'But, Dean! This has got him written all over it!' Sam exclaimed, throwing his hands up and laughing. 'None of this makes any sense! Who else could it be?'

'I don't know what you're trying to say, Sammy.' Dean stepped forward, half pleading with his little brother. 'Dude, Gabriel's dead. And even if he wasn't, why is him being here a good thing?'

Sam's grin faltered and he stared at Dean for a moment before huffing a disbelieving laugh. 'You're-you're kidding right?' Dean shrugged, still not getting it. 'Dean, he saved our lives. He stood up against Lucifer, against his own brother to let us escape. He never took his side, or Micheal's. He took ours. How can you not remember that?'

'Oh I remember it alright.' Dean said. 'I also remember the bastard killing me, hundreds and hundreds of times. He put you through absolute hell-'

'He was protecting me!' Sam yelled, stepping closer to his brother, towering over him. 'He tried to make it easier for me, easier to... Move on.'

Dean gaped for a moment before drawing back, his face contorted with confusion and anger. 'What the hell do you mean 'protecting you'? That asshole-'

'He knew that you'd made a deal, Dean.' Sam cut across. 'He knew that somewhere along the road, you'd be going to hell and leave me all on my own and he tried to help.'

There was a long pause, in which the two brothers stared at each other, one with frustration and the other with open and unaltered guilt.

'He told me afterwards,' Sam continued. 'He told me why he'd done it. He said that I was going to have to learn to live without you, and he was teaching me a lesson.'

Dean's eyes refocused at that 'A lesson? Who does he think he is believing he has the right to teach you any kind of damn lesson?'

'Because you wouldn't be there to teach me instead!' Sam's voice got louder as he raged. 'You refused to talk about it, Dean! Any of it! I had no idea what I was going to do. Living without you...I had no clue!'

Dean didn't say anything for a long time, his eyes focused back down on the ground. After a minute he sighed and looked up. 'Sammy, he's an angel. He's bad news and if you think for one second that we can trust that bastard, you need to remember just what we've been through.'

'We trust Cas,' Sam replied, harshly, ignoring how his brother flinched. 'We've trusted him since the start, even after every time he's betrayed us.'

'Yeah, well.' Dean shifted, keeping his gaze away from Sam, settling on the wall just behind him. 'I'm not sure if we can rely on him much anymore, either.'

'Gabriel!'

Sam's voice echoed through the empty halls, bouncing back at him as he roamed further into the hospital. He turned a corner into a small room, being careful to avoid the hanging lights threatening to fall off from the ceiling.

The room was completely empty, no bed or medical equipment. Sam was about to turn away and search elsewhere when suddenly music started bleeding out of the walls, seemingly from no where. Sam spun round, eyes wide. 'Gabriel? Dude, you here?'

The music slowly started gathering volume, and a slight beat started up, one that Sam recognised, though he didn't know where from. 'Gabriel? Please man...' Sam brought his hand up to his face, wiping it and pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose. It had been so long since the day they'd watched the archangel's farewell video, and the hope that he may still be alive burned painfully inside Sam's chest.

During the time between Mystery Spot and being in TV land, the angel had been in his thoughts far too frequently. He knew that what Gabriel had done was out of kindness. A weird, really twisted kindness, but all the same. And Sam, in all his bitterness, was grateful. Grateful that someone besides Dean cared enough to actually do something to help him. Because he was damn sure that he dealt with this stuff in the worst way possible, he knew that. Even after all that had happened, all that he'd done, Sam still saw himself as the frightened little boy who, without his brother, hadn't a hope in hell of ever living happily, whether he was hunting or not.

And he was sick of it.

'Gabriel?'

The music broke, and suddenly the tune became one that Sam knew all too well. He stood, frozen with his mouth open, before it curled up into a grin so big it threatened to split his face in half.

Of course.

'I found you sitting on a suitcase, crying.'

Sam shut his eyes to the sound of Gabriel's voice, drifting in from the door behind him, the archangel's foot gently tapping on the floor in time with the guitar.

'Beneath my feet I feel the rumble of a subway train, yeah.'

'How?' Sam managed, still refusing to open his eyes. 'How are you here?'

'I laugh out loud, cause it's the one thing I hadn't been trying.'

He could feel him walking around the side of him, his singing voice both playful and rough, as if it was hard for him to keep it under control.

'The train came in breathless,' Sam felt an arm on his shoulder, 'the passengers restless, I said.' Sam opened his eyes and looked down upon a grinning, but weary eyed Gabriel, 'Baby, you'll never change.' Sam inhaled a sharp breath as the angel winked and broke into the chorus.

'You gotta get gone, you gotta keep going. Hey, the world ain't slowing down, for no one.' Gabriel moved away, walking backwards with his eyes still fixed on Sam, who was grinning, his eyes slightly damp and still whispering, 'How are you here?' under his breath, 'it's a carnival calling out to you.'

The angel brought his other hand up to the microphone, in a gesture of mimicked passion, 'it sounds like a song, it hits you like scripture,' he shot his hand out towards Sam, 'you paint the picture with colours squeezed from your hand.' Sam laughed out loud, his jaw aching from smiling but unable to suppress it.

He watched as Gabriel tilted his head, eyes softening as a look of fascinated curiosity swept over his features as he sang the lyric, 'weren't you the kid who just climbed on the merry-go-round? Hey look,' he drew himself up again and Sam's heart jumped, 'the world ain't slowing down.'

The music continued on, a break before the next verse. Sam started forward, a million questions on his lips but was silenced and stilled by Gabriel's raised hand. There was no smirk on the archangel's lips, and his eyes were locked with Sam's, telling him one thing. Let me finish.

