Ok, less canon and more original step by step!
Chapter 13
The rift closed almost instantly. Sam was the first to react, hurrying and falling to his knees besides Jessica and taking her into his arms. The battered woman closed her eyes and whimpered as he rocked her body, but she didn't complain. Even being just stabbed, this was still the most comfortable she had been in weeks.
"Jess, my precious Jess..." Sam called her, frantic when he finally looked at her again and saw all the blood on her clothes. "What's wrong? Cas!"
"Yes, I know. Please, allow me."
The angel crouched beside her and touched her forehead, willing his grace to heal his friend. However, he quickly perceived that most of her injuries had been inflicted with angelic weapons, which meant he couldn't heal them completely. They would require time in the human way.
"She is alright, Sam," Castiel said reassuringly. "Or as much as she can be, given the circumstances of her prior absence."
"What do you mean? What's with the blood?"
"In the other world, Michael stabbed her to take her blood, but he also healed her," Jack explained, standing up.
"WHAT?!" Dean shouted, unbelieving. "The hell Michael are you talking about? Why did he do that to Jess?"
"Dean," Castiel looked intently at him, frowning. "There is no need for yelling. I am sure that Jess would appreciate if we all keep calm. I guess that even if this Michael healed her after stabbing her, he did not bother relieving her of the pain of the wound."
"Sam..." Jessica whispered against the crook of his neck. "I missed you so much, puppy."
"Me too, precious," he sobbed, holding her close, and then chuckling softly. "Uh, sorry to ruin the moment, but you kinda stink."
"You mutt! Do you think I was taking a holiday in a spa?" Despite the sour reply, she was smiling weakly. "There were no flower essences there, you know?"
"I see," Sam kissed her forehead before getting up and carrying her bridal style. "Well, stinky or not, what matters is having you back with me. But you're gonna shower before you get into a fresh bed to rest."
"Sam, I can barely move..."
"And that's why I'll be bathing you, precious."
Completely ignoring the other three people in the room and their amused (Dean) or confused (Castiel) looks, Sam headed down the hallway to the locker room and the only bathtub in the bunker. Right before getting out of earshot, they heard Jack asking in innocent curiosity:
"Do people usually bathe each other?"
Managing carefully to open and close the door without dropping Jessica, the hunter turned on the lights and sat her on the wide edge of the recessed bathtub. It was large enough to comfortably fit a lying-down person, even one as big as Sam. After opening the faucet, soon steam started to warm the room.
"Precious, are you awake?" Sam asked, lifting one of her arms to take off the grimy jacket.
"More or less. But I'll doze off as soon as you get me in hot water."
"Don't fight it if you fall asleep," he advised her, holding her by the waist for a second to slide her ragged jeans down her buttocks. "I promise I won't let you drown."
"Oh, are you getting kinky ideas, you sly dog?"
"Yeah, you wish!"
"... Actually I do," Jessica said, humour suddenly gone from her voice.
Sam frowned, a bit confused for the unexpected shift in the mood, but he got quite a good guess for the reason as soon as he undressed Jessica to her undergarments.
Her whole body was covered in marks. There were some shallow scratches that caused Sam no concern, but also several bruises of different colouring, a clear sign of frequent beatings. Maybe one or two could be of another origin, perhaps fighting or a clumsy fall, but this many... There were blistering burns on the soles of her feet, obviously to prevent an easy escape by running. One of her elbows was swollen, evidencing that she had somehow twisted it not long ago. A fresh new scar below her sternum. And last, on her left thigh, there were three cauterized gashes, as if something had ripped her with a scorching claw.
Sam grimaced when he saw it. Due to the vast experience he had about wounds, he knew that one would never completely heal. It was going to show forever.
"Sam?" Jessica looked at him, worried and insecure. "Am I still pretty to you?"
"Of course you are, Jess," he said, hugging her delicately, and hardly containing the sniffles that fought to leave his throat. "You're my precious jewel, and that's not gonna change, ever. You'll always be beautiful to me."
The Winchester let go of her and kissed her once, caressing her head. After stripping Jessica down completely, he took her in his arms again and put her in the water, slowly and carefully, watching her reaction for signs of pain or discomfort. There was none except a little hiss when she was fully covered by the hot water, warming her body like she had yearned for weeks.
Sam let her relax in the calm atmosphere for a few minutes, before going to the shower stall that she normally used and retrieving her sponge. He had missed the smell of her bath gel.
"I lost my panties in another world," Jessica chuckled tiredly when Sam started gently rubbing her arm. "It sounds like the beginning of a really bad novel."
"It does."
"At least they weren't the ones with the Smurfs theme. You like those."
