Decisions Decisions
"GODDAMN FUCKING TRICKSTER BITCH!"
Sam's awoken by his brother's enraged barely coherant curses and rolls off the couch, grabbing the gun out from under the cushion as he does so.
"Dean!" He races to the guest room, getting there just as Jody does and open the door to see his brother, squeezing out fromunder a disembodied roof of a car, covered in motor oil.
"I'm going to kill her. I'm killing your fiancee, Sam. And you're not bringing her back this time! Do you see this? Do you?" He points to the car top.
"It's the roof of a car."
"Not A car. MY car. She took the roof off my damn car!" He looks out the window to the empty driveway. "Where the hell is the rest of my car!"
"If she doesn't get the motor oil out of the carpet, I'll help you." Jody glares at the scene. Sam just sighs and puts his gun away, taking out his phone. "C'mon why don't you go wash up. I have some of that lava soap, we'll plot revenge once you're nice and clean okay?" She urges as Sam dials his dearest darling. The call goes straight to voicemail. So do his attempts to call Alex, Claire, Krissy. He tries sending a mass text to them next but gets a single reply
'Wayward Daughters Road Trip. NO BOYS ALLOWED!'uh-
"Let me call them." Jody sighs seeing it, and takes her phone from the charger. "Alex, your angel freind is in deep shit... uh-huh. uh-huh. Uh-huh, yeah.. Yeah... I understand. But that doesn't have anything to do with a car roof and a gallon of motor oil all over my guest room. I want it and Dean cleaned up, now. Do you understand me? And don't give me any bullshit. I know she can do it fromthere." She demands. "I know that, but just... try at least. Please? If I have to go to her brothers about..." Jody pauses as the scent of motor oil dissappears from the house. "Thank you. Have fun, be careful." She hangs up. "I didn't think the brothers threat would work, actually."
"Neither did I." Sam puts his phone away, and sits back down on the couch. "They are never going to get along are they?" He slumps down slightly.
"Probably not."
"I don't know if I can do this." he rests his head on his hand. "If I have to cut one of them off or limit my time with one or both of them, that'll just be one more point of contention between them."
"Maybe you just need a vacation. Time away from both of them." Jody suggests.
"Maybe." He looks down. "I didn't expect Dean and Gabrielle to be the problem, to be honest. I thought it was her siblings that would cause the most trouble."
"Well, to be fair, Dean's prospective in law is Bree. Michael and Raphael's prospective inlaw is you." Jody sits beside him and puts an arm around his shoulder for a comforting hug.
"Me, the one who pulled Michael into the cage, you mean?"
"As opposed to the one who reportedly killed your brother and tortured you both?"
"You have a point." Sam admits, not really liking to dwell on that part of their previous relationship. "Maybe I'm benig selfish or unreasonable?"
"Well, that's love. And all you're asking is that they not be dicks to each other, right? So, no, not unreasonable, not that selfish."
"Did you have any inlaw problems?"
"I didn't. My brother in law did with his wife's family. You're probably just going to have to live with it. It's not ideal, but you know, it is what it is."
"Right." Sam straightens up. "I'm going to go for a run. Think you can handle Dean?"
"Please, a cranky Dean can't be any worse than two teenage girls with pms. I'll send him out back to chop wood when he's out of the bath. But first I'll put some bacon on." Jody gets up and heads to the kitchen. "How's the school coming?"
"It's going fine. We've actually gotten alot done. Raphael's labeling a few more eggs in the abyss and then he's going to come back and help us carve out an underground storage and emergency safe house in the center. I honestly didn't expect Raphael to be the one putting so much effort into having good relations. He's not shy about reminding me that he's only doing this for his sister, but still. Of course since he killed Cas that time, I can't exactly ask him to talk to Dean about this. Not that they exactly like each other much aside from that." Sam sighs and stretchs. "Alright. I'll be back in a few hours. Save me some bacon?"
"I make no promises."
"I can't believe you got kicked out of the panel." Josephine sits at the bar with her foster sister and her idiot freinds.
"They started the debating the canonical merits of 'Samifer.' We couldn't help it!" Alex protests.
"Especially after parsing out why Sabriel would never work in real life." Claire grins.
"As if Luci didn't do way worse to Sam than I did." Babe grumbles. "Give me the whole jug." She waves a handful of hundreds at the bartender.
"Yeah, but you did worse to Dean, which was their main point. You know it's true love if he forgave you for that." Claire points out.
"They don't seem to understand that any nice of kind ways or manners Lucifer had was must him trying to get what he wanted. It was literally the only way he could." Alex shakes her head.
"People are idiots." Krissy exclaims.
