Chapter Twenty- Nine: Could it Be Any Harder? ((The Calling))

The person they found waiting for them at the castle wasn't Chuck. It wasn't anyone they were expecting. It wasn't even anyone Dean knew. The Impala drove through the gates, and the party fully expected to see Bobby waiting at the door, as surly as usual. Instead, there was a woman there. A woman with soft blonde hair and sharp eyes. She stood by the doors, leaning against them with her arms crossed.

Dean was wary of this new person, as he was all new people, but Crowley slid out of the car before he could protest that they be careful. He frowned, following the demon away from the car and toward the door.

"Well, it's about damn time you all got here. I expected you to make better time." She smirked a bit, her words accented with almost the same English as Crowley.

"I think you're giving them too much credit, Bela dear," Crowley replied with a chuckle. "What are you doing here?"

"I figured someone should give you a hand, since all your lovely human friends have slipped off."

Dean frowned. "Wait, what? What do you mean 'slipped off'?"

She tilted her head towards him, giving him an obvious once- over before answering, her eyes flickering to ink black for just a moment. A demon. This must have been the 'personal assistant' Gabriel had mentioned in the Laundromat. "I mean they're gone. All of them. Any human and angel that helped you along the way has left Purgatory for good."

"Why? What happened?"

Bela sighed, as if she were explaining things to a small child. Beside her, Crowley just grinned. "This is Purgatory. It's a place of judgment. Everyone here is tested before they can move on to bigger and better— or worse— things. And for a lot of people, this was their test."

The hunter stared at her, making the wheels turn enough to follow through. "So, by helping us, they sorta passed their test into Heaven?"

"Now you're catching on," she nodded. "But we're wasting time. Let's get everyone inside. There's still lots to be done."

Dean didn't know if they could trust her. She was a demon. He hated putting any kind of trust in demons. Present company included. But they needed help, Sam needed help, and no one else was around. Crowley seemed to like her as well, which said more for her than Lilith, and she had eventually helped them anyway.

Finally, he gave in. He would be careful, but if Bela could help them, then he wasn't going to stop her.

They moved Sam into the main hall. Crowley set to work, with Bela and Gabriel assisting. Dean really didn't like a pair of demons and an ADD archangel trying to fix his brother's ankle, but Crowley assured him they knew what they were doing. As it turned out, a lifetime of torture gave one a fairly decent knowledge on bone structures of the human body. And it was a simple matter to go from taking something apart to putting it back together. He was doing it begrudgingly, he insisted, but he was doing it. That was enough for Dean's frazzled mind to wrap around at that moment.

It wasn't pretty. They had only the supplies that Chuck had left for them before everyone passed on. There was enough bandages and first aid supplies for the job, even the supplies to make a sort of cast. Chuck must have had one last vision before leaving.

While the demons worked on his brother, Dean sat aside, shedding his shirts to bandage his ribs. He'd managed to get the first layer off, hissing in pain, before Castiel joined him.

"It would be easier if you had assistance," the angel pointed out, sitting beside him.

Dean bit back a pained groan. "Probably, yeah."

Castiel took the shirt from him, setting it aside. His fingers reached for the hem of the t- shirt, meeting Dean's eyes before slowly pulling. They managed to get the shirt off, and Dean sat as still as possible. Breathing hurt, and moving hurt even worse. And now that the adrenaline of the fight had worn off, the pain was first and foremost in his line of attention.

He leaned his weight on his arm, letting Castiel clean the cuts along his side. Across the room, there was a snap, and Sam growled out a few choice words. Dean didn't envy his brother right now.

The angel set aside the gauze he'd been dabbing cuts with. He looked up at Dean expectantly. "What do I do now?"

Dean tried to take slow breaths, and tried not to think too much about what was going on next to them. "You'll have to wrap up my ribs. Make sure it's tight enough, but not so tight that I can't breathe. Cuz I kinda need to do that."

Castiel nodded, picking up the bandage roll.

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Once the injuries were taken care of— and heavily medicated with aspirin in Sam's case— the next task was getting the sword back to Michael. The angels insisted that the only reason the archangel had allowed them to use it was on the condition that Lucifer be returned to Heaven as soon as possible for Michael to deal with.

The only question was how.

"We used the remainder of our Grace to seal Lucifer inside the sword," Castiel explained, sitting back in his chair. They'd all moved to the dining room after the impromptu medical treatment, where Dean had raided the kitchen to find them something to eat. It wasn't the fancy fare that Chuck had made for them, but everyone was eating and not even Crowley was complaining about the humility of eating some sort of thrown- together chili.

"So there's no way we can just wait a day or two for Gabe to charge up and use it?" Dean prodded his chili with a spoon.

Gabriel shook his head. "That was the last of it. There's no recharging now, I can't feel it. I'm just as human as Cassy is right now."

Dean didn't miss the younger angel's frown at that. "Well okay. So angel mojo is out of the question. Demons?"

