6. Take these broken wings and learn to fly

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The house had never been more silent, Christine noticed absentmindedly as she wondered around in it, not really sure what to do.

She was so bored that she resorted to actually cleaning the house like a normal person. She'd never done that before, usually Gabriel just snapped his fingers and everything got tidy. She fell on the couch and turned on the tv, though she wasn't actually interested in watching it.

She expected Crowley to show up again at some point, but a week had passed and he hadn't come around. Of course, she couldn't worry about him too at the moment, being to busy with doing useless and boring stuff to keep her from thinking about Gabriel.

She would have wanted to go visit the Norse or the Greeks, or even the Winchesters at this point, but she really couldn't find the strength to do that. Besides, how would she even get to Asgard, or Greece? She couldn't drive her car across the ocean, could she?

Something fell on the floor in the kitchen. By the sound of it, it could have been an empty bottle. The house was full of empty bottles, anyway. What difference would it make if one broke?

But then she heard another sound, a whimper, like someone trying to call for help. Good thing her hearing was sharper than that of humans, or she wouldn't have heard anything at all.

She stood up and walked to the kitchen, curious to see what the matter was, but as soon as she got there she froze into place and her mouth fell open.

"Gabriel?" she asked, her voice broken by concern.

The archangel lay on the floor, barely conscious. His wings were unfolded and bleeding. He tried to raise his head to answer her, but failed.

"Oh, god, Gabriel," Christine whispered with tears in her eyes. She kneeled down beside him and ran her hand over the deep stab wound on his wing, not sure what she should do. "What happened? Who did this to you?" she spat out, knowing that he couldn't answer anyway.

Gabriel was shaking, and all of his feathers were tainted by the blood gashing out of the fresh wound. His wings were shaking too, like those of a bird who desperately tries to fly.

"You're gonna be okay," she soothed in his ear, though she didn't believe her own words.

Panic was creeping up on her, but she managed to keep it together. She moved to stand up and go get something to clean the wound, but Gabriel grabbed her hand firmly, his eyes begging her not to leave his side. She nodded weakly, frowning. She needed to go get medicaments, she wasn't of any use if she just sat there holding his hand…

"Chris," Gabriel whimpered, his eyes searching hers.

"Gabe, what do I do?" she pleaded, on the verge of tears.

"Bleeding... stop…" he muttered. Christine didn't understand at first, but then it hit her.

He wanted her to stop the blood. And there was only one way she could do that.

"I got it," she smiled weakly at him, then leaned down and licked the bloody feathers around the wound. The angel groaned in pain, but she had to keep going… she had to.

Once she'd cleaned the wound, she gently placed her mouth on it, slowly sucking the blood and licking the wound at the same time to make it heal. Gabriel was still shaking, and cries of pain escaped his lips more than once, which caused Christine to curse at herself several times. She licked the wound one last time to make sure it had healed completely, then kissed Gabriel's forehead and stroked his hair in a vain attempt at calming him.

"It's okay, love. You're okay," she whispered, and kissed him again. The shaking was slowly stopping, and Gabriel relaxed his head on the floor.

"I didn't… didn't know…"

"Didn't know what?"

"Where…"

"You didn't know where to go?" she ventured, and the angel nodded weakly. "Gabriel," she sighed. "You should have never left," she whispered, while tears started to run down her cheeks.

"Chris…"

"I'm right here, love," Christine smiled. Gabriel took her hand in his and weakly snapped his fingers, instantly teleporting them to the bedroom. He let his head fall back on the pillow and struggled to fold his wings, to no avail.

"Never mind the wings, Gabe. Just try to sleep it off, ok?" Christine said, while Gabriel looked in frustration at his beautiful wings, which filled the room. He snorted loudly and pouted like a little kid, but eventually stopped trying to fold them.

"I'll sleep on the couch," Christine chuckled.

"Christine," the archangel whispered, gesturing for her to lie down on the healthy wing. "Please, stay."

She looked back at him and smiled weakly before proceeding to lie down next to him. As soon as she did, Gabriel wrapped the wing around her like he had many times before, and soon enough they both fell asleep for the first time in days.

I know it's been a while, sorry everyone! I've been busy.
Well, hope you enjoy this chapter!

xoxo