Dean really was worried about Sam. He seemed completely lost in himself. Lost and depressed. He decided to go over and talk to him, just to make sure that he was okay.
"Hey Sammy." Sam looked up from staring at the table. He didn't look happy to see Dean. But on the other side, he didn't look particularly unhappy to see him. He looked kind of dead to the world to be honest. Dean sighed. "What's up Sammy?" Sam glared at Dean, not even bothering with a bitchface, just putting spite in his eyes and letting Dean figure out the rest.
"What's up? Really, Dean? Do you really wanna know?" Dean nodded, wondering if he was going to regret this. Sam laughed at him, but with no humor. "Fine. He kissed me, Dean. He kissed me. That's what's up. He kissed and left me alone.
"Well to be fair he did stay in the car for quite a while before he flew away."
"He kissed me Dean. That's the kind of thing that you have to process. If Cas had kissed you back before you two became a couple, what do you think that you would've done?" Dean could see his point, but he decided to mention something else he'd noticed. "You're comparing you and Gabriel to me and Cas?" Sam went red. Dean grinned, even though he knew that Sam had done enough of the same thing teasing him about Cas- and he'd felt absolutely horrible while it was happening. But Dean convinced himself that this was different. He knew it was exactly the same- even though the details were a bit off.
"Do you really like him that much?" Dean asked, and Sam stared down at the table, sighing. "I do, Dean. It wasn't anything that I expected, or even thought a possibility. I mean, I spent six months of my life tracking him down completely determined to kill him when I found him. God, if that had all been real, I killed Bobby just to get my revenge. But then he came back in the whole TV Land fiasco, and… he changed, Dean. He just wanted his family to stop fighting. I… Dean he cared about his family like I care about you. About Dad even. And he fought his brother- knowing full well that that could be the day that he died. Except he didn't, but… but god I missed him. I missed him more than I should've. I loved him more than I should've. Dean… I sure as hell accepted my sexuality a long time before you did. I knew I was pan back in college, but… I never that I would fall in love with a man that put me through hell for over half a year. I think he's changed since the Mystery Spot.
"Back then, he just didn't want the apocalypse to take place. He didn't want his family to fight. He was willing to give up his life for us, Dean. I mean, he was pretty much an honorary Winchester at that point. That was such an idiotic thing to do, I mean, he pitted himself against Satan, his brother, so that we could get out of there alive. God, Dean, I know that you don't like him, but he has changed so much since the Mystery Spot, and that's the Gabriel that I fell in love with." It was only then that Sam finally looked up from staring at the empty sugar packet that he was messing with in his hands. Dean was staring at him, almost vaguely uncomfortable. "It's not…" He started, then paused, thinking about what he was going to say. "It's not that I don't like him," Sam looked at him skeptically.
"Really. It's not that I don't like him, but… Sam you're my little brother. It's a requirement that I worry about you, and… I don't want you to get hurt. You're right, Sam. You put you through hell for six months, and I don't want him to hurt you like that again. You deserve someone better than that. And… yeah, he has changed since we knew him as the Trickster. But just be careful with him Sammy. If he hurts you, I'll rip out his lungs." Dean said this last sentence with a smile, to tell Sam that he was trying to make him laugh. It didn't work.
"You're trying to give me the 'if you hurt him' speech, Dean? Really? He doesn't even like me. Not like that. I mean, sure we've become friends, but I wouldn't say that he likes me like that." Dean scoffed, "You kidding me? The guy fawns over you, Sam. He was willing to die for you, to kill his own brother for you. I wouldn't kill you if it meant saving anyone, Sam."
"Yeah, well his brother was literally Satan, so I think that might make that job a little easier. You know, stopping the apocalypse. Tiny bit more important than family. Especially when it's your family who's bringing about the apocalypse." Sam went back to fiddling with the sugar packet. "Go talk to Cas. Or Mels and Chrissie. I'm fine."
Dean could tell that Sam didn't want to talk to him anymore, so he stood up, and looked down at Sam for a few moment before walking over to a different small table in the breakfast area. Sam looked sad. He really was worried about him. Sam could really get stuck in a rut if he got really depressed. Nevertheless Dean left, glancing back at Sam's table every so often, just to make sure that he was okay. He couldn't find Cas, so he found his way over to where Jo was sitting, sifting through a pile of papers that Bobby had given her to look through before the hunt actually started.
"What's all that?" Dean asked her, motioning at the papers, and already looking at her sympathetically. Jo looked up. She sighed, and put down the papers that she was holding. "To be totally honest, I'm not really doing any work right now. I was just shuffling papers hoping that it would look like I was doing something. Research notes. It was supposed to be Sam going through this stuff- he was the one who figured it out in the first place- but now he's in some sort of weird slump and it all got dumped on me. What's up with him anyway?" Dean sighed, and sat down across from her. "It's a long ass story that doesn't need to be told right now. You want help?"
Dean spent most of his morning with Jo, helping her go through all the papers, figuring out things from what time would be best to strike the nest, to exactly which aliases people would be using and their exact jobs through the entire hunt.
*:*:*:*:*
Cas didn't know what to do with Gabriel, who was still moping in his hotel room, watching crappy television and refusing to go back to talk to Sam. He was definitely concerned, not really sure if Gabriel was going to get over this. Cas realized he really appeared to have fallen hard for Sam, and getting supposedly rejected like that. He still wasn't sure how that was rejection. It wasn't like Sam had screamed or anything. Just when Cas thought that he was getting a handle on human emotions and reactions, something like this happens, and all of that falls around him. Still he stays with Gabriel, because he knows enough to realize that Gabriel wouldn't want to be alone. Even if all he really wanted to do was find Dean and do anything but take care of his brother in his (admittedly pitiful) state. Gabriel was currently staring at the television with dead eyes, not even processing what David Paul was saying about the tropical storm Harold that was mixing in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Gabriel." Cas finally said, "You're going to have to go back at some point, and it's probably going to be better sooner than later. The longer you stay away the more awkward it's going to get." Gabriel tore his eyes away from the weather to look at Cas. "Really, Cas? It's going to get more awkward? I was kind of hoping for the 'I'm never going to see the kid again' realm." Cas glared at him before getting a strange expression on his face. "Gabriel. That's not going to be possible. You know that." Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Really, Cassie? Because I think that- as an archangel- I've kind of earned the right to do whatever the hell I please."
Cas mumbled something under his breath that he obviously didn't want Gabriel to hear. He didn't account for Gabriel being able to read his mind, or do whatever it was that Gabriel did. Gabriel's eyes flew wide, and he swung his legs off over the side of the bed, turning completely to face Cas. "Shit, Cas, really?" Cas nodded embarrassedly, looking down to fiddle with his hands.
"When?" Gabriel asked, looking completely in awe. Cas shrugged. "Whenever there's time I suppose. It's not even a certainty yet, Gabriel." Gabriel scoffed. "Yeah right." He smiled for a moment, before sighing, and putting his face in his hands. "I have to go back, don't I?" Cas nodded slowly, sympathetically.
