With extreme skill that only hunters or assassins seemed to possess, they entered the house. It wasn't a mansion sized house, but it was spacious. Dean couldn't help but grin. Trust Sam to go for a house that didn't remind him of the rubbish motels they'd spent their childhood in.
John silently signalled for them to head up to the second floor, having already cleared the ground one. The stairs creaked lightly as they made their way upstairs, Bobby and Dean following John as he headed what was obviously the master bedroom.
On John's signal, the three of them burst into the room, flicking on the light to reveal two lumps beneath a large duvet.
Sam's head was the first to appear, his fist rubbing his left eye as he propped himself into a sitting position before eyeing the hunters with an irritated gaze. The blond man however spoke first.
"What are you doing here?"
John aimed his gun at the blond before speaking coldly "I don't know what you are but get away from my son now."
Both young men hesitantly got out of bed at the hunter's orders. "John please could you…"
"Shut up Sam! What the hell did this thing do to you?"
"John please stop shouting. And he isn't a thing. He's called Gabriel." asked Sam calmly, his voice unusually quiet.
"Not until you tell me what in heaven's name has got into you!"
The blond let out an involuntary snort to which Sam silently glared at him. Gabriel shrugged. "What? I'm amused at the accurate use of words."
"Shut the hell up!" shouted John.
"Please stop speaking so lou…"
"Too late," cut in Gabriel. "their awake."
As if on cue, the bedroom door was yet again opened allowing two little shapes to run inside. Gabriel simply sat on the bed and allowed a little boy with short brown hair to jump into his lap.
"Daddy! We couldn't sleep so we decided to come see you!"
Gabriel smiled, his honey coloured eyes lighting up at the sight of the similar ones of his child looking at him.
Meanwhile the other child had run and hidden behind Sam's abnormally large legs, peaking out at the strangers.
"Papa…"
"Yes?" asked Sam as he gazed at the small girl that was using his body as a shield.
"Who are these people?"
Sam turned around and scoped up the girl into his arms where he was able to look directly into her eyes. "They're people that Papa knew from a very long time ago."
"Oh." She turned to look at the men who had surreptitiously hidden their weapons in the presence of the children.
Both Dean and John suddenly took a sharp breath in. She had long blond hair, lighter than Gabriel's honey brown that fell down the sides of her face in waves. She had eyes which seemed like carbon copies of Sam's making her look all the more familiar.
"Mary," John whispered, his face open and vulnerable.
"John, Bobby, Dean, meet Daniel," he said leaning his head towards the boy in Gabriel's lap before looking back at the girl in his arms "and this is Alex."
"Hello." they both said, Daniel with a wide grin while Alex looked shyly at the hunters.
"Now you munchkins should be in bed." said Gabriel with a smile as his children groaned.
"Daddy please let us stay up." Daniel begged.
"That's not happening. You both have school tomorrow." he walked over to scoop the boy into his other arm before heading towards the door. "You've both had enough excitement today. Say goodbye please."
The two bid the hunters goodbye before allowing themselves to be carried into their rooms.
"We might as well head downstairs to the kitchen." said Gabriel as he pulled on one of Sam's jumpers, which for a man of his stature equated to wearing a short dress. They followed him down, wary of anything supernatural to do with this stranger.
"What would you guys like to drink?" Gabriel snatched two mugs from the cupboard and flicked on the switch at the kettle's side.
"We're fine." Replied John, not trusting this man.
Gabriel shrugged. "Your loss. But just so that you know, I don't poison people on a regular basis." He grinned over his shoulder at the shocked faces of the three men.
A minute later, Sam walked in, his arms now devoid of the two children. He sat down wearily, leaning his head in his hands which he slid over his face with a sigh. Gabriel sat down next to him handing him a steaming mug of once black liquid, now tinged with the addition of milk. Sam gazed down at the coffee and was about to protest when Gabriel cut him off.
"It's decaff Sam. Don't worry you'll sleep fine."
Sam nodded his head and with a tiered smile picked up the mug and drank some of the liquid after a quick thank you. Gabriel also sipped at his mug his eyes only leaving Sam's when the man turned his gaze to look at the intruders.
