A/N: Sometimes I have to write things and spend all day doing so. This was one of those days.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or Supernatural or any of the related rights.
...
He was trying not to bother the Ponds. They had their own . . . stuff . . . going on. Mostly kissing, probably. And he'd just seen them, and he was trying to give them their own lives, but it wasn't really giving them space if he visited them every week.
And besides, he was in America, for some reason. He hadn't quite placed where, though. The small towns all felt the same, for some reason.
He also recognized the long, black car parked in a motel lot. But the boys were packing up. The end of a case. Sam was yelling about something, and Dean was yelling right back. Sounded like something trivial, but he could practically taste the tension in the air. Definitely not the time to stop by and say hello.
The Doctor sighed and leaned against the TARDIS. "Why'd you bring me here, old girl?" he asked, gently stroking her sides. The TARDIS just dinged in response, that deep bell ringing that he knew so well.
"I know you send me where I need to be. But it looks like everything's been wrapped up," he said, nodding toward the Impala and its inhabitants. "I think we got here a little too late."
The TARDIS's ding seemed a little more perturbed this time.
"Oh, fine. I'll take a look around."
...
He walked into the breakfast diner and looked up at the menu: "Wednesday's Special: Strawberry Pancakes." He grinned. "I love Wednesdays. Middle of the week, everyone's already getting ready for the weekend, lots of little things leading up to big things, plans being made." He grinned up at the waitress. "It's a day of possibilities."
"Mmmhmm," she said, a bit distractedly. "What can I get you?"
"Just some tea, if you don't mind."
"Small breakfast?"
"Not sure how long I'll be around," the Doctor said. He wasn't paying much attention to the waitress anymore. He had been scanning the diner for signs of anything weird, and one gentleman sitting at the counter, eating the Wednesday special, caught his attention. Mostly because he was staring hard at the Doctor.
He waited until the waitress was gone before he took his chair and dragged it over. "Hello," he said cheerfully. "I'm the Doctor."
"I know," the gentleman said. "I've seen you around before."
"Oh?" The Doctor leaned forward, intrigued. He certainly hadn't seen the man before, but then, River . . . .
He'd learned not to take for granted that he met people in the right order. So he just shrugged and grinned. "Well, wibbly wobbly. What's your name, then?"
The strange man just laughed. "That's a long story."
"I like a good story."
The man laughed again. He placed some bills on the table and jerked his head, indicating that the Doctor should follow him. The Doctor looked back at the waitress, fingered the money he had so carefully tucked into his pocket after figuring out how the ancient ATM machine worked, and sighed. "No breakfast?"
This made the man laugh again.
...
Outside, the man lead the Doctor into a parking lot, still grinning. He whirled around and threw his arms out like he was going to embrace the Doctor, but instead, his whole form seemed to shimmer. Weird. He wasn't wearing a Shhimmer. When he finished, the man looked different, but still not recognizable.
"And who are you supposed to be?" the Doctor asked.
"Not that I'd expect you to know," the man said, "but I'm Gabriel. The archangel." He drew himself up; after all, he had every reason to be proud of a title like that. History was full of him.
The Doctor wouldn't have believed him if he hadn't known the Winchesters. Still, angels . . . ! "That's new," he said, trying not to betray how surprised he was. He wasn't doing very well, but then, he'd never had much of a poker face. He'd left that behind two regenerations ago.
"And you're the Doctor. Like I said, I've seen you around," Gabriel continued. "Always saving the humans. Always interfering. Making a mess, stirring up trouble." At that, Gabriel's entire face broke out into a grin. "My kind of chaos."
The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, but what came out was "Umaugh?" Which was nonsense, of course.
"Just think about it, Doc. Can I call you Doc?" And suddenly Gabriel's arm was draped over the Doctor's shoulder. "You, me, time, space. The man with the means to go anywhere and the man with the power to do anything."
"Sounds dangerous."
"Exactly!"
The Doctor frowned, but he couldn't quite get himself wriggled out from underneath Gabriel's arm.
...
"And this is the famous blue box!" Gabriel said. He strolled right up to the TARDIS and looked her over. "She's gorgeous."