"What am I supposed to say to him, Cas? This isn't the kind of thing that Sam Winchester is just going to choose to ignore and move past. He's not exactly Dean. He's kinda more of a touchy-feely type of person than your Dean is."
"Just… ignore it until he brings it up?" Cas offered up helpfully.
Gabriel sighed, and started mentally preparing himself to go back to Sam.
*:*:*:*:*
Gabriel could admit to himself quite readily that he was absolutely terrified. His insides felt like they were shaking. The last time he'd felt this scared had been back at the Mystery Spot, and he'd looked into Sam's eyes, completely ready to tell him that he's done with it, and there was nothing that Gabriel could do about his brother, but then encountered Sam' sad little puppy dog expression and he decided to give him a second chance. Even though he knew that if he let it continue the Apocalypse would begin. He flew into the lobby of the hotel they were staying in, a feeling of dread weighing heavy on his heart.
"Gabriel!" It was Mels. She seemed particularly chipper this morning, "Where have you been? Sam's in some sort of slump, we need you to go help Jo and Dean who are taking over for Sam's job because he's so out of it. Now, go, either figure out what's up with your boyfriend, or help Jo and Dean. Jo looks like she's ready to kill someone." Gabriel licked his lips nervously. "Um, yeah, I'll go… where?"
"Oh they're all in the breakfast area. A couple people have gone through there, so I'm not entirely sure if Jo and Dean are still looking through their hunting notes, as much as quietly discussing tactics." Gabriel nodded, and he felt a rock fall in his stomach. Now that he'd agreed to help, he couldn't back down, but he didn't really want to find himself in the same room as Sam. (Or Dean for that matter, but he'd rather that then having to have a feelings conversation with Sam). He braced himself again, the trembling feeling coming back to his stomach. He wanted to cry, or scream, or really mostly just leave. He took a step forward, and another and another, until he found himself standing at the door of the breakfast area.
He opened the door.
No one noticed him, until Dean saw him, and stood up. Everyone in the room looked at Gabriel. Sam turned a deep red.
"Heya Sammy boy." Gabriel said quietly. "Hey, Dean, Cas wants to see you." He told Dean, who didn't leave. He looked at Sam, silently asking if it was okay to leave. Sam nodded. Jo grumbled something under her breath about not asking her if it was okay if Dean were to just abandon her to look through all of this crap alone, but ended up leaving with Dean as he slowly walked out of the breakfast area, not taking his eyes off of Gabriel. Most of the people had went back to eating, but a couple had sensed the excitement in the air, and continued to watch. One had pulled their phone out and (unbeknownst to them) began filming in hope of a viral video.
Gabriel walked towards the table that Sam was sitting at. "Sammy… I-"
"I get it, Gabriel. You just wanted Rufus to shut up. It's fine. Just warn me next time."
"It's not-"
"I know. I know. Okay?" He looked up at Gabriel with a pained expression. "I get it. That's fine if it doesn't mean anything. It shouldn't have."
"Sammy, I wasn't-"
"I get it."
"No you don't!" At this, a couple of the people who had went back to eating looked up quizzically.
"You don't get it Sam! I'm sorry okay? If I could, I'd probably still be back at a different motel, watching some dumbass weatherman tell us about a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico. But… Cas was there, and…" Gabriel laughed feebly, "It'd be awkward if the next time that I saw you was at the wedding."
Sam sat up. "What wedding?" Gabriel smiled, a bit of his old smirk creeping back onto his face. "The wedding. Cas is going to propose."
"Wait what? When? How do you know this?" Sam stood up, seeming to have forgotten the awkwardness between them for the time being.
"Well he kind of forgot that I'm an archangel, and can go straight past whatever barriers that he might put up in his head about angel telepathy and whatnot, so… yeah. Plus, twenty bucks that it happens before the end of the hunt." Sam laughed and dragged a hand through his hair. "Yeah right." A pause, "What do we do?"
"As much as I love to intervene, I think we should sit this one out. Let Cassie do it on his own." Gabriel took a deep breath. "And Sam… I really didn't mean anything by… you know…" He blushed while saying. Sam turned a bit red. All of the hunters that had been in the breakfast area had apparently decided to leave a while back (when Gabriel had first entered the small room), leaving only a couple making out in the corner, the woman filming in the other corner, and a small family who was appeared to be traveling. There was a pause on Sam's face, until he stepped forward and kissed Gabriel.
The woman in the corner gasped. The mother of the small family looked at them interestedly, while the father looked on disapprovingly. The children were too busy playing with their oatmeal.
Sam stepped back, face on fire. He chuckled, eyes wide with shock from what he'd just done. "Did it really not mean anything?" He grumbled under his breath. Gabriel grinned, laughing slightly. Within seconds, they both dissolved into laughter, slumping down into the chairs at the table that Sam had been sitting at in the first place.
"We're really stupid aren't we?" Sam asked fondly.
"Well judging that I literally convinced myself that never seeing you again was the best option in this scenario, yeah, I'm definitely a massive idiot. You on the other hand-"
"No, don't try to cut me out of this. It's just as much my fault as it was yours. I was sitting that car for an hour or so without speaking up once. I could've solved this entire fiasco in a second, but instead I chose to sit there and stare out the window like an idiot." They sat in silence for a minute.
"You know…" Gabriel started, a very Trickster-ish grin coming across his face. "I wouldn't want to interrupt Dean's oh-so-very-important work that he's doing. I mean, it could be detrimental to the hunt itself. And I wouldn't want to get anyone hurt. We could just… wait to tell him and Cassie about this until we're back… home." Sam laughed. "Hmm. What would we get out of that?" Gabriel thought for a moment. "I'm sure they'd try and conspire on how to make us friends again… Might give Cassie a bit of alone time." Sam grinned, remembering now their previous conversation. "Yeah, but I'd like to see that." Gabriel looked thoughtful. "True. True. Something about how we won't work together without them? You know. Awkwardness and all?" Sam nodded slowly. "I suppose we could just let it play out?"
"If you wanna tell them you can."
"No! No!" Sam shouted assuredly. "No it's a great idea, even it's just simply to mess with their heads." Gabriel grinned. "I like the way that you think Sam Winchester." He stood up. "So. I suppose now I need to leave and pretend to sulk."
"And I will sit here and mess with my empty sugar packet, and not leave, until Dean tells me to get off my ass and stop brooding." Gabriel grinned, bid adieu to Sam, and waltzed out of the room like he was walking on a cloud.
*:*:*:*:*
Dean found his way back to the breakfast area, trying to find his brother.
"Sam! Come on, we've gotta go! We're supposed to leave in five minutes!" He didn't notice the flash of a smile on Sam's face before he turned to look at Dean, sullen faced. "I'm not going to be any help to you guys, Dean. I'm just going to end up screwing something up- again- and then… Just go on without me, Dean." Dean glared at him. "Sammy, what Gabriel did was unacceptable. He… he just left you hanging there, and that's a shitty thing to do. He coulda at least apologized, but he did something selfish and then abandoned you. So come on! We have got to go, Sam. I'm not leaving you." Sam looked down at the sugar packet, but eventually slid out of his chair, and followed Dean after refilling up his small to-go coffee cup. For some reason, he slid the empty sugar packet that he'd been messing with for the past few hours into his jacket pocket.
