Disclaimer: I don't own much. I own the idea behind the story. I guess I own this version of the vessel? Still no?
Dean stepped between the angels and knelt between them. He saw how pale the vessel was getting from blood loss. He watched as Eli's shaking lessened. "What's going on?" he asked. He looked at Eli for a second before looking away.
"Eli is dying," Gabriel said. "We can heal him as soon as the knife is out of him."
"Then pull the knife out!" Dean yelled. He didn't like seeing Castiel, or now Castiel's vessel, in pain.
"They can't touch it," Eli whispered. Dean looked down to the man lying on the floor. Their eyes met before Eli turned away. "Will hurt them. Can kill them."
"It's killing you," Dean countered.
"I'll pull it out." Eli put a shaky hand on the hilt of the knife. Just as he looked like he got a grasp on it, his hand slowly fell away, too weak to pull it out. "Sorry," he whispered, his teeth turning pink from internal bleeding.
"It's okay. I got it."
Dean reached to pull at the knife. As soon as his fingers touched the knife, a loud sizzle echoed throughout the room. Eli moaned until Dean released the knife. Eli's body shook in Gabriel's arms. "I'm sorry," Eli mumbled over and over again.
Gabriel tightened his hold on Eli and whispered to him. Everyone else in the room looked to the people on the floor. "Why couldn't you touch the knife?" Uriel asked.
Dean could only stare at his hand, red and burning. "It's okay," Bobby said, stepping into the circle. "I'll do it." Bobby knelt down and looked into Eli's eyes. He ran a hand comfortingly through Eli's hair. "Are you all right, son?" Bobby asked. Eli nodded. "Okay, what I need you to do is keep your eyes on me. Just look at me and nothing else, don't look down, don't look at anyone else in the room. Just me. Can you do that?" Eli nodded. "Gabriel, I need you to hold him down and make sure he doesn't move."
"I can do that, Robert."
"Bobby," he mumbled to correct the angel. "Dean, I need you to find a towel." Dean continued to stare at his hand, mesmerized by how red it was slowly becoming. It burned. "Dean! Towel, now!"
Dean ran out of the room and returned shortly after with a small towel. Bobby tore a piece off of it and rolled it up. "You know what to do with this," he said as he handed it to Dean.
Dean nodded. He looked at Eli, who unnerved him because he had Castiel's face, but wasn't the angel anymore. But his eyes were still so trustworthy. Dean could only keep the gaze for so long before he looked away. "Can you open your mouth for me?" Eli opened his mouth as much as he could, which wasn't much. Dean gently pried his mouth open a little further. He put the towel ball in Eli's mouth. "So you don't bite your tongue."
Bobby reached into his jacket after Dean did his part and took out a vial of Holy Water. Dean took Eli's hand in his, knowing full well what was to come. Bobby grabbed Eli by his chin and turned his face. "Remember what I said," Bobby said. "Only look at me." Eli nodded again. "It'll be over soon."
Bobby's cool demeanor overshadowed everyone's fear and anxiety in the room. It wasn't that he wasn't scared, it was that he needed to have a cool head or the man lying in front of him was going to die. "Okay, on three," he said. Bobby took a deep breath. "Three," Bobby said, and right after, he pulled the knife out in one motion.
Eli tensed and Gabriel held him tightly to his chest to keep him from moving. Dean felt as Eli squeezed his hand and then let go. The squeeze was light, as if he were keeping his pain from him. He watched as Eli's eyes rolled into the back of his head then loll to the side. Dean opened Eli's mouth and pulled the towel out of his mouth. It was pink and the teeth impressions were deep.
Bobby doused the remainder of the towel with Holy Water then pressed it onto Eli's wound. Eli moaned softly. Bobby ran his hand through Eli's hair again. He made hushing sounds to calm the boy. "You did good, son," Bobby whispered.
Gabriel laid Eli on the floor, a single tear rolling down his cheek. "I can take care of him from here," Raphael said. Raphael shifted his body so he knelt at Eli's head. He touched their foreheads together. "Dei gratia, Deo adiuvante. Calei errant gloriam Dei."
