"I know I talk about how much I love my brothers, and how different they are than they were during the apocalypse. But you shouldn't just take my word for it because your feelings about the apocalypse matter too, and they hurt you. If you can be comfortable with it, I'd like you to consider meeting, Heylel at least, when he's alone so that you can form an opinion for yourself. But it's okay if you can't, I don't want to push you into doing something that makes you uncomfortable."

Sam's breath hitched, but he forced himself to relax. He loved Gabriel. And even if it seemed like an unbelievable future, he couldn't fathom not spending the rest of his life with his archangel. And if Gabriel wanted him to consider meeting Heylel, then he could think about it. There was a pretty slim chance he would be in danger from the elder archangel, and if Gabriel thought there was any chance, he wouldn't be suggesting it in the first place.

"You don't have to do decide now," Gabriel said. "And you don't have to do it just because you think it'll make me happy."

"I don't want you to pick me over your family," Sam said. "And I do want to meet them, even your Heylel."

"There won't be any true vessel shenanigans, I swear it. Mikha and Heylel are so in love it's gross and Mikha has laid claim to Heylel's current vessel."

Sam could be down with no pressure to say yes. "They're probably trying to embarrass you. Older brothers' prerogative and all that. But I'll do it. I'll meet your brothers and form my own opinion."

"Thank you." Gabriel kissed Sam's cheek. "Thank you."

Sam didn't really think about Gabriel's request until he got a business card sized note with a request to meet at a coffee shop in down. It made a point to remind Sam that there was no obligation to show up, but Sam decided he wanted to meet Heylel on neutral territory and if he didn't do it now, he might chicken out and never get it done.

Sam was late. It wasn't intentional, but he realized that he wanted to ensure that he arrived after the archangel.

He identified Heylel the second he walked into the coffee shop, ad he wasn't afraid. It was pretty empty, but no one seemed too unhappy. People drinking their coffee or eating their snacks.

Heylel was sitting at a table in the back, a glass of water and a chocolate chip muffin in front of him.

He approached calmly, taking the seat across from Heylel. "Hello."

"Good afternoon, Sam." Heylel looked up. "I don't know if Gabriel mentioned it, but I would prefer if you call me Heylel, not Lucifer."

"Heylel," Sam repeated, more because he wanted to be sure that the archangel understood his intention to call him by the preferred name. He wasn't a dick, and he wasn't surprised, because he still remembered that both Gabriel and Castiel called their elder brother by the older name.

He wasn't sure what else he was supposed to say. The apocalypse was over and everyone was unbelievably happy, like a Djinn dream , and at times it felt like waiting for the other shoe to drop. "Water?" he inquired about instead, for lack of having anything else to say. "I would have thought expresso was more your style."

"If it's bad for pregnant humans, I think I'll pass. Water is fine."

Sam blinked. Pregnant? Actually… he wasn't surprised if they really had been going at it like rabbits. Asking would be rude though. "Are you happy?"

That seemed to be the right thing to say, because Heylel beamed. "Sam, I honestly regret how you were used to bring about the apocalypse, and to some extent, all of us are to blame for that. But I would like to add that hurting Mikha was never my intention, even when I temporarily believed that he might try to kill me. I was cast out of Heaven, by God, in my attempt to protect my mate from His wrath. And yes, Sam. Iam happy. The one thing I've wanted for so long was to return to my flock, and for it to be whole, and now our family is going to expand and I have never been happier."

Sam nodded. Lucifer may have gotten a bad wrap in the lore on Earth and despite Heylel's less than apt delivery, he had sympathized with the fallen archangel because it was a parallel to his own childhood. And maybe that had been part of the whole point, but that didn't matter.

He didn't know if Heylel deserved the second chance, or even if he himself deserved it, but he wasn't judge and jury so that wasn't relevant either. What mattered was the fact that they did have their second chance, and as the Romans would have said it, it was time to Seize the Day.

"Would you like to go pick out something for yourself?" Heylel asked after a moment, holding out a leaf of money that Sam was pretty sure he hadn't been holding a second before.

"Uh, thank you," Sam said. "Do you want me to get something for you too?" Because it didn't matter that he hadn't digested everything Heylel had said yet. He knew the archangel wasn't lying, and that he was telling the truth about everything (including being pregnant) and you were always nice to pregnant people. (And maybe he wasn't supposed to instantaneously forgive Lucifer for everything he'd done in the last year, but given that it hadn't been Lucifer personally who had caused any damage to him at all except the creepy pretending to be Jess in the beginning, which was probably more a lack of understanding humans than anything else , he was pretty inclined to let bygones be bygones.)

"I'm good, thanks Sam," Heylel said with a nod.

"Okay. I'll be right back." Sam got up and headed for the line to order.

He didn't know exactly what he wanted, but the line was long enough that he had some time to decide. He also had time to think about his feelings towards Heylel.

Carthage had been bad . They hadn't been able to see the reapers, but it hadn't been good. And the explosion and hellhounds had killed Jo and Ellen.

Sam blamed Meg for their deaths, but Lucifer had been responsible to some extent as well. At least he wasn't trying to get back at him for shooting him with the colt.

