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Chapter Six
"There you go, son, enjoy," Bobby said, presenting the sandwich he had made to Sam with flourish.
Sam flashed his familiar grin and took a bite. "It's good," he said around a mouthful of ham and salad.
Dean wondered if Sam was uncomfortable under their scrutiny. He felt that if he looked away Sam might disappear or worse. The others in the room apparently echoed his thoughts, as Sam was being watched as if he was a particularly interesting television show.
Of all Sam's observers, there was one that stood out; Lucifer was leaning against the wall opposite where Sam sat at the table, and he was fixing Sam with a penetrating stare. It was odd. Before they had... gone, Lucifer had been attentive to Sam, but now it was more intense, as if he was keeping him alive and present by his gaze alone. For his part, Sam didn't seem concerned by it. He just munched his sandwich and shared occasional gooey-eyed looks with Lucifer.
"So," Bobby said, sitting down at the table between Sam and Dean, "what happens next?"
Sam swallowed his mouthful and washed it down with a swig of beer. "I guess we've got stuff to sort out. We need to get a motel room." He looked down at his chest. "And I definitely need to get some clothes. I can't stay in my PJ's."
Dean noticed for the first time what Sam was dressed in. He was wearing the white t-shirt and sweats that he'd been wearing the last time Dean saw him, and Lucifer was wearing the only clothes Dean had ever seen him wearing. He wondered at the fact they had held up as long as they had in Hell time, and that set his thoughts on a path that led to Lucifer and Sam frolicking around au naturel. That was an extremely disturbing image, and he shook his head to dispel the thoughts.
He cleared his throat. "I've still got all your stuff, Sam. It's in the car."
Sam grinned. "Thanks, man."
To Dean's great relief, he didn't question him about why he had all his stuff in the car when by all normal rational thought he could never have expected to see him again. Dean didn't offer up the information, nor did he mention the fact it had taken him a year of being on the road alone before he stopped booking into a twin room at each motel. There were just some things he hadn't been ready to part with.
"It's weird to think about this stuff again," Sam said musingly, "motels and clothes."
Lucifer nodded understandingly, but Dean frowned. It had only been two years after all. His whole life before the Cage had been motels and clothes, why was it suddenly something new for him to consider? Then he realized that it had been a lot longer for Sam. He wasn't sure if time in the Cage moved the same way it had in Hell for Dean, but if it did, Sam had been gone for over two hundred years! Two centuries without his brother. He had barely survived two years without Sam, but Sam didn't seem to have any trouble being away from Dean for that long. He sucked in a breath.
"You okay, Dean?" Sam asked.
He forced a smile, as if there was nothing on his mind other than the miracle of his brother's return. "Yeah, I'm fine."
They fell into companionable silence as Sam finished his sandwich. When he was done, he pushed his plate away. After sharing a glance with Lucifer, he cleared his throat. "So, what did we miss?" The atmosphere in the room changed from quiet celebration to tension. Sam looked from person to person, reacting to the change. "What?"
Bobby coughed awkwardly. "Well, me and Cas have been trying to keep down on the big nasties. We came across a super-fugly called Eve, but she's long gone."
"Mother of All, Eve?" Sam asked.
Bobby's eyes widened with shock but Lucifer looked satisfied. Dean was confused. How did Sam know about Eve when Dean hadn't heard of her until that morning? Castiel looked like he was solving some complicated math problem in his head, and then he nodded, apparently coming to some realization.
"Yeah, her," Bobby said. "How did you know?"
Lucifer leaned away from the wall, and with the air of a proud father sharing his kid's SAT score, he said, "I have been teaching Sam."
Castiel looked as if his assumption had been confirmed and Bobby nodded. "I guess that gives you one up on the rest of us mere mortals.
Sam looked uncomfortable. "How did you take her out?"
"Phoenix ash," Bobby said proudly. "We had to jump back to 1861. It was a hell of a ride."
