Gabriel sat straight up in bed, and came face to face with three people. All thoughts of the dream flew out if his head, he could think about that later, ponder over it when he had time to remember all the details, but he had to deal with the immediate threat first. He had no idea who they were, or how they got there, but he recognized them immediately.
"Muriel, Grayer and Senriel", Gabriel heard himself speak before he registered he'd done it. But what surprised him was how his voice sounded. It wasn't his voice; it was stronger, more confident and authoritative, and the blonde was sure that he couldn't sound like that again if he tried. He hadn't known he could sound like that at all.
Despite this, the three people in front of Gabriel dropped to one knee at the sound of his voice, and lowered their heads. The woman, Muriel, stood up and spoke, "Brother, we thought you were dead", the way she spoke to Gabriel reminded him of the way a man would address royalty, "where have you been?".
Gabriel sighed and lay back down again. There was no use getting worked up about a load of craziness his mind had conspired. These people were clearly hallucinations.
It all made sense once he'd calmed down and thought about it; it was just another trick that his brain had thought up without him. He decided to tell them he'd figured it out at least, he might as well let his melon know that he wasn't as stupid as it clearly thought he was.
"Look, sister", he said sarcastically, blatantly poking fun at her use of the word, "I'm trying to sleep here. Even Lucifer has the decency to let a man sleep", he mumbled into the wall he was facing.
Muriel sent a quick glance at the two men behind her, "sir, there is no trace of your brother here". Gabriel snorted, still half asleep, "not yet there isn't. He'll come, don't you worry. Now go away, I can't be bothered with more than doubling the number of hallucinations I already have", Gabriel closed his eyes and snuggled further down into his covers, "just when Sam thought it was getting better", he mumbled sleepily.
"Sam? Sam Winchester? You've been conspiring with a Winchester?", Muriel's voice was aghast, and Gabriel felt a bubble of irritation, there was nothing wrong with Sam. He was getting tired of her quickly, "Obviously. As a figment of my imagination, you should know this".
"Sir, we are not imaginary", Muriel took another step towards the bump in the bed in front of her, before realization dawned in her eyes. "You are not well".
Gabriel sighed, and turned over.
She wasn't going away.
"Give the woman a standing ovation! Why else would a person be in this place? Of course I'm sick", Muriel just looked lost. "I mean no disrespect, sir, but you can't get sick, you're an archangel".
With this, Gabriel sat up and looked at her, properly looked at her, trying to decipher whether she was another patient who had escaped. 'You could have religious psychosis bonding sessions', a voice that sounded suspiciously like Lucifer said inside his head, Gabriel snorted; who knew the devil could be funny. Great, he thought, now we have a patient raving about angels and another who rants about fairies. At least the woman who likes fairies didn't think he was one. "Muriel, go back to your cell. I'm not an archangel, I'm something, but angel's aren't real", he groaned, almost tempted to turn over again.
The four people in the room were quiet for a moment, three in stunned silence and one in oblivious relief. Just as Gabriel thought he was going to be granted some time alone to mull over what he'd just discovered, the woman's eyes turned to his with a wild glint, "So, one of the four most powerful beings in existence is hiding with his head in the sand along side the tainted Winchester, no less, whilst the apocalypse looms above us all?", she stalked forwards. "A celestial being like you hiding with the scum of the earth, the boy with the demon blood?", Gabriel started to bristle , but she continued to rant, "It's disgusting. You should have smote him on the spot, not got to know him", Muriel spat the last four words with as much venom as she could muster, and Gabriel'd had enough.
"Sam Winchester is worth more than a thousand of you. You call him disgusting? You don't know anything about him", he snarled. During his speech, Gabriel had thrown off his covers and stood up, his face not thirty centimeters away from hers as he hissed.
She didn't flinch. This was not the archangel she'd grown to admire and respect, this was a powerless disappointment. "So he's worth that much to you? A dirty, tainted piece of filth like that? You make a good pair. A broken disgrace and the devil's vessel", Muriel's face turned from spiteful to cruel, "in fact, that boy has done far more bad than good in his mayfly lifespan, maybe it's time I cut it short".
A cold shiver traveled down Gabriel's spine, these people suddenly didn't feel so false, they felt very, very real. "Don't you dare", Gabriel's voice was commanding and radiated power, but Muriel wasn't fooled. She sneered down at the smaller man in front of her, "just you stop me".
Gabriel made to move forward and they were gone. A different, more familiar rustling announced a hallucination's arrival, "hate to say it, little bro, but those guys were the real deal".
