Gabriel was half asleep when Sam called him.
"WHAT?" he said sleepily.
"Sorry. What time is it where you're at?"
"Sam...it is currently... Four in the god damn morning. Couldn't this have waited until I don't know noon?" asked Gabriel yawning.
He could hear Sam wince on the other end of the line.
"I had no idea. I thought it was only two."
"What do you need Sam?"
"Dean is driving me up the wall with how paranoid he's been lately. Any chance we could swap for a few days?"
When Sam couldn't take another minute of Dean's bullshit, he switched places with Gabriel. Gabriel hid his shoulder tattoos, pretended he was Sam and generally got to enjoy some quality time with Dean.
Sam could put up with Loki for a few days if it meant not having to deal with Dean. Even if Loki did tend to be a bit...grabby...with Sam's ass during that time.
Gabriel had Loki take him to the area Sam was at and the swapped places.
"By the way, keep an eye out for the pack, one of the females is about ready to pop with another litter, and most of them are scheduled to be given to the sanctuaries as guard dogs in a month."
"So what do I have to do?"
"Make sure that the pups don't get eaten by the older ones mostly. Your Sight should be strong enough for you to see the pups," said Gabriel.
"Are any of them tamed enough to play tug-of-war with?" asked Sam hopeful.
"Don't know. This current batch should be a sixth gen, so chances are that they might be tame enough to play with. No telling at this point."
Sam perked up. He liked dogs.
"Here's a mirror-phone in case Dean drives you up the wall," said Loki handing it over to Gabriel.
"Thanks. Tell me when the pups are born okay?"
"Of course!" said Loki.
Gabriel had the first death vision of his life. And somehow he knew this was all Sam's fault. He had jerked up awake with an awful sensation of a demonic presence in his head and it took him ten minutes to clear that out without gagging.
Just because he worked for demons didn't mean he let them in his head. He had standards after all!
"So let me get this straight. You saw me ventilate some dude in Oregon?" said Dean.
"Yeah. There's only two places named Rivergrove, and only one that would have a poster of Crater Lake," said Gabriel. He had to act like Sam after all.
"So what... I just ganked the guy? No real reason?" pressed Dean.
"You seemed to think that he had something inside of him, but I didn't see any demon possession," said Gabriel.
Of course he had a feeling this was a total set up for Sam.
"Dean!" shouted Gabriel. He had let Dean go to the door while he went to the windows.
Inside was a woman bound to a chair. There was a man with a knife nearby looking like he was about to cut her.
Dean busted into the house, clocking the kid who answered and knocking him out cold. Gabriel bust in and shot the one with the knife with a beanbag round, causing him to his hit head against an oak table. From the damage to the temple it was clear he would bleed out before they got any help for him.
The woman screamed in horror.
"Damn Sammy, where'd you learn to shoot that fast?" asked Dean.
Gabriel blinked. Dean still hadn't figured out when he and Sam had swapped places? He knew they were identical twins, but come on, his actions alone should have told Dean he wasn't Sam, but Gabe.
Hell, the bean bag round should have told the idiot he was Gabriel. Sam didn't have them in his guns.
"Reflex?" he said.
The woman had a cut on her leg from where the man had used the knife...and oddly so did the man Gabriel had killed on reflex.
Gabriel had a bad feeling about this.
"So Sammy, what do you think this is?" asked Dean, once the woman was in the clinic.
"Certain demonic viruses can be transferred through fluid contact. If this isn't a case of demonic possession..." said Gabriel.
"Wait, demonic viruses?" said Dean.
"What did you think thrives in the pit Dean? Sunshine and rainbows? Certain bacteria and viruses tend to mutate under those conditions and if a demon knows what he's doing he can infect a whole bunch of people. I've seen a few reports from Gabriel's library where a demon infects an entire small town and the magical hunters had to come in and either level the place or quarantine them indefinitely. There's an entire department in the magical government dedicated to countering viruses like that," said Gabriel.
He wasn't actually lying. Sam did on occasion tend to raid his library, and there really was an entire force dedicated to countering magical or demonic viruses that cropped up or mutated without warning.
"Yikes. Any idea what we're dealing with?"
