Transmission from the Trickster

Chapter 53

Dean holds up a beer bottle. "Here's to Jack, the best friend and best weapon we've ever had!"

"Cheers!" Sam, Castiel, Mary, and Ketch all raise their bottles in solidarity. Jack looks between them for a moment, then raises his as well, which is everyone's cue to start drinking.

"I still can't believe you killed the devil," Ketch says. "Well done, kid."

"Oh, thanks," Jack says. "I wasn't really sure it was gonna work, but I'm definitely glad it did."

"How did you know where he was?" Mary asks. "I thought he was messing with your perception."

"Well, I couldn't really see him, but he wasn't being very quiet," Jack says. "I was honestly more worried about hurting Gabriel than I was about missing Lucifer."

"Speaking of," Ketch says, "where is Gabriel? I would have thought he'd come back with you."

"He can teleport," Dean reminds him. "You thought he was going to suffer through a long ass car ride with us or wait it out with you until we were back?"

"And he's grieving," Sam adds, surprised that this didn't even come up in Dean's synopsis. "Lucifer may have been evil, but that was still his brother."

"Most of the angels are dead at this point," Dean reminds him. "What's one more to the crowd?"

"Lucifer was an archangel," Castiel says. "They were all Heaven's most sacred at one point in time. I'm sure that means something to him."

"Well, whatever," Dean says. "It took eight years, but we finally killed Lucifer. How 'bout we talk about that instead of dragging the room down?"

"I hear that," Mary agrees. "If Gabriel's not back by the end of the week, we can worry about him then. Until then, I say we celebrate."

"Agreed," Ketch says. "I'm sorry I missed it. Sounds like you had quite the time."

"Damn right," Dean says.

"This is the first time in years that there are no world-threatening evils to worry about," Castiel remarks. "What do we do now?"

"Celebrate," Dean says.

"After that, I mean," Castiel says. "We just killed the devil himself. Do we go back to fighting ghosts now?"

"Don't worry, Cas," Dean says. "I'm sure we'll have a new apocalypse soon enough."

~~

It's hard to celebrate when you're the only one in the group who has other worries.

Sam learns that the hard way.

He goes to bed early that night, under the guise of being exhausted from a long day. In reality, he just doesn't want to pretend everything is perfect. Obviously, he's glad they finally took Lucifer down. After the torture he endured in the cage, he almost wishes he could have killed the guy himself.

But at the same time, he can't help but wonder what this is going to do to Gabriel. He's gotten fairly accustomed to worrying about the archangel since they pulled him out of hell. From his dead silence to freaking out at crashes of thunder, he's had Sam wondering more often than he'd care to admit about whether he'd ever return to being who he used to be.

But, as much as Sam hates to diminish his trauma, it was all temporary. He's not stuck in a cage. He's not having the grave suctioned out of him. That's all over. It'll take time, but he'll get over it eventually.

But death is permanent. Sam never would have thought that Gabriel and Lucifer were friends, especially after Lucifer tried to kill and and Gabriel got him stuck in a cage, but apparently they were. Gabriel worked far too hard to make their peace treaty work for Sam to think it was just about protecting the Winchesters. Lucifer must have meant something to him, and now he's dead. That's not something he can escape.

Sam just really hopes he's okay. That's what it all boils down to. He's worried. Sam, a human and a hunter, is worried about Gabriel, an archangel and a proud serial killer. If anyone had told him 11 years ago that he'd one day worry about this guy that sent a bunch of bikini models to kill him and his brother, he would have called them crazy, and yet...

Sam sighs. All he wants to do is go look for him. He just wants to see him again, to make sure he's okay. But Gabriel wants to be left alone, and, as much as he hates it, he's going to respect that.