Transmission from the Trickster

Chapter 37

Woody looks between the two Winchesters, brows drawn together in confusion. "Do you two know him?"

"Yeah, I think we do," Sam says. He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, processing this, before opening them to look at this objectively.

So, Gabriel's dead. He left a body, complete with a stab to the heart from what must have been an angel blade. So, this is it. His actual death.

"And how long have you had the bodies?" Dean asks the coroner.

"About thirty-six hours, give or take," Woody replies.

"And how long since the incident?" Sam asks.

"Well, I can't give an exact time, and I haven't done a lot of digging into this, but I'd say about, oh, four days?" Woody estimates.

Sam bites back a sigh. Four days and Gabriel hasn't poofed the body away? Then it can't be a fake one. He wouldn't waste his time on that.

Dean nods slowly. "Okay, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk to my partner for a minute."

"Of course. Call if you need anything." Woody ducks out of the room, leaving the two boys alone. They wait for a minute just to make sure they're alone before they speak.

"So, what is it, some kind of trick?" Dean asks, eyeing the body in front of them.

"Trick for who?" Sam asks. "He wouldn't have known we'd be here. This isn't the most obvious case for us to take."

"Maybe it has something to do with the other bodies," Dean says. "Do they look familiar to you? At all?"

Sam looks between the two other bodies, trying to put a name to a face, but it's hard when he doesn't recognize their names or their faces.

Finally, he just says, "Yeah, I've got nothing. You?"

"Nada."

There's a moment of silence between the two as they both struggle to figure out what to do next. This definitely isn't the type of outcome they were looking for on this case.

"So, if somebody killed Gabriel, are we supposed to thank them, or kill them?" Dean asks.

"What?"

"Think about it before you burn me st the stake or whatever," Dean says. "We know him as this weird, 'I love killing people but I don't like murder' type guy — you know, more complex than what meets the eye. But other hunters would know him as the serial killer we used to know, right? And they'd put him down accordingly, thinking they're doing the right thing — which, I mean, they kind of —" Dean cuts himself off when he sees the glare Sam sends his way.

"Okay, but monsters see him as a roadblock," Dean continues. "You know, not helping Michael but not helping Lucifer, throwback-to-the-apocalypse type deal, and they'd probably want to get rid of him, too. So, you know, it could go either way here."

"Okay, but now you have to wonder, who actually can kill him?" Sam reminds him. "Has to be an archangel with an archangel blade."

Dean nods slowly. "Right, And with Raphael dead and Michael in the cage..."

"It would have to be Lucifer," Sam finishes. "And something tells me we don't want to be around Lucifer alone if he decides to come back. Maybe we should just drop the case."

"But why would Lucifer kill him?" Dean asks. "It's not like last time. He doesn't really pose a threat right now. He's definitely not all gung-ho 'let's kill Satan' anymore."

"Maybe it's because of Jack," Sam says. "Maybe he didn't like the threat of Gabriel countering everything he says." Seeing that Dean's skeptical, Sam adds, "Hey, he's killed people for less, and he is the only one who could have done it."

"Unless he's not dead," Dean says. "Hey, Gabriel, if you're faking it, time to wake up."

They wait for a few seconds, but nothing happens.

"Yeah, I figured that was too easy to be true," Dean says with a sigh. "So, either he really wants us to think he's dead, or Lucifer paid him a visit, and we don't want to face him. Not now. Either way, I think our work here is done, don't you?"

Sam hesitates, then sighs. "Yeah, I guess so."

He slides the sheet over Gabriel's head, sort of as a sign of respect. For as many people as Gabriel's killed, he's saved a hell of a lot more these last few years. He deserved better than this.