Author's note: Thanks so much to CassXDeano, Maknatuna, Maddy Love Castiel, QuietCrash, AnninaSA, CherylB1964, NicoleneB, LeeMarieJack, Cheshire Cat, LadyGrelka, random yet lovable, TARDISbluu and StereotypicalGeek for last chapter's reviews!
Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!
New year new chapter! Happy new year!
34
"If Raphael and Crowley are really after Purgatory it might be best to get Michael and Lucifer involved in this," Gabriel mused as the silence in the car started getting too heavy for the former archangel's liking. Gabriel really didn't understand how Sam and Dean managed to spend so much time not talking, especially with there were things they could discuss. There were certain situations in which few words were required from even the former archangel's perspective, but usually Dean wasn't included in those affairs and there was a whole lot of body language to make up for the relative silence.
"Seriously?" Sam asked frowning deeply as he considered his fiancé's words, "I mean, they both have changed some, but..."
It felt like they would be pushing their luck, if they tried to get Michael and Lucifer to work together. As things were, they had been pretty damn lucky that those two weren't searching each other out to settle an old score just as a matter of principle. Of course, Gabriel had to have a reason for his suggestion.
"Having Michael and Lucifer in one room sounds much more like a problem than a solution," Dean finished his younger brother's thought when Sam didn't speak on.
"I know, I know, but..." Gabriel admitted throwing his arms in the air as much as he could in the backseat of the Impala, "I just don't know that much about Purgatory."
"Oh great, the one archangel we already have on the team is the dropout who flunked geography," Dean snorted as he ignored Gabriel's sour look over the rearview mirror.
"You know Dean-o, some of us are still closer to being omniscient than others," Gabriel pointed out in a snobbish tone. Besides, the fact that the former archangel had been more interested in Earth than Heaven, Hell or Purgatory was one of the reasons they had been able to stop the Apocalypse. They would probably still be running around like chickens with their heads cut off, if Gabriel hadn't shown them the way. Of course, it was just as likely that they would have found another way, possibly one that ended badly for the Winchesters given their dramatic natures, but Gabriel didn't want to think of that.
"Big deal when all of us know jack shit about Purgatory," Dean retorted with a slight smirk. Even if it didn't help them any, the oldest Winchester was about to win this argument at least. They could figure everything else out later.
"So, Michael and Lucifer then," Sam concluded thoughtfully. Maybe calling the two former archangels would be obsolete as soon as they heard the full story from Bobby, but it was always good to have a second plan available. Just in case.
"Gentlemen," Crowley addressed the handful of demons standing next to him. It was just too hard to find good and trustworthy help these days, so the king of hell's options had been very limited. "Don't forget, nobody but me touches a hair on their heads and only I enter the house."
Everything would have been much easier if the damn monster hadn't chosen Bobby Singer's house of all the places she could have hidden in. Apparently, Castiel felt honor bound to the deal Crowley made with Gabriel during the Apocalypse, so the king of hell couldn't consider it broken already. He had to stand behind his word to keep his underlings away from the -extended- Winchester family unless they attacked first. He wasn't going to risk the loophole this time. With everything that was at stake, Crowley really couldn't use the wrath of heaven to descend upon him just because one of his demons couldn't keep from hurting the grumpy old hunter.
"Now go and cause a ruckus they cannot ignore!"
"Castiel tells me they found Michael," Samandriel told Lucifer. The seraph tried to keep his tone neutral for the former archangel's benefit, but Samandriel was content with knowing that Michael had been found and was settling into his human life comfortably just like Lucifer. Apparently, he was the only one in the room who was happy about the news though.
"Michael is the ass-hole who threw ya into hell!?" Gracie more angrily stated than asked, her homework immediately forgotten.
"Indeed," Lucifer replied with a small, pleased smile before he offered, "I will put money into the swearing jar for you, if you don't tell your mother you heard that word from me."
At least the former archangel assumed Grace had heard him swear at some occasion. Lucifer generally tried to mind his language around the girl -the last thing he wanted to be when it came to his little abomination was to be a bad influence- but sometimes his temper flared up and made it impossible to filter out every single swear word. In a way it was good that they had that stupid swearing jar to make up for his slip ups. Even if money really didn't matter to the former archangel –partially thanks to Gabriel- the extra action of putting money in the jar per swear word made Lucifer consciously realize the amount he swore.
