A/N: As this is pretty much an episode rewrite, it contains episode dialogue, which obviously I do not own. Episode: Taxi Driver. Also, Happy 300th Episode everyone. Can you believe we made it? There's quite a bit of Dean (Destiel-ness) in this chapter.
Just when they'd thought the tension in the bunker had eased, Kevin's arrival dumped a whole fresh bucket on everyone. By the time they were ready to leave for the trail a week later, with the added information from a now semi-sane Kevin Tran, the whole bunker was crackling with hostile energy. A thousand times worse than what had been between Dean and Gabriel. Because all Gabriel had done was shack up with Dean's baby brother, right? Kevin had done been responsible, purposefully or not, for Claire's mom's death. There was really no coming back from that.
In any other circumstance, they'd have found Kevin somewhere else to haul up and finish the tablet, but with Crowley after him, the bunker and its warding was the only place the man could stay. While it was safe from any demonic attack, Sam was still loathed to leave the young prophet alone in the bunker. Dean had ridiculously suggested leaving Claire behind to babysit, but that had swiftly and loudly been dismissed.
That left them with only option, Sam and Gabriel would track down the reaper, while Dean and Claire remained behind with Kevin. Predictably, Dean hated the plan, and it took two days to convince Dean to allow Sam and Gabriel to go off on their own.
"You call when you find the guy." Dean ordered as they stood beside the old Men of Letter's pick-up truck, his hands braced on the door frame, knuckles white.
"Yes Dean." Sam sighed, rolling his eyes and looking at where Dean's stubborn hand was stopping him from closing the truck door.
"I don't like this Sam." Dean confessed. "Purgatory is…" he looked past his brother to where Gabriel was saying his goodbyes to Claire, who looked just as worried and frustrated as Dean at being forced to stay behind.
"I know."
There was a moment silence, then Sam tugged at the door. It took three tries before Dean finally let go, but finally Dean lifted his hand and pushed the door closed. "Just be careful." He said gruffly.
_(*o*)_
It was pouring with rain when they reached Phoenix, the pick-up pulled to a stop across the street to a bar, a yellow taxi parked up outside it.
"That's him." Gabriel said, looking past Sam and pointing to the man leaning against the cab.
Licking at his lower lip, Sam turned to stare at the back of the man's head. "So now what?"
"Now I go over there and call in a long overdue favor." He shoved at the door with a slightly trembling hand. Sam leaping out after him, falling a step behind. "Ajay, my man!" he called in greeting when he reached the other side of the street.
The man in question looked up from his newspaper, eyes flickering between Sam and Gabriel, before he frowned.
"It's me, Gabriel."
The reaper leant forward, searching the ex-archangels features, then reared back in surprise. "You're mortal?"
Gabe swallowed thickly, lifting his chin defiantly, "Always were one to state the obvious, weren't you Ajay. How's business."
"Been a little slow since the apocalypse." Gabe gave the man a faux sympathetic smile, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "So what can I do for you?" Ajay asked, folding his newspaper, eyes scanning between the pair.
"We want to cross the border into Hell." Sam answered swiftly.
Ajay looked up at Sam disbelievingly. "No one wants to get into hell."
"But could you do it?" Sam demanded impatiently.
"You've got to excuse my friend," Gabriel huffed, glaring up at Sam, "he was raised in the back of a car."
Ajay smirked, ignoring Sam's tone, "I have special skills, overheads. Could be pricey."
"Of course, name it." Gabriel grumbled, ignoring the way Sam's eyes were suddenly burning into the side of his face.
The reaper lifted his eyes to Sam, "Ond day, you''ll owe me a favor." He said directly to Winchester.
Sam's head snapped around to fix the reaper with a suspicious look. "Sorry, have we met?"
Ajay shook his head, "I'm the reaper that took Bobby Singer to hell?"
Sam's eyes blew wide, "Bobby's in hell?" he gasped, looking from the reaper to Gabriel, who looked up at him sadly, "We burnt his bones, once we did that it was over. End of story."
