Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, FireChildSlytherin5, Rachel Phobia, Maddy Love Castiel, Keefer, CherylB1964, Nikkilouise, Pizzapig, musicfiend2392, Lovely Rain Dancer, ImagineYourself64, Shorty22133 and CassXDeano for last chapter's reviews! :-D
11
Dean pulled into Bobby's driveway in the car he had hotwired at that gas station. He still felt disgruntled about the older hunter hanging up on him on the phone repeatedly. Granted, Bobby had good reasons to believe that he was about as dead as Milli Vanilli's credibility. Which was about as dead as could be. However, telling himself that he was sort of mad at the older hunter kept Dean from thinking about the incident at the gas station he'd really much rather not think about. The appearance of some TV signal interrupting and glass shattering demon, or whatever that thing had been, right after he had managed to dig himself out of his grave clearly couldn't mean anything good, after all.
The sight of his beloved Impala parked in front of Bobby's house was enough to make all thoughts of shattering glass and brain melting noises disappear from Dean's mind immediately.
As soon as the older Winchester had thrown the beat up car he had borrowed into park he went to inspect his baby, running his fingers over the metal with a happy sigh. It looked like Sam had taken good care of her just like Dean had wanted him to. It also seemed like a good guess that his younger brother had to be around somewhere. The Impala wouldn't have driven itself over, after all.
The older Winchester knocked on the door already preparing for the speeches he was going to give to Sam about ditching or losing his damn phone – the number had to be out of service for a reason, after all – and to Bobby about hanging up on him. The moment the door was opened, Dean finally lost a bit of his composure, however. The cocky smile he had aimed for turned out to be rather cautious, showing the nerves he felt at seeing the older hunter again after everything that had happened.
It didn't help to make him feel at ease that he fully expected Bobby to attack him which happened before they had even said their hellos. Some part of Dean actually felt a little proud of the older hunter for being cautious and just as prepared for about everything as he had always been. The greater part of him really didn't want to die yet again and especially not at the hands of an old and trusted friend, however.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! Your name is Robert Steven Singer. You became a hunter after your wife got possessed, and... you're about the closest thing I have to a father. Bobby. It's me," Dean exclaimed as soon as he managed to get a chair between himself and the older hunter before he could take another stab at him with that silver knife. Those things were just as good for killing humans as they were for killing shapeshifters, after all.
In the end the older Winchester didn't get around using that knife on himself to prove that he was human. After everything a little slash across the forearm wasn't too high of a price to pay for getting Bobby to finally stop trying to kill him.
"Jesus, Bobby, I already thought you'd never stop-" Dean managed to get out before he got a face- and mouthful of holy water. The older Winchester spat the water out with as much nonchalance as possible. "You happy now?"
Bobby nodded dumbly. The reality of everything that had just happened hadn't fully caught up with him yet, but he still reached for a towel and handed it to the man who apparently really was who he seemed to be, even if that was much too good to be true. It wasn't that often that the older hunter got really sentimental, but the realization that somehow Dean was actually back was enough to give him watery eyes as he finally pulled the younger man into a tight embrace.
"How did you get out?" Bobby asked a moment later, letting the older Winchester go and getting a beer out of the fridge for him. Hell, a man deserved a beer after his resurrection!
"I'd really like to know that, too. Last thing I knew I was a hellhound's chew toy and then I suddenly have to dig myself out of my own grave," Dean shrugged, taking the offered drink gladly. Things were about as far from normal as they could get, even for their standards, but having a beer with Bobby in his kitchen added some resemblance of normalcy, anyway. The older Winchester really needed that, too.
"That's impossible," the older hunter commented automatically. It obviously had happened however, so screw impossible.
"I know," Dean admitted, "Look, can we talk about this when Sam's here, too?"
It would be much easier to just go over the story once. Besides, Dean had this sick feeling at the pit of his stomach that his younger brother knew exactly how he had gotten out. The question was how they'd get the bitch to admit to what he clearly had done.
Bobby's uncomfortable look said it all even before the older hunter opened his mouth to answer. "I haven't seen Sam or heard from him in months."
"What are you talking about? The Impala is right in front of your door!" Dean protested, even though he knew that the other man would have never lied about something like that. That didn't make hearing the news any easier, however.
Bobby gestured for the older Winchester to sit down before he replied, "I got a call from Montana a few weeks back saying that they towed the car. There was a note with my number on the front dash."
Dean's knuckles turned white as he tightened his grip on the beer bottle. Sam giving up the Impala out of his own free will couldn't mean anything good, that was for sure. Assuming that that was what had happened in the first place.
"All your things are still inside for all I could tell," Bobby added with a sigh, "Whatever Sam got up to, he didn't take anything other than what he was wearing at the time with him."
The implications were clear enough. People didn't just randomly leave all their worldly possessions behind, if they thought they would still need them.
"No," Dean insisted, banging his fist against the table, "Sam wouldn't have…"
It was a weak objection at best, however. The older Winchester had come here thinking that his brother had made a deal with a demon and the things Bobby had just told him would speak for that theory, too. The only thing that really didn't make sense was that all this had happened weeks ago.
"You didn't see him after-" the older hunter started to say before he was cut off.
"I trusted you to take care of him, not to let him run off!" Dean interrupted him in a harsh tone. This was about the worst that could have happened. Coming back and immediately having to rip Sam a new one for selling his soul would have been bad enough, but coming back to find his brother missing was worse. There was no way to tell what Sam had even gotten himself into this way.
