A/N: Things had been really sad for a while. We need to move on :) If you guys haven't heard this beautiful song, do so now!
"Angelica, I'm afraid I have to leave for some urgent business immediately. It is related to heaven, but I assure you, I will be back as soon as possible." Castiel said to Angelica in Bobby's living room, where Gabriel sat watching television.
"Castiel, I'm not a child. I survived before you too, you know." She smiled at him.
"Yes. Of course, you are a well grown young woman. It is just that your brothers had assigned me to take care of you until they came back." Castiel came towards her, completely unaware of Gabriel's resentful gaze at him as he spoke.
"Bobby's still here, you know." She chimed.
"This is different, Angela. You are in constant danger of angelic affliction during this time, especially now that we have Gabriel here, who is nothing but a refugee of Heaven, whom Michael is undoubtedly after." He sighed. "I had done this to your brothers about a year ago, but had never thought that circumstances would make me do this to you too." Gabriel furrowed his brows but never took his eyes of the two. "Here-"Castiel moved towards Angelica and placed one of his hands on her. A dull blue light emanated from below his hands onto her chest and she gasped.
"It is sigil. I have carved it into your ribs. No angel can track you down now. Not even any archangel." She looked at him, her eyes filled with gratitude.
"Thank you Cas. Now please, don't let me stop you. Go, I'll be fine." She assured him.
"Okay. Take care of yourself. Goodbye, Gabriel." Before Gabriel could reply, he flew away.
About an hour later, when Angelica was in the kitchen she heard her phone ring. Bobby had gone out with Rufus. They were investigating a possible spirit. She picked up her phone. It was Dean.
"Hello?" Angelica began.
"Hey, Angel? How are you? You all right?" Dean's voice made her smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Did you guys reach Baltic?" She asked in a concerned tone.
"Yeah, almost. Brady just called. Remember that guy who was Garth's friend?" She put her phone on speaker mode to continue with her dish and put it aside.
"Yeah, what happened?"
"Recently he was at Ramsay's Warehouse, an abandoned building about sixty miles outside of Bobby's place. In the vicinity are happening omens, many of them. We don't know what exactly they indicate though. Lucifer or something else. Even if it is him, we're certain he won't harm you. If it's Michael or the God Squad, they can't do anything either. And the third stooge is right there, so it eliminates all his chances. You need to investigate. We'll need minimum three days to wrap this up. Take Bobby with you."
"I can't. He's out now with Rufus." Angelica said as she continued with her work while contemplating Dean's words. Dean sighed.
"Play date?"
"I guess." She laughed.
"Okay, take Cas."
"He left. Angel business." She could feel Dean getting disappointed on the other line
"What? I told him to stay with you!" His voice rose.
"He carved in me a sigil."
"Oh, so you're marked too now?" He felt a little relieved.
"Yep."
"Well, if there's no one there, uh-" He hesitated.
"I could do it alone." She said confidently.
"We don't have the time for you to figure out mythology on your own and investigate. It'll take you too long. Also, it's too dangerous. Could you, umm, take Gabriel with you?" She stopped for a second. She could feel Gabriel quickly turn his head from the television to her.
"Yes."
"Okay, perfect. Call me when you reach there." He hung up. When she turned around she saw Gabriel sitting there with so much curiosity it made Angelica nervous. She puffed.
"Well, you heard him. Meet me down in five." She said to Gabriel and took the mug meal she had cooked out of the microwave with her to her room. Ten minutes later, she came downstairs dressed up in her hunter attire. Hair tied up in a bun and all black.
Gabriel could not choose his words.
"Are we umm, going to take the car, or uh—teleport? I don't know what will be—" He fumbled.
"We'll take a car." She headed to Bobby's yard and picked a Mustang. In about two hours, they reached their destination. They went inside the broken building. There were sigils all over the walls and two bodies hung from the roof top. Their eyes were burnt out and they were drained of all blood. Angelica headed forward to examine the bodies, whereas Gabriel walked behind her slowly observing all the drawings in blood.
"Okay. I think we've had a look. Did you get anything?" She said with a disgusted look on her face.
