I realized I'd fallen behind on adding things on here and had just been updating on AO3. Sorry, everyone! Here, let me catch you up!

Staying behind while those closest to him went out to fight was an interesting experience for Gabriel. It wasn't that he didn't have things to occupy his time. He just wasn't used to sitting back and waiting around for the return of a couple humans. It was – strange. It was also difficult. After everything that had gone on lately he was loathe to let them all out of his sight for so long. Honestly, he was a bit tempted to fly out and check on them. Just a peek to let himself see that they were fine there without him. Only the fact that both Spencer and Sam would be pretty pissed off if they noticed – and Spencer was getting so much more sensitive to things and more adapt at noticing the powers of others – kept him where he was. He didn't need to fight with them. He was doing enough of that with his brothers.

Thinking of them had Gabriel sighing to himself. He was kicked back on the couch in the TV room only barely paying any attention to the movie on the screen. The last text he'd gotten from Sam was a good twenty minutes ago to let him know they were heading out to take down the vamps. He'd message once they were done. Until then, Gabriel was just going to have to suck it up and deal with it.

"Such long thoughts, little brother." The sound of Lucifer's voice crept in like a chill breeze. Gabriel didn't get up, but he did tilt his head to better be able to watch as his older brother walked into the room. The Morningstar probably would've looked at ease to most anyone else. To Gabriel, there was tension visible in the lines of his wings and in the flash of grace through his vessel's eyes. Apparently he wasn't handling the quiet of the bunker either.

Gabriel arched an eyebrow at him as Lucifer sat down in the nearby chair. Or, draped himself over it, really. All the effort Gabriel had put into learning how to really become Loki, to emulate the behavior of the other gods – and here Lucifer did it so naturally. His pose was slumped down and overtly sexual in a way that was usually seen on pagans and not angels. But underneath all of that he was still the brother that Gabriel had always loved. One that he'd missed so damn much. No one else had ever teased and played with him quite the way Lucifer would. It was that old relationship that prompted Gabriel's sassy "Looks like I'm not the only one."

"Indeed." Lucifer's lips twitched in the ghost of a smirk. "Whereas I'm simply worried for this team we've built, you are pining for your nest. It's almost disgustingly domestic, Gabriel."

"Oh, blow it out your ass."

Michael would've given him a scolding look for talking like that, which would've only served to amuse Gabriel. Raphael would've glared while secretly not understanding. Lucifer, though? The bastard had always understood Gabriel better than anyone else. It was almost annoying that this skill hadn't gone away even after all their time apart. He let his smirk actually grow and his wings gave a little lift and wave that was kind of like a human snicker. "Playing with the pagans made you sassier."

"You say that like it's a good thing." Another voice said.

They'd both felt the arrival of their other brothers, so neither archangel jumped at the sound of Raphael's voice. Gabriel tilted his head and watched the healer actually come into the room and make his way to a chair. He was getting better at this. He still sat down rather stiffly, but the fact was he actually came in and sat down. Raphael was getting better at mimicking those little human gestures. They were things that Gabriel had perfected a long time ago; stuff that helped the humans feel more comfortable around him. Angels didn't need to do things like breathe, blink, eat, or even sit down. They could stand indefinitely and never really feel the difference. But humans noticed if you didn't do those things. They noticed if the person they were talking to never blinked their eyes, or never took a seat when it was available. The fact that Raphael had taken note of that and was putting in an effort, even when they were no humans to see, was a pretty big deal.

Though Gabriel didn't have a hard time figuring out why. For as tough as Michael and Raphael both had been acting lately, and as at odds as it had put them with the others here, it was obvious that they both cared about Spencer. That they wanted to get to know him. Michael didn't show it as much or as openly as the rest of them. He was too proud for that – too much the warrior. He'd forgotten how to be a brother in the long years since Lucifer's banishment and Gabriel's running act. He was trying, though. They both were.

