Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Ninjakittee, FireChildSlytherin5, Maddy Love Castiel, RachelPhobia, Keefer, Pizzapig, Nikkilouise, Yana5, musicfiend2392, FictionalNutter, Lovely Rain Dancer, CherylB1964, XxZessxX, witch20, kb18142, Riceball-1989 and one guest for last chapter's reviews!

I think there'll be two more chapters after this one, so we are really nearing the end of the story here... but fear not, I have plans for other stories that I'll hopefully find the time to write. A little hint about the project I intend to start next: Animal!AU

37

It had been a long time since Gabriel had been in his true form. In fact, he hadn't been in Heaven for about as long, either. Strangely, he found that he actually preferred his human form. After being in a vessel for as long as he had, being a pretty damn big creature consisting mainly of raw energy and light felt too unrestrained, really.

Yes, he really wanted to get back to Earth and into his usual body. It helped that there was absolutely no way he could get it on with Sam in his true form and boy had he been looking forward to doing exactly that once they made sure that Lucifer stayed locked up. Of course, he also wanted to get back to his children and to his life in general and to triple chocolate cake.

Next to him Castiel looked completely confused which didn't make much sense until Gabriel remembered that the seraph probably had been able to pick up on his general thought process now that they both were in their true forms. He really needed to get used to guarding his thoughts again.

The archangel huffed out a laugh – or what passed for one among angels – and gave the best impression of a shrug being a figure made out of light allowed him to. Excuse him for having a bit of a scrambled brain after everything that had happened to him very recently!

Castiel basically radiated worry until Gabriel allowed his damaged grace – boy did that show once the vessel had been stripped off and he was basically all grace – to give Castiel's the equivalent of a comforting shoulder bump. He'd be back on top of his game soon enough. In fact, the archangel could already feel how his grace was healing itself. He'd just need some time which hopefully he'd get in the nearer future.

It looked like they'd have to deal with something else before that could happen, however.

"Mikey, if you want us to shiv your ass too, you could at least give us a little time to recuperate first," Gabriel commented casually, "A day or two, seems like common courtesy."

Then again, they weren't going to win in a fight against Michael no matter how well rested and prepared they were. The eldest archangel was the strongest one of them and he had been the leader of all the soldiers of Heaven for a very long time. Not to mention that there was no way that they'd even have the element of surprise on their side as things were, so yes, if Michael was looking for a confrontation they were completely and utterly screwed.

"You have grown since we last saw each other," the other archangel replied in a much more respectful tone than his brother had spoken with. The Gabriel he remembered would have never dared to address him like that, but Michael was somewhat pleased by the changes his brother had gone through. He clearly had become stronger, after all.

"Have you seen my vessel?" Gabriel joked which failed to get a laugh out of either Michael or Castiel. Thinking about it, he really should have chosen his crowd better before trying to crack jokes. At that point it seemed like a pretty good guess that the other archangel didn't want to smite them, but they still had to clear a few things between them. "Why did you force us to come up here? And how did you do it, anyway?"

Yes, Michael was the oldest and most powerful of the archangels, but he still shouldn't have been able to pull that off. Hell, if he had possessed that kind of power, he could have forced Gabriel to come back and fight before he had even reached Earth when he had first run away.

"You were greatly weakened which made it even possible," Michael admitted and while he was already at confessing he added, "I have been watching you for a while now. Both of you."

The archangel had been following his brothers' steps as much as he had been able to, anyway. They had stayed hidden even from him for some parts, but he had seen enough to know that they had teamed up with the Winchesters and had defeated both Raphael and Lilith. Most of the other archangel's extracurricular endeavors with the Norse pagans had been revealed to him that way, as well.

"Thanks for all the help then," Gabriel huffed before he added a little conciliatorily, "But honestly, thanks for not working against us."

Hey, you had to be grateful for small mercies sometimes. Like the archangel was grateful for the fact that his grace was healing pretty rapidly now that he was back in Heaven and in his true form. Then again, that was hardly a small mercy, it was a pretty big thing.

"With all due respect," Castiel spoke in a much more formal tone than the two archangels had used between them before, "Which side are you affiliated with?"

"None of them, I am merely watching," Michael answered, giving his full attention to the seraph for the first time. He had been impressed with Castiel at various points in time, but having Gabriel back in front of him for the first time in about a millennium had distracted him.

"You realize that this is about you too, right?" Gabriel asked incredulously, "Apocalypse, that big fight between you and Lucy, ring any bells?"

It wasn't like Michael had decided to stay out of a fight that didn't concern him. Raphael had set things into motion that eventually would have forced the oldest archangel to take action, as well. It would have made sense for Michael to either want Lucifer to walk free so they could have their final fight or for him to want to prevent exactly that from happening. It would have even made sense if he hadn't really known what was going on, but him just watching and being more or less indifferent to the outcome just sat wrong with Gabriel.

