Two Weeks Earlier
Gabriel woke up at 3 o' clock in the morning and the first thing he
realized was that he wanted a glass of water. Technically, he
shouldn't have wanted anything to drink, but that didn't occur to him.
He was so used to acting like a human that he had forgotten how to act
like an Angel: No sleep, no food, no emotions.
The second thing he realized was that he heard something downstairs.
Managing to stand without falling, he made his way to the stairs.
Gabriel's intelligence failed him. Instead of just transporting
himself down there, he tried to creep down the creaky steps without
waking one of the house's many inhabitants. The person who slept
closest to the stairs was Sam, who was a pretty heavy sleeper, despite
Dean's snoring.
Strange humming reached Gabriel's ears. He instantly recognized the
song as Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall". It had to be Jade,
he decided. As he groggily rounded the corner, he was proved right. A
black-haired woman danced back and forth from the fridge to the
counter, pouring things into a glass.
"Jade?" he asked. Her green eyes turned to meet his honey ones,
seeming a bit startled.
"Gabe? What are you doing up?" Jade asked.
"I was thirsty... and heard something down here," he murmured, still half asleep.
"And I didn't wanna wake up anybody..." he trailed off as his head
started to fall. It quickly bobbed back up again and he continued as
if he hadn't just fallen asleep in the middle of a sentence.
"So I came down here as quietly as I could. What are you doing?"
"Making some chocolate milk," was the reply. Gabriel seemed to
understand for a second, then looked confused.
"Chocolate milk? With french vanilla coffee creamer?"
"Yeah."
Gabriel still seemed confused. He was even doing that little Castiel
head-tilt thing. All Angels must look like puzzled cats.
"What? I like it that way." Jade ended the discussion, but Gabriel said,
"Can I- have some?"
Jade sighed and handed him glass before reaching into the cabinet to
grab another one. Pouring some chocolate syrup into the cup, she heard
Gabriel say,
"Mmm, does taste good." He quickly down the rest, which wasn't
surprising; he had a huge sweet tooth. Snapping his fingers, a
lollipop appeared in Gabriel's hand.
"Still a Trickster at heart, I see?" Jade laughed.
"Come on, it's a perfect life. Minus the Pagan gods, but whatever. I
can have anything I want, whenever I want it, and hunters going
stab-happy won't kill me, 'cause the whole 'Archangel' thing and all."
Jade smiled at that.
"You do have some points, Gabe, but I wouldn't consider killing people
in ironic ways 'fun'. You have a pretty messed up sense of humor," she
said.
"Well, you have a pretty messed up way of life, dontcha think?" came the reply.
"Hmmm... guess that's true, but hunters kill evil creatures, not frat
boys with a fear of extra-terrestrials."
Gabriel snickered at Jade's remark, his signature smirk ever-present.
"You have to admit, Jade, that was good. Even Dean laughed at that
one- the slow-dancing alien. One of my best tricks." He paused, then
looked back on what he had said. "Then again, Dean's pretty much like
me- sarcastic and easily amused."
"Generally, at others' expense," Jade added. It grew quiet. Gabriel
rubbed his eyes, then looked down at the empty glass in his hand. He
snapped his fingers absentmindedly, and it instantly refilled again.
Jade suddenly couldn't help herself.
"Can I see your wings?"
"What?" Gabriel replied, sounding bewildered.
"Well, I've seen Cass'... I was wondering if yours looked different,"
Jade said sheepishly.
"Yeah... they aren't the same. An Angel's are just a standard black,
while an Archangel's wings are a medley of different colors..."
Gabriel must've been really tired. He shook his head at how girly that
sounded. Quickly he added, "So you wanna see my wings?"
Jade nodded. Gabriel took a deep breath. It had been millennia since
he'd last spread his wings...