"I can't," Amy told him, and Ben's world collapsed.

"Please?" he said, one more time, like that would make all the difference.

She blinked at him, like he'd said he wanted her to start doing the cha cha. "Of course," she said, so gentle, and Ben's heart restarted. "Idiot, Braden, of course I'll heal her. I'll do what I can. But!" She glared, gestured to herself. "I'm tired. A little."

Ben wanted to hit himself upside the head. "Oh. Right."

" 'Oh. Right'." Amy mimicked, and kicked Ben in the shin. "Yeah, Benny boy. Apparently combining with an archangel and doing a mega demon exorcism with wings takes it out of you." A thoughtful look. "Speaking of which!"

Amy turned, and Ben realized that she was wearing a new shirt. Right. Her old one had been in tatters after the whole Wings On Fire thing. "You got a new shirt."

Amy sighed, did some sort of contortionist thing to pull down the neck of her shirt. "Yeah, but that's not what I was going for. Look."

Then Ben saw it. Long black marks, sharp but delicate. Feathers. Not real ones, but ink, the top of magnificent wings poking up through the neck of Amy's shirt. "You got wing tattoos?"

Amy let go of her shirt, turned and settled back into the chair. "Oh yeah. I dunno if they're permanent, whether they're for a day or just until Gabriel leaves my body." A shrug. "Either way, they're hella cool."

"Hella?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "Hella. Shush." She nestled deeper in the seat, into the faded plaid cushion. She didn't look all that out of place in the hospital room, either, what with the almost-bruised looking circles under her eyes and scabs on the palms of her hands from when she fell when Gabriel fell asleep. "And, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a minute to work up the willpower to go find my idiot brother and a place to sleep."

Ben grinned. "Oh, so he's an idiot now?"

Amy closed her eyes, tipped her head back to rest against the chair. Her new wings weren't visible, but it still felt odd to know they were there. "He was always an idiot." She smiled, easy and lazy. "Like you."

"Hey," Ben said, but it wasn't heated. "I managed not to die. Or get possessed. So that's a win."

Amy let out a tired laugh. "Yeah, I suppose." Her hand drifted to her ribs again, like Gabriel was fluttering around somewhere inside her ribcage. "Right." Then she frowned, and her eyes turned inwards. Ben knew the signs, and he waited. Then Amy blinked, surprised. "Wow. Um. That's."

"What?" Ben resisted the urge to shake her. What was Gabriel saying now? The meaning of the universe? The PIN code for a millionaire account?

"It's about your scar." Amy gestured to Ben's shoulder, and he looked down to see the seared rip in his shirt hanging wide, and his face went red.

"Oh," he said. Attempted to cover it. "That. What about it?"

"It's..." she petered out, eyes flicking back and forth like she was reading off a teleprompter. "A sort of blessing? General good luck, I think."

Ben blinked. "Wow. That's pretty cool." He dropped his hand, stared harder at the odd little rune. "Huh!"

"That's not all," Amy said, and nudged him with her shoulder. "It's also an anti-possession rune, so you don't need to worry about getting a tattoo, lucky duck."

"Wow," Ben said again, but Amy wasn't done.

"Apparently you're the first person, um... ever to get that." She rubbed her forehead. "Something about me getting combined with Gabriel tempered and changed the power of the wings. Ordinarily, you'd get immolated at a touch of the actual things."

"Well," Ben said, and dropped his hand off his shoulder. "That... well. Um."

Amy snorted. "That would be the clue to get my butt to bed." She stood, swaying. "I'll see you later, Braeden."

Ben's fingers tightened on his mother's blanket, and he nodded. He didn't ask how long it would take for Amy to get enough power to heal her. It wasn't fair, not with her standing there, listing with an invitation of, I'll stay, if you need me in her eyes. "Go," he told her, and tried to believe it. "I'll be fine."

Amy made sure to lean over and ruffle his hair before making her way to the door. And call, just as she walked out. "See ya later, Princess."

Ben let his grin settle into something more real. "See you," he yelled after her, "Amazing Amriel."

Her laughter drifted down the hall. "I am, aren't I?"

