Sorry for the long delay in updates. Life - ugh.

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. Although time passes differently in heaven and is barely noticeable to an angel, Michael was more keenly aware of these days and weeks than the others before them.

It was a ful time job to keep the power of heaven running. God, for all that he had been to Michael and his brothers, had been gone for a very long time. But faith was required of an angel, like blood or air to humans. So the fact that God wasn't sitting in a room secluded from his creation issuing orders to his sons was kept a secret. Michael and Raphael continued to run heaven much in the same way that their father had. He knew they had had to make... sacrifices. Some practices were... regrettable. But it was for the greater good. All part of the plan.

That blasted plan.

But the angels continued on- good little soldiers, much as they had been at the beginning of time. As long as Michael kept a firm thumb.

But in the breaths when his attention wasn't pulled elsewhere, he found his eyes drawn to bright blonde hair and genuine laughter. He tried to replay small glimpses and memories of her in his mind. But there were times when that wasn't enough. From store windows and shadows he would watch the smallest of things; grocery shopping, walking to the mailbox. Nothing was too small but it was never enough.

Yet fear underlay every secret glance or slow smile. Michael knew the plan for John and Marry Winchester. He knew the course their lives would take, the meaning behind their sacrifices. She was an integral part of the grand design.

And there had been that presence. He had been walking with a young angel Castiel. While there may only be one destination, sometimes there are different paths and trails to that point. Castiel was one of the few angels that could become instrumental in the grand plan - so Michael took time to invest in him. As he did with all potential key players; it was exhausting.

But he had let his guard down too much around this blissfully ignorant ad genuinely enjoyable fledgling. In the shadows behind them he had felt a push; a power that was strong. With forgotten and would-be gods running around the surface of the planet, there were little pushes and pulses from them constantly. However, this one had felt so... familiar. It had nagged at him and put him on edge. Was someone watching him? Guessing the thoughts he wouldn't even let himself put words to? He should put her out of his mind completely; ignore her presence and everything about her.

But he couldn't. It hurt like a knife wound to think about the steps she had yet before her. Every smile and laugh seemed like a sick joke. What was the point of all her joy now if he knew, in the end, she would die screaming? But as every laugh and smile was seared into his brain, he knew why. He knew these memories of this bright light would be the fire that pushed John Winchester down the path he must take. Into hunting... Into hell...

So Michael too horded the smiles and laughs. He longed for secret looks and careful touches, dreading the day he would feel that evil pour from the nursery in her home... He pushed it from his mind.

It was a gorgeous sunny day. John had gone to work early that morning, hoping to get off an hour or two early to help Mary finish setting up the nursery. Her delicate hand passed over her swollen stomach. Only a few more weeks and their baby boy would be here.

Mary could not put into words how she felt about her life. So much of her childhood had been soaked in fear and anger. Always fighting. Always hiding. But with John - she was free. Even if there was still that small pull in the very back of her mind.

This isn't real. You know this won't last. You know what you are.

But that voice was easier to silence... or at least ignore nowadays. Honestly, ever since she found out she was pregnant it had felt fuzzy- distorted. Like there was cotton gauze over those memories that blocked them and made them hard to see. However, she didn't poke of prod. She boxed them up tighter ad pushed them down further, determined to give Dean the life she had never had.

Dean.

For all the imbalance and damage her parents had done, Mary realized they only ever did what they thought best. Especially her mother, Deanna. She hadn't been raised in the life - she had fallen in love with a man ruled by the hunt. Samuel had saved her mother from a cursed object. They had been inseparable since that day. There were times that Mary had seen the weariness in her mothers eyes or felt the fear in her strong hands. But she had walked step in step with her father until the day she died. Mary missed her more every day so this little bundle of life was to be named Dean in her memory.

Mary spent hours imagining what Dean would be like. Would he be good with his hands, like John? Would he love music, old music, like she did? Would he be stubborn - like they both were? Would he be safe...

Mary wandered up to a garage sale about three blocks from home - she had taken to walking everyday just to have something to do while John was at work. She couldn't bend or lift anything so walking was one of the few things she could do to stay fit- she guessed some hunter's habits die hard.

Tables were filled with knickknacks and odds and ends. She was on the hunt for baby clothes - mechanics didn't make much but she was proud of John and never complained. There were far worse roads he could take. On the end of the furthest table there was a soft blue blanket with a little race car sewn into it. Smiling, she started to pick her way through the piles towards the end of the table.

A little boy was playing with a small toy wagon two tables over while his mother leafed through old books. With an almighty push, his imaginary rocket blasted through the meteors of boxes and lamps. Mary didn't see it as she continued on toward the blanket but she her foot stepped into the moving bin, her eyes widened with fear.

"I've got you," came a smooth voice from behind her. Tumbling slowly backwards, strong arms wrapped around her. She leaned into a firm, warm body and was slowly set back up on her feet. Heart still hammering from the close call, she turned to thank the man that had caught her. But her mouth snapped shut when she turned around. Eyes flicking around, she couldn't see anyone near her. In fact, no one around her had seemed to notice. She felt rattled and a little shaken as she took a deep breath, deciding that the blanket was not that important. She smoothed out her dress top and started to make her way back to the side walk.

As she did, her eyes caught on a small angel statue sitting alone on the table. It was smiling and staring at her. She had never been one to believe in anything more than the here and now but the sense of peace and safety she felt in that moment was almost... magical. Without really thinking about it, she fished a quarter from her small purse, handed it to the smiling older woman, and carried the little angel home.

"Angels are watching over you, Dean," she murmured, absentmindedly rubbing the little foot pressed against her stomach.

He hadn't been thinking. All he could see was her falling backwards and he reacted. No vessel on, he had pushed against the barrier of this world and slammed into her to hold her up. He had even spoken to her...

He had watched empires fall, thousands killed. There had been oceans of blood on his own hands. But he couldn't let this woman trip...

It scared him - how he felt. He knew what it meant - he knew what it could do to him. How long could he deny it? He had just risked slashing through dimensions to save her from a fall. What might he be willing to do once he fell more deeply in...

No. This ended now. It had to. It was too dangerous. Besides, he knew in a few short years his world would be destroyed by the sounds of her screams. Would he be able to ignore them? Chastising himself and making a choice to delve into any task in heaven he could find, Michael fluttered from the face of the planet. And he wouldn't walk here again for a very long time...

So it was Mary Winchester...

Gabriel chuckled to himself. Months of tailing his brother without Michael finding out, Gabriel had been shocked by the scene in the driveway of the garage sale. To become a physical force without a vessel took huge amounts of energy - so much that it could rip right through the dimensions that separated angels and humans. Michael, who never so much as had a hair out of place, had risked a pretty major catastrophe to catch a stumbling woman.

Mary Winchester.

He had been out of the heaven game for a while but that name meant something... he just couldn't remember what. So in order to find out he could pop home and chat with his brothers... which might be a little awkward after a few centuries of being MIA.

Or he could float through her timeline and the timeline of her descendants. See what happened there. Yeah, it would take some major mojo. But anything was better than those dreadful family dinners in heaven...