angelspy, 4/5

[wonderfoal]

Under (the) Cover(s), part four.
main header and part one | part two | part three | part four | part five



Chapter Eight

Dean had been puking his guts out for the past two weeks, and Sam was at the point that he was going to hogtie his brother and haul him to the hospital against his will. The only thing stopping him was the risk of discovery - they both knew that the ward magic had changed Dean, had taken an edge away from his humanity. They’d never found out the full extent of those changes - there was no one they trusted enough to examine him. If someone thought he was a monster - well, they had been down that road with Sam before and it wasn’t pretty.

“Are all those double bacon cheeseburgers getting their revenge? E. coli strikes back?” Loki asked from behind him. Sam shut his eyes in relief that his boyfriend was back. He worried about him meeting with the other pagan gods - they were a nasty bunch and Loki didn’t have a lot of friends among them. But they were out of control and mad - at humans and the angels. They wanted to kick up the fight, and that could spell disaster for all of them. Loki was trying to calm the fervor... he had some allies, but it was a slow battle and it took him away from Sam’s side more than the hunter liked.

“Something’s wrong with Dean,” Sam told him seriously. “He’s been like this for days.”

Loki frowned and walked over to his brother, knelt beside him on the floor with lips pinched in distaste. Dean looked up at him, his face pale and sweaty. He didn’t even have a sarcastic comment for Loki, so Sam knew more than ever something was dreadfully wrong with him.

“Sit back,” Loki ordered. He pressed his ear against Dean’s chest and then brought one hand up to his face.

“What - are you Dr. Sexy, M.D., now?”

Loki snorted. “Your brother thinks so,” he said and waggled his eyebrows in Sam’s direction. Dean looked suddenly sick again and heaved into the toilet. Loki’s hand slid down to his abdomen and lingered there.

“God, kill me now,” Dean moaned.

Sam looked to Loki and felt dread tighten in his stomach at the serious expression on his face. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked.

Looking back at Dean leaning on the toilet, Loki nodded slowly. “I’m guessing you’ve never seen an afterschool special,” he said lightly.

“What?” Dean groaned.

“You’ve been having unprotected sex, genius.” He huffed. “I told John-“ he started and shut up immediately. “That energy pumping through you,” he prodded the amulet around Dean’s neck, “is not just for show. It has consequences.” Sam looked at him, startled that he knew the truth about Dean’s burden. They’d never told a soul - Bobby knew from when their dad was the one who had it, and Ellen of course was around when it happened. They’d kept it between the four of them - not even Jo knew.

Dean shot Sam a betrayed stare, but Sam put his hands up defensively. “I didn’t say a word, dude.”

Loki snorted. “I already knew about it,” he said and waved it off. “You’re forgetting that I’ve been around awhile.”

“So what’s wrong with Dean? Is the amulet making him sick - now? After all these years?”

“You said unprotected sex,” Dean said levelly. “I have a disease?”

“No and no,” Loki answered. “You’re knocked up.”

Sam laughed and the other two turned to look at him. He stopped and glanced from one to the other. “Dean’s a guy,” he said. “He can’t be pregnant.”

“What he said,” Dean moaned before heaving into the toilet.

Loki rolled his eyes. “No Trick, I swear. That amulet is packed full of female energy. He’s been wearing it for years, right?”

“Since he was ten,” Sam answered when Dean kept heaving.

“Right. You had to know he was different since he started wearing it.”

Sam nodded. Dean moaned again. “Are you saying I’m turning into a chick?”

Loki snorted. “That would be a sight. No. It’s done all it’s going to do.... probably,” he added with a wink to Sam. His face grew serious again. “It wouldn’t be a problem with a normal guy, but the father was an angel...” Dean went rigid and Sam scowled at the reminder of Castiel’s betrayal. It had been two months and the sting hadn’t faded for Dean.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Dean asked, eyes closed and head leaning against the toilet.

