Author's Note:

We're here! The final chapter!

Thanks to Red Raven05, wolfheart312, SPN Mum, love toshiro dragon, 1983Sarah, Akatsuki Child, and ncsupnatfan for their reviews on chapter 43.

Thank you as well to everyone on Tumblr who encouraged me to write another hiatus fic - your encouragement means the world to me.

If you find yourself looking for anything new to read, pretty much all my one shots go up on AO3 (also FictionalNutter), and I take prompts at any time on my Tumblr (SupernaturallyImagined).

Thanks again, guys!

Chapter 44 - It's Where My Demons Hide x2

Dean had been a little unsteady on his feet at first, but he recovered quickly. Castiel trailed close behind the hunter and Sam watched carefully as the three of them left the dungeon, but Dean remained upright.

"I'm okay, guys, really," Dean commented after a few minutes of not particularly subtle mother hen tendencies from his companions. "I feel good. Well, hungry."

"That I can fix," Sam replied, relaxing a little and moving ahead towards the kitchen. "Why don't you guys sit at the table and I'll grab some food?"

Castiel opened his mouth to reply, when Sam's phone rang, interrupting him.

Pulling his phone out, Sam spared a moment to glance at the caller ID before answering. "Hey, Gabe, what's up?"

Dean raised an eyebrow at Sam's casual greeting, but at Sam's immediate bitchface he raised his hands in mock surrender and turned away.

"Why?" Sam was asking, brow furrowed in confusion. He held up a finger when he received questioning looks from Dean and Castiel. "All right, fine, we're going! Give me a minute." Sam suddenly pulled the phone away and glared at it. "Asshole." Dean looked quizzical again, so Sam clarified with, "He hung up on me."

"What does Gabriel want?" Castiel asked, looking concerned.

"Apparently," Sam emphasized, "it's vitally important that we all go outside right now."

Dean scowled. "What about food?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "I'll run and grab some crackers or something to hold you over, okay? Meet you out front." Stuffing the phone back in his pocket, Sam jogged off towards the kitchen.

Dean and Castiel moved towards the bunker's front door, their pace leisurely despite Gabriel's apparent urgency.

"Thanks," Dean said after a minute.

Castiel looked up, surprised. "What for?"

"Everything," Dean replied after a beat. "Sticking around, helping, keeping the blood from boiling me alive or whatever it was trying to do. Just, thanks. For not giving up."

Castiel smiled. "If there is one thing I will never do, it is give up on someone I care about."

Scratching awkwardly at his neck, Dean huffed a laugh and nodded. "Yeah, well, same. So, you boss of Heaven now?"

"Co-boss," Castiel corrected, though his expression suggested he wasn't a fan of the term. "Gabriel and I will work on restoring Heaven together. I expect the process to be far less challenging with his help."

"I'm glad you don't have to do it alone," Dean offered. "It sounds like a big job."

"It is," Castiel agreed. "I believe my Father helped me locate Gabriel so we could work together to restore Heaven."

"Huh." Dean considered that for a moment, rounding the corner into the control room. "I guess that's a possibility."

Castiel smiled. "Everything came together so that we could reach this conclusion, Dean. You died helping me get Heaven back, but the Mark allowed you to return. Obviously the demon aspect was a set back, but Sam was here to help keep you as human as possible. In my presence to try and help you and Sam, I was able to participate in the hunt that took us to Oz, which in turn guided us to Gabriel, who turned out to be essential to not only restoring Heaven and myself but saving you as well. I see my Father pushing puzzle pieces together in these events."

Dean nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess you could be right." He was still lost in thought when Sam breezed into the room carrying a six pack in one hand, a bag of potato chips under his arm, and a bag of applies in the other hand.

"Geez you guys move slowly. C'mon, outside. Gabe wouldn't have called if it wasn't something." Sam urged the two onwards, getting the three of them up the stairs and out the door. It was twilight, and the darkened sky was starting to show off the stars.

"It really is lovely without nearby city lights," Castiel commented absently.

Gabriel appeared in front of them then, bouncing from foot to foot. "Ready? Ready?" He asked excitedly.

