Chapter Forty-Nine: Push

Sam and Gabriel were on the road again. They'd solved the case (though, it was mostly Sam that did the solving), then got the hell out of town before the sheriff could catch up and arrest them. They were once again on the trip that Gabriel told Sam almost nothing about.

"So are you going to tell me where we're going?" Sam asked for the umpteenth time.

"Eventually," Gabriel replied, twirling a lollypop in his mouth.

"Before or after we get there?"

Gabriel was thoughtful for a moment. "After," he finally said confidently.

Sam rolled his eyes, wondering why the hell he was even going along with this.

Because you like him, a voice in his head said.

No, he told the voice. Because he saved my life. I should at least give him something for that, shouldn't I?

And you like him, the voice said. The voice sounded oddly like Dean and Sam couldn't help but think that having the voice in his head sound like his brother was kinda masochistic.

"Hey, just trust me Gigantor," Gabriel said, offering him a lollypop.

Sam shook his head at the candy. "Yeah, trust the guy who killed my brother over and over."

Gabriel seemed a bit taken aback by the statement. "I was trying to teach you a lesson," he said as he unwrapped the lollypop.

"And locked us in TV land just for kicks."

"Again, lesson. I wanted you to say yes. If only you hadn't figured me out. I think my life would have been considerably easier." He stuck the lollypop in Sam's mouth, not caring that the young Winchester didn't want it.

Sam gave him an odd look as he pulled it out of his mouth.

"You know what just occurred to me," Sam said thoughtfully. "Maybe what you really wanted, was for us to figure you out."

"You're crazy."

"Probably," Sam agreed. "But I think you wanted to be caught. You wanted us to give you a reason to stop riding the fence and start fighting for something."

"I never wanted to fight them," Gabriel said.

"No, and I understand that. But you wanted them to stop fighting. And you just needed a little push from us."

Gabriel stared at him silently for a long while as both twirled lollypops around in their mouths.

"You and your brother think very highly of yourselves, you know that?"