Ch 37
River pried her eyes from the camera man wearing a bright red baseball cap that was waiving his hands towards stage left and turned towards the impossible voice. Dean stood fifteen from her, his green eyes huge and disbelieving. He took an unsteady step towards her, Sam stood just behind his older brother shaking his head. "Dean?" Before his name finished rolling off her tongue he was across the room, one hand tangled in her dirty hair the other wrapped around her waist pressing her body into his. He felt how thin she was under the shirt and hoodie she wore, took in the hallow shadow of her cheek bones. He backed them up a few paces until River's back hit the door and then his lips were ghosting over hers. "How are you here?" he murmured running his lips along her jaw, "Are you real?"
"Of course I'm real. Gods I bleeping missed you." Her fingers wrapped around the back of his head and she stood on her tiptoes to reach him. The moment their lips locked the audience let out another long 'oooohhh' and River broke the kiss to glare at them. "Did you stop her?" she asked staring up into his forrest green eyes.
"Lilith?" Dean shook his head, "No I was too late."
"Bleep," she muttered resting her head against the door, "What the bleep is this place? Is that food?" She side stepped Dean and headed towards the dining table. "Sam, you look good. You look so healthy. I missed you, you stupid jerk!" she slugged him hard in the shoulder before giving him a quick embrace and sitting down in front of Dean's giant sandwich.
"That's got turkey on it babe," Dean called out as she peeled a manageable layer off and took a huge bite.
She groaned in contentment and washed down the sandwich with a swig of Dean's abandoned beer, "Funny thing about being in a constant state of near starvation: It's made me a little lax on my dietary restrictions." River took another bite and smiled as the brothers joined her at the table. "What the hell is this place anyways?"
"I dunno some bleeping sitcom Loki trapped us in," Dean answered.
"Loki? Right, Loki- Have you seen him?"
"We did a few shows ago."
"A few shows ago?" River set her sandwich down, "Wait…Jesus how are things out there?"
"What? In the real world, same old same old for now. A bunch of natural disasters all happened at once when Lucifer broke out of his cage. Earthquakes, volcanos, couple of typhoons." Dean muttered.
"What do you mean for now? Haven't you been fighting this whole time?" River asked.
"Fighting? There's nothing to fight, yet," Dean told her.
"How long- how long has it been it out there since the seal fell?"
"About six weeks," Sam answered.
"Six weeks? It's only been six weeks out there," River said closing her eyes. The amount of information she was trying to process and the questions she wanted to ask were starting to overwhelm her. "I've been…it's been almost two years for me."
"Bleep, River, what the hell kind of show were you in anyways?" Sam asked quietly.
" 'Days Gone By' the zombie show." She smiled humorlessly. "All my friends just died."
"At least they weren't real ya know? Just more of Loki's bull-bleep." Dean told her. "How've you survived in here for so long? Me and Sam have been getting our asses kicked."
River took another sip of the cold beer, "I don't know. It hasn't been that bad. Zombies are pretty easy, they're slow, they usually make a lot of noise, they smell like bleep." She sighed at the sound that came out of her mouth. "You ever notice how no one in zombie movies knows anything about zombies when bleep hits the fan?" The brothers nodded. "Well, lucky me I got all my useless zombie factoids and put them to good use. Found some people I could trust, built a life, had a really hot girlfriend." She looked nervously at Dean as the studio audience cheered.
"A girlfriend?" Dean repeated.
"I didn't think I'd ever see you again. It just kind of happened and I was happy. That sounds bleeped up but I've been happy. I've delivered babies, I help people. I really help. I get food and supplies, I help with planning and strategy. If they want to zig I tell them to zag and everything usually goes pretty well…and there's no other monsters to deal with. That's the best part. No vampires or werewolves. No demons, no Angels. It's been almost like a vacation but with zombies and crazy people and a girlfriend. " River pushed the half eaten sandwich away. It was more food than she'd had in several days .
"You look like a POW, Princess. Eat something." Dean pushed the plate back towards her.
