Book 16 - Epic Movie

by GailDunn2

WARNING: SOME ADULT CONTENT AND SITUATIONS. The quest to obtain the Tablets of the Realms begins in Egypt. The team is tested immediately as Castiel must decide how far he is willing to go in order to stop Lucifer.

5. Black Angels

Chapter 5 - Black Angels

As soon as Gail winked herself back into her room, she saw that there were a number of lit candles strategically placed around the room, enough for her to see by, but not so many as to make the room too warm. So she shut the light on the blade off and set the knife on her nightstand.

She started to undress, and then she noticed that there was a red rose on the bed with a note that said: "I'm sorry."

Gail smiled thinly. "I'm sorry, too," she murmured. Cas stepped out from the washroom, where he'd been standing, watching to see her reaction. "I thought about waiting outside in the hallway, but I was afraid you might not let me in, if I knocked."

She looked at him. He was dressed in jeans and a shirt, and even though he still had the beard, he looked more like himself than he'd looked in a long time.

"I don't know. Are you sure you want to be seen hanging around the room of an American whore?" she said coolly. "What would Ibrahim say?"

"Please, Gail," Cas said to her. "We came here on a mission together, to defeat Lucifer. Or at least, to take the first step towards doing so. We mustn't lose sight of that. That's the goal. That is what we must accomplish. All of the other extraneous things are not important right now."

Right. Extraneous stuff. Like killing thousands of people. Like her feelings.

"You know what, Cas? Maybe I'm not cut out for this," Gail said wearily. "Here I've been, blathering on about equality, and I don't have the balls to play with the big boys, either literally or figuratively. You were right. I don't have to make any of the hard decisions."

He smiled faintly, trying to cheer her. "Well, I, for one, am glad you don't have those."

Gail looked at him, sighing. "I appreciate your trying, Cas, but I'm being serious here. I don't know, I really don't know how to feel about what you're about to do to these people. Am I being a hypocrite? Or are you being a monster?"

"Both," he said quietly. "And, neither." He reached out for her hand. "Will you sit with me?"

They sat on the bed in her room and Cas stared at her a moment before saying, "I knew that this was going to be really hard on you. I'm pretty sure our Father gave us this Tablet first, as a test. He wants to see what we'll do when called upon to make the hard decisions. And I think He deliberately arranged this test before the wedding, to see if we could make the right decision together, and to see if our relationship would survive it."

Gail said nothing. She really couldn't argue with his logic. If she could ever presume to know the way God thought, that sounded exactly like something He would do.

"So the question is, can we agree on a decision together that we can both live with?" Cas asked her, taking her hands in his.

"Cas, I don't feel capable of making a decision like that," she told him miserably.

"OK, how about this? If you feel I'm wrong, I won't go through with it," Cas told her.

"But that's just the problem," Gail said. "I can't say that you're wrong, Cas, because I'm not one hundred percent sure that you are."

They regarded each other soberly for a minute. "He may still capitulate," Cas told her.

Gail nodded. "You're right, Cas, He might. There's a reason you were so successful at the high-stakes tables. And there's a reason that I was so uncomfortable there."

He squeezed her hands. "We will decide together, if and when the time comes. We have committed ourselves to each other, and we will support each other, no matter what may come. Agreed?"

Gail sighed again. "Agreed."

Cas put his arms around her waist and kissed her on the mouth, and she kissed him back. "You look beautiful in the candlelight," he told her. "You always have."

"Way to find the silver lining," she quipped. "Now kiss me one more time and then get out of here, before the wrong person finds you here."

He smiled. "It's my palace; I can do what I want," he said softly. Then he kissed her again.

"Oh, no, you can't," Gail said, after they came up for air. "This is getting way too sexy. We're sitting here on a bed, in case you haven't noticed, and if you truly want to wait until our wedding night, you need to leave, now."

She was right. Cas took a deep breath and then he rose from his seat on the bed, with a bit of difficulty. "Please let my staff know if you need anything," he told her. "And I'll let you know if and when I hear from the Governor." Then he left the room.

It was the third evening of the third day, and Cas had given up hope. He moved to the bell in his room, intending to grab it and summon Ibrahim.

Suddenly, the telephone on his nightstand rang, and he rushed to answer it.

It was the Governor. "Come to my office," he said. "We will speak."

Cas felt a thrill of excitement. He was going to give in!

"I agree to meet with you alone, but I will have one other person there," the Governor said enigmatically. "You are entitled to have someone at the meeting too, if you wish. But make sure that it is someone you can trust. The fate of many people will hinge on what is discussed here tonight."

Then the Governor hung up the phone, and Cas stared at the receiver for a moment. What exactly had he meant by that? He could see the sense in wanting each side to have a witness to their discussion, but that last remark had concerned him. That didn't exactly sound to him like someone who was ready to give in.

Cas gathered all of his houseguests in one room and dismissed his staff from earshot. He told them about the Governor's call, and they all reacted happily. But a part of Cas was still quite leery.

"He has asked me to come alone," Cas told them. "If you'll all please stay here, I'll let you know what the plan is, upon my return."

Then Cas went downstairs and had the car brought around. "You will stay here and look after my guests," Cas told Ibrahim. "I will be back shortly."

The car started to move, and Castiel thought Crowley's name. His Brother appeared immediately, sitting opposite of him in the back of the limousine. Castiel told him about the Governor's call, and Crowley lifted an eyebrow. He thought that it was a little peculiar, as well. Apparently, the man still thought that he was in a position to negotiate.

When they walked into the Governor's office, the politician rose from his chair and came around the desk to greet them. He did not extend his hand, but he did nod to them in acknowledgement. "Have a seat, gentlemen," the Governor said. "My daughter is preparing refreshments for us."

"Your daughter?" Cas said in surprise.

"Yes, she is a very educated and knowledgeable Egyptologist, and she told me she has already had the pleasure of meeting you," the Governor said to him. He gestured to the chairs in front of his desk. "Sit. Please."

Crowley and Cas exchanged glances, but they sat, and the Governor returned to the chair behind his desk. A moment later, Rowena came in the room bearing a tray with coffee cups and a decanter. She set it on the table beside the desk. And just in time, too. As soon as she'd walked in the room and seen her son, she'd felt like she was going to drop the tray. Of all the people she might have expected to see here with Castiel today, Fergus would not have even been in the Top Ten.

"Coffee, gentlemen?" she said.

"I'll have some," the Governor said. Cas waved her off. "Any chance of anything stronger?" Crowley said hopefully.

The Governor looked at him. A British man? Who was he, and what was his connection to all of this? "You will not find coffee any stronger than ours in the entire nation," he told Crowley proudly.

"I think he means alcohol, Father," Rowena said, bringing the Governor his coffee.

The Governor frowned at Crowley, and the King of Hell shrugged. You couldn't blame a fellow for trying.

"If you invited your daughter here today in order to elicit my sympathy, you have failed," Cas said to the Governor in a sharp tone.

"Not at all," the politician said. "I invited her here today because of her expertise in Egyptian history. She has been doing research on you and your lineage, and I asked her here this evening to render her opinion on whether or not you actually are who you say you are."

"I don't know how you can doubt my veracity," Cas shot back. He gestured to the windows with his hand. "Look at the condition of your city."

"Every phenomena that have occurred can be explained away by science, and logic," the Governor pointed out calmly.

