Book 9 - Seven Steps To Redemption

by GailDunn2

WARNING: ADULT CONTENT AND ADULT SITUATIONS. The quest for the cure begins. But how high is the price for the ingredients that are required to make Castiel well again? Can Gail, Sam and Dean help him? Can he help himself? And what is Crowley's agenda?

4. Depression Kills

Chapter 4 - Depression Kills

It was morning, and Cas was in London now. His sadness was really beginning to set in, and the fact that it had been raining buckets ever since he'd arrived didn't exactly help his mood. He hadn't really cared, initially; the weather perfectly reflected the way he felt inside. He'd been wandering the streets again, allowing himself to get soaking wet.

But eventually, his clothes were so wet that they were weighing him down, and it was getting difficult to keep walking. So he stopped into a coffee shop and sat for a bit, letting the hot liquid warm his hands. Then a strange impulse seized him, and he walked outside with the cup in his hand. The store next door had an awning, and he took shelter there. Why had he just left a nice warm coffee shop to come out here, anyway?

Cas looked in the window of the store. It was a bookstore, he saw with a pleasant surprise. His kind of store. Like Gail, Cas had always loved to read; and also like her, he regretted he hadn't had the chance to do it more often. Well, he guessed he had the time and the opportunity now. Maybe this was serendipity. Reading could help keep his mind occupied and give him something to do. He was going to stay well away from patios from now on, though. Cas still had no idea what that had been all about, but he had always trusted in intuition. So maybe he'd find a park and sit under a tree. Or, if the rain persisted, he could just go back to the coffee shop.

Cas entered the bookstore and browsed for a while, taking his time. Then he saw the books about the boy wizard that Gail liked so much. She had mentioned them to Castiel before, and also the movies that had been made from them. She and Crowley had even joked about them in the warehouse. Cas had been jealous and angry that she and his Brother shared something he knew nothing about. Well, he had a lot more than books and movies to worry about now, didn't he? Cas would just have to rely on Sam and Dean and Bobby to keep Gail and Crowley from bonding further.

But in the meantime, here were the books, and it was high time that Cas put himself in the loop. Anything Gail liked that much had to be good. The next time they were together, he could talk to her about them, and it would be himself and Gail sharing, then.

Cas picked out the first two books of the series and brought them to the cash register. This would do for a start. When he finished these, he could visit another bookstore.

The cashier was a dark-haired female who bore a slight resemblance to Gail, except that she wore glasses and her hair was longer. Cas took this as a hopeful sign. He would see her again, and sooner, rather than later. The cashier took the books from him and then she yawned widely as she rang in the purchases.

"Sorry, late night," she said to Cas, smiling faintly.

He'd been carrying the cup of coffee the whole time he'd been browsing, and he handed it to her now. "Here. You clearly need this more than I do," he said, smiling back. "I just bought it next door."

She looked at the cup, then at him. "No, I can't take that from you."

"Please. I insist." Cas picked up the bag with the books and put the coffee cup down on the counter.

Her smile became genuine. "I really could use it. Thanks," she said, picking up the cup and saluting him with it.

Cas left the store, feeling both warm and weird at the same time. He was a Demon with anger issues and violent tendencies, but he had just bought books to read and done something nice for a human. What was up with that? And speaking of things that were strange, the rain had just suddenly shut off, and now the sun was shining. No dark thoughts now. He had a park to find, and some reading to do.

Gail was sitting in the kitchen, watching Sam pour cups of coffee for himself and Dean. She had made her apologies to the men, and predictably, they had been angry. They'd been worried sick, they had said, and she couldn't just keep disappearing like that without letting them know what was going on. Gail had read between the lines; they were afraid she had somehow found Cas and had gone to him. She only wished. She'd been able to resist the urge to call him so far, wanting to be respectful of his wishes, but Gail was sure she would cave soon. She had no intention of reuniting with him, at least not right now, but that didn't mean she couldn't at least make sure he was all right.

But they certainly hadn't been happy when she'd told them what she'd done at Oliver's, and who she had done it with. It had taken her a while, and a whole lot of sweet-talk and begging for forgiveness, but eventually, things were pretty much back to normal. She had gone home, promising to return early in the morning. It had been late, and Sam and Dean needed to sleep.

So she'd gone back to the house and laid down on the bed, moping. She should really put a bar in here, like the one that Cas had given the Winchesters, Gail thought. Then she could just drink and drink, and then maybe pass out, as Crowley had suggested was possible. Wouldn't that be nice. And the only other way to induce sleep in a Demon was clearly unavailable to her right now. She missed Cas's arms around her. She missed him kissing her, and she missed his lips and his tongue on her body. Gail closed her eyes and imagined he was making love to her, slowly and gently. But that hurt too much, so she stopped. That was fantasy land, anyway. Most of their times in this bedroom since Cas had been poisoned had been far from gentle. The marks on her body were proof of that. The parts that Crowley hadn't been allowed to touch were still painful, and she supposed it was just as well that she still had them as reminders. Otherwise, she would just pick up the phone right now and make Cas tell her where he was, and Lord only knew what that might lead to.

So she had lain there all night, depressed and miserable, and then she'd showered, dressed, and shown up at the bunker early, as promised. She needed the brothers now, and she couldn't afford to piss them off.

"Can you call Bobby for me now?" Gail asked Dean. "We can get the vial of his blood, and maybe he'll have an idea about the sword of God."

As Dean was calling Bobby, Sam looked at Gail, frowning. "'The sword of God'," he mused. "You would think that would be self-explanatory, but I can't think of anything I've read that suggests there ever was an actual sword."

"Great," Gail said sarcastically. She sighed. Rowena had said that both ingredients would be easy. What were they not getting here?

Bobby popped into the kitchen. "So, you want my blood, do you? And what do I get in return?" he joked to Gail.

She appeared to consider. "What do you want?" she teased back.

"How about a cure, and then a few quiet months?" Bobby said wryly.

"Sounds good to me," Gail said fervently.

"Ya got a needle, Dean?" Bobby asked him.

Dean did. They'd had some in the weapons room, but after that last incident with Cas, Dean had taken them and locked them up in his room, and he had locked most of the weapons away in a cabinet, too. They hadn't wanted to take any chances. Now that Cas was gone, Dean could probably take them back out again, but Dean thought he'd leave things the way they were for the moment. He didn't like the way that Gail had run to Crowley so quickly to be her hero, and the way that the two of them had stormed into Oliver's place. It was a little bit funny, he had to admit, but it still made him uneasy.

"I'm going to go pull a couple of books, see what I can find out about the sword of God," Sam said, and both of the brothers left the kitchen.

Bobby looked at Gail. "How are you, Gail?" he asked her.

Gail felt a flash of temper. How the hell did he think she was? She was sick of people asking her that; she was depressed, and lonely for Cas, she was sore all over, and how the hell was she supposed to get her hands on God's sword?

Bobby saw the look on her face, and he was no fool. "I looked for you yesterday, but I couldn't see you," he told her. "All I kept seeing was dirty glass, like a soaped-up window. Why do you think that is?" Bobby asked her pointedly.

She looked at him. "Rowena told me she and you are married," she blurted out.

His mouth fell open. "What?"

She told him what Rowena had said, and Bobby's mind flashed back to the morning he'd woken up with all those strange symbols on his chest.

"Look, Gail, I don't know what kind of weird hoodoo thing she might have done while I was sleeping, but I can assure you, we are NOT married," Bobby said, somewhat defensively.

Gail shrugged. "She seems to think you are."

"Well, we're not," he said grumpily.

Dean returned with a syringe kit in his hand. Seeing the looks on their faces, he said, "What? What's going on?"

"Nothing," Bobby said shortly. He rolled up his sleeve and Dean tied off Bobby's upper arm, then he punched Bobby's skin with the needle, starting to withdraw his blood.

"How's Cas?" Gail asked Bobby suddenly. He looked at her. "You may not be able to see me, but I know you can see him," she said tartly.

Bobby frowned. "He left for your sake, Gail. You have to know that."

Yes, yes, she knew. Everybody kept telling her that. But she was sick of hearing that, too.

Bobby sighed. "He's fine, Gail."

