Okay, gang here's the last chapter of the first part of the trilogy. It's really more like an epilogue. I hope you like it. And thank you to everyone who has put this story on their favorites, alerts and the small handful of you who have reviewed.

Dean didn't say anything as they drove back to Bobby's. He didn't want to talk about it and Cas understood. He didn't speak either. He just kept a comforting hand on Dean's thigh and Dean was grateful.

About halfway there the grip tightened. Dean looked over at Cas and the angel was pale and his eyes wide.

"No," he said "no."

Dean pulled off to the side of the road, "Cas, babe, what's wrong?"

Cas made a choking sound "Balthazar. They're saying he's dead."

Oh great, that was all they needed. Dean may not have liked the feathery dick but the dude was Cas's brother and best friend. He put an arm around Cas "What happened?"

"He told me he was gonna distract Raphael. I was afraid this would happen. I told him to stay out of it. Why didn't he listen to me?" a single tear ran down Cas' cheek.

Dean wiped it away with his thumb "Because he's your brother. Why was he distracting Raphael?"

"To keep him away from the battle. Balthazar was on our side."

"See."

"See what?"

Before Dean could answer, the sound of wings filled the space.

"Hello Castiel" an angel appeared in the backseat. He kind of looked like Jeremy Brett from the Sherlock Holmes shows in the 80s and 90s. Only he was wearing tennis whites and Jeremy Brett was dead so…

"Who the hell are you?" Dean demanded.

Cas straightened up and looked "Father."

Oh. So this was Cas's dad. What was his name again?

"You heard of your brother's demise" Cas's dad said.

Cas nodded "Raphael killed him?"

"Raphael or one of his associates."

Dean cleared his throat.

Cas looked at him with concern "Does your throat trouble you?"

Cas's dad sighed "He wants you to introduce us, Castiel." He spoke like he was talking to a five year old.

"You don't have to patronize him" Dean said.

"Yes, I think I do. I know who you are, Dean Winchester. I was with my son when he raised you from Perdition. I am Sachiel." Oh right, that was his name, the head honcho of the Thursday angels apparently.

Dean was kept from retorting by a very pointed look from Cas. Cas said to Sachiel "Why are you here, Father? Is my presence required in Heaven?" Oh it better damn well not be.

"Not at this time." Thank God "Your brother Samandriel has issue finding a vessel otherwise he would have come himself."

"He is well then?"

"Yes. He sends his love to you and your mother." Sachiel sighed again and some of the cold left his eyes. "It would do you good to visit her, I think."

Cas nodded "Do you have a message for her?"

"I will visit her dreams. I must go now." He looked at Dean, the hard edge back in his eyes "You hurt my son again and I will not hesitate to smite you" with that he was gone.

"I'm sorry about that, Dean" Cas said "My father, well, you saw."

"At least my dad never talked to me like I was five, not even when I was five. What the hell did your mom ever see in him?"

"You'll have to ask her. Can we go and see her?"

Dean calmed down "Of course, Cas. Let's spend a couple days at Bobby's first though. I'm beat."

"Of course."

Dean sighed and put the car back into drive "You know, there seems to be a long line of folks that'll smite my ass if I hurt you."

"I'm sorry."

"Nah, don't be. It means they love you."

…

They reached Bobby's about ten minutes after Bobby did and after spilling some whiskey for Sam, Dean and Cas went upstairs.

"I'm sorry about Balthazar" Dean said because he hadn't yet.

Cas sat next to him on the bed "And I'm sorry about Sam. I truly wish he did not have to do that." He took a breath "Dean, I heard what he told you in the car."

"You did huh?"

"Yes. He didn't make me promise not to try and bring him back."

Dean grabbed Cas's hand "I love loopholes. Do you think it's possible?"

"It would be difficult. We would have to figure out a way to retrieve him without freeing Michael and Lucifer. It may take some time."

"Hey, as long as we're trying. I can't not try, you know?"

"Yes."

Dean squeezed Cas's hand "Will you tell me about Balthazar? By the sounds of it, he wasn't as much of a dick as I thought."

