A/N: My personal head-cannon is that Gabe is alive, and that Lucifer only *thought* he killed him. But for this story, we're assuming that Luci did indeed stab his younger brother.
Please let me know if there's anything confusing, or you think could use re-wording. Or, for that matter, any suggestions for improvement. Thanks!

Why not?

His vessel was still intact. That was a surprise. Gabriel opened his eyes and sat up, staring around the quiet, dimly lit room. The dark paneling absorbed most of the dim yellow light given off by the chandelier above. A few candles still flickered on the tables, the nameplates and silverware glinting. There was no trace of the pagan gods that had fallen at Lucifer's hand, and the pot which had held human soup was clean and dry.

"Am I dead?" Gabriel asked the room. He couldn't see anyone, but he could feel the powerful presence that lurked just out of site.

"I think that would depend on your frame of reference," a soft voice spoke up, and Gabriel smiled at the short, scruffy man sitting on a stool at the edge of the room. The man smiled back, the corners of eyes wrinkling.

"So what is this place?" He had always been curious, it was his defining trait. Besides, he couldn't feel anything beyond the edges of the room, and it was driving him nuts.

"It's whatever you want it to be."

"Huh." Gabe looked around the room, frowning. "So …" he trailed off, imagining a chocolate house and plenty of pretty women. The room didn't change.

The man laughed. "I should probably clarify. It's whatever your subconscious wants it to be."

Gabe's frown deepened. "I don't understand."

The short man leaned back in his chair, folding his legs underneath him. Gabe quirked a grin at the change, and the man's eyes sparkled. "I come here sometimes to think. This place tends to help … clarify certain things."

Gabriel looked at the room's doorway in sorrow. That's where Lucifer had stabbed him through the heart. "I don't want to be here anymore, Father. I don't want to watch my brothers tear each other apart."

"I know. I'm sorry." And he did sound sorry. He sounded like he meant every syllable, and that it hurt to his very core. It didn't help. Gabe still remembered the icy feel of the blade sliding into his chest. His father could have stopped it - stopped everything - a very long time ago, if only he cared enough to.

"Then why don't you stop it?" Gabe snapped. "You took off, and everything fell apart. I couldn't stand it anymore - so," he paused, closing his eyes briefly. Angels didn't need to take calming breaths, but he found the action sometimes helped. "So I left."

"It is not my place to intervene, not anymore."

Gabriel stared at the man, anger boiling in his gut. "Do you know how many brothers and sisters I've lost over the past two years?"

"Yes." When nothing else was forthcoming, Gabriel clenched his jaw and waited for a better answer. God sighed. "It is not my right Gabriel, to interfere in their lives, in your lives. I set up the plan, but I gave mankind options for a reason. It is their world now, to do with as they wish."

"But they won't have a choice, not really, not in the end."

God raised an eyebrow. "If you really thought that, would you have left that DVD for them?"

"Lucifer will never cooperate." As much as he liked the Winchesters - for all their faults - they were only human.

God smiled softly. "It will not be Lucifer's choice that will matter, in the end."

Gabriel didn't realize he had sank down until his ass hit a chair that appeared beneath him. "It was always about them, wasn't it?"

"And it always will be."

"What makes them so special? Out of the billions of humans - why them?"

God smiled and answered a question with a question. "Why not?"