Crowley arched a brow. "You assume we can do something to send an angelic sword back to an angel?"

He shrugged. "It's got the devil in it."

Bela rolled her eyes, even as she smiled. "No, Dean."

"Okay then. Guess it's up to the humans."

"What are we supposed to do with it?" Sam asked, turning his head to stare at his brother. He was propped up sideways in his chair, so his ankle could rest on the chair beside him. The cast was dry, but it still hurt like a bitch. Even after Bela played nurse for him, cooing and petting his hair softly. Dean thought that was hilarious. Sam not so much.

"I'm not sure. There's gotta be some way to make this thing go away. A spell or a symbol…" He blinked, tilting his head with a sudden realization. "What about the charm?"

Castiel frowned in thought, grabbing Dean's wrist to inspect the cord looped around it. "It brought you from Earth to Purgatory, correct?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Anna told me it would."

"How did it work?"

"I dunno. I just thought really hard about coming back, and it worked. So if I think really hard about sending this sword back to your friend in Heaven…"

Castiel considered it thoughtfully, studying the symbols on the charm. "It should work."

Gabriel grinned around a mouthful of chili. "Great. Then let's do it soon, before something goes wrong and pops Luci back out to play with again. The last thing we need is Michael comin' down here in a righteous flurry and smiting us all for keeping him away from his sibling rivalry."

They finished their meal quickly and moved to the main hall. Dean wrapped the charm around the sword, not really sure how to go about the process. It was one thing to try to get yourself somewhere, and it was another entirely to get an inanimate object somewhere with the power of your own thoughts. If he wound up transporting himself to Heaven in the process, he was going to be pissed.

He concentrated, thinking hard about sending the sword back to Heaven, and leaving himself here in Purgatory. It took a good ten minutes of this, and he was almost convinced it wouldn't work, before the sword began to glow. It was a different glow than before, which he thought was a good thing. The last thing anyone needed was Lucifer trying to burst out of the thing. It was a red glow, the same as the transport spells he'd been a part of since starting this crazy job. He closed his eyes against it, and when the light faded, the sword was gone.

"I'm assuming that means it worked?" the hunter shrugged, turning to glance at the audience he'd picked up.

Castiel nodded. "I can't imagine you'd have sent it anywhere else."

"Works for me."

They returned to the dining room shortly after. It had become their planning room, of sorts. The next order of business was getting them all to their respective homes. This proved to be a little trickier.

"The only way to go is with one of those spells," Gabriel tipped his chair back onto two legs, hanging in the air.

"The problem with that is that it's angel magic, angel," Crowley sighed.

"So?"

"So only an angel can use that spell," Bela offered. "And with everyone else gone, it'd be up to you or your brother."

Castiel tilted his head. Sam looked up from the book he was reading and Dean frowned.

"So someone's gotta stay behind?"

"That's the general idea, yeah."

Gabriel shrugged. "Well, that's no big deal. I was gonna stay anyway. I can't leave Crowley here by himself, he'd wreck the place."

"Angel…"

Bela shook her head, her face serious. "That's not…" she sighed. "Crowley has to leave as well."

"What?" Both archangel and demon stared at her as they spoke in unison.

She gnawed at her bottom lip. She hated being the one to break bad news. "I was here, when everyone left. There was a redheaded angel; I think her name was Anna. But she's the one that sent this group on. I had come here looking for you two," she pointed to Crowley and Gabriel, "and this Anna girl told me to wait here, because you'd be coming back and would need help. She explained to me that she was sending them all home, so I'd have to debrief you or whatever. And she said that if Crowley remained here in Purgatory, she'd kill him."

The table was silent. No one knew what to say to that. Finally Crowley sighed.

"Well. It looks like I'm a part of this bloody field trip after all."

Gabriel's face lost all trace of humor. "Then I guess you guys should get ready to go…"

"Gabriel…" Castiel set a hand on his brother's arm. "I can—"

"Don't even try it, Cassy. You wouldn't last three days here on your own, and I won't let that happen."

Dean frowned. They'd done what they came here to do, and yet the one thing they asked for in return had to go like this. Angels, as a whole and present company excluded, were dicks. He glanced at Gabriel, who was staring resolutely down at the table. "We'll do it tomorrow. A good night's sleep won't hurt anyone, and it'll… give everyone some time to say goodbye."

No one questioned it. No matter how badly any of them wanted to go back, it was clear the sacrifice Gabriel was going to make for them. It was the least they could do in return.

Bela sighed, reaching over to smooth back the archangel's hair. "I'd do it for you if I could."

He nodded. "I know."

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"I'm staying here," Crowley crossed his arms, determined, as he sat on the bed in Gabriel's room.

The archangel shook his head. "You heard Bela. They'll kill you if you're still here."

"And Lucifer was going to kill me before. You act like no one's ever threatened my life before, angel."

