Chapter Six
Sam hears yelling coming from inside the motel room, so he decides to go in and see what is going on. He walks in and sees Dean and Esther in a shouting match.
"I thought you were dead!" Dean yelled. "For years, Essie, I thought you died after you left for that hunt. But you left without any explanation, and you didn't even try to reach out to us!"
"I couldn't contact you, Dean! And you know that!" Essie yelled back. Sam felt like he was watching a tennis match.
"You let Michael attack you! Michael! You could've died Essie! You almost did die!"
"I was keeping him away from you and Cassie! He can't get to Cassie. I won't let him get to Cassie! I need to go." Essie moves carefully to start gathering her things in the corner of the room. She was limping, but she was determined to leave.
"You are going nowhere!" Dean says. His face drops a little and his voices lowers, "Let us help you."
Essie stops packing and sighs. "Don't make this harder than it is, Dean."
Sam barely hears Dean whisper, "Why do you have to go? Why?"
Essie looks up, tears in her eyes. "Because, Dean, the longer I stay here the more I put you guys at risk. If Michael finds out I survived, he will come after me again and he will find you. I can't let that happen."
"You don't need to do this alone. Essie, please! Don't go." Dean's says as his voice breaks.
Sam decides that this will be a good time to make his presence known. "What's going on?" Sam asks.
Essie jumps, startled by the fact that Sam was in the room. She didn't notice him walk in. "Sam, what did you hear?" Her face showed how nervous she was.
"Enough to know that something is going on that I don't know about."
"It's nothing, Sam." She says as she continues to pack her things.
"Esther," Dean growls, "If you don't tell him, I will."
Sam looks between Dean and Esther confused. "Esther, what's going on?"
Esther sighs and moves to sit on the edge of the bed that faces the other bed. "Sit down, Sam." She gestures to the other bed. Sam sits down and looks at Esther. Esther takes a deep breathe and says, "Sam, I'm an angel. I was the angel that raised Castiel, but he was taken from me to fight in Michael's army in the war against Lucifer. He was too young. They had to 'age' him, which meant they would have to erase his memories of me. After he left, my next assignment was to go down to earth and befriend you two. I was told to prepare you two for Castiel. Once I thought you to were ready to meet Castiel, I had to leave."
Sam stares at Esther, shocked. His faces morphed from confused, to hurt, to anger, to hurt again, and back to confused. "How did we not know you were an angel? Can't Cas see that you are an angel?"
Esther started to play with her necklace and looked at it with a fond smile on her face. "In order for me to make sure you thought I was human, I had to become human. Gabriel wanted me to remember Castiel, so he managed to get a hold of Castiel's angel blade and carved a piece out of it for me. It is supposed to look like an angel wing. I had to store my grace somewhere, and I thought the safest place to store my grace would be with me. So, I turned the angel wing into a necklace and I have never taken it off." Esther looks up to Sam with a pleading look in her eyes. "Please, you can't tell Castiel. Castiel cannot know that he was my charge. Please, Sam!"
Sam, confused as to why this should be kept secret, asks, "Why can't we tell Cas? Wouldn't he want to know that his mother figure is here?"
Esther chuckles and says, "Ok, first, I am not his mom. I am his older sister. I was just the one that raised him. He was my charge. Every angel gets one, whether it be human or angel. But that's another conversation for another time. When I lost Cassie, I was told that we were never meant to meet again. If he finds out who I am, then the angels will come for me. I couldn't do that to him. I couldn't tell him then leave him." Esther says quietly.
Dean mumbles, "You are already planning on leaving, so what's the difference."
"Dean!" Sam scolds.
Esther looks to Dean and says earnestly, "It is different, Dean. Right now, he doesn't know who I am. If I leave now, he won't think twice about it. He won't care if I leave."
"But we care, goddammit!" Dean yells. Esther winces at the bad language against her father. "What about us?! You're talking about not wanting to leave Castiel, but what about us? We care about you. We care if you leave. We will miss you if you leave!" Dean wipes a hand over his face, trying to hold back tears.
"Dean's right, Essie. You're like a little sister to us. We want to help you. Let us help you. What if Michael comes back—"
"Exactly, Sam. What if Michael comes back?!" Esther cuts Sam off and stands up. She wobbles a bit, but finds her balance after a second, keeping most of her weight off of her left leg. "If Michael comes back he will take Castiel! And what if Michael comes back and decides to take Dean, too! I won't let him take you. You may think of me as your little sister, but I am older than you can imagine. I'm older than Castiel. You two may be Castiel's charges, but I see you two as my charges. Angels must protect their charges at any cost. I will not let Michael take any of you!"
Dean and Sam sit there, stunned at her outburst, and stare at her. Esther limps over to her half-packed bag and continues packing. "Please, let me go. It's better this way."
Dean is the first one to speak. "I need a drink." Dean grabs a beer from the fridge and throws one to Sam, who catches it.