The seating arrangements had changed again. Now Rufus had gone into the car that Bobby was in, and had been replaced with Jo, with a word from Dean saying that he trusted her not to be as stupid as Rufus was. Sam was sitting in the front seat, shunting Cas, Gabriel, and Jo to sit in the back. Jo was in the middle.
However more comfortable the atmosphere was in the car, something that Dean did not account for was having Jo in the car.
"So Dean… Cas…" Jo began, very chipper. Dean sighed, knowing that something about their relationship was definitely about to come up.
"When are you guys gonna get married?" Four things happened at once. Dean jolted so violently that he jerked the wheel again, Sam started to laugh, Cas flinched in his seat turning to look at Jo so quickly she thought he might've gotten whiplash, and Gabriel laughed so hard he sneezed.
There was a honk from the car behind them.
"So… I take that as a whole 'you guys haven't talked about it yet'"
"Well, Jo, we're hunters. It's… very hard to get married when you're hunting." There was an almost imperceptible slump of Cas's shoulders. His expression changed. "Why?" Gabriel's eyes widened, and he and Sam glanced at each other.
"What do you mean, Cas?" Dean had such a range of emotion in his voice that it was impossible to tell what all he was feeling.
"I mean, why would it be so hard for two hunters to get married? Sophie and David did it, so… so why couldn't we?" The car slammed to a halt, and Dean pulled over to the side of the road, and he turned around to look at Cas.
"What?" Dean spoke in just a whisper now, eyes wide. Cas licked his lips nervously. "Why not, Dean?" There was a long pause in which everyone had gone completely silent. Jo had, unbeknownst to Dean and Cas- who were completely engrossed in each other- started filming the ordeal soon after Cas had objected the first time.
"What are you saying Cas?" Dean was still barely whispering. Cas swallowed nervously before answering.
"Dean... Winchester…" There was a long pause, and total silence- even Balthazar knew to stay quiet, excepting for the roar of the rest of the hunters cars driving past.
"Dean Winchester." Cas repeated, stronger this time. "Wi- will you marry me?"
*:*:*:*:*
"Rufus, what the hell did you do?" Bobby and Rufus were talking while Raina and Cecil were sitting in the front seat.
"I didn't do nothin', Bobby! Suddenly Sam started getting pissed at me, an' all I was tryin' to do was help. Then Gabe finally actually kissed Sam, and everyone got all quiet."
"And then did you realize that you'd screwed up?"
"Well… yeah. But… I just thought…"
"Well you thought wrong then. Even still, they were actin'; a bit off."
"See? 'm not the only one." Rufus told him somewhat triumphantly. Bobby grumbled something under his breath, before pulling out the papers to go through logistics with Rufus one more time.
*:*:*:*:*
Dean didn't say anything. He just kissed Cas. Jo squealed, and did a little clapping thing. Both Sam and Gabriel were grinning, although with Gabriel, it was more of a smirk. He waggled his eyebrows at Sam. He sighed, and started digging into his pocket, pulling out a twenty. He passed it to Gabriel discretely behind the seat. Unfortunately, Dean had pulled himself from Cas for long enough to see the twenty changing hands. He glared at him, but couldn't put his heart into it.
"Dean…" Sam said, "Are you crying?" Dean stuttered for a moment. "I- I- Dammit Sammy, I just got engaged, I'm allowed to cry!"
"No Dean, I'm happy for you, man, come on." He hugged his brother. Cas turned to Gabriel somewhat nervously. "I'm… sorry if this makes things… awkward… between you and Sam." Gabriel grinned. "Nah, it's fine, Cassie. You live your life with Dean. I'll… live mine." He put a strained element into his smile, for effect.
Dean pulled away from hugging Sam to look oddly at him and Gabriel. "You know I would've thought if things were weird with you and Gabe, you wouldn't be making bets about… me and Cas." Sam blushed dark red. Gabriel looked down at his lap.
"Oh my god, Sam! You make us go through whatever hell that was in the car last night, and what- you get together this morning?" Dean told them exasperatedly. Gabriel shrugged. "Pretty much." Dean threw his hands in the air as Sam's phone rang. He answered, waving his other hand around to tell everyone else to shut up.
"Yeah? This is Sam."
"What the hell are you doing boy? Where are you?" Bobby growled at him through the phone.
"Oh, uh, sorry, Bobby… Um… We got a bit held up. We'll explain the next hotel. Listen, we're going now." Dean took the cue, and started up the car again.
"Sorry again, Bobby. We'll catch up." Sam ended the call and smiled at the rest of group. "Allons-y, then."
*:*:*:*:*
"Hey, Bobby. Ellen." Sam said, getting out of the car as they arrived at the gas station. Bobby and Ellen were standing at the edge of the car, looking a little mad that they were waiting for the Winchester's car to show up before the rest of them could leave.
"Really sorry about that, um… Dean, you wanna tell him?" He smiled at Dean. Dean turned a deep shade of red, and shrugged. Gabriel laughed. "What? You don't want to tell Bobby the good news?" He smirked at Dean when he turned a darker red. Jo giggled. Ellen and Bobby looked suspiciously at her. It didn't seem to faze Jo at all.
"Uh- um…" Dean started, stuttering slightly. "Uh… Cas and I…" A flicker of a smile flew over his face, before he grinned. "Cas and I are engaged." The words felt weird on his tongue, never having expected ever to say them. Bobby and Ellen were quiet for a moment, unsure of how to respond. Bobby seemed to feel that it would be simply cruel to chastise Dean for holding them up, when he was getting engaged. "Well…. Congratulations."
"How long have you two actually been together?" Ellen asked, as her daughter bounced excitedly in the background.
"About, uh, what is it now?" He looked to Cas, "Four months now?" Cas nodded. "It was a Thursday." Dean laughed. "Oh my god, Cas, how do you remember that?" Cas rolled his eyes, "Well it was kind of an important day for me, Dean. I don't know about you." Dean just shook his head, still laughing, "Nah. Not really that important."
"Just what I thought." Cas said, smiling at Dean.
"What day is it today?" Sam asked, out of curiosity for what day he and Gabriel had gotten together.
"Tuesday." Jo said immediately, "I only know that because someone," She glared at Sam, "didn't do their job and deal with planning and shit." Sam shrugged apologetically, before going back to his own question. "A Tuesday? Really?" Jo nodded. Sam started laughing. "A Tuesday." He looked at Gabriel. "Of course it's a Tuesday." Gabriel looked at him, confused for a moment, before something dawned on his face and he doubled over laughing too. Ellen looked at them oddly before turning back to Dean. "Congratulations, Dean." She smiled at both him and Cas. "I'm happy for you two." Dean nodded.
"Just as long," Her face suddenly got stern. "As you two treat each other well." They both looked appalled at the idea that either one would do anything to hurt the other. She looked at them suspiciously. "And that includes keeping secrets from each other. That goes for all four of you." Now they all looked a little bit sheepish. They knew that they had a bad habit for not communicating with each other. Bobby nodded along, agreeing with everything that Ellen was saying.
