Chapter 2

Being brought back into the world only to plummet to the Earth, it turned out, was not an enjoyable experience in Gabriel's opinion. The usual rush that came with being in the air was now replaced with a sense of terror and dread for the nearing ground. With an uncomfortable crack echoing throughout the sky, Gabriel's six golden wings unfurled, catching him just above the tree line. He looked around confused, unfamiliar with this new and color filled scenery. Only moments prior he and his grace had been scattered throughout the entire universe, floating around without a consciousness.

"What are you planning father?" Gabriel mumbled, looking at his surrounding trees as he tried to get a vague understanding of where he was. And where was the Host? Wouldn't they have picked up on powerfully godly activity live bringing and all powerful archangel back to life? Gabriel pouted, he had so been looking toward to Heaven's version of the welcoming committee. A lingering feeling of his father's power sent shivers down Gabriel's spine as it gave him one final push west. The surge of pure energy guiding him were to go almost felt foreign.

"Fine, fine I'm goin'" Gabriel snapped at the force of power, using his colossal wings to raise him high enough into the air to be out of reach from the human eye. As he ascended into the sky on another mission from his mysterious father, the former trickster being to reminisce about his two favorite muttonheads and his favorite little brother, wondering how the two hunters had been for these past years.

The eldest hunter had been terrible these past twenty four hours. With no one to help cope with the loss of the newest addition to the Winchester family and the disappearance of the angel holding his brother captive, Dean quickly found comfort in a seemingly bottomless bottle of whiskey. This was not foreign to him in the least, his borderline alcoholism had been a crutch for many years. The feeling of all his senses being dimmed as well as his consciousness made the wretched family business and all the sorrow it brought. Dean's senses were so dimmed, he completely missed the faint sound of fluttering wings he'd grown so accustomed to.

"Dean," The familiar, gravelly voice broke the blanket of silence enclosing the Men of Letters' bunker.

"Cas," Dean jumped out of the mahogany chair and practically tackled the angel in a hug normally reserved for the younger Winchester, reassuring himself that not all of his friends gone, "You're okay"

Cas was quiet for a moment, thinking back on the past events: the torture, the slaughter of more of his kin, the stealing of his brother's grace, before giving a slow nod and a slight smile, "Yes, I am fine."

Dean snorted, looking over Cas' crumpled clothing, splattered lightly with dried blood, but took the comfort Cas was offering him, "So you said you got back your angel juice?"

"I…" Cas trailed off, not wanting to admit his crime but if he had learned anything from his past experiences with the Winchester, it was that lying in this kind of business never led to anything good, "It is not mine. I...I stole it from another angel who was conspiring to help Metatron."

"You stole an angel's grace?" Dean was dumbfound but his anger was much closer to the surface. He ran his hand over his face trying to calm down and understand where Cas was coming from but Dean found that his anger only began to grow, "What you mean you stole one of those assholes' grace? Dammit Cas is it...are you even..?"

"Yes," Cas cut him off, "I am still me, I have consciousness over the grace and it is beginning to become my own."

"So what grace is like a fucking battery? You run out of it so you just get some more?" Dean's voice rose. This reminded him far too much of the last time Cas got hold of power that wasn't this.

Cas sighed, the familiar ache in his chest since he had disappointed Dean all those years ago seemed to grow, the pain coursing through his body which he had come to know as guilt, "I can assure you Dean that I have control over this grace and that I will only be using it to aid you in stopping Metatron"

"That's not my priority right now, Cas. Sammy's in trouble and Kevin," Dean felt as his eyes began to water up again, "Cas, Kevin's dead. Gadreel…he-"

"Gadreel was here? Dean, Gadreel is a very dangerous angel," It was Cas' turn to be angry but the anger seem to transform within seconds into dread and fear for his friends' lives, "What happened to Sam and Kevin?"

"I'm gonna need another drink," Dean mumbled, slumping back into his seat motioning for Cas to take the seat across from him as he poured them both the what was left of the bottle of whiskey.

Downing majority of the liquid in his glass, Dean waited for the burning sensation of alcohol to consume his body before taking a deep breath and started to tell the story of what had really happened after he had stopped Sam from finishing the trials, sparing no gory or gruesome detail. He admitted to Cas about how Gadreel had brought both Cas and Charlie back to life and saved Sam multiple times since the angels fell. He told about all the hunts they had been on and how many Gadreel had actually helped with. He also spoke of the horrible ultimatum Gadreel had made, making him choose between two of the only people he cared about. And lastly, Dean explained how Gadreel had been tricking him all along and had killed Kevin.

Cas listened quietly, not daring to set off Dean with a single word. He winced at the description of Kevin's and his own death. He knew Dean was not sparing a gory detail when he described finding him after the reaper's torture. He wasn't sure how Dean had even been able to keep up this facade for Sam for so long. Kevin's death had been the worst of all. As Dean described the event, Cas could practically see the self-hate and guilt dripping off his wounded soul. There was no doubt in either of their minds that Dean blamed himself completely for Kevin's death.

"Dean," Cas started putting his hand on Dean's thigh, as a sign of solidarity he had seen humans do before, "We will get Sam back from Gadreel."

Dean looked up, meeting Cas' eyes with his own watery, green ones and gave a slight smile, "Thanks Cas."

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