Chapter 2: Hangover Presents

Sam woke to the sounds of someone being sick. Confused he sat up and looked around wondering who it was. Rolling over he saw the empty spot next to him and it all came flooding back to him. Sam threw the blankets off and rushed into the bathroom just in time for the angel to start throwing up again. Sam reached out and placed his hands on the angel's overly warm back drawing a flinch that had him frowning.

"Gabe? You okay?" Sam asked softly.

The hunter got a weak thumbs up in reply before the angel started dry heaving.

"Want me to get you some water? Or hot chocolate and aspirin?"

Gabriel pulled back from the toilet and gave it a flush, closing the lid and resting his head on the cool porcelain . "I forgot how bad hangovers were."

Sam chuckled. "That's what you get for drinking with a demon."

Gabriel looked up at Sam, confusion marring his face. "I went out drinking with a demon?"

Sam sighed. "Why don't you hop in the shower and I'll go see if Dean and Cas are up? Maybe I can get them to run out and get you some breakfast. Any requests?"

The angel sighed and scrubbed at his face with his hands. "Scrambled eggs with grits and toast and a black coffee."

The hunter frowned. "That's not what I was expecting. Go head and strip and I'll bring you some water to take your meds with okay?"

Gabriel nodded and stood moving to the sink and turning on the water to rinse out his mouth. Sam left the bathroom and came back a few seconds later with two pills and a bottle of water. The angel took the pills and quickly washed them down as Sam turned on the shower for him. That done he turned back to the angel.

"There. I'll be back in a few minutes. Will you be okay?"

Gabriel nodded. "I'm hung over Sam. I'll live. It's not the first time I've done something like this. Go tell our brothers that I'm fine."

Sam nodded and leaned down and kissed the angel's cheek to which the angel carefully returned. Sam left the bathroom shutting the door behind him just as his phone began to ring. He picked it up and glanced at the screen, realizing that it was Dean who was calling.

"Hey Dean." Sam said answering the call. "What's up?"

*Just calling to see if you and Gabe are up yet.* Dean replied. *Cas and I are at the diner putting in our order and we figured we call and see what you wanted.*

"I'll take some oatmeal and a fruit salad." Sam said as he began going through Gabriel's duffel to get the angel some clean clothes. "And Gabe said he wants scrambled eggs with grits and toast and a black coffee."

There was silence from the other end of the line for a moment. *He wants what?*

"I know right? I didn't expect it either." The brunette said pulling out the clean clothes and heading over to the bathroom with them. "I guess he didn't want to tempt fate with his normal sugar rush special and his hangover."

*You sure he's okay? Want me to send Cas over there to check on him?* Came Dean's worried voice followed by the muffled voice of Castiel.

"No. He's fine. Or so he says." Sam said opening the door and placing the clothes on the counter before shutting the door again. "Woke me up when he started throwing up. I got him to take some aspirin and water so maybe he'll feel a bit better once he's out of the shower."

*Well shit. I'll see if I can't get them to hurry up with our order. Be there soon. Bye.*

Sam hung up just as the door opened and Gabriel came out dressed in his jeans and a tank and toweling his hair dry. "Dean and Cas will be here soon with food."

"Good. I could use it. Thank you Sam." Gabriel said going over to the bed and laying back down. "Now are you going to tell me why I was drinking with a demon?"

Sam sat on the bed next to his boyfriend. "I was actually hoping you could tell me."

Gabriel frowned, his gold eyes filled with confusion. "I can't remember."

The hunter took a deep breath and took the angel's hand in his, feeling the hesitation from him once more. "Okay how about we take it from the top? Dean, Cas, and I went out for dinner and you said you had something you had to do. Remember that?"

The blonde nodded. "Yeah. I needed to think about something so I headed to the bar so I wouldn't be disturbed in case you came back early."

The human felt relief fill him at that. "Okay. You went to the bar and started drinking. What do you remember happening next?"

"There was this woman. She wanted to sleep with be because she said I was rich and handsome." The angel shook his head. "I asked her if she had a dick because that was the only way she'd make me feel better. She got mad and threw her drink at me."

Sam couldn't help but chuckle at that. "At least you didn't smite her. Now what happened after that? Do you remember?"

"I bought another drink...No...No I didn't. Someone bought me a drink. A chocolate martini. Then he...He came over and...he said he wanted to meet me. Crowley. Crowley bought me a drink for telling the woman off." Gabriel paused and Sam was shocked to see the fear flit across his face.

"Gabe? What's wrong?" Sam asked, having never seen the archangel afraid.