And then she was gone, Ben left with his mother. He pulled the chair closer, settled his head into his arms close to her side, tried to pull good memories from thin air. He'd told Amy the truth, and he was telling it to himself, too. He would be fine.

The hours ticked by quickly, Ben dozing off for short intervals, always brought back by an alarm. Someone else on the floor would code, someone in the ICU would die and come back, or just plain die. It wasn't a comforting place to sleep.

The police came, too, and once Ben had reassured him that yeah, he was actually Benjamin Isaac Braeden (his full name was a bit much, he'd always thought, but whatever). Yeah, he was alive and fine, and yeah, he was an idiot for not calling his mother.

And yes, he was allowed to hold his mother's hand and sleep in here overnight. He was family, after all.

And family was everything to Winchesters, wasn't it? Even the adopted ones.

At about three in the morning, even the bustling hospital darkened and quiet, Amy slipped back into the room. Ben was still awake, clutching his mother's hand like a lifeline, staring out the tiny window at the clouds. He couldn't see the stars, not in the city, but he didn't care. The clouds were colourless cotton candy, lit by the city. A tiny circlet of silver moon glowed, half hidden by a sworl of mist.

She settled into the chair beside him, leaned forwards, arms propped on her knees, and watched his mother breathe. It was silent, the kind of still that only comes in the early mornings. A radio fuzzed in the background, some sort of gentle rock turning to static.

And she said, "I did something for you and your mother, once."

She turned, looked Ben in the eye, and Ben's brain woke, his spine straightened with an audible crack. It was Gabriel, the deep eyes and regret mingled with curiosity. "Um."

Gabriel nodded, as if this was the perfect answer. Turned her attention back to Lisa, a sleeping beauty marred with dark prints and bandages. "Dean never would have been a good father, you know."

Ben frowned. That was a bit of a non-sequitur. "He seems pretty okay right now." He jerked his head to the door. Dean was sleeping elsewhere in the hospital, probably drowning in guilt. Him and Sam had come by earlier, checked in, apologized over and over again. It wasn't their fault, not even by Winchester Logic, which was, to be honest, terrible.

Gabriel sat back, started unwrapping a Snickers bar. She didn't seem all that happy with it. "Ugh. Stupid vending machine was too expensive." For the first time, Gabriel ate only a single bite of the candy instead of shoving the entire thing in her face. "Shtill good."

Ben waited. Gabriel took another bite, sighed. "Ahh." Caught his look. "What? No, really. He was a young hunter living off daddy issues and credit card fraud. Do you think he could pay child support?" Gabriel pointed the Snickers at Ben, like this was some grand piece of information. "Jacob could."

Jacob.

That was... that was Ben's father's name. Jacob. The asshole with a big enough wallet that childcare didn't bother him in the slightest. Ben remembered more than one instance of his mother buying him some treat and saying, with a wicked gleam in her eyes, "This is complements of Jacob, right baby?"

Ben had never understood, thought that maybe Jacob was a boyfriend or the name of a lottery. He hadn't been the smartest kid, but he liked to think he wasn't dumb now. Was Gabriel... Was Gabriel saying what he thought she was saying? "Do you mean... Is Dean my father?" Something started burning high in Ben's chest. "My real father?"

Gabriel shrugged and ate the other half of the candy bar in one enormous bite. "I don't have the faintest. I zapped your paternity test to Jacob without checking what it really was. Don't think I really wanted to know." Gabriel contemplated the candy wrapper, like that was the elaborate report. "Don't think it matters. You'll still follow him around like a lost puppy anyway."

Ben's jaw dropped. "You... You screwed with my paternity test? Why?"

A further shrug, and Gabriel tossed the candy wrapper aside. "Why not? I was bored. There was a chance you were Dean's kid, and, well..." Gabriel tugged a lock of Amy's hair in her face, examined that instead. It was infuriating, the way she wouldn't look at Ben. "He had a destiny. Not that I really cared, but you know. It would have sucked for this nameless shapeless little lump of human to have Dean as a father."