"Where is he? What's he doing?" she persisted.

Bobby gave her a half-smile. "Right now, he's sitting in a park, reading," he told her.

"Reading?" she echoed. "What's he reading?"

He told her, and Gail's heart swelled. He was reading her favourite book series! She'd told him he should give them a try sometime, but he never had. She felt glad and sad at the same time.

"And he's got your picture, Gail," Bobby continued. She'd remarked last night that it was missing, and Bobby wanted her to know that Cas had it. "He keeps on looking at it."

Gail felt a stab to her heart. She knew Bobby thought he was being nice, but he was killing her. She felt a flutter in her stomach then. What was she doing here, without him? She couldn't stand it.

As Dean withdrew the needle from Bobby's arm and capped the vial, Gail asked, "Where is he, Bobby?"

Bobby didn't like the look in her eyes. "I'm not gonna tell you that, Gail." And, because he was no fool, he added, "And if you call him, he won't tell you, either. We agreed."

Gail's eyes went a very dark brown. "Oh, you agreed," she said sarcastically. "Like, you were doing the talking, and he was doing the listening, kind of agreed?"

Bobby was annoyed. "I told you, it was his idea, not mine. But, I agree with his decision. You two need to stay away from each other right now," he told her.

"You're not my father," Gail snapped.

"I kind of am, Gail," Bobby said, trying to smile.

But she was in no mood for gentle humour. Who the hell did Bobby think he was? Her stomach hurt, her heart hurt, and he was telling her what she supposedly needed. She needed Cas, that's what she needed.

"No, you're Crowley's father," she spat out. Then Gail got up and stalked out of the room. There. Let him explain that to Dean. Maybe he could tell Dean what Dean needed, too, while he was on a roll.

Gail plopped down in the seat opposite Sam and immediately regretted it. She still had quite a few bruises and abrasions on her lower half, and she'd better not forget that. There was that wake-up call again. She knew, intellectually, that Bobby was right, but emotionally? That was a whole other ballgame. It had been so bittersweet to hear that Cas was reading the books she liked so much and looking at the photo of both of them while he was doing it. He obviously missed her as much as she missed him, and he was trying to stay connected to her in the only way he could. And all she had here was people telling her she needed to stay away from him. She didn't even have her photo any more, although she wasn't really mad at him for taking it. And why didn't they have more pictures of the two of them together, anyway? Maybe she should grab the one of the actor who played Castiel on the TV show from their living room and take it with her wherever she went. It wouldn't be him, but at least the guy sort of looked like him.

Gail sighed. She supposed she'd have to go back in there and apologize to Bobby in a minute. If she hurried, maybe she could catch the look on Dean's face when Bobby had to tell him what she'd been referring to when she'd made that crack about Crowley.

But, priorities. "Find anything?" she said to Sam.

He was frowning. "Not really. All I keep seeing is Bible quotes, talking about how God doesn't have an actual sword, per se. His most powerful and effective weapons are his words, and his original rules are the sword under which mankind must live."

Interesting, Gail thought. If a little ambiguous. How could you grind up words and put them into a drink? She asked Sam this now.

"Yeah, I know," he said, smiling faintly. "But they talk about the original rules as being the sword."

"Do we grind up the Bible and put it in there?" Gail asked him. Then she smirked. "If so, you'd better do it. I'm Demon enough, as it is."

But Sam didn't even smile. Gail was a little put out by that. Frank would have thought it was funny.

"Let's talk to Bobby and Dean," Sam said. "See what they think." He rose from the table and put a couple of books under his arms to carry with him.

As soon as they entered the kitchen, Gail approached Bobby. "I'm sorry," she said to him. "I just miss Cas so much."

"I know you do, Gail," Bobby sighed. "And yes, thanks to you, I had to explain what you said to Dean, and now I'll have to explain it to Sam, too."

"Sorry," Gail said timidly. But it was kind of fun to see the look on Sam's face as Bobby told him the story, and to see the look that was still on Dean's face now.

Once Bobby was done with his story, Sam filled him and Dean in on what he had been reading, and his and Gail's analyses.

"I doubt you'd have to mash up a Bible and put it in there," Bobby said. "There are a lot of theories that suggest that many Bible stories are made up by humans, for humans."

"But we know that parts of it are true, too," Dean argued. "Look at Cas and Crowley, for instance."

Gail was frustrated. This was too vague, too speculative. Yet Rowena had said that it would be easy. Damn witch.

"Well, at least we have this," Dean said brightly, holding up the vial of Bobby's blood. He rose and walked down the hallway to put it in the safe.

"Yeah, thanks for that, Bobby," Gail said, smiling at him. "I really appreciate it."

"I really am on your side here, Gail," Bobby told her sincerely. "Anything reasonable I can help you with to get the cure, you know I'll do. But you've gotta promise me, no more Demon blood, and no more Crowley. He's not your friend, Gail. We're your friends. And please stay away from Cas, at least for a while."

She looked at him evenly. "All right, Bobby. I promise." But she was thinking that it was really Bobby's fault if he believed her. They all knew that Demons were notorious liars.

Bobby went back up to Heaven, promising he'd call or pop back down if he had any ideas.

Gail sat around with the guys for a while. Sam took to his laptop to do more research and she and Dean pulled some more books out of the library, flipping through them.

After a while, Dean closed the book he'd been looking at and closed his eyes, rubbing his face. "All this reading's giving me a headache," he groused. "Anybody find anything?"

Gail and Sam both shook their heads. Other than what Sam had uncovered earlier, they hadn't found anything that would suggest that an actual sword had ever even existed. So they could only conclude that the sword of God was merely a metaphor, and Gail pointed out for good measure that "sword" was an anagram of "words", anyway. Sam had smiled at that. Yeah, she was a smart one, all right. He regretted not having gone to college with her. They could have had a lot of terrific discussions. Maybe some debates, too. He fantasized a scenario where she was kicking his butt so badly in a debate that he'd had to kiss her just to shut her up. He sighed inwardly. If he and Gail had met years ago in college, the course of all of their lives might have gone so differently.

Dean stood up and stretched. He was getting restless just sitting around. "Let's go shoot some pool," he said to them. "I can teach you how, Gail," he added.

Sam shook his head. "I think we need to stay here until we figure this out," he told Dean.

"If I have to look at one more book, I'm gonna - " Dean started to say, waving his arm at the collection of books in frustration.

"You should go, Sam," Gail told him. "Sometimes a change of scenery can clear your head."

"She's right, Sammy," Dean wheedled. "You can think anywhere."

Sam looked at his brother. He knew Dean was restless, and truthfully, Sam felt like he could use a distraction, too. Sometimes it was a good idea to step away from a problem for a bit; often, the answer came to you when you were focused on something else.

"OK," he said, shutting off his laptop. "Come on, Gail."

"No, I'll stay here," she told them. "You guys go for a while. I'll use the time to think, and I want to read some more of this stuff, anyway. It's fascinating. I've been dying to get into your library for quite some time now."

Sam eyed her. "So you're just going to stay here?" he said evenly. "Not go anywhere else?"

Gail sighed. She'd known that they would be suspicious. "I promise you I won't go anywhere, Sam," she told him. Hey, at least she was telling him the truth. About that.

Sam continued to look at her for a moment, frowning. Dean was jingling the car keys. Sam sighed. "OK, Gail." He took his cell phone out of his pocket and put it on the table in front of her. "Call Dean's number if you need us for anything."

Gail nodded, smiling up at the brothers. "I will. Thanks. As long as you have a lock on the liquor cabinet, I'll be fine," she joked. Funny, though; she'd been thinking about having a drink or seven a lot lately. She supposed it was the Demon influence, or it could just be the stress she'd been living under. But she had something way more important to do once the guys left.

"Go, go," Gail said, shooing them away. She picked up a book, pretending to study it.

The Winchesters grabbed their jackets and left the bunker, and Gail waited a few minutes to make sure they were truly gone before she picked up Sam's cell phone. She turned it on and punched his code into the keypad, unlocking it. He'd given her the code a while back and luckily, he hadn't changed it. And there he was, under Contacts. Also, lucky that Sam hadn't deleted him yet. She pushed the button.