“How angels reproduce,” Loki explained. He bit his lip. “Did you ever feel like you were getting a bad sunburn when you had sex? See any white lights? That’s angel-boy in his true form. You’re not supposed to see it in a human body. I’m guessing he didn’t have a lot of control.” There was something that Loki wasn’t adding to that, something hidden in his eyes, but Sam wouldn’t pry just yet. His brother had enough to deal with.

Dean sagged against the toilet. “God.”

Castiel was stranded on Earth. He had no way to Heaven and no way to Dean. He wasn’t sure what he would do if he were able to travel to either.

He’d never been banished before and it took its toll on him. He’d woken up days later in the middle of the Atacama Desert. It was very dry and his amulet was completely drained. Now that he’d been revealed, he saw no point in doing things the human way and had tried flying as a means of transportation. It hadn’t ended well. Within a second, he had realized it was a mistake. The human’s wards affected him now, bounced him around like a pinball machine until he was just five miles from his starting point.

He had to travel on foot, and it was unbearably slow.

He wanted to go to the Harvelle’s Roadhouse again. He had to see Dean and that was the only place he knew to look. It had been two months and he had no idea where the hunter was. He knew Dean wouldn’t want to see him, but he had no other choice - the thought of never seeing him again was too painful.

“Watching you is painful,” a bored voice said from behind him. He whirled around to see the disguised angel “Loki” watching him.

“What do you want?” he growled. “I didn’t compromise your identity.” Though I should have, he thought. It wasn’t right what he had done to Dean, and it wasn’t right what this angel was doing to Sam.

“You really love him, don’t you?” Loki asked thoughtfully. “I so was sure you didn’t, knew you were only in it for the angel wards.”

Castiel shrugged. “I don’t care about that.” He wished he had realized it sooner.

Loki nodded. “You know-I believe you.” He approached Castiel and plucked the useless amulet from his chest. Castiel had considered throwing it away several times, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He wanted to hope...

“It’s too late,” Castiel informed him. “I told Dean the truth, and he banished me.”

“I noticed,” Loki said with a raised brow. “It’s called a lover’s tiff,” he said with fake helpfulness. “You have a fight, then you kiss and make up.” He wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

Castiel looked away. “This isn’t so easy.”

Loki scoffed. “You won’t know until you try.” The amulet in his hand started glowing and Castiel could feel the power throbbing in it.

“What-“ Castiel started, but the light flared brightly. When the light faded, the other angel was gone. Castiel stood in shock. The only ones who could power the amulet were archangels... That was not Raphael, Michael never left heaven, and Lucifer was bound in Hell. He closed his eyes in gratitude. “Thank you, Gabriel.”

Castiel reappeared at the Roadhouse with a flutter of wings. The parking lot was empty, even though it was dusk. He knew from his last visit there that it should have been busy with customers. He walked to the door and cautiously stepped inside.

The long barrel of a shotgun greeted him. Castiel stopped and met Ellen’s eyes unblinkingly. “An angel in my bar,” she said lowly. She stared at him for several long minutes before lowering the gun. “Wouldn’t do any good anyway,” she said. “Get inside.”

Castiel was surprised that she would knowingly allow him entrance into her home. He followed at her heels and she walked him to a back room. “Mrs. Harvelle-“

“What are you doing here?”

“I need to see Dean,” he said.

She nodded slowly. “The only reason I haven’t sigil-slapped your ass out of here is because you saved my daughter’s life and I want to know why. What was in it for you?”

Castiel shook his head. He thought about the girl lying unconscious in a nest of demons, remembered how he didn’t want her to die there. “It was the right thing to do.”

She scoffed. “Since when have angels been concerned with doing the right thing?”

Castiel lowered his head. “I love Dean.”

She looked like she didn’t believe it, or didn’t want to believe it. “I didn’t think angels loved anybody.”

