Sam sat by his brother's bedside and stared down at the sleeping body in front of him. There was a good part of his attention that was focused directly on Dean, on watching the rise and fall of his chest, the way that he twitched in his sleep, all the little signs that showed that Dean was still there, that he was alive. No matter what else was going on, all the thoughts in Sam's head, he still couldn't believe that his brother was actually here. That he was alive!

However, even as he watched Dean sleep – a sleep Gabriel assured him the hunter would wake from as soon as his body was ready – there was another part of Sam that was running over everything Gabriel had just told him.

The fact that the being he'd thought of as the trickster, as Loki, was in actuality the archangel Gabriel wasn't one of the things that Sam was marveling over, though it did scare him just how easily he believed it. But there'd never been any second of denial in him. Sam felt the truth of the words straight down to his core. He'd known it even before Gabriel had said it. There'd just been a part of him that had known, even if he wasn't quite sure how. That claim was only backed by the fact that Gabriel had actually gone down into Hell and brought Dean back.

No, it was the rest of it that Sam was stuck on. All the things that Gabriel had told him as they'd sat out there in the living room.

The apocalypse.

Just thinking it was enough to have Sam shuddering. Heaven was real, just like Hell, and apparently the apocalypse was coming. Or, would have been coming, if Gabriel had left Dean where he was. And it is written, that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in Hell. As he breaks, so shall it break. Dean had been meant to go to Hell, meant to break on the rack and, according to Gabriel, start torturing souls. That was the key to breaking the first seal on the Cage that imprisoned Lucifer deep in Hell.

When Sam had firmly insisted that Dean would never, Gabriel had given him a look of such gentleness and pity that it'd left Sam speechless. "He wouldn't have been able to help himself, kiddo. Time down there, it runs faster than up here. A month up here is equivalent to ten years down there. And the whole time, they would've been torturing him, doing everything they could to break him, and there would've been no end in sight. You're already dead, so there's no death at the end to hold out for. Just more and more torture. The only promise of relief he would've had would be to get off the rack and pick up the knife. It wasn't a matter of 'if' he broke – it was a matter of 'when'. Everyone breaks in the end."

It made Sam sick. To think of what his brother had gone through, and how much more he could've gone through if Gabriel hadn't saved him, and all of it because he'd had to rescue Sam – it made the young hunter sick.

Things didn't get any better from there. Gabriel had told him that the apocalypse was fated. That it was destined. "Angels have to have vessels to be on earth, kiddo. We're made up of something called grace. Humans can't look at it without a lot of eyeball melting and ear shattering, so if we wanna deal with humans, we have to have vessels."

"You mean you possess people?" Sam hadn't been able to keep the disgust out of his voice.

To his surprise, Gabriel hadn't gotten upset. He'd just sighed and shrugged a shoulder. "Yeah. I mean, my family, they'll tell you it's different. We gotta get permission to enter a vessel. They've got to say Yes to us. But, in the end – yeah, it's possession. An regular angels can be careful enough to usually make sure they leave the human okay when they're done. But archangels, we're too much. We burn out most vessels we're in."

"So how're you…?"

"My vessel was handmade. A trick only one angel knew," Something sad had crossed Gabriel's face then, something that had made Sam's heart clench in his chest. "He made me mine before he… vanished. So don't worry, there's no soul in here with me." Then the sadness had left Gabriel's face and the trickster mask had slid back in. "But for my brothers not quite awesome enough to have a homemade beauty like mine, we have what's called out True Vessel. Humans that are perfectly designed to house us."

It hadn't been hard to figure out where Gabriel was going with that. Sam had always been the one to piece together puzzles. He loved them. This one hadn't been difficult. "We're vessels."

"Not just any vessels. You're the vessels. The ones needed for the prizefight my brothers wanna have."

Sam let out a shaky sigh and bowed his head. Elbows on his knees, he buried his face in his hands. It wasn't any easier thinking about it now than it had been when Gabriel had said it. He and Dean were vessels. Vessels. And not just any vessels. Oh, no, of course not. They had to be the vessels for Michael and Lucifer themselves. The two most important humans in the entire apocalypse. The ones destined to help them break the world. That was why Ruby had come into his life. She hadn't been there to help him free Dean from his deal – she'd been there to trick him and train him and manipulate him until he helped to break the last seal that would set Lucifer free.

It was after that that Sam had left. He'd simply gotten up and walked away. Whatever else Gabriel had to tell him could just wait. This… this was too much.

Escaping in here to sit with Dean hadn't allowed him to escape his own thoughts, though. All of it was circling around over and over in Sam's mind. Demons, angels, seals, Lucifer, vessels, Ruby, the apocalypse.