Cas was starting to panic now, but he was becoming angry, too. He slammed his hand on the Governor's desk, and Rowena jumped involuntarily. "How can you be so obstinate?!" he shouted. "Your people will die! Your own daughter will die!"

The Governor sat back in his chair. "You can send in your assassins," he said coolly, "but let us see how they fare against my army. They have machine guns."

Crowley leaned forward. "Do you really think those pieces of tin are going to make any difference? You have no idea what you're dealing with here. None."

Rowena was staring at him and Castiel. She almost should align herself with these two, now. Lucifer was a whining, petulant child. These men were the real Alphas here. If she thought that things could be like this all of the time, she would happily switch sides right now. But as soon as this temporary alliance was done, Rowena knew that Castiel and Crowley would go back to their bickering ways, and her son would go back to helping Gail work on that necklace of hers, the one with all of the mens' bollocks on it.

"Yes, we do," she spoke up. "It is you two who have no idea who you are dealing with." And she wasn't thinking of the Governor. She turned to him now. "He is an impostor, Father. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that this man is a member of the royal family. That bloodline died out centuries ago, and this man and his friends are only here to get their hands on our treasures."

Cas's heart sank, but he tried to brazen it out. "You are a liar," he said in a clipped voice.

"No, you are the liar," the Governor said. "Now get out of my office."

Cas and Crowley stood and walked towards the door.

"Wait," the Governor said. They turned back around.

"On the off chance that any of my people are discovered murdered tomorrow, I would advise you not to try to leave town, as you will face criminal prosecution in the morning," he told them.

Cas frowned. "No, I will remain in town, because you will be opening those chambers for me the day after tomorrow," he said coldly. Then he and Crowley left the office.

"He will not budge," Cas said to his friends back at the palace. "We will have no choice but to proceed."

They all looked at each other. Had it really come to this? Since when had the good guys become the bad guys?

"Are you OK with that, Bobby?" Sam asked him.

"Not really, but I don't see what other choice we have," Bobby said uncomfortably. "We have to take care of Lucifer, and if those Tablets are the way to do that, we have to look at the bigger picture, here."

"Doesn't doing this sort of thing make US Lucifer, in a way?" Chuck asked pointedly.

Crowley looked at him. "That's rich, coming from you."

"Look, Crowley, we all know I used to be a bad guy," Chuck retorted. "That's old news. But I'm not a bad guy any more, and I don't know how we can just sit by and sanction this sort of thing."

"Some of you won't be here to sanction anything," Cas told them. "In fact, we'd better do this now." He picked up the phone and asked for all the house staff and the women in the harem to come immediately. When they did, he asked which of them were the first-born in their families. A number of them raised their hands. "Prepare my private jet," he said to Ibrahim. "I want those of you who have just identified yourselves to pack, and Ibrahim will take you to the airport immediately. You will be flown to - " He had been about to say Cairo, but then he remembered that was where Lucifer had been when he and Gail had carried out the reverse ritual, and irrationally, he did not want to send them there. "You will be flown to Jerusalem, where you will wait for the all clear," Cas continued. "Then, when you receive it, you can either opt to return, or to continue on your journey. There will be no punishment if you do not opt to come back. Now, go."

Ibrahim looked at the Sheikh, puzzled. Just when he thought he had his employer figured out, the Sheikh continually surprised him. Well, at least he was taking care of his own, for a change. Ibrahim had no doubt that there would be many deaths here tomorrow, but at least now there would be fewer Egyptian deaths. He was torn between feelings of hatred and intense affection for the Sheikh. His employer was a force to be reckoned with, to be sure. As a member of the royal family, one could ask for no finer example, in Ibrahim's opinion. On the other hand, he treated these Americans like his family, and he had brought down death and destruction on his own people. And the worst was yet to come.

"You may go," Cas said, dismissing his staff. Then he turned to his friends. "I will not be doing any of the killing myself, nor will Crowley. He is sending a Demon squad into Luxor in the morning, to do what needs to be done."

"I'll have to leave town myself, in fact," Crowley said casually. "I'm the first-born son, and with these ancient Biblical curses, it's best not to take any chances." He gave Cas a taut smile. "Though I daresay a large part of you would enjoy the payback."

"Are you kidding us with this?" Sam said angrily. "So we're just going to let this happen, then? Demons are gonna roll into town and kill people, and we're just going to let them?"

"No way," Dean said. "Cas is bluffing. You're bluffing, aren't you, Cas?"

"Of course he is," Frank said. "There's no way he'd ever do anything like that."

Cas sighed. If that was what they had to tell themselves, he would rather leave it like that. "Well, neither one of you will be here, anyway," he told them. "Frank, Dean, Bobby, Ethan and Kevin will all have to leave. Frank, Dean and Ethan are all the eldest siblings, and Bobby and Kevin are only children. You, Chuck?"

"I have an older sister," Chuck said. "Well, I did have, at least." Funny, he hadn't thought about his sister in years. He'd been such a douche when he was a human that she'd vowed to have nothing to do with him, and she'd kept that promise.

"Sam's all right to stay, of course," Cas continued. "Jody?" he asked.

"I had an older brother, Cas. But he died years ago," she said quietly. Sam and Dean looked at her in surprise. All these years they'd known her, and she'd never mentioned that before. She shrugged. "I'll tell you guys about it sometime," she said to them. Frank put his arm around her for comfort. She'd already told him, and it was a very sad story.

"And Gail's OK to stay too, of course," Cas said. "So, that's everyone. Bobby will take the first-borns back to the States, to wait for us at the bunker. Once the Governor opens the chambers for us, Chuck, Gail and myself will take care of the otherworldly beings, and Sam and Jody will be our human conduits, once the Tablet has been located."

"Sounds good to me," Chuck said, but Dean and Frank were frowning. "Well, it doesn't sound good to us," Dean said irritably. "We came all the way out here, and we don't even get to participate in the heist? What's up with that, Cas?"

"This is not a movie, or a video game," Castiel said testily. "It is serious business, and all of the first-borns need to be far away from here, Dean."

Dean regarded his friend curiously. Now he was beginning to wonder. Was Cas serious about his intention to murder all those people? "Cas, what are you gonna do?" Dean asked him quietly.

"Please make sure everyone is all right at the bunker, and I will do my best to do the same, here," Cas said evasively.

"Are you all right with this?" Dean said to Gail.

She said nothing. What could she say?

"Fine," Dean said shortly. "Let's go, Bobby. I don't wanna hang around and see my best friend turn into Crowley."

Frank embraced Jody. "Go get 'em, Tiger," he said to her. He still didn't believe that Cas would actually let anyone get killed. He'd just said he was going to try to look out after everyone. Dean was just being Dean, and he was being an ass.

There were hugs all around, and the group left for the bunker. Then Cas turned to Sam and Jody. "I'll ask the remaining staff to make you something for supper, and then you'll probably want to get a good night's sleep," he told them. "One way or the other, at the end of the day tomorrow, we're getting into those chambers."

"That's OK, I think we can manage, Sheikh," Sam said coolly, and he and Jody headed off towards the kitchen.

"I'll be heading out, too," Crowley said. "Congratulations, Castiel, for deciding to do the right thing."

"Don't congratulate me. Just go," Cas snapped.

Once Crowley was gone, Chuck looked at Cas and Gail. "Do the two of you want to be alone?" he asked them.

