For beees

[lotsoflaughs]

It's a reasonably warm and sunny day and Gabriel is sitting on a park bench, leaning back against it with his arms folded over his chest and legs stretched out in front of him, a backpack sitting on the ground by the bench. He's watching the kids playing in the playground area when he gets distracted by Castiel's arrival. He turns his head to look at him before squinting. Okay, there's sure something going on. "Hey. This is a bit of a time hop for you, isn't it?"

And maybe a bit more than that, he isn't entirely sure. "You seem to be about a century off from when you're supposed to be."

Comments

[lotsoflaughs]

"She retired. Actually retired, not had something horrible happen. Her connection to the Warehouse was severed when Claudia decided she was ready to take over." Gabriel raises an eyebrow slightly at Castiel. "I think that's probably enough about Claudia's job for now. Given who she very well may have in tow if she decides to pop up, it's time to move on."

"Spefically we had a very long talk after your Godsiel phase that eventually led to my wanting to know where the stuff Balthazar stole went. Needing an angel who was confirmed to be dead also ended up coming to mind at some point after." Gabriel isn't normally in the habit of finding ways to rez his younger siblings, but he had work for little brother.

[beees]

Castiel's eyebrows knit together in confusion as Gabriel mentions that Claudia might show up with someone in tow. As he moves on to bring up his stint as God, he frowns, taking an interest in the ground. That definitely wasn't one of his finer moments, and he regrets killing Balthazar about as much as all the deaths of the other siblings and humans he's responsible for combined.

He looks up, though, as soon as Gabriel says that they needed a dead angel. "Did you find a way to bring Balthazar back?"

[lotsoflaughs]

"Yeah and he's already had the awkward painful conversation when he felt up to dealing with you and I'm sure he'd like to skip repeating it." Just to nip that one in the bud a tad.

[beees]

"No, I can't say I fault him for that." Castiel will behave himself and steer clear.

[lotsoflaughs]

Good. While Balthazar has come to terms with the proper Castiel, no need to make him go through it with another.

Anyway. "It's not practical for me to go everywhere with Claudia--ignoring that I can't get in the Warehouse--which is why I needed him. Crowley noticed her, so I wanted someone no one would be looking for. He'd been given instructions to keep an eye on her from a distance--along with the warning that the Winchesters taught her that rock salt fired from a shotgun trick."

[beees]

"I suppose that makes sense." Castiel isn't surprised that Crowley's aware of the Warehouse, and he'd be even less surprised if the demon hadn't been trying to take advantage of it. "How does Balthazar feel about this assignment?"

[lotsoflaughs]

Actually, Claudia only got noticed because of her habit of spending time around Gabriel. They've been careful to try to keep Crowley from getting too much info about her actual job.

"Once he was done being glad to be alive again and sorting through his baggage you mean?" Gabriel asks drily. "He managed to keep complaining to a minimum. It really helps that I don't expect him to be 'on duty', so to speak 24/7. When she's actually with me, what he's gonna do that an archangel can't? And since we cant get in the Warehouse, not much point in him hanging around outside."

[beees]

It's probably for the best that Crowley doesn't know about Claudia's job. Hopefully he doesn't know about Joshua either.

Castiel looks away briefly. Killing Balthazar was certainly a low point, and having it pointed out that there as baggage associated with that dredges up old guilt. "Well. I'm glad it sounds like he's doing reasonably well, under the circumstances."

[lotsoflaughs]

Crowley's aware that if he tries anything with any of Gabriel's family that he would cease to exist. His penchant for survival is still alive and well.

"Yep, he is. I know better than to try to make him be all work, all the time--and wouldn't ask it in the first place--so he has plenty of time to go do whatever."

[beees]

"Well, you have a bit of a history of enjoying plenty of recreational time yourself. It would be a bit hypocritical of you not to allow Balthazar the same freedoms now and again."

[lotsoflaughs]

"Yep. Not gonna ask him to do something I won't." Although given he's an archangel, it's less 'ask', more 'tell'.

[beees]

"Precisely." Okay, time for another new topic. "What else has changed in the last century that I should be aware of?"

[lotsoflaughs]

"The Impala's kept in the Warehouse," Gabriel says promptly. "Although since it's one of the things in there that gets pissy when not fiddled with, Claudia takes it out for a spin every once in awhile. She does it instead of having an agent do it because she's the one who knew Dean and how much the car meant to him. She also wanted to drive it since the first time she saw it."