They were shake out of it by Garth jogging up, apparently concerned. "Are you guys okay? You pulled over. Is the car okay?" They all nodded. They all had a happy perk to them that they didn't have before they started on the road that morning. Garth shone when he noticed this, beaming at Sam and Gabriel. "Oh have you two finally stopped arguing? Good. I don't like it when you guys argue." Sam and Gabriel looked down, slightly embarrassed. Sam decided to just play along with Garth. It was probably the best option there. "Yeah, we're fine. Dean and Cas kind of made us see reason." Which could argued that it was half true. Garth beamed again.
"And it'll make you even happier. Dean?" Sam looked to Dean with a Trickster-ish gleam in his eyes that Dean could've sworn that he didn't have before he started hanging around Gabriel. (He'd had to tell himself several times that if they seemed to be friends, and they seemed to make the other happier, then Gabriel couldn't be that bad, but it was kind of hard sometimes when Gabriel appeared to have rubbed off on Sam more than Dean had thought possible on his little brother). Dean sighed, having to go through this with Garth wasn't going to be fun. Not that he wasn't happy, he wouldn't let anyone say that he wasn't happy, but Garth could get a little too… overenthusiastic sometimes. "So, uh, Garth... Don't freak out or anything, but… Cas and I are engaged." Once again came the pause before Garth grinned even wider than he already was, crushed Cas and Dean in a tight hug, and congratulated them loudly. A couple people in their group looked over, as well as a few people they didn't know. Garth eventually let them go, and told them that he was going to tell the others. Dean tried to get him to stop, but he was gone before he could say anything. He sighed, then smiled softly at Cas. "We're getting married." He stated, awestruck.
If someone had told Dean when he was in high school that he was going to grow up to marry a literal angel in a male body, he would've tried to get them admitted. If they'd told him when he first met Cas that they were going to fall in love, he would've punched them in the face and called them a little son of a bitch. If they'd told him this just a mere six months after that, he would've probably gone red, start to stutter, and then punch them in the face and call them a little son of a bitch. If they'd told him that he would marry Cas four months ago- just after they'd gotten together- he'd have definitely blushed and denied that he would ever do something of the sort. Dean hadn't stopped to think about how much he'd changed since he'd been pulled out of hell for a very long time. But he knew that it was true. So much had happened to him since then that he could hardly tell you everything.
Dean was getting married. Even if someone had simply said he'd be getting married straight after he was pulled topside, he'd have just laughed and told them that he really couldn't do that. He was a hunter. Hunters don't get married. He really had to put time aside to thank Sophie and David for making him realize that being a hunter didn't mean that you couldn't live a slightly apple pie life.
"Yeah." Cas told him. "We are."
*:*:*:*:*
The rest of the car trip was relatively normal, nothing much exciting happened. Dean would spend one minute panicking and tapping the wheel nervously, while spending the next grinning sweetly at Cas, and leaning back in the seat, completely at ease with the fact that he was going to be getting married. Sam just wanted to laugh at him. They arrived at New York early in the morning. There had been plans to stop one more time, but they all agreed that they wanted to be done with the car ride as soon as possible. Even Dean was getting a little tired of being in the car in the end. The only interesting development came at dinnertime, when everyone was beginning to wake up. Dean was walking to the lobby where they were going to meet up, when he passed Chrissie's room. The door opened, so he stepped back, giving the door the right of way. When he saw a head of red hair, he furrowed his eyebrows, and tilted his head. "I thought this was Chrissie's room." The head looked at him, eyebrows high. "Oh." Mels said. "Right. Yes. It is." Dean blinked a couple of times. "Okay. Well. I'm heading to the lobby." Mels nodded. "Yeah." Dean awkwardly made his way around the open door, and walked the rest of the way to the lobby in confused silence. He found Sam chatting with Gabriel when he got there. "Gabe, the structural integrity would be the problem, you just can't do that with gummy."
"But I'm an a-" Gabriel whined.
"Nuh-uh. That's cheating. You can't do that. Chocolate for the center would be better- taste better even." Sam countered.
"Guys." Dean interjected.
"But if there's chocolate for the outside, and chocolate for the inside that means it's pure- okay yeah I see what you mean." Gabriel gave in.
"Guys." Dean said again. They didn't seem to hear him.
"See? And if you've got hard green candy for the leaves, it'll bathe the floor in a soft green light." Sam smiled at Gabriel, as if he were indulging him in something that Sam didn't really want a part of.
"Hey. Guys." Dean practically shouted. They still ignored him.
"Hmmm…" Gabriel hummed, "I'm gonna do this someday." Sam laughed. "Sure you-"
"I think that Mels hooked up with Chrissie." Dean blurted out. This caught their attention. Gabriel looked surprised. Sam did not.
"Really?" Sam asked, interestedly.
"What?" Gabriel asked at the same time. Dean offered up his explanation. "I was walking past Chrissie's room, and Mels walked out. I asked her what she was doing, and she got all awkward." Gabriel laughed, smirking. "Well. That's a bit…"
"Expected?" Sam asked, shrugging. Both Dean and Gabriel looked at Sam, confused. Now it was Sam that was smirking at them. "What? You didn't notice? It was a bit obvious. I mean, by now Chrissie's told all of us that she's gay, and then Mels has been interested in her for the entire hunt. Offering to be in her car… Seriously? You guys didn't notice?" Sam shook his head. "You're guys are so unobservant." Dean rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Geez, are there any straight angels?" Gabriel looked thoughtful.
"Michael?" Sam asked.
"No, he became obsessed with Julius Caesar for a while during the Roman empire." Gabriel told him, still looking thoughtful.
"Lucifer?" Sam guessed, pretty much grasping at straws. He didn't know as many angel names as he thought he did. Gabriel laughed. "No. You know, as much as people think that gay sex, and lust and such is the work of Satan, he really was never interested in having sex with anyone."
"Huh." Sam said, unsure of how to react to that.
"Hey!" Bobby shouted at them from the door. "Do you know where Mels and Chrissie are?"
"Uh…" Dean stalled, "They're getting… ready." He finished lamely. Bobby sighed. "Fine. If you see them, tell me." They all nodded obediently. Bobby shook his head, and left again. The receptionist seemed completely uninterested by this, although perhaps if she knew that they were all going to a library so that they could discuss tactics for attacking a nest of vampires, she might have a different view on the matter.
Eventually all of them had gathered in the lobby and Bobby was quietly telling them all what their jobs on the hunt were. Soon, though, they were all on the road, with just one more stop at a gas station before they arrived in New York, and they were able to actually hunt the vampires that they'd set out to do in the first place. It felt a little surreal to Sam, being plunged into this hunt, and realizing how carefully crafted each job had been, and then how he and Gabriel were apparently a couple. It was all so confusing for him, having to figure out that he and Gabriel and he and ben hiding their true feelings for so long that neither of them really knew when it started. He wondered how confusing it must have been for Dean, just now getting that it was really harder than it seemed to force yourself to realize that you've fallen in love with a person. It's a lot more overwhelming than it sounds. Also, Dean had been figuring out his sexuality at the same time, which would've been almost too much for Sam to handle. Since he knew that he wasn't limited to just women, realizing that he fell in love with Gabriel was only made complicated by the fact that he'd killed his brother over and over on that fateful Tuesday. Dean must've felt so lost and alone. He'd never thought that he'd fall in love with a man- a literal angel of the lord no less. And yet there he was, and there Cas was, and none of it quite made sense.
