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“So this is the Biblical Apocalypse. Angels are real, God’s real, my son’s not just destined to be the King of Hell he’s supposed to be Lucifer’s meatsuit for the final showdown against Michael, who will be puppeting my other son, and I’m supposed to do… what the hell, exactly, about it? Sam wouldn’t listen to me even before Dean failed his one damn job in life and let him become a demon bitch.” John crossed his arms, glaring at the two people standing in front of him. “Have a hard time believing you brought me back to life just to join you for popcorn as you watch the showdown.”
“Nah, of course not. We brought you back to life because we’re hoping to throw a wrinkle at our big brothers that’s gonna mess up the plan. See, Mike and Luci both have their little meat puppets heading for a family showdown – or will, once Dean breaks and gives up the fight because he has no faith in Sam, and Sam realizes that as bad as the Apocalypse is gonna be, a prolonged hunt with a powered-up Mikey hunting an increasingly desperate Luci is gonna just make it worse.”
“What my brother is trying to say is that neither Michael nor Lucifer expects Gabriel or I to show up with our own Winchester for the family reunion,” Raphael interrupted as Gabriel paused for breath. “It won’t be comfortable, but it won’t be for long. Once the showdown is over, however that ends, Gabriel and I will vacate the premises without causing damage, and you will be free to resume your life.”
“Or die again and go to Heaven properly, if that’s what you wanna do,” Gabriel said, sticking a lollipop in his mouth. “And while we’re waiting, because we don’t wanna get in there before we have to because it’ll suck for both of us, you can take hunts, explore the world, whatever you wanna do as long as you don’t let Sam and Dean know you’re around.”
John shook his head. “You keep saying it won’t be comfortable. Why, because two archangels in one vessel is too much?”
“You’ll only have me,” Raphael corrected him. “It will be uncomfortable because you carry the bloodline of Michael’s True Vessels. While Dean is the one who is the perfect fit and therefore none of the rest of us can touch him, it will be irritating. It will be like wearing a shirt that’s too small in the shoulders and too long in the arms, perhaps. Ill-fitting but not dangerously so.”
That, John could live with, he thought. But now there was a new question. “So then who’s Gabriel gonna wear? Because there’s only three Winchest… *ow*!” John put a hand to his face in shock as he tried to deal with Gabriel having slapped him. “The hell?”
“It’s what you’d have done to anyone else who dared to say that I’m not a Winchester and part of the family.”
John turned around, mouth hanging open as he stared at the beautiful and unexpected figure of his wife in the doorway. “Mary?”
“That’s me.” Mary came over to him, wrapping her arms around him. “I need to tell you so much, but for right now… it is so good to see you, baby.”
“I, um… I have a lot to tell you, too,” John said as he held his wife tight. “How much do you know about what these two yahoos want us to do?”
“All of it. Gabriel explained the plan, and I’ve agreed to it.” Mary pulled back enough to look John in the eyes. “They told me what you and the boys got into after I died, and John, I am so sorry.”
“You’ve agreed?” John looked over to the archangels. “She gets to come back, too?”
“Yes, she does.” Gabriel smirked. “Had to have something to offer to get your suspicious ass on board, didn’t we?”
John looked between his wife and the archangels. “All right. Mary, you can catch me up on whatever it is you need to tell me while we wait for our sons to do what they’re gonna do.”
John had just about dealt with the shock of learning everything about Mary’s history and family. It had only taken him three months. If he was being honest with himself, the only reason he’d gotten over that was that he’d walked in on Gabriel and Raphael… well… look, he was still getting his head around the existence of archangels, okay? The idea that archangels fucked was too much for him. At least it put Mary lying about her history in perspective. That made perfect sense, considering how badly she wanted out to be a suburban housewife. The demon deal to get him back alive, well… he’d be a lot harsher it if weren’t for his deal with the demon that killed his wife to get Dean’s life back. As it was, he supposed the glass house he lived in was a bit too fragile for him to go throwing stones.