"Shut up Lucifer", Gabriel growled, and started pacing his cell, doubt and uncertainty settling in, completely forgetting about his dream, knowing he wouldn't sleep that night.
•••••••
The night air outside the motel was cool and clear, and Sam could note out a few constellations in the night sky. He'd come out to clear his head. For some reason he couldn't stop obsessing over Gabriel's condition. He knew he couldn't do anything about it, as Gabriel was the only one who could fix himself, but worry and a restless desire to do something were an agitating combination.
He leant back against the cool brick wall, putting all his weight behind him, and stretched out his legs.
Dean was still being difficult.
He didn't know if it was because it was proving there was nothing he could do, and he was getting frustrated, or just pure dislike for the archangel they were trying to save. Sam didn't see what the problem was, this Gabriel was nothing like the first one, this Gabriel was kind and easy to talk to, and the one before was as detached as he could make himself, but there were similarities. Both Gabriel's seemed compassionate, but one's compassion was hidden beneath decades of pain, and the others was open and easily given.
Sam could help but draw parallels, and although he'd been tortured and lost Dean thousands of times, the trickster had been unnecessarily kind to him. It was obvious that helping people wasn't usually on Gabriel's agenda, neither was taking back his lessons, but for some reason, he'd helped Sam. The younger Winchester closed his eyes, and rested his head on the wall behind him; at least if his tension wouldn't let him sleep, he'd be able to enjoy the nighttime peace outside.
A soft fluttering of wings sounded to his right, and Sam smiled, not opening his eyes, "about time Cas! I've been praying for the last week, you won't believe what I've found". "Be quiet, Winchester", a very female voice spat, Sam lept to the opposite side of where the voice was coming from, and an angel sword thudded into the wall in the exact spot Sam had been in moments before.
Sam's hand darted for the knife he kept in the back of his pants at the same time as the angel ripped her sword from its position, leaving jagged cracks in the brickwork in its wake. Muriel stalked towards the younger Winchester, knife held like a dagger, and for the fist time Sam noticed two other angels flanking the furious woman impassively. Sam wracked his brains for an explanation, and a sick feeling of worry curled in his belly; they must have found Gabriel.
"I swear, if you've done anything to him I'll kill you nice and slowly", he snarled, despite the fact that his silver knife feeling rather flimsy against a weapon of angels. Muriel just smiled nastily, "Oh honey, trust me, it's not Gabriel you should be worrying about. We were told not to kill him, you however, weren't included in that order", Sam lunged at her, silver knife set to stab. Muriel, however, wasn't just another monster. She easily sidestepped the lunge, pushing Sam so he lost his balance and toppled forward with his momentum.
Despite his breath rushing out of him with a sound similar to that of a dropped pillow, Sam was on his feet again within seconds, circling Muriel whilst keeping an eye on the other two angels behind her. This was starting to look really bad. Sam didn't think he'd be able to take Muriel on his own, especially only armed with a silver knife, and with two other angels in the equation, his best bet was looking to be making a quick getaway. Sam shot a quick look towards the motel door, it was too far for him to shout for his brother, plus he wasn't willing to risk both of them. This really wasn't looking good.
Again, Sam lunged towards the angel, stabbing and slashing, but every time Muriel just seemed to dance around the blade, it didn't nick her once, and Sam was quickly tiring. Sam's stamina was nothing to scoff at, but he was quickly tiring. She always seemed to be one step ahead of him, and he knew he couldn't keep this up much longer. Eventually, he stumbled back against the wall, panting quietly as he tried to think of a way past her guard. She hadn't even broken a sweat, and smirked as she twirled the silver blade around her hand.
It suddenly dawned on Sam that he was fighting a warrior of god, an angel like Castiel, who would be more battle-weary than him, and know just as many tactics. He narrowed his eyes at her, trying to figure out her plan, and clenched his knife tightly when he realised. She was just wearing him out; waiting until he was exhausted before actually fighting him.
The other two angels just waited, looking bored as their superior cackled at the younger Winchester's situation. Sam decided to try and distract her, to try and buy himself a little time, "why are you doing this now? Apart from the obvious reason, won't your boss be pissed if you spoil his opponent's vessel?", he panted. Muriel just chuckled, a manic edge creeping into her voice, "screw Michael. I don't work for him, Raphael sends his regards. This is about angels rebelling and abandoning their posts, and it always seems to start or end with a Winchester", she laughed too loudly, "call it pest control".
