Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Impala67-Ilana, Mello18, Tendencia, CassXDeano, define crazy, Keefer, starshaker, keacdragon, Maddy Love Castiel, Avalonemyst, CherylB1964, Pizzapig, SARA1988, kb18142, L. Greene, Nyx Ro, FireChildSlytherin5 and Bluegonfalon for last chapter's reviews.

You guys make me smile like crazy with your reviews :-D

I have a question for you: Should Sam stay a single parent, or would you like to see him go and date? (I am a little undecided on this point myself, so I'd like to hear your thoughts)

21

February 13th, 2017

Balthazar and Castiel promised to take you to a place where you can practice using some of your powers safely today. I admit that I insisted to come along to watch mostly out of curiosity…

As it turned out the place where Gabriel could just unleash his powers without the risk of being watched or accidentally hurting someone didn't actually exist. Balthazar hadn't given much of an explanation, but it seemed that they were still technically in their living room, even though to Sam it looked like a rather big clearing in a forest someplace where it wasn't winter but early summer.

The two adult angels had had to work together to create this little pocket universe, something either one of them hadn't done before and neither one of them had enough power to do alone. Castiel felt the result was satisfactory while Balthazar had proclaimed that the two of them were better than Jesus. The dark-haired angel didn't think that it was a very fitting comparison, but he didn't want to discuss the matter and kept quiet about it.

The younger Winchester was leaning against a tree that probably was no tree at all, even though it sure felt like one – and Sam would stop thinking about this before he gave himself a migraine – just watching the three angels interact. He actually was rather curious to see what exactly Cas and Balthazar thought they should teach their nearly seven year old brother.

The blonde angel crouched down and whispered something to the little boy that made him grin like a maniac for a few moments before he nodded determinedly. Sam didn't even get the time to wonder what this might be about before Balthazar grabbed Gabriel unceremoniously and tossed him high in the air. All of the younger Winchester's instincts screamed for him to try and catch his son, even though he knew that he would never get close enough in time. Rationally, he knew that his two brothers would never allow for the archangel to get hurt. He was man enough to admit that he was too panicky to think completely rational that very moment, though.

Gabriel's wings appeared before his father had even made the first two steps, however. Yes, this was the exact moments when the younger Winchester felt the dumbest he had felt in quite a long time. He forced a smile and waved toward the archangel, leaning back against the tree with the resolution to keep his cool from then on. The point of this entire exercise was to allow the three angels to show some of their real potential they had to keep hidden in the everyday life among humans, so he really shouldn't go into panic-mode as soon as something that looked out of the ordinary and too damn dangerous to him happened.

"Well done, bro!" Balthazar called up to his little brother in a proud tone, "Cassy had to be pushed off a lot of clouds before he learned to fly!"

Castiel frowned deeply, but didn't say anything, simply taking his trenchcoat off and folding it carefully before he put it to the ground. The big black wings that appeared on his back were just a representation of the real deal just like Gabriel's white ones were, but it was a form he felt connected to, all the same.

"Glad to see your wings are that well groomed," Balthazar commented with a smirk, "Good job, brother. Or is somebody else doing it for you?"

"Don't ask stupid questions," Castiel replied matter-of-factly and took off without another word. Gabriel was getting a little impatient already and needed to be entertained, anyway. It looked like the little archangel had already figured out the basics of flying, so it was about time things got more interesting and getting to play catch with one of his brothers was one way to achieve that.

"In all the years I've been around angels I've never seen any of you guys just fly like that," Sam stated, standing next to Balthazar as they watched how Castiel tried to get his hands on the little archangel who was having a blast trying to avoid his brother and flying over and under him in quick maneuvers that seemed to come to him naturally.

"It's not exactly inconspicuous," the blonde angel shrugged lightly, "Or all too efficient for that matter. Uses a lot of energy and leaves you more open to attack than instant transportation does."