Sam turned to Dean, smiling widely. "You must have loved that—Genuine cowboy land."
Dean mentally cursed Bobby for dropping him in it. He was going to have to explain to Sam that he hadn't been there for that hunt, or any over the last two years. Sam was going to be pissed about it.
He rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly. "I missed out on that particular ride. I've been going solo for the past couple of years."
As he had expected, Sam's eyes widened and he stared at Dean with such intensity that Dean averted his gaze. Before Sam could demand more information, Lucifer spoke up. "Where is Raphael?"
Gabriel spoke up for the first time. "He's gone, Lucifer."
Lucifer stiffened and Sam got to his feet to stand beside him. He tangled his fingers with Lucifer's, and Dean noticed that the archangel softened under his touch.
"He has fallen?" Lucifer asked.
Gabriel shook his head. "Not exactly. It's more that he exploded his vessel and disappeared. I have no idea what happened to him."
"Then I shall find him," Lucifer said. "He will not escape what he has done to Michael."
Dean thought it was odd that Lucifer was bothered by Michael's death when he was the one that had repeatedly pounded on Lucifer, forcing him to go back to the cage even though he had given up the apocalypse and was making a life with Sam. He guessed that was the way with family though. He looked across the kitchen at his own brother and he thought he understood. There was nothing Sam could do that would make him give up on him, and he'd certainly tested that over the years.
Gabriel coughed lightly. "I think perhaps it's time for you to come home, Lucifer."
Lucifer turned stunned eyes on Gabriel. "Heaven?"
Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Where else could I mean? You have been gone long enough; it is time for you to return."
"I was exiled," Lucifer said bitterly.
"By Michael. Newsflash, Lucifer, Michael is dead. He can't do anything to you anymore. You are free to come home, now, and boy are you needed. Dad's AWOL, and I am trying to deal with it all alone. I haven't exactly been there for the garrisons over the years. They are not warming to my return."
"And I have? I have not been in Heaven in millennia. I am the fallen angel. You think the garrisons are going to have any reason to listen to me?"
"You underestimate yourself," Gabriel said. "You have proven yourself to them all through Sam. They have seen what you gave up for the good of the planet and they respect you for it. You have more sway with them than I do at the moment. You're needed, Lucifer. Heaven is in tatters."
Lucifer looked at Sam, and they seemed to be communicating silently.
"I think you should go," Sam said eventually. "They need you."
"You need me," Lucifer said.
"Always," Sam replied. "But Gabriel is right; it's time for you to go home. Heaven needs you."
Dean could see that it cost Sam a lot to say it. He didn't want Lucifer to go anymore than Lucifer wanted to leave him, but they were both acting for the good of others. Again. It didn't seem possible that Lucifer, the Devil, and Sam, the one that allowed his vendetta to start the apocalypse, were the ones acting for everyone else right now.
He immediately felt guilty for his unkind thoughts, especially when Sam and Lucifer were right there, preparing to part for the good of the world once again, but he couldn't wholly dispel them.
Lucifer was silent for a long time, and then he brought Sam's hand to his mouth and kissed his knuckles. "Walk with me?"
Sam nodded, and with hands entwined, they walked out of the house.
Dean had to remind himself that Sam would be back to stop him from demanding that Sam not leave him again. He felt disconcerted by this new neediness. He had never been like this before with Sam. Hell, he'd managed the years apart when Sam was at Stanford. Now he was turning into a paranoid mother hen, worried that Sam was going to disappear again.
Lucifer led Sam out of the house and through the junkers to the grass area bordering Bobby's property. He bent down and picked something up off the ground. When he straightened and held out his hand, Sam saw that he was holding the horsemen's rings. This must be where the portal had been opened.
"I don't think it's a good idea for these to be left lying around," Lucifer said, handing them to Sam.
Sam nodded. "We can put them in a curse box."
"And below angel warding."
"Then you and Gabriel won't be able to get them."