Cas was still in the park, and he was still reading. The sun was shining, but the wind had picked up and it was getting quite chilly now. But he scarcely noticed; he was so enthralled with what he was reading. The first book had started out a little slowly for him, and what he was reading was so strange. However, he had persisted, and now he was glad that he had. He had become caught up in the narrative now, and he really wanted to find out what was going to happen next. Funny, he never would have thought that a book series based on witchcraft and magic would captivate him so. Those were very serious things in real life; look at him, as a prime example. But once Cas was able to put that aside and use his imagination to just enjoy the story for the story's sake, he had been able to lose himself in it. Now he was beginning to understand why Gail liked these books so much.

He could feel the wind picking up now, and the temperature had dropped appreciably. Cas supposed he should go back into the coffee shop and get out of the wind. He could keep reading for a while, if he ordered something.

Suddenly, Cas's cell phone rang. He put the book down on the bench and went for his pocket immediately. There were only a couple of people who might be calling his cell, and he'd told them to only call in an emergency. But he had been secretly hoping she would disregard that.

"Hello?" he said cautiously.

"Cas?'

It was Gail. If he wasn't a Demon, Cas would thank Heaven. He'd needed to hear her voice so badly. "Is everything all right?" Cas asked her.

"Relatively speaking," she said, and he could hear the sad smile in her voice. "I miss you so much, Cas."

He sighed. "I miss you, too. Every minute, all the time." Then he smiled. "I hope you're not too angry that I took your photo. It helps me cope."

Gail sighed too. "What are we doing, Cas? We should be together."

Cas gripped the phone a little tighter. He thought so, too. But he couldn't weaken now. He tried to visualize the way she'd looked the last time he had seen her, and the painful marks she'd had all over her body. The ones that he had put there. Could he guarantee that wouldn't happen again if they got together right now? No. No, he couldn't. So he had to stick to his guns, even though it was killing him.

"You know we can't be together right now," Cas said, grimacing. "And you know why."

Gail knew. "It doesn't make it any easier, though," she said, sighing again.

"I know," Cas said sadly. Then he brightened. "Guess what I'm doing right now." He told her about the books he had bought, and that once he'd started reading, he'd had trouble putting the book down.

Gail already knew, of course. Bobby had told her about it. But she was pleased to be hearing it from Cas himself. "So you like them?" she asked him.

"I do," Cas confirmed. "And I'm really glad to have the distraction right now. Next time I see you, we'll have a lot to talk about."

Gail was smiling, but she also felt like crying. And just exactly when would that be? Well, it was up to her to keep pursuing the cure then, wasn't it?

"Do you know anything about the sword of God?" she asked him suddenly.

"The sword of God is the Word," he replied automatically.

"OK, Cas, so what does that MEAN? Sam said the same thing, but..."

Cas's other hand curled into a fist, and he had to restrain himself from shouting into the phone. Here he was, traipsing around Europe, basically homeless, and there Sam was, nice and warm in the bunker, cozying up to Gail. Showing off how smart he was to her.

"Why are you asking me about the sword of God?" Cas asked her, through gritted teeth. He was determined not to mention Sam; she got angry when he expressed his jealousy. To be fair, she had never given him the slightest reason to be jealous, but the Demon was preying on his mind, and it was so hard to be so far away from her.

Gail could hear the tension in Cas's voice, and she realized he was trying to control his temper now. She wondered what it was that was threatening to set him off this time. It could be any one of a number of things. Even though he'd told her that he had been sitting quietly and reading, she was well aware of what was living inside of him, so she knew that the metaphorical weather could still change at any time.

"It's for the cure, Cas," Gail said, trying to ignore his tone. "Rowena gave me two more ingredients, and that's one of them. I already got the other one. She said this one would be easy, but we can't figure out what it is!"

"What was the context?" Cas asked her. "And what was the ingredient you've already gotten?"

"Bobby's blood," she answered. "He came here to the bunker, and Dean took it from him. But she said that the other ingredient was the original sword of the original God. And when I asked her what that was, she got snotty with me. But I guess the fact that her son was there at the time was a little distracting."

Gail clapped a hand over her mouth. Oh, crap. She probably shouldn't have said that.

She was right. "Crowley was there?" Cas said, raising his voice. "What was HE doing there?"

Gail sighed. She hadn't intended to get into that with him, but now she had no choice but to tell him. "I went with Sam and Dean originally, but Oliver turned me away. I guess that extra Demon dose put me over the line with him, or something. So, I had to go to Plan B. I took Crowley over there to scare him into letting me in."

"And Sam and Dean were OK with that?" Cas said, surprised.

"Well...I didn't exactly tell them until after the fact," she confessed. "I just met with Crowley and took him over there, and he more or less convinced Oliver it would be in his best interests to help me." Gail smiled, remembering the look on Oliver's face, and Crowley's comments to him.

Cas could hear the smile in her voice, and he didn't like it one bit. Now that Gail had the most recent blood bond with his Brother, Crowley might pose an even bigger threat than Sam. And here he was, an ocean away.

"I want you to stay away from Crowley," Cas told her. "I don't want you seeing him, especially alone."

Gail had known he would react this way, but she bristled a bit anyway. It was easy for him to dictate terms, wasn't it? She'd done what she had to do at the time. She told him this now.

Cas closed his eyes and counted to ten. He didn't want to argue with her; he'd been so glad to hear from her. But he could just bet that Crowley had enjoyed being alone with Gail, a little too much.

"So, what do you think about this sword of God thing?" Gail asked Cas. She had a pretty good idea what he was thinking, and she'd better try to keep him on topic or they'd be having an argument.

"'The original word'," Cas mused. "Let me think about that for a while."

"OK, Cas. "We'll keep doing research here in the meantime. If worse comes to worst, I'll have to go back and see Rowena again, make her give me more information somehow."

Cas pictured that in his head. Would she go with Crowley, or with Sam and Dean? And how could he just sit here reading, while the vultures were circling? Cas's hand itched for his blade. If any one of those men tried to replace him, he would kill him.

"You would have been proud of me last night," he blurted out. He told her about the incident with the young man, and the fact that he had restrained himself from pulling his blade on the stranger.

Gail was glad to hear that, but: "You've got your blade?" she asked him. "How did that happen?"

"I liberated it from the weapons room when I was packing to leave," he said casually. "I wanted it with me."

Gail frowned. She wasn't sure that was such a good idea. What did he need his blade for? But, like Cas, she didn't want to start an argument. It had been so good just to be able to talk to him.

"I'd better go," she said. "I'm using Sam's cell phone, and he and Dean might try to call me on it. They went out for a little while, but I don't think they completely trust me right now. And maybe they shouldn't," she concluded, feeling half sad and half amused.

"I love you, Gail," Cas said. He closed his eyes, trying to picture her face.

"I love you too, Cas," she answered. There was so much more she wanted to say to him, but she couldn't stand to say anything further. As it was, she'd probably be crying for the rest of the day now.

"Don't forget about me," Cas said. "I'm still here for you. Call me any time you want." He didn't want to hang up, and he didn't want her to, either.

"I'll have to sneak around to do it, but I will," she replied.

Cas frowned. He knew what that meant. Now that he and Gail were apart, the men meant to make sure they stayed that way. The anger started to rise in him.

"'Bye, Cas," Gail said, and she hung up. She was starting to cry now, and she didn't want him to hear her do that. Things were bad enough as it was.

Cas looked at the phone. She was gone. He had a momentary irrational impulse to smash the phone against the nearest tree. Why the hell had he ever thought that this separation was a good idea?

He picked up the book again and tried to get back into the story, but his mellow mood was gone and the Demon was taking over. He pictured Crowley at his most persuasive, telling Gail she had to take another dose of his blood in order to get another ingredient. And Crowley had spoken with his mother now; how did Cas know that he and Rowena wouldn't enter into some sort of devious pact to mess with Gail? It certainly wouldn't be without precedent. And once she had another dose of his Brother's blood in her veins, Crowley would have the upper hand, and Gail would find herself even more drawn to him. Cas pictured Crowley, offering to heal her injuries, slipping his hands under her clothing. What what would happen then? Then, there were Sam and Dean. It sounded as if Gail was spending a lot of time with them, and Cas could picture lots of comforting hugs coming from both brothers. Soon Cas would be forgotten, and Gail would turn to Sam or maybe even to Dean for companionship.

