Ch 56
River was half through watching the doctor preform an emergency cesarian section during a Tsunami when the TV cut out. "Son of a bitch," she muttered angrily getting up to turn the dial on the ancient television finding nothing but static. Someone knocked loudly at the door and she clicked the TV off with an annoyed sigh.
"We paid for our god damned rooms, lady. Its none of your god damn business who I fuck-" River yelled.
The woman clutched at the gold cross around her neck and straightened her curved back, "I will not have you take the lords name in vain. If you and your 'friends'" she sneered, "Want to continue staying at my motel you will heed the Lords commandments."
River noticed Dean and Sam walking up and spun towards them, "This crazy old bitty is trying to tell me we can't stay in the same room because we aren't married. Because the Angels have forbidden it! Along with a whole bunch of other shit."
Dean tucked his hands in his pocket and nodded, "Yeah ok. Gimme five minutes I'll get my stuff and bunk with my brother." River crossed her arms icily over her chest as the woman and her metal walker made their slow trek back to the motel office. "Riv-"
"I want out of this town," River cut him off.
"Tomorrow, ok? We'll leave tomorrow. But for tonight and until we pass the city limits we follow their rules-"
"This is bullshit Dean. The TV is out, the cellphones are out and now this…this is some Jonestown bullshit." River muttered angrily. "We're being cut off."
Dean grabbed his duffle bag and stopped in the doorway where Sam was waiting, "Come get a drink with us before Paul closes shop."
River shook her head, "I'm going to bed. You guys better be ready to blow this popsicle stand at sun up."
Paul's was empty. He stood behind the bar polishing clean glasses, the bright neon 'OPEN' sign flashing defiantly in the window. "You run out of beer?" Dean asked as he and his brother entered the silent bar.
Paul scoffed, "Hardly. Guess everyones taking Leah's latest revelations pretty seriously."
"Except you?" Sam asked him.
Paul nodded, "I've never prayed before in my life. I'm not a believer in spite of what I've seen lately. If I go to hell-well I'm going with my beliefs or lack there of firmly in place."
"Hell, I'll drink to that," Dean told him smiling.
Back at the church Leah received another frightening message . The young woman fell to her knees screaming and begging for mercy as people gathered around her. "Oh god! Oh god, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I told them!" She screamed clutching at her face.
"Leah, honey what is it?" Walt asked his daughter.
Leah opened her tear filled eyes, "Daddy the Angels are screaming! They're screaming at me. They're so mad."
"Why?" Catherine asked.
"They say there are some in town not listening. Not following their commandments. We must make sure everyone is obeying or they will abandon us like they did Pray. We will be cut off from Heaven." Leah sobbed. "We have until dawn tomorrow…then we will all face our final judgment."
Catherine took Leah's hand, "Who is it? Did they tell you who is disobeying?"
Leah nodded, "Yes. They gave me their names and instructions on how to deal with them."
"Tell us," someone in the crowd yelled as They pressed in tighter around Leah and Walt.
"Listen to me, we have to remain calm." Gideon said trying to get the attention of the frightened people. "Leah stop this. Someone is going to get hurt." He said leading her away from the frightened people.
Leah looked up at her father, "Daddy get your hands off of me. Or your name will be on that list." Walt let go of his daughter and stepped away. Something had changed in his little girl, her eyes were cold and calculating. He knew with a few words from her his church would turn on him.
Leah recited the names and locations she had received in her latest vision. The frenzied crowd grabbed weapons, rope and containers of gasoline.
The first place the mob hit was the small tattoo shop at the edge of town. Peter, the owner, had lived in Blue Sky his whole life only leaving for a short stint to complete his apprenticeship at a big shop in Billings. Bricks were thrown through the plate glass window, followed by a molotov cocktail. Peter and his cat barely made it down the fire escape and into his car before the flames engulfed the entire building. They didn't get away though. A number of Peter's neighbors and friends pulled him from the car and beat him until he was unconscious. His cat hid under the front seat meowing despondently as Peter was carried away into the darkness.
