[reverse darkest timeline AU: cellthread #2]

[stilljustandrew]

[Previously: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

What's worried Baby the most, over the past few days --

Well. What's upset her the most is Andrew's consistent refusal to speak to her mind-to-mind, or out loud beyond the few necessary words she might exchange with any other inmate, such as requests for food, fresh clothes, an extra blanket.

But what's worried her is that he hasn't asked for anything to pass the time. No tablet with games or videos on it, no pencil and paper, no baseball to bounce off the opposite wall.

No books.



In the cell, Andrew finishes his breakfast (cornflakes, with sliced banana), sets aside the bowl, and settles down leaning against the wall.

Comments

[stilljustandrew]

He pulls his knees in tighter, squeezes the steel ring in his fist.

"I'm not going to," he says thickly, around a tightness in his throat. "I won't."

[gothamsheiress]

Brix lets the silence sit for a minute or two.

(She needs to think.)




"A faith that can't be questioned at all," she says eventually, "sounds like brittle wood with which to build."

She glances down at her hands in her lap.

"I question our beliefs a great deal. There are those who say the angels have their plans for all of us, and I--" She laughs, soft but bitter. "I have often wished I could be so easily comforted. My parents were killed in front of me when I was a child, and when I think that their deaths were part of some angel's plan -- I would almost rather believe there are no angels at all than that they could be so cruel. But that idea is as frightful as its opposite."

[stilljustandrew]

The tension starts to seep out of him, gradually, as she turns to talking about her own beliefs.



"What if," he says slowly, "what if you could ask them? The angels."

[gothamsheiress]

"I'd ask them why."

She looks back up to him, with a sad smile.

"I doubt any answer they could give would satisfy me."

[stilljustandrew]

He hesitates.

"If there's no answer that would satisfy you ... then, then maybe 'why' isn't the right question."

[gothamsheiress]

She lets out a breath of laughter.

"That's probably so. What do you think would be?"

[stilljustandrew]

"I don't know."

His gaze falls to his hands.

"Maybe ... 'what can I do to feel better about it.'"

[gothamsheiress]

"Ah," she murmurs. "They've answered that one for me already."

She tilts her head.

"You've met an -- archangel. What did you ask him?"

[stilljustandrew]

"It's kind of complicated," he mumbles, without looking up.

[gothamsheiress]

"Yes," she agrees, and waits.

[stilljustandrew]

He breathes out a long sigh.

"Okay, so ... in order to live and move about on the earth, an angel needs to take a mortal vessel. A human being, basically, has to let the angel move into their body. They have to consent," he adds swiftly. "An angel can't take a vessel without their consent. And the, the thing is, an archangel is so powerful that most humans aren't strong enough to hold them without ... without being destroyed. So there were only a few people Lucifer could possibly use, when He was freed from his prison."

A beat.

"And His first choice was a friend of mine. Sam Winchester."

[gothamsheiress]

Her eyebrows rise fractionally when he emphasizes the consent, but she only nods.

"Ava mentioned that, about your friend."

[stilljustandrew]

"Yeah." A touch subdued. "She knew him too."



"Anyway -- at first Sam didn't want to be Lucifer's vessel, and he ran. And he, he came to my world to hide. But then ... he went back home, and a little while later his brother came here to tell us that he'd said yes. Consented."

Andrew rubs a hand across his face. "And I was ... I was confused. And upset. And I, I tried to Summon Lucifer, so I could try to talk to Sam, and find out why."

A fragile, crooked smile. "I guess 'why' wasn't really the right question there either."

[gothamsheiress]

"I'd have asked the same. What do you think now would have been the right question?"

[stilljustandrew]

"... Maybe the same one I said to you. What I could do to feel better about it. Except I don't think I would've listened, back then."

He glances up at her, then back down.

"I, of course I couldn't really Summon Him. But it got His attention when I tried, and He came anyway. And I think that's when He decided He wanted me."

[gothamsheiress]

". . . Because you interested him?"

Her voice has a hint of an edge -- not directed at him.

[stilljustandrew]

"Maybe, yeah."

A faint tremor of a smile. "And, I mean, He knew who I was. Because Sam knew."

[gothamsheiress]

"Of course."

The edge is out of her voice, sheathed again.

". . . You wanted to ask Sam why he let Lucifer possess him. Were you hoping for a certain answer?"

[stilljustandrew]

He chews his lip for a moment, and then shakes his head. "I don't think so. I think ... like you said. There wasn't an answer that would've satisfied me. Even the real answer, which ... there was no why. It just had to be."

[gothamsheiress]

"But if it has to be, that implies that there's a reason. A goal, at least."

[stilljustandrew]

"Maybe. I don't know. Destiny? -- Do you believe in destiny?"

[gothamsheiress]

"It depends on the day, to tell you the truth," she says, deeply rueful.

[stilljustandrew]

"Yeah."

He opens his hands, as though to let the idea slide out of them, and clasps them together again.

[gothamsheiress]

"You speak as though you do believe in it, though."

[stilljustandrew]

"I don't know if that's the word for it, or if maybe there's a better one, but ... some things just have to happen. Or, not even have to, just ... will happen. Inevitably. You can't fight them."