Cas needed to remind Gail that it was him who she loved, and that he was the man she needed to make her happy. He grabbed his cell and hit Sam's number.

"Hi, guys," Gail answered.

Cas frowned. "It's me."

"Oh." Gail was surprised. She had been sitting there, trying not to cry, and she had just barely succeeded. And now Cas was calling back, and she was hearing his voice again.

"Please go to the house," Cas said to her.

Gail misunderstood. "Oh, I've been living at the house, I just came here to get Bobby's blood and do the research," she told him.

"No, I mean, go to the house right now," Cas said.

Gail felt a thrill of excitement. Was he going to come back? "OK, Cas," she said. She hung up and popped out of the bunker immediately.

She was sitting on the couch in the living room when he popped in. She stood, and he rushed to her. They started to kiss, and Cas's tongue was in her mouth immediately. He was breathing heavily as his hands went under her top and into her pants, and he pushed himself against her.

Gail understood his enthusiasm, and she was excited too, but he was being a little too rough in his eagerness.

"Slow down, Cas," she said, putting her hands on his chest. "Please."

He stopped, sighing. "I'm sorry, Gail. I just miss you so much."

"I know. I miss you, too." Gail touched his face, and he put his hand on top of hers, holding it there for a moment. Then he took her hand and slowly licked her palm. This excited her, and she moved in closer to him, kissing him with her tongue.

"They're trying to keep you apart from me," Cas breathed between kisses.

"Not gonna happen," Gail said with a smile. She'd thought it would be funny to imitate Dean, but she hadn't realized how jealous and angry the Demon was making Cas feel right now, and he wasn't amused.

"It's already started," Cas said angrily.

"No, it hasn't," Gail argued. "YOU left ME, remember?"

She was right, of course, but the Demon wasn't in the mood to be reasonable. Cas started to lift her top. He was going to remind her why she needed him. But his hands froze when he saw her stomach. All of his marks were gone.

Gail saw where he was looking. Crap. "Crowley did a bit of healing there," she told him. Cas's eyes raised to hers, and they went dark purple immediately. "But that was it," she added quickly. "Nowhere else. I swear."

Cas's look was as dark as his eyes. He'd be finding out about that in a minute, and she had better not be lying.

"You let him touch you?" he asked her quietly. Then he grabbed her by the arms and pushed her against the wall.

At least Crowley's touch had been gentle, Gail thought resentfully. But she'd better not say that out loud. His fingers were digging into her now. Crowley had healed the marks on her arms, too; now she'd have new ones.

He had her against the wall, and he let go of her arms, grabbing her hand and putting it down his pants. Then he started to undo his pants. "It's you and I who should be touching," he said.

But his voice was angry, and Gail was nervous now. She really wanted him to touch her, but the moment his fingers went there, she would let him do anything he wanted to her. She knew that by now. And he was being rough, and he seemed mad. She thought they'd had a pretty good conversation on the phone, but this was a little disconcerting. But what had she thought she was working so hard to cure, anyway? Gail knew what he was like now.

She took her hand out of his pants and used both of her hands to stop him from undoing hers. "Maybe this isn't such a great idea, Cas," she said. His eyes narrowed. "Why not?" he asked her. Gail sighed. "I don't know. You just seem kind of...angry."

Cas let out a breath. He WAS angry. Didn't she get it? The campaign to break them up had already started. And now she wouldn't even allow him to express his love for her. What was her problem? He knew she liked it. Maybe he should just proceed anyway.

He tried to open her pants again, but Gail said, "No, Cas. Let's just sit down and talk for a minute. I want to find out what's going on with you."

What was going on with him? She was making him crazy, that was what was going on with him. He gave up on trying to undo her pants and drew his arm back, as if winding up for a blow.

Oh, God, here it came. He was finally going to do it. He was going to hit her. A part of her had wondered when it was going to come to that. Gail narrowed her eyes and braced herself, waiting for it. Then, that would be it. They would be done. Once he did whatever he was going to do to her and left, if she was still alive, she would pack the rest of her things.

Cas punched the wall beside her head, and Gail jumped. He had never intended to hit her, Cas thought, but he had seen the look on her face, and that had made him angry, too. How could she even think that he would ever strike her? Really? How? Cas asked the Demon. You've done everything to her but that, haven't you? Was it any wonder she'd thought that would be next?

Cas stepped away from her. He couldn't stand to see that look on her face any more. He looked wildly around the room and grabbed the lamp from the end table, throwing it and smashing it against the opposite wall. Then he stood there, breathing heavily, trying to get his temper under control.

"See, that's why I can't have nice things," Gail quipped nervously. She couldn't help it; it had just slipped out. But they'd needed a tension-breaker, here. She had jumped again when he broke the lamp. Cas needed to be defused.

He turned slowly to look at her. "No," he said seriously. "That's why I can't be here. That's why I can't be with you." He gave her an anguished look and winked out of the house.

For a moment, Gail just stood there, stunned. Wow. Absence was supposed to make the heart grow fonder, wasn't it? But this anger of his was a bit of a new wrinkle, especially when it came to her. Maybe it was building up in him, because he had vowed not to hurt anyone from now on. She'd better double her efforts to get the cure, or things were just going to go from bad to worse.

Cas went back to the park in London, but he couldn't sit right now. He paced back and forth in front of the bench, frantic. What the hell was wrong with him? Yes, he knew; the question was obvious, and so was the answer. But seriously, what was the matter with him? He'd supposedly gone there just to see her for a few minutes, and to reinforce their connection. And what had he done instead? He had behaved exactly like the monster he was trying to fight. Maybe he had done it on purpose, so she would know that it was best that he stayed away. Or maybe he hadn't been the one in control when his hands had touched her body. Whatever the case may be, he had also just conclusively proven to himself that he had no business even being in the same vicinity as Gail right now.

Cas sat on the bench and put his head in his hands. The anger had receded for the moment, and now the depression came. He'd beaten back the Demon again with the guilt over what he had just done, but it was a hard lesson that he'd just taught himself. If the cure was not finished soon, Gail would come to hate him, if she didn't already.

And while he was thinking clearly, he'd better start working on the puzzle she had given him. The original sword of the original God. He should be able to get it, if he could just focus.

Cas stuffed the books into his jacket pocket alongside his blade. Hopefully the next time he reached in there, his hand would land on the correct object. Gail was going through so much for him. If she still cared at all about him after what had just happened, he couldn't let her down.

He thought of a place to go that might put him in the right frame of mind for the puzzle he had to solve, and he smiled grimly. He was a violent Demon, thinking about the sword of God, with books about witchcraft in his pocket. If Gail were still speaking to him now, she would appreciate the irony.

Gail stood looking at the mess in the living room. No way she was going to try to pick up the shards of broken glass with her bare hands; look what had happened the last time. Did she even have a broom and a dustpan? She had no idea.

She wished it would just clean itself up. She had to get back to the bunker, before Sam and Dean discovered that she was gone.

As soon as Gail thought that, the golden glow lit up her arm, and she looked at it curiously. What the hell? She tried waving her arm at the mess on the floor, just for fun. The vase repaired itself instantly, and it flew back to the table where it had been sitting before Cas had thrown it. She watched this, open-mouthed, then waved her arm at the wall Cas had punched, damaging the plaster. The cracks disappeared, and the wall was back to normal.

Gail was bemused. So apparently, this was another one of her Original powers. She'd take it, but it was a little bit sexist, to be honest. It would be nice if Cas could do that, too. If he was still here, and if he was himself, she would have had him clean it up, just on general principles.

Now that she was able to step back from her fright a bit, Gail told herself that she had been ridiculous. Cas would never have hit her. She'd seen him angry before, many times, and she'd been living with him the way he was now for quite a while. If he had been going to do that, he would have done it by now. But she hadn't liked the way he had acted, nor the way she'd felt about it. She had been hoping to have a loving reunion with him, and it had all gone horribly wrong. She'd better hurry up and get the cure, or they could never live together happily again. She didn't even know if that would be possible any more, anyway. How often could she go through something like that and still be able to look at him with only love, and not apprehension and fear?

