A captured Lucifer sitting in the war room, Grace held Dean's hand as they waited, watching Rowena go about her work. Everyone had scattered, gathering all of the ingredients she needed for the spell as Grace managed to tune in and locate Lucifer. "Grace, let's get married."
"What? We are, when we get your mom back."
"No, I mean right now. We have a couple of holy men, an unholy man, witnesses, we've got everything we need."
"Dean, why are you so bent on getting married as fast as we can? You said it yourself, there's no legal benefit. We can wait for your mom to be here." She could feel the eyes of everyone else in the room on them, the Devil included.
"We're walking in to fight Michael, who's about as powerful as Chuck is over here. If anything happens… I know it'll make no real difference, but if anything happens to me while I'm over there, it would be nice to know that we've done it."
"Very well, then," Rowena said, standing up from her chair. "Gabriel, dear, fetch a Bible. What, I'm your maid of honor, aren't I?" she asked when Grace and Dean turned to her. "Samuel is best man, and like you said, you've a couple of witnesses. Lucifer, dear, I imagine this is your first wedding, so just, ah, don't say anything."
Sam pulled his brother aside, the two of them talking for a minute while Gabriel hunted down a Bible in the Men of Letters' library. "Congratulations."
"Sammy -"
"I mean it, Dean. She's good for you. She was made for you. She puts up with your shit, which is frankly a lot more than I can say about a lot of people. I understand why you want to do this now, but we're going to get out of there okay."
"Fellas, we ready?" Gabriel had reappeared, Lucifer rolling his eyes at his brother. Rowena waved her hand dismissively at him, binding Lucifer's tongue to the top of his mouth. There would be no interruptions for her friends. "Alright, let's get this party started. This is my first wedding too, well, my first wedding since I got married by one of those Elvis impersonators in Vegas. Didn't last too long, but I also don't think you want me to do this whole thing sounding like the King. So, Graceland, Dean-o, take it away."
Grace turned to Dean, taking his hands. "I guess I'll go first. Umm, I would've written something better if I'd had time, but, Dean, I've, I first realized I was in love with you when we were hunting that rugaru with Bobby and Rufus down in Louisiana. He'd driven through and picked us up for the weekend while your dad was away and Sam was staying with some friends. We were crammed in the back of his truck, and I remember sitting there, playing poker with you so we wouldn't get bored. Something just clicked in my brain, and suddenly you weren't just Sam's older brother who'd watch out for us on hunting trips. I was so afraid of what it meant."
Sam smiled to himself, clandestinely taking his phone out of his pocket so he could record the rest of their impromptu ceremony. Cas caught on, offering the camera a half-smile before he turned his eyes back to Grace. "I thought about it for a while, that old cliche about falling for your friend's brother. Well, I'm glad I did. I wasn't meant for a normal life. You and Sam would leave, but the monsters were still there. So I'd take care of them. That's when I realized that I was marked for this life a long time ago. I'm glad I've been able to go through it with you. We live scared out of our minds so much, constantly trying to get a few days of peace before the next thing comes at us. When I'm with you, even when we're in an old motel afraid of what could break down our door in the middle of the night, I'm not as afraid. You make me smile, Dean Winchester, and for that, I'll always be grateful."
"Grace," Dean began, with a quick glance at his brother. "When you were six years old and you decided Sammy needed a birthday party, I knew you were a good kid. You're his best friend, I'd see you all the time. You guys annoyed the hell out of me when we were little, but you were family. And then we got older, and I watched you grow up while I grew up with no one. I didn't have a best friend for a long time. A really long time. My best friend was always my brother. But I'd hang out with you, I'd take you home, and we'd go hunting together. I realized you were more than just Sammy's friend when I dropped that spider on you while we were camped out near Salt Lake." He smiled at the memory, saying, "I don't know how it hit me, but it did, and I was terrified. You were going places. This wasn't your life. Then when we finally said something to each other, it just felt right. And then I had to leave again. I met other people. I thought I could settle down with some of them. But there was this idea in the back of my brain, this nagging thing that… no matter who I was with, I'd still think about you."
