Black Swans

by omphalos, Wolfling

Chapter 3

Day Thirty-Four

"Y'know, I don't think this is ever going to get any less weird." Dean's voice coming out of Gabriel's mouth was definitely on the higher end of the weird scale, but it was welcome.

Sam smiled at both of them, not that Dean could see it. "How are you and Cas? Where have you reached?"

Dean told him, adding, "We're good, though we've picked up a couple of tag-along survivors."

"Huh!" Sam laughed and smiled over at Madeline where she was sitting close by, determinedly teaching Joey improved writing skills – as well as a touch of botany, which was unavoidable, pretty much, seeing as they were currently under the glass of the giant geodesic dome here in the Missouri Botanical Garden. "Us too, a mother and child – good people."

"A couple of sisters here. They're not used to hunting, but boy, are they picking things up fast!"

"Madeline's really impressive too – adversity is bringing out the best in at least some people. Speaking of which, kind of, I, uh, don't suppose you've heard from anyone else?"

"You mean my other brother palling around with an archangel?" Dean asked with pointed snark. "Nah, Sammy. But I'm not taking that as a bad thing necessarily. We wouldn't have heard from each other if not for the angel walkie talkies."

"Yeah, I guess." Sam pulled a pointless face. "I'm thinking that after we've met up and rested a while we should start heading to South Dakota. Bobby'll head home, I think, if he can head anywhere at all."

"Took the words right out my mouth. Except in the way that it's in the angels' mouths."

"Yeah." Sam smiled, wishing he could speak to Dean for longer, but it wasn't fair on the angels, or sensible either, to fritter away their mojo on idle chatter. "We're in St Louis, right now. Got a place in mind to meet up?"

"Yeah, been thinking about that. You remember when Cas took us back to '78 – the cabin Mom took us to?"

"The secret hunter place that not even Dad ever knew about? Sure. Good idea. With a bit of luck, it'll still be... well, however Michael left it, I guess, which could be fun." He ended on a thoroughly wry note, remembering the fact that large quantities of his blood had been spilled there.

"I'm sure he cleaned up after himself, given they were all trying to fly under the radar back then," Dean said. "And it's got all those built in protections against, well, everything but angels."

"Which, as it turns out, is handy." Sam took a few moments to think through the route. "If everything goes smoothly, we could be there in a solid day's drive."

"We're probably day and a half, two days away, depending on stops we need to make," Dean said. "So not much further."

"Yeah, we should maybe take a slightly longer route, thinking about it. This part of St Louis seems okay, but most of the places we've passed so far have left me feeling that a wide circle around Kansas City could be a good plan." No point in bringing Madeline and Joey into high risk areas when it could be avoided.

"Yeah, same here. Too close to Lawrence. Somehow with all the crap that's gone down there over the years, I don't think it's going to be all sweetness and light."

"I hear you." Sam remembered at least one disturbing report from the area in the months before the end. He wasn't sure what was there for them anyway now. "So, we'll see you in a couple of days, man. Keep yourselves in one piece, huh?"

"You too. See you soon." Gabriel's eyes closed, and when he opened them back up they were back to normal.

"How was Cas?" Sam asked immediately.

"Better," Gabriel said, and the tone of his voice combined with the way he cocked his head made it clear he was trying to figure something out. "Almost happy."

"Yeah?" Sam felt a grin forming. "Do you think they've.." He made a gesture with his eyebrows that he'd almost certainly picked up from Gabriel.

Gabriel snickered. "You have gotta do that in front of your brother," he said.

Sam groaned, just thinking about it. "You're a bad influence." He stretched his arms up, loosening his joints, before crawling around to sit beside Gabriel. "I'm picking up all sorts of bad habits from you."

"You mean you're loosening up," Gabriel corrected. "Some at least."

Sam snorted and reached out behind Gabriel's back to scratch with a feather light touch between the archangel's shoulder blades.

The muscles under his hand twitched and then Gabriel was squirming away and turning to face Sam. "I thought we agreed you weren't going to exploit that piece of knowledge."

Sam didn't fight the huge grin that wanted to take hold of his expression. He'd only discovered Gabriel's sensitivity in this area a few days ago, and now he found the desire to touch Gabriel there to be almost irresistible at times. "Who's exploiting? I'm giving you a helpful example of bad habits I've picked up."

"You don't really want to make this a thing here, kid. I'm the Trickster. I never lose at tickle fights."

"I'm not ticklish," Sam pointed out. Then he remembered that, should he want to, Gabriel could probably make him ticklish. Sam dropped his hand in a hurry and muttered, "Unfair."

Gabriel smirked. "Who said I ever played fair?"

Sam wanted – really wanted – to lick that smirk from his face, but couldn't really, not with Madeline and Joey so close by. "We'll get back to this discussion later," he said in a low voice.

Gabriel though didn't seem to have the same reticence as he leaned in close, all but climbing into Sam's lap. "Count on it," he said, still smirking, before pulling back again.

Right, that was it. Sam grabbed Gabriel's arm with one hand and used the other to direct that grace-tugging power he seemed to have developed right between Gabriel's shoulder blades.

That got him an honest to goodness yelp, something he'd never heard from Gabriel before, but then Gabriel was wriggling away from him, as slippery as any eel, and turning around and pouncing on Sam, pushing him flat. "So that's the way you want it, Winchester?"

"No," Sam protested, already laughing. "Get off. Help! Madeline!"

"She can't help you now," Gabriel told him, fingers digging into places that Sam hadn't thought were ticklish until that moment.

"No! Get off me! Stop!" Sam writhed on the pathway. "Gabriel, stop!"

For a moment he didn't think Gabriel was going to, but he saw something flash ever so briefly in the archangel's eyes. Then Gabriel was pulling back with his usual smirk, letting up on the tickling but not moving from his place straddling Sam. "Told you that you didn't want to make this a thing."

Sam heaved for breath, feeling his face fall into a serious expression. "You stopped."

"Yeah." The smirk Gabriel was wearing smoothed out into a similarly serious expression. "You asked me to."

"I asked you to stop, and you stopped." Sam wasn't sure why, but he felt it needed to be stressed. There was something happening here. He could see it in Gabriel's eyes somehow. "Just like that."

"Well, I was pretty sure I'd made my point already," Gabriel said with a shrug, obviously trying to blow the whole thing off.

Sam took a quick look around. There was no sign of Madeline and Joey. Maybe they'd got away while the going was good. He put his hands on Gabriel's thighs and stared up at him. "Thank you."

Gabriel just nodded without saying anything. Sam let his hands slide further up Gabriel's legs.

Gabriel's smirk came back full force with an added wicked glint in his eyes. Sam – he had to admit it, to himself at least – was developing an automatic response to that smirk, a response he mainly felt right under where Gabriel was currently straddled. He gave Gabriel a heated look, wriggled a little under him, and let his hands, now at the top of Gabriel's thighs, start to caress inwards.

"I'm getting the impression that you want something," Gabriel said, his attempt at an innocent tone failing completely when paired with that smirk.

"Well, we seem to be alone, and you are close to full-on cowgirl on me already," Sam pointed out with what he considered was a reasonable smile.

Gabriel snorted. "If you're calling me a cowgirl, there's obviously been a few details that have escaped your notice."

Sam's hands moved up to Gabriel's hips as he rubbed up against Gabriel's ass. "You can be anything you want to be," he pointed out. "Maybe not now, but when your power's fullly back. You can be you-times-two if you want to be."

"Is that what you want?" Gabriel asked, cocking his head in the angelic tilt. "A ménage à trois with me... and me?"

Sam couldn't help either his eyes stuttering shut or the tremor that passed through his muscles, hearing that. "The idea... well, it appeals." To say the least. Jeez.

Gabriel laughed delightedly, wickedly. "You've got a hell of a lot dirtier mind than you let on."

Sam managed to level a look at Gabriel despite just how hot and hard he suddenly was. "You do remember my history? I spent a year boning a demon and drinking her blood. I'm anything but vanilla, man."

"Compared to what I could show you, that is vanilla, kid," Gabriel told him, then leaned over to capture Sam's mouth in a kiss.

Christ, the things they were going to be doing together once Gabriel's mojo became fully accessible again. Sam shivered then clamped one hand to the back of Gabriel's neck, the other to his ass, and let the archangel do things to his mouth that made Ruby seem like the angel on his short list of lovers.

A scream piercing the air nearby had Gabriel pulling back and off him with almost usual angel speed. "That was Madeline!" Gabriel said as he disappeared in the direction of the scream.

Sam didn't have the luxury of wings, but he too was on his feet and running in the direction of the scream within seconds. This was what happened when they stopped concentrating and started to behave like... well, like 'normal people'. No one left alive could now be considered normal, and Sam had never been normal in all his life. He should have known better. Please let Madeline be okay.

When he caught up he found a sobbing hysterical Madeline and a very grim looking Gabriel. The latter looked up at Sam. "Something's got Joey. You stay with her." Before Sam could even form a word of protest or agreement, Gabriel had flown off.

"Shit," Sam muttered, dropping to his knees beside Madeline and, after a brief hesitation, gathering her to him. "What the hell happened?"

"They... black eyes... Joey-" Madeline gasped out, not making much sense, though the 'black eyes' bit was clear enough.

"Try not to worry. Even with his power levels low, Gabriel's more than a match for a few demons." He hoped. He really hoped. "Are you injured?"

"I... I don't know," Madeline said, looking down at herself as if checking for injuries.

"I can't see any blood," Sam said, moving back to allow her room to investigate. "How many were there?"

Madeline opened her mouth to answer, but then her eyes widened in obvious panic. "Look out-"

Sam whirled around to see two demons doing the comedy creeper act behind him. Just two. He could handle two. He was on his feet in a defensive crouch with the knife in his hand almost angel-fast... which was when something fell over him from behind. His first impression was that it was something like a net, a sparkly, metallic net, and he didn't have time for any impressions beyond the first. He was too busy trying to stay upright as the world spun around him.

Then the ground decided it needed to be vertical all of a sudden and smashed up into his face. He was choking on a mouthful of dirt when everything faded to black.

***

Gabriel was using up his available grace at what was probably an alarming rate, but he felt like he didn't have a choice, not when demons had grabbed Joey. Kid had been traumatized enough; Gabriel needed to get there before anything else could happen.

He could sense the demons straight ahead and saw no reason not to cut them off by flying to a spot just in front of them. When he did that though, the three demons took one look at him and immediately dropped Joey. They tipped their heads back and black-smoked out into the air and away.

And that seemed... wrong somehow. Yeah, sure, the cat was well out of the proverbial bag in regards to what he was, and any demon with an ounce of self preservation should head for the hills the second he showed up, but he'd encountered very few demons with that ounce of self preservation, mostly because those that had it stayed far away from him, even when he was just being the Trickster. All of this went through his head as he made his way to Joey's side to check on the kid.

Joey looked up at him. "Where's mommy?" he asked in a small voice. "The bad man pushed her."

"Sam's got her, kid," Gabriel told him. "She's fine." He helped Joey stand up. "You okay?"

The boy looked down at the unconscious and, in one case, dead humans around him. "They had demons in them. Like you said Daddy had."

"Yeah. But they're gone now. Demons don't like angels very much," Gabriel said, knowing he sounded distracted. He didn't want to freak the kid out more, but there was something not right here.

"What's 'bait'?" Joey asked, looking up at him.

Gabriel frowned. "What made you ask that?"

"That's what the demons called me, and they laughed at me."

If Joey was bait and yet they'd fled from Gabriel the second he showed up, that meant that they had to have been after... He had to get back. Now.

He scooped Joey up in his arms. "Hold tight, kid. We're about to go flying."

Joey clung, and Gabriel flew. He landed by Madeline who was, to Gabriel's great relief, kneeling by Sam... who was lying on the ground not moving, which was bad. Very bad. But he was breathing, which was so, so good.

Joey ripped himself out of Gabriel's arms and threw himself into Madeline's, who held him tight before starting to look him over. "What happened?" Gabriel demanded, going over to kneel at Sam's side.

"They snuck up to us and threw something over him," Madeline said, her voice croaky. "I don't know what it was. It kind of sparked all over him and then vanished, like it melted into his skin. It made him pass out and then the demons just turned and ran."

Yes, he could sense it now, coils and tendrils tangled and clutching not only at Sam's consciousness but at his soul. Gabriel didn't know where the demons had gotten it from, or who had made it, but it was a definite, deliberate attack on Sam, the human who should have been Lucifer's vessel but was instead his doom. It was a nasty piece of work, and it had Sam.

Madeline was talking urgently with Joey, trying to make sure he was all right, but she took time to look at Gabriel and ask, "All this, was it just to get to Sam? To do that thing to him?"

"To get me away so they could, yeah," Gabriel replied, running fingers over Sam's body as he traced the tangles of the trap, looking for a weak spot or an end he could grasp to unravel it. "They knew if I'd been here when they sprung it, I could've stopped it before it took hold." He could stop it now too, it was just going to take a lot more effort. He refused to even consider the alternative.

"Why?" Madeline asked bluntly. "What's Sam to them? You, I'd get. Demons presumably aren't fond of archangels. But I thought Sam was... well, human?"

"More or less. But that's what makes him important. You guys may not be the most powerful, but you've always been the most important. That's what set off my brother on his epic snit fit in the first place. Dad didn't consider him the most special any more." Dammit, there had to be an 'in' to this spell somewhere.

"Well, I'm human, and they didn't seem interested in me." She paused and then added, "Not that I'm complaining. They're not going to come back, are they? Only Joey..."

