I'm so sorry! I updated this chapter on AO3 and apparently forgot to update it here O.O my apologies on it's lateness folks here it is!

Gabriel had known something was wrong since about halfway through their fight with Famine.

As he fought against the demons, and the power that Famine was shoving into the room in the hopes of knocking down Dean, something on the connection that Gabriel shared with his little bird started to buzz at him. Just a general feeling of trouble and fear that made his stomach clench and had him fighting all the harder to get out of there and back to the family that he'd left behind.

Then, as he and Castiel pinned Famine down and Dean cut off the Horseman's ring, Gabriel felt it – a blast of fear stronger than any so far. So strong it almost sent him to his knees. He had to fight to keep a hold of the Horseman long enough for Dean to finish his cut. But as soon as the hunter had the ring, Gabriel was growling "The guys are in trouble!" and snapping them out of there. They could come do cleanup later. Right then he had to get back to his boy and his mate!

He'd known to expect trouble when they arrived. He just hadn't known to expect – this.

A sharp breath followed by a string of curses came from Dean. Gabriel just stood silently in the center of the wrecked motel room and stared around him with a growing sense of fear and rage. There were bodies lying on the ground – demons, he could tell. Demons that had been blasted by angelic power. Raw, uncontrolled angelic power. Spencer's, a quick look told him. He knew the look and feel of Spencer's grace and it was all over the dead demons. But more than that, worse than that, was the feel of all the other grace in the room.

"Angels." Castiel breathed out. His wings were shifting and Gabriel could actually hear it as the sound of the seraph's feathers changed from soft to sharp. His grace was reacting to the threat and preparing to do battle. For Spencer and for Sam. The two members of their family who should've been here and who weren't.

Dean's eyes snapped to Castiel's face. "Angels? There were angels here?"

"A lot of 'em." Gabriel answered. There had been a whole group of angels here and they'd taken his fledgling. They'd taken his fledgling and his mate. Fury filled Gabriel until it was seeping into the air around him, an aura of open threat that he couldn't quite stop. It'd been a long time since he'd felt fear or anger like this. Not since the last time someone had dared to hurt his children. Not even the Wars back home had ever brought on a feeling like this. It was only triggered when someone messed with those that were his. His family, his children. And Gabriel didn't give a damn who was responsible for Spencer's birth or what man helped to raise him – Spencer was his. They had the fledgling he considered like a son and the man who was Gabriel's other half, a part of him he'd barely begun to embrace and yet knew he couldn't be without. Someone had taken Sam and Spencer from him and when Gabriel found them, he was going to make damn sure they regretted every single moment of it.

A hand on his arm snapped Gabriel out of his thoughts. He jerked his head to the side and glared hotly at the one to dared to touch him. Castiel didn't pull back from the stare, though he lowered his wings in a submissive gesture that soothed just a tiny bit of the fury that was pumping inside of Gabriel.

"Brother, can you sense him at all?" Castiel asked lowly, never raising his voice or allowing any sense of challenge to show there. The little seraph wasn't stupid and he could easily see just how furious Gabriel was in that moment. How close he was to losing control.

It only took a second for Gabriel to reach inside of himself and look deep. There was a vague sense of Spencer in there, as well as a faint hint of Sam – and that was something he'd have to think about later, because, since when had he had some sort of bond or link with Sam? – but nothing that could clue him in to where he was. And he should've been able to tell that. He was always able to find Spencer! "I can't." The words were hard and sharp.

"Who the hell would take them?" Dean demanded. "You don't think…?"

"No." Castiel shook his head, cutting Dean off before he could continue. "This was not Lucifer. I cannot tell which angel – they are well shielded. But we would know if it were Lucifer. All of us would know."

Whatever angel it was, Gabriel was going to make damn sure they paid for it.