The TARDIS dinged happily.
"Oi, don't you do that," the Doctor said, panting, as he finally caught up to Gabriel. It wasn't fair that archangels could just teleport themselves wherever they pleased. It was hard to keep up with them. He straightened himself up at pointed his finger at the TARDIS. "Don't you go making friends with the strange archangel."
"She can't help it. I'm irresistible."
Gabriel was something, alright, but the Doctor wasn't about to say what it was. Not out loud, and even if he said it out loud, not in front of the TARDIS.
"Well, aren't you going to show me around?" Gabriel asked, turning to face the Doctor.
"Right." This was the part he liked best. The reaction. The Doctor reached into his pocket for the key, pressed it into the lock, and threw the doors open.
There was no wonder, no shock, no awe. Just Gabriel, walking into the TARDIS, giving a little nod. "I guess I thought it would be bigger."
The Doctor frowned. That was definitely not the reaction he'd expected.
"So," Gabriel said suddenly, turning with that huge grin. "Where are we going first?"
...
It was like Adric all over again. Or Tegan. Barbara and Ian. Companions he'd never asked for. And sure, yeah, he'd gotten used to them in the end. But this one . . . he was hard to get used to.
Especially when he insisted on popping himself in and out of the TARDIS console room every few seconds. "Found the swimming pool," he said this time, toweling off his hair. "It was hiding in the fifth wardrobe." And, to illustrate his point, he pulled a familiar cricket hat over his head. "Don't you ever throw anything away?"
"What if I need it later?" the Doctor asked with a grin. "It doesn't matter. All of time and space, and you're playing dress up."
"Like you're one to talk, Mister Bow Tie."
"Oi, watch it."
"Sharp come back."
The Doctor glared, then turned back to the TARDIS. "Right. Well, if you're not going to choose, I'm just going to set the controls to random and kick you out, atmosphere or no."
"Nice to see you're still as tender-hearted as your companions say you are."
"If I stuck them in a room alone with you, they'd do what humans do."
"Which is?"
"Try to find the most destructive weapon possible."
"I thought you were all for humanity's potential for good."
"Not today. Not particularly."
"Flip-flopper." Gabriel glared hard at him, unflinching.
The Doctor only held his glare for a few seconds before it uncontrollably burst into a grin. "Oh, you're good."
"Archangel," Gabriel shrugged.
...
"What do you think? Whole of the universe right outside those doors?" The Doctor stood in Gabriel's way, blocking the way. They'd discovered early on that Gabriel couldn't just zap himself outside the doors, not if he didn't know what was out there, and especially not if the TARDIS was still traveling. Gabriel's experiment had left him dizzy for an hour.
"Trying to force the suspense isn't going to make me any more excited," Gabriel said. "I know I'm not your usual traveling companion, but I'm not going to squeal with delight or flap my arms or whatever stupid things you're expecting."
"Fair enough."
The Doctor moved aside so Gabriel could push open the doors, and then the archangel was gone. Zapped out. Not so much as a thank you.
"I should really just leave him here," the Doctor said. "Serves him right."
But that was never going to happen, so he pulled out his psychic paper. Gabriel had been considerate enough to leave a note. "Nice hotel on the hill. Lots of people to play with."
The TARDIS dinged at him insistently.
"I know, I know," the Doctor said. "I'd better go make sure he's not killing anyone." This whole keeping track of a playful, godlike creature was hard work. It was almost as bad as the few times he'd had to keep up with his other regenerations.
Almost.
The closer the Doctor got to the hotel, though, the easier it was to tell that something was wrong. More people running. And now there was screaming. "Gabriel," the Doctor muttered under his breath. He was almost not worth all the trouble.
The Doctor burst through the doors, already annoyed. "Gabriel, what did I tell you about . . . ." He trailed off and didn't mind that his jaw dropped embarrassingly open.
Daleks.
The Daleks in the hotel lobby all swiveled their eyestalks his way with the usual urgency, and he heard the hum of their little metal movements increase. "It is the Doctor," the lead one said.
Well, that was a new one. Last he'd left them, they couldn't remember who he was.
