Hi! Welcome to chapter six! Just wanted to say thanks for all the favorites, follows and reviews! I've really wanted to post this chapter for a while and I'm glad I finally found some time to do it! Stay tuned for an author's note at the end and enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: In no way to 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 Six: You're Dead

Amriel walked into the abandoned house as the sun was beginning to set and she knew she had a few hours before Castiel would be back.

Whenever he would work later than her, he would bring back something to eat and she was sure tonight was no exception, so Amriel didn't trouble herself to eat anything just yet. She turned on the small lanterns that they used for light, just so Cas wouldn't have to come back to complete darkness.

She had a different craving all together, and there was only one way to satisfy it. Castiel had taken all of her pills, but she knew where he kept them hidden. For some reason he didn't throw them away- Amriel believed it had something to do with him possibly needing them in the future if he was injured.

Cas had them hidden away in one of the cabinets in the dilapidated kitchen, so Amriel went through them to find the bag residing on the top shelf of a cabinet.

The former angel had been taking pills when her shift differed from Castiel's. She would come straight back from work, leading him to believe she was out exploring the area, and she would swallow a dozen or more of the small tablets and be out of it until about an hour before he got back.

Of course, she was worried that he would find out and reprimand her or even make her leave, but she risked it anyways.

Counting out about 35 pills, Amriel briefly thought to herself that she shouldn't be doing this. Castiel had asked her to stop and she had made no effort to. All she had done was be more secretive about it to keep him from suspecting something.

Amriel still felt lonely without the constant buzz of her fellow angels in the back of her mind. She disliked feeling so isolated, despite having Castiel right beside her most of the time. He helped her greatly, and she knew that, but Amriel couldn't tolerate feeling so many emotions all of the time.

She had been on Earth for a couple of months now and even though she was adjusting little by little, it was still difficult for her to cope.

Once she swallowed all of the pills with the help of the bottle of water she had brought from the gas station, Amriel moved into the bedroom and laid down on the mattress, kicking off her shoes and sprawling out on the sleeping bag. She closed her eyes and felt her muscles relax as she began to drift off, into sleep or something else she wasn't sure, but she was numb all the same.

Even though she knew that Cas would be upset with her if he found out and she knew she was betraying his trust, it didn't matter when she couldn't feel anything. His feelings would have to come behind her temporary escape from being practically human.

Amriel was in the middle of a forest when she heard her name being called from somewhere in the distance, but she paid it no mind and continued wandering through the woods. She wasn't sure for what, but she kept walking. Something was calling to her, so she walked for what felt like hours until she came upon a clearing.

Standing in the clearing was a disheveled looking man, his dark hair was unruly and his jaw was covered in stubble, like he hadn't shaved in a few weeks. Amriel noticed that they were nearly the same height as she approached him, and she saw that he was wearing jeans and a suit jacket with a t-shirt underneath. His features were angled and he seemed familiar yet strange at the same time.

"Amriel," he spoke, a smile on his face as she came closer. "It's good to finally see you again."

"I don't believe we've met," she answered, looking him up and down as she felt for her blade. Of course since this was some sort of dream, she didn't have it. "Who are you?"

"Actually we have," the man told her as he stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets, something she recognized as a thing people did when they were nervous. "It was a very long time ago, when you were very young. Some people know me as Chuck now, but you know me by another name."

The more she stared at him the more she realized that she did know who he was, and when she went to open her mouth and address him by name, he held up his hand to silence her.

"I know, Amriel. It's been a while, huh?"

She nodded and remained silent, watching him and wondering why he had come to her.

"I wanted to talk to you about Castiel," he finally said and she frowned. "He's human now, because of what Metatron has done."

"Yes- Metatron deceived him and now he is being hunted by our siblings," Amriel said bitterly. "I am doing my best to protect him, and he is helping me adjust to humanity."

Chuck shook his head slightly, pinching the bridge of his nose as he sighed and said that she wasn't adjusting very well.

"What do you mean? I have employment and I have formed a relationship with a girl around my vessel's age… I would say that I have been successful so far." Amriel was growing nervous- she didn't want to displease him, but it was evident that he was not happy.

"This pill thing needs to stop," Chuck said suddenly, taking a straightforward route with her. "You might think that they're helping, but they're destroying you. Amriel, you may still have your grace but you aren't indestructible. It was weakened when you fell and it needs time to heal."

"Wait- is she dead? Please, I have to know."

Chuck looked at Amriel with sad eyes and he shook his head.

