Chapter 4: Welcome to Team Free Will

"These are some good pancakes, cupcake." Gabriel murmured dousing them with more maple syrup.

"Thanks, honey bun." The angel's head jerked up and stared at her. "What?" She blushed slightly. "You've been calling me all sorts of food related things, thought I'd return the favor." She grinned.

"Okay then, gum drop. Game on." He grinned back.

"I'm surprised you can taste the pancakes over all the syrup."

He grinned back around a mouthful of food, "I like sweets."

"Me too." She smiled, shifting her hips to lean on the counter. "But apparently not as much as you."

Over breakfast, Gabriel had started telling her about his story: his family, the apocalypse, how he'd met the Winchesters, about Jack, and what had happened to make Heaven loose so many angels. It was complicated, and there were a lot of holes, but he explained the Winchesters would be able to fill in most of missing pieces.

Riley was fascinated. Still a bit anxious and unsure, and she kept pinching herself to make sure she wasn't sleeping. She wasn't, sadly.

Gabriel was as helpful as he could be. He didn't spare any details from his answers. He even offered to do the dishes while she packed. Apparently, this involved snapping his fingers, which made Riley frown, and wonder if she could do dishes that way too now…. There was going to be some great application to this angel mojo if it could be used to make her apartment clean. Sighing, Riley headed to her room and began pulling out clothes and items she need for a week, or two.

If it went longer…. Then she'd have to consider what to do long term. But that was a decision for future Riley.

Once packed, Riley made her way to the bathroom and grabbed a quick shower. She wasn't quite sure what to do about her wings, because although they didn't seem to get wet, she could feel them on her back and had a very strong urge to clean them. Especially since she could reach out and touch them, the feathers soft in her fingers. Her wing span was pretty large, though nothing compared to Gabriel's. His wings were massive. Would his feather have the same feeling? Could wings be hurt?

She spent a longer time in the shower than she intended, musing on things as the water massaged her aching body.

For his part, Gabriel waited pretty patiently. He snapped the kitchen clean. Raided the candy bowl he found on the dining room table and settled in to watch some tv. He did send a quick mental note to Castiel that he might want to rendezvous with the Winchesters, as there was going to need to be a discussion asap on what happened next.

When Riley emerged from her bedroom, dressed in jean shorts, a bright yellow tank top and green flannel shirt, she found him sprawled across the couch, mouth around a lollipop, watching Dr. Sexy reruns. His eyes raked over her form as she approached, and he gave her bemused smile, "Flannel?"

Riley blinked at him, "It's the weekend, I tend to dress down." Her hand reached up a tugged the braid she'd wound her wet hair into. "Is it bad?"

He gave a bemused chuckle, "No. It's just that you'll fit right in with the Hardy twins."

"Um…."

"Winchesters. They wear a lot of flannel."

"I like flannel." She sounded slightly offended. "What's the issue with it?"

"Nothing. Nothing." He soothed, "It's cute on you."

A blush tinged her cheeks as she turned back to kitchen. "I've got my stuff. I made arrangements for next week, work wise. So I'm ready whenever you are."

"Righty-o." Gabriel stood, tv blinking off behind him. He grabbed one of her bags and then took her hand with the other. "So, first time flyer – I'll take us this time. Then we'll need to work on you being able to do it yourself. But later." He winked. "Ready, set, here we go!"

And like that, Riley's apartment no longer held the two angels.

The hotel room Gabriel transported them to was cheap, and made Riley's skin crawl ever so slightly. It wasn't that she was judgey about the quality, more so the state of cleanliness. She hoped it wasn't their final destination, but figured she'd roll with the punches at this point. The day could honestly not get much weirder.

Then she met Sam and Dean. The two men who inhabited the room were not what she'd expected. Gabriel, for all his humor and weirdness, was very well dressed and smooth talking. The Winchesters were….. not.

Rough around the edges would be a good way to describe them.

When they arrived, with the sound of wings no less, the boys had rolled off their respective beds and drawn weapons on them. Riley screamed.

Sam towered, literally towered over her and Gabriel. "Easy there Samsquatch, Deano." Gabriel said. The boys slowly put their weapons down, though Dean did not put his completely away.

It had been an interesting meeting.

After they'd all calmed down and Riley was no longer hyperventilating, she got to actually meet the boys. Sam and Dean were nice, a bit freaked out, but still nice.

They had no idea what to make of her. Neither considered the possibility that she would have survived, or been turned into…. Whatever she was now. Angel? Half angel? Random thingy.

Sam was polite and Dean was gruff. He had a smolder to him that would have been charming if they'd been in a bar and not standing around a motel room. On first impression, Riley honestly liked Sam better, he made her feel more at ease….. and less like he'd shove a knife through her heart at any moment.

Neither tried to kill her though, which was a welcome thing. Instead they'd gone to a diner to grab some breakfast. Or for Gabriel and Riley, second breakfast.

Riley wasn't particularly hungry, but she figured this wasn't fully about food. They were in Massachusetts still, but pretty far outside Boston. Sam told her that Jody had called last night, and they'd driven up until Gabriel had told them to stay put. So they found themselves in a small town, waiting to hear.

Which was why the two men had stared in shock at Gabriel and Riley when they'd shown up at their hotel room, waking them up. Thus, Dean declared they needed food, and so to the diner they went.