"They're not that stupid," Gabriel said, though part of him wished they were. He'd be happy to show them why pissing off an archangel – even one whose power was depleted – was a suicidally bad idea.

She was quiet for a while, holding Joey close while they both watched Gabriel with big eyes. Then she said, "Is there anything at all we can do to help?"

"No." Gabriel pulled his attention from Sam and the trap that held him briefly to look up at her, softening his expression. "But thank you. This is just going to take some time." Hopefully it was time Sam still had.

"I'll take Joey to the SUV in that case. We'll... try to rest, I guess." His attention back on Sam, he heard various shuffles and murmurs and then it was just Gabriel and Sam. Again.

Gabriel stayed where he was, more still than humans could manage, his entire considerable being focused on his task. Finally, after far longer than he liked, he managed to grasp one thread of the thing, a thread that instinct told him was enough of a linchpin to unravel it. It was still going to take a lot of patience and skill to do so, but Gabriel could do patient when he had to. He carefully followed it along, gently pulling it free of the other threads... until he followed it to the spot where it sank directly into Sam's soul.

An even nastier piece of work than Gabriel had thought at first. Not only was it holding Sam bound within himself, but it was interacting with him in there, and Gabriel was sure it was anything but pleasant for Sam. Worse, he was going to have to slip into Sam's essence himself if he was to continue to pick the trap apart. He didn't want to think about what such an invasion would do to Sam, and to the... understanding that was growing between them, but the alternative was even worse.

So pulling all of his remaining grace such as it was around him, he mentally grasped hold of the thread he was following and let it pull him inside.

***

A regular routine was important to maintain. It meant Sam hadn't given up, hadn't surrendered to depression or futility. It meant that one day, someday, Sam was going to win.

Rising at the same time every morning, making sure he showered, shaved, ate regularly, sorted his laundry, kept his guns and knives clean, and his supplies plentiful; making sure he slept at least six hours a night even if he needed help to do it – these were the things on his internal checklist, and he ticked each box, every day, leaving nothing undone.

Another item on the schedule was to kill any evil bastards that stumbled into his path while he was on the hunt for the big one. It would be all too easy to let this one task slide, to see these side hunts as unnecessary distractions from his all-consuming need to find the Trickster... which was exactly why he couldn't let that happen. He was a hunter, first and foremost. He couldn't let himself ever forget that. Saving people, hunting things – that was the mission statement. While saving Dean and hunting the Trickster were his primary tasks always, he was still determined to be that tolling bell for any nasties who happened to be around when he hit town. Any town.

He got the job done, all the damn jobs, on his own, and then he got back on track. The fact that these hunts provided a short term outlet for the sheer, overflowing rage he felt every moment of every day, that poisoned his breath and colored the world around him in hues of piss and blood, well, that was coincidental. If, admittedly, both convenient and cathartic.

It was, in truth, the only satisfaction he had left. It only lasted a few moments, that dark, rising release he felt every time he saw the light leave some monstrous douche's eyes, but those few moments were a whole cargo hold better than nothing. Not that he was in this to enjoy himself, but he used whatever he could to keep himself going. Never give up, never say die. It's what Dean would've done, so how could he do any less?

The killing, the schedule, and the objective – they were all he had, and he used them, and he kept on going no matter what. This was his life and would continue to be his life until either some evil son of a bitch got lucky one day, or he found the bastard who had killed his brother for nothing more than shits and giggles and made him bring Dean back. So, today it was a vampire nest. Seven of them, but it was daytime; they were asleep. All he had to do was sneak around to make sure there were no surviving human victims in there, and then he could burn the place down, picking off the vamps one by one as they ran out screaming. That was the plan.

Things didn't go according to the plan, however.

Afterwards, in the slo-mo action sequence as the cans and saucepans and the rest of the timpani section spun in the air before crashing crescendo style to the floor, he spent a long drawn out moment wondering if his trip and fall right into a pile of incongruously domestic objects had been the physical equivalent of a Freudian slip. It made sense he had a death-wish, but jeez did it piss him off when he sabotaged himself.

Then the moment's navel-gazing was over, the world sped up, and angry vamps were coming at him from all sides. He already had a stake in his hand, and that took care of the first one to reach him, but then the rest hit like a series of express trains, and he was kicked back into the side of the warehouse hard enough to dent the corrugated metal.

He staggered back to his feet, ignoring his pain and shaking his head slightly to clear it. The vampires grinned at him.

Dragging his second and only remaining stake from his inside jacket pocket, Sam charged at them, yelling wordlessly.

Thirty or so seconds later, Sam fell, finally overwhelmed despite taking two more of the bastards with him. He knew that this was the end, that he'd failed not only to win Dean back, but to save himself. As the vamps closed in around him, the one thing he felt most clearly, shining bright now amid all the rage and need, was relief.

***

Going into someone's soul was probably the most unpredictable and confusing thing an angel could do. Gabriel could count on the fingers of one hand how many times he'd done it in his very long life. So he wasn't sure what he would find in Sam's, but this... This was as horrific as anything he'd feared.

Instinctively he tried to snap Sam's attackers away and had a split second's surprise when that actually worked. He wasn't one to look a gift dream in the mouth, and so he was just grateful the click had worked as he walked over to where Sam was sprawled on the ground. "You okay, kid?"

Sam stared up at him, heaving for breath, and his expression slowly changed from one of blank-faced confusion to something far uglier. His lips curled into a sneer as his body turned and twisted, until he was crouching close to the floor, a stake sticky with vamp blood in his hand. "You," he said in a low, intense voice.

Whoa. That wasn't anything near the reception he'd been expecting. "Sam?" he asked in confusion, not taking a step back, even though part of him was insisting that would be the prudent thing to do.

He should probably have listened to that part of him since Sam sprang at him now, stake in hand, taking Gabriel by surprise enough that he was pushed back into the nearby wall. The stake was pressed into Gabriel's neck in a way that felt familiar somehow. "Bring him back," Sam demanded, his nostrils flared like an angry bull's.

"Who?" Gabriel asked, confused even as this was pinging a memory of... something.

Sam loosened his hold just enough to slam Gabriel back into the wall again. He looked furious, but his eyes seemed heavy with unshed tears. "Stop playing. Finish this. Bring Dean back."

And suddenly it all fell into place. The Mystery Spot and Gabriel's attempt to stop the Apocalypse before it started, his attempt to teach Sam how not to follow the path that Heaven and Hell both had laid at his feet. Yeah, that had gone over like a lead balloon.

"Sam-"

Sam dragged air in nosily through his nose. "Do it!" He shook Gabriel. "Just do it. End this."

"It won't end anything, kiddo," Gabriel said gently.

"Bring him back!" Sam was starting to shake now. "Please."

He'd forgotten exactly the level of desperation that had poured off Sam back then, though he hadn't forgotten how the encounter had made him despair of stopping things. He hadn't understood at the time how what he saw as the weakness his brothers were exploiting was also, turned on its head, the Winchesters' greatest strength. He knew better now, knew Sam better now. And maybe, just maybe, he could use what he knew to get through to Sam. "What will you do if I agree to?" he asked.

"We'll go," Sam said immediately. "We won't try to find you. We'll just... get out of your hair."

"What if I don't want you to get out of my hair?" Gabriel asked.

Sam stared at him, breathing hard and frowning as he obviously tried to puzzle out what Gabriel meant. "This can't still be fun for you, can it? Really?" The point of the stake dug a little harder into Gabriel's neck, but Gabriel wasn't sure Sam even knew he still had hold of it.

"This hasn't been about fun," Gabriel said honestly. "Okay, maybe that one time with the piano..."

Sam's expression returned to that grimace of barely repressed fury that Gabriel, quite frankly, would be happy to never see again, at least not directed at him. "That's not... Look, just tell me what you freaking want!"

"Listen to me," Gabriel said. "Just... listen. And stop trying to run a stake through me every time you see me. Because when I bring Dean back–" he was careful to say when not if "– I'm going to be hanging around. A lot."

"Why?" Sam asked bluntly. Then he shook his head, his sweat-lank hair falling over his eyes. "No, I don't care. Just bring him back."

Gabriel looked at him assessingly for a long moment. That was probably the most cooperation he was going to get out of Sam at this point. He wasn't entirely sure this was going to work, but getting rid of the vampires had, so... He raised a hand and snapped his fingers.

Dean, or a very good facsimile of him, appeared off to the side, looking dazed and confused. "Dude, what the-"

"Dean!" Sam looked urgently between Dean and Gabriel, the shaking even more pronounced. He clearly wanted to go to his brother, but the hunter in him, or maybe just the cynic, wasn't letting Gabriel go. "Is it really you, bro?"

"Of course it's me," Dean said, aggravation in every movement. "What the hell? One second I'm standing behind the Impala in the parking lot and the next..."

Sam pulled a face at Dean and gestured with his head at Gabriel, who he still wasn't letting go. "Dude? Situation here."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Oh, go on and hug your brother," he told Sam. "You know you want to."

"This could just be a trick," Sam said. "I'm not setting you free 'til I know Dean's for real." As if Gabriel couldn't just push Sam aside with no effort at all. "Dean, tell me something," Sam went on. "Something only the two of us would know."

"Dude, it's me, seriously," Dean said, but then cast a glance Gabriel's way and sighed. "Fine, but then you're telling me what's going on and why you're holding onto a Trickster instead of staking him. Okay. When you were five you went through this Thundercats hero worship phase. Used to run around the place in your underroos with a plastic sword yelling about how you were Lion-O and doing that stupid 'Thunder, thunder, Thundercats ho!' yell."

Sam didn't exactly look overjoyed at having that particular memory reawoken, but Gabriel could feel him start to relax. "Yeah, like you didn't encourage me," Sam said. He looked between Gabriel and Dean again, his eyes settling on Gabriel as his hold loosened. "If this is a trick, I'll hunt you 'til the end of days. Alive or dead, I won't give up. Believe me."

"Yeah, you've proven how stubborn you are," Gabriel said, resisting the urge to straighten his clothing. "Just remember your part of the deal."

"Deal, what deal?" Dean asked sharply, his eyes going back and forth between Gabriel and Sam. "Will someone mind telling me just what the hell is going on?"

"Dude, it's been months," Sam said, backing off and looking down. "Months since he killed you last." He sounded as broken as he looked.

Dean opened his mouth and closed it again without saying anything. Gabriel resisted the urge to point out he looked like a fish, though he filed away the observation for some more appropriate time when they were back in the real world. Focusing on Dean's fishy resemblance let Gabriel not think so much about how Sam was looking and how it was all his fault.

After a moment of the guppy imitation, Dean finally managed to get out, "Tell me you didn't sell your soul to a Trickster."

That made Sam look up and turn to face Dean. "Why the hell would he want my soul? I just agreed that–" he looked down again, and his voice became a mumble "–he could hang around, bad smell style, if he wanted." He took two steps towards Dean, his arms raising as if going in for a hug, but then he stopped again, and his arms dropped.

That made Dean roll his eyes and close the distance between them, pulling his brother into the hug that it was so apparent Sam desperately wanted.

Sam made a choked off noise in his throat and enveloped Dean in a tight bear hug right back. Though he couldn't see it with his eyes, Gabriel was easily in touch enough with Sam's mind, being inside it, that he knew Sam's eyes were slowly closing as he let himself start to believe that Dean really was back.

***

He was always there.

Not that the Trickster hadn't warned Sam that he was going to be hanging around, but Sam had figured he, at the very least, would've gotten bored after a while. But no, the Trickster was always there, watching him and Dean. What was even stranger was that the worst he'd done since bringing Dean back had been to trade one liners with Dean and stand back and watch while they went about their business of hunting and trying to find a way out of Dean's deal. Hell, he'd even once or twice lent a helping 'snap' when things had gotten particularly bad, but mostly he just watched.

Sam couldn't figure out what the Trickster was really up to, what he wanted, and it was slowly driving him crazy. It made him doubt the reality of Dean being back, made him feel like a lab rat under the watchful eye of a scientist. He decided eventually that he had to confront the bastard, despite the risks of him killing Dean again or worse. Sam needed answers. He waited until Dean was in the shower one night then turned and faced the Trickster who was lounging against a wall watching him. Always watching.

"Aren't you bored yet?" Sam asked. "Are Dean and I really this interesting?"

"Kid, you have no idea," the Trickster said with a smirk that seemed to be full of secrets. "You and your brother are the most interesting show in town. But especially you."

Feeling taken aback, Sam gave the Trickster a confused look. "Why me? You just like to see me squirm or something?"

"We'll come back to the whole squirming thing later," the Trickster promised. "But not in the way you mean." He cocked his head to the side and watched Sam for a long moment as if searching for something. "Are you ready to listen? Really listen?"

Sam sighed heavily, rolling his eyes. "Look, I get your ridiculous lesson, all right? You don't think there's anything I can do to save Dean. See? Received and understood. I got it. I just don't happen to believe it. I'm not giving up, and you can't make me, no matter how much crappy psychological torture you put me through. So why can't you just leave us alone?"

The Trickster visibly took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. He looked up at the ceiling for a minute, then glanced over at Sam again. "I was wrong."

That gave Sam pause. "About what?"

"My plan. My methods. I was trying to show you something, trying to stop you from doing something you're going to regret for the rest of your life." The Trickster eyed him. "I like you, kid. Didn't want that to happen to you." He gave a self-effacing shrug. "Turned out not only did I get the method wrong, but the message too. If it helps any, you two eventually convince me of that, and we finally get it right."

"Huh?" Sam stared at him, wondering if what the Trickster was saying made sense to him, 'cause it certainly didn't feature large in 'sense' for Sam.

