Author's note: I have returned! Have a new chapter before I go and unpack my things. ;-)
Thanks a lot to Maknatuna, tmmdeathwishraven, Kid'sDarkWolf, Maddy Love Castiel, chnoelle and Mello18 for last chapter's reviews :-)
And thanks a lot to my wonderful beta-reader, Ghastly Eternity!
21
It took three days before Sam stopped having rather violent fits of aggression and panic respectively. Dean and Bobby had both come to check on him a couple of times during his phases of clarity, but he had been too tired for lengthy talks, anyway. He got a couple of apologies out of the way, though. Gabriel rolled his eyes at him at every single one.
Yes, Sam knew that the archangel didn't think any of this was his fault and that was nice to know, but he still felt like a few apologies had been needed.
They also had reached the understanding that the younger Winchester appreciated being in physical contact with Gabriel a lot, under the condition that they were alone. Both Bobby and Dean knew that something was going on between the two temporary inhabitants of the panic room and Sam honestly didn't mind that whatever it was that he and Gabriel shared wasn't a secret. He was rather sure that the rest of his family appreciated the limits he had put to the level of public display of affection, though.
The Winchester brothers had finally gotten the chance to talk privately for a couple of minutes the other day and Sam was pretty sure that it had been one of the most awkward talks in his entire life.
"So, uh, since when are you… you know?" Dean had asked while scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably. He had really been trying to show his brother that he was sort of okay with this, whatever this was exactly, and the younger Winchester appreciated that.
"I… don't think I am," Sam had replied equally awkwardly, "It's only… Gabriel."
As far as he could tell that was true, as well. There was no use denying that he was into the archangel at this point, but he couldn't and didn't want to imagine doing anything with any other man.
Both brothers had been rather relieved when Gabriel had returned and insisted that Sam needed all the rest he could get. This had been the first time that Dean had gladly done what the archangel had told him to do, too.
All this still felt dangerously close to their experiences with Ruby to the older Winchester, but he had to admit that his brother had never seemed this content with the demon around. Besides, Gabriel was getting Sam off the blood instead of getting him addicted to it, which counted for a lot in Dean's book.
On the fourth day, Sam woke up to find that he was alone in the room, which was something that very rarely happened. Sure, he was mostly in control of himself again, so there was no reason for him to be under surveillance all the time. But, he had gotten used to having the other man around.
"Morning, Sasquatch, are you ready to return to the real world?" Gabriel asked cheerfully as soon as he had appeared back at the younger Winchester's side. He was quite determined to keep Sam away from any hunts for another while, but there was no use keeping him locked up in the panic room any longer.
"Yeah, I guess," Sam replied with a short smile and stood up from the bed, "Where were you off to, anyway?"
"Cold shower," Gabriel replied distractedly as he watched the younger Winchester stretch.
The human looked slightly confused and apparently was about to ask something, but the archangel simply shot him a pointed look, after which Sam's face lit up with realization and then embarrassment. Gabriel simply had to laugh at that and was hit with a pillow for it.
"Come on, Sammybear, there are people that want to see you," the archangel stated still chuckling. He moved closer to brush his lips against the younger Winchester's for a moment, just feeling happy that he could do this without having to prepare for the possibility that the other man might freak out. That wouldn't get old anytime soon.
"None of this when the others are around," Sam reminded him in a soft tone, stroking Gabriel's cheek for a moment.
"But, Sammybear…" the archangel began to object before he was promptly interrupted.
"No Sammybear, either," the younger Winchester insisted. Really, he didn't mind the stupid nickname, not too much, anyway. But he didn't want Dean or any of the others to hear it.
"Aww," Gabriel pouted just for the principle of it, but he vowed to himself to at least try to try to be good. He had nothing to gain by annoying Sam, so he should have enough motivation to play by the rules.
They were just walking up the stairs when the younger Winchester heard something that surprised him to say the least.
"But mom!" Jo whined insistently, but it was quite apparent that she didn't think she had any chances to change her mother's mind, anyway.
"No, Jo, you put your ass down and your ankle up and stop complaining!" Ellen replied in a tone that didn't allow any further objections.
Sam smiled at hearing their voices but slowed his pace down, anyway. He loved Ellen and Jo, but them being here now meant that they would have heard about recent developments, especially about his relapse. He still minded the prospect about having to say something like 'Yes, I have this big, fat, gay crush on an archangel' less than the part about a resurfacing demon blood addiction, though.
"Y'know, you could just have called the arch-douche upstairs for a minute earlier," Dean commented in a slightly amused tone.
At hearing that, Sam frowned and Gabriel just shrugged. It wasn't like he knew what the older Winchester had just been talking about. To tell the truth, he hadn't been paying attention to anything other than Sam lately. Right, the world around them hadn't exactly stopped. He probably had some catching up to do.
"Having to deal with this a little while longer might be a nice lesson about keeping an eye on your surroundings at all times," Ellen replied in a stern tone that held concern as well, though.
"That thing came out of freaking nowhere!" Jo objected immediately and then hissed in pain.
"Stomping your foot isn't a great idea right now, is it?" Dean asked innocently and apparently got something thrown into his direction for it.
When Sam finally got close enough to see what was going on he understood what all this was about immediately. Jo must have hurt her foot on their last hunt and was walking on crutches.