Bobby stood up and saw Dean standing at the door with the pink towel in his hand. He left the room without a word.
Bobby walked out of the room after Dean. He closed the door behind him. "Dean," he called after him. "Dean." Dean continued to walk away. "Dean Winchester, don't you dare take another step."
"Yeah, Bobby."
"Are you all right?"
He lifted up his burnt hand, looked at it, then dropped it back to his side. "Yeah," Dean said.
"Dean."
"Yes, sir."
"Don't call me sir."
Dean sighed. He ran his uninjured hand through his hair. "Is he all right?" Dean asked, pointing back to the room.
"Raphael is working on him."
"So he's going to be all right," Dean said, not asked.
"He should be."
"Okay."
Dean turned around and headed toward the front door of the house. "Where do you think you're going?" Bobby asked.
"Get some air."
Dean walked away from Bobby. He pushed through the front door and was out of the house. Bobby wanted to say something to stop him, but he couldn't even imagine all of the thoughts running through the boy's head. He turned around when he felt someone tapping on his shoulder. He saw that it was Sam. "Sam, should you be up?" Bobby asked. He remembered leaving him propped up against a wall while he went to help Eli.
"Is Dean all right?" he asked, ignoring the elder hunter's question.
"I'm not sure," Bobby replied.
"Should one of us go after him?"
"Let him go, son. He's been through a lot these past few days." The door to the room that the angels were in opened and Bobby watched as Gabriel walked out and toward him and Sam. "How is he?" Bobby asked.
"He's sleeping," Gabriel sighed.
"Like on his own?" Sam asked.
"With help. We need to take him somewhere safe." Bobby and Sam nodded in agreement. "Do you know of a place we could go?"
"My panic room," Bobby said.
"Can we take him there?"
"Of course."
"Thank you, Bobby."
"Does that mean we're driving him?" Bobby asked, but he didn't think it was a good idea if they did.
"We'll take him there."
"And he'll be okay enough to do that?" Bobby was already protective of the vessel.
"We won't hurt him." Gabriel looked at the youngest Winchester. "Samuel, are you all right?"
"I think so."
"Good." Gabriel spun to return back to the room.
"Gabriel." The archangel turned around to face the two hunters. "Where is Castiel?"
Bobby saw as Gabriel's eyes saddened. "Sam, go get your brother."
"But you said."
"You heard Gabriel. We have to get Cast… Eli somewhere safe."
"Okay." Sam walked out of the house.
Gabriel let out a long sigh of relief as soon as the front door shut. "Thank you, Bobby."
"So, where is Castiel?"
"He… he was pulled into Hell." He hesitated because it hurt him to say it. The more those words were said, the more true they became.
"Hell?"
"Mammon pulled him down."
"What are you going to do about that?"
"We're going to get him."
"He's really in Hell?"
"Yes."
"Don't tell Dean."
"But if he asks—"
"Don't tell him," Bobby interrupted. "He won't be able to take it. He feels guilty enough already."
"Okay."
Sam brought Dean back into the house. "So what are we doing?" Dean asked.
"Get in your car and drive."
"To where?"
"My house."
"What about Eli?"
"The angels are taking him there now."
"And Castiel?"
"What about him?" Bobby asked.
"Where is he?" He looked to Gabriel for an answer.
"He is working to stop the Apocalypse from occurring," Gabriel replied. "We'll assist him as soon as we are able."
Dean looked back and forth between the archangel and the hunter. He took their word for it because although Bobby could lie to him as much as he wanted, an archangel couldn't. "Okay, let's go."
So, I'm back home after getting my butt handed to me at college, and all I want to do now is write. And here I thought that I was creatively tapped out because of my fiction writing class. I'm planning on updating as many stories as I can this summer. One chapter down. Well, here is the next chapter. I hope that it turned out all right. Thanks for reading. Please review. Lil-Rock