Though disappearing at one place and reappearing at another just the blink of an eye later still was a form of flying, even if to the human eye it would look nothing like it. Balthazar liked the younger Winchester, but he wasn't going to put a lot of energy into explaining things to him that his very human mind couldn't fully grasp, anyway.

"All in all, it's not something you do unless you feel very comfortable with the company you're in," Balthazar said nearly a little melancholically. He shrugged the feeling off quickly and rolled his shoulders for a second before he willed his own pale blue wings to appear, "Tell you the truth, mate, it's been longer than I care to remember since anybody just did this for fun."

The message was clear enough. Heaven hadn't been a place for fun and games for a very long time and Sam didn't dare to guess how much trust there was between all the remaining angels in heaven at this point. He knew that things were better than they had been and that it was a safe and peaceful place once more, but that wasn't the same as saying that there was no leftover tension from years and years of fighting and mistrust.

No matter how the situation in general might have been, the three angels were clearly having the time of their lives. The younger Winchester wasn't sure if he had even heard Castiel laugh like that ever before, despite the fact that Gabriel and Balthazar had decided to team up against him and were poking and tickling him every time they managed to corner him – quite a feat thinking how there obviously were no corners in the sky.

Sam smiled, feeling happy for all three of them, even if Gabriel was the only one he cheered on.

Balthazar had always been good at hiding. Hell, you couldn't be a snarky and sarcastic bastard that liked to push people – including higher ups – to their limits without knowing how to hide from them in case you pushed them that little bit too far. Besides, he had been the one to come up with the basic design for the reality they currently were in – Castiel's sense of imagination had always left a lot to be desired – so if anyone could find the perfect hiding place, it was the blonde angel.

"Hi Bal," Gabriel's grin nearly split his face in half, especially after he saw the other angel jump slightly.

"Bloody hell!" Balthazar exclaimed. Sure, he had expected his little brother to find him, but that had been much quicker than anticipated and the brat had even made sure to appear behind him so he could scare him better. Useless to say that Balthazar was pretty damn proud of the little one.

"How did you find me so quickly?" the adult angel asked the little boy after they had zapped themselves back to where Castiel and Sam were waiting. Balthazar had thought he had made it very hard for anyone to locate him. Actually, he had expected that he would have to give the little one a few hints before he got frustrated with a fruitless search.

Gabriel shrugged lightly. Finding his family members was second nature to him, apparently. He couldn't have explained how he did it, if he had wanted to, though.

"I always know where you are," the archangel replied thoughtfully, standing next to his father, looking up to him to see if he had given a good answer. It couldn't have been too bad, because the adult simply smiled and ruffled his hair for a moment.

"Alright, where is Dean right now?" Balthazar asked with a grin. He didn't doubt that his little brother had told them the truth, but he thought that putting it to the test couldn't hurt, anyway.

"Uncle Dean is at the cinema," Gabriel answered without having to think about it first. He felt very clearly that his uncle was at the local cinema his dad sometimes took him to, too. It was the place that had popped into the archangel's mind as soon as his brother had asked him the question, anyway.

"I do not understand how going to the cinema would help him with the research for our new case," Castiel stated with a deep frown. Nobody wanted to explain the matter to the angel, even though Sam and Balthazar looked like they knew something more about it, however.

"How about you practice taking someone else with you when you transport yourself?" the blonde angel suggested, looking over to the younger Winchester. He was the only one of them who couldn't fly, after all. It wasn't like all too much could go wrong with this, either. What were the chances that Gabriel would totally lose his focus or control and only take half of his father with him or something alike?

Sam didn't exactly like the look Balthazar had just given him, but he could barely say no to this, in any case. At least, Castiel looked completely unconcerned which was reassuring.

"Alright, where are we going, Gabe?" the younger Winchester asked, trying to sound absolutely confident for the sake of keeping this a fun and stress free exercise for his little son.