Paul was walking Sam and Dean to the door ready to close the bar early and head home when Catherine and several others charged in. "Cathy, what's this about?" Paul asked.
Catherine cocked her head, reread the scribbled list she clutched in her hand and looked at the brothers, "You two can go."
"No, I think we'll stay," Dean told her.
She gave them a tight lipped sneer before turning her cold eyes back to Paul. " Paul you were warned. The Angels gave us such simple rules to follow. You brought their wrath down on all of us
," she said pulling a gun out her jacket. Dean and Sam stepped forward but were shoved back into the wall by several men each holding rifles.
Paul raised his hands, "Cathy, calm down. Ok, we are friends. I was the Best Man at your wedding. I was at Dylan's christening."
"That was before!" Catherine yelled, the gun in her hands shook. "You're disobeying! You are a sinner and you are not going to keep me from my son!" She squeezed the trigger and Paul let out a pained grunt, his hands going disbelieving to the bullet hole in his chest.
"NO!" Sam and Dean yelled in unison. But it was too late. Paul sunk to his knees then slumped forward dead. Catherine crossed his name off the list and left the bar without a glance back at her dead friend. The men release the brothers and they stood still for several long seconds.
River sighed and turned over on the lumpy mattress. She couldn't get comfortable, she was cold and there was too much on her mind to sleep so she got out of bed and tried the TV again. She clicked the knob through channel after channel of static. "God damn it," she muttered angrily.
"Taking my fathers name in vain used to be a stone-able offense," Castile's gravelly voice emanated from the darkness behind her.
"God damn it!" River yelled louder spinning around to face the Angel. Cas stumbled out of the shadows towards her. "Cas, what the shit dude? Can't you return a fucking phone call."
Cas hiccuped, closed his eyes and swayed slightly on his feet, "I don't answer to you River McGregor."
"Yeah, I got it Seraphim first class Captain Smitey McSmiterson…" Castiel scoffed, his lips blowing out making a 'pfft' noise. "What the hell is wrong with you?" River asked him as he sat heavily on her bed.
He shrugged, "I found a liquor store."
"And?" River asked.
"And I drank it." He answered and laughed drunkly.
River ran her fingers through her hair pushing it away from her face, "Are you saying your drunk?"
"No," he answered opening one blue eye and trying to focus on her. "Yes…I like alcohol. I think that's one of the very best things you humans have ever come up...the fermenting of various grains and fruit..."
River let out a long breath and pinched the bridge of her nose whispering, "Give me a break…." She sat down next to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "Cas, buddy come on I think you should take a nap or something."
"I don't sleep. I'm still technically an Angel." He said digging around in the pockets of his trench coat until he found the bottle of blueberry vodka he'd brought with him. He unscrewed the cap and drained the bottle in several long gulps. River rolled her eyes as Cas smacked his lips with the last drop of alcohol. "That was very good," he murmured into the empty bottle.
"Hey, Cas before you get anymore entertaining, the folks here know a real spiffy Enochian spell that exorcises demons like that." She snapped her fingers in his face. "How come you never bothered to teach it to us."
Cas finally slumped backwards onto the bed and slurred, "What shpell?"
Rivers eyebrows drew together as she tried to remember the wording since Dylan never got to teach it to her properly and began to recite the unfamiliar words. Cas began giggling causing River's voice to waiver self consciously. "What's so funny?"
"It's a fake…"
River shook her head, "Cas I've seen it work."
"Do you know what it means?" He asked peeking at her through half closed lids.
"Something about a sheep?" She answered.
"Your Enochian is terrible," he laughed again."It means: You breed with the mouth of a goat." River stared at him becoming more annoyed by the second. "It's funnier in Enochian." Cas told her. " Who taught you that?"
"Leah Gideon, she said she learned it form the Angels, she's a prophet-" River said.
