Chapter Title: Almost and the Jacket

Summery: Jo is starting to learn what it really means to be running away from angels. On foot. In Heaven.

Warnings: None

Time passed differently in the sense that it didn't pass at all. In reality, Jo Harvelle was frozen in whatever time Gabriel decided to leave her. She'd passed her time in western-style saloons, sandy beaches or - in a particularly short visit - a can in a drive-in movie theater. It had taken a while before she realized that what seemed like months in Heaven - had been less that a week on Earth.

She had asked if Gabriel knew if the boys managed to 'gank the Devil'. He laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

"Look, honey bunches, there are five things that can kill Lucifer - and that's only if he doesn't kill them first."

Jo's heart sank. "The Colt isn't one of them, is it?"

Gabe sighed, "We should move," and placed a hand on her shoulder; pulling them from an old farmhouse to a snow-covered field. The chill of the winter air mixed with the pain of knowing she and her mother had died for nothing - leaving Jo shivering in the thin tank top she had been ripped apart in.

Gabriel shrugged off the green jacket and draped it over her shoulders, "Look, Jo, I'll try my hardest to keep those two muttonheads alive. They can't kill my brother, but there is something they can do."

"What can kill Lucifer?" Jo's voice was stable, icy. But Gabriel could feel the burn of hatred as she clutched his jacket with white knuckles.

"Five things. God, Michael, Raphael, or me."

"What's the fifth thing?"

"Lucifer, but do you think my big bro plans on falling on his own sword? Raphael couldn't give more than half a fuck; so he won't do it. Michael can't without his vessel and, well, Dad split a long time ago."

Jo had slipped her arms into the jacket sleeves - her anger ebbing at the raw pain in the Archangels voice. She shuffled closer in the snow so she was directly in front of him. "You wont kill your brother, will you?"

Gabriel laughed bitterly, and shook his head.

"That six-winged dick, Satan, is not my brother, Lucifer is. But Lucifer is gone, so I'll do what I have to."

Jo didn't even pretend to understand what Gabriel was going through - instead she just wrapped her arms around him, resting her head against his chest. Shockingly, Jo could feel a heartbeat deep in the vessels heart and - even more shockingly - Gabriel returned her embrace. He held her tighter as snow began to fall, letting her breathe against him. He smelled like candy and bonfires.

"I shouldn't stay," he mumbled, "The longer I stay, the more dangerous it is."

Yet, neither made a move to separate. Jo pulled slightly away, wanting to look at Gabriel, onto to find him staring intently at her. Jo unhooked her arm from him and raised it to brush a strand of his whiskey colored hair back, the angel chucked slightly and cupped her chin and leaned closer to her. Jo's heart sped up painfully and she reached up to him, lips millimeters away, eyelids fluttering closed. But instead of the searing, impassioned kiss she expected, she was met with the light burst of air and an icy breeze stealing the warm the other body had offered.

She opened her eyes, and several feet away, Gabriel cleared his throat, "Is it too cold here, because I can take you somewhere else."

Outwardly, Jo appeared to had brushed off the encounter. She shrugged, "I'm a hunter, I can survive in most conditions - I'll just build a fire or something."

He gave a brusque nod, "I should go try to keep Rocky and Bullwinkle alive."

"Wait," Jo called, walking forward she held out his jacket, "They're not exactly hunting in Hawaii."

Gabriel pushed her hand back, lightly, "It's colder here, besides," he pointed to himself, "Archangel." He snapped and the jacket was back wrapped around Jo, "I'll be back to move you soon."

With that - the angel was gone.

Jo built a fire before sinking against the trunk of a nearby tree, burying her head in her arms she finally let her emotions breach her appearance. Loss, loneliness and rejection burned paths down her face. She missed everything: her mother, her father, the Winchesters, and the kiss that never happened.

A/N: I really don't want this to be fitting any form of set time-line. When I get farther down, I'll try to label about when they take place. This one does take place a while from the previous. Feel free to leave me happy little reviews to make my day better :)