Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Maddy Love Castiel, kb18142, PercyJfan1802, Nicolene B, QuietCrah, AnninaSA, random yet lovable, Nyx Ro, eiahlaie, LeeMarieJack, CherylB1964, BritishSweden and Chichi-10018 for last chapter's reviews!
Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!
36
After having Sam and Dean around constantly for over a week, Bobby found them a case outside of South Dakota. The old hunter loved the two boys like his own, but there was no use denying that they could be immensely annoying once they got into the mother hen mindset. Not to mention that a certain archangel never stayed away for long. While Bobby was glad that Sam had found happiness, it was still hard to see them interact -even if they toned the PDA down for the old hunter's sake- on a nearly daily basis.
It wasn't long before the Winchesters packed their bags and hit the road. Finding them a hunt was Bobby's nice way of telling them to get lost already and they both understood the message. Truth be told, the old hunter was far away from being okay, but he was dealing. At least Jody Mills and Bobby made a connection over the loss of their loved ones in a similar fashion, so the sheriff would look after the old hunter a little while they were gone.
"So, I'm going to interview the babysitter and you go for the delivery dude," Dean stated once the brothers finished setting their things up in the motel room. The monster they were hunting was out for blood and there were bite marks, so everything was pointing to vampires. According to the reports Bobby provided, there were two people the police had questioned as possible eye-witnesses. It suited Dean well that one of them was a cute blonde in her mid-twenties.
"Any reason why you're going for the hot chick?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. The younger Winchester wasn't serious about his complaint, but Dean might as well know that his brother saw straight through him. If the older Winchester planned to collect the babysitter's phone number and possibly go out with her, he should just come out and say it. That way, Sam would also know that he could tell Gabriel they'd have the motel room for themselves that night.
"Sammy, you're in a relationship with an archangel," Dean replied seriously, putting a hand on his younger brother's shoulder before he added, "He might smite someone if he gets jealous."
In all honesty, Gabriel didn't strike Dean as the overly jealous type, but better safe than sorry. Not to mention that Sam was in a relationship, thus he got laid regularly without having to go through the process of picking someone up. Not that Dean wanted to think of Sam getting it on with Gabriel, ever.
"You know, Dean, Gabe's my boyfriend," Sam pointed out in a lecturing tone, noticing how his older brother shuddered involuntarily at his words, "He'd probably be more worried about me talking to another guy."
Actually, the younger Winchester had a hard time believing that Gabriel would have much of a problem with him talking to anybody. Sam knew that the archangel wasn't quite so self-assured as he always tried to come across, but Gabriel never struck the younger Winchester as the jealous type. At least not when it was only about talking. Sam had no idea what might happen, if the archangel saw him kissing somebody else or something alike. Since the younger Winchester had no interest kissing anybody other than Gabriel anyway, he could live with not knowing.
"Oh please, we all know you're only gay for Gabriel," Dean snorted. The older Winchester could have accepted Sam being gay in general, equally the same as he could accept that his younger brother was only gay for one person. The point was that from all Dean had ever seen, Sam wasn't interested in any men other than the archangel. The older Winchester rolled his eyes when his brother kept quiet after his statement. "What? You can't even start to tell me how wrong I am?"
"No... that was actually... insightful," Sam answered, over exaggerating his astonishment just to see his older brother's bitch face. Even if the younger Winchester would never tell Dean, the older Winchester's 'I am not amused with what you just said' expression was no less of a bitch face than Sam's own. Of course, informing Dean of that fact would also force Sam to admit that 'bitch face' was, at least sometimes, the fitting term to use.
"For that alone you're definitely going after the delivery guy," Dean huffed, punching his younger brother's upper arm for his stupid joke, "Bitch."
"Jerk."
"Welcome to my humble abode," Balthazar greeted his two brothers, raising the wine glass he held toward them. The seraph had to admit that he could imagine nicer things than meeting with Gabriel and Castiel, if only because they were there to talk business. Balthazar would have welcomed them with open arms and a bag full of chips for the surrounding casinos, had they been there for a night out between brothers.
"You show a great misunderstanding of the word humble," Castiel stated seriously, looking around the penthouse suite Balthazar inhabited. The panorama windows gave them a great look over Las Vegas, which seemed like a strange place to Castiel, even if Dean spoke of it fondly every now and then. The seraph assumed that he couldn't judge the city correctly yet, because the older Winchester had spoken of the great nightlife. Their visit during the day made it look like a strange compilation of big buildings in differently styles, usually found in completely different countries.
"Figure of speech, Cassy," Balthazar shrugged, putting his wine glass down with a deep sigh. Castiel probably didn't even know what he was missing out on with his limited understanding of the human way of life. Granted, Balthazar was mostly interested in the upscale way of living and hanging out with hunters, especially the Winchesters, wouldn't teach anyone a lot about these things.
"I like your style," Gabriel commented with a grin. In all honesty, it wasn't that long ago that the archangel would have felt right at home in a place like this. Most of his hideouts were luxurious, at least by middle class standards. The problem was that Gabriel couldn't see Sam in a place like this. Not when it came to living there for any lasting time. Not when it came to building a future together. Gabriel could see the two of them in an apartment like the one they had when the Winchesters were children or in a suburban home with a white picket fence. The archangel shook his head slightly to get those thoughts out of his head. They had other matters to discuss, even if they were still in the small talk phase.
"You don't get to say anything against it anyway," Balthazar huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest, "It's your plans that might get us killed any day now, so technically it's your fault that I have to live life at its fullest as long as I can."