Cas sat up suddenly, "She is not a prophet."
"Yeah, she is Cas. She's got the visions and the Bat phone to Heaven."
Castiel ran his hands along his jaw, "I have the name of every Prophet that ever was and ever will be burned into my very being and Leah Gideon is not a Prophet…" The Angel snapped his wings and disappeared from the room.
"Son of a bitch," River muttered as she pulled her jeans and boots back on. Screw waiting until morning to get the hell out of this town. She pulled on her jacket and opened the door. "Leah?" River took a startled step back. Leah Gideon stood in front of the door with her hand raised ready to knock. She tilted her head and gave River a saccharine smile. It was the last thing River saw before the butt of a rifle crashed into the side of her face.
Dean and Sam walked slowly away from the bar trying not to garner anymore undue attention. Catherine and her group of wild eyed followers carried Paul's body to the back of a truck and drove away. "What the hell are we supposed to do here, Dean? How do we fix this?" Sam asked quietly as a wood paneled station wagon peeled out of the dual parking lot following Catherine's truck, tires screeching in its wake.
"There isn't gonna be any fixing this town," Dean said shaking his head and looking toward the motel office hoping that Mrs. Jones and her gold cross had retired for the evening. She had not. The old woman stood at the window staring at him and his brother. "God damn it…I mean evenin' Padre," Dean said as Pastor Gideon hurried towards them. He was pale and covered in sweat.
"I think something terrible is about to happen," he started.
Dean laughed, "Yeah I hate to break it to you but shits already happening. Catherine just shot Paul. Just shot him dead. The Angels told her he was a sinner."
"Oh god," Walt groaned, he ran a shaking hand along his mouth. "Leah had a vision, the Angels gave her a final set of warnings and instructions. They told her our final judgment is tomorrow at dawn." Sam opened their motel room and waived the Pastor inside. Castiel stood inside the room clutching a large leather bound book and finishing a bottle of Rosé.
"Well, look who decided to join the party." Dean grunted walking to the sink in the kitchenette so he could put on a pot of coffee. "Where the hell have you been?"
Cas dropped the bottle of wine on the carpet and watched as it rolled under one of the beds, "On a bender."
"Did you say on a bender?" Sam asked. Castiel stumbled to the couch and sat down, tossing the heavy book unceremoniously onto the coffee table.
"I'm sorry but who is this?" Pastor Walt asked looking down at Castiel who appeared to have drifted off for a momentary nap.
Dean crossed his arms over his chest, "That's Cas. Castiel. He's an Angel." Walt looked to Sam for confirmation who nodded giving him a 'it's true' look.
"An Angel? Are you the one speaking to my daughter?" Walt asked kneeling before Castiel reverently.
Cas roused himself, "That is not your daughter. Your daughter is dead, buried in a shallow grave a few hundred paces behind your church."
"Wh-what? No, my daughter has been chosen by God-" Walt said disbelieving.
The Angel shook his head, "No. That thing masquerading as your daughter is the Whore."
"Hey, Cas. Jesus Christ, learn some bedside manner," Dean harped. Castiel lurched forward and flipped through the pages of the book in front of him.
"The Whore of Babylon," Castiel clarified tapping his finger on the page. "She is a creature that is risen when Satan walks the Earth. She is able to take human form, read and manipulate minds, she has control over lesser demons. Her duty is to damn as many souls to hell as possible."
"This just keeps getting better," Dean murmured. "How do we kill it?"
Castiel once again searched through the folds of his jacket. "With this," he retrieved an ash-grey wooden stake and placed it on top of the book. "This is made from a Babylonian Cypress tree. It must wielded by a true servant of God…so that means you're out." Cas added pointing at Dean. "I am Fallen, my father has forsaken me. Sam of course is an abomination." Sam huffed loudly. "River…well that goes with out saying."
"Pastor Gideon, he's the Holiest one out of all of us. He can do it," Dean volunteered. "You up to it, Padre?"