"No, please come for a walk with us," Cas said, taking Gail's hand. "I'd like to talk to you, Chuck."

They walked outside, and Chuck said, "What do you want to talk to me about, Cas?"

"Why were you so angry with me at the museum?" Cas asked him. Gail looked at the men, puzzled. This was the first she was hearing of this.

Chuck sighed. "I don't know, Cas. I just...I just feel so jealous of you, sometimes. I fight it and I fight it, but it just keeps coming back. I know, that's one of the worst Sins. It was feelings like that which prompted me to do all those terrible things in the first place."

"What are you jealous of, Chuck?" Cas asked their friend quietly.

Chuck laughed shortly. "How long have you got? How about your exalted status in Heaven? How about that you have the kind of relationship that most guys would kill for? And I don't care, you can punch me in the face if you want to, but how about the fact that you get more hot sex in one night than I've ever had in my entire, miserable existence? How's that for a start?"

Cas let go of Gail's hand and faced Chuck. "You are not to talk about Gail that way," he said, his voice growing even quieter.

"Hey, you asked," Chuck retorted.

"He's right. You did," Gail quipped, trying to take the edge off the tension between the men. Both of them looked at her. She looked at Chuck. "Chuck, do you want to be my boyfriend?" Gail asked him.

"What?!" Chuck exclaimed. Was she nuts? Cas was going to have a stroke. But first, he was going to chop Chuck into little, tiny pieces.

"Do you want me for yourself, Chuck?" Gail persisted. "Answer honestly."

Cas regarded them both, saying nothing. He was suddenly very interested in hearing the answer to Gail's question.

"No!" Chuck shouted. "No way, Gail! I mean, I love you, but...eww! That's just like thinking about dating your sister, or something!"

"All right, all right, you don't have to be quite THAT adamant about it," she said, rolling her eyes. But she was smiling.

Cas let out a sigh of relief. "So, you don't want WHO I have, you just want WHAT I have," he said to Chuck. "Well, as far as the relationship aspect goes, I completely understand. I've been in existence since Creation, and I had given up hope on ever finding love. I was extremely lucky, Chuck. And I will never let a day go by without thanking our Father for sending Gail into my life." He took her ring hand and kissed it.

"Yeah, well, you always were His favourite," Chuck grumbled.

"What do you want me to say, Chuck?" Cas said. He was starting to get a little irritated now. What DID Chuck want him to say? "Do you want me to assure you that the same thing will happen to you? Well, I can't do that. It may not."

"I understand that, Cas," Chuck said, "and of course I don't expect you to say anything like that. Though it would be nice to at least get laid once in a while." He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, Gail."

She shrugged. "Please. I've heard way worse stuff than that. But it's good to be honest, Chuck. If you let resentments build up inside you without expressing them, it can make you bitter. Believe me, I know."

"OK, then, while we're being so honest, let me tell you something else," Chuck said. "It doesn't matter how many centuries of good I do in Heaven, I will never even come close to achieving the level of respect that Cas has now."

"So you want a leadership role in Heaven, do you?" Cas asked Chuck in his quiet tone. Gail looked at him sharply. She recognized that tone. But she was going to keep her mouth shut for now, because she thought that the men should hash this out.

"Maybe I do, Cas," Chuck replied.

"Fine," Cas said, pursing his lips. "Perhaps you'd like to start with making the type of decision that has to be made tomorrow morning and see how that sits on your shoulders. Perhaps you would like to be forced to align yourself with the King of Hell, while alienating your family and friends. And maybe you'd like to look into the eyes of the one person that you love most in the entire universe and see the disappointment there, all day, every day. Would you enjoy that, Chuck?"

"Cas," Gail said miserably. Tears sprang to her eyes. "If I've been looking at you that way, I apologize. I know things are hard enough on you, as it is."

"It's not your fault," he told her, touching her face. "Of course you're disappointed in me. I'm disappointed in myself. But it's too late. Even if I stood down now, Crowley has told me that he intends to proceed. He said that we have to think of the greater good, and he is right. But if he takes the decision out of my hands, I'll be no less culpable. I'm the one who set this whole thing in motion."

"We'll all share the responsibility, Cas," Chuck said. "That's what families do. That is, if you'll still let me be a member of the family after what I said. I'm sorry, Cas. You're right. I wouldn't want to have to shoulder the kind of responsibility that you do."

"Group hug?" Gail suggested, and she pulled Chuck towards her and Cas. The three of them embraced for a moment, and then Cas said, "Do you know how to play cards, Chuck? It's going to be a very long night."

The screaming began early the next morning. Crowley had wasted no time. His Demon squad had arrived in town at dawn and began moving from house to house, carrying out their gruesome assignment. They did so quietly and efficiently, without any show of emotion. Crowley had instructed them as such. Anyone seen showing any sort of joy or mirth about what they were doing would be taken directly to Hell's torture chamber. So they went about their business silently and swiftly, marking each door with a big black "X" after they were done there.

The Governor had deployed his army of course, and the men shot at the assassins, multiple times. But those salvos barely even slowed them down. After a couple of those types of incidents, the Demons had begun to toss the militia men around like ragdolls and bend their guns into pretzels. The rest of the army men retreated upon seeing this. There were definitely supernatural forces at work here, and civilian life was suddenly looking very good to them.

The bodies piled up as the day went on, and the cries of anguish became louder and louder. Cas sat on the front steps of the palace, making himself listen. He would hear those cries echoing in his ears for the rest of his existence. The others were inside the palace, dealing with the situation in their own ways. Sam was cursing and punching the walls, and he had been threatening to go down to the city all day, but he had not. He realized how ultimately futile that would be. Jody and Chuck were sitting in the living room, grim-faced but tight-lipped. Gail had retreated to her room after a few minutes of hearing the cries, slamming and locking the door behind her.

A hooded figure came walking up the driveway, and Cas stood, peering at the figure.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" he called out.

Silence. The individual continued to advance, and though he could still not make out the face under the hood, Cas now noticed that there was an Angel blade in the entity's hand.

He ran down the steps to confront the individual. "Who are you?" he demanded again.

The man reached up and removed the hood from his head. "Just another worker bee, Castiel, here to do a job," he said calmly, continuing to walk towards the house.

Cas was puzzled. He had no idea who or what this individual was, or what they were doing here. This was not one of Crowley's Demons, here for the cull. And every first-born had been sent away from the palace, anyway. But why did this man have an Angel blade in his hand? In any event, if he thought he was getting anywhere near Cas's house, he was crazy.

The man was on the top step now, and Cas stood in front of him. "I will ask you one more time: who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"I am a Reaper, and I'm here to do my job," the man answered him. "The first-born, in every household. Even the royal palace is not exempt. It's all right, Castiel. You only have the one. This won't take long at all." He pushed Cas aside and continued to move down the corridor towards where the living quarters were.

"Why didn't Crowley send a Demon, then?" Cas demanded, trailing after him. "Who are you here to kill?"

"The first-born, of course," the Reaper said. "Death sent me, because this particular death warrants special attention. He was actually amazed that none of you thought of it. Although, to be fair, none of you ever did get around to telling Crowley, did you?"

"What are you talking about?" Cas exclaimed. He was starting to feel dread now. "Stop!" he shouted.

The Reaper was in the guest wing now. Sam was pacing back and forth in the kitchen, and Chuck and Jody were still in the living room. And the Reaper had an Angel blade. "No," Cas whispered.