"Castiel." Gone was any friendly sound in Gabriel's voice. This was fury, cold and hard, channeled down into the warrior that so few got to see anymore. It'd been a long, long time since Castiel had seen anything close – never like this – and he snapped immediately to attention. Gabriel's gaze was sharp as it cut over to him. "I want you to circle the town, see if you can find any demonic gatherings, any angelic ones, or any trace of a trail. Take everything from the hotel and west. I'll take east. Winchester," Those furious eyes turned to Dean and for once the Winchester didn't even think of arguing with him. "Pray to Michael and let him know what's happening. You're his vessel and he's always tuned in to you. I don't need to chance anyone on angel radio hearing Cas or I. Warn him there's a traitor somewhere who took Spencer and Sam. Then stay here. On the off chance that they return here, I want someone familiar and someone who can fight if need be. Pray to me if there's trouble."

With nothing more than that, Gabriel spread his wings and flew.

Almost an hour later found them all gathered back in the motel room, this time with Michael, Raphael and Anna there as well. They'd all gathered there in an attempt to try and figure out just who exactly had taken their fledgling and the younger Winchester. That meant they were all together when Gabriel suddenly went still and his eyes went distant.

Prayers.

Sam and Spencer both were praying to him. Both of them. Gabriel closed his eyes and focused intently on what he was hearing. The sound of both their voices was both a reassurance and a frustration. The fact that they could pray to him was a joy – it meant they were alive. But he still had absolutely no idea where they were. He couldn't find them!

Usually the archangel could latch onto a prayer and follow it to the one who was praying to him. The kind of connection a prayer built was enough to counter even the sigils that Castiel had put onto Sam's ribs. Prayer was a powerful thing and when directed to a specific angel it was even more so. It built just a tiny connection between them that an angel could then choose to hold on to and build or ignore. For many, many years Gabriel had simply ignored quite a few of the prayers sent his way. There was no way he could answer them all. Too many people prayed to the archangel Gabriel for him to be able to answer all of them. But there were some he'd listened to. Even if Sam didn't know it, Gabriel had always tried his best to answer the younger Winchester. His prayers were one of the best kind – they came from a soul that wanted nothing more than to help the people around him. He rarely ever prayed for him. Even now, he wasn't praying for help for himself. He was praying for help for Spencer.

Hearing Spencer's prayer broke a little part of the archangel inside. Spencer was swallowing the pride that usually prevented him from asking for help and he was actually reaching out to Gabriel in the hopes that he'd be able to save him, and there was nothing Gabriel could do. Nothing! He could only stand there and listen as his little fledgling blamed himself for what was going on and asked him for help. I'm so sorry, Spencer, he thought to himself, hands curling tight into fists against his sides. He could hear Dean demanding to know what's going on and the other angels trying to hush him, but Gabriel paid them no mind. I'm so sorry, little bird. I'll find you, I swear I will. I'll get you out of there!

"Gabriel." Michael murmured his name in a gentle tone that Gabriel hadn't heard directed towards him in so, so long. He felt his big brother's hand curl over his shoulder and give a reassuring squeeze.

"I can't find them." Gabriel growled low in his throat. "He has them shielded to well. I can't even get a read on where they are."

One word in that caught Dean's attention. "He? He who? Who the hell has my brother and the Doc?"

This time Gabriel's growl was much, much louder. With his eyes closed, he didn't see the way that Raphael came up to his other side, or how Castiel gently drew Dean back to try and protect the human. Gabriel saw none of that. His attention was inward and his grace was seething right along with him. "Zachariah. That son of a bitch has my boys." When his eyes snapped open, they glowed with a light that was both archangel and pagan, an open threat to the one who had dared take what belonged to Gabriel – to Loki. "When I get my hands on him, he's going to regret laying a single hand on either one of them."

No one challenged him. They let his threat stand, their silence acting as their agreement.

It was Castiel who finally spoke up. "Can you sense their wellbeing? Or anything about them that might assist us?"