"Will it save my town?" He asked.
Cas gave him an uncertain shrug, "It depends on what your definition of saved is. The Whore is the harbinger of the Final Days. She delivers souls to Hell to boost Lucifers power in the coming fight against Michael. Your town will most likely still die just maybe not tonight…"
"Cas that's not helping," Sam told him.
"I'll go wake River up." Dean said leaving the room. Sam got up and poured Cas a cup of black coffee. The Angle grimaced at it setting it down untouched on the coffee table next to the book and cypress stake. Dean returned a minute later, his eyes glinting with fear. "She's not in her room."
Something cold splashed onto River's face making her jerk awake. The acrid stench of gasoline burned her nose and eyes causing her to cough and splutter. "God damn it!" she yelled. She tried to raise her arms to wipe the stinging fuel out of her eyes but quickly realized they were tied behind her. She whipped her head to the side trying to figure out where she was and what she was tied to but her eyes couldn't focus around the stinging fumes and liquid dripping down her hair and soaking into her t-shirt. A blurry shape appeared in front of her as she tried to blink the caustic liquid out of her eyes. The shape reached out and struck her across the mouth.
"Even now, when your judgment is upon you you blaspheme in the house of the Lord," Catherine hissed. The fresh set of tears helped wash the gasoline out of River's eyes.
"What the fuck- what the fuck is this?" River yelled at her. The bridge of her nose and cheek throbbed where she'd been hit. Catherine stepped back, making room for Leah who bent down to look at her. "Leah, what the hell is this?"
Leah blinked revealing pure red pupils. River shrank back banging her head off the base of the heavy wooden cross she had been tied to. "No." She groaned, not Leah the Pastors daughter, the Sunday school teacher, the beacon of hope in this little town.
"This is judgment," Leah purred, blinking again hiding her true eyes. She stood and faced the congregants gathered around her. "We will rise up out of the ashes of these sinners, born anew. Such wonderful things await you." A choirs of 'Amens' and 'Praise God' sprang out from the crowd.
River got her feet under her and slid up the length of the cross until she was standing. She jerked her body forward against the ropes and the cross shook gently on its heavy base. "NO! No, she's evil. You can't listen to her!" She screamed at the gathered people. A man stepped out of the crowd and slammed the butt of his rifle into River's midsection. She let out a surprised 'oomph' and sagged against the ropes.
"You know what to do," Lead told them. A few dozen people were forced out of the crowd, screaming men and women, crying children, an old man barely able to walk, and led at gunpoint into a small room behind the altar. Men carrying red containers of gasoline followed, splashing the door once it was locked and pouring a trail back towards the aisles of wood pews.
River straightened her back against the aching in her ribs as she fought harder against the ropes. "You have to stop this! You can't burn us!" she screamed.
The church doors were thrown open as Castiel stumbled in, hand outstretched. Several people charged him and were either thrown aside or crumpled at his feet as he rendered them unconscious. Sam, Dean and Walt Gideon followed him in. Sam and Dean wielding guns they hopefully would not have to use and Gideon carrying a very large, very pointy piece of wood.
"You're not gonna stop me from being with my son!" Catherine screamed over the fight, igniting a book of matches and flinging it onto the gasoline soaked carpet in front of River. The flames erupted instantly and drifted along the oily trail headed towards River and the storage closet behind her. Dean looked down the aisle and saw her straining against the ropes that bound her.
"Leah's a fucking demon!" She yelled at him tearing her eyes away from the red heat that was getting ever closer. A man jumped at Dean and the two began to scuffle, slamming into a wall, crashing into pews and finally into Sam who knocked the other guy out with a well placed left hook.
He yelled back, "She's the Whore!"
Despite her current situation River couldn't help but laugh, "Tell me what you really think, D."
Another man ran at Dean and he shoved the man away, "The Whore of Babylon!" He clarified.
"I don't know what the fuck that is," River screamed, "Just go kill the bitch!"