Esther looks to Dean, annoyed that Dean always turns to a beer in situations like this one. "You really need to stop drinking. I'm serious."
"You need to stop doing stupid shit like this or you will get yourself killed." Dean takes a swig of the beer, and whispers, "Let us help you, Essie. I don't want to loose you, too."
Esther stops packing and looks to Dean. Dean has his head down, looking at the floor, but she can see the way his eyes shimmer with unshed tears. She remembers all the people that Dean has lost, and Dean has blamed himself every time. Even when it wasn't his fault, he always felt like he could've done something. She realizes that if she were to die, Dean would blame himself. Her death is something Dean would never get over.
Esther takes a deep breathe nods her head and says quietly, "Okay. Okay, Dean. I won't leave. But you have to promise not to tell Castiel."
Then, the sound of wings fills the quiet. Castiel appears in the room next to Dean. Castiel looks to Esther with narrowed eyes. "Dean, we need to talk."
Dean jumps slightly but nods. "Ok, Cas. What do you need to talk about?"
Castiel finally takes his eyes away from Esther and says, "Alone." Castiel grabs Dean's arm and they fly away.
Esther looks at the spot where Dean and Castiel once were and then turns to Sam. "What was that all about?" She asks.
Sam shifts his weight from foot to foot and rubs a hand through his freakishly long gorgeous hair that girls always get jealous over. "Um… well, see, Cas, he… he doesn't really trust you."
Esthers smiles a little bit and says, "That's my Cassie. I'm not surprised."
Sam gives a nervous little laugh and looks to the floor. "He said he doesn't want us to trust you."
Esther laughs at that. "Again, I'm not surprised. You two are his charges. He doesn't trust anyone around you two. And the fact that I just called needing help and you rushed to my aid doesn't help either. Cassie won't trust me even after I leave."
Sam smiles. "You should sit down. You need to rest that leg."
Esther rolls her eyes with a smile on her face, "Okay, Sasquatch!" Esther sits down on the bed and grabs the remote and starts flipping through chanels.
Sam grabs his computer and sits on the other bed. "Oh, and I wouldn't call Castiel 'Cassie'. He really hates when people do that."
Esther smiles fondly and looks over at Sam. "I know, Sam. I was the only one who he would allow to call him that. A little while after he left, Gabriel and I were catching up and Gabriel said that he may have forgotten everything about me, but he still gets annoyed when other people call him Cassie. He doesn't know why it bothers him, he just knows that it does."
—
"Where are we?" Dean asks when they land.
"Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina," Castiel responds. "We need to talk about Esther. I don't trust her, Dean. She has a necklace made from the same material of an angel blade, but no angel is missing a blade. All the blades are accounted for. And she had the angel virus. Only angels get it, Dean! It is impossible for a human to get the angel virus. She may have been your friend once, Dean, but she is angel now, Dean. That's not your friend Esther!"
Dean looks at Castiel, speechless. Finally, he thinks of something to say. "Cas, if she was angel, don't you think we would know? Wouldn't you be able to tell if she was an angel?"
"That's the problem, Dean. I can only see her vessel. I can't see her grace. But only angels get the angel virus."
Dean sighs and rubs a hand over his face. He tries to keep his mind blank, just in case Cas tries to read his mind. Esther would be so mad at him if Castiel found out about her. "Ok, well, Michael was the one that attacked her, and he's an archangel. Maybe that has something to do with it?"
Castiel squints his face contemplates Dean's question. "Michael still could not have given her the angel virus if she was human."
Dean thinks for second. "What if she used to be possessed by an angel?"
Castiel tilts his head to the side a bit. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that what if an angel used to possess her, but then the angel left. Does the angel virus attack the grace?"
"No, the virus attacks the vessel, but only if the vessel still has something from the angel that possessed them with them. The angel virus is created when you cover an angel blade in a witch's blood. Once the blood and power from the angel blade enter the vessel's body, what you saw happen to Esther is what happens, but normally, they die. I have never seen anyone survive the angel virus."
"She told me that Michael had dipped his blood in a witch's blood before he met up with her. Maybe she has something of the angel that possessed her with her. Maybe Michael knew that and that's why he decided to cover his blade in a witch's blood."
Castiel has a 'lightbulb moment', as Dean calls it. "Her necklace."
Dean suddenly goes stiff. "Her necklace?"
"Her necklace is made out of an angel blade. That has to be from the angel that possessed her. We need to go." Castiel reaches out to grab Dean and fly him back to the motel when Dean takes a step back and holds his hand out.
"Whoa, Cas, are you sure? She has had that necklace since we met her. None of us believed angels were real before you. There is no way that she was possessed by an angel before that."
Cas tilts his head to the side and studies Dean's face. "Of course I'm sure, Dean. There is nothing else it could be. Now, let's go back to the motel. I need to talk to your friend Esther."
Castiel reaches out and grabs Dean before Dean could move back. "Wait, Cas, no…" Castiel flies back to the motel. He will protect the Winchesters, his charges, from this unknown person.