Michael took a seat as well after only a brief hesitation. He had experience being in vessels, but he had been back and forth between earth and Heaven a lot lately and that change could get disorienting sometimes. It was hard to remind yourself to act human when you came back down.

The fact that the two had just arrived and come in and sat down without hesitation set off little alarm bells in Gabriel's head. He quirked an eyebrow and looked around at them all. "Is there some meeting I wasn't aware of?"

"Since you rarely leave here, I thought it best we take advantage of the others being gone to have a little talk." Michael said. He crossed one leg over the other and folded his hands in his lap, looking a bit too stiff for Gabriel's liking. Quite a contrast to the way that Gabriel and Lucifer were both sprawled out. However, the serious set to his wings and the slight edge to his grace were enough to take away any snarky remark that Gabriel might've made.

There was only one topic that Gabriel could think of that Michael and Raphael would be here to meet about. They wouldn't come like this and ambush Gabriel if they were just going to talk about this coming darkness. No, to do it like this, to wait until the others were gone – until Spencer was gone – meant that they were here to talk about his fledging, something that immediately put Gabriel's back up. So far any and all conversations with Michael about Spencer hadn't gone so well. Adding in their brothers could only make things worse.

Gabriel kept his nerves from showing with practiced skill. "Talk about what, bro?"

The look Michael gave him said clearly he wasn't in the mood for games. "Your fledgling, Gabriel. I've tried to speak with you about him and you've put me off time and time again. We can't hold off this discussion anymore."

So, wait… had they decided to just ambush him here? Gabriel couldn't help casting an accusatory glance Lucifer's direction. The other two he'd expect it from. Lucifer? That was surprising.

Lucifer held his hands up on either side of his head. Even his wings lifted out in a conciliatory gesture. "Don't look at me – I had nothing to do with this plan." Dropping his hands back down, he arched his eyebrow and gave Michael a fake pouty look, bottom lip out and everything. Father, where on earth had he picked that up from? "I'm almost offended, really. No one invited me to this talk."

The way that Michael's wings twitched reminded Gabriel a lot of how Dean would roll his eyes when Sam did something to annoy him. Seeing that little connection between archangel and vessel, as well as the similarity between Lucifer's amused eyes and the way Sam always seemed to enjoy nettling his big brother, had Gabriel wanting to chuckle. He might have let it out if the subject they were debating about wasn't so serious. Gabriel knew in his head that they needed to talk about Spencer. Michael was right, there was a lot they needed to talk about. He just wasn't sure how it was going to go.

Michael seemed to have decided that ignoring Lucifer was the way to go. He stayed focused on Gabriel, the one he knew he needed to direct his words to. Much as he might wish he had some control over Spencer, he was at least smart enough to respect the status that Gabriel had earned the minute Spencer called him ol'alihm. "Your fledgling is far stronger than we'd anticipated, Gabriel. Young as he is, you should be able to easily contain him on your own when his grace tries to push out. Yet it took you and Lucifer both to contain him, and only then because he allowed it."

Yeah, that was something Gabriel had known would come up. He tried not to sigh. "I know."

"He's stronger than anything we've ever see, and he's just a child. A child who has absolutely no idea about how to control himself."

Now that was enough to have Gabriel sitting up from his lounging position. "Wait just a second." A glare settled on Gabriel's face and his wings tightened against his back. Just a few minutes into this conversation and already Michael had managed to piss him off. Really, he knew he should control himself better, but he'd be damned if he was going to let Michael talk like he knew something when it was apparent he knew nothing. "He knows how to control himself, Mike. You think I haven't been teaching him? He knows the basics of control and he's getting better and better every day. He's learning a whole lot faster than any of us ever did, and we had the benefit of being made with all the knowledge already built into us and nothing blocking us from tapping into it."

"You wouldn't be asking any other fledgling to learn as fast as he is." Lucifer pointed out. "Especially after the trauma he went through."

