Epilogue

Evermore

Let's see how well you remember this story, hmm?

Once upon a time, there was a boy and his little sister. They lived in a vast city with their mother after their father left and never returned. One day, the boy dreamed of a lonely archangel and agreed to let the archangel into his home, not consciously realizing at first that it hadn't been a dream at all.

The boy didn't mind the archangel staying with him, but he soon came to understand that his own family wouldn't be safe with the archangel nearby. And so, like his father, the boy chose to leave. Unlike the father, the boy came back… changed. It turned out that the boy was an archangel too – one that had led a life of adventures and died before a group of hunters helped restore him to who he used to be.

"But weren't they the ones who–?"

"Shh! It's my story."

It would have been happy ever after for the boy-turned-archangel and his friend-turned-brother. However, forces – not necessarily evil, mind you – were at work to make the once-lonely archangel's life a living hell. The forces had used the powers of the Fates to control the archangel and turn him into a puppet. The boy-turned-archangel was only able to stop these forces by cutting off the lonely archangel's wings, grounding him for eternity.

Life went on – slowly but surely. There were good days. There were bad days. But eventually the archangel-without-wings adjusted to his new circumstances with his friends and brother.

Then came another storm, one that had been looming on the horizon for longer than the archangels had speculated. The oldest of their brothers was on Earth, but this brother didn't remember them – for he was only human, his grace reappearing being the only indication to the other angels that the oldest brother wasn't in the Cage. The boy-turned-archangel and the archangel-without-wings searched and searched with their friends for answers, slowly piecing together the picture to understand.

"You mean the one that the nice angel lady–?"

"Yes, Kemuel. Moving on—"

"But—"

"No. More story."

"…"

But it turned out that they didn't have to do anything. They had been worried about what their oldest brother might do to them or the Earth, but the oldest archangel didn't care about that. No, he called to their archangel sister to clear things up, and when she came, she brought with her a book – a gift from their Father, or so the book proclaimed.

And that was the end of it. The archangels went their separate ways – save for the boy-turned-archangel and the once-lonely archangel, who returned to their human families with less answers than questions. Maybe one day they would all reunite again, but that day wouldn't be for a long, long time…

"Aren't you forgetting–?"

"I'm not done!"

Ah, but the book – the gift given to them by their Creator. All but the first page was left blank, and on that page was a message written for them and them alone, not that others couldn't read it. But what was it? For all that the archangels and their friends might guess, they would never truly know.

"… Okay, what? You got a better idea? It's… It's not a bomb or something, is it? I don't have to take it and chunk into another universe, do I?"

~o-O-o~

By the end, Lucilia was shaking her head, and Gabriel tilted his head in askance. She hummed thoughtfully for a moment and then reached over to grab her tablet with all of her digital sketches. She quickly found the drawing she was looking for and showed it to Gabriel with all the confidence of a proud kid showing off their latest creation.

"See?"

Ah, but Gabriel did see. He ran a hand through her hair as she leaned into his side. It was that simple, was it? It only had to be put through the all-knowing lens of a child's perspective.

The book was everything and nothing – untitled, plain, holding a multitude of empty pages. It didn't mean an end; it didn't mean a beginning. It just was – another part of the never-ending story.

Gabriel could see it now: the Light and the Darkness – perfectly in Balance – and the Protection the book – the Book – carried.

What was a book in his hands was also a universe according to Lucilia's depiction. The abstract collage was hard to take in all at once, but upon looking at it longer and longer, the little and finer details popped out in clear view. And it was all centered around the words:

For My Children, who grew up when I wasn't looking

It was an apology of sorts and an acknowledgement.

They may never get to hear the words themselves, but… well, you take what you can get.

Besides, Gabriel already had everything he needed.

~o-O-o~

In another universe, the world was ending. In fact, many worlds were. They were all being destroyed one after the other because of deficiencies seen only by their Creator. They were slowly and quickly disappearing left and right. The only ones that were left behind were the ones that Chuck dared not touch for the sole reason being that they were not His to touch.