"Yes, that's right. I'm the Doctor. Maybe you remember me?" Best to run with situations when he had no idea how they'd happened.
"You will come with us," the lead Dalek said.
"What, no exterminating?" the Doctor said. He couldn't stop the grin; it just came without his meaning to. This was an entirely new breed of Dalek, one that had no fear of him. And, for some reason, that meant they didn't react immediately by trying to exterminate him.
"Daleks require information. The Doctor does not exist. There are no records. This information gap is unacceptable," the lead Dalek said.
The Doctor tried his very best not to laugh. "Can't resist a mystery. Is that what you're trying to say?"
But he didn't get the chance to find out what the Dalek was going to say in return, because Gabriel burst through the doors. "Dude!" he said. "What took you so long?"
"I'm trying to stop the Daleks," the Doctor said.
Gabriel took one look at the situation, frowned, and waved his hand. The nearest Dalek to the Doctor disintegrated. And when the Doctor looked at him in surprise, he just gave a little nod and half a smile as if to say, "Archangel, remember?"
"Gabriel!" the Doctor shouted. "Don't do things like that!"
"Things like what? Save your life? Yeah, real sorry. Won't ever do it again," Gabriel said, then waved his hand a few more times to disintegrate the other two Daleks. He grinned cheekily. "Did I get them all?"
"Listen," the Doctor said, really angry now and not just mildly annoyed-but-amused, "those were brand new Daleks. They weren't desperate to stop me, they weren't as dangerous. They didn't remember the Time War or any of their old enemies. They were tame compared to what I'm used to."
"Whoopee for them. I'll notice you're not mad that I saved all the human beings," Gabriel pointed out.
"Yes, good, thanks for saving people. Your conscience must be so proud," the Doctor snapped back. "But just think for a second, because I'm trying to save the universe. You've just given the Daleks a new mystery to solve. A new enemy to fight. And if there's one thing the Daleks are very, very good at, it's battling enemies."
"So, do you want me to put them back?"
"No. Yes! No. I don't know," the Doctor said distractedly.
"I could strand them on this planet's rings with no propulsion systems and a weapons malfunction."
"Yes, do that. No, don't," the Doctor said quickly. "Then they could report back."
"So we're leaving things like I left them? Great! Let's go check out the dessert bar. It's all-you-can-eat, and there isn't a line anymore. Don't know if you've noticed, being so busy and everything."
The Doctor hadn't noticed the buffet. It wasn't high on his list of priorities.
But there was something else he hadn't noticed, something much worse. One more Dalek, this one nothing more than a scout, but it was enough.
"Report," the Dalek said into its inner communications system. "Subject identified as 'Doctor' travels with subject identified as 'Gabriel.' Subject 'Gabriel' exhibits signs of higher intelligence and extreme danger to the Daleks."
...
"Gabriel, bring him back."
"He deserved it."
"Bring him back."
"Just give him five more minutes."
"He'll die in less than five minutes."
"And?"
The Doctor sighed. It was hard work, this Gabriel-as-a-companion stuff. "And that would be bad."
"Look, if he's going to insist that the moon landing was a hoax, don't you think he deserves to see it in person?"
"Not without a space suit."
" . . . fine." Gabriel said. He snapped his fingers, and the teenager reappeared, his eyes wide and bulging and his hand over his heart like it was about to burst.
"Maybe we should take him to hospital," the Doctor said, rushing to catch the boy before he fell.
"No problem," Gabriel said. He snapped his fingers again, and the boy disappeared, presumably to the nearest hospital.
"He better not be back on the moon."
"You mean you don't trust me, Doc?"
"Only as far as I can throw you."
"I'm hurt. I really am."
"No you're not."
"And here I was thinking you hadn't picked up on my sense of humor."
The Doctor just grinned. He couldn't do anything else, really. They'd been traveling together for a little less than two weeks, and there really wasn't anything else he could do with this guy.
...
"So, when am I going to meet any of your other friends?" Gabriel asked one day as the Doctor was setting the controls to the TARDIS.
"Oh no," the Doctor said. "You don't get to interfere with their lives, too. I'm not letting you near any humans, not after last time."
"I put it all back together," Gabriel said. "Hardly anyone remembers what happened."
