Five years later, Heaven time ca. four centuries

"Have you checked out the water-pressure on the showers, Sammy? Damn," Dean emerged into the main hub of the Men of Letters' bunker. Sam was sitting at one of the many tables in the library area, bemusedly jumping to book to book.

"I don't know how we should even have water — that's the thing I'm trying to figure out!" He looked up in time to see Dean's attention get side-tracked by a large samurai sword displayed on a small podium. He was wearing a bathrobe; his hair was wet. Sam scoffed slightly.

"A dead man's robe?" He said with a short laugh.

Dean rolled his eyes. "It's not like he's using it."

"I wouldn't eat any food in the cupboards in the kitchen. It tasted foul," Castiel muttered, entering the hub from the opposite archway than the one Dean had just come out of.

"We have a kitchen? Sweet!" Dean exclaimed. Sam scrunched up his face at Cas' comment.

"What did you eat Castiel?" the younger Winchester asked with a long-suffering sigh. Five years on since Castiel had become a Human, and he was still trying to adapt to human life.

"There were some crackers…" he trailed off when even Dean gave him an 'are you stupid' stare.

"Well, I just found us a case," Dean said after a bit of a pause.

"Come on man, don't you think its time we have a little break?" Sam shut the book he had been inspecting that moment. Castiel meanwhile perused the books displayed in the luxurious bookcases.

"Don't you even want to hear what it's about?"

Sam sighed and waved his hand in a way that said 'sure, go on'. Dean pulled out his phone from his robe pocket and passed it to his younger brother.

"This guy in Oregon appeared five years ago, dressed in nothing but robes - the ancient kind - and raving mad. He was looking for Keys to the Gates of Heaven. He's been living off of giving guest lectures to church-goers, assisting a priest here or there. And get this, he claims he's Saint Paul — the Saint Paul."

"What, the Apostle?" Sam asked with a small smile playing on his lips as he skimmed the article amusedly. Gabriel would get a kick out of this. Speaking of Gabriel. "We should probably call Gabriel, I suppose he would have known Saint Paul, right?"

Dean shrugged. "Well, it's not like he ever comes when I pray to him."

Sam grinned and jabbed a thumb at Castiel. "When he had Angel wings, he'd come the moment you called. It's my turn."

He turned away from Castiel and Dean and briefly placed the palms of his hands against each other. Closing his eyes, he directed a small prayer at Gabriel. There was an instantaneous whoosh and a flutter of wings, and there stood an Archangel before him.

"Sammy, you called?" Gabriel asked cheerfully. He looked around Sam's tall frame and waved at Dean. "Hell-o Dean-o!"

"Gabriel!" Castiel exclaimed and launched himself at his brother excitedly. Gabriel gave him a warm hug, knowing how clingy to him the non-Angel had become since loosing his Grace.

"So, new case then?" Gabriel asked once he had managed to get Castiel off of him. Sam passed him the phone.

"Some guy claiming to be Saint Paul is looking for the keys to Heaven's gates," the younger Winchester explained. Gabriel laughed incredulously and scrolled down the page, looking for a photograph.

"Seriously? Never liked him… all that self-righteous energy… Toxic, you know." He kept scrolling until an image popped up: a young man with a long, untamed beard appeared. His eyes were striking… and there was something oddly very pure about them. "Yep, that's definitely Saint Paul. You say his keys are missing?"

Sam and Dean exchanged a worried glance. They hadn't expected this Saint Paul to be actually telling the truth.

"Heaven's dropping souls now too?" Dean threw his hands up in the air.

"No, we shut the gates, that's impossible," Gabriel murmured. An air of melancholy appeared around him.

"The article says he appeared five years ago? That's when we shut the gates," Castiel piped in, having listened to the conversation whilst examining the priceless artefacts of the Men of Letters.

"So the assumption is that he came down the moment the gates shut," Sam said, directing his speech towards Gabriel.

"Looks like it," the youngest Archangel murmured and passed Dean's phone back to him.

Astoria was a small seaside town with magnificent views that stretched on for miles. The town itself had an odd seaside New-Orleans-slash-small-northern-English village vibe. After dumping their things and leaving the Impala in the Atomic hotel, the group had divided into two, as they usually did, when working on a case that stank of angel mojo: Gabriel and Sam made up one group, Castiel and Dean the other.

Sam and Gabriel had spent the better part of three hours running from homeless shelter to homeless shelter, trying to find anyone who called themselves a Saint or Paul. Ideally, both. They even tried to get into a sanatorium, where when asked for a supervising FBI Agent who would confirm their identity as 'marshals', they simply called Bobby.

Dean and Castiel, on the other hand, had interviewed members of the congregation where he was said to have been last spotted. Eventually rumours led them, much like they led Sam and Gabriel, to a small Irish pub.

"Sam — find anything?" Dean asked with a small sigh as he slipped into the bar stools. Castiel instantly joined him, pulling Gabriel to his side. Sam remained standing and signalled to the bartender to pass them four beers, not that Castiel would drink his.

"Nah, just a bunch of rumours — that psychiatrist was really concerned with my relationship to my brother, though."

"You went to a psychiatrist?" Dean asked incredulously. Gabriel waved him off.

"We thought someone who called himself a Saint might have been admitted to a psychiatric asylum. A dud, though." Gabriel drank half his bottle in a few gulps. Since being cut off from Heaven, his power had been somewhat reduced, resulting in him actually being able to properly taste human foods.