"How...How did I get here?" Gabriel asked his voice shaking a bit. "I don't remember leaving. I can't remember leaving the bar."

Sam leaned down and kissed his cheek and ran his fingers through those blonde locks to calm his boyfriend down. "Crowley said you started drinking really heavily after he introduced himself. He knew you were in no shape to get back here so he brought you to us just in time for to completely pass out."

Gabriel pulled away and buried his face into the pillows. "Shit. Sam I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to get drunk. I guess I started talking to Crowley and just went with it." Came the muffled apology.

"I can forgive you because I was worried sick because you weren't answering your phone." Sam said. "So can we talk?"

The angel nodded but didn't lift his face from the pillows.

"You've been acting strange lately Gabe. It's starting to worry me. I've noticed that you're pulling away from me. You never seem to want to touch me anymore. Last night just proved that something's wrong. You didn't even leave a note when you left." Sam said with a frustrated sigh. "You said you had to think about something. Was that something about us and our relationship?"

The angel didn't answer and it had the hunter growing concerned when he didn't move.

"Gabe?" Sam asked reaching out and giving the angel's shoulder a tug.

The soft snore that greeted him had him shaking his head. Leave it to the archangel to fall asleep on him when he wanted to talk. Seeing the angel sleeping though sent a small bolt of worry through him. He said that Crowley had bought him a drink. What would have stopped the demon from drugging the archangel? Nodding to himself he'd keep an eye on his boyfriend until Dean and Castiel showed up with the food and then he'd tell the dark haired angel his suspicions. After all Crowley was not to be trusted no matter how many times he's help them.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The smell of grits and eggs slowly pulled Gabriel out of dreamland. He opened his eyes at the sudden feeling of Castiel's Grace softly running over him. Questioning gold eyes sought out blue and the two locked. The younger angel didn't stop what he was doing and it made him wonder what he had done that would make his brother check him over so throughly for. With a sigh of relief Castiel pulled back and turned to the hunters, who were watching worriedly.

"There is nothing. Crowley didn't do anything." Castiel said and the bothers relaxed.

"I'm not that stupid even drunk." Gabriel said sitting up slowly, grateful that the throbbing behind his eyes had died down. "I made sure to purify the drink before drinking it."

"I was just worried because you passed out again." Sam said softly.

"Sorry. My body is just trying to heal itself through the rest of the symptoms. I'm fine." Gabriel insisted. "I'm also hungry."

Dean brought over the foam container and some plastic ware. The archangel took it with a nod of thanks and began digging into the food. He paused and summoned a shaker and dumped a bunch on his eggs before going back to eating. Sam made a face at what he assumed was sugar. Gabriel caught the look his boyfriend was giving him and smirked.

"It's salt Sam. A hangover means dehydration. To retain the water better to rehydrate myself I need salt. Lots of salt. Even I wouldn't destroy eggs with sugar." The archangel said watching his hunter flush and turn to his own food with a muttered apology.

Gabriel shook his head and continued eating losing himself in his thoughts. Last night had done the opposite of help him. If anything if just made things worse because he had no idea about anything he said to Crowley. It was why he didn't drink very often. So now he had another problem to contend with on top of his possibly failing relationship with the youngest Winchester. His Father must really be mad at him if this was the way his luck was going. He was startled out of his thoughts by the feeling of Sam's hand on his shoulder and it made his body jerk.

He looked up into Sam's worried face and mental kicked himself. "Did I miss something?"

Sam sat next to him. "I asked if you were okay because you were staring at your food like you were ready to smite it and you didn't seem to hear me."

"Yeah. Just thinking. Trying to remember more about last night." Gabriel admitted.

"Try not to think too hard on it. It'll come back if you let it." Sam said with a smile.

"Yeah. Don't sweat it. We've all been on a bender once or twice." Dean said around a mouthful of sausage. "Even Cas."

Gabriel turned to look at his flushing younger brother. "You went on a bender? Wow. I find that hard to believe. So are you a happy drunk?"

"More like a miserable one." Dean said. "Don't take him to a party."

"I have not indulged like that since." Castiel said. "Nor do I ever plan on doing so again."

Gabriel's gold eyes filled with laughter. "Is that a promise Cassie?"

"Yes it is." Castiel challenged, glaring at his big brother.

"I love a challenge." The archangel said with a grin.

Sam couldn't help but smile at the look on his boyfriend's face. It was the happiest that he'd seen the angel in two weeks. Sam didn't realize just how much Gabriel had changed until just now. It wasn't just the touches that had changed. If the hunter didn't know any better then he'd swear it was almost like the angel was depressed. Could angels even suffer from depression? It looked like he was going to have to ask Castiel some questions next time he could get the angel alone. There was a knock on the door and all four turned to look at each other until Gabriel spoke up.

