Sam leaned against the Impala, sipping absentmindedly at his beer as he stared sadly at the horizon. Dean lay asleep back in the motel room, snoring loudly and blissfully unaware of his brother's absence. Sam hoped that he wouldn't wake up any time soon. He wanted to be alone.

Gabriel was dead. His angel, gone forever. There was no hope of him ever coming back.

Castiel came back, his mind offered weakly.

But he knew that had been a million-to-one chance. God had said that he was no longer going to interfere. Gabriel was gone, and he was never coming back.

Just when he'd wrapped his head around that, when he finally decided that he was just going to have to deal with Gabriel no longer existing, he heard rustling in the back seat of the Impala. He paused in taking another drink of beer, frowning as he turned to the car.

The back door opened and someone stumbled out, landing hard on the ground with a thud and a pained grunt. Sam stared down at the man, unsure of what to do.

Gabriel lay on the ground on front of Sam, panting slightly and looking blearily around. "Ow..." He muttered, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as he tried to compose himself.

"Wha...Gabriel?" Sam asked, finally making making himself known to the archangel below him.

Gabriel looked up at Sam, blinking. "Oh, hey Sammy. What's up?" He greeted lightly.

Sam ignored the nick name, staring down at Gabriel incredulously. "What...Gabriel, you...what the hell? I - we thought Lucifer killed you!"

"Well, I am the Trickster." Gabriel said nonchalantly, despite his situation. Sam noted that his shirt was covered in blood, and there was a slit in the fabric where he'd been stabbed. Gabriel noticed Sam's staring and sighed. "Help me up, would ya?"

Sam obliged, leaning down to grab Gabriel's hand and lift him up. Immediately, he pulled the archangel into a bear hug, holding Gabriel tightly.

Gabriel grunted out of surprise, taken aback by Sam's tight embrace. He relaxed after a moment, and patted his human's shoulder. "I missed you too?"

Sam let out a short chuckle. "Don't ever do that to me again, okay?"

Gabriel smiled. "Gotcha."

His gut hurt, he needed to change shirts, and he was exhausted. Not to mention he had to help Sam and Dean trap his big brother back in his cage, and find Castiel. He had a lot of babysitting to do.

But here, in his human's arms, everything was fine.

My first ever real Sabriel, written for an art-trade with a friend of mine.