She sighed heavily, winking herself back to the bunker.

Sam was frantic. He'd raced around the bunker, checking every room and calling Gail's name, but she was gone. She'd promised him she wouldn't leave. Had Cas come back and kidnapped her somehow? Had Crowley? But that was impossible; neither Cas nor Crowley could enter the bunker on their own.

Dean just sat in the library area, shaking his head. Sammy had rose-coloured glasses on when it came to Gail. Though not as bad as Cas, she was a Demon now too, at least Demon enough to be able to be held in a Devil's Trap. She had lied to Sam, pure and simple.

Gail popped back into the library area, making Dean jump. She almost smiled, but she figured she'd better not. She was well and truly busted, and Dean was looking angry.

"Sorry, Dean," she said sheepishly. He stood from his chair and walked over to her, staring her down.

"Out shopping?" he said sarcastically. "Bite to eat, maybe?" Dean turned his head and yelled to Sam, "You can stop. She's back."

Sam rushed into the room. "Gail. Thank God," he said. "Where were you?"

"What are you guys doing here so soon?" she asked them, stalling.

"Sammy said he had a feeling," Dean said to her. Sam and his "feelings". Gail and hers. The two of them drove him nuts. The only reason Dean went along when one of them got one of those was that they'd always been right. And obviously, Sam had been right about this one, too.

"So, how is he?" Dean asked her.

Well, there was nothing she could do about it now, and she couldn't think of a plausible lie. "Not so great, Dean. Not so great," Gail said sadly. "I did tell him about the sword of God, though. He's going to think about it, too."

"Did he hurt you?" Sam asked quietly.

"I don't want to talk about it," Gail told them. "I'm sick of talking about that. Suffice it to say it won't be happening again any time soon."

Sam started to approach her. He thought he would comfort her; he could tell that she was upset.

"Stop," Gail said, holding her hand up. "Just stop." If one more man got in her face today, she was going to lose it. "I'm going to my room to think, and to do some more research. If we don't have the answer in a few hours, I'm going back to Oliver's. I don't have the time, or the patience." She picked up a few books and stalked down the hallway, leaving an open-mouthed pair of brothers behind her.

Castiel was now in Vatican City, of all places. If he was going to figure out what the original sword was, he had to be in the right frame of mind.

It was nighttime there, and he started walking up the steps of the first cathedral he had come to. Would the place even be open? No matter; all he could do was try the door. He'd look at the stained-glass windows and all the artifacts and try to work on the solution.

He tried the front door and it swung open. Castiel stepped inside and sat in the back pew, looking around. He grabbed a Bible and started leafing through it. Bobby had been mostly right about what he had said to Gail about the Bible having been written by humans for humans. But his Father had planted the ideas in those humans' minds, and also, some of the stories were absolutely true. All Castiel would have to do was turn to Genesis to see his own family tragedy outlined there.

But after a few minutes, Cas started feeling queasy. His body started to shake, and he broke into a cold sweat. What was he doing here? His kind didn't belong in a place like this. He wasn't an Angel any more, and he couldn't behave as if he were one. All the statues and all the Saints depicted in the stained-glass windows seemed to be staring at him, condemning him. How dare he walk in here, as if he had the right anymore?

He dropped the Bible, and it fell to the floor with a loud thump that echoed throughout the place. Cas got up and ran outside, getting halfway down the steps before he could breathe again. He sat down, putting his head between his knees, waiting for the nausea to pass.

A moment later, Cas felt a hand on his shoulder and he jumped, startled. He went to his pocket for his blade.

"You won't need that," the stranger said.

Cas's hand froze as he looked at the man. He was an older fellow, balding, wearing ordinary clothes. But he was smiling gently and looking at Cas with kind eyes. Cas took his hand out of his pocket as the man sat on the steps next to him.

"I saw you drop the Bible in there," the man said mildly, still smiling. "Or, rather, I heard it drop. Then I saw you rush out of there, and I just thought you might need some help."

"You can't help me," Cas replied.

The stranger shrugged and said, "You never know. Try me."

Cas just stared at him. He knew the guy was just trying to be nice, but Cas wished he'd just leave him alone. Cas had some thinking to do.

"My name is Francis," the man said, and he put out his hand for Cas to shake. "I come here often at night when there's no one else around. I find it clears my head. Gives me a chance to think."

Cas shook with him but didn't offer his name. That's what I'm trying to do, Cas thought, and he frowned.

"What is your problem?" Francis asked him. "Maybe I can help you with it, Castiel."

Cas's mouth dropped open. He hadn't given Francis his name, and he certainly wouldn't have given his Angel name even if he had. He didn't go by that any more.

"I'm sure I can help you, if you'll let me," Francis said. "You do have friends, Cas, and they care a great deal about you."

Wait. This man's name was Francis, and they were outside of a cathedral in Vatican City. And this man seemed to know all about Cas. Was he the real deal, or was this just a parlour trick?

"Pope Francis?" Cas asked him quietly.

The man dipped his head slightly. "At your service, Castiel."

Cas looked around. "Where are your bodyguards?" he asked his companion.

"Sleeping," the Pope replied. "I like to come here alone, and they need their rest."

"Well, what if someone were to see you? Attack you?" Cas persisted.

"What are you saying, Cas?" Francis asked him, his smile fading a bit.

Cas smirked inwardly. Crowley would probably have liked to have seen that. But Cas had no bone to pick with the Pope. In fact, he'd said he could help, hadn't he? "Do you know what the original sword of God could be?" Cas asked the Pope.

Francis brightened again. "Of course I do. It's the Word. The Tablet that held the original rendition of the Ten Commandments."

Really? Cas thought. Interesting. Why had he not thought of that? Castiel had more than a passing acquaintance with those same Commandments, didn't he? His tribunal had ostensibly been based on them, after all. The Demon was trying to get out now, whispering to him that Cas should take out his blade and kill the Pope. He represented guys like Xavier here on Earth. The kind of holier-than-thou jerks who'd used the Ten Commandments against him and Gail to persecute them.

But Cas couldn't do it. This man was too benevolent, and he was helping Cas. "I don't suppose that Tablet still exists," he said dryly.

Francis was smiling again. "Of course it does. In fact, it's on display at the Museum of Theology in Rome. There are a lot of skeptics who say it's a fake, but I don't believe it is. Maybe you and your friends should go and see it for yourselves." His eyes were twinkling now. "But maybe you should go after hours, when the crowds have gone. And, Cas..."

"Yes?" Cas said, enthralled now.

Francis leaned in close. "Don't take too much. A few scrapings should do. It is a priceless artifact, after all."

Then he got to his feet, looking down at Cas, who was gaping up at him. "Get well, Castiel. We need you," the Pope said. He put his hand on Cas's forehead then, and Cas felt the warmth envelop his body.

"You'll still need the cure," Pope Francis told him, "but our Father wanted to take the worst of the affliction from you. The urge for violence is now gone." He turned to leave, then turned back to look at Cas one more time. "But I'd work on that temper, if I were you," the Pope said, smiling. Then he walked away.

Cas just sat there, stunned. Had that really just happened?

He rose slowly, wondering what to make of it. Had God sent the Pope to Castiel, trying to send him a message to keep pursuing the cure? He had certainly been extremely helpful when it came to providing the information about the sword of God. Cas felt stupid, ashamed he hadn't thought of that himself. But even if he had, he wouldn't have thought that the thing still existed after all this time. Well, apparently it did, and it was here, in Rome.

Cas took his cell phone out of his pocket and called Dean.

"Cas," Dean said, when he saw who it was. "Where are you? And what did you do to Gail today?"

Cas grimaced. So they'd found out that he and Gail had seen each other. But Gail obviously hadn't told the brothers much about their encounter. "We had an argument," he said simply. Then Cas brightened. "But it's OK now. You'll never believe what just happened to me!" He told Dean all about his meeting of Pope Francis, and about the sword of God and where it could be found.

"And there's something else Pope Francis did for me, and it's extremely important," Cas went on to say. "Could you please put Gail and Sam on speaker?"

