When Dean finally left Cas's room, he found Sam sitting at the small table in the kitchenette, laptop open in front of him.
"How is he?" Sam asked as he sat in the rickety chair next to him.
"Like shit. But at least he's out cold," Dean replied sulkily. As much as he wasn't willing to admit it, he was worried about the angel.
Sam continued to type away at his computer. He wasn't going to mention the bags that had appeared under Dean's eyes when they broached the subject of the angel that was unconscious in the next room.
"So," Sam broke the awkward silence," I found a bit of lore on angel wings. It seems pretty consistent with what we already know. But check this out, 'It is said that an angel's wings can only be healed by God. Without this, the angel will simply fade away from existence bit-by-bit, finally descending into the dark pits of Hell to join Lucifer, also a wingless angel.'"
Dean's face darkened at the mention of God, and morphed into one of distress, as he thought of Cas slowly fading and ending up stuck in Hell with his bat-shit crazy older brother.
Sam took the silence to reassure Dean.
"But Dean, that doesn't mean that's the only way. I mean, this isn't exactly a science. We don't really know anything. But, I do have an idea…" he trailed off.
Dean raised an eyebrow in the universally sign of asking him to continue.
"What if we summoned Gabriel? I mean, he-"
"The Hell Sammy! That's a horrible idea! We don't know who did this to him. I mean, for all we know, it could have been Gabriel who…" Dean stopped. He couldn't bring himself to actually verbalize what happened to Cas. If he did, it just made it all the more real. He was still halfway hoping that he would wake up any minute now, and this would all have been a dream.
"Dean, I didn't say it was a good idea, but it is one of the only ones we have. Otherwise, we just have to wait around and see if God is gonna heal Cas or let him die."
Dean ran his through hair and sighed. Nothing was good. None of it would work. If they called Gabriel, it was either going to screw them all or save Cas's life.
It was several minutes filled with pacing on both parts before Dean turned to Sam.
"Let's do it."
"What?"
"Let's call Gabriel."
"Dean, you just said that was a terrible idea. And now you want to try and pull it off?"
"I'm not gonna let Cas rot in there. God never gave a damn about us before, and he sure as hell ain't about to start," Dean semi shouted. He didn't want to wake up Cas, but he had to get through to Sam that this was, in fact, their only option.
"But you said yourself, 'what if it is him'! What-" Sam stopped himself. He knew by the look in his brother's eyes that this was not a fight that he was going to win. In fact, he didn't win many fights over the topic of their angel.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Dean?"
He held the match in his hand. Everything was set up in front of them. All that was left was to drop it in.
Dean nodded his head in affirmation. He was, at least, as ready as he ever would be.
Flames shot from the basin and a thin smoke arose. In front of them, Gabriel appeared.
His face was placid at first, but quickly changed to anger. He must have picked up on Cas's grace.
"Gabriel, hold on, it's not what you think! We just-" Sam rushed. This was not looking good for either of the Winchesters. But at least they knew, if the look on his face was anything to go by, that Gabriel was not the one that went after Cas.
"Whoa, tricky, hold your horses!" Dean shouted as he was lifted from the ground. Gabriel had both Winchesters pinned to the wall and was inching his way toward Cas's room.
"What have you done to him? How could you? He trusted you!" the angel bellowed.
"Will you wait a minute? We didn't do anything!" Sam struggled to pull away from the wall he was pinned against.
"Why should I believe anything you say when my baby brother is over there dying? In your care!" The room started to chill as the trickster's grace seeped out in his anger.
"Because we wouldn't have called you if we did this. We called because we needed you help! We want to save him just as much as you do. Please!" Sam tried reasoning with the frantic angel.
"That's no excuse! How else-"
"Ga…briel," a voice gasped from the doorway. The room's three occupants looked over to where the new voice came from.
Leaning heavily on the doorway was Cas. His face was flushed, and it was obvious that it was taking all of his energy just to keep himself in that semi-upright state. Behind him, his wings were sprawled haphazardly and dragging on the ground.
"Castiel!" Gabriel rushed to his side. He pulled the weak angel toward the floor and maneuvered him into his lap, resting his head back under his chin.
Dean's face grew worried when it took a long time for the angel to respond.
"It wasn't them. Brother, it wasn't… them," Cas whispered as he lay back against his older brother.
"Sh. Just rest. It'll be fine," Gabriel lulled.
The sight was like a strike to the heart for both hunters. To think that, only moments ago, they had thought that Gabriel was the cause of all of this.
Gabriel continued to hold Castiel, but slowly his grace ebbed away and lowered he hunters back to the floor. It took all of Dean's restraint not to grab Cas from the elder angel's arms.
It was Sam who broke the silence.
"Do you believe us now?"
Gabriel's glare would have sent him ten feet under if it could.
"Tell me what happened. Now." Obviously Cas's words didn't do much to soothe the trickster's wrath.
"He just showed up," Dean started. "He hasn't told us anything. We patched him up as best we could. But it said that only God could heal him. That's why we called you."
"I'm not God. I don't know what you expect me to do," Gabriel snapped.