"That's no excuse."
"Maybe not, but you can't say you weren't enjoying yourself," Gabriel said with the grin that he was so sure would win the Doctor over. It only sometimes worked.
"Still, no more Earth trips for you," the Doctor said. "I'm editing Earth and any human colonies out of the TARDIS randomizer."
"Spoilsport."
"Trickster."
"Told you that's not my real name."
"I think Trickster fits you better."
"Well, we all pick our own names. Yours suits you, don't you think?"
The Doctor fell silent. He hated it when Gabriel showed off just how much he really knew. It was always just a little bit unnerving.
Suddenly, the TARDIS jerked, and the Doctor went flying. (To his annoyance, Gabriel just steadied himself with a bit of angel power.) When he picked himself back up, he grabbed the TARDIS console and stroked her. "What's wrong, old girl?"
"What's happening?" Gabriel asked, and he actually sounded distressed. That was new.
"Something's locked onto the TARDIS. But how?" The Doctor was legitimately worried. He recognized the energy signature, but that shouldn't have been possible, not when the Daleks forgot about him.
The shaking stopped. "We've landed," said Gabriel.
"Yes, thank you," the Doctor said.
"Try and make a Time Lord happy," Gabriel muttered under his breath.
"Look, I don't think you understand. I've spent a very long trying to make everyone forget who I am, and bringing you along has only drawn attention back to me," the Doctor said. "And now the Daleks are here to find out why." Just to prove his point, he snapped his fingers, and the doors of the TARDIS opened, revealing a gala full of Daleks.
But they were chanting "Gabriel" for some reason.
Gabriel gave the Doctor his widest grin yet. "Showtime," he said, holding up his hand like a weapon (and it was, in fact, a weapon).
"Behave," the Doctor said, a little relieved now. At least his anonymity was intact.
Gabriel, of course, never behaved. He jumped out of the TARDIS, did a cartwheel, and held his hands up in a gymnastics salute. When that got no reaction, he just calmly leaned his arm on the top of the nearest Dalek like it was nothing more than an armrest.
"Do not lean. DO NOT LEAN," the Dalek said more and more insistently. It tried to fire its weapon, and the repeating and shouting only got worse when it found that it was powerless.
The Doctor couldn't help smiling. The Daleks really were useless when they couldn't kill.
"So, boys, you summoned me here to, what, interrogate me?" Gabriel said, still sauntering and swaggering, as always. "And what, exactly, were you planning to do once you had me here?"
The Daleks all responded in kind: "Exterminate, exterminate!"
"What?" the Doctor sighed. "And here I thought you lot had actually learned some curiosity!"
"We lacked information," said the biggest Dalek (and therefore the leader). "We have studied Earth history for mentions of subject 'Gabriel.' He is a threat to Dalek-kind."
"Say it again," Gabriel said with a grin. "Flattery will get you everywhere."
"You will be silent!" the Dalek underneath Gabriel's arm said.
"Or what, little pepper shaker?" Gabriel asked.
"Exterminate, exterminate!" responded the Daleks. But still nothing happened.
"You know, Doc, when I heard all the stories about the Daleks, I guess I thought they'd be worse. They're kind of useless when you block off their access to their weapons, aren't they?"
"I thought I told you to behave."
"Are you saying not to mess with your greatest enemy?"
"No," the Doctor said quickly, smiling. "I'm just saying the Daleks have long memories. And you don't want to be on their Most Wanted list."
"Fair point," Gabriel shrugged. He turned to the Daleks. "Well, then, Daleks, it's been real, it's been fun, it's even been real fun. But my friend and I are leaving now. Thanks for having us. Stock up your dessert bar next time, would you?"
"You do not have permission to leave," said the lead Dalek.
"And you're going to stop me?"
It was almost unbelievable. Gabriel's powers must have been stretched, because he faltered for only a second before the lead Dalek shot him through.
"Gabriel!" the Doctor shouted. He started toward Gabriel, but the spell on the Daleks was broken, and now they were headed for him. "Oh, blimey," he muttered, backing up to the TARDIS and closing the doors quickly behind him.
