Chapter Twenty-three

Gabriel was torn out from his cold stillness by someone calling his name, he recognized it and was surprised that the sprite's call could reach him even if he was not human. He wanted to ignore it, he wanted to grieve his brother in peace and ignore the world just a bit more. Things could wait. Then the call rang in his ears even louder and the faun's voice was angry and almost desperate in a way that made the angel uneasy. Puck clearly didn't care about most things in this world so what would possibly make him so...

His eyes widened as he spread his wings to take flight, he barely remembered to grab both his and Samael's blade before leaving the citadel behind to land next to the faun calling to him. The sight made him froze. Puck was crouched down to the ground next to Dean and there was blood, way too much blood. The demigod was pale and shaking, wounds scattered all over his body and a silver lance was stabbed into his stomach, he was breathing but only barely. Puck was muttering, speaking to him in a hushed tone and Gabriel didn't know which was stronger in him; the shock and terror he felt or the endless fury. He snapped out of his daze in a moment later and rushed to the demigod's side. Fear won the battle of emotions.

'Dean!'

'Finally' Puck snapped at him as Gabriel got down onto his knees and reached out. 'Heal him!'

'I can't!'

'What?' the faun looked at him sharply.

'He's not human' Gabriel told him but his eyes didn't leave Dean's body for one second. He had to do something, but he wasn't sure what. 'Dean!' he called again. Puck cursed under his nose then took a large breath.

'Take him to Creide's house' the sprite ordered. 'I'll grab Patrick, we have to patch him up and he's better at it then I am... Gabriel! Now!' he yelled when the archangel didn't move. Gabriel reached out to touch again and transported Dean and himself back to the hut in a blink. Dean's breathing was too shallow and he didn't seem to be aware of his surroundings at all, Gabriel tried to focus his mind on what he knew about how humans and other mortal beings treated wounds. He knew there was a reason Puck left the lance in, pulling out the weapon would increase the blood loss – that Gabriel was sure of – and since he didn't know exactly how to stop the bleeding he didn't want to make things worse. He didn't touch the weapon, but shed his cape and tore it into two pieces to press the material to the wound around the weapon. Dean's body was built just like a human's even if Gabriel couldn't shape or knit it back together with his grace, no main artery was torn fortunately, but the archangel sealed the remains of his cape on the wound tightly to stem the blood flow. He felt how the bleeding was slowing, but it was still too much. He didn't know what else to do, there was nothing else he could do, Dean was still pale and shaking, sweat was breaking out on his skin and he felt too cool to the touch and Gabriel never felt more useless in his entire existence.

'Dean, stay with me...' he managed to say as the pale green garment under his fingers got soaked in blood and this time Gabriel did pray to his Father for the green eyes to open and look at him. With a flash of blue light Patrick and Puck arrived through one of the faun's portals.

'Oh dear stars' Patrick breathed before he was at the bed right away.

'What do I do?' Gabriel asked, his voice shaky and desperate even to his own ears.

'Just get out of my way' the young witch answered and while Gabriel hated the thought of letting go of Dean even for a second he gave space. Patrick put his hand on the bloody material on the wound as Gabriel pulled away. Puck was already getting around in the house grabbing things and dropping them down close enough for Patrick to reach.

'He's bleeding real bad' Patrick said. 'I'm not sure... not even Ma had to-'

'You're doing it kid, I'm helping you' Puck replied immediately, and Gabriel wanted to destroy something in frustration as he had nothing to do but try not to pace or run back to Dean. He was not someone who was used to staying out of the way.

'Gabriel, come help hold him down' Puck spoke up and the angel moved immediately. He knelt down to the end of the bed and put his hands on Dean's shoulders, he was not in Patrick's way that way.

'Ye wanna pull out the lance?' the witch asked as he looked at the faun.

'I can do that' he answered with a jerky nod.

'I can make it vanish' Gabriel told them. 'You don't have to rip it out then.'

'Even better' Patrick said. He grabbed a few clean white cloth that was probably meant to be used for such cases. 'After I start he will be in pain if he's conscious enough' the witch said. 'Keep him in one place.' The young man took one large breath, he was anxious Gabriel could tell, but his hands were sure and Gabriel blessed Creide's name for teaching her son so well.