"No, people are basically good, and have a hard time understanding that not everyone is or that anyone could really be that bad, or go that far when they themselves wouldn't/" Josephine corrects them. "Krissy.." She intercepts the drink as it's handed to the pregnant woman.
"It's virgin!"
"Okay, then." Jo hands it to her.
"Did you go see anything or have you just been drinking all morning?" Krissy accuses.
"No I stepped in on the people of color in supernatural panel. It was an interesting discussion. Though personally I think that making the four horsemen of the apocolypse old rich white men was incredibly appropriate." Josephine's comment makes a Alex snort her drink through her nose and Babe laughs.
"Hey lay off Death, he's a cool dude." Claire protests.
"Gives great gifts." Krissy adds
"Are you wearing the bra and panty set?'
"Every chance I get." Krissy nods pulling the strap out of her collar.
"What bra and panty set? Did my uncle give you underwear?" Babe looks at her with an incredulously amused smile.
"Nat fucked up the invitations. I'll explain later."
"Oh, did I show you my retirement gift?" Claire asks.
"Repeatedly." Krissy rolls her eyes. "I don't know why you find it so funny.
"It's kind of a private joke I guess. So, I'm your maid of honor, huh?" Claire nudges Babe who grins. "Just how wild and obnoxious do we want this bachelorette party? and who do you want invited?"
"I'll give you a list. And an expense account." she winks at her. "I want it to be the outrageous bacchanalia I can't have for the reception, and no my elder siblings are definitely not invited."
"Gotcha."
"So, my baby girl asked you to move in, huh?" Babe turns to look at her freind.
"And, um, work for her as Hjorprimul's second." Claire winces, not sure how exactly Babe will respond to that.
"Wow. This is big." Much to Claire's surprise, she's actually taking it seriously.
"Yeah. And i don't want any advice. I just need to think about it, that's all." Claire mumbles.
"Okay, well, whatever you decide, you're still my bestie." Babe puts an arm around her. "And I promise not to let you got o hell when you die."
"So it's soul cabbage for me, then, huh?"
"Yup. And I'd shunt you to the tip of the reincarnation list because what's the point of power if you can't abuse it to help your loved ones?" Babe kisses her cheek,. "Hey Alex if Claire dies before you, how'd you feel about giving birth to her?"
"Extremely icky and weird, especially if I'm either a virgin or post menopausal at the time. What the hell are you talking about?" Alex frowns at her. Babe just laughs and leans back against the bar. "Uh,oh, incoming." Alex looks away from the door, where a frazzled looking short blonde woman is entering the room.
"Is that her?" Krissy asks.
"Yup." Babe sips her drink, pretending not to notice her.
"He has a type, huh?" Josephine comments.
"He was never interested in her." Babe glares at her.
"Yeah, but Jess was blonde." She points out.
"It was Stanford. Everybody's blonde." Babe snaps. Given her mood, Jo decides not to bring up Ruby's original body.
"Excuse me." Mrs Rosen-Winchester strides up to them with a slightly pissed off air herself. "Miss Callisto?"
"Guilty as charged." Babe raises the jug.
"Is this some kind of joke?" She demands. " Because it isn't not funny."
"Is what a joke?" Babe asks innocently. Becky take a mini laptop from her purse and places it on the counter. There's a pictue of her and Sam watching a movie in their usual position of her sitting on the back of the couch with his arm around her waist to steady her and she's feeding him popcorn. "That's my fiancee and me. I know, I'm a little out of his league, but I assure you I do love him and don't appreciate you insulting him like that." Becky is neither fooled nor amused.
"You are engaged to Sam. This Sam." she points to the picture.
"Yep. That's my sweet Sampita."
"I don't see a ring." Becky challenges pointing to her hand.
"Why would you? I proposed to him. I did buy him a ring, but it's not exactly for public view." Babe give the woman a bawdy wink. Becky turns red as Krissy chokes on a peice of sausage and the other girls try not to laugh out loud.
"You are not engaged." Becky shakes her head.
"Yes, we are."
"Really. And how loing have you known each other?"
"Over a decade actually." Babe considers. "We met in college." Claire has to excuse herself before she looses it completely. "It was a rocky start, but we moved past that. Granted there's that whole unhealthily codependant relationship with his big brother to deal with, but what can I say he's worth it."
"I am not announcing this... this... travesty." Becky close the laptop and hands the check and drive back. "Not for a million dollars."
"That's a little harsh. It's not like I drugged and kidnapped him and worked with a demon to force him into marrying me." Babe says innoccently. When Becky turns pale, Babe gives a rather vicious smile, and snaps her fingers freezing time in the bar. "Oh, Ms. Rosen, You think just because you're a sad small pathetic little loser, you shouldn't have to answer for what you've done? Sure, maybe Sam and Dean feel sorry enough for you not to do anything, but my freinds here do not."