People believed it, but Castiel had never understood why. “We love God. We love our families.” He thought of Dean lying asleep beside him. “We fall in love.”

Something must have shown on his face or in his voice. Ellen softened to him and almost smiled. It didn’t last long... then she looked at him sternly again. “Those boys have been like my own sons, even before their mother died. You hurt Dean bad, and no one is going to soon forget it.”

Castiel nodded. “I need to see him, I have to tell him-“

Castiel stopped as he looked behind her at a photograph on the wall. It showed two families, smiling at the camera, each with a young baby. He stood and walked to it, eyes fixed on what could only be Dean as a young boy, cradling baby Sam in his arms. Behind him was a man, presumably his father, and Mary Campbell. “This woman,” he started.

Ellen joined him by the wall. “That’s Dean’s mother, Mary.”

Castiel felt something cold twist inside him. “Mary Campbell?”

Ellen nodded. “Until she married John Winchester.”

He closed his eyes. “I heard some other hunters talking about her. They said...” He couldn’t say it, couldn’t face the enormity of what he had done. “Where is her husband?”

Ellen looked surprised at the turn in conversation. “John died some years ago,” she said. “Demons.”

Castiel couldn’t put it into words. Human inheritance... Dean would have what John did. Dean would be... Dean was-

Weeks ago, Gabriel had warned him. You have no idea... When you figure out what you’re doing, you’ll be sorry for it. He was right, and Castiel was sorry.

Dear Father, he prayed. Please don’t let me be right. Please don’t let it be Dean.

It had been months since he’d alerted Heaven about his lead. They hadn’t moved on it, maybe it didn’t work out, maybe it was bad information, maybe --

The lights flickered out, leaving the room in total darkness. Castiel felt his grace resonate, even thought it was distant. Raphael.

Castiel had never known such fear. The archangel wouldn’t be coming for him, but for Dean. Castiel had done this-Castiel had painted a target right on Dean’s back. He had to stop it, he had to save Dean.

Ellen lit a candle and started towards the door. “I’m going for the back-up generator. You stay put.”

“There is no time,” Castiel told her. “It’s the archangel.”

“What?!” She grabbed him by the arm, just as several phones started ringing behind the bar. “What do you mean, the archangel - what did you do?”

“Something terrible,” Castiel breathed. “I didn’t know.” He gripped her arms tightly. “Ellen, I have to save Dean. Tell me where he is!”



Chapter Nine

“I don’t like splitting up,” Sam complained for the sixteenth time.

“I can take care of myself,” Dean snapped. Sam cast a glance down to Dean’s abdomen and Dean wanted to punch him. “And the kid, too.”

Just when he thought his life couldn’t get any worse - his boyfriend turned out to be a douchebag angel - and now he was having a freaky half-angel mutant baby.

Something fluttered inside him, something that had nothing to do with nausea. He didn’t know why he had decided to keep the baby, why he didn’t remove it as soon as he realized that it was there. Every time he thought about it, his brain flashed the image of Cas -- Castiel - as he’d seen him last. He could picture it clearly in his mind. Castiel had been crying, his blue, blue eyes wet with tears. It was one of the strangest things Dean had ever seen, now that he knew he was an angel. Angels didn’t cry, but Castiel had for him.

“I just worry about you,” Sam said heatedly. “And about the baby.”

Dean was sick of hearing about the baby. Loki knew of course, and Sam, but that was it. And his brother still managed to bring it up on a daily basis. Dean didn’t want to think about the baby, didn’t want to wonder if it would be born a human or some kind of nasty blob. Angels didn’t have real shapes - the human body was just a disguise. Who knew what Cas had pumped into him.

Shit. Don’t go there, he told himself.

“I don’t like you being on your own,” Sam said again.

Dean snapped. “And I don’t like this wrinkly old witch sucking the energy out those kids, but we can’t do anything about it. Oh wait, we can.”