"What are we gonna do?" Sam mumbled, barely even noticing that he was speaking out loud. He slid his head enough to press the heels of his hands into his eyes in hopes of combating the headache that seemed to be lingering from before. "What the hell are we gonna do?"

There was a moment of quiet and then Sam heard a low, hoarse murmur. "You could start by not looming like a creeper."

Sam's head snapped up and his eyes were wide as his gaze shot right to Dean's face. Familiar green eyes were squinting against the light of the room, but they were open and alert, and Sam made a choked sound in his throat at the sight of them. Even the glare that Dean was leveling his way was wonderful to see. The fact that his brother was alive to glare at him meant more than anything in the world. Sam had been full of hope, watching Dean's sleeping body. Now that he was awake that hope gave way to a huge swell of relief and joy that took his voice away. "Dean!"

"What's going on?"

A groan came from Dean as he started to push himself on the bed, and Sam immediately moved forward to help him. He ignored his brother's attempts to swat him away and braced Dean up as he tried to sit up. "Woah, Dean, take it easy. You need to rest, man."

Of course, Dean ignored his words. He let Sam help him up and then finally succeeded in shoving his hands away. The young hunter was surprised by his brother's strength. Though he supposed he shouldn't be. Gabriel had said he'd healed him.

"Quit fussing over me." Dean grumbled, sounding so normal Sam was ashamed to admit it actually made his throat tighten and his eyes burn a little. There was such a familiar exasperation in Dean's voice, one that Sam had been sure he'd never hear again. Hearing it, Sam did the only thing that he could do. He reached out for his brother again, only this time he yanked him in for a hug. One that Dean returned after just a brief hesitation.

They weren't big huggers in their family. Not unless someone was really hurt, or dying. Apparently they could add coming back from the dead to that list.

Sam held tightly to Dean, almost afraid to let him go. Afraid that he'd be gone again. Afraid that once more he'd be here, curled up next to an empty shell. As if he sensed that, Dean squeezed him a little tighter, and the walls that usually were up around them came down for that brief moment. "Hey, hey." Pulling Sam in, Dean rested his chin on top of his little brother's head just as he'd done when they were kids – Sam hadn't even noticed as he dropped off his seat and down to his knees, only that he was right up against Dean and Dean was alive! – and he stopped being Dean Winchester, hunter, for the moment and just became Sam's big brother. "I got you, little brother. It's all right."

"Don't you ever do that to me again." Sam murmured against Dean's chest. The amulet that Sam had clutched to before was now pressed between them.

He felt Dean's chuckle, heard the hitch of his breath mix in with the beat of his heart, and it was wonderful to hear sound again where there had been none. "Not planning on it, tiger. Calm down."

For a moment longer the two stayed where they were. Dean was the one to finally break them apart. With a ruffle to Sam's hair and one last squeeze, he detached them. Sam took his cue and sat back, though he couldn't quite bring himself to his feet yet. Couldn't make himself get up and pull away entirely. He needed to be close at the moment.

However, reality wasn't going to be held back any longer, and Sam saw the most important question coming even before it passed his brother's lips. "What did you do, Sam?" Dean pushed the blankets off his legs and let them drop down to the ground. It made it so he was facing Sam, who still knelt beside the bed. Not even the sharp glare Dean was leveling his way was enough to take away the warm feeling in Sam's chest.

"Dean…" Couldn't they just enjoy him being back, just for a moment?

Temper flashed hot and bright in Dean's eyes. "I was dead. I know I was dead. I remember… I remember being down there. So how am I back here? Dammit, what did you do?"

A voice came from the direction of the doorway. "Don't worry, baby bro remains the only Winchester who hasn't made a deal with a demon."

The two spun to look at the door – Dean was shocked while Sam was simply resigned. He'd known Gabriel wouldn't stay away. Not once Dean was up. Most likely the only reason he hadn't come in before was to give them their quiet moment together. But now that Dean was demanding answers, Gabriel was here, and a small part of Sam was grateful that he wasn't going to have to explain it all himself. When he caught Gabriel's eye, the wink he got told him that the trickster – no, archangel, not a trickster, don't forget that – had probably heard his thoughts.

"You!" Dean snarled out. He made as if to rise, only to stop.

As Sam pushed up to his feet, he got a better view of Dean's face and could see the strange look there. The way his brow had furrowed and his mouth was frozen half open.

Gabriel chuckled at the look Dean wore. "So you do remember. I wasn't sure if you would. I tried to seal off your Hell memories but I wasn't sure what would slip through."

"You're the one who rescued me?"

"Yep!" Grinning, Gabriel leaned his shoulder against the door frame.