"I..."
"You took away his free will, the most precious gift my father bestowed on any creature in existence. Now, if I were you, I would, first of all, go back to my maiden name. Solely for the sake of decency, and prepare for the worst." Babe bops her nose. "Keep the check. I think you're going to need it."
Michael just stares at the pile of paper before him. This can't possibly be true. She has to be making some of it up at least. She's trying to make it look worse to make her look better now by comparison. Isn't she? Which would possibly be worse, doing these things or lying about doing them? Either way...
"Michael?" Raphael asks cautiously, returning from the abyss.
"How could she have done all this?" Michael voice is quiet. "How could... I never should have let her near him. I should have kept her from the throne room. I..." He covers his eyes.
"It can't be that bad." Though Raphael doesn't sound as if he believes that himself.
"She started seventy wars and killed over a million people. Personally. She stole the ark of the covenant."
"She did tell me about that last one." Raphael says slowly. "She was correcting a mistake. Why did she... did she say why she did those other things?"
"Does it matter?"
"It has to." Raphael sits down beside him.
"At least two thirds of those she murdered did unspeakable things to children or tormented those under their power. The wars were largely lailures of diplomacy or pranks gone wrong. She has broken every commandment, every law, indulged in every sin... she... she has gone every bit as far astray as our brother."
"I don't believe that." Raphael shakes his head. "She's not..." Michael just pushes the stack over and just looks at his little brother until Raphael picks up a page and starts reading.
"Why would she tell you these things?"
"I may have made my acceptance of her relationship with Sam Winchester conditional on it not leading her further astray.So this may just be a complete falsehood and an attempt to grant them a wider margin for error." Michael says hopefully. Raphael's pitying expression does a little to support his attempt at optimism.
"Unfortunately I believe this is the complete unadulterated truth. Does she go into detail on the incident where she gave accidentally birth to a horse?" Raphael just stops and winces slightly at the sentance he just found himself saying.
"Yes." Michael's mouth twitches into a smile despite himself, both because of his little brother's expression and the amazingly humorous tale itself. "Page one thousand eighty seven to one thousand ninety three."
"So, she really didn't have sex with a horse." It's Raphael's turn for desperate optimism. Michael's glad he can reward his brother's otherwise misplaced faith in their little sister.
"No."
"Oh thank all that is. She said it was a cloning accident but I wasn't certain she wasn't just attempting to mollify me."
"What are we going to do about the rest of this?" Michael nods to the pile.
"There's nothing to do, Michael. It's done. Either we forgive Gabriel for her transgression or we don't. I know it's hard to understand, but she's grown, she's changed. She's matured. She's not this person anymore."
"She killed and tormentented humans."
"To protect other humans. We've done as much ourselves." Raphael replies quickly much to Michael's irritation.
"Taking the role of her defender now that our brother is unavailable to do it, I see." He snaps at Raphael who recoils slightly at the comparison. Michael instantly regrets his words, but while undoubtedly harsh, it's hardly unwarranted.
"I don't want to loose her again, Michael." Is all he has to say in response. This from the angel who was always pointing out when Michael started to coddle or baby their siblings after an injury or a near loss, letting them get away with things he wouldn't under other circumstances.
"I don't want to either, but this... this isn't some silly prank we can just brush aside. Sins, crimes,murder, we have executed siblings for less than this, Raphael." Michael reminds him, taking hold of his brother's chin. "Look at me, Raph. You know we have to take care of this. We can't let this go unaddressed. We can't."
"She's not a bad angel. She's not... We're not fighting a war for heaven and all of humanity here, Michael. There aren't realms of people whos existence depends on what we do here. Just hers and ours, and she did terrible things, I'm not not defending what she did but she did it frequently for the right reasons. You can't ask me to...We can't... She brought me back. Michael, she's our sister."
"Raph, no, it's alright." Michael shushes him, quickly embracing his brother. "I'm not saying we should execute her. I swear, I'm not. You're right. We're not at war, we have time and leeway we didn't have then. We don't ever have to do any of those terrible things again. We don't. You don't ever have to do any of those things again." Raphael just holds on, trying not to think too hard on actions he can no longer justify to himself. Desperate attempts to save his brethren that now seem just as bad as what he was trying to save them from, perhaps worse. He can't think about it. He can't."Raphi, it's okay." but it's not okay and never will be. How can he condemn his baby sister for anything when he knows what he's done, what he became himself.And if Michael was tright and the reasons don't matter....