Gabriel was caught out of his trance. "No, I—uhh, I can't figure out if it's Michael or Lucifer. I know it's one of them, certainly. I know where we can find which one of them it is though."
She sighed. "Perfect." She took out her camera and took a few pictures. "Where are we headed to?" She asked him. "There's a motel nearby. We should stay there for the night and research. First thing in the morning, we leave." She comprehended his words.
"Let's go." They headed out and Gabriel gave Angelica directions to the motel. On reaching to their room, Gabriel flew away to get a few books that he had claimed had all that they needed. Angelica opened her laptop and started researching. When Gabriel came back he saw she was on phone with someone,
"Yeah, no, sweetie, don't worry about me. I'm okay. Yeah he was the one to send me, I promise. Yeah, he's with me. I'm safe. I'll be back tomorrow. Okay. Yeah, you too. Bye." She smiled as she hung up. Gabriel's face grew sombre.
"Castiel?" He asked her. "Yeah, he is so worried about me all the time." She said smiling, as if she had forgotten they had a 'no extra talk' policy going on. Gabriel grimaced. He put the large stack of books down. She started speaking suddenly,
"Yeah, Dean. We reached the place. Not right now, dumbo, we reached about three hours ago. No, we investigated. Yeah, he's with me. We'll be staying in a motel tonight, reach back to Bobby's by tomorrow afternoon, tops. Also tell Bobby if you speak to him that I left, I tried calling him he won't pick up. Yeah, you too. Is Sam okay? Yeah, good. Okay bye." She hung up. Gabriel's eyes wandered over to the tray placed near her feet. It was a large bowl of smoking hot noodles. "I ordered food while you were out." She said getting up to grab one of the books Gabriel brought. "I figured you don't eat so..." She justified. "No, no. I don't. I'm fine. Perfectly okay. You should eat." His clumsiness puzzled her. She took one of the books and went back to the bed and finished her bowl of noodles. No one spoke a thing while she ate. "Also, I, uhh—" Gabriel lifted his eyes from his book to look at her. She went to a table near the door and picked up a tray covered by a dish. She brought it back. "I got dessert for you too, so." It was a large piece of cake. "Thank you." Gabriel smiled at her. She didn't reply, instead took her earphones and plugged them into her phone as she got back to her book.
"Hey, I need to talk to you." Gabriel said looking straight into her eyes. She took one of her earphones out as a courtesy.
"I'm sorry." She had a poker face. He couldn't figure out if he should stop or continue.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the Alignment and everything. But trust me I wasn't trying to lure you into anything. I wanted to tell you everything in the beginning but I just-" He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "I couldn't. And I'm sorry." He concluded.
She removed the book from her lap to stretch her legs and replied,
"Gabriel, I thought we were through this. I told you to never bring this up ever again. You probably don't know this, but I tried to kill myself because I thought you died saving my kind. And because I thought—"
Gabriel looked at her with the same amount of anger and sadness that he did when he had found out about her meeting with Lucifer at the Ball. She stopped suddenly and rubbed her temples. She puffed and continued, "Of course that was before Lucifer told me-"
"Wait, what?!" His eyes had utter devastation in them. "Hold on, number one, you did what, and number two, what did he say to you?"
"I refuse to answer either. Just eat your cake and help me wrap this up. If we survive, we'll figure it out. But right now we don't have the time. Each second that passes by, poses more of a threat to not only my brothers and I, but the entire world." Gabriel did not agree with her the slightest bit. He wanted this to be over right then and there. But he didn't wish to go on with this. "You're right, we'll figure it out later."
She smiled at him, for the first time in a long time. "Good. Also, if I can do anything to help you out with the 'end of the world' stuff, please don't hide it from me now. If there's anything that you need to share or let me know, do so without any hesitation. I'm right here." And with those pleasant words she got up to get another book from Gabriel's stack of books. Those words were sweeter and more soothing to Gabriel than the first bite of the delicious cake he took that Angelica had got for him.
A/N: Who do you think it is? Michael or Lucifer? Or someone else? ;) Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading :)