Chapter 17

Still Inspire Me

Gabriel shifted in place on the bed, fiddling with the calligraphy pen for another minute before Lucilia slapped him on the wrist and gave him a glare that said "put it back where you found it," which he did. He went into a sort of chagrined idle state for about five minutes until Lucilia's mother stopped in the door way, looking hurried and like she needed to leave an hour ago.

"I'm so sorry to just drag you in like this, Richard, but you and Lucy get along so well, and everyone else is out of town—"

Standing, Gabriel interrupted her off with his most charismatic smile. "No worries. I did say you could give me a call if you needed anything, and watching a great kid like Lucy here is a walk in the park."

"Convincing her to go to the park is another matter," the single mother muttered, half joking.

"Mom," Lucilia whined.

The older woman sighed, walking over and kissing the girl on the forehead, which Lucilia smiled at in return. "I'll see you later tonight— don't get into any trouble."

"That's Lillian's job," the girl mumbled, doodling an abstract swirl in the corner of her paper.

Her mother held back another sigh but didn't refute the comment. Turning to 'Richard', she addressed him. "Thanks, again. I know it's last minute, but you were the only person I trust who was in the area," she said.

"Like I said before, it's no problem," Gabriel tried to assure her.

She smiled at him and then left them alone in the house. Lucilia waited until she heard her mom's car drive away before letting out a snort of laughter. "You're so awkward around Mom. Is it as weird as I think it is?"

"Worse," Gabriel replied, sitting back down on the bed. "Especially when she gets the impression that I'm some adult version of her son, which is true in a way, but I have to make sure she doesn't like me like that."

Lucilia made a face, her nose scrunching up. "Gross."

"Yup."

Silence filled the house as Lucilia let the conversation drop, more concerned with the sketch she was working on. It was a commission from Mr. Redfield. She hadn't seen him for a few weeks, but then he came up to her in the park and asked if she could draw this for him. She agreed of course (she thought it helped him with the recluse thing he had going on).

The description he had given her was more vague than usual though, so she was having a bit of a hard time getting the image to come out the way she wanted. Then Gabriel had showed up and pulled a Google Maps street view picture of a café, and Lucilia realized it had to be the exact one Mr. Redfield had been talking about. Now all she had to do was put in the people.

Gabriel let out a bored huff, and Lucilia started a new conversation for him.

"I don't need a glorified babysitter, you know," she muttered. It wasn't Gabriel she was calling the babysitter though. "Aunt Liz and Uncle Chris are helping to take care of me just fine, and Mom's getting better."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "I don't think Crowley would appreciate being called a babysitter. He's not for that anyway. He's supposed to make sure the things that go bump in the night stay away."

"I guess he's doing a good job then," Lucilia commented after a moment, brushing a few eraser scraps off the paper.

"If he wasn't doing a good job, then he and I would have a problem."

Lucilia finished drawing a curved line before responding. "He mentioned that you had something to hold over his head."

"That's putting it mildly," Gabriel scoffed, rolling over to lay on his stomach and resting his head on his arms. "Very, very mildly."

Lucilia actually tore her gaze away from her work to give him a look.

"What?" Gabriel mock pouted.

"His exact words were that you'd have his hide."

Gabriel pursed his lips in an exaggerated expression of thought. "Still not entirely accurate, but closer to the mark. He'll get there," he replied with a wink.

"I take it you're not going to tell me because it's an adult thing," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Look at you! Smartest nine-year-old I know," Gabriel exclaimed proudly.

Going back to her drawing, Lucilia huffed. "You're lucky I'm nine and know to keep my nose in my own business."

"But that takes the fun out of things," Gabriel pointed out in a half whine.

"It also keeps me out of trouble."

Okay, so she had a point. Time to shift the subject slightly. "They took the news really well actually."

"Oh? They didn't chew you out for keeping important secrets?" Lucilia asked sweetly.

Gabriel frowned. "Y'know, I could've sworn you didn't have this much sass the last time I saw you," he commented.