Ajay exhaled a slow breath, "Yes and no." he shrugged.
"Yes and no?"
"It depends on whose palms you grease." Gabriel muttered, glaring at the reaper.
Ajay stared at Sam, no shame or guilt crossing his features, "I'm a business man."
Sam took a step towards the reaper, fury crossing his face. Gabriel's hand snagged his arm, yanking him back.
"If you're on the King of Hell's no fly list, no way you're cruising the friendly skies." Ajay informed them flatly. "It's not personal."
"For you." Sam growled, shaking off Gabriel's hand angrily.
Sam gritted his teeth at the thought of his friend and mentor being trapped in hell. He turned hard eyes on Gabriel, his fingers curling furiously into fists at his side.
"Okay, Jay, one down, three back."
"Two down." Sam corrected harshly.
Gabriel's wide eyes shot up. "We've talked about…"
"I'm going." Sam seethed, straightened to his full height, "no arguments."
Ajay looked between them for a moment, regarding the pair, then he nodded, turning to toss his newspaper into the cab, "Okay, follow me." He stepped towards the alley just behind Sam and Gabriel.
"Wait." Sam snapped, "I need to make a call." He stepped away, pulling his cell out of his pocket.
Ajay smirked, "Tell him you'll be back in twenty-four hours."
Sam looked back over his shoulder at the man stood impatiently a few feet away.
"Sam?" Dean answered, voice sounding instantly worried.
"We've found the reaper." He informed his brother flatly. "I call you in twenty-four hours. If you don't hear from me, we're on Darby. Between a psychic and a strip club," he looked up at the sign, "Denny's"
"Okay. – Wait, what do you mean, if I don't hear from you? You're not going with him."
"I have to Dean." Sam grunted.
"Sam…"
"Bobby's down there Dean." Sam interrupted breathlessly, "I have to…"
"What? What do you mean?"
"Crowley." Was all Sam needed to say. He heard Dean furiously swear down the line and swallowed his own racing heart. "We'll get him out." He promised fervently, "We'll be back earth side in twenty-four hours."
There was a long pause in which Sam was sure Dean was seething on the other end of the line, before he muttered, "Fine. Be careful Sammy."
Sam nodded, despite Dean being unable to see him and hung up, raising his eyes to find Gabriel marching towards him, two machetes in his hand. He thrust on at Sam. "You're gonna need this." Then he turned away angrily.
Sam bit at his lower lip, taking a deep lungful of stale air, before exhaling and hurrying to follow his lover as the ex-angel and the reappear vanished into the alley. He came to a halt at the end of the alley, where the two men were stood staring at a graffitied wall. "So?"
"Take my hand." Ajay ordered, holding out his hand to Gabriel, A second later Gabriel held his palm out for Sam to take, giving his hand a little squeeze.
The world around them tilted slightly and began to bleed. The colors of the painted wall merging and swirling and then a bright light caused Sam to squint. The floor seeming to dissolve beneath his feet.
The next thing Sam realized with a breathless start was that he was standing in large open woodland, the air thick and muggy, like just before a storm. The sunlight seemed bleached, not bright but not dark either. He glanced around, "So this is…"
"Purgatory." Gabriel muttered.
Sam's gaze instantly snapped to where Gabriel was stood beside him, and his heart tightened. Gabriel was stood there, seeming frozen, staring off into the distance. He lifted his hand, placing his on the shorter man's shoulder in hopes of reassuringly. Gabriel didn't react, which caused Sam's heart to sink.
"Okay, that's it from me." Ajay announced.
"What?" Sam snapped, turning around to glare at the Reaper. "Where do you think you're going? We booked the hell tour!"
"Whoa, Winchester, detach. Smuggling mortals across the border is difficult enough, gate crashing a Winchester and… a fallen angel into hell." Ajay shook his head, hands up in defense, "Follow the stream. Where three trees meets as one, there's a rock, behind is a portal."
"A portal?" Sam frowned.
"A back door into hell. Trust me, it'll work. Right Gabe?"