"Sam's worried about Spencer." That much was easy to pick up on. Gabriel lifted a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying not to think about what might've happened to be able to subdue his fledgling and make Sam worry so. "From what they said, demons came here to try and get to Sam, but Spencer fought them off. I'm guessing that something else sensed his power flare and Zachariah showed up. Neither one of them know where they are. But neither one said they were hurt." Not like either one would tell him. Gabriel knew them both well enough to know that.

"How can Zachariah hide from all of you?" Dean demanded, looking from one archangel to the next. "You're freaking archangels? How the hell can you not find them?"

Raphael sneered and Michael stiffened and straightened while Gabriel turned to glare at the hunter.

Whatever they might've said was cut off when there was suddenly a scream that echoed along 'angel radio' that almost sent them all to their knees. Even Castiel staggered, reaching out to catch himself on Dean and hold himself upright. The three archangels braced against one another as they felt the emotional backlash of a fledgling who had apparently inadvertently managed to tune in to the frequency that all angels broadcast on. Angels were all connected – angel radio, as the Winchesters had dubbed it. They felt the death of each other. The more powerful the angel, the stronger it felt. They also shared emotion across that connection. Spencer, untrained and so damn young, had managed to broadcast to them, obviously without meaning to, and he was so strong and so untrained he wasn't able to keep himself from broadcasting his pain.

"What is it?" Dean looked frantic, his hands already bracing Castiel up, wide eyes darting from one angel to the next. "What's going on?"

"They're hurting him." Castiel moaned out.

It took both Michael and Raphael to hold Gabriel up. The air was crackling and Gabriel knew his grace was pushing out into the room around him. He could feel the buzz against his vessel's skin, both inside and out. The light bulbs in the lamps exploded first, followed by the sound of exploding light bulbs all throughout the rooms around them.

"Brother!" Michael's grip on Gabriel's shoulder tightened and his grace reached out, wings already trying to curl around Gabriel.

The warning went unheeded. Another empathic scream echoed over angel radio and Gabriel snarled, his wings snapping out and his flare of power killing any electronics within a mile of their location. They were hurting him! Spencer was just a damn child and angels – the very beings he should be able to trust – were hurting him!

Angels all over would be feeling this and Gabriel knew he should be concerned about that. Just like he knew he should be concerned about his own display of power that would announce his presence to quite a few. He just didn't give a damn. Somewhere right now his Spencer was being hurt and there was nothing he could do about it!

Warm arms and soothing grace wrapped around Gabriel. Not just Michael's anymore – Raphael's now. Despite all the things that still stood between them, his brother showed no hesitation in wrapping around him and holding him tight. "We'll find him." He swore in Gabriel's ear. "We are going to find him, brother."

The next scream was almost too much for Gabriel to handle. If it wasn't for being restrained, he would've been tearing the planet apart to find the one who was making his fledgling scream that way. The only thing containing him was that his brothers were banded together in keeping him here. There was a small part of Gabriel's mind that could see they were both hurt by this as well. It was overshadowed by the part of him that had Claimed Spencer as his. He needed to get to the boy, find him, help him, and he needed to do it NOW.

Then all of a sudden two things happened, one right after the other. The first was a blast of pain over his connection to Sam, one that put him so near death it had Gabriel's grace almost screaming inside of him, and then not even twenty seconds later the connection between Spencer and Gabriel – as well as Sam and Gabriel – went from half formed shadows to full once more and the archangel didn't think about it before he gathered up all the power he could and blasted both his brothers back from him using not just the archangel side but the pagan as well. It only made a moment of weakness but that was enough for him. With a blast that knocked the others back, he was gone, not caring when he sensed them following behind him. He was Dad's Messenger – the fastest in Heaven. No one could outfly him. Especially not when he had such an important goal in mind.

It only took a single second for Gabriel to reach his destination. What he found when he landed was nothing like what he'd expected to see.