"What are you all doing here? And why did you follow us home and then proceed to break in?"
Sam's eyes didn't seem angry he just seemed tiered; no wonder since they had just woken him up in the middle of the night.
"We were working a case, a nest of vampires not far from here. Once we flushed them out we decided to hit a bar. That one was the nearest, so we went there." John gazed into his son's eyes. "Believe us son if we'd known you worked there, we'd have come a long time ago."
Sam snorted, his face twisted in a disbelieving smile that lacked nay warmth. He leaned back into the kitchen chair.
"Why would I have wanted you guys to have come a long time ago?"
The hunters remained silent, their eyes wide. "What are you talking about boy?" came Bobby's quiet voice.
"I mean why would I want to see you?"
Gabriel placed his hand on Sam's arm as if to tell him that he should step carefully, yet the gesture was also a source of comfort to the taller man.
"Son…"
"No. I've been fine for the past 13 years as you can see. I don't need you to come crawling back looking for you son because he's not here. I stopped being you son all those years ago." Bobby noticed that everything was shaking ever so slightly. Looking over at the others, they were too fixed on the youngest Winchester to see the small tremors that now shook the room. "And guess what? I'm happy. I've been happy for 13 years so don't you dare come in here and believe you have even the slightest right to ruin it."
"Sam." cut in Gabriel. "Sam you need to calm down please." Sam looked into his eyes, finally noticing the rapid speed of his heart pumping in his chest. Having finished his coffee, he got up walked towards the sink were the loud clink of porcelain was heard as Sam dumped his mug. Dean felt his heart twist as he saw how his little brother's hands were shaking.
The golden haired man must have seen it too because he got up and quickly went over to the trembling figure, wrapping his arms around Sam's chest, which rose and fell with quick sobs.
"Hey it's ok. Hey Sammitch, everything is fine." And in one swift movement Gabriel pulled Sam's chin down so that their lips met.
John's eyes filled with red and suddenly the barrels of his guns were pointed at Gabriel's head. He ignored Dean's light gasp at the sight of the colt. He didn't care right now if he used one of the powerful gun's bullets, as long as he got the man away from his boy. "Get away from my son." he snarled.
But the golden haired man remained leaning into Sam, staring back at the hunter.
"Dad, he's not some dark creature ok."
"How do you know Sam?" asked Dean, his voiced stiff as he eyed Gabriel, his fists clenched at the sight of the man kissing his brother.
"Because I did all the tests. He's clean. And I know exactly who he is." Gabriel couldn't help the small smile that took hold of his lips. Humans were known for their protectiveness of their property, but Gabriel knew that Sam protected him because of his love, not because he thought him incapable of doing so on his own.
"He's using you Sam! The dark always use us. You know that you could never love another ma…"
The words had slipped before John could close his mouth, and with them Sam's eyes widened with hatred and all that Dean could think was Oh shit.
"Are you saying that I could never be gay? Is that it?" Sam's eyes drilled holes in his father's head.
"How disgusting are you? How can you say that? Especially in front of Gabriel and I! So what, now I'm a freak? I'm an even greater disappointment than when I left?" His chest was heaving like a horse who'd just run a race, the air escaping through his nostrils which flared under his anger. "Well you know what? You can take that bullshit homophobia and get out of our house. I have neither the time nor the patience for homophobic bastards that happen to be my family a long time ago, I already get enough of that from lots of other people. I'll show you the way out."
Sam took a few steps away from Gabriel, and that's all that John needed. The small kitchen was filled with the sound of two bullets being shot combined with Sam's small cry of his lover's name.
Dean opened his eyes to see Sam's body wrapped around the smaller man's, who was completely obliterated from his view either by flesh or by… wings?
"What the hell?" rasped Bobby as he too eyed the feathered limbs protruding from Sam's back, ripping through his t-shirt.
"Wings." Dean's green eyes were wide with wonder.
The hunters were pulled out from their thoughts by the whisper that came from Sam's lips. "Gab…riel."