“Dean-“

“We know the shtriga is getting its supper tonight, and we know it’s in one of two of these kids’ homes. Now, there’s two of us, and two kids to watch. I’m not seeing a lot of options.”

Sam sighed in defeat. “You’re right. Just... call if it shows up so I can give some backup.”

That had been two hours ago, and the shtriga hadn’t showed. Dean gnawed his way through a second chocolate bar and kept his eyes firmly on the house across the street. He had a straight view into the kid’s bedroom, would know if any nasty came calling.

Dean absolutely hated shtrigas. He hated anything that preyed on kids. He’d always wanted his own family, always wanted to be a dad. He just never wanted it like this. The thought of the baby inside him wrenched his heart and he couldn’t stand thinking about it. It was a child, it was part of him... it was part of Castiel, part angel.

He’d thought he’d had something good in his life, but he should have known better. He was Dean Winchester, and his family was cursed.

He missed beer, he mused as he sipped his - good God - caffeine-free Coke. Sam had insisted on buying all the food since he was sure Dean wouldn’t do it right. “Caffeine is bad for the baby,” Sam had told him when he caught him drinking a cola. Dean idly wanted Sam in his shoes, see how he liked it.

He immediately noticed the flicker of lights in the house. The kid had a nightlight and Dean had been using it to watch for shadows. He grabbed his gun and straightened up in the seat. “Come on, ugly,” he coaxed, prepared to run after the shtriga as soon as it showed. He couldn’t appear too soon or it would run away. He had to hit it right as it fed.

The lights flickered again, only this time the house blacked out. “Shit!” he cursed and opened the door. He glanced at the neighbor’s house and they were blackened, too. A quick sweep of the neighborhood revealed no lights at all. Dean clutched the gun tight in his hand and felt foreboding drop like a stone in his stomach. “Something’s not right here,” he whispered, eyes scanning the darkness.

“Something has not been right for a long time, Dean Winchester. I’m here to fix that.”

Dean whirled around to see a tall black man in a suit behind him. Dean had seen angels before - even before meeting Castiel - and this one screamed “big bad angel” at him. He felt power tingle over his skin, saw the hairs on his arm rise. “Who are you?”

“I am Raphael,” the man said.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Raphael was an archangel - it certainly explained the power outage. The fucker probably blacked out half of the country. It was no secret when an archangel descended to Earth. A hunter by himself couldn’t tell, it looked like a normal power outage. But with the hunters’ community spanning the globe, people reported in. The news stations broadcasted big power outages, too, so it wasn’t hard to know something was up. Right now, people would be scrambling to get their sigils ready, to use the only defense they had against an archangel. Wards were meaningless to them, but they could banish them right off the planet if they did it right.

“I’m flattered,” Dean told him, voice enthused with cockiness he didn’t feel. Raphael was targeting him directly, knew his name specifically. That couldn’t mean anything good.

Raphael’s eyes zeroed in on the amulet around his neck and Dean knew it was over. The angels had found out. They’d kill him, destroy the amulet, and one fourth of the globe would be open to invasion. It wouldn’t take long for the other three corners to crumble - everything they’d worked for, died for, would be gone. “You’ve been quite the pain in my ass,” he told Dean, lips pulled back in a cruel smile.

Dean said nothing - could say nothing. He tried to be as subtle as possible as he sliced his finger against the knife in his belt, felt blood oozing up. If he could just get a sigil drawn-

“I don’t think so,” Raphael said from right beside his ear. Dean jerked and could barely cry out as Raphael grabbed his arm and twisted it around until it snapped. “Dean Winchester,” he mocked. “We’ve been looking for you for a very long time.”

“Well, you’ve found me,” he breathed through the pain.

Rapheal smiled at him again and it sent chills down Dean’s spine. “Yes, finally.”

