Author's Note:

I didn't want to leave you guys hanging too long, so here's the next installment!

Thanks to Emelia124 for the review on chapter 37!

Chapter 38 - Unless You Show Me How

Gabriel kept himself invisible when he arrived in Heaven, preferring to attempt some stealth in his investigation. The office area where Hannah normally worked was abandoned, and the door to Castiel's office was open. Gabriel peaked inside to find papers everywhere. He entered the room and took a quick inventory. It wasn't his office, so he couldn't be sure, but he didn't think anything was missing. It looked like a hunt for information.

Faint voices caught Gabriel's ear, and he turned to leave the office, moving towards the source. He passed numerous offices he'd never bothered to discover the function of, though his understanding was that the office layout was leftover from previous management of Heaven, so Castiel might change it eventually anyway. He turned a corner and found himself in front of what appeared to be an assembly room. He slid through the door as quietly as possible, trying to remain unnoticed. Had he been a lesser angel, that task may have been impossible, but being an archangel did have some perks. Gabriel had the power to be discrete, just not the personality.

"Even as we speak, the usurper is trapped, unable to fulfill his nefarious scheme to dethrone our beloved leader!"

Gabriel's head whipped towards the stage, eyes going wide as he took in Hannah at the front of the room. She was pacing back and forth in front of a multitude of angels, easily over a hundred in a space this large. Her voice bellowed loud enough to be heard in every corner, and Gabriel couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"His supplies for this crime have been disposed of, and we have agents on the ground hunting for our missing leader at this moment." Hannah's face was more determined and focused than Gabriel had ever seen it. "We will find him, never fear!"

Gabriel had to pause and think for a moment. If he understood correctly, then Hannah was mounting a movement against him because she thought he was trying to overthrow Castiel. He almost laughed out loud, but remembered just in time that he was still invisible.

"Once we have recovered our leader, we will move into the second phase," Hannah announced.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. There was a second phase? This ought to be good.

"Gabriel," Hannah sneered as she said his name, "will need to be disposed of. Once Castiel," the younger angel's name she said with reverence, "is back in place, he will lead us in defeat of his foe."

He most definitely wouldn't, but Gabriel didn't think Hannah would believe him at this point.

"A second contingent of angels will target and dispose of the only remaining weakness left to threaten Castiel," Hannah said firmly. "With both Gabriel and the Winchesters destroyed, Heaven will rise back to its former glory with out leader at the head!"

Gabriel spent a split second being amused that her tone for referring to Sam and Dean was more hateful than her tone in reference to him, then the implication of her words caught up with him. Dammit. So angels were hunting for Castiel, intending to bring him back to Heaven, then the plan was to kill both him and the Winchesters. Suddenly the concept of investigating his saboteur and reopening Heaven seemed like a much smaller issue. The saboteur part was clearly Hannah's initiative, though he had no idea what she thought he'd been planning to do when he was preparing for the ritual. He'd told her he was reopening Heaven, but evidently she didn't believe him.

Rather than stay and try and come up with a plan, Gabriel vanished, reappearing in the bunker directly in front of Sam, who startled violently and nearly fell out of the chair he was perched in, studying some ancient tome.

"Geez, Gabe!" Sam blurted, steadying himself and breathing hard. "I thought you had some great investigation to conduct. Why are you back already?"

Gabriel started pacing, his hands gesticulating wildly as he spoke. "Yeah, that turned out to be a hell of a lot easier than I expected. I showed up and Hannah was leading some big meeting of the rebellion. They think I took over Cas' place and want to run Heaven myself." When Sam raised an eyebrow, Gabriel laughed out loud. "No, wait, it gets better. They've sent angels to earth looking for Cas, to find out what I did to him apparently, then once they've got him back they plan to kill me, then kill you and Dean. That way they figure Castiel will have no more 'weaknesses' to prevent his rule of Heaven." Gabriel made mocking air quotes around the word 'weaknesses,' scowling at the very thought. "We have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. First things first, I need to wake Cas up."

"You think he'll be all right?" Sam asked, getting to his feet and motioning for Gabriel to follow him down the hall.

"He should be fine," Gabriel dismissed. "The grace I've been incubating for him is nearly complete, and as long as I'm nearby to help juice him up for a day or two he'll be good to go. Once I get him into Heaven, this whole thing with Hannah should be over with. Once that's done, then we can all go after Dean. I'd rather make sure we only have to worry about Hell and not Heaven as well before we try and get him."

Sam nodded his agreement, opening the door to Dean's room and walking to Castiel's side. "What about opening Heaven? Where does that fit in?"

Gabriel huffed. "Hell if I know. I need to get the rest of the ingredients again. When can you be ready to go after Dean?"

"I'm ready when you are," Sam replied immediately. "I found a masking spell that may prevent Dean from sensing any angelic presence, so that might mean you guys could actually stay with me, instead of hiding nearby."

