Book 33 - Girl In Trouble

by GailDunn2

WARNING: MAY CONTAIN VIOLENCE, AND ADULT CONTENT. Gail will go to just about any lengths to get what she needs. But, will Death be willing to help her, or has she used up all his good will? Some people from the past make an appearance, for better or for worse. And some who have remained in the dark emerge, making things extremely complicated

6. Suffer The Children

Chapter 6 - Suffer The Children

Cas and Gail were at their house on Earth, discussing the next step of the annulment process.

She had initially been puzzled that they had not gone back to Heaven after leaving Frank's place, but when Cas explained what he had been thinking, she understood why they were there.

He'd started out by sitting down with her on the living room couch. Then he had taken her hands in his, and then he had sighed. "I keep hoping that someday, everything will make perfect sense," Cas said to her.

Gail smiled ruefully. "Well, aren't you the optimist," she said lightly. "But for the record, I know what you mean, Cas. What brought this on? All that talk about history, and the Bible?"

"Yes," Cas replied. "I have existed for many millennia. Many, many millennia. That discussion with Rob has only served to reinforce that fact. Yet, in the larger scheme of things, I realize that you and I have spent very little of that time together, and even less time married. I seek to rectify that."

Gail grinned. "Is that your lovely, old-timey way of telling me you're not getting any younger?"

Cas opened his mouth, then closed it again. "I suppose it is," he said, smiling gently.

"Well then, I guess we'd better get to that second step," Gail said pertly. "But first..." She laid down on the couch, putting her feet in her husband's lap. "You owe me a foot massage."

Cas's smile grew. "I was hoping you would ask." He took her socks off, rubbed his hands together, and began gently massaging her feet. Gail lay back and watched his face. He looked so happy to be doing what he was doing.

"You know what?" she said to him. "I must be the luckiest woman ever."

"Why is that?" he asked her mildly. He was starting to rub the balls of her feet a little bit more firmly now, and Gail's breath caught. Still, she wanted to make her point.

"Because you always put me ahead of yourself," she told him.

"Of course I do," Cas said, wrinkling his forehead. "That's what love is all about, is it not? Look at all of the things you did to get me back, when I died. Is that not the same thing?"

"Nope. That was entirely selfish," Gail said softly. "Because I need you. I don't want to live without you, Cas. I WON'T live without you. Frank calls that obsession, but he's wrong."

Cas was truly puzzled now. "How can it be obsession if two people feel exactly the same way about each other? I can't live without you, either. That's why I want to move ahead with the annulment, as soon as possible. The second step is complicated in our case, and it is a little strange, as well. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say that Gabriel had a hand in it, as he did with those bizarre stories from the Bible."

Gail sighed. Of course. Of course it was strange, and complicated. This was her and Cas, after all. Everything in their world was that way. Everything. Well, except for one thing, she amended to herself: except for their love for each other. That was simple, and if people wanted to call it obsessive, or co-dependent, or whatever, she didn't care.

Cas stopped massaging her feet. He was just holding them in his hands now, looking at her, while she waited for him to speak further. He took a deep breath and said, "Each of the spouses is to talk to the other's mother or father, and - "

"Ask for their blessing to marry?" Gail interrupted, thinking she already knew the answer. Cas frowned. "Sorry, sweetie," she said sheepishly. "I'll let you finish."

"I wish it was that easy, and that pleasant," Cas lamented. "No. When each of us talks to our respective in-law, we must insult them, and make them reject us. It's an annulment, remember?"

Gail sat up abruptly. "Oh, come on, Cas! You've got to be kidding me with this!"

"I wish that I was," he told her. "Remember, the aim is to dissolve the marriage. In ancient times, the parents' approval of the spouse was deemed vitally important. So, if the annulment was to proceed, the parents' rejection of the spouse would begin the dissolution of their bond."

Gail couldn't believe it. "So you're telling me that I have to go back to Creation and insult Eve? Great. Just great. And she seemed to like me, too. Maybe I should just insult your father, instead. I never met Adam when we were there. And, you? You have it easy. All you have to do is go to that house in Denver and insult a ghost, who doesn't even like you anyway."

But Cas was shaking his head. "No, Gail. It can be neither of those things. It has to be an original parent."

"Adam and Eve WERE your - " she started to say, and then she stopped. "No. You don't mean - "

Cas nodded solemnly. "God. The Father. My father. He blessed Adam and Eve with a child at their advanced age. Actually, two children. They were hundreds of years old when God touched Mother and gave her a baby. Then, a few years later, He did it again. Therefore, God is my original father."

Gail was astonished. "So you expect me to confront God, and insult Him?"

"That is how it is supposed to be done, yes," Cas said uncomfortably.

"I don't even know where to begin to tell you how many problems there are with this, Cas," Gail said, looking at him incredulously. "OK, let's start with the basics. Just where do you expect me to go, to have our little chat? We both know He doesn't exactly return His calls. And even if He did, even if I could arrange to have a sit-down with God Himself and get up the actual nerve to insult Him in some way, it's going to be kind of hard for you to remarry someone who's trying to crawl out of a smoking crater of Holy fire."

Cas's lips twitched, making her angrier. "This isn't funny, Cas! I'm really scared, here!" Gail exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, my love. But, He's not going to do that to you. You don't need to worry about that," he said, trying to soothe her.

She glared at him. "That's easy for you to say."

Cas inclined his head. "That is true, my darling. But I do feel compelled to point out to you that we at least have one dilemma in common. I will not be speaking to a ghost at a house in Denver. Christina was your adoptive mother. I will need to speak to Abigail, or Vincent. So you can see, we have a couple of challenges ahead of us."

Gail froze. Oh, crap. She'd been concentrating so much on the prospect of finding and insulting God that she hadn't even thought about that. Great. Fantastic. She sighed heavily. "Well, out of the two of them, I'd much rather you spoke to Abigail. Not that I wouldn't be delighted to see you insult the you-know-what out of Vincent, but I think we should let that sleeping dog lie. But, we have no idea where Abigail is, either. Everything we've tried so far to find her hasn't worked out."

Cas was working his jaw. "Not everything," he said. "I think we need to go back to Quinn's and interrogate Oliver. I believe he knows where she is."

Gail rolled her eyes. She wasn't as convinced. "I'll tell you what: why don't I try to talk to our Father, first? Then, if I'm successful, and if He doesn't smite the crap out of me, we'll talk some more about your end. Okay?"

"OK, my love," Cas replied. Then his expression brightened. "Would you like me to continue with your foot massage?"

"No," Gail said, and his face fell a little. "If I'm about to be smote off the face of the earth, I'm looking for a lot more than that," she quipped, leaning forward to kiss him.

Cas smiled. "You know, we haven't said hello to Ralph in a while." His arms slipped around her waist. Then he kissed her on the mouth, prying her lips open with his tongue.

They kissed like that for a couple of minutes, and then Gail said, "I think I'd like to say hello to Ralph a few times." She lifted an eyebrow to Cas, and he laughed softly, winking them to the bedroom.

They'd talked about it overnight, and Gail had come up with an idea that she thought was as good as any. So she'd told Cas that she was going to venture out by herself, and she would let him know if her idea bore fruit. "Why don't you go do some Godly stuff, and we'll meet up in a little while?" she said to him.

Cas kissed her on the forehead. "Are you sure, my love? I could go with you, if you need me to."

Gail looked up at his face. He was so sweet. They'd had an extremely romantic night, and for the two of them, that was really saying something. It was funny; in many ways, last night had been even more intense than the night they had been reunited on that field in Egypt. At that point, they had been so overwrought by their experience, so concerned about their family and friends, and so worried about potential repercussions from Death that their night together had felt more like relief than anything else.

But last night had been so passionate and so loving that Cas was having a hard time letting go. She reached up and touched his face, and he put his hand over hers. "I always need you, sweetie, but this is something I have to do by myself. Do you know what I mean?" she said softly.

And somehow, Cas did. If Gail was successful in her endeavour, she would be talking directly to the Father, and their conversation would not necessarily be very pleasant. Cas had advised her to lead off by telling God that she was there to fulfill the requirement of the annulment ritual. The Father should understand that, and if He did, He would understand why it was necessary for Gail to do what she needed to do.

"Yes, my love," he told her now. "But please, please call me if you need me, for anything. My frequency will be wide open."

Gail looked up at her husband's face, and she felt such a wave of love for him that it was almost dizzying. People often accused her of giving them the doe eyes, but Cas was giving her the puppydog eyes now, and he looked so cute and so forlorn that she almost gave in. But, no. She couldn't. She wanted to have a private conversation with God, even if it turned out to be one-sided, as usual. There were a few things she wanted to get off her chest.

"I'll see you soon, sweetie," she said to Cas, stretching up for one more kiss. Then, she was gone.

Gail popped herself to the cathedral where she and Cas had been married. The place was deserted at the moment. She'd been hoping that would be the case. She walked quietly up the aisle, remembering what a joyous occasion that had been. Seeing Cas standing by the altar, the look of happy anticipation on his face. Seeing all of their friends and family there, smiling. As Gail walked up that same aisle now, her footsteps echoing softly off the walls, she smiled at the memories. But then, she started to get angry. How dare Patricia take the best day of Gail's life and erase it, as if it had meant nothing? Yes, Patricia had had a rough go of it when Lucifer had violated her. There was no disputing that. But that didn't give her the right to take something as good and as pure as Cas and Gail's wedding vows and throw them in the trash bin, either.

Gail genuflected when she got to the pew in the front row, and then she sat down, looking at the altar. The Pope had stood up there and blessed their union, and it had been wonderful. He was a very nice man, a gentle old soul who had nothing but love for people all over the world. Gail smiled gently. No offense to the Pope, but maybe next time, they'd see if the Dalai Lama was available. Or Richard Gere. Didn't matter to her. As long as it was Cas she was marrying, who cared who the officiant was, or what religion he - or she - represented?

"I'd like to talk to you, Father," she said out loud. "Cas told me to tell you that I'm here about the annulment, but I don't think that's really necessary, is it? You know very well that's why I'm here. I'm returning to the scene of the crime, so to speak."

Gail took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "So, what was this, then?" she asked, gesturing around her. "Was this just a grander, more elaborate way of screwing with us this time? 'Let's see...I know. This time, I'll let them get married, but - surprise! - I'll have some crazy lady take it all back!'" She laughed mirthlessly. "'Oh, and I'll kill my son, too. See what she does with that.' Well, you know what? My feelings are not your playground. My life is not your game. If you like to play with people so much, why don't you write movie scripts, like Chuck does?"

Gail was warming to her feelings of anger and bitterness now. This had been a long time coming. "Let's just forget all the crap you've put me and Cas through in the past, for a minute. Even if we forget all that, why the hell did I have to be brought into this world, in this particular era, from such terrible parents? If this is some kind of lesson you're trying to teach me, it's failing, because I just don't get it."

She sighed. "I accept that I am the way I am. I know I'm far from perfect. And that's fine, because no one is. Not even Cas. Not even you. Oh, and don't get me started on your merry little band of Exalted Angels. Lucifer? Raguel? Mark, and the other Gospel writers? Raphael? Even Gabriel. From what I understand, he used to be quite the piece of work too, back in the day. He's about the only one I think there might be any hope for. But if he does turn out decently, it won't be due to anything you did. It'll be because he will have decided that enough is enough."

Gail let out a frustrated breath. "When will YOU decide that enough is enough? You've taken away our lives, multiple times, and now, you've taken away our marriage. If you're trying to test our love for each other, I think we've passed with flying colours. Again, and again, and again. Cas says I'm supposed to insult you? Well, I have no idea how I'm supposed to do that. To feel offense, you have to care, don't you? You actually have to give a damn. But I haven't seen any evidence that you do. None at all."

Her words echoed throughout the empty church, serving only to spotlight the fact that she was alone. There was no one listening. There never had been. "This is pointless," she said angrily.

Suddenly, Gail felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped, startled, and then she turned in the pew to see a priest standing in the aisle, looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

"I have a message for you, my daughter," the priest said. "God has a purpose for your pain, a reason for your struggle, and a reward for your faithfulness."

"Oh, yeah?" Gail retorted. "Is that right? Well, I don't care if He has a purpose. Let Him pick on someone else for a change. If there's some kind of big-picture endgame here, maybe He should just clue us in, and then maybe we could get on board. And it would be a lot easier to believe that there's some kind of a reward at the end of all of this if He wouldn't keep taking everything away from us."

The priest stared at her for a moment, and then he reached into his pocket, pulling out an envelope. "This is for you," he told her. He handed it to her, and then walked away.