Dean considered this. Gail had been so upset earlier. He and Sam hadn't even been able to give her holy hell about seeing Cas when she wasn't supposed to, because she'd gone straight to her room and hadn't come back out.

"Please, Dean," Cas said. Actually, this would be a good test for him. Cas could see if the Pope had really been able to take the violence out of him. Though he'd said that Cas would still have his temper. But then, he'd always had that; it was the bloodlust that had really been the main problem. He'd be very glad to be rid of that.

Dean sighed. "OK, Cas, hang on. They need to hear this." And it was true. Dean needed to put his anger aside and think of the greater good here. If what Cas was saying was true, they had another ingredient. Maybe.

As Dean left the phone to get Sam and Gail, Cas tried an experiment. He closed his eyes and deliberately pictured Dean going to get Gail and then kissing her, giving Gail his tongue and then receiving hers. Dean undressing Gail and running his tongue down her body, making her whimper. OK. Cas had better stop there, before he lost it. But interestingly, even though he still burned with jealousy, wanting to come through the phone and punch Dean, Cas had not thought of killing him. That had to be progress, right?

When Dean came back with Sam and Gail in tow, Cas told them the story, and Cas emphasized that Pope Francis had laid his hand on him, removing the urge for violence from him. Well, deadly violence, anyway, Cas amended to himself. But what guy wouldn't want to punch another guy in the face if the second guy tried to seduce the first guy's girl? Cas would just have to keep his jealousy at bay until he received the cure. It was the Demon that made him think like that, anyway.

"So, we have to take a sample from the original Ten Commandments Tablet?" Sam mused aloud. "Wow."

Gail was sitting back in her chair. Wow was right. She was annoyed she hadn't thought of the Tablet, though, and she was sure that Sam was, too. But who knew that it would even still exist? Like Cas, she had a bit of a problem with the idea of the Ten Commandments, though. She wondered if the original words were still legible. She'd love to get a look at Number 7, and then go to Hell and throw the Tablet in Xavier's stupid face. Let him put an interpretation on that.

"Remember your heist movies, Sammy?" Dean smirked. He was thinking this actually could be kind of fun. He hadn't seen any action in a while, and he hadn't done anything illegal in even longer. But hey, even the Pope had approved of what they were about to do; in fact, he'd encouraged it. But the Italian cops might not feel the same way.

If Cas could just behave himself long enough, the four of them could team up and get this thing done, Dean thought. Of course, there were a couple of issues. He and Sam had been about to come down on Gail hard for getting together with Cas, and now he and his brother were about to reunite them. But Dean resolved that he and Sam would watch them the whole time that they were there. There was no way Cas was going to get to see Gail alone any more, not on their watch. So if he had an agenda, Cas could just forget it.

Cas was thinking of that very same thing. With his and Gail's powers and the Winchesters' experience in less-than-legitimate means of entry, Cas actually thought that accomplishing this mission might be easy. But he was eager to see Gail again. She hadn't said much over the phone since her initial greeting, which had been very cool. Cas was anxious for another chance with her. Now that he no longer felt the urge for violence, he was sure he wouldn't be too aggressive with her, either. But he needed her love. At the very least, he needed to be able to look into her eyes and hold her hand. Her photo was becoming worn at the edges because he was looking at it so much, gripping it with his hands as though it were a life preserver. She just had to give him another chance.

Gail was excited to be on the verge of getting another ingredient, but she was nervous about breaking into a museum after hours. That kind of stuff only happened in the movies, didn't it? She had never done anything remotely like that before, and it was strange to even contemplate. She tried to remember that she and Cas had otherworldly powers, though, so it wasn't as if they would be sitting in an Italian prison at the end of the night. Or, if they were, at least she and Cas wouldn't be in it for long, she smirked to herself. Maybe they'd let Sam and Dean cool their heels for a couple of hours, see how THEY liked being locked up. She wondered if she could finagle a little alone time with Cas. But did she even want to, after that fiasco earlier? However, if it was really true, if God had removed the violence from Cas through the Pope, that could be something she would like very much. Sex, an intricate plot, and a heist in a foreign country. They could have the makings of their own blockbuster movie here.

Sam and Dean had the money to fly overseas now, but they didn't feel like they had that kind of time, and the jet lag might make them feel less alert. So they called on Bobby to come down and send them. Gail didn't know if she could teleport all three of them that far, and she was reluctant to try. She could land them all in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, she'd joked. And truthfully, she didn't know how much juice she would need for the break-in. Bobby was God; he could send them all into the solar system, if need be.

Sam was looking at the museum schematics on his laptop, trying to bring up the floor plans, any information he could. Cas would do a recon, since he would be there ahead of them, but he wouldn't try to pop in there alone, he'd told them. The Winchesters were sure the place would have some above-average security measures, considering what they were about to go there and see. Though many people thought that the Tablet was a fake, there were obviously those who didn't, and the Tablet wouldn't just be sitting out there in the open. As it was, they were lucky it was even on display, in any form.

"So?" Dean said to Sam, as Bobby arrived. "How's it look?"

Sam frowned. "Not too bad, I guess. But I don't know if everything they've got is on here, of course. They'd be kind of crazy to list all of their security features. But most of it is standard stuff. Alarms, guards, and dogs."

Gail shivered. She hated vicious dogs. Which was kind of ironic, when she thought about it, as she had the power to make animals go on the attack. But these were already attack dogs; they wouldn't need her help to do what they did best. Great.

Sam shut off the laptop and stood with Gail and his brother, facing Bobby. Dean had a duffel bag in his hand which contained various implements that they may or may not need for the break-in, but they had no luggage. They weren't going there to sightsee, they were going there to get the scrapings from the Tablet, then come right back so they could find out what the other ingredients were and get to work on them. They would still have five more to get after this, and Rowena had said they wouldn't be as easy as these two. Well, getting Bobby's blood had been easy, but a European museum heist? Rowena considered that easy?

"Be careful, and come home safe," Bobby told them. Then he gave them the push, and they were gone.

Gail and the Winchesters arrived on the street in front of the museum, and they crept around the corner to where Cas was standing, in the shadows of the building.

He smiled when he saw them, and his face lit up when he saw Gail. She did not approach him for a kiss, as she normally would have done, just waggled her fingers at him in greeting. He could understand that. Well, he would make it up to her now, by working with them all as a team member to get this ingredient, and then he would make it up to her further by being gentle and loving with her. But not too gentle; he knew she liked a little boldness from him. But, just a little.

The museum building was surprisingly small for a place which housed such an important artifact, Cas told them. There were only two guards, and each had a team of two Dobermans on a leash. Cas was sure the perimeter of the building was alarmed, and then there would be extra protection around the Tablet, once they got inside.

"OK, I'm sure we can grab the guards from behind," Dean said, "and knock them out for a while. But what about the dogs?"

"I can tame any animal," Cas said quietly, and they all looked at him. Since when?

Gail in particular was looking closely at him now. Why had that never been mentioned in their sessions with Crowley? She knew they'd only scratched the surface, but why had it not been brought up then? Especially when it had come out in conversation that she had the power to make any animal go on the attack. She'd have thought that would have been the perfect segue way. It was kind of interesting that she and Castiel had that point/counterpoint thing going on when it came to those powers, though. She wondered if they had others like that, or if any of the Originals did, with each other's abilities. But her mind was wandering now; she could think about that later.

"When were you going to tell us about that?" Dean asked Cas.

"Why, do you have a vicious gopher in your back yard, or something?" Cas retorted, and Sam suppressed a smile. He was still royally pissed at Cas, but that had been a pretty good one, especially by Cas's standards.

But Cas was wishing Dean would leave it alone. He had taken to looking at the markings on his blade during this journey at times he'd been alone, and Cas had slowly been able to decipher a couple more of his abilities. But the brothers didn't know about that yet, and they certainly didn't know about the private sessions Cas and Gail had been having with Crowley. And now was not a good time to enlighten them. Also, Gail would be angry. He knew that she knew next to nothing still about her own blade, and her own abilities. Cas had offered to help her, but he had done nothing in that regard. It wasn't fair to her. Castiel and Crowley could read the language; she could not. But then, she hadn't had the years of training that Castiel had, and it still took him ages just to get through one set of symbols. He would have to make that up to her too, when the wardens actually allowed him to spend some time with her.