Sam's eyes darted between the angel blade in her hand and the knife in his, trying to gauge how quickly she'd react if he lunged, "doesn't that make you a bit of a hypocrite? If you're rebelling for a Winchester too?", he stalled. Muriel narrowed her eyes, "I'm a martyr", she hissed, "I'm sacrificing myself to remove the stain you cast on this planet. It is a sacrifice worth making". Sam realized his mistake in goading the angel as she started to close the gap between them, she stopped less than a foot's distance from his body. Sam had nowhere to go; he was trapped between a pissed off angel and a brick wall.
Muriel smiled nastily, "you can die knowing that Raphael still got Gabriel", and thrust the blade into Sam's gut.
Sam made a quiet, wounded sound, and tried to double over, but a cruel concrete hand on his shoulder stopped his movement. The younger Winchester could hear the steady plat, plat, plat of his blood dripping off the blade onto the Tarmac beneath them.
The pain was almost blinding, and Muriel just smirked and twisted the blade, coaxing a muffled whimper from the trapped man beneath her. Sam grit his teeth to stop any other noises, and only grunted as the blade was yanked out of his stomach. He dropped to the floor and curled in on himself, pressing a slick hand against the hole in his abdomen. He heard one last smug comment from Muriel, before breathing a sigh of relief at the telltale sound of them leaving.
Sam whimpered as he began to crawl the torturous distance from his puddle of blood to the motel door.
•••••••
"What do you mean he isn't coming in today?", Gabriel snarled, worry making him snap at his carer. Emily chuckled nervously, not used to the patient talking, let alone yelling at her. "He called in sick, and asked if I could cover his shift for today. The poor guy's been pulling doubles lately, so of course I said yes", her cheeks went slightly pink at the admission, and Gabriel noticed as she slightly stumbled over her lie. He glared at her through narrowed eyes; she had a crush on his friend! A nasty, curling feeling of jealousy and dislike shot through him, and he gritted his teeth.
"Sure", Gabriel growled, "What's wrong with him", Emily's eyes flicked to the right before settling on him again, "I'm not sure", another lie, Gabriel thought. His unamused look clearly conveyed his thoughts, because Emily shot a look over her shoulder before looking imploringly back at the patient.
"I'm only telling you this because you guys are close, so don't go spreading, 'Kay?", she whispered loudly. Gabriel placed a fake innocent smile over his face, and batted his eyelashes a little; sue him if he was abusing his good looks, they didn't call him a charmer for nothing.
Seemingly satisfied, Emily continued, "I heard from Susie who answered the phone from Sam that he got mugged last night. He's pretty beaten up", she said, exited at the prospect of spreading the gossip. She wasn't a bad person, but Gabriel couldn't help the dislike that spread through him as she spoke animatedly.
Emily continued her dramatic retelling of what she knew, apparently, three figures had jumped Sam outside the motel he'd been staying in, and he'd been left with a stab wound and serious blood loss. A sickening sensation of cold fear washed over Gabriel's body, a horrible feeling of guilt and doubt settling over him. What if those hallucinations hadn't been hallucinations? Lucifer had claimed it, but then again, wasn't the devil meant to lie? Plus, why should he trust a fickle creation of his own scrambled brain anyway.
The reasons all rang hollow, and Gabriel was left unable to eat the breakfast Emily had left him long after she'd gone, and the cereal grew soggy quickly whilst he fretted. If he was right, then it was his fault that those things attacked Sam.
"Or you could just be getting crazier", Lucifer sang. To be honest, that was what he was most afraid of. Gabriel curled up on his bed, hating his inability to do anything, and tried to ignore the constant chattering in his head.
God, he missed Sam.
•••••••
Dean peered nervously at his brother's bandages, "Jesus Sammy, that bitch got you good". Sam shot a glare back at him, "well, I'd like to see how you turned out in a fight against three angels armed with only a silver knife", he snarked, wincing at the pain in his belly. According to Dean, he'd been incredibly lucky; the knife had been inches away from piercing his stomach, and managed to only do the worst damage to his gallbladder, which, according to Dean, was fine because it wasn't important. Felt damn important, Sam grouched silently. Dean leant against the desk, "real question is, what do we do now? Raphael is one big fish and if he's after Gabriel, I don't know what we can do", he said seriously.
Sam glared up at him, "I'll tell you what we do. We stay here and do our damnedest to protect him that's what!", he hissed. Dean eyed the hand that was pressing a clean ace bandage against his brother's stomach, "like that? You can't even walk, let alone fight!".
Sam dropped his eyes, but continued anyway, "I'm not abandoning him to them! I don't even know if he's alive! For all I know, he's lying dead in his room right now!", the truth came out.