Dean wasn’t afraid to die. He didn’t want to die, but he wasn’t afraid of it. He just wished someone else had the amulet, that someone else was far away and safe-When Dean died it was going to all come crumbling down. He wanted Sam by his side, wanted to say goodbye to Ellen and Jo and Bobby. He wanted - he wanted to see his kid, apologize for every bad thing he’d ever thought about it. Castiel’s face flashed in his mind, not the despair he had last seen on it, but a tender smile that reflected brightly in his eyes.

“Earth doesn’t belong to you,” he said, defiant until the end. “No matter how many times you try to grind us down-“

Raphael laughed. “Don’t be so melodramatic. What makes you think I’m going to kill you?”

“You bastards kill everyone. You killed my mother, Uncle Bill, so many of my friends-“

“Poor, stupid child. We could have use for you. For this,” he said as his hand brushed against Dean’s abdomen. “That’s a rare thing, we might grant you leniency.”

“Go to Hell.”

Raphael’s lips pursed. “Or we might not. The half-breed... could be useful to us.” Dean felt a parent’s fear for his child, that bone-gnawing, heart-pounding terror. Raphael leaned in close, spoke directly into Dean’s ear again. “And for the record, you hate us for all the wrong reasons. Angels did not kill your mother.”

Dean’s face contorted in rage. He remembered his dad and Bobby coming home without her, remembered their words. They’d found her with an angel, that one injured from their fight. It had escaped, wounded, but Mary hadn’t been so lucky. “Shut your lying mouth.”

Raphael looked amused. “Don’t believe me?” He chuckled. “I’ll show you, just so you can feel that ripe agony of having your purpose ripped away.”

The air around them wavered and Dean was looking at a warzone. Smoke and flames billowed out of buildings, glass and grime covered the streets. People ran, screaming. Dean’s eyes zeroed in on the plumes of black smoke - demons. “What the hell did you do?” he snarled.

Raphael smirked. “I’m showing you the truth, of course. You hate us for something we didn’t even do. I’m going to take away that hatred, and give you something to really hate us for.”

Dean watched as figures rushed by one of the buildings and darted inside. Dean would recognize his mother anywhere. Raphael released him and he followed after her, calling for her although she couldn’t hear him. His mom was just as beautiful as he remembered, and clearly in her element. Her long blonde hair was tied back and she was wielding holy water and pink chalk. She kneeled to start drawing a devil’s trap and Dean finally shifted his eyes to her companion.

The woman was a skinny redhead, kinda pretty. Dean would probably sleep with her if she offered. She was wounded to the side - Dean could see blood flooding out of the injury. She had both hands pressed to it and was looking too pale for comfort. “That should do it,” she told Mary. “I still have some energy left. If you shut your eyes-“

“You’ll die,” Mary snapped. “Anna, you’re going to be all right.”

“They never had angel-killing blades before,” she gasped and slumped to the ground. Dean stared at her, wondering how this woman could be an angel, how his mom could work with her.

Mary’s face was speckled with blood, and she looked tired. “I’ve never seen so many,” she admitted.

Anna nodded. “It’s bad. Really bad. We spend so much time fighting each other-“ she stopped as the roof groaned and started caving in. Mary helped her to her feet and let her lean against her shoulder as they hurried to the exit.

Dean watched, unable to move, as a demon appeared. He was different from the rest - had sulfurous yellow eyes and a wicked smirk. He was in the body of Bill Harvelle. Dean thought he was going to be sick. “Hello Mary, long time no see.”

“You!” his mother spat, throwing holy water at him to little effect.

He stepped closer. “I’ll bet you thought you could renege on our deal.” He chuckled. “Well, you can’t. I’ve already been by to see little Sammy. He’s going to grow up big and strong.”

“Stay away from my kids-“

“But then I remembered what a dynamite babe you were,” he looked her up and down. “And I mean were and just knew I had to drop by to say hello.” His eyes flickered over to the angel beside her. “Still hanging around with trash I see.”

“Mary, close your eyes,” the angel warned.