At least Mary found the idea of archangels fucking as weird as he did. “So… at least when they take us over, we might still be getting laid?” she offered.
“Yeah…” John trailed off. “I’m still trying to figure out what the hell the platypi were all about, though. I get that some people like having an audience, but animals?”
Mary shook her head. “Gabriel is a bit… weird, you know? I’m a little surprised that Raphael puts up with it, but then again, he and Gabriel have been together for millennia. He’s probably used to Gabriel’s weird quirks.”
“Could be worse, I guess.” John trailed off again. “Is it… bad that I kind of wanted to join them? If they got rid of the audience, at least?”
“Well, technically, the marriage vows were until death did us part, and I died, so it’s not like I have any real grounds to be mad.” Mary winked at the look on John’s face. “Seriously, though, I get it. If they invite you, go for it. On one condition.”
“If they invite you, you get to say yes without me getting mad?” John guessed, and Mary nodded. “Yeah, no problem. Fair’s fair.”
“That does raise a good question… I’ve been gone for a long time, and I know it. We were having problems even before then. You never moved on?”
John dropped his eyes, staring at his callused hands. “You have to remember, I had no idea about demons or the deal or anything for years after your death. I felt so guilty. Even with Missouri Moseley telling me the only thing I could’ve done differently that night was die with you, I felt like if I’d just been a better husband and father, you’d be alive. If we were distracted when the demon showed up…”
“I might be alive, sure, but we’d have no idea what was going to happen to Sammy,” Mary pointed out. “He’d be unprepared. Azazel would never have left me alive, no matter what.” John opened his mouth to protest, to explain further, but Mary cut him off. “I know. You had no way of knowing that then. I get that, and I’m…”
Whatever Mary was about to say cut off as Raphael popped in. “We have a complication. Michael has gotten impatient and gone with his backup plan.”
“Excuse me, his what?” Mary said. She looked at John. “You got a kid you forgot to tell me about?”
“Um… actually…” John cleared his throat. “Adam Milligan. It was an accident, I didn’t even really know about it for years, his mother and I did everything in our power to keep him out of things. I guess we didn’t have as much power over it as we thought we did, if Michael can take him.”
“It’s not a perfect fit. Michael will be weaker than he should be, but he should still be strong enough to handle Lucifer,” Gabriel explained. “Right now, our main concern is what it does to our plan to derail things. We were counting on Dean to be there to see you two, but Adam wouldn’t recognize Mary at all and, no offense, John, but you were kind of a crappy dad to him. He wouldn’t care.”
“None taken,” John agreed. “What about Sam, though? He’ll still recognize us, and for as much as we fought, I’m pretty sure he’d still at least want to know what the hell Mary and I are doing there. So we’re not screwed completely yet.”
“Well…” Raphael and Gabriel exchanged glances. Raphael was the one to explain their uncertainty. “We’re not sure what happens now. Sam is determined to avoid Lucifer, and with Dean by his side supporting him, we’ve got no idea how long he can last. It may be years. It may reach the point where Lucifer decides to cut his losses, find another Campbell to take despite the even less perfect fit of not taking Adam’s brother, and get things over with.”
“At least he can’t take Dean,” Gabriel said before John could ask. “We’ll have to figure something out, but it may be longer than we thought it would take. This was supposed to be over within weeks of Dean breaking.”
“In the meantime, we did hear part of your discussion from earlier,” Raphael said. “We’re both a bit surprised that you would be interested. You especially, John, because both of us are currently in male vessels, but…”
“Oh not you too.” John buried his face in his hands. “I’m a hardass. I know that. I raised my boys as soldiers. They both have the excuse of thinking military guy would have military thinking and I never really talked to them about it so they wouldn’t have talked to me when Sammy started realizing he wasn’t straight. You two? You can literally read my mind. You should know damn well I don’t give a fuck about what bits my partners have.”
“Doesn’t mean it wasn’t a surprise to learn, just… when we learned it,” Gabriel admitted. “We’ve just been waiting for you two to talk it out. Whatever you decide about whether your marriage is over or not, we didn’t want to get between a reconciliation.”