Sam didn't realise he was close to crying until he felt an unreasonable frustration well up inside of him, and felt the tears build up behind his eyes. He looked away quickly, squeezing his eyes shut so Gabriel couldn't see.

However, he still couldn't keep the smile off his face.

The lyrics started up again and Sam couldn't help but look back. Gabriel was beaming again, but this time not so wolfishly. It was strange to see such a natural expression on his face. 'Out on the sidewalk, pigeons do the moonwalk,' his smile widened as he leant forwards and looked up at Sam through his lashes, 'I'll be dancing like Fred Astaire,' Sam laughed again, still trying to keep his composure, 'the lamp posts are rocking, the whole town's talking like a fool in a barber's chair,' Gabriel straightened and suddenly leapt away in a dramatic skip, 'and I get the sensation, the joy and frustration,' looking back and his eyes melting as they fall on Sam's face 'getting caught by a drop of cold rain,' Sam's smile dropped slightly as his chest tightened at the expression on the angel's face, 'Freedom can numb you,' he watched as he kept his eyes fixed on Sam but went ridged and hostile, 'when there's no place to run to,' but it disappeared as Gabriel threw his head back in preparation for the chorus, 'it feels just like Novocain.'

Sam watched as Gabriel sang, his whole body vibrating with pent up emotion and underlying impatience at all the unanswered questions he had building up so high in his head he thought it might burst. He didn't know what was going on, how Gabriel has survived, where he had been, why hadn't he come back to tell them he wasn't dead, why he was singing in the middle of a built in arcade game and why the hell Sam was suddenly so affected by Ellis freaking Paul.

But as trickerster-gone-native half danced in front of him, the only thing Sam could concentrate on was the fact that he hadn't felt this happy in a long, long time.

The chorus finally ended and suddenly, it was like someone had cut the strings from Gabriels arms and shoulders. He drooped, and turned back towards Sam, who stood in the middle of the floor, still smiling, red eyes focused completely on the archangel. Gabriel swallowed, as if nervous, but at the same time his golden eyes emitted nothing but confident determination.

'You packed up all your handbags,' he cocked an eyebrow at that, making Sam chuckle and roll his eyes, 'you're throwing off the sandbags,' his mouth twitched downwards and he suddenly looked so scared, 'I let go when you stepped free.' Sam's smile melted away, and he was just left staring at Gabriel, who he had never seen looking so vulnerable. The angel kept his gaze on him, voice not wavering but thickening with a kind of controlled emotion.

'I said I didn't wanna lose you, you said you didn't choose to,' he looked down and shrugged, 'it's just how your karma came,' his eyes bore into Sam's again, 'but thanks for the vision, and the twenty twenty wisdom,' Sam swore Gabriel's eyes were shining, 'it hit me like a south-bound train.'

Sam felt a sound leave his lips and he staggered forward. Gabriel stepped towards him once, and then again and again before he surged forwards and caught Sam as he fell down into his arms.

'You gotta get gone, you gotta keep going,' the angel continued to sing softly into the hunter's ear, as Sam leant on him fully, pressing his face into Gabriel's shoulder, 'hey the world ain't slowing down, for no one,' the microphone fell onto the floor with a dull thud, and Gabriel rested his hands on Sam's forearms, 'it's a carnival calling out to you,' he felt Sam's voice vibrate on his skin and chuckled, 'it sounds like a song, it hits you like scripture,' Gabriel pulled himself back and pushed Sam's head up to look at him, 'you paint the picture with colours squeezed from your hand', he smiled and cocked his head to the side with another confused expression, 'weren't you the kid who just climbed on the merry-go-',he lifted Sam's head up further and full on grinned at him, 'weren't you the kid who just climbed on the merry-go-,' Sam finally laughed and Gabriel pulled him into a hug, 'weren't you the kid who just climbed on the merry-go-round? Hey look, the world ain't slowing down.'

They stood there for a while, swaying slightly to the music as it faded away. Neither noticed the man at the door, watching them with wide eyes.

Dean watched as he brother shifted in Gabriel's arms, and rested their foreheads together, both their eyes closed.

He swallowed and looked away, buzzing with confusion and shock, trying to make sense of what he'd just seen. It had all looked so familiar, like his brother and the archangel had done this a thousand times before. But they couldn't of, they couldn't of.

He glanced up again to see Gabriel's eyes open, watching him. Dean stiffened and waited for Sam to notice. But the younger Winchester didn't move from where he rested in Gabriel's arms, and Dean could see his hands were clinging to the angel's jacket, as if afraid he'd disappear.

Dean and Gabriel stared at each other for a moment longer, before Dean broke eye contact, and slipped away.

Gabriel closed his eyes again and held Sam closer.

Dean stepped into the hallway, his arms swaying by his sides as he let out a long sigh.

He looked around, at the white washed walls stained with yellow grime and faded patches of mould. He was standing in what he thought was a pretty good metaphor for his life. Worn out, old, but still standing, still trying to help people.

It made him laugh, just a little.

Dean turned himself around and before he could change his mind, squeezed his eyes shut.

'Cas.'

The entire hospital was silent. Even the screams in the other rooms had stopped.

'Cas, I need you. Here, now. Please.'

He didn't open his eyes when he heard the soft rustle of feathers behind him. Only stood with his back rigid, listening to his heart as it thumped, loud and fast in his chest. Only with the sense of the angel approaching him from behind made him turn and face Castiel, who stood before him, not a hair out of place, as always. He looked exactly how Dean ever wanted him to look. Tidy, innocent, and with the permanent expression of confusion that only he could do so well.

'Hello, Dean.'