Chapter 38

Laters

Dean heard Sam come back from the store, drop off a bag in his bedroom, then head down the main hall to the Study.

He straightened up his room before slipping on jeans and a fresh shirt. He was buttoning it up when he got a call from Castiel.

The phone buzzed n his bed and Dean's heart jumped.

I need to stop being so ridiculously happy to hear from him, he thought.

He couldn't help it though. He answered on the first ring.

"Hi," Dean mumbled, already feeling color rise to his cheeks.

"Hello Dean," Cas said warmly. "I'm sorry I missed your calls before, something's happened with the Angels. How are things on your end?"

At least he's okay. "There was a problem with Cassie. She could use some of your mojo."

"Regrettably, I don't have any energy left for healing injuries. What happened?"

Dean walked out of his room still on the phone and headed down the main hallway. "We found the First Blade, and we had a run-in with one of the old members. She took a shot to her leg but we patched her up. She's good now."

Cas' tone changed. "You took her with you?!"

"No! We left her at the Bunker, she came on her own. It turned out to be a good thing, too. Her resourcefulness is what saved us."

Cas sighed. "She always was the one to jump into action without thinking. That was how she was killed in battle. She flew in front of Michael to shield him from an arrow and it took her instead."

It was a difficult concept for Dean to wrap his head around. A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, Cassie was a hardcore soldier, and not some prudish, virgin girl from Maine who jammed out to ACDC and couldn't even remember her own name before she'd had coffee. "You were there?" Dean asked.

"Yes. She and I were part of the Battalion assigned to fight a Demon Army ascending from the Fifth Ring. I was supposed to protect her, but I failed. You two are doing a better job."

"I wouldn't say that. She did get seriously injured," he countered.

"I'm afraid to take her with me, to be honest. I failed her once. How do I know I won't again?"

"You can't think that way. She's your baby sister, Cas. She needs you. And even if she didn't it's your job to be there for her, like I'm there for Sam."

Cas didn't say anything, but Dean could hear his smile through the phone. "How are you, Dean?"

Dean bit his lip, holding back a smile himself. "I'm fine, Angel. How about you?"

Cas sighed. "I miss my wings. Life on the road…smells."

Dean laughed. Yeah, ain't that the truth. He popped open a beer for himself and sat down at the table. Sam was already there, researching on the computer.

"Is that Cas?" Sam asked, not taking his eyes away from the screen.

Dean blushed. "Um, yeah. Somethin' happened with the Angels."

"Put me on speaker," Cas said, suddenly back to being his non-nonsense self.

Dean pressed the speaker button and then placed it down on the table.

"I heard this angel siren that was calling to me. It sounded like Heaven, but it turns out Gadreel is using it to horde together Angels and then trap them in an attempt to force them to join Metatron. If they agree to join him, then Metatron will allow grant them clemency to Heaven."

Sam stiffened at the mention of his name. "Gadreel is working for Metatron?! For how long?"

"I don't know," Cas replied.

Dean had a sudden realization. "So does that mean that Metatron made Gadreel kill Kevin?" His core burned with bitterness.

"If that is the case, it would explain a lot. And, there have been no new prophets, which Metatron could've fixed to his advantage."

Cassie slowly mad her way down the hall towards the main room, catching the end of their conversation as she made her way in.

"And Gadreel said that angels are returning to Heaven? How? I thought that the spell was irreversible," Dean questioned.

"Well, that's what Crowley said. Look, let's just…" he sighed with anxiety, "Find Gadreel an-an-and beat some answers out of him." Sam was ready to clobber Gadreel until he was nothing but a pile of feathers and a halo afterwards.

Cassie looked to Sam with sadness, seeing how tense he was. And then she remembered.

Gadreel is the angel who possessed Sam.

She recalled a verse from the King James Bible that mentioned him. He was the Angel who was responsible for letting Lucifer into the Garden of Eden due to his negligence.

"Here's something to start with that," Cas said. "Hold on, I'm uh…sending you a photo of the symbol that drew all the angels in. "

"Kay," Sam said watching his phone. It pinged as he received the image. "Got it."

"It's acting as some kind of Angle siren. I think it's a spell. The ingredients used to create it were very odd. Griffin feathers, bones of a fairy, I've never seen it before."

"Yeah, me neither," Sam mumbled, looking down at the photo and briefly showing it to Dean. "Alright, let me see what I can find."

There was a moment of silence as Sam tapped away at the keys on his laptop, until he found something. "I got a match. It's not from the lore – It's from police records. Looks like that symbol you found was spotted at a handful of crime scenes over the last couple of days. All multiple homicides."

Cassie slid herself into a chair at the table facing the two boys, a mug of coffee in her hands. "Where were the crime scenes?" She asked, causing them both to look up.

Sam blushed, moving the laptop so Cassie wouldn't see the grotesque images of the photographs.

"Hello, Cassandra," Cas said warmly. "I'm glad to hear that you are recovering from your wounds."

"Thanks," she said, taking a sip form her coffee. Hearing his gravelly voice gave her a pang in her heart of longing. "I miss you."

There was a pause on the line. "I miss you too, sister."

Sam quickly looked up the locations. "Uh…Utah. Baker, Hill Valley…"

"And I'm in Bishop's Falls, Utah," Cas replied.

"Also, it looks like most of the crime scenes were in Industrial areas," Sam added.

Cassie looked between Sam and Dean curiously.

Watching them work a case in person as opposed to hearing about it was certainly something to watch. She could practically see the gears in their heads turning. All three of them were connected and working towards the common goal of acquiring information. Sam the researcher, Cas providing clues and Dean piecing together past events, finding the connections.

"It looks like Gadreel is heading North," Cas pointed out.