"You-" Ben couldn't believe this. He really could. He stood, released his mother's hand. "How could-"

Gabriel snorted, like Ben was getting himself worked up over something ridiculous. Like Ben was a pet that had just peed on the carpet. "Sorry, princess." The nickname was jarring, and Ben shut his mouth so fast he bit his tongue. "You could always double check, if you cared." A raised eyebrow. "But do you really want to? Winchesters are pretty cursed. Being an honorary Winchester is dangerous enough."

Ben sputtered. "Excuse me? Yes! It matters!" He threw his hands in the air, like they could catch the answers. HIs head was spinning. Another plot twist? Wasn't his life complicated enough oh my god. "It's my father! Half of my DNA!" He accidentally slapped himself in the face in his haste to gesture. "I look like my mom, people always remark on that! And I act like her too! So what of me have I taken from my father? What sort of-"

"Hey, hey," Gabriel stood, frightfully graceful. "Don't shoot the messenger. It's long done."

"Excuse me!" Ben yelled again. "You're not the messenger! You're the one who did it!"

Gabriel chuckled, kicked the Snickers wrapper under the bed. "Let bygones be bygones, MiniChester." She was clearly done being helpful.

Or maybe not. Gabriel drew up to the bed, looked down at Lisa like she was something precious, not just a silly little human on a silly little Earth. And she laid her hand across Lisa's forehead, and light flowed down and over, blue and white and fireworks flickering. The lights, dimmed, flared bright as the sun, and Ben covered his eyes.

Then again, everything was back to normal and-

Lisa's eyes were fluttering, her chest rising and falling more steadily, strong and even. The lining of her bruises were gone, perfect porcelain skin shining out. Gabriel turned, her eyes lit electric in that way that meant she was coming or going.

"It's been fun, MiniChester," Gabriel said, her voice rattling with those eerie angelic undertones. "Tell Amy-Angel she's more powerful than she thinks she is." A smile, canny and full of teeth. "And tell her that this isn't the end. I'll see her again."

And Amy tipped her head back, light coursing out of her mouth in a stream of radiant lustre. It coalesced, a wisp of luminescent soul, and dashed out the window. Light fell hard in the room, Amy tumbling with it. Ben caught her, barely, heavy and warm and quietly asleep, just like Lisa.

The radio fuzzed back on, the interference clearing out. It was rock, old. "Carry on my wayward son."

Lisa gasped, once, sharp, and her eyes flickered open. Ben set Amy down on the floor, carefully, and ran.

"There'll be peace when you are done."

"Ben," she whispered, voice cracking and disused, but so, so beautiful. "Oh, Ben."

"Lay your weary head to rest."

Ben wrapped his arms around her, not worrying about hurting her, sending his thanks to the sky, to Gabriel floating somewhere beyond the silvered clouds, pinking with the start of a sunrise. His throat burned, eyes brimmed. Ben was crying, and he just didn't care.

"Don't you cry no more."

Oh my god, I'm crying. Seriously. I can't believe I've finally finished posting this story. It's been almost a year, if not more. And now? Now, I'm done. I'll have nothing to do on Saturday and Tuesday morning-

Okay, okay. I'll stop. I know I'm being emotional. But- guys, I'm done.

Tell me, all you silent readers, what did you think? Did I do an okay job of foreshadowing? I certainly tried my best. The plot twists? Amy being Gabriel, and then Amy being AmyGabriel in the end, the way she moved and Ben noticed and all that. Is there anything you think I could improve upon for any future stories? Although this is my first (and likely only, unless Crushed keeps bugging me) full-length fanfiction, I've written a couple novels and novellas (plus a trillion short stories) and am always looking to see how I can improve my craft.

Did you like Amy? Did you like my interpretation of Ben and the other canon characters? This is our last hurrah — let me hear you!

Before you go! One last thing! Ben's Clues is over, but the story isn't. There's one last short story that'll be up next Tuesday on my profile. Amy Angel. It's exactly what you think it is. It's set about a year after Ben's Clues, from Amy's point of view. You get to see how they resolve everything, and also how Amy continues to be awesome even without an archangel in her head. I think you'll like it!

One last time, to EVERYONE who has read or reviewed or followed or favourited Ben's Clues - THANK YOU. Thank you SO MUCH. This has been a journey for me in every possible way and you guys paved the way. Keep being awesome! And one last time: Thank you. And goodbye, for now.