Gail looked at the envelope in her hand, puzzled. Had God sent that guy as a messenger? WAS that God? There was nothing written on the outside of the envelope. She ripped it open and took out the single sheet of paper:

"My Daughter,
It was so good to see you back here. The thought that you would come to the site of your wedding to my Son to find Me pleases Me greatly. Whenever people think of Me, I would prefer it to be in the context of love, rather than vengeance, or punishment.
I did know that you would be looking for Me because of the annulment, but I also know that you are angry at Me for many other things. I know that you will find it hard to believe, but these events are not entirely of My doing. I did not foresee Patricia annulling your marriage. And I did not revive Castiel because things needed to unfold the way they did. I know that you do not understand, but I want you to know that I do not have a vendetta against you, nor am I attempting to teach you a lesson that you are unable to grasp. You are a very intelligent person, Gail. You always have been. And, you are quite right: no one is perfect. I created all of My children to be the way they are. And I have loved all My children, regardless of who they are, and what they have done. Sometimes because of what they have done, and sometimes in spite of it.
I do care, Gail. I care very much. Parents need to let their children go, and to let go of them, to be free to make their own choices, and their own mistakes. But that doesn't lessen the love they feel for their offspring. If anything, it only increases it. Please tell Castiel that I am proud of him for the decisions he has made since he achieved the Office. And I am proud of you too, Gail, for standing up for yourself, and for your husband. Just like a loyal and faithful wife should. Just like the strong woman that my tests have helped you to become. I hereby reject you as a daughter-in-law, because that is a condition of the annulment, but I will never reject you as a Daughter. May you and Castiel have many, many years of happiness ahead. Know that I love you both.
P.S.: Abigail's address is 609 Wade Street, Exeter, North Carolina."

Gail looked up from the letter. Wow. She was feeling so many things right now that she didn't even know what to do with herself. But then, she heard the sounds of bells, and people started to enter the cathedral from the back now, presumably for a mass. She put the piece of paper back into the envelope, glanced at the altar one more time, and then got up and walked out of the church.

The look on Cas's face when he saw the letter was almost worth all of the pain they had gone through. He read it avidly, and then he read it again, and then he looked at her, open-mouthed.

"Do you know how wondrous this is?" Cas asked her in a trembling voice. "This is a personal correspondence to you, from the Father, Himself. I know of no one who has ever received something like this before. No one. The fact that He took the trouble to do this...I don't know what to say, Gail."

Cas was so overawed that he had been temporarily rendered speechless. But Gail was still wrestling with that mixture of emotions. She supposed that she should feel privileged, really. But God had crafted His letter very much like a politician would, in her opinion. He'd said a lot without saying anything at all. All that "needing to unfold" crap wasn't really doing anything for her. Cas seemed to accept it with equanimity, maybe because he was a lot more used to stuff like that. But that didn't make it right. To her, that basically said that God was reserving His right to use them all as His personal little hand puppets anytime He wanted, because - ooooh - things "needed to unfold that way". What the hell kind of crap was that? If God was here right now, she would demand He tell her what had been so damn necessary about killing Cas.

But Cas was over the moon, and Gail guessed that in a way, she could understand why. Cas had been thirsty for any kind of love and validation from God, and this letter provided that. Although it was mostly directed at Gail, the letter also mentioned the fact that God was proud of Cas, and that He loved him. Seeing how happy that made her husband made her happy, too. So Gail kept her mouth shut about any residual anger she still had, and put her arms around Cas, giving him a warm embrace.

Cas held her for a moment, and then he pulled out of the hug. "We must think of a place to put this letter, a place that will do it justice," he said excitedly.

"Why don't you put it in a glass frame, and keep it on your desk?" Gail said. "Then, any time you feel discouraged, you can look at it and get inspiration from the fact that God said you're doing a great job."

Cas smiled. "That's an excellent idea! Are you sure you don't mind, though? Technically, it's your letter," he pointed out.

"I disagree. It's OUR letter," she responded with a smile.

Cas continued to smile at her for another moment, and then he waved his hand, preserving the letter as Gail had suggested. He stood the glass frame on the front corner of his desk, straightened it a bit, and then took Gail's hand. "Thank you, my love," he said to her. "Now, what do you say we take a trip to North Carolina?"

It was a small row house in a quiet, nondescript neighbourhood. Cas gave Gail's hand a gentle squeeze as the two of them approached the front walk. He had seen the curtains move at the window as they approached, so when he knocked at the door and there was no immediate answer, Cas did not let that deter him. He knocked again.

"I know you're there, Abigail. I saw you at the window," he called softly through the door. "I suspect you know who we are, and if you do, you know that we can simply come in, if we choose. It's up to you."

Immediately, they could hear the door being unlocked on the other side. Wow, Gail thought. She must have been standing right by the door this whole time. She took a deep breath. This was it.

Abigail opened the door to her daughter and son-in-law. Of course she'd known who they were. As soon as these two had winked themselves to the end of her street, she'd known right away. She stood there, saying nothing, just looking at them. Her son-in-law, the Lord God. Tall, dark, and handsome, as the cliche went. Ice-blue eyes that were looking straight through her. Judging her. And her daughter, diminutive in size but strong of will. Big brown eyes, wide as saucers at the moment.

Gail's eyes were wide, all right. Abigail didn't look a day over thirty. "He's keeping YOU young, too," she blurted out.

Abigail nodded wordlessly. So, they knew. That didn't particularly surprise her. But, Gail's use of the word "too" was intriguing. How much did she know, exactly?

"When family members come to your home, it is customary to invite them in," Cas said in a clipped tone. His eyes flashed, and strangely, Abigail smiled. She moved back from the door, allowing the couple access.

Abigail turned her back on them and walked into the living room as Gail looked at Cas quizzically. He was frowning. There was just something about Abigail that was disturbing to him. She hadn't yet said a word, but she had a certain bearing, a look which suggested...

"Oh my God, Cas," Gail murmured. "This woman's only a couple of dozen felines away from being a crazy cat lady."

Cas's lips twitched briefly as he followed behind Abigail, but he didn't allow himself to smile. He wanted to hold on to his anger. The hardship would not be for Cas to insult this woman; the hardship would be for him to make himself stop.

When they all got to the living room, Abigail finally spoke. "As you so astutely pointed out, my manners are deserting me," she said to the couple. "I don't get many visitors. I'm aware that it would be rather pointless to offer you refreshments. But you'll pardon me if I have mine. As you have also pointed out, Vincent keeps me young, in the form of a special drink I must have every day. The older I become, the more urgent the need for it becomes. I'll be right back."

She abruptly left the room, as Gail gaped after her. "Well, she's pretty forthright so far, at least," she said to Cas, bemused. She wondered how old her mother would look without the drink. Probably like Cathy had, just before she had shriveled up and died. Yikes. Maybe Gail had better start on a skin care regimen, or something.

Abigail came back into the living room carrying a tray that had three empty glasses on it, and one full glass that contained a murky-looking green liquid. She put the tray down on the coffee table and lifted the glass with the "youth shake" to her lips, smiling at Gail's expression. "I know," Abigail said. "I used to close my eyes and pretend it was a chocolate milkshake. Now I'm so used to the way it looks and tastes that it doesn't even faze me anymore." She downed half the glass in a couple of swallows, then put it down on the coffee table. "Besides, it beats the alternative, am I right?" Abigail continued, looking at her daughter. "You saw Cathy at the end, didn't you? And I'm older than she is. Was."

Now that Gail had her mother here, standing right in front of her, the words all left her head. She had no idea what to say to this woman. Where did she even begin?

Abigail smiled again, but it was a twisted smile. "Here, let me help you. If you're anything like your father, this'll help move things along." She crossed over to an antique cabinet and opened the door, taking out a bottle of whiskey. She brought it back to the table, pouring some in all three glasses. Then she handed one to Cas. "I don't know if you partake," Abigail said to him, "but you look as if you could use it." Then she handed one to Gail. "I imagine that, despite being an Angel, and God's wife, you like to take a drink now and then," her mother said with a note of slyness in her voice. "If you're like me, you don't usually take it like this, but I have no mix in the house at the moment."

Cas waved his hand and filled the remainder of the ladies' glasses with ginger ale. Abigail raised an eyebrow to him. "A gentleman," she remarked. "Just like Vincent used to be, when we first started seeing each other. To gentlemen," she added, raising her glass in a toast. She and Gail drank, and then Cas gave a half-shrug and downed his straight shot, trying not to make a face. What the hell. If he was going to stand here in this woman's home and tell her off, he might as well accept her hospitality first.

"Sit down," Abigail said, gesturing to the couch. "I know you like to sit together, so you two sit there." As they did, she moved a chair closer to Gail's end, and sat down on it. She was examining Gail's face now, and it was unnerving her daughter. Gail took a long drink from her glass, then set it down on the coffee table.

"You have your father's colouring," Abigail told her. "Dark. My side of the family was always very fair. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Only about a million," Gail replied. "Was that you at the hospital, when I had my tonsils out?"

"Yes," Abigail said. "I was forbidden from coming to see you, but I could feel your illness, calling out to me. I usually have to touch someone to pick up on their pain, but because you're my daughter, in this case it made no difference."

"What do you mean, you were 'forbidden'?" Cas said sharply.

Abigail gave him a baleful look. "What do you suppose I mean? Vincent forbade me. I was a brood mare to him, plain and simple. Once I had borne the child, I was to have nothing further to do with it."

"It? IT?" Cas raged. He was apoplectic now. "HER name is Gail, and she is sitting right here! She is a real person, with real feelings!"

Abigail shrugged. "I wouldn't expect you to understand. You're a man."

"Well, I"M not," Gail seethed. "Therefore, maybe you can explain it to me. Or, better still, explain to me why you got pregnant in the first place. It's pretty clear to me that you didn't want me."

"You don't know what he was like," Abigail said, looking past the couple, off into the distance. A smile came to her lips. "He was so handsome. So charming. We went for long walks, holding hands. Just like the two of you. He took me for candlelit dinners. We sat on that couch and kissed for hours." Gail looked down, with an almost comical look of distaste.

"He was so good in bed," Abigail continued dreamily. "We spent the better part of a week having sex, in every possible position." Gail had been taking another drink, just to wash the bad taste out of her mouth, and she nearly spit it out. Yikes. That was not the kind of stuff you wanted to hear your mother say, no matter how old you were.

"And at the end of that week, I had you in my belly," Abigail said, focusing back on Gail. "He was never even decent to me after that. He said I was fat and ugly. And he was right. Then I got the stretch marks. Here: want to see?" She stood suddenly and lifted her top, pulling her pants down with the other hand. "Look at what having you did to me. No wonder he didn't want me anymore."

Gail's mouth fell open. The woman was batshit crazy. Who DID something like that? She looked at Cas helplessly.

Abigail sat back down and picked up her drink, as if they had just been sitting here chatting pleasantly this whole time. "I came to see you at the house when you were small, before your operation," she said to Gail. "I told that Christina woman I was from the Welcome Wagon, or something. No, wait. Maybe I said I was from the church. I don't remember any more. He never found out."

"Why?" Gail said, thoroughly bewildered.

Abigail stared at her. "You know what? I have no idea. Curiosity, I suppose." Maybe she'd better not say that she had seriously considered killing both Gail and Christina with that cake knife, though. Her daughter and son-in-law probably wouldn't understand that, either. Besides, Castiel was looking at her sharply again, as if he already knew. Abigail guessed this must be what people felt like when she did it to them, and she smiled at the thought.

"What is WRONG with you?" Cas said to Abigail in his quiet voice. "Are you mentally ill, or are you just the most callous person that I have ever had the misfortune to meet?"

Abigail glared at him defiantly. "As I believe I've said, I wouldn't expect YOU to understand. Everything that has gone wrong in my life, every ill that has befallen me, started when I got pregnant. If that had never happened, Vincent and I would have had a good life together. He loved me."

Gail laughed harshly. "Is that what he told you? This is unbelievable! You're nuts, lady! You know, I had these stupid, ridiculous fantasies of finally finding you and knocking on your door, and you would open it and smile, because you were happy to see me. You would give me a hug, and tell me that you were sorry you couldn't be there for me when I was growing up, but you were here now, and you could be my mother, if I needed you to be. Maybe we would even go into the kitchen and you would show me how to bake cookies, or something lame like that. Maybe I could tell you all about how happy I am with Cas, and about my accomplishments in Heaven, and you would smile and say how proud you were of me! Maybe you would even say you loved me. How stupid am I?" She started to cry, and the tears were hot, bitter ones. "I don't know who's more delusional, you or me," she continued, looking at Abigail angrily. "I guess it's pretty obvious I really am your daughter. I'm as crazy as you are."

Cas's heart broke for his wife. He pulled her to him for a hug. She laid her head on his shoulder, shedding her tears. Cas glared lasers at Abigail, who sat looking at them dispassionately. Then, incredibly, the woman picked up her drink and had another sip, calmly waiting for her daughter to collect herself.

After a moment, Gail did. Cas waved his hand and conjured up a handkerchief for her. As she took it and dabbed her eyes with it, Cas looked furiously at Abigail. "Nothing that happened to you is Gail's fault," he said, tight-lipped. "Nothing!" He was absolutely livid now. It was taking every ounce of self-control that Cas had not to smite this woman right out of existence. "Gail did not ask to be born to such incredibly horrible people. How DARE you blame her for YOUR shortcomings? I am astounded that such a wonderful, loving, tender-hearted woman came from such pieces of garbage."

"Where do you get off talking to me like that?" Abigail said indignantly.

"Are you really that blind?" Cas shouted. He had to let go of Gail and stand from the couch now, because he was so filled with rage. "Your child sits there, crying, and not only do you not care, but you have the unmitigated gall to blame her for your sad, pathetic existence!? You abandoned her once when she was a child, and again now, when she came into your house, begging for a kind word from you! One kind word, one tiny scrap of affection!"

"Cas, forget it," Gail said miserably, but he said, "I cannot! To be abandoned like that, shut out, just when you needed to be loved the most?"