"We've had to cut rations lately. I'm so bleeping hungry but I'm afraid it'll make me sick." River looked between the brothers. "How'd you guys find me? I mean G-" she started coughing and quickly took another sip of beer. Even in TV land Gabriel wouldn't allow her to say his name in front of others. "Loki zapped me here after I ran from Chuck's house."
"We weren't looking for you," Dean told her. "I thought you were dead… found your phone and your necklace in a pile of ash. I figured the Archangel smote the crap outta you like he did to Cas."
"Oh, god is Cas dead?"
"He was, he's back or around at least. He found us when we were on some wacky ass Japanese game show then he got booted out," Dean felt his balls seize up at the memory of the giant painful looking metal ball that had been one wrong answer away from cracking him, "Cas's been out looking for God."
"What about the rest of the angelic douchebags? The apocalypse started ; haven't they got what they wanted?"
"Not all of it," Dean answered quietly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked looking between the brothers.
Sam leaned back in his chair, "Dean's the Michael sword."
"You're the what now for who?" The audience thought that was hilarious and they laughed for several seconds.
"I'm Michael the Archangels vessel," Dean told her. "The Angels wanna use me to kick Lucifers ass back to the pit."
"Right, of course. Of course," River shook her head in disgust.
"Hey it's not that bad, Sammy's Lucifer's vessel," Dean added.
"Shut the bleep up!" River muttered. "Oh bleep, I'm so sorry. I've bleeped up so bad. I didn't know Dean. I didn't know about any of this." She pressed her palms tiredly against her eyes. The door to the room was thrown open again and Cas rushed in, his face beaten and bruised. "Cas!" River jumped up and rushed across the room, "What the hell happened to you?"
"River? You're alive?" Cas moved as if to embrace the shorter red head but instead grabbed her by the shoulders, "Something is seriously wrong here! What is he?" River shook her head and tried to step away from Castiel.
"Who? Cas, the trickster?" Dean asked.
"It's not a Trickster. It's far too powerful," Cas looked over River's head at the Winchesters. "River, what is he?" He demanded again.
"I can't tell you, Cas. Get them the hell out of here," River urged, "You can not beat him. I'll deal with him!" Cas's cornflower blue eyes grew large before he was suddenly thrown across the room and into the wall.
Loki sauntered onto set with his normal larger than life flourish, the crowd went wild. Laughing and cheering at The Tricksters antics. "Oh come on! Thank you! Thank you!" River backed up and hit a wall of Winchester, Cas stood on shaky legs, his mouth covered in a thick layer of duct tape, his blue eyes shining and huge as he stared at Loki. "Hi Castiel! Bye Castiel!" Loki snapped his fingers and Cas disappeared in a flicker of static.
"Where did you send him?" River demanded.
"Don't worry, Lemon Drop, I didn't send him to Zombieland. I canceled that show," Loki smiled at her. "You did pretty damn good Sugar Cookie. Had a nice little life there didn't you? Friends, a job, a purpose that didn't involve these two Hamburglars. Didn't you say you were happy? I haven't seen you happy in a long time."
"You stole two years of my life!"
"Oh come on! It hasn't really been two years," Loki took a step towards her and she backed further into Deans firm chest. "Look, I'll make it up to you. Why don't you go have some cheesecake with the girls?" He snapped his fingers and River disappeared.
Dean threw his hands in the air angrily, "You know what I am done with the games! We get it ok?"
"Oh yeah hot shot? What is it that you get?" Loki asked smiling.
"You want us to play our parts."
"Half right, Sour Straw. I want you to play your roles out there too!"
Deans forehead creased, "What the hell does that mean?"
"The celebrity death match staring Dean as Michael and Sam as Lucifer!" Loki said pointing at each of the brothers.
"You want us to say yes to those sons of bitches?" Sam yelled in disbelief.
"Hells yeah!" Loki sang, "Lets light this candle!"
"If we do that the world will end," Sam said.
"And who's fault is that," The Trickster said raising his eyebrows at the taller hunter. "You let Lucifer out of the cage. There's no stopping this party once its started. So lets get it over with!"
Dean shook his head, "Whose side are you on?"
"Excuse me?"