There in the middle of some filthy spacious barn were the two people that Gabriel had come for, one kneeling beside the other in a pile of blood that was far more than Gabriel liked to see. What was absolutely stunning, what beat out anything that he'd thought he would see, was the angel that was kneeling there cradling Spencer oh-so-gently in his arms, tattered wings wrapped protectively around the fledgling as he worked to heal him as best he could.

Lucifer.

The sight of his wings was a blow to the center of Gabriel. Once, Lucifer's wings had been the brightest of white, with blue like ice running through them like veins and building up at the tip. Hell had changed that. Where they'd once been white they were now closer to gray, almost like ash had been laid over the white, and the blue looked even colder than before. They were still beautiful, yet so heartbreaking. It was devastating to see just how much damage Hell had done to his brother.

Those wings parted just seconds after Gabriel touched ground. Though Lucifer didn't let go of Spencer, he drew his wings back and made an open space for Gabriel to dart forward and drop down into right at Spencer's hip and beside Sam. The injuries on his fledgling were enough to bring a pained sound from Gabriel's lips. Immediately, Sam moved up against Gabriel's side, and Gabriel wrapped one arm around him even as his other hand reached out to cup Spencer's cheek. He held his whole little family here close to him and watched as the brother he'd least expected to see, the one he would not have pegged as the one to trust, slowly healed the injuries that painted Spencer's body. Judging by the way Sam leaned against Gabriel without any hint of pain it looked like Lucifer had already done other healing as well.

Gabriel felt their other brothers land behind him and he didn't bother looking up. Not even when he felt the charge build in the air that spoke of Michael's temper or Raphael's fear. "Lucifer." Michael hissed out. Even without looking at him, Gabriel knew his oldest brother would be straightening up, adopting that almost military stance that he took in vessels. "Step away from them."

Surprisingly, it was Sam who answered, turning under Gabriel's arm without ever breaking free until he was facing them. Then he held one hand up in a gesture for peace. "Just wait, please. Lucifer's not hurting us."

"This is not up for debate." Michael answered firmly. "Lucifer, step away from them."

Their fallen brother didn't even bat a wing at that tone. His grace continued its gentle wash over Spencer's body, slowly sealing up every single wound he came across. They healed slow enough that Gabriel knew they had to have been done by an angel blade. Injuries by angel blade weren't as easy for an angel or angel's vessel to heal from. Someone had tortured his baby boy with a damn angel blade. They'd cut him, shackled him, freaking stabbed him!

There was the sound of movement behind them and Gabriel had only a split second to make his decision. It wasn't a difficult one. He adjusted his weight and snapped his wings out wide on either side of him and let the feathers harden until they formed a protective wall between the trio he knelt with and those behind him. His eyes cut over one shoulder and took in Michael and Raphael. It would seem Castiel and Dean had stayed behind. I doubt Dean was happy about that. Gabriel pushed that back and let his grace flash in his eyes. "Stay back." He snarled at his brothers.

"Gabriel!" Raphael hissed. He looked at Gabriel's wings as if he could see through to where Lucifer still knelt and then his gaze snapped back towards the Messenger. "It's Lucifer. Lucifer. After all the threats you made before you let me around your fledgling, you're going to just sit there and let him kneel and heel Spencer of something you could just as easily heal him from? You would trust him for that?"

This time Gabriel's snarl was much louder. His eyes flashed darker, the pagan power in him leaking through at the mere suggestion that he wouldn't be doing what was best for his boy. "Their graces are wrapped around each other, you idiot. You're smart enough to know what that means. Spencer let him in, and any attempt I made at pulling them apart could kill him in an instant. You think I'm going to do anything to risk my boy?"

"He saved us." Sam spoke up, pressing himself in against Gabriel. "Zachariah was killing us. They'd already stabbed me and they were going to kill Spencer. Lucifer came in and he… he saved us." Sam sounded stunned by it, but he kept going, his eyes slanting back towards the archangel who had yet to speak. "I don't know how he found us or why he's helping us, but he did.