"Exterminate! Exterminate!" He could hear the Daleks through the TARDIS doors.
"I say a quick exit is called for, don't you think?" came Gabriel's voice from behind the TARDIS console.
The Doctor very nearly lost his temper, but he was too busy frantically trying to get the TARDIS out of there. "What did you do that for?"
Gabriel laughed. "You said I was too big. As far as the Daleks know, they've just killed Gabriel, and they don't have to worry about me anymore. Isn't that what you wanted? Besides, I needed a little more juice to free the TARDIS from their gravity lock, and the double was costing too much energy."
The Doctor just stared at Gabriel in disbelief. "But you could have toyed with the Daleks for at least another few hours. This isn't like you." It wasn't that the Doctor wasn't grateful. He just wasn't used to selflessness from this particular archangel.
Gabriel looked down at the floor of the TARDIS. "And now we come to my next point of business," he said, suddenly quiet and somber for the first time since he'd started to travel with the Doctor. "I need you to take me back where you found me."
"Now? After all that?" The Doctor was surprised at the words as they tumbled out of his mouth. He'd spent the last two months wishing he'd never taken Gabriel along and then, as always, he'd become attached.
Gabriel laughed again, no longer somber. "Don't tell me you're going to miss me, Doc. You're not the sappy kind."
"It's just . . . very sudden," the Doctor said. And he would have regained his composure, too, except that the TARDIS broke free at that moment and threw him for a bit of a loop. "Why the change?"
Gabriel just shrugged. "Nothing major. My siblings just jump-started the Apocalypse, and I've got two idiots who need convincing of their parts to play."
"The Apocalypse?"
"Nothing you can do, Doc. It's all part of the Plan, or whatever." It was the first time the Doctor had seen Gabriel look . . . upset. Sad. Frustrated. But he perked up again after only a few seconds. "Anyway, it's all part of the fun, isn't it? Another disaster on the way, right?" He laughed hollowly. "I just have to go make sure my brothers don't destroy my home while I'm away, is all. This isn't the last you'll see of me."
"But . . . the Apocalypse." The Doctor was definitely sure he'd heard Gabriel right, and this was not something to take as lightly as Gabriel was taking it.
"This is one time you can't interfere, Doc," Gabriel said. "Or do I have to remind you what happened last time you tried to interfere with a fixed point in time?"
The Doctor glared at Gabriel. He hated it when Gabriel was right.
...
The world definitely hadn't ended; that much was obvious.
He'd come back and spent some more time with the Ponds. A few adventures here and there. Still no sign of any Apocalypse. And even that had been a few years after he dropped Gabriel off. Gabriel must have stopped it.
That was the hard part. The Doctor had tried to come with Gabriel. He could help, after all. That's what he did. He helped people. But Gabriel said he was no match for his big brothers, and as much as he hated to admit it, the Doctor knew he was right.
Well, at least, he'd convinced himself that he'd known Gabriel was right all along. The truth had far less dignity and involved him being unconscious while the TARDIS flew him somewhere new after he dropped Gabriel off.
He'd decided to drop by and visit his friend. Not to start up the traveling again, mind, just to make sure he wasn't dead.
He landed in a hotel parking lot and saw a familiar black Impala driving away. He thought about chasing them down to ask if they'd seen Gabriel, but maybe the boys didn't believe in angels. Not yet.
He hopped out of the TARDIS and ran into the hotel lobby. The place was a mess, blood everywhere, and the stench told him the battle was recent. Very recent. And there was a new smell, too. Sulfur. And fire.
He rushed across the room in time to see Gabriel drop, and the angel who'd killed him (it had to be some kind of angel; the Doctor didn't know any other creature that could kill an archangel) looked up.
And the Doctor swore he recognized those eyes.
"Good to see you again, Doctor," he said. "It's been such a long time."
And then he was gone, and the Doctor realized that he'd come just a bit too early. This was still the first decade of the twenty-first century, still only months after he'd dropped Gabriel off. The Apocalypse was still on track.
Gabriel hadn't stopped it. But he'd died trying.
"Atta boy," the Doctor said, crouching down beside his old friend, tracing the burnt wing shapes on the floor.