Sam hesitantly put his hands on Gabriel's back, right where the wings connected, and began to rub in small circles. The effect was instantaneous. Gabriel let out a soft moan and leaned back. Feeling more confident, Sam let his hands roam all over Gabriel's back, rubbing the whole time. For a while they sat in comfortable silence. Gabriel moved over until he was lying on his stomach and Sam sat next to him, still massaging.

When he reached a particularly tense spot, he pushed a little harder to get the knots out. Gabriel's wings popped open, then lay limp and relaxed as Sam worked his magic. The feathers ruffled out and the angel draped them over the sides of the bed. After a few minutes, Sam looked at Gabriel's face and found him half asleep.

He stopped massaging and heard a quiet "Thanks, Sam".

"You're welcome." Sam said back, then grabbed his laptop and sat on the other bed. They sat like that for an hour, Sam growing increasingly more worried as he didn't find anything on how to stop Lucifer. He looked over at Gabriel and instantly calmed down. The angel looked so peaceful. It would be alright, Sam told himself. They'd find some way to stop the Apocalypse.

Sam stood up and stretched. He walked over to the tiny fridge plugged into the wall and pulled out a beer. He paused when one of Gabriel's huge wings suddenly flapped and landed right on Sam. It was a lot softer than he had expected. Sam couldn't help but reach up and stroke the silky feathers, causing Gabriel to sigh in his sleep. Sam chuckled and moved from underneath the wing.

He frowned when he saw the cuff. Even with them on, the angel's wings were magnificent, yet Sam couldn't help but wonder what they would look like with his Grace shining through. Sam didn't realize that he had been stroking Gabriel's wing for half an hour until Dean and Cas barged through the door. Dean froze when he saw Sam, sitting in the middle of the floor, stroking Gabriel's wing. The archangel was fast asleep on his bed, smiling slightly.

"Dude, can you be anymore gay?" Dean asked. Sam threw him a bitchface.

"I can't help it. Came feel his wings, they're incredible. This is what Dean would categorize as a chick-flick moment, but his curiosity was piqued. He moved over and gently touched one of the feathers. His eyes widened slightly. The wings were softer than anything Dean had ever felt, and he couldn't help stroking the length of one of the huge wings.

"Hey Cas, you okay?" Dean asked, for the angel had a look of intense worry on his face. Instead of answering Dean's question, Cas turned to Sam.

"Sam, he has told you about his Grace fluctuations?"

"Yeah, why? Is his Grace doing something?"

"Yes, although I am not sure what will happen. Whatever it is, it will be powerful." The words were hardly out of his mouth when there was the sound of wings flapping and Gabriel was gone. Not even a second later, Cas was, too.

"I thought Gabriel couldn't fly?" Dean looked at Sam and the younger hunter thought he saw a little worry in his brother's eyes, but he didn't know who it was for.

"He can't control his Grace right now. The more the cuffs destroy it, the harder it fights back and sometimes one of his abilities will come back for a little bit."

"Well, that's great. He's basically a bomb." Sam just nodded. He was incredibly worried about Gabriel. The archangel couldn't control his flight, so he could be anywhere. Add the fact that he was asleep, and his chances of surviving if he landed somewhere dangerous were pretty low.

Okay, happy thoughts, Sam told himself. He might not have ended up anywhere too dangerous. And Cas followed him. He'll be fine. To Sam's relief, Cas and Gabe popped in not a second later. The archangel's eyes were huge and he had a look of terror on his face.

"Gabe, are you alright? What happened?" Surprisingly, it was Dean who asked.

Gabriel simply nodded and let out a long breath.

"Cas, where did he end up?"

"He flew to the height of Mt. Everest, over the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He was freefalling when I managed to catch him. At that height, the fall would have killed him when he hit the water."

Sam's eyes were as wide as Gabriel's by now, and even Dean looked a little off.

Gabriel came and put one arm around Cas' shoulders.

"I guess that massage loosened my wings up more than I thought."

"Don't joke about this, you could have died!" Gabriel looked at Dean with confusion in his eyes.

"Didn't know you cared, Dean-o."

"Of course I care." Sam felt a stirring of jealousy at his brothers declaration. Wait, jealousy? Why was he jealous? "You're my friend now, albeit an extremely annoying friend." Sam felt himself calm down again. Weird. And he wasn't the only one who thought so, as he noticed Castiel looking at him with his signature head tilt and eye squint.

Damn, Cas was an empath. He had felt Sam's jealousy over Dean and Gabriel. Hopefully, he wouldn't be able to realize what this meant. Wait, what did this mean?

Sam was broken out of his thoughts when Gabriel snorted.

"Thanks, Dean, that means a lot." Frankly, Sam was surprised. It took a lot for Dean to consider someone his friend, and even more to admit it out loud.

"So what now?" Sam asked.

"I have no idea. I couldn't find any new cases while I was looking at that bar, but we can't stay here. The cops will find those bodies soon enough."

"We could always go to Bobby's place and hang there for a few days."

"Yeah, alright. I'll call him and let him know that we're swinging by." Dean left, pulling out his phone. Sam started to pack up his stuff, Gabriel trailing behind. An hour later they were on the road to Bobby's house. Cas had flown all of their stuff to his house so that there would be more room in the Impala. Dean's phone rang, and Sam didn't miss the way he smiled a little when he saw it was Cas calling.

He told the angel where they were, an a second later he was in the front seat that Sam had left open just for him. Dean's smile got bigger, and Gabriel looked at Sam with his eyebrows raised, smirking. Sam grinned and looked back at the two in the front seat. Dean was looking at Castiel more than the road, and the angel was constantly having to remind Dean to look ahead.

The trip was long, loud, and annoying. Especially when Dean decided to sing along to every single song that he played, and Gabriel joined him. Bobby was waiting outside for them when they pulled up. Sam and Cas practically destroyed the doors in their haste to get out and away from Dean and Gabriel's terrible singing. Thankfully, they finished the song and stopped as soon as the Impala's motor turned off. Sam breathed a sigh of relief, but that didn't last when he saw Gabriel stop suddenly and sway a little.

"Gabe, are you okay?" The archangel didn't answer and Sam knew something was extremely wrong. He got to Gabriel's side just as the angel fell over unconscious, right into Sam's arms.