No one but Sam caught the pointed glance at Cas. The angel knew, of course. They'd largely denied anything between them, but Sam understood. Grace did too. She and Dean had talked about it long ago, but she'd known even before then. He thought he was going to throw up when he first brought it up, sitting under a bridge with her after they'd taken down a kappa.
"And then you came back, or I came back, or some cosmic force brought us together again. You've saved my life so many times. You got me through Hell, Gracie, and whenever I dream about where I want to end up, it's always next to you."
"Alright. I'm supposed to say something holy, but everything I say is a gift to humanity, so, Dean, do you take this woman to be your," Gabriel hesitated, knowing that to the government, he was legally dead, "lawfully wedded wife?"
"I do."
"And Grace, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
"I do," Grace smiled, staring into the eyes that had captured her so long ago.
"Then I can pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Winchester. You may -" Dean leaned in and kissed her, cutting the archangel off. "Well, congratulations, you two. Now let's go save some lives."
A round of "congratulations" went through the group, Rowena unbinding Lucifer's tongue so he could speak again. To their surprise, even the Devil offered his congratulations, keeping his eyes locked on Rowena as she went about her spellwork. Dean pulled Grace into his arms, holding onto her while they watched Rowena. "I love you, Mrs. Winchester," he whispered.
"I love you too, Mr. Winchester. We'll save the cake and the champagne toast for when you boys get back. Maybe I'll work on making a cake while Rowena holds the rift open," she suggested. "Do you feel better?"
"Still pretty worried about what's on the other side, but yeah."
"Good."
With the grace of an archangel, the rift crackled open, the boys nodding to each other. Cas and Gabriel went first, Sam following close behind. Dean said goodbye to Grace, telling her he'd be right back. "I'll see you in a minute," he promised, Grace giving him a kiss and letting him go.
The bunker seemed so much emptier without the four of them. Just Rowena, Lucifer, and Grace were left, waiting. "So," Lucifer finally began, "the Devil and two witches walk into a bar…" Grace sat down across from Rowena, summoning the power Miczael had left her with to help keep the rift open. It would be a lot easier on Rowena if they shared the burden of keeping it open, drawing on both of their powers instead of just one. Rowena had been a witch for much longer, but Grace could draw on an ancient magic, a dark magic that she hadn't been able to tap into for very long. "Alright, are we just going to sit here in silence until you bleed me dry?"
"What is there to talk about, darling?" Rowena asked, tension in her voice.
"How about the fact that I'm pretty sure that was the first wedding the Devil and an archangel have both attended? I've popped into a few Church of Satan ones, but this is something else. You know, when I was in Sam's head, I saw a whole lot of what he thought about you, Gracie."
"Careful there, only Dean calls her that."
Grace frowned, but she let it go. "What did you see?"
"Bunch of hunting trips, a couple of birthdays and holidays, the time he caught you two making out in the back of the Impala, the time he caught you doing some other stuff in the back of the Impala - you didn't notice him then, but he went right back into the hotel. He never told you about that one, but it took a while to scrub it from his brain."
"Maybe we shouldn't make casual conversation with the Devil while we're working," Rowena suggested.
"Good idea."
The two of them sat there catching up for a while, trading stories about the places they'd been in the last few months. With a constant drip of archangel grace right there, holding the rift open wasn't too difficult. Rowena told Grace about her old coven, about her plans for a new one, about some of the history she'd seen. Grace had just started a story about her time in the Apocalypse World when Lucifer sprang up, jumping into the rift.
"No!" Grace was about to go after him, but she realized there was no way they'd be able to keep it open if she left, and no guarantee they'd be able to reopen it in the same spot if it died. So they stayed, waiting and hoping the others would come through soon.
Charlie was the first one through, followed by a couple of hunters Grace didn't recognize. Jack. Mary led more hunters in, everyone spilling into the war room like they were evacuating the Apocalypse World. Neither of the witches had time to say anything, fully concentrated on keeping the rift open. Bobby. Cas. "Where," Grace managed before falling silent again.
"They're right behind us. So is Michael."