"She went to a good family," Abigail protested. "She wanted for nothing."

"Is that what you think?" Cas said scornfully. "Sometimes, people hunger for more than bread. Feeling alone, abandoned, rejected? Needing affection desperately? That, too, is poverty."

"Oh, cry me a river," Abigail said, rolling her eyes. "Nice speech. I gave up on needing love a long time ago, and if my daughter has any sense, she will, too. The best thing the two of you could do for yourselves is to stay apart. I wish I'd used birth control."

Gail suddenly remembered something. She was remembering when Death had come to her and Cas's house for dinner, when they had been looking to ask him to let them return Linda back to Heaven. "Someone told me recently that you wished me not to be," she said to Abigail in a hushed tone. "Is that true?"

Cas looked at his wife. That was right; he remembered that, too. It seemed obvious to him now that Abigail would have done so. Had she entered into some kind of unholy covenant, perhaps? That could explain a lot.

But Abigail was shaking her head. "No. At the time, I thought that having you would be a good thing. Vincent said that an offspring with both my psychic and healing powers was something that he wanted very much. No, I never wished you not to be." As Cas and Gail looked at each other, wondering why Death would have said that, Abigail added, "But make no mistake, that doesn't mean that I don't regret having you. Not a day goes by that I don't wonder how my life would have been different if I had not." She grabbed her youth shake from the coffee table. "But even though my life was ruined by having you, Vincent still keeps me young. Maybe one day he'll forgive me, and come back to me." She held the glass out, toasting Gail. "Maybe he's keeping me around so that I can finish what I started. I should have taken that knife to you in the playpen that day. I thought about it, you know. Maybe Vincent wants me to wait until you don't have your husband around for protection. You want me to reject you, don't you, Castiel? I can feel it coming off of you, in waves. Fine, then. I reject you. Who wants you around, anyway? Gail is Vincent's daughter, not your wife. Here's to a long, long life. For us."

But as Abigail raised the glass to her lips, Cas waved his hand, and the glass went flying to the opposite end of the room, smashing to bits. Abigail sprang to her feet, alarmed. She had had only half of the drink, and the pitcher was empty. Would it be enough?

"The only reason you're still alive right now is because I love my wife, and so I cannot bring myself to raise my hand against her mother," Castiel said through gritted teeth, "however poor of an excuse that mother might be." He looked at Gail. "The files we were seeking are in the basement. I have just sent them to the bunker's storage room, with an instruction to Bobby to tell Sam and Dean. We will concern ourselves with them at a later time. Is there anything else you wish to do here?"

"No, Cas," she said, moving forward to take his hand. "That just about covers it." She looked at Abigail. "Let's see how much he loves you, now. Oh, and if by some miracle he comes, tell him we'll be seeing him, real soon."

Then the two Angels winked themselves out of Abigail's house, without another word.

Vincent was pleased with the numbers so far. He had popped over to the receiving area, where the flunkies he had hired were checking names off the list and putting the special bracelets on each child, and adult, who arrived. The bracelet on the left wrist was to designate which wing they should be placed into. That was one thing Cathy had shown him that was halfway useful. Her files had been colour-coded, sorted by abilities. He had decided to institute the same system for the bracelets, the ones that sorted his children into their living quarters. Black for psychic abilities, red for teleportation, green for telekinetics.

He was happy to see that there were all kinds of age groups coming in, and both sexes. As they entered, his men checked them against the master list that Vincent had provided, affixing the placement bracelets to their left wrists and the bracelets with the explosives to their right. They all had a bit of a glazed look as they came in, an effect of the summoning spell that he had cast. The younger they were, the more compliant they were, as a rule. After they were checked in and outfitted, they would be funneled through to the testing facility. There, he would separate the pretenders from the contenders. If they were all his kids, they would all have the goods, but they would also have to prove to him that there was more to them than just genetics. Vincent was looking for intangible qualities, as well. Once the testing was complete, he would have to spend some time with each prospect individually, to see if they had the type of quality he was looking for.

Here was Eric now; Rob's twin brother. He was looking at the intake men suspiciously, but he put his arms out obediently for the bracelets to be affixed. He saw Vincent standing there, smiling, and Eric's forehead wrinkled. What the hell was he doing here? One minute, he had been running drugs as usual, and the next, he was here, answering the call.

"You are very talented, and so is the rest of your family," Vincent said to Eric, and before the young man had the chance to ask any questions, he was shuffled off to the Red Wing. "Is his brother here yet?" Vincent asked the flunky with the clipboard. "No, not yet," the man replied. Vincent let out a short breath of frustration, but in a perverse way, he was also glad. So, his son Rob was being resistant. Good. Great. That just meant that the boy was strong.

Vincent went to his quarters and lit the candles, sitting cross-legged on the bed. He closed his eyes, and after a few minutes, he started to levitate. "Rob," he said silkily. "I know you've been hearing my call all day, and I know you've been resisting it. Good for you, son. Good for you. But you know that if you don't show up here within the next 24 hours, I'll have to come to your house, right? Ask your dad how efficient I am when it comes to splattering people all over the walls. I know he didn't actually see me kill his parents, but you and I both know I did that. Oh, and don't even think about calling any Angels for help. Soon, your sister Gail is going to be here with us, and she's going to be sitting at my right hand. Your Uncle Cas is going to be so devastated by her rejection of Heaven, and of him, that he'll be in no shape to help you or your family. Haven't you always known that you didn't belong, where you are? That's because you don't. You belong here, with me. You, and Gail. Frank and Cas aren't your family. I am. Come to me, Rob."

Rob put his hand to his head, grimacing.

"What's the matter?" Jody asked her son, putting the candle in Angela's birthday cake. "Have you got a headache?"

"Yeah," he said, almost gratefully. "I think I need to go upstairs and take a pill."

"OK, but hurry back," Jody said. "I know she's just a baby and she won't know the difference, but I want us all to be together when we sing Happy Birthday to Angela. And then, I'll need you to help me put out the candy for the trick-or-treaters."

"Sure thing, Mom," Rob said, but he was clutching his head now, feeling nauseous. Jody looked at him with concern. She hoped he wasn't developing migraines. She'd heard about those, and she'd heard that they were a bitch.

Rob hurried upstairs, but instead of going to the medicine cabinet, he went to his room and closed the door softly. He looked around wildly. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't let anything happen to his family. He knew where the compound was. He'd been seeing it in his head all day. But Rob didn't believe that Vincent was stronger than his Uncle Cas, or even his Aunt Gail. Fine, then. Rob would show up at the stupid place, to save his mortal family. But he pitied Vincent when Cas showed up. Boy, would he be sorry, then.

Rob threw some things into a duffel bag and quietly let himself out of the house.

Cas and Gail were sitting holding hands in a bar in Virginia. Somewhat inexplicably, he had winked them an entire state away from Abigail. The geographical distance didn't matter, of course. But still, it made him feel better, somehow.

He brought her a glass of wine to drink, simply because he didn't know what else to do at this point. She had sat there, stunned, as he brought it to her. He sat beside her and looked at her with concern. But she continued to just sit there, looking off into space. Not that he could blame her. That had been one of the most shocking and disgusting displays he had ever witnessed.

Cas was frantic now. What could he do for her? Should he ask Frank to come? No, Frank was celebrating his own daughter's birthday with his family right now. Sam and Dean? Cas sent out The Eye, but the Winchesters were currently staking out a vampires' nest.

A couple of minutes later, Liz walked into the bar and sat across from the couple. "Sorry it took me so long," she said. "I had to ditch Gabriel. You'd better give him a job soon, Cas. He's got way too much time on his hands."

Cas smiled faintly. "I'll take that under advisement, Liz. But my concern right now is Gail. She's feeling pretty depressed. I was hoping you could help me cheer her up."

Liz looked at her friend. "What's the matter?" she asked Gail.

Gail took a sip of her wine, playing with the coaster. "I don't know why you called Liz, Cas. What's she going to be able to do?"

"She's your best friend in Heaven," Cas replied. "I just thought that she might be able to help me to convince you that there is nothing wrong with you."

"What's he talking about?" Liz asked Gail, as Cas gestured to the server to bring Liz a glass of wine. "What's supposedly wrong with you?"

Gail hesitantly explained to her Angel friend what had happened with her mother. Liz took a couple of sips of her glass of wine, making a face. But, she'd never been able to have a drink with her best friend in life, because Gail had been lost to her at a very young age. So Liz raised her glass to Gail now, and her friend followed suit, perhaps thinking about the same thing.

"Well, she's just out of her mind. That's all there is to that," Liz stated after Gail had finished her account, with the occasional interjection from Cas.

"Thank you," Gail said, but she was holding a hand to her head now.

"What's going on, my love? Are you all right?" Cas asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Cas," Gail lied. "My head just feels...I don't know...tight. I'm going to the washroom, to wash my face. I'll be right back."

She kissed him on the cheek and slid out of the booth, walking to the back of the bar where the restrooms were.

"I'm surprised you didn't smite the crap out of Abigail," Liz said to Cas, with disarming bluntness.

He gave her a half-smile. "I came very close to doing just that," he confessed. "But she is my wife's mother, and as abhorrent as she is, if I hope to remarry Gail, I didn't think that smiting my mother-in-law was an advisable course of action."

Liz giggled. "I'm so happy Gail found you, Cas. You're a terrific guy. You know, I came to this bar with my husband and a friend of mine, once."

"Really?" Cas said with interest. "Isn't that a coincidence."

"I'll say," Liz replied, sighing as she took a sip of her wine. "Gerald was really drunk that night. We were here with a female co-worker of mine. I guess she wasn't really a friend; just somebody that I was hoping could BE a friend. I never really had any friends after I lost touch with Gail. Anyway, Gerry started this really strange conversation with her that night, something about some weird sex stuff. Let's just leave it at that. She was looking at him, trying to figure out why he would bring that up, but he just kept talking about it, even though I tried to get him to change the subject. Finally, I told him that was enough. Nobody wanted to hear what he was talking about. He stormed out of here then, and after an awkward silence, my co-worker left, too. So I sat here, all alone, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do next. I remember thinking about Gail then, wishing she'd been there with me. We would have ordered another drink and cursed my husband out, and then gotten in the car and driven away, laughing about what a drunken loser he was." Liz paused, then continued, "You know, Gail always seemed to have an ideal upbringing, Cas. It hurts my heart that I didn't have any idea about what she might have actually been going through. But if it makes you feel any better, every time I was at her house when we were kids, it looked like a pretty good place to grow up." But she was thinking about that now, even as she was saying it. Yes, the house had been nice and clean, and there had always been plenty of food to eat. But now that Liz thought about it, really thought about it, hadn't Christina shown a lot more affection towards Frank than she had towards Gail? Whenever Gail had urged Liz to come over after school, hadn't her friend noticed a difference in the way the woman had treated the two kids? Now, Liz wondered if Gail had begged her to come after school just because her friend had needed someone to talk to.

"I'll go and talk to her," Liz told Cas now. "She's probably just hiding in the washroom because she's been crying. I'll get her to come out."

"Thank you for being such a wonderful friend to her, Liz," Cas said fervently.

Liz eased out from her seat in the booth. "There's no need to thank me, Cas. I love her, too. Gail is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. When we were in school together, she was one of the few kids who would even have anything to do with me. I was the daughter of immigrant parents, who barely spoke English. My mother sewed my clothes for me, because we had spent all our money getting to America. But the other kids made fun of me, because of that. Not Gail, though. She didn't care how I looked, or how I dressed. She saw me for who I was. Nobody else cared, Cas, but she did. I'll tell you the truth: if Gail had been in my life at that time, I probably never would have married Gerry in the first place. But, don't worry, I'm not blaming her, or anything crazy like that. Not like her mother. I can't even believe that. All I'm saying is that I wish we could have been friends all this time. It wasn't fair, what happened to her, Cas. Or to Frank, either. You were thanking me for being such a good friend to Gail? I should be thanking you. You should see the way she lights up when she talks about you. She loves you so much."

Cas was touched. What a beautiful thing to say. "Thank you, Liz. Thank you for telling me that. You don't know how much that means to me." And it was true. Now that the second step of the annulment had been completed, Cas was anxious to get on with things. Thankfully, the next step was easily accomplished. And it would give Gail a chance to regroup emotionally, after the disastrous visit with her birth mother.

"I'll go talk to her, and we'll be right back," Liz told Cas. She slid all the way out of the booth.

"Thank you, Liz," Cas said again. He sat there, smiling. His wife was so sweet, and so brave. He didn't care about her lineage. She had risen above those people, to become one of the finest Angels that Heaven had ever seen. Gail was so much more than her birth parents. So much better. Which just made her all the more impressive to Castiel. When he considered everything she'd had to overcome, Gail's evolution had been nothing short of remarkable.

Cas sat there for a few minutes, thinking warm and loving thoughts about his wife. But when Liz came back from the bathroom, she was alone.

"I'm sorry, Cas - " she started to say, even as he frowned. "Where's Gail?" Cas asked her friend.

"She's gone," Liz said, dazed.

Vincent had pulled out all the stops for this last one. He had known that she would be difficult to summon, and even harder to contain. That was why he had made sure to take a sample of her blood, and of Cas's hair, when they had had their little confrontation in Quinn's seance room.