"I like any panties that happen to be on you," Sam smiled, adding to the joke. "But the moment they're off, they strangely lose all their appeal."
"I remember. Sexy lingerie was totally wasted on you, puppy."
"Jess...
"When I recover, I expect to see you in polkadot stockings again."
"Jess!" he exclaimed, a bit flustered. "You're making it very difficult for me to maintain a proper mindset right now."
"Am I? Oh, I'm so sorry..." she apologized playfully, before sighing again. "I just missed you, Sam. I was afraid all the time. I feared that I'd never see you again."
The hunter kissed her temple as he pushed her a bit forward, and started scrubbing her back.
"I know, precious. Me too."
They didn't talk anymore, and Sam thought his soulmate had really fallen asleep. He bathed her tenderly, cleaning the dirt from her injuries; he would apply disinfectant on some later, just in case. He washed her hair twice, because after the first time, the water in the bathtub had already turned murky and grey. The second time, the shower rinsed everything off.
After drying her, Sam wrapped Jessica in another fluffy towel and picked her up bridal style again, intending to leave her in her bedroom to keep sleeping. But the moment Jessica sensed they were on the move again, she snuggled on his shoulder.
"I'll be cold, puppy," she mumbled, not opening her eyes. "Don't go, please. Keep me warm."
"Are you still awake?" Sam asked, considering what to do. "Are you hungry? Do you want to eat anything?"
Jessica shook her head, cuddling further against his body, and Sam decided he could wait a few more hours to know what had happened in the alternate universe, because he was staying with his fiancée and that was final.
He entered his bedroom, put Jessica on the bed and closed the door. He made her drink a couple of glasses of water before she passed out completely. Sam had to tuck the both of them under the sheets, but when he was finally able to lie down with her, there wasn't a single trace of complaint in his heart.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
It happened every time. Every freaking time they thought the world was safe and sound, something else happened and everything crumbled to the ground, and this time was no different. AltMichael, as Dean very cleverly had named him, was apparently a brain-sneaking douchebag with massive wanderlust, and had chosen their universe as his vacationing place. What a joy.
"And then AltMichael said that my blood should be holy enough and stabbed me," Jessica was telling between spoonfuls of soup. "As it seems, he was right."
"Yeah, go figures," Sam snorted, pinching his nose.
"What about Lucifer?" Castiel asked, concern in his voice.
"I didn't see him again after we were captured, but I don't think he was treated any better than me. Quite the opposite, actually, if AltMichael really took his grace for the spell. I mean, his own brother?"
"Yeah, well. Angels are pretty much dicks with wings," Dean sneered, earning a disgruntled frown from Castiel. "No offense, Cas."
"That might give us some time to take the upper hand on him," Sam pondered. "Even if AltMichael didn't take it all, Lucifer's grace is going to take a while to regenerate. And if he didn't want to spend his own, even when no other choice was available, I doubt he'll do it now when he already has another source."
Every other person in the room looked at him like he had just grown another head. Was he serious?
"Sammy, why in Hell would we want to go to him?" the older hunter snarled. "The only reason we wanted that spell from the Demon Tablet was to get Jess and Jack back home, and they're already here. We don't need to cross dimensions anymore."
"If we don't go, then eventually he will come, Dean. We can't let that happen! And if what AltBobby said is true..." he looked sadly at Jess, and she nodded, "then better fight him there than here."
Dean snorted loudly, dragging a hand down his face. Damn his smartass of a little brother.
"I think Sam is right," Jack supported him. "The world I opened a door to... You were there only a little while, but I was days, and Jess was weeks. You don't know how it is, but we do. There's cinder everywhere, electric storms, savage creatures and rotting corpses wherever you go. But humans? There are barely any left. Their souls have already departed."
"Well, as good as that sounds, we're anyway in the same situation as AltMichael," Dean said, leaning back on his chair. "Or perhaps even worse, because sooner or later he'll be able to come, holy blood or not. But we can't get our hands on archangel's grace, not to mention the other two ingredients."
"Why not?" Jessica asked.
"Because there are no archangels left," Castiel explained. "Gabriel and Raphael are dead, Lucifer is already in the other world, and Michael... our Michael is out of reach, in the Cage, down in Hell."
"Didn't you get Sam and Dean out of Hell before?"
"It was different. Dean was more or less free in Hell, and I battled alongside my garrison to keep the demons away until I reached him. For Sam, I received assistance from the King of Hell, and even so, I was only able to raise his body through a crack in the Cage."
"But maybe you could temporarily summon Michael, like you did before with Lucifer, right?" Jessica suggested. "And... I don't know, distract him enough to collect his grace? How that even works, by the way?"