So, in an underground bunker located in the middle of a country on a world that was protected from such destruction, a family continued on – oblivious to aforementioned devastation of other worlds. And it was within this bunker – an archive and storage facility, a home – that two hunters were bickering over the importance of the protection granted unto their world by a Chuck that was different (in a sense that He was His own alternate version of Himself) from the one destroying His own Creations. Not that they realized that was what they were squabbling about, precisely. It was a conversation that went like so:

"They said it was empty. It isn't empty."

"They said it was blank— there's a difference. And that was then. This looks like some sort of prologue or an introduction. What if it's filling in as time goes on?"

"Way to be a nerd, Sammy."

"You're just sore that Cas's spent more time with me going over the book."

"Will you quit with that shit?!"

"Nope."

"Hey–! Get back here! Just because you have a stable relationship with Eileen doesn't mean you get to—"

Casting a glance in the direction of the brothers' shouting, the sole angel currently within the Bunker looked over to Mary, who just sighed, dropping her head into her hands. Castiel pushed the fresh cup of coffee he'd just made towards her, and she lifted her head to curl her hands around it gratefully.

"They don't realize that voices can carry in the Bunker, do they."

"No, Castiel, I think they do, but they don't care. Family's like that."

"I expect with this latest turn of events that we'll have more people coming to the Bunker…"

"Just more family, Cas."

"Hmm."

"What? You don't agree?"

The angel shook his head. "More the thought that 'the Winchesters' would no longer be the proper grouping term."

Mary Winchester took a slow sip of the coffee, relishing the taste. "You're not wrong," she admitted. "Don't tell them that though. They might adopt the rest of them, if only to keep that grouping term."

"Like they did me, Gabriel and Lucifer?"

"Without even realizing it."

"… Family, then."

"Yup."

The End

…

Well…

…

Technically…

Several Years Later

All in all, life had been fine. It hadn't exactly been exceptionally good or exceptionally bad, but Lucifer wouldn't have said that it had been particularly average either. So… life had been just fine.

He didn't age, and so he had lived and watched the Winchesters gradually get older and older. Dean started complaining about his poor aching joints what felt like only yesterday but really was nearly five years ago. Sam and Eileen weren't married, but they sure acted like it sometimes. Mary's laugh lines had gotten deeper.

There were other humans in the Bunker, too, now. Lucifer knew their names and their faces, but he had made it a sort of petty point to only really know Sam, Dean, Mary and Eileen. Still, he was amiable enough with the new batch of hunters that the Winchesters were bringing in to the family. Not all of them were new new, but Lucifer personally thought that if they acted like ducklings or fangirls whenever one of the Winchesters walked into a room, then they were new.

Castiel and Gabriel came and went like the wind. With Raphael overseeing Heaven's affairs, Castiel deemed it necessary to 'check in' every once in a while on his old once-enemy, not that Raphael was doing anything besides making sure Heaven was still running these days. Gabriel on the other hand went everywhere from into town to outer space for any and every reason with or without Lucifer, usually coming back with some sort of souvenir.

Lucifer knew that Gabriel always – always – visited Lucilia on the first of every month and then again for special dates, like birthdays. Gabriel never said anything about Crowley or Rowena, and Lucifer hadn't personally heard about either of them, though he suspected that the Winchesters were given vague reports about the two from Gabriel.

Not that Lucifer minded.

No. He'd rather not think about them.

(His back still ached on cold, rainy days. There was always something missing no matter how many times he tried to reach out for it. The only way he knew it was even there was from the sole fact that Gabriel hadn't left him yet.)

Instead, Lucifer let his thoughts turn to Michael. He still didn't know how to feel about what happened yet – all these years later. Gabriel said that he saw them – Mick and Ketch – 'occasionally', though how often that meant was sorely debated by Sam and Dean, usually overruled by Mary turning them to a different topic. The one time they'd asked Lucifer if he'd seen Michael, he had answered no.

