Mercy was learning many things today to her surprise. She wasn't overconfident in any sense of the word, but she was sure that this angel before her couldn't do anything she hadn't already expected.
And then he started a staring competition with her. Not that he actually declared it but he was staring at her too long for her to do anything but reciprocate.
They were sat on either side of Bobby's ratty old sofa; assessing one another to the point where looking away would be admitting defeat. Or at least that's how she saw it. She blames Gabe for reawakening her competitive side, because she was not this childish before she got with the archangel.
Castiel was a bit of a mystery to Mercy. She knew he wouldn't act like a human, mainly because he wasn't one, but his actions were so stiff. He was like a statue that only just found that it could move and wasn't sure exactly how.
She had acted like she had all the answers before, but she really was only working on what Gabe had told her, which wasn't as much as she would've liked. But it was enough to convince Castiel and his superiors to stay with the Winchesters to fully convince them to their cause.
Not that she was going to follow to their tune. Everyone had an ulterior motive; it was just the case of finding the angels and using it to their advantage. Easier said than done, but Mercy was feeling optimistic.
Unbeknownst to Mercy, her brothers were getting ready to travel after a strange text from Gabe (or Loki as they know him) that stated they needed to reach a certain destination ASAP without the knowledge of their older sister.
Thank God for the angel distracting her. (Being thankful for small mercies didn't quite mean the same thing to the family for obvious reasons.)
The two of them got out with relative ease which set a sense of foreboding. Nothing went easy for the Winchesters.
"Your brothers seem to be leaving the premises." Castiel stated with his brows furrowed yet the staring continued.
"They'll be back at some point." She said easily.
"What is so important that we had to drive all the way out here you asshat?!" Dean yelled into the empty abandoned warehouse.
The two brothers were cranky after the long ride and really weren't in the mood to be dealing with Loki of all people.
"Aw, and here I thought we had all kissed and made up." Gabe called from behind them.
The two hunters quickly spun to face the god but kept their weapons out of their hands. They didn't trust Loki and they sure as hell didn't like him, but for the sake of their sister they were willing to keep all aggression to words only. Unless he started anything,
"Just get to the point." Sam spoke.
Loki sighed in response, "Look boys, I get it. You want to kill me, I want to mess with you, but we can't, because hey, as much as it hurts to say this, we're family now."
"Who said you were family Jackass?" Dean snarled. They had left their sister and Bobby alone with a warrior of heaven that they were still cautious about. They didn't have time for the asshole stood before them.
Said asshole raised his hand to show the silver band around his left ring finger. The ring was decorated with a strange sigil that they had never seen before (Enochian for strength) and they simultaneously thought back to the ring that had been on Mercy's hand.
"You got married?" Sam exclaimed loudly.
"Well, yes and no. There wasn't the whole white dress or ringing of the bells, wrong religion and all, but it's all down on paper." Gabe explained with a smug smirk, "A lot can happen in a year and a half. You killed a demon, Dean went to Hell, and we got married and became the god parents of the cutest little human boy you will ever see."
"You made us come all the way down here just for that. You could have just come to Bobby's and told us." Sam growled under his breath.
"Yeah, well, let's just say it's better for all of us that the angels don't know where I am or that I'm affiliated with you at all. Saying that, I'll tell you exactly why I called you here. The angels don't need Mercy like they need the two of you. Any of you do something they don't like and she will be the first to go and unlike you two dunces, there's no one who has bringing her back to life on their 'to do list'."
The two Winchesters stared at the grim man in horror. Hunting has always come with the danger of death, but to know that they were able to come back whilst their sister wasn't?
That was hard to hear.
"So what do you suggest we do?" Sam questioned with his voice small.
"Hell if I know," Loki sounded angry, whether with himself or with the brothers they weren't sure but he sounded incredibly frustrated, "but I don't care what they ask you to do, Mercy's safety is top priority. You hear me?!"
"She's our sister," Dean growled back, "I think we know what's good for her better than you. We love her more than you ever could, so don't you dare suggest that we can't protect her!"
"We know her limits, but we'll do as you say," Sam continued, "not that we needed this whole talk."
"Whatever; you do what you want. But the second things start to go downhill you place these, "Loki pulled out a pair of amulets and threw them to Sam and Dean, "on the floor and say the trigger word "Gabriel", I'll be there as fast as I can."
The two nodded with stern expressions and turned to leave. But before the trickster god could disappear from the building the brothers turned back to say one last thing each.
