Author's Note:

I think I say this like every chapter, but I really am so grateful for all of you guys and your reviews. Your responses make me super happy, and I love when I do like one thing that everyone latches onto with a passion. Speaking of which, I'm not going to name Chuck as God one way or the other. I deliberately left them up to your own interpretation, because I never really made a decision either way myself (although I'm content to assume he is God). Although, I would like to point out, since someone insinuated that Team Heaven was oblivious for not figuring it out, which is ridiculous, that they have no reason to assume Chuck is anything other than a dead prophet. You all are awesome, so keep it up!

Thanks to CastiellaWinchester94, aliengirlguy, SnarryMoreidLover, LordOfTheSuperwhomerlockians, FindMeWaiting, Akira of the Twilight, SPN Mum, Pheonix Autumn, jojospn, keacdragon, FireChildSlytherin5, doglady.1, , and two guests for their reviews on chapter 37!

Chapter 38 - Safe Behind Bars

Sam sat beside Adam at one of the tables in the library, a calculus textbook that pre-dated World War II open in front of them. Kevin had relocated to his bedroom to take a nap, and Dean was in an armchair in the corner with his feet propped up on another chair he'd taken from a table, looking at his brothers with distaste.

"You two are weird," he finally announced.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Math is one of the constructs on which the universe is founded, dude."

Dean blinked at him. "Your point."

Flashing his older brother a bitchface, Sam turned back to Adam. "Obviously your material at school will be way newer than this, but I figured you'd prefer to have some prep before you actually enroll, since you've been out of the loop for a little while."

Adam snorted. "Out of the loop. Right. Thanks, though. Where'd you find these?" He gestured to the stack of textbooks next to the math one, all from around the same time period.

"They were in one of our boxes," Sam informed him. "Not sure why, but I set them aside to read through. I mean, I haven't taken a math class since like 2005, so it was kind of nice to stretch that muscle."

Dean was giving him a funny look again. "Nerd," he finally muttered.

Ignoring him, Adam raised an eyebrow at Sam. "You went to college?"

"Yeah, I was a pre-law, a long time ago," Sam admitted, fiddling with a page of the math book absentmindedly.

"Let me guess, something bad did something worse and you didn't get to play 'not it'?" Adam asked wryly.

Sam made a considering noise, aware that Dean was trying not to look like he was listening. "It was more like there were people that needed help, and I realized I couldn't ever just let than knowledge go. I mean, it wasn't that at first, not by a long shot, but that's what it became. Trust me, I was bitter about it for awhile, but I'm not anymore. Especially now that we've got the bunker. I mean, I can study everything from calculus," Sam tapped the textbook as he said this, "to the mating habits of creatures the whole world thinks are mythical. I think this is where I was always supposed to be."

Adam absorbed that, nodding slowly. "Maybe I'll get there someday," he mused. "I'm still getting over the whole orphan thing." He chuckled without any real mirth and rubbed the back of his neck. "Let alone the brought back to life by angels thing."

"I am sorry about that," Michael offered from the corner opposite Dean.

Adam actually laughed out loud. "You know, weirdly enough I don't blame you? I'm still just kind of upset about it in my head. This though, this is helping." He glanced around the bunker, then between Sam and Dean. "I mean, you guys have a stationary place to live, I can go back to school, and there's not an imminent threat on my life specifically, so I'm okay. Or, I will be. Probably."

Sam patted Adam on the back and smiled. "Spoken like a Winchester," he said with a chuckle. "Well, Winchester-Milligan."

"I can live with that," Adam commented, smirking slightly.

From the corner, Dean spoke up. "You know, Sam, since we pretty much use this as our home base anyway, you could go back to school too. You know, take some classes to keep your noggin sharp or whatever."

Sam raised an eyebrow at him. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, why not? You've always loved that school crap." Dean shrugged, trying to look nonchalant.

Sam made a thoughtful noise. "Maybe. I don't think I really need to right now, but I appreciate it. Who knows? Maybe one of these days you and I will take a pottery class or something."