"Amy is no longer with you. Taking twenty Vicodin on a regular basis is a lot for a human to handle, so she couldn't survive much longer. This body is yours now." He gestured to Amriel, who glanced down at herself and frowned.

"I didn't mean to harm her. I never wanted her to die," she said quietly, thinking about how careless she had been.

"Well maybe you can make the best of a bad thing. Amy is at peace now and is no longer trapped inside herself. Just because Heaven is off limits to angels doesn't mean souls can't find their paradise. Your home will be restored in time, I'm sure of that. Now, there's something I need you to do."

"Anything, Chuck," she said immediately, her posture straightening as she prepared to receive orders.

"Woah there," he held up his hands, "I'm not gonna order you around or whatever. Look, I really just want you to watch out for Cas. If he wants to stop Metatron, help him as best you can. If he wants to live a quiet human life, be there as long as he needs you. But you gotta stop with the drugs."

"I will do my best with Castiel. He has been nothing but kind and supportive to me. I have tried to stop on my own, but I can't. I feel lost and alone…"

Chuck stepped closer to the former angel and set his hand on her shoulder in an effort to comfort her. Amriel looked up at him and he gave her a sad smile.

"You might not be in Heaven, but you are never alone," he said and then shrugged. "You have the freedom to choose your own path, so once you accept that, things will get easier. There's a reason you found Cas out of every other angel, Amriel. You both had doubts and disobeyed orders and you both want what's best, even if it means going against Heaven. I might've created you at different times, but you're definitely two peas in a pod."

Amriel was confused by the phrase, but she thanked Chuck for coming to her in her dream anyways, and the smile dropped off of his face instantly.

"I- I don't really know how to tell you this," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "You're kinda dead and that's how I could find you to have this little meeting, but don't worry! You'll be just as you were before I came to you."

Chuck gave her a tight hug and she was instantly overwhelmed with warmth, love, and light, and she heard her name being called somewhere in the distance.

"How are we supposed to open the gates to Heaven? What do we do?" She didn't want to go back without answers, but instead he shook his head and smiled knowingly.

"Answers will come with time, don't worry about that. Just remember what I told you. Goodbye, Amriel," he said before pressing two fingers against her forehead, and then her vision was filled with a bright, white light.

Amriel's eyes opened and she inhaled sharply, her gaze focusing on the figure that was hovering above her. She recognized it as Castiel, and she felt a little better as she locked eyes with him and said one word. Chuck.

Cas left the Gas-N-Sip after he locked the doors for the night, a grocery bag full of snacks and sandwiches for himself and Amriel to eat tonight and tomorrow. He was excited to be able to sleep for a bit longer, since he didn't have to work tomorrow. It seemed like he couldn't get enough rest after being on the run and never really getting a good night of sleep.

He walked into the house and locked the door behind him, laying a salt line once more. Cas wasn't about to take any chances when it came to safety. He felt protected in this abandoned house and he wondered why the previous tenants had left as he set the bag of food on the wobbly table. Realizing that it was oddly quiet, he glanced around for Amriel.

Calling out her name, he was suddenly hit with the memory of finding her in the closet, so he took off for the bedroom. Cas froze when he saw her lying lifelessly on the mattress in the glow of the lantern, and his stomach dropped. He was at her side in a split second, moving faster than he ever had as a human and he checked for any signs that she was alive, only to find none.

He didn't know what to do. She wasn't breathing and he couldn't feel a pulse, so he grabbed his phone from his pocket and called Dean.

"This is Dean's other, other phone. You know what to do."

It was his voicemail. Of course when he needed Dean the most, he wouldn't be there. How typical. So Cas hung up and tossed the phone to the side, sitting beside Amriel's body and praying that she would be wake up. He couldn't help but feel the irony of praying to a higher being, with Heaven's entire host walking on Earth and trying to kill him.

Half an hour passed before Castiel considered calling Dean again, or maybe even Sam. He turned to look down at Amriel once more, taking in her vessel's soft features and smiling sadly. She had truly chosen a vessel that adequately represented only a fraction of her actual beauty, and he only wanted to see her smile at him one more time.

Amriel's fingers twitched and Cas jumped, leaning over her to see if she was breathing when she opened her eyes and gasped. Castiel flinched, her sudden movement scaring him and he heard her say the name Chuck.

It felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and Cas moved a few pieces of hair out of Amriel's face so he could make better eye contact with her.

"What happened?" he asked, realizing that he sounded angry when in fact he was more relieved than anything.

She stared up at him blankly for a few seconds, trying to steady her breathing before her gaze seemed to focus in and realize where she was and whom she was with.

