Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Maddy Love Castiel, Keefer, kb18142, Treeni, CherylB1964, random yet lovable, FireChildSlytherin5, XxZessxX, Alley of the Labyrinth, alena, Riceball-1989 and PercyJfan1802 for last chapter's reviews!

Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!

3

It had been convenient that the Winchesters' normal clothes had been turned smaller along with them. However, a quick look around the motel room had confirmed that none of the things they were not wearing at the time had gotten the same treatment; just as Gabriel had expected. Luckily, replacing the brothers' things with more age appropriate ones didn't exactly pose a problem to the archangel. Feeling a little more benevolent than usually, he had made sure that there were a few comic books in Sam's duffel bag along with a couple sets of clothes. He had also bestowed the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated upon Dean just so nobody could claim that he was showing favoritism toward the younger brother.

The rickety motel couch was exactly as comfortable as it looked which meant that sitting on the floor might have been preferable. There might have been less questionable stains on the carpet under the couch, in fact. Looking at how the boys just plopped down on it without any sort of comment made Gabriel consider that he was just spoiled for a moment. The sad truth probably was that the Winchesters simply were all too used to things like that, however.

The archangel shook the thought off and reached for the remote control he had willed into existence when he had noticed that the one that should have been there had either been stolen or confiscated by the motel staff to prevent anyone from stealing it. How he was going to spend a night in the rat's nest of a motel room without getting to the point where the urge to smite the one responsible for all the shortcomings he had noticed this far was getting overwhelming he wasn't sure yet.

"Raiders of the Lost Ark?" Dean suddenly exclaimed excitedly, practically throwing himself at Gabriel in complete disregard of his younger brother sitting between them to get hold of the remote control and keep the adult from switching channels, "Awesome!"

Sam immediately started to struggle, hitting every part of Dean's upper body he could reach to get his brother to move away from him again. The other boy of course retaliated immediately, like the mature preteen he was, instead of simply getting back to his sitting spot and ending the conflict that way. Their little play fight wouldn't have bothered Gabriel too much, if it wasn't for the fact that it brought the couch to the very edge of what it was able to take.

"If the couch breaks down because of you two, I swear-" the archangel started in a threatening tone. He honestly hadn't meant to come across as angry as he had, he simply wasn't used to how sensitive children's feelings could be. Gabriel immediately stopped speaking when he realized that both kids were looking at him with big eyes, like they fully expected him to really get angry with them. In that moment, it was all too easy to forget that the Winchesters were the bane in the existence of demons, monsters and angels alike.

It only took a moment for Dean to switch back to his petulant behavior, pressing his lips into a thin line and staring at the TV screen with a muttered "Whatever". He was keeping his little brother noticeably closer to his side, however.

Sam was watching the movie just as intently for all it looked like. He kept stealing nervous glances toward Gabriel from under his bangs as if he was trying to figure out if the adult was still going to blow up in their faces, though.

The archangel left his place on the couch and subsequently the motel room under the watchful eyes of both children. Once outside he allowed himself a deep groan and somewhat spastic shaking of his fists toward the heavens. All this was much more complicated and by far less amusing than it had any right to be! He'd give Castiel an earful about that once the seraph returned, as well. The bastard was the reason why he was in this impossible situation to begin with!

He punched the buttons on the soda machine with much more force than strictly necessary which didn't do much to lighten his mood, and grabbed three cans of Pepsi before he returned to his Winchester watching duties.

"Hey Dean-o, Sam-alam," Gabriel called just a moment before he tossed a can to each one of them, giving them a half-smile. "How about that pie now?"

The older Winchester looked suspicious for which the archangel couldn't even blame him, but it was easy to see that the prospect of pie got him excited again. Gabriel nodded to himself contently as he got the container and two forks for the kids. They were getting this back on track. Those two would have to deal with two archangels trying to ride their asses to bring on the end of the world again soon enough; they could have one nice evening as blissfully ignorant children before that!

It took a while before the archangel realized that only Dean was stuffing his face with pie while his little brother was holding his still unopened can of Pepsi and the fork between his hands. If he had felt like giving Spielberg and Lucas a lot of credit, Gabriel would have said that Sam was just too engrossed by the movie to bother with the snacks, but he somehow didn't believe that that was the issue here.

The archangel reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and took a package of microwavable popcorn out, wiggling it in front of the younger Winchester's face. Maybe the kid could be convinced into a salty treat instead of a sweet one.

"Do you always have popcorn in your jacket?" Sam asked, tilting his head slightly. It seemed like a strange thing to carry around all day long, on the off chance of needing it. Then again, people had stranger things on them and it somehow fit in with everything they had seen of the adult very well.

"Sure," Gabriel replied with a grin, ruffling the boy's hair before he went to throw the bag into the microwave, "Always take the essentials everywhere, young Winchester."

Miraculously, the microwave worked without angelic assistance, even though it made strange noises and could have done with a good cleaning.

Interestingly enough, Sam looked much more interested in the bag of popcorn, but he didn't reach for it even after the archangel had started to eat. Being a heavenly being meant that Gabriel didn't have to count calories to keep in shape. Obviously this didn't apply to the younger Winchester and looking at what he usually looked like, it wasn't that unlikely that he had to be somewhat obsessed with his calorie intake. However, as things were he was only eight years old for crying out loud!