"You and your brother, you were being played," the Trickster explained. "Had been, since before you were born."

That really didn't explain anything at all. "Played by who? You?"

The Trickster laughed a little at that. "Not me. My family."

"Oh God. You have parents? Siblings?" Sam found the idea pretty horrific to say the least. "Please God, tell me you don't have kids."

"Funny you should phrase it that way because God is my family. My Dad." He paused and then said, "I'm the archangel Gabriel."

Sam stared at the Trickster for at least five long silent seconds. Then he burst out laughing.

The Trickster sighed and rolled his eyes heavenwards. "Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for."

"You expect me to take that seriously?" Sam asked, still chuckling. "You? An angel? You're about as holy as... as, well, any of the other monsters we kill all the time. I mean, Gabriel – he's God's messenger. He brings the word of God to man. Nowhere have I read that he sleazes his way around America playing vicious little tricks on innocent people while indulging his every trivial wish with a click of his fingers. Gabriel is-" Gabriel was beautiful. He wasn't sure how he even knew that, but if Gabriel existed, he was beautiful, golden, and full of radiant light and sacred power. Wings to take your breath away, a voice to die for – that was Gabriel.

The Trickster looked at him, and then he was pushing away from the wall and the lights were flickering and suddenly there were shadows of huge wings projected behind him.

Okay, that was an impressive trick. Sam had to admit that. He found himself taking a step or two back without meaning to. Try as he might, he couldn't even begin to figure out where the Trickster was going with this one. "Nice party trick," he said and immediately wished his tone had been less shaky.

"It's not a trick," Ga– the Trickster told him, stepping forward, closing the distance between them. "You know that, Sam. Deep down."

"Don't," Sam said, stepping even further back and knowing he was running out of space. He was starting to feel a little freaked out. More than a little, really. He was suddenly battling with strange impulses that seemed to have come from nowhere, impulses to reach out and touch the Trickster, to... Oh God. He could so have done without these stupid pornographic images that kept blip-verting into his head like pop-ups on an infected computer. "Get out of my head," he told the Trickster. "Stop playing me. Find another cat toy already; I'm all out of catnip."

"I'm not playing you." There was an edge of frustration, and of intensity of a kind that Sam didn't want to look at too closely in the Trickster's voice, even as he continued his slow, even approach. "And you're not a toy or catnip. You're something much, much more than that. You and Dean stopped the Apocalypse. No one thought you'd be able to, but you did."

Dean was taking a helluva long time in the shower. "Apocalypse? What the hell are you on?" Sam felt the all too solid wood of the drawer unit behind his back. "Gabriel, just stop this," he pleaded, only realizing after several moments the name he'd just used.

Gabriel smiled briefly. "I can't. I can't leave you here, Sam. None of this is real. It's all in your mind."

"What? No." Sam shook his head, not wanting to hear that. "This can't be still a trick. Dean's real. Dean's real!"

"He is," Gabriel said, quickly, soothingly. "He's out there with his angel, making his way to rendezvous with us. That's why you can't stay here. If you do, you won't see him – the real Dean – again."

"What?" Sam stared helplessly. Gabriel... The Trickster was standing so close now. Sam felt like he couldn't breathe. He put out his hands in order, he thought, to push the Trickster back. Instead, he tangled his fingers in the Trickster's jacket and shirts, worrying at them. "I don't understand."

"I know you don't, kid," Gabriel said, covering Sam's hands with his own. "It's part of the snare that's keeping you here – making you forget. But I swear to Dad, I'm telling you the truth. I'm here to get you out."

Sam couldn't now get his eyes to focus away from their hands. "My head... It's full of... Of pictures, glimpses. Of me and you." Then his expression and tone of voice hardened. "Why are you doing this? Wasn't the endless tuesdays a mindfuck enough? Now you want me to believe that – what? You and I are lovers out there in some 'realer' real world?" He glanced up to meet the Trickster's honey-colored eyes and laughed weakly. "And yeah, mustn't forget, you're the archangel Gabriel. 'Cause, of course, archangels generally enjoy being ass-fucked by humans. Wait, you said Dean has an angel too?"

"Castiel." Gabriel smiled. "The little angel that could. Little brother's shown up pretty much all of the Heavenly host. I couldn't be more proud."

Sam snorted because it was that or sob. "And does Dean do the things to this Castiel that I apparently do to you?"

"Oh, believe me, the things you and I do are completely mutual," Gabriel said, leaning in as he was talking and capturing Sam's mouth in an intense kiss after the last word.

Without a single comprehensible thought, Sam started kissing him back. Because he'd done this before. He really, really had. He pushed his tongue into the Trickster's – no, Gabriel's – mouth and tasted him and knew with a bone deep certainty that he'd done this before, way more than once, and that he liked doing it. He didn't understand it, not any of it. His thinking mind held no memories of Gabriel, no knowledge that could explain any of this, but deeper down in his mind, he knew. The images he was seeing? They were memory. The way his body was responding to Gabriel? Was normal, was expected, was... valued. And when he drew back from the kiss and allowed his eyes to relax just a little in a certain kind of way, he wasn't remotely surprised to see wings.

"Gabriel..." he whispered.

Gabriel smiled at him with something like relief in his eyes. "Hi, Sammy."

"I still don't understand, but–" he reached up a hand to touch Gabriel's face "–that doesn't seem to matter. I know you. I-" love you. He almost said the words. Almost. This was insane.

"I'll explain everything later, when we get you out of this," Gabriel told him, "I promise. But there's no time now. You have to trust me. Can you do that?"

How could he? How could he trust a creature who had tormented him for months, that had killed his brother again and again and– Sam looked towards the bathroom door. "Is Dean even still in there?"

"This is your soul, kid. He's there if you want him to be. But he's not real. None of this," Gabriel gestured grandly with a hand at their surroundings, "is real. The only things that are real here are you and me. The real Dean's out there, in the real world, and he's going to be waiting for us to show up."

Sam felt like he was wading through mud. "When did it stop being real?"

"I'm not sure I can give you an answer that's going to make sense to you where you are now," Gabriel told him. "The stuff at the Mystery Spot really happened, but that was a long time ago now. Years. You've been trapped in a memory loop, kiddo, and ironically, it's my job to break you out of it."

Sam closed his eyes, trying to calm down. It was hard enough to think straight anyway about this without all the shallow breathing and surging stress chemicals his body suddenly seemed so keen on. He moved his hands restlessly over Gabriel's upper body, knowing things instinctively about it that he had no right to know. But the Trickster could have put all this in Sam's head, couldn't he? He put his hand over where Gabriel's heart should lie. "This body is... a shell, a borrowed home," he said slowly. "Isn't it?"

Gabriel cocked his head to the side at the question. "I think of it more like clothing," he said slowly. "A disguise for the ultimate witness protection program, but that's kinda gone by the wayside now. Still, it's protective equipment, though it's everyone else I'm protecting."

Sam opened his eyes again, unfocusing them in that particular way. "I see the real you too. I see your wings, like... like constructs of projected light." He reached out tentatively, wondering if he could actually touch them.

The wings had been moving slowly, in concert with what Gabriel had been saying and doing, but now they stilled as Gabriel looked at him with wide eyes, as if he wasn't sure whether Sam could touch them either.

Sam could. He paused as his fingertips met the feathers, hardly breathing and experiencing a strange pins-and-needles feeling where his flesh met the wings. "Oh God," he whispered and closed his eyes again. He felt out with his fingers, pressing gently into surprisingly firm feathers and stroking slowly downwards. They might have looked as if they were made of nothing but light, but they seemed to have some kind of physical reality too. He opened his eyes to look at Gabriel, wanting to make sure this was all right before he continued.

If anything, Gabriel's eyes had gotten impossible wider as he stared at Sam, holding inhumanly still save for a barely there tremor through his wings that seemed to start at Sam's fingers.

Frowning as he tried to force memories that didn't want to come, Sam asked, "This is a new thing, isn't it? We haven't done this before..." He ran his hands out along the wings, stepping so close that their bodies touched so he could use the full reach of his arms. "So beautiful," he murmured. "Gabriel..."

"Sam," Gabriel replied. He visibly gathered himself and took a deep breath. "Much as I'm happy – really – in all sorts of ways at this new fascination of yours, we still need to get out of here now."

Sam pulled back reluctantly, moving his hands to Gabriel's shoulders. Now that he'd started touching Gabriel, he didn't seem to want to stop, and yeah, he was aware he was accepting the archangel story far too easily when this all could still be a trick, but hell, it felt real, at the deepest level. He should want to kill the man... being in front of him. He should be barely able to keep his hands from Gabriel's throat, and those impulses were still there, but they seemed faded, two-dimensional compared to the rising urge to push Gabriel back against the wall, to rip his clothes and ravish his mouth.

"Get out how?" he asked, trying to concentrate. "And why's it so urgent? What's going to happen if we don't?"

"The spell snare will fully close, and you'll be trapped inside yourself forever," Gabriel said bluntly. "Your body will wither away and die, and you won't even notice. And I'm not sure death will even release you, if it gets that far."

"So... like the djinn we met, only worse. Gabriel..." Sam winced and swallowed. "My head's a mess. I don't know what to believe. If this is a trick, then congrats. You've won, 'cause every instinct I have is saying you're on the level. I know that you're more than capable of faking all this, of making me believe it, but... what choice do I have?" He stepped forward again, pressing his face against Gabriel's hair, needing the sense memory of that familiar scent. "Hell, if you'd wanted to trick me into trusting you," he added in a lower voice, "I'm sure you could've made things a lot easier for yourself than all this confusion and..." He gave up talking and just sighed softly.

Gabriel was quiet for a moment, but a hand came up to thread through Sam's hair, something else that felt achingly familiar. "Do you trust me?" the archangel finally asked again, softly.

Sam pressed his face further into Gabriel's hair and only partially succeeded in holding back a moan. "Yes," he said finally, surrendering rational thought to instinct entirely. "Yes, I do."

He could feel the way relief ran through Gabriel, the way his muscles went slack for a second before tensing back up again. "Thank you," Gabriel said softly. "Hold on and close your eyes. Whatever happens, don't let go of me, okay?"

Sam's eyes were already closed. He wrapped his arms around Gabriel, trying hard to think only of the human form in front of him because as soon as he considered the wings, he could feel his arms passing through them, and that was just freaky on a whole new scale and probably uncomfortable for Gabriel. "Okay," he said, his voice catching slightly.

"This is probably going to suck really badly, but I need you to keep trusting me and keep holding on." As he spoke, Gabriel's voice was changing, becoming deeper, more powerful, more there, until it was almost a physical presence as much as the wings were.

"Promise me Dean is where we're going," Sam said, holding even tighter, his eyes squeezed shut. "Swear on... on your father's name. Promise we're not leaving him here."

"I swear," Gabriel said immediately, and his voice now sounded every bit how Sam thought an archangel's should sound. He was suddenly surrounded by light so bright it turned even the inside of his closed eyelids white. The sense of overwhelming power grew and grew, and somehow Sam was aware it was pushing outwards away from them in an ever growing circle. Distantly he heard something shriek in pain and thwarted anger, and what sounded like the twang of over-stretched wires breaking.

The light flared still brighter, but then faded. Things seemed to spin in his head, but he kept holding on. Gabriel was the only thing that felt steady and solid, which made it all the more terrifying when the reassuring body seemed to vanish from his arms. Sam couldn't stop himself from opening his eyes as he floundered, reaching out for Gabriel... and Gabriel was there, sitting beside him in the grass and grabbing Sam's flailing arms.

And just like that, the memories returned.

"You back with us, Sam?" Gabriel asked, still holding Sam's arms as he searched Sam's face for... something.

Sam didn't answer, not right away. He pulled himself up and looked around. They were sitting on the grass where... where he'd been looking after a distraught Madeline, who was nowhere to be seen now, though someone had drawn an uneven circle of salt around him and Gabriel. He looked at Gabriel and tried to find the words to express what he was feeling. He couldn't. There was just too much of it. "What the hell was that about?" he asked, shoving his fingers roughly through his hair, pulling it back from his face. "That was personal, wasn't it? For me and me only. They stuck me in the one time of my life that I hated you the most." Even just remembering it seemed to bring those feelings back. He shook his head, totally not wanting to feel that way about Gabriel. Not now.

"It was a nasty piece of work, all right," Gabriel confirmed, "and it was definitely planned. They lured me away so they could pull it off."

Sam craned his head around, seeing only grass, trees, and the SUV a little way off. And, ah, there were Madeline and Joey, staring out of the back window of the car. Sam gave Gabriel a worried look. "We should get out of here. I don't want to give them a second chance."

"Agreed," Gabriel said, but he grabbed Sam's arm again to keep him in place. "Although the demons are gone from here, I can promise that. Sam, about what happened. Back then..."

"That's not now," Sam said as firmly as he could. If only he could convince himself of that. There was so much anger and desperation still in him, hardly buried at all, and all of it about the Trickster. He found he wanted to shake off Gabriel's touch. "They just disturbed old graves, that's all. The spirits are restless."

"I meant what I said in the trap," Gabriel continued on determinedly. "I was wrong. I had the right goal – try to stop the Apocalypse before it started – but I couldn't have been more wrong in my approach."

Sam tried to meet Gabriel's eyes, but could only do so briefly. The urge for violence in him that welled up when he did was too much. What had started to feel so unreal in his mind before Gabriel had dragged him back to the real world, now had started to feel real again. To try to hide that he moved closer, taking Gabriel's shoulders with forced gentleness and burying his face in Gabriel's hair like he had in the fake reality. "Thanks," he said. Even feeling how he was, he still realized it was a big deal, Gabriel saying that. A real big deal. "And thanks for rescuing me against the odds. You're amazing."