[beees]

His eyebrows raise. He hadn't really given much thought to the Impala; he assumed that sometime after Sam and Dean passed that whoever would take possession of it would eventually run out of ways to keep it running. "After well over a hundred years, their car is still able to be driven?"

[lotsoflaughs]

"They take careful care of it and have vehicles even older than the Impala. Along with stuff even older that have moving parts, granted, not as complicated as a car, but still." Just accept the Warehouse has its ways.

"Look at the bright side. You can still park your ass in the backseat, even if you'll be looking at the back of a red-haired woman's head instead of Dean's. Although it does get loaned to a very few hunters every once in a while if what they're up to is important enough." 'And can be trusted to bring the car back in one piece' goes unsaid.

[beees]

"It's good that they are able to keep it on the road. I'm sure Dean would appreciate it." Really, though, he's not particularly interested in popping up in the backseat. It's not really the same without Sam and Dean.

[lotsoflaughs]

Gabriel's own Castiel doesn't tend to show up back there either. Every now and then yes, since he knew Claudia, but not often.

"He gets given updates on things going on in the world every so often, I think. Along with if the car's had its month's outing yet."

Time for slightly different subject, he thinks. "We made sure to keep the boys away from Claudia's coworkers, because them and an ATF agent and Secret Service are not a good combination. Couldn't avoid some of them meeting when they were picking up the curse boxes of stuff from their Dad's storage to go in a new section Claudia created, but that couldn't be helped much. Another motivation is to keep Dean and Pete away from each other. Sam and Myka didn't particularly deserve those two getting up to stuff together."

[beees]

"I'm not sure he'd be satisfied with anything less than being kept informed, to be honest." His suspicion is that Dean would probably try to organize a break out if he felt things were going badly.

"Who are Pete and Myka?"

[lotsoflaughs]

"They were Warehouse Agents. They started working there shortly before Claudia did. By about two months." Needless to say, given this was a hundred years ago, they're gone.

"Dean reminded Claudia of Pete and Pete reminded me of Dean. Y'know, if that tells you anything."

[beees]

Castiel nods. "That says quite a bit, actually." Too bad that was a hundred years ago - he thinks he would have probably gotten along well with Pete, if he was much like Dean.

[lotsoflaughs]

He actually might have gotten along with Pete more easily. He was definitely less prickly than Dean could be.

"Yeah. Besides the effect those two would have on other people's sanities, Claudia didn't want Dean making Pete fall off the wagon. So another reason they needed to stay away from each other," he says, turning his head when he sees a child-sized missile incoming.

Said missile skids to a stop by the backpack and digs around for a bottle of juice, drinking about half of it before actually bothering to take notice of them, head tilted as he looks at Castiel. "You're diff'rent."

"He's from an earlier point in the timeline and managed to screw up where he was going," Gabriel supplies. "Where were you trying to go, anyway?"

I'M BACK. I'll hit other tags in the morning since it's currently 3am.

[beees]

"Those seem like very valid reasons to try to keep the two of them separate," Castiel agrees.

He watches as Joshua barrels towards them, and searches out the drink in his bag, offering up a small smile at the boy's observation. "Yes, well, uh. I'll try not to stay long." Then, glancing back to Gabriel, "I believe I overshot by about forty years."

Oops.

\o\ It's two for me.

[lotsoflaughs]

"Smooth," Gabriel says drily as Joshua drinks all he plans to and takes off again with a 'Bye Uncle Cas!'. "Was there something in particular you were planning to look into?"

Okay, he's vaguely curious about Castiel's reaction to his son's parting comment.

[beees]

"Yes. It's not important, though." He waves his hand dismissively, watching as Joshua runs back off to play. His energy certainly seems to have no bounds. "'Uncle Cas?'"

[lotsoflaughs]

He's a kid. Kids are made of energy. Until suddenly they're not. Gabriel is sure that Joshua will be passing out for a nap sometime later whether he wants one or not.

"You're one of my siblings, hence the moniker," Gabriel points out. "Balthazar gets called 'Uncle Bal'. Which he doesn't mind coming from a kid. Joshua still gets tripped up by the entire thing sometimes. Usually when he's excited and doing the mile a minute thing or when he's tired."