Truthfully, the reason he was so stressed out and on edge was because he was worried. Those angels had been going on about Gabriel the whole time they'd been there, and Sam couldn't help the churning worry at the thought of something happening to the powerless archangel whilst he wasn't there. Dean had forced him to call in sick, their argument about Sam's inability to walk meaning that he was in no shape to work (to which Sam tried to stand up to prove Dean wrong, and was forced to make a hasty retreat to the saggy motel bed), and he'd made up a story about getting mugged to explain the wound when he was well enough to work.
It bothered him that he couldn't ask without sounding suspicious, especially if something had happened to his patient. He needed to be able to see Gabriel if he was injured, and he knew if Sam was a suspect, that wouldn't be possible. Sam was in no doubt that if the angels had injured his patient, Gabriel would be confused and hurt. Sam knew better than anyone what a dangerous place that was. The knowledge could damage his fragile psychosis, and Sam hadn't worked so damn hard to fix him just for it to come crashing down in one night.
Sam came to the decision that he was going back to work tomorrow, injured or not. Screw Dean right back to hell.
•••••••
That day was the worst in Gabriel's short memory. He spent it fretting, not eating, and only talking if he was asking his carers if they knew about any news on Sam's condition. He was scared that Sam wouldn't be able to come back, and even spending only a day with the endless chatter of voices when he was used to periodic silence punctuated with the blissful silence of his carer was hell for him.
Gabriel could hear Emily and her friends talking about him and Sam, the wavelength of their conversation spanning from hushed whispers about his 'sudden and inexplicable deterioration', to sympathetic crooning over Sam's accident, and it was just winding Gabriel up tighter and tighter. That night, he couldn't sleep because of the unending worry over Sam.
Needless to say, Gabriel felt worse than he had in a long time when the sun crept up his wall the next morning. The cruel combination of Lucifer's doubt-planting whispers and his own internal downward spiral, had left him with worry gnawing at his heart over Sam Winchester's condition. With Lucifer's incessant chattering about the 'angels' from two nights ago, Gabriel couldn't help but feel as if he was missing something obvious. The word, 'archangel', stuck with him, echoing around his head in a voice suspiciously like Michael's.
Gabriel stopped that train of thought where it stood. He did not need to add another bullet point to his religious psychosis file. That Hester woman was probably just another crazy who got out of her cell, he thought. Yeah, one who vanished into thin air along with two others.
Gabriel felt like he was going crazier.
The door opened, and Gabriel raised his head slowly, expecting to see Emily armed with an apologetic smile and a tray with his breakfast. He did a double take as he realized the person was too tall, too attractive and far too male to be his replacement carer.
"Sam?! What are you doing here?", Gabriel jumped to his feet and ran over to the man leaning heavily on the door frame to Gabriel's room, "you should be in hospital!", he yelped, glancing down at Sam's hand, which he'd got clenched over what Gabriel assumed was the stab wound. Sam smiled apologetically, and tried to stand a little straighter, "no, I'm alright", he glanced over Gabriel's body and breathed a sigh of relief, before searching hazel eyes caught the shorter man's. "You okay, too? I mean, nothing happened whilst I was gone, right?".
Gabriel's eyebrows shot up, "What? Me?", he squeaked, "are you joking? You're the one with the stab wound!", Sam huffed another relieved sigh, but that wasn't enough for the shorter man. "Why would you worry about little old me locked in a room where the most dangerous thing is my plastic cutlery?", he asked suspiciously. Sam started guiltily; he hadn't thought that far ahead. His thoughts had been so focused on the safety of a certain caramel-eyed blonde that he hadn't even considered what to do if Gabriel was okay. He shrugged quickly, scrunching his face up in that adorable way he does when he was lying, then looked away quickly whilst muttering, "no reason", he said too quickly, "just worried".
If Gabriel wasn't focused on how damn sure he was that his best friend was lying to him, he would wonder how he knew that little character flaw the younger Winchester had developed when caught out lying.
Instead, he narrowed his eyes, and settled for the next best assurance, "Prove it", he glared at his carer's abdomen, "show me the wound, and then I'll know your okay". Sam flushed slightly, "No!", he said too quickly, "I'm pretty sure I'll be breaking an absolute bucket load of rules if I strip in a patients room", Gabriel frowned, "If I don't make sure your okay, I'm pretty confident I'm going to have another mental break. And then you'll be to blame", he growled seriously. Sam weighed up his options. Finally, he sighed, and began to unbutton his shirt from the top downwards.