“You are both invited,” Raphael said, getting things back on track. “I should have listened to Gabriel much sooner about the charms of humans, but now that I’ve been convinced, I find you two particularly intriguing.”
“Hilarious how easy he was to convince to try to avert the Apocalypse once I got him on board with how awesome humans are,” Gabriel added. “Never believe an angel when they say they’re above all this messy carnal stuff.”
“Lucifer has Sam. I repeat, Lucifer has Sam. This is not a drill.” John groaned at Gabriel’s announcement. The timing could not possibly be worse. Sure, they were about to get this over with, but… did they really have to interrupt while Gabriel was so close to making John come?
Raphael stopped what he was doing, pulling away from Mary. “Then it’s time. What of Dean? Where is he?”
“On his way to the cemetery where the showdown’s gonna happen,” Gabriel said after a beat. “Mary? You ready for this?”
“I am.” She found her pants and put them back on. “Okay, now I am. Yes.” There was a flash of light, and the body Gabriel had been occupying was gone.
Raphael handed John his pants. “Let me know when you’re ready for me.”
John got himself dressed. There was only a moment’s hesitation before he faced Raphael. “Yes.”
Raphael filled him up. As he’d described earlier, the fit was uncomfortable, but hardly worse than John had felt at times on a hunt when he had to scrounge whatever clothes he could find. Raphael kept him conscious, allowing him to watch as they flew to some random-ass cemetery in Kansas. Mary was already there with Gabriel, so they were there to see the shock in both Michael and Lucifer’s eyes when they arrived. “Brothers,” Michael said through Adam. “What…”
“They thought you’d have Dean,” Lucifer drawled. “Sentimental shock value. Fortunately, Sammy here never really liked his dad, and he never knew his mom. So…”
Gunter glieben glausen globen!
All four archangels turned as one, and John would have laughed if he’d had control of his throat. Dean was here after all. He’d know that rumble anywhere, and blasting Def Leppard? It could not be anyone else.
Dean rolled the Impala to a stop near the gathering and got out of the car. “Sammy, I’m…” His eyes widened in shock as he took in the two extra figures. “Mom? Dad?”
“Focus on Sam,” Raphael said with Mary’s voice. “We need him to make this work.”
“Okay, but then you two are explaining what the hell,” Dean promised, and Raphael and Gabriel both nodded. “Come on, Sammy. I’m here, Dad’s here, even Mom’s here. Hell, we’ve got Adam. Make this a real family reunion, come on out, man.”
“Mom? Dad?” Sam turned to stare at them. “What are you doing here?”
“Saving you. We needed your mother and father to give us a chance,” Raphael said. “Sam. Adam. We need both of you to make this work. Concentrate as hard as you can, and then shove at your possessor with all of your strength.”
Sam closed his eyes, and John watched as the blurry form of wings came out. Adam did nothing. Gabriel walked over to him. “Hi. You don’t know my host, I know, but she’s kind of your stepmom. If this works, we can find your mom and bring her back. That’s what Michael promised you, right? Your mom would be alive again?”
“We’d be together in Heaven,” Adam corrected. “You can bring her back to life?”
“Yep. You just gotta push Michael out for us so we can deal with him.”
Adam nodded and pushed, but then smirked. Dean rolled his eyes. “Hey. Whoever the hell you are possessing my mom. Do we really need Michael gone? Because I have a plan to get rid of him if this’ll work with just dealing with Lucifer.”
“Do it,” Raphael said. “Adam doesn’t seem to…”
“Lucifer pulled this same trick on us earlier, pretending to give the body back but not actually doing it,” Dean snapped. “Adam doesn’t give a shit about us. He just wants his mom, and I can’t say I blame him. Cas?”
Castiel stepped out of the car and raised a hand holding a bottle. Raphael recognized immediately what was happening, but Castiel held his throw when he saw that Adam had changed his mind and was, in fact, pushing against Michael. It wasn’t much, Adam wasn’t as strong-willed as Sam, but he was still half Winchester and Michael was already struggling against a less than perfect fit. It was enough. Raphael grabbed hold of the first tendrils that were shoved out and yanked, and Gabriel corralled Lucifer. All four archangels vanished, leaving the Winchesters, Adam, and Castiel behind.
