"Akeelah?" the fledgling turned to look at the one who had spoken her name and met the golden eyes of the Messenger, "Yes big brother?" her all too innocent reply had him narrowing his eyes slightly.
"Are you the one who broke Dean Winchesters arm?"
"No."
He knelt before her where she sat on the edge of the table in the war room of the bunker, their hunt hadn't been too bad and none of them had barely been touched, even the little fledgling that had accompanied them. Thus there was no way he had broken his arm that the archangel had just healed on the hunt they'd just returned from, and there was no way that his younger brother nor Sam Winchester would do such a thing to the older hunter, and Gabriel himself was not that cruel.
He lifted her chin with a finger and looked into her eyes sternly, "Do not lie to me."
"I'm not. Don't accuse me of somethin' I didn't do."
"Watch your tone fledgling" he stood again, and her eyes followed him as he stood to his full height and crossed his arms, "Did you harm the human hunter?"
She bit her lip, neither wanting to get in trouble for not being truthful nor for admitting to her wrong.
Though her loyalty to the flock that had adopted her into it was overpowering sometimes.
"He deserved it."
His expression hardened, "And what did he do that was wrong enough to have you break his arm."
"I don't like him."
Gabriel shook his head once, "No. That's not good enough of an answer. Try again."
"Fine.", she jumped down from the table and stood as well as she could in his face, though the effect was diminished somewhat by the way she had to look up at him and he down to her, she was only a little fledgling of course, "I did break his arm. He uses us and you don't even care. He would just as much kill us as he would demand out help when things get too tough. None of this would have happened had they not done what they had. They cause great big messes and expect everyone else to pick it up." He looked down at her hardly, "Watch yourself fledgling." She opened her arms in the fearless human nature of 'What are you gonna do?' and shook her head, "No! I don't like him, and he doesn't like us, he only tolerates us because he asks and we have to deliver. How many of us has died at his hands? They're stained red by it. Sometimes I feel as though I'm the only one who sees it because you're too stupid!"
The Messenger knelt again and took hold of her little shoulders, "Don't you ever speak to me like that again, do you understand me?"
She shoved him hard against his chest, and though he didn't budge, it didn't stop her from doing it again.
"You're not the boss of me! You're just mad cause I'm right!"
None of them knew what it was about the Hunters and their Guardian that brought this side out of their normally so even tempered and bright fledging, sure they had been wronged by them but they had been wronged in return, it was an even trade and something that they had learned to simply get over. He could see why she would be upset; he knew that she had been on her own despite the crowd she had lived with for millenniums, and would defend the only flock who had truly welcomed her in with all her little might.
But that did not mean he was going to stand for this sort of attitude from her either.
"I may not be your master, but I am still your elder and you will be respectful." She huffed but remained silent in her own self preservation kicking in "And you do not break people's bones."
"I'm not sorry for it!"
She was a spitfire, he'd give her that, and it would be a trait that would get her far in her long life but could also be her downfall if not curtailed.
"Go stand in that corner. If you know what's good for you, you won't make me repeat myself."
"No!"
He turned her, resisting the urge to give her a well earned swat, but they had all agreed to no be physical with their fledgling considering the things she had lived through, they were not too blind to know that they weren't being told everything about her experiences in the past thousand years, they just knew not to push it out of her until she was ready to tell them.
It was a matter of trust of course.
"Go."
She huffed angrily but marched over to the dreadful corner, her resolve not crumbling in the slightest, "And I will be telling your master too." That cracked the stone hard resolve slightly.
"For how long."
"Until I say."
Castiel and Dean Winchester came up beside him, watching as she stood in the corner, little fists clenched at her sides.
"That's it?", the hunter didn't sound pleased by the supposed lack of punishment, "She broke my freaking arm and you sent her to the corner!"
"I must agree brother.", Castiel spoke up from his left "She will learn nothing with your soft hand."
Gabriel turned a harsh glare in the seraph's direction, and though he attempted to make it appear it had not affected him, he still took a slight step away at the glare from the powerful Archangel.
"Do think to tell me how to raise a fledgling. I've raised far more fledglings then you've even been around to see."
"No man! The brat broke my arm! The corner is nothing! She deserves to get her ass beat or something!" Dean glared right back when the Archangel turned his glare on him, but the angel was not so blind to see the slight glint of fear that his in his eyes "I will never raise my hand to her Winchester. Do no underestimate what others have been through. You lost your mother and your father turned you into his perfect soldier. I'll admit that your life sucked ass. But that fledgling lived through a war." He turned back to watch the little one, her fists had slowly loosened, the corner was always a suitable punishment for her at her detest of being alone. "What you saw on earth is just the tip of the iceberg on what the others lived through. There are things that happened that not even we know about. They won't tell us. And you, Castiel, didn't help anything in slaughtering half of a faction because they refused to side with you. You don't gain loyalty in threats and action, you gain loyalty in action and words, it is best for you to stay down here for your own safety. She was not wrong in what she said. Most would see any of you on the other end of a sword then aid you in the slightest."
"Gabe can I come out now?"
The anger and such had left her tone, but still he shook his head, in some ways the hunter was right. She had broken his arm.
"No. You can stay there for a few more minutes."
The fledgling nodded and sniffled but didn't protest, the fight having left her at her lonesome, she really didn't like being alone and not being able to see that others were around. Voice were one thing but actually seeing is believing. It was the most suitable punishment for the fledgling's rare wrong doings that they had.
He sat in a chair at the war room table and watched her carefully, though her way going about it was to be desired, she did bring up some good points that they had never stopped the fully think about.
"How bad could it have really been for her? I mean didn't you guys say that the choir or whatever she's in locked themselves away from everyone else."
"Did you ever stay in one place for too long as a child, Dean?" The hunter was loath to admit it, but he had him there. "Don't think to be under the impression that what she has lived through was easy on her. She has been hurt in more ways you can think of."
"Like what?" Sam Winchester had joined the party and asked the question that was circling on all three of their minds, "She's just a kid. Even in war that would seem a bit too far to hurt a kid."
"As far as she will tell us, and it isn't much mind you, she was at least whipped. For what appears to be a certain amount of time from what we saw when she finally got revenge on the one who did it. She still bares the scars and will for her lifetime as a reminder of what she went through."
A few more minutes passed in silence, "Gabe can I please come out?"
Finally, he relented, it had been a good ten minutes since he had sent the fledgling there, and nodded his head.
"Yes, you can come out now. Come here."
She turned and scurried around to climb into his lap aided by his hands helping tug her up, she huddled in close to him and he curled his left around her, lifting her chin to look him in the eye again.
"You don't ever talk to me like that again, do you understand me?"
She nodded "Yes big brother."
"We don't break peoples bones even if you're mad at them. And you are going to apologize, aren't you?"
There was a small sniffled at the scolding and she nodded again, turning to look at the hunter in question, "I'm sorry you deserved it."
"Seriously! Gabriel!"
"Trust me Winchester, it's the very best you're going to get."