"Precious, there's no way we could get close enough to Michael to extract even a little bit of his grace," Sam swallowed hard, looking down. "And the summoning itself is impossible. I think we could convince Rowena to help us again, since she kinda owes me, but breaking into Hell? No way. You pretty much need a personal invitation from a big fish down there."
Dean's gaze wandered around, and wished he had a beer to distract himself with. He knew very well what was ailing his little brother at this moment, for it was the same thing that had gnawed at himself for eight years now.
Their other little brother, Adam, who was still trapped in the Cage with a reportedly insane Michael.
Dean, as discreetly as he could, fisted a hand against his mouth and bit his knuckle. Hard. Not making any noise, not giving anything away. But dammit, it was all he could do to restrain himself and not trash the entire room to pieces every time a reminder came up.
"I could go to Hell," Jack offered cheerfully, wanting to be helpful. "Do you have a map?"
Now it was his turn to be looked at as if he had spurted three extra limbs.
"There are no maps to Hell, Jack," Castiel clarified for him in a fatherly tone. "Either you cross a gate to the demons' territory, or you sell your soul and get dragged down later by hellhounds."
"You know, we could really have used Crowley's help for this," Sam admitted, quite annoyed. "Bastard as he was, he knew how to teamplay."
"That he did," Dean nodded, reminiscing. "You know, there was this time when we met Dad's old friend Tara, and Crowley brought..."
He suddenly stopped, eyes wide open, like he just realized something.
"Dean, what's the matter?" Castiel asked, worried.
"Holy shit," he mumbled. "I... I might have an idea. It's a long shot, an extremely long shot, but..."
"Ok, stop building up the tension and just tell us, jerk."
"Crowley, Sam! We were trying to locate the First Blade. Tara had found this spell to do it, but was never able to because she lacked the last ingredient, kraken... something. That son-of-a-witch said he had a ton in a safe box in Belize and he brought it, just like that! And I know the sleazy rat had vaults like that all around the world."
"Ahhh... yeah, I'm not really following your point, Dean."
"I do," Castiel intervened, serious. "Anything from a kraken is extreme rare. If Crowley had such an ingredient, and enough of it to easily part with, it is possible that many other unusual things are kept in those vaults. Perhaps even one of those that we need."
"As I said, it's a long shot. But at least it's s start."
"That's great and all, but..." Jessica hesitated, regretting to pinpoint the obvious hole in the plan. "Do you even know where exactly are the vaults?"
"No, I don't. But we were able to find the Angel Tablet that was hidden in one of also many Lucifer's crypts when that bitch Meg told us. We know the pattern, so we know what to look for."
"Locating and raiding these vaults, or crypts, or whatever... will take us a lot of time, Dean," Sam sighed, abated. "Time that we might not have. And I think the idea is good, really, but if you want to give it a try we'll need help."
"What's with you always wanting to drag more people into our messes?" Dean protested angrily. "First you want to rush head first into an apocalyptic world, and now this?"
"I wasn't talking about people this time, Dean, geez! I meant angels. They're knowledgeable, and strong, and resourceful... and more important, many. They'll have a better chance at finding these vaults than us."
"Oh, really," Dean retorted, skeptic. "Please do tell me, how many burglar angels have you met? Who do you know that will be able to find all this holes in the earth and dig up the treasures?"
The Winchesters were more than willing to keep arguing for a while, despite the spectators, and they would have done so if Dean's last rhetoric questions hadn't made Castiel's face light up with an idea. The hunter saw it, but almost as fast as it had appeared, the light died again.
"What?" Dean asked the seraph, raising a hand in air to stop his brother's talking.
"It... it is nothing," Castiel said, shaking his head mournfully. "I thought of someone, but it is useless anyway."
"You don't know that, Cas. Maybe it isn't."
"Yes, I do, Dean."
"C'mon, just tell us."
"Balthazar, alright?!" the remorseful angel snapped. "Balthazar was brave and witty enough to fake his own death, sneak into Heaven's armory unnoticed, and steal several artifacts basically under the nose of its keeper, Virgil. If there was ever an angel capable to locate all these vaults and crypts, I am confident that was Balthazar. Do you understand now why I knew it was useless?"
Dean shut his mouth, not sure what to say to apologize, but before he could even try, Castiel stormed out of the room in a frenzy. The silence that followed his departure was full of pity.
"Who is Balthazar?" Jack asked, confused by the emotional display.
"Balthazar was an angel," Sam answered him. "They were, uh... garrison teammates, I guess. He also was probably Cas' only real winged friend."
"What happened to him? Where is he?"
"He... he's dead, Jack."
