Author's Note:
You guys are really great, you know that? You Fall In Flame doesn't have the most traffic of my stories, in fact, it's pretty low in comparison to some of the others, but it does have the most reviews, and the fact that you guys always comment and tell me what you're enjoying it such a huge blessing. Thank you guys for sticking with me! I'm always thrilled by the response.
Thanks to Sweet Honey-sempai, VioletErin.26, Le'letha, FireChildSlytherin5, jojospn, Nikkilouise, bespectacledfanwarrior, Geckoshan, keacdragon, scarletwillow80, and one guest for their reviews on chapter 24!
Chapter 25 - You Hold Your Course And Your Aim
Dean was starting to get used to waking up with Castiel wrapped around him in some way. Some part of him thought that maybe it should bother him, but he couldn't make himself find anything wrong with the situation. What did bother him, however, was being woken up by the phone, which was starting to become a common occurrence.
Growling with irritation, Dean groped around until he managed to grab hold of his phone and bring it to his ear and accept the call. "What?" He snapped, voice thick with sleep.
"DEAN!" Kevin yelled.
That woke Dean up, and he startled slightly dislodging the still sleeping Castiel, who groaned in protest and resecured his grip around Dean's middle, much to the hunter's amusement. "Geeze, what, Kevin?" Dean asked, switched sides to give his eardrum a break.
"I FOUND IT!" Kevin informed him, still yelling.
"Dude, inside voices!" Dean reprimanded him calmly. "Found what?"
"The spell, genius," Kevin snapped at him, finally lowering his voice. "I found the spell to re-open Heaven. It looks like all you'd have to do after that is get the graces into Heaven, and any that already had vessels when they fell would be automatically reconnected. Any that didn't would go back to whatever state they were in before Metatron pulled the plug."
Dean processed that for about half a second before he was grinning like an idiot. "Kevin, I could kiss you. What do we have to do?"
"It's kind of complicated," Kevin admitted, deflating slightly. "So don't go celebrating quite yet. Besides, shouldn't you be kissing Starey McStareyFace?"
"Shut up, Kevin. Also, I dare you to call him that sometime." Dean grinned in spite of himself, looking down at the former angel, who surprisingly hadn't woken yet.
"Yeah, no. He can probably still kick my ass, grace or not," Kevin countered. "Do you want to know how to fix Heaven or not?"
"Hit me," Dean affirmed. "We'd better get a move on before things get more complicated down here than they already are."
"Okay, here goes. So, basically there's two - let's go with levers - that need to be flipped to open Heaven. I've got some good news and bad news though. So, the first lever needs three things to flip. Some kind of contact with God's word, which I'm assuming I can help with, a fancy incantation which I have here on the tablet, and the authority of the four archangels." Kevin delivered that last news with a tone that indicated that he knew exactly how hard that was going to be.
"Dammit," Dean cursed, rubbing his forehead. "We have no idea where Raphael is, and we're no closer to finding Lucifer. I'm guessing that was the bad news?"
"Uh...no, sorry." Kevin sounded nervous now.
"Great. What's the bad news?" Dean sighed and braced himself.
"The...uh...the second lever has to be flipped from within Heaven itself. That one just needs the matching incantation to the first lever, but it can't be done from anywhere other than Heaven itself." Kevin seemed to be holding his breath after getting that out.
"Well, crap." Dean said frankly. "This whole thing is about opening Heaven in the first place, so how the hell are we supposed to open a lever inside a place we can't get into yet? I seriously doubt Metatron's going to help."
"Sorry," Kevin offered.
Dean shook his head, ignoring the fact that Kevin couldn't see him. "No, don't worry about it, Kev. You did good."
"I'll let you know if I find anything else," Kevin said earnestly.
"Thanks. Get some sleep, okay?" Dean instructed. "Don't wear yourself out."
"Sure, Dean." Kevin hung up the phone.
Dean sighed, took a deep breath, and called Gabriel. They'd figure out the Heaven part later. For now, they needed to find the two missing archangels.
"Hey, Dean-o. What do you need?" Gabriel's voice had way too much pep in it for early in the morning, but Dean let it go.
"Prayer," Dean admitted. "Turns out that we need to find Raphael and Lucifer a lot more than we thought."
Gabriel tucked the phone back into his pocket as he rounded the corner to the hospital room Adam and Michael were occupying. Adam was still out, but looked healthier, and Michael hadn't moved from the chair he'd been in last time Gabriel had stopped by.
"Is all well?" Michael asked, glancing up as Gabriel entered the room.
"Yes and no," Gabriel admitted. "The prophet figured out how to open Heaven back up."
Michael's eyes lit up with undisguised joy. "That is wonderful!" He enthused.
"Hold up," Gabriel warned. "There's a few hitches."
"What is the problem?" Michael asked, concerned.
"Two things. First, there's a lever on our side of things that needs to be flipped, and it requires all four of us to do it." Gabriel watched as the significance of that hit Michael. "It means we need to find Raphael and Lucifer, and we need to find them fast."
"Raphael you and I should be able to locate and bring around to our cause," Michael reasoned. "If I was able to see the wrong of my actions, Raphael can be persuaded to see reason as well."
"I'll trust you on that," Gabriel told him. "Lucifer's the one I'm worried about. Big bro isn't exactly the most reasonable type."
"We must try," Michael said calmly. "Lucifer is not so callous as to abandon his brothers and sisters. He may want something in return for his aid, but he will not leave us."
Gabriel looked like he might disagree with that, but he just nodded and let the matter drop. "Well, that's all we can do then, because the second lever has to be opened from Heaven."
