Author's Note: Thank you all so much for reading, leaving reviews and sticking with me through this story! I hope you enjoyed it!

Epilogue

Addy can't return to the bunker when she's released from Heaven's care. The wounds that were inflicted from Lucifer can only be partially healed by angelic means. Time will heal the rest of them. Until then, she's looking at two weeks in the Smith County Memorial Hospital, twenty minutes from Lebanon, Kansas.

She spends the first three days in a haze, pumped full of pain killers to make the burning sensation in her chest seem bearable. She spends the fourth day inconsolable, weeping and tearing at the oxygen tubes and IVs in blind frustration and grief. The fifth day, her hands are strapped down to the bed but the agony still rips her heart into shreds.

Dean, Sam and Jael come and go but she pays them no mind. They're kind and well meaning with their whispered words of encouragement and gentle touches but she's too shattered and broken to understand them. She doesn't want to hear how brave she was. She recoils from their taking her hand in theirs. She's all sharp edges and a burning inferno. Knowing there was going to be collateral damage because of her decision was one thing, experiencing the aftermath of such damage is a crushing burden she can't carry.

Night time is the easiest part of the day for her. Exhaustion takes over and gives her blessed relief from the pain. They are short bursts of calm but she'll take what she can get even if she doesn't deserve it. The night nurse comes in, wipes Addy's tears away and checks the machines.

"I know you haven't said a word since you were admitted," the nurse says to her in hushed tones. "But we have a new chaplain. Perhaps you would like to speak to him?"

Addy tries to wave the well meaning nurse off but her hand is still tied down to the bed. She turns her head towards the wall instead, hoping that will get her answer across.

The nurse gently pats Addy's shoulder. "Well, at least he can pray for you. That's better than nothing."

Addy keeps her eyes fixed on the wall even when she hears the chaplain come into her room. She doesn't deserve comfort or prayers. Not after what she did. She's surprised when she feels the restraints are being removed. Curiosity gets the better of her and she turns to see who this person is that has come to see her in the middle of the night.

He's a tall man, with dark hair and a full beard. He's dressed neatly, khaki pants and a dress shirt. But it's his eyes that say much more than words ever could. There's sympathy, a touch of pity but there's also a knowledge of what exactly she has and is going through. He understands exactly the burden she is carrying.

"Angel?" she rasps through her burnt out throat.

He smiles warmly, kindly. "I am."

"Can't...heal...me."

He lays his hand over the blisters from the restraints and the skin becomes new again under a soft white glow. "Not the wounds that matter, I'm afraid."

"Who..."

He crouches down next to the bed so they're on eye level. "I'm Abner."

Her already damaged lungs seize. Gadreel had told her about Abner, their friendship that had been forged in prison. "I'm sorry...I'm...so-"

His hand comes to rest over her heart and her lungs start to draw as much oxygen as they possibly can in their condition. "What are you apologizing for?"

"I killed him." It feels like she is choking on pieces of broken glass but once the words leave her mouth, there is a relief that comes with it. She covers her face with her hands, tears leaking through her fingers. She had killed Gadreel. The grief is mixed with anger though. She had made him promise to stay as far away from her as possible when Lucifer took over and he didn't listen. He showed up, he tried to save her and she killed him.

Gentle hands pull hers away from her face. "You did not kill him. Lucifer stabbed him. He turned the blade himself. Addison, you did not kill him."

She wants to believe him. The relief it would bring her would be immense.

"Do you know what you both did for Heaven?" Abner continues. "You and Gadreel are both heroes now. Everything that he ever wanted, he had. He wanted to be a hero, he was. He wanted redemption, he attained it. He had joy and happiness. He knew contentment which was more than he ever had hoped to gain in his life.

"All because of you, a human. The angel who loved humanity and the human who loved an angel. What you both did has been the rallying cry of Heaven. Angels are returning home and taking up their original mission. Angels like Castiel and Gadreel are now the norm. And it's beautiful. You need to live. You need to see this. For his sake, if not for your own."

"I need...forgiveness..."

Abner nods in understanding. "You have it."

Addy tightens her hand around Abner's in gratefulness. "Will...you...stay?"

"As long as you need me."

Addy closes her eyes and feels like she can breathe for the first time. The band of grief is still there, constricting and painful, and will be there for the rest of her life. But she can learn to breathe around it. She has to learn how to live with this loss. Abner stays with her until the sun rises. By the time Dean comes to visit her at the start of visiting hours, she's sitting up in bed, unrestrained and sipping tea.

"Look who's up!" Dean greets. "Sam is never going to believe this, here." He pulls out his phone and snaps a picture of her before she can protest. She even manages a slight smile. It's a start.

Not all angels are pleased with the change in leadership. Michael had resumed the role of leader of the soldiers. Gabriel, reluctantly, had taken over the management of the more task oriented angels while a newly restored Raphael returned to the Rit Ziens. Heaven is unified once more.

The doors are wide open now that Metatron's spell has been picked apart. Even Castiel's grace was recovered though not in its entirety. It is enough though for the angel to heal his eyes and return to his Winchester duties without the fear of burning out anytime soon.

But for angels like Thaddeus, the guards of Heaven's most despised, there suddenly isn't any room for them and their skills. Not in this new Heaven. He was given a choice to either reform his abilities or be cast out. He left before Naomi could clip his wings and try to reprogram him. But he didn't leave alone. There were more like him, more angels who weren't caught up with this revival of love for humanity.

Heaven is suppose to be a place for order and that had been replaced by this new mindset that strictly focused on protection. Chaos is going to take over soon enough and the trio of archangels are going to be faced with a dilemma. All the angels that supported and enforced order were going to be gone and Heaven will lapse into a disorganized mess once more. Thaddeus is just helping the inevitable along. And if he happens to exact some personal revenge along the way, all the better.

"Can I get you anything else?"

He peers up through the jagged bleached bangs of his vessel's hair and smiles at the tall bartender. "No, thank you."

He waits for the man to move further down the bar before he opens the notebook he's been carrying with him. He glances down the list of names of angels and humans alike that need to be taught a personalized lesson.

Addison Weaver

Sam Winchester

Abner (Alexander Sarver)

And then he adds one more name.

Joseph Sullivan.