“Figured they were lying about my mom, but…” Adam looked between the Winchesters. “Michael screwed up. He let me see his plans for after he beat Lucifer. Sure, I’d be in Heaven with Mom, but this wasn’t going to be a thousand years of paradise for the survivors. He was scared of what Gabriel and Raphael planned for him, so… figured it was worth a shot, right?”
“Yeah.” Sam reached out and hugged Adam. “I’m glad neither of us had to kill the other. You deserve better.”
“Now.” Dean rounded on John and Mary. “What the hell are you two doing alive, here, and being worn by… that was Gabe? What’s *he* doing alive? What did they promise you in exchange, because it doesn’t seem like they’re much on…”
“Dean,” Mary interrupted. “Those were Gabriel and Raphael, yes, but we’ve already gotten what we were promised in exchange. We’re both alive and free to figure out our second chance at life.”
“They got what they wanted, too,” John added. “Mary and me being here, we were just enough of a distraction, we could give them their shot at whatever the hell they’re doing with Michael and Lucifer. World’s safe, you two are safe, Mary and I are alive, we can figure out how to be a family now.” He turned to Adam. “You’re included in that, if you want to be. I wasn’t much of a dad to you, I know, but let’s change that, huh? If Gabriel does end up bringing your mom back like he said he would, that’s one thing, but…”
Adam nodded. “Your wife okay with that?”
“I am.” Mary smirked. “It’s not like your mom was some skank John was cheating on me with. I was dead. I’m fine with you being part of the family, even if I don’t really know if I qualify as your stepmom or not.”
“Why wouldn’t you?” Adam shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Because technically John and I aren’t married anymore, death ended the marriage, so…” Mary shrugged. “If you want to ignore that technicality, I plan to for everything else. As far as I’m concerned, John is my husband.”
“Yeah. That makes sense.” Adam looked over at Sam and Dean. “Think they’d kill me if I didn’t play along, so you’re my stepmom. Doesn’t mean much, necessarily, but better than nothing.”
Dean took the opportunity of the awkward silence to change the subject. “Explain Gabriel and Raphael. What the hell.”
“Gabriel brought Mary back to life, Raphael brought me back. We were both kind of in a weird spot, not in any of the major afterlives, not even the Empty, and we don’t know why.” John gave a half-smile. “Raphael’s theory was that God put us there so that only the archangels would be able to find us and bring us back, but I dunno. Even with knowing that angels are real… I just can’t get behind the idea that God’s out there pulling the strings, you know? I’ve seen too much shit.”
“No kidding.” Dean looked over at Sam. “You okay there, Sammy? I know you were braced for being Lucifer’s bunk buddy in Hell at this point. Time to celebrate?”
“Yeah…” Sam finally peeled his eyes away from Mary. “Gabriel and Raphael… their plan… will it work? Is it over?”
John shrugged. “We don’t know. We shared a lot of things over the last few months, but they never got around to telling us the plan for after we’d distracted you guys. Kinda wondering if they didn’t want us knowing they were gonna fuck off with their brothers…”
“After all we’ve been through, you don’t think we planned to come back?” Gabriel’s voice sounded so wounded as he reappeared with Raphael and Kate. “Sorry, Kate took a bit longer to convince to come back than we’d expected. Here you go, Adam, we keep our promises.”
Kate ran to Adam, hugging him tight. Then she smacked him upside the head. “I cannot believe you agreed to Michael’s offer, you idiot! You’d have been happy in Heaven with your memories of me, I was there and happy, we’re not soulmates like your brothers. Use your brain next time!”
“Mom…” Adam rubbed his head. “It worked, didn’t it? And Michael and I didn’t kill anyone, so…”
“So where are they?” Sam asked. “Is it over?”
