Q - annnnd chapter 7! hope you all like it, been a while coming, sorry about that. this chapter came out a bit different then intended. and is a bit...looney toonish at times i feel. nobody gets any anvils dropped on their head but Gabriel does end up doing a bit of a wily coyote (he deserved it)

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Chapter 7

Sam was looking a bit peeved as Cas poked and prodded at what appeared to be thin air at Dean back. The wings were, as Gabriel had said, very much invisible and intangible. Although whether or not he could make them visible at some point was still up for debate. Still Sam couldn't see them, and hearing Cas wax on about the lovely copper and silver feathers seemed to be getting to him.

A rapid knock on the door had everyone freezing for a moment. Cas considered the closed door for a moment before speaking "It's the prophet." He observed before turning back to examining Dean's feathers. Sam sighed and got up to open the door. Chuck just about shot under Sam's arm before the hunter could say anything. Sam turned around one hand still on the door to see Chuck grab thin air on Deans other side and start all but babbling about how cool the wings were, and wow they were shinny – he hadn't thought they would be this shinny. Sam's eye brow twitched. Dean smothered a snigger while trying to drag his wing out of the grabby prophets grasp.

"So, you can see them then?" Sam commented dryly. Chuck paused and looked back at Sam with a faint frown, Dean caught an edge of apology in the prophet's gaze.

"Uh, yeah….sorry." if Dean hadn't been looking at Chuck and not Sam he never would have caught the odd little flicker in Chucks aura...or whatever the hell it was called. The normal bright blue with green eddies had for a moment seemed to have the slightest lacing of gold through it. It was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared. Dean frowned wondering what the hell gold meant. He'd never seen that color before. Angels were generally silver white but Gabriel, when he wasn't bothering too hard too hide at least, was white shot through with a warm sunshine yellow. That was the closest he'd ever seen to the kind of clear gold he'd caught there for a moment.

What he didn't know was that Chucks wince a moment later had very little to do with Sam being the only one in the room who couldn't see Deans wings. 'Chuck' very carefully didn't look at Dean. Apparently Dean's ability to see the true nature of souls was getting more powerful then he'd though it would. Normally he didn't have to be quite that careful unless Raphael was actually doing his job…which was rarely. Brat was lucky he wasn't actually the prophet or he'd have been a very dead prophet. With Gabriel off causing trouble in California he had relaxed a little too much. 'Chuck' sighed and turned back to examining Dean's wing nonchalantly, he would have to be more careful around Dean from now on it would seem.

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"Dude no." Dean snapped for what had to be the tenth time in as many minutes. Cas was giving him a faintly sad puppy look. Sam was sniggering behind his book. Chuck at least had left earlier to attempt to wrangle the remaining fans into actually leaving. Dean scowled at both of them. "I do not want to learn how to fly. I don't need to fly. It's fine. Leave it alone." He growled. Cas's own wings drooped a bit for all that his face didn't really show how much Deans refusal to learn how to fly was upsetting him.

"Dean, it's absurd of you to avoid this! What is the problem?" Dean just glowered back at the angel and stayed silent. Sam looked curious however.

"You know, you never have explained what the fuck your issue with flying is. Why the hell does it freak you out so much?" he asked, Dean glanced at him – frowning.

"I just don't like it." he answered tartly. Sam considered his brother intently for a long moment before putting his book down and sitting up.

"Dean." Sam pressed. Dean grimaced at that tone, great – little brother was on a mission now.

"Does it really matter? I don't like flying! Why is irrelevant!" Dean snapped. Sam just sighed.

"Dean, come on – seriously. How about this. If you tell us why you're afraid of flying Cas will leave you alone about it for at least a week." He looked at Cas for confirmation at this, the angel hesitated a faintly mutinous look flickering across his face before he nodded reluctantly. "Alright then, Dean?" Dean glared venomously at the both of them.

"Fuck! Fine!" he snapped wings fluffing up around him in irritation. "When I was thirteen there was this hunt, Dad let you stay in school because he thought it was just a particular nasty brownie ripping people up. Turned out it was a fucking Harpy of all things. Bitch grabbed me and decided it would be funny to drop me from a few hundred feet up. Only reason I didn't die was because I hit a pine tree just right to break my fall and then landed in a lake." Sam and Cas both stared at him. Dumbfounded.