"What can I get you?"

Sam almost ordered a white chocolate and caramel macchiato but Heylel apparently couldn't have coffee (Why would caffeine be bad for a baby angel?) so he decided not to rub it in his face. "I'd like the white chocolate caramel chai and two of those brownies, one of those glazed lemon bread, and…. Could you put a piece of apple pie in a to go box? Thanks."

Sam was waiting for his order when a quick look to see that Heylel was okay revealed that Heylel was no longer alone. He knew when the young man with the appearance of the young John Winchester kissed Heylel on the cheek that Michael had shown up.

The hunter wasn't sure how to feel about that. He hadn't met the Viceroy of Heaven personally, and he knew he couldn't just accept Dean's assessment at face value. But Zachariah and Uriel had been pretty clear about serving Michael and that did not provide a sterling reputation.

And yet, watching Michael's body language, Gabriel was right. They were so in love it was adorable, and if that homophobic dick actually said anything aloud…

"This is a family establishment, you and your kind are not welcome!"

The items Sam had paid for were placed on the counter, so he grabbed them and stalked in the direction of the homophobe that really shouldn't have been bothering the archangels.

"As scum of the Earth, your opinion isn't relevant," he growled. He hated intolerant hypocrites, and he hated that if the guy started anything, one or the other of the archangels would probably smite him (and he'd deserve it.)

"And what are you going to do about it?"

The guy might have intimidated other people, but Sam was more than six feet of muscle and not only had he learned how to make himself smaller for the sake of not terrifying the humans they interviewed, but since he hunted monsters for a day job, he was quite capable of looking intimidating.

So he did. And the guy creating a scene might have wet himself if he hadn't been so angry.

And then the man was moving. And he might have successfully upended his hot coffee over someone's head, probably Heylel, but Sam was faster. Sam was faster because if there's one thing you never do, it's scald someone carrying a child. Not even an archangel, and especially not when the archangel's archangelic mate is likely to smite you for it. Sam didn't really care about what the aftermath was going to be, he just really wanted to pour his hot tea over the homophobe's head because it was fun.

Sam's front took the brunt of the coffee that was aimed for Heylel, but Sam had better aim, so the homophobe found himself drenched from head to toe in Sam's white chocolate caramel chai.

Michael stood up, putting a hand on Sam's elbow. "I think you should leave," he said coldly to the drenched man.

Sam couldn't quite tell what it was, but something in his tone must have had grace in it, because the man nodded and left without so much as another word. "Michael?"

"Come sit, Sam, I didn't mean to interrupt your luncheon with Heylel."

A few seconds later, Sam was sitting down, next to Michael, Heylel across from them. His pastries and pie box were on the table, he was dry, and his cup had a steaming liquid in it. He wasn't quite sure what the archangel had done, but he could guess. "Thank you," he said. "Did you want something to eat?"

"That apple pie smells divine," Mikha said, almost whining. "May I have it, please?"

Heylel licked his lips. "May I please have that lemon bread? Please?"

Sam handed Michael the to go box with the pie, and the lemon bread to Heylel. And then he started eating his brownie before one or the other archangel could call dibs on it. There was no way he was going to say no to either archangel. It was just food, and Heylel had paid for it. If there was any pie left at the front counter when they were ready to go, he'd buy more for Dean then.

"Sam, if you had any questions for us, about anything at all," Michael said, "you're welcome to ask. We'll take no offense to any question, this once."

Sam took a hasty sip of his tea, almost choking on his brownie. Sure, he had plenty of questions. But he was inclined to never satiate his curiosity about the less polite questions. And interrogating them about angel biology seemed kind of rude.

However… "Will you tell me about the syntax of the Enochian word meaning Paradise?"

Sam felt good about having met Heylel at the coffee shop. He wasn't sure he'd gotten answers about everything he wanted to know, but at the same time, that wasn't entirely relevant. The one thing John Winchester had done correctly, was instill his children proper respect for the pregnant. The xenophobic bastard would have been specifying pregnant ladies, but Sam wasn't about to treat pregnant archangels any different.

They'd stayed long enough for both archangels to try just about every pastry the store had sold, but no one had expected Sam to pay for it. There was a small doggy bag of extra pastries on the table, including a box of pie for Dean. Sam had no idea what they were going to do with all the desserts because there was no way he was eating all of them. Maybe Gabriel would swing by and eat some of them.

"How'd it go?" Gabriel asked, lounging in the doorway.

"It was fun," Sam answered. "There's a bag of desserts on the table, take what you want. But please not Dean's pie."

Gabriel pouted, already looking through the leftovers. "Why does Deano get dibs on the pie?"

"Because we are not antagonizing my older brother?"

Gabriel settled for a blueberry muffin and shoved the top of the pastry into his mouth. "Learn anything interesting?"

"Besides the fact that at least one of your older brothers is pregnant? I don't know. I definitely wasn't expecting anything like what I saw from the Viceroy and his mate. I'm pretty sure they kept expecting me to ask about angel biology."

