Supernatural House Arrest (Supernatural Fanfic)

Chapter 139

That night's training session goes well. Jack doesn't manage to tear apart the warding, but Gabriel seems to think he's getting very close. Any day now, he said, though Jack tries not to get his hopes up. Gabriel does have him take a few shots at the warding, but to no avail. He almost feels it working, just a little bit, but not enough to make a dent in it.

Naturally, the excitement makes it difficult to sleep, but Gabriel insists he do so anyway. This time, he's still awake when Gabriel flies away, but it seems the archangel is unaware. Jack doesn't mind; it gives him a chance to work by himself.

He waits a few minutes just to make sure Gabriel won't come back, but he's decently sure that there's nothing to worry about. Gabriel's probably with Sam again. At least, he thinks that's where the archangel was last night, though Gabriel never admitted it.

When it becomes clear that Gabriel isn't coming back, Jack rolls out of bed. He probably should try to sleep, but he can't stop thinking about the God-imposed warding. If he's as close to cracking it as everyone says, how can he stop?

~~

Jack is very tired the next day.

Welp, live and learn, right?

At least he gets to sleep in. He wakes up to a note from Gabriel that just says he's in the war room, so the archangel must have decided against waiting for him to get up. That's nice; he wouldn't want to take up all Gabriel's time.

Jack teleports to the doorway to the war room, appearing just outside the doorway the way he always does. He takes a brief look at everyone already here -- all the regulars, it seems; he really must have slept in if everyone else is already awake -- and, per usual, takes his spot with Michael and Jo.

"Ah, so you are alive," Jo remarks. "You're usually here a lot earlier; we almost thought you weren't going to show."

"No, I'm here!" Jack says. "I just had... a long night." Obviously, the night was no longer than any other night, but he's heard his dimension's Sam and Dean use that phrase when they spend most of the night awake for one reason or other, so it seemed like an appropriate expression to use here.

"Well, welcome back," Jo says.

"How did last night go?" Michael asks.

"Really well!" Jack says, beaming. "I think I'm getting really close!"

"You might be," Michael agrees. "Your power is growing a lot faster than I'd expcted. If you're able to utilize it right..."

"Yeah, look!" Jack closes his eyes and puts a hand up, feeling for the warding. He takes a moment to prepare himself, then lets off a blast, hitting the warding with all he's got. It's not enough to break the warding down, but, he realizes when he opens his eyes, it's enough to draw the attention of everyone in the room.

"Okay," Dean says slowly, "and what the fuck was that?"

"Hopefully our ticket out of here," Gabriel says, "so shut your cakehole."

Dean puts his hands up as though he's surrendering, but the eye roll accompanying it says otherwise.

"Nice job, kid," Gabriel says, "but maybe save it 'til later."

"I know, I just wanted to show Michael," Jack says.

Whoosh.

Jack glances around the room until he finds a very confused Lucifer standing in the doorway. Jack smiles at him the way he always does when he sees his alternate dimension father, but Lucifer doesn't return it.

With the flap of his wings, he appears next to the nephilim, but his gaze is on Michael as he asks, "Am I imagining things, or did something big just happen?"

"No, that would be..." Michael nods at Jack.

Lucifer turns to his pseudo-son and scoffs. "You did that?"

Jack nods eagerly. "I think I'm getting really close!"

"Yeah, you are definitely getting close," Lucifer says, still looking a bit shaken. "I thought something was about to explode. You really just..." He scoffs. "Well, we may be getting out of here sooner than I thought."

"I hope so," Jack says. He really just wants to go home. He's had a lot of fun with the archangels, but he misses his world's Sam and Dean, too.

"That means we're not going to see you anymore, doesn't it?" Jo asks as if ireading his mind, but unlike him, she seems disappointed. "That kinda sucks. We're gonna miss you."

"I'm gonna miss you, too," Jack says, and he means it, too. The bunker was a lonely place for those first few weeks he was stuck here. Making friends changed the whole dynamic for him. It's going to be bittersweet to leave them behind.

"Well, since the bunker isn't about to collapse and kill us all," Lucifer says, "I'm gonna peace out, so... peace."

"Wait." Jo reaches out and grabs his arm before he can fly away. "You should hang out with us!"

"Yeah!" Jack agrees without a moment of hesitation. He never gets to see Lucifer anymore. It would be nice to get to talk to him for a while longer before he's sent back to this world with a less-than-pleasant Lucifer to look forward to.

"Mm..." Lucifer glances at his brother uncertainly.

Michael shrugs. "If you think you can hang around without causing problems..."

Lucifer frowns. "Well, great, if you're going to let me stay, now I don't have an excuse to leave."

"Good," Jo says. "Come be social for once in your life. God knows you need it."