"Michael or Lucifer? Whose ankle are you gonna grab?" Dean said sneering into Loki's golden-brown eyes.
Loki laughed and took a dangerous step closer to the taller hunter, "You listen to me you arrogant dick, I am on no ones side. I want nothing to do with those two crazy assholes."
"Oh, you are somebodies bitch alright," Dean murmured.
Loki grabbed Dean by his shirt, spun him around and slammed him into the door. The Trickster lifted Dean several inches off the floor staring angrily up at him then glanced at Sam challenging him to try and help his brother. "Little word of advice, boys, don't ever presume you know what I am." He pressed his fist harder into Deans chest and the hunter grunted in pain. "Now you will go out there and play the roles destiny has given you; Or you will stay in here forever. And forevers a long time when there's 300 channels and nothing on." Loki snapped his fingers and he and the set around them disappeared.
The brothers found themselves in a generic procedural cop show, much to Dean's distaste. "Are you kidding me? I hate these shows, there's like a million on TV and there all the same."
Sam sighed and took in the scene, they were standing in the middle of a park, and area cordoned off with yellow and black 'Police Line' tape, a dozen or so uniformed officers roamed around a dead body. "Just relax, we need to keep our heads straight."
"Relax? How am I supposed to relax? Where the hell is River and Cas now? What the shit do we have to do here and why the hell am I wearing sunglasses at night? You know who wears sunglasses at night?" Dean barked.
"Corey Hart?" Sam asked smiling at his brothers meltdown.
"Douchebags! Sam, Douchebages. The same kind of douchebags that watch these stupid shows," Dean turned in a tight circle, glancing disinterestedly at the D.B. cooling off on the ground a few feet from him. His eyes flicked from face to face with a hunters practice, taking in the features then dismissing them until he settled on the coroner who giggled at something on his phone while a giant red sucker hung from his lips. "Look at sweet tooth over there."
Sam turned to follow his brothers line of sight, "Think it could be our guy?" Dean shrugged and they stepped under the tape.
River sat at a cramped table surrounded by three of the funniest women she had ever met; a huge slice of New York style Cheesecake and a steaming cup of black coffee within arms reach. A fourth woman, Sophia, a tiny snarky octogenarian was standing at the stove stirring a delicious smelling pot of tomato sauce. Blanche was halfway through telling the girls about her latest sexual escapade when the scene around her flickered into static and disappeared. River found herself standing in a giant, decrepit warehouse of some sort. "Well hey there sweetheart! Why don't you join the party?" Deans voice echoed across the empty space and she turned away from the peeling paint that had been a brightly lit kitchen just a moment before. She saw Sam and Dean a few hundred feet away, along with Gabriel who was caught in a ring of fire. River swallowed thickly and walked quickly towards the group of men.
"Dean, what are you doing?" she asked quietly, stepping around the flames. They burned brightly but she could feel no heat radiating off of them.
"Nothing. Just wanna see Loki jump outta this ring of holy fire," Dean said smiling tightly at her.
Rivers eyes drifted from Dean back to Gabriel, "Holy fire?"
"Yeah, fun little fact it can trap Angels. I was just telling Loki here what a bitch it was to get our hands on this little bit. It'd be a damn shame to waste it."
Gabriels shook his head and smiled ruefully, "Congrats boys! Where did I screw up?"
"You didn't. Nobody's ever got the drop on Cas like that. But the way you talk about Armageddon, how pissed you were almost like you were talking about your own family." Dean smirked.
"Let's just leave," River started. The brothers glared at her and she turned towards Gabriel. "God damn it jellybean, you did this to yourself." Gabriel gave her a sad smile, the fire reflecting in his whiskey colored eyes.
"So which one are you?" Sam asked, "Sneezy, dopey or douchey?"
"Gabriel, okay? They call me Gabriel."
Sams jaw clenched and he stared at his brother before they turned their furious eyes back to River. "Gabriel? The Archangel?"
Dean clenched and unclenched his fists, "How long have you known?"
River shifted on her feet, throwing worried glances at Gabriel. She shook her head, "Dean, I-"
"How long!" He bellowed.
