It took a total of fifteen minutes with explanations to fully educate the Archangel's on what had happened when Cas had died and another five to make Gabe stop wiggling his eyebrows and whistling any time he saw the run of hickeys on Cas or Dean's necks.

Lucifer, on the contrary, looked absolutely livid when God was brought up. "He vanished," Lucifer breathed. "He dumps me in the cage, hangs and around a bit then vanishes for millennia and He decides that now he can step in to help? He says I will redeem myself? What about Him? If anyone or anything needs to it would be Him, not me, not anyone else but Him."

"It is unfair," Gabriel said, gently setting a hand on Lucifer's back. "I know it is, but He is, well, God."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Father is superior, you know that. With Amara gone, he is the single most powerful being."

Lucifer nodded, trying to calm down. "Okay, okay. I know, I am grateful I can redeem myself."

Sam leaned forward, gathering his courage. "I think that the second you and Michael switched places you redeemed yourself. In fact," he swallowed, wary of saying this next part. "In fact I wonder if you ever needed to redeem yourself."

"What do you mean?" Lucifer asked.

Sam stumbled and Dean, sensing Sam's hesitance, filled in. "He means," Dean began. "He means that maybe nothing you did was completely evil. Killing the innocent was terrible, yes, killing your brothers and sisters was inexcusable but in the end, all you did was walk the path Chuck set out for you. He made you rebel, He gave you the Mark that changed you and corrupted you. Everything you did had something driving it, at first it was your love for Him, then it was hatred and desire for revenge. You did what God made you to do, you followed a walkway. There were no other options until Cas rebelled. I think then everything was out of God's control, when we decided that we are making up this story as we go along. Michael realized it and he took the opportunity to stop bowing to Humanity. That when you switched places."

Cas spoke up. "You didn't do anything you weren't supposed to other than switching. All the fatalities, the casualties, they are all blood on His hands, not yours."

"Thank you," Lucifer said, bowing his head. "Cas, brother, you weren't done with your story. Please continue."

When it had gotten through everybody's head that, yes, God had come back and granted Asmodei and Cas each a wish, and, yes, Dean and Cas were, in fact, together, Dean mentioned Jody.

"I mean," he said. "She thinks we're dead, doesn't she? You told her after Amara killed me that Cas and I were both dead?"

Sam nodded, clenching his jaw, not wanting to think of those horrible days when he and been completely alone. "I did," he said slowly. "You want to go see her right now?"

"Why not?" Dean exclaimed.

Sam cast an awkward glance at Dean's 'decorated' jugular.

"Oh. Right." Dean nodded and turned to the Angels. "You think you could...you know?"

"Make them go away?" Gabriel asked, smirking. "Why would I want to do that? It's a good look on you Dean."

"Shut up."

"For someone who just banged my baby brother you should be more polite. I ought to smite you for it." Gabriel leaned back, clearly enjoying himself.

Dean shot him a glare. "Shut up Gabriel."

"So Dean, whose toping?" Lucifer asked, joining in, a half smile on his face.

"Shut up," Dean said, turning maroon.

"It's Cas, isn't it?" Gabe said. Cas flushed a slightly alarming shade of pink. "Yup, it is."

Sam looked away, suppressing a smile. "If it means anything, I don't exactly want to think about that," he stated, not looking at Dean. "By the way, got fifty bucks from Crowley."

"Woah," Dean said, staring at Sam. "You were betting on us?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Sam said, shrugging. "Got us fifty dollars for it."

Dean threw up his hands. "I can't believe it," he muttered. "Can you believe them?" he asked, turning to Cas.

"Seeing as how similar our brothers are in many different aspects I think it is safe to assume they would have at least discussed us, I am not surprised Sam bet on us."

"I hate you," Dean muttered to Sam.

"Yeah sure you do," Sam responded. "Hey Gabe, you think you could do my hangover while your at it fixing up them?"

"Fine," Gabe said, rolling his eyes. "Lucifer, you can do those two." He gestured at Cas and Dean.

Jody was sitting around the table. She hadn't received any calls from Sam other than a voice mail not to come to the Bunker, and she was worried as Hell about him. These last days had been horrible for her and her girls. Claire was in her room most of the time, came down to pick at food and go walking about. Alex tried to talk to her but had a door slammed in her face every time she tried and had since retreated to her room too. Jody had taken her sick days.

