Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Maddy Love Castiel, AnninaSA, QuietCrash, Nicolene B, random yet lovable, CoolCatz14, LadyGrelka, CherylB1964, emebalia, Nyx Ro, Treeni and one guest for last chapter's reviews!

Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!


6

"We should call Gabriel," Adam stated, after dropping his duffle bag on the bed furthest from the door. For some reason Dean insisted on having the other bed and after another three days on the road -Sam and Becky apparently wanted to stop at night and sleep when driving across the country- Adam just didn't have it in him to have unnecessary arguments with Dean anymore.

However, the youngest Winchester thought it was high time they let Sam's life partner in on what had happened. The newlyweds had reached their destination, so Sam's brothers knew where 'the happy couple' was going to be for the next couple of days. It was time to work on getting Sam away from that woman and Gabriel could be vital in achieving that. Besides, the former archangel deserved to know.

"Oh sure, I'm looking forward to that conversation," Dean huffed. In all fairness, his youngest brother's suggestion was logical, but the oldest Winchester really didn't want to deal with Gabriel on top of everything. The former trickster wouldn't like the news any that was for sure. while Becky clearly deserved whatever Gabriel could cook up for her, Dean just didn't think it would help them with getting Sam back.

"Could you listen to me just once?" Adam asked with a groan. Dean didn't look too happy, but didn't say anything, which was good enough for the youngest Winchester to continue, "Okay, look, Sam loves Gabriel. Like really loves him. Shouldn't that override whatever is forcing him to love that Becky woman right now?"

"I know you're living close to Disney World..." Dean started in a clearly belittling tone before his youngest brother cut him off.

"If things like the Tooth Fairy are real, why not this?" Adam asked, raising an eyebrow at his oldest brother. His brothers were working with things most people thought were just stories and myths every day, why wouldn't something else straight from a fairy tale work then? Adam didn't think it was that easy to completely override somebody's free will -if it were, wouldn't his two older brothers be vessels for two archangels right now?- and Sam's free will clearly was to be with Gabriel. If something else was influencing Sam to think about the matter differently that moment, shouldn't coming face to face with what he actually wanted have some sort of effect?

"Because..." Dean shot back immediately, before he realized he didn't know how to end his statement. Adam had a point, but Dean still didn't believe it would work. "Because we can't be that lucky."

Adam couldn't help the small, victorious smile. "We're calling Gabriel."


Gabriel tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes as he half-walked, half-stumbled downstairs to have breakfast with his two temporary roommates. Getting up in the mornings without Sam there to make it definitely pleasant and worthwhile was a chore Gabriel thought he'd much rather do without. Then again something sure was smelling good and the former archangel's stomach was rumbling. Nothing could trump and early morning 'You sure you don't want to get up, Gabe?' handjob, but in the absence of his boyfriend the former archangel would make do with some sugary treat.

"Alright, but why Cogsworth over the White Rabbit?" Chuck asked, sounding much more interested than the former archangel would have thought given what the question was about. The prophet was sitting at the kitchen table with a big mug of coffee and a plate full of ham and eggs. That couldn't be what Gabriel had smelled. Sure, the eggs smelled good too, but his nose had told him there was something more dessert-like around.

"He's not... so hectic," Tarot replied, nodding to himself. The sandy-haired angel was standing next to the kitchen isle, his arms crossed in front of his chest, but looking as relaxed as he ever was otherwise. To Tarot's delight it turned out Chuck actually was all for the classic Disney movies. The prophet said he liked how timeless they were and how they could reach people, two things Tarot wholeheartedly agreed with.

"Fair enough," Chuck stated, taking another sip of his coffee. Personally, the prophet preferred Alice in Wonderland over Beauty and the Beast, but he understood why Tarot saw things differently. Especially after the angel already said that Belle reminded him of Adam.

"Okay... he doesn't sleep, but I never figured you for a morning person, Chuckles," Gabriel commented dryly, plopping down in the chair across from the prophet.

"Third cup," Chuck retorted, raising his mug. To tell the truth, Chuck learned to appreciate a more conventional day-to-day routine shortly after Adam and Tarot moved in with him. The angel unsurprisingly liked his daily routines as predictable as possible and Adam was all for fixed meal times and the like, so Chuck -once more- had to adapt. Like most of the things that changed around the house, the prophet thought it was a change for the better once he got used to it.

"Trading one addiction for another, are we?" Gabriel snarked, rubbing his eyes again. How did people manage to get up early every morning without going crazy?

"Wow, you're cranky in the mornings," Chuck observed, throwing a side-glance toward Tarot, who looked thoughtful, but otherwise mercifully unimpressed by his older brother's antics.

"I need sugar... without the coffee," Gabriel sighed, putting his hands on the table and resting his forehead on the back of his hands. The former archangel didn't mean to be grumpy, but he missed Sam more than he was willing to admit and there was nothing to distract him from the feeling. Gabriel only looked up when he heard the sound of a plate being put in front of him. The sweet aroma that had lured him downstairs was suddenly much stronger again too.