And that had been true at the time.

Ironically, or perhaps not, Michael had shown his face – singular in this case since it was only Mick Davies – not a day later when Lucifer was out taking a stroll along the forest path leading to the little garden that Gabriel had made and Mary was not-so-secretly fond of. It wasn't that Lucifer hadn't been expecting the meeting to happen at some point. In fact, it was more that he'd been expecting Ketch rather than Mick, though maybe that was why Mick showed up instead.

They had both left the garden unscathed (physically, at any rate), and Lucifer had gotten some answers and a few more questions too.

Lucifer hadn't seen Michael since.

He didn't think he would mind seeing him again.

(Their bond wasn't the same as it used to be. It had been strained for far too long – nearly snapped in two when Mick died, even if he'd come back as Michael. But it was there. It was there, and Lucifer could almost feel the vague sensation of it pulsing gently alongside the one he had with Gabriel at the back of his mind.)

Which lead him back to the book – or the Book, in some contexts.

For some reason, it made him think about Gabriel Bennett of all people.

Lucifer hadn't actually thought about the boy in ages. He was always just Gabriel nowadays. It wasn't like the boy wasn't part of the archangel. His personality still bled through more often than not, though it wasn't as dangerous as it used to be. It was more natural now, a wave cresting on the beach before flowing back into the ocean.

Lucifer couldn't say that he didn't miss the boy. He did, as much as the feeling was soothed over by Gabriel. But when Gabriel was off getting souvenirs for Lucilia and everyone, when Lucifer was left alone to introspect for longer stretches of time than was probably healthy for a grounded archangel, he let himself admit that the boy had left his mark on Lucifer's soul.

Lucifer missed Gabriel Bennett.

But he didn't need to see the boy again to know he would always be there.

(Castiel had asked – over two-in-the-morning coffee when everyone else was either asleep or out – what kind of love Lucifer had felt for the boy. The question hadn't quite come out of nowhere. The angel had been on a case with Sam and Dean – a simple one, if somewhat emotional. Lucifer didn't even bother avoiding the answer. He'd talked about this to Gabriel and Mary over the years.)

(The answer being: at first, it had been the kind of love he shared with Gabriel, the kind shared between brothers and family, the kind now held for the Winchesters. But if Lucifer and boy had never come across the Winchesters in Tennessee, if they had wandered and kept wandering together, it could have become more. If the boy had stayed just the boy but not a kid and not an archangel, then Lucifer would have been more than happy to spend the rest of eternity with him.)

(If Gabriel Bennett had just asked, Lucifer would have given him the universe.)

But those had been ifs, and Lucifer was just fine with how everything turned out. He was okay without his wings. He was content here in the Bunker with Gabriel and the Winchesters.

So what if Lucifer had mellowed out over the years? There was nothing left to rain on their parade. Life went on with its ups and its downs. One day Lucifer would walk the halls of the Bunker and the Winchesters – his Winchesters – wouldn't be there, but that was okay.

Because they would end up in Heaven, where Raphael would take care of them. Besides, it wasn't like Lucifer couldn't get into Heaven if he wanted to. In a case of last resort, he could just bug Raphael until she let him in to visit. Meanwhile, Castiel and Gabriel would still be on Earth with him, and Michael was somewhere out there doing… whatever they were doing.

So… yeah. Life was just fine.

The End
(for real this time)

A/N: Anyways, that's it folks. It was a long time coming, but burn out hit me hard. Still, I think it turned out pretty good. Maybe I'll post something else on eventually. Who knows…

I will eventually come back to this and change all of the 'Cas' to 'Cass' like I did with Light of Dawn, but that'll be whenever I get the motivation to do so. At that point, I might even edit a few more things to make the story flow a little better, especially some of that beginning stuff. That part depends on how much I hate what I originally wrote. Eh. (What I really need to do is stop messing around and finally finish copying my stuff over to Ao3, but I'm a procrastinator, if you couldn't tell.)

Stay safe out there :)