Chapter 40

None of the boys knew what to do when Charlie came sauntering from her room the next morning freshly showered and, while still pail, content. "Charlie… how are you feeling?" Dean finally asked as she hummed while cooking breakfast.

Charlie turned around smile bright on her face, "I feel absolutely fantastic." Charlie released a rattling cough that mitigated her words but smile still showing she continued. "It will take a long time for my body to heal fully… but that's great!"

"Um Charlie. You lost me. How is taking forever to get better good?" Sam asked befuddled.

"Because she's human," Castiel whispered and Charlie nodded vigorously.

"You're human? But… how? Michael implied that only God could do something like that," Dean remarked.

"Perks of being a prophet?" Charlie said with a shrug. "Fine," she told them sitting down as her energy faded. "I'll tell you but you have to promise not to scream. When I was kidnapped and… changed I pleaded with God to fix me. He told me that once my prophecy came true he'd make me normal again… or normal as I can get. Still The Prophet but at least I'm human."

"Did you plan all of this just so you can be human?" Dean asked. Charlie seemed so nice, if misguided. Was she that self-centered she'd let people die to be human.

The look of horror on Charlie's face said no. "Of course not! I honestly didn't know I'd free Lucifer… but once things started to play out like that I might have done everything in my power to make sure you said yes to Michael. Please don't be mad at me!"

Charlie looked so young, so innocent as she begged no one to ground her. Unsure what else to do the boys just shrugged it off.

"I guess it worked out in the end," Dean told her. "Just next time tell us. Okay?"

"Trust me, there's not going to be a next time," Charlie assured. "I'm done. You three can continue hunting, Vassagio and Crowley can duke it out over hell with Abbadon dead. Michael can take charge of Heaven again now that Dean reminded him of his mission to protect humanity. There's still plenty of monsters to hunt, but I'll leave that up to you boys."

"So what are you going to do?" Sam asked. Charlie must know better than to think that you could get out of the life.

"I'm going to become the first women-of-letters," Charlie declared. "I'll learn these books, so I can help hunters. Set up some phone lines-you know one for hunters who need info, one for fake FBI, and whatever. Maybe finish my high school education online… I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with my life and do you know what? I love it!"

The boys smiled at the girl who wouldn't be broken. Maybe they had a lot of cleaning up to do, but with a stable government in Heaven and Hell life could go back to how it used to be before Azazel.

"Now get on your feet you lazy boys! I did some research before I got out of bed and there is a women in white a few towns over. Go!"

The End