Tarot took an instinctive step back the moment Gabriel's head snapped toward him too quickly, but gave a small smile when he saw the happiness in his brother's expression. With Adam gone and Gabriel sleeping in his room, the angel spent a part of the night baking an apple pie just like Karen showed him how. Remembering Karen Singer always made Tarot melancholic, but he thought she would like to know he was using the knowledge she passed on to him.

"Sweet baby Jesus on a pogo stick!" Gabriel exclaimed a little too loudly after the first bite of pie. This was exactly what the former archangel needed to make peace with the new day. Gabriel knew it was a heat of the moment thought, but he decided Tarot was definitely his favorite brother.

"Is it... good?" the sandy-haired seraph asked with a small frown. His older brother's outburst made Tarot jump for a moment again, but judged by the former archangel's expression it had been a good outburst.

"Is it good?" Gabriel replied incredulously, before he added as seriously as he could, "Let me say it like this brother, if Dean knew of your pie making skills he'd totally dump Cassy for you."

Tarot frowned deeply. He wasn't quite sure he knew what his brother was getting at, but Chuck's stifled laughter made the angel realize it was a joke. Not really getting a joke was something Tarot could live with. It meant he didn't have to be very careful to never bake pie when Dean Winchester might come to visit.

"Speaking of the devil," Gabriel stated cheerfully, reaching for his phone that had just started to ring, "Hey Dean-o, of all the Winchesters I was expecting to call... You realize when I made that phone-sex offer it was only for Sam and not a general... Okay, okay, just a second."

The archangel fumbled around a bit before he managed to put his phone on speaker as the oldest Winchester requested. In all honesty, Gabriel was surprised and disappointed that it was Dean calling. The former archangel vowed to himself to give Sam some space and not call him constantly -which meant not calling him at all, because Gabriel knew he wouldn't be able to stop once he started- but he hoped Sam would call him instead. Gabriel forced himself to believe the brothers were having a good time and had too much on their schedule for Sam to call, but then why was Dean calling?

"Alright, try not to freak out immediately..." Dean cleared his throat awkwardly, which did nothing against the sudden burst of panic the archangel felt, but apparently gave the youngest Winchester enough time to throw his two cents in.

"Did you really just say that?" Adam asked incredulously. Of course, Dean had to insist that if anybody was going to call Gabriel it was going to be him, but Adam thought his oldest brother would at least have a plan what he was going to tell the archangel. Apparently, Dean was making it up as he went and he was off to a spectacularly bad start.

"I'd like to hear you come up with something better," Dean snorted.

"Guys, I am freaking out here," Gabriel fought to keep his tone low, even though he felt like screaming. Something was wrong and he was sitting here having breakfast, unable to do anything.

"Look, Sam's in trouble and Adam thinks your presence might help," Dean explained, clearing his throat yet again. The oldest Winchester hadn't thought it would be this hard to just share the facts with the former archangel, but now that they were talking Dean couldn't bring himself to just spring the news over the phone.

"Terry, can you get Gabriel over as quickly as possible?" Adam asked quickly. It would be best to discuss the matter face-to-face, that was for sure. The youngest Winchester feared his angelic friend wouldn't like having to fly anywhere -even less with a passenger- but he was confident he could build up Tarot's confidence enough to get him to do it, if necessary.

"Y-yes," Tarot replied, taking a deep breath. Adam wouldn't ask him to do this if it wasn't important and Tarot could see that Gabriel was quickly becoming desperate. The seraph hadn't used his wings since they were restored, but flying was second nature to all angels.

"Okay, great," Adam sighed in relief, before adding the details Tarot would need to find them, "We're in Pike Creek, Delaware. It's the motel on main street."

Tarot and Gabriel exchanged a short look before the sandy-haired angel touched his brother's shoulder and they disappeared.

"Oh please, never mind me. I don't need an explanation anyway," Chuck groaned, putting his mug on the table a little too forcefully. Sometimes the prophet seriously missed his visions...


"You can't take more than one of those!" Gracie insisted, stealing the bottle of pills out of her angel's hands before he could get a second pill out. After some searching around, the little girl finally got her hands on the box where her mother kept her father's medicine. Gracie knew that medication wasn't useable forever, but most of the bottles were less than a year old. It wasn't like she could get her hands on anything better anyway. The pills Gracie kept stealing out of the cabinet in the bathroom weren't helping anymore, so they needed something stronger.

"It's my body, it's my pain, I'll do what I want," Lucifer replied much too close to petulantly for his own liking. The devil had to face the reality that he wasn't only not healing like he usually would, he was getting worse. The pain was getting less bearable every day. Lucifer could deal with pain, he hadn't known anything other than pain for a long time. What was worse was that Lucifer was getting sleepier and his senses were dulled.

"No!" Gracie stated decisively, hiding the bottle behind her back, "No more than one!"