"She's not evil." Raphael desperately turns the conversation back. "She's not, and treating her as if she is won't do anything but cause us all more pain. I know you have always done what you thought was right. You never asked anything less of any of us but we were wrong. Both of us. And in the end she was right. She did what was right, paid the ultimate price. Please... I just want us to be a family again. Maybe without our brother grabbing attention of every moment, poisoning everything we can be. Please..."
"What are you asking me to do, Raphael?"
"To let this go. Just let all of this go, because you love her and she's trying to be a better angel and succeeding and she's our sister. I know she's a pain in the ass and impossible to understand but just..."
"How can I? I don't want to loose her either, Raph." Michael straightens up, gripping his brother's shoulders. "But this... these are serious crimes."
"I know, but I have no right to judge her for them, and neither do I have any authority over her. Neither of us have for the longest time."
"Maybe you don't, but I do." The way his big sister says this is obviously meant to be reassuring, but it just makes Raphael draw back inside himself, wrapped in an empty silence that has become so familiar this last day. Michael had once thought it meant everything was alright, but now he's fairly sure it means the opposite. "I can't just set everything she's done aside as if it doesn't matter. I love her but that doesn't mean sheilding her from the consequences of her actions."
"No, I know, but why do you have to be the one to deliver those consequences, why are you the one who has to decide what they have to be? Why can't you just forgive her? Why do you think you have to make her suffer first?" Raphael demands angrily. Michael just gives him a reproachful look. He knows damn well he's not talking about some pointless torturing or vengeance, making her suffer for the sake of suffering. He's just being difficult. "It doesn't matter. You'll never let it go, because you never do. no matter what you do, what she does, what price she pays, it'll never be good enough. She'll never be good enough, and neither will I." Raphael disappears before Michael can say anything to this.
He just sets his jaw and looks to the pages. Raphael's own guilt and shame is clouding his judgement. Their sister obviously feels neither or she never could have revealed these things. Why is it so unreasonable to expect that his siblings not murder people or violate divine law? It's not difficult to comprehend. Don't steal, don't murder, don't hurt humanity unless otherwise wordered. All they had to do was just do as they were told. Do what they were supposed to do. It's not easy but if he managed it so could they. But apparently that wasn't good enough in the end either.
Castiel, Dean, Sam... they were blessed. They were given the highest level of recognition and honor possible. It's still hard to wrap his head around. What did they do that was so right when Michael gave everything he was, everything he had to try and do the right thing. What did he do wrong? Why should these immoral blaphemous rebellious creatures be honored and praised when all he got for trying to do the hardest thing he was ever asked to do was to be imprissoned abandoned and forgotten? They got his father's approval. Gabriel after doing everything wrong, abandoning and defying everything now has charge of heaven and earth. She's changing everything, doing what she pleases without thought and even changed the realities of death itself. But he doesn't see their father's blessing on her. He never gaver her approval or the authority to do any of this. Not to rule heaven, not to rewrite it's laws so she can be with that damn Winchester.
Let it go because he loves her? Would Sam let all this go? Has he? It's doubtful. Despite his dubious morality he is a hunter. The things she's done to mankind, he can't possibly just forgive and overlook. As infuriating an act as it was, the man condemned himself to the same eternal torment he sent Michael and Lucifer for what he thought was the greater good. If Sam knew every thing, he couldn't just forgive her for it, either. And he wouldn't just try and correct her, either, Michael's sure of it. If Raphael doesn't think her siblings have the right to judge her, then one blessed by their father surely does. What will he have to say about this? Michael picks up the confession and takes himself to a path in the park where Sam is jogging.
"Michael." The Winchester stops abruptly when he notices him. "Is everything alright?"
"You live my sister. Despite what she's done to you and your brother." Michael's face is stone.
"Yes." Sam replies simply, a wary look in his eyes, and wipes the sweat from his face with the towel draped around his neck. "She made her confession, I take it." The man sounds sympathetic which is downright infuriating.
"Yes. Do you believe you would love her, forgive her, no matter what you found out she's done? Be able to overlook anything?"
"I'd like to think so." Sam says cautiously. "We've all made mistakes. She just... had longer to make them. I love who she is and what she was, what she did shouldn''t change that." But he doesn't sound entirely sure.
"This is her confession, retelling of the worst things she ever done." Michael hands the stack to him, it's surprisingly heavy. "If after reading this, you still love her and are willing to marry her, I will do more than just tolerate your relationship but give it my blessing and full support. I will even dance at your wedding." Not that he'll have to, and the wager will give the man more incentive to read it.
Sam looks down at the stack. It's all in enochian and it's obvious from his expression he can't read enochian yet. While he can surely translate it eventually, there are almost two thousand pages. Michael just gives a sigh and snaps his fingers changing the stack into a slightly smaller book, translated into english. He disappears before Sam can say another word. Not that he has to. Obviously he has doubts already.