"Wow." Gabriel's voice cut in, making everyone blink and turn to stare at him, he certainly hadn't been there a moment before. Gabriel looked unusually thoughtful. "I'm honestly surprised it's something that reasonable Dean-o. I thought it would be something silly. But I'll accept 'dropped from a great height by a harpy' as a good reason for being leery of flying." He grinned here, a glint of not quite malicious amusement leaking in around the edges. "You do still need to learn how to fly though." Cas looked honestly worried at this pronouncement – edging closer to Dean. "I for one am happy to help!" the archangel continue brightly his gaze slid to Cas who froze. "After all I taught little Cassy how to fly, didn't I, Castiel?" A flash I real panic darted across the younger angels face and he lunged for Dean. Gabriel beat him to it vanishing with a cursing Dean in an instant. Sam stared in shock at the place his brother had been standing a moment before.

"Cas, how did Gabriel teach you how to fly?" he asked slowly.

"How do you think?" the angel answered tartly before vanishing as well in pursuit. Sam ran a hand through his hair a look of frustration on his face. Heaving a sigh he got up and made sure there was beer in the mini fridge before going to the gas station on the corner to try and find some pie. Dean was going to need to go to his happy place after this. Clear across the hotel Chuck had gone still mid conversation with Becky the moment Gabriel had made his intentions clear. A single eyebrow twitched in suppressed aggravation.

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Dean only had a moment to swear bloody revenge on Gabriel before he found himself high over some massive body of water. Really high. Deans wings locked up, clamped tight to his back in terror as he looked down and down and down. The moment passed and he was falling. Gabriel swooped past laughing.

"Come on Dean-o! It's not that hard, get those wings open!" he called as he looped through the air above the plummeting hunter.

"FUCK! THIS ISN'T FUCKING FUNNY GABRIEL!" Dean yelled "PUT ME BACK ON THE GROUND NOW!" Gabriel just laughed.

"But you're going to get there all on your own in a minute if you don't start flapping, Dean-o!"

"YOU ASSHOLE!" Dean shrieked in frustration finally managing to get passed the paralyzing terror at the fall to get his wings open. This proved to be a bad idea as the wind from his plummet promptly wrenched them back. Dean managed to haul the wings back in with the cry of pain. Gabriel just snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on you big baby! It's not that bad!" he yelled only to have to dodge as Dean suddenly halted midair. He looped back up curious. "Well that's a cool tri…"

"I didn't think this was funny the first time, Gabriel. And I don't think it's funny now." A voice echoed from seemingly nowhere. Gabriel back winged in shock. Dean recognized the voice, it was the same one that had been talking when his wings had grown in. shit…was that God? Hu, I think it might be he thought to himself as Gabriel's wings suddenly locked up. He hung in the air for a moment.

"Ah crap" he said before suddenly plummeting as Dean had been doing moments before. A few long moments passed before a massive geyser of water shot up out of the lake – signaling Gabriel's introduction with the ground. Dean snorted not feeling any pity for the archangel as he tried to stop shaking like a leaf, he kinda doubted being dumped in a lake from any height would actually hurt the jackass.

"I would have thought he'd remember how displeased I was last time he tried that…." there was a sigh.

A moment later he found himself back in the hotel room – almost falling over at suddenly being upright and on the ground again. He sat down abruptly on the bed rather than end up on his ass. Sam had jumped at his sudden appearance, he took in Deans white knuckled hands and the tremor that was visible even across the room – with a nod to himself he popped open the door on the mini fridge and pulled out an entire apple pie and a beer. Dean looked blankly at the pie for a long moment before all but snatching it out of his hands. "Thanks, Sam." He managed before going to town on the pie. Sam just nodded and sat back to wait. Seeing as Gabriel wasn't here gloating obviously something else had happened. Maybe Cas had managed to cut in before Gabriel could be an utter asshole. Then again Cas would have come back with Dean if that was the case.

It was with some bemusement that Sam watched Dean eat his way through an entire apple pie all on his own, plus three beers. "Where do you put it all?" he muttered Dean just shot him a wry smile his expression a still a little tight but no longer did he look like he would bolt out the window.

"Magic." He answered. Sam rolled his eyes at the predictable answer.

"So, what happened?" He asked. Dean was quiet for a long moment before sighing and taking another long gulp of beer.

"Well…" he began his tone giving no doubts to his disgust. "Gabriel thought it would be a great idea to drop me from what looked like a couple of miles up over…I honestly think it was Lake Michigan." He frowned in thought here as Sam winced. If Dean had been able to identify the coast line well enough to know that he'd been really fucking high up. Dean smirked darkly. "Apparently he's done this before and God, as he put it, didn't think it was funny the first time either." Sam stared.

