Chapter 5 – Thank Goodness

When their gazes locked, Dean realized that there was a way.

"Zeke." He hissed. "You have to help me."

The moment he hissed Zeke, Sam frowned briefly, but then his eyes flashed blue and Dean knew the Angel was there.

"Who is Zeke?" a cold voice behind him said.

Dean froze. He looked to Ezekiel, who was frowning at someone over his shoulder. Dean turned around and saw Elphaba standing there.

"What are you doing here?" He spat.

"I…" Elphaba looked flustered, but she repositioned herself quickly. "I knew you would get yourself into trouble, so I kept an eye on you from above."

"Well, you're a little late now." Dean growled. He turned to the Angel. "You have to help her." Dean begged.

"She's gone." Ezekiel had already examined Charlie and he shook his head.

Dean hated the way Zeke positioned his brother. Puffing out his chest, with his chin in the air like that… it was so not Sam.

"No." Dean growled. "You can bring her back like you did with Cas."

"I cannot keep doing that." Ezekiel shook his head.

"Why the hell not?!" Dean pointed to Charlie angrily.

"I am barely back to half-strength, Dean." Ezekiel said. "Every time I use my power, it weakens me, which means I will have to stay in your brother longer than you want, longer than we both want. It looks like you are far away from home. I can take us back or save your friend."

Dean set his jaw angrily. Why didn't Ezekiel come out earlier and say that he could take them all back to their universe? If the Angel wasn't possessing his brother, he probably would have punched him in the jaw right now.

He turned to Elphaba. "You're a witch." He said.

"Good observation." Elphaba replied.

"Can't you save her?" He asked.

"How powerful do you think I am?" Elphaba gestured with her broom. "Nothing can bring people back from the death, Dean. There is nothing we can do to save her."

"He can." Dean motioned to Ezekiel. "But if you can too, he can bring us back home."

Elphaba shook her head. "I cannot bring her back to life. I'm sorry, Dean."

Dean turned back to Ezekiel. "Save her."

"As you wish." The Angel nodded.

Dean sighed. "Elphaba, you can't tell any of this to Sam."

"Sam is sitting right there." Elphaba frowned.

"Just…" Dean watched Ezekiel put two fingers on Charlie's forehead, frowning as he felt the price of healing this girl straining his grace. "Please. Pretend nothing happened. Play along and I promise I will explain it to you when both Sam and Charlie aren't listening."

Elphaba bit her lip. "Fine."

Charlie gasped as Ezekiel fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Merry Christmas." Charlie mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"Charlie?" Dean frowned concerned.

"Uh." Charlie frowned, squinting her eyes. "Hey, I know you."

"I'm not letting you out of my sight again." Dean smiled, relieved and he hugged her.

"Bet you say that to all the girls." Charlie mumbled, smiling too.

Next to them, Sam woke up as well.

"Dean?" he rubbed his forehead, frowning when he saw Elphaba. "What's Elphaba doing here?"

"Sammy?" Dean let go of Charlie. He prayed to God Sam hadn't been aware of, well, you know, the part where he had called him 'Zeke'.

"What the hell just happened?" Sam said, taking his concern away.

Dean and Elphaba shared a look. She raised an eyebrow.

"The boar," Dean scraped his throat. "The boar was about to whammy me to the ground, and, uh, you jumped in front. You got knocked out and Charlie got slammed into a tree, but I shot it and… uhm, Elphaba turned up and she fixed Charlie." Dean smiled relieved. "Just, get some sleep okay? I'll keep watch."

They sat back down near the fire pit and Dean tried to get the fire going again. Elphaba sat down to the right of him and Sam to the left.

It made him feel a little uncomfortable, since they were both staring him down.

Charlie rolled herself up in a blanket and cuddled up near the fire, using Dean's leg as a pillow. She frowned a little at first, which is quite normal for someone who just had a death experience, but fell asleep quickly, which is also quite normal for someone who just had a death experience.

To settle the tremble in his fingers, he stroked her hair softly, prodding in the fire every now and then.

Dean was a little anxious about Sam not going lying down, but he wasn't able to go back to sleep too so he figured Sam didn't suspect anything.

He was wrong.

"Who's Zeke?" Sam asked after a good hour of silence.

Dean swore he could hear Elphaba draw in a sharp breath.

"What?" Dean tried to act like he didn't hear his brother.

"Before I got knocked out, I thought you said the name Zeke. Who's that?"

"Um..." Dean shook his head. "I think you're still a little punchy, man."

He tried to make it sound as if that was the end of the conversation.

