Chapter 1

As Sam stood in the motel bathroom, he hoped he was making the right call. That everything that had happened recently hadn't just been a figment of his imagination. That his… interest wasn't one-sided or merely his subconscious reaction to the tension between Dean and Cas.

Watching Gabriel just stand there under those sprinklers yesterday had been too much. Sam was willing to admit that he may have had the… occasional fantasy about the Trickster, over half the time they'd spent together had involved one of them pushing the other up to a wall, or the Trickster making innuendoes and waggling his eyebrows. Yesterday had shown Sam a different side of Gabriel, and, coming from his own rather fucked up family, Sam felt he could definitely relate. Your father is supposed to be the one person who will never let you down, but both of their fathers had failed on that point.

Sam took a shaky breath, exhaled and whispered, "Gabriel."

The bathroom remained empty and Sam laughed to himself, of course it wouldn't be that easy. He repeated himself, this time louder, while mentally thanking whoever that Dean had taken Cas out to get pie so there weren't any witnesses to what he was going to have to do.

"Gabriel, its Sam. I know you can hear me." Sam cringed as he thought of his next words, he'd only spent an hour or two rehearsing this conversation in an effort to relieve his tension, "I'm sure that I'm probably the last person you want to hear from right now, but I thought that we… that we could talk, or something. It… uh… it sucks trying to get approval from a guy that's never around, and I know… I know that it hurt when he… when he left, and I'm… I'm sorry Gabriel. I-"

Sam was cut off by a slow clap and a "Don't hurt yourself there kiddo." Gabriel was sitting about two feet away on the closed lid of the toilet looking more than a little smug. "Very cute attempt at an apology there Sasquatch, but I'm a bit confused as to why exactly you want to talk to me? Now, I have a couple blondes and a really big sundae to get back to so make your explanation quick."

"Uh… I just… Um, you see I thought that…" Sam stuttered trying to form a complete sentence; he hadn't actually expected Gabriel to show, and he definitely hadn't considered that the archangel might be angry; in hindsight Sam's plan wasn't as well thought out as he'd believed. "I thought that we could talk."

"Really?" Gabriel's voice was thick with sarcasm, his eyebrows arched. "Talk about what exactly? About you saying yes? Or how about your holy oil shenanigans? Or better yet about the part where your brother," Yelling, Gabriel stood and pressed a finger to Sam's chest "accuses the archangel in the room of being a coward? I could end you. Better yet I could set you in a loop forever witnessing the deaths of your loved ones – Oh wait! I already did that!" Taking a step away the archangel lowered his hands and his voice. "Don't ever, call on me again."

"Gabriel!" Sam said as the angel raised his hand to snap, "Wait. Just give me a minute."

The archangel stopped, looking up at Sam with disbelief. "Do you have some kind of death wish or are you just seriously masochistic?" Sam opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Gabriel again, "We have nothing to discuss, you and your idiotic brother need to accept your destiny and just say yes!"

Gabriel paused and Sam took advantage of the moment, "You are one helluva douchebag when you wanna be!" The angel opened his mouth to reply, but Sam kept talking over him. "You spend the entire time you have us in TV Land trying to prove this silly point that you already know is moot, because in case you haven't noticed, we will never say yes! But the most hilarious thing about that entire situation was that you didn't even mean what you were saying. You said that you love your brothers, and I'd have to be nine kinds of stupid not to believe that, but the thing is if Dean and I say yes, then you lose both of them." Sam shot Gabriel a knowing look. He'd realized early on the flaw in the whole apocalypse plan, both sides assumed that one leader would die and the other would take control. "If you know your brothers half as well as I think you do then you know I'm right. If Michael and Lucifer decide to have this cage match of theirs they will tear each other to shreds, and, if one of them miraculously comes out of this with the upper hand, they'll be so badly wounded that they can't be fixed. If we say yes, you lose them both."

"Shut up." Gabriel said weakly. He slumped back against the sink, his hands behind him supporting his weight.

The broken look in Gabriel's eyes was back. That same look Sam had seen in the warehouse, when Gabriel had said he just wanted it to be over. That same look from the Mystery Spot, when Gabriel had said that this had stopped being funny months ago.

"I'm sorry." Sam said reaching out to lay a hand on Gabriel's shoulder. The angel shrugged him off.

"You seem to be saying that a lot lately. I fail to see how those words do anything but allow you to feel better about this mess you've created." Gabriel said sharply.

Sam looked down at the tiled floor, "Don't worry, they don't even do that." He shot the angel a self-depreciating smile. "Nothing I say can make what I did any better. Nothing I say can fix the mess I've made. All my words can do is try and convince you that I'm going to try with everything I have in me to find a way for everyone to come out of this alive."

Sam had moved closer to the archangel; they stood almost toe to toe. Gabriel looked up into Sam's eyes, caramel boring into hazel. "Goodbye."

And then he was gone.

Well, Sam thought to himself, that didn't go the way I'd hoped. He left the bathroom, planning to go to sleep. His feet dragged as he crawled into the motel bed, worn out from the encounter. He lay in the small motel bed with his eyes closed, but sleep evaded him. Sam heard his brother come in and listened as he went through his nightly ritual before falling asleep; Dean's soft snores eventually filling the small room. Try as he might Sam couldn't fall asleep; he kept seeing the look on Gabriel's face as he'd left. If Sam had thought he and Dean were broken, they had nothing on Gabriel.

As the dawn light began to creep into the room, Sam finally fell into a restless sleep.