Full Circle (Book 8 in Arrow/Spn Crossover)

Alternate Perceptions

True to his word, she started shifting around and opened her eyes about twenty minutes later.

"Ow, my head," she groaned.

I was lying next to her, her head was on my chest and I'd kept the room dark. I was figuring she'd probably be feeling like the morning after an all night bender, so the less light the better. "Hon, you all right?"

"I can see so that's a start," she whispered, "Once the jackhammer stops bashing my brains in I'll have a better answer for you."

"I'll get some aspirin for you. Did you unpack my bathroom stuff?" I was damn happy she was able to form complete sentences, I'd seen way too many humans that didn't take too well to seeing any hint of an angel's true nature. Most of them either had their brains turn to mush or suffered some sort of permanent damage. If she could joke she must not be too bad off.

"Yeah."

"All right," There was enough light coming in under the door that I could make my way to the bathroom and feel along the wall for the light switch. I made sure to close the door before I clicked it on, the light made me wince seeing as how I'd been in pretty much complete darkness for a good chunk of time. She'd set all our toothbrushes and stuff on the sink and had put the aspirin bottle on the counter along with some of her herb packets. Guess she'd been planning on dosing me some more, I wouldn't be needing all that anymore thanks to Cas, but she did. I sort of wished the water in the sink got hot enough to make her some tea, get her back for knocking me out, but luke warm tea is just nasty. I grabbed three aspirins, a glass of water and headed back to the bed. I clicked the light off before I walked out, waited for my eyes to re-adjust to the darkness and handed her the glass and pills. "Here you go."

"Thanks Babe." She downed them pretty quick, handed me the glass and settled back down on the bed. Once I put the glass on the nightstand I curled up next to her and breathed a huge sigh of relief. It's not that I didn't think Cas knew what he was talking about, but hearing her scream in pain cut deep. I was really wishing there was a way I could send her back home or convince her to stay in the Bunker but that was a battle I'd never win, the only way she'd stay out of harm's way was if she felt there was a damn good reason to. Me being worried wouldn't cut it.

We just laid there in silence for a while, "I think everything still works," she said in a stronger voice this time. The pain must be clearing. "Let me look at you."

"Don't push yourself, no reason to rush this." Last thing I needed was to take her back home damaged in some way.

She rolled over, guess you don't need light to see someone's Warrior Spirit. "This is basic, if I can't do this then we know that something's wrong. I just want to get it over with."

"All right."

I couldn't really make out her face, but I felt her tense up and the air seemed to get heavier. That happened sometimes when she was using her skills, but not usually when she was just reading someone. Maybe because we were so close together I noticed it more.

She relaxed, "It took a bit to get there but I think that's just the headache making it hard to focus. I seem to be fine though."

I tightened my arm around her and kissed the top of her head, "Good. Hey, what did you see? The only time I've seen Cas not in human shape was when he pulled me from Hell but it's not the best of memories. Since I was on the way to becoming a demon I was terrified of him, he was all glowing and righteously smiting everything around me."

I felt her nestle closer to me, "I don't even know how to describe it. I've never seen anything like him. When I was looking with everything closed down, there was this cloud of light around him, like how people describe auras but it wasn't just one color, it was all of them and every shade in between."

"Huh, whenever he glows because he's throwing angel power around he's blinding white."

"Well, the color white is made up of all the colors of the spectrum so it makes sense that when he uses his powers and makes them visible to normal eyes you would see white. It wasn't just a cloud of light hanging there though. He, or his power, or whatever, was constantly in motion, like waves." She stopped talking and I got the feeling she was searching for words. "Then when I opened up a bit more I saw...everything." Her voice had finally hit that awestruck pitch, I guess she was starting to process the fact that she'd seen an angel, "I saw the wards on the walls, which is something I don't usually see, I saw the walls, you, the air and I saw how it was all connected, how he's connected. What, or who he is, was connected to something so expansive that for a second there I felt like an ant getting washed away by a flood. I couldn't stop myself from being pulled in, then I blacked out."

"Actually, he put you to sleep." She pulled away from me and I could just make out her face, shocked didn't even cover it.

"He can do that?"

I laughed, "Not sure why that's shocking, he healed me after all."

"I didn't feel anything, one second I was in pain, the next I was waking up."

"Yeah, good thing he can't teleport anymore. That will really throw a kink in your system."

"Teleport?"

"Yeah, the angels used to be able to fly, they weren't really teleporting but they move so fast it seemed like they were. Then Metatron caused them all to fall and they lost their wings. They go back and forth from here and Heaven using portals now I guess. That was the same night Sam and I decided not to close the gates to Hell. The following year or two sucked a hell of a lot of ass, even for us." Her and I had chatted some about all that but it wasn't something I liked to dwell on much.

I watched her put that information in the timeline of my life that was stored in her head, "I can't really imagine that, Cas must have been devastated, all of them must have been."

"You could say that. Do you need some more rest or are you up to walking? I can make you some tea if your head still hurts."

Her smile broke up the darkness, "Trying to knock me out?"

"Not at all, just trying to help."

"Uh-huh, I think I can walk. Thanks though."

I heard a small hiss as she slowly sat up, "Really hope he keeps that necklace on when I'm around him though. Damn." She slid to the side of the bed, stood up and opened the door. "Let's see what's going on."

"All right." I joined her and slid my arm around her waist. By the time we got back to the main room she'd stopped leaning on me for support but I didn't let her go. She'd been supporting me in one way or other for the last year, it was kind of nice to be able to do the same for her finally.