"You never did get around to telling Crowley that she was adopted, did you?" the Reaper asked him. "You sent Frank away, and quite rightly. He WAS the first-born, to his own parents. But Gail was also the only child her biological parents ever had. Therefore, she is a first-born, too."

"No!" Cas screamed. He took the sword out of his robes, but the Reaper extended his hand, flinging Cas against the wall.

"Nothing personal, Castiel. Just doing my job," the Reaper said. He'd reached Gail's door now. "I'd stay out here, if I were you," he said to Castiel. "You won't want to see this."

Oh, God, my God. This was really going to happen. And all because they'd completely forgotten that Gail and Frank were not actually siblings, related by blood. Because HE had forgotten. And what would be the point of living now?

"Take me, instead," he begged the Reaper.

"You know it doesn't work that way, Castiel," the Reaper said. "But hey, if you're going to invoke an ancient curse, you have to be prepared to live with the consequences, right?"

Cas stared at him, wide-eyed with terror. It was no wonder that he never messed with ancient curses. Biblical retribution was obviously nothing to screw around with.

Biblical. He had an idea. In desperation, he brought the sword down on his own forearm and cut it to ribbons. Then he put his hand on the wounds and smeared the blood all over his palm. He dove past the Reaper, smacking his palm on the door to Gail's room. "You shall not pass," he told the Reaper.

The Reaper looked at him uncertainly. Cas went back for more blood and smeared the door jambs and walls on either side, just for good measure. "You shall not pass!" he repeated.

The Reaper started to smile. "Good one, Cas. Came up with it at the eleventh hour, didn't you?"

Gail had heard the commotion outside in the hallway, and she yanked her door open now. "Cas, what the hell's going - " Her sentence cut off as she saw the man with the Angel blade and Cas with his sword in his hand, looking panicked and bloody.

"You win this round," the Reaper said, and he put the Angel blade away, sauntering down the hall. Cas could almost swear he heard him whistling.

Cas rushed to Gail and pushed her back into her room, somewhat irrationally bolting the door behind them. "Cas, what's going on?" she asked him again.

He fell to his knees in front of her. "Please forgive me, Gail. Please. I screwed up, so badly." He began to sob.

So that was it. The screaming from town had finally gotten to him, too. Why did he think she had barricaded herself in here all day? But she knew that he had been sitting out front all that time, making himself listen. That was either the stupidest or the noblest this she had ever seen; she wasn't sure which. But she certainly knew which of the two of them was the coward.

She got down on the floor with him when she noticed that his arm was bleeding. "What happened to you?" she asked softly. She grabbed his arm and ran her hand over it, healing his wounds. "Who was that guy, Cas?"

"He was a Reaper," Cas said dazedly. "He was here for you, Gail."

"Me?" she said, shocked. "Why would he have been here for me?"

Cas told her what the Reaper had said, and what had happened just before she'd opened her door. Gail couldn't believe it. "I can't believe none of us thought of that," she said. "Of course I could have been a first-born. I just don't generally think of myself as being adopted. At my age, it doesn't really seem relevant. And Frank is my brother in every way that counts."

"I nearly got you killed, Gail," Cas said miserably. "I'm so sorry."

"Shhh," she said, touching his face. "You're not the only one here who didn't think of that. Besides, that was some pretty quick thinking on your part. The blood of the Lamb, just like in the Bible."

"I remembered that was the way it was done, back then," he told her. "The doorways of those to be spared were marked with lambs' blood, and the killers passed those households over."

They sat there quietly for a minute. There were a lot of houses in the city that had not been passed over today, and that was on their shoulders.

There was a pounding on the door, and Cas got up to answer it. Sam, Chuck and Jody came busting in. "Are you guys all right?" Sam asked them. "We heard yelling, and we saw all the blood in the hall."

"We're fine," Gail confirmed. She and Cas got up off the floor.

"Ibrahim's looking for you," Chuck told Cas. "He said the Governor called. He wants to meet you at the museum, right away."

Cas frowned. So, that was it. One of Crowley's Demon hit squad must be preparing to kill the Governor's daughter, so suddenly, the Governor wanted to negotiate. But really, was Cas any better? He had just let thousands of people die, but he had made sure to rush up here to save his own fiancee, hadn't he?

"All right, let's go," Cas said wearily. He reached out for Sam's hand. Sam looked at him in surprise. "From now on, we stick together," Cas said. Then he and the Angels winked Sam and Jody to the museum.

But to Cas's shock, the Governor was sitting on the floor in the middle of the library, cradling his daughter's dead body in his arms.

"You have won," he said to Cas in a toneless voice, rocking Jasmina's body back and forth. "I have nothing left. I don't care who you are any more. You are nothing but a monster to me. I will remove my guards from the dig site and close the tombs from the public for a day of mourning. Go there, take whatever you want, and then get the hell out of my city."

Sam felt like he was going to vomit. A beautiful, intelligent young woman murdered, just so they could get their hands on a slab of stone? He remembered having been with her here. What they'd done was a bit hazy to him, but he thought it had been very nice, and Sam had been hoping to get her number and see her again when everything had calmed down. Now she was just a statistic. Another casualty.

The unfortunate young woman had been a casualty, but she hadn't been killed by any Demon assassin.

Rowena had known what was going to happen, of course, and there was no way she was going to take any chances. It was time to get the hell out. So she had summoned Lucifer, asking him to bring her own vessel back so she could get out of Jasmina. And, eventually, he had come.

"It took you long enough," she'd snapped. "I'm about to be killed, you know."

"The force field is getting stronger," Lucifer said irritably. He wasn't used to being kept away from anywhere he wanted to go, and it was extremely frustrating to him, to say the least. "I can only stay a minute as it is. Here, jump back in your body and let's go." He put his mouth on Rowena's vessel's mouth and she watched, fascinated, as he breathed in, sucking Jasmina's essence out of Rowena's body. Then Rowena advanced to the floor where her own body lay and exhaled her own essence back into herself, as Lucifer had shown her how to do. What a weird feeling it was to be kneeling here, practically French-kissing yourself. It was a bit of a shame that she couldn't feel the sensations of both bodies at once. If anyone would ever be able to satisfy Rowena, it would be Rowena herself, she thought with some amusement.

Then the swap was made, and Lucifer was feeling the urgency to leave. He grabbed a very confused Jasmina and kissed her, using his tongue. "I really wish I had the time to leave a better calling card," he said to her. "Send your Daddy a message. This is what happens when you put your own ambitions before the well-being of your loved ones." He took out a knife and stabbed her repeatedly in the chest, then dropped her dead body on the library floor. Then he took her cell phone and dialed her father's number, throwing the phone on her chest as it started to ring. Then he'd grabbed Rowena's hand, and they'd teleported out of there.

Cas transported them to the Valley of the Kings, and true to the Governor's word, the place was deserted.

"All right, let's get this done," Cas said wearily.

"Wait," Sam said. "I want Dean here for this."

Cas considered this. He kind of wanted Dean here, as well. Things were eerily quiet here at the moment and having someone else here who was an expert in human weaponry might not be a bad idea.

"And I DON'T want Jody here for this," Gail said.

Jody looked at her. "What?!" she exclaimed.