It didn't take long for the group to get excited once they got to the gas station, and they only had a couple hours of driving left to do. It felt like they'd been driving nonstop for days, and nobody wanted to have to sit in the car for any longer. Least of all the Winchesters and Co, who'd had their fair share of car trips to last them for a while. (Or, until the next hunt came along and they had to drive halfway across the country for it). Sam talked to Cas while Dean was in the bathroom. "You know that, since we're an entirely different universe, you're going to have to tell everyone about the engagement again." He smiled at Cas, perhaps a little bit too sneakily.
"You're going to have to tell everyone about you and Gabriel." Cas countered, not even looking at Sam. Sam opened his mouth, floundering for something to come back with. He closed it, looking a bit defeated. "Okay, yeah. That's probably going to be worse than telling people that you and Dean are getting married." Sam smiled again at the prospect of seeing Charlie's face when they told her. That would be fun. Then again, when they told her about he and Gabriel, she would probably react similarly. So Sam would have to remember to tread lightly around her and Dean. Because if he told her about Dean and Cas, then Dean was sure to get Sam back with news about him and Gabe. Quite nastily, he could imagine, too. Dean would probably spin lies about terribly sickening things that he and Gabriel had done. Sam shuddered, and grinned feebly at his brother as he came out of the Gas n' Sip. Somehow they always seemed to end up at a Gas n' Sip. Sam wasn't entire sure why. Or how for that matter. Dean looked at his brother oddly, but chose to ignore the strange smile on his face. It was probably some strange… Something… Dean sometimes didn't quite understand his brother. He often didn't quite understand his brother. Sam was weird. There was no denying that. He loved his brother, but what the hell Sam was doing was quite lost on him. Dean got to his car, pecked Cas on the forehead, and began filling the car with gas. Now Sam was actually grinning, instead of whatever he'd been doing before. (Even he didn't quite know what he was doing before). "You guys are adorable."
Just before Gabriel sauntered over, and, standing on his tiptoes, kissed Sam on the nose.
Sam turned bright red, Jo possibly died, and Dean nearly fell over laughing. "You guys are adorable." He mimicked. Sam grumbled at him, telling him to shut it. This just made Dean laugh harder.
He was still mildly chuckling when they started on their last leg of the journey. He had to agree that they did make a cute couple. The height difference was just hilarious, and he could see that they made each other happy, but that didn't mean that he had to be thrilled with the idea. He was very protective of his younger brother, and he knew how much Gabriel had hurt him so many years ago. He figured that if his brother liked Gabriel, then he should get used to it, but he just didn't want to see Sam hurt by him again. He knew that even though Sam had a sweet guy outside, he was tough, and could handle himself. But he'd seen what the whole Mystery Spot debacle had done to him. It'd taken him and nearly broken him. If Gabriel did anything like that again, (which wasn't likely, granted, but he still didn't want to risk it), then that would probably put him somewhere you couldn't come out of.
Dean's fears, however, were subdued for the time being as he glanced back in the mirror to find Jo over to one side, reading her book, and then next to her was Gabriel, who was sleeping on Sam's shoulder. Sam lazily stroked his hair. Dean knew that it sounded stupid as an adult to say that his little brother was growing up so fast, but he almost meant it. He could remember the days that Sam would talk to him when their dad wasn't there, and he would proclaim that he was in love with a girl from his class. None of them knew what love was back then.
They continued driving. Occasionally annoyed about driving, occasionally just completely at ease. There was a lot of sleeping, as it was a long drive, and they all wanted to be wide awake when they got there. This payed off, as, when they got there, Bobby forced them to start by gathering all of the weapons that they would need, get a few hours of sleep, and then wake up and one in the morning, to finally attack the nest at two.
Sam shoved Dean's shoulder when Bobby asked if there were any questions. Dean glared at him. Sam shrugged. Jo squealed, and Ellen rolled her eyes at her daughter.
"You know, Dean, if you don't say it, then I'm going to let Jo tell them." Dean's eyes widened as he imagined what Jo would say. "You know, Sammy," He whispered to his brother in a last ditch attempt to get his brother to back off, "It's not even going to matter. We're not even in our universe, so it won't make any difference as to whether we tell them or not." Sam scoffed at him, and glanced over at Jo.
"Fine." Dean glanced at Cas, making sure his boyfriend- his fiancé- was okay with him telling everyone. Cas shrugged, figuring it would be a nice run for when it really mattered
"So, um… Since all of you are here…" Dean coughed nervously, glancing around at everyone in the group. He'd never been nervous around people, and it wasn't that he was embarrassed about Cas, so he couldn't figure out what it was that bothered him so much about saying it. "Well you all figured out about… Cas and I at the beginning of the hunt. Back at Bobby's house." In the background, Cecil glanced at Raina.
"We're engaged." There was a moment of silence while people processed the information. Raina quietly slipped fifty bucks to her brother, who was smirking proudly. There was a quiet congratulations from everyone. Jo looked like she was about to fall over. Everyone seemed happy, which was good. Hunts always went better when people weren't mad at each other, or just not pleasant in general. Everyone congratulated them, and headed off to clean their weapons of choice for the raid in twenty minutes.
*:*:*:*:*
"Well," Dean summed up around three hours later, "That was rather anticlimactic." And so it was. They had gone into the nest, and while it wasn't easy, together they were able to get the job done. They'd gone in to discover that there were a hundred odd vampires instead of the sixty or so that they were expecting. Thankfully, Bobby had rounded up way more people to help them than they would've needed, especially because they were joined by a group up in New York that had alerted them to the nest in the first place, so they ended up being fine. Usually vampires didn't gather in such big groups, or rather hunters didn't usually let them get that big, but these vampires had grown quickly and quietly, then relied on sheer size to protect them. The only major incident that they went through was one of the New Yorkers were bitten and turned, but with the help of the cure that Dean had used, they were able to fix that.
Sam, Dean, Gabriel and Cas were all very ready to get back to Bobby's so that they could explain all of what had happened so that they could leave and get everything back to as normal as they could get. They'd talked privately in the car after they'd shunted Jo out to go to Cecil and Raina's car. She'd pouted a bit, but gave in in the end when Dean told her the story of how he and Cas had gotten together.
"Gabriel," Sam asked, "You've gone into different universes in the past, would that be possible again now?" Gabriel sighed. "I was afraid that you were going to say that. Yeah. I can do it, but it's gonna take a while. And we risk running into… strange universes. God that tentacle thing still gives me nightmares." Sam chucked, nodding.
"Although." Gabriel considered, "I suppose if Cas and I… combined our energy and concentration, we could probably get there easier. Faster. Less likely to be traumatized by tentacles." Cas looked back at Gabriel. "Combined our energy? How do you suppose we do that?" He sounded rather scathing.
