Gabriel was stood, strapping something to his arm; he smiled to me as I entered the room, Loki following, invisible, at my heels. Dean sat on the bed, typing furiously into a laptop. "What's going on?" I asked. "Where are the government officials?"
"Taken care of." Gabriel told me. I felt tension begin to release from my body until I heard Loki tut behind me. "We won't need to worry about them."
"Why not, where are they?"
"So many questions!" Gabriel laughed, slapping a hand onto my shoulder. "Relax! It's all been taken care of!" He turned away, starting to build something he had laid out parts for on the end of the bed.
"That's not a very comforting answer." I reply quietly. I watch as his shoulders tense a little and he turns to me with a big smile.
"They left. We lied to them about something they should check out and they left."
"There were cars downstairs."
"They left on foot."
When I don't argue this time, he returns to the task he had set himself. I risk a quick look at Loki, he's grim faced, jaw tightened as he glares at Gabriel's back. "He is lying." He growls.
"I guess there wasn't a reason for me to come back." I say airily to Gabriel. I note that Dean hasn't once looked up since I entered the room.
"Well actually," Gabriel replies without turning around, "we think we've found a way for me to get home!"
"Oh?" I raise an eyebrow.
"Yes!" He turned to me and paused, face falling, "It's a difficult thing to ask, but I was wondering if you would come with me? I need to get the others back, and you've been inside the prison… please, Jess, help me."
I try to glance at what he was building but the position he's standing in doesn't allow me to see past him. "How does it work?"
He waves a hand. "Trust me, you don't need to know all the mumbo-jumbo jargony bits."
"I'd like to."
"It's very complicated." He smiles. "Please, just say you'll come with me. I need your help."
"What do you think, Dean?" I ask, looking to the doctor. Still not even a blink from him, his fingers racing around the keyboard. "Dean?"
"He's a little preoccupied."
"I can see that." I try not to let my temper slip into my voice. "What's he doing?"
"Setting up a remote call to my ship. It'll come to these co-ordinates on auto-pilot and I can get on board."
Slowly, I walk over to Doctor Martins. "Jessica," I hear Loki warn, "be very careful." In the corner of my eye, I see Gabriel tense up again. I kneel down by Dean, putting my hand on his knee.
"Dean?" I half-whisper. He doesn't respond at all, still staring at the screen that he's pumping information into.
"What did you do to him?" I ask dryly.
"Jess," Gabriel laughed softly, "I've been in bed for days, what could I have done? What are you talking about? He's fine."
"I don't like liars, Gabriel."
"Jessica." Loki warned again less softly. "I would not push him."
"He's fine." Gabriel repeated.
I stood up, meeting his firm gaze with my own. "Let him go." I say slowly. "Whatever this is, he doesn't need to get hurt."
"No one is going to get hurt." He replied darkly. "So long as you don't do anything stupid." He reaches for the thing he's now finished building on the bed. "You spoke to Loki?"
"Yes." I could sense Loki tense even if I wasn't facing him to see him.
"Gilly said you still love him."
"Gilly doesn't know who I was talking about."
"Gilly said you still loved someone." He corrected himself. "Was he happy to see you? Did he make a big show of protecting you again after imprisoning you? I bet he told you I've been lying to you!"
"Have you?" I raise my eyebrows.
"Jess, it's me." He laughed, raising an arm. "What possible reason could I have for lying to you?"
"What's in your hand?" I ask, nodding to the contraption he had assembled on the bed.
"It's nothing, it's just-"
"What is it?"
He sighed, lifting the weapon to point at me. "You know I really had hoped this would have gone differently."
"Are you going to kill me?" I ask calmly.
"He wouldn't dare." Loki growls quietly behind me.
He shrugs, light shimmering along the scales on his shoulder blades. "I hadn't intended to. Not so long as you followed what I said."
"And went with you to god knows where?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"You don't need to know." He looked at me with sincerity. "I never intended to hurt you. But I will if I must."
A little defeated, I decided to keep him talking. "What did you do to Dean?"
"Nothing too offensive, Doctor Martins is just dealing with a stronger dose of what I gave you."
"So you did drug me."
He narrowed his eyes with a sickening smirk as he appraised me. "Worked that out all by yourself, I'm proud of you."
"What did you give us?"
"Just a little something to make you more compliant to me. To trust me more easily."
My fists tightened a little. I had trusted him. "Did Gilly know?"
"Not at all. But the moment she wanted to bring a breather aboard my ship, I knew you had to be important. So I decided to slip you a little something, keep you sweet to me, an ace in my pocket as it were."
So Loki had been right, Gabriel wasn't to be trusted. I'm not sure how to feel. Disappointed in myself, angry? I stare down the barrel of the weapon he's pointing at me. No idea what it was; it was made of medical equipment and whatever Tony left about I suppose.
If it had just been me and Gabriel in the room, I'd have tried fighting him. Maybe attempted to wrestle the weapon off of him. But I couldn't risk such a rash move with Dean in the room. It wasn't just my life at stake.
"So when did my concoction wear off?" He asked, changing the topic. "I should probably know so I don't let it affect the next person I intoxicate."
"It just did."
"I thought you didn't like liars." He gave me a forced smile, his patience wearing thin.
"I don't know."
He tutted and moved around the bed to be closer to me. I repressed a shudder as his clammy fingers reached forward to brush some of my hair behind my ear, trailing across my cheek. The makeshift gun type thing was pressed against my chest. Gabriel lent in towards my ear. "I don't like liars either."
And with that, he pulled the trigger.