“For now.” Gabriel shrugged. “It’s not as solid as the Cage was, but it’s locked up tight and it’ll hold for a few millennia or so. Really, Michael’s in no hurry to get out, he missed Lucifer more than he hated him. Just… Dad said Bro needed to die, and Michael’s not you, Deano, he was gonna do it.”
“Yeah, about that.” Dean took a step toward John, and to John’s great surprise, took a swing at him. He was able to brace himself enough not to fall, but that was about it. “You could’ve asked me for anything with your dying breath, and you put it on me to do the one thing you raised me to be incapable of?”
“Not my finest moment, but I was counting on you to save him. The killing him part was meant as motivation.” John waved a hand. “If this had ended as planned, with Michael wearing you and Lucifer wearing Sammy, you would’ve killed him. Or close enough. It was a warning, not instructions.”
Dean and Sam looked at each other for a long time. “Wow. Because it sure sounded like instructions, Dad. Me and Sam had some really bad times because of that.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll do my best to make it up to you.” John turned to Gabriel and Raphael. “So… what now? The plan was that we go our separate ways, but… do you and Raphael really want that? We kinda…”
“Yes, things ended up changing, but we’re angels. We can find you wherever you go, and if you want to see us for something, all you have to do is pray.” Raphael reached out and gently stroked Mary’s hair. “I suspect you’ll want some time with your sons first, but we were rather abruptly interrupted and I would like to make that up to you.”
“Wait a second. What.” Adam looked between the other four Winchesters. “You mean to tell me I’m the only one in this family who doesn’t have an angel boyfriend?!”
“Or two,” Gabriel said. “We could fix that if you like. Even if you don’t wanna share with your dad or your brother, there’s tons of angels we could hook you up with. What do you think, Cassie, think he’d like Samandriel?”
“I think that you are absolutely ridiculous,” Castiel said. “Balthazar would be a much better choice.”
“Uh… after my experience with Michael, I don’t particularly want an angel boyfriend, but… thanks?” Adam said. “Just surprised is all.”
“So you two are… both with Castiel?” Mary said slowly. “Do I… you know what, I don’t…”
“Mary, it’s best if you know,” John said. “Trust me, it’s way better than dealing with them sneaking around like they were before Sam left for college. And you do get used to the idea eventually.”
Mary made a face at that, but let it go. “All right. I think we need a Winchester family dinner to figure out where we’re gonna go from here. Adam, Kate, you guys are still completely welcome to join us. Gabriel, Raphael, I don’t mind you two coming either, since you’re closely tied to me and John, and Castiel, I’ll leave it up to you and the boys.”
“What about a baseball game?” Dean said. “Since, y’know. Dad was too busy teaching us to be soldiers to ever take us to one like he did with Adam.”
John rolled his eyes. “Sure. Why not. I’m sure we won’t draw attention to ourselves, showing up at a baseball game and discussing the goddamn Apocalypse and existence of angels and poor parenting decisions made on the basis of not knowing what the hell is out there until I came across it and trying to keep you boys alive. At least over dinner, we can get it to go and find ourselves a motel room to gather in without a peanut gallery.”
Mary and Kate looked at each other. “This isn’t going to be easy, is it,” Mary said. “John, how about dinner tonight to hash all that out, and then we go to a baseball game sometime in the next couple of days?”
“Guess that makes sense.” John crossed his arms and glared at his sons.
Gabriel snapped his fingers, and everyone appeared in a building John didn’t recognize. “So this place used to belong to an organization called the Men of Letters. John, if that sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because you’re supposed to be a member. Your dad – your real dad – was.” He waved a hand around. “Figure it’s as good a place as any for everyone to talk out their family drama, there’s no chance of anyone overhearing so we can talk freely, and there’s plenty of places for people who aren’t involved in whatever drama’s on the table at the moment to fuck off to for exploring or finding a distraction. In the meantime, if you’ll direct your attention that way, Raphael has provided refreshments. I contributed, but Raph actually made sure there was healthy food available. Let’s dig in, huh?”