"If anything happened to you, Frank would kill me," Gail told her. "You guys just got married, and you've got Robbie to think about now. You don't want to run the risk of him losing another mother so soon, do you? We'll have Chuck take you to the bunker, and swap Dean for you."

"Do it, Chuck, please," Cas said.

Chuck grabbed Jody by the hand and winked her out of there. A few minutes later, he was back with Dean.

"Thank you, Chuck," said Cas, moving forward, "and, my apologies." He put his hand on Chuck's forehead and gave him a mighty push, sending him back to the bunker.

The four of them stood there and looked at each other for a moment. Dean had been about to make some kind of a quip, but when he saw the grim expressions on their faces, his throat dried up. He guessed he knew why they looked like that, and why they were here now. Cas had gone through with it. He had actually done it. But, really, what choice had his friend had?

Maybe they would have to talk about it sometime, but right now, Cas was leading the way to the tomb. Dean followed, then Gail, and Sam brought up the rear. It was so strange to be here like this, with no one around. As they descended into King Tut's tomb, the silence was eerie and the dark was oppressive. There was some natural lighting, though, and there were strategically placed torches in sconces on the wall. Gail had thought that they were there for atmosphere only, but now she was extremely glad to see them. The 3 days of darkness was over now, but it still seemed darker than it did before. Or maybe it was just her mood. Their supposed victory was feeling very hollow at the moment.

"Well, if it isn't the reporters, and the Sheikh," one of the armed guards said. "The Governor has instructed us to open the chambers for you before we leave."

"Then do it," Cas said curtly.

"I had an older brother yesterday," the other guard said, taking his weapon off his shoulder.

Cas and Gail withdrew their blades and stepped in front of Sam and Dean. "I would advise you to put your weapons down and leave," Cas said. "We can open the chambers ourselves."

"Believe it or not, we're sorry for your loss. But I would do it, if I were you," Gail said. "You won't be given another warning."

The men glared at them, but they laid their weapons down on the ground. They had seen the ills that had befallen their city at the hands of this man, and whoever or whatever he was, they wanted no part of him.

"Do what you will," one of them said to Cas. "But even if you are not who you claim to be, at least have some respect for whatever you may find."

"We are here for one thing, and one thing only," Cas told them. "We will not touch any of the artifacts, or any remains. You have my word. Now, go."

The men looked at him with puzzled expressions, and then they backed out of the tomb and left.

"Alone at last," Dean said, and he moved forward and picked up one of the guards' weapons, tossing the other one to Sam. "Thanks for the upgrade, fellas."

"Now what?" Sam said. "I hate to tell you this, Cas, but I don't see any entry point there, only a solid wall."

"I have an app for that," Gail said. "Stand back, guys." She pointed her blade at the wall and said the Enochian phrase, and the golden laser point of light came out of her blade and made a hole in the wall. "Now we can see in there, and if it's a chamber, I can cut a hole in the wall that will enable us to get in. And the beauty is, it's self-repairing."

"That's pretty impressive," Sam said.

Dean was the closest, so after Gail did her thing, he looked in the peephole. "Looks like a chamber to me," he said.

"Is there anything in the room?" Cas asked him.

Dean looked at him, then looked through the peephole again. "A couple of large boxes, a few statues, and... son of a bitch!" he said.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Snakes," Dean moaned.

"Snakes? What kind of snakes?" Cas asked.

"How the hell should I know?" Dean said irritably. "Snakes! After everything that's gone on here, does it really matter?"

Cas supposed Dean had a point. Besides, it shouldn't matter. Even if they turned out to be venomous, Cas should be able to keep them calm. The large boxes intrigued him, though. The Tablet could very well be in one of those. He nodded to Gail. "Go ahead, when you're ready."

She concentrated, then pointed her blade at the wall and started to cut a hole in it with the golden beam of light. She cut out a large rectangle, then put her blade down.

"What now?" Dean said.

Gail shrugged. "I don't know, actually. We never got this far before." She looked at Cas. "Maybe you guys should try pushing on it."

All three men moved forward and pushed on the wall, and it swung forward, like a door on hinges.

"Cool," Gail breathed.

They entered the chamber slowly, cautiously. "Where did you see the snakes, Dean?" Cas asked him.

"There," Dean said, pointing at the floor in front of a large rectangular box. About a dozen snakes were slithering around there. As they approached, the snakes rose up off the floor and coiled themselves into striking position.

"Be calm," Cas said to the snakes.

"Or don't be, maybe," Gail's voice said nervously, from behind him.

Cas turned around, curious as to what she might have meant by that. He was alarmed to see six Bedouin men entering the chamber, carrying automatic weapons. "Who are you?" Cas asked them. "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to get whatever treasures there are here," one of the men said in an angry voice. "The government has taken all of our land, and now we're going to take something back for ourselves."

"We're not here for any treasure," Sam said, putting his hands up. "We're only here to get a stone Tablet, that's all. Just let us take that, and we'll leave you to it."

"A stone tablet?" the Bedouin asked. "And, what would that be? Some kind of ancient artifact?"

"Yes," Cas said, "but it is of no monetary value."

"Really?" The man smiled. "Then why would you want it?"

"Sentimental reasons?" Dean quipped.

"Very amusing," the Bedouin said. "Now give us your weapons and get on your knees." He looked at Gail. "You do not have to do so. But we may reserve the pleasure of searching you for weapons, after we execute your companions."

"I don't think so," Gail retorted. She pointed both of her arms at the snakes. "Kill them," she said, and the golden glow came from her fingertips. She flicked her fingers towards the Bedouins, and the snakes flew at the mens' faces. They wrapped themselves around the mens' necks and bit them, again and again, as the victims screamed. Soon, all of the men slumped to the floor, dead.

"Another weapons upgrade, guys," Gail said to Sam and Dean. They looked at her, and then at each other, and then back at her. "Now THAT was cool," Dean said, impressed. Gail shrugged. "Hey, they were about to kill you. And if you think 'searching me for weapons' was what they really had in mind, you're kidding yourselves."

But Cas was frowning. She was right, of course, but he hated to see her this way. This hard edge didn't become her. However, they needed to take care of business right now, and they needed to keep Dean and Sam alive while they were doing it. He leaned down and checked the bodies of the Bedouins. Yes, they were all dead, all right. "Go outside the chamber," he told the snakes, and they began to slither out. "Guard the entrance," Gail added, telling the snakes, "Kill anyone who tries to enter."

Cas gave her another sharp look, but then he reconsidered. Who was he kidding? Look at everything he had done leading up to this moment. She was just trying to protect them. Following his example. Oh, God. Cas was turning Gail into himself. Ever since the day that Cas had met Gail, she had slowly been making him into a better Angel, and a better man. But was he now dragging her down to the level he'd been at before he had met her? The days of Jason and the Angel Wars, when the end always seemed to justify the means, and he could kill without any pangs of conscience whatsoever? What was happening to them?

Sam and Dean were silently divesting the Bedouins of their weapons. "Sam, Dean," Cas said quietly. "Can you help me remove the top of this box? Perhaps the Tablet is inside."

The three men used all their muscle to ease the heavy stone cover off the box. It fell to the side, and a huge cloud of dust puffed out of the box. Once it had settled, they all looked down into the box.

"Canopic jars," Cas said. "So there really is someone buried here. What a find this will be."

"Well, you'll forgive us if we don't do cartwheels," Dean said grumpily. "Where's the damn Tablet, already?"

