Gabriel gazed at the shapeshifter he had tied to a chair in front of him, mentally forcing his will on the thing, "Alright, buddy, I need you to listen up. I don't wanna die. I really, really, really like this shirt and Luci is probably still pretty damn butt hurt about being kicked out of the house and locked in the Cage and if I show up, he's gonna blast me or stab me. That, my little copy-cat friend is where you come in.
Gabe hoped the extra mojo he slathered on the shapeshifter could fool Lucifer. The last time Luci caught him in a lie ("Yeah, man, Dad's gonna love this 'Platypus' thing! You should show him!"), it had taken him two centuries to grow the feathers on his top left wing back (and three for him to start talking to the trickster angel again). If he faked him out here and Luce found out…
Well, there wasn't a place in the Universe Gabriel could hide to keep his hellacious brother from killing him.