"You may be a massive dick, but when it comes to our sister, you might not be quite so bad." Dean called.
"But I swear to every deity, if you hurt her we won't even try to hold her back from cutting off your balls. We'll even help by shoving them down your throat." Sam smirked.
Back with Mercy, she had become bored of the staring and had given up winning against an angel that was probably so old that he had the patience to watch grass grow without so much as twitching.
So instead she had tried to strike up a conversation. Safe to say he had no conversational skills what so ever and Mercy had quickly come to the conclusion that Castiel had a very large stick stuck up his ass.
This was why she was now putting makeup on the confused angel, and having a blast doing so. The poor shmuck was either a push over or had somehow acquired a soft spot for Mercy in the few hours he had known her. She was betting on the former, no one with that stoic of a face could tell someone else to stop.
"I don't understand. Why are you placing chemicals on my vessel's face?" He asked as she furrowed her brows in concentration as she was doing the eyeliner.
She had to give him props; he didn't so much as flinch when she put on the mascara and almost gouged his eye out. Makeup was not her forte and would never be.
"I was bored and you were there. Also, these chemicals will change your appearance. Whether it's good or not depends on how good the one putting it on is. Sorry dude, but I am crap at this so you're going to look derpy."
They quickly went back to the silence and Mercy continued her art project. Who ever said she was a sensible grown-up really needed to meet Gabe.
To be honest she had no clue why Bobby had such a large stash of makeup in one of the bathrooms but put it up to Jo and Ellen as the makeup was to recent to have been his wife's. She was sure they wouldn't mind.
"What the fucking hell have you done?!" The two occupants suddenly noticed that they were no longer alone. Bobby looked like he had just seen Satan do a belly dance on a rainbow whilst singing Highway to Hell.
Oddly specific but Mercy had had that dream before and knew the look.
It was only then that she realised the position she was in. Somehow during the makeover, Mercy had arranged her body to straddle the poor angel to get a better angle to his face and had somehow made Castiel look like a really bad drag queen.
It took a second of her looking between the two males before she started laughing her head off. The great guffaws leaving her breathless but she couldn't stop the giggles from tumbling out her mouth. She soon lost her balance and fell off the sofa onto the floor still rolling around in laughter.
Her chest, stomach and face all hurt but it was the good kind. She kinda felt like a teenager again after all these years.
"I don't understand." Castiel directed to the older man.
But all Bobby replied with was, "God damn Winchesters," And left the woman to continue with her giggle fit.
When the boys finally found their way back to the house they were left speechless at the sight of a makeup massacre. Mercy's attempts on Castiel intrigued the angel and he decided to have a try at "partaking in female human culture" because angels don't have genders or whatever. It must make life a tad easier when the only thing that truly separates them is power and personality.
Dean had to drag the brightly coloured angel to the bathroom to wash off the "whore paint", as Dean put it. She knew he only meant the sheer amount that they had caked on each other but it kind of stung to have a moment of childish glee insulted in such a way.
Either way, she had to sit patiently as Sam wiped away the last remaining colours that she had missed in her attempt. It reminded her of when she had to wipe away the chocolate ice cream from six year old Sammy's face. How things had changed.
It was sad to see that as she became more childish her brothers became more scared and mature.
"So did you get anything out of him?" Sam asked as he roughly scrubbed at a patch of water proof mascara that had somehow managed to find its way onto her forehead.
"Of course I did, what do you take me for?" Mercy replied sassily. She may not have been thinking about getting information but there were perks to having a "chick-flick moment"; like gossiping, because Castiel was surprisingly interested in human culture, including the weird bonding moments between the more feminine of the species.
"Well?" Sam stepped back to check that he managed to get all the makeup.
"I learnt more about the different angels than I think even Jesus knew. Did you know their sense of humour is completely different to ours? And that none of the angels, other than a select few have actually met God? I digress. Apparently the whole saving Dean from hell thing was so that he could help stop the demons from freeing the devil from hell. He's known as the Righteous Man but accidently broke one of the seals keeping said devil from escaping."
Her voice was dark from the moment she mentioned the whole thing about God and continued to get progressively more serious as she continued through her explanation.
"So basically we're all fucked." Sam whispered.
Mercy really wished she didn't recognise that look on her youngest brother's face. But she knew she wasn't seeing things and that Sam was the spitting image of her father just after he found his one true love in the bottom of every bottle.