Author's Note:
Sorry for the slightly longer wait, guys! Real life is a serious time suck. Trust me, I'd rather be here. Without further ado...
Thanks to VioletErin.26, Avalonemyst, True Love's Kis5, keacdragon, Le'letha, jojospn, itisnotofimport, superwhominds, FireChildSlytherin5, ZoetheSka, shadowdancer33996, FamousNoOne, Megstiel98, yuffb, and two guests for their reviews!
Chapter 28 - And Is Always The Same
Over the next two days, everyone found a different job to do. Michael reintroduced Adam to the world with all the knowledge he possessed, while recovering his grace, which had finally begun to make a significant return to where it had been before. Gabriel, who was enough in possession of his grace again to make candy appear out of thin air, was tasked with planning, and spent most of his time on the phone with Kevin, working out exactly what had to be done to flip the lever on Earth.
Dean and Castiel had started driving right away, but it was still practically a forty hour drive across the country, even with minimal stops. Dean let Castiel drive whenever he thought the way was easy enough, figuring that it was worth it to give the former angel some practice behind the wheel. Plus, it let Dean get some shut eye without having to stop at a motel and waste time. After a few turns behind the wheel, Castiel proved himself to be relatively skilled at navigating the Impala down a straight highway. His taste for classical music while he drove also put Dean right to sleep, so all in all it was a win-win situation.
By the time those two days had passed, Michael finally felt ready to attempt a rescue mission to Scotland. Adam was ready to leave the hospital by then, so the two of them returned to the hotel Charlie had been at. Gabriel had decided that it was as good a base as any, and had re-checked in to the room he'd been in with Sam and Charlie before leaving with Michael. Gabriel was deep in planning mode in the room, but insisted on Adam staying with him while Michael went to Scotland.
Since nobody had a way to get a hold of Sam unless he called first, Sam, Charlie, and Crowley were completely unprepared for the shock of having Michael suddenly appear in front of the television during a marathon of Mythbusters, which unsurprisingly Charlie was a huge fan of, Sam enjoyed, and Crowley found lacking in entertaining violence. The appearance of the archangel sufficiently distracted them from the mild debate they'd been having.
"What the hell?" Sam blurted. He'd been prepared to have Michael show up at some point, and obviously this had to be Michael, but he had not been even remotely prepared to see a slightly off facsimile of his young father appear in front of him.
"I have come to take you to Nevada," Michael informed him, seemingly unaware of Sam's issue.
Sam gave him a look. "I figured. Did you do this on purpose?" He gestured broadly at the body.
"Do..." Michael looked confused for a brief moment before realizing what Sam meant. "Ah. I apologize if this form is troublesome to you. I wanted something familiar, though Gabriel advised me against too similar a replica."
The fact that that had even occurred to Gabriel made Sam feel a fervent need to thank the normally obnoxious archangel for his consideration. "It's...to be honest, it's weird. I'll probably get used to it. Has Dean...?"
"Dean and Castiel are still enroute," Michael explained. "We estimate they will arrive in a few hours."
"Dean's going to have a cow," Sam muttered. "All right, well, let's go, I guess. You're good to take us?"
"I have sufficiently recovered," Michael confirmed. "I am even able to transport the demon."
"Well, part-demon," Sam ammended.
Crowley scowled. "We really don't need to keep pointing that out," he complained.
Michael ignored him and stepped forward, holding out an arm for the three passengers to take hold of. "We should go."
Charlie put her hand on his arm first, followed by Sam and then a reluctant Crowley. There was a split second pause, then the four of them vanished, reappearing in the hotel room in Las Vegas.
"Is this my room from before?" Charlie asked once she had her bearings again.
Gabriel shifted the cell phone away from his mouth to say, "Yep. Didn't see a reason to move. Nice to see you again, Red. You too Samsquatch. How was Scotland?"
"Exhilarating," Sam said wryly. "How goes the planning?"
"We're getting there," Gabriel shrugged, shifting the phone back. "Sorry, Kev, the cavalry showed up. Half of them, anyway." Shifting the phone again, he added to Sam, "Dean and Cas should be here soon. Another couple hours, tops." Shifting the phone back once more, he continued to Kevin, "Okay, so where were we?"