"Least I could do," Gabriel said, sighing as he, thankfully, dropped the subject.

 

Day Thirty-Five

It wasn't getting any better. Over twenty-four hours since being dragged back into the real world, Sam still didn't seem to be able to leave behind what had happened in there. Or rather, what had happened three-plus years ago that the demons' magic had dug up and reanimated inside his head so that it was now shuffling around, stinking up the place.

Emotions that had no business in this here and now wouldn't let him be. Sam kept finding himself thinking that Dean was dead, lost to him, and feeling like he wanted to be dead himself until he remembered. And even when he remembered the feeling didn't go. It sat in his heart and his gut, burning like acid, making the world all wrong around him, making people all wrong. He was just so angry.

Even though he knew all the very good reasons why he shouldn't, he'd found he just had to get away, be on his own for as long as he could get away with it. He couldn't trust himself around Madeline and Joey, not like this. He was dry timber just waiting for any excuse for a spark. So he'd snuck away from the camp where they still were, despite everyone agreeing that they should leave this place. He left the gardens and started wandering toward central St Louis.

It was only as he found himself facing a couple of young men on an obvious looting spree that he'd realized he was still doing what he'd done during that time, that fake time after the Mystery Spot. Back then, he'd carried on hunting to ease, for a few moments, the raging fire in his soul. Here, marching into a post-apoc city center, he was after the same thing.

The men – well, closer to boys – looked way more scared of him than he was of them. There was no demon stink on them, so he just nodded and walked past. Nothing was said, ships passing.

Sam needed something stronger.

He sensed Gabriel's presence a split second before the archangel spoke, appearing out of the shadows less like an angel and more like a demon. Or a trickster, Sam guessed. "Sam?" Gabriel was frowning as he came closer. "Taking off without a word probably isn't the bright thing to do right now."

Sam felt his hands curl automatically into fists. "Needed to get away," he said shortly. He didn't stop walking.

Gabriel fell in step beside him. Close. Too close. "You suddenly disappearing is freaking out the civilians."

Sam winced. Because, yes, of course it would upset Madeline and Joey. "I'm not thinking clearly," he admitted, carefully moving further away from Gabriel.

Gabriel snorted. "Not exactly news there, kid. That was a nasty trap you were caught in, of course it's going to take a little time to get over it."

"Yeah. Uh... Guess I should head back." Sam turned on his heels and started to stride back the way he'd come.

"Sam!" Gabriel quickly chased after him, reaching out to stop him by grabbing his arm when he caught up.

Sam had pushed Gabriel away hard before he'd even thought about what he was doing, and Gabriel had let him, maybe too surprised to resist. "What is it?" Sam demanded.

Gabriel's eyes widened in surprise, and then he frowned in concern and held his hands up in a 'not trying anything' gesture. "Thought we just discussed the haring off on your own thing," he said carefully. "I'll walk back with you."

"That's not necessary," Sam said, speeding up.

So did Gabriel, keeping pace. "Did I do something...?"

That stopped Sam on the spot. "Did you do something?" he asked disbelievingly.

The confusion Gabriel was showing morphed into dismay. "This isn't about... But that wasn't real!"

Sam raised his eyebrows, about to point out that it had been real, once, that Gabriel had done that to him, once... but then some semblance of sense finally spoke up in Sam's mind, and he shut himself up and started walking again. He was on the edge of out-of-control here, and he knew it. He hadn't felt like this for a long time, so full of the urge for violence, for release. It had no place in his life right now. He had to calm the hell down now.

"Sorry," he muttered, sensing Gabriel just behind him, keeping up. Then he said it again, louder. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Sam," Gabriel said, though he sounded like it was anything but.

And yeah, it wasn't. Nothing was okay. Sam trudged in silence, carefully maintaining the distance between him and Gabriel – not so far apart that Gabriel might feel Sam was trying to get away again, not so close that there was a danger of touching. It was a relief when the SUV was in sight again.

***

Gabriel slowed and watched Sam stomp off over to where their SUV sat. He'd walked right past Madeline and Joey without saying a word. Which was totally out of character for Sam – at least a Sam who wasn't lost in a mire of depressive rage.

Madeline stared after him then turned to look at Gabriel, concern and questioning in her expression. Gabriel sighed and shook his head. "I don't know what to tell you. Sam's.... dealing with some issues." Issues that were ultimately Gabriel's fault, a little voice in his mind reminded him, much as he tried to ignore it.

"Did the demons... hurt him?" she asked carefully, as if she wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer. She pulled Joey closer to her and ignored his grumbling.

"They made him relive a really bad time in his past," Gabriel said carefully.

"And now he can't forget it again?" Madeline frowned. "Is there anything we can do?"

"I don't know," Gabriel said, staring over to where Sam was standing. "I think it might come down to me forcing him to talk about it, but... I'd rather not have to go that route." Not when the whole thing that started this was over Gabriel forcing Sam to basically dance to his tune. Even if his intentions had been good.

Madeline's gaze was now a little too perceptive. "You were there too."

"Yeah," he admitted, giving her a rueful look. "I was."

She nodded and then followed his gaze to watch Sam, who seemed to have started a major reorganization of the SUV's luggage. "This time, it was traumatic for him? Could this be some kind of delayed PTSD?"

That made Gabriel laugh without humor. "His entire life has been one long trauma, Maddy."

"Oh." She looked down. "He, uh, downplays that when he talks about himself."

"Yeah, he would," Gabriel said, shaking his head. "For all that he's been through, he's remarkably resilient, really." It had been one of the things that had caught Gabriel's attention initially – that sheer stubborn refusal to give up or give in and instead to keep trying to change things.

"Have you always been his guardian angel?" she asked, her fingers combing through Joey's hair while he played quietly with a toy car he seemed to have found from somewhere.

Gabriel snorted softly. "Until very recently I haven't been anybody's guardian angel. I was kinda... hiding."

"What from?" Madeline seemed to realize her question was a little blunt, and she tried to back peddle. "I mean, if you're okay talking about it. I don't mean to pry."

"Not really much to tell," Gabriel said with a shrug. "I ran away from home. Heaven. Didn't want any of them to find me so..." He spread his hands. "I went pagan."

"You can do that as an angel?" Madeline seemed a little scandalized by the idea.

"There's not much an archangel can't do when we put our minds to something," Gabriel said. "But yeah, it was against all the rules, spoken and unspoken." He flashed her a quick smirk. "That's what made it such a good hiding place."

"Made what a good hiding place? Earth? Or... being pagan? What does that even mean for someone like you?"

"It means I was in witness protection," Gabriel said. "Not that I was all quiet and retiring, mind you. That's never been my style. I was still on the radar, but not as Gabriel. As Loki."

Her eyes widened. "You... are Loki? The real Loki?"

"But, but... Loki is a supervillain!" Joey piped up, suddenly paying attention. "He's Thor's arch-nemmy... nemer..."

"Nemesis," Gabriel provided. "Thor just had a good publicist," he said. "Comic book Thor is a lot cooler than real life Thor."

Joey's mouth formed an exaggerated bow of unhappiness. "But..."

"Don't you think I'm a lot more awesome than comic book Loki?" Gabriel asked, leaning in a little to catch the boy's gaze.

"You're nicer," the boy said cautiously.

"And I've got better taste," Gabriel added, snapping up a big bag of M&M's and holding it out to Joey. He was not above bribery.

"That was awesome!" Joey snatched the bag of candy and struggled to get it open.

"I hope you don't think you're going to be eating all of them at once, young man," Madeline said, but she was smiling at Gabriel. "I don't suppose there's a Long Island iced tea where they came from?"

Gabriel just grinned and snapped one into existence.

Madeline took the frosted glass with both hands, cradling it as if it were precious treasure. She took a small sip, and her eyes flickered closed. "Ooh, bliss. You are definitely an angel."

"Among other things, yeah," Gabriel said with a smirk, even as it was dawning on him that those two little tricks hadn't seemed to drain him like everything else had been doing lately. A cautious look inside confirmed that his grace was brighter than it had been since before he'd woke up in Florida. Finally he thought, a wave of relief washing over him.

His first thought, of course, was to share the good news with Sam, but that just brought his current worries back. Looking over, he could see Sam had finished his reorganization of the baggage and now had his head under the hood. As Gabriel watched, he saw Sam throw something to one side with a curse of some kind and slam the hood down.

No, things still weren't right.

 

Day Thirty-Seven

"Could you stop kicking the back of my seat, please?" Sam said, pissy as anything, every word carefully enunciated. There seemed no outside reason for his bad mood. It was a sunny day. They were cruising along a highway with an increasing number of other cars also driving along it, all of which, according to Gabriel's senses, held humans and just humans bar the odd dog or two. Normally, Sam would be overjoyed to see so many survivors. Not now apparently.

Sam had been wrong since Gabriel had managed to pull him out of the snare spell. Not that Gabriel could blame him for being a little off, considering. He hadn't liked the reminder of what at the time had seemed both funny and an exercise in frustrated futility either, especially considering what he knew now. He could only imagine how revisiting that trick had left Sam feeling. It certainly had brought out all of the kid's brooding skills in a way that everything else they'd been through recently had not.

But much as he felt Sam was justified, it still wasn't a good thing to wallow for too long, hence Gabriel's attempt to get a rise of some kind out of the kid. Kicking the back of Sam's seat was just an easy way to start and had the added bonus of making Joey giggle.

"Just stretching my legs," he replied to Sam's pissiness, innocence practically dripping from his voice as he winked at Joey.

He could tell from the set of Sam's shoulders just how well that went down. "Stop, or I'm not driving any further until you swap places with Joey. He's more grown up."

"Nah, he just has shorter legs," Gabriel said, barely keeping the smirk off his face. Really? Sam was pulling the 'behave or I'm pulling over' card?

He heard Sam heave in a noisy breath through his nose. Madeline cast a concerned look at Sam, saying, "Maybe a rest stop would be a good idea. We could all do with stretching our legs, I'm sure."

"I wouldn't say no to that idea," Gabriel put in. Maybe it was time to call Sam on the attitude, and that wasn't something he could really do while Sam was driving.

Sam didn't say anything, but a short distance up the highway, he swung onto an off ramp and then down a rough-looking side road. He was already opening his door while he was still braking, and as soon as the SUV was stationary, Sam was gone, striding up the road, the keys in his hand.

Gabriel opened his door, then turned back to the others. "Give us a few, okay?" he asked, and then stepped out after Sam without waiting for a reply.

Sam had already put some distance between himself and the SUV, putting his long legs to good use. Gabriel wondered if he even had a destination in mind beyond 'not here'. Yeah, like he had a chance at outrunning an archangel. Especially since Gabriel had been able to feel his grace beginning to replenish at something a lot closer to its normal rate for the last two days, even away from natural wellsprings.

He snapped his fingers, moving himself to just slightly in front of Sam, and leaned against a fence alongside the road. "Going somewhere, kid?"

Sam almost staggered in his attempt to avoid Gabriel. He veered left, holding up his hands, and warned, "Just keep away from me," as he carried on up the road. His face was a picture of barely repressed fury.

That brought Gabriel up short; he hadn't been expecting quite that level of intensity. "Okay," he said, a little more quietly, holding up a hand in a calming gesture. "I'm not coming any closer, Sam. Swear."

Apparently afflicted by the spirit of total perversity, Sam immediately stopped. He stared at the ground, his back to Gabriel, and Gabriel got the impression that there wasn't a muscle in Sam's body that wasn't tense enough to start snapping bones. "Gabriel," Sam said, his voice thick with some kind of emotion, "what's happening to me?"

"You're riding the emotional roller coaster," Gabriel told him, feeling like he was calming a nervous horse. He wanted to move closer, but didn't want to spook Sam any more than he already had. "Not that you don't have good reason to, what with everything's that's happened."

"I feel like I hate you," Sam said between breaths almost loud enough to be panting. "Like I want to kill you. Oh God." He wrapped his arms around himself tightly. "But I also feel... Well, like I did before. I want... No, I need you. Badly."

Gabriel supposed he should be grateful for the latter part, all things considered. "You have every right to hate me," he said, even though the idea of Sam hating him was less than pleasant. "What I did, what I put you through... is pretty unforgivable." He'd regretted that particular trick long before recent events rubbed his face in what his actions had done to Sam, someone he lo– cared about. He'd broken his own rules – namely only going after those who truly deserved it.

"Is... Have the demons left something inside me? Something that's keeping these old feelings alive and kicking?"

"I don't think so," Gabriel said after a moment's consideration. "I think they just made you feel how you did back then, and since you never really had a chance to resolve it..."

"Can you... Can you make it stop?" Sam hung his head still lower, looking wretched. "It makes no sense to feel like this. Not now. I need you so badly, but I'm scared that if I touch you, I'm going to... try to hurt you."

"Maybe you should." The words were out before Gabriel really thought about what he was saying.

"Don't say that!" Sam whirled around to stare at him, immediately screwing his face up and looking aside again.

"Why not? It would be my just deserts, after all."

"Huh." Sam pulled a very strange looking face. "I killed your brother. I think we're even."

Gabriel blinked, caught off balance by that comment. That wasn't– Sam just hadn't– "What?"

"I killed your brother." Sam shrugged. "Sometimes I wonder how you can even stand to be close to me, let alone the things we did together."