There, as Dean stuffed his face with greasy food, and Riley sipped at a cup of tea, Sam started to tell their story. It was long, and complicated, and at points Riley really didn't want to believe it. The life of the two men before her was terrible in its brutality and cruelty. They were brave, and crazy in the amount of fortitude they had. She didn't believe she could have survived the things the universe, or apparently… Chuck….. had thrown at them. Not that they always survived. They just apparently came back to life.

Overall, it was also a condensed version, and Riley was worried what a full telling would reveal. The cliff notes were bad enough.

And then Sam started to talk about Jack, and Riley's heart broke. How young. How alone. How unfair his life was. And Riley really wanted to find the poor kid and give him a hug. Even if he was the reason she was now having her eyes opened to the world of things that went bump in the night, she still felt a heart wrenching in sympathy for the kid. She was still a tad peeved at him, she had been happy in her life in Boston, but she still couldn't help feel bad for the kid.

The other thing she knew, just knew, was that she did not want to be a hunter. The lore was interesting, all those supernatural creatures. But damn if she was going to go out hunting them. Especially since it seemed to spawn only heartache, misery, and death. Who knew that death could die, btw, that was just some messed up shit. And it sounded awfully lonely.

Which was probably why all three of the men at the table with her had haunted looks in their eyes.

Even if not a hunter, Riley was sort of stuck. It wasn't like she could just walk away at this point. This was apparent by the ever-present translucent wings now on her back. She still had mixed feelings about those.

Also, Riley found herself drawn the brothers. Not romantically, definitely not sexually (though neither was hard on the eyes). She just, wanted to hug them.

As for Gabriel…. Riley wasn't sure exactly where her feelings lied. He had staid with her through the night, joked with her in the morning, and brought her to the boys. Everything he'd done had been to help her. Plus he made her heart flutter, just a tad. A crush maybe? Riley shrugged it off. No time to deal with it now. So many other things to deal with.

Breakfast was a slow affair, and Gabriel sat there drinking his sugar with coffee in it and Riley sipping her third cup of tea. Dean ate a lot. Sam ate some. And by the time they were all done, and the most of breakfast crowd had filtered out, that was about the time that Castiel walked in.

Meeting Castiel was… weird. He was not what she expected. So serious. The straight man to Gabriel's trickster. Which was surprising because she'd imaged the other angels would be like Gabriel. But Castiel was the anthesis was the sugar loving archangel.

Plus he'd stared at her in such an unnerving way that Riley had excused herself to make a phone call.

While the four boys talked, Riley escaped outside to call Jody. Jody was shocked and happy. She didn't expect that win, and it was a win. She said they were going to drink the moment Riley felt good enough to get out of the bunker. Riley really wanted to ask what the bunker was, but figured she'd find out soon enough.

They chatted for a while, catching up. Jody gave her more pieces of the puzzle, explaining how she'd met the boys and how she'd actually found herself with her charges.

As they were signing off, the boys exited the diner. Castiel disappeared quickly.

"You can hitch a ride with me." Gabriel offered, "I'll drop your bags and you off at the bunker?"

"Um…"

Dean scoffed, "And leave the girl alone in a strange bunker. We'll take her."

Gabriel shrugged, and grabbing her bags, disappeared too.

Riley found herself following the Winchesters to a black impala. Riley stopped and stared at the car for a few minutes. She loved it. It was so classic and beautiful, and told Dean so. Which is how she found herself riding shotgun and Dean now grinning at her. "Music?"

"Obviously." She responded. Dean hit the dial and AC/DC filled the car. Sam sighed, cramped in the backseat. "I could have gone with Gabriel." She offered, still could.

"Nope, gotta get the full experience." Dean said. "Plus you can tell us about yourself now."

"Ah. Sure." Riley sent Sam a sympathetic look as he shifted again, stuck in the back. "I'm from Massachusetts, but the rural area originally. I went to undergrad and studied pre-law. Went to law school in the city. Took the bar. Got a job. And here I am."

Dean chuckled, "That can't be all."

"Honestly, I'm kind of boring compared to you guys."

"How'd you meet Jody?" Sam asked.

"I attended a seminar on small town law and its conjunction with law enforcement. I met Jody there. She was giving a talk sheriff life. We staid in touch. I helped her with a custody thing." She shrugged, "We have girls days when ever we're in the same part of the country."

"Boyfriend?" Dean asked. Sam snorted in response.

"Nope. Too busy with school." She smiled, "And you?"

Sam burst out laughing, "No serious relationships. Dean likes the ladies though."

"The ladies like me." Dean grinned.

Riley was nothing like them she realized. Other than music apparently, she had had little to offer the Winchesters. This was going to be an interesting experience. Heck, if it ever stopped. Riley glanced out the window, 'for all I know, this is my life now. Or whatever comes next.'

"Do you like pie? Or beer?" Dean asked.

Riley's eyes slid back to him, "Both. I make a good apple pie."

"Make?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I like to bake."

"I think I'm in love." Dean flashed her joking smile. "You'll fit right in."

Riley laughed, wondering how they could think that. She relaxed though and allowed herself to be drawn into some inane conversation about the best pies Dean had ever had on their hunting trips.