Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Maddy Love Castiel, L. Greene, Tendencia, FireChildSlytherin5, Shorty22133 , Aoi Faith, Pizzapig, No pen names left, CherylB1964, Yana5, Impala67-Ilana, midnight0211, MishaIsMyCastiel, kb18142, TheWinchestersBadGirl and CassXDeano for last chapter's reviews! You guys are awesome! :-D

24

"Wait, what?" Dean asked incredulously and put his mug back on the table hard enough for some of his coffee to spill over.

Their conversation had been rather predictable this far. Sam told a part of the story and his brother would interrupt him with the exact same exclamation he had just made.

Joshua talked to me in a dream last night. Wait, what?

Apparently, Gabriel wanted this new chance at life. Wait, what?

God told Joshua I could choose, if he gets turned back into an adult. Wait, what?

And that was pretty much where they were that very moment.

"You heard me, Dean," Sam replied calmly, wiggling one of Gabriel's toys in front of him for the archangel's amusement, "He'll stay the way he is and grow up normally."

To tell the truth, the younger Winchester was quite prepared for his brother exploding at him at that announcement. Especially since he hadn't tried to be anything like diplomatic about it. Dean didn't disappoint him, either.

"That's just fucking great, Sam!" the older Winchester yelled, hitting the table with his palm as he stood up quickly, his breakfast forgotten, "Crowley has us by the balls, Raphael is trying his best to kill Cas and you're adding a freaking baby to the equation!"

Alright, the baby had been there before, but they had all assume that he wasn't there to stay. He should have been turned back into his adult self as soon as possible and he should at least help Castiel with the situation in heaven. Dean hadn't honestly believed that Gabriel might feel inclined to assist them with their problems with the king of hell, but they could handle that on their own. It didn't look like Cas and Balthazar could handle Raphael on their own, however.

The younger Winchester sighed deeply and tried to hush the infant who had promptly started to wail. He could smile his way through an attack by a vengeful spirit, but as soon as someone got loud he lost his cool.

Dean threw his brother a nasty glare and stormed out of the room before he could say or do any more things he would regret later.

"Your brother will come around eventually," Bobby commented and effectively reminded Sam that he was present as well with it. The older hunter had chosen to stay in the background and keep quiet, because this was something the brothers had to arrange among themselves. Oh, Bobby was sure that he would be affected by the now permanently changed circumstances, but in the end it didn't matter to him if Sam returned to hunting or if he didn't. He hadn't been the one who had counted on the younger Winchester's more domestic life being very temporary. In fact, he had had the feeling that they might be stuck with the baby angel for much longer than a few weeks for quite some time.

The younger Winchester nodded tightly and smiled when Gabriel - still with watery eyes - reached for his nose.

"You haven't said what you think about all this," Sam pointed out, turning his head towards the older hunter. There was no backing out of the decision he had made anyway, but that didn't mean that he didn't want to know what his family was thinking about it. In the end, he would have to deal with whatever consequences there might be and he would deal with them knowing that he had done the one thing that had felt right to him at the time.

"I think you just made your life a whole lot more complicated," Bobby replied, shooting the younger Winchester a pointed look, "But I haven't seen you smile as often as you did lately in a long time and whatever makes you that happy is worth holding on to."

As if on cue, Gabriel started to squirm and babbled at his caretaker as if he wanted to say 'Listen to the man, human. That's some good advice right there!'. Sam really thought he had to stop letting the baby address him as 'human' when he tried to read what he was attempting to communicate.

"Even if it's a little pigeon," the older hunter added with a small smirk and patted the archangel's head for a few moments.

The younger Winchester was endlessly grateful to know that at least Bobby understood him and was even approving of his decision to some extent. He was sure that Dean would give him enough of a hard time without needing anyone to back him up, anyway.

"Thanks Bobby and thanks for letting us stay here," Sam stated in a grateful tone as he went to the fridge and held containers with different flavors of pudding in front of Gabriel's nose until the infant squealed and reached for one.

The younger Winchester was rather sure that he hadn't been the one to buy the Oreo flavored pudding in the first place and it didn't seem like something Bobby would go for, so the choice had probably been Dean's. Really, his older brother and the littlest archangel might get along so well, if only Dean could find it in himself to jump over his own shadow.

"Uhm… do you think you could…?" Sam asked gesturing between Bobby and the infant, "I'd like to try and talk to Dean and I hope Gabe won't disappear on you, if you're in charge of the pudding."

He had to find a way to convince the baby to stay with somebody else for at least a couple of minutes eventually. He couldn't call for Cas or Balthazar or wait for the time when Gabriel would be fast asleep every time he needed to do something on his own. It would really help if there was a way to build up the infant's trust in a few carefully selected people and pudding seemed to be a good way to bribe the baby into considering someone a friend.

Bobby raised an eyebrow on the younger Winchester, but accepted the archangel when Sam handed him over without complaint. It wasn't like it was that much of a sacrifice to spend a few minutes shoveling pudding into the little idjit's mouth, but he didn't see a reason to encourage the idea that he might become the number one person to go to for a babysitter!

Sam stayed for a couple of moments to make sure that Gabriel was okay with being held by the older hunter in general. He only hoped that the infant would still keep his cool once he left the kitchen, but it looked like the younger Winchester wouldn't have needed to worry so much.