Gabriel flopped onto the bed beside him, leaning against his side. "This is different. Before Luci was always the greater evil or whatever. This time, there's no one but you. If they see you're still around, they won't waste any time. I know them."

"So I'm just supposed to head off and leave you here?" he snapped. "You don't even want to be here in the first place!"

"I know. And yes, you are." He pushed his cheek into the demon's shoulder. "It's not forever. Eventually one of them'll come back. Or I'll find a way to get hold of them. They can send me home."

"You don't know how long that'll take."

"It's better that I stay here on my own than everyone get stuck here. I can't do that to them. Or you."

He growled, raking a hand through his short hair in frustration. There wasn't any other way for this to happen, but he didn't want to admit defeat. He was defective, he knew it. Because demons shouldn't feel like this. They shouldn't care when their angel significant others decide to stay in Purgatory and send them to Earth. They shouldn't care that they'd be separated from the one person they'd gotten close to. They shouldn't get close to anyone in general, especially angels. And they certainly shouldn't feel guilty because there was nothing anyone could do about this.

Gabriel was looking at him with the saddest eyes he'd ever seen on the angel. If he had a heart, he was sure it would have broken. As it was, it just felt rather unpleasant. He pulled the other closer, into a deep kiss, and Gabriel responded immediately.

After a moment, he pulled back. "We've got some time until morning."

Gabriel smiled. It wasn't up to his usual standards, but it was a start. "We should make it count, then."

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"Anna used the spell and transported herself," Sam pointed out. "Why can't that work here? You're an archangel, right? Shouldn't you be more powerful than her?"

He sat against the wall in the main hall, propped up with his duffel bag. He watched as Gabriel drew the circle in the middle of the floor.

"Yes and no," he replied, focusing on drawing the symbols correctly. It'd been awhile since he'd done this. "Normally, I could do it, no problem. Without a second thought. Hell, I wouldn't even need a circle. But Anna did the spell on Earth. Where we all have our Grace. She could do it that way because she used her Grace. Here in Purgatory, we're pretty much powerless. Not to mention I haven't gotten any kind of recharge since sealing Lucifer."

Sam frowned, his book forgotten as he stared at the other. "So there's really no other way."

Gabriel shook his head. "Afraid not. It's not gonna be permanent though. Anna will come back eventually. Or someone else. After what happened here, they won't let Purgatory go without supervision for too long. I'd say a couple years at best."

"Years?" the younger Winchester gave him a look. "That's a bit of a wait, don't you think?"

He chuckled, though it was obvious there was no humor in it. "Yeah, I guess so."

They continued in silence for awhile, Gabriel drawing symbols in chalk on the marble floor and Sam watching him. When he was finished, the archangel stood, dusting his hands off and looking over his work.

"Do me a favor, yeah?"

Sam blinked. "Yeah, sure, anything."

Gabriel stared at the chalk he held. "I know I can count on your brother to watch out for Cassy. Just… I know it's a lot to ask, but can you kinda try to keep tabs on Crowley? Just make sure he doesn't get into anything over his pay grade?"

He smiled. "Sure."

Gabriel ruffled his hair, most likely getting chalk dust in it. "Thanks kiddo. I'd better get the party together. Time to get this show on the road."

The others were waiting in the dining room. Once Gabriel was done, they filtered into the main hall. It was a somber thing as they separated, Gabriel and Bela standing outside the circle while the other four took their places inside it. Dean and Castiel were on either side of Sam, supporting him and taking the weight off his ankle. Crowley made no attempt to cover up how angry he was over how things had turned out.

Gabriel attempted a smile. "So you guys stay out of too much trouble. When I get to come back, I don't wanna find any of you dead, and I certainly don't wanna see any of your asses back here."

"Take care of yourself, Fun Size," Dean grinned at him.

"I'll help," Bela set a hand on the archangel's shoulder. "I can't leave until he does anyway."

The circle began to glow. The wind from nowhere picked up again, whipping at their hair and clothing. Crowley looked up, meeting Gabriel's eyes. The archangel smiled, his eyes locked on the other until the light got too bright, and everyone in the circle had to close their eyes.

Then something pushed him. Surprised, he fell a step forward, whirling around to see Anna. His mouth fell open, gaping at her. She had appeared directly behind him, although he hadn't heard her with the wind blowing as it was. Her hair flew in the gust, sending red everywhere. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"I'm sorry I'm late," she smiled, leaning in to give him a quick kiss on the forehead. "Now stop being such a stupid older brother and get in there. Someone's got to keep tabs on that demon."

"Anna…"

"I said go," she pushed him again. "I'll take care of things here."

He nodded. There wasn't much time left. The wind was already blowing forcefully and the light was already blindingly bright. He wasted no more time, sneakers pushing off the floor as he jumped into the circle, latching on to Crowley. The demon fell back, not expecting the extra weight.

They landed on the grass.