Dean looked down at the phone as if talking to Cas. "What's the next big town?" he asked.

"There are two. It could be Auburn or Ogden."

Dean instantaneously reached a decision. "Alright, you take Auburn, we'll take Ogden – meet in the middle. See you there."

"Good bye Dean. Get here safe." The pone pinged with the sound of an ended call.

Dean felt color rise to his cheeks. Dammit, Cas.

Sam and Cassie looked at each other, then back at Dean's red face, then back at each other again and broke out into wide smiles, simultaneously exclaiming, "Aaawwww."

"Shut up," Dean said, getting up from the table and walking off as if to push away their unspoken accusations.

Cassie broke out into fits of giggles.

"Not to change the subject," Dean pointedly glared at them both, indicating that that's exactly what he was doing, "But didn't we work a case in Ogden?"

Sam's face lit up with sudden clarity. "Yeah! I-it w-was a witch situation, right?"

"Yeah. There was that kid in town who helped us, wasn't there?"

'Yes. We should call him, see if he's still in business."

"Yeah. What was his name...?"

"Ian," Sam recalled.

Dean nodded, taking his phone and scrolling through his contacts to find the right number.

Cassie finished the last of her coffee. "Okay. When are we heading out?"

Sam looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Cassie…"

"DO NOT tell me to stay behind. We saw how that turned out last time," she pointed out, motioning to her leg.

Sam chewed his lip. "That's exactly the point. We're going to be hunting down Gadreel, it's going to be dangerous. Even more dangerous than Magnus was. He was just some human who was very knowledgeable about spells, but Gadreel is – "

"What? An Angel?" She didn't say anything after that, shooting him a look.

She got me there. Sam sighed, putting his face in his hands.

"We want information, right? Maybe I can talk to him. Maybe he remembers me!"

"That wouldn't be a good thing. He'll report to Metatron that you're alive, and you'll get more caught up in this huge mess than you already are."

Cassie took a breath, then looked back up at Sam. "My brother is in this fight. More directly than I am. I don't remember, but it used to be that he and I were alongside each other no matter what. This is my fight too. It's who I am. Remember?"

Sam gazed at her, wounded, tired, and weak but her eyes still full of raw determination and strength. "You're right about that, but you need to recover first. Dean and I take a break when we're injured until we're better and can get back out on the field."

But if I'm left here by myself, what happens if Sarah decides to attack me again? She bit her lip, looking down at the ground.

And suddenly Sam understood. He'd seen that same look on his face back when he was working with Dean on cases while his mind had been fractured from all the time he'd spent in Hell.

It's harder to ignore the person in your head when you're by yourself.

"You're afraid to be by yourself, right? That's what this is about? You're afraid something will happen like before?" he was careful not to mention Sarah's name.

She didn't look at him, her arms crossed over herself defensively, but she nodded.

Sam resigned. "Okay. Then you can come with us. But you know the drill, right? Do exactly what we say, when we say it – "

" – How you say it," she finished, looking up at him and smiling.

Sam smiled back. "Then pack your stuff. We're heading out as soon as we're ready."

Dean didn't question Cassandra coming. He wasn't comfortable with leaving her on her own anyway, given the circumstances.

It was pretty much a straight shot to Ogden if they took I-80, and a twelve hour drive if they didn't stop. They only took an exit for Gas and by the time they'd made it to Ogden, it was around one in the morning and Cassie was fast asleep in the back seat.

Sam and Dean were careful not to wake her as they got out of the car. Sam took their spare coats and covered her with them to keep her warm and hidden in case anyone walked by the Impala. They armed themselves with guns and flashlight, hurrying to the awning of Ian's shop to get out of the pouring rain.

"You think she'll be okay?" Sam asked, turning back to look at the Impala.

Dean nodded. "The car's warded, she'll be fine. Let's go."

Dean pick-pocketed the door of the shop while Sam kept watch, and they both made it in, flashlights on and at the ready.

Cassie was dead asleep but then heard the slightly muted sound of a phone vibrating. It jolted her awake and she felt around for where the noise had come from, half conscious. It eventually led her to climb over the front seat and shuffle around in the glove box. She picked it up as a man was leaving a message.

"Remember me? The guy who died for your sins? Nooo, not the cat with the beard and the sandals – "

" – Hello?" she asked weakly, her voice hoarse from sleeping. She cleared her throat.

There was a silence. "Wait a minute, you sound like a chick."

"Cassie groaned stretching. "I AM a chick. Who is this? Dean'll be back soon."

"The name's Gabriel. Whoever you are, just tell him that his boy toy and I are rolling our way towards their top-secret domicile."

"Castiel?" she asked. "Wait…Gabriel? Like the Horn of Gabriel-Gabriel?"

He chuckled. "Oh yeah, I'm that one. So you've heard of me."

Cassie smiled. "Ask my brother, he could probably tell you better than me," she said warmly.

There was a pause on the line. "Wait a minute…Cassandra?" suddenly his tone had changed drastically. He wasn't joking around anymore.

She didn't answer at first. "Were you and I close? I don't remember much from before," her voice was soft and tired.

It completely disarmed the person on the other line. "Y-yeah. The best of friends. Look, um…we gotta stop for Gas. I'll hit you up later, 'kay Princess?"

Cassie scowled. "Don't call me that," she immediately replied.

"Holy shit it is you."

Cassie grinned. "I wasn't one for that nickname back then, either?"

Gabriel sounded choked up when he said his next sentence. "Never. You claimed the head of anyone who dared to call you that."

The thought made her smile. Some things don't change, I guess. "I'll let you two go. Tell my brother I love him and to be safe."

Gabriel cleared his throat. "I will. Laters, Babe." He hung up.