"I already brushed my teeth," Sam finally mumbled the explanation for his behavior.

Gabriel nearly laughed at that. The truth was much simpler and less worrying than what he had come up with. At least in that respect the younger Winchester was just a normal kid. A normal kid who had listened a little too well to the oral hygiene part of health class.

"Brush them again later, kiddo," the archangel suggested, bringing the open bag right under Sam's nose and shaking it a little to make sure he was hit by the smell of fresh popcorn full force. It wasn't long before the younger Winchester started to munch away happily as well after that.

"They wanted to film a fight scene there, but then Harrison Ford got sick, so they let him shoot the guy instead," Sam explained matter-of-factly, nodding toward the TV where one of the bad guys had just tried to intimidate the hero by jumping around and presenting his swords ending with Indiana Jones casually shooting him.

"'S cooler that way," Dean replied around a mouthful of pie, prompting his younger brother to pull a disgusted face at him. The older Winchester really wasn't impressed, though. The pie was damned good and for the moment nobody else wanted any, meaning he had it all for himself!

So, both boys were happy with their choice of movie and snacks, nobody was getting kicked and it was just about bedtime. All in all the evening had turned out better than the archangel had thought it would at the start.

Once Sam had returned from brushing his teeth for the second time, something Dean had gladly skipped, Gabriel was faced with another issue he really hadn't thought would come up. Sure, the brothers were incredibly close, probably closer than was healthy for them, but the fact that they were apparently sleeping in one bed came as a big surprise to the archangel.

The younger Winchester had headed straight for the bed his brother was already lying in, however. He was only just crawling under the blanket when Gabriel cleared his throat noisily, trying and failing to come up with the fitting words for the awkward situation that had presented itself. Alright, he could have come up with a lot of things to say, but he didn't want to ruin the amicable and actually pretty good mood the two boys had been in. It was an ultimate truth of his existence that he often blurted out the next best thing on his mind, if he held back for too long. However, the next best thing usually had very little to do with the actual best thing to say. "Looks to me like that bunk is already taken, Sambo."

"There's two beds and three of us, genius," Dean huffed, glaring at the archangel, "And I'm not sleeping on that shitty couch."

The thing might have been bearable to sit on, but there was no way he was going to spend the entire night on it! Even sharing a bed with his younger brother was more comfortable than that, thank you very much.

"Neither is Sammy," the older Winchester added a moment later, wrapping his arms around his brother as if to protect him from anyone dragging him out of the relatively comfortable bed and over to the shabby couch. Actually, he was protecting him from someone only suggesting that he might sleep anywhere than where he currently was with the gesture, as well.

"I will," Gabriel stated nonchalantly. There really was no use making an even bigger deal out of this. They were never going to fall asleep if they were all riled up, after all. It wasn't as if the archangel of the lord actually needed sleep anyway, even if the kids didn't have to know that. "I've always wanted to test just how much my back can take."

The younger boy looked like he wanted to protest, but when Dean pressed Sam's shoulders into the mattress on the way over to the bed that was closer to the door the younger Winchester got the hint and stayed put. Sam pulled the comforter around his body, only closing his eyes when he was sure that his brother really was getting ready to go to sleep on the other bed. It was as if the little one thought that his brother might still have to give up on a good night's rest as soon as he wasn't watching anymore.

Once the two of them were settled, Gabriel turned off the light and went to lie down himself. He didn't need to sleep, but he could if he chose so. It wasn't like there would be anything else to do for the next few hours. He could hardly leave the kids and he really didn't want to spend that time thinking about how the brothers managed to tug on his heartstrings every other minute.

The archangel hadn't been asleep for long when a noise dragged him back to full wakefulness. He was just about to get up and see what was wrong when Gabriel noticed that he wasn't the only one who had woken up.

"'S okay, Sammy," Dean whispered in a soothing tone, petting his brother's hair as he sat on the bed next to him, "Just a dream."

It wasn't even a moment later that Sam's arms were wrapped around the other boy as tightly as possible while he was sobbing into his chest. His words were nearly unintelligible, but after a while parts of his speech became clearer. "… not coming back… gone too… alone…"

"Dad's always coming back, you know that," the older Winchester stated with clearly faked conviction, squeezing his brother, "And I'm never leaving you, Sammy."

Gabriel really felt like smiting someone or something simply from listening to the two boys. It wasn't enough that Sam's abandonment issues were strong enough for him to wake up crying in the middle of the night. No, Dean apparently was familiar enough with scenes like this to immediately know exactly what was up and to know exactly what sorts of lies to tell to get his younger brother to calm down again! The only upside in all this was that Gabriel had started to have a whole new understanding of why the Broward County mystery spot incident had failed as spectacularly as it had.

In the end the archangel settled for keeping completely still and silent as to not make the two kids feel embarrassed. Gabriel waited until the silent noises accompanying the brothers' movements and their whispering had died down before he even dared to breathe more deeply again. He waited a couple of minutes longer before he tried to go back to sleep himself.

Gabriel wasn't surprised in the slightest when he got up in the morning to find Sam and Dean sleeping on the same bed after all. The way the younger Winchester was impersonating an octopus, having wrapped himself around his older brother completely, made the archangel smile. At least in their sleep they looked carefree.