Sam gritted his teeth, glancing over to where Gabriel stood. He turned his head, as if only just remembering that he wasn't alone. He blind a couple of time, "What?"
"I'll be back in twenty-four hours, precisely. Be here." Ajay insisted, pointing to where they stood. He looked again at Gabriel, brows knitted with a mix of cold disinterest and concern. "Be careful, this isn't an easy place…"
"Understatement." Gabriel replied harshly, eyes once again fluttering to the woods. "We need to move." His tone hardened. "Twenty-four hours, Ajay." When he turned to meet the man's gaze, a shiver went through Sam at the threat in them. "Or this will be the last trip you ever make."
Ajay stared at him for a long silent moment, before nodding. In a blink, he was gone, leaving Sam and Gabriel alone. Sam inhaled slowly, eyes searching the area around him. The place was eerily silent, not even a breeze in the trees. The earth beneath his feet was dry and hard, rain parched. Sam wondered how there could possibly be a stream.
"We need to get moving." Gabriel ordered, already moving away. "Keep your eyes and ears open. We get jumped, don't hesitate."
Sam hurried to catch up with him, frowning. "Gabe."
"And don't talk. We don't want to draw any more attention."
Sam pressed his lips into a thin line and exhaled, tightening his fingers around the handle of his weapon. He strolled along beside Gabriel, his heart keeping a steady beat. He couldn't stop glancing down at him, taking in the cold detached look in his eyes, the tightness of his jaw. For the first time in a long while, Sam could see the steely determination of an archangel in the man. It kind of twisted at his heart when he thought about how Gabriel had changed. Sure he'd put up a good front, but Sam had seen the difference in him, especially the longer they were together. It wasn't just the trembling body that had crawled into his bed, it was the moments when he'd seen the man staring into the woods, hands clenched tightly at his eyes, readying himself to fight. It was the way he'd jump when surprised. There was a spark missing in Gabriel now, and he knew this place had stolen it.
_(*o*)_
"No one asked you to come." Dean snapped.
Claire sighed, slumping back against the front seat and folded her arms. "I wasn't going to stay behind to play babysitter for that…. Prophet."
Dean looked over at her for a long moment, "I get it ain't easy having him around, but…we need him. – And he didn't purposefully send demons after you and your mom."
Claire pressed her lips into a thin line and turned to stare at the passing highway. "Would you be so forgiving it had been Sam?" she grumbled. "Hell, you've been giving Gabe a hard time for months," she snapped turning to glare at him, her tone hard, "And he saved you and Sam, not to mention me."
Inhaling sharply, Dean's fingers tightened around the wheel. He couldn't defend his action. In all honesty, he never could. Claire was a hundred percent right, he owe Gabriel a lot. More than he cared to admit.
And yes, if roles were reversed, he wouldn't just be unable to forgive Kevin, he'd probably have killed him.
The car fell into a tense silence that was only broken when Dean reached forward and switched on the radio.
_(*o*)_
Sam followed Gabriel through the forest, his heart still pounded from the attack only moments earlier. An attack they'd barely survival. Gabriel hadn't said more than a couple of words since they'd arrived and it was making Sam increasingly uncomfortable. The man was usually so chatty, so loud. He didn't like it. "Any idea how much further?" he asked, hoping to break the silent tension between them, but Gabe simply shrugged and kept walking, his head turning left and right. His fingers white around the machete he carried at his side.
Sam dragged his own fingers through his hair with a sigh, pressing his lips together before looking at them. "I'm sorry." He said after a few minutes.
It looked like Gabriel was going to ignore him, but his voice broke the eerie quiet after a few more minutes. "For what?" he whispered, eyes still cautiously scanning the path ahead.
"Dragging you into this." Sam exhaled warily, his voice straining with guilt.
There was another pause before Gabriel grunted out, "You didn't drag me into anything."
"Yeah, Dean did." Sam grumbled angrily, shaking his head. "And I shouldn't have let him."