"Well, I do have great influences," she murmured in reply.

Gabriel let out a soft grunt in reply and left that at that. Slow minutes ticked by with the archangel watching the girl finish her sketch. When she finally set down her pencil and just stared at the finished product for a solid thirty seconds, Gabriel hopped up off the bed and exclaimed, "Okay, that's it. We're going somewhere!"

Lucilia barely had any time to turn and look at him when he snapped his fingers. One moment she was sitting in her room in Washington, and the next she was standing… where was this?

"Come on, Lucy. I know it's been like forever for you, but even you have to remember Pier 39," Gabriel teasingly admonished her, grabbing her hand in a light hold, which was actually rather reassuring given the crowds of people he was navigating them through.

Lucilia did remember the pier, but it was mostly vague memories of sweets and seafood and sourdough bread. She knew now that Pier 39 was a tourist attraction in San Francisco, but that was basically it. All of the shops and restaurant stands she was seeing were all new to her.

"Now, Ghiradelli Square is way over that way," Gabriel was saying, waving his free hand in the direction of the chocolate shop that wasn't a part of Pier 39. "But, personally, I think we should just start here, where there's like a little bit of everything. Well, not Chinatown or anything like that, but it's called the Fisherman's Wharf for a reason…"

Gabriel was rambling. Lucilia wasn't sure if he knew he was doing that, but she didn't stop him. It was one of the most Gabriel-things she'd seen the archangel do. At the very least, she was pretty sure that the archangel didn't normally ramble, talking about whatever came to mind, but it was definitely something her brother had done.

"—bit of hand-wavey time travel, and no one will even know you were gone. Except us, of course. You might have to make something up about how you got whatever you want to get from here as, like, a souvenir, but if you really have to, you can just say I gave it to you, I guess. Maybe I'll even get you—"

Gabriel stopped – as in full on stop, right in the middle of the crowd, not to mention he'd cut himself off mid-sentence.

Lucilia looked over in the direction he was staring, but she didn't see anything but a line of people waiting around some shop called Pearl Factory, where they seemed to ring this bell every time someone opened up an oyster for a pearl. For a second, she thought he was thinking about getting her a pearl, but then she noticed he wasn't looking at the shop itself.

"Gabriel?" She gave his hand a squeeze. He startled, but it got his attention. "Is something wrong?"

He hesitated. "No… not wrong," he said just loud enough for her to hear him over the people milling around them. "Just someone I didn't expect to see here."

"Here? Like in San Francisco?" she asked, frowning in a mostly confused expression.

A frown of his own began to form on his face. "No, like in the Americas. He usually hangs around Europe," he told her, hand tightening around her own as if he was getting ready to run.

"He? Who do you mean?"

Gabriel looked down at her before flicking his gaze back over to whomever 'he' was. "Don't worry about Reynard. If he causes trouble, I'll take care of it then. We can leave him alone for now."

Lucilia let herself be lead in the opposite direction of 'Reynard'. She tried to peer back over her shoulder to get a better look, but Gabriel kept her facing away from the other. If she had gotten the chance to look, she would have seen the alert vulpine eyes that stared cautiously after them.

~o-O-o~

The two teenagers – a boy in his freshman year of high school and a girl in her senior year (attending that same high school) – stared at the glowing light that fell into the forest, landing somewhere in the distance. After a moment, the girl got up from her seat on the porch and ran towards the odd light. The boy stared in shock before racing after her.

"What the hell is it?"

The girl rolled her eyes, not that the boy would have seen. "You think I know? Shit, it just fell out of the sky."

"Kinda like that worldwide massive meteor show a couple years ago?" he asked.

"In this case it was a singular meteor, if that's what you think actually happened," she muttered.

"Huh?" He frowned in confusion, catching up to her when she slowed down as they got deeper into the forest. "What were they if they weren't meteors?"

"You don't want to know."

"Oh… Then what's this?"

"Dude. I said I didn't know."

"But you know what the other things were. You're into all that weird stuff."

