Shattered: The Sequel to Mirrors

Broken Wings

Gabriel was sitting on the bed with Lucifer and Alfie standing at his side. Gabriel should have known better than to sit down by his much taller brothers, because now he was half their size. He sighed and looked at what all of them had been focused on. Castiel was laid down across the bed on his stomach, wings spread out so they could reach them.

Or what was left of his wings.

Gabriel had one of them on his lap. They were much different than Cassie's fluffy white feathers. All of the feathers had turned jet black. They were dull, ugly, most of them charred and falling out. Even the flesh of his upper wing and bone area was charred and bleeding. They weren't wings anymore. They were dead weight and no matter how hard Gabriel or the other angels tried, they couldn't heal them.

"What do we do?" Lucifer asked. Gabriel ran his finger's through his brother's wing gently, pulling out any loose feathers. His hand came to the bottom full of feathers. Alfie let out a small sob at realizing the hopeless state of Castiel's wings. Lucifer wrapped an arm around the youngest angel. The door opened and Balthazar stepped in.

"Shit," Balthazar breathed. "What the hell?" Balthazar reached out to touch the angel's wing. Nothing happened. "You guys can't heal him either?" Balthazar asked. All of them nodded. Balthazar sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Well then we need a first aid kit and a lot of badages. He's going to have to keep his wings out for a while, he needs time to heal," Balthazar said.

"Who's going to do it?" Gabriel asked. While of course he wanted to take care of his little brother, he wasn't exactly able to get the area of his wings closer to his back without making everyone uncomfortable. The only person he let groom his wings in that area was Sam, and he knew Lucifer only let Michael touch his wings in general.

"I used to help him with his wings," Alfie said, still in full on tears.

"Buddy, you're crying so hard I don't think you could see you're own hand in front of your face," Lucifer said, wraping his arm tighter around the angel.

"Which means..." Balthazar was cut off by a knock on the door. They all went silent as the door opened slowly. Dean was standing there, looking as uncomfortable as possible. Gabriel had originally been excited to see Dean. Sure, the two didn't get along all the time, but they were still family in some weird way and he liked Dean. Now, he didn't like Dean much. He had seen how weirded out he had been when Gabriel had kissed Sam, and now there was no way in hell he was going to ever tell the older Winchester brother about his previous relationship with Castiel.

"Hey. I just..." Dean trailed off as he saw Castiel's wings. Something close to pain flashed in his green eyes and he crossed the room slowly. All of them were silent as it seemed Dean was almost entracened by the wings. His fingertips ghosted over the damaged feathers. Then he looked up at Gabriel. "Was this because of me?" Dean asked. Gabriel looked at Lucifer who shrugged.

"Not exactly. It wasn't like you did it. But going to hell seriously damaged his wings. And we can't heal it. We're going to have to fix him up manually," Gabriel said.

"Is there anyway I can help?" Dean asked. Again, Gabriel glanced at Lucifer. This time the older archangel nodded.

"Yeah, actually. We're going to take care of his outer wings, but uh, well it's not customary for angels to help other angels with their inner feathers," Gabriel said, choosing his words carefully. Hopefully Cassie would still be unconcsious when Dean was patching him up.

"Okay," Dean agreed. "I mean, it's the least I can do, right? He saved me from Hell and everything." Gabriel could think of a lot of other things that Dean could do that would be very helpful. Like remembering everything all of them had been through together. "I'll just wait outside. Let me know when you need me," Dean said. He glanced down at Castiel and then grabbed the angel's wrist and squeezed it before leaving.

"Am I the only one who thinks that was weird?" Balthazar asked. All of them glared at him. "Obviously I'm missing something. Are the angel and human together in this one?" Gabriel had no idea what Balthazar and Crowley were going about all the time, but he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, they were. But they're not now, because Dean doesn't remember," Gabriel explained. Balthazar looked thoughtful and then nodded.

"In that case, let's get to work," Balthazar said.

Between the three of them, they did the best they could. Castiel started to stir about toward the end, and a part of Gabriel was considering not getting Dean. If Dean knew, it would make everything so much worse. But he needed to make sure Cassie was taken care of.

He pushed open the door and saw Dean standing awkwardly against the opposite hallway wall. Hd gestured for Dean to come inside and then offered him the remaining first aid supplies.

"If you need any help, we'll be right outside. So just let us know. Be gentle. And uh, well an angel's inner feathers are really...sensitive. Be careful," Gabriel mumbled. Dean nodded. Gabriel patter Dean's shoulder and then walked out.

Castiel was going to be fine. He had to be.

Uh, yeah so I was going to do Dean's perspective too, but then I realized I didn't have enough time to write that today, and so I figured I'd give you this part. You will get Dean fixing up his "buddy's" wings in the next chapter, promise. Which should be out tomorrow...or more likely Thursday. School's got me hecka stressed, and I'm not doing great mentally, so add that to the pile of stress. Anyhow, I'm trying to catch up on SPN, and watching that show seriously keeps me sane. 

Sometimes we fall apart. Sometimes the world we carry on our shoulders is too heavy and we drop it. Sometimes everything shatters into a million little pieces. You're not weak for dropping the weight. You're strong for picking it all up and carrying it again. No matter how many times you drop it, no matter how many cuts you get on your hands, no matter how tired your arms are. You pick up the pieces and carry on. That...that is strength. 

I have the honor to be your obedient servant. 

P.S. I'm also catching up on the Walking Dead with my sister and she's decided that the Walking Dead is just an SPN AU where John loses Mary, Sam, and Dean at the start of the Apocolypse and then becomes Negan (don't ask, she's weird).