So, looking back on it now, my writing has SUCKED in the previous chapters. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it so far but from now on expect longer more detailed chapters and just better writing in general on my part. :P Also, I'm going to be throwing in random flashbacks of no particular order in here, to really give you a view on the past relationship between the boys and Liz without screwing up story progression or making it awkward by having them look at each other and have *gasp* RANDOM FLASHBACKS! I hope you guys enjoy where this chapter takes you. :)
Liz decided it would be better to just get in her car and leave, rather than face her mother again. So four hours and a state later she was pulling over at a motel just as the sun was coming up.
"Need sleep already?" Liz frowned at his patronizing tone.
"No." She responded curtly. "We're leaving my car here and I'm getting a room for the week with my credit card. Leaving a trail incase my mother decides to try and follow. She'll end up here, while we end up where we need to be."
"Ah. And here I thought we were traveling in the wrong direction simply because you had a terrible sense of direction." If Balthazar had been a human man her glare would have frightened him, instead it only made him chuckle. "So I take it you want to travel by flight from here?"
"Yes. It's the quickest way, and it's impossible for my mother to track." Balthazar nodded at her.
"She could always have Castiel do the spell and force me to appear back at the old man's house."
"Bobby. His name is Bobby. And nah, she wouldn't. Too paranoid that I'd be needing your help with something when she did it. Never before have I been thankful for that woman's insane paranoia." Liz knew though, if she had two daughters in a world like this she'd probably be more crazy than her mother. "I'm going in here to get the room, and when I come back out we can head out." Liz was starting to feel a bit of fatigue but it was nothing she couldn't handle. She had somehow made a habit of ending up on hunts that cause her to get no sleep for days at a time. One night with no sleep was nothing, even if her day had been overwhelmingly stressful.
"She won't answer her phone!" Ellen was livid. How dare that girl take off in the middle of the night without so much as a note saying where she'd be. She thought raised her children to be smarted than that. There was nothing more dangerous than being on a hunt when absolutely no one knew where you were. How the hell did she expect them to find her if she needed help?
"Mom, think about it. She told us she knew a lot she couldn't tell us. Maybe this trip, whatever she's doing, is something she can't tell us." Ellen rounded on her youngest daughter.
"I've already thought of that Jo, and it don't make it any better! I thought I taught that girl more common sense than this. It's the end of the world out there, Lucifer out and who knows what else came with him. And she's just gonna run off, half-cocked with no back up to God only knows where?"
"Ellen, she is not without back up." Jo shook her head. Poor Castiel had no idea what he was getting himself into. "Balthazar obviously accompanied her on this trip."
"Don't feed me that crap. You expect me to trust an angel I barely know to keep my baby alive. Hell, I thought she was dead a few days ago! Jo almost died too. I almost lost both my girls in the same damn day and you expect me to be okay with the fact that you think your 'brother' will keep her safe?" Ellen chest was heaving after her outburst. Everyone knew the root of her emotions was worry for her daughter, but Ellen was a tough woman so she attempted to disguise it with anger. Castiel only stared at her with those wide, blue eyes of his.
"Yes I do, considering it was my brother who returned not one, but both of your daughters to you that day."
Jo almost laughed at the look on her mother's face as the older woman was stunned into silence. Perhaps Castiel could handle her mother better than she'd thought. Sam and Dean chose that moment to return to the room. Ellen, over her moment of stunned silence, rounded on them.
"I want you two to find her. She took her car, so it won't be hard. Get out there and find my daughter." To Jo's surprise it was Dean who spoke up.
"Sure thing Ellen. Me and Sammy will head out within an hour." Dean gave Bobby a knowing look.
"Ellen, why don't we go in the kitchen and get you a drink to steady your nerves?" He wheeled his way over to the woman who nodded and followed him into the kitchen. Once they were out of ear shot the three young hunters all moved closer together so they could talk without being overheard.
"You guys aren't really gonna go find her, are you?" Dean grinned at the young blonde.
"Nah, we're just trying to get your mom to calm down. We figure, if she's smart, she took the car somewhere and ditched it. So we'll go, find the car, no Liz, and maybe get your mom to calm down just a bit."
"We didn't want to risk messing up whatever it is she's doing. Liz wouldn't be keeping secrets if it wasn't important." Jo nodded at Sam.
"I know, I just wish my mom would understand."
"She's Ellen, it's practically her job to worry and hover. Don't worry, we got this covered." Dean said with a wink.
Liz was panting as she ran. She had to get into that house. The front door was locked, supernatural lock down style, so that was a no go. Sam and Dean were in the house, and things were gonna get ugly quick if she didn't get in there. A typical salt and burn, or so they had thought. Liz had just gotten a call from her mother. The story didn't really add up. She'd missed a very important detail. There were two different killing patterns. That meant two spirits. Which meant that Sam and Dean should be looking for two bodies, not one. She heard a loud bang, followed by a shot gun blast and a curse. Shit. She needed to get in there now.
