Sam slowly opens his eyes and his greeted by a shower of sunlight. It would be blinding, but the curtains are keeping the brightness outside and are quietly flapping in the morning wind. The air is a bit chilling, but Sam just breathes freshness and earth. It's pleasant, enjoyable to a point he wonders if he is still dreaming.
But usually Sam doesn't get a restful sleep, only insomnia and nightmares full of memories and fears. Waking up relaxed is a daydream he has sometimes, when Dean stops at a diner and Sam body protests against the worn out leather seats and the limited space. Yet the Impala is the only place that has kept him sane sometimes, when he got no sleep at all. It doesn't surprise him, no matter how much Dean loves that car, Sam has grown up in it. Nearly has been born in it, when a desperate husband drove Mary Winchester to the hospital, after they discovered her water had broken.
"Am I dreaming about dreaming?" Sam wonders.
He felt rested and way to comfortable to stand up yet. How often he had wished to simply bury his had back into the pillow and ignore everyone, who tried to drag him back from the state of half-sleep. The only phase when he wasn't helpless against the pictures of Dean dying, of Ruby offering her bleeding wrist the first time or of the feeling of power beneath his feet, when Lilith blood opened the cage.
So much peace was unknown to Sam, he couldn't remember ever feeling so protected. In fact he doubted he ever was. His mother sold him out, his father was constantly absent and Dean not powerful enough to assure him of this kind of safety.
It left Sam to wonder when this illusion would shatter.
"It won't" a voice told him and Sam looked into Gabriel's golden eyes, when he turned his head. "I won't let it break."
"Gabriel..." Sam begins but stops, because he doesn't know how to finish this sentence.
"You deserve this", Gabriel says and runs his hand through Sam's hair in a way, which suggested he had probably done it all night to massage all nightmares away. "Tell you you know this. Tell me you know, you deserve this rest."
"I know..." Sam repeats the words, but cannot completely believe them.
He should not, because his nightmares are a punishment.
A punishment because insomnia has grown to be a well-known companion in Sam's life. Yet Gabriel doesn't relent, just touches Sam forehead, while looking at Sam deeply into his eyes. The world seems to tilt a little, realities open and the Winchester hears wings rustling behind Gabriel.
Sam catches a shadow of them, they promise protection, guidance and the freedom to dream. He sees them, even when his eyes are slowly closing again and Sam is convinced – at least for a moment – that they shape actual the motel room.
"Morpheus will protect you", Gabriel preaches in a strange voice filled with absolute certainty, while he's sending Sam back to sleep.
In his dazed mind Sam remembers that Morpheus is a messenger too and Gabriel the Prince of Heaven.