"We didn't say that you were. We just thought that maybe you knew a way around it," Sam supplied.
"There is no way. He's dying." At this, Gabriel nuzzled his face into the top of Castiel's head.
"There's got to be a way!" burst Dean. The other two conscious occupants of the room looked at him. Sam wasn't surprised by the misery on his brother's face. He knew what Dean felt, even if Dean himself didn't show it.
It did, however, surprise Gabriel. He knew that his little brother loved the human, but not that the human felt anything back. After all of he times that Castiel had nearly died because of those two, he figured that they didn't value the angel as much as he apparently valued them. It seemed that he was very, very wrong.
Gabriel looked down at Castiel. He ran his hand down the broken, feathered wings and sighed.
"There is nothing else," the sadness evident in his voice. "There is nothing that I, you, anyone can do to him. It's up to our Father."
"But he's not there! He never is! When did he ever even help anyone?" Dean bellowed.
"Don't say that," hissed Gabriel. If his arms weren't full of injured angel he would have torn Dean limb from limb for that comment.
"Guys, let's just think about this, okay? What can we do right now? Even if we can't save him, there has to be some way to at least help him through the pain," input Sam.
"There's nothing," said the defeated angel. The words cut through the air like a knife through butter.
Sam sighed again and pulled over a wooden chair from the kitchen. The other hunter paced back and forth near the window, running his hands through his hair angrily and grunting in frustration. When he finally turned back toward Gabriel, there were unshed tears pooling in his eyes.
"Please…"
Gabriel didn't respond. Instead, he picked Castiel up and carried him through the doorway that he had come through.
When Gabriel came back, he didn't say anything. He just pulled up another chair and sat next to Sam, staring at the tv.
Hours went on and everyone sat in silence. Eventually Sam was hungry enough to call for Dean's attention.
"Dean, I'm gonna grab some chow. What do you want? Cheeseburger?"
He was met by silence.
"Dean?" he asked, turning around. But Dean wasn't there. Sam looked over at the angel next to him.
"When did he leave?"
"Do I look like his babysitter?" remarked Gabriel.
Sam didn't respond, and instead went to look out the window. Dean was gone, but the impala was still in its parking spot and the keys were still on the kitchen table.
"Human," whispered Gabriel from behind him.
Sam couldn't stop his eyebrows from crinkling together in annoyance. When he turned he saw Gabriel waving him to go over to where he was.
"What? Did you find him?"
Gabriel shushed him, and pushed open the door to the bedroom. It was dimly lit, but he could make out two figures on the bed. When his eyes finally adjusted to the light, he saw that it was Cas and Dean snuggled up together.
Dean was lying on his back, and Cas's head was nuzzled up under his chin. Their legs were tangled together, and the hunter was snoring lightly and contentedly.
It was, in all honesty, adorable and Sam was both proud of Dean for finally reaching out, and a little nervous of that Gabriel would think.
The angel, to Sam's surprise, just smiled a sad little smile at him. It had been a long time since his little brother was this happy.
The pair simply closed the door and left them alone. As the night dragged on, Sam eventually went and curled up in the bed opposite the couple, leaving Gabriel to watch reruns of Dr. Sexy for the duration of the night.
The next morning when he went to go check on his brother he was shocked to see the difference in his appearance. Where his wings had been mangled and bandaged, they were new fully feathered and sprawled out gracefully, protectively, over Dean and him.
Gabriel quickly went over and shook Sam awake, shushing his loud groan.
"You need to see this," he whispered, trying his hardest not to wake the still sleeping couple.
"Gabriel, do you have any idea what time it is?" Sam was obviously still in his sleepy haze, and didn't even register the events of the night before in his mind. In response, the tall angel reached out and tugged on his ear, pulling him over to where the other bed was.
Sam realized how pointless it was to fight the angel, and painfully followed. At first, he didn't notice what he was supposed to be looking at. So the two were still curled up together. Big deal. Was it really necessary to was him up at seven to show him that?
Sam raised his eyebrow at the angel, still not understanding what he was supposed to be seeing.
"His wings, you idiot," whispered-yelled the angel.
All the events of the previous night came rushing back to Sam's mind.
Castiel showing up on their doorstep. The blood. Calling Gabriel in for help. The couple curling up. And then he saw it.
"But… how? How did you fix them?"
"I didn't," the angel said under his breath.
Sam's eyes grew even wider than they had been. If Gabriel didn't heal them, then that means…
"God?" broke Sam's bewildered voice. The trickster could only nod in response. He was as shocked as Sam. Countless angels before Castiel had met their untimely end because of broken wings. God had never saved any of the other angels, so why Cas? What was so special about him?
Dean shifted on the bed, and the rustle of the sheets pulled him out of his lull. But the hunter didn't wake, and the angel's questions went unanswered.
Hey guys! So this was my first Destiel fanfic, and second overall. I have to admit that I gave myself feels more than once when I was writing this... oops... But it was a lot of fun to write, so it was worth it! Please let me know what you think, if you see any mistakes, or have any suggestions for the future! Thanks!