Hey! I apologize for taking so long to post! I've just been writing away and it slipped my mind that I should post what I've been working on, so here we are! Thanks so much for continuing to read, review, favorite, and follow! I appreciate it so much. :)
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 Forty Three: Pitiful
Their week in Seattle had flown by, and before Amriel knew it they were back at the bunker. The Winchesters were still on hunts, and the angels were burning through shows on Netflix. Amriel could tell that Cas still hadn't quite recovered from the curse Rowena had put on him- he would have spells where he would have flashbacks to trying to kill Crowley, and she would be there by his side immediately, calming him down in any way she could.
It helped that they shared grace now; Amriel could reach out easily and feel his fear as if it was her own, then calm herself down, effectively calming him down too.
They were tucked into bed watching Jenny Jones, wondering if Louis, the man being featured in the segment, was the potential father of the baby a woman on the show wanted a paternity test for.
Castiel's phone rang, and Amriel grabbed it from the bedside table, checking the Caller ID before handing it over to him, mumbling that it was Dean.
"Hi," Cas greeted, turning speakerphone on so Amriel could listen in too.
"Cas, how you doing, buddy?" Dean asked, and Amriel looked over to Cas, who was focused on the TV.
"Oh, I'm fine," he answered, and Amriel raised an eyebrow at him. He definitely wasn't fine.
"Find anything on Metatron?" Dean prodded.
"Um, nothing on angel radio," Cas answered simply.
"How long has it been since you left the bunker? Is Amriel with you?" the Winchester asked, and Amriel said hello.
"Oh, why would we leave?" Castiel asked, "We've got everything we need right here."
Amriel rolled her eyes she she heard Dean ask if they were watching Jenny Jones, and Cas told him it was a rerun.
"She's just about to announce the paternity results," Cas said, and Amriel turned her attention to the show.
"You are the father," Jenny Jones announced, and the mother went wild, yelling that she was right and that the man had to be responsible and take care of his child now.
Amriel watched Cas roll his eyes, just like she had done, and he groaned in exasperation, "Jenny, he's not ready to be a father."
"He's not going to be able to handle the responsibility," Amriel agreed.
"Okay, I-I thought you were going with socially acceptable binge watching," Dean said with a sigh. "You know, The Wire, Game of Thrones, stuff like that."
"Yeah, well, a man can't live on caviar alone, Dean," Cas rationalized, and Amriel agreed.
"We needed a little mindless television after three days of The Sopranos, you know?" the blonde said.
"Can I talk to just Amriel for a second?" Dean asked, and Cas handed her the phone with a shrug.
She took the phone off of speaker and got out of bed, wandering through the bunker so she was out of earshot of Cas.
"What's up, Dean?" she asked once she was far enough away.
"He sounds weird. Is he okay?" he said quickly, and Amriel could hear the concern in his voice.
"Not really... He's having flashes of when he was under the curse, and all he wants to do is watch TV," Amriel sighed. "I'm trying my best here, Dean, but I'm not going to push him."
"You just need to turn off the TV and go outside. Get some air, okay?" Dean told her, and Amriel rolled her eyes.
"You think I haven't tried? I ask him every day, and all I get in response is no, so I just stay with him, in case he has another episode," Amriel hissed as she leaned against the kitchen table.
Amriel heard steps coming down the hallway, but then they stopped. She heard heavy panting followed by a shout that sounded like Cas was in extreme pain.
"Dean, I have to go," she quickly hung up and shoved the phone in her pocket as she ran towards the sound, where she found a fully-clothed, trench coat clad Cas leaning against the wall, his eyes squeezed shut and a pained look all over his face.
She set her hands on his chest and began muttering in Enochian, trying to get him to calm down.
"Cas, please… Castiel, are you okay?"
Amriel caught flashes of Cas being beaten by Dean and gasped, knowing that was what he was seeing right now. She tried to filter out his thoughts and focused on getting him back to reality, keeping him upright the entire time.
Finally he seemed to snap out of it, panting heavily as he tried to focus his gaze on Amriel. She felt him sag in her grasp, and he slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor. Amriel knelt in front of him, combing her fingers through his hair and whispering soothing words.
Cas wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her into him and burying his face in her neck, breathing heavily as he tried to figure out what had happened.
"You're okay, Castiel," she mumbled, "I've got you. No one's going to hurt you."
Closing her eyes, Amriel saw Dean, his eyes black as he punched Cas as hard as he could, and she shuddered. If he had done that to someone he considered family, what would he have done to her?
"I- I was going to go outside, just to get some air like Dean said," he said slowly, not moving his face from where it was nestled against her neck. "I can't stop seeing these awful things."
"They'll go away with time," Amriel promised. "Do you want to go back to bed? I think you've had enough for today."
When she felt him nod, Amriel carefully got up and looked down at Cas, taking in just how exhausted he looked. She tried not to frown as she held out her hands for him, lifting him up from the ground and wrapping an arm around his waist securely as they walked back to their room.
She took off his trench coat and carefully hung it up in the closet, and when she turned back around to get him out of the rest of his clothes she found that he was already in bed.