"Nor will Raphael," Lucifer said.
Sam frowned. The idea of a rogue archangel running amok was frightening. He thought of the damage Lucifer had done as the Devil, and he shuddered.
Lucifer cupped Sam's cheek in his hand. "You do not need to be afraid. I will protect you from Raphael."
"I'm not scared for myself," Sam said. "It's the world I'm worried about."
Lucifer smiled. "You do not need to worry. Raphael never had my ambition. He will not be able to wreak as much havoc as I did."
"That's something, I guess."
Sam put the rings in his pocket and took Lucifer's hand again. Lucifer sat down on the ground and patted the grass beside him. Sam sank down and sat with his head resting on Lucifer's shoulder. They sat in silence for a moment until Lucifer spoke softly, resting his cheek against Sam's crown.
"I don't want to leave you."
Sam sighed. "And I don't want you to go, but I think it's important that you do. Heaven is your home and you have been away long enough. It's time you went back. You're needed there."
"It feels wrong," Lucifer said. "
"Because of your Father." It wasn't a question, Sam knew Lucifer well enough to know what was really troubling him.
Lucifer sighed. "He ordered Michael to cast me out. He wouldn't want me to go back."
"He left though," Sam said. "He abandoned Heaven and us all. Even the apocalypse wasn't enough to bring Him back. The way I see it, He doesn't have the right to want anything anymore."
Lucifer ran his fingers through Sam's hair gently. "And yet I am reluctant to go."
"What's really stopping you?" Sam asked. He knew it was more than Lucifer's fear of an absent father.
Lucifer was quiet for a long time as he considered Sam's question. Sam didn't rush him; he let him come to the answer in his own time.
"I don't want to leave you," he said finally.
Sam shifted so he could see Lucifer's face. There was tension there, and something Sam hadn't seen in a long time, not since the day Dean had come to the hotel armed with the Colt: fear.
"What are you afraid of?" he asked.
"I'm afraid of losing you."
Sam smiled. "I'm not going anywhere."
"But you are," Lucifer said desperately. "Don't you see? You are mortal again, Sam. The cage was timeless. We would have been together there forever, now you are doomed."
Sam hadn't given his returned mortality much thought, just like he hadn't considered his eternal nature in the cage. All he had thought of then was the fact he had Lucifer with him, now he had both his angel and his brother. Life was about as good as it could get, and if it came for a limited time only... well, that was life. He was human after all; a time limit was part of the package.
He knew it was selfish, but one of the greatest things about being in love with an angel was knowing he was eternal. Time would never change Lucifer, and he would never die of old age. Sam could love him his whole life. Lucifer was the one that was going to have to say goodbye and live on alone.
"I'm human, Lucifer," he said gently. "Death is a part of life."
Lucifer frowned. "Not for me. If I return to Heaven, I will miss vital minutes of your life."
Sam stretched out on the grass and turned his face up to the sun. "We've been spoiled. We had all those years just the two of us, and it was great, but we've got to learn to share our time again. You need to give some time to Gabriel and Heaven, and I definitely need to give time to Dean. He needs me. I've got a lot to make up to him."
Lucifer frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I was very selfish, leaving them him the way I did. At the time, all I could think about was you. I didn't consider how it would affect the people I left behind. I left them to fight a continuing war, and they did, but it has left scars. Bobby and Cas don't seem so bad, but Dean..." He shook his head.
"There is something very different about him. I noticed it too. Do not be alarmed," Lucifer said, seeing Sam's raised eyebrows. "He is physically well, but he is changed somehow."
"Yeah, and I think it's my fault. I've got to make it right with him."
"How do you plan to do that?"
Sam sat up and rubbed a hand over his face. "I have no idea."
So… Lucifer is heading home. Finally. Both Snarks and I loved the idea of Lucifer being rewarded for what he did for the world, and Heaven seemed like the perfect reward.
Until next time…
Clowns or Midgets xxx
