A/N: I'm not sure about this... I think I'm letting them off too easy here and Gabriel is kind of an ass. So let me know what you think 3
Once they were safe inside the house, far from Crowley, Dean let the floodgates open. He didn't think he had ever raged or screamed more in his life.
He hurled a lamp at the wall, where it shattered less than a foot from where Castiel was standing.
"Cas! You fucking moron! What the fuck is wrong with you?" He screamed.
"We have no other choice!" Cas cried, jumping to avoid the lamp. "You want Sam back? This is it, Dean! This is the only way!"
"Get Balthazar down here! Tell him to go get Sam! This is not the way, Cas! This is not the fucking way we are going to do things anymore! No more fucking deals with demons!" He screamed. He was yelling so hard, he felt like the blood vessels in his face were going to explode.
"So you get to make a deal? You are allowed to jump straight back into Hell, but not me? How do you think that made me feel, seeing how eager you were to get back on the rack, yet knowing it was me he wanted?!" Cas yelled.
Dean stood there, unbelievably angry with the ex-angel. "You knew all along. You've known since the beginning. You knew that the only way we'd get Sam and Adam back was to give them you! You planned this!" He fumed.
"No, Dean. I suspected that if we went the way of demons, that this would be the only way. That is why Balthazar told us about Crowley. You think I want to go to Hell? You think I want to leave you? No! But this is the only way!" He howled, falling to his knees.
Dean stopped yelling. Suddenly the unbearable pain, the potential of losing Cas hit him like a pile of bricks. He rushed over to his side and pulled him into his arms.
"Cas, Cas, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I just can't lose you. I cannot lose you too, Cas. I couldn't bear it. I need you, baby. I can't live without you. We will find another way." He sobbed, clutching him close.
Dean pulled him off the floor and took him over to the couch where he'd comforted him the day Cas couldn't open the pickles. They'd been through so much together in the last four months and their life was far from perfect, but it couldn't end this way.
They lay there for awhile, holding each other like the first night they'd realized there were feelings there, that they weren't alone in the world. The first night they'd realized they'd needed each other. Dean wanted this to last forever, not two more days. He'd just found Cas, he couldn't lose him now.
Finally, Cas spoke. "Dean, we have two days together. Let's not fight." He whispered.
"No, we have longer than two days. We have the rest of our lives, and then eternity wherever the hell it is guys like us go. I'm not letting you do this. I won't. We will find another way. I promise you, Cas." He leaned in and kissed him on the forehead.
Suddenly, another obnoxious voice broke up a moment between the two of them.
"Really, you threw a lamp at him? A lamp? What are you, Dean, Bobby Brown?" A smirking Gabriel said.
Dean looked up and met the eyes of Heaven's new leader. He sighed. It was really a day for dealing with douche bags.
"Castiel. You're looking… well, pretty terrible." Gabriel said. He sauntered over to the couch and looked down at them. He shook his head. "The two of you right now, I swear, you look like sad puppies. You're two little puppies who were just kicked repeatedly by a big mean demon."
"What do you want, Gabriel?" Castiel muttered. "We're trying to enjoy our last two days together. Please give us that."
"You really have become a pessimist in your new skin, Castiel. Also, you hardly look like you're enjoying yourselves." Gabriel said. "Sit up. Quit slobbering all over each other. I can't stand it."
Dean straightened up, wiped his eyes. "Why are you here, Gabriel? Or should I call you Loki? Or are you going by God now?" He said.
Gabriel waved his hand dismissively. "I am not God. Hardly! I'm much more fun than that old kook!" He said. "Besides, God wouldn't bother showing up in this… shack... you two share to help right all of the wrongs in your world? I think not."
"What do you mean?" Cas said brokenly.
Gabriel ambled over to the loveseat and sat down. He bent forward, face cupped in his hands, suddenly looking much more serious.
"You two really are broken, aren't you? Trusting a demon like Crowley more than Heaven? And you, Castiel, you really think this is your only option? I thought you had more fight in you. I thought both of you did." He said seriously.
"Balthazar said…" Cas started.
"What are you implying, Gabriel? Please. Anything you can offer." Dean interrupted.
Dean trusted and believed in Balthazar about as far as he could throw him, which wasn't far. Somehow the man who had killed him hundreds of times for laughs was looking like the best option right now.
"Heaven owe you a debt." Gabriel said. "Both of you."
"You do?" Castiel asked stupidly.
"Yes." Gabriel said. "You said it to Balthazar yourself, Castiel. The new regime, both upstairs and downstairs, is happening because of you, Dean, Sam, and Bobby. It happened because you rebelled. You started the war when you chose this human over your family. Your rebellion was our battle cry."
Cas looked like he might throw up when Gabriel said that. Somehow Dean knew that having the deaths of thousands of angels suddenly placed on his shoulders was not something that Cas needed. Luckily Gabriel realized this.
"Castiel, I don't mean to put it in those terms. But it was you who inspired the angels to think for themselves. Then when Raphael made you human just to torture you, many angels realized that he wasn't who they wanted in charge." Gabriel said.
"Brother, I don't understand. How is it better? How can you help us?" Cas asked, his voice exhausted.