Michael's expression of hope fell, and his lips tightened. "That will be a problem."
"You're telling me," Gabriel griped. "Metatron sure isn't going to flip the switch, and any souls that might be inclined to help are restricted to their own Heavens, so I can't fathom how we're supposed to get that done."
"There is always a way, brother," Michael reassured him. "There may not seem to be hope now, but there is always information we do not know that can turn the tide."
Gabriel knew that Michael was thinking of the apocalypse, and everything he hadn't known at the time, and laid a hand on his brother's shoulder in comfort. "We'll hope, then," he replied quietly. "In the meantime, we pray. Raphael and Lucifer need to know what's going on. You pray to Raphael. You two were always closest. I'll try to reason with Lucifer."
"Lucifer killed you," Michael reminded him.
Gabriel shrugged. "That was years ago. I'm over it. Family forgives."
Michael smiled at that, amused. "I have observed that the Winchesters seem to have a habit of reminding angels what is truly important."
"Heh. Yeah." Gabriel had to match Michael's amused expression at the comment. He sat in the chair beside his brother, and they bowed their heads, each praying to a brother they hoped could help.
Sam hung up the phone and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He'd given Dean a call with the hotel phone and stolen calling card to check on both his brother and Castiel, only to be informed of the latest development in their efforts to re-open Heaven. The fact that they had an actual plan now was fantastic, but the fact that it required two archangels they did not have a happy history with and a task that seemed impossible wasn't exactly comforting.
The time difference wasn't exactly Sam's friend either, and by the time he'd called Dean and finished the conversation, it was still early Dean's time, but starting to get late Sam's time. It was weird to hear Dean talk about grabbing lunch with Castiel when Sam was eyeing his bed and thinking about getting some sleep. Not that Crowley had really been letting him get much rest in the first place.
The former King of Hell was not a fan of sleep, which he had apparently never bothered with before, and had decided that talking to Sam was a better alternative to falling into unconsciousness each night. Sam was about an inch away from the end of his rope, which was probably going to result in sleeping pills crushed into Crowley's food. Late night chats with the part-demon were beyond weird anyway.
Crowley had never been easy to pin down, but now that he was part human, he was completely unpredictable. One moment he wanted to talk about how much he'd like to set France on fire, and the next he'd want to debate the morality of various social issues. The first time he'd asked Sam's thoughts on illegal downloading, Sam had been so surprised he hadn't been able to do much besides stare at the part-demon in shock.
Now, Sam slid into bed and turned to look at Crowley, who was sitting in the middle of his bed, very clearly not planning on sleeping. "Dude, not tonight. I need to sleep," Sam informed him preemptively.
Crowley pouted, which was a bizarre expression on the former King. "Ah, but I was hoping to discuss some of the more puzzling elements of humanity that I've discovered."
"That's just code for you were watching tv and got confused," Sam muttered, sighing to himself.
"As you say," Crowley allowed. "Still, I have questions."
"Crowley, you make almost as many pop culture references as Dean," Sam pointed out. "Why do you need to ask me anything?"
"Call me curious," Crowley said with a shrug. "I was a busy man - demon - after all."
"All right," Sam moaned, rolling over to face the ceiling. "One question, then bed. I need sleep."
"Where did humanity get the idea that they could potentially be attacked by tornadoes full of sharks?" Crowley's tone was so bewildered and disdainful that Sam had to turn over to see his expression.
"Where the hell did you get a copy of Sharknado?" Sam asked, surprised and amused.
"It was on cable this afternoon," Crowley explained.
Sam had been with Charlie in the next room, leaving Crowley alone for only a few hours with the express caveat that if the part-demon attempted to run off, he'd regret it.
"God," Sam moaned, rubbing his eyes and breathing out sharply through his nose. "I don't have a good answer for that. I haven't even seen it. I think Dean watched it though."
"It's bizarre," Crowley stated, expression screwed up in distaste.
Sam had to laugh at that. "Well, when we get back to the US, you can talk to him about it. Anything else, or can I sleep now?"
"Not unless you have an explanation for the appeal of Nicki Minaj." Crowley suggested idly. Sam stared at him pointedly until he clarified with, "Mtv."
"God," Sam groaned. "I feel like I'm corrupting you by letting you have a tv, when I know full well that you're a demon. Or, well, part-demon. Whatever. It's still weird."
This time Crowley laughed, and actually laid back on the bed. "I enjoy humanity's popular culture," he offered by way of explanation.
"I can see that," Sam commented wryly. "It's still weird to talk about it with you though."
"Perhaps the ginger would be a better outlet for that sort of discussion," Crowley mused.
"Her name is Charlie," Sam said pointedly. "But yeah, she's probably get a kick out of that. Just...I dunno, just don't do anything stupid, okay?"
Crowley looked offended. "Have I not been well behaved thus far into our journey together?"
"Yeah," Sam admitted. "Which is weird in and of itself. I'm trying to figure out if I can trust you at all."
"I do owe you," Crowley pointed out.
"Also weird," Sam muttered.
"You need a larger vocabulary," Crowley shot at him.
Sam rolled his eyes. "Okay, criticizing my choice in adjectives is going to be the end of this conversation."
"Very well," Crowley sighed, sounding very put upon. "Sweet dreams, Moose."
Huffing a soft laugh at the nickname, Sam let his eyes drift closed, welcoming the peace of sleep.
What he wasn't expecting was a soft white light to be waiting for him, coming together until it managed to become a form he recognized.
"Hello, Sam," Lucifer greeted him pleasantly.