"I gave you the power to do it," Gabriel reminded him. "I'd be a heck of a hypocrite if I blamed you for doing something you couldn't have done if I hadn't told you how and helped you."

Sam sucked at his teeth, his facial muscles and tendons taut. "Can you... Can you not say anything for a little while?"

Gabriel blinked again. "That's probably the nicest way I've ever been told to shut up," he remarked.

Sam made a quiet, whining noise and clenched his fists at his sides. "Please."

Being silent was something Gabriel had never been good at, and it was an effort to not say something now, but he swallowed the words that wanted to come out as he watched Sam take a step towards him.

Hesitating between each short step, as if checking that Gabriel wasn't going to do anything annoying, Sam moved until he was close to Gabriel. Then, after heaving several bull-like breaths through his nostrils, he reached out and drew Gabriel to him, bending to press his face into Gabriel's neck. He stood motionless for a few seconds, his mouth open against the skin of Gabriel's neck, his teeth digging into Gabriel's skin. Then he pulled right back. "I need your grace," he said to the tarmac.

That was something he could do, and, biting back the 'Any time' that wanted to slip out, Gabriel silently let his guards down, pulling his grace to the surface 'til it was all but shining under his skin.

"Oh God." Sounding desperate, Sam sank to his knees, still staring at the ground. "Please. Please."

"Sam," Gabriel said softly, reaching out to tilt Sam's face up to meet his eyes, letting fingers pour his grace over the human.

Sam groaned, closing his eyes and grabbing holding of Gabriel's hands, running his tongue over them. He took multiple fingers into his mouth and sucked them, making almost pornographic noises around his mouthful and tugging hard at Gabriel's power. It was more than a little arousing, but Gabriel held back from doing anything more than letting Sam drink in grace, which he was taking in alarming amounts... or what would've been alarming if not for the return of a more normal refueling from Heaven.

Sam was gorging. He thrust away Gabriel's hands and instead lifted Gabriel's shirts, pressing his face against Gabriel's upper belly and dragging blunt teeth over skin as he sucked and pulled and yanked on Gabriel's grace, making slurping noises and making Gabriel's skin sticky wet. "God, yes," he kept muttering. Then, "Gabriel, this is helping. This is really helping."

"Can I talk now?" Gabriel asked, voice coming out a lot rougher than his usual. There was no way what Sam was doing wasn't going to have an affect on him.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Sam met Gabriel's eyes, and his own eyes were glowing with borrowed grace. "Yes," he said, managing a rough smile. "Think I'm better now, or getting there. Your grace... Your grace was what I needed. I'm not... not angry anymore." He pressed his mouth back to Gabriel's skin, pushing his tongue under the waistband blocking his progress. He moaned in what sounded like frustration.

Yeah, things were getting a little out of hand. "Sam," Gabriel said, moving to cup the side of Sam's face and hold him still, keep him focused. "Do you trust me?"

Sam looked up at him again with his gold-glowing eyes and nodded against Gabriel's hand. Every bit of anger and resentment seemed to have gone from him as cleanly and thoroughly as if washed away. "Yes. Completely."

"Enough to let me have control here?" He could just snap his fingers and take it, but that wasn't what he wanted. That wouldn't fix anything.

Sam seemed to pause and closed his eyes, but then he nodded and said again, "Yes."

Now Gabriel did snap his fingers, using his grace to change the reality around them. If they were going to do this, they were going to do it somewhere more comfortable than up against a fence alongside a dirt road.

Sam, eyes now opened again, seemed startled. Holding onto Gabriel's hips, he looked around the lavish bedroom. "Wow. You're really fully charged again, huh?"

"Getting there," Gabriel said with a grin. "You sucking on my grace seems to be accelerating the process."

"Really? Guess I should suck some more then," Sam said with a smirk and got to his feet. He moved in as if to kiss Gabriel, but stopped before their lips touched. "Uh, are you still planning on the control thing?"

Gabriel was sure the grin he was giving Sam now would be defined as wicked. "Oh, we're definitely still doing the control thing."

Sam seemed to shiver. "Right. Okay." He took a deep breath and then nodded as if making his mind up. "I trust you, Gabriel," he said firmly. "The reins are yours."

"Giddy up," Gabriel quipped, snapping Sam's clothes away and making a show of eyeing him up and down. "Acres and acres and all mine." He let his gaze drift up to meet Sam's heated one. "Bed now, please."

Sam seemed to hesitate for a few moments, but Gabriel didn't think it was disobedience, just a question of a blood-deprived brain catching up with events. Then Sam shivered again and moved, stopping once more when he stood beside the huge satin-covered bed Gabriel had made for them. "Uh, how d'you want me?"

Gabriel let his eyes drift down and back up again, knowing his smirk was getting wider. "Do you want the list in alphabetical order or order of preference?"

Sam chuckled in a way that sounded a little nervous. "Let's stick with item one on the agenda for now?"

"On your back," Gabriel said, the picture he had in his mind, very clear. "Hands above your head."

Sam sat down on the edge of the bed then slowly lifted his legs onto it as he laid back. He wiggled a little, getting himself more central, then lifted his arms, resting his hands on the pillow above his head. "Like this?" he asked, sounding so unsure that Gabriel was glad Sam's aroused response to all this was so obvious.

As it was, the uncertainty just made Sam even more tempting, and Gabriel knew his smile had turned softer, more affectionate in response. "Just like that," he said, coming to sit beside Sam, reaching out and running one finger lightly over the sharply defined muscles in Sam's stomach. "Feast fit for a god."

The taut skin trembled under his touch. "Am I..." Sam started, then seemed to change his mind and asked instead, "What am I allowed to do here?"

"Relax," Gabriel said immediately. He leaned up and in, pausing just before taking Sam's mouth in a kiss. "Feel."

Sam seemed to be doing plenty of feeling, what with the moan that he made into the kiss, but relaxing seemed off the cards. His arm muscles tensed and twitched as if he were fighting himself over something.

Gabriel pulled back after a moment, considering as he looked down at Sam's flushed face. "Would it be easier if I tied you up?" he asked, resting one hand over Sam's heart. It was an honest question; he could feel how hard Sam was trying and wanted to make it as simple as possible. This was supposed to be fun, after all.

His eyes stuttering shut, Sam's mouth fell open slightly, and he licked at his lips, sucking them between his teeth for a few moments before finally answering, "Yes. Yeah, it would."

"Ask and you shall receive." With one snap, Gabriel had dark padded leather restraints around Sam's wrists and ankles pulled taut, leaving the human spreadeagled and on display. And looking down at him, Gabriel felt like the luckiest being in Heaven or on Earth.

"Oh God," Sam said, half-groan, half-blasphemy. "Sorry," he added quickly, his voice still very rough. "Slipped out. Gabriel..." He searched for and met Gabriel's eyes. "I've been tied up stupid numbers of times, but it's never felt like this before."

"The objective is a little bit different than in all those other times," Gabriel said with a teasing smile. "Unless you're kinkier than you've let on."

Sam snorted, but his grin of humor soon slipped back into something a lot more intense as he tried to move his limbs, testing the bonds. "Gabriel, oh... Fuck."

Gabriel grinned widely. "We're definitely heading there." He once again slowly ran his hand down Sam's body, from neck to waist. "But we're going to take the scenic route."

"What's wrong with 'as the crow flies'?" Sam asked, pulling a face even as he strained up with his hips towards Gabriel's hand.

Which Gabriel immediately pulled away. "I'm an archangel, not a crow. We like to fly in circles, getting a look and feel at where we're going from all angles before we land." He leaned over and kissed Sam as deep as possible, letting his fingers trail up the underside of Sam's bound arms. This? Was going to give new meaning to the word fun.

Sam pushed up into the kiss, apparently trying to make it somehow deeper still, and Gabriel felt a hungry tugging on his grace.

Gabriel let him have a quick taste, but then pulled it back. "Greedy," he teased, nipping at Sam's lips before sitting back up again. "Can't help yourself, can you? Always reaching for that control."

"Passive doesn't exactly come natural to me," Sam admitted, his lips twisted into a wry grimace. "But you said me drawing on your grace was speeding up its replenishment. I thought..." He paused. "Guess I should stop thinking."

"I'm not sure if Sam Winchester is capable of stopping thinking," Gabriel observed with a smile and a surge of affection. "But I'll see what I can do to help." He straddled Sam's hips and went back to kissing him, fingers caressing in teasing patterns over Sam's skin. He added in a touch of grace every now and then to the caresses, giving them an unpredictable extra zing.

It didn't take long before Sam was moaning into Gabriel's mouth, squirming and straining at his bonds. He was doing his best to push his cock up against Gabriel's ass, but his limbs were pulled too tight to allow him a lot of thrusting room.

Gabriel finally broke away from the endless temptation of Sam's mouth to partake of some of the other temptations. He slowly moved his way down Sam's body, tasting his skin from throat to navel.

Sam's body undulated as he heaved for rapid breath. "Gabriel," he said, his voice very deep. "Gabriel, please."

Gabriel slithered down even further, and shot Sam a wicked smirk. "Well, since you asked so nicely...." He lowered his head and slowly licked at Sam's cock like a lollipop.

Sam released a strangled breath, arching his neck and pressing his head back in the pillow. "Fuck. Yes. Like that."

Gabriel grinned wider and did it again. And again. Then, when Sam was all but incoherent, he deep-throated him.

"Shit!" The metal rings fastening the restraints into the bedframe clinked as they pulled tight, all of Sam's body tensing, trying pointlessly to raise itself up. "Gabe, Gabe..." He tossed his head from side to side on the pillow, his hair everywhere.

He was gorgeous like this, so alive in his need, balanced on the edge. Gabriel was tempted to keep him there for as long as possible, but he wanted to watch him come too much. So he let go of the tight hold he'd been keeping on his grace, letting it flow out and over Sam.

Sam... wailed. He shuddered and struggled as he fought to take in as much of Gabriel's grace as he could, but then he went rigid, managing a strangled, "Fuck, Gabe..." before coming hard and long into Gabriel's throat.

Gabriel kept it up through Sam's orgasm and after, but finally slowly tapered off both the grace and the suction and pulled off Sam's cock with an audible pop.

Sam's heavy breathing slowly calmed down, but he still tugged at his bonds. "I want to hold you," he said a little pathetically.

Gabriel chuckled, smiling fondly at his human. "I think that can be arranged," he said, snapping the restraints away.

He immediately found himself clutched in a tight bear hug and being pulled up Sam's body. "Gabe," Sam whispered. "You're amazing. I feel amazing."

"See?" Gabriel said, though his voice was a bit muffled from being pressed so tightly against Sam. "Sometimes letting someone else have control isn't a bad thing."

Sam released his tight grip, moving his hands to Gabriel's shoulders and lifting him enough to meet his eyes. Sam's own were gold-tinted again. "I mean it. I feel incredible. Like I'm full of light, full of your light."

"That would be because you kind of are, kid," Gabriel pointed out. He shifted to prop himself up on his elbows braced against Sam's chest.

"I like being full of you." Sam smiled, his hands starting to move over Gabriel's body, finding their way under clothing.

"That a suggestion?" Gabriel asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk as he snapped his own clothes away.

"Huh." Sam made the most of the revealed skin. "I dunno. Maybe. I haven't... you know, before."

"Got fucked?" Gabriel supplied cheerfully.

"Not so literally, anyway," Sam said, his expression wry.

Gabriel snorted. "Let's leave the metaphorical out of this discussion. Literal is definitely the topic of the hour."

Sam moved his hands restlessly over Gabriel's back. After a few minutes, he asked, "Do you want to? If I do, I mean."

Gabriel shifted again so he could better look down at Sam lying beneath him. "Y'know, sometimes you ask the stupidest questions. Next you'll be asking if I happen to be fond of chocolate."

"Heh." Sam moved his legs from under Gabriel's, bending them up to lodge Gabriel between them. "I saved that tube of lube for you, but it's in the jacket you clicked away." He began to move a hand between their bodies.

This time Gabriel didn't even snap, just reached and pulled said tube out of thin air. "One of the advantages of sleeping with an archangel is you can always find the lube," he said with a grin.

"I think there are way more exciting advantages than that," Sam said with a grin as his hand found Gabriel's cock and wrapped around it.

"Yeah? Like what?" Gabriel asked, amused at how his voice had gone deeper without any conscious decision on his part. It kinda went with the way his toes were curling and his wings were twitching like they wanted to unfurl in response to Sam touching him like that.

Sam laughed. "You want me to tell you how awesome you are again?" He smoothed his thumb over the head of Gabriel's cock, sliding easily in the precome. "The way you make me feel. You think I'd let anyone else tie me up after the things I've been through? Only you, Gabriel. Only you."

Gabriel was actually surprised by how that made him feel. He'd asked for Sam to trust him and Sam had, despite all the ways he'd screwed him in the past that they both had been so harshly reminded of. But that Sam was saying he was the only one he trusted that much... He leaned over and kissed Sam, putting all the feelings that he had bubbling up but wasn't quite able to express in words into it.

A large hand pushed into the hair at the back of Gabriel's neck, holding him into the kiss, Sam kissing back just as passionately. Meanwhile, the other large hand was tugging on Gabriel's cock, as well as it could, trapped between their bodies.

After a good long while, Sam groaned, breaking the kiss long enough to say, "Do it. Do it, Gabriel. I want you to."

Gabriel searched Sam's face for a moment, but saw nothing that made him think Sam didn't mean that one hundred percent. He grinned and kissed Sam again, reaching down and wrapping his hand around Sam's cock, bringing it back to full hardness with a couple of pulls and a small surge of grace.