Dean relaxed and shot him a bitchface of his own. "Yeah, not happening, Sammy."

Sam chuckled, turning back towards Adam, when something caught his eye. "Michael? Are you okay?"

The archangel was sitting ramrod straight, eyes glazed over and expression so severe he almost looked angry. He didn't give any sign that he had heard Sam speak.

Adam was out of his chair and standing in front of Michael before either Winchester could react. "Michael? Hey, Michael! Snap out of it!" He waved his hand in front of the archangel's face and shook him by the shoulder.

Sam was suddenly hit with a wave of panic and bolted from the room, headed down the hallway towards the kitchen to find Gabriel. "Gabe?" He yelled, hoping that their other archangel wasn't also catatonic.

"Sam, something is wrong with Gabriel," Castiel called from the kitchen. The two had volunteered to make dinner, although Castiel was really more Gabriel's supervisor to make sure everything was safe to eat.

Sam reached the doorway and paused, taking in Gabriel's still form, standing in the middle of the room like a pole, no sign of awareness. Just like Michael.

"He is not responding," Castiel said, softer now that Sam was in the room. "It seems as though he cannot hear me."

"Michael's the same," Sam informed him, moving to stand in front of Gabriel and snapping his fingers a few times. "What the hell makes two archangels catatonic?"

"SAM!" Dean hollered from the other room.

Sam and Castiel exchanged glances, then hurried from the room, looking back over their shoulders with concern at Gabriel, who still wasn't moving. Reaching the library again, they both slowed to a stop in front of Dean.

"Check it out." Dean flipped the laptop he'd opened up around so they could see the screen. "It's not just here."

Some part of Sam's brain wanted to tease Dean for being on Twitter, but he tuned it out to focus on the more important topic. People were tweeting pictures of what was being hashtagged "#frozenpeople". Picture after picture of people, no, angels, frozen in various awkward moments, just like Michael and Gabriel.

"Gabriel's frozen too?" Dean asked, already seeming to know the answer.

"Yes," Castiel acknowledged. "Apparently, so are all the other angels. I do not know what is causing this, which is remarkably disconcerting." He glanced towards Michael, concern on his face. "They do not seem to be in pain, at any rate."

As if on cue, Michael snapped back to life with a gigantic inhalation of breath and his eyes blinking once before practically shining with light.

Everyone in the room shielded their eyes against the late, although it was not the same kind of shining light that had in the past threatened blindness. This was similar, but not as strong. Regardless, it was too bright to really look at for any length of time.

After a moment, Castiel glanced up to see Michael staring vacantly, an expression of wonder on his face.

"What is it?" Castiel demanded eagerly.

"Heaven," Michael breathed. "Heaven has been opened!"

Gabriel appeared in the middle of the room with no warning, crowing his pleasure. "Not just that, big bro! I'm completely restored! Full power!" He snapped his fingers and immediately was holding an ice cream cone. After a moment's thought, he snapped again and suddenly Sam held one as well.

Sam grinned at the archangel's antics, not able to bring himself to be irritated. "Opening Heaven fully restored your grace?" He asked.

Gabriel and Michael both paused. "No," Michael replied. "It doesn't work that way. This...this must have been our Father. Reversing our fall, so to speak."

Castiel didn't say anything, but Dean was good at reading him and wrapped a comforting arm around the former angel's waist. Castiel laid a hand on Dean's shoulder in a gesture of thanks.

"Dammit," Sam blurted suddenly, eyes wide. "Lucifer."

Dean moaned. "Dude, one problem at a time. Can we have a victory for five freaking minutes?"

"Gabriel, we need to be there," Michael urged. "There will be chaos, and we need to know what has occurred."

Gabriel sighed and nodded, running a hand through his gold hair idly. "Yeah, I figured. You know I won't stick around, right?"

"I'm not asking you to be in charge, brother," Michael said wryly. "Just to help me with the crowd control. Now that I've had my purpose reevaluated, I'd like to believe I can lead well this time. That is, if our Father is not planning to say. Hence my desire to find out what is going on."