Sam and Dean tumbled through just as the rift died, both Grace and Rowena dropping back in their chairs from sheer exhaustion. Dean went to check on her first, Grace insisting that she was fine. She looked out to where everyone had congregated, seeing that they'd brought a whole band of hunters and refugees through the rift. Slowly getting up, Grace told Dean that she was going to get a room set up for Rowena and then take a nap. "I'll get everyone else's spots together in a bit. I just need twenty minutes, maybe half an hour. We're going to need to go on a supply run, though. Wait, where's Gabriel?"
"He didn't make it." Dean let her go, he and Sam taking stock of everyone and making sure no one had been injured.
Grace got Rowena set up in one of the spare rooms before heading to Dean's room, falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. It was a nice, dreamless sleep, only interrupted by the creak of the door. She sat up quickly, instinctively thinking someone was after her. "It's just me. Dinner's ready if you're hungry."
"Huh?" She could make out the outline of Dean leaning against the doorframe. "How long have I been out?"
"A couple of hours. I let you sleep. I knew you'd need it."
"How's everyone doing?" she asked with a yawn, standing up and stretching.
Dean shrugged, telling her that, "About as well as you'd expect. Cas broke out some of the cots from the basement, and we've got as many rooms set up as we can get. Rowena's moving into your room. I figured it would be better if it was someone you knew in there. Well, maybe you can start moving your stuff in here in the morning, Mrs. Winchester."
"Of course."
She followed him down the hall as Dean kept talking. "We've got some great hunters here. Sam's putting together a presentation to bring them up to speed on our world. We're going to give them the rundown after dinner. Maybe you can break out some of those old photos and fill Bobby in on what our Bobby did here." He stopped outside of the war room, taking her hand. "You ready?"
"It's just dinner. Why wouldn't I be?" Dean smirked as he led her in, the crowd of hunters shouting their congratulations. Sam and Mary stood proudly by, watching Grace take everything in. They'd made a cake, topping it with Christmas ornaments, the only things they could find in a hurry. All of the hunters had gathered around the map table, which had been covered with plates and napkins. Cas had hung streamers from the pillars around the room, not quite getting how to keep them up, so half of them were twisted together. Sam handed them glasses of champagne as Grace turned to ask, "Dean, what is this?"
"We were going to celebrate getting everyone over here safely, but there's something else that needs celebrating too."
Sam spoke up, quieting the group. "Alright, everybody. I know it's been a long day, and I know you're all hungry, but tonight we're going to eat dessert first. There should be a couple bottles of champagne going around for whoever wants any. Over in the Apocalypse World, there weren't many weddings, and when there were, they weren't much of anything. But my brother - he's a hero. And Grace, Grace has made both of our lives so much better. So tonight we're celebrating a victory, but we're also celebrating them."
They passed out pieces of cake, Sam filling everyone in on what they had missed in the Apocalypse World as they ate. Mary found her way over to Grace, telling her how proud she was to have a daughter-in-law like her. "The second I saw him come over with that ring on, I knew," Mary confessed, watching Dean start on another slice of cake. Sure enough, he was already wearing a silver ring, the old one that he used to wear to open beer bottles. You really have helped him a lot. All of this has been hard on him. His entire life has been hard. I know my boys aren't going to be able to settle down like normal people, but I'm glad you're helping him make things as normal as possible."
It was nearly one in the morning before Dean and Grace made it to bed. They'd stayed up talking to Bobby and Charlie, making sure everyone else was resting comfortably before they collapsed into their own bed. Despite how exhausted they were, neither one of them felt like sleeping. Dean wrapped his arms around his wife, Grace rolling over so she could look at him. "We're finally free. We've got everyone back. Lucifer and Michael are locked in the Apocalypse World. Dean, we're finally free."
"Hey Grace?"
"Hmm?"
"If we're finally free to do whatever we want, how about working on those kids we've been talking about?"
"Maybe we should give that some time first, but I'm sure practicing wouldn't hurt." She leaned in to kiss him, Dean letting her pin him down on the bed.
"If you say so, Mrs. Winchester," he smirked.
Around six in the morning, there was a frantic knock on their door. Dean was up first, reaching for his gun. Grace drew the covers up around herself as he opened the door to find Sam standing there, looking like he'd been up for a while. "Honeymoon, man, you've got to let us sleep."
"Dean, we've got a problem. A Michael and Lucifer-sized problem."