AN: So I've decided to expand on the world of Living Among Giants and give the others their own stories too! As you can tell lol!

He knew who his next well intended target was as he stepped out of Zed's room, cracking the door behind him, his soft snores rumbling from within. He checked on Akriel on his way down the hall, still fast asleep, his grace like a strong sleeping drought when he needed it to be, he smiled as he stepped down the stone stairs carved into the wall of his Infirmary, making his way down from the Loft to the Infirmary floor below.

The other angel, the one he sought for, was standing at a rather long table beside an opened cupboard folding plain cleaned tunics that they used for their patients. Distracted by his doings, hands going through the motions as naturally as one could, watching himself work with every passing tunic.

The Archangel finds himself across the room sooner then he intended, and he calls out softly when he appears to stand at his shoulder. "Ephraim, can I have a word with you in my office?"

His Virtue stiffens, they all know what it means when the Healer asks one to have a word with him in his office, no one wants to have a word with him in his office. He sets the folded tunic down carefully, nodding, as he ducks to turn and head for the direction of his Archangel's office. His presence follows behind him, walking in step with him, and soon enough he stands in the middle of the archangel's office as the door clicks shut behind him.

A hand settles on his shoulder and he flinches, keeping his eyes trained on the floor, as he's turned in the direction of one of the seats on the opposing side of the Healer's massive oak desk. "Sit with me." Ephraim nods rigidly, stepping out from under his hand as he makes his way to his seat, sitting tenderly on the chair. There's only one way to make even the mightiest of Power's feel as though they're a fledgling again and that's sitting in the Healer's office under the guise of him wanting to have a 'word'.

The chair across from his creaks as his commander sits in it, leaning his staff against the wall behind him, he leans back and crosses his arms over his chest.

"Ephraim, look at me, please." Tentatively, he brings his eyes up, flinching as they meet the gaze of his archangel. "I am disappointed, Ephraim. Very disappointed." His eyes flit back down again. "Look at me." And back up again at the sharp order. "What do I teach, Ephraim?"

He feels like he's a small fledgling again, having been caught fighting with his brothers or being needlessly reckless, staring into his brothers disappointed eyes. Raphael didn't even need to scold, didn't need to bend you over something and burn your rear end, the disappointed gaze he held was enough to bring even the mightiest of the Power's to his knees. He's seen Nisroc quell under his disappointed gaze before, personally, he's seen Gabriel quell under it, it was just that powerful.

"Ephraim."

The medic licks his lips. "You teach us to heal."

"I do." He nods slightly. "And what is my number one rule for me teaching others my craft?"

Ephraim licks his lips again. Is it just him, or is it really stuffy in here, he wished his archangel would open the window behind his right shoulder. "For your….For us not to abuse your teachings."

Raphael nods firmly, once more, and taps his fingers over his upper arm. "And what would you say using my teachings to hunt down a fellow brother is?"

He lifts his head slightly, a small ounce of defiance in his stance, he would not have any regrets in past actions. "Castiel is no brother of mine." He shook his head firmly, one firm jerk, and held his position. "I won't regret hunting him down."

"Ephraim, why would you abuse my teachings in such a way as to hunt down a member of our family so deliberately?"

The Virtue leans forward, slamming his hand down on the desk, his temper taking hold for a moment and his Archangel blinks in surprise at the display of his rarely seen temper. "He killed you!" Ephraim shakes his head again, another angry jerk. "He took you from us!"

Raphael frowned lightly. "You sought him out because of me?" And tilted his head slightly. "Is that what you're saying?"

"You were the only thing we had left!" His Virtue throws himself back against the backrest of his chair.

The archangel's eyebrows met. "Explain yourself."

"Everything was falling apart around us, crashing to our feet, our family tearing itself apart." Ephraim spit to his feet. "No thanks to him." And his eyes glared at the thought of him with such intensity he had never really seen from his gentle, soft spoken, Ephraim before. "And you were the only stable thing we had left for hope." His fists clenched tightly. "And, he took that from us." He fell silent under his harsh breathing, his chest heavying from the exertion, tears of anger having gathered in his eyes. It was rare to see his gentle Virtue get so angry over something that seemed so mundane.

He hadn't truly understood what had happened, when he'd been told about his Virtues doings after Father had brought them back and they fixed what had been broken between them, he only remembered the pain he felt.