"Deal," Gracie agreed easily. Maybe later she would tell Lucifer that she really learned that word from her mother a long time ago. Gracie and her fallen angel weren't the only people in the house who had to contribute to the swearing jar regularly.
"Don't you want to hear..?" Samandriel asked a little indignantly. The angel didn't expect Lucifer to be overjoyed to hear of Michael, but Samandriel had hope that his brother would show some interest at least. It would have been a nice sign that maybe someday Lucifer and Michael could overcome their differences.
"No offense Samandriel, but wherever Michael ended up, I'm pretty sure he has a hell of a better time than I've had until recently," Lucifer interrupted his younger brother with a snort. Granted, the fact that Lucifer ended up with his little abomination -and to a lesser, but still significant extent her mother- made up for some of the hurt of the past. However, the former archangel maintained that it was perfectly reasonable to be a little bitter about what amounted to an eternity going by hell time spent in the cage.
"Will we meet him?" Gracie suddenly asked, looking at Lucifer expectantly. After all, Lucifer wanted to see pictures of Gracie's classmates and especially the ones she didn't like so he had a picture to the names. The little girl wanted to know who the jerk of an older brother who threw Lucifer out of heaven was too. Besides, meeting more angels sounded exciting, even if this one wouldn't have his wings just like her angel didn't.
"Are you kidding me, Grace? Have you listened at all?" Lucifer huffed as he rolled his eyes at the girl's antics. There were only a couple of angels the former archangel would be happy to see and Michael absolutely wasn't one of them. Samandriel, Gabriel, Castiel and Balthazar were the only ones Lucifer knew what to expect from. They were on his side as long as he played it nice. Only God knew what any of the others would do if they ever saw Lucifer again. Especially Michael.
"You could kick 'im," Gracie explained with a shrug, before she grinned and added, "Hard."
The boys at Gracie's school got into fights the teachers had to break up sometimes. It seemed that boys -or at least some of them, since her mom always said that generalizations were not the way to go with people- had to hit each other before they could be friends again. Besides, Lucifer's brother deserved to be hit for what he did. There was no doubt whose side Gracie was on in this.
"Tempting," Lucifer replied with a small grin. Apparently Samandriel didn't see the humor in the situation as Lucifer noticed when he threw a side glance toward his younger brother. "Don't look at me like that, brother."
"I will let you know that Michael was never the same after your fall," Samandriel commented, keeping his tone level as to not give Lucifer the impression he was trying to throw accusations around. There was a point that had to be made here though. "Your life wasn't the only one ruined that day."
"Maybe... maybe don't kick him too hard," Gracie stated a little sheepishly. It suddenly seemed possible that there was a side to all this that the little girl didn't know. A look at Lucifer told Gracie that maybe her angel had never quite thought of it like that either.
"Maybe," Lucifer agreed.
Bobby was convinced that Eleanor only wanted to rile Jody up with all the little touches and suggestive smiles she bestowed upon the hunter. It worked too well to be anything other than deliberation and Bobby had a hard time believing Eleanor was trying to rekindle an old flame after showing up out of nowhere and revealing she was some kind of monster to boot.
For a moment the old hunter nearly welcomed the very distracting racket coming from the salvage yard. It served as a distraction to him and both women after all. Of course, it could hardly be a coincidence that a group -judged by the noise- of people decided to break into the isolated, small town salvage yard not even a day after someone that had a lot of demons after them came to Bobby's house.
"Balls!" Bobby cursed as he grabbed the closest shotgun, "You two go into the panic room, I'll..."
Eleanor only raised her eyebrows at Bobby's unfinished command, but apparently the gesture was enough to let the hunter know how stupid his suggestion was. Of course, the panic room would keep the demons out, but Eleanor didn't have to see it to know it was also warded against all sorts of monsters.
"Right," Bobby cleared his throat awkwardly, before he turned to Jody and repeated, "You go into the panic room and I'll..."
"I'm not just going to just sit around in your panic room," Jody immediately protested. The prospect of being one of those women who were supposed to just hide and wait was bad enough, but if Eleanor wasn't coming there was absolutely no reason for Jody to be in the panic room.
"Jody," Bobby groaned. Realistically, chances were he couldn't protect Eleanor on his own and the boys were still hours away. Bobby could protect Jody though.