"Come to me, my daughter," he intoned. "Your brothers and sisters are already here. Your REAL brothers and sisters. Not the Angels. That bunch of stuck-up, tight-ass..." Vincent took a deep breath. "Look, I know you're not going to fall for any of my bullshit. Why would you? You're my daughter, and you're smart. And, frankly, I don't think I would be able to respect you if you did, anyway. So, I guess all I can say is: Veni ad me. Come to me, my daughter. Veni ad me."

Gail was in the washroom of the bar, splashing water on her face. "Nope," she said mildly. "As my very good friend Dean would say, 'not gonna happen'." As if it was no big deal, being summoned by a very powerful supernatural entity.

"Come to me," Vincent said again, pouring her blood into the bowl and waving his hands over it.

Gail ignored the tickling in her head, looking for paper towels now. Vincent was grinning. He added Castiel's hair to Gail's blood and waved his hands over the bowl, reciting another incantation.

"How about now?" Vincent asked his daughter.

Gail reeled, as if she was drunk. She staggered over to the sink, putting her hands on either side of it. "No. That's just a trick," she said out loud. Luckily, she was the only one in the bathroom. "Cas is outside, with Liz."

"Why don't you open the door, then, and see?" Vincent taunted her.

She strode over to the washroom door and yanked it open. The bar was empty, devoid of people. "Where are they?" Gail demanded.

"Liz is back in Heaven, where she belongs," Vincent's voice said in Gail's ear. "And Castiel is already in my compound, waiting here for you."

"Yeah. Right," Gail said derisively.

Vincent smiled. It pleased him that she was being the toughest sell of all. Good girl. He took a small vial out of his inside pocket now, and he poured the few drops of Paco Rabanne into the bowl.

"I wouldn't expect you to just take my word for it," Vincent said charmingly. "But, if you'll take a deep breath, you'll see that I'm right."

Gail's head swam. That was Cas's cologne, the one he always wore for her. But, he and Liz were in the bar, waiting for her. She opened the door once more. No one.

"Boy, are you stubborn," Vincent said affably. He wasn't angry. He knew she would come, now. He could see it in her eyes. Wherever she thought her Sainted husband was, would be where she would go.

Vincent leaned over the bowl now, cutting his own wrist to seal the spell. He let a few drops of his own blood fall into the bowl. Hopefully the little bitch would respond now, because this was the last arrow in his quiver. Vincent didn't shed his own blood for just anyone.

But he was rewarded a moment later, when Gail's head turned towards the ceiling of the restroom. "I will come to you, father," she said calmly. Then she winked herself out of the bathroom.

"My daughter! Welcome!" Vincent greeted Gail effusively at the entrance to the compound. "You will sit at my right hand, and be my Princess."

"Where's Cas?" she demanded.

"My apologies. I'll take you to him right away," Vincent said, extending his hand to her.

Gail looked at him with disdain. "I'm not here to do daddy-daughter crap," she said sarcastically. "I'm only here for Cas. Take me to him."

Vincent smiled. "You're quite right. I guess your mother and I kind of bungled up that whole parenting thing, didn't we? I apologize for that. If you'll follow me, I'll take you to Castiel right away."

But Gail was trying to send Cas a message on Angel Radio now, and she was unable to do it. Vincent saw her look of consternation. "Oh, I suppose I should have told you," he said off-handedly. "The compound is heavily warded. We can't have just anybody waltzing in here, can we? All right, I guess you caught me. Castiel isn't actually here. But don't feel too badly. You really do have family here. Rob is here in one wing, and his twin brother Eric is in another. They don't know about each other's existence, but we could introduce them, if you'd like. I have all kinds of subjects here, but none of them can hold a candle to you. You will be my right hand. And don't worry about the sigils. They're only there to prevent you from communicating with your Exalted husband, for the time being. But I can tell you this much: I know he's God, and my piddly little sigils won't prevent him from storming in here. Fine. If the two of you want to get it on in the suite I'm taking you to, great. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a hypocrite. I know how much you enjoy sex. You're my daughter, aren't you? Fine with me. But the instant you get righteous on me, I'll take this right here, and I'll blow all these kids to Kingdom Come." He pulled a control panel out of his pocket, showing it to her. "See this?" he said, nudging her. "This is a control panel for the bracelets that all of my kids here are wearing. All I would have to do is press this middle button here, and they all blow up. How would you like to have that on your conscience? Because, unfortunately, I know you have one. I'm not sure where the hell you would have gotten that from. It wouldn't have been from your mother, that's for sure. She was good to go, but she was as crazy as...Anyway, all I had to do was smile at her and she was pulling down her pants for me. At least you had the decency to wait until you were married. Well, except for Las Vegas, of course. But, hey, what happens there stays there, am I right?" He winked grotesquely at her.

Gail was thinking furiously now. OK, so she'd fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book. She had really believed for a moment that Vincent had somehow spirited Cas away, and that was the only reason why she'd come. But Vincent had sigils painted on the walls, so Gail couldn't escape. So...what? She wasn't too worried at the moment. She could bide her time, until she figured out what to do. "My private life is none of your business," she told him.

"You're quite right, of course," he said, giving her a slight bow. "If I was a decent human being, or even any sort of a human being, I wouldn't bring such things up. But, unfortunately for you, I have no filters, as I believe the expression goes. So tell me, my daughter, how is he? Is he as good as he looks?"

Gail glared at him balefully. "You're kidding, of course."

Vincent paused a moment, and then he smiled. "Yes, of course I'm kidding. I would never presume to ask you how God was in the sack. Not unless you felt like you wanted to tell me, of course."

There was a silence between them, and then Vincent smiled wolfishly. "Okie-dokie," he said. "I get it. You just got here. You have to get acclimated. But, even though hubby isn't actually here, your brother Rob really is, and he's really got a twin brother, whose name is Eric. They don't know about each other. But they're both here, and they've both got bracelets on their wrists that they can't remove. So, if you're thinking about playing the heroine - BOOM!" He gestured to the plastic control panel he held in his hand.

Dammit! Gail thought. Okay. OK. She would have to play this one a little more carefully, then.

Vincent showed her to the wing where her suite was. "You get deluxe accommodations, because you're the most powerful one in my stable," he told her, opening the door with a keycard. "But, make no mistake. The only reason you are here is because of the things that you can do for me. If I catch you doing anything that is contrary to what I want you to do, I won't hesitate to press this button, and blow up those kids. Hey, I can always make more," he said cheerfully.

Gail looked up at him. She wished he was bluffing, but she got the impression that he wasn't. They stopped in front of a door. "This is your suite," Vincent said matter-of-factly. "Go on in there, and relax. I know it'll be really hard for you not to be able to communicate with your husband right now, but you understand the carrot and stick method, I'm sure. Quid pro quo. Once you do something for me, I'll let you contact Castiel, and let him know that both you and Rob are all right. Not to mention Rob's twin brother, and all the other children."

Gail frowned. She got the message. "What's going on, here?" she asked her father. "What's the endgame?"

He grinned. "The most powerful kids will become my army, when I find the Book of the Dead," he told her. "The most powerful, and also, the most attractive."

She stopped walking. "Pardon?"

Vincent continued to grin. "Don't worry; we're grading on a curve. And, the fact that a stone-cold fox like Castiel finds you attractive, or at least, finds you bed-worthy, only weighs in your favour. Besides, you're an Angel. I'm sure you have some pretty awesome powers to make up for your rather plain appearance."

Gail stared at him, astonished. She had just been at Abigail's house, and she had been basically told there that she should never have been born in the first place. And now, she was standing with her father, as repugnant an individual as he was, and he seemed to be telling her that she wasn't even good-looking enough to make his disgusting roster of...whatever this was? Great. She would probably have to get some self-esteem counselling, after all this was over.

Vincent gestured to the door in front of him again. "Go on inside," he repeated. "You'll find it has every comfort. Well, except for food and drink. I know you Angels don't really do that kind of thing. But if there's anything you want, you only need to push the big red button. I want you to be comfortable here."

"I want my husband," Gail said petulantly.

"Sorry. No can do," Vincent said, shrugging. "If I was sure that he would behave himself and get with the program, then, yeah. You are my daughter, after all, so I know you'll love good sex as much as I do. But, sorry. I can't take that chance. Your suite is encased in sigils, of course, but that husband of yours is another matter. You shouldn't have married so high above your station. Oh, and before I forget, how is Abigail? Is she still batcrap crazy? Now you can see why I only hit that once, to use the vernacular. Just enough to knock her up with you. Yeah, I keep up with modern slang, as you can see, even though I'm much, much older than you might think." He stopped talking for a moment, gesturing to the door of the suite once again. "Sorry, I seem to be rambling," he told Gail. "Why don't you go inside, and have a rest? No phones, and no computer, either. But there's a TV, and there are some books, because I know you like those. Then we'll talk in the morning. Okay?"

"OK," Gail responded.

Vincent looked at her suspiciously. "That's it? No argument?"

Crap, Gail thought. If she was going to pull this off, she needed to come across as believable. "Look, there's no point in arguing with you, is there?" she said to her father. "You obviously think you're the be-all, and end-all. So, no, I'm not going to argue with you. I'm just going to sneak around behind your back, and try to undermine you every time you turn around. Okie-doke?"

Vincent grinned. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Good. I'll see you tomorrow, then," Gail said sassily, letting herself into the suite. She closed the door firmly behind her. After a moment, she looked around the place, as discreetly as she could. Yep. Security cameras in the corners. She crossed over to the couch and sat down on it, thinking. Okay; how was she going to deal with this? She'd been in tough situations before. Think. Think. What did she know? There were a bunch of "kids" here, although a number of them could be adults too, like she was. Vincent had said that Rob was among them, and that they all had bracelets on them that could explode, if he pressed a button. Was he telling the truth? It didn't matter. For the time being, Gail had to assume that he was.

So, what now?

"What do you mean, she's gone?" Cas said to Liz, alarmed.

"She's not here, Cas," Liz repeated. She was standing beside their booth, fidgeting anxiously. "Would she have gone back to...back home?" she asked him, glancing around at the people seated nearby.

Cas frowned in concentration. No, Gail wouldn't have just left them behind like that, without a word. He knew that she was depressed, but she would have just told him that she wanted to go, and he would have taken her home immediately. He would have taken her anywhere she wanted to go.

This was starting to feel all too familiar. Cas called to Gail on Angel Radio, and then he called out to her again, so loudly and desperately that Liz clapped her hands over her ears and winced.

"I'm sorry, Liz," Cas said, his heart hammering away in his chest. "Something's happened to her. I'm sure of it. This feels like the time that Lucifer abducted her from our house. She just suddenly disappeared, and I had no idea where she was."

"Lucifer abducted her?!" Liz exclaimed, shocked. Gail had never mentioned that. The people in the booth next to theirs looked up sharply, and Liz looked at Cas sheepishly.

Cas threw some money on the table. "We'd better talk somewhere more private. Are you sure you checked everywhere in that washroom, Liz?"

Despite how worried she was starting to be about Gail, Liz smiled. "How big do you think a ladies' washroom is, Cas?"

"I have no idea," he told her earnestly. "I've never been in one."

"Well, they're not that big," Liz assured him. "I couldn't possibly have missed her, if that's what you're getting at."

Cas sighed. "All right, then. Let's go to our house in Kansas, just on the off chance she's there. Then, if not, we'll brainstorm." He slid out of the booth, steering Liz to the front door of the bar. They walked around the corner into the alleyway, and then disappeared.

Vincent was inspecting the testing facilities now, nodding his head in approval. His assistants had done their work very well. He had three, and each man was going to specialize in one area, because each man had a particular skill that would come in handy when it came to their interactions with the test subjects.

The human was going to deal with the psychics. He was a man with extensive experience in moulding other peoples' minds, and he was highly motivated to help Vincent achieve his goals.

The Angel was going to test the teleporters. He had been a doctor in life, so he had the skill of being able to medicate the subjects, if they got too carried away. Plus, he understood the mechanics of teleportation, as a being who was capable of doing it, himself.

And the third tester, the one who was going to work with the telekinetics? He brought some very interesting qualities to the table, not the least of which was his intimate knowledge of the man who had definitely just become Vincent's most fearsome and formidable enemy.

"We'll get started in the morning," Vincent told this man now.

"Good," the assistant said, nodding. "Great. Is she here yet?"

Vincent grinned. "Yeah, she's here. But we're going to keep the two of you apart, until the right time comes. We wouldn't want to ruin the big reveal, would we?"

"No, we certainly wouldn't," the tester said, smiling widely. He couldn't wait.

Cas had sent out The Eye, and he had tried Angel Radio and their private frequency countless times. He had finally broken down and called their family and friends, but he was saving Frank for last. He honestly didn't think Gail had gone there, and Cas was reluctant to panic her brother. Besides, he knew that they were celebrating Angela's first birthday, and he really didn't want to spoil their party if it could be helped.

Cas had sent Liz back to Heaven. He wanted to be left alone, to think. Where could Gail be? He hadn't been able to find her anywhere. Had Raguel taken her? Crowley? Vincent?

Vincent. Oh, Heavenly Father. Vincent had said that he was going to call Gail to him, and that she was going to come. Gail had told Cas that that was what the man had said, at Quinn's. Had he been able to cast some kind of spell on her, to force her to come to wherever he was? But where would that BE, exactly?

Then Cas's cell phone rang, and he dove for it.