Sam moved to stand with Gabriel, reading over the plans to ensure he knew what was going on while Gabriel reiterated his previous discussions with Kevin inbetween having snippets of his current conversation with Kevin.
Michael stood where he was, seeming unsure of where to go. Adam was sitting on one of the sofa chairs, and after a moment Michael moved to stand near him, seeming to drift on instinct, rather than any real purpose.
Crowley took a seat and proceeded to watch everyone else, while Charlie flopped onto one of the beds and pulled a book out of her bag, crossing her legs and proceeding to read, tuning out everyone else.
As Gabriel laid out the plan for flipping the Earth lever, Sam became impressed by how simple and well thought out it was. Kevin had translated the entire passage regarding the levers, and Gabriel knew enough about the Enochian involved that between the two of them, it wasn't difficult at all. Essentially, the lever was really a sort of holy space-time anomaly at the heart of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. According to the research Kevin and Gabriel had been able to do, the spot had been why a cathedral was built in the first place, and eventually the famous cathedral itself. Kevin would be the first step, since the Word of God had to be present, and Kevin had to be with the Word. It had more to do with Kevin's unwillingness to be without the tablet than anything else, but nobody was going to argue with him about that.
Step two was an Enochian spell, which anybody could say, although Kevin and Gabriel had decided that Michael should do it, having the seniority among the archangels. The last step was the combined authority of the four archangels, who had to come together in order to cause the lever to flip. That was where Kevin and Gabriel had hit their roadblock, since Raphael and Lucifer remained rogue elements. Gabriel was up to date on Sam's conversation with Lucifer, and informed Sam that he considered the hunter to be an idiot for pursuing a dream connection with Lucifer in the first place. Dean hadn't asked, but Gabriel wasn't naive enough to believe that Lucifer had randomly shown up in Sam's mind. Sam would have had to be opened to Lucifer on purpose. Sam didn't exactly explain what he'd done, but he didn't deny the insinuation. Gabriel decided his assumption that Sam was a self-sacrificing moron was more or less on point.
Raphael hadn't responded to any of Michael's attempts to contact him, and Gabriel had only tried once or twice. The remaining rogue element was silent, and nobody was really sure how to find him. Sam gave prayer a shot, but didn't really expect a response. Everybody had decided that Castiel wasn't allowed to pray for Raphael, because on the off chance Raphael did respond, it would probably be to kill Castiel, which was something nobody really needed.
By the time Dean and Castiel arrived, both completely exhausted from their drive, everybody had drifted into various stages of rest, not really having anything to accomplish. Until Lucifer showed up with a vessel and Raphael made an appearance, there wasn't a lot to be done. Nobody wanted to think about the Heaven lever and how unattainable it seemed, and attempting to seek out and recover grace didn't seem like a practical use of time when they had the potential ability to open Heaven to the angels again.
Dean walked into the room, Castiel trailing behind him, and took in the assorted group sitting all over the room. "You all look exhausted," he announced.
"So do you," Sam pointed out, getting to his feet to greet his brother. "Nice to see you though." It had been long enough that a hug was in order, and they gripped each other tight for a brief moment before separating.
"You too, dude. How was Scotland?" Dean grinned and patted him on the back.
"I wish everyone would quit asking that," Sam muttered, rolling his eyes. He turned to Castiel and grinned, waving at the former angel, who looked like he could sleep for a week. "You good, Cas?"
"I will be quite all right after a good night's sleep, I believe," Castiel replied, his words more elongated than normal due to his exhaustion.
"I bet." Sam turned and gestured to various people in the room. "Guys, Dean and Cas get dibs on a bed. We should probably get a new room at this point. Or two."
"I do not require sleep, nor does Gabriel," Michael pointed out.
Gabriel made a face. "I probably could stand a cat nap though. It does more for me now that I'm...under the weather, so to speak. You're grace is in better shape, so you need it less."
Sam nodded at that information. "Okay, we can probably make do with one room then. I'll go down to the front desk and figure it out. Dean, you good here?" He turned to see his brother gaping at Michael.
"What the hell?" Dean growled, expression tight.
