Pretty, Reckless, Winchester

LXXXIII. To Beat the Devil

Rowena pulled out the bottle of blood. "Blood of a most holy man."

Dean's checked and locked the barrel of a shotgun. Holly did the same with another gun.

Sam got his siblings' attention. "Dean. Holly."

Dean and Holly looked up. Sam walked over and tossed Dean a package of glow sticks. Dean tucked them into his backpack. Nate handed Holly a pack of bandages.

Rowena reached up to pull Dean and Holly's hair out. "And ah..."

"Ow." Dean and Holly complained.

Rowena put the pieces of hair into the bowl. "Two somethings from the other side."

Cas entered the room.

"Hey. How's Gabriel?" Sam and Nate wondered.

Dean reached into a storage unit and pulled down a box of ammo.

"He said he needed a minute alone. He wanted to extract his grace by himself." Cas used air quotes. "In private."

Sam looked up with a slightly disturbed expression.

"So I left him alone in Dean's room." Cas continued.

Dean looked up, alarmed. "You what? No."

Sam smirked a little at Dean's reaction. Holly covered her mouth to hide her laugh and Nate looked amused. Cas tilted his head, puzzled.

"I hate to interrupt, but I can't be the only one to noticed the rather glaring hole in this plan." Rowena said.

While Rowena spoke, Sam and Nate packed some glow sticks into their backpacks. Dean checked his handgun before putting into it his pack. Holly twirled her knife before putting it into her backpack.

Rowena continued. "We open up the rift, it gives us a day to find and save your Mom and the boy. And it's a very big world over there, and you're not even sure where they are, so..."

While Rowena spoke, Sam loaded his handgun, as did Nate. Holly's gun was already loaded. The four hunters had been listening to Rowena while they work.

"She's right. The clock may run out on us." Cas said.

"Yeah. It might." Sam and Nate agreed.

Sam released the slide on his gun and tucked it into the back of his waistband.

"Yeah, well we don't have any better ideas." Dean replied.

"Mm, that's inspirational." Rowena muttered.

Gabriel walked into the room. "Here it is! The final ingredient -- a fresh serving of archangel grace."

He put the vial on the table with a flourish. There is only a very small amount of grace in the vial. Rowena picked it and Dean, Holly, Nate, and Sam squinted to see the small amount.

Rowena had a sour look on her face. "This is what you call a serving?"

"That is the jet fuel of divine emissions."

Dean and Holly made an ugh face at the word emissions.

Gabriel went on. "It'll be more than enough to get the job done."

Rowena and Cas exchanged skeptical glances. Cas twirled his angel blade. Rowena poured the blood of a most holy man into the bowl. Gabriel ran his fingers down his angel blade, as if testing the sharpness. Rowena crushed the blood-covered fruit with the pestle. Dean tightened the straps on his backpack, face grimly focused. Holly slid her thumbs behind the straps, closing her eyes a moment. Rowena poured in the tiny amount of grace from the vial. Sam straightened his jacket, also serious and focused. Nate took Holly's hand. The contents of the bowl began to glow.