As soon as the shirt was open, Gabriel's mouth ran dry as he eyed the tanned expanse of skin in front of him. He was so committing this to memory, Jesus, those abs were downright sinful. A startling white patch caught his eye, Sam noticed, and carefully pulled the bandage off, uncovering the wound.
Gabriel leant in, placing a hand on Sam stomach as he squinted at what was underneath the bandage. Sam spluttered, and a redhot blush burned across his cheeks and up to the tips of his ears. Luckily, Gabriel was too focused on his completely platonic task to notice. Why was this bothering him? Sam thought, Gabriel clearly only wanted a look at the wound, and they didn't exactly have personal space issues with the way the former archangel had been anchored onto his hand since they'd figured out how to silence the angel radio, so why was this making his heart thump in his chest and his palms go clammy?
Gabriel didn't seem to notice, but he let out a pained hiss as his eyes found the jaggedly stitched up stab wound in the younger Winchester's stomach. The blonde gently ran a finger over the taught skin, wincing apologetically when Sam flinched at the contact, "this doesn't look like it went to a hospital", Gabriel said quietly. Sam didn't meet his eyes, "me and my brother, we, ah, have medical experience", he muttered, but the lie sounded weak even to him. Luckily, the blonde didn't press the issue.
Gabriel huffed and sat back against the headboard, managing to coerce the corners of his lips upwards slightly at the thought of Sam being okay. "Damn", he breathed quietly, meeting Sam's eyes, "you don't know just how worried I was. I've barely slept for two nights".
"Two nights? I only called in yesterday morning", Sam frowned. Gabriel's eyes widened slightly, before he caught himself, "uh, about that. I had some weirdass dreams-slash-hallucinations during the short couple of hours sleep I caught the night before last", he chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the material of his pants between his fingers to distract himself, "I was so freaked because I dreamt myself up a couple of hallucinations that started threatening you once I'd told them you were here", he paused, and the silence dragged on, as "That's the thing, I think I'm going more crazy, Sammy". Gabriel forced the words out, "God, there's so much I need to tell you. So much is happening in a such a short amount of time, I can barely keep up".
Sam just watched silently as the former archangel continued, "you know the whole religious psychosis thing I've got going?", he laughed, and the sound bounced too loud off the walls, "it's getting worse. At first, I thought the hallucinations were just that, but as they spoke, I started to think they were real. That's the thing, Sammy, I always knew I was crazy, but I could separate crazy from reality, all the hallucinations, they had tells, you know?", the words fell out of Gabriel's mouth. Sam reached out and placed his hand on Gabriel's arm, hoping that maybe the silence in his head would help him calm down. He wanted to take his hand, why, Sam didn't want to think about, but settled on his arm.
The archangel took a deep breath, and sent Sam a grateful smile for his efforts. "Go on", Sam coaxed, and Gabriel took another deep breath, "but the ones last night, they had the tells, but they were different. It felt like I was dreaming, Sam, but what scares me is that", Gabriel paused and looked up uncomfortably from under his lashes, "I never woke up".
Sam used the hand his was resting his head on to rub the underside of his chin whilst he thought. Considering what that angel said whilst it was trying to shank him, he wouldn't be surprised if they had visited the unsuspecting archangel before him. That was what he'd been afraid of, at this point, the big reveal could go two ways; Gabriel could accept it with a nice "I kind of suspected it anyway", or he could completely flip. Sam just hoped the development from homicidal trickster to homicidal archangel with serious family issues wasn't going to be too drastic.
Damn, who was he kidding. Gabe was definitely going to flip.
Sam now needed to know if the angels had screwed everything up or not, "what did they say?", he asked quietly. Gabriel shrugged selfloathingly, "just a load of crap about how I was an archangel, and how it was so terribly awful that I was friends with you", he snorted, "As if I would let my pickled melon screw up the only good thing in my life", he muttered darkly.
Sam cursed silently, that wasn't good. He couldn't leave Gabriel in the dark now; if the angels came back he would be helpless and at a serious disadvantage. He took a deep breath, this was going to take a hell of a lot of explaining.
"Gabriel, there's something I haven't told you yet", Gabriel's head flicked up as he spoke, brow creasing slightly. Damn, Sam thought, this was far harder than he thought it was going to be, "this is going to sound crazy. More crazy than the whole trickster thing, but it's all true, okay?". Gabriel just nodded, somehow knowing that this was a big thing, and Sam steeled himself to finally tell him, he just hoped from heaven to hell and back that Gabriel didn't back off and think Sam was the crazy one.
"Gabriel, you're an archangel".