"It must be in the second chamber," Cas replied.

"And where might that be?" Sam asked.

"Gail can use her blade to look around for it," Cas said.

"I don't think that'll be necessary, Cas," Gail said, pointing to the statues. "I think all we have to do is follow them."

The statues were moving across the floor by themselves, and when they got to the opposite wall, they lined themselves up against the wall and began to grow in size.

"Anubis," Cas said. "Protectors of the dead."

Sam, Dean and Gail looked up at the statues, astonished. The sculptures had come to life now. They'd also grown to a height of about eight feet, and they had the bodies of men, but the heads of large dogs. They all held staffs in one hand and stood at attention. They stared balefully at the quartet. While not behaving aggressively at the moment, it didn't appear as if they were prepared to move away from the wall, either.

"What are we going to do, Cas?" Gail said quietly. "How are we supposed to get past them?"

"The Weighing of the Heart," Sam said quickly, and Cas looked at him sharply. "How do you know about that, Sam?"

"It was on the bricks we looked at, at the library," Sam replied. "It comes from the Book of the Dead. According to the lore, one of Anubis's responsibilities was deciding whether people were ready to enter the underworld. He did that by performing a ritual called the Weighing of the Heart. The person's heart was assessed to see if it was pure and true, and if it was deemed to be insufficient or lacking, it would be given to Ammit, a female Demon, to devour, causing the person to die over and over again."

Cas was extremely impressed. Sam hadn't had that much time to study the bricks, and he had gotten all that in such a short period?

"I also Googled some of that, Cas," Sam said, grinning sheepishly.

"Remember that," Cas said to him, clapping him on the shoulder. "That's the kind of honesty you'll want to be using on Anubis."

The two men smiled at each other as Dean and Gail exchanged puzzled glances. "I miss the good old days, when Sammy and I used to talk, and it was Cas who had no idea what WE were talking about," Dean grumbled.

"We've figured out a way to get the statues to move out of the way for us," Cas told Gail and Dean.

"We'll all have to approach them individually, one statue per person," Sam said. "And, we'll have to tell them a truth about ourselves, from the heart. If the statue deems our heart to be pure enough, it'll move out of the way."

"Are you freakin' kidding me with this?" Dean said skeptically.

Sam looked at his brother patiently. "Can you honestly stand there and say that you haven't done anything this weird before, Dean?"

Dean thought about that for a minute. Sam did have a point there.

"Okie-dokie. I might as well start, then," Dean said. He walked up to one of the statues and looked up at it. "Ummmm...what am I supposed to say, exactly?" Dean said to the room in general.

"Just tell it one truth about yourself, from the heart," Sam prompted him.

"OK," Dean said. "OK. I can do that." He looked up at the statue again. "I'm afraid I might have really blown it with Nicole, after the way I behaved at Frank and Jody's wedding. I really like her, but I acted like an ass to her that night, and I wouldn't blame her if she's washed her hands of me. I'm sure I did that on purpose, because I'm afraid to get too close to a woman again."

His statue bowed and lowered its staff, and it moved away from the wall.

"Your turn, Sammy," Dean said to his brother.

Sam looked up at his statue. Then he glanced around at his companions and took a deep breath. "Everyone always says that out of the two of us, I have the softest heart," Sam began. "But I know that's not true. I think there's a part of me that's missing. I've been claiming for years that I want a good relationship, with a quality woman, but I just keep having indiscriminate sex, and I never make a commitment to anyone."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Dean quipped, but Sam held up his hand. "Dean, please. I'm trying to be serious, here. I don't date anyone who's really a viable candidate for a relationship. And the one woman I convinced myself I was in love with was so clearly unavailable that I might as well have put up a big sign: I'm a liar, and I'm a hypocrite."

Gail looked at Sam sympathetically. She felt like he was being too hard on himself. But it was his truth, and it was obviously true enough, because Sam's statue moved off to the side.

Gail stepped up to her statue. "I'm passive-aggressive, though I'm trying very hard not to be," she said without preliminary. "I want the best of both worlds. I walk around like I'm the Queen of Sheba or something, expecting all of these men to do what I say just because I say it. Yet when things get really hard, I just retreat to my room and cry like a baby. I demand to be treated like an equal, but when the real stuff goes down, I let these men protect me with their lives, because I know that they will." She saw her statue move aside through eyes that were blurred with tears. It had been cathartic to say, but it had been very hard to say all of that, too. Hopefully, the guys wouldn't think too much less of her for having told the truth.

Cas stepped forward to his own statue. He looked over at Gail, who was weeping silently. He had been impressed with her unflinching self-analysis. If he were to be very honest with himself, he knew that there was some truth to what she was saying about herself. But it was mainly her truth, from her own viewpoint, and he thought she was being too hard on herself. Cas and the other men did things for Gail because they loved her, and because she was right, the vast majority of the time. She thought she was a coward, but he did not. Look at all of the things she had faced throughout the years. Those ordeals had only served to make her stronger. So what if she cried? Hadn't they all, at one time or another? Expressing one's emotions was not a sin, nor was it anything to be ashamed of. Gail demanded to be treated like an equal because she had self-esteem now, and she deserved to be treated like an equal. But there was nothing wrong with the men protecting her, either, in Castiel's opinion, nor was that anything for her to be ashamed of. That was the natural order of things. Males had always protected females, ever since time began. But Gail had protected all of them, too, whenever and however she could. In Cas's opinion, there was absolutely nothing that she should regret, and the same went for Dean, and Sam. They would always protect her with their lives. Always. That was what family did.

But now he had his own truth to tell, and Cas was tongue-tied. Many people would have trouble coming up with one; in his case, narrowing it down to only one confession was the dilemma.

"I have behaved shamefully here," Cas told his statue. "I am supposed to be a servant of the Lord, and instead, I behaved as if I were the Lord. I brought His sword down on the innocent, rationalizing that the end justified the means." Now the tears began to flow down his face as well.

Gail felt her heart break for Cas. He wasn't wrong, but what else could he have done under the circumstances? He'd been right; it was very easy for all of them to stand there and say what a terrible thing it was that he had done, but she hadn't seen any of them, herself included, come up with a viable alternative, either.

As Cas's statue began to move aside, Gail looked at him and said, "John, 3.14."

Cas turned to her, his cheeks glistening with tears. "What?" he said.

"John, 3.14," Gail repeated softly. "'God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved, through him'."

Cas rushed to Gail and embraced her fiercely. "There is nothing wrong with who you are, and the way that you conduct yourself," he said in a thick voice. "Our Father said so on that day, and I agree. You are my heart, and my soul, and my moral compass. Please don't ever stop being who you are, Gail. Who you are is who I love."

Gail wiped the tears away from his cheeks with her hands. "I love you and I support you, Cas, and I have faith that you will always do the right thing."

"Ummm, guys, don't you think we'd better get into that second chamber, before any other unwanted company comes along?" Sam said dryly.

"Sorry, Sam. You're right," Gail said, giving him a thin smile. She took out her blade and made the hole in the wall. This time it was Cas who peered into it first.

"There's a sarcophagus," he said, "and some more artifacts. And there's a niche at the far end of the room which looks like it might be the right size for a Tablet. But it's quite far away, so I can't tell."

"Any snakes?" Dean asked tersely.

"There don't appear to be," Cas said, and Dean breathed a sigh of relief.

