"You okay?" Gabriel asked Sam after finding him in the kitchen, drinking a glass of milk. He was leaning against the counter next to the fridge.

Sam took a sip of his milk and set it on the counter. "Yeah, Gabe, it's just… I don't know what to do. He's not my brother anymore. He's a… hell-twisted maniac."

Gabriel smiled sadly and placed his hand on Sam's arm, right underneath his shoulder. "I know the feeling."

It took a moment for Sam to understand. "Oh," he realized, "Lucifer."

Gabriel sighed, his small smile dropping slightly. "Loosing him was hard, you know? Even though he rebelled, he was my brother and I loved him. He needs some fixer upping, and maybe a bit of sense knocked into him, but I wish he were up in heaven. I know where he is, I know he's not dead, but it kind of leaves the same effect." Gabriel shook his head and stared at their feet. "I miss him, Sam. He might have gone on a psychotic rampage, but still, he's my brother. I miss him."

By now, Gabriel's hand slipped off of Sam. Sam didn't say a word as Gabriel spoke. The words seemed to spill out of his mouth. Sam could tell that Gabriel truly did miss his brother, and knew the feelings that Sam was currently experiencing. "You know, he never cared about Earth. He called it a pile of cockroaches!" Gabriel kept talking, getting angrier as he spoke. "Michael and Raphael didn't seem to care, either. Look at where that got them. Dead and locked up. I'm the only one who ever gave a shit about humanity!"

Gabriel felt a hand on his shoulder, fingers lightly touching his neck. "Hey, it's okay." Sam said quietly. Gabriel looked up at Sam and then realized that that was the first time he's said that out loud to anybody.

Gabriel breathed in and out slowly. "Sorry, it's just- that's the first time I actually said that to-"

"Gabe," Sam interrupted, "it's okay."

"Okay." Gabriel repeated. "Now it's your turn to talk, Sammich." He snapped his fingers and they appeared in Gabriel's room. He grabbed a chair and pulled it over by the bed and took a seat in it backwards. "Let's play therapist. You lay down on the bed and we will discuss your problems."

Sam laughed and sat down on Gabriel's bed, resting his head against the headboard, using the pillow as a cushion. Sam noticed the piece of paper on the bedside table Gabriel had written nicknames down on. "You are such a loser." He chuckled and threw the paper at Gabriel, which floated down onto the floor.

"Hey, I was bored! You'd understand if you didn't need to sleep." Gabriel defended, picking up the paper and placing it back down on the table.

"Alright, alright, just play therapist or whatever, doctor."

"It's Doctor Sexy." Gabriel corrected, a smile tugging at his lips. Sam thought back to when Gabriel was disguised as Doctor Sexy.

"Oh my God," Sam chuckled again. Gabriel always said the most stupid jokes.

"Okay, Samuel," Gabriel started in a mock-serious tone, "what seems to be troubling you?"

"Well, Doctor Sexy, my brother appears to be a Knight of Hell and keeps trying to kill everyone." Sam sounded serious but Gabriel could see the smile he was trying to hold back.

"Hmm, well it sounds like your brother needs therapy more than you do!"

"I'll recommend you to him."

They kept joking around and asking stupid questions for half an hour – and every so often Sam would respond seriously, giving Gabriel an idea of how he felt – until Sam closed his eyes and fell asleep. Gabriel rolled his eyes but still smiled, leaving the room so Sam could sleep in peace.

Cas returned to the library where he and Gabriel were hanging out earlier. Gabriel had looked at every book on the wall and created a towering stack of books that Cas should read. He started with The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. However, Cas couldn't bring himself to read past the first few pages. The events of the past couple hours kept reappearing in his memory. That wasn't Dean. That was not the Dean that promised him that he'd keep trying. That was not the Dean that desperately wanted to be human. This wasn't even the Dean that was influenced by the Blade. This was an entirely new Dean, and Cas was pretty sure that it wasn't even Dean at all.

Nonetheless, when Dean was in the Devil's Trap and looked over to Cas, Cas could see the real Dean shine through for just a second. His look was sad, guilty, the slightest bit angry/annoyed, and pleading. Pleading to be forgiven, that he couldn't control it. He could not get that look out of his head.

Cas couldn't bear watching the effects of the trials. It caused Dean so much pain, and caused him to kidnap Jael. Watching it was distressing. Cas just wanted it to be over. He didn't want to overwork Jael, but Cas was eager to finish the trials, to get a cure. They were almost done. There was one more trial, even though the final one was the most difficult. If Dean could live through it, then so could Cas.

He thought about Dean down the dungeon. That was the second time they had thrown him down there in the past month. No doubt he was trying to find a way out. For a moment Cas thought it would be best if he went down there to guard him. He decided against it, but it kept coming back up into his mind when he tried to read. Cas sighed, put down the book, and walked down to the dungeon.

Dean sat in the middle of his trap, trying to devise a plan to get the hell out of there. He looked up when he heard footsteps and saw Castiel walk through the entrance. "Cas?"

Cas nodded. "Hello, Dean."

"Why'd you come down?" he asked.

"I thought I'd keep you company."

"You mean guard me?"

"Both." Cas admitted, sitting down outside of the circle, facing Dean. "I couldn't concentrate on my book."

Dean smirked. "Can't help thinking about me, huh, Angel?"

Cas stiffened again at the use of angel, but settled on not saying anything about it. They were silent for a moment, and finally Cas asked, "Is something causing you pain, Dean?"

"No," Dean shrugged and shook his head, "I'm fine. Why?"

Cas shifted around a little bit and said, "You appeared to be in extreme pain just hours before."

Dean rested his elbows on his knees and placed his chin on his hands. "That was just a side effect from the trial. You remember Sam, he had it pretty bad, too."

"Yours are… different." Cas resigned to saying, squinting his eyes at him.

"Well I'm different, Cas." Dean responded, rather harshly.

Cas was taken aback by his response, though he knew he shouldn't have been. "You tried to kill Jael, Dean! How can you explain that?"

Dean was silent, wondering how could he explain that. He couldn't just say Oh Lucifer is controlling me and hurts me if I don't do it right, or lie and say I'm a demon now what do you expect? So he didn't say anything. Perhaps he could have said something along the lines of "I can't control it, I really didn't mean to, it's not me," but he didn't. He didn't want to sound like he was begging. He couldn't even say, "I can't." So he didn't say anything.

"This isn't you, Dean," Cas murmured, looking up at Dean through his eyelashes. Dean stared into Cas's shining angelic eyes and almost had to squint to see his face in front of his bright halo. Through Dean's demon smoke, Cas could just barely make out the small bat-like wings on Dean's back, and the spaded tail curling around his crossed legs.

"I know you can't help it," Cas continued, "but… this isn't my Dean. This isn't the Dean I know."

They sat together in silence for the rest of the night.

A/N: Sorry, but this is most likely the last chapter you'll get in two weeks. As I mentioned last chapter, I'm leaving tomorrow for a trip way out of town, coming back late saturday, then leaving early sunday for a farther than out of town but closer than way out of town trip. So yeah, I'll be busy. Anyways, I hope this chapter will be good for two weeks, but I know it's not going to help for me to say how excited I am to post chapter twelve.
Anyways, This chapter had some goofy Sam and Gabriel (I had so much fun writing their part) and some angst-y destiel. I hope you liked it.

ily all,
-Cameron