A/N:One last warning about spoilers, if you've gone this far it's your own fault!

So, a storm woke me up at 3am this morning and after tossing and turning for an hour, my brain demanded I pick up my laptop and this is what happened. It's not beta'd and there is a good possibility that parts may not be coherent, but I had to get it out.

The car would not budge. One of the tires was stuck in a hole, spinning and gaining no traction. The cloud of 'Darkness' rushed swiftly towards them, and they were powerless to do anything to stop it. For how could two insignificant and flawed men possibly shield themselves from such an ancient and primal evil?

The brothers shared a look. The one that said, "I'm sorry and I love you." It was a look the two of them had shared too many times before. Their heads turned back toward the on-coming 'Darkness', hands reaching across the front seat to form a physical connection that they hoped could not be broken.

They were wrong.

Sam braced himself for the impact. It looked like nothing more than thick smoke; a dirty cloud that could be dissipated by a strong wind. It came through the vents of the impala, wisps of dark gray, almost black tentacles that merged together surrounding and engulfing him.

He had expected heat or even a 'smokey' smell, not the ice cold numbness that seemed to penetrate through to his bones. There was pain, but not the reassuring kind that helped to remind you that you were alive. No, this pain was empty, dark and eternal. Sam's entire being felt heavy and like it was frosting over. The coldness began in his stomach and spread out through his body removing feeling and leaving that horrible, empty pain.

Within seconds he was frozen, except for the warmth that came from his brother's hand clutched tightly in his own.

"Sammy?!" Dean's panicked voice sounded muffled as if Sam had thick layers of ice covering his ears.

With tremendous effort Sam shifted his eyes to look at his brother. He had a quick glimpse of Dean's terrified face before Darkness claimed his vision.

He could no longer feel, hear, or see. He tried to gauge how much time had passed, but in this cold nothingness there was no way to tell. Time had no meaning. Nothing had meaning. He was tired... so tired.

It was time to rest. Time to let go. What was there to hold for? And who was he to try? His name, his life, his purpose... it was all gone. It was nothing. He was nothing.

Nothing. Nothing existed, nothing mattered. He was nothing. He had forgotten everything. He didn't even know if there was ever anything to forget.

One final burst of white-hot pain in what had once been his left hand pulled him up, but it was fleeting and he quickly sank back down into the nothingness again.

It was small at first. The ball of warmth and light that pierced the 'Darkness' like a spear. The trumpeted battle cry cracked the ice. The pain, that had dissolved into nothingness, came back with a vengeance. The paralyzing nothingness was receding and the pain was greater than anything he had ever felt, until he remembered. Bits of himself and who he was came flooding back to him. He focused on the pain, the little ball of warmth had become a blazing inferno and he clung to it desperately.

"Sam."

That's right. That was his name, Sam.

Sam tried to respond, but there seemed to be something in his mouth. A warm sweetness caressed and teased at his tongue and teeth. He allowed himself a few moments to rest and enjoy the sensations as the pain and fire ebbed away from his body leaving him feeling a bit weak and shaky but whole and alive.

Sam gathered his strength and, with great effort, finally manged to pry open his eyes.

The first thing thing he saw should have been surprising, shocking even. The golden glowing globes of the archangel's eyes seemed to laugh as Sam tried to focus on them. At first he thought the problem was his weakness, but soon he realized that the eyes were just too close to focus on. The warm sweetness continued to play in his mouth and he felt an astonished laugh bubble up in his chest as he realized that it was Gabriel's tongue. The archangel was kissing him, and probably had been for quite a while.

Gabriel pulled back, and Sam could feel warm hands rubbing the feeling back into his limbs.

"Go ahead and laugh, Sam. Love, laughter, happiness, and hope... these are things that keep the Darkness at bay."

The smile dropped from Sam's face as he remembered what had happened. He realized that he was half lying, half sitting in the back seat of the Impala. The upper part of his body was draped across the archangel, who had started to press small kisses to his forehead.

Sam arched his neck so that he could meet Dean's eyes in the review mirror. His brother glanced back at him with only vague recognition. His green eyes held an emptiness that Sam had never seen in them before.

He attempted to sit up, but Gabriel held him down.

"Not yet, Sam. You need to rest," he chastised gently. "But Dean.." Sam muttered, reaching a hand out to touch his brother's shoulder.

Dean did not react to the touch, just kept his eyes on the road and continued to drive.

"Gabriel, help Dean," Sam insisted, trying to sit up again.

The archangel grip was unbreakable so Sam sank back down in his lap and looked up at him, disgruntled.

Gabriel laughed at his expression, but then immediately sobered.

"Dean will be okay, Sam. He's been fighting the Darkness since he took the mark. He can resist it a lot longer than you could."

Sam still stared at the back of Dean's head in concern, but relaxed slightly knowing he wasn't in immediate danger.

"So, eventually, it will do to him what it did to me?"

Gabriel nodded, looking grim.

"But you can save him, right? Like you just did with me," Sam insisted.

"No. But Castiel can. We're headed to meet him now."

Sam sighed in relief, and allowed himself a small moment to count his blessings. Dean and he both made it through this alive. The mark was gone, and it looked as if Gabriel had returned.

Of course, Dean had killed Death and they'd released the Darkness into the world, so things were far from perfect.

"How did you defeat it the first time?" He asked, after a while.

Gabriel had been absentmindedly stroking Sam's hair and stopped at the question.

"Well, first off, I didn't defeat it. It was a combined effort of all four archangels, not to mention some providential assistance from Dad. And Lucy was the one who slammed the lock shut and took the key. My part was pretty small, but then I am the youngest," he confessed, quietly.

Sam mulled that over while Gabriel resumed his strokes and caresses.

He let out a sigh so heavy that even Dean's distracted eyes glanced back at him.

"We're going to have to break Lucifer and Michael out of hell, aren't we?"

Gabriel didn't answer. He didn't need to.

Sam tilted his face up so he could better see Gabriel.

"Where do we even start?" He asked, a feeling of helplessness tugged at him and he could almost feel the cold emptiness begin to seep back in.

Immediately Gabriel pushed his mouth back against Sam's gently leading the man back to the light. When Sam began to kiss back, Gabriel smiled and lingered just a moment longer before pulling away.

"Despair is your enemy now, Sam. You have to hold happiness in your heart for a while. You are too weak to fight it on your own yet."

Sam nodded, but raised his eyebrows in question.

"We start by getting our brothers to each other. After that, well... There is a rumor I heard that you guys are buddies with the king of hell. He seems like a good place to start."

And even though Sam trusted Crowley about as far as he could throw him, he felt a renewed sense of hope. Crowley would be on board with doing anything needed to defeat the Darkness. Maybe they would get through this after all.

Still, worries and doubts tugged at his thoughts, despite how hard he tried to keep them back. Finally he reached up and pulled Gabriel's face back down to his. Kissing the archangel seemed the best way to hold on to the happiness, so that's what he would do.

A/N: Not sure if I will make this into a full story or not. It will be a long hiatus so who knows what will happen. :D

Thanks for reading, please excuse me while I go use the sleep.