"Cas…" she sighed, moving to the bed and lifting up the ends of the blankets to see that he hadn't taken off his shoes. "At least take your shoes off."
Amriel untied the laces and slid each shoe off, setting them on the floor and pulling the covers back over his sock-clad feed.
"Do you need anything?" she asked, and he merely shook his head, motioning to the remote he had in his hand as he turned on the TV.
"Just waiting for you to join me," Cas said with a small smile, and Amriel moved towards the bed before stopping in her tracks.
"Let me just grab one thing, I'll be right back," Amriel backed out of the room and made her way into the kitchen.
Searching through the freezer, she pulled out a container of Dean's cookie dough ice cream. She grabbed a spoon from the utensil drawer and went back to the bedroom, where she found Cas standing in front of the TV, the image on the screen paused as he stared at it closely.
"Cas?" she asked, watching him turn around and motion for her to come over to him.
"Look," he pointed to a fuzzy image, and Amriel squinted to see Metatron holding a video camera.
Castiel rewound the news broadcast, which showed two men fighting in an alley. People were yelling, and then one man took out a gun and shot the other. A white van pulled into the frame and they spotted Metatron in the side mirror's reflection holding a camera.
"He's in town. This is a local station," Cas told her, and Amriel heaved a sigh.
"I know you want to go find him, but you aren't in any state-" she started, but he cut her off.
"I need to do this. I need to find him and he needs to pay for what he's done. We have to get the Demon Tablet, too," Cas glared at the screen.
"Are you sure you're up to it? I'll be there the entire time, so if at any point you want to stop, all you have to do is say the word," Amriel said, still feeling uneasy about him leaving the bunker after what had just happened to him in the hallway.
"I'm sure, Amriel," he snapped, apologizing immediately afterwards. "I just.. I really want to find Metatron."
Amriel walked into the local TV station Metatron was submitting footage to and was greeted by a receptionist.
"Hello, um… I was wondering if I could talk to someone about the man who has been submitting tapes to your station? He's my uncle, and we've been trying to get in touch with him for a few months," Amriel lied easily, pulling out her phone and showing the man a photo she had taken of the TV. "Any contact information would be really helpful."
The receptionist looked at the photo and nodded, "He's been in here a few times. Let me get you his details."
He gave her a piece of paper with an address scribbled out on it, smiling at her charmingly and asking if she needed anything else.
"That's it, thank you so much!" Amriel grinned, taking the paper and folding it twice as she left the station and saw Cas waiting for her in the car, right where she had left him.
"How did it go?" he asked, turning down the police scanner a little bit as she got in.
"I got his address, so let's check that out for the Demon Tablet," she answered as she pulled her phone out and entered the address into the GPS.
Amriel picked the lock of Metatron's apartment door and the pair walked in, taking a look around the tiny, messy studio. When they determined that he wasn't there, the angels looked for the Demon Tablet.
"Check everywhere," Cas said as they split up, heading for the small kitchen as Amriel scanned the living area. She could hear him rummaging through drawers and cabinets, so she got to work, rifling through the couch cushions and lifting the mattress, her eyes widening when she spotted the tablet.
"Cas?" she called out, grabbing the tablet and holding it up for him to see. "Got it. Now let's go find Metatron."
Castiel opened up a police scanner app on his phone and they drove around until they heard about a shooting and they took off toward the location mentioned on the scanner.
Luckily they had gotten to Metatron before he could get away from the alley they found him in, and they took him to the closest abandoned building they could find.
Cas wanted to interrogate him, so Amriel let them go back and forth until Metatron asked if they wanted the Demon Tablet.
"Well, you're not gonna get it," Metatron smirked. "I have hidden it very carefully in a place where you and your little girlfriend-"
"Wife, and you hid it," Amriel called from behind Cas, holding up the tablet. "Under your mattress. The TV station gave me your address, and we checked the place out."
"You realize you have bed bugs, right?" Cas said with a grimace.
Metatron shot them an offended look, "You broke into my apartment?"
Ignoring his question, Cas walked closer to him, asking what he knew about the Darkness.
"The band?" Metatron asked, and Amriel rolled her eyes as Cas took another step closer.
"Okay, uh… Sometimes during late-night writing sessions, when God was deep in his cups, he may have let slip a few choice words, but…" he trailed off. Before grinning, "I don't have to tell you anything."
"Are you forgetting?" Cas grabbed Metatron by the collar and lifted him off of his feet, slamming him against a cabinet. "You're human now, and I could crush you like a bug."
"Cas..." Amriel warned, keeping a watchful eye on him as he let go of Metatron's collar.
"Could, but you won't. You think I don't notice?" Metatron stared up at the trench coat-clad angel. "You're broken, Castiel. You think she's going to fix you? I don't know what it was that happened, but whatever it was, you are scarred. Deep, paralyzed by trauma, by fear."
Amriel felt anger rising from the pit of her stomach, filling her entire being as she glared at Metatron. Cas was not broken.
"I mean, look at you. You can't even hit me!" Metatron laughed, only to be punched in the face.