The blonde seraph enjoyed being on Earth enough, so being cut off from heaven hardly bothered him. It helped that Gabriel had given him a little power boost when they last met, but even without that Balthazar would have preferred Earth to heaven anyway. The seraph couldn't say that heaven had ever been a place that offered as much freedom as living among humans did, but things had been better in the past. A past so long gone that even an angel had troubles remembering it. Balthazar had little hope that things back home would get better once the Apocalypse was over, but what little hope he had was worth fighting for. If they succeeded there was at least a chance that living in heaven would be desirable again.
It wasn't lost on the blonde seraph that Castiel became tenser than usual the moment after Balthazar had brought up the possibility of Gabriel's plan getting them killed. Mentioning a possibility they all knew was in the cards shouldn't have caused any kind of reaction in Castiel. Balthazar knew his dark-haired brother well enough to be sure there was something more behind this. Call him paranoid, but the blonde seraph was certain that Castiel knew something he didn't. Balthazar filed that piece of information away for future use. This was neither the time nor place to get Castiel to talk.
"Smooth, Balthazar, real smooth," Gabriel snorted, shaking his head, "It says sad things about the state of heaven when more of our brothers and sisters could do with some of your attitude."
Balthazar at least knew what he wanted and was willing to reach for it. The blonde seraph complained a lot, but he was still with them. He hadn't tried to run and hide, sitting out the Apocalypse. Besides, Gabriel and Castiel were willing to die for the success of the mission at this point, so having somebody around who was unwilling to die -at least senselessly- could only do them good. Balthazar would be the one to tell them if their plans were becoming too risky. Not that Gabriel planned to let his brother know any of that. If the blonde seraph's head got any more inflated, he'd have troubles passing through doors.
"It does say great things about my fabulousness though," Balthazar retorted with a smirk. Nobody could say that the seraph wasn't self-assured. Balthazar could admit that he had his weaknesses, but he'd always insist that they were by far outweighed by his strengths.
"It was my understanding we were here to discuss how to acquire a fruit of the tree of life," Castiel stated, a little unnerved by his brothers' inane banter. They had a task at hand, a task the fate of the world might very well depend on. Castiel was not happy with the fact they had been unable to come up with a realistic way to get their hands on a fruit from the tree of life yet. The blue-eyed seraph discussed the issue with Gabriel before, but any of them going back into heaven brought the immense risk of being captured with it. The archangel was the most powerful of them, but he was also the one all of heaven's soldiers would be on the lookout for. Castiel or Balthazar might stand a greater chance of being undetected for a short period of time, but they were less likely to escape once they were spotted. Not to mention that they didn't only have to get into heaven, they had to find a way into Eden.
"Hear that, Balthy? Castiel does not approve of our slacking off," Gabriel commented with a smirk, trying and failing to keep his tone completely serious. It wasn't lost on the archangel that they had a big problem to solve, but chances were a couple of minutes -or hours even- of small talk wouldn't make their situation any worse.
"How would we ever get anything done without you?" Balthazar asked, standing up from the couch and putting his hands on Castiel's shoulders.
"I presume you would 'sit with your thumbs up your asses' until 'shit hit the fan'," Castiel replied in his usual, overly serious tone. The blue-eyed seraph had to admit that he wasn't surprised when both his brothers broke out into loud laughter, though.
Dean stormed into the hospital, nearly knocking a nurse over in his hurry. There were a lot of things the older Winchester expected -they were on a hunt after all- but a call from the local hospital telling him that his brother had been brought in unconscious, with various injuries -luckily none of them life threatening or too grave- after an accident wasn't one of them.
"Where is he? Where's my brother?" Dean demanded as soon as he reached the reception desk. The older Winchester realized that he probably should have called one of the angels to tell them what was going on, but when he heard what happened Dean couldn't spare the time for a phone call before he went to see Sam. He would give Castiel or Gabriel a call the moment he knew where exactly his younger brother was!
The woman at the reception looked taken aback, making Dean realize that he hadn't given her any of the necessary information. The older Winchester hurried to rectify his mistake, rattling down their emergency contact information. At least the nurse had called Sam Mr. Wayne on the phone, letting Dean know what alias he had to go for.
What the older Winchester didn't notice was that a laboratory worker was listening intently to everything he said. The young woman's eyes flashed black for a moment as she smiled to herself. Both Winchesters in one place and one of them was already weak. Either one of her bosses would undoubtedly be pleased by that.
The last thing Sam could remember was chasing the delivery guy down the street. The wiry, young man took the first chance he got to cross the busy street, Sam hot on his trail. The squealing of brakes echoed in Sam's mind, even as his eyes snapped open.
It took a few moments before the younger Winchester's eyes were focused enough to allow him to assess his situation. Sam's entire body ached like he had been run over by a truck. Given the circumstances he was probably lucky that it wasn't worse. At least, the pain and injuries -as far as the younger Winchester could tell- seemed appropriate for the type of accident he had been in.
After taking a few more moments to clear his head some and check if any of his limbs were in a cast -luckily they weren't- Sam tried and failed to get into a sitting position. His limbs were unwilling to cooperate. The younger Winchester could have dealt with the pain just fine, but apparently he had been given some pain killers that made concentrating and forcing his stiff limbs to do anything difficult. Sam had to find a way to let Dean know where he was, but he couldn't do that while just lying there. The younger Winchester sighed deeply and settled for looking around. There had to be something like a call button, so he could at least let some nurse or doctor know that he was awake again. It shouldn't be that much of a challenge to press a call button in a hospital. Those things were designed for ill people after all.
Sam found the call button easily enough, but when he was about to press it, his eyes fell on something else. It wasn't surprising that they took the amulet off his neck, since they also put him into one of the -always scratchy- hospital gowns. It was a little surprising that somebody put it on Sam's bedside table, but they probably thought it was something religious, a good luck charm or something of great personal value. They would've been right on all three accounts.
The younger Winchester abandoned his plan to call the nurse. There was somebody much better he could contact, he just had to get his hands on the amulet.