Sam's eyes flickered shut under the attention. "Now," he said, almost whispering. "Do it now."

"Patience, young padawan," Gabriel told him. "We'll get there, but I'm driving this bus. This is going to be awesome." He slid down to take Sam's erection back into his mouth.

Sam said something Gabriel strongly suspected of being highly blasphemous, but as Sam had clapped one of his hands over his own mouth, Gabriel couldn't be sure. Sam's other hand had hold of Gabriel's shoulder, squeezing it hard.

When he judged that Sam was sufficiently distracted, Gabriel traced one finger behind Sam's balls and along his perineum to toy with his opening.

Releasing a shuddery breath, Sam tensed, but then seemed to very purposely relax again. He massaged Gabriel's shoulder as if in reassurance. "Will you... Will you make sure I'm clean before...? Inside, I mean." Looking up Gabriel could see Sam's already flushed features were burning a deeper red.

Gabriel chuckled, not unkindly. "Let me worry about the details," he told Sam, slipping his finger inside. "All you have to do is feel."

Gabriel could feel Sam's body reacting to his presence, squeezing his finger. When he glanced up he saw Sam's eyes were closed, his expression blank, and his breathing strangely regulated.

That was not at all the reaction Gabriel was hoping for. "Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Just..." Sam shifted uncomfortably. "Can you get a move on?"

"This isn't supposed to be something you grit your teeth and bear, Sam," Gabriel said, pulling back. That was the last thing he wanted.

"No. Stop. Come back!" Sam looked unhappily down his body at Gabriel. "Don't stop, just go faster. I mean, it's not supposed to feel good to start with, is it? That comes with, well, prostate stimulation and..." Gabriel had the sudden mental image of Sam researching the exact ins and outs – pun intended – of anal sex on the internet back when there was one, and no doubt taking detailed notes.

Gabriel couldn't help but laugh a little at that image. "It's a point of pride with me that I do make it feel good to start with. Or at least not uncomfortable. So no stiff upper lip, okay? I've got options at my disposal that others wouldn't. Archangel, remember?"

"Okay," Sam said, his expression softening. "It's not really uncomfortable, just weird. Feel free to, uh, give me a grace enema or something."

That made Gabriel laugh again. "I think that might be a little too kinky even for me, kid." He lowered his head took Sam's cock back into his mouth and kept up his attentions there when he finally slid his finger in again.

This time, Sam moaned softly and pushed fingers into Gabriel's hair, lightly holding him in place. That was a much better reaction, and Gabriel mentally racked up a point for archangel skills. He kept up his attentions as he went searching for and found Sam's prostate.

"Christ! Is that... Oh Go– I mean, fuck." Sam writhed under Gabriel's attentions, apparently trying to push himself deeper onto the finger, but at the same time further into Gabriel's mouth.

Getting Sam so lost in the sensations let Gabriel add another finger and continue along the path to getting him ready for the main event.

Sam's only reaction to that was to moan louder and almost beg for more. "Gabe. Gabe, do it now. I'm ready. I want to feel you."

Gabriel wasn't entirely sure if Sam was ready, but even archangels had their limits and having Sam stretched out and begging him to fuck him was pushing at them. "All right," he gave in, shifting them both so he could press slowly into Sam. "Deep breath," he advised as he began to sink into his lover's body.

"Ah. Fuck. Ah, Gabe." Sam panted staccato breaths, forcing words out on the out-breaths. "Don't... Don't stop."

He wasn't about to, not with how wonderful it felt. He kept moving until he was fully sheathed and then paused, panting a little himself to keep control. "Fuck, Sam...."

Sam managed a breathless laugh. "General idea, isn't it?"

That pulled an answering laugh from Gabriel. "You're amazing, you know that?" he asked.

Sam shook his head slightly. "No, that's you." He moved his legs up, wrapping them around Gabriel's lower back and proving himself more flexible than his bulk would suggest. "I have no idea what I've done to ever deserve this, deserve you for however long I have you."

"You're you," Gabriel told him simply. "Sam Winchester. The kid that broke destiny and saved the world. You..." He paused, the words he'd been keeping himself from even thinking coming easily to his lips then. "You've got me for as long as you want me. And maybe even longer than that. An archangel in love is a hard thing to shake."

Sam's eyes were wide now and staring transfixed at Gabriel. He was breathing fast, biting his lower lip as he lifted his trembling hands to cup Gabriel's face. "You... But I'm not..." He seemed to give up on words then, which was a good thing since Gabriel suspected he'd been about to say something around the ballpark of 'I'm not worthy'. Instead, Sam craned his head to meet Gabriel's lips in a fierce kiss.

Gabriel gave as fierce as he got in the kiss and then finally pulled back with a grin. "Hang on," he said as he began to move. "This is going to be awesome!"

As Gabriel built to a rhythm, Sam groaned deeply, dropping his head back to the pillow. His hands rested on Gabriel's shoulders, clenching occasionally. "So fucking good, Gabe," he said, his voice deep and rough.

Gabriel couldn't argue with that other than maybe to say it was better than good, watching Sam's reactions as much as part of it as the physical sensation of fucking him. And more – he didn't know if it was because, for once, he wasn't hiding what he was or what he felt, or because he'd so recently regained something close to his normal power levels, but he was having trouble keeping his wings from coming out. He could feel them wanting to unfurl with each thrust, his shoulder blades twitching in the effort to hold them back.

He knew Sam could see them when he heard him gasp. Sam reached out, let his fingers land lightly on the apex of each wing. "I touched these, didn't I? In the... In my head. So beautiful."

A shiver went down Gabriel's spine, and his wings flexed without his meaning them to. "I don't usually show them off."

"You should. To me, at least." Sam grinned and half-closed his eyes in apparent pleasure as Gabriel changed his angle slightly. "I... I want you to be as much yourself as you can be with me," he went on breathlessly. "I can... I can take it."

"Don't know what you're asking, kid," Gabriel said with a laugh that came out all breathless as he pushed into Sam a little harder.

"I do," Sam said, somehow managing a defiant tone. "As much as any human can know, at least. I – Oh fuck – I've drunk so much of your grace that it's... That it's physically changing me." He start combing his fingers through Gabriel's feathers, a look of awe on his face. "I've been awash in you, Gabe. I... Even when I'd been made to forget everything 'cept... the old, bad stuff about you, I still... still knew you. Still knew that I trusted you, that I... I loved you."

Gabriel shuddered at the words, wanting to deny, to argue. Sam couldn't... But his body reacted with more certainty than his mind, fingers digging into Sam's waist to hold him in place as he thrust harder, deeper, more possessively. His wings snapped all the way open, and he threw his head back, pleasure and wonder and love overwhelming the doubt and fear.

"Fuck!" Sam's gentle touches of Gabriel's wings became suddenly a lot rougher, either because he was lost in passion, or he suddenly realized the wings could take it, which they could and a lot more. His every out-breath, timed with Gabriel's thrusts, was a moan or a whimper as he raked his fingers through the feathers, tugging at Gabriel's grace through them, pulling all of Gabriel to him.

And Gabriel let him, more and more of his masks and disguises falling away as Sam pulled at him, the joy of being truly seen for the first time in way too long mixing with the pleasure of fucking Sam. He suddenly realized he was going to lose all control when he came, and he tried to slow down, to warn Sam, but he was already past the point of no return. "Sam!" he yelled, feeling all that he was swelling inside him, ready to burst out, shine forth.

"Oh! Fuck! God, Gabriel!" He heard the words as just sounds as rapture overtook him, Sam writhing beneath him...

And the archangel Gabriel dropped his vessel and threw his head back, calling out Sam's name again as he came in a tsunami of grace.

...

"Uh." It was a small noise, and it was coming from under him.

Gabriel came back from what could only be called a bliss overload, realized where he was and what had happened, and quickly reformed his vessel. He pulled away enough to get a look at the human lying underneath him. "Sam!"

"'S me." Sam looked up at him – with whole eyes. "'M okay. More than."

Relief made Gabriel limp and he collapsed back downwards again, resting his forehead on Sam's shoulder. "That was probably the stupidest thing I've ever done," he muttered, muffled against Sam's skin. "In a very long life of doing many stupid things."

"Nah," Sam said lazily, stroking light fingers over Gabriel's lower back. "It was awesome. Like you." He snorted softly. "Never come so hard in my life."

"I could've left you an eyeless, drooling, burnt out husk," Gabriel pointed out, raising his head to look Sam in the eyes he still had.

"You'd never do that to me," Sam said with what looked and sounded like complete conviction.

"It's not exactly something that's voluntary, kid," Gabriel said.

"Stop fretting," Sam told him, lifting a hand to touch Gabriel's face. "I've seen your true form before, remember? When you rescued me from those zombie-vamps. You can't hurt me, Gabriel. You won't hurt me."

"Hope those never become famous last words," Gabriel said wryly, but the faith Sam had in him kindled something warm inside that he hadn't felt in centuries.

"In fact," Sam said, flicking his thumb over Gabriel's chin, "you've done me the opposite of harm. I feel so good; I can't have much if any demon crap left in me at all."

"You don't," Gabriel said, after a second to take stock. "There's not a trace of demon taint in your blood left."

"Really?" Sam's eyes widened. "Like none at all?"

"Nope." Gabriel smiled slightly. "Like anything demonic could've survived the amount of grace I just threw at you."

Sam tipped his head back into the pillow and laughed breathlessly. "God, Gabriel. That's... You're..." He shook his head as if he couldn't believe it. "Y'know, I thought that it was forever, or at least for as long as I lived. I thought that it was just what I was – tainted, darkened – and that was that."

"Nope," Gabriel said, reaching up to trace Sam's lips with one finger. "Not tainted, not anymore. But you're always going to be extra sensitive to demonic influences and power, I think."

Sam frowned slightly. "What does that mean exactly?"

"Just like what that trap left on you," Gabriel said. "Making you all angry and dark, like you're under your own personal demonic cloud."

"Oh." He pulled a face. "Not exactly ideal in my line of work, but I guess you can put me right again quickly enough, now that we know what the problem is." He grinned suddenly, and Gabriel guessed Sam was imagining what 'putting him right' might entail.

Gabriel snorted. "That horniness though? That's all you."

"Like you're not." Sam laughed, the noise rumbling through his body before he sobered. "Y'know, whether or not you're a black swan in the larger picture, you've definitely been one for me – changed me forever in a way I never dared hope could happen. I still can't fully take it in."

"Dad moves in mysterious ways," Gabriel replied, sending out a mental Thanks, Dad at the same time.

 

Day Thirty-Eight

"Yeah, this is the place," Sam said, turning in a slow circle and looking around the scrubby grass and the dilapidated building they were stood by. He nodded at the building. "Anna killed me in there. Michael patched me up." He grinned at Gabriel. "This is the point I should be making some kind of anti-angel comment, but you know what? I just can't find it in me."

Gabriel gave him a self-satisfied smirk back. "If it helps, I'm sure big bro is storming around heaven making anti-Winchester comments. And probably anti-me comments too." He could picture Michael now, all sulky because Gabriel and the Winchesters had managed to cancel his big throwdown with Luci. And though Gabriel suspected he'd always have a pang of regret at the thought of Lucifer's death, it was beginning to fade into something less immediate, more melancholy, which considering how long the pain of the first war had lingered was almost a miracle. Humans, Winchesters in particular, were amazing things.

"That's a spooky house," Joey said, pulling a face at the building. Unlike his mother, who was still looking a little flustered, Joey seemed totally unimpressed with flying Air Angel.

"It belonged to my mother and her family before her," Sam told him, wondering if it would make a difference. "It's full of protections against demons." He turned back to Gabriel. "I take it they're not here yet?"

"Nope. I can go pick them up...?"

Sam looked at him and nodded. "I'd kinda hoped Cas' mojo might've returned too, but if it had, they'd be here already." He was impatient to see Dean. Cas, too, of course, but he and his brother had a lot of catching up to do.

"Archangels have bigger and more energetic grace batteries," Gabriel told him. "We'll get Cas charged up soon enough. All right, sit tight, I'll be right back." He gave a wink in particular to Joey and then snapped himself away.

Sam smiled encouragingly at the other two. "Come on, let's go inside. There's probably a lot of tidying up to get done while we wait." He wondered how long the wait would actually be. If all was well, it could be as little as a few more seconds.

"There's nothing scary in there, is there?" Joey asked, looking at the door dubiously.

Sam doubted Gabriel would have left them here if he'd sensed any danger within, but just in case, he nodded. "You're right to be careful. You stay out here and guard your mother while I take a look inside." After exchanging what he hoped was a reassuring glance with Madeline, he took his knife out and made his way cautiously to the door.

Inside, it was just as he remembered, but how he remembered it looking when they first were taken to the place, not how it looked after they had added angel protection and fought said angels. He could only assume Michael had cleared up after himself. It seemed in character. After searching all the rooms, he stuck his head back outside to check on Madeline and Joey.

Joey was staring at the door just like he had been when Sam went in, and it seemed the boy hadn't moved the entire time Sam was checking it out. "Is it okay?" Joey asked the second he saw Sam again.

"I'm sounding the all-clear," Sam told him. "You can both come in."

He saw Madeline's posture relax from the tension she'd been holding herself with as Joey ran forward and stepped inside, all curiosity now that he'd been reassured the place was safe. "Thank you," she said to Sam as she followed at a more sedate pace.

"Don't worry," Sam told her. "Once we renew the protections in here, this place'll be as safe as any outside my friend's awesome panic room. We'll be okay. There's stores of rock salt, paint and so on."