"Trust me. I am a better leader than Raphael. Things are better up there now. Crowley is a cad, yes, but things are better in Hell too. Notice that there are essentially no demons wandering earth? This is all for the best. I swear this to you." Gabriel said.
Cas just shook his head. In that simple gesture, Dean saw that Gabriel was right about one thing: Cas was broken. Dean hadn't realized how broken he was, how he truly did see going to Hell as his only choice for righting the wrongs in their lives. He knew Cas was getting better, but it was still a very long time coming. He realized this now and was regretting all of the words that had come out of his mouth in the barn and when they'd gotten back to the house.
"I'll show you." Gabriel said simply. He stood up and came over to Cas. He leaned forward and put his finger on his forehead.
Cas gasped and suddenly his eyes were filled with white light. Somehow, maybe because he knew Cas so well, he realized that Gabriel was showing him the war, the angels who had fought on Castiel's behalf, and what things were like now in Castiel's old home. It only lasted a few seconds, but when Gabriel pulled his finger away, Cas's expression was much different.
"Balthazar is an idiot." Gabriel said plainly. "I saw how he spoke to you, how crass he was about the war, about your… situation with Sam and Adam. He offered no viable solutions. Getting Sam and Adam out isn't a cake walk, but it is not impossible. We are also not unwilling. When I found out he told you that we wouldn't help you, I nearly damned him to Hell myself."
"You will help us?" Dean whispered.
"I was planning on dropping by sooner than this, but you know… a King's work is never done. But then I saw that you went to Crowley and had to come by." He said, shaking his head.
Gabriel stared at Cas and plucked something from his thoughts. "Christ, Balthazar is the one who told you to go to Crowley? I really should send him to TVLand for awhile." He said, looking angry for the first time.
Gabriel sat back down. "Moving on from that idiot, then. As I said before, we owe you. Not everyone thinks Sam should come back, true, but I am a big believer in second chances. I mean, I have to be right? Hell, I disguised myself as a Pagan God for 1,000 years before going home for mine, right?" He said.
"What can you do?" Cas asked, sitting up a little straighter.
"Exactly what you did, Castiel. Snatch the Winchesters from Hell. I will go down into the Pit, look at those two bastards I call brothers in the faces, and bring them home to you." He said, sitting back with a smile on his face.
"You'll do it? You?" Dean asked in disbelief.
Gabriel shook his head. "You were right about me being scared to face my family, Dean. You were right all along. I have faced them now, and things are better than I thought possible. Facing Lucifer and Michael and taking away their favorite chew toys is my last step in that process. Funny how it took a human and a fallen angel to make me realize this." He said.
"When?" Dean asked. "You're sure you can do it?"
"Of course I can, Dean! After all, you said it yourself, I'm kind of like the new God! Lucifer's trapped, powerless, and so is Michael. With the power of Heaven at my back, I have more than enough strength to take those two pricks on now." Gabriel said.
Then with a rustle of his wings, and a hint of cocky-bastard dust too, Gabriel was gone.
"I can't believe it." Cas said as soon as Gabriel disappeared. "I honestly cannot believe it."
"Cas, buddy, are you okay?" Dean asked slowly.
Cas turned to him. His face was still stunned, but the pain was gone from his face. He didn't say anything, just grabbed Dean and gave him a sloppy, disgusting kiss right on the mouth. He released him and then Dean heard something magical, Castiel was laughing. It wasn't a chuckle either. It was raucous, uncontrollable laughter. It was the first time he'd ever heard Castiel laugh like that, as an angel and as a human. It was absurd, and it also made Dean feel better about everything. It was the best sound he'd ever heard.
"I can't believe it!" Castiel yelped. He jumped off the couch and actually jumped up and down, as if he'd just won the lottery.
"Dean. He's going to do it! I was wrong. You were wrong. We were idiots to go to Crowley! I cannot believe it!" He reached down and grabbed Dean and twirled him around like they were at prom or something.
"Cas! God! I do not dance! I do not ever dance!" He cried.
Cas pulled him into a hug, a bear hug to be exact. He kissed him again, still laughing, his usually stormy blue eyes light and happy for the first time pretty much ever.
"What did he show you, Cas?" Dean whispered, curling his chin up to his for yet another kiss.
"Everything." Cas said. "Oh God, Dean. It was horrible. I saw so many of my brothers and sisters dying. I saw Raphael torturing Mariel. I saw Balthazar stabbing one angel after another. I saw Gabriel slaughtering Raphael."
"That's… what he showed you?" Dean said slowly. It didn't seem like something like that would make Cas dance and laugh.
"No! There was more. He showed me Heaven, the way it is now, the way it will be from now on, and how the bloodshed, my rebellion changed everything. Changed it for the better and now Heaven is a place my father can be proud to call his own. Finally, he showed me you. He showed me us, years from now, old and hobbling, walking a dog. He showed me our life together and that was the best part, Dean. That was the best part." He whispered, words coming out in a rush.
Dean nodded slowly. He knew angels could see the future, bend time and that the future was theirs for the taking, but was that really possible? He and Cas together until their twilight years? Dean could make a relationship last that long? Cas would stay human for that long? An even better question, would the two of them really live that long?
"Yes, Dean. We will live that long."
"What are you, a mind reader?" Dean grumbled.
"Only yours." He murmured.