"Who was expecting company?"

"Nobody as far as we know." Dean said answering the door.

Crowley gave the hunter a smile as the door opened. "Morning. Am I interrupting?"

Dean glared at the demon. "Yeah you are. We're having breakfast."

"Good thing I came prepared." The Hell King said taking a box of doughnuts from his guard and passing them to the hunter as he walked in. "Cheers."

Sam was the one to glare this time. "Crowley while we appreciate you bring Gabriel back he's not really feeling up to dealing with you since he has a hangover. Get out."

Crowley turned to look at Gabriel, taking in the angel's state; pale and bags under his eyes. "I figured as much which I why I decided to come bearing a gift."

Gabriel sat a bit straighter and his eyes narrowed. "A gift?"

"Yes. Considering the way you were putting it away last night I knew you'd be feeling it this morning so I figured you could use this." The demon said pulling a vial of something that shimmered blue out of his jacket and holding it out to the angel.

The archangel's eyes went wide. "Where did you get that?"

Crowley gave the vial a shake. "You'd be surprised at some of the things that I've managed to aquire over the years as King of the Crossroads. Go on then."

Gabriel stood and took the vial, turning it this way and that. "Seal's still intact. No tampering. Unaltered. How much are you asking?"

The demon smiled. "After that lovely chat we had last night consider it to be paid in full. Figured it would help better then human medicine."

Gold eyes regarded the demon curiously. "What's your game?"

The smile slid off of Crowley's face. "Game?"

"I know your type Crowley." Gabriel said setting the vial next to is food. "You aren't the type to just give gifts. Not without wanting something in return or having an ultimate end game plan in place. The fact that you're already done all of this tells me that you are up to something."

"The only thing I've done is been a good friend to you so far." The Scotsman said. "Just like I told you at the bar last night."

"So buying me a drink, bringing me to Sam, and now this? This is just you trying to be a good friend?" The angel asked with disbelief.

"Don't forget I also listened to your little problem." The demon said, his smile turning dark. "Last time I checked isn't that what friends are supposed to do?"

"Yeah. Friends are supposed to do that but up until last night we'd never even met." Gabriel said, his voice turning cold. "Friendship isn't something that's just given out freely with angels. It's something you earn through trust."

Crowley's smile grew. "So I earn your trust and I get a friend. Sounds like a date then. When do you want to go out for drinks again?"

"Not anytime soon." The angel said. "Now if you don't mind we need to get ready to leave. Bobby has a new case for us and we need to get going."

"Right." The Hell King said holding out a card to Gabriel who took it. "My number. Just in case." The demon said with a smirk. "Enjoy the doughnuts."

With a slight incline of his head the demon turned on his heel and left. Gabriel looked over the card that just had a number written on it in, strangely enough, Enochian. Flipping the card over his fingers it vanished and he sat back down with a glare directed at the vial next to his food.

"Okay. That was creepy as shit." Dean said, dumping the box of doughnuts into the trash can. "What was that all about?"

"He's playing a game." Gabriel said. "I don't know what he wants but he's playing."

"What was that stuff he gave you?" Sam asked. "You sure it's safe?"

Gabriel picked up the vial. "This was pretty much an angelic cure all. Ichor. No matter what was ailing an angel all they would need to do was take a few drops and boom. Instant heal. I didn't think there was any left. Lucifer's side destroyed it during the war. No one bothered to make more after that because of how long it takes to make. This right here is about ten years worth of work."

"What are you going to do with it?" Dean asked.

"Keep it for now." Gabriel said flipping the vial around his fingers before it disappeared much like the card had. "I'm not going to waste it on a hangover that's nearly gone."

Castiel suddenly looked up and said something that neither human understood. Gabriel glanced up at his brother and answered. The two kept up for several moments with both of them seemingly getting angrier as they went. It came to a head when Gabriel stood angrily glaring at Castiel.

"I am not a fledgling Castiel! I don't need you to baby me! If I wanted to be treated like that then I'd just go see Michael. Although it might not be much of a stretch because you're starting to sound just like him!" Gabriel snapped before vanishing.

"Gabriel wait!" Castiel called as vanished as well.

Dean turned to Sam, who was looking just as stunned as he felt. "Son of a bitch. What was that all about?"

Sam shook his head and began packing. "I don't know. Let's just hope they come back soon. Maybe by then Cas will have figured out what Gabriel's problem is."