"Until we see her start to show signs, no. Though I have a bad feeling it's the Croatoan Virus, known to make people act irrationally and seek to infect others," said Gabriel.
"What makes you think that?"
"The word on the post. It wasn't until I saw that wound and their behavior that it reminded me of the case. According to legend, Roanoke vanished without warning in a single night..."
"But?" said Dean.
"But I saw the case file in Gabriel's collection while I was looking up something else. According to the file, Roanoke was quarantined and then they killed every citizen in a single night when the magicals found that they could infect others through fluid exchange. The bodies were destroyed and the place became a ghost town."
"And what did the official records say caused the virus?" asked Dean.
"A demon who was possessing someone who happened to have the virus in their blood. Demon possession prevents it from taking hold and allows them to act normally...there was one other person who didn't react to the virus though..."
"A vessel?" guessed Dean.
"The demon had infected the town trying to smoke out the vessel. Apparently some seraph had been taking a few days off work with approval and the pit got wind of it, so they tried to catch him with the virus. It was the first known use of it on earth," confirmed Gabriel.
"So how did the magicals know there was trouble?"
"Hoodoo witch doctor. He came to the first official he found who directed him to the Magical Viruses, and once it was confirmed he wasn't high like some of the people who go there, they surrounded and dealt with the people inside."
"So how do we know if we're dealing with a virus or a mass possession?"
"Mass possession, we just need to borrow the loudspeakers and start chanting. Virus, we just need to find the demon responsible. According to the report, the virus itself vanished from the bodies twelve hours after the demon was exorcised. Apparently it needed constant demonic energy nearby to stay alive."
"Great."
"What the hell happened in there?" demanded the lone doctor of the town
"I saw the man trying to cut his wife, shot him with a beanbag round which would have only caused some minor bruising at best, and he landed wrong," said Gabriel flatly.
There was a reason why his shotguns and rifles were all loaded with a beanbag round. He could only get a fine and a reprimand for some minor bruising upon capture. The FBI had given up trying to get him to stop using them, so they automatically deducted the fine and skipped the reprimand since Gabriel was unrepentant about it. It was less of a headache that way.
"I'm going to call Gabriel or Bobby. Maybe I can get a signal outside of town," said Dean.
"Good luck," said Gabe.
When Dean left he rolled his eyes.
"Damn idjit. I can't believe he still can't tell us apart," muttered Gabriel.
Gabriel knew Dean was unlikely to make it out, so he painted a devil's trap outside the secondary door and made it invisible. It would only appear if a demon tried to walk past it. And with the limited space it was unlikely that it would be able to avoid it without drawing suspicion.
"You get a signal?" asked Gabriel twenty minutes later.
"Couldn't get out. They had the bridge," said Dean.
"What the hell is going on?"
"There's an obscure virus in the town. Something or someone let it loose. You can only get it through fluid exchange, so if you got hit with anything like blood or spit or something of that nature, then I'll have to quarantine you," said Gabriel.
"What the hell kind of virus is this?" demanded the sergeant.
"One that doesn't belong. Once we find out who set it loose and catch them, we just need to figure out what his game is and then kill them. Deal with the one who set it loose, and in twelve hours everyone goes back to normal...or we get caught in a massive quarantine. Let's hope they don't quarantine us," said Gabriel.
"They? They who?"
"There's a branch in the government that deals with obscure and bizarre viruses. Last time this particular one got out, they erased an entire town."
"Oh yeah? Then why haven't I heard about it?" asked the sergeant.
"You probably have. Ever heard of Roanoke? The lost colony?" said Gabriel.
That shut him up.
Dean was looking at Gabriel oddly.
"So Sammy..."
Gabe looked at him. Dean yanked his sleeve up, exposing something he had only gotten a glimpse of.
"Since when do you have shoulder tattoos dedicated to Loki?" asked Dean glaring.
"Now you figure out we switched? Took you long enough Dean!" said Gabriel snorting.
"Dammit Gabe, why didn't you say something?" said Dean.
"And ruin our fun? Sam's hanging out with Captain Grab-ass and keeping an eye on one of the female hounds for me while he got a break from you, and I got to spend some time with you instead."