"OK, here goes," Gail said, and she cut out the opening to the second chamber with her blade. Again, they stepped into the chamber slowly and cautiously.

Cas touched the sarcophagus lightly. "It's magnificent," he said.

Gail had to agree that it was beautiful. She hoped that it was someone that it would make the Egyptian people happy to discover, hopefully even an actual member of the royal family. After everything they had been through recently, she hoped that this discovery would be at least a partial reparation. In fact, she could think of a little reparation that could be made right now.

"I'll be right back," she told the men. She winked out of the tomb and over to the palace, finding Ibrahim and grabbing him by the hand. She winked him back, to the first chamber of the tomb.

"I just thought you would want to see this," she told him.

He looked at her, then looked at his surroundings, shocked. "Who are you, really?" he asked her in a hushed tone.

"It doesn't matter," Gail said, shaking her head.

Ibrahim looked down at the dead Bedouins.

"Grave robbers," Cas said. He entered the chamber, Sam and Dean behind him. Then he smiled grimly. "Or, their intention was to be grave robbers, anyway. She made sure that did not happen." He introduced Ibrahim to Sam and Dean, and then he took Gail's hand. "And this is Gail, the woman who I love. She is not a second-class citizen, and she is not a whore. She is the finest person I have ever known, and the fact that she thought to bring you here is just another example of that fact."

Ibrahim looked into the box. "Canopic jars," he said. Then he looked at the wall where the statues stood. They still stood at attention, but they had shrunk in size and were no longer animated. "Anubis."

"Come," Cas said, and Ibrahim followed him into the second chamber. When Ibrahim saw the sarcophagus, he sank down to the floor of the tomb and began to weep.

Sam and Dean exchanged glances. Dean started to smile, but Cas admonished him with a sharp look, so he stopped.

"Thank you," Ibrahim said. He kissed his fingers and touched them to the sarcophagus. As Gail closer to him, he grabbed the hem of her skirt and kissed it, too. "I am very sorry for what I said about you," Ibrahim said to her. "You were very kind to bring me here. Now, if I die here today, I will die happy." Then he kissed the hem of Cas's robes. "I don't know who you truly are, but nevertheless, I am eternally grateful to you," Ibrahim said to him.

"We're here to help mankind," Cas said, and then he smiled at Gail. "And womankind, of course." He looked down at Ibrahim. "We are not here to rob your graves or defile your treasures. We are only here to retrieve an ancient stone Tablet, which has no monetary value, but will be of benefit to the entire human race. And once we have it, we will leave you in peace."

Cas looked to the far end of the chamber, where the niche was located. "Gail, can you - ?" he started to say. He had been about to ask her to provide the light from her blade.

But suddenly, Dean said, "Guys. I think we have a problem."

The walls had become alive with yellow scorpions. Hundreds of them. They crawled down the walls and onto the floor, teeming, and looking very agitated. Dean could feel one on his shoulder, but he didn't want to move suddenly and give it an excuse to strike, so he stayed as still as he could. Somehow, it felt like if just one of them struck, the others would all join in.

"Keep calm," Cas said softly. "Keep very calm."

"Are you talking to me, or them?" Dean said nervously.

"Both," Cas said tersely.

Scorpions were crawling across Sam's boots now. God, they were ugly. These were the extremely venomous, supposedly rare ones that Tommy had told them about. "Cas, what should we do?" Sam asked him quietly.

"Give me a moment, Sam," Cas said, with a bit of an edge to his voice. He was moving towards Dean, slowly. "Is Gail all right?" He didn't want to turn his head suddenly, and it was too dark to see her.

"None on her yet," Sam reported.

Gail had her eyes screwed up tight, allowing only a tiny sliver of vision in. "I'm sorry, guys, but I've got a severe case of the heebie-jeebies right now," she told them. "Please, hurry and figure something out, Cas."

"You're not the only one," Dean said. Cas had reached him now and, incredibly, he was taking the scorpion off of Dean's shoulder with his bare hand.

"You don't want to hurt him," Cas told the scorpion gently. "In fact, none of you want to hurt anyone. You're very tired, and in need of a rest." He bent down and put the scorpion on the floor, with the others. "You will all feel relaxed. So much so, that when you feel the pressure of being walked on, it will be soothing to you. You will not attack anyone. You will simply rest."

The scorpions had stopped moving altogether now, and they were simply sitting there calmly, as Cas had instructed them. "Try taking a step forward, Sam," Cas said.

Sam lifted his boot gingerly and took a step forward. When his foot came down, he crushed the scorpions underneath it, but the others didn't react.

"Holy crap," Sam breathed.

"I know. It's really something, isn't it?" Gail said softly, a hint of a smile in her voice now. "Works on me, too, in case you were wondering," she quipped nervously.

"TMI, Gail," Sam quipped back quietly, venturing another step forward. He proceeded that way until he got about halfway to the location of the niche, and then he got the flashlight he'd forgotten he had on his belt and shone it on the far wall. They all gasped. There was a stone Tablet in the niche. The Earth Tablet, finally!

"Bingo," Sam said, grinning. He went to put the flashlight back in his belt, and then he dropped it. It made a loud, clattering noise, and the scorpions around it attacked it.

"Keep calm," Cas instructed them, and they stopped moving immediately.

Sam kept on going until he got to the far end, and as soon as he put his hand on the Tablet, the scorpions all disappeared. The others let out sighs of relief and rushed to where Sam stood. But then, suddenly Cas and Gail were stopped in their tracks.

"It's warded against Angels, all right," Cas said. "I can't move any closer."

"Neither can I," Gail said.

"We got this," Dean said, stepping forward to where Sam stood. He shrugged the rucksack off his shoulders. "Here, Sammy." Dean took the special carrying case out, and he and Sam put the Tablet in it. "I got this from the bunker. Those Men of Letters must have had some experience with these kinds of things before. I found it in the storage room," Dean told the Angels. "It'll protect the Tablet against, well, pretty much anything. And it's shielded, too. When you sent us back before, Bobby brought down a safe he had in his office, and we'll put this in it. Can't get any more secure than that."

Cas smiled. "Good. Great. Now, please come back here so Gail and I can take you home."

"Once I get this case closed, you guys should be able to come over here," Dean said, fastening the case around the Tablet. "The warding shouldn't work anymore."

Suddenly, there were sounds of gunfire and explosions coming from outside the tomb. "Please hurry, Dean," Cas said nervously.

Ibrahim got up and went running out of the chamber, and a moment later, he came back. "It's the army, and the Bedouin rebels," he panted. "They are warring outside. You must take your Tablet and go, or you will perish."

Dean had the case closed now, and he and Sam started walking back to Cas and Gail. They heard shouting, and they wheeled around to see a group of Bedouins rush into the outside chamber of the tomb.

Cas grabbed the encased Tablet from Dean's arms and thrust it into Gail's, then gave her the push back to the bunker.

Gail appeared in the library area, clutching the Tablet against her chest. "Son of a bitch!" she yelled, channelling Dean.

Bobby rushed up to her. "Is that it, Gail?" he asked.

Gail handed the case to him. "One Earth Tablet, as requested," she told him. "Dean said you have a special place for it."

"I do," Bobby replied, carrying the Tablet over to where the safe stood. He looked at her. "Good job, dear."