Michael opened his mouth to reply, but Sam beat him to it. "Dude, just let it go. He wanted something familiar, and apparently we can thank Gabriel that it's not a perfect copy." Turning slightly to address Gabriel, he added, "Which I, for one, am very grateful for, so thanks for that."
"I figured," Gabriel offered with a shrug.
Dean looked like he was about to protest, but just sighed instead. "Okay, whatever. I'm too tired to debate this right now." He turned to Castiel and offered, "Bed?"
"Yes, please," Castiel confirmed, sounding relieved.
"All right, so we rest, then we figure out how the hell to find our missing archangels," Sam confirmed. "Sounds like a plan."
"What could go wrong?" Gabriel threw out sarcastically.
"Dude!" Dean protested half-heartedly. "Don't say stuff like that!"
Charlie looked up from her book and made a face. "That's like the worst possible thing to say," she complained.
Gabriel rolled his eyes. "I take it back?" He tried, tone amused.
"If we all die, it's your fault," Charlie accused, before turning back to her book.
"And on that note..." Sam said pointedly. "Come on. Let Dean and Cas sleep. Charlie, you can take the other bed in this room. Everybody else, let's go."
The remaining members of the mismatched team filed out of the room after Sam, leaving Dean and Castiel to fall into the empty bed together, while Charlie stayed behind her book, sneaking glances at them and grinning.
As Sam headed downstairs to book a second room, he internally debated the complications regarding finding Raphael. Lucifer he actually believed would show his face eventually, but Raphael was a completely rogue element. If he hadn't responded to Michael yet, what would make him show up?
"You're thinking about the Raphael problem," Gabriel stated, not asking.
"Yeah," Sam admitted. "He's the main part of this plan we don't have a handle on."
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "You'd put Lucifer on the list of things we've got a handle on?"
"That's not what I mean," Sam countered. "Lucifer I know wants to help, albeit with some selfish motivations, and I believe he'll show his face as soon as he has a face to show. Raphael we haven't even heard from."
Gabriel hesitated. "I had a thought," he admitted.
Sam was about to ask, then he realized where Gabriel was going with that. "No way."
"We haven't tried yet," Gabriel pointed out. "Who's left to try?"
"He'd probably be willing, but you'd have to go through Dean, and you're nuts if you think he'll be okay with the idea," Sam insisted. "Even before the whole love connection happened, Dean wouldn't let Cas do something like that. It's too risky. Raphael might actually show up, but we all know he'd want to kill Cas, not listen to him."
"If Michael and I are both there, he'll be safe," Gabriel suggested. "Raphael wouldn't go up against both of us, and he respects Michael. Plus, with all the praying Michael's doing, he should know about the state of things by now anyway. We just need to get him here."
Sam huffed. "I think you're right," he admitted. "It's probably the last option we've got, aside from praying ourselves blue in the face, but good luck convincing Dean."
"I don't have to convince Dean," Gabriel countered. "I just have to convince Cas. Cas can work on convincing Dean."
Letting out a deep breath, Sam reluctantly nodded. "Fine. As long as he's safe, then fine. Maybe we can actually all work together and get this done."
"Then we just have to figure out how to flip the Heaven lever, which is behind a tightly locked metaphorical door," Gabriel finished cheerfully.
Rolling his eyes, Sam sighed. "Yeah, focus on the positives."
"At this point, I'm taking everything on faith," Gabriel commented thoughtfully. "I haven't done that in awhile. It's kind of refreshing."
"I might need some of that," Sam acknowledged.
Gabriel chuckled. "Kiddo, you and your brother have more faith than any humans I've ever seen. Faith in each other, faith in your friends, faith in good triumphing over evil, whatever. You guys inspire my faith."
"Huh." Sam found he didn't really have a response for that, but something about Gabriel's mini speech had reminded him about the way he's used to believe. "Well, for what it's worth, we have faith in some angels too."
Gabriel grinned. "That's why we fight with you and for you, Samsquatch. There's no better power source in the world than faith. Better than Red Bull."
Sam had to return the grin, and found that the conversation had lifted his spirits. Maybe they didn't have every single element of their plan tacked down just yet, but that didn't matter. Maybe faith was what they needed to carry them through. Maybe together, they could reopen Heaven. Maybe even the things that seemed impossible could be accomplished.
