I feel like it's been so long since I posted something. The series finale of the show really took a lot out of me and I'm still bummed out about how it ended, so I think I just didn't have the motivation to engage with it. But I'm feeling a little better and want to keep writing! So here we are. :)

Thanks so much for all of your comments, messages, favorites, and follows. It means the world to me and keeps me going.

Disclaimer: In no way do I have any rights to Supernatural or any of the characters you are familiar with. I only own Amriel and any OCs that pop up along the way.

Chapter Fifty Four: Rifts

Amriel was floored when she stepped foot in the small cabin Cas had sent her directions to. On the outside, it appeared to be abandoned and unloved, but the interior was the complete opposite. It was lived in and warm, making Amriel wonder how long Cas and Kelly had been there.

Cas gave her a tour of the cabin, from the tiny kitchen to the nursery he had painted and built furniture in, and Amriel felt something that she thought was called envy, but wasn't quite sure if that's what she was feeling.

Kelly was resting in her room when Amriel entered, the angel's eyes immediately focused on the pregnant woman. She quickly tried to mask her distaste, and Kelly smiled up at the blonde serenely.

"You came," she said in a soft voice, patting the edge of the bed she was reclined in. "Please, sit."

Amriel obliged the woman, carefully sitting beside her while she noticed that Cas stood just inside the doorway, watching them both with a gentle look in his eyes. She didn't have time to think about it because Kelly began to speak.

"Cas here thought you'd ignore my prayer, like how you've been ignoring him," Kelly said teasingly, looking between the angels. "He's been driving himself crazy, worrying about you. I knew you'd come though. Your love for him is stronger than what happened between you two."

"Yeah, well, that's something Castiel and I will discuss later," the blonde answered, avoiding eye contact with her husband at all cost. "Why is it that you called me here?"

"It wasn't me, exactly… It was Jack," Kelly told her, and Amriel raised an eyebrow in response.

"Jack… As in, your unborn nephilim child?" She had noticed the name was in the process of being painted in the nursery. "Lucifer's son… is going to be named Jack."

"My son is going to be named Jack," Kelly clarified kindly. "But yes. He's been calling for you. You and Cas have been chosen, Amriel. I'm not- I won't survive giving birth, and so Jack has chosen the two of you to raise him."

"Wait, what?" Amriel blurted out, jumping up from the bed and glaring down at Kelly. "An unborn child has communicated to you that he wants us to raise him?"

The blonde quickly pivoted to look at Cas, hoping he would tell her this was all some joke, but judging by the serious look on his face, it wasn't.

"Elle, I've seen it. Jack… He showed me that he's good, that he wants us to be his parents, and that he knows we'll do right by him," Cas explained, hope and resolve clear on his face. "We can keep him safe from Lucifer."

"Can I talk to you outside?" Amriel asked, shooting him a pointed look that left no room for argument.

He quickly nodded, and the two angels stepped out of Kelly's room and made their way through the cabin and out the front door to the porch, where Amriel proceeded to question Cas about what was going on.

"Are you insane? Have you lost your mind? What are you talking about, the unborn nephilim showed you the future?" Amriel was exasperated, throwing her arms up as she spoke, unwilling to let Cas anywhere near her. "And he wants us to be his parents? Castiel, this is ridiculous."

"If you'd just let me show you, Elle.. Then you'd believe me," Cas answered earnestly, but she wasn't having any of it.

"I- I can't believe you've been here with her this entire time, reading books about childcare and building furniture… Being domestic!" she snapped, but then cut herself off so she wouldn't make things worse. She hated that it seemed like Cas was living this little family life with someone that wasn't her.

"You're the one that kept coming and going, Amriel. What was I supposed to do?" He asked sharply, and she was suddenly flooded with a feeling of desperation and loneliness that wasn't her own. When he spoke again, his voice was softer, "You left again, and I didn't know what to do."

"I didn't leave- we were both in and out of the bunker," she said, shoulders tense as she stared at his tie. "You were gone just as much as I was."