They really should have just told Gabriel about that earlier. It wasn't like the archangel had needed to stay close to Sam at all times and clearly Jo's injury would have been important enough to warrant a call.
"Hey there, you want help with that?" the archangel asked casually, pointing at the younger woman's foot.
"You expect me to ask for it very nicely?" Jo asked with a hint of sarcasm, but she really was hoping for a quick and painless recovery. Hell, if she had to beg for that, she probably would only to stop her mother from giving her those worried looks.
"Nah," the archangel replied putting a hand on Jo's shoulder, "It works if you just thank me profusely."
He'd take the small smile the exchange had just put on Sam's face as payment as well, however.
"Thank you," Jo said definitely gratefully as she got to put the crutches away into a corner. Having to use them to get around had been more annoying than the pain, really.
"You don't really know what profusely means, do you?" Gabriel couldn't help asking and got a gentle pat on the back of his head from his most favorite human.
Jo just shook her head amusedly, her eyes moving from Sam to the archangel and back again. Apparently, she was about to ask something, but wasn't quite sure how to approach the subject. The younger Winchester already started to feel embarrassed.
"How are you doing, Sam?" Ellen finally asked, giving the young man a short but tight hug. They had only heard about what had happened when they had arrived at Bobby's in the morning, but that had given her enough time to get worried, anyway. "You look well rested, at least," she added after a moment of consideration.
"I didn't do much but sleep and throw tantrums the past few days," Sam shrugged, ducking his head slightly. He was quite sure that Dean had wanted to make a joke about other activities but had thought better of it. He took a moment to try and figure out if his older brother would be sort of disappointed or relieved to hear that nothing much had happened, though. Come on, Sam had been out of it for a big junk of the time, which hadn't exactly put him in the mood to experiment!
"I'm good now, though," he finished with a short but genuine smile.
Next to Sam, Gabriel suddenly looked rather distracted. He pulled a face for a moment, before he disappeared into thin air within the blink of an eye.
"What was that?" Jo asked with an uncertain expression.
Nobody even got the chance to try and find an answer before Gabriel appeared again with another angel in tow.
"… not answer for days!" Caliel ranted on, not bothered by the fact that they had changed locations in the meantime, "I'm not risking my neck so you can ignore me!"
Gabriel looked back at her apologetically which he seemed to do a lot whenever he didn't have any good reasons for doing or not doing something.
"Ellen, Jo, that's Callie, she's Gabriel's biggest fan and supporter," Dean told the two Harvelles with a half-amused smirk. He didn't particularly like having one of the people he deemed most likely to betray them around again, but at the same time he could enjoy watching the archangel getting a dressing down.
"Okay, I'm sorry," Gabriel apologized in a tone that was very far from being actually apologetic, "Did you have something to tell us?"
Caliel huffed out a breath, but regained her composure and changed her demeanor to strictly business-like.
"There are a handful of angels willing to listen to your plan. Not many, but more than I expected, really," she told the archangel as well as the humans around, "However, there is someone who wants to meet with Dean and Sam as soon as possible. She says she has had to do with them before."
Gabriel was about to shoot the idea down when the older Winchester asked, "Anna?"
She was the only female angel they had had to do with and who they might ever meet up with again voluntarily, after all.
"Anna, yes," the angel confirmed, "She only just got out of solitary confinement."
That was the part that Caliel completely believed. The other angel had surely looked and acted the part to a T.
"Well, that's good, go get her," Dean stated with a shrug. His younger brother nodded his agreement. Anna had risked everything for one of their plans before and she surely was one of the angels that were fonder of humanity than most.
"Hold your horses, Dean-o," Gabriel said thoughtfully, "Nobody gets out of that sort of prison the same person they went in. How did she get out, anyway?"
He was pretty sure he knew how she had gotten in, now that he knew that she had worked with the Winchesters before. Not that he automatically thought that they were to blame, but heaven sure didn't like anyone helping them.
"She says it was a jail break," Caliel answered and, after seeing the archangel's doubting expression, quickly added, "I know, I know, but she seemed trustworthy. She wants to help stop the Apocalypse."
That was more than good enough for Dean and he shot the archangel a pointed look.
"As I said, go get her. Anna's a friend," he said emphatically. They were already having a team meeting, so they might as well add another angel to it.
Gabriel just shrugged. Everybody else had seen Anna much more recently than he had, so they should have a better idea about just how trustworthy she was. The angel he remembered had been one of the good kind, anyway.
"As you wish," Caliel shrugged casually, "I'll be back."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Ellen asked with a deep frown. She didn't know the angel they had been talking about, but the good thing about this was that she had been able to listen to the arguments from the viewpoint of a neutral outsider.
"Oh, no worries, Dean knows her," Sam couldn't help replying with a small smirk. Yes, he could admit that the archangel probably had some sort of bad influence on him.
"That's rich, let Dean-o get his hands on one of your sisters and things get biblical," Gabriel quipped with a chuckle.
"Like you should be the one to talk," Dean shot back with a snort and then promptly pulled a face as rather unwanted pictures popped into his head.
Ellen and Jo silently exchanged looks. The guys really were a bunch of overgrown kindergarteners, sometimes. It was a miracle that Bobby managed to put up with them as regularly as he did.