"If memory serves, you tried to stop me from agreeing but I wouldn't listen."
"Yeah, well maybe I should have tried harder. Maybe I should have left when you told me to, then you and Claire wouldn't have been dragged into any of this." Sam looked up from where he'd been watching his feet as he watched, to see the ex-archangel had stopped in his tracks, the man's eyes fixed on him.
"You regret staying?" Gabriel frowned, hurt and anger waring behind his amber eyes, "I didn't make you stay."
"That's not what I said!" Sam argued, "I meant I… you guys would have been better off if I'd never come back, is all."
Gabriel glared at him, his lips pressed in a thin line, a cold shield descending over his features. "Yeah. Yeah, maybe we would." With that he spun and began marching off in front.
Sam exhaled warily, rubbing at his eyes. That hadn't intended it to sound like he regretted being with Gabriel, because he didn't. He simply feared it. Scared of the past repeating himself. He stood frozen to the stop watching the distance between them grow with a heavy pained heart.
"Keep moving. It's not safe!" Gabriel yelled from a few feet in front.
Taking a deep breath, Sam hurried to catch up with the ex-angel.
_(*o*)_
Dean pulled into the parking lot of the small motel and cut the engine. The drive had been tense and not even his music could distract him from it. It hadn't helped that Claire had fallen asleep, leaving him with his thoughts, which had inevitably drifted, as they tended to do, to Cas.
As mad as he was at the angel, and man was he pissed, he missed him. It felt as if a part of him was missing and nothing, not drink, not sex, would fill the hole it had left behind.
"I'm gonna grab something to eat from the diner." Claire announced, clambering out of the car.
Dean nodded, cutting the engine and climbing out too. He watched Claire head towards the diner across the street. As much as he liked the girl, and he really did, she was a constant reminder of Cas. – After all, she was the daughter of his vessel, and had, for a brief while, been Cas. Every time he looked at her, every time she called him out, he saw those familiar blue eyes and his heart would twist. That was why he sort out other company. A particular person's company.
Shaking his head, Dean locked up the Impala and headed for the check in desk. He grabbed two rooms, fully aware how it would look to be sharing with a teenager girl. He grabbed their bags from the trunk and headed to his room, tossing the keys on the table and texting Claire the room number.
With the bags deposited on the end of the queen size bed, Dean headed for the bathroom. It had been a long drive and his bladder was demanding attention. When he stepped back out, there was a blond stood in the middle of the room. One look at her grey pants suit and strict stick-up-her-ass stance and Dean knew she was an angel.
Slowly turned to regard him with a smile that looked genuine enough, but Dean had learnt a long time ago that angels weren't never genuine. – Except for the rare exceptions. "We haven't been formally introduced Dean," she said carefully, too carefully. "My name is Naomi." She stepped forward, hand outstretched.
The name sparked a white hot surge of fury inside him and he wanted to fly forward and take out months of anger and frustration on her face. Instead, he took a step back, jaw set tightly. "Oh, I know who you are." He growled, narrowing his gaze at the woman. "And I know what you did to Cas after he got out of Purgatory."
"After I rescued him from purgatory, you mean. At the cost of many angels' lives." Her tone harsh despite the smile still stretched across her face.
That was the first crack in her façade. Dean clenched his jaw tighter, that old guilt rearing its ugly head again. He'd left Cas in that place and he'd never forgive himself. It didn't matter that Cas had wanted to stay. It didn't matter that Cas had let go and told him to leave. That fact was he'd gone. He'd left. Abandoning Cas. "You screwed with his head!" he snapped furiously, "and had him spy on us."
Naomi stared at him with a perfect imitation of confusion and regret. "Well it is true that I have spoken with Castiel many times. Trying to reach out to him. Trying to help him. Dean, you must have noticed how Purgatory changed him? I mean he's been unstable in the past…."