Suddenly his tall body crumpled towards the kitchen floor, but Gabriel managed to wrap his arms around him and lower him smoothly to the floor. His small hands looked over his lover's torso and wings finding two bullet holes in each. The wing one Gabriel knew he couldn't heal since it was essentially a manifestation of Sam's grace meaning it couldn't be mended. But summoning his powers he placed a glowing hand on the shoulder wound that now allowed a steady stream of blood from the gaping hole. But no matter how much grace Gabriel poured into Sam, the flesh wouldn't reknit itself. With anger aflame in his eyes Gabriel's head whipped round to face John.
"What the hell did you shoot him with?"
John's shock at his son's extended anatomy still held him and he barely managed to say that he'd hit Sam in the chest with the colt and the normal on his… wing. Sparing no time to berate John for his actions, Gabriel knelt down.
"Sam," he stroked his hair "open your eyes. Please Sammy, open your eyes for me."
The hazel and green orbs opened with a hazy glaze atop them. "Gabe…"
"Shhh, it's going to be ok."
"The k…kids." Sam's brow was pulled down in worry that the sound of the two gunshots had disturbed his loved ones.
"I put a silencing charm, their still sleeping peacefully. Now don't talk. I can't heal either of them Sam, I'm sorry."
"T'ok." Sam swallowed. "Don't."
Gabriel paused. "Don't what?"
Sam smiled "Blame yourself. I kn…know you."
Gabriel returned the words with a small grin. "I'm going to take you upstairs and patch you up." Sam nodded as their lips met in a chaste kiss, but not lacking in love.
Despite his slight frame, Gabriel, or whatever he was, turned out to be surprisingly strong and so managed to help Sam up. The taller man leaned heavily on the kitchen counter and then on anything stable and close enough so that Gabriel didn't have to take the brunt of his weight. And so the hunters watched as the caramel haired man with firm but careful hands led their youngest up the stairs towards their bedroom, to which they all headed, intent to see if the creature didn't kill Sam.
Gabriel had laid Sam along the right-side of the bed so that he could stretch out the wounded wing along the bed, leaving the intact one to fall onto the floor.
"Sam? I'm going to do the one in your chest since it's got a colt bullet in it ok?" He waited for the brown mop of hair to shake before grabbing the first aid kit from the closet and removing the tweezers. With a surgeon's skill, he managed to pull the bullet that nested inside the wound which dislodged with a sickening pop and Sam's body arching of the bed as pain spread over his torso. It wasn't a normal bullet but still Sam hadn't thought it would be this bad.
Gabriel quickly pressed his lips down, attempting to send Sam some more comfort for the pain that he could vaguely feel through their shared bond. He quickly cleaned the wound and bandaged it before moving to the wing. He knelt in the corner created by Sam's wing and body, allowing him easier access to the bullet imbedded in the feathers.
He repeated the same process and even though it was now a normal bullet, the pain was just replaced by the fact that is was in his wings and by the end Sam was panting and biting his lower lip with the effort to keep his cries of hurt inside.
Gabriel swiped the sweat from his lover's forehead before whispering for him to rest. And with a sigh, Sam's lid slid down to allow sleep to take hold of him, knowing that Gabriel would watch over him and would be vigilant for any other murder attempts.
"Will he be alright?" Dean's eyes were wide with distress at his little brother's pain.
"Yes, and knowing the stubborn man he is he'll try to go into work tomorrow, which I most certainly won't allow since he doesn't have any important lectures of meetings. But Friday he'll be up and about saying that he's spent enough time in bed." A small smile tugged at his face as he watched Sam's chest rise and fall with the comfortable rhythm of sleep.
"Now, I believe you have all outstayed your welcome for today." His voice had lost any warmth as he addressed the men. "I believe you can all make your own way out."
The man's tone left no room for arguments so they made their way downstairs and drove away from the house. When they arrived at a motel, not even John had the strength nor the frame of mind to get drunk. So they all fell into a fitful sleep, filled with caramel haired monsters hurting Sam.