This story was inspired by this:
My nurse just came in to check my vitals and I told him to fight me from beneath a mountain of pillows. He just moved my pillows and told me maybe later.
He just came in again and when I tried to tell him to fight me again I started coughing and I couldn't breathe and then he just smiled and told me he won't fight me because he knows I'd win.
Apparently I seduced him with my drool and terrible lungs because he wrote his number on a coffee from the gift shop under the 'Fight me?'
The first time that Sam Winchester met Gabriel Novak was a moment that he wasn't likely to ever forget. It was definitely one of the most unique meetings that he'd ever had with anyone – friend or patient.
Sam worked as a nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital and the twenty-seven year old man had already been on shift for eight hours, after five hours of sleep and a twelve hour shift before that, and it looked like he was going to be on for quite a while longer. Not even two hours earlier two of the other nurses had called off with the twenty four hour stomach bug that had been making its way around. It was a nasty virus that had people spending most of a day wrapped around a toilet with their insides trying to find a way outside. Sam felt bad for them, he really did. His brother, who was also his roommate, had already gone a round with it and Sam had seen just how sick it had made Dean. He wouldn't really wish that on anyone.
So when he grabbed the chart and went in to check on the newest patient on his floor, he was tired, a bit irritable, and more than ready for his shift to be over. He pasted on his best smile, straightened back his shoulders, and prepared to go in and do the quick vitals check his friend and coworker, Charlie, had asked him to do for her so she could get a quick break, and move on in the hopes of getting as many of these people taken care of as possible.
What he hadn't expected was to walk in and find a mountain of pillows where the patient should be.
That was the only thing visible on the bed where, according to his chart, thirty two year old Gabriel Novak should've been laying.
From somewhere in the midst of those blankets came a scratchy voice that very distinctly called out a loud "Fight me!" and only seconds later, he was being bombarded with pillows as someone erupted from beneath the fort and swung a pillow directly at him..
Reflexes had Sam ducking away just quickly enough to avoid getting hit in the arm with the pillow. When he straightened back up it was to find an absolutely adorable looking man sitting there staring at him with a horrified look on his face and a pillow still held in his hands. "Oh my god." The guy croaked out – and this had to be Gabriel. "I'm so sorry! I thought you were Charlie."
Sam eyed the pillows on the floor and then looked back up at the patient on the bed. The guy was just a bit too cute for his own good, especially for someone who was in a hospital. Brownish-gold hair was messy around his head from bursting out from the pillows and eyes that were kind of like honey were staring at him with growing embarrassment, the mischievousness of before gone from them. Sam found he much preferred the amused light and the smirk that he'd been wearing when he shot out at him before. Shaking his head a little, he smothered a smile and instead lifted his eyebrows at him. "You often shout 'fight me' at your nurses?" He asked dryly.
There was a moment where he wasn't sure Gabriel would take his comment the wrong way or not. Then the guy sat back a little and that smirk touched his lips again. "Only the good looking ones."
A chuckle slid free from Sam and he shook his head again. "You should try not to talk, Mr. Novak." He warned him, coming forward to start all the standard checks. "Your chart says you're in here for some pretty severe smoke inhalation. You really need to rest your throat a bit and take it easy. Drink plenty of water." Tilting his head just enough that he could flash a smirk of his own, he added "Not attack unsuspecting nursing staff. No matter how attractive they are."
"So it's okay if they're expecting it, then?" Gabriel asked.
Sam shook his head and made a quick note on the chart. Everything seemed to be doing okay. He looked up and pointed a finger. "What did I say? That doesn't sound like resting your voice to me."
"Kiddo, if you knew how much I was restraining myself right now, you'd totally understand that this is resting for me."
Laughing, Sam added something to the chart at the foot of the bed. "I'll keep that in mind." With a smile and a much lighter mood than the one he'd came in with, Sam left the room and moved on to his next patient, inexplicably wishing they weren't so packed so he could've taken a moment more with the rather amusing patient in there.
He kind of hoped he got a chance to see him again before he left.
The next day Sam ended up getting his wish. Charlie had come down with the stomach bug as well and as such, things got shuffled around again. Sam found himself walking in at about the same time to check on Gabriel once again. He walked in a bit more cautiously this time, more than prepared for any flying pillows or other such things – he wouldn't put it past the man to do something else a bit odd. He just seemed the type.
Gabriel was sitting up on his bed when Sam came in and the grin that lit his face was wide and bright. In a flash, one of his pillows came flying over and Sam caught it reflexively. Gabriel scooped up his other pillow – and where on earth did he keep getting all these pillows? – and grinned even more as he called out "Fight me!"
Or, well, tried to call it out.
Halfway through a cough hit and it didn't let up for quite a few minutes. It took some water and a bit of oxygen before Sam helped Gabriel to get his breathing under control enough that the coughing finally stopped. The attack had left the man weakened, though, and looking quite pale. "That wasn't how I planned that to go." Gabriel croaked out when the mask was removed from his face.
Sam shushed him and held up a cup for him to take small sips from. "It's probably for the better, Mr. Novak." He smiled down at him and thought that it was rather unfair the guy could look so good even with pale skin and pink cheeks and a horrendous case of bed head. Wanting to cheer him up, and not quite able to resist, Sam winked at him "You'd probably win anyways. I learned a long time ago not to underestimate the little guys. They're quick and vicious."
The laugh that Gabriel gave threatened to turn into another cough. Sam got him more water and helped him settle down before he went through his checks.
When he left, Gabriel hadn't managed to find his voice again, but the both of them were smiling.
Twice more Sam dealt with Gabriel before it came up on Sam's weekend and the day before Gabriel's release from the hospital.
Each time, Gabriel had had some sort of quip for him when he came in, even if his voice was almost too scratchy to understand. They'd kept him in this long because they were worried about lungs they said were already weak from a cold even before the smoke inhalation. But he seemed to be steadily improving. Each time Sam saw him, the man 's color had improved a little more, and he was never without something to say.
Sam almost didn't do anything. He wondered and debated and talked himself both up and down on his way to work that morning and even throughout his day. But by the end of his shift, he'd made his decision.
On his way in he swung by the gift shop and poked around until he found the most absolutely awful neon colored stuffed octopus in there. It made him grin the instant he saw it. Grabbing it and making a quick payment, he snagged a little card as well. On the inside he wrote his number and underneath wrote "If you ever feel up for that fight…" Then he begged a favor off of one of the nurses and had the stuffed animal sent up to Gabriel's room.
It took two days before Gabriel messaged him. Of course he didn't do it like a normal person. Instead, he sent him a picture of himself with the octopus perched on top of his head and a Cheshire grin on his face. The text with the photo said: Are u sure? I'm thinking we can take u!
Sam grinned as he sent his reply: Sounds good to me.
The fact that Sam was greeted at the door with a face full of stuffed octopus when Gabriel picked him up for their date just seemed sort of fitting.
Three years later, that octopus sits on the top shelf of their coat rack, waiting for those days when one or the other comes home. It's had its legs sewn back on a time or two but it still works pretty well in catching unsuspecting boyfriends by surprise.