"Just because you were on hunts for Sam and Dean doesn't mean you weren't running away. We were supposed to try figuring things out together, instead of shutting one another out when we feel angry at each other," Cas answered while reaching out and taking her hand with his.

Amriel felt her grace thrumming with contentment at the contact, despite the many emotions she was feeling towards the dark haired angel before her.

"I- I'm not sure, but I can try."

"That's all I ask. Let me show you something," he told her confidently now, setting his palms on her cheeks and showing her exactly what Jack had shown him.

After Kelly went to bed that night, Amriel asked if they could speak outside again. She still had reservations, even after Cas had shown her everything he had seen.

They were the picture of both calm and chaos, Cas was seated on the steps of the porch as he watched Amriel pace back and forth in front of him. He could feel the concern and uncertainty radiating off of her in waves, and he was confused. Hadn't he explained things to her earlier?

"Elle, what is this about?" he finally asked, causing her to stop mid-step.

She turned to face him, setting her hands on her hips and shooting him a scowl.

"I don't know anything about parenting, or children, for that matter," she finally admitted, her harsh look faltering and unease taking over. "What if I'm worse of a parent than Lucifer would be?"

Fighting the urge to laugh, Castiel quickly wiped the smile off of his face as he held his right hand out, gesturing for her to take it. He watched as his wife stared at him for a few moments before finally giving in and resting her small hand in his, and he led her to sit beside him.

"Amriel, there is no way Lucifer would be a better parental figure than you. I've been reading dozens of parenting books and articles about babies and children on the Internet, and I still don't feel prepared," he admitted to her. "From my understanding, parents are never ready. They just have to take things as they come."

"I don't think I can do it without you," Amriel said with a small sigh before turning to face him. "Are we... okay? I don't want to go into this knowing that things aren't good between us."

Cas frowned a little and the blonde was instantly filled with dread. They weren't good. She started to panic, wondering if she had truly ruined things between them with her stupid need to up and leave every time she's faced with a problem.

"Elle…" he started, and she closed her eyes, covering her face with her hands and sighing.

"I know I screwed up," Amriel whispered through her fingertips. "I keep screwing up. How do I make things right?"

"I don't know," Cas answered honestly, and she peeked up to see his face pinched, tense as he stared out into the distance.

"What do you want me to do then?" she choked out, playing with the platinum band that sat on her finger with the worn, red twist tie. "I can't make it better if I don't know what you want."

"It's going to take time," he finally told her. "I don't know exactly what has to happen, but we need time, Elle. Let's get through Jack being born and keeping him safe from Lucifer, and go from there. We'll take it one day at a time. We have an eternity together, we'll be okay."

Amriel didn't answer, and the air between them was still for a few moments before Cas got up from the front steps.

"It's getting late. We should probably get to bed…" he said, staring down at the blonde expectantly.

"I'm going to stay out here for a little longer. I- I left my things in the car," she wasn't lying, but she wasn't exactly telling him that she didn't want to go back into the cabin. That she didn't want to be in the same house as the woman her husband had been spending all of his time with. "You go ahead."

Without another word, Cas went inside and closed the door behind him, leaving Amriel out on the porch alone.

She let out the sob she had been holding in, and felt tears start to run down her cheeks and onto her chin before she quickly wiped them away. This was her own fault, she told herself. She had no right to cry over something she had caused.

Amriel pushed herself up from the steps and wandered across the property towards the lake, hoping that if she spent some time watching the water she would calm down.

As she rounded the house, she expected to see the lake that she had spotted earlier when she arrived, but instead she noticed a thin, shimmering light hovering in the air. It almost looked like a rip in a seam, and Amriel approached it curiously, feeling the energy thrumming around it.

"What is this?" she mumbled to herself, reaching out to touch it, but thinking better of it and stuffing her hands into her pockets.

Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

Maybe she should text Sam about it… He'd probably like to know about some sort of weird rift right outside the cabin that Lucifer's unborn nephilim child was in. But then again, she hadn't heard from him in a while and that usually meant he was busy with his own issues.

