Where Is Heaven

Chapter Twelve - Bonding

Sam watched the tattoo artist start to fiddle with his needle and ink cartridges. He wasn't expecting the small triangular symbol that would be placed on his left shoulder blade. And the unsettling kindness between the tattoo artist and Samkiel weighed in the back of Sam's curiosity.

"Alright, Reggie, after this one, can you hook me up with my own tat?!" Samkiel eased down in a chair straight in front of Sam with a pen and paper in her hand. Without awaiting an answer, she began to draw.

"Sure thing, doll. Say, last time you called upon me, your eyes were pink." Reggie winked at his old acquaintance and turned on the soft hum of his instrument.

"I like change." She whispered and concentrated hard on her doodle.

Sam watched her face as the needle started to dig into his skin. It was the concentration and intent in her beautiful eyes that Sam was mesmerized by. he started to love watching her doing simple things like this. It made him remember the sweeter simpler things that had helped him survive through the rough days.

"How is Ramiel?" Reggie asked casually.

There was a growing silence until Samkiel looked up and froze her stare on Sam. "He is gone." Her eyes dropped back to her drawing and he seemed to melt from the subject. "How is Beatrice?"

"She's great. Still has some trouble with her right eye... But most days are good. I will let her know you stopped in and asked about her." He smiled softly as he continued to give Sam his protection from Samkiel's sneaky mind.

"I'm glad she is good. You two deserve this quiet life." Samkiel sighed and set down the pen.

Her eyes lifted from the paper and met Sam's. He couldn't take his eyes off of her, and neither could she. As the pain from the tattoo caused him to bite his lip, she winked at him and turned the paper in her hand to show him the perfect duplication of what he had imagined.

It was a flame that engulfed a beautiful human form of a woman. The woman was faceless, but her body contorted to seem like it was reaching up to the sky. It was inspired by her urge to be powerful and survive in a world of flames and destruction.

"Damn, that's brilliant." Reggie murmured when he looked up a moment to look over her design.

Samkiel seemed very pleased as she nodded and turned it back to look it over again. "I think it is gorgeous... And perfect."

Just like you, Sam instinctively thought before he realized it. But her face was unchanged and it donned on him that the tattoo was already done and imprinted on him. She was out of his head, at the moment he realized she was digging deeper in his heart.

Part 2

Samkiel breathed in deeply as they walked out of the parlor and began to make their way to the deep green truck. She hunched a little after deciding to put the design on the left side of her back, under her boulder blade.

"I underestimated the pain." She confessed.

"It dulls down." Sam admitted and watched her scrunch her face. "Also, how do you know Reggie."

She grinned and he eyes gleamed. "They are fallen angels."

"What?"

"Yeah. They are a lot more than you would think. But they were pretty good friends of mine back when. They fell in love and fell from heaven. She had a little accident with a demon when they first fell, and I helped them a bit. He owed me." Samkiel walked over to her car door an peered at Sam over the hood. she looked funny for a moment. "The silence, it's weird. But I like it. It's almost calming."

"I feel a lot less awkward around you now." Sam opened his door and grinned at Samkiel. "Now you won't hear my deep dark secrets."

"I have already heard my fair share of rumors about you, demon boy." Her subtle nickname would've made him mad any other time, but he realized tht she wasn't being snarky. She really thought it was humorous. The fact that he could stand here and he wasn't really a demon.

"Well, angel girl, what is next on our agenda?" Sam plopped down in his seat and turned to watch her slide in beside him.

"Its about lunch time, are you hungry? I am going to need to make a call." She quickly put on her seat belt and anxiously sat in her seat staring out the front.

Sam grinned, feeling good to have her company, and started the truck. And as they drove out, the cell phone that harbored Dean's panicked voicemails fell down below the seat where it would be hours before it was uncovered.

Part 3

"You are going to eat that?" Samkiel asked with a hint of disgust.

Sam stared down at his double bacon cheeseburger and shrugged with some confusion. "Yes, it's delicious." And it was one of Dean's favorites.

She rolled her eyes and set her elbows on the table of the diner they decided to stop at. "It looks like a ball of death." Then her eyes fell on a pay phone toward the restrooms. She started to scoot out of the booth. "I'm going to make my call."

"Do you have change?" Sam started to reach for his pockets.

"Yeah." She winked at him and started toward the phone.

Sam watched her as she walked. He hadn't paid attention to someone other than Dean in the last months, but he found himself loving the time he spent with her. She was different and he felt no weight over their conversations.

As he watched her turn her back to him and begin to talk over the phone, Sam ate his burger and debated on his feelings for Samkiel. She was surprisingly making him feel better and even looser. These past few years life had been tearing him apart. He was becoming less stable and more depressed. And right this moment, as he looked over at this fallen angel, he felt a genuine warmness edge his cheeks. Life was starting to reappear behind his eyes.

When he heard her hang up the phone, Sam finished his last bite of the burger and relaxed back in the booth to hear out Samkiel's plans. Never did it offend him that he was taking so many directions from a woman, a thing Samkiel was starting to like about him.

She plopped down in the leathery booth and role her eyes dramatically with a deep sigh. "I did some checking in with a few of my old supernatural friends. It seems there is a demon conference happening tonight that we will be crashing."

Sam widened his eyes at her and almost choked on a French fry. "A conference? That seems major." He didn't want to say that he was scared, but he kind of was.

"We will disguise our selves. Pretend it is Halloween." Reaching over with a small grin, Samkiel grabbed one of his French fries and tossed it in her mouth. "You already know the demon part pretty well."

"Yes. And thank you for always reminding me." Sam growled and lost his appetite. He shoved the plate forward on the table and leaned back to stare coldly at his angel partner.

She held her hands up above her head and for the first time, Sam didn't see a trace of a smirk across her face. She actually looked sorry. "It was just a joke. I am thankful you aren't a demon, really, I just joke to lighten the air."

"Will that be all?" Their waitress dropped by, suddenly sensing an argument and wishing she had waited another round before coming back.

"Yes. It was delicious." Sam grumbled and tossed the cash into the table. Without looking over at Samkiel, he ducked out of the booth and started to trudge out of the diner.

Samkiel followed him silently. She hung her head a bit and finally realized what it felt like to cross a line with someone. Guilt peaked in her cheeks and for the first time in a long time, Samkiel felt more than a platonic feeling toward someone.