"You disappear on me and the next time I'm babysitting will involve a ring of holy fire, you hear me?" Bobby threatened, using a rather soft tone, though. The baby was sitting on his lap calmly, waiting for the next spoonful of pudding, after all. Also, no matter how many years of hunting he had under his belt, Bobby wasn't completely immune to the charms of a baby, either. He was a little glad that he hadn't met John Winchester until the boys had been a few years older, otherwise they'd have wrapped him around their little fingers even more easily!

In the meantime Sam had reached the front porch from where he should be able to see if Dean had decided to vent his frustration by working on the Impala as he usually did. It seemed that his older brother hadn't even made it that far, though.

"Look, I'm sorry," the younger Winchester started, leaning against the wall next to his brother, "I didn't really get the chance to talk this through with you guys before I had to make a decision and – before you say it – you wouldn't have been able to change my mind in this, anyway. I just hope that you can eventually understand that I couldn't let them force Gabriel into being an adult again when that's not what he wants. And to be completely honest, it's not what I want, either."

If Dean was going to be mad at him, he should at least get all worked up and angry about the truth. Sam had been fully prepared to do everything to turn the archangel back into his original form, even if the thought of losing the baby alone had been very painful to him. The moment he had learned that he wouldn't do Gabriel a favor with it had been the moment when he had changed his mind, though.

"He's got the chance to really start over from scratch now," the younger Winchester added, "And I guess I get the chance to change my life, too."

The annoyed look Dean shot his way immediately let him know that he had just said something very wrong. He should have expected it, really. Well, the last times he had tried to go and change his life that had always involved both of them going their own way and breaking contact.

"Dean, I'm not saying I want out completely. It's not going to be like Stanford," Sam promised before he added with a sigh, "At least, I don't want it to be. I don't want to lose contact and I don't want to stop doing the research and assisting in any way I can without… you know… actually being there. I can't force you to accept that, of course."

In the end, his brother would have to decide if he could live with that. The younger Winchester didn't really expect that Dean might turn his back on him, but it was an option his brother had.

"Would you please say something?" Sam asked after the older Winchester continued to simply look at him for a few more awfully long moments.

"It's nice to see you without that angelic growth on your shoulder for a change," Dean finally said with a small smirk, putting a hand on his younger brother's shoulder.

Of course, the older Winchester made stupid jokes to hide how he really felt more often than not and it wasn't always all too clear what kind of feeling he was hiding, but the way he had touched Sam let him know that they were at least sort of okay. He could understand that all this had come rather sudden for his older brother and he knew that Dean wasn't exactly the sort of guy who appreciated changes to the few things that were constants in his life all too much.

"Pretty sure it'll only be the two of us until the Oreo pudding runs out, at least," the younger Winchester replied with a shrug. Who knew what the archangel would do once he wasn't busy getting sugar into his system anymore?

"Dude! I wanted to eat that!" Dean exclaimed, "You'd better make sure Gabe doesn't get his hands on my pie ever, or I can't guarantee for anything!"

Sam tried not to smile too much about the fact that his brother had just called the archangel by his nickname instead of any of the other terms he usually used to describe the infant. He didn't mention that Gabriel could always just make some pie appear, if he wanted to have some and that if Dean got on his good side, he might also will some into existence for him. The younger Winchester had neglected to inform his brother about the baby's latest demonstration of his powers in the bathroom and that included never mentioning the incident with the rubber ducks and the towel, after all. He wasn't going to open that can of worms when Dean was still struggling to get used to the fact that they had a new family member now.

"Yeah, yeah, the pie is sacred," Sam rolled his eyes, "I'll make sure that he learns to keep his hands off uncle Dean's stuff."

Thinking how most of his older brother's things were weapons of some sort that probably was a really good thing to teach the baby, anyway. The younger Winchester still wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to have some sort of authority over a being that – even as an infant – was so much more powerful than he was, but he was quite sure they'd be able to work something out. This far they had managed to solve every little problem that had come their way. Too bad that the really big problems still remained.

"Damn straight," Dean stated, for once not protesting against being called 'uncle'. The younger Winchester took that as a good sign, too.

"While we're at it," the older Winchester added in a completely faked serious tone, "You'll teach him to respect classic cars and especially the Impala and his musical education won't be in your hands. We already talked about the clothes and I am sad to say that you still haven't made any improvements concerning that matter, yet."

The taller man thought he should take the fact that his brother was obviously teasing him while showing some interest in certain things concerning the archangel as a good sign, too. That didn't mean that he wouldn't grow tired of it quickly, however.

"Are you quite done?" Sam snorted after waiting for the continuation of the rant for a few moments.

"For now, yeah," Dean replied, obviously rather pleased with himself.

The brothers stood in amiable silence for a little longer. Maybe these new developments hadn't come all too surprising for both of them, after all. They both couldn't deny that, even if they took the fact that the separation from Gabriel had eaten at Sam at the time out of the equation, hunting together hadn't been the same as before and it probably would have never been. Neither of them would have wanted to say it out loud, but it might be for the best that they were forced to make certain changes, anyway.

They both decided that they'd better get back inside at nearly the same time. Dean really wanted to see how Bobby was doing with the infant and Sam thought he should free their father figure from his babysitter duties as quickly as possible.

Just before the younger Winchester could open the door his brother's hand on his shoulder stopped him, though.

"Oh and Sammy, just so we're clear on this, I demand at least six months notice on any further nieces or nephews!"