"Ugh. Why do I put up with you?"

"Because I'm the only person in town that doesn't think you're complete off your rocker, and I am the sheriff's son," he answered easily. "Plus, you know I have a crush on you, and you take advantage of that to get what you want without my dad finding out."

She paused to consider what he'd just said. "Okay, you have a point. Whatever. It isn't related to the meteor shower though."

"Any guesses then?" he asked when they stopped, the glowing whatever-it-was only a few hundred feet away now.

"Finally, something smart came out of your mouth," the girl muttered (which wasn't really true at all since she knew the boy was a lot smarter than he let on). She stared at the light, frowning. It wasn't exactly like looking at the sun, but it still bright enough to make her squint at in dark of night. "Okay, I don't know what it is, but I know someone who might."

The boy watched patiently as the girl pulled out her phone and typed in a number, both waiting anxiously as the ringer sounded. Someone picked up after the third tone.

"Hello?"

"Max told me to call this number if something weird ever happened," the girl said in a rush before the man on the other end of the line could hang up. "And something like a falling star landed in the forest here. It's still glowing, and it's definitely not a natural light."

The man didn't reply for a solid minute, but then— "Where are you?"

~o-O-o~

"Dean!" Sam called out to his brother, touch-screen laptop in hand.

Dean rolled his eyes when he saw that Sam wasn't even looking up from the thing. "What?"

"New case," his brother answered simply.

Okay, Dean had to credit Sam for catching his attention. The real question was if could he hold it. "Are you sure we should be going out right now?" he asked, testing the waters.

Sam let out a huff, finally looking up and turning the laptop around to show him something. "So get this: a falling star landed in the forest just outside of a town the other night..."

Dean just stared at him when he trailed off, pointedly not giving the laptop a look.

"Except, it's not a fallen star," Sam said after Dean let the silence continue for another awkward (for Sam) minute.

But Dean just raised an eyebrow at that, expressing an "and? get on with it" in full force without having to say a word.

Sam actually scowled at him. "Dean, what does that look like to you?" he asked, prompting him to look at the laptop.

Dean gave in and looked at the picture pulled up on the screen. "Isn't that..?"

"Grace."

They had to wait until the next morning for Gabriel to finally get back to the Bunker. Dean had been the one to tell Mary that a case had cropped up and that she should expect Sam, Gabriel and himself to be gone for a few days to go deal with it. Not one to just manage the home while waiting idlily for the men of the house to return, Mary asked why it was specifically Sam, Gabriel and Dean going.

"Mom," Dean started, pausing when he wasn't quite sure what to say. "Look, it's not the usual hunting case, and if something goes wrong, it might be better if you're here to keep Lucifer from freaking out while Cas comes to save our asses."

That put a frown on her face. "Why do I get the feeling that this has something to do with Gabriel's other older brothers?"

"W-well…" There really wasn't any lying to his mother. "There's just these little telltale things that are popping up in the area that add up to an angel's grace— it might not even pan out, and we'll be back before you know it."

Mary raised an eyebrow while giving a slow (almost sarcastic) nod. "Right," was all she said.

And that was that. At least on Mary's end. Cas, on the other hand, argued with Dean the entire time the hunter had been packing. Most of the argument had centered around why Castiel was staying in the Bunker, waiting to get called in as back up instead of just going with them in the first place.

"Because, Cas," Dean said, waving his pistol emphatically before setting it down on top of his clothes. "If it is a trap, then I don't want you anywhere near us in case you get caught in it too."

"That is not an adequate—"

Dean turned to fully face the angel. "Yes, Cas, it is. I'm not letting you get hurt over something Gabriel and Lucifer are already owning up to. Sam and I are going to make sure Gabriel doesn't get in trouble. Mom's staying here with Lucifer, and so are you unless we need you. Capiche?"

It was harsh, but there were only good intentions behind the words. Cas made a few more halfhearted attempts to convince Dean otherwise, but in the end, there would only be three leaving the Bunker. Even then, the angel was rather disgruntled about the whole thing.