"How am I less capable of shooting a couple of demons than you are?" Jody retorted in a tone that didn't allow for any objection.
The old hunter threw his arms in the air in defeat before he quickly grabbed another gun loaded with salt rounds and handed it to Jody. It seemed like Bobby had a thing for surrounding himself with the most stubborn people he could find.
"Wait until Michael comes back he said," Hope muttered as she climbed the ladder to remove the leaves that clogged up the rain gutter after the storm the previous night. "Like I can't..."
Hope's rant was interrupted by a shrill shriek she would have felt embarrassed about, if the ladder hadn't suddenly disappeared from under her feet. Apparently, Hope leaned a little too far to the right and the stupid thing toppled over.
A second later the young woman opened her eyes. The expected pain from the fall never came, but instead she was looking into the eyes of the stranger who had caught her out of midair.
"Uh..." Hope stated ineloquently. With the unexpected turn her fall had taken, she thought it was perfectly understandable to be too baffled to speak.
"I assumed it would cause Michael anguish to see you hurt," Otheos commented nonchalantly. Technically, keeping an eye on the family was part of the angel's orders anyway, but most of all he was supposed to keep Michael from harm. Castiel stressed that it was of the utmost importance to keep Michael on the good path he was on and allowing the woman he had hung his heart on to get hurt seemed like the exact opposite of that.
"I sure hope so," Hope retorted instinctively before her brain caught up with her mouth, "No wait that... uh... you... you're Otheos I assume."
In all honesty, Hope had no idea what their guardian angel looked like. However, she was pretty sure that the Indian looking man with his dark eyes, short hair and trimmed beard had not been in the garden right up to the moment when Hope needed someone to catch her.
"Correct," Otheos confirmed, inclining his head slightly before he added, "You really should have waited for Michael to hold the ladder for you."
Under different circumstances the young woman could have laughed at the stark contrast between the man's stiff posture, the serious demeanor and the casual outfit. Frankly, she was not used to being lectured with this level of graveness by a guy wearing a polo shirt, khakis and sandals.
"If you'd found it necessary to introduce yourself earlier, you could've done it," Hope retorted in a slightly snooty tone, before something dawned on her and her voice took on a hint of accusation, "Wait, actually you could've done it anyway."
That Hope couldn't see the angel apparently didn't mean he wasn't there, so he could have stayed invisible but still stabilize the ladder for her. Of course, Otheos intervened when it was really important, so she wouldn't hold it against him.
"I could still drop you," Otheos pointed out in a perfectly neutral tone. The angel didn't plan to do it, but he had the possibility. A fall from the height of his arms would hardly hurt the human too badly. It seemed like an acceptable threat all things considered.
"How about you let me down gently and I'll refrain from kicking your heavenly ass?" Hope suggested testily. She wasn't going to let some angel in flip-flops intimidate her, especially not with a threat like that! The couple bruises the fall might give her would be worth it, if Otheos was really even prepared to go through with his threat in the first place.
"I would do as she says, brother," Michael commented, raising his eyebrow at the picture that met him. The former archangel had to run an errand on his own for once and when he came back Hope had gotten herself into trouble apparently. Then again, it wasn't like Michael's presence usually kept her from trouble.
"Thanks and thanks for catching me," Hope said politely once the angel set her down, before she turned to Michael, "Where have you been anyway? I wouldn't have needed to be caught, if you'd been here to hold the ladder."
Michael opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. There was a perfectly acceptable reason for why he had been gone and especially without telling anyone where he was going, but he could hardly tell Hope. This was not the time or the place to reveal his little secret. Instead the former archangel retorted, "Why did you climb up the ladder without anyone there to hold it?"
Hope threw her arms in the air showily before she shoved Michael's shoulder not gently, but without the intent for it to hurt. Of course Michael -plus her uncle and Otheos- had a point, but at least two of those three should know her well enough to know exactly why she had to climb the ladder after being told not to do it on her own. Hope vowed to simply protest verbally against the notion of absolutely needing someone to help her and then wait until Michael returned the next time a situation like this came up.
"I must say, your taste in women is... interesting," Otheos commented, the corners of his mouth twitching traitorously.
Michael frowned deeply for a moment. The former archangel couldn't say he was used to seraphs openly making fun of him, but if that was a part of his new life he could live with it. That didn't mean he had to take a snide remark without offering his own though. "Balthazar got past you, twice."