Sam was just approaching six months when Michael deemed it was the perfect time for him to go find a new vessel. Sam's grace had settled enough that with the help of Michael's binding he would be undetectable as nephilim to other angels unless they were in the same room. So after over a year of using Mary Winchester as a vessel, Michael set out to find another. Thankfully Michael was quickly able to find a temporary vessel in the form of Phil Kenton. Phil was an average man, nothing too remarkable about him except for the fact that he was able to host an archangel for short periods of time without any ill effects. Phil wouldn't last long though, so Michael began searching for a more permanent solution.
The last time Michael had seen his brother Gabriel, he had been planning on leaving the host to pose as a trickster god. Gabe had come to Michael almost two thousand years ago, asking Michael not to look for him. Michael knew that Gabriel wanted to be left alone, and he would never tell any of his other brothers about Gabe's location, but in Michael's book this counted as a good reason to find him. Michael was fairly sure that the tricks and pagan powers Gabriel had gained from posing as Loki would allow Gabriel to actually create a vessel for Michael rather than having to find a new one. After all, Gabriel had done the exact same thing for himself.
Once settled in Phil, Michael put him safely asleep within his mind so he would have no memory of what was happening, and started his search for Gabriel. Michael wasn't able to sense Gabriel's grace, but he did catch the scent of pagan magic in southwestern Pennsylvania, and, knowing that Gabriel was posing as Loki, Michael followed his hunch and flew to a field in rural PA. Sitting down on the damp grass, Michael closed his eyes and intensified his search.
Beneath his eyelids, he could almost see the grace around him. In his mind's eye, he saw trails of glowing metallic light, left by angelic activity from years past. All around him were faint gold and bronze ropes of light. Most of the trails were old and faded from when angels had frequently walked the earth, but he could see the thousands of bronze strands connecting him to the angels in heaven and one strong golden strand connecting him to Raphael. Out of all the grace trails he could see one small, muted, silver strand, only seen because of the similarity in their graces, leading to his son. Looking deeper at the strands and also opening his mind to other magics, Michael finally found his wayward brother. Buried under and twisted within centuries of green and purple pagan magic, Michael could see the faint glow of a muted golden grace in Pittsburgh.
In less than a second, Michael was gone from the field and reappearing behind his brother in a private showing room of the Andy Warhol museum. Wearing a small, blonde-haired, brown-eyed vessel, Gabriel was eagerly doing something involving orange paint and baking powder to the museums walls. Then, seemingly sensing Michael's grace behind him, he stiffened and slowly turned around.
"Michael," he said flatly, clearly not happy to see his older brother. Michael knew that Gabe was still hurt from the fight between him and Lucifer but Michael hoped that Gabriel would still agree to help him.
"Gabriel…" Michael started,
"Why are you here, Michael? I told you I didn't want to be found."
"I know, brother, and I wouldn't have come if it wasn't important."
"I've told you before, Mikey, I don't want to get involved with family squabbles anymore! I've made a new life for myself as Loki. And guess what? I'm happy with it! So I would really appreciate it if you could not come back into my life and mess that up."
"I swear to you Gabriel, I will not bother you again after I ask this one favor. In fact, you don't even have to know why I need a favor." Gabriel gave Michael a long look, then finally sighed.
"Fine. I'll help you with one thing but after that you leave. Witness protection doesn't really work unless no one knows where I am. Come on, let's go back to my place to talk." With a snap Gabriel was gone and Michael followed his grace signature to a nice downtown apartment.
Michael found himself in a spacious living room; unsurprisingly, it was opulent with just a touch of gaudy, exactly Gabriel's style. Just as he was starting to wonder where Gabriel had gone off to, Gabe wandered in from what Michael assumed was the kitchen, munching on a chocolate bar.
"So big bro, what brings you to my humble abode?" Michael tried very hard not to roll his eyes at Gabriel, a habit he had picked up from Mary in the past few months.
"I need a new vessel, Gabriel. One like you have, made to block my grace." If the situation hadn't been so important, Michael might have laughed at the comical widening of Gabriel's eyes. Michael sighed, seeing the unasked question in Gabriel's eyes.
"I need to, as you call it, go into 'witness protection.' Something's happened and I can't have our brothers finding me."
"You're leaving? Mikey, this is different then when I left. Since Dad flew the coop, you're the big kahuna up in Disney land. They'll look for you, and a lot harder then they ever looked for me."
"I know, Gabriel, but trust me when I say I need to leave. This isn't just about me anymore." Gabriel gave Michael a long look, and Michael could basically see the gears grinding in that straw-covered head of his. After what seemed like an eternity to Michael, Gabriel gave a large sigh.