"Puh-lease. You don't think that I would've suggested it if I didn't know how to do it. Remember? Luci taught me a few tricks as a kid. I still recall most of them. One of the things he taught me was how to combine the energy fields of two angels. He told me that in a hypothetical situation, and Michael turned on all of us, if he and I combined our energy, we'd be able to take him down no problem. Now Cas, I have to warn you, handling this amount of energy… you're not used to it. You're not equipped- hell, your vessel isn't equipped to take that amount of energy. It's not just a lot, it's a shit ton of energy. If you don't think that you can handle it, then we can take the long way around. The weird-ass creepy way around."
"Cas, if this is dangerous then you shouldn't do it." Dean told him, looking worried. Cas shook his head. "No Dean. It does sound dangerous, but I still think that I'll do it. If it's more likely that we're going to get home, then I will do it." Dean still looked uncertain of Cas's decision, but he backed off. Gabriel was ignoring them, and talking to Sam in the backseat. "I'm not going to make you go through that again, Sam. I know how hellish that was for you."
"I didn't say that you were going to."
"I'm just saying. Some of those places were downright terrifying." Sam laughed as Gabriel held a straight face. "I'm serious Sam. I was not prepared to see you with boobs." Dean turned around in his seat. "What?"
"Dean. Turn around. Look at the road." Dean looked at the road, then turned back at Sam. He looked down at Sam's chest.
"My eyes are up here, Dean. And if you look at the road, then I'll explain." Sam smirked at him as Dean glared at him one last time, before finally looking at the road.
"So you remember that time that I was transported to another universe and Gabriel came and took me back and we refused to tell you what happened?" Dean nodded.
"Yeah, well I suppose if we're about to go through that again, then I might as well tell you what to expect. The most terrifying one was probably the one where everyone's arms and legs were just tentacles." Sam was rubbing his hands together in a way that made clear that he was very glad that he had them. Dean's face contorted with disgust.
"Yeah. The second weirdest was probably the one where we were girls. Which was what Gabriel was talking about with the whole boob thing."
"So there's a possibility that I'm going to be turned into a chick?"
"Well it's one of the universes that's closer to ours so… yeah." Gabriel told him, smirking.
"That was only funny because you weren't turned into a girl. That was traumatizing." Sam told him, jokingly glaring at Gabriel. Gabriel shrugged. "Like I said Sammy, I was not prepared to see you with boobs. I think I could handle it now." Sam just shook his head. "Right." He addressed the entire car. "So Gabriel and Cas are going to… bond their power and energy together or whatever, and then use that to go from universe to universe until we get back to ours?" Everyone nodded. Sam settled back down into his seat, looking unsure. After a few minutes of silence, Sam spoke aloud what he'd been thinking about for a while. "I know that you're all just going to laugh at me for this, but what if something goes wrong?" Dean scoffed at him.
"This is what I was saying, Dean. Seriously, because if this goes wrong, Cas is the most likely one to die. Like Gabriel said, if he and Cas are sharing their power, there's a possibility that Cas won't be able to take it, and is going to die because of it." This shut Dean up. Sam continued. "Alternate universes isn't something that we should take lightly. Yeah we've dealt with them before, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be cautious. I can't tell you how many hunters have died because they got careless with simple salt and burns. Every aspect of this job is dangerous, and as soon as you stop being careful then you or the people around you are going to get hurt." Everyone nodded again, but this time it was almost just nodding to themselves. Telling themselves that they were going to be careful. Each of them wanted to get home just as much as the next.
Sam knew that something was going to go wrong. Just as long as no one was permanently damaged, and they all got back, Sam figured that he would be fine with it. He could handle the alternate universes, and he figured that he'd seen enough of them to know generally what to expect. He'd been amused by the original one that saw Dean and Cas with a child. He'd seen the nightmare of still being in the time loop. He'd experienced still having Satan following him around. He'd had boobs, and Gabriel had so eloquently pointed out. He'd was traumatized by having tentacles for limbs. He didn't want to say that he didn't think that it could get much worse than tentacle arms, but he figured that once he said that, then there would be something that was way worse than tentacle arms. A universe where Lucifer had taken over the universe. Sam decided not to think about it.
They continued on in companionable silence, until Dean turned on the radio.
"Fall on your knees. And hear the angel voices. O night divine. O night… when Christ was born." Martina McBride's voice belted through the car, and Sam scrambled forward to slam his hand on the radio button. "God." He muttered under his breath when he'd sat back down again. "It should be illegal to put on Christmas music on in the middle of November." No one really disagreed.
*:*:*:*:*
It was several days later near two in the morning when they all got back to Bobby's, and none of them wanted to drive any farther, so everyone ended up crashing somewhere in Bobby's house, too tired to argue about who got a bed, and who got a couch, and who got the floor. Even several of the angels were emotionally exhausted to fall asleep in armchairs and, in Gabriel's case, snuggled up against Sam in the same bedroom that they'd woken up in when they first arrived in the universe.
It was an odd feeling of déjà vu when Sam woke up like this. For a moment, he was frightened from waking up so close to someone, but relaxed a great deal when he realized who it was. It was weird to think that just a week or so ago, put in the same situation, he screamed like a seven year old and leaped out of bed while blushing like a virgin. Now he felt so relaxed and at home. But not yet.
It was noon, and most of the hunters had slept for a bit, and left sometime in the morning to get off to wherever they would be needed next. Now it was only the Winchesters and their angels, David and Sophie (David was letting his wife sleep on account of the whole pregnancy thing), and Chrissie, who was in the kitchen eating breakfast with David and Bobby when Sam walked down.
"Hey Sam." Chrissie offered a plate heaped with bacon, which Sam eagerly obliged himself to. He stretched himself out on the dining room chair, yawning as he lazily munched on a piece of bacon. "So." He addressed Chrissie after waking himself up with proffered bacon and coffee that had been set in front of him by Bobby.
"You and Mels, huh?" He had expected her to blush and look down at her food, but he supposed that Chrissie's exuberant personality didn't quite allow for that. She nodded. "I don't know how permanent it can be though, ya know?" Sam shrugged. "I dunno. It's worked pretty well for Dean." Chrissie considered it. "Yeah. I suppose." She still didn't look convinced. "But Cas and Dean had been working together for years before they got together. I only just met her. How'd it work with you and Gabe?" Sam laughed. "I… don't know. Anyone else could look at our relationship for hours and not understand it. It kinda started off like with Dean and Cas now that I think about it. I tried to stab him. You know that I thought that he was a Trickster- not that he isn't mind you. But as a couple… He's just different." Sam reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out the sugar packet that he'd stuck there back at the hotel room. He stared at it for a few moments. "No one could've predicted that he and I would get together, but here we are." Chrissie looked quizzically at the empty sugar packet, but didn't say anything.
"But with you and Mels… If you think that Mels is worth it, then go for it. Ask her to go hunting with you. It'd be good for her. Now that heaven is in shambles, and there aren't really garrisons anymore, so she doesn't really have anything to do anymore. I think that she'll appreciate it. So just find some hunt and call her when you get there."
"You think?"