"I was dead," she said as she tried to sit up. He was quick to act and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to sit upright and lean against him as she spoke. "I took too many pills and I died."

"How do you know that?" he asked, feeling her take shaky breaths as she buried her face in his neck. "What did you see when you were dead?"

Pulling back a bit so she could see his face, Amriel shook her head and tried to process everything she had been told.

"He said his name was Chuck."

"Chuck? As in the prophet?" Cas was confused. Neither he nor the Winchesters had heard anything from Chuck since Lucifer and Michael were put in the cage, and since Kevin Tran was a prophet, he assumed that meant the man was dead.

"He isn't a prophet, Cas. He didn't say outright, but I knew who he really was."

"Amriel, if it wasn't Chuck, who was it?" Castiel asked, sending her a look that said he wanted answers and he wanted them immediately.

"It was Chuck as you know him, but said he goes by other names," Amriel said and Cas stared at her with wide eyes, like he had just figured it out. "I spoke with God, Castiel."

His mouth dropped and he backed away, getting off of the bed and standing in the center of the room. He stared up at the ceiling, like he would see God if he looked hard enough, and he let out a loud sigh of frustration.

Amriel had no idea what to do in this situation, so she quietly watched as his neck began to turn a dark shade of red and he glared at the roof.

"You son of a bitch! I died protecting you from archangels and you couldn't even tell me that you were God? I looked everywhere-" he stopped himself suddenly and murmured a quiet, "fuck it."

Her eyes widened at the swear, and she saw that even Cas was surprised by the words that had come out of his mouth.

"He had so many opportunities to reveal himself to me, but he didn't," Castiel said quietly, sitting on the edge of the mattress and letting his head hang between his knees. Amriel remained silent and hesitated before finally setting her hand on his back, gently rubbing circles in an attempt to comfort him. "I don't understand."

"Cas, he told me to look out for you no matter what you choose to do as a human," she told him, thinking that he would calm down. "He also asked that I seek your help for my dependence on oxycodone."

"Yeah, we need to discuss that," he said, turning to face Amriel with a serious look. "I'm going to dispose of those pills. I don't care if I may need them if something happens to me- I don't want the temptation here for you."

Amriel nodded in understanding. She knew that she was out of control and after speaking with her Father, she knew that it had to stop.

"Amy is gone, Castiel." Her tone was soft and she seemed emotional, which was probably the first time he had heard that from her. "She couldn't handle the frequency and amount of pills I was ingesting and my grace wasn't enough to keep us both alive. Chuck said that she is in Heaven now."

Cas was confused- how were souls reaching Heaven when angels were locked out? She went on to explain what Chuck had told her, and he was glad that the souls were being allowed in rather than having to stick around on Earth and become vengeful spirits.

"I feel awful for being the reason she died. I promised that I would return her home to her family once Heaven was opened again and I promised that she would be safe." Amriel noticed that she was having difficulty speaking, but she continued anyways, ignoring the way her voice cracked. "I failed her, and now an innocent human is dead and I'm in her body."

Without saying a word, Castiel stood up and took her hand, pulling her off of the mattress and out into the kitchen. He motioned for her sit on the counter and she did without asking any questions.

"Where are the pills?" he asked, watching Amriel as she straightened her posture and nodded towards the cabinet he had hidden them in.

Castiel grabbed the bag and dumped them in the sink, running the water so they ran down the drain, and he tossed the baggie aside once it was empty.

"There. Now you cannot harm Amy's memory by ruining her body with drugs."

Amriel thanked him, smiling slightly and realizing that she felt different now that Amy wasn't inside the vessel with her.

"I'm going to have to figure out everything on my own now, aren't I?" she asked. "I can't refer to her memories when I come across strange human inventions or need to know how to interact with someone."

Cas shook his head, saying he had gone through the same thing when Jimmy Novak passed away. If Castiel could handle being inside of an empty vessel, Amriel knew that she could too, especially since she had him there with her to assure her that things would be all right.

"Everything will be okay, Amriel, I promise," he told her, a resolute look on his face and she nodded, hoping that he was right.

Author's Note: Okay so I know that not everyone agrees that Chuck is God, but I've talked with my friends that watch Supernatural and even my brother, and that's what we've all pretty much come to terms with it in our own minds. That being said, this story obviously isn't totally canon so I'm taking some creative liberties and all that good stuff.

Stay tuned for some romantic development between Cas and Amriel and thanks again for reading, reviewing, favoriting and following! I'm really surprised that the story is being received well and I'm glad you all like it so far.