"Okay, I'll help you 'cause you're my big brother. But Michael, whatever you're involved with, after I make you this new vessel, I don't want any part of it. I'm not Gabriel, archangel of judgement anymore; I'm happy as Loki, the pagan trickster god."
"Thank you Gabriel. You really have no idea how important this is."
"No I don't and I don't really want to. The less I know about whatever's enough to make the good son leave his post, the happier I'll be." Shaking his head at Michael, Gabriel abruptly changed the topic, "Okay, so I'll need some your grace. I'm going to take it's essence, and then use some of my pagan mojo to give it a physical form. You'll end up looking like your true form humanized, and your grace will be hidden cause it will literally be your vessel, rather than hidden in one, sound good?"
"It sounds perfect, Gabriel. How long will it take? I can't be away for long."
"Uh, give me about a week? And you should probably stay close by incase I need you for something. I've never done this with someone else's grace." Michael nodded.
"I'll stay in the city then."
"Then I'll just need a sliver of your grace, and you can go out and explore the wonders of western Pennsylvania." Conjuring a small glass vial, Michael slowly took a sliver of his grace and placed it in the vial, capping it with a matching stopper.
"Is this enough?"
"Perfect , bro! We'll have you walking around in the brand new you in no time!"
"Good. Gabriel, where is the closest library?"
"Really, Mikey?" Gabriel, it seemed, had no problem with eye rolling. "You're in a city with over four hundred bridges and you want to go the library? They have sandwiches here where they put the fries in the sandwich!"
"I have some things to research, Gabriel."
"Fine. There are a bunch of them all over the city. There's the carnegie library plus there's about a dozen university ones. For some reason people think Pittsburgh's a great place for higher education."
"Thank you, Gabriel." And, with a thought, Michael was gone.
Michael spent the next few days researching human infants. Though he had seen how Mary cared for young Sam, he did not really understand most of it. Human children seemed to need quite bit of care, and Michael wanted to make sure that his son had everything he needed. Michael did not quite know how Sam's angel half would affect his development, but he needed to know the norm for human babes so he could make sure Sam received the care he needed.
He also spent quite a bit of time reviewing all the care that his younger brothers had needed when they were fledglings. Michael assumed that Sam's growth and development would be somewhere between the two. Since fledgling angels took almost a hundred earth years to mature, Michael was worried that Sam's development would be behind that of other human children, but from what Michael had read about human babies, Samuel seemed to be the opposite.
Though it was not too obvious at almost six months, Samuel's intelligence and motor skills seemed to be accelerated, and Michael had a feeling that the developmental rate would continue to grow in the next few months. By the time Gabriel contacted Michael on the fifth day to tell him that his new vessel would be ready the next day, Michael had read almost every parenting and child development book, magazine, and article to be found in Pittsburgh. Late that night, Michael was resting in a church downtown when he suddenly felt a distressed tug on his grace. Sam was in trouble, and his son's muted grace was calling to his. Within a heartbeat, Michael left Pittsburgh and reappeared in Sam's nursery in Lawrence.
Michael stared at Sam's crib in shock for a few seconds before he sprang into action, attacking the figure standing over Sammy dripping blood into his mouth. Michael slashed at the demon, because now that he was looking there was no doubt it was a demon and a powerful one at that, before pinning him to a wall.
"What do you want with him," Michael said harshly. The demon just laughed in his face.
"Looks like little Sammy has a guardian angel looking out for him. I hate to tell you this, feathers, but little Sammy there belongs to me. Has since the day his mother traded him for Johnny boy." Michael snarled at the demon, who in return flashed a smirk and yellow eyes, and promptly smoked out before Michael could smite him. That of course was the moment when Mary walked in. She gasped as Michael turned towards her. Glancing towards their son, Michael knew that life had just become a lot more complicated than it already was.
Sam would not just be hunted by the angels if his existence ever became known, but now it looked as if he would be hunted by one of hell's most powerful demons. Not to mention that hell wasn't even aware of the fact that Sam was nephilim; if hell ever found that out they would want him that much more. After all because of the yellow eyed demon's blood, Sam was now the first ever child of heaven, hell, and earth. Michael knew that he couldn't protect Sam from the sidelines anymore, and that both his presence and Sam's would put the remaining Winchesters in danger. With a sad smile to Mary, he mouthed the words, "I'm sorry." Then with a wave of his hand he erased all the memories Mary had of him, gathered Sam in his arms, and was gone.
So here's chapter two. Also, I forgot to put a disclaimer last chapter, but I obviously do not own Supernatural. Any who, Tell me what you think; I love hearing from you!