Amriel heaved a sigh, knowing that what she was about to do was stupid, and Cas would probably be mad at her, but how much more could she ruin things between them?

Reaching out, she touched the rift, and with a flash of light Amriel was no longer on Earth as she knew it.

She opened her eyes to see that she was in a desolate, barren wasteland. This must've been an alternate universe, an Earth where things had gone terribly wrong.

Amriel didn't dare to venture far from the rift that was now behind her, instead choosing to stare out into the distance at the utter destruction that had wiped out the area, and from what she figured, the panet.

"What happened here?" she whispered, looking for any signs of life, only to find none.

Something grabbed her from behind and suddenly she was being pulled back through the rift. Amriel yelped as she toppled backwards and onto the person that had grabbed her. She quickly rolled away and pushed herself off of the ground, pulling her angel blade out in the process, only to find Castiel staring up at her.

"What was that place?" she demanded. "Why is there a portal to an alternate dimension right behind me?"

"Why did you go into it alone?" Cas asked as he hoisted himself up onto his feet. "What were you thinking?"

"I'm sure you've already been in it, so tell me, Castiel. What's going on with the desolate wasteland on the other side?"

"It's a version of Earth where Michael and Lucifer actually started the Apocalypse. It's what could've happened if Sam and Dean hadn't stopped it here," he explained, watching her tuck her blade back where it usually was. "Again, why did you touch it?"

"I was curious! And why wouldn't I? You obviously did it too, so you can't be mad at me for this," Amriel shot him a glare, furious that he was upset with her for something he had done himself.

"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you never go in there again," he told her firmly, leaving no room for argument.

"What caused it? Did the… Did Jack cause this?" Amriel asked, hoping to get some kind of answer from him.

"I believe so. As Kelly's due date has been approaching, the rift has grown," Cas nodded. "I don't know what's going to happen when he's born."

Amriel looked back over her shoulder in the direction of the glimmering portal and sighed, "I don't think I want to find out. I- I think it's best if I go to the bunker. I don't know if I'll be useful here."

"What? Elle, Kelly needs you here! I need you here. There's no way I could go through this without you," Cas blurted out. "The chances that Kelly survives giving birth are slim to none. It's for the best that you're here so we can carry out her wishes together."

She didn't want to argue anymore, so Amriel merely nodded at him and said, "Okay Cas. I'll stay. Why- why don't you go back inside and go to bed. I still have to get my stuff from the car, and I just want to be alone for a bit."

"You'll come to bed though, right?" Castiel asked, uncertain as to whether he should follow her suggestion or not. If he went inside and she disappeared, he didn't know what he'd do.

Amriel nodded again, promising him that she'd be there, and with that reassurance Cas went back into the house and closed the door behind him.

Not wanting to be close to the rift anymore, she made her way over to the car, grabbing her things from the back and setting them on top of the trunk. She hopped up to sit beside her bags as she sorted through her thoughts.

What was going to happen with the rift once Jack was born? If she could go into it, what or who could come out of the other dimension?

She didn't know how long she had been out there, but judging by how dark it was she figured it was late. Amriel wasn't tired, but she quietly made her way inside and found Cas asleep on the small couch in the living room, his tall frame cramped on the tiny furniture.

Amriel put her things down and sat on the floor beside the couch, content with watching him sleep for a little while. It was surprising how soft and gentle he looked in the moonlight that filtered in through the curtain-covered windows in the living room, and Amriel found herself awestruck by him yet again. Carefully, she reached out and let her fingertips ghost over the lines of his jaw and nose, before she carded them through his soft hair. A small smile graced Castiel's lips, and the blonde felt her heart stop for a moment before starting up again. She would always love Cas, no matter how annoyed they were with each other or how much they argued. Everything else was trivial compared to him, and Amriel wasn't about to let anything come between them.

After making a quiet promise in Enochian, Amriel stood from the floor and grabbed a blanket off of the back of the couch. She unfolded the blanket and gently laid it over Cas before making herself as comfortable as she could in the plush armchair in the corner of the living room and let herself doze off.