Sam set the food down and tucked the few stray hairs in his face back behind his ears. "Calm down, Gabe, sheesh. What's going on?"

Gabriel shook his head and held up five fingers, then slowly lowered them as though counting down. On the last finger, he twirled his hand and pointed upwards. "TA-DA!" He shouted.

"Holy-" Sam's exclamation was cut off as the wonder of the sky took his breath away. He was vaguely aware that Dean and Castiel were also staring upwards in shock, but he couldn't be bothered to look at either of them.

The sky was full of bright lights, their glow far outshining the stars as they drifted upwards. Each time a light blinked out, three more took its place, until the entire sky seemed blanketed with lights.

"What's going on?" Dean asked, his voice awed.

"Souls," Sam answered for Gabriel. "Those are the souls that were trapped here while Heaven was closed." He felt a little choked up, and he blinked rapidly to dissuade his tear glands from betraying the emotion the sight caused.

"You did it," Castiel breathed, sincere satisfaction in his voice.

"Finally," Gabriel added, sounding a little irritated. "This should have happened sooner, but whatever. I thought you guys might appreciate the light show."

"Why are there so many?" Dean asked, surprised as the lights continued to appear and disappear into Heaven.

"A lot of people die every day," Gabriel replied, sounding almost apologetic, as if he didn't really want to break that news. "It's been a long time that Heaven's been closed off. It should be almost caught up. Plus, not everyone who died is going upstairs, obviously. Some will stick around, and some will go downstairs. Nature of the game. But for now, these guys get to finally go to rest." After a pause, he added, "Welcome back to humanity, by the way."

Dean spared a second to glance over and nod his thanks at the archangel.

Sam mused for a moment over Kevin's fate, knowing that it should be on his to-do list for the day to call Mrs. Tran and find out what had happened to her previously trapped son. Hopefully he hadn't stayed behind, even for his mother's sake.

The lights began to lessen, and the sky became clearer as fewer lights trailed upwards. The stars became visible again, still overshadowed by the beauty of the ascending souls.

"Thank you, Gabriel," Castiel said sincerely.

"My pleasure, bro," Gabriel replied with a smile. "Least I could do."

Dean took advantage of the decreasing light show to snag the potato chips from where Sam had dropped them, popping open the bag and snatching up a beer out of the six pack holster. Leaning up against the structure of the building, he took a few chips and started munching, making a groaning noise as he swallowed.

"Dude, keep it PG," Sam teased, lowering his gaze from the sky to grin at his brother. He grabbed a beer as well and fished in his pocket for the bottle opener, popping his bottle before tossing the opener to Dean.

"Ooh, snacks!" Gabriel bounded over to Dean, sticking a hand into the potato chip bag and depositing the junk food in his mouth.

"I brought apples too," Sam pointed out, knowing it was fruitless.

"Health nut," Dean and Gabriel scoffed in unison.

Sam rolled his eyes and took one the apples, holding out the bag towards Castiel. "Cas, you want one?"

Castiel considered the fruit for a moment before nodding. "Why not?" He asked rhetorically.

"Figures he'd go for the fruit," Gabriel snorted at Dean, who laughed in response.

Sam glanced up to see the last of the souls fading from view, and smiled in satisfaction. Holding up his beer, he said, "To the times we win."

Dean immediately held up his beer. "Hell yes. It's too freaking rare, but it's awesome."

Gabriel snapped his fingers and held up a bottle of orange soda with a curly straw in it, grinning at the faces the hunters made at him in response. "Don't hate on the straw," he chastised mildly.

Castiel floundered for a moment before holding up his apple, tapping it gently against the three drinks.

Laughing, the hunters and archangel each took a swig of their drink as Castiel bit into his apple, chewing thoughtfully.

After a beat, Dean made a humming noise and asked, "So what now? I mean, Sammy and I need a vacation, but what are you two going to do?"

Sam smiled fondly at his brother, thankful that Dean was looking the other way. Normality wasn't really something they had, but this was closer than they'd been in a while, and Sam was thrilled.