Sam stood quietly beside the bed and watched as Dean's face went through a multitude of expressions. Confusion, shock, curiosity, gratitude, worry, suspicion. It was that last one that it settled on. "What are you?"

"Why don't we go sit down for some breakfast, first? I'll tell you everything while you eat."

The uncharacteristically serious voice was enough to stop Dean from any more snarky comments, at least for the moment. Sam knew he was only just holding himself back. If Dean didn't start getting some answers, he was going to start to shout. Not that he wasn't going to shout at the answers he got, anyways. This was going to piss Dean off. For that alone, Sam sort of wanted to hang back, to fade into the background and just let Gabriel handle everything. At the same time he wanted to reach out and grab onto Dean and not let him go. He was alive. He was alive!

Sam settled for following right on Dean's heels out towards the dining room. The two hunters sat side by side, with Gabriel directly across from them. Dean didn't touch the food, didn't even look at the coffee that Gabriel snapped up in front of both of them. Sam wrapped both hands around his own mug, but Dean just stared right at Gabriel. "Okay, we're here. Start explaining."

"Rude." Gabriel murmured under his breath. Then he rolled his eyes and sighed. "First things first, it might make a bit more sense if I tell you who I really am. I'm not just Loki, awesome though he may be. A long time ago, I also went by Gabriel. The archangel Gabriel, actually."

Into the stunned silence that followed, Gabriel once more began to tell his tale. This time Sam wasn't in as much of a state of shock as he listened to it. Still, it wasn't any easier to hear the second time around. He listened as the archangel told Dean about how much they'd been manipulated and pushed around, all so that two archangels could have their little prizefight – with Sam and Dean as the stars. Vessels, Gabriel called it. True vessels. It sounded a lot like possession to Sam. Having your body taken over. The only difference he could see from demons was that they didn't bother asking first and pretending like their way was better.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Gabriel flinch and felt a bit of guilt. That guilt was quickly squashed down. He wasn't to blame if Gabriel happened to overhear something he didn't like while eavesdropping on Sam's thoughts!

When Gabriel reached the end of what he'd told Sam, he paused to give them a second to process.

Clenching his hands on his cup, Sam carefully watched his brother out of the corner of his eye, waiting for some kind of response. Anything.

What he got wasn't what he'd expected. "So Ruby was trying to manipulate Sam into setting Lucifer free?" Turning, he shot a glare of pure big-brother annoyance at Sam.

Seriously? That was all Dean got out of this whole thing? Sam fought back a scowl. Of all the things that Gabriel had said the one thing that Dean stuck on was Ruby and her manipulation? Annoyance pushed away some of Sam's nerves. "If you say anything that even comes close to 'I told you so', I'm going to punch you."

Even as Dean opened his mouth – no doubt with some kind of 'I told you so' ready to come spilling out – he was cut off by Gabriel. "Can we focus on the bigger picture here?" His voice was heavy with irritation and he had that stern look on his face like Sam had seen on Bobby's face plenty of times when the Winchester brothers started to argue a little too much and Bobby had to pull them back on track. To see Gabriel filling that role at the moment was almost amusing.

"The bigger picture?" Dean turned back to look at Gabriel after only a brief second of hesitation. "What's there to worry about? I mean, this sounds like shit, yeah, but it also sounds like you stopped it before it could get going. I didn't… well, y'know…" Break. The word was unspoken but they all heard it nonetheless.

"No, you didn't." Gabriel agreed. "But that doesn't mean it's all gonna just stop. I just threw a giant freaking wrench in destiny's plans. Trust me, that's not something the universe – or my brothers – is going to take lightly. They're gonna want to know what happened an how on Dad's earth you got outta hell. They're gonna have questions, an I doubt they'll be gentle asking them – with any of us."

Something rose up inside of Sam at that comment. A wave of protectiveness for his brother, the same as he'd always felt any time Dean was in danger. What stunned him was the amount of protectiveness he felt for Gabriel. The archangel was more than capable of taking care of himself. He'd proved that time and time again. Hell, he was a freaking archangel! Yet it didn't stop Sam from wanting to grab him and pull him in close. Can't let them hurt him. That thought throbbed inside of Sam like a wound on his heart. An aching need that demanded that he protect this powerful being in front of him the way that Gabriel had always protected him. Keeping Gabriel safe was the most important thing, the whole reason he'd done this to begin with…

Pain lanced across Sam's head, spearing through his temples and straight into his brain, dragging a groan past his lips.

He never registered as he slumped down in his chair or as Dean's hands caught hold of him. Sam's head was pounding out a drumbeat of agony and all he could hear was one word over and over in his mind.

Protect, protect, protect, protect.

Then fingers touched his head and coolness washed over him.

The last thing Sam registered was his brother's arms tightening around him before the whole world went dark.