Leah ran past the townspeople towards the stairway to the basement. Castiel jumped in front of her but she swatted him away like a gnat. He crashed into the back row of pews and didn't reappear. Catherine stood in shock at Leah's sudden show of strength. She looked at her friends limping out of the church and the fire behind her that she had lit. The fire that was on its way to devouring those she had helped round up and imprison. "Oh god what have I done," she murmured before running out of the church.
Walt Gideon made his cautious way through the throng of broken pews and curls of black smoke following Leah's path downstairs. River renewed her struggle with her binds, throwing herself back against the cross. It wobbled slightly but remained standing. "This is gonna fucking hurt," she muttered. She took a deep breath leaning forward as far as she could without pulling the cross down on top of her before slamming herself backwards. The base of the cross let out a loud screeching crack and she felt her feet leave the floor as the cross tipped over. She landed painfully on the outer part of her right hand and let out a long hiss of pain before getting her feet planted firmly on the ground and shimmying herself down towards the broken base just as the flames started nipping at her boots.
"River!" Sam's voice boomed over the flames.
She made it to the end of the cross and rolled away from the fire, her hands still tied behind her back. "Need some help with this rope," she yelled struggling to her feet. Rob appeared in front of her with a knife clutched in his hand. "Rob don't...you don't need to do this. There's little kids in there. Are you really gonna let them burn to death?" River asked, taking a step away from him and a step closer to the flames that continued their march towards the locked door where dozens of innocent people were trapped and screaming for help.
Rob grabbed her by the shoulder and She stiffened expecting the edge of the knife. Instead he reached behind her and cut through the rope around her wrists. "I'm not gonna let anymore of my friends die," he told her.
River nodded, "Ok. We've got to put the fire out before it eats through the floor or the roof. And we've got to get them out before they get extra crispy." Her eyes scanned quickly for something to put out the fire. She settled on a long ornately embroidered drape hanging along the far wall behind the altar. Rive ran towards it, yelling at Rob to help her. She jumped up and grabbed an armful of the fabric, tearing it away from the wall were it fluttered serenely to the ground. When she looked up, Rob was nowhere to be found. She tossed the drape on the flames closest to the storage closet trying to smother the fire so she could get to the door. With the fire out of her way she moved up to the solid wood door finding a large padlock resolutely locking the door closed. River heard the people inside begging for help and children crying inconsolably. "I'm coming!" she screamed. The flames behind her continued to hungrily consume the floor and the pews. She found a discarded shotgun near the back of the church, she also found Castiel getting unsteadily to his feet and lurching towards the stairs. "Casie I could use a fucking hand over here!" she yelled at the Angel.
"The Whore must be destroyed," he growled back as he disappeared down the stairs.
River cursed angrily and wiped gasoline scented sweat out of her eyes as she ran back to the storage closet and banged on the hot door, "Get back and get down!" She shot the first round at the padlock and the second at the doorknob before kicking in the door. The people inside looked up at her through thick black smoke. "Come on! I'll get you out of here!" Except she didn't know how she was going to get them out, the fire was now blocking the aisle to the front door. "No! Fuck!" she screamed.
Then, like a miracle, a torrent of water rained down on them extinguishing the flames. When the smoke cleared Rob stood in the doorway of the church manning the hose from their holy-water loaded fire truck. "Go! Get out! Run!" River said herding the frightened people out of the church. An inhuman roar rocked through the church, the stained glass window depicting Gabriel exploded in a shower of rainbow colored glass. "Get them out of here! Away from the church, NOW!" River yelled at Rob then turned and ran towards the stairs that the others had disappeared down.