"Why do you insist on torturing me?" Lucifer groaned overly dramatic. The former archangel only wanted to be free of all the pain for a while and the kid was dangling the solution in front of his face. Then she just had to insist he had to make do with a small dosage. If Lucifer didn't -as he had to admit to himself after recent events- like the girl, he'd have to say a few really nasty things.

"'Cause... 'cause..." Gracie stammered, trying to put the explanation she had been given by her father nearly a year ago together.

"Oh great, you don't even know why," Lucifer huffed, rolling his eyes. The devil had to admit that his little abomination usually had reasons for what she did. Grace was smart, he had to give her that, but it made her unreasonable behavior in this case even more frustrating.

"No! It's 'cause..." Gracie protested, taking a deep breath.

"I'm waiting," Lucifer stated, tenting his fingers and raising an eyebrow at her, which immediately made the pain the wounds in his face caused him flare up.

"There's medicine to make you get better and there's medicine to make you feel better, when you can't get better anymore," Gracie explained, her voice wavering, "One is for getting better."

Gracie was five years old when she first learned what the word cancer meant. Her father made a point to always tell her what was happening to him as best he could explain and she could understand. Gracie knew her way around the various bottles of pills her father was given, because he always let her help putting his daily dosage together. There were a lot of pills in the beginning, all of them to make her father get better. There were no pills at all for a short time. Then there were a lot of pills again, some of them the same as before, only their purpose suddenly changed.

Gracie only fully understood what her father had tried to tell her when her mother told her they had to say good bye while they could. There were a lot of tears and the realization that not getting better meant you would be gone forever.

"Okay, fine, one it is," Lucifer sighed, holding out his hand to accept the bottle once more. The former archangel realized he could just lie to the girl and do whatever the hell he wanted as soon as she wasn't watching anymore, but somehow that thought felt wrong.

"You'll get better," Gracie stated with conviction as she handed the bottle over to her angel. They just had to find the right medication for him, or he had to rest more and maybe eat more and everything would be fine in the end.

Lucifer saw the girl's troubled expression, but it didn't make sense to him until he allowed himself to consider what she just told him in depth. The former archangel knew the little abomination's father was dead and he knew she was getting nearly everything she brought to the playhouse for Lucifer from her father's old things. The realization caused the former archangel a completely different kind of pain than he was dealing with already.

"Why don't you tell me what you did in school today?" Lucifer finally managed to ask around the lump in his throat. He vowed to himself that this time he would actually listen to her stories too.


"There's somebody who'd like to see Sam," Dean stated the moment Becky opened the door. The oldest Winchester put his foot into the door just to make sure the woman couldn't close it on them. Apparently Becky didn't even think of not letting them see Sam though. Everything about the situation was strange and just fucked up, but Dean knew that before.

"Muffin," Gabriel's smile wavered as the younger Winchester stood behind Becky and put his arm around her shoulders. Sam looked happy. Carefree. Like he found his place. Everything Gabriel always wanted for him.

"Gabriel," Sam replied, clearly surprised to see the shorter man. The younger Winchester's expression became regretful as he added, "I'm sorry, I should've called you, but everything happened so fast."

Sam gave Gabriel an apologetic smile. Somewhere deep inside the younger Winchester felt an ache that didn't make sense to him that moment. What happened wasn't exactly fair toward Gabriel, that was probably what it was, Sam decided.

"It's... okay," Gabriel stated nearly tonelessly as he turned away and started to walk down the hallway and toward the exit.

Both Dean and Adam were too surprised by this turn of events to do anything other than to follow the former archangel. It even took a moment for the strong urge to strangle Becky to set in again, a feeling Adam was well accustomed to these days.

"It's okay? It's fucking okay?" Dean finally asked, his voice getting louder as he spoke on. Granted, the oldest Winchester didn't expect this whole true love thing to work, but he did expect Gabriel to come up with something much better than that!

"What was I supposed to say?" Gabriel replied, looking more into Dean's general direction than at the oldest Winchester directly.

"Anything other than that!" Dean yelled, not caring if Sam, Becky, or any of their neighbors heard every word he had to say, "How about 'I'm going to smite the bitch for doing this to you?'"

The former archangel's shoulders slumped, his expression becoming even more vacant.

"Dean," Adam exclaimed in a warning tone. His oldest brother was opening a can of worms he most likely wouldn't want to deal with and Adam could see it coming. Not that he expected Dean to listen to him for once and stop yelling before they reached the point of no return.

"What happened to all the righteous fury soon as somebody lays a finger on Sam? Guess you're just not..." Dean continued his rant, disregarding his youngest brother's warning.

Gabriel could hardly hear what Dean was saying over the sound of his own heart beating. The former archangel couldn't form a fitting reply with the big lump in his throat. He didn't know what to do, when clearly there was nothing he could do anymore. So Gabriel did the only thing that came to him naturally and that worked that moment. He ran.

"Well done, jerk!" Adam punched Dean in the shoulder before he sprinted after Gabriel.