Cas shrugged "He had his moments. Heh, he was so hedonistic he made Gabriel look like a choir boy."

Dean snorted "No shit?"

"Yes and many times he would do something wrong and somehow I would get in trouble for it."

Dean laughed a little "Why am I not surprised? Well, you know, Sammy was so well behaved till he became a teenager and learned how to talk back to Dad."

"Balthazar always talked back to our father. The only thing they agreed on was their opinion of you."

"Well of course."

They continued swapping stories about their brothers till Dean just couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.

…

The next day Dean sat out on the porch contemplating. He had told Castiel he might like to work on one of the 'junkers' before they left for San Diego. Castiel brought him out a beer and sat next to him. "Dean?"

"Yeah babe?" Dean took the beer.

"I was wondering if you'd like to drive to San Diego?"

Dean arched an eyebrow "Yeah but why do you?"

Castiel sat in Dean's lap—such actions were okay as long as nobody was watching "I thought maybe we could look for hunts along the way. I think it would do us both immense good to kill something."

The beginnings of a smile touched Dean's lips and he pulled Castiel into a kiss "I like the way you think."

To be continued in "Amazing Grace."

So as promised here's a couple of snippets of the next part:

"A barn" Castiel said as they were watching the vampires' hideout from a covering of trees.

"No shit Cas" Dean rolled his eyes "They like to hole up in shitty places like this."

"No, Dean. I want to put that on the list. We met in corporeal form in a barn and I would like to copulate in one, possibly the one where we met."

Dean smirked at him "As long as you stop saying copulate, I'm game."

"I hope you're here to kill the vampires instead of just watching them all day."

The voice had come out of nowhere, its owner being so stealthy neither angel nor hunter heard him come up behind them. They both turned, favored weapons drawn.

"Jesus Christ!" Dean exclaimed. Castiel just stared. The man was familiar.

The man smirked "Where? He owes me a cup of wine."

Dean leveled his gun at him "Who the hell are you?"

"I guess I'm a hunter, like yourselves I assume." His eyes fell on Castiel's angel blade "Well, I reckon you're a bit more than a hunter, aren't you Columbo?"

The man was definitely familiar, by his snark alone. Castiel peered at him closely "Methos?" he asked.

...And:

After a while and failing to find an escape route, Sam just sat back—from a hiding place—to watch the Battle Royale. It was kind of like the WWE in a way, especially when Lucifer picked up a chair. Eventually though, even that started to bore him. Honestly would those two ever tire of each other? Not that he wanted them to focus their rage on him though. That would majorly suck.

"Psst!"

What the hell? Was that somebody saying "Psst!"? Sam focused his hearing.

"Psst! Sam! Over here!" the whispered voice seemed familiar and in light of the vast boredom Sam decided to check it out.

He got up and turned in the direction the voice was coming from "Who's there?" he whispered back.

"Me!"

"Who's me?" the voice was coming from behind a mirror and Sam stepped closer, after making sure Michael and Lucifer were still preoccupied with one another.

The voice sighed "It's Gabriel."

"Gab…?"

"Shh! Don't let them hear you. Come behind here."

Figuring anything was better than the angels catching him Sam stepped behind the mirror "I thought you were dead." He saw Gabriel's wings too, they were white like one would expect an angel's wings to be only there was a golden shimmer to them. Not only that there seemed to be a golden shimmer to all of him, maybe because he was wearing what resembled the garb of a Roman Centurion, only white as his wings and the breast plate seemed to be made from pure gold with Enochian symbols etched into it. A silver angel blade hung at his side and he was wearing long strappy sandals.

"I was but I got better. You think Castiel is the only angel the Big Guy's ever brought back?"

Sam let out a breath "What are you doing here?" he was going to save the 'why are you dressed like that?' for later.

"I'm here to rescue you; what do you think, you cave man?"

I told you Gabriel was gonna be all right. Stay tuned. And please, please review. Even if it's just to tell me you're favorite quote from the story or what you look forward to in the next installment. The more reviews, the sooner the next part starts getting posted.

TTFN