Back door was locked too. She didn't have time for this. Then something caught her attention. An axe leaning against the side of the shed in the backyard. Bingo! She grinned to herself. Oh yeah, this entrance would be awesome. She grabbed the axe and began chopping at the door. One swing, two; she'd made a small hole. Six swings later it was almost big enough to slip through. Another three swings and she was in. She picked up her shotgun from the outside of the door and began to make her way through the house.
'Sam? Dean?' She called.
'Down the hall!' The voice was strained but obviously Dean's. She made her way carefully down watching the area for any sign of the spirit. She found Sam and Dean pinned to the wall by a heavy dresser in the last bedroom. Their arms were pinned down at their sides, which explained why they hadn't pushed it off yet.
"Need a hand?" She grinned at them.
"Oh shut up and get this thing off of us."
"Mom called there are . . ."
"Two spirits. Yeah, we got that after we burned the body in the basement and came face to face with Casper-the-asshole up here." She rolled her eyes at Dean's attitude.
"Well I'll check the attic, you two check this floor. Hopefully it's another body here or we've got another three to four days stuck in this town."
"Aw, I thought you liked hunting with us Lizzie." She growled playfully at Dean at the use of her childhood pet name.
"Small doses Winchester. Very small doses. And stop calling me Lizzie."
Liz was sitting in a small café in the back water town the coordinates had led them to. She was confused. There didn't seem to be anything worth coming here for, they'd been here for two days and nothing had set off any alarm bells. As the waitress brought her a refill for her coffee Liz felt something in her jacket pocket that made her stiffen. The book, which had been safely tucked in her pocket since the first night she read it, began to heat up and make her skin tingle in a peculiar manner. She pulled it out and flipped it to what had earlier been a blank page.
Trap the trickster in the holy oil.
She frowned in confusion. Holy oil wouldn't trap a trickster. Why the hell would God tell her to try? She felt the air around her shift and she grimaced a little.
"Someone's gonna notice if you keep popping up out of nowhere like that."
"Nah. Humans are dull. Only see what you want to see." She threw a splenda packet at him and laughed at his rude statement.
"So the book has given me cryptic and useless advice." A raised eyebrow encouraged her to continue. "It told me to 'trap the trickster in the holy oil,' whatever the hell that means."
"Well, what the hell? Might as well try it. Why don't you head back to the hotel and see what you can dig up about a possible Trickster in town while I see what I can uncover on my end. And by the way, I so don't appreciate all the work you're causing me to have to do."
"Oh we all know you sit around on your ass doing nothing when you're not with me. Stuff like this is good for you. Keeps you sharp." She sassed with a toothy grin. "I'll call you if I find anything." And with that she stood and left him.
"Well, we managed to find the car. She checked into the Riverview Motel for a week with her credit card, but as far as I can tell she hasn't been in the area." Dean could here Ellen chewing his brother out from the other end of the line.
"Well, if I had to guess I'd say she had Balthazar teleport her from here to wherever she needed to get. Which means we won't be able to track her down easily." Sam listened patiently to the woman on the other end of the line for a minute. "Yes, Ellen, of course we'll keep looking. Alright, I'll call you when I have an update."
"Sheesh. Ellen is really on a role with this whole 'seek and destroy' thing, isn't she."
"Yeah. I feel bad for lying to her, but we can't let Ellen know that we what we talked about with Jo. We could screw up whatever Liz's doing if we just show up, unannounced."
Dean grimaced. "I know. I also know that I'm gonna kick her ass for taking off and leaving me out of the loop, again!" Sam shook his head at his brothers antics.
"Dean, end of the world. Show a little perspective."
"I am showing perspective Sammy. From my perspective I deserve to know what's going on. We've been busting ass for months looking for leads on how to gank the devil. If she has one, she should share the wealth man." Sam decided to ignore the fact that his brother was acting the part of a petulant child and opened the passenger side door to the impala.
"Let's go. We at least have to make it look like we're searching. I wouldn't put it past Ellen to track our asses too."
What the hell? Liz was seriously confused as she started at the man before her. If she had passed him on the street she would have never glanced at him twice. He was shorted than her by a few inches, with brown hair and brown eyes. Nothing about him screamed 'freak' or 'monster'. But she'd dealt with that before, not all monsters looked like monster. It was the eyes that were bothering her. So much depth in them. Once you actually took time to look at him, watch him, it was obvious he was more than human. His voice snapped her out of her reverie.