Dean rolled his eyes at Cas's remark about the gopher, and then he got back to business. "I've got wire cutters in case they're old-school alarms, and Sammy can disable any motion detector alarms."

"I can also bypass a keypad system," Sam added.

Gail looked at them incredulously. "What were you guys in another life, cat burglars?" she asked them.

"You'd be surprised at all the know-how we've picked up over the years," Sam said cheerfully.

"OK, let's go," Dean said. This could be kind of fun.

Cas and Gail offered to just pop into the museum, but Sam shook his head. "No, we'd better do it the old-fashioned way, until we know what kind of alarm systems we're dealing with," he told them. "We'll take care of the guards and the dogs first, and then we'll be able to get a closer look at the building itself." He motioned to Gail, telling her, "Get behind me. We'll have to wait till Dean and Cas take care of that part."

Cas glared at Sam momentarily. If anyone should be protecting Gail, it should be him. But they needed him to tame the dogs. And at least when Cas had felt the now-familiar stab of jealousy, he hadn't felt the urge to return the favour by stabbing Sam with his blade. Progress, to be sure.

Dean and Cas crept around the perimeter of the building. They took care of one guard-and-dogs team, then the other. Dean soaked a handkerchief with chloroform and held it to each guard's face as Cas talked to the dogs, getting them to lie down and go to sleep. Gail smiled in spite of herself. What she'd just witnessed certainly explained a lot. Apparently, he had the same ability when it came to her. At least, he could nearly always charm her into laying down for him, anyway.

Once the coast was clear, Sam and Gail moved forward, and Sam and Dean inspected the exterior of the building more closely. It turned out the museum had both types of alarms. Dean cut the wires to one, and Sam disabled the motion sensor alarm.

"We should be good to go now," Dean said. "You guys pop in and unlock the door for us," he said to Cas and Gail.

Cas took Gail's hand and they popped inside. He looked at her. "While we have a moment alone, I just wanted to apologize, from the bottom of my heart, for my behaviour earlier," he said to Gail.

"OK, Cas," she said. But she'd said it too quickly and too offhandedly, and Cas didn't believe she had accepted his apology.

"That's it?" he said, trying to smile.

Gail found her lips starting to twitch. "No," she told him, "but we have a job to do now. We can fight about it later on."

"I don't ever want to fight with you, Gail," he said seriously.

"Well then, maybe you need to watch that temper of yours," she retorted.

Incredibly, Cas smiled. "That's what the Pope said," he told her.

Now Gail did smile. "There's a hell of a joke for that punchline, I'm sure," she quipped. "I'll have to get back to you on that." Impulsively, she threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek. Surprised, Cas put his arm around her waist and gave her a gentle squeeze.

There was a knock from the other side of the door. "Umm...trying to pull a heist here," Dean said dryly. "You guys know we can hear you, right?"

Gail laughed, then clapped a hand over her mouth. Damn Dean for making her laugh. They still didn't know if there was anyone else in the building, and the sound had echoed. Cas moved in front of her in case any humans or dogs came rushing out, but things remained quiet.

Gail unlocked one side of the double doors and Cas unlocked the other, and the brothers came in. Sam reached into his pocket and unfolded the floor plan he'd printed out before they'd left. He shone a small flashlight on the paper. "It's in Wing B, upstairs," he said.

They walked quietly up the stairs and into Wing B, and it wasn't too hard to figure it out from there. The Tablet eerily resembled the Demon Tablet, Gail thought. They approached the glass case it was in, peering closer. The case was padlocked and had a keypad alarm on the side.

"The sword of God," Cas murmured. He couldn't believe he was looking at the original stone Tablet of the Ten Commandments, and that it had survived for all this time on Earth, pretty much intact, albeit in two pieces. If he had been the Angel Castiel, he might have fallen on his knees in front of it. But the way he was now, he was surprised that just looking upon it didn't disintegrate him where he stood. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sorry for everything I am." The Demon inside him was disgusted by that, but It was also lying dormant for now. It was curious to see if they could actually pull this off. And what they were planning to do was, essentially, the desecration of a supremely holy object. It didn't have a problem with that.

Sam disabled the keypad alarm with a small gadget he'd brought from home. He and Dean had had to resort to underhanded methods to get what they needed on cases from time to time when they could not obtain cooperation, and Sam had learned how to bypass nearly every kind of system by now. Dean shook his head, impressed with his brother. Lucky they weren't criminals, or they probably could have had both the Crown Jewels and the Hope Diamond by now. "Way to go, Sammy," he said softly, and Sam grinned. "Piece of cake," he said.

Dean cut the padlock off, and he and Sam tried to lift the glass case. But it only lifted partway, and then they couldn't budge it any more.

"What the hell?" Dean said, puzzled. "Why can't we move it any more than that?"

He and Sam put everything they had into it, but to no avail. Sam's brow was furrowed. "Must be some kind of a failsafe," he said, "but I've never seen anything like it before. I don't see anything keeping it from being raised further."

Dean looked at Gail. "You've got the smallest hands and arms out of any of us," he said to her. "Do you think you can get in there far enough to scrape the stone?"

"I can try," she said. She looked down at her hands. They were shaking. She tried to calm herself down. She could do this.

Dean handed her a chisel and a small plastic container. "You're on, then," he said to her.

Gail looked at Cas. "I feel like I should ask forgiveness for this," she said to him.

He smiled faintly. "We all probably should," he told her.

But her hands were still shaking, and it didn't help matters any when Sam said, "Try not to drop anything inside the case itself. There may be a silent alarm we don't know about."

She raised an eyebrow to him. "Really, Sam? But, no pressure, right?" Now her hands were shaking even more. "Thanks, Sam. Thanks a lot," Gail said sarcastically.

Cas's hands closed over hers. "You'll be fine," he said to her. "Believe in yourself. I believe in you. I always have."

Gail smiled up at him. Then she moved to the case and stuck her hands in it, before she lost her nerve. She maneuvered her wrists through the gap and wriggled her arms in as high as she could without touching the sides of the glass. She could just reach the bottom of the Tablet, and she scraped away with the chisel as delicately as she could, until a couple of fragments dropped into the plastic container. That would have to be enough. Her arms were getting fatigued now, and she still had to finesse her way out of there.

Once her arms were out, Gail took a deep, shaky breath. Sam and Dean replaced the glass as Gail took the lid to the container out of her pocket and screwed it on, tight. "Another item for the safe," she said proudly, giving the container to Dean.

But then a loud, strident alarm started to go off in the building. Crap! Had they missed one, or had she triggered it? But why would it just be going off now? The doors to the wing slammed shut.

"They must have had some kind of alarm attached to the Tablet itself," Sam said. "What are we going to do now?"

Cas and Gail looked at each other, smiling. And Sam was supposed to be the smart one. "We have an app for that," Gail said, thinking of Crowley when she said it. They grabbed the brothers and winked themselves out, just as more guards stormed into the room.

Cas had been driving, so to speak, and he had taken them all to the Trevi Fountain. "It's been said that anything you wish for here will come true," he told them. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a coin for each of them. "Let's see if that's true." Cas threw his coin into the fountain. Gail followed suit, kissing hers first; then, after a shrug, Dean and Sam threw theirs in as well.

They all stared at the fountain for a moment, then Gail quipped, "This is kind of like the end of Ocean's Eleven."

"Let's go home and raise a glass to one successful heist," Dean said. He and Sam looked at Cas. "Sorry you can't come with us," Dean said to him, his smile fading. "This was just about the weirdest thing we've ever done together, but it felt like old times for a minute."

Cas smiled at Dean. "Yes, it did. We'll have those again, Dean, I promise."

"Well then, wouldn't they be new times?" Sam said. They both looked at him, and Gail stood back, smiling at the men. Her men. Maybe she should plan a heist every day, if the guys could just be like this with each other again. It was moments like this which kept her going when the quest for the cure got to feel too hard, but there had been too few of them lately.

Suddenly, Cas reached up and put one hand on each of the brothers' foreheads. "Sorry Gail won't be able to attend your party," he said to them. "Save her a spot." Then he pushed them back to the States, and as he turned around to look at Gail, his eyes were violet.