For the first time since Gabriel had arrived, Lucifer shifted his hold on Spencer and he looked up to flash a small ghost of a smile at Sam that was probably supposed to pass as cold but carried a hint of something fond around the edges. "I will always find you when you are in trouble, Samuel. I felt as soon as you were stabbed and I came immediately. Nothing can tear the connection from archangel to vessel. I felt your soul leaving your body and I followed it and put it back."

"Only because he can't say Yes when he's dead." Raphael spat out.

Lucifer let out a husky chuckle. He surprised Gabriel when he didn't rise to the bail, though. Instead, he focused on pouring the last little bit of grace through Spencer, healing the last of his injuries. Then he began the gentle process of detangling their graces from one another. Gabriel's whole body was tense as he waited until Lucifer's grace finally left the fledgling's body. The instant it did, Gabriel was reaching out for him, and Lucifer was already shifting to hand him over.

Spencer's body felt so small and fragile as Gabriel gathered it up against him. He pulled the fledgling in, holding him close and wrapping around him, body and wings. Sm was included in the embrace, still pressed up against Gabriel's side, right up by Spencer's head. One of his large hands came up and smoothed Spencer's hair gently back from his face. The injuries were gone from the fledgling's body and his grace was low but healing. He was okay. He was alive. He was going to be fine. Gabriel let out a shaky breath and bent his head down to press his forehead against Spencer's hair. When he looked up, he knew his eyes were shining and he didn't care to try and stop it. "Thank you."

The light that flashed through Lucifer's eyes was gone too quickly for Gabriel to understand what it was. He did nod, however.

Pulling Spencer in, Gabriel hugged him tightly. Then he looked up at Sam, who was watching them with watery eyes and a shaky little smile, and there was nothing for Gabriel to do but bring a hand up and catch his face and bring him in for a hard and deep kiss that left no doubt whatsoever about how happy he was to have him back. When they broke apart, Gabriel pressed their foreheads together. "You gotta stop doing this to me, Princess. I'm an old angel; I can't take shocks like this."

"You are getting up there in years." Sam teased him, voice only a little shaky. One of his hands had slid up and it was threaded in Gabriel's hair now, gripping at it like he was afraid the archangel was going to fly away.

A low chuckle slipped from Gabriel at the snarky response. He leaned in and nipped at Sam's bottom lip. "Brat."

"You like it."

Gabriel hadn't realized that Lucifer had pulled back from them. Not until the sound of his voice drew Gabriel and Sam both up out of their little cocoon and back to reality. They tilted their heads up and found Lucifer standing by them. Neither had really thought about what the possessive archangel might think of Gabriel blatantly making a move on Lucifer's vessel; the shuttered look he wore didn't seem all that reassuring, though. Just in case, Gabriel used his wings to draw Sam ever so slightly closer.

"Brothers." Lucifer's voice was cool and he was smiling, but Gabriel saw a hint of something more behind it, a flare of worry in his grace that the humans couldn't see. Gabriel wasn't sure if even their brothers saw it. Then it was hidden again and Lucifer's smile turned to a mocking sort of smirk. "I think it might be time for us to have a talk."

In that moment Gabriel made a split second decision. "We can go to one of my places." He wouldn't take them to his island home, not the one that he and Spencer shared that had become an actual home instead of just another house. But he had another island house and this one would keep them far from humanity while they had their 'talk'.

"Gabriel!" Raphael hissed out.

Gabriel ignored him, fixing Lucifer with a stare instead, letting his power flare behind his vessel's eyes. "Don't make me regret this, Luci. I owe you for helping Sam and Spencer but that won't stop me if you try anything."

His brother nodded at him. "I would expect nothing less, little brother."

There was only a moment more of hesitation. Then Gabriel gathered his power, lifted his hand, and snapped.