A sudden breeze had him looking up and there, finally, was Dean standing in front of him, Cas and Gabriel and some others behind him.

Sam suspected the placement wasn't accidental, and he gave Gabriel a quick, appreciative smile, but after that, all his attention was on Dean. "Christ, it's good to see you, dude," he said, moving closer and enveloping his brother in a hug.

"Likewise," Dean said, voice suspiciously thick as he hugged Sam back tightly.

"See, bro, we're witnessing one of the many bonding rituals of the Winchesters," Gabriel's amused voice came to Sam's ears, and he looked up to see the archangel standing with an arm slung companionably around Castiel's shoulders. "Any moment now, they'll back off and insult either each other or us."

Sam, who was, it had to be said, in the process of backing off, sent a face Gabriel's way. "You're making that choice of targets an easy one."

"You're welcome," Gabriel said, grinning at him.

Sam walked over to clap Cas on the shoulder. "Good to see you too, man."

"Thank you, Sam," Cas said seriously. "It's a relief that we're finally together again."

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "Just need to find Bobby now." He looked around the kind of crowded room and gestured at Dean. "Madeline, this is my brother, Dean. Don't take any notice of anything he tells you. And this is our friend, the angel Castiel. Everyone, this is Madeline and her son, Joey."

Dean nodded hello at them, then gestured to the two women standing near the door that had come with them. "Reesa and Jane, this is my little brother Sam and the archangel Gabriel, who we put up with even if he is a smartass."

"So, like you then," Reesa teased him.

"Oh, I've had whole millennia to perfect being a smartass," Gabriel said. "Dean's just got natural talent in that area."

"Bite me," Dean told him.

"Why? Did you suddenly get turned into candy?" Gabriel shot back then winked at Joey, who started giggling.

"As you can see," Sam said, grinning with sudden happiness, "Gabriel's been lucky enough to find someone of the same mental age to bond with on our journey. Well, Joey's a little more mature, but that's good. Hopefully Gabe will learn a few things."

"Be nice or I won't bite you later," Gabriel told him.

Sam froze, all bar his eyes which immediately focused on Dean, waiting to the reaction to that remark.

Dean snorted. "Maybe we better get you a rabies shot just in case, Sam." It was obvious that Dean had just taken the remark as more snark.

Relaxing, Sam turned to Gabriel. "Maybe you could provide something for everyone to bite on? We're probably going to be here a little while."

Gabriel just smirked before dramatically raising one hand and snapping. The inside of the cabin went from barely furnished decrepitude to resembling something like the presidential suite at a five star hotel, complete with a long table practically groaning with the amount of food it was holding. "That what you had in mind, kid?"

"Perfect," Sam admitting, feeling bizarrely proud. What the hell was that about? "Help yourself, everyone."

Madeline and the other two women were still gawking a bit, obviously flustered by the blatant use of fully charged archangel mojo. Joey had no such problem though; he was at the table before Sam had even finished talking and grabbing handfuls of food to stuff in his mouth. Sam looked at Dean with a raised brow, expecting him to do much the same.

But Dean's attention was focused not on the food, but on Cas, expression of worried concern one that Sam had seen thrown his own way more than once. Cas had his hands in his coat pockets, and he was leaning back against what had been a dirty wooden chair back, but it was now a Regency dresser. He stared back at Dean almost without expression, but then looked down and away suddenly, and Sam got the distinct impression that Cas was embarrassed or ashamed about something.

There was a soft 'tsk' sound beside him, and Sam glanced over to see Gabriel purposefully striding forward, crossing the room to Cas' side. "You'll have to do without my angelic awesomeness for a bit," he said, throwing an arm back around Cas. "My bro and I need to have a discussion about refueling of a different sort."

Both Sam and Dean watched the two angels leave the suite/house/whatever and then turned to each other. "Let's grab some food, bro," Sam said, "and then settle somewhere to talk. We've got a lot of catching up to do."

"Yeah," Dean said, giving Sam a smile that had more shy contentment in it than Sam was used to seeing from him.

Seeing it, Sam wondered again if he were right in his guess, that Dean and Cas had something together not unlike what Sam and Gabriel had discovered. Of course, simply being back together again, the Apocalypse over, was reason enough to be happy.

Sam smiled at the women, who'd managed to shake themselves out of their trances and were filling plates with food. He started doing the same, saying, "We're not going far, Dean and I. We just need to catch up with each other. You're safe here. Make the most of Gabriel's magical finger-click hotel and get comfy. We'll be back soon."

Dean had meanwhile been getting his own plate of food and, as ever, it was piled twice as high as Sam's. He led the way through a door that now led to several equally luxurious bedrooms. "Gotta say," Dean began as they made themselves comfortable in one, "Gabriel may be annoying as fuck most of the time, but he's useful to have around."

"He's not that annoying," Sam heard himself say. He grinned at Dean as he sat down on the edge of a bed. "Or maybe I just have a lifetime's practice at dealing with smartasses."

"Dude, he's way worse than me."

"He really isn't," Sam said, grinning down at his plate. He should actually pay some attention to what he was eating, seeing as this was the best fare he'd had available for months now.

"You two seem to have bonded," Dean said, and Sam could hear the faint questioning tone in his voice.

"Yeah," Sam said softly, but he wasn't sure he was quite ready yet to go further with that acknowledgment, at least, not with plain-speaking specifics. Instead, he looked a little challengingly at Dean. "Guess we each get to have an angel to take home from class."

"Yeah, but mine isn't a hyperactive sugar addict," Dean said, the slight emphasis he put on the word 'mine' another bit of evidence in the 'Dean and Cas are together' column.

"Gabriel's a lot more than just that," Sam replied peaceably. He wasn't about to get into a 'mine's better than yours' argument. They had more important things to talk about. Such as, "So are you both okay for real?"

He watched as Dean's expression turned more serious. "Yeah," he said smiling softly. "I mean it was no picnic, and we both kinda freaked out a little when we thought Cas had lost his grace for good, but we made it through. Keep on keeping on, it's what us Winchesters do, right?"

Sam smiled and nodded, but then he let his smile drop. "Did you have any encounters with demons? By which I mean demons who knew exactly who you are and want revenge?"

Dean shook his head. "Nah, just lots of those... zombie vampires. Two tastes that taste rotten together."

"Yeah, we met a lot of them too. But we met some demons with a pretty impressive hate on for me as well." He gave a half-shrug. "Wasn't fun."

"You okay?" Dean asked, his eyes giving Sam the once over again as if he was checking to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

"Yeah, thanks to Gabriel. Wouldn't have been otherwise. Dean, I've got something to tell you. Something good."

"What?"

Sam leveled a serious gaze at his brother. "The demon blood's gone from me. All of it, including those original drips from Yellow Eyes."

Watching his brother's reaction was everything he'd hoped it would be. Dean's eyes got impossibly wide as he stared at Sam. "For real?"

He gave Dean a shy smile. "For real. Gabriel says I'll always be a bit too open to demon power now. Being around demons will bring out, well, my dark side, I guess – my anger and shit, but Gabriel will be around to clear that up too, and it really has gone, Dean. Totally. Burned away by a diet of angel grace until every tiny clinging fragment was vaporized into nothing at all."

"That's... huh." Dean shook his head, smiling though he seemed to be having problems getting the news to sink in. "That's great, Sam." He paused and then asked, "Does this mean you're like kinda a little part angel now?"

Sam laughed. "Nah. I'm just me, whatever that is. I guess I finally have a chance to find out. So, uh, you and Cas..." he said leadingly.

"Me and Cas...?" Dean echoed shaking his head a little, but Sam knew him well enough to see that Dean knew exactly what he was asking. And more, the way the corners of his mouth were turning up just a little gave Sam a good idea of the answer.

"Who made the first move?" he asked, not making all that much of an effort to hide his grin.

"Y'know, 'just you' is turning out to be a real girl," Dean pointed out.

Sam tipped his head back and laughed. "Don't you think it's funny, man? Really? It's the beginning of a new world, and you and I have both turned gay for angels." It was easier to say it than he'd thought. Hell, he had no reason to feel embarrassed about this, even without Dean doing something pretty similar himself. Gabriel was awesome, and Sam was... far luckier than he deserved.

Dean stared.

Sam paused. Had he gotten it totally wrong? He returned Dean's stare uneasily. "Uh, you and Cas have... haven't you?"

"Yeah," Dean said as if that was obvious. "For a while now. But... you and Gabriel?"

"Yeah, me and Gabriel." He smiled, leaving it at that since he knew any details would just pull the inevitable 'TMI' and 'girl' remarks from Dean.

Dean suddenly made a face. "He wasn't just making a joke about biting you."

That drew a chuckle from Sam. "Uh, no. Not so much a joke. He's pretty awesome, Dean. He'll fix Cas for you, make him all Tuesday's child again."

"You really do have it bad for him," Dean observed, with a bemused smile.

Sam nodded; he couldn't deny it. He didn't want to deny it. "Gabriel's gonna be traveling with us from now on. Well, on and off. I don't think he has the patience for lengthy car rides now that his mojo's returned to base camp. He's going to make the whole post-apoc recovery effort a lot easier." Talking about cars, "I guess we need a quick zap to Ann Arbor, providing it still exists, to pick up the Impala."

"Yeah. But it can wait till we get some rest and stuff." Dean's expression slipped, and Sam caught a glimpse of haunted eyes and weariness. "It was... pretty bad at times."

Sam felt himself frown with concern. "Yeah, whatever you need, man. Whatever both of you need. You wanna talk about it?" He wasn't really expected a 'yes', but he had to ask.

True to form, Dean shook his head. "Nah. No use dwelling. We got our work cut out for us, even with a couple of angels up our sleeves."

Sam put his hand on Dean's shoulder and squeezed. "We'll do okay. We're together. Our angels are with us. We've persevered this far; we'll cope just fine with this aftermath." He was a little surprised to find he really meant it, believed it even. Somehow, from somewhere, he'd developed a conviction that everything was going to be okay.

***

The last month or so had made Gabriel hyper-aware of places that were grace-replenishing, and so he brought Cas to one of the biggest on the continent. He didn't want to search any further than that, even though his restored powers made anywhere in the world basically a thought away. It still would have felt like they were putting too much distance between themselves and the Winchesters, however illogical that was.

Having landed them on the very edge of the canyon, right in the middle, Gabriel sat down and dangled his feet over the side. "Come on," he said, patting the ground next to him. "You might want to be sitting for this."

Castiel didn't move, standing incongruously in what was way too many of Dean's cast-offs for this heat. "Why are we here, Gabriel?"

"You're running on empty," Gabriel pointed out. "This," he gestured at the vista around them, "is a gas station with the super high premium stuff. You going to fill up or just sit there and stare at me?"

Castiel gave a bitter little laugh. "I can't 'fill up' as you put it. Do you really think I haven't tried? Not all angels can, it seems."

"That's a load of BS," Gabriel declared with a little more heat than needed. Damn Michael and his cronies, keeping everything on a need to know basis for the lower ranks. "You just don't know how. Luckily you have me to teach you."

After a pause, Cas sat himself carefully down beside Gabriel. He frowned down at the sheer-sided plummet into canyon below. "This had better not be a trick."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "You're letting Dean-o rub off on you a little too much there, Cas." He held out a hand to the other angel. "Here, I'll give you a jumpstart."

Castiel looked extremely alarmed for a few moments as if he'd misunderstood Gabriel's meaning entirely, but then he nodded. It still took him a good thirty seconds to put his hand in Gabriel's, however, and when he did, Gabriel had to tighten his grip fast to stop Cas from pulling away again immediately.

The communication spell he'd been doing during their travels had given Gabriel some experience in connecting with Cas on a grace-level. He did so now, hiding his dismay at how weak the other's grace truly was. That was what they were here to fix, after all. He poured his own grace down the link, filling up the aching spaces he could sense within Cas.

Cas' eyes flickered shut, and he opened his mouth, letting out a small gasp. His hand clenched around Gabriel's, and he rocked slightly.

Gabriel smiled faintly at the reaction. "Told you, bro," he said softly, feeling protective. "There's better ways of going native than losing your grace. I can teach you all those too."

Blue eyes suddenly bore into Gabriel's. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, y'know," Gabriel said, gesturing airily with his free hand. "Humans have a lot of fun stuff you can try. Eating, sleeping." He paused and gave Cas a meaningful look. "Sex."

Cas raised his chin. "I don't need any help with sex," he said firmly, but then he added in a more appeasing tone, "Thank you, Gabriel. For... the grace. And for taking care of Sam for Dean."

"Any time, but I didn't look after Sam for Dean."

"Whatever your reason, thank you." Castiel was being unnecessarily stiff and formal, so Gabriel thought. Especially for a guy holding hands with another guy on the edge of a precipice. As if deciding that for himself, Castiel started trying to free his hand from Gabriel's. "I have sufficient grace now," he claimed. It really was impressive how well he'd learned to lie.

"Don't try to kid a kidder, bro," Gabriel said, tightening his grip. "I can see right through you. Relax. It's just us here. I'm not judging you. Well, not badly anyway."

For a moment it looked as if Cas was going to try to struggle, but then pretty much everything about him seemed to relax. "Okay," he said simply. Then, "It's... nice to be able to see properly again."

"I hear ya," Gabriel said, remembering how.. closed in he'd felt when he'd first come to back in Florida. He looked at Cas and with a smirk, added, "Wait till you and Dean have sex with your grace powered up."

Castiel's eyes widened and then narrowed as he stared at Gabriel. "How did you know?"