"Definitely." With Sam's final assurance, Chrissie stood and left, shouting her thanks and goodbye back behind her.
"Well," David commented, draining the last of his coffee, "Soph and I should probably be leaving too.
*:*:*:*:*
Within just a few hours, it was just Sam, Dean, Cas, Gabriel, and Bobby sitting in the living room of Bobby's house. Sam decided to start the long process of explaining everything that was happening.
"Hey, Bobby?" Sam said, somewhat apprehensively.
"You gonna explain what's up with you four now?" They seemed a bit shocked by Bobby's immediate understanding of what Sam was going to say. Bobby scoffed at them. "You think I didn't notice? None of you are acting even remotely like yourselves, but I put holy water in your coffee and I gave you silverware that was actually made of silver, and nothin' happened so I figured I'd keep an eye on you, and if you went rogue, then we had plenty of hunters around that could take you out." Sam and Dean weren't sure of how to take this. On the one hand, they were blatantly obvious, which wasn't good, but since Bobby didn't say anything, they were fine, which was good. Dean was slightly pissed that he didn't realize that Bobby was discretely testing them with holy water, silver and salt.
"Yeah, Bobby, we're going to explain. See there was this witch. And it blasted all of us here from an alternate universe." Sam told him. Bobby groaned.
"I know. So in that universe, Gabriel and I weren't together, and Dean and Cas were, so… That's why we were acting really weird with that. Sorry for worrying you." Bobby sighed. "And why the hell didn't you just tell us?"
"Well we figured out pretty quick that there was a major hunt going on, and we didn't want anyone to get distracted. But we do have a plan to get back. See, Gabe and I have actually dealt with alternate universes before, and Gabriel has the power to basically… throw us from universe to universe. It'll take a while for him to catch up with us, but then he can repeat that until we get to our universe. And since he would have to tote around three other people in this case instead of just one, it would be a lot harder to aim right, and also would drain his power a lot faster, and I think that he said that if he were to run out of energy in between universes, we would all get torn into infinite pieces in less than a fraction of a millisecond. So trying to conserve his power a little, he's going to use a trick that he learned and going to have Cas share his power with him, so that he's more carrying around two people, with more energy, than three people with less energy. Much more likely that we're going to get home in one piece." Bobby had been nodding throughout Sam's entire spiel. He narrowed his eyes, unsure of the plan. "Are you sure that this plan is safe?" There was a moment of silence.
"No." Gabriel replied. "But me going at it alone is even more risky. As Sam said, if I ran out of energy while I was throwing them- nice word choice there Samba-" Sam shook his head affectionately
"Then I would accidentally allow them to basically go through the same process as if you threw someone at high velocity into a black hole. I'm not going to risk that. While it is definitely dangerous to bond Cas and I's powers, I believe that I know how to do it well enough that I'd be able to do it without killing him."
"You believe?" Dean got suddenly looked pissed. "If you're not sure, then I'd rather stay here." Gabriel raised his hands in surrender, "Hey, you don't think that I'm not a little bit apprehensive about this too? He's my brother, okay? Now that Raphael's dead, and Michael and Lucifer are in the cage, I don't have many friends in Heaven. I left before some of them were even born, and before I left, I was a lot more like my older brothers than any of you realize. I tried to associate with the baby angels as much as I could, but I still spent most of my time with Lucifer. How do you think I feel, Dean? You got to bring your brother back to life. If I bring mine back, I'm literally summoning Satan. I can't bring him back without risking the lives of every single person on this planet, and I couldn't promise the safety of anyone. I love my brother, and I wish that he didn't become the Devil and all, but it happened and I still love him, but I can't to jack shit about him being in the cage. How do you think I'd feel if this goes wrong? It'd be my fault and all of you would hate me, and I wouldn't have a family anymore. I just got used to the fact that I got mine back. I can't go back to not having a family. It would kill me." Gabriel had stood up at some point, and there were tears in his eyes. It was obvious that this was something that he'd been thinking about for a while. Dean didn't look angry anymore. If anything, he looked sorry that he'd said anything. He'd never really thought about how Gabriel must've felt bad about his brother dying. After all, Dean still loved Sam even through everything. Even when his brother was Satan, he still loved him.
"I'm sorry." Gabriel muttered, sitting back down. "I shouldn't have shouted. You have every right to be suspicious of me since I have no proof that any of this is going to work. I just have my word that the Devil taught me well." He was staring at his hands as he fiddled with them in his lap. His shoulders were slumped dejectedly as Sam patted his arm.
*:*:*:*:*
They ate a quick lunch before they decided to try to head off, just to bring up their strength even a smidge. None of them talked much, all too busy thinking, and most of their thoughts were too personal to speak aloud. Soon enough though came the time that they'd decided to leave and they had to bring up what they'd been avoiding all afternoon.
"Let's do this." Sam put on a smile, even though he was shaking inside, somehow more afraid of this then he had of many other things that he'd done. Dean nodded in a mock-confident way, while Cas and Gabriel just looked uncertain of themselves. Gabriel grabbed Cas's hand. "I'd close my eyes if I were you guys. They did, and they could hear him begin to chant, "GE BAB NOALANU EL. GE BAB NOALANY EL. GE BAB NOALANU EL. GE BAB NOALANY EL." At some point a faint ringing started drowning out Gabriel's voice, and it took a few moments to realize that it was his voice. The ringing was just getting louder and louder, and eventually it got intense enough that Sam clapped his hands over his ears, falling onto his knees. Dean, a little bit more used to the true voices of angels just held his hands over his ears and scrunched up his face in pain. When the noise and light subsided, Sam and Dean looked up at the two angels. Gabriel's eyes were still glowing, while Cas was looking completely worn out. When Gabriel spoke, he sounded almost ethereal.
"COME ON." He told them, calmly. "WE SHOULD GO NOW. SO I CAN RETAIN THIS POWER." Sam blinked, in complete awe of his boyfriend.
Their vision went black as Gabriel threw them, as accurately as he could into another universe.
*:*:*:*:*
Sam stretched as he woke up, feeling the comfort of his own bed. He didn't know whether it was his bed or some other version of his bed. He glanced around the room. It felt like his room. It felt like home. He stood up, putting his foot on the cold floor. He left the room, and he glanced around the Bunker. The more he saw of it, the more he was able to convince himself that he was back home. As Sam got to the main room he looked up and saw Gabriel munching on some probably wildly unhealthy breakfast. Gabriel smiled when he saw Sam, and he gave a little nod. They were home. Sam's worries drained away, and he felt truly happy for the first time in a long time. He grinned and ran over to Gabriel pulling him into a kiss, pressing himself flat against his body.
"Hey Sammy." Dean's teasing voice echoed to them across the room. Sam jumped away, face red. He started stuttering. Dean laughed at him, "You know you're allowed to make out with your boyfriend, right?" Sam shrugged. "I'm just glad we're home."
"So am I, Sam. But you're still allowed to make out with your boyfriend."
"Dean…" Cas's voice grumbled, stumbling out. "Come back to bed. You were the only thing there that was actually keeping me warm. It's November. In Kansas. I'm freezing and I'm still physically and emotionally drained from whatever it was that we just went through." There was a pause before Dean shrugged. "Hey I'm always down to sleep more." He followed Cas back to where they'd come from.
