Chapter 69 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The war room is back to normal the next morning. The blood is off the walls, and Kali's head is gone. And, as an added bonus, Gabriel is still out there, so he's not just sulking alone anymore.

No one notices, though, because very few people knew why they were supposed to stay away from the war room; only that they should. The only other people who knew what was wrong were Sam, Jess, Lucifer, Michael, Jo, Adam, and Samandriel, and coincidentally, they're the only people not out yet.

"Hey," Charlie says with a grin, bouncing over to him. "You look lonely. Where's Kali?"

"You don't know?"

"I do not know," she confirms. "Why? Did Chuck let her out? Is he finally ending this 'experiment'?"

Gabriel hesitates, then nods slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, Chuck pulled her. I don't know what that says about the whole thing, but she's out."

"Well, lucky her," Charlie replies. "Maybe we won't have to wait much longer. Are you gonna go find Sam again?"

"That's not gonna happen," he replies.

"Oh, right. Jess." She frowns at that, but then adds excitedly, "Hey, does that mean you're free to talk to me for now on?"

He shrugs. "Guess so," he replies, his voice coming out a bit flat, even to his own ears.

"Hey, Red!" Meg says with a grin, giving Charlie a hug from behind. She kisses her neck, and Charlie giggles. Letting go, she looks over at Gabriel questioningly. "You're missing someone."

"Chuck took her out." It's not a complete lie. Chuck has to have killed her, because he's the only one with the power to, and now she's out of here, so, technically, Chuck did take her out, right?

"Ah, sucks to be you," she replies.

"Meg!" Charlie reprimands her. "Be nice!"

"'Nice' isn't in my vocabulary," Meg replies. She leans in closer, her lips right next to Charlie's. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

Gabriel rolls his eyes, knowing they're too distracted to notice. He was vaguely aware that they had been spending a lot of time together, but he didn't realize they were together — or, at least, that comfortable with the fact that they're together. It would almost be cute if it wasn't so... not.

A few minutes later, Michael and Jo join them in the war room. Michael spots Gabriel immediately, silently asking his brother if he wants some company. Gabriel shakes his head minutely, not wanting to talk or even think about Kali right now. Michael seems to understand, because he nods slightly before turning his attention back to Jo. Well, that was easy.

"Has anyone seen Sam lately?" Dean asks loudly, making sure everyone can hear him.

"He's probably sleeping," Balthazar replies. "Shouldn't you know that? You're human, too."

"He's always up at the crack of dawn," Dean protests. "It's past ten now."

"And? Is sleeping in a crime now?"

Dean bitch faces him, but doesn't reply because he honestly doesn't have a response to that. With a girl like Jess, he's surprised Sam wants to get out of bed at all. Dean, for one, would be perfectly happy spending his day lying in bed with Cas if he could. He'd be surprised if Sam was any different.

~~

"What's going on?" Amara asks, eyeing Sam and Lucifer on the roof.

"With who?" Chuck asks, not waiting for an answer and instead following her gaze. He scrunches his eyebrows in confusion. "They're just... lying there."

"And basically have been all night, that I've seen," Amara adds. "I wasn't watching them specifically, but I haven't seen them move when I'd look."

"That's weird," Chuck replies. "Like, really weird. I honestly don't know what's going on." He shrugs. "Oh well. Probably nothing to worry about, and if it is... Well, we aren't gonna worry about it anyway."