"Whatever is meant to happen will happen," Michael stated somberly, "You postponed it, so it wasn't meant to be."

"Oh bullshit!" Gabriel retorted immediately and with enough force that Castiel gave off slightly alarmed vibes, "What do the others say about all this newly found wisdom of yours? Oh, let me guess, you haven't spoken to any of them lately, you are just watching."

Alright, the archangels had never mingled with the seraphs all that much, but with Lucifer in his cage, Gabriel gone and Raphael preparing to go on a crusade Michael might have jumped over his own shadow and searched for some contact among the others. Apparently not. Of course, the archangel's self-imposed isolation explained a lot, especially since the younger archangel suspected that it had been going on for a very long time.

"Goddammit Michael, all this stopped being about a higher plan when dad left us. The only plans there are anymore are those we make," Gabriel ranted on, ignoring that both his brothers winced because of the blasphemy, "That's what got us into this entire mess with Raphael in the first place!"

The archangel had been their father's messenger for a long time and he knew what God's orders sounded like. He knew the way His plans were worded and what Raphael had done had felt nothing like it. His brother might have had his reasons for his actions, but they hadn't had anything to do with some godly plan.

"Then why is it so wrong in your eyes for me not to make any plans?" Michael wanted to know. He had moved closer to his two brothers after it had been clear that there was no hostility between them. Being close to his wounded brother was meant to help the other archangel heal quicker, but he couldn't deny that being this close to the others was making him feel good in ways that he hadn't felt in a very long time, too.

"Can you blame me for hoping that at least one of my older brothers isn't a total fuckwit?" Gabriel shot back not quite as scathingly as his words might have suggested. He was disappointed and didn't see a reason not to show it, however.

"Raphael's plans have failed and I don't intend to pick up where he left off, neither do I intend to take any other kind of action against you or yours," Michael replied in a nearly soft but definitely puzzled tone, "Isn't that what you want?"

The slight reassuring push against his grace did nothing to lift the archangel's confusion, either. He had meant to give his brothers good news, but they obviously hadn't been pleased. However, Gabriel had just given him a comforting push. Being in direct contact with others again was hard, but Michael began to dread the moment when it ended and he would be on his own again all the same.

"What about Heaven?" Castiel asked in a surprisingly demanding tone, "We have always had someone's orders to go by. Breaking free of that is… very hard and painful. You cannot leave them all without assistance! The chaos is going to be unimaginable!"

What good was it that they had managed to stop Raphael, if Heaven would go up in flames because of it? It was quite likely that Earth was going to suffer greatly, if it came that far, too. Some angels were bound to try and hide there and that would inevitably take some battles to Earth as well. Not to mention that there sure were enough angels left who didn't think of humans as anything more than mud monkeys or who blamed them for everything that had gone wrong.

"Would you like to help your brothers and sisters?" Michael suggested, reaching out toward Castiel with his grace to show the seraph how serious he was about the offer. He could easily give the angel the authority to lead other angels, if he wanted to have it.

"Yes," Castiel answered without having to think about it. If the other angels had to get used to the idea of the system they all had been living with this far nearing its end then he wanted to assist them in any way he could.

"Cassy, you just landed yourself quite the job," Gabriel chuckled before he turned a little more serious again, "You're going to help him, right?"

Between the three of them Michael was the leader every angel had heard of, but none of them had seen in a very very long time, Castiel was a rebel with new ideas that would surely be scandalous to quite a few of the others and Gabriel was the archangel who had run away at a time when they would have needed him dearly. Either one of the two archangels would have had a hard time to make themselves heard by the heavenly host, but Castiel on his own hardly stood a chance.

"Only, if you help me," Michael replied. He reached out toward Gabriel once more, letting his grace embrace his younger brother to show him how important this was to him. There had been no real companionship between the archangels ever since Lucifer had fallen, or a while before that already. Only the two of them were left as things were, but Michael believed that they could move things into the right direction, if they worked together.

"As long as it's only a part time job. I've got other things to do, too," Gabriel agreed, hugging his brother back, "Actually, it's about time we got back into our vessels. You know, before the Winchesters storm Heaven and demand you release us."

It might have been a joke, but knowing Sam and Dean there actually was a chance that they'd attempt something like that. As if on cue, Gabriel felt a part of his grace resonating with an impulse that hadn't come from Heaven. A smile spread over his face as he concentrated on the feeling. Yes, it really was high time they returned.

"You will have to go alone," Castiel sighed, "Jimmy is refusing to let me back in, I can feel it even now."

After Sam and Jörmungandr had taken Gabriel's vessel and had met up with the rest of their group again they had decided to go to Bobby's house to await the return of the two angels.