"God."

"Yup."

"God saved you from Gabriel's idea of flight training." Dean just nodded. "Like. Personally." Sam added, dumbfounded.

"Yes, he did, and Gabriel ended up being the one to do a swan dive into the lake too." Sam quirked an eye brow up.

"Appropriate I guess." He agreed after a moment. Dean nodded looking contemplative.

"The geyser was impressive" Sam had to choke back a laugh at that.

"Nice…..but seriously, God?" Dean just rolled his eyes.

"Dude, he's God. Why the fuck would I know why he decided to stop Gabriel turning me into a Winchester pancake and not help with all the other shit that's been going down? Maybe he really just thought it wasn't fucking funny." Sam sighed and nodded. Right weirdness ahoy as usual. Given Gabriel's insistence that Dean's transformation had to be something God had personally done – maybe he just didn't appreciate his most recent project getting dumped out of the stratosphere but idiotic archangels.

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(two days later)

Dean stretched one long wing out – giving it an experimental flap. He'd managed to ditch an overly concerned Cas earlier and drive out to a field not too far out of town. After Gabriel's little stunt (the shit head still hadn't turned back up it had been two days!) even Dean had to admit he had to have some idea of how to fly, or at the very least glide. Just in case anymore jackasses decided to drop him from high places.

Stretching both wings out he thought back to the book on birds he had snagged for a few hours while Sam had been doing research at the library yesterday. He flapped hard trying to get a feel for the lift, it took a few tries to find what felt like the best angle, at which point only two good sweeps of the copper wings had him almost lifting off the ground. His wings stalled in surprise leaving him to thump back the inch or so to the ground.

It should not be that easy he thought – eyeing the wings with a frown. The wings weren't exactly big. At the least he should have to be flapping like a crazed chicken to get his ass off the ground. "Then again." He muttered thoughtfully. It wasn't like his wings were physical, why would they operate on physical limitations? Taking a deep breath Dean eyed the hill sloping away from him on the other side of the field. Before he could over think it he took off running, just as he hit the top of the hill, the ground falling away in a gentle incline – he snapped the wings open and beat them hard. Once, twice – he found himself shakily lifting off the ground. A moment later he lost the coordination and dropped out of the air like a shot duck. Dean groaned from his spot in the long grass, tugging one wing out from under him. Right. Not easy.

Dean picked himself up off the ground brushing bits of grass off his pants when the sound of wing beats had him straightening up – annoyance etched across his features. He froze when he saw that the two angels in front of him were not Cas and Gabriel. He was immediately thankful that his wings tucked up tight to his back. Standing in front of him as they were they couldn't see them.

"Dean Winchester." The one on the left stated flatly, his face showing no emotion. "You will come with us." Dean cursed internally, fuck. He couldn't figh…..t, wait….. Dean studied the two angels in front of him remembering when he had cut Gabriel. He could fight. He didn't know yet whether he was as fast or as strong as an angel, but – he could hurt them now. That was all Dean needed to go from silently panicking to the intent calm of the hunt. He was used to being outmatched in strength and speed, it was not being able to put a dent in these bastards regardless of what he hit them with that was the problem. But now…

The angel that had been silent thus far stepped forward moving steadily towards Dean. Dean smirked internally. Shifting his balance carefully he prepared to snap a wing into the bastards face. He waited until the angel was only two feet away and reaching for him before he ducked under the arm. He snapped both wings out sharply, feathers bristling and razor sharp, the angel never even saw it coming.

Jerking back with a shriek of pain as the leading edge of the wing cut into his arm the angel just barely managed to avoid losing it. Dean remained in the half crouch – wing spread, and waited. The other angel was staining at him wide eyed.

"Who are you?" he snarled suddenly as the first angel retreated behind him – free hand clamped over the glowing gash. Dean blinked confused. "You dare to take Michaels vessel!" oh, that's what he thought? Dean straightened up smiling.

"Sorry boys. Just me, no angels in here, and now there never will be. So – you can go tell Michael he doesn't have a vessel anymore and can leave me the fuck alone." They both starred at him in shock.

"You…" the first angel was looking more than a bit dumbfounded before his expression hardened. His yellow and tan wings fluffed up in anger as his expression went a little distant for a moment. "We will take you to Michael and he will reverse whatever it is you have done to yourself." Dean's smirk was a little more brittle as half a dozen more angels flickered into existence around him.

"Yeah? Well, you're going to have to work for it, boys."

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Q - well, whatcha think? love it? hate it? do i need to rewrite it?