Patrick then shifted his hands and nodded at Gabriel. The angel reached out with a hand and touched the silver lance and made it vanish without a trace. Patrick put the white cloth on the wound tearing away Dean's shirt and tossing away the remains of Gabriel's cape. The switch made Dean's body tense up as he groaned in pain so Gabriel put a hint of pressure on his shoulders to keep him from trashing. Puck put an arm over the demigod's legs while helping Patrick by handing him what he needed.

The sounds of agony tearing out from Dean's lips was too horrible for Gabriel and he felt useless again, he wished more than anything that he could at least sooth his pain. He leaned over Dean and pressed his forehead to his, his skin was damp and cool.

'Dean' he whispered. 'I'm here Dean, can you hear me? We'll help you, just hold on... Dean, it's Gabriel, listen to me... Dean...' He kept repeating the words over and over again, trying to get the demigod's attention or get a reaction out of him besides pained groans.

'Gabriel...' came a tiny, hoarse whisper after a few moments.

'Yes! Dean, I'm here! I'm right here! Hold out, please hold out for me!' the next groan was loud and Dean's body wanted to squirm away, but was held firmly in place. 'Hush Dean, we're helping. It's going to be all right, stay with me. Just listen to me, focus on my voice, I'm right here love...'

'Hurts so much-' Dean chocked out.

'It will be better, just a little bit more, it soon will be over.' Gabriel was surprised that Dean was strong enough to lift his arm up to drop it on the archangel's hand but he didn't hesitate before he entwined their fingers and gave it a squeeze. 'I'm right here, just hold on for me.'

He didn't pay attention to what Patrick and Puck were doing, just kept his forehead pressed to Dean's and whispered soothing words to him, not stopping for a second but demanding Dean's attention to draw him away from the pain as much as possible. He felt that Dean tried to squeeze his hand back but he was too weak to do so and it tore Gabriel up to see him being so very broken.

It felt like a lifetime to him before Dean finally settled down a bit, not trying to twist away from Patrick and when he heard the young witch let out a long breath was when Gabriel opened his eyes again to glance up at the others in the room. Dean was bandaged up properly both on his stomach and leg, an injury Gabriel didn't even see until now. Patrick was breathing heavily, his hands were bloody and he sat back on his heels just looking in front of himself, there was a light tremble in his entire body.

'We need to bandage his shoulder' he said.

'I do that' Puck told him. 'You wash yourself up kiddo, you did really well.' Patrick didn't argue just nodded and got up. Gabriel leaned a bit back to give the sprite room as he reached to clean out the smaller stab wound above Dean's collarbone, but he didn't let go of the demigod's hand. Dean seemed to have lost consciousness again as he was a lot more still than he was before. Puck worked in silence for a long while, bandaging up the wound after cleaning it out.

'He's not through it yet' the faun spoke up after a while as he kept his eyes on his hands. 'He's not healing properly.'

'What?' Gabriel asked.

'These symbols on him' Puck continued. 'They all have a separate purpose, a bit of protection and some extra perception, but they can be combined.'

Gabriel recalled the markings on Dean's skin. He knew them well as he traced those symbols with his fingers and tongue more than once.

'It's a bloodspell' the sprite said. 'And he used it to fight Morrígan... the fallout would be not so bad, but such a severe injury...' he trailed off as he finished bandaging the wound then started to gather all the things he and Patrick scattered around the bed in their hurry.

'What?' Gabriel prompted him to answer.

'The spell made him stronger, in every sense of the word, but it used up all his power. Made every ounce of magic and energy flare up and burn in him all at once, he would be tired, probably would be passed out for a while after it no matter what, but like this... his body just doesn't have the energy to heal the way he usually does.'

'What are you saying?' asked the archangel with narrowed eyes.

'I'm saying he's healing as slowly as a human or he's not healing at all, he is drained... completely. We patched him up and stopped the bleeding as much as we could but-'

'But what Puck?'

'If he doesn't start healing properly in the next few hours... he most likely won't make it.'

'He will' Gabriel insisted. 'He's strong.'