"…Isn't that…" Castiel muttered, squinting at a hunched figure sitting in the opposite corner of the room. All of their heads turned to 'inconspicuously' stare at the man. Sam pulled out his phone and held up the picture of their supposed Saint.

"Yep, that's him," Sam said, placing his phone back into his breast pocket. He grabbed his beer and began making his way to the Apostle, when he noticed that the others remained seated. "Well, y'all coming?"

If the Apostle was intimidated when four men approached him out of nowhere, he didn't show it. He was nursing a tumbler filled with some sort of amber liquid and when his gaze lazily looked up at them, he hardly gave a reaction. It took them a moment to realise that he was drunk, causing a large smile to stretch out on Gabriel's lips.

"Hi, uh… are you Paul?" Dean asked, tone somewhat sceptical. Sam gave him a look that said 'really?'.

"Yes. Though no one seems to believe me."

"Saint Paul, right? How's Heaven these days? Has it become a preferred holiday location by now?" A mischievous glint in Gabriel's eye made Sam eye him suspiciously. However, this time Paul actually looked at Gabriel, having previously not seem him behind Sam's tall frame.

"Gabriel!" he exclaimed, obviously recognising him. He tried to stand up, but swayed on his feet. Then he caught sight of Castiel and his face brightened even more. "Castiel!"

"Yes, that's us, now why don't you start by telling us why in the world you're on Earth… in a pub, drunk?"

The Apostle Paul blushed slightly. "Lucifer came to Heaven and before I could stop him, he blew past me, throwing my Keys down to Earth… telling me to 'go fetch'."

Gabriel actually released a short laugh.

"I've been trying to get the Angels to collect me, or at least help me find the Keys, but I can't hear them mumbling in the back of my mind anymore. They're completely cut off!"

Gabriel and Castiel exchanged a meaningful glance. The Apostle Paul's jaw dropped as he realised what this meant.

"You don't mean to say… You're not saying… Oh my God, did you shut the Gates of Heaven?"

"Calm down, Paulette (the Apostle frowned at the nickname), what can the Keys do?" One could always count on Dean to mutilate one's name.

"They're symbolic at best… but they do hold some of Heaven's power in them. In a mortal's hands they could wreak havoc."

"And you're sure that they're in… Oregon of all places?" Sam questioned.

"I am able to sense them," Castiel said slowly. Even in his graceless state, he had retained some attributes and abilities of the Angels. "They are in this city."

In that moment, something extraordinary happened: had they been outside, they would have seen a white light pulse the cloudy sky, making inhabitants write it off as some sort of freak-thunder. They could not have been more wrong, because in that instant, the clouds cleared and the summer sky beyond was revealed.

Inside the pub, Gabriel felt a surge of power hit him and as though a switch had been flicked, his Angel Radio was turned back on. Thousands of voices; of Angels instantly invaded his mind. For the first time in five years, his mind did not feel lonely anymore. Glancing at Castiel, he noticed the Angel looked blissed out… There was something holier about him… Dear God, Gabriel noticed. He had his grace back.

"The Gates…" Castiel whispered when he came to. The Apostle's sharp gaze, now obviously less inebriated, assessed the Angel suspiciously.

"They just opened," Gabriel finished for him, briefly closing his eyes to dedicate his attention to the Angel chatter… it took him a moment to realise how extremely human it sounded. What the Hell had happened in Heaven while the Gates had been shut?!

And then, they were hit by another surprise because through the door stumbled in two very familiar celestial entities. Michael and Lucifer were very literally walking side by side, relaxed and not at each other's throats. The latter was twirling a keychain of three golden Keys. It didn't take them great deductive powers to realise what was in his possession.

"Luce!" Gabriel gave his brother a sort of half hug and then hesitantly shook Michael's hand.

"You're not at each other's throats anymore…?" Sam asked. Dean was supporting Castiel as the latter got used to his full-blown power again.

"We've resolved some issues," Michael managed. Lucifer ignored them and tossed the keys at the Apostle, who, in his slightly drunken state, missed catching them by a few centimetres. Before he could lean down to pick them up, another familiar face greeted them.

Chuck stood there, dressed in nice clothes, with a clean-shaven face and a full head of brushed hair. He gracefully helped Paul stand up, wrapping one arm around his shoulders. With his other hand he placed the keys into the Apostle's hands. Smiling kindly at him, he said: "Now off you go."

In an instant, the Apostle disappeared. Chuck's arms awkwardly hovered in the air for a moment, before dropping. The Winchesters stared at him as the dots slowly connected. Catching the bartender's attention, Chuck smiled and dropped a few bills on the counter.

"The next round's on me."

With that, the prophet-turned-God, left the pub. Dean's gaze followed him, frozen in place. It was only a few minutes later that he spoke:

"Am I dreaming or did God just buy me a drink?"

I've never liked happy endings, but it fits to this story, mainly because I don't think that the point of this story is for it to be happy or sad or whatever, it's supposed to tell the story of how the most irredeemable character in all of religious history is ultimately redeemed. This is definitely not the best work that I have written, but where character development is considered, I feel that this story does an okay job at depicting that character arc.

Many thanks to the people who have followed and favourited this story. Also many great thanks to those of you who have reviewed and left nice comments. Even to those who have left less than nice comments, I thank you.

(and should any guest reviewers be so inclined to leave a comment, know that I will not be posting any more chapters/epilogues tho this story, so I will not have the chance to reply to you in the A/N of a 'next chapter'. So please, log in so I may reply to you! :))