"None of us actually know that much. I got Heylel to tell me what he knows, but the extent of our knowledge is that for any our kind to get pregnant, the baby has to be wanted. That's all we know. Heylel is pregnant, but why did you say, 'at least one'?"

Sam shrugged. "Not sure." It wasn't the entire truth, but Sam wasn't sure he could explain the suspicion hiding in the back of his mind.

"Mikha and Heylel had a lot of fun today too. They wouldn't stop talking about how you poured your drink on some scum's head while defending their honor. But they were curious about why you were asking about the Enochian word for Paradise."

"I know the apocalypse is over, but… there's something about the way Cas was talking about English words that would mean the same thing. Change can be positive or negative, and what's going on in Heaven is a change, and you're very happy, which suggests it's a good change, but I guess I'm worried about the other shoe dropping."

"Enochian is a very old language with a very small vocabulary of words. That doesn't mean that the future is going to suddenly worsen, Sam. We're all very happy."

"I know," Sam said, wondering if maybe he shouldn't have said anything about it. He was worried, but that didn't mean he had the right to put all that on Gabriel.

Gabriel vanished the rest of the muffin and walked towards Sam. Sam flinched, not sure what to expect. If he'd disturbed Michael and Heylel with his questions, it was within Gabriel's right to hurt him.

"Oh, Sam." Gabriel pulled his intended into a hug. "I love you. I do wish you would tell me that you're worrying."

"Can't help it," Sam mumbled.

"I know, Sweetheart." Gabriel sighed, but didn't let go of Sam. "I do think that today was a success, and I'm so happy that it went well." Gabriel kissed Sam's cheek. "Do you want to watch a movie?"

"Yes!" Sam loved spending time with Gabriel and giving him reasons to stick around.

"Do you like the Bugs bunny cartoon? I wanted to rewatch it, see if it would be suitable for Samandriel, and of course we have to start at the beginning."

Sam of course fell asleep while they were watching it, but Gabriel didn't mind. Sam had been in a state of high energy for so long, it made sense that he would have trouble converting back to a lower state of energy. So he cuddled next to Sam and let the cartoon continue running.

Less a week later, Gabriel had mentioned in passing that there was a dog park a few blocks from the motel, so Sam had told Dean he was going for a run. He didn't mention the dog park because he didn't feel that doing so was necessary. The weather was nice for being the middle of April, warm enough for just the long sleeve shirt.

With the nicer weather, there were a good number of dog walkers at the park. Sam found a bench so that he could sit and watch without looking too suspicious.

"Hello, Sam. Do you you mind if I join you?"

The words were spoken about half an hour later without Sam noticing that the speaker had arrived.

Instead of speaking, Sam slid to the edge of the bench, making room for Heylel to sit. "How are you?"

"Baby was excited this morning, but I am well." Heylel took the offered seat. "Yourself?"

"I'm also well," Sam answered. "The weather is nice today and I wanted to watch the dogs. Do you like dogs?"

"I like all of creation," Heylel said. "Including dogs. Dogs were always intended to be the companions of your kind. I didn't really understand that in my youth, but my opinion has since changed."

"I'm surprised you haven't been referring to us as 'mud monkeys.'"

"My memories of the beginning were altered when I was cast into the cage. My twin and I wanted to get Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge because our simple curiosity needed to know what would happen. But I ate the fruit before anyone else, and then I shared it with most of my flock."

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry you were wrongfully cast out."

"I'd like to think that the current situation is the best possible one, and that without all the wrong that happened, we wouldn't be here now. But today is a good and happy day, can we perhaps talk about something else?"

"Of course!" Sam nodded amenably. "Do you have a favorite breed of dog?"

Heylel considered the question. "There was a species of supernatural dog. Father created them to be our companions, and then decided He'd gotten them wrong, so he ordered for them to be destroyed. But not for the reasons He claimed. The ones that were vicious were such because He wanted them to be." He shook his head. "It's my fault Hellhounds as they are now exist, and I do regret that they've caused harm to you and yours but not as much as I should because I had to save my Ramsey."

Of course Heylel's favorite dog would be a hellhound. And if Sam found out Heylel's dog was still alive, there was no way he wasn't returning it. But before Sam could decide what to say about it, Heylel continued, "but you were asking about my favorite of humanity's companions, not my own sweet girl." There was more silence. "I'm not sure I can pick a favorite."

They pet a few dogs that approached and whose owners' said they could pet them. Sam was certain the dogs were attracted to Heylel, but it was kind of adorable and he got to pet them too.

"What happened to Ramsey?"

"She's in Hell, I believe, imprisoned somewhere, undoubtedly." Heylel shook his head. "I'm going to head back before Mikha gets worried." He disappeared with a single wingbeat.

Sam sighed. He shouldn't have pushed. But he was going to get Ramsey back for Heylel. I could double as a bridal shower/ baby shower present. Not the most traditional present, but he was pretty sure that all the grace infused bedding he'd been receiving from Gabriel's flock wasn't traditional either.

But how was he going to break into Hell and release the alpha hellhound without getting killed was going to be an interesting challenge. But one that would likely have to wait.