'He is' Puck nodded. 'But that is a mortal wound Gabriel, all we can do is keep him alive as long as possible and hope he regains enough from his power to start healing before it's too late.'

x~x~x

Dean drifted in and out of wakefulness, whenever the dark claimed him he was cold and he didn't know what was happening with him. Nightmares tortured his mind constantly, he saw the bled out corpse of the little brother he never get to know, saw Creide crumbling into dust in his arms whispering her curses at him... he saw Patrick being torn apart by demons, Puck turning his back on him, he saw Leomas burning his valley to dust as the spirits screamed in agony as they died one after another and he was bound with no way of getting free. Morrígan held the chains, her laugh rang cold and dark in Dean's ears. He just screamed and screamed and everything burnt, then he saw the golden light among the flames... Gabriel, the way he was in the first days, in his true form. His beautiful golden wings scorching to black ash as he too was being consumed by the flames and Dean wanted to rush to him, burn with him to death if there was nothing else to do, but no matter how much he tried the chains held him in place...

'Dean!' the angel called him.

'Gabriel!' he screamed.

'Dean wake up!' the demigod snapped his eyes open and looked up at the angel's face and his amber eyes.

'Gabriel' he breathed in relief as the archangel was whole and unharmed.

'It was just a nightmare, you have a fever' the angel told him as he put a hand on his cheek. His palm was cool and soothing and Dean tried to relax, but everything hurt, his whole body was numb with it. 'Morrígan wounded you' Gabriel answered his unasked question. 'You're still hurt very badly, your body's exhausted it's not healing properly yet.'

'The spell...' Dean mumbled. It drained him, he didn't know whether the world being all foggy around him was because of that or something else. 'Am I dying?' he asked.

'No' Gabriel told him fiercely right away. 'You will get through this, you just need to hold on and gain back your strength, then you will heal and everything will be fine.'

'Would I go to Heaven?' he asked and Gabriel went very still beside him.

'You won't die!' the angel told him in a hard voice, but Dean didn't let it go.

'You said I had a soul, so would I go to Heaven?' Gabriel took a large breath as he closed his eyes. He held Dean's hand in his own and now he pressed his forehead to the knuckles.

'If you ever died...' the angel said slowly. 'Yes, you would go there.'

'I don't want that' Dean replied after a pause. Gabriel opened his eyes again and looked at him.

'I told you that you won't die' he said, Dean shook his head.

'That's not what I meant' he answered slowly. 'You ran away from there... I don't want to go to such a place.'

'It's different to the souls there' Gabriel answered.

'Would you come along with me?' Dean asked and the angel sucked in a sharp breath as he tensed up all over again.

'I... I can't go back there, Dean' he said.

'Then I don't want to either' the demigod answered quietly.

'That is not your choice' Gabriel told him. 'And I can't heal you, so I cannot resurrect you either, so you can't die... you won't die!'

'You will go home one day' Dean said next looking at the angel. 'I could wait.'

'Dean-'

'You could do it, I'm sure... just... don't let me go there... not yet.'

'You have to stop talking and rest, you will heal sooner that way.'

'Gabriel, you could do it... right?'

'You won't die so don't ask me such things' the archangel replied sternly.

'No, I need you to promise me... just in case...' he took a few deep breaths as the pain was increasing again, just as the heat he felt burning under his skin. 'Reapers take human souls, right?' he asked weakly. 'So don't let them take me...'

Gabriel stayed silent and just held onto Dean's hand with both of his own, closing his fingers around it tightly. His face was devastated, so sad, too sad, too still. He hated when Gabriel was so serious, he hated that he caused him to be so grim again.

'I promise' Gabriel said after a long silence.

'And when you're ready to go... you can take me there yourself' Dean said and tried to smile reassuringly, but he was already drifting away again.

'You won't die Dean' Gabriel said. 'I need you, I am yours, remember? If you're gone I won't belong to anyone again, so don't leave me alone and fight. Fight for me and stay' the angel pleaded.

Dean wanted to tell him that he was fighting, that if there was anything he wanted to fight for right now it was staying with him, that he didn't want to leave him alone, but his tongue was too heavy and the world faded away to darkness again.

TBC