"You and Dean-o haven't exactly been subtle with the eye-fucking, y'know," Gabriel said, with a fond smirk. It had really been kind of amusing in a cute sort of way, though there were limits. If they hadn't bought a clue by now, Gabriel probably would've arranged to have them 'accidentally' locked in a closet or something until they got on with it.

"Eye..." Cas huffed with exasperation. "Some kind of slang, I suppose. Sex is a human act, Gabriel. I'm not sure what you think I could do with my grace, restored or otherwise."

"You said it yourself," Gabriel pointed out. "We can just sense so much more than a human. Use your imagination and apply that to sex."

"Hmm," was the only reply to that, but Gabriel felt pretty sure from the distracted look on Castiel's face that he was thinking about it. "You've had many human lovers," Cas went on to say after a few minutes. It didn't seem to be a question.

"Human, god, and there was one very intense weekend with a kraken." Gabriel waggled his eyebrows. "There's a reason there's so much tentacle porn out there, I'm just saying."

Castiel frowned at him, looking unsure whether to believe the claim or not. In the end, he seemed to opt for changing the subject, only not really. "What was it like, allowing Sam to consume your grace?"

"You mean that first time when it was for the plan? Or all the times it's been just for fun?"

"Ah," Cas said quietly, "that explains why Sam seemed so changed. I'd thought it was just my blinkered perception."

"No, not just that," Gabriel told him. "Turns out the cure for being fed demon blood as a baby is angel grace as an adult. Who'd've thunk, huh?" He felt a little more exposed as he talked about it – that whole grace and Sam thing seemed more... private, intimate, than the actual sex. And while he didn't want to hide it, he found he didn't want to brag about it either. It meant too much to turn into just another boast.

Castiel's gaze sharpened. "The taint is gone?"

"As if it never was," Gabriel said, smiling in accomplishment. "Sam'll always be more susceptible to demonic influence, but he's clean."

Swallowing, Cas looked down. "That is... remarkable. Dean will be very happy."

Gabriel cocked his head and regarded his brother. "You don't look all that ecstatic though. What's up?"

Cas shook his head, ever so slightly. "Nothing. I am fine. Just... It doesn't matter."

Yeah, right. If Gabriel believed that, next thing he'd know someone would be trying to sell him a set of pearly gates or something. "If it doesn't matter, you won't mind telling me."

"It's the height of self-indulgence to even care about how useless I've become," Cas said, his mouth screwing up in a one-sided grimace. "I've become too human as well as powerless."

"Contrary to certain points of view in Heaven, I don't think feeling like a human is necessarily a bad thing," Gabriel said. "There's a reason they were Dad's favorite, after all."

Bowing his head in agreement or something very like it, Castiel said, "The Winchesters have shown us why, repeatedly."

Gabriel grinned. "Yeah, they've become the poster boys for Humanity Being a Good Thing."

"And we're the only angels who saw it."

"Because we're awesome like that," Gabriel insisted, twisting to clap Castiel on the shoulder with his free hand.

That won him a shy smile from Castiel, who seemed to be relaxing more with every moment. "We are awesome," he repeated, as if experimenting with how it sounded. Then he gave Gabriel a way more knowing look than Gabriel was used to from him. "And we are rewarded."

"Yeah," Gabriel said, smiling back. "Those Winchesters are poster boys for angel rewards too. Almost makes ya think that Dad might not be as checked out as it appears."

"I have found... new faith in his continued existence. In his continued interest."

"See?" Gabriel nudged him playfully. "Good sex does make you see God. Metaphorically speaking, of course, otherwise, it would be really awkward."

Cas snorted. "If you truly wish to advise me in matters sexual, you could suggest a way to stop Dean imploring our Father at the worst possible moments."

Gabriel snickered. "Yeah, Sam's done that once or twice. Threaten to start calling out John Winchester's name during the act, that'll drive the point home."

"I'll try that." Cas smiled, but then the expression fell. "Will you stay with us now, Gabriel? The things we witnessed, traveling – this world is wounded. Hunters and their allies are needed more than ever."

The question caught Gabriel off guard, not because he hadn't been thinking of staying, but because he hadn't been thinking of leaving. Which, yeah, made him pause and consider what that said about him and his feelings. "Huh," he breathed, surprised at just how deep Sam and the others had managed to worm their way into his heart.

"Huh?" Cas echoed. "Was the question out of place?"

"Nah, bro," Gabriel said, shaking off the bemusement. "Just not one I'd asked myself before."

"You need time to contemplate," Cas said, freeing his hand and standing. "I understand. I'll return to Dean now. Maybe we can return here another day for the lesson you offered."

"That's just it though," Gabriel said, looking out over the canyon, letting the majesty of this part of his Dad's creation flow over him. "I don't need time. I didn't ask the question because the answer was blindingly obvious." He looked up at Cas and smiled faintly. "You guys couldn't get rid of me even if you wanted to. I'm staying."

Cas stared. Cas stared for a long time. Then the impassive face broke into a full blown grin. "I'm sure the brothers will be reassured to know you'll still be fighting on the side of the human race."

"It's not that," Gabriel said quickly, but just as quickly amended, "Well, not just that. Not going to leave the job half done, and yeah, Lucifer's gone, but it's not quite time for Disneyland yet. But it's also personal now."

"Sam," Castiel said.

"Yeah." Gabriel felt himself smiling a little helplessly and shrugged. "Winchesters, huh? They have a way of getting under your skin."

 

Day Forty

Gabriel had never smited with an audience before, but Sam'd had a point about him being the target of the attack back in St Louis and so having a right to tag along.

So it was the two of them that Gabriel transported to the burnt out building that the demons were using as their lair. He dropped Sam down just outside. "You sure I can't talk you into letting me deal with this by myself?" he asked one last time.

"Immovable object, remember?" Sam said, smiling and turning Ruby's knife around in his hand.

Gabriel sighed and opened a hand, admitting defeat. "Just try not to get in the way when I'm going all irresistible force on their asses," he said then snapped them inside.

There was a split second when they appeared where all the demons were frozen in shock, then their heads tipped back and mouths opened as they urgently moved to vacate the bodies they were possessing. Gabriel snapped his fingers again, grabbing onto their essences and shoving them back into the flesh. "What's your hurry, boys? We've got some things to talk about."

Now the demons looked truly scared.

Sam shifted beside Gabriel, asking softly, "All the vessels dead?" Gabriel nodded; that was just more lives they were going to pay for taking as far as he was concerned.

So far, Gabriel hadn't done anything to immobilize the demons aside from keeping them from fleeing their meatsuits. Their own fear was holding them paralyzed. Gabriel was happy to let it remain so, but kept ever vigilant for the moment where he'd need to pin them down. "I'm taking it you guys know who I am?" he asked, allowing just the faintest of smirks to touch his lips.

One of them, the only one in a female vessel, dared to spit on the floor of the building. "We know, messenger." Her voice shook badly.

"And yet you still thought you'd mess with me and mine?" Gabriel said, addressing that demon directly. "I'm impressed. It's not every day you run into beings who have so little sense of self-preservation."

"Sam Winchester is not yours," one of the males said belligerently.

The female nodded. "Sam Winchester owes a blood price that'll take him millennia in Hell to repay."

Sam laughed darkly. "So you're what? Repo men? Well, your trap failed, thanks to Gabriel. If I belong to any archangel, it's him. Lucifer never had any claim on me outside his own head."

The demons hissed and shifted, but their fear of Gabriel still seemed to keep them rooted to the spot.

Gabriel highly approved of that fear, wanted to make it grow till they choked on it. "So you thought you were going to take out Sam and expect me to do just what? Shrug my shoulders and go 'Oh well.'? Did you really think I would be any more forgiving than Lucifer? I'm the freaking Angel of Justice. While Luci was busy sulking 'cause he'd been grounded in Hell, I was out there making sure all kinds of SOB's got their just deserts. Giving payback is what I do. The second you decided to do this to Sam, you became my prey."

He'd been letting just a hint of his real voice come through in his words, letting just the bare shadow of his wings manifest. He wanted to drive home the fact of just who it was they had crossed and what that meant. But now, he let himself slip back into being the Trickster and grinned at them. "Basically your ass is grass, and I'm the lawnmower. And I might mean that literally. I haven't decided yet."

Sam was staring at him in a way that could've been distracting had Gabriel not been so focused. With his powers restored, it was no trouble at all to prick up half an ear to Sam's thoughts, an attention he was pretty sure Sam sensed, seeing as Gabriel picked up, 'You are so hot like this,' loud and clear.

Gabriel almost snorted in amusement; and here he'd been worried that Sam was going to get all judgmental and frowny at him. But since that wasn't the case, he turned to him and asked, "What do you think, Sam? Any particular form you want to see their just desert take?"

Sam looked over at them, his expression becoming grim. "I'd be happy with a total non-existence option. Oblivion. No reprieves, no hanging around suffering and waiting, just gone. Forever."

"That's not very imaginative," Gabriel said, and he might have been pouting a little. Maybe. Not that he would admit it.

Shrugging, Sam turned back to look at him. "I guess I have a wholefoods taste in revenge, raw and unrefined."

"Not me," Gabriel pointed out. "My palate is very, very refined. And it's not revenge. It's justice." Though, okay, granted, it was also revenge in this case.

Sam stared at him for a few moments and then smiled wryly. "Do whatever it is you want to do, Gabriel. You don't need my permission. Have your fun. You deserve it."

Gabriel grinned widely at that. "Thanks, Sam!" He turned back to the demons, his smile not really lessening. Part of his brain had been turning over possible tricks since the demons first attacked, and he had pretty much narrowed it down to a favorite. "So you guys like traps, huh? Like seeing people run around in circles as their doom gets closer? Well, I think I can oblige." He snapped his fingers, changing the reality around them. The burned out house became an ancient stone maze within a deep cavern.

The demons looked around themselves in confusion. Sam did too, saying, "Uh..? Exposition for the slow to catch on, please."

"Surely, Sam, you've got a thorough grounding in the classical," Gabriel said. "Think Greek myths."

Sam raised his brows. "Who's playing the role of the Minotaur?"

A distant roar echoed through the maze, right on cue. "The Minotaur," Gabriel said with a smirk. "Sometimes you just gotta go for verisimilitude, y'know?"

Sam looked at the increasingly huddled demons. "Better start running, boys and, uh, girl."

"You'll regret this," the female demon said, still trying to be defiant.

"I really don't think so," Gabriel said, letting a little bit of his anger show through again. There was another roar, this one much closer. "Better get moving if you want this to last more than another five minutes," he advised, pleasant trickster mask firmly back in place.

The demons looked at each other and then, as one, opted to run. They shot around the nearest corner, quickly gone from sight. "I take it you've trapped them in their vessels," Sam said thoughtfully, watching where they'd gone.

Gabriel nodded. "They stole those bodies fair and square. Only seemed right to make sure they couldn't lose them."

Sam moved closer to Gabriel and put a hand low on his back, thumb hooked through a belt loop. "Are we staying to watch or just considering it a job well done?"

Generally, Gabriel liked watching to the end, but he knew Sam probably wasn't going to be as eager to watch the demons get ripped apart and et. "Do you want to stay?"

"I'll stay if that's what you want," Sam said easily. Then he looked down, grinning. "But it's not what I want."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "I have a feeling I know exactly what you want. When did you get so horny?"

Sam snorted. "Generally speaking or just this one time?"

He had been going for a general answer, but curiosity made Gabriel say, "Both?"

"This time? The moment you started getting all Archangel of Justice on their asses." Sam moved around behind Gabriel, and Gabriel felt warm hands being smoothed down his wings. "Generally speaking, it seems to have been nearly constant since we woke up together in Florida."

"Y'know, human males are supposed to lose that 'all sex, all the time' mindset with their teens," Gabriel pointed out, flaring his wings a little under Sam's touch.

"Yes, and old men apparently have trouble getting it up more than once or twice a day," Sam said conversationally while his fingers combed through feathers and his front burned a swathe down Gabriel's back. "And, as you keep reminding me, you are very old..."

"Not a man though," Gabriel said, as if that wasn't obvious with Sam's hands all over his wings. To say it was 'very distracting' would be a hell of an understatement. "Archangel. Human rules don't apply to me."

"Prove it," Sam said in a low growl that seemed to vibrate through Gabriel's grace.

Gabriel spun around to face Sam, casually wrapping his arms around Sam's waist. Then he fully unfurled his wings and launched them both up into the sky through a hole in the cavern roof he created with the barest thought.

It wasn't flying like angels usually did, which was faster than a human mind could follow. This time, Gabriel deliberately slowed down, almost hovering in the air, letting Sam feel the height and breeze, and the way Gabriel's powerful wingbeats were holding them aloft.

Sam was clutching Gabriel's shoulders, his eyes wide. "Oh my God," he whispered, barely audible. Then he focused on Gabriel's eyes and laughed, looking truly, uncomplicatedly happy for the first time in, well, ever. "Don't tell me," he said between chuckles, "this is your version of the mile high club."

Gabriel waggled his eyebrows at Sam. "Who needs a stinking plane?"

Sam laughed again then shook his head ever so slightly, his hair blowing in front of his eyes in the wafts of air from Gabriel's wings. "I feel just a little like Lois Lane, right now."

"No, you don't," Gabriel replied immediately. "Not curvy enough. If anything you feel more like Superman."

More laughter followed that. "I think if you let go, you'd see how not like Superman I am."

"Don't worry," Gabriel said, smiling into Sam's eyes. "I'm not going to let you go."

The End

 

Notes:

Huge thanks to: Wesleysgirl and Ktnb for their beta-skills.