"Holy crap," Frank said. "Are you guys seeing this?" He and the rest of the group were watching CNN, who were doing a live report on the fighting that had suddenly broken out in the Valley of Kings.

"Where are the guys?" Jody asked Gail, as Gail approached the TV, transfixed by the images. She had just been there, and now she was here. But what she was seeing did not look good, not at all.

"I don't know," Gail said, dazed. "I just assumed they'd be right behind me. Surely they're not still there? They can't still be there..."

But they were still there. Sam and Dean hadn't been able to get close enough to Cas for him to wink them back to the United States. As soon as the Bedouins had seen them, they'd started shooting, and the men had no choice but to take cover and shoot back. They'd tossed Ibrahim and Cas the extra guns, and the four men were holding off the Bedouins, using the sarcophagus and the statues as cover while firing at the rebels.

Eventually, the Bedouins were all dead, and Cas was about to run over and grab Sam and Dean to wink them out of there when Ibrahim lost it. They had shot their way back out to the original tomb area, and suddenly, Ibrahim yelled out a phrase in Arabic at the top of his lungs and ran outside.

"What the hell was that all about?" Dean asked Cas.

"He said, 'I will kill every last one of you, before I let you defile this grave'," Cas translated.

"The guy's crazy," Dean said. "He's suicidal."

"We have to save him from himself," Cas said, running up the stairs. "It's my fault he's here."

Sam and Dean gaped at each other. Now it was Cas who had lost it. Maybe bullets couldn't hurt him, but the last time the Winchesters looked, they didn't enjoy that same luxury. "It's Gail's fault, actually," Dean groused. Then he ran after Cas.

"What did you say?" Cas asked over his shoulder, picking up some weapons along the way and tossing them back to the brothers.

"Nothing," Dean said quickly. He kept a couple of submachine guns for himself, then passed a couple more back to Sam.

Once they got outside, the men looked around in amazement. There was a full-scale war going on out here. Ibrahim stood, frozen, unsure of what he should do. Who exactly were the enemy?

There was an explosion about a foot away from them. "Grenade!" Ibrahim shouted, and he pushed Cas face first into the ground and fell on top of him, protecting him. The brothers dove for the sand, too, and then there was another explosion, just as close. Sam could feel blood trickling down his face. He looked at Dean. They had to get out of here, or they were going to die.

Gail saw the men coming out of the tomb on TV, and she saw the explosion from the first grenade. "What the hell?" she shouted. "Why are they still there? I'm going back for them!" She popped out of the bunker.

But she went to the crossroads first.

"Have you seen what's going on over there?" she said to Crowley as soon as he appeared. "We have to go get them!"

"I'm way ahead of you," he told her. "I sent my Demon army out there. They'll be just fine."

"I don't care, I want to go get them," Gail persisted. "People are throwing grenades at them!"

"Afraid your fiance might lose a vital bit before the wedding night?" Crowley asked her sarcastically. "He obviously sent you back here to keep you safe. You've locked away the Tablet, I trust?"

"Of course," she told him. "But they need to be here, too. I have to make sure they're safe, too."

Crowley sighed. Here came the doe eyes. "If I don't take you, you'll just go without me, won't you?"

"How well you know me," Gail said with a grim smile.

Well, if she was going to put it that way...Crowley grabbed her hand.

They appeared in front of the men. Crowley looked around the battlefield. "It would appear that my minions have everything well in hand. Still, I do hate all this noise," he said calmly. He snapped his fingers, and the combatants froze in place. "Aaaah, peace and quiet. War may be good for increasing my numbers, but it's very loud, isn't it?"

Castiel looked up at them both from his position on the ground. He was attempting to heal Ibrahim, who had received the worst of the injuries in the second grenade explosion. "I might have known," he said, frowning. "Actually, I guess it's good you're both here. Sam and Dean have injuries, as well."

Gail dropped to her knees in front of Dean, while Crowley tended to Sam, who looked at the King of Hell incredulously but did not argue.

"What happened, Cas?" Gail asked him. "Why didn't you get out?"

"We couldn't," he said grimly. "Everything happened too quickly." He sat back on his heels. "There's nothing I can do for him. He's gone."

"He's dead?" Gail said, crawling over to where Ibrahim lay.

"Yes," Cas confirmed.

She was appalled. "But...that's my fault," she said. "If I had left him at the palace, he'd be fine."

"He tried to take on the whole army, Gail," Dean said. "Said he wasn't going to let them desecrate the grave."

She was crying now. "I should have left well enough alone," Gail said to them. "I thought I was being nice, but I got him killed!"

"I don't know what you're all babbling about," Crowley said. "Look at him. He's fine." He stood up from where he'd been kneeling beside Ibrahim's body and, sure enough, Ibrahim was coughing now, and trying to sit up.

Gail looked up at Crowley. He had clearly revived Ibrahim, and he had done it for her, so she wouldn't feel bad any more. But he would never admit that, of course, and he would just be angry if she commented on it.

"I'll take Moose and Squirrel back to the bunker," Crowley said to Castiel. "You can pop your manservant over to the hospital and get him checked out, and then I believe we're done here. I'll pull back my men, and this lot can settle their differences any way they see fit. You've done all you can here, Castiel, and you've done well. Contrary to what you will allow yourself to believe." He grabbed Sam and Dean by the arms and winked them away.

The instant Crowley was gone, the fighting resumed, and Cas winked Gail, Ibrahim and himself away to the hospital. They reappeared at the emergency room reception desk. There was no one around at the moment, so they weren't seen. "Wait here," Cas said to Gail. "I'll get him checked in, and then I'll be right back." He placed Ibrahim in a wheelchair and wheeled him around the corner, and out of sight.

She waited a while, but Cas wasn't coming back. What was taking so long? The hospital was very quiet right now. She was sure it soon wouldn't be, once they started to receive the first casualties from the fighting. The TV was on in the waiting room, and Gail could see that the war was still raging on.

Where was Cas? She ventured around the corner and through a set of double doors, then down another corridor, then through some more doors. No Cas, no Ibrahim. Just a few doctors and nurses. One of them asked her what she was doing here.

"I'm looking for my fiance," she said. "He brought an injured friend in here a little while ago."

"What does your fiance look like?" a doctor asked her.

Gail described Cas, down to the beard and the colour of robes he'd been wearing.

"That man couldn't have brought anyone in here," the doctor said. "The man you're describing is dead."

"What?!" Gail exclaimed. "What do you mean?"

"Follow me and I'll show you," the doctor said to her. "He didn't have any identification on him. We were wondering who we were going to call on his behalf, to retrieve his remains."

He took Gail to the room where the corpse lay and drew back the curtains. Then the doctor took the sheet off of Cas's face. "Is this your fiance?" he said in a gentler tone.

Gail ran to the table. No, it couldn't be. How could this be? She touched his face and then grabbed his arms, first one, then the other, feeling for a pulse. She tore open his robe. He had a gaping stab wound in his chest, but there was no blood. She'd seen this before. She lowered her head to his chest, but there was no heartbeat.

"No," she breathed. She refused to believe what she was seeing. There had to be some kind of mistake.

"The nurse said she saw some kind of strange blue glow coming from this room, but by the time she ran in here, he was dead," the doctor said to Gail.

Her heart stopped. The blue glow. My God. He was really dead, then. Who had it been? Lucifer? Metatron? Whoever it had been, she was going to kill them.