The tone of his voice and the anger radiating off him caused River to jump, "He brought me back…."
"You've had an Archangel on speed dial this whole fucking time!" he screamed again.
"Dean, I couldn't…you don't understand."
Dean turned away from her in disgust, "Tell me Gabriel, how does an Archangel become a Trickster?"
Gabriel watched as River furiously wiped tears off her face, "It's my own witness protection program. Skipped out on heaven, got a face transplant and carved out my own little corner of the planet. Made some good friends, had some good times, Lemon Drop here's not the first. She's just the one I got the most attached too like that stray cat you feed and then it won't leave."
"Fuck you, Gabe," River muttered.
"Gabe? How fucking cute!" Dean said, "Did you hear that Sammy? She calls the big, bad Archangel Gabe."
Sam cast her a sideways glance before turning his attention back to the trapped Archangel, "What did Daddy say when you jumped ship and joined the Pagans?"
"Dad doesn't say anything about anything," Gabriel mumbled sullenly.
"Then what happened? Why leave heaven?" Sam asked.
"Maybe because his brothers are major douchebags," River snapped.
Gabriel smiled at her, "I loved my father. I loved my brothers. The five of us, we were close. It was just us and Dad for so long. Watching as He created the universe, then He decided 'hey lets make more Angels' and then we were the big brothers to a whole flock of little fledglings just waiting for orders. And then Daddy had the great idea to make you: Humans, weak, fallible, stupid. And He loved you. And He told us to love you above everything else and then He left!" Gabriel took a deep breath as the flames shot towards the ceiling with his anger. "That's when it started, my brothers arguing, fighting, trying to tear each others throats out. And I couldn't bear it! Okay! So I left. And now it's happening all over again."
"Then help us stop it, Gabriel! Help stop the fighting and the killing," River yelled.
"It can't be stopped!" he yelled back.
"Do you want the world to end?" Dean asked.
Gabriel walked along the edges of the flames much like a caged tiger searching for a way out, "I want it to be over! I have to sit back and watch my own brothers kill each other thanks to you two!"
"It doesn't have to be that way! There has to be a way to pull the plug!" Sam added watching as Gabriel made another lap around his prison.
He shook his head and his messy blonde hair fell in his eyes, "You don't know my family! What you call the apocalypse I used to call Sunday dinner." He paused his pacing and ran his fingers along the flames wincing at the heat. "This is about a war. This is about two brothers that loved each other and betrayed each other. You think you two would be able to relate!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Dean asked him. He continued to do his best to ignore River, where she stood just a few feet to his left her arms wrapped tight around herself, occasionally wiping an errant tear.
"Oh come on! You sorry sons of bitches!" Gabriel bellowed, "You really don't know? Why your both vessels for Archangels? Michael, the big brother," He pointed at Dean, "Loyal to an absent father. And Lucifer," he turned to Sam, "The rebellious baby brother. You were born to to this boys. It's your destiny. It was always you! As it is in heaven so it must be on Earth. One brother must kill the other!"
"You knew! You knew the whole time what was coming?" River asked quietly.
Gabriel turned to face her. "We've always known. From the moment Dad turned the lights on around here; it was always gonna be them." River ran the dirty sleeve of her sweatshirt across her face and eyes and stepped away from the flames. "I wish this was a TV show and we could tie it up nice and easy with a bow. But it's not and this is gonna end bloody for all of us…" River walked several paces away and stared out at the real sky through a broken window. "So what do we do now? Stare at each other for eternity?"
Dean laughed, "First off your gonna bring Cas back from whatever hellhole you stuck him."
"Oh yeah? Why would I do that?"
"Because if you don't then we're gonna use the last little bit of holy oil we saved and deep fry ourselves an Archangel." Dean shook the small ceramic jar so Gabriel could hear the slosh of holy oil within. He looked between the jar and the stony faces of the Winchester brothers. He sighed dramatically and snapped his fingers. Castiel appeared behind them panting, covered in sweat, his face scratched and bruised.
"Cas, are you ok?" River asked turning towards the Angel.