She drummed her fingers on the porcelain mug filled with coffee and sighed. She ought to give Sam a call, that's what Dean had wanted. She took the note from her pocket and stared at it, at the instructions Dean had left, his last message to her. Jody picked her phone up and turned it on, tapping on Sam's name and hesitanted only a second before she hit 'call'.

It ring once, twice, three times before someone picked up. "Jody," Sam answered. He sounded tired but alright and Jody felt relief hit her like a truck.

"Hey Sam," she said. "How are you?"

"I'm good," he answered. "Don't worry. Um...can I drop by? Like in five minutes?"

"Oh sure!" she said, surprised. "Right, okay. See you then."

"Okay, thanks Jody. Tell the girls we're coming by." He hung up.

Jody stared at the screen in shock. Sam had sounded tired but perfectly fine, almost happy! And he had said "we're" not "I" and Jody wasn't entirely sure what that meant but she didn't dare let herself delude herself into thinking Dean and Cas could possibly be alive.

"Hey Claire, Alex", she called. "Sam's coming over!"

Two pairs of feet were pounding across the floor as the girls ran downstairs. "Sam?" Claire asked. "He's alright?"

"He sounded fine," Jody said with a shrug.

"When will he be here?" Alex wondered.

"Five minutes."

"How will he get here in five minutes?" Claire burst out. "He's, like, a hundred miles away!"

"Does it matter?" Alex said. "He's alright! Oh thank God, I was worried! He didn't say how he was coping?"

"Didn't say much," Jody recounted. "Just said he was good and was coming over."

"That's not bad, right?" Claire asked. "I mean, he's alive, he's functioning, he says he's good."

"I don't know," Jody said with a sigh. "Get dressed, brush your hair, both of you. They should be here soon."

"Kay," Alex said, turning to climb the stairs again. Claire followed her.

"You ready?" asked Gabriel. "She's gonna be freaked about you two being alive."

"I know," Dean said. "My main concern is Lucifer."

Lucifer grimaced. "Yeah, I can stay here if it's better. Seeing as I was a larger part of both of your deaths I don't think I would be too welcome."

"No," Gabriel said sternly. "You're coming with and that's that. Besides," he added. "She probably won't like me much either seeing as I blew out all her windows last time."

"Last time?" Lucifer asked, puzzled.

"Long story," Gabe replied, shrugging. "We might want to get a move on."

Cas turned to Dean. "When you last saw Claire, how was she?" he asked him.

Dean shrugged. "She was fine, I mean, now she's probably less fine but... Hey Sammy, how did Claire react when we died?"

Sam tensed, blocking unbidden images of Dean's sightless eyes and Cas's limp figure soaked in blood. "She was..." He paused, searching for the right word. "She was a mess but kinda in shock, I guess. Jody's taking good care of her."

"Okay," Cas said. "Thank you Sam."

"Welcome." Sam clapped his hands. "Let's get going."

Lucifer raised a hand to Dean forehead and from the corner of his eyes he saw Gabriel do the same to Sam. Then there was the calming sensation of flying before hitting solid ground.

Dean's knees almost buckled on impact but he steadied himself, immediately turning towards Sam. "You good?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Sam replied, rolling his eyes. "All it was was teleporting."

Cas appeared beside Dean. Almost instantly his knees gave way and he felt sideways. Dean grabbed him, worry rising in his stomach as he carried Cas over to a stone that acted as a chair.

"You alright?" Dean asked. "If you need to sit down or..."

"I'm alright," Cas told him shakily.

"You almost passed out and you're shaking!" Dean exclaimed, keeping his voice down so Jody didn't hear. "You are not alright,"

Cas leaned against him, resting for a moment. "All it was is my Grace being around nearly raw power, it reacted funny because Amara's poison is still inside of me, trying to latch on to other Grace."

"But are you alright?" Dean asked again. "Can you walk?"

"I think," Cas said softly. "I'm fine Dean, I promise."

Dean gently kissed Cas's forehead before helping him up and allowing him to lean on him. Glancing around at the others, he nodded. "Let's go," he said, helping Cas move forward until he was one hundred percent satisfied that Cas could function on on his own.

"Ready?" Sam asked as the five stood on the doorstep.

"Yeah," Dean answered and Sam raised a fist to knock.