"There will be work to do in Heaven," Castiel stated.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "We'll do some paperwork, come bug you guys, do more paperwork, have some fun, do more paperwork, you get the gist."

"You're going to visit?" Dean asked, looking like he'd smelled something nasty. Glancing at Castiel, he added quickly, "I mean, Cas, you know you can come by whenever."

Castiel smiled slightly and inclined his head. "I am aware, but thank you, Dean."

Gabriel snorted and shook his head at them. "Somebody's gotta make you guys have some fun every now and then, and we've been too busy for you guys to really appreciate my presence."

"Oh boy," Sam muttered, but without any real animosity. He smirked as Gabriel gave him an indignant look.

"Where will you and Sam go for vacation?" Castiel asked, redirecting the conversation.

"Dunno," Dean shrugged. He swiveled his head so he could see Sam. "Sammy, you got a preference?"

Sam smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I say we do an old fashioned American road trip. See the stuff we've never stopped at because that's not where the monster was. If we stumble across a hunt, cool, we hit it, but otherwise we go be tourists for once."

"Huh," Dean murmured, scratching at his chin and nodding. "I like it. Grand Canyon?"

"Grand Canyon," Sam confirmed. "Also, the beach."

"Oh, damn!" Dean groaned. "I could totally kill for a beach. Do they do nude beaches in the US or is that a Europe thing?"

"I can hook you up," Gabriel offered.

"No!" Sam quickly shut him down, shaking his head in horror. "No nude beaches!"

Dean grinned. "Sammy's shy," he told Gabriel in a stage whisper.

Pinching at the bridge of his nose, Sam groaned and shook his head again. "You're ridiculous," he muttered, but the amusement in his voice was clear. It was hard to be truly irritated.

Gabriel moved over to stand next to Sam and said, "I'll help you plan your road trip," he enthused. "I've been around, and trust me, I know where all the best stuff is."

"Define best stuff," Sam asked pointedly.

"Ice cream, amusement parks, wonders of nature, cool crap humans thought of while high, etc," Gabriel clarified. "Trust me, I'm an awesome tourism planner."

"I wanna see cool stuff high people made," Dean added, holding up his beer in support of the idea.

Sam snorted and gave a dramatic sigh. "All right, fine, you can help."

"Yes!" Gabriel threw up his fist in victory. "I'll have you a map with stickers first thing."

"You are such a child," Sam told him, but the smile clearly showed that he was amused.

Dean finished off his beer and leaned forward to snag another, popping the lid off and taking a swig. "So, we take a breather, make sure the world doesn't end in the next day or so, then drive off to go explore whatever awesome stuff we can find?"

Sam stepped forward and clinked his beer against Dean's. "I'll drink to that."

"Here here!" Gabriel crowed, raising his own bottle and slurping the remainder of his orange soda.

Castiel held up his remaining apple core and smiled, pleased with the unity and peace that he could feel from those he cared for.

Sam relaxed, swirling his beer around in the bottle, as Dean began to tease Castiel about the apple again and Gabriel attempted to seduce the angel over to the lure of potato chips. It was good, finally. Not everything was perfect, since Crowley was definitely stewing somewhere, and Sam had a deal with Lucifer to uphold for the foreseeable future, but things were so much better. When Dean had died, Sam would never have been able to see a future in which he had this kind of peace and actual happiness. The addition of a powerful ally and friend had been an unexpected blessing Sam couldn't have dreamed of. Castiel had his grace back, Gabriel was going to help with Heaven, Dean was alive and human, and Sam hadn't lost anything. The sudden realization that they had reached this point without a heavy sacrifice shocked him for a moment, and he took a swig of his beer as he contemplated that.

A sudden light illuminated them, and Sam realized Gabriel had snapped is fingers to give them a glowing ball to see by. He hadn't even realized it had gotten dark out. Not that it mattered, since they were rid of the darkness within. For the first time in quite awhile, Sam felt secure enough to think that things were going to be all right.

Dean glanced up, realizing Sam was lost in thought. "Hey, you good?" He asked.

Sam blinked, startled out of his reverie. He paused for a split second, processing the question, then nodded, smiling warmly in response. "Yeah. Everything's good."