samandriel could have done without the very graphic visual representations of those private moments his brother provided everyone attending the lecture with, but at least he knew exactly when to avoid his gaze that way.
"So, Samandriel, is this how you thought your career would go?" Lucifer asked in a fake pleasant tone, directly addressing his little brother for the first time. Heavenly careers were very boring and unremarkable in most cases. An angel was created, they were appointed a position and they kept it for all time unless a higher up was killed or fell from grace. In Lucifer's experience that was the way most angels liked it too, so having a change of career like Samandriel must have gone through recently would count as a bad thing for sure.
"I am happy to serve a worthwhile cause," Samandriel answered honestly.
"Let's talk again in a week or two," Lucifer huffed out a humorless laugh. The former archangel had no intentions to get rid of his little brother -and he still knew enough ways to severely harm or even kill an angel that he could use even as a human- but he also did not plan to make this easy for Samandriel.
"We can play Ludo in the meantime, 's funnier with three," Gracie interjected. The little girl did not ask Samandriel to join them just so the two angels could talk and ignore her. They could do that while she was at school or something. Gracie hopped off the chair and grabbed Lucifer's hand as she left the kitchen.
"Better watch her moves closely," Lucifer advised as he followed Gracie to the living room, "She cheats."
"Do not!" Gracie protested vehemently, pouting at the former archangel.
"Of course you do, how else would you win against me?" Lucifer claimed seriously, even as the corners of his mouth were twitching traitorously.
Samandriel smiled to himself as he followed the pair.
Raphael had come to hate the sounds in the police station. The sirens, the cell doors opening and closing, the guards checking in on him or bringing food three times a day. The former archangel did not want to touch any of the filth they gave him, but the hunger forced him too.
At least Raphael could adamantly refuse to give them any information. No matter how often they asked their stupid questions, no matter what they promised him.
Raphael narrowed his eyes when he heard steps approaching the cell. It was not yet time for another meal, so they probably hoped that Raphael would give them some answers after the second night in the cell.
"Your lawyer's here," the policeman announced before he clicked open the lock of the cell door.
Raphael frowned deeply, but kept silent. There was no use telling the puny human that the former archangel did not have a lawyer. Besides, if this was Raphael's chance to get out of this place, he would take it. At least that was what the former archangel thought until his eyes were drawn to the man standing next to the police officer.
"Hello, darlin'."
"You!"
"So, do you have wings?" Hope asked once her aunt and uncle went back into the house and left her alone with Michael in the garden. Technically they were meant to pull out weeds and what not, but they could still do that while they talked about angelic things.
"Not anymore," Michael replied after a few moments of silence. The former archangel decided to take it as a good sign that Hope brought up the topic, especially since it didn't sound like she was trying to mock him. "If I still had my wings, I would have shown them to you by now."
Hope nodded thoughtfully as she worked on separating the weeds from her aunt's flowers. Sometimes the difference between the two was not as big as she would have liked.
It made sense that Michael would have shown off his wings to prove his story, if he still had them. Hope realized that the missing wings should have made her more suspicious of Michael's story, but strangely it did not seem to matter.
"What were they like?" Hope asked as she looked over to Michael. The questions did not bother him for what it looked like which was good, because Hope could not have stopped them from coming if she tried.
"I... I don't know how to describe them," Michael admitted with a sigh. The mental image was there, clear as day, but Michael lacked the words to properly describe what he saw. He could have said they were just wings, like most birds had, but that would give Hope a very incomplete impression. The former archangel frowned as he looked down his body. "This is not... this is not my true form, at least it wasn't when..."
Over the past weeks, Michael had stopped looking at his reflection and seeing a young John Winchester. The former archangel started to think of the body as his own, felt at home in it, more than he had during the short time he was an archangel inhabiting John Winchester.
"Okay," Hope let out a slow breath. She appreciated that Michael was honest with her, at least it sounded like he was, even though it seemed to be hard for him. The young woman gave the former archangel an appraising look before she asked with a slight grin, "Were you actively trying for the underwear model look?"
Michael frowned deeply for a moment, before a suspicious look crossed his face, "Was that a joke?"
"Not a very good one if you have to ask," Hope shrugged, "Sorry, I'm just trying to..."
"Don't apologize, I genuinely appreciate your attempts to lighten the mood," Michael stated seriously before he smiled and added, "And I appreciate you asking those questions as if you believe me."
Hope swallowed heavily and fully concentrated on the garden work for a little while as she thought everything through. Maybe it was only due to her wanting to believe it was true that badly, but somehow a part of her -a hard to ignore part too- believed Michael's story. However, believing in something that should seem completely insane gave Hope the creeps. Maybe she had been told she was just like her father a few times too often...
"My dad once told me that one of the other guys in the psych ward thinks he's God," Hope stated noncommittally when the silence started to get to her.
"I think he's lying or delusional," Michael replied without missing a beat. Of course, they did not know where their father was, but it seemed unlikely that he would hide in a mental hospital of all places. Then again, given the circumstances, Michael had to admit that he did not know his father as well as he liked to think he did.
"I'll tell him that next time," Hope chuckled silently, "The archangel Michael says that's not his daddy."
"Maybe I should come along, just in case, to verify the truth of the statement for myself," Michael pondered with a small, amused smile.
"Was that a joke?" Hope asked, raising an eyebrow at the former archangel.
"Not a very good one if you have to ask," Michael parroted Hope's earlier statement.
"I like that side of you," Hope admitted with a smile, before she took a deep breath and asked, "Would you really... come along?"
"If you wanted me to, I would," Michael vowed as he covered Hope's hand with his.
The young woman smiled and leaned closer until their shoulders were touching. This was why she could not help believing in Michael, even if believing in his story seemed completely insane. Crazy or not, he was a good man... possibly the best she had ever known.