The younger Winchester wasn't sure why Hel had come to the conclusion that there was no harm in letting Jimmy Novak wake up after Castiel had left his vessel, but he was sure that at least Dean wished that the goddess had made a different decision. To be fair it had to be said that at the time Hel had been busy tending to her severely wounded brother. Also, Jimmy didn't seem like a bad guy and he wasn't even exceptionally unreasonable. It was just too bad that what he wanted obviously didn't go with what they – especially Dean – wanted.

"I get it, I do," Jimmy allowed, looking back at the older Winchester exasperatedly, "From what I've gathered Castiel really is one of the good guys. And I get that you want him back, too."

It wasn't that he didn't understand what the angel meant to Dean and to the others, it wasn't that he didn't think that Castiel was a good guy and should be able to walk the earth, if he wanted to. The problem was that the angel only could do that in a vessel and while Jimmy had willingly agreed to let Castiel use his body before the things he had experienced during that time had changed his opinion.

"But do you have any idea what it's like to be a vessel?" Jimmy asked, raising an eyebrow, "Look, I really don't want to tell you horror stories, but let's just say it's not exactly pleasant. I agreed to assist Castiel on his mission, but the mission is over now and I've done my duty."

He hadn't exactly been aware of the things that had been going on around him while Castiel had been in control, but he had been able to gather bits and pieces and put them together. It wasn't like he had had anything better to do. What they… what the angel had done had helped to prevent the devil himself from getting free and had saved the entire world from a catastrophe like it had never seen before. Jimmy knew and acknowledged that, but the fight was over now for all they knew, so he thought he was in the right to demand his own life back.

"The mission is never over, believe me, I know," Dean commented, shrugging apologetically. Judged by his experience the next crisis was around the corner already, they only didn't know what exactly it was going to be yet. And no, the older Winchester absolutely wasn't trying hard to come up with a justification for why Jimmy should do something that Dean himself wouldn't do willingly in a million years.

"Do you also know that I have a wife and a daughter?" the other man shot back, becoming quieter as he spoke on, "I put all this over them."

"And it was the right thing to do," Dean stated with conviction. They'd have been pretty screwed without Castiel, even though things had turned out quite differently than they had first believed they would. Who would have thought that they'd have to fight against angels just as much as against demons at the beginning of this? Hell, who'd have thought that they'd team up with a bunch of pagans and with the Trickster of all people? Not to mention that Sam… yeah, Dean wasn't going to go there.
"At the time, yes," Jimmy agreed with a sigh, "But as I see it, it wouldn't be now. It's my body and I'm keeping it."

Sam wanted Castiel back just as much as the others did, but he had to say that Jimmy had a point. Then again, they didn't even know yet, if the two missing angels weren't engaged in battle again already. They'd only know for sure once they returned. If they returned…

The younger Winchester sighed and decided to leave the two men to their discussion that might turn out to have been pointless from beginning to end once they knew what exactly had happened to their angelic companions. At least, it gave Dean something to do other than worrying about Castiel and it probably distracted Jimmy from all the 'what if's concerning his family, too.

Jörmungandr had insisted that Fenrir needed a calm and cozy place to recover and after Bobby had been done damn near throwing a fit over his panic room being re-decorated with fluffy pillows and blankets the older hunter had been appeased by the offer of the two pagans telling him stories and answering his questions. Sam supposed that that could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

The younger Winchester's way led him upstairs to the spare bedroom, however. Entering the room he nodded toward Hel who was sitting next to the bed, looking at the man who right now wasn't her father. Sam figured that knowing that for the moment being the man in front of them technically wasn't even Gabriel was strange for the goddess as well, anyway.

Hel smiled slightly and patted the younger Winchester's shoulder before she left the room. It was enough if one of them kept watch and she really wanted to see what her two brothers and the others were doing. It was bound to be more interesting than watching a guy she didn't even know sleep, but leaving him all alone hadn't felt right all the same.

"I… uh… honestly, I have no idea if this is how this even works. You really have to explain that to me when you get back," Sam said once he had taken a seat on the edge of the bed and had taken the vessel's hand gently, bringing it in contact with the handprint Gabriel had put on his hip, "I just… you said this connection between us won't go away until one of us is dead and… that mark you gave me? It's a strange thing really, 'cause it feels like it is and isn't a part of me at the same time and that feeling didn't go away, so I'm thinking that means you're still around… somewhere."

Honestly, he had no idea if he could even establish a connection between them and if he could, he didn't know if what he was doing was the way to go. He really hated how many unknown variables there were about the entire situation. Doing whatever little he could do didn't exactly make him feel any better, however.

"Your kids are keeping your vessel asleep, by the way. They say he hasn't been awake in so long that he'd probably have a heart attack or something the moment he became aware of things. You should explain how that works once you get back, too. Actually, just come back," Sam's voice cracked toward the end of his speech, "Please, Gabriel, come back."