"Cas, we need your help," Frank said. "Rob's gone missing."

Eric had tried teleporting out of his room, of course, but he couldn't do it. There were some weird symbol-like things painted on the walls of his room. Maybe they had something to do with it.

The guy who'd shown Eric to his room had told him that a doctor was going to test him in the morning. What for? Eric had asked, somewhat nonsensically. The man had laughed, then shoved him into the room and locked the door.

Eric tried to take the heavy bracelet off of his right wrist, but he couldn't do that, either. Dammit! What the hell had he gotten himself into now?

Rob was pacing the floor of his mini-suite. Vincent had given the more deluxe accommodations to his most promising prospects. There were no symbols painted on his walls, because Rob could be as psychic as he wanted, in Vincent's view. He had no special powers aside from that, so he wouldn't be able to escape.

The young man knew a great deal already. He knew that the man who was going to perform the testing on the psychics was a horrible man, who had done horrible things, and was planning to do even worse ones, once they were finished here. Rob knew that the bracelet which was affixed to his right wrist was loaded with explosives. And he knew that his Aunt Gail was here somewhere too, in her own suite. How had Vincent accomplished THAT? It was too bad that she didn't have her psychic powers any more. Then Rob could just communicate with her that way. At least, he thought he could. He'd never actually tried that before.

But then it occurred to Rob that he did know somebody he could try that with. He had looked around and seen the security cameras, so he flopped down on the couch and turned on the TV, pretending to be interested in what was on.

And then he sent out the call.

Ricky's room had the symbols all over it too, which didn't surprise him one bit. Like that Stephen King book, Ricky was a fire-starter. But unlike the kid in the book, Ricky was pushing fifty now, and he had never been able to control his particular talent. Never. Sure, once in a while he could marshal all his forces of concentration and produce a nice fire in a fireplace if he really wanted to. But most of the fires he had started throughout his life had been genuine, honest-to-God accidents.

He'd answered the call just like the others had, but mainly, he had just come here out of boredom, and loneliness. There were millions of people in Hong Kong, but that meant nothing to Ricky. He'd never been married, or had kids. There was just something about him that was off-putting to women. It hadn't helped that his mother had been a real oddball, either. When Ricky was growing up and would try to invite some schoolmates over, his mom would be there, with the live chickens and the meat cleaver, wearing her beads and spouting her mumbo-jumbo. A Chinese woman wearing a rosary and using chicken blood for rituals in the kitchen where they ate. You couldn't make stuff like that up. Word soon spread that Ricky's mother thought she was some kind of a voodoo lady, or something. Then, bingo-bongo. No friends for Ricky. He used to yell at his mother and tell her to quit it. What was she trying to prove? She would shake her chickens at him and say he didn't understand. If she kept up with the rituals, maybe Ricky's father would come back.

Papa Legba had followed her home from the night market years ago, asking her questions about her family, and her culture. He seemed to like what he'd heard, because he had come over the next night with a special tea that he said they should try. She had prepared the tea for them both, they drank it, and then just as Vincent had started to kiss her, the hallucinations had taken over. As Vincent took her clothes off, his head became the head of a lion. She stroked his mane, and then he became a snake, wrapping himself around her body.

"What do you want your son to be?" he had whispered silkily into her ear as he entered her.

"A dragon," she'd said dreamily.

"Then that's what he'll be," Vincent said, and for an instant, she saw his real face, and she was afraid. "What's the matter?" he asked her irritably. "You invite a strange man into your home, let him drug you and knock you up, but he can't relax enough to show you his true face? You women are all alike. None of you can make up your minds about what you really want. So you want your kid to be a dragon, do you? Fine. See how much you enjoy his fire."

Then he had finished, and then he was gone. Ricky's mother had fallen into a deep sleep after that, and when she woke, it was like nothing had ever happened. But nearly nine months later, she'd had her son. He was a perfectly normal little Chinese baby, just like the millions of others. She had relocated to Hong Kong for the pregnancy because she had no husband, and to be a single mother back then in her village and in her culture was to bring shame upon your family.

She named the baby Ji Huo, which, loosely translated, meant "lucky fire". But as he'd grown up and gone to school, he had started calling himself "Ricky". All the kids had English names, he'd told his mom, and she had shrugged. If that was what he wanted. It was easier just to appease her son. If he got agitated, sometimes fires would spontaneously erupt around the house.

His mother was dead now, of course. That had been a long time ago. Ricky glanced at the bracelet on his right wrist, but then he looked quickly away again. He'd better not think about the fact that these people, whoever they were, had attached explosives to the arm of a man whose mind could produce fire. He sure hoped that whoever had painted those symbols on the walls knew what they were doing. He recognized a few of them. They reminded him of Chinese writing, in a way. His mother used to trace symbols like that in blood on the makeshift altar she had set up in their kitchen. Did this have anything to do with his father? Ricky had asked his mother countless questions about the man when he was growing up, but he had received only vague, unsatisfying answers.

Oh, well. He supposed he would find out in due time. Ricky checked the little kitchen here, and was pleased to see that it was well-stocked. No live chickens, no blood, just good, American food. He would have something to eat, maybe watch a little TV, and then go to sleep. He was sort of looking forward to tomorrow. This could be the most interesting thing that had happened to him for a long time.

"If you give me something that belonged to the deceased, we can begin," Quinn said to her client.

"Oh, yes, I did bring something, too," Eunice said. "Now, where did I put it?" She reached down to the floor and started rummaging through her purse. That was, if you could call it a purse, Quinn thought. The bag was roughly the size of a small country.

Quinn waited patiently, while sighing inwardly. The things she had to put up with, just to make ends meet. Suddenly, she felt a tickle in her brain. A young male voice, calling her name, over and over.

"I'll be right with you, dear," Eunice said. She had the bag in her lap now.

"Take your time," Quinn said absently. Rob? she said in her head. Is that you?

Yeah, he said. Thank God you can hear me. And, speaking of which, we need you to call Cas. I've tried praying, but I don't know if he's picking me up.

What's going on, Rob? Quinn asked him. What's happening?

Rob told her as much as he knew about the situation, and Quinn gasped audibly. Eunice looked sharply at her. "I told you I would pay for the full - oh, here it is," the old woman said triumphantly. She pulled a dog collar out of her bag. "This was on my Rexie's neck when he passed. I was hoping we could contact him on the other side, and find out if he's all right."

"Rexie's a dog?" Quinn said incredulously. "You want to hold a seance for a dog?!"

"Well...yes," Eunice said, confused. "That's what you do, isn't it? Contact our dear, departed loved ones?"

"Get out," Quinn said through clenched teeth.

"I don't understand," Eunice said in a quavering voice, still holding the dog collar.

"Clearly!" Quinn shouted. "You want to know what Rexie has to say about the Afterlife? What pearls of wisdom he's got to impart? Well, listen up, because here it is: Woof, woof! That's what he's got to say! And that's all he'll ever have to say, because HE'S A DOG! Now, get out!"

Eunice scurried out of the house, and Quinn sighed, massaging her temples with both hands. Sorry about that, Rob, she said wearily. Now, how can I help?

Dean came out of the motel bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist. Boy, that shower had felt good. The kills had gone pretty smoothly back at the nest, but he'd had blood all over himself, of course. It was funny how spoiled you could get, having an Angel who was also one of your best friends around, to just wave her hands and clean you up instantly.

"Hey, maybe we should call Cas and see how Gail's doing," Dean said to his brother, crossing over to his duffel bag to get some fresh clothes. "Maybe he could come and get us, and we could go over there for an hour or two. It sounded like she needed some cheering up when he called me. If we hadn't been closing in on those vamps, we could have gone there right then. But you know how he is: he'll just sit there looking all sad, until SHE feels like she has to cheer HIM up."

Sam smirked. Dean was right, there. Cas wasn't exactly expert at bringing someone out of the doldrums. "Yeah, OK," he said. "Put some clothes on, and then we'll give them a call."

Dean was rummaging through his bag now, taking out pieces of clothing individually and sniffing at them. As Sam looked on, bemused, Dean gave a pair of underwear a courtesy smell, and then another, and deemed them suitable. He picked up the jeans he'd been wearing at the Hunt and checked them for stains, then set them aside with the shorts he'd chosen.

"Dude, you've gotta be kidding with that," Sam said with a look of distaste on his face.

"What? They're fine," Dean pronounced. He took a couple of socks from the bag next and gave them a tentative sniff, and the horrified look on his face nearly made Sam snort the sip of beer he'd just taken out of his nose. As he swallowed hard, trying to collect himself, Sam waited to see what Dean would do next. Sure enough, after a moment's consideration, his brother returned the socks to the bag, then continued to root around in it.

"Dean," Sam said as patiently as he could. "You might want to keep your dirty clothes separate, and then you wouldn't have to go through that same disgusting process every time."

Dean looked up at him. "I only have one bag, Sammy."

"Yeah, but..." Sam got off his bed and moved across the room to his own neatly packed travel bag. After his shower, he had organized everything but his toiletries, because he knew that they would be returning home first thing in the morning. He opened the side zipper and showed Dean the plastic bag filled with his dirty clothes. "See? I already have my laundry separated, so I can just pop it in the washer when we get home. Not only that, but because it's in a side pocket, the clean clothes in the middle of the bag won't pick up the smell."

Dean eyed his brother balefully. "Sammy, you're gonna make some lucky woman one helluva wife, someday."

Sam sighed, rolling his eyes. Well, at least Dean was showered, now. They could give Cas and Gail a call, and see how she was doing. Cas had been terse and the timing had been off, but Sam could intuit that her long-awaited meeting with her birth mother hadn't exactly gone well. What the hell was it with all of them and parents? He tried hard to come up with one positive experience that any of them had had with their birth parents, and except for Frank growing up, he was hard pressed. And look how that had turned out, in the end.

As Dean dressed, Sam's cell phone rang. He went back over to the nightstand to answer it. Maybe Cas was beating them to it. But when he looked at the Call Display, he saw that it was Quinn. For a minute, he thought about just ignoring the call. He and Quinn still saw each other from time to time, but things had definitely cooled between them. Too many times when she touched him, Sam felt like she was "reading" him, and that made him feel uncomfortable. Ever since that one time when she had accused him of thinking of Gail at a particularly intimate moment, things had never been the same between them. Sam had vehemently denied it, of course, but she had stared at him without further comment, and then she'd gotten out of bed and gotten dressed. And even though they'd had a long talk and then made up subsequent to that event, Sam could feel that things just weren't the same. And there was that whole thing about Dean and Nicole, too. Sam wished that Quinn had never brought up that vision she'd had about his brother and his girlfriend. It had made things awkward between Quinn and Dean, with Sam right smack in the middle.

"Hi, Quinn," Sam said, answering his phone. "How are you?"

Dean paused for just a moment as he was buttoning up his shirt. Quinn? Frankly, he'd been wondering what, if anything, was happening between her and his brother now. They'd been really hot and heavy there for a while, and then, the temperature had plummeted. There had been that thing about Nicole, but even though that had kind of pissed Dean off at the time, he'd told Sam that he was over it. But Dean knew that Quinn and Sam had exchanged some words over Gail, too, and he suspected that was what was actually at the root of Sam and Quinn's estrangement. But there was no way that Dean wanted any part of that kind of discussion. No way, no how. He was staying out of it. Between Quinn, Sam, Gail, and Cas, that was a lose-lose-lose-lose proposition.

"What?!" Sam said sharply. "He said what?" He put his phone on Speaker, and put it on the nightstand.

"Rob said that he and Gail and a bunch of other people are in some kind of a compound being run by that Vincent man. They're all being held prisoner there, and he says they're all going to be tested there, according to their abilities," Quinn said in an agitated voice.

Dean rushed toward the phone. "OK, that doesn't even make any sense," he said, his forehead wrinkling. "It sounds like the plot of a bad movie. Why would Rob call YOU on the phone, and not one of us, for one thing?"

"Because he didn't call me on the phone, Dean," Quinn retorted. "He called me with his mind. He's got the gift, all right."

"But, if Gail's there, why couldn't she just teleport everyone out?" Sam puzzled.

"I don't know, Sam, but it could have something to do with the fact that everybody who came in had a bracelet attached to their wrists that's apparently loaded with explosives," Quinn replied, matter-of-factly. "Rob said he tried to get his off, but he can't."

"Where is this place?" Dean asked. He was already gathering up his stuff and throwing it in the duffel bag.

"That's the problem, Dean. Rob doesn't know," Quinn answered him.

"What do you mean, he doesn't know?" Dean said angrily. "Didn't you say he went there?"

Quinn frowned. "I know, Dean. I said the same thing. But he said he doesn't know. He said he's been praying to Cas, but he thought you guys had better call him, in case he can't hear Rob's prayers."

The brothers exchanged glances. Damn right, they'd better call Cas.

"Oh, and one more thing," Quinn added quickly. "Rob expressed concern about his family. Apparently, Vincent threatened to kill them all, if they interfered."

"Don't worry about that," Sam said to her. "We'll take it from here. Thanks for calling, Quinn, and please let us know if you hear anything else."

"I will, Sam," she said softly. "You know I will. Regardless of any problems you and I might have had, you know that I'll do whatever I can to help all of you."

Sam thanked her again, and then he hung up the phone, looking at Dean. But Dean was already dialing.