She took a step back, but he reached out his hand to her. "I only wanted to spend a few minutes alone with you, that's all," Cas said softly. He was distressed to see that her first reaction had been fear, but he guessed he had earned that. It was time to earn some of her love back, if he still could.

"Let's take a walk," he said to her. "Please, Gail. We can talk about the books, or about anything you want. Please."

She took his hand.

Dean was cursing a blue streak as he and Sam appeared back at the bunker.

"That sneaky, lying Demon son of a bitch!" he fumed, throwing the bag down on the library table in disgust.

Sam was already calling Bobby on the phone. He told their friend that they had been successful in obtaining the pieces of Tablet, but: "Cas double-crossed us. He sent us back here, but he kept Gail there with him!"

Bobby was concerned. He had been watching, but once they'd gotten to the fountain, everything had gone opaque. "I'll have a look, Sam, see what's going on with them." He put the phone down and concentrated again. When he finally got the picture, he picked the phone back up. "It's OK, Sam, they're just walking and talking. I'll keep checking, and if I see anything that worries me, I'll go there immediately."

Bobby hung up, frowning. It all looked very innocent right now, but he would have to keep an eye on Cas. He might be an ocean away, but he was still a Demon, and he still had his powers. And he had the power of charm and persuasion when it came to Gail. The boys had told Bobby what Cas had said about his encounter with the Pope, but Bobby wasn't necessarily buying it. They only had his word for it that the encounter had even taken place.

Right now, Bobby could see that they were walking through the streets of Rome, hand in hand, as they'd always been. But he knew that the mood could change at any moment with the way that Cas was now. Bobby sighed. They were looking all "tween" right now, but who knew? He used to tease them about that. But he would give an awful lot now to have those days back. An awful lot.

Cas and Gail had been walking and talking for quite a while now, and Cas was ecstatic. They'd started out with small talk. He'd told her about some of the sights he had seen, and they talked about the books that she loved that he was just beginning to discover. She had smiled and told him that he would also have to see the movies once he was done with the book series. He'd squeezed her hand and said he'd be glad to watch them with her, once they were able to get together for long enough. They would buy all of them and have a movie marathon.

But then the mood turned sad. They still had no idea when that might be.

Gail tried to lighten things up. "So. The Pope, huh?" she said.

Cas couldn't help but smile. "I know," he said to her. "My first real celebrity encounter."

They had come to a patio in their meandering, and Cas turned to Gail. "Would you like to sit down for a bit?"

"Sure," she replied.

They walked through the gate and Cas pulled out a chair for her to sit in. Then he took the chair next to her instead of the one across. He was happy to be so close to her, and he didn't want a table separating them.

The server came, and Cas ordered them both a glass of wine. Gail raised an eyebrow, and he looked at her mischievously. "When in Rome," he said.

Gail pretended to be exasperated, but she was really delighted. "I cannot believe you just said that," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I've been waiting my whole life to say that," Cas said happily.

Gail took his face in both of her hands and kissed him firmly on the cheek. "I'd almost forgotten how funny you can be sometimes," she told him.

Cas smiled, but it was a sad smile. "We haven't had much humour in our lives lately, have we?"

She nodded in agreement. Wasn't that the truth.

The wine came, and they raised their glasses to each other. "To better times ahead," Gail said, and they each had a sip.

Cas put his glass down on the table then, taking her hand again. He told her about ordering the glass of wine in Paris, just so he could pretend that she was sitting there with him. Gail thought that she had never heard anything so sweet, and so sad, in her entire life.

"Cas, if the Pope was able to do something to you to get rid of the violence, then you can come back home, can't you?" she asked him softly.

"No," he said firmly, frowning. "I can't be trusted, Gail."

She was dismayed. "What do you mean?"

"I'm still a Demon," he told her. "I still have a lot of bad thoughts. I thought about taking you straight to a hotel. Even right now, I could just - " He let go of her hand and curled his hands into fists. It was frustrating. She was sitting right here, and she would likely have gone with him, willingly. But that was the problem; she would have gone with him willingly. And then, what would happen once they got there? Would he be able to love her with just the right combination of passion and gentleness, as he wanted to? Or would she have brand new marks on her body afterwards, to add to the painful ones she already had? If he couldn't be sure, he couldn't do it. And, he couldn't be sure.

Cas leaned back in his chair, taking another swallow of wine. "I have to send you home, Gail," he told her. "I don't want to, but I have to. And I have to do it soon, before I change my mind."

She understood what he was trying to say. She didn't like it, but she understood. "OK, Cas. But I'm going to get my cell phone from the house, and I want you to call me anytime you feel you need to, OK? We can talk about anything you want. I just need to hear from you every now and then. If you're feeling sad, just call me. OK?"

He took her hand again. "And I want you to do the same," he said to her.

Gail gave him a faint smile. "Well then, I'll be calling you all the time. What would the long distance charges be on that, I wonder?"

Cas squeezed her hand. "Tell you what. Europe's kind of gotten old for me, anyway. Maybe you and I can come back here someday, when we can do it right. In the meantime, I think I'll move a little closer to home."

"Any chance you're willing to tell me where?" she asked him hopefully.

But Cas was evasive. "I'm not sure yet." He was pretty sure he did know, though. He just didn't want to tell her yet, in case one or both of them weakened.

In fact, he was starting to weaken right now, so he said softly, "We'd better get you home."

They left the patio and walked around the corner. The street was dark, and there was no one around; it was the perfect spot from which to send her home.

But first, Cas put his arms around her waist and drew her to him. "Just because I'm sending you home doesn't mean I'm going to do so without my kiss," he said, smiling. He leaned down and kissed her softly. She put her arms around him and pulled him closer.

"If I'm not going to get to see you for a while, I need a better one than that," she said teasingly.

He kissed her again, and this time he opened her mouth with his tongue, and she gave him hers. His arms tightened around her for a moment, but then he reluctantly broke the kiss. He was getting too excited now, and his resolve was just about to break.

"I love you, Gail," he told her. "That's why you have to go home, right now."

He touched her forehead and gave her the push back to the bunker.

Bobby had been keeping Sam and Dean posted, so they knew that Gail was safe. So when she reappeared, the brothers were still relieved, but their anger had dissipated somewhat, and now they were merely grumpy.

Gail had figured they'd be upset, so when she walked up to the table where they were sitting, she said, "So, that was some job we pulled, wasn't it? We'll have to think of a name for the movie they're going to make out of it. Too bad 'The Italian Job' is already taken."

They both looked at her, eyebrows raised, saying nothing. "Come on, guys," she said, sitting down in her usual chair. "Give me a break here."

Dean relented. "OK, Gail. You're off the hook. Bobby told us you were all right. So, yeah, it was pretty cool." He grinned. He could picture himself as James Bond, running around Europe and driving a cool import, just for a change of pace. Sorry, Baby, I'm seeing another hot car for a couple of weeks, but I'll be back.

"Yeah, it WAS pretty cool. Till Cas double-crossed us," Sam said. He wasn't quite ready to let it go yet. Yes, Gail was OK, but things could easily have gone the other way. The fact that she was back safe this time didn't mean that they could drop their guard.

"We just wanted to spend a few minutes alone together, Sam," Gail told him. As if Cas keeping her there had been a mutual decision. But now, she was very glad he had done it. For a few minutes there, she had just about been able to pretend that things between her and Cas had never changed, and that they'd been on a romantic getaway, or something. "And he sent me home, safe and sound, as you can see."

"OK, Gail," Sam said, nodding. He'd made his point; he didn't want to argue with her about it.

"So when are we going back to see Oliver?" she asked him.

"I figured you'd say that, so I already called him," Sam replied, and now he was smiling a little, despite his better judgment. "He seemed eager to cooperate this time."

"Strange. I can't imagine why," Gail said, her lips twitching. She couldn't help it; she still thought that scaring Oliver with Crowley was one of the smartest things she'd done in recent memory. Too bad that nobody else approved. But, no matter: results were the only thing that mattered to her now. She'd gotten two ingredients today, and Gail felt like she was on a roll.