"Fantastic!" Gabriel grinned. "Every little bit helps, right, Samsquatch? Let's give it a day to make sure Cas is solid. Maybe Heaven will get opened in that time, maybe not. We'll see. This whole thing got a lot more complicated in the last fifteen minutes, which is incredibly irritating." He made a face of distaste.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Right, because everything was so simple before."

"Point," Gabriel allowed. He stepped forward beside Sam and leaned in closer to Castiel. "All right, fingers crossed." Closing his eyes, Gabriel spoke swiftly under his breath in Enochian, and a beautiful blue light flowed out of his mouth alongside the words, gathering into a pool of what seemed almost like liquid stardust in the archangel's hands. Speaking again in Enochian, Gabriel pushed his hands outwards towards Castiel, and the grace flowed outwards and into the unconscious angel's mouth, entering him alongside a huge inhale of air.

Sam recognized the words as a sort of blessing and a prayer, and smiled at the clear care and devotion the words evoked. He found himself holding his breath even as Castiel breathed in, hoping that the angel would wake up.

Castiel exhaled slowly, didn't move for a brief moment, then inhaled sharply and sat up, his eyes popping open and his head swiveling to take in those around him. "What happened?" He asked breathlessly.

"You collapsed," Sam told him, reaching forward to steady the angel. "Hey, it's okay, you're all good now."

Castiel's eyes shifted downwards for a moment, as though thinking, then his gaze flew upward to meet his brother's eyes. "My grace?" He asked, awe in his tone.

"Do I deliver or do I deliver?" Gabriel asked with a grin. "It might be a little weak, but I'll patch you up with bits of mine if you need it, until yours is fully healed at least."

"How?" Castiel asked, his hand resting over his heart as though trying to feel the grace he'd been missing since his fall from Heaven.

"Well, you remember Claire," Gabriel pointed out. "I also went and found the leftover chunk Metatron had. With those two and my inherent power, it was just a waiting game."

Understanding flooded Castiel's eyes. Sam guessed that he had probably forgotten about Claire in all the confusion, but everything seemed to be coming back to him now.

"Thank you," Castiel said ferevently. "Both of you," he added, glancing at Sam. "I appreciate you caring for me, Sam."

It hadn't really required any effort, but Sam flushed lightly and nodded. "No problem, Cas. I'm glad you're okay now."

"Just in time, too," Gabriel commented. "Everything kind of went tits up while you were sleeping."

Castiel gave the archangel a bewildered look. That definitely hadn't been part of his pop culture download from Metatron. He opened his mouth to ask when Sam interrupted.

"He just means a lot is happening and most of it's bad," Sam clarified, shooting a mild glare at the amused archangel.

"What has happened?" Castiel asked, concerned.

Gabriel held up his fingers and ticked them off as he spoke. "So you know how Dean was missing? Yeah, turns out he was kidnapped by Crowley, brainwashed, and has now given in so fully to the Mark that he tried to kill Sam. Also, I was stopped from reopening Heaven - yes, I figured out how - because Hannah thinks I usurped your place and is trying to mount a revolution to find you and kill me. She also wants Sam and Dean dead because she thinks once your last weaknesses are eliminated that you'll focus entirely on Heaven and be their leader." He huffed and turned to Sam. "Did I forget anything?"

"I think that covers it," Sam said mildly.

Castiel opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again to ask, "Where exactly are we going to start? It seems we have many issues to take care of."

Sam replied first. "So far the plan is for you to go back to Heaven with Gabriel to figure out the Hannah issue. Once Heaven isn't actively hunting any of us, we'll go after Dean all together. At some point you guys need to reopen Heaven, obviously, but Gabriel needs to collect new supplies first, so we haven't decided when that's happening."

Castiel nodded slowly. "All right, I understand." His expression darkened. "Hannah is very misguided, though I do believe her heart to be in the right place. I agree that that is where we should start. Sam, do you have a plan for retrieving and saving your brother?"

Sam nodded. "Subdue him, get him here, remove the Mark using the ritual Lucifer gave me - which will hopefully calm Dean down, then cure him with the purifying ritual. I have the stuff to summon him, I just need help getting rid of Crowley and getting control of Dean. It was kind of a mess last time."

"I am glad you were not hurt," Castiel offered. Glancing to Gabriel, he started to rise, relaxing when he realized he could stand with no trouble. "I suggest we hurry, brother. There is much to be done."

"No kidding," Gabriel chuckled. "You feeling good?" He gave the younger angel a once over, relieved to find that everything seemed to be okay.

"Better than I have for awhile," Castiel admitted. "I will probably tire eventually, which is when I believe your grace will come in handy, but I would not expect that problem to last for long."

"Good," Gabriel grinned. He turned and gave a short little salute to Sam. "Get everything ready, Samsquatch. I'm not sure how long this will take, but we'll be back as soon as we can to go after Dean."

Sam smiled and nodded. "Thanks. Go kick ass, okay?"

Castiel nodded solemnly. "We will do our best."

Gabriel rolled his eyes and gripped Castiel's shoulder. A split second later, both angels vanished.

Sam sat down heavily on the bed, relaxing and letting out a relieved laugh. "That's one problem solved," he murmured to himself.