"Gideon, now!" Sam yelled. River jumped down the remaining stairs and skidded into the room the town had transformed into their staging area. Castiel had his arms locked around Leah but even as diminutive as she was the Angel was struggling to hold her still. She opened her mouth and screamed in rage again then began chanting in a guttural demonic language. Cas grunted, his face contorting in pain, he released Leah and he fell to the ground clutching at his chest. Gideon charged his daughter, the stake raised high over his head. Leah stopped her chanting and laughed, flicking her hand and sending the Pastor slamming into a shelf full of canned foods. The stake slid across the floor out of anyones reach. River slammed fresh shells into the shotgun and fired into Leah's back riddling her pastel pink sweater with rock salt. She turned to River, her ruby red eyes shining malevolently. Leah barely nodded her chin and sent River flying back towards the staircase. Dean and Sam charged towards her while her attention was on River but the Whore was faster. She waived her hands sending the brothers flying to opposite ends of the room. Leah stalked quickly towards Dean who was slowly dragging himself across the floor, fingers outstretched towards the wooden stake Gideon had dropped.
Leah smirked down at Dean, "What do you think you're going to do with that, huh?" She flipped him easily onto his back and straddled his chest. "Like you're a servant of Heaven. You?" Leah shook her head in disbelief. "You're pathetic, self-hating and faithless. You are the reason my team is going to win." Dean's fingers stretched towards the stake even as Leah's words echoed in his head. Not for the first time he wondered if he had some sort of invisible thought bubble that followed him around that only Demons and Angels could see. Leah's fingers wrapped around his throat as she whispered, "It's the end of the world and you're just gonna sit back and watch it happen."
"Hey, She-Bitch!" River yelled. Leah tore her eyes away from Dean and looked up into the barrel of River's shotgun. River puckered her lips and blew her a kiss before squeezing the trigger. Salt rock obliterated most of Leah's petite mouth and pixie like nose. Dean grabbed the stake and drove it through her heart. He pushed the creature off of him using all his strength to drive the stake further into her chest. Her hands weakly grabbing at the stake, her red eyes staring up confused at the man leaning over her.
Dean glared down at her and spat, "Don't be so sure, Whore." The Whore of Babylon twitched and convulsed, the creature inside shifting and disfiguring the Leah-disguise it had been hiding behind. Leah's face dissolved like melting wax, the flesh dripping grotesquely onto the floor at Dean's feet. River grabbed Dean's arm and yanked him away from Leah's body as it gave a final shudder before erupting into flames.
"I don't understand," a small, frightened voice echoed behind them. River turned to see Catherine and Rob huddled together near the door. "Are we going to Paradise now?" Catherine asked looking between her husband and Walt, who was being helped to his feet by Sam. Castiel still lay on the floor looking very pale and unable to stand on his own.
"Pretty sure you're headed in a different direction." Dean told her as he walked towards Cas. He and River helped pull the Angel to his feet and together they walked him up the stairs and out of the church. River still reeked of gasoline and now that she had a second to take a breath she realized her pinky finger was sticking out at an odd angle.
After the five of them piled into the Impala, Sam turned to his brother and asked, "How did you do that?"
"What?" Dean asked not taking his eyes off the road as they made the short drive back to the motel.
"Only a true servant of Heaven could've killed the Whore," Sam said.
River leaned forward from the back seat where she sat between Castiel, who was drifting in and out of consciousness, and Pastor Gideon, who was staring silently out the window. She had not yet decided which one she was more worried about. "Mind explaining what the hell you guys are talking about?"
"The Whore of Babylon. A trailblazer for the End Times. That thing that only a true servant of Heaven is supposed to be able to gank…That thing back there that Dean just killed…" Sam said keeping his eyes on his brother.
"I saw an opening and I took it," Dean finally said. It had truly been as simple as that. She was a monster, he killed monsters. He had to at least try to end the bitch. He was just as surprised as any of them when it had actually worked. Maybe it was her words, accusing him of being the reason the world was going to die and so clearly seeing past his devil-may-care facade. He sure as hell wasn't just going to sit back and let his family be killed.
River placed her hand on his shoulder, "Do we have to worry about you doing something stupid ?"
"What kind of stupid?" Dean asked.