It was, luckily. Sam turned on his back and closed his eyes, and Dean remained alert for the rest of the night, gun never out of sight.

Elphaba didn't go to sleep either. Dean figured that she didn't trust him.

She had a point. He didn't even trust him.

After a little while, she said; "Sam's asleep. Tell me about Zeke."

Dean frowned at her. "He might wake up." He hissed. "I'm not taking any chances."

Elphaba murmured something and made a doming gesture with her right hand. "Might he wake up, he won't be able to hear us. Who is Zeke?"

Dean sighed, toying with Charlie's hair to give himself a posture.

"Couple months ago, Sam was sick. He was really sick." He scraped his throat. "He was gonna die, and I, and I couldn't live with that. I have never been able to live with that. I went to Hell for that boy and I wouldn't give him up. I know this Angel, see, and…"

"Angel?"

"Yeah." Dean shrugged. Crap. Was he gonna have to explain the entire mythology of Earth? "We, uhm, do you guys have religion?"

"Some believe in the Goddess Lurline who turned this land into a fairy-land." Elphaba said.

"Well, ours is a little complicated, but basically we have one God, called… God. And, uhm, he had four sons, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Lucifer. Lucifer was the renegade, he didn't agree with God so his big bro cast him into Hell. So since then, bad people went to Hell and good people went to Heaven. Angels are servants of Heaven and Demons are servants of Hell."

"I think I understand. Tell me about the Angel you know." Elphaba nodded.

"Well, this Angel," Dean continued his narration. "he would've been able to save Sammy, if it weren't that the Angel had been robbed off all his powers. I was desperate, and I prayed. One Angel turned up, Ezekiel. He said that he was willing to heal Sam, but that he could only do that from the inside, because he wasn't strong enough. It was a trade. Sam would provide energy to slowly strengthen Ezekiel, and in return Ezekiel would sustain Sam and slowly heal him too. It was, uh, mutually beneficial."

"Why not tell Sam?" Elphaba's voice was smooth, like honey.

"A couple of years ago, Sam and I, we accidentally sprung the cage and let Lucifer free from Hell. Sam was Lucifer's vessel, and thus one of the strongest vessels in existence."

"One of?" Elphaba asked.

Dean swallowed. "Yeah. To fight the ultimate battle between Heaven and Hell, two strong vessels were needed to sustain the two strongest Angels. Sam was Lucifer's and I was Michael's."

He fell silent for a second, when Charlie stirred under his fingers. She turned around and slept on.

"If an Angel, fallen or not, wants to possess a man, it needs to ask permission. If Sam and I kept resisting the forces of Heaven and Hell, the battle wouldn't happen and the world wouldn't end. After months and months of research, we found a way to trap Lucifer back in the cage, but it was tricky. Sam would say 'yes' to Lucifer and I would open a portal to Hell. Sam would throw himself in, trying to suppress the Devil. He succeeded, but it left a bad taste in our mouth."

"How did he return from Hell?" Elphaba asked.

"My Angel friend, the one who fell, brought him back." Dean chuckled. "Forgot his soul too. Those were a weird couple of months."

It was silent. "Do you understand?" Dean asked. "If Sam finds out about Ezekiel, he will revoke his permission and cast Ezekiel out…"

"And die." Elphaba finished his sentence when Dean's voice faltered in his throat. "Don't worry. I understand. Oz knows I'd do the same for my sister."

"You have a sister?" Dean asked. He knew, but it didn't look like Elphaba knew about the musical.

"Nessa." She whispered. "Nessarose. She is disabled and in a wheelchair. That's my fault."

Out of instinct, Dean wanted to put an arm around the green lady, and he was halfway before he realized that she might not appreciate that. He went for a pat.

"That's not your fault. That can't be." He said.

She sighed. "It might not be my fault, but it was my problem. I took care of her, but never good enough for my father."

Dean nodded. "I'm gonna say something really weird, but I understand you. My mother died when I was four years old and Sammy was six months, and we lived our life on the road from then on. I'll spare you the sob-story, but I took care of Sammy while my father hunted the murderer. It was his obsession."

Silence.

"Did he find the murderer?" Elphaba asked softly. She wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees. It was the most vulnerable position he had seen Elphaba in since they met. It seemed she let the stone-cold mask fare for a bit.

Dean didn't know why she chose him to trust, maybe it was because he shared too, maybe because she was worried and lonely.

He shook his head. "He died before he got the chance. He got damn close though, but chose his family instead of revenge. I iced the bastard for him."

Elphaba drew in a sharp breath. "I'm gonna come with you to the Emerald City. You need to go home."