Vincent let himself into Gail's suite a short time later. She was sitting quietly on the couch, just looking at the door as if she'd known he was coming. He raised an eyebrow, but then he smiled at his own foolishness. Her psychic powers would have died when she did. No; she was just intelligent, that was all. She would know that she was the largest jewel in the crown, the lynchpin of this whole operation. Besides, Angels didn't eat or drink, and her Exalted husband wasn't here. What else did she have to do but wait?

"I'm here to elicit your cooperation," Vincent said to Gail, approaching where she sat.

She stared at him for a moment, and then she burst out laughing. She shook her head slowly. "Let's see," she said. "I'm thinking of two words right now. Let's see how good you are at guessing. The first word rhymes with duck, and the second word is the opposite of on."

Vincent smiled slowly. "It's all right," he said. "You can say it. I won't tell anybody. Just the idea that you're thinking it only proves that you're more my daughter than you're willing to admit."

"Yeah, well...give the lab your DNA, and we'll meet on Maury," she said tartly. "Then we'll find out for sure. Either that, or you could just wait till Cas gets here. Then it'll be a moot point, anyway."

"Your husband can't kill me, remember?" Vincent said calmly. "He already tried."

Gail shrugged. "We'll see. In any case, he'll be only too glad to get lots of your blood for the sample. Lucifer kidnapped me and tried to get my cooperation, too. That didn't work out too well for him. And Lucifer was the Devil himself. You're just some dime-store horror novel villain." Gail suddenly realized that she owed Death an apology, or at the very least, a commission, for that line. But the line was too good not to use in this instance, she thought.

"But the thing is, I'm not a villain, not at all," Vincent said to her. "I'm reaching out to you, Gail. I'm your father, and I've neglected you for far too long. I only want to get to know you, and spend some time with you. But I knew you would never agree to that voluntarily. That's why I want to start things off on the right foot. Here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone, moving closer to her to hand it to her. "I want you to call Cas, and assure him you're all right," Vincent continued. "He must be worried sick. In fact, why don't you tell him to come here? Then he can see for himself."

Gail had taken the phone from him when he'd handed it to her, but now, she started to laugh again. "You've got to be kidding with that," she said to her father. "How many movies have you seen, anyway? One? This is every bad cliche, all rolled into one extremely bad film. Why don't we just cut to later in the movie, and go to your secret lair right now? Oh, please tell me you have sharks with laser beams. That might even make this whole experience worth it."

Vincent frowned. "You've got your mother's smartass mouth, that's for sure. I know that Cas is God, but he must have the patience of a Saint. Or maybe you're just that good in bed. I'm very tempted to try you out myself, just for curiosity's sake."

Gail's stomach turned, but she glared at him. "Try it. I dare you," she said coolly.

Vincent laughed. "You're adorable, you know that? You sit here in a room where you have no powers, and no Angel blade, and yet, you somehow still think that you have the upper hand. Where do you get the nerve?"

She shrugged. "Probably from you. You seem to have a pretty high opinion of yourself. But in the last few years, I've dealt with way more formidable adversaries."

"Really?" Vincent said sarcastically. "Lucifer was a petulant child, having a cosmic temper tantrum. Metatron had the book smarts, but no sustainability. Raguel would be nothing without his Biblical sex toys, and Xavier was nothing but a puffed-up Prudence Pureheart, with an inflated sense of self-importance. Let's see, who am I forgetting? Oh, yes. Crowley. He might actually be a serious contender, because he's family. There's no one who can love you more than family, or so they tell me, but there's also no one who can screw you into the ground better than your closest kin, either. And you can quote me on that."

Gail's mind flashed back to her recent stint in Hell. Well, Daddy Dearest wasn't wrong about that last point, anyway. Crowley's vendetta against Cas had gone on since the beginning of time itself, and Gail had married into it. She thought about the tag under her hairline. They still hadn't had the chance to deal with that, yet. She had been planning to show it to Sam and Dean, to find out if they could tell her how worried she should be about it. But she sure hadn't seen this latest crisis coming. She supposed, in retrospect, she really should have, though. But she'd been spinning all these plates for as long as she could remember. It only made sense that one or two would start to wobble, as she rushed around trying to deal with all of their problems, one at a time.

"Call Cas," Vincent said, nodding encouragingly. "I know that seeing him will make you feel better. It always does, doesn't it?"

Gail was staring at her father expressionlessly, but her mind was racing. It had to be some kind of a trap. But how could Vincent trap God? Had he aligned himself with Raguel, maybe? But even if he had, there was still no proof that Raguel was actually capable of killing Cas. On that indescribably horrible day in Egypt, even with Michael's ring in his hand, Raguel had been unable to kill Cas. Unless Vincent had some other tricks up his sleeve. But somehow, she didn't think that Vincent had teamed up with anybody. He seemed arrogant enough to think that he was plenty enough of an adversary, all on his own. Well, they'd just see about that.

"I don't think so," Gail said, putting the phone down on the coffee table. "Not until I find out more about your little operation here."

Vincent smiled wolfishly. "Afraid hubby can't cut it in a straight fight? That's not very loyal, is it? God's supposed to be the most powerful entity there is, isn't he? Pick up that phone."

She continued to stare at him. Gail could tell that Vincent wasn't used to people turning him down. That probably explained all the kids he'd had over the years, she thought with faint amusement. But she'd netter not underestimate him, either. Despite her outward scorn, she realized that this was quite the place he had here. If he had the chops to pull this kind of thing off, she'd better tread a little lightly. But not too lightly.

"Why am I here?" she asked him, leaning back on the couch. "And don't give me that crap about Daddy-daughter time. Don't insult me like that."

Vincent's smile became genuine. Now, this was a much more promising area of conversation. "I want to see what you can do," he told her candidly. "That's why you're all here. A while back, I designated some of my children, the ones I thought might have the most potential, for this facility. You get a pass, of course, because I know that your powers are more than adequate. But I still want to see for myself, anyway. You can deal with me, if you want, or if you hate me that much, I can pass you over to my testers. All three of them have a very keen interest in you."

"What about Rob?" she said sharply.

Vincent shrugged. "What ABOUT him? He'll be tested, just like the others. He's fine, Gail. Don't you worry about him. He's got a setup like you do here, plus he's got all the food he could care to eat. He's a growing young man, and he's actually way skinnier than I thought he'd be. I honestly don't know where he puts it." He looked down at the coffee table and picked up the phone. "Now, call Cas."

"Wow, you really aren't used to the word 'no', are you?" she said softly. "Well, that's all right. You'll get used to it, eventually. You know, like Frank and I had to get used to not having any parents."

Vincent threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, snap!" he said delightedly. "I guess you got me, there. Very good, Gail. Very good." Then his smile faded. "That's too bad for Frank, but the two of you did all right. Besides, you DO have parents, Gail. You know, I thought about letting her just turn into dust and bones, just like Cathy. But I have an inexplicable soft spot for your mother, so I popped over there and gave her some more of her youth drink. Tell Cas he'd better cool it; she's pretty pissed off at him right now. Maybe if he buys her a pretty corsage for your wedding, she'll forgive him. And I'm your father, and I'm telling you to take this goddamn phone and call Cas!"

Gail just stared at him, and Vincent almost crushed the phone to bits in his bare hand. But, no. No. The first victory was going to be his, not hers. She needed to know who really had the upper hand here.

He strode over to the wall across from the couch and pressed a button. A panel slid open and revealed a TV screen. Vincent took the control panel out of his pocket, showing it to Gail. "Remember this?"

Little Jenny was sitting in her room watching cartoons and sipping from a juice box. The man who'd brought her here had told her that her parents were coming for her in a minute, but she knew that he was lying.

One minute she'd been playing with her dollies in the sandbox in the back yard of her house, and the next, she'd been here. An older lady had appeared to her out of nowhere, telling Jenny that there was somewhere that they had to go, right now. Then she'd extended her hand to the child and Jenny had taken it, because the lady seemed nice and had a soothing voice and she looked like Jenny's teacher. Jenny might be very young, but she had already been taught respect for authority figures.

As soon as she'd gotten to her feet and taken the lady's hand, though, Jenny had known that she had made a mistake. This lady was here to take her to a bad place, where there were bad men. But by then, it was too late.

Jenny hugged the teddy bear that the man who'd brought her here had handed to her. That man hadn't really felt evil to Jenny when she had been holding his hand, just...without any kind of feelings.

Hugh knocked on Jenny's door now, and then he let himself in with the keycard. It wasn't as though he didn't have any feelings, exactly. They were there, they just seemed...well, unimportant at the moment. When Vincent had hired his staff, every successful applicant had been touched on the head by Dr. Roarke, and then they had become very efficient flunkies for Vincent.

Jenny smiled when she saw Hugh, and her smile widened when he told her that they were going outside to play. "Can I bring Teddy?" she asked him, gesturing with the bear.

"Of course you can," Hugh said softly. What a cute little kid.

Jenny hopped off the sofa, extending the hand that wasn't holding the bear to Hugh for him to hold. As he took it, she read him. He was taking her outside to play. He'd been telling the truth. Good.

As they walked through the Psychic Wing's hallways to get to the exit, Jenny looked up at Hugh. "Can you take this bracelet off me?" she appealed to him. "It's really heavy, and it hurts."

"Sorry, kid. I can't. Those are the rules," Hugh told her. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it. Let's just go out and enjoy the sunshine. There's a playground in the back. I can push you on the swings, if you want."

"Okay," Jenny said, skipping down the hall.

The TV monitor was on in Gail's suite now, and as Hugh and Jenny came outside, Vincent smiled. "That's little Jenny," he told Gail, gesturing to the screen. "My youngest psychic. She's very young, as you can see, but she might have even more juice than Rob does. Look at her, with her little teddy. Isn't that cute? She hasn't named him yet. I guess we'll have to tell her that 'Ralph' is taken, though. Am I right?"

Gail looked at Vincent sharply, and he smiled. "We'll get to that, I promise. But right now, I think we'll just watch Jenny play."

Gail looked back at the TV screen, and then at Vincent's face again. "Oh, I get it," she said. "You're trying in your not-so-subtle way to tell me that if I don't do what you say, little Jenny and the bear are going to get it. Right?"

"Boy, do you have an evil mind," Vincent said in a conversational tone. "Only a dime-store villain would threaten to do something like that. No, I'm actually going to do it."

He pushed the centre button on the control panel, and Jenny, Hugh, and the unfortunate Teddy exploded instantly.

"Frank and Jody called me to tell me that Rob was missing, too," Cas was saying to Dean now. He had closed his eyes and said a fervent prayer of thanks when Dean had called and told him the news. The unknown was far more scary than receiving the facts. Now that Cas knew that his suspicions had been right and Vincent was holding them somewhere, he could begin to work with that.

"Can't you just use your GodVision and find them?" Dean asked him.

"No. I already tried that, Dean," Cas said irritably. "Of course I tried that. But he must have some very old magic at his disposal, and it's shielding them from my sight, somehow. I can assure you, though, that once I find the place, he will not be able to keep me out."

"How can we help?" Sam asked Cas now. He looked down at Dean's cell phone, which was sitting on the bed, on Speaker. "We want to help."

"Until we can locate the place, we can do nothing," Cas said, pursing his lips in frustration. "Just make sure you keep me apprised of any developments, should Rob contact Quinn again. Where are the two of you now?"

"Still in Auburn," Dean said. "We were gonna spend the night, but now that this is happening, we're heading back, immediately. Are you gonna call Frank and let him know what's going on?"

Cas was paralyzed with indecision. On the one hand, he didn't want Frank and Jody to be frantic about Rob, not knowing where their son was, or if he was all right. On the other hand, he had zero information for them right now.

There was a beep in his ear. "I've got another call coming in, Dean," Cas told his friend. "Call me when you get back to the bunker." He disconnected, and then pushed the button to take the incoming call.

It was Gail, and her voice was very shaky. She was desperately trying not to cry, Cas realized.

Vincent was staring at her now, watching her face closely. She didn't want to give the bastard the satisfaction.

He had blown that little girl up. He had actually done it. She had been stunned beyond belief. It had to be a trick. He'd said that that little girl had been one of his most promising psychics. Would he really just blow her up like that, then? No, it had to be a trick. CGI, maybe? "You know, I've seen people get killed on the screen in the Supernatural movie, too," Gail had said, trying to keep her voice steady. "It's amazing what they can do with special effects, these days."

Vincent was livid. He strode over to Gail and grabbed her roughly by the arm. Suddenly, they were standing outside. Gail was startled. What the hell?

"Sigils don't affect me, not one bit," Vincent said. "As you'll see, I'm no Angel." He yanked on her arm, dragging her over to the spot where Jenny and Hugh had been standing. "Look. What do you see? See that red stuff? That's blood. See the white stuff? Brains."

Gail was silent, and Vincent's grip on her tightened painfully. "All right, fine." He snapped his fingers, and another child appeared in front of them. It was a young boy, who looked like he was about ten years old, looking at them with a puzzled and frightened expression.

"Here, let me throw up a shield, first. I don't want us getting any blowback. We're in the splash zone, here," Vincent said callously. He waved his hand dramatically in the air, and then brandished the control panel. "Boom," he said casually, and the boy exploded, sending chunks of flesh and blood and brain matter flying in all directions. Gail screamed.