"It's not fear," Cas told him, punching him again and throwing him through the cabinet. "What do you know about the Darkness?"
"Okay, so I misjudged," Metatron wheezed, trying to catch his breath and crawl away from Cas. "You're not scared. You're mad, and I get it. I mean, it must suck being everyone's tool, manipulated and used by the angels, by your enemies, by your friends… By your wife."
"Excuse me?" Amriel asked, pulling out her blade and taking a few steps closer, only to be waived off by Cas.
"You thought if you could get your grace back, it would help fix you, but it hasn't!" Metatron continued to goad him, only to be punched again.
"You don't know what Cas and I did, do you, Metatron?" she smirked, playing with her blade as she spoke. "We did a lot more than just get married."
"You didn't!" he gasped, and Amriel wasn't sure it was from surprise or pain, but it pleased her regardless. "Your graces merged? What was it like?"
"None of your business," Cas snapped, grabbing Metatron's collar once more. "The Darkness."
Metatron continued to try and goad Cas into killing him, and Amriel was glad he hadn't given in, even though she could tell he wanted to.
"Go on, Castiel. End me," the Scribe told him, and Amriel watched Cas drop his hand and look down at his fist, shaking his head and saying no.
Amriel was surprised when Metatron began to cry, saying that he couldn't take being human anymore.
"The indignities- they just don't stop," Metatron lamented, "Make- making my rent and keeping my phone charged… Hemorrhoids."
Cas crouched down to where Metatron was sitting on the floor, telling him that he was right.
"I'm sick of having my strings pulled, which is why I won't let you manipulate me into letting you off easy," he told him, and Metatron heaved a sigh, saying that the truth would make Bible thumper heads explode.
He explained that what God had done took a lot of work and sacrifice. That in order to create the world, God had to give up the only thing he'd ever known- to betray and sacrifice his only kin.
The Darkness was God's sister.
"Wait, what?" Amriel blurted out once Metatron had finished. "God has a sister?"
"Yes, and apparently she was released when the bumbling buffoon that is Dean Winchester killed Death," Metatron rolled his eyes.
Castiel's phone pinged and he announced that he had a message from Dean, saying that they should meet back at the bunker ASAP.
"We need to go, Elle," Cas told her, turning away from Metatron without a second thought.
"I'll meet you at the car," she said with a small nod, smiling slightly as he passed by her, feeling the breeze of his hidden wings as he did so.
Once he was gone, Amriel walked over to Metatron and helped him up, brushing the debris off of him once he was standing.
"Cas… Has some stuff he still needs to work out from when he was human. Your goading was uncalled for and rude," the blonde chided.
"What is it like, sharing a grace with another angel? What was the process like?" Metatron asked, his eyes wide with wonder, wishing he was an angel so he could see Amriel's grace now.
"It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. Castiel and I are connected in ways neither of us have completely figured out. It'll take time, but we're still learning," she answered with a slight shrug. "It just feels right."
Amriel reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, healing him of the injuries Cas had given him. She didn't want him to suffer more than he already had, despite everything he had done.
"Lay low, don't do anything to draw attention to yourself, or other angels will be all over you. They won't be as merciful as Castiel," she warned. "Goodbye, Metatron."
She turned and left, only to find Cas waiting for her next to the car, an exhausted look on his face.
"What took you so long?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his chest.
"Just warning him to stay put and not do anything stupid," Amriel mumbled into his neck, breathing in his comforting scent and sighing. "Want me to drive?"
Dean was less than thrilled that they had let Metatron go. He had voiced his displeasure more than once, and the angels were annoyed with him for not being able to let it go.
"How many times are you gonna repeat that question?" Cas asked as they all stood in the war room of the bunker.
"I'm gonna say it again," Dean glared, his voice rising as he yelled, "You let Metatron go!"
"He's not going anywhere," Amriel told him.
"If he makes a move, if he draws the slightest attention, the full force of angelkind would snuff him out," Cas explained. "Look, you- neither of you saw him. He's a human, and a pitiable one at that."
"He has bed bugs," Amriel threw in, "He's not a threat to us."
"Guys, we have bigger fish to fry here," Sam tried to get them all to focus on something more important. "Amara is in the wind."
"Yeah, God's freaking sister," Dean groaned.
"You said you were close. Dean, how'd she get away?" Cas raised an eyebrow at the Winchester, who paled slightly.
"Sorry, but what part of God's freaking sister did you not understand?" he snapped, "She overpowered me, end of story."
The three looked at Dean warily, but he brushed their looks off and asked them what their plan was.
"We got what we could out of Metatron," Amriel told him with a small shrug, "Where else can we find a way to stop her?"
"I'll look into the lore," Sam said with a sigh before walking off to the library.
Dean disappeared not long after Sam did, muttering something about needing a beer, leaving the pair of angels alone.
"Do you think we could help by searching for holy documents regarding the Darkness?" Amriel asked, "I think there are some spread across the globe, Gaza, for sure…"
"Anything we can do to help," Cas nodded. "Let's start looking at flights."