*:*:*:*:*
When they finished getting their rest, and catching up on things that they'd missed while they were gone, Dean realized that he really did need to tell everyone about he and Cas's engagement.
So he called everyone, and told them to come over to the bunker. Better to tell them all at once then one by one. He called Bobby and Charlie. Kevin, Ellen and Jo. Garth, and Rufus even. Jodie, and Mels. He called Chrissie after calling Mels, just for shits and giggles. 'Come as soon as you can.' He'd told them all, 'And if you're here sooner than others, you'll be staying.' When everyone inevitably asked why, Dean just grinned and told them that they'd see when they got there. There was quite a bit of grumbling from everyone about having to travel all the way from wherever they were to Lebanon, Kansas, but Dean just told them to suck it up and come anyway.
Mels was the first to arrive, obviously. She showed up within seconds of Dean asking her to, which was why she was the last on his list. (He called Chrissie later while Mels was talking to Cas). Surprisingly, Charlie showed up rather soon after Mels did. The only explanation that she would give them was that 'She was in the area and there were some super creepy ghosty things'. None of them questioned it too much.
"So how many people are here?" She asked after Dean got her a beer, and she'd found a room to sleep in. Dean laughed, "Just you so far, and we should be getting Rufus, Ellen and Jo, Bobby and Jodie all in one car in a couple days, then it looks like Chrissie will show up, and Garth and Kevin should arrive sometime after that."
"Okay." She set the beer down on the table in front of her. "So, seriously, what is it that you need to tell us so urgently? And why us? And who is Chrissie?" Charlie leaned closer every time she asked a question.
"Uh, I can't tell you, because you guys are my only friends, and she's a hunter who I'm trying to set up with Mels. I'll explain that part later. After I explain why I called you guys." Dean answered her questions in order, with a smirk on his face. Charlie was about to say something about not being his only friends, when Gabriel interrupted. "I see that I'm not only rubbing off on Sambo, but also you. Sweet. Heya Charlie." He had walked in with an entire bowl of candy bars, grinning at Charlie.
"Holy mother of Spock. You're Gabriel." Charlie looked at him, gaping. A confused expression flashed across Gabriel's face for a second, before he realized that he'd never met Charlie in this universe and timeline. Sam's voice warbled through from another room. "Hey Gabe? Where'd you put the popcorn bowl?" Gabriel looked down to the bowl of candy in his hands. "Uh…" He responded, quickly dumping the candy in it onto the table that Charlie was sitting at. "I have it right here. It's purple right?"
"… Yeah. Gabriel, you know you can conjure a bowl for your candy. You don't have to use our popcorn bowl." Sam sounded like he was laughing at Gabriel under his breath.
"Okay." Gabriel was blushing slightly. Sam walked into the room with a bag of popcorn. Gabriel handed him the purple bowl.
"Charlie!" Sam exclaimed, just finally seeing her. He set the bowl and the bag of popcorn down on the table, and pulled his friend into a tight hug. "I wasn't expecting you here so soon." Charlie shrugged, and explained her weird ghost thing again. "But come on Sam!" She said as soon as she finished her story, "Tell me why I'm here." Sam grinned and glanced at Dean. "Well I won't say the main reason, but… if you want to know something now, then I suppose it's okay to tell you that Gabriel and I got together." Charlie let out a high pitched squeal, and pulled Sam into a hug again, before hugging Gabriel as well. "Oh my god, I'm so happy for you two! What happened?" Sam and Gabriel glanced at each other. "Well." Gabriel said, "That's something you'll have to wait for. Kinda part of the other thing that we have to tell you.
"If you hurt Sam I will tear off your dick and burn it with holy fire." Charlie had a completely straight face. Gabriel went a little pale. "Yes ma'am." Charlie nodded, and went back to beaming brightly.
*:*:*:*:*
Soon everyone was arriving, and one by one, Sam and Gabriel were telling them that they'd gotten together. They all were happy for him, but Bobby was more than a bit suspicious, although they'd expected nothing less of him. Each one threatened Gabriel in some way, and now if Gabriel were to hurt Sam, he'd have his head boiled in holy oil, feet chopped off, angel blade shoved down his neck, dick torn off, liver diced, skin peeled off, fingernails torn out, and thrown into the pit of despair from the princess bride. Gabriel swore up and down to each one that he'd never intentionally hurt Sam. On the other hand, Sam was told by both Mels and Cas that if he were to hurt Sam then he'd better watch his back. Gabriel complained to Sam several times about how unfair this was. Sam shrugged. "I guess people just like me more." And pecked Gabriel on the cheek.
"Hey Dean, guys, everyone. Come on, everyone's here. Let's go. Tell us." Charlie pleaded as they gathered everyone into one area.
"Yeah, yeah, we know. That's why we're getting you all in the same room." Dean grumbled, leading them all into the main living room. They all sat down, except for Dean and Cas, who stood at the front of the room.
"So, a few days ago, we all were on a case." Dean started, "We went down to Texas to hunt this witch. It was supposed to be an easy case, just get there, get some Whataburger, kill the witch, and get out. Well, it all went to plan… until it came to killing the witch. Instead it knocked all of us into an alternate universe. Like the ones that Sammy was in a while back. The universe wasn't all that different to the one that we're in now, except that Sam and Gabriel were the couple instead of me and Cas. But evidently, we were obvious enough that the rest of the hunters found out about us before the hunt even began. Apparently there was this big hunt going on, and we didn't want to distract people from doing their job, so we didn't really tell anyone that we weren't quite from that universe. Okay, when we woke up in that universe, we were at Bobby's, and the hunt was this huge vamp nest in New York. So we got on the road, and at some point there was this whole thing where Rufus- sorry, but you were not being smart about what you were saying- was bothering Sam and Gabriel about not being 'coupley enough', and at some point Gabriel kissed Sam, and it got real awkward in the car. So… we eventually get to a hotel, and in the morning, Gabriel came back, and they eventually got together. It was a whole ordeal, but that's how that happened. But then we were in the car, after that." Dean started to smile, "Jo asked Cas and I when we were getting married." Jo's eyes went wide, and Charlie squealed a little bit.
"I told her- you- that we wouldn't be getting married. Because we're hunters, and it's really difficult for that to work as hunters. Then Cas asked why not. Long story short. Cas and I are engaged." There was the same congratulations and general happiness that they'd gotten in the other universe too, but this one was nicer, because it was the people that they actually knew. Their real friends.
Dean took Cas's hand, feeling totally content. He didn't care about what people might say about them, both being male, then the special few who knew that they were different species. He was happy with Cas, and Dean realized that wholly and completely again. That would hit him occasionally. He had Cas, and he was happy. They all were.
A/N: So. This is the end. Unless I come up with something else. I'm not even going to mention the long ass wait that you guys had to go through before reading this, all I can say is, simply, I'm sorry. I'm not going to repeat it over and over. Just the once, because I am, but I don't need to waste anymore time. I love all of you guys.
And hey, thanks.
Really.