"That was Harvey," Vincent told her. "He liked to read, he loved watching sitcoms on TV, and he was teaching himself how to play the guitar. Well, how about it, Gail? Do you need any more convincing? We could bring Rob out here. I don't have any compunctions about blowing him up too, if that's what it takes. I told you; I can always make more. I've got dozens here, and dozens still out there in the world, too." He reached into his pocket and took out the cell phone, extending it to Gail. This time, she took it.

"Cas, I'm OK," Gail said into the phone, because she knew that would be his first question.

"Where are you?" he asked her.

"In a deserted CIA compound in Albany, New York," she replied, looking at Vincent, who nodded encouragingly. "It's shielded, so it looks like a farm to anyone who hasn't been summoned here. But Vincent says he'll give you the longitude and latitude, as long as you come alone. And Cas, you'd better not mess around. He's killing kids. Come alone, and come unarmed."

Vincent clucked his tongue impatiently. "Give me that," he said, grabbing the phone from her hand. "Hey, hi, Cas. It's me. Your father-in-law. Oops, I guess that's a bit of a misnomer these days, though, isn't it? I'll tell you what; if both you and Gail survive the next week or so, I'll be happy to walk her down the aisle for you."

"I will take you apart, piece by piece," Cas said in his quiet voice. "I will destroy you, and I won't need a weapon to do it."

"I'd work on that wedding toast, if I were you," Vincent said cheerfully. "I had to take the phone from my dear daughter, because she ad-libbed a little bit, at the end. Don't come unarmed. I want you to bring your blade. In fact, bring hers, too. Maybe the two of you can teach me a bit of Enochian. I want us all to grow closer, as a family."

Cas was open-mouthed at the sheer gall of the man. But he made a quick recovery. Gail needed him now, and so did Rob. "Send me the coordinates, then," he said to Vincent.

"Attaboy, Cas," Vincent said delightedly. "I thought you might say that. And, don't worry. Gail and Rob really are fine. So far, that is. But, Gail is quite right: another couple of my offspring weren't so lucky. They kind of went to pieces when they met your wife. You know, on account of her being so cute, and all. So by all means, do come, and bring those blades. But that's all. If I see any backup, or any other weapons, you and I are going to have a problem, and so are all of these innocent folks, both kids and adults, who are currently guests at my establishment. Are we clear on that, Castiel?"

"Crystal," Cas said in a clipped tone.

"Good. Terrific. Spoken just like the soldier you used to be," Vincent said, nodding his approval. "There are going to be a couple of very interesting reunions here, in the next couple of hours. Now, write these coordinates down, and we'll see you in thirty minutes. Not a moment sooner."

Vincent hung up the phone, smiling down at Gail. "There. Hubby'll be here in half an hour. Do you want to go inside and fix yourself up for him a little? Or would you rather just stand out here and wait? You could try to kill me, if you want. Just, you know, to pass the time. But, a word of warning: the control panel for those bracelets is highly sensitive. One little spark, and boom, there go the kids. You and Frank are getting along very well these days, aren't you? It would be a shame if you were the one who was responsible for his son being blown to pieces. Still, I'd love to see a sampling of what you can do. I'll tell you what." He snapped his fingers, and a couple of mannequins appeared in the field behind the compound. "Pretend those are me. What would you do to me right now, if you could?"

Gail looked at him coldly. Fine. He wanted her to play? She could play, until Cas got here. And at least if she kept Vincent occupied, it would keep him away from the kids, and that damned control panel. Once Cas got here, he and Gail could team up and figure out how to get them all out of this situation.

But, wait a minute: they were out here in the open air, and if he was telling her she could use her powers here, then what was to prevent her from just winking out, right now?

"I know what you're thinking," Vincent said slyly. "Go right ahead and leave, if you want. But Rob stays here with me, and I can't guarantee he'll last until you come back with reinforcements. Don't worry, Gail. The Almighty is coming. He'll deliver you from Evil, I'm sure. Now, what would you do to me?"

Gail was seething. She looked out at the mannequins. She extended one of her arms, and the first mannequin went flying across the field. Then she concentrated, extending her other arm. She said the Enochian phrase, and the golden beams shot out of her fingertips, boring a hole clean through the second mannequin.

"Not bad," Vincent said admiringly. "That'll do, for a start. But the half hour will be up soon, and I'm sure your husband is one of those punctual types. So we'd better get you ready for him."

Then he grabbed Gail's arm, teleporting them both back into the compound.

Cas appeared in the same spot where they'd been, a short time later. Vincent had given him those exact same coordinates for a reason. Cas saw the mannequins right away. That was Gail's handiwork; he was sure of it. If she had been out here, though, why had she not just winked herself away?

He sniffed at the air. Was that...? He walked over to where the children had stood, just before Vincent had activated their bracelets. Yes. Cas looked down at the ground. Blood, and brain matter. Fresh, too. He drew his blade out of his pocket and advanced towards the building. He slipped inside.

Cas walked quietly through the halls, seeing no one. Then he came upon a large room with double doors. One of the doors was slightly ajar, and he peered inside. Vincent was sitting at the head of the table, and Gail was sitting next to him.

"Do come in, Castiel," Vincent said in a pleasant tone. "Don't be shy." He waved his hand, and the door swung all the way open.

Cas entered the room, moving slowly. His eyes darted all the way around the room, but there appeared to be nothing else to see. "Are you all right?" he asked Gail. "Has he hurt you?"

"I'm fine, Cas," she said in a subdued tone.

"Walk around the table and sit beside your wife," Vincent instructed Cas. "No sudden movements. Just keep things nice and easy, just like you're doing."

Cas's wind was up. Something wasn't right, here. Gail was sitting completely still, her hands in her lap. He could see in her eyes that she was glad to see him, but she didn't move, nor did she say a word. So, until Cas figured out what was going on here, he'd better comply. He slowly put his blade back in his pocket and moved around the table, away from Vincent, to the chair beside Gail. Cas eased himself into it, looking at Gail's face. She looked back at him, still not saying a word.

"Welcome, Castiel," Vincent said calmly. "You'll understand, I'm sure, why I can't bring myself to call you by your job title. You may be the Lord, but you're not MY Lord. You might say I'm the master of my own domain, in a manner of speaking. You and I actually have a lot in common. People worship us both, either voluntarily, or otherwise. Am I right, Cas? I know you're taking the kinder, gentler approach to things these days, though. Kudos to you for that. I'm really going to try to follow your example. But that'll all depend on the two of you. All I'm trying to do here is get acquainted with my family. Find out what my kids can do. What's wrong with that?"

Cas's brow furrowed. "You'll pardon me, of course, if I say that I don't believe you," he said coolly. He looked at Gail. "What's going on here? Are you sure you're all right? I brought your blade. It's in my other pocket. Why don't you take it, and I'll take mine, and we will shut his mouth, once and for all?"

"Because of this," Vincent said, showing Cas the control panel he held in his hand. "Why don't you tell him about what it can do, Gail?"

She told Cas quietly about the bracelets, and about what she had witnessed. "So if we attack him, he'll just push the button," Gail said miserably. "I can't be responsible for any more deaths like that, Cas."

Cas looked at the control panel. "Think about that very carefully, Cas," Vincent said to him. "It'll be really hard for you to maintain a good relationship with your brother-in-law if you're responsible for blowing up Frank's kid, won't it? You're already on thin ice with your mother-in-law, as it is."

Cas glared at him. "What is the point to this meeting?" he asked Vincent.

"I told you. I just want to get acquainted. I only have a bit of intel on you, and let's face it, most of it is quite biased against you," Vincent said, still in that conversational tone. "I'd like to try to keep more of an open mind about the guy who wants to marry my daughter. Or, re-marry her, I guess I should say. I'm frankly a little hurt that you crazy kids didn't send me an invitation to the first ceremony. But, I digress. I've gotta tell you, though, I've heard some disturbing things about you, Cas."

"What are you talking about?" Cas said through clenched teeth. "What have you heard?"

Gail looked at her husband. He had to be kidding with this. With everything that was going on here, he had chosen that to focus on? But slowly, and ever so slightly, Cas nudged her knee with his, under the table.

"All right. If you really want to know, I'll tell you," Vincent said with a slight smile. "You leave the cap off the toothpaste, you leave the toilet seat up, and your library books are constantly overdue. Oh, and you've obviously seen the same bad movies I have. The one where, if you keep the egomaniacal bad guy talking long enough, you'll distract him long enough for one of you to lunge for the control panel. Well, go ahead, Castiel. Take it." Vincent scooped it up and tossed it to Cas, who caught it awkwardly, making sure his fingers didn't touch any of the buttons.

"Careful! We wouldn't want you to regulate the temperature in any of the rooms," Vincent said, smirking. "We both know that Gail will be pissed off if the thermostat in her room goes up. You should see your faces right now. The other control panel is in my pocket." He looked at Gail. "I know that Miss Manners says it's impolite, but I think it'll speed things along if you put your arms on the table, dear."

Gail let out the breath she'd been holding. She removed her hands from her lap and splayed them out on the table. She had two bracelets with the explosives on, one on each wrist.

"That's what's known as upping the ante," Vincent said to Cas. "But, look who I'm telling. It's going to be a lot of fun playing poker with you. We'll see who blinks first. So, here's what's going to happen, Cas. You're going to leave here at the end of our little conversation, and you're not going to come back, until and unless I say it's all right. I'll do what I set out to do here, and you'll return to your Godly duties. Once my tests are concluded and I have things all lined up the way I want them, everyone will be returned to the loving bosoms of their respective families. But until then, buzz off, Castiel. I don't want to see you, or hear from you, until I'm done. Are we understood?"

"You're delusional," Cas snapped.

"Am I?" Vincent said mildly. "Or, is it you who's delusional? Let's see if those Godly powers of yours can help you figure out how to save your wife, your nephew, and all these other innocent people from being blown to bits, if I decide to reach into my pants and play a little pocket pool. Unless you've got a red shirt with a lightning bolt on underneath that fetching ensemble, I doubt that you can dash around and teleport them out of here all at once. And even if you could, they've still got those bracelets on, and I've still got the controls. The explosions will be simultaneous, and they'll be instant, not to mention spectacular. Remember that poor girl Lise, in Paris? Remember how quickly she disintegrated, the poor little fishy?"

Vincent leaned back in his chair, eyeing Cas. "You know, it's a real shame. If you weren't so righteous now, you and Gail and I could have been a real team. You've trained her well, Castiel. I've got to hand it to you, there. Frank opted to keep her out of our world, for the most part, but I think that was the wrong approach. From everything I've seen, the girl is a natural. She obviously responds well to your instruction. If I thought I could trust you, I would invite you to stay here throughout the testing process. You could stay with my girl, and keep her happy. And you could help with discipline, or use the compassionate approach, with those who cooperate. I have to admit that compassion has never been my forte. I'm an amoral sociopath. Ask anyone. Well, anyone I haven't killed, anyway. Sort of like you used to be, Cas. Remember the good old days of the Angel Wars? Your fellow Angels were just pawns on the chessboard then, weren't they? Stepping stones to your goals. If hundreds had to be sacrificed to gain a little ground, what of it? The war machine always cranks out more, doesn't it, Castiel? Sort of like me with my children, no matter how old they or I might be. I am immortal, and I have been siring for centuries now. A lot longer than you might think. You might be surprised. In fact, I know you would be."

Vincent looked at Gail now. "I see by my daughter's face that you must have come clean to her about your past, for the most part. No shocks to be had there, right, Gail? Well, that's good, at least. It's good not to have any illusions about your intended, going into a marriage. That way, neither of you is disappointed."

"How do you know about that stuff, anyway?" Gail blurted out. The curiosity had overwhelmed her. "How do you know that we need to get re-married? Only our closest friends and family know about that. In fact, we haven't even confirmed publicly in Heaven that Patricia nullified our marriage."

"You know what? You're quite right," Vincent agreed affably, nodding. "Here I sit, acting exactly like that cliche movie bad guy, after all. Blathering on. What I hear you saying is that you'd like me to get to the point. Fine. I can do that. How do I know that Patricia nullified your marriage? Easy. I have a source, directly from Heaven itself. Or, rather, I HAD a source in Heaven. He's back down here with me, now. I'm not sure if you ever had the dubious pleasure, Gail, but I know that Castiel has. Meet one of my testers, Dr. Roarke."

The Angel entered the room, taking a seat at the other end of the conference table. Cas looked at him in horror, remembering the man who had given him regular injections in Heaven's prison, at Patricia's behest.

"Dr. Roarke is going to test the teleporters," Vincent continued. "Since he is an Angel himself, he understands the process. He can also medicate the subjects, or modify their minds, if need be. I'm anticipating that Gail will help out with those types of tasks, too, once she gets fully on board. Perhaps before you leave, you can caution her as to how undesirable Dr. Roarke's medicine can be, Cas. I promise, I'll only use his injections as a last resort."

Gail's eyes were wide now. She had never met Dr. Roarke in person, but she remembered seeing him talking to Patricia when she was in Cas's mind. Oh, God. Dear God. She had seen first-hand what that poison had done to Cas.

"I have another tester," Vincent went on. "This one's a human. He'll be working with the psychics. He has a lot of knowledge when it comes to the human psyche, and experience in bending people to his will. And I must say, so far his expertise in the field of explosives has paid off handsomely. Merci bien, mon ami."