"But that's the point! He's not any other fledgling. He's our only hope against the coming darkness…" Michael started to say.

"He's a child!" Gabriel cut in sharply. He was bristling, now. This right here was why he'd avoided this conversation as much as he had. When it suited him, Michael treated Spencer like a child, someone with no control and no understanding of anything, and yet other times he turned around and disregarded the fact that Spencer was a child in their terms. It was infuriating. "You know, this is why we fight each time we talk about him, Mikey. It always comes back to this. You see a warrior when you look at him. One that needs a lot of training. I see a kid. I don't care how old he is in human years. To us, he's a damn kid. A toddler, even. You keep insisting on thinking of him like he's one of your warriors and he's not, Michael. He's never going to be!"

Before Michael could snap back at him, Raphael spoke up, his voice low and steady. What he had to say stunned them all. "He's right."

"What?" Three voices said, all with varying degrees of surprise.

Everyone turned to look at Raphael. He sat calmly, hands folded in his lap and his wings surprisingly neutral against his back. Loose and relaxed. With all their eyes on him, he didn't flinch, just lifted his chin a little in a way that Gabriel remembered, one that he did even in his true form. It was a sign that meant that Raphael was ready to make a point – one that he felt strongly about. Chin up, he turned his gaze to Michael and continued to surprise them. "Gabriel's right, Michael. We've been trying to judge Spencer by our rules and our standards. We keep leaving out the fact that he has a human soul in him. He's been raised in a human world. Who he is and what he can or can't do, it's not going to be the same as what an angel can do – child or adult. Who's to say that he isn't exactly what he needs to be?"

"Raphael's right." Lucifer said after a moment of silence. There was a hint of a smile tugging ta his lips. "Maybe Spencer is to be our savior because of his imperfections. If it took a perfect warrior, you'd be the one in the prophecies, Michael. But you're not. He is. So maybe we need him just as he is, quirks and all."

Something warm filled Gabriel's grace at the support of these two. It grew even more at Michael's contemplative silence. Their eldest sat there for a long while as he obviously processed what they said. Finally, he sighed, and tension seeped out of him with that human gesture. "You're right." One of his wings curled, rubbing against his others in a gesture that was the equivalent of a human reaching up to rub at their face when stressed. "You're right. I don't believe that we should give up on training him," He looked up at Gabriel now, gaze serious. "And I do believe that he still needs to be made more aware of our culture, Gabriel. But, you are all right. He was chosen for a reason. All we can do is provide him with whatever tools we can and hope for the best." A hint of a wry smile ghosted over Michael's lips. "He's already becoming more and more of a leader with each passing day, though he would deny it were you to ask him."

"He doesn't want to lead." Gabriel said softly. Now that the tension was gone from the air he found himself slumping back down in his seat once more.

A soft humming noise came from Raphael that could've been understanding or even agreement. "He won't have a choice. The others rally around him, whether they realize it or not. In his own way, he leads them already, even if it's not quite in the way we're used to."

That was true. Spencer led this group of people even if he or they didn't admit to it. He didn't do it the way that Michael might. He didn't stand up there and give out orders and supervise everything. Nor did he rally them together and lead a charge, so to speak. No, Spencer led in a different way entirely, yet with no less authority. Everyone, humans and angels both, looked to him for guidance and, surprisingly enough, approval. They brought information to him and checked things with him. They weren't afraid to point out if they thought he did something wrong, or if a plan was stupid, yet when he made a decision on something it was listened to in a way it might not have been from anyone else.

Seeing it all made Gabriel both proud and scared. Proud to see his fledgling growing into what the archangel knew he was capable of, and yet utterly terrified of it. Because no matter what way Gabriel looked at this, he couldn't see any way that it was going to end well for Spencer. Heroes in history rarely survived to enjoy their triumph.

He prayed to his Father that maybe, this time things might be different. Because Gabriel didn't know what he would do if he had to watch the light go out of the kid who had come to mean so much to him.