"Crawling out of your grave doesn't give you the right to talk to me like that, boy!" Bobby retorted, "There is no stopping your brother when he wants to leave and you know it!"
The silence that fell between them was utterly uncomfortable and talking about the possibility that a demon had dragged Dean out of hell wasn't any better. In the end they decided to pay one of Bobby's contacts a visit. Pamela was a very talented psychic, who might be able to at least tell them a little more about the creature they were dealing with.
The older Winchester stood up from his chair with some renewed energy. They had a plan and that was the first step on the way of finding out what had happened to him and of finding out what had happened to Sam, as well.
Bobby really wasn't looking forward to having to break the news to Dean that he had already asked her to locate the younger Winchester for him. Speaking from his experience, the moment Pamela said that she was completely unable to pick up on any signs of someone was the moment to break out the whiskey and mourn their loss.
When Sam woke up he was slightly disoriented. It was a feeling he was slowly getting used to, however. His nightmares left him in a state of panic in the worst case and confusion in the best case every other night, after all.
It didn't help that he didn't recognize the room he was in for a few long moments before his mind cleared enough to let him remember that he somehow had ended in Gabe's bed the other night. Alright, he might have made a few stupid comments about the possibility of a boogeyman living in his room, because he clearly slept better on the couch than he did in his own bed. Gabriel had then suggested that for the sake of scientific curiosity they could test how the other available bed in the cabin agreed with Sam. In his rather exhausted state of mind, it had been after three a.m. after all, the younger Winchester hadn't seen anything wrong with that suggestion and had even thought it was rather logical.
Being surprisingly well-rested the embarrassment set in very quickly that morning, however. At least, nothing more than a few pretty chaste good night kisses had happened. Alright, good night kisses and obviously some cuddling, but that was pretty much a given with two fully grown men sleeping in one bed that was meant for one and a half man at best. There was a joke about Gabriel's size somewhere in that thought.
Getting out of bed Sam stretched a little. His injuries were healing just like they should which meant that he was nearly able to move normally again. His ribs only gave him slight troubles when he overdid it with the testing of his boundaries and the splints had come off his fingers a few days ago. The previously broken fingers still felt stiff from being held immobile for this long, but other than that they'd be okay again soon enough. The cast should be able to come off his arm by the end of the next week the latest, as well.
The younger Winchester knew that he probably should just leave the room and go to join Gabe in the kitchen where he was cooking breakfast for all it sounded, but now that he was there already he couldn't help taking a look around the other man's room. Hey, they were having this thing between them, so Sam actually felt entitled to doing the minimal amount of snooping around.
The room as a whole looked basically the same as his own room. The younger Winchester didn't have bowls with candy on just about every shelf, however. Sam shook his head with a fond smile. Some day he'd have to ask Gabe how he managed to stay in shape like he did with his sweet tooth. That couldn't be quite easy.
There also was a wide variety of books reaching from dictionaries of a couple of different languages over cookbooks to books of fairytales. What Sam was most interested in was the framed photograph on the desk, however. Looking at it the younger Winchester had turned his back to the door and thus hadn't noticed Gabriel coming back into the room until the smaller man had his arms wrapped around his middle, stealing a glance at what he was looking at, too.
"Would be easier, if you were able to look over my shoulder, wouldn't it?" Sam grinned, leaning into the embrace pretty much instinctively. It felt a little strange to him how much he liked those touches, but he didn't get to linger on the feeling before Gabe hit his hip playfully because of the stupid joke.
"Is that your family?" the younger Winchester asked, nodding toward the picture he had been looking at. Gabe clearly was on it and Sam thought he had spotted Helen just before his thorough examination of the photograph had been interrupted.
"Adopted family," Gabriel replied with a shrug that the younger Winchester didn't see. He felt it however. The archangel could have put pictures of pretty much anything he would have wanted into the room he had furnished just to make it look normal to the other man, but he had chosen to actually go for one that showed him with a few of the other Norse Gods. Granted, they had never been big on taking family portraits, but that was what he had his powers for.
"It's okay," Gabriel told Sam after a few moments of silence during which the human obviously didn't know what to say to the new information he had just gotten, "They're all really decent people. Actually, I'm pretty much the black sheep there."
The younger Winchester turned around to face the other man, so he could look into his face while they were having this conversation. It didn't look like talking about these things pained Gabe too much, so Sam felt rather safe to keep asking.
"Did you know your birth family?" the younger Winchester wanted to know in a gentle tone. He didn't want to push for information the other man didn't want to give in a matter like this. There was no use denying that he was interested in the story, however.
"Yeah, I remember them well enough," Gabriel answered honestly, deciding to add a little more before it was asked of him, anyway, "It was a pretty good family before things just fell apart. It's okay though, I've had a long time to get over it."
Not that he ever really had gotten over everything that had led to his departure from heaven, but most of the time he could make himself believe that he had. Sam apparently saw some of those feelings on his face, because he put one hand against Gabriel's cheek and brushed his lips against the other man's softly for a moment.
"I'm sorry, that's gotta be hard," the younger Winchester whispered, not breaking contact with the archangel even as he leaned back a little again.
"Oh, come on, Samsquatch. Let's just have breakfast," Gabriel replied dismissively, linking arms with the other man as he started to walk out of the room. To tell the truth, he had never meant to be quite that honest, but it seemed like he just couldn't help himself at times where Sam was concerned. He couldn't stay mad at the man, he couldn't keep things on a purely friendly basis and he apparently couldn't even find the will to lie to him when it wasn't absolutely necessary. All of this was much more complicated than it should have ever been!