The door opened again, and Benoit emerged. He sketched a sarcastic bow to the couple, then sat beside the doctor.

"Oh, come on!" Gail quipped nervously. "Who's behind Door Number Three? Xavier? Raguel? Lucifer? I'll just take the cash and go home, Monty. I don't want to play any more."

Vincent smiled delightedly. "She got that sharp tongue from her mother," he said to Cas, "but she obviously got the wit from me."

"I got it from Frank, you child-killing bastard. What is the point to what you're doing right now?" Gail said angrily.

"Pure entertainment," Vincent said in a smug tone. "Sometimes, you just have to have a little fun. So, to continue: this last tester brings a very unique set of skills to the table. He'll be testing the telekinetics, and I have no doubt that he'll be able to keep them in line." He smirked at Gail. "And, in keeping with our game show theme, will the mystery guest sign in, please?"

The door opened slowly, and Jason sauntered into the room. "Well, hello, you two," he said to Cas and Gail. "It's been way too long. How are things?"

The Angels were speechless. Completely and utterly speechless. What the hell was going on here? What was this, David Letterman's Top Ten List of Heinous Villains? Gail stared at the door, half expecting all of her and Cas's enemies to come spilling out of it, like clowns from the world's most disgusting clown car. Which, if she thought about it, would have almost been an amusing visual image, if she weren't so shocked right now.

Cas was shocked too, but the anger had been building up inside of him, and now it was so strong that he could hear his pulse in his ears. "You would set these - abominations - on children?" he spat out indignantly. "They are evil sadists, all of them!"

"I know," Vincent said happily. "And they say you can't get good help any more, these days."

Cas was shaking with rage now, fighting the overwhelming urge to leap at Vincent and tear the man's throat out with his bare hands. Rain Holy fire down on the place. But he forced himself to take a deep breath, looking at the bracelets on Gail's wrists. He'd been taking surreptitious glances at them ever since she'd put her arms up on the table. They looked like weight bracelets, the kind of bands that humans wore on their arms when they were working out. He didn't want to stare too long and be too obvious about it, but it appeared as though the bracelets were simply fastened by Velcro. Could they not just be taken off, then? No, there had to be more to it than that. And even if there were not, Gail's biological father was quite right: Cas couldn't pop around to every room, all at once. A multitude of Angels could, but Cas was sure that Vincent would have sigils painted all around the compound. If they weren't able to get into certain areas of the building, the mission would be a failure. And the way that Vincent appeared to have it all set up, if one died, all of them would die who still had their bracelets on at the time. No, it wouldn't be as simple as just undoing the Velcro. Vincent wouldn't be stupid enough to put explosives on people and then give them an easy way to take them off. So, what was it, then? An ancient spell of some kind? That had to be it.

Vincent saw Cas, looking at Gail's bracelets but trying to pretend as if he wasn't looking. The hamster wheels were spinning furiously now. Good. If there was anything that Vincent couldn't abide, it was a stupid person. If he allowed them to live, Castiel and Gail were going to be rejoined in the bonds of matrimony eventually, he was sure. He had no idea what the rest of the steps of the annulment process were, but Vincent knew the two of them were just like magnets and steel. No, that analogy was wrong, because they didn't even have to be in proximity to each other in order to feel the pull. That was why he had to put the pedal to the metal here and now, to pull out all the stops to convince Cas to stay away for the time being.

"So were we here just for the shock value, or do you want us to menace them a little?" Jason said with dry humour.

"How are you even here, anyway?" Gail asked him. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Oh, here and there," Jason said casually. "Your father and I discovered each other when we found out that we have similar interests, and we help each other out. I bring him whatever he needs for his rituals, and he provides me with an endless array of victims, once he's done with them. Hey, I have to do something to fill my days. It's a shame you won't be joining us, Castiel. Between the two of us, we would have all of the subjects jumping through hoops and balancing beach balls on their noses by weeks' end, if they knew what was good for them." He smirked. "Don't worry, I've been talking you up to your prospective father-in-law, so he won't believe all those stories about you taking the compassionate approach. He might think you're not really a man, if those reports were to be believed. I told him you're just prone to the occasional, unfortunate bout of conscience. He's promised to try not to hold that particular character flaw against you. I'm the one who told Vincent about Dr. Roarke, too. You just made his personal acquaintance fairly recently, Castiel, but I've known him for years and years. He's been working on different cocktail combinations of drugs for ages, since back before the Wars, even. Even though his victims were all Angels, they were all susceptible to his injections. You know what that's like, Castiel, don't you? Once a vessel is taken, it's subject to human frailties, which means that Angels can bleed, and feel pain, and be affected by drugs coursing through their bloodstream. Or, they can explode," he added, grinning at Gail.

"And I found out about Benoit from Patricia," Roarke chipped in. "I didn't personally witness the debates, but I heard about that notorious tape, of course. Everyone in Heaven did. When we were talking about potential team members to add, individuals with the right type of...personalities for the job, I thought of Benoit."

"So now here we are, all together, a team," Benoit said. "It's a pity you aren't the man I thought you were, Cas. Although from what Jason tells me, you were very close, once."

"Why are YOU here?" Cas asked him coolly. "What possible interest could you have in what goes on here?"

"Let's just say that the idea of an elite group of people with these types of special talents appeals to me," Benoit replied evasively.

"Now that we've had our little meet and greet, I'll give the two of you ten minutes alone, to say your tearful goodbyes," Vincent said to Cas and Gail sarcastically. "You'll forgive me if I absent myself for this part. It's all just a little too touching and noble for a person as horrible as myself. Here, I'll even start you off, to expedite the process: 'I'm not leaving you here with these evil men, my love.'" Then, Vincent switched to a high-pitched voice: "'But, you have to, Cas. Otherwise, that evil bastard will explode us all. What about the children, Cas? What about Rob?'" He smirked. "OK, now: Go."

Vincent snapped his fingers, and he, Jason, Dr. Roarke and Benoit all disappeared. Cas was disturbed by that. It was one thing to teleport, but to move groups of people like that, without any contact? That was power at the level of Archangel, or higher. Vincent was no simple voodoo practitioner, that was for sure.

"I hate to say it, but he's right, Cas," Gail said softly. "We're going to have to do what he says for the time being, until we can figure out what to do about this mess."

"No," he said firmly. "I won't abandon you here. I can't."

"You won't be abandoning me, Cas," Gail told him. "You'll just be regrouping. Get Sam to talk to his guy in the FBI and get information about explosives, and trip switches. Do some research. In the meantime, as long as it doesn't mean harming anyone, I'll be as cooperative as I can be with him. I don't think he wants to kill too many of us, because that would completely defeat his purpose. He's got sigils painted all over my suite, but that's good. It means he'll have to let me out, if I'm going to demonstrate my powers. I'll look around and see if I can see something that'll help us out. Maybe I'll negotiate with him, see if he'll let me see Rob. I guess you'd better talk to Frank and Jody about this, but make sure Frank doesn't go nuts, okay? We've all got to try to stay cool right now, and think our way out of this, okay?"

"Are those bracelets attached to you by Velcro?" Cas asked her suddenly.

"Yes, they are," she replied. "As soon as we got back inside to wait for you, he put them on me. I thought about putting up a fight, but he kept threatening me with that stupid control panel. Who knew that he had more than one? When he tossed that other one to you, I nearly had a heart attack."

Cas froze. That gave him an idea. Maybe if he could get someone, maybe one of Sam and Dean's friends, to make up an identical control pad, a substitution could be made. Good. All right, then. Maybe he would go to the bunker, and await Sam and Dean's arrival there. He'd better stop by Frank's place first, though, and tell them what was going on. He could tell Jody and Frank what he was thinking about now, so at least they could have some hope. Then he would talk to all of them and tell them what he was planning to do. If he could fool Vincent, they might be able to buy enough time to amass the numbers of humans and Angels needed to infiltrate the compound and free all of the so-called "subjects". Then they would kill Vincent's evil assistants, and then, if Cas was still unable to kill Vincent, he would at least make sure to make him suffer, in creative and excruciating ways.

Vincent popped back into the room. "Time's up," he said cheerfully. "Oh, don't look so grim, you two. If I'm given my space and a free hand, the testing should only take a couple of weeks or so. Surely you can live without each other until then. So go ahead and kiss her, and then get lost."

Cas touched Gail's face. "Trust that I will deliver you and Rob and all of the others from this place," he said to her.

"I know you will, Cas," she said. Her chest was hurting now. He was going to go away and leave her here, with all of these evil bastards. But they had no choice. And she did trust him. Cas would save her. She knew he would. Of course he would.

"Yes, of course he will," Vincent said heartily. "He's got a plan. I know he does. I can see that gleam in his eyes. Let me see if I've got this right, Cas. Great minds think alike. I've seen you studying those bracelets on her. You've surmised correctly that they're held on by Velcro. Are they uncomfortable, Gail?"

She looked at him for a moment. What an odd question. "They're not too bad," Gail replied warily. "They're a little heavy, and they pinch my skin from time to time. But I've certainly had a lot worse discomfort."

"Yes, you sure have, you poor little thing," Vincent said with mock sympathy. He looked back at Cas. "Anyway, you know that, even if you undo the Velcro, unless you can do that with all of the bracelets at the exact same time, you're going to have a lot of deaths on your hands, and your conscience. Gail will have told you, I'm sure, that there are sigils decorating her room, and they're peppered around the compound, as well. Now that you're the Almighty, they won't affect you, Cas, but they will affect your Angel friends. So, that plan is out."

"Boy, do you like to hear yourself talk," Gail said, rolling her eyes. "And I thought Crowley was bad."

Vincent laughed, a brief, high-pitched laugh that was almost a giggle. It tickled him to hear her invoke her brother's name like that, without any idea of their true relationship. Vincent had made a veiled reference to their familial relationship a little earlier, but she'd obviously thought he'd been referring to Crowley's kinship with Castiel, rather than with her. What an incestuous little family they were. It was delicious. Maybe Vincent would drop the bomb on her, and maybe he wouldn't. He hadn't quite made up his mind about that, yet. Or maybe he would just wait until Castiel was back in the picture. No, wait. Better still, get all three of them in a room at once and then drop the mother of all H-bombs. See what they did with that. Vincent had no idea that Raguel had already told Crowley about his and Gail's true relationship, but even if he had known, that wouldn't have spoiled the fun altogether. None of them knew about Vincent's involvement in the conception, or the fact that Vincent had already made the King of Hell's acquaintance, when Vincent had been wearing a different face.

But those particular little gems would have to wait for another day. The time wasn't right, not just now. Vincent had a lot of bombs in his arsenal. Pun definitely intended.

"It just so happens that I have a mellifluous speaking voice," Vincent said, mocking Gail again. "But, seeing as you seem to be so anxious for Castiel to leave, I'll get right to the point. If you can't do anything about the bracelets, then how about the controls? If you can swap out the real control pad for a fake one, I can sit here and mash buttons like an idiot, and you can all run circles around me, merrily ripping Velcro. How am I doing, Cas? Am I in the ballpark?"

Cas was frowning. Gail's father may be an egotistical, amoral ass, but he wasn't a stupid one.

"Let's test out that theory, shall we?" Vincent went on. "I want you to take Gail's arm tenderly in your hands, grab hold of that Velcro, and gently pull on it. Take both bracelets off of her. You heard our poor little fishy. Her skin is getting pinched. Go ahead, Cas. Look." Vincent was holding his hands up, away from his body. "My hands are nowhere near the controls. I'm not going to explode her, you have my word. I just want to show you something. Come on, Cas. Do it."

Cas hesitated. What was this madman playing at now? But, he really wanted those bracelets off of Gail. So he took hold of her arms and gingerly removed the bracelets, placing them on the table.

"There. Isn't that better?" Vincent said cheerfully. "No more ow-ies. Oh, but what are those red marks on my poor baby's wrists, now?"

Cas brought Gail's wrist closer to his face. Then he looked at Vincent, puzzled.

"Isn't science fantastic?" Gail's father said. "The reason the bracelets were so easily removed is because they were a decoy. They pinched because they were imbedding the real explosives into everyone's skin. The bracelets can come off everybody, now. Oh, and, here." He reached into his pocket and brought out the control pad. Then Vincent walked over to where the couple stood and extended it to Cas. "Here. Take it. It's of no use to me, any more. The explosive chips that are imbedded into everyone's skin can't be controlled by a hand-held device. How primitive would that be? Welcome to the future, my children." He looked down at the red marks on Gail's wrists. "The explosives are computer-controlled, and three guesses who the only one is who knows the password. I'll give you a couple of hints: It isn't 'Rosebud', and it isn't 'Austin Powers'," he added, looking at Gail's face. "Full points for the quip about the laser sharks, though. In retrospect, I've gotta admit, that was pretty funny."

Then Vincent looked at Cas, his smile fading. "I'll give you ten seconds to leave, or Gail and I will have a date with my computer. One - two - three - "

"I'll be back, my love," Cas said quickly, glaring at Vincent.

"Four - five - six - "

"I love you, Cas," Gail said to him, trying to keep her composure.

"Seven - eight - nine...say it, Cas," Vincent taunted him. "Don't leave the poor girl hanging."

"I love you too, Gail," Cas said, looking at her with despair. Then, he vanished.

Vincent grinned down at his daughter. "Now, let's get to work."

- END OF BOOK 33. -