Upon hearing that, the nephilim's face turned forlorn. After hesitating a moment, he stood up and followed his father figure out of the room.
"Well, that went peachy," Dean sighed, frustrated at himself.
His phone started ringing and vibrating then. Dean took it out of his pocket and looked at the familiar number. At any other time, he would have been happy to receive a call from it, but his mood had turned sour due to his clash with his angel.
"Hey, Jody. What's up?"
Sam and Jessica looked at him, wanting to hear whatever news Jody had to tell, but instead of putting the sheriff on the speaker, Dean froze.
"Jody, listen to me. Whoever is that girl that showed up bloody at your door, she can't be Kaia."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jack followed the trail of Castiel's aura outside the bunker, where he found him sitting on the railing just above the door. It was a sunny day, which contrasted with the dejected mood of the angel.
"I needed a minute out," he spoke. "But Dean and Sam's idea is not bad. I will go to the playground and plead Heaven again for help. I do not have great expectations about their collaboration, though, considering how that unfolded last time."
"Sam told me that Balthazar was your friend, and that he died," the boy said with sorrow.
"It is not only that, Jack," Castiel lamented. "Balthazar did not simply die, I was the one who killed him."
"You did?" Jack frowned in confusion. "But why? Wasn't he your friend?"
"He was. The best I had in the entire Heaven, or... possibly the only real one." Castiel intertwined his fingers and rested his chin on them, pensive. "But this happened after the Apocalypse had been barely averted. Not everyone was happy about it, specially the archangel Raphael. He wanted to start it again and bring it to completion. Back then, I was desperate for a way to stop him, and... I made several regrettable choices that still haunt me nowadays."
"What happened?" Jack asked, sitting down next to him on the railing, his feet dangling in the air.
"I worked with Crowley... the King of Hell, in order to find and open Purgatory. Up until then, Balthazar had been helping me to distract Raphael and gain more power through human souls, but when he learned what I intended to do with Purgatory he betrayed me to Dean and Sam. And I believe, I know, that he did it out of concern for me, but at that time I was already under so much pressure that... I could not stand it. Balthazar had become a liability, and I had to dispose of it."
His voice sounded broken by grief. Closing his eyes, Castiel hid his face in his hands and breathed deeply. Jack raised a hand to the seraph's back and started to rub in a comforting manner.
"When I went mad, Jack, I did many bad things. I annihilated hundreds of my brethren that wanted to go against me, but none of them... none of them I regret as much as I regret Balthazar's death."
Jack could feel the pain that was shaking the angel's heart. The heavy emotional turmoil was flowing from Castiel in waves, as perfectly clear as the light of day. It hurt Jack's human senses like the cut of a knife and he didn't know how to stop it, but... in TV, everyone seemed to feel better after hugging each other. So he did that, scooted closer to Castiel and wrapped his arms around him, resting his head on the shoulder.
"Balthazar," Jack called, his eyes inadvertently glowing gold, squeezing the angel tight. "If he was really that good of a friend, he would understand. I don't think he'd hold a grudge against you, Castiel."
The seraph didn't answer, and simply hugged his son back. That was a comforting thought, but the truth couldn't be masked forever. How could he expect Balthazar to ever forgive him, when he himself was incapable?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Again in that place that was no place, where time was eternal because it didn't exist and nothingness echoed across the infinite void... an annoyed voice could be heard whining worse than a toddler.
"Oh damn no," it denied, infuriated. "I'm not going through this again. Scram out of here right now, Smart Guy nº2!"
The poor being that had just been awaken, before he could even utter a word, was gripped tightly by the nape and thrown back into existence. When the interdimensional dizziness evaporated from his senses and he was able to open his eyes, the first thing he recognized was a very tall and luxurious modern building of a kinda strange shape, situated in a small artificial island.
"Burj Al Arab," he chuckled, somehow impressed. "Okay, not starting bad for a comeback, darling."
Thanks for reading and reviewing!
In case anyone wants to know what other characters will (eventually) appear even if just for a single scene, here's an alphabetical list:
Adam Milligan, Alex Jones, Alicia Banes, Atropos, Becky Rosen, Bela Talbot, Ben Braeden, Benny Lafitte, Chuck Shurley, Claire Novak, Cole Trenton, Daphne Allen, Donna Hanscum, Emma, Eve, Frank Devereaux, Gabriel, Garth Fitzgerald, Goldie Schmidtlapp, Jacob Pond, Jesse Turner, Jody Mills, John Winchester, Julia Wright, Kali, Kevin Tran, Lily Sunder, Linda Tran, Lydia, Madeline, Mary Winchester, Max Banes, Michael, Naomi, Nick and Patience Turner.
