***Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or its characters. I just like to take them out and play with them. This ficlet is also kinda based on the song 'Cemetery' by Say Anything.

You're With Me

It wasn't supposed to end like this. If there was one thing Crowley had counted on, it was him coming out of a sticky situation relatively unscathed. A ruined suit or even a burned down house was an acceptable loss as long as he survived. Maybe he shouldn't have been surprised; after all, he had always counted on Gabriel being with him at whatever end they came to but that wasn't to be. Gabriel was long gone, stabbed through the heart by his own brother. (And Crowley had felt that as surely as if he had been the one stabbed.)The worst part, Crowley thought fleetingly, was Lucifer hadn't been Gabriel's family any more than Meg or even that shit Gavin was his.

They had been their own family, dysfunctional and small, but at least they belonged.

Crowley was talking but his mind didn't register what he was saying. It was all the instinct that had gotten him this far except it was finally flailing him. Not that he expected anything else. Not from the Winchesters who would rather take their chances with Lucifer's acolyte, Meg, than deal with him. If he cared what they thought, he might have been offended. Dean had been so willing to trust him before but now that Crowley couldn't provide…Well. He became obsolete.

"I can't." Those would be his last words. He could tell by the look in Castiel's eyes that their deal was broken. For whatever reason that didn't bother him. His regret was not finding Purgatory, the one chance he had at possibly getting Gabriel back.

That would be his last thought in this life.

Crowley didn't know what he had expected. Maybe the hellfire and screams he had encountered when his human life ended. What he hadn't expected was the peaceful, soft light and to be standing in what looked a hospital waiting area. An older man with a clipboard stepped out from behind the desk.

"Mr. Crowley?" he asked, his voice friendly and comforting. Crowley shifted uneasily.

"Where am I? Is this Purgatory?"

The man smiled.

"Think of it as Heaven's triage area."

"Heaven?" He couldn't think of anything else to say, he was too stunned. The man nodded and Crowley finally looked at his name tag. It read 'Peter'. "How? There has to be a mistake. I'm…"

"On my list."

"Why?" He heard a door behind him swing open and shut but he paid it no attention.

"Because I told them you're with me."

If Crowley's heart had still been beating, it would've skipped. Even still, the room seemed to swim as he turned towards the voice that he knew so well that he could have told you based on cadence alone what the speaker was really thinking. Gabriel was standing there, hands in his pockets, looking for all the world like he'd been waiting for Crowley to come home and was slightly (but not really) annoyed that he was late. Crowley took one step forward and then they were crushing each other in an embrace that Crowley never wanted to end.

"I waited for you," Gabriel said into his ear. "What took you so long?"

"Sorry to inconvenience you, I had to wait for a rat with wings to burn my bones." His voice shook more than he liked but he didn't care because his hand was in Gabriel's hair and he was home.

"Come on," said Gabriel, kissing him on the forehead. "Let's go."