Dean inhaled through his nose. He knew exactly what she was referring to, and that hadn't been his fault, at least not entirely. He'd been taken over by the leviathans. – Despite that, he couldn't keep the small whisper of doubt in his mind. Purgatory changed people. It had changed him. He'd made decisions he'd never imagined making. Both while in purgatory and in the months since leaving. It wasn't entirely impossible that it hadn't effected Cas in a similar way. After all, Cas had always worked to protect heaven and his divine family. – But at the cost of Dean's life?
No. More likely she was referring to how Castiel had rebelled in the first place. That he'd chosen him and Sam over Heaven. That he'd helped to screw up their big world destroying master plan.
'My superiors have begun to question my loyalty. They believe I have become too attached to those in my charges. To you.'
Dean swallowed, forcing the memory back and focusing on the woman in front of him, and reigning in the deep desire to grab his angel blade and drive it through her chest. – Except the blade was in his bag, which was behind her. Dammit.
"…but I was shocked at how damaged he is now." The way she stared at him, Dean knew she thought he was the reason. Just as Ester had.
'When Castiel first laid a hand on you in hell, he was lost.' "Stop okay, don't… don't try to spin this." Dean seethed, "You think I don't know you told him to try and kill me?"
"Yes." Naomi sighed, and there was those faux emotions again, the perfect mimic of feeling but it lacked any real depth. Dean had learnt to tell the difference over the years. "I suppose that is how he would hear it." She shook her head. "When I learned of the angel tablet, I did tell Castiel to get it at any cost. It's my job to protect heaven. I'm a warrior, just as you are. What would you expect? And now, Castiel is in the wind with a hydrogen bomb in his pocket, and I'm scared for all of us."
For the first time since this conversation began, he saw genuine feeling in her features. She was scared. Very scared. "Save it. I don't trust angels. Which means I don't trust you."
Naomi stared at him, her steely blue eyes boring into him. "I see." She murmured. "I know you're hoping Castiel will return to you. I admire your loyalty. I only wish he felt the same way."
Dean couldn't help flinching at her words. She couldn't have cut deeper if she'd taken a blade to his skin. He saw the spark of satisfaction in her eyes and his stomach twisted. The sound of the motel room door opening drew both their attention, and Dean's heart leapt into his throat at the sight of Claire. His protective instincts kicked in and he hurried moved to step between her and Naomi.
"Claire." Naomi smiled tightly, her attention now fully focused on the girl.
The teenager narrowed her eyes at the woman. "Who are…?" she demanded, eyes flickering to Dean then back again, "Wait, Naomi?"
Both Dean and the angel nodded, and in an instant Claire dropped the bag of food where she stood, then she was storming forward, reaching into her jacket to reveal an angel blade, eyes blazing with righteous fury.
Naomi matched unmoved as Claire advanced, her features schooled and calm. But then why wouldn't she be, she was an angel after all. One click of her fingers and they could both be painting the motel room walls. With that in mind, Dean snagged Claire's arm, holding her back. Hating the satisfied look on the angels face, as if pleased that he'd stepped in to protect her. It only fanned the flames of both his own and Claire's anger, and he was almost tempted to let the teenager have a go, but as Claire growled and fought against his hold, he knew he couldn't risk it. Not only because Sam and Gabriel would never forgive him, but neither would Cas.
"I know you don't want to believe it, Dean." Naomi said, eyes turning their focus back to him, "but we're on the same side. Shutting the gates of hell. Bringing Castiel in from the cold. Take a moment, think about what I said." Her gaze flickered to Claire once more, "Oh, I know you're brother had been doing business with Ajay…" Both Dean and Claire froze, holding their breath as Naomi continued. "You might want to visit his place of business. – You see, we can be of help to each other."
Dean gritted his teeth, fear beginning to pool in his gut. He opened his mouth to demand more information, but she was gone in a flurry of wings. His grip on Claire's arm slackened and he exhaled a tired breath.
"What the hell!" Claire yelled furiously, "Why'd you stop me?"
Dean didn't answer, instead grabbing the bag from the bed and the keys from the table, before marching hurriedly out of the door.
"Hey!" Claire yelled, grabbing her own back.