"You really think this will hold me? I'm a Trickster, holy oil don't work on me sister." Liz kept her eyes steady on his and forced the shake out of her voice.
"Then step over the line and show me." The man, creature, before her didn't move. Only glared at her.
"How did you find me anyway? I thought I was doing a pretty good job of laying low." Liz smiled.
"Oh if I had just been passing through I wouldn't have known you were here. I happened to know for a fact something was in this town, I just had to dig around until I found out what was here." Balthazar chose that moment to appear by her side. When he did he sucked in a deep breath.
"Gabriel?" Liz broke eye contact with the man before her and snapped her head around to Balthazar.
"Excuse me?" Both angels ignored her.
"I guess you caught me. Hello Balthazar. Long time no see."
"You were dead. Have been for a long time." Gabriel laughed.
"So were you I hear."
"Yes, well heaven did get a bit distasteful after a while. All the fighting and political agendas."
"Ouch. It seems like it only got worse after I left." Balthazar laughed this time.
"Oh, if you could see them now. After the only Archangel who wasn't a total dick-bag up and winged it out the pearly gates, everyone lost their damn minds."
"Oh? Well I can't say that I'm very surprised, always knew the place would go to shit without me." It seemed like Gabriel's carefree grin was permanently etched into his features. Balthazar opened his mouth to answer but was cut off when Liz began speaking in a loud, angry voice.
"What the hell is going on here?" Balthazar turned to face her, his expression showed his amusement with the situation.
"Liz, the 'trickster' you have caught is none other than my brother, Gabriel."
"Like, the Archangel Gabriel?" Now Gabriel turned to her as well.
"The one and only." Liz grinned.
"Well Gabriel, it seems we've got a lot to talk about."
"Yeah, Lucy's outta the cage blah blah blah . . ." Liz felt the book grow warm in her pocket again. "News flash, I know. Don't care." Gabriel grinned at her. "See, I got myself in a little witness protection program here on earth. Not really found of the idea of coming out. Especially not on the wrong side of both big bros." Balthazar frowned but Liz just took the book out of her pocket and opened it to the next page. The passage that was written was not in English, from the look of the lettering it was Enochian, so without a word she handed the book over to Gabriel. He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Don't know what it says. Just read it." Gabriel read the passage silently and then looked at Liz, his eyes guarded.
"Where the hell did this book come from?" She shrugged at him.
"No idea. A man gave it to me when I was really small. Told me I'd know when the time was right to read it." He tossed the book back over to her and sighed.
"Well this is some really heavy shit it would appear."
"Why? What did the book tell you?"
"It was a message. It ancient Enochian. Only the Archangels know the language, well us and Dadio obviously. The message told me to tell you what I know about how to get good old Lucy back in his cage." Liz felt her entire body fill with adrenaline.
"Wait, there's a way to do that?" Gabriel's eyes gleamed with mischief as he looked at her.
"Of course there is. There is always a plan B Lizzie girl." She cringed when he called her Lizzie.
"Well, how do we do that exactly?" Balthazar spoke up again; he seemed hesitant about the idea. "Without dying that is?" Gabriel's face was much too joyful for the topic at hand, in Liz's opinion, but she kept it to herself. They needed his help right now.
"Well when our big brother made his escape from the pit, something else rose with him. Well four somethings."
"The horsemen." Balthazar answered.
"Yes. Each wears a gaudy old ring. Get all four rings together, and bam! Magic door to the cage is opened up nice and easy for ya."
"Well, Lucifer isn't exactly gonna skip back into the pit with a smile on his face. How the hell do we get him in there? And how the hell are we supposed to get the rings, these horsemen aren't exactly gonna hand 'em over no fight." Gabriel's grin widened.
"Not my problem. I explained what I knew. The rest is up to your family and those Winchester bafoons. Not put out the fire and let me be on my way."
"Not until you tell us how we're expected to do this!" Balthazar moved his hand and the flames extinguished themselves. Gabriel was gone without another word. "What'd you do that for!?" Balthazar sighed.
"He wasn't going to tell us anything else. It was best to let him go before we made him angry. If we keep on his good side, we're better off. Trust me." Liz groaned.
"This is going to be impossible." Balthazar just remained silent by her side. "Well, let's get back to the motel and get my shit. It's time to drop the bomb on everyone else." The flapping of feathers and they both were gone.
Okay, so definitely changed the way Gabe made his appearance. ;) Don't worry if your a fan of him, I'm not done with him yet. And just for reference I plan to take this fic at LEAST into season 7, Leviathin plot is something I can't wait to screw around with. Not sure about season 8 yet, I guess it depends on how the story progresses. Guys, if ya don't mind, drop me a line and let me know what you think of 'the road so far'. :)