"How often will you come back?" Adam asked, his first comment since the conversation began. His voice was quiet, resigned.

"Whenever I can manage it," Michael said firmly. "There are things on Earth I would find myself missing if I left them too long." It was abundantly clear that he meant whatever definition his relationship with Adam fit, and the youth apparently realized that as well.

"Good," Adam nodded. "After sharing my head with you for so long, it would be weird to not ever see you."

Castiel moved away from Dean to grip Gabriel's arm urgently. "Brother, if you do see Father, please tell him I am sorry for my part in Metatron's treason."

Gabriel's entire expression softened to compassion and he shook his head. "Castiel, that was not your fault. Only the ignorant of our siblings blame you."

"Even so. Please." Castiel gazed at his brother, eyes wide, until the archangel nodded. "Thank you."

"Are you ready?" Michael asked, glancing at Gabriel.

"As I'll ever be," Gabriel sighed. "To infinity and beyond."

As the two archangels disappeared, those left in the library laughed out loud at the confusion on Michael's face, made more humorous when they all realized Castiel's expression was identical.

"I'm enforcing a Disney date night on you two," Sam announced with a chuckle.

Dean made a face at his brother and pulled Castiel back into the crook of his arm. "Just the first one," he cautioned. "The other two are too...I dunno..."

"The word you're looking for is emotional, Dean," Sam commented wryly. "When did you even see two and three?"

Dean just stuck his tongue out at Sam, not feeling like bringing light back onto the time after Sam had jumped into a gaping hole in the Earth and Dean had had a kid to watch movies like that with for a few months. "You'll never know," he taunted instead.

Rolling his eyes, Dean tightened his grip on Castiel and turned to the former angel. "I vote you and I go finish dinner, since I'm totally starving."

Castiel smiled with amusement and nodded. "That seems like an adequate plan."

"As long as you actually mean make dinner, and not make out," Sam added as they left the room, earning a middle finger from Dean and a snort of laughter from Adam.

The group of hunters were watching Metatron warily, unsure what was meant to happen next.

"My goal was not wrong," Metatron announced suddenly, eyes flashing. "I shouldn't have to have all my work disrupted because my absentee father doesn't like it."

Before any of the hunters could respond, the voice interrupted again. "Metatron, you can repent, or I will imprison you. Either way, you will see the error of your ways."

Metatron seemed to be considering that for a moment, before shaking his head. "I don't think it'll work out that way."

"Prison, then," the voice said sadly. "I will not give up, Metatron."

That seemed to give Metatron pause, and he actually sounded apologetic when he responded, "I wouldn't ask you to." Without further comment, he was suddenly gone.

Ellen inched closer to Ash and whispered, "Heaven has a prison?"

"Not that I've found," Ash whispered back, sounding puzzled.

"As impressive as I find your work, Heaven's prison is going to remain outside your ability to find," the voice informed them. "Metatron will not harm anyone, human or angel, and will hopefully find time in his cell to reevaluate his choices. I will be ready when he does."

Ash preened a little at the compliment, and accepted the restriction. "Sounds good to me, Boss Man."

The voice sounded amused as it replied, "You may all return to the Roadhouse at this time. I will very soon be needing to deal with the return of the Host, and it would be best for you to be in your Heaven at that time."

"Duly noted," Bobby spoke up, starting to usher everyone away from the lever. "We're out. Thanks for your help, uh, God."

"You are welcome, Robert Singer. As I said, I appreciate your loyalty to your own family and mine." The voice sounded respectful.

"Thanks," Bobby offered again, not really sure what else to do when God compliments you. To the hunters he continued to urge them forward. "C'mon, everyone, let's get back to the Roadhouse before something else happens."

As the human souls departed the garden, God watched over them and noticed as one by one His angels began reappearing in Heaven, all confused. Their din slowly rose as they tried to talk over each other, until He finally saw two of his archangels appear. As he watched, Gabriel quieted the crowd and allowed Michael to speak, controlling the confusion of His angels. Good, He had judged them correctly. It was time to speak to His archangels.