“I don’t think so,” the demon smirked. He lunged and the angel crumpled. When he stepped back, Dean saw the angel killing blade. The angel wasn’t dead, but the knife had done a number on her. Blood welled up in her throat and her eyes were wide, even as she continued gushing blood from her wounds.

Mary didn’t take her eyes off the demon. She edged around, trying to lure the demon... Dean saw a devil’s trap behind her. He knew it wouldn’t work, knew how the story ended. His heart pumped hard in his chest; he could barely feel the pain from his broken arm. All of his thoughts were on his mother, silently willing her to live, to escape from this demon.

Mary tried to push him into the trap, but the demon was too good for that. He brought the angel-killing blade up and shoved it cleanly through Mary’s gut. Dean watched in horror as blood puddled up over her midsection and she fell to the ground already dead. She fell onto the floor beside the angel, who even now was gasping for breath.

“Easy there, sweetie,” the demon told the angel. He dropped the knife and it landed with a clatter beside the angel. “I’m not going to be needing this anymore,” he told her. “I’ve got the feeling that the angels are heading back to Bible camp.” With that, he left Uncle Bill’s body in a cloud of black smoke.

Dean stood staring at the corpse of his mother for several long moments. He barely registered the angel trying to move, slowly picking herself up. He only moved when he heard his dad’s voice echo in the building. “Mary!” he called, and Dean felt tears falling down his face.

Raphael reappeared beside him, smiling smugly. “I’m not making this up,” he said. Dean raised his eyes in silent confrontation. “All these years, you’ve been blaming us for your family’s problems, but it wasn’t us. It was demons. It was Mary Winchester herself who sold your little brother to them.”

Dean reached out and punched Raphael without thinking. His hand shattered under the force of hitting him - it was harder than punching a wall. Now he had one broken hand and another broken arm.

Raphael’s smug amusement morphed into a flat look of distaste. “You stupid-“ he snagged Dean’s arm and squeezed painfully as the air wavered again. They were back on the street in front of the house where he had been waiting for the shtriga. The Impala was just feet away. This time, they weren’t alone.

“Raphael,” Castiel said flatly.

“Castiel,” Raphael acknowledged. “Your orders were to return home.”

It was hard for Dean to look at him. Here was the man he’d thought he loved, who he thought loved him, and he was working for slime like Raphael. “I never got those orders,” Castiel said, fingers unbuttoning his suit jacket slowly. “And I don’t want them.”

Raphael’s eyes narrowed. “What is going on in that simple brain of yours?”

“I won’t let you take Dean Winchester. You’re not going to kill him. I’ll die first.”

Raphael hmm’d like he was amused. “And what are you going to do about it?”

Dean’s eyes locked on the buttons Castiel was slowly undoing on his shirt. He saw something dark underneath - was he hurt?

“Dean.”

Dean’s eyes slid up to Castiel’s, and he saw the love in them, the regret, the... resignation? “Cas?” he asked.

“I love you, and I’m sorry.” With that he pulled the clothing off and stood shirtless before them. Some kind of sigil had been carved in his flesh, but it wasn’t one Dean had ever seen before. Raphael stiffened beside him.

“Castiel,” he said darkly. “You will not-“

But the words broke off as Castiel met Dean’s eyes and slapped his bloody hand to the sigil on his chest. The world exploded into light and Dean staggered from the force of it.

When he opened his eyes, two bodies lay in front of him. On the ground beside them were the long gray shadows of wings. Dean had seen them before. They were the only positive proof of an angel’s death. Dean staggered to the ground beside Cas and put one had on his body, one on the impression of his wings. “Cas,” he tried, and was startled at how choked his voice was. He felt hot tears running down his face but didn’t remember crying. “Cas,” he tried, louder. Cas didn’t move, didn’t respond. He dragged a finger through the wings left behind on the ground and couldn’t deny it any longer - Castiel was dead.

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