"Over there," Gabriel decided and grabbed his father's hand a little tighter before he tried to get the two of them over to the big stone he had pointed out a moment earlier. Usually when he wanted to be somewhere he only had to let the part of him that made him feel all tingly when he concentrated on it take over and he would be there. Apparently, taking someone with him didn't make that much of a difference; he simply hadn't tried it before.

"Well done," Sam praised with a slightly shaky smile. He wasn't sure if it was the teleportation or the landing that made him feel a little disoriented, but it wasn't like it really mattered where the feeling came from.

He didn't get the time to think about it any longer before Gabriel zapped them to the other side of the clearing, onto a thick branch of a nearby tree and then back to his brothers in quick succession. The younger Winchester wasn't exactly proud of himself for pulling his hand free from the little archangel's grasp as hurriedly as he did after that, but he was pretty sure that his stomach couldn't take that much more.

"Looks like the family vacation to Hawaii has just become significantly cheaper," Balthazar commented casually, looking at the way Sam was swaying slightly on his feet with a smirk, "You'll warn us, if you need a bucket, won't you?"

An incredibly immature part of the younger Winchester's brain wanted to tell the blonde angel that he'd do his best to throw up on his designer shoes, but Gabriel had enough people who were giving him an example in how to be sarcastic, big mouthed and snarky as it was. He didn't need to add to that list.

"Do you want to fly another round?" Sam asked instead. That was one of these things they couldn't do back at their home. The ceilings weren't that high and there were enough people in the neighborhood that sprouting wings and flying around in the garden was out of the question, as well.

Gabriel's wings were back before the younger Winchester had even finished the question. Balthazar's weren't far behind and the two took off, leaving Sam and Castiel behind.

"Your brother is trying to leave all the research to me, isn't he?" the dark-haired angel suddenly asked, going back to a topic the younger Winchester hadn't thought would come up again.

Sam simply nodded in his surprise. Castiel was suspecting that Dean was being a lazy ass already anyway, so it didn't exactly count as ratting his older brother out.

"I don't understand," the angel admitted with a slight frown, "I would gladly do it without being tricked, if he asked for it."

"I always liked to think that it was a sign of trust when Dean set me up like that. I mean, he completely relies on whatever you're going to find out being just as good as everything he could have uncovered himself," the younger Winchester tried to explain, even though he was pretty sure he wasn't telling Castiel anything new here. The angel had spent quite a few years by Dean's side at this point and he had known most things there were to know about Dean Winchester even before that.

"The human antics are still puzzling to me most of the time," the dark-haired angel admitted after a short moment of intense consideration. He knew that Dean trusted him completely and valued his input in basically all things, but he still didn't understand why the older Winchester wouldn't just give the task of doing research to him from the start, if he intended to weasel out of it, anyway.

"Most humans aren't quite as difficult to understand as the average Winchester," Sam chuckled, not even trying to say that with a straight face. It was probably better, too. Castiel might use sarcasm himself at times and he understood it better than ever before when others used it, but it still was hard to predict which things he would still take too literally.

Above their heads Gabriel was chasing Balthazar until his eyes fell on his father and he swooped down gracefully, hovering just a few feet above the ground and grinning like he had just had the best idea ever.

Sam's eyes widened as soon as he caught on to what his son was probably thinking about. He was pretty sure that his body language was a clear enough 'hell no!' that saying it out loud would have been redundant, but it didn't look like Gabriel was going to be deterred, anyway. In fact, the archangel simply plastered himself to his father's back, sneaking his arms under the human's and wrapping them around his chest as best as he could. He had to struggle a little before he got the two of them into the air, but neither keeping his grip on Sam nor keeping the two of them airborne was much of a challenge to Gabriel after the initial takeoff.

"I will try to catch you, if Gabriel should lose his grip!" Castiel called after them. Balthazar's loud laughter wasn't exactly reassuring, either.

You really like testing just how much I trust you, don't you, Gabe? I hope I passed that test… and I hope Balthazar will eventually forgive me about the shoes.