But coming to the realization of the pain they felt that pain was worse then any wound he would ever gain.

"You were the only thing keeping us. Our rock in the middle of a tumultuous sea. The glue that kept us from falling apart with the world around us." Ephraim shakes his head, leaning forward, burying his face in his hands. "With you gone…."

"You fell apart."

He nods. "First it was Oren. He couldn't take it anymore. Having to maintain a visage of normalcy as everything raptured around him. He was drowning long before Castiel took you, having to watch as his close friends and family tore themselves apart, and then when you were gone, he….He couldn't do it anymore." Ephraim peers up at him from over his fingers. "Then it was Constantine. Both claiming it was for Castiel, a show of the pain they felt, so he knew what he had done in taking you." He rubs his fingers over his eyes, squeezing them shut. "Then, it was just me and Zed and Akriel. We ran things. Having no time to mourn the loss of our brothers, having to pick up the slack, there were angels that needed taken care of."

"But then you couldn't do it anymore."

Ephraim nods. "We had lost everything." He takes a moment. "He took everything from us. And he wasn't even remorseful. He wasn't sorry. I couldn't…I couldn't take it. The way he didn't care. How he could cause so much pain and sorrow and think he could get away with it. He took everything." The Virtue looks up to his archangel, eyes red, looking as empty as a shell. "So….So I hunted him down. For taking you. For taking Oren. For taking Constantine. I was going to kill him, mercifully, he wouldn't have felt a thing, just a blink and all-consuming peace. He took so many lives, so I was going to take his, before he could take anymore."

He fell silent, his story shared, his explanation made. The younger angel looked down, averting his eyes from the archangels, staring at something on the floor. This particular Virtue had seen it all, the deaths of his brothers, his own death, as his remaining brothers slowly closed in on themselves, and had bottled it all up, finding himself all alone despite having two more at his sides.

Raphael rubbed his hand over his chin, taking it all in, allowing his mind to comprehend what he'd been told. He had known that his death would have hit his Virtues harshly, but for it to hit them as harshly as it did, it was concerning and heartbreaking. They relied on him to hold them together, and when he was taken from the equation, they slowly crumbled like a sandcastle under an ocean's wave.

He knew that there was much to be spoken carefully about with Oren and Constantine, a delicate matter that needed handled with great care, and Zed and Akriel needed someone to take care of them now after having taken care of others for as long as they had, but Ephraim was different. Ephraim was the observant one, the one that was always watching, even if you didn't see him. He was an empath, a trait that made him so great at what he did, made him a blessing to have when tending to particularly troubled patients, but it was just as much a blessing as it was a curse. He wouldn't have just suffered under his own emotions, he would have taken the same brunt that his brothers felt, he would have felt the destructive sorrow Oren and Constantine felt when they took their lives, he would have felt Akriel and Zed turning into themselves. He would have felt it all. And, he would have had no one to turn to.

He may have taken his own life, but he had most certainly walked in on the notion of killing Castiel, with no intention of returning should he fail. Ephraim did not take his own life, not directly, and that meant he needed handled with the same great care that Oren and Constantine did.

Not all wounds were visible to the naked eye.

"I am pulling you from your duties." Raphael's fingers came to rest just over his mouth, Ephraim looked up at him, and he continued on. "It is not permanent. I am not taking your position from you. But I am pulling you from your duties. For…For the time being." He nodded in affirmation to his own words for himself. Ephraim nodded, resignation coming over him, his eyes slowly lowering again. "It is not punishment either. I am not punishing you. I am concerned." His hand lowered from his face. "You had no intention of returning from that self-appointed suicide mission." It wasn't a question, he knew the answer to it had it been posed as one, and they both knew that. Still, Ephraim shook his head, accentuating the fact.

His archangel nods again. "No, I am most certainly concerned. You will stay where I can see you and remain where I put you if I cannot be there to watch over you, I am taking you under my care. I spend most of my days down here, we will find you a bed down here, near my station on the Infirmary floor." Ephraim nods silently, look down to his feet, not knowing what more to say. Everything he'd held back for so long had finally revealed itself and now there was nothing left to say. The chair creeks again. "Eph." A warm hand curls over his cheek, tilting his head upwards, his eyes meeting those of his archangel. "I am back now." A warm thumb brushes over his cheek bone. "And, I will fix everything."