Dean blinked. It was sometimes so easy to forget Gabriel had missed out on any family bonding time growing up. Or that he would give anything to have that lost chance back.
Probably why Gabriel had agreed to switch in the first place...to be around his big brother more often.
"Wait...Captain Grab-ass?" said Dean smirking.
Gabriel rolled his eyes.
"Lo' tends to grope Sam just to make him jump. I know he's bi too, but he doesn't want anything to do with Lo' because he's with me," said Gabriel snorting.
Dean snickered.
"So what did you do while you were waiting for my return?"
"Invisible devil's trap. If the demon tries to slip past us as one of the those who haven't been infected, it will catch him and we'll have our culprit."
There was a sudden banging on the door.
"Let me in! Let me in please!"
It was the kid from Gabe's vision. The one Dean was about to kill.
The sergeant opened the door, but the when the kid ran in, he slammed against something invisible. The devil's trap sprung into full view, spray painted on the floor.
"Now we know why I got that vision. This kid's possessed," said Gabriel.
"What the hell is that?!" screamed Pam, the doctor's assistant.
"Demon trap. The minute he walked through the door carrying a demon inside, he sprang it. He can't leave it without the markings being broken, and he can't break it using his powers either. Looks like we found our culprit," explained Gabriel patiently, having rolled down his sleeve before leaving the room.
"Duane let this thing loose?" said the sergeant incredulous.
"Dean, holy water," said Gabriel.
"Right."
"What is that?"
"Regular water that's been blessed. Demon's can't stand the touch of it without steaming up. They don't like salt much either," explained Gabriel. Dean splashed him with half the bottle, and he started hissing.
Gabriel drank some to prove that it was just regular water, and not some acid.
"Now the bigger question is... who do you work for?" said Gabriel, eyes narrowing.
Gabriel killed the demon with his enchanted knife, and they waited out for the virus to disappear. There was one small catch though.
The magical government had noticed the virus reappearing, and had dispatched the cleaners.
"Halt!"
"Demonic Bounty Hunter Winchester, Gabriel. We've already dealt with the demon who released the virus!" he shouted from behind the Impala.
"Let me see some ID!" shouted the leader of the group.
Gabriel tossed him the secondary badge, this one for magical governments only. It identified him as a special bounty hunter and what class he was.
Gabriel was one of the most dangerous kind. Demonic class ten. It meant he dealt with demons or worked for them, and that he had been given special powers as a result.
The healer looked at the badge, had it confirmed, and then said "Alright, those of you who haven't been infected come up one at a time to be cleared and released!"
Gabriel went first, and had to undergo a specially treated shower to decontaminate before he was even allowed to leave the quarantine zone. Dean was less than pleased that his car had to undergo it as well just to be safe.
Magical quarantine wasn't a joke. They took the protection of the normals very seriously.
They were halfway to Bobby's when Gabriel's mirror rang.
"Gabe here."
"...Dean figure it out?" guessed Sam.
"More like he saw the Norse rune on my left shoulder and realized we had swapped. He still can't tell us apart," smirked Gabriel.
"Anyway I have good news and bad news."
"What's the good news?"
"The hound gave birth to ten pups, nine of which seem to be fairly calm."
"What about the tenth?" asked Gabriel.
"Number ten seems to have...attached itself to me," said Sam sheepishly.
"How old are they?"
"About thirteen hours old, give or take. Where you in some sort of magical dead zone by the way? We couldn't get a hold of you or Dean."
"Demonic trap set specifically to see if you were vulnerable to a pit virus. We exorcised the bastard, but we got stuck in a magical quarantine for a full hour before we could leave," said Gabriel, "Now about that pup..."
"I thought it was still born and went to remove it, but the thing suddenly seemed to wake up without warning and now the mother refuses to take it back."
"Huh. So the rest seem to be fairly tame compared to the last litter?"
"Loki says that this batch might be trainable compared to the last."
"John will be happy if that's true. Guess the lucky number was six after all," said Gabriel.
"By the way... could you tell Loki to knock it off with the groping?"
"And ruin his fun? Not a chance. Bye Sammy!" cackled Gabriel, hanging up.