EPILOGUE - PAPA DON'T PREACH

Dean stood back, looking at his brother. Wow. That had escalated quickly.

Cas looked at Gail. "Remember what I said, my love," he said with an agonized expression. Her eyes widened, because now, she did. The Father had left her with her memory of that conversation this time, so she remembered Cas talking about God's Will, and she also remembered God admonishing her after she'd freaked out, following Sam's murder. So He had sent them back there, to that other place, and she had chosen to stay away from Cas. Was that the right decision? Or, were they here on Kilimanjaro again because she had finally made the right one, in that bar?

Cas took the silver Angel blade out of his pocket, advancing on Sam. Oh, no. No, no, no. Wait: maybe she was supposed to stop him. Hadn't she just stopped him from destroying the world?

"NO!" Gail screamed. She ran forward, standing in front of Sam. "You can't, Cas! I won't let you," she told her husband.

"It's God's Will, Gail. I have no choice," he said pleadingly. "If I renege on my promise, the consequences will be catastrophic."

"I don't care," she insisted stubbornly. "You're not killing Sam. You'll have to kill me, first."

"Of course he's not killing Sam," Dean said. He was in total denial. Cas would never kill Sam. Gail was panicking for nothing.

But then, God and Death appeared out of nowhere, making Dean jump. He had no recollection of having been here before, or of having seen them here before.

"I see that you're just as bad as your husband at learning lessons," God said dryly.

Gail was shaking with fear and anger. "What was the point of all that? Didn't I make the right decision by stopping Cas from destroying the Earth?"

Cas looked at her sharply, but God was shaking His head. "Yes, that was ONE lesson. But life is comprised of many lessons, and many decisions. I brought you back here so that you could follow Castiel's example. He has finally realized that My Word is The Word. Now, stand out of his way, so that he can do My Will."

"Why does Sam have to die?" Gail asked him pleadingly.

God's jaw clenched, and for a brief moment, Gail could see Castiel clearly in His facial expression. The resemblance disarmed her. Unfortunately. "Because, he already did," the Almighty said, trying to hold onto his temper. Also like his Son. "Because, Dean Winchester wasn't supposed to make that crossroads deal to bring his brother back."

"Because the Winchesters have been a thorn in my side, a constant impediment to the natural order ever since that time," Death added in a dry, sandpapery voice that sounded as old as he was. "THAT is the wrong that has to be righted. That one. None else. And your loved ones will all continue to fall, until I receive Sam Winchester, as I should have done back then."

"But, You sent Cas to Hell to rescue Dean!" Gail sputtered, looking at God.

"Actually, I didn't," God said, his lips pursing tightly. "That was his own idea. Wasn't it, Castiel?" Cas hung his head, as Gail and the Winchesters looked at him in astonishment. "Killing Hitler was hardly the only time my Son has strayed from the script," God went on. "Why do you suppose he has received so many punishments? Now, it seems as though he is finally falling into line. Perhaps you would like to follow his example, before things get totally out of hand."

Gail looked from Cas to Dean, and then back at her husband again. "Is that true?" she asked him in a subdued tone.

"Yes," Cas admitted. He looked at Dean. "I saw you there, being subjected to unspeakable torments, and your screams hurt my ears. Then I saw you being forced to inflict those same torments on others, and I saw myself in you. But there was something in your eyes; the same spark of rebellion I had in my own. So I gripped you tightly and rose you from perdition, hoping that you would save me, from my own." Tears formed in Cas's eyes now. It was time that Sam and Dean learned the full truth. So, he went on: "I felt so badly that I did not kill Azazel back in the desert, when I had the chance. But, I had been ordered not to."

"WHAT?!" Sam and Dean exclaimed simultaneously.

"Awww, GEEZ!" Gail winced, putting her hand to her forehead. "Cas! You didn't have to tell them that!" She looked at the brothers. "We never meant for that to come out."

"You knew about it, too?" Dean shouted. "What the hell is wrong with you guys? We thought you were our friends!"

"Yeah, we are. But don't you dare blame Cas," Gail retorted. She gestured angrily at God and Death. "THESE guys keep telling him to do stuff, or NOT to do stuff, and any time he exercises any kind of independent thought, because what they're telling him to do is the WRONG thing to do, they bring the hammer down on him, hard!"

"So you are still maintaining that My Word is wrong?" God said quietly.

"Yes, I am," Gail said defiantly, and Cas moved towards her, quickly. "No, Gail, please," he entreated his wife. "Please, take it back. You don't mean that."

"Yes, I do, Cas," she insisted. They had been warned, but they had paid no heed.

"Then, you have made your decision," God said calmly. "Then I will have no choice but to bring it all down."

Suddenly, Lucifer appeared, and God handed him a page from the Book of Life. "Go ahead, My Son," the Almighty Father said to the fallen Angel. "Do what you will."

- END OF BOOK 42 -