He straightened his blue tie and stared straight ahead, not turning to look at River, "I'm fine….Hello, Gabriel."
The Archangel smiled at Castiel, "Hey, little bro. How's the search for daddy going? Let me guess, awful?" Castiel glared at him and remained silent.
Dean just shook his head and turned away from the trapped Archangel, "Come on, Sam." He let his angry green eyes flick over River before striding away from her towards the door.
Gabriel's amber eyes glowed worriedly as the Winchesters and his brother ignored him. "Sugar Cookie? Hey, Lollipop, come on, without me you wouldn't've met Delilah."
"Without you I wouldn't've had to shoot her in the fucking head either!" River yelled back.
"Hey, guys? Are you guys just gonna leave me here, forever?"
Dean stopped at the door and listened to Gabriel's pleas, "We're not gonna leave you here. Because we don't screw with people the way you do. And for the record this isn't about some prizefight or destiny. This is about you! You being too chickenshit to stand up to your family."
He turned back towards the door and punched the glass covering a small red fire alarm, "Don't ever say I never did anything for you." He pulled the small switch and the old sprinkler cranked to life, spraying the Archangel and the fire trapping him with stagnant water. The three men left the dank building without sparing Gabriel another glance. River however stayed behind watching as the flames sizzled and died.
"I just wanted you to see you could have a life without him. He's gonna get you killed and I'm not going to be there to save you next time," Gabriel warned.
"You already said it's gonna end bloody for all of us anyways, Gabe. You're a few millennia old it's time you grew the fuck up," River told him. He shook his head sadly and disappeared. She exited through the same door the others had taken, a sick feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. She was sure Dean was going to ream her for lying about Gabriel. River blinked several times at the sudden brightness of the midmorning sun when her eyes finally focused she saw the Impala parked about fifty feet away. Sam and Cas stood to the side, Dean was bent over the open trunk rooting around for something.
She smiled nervously as she approached them, "I-I can explain."
Dean stood up and faced her. The bright sunlight did nothing to mask how gaunt she looked, she'd probably lost nearly thirty pounds since the last time he had seen her. Even under the layers of clothes she wore, Dean could see most of her soft curves had been replaced by tense muscle and hard angles. A body she never wanted but had gained from a fitness regime she and Delilah had coined 'zombie crossfit'. He had her ratty old duffle bag grasped in his arms. "I kept your shit, thinking, hoping that this was some bad dream. I'd wake up and you'd be there."
"Dean-"
"You lied! You've been lying to my face for fucking months!" He bellowed. "You've had an Archangel in your back pocket this whole god damn time!"
"I didn't," River started.
Dean took a step towards her, "Don't give me that shit! I watched Sam almost destroy himself, Cas fell for us, I've had Zachariah leading me around by the dick and you-you knew he was-" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I fucked up. I get that but this?" he shook his head. "I can't trust you. I can't trust a god damn thing you've ever said to me. You've been jet setting with that selfish ass while the world is catching fire."
"Dean, don't. Please. Please let me explain," River begged, tears falling unchecked from her scared blue eyes.
Dean threw her duffle bag at her catching her off guard and causing her to stumble back a few steps. "Just…just go. Lose our numbers. Enjoy life with your Archangel pal until the world ends."
River dropped the bag and rushed to his side, "Please don't do this. Just let me talk- I didn't know. I didn't know about you and Sam being vessels. I didn't know about Lilith…I've tried to get him to help us." Dean just shook his head and pulling his hand out of her grasp. "Sam? Castiel? Don't do this! After everything we've been through? Zeppelin and Bowie? Fucking Ana and all the other shit and this? This is it? " she turned back to Dean. "I love you and you're just gonna walk away?"
"No, I'm not gonna walk away. I'm gonna drive away," he told her quietly. Sam and Dean climbed into the Impala without another word.
"Cas, I'm sorry. You three are all I have," Her voice cracked as she pleaded. She held a hand timidly out to the Angel. He stared at her a moment longer before disappearing. The Impala roared to life behind her and she stood helplessly watching as Dean left her in the rearview mirror.