And then Gabriel finally showed up. His entrance was loud and exaggerated, like it often was whenever he was in a relatively good mood. "Guess who's…" he exclaimed, trailing off when he saw Sam and Dean's faces. He continued in a normal voice, slowly making his way down to the world map table. "Okay, what is it?"

"What is what?"

"Don't give me that. You have that look—" Gabriel pointed a finger at them "—the 'We Have Something Very Important To Tell You, Gabriel' one."

Dean looked at Sam, who directed a signature bitchface back at his brother. "We got a call a couple days ago from someone in Oregon. This is what showed up in an article the next morning," Sam said, sliding over his laptop.

"Well, it's not Reynard," Gabriel muttered, tilting the screen to see it better.

It was said under Gabriel's breath, and Dean only barely made out the words it. "I'm sorry— Reynard?" he asked when Sam didn't appear to have heard anything.

Gabriel's eyes snapped up as the archangel broke out of whatever deep thoughts he was in. "Uh, he's a trickster I saw in San Francisco yesterday."

That was… a very straightforward answer (albeit rather nonchalant and offhanded manner) coming from the archangel. Dean supposed that Gabriel was still feeling a bit bad about the whole super-secrets thing about Crowley, though it wasn't like Dean knew Gabriel in and out. Dean was pretty sure that even Gabriel didn't know what was going on in his head half the time.

"I'll tell you more about it later, but this is far more interesting," he went on, zooming in on the main picture. "One thing's for sure: that's grace. It might even be… Hmm."

"What? It might be what?" Dean prodded. "Don't just stop there."

"I'm just saying that, yes, it is grace, but it's not from any of the angels," Gabriel began to explain, a frown on his face as he continued to look at the picture. "I would know. I have my informants. The thing is, if it's archangel grace, there's no way that's all of it. Even mine would have been at least three times as much as this."

Dean took a moment to stare at the picture himself. The article only had blurry of something very bright and very big shooting through the sky that night. The other picture they had – the one Gabriel was looking at right now – was from the girl who had called them. She wasn't a hunter but she knew, and the picture she'd sent had shown the swirling mass of light to be about the size of a small house, hidden away in the tall coniferous trees of the region.

Sam reached a hand over and zoomed out, only to swipe left on the screen, pulling up the video. They all watched it play, and Gabriel's frown deepened. Not good, Dean thought.

"If I'm being perfectly honest, I'm more concerned about how the grace isn't being absorbed into the surrounding forest. It should have already started converting to fit the environment as soon as it hit the ground, but it's just… sitting there." Gabriel paused, staring at something Sam and Dean couldn't see. "No wonder I couldn't sense it— We need to go. Right now. Where was this taken?"

Sam scrambled to pull up the coordinates and general directions to the location site of the grace that the girl had sent with the images. As soon as Gabriel took a solid glance of the numbers describing longitude and latitude, he snapped his fingers. Suddenly, Sam and Dean were no longer standing in the map room but in a forest.

The trees towered above their heads, and the animals that lived amongst the plants chittered and tweeted. Sunlight flittered in through the branches, giving an almost ethereal feel to the place. Something was decidedly missing.

"Where is it?" Gabriel demanded, rounding on them and sweeping his hand in a gesture at the general area. "There's nothing here."

"What do you mean you couldn't sense it?" Sam asked, his mind still focused on something Gabriel said barely a minute earlier.

"It's gone," Gabriel said instead, shaking his head and scowling as his frustration flared. "Someone already took it."

A/N: Ever have that moment when you're reading a story and then you get inspired to write a bit of your own? That was me with this chapter ;-) Sorry if it's a bit choppy. Also, there's a reason I keep Gabriel and Lucilia's mother nameless, but it gets a little hard describing relationships like that. *sigh* We'll both just have to put up with it.

Anyways, this may or may not be the last chapter you'll get for a while. It kind of just depends on how my first month of college goes. Until next time. (Sorry to leave you on a cliff hanger.)