"Michael-stupid," Sam told him.
Dean rolled his eyes at them. "Will you two give me a break?" He looked over his shoulder at River, "You need a shower Sweetheart. I'm getting a contact high off of you." He said pulling the Impala back into the motels parking lot. Sam led Pastor Gideon out of the car. The older man walked with jerky mechanical steps his glassy eyes open and unseeing.
"He's in shock," River said quietly to Sam as she helped Dean drag Cas into their room. Cas mumbled in Enochian, his face still pale and sweaty. " I know Casie. I love you too. You need to rest, ok, because if you die we are royally fucked. So don't die again..." River told the Angel as she and Dean helped him lay down. River ran her hands through his damp hair pushing it away from his face. His blue eyes fluttered closed as he lost consciousness again.
River stood up and pulled her gasolene soaked flannel shirt off tossing it aside. "Lemme see your face," Dean said standing in front of her. She turned her face so could inspect the swelling on her cheek and the bridge of her nose. His fingers ghosted over the bruises and she grimaced. "We need to ice that."
"I will, after I check out the Padre." She told him.
"And your finger?" Dean asked taking her hand in his. Her pinky was still bent and stiff. His green eyes narrowed scrutinizing the rope burn and bruises around her wrists.
"It can wait," she told him.
His eyebrows narrowed, "I'm going to count to three..." He said wrapping his hand around her little finger.
"No you're not," she mumbled. The corner of his mouth twitched as he popped her finger back into place. "Son of a bitch," River said stomping her foot.
Dean kissed the bruise on her cheek and said, " Go fix Gideon."
River stepped past him, rubbing her sore finger and moved onto Gideon, who sat unmoving in the chair Sam had deposited him. The tall hunter leaned over the Pastor applying a bandage to a gash in his eyebrow. Dean paced the room watching Sam and River work.
"My daughter is dead," Walt croaked out.
River nodded kneeling in front of him, there was a wet blood stain on the sleeve of his shirt and she gingerly rolled it up to inspect the wound. "Yes, She is. But...that thing back there that wasn't your daughter."
"What's going to happen to us?" Gideon asked her.
River pressed a gauze pad against the gash in his arm and taped it in place before answering him. "I don't know...but I do know that when everything is said and done and you do get to Heaven, whether it be next week or thirty years from now, Leah will be there waiting for you."
The Pastor let out a deep breath wiping his face, "Did you spill gas on your clothes?"
River smiled, "Spill it? No it was more like, thrown on me..." Gideon gave her a strange look seeming to just notice the purplish bruise on her face and wrists. "Just don't light a match around me. I'm good. Really. I look like shit but this isn't the first time I've been tied up and beaten this year. It's pretty much the only thing I'm good at anymore..." She laughed ironically at her own joke and fixed his shirt.
"You saved my flock," Gideon told her.
"Did I?" She asked considering the alternatives. She stopped a couple dozen people from being burned to death. But what was next? Dying of a super-flu, getting eaten by zombies or simply perishing in the aftermath of the Archangels fight. "You're going to be ok." She told the Pastor not meeting his eyes and not truly believing he or anyone in this town was ever going to be truly 'ok' again.
He shook his head and stood up, "No I'm not. I don't think any of us are." Dean stopped pacing and watched the Pastor leave the room. He walked away into the dark parking lot leaving the hunters and the unconscious Angel in silence.
Dean suddenly felt the air in the room grow heavy. The walls seemed far too close. He looked down to Castiel's still form, River's swollen face and his brothers dark, worried eyes. "I'm gonna go get some ice for your face." He told them.
River gave him a small tired smile. "Thanks Baby." She called as he closed the door behind him. "Sammy can you make some coffee? I need a shower." A car door slammed shut outside and a second later the Impala growled to life. "Dean!" River yelled as she and Sam ran to the door. Sam wrenched the door open just as Dean kicked the car into drive and spun Baby out of the parking lot.