Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Keefer, Maddy Love Castiel, CherylB1964, kb18142, FireChildSlytherin5, Pizzapig, alena, Alley of the Labyrinth, keacdragon, XxZessxX, Nikkilouise, 0, Tel nok shock and Riceball-1989 for last chapter's reviews!

Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!

2

„They have ten different burgers," Gabriel pointed out to a pouting Dean. Not that the twelve year old would ever admit that he was pouting. However there was no better word to describe how his lower lip was sticking out while he had his arms crossed in front of his chest, looking at the archangel through narrowed eyes. Really, what was up with that? Dean Winchester was all for heart attacks waiting to happen in burger form as Gabriel knew all too well.

"Whatever! I wanted that pizza!" the older Winchester stated, trying to keep the whine out of his voice as much as possible. Whining was for babies, after all. He was simply complaining which was how adults showed what they wanted.

"Tough break kid, they don't have pizza. Eat something else!" Gabriel remarked dismissively. If he felt like being fair he'd make it Dean's turn to decide what they were getting or where they were going the next time. Given there was a next time, of course. There was no way to tell how quickly Castiel would come up with a solution for their current problem, after all.

"At least we know what you want," the archangel added, looking over to the younger Winchester who had chosen to sit next to him in the booth and across from his brother. Not that he really had had much of a choice since Dean had simply parked his butt on the one side and had refused to scoot over for his little brother. Apparently, the twelve year old could be quite bratty like that.

What Gabriel didn't know was that sitting across from Sam made it easier for Dean to keep a close eye on what his brother was doing and he also hadn't noticed that the older kid had chosen to sit so he was facing the door and could watch out for strangers. Strangers that weren't meant to be their babysitters that was. For some reason Dean couldn't have explained, even if he had actually been given the time to think about it, he trusted Castiel completely and Cas had said that he was going to send them someone who was meant to look after them, so that was okay. Even if Gabriel had promised him pizza and then hadn't delivered.

"What now?" Gabriel asked when the younger Winchester started to fidget with a napkin, looking at him with a slightly guilty expression.

"The chicken nuggets come with fries," Sam mumbled, as if he didn't really want the archangel to hear what he was saying. They had already gone out to find a diner that served the meal he had wanted, so he didn't want to cause any more inconveniences, but at the same time the situation with the fries was bothering him and he had never been good at holding back about things he didn't like.

"So?" the archangel frowned deeply, trying and failing to see the problem with that.

"I want veggies," the younger Winchester explained with a long-suffering sigh. It wasn't like he got what he wanted all that often, but the adult had asked so he had told him what the matter was. Not that he expected anything to be done about it.

"Yeah, you'll always be a pipsqueak if you don't eat your veggies!" Dean pointed out completely unhelpfully, smirking gleefully as he nodded toward Gabriel and added, "He never ate his!"

The archangel was somewhat tempted to give the pre-teen a bad case of lice for that one, but chose not to do it in the end. He had no doubt that he hadn't seen the worst Dean was capable of yet, so keeping the more harmless punishments he could think of for the time when the kid really started to grate on his nerves seemed like the better choice. Even if he did deserve a good swat for that stupid comment.

"Father, I know I've done a lot of things that probably made you want to bend me over your knee, but do I really deserve this?" Gabriel muttered half-heartedly. God had nothing to do with their situation and the archangel knew it. Also - and he couldn't stress this point enough - he surely hadn't seen the worst the pre-teen and his younger brother were capable of, yet.

"Who are you talking to, Mr. Gabriel?" Sam asked curiously, pulling on the sleeve of his olive green jacket.

"Nobody," the archangel replied with a shrug, giving the younger Winchester a nice smile. He'd have to be a bit more careful about saying anything randomly while the curious Weechester was around, if he didn't want to explain, at least. It was quite obvious that Sam wasn't very content with the answer he had gotten, but he apparently thought that the matter wasn't worth pursuing.

"Oh great, he's a nutjob," Dean commented, rolling his eyes showily, "Where is Cas, anyway?"

"Hiding from your very unique charm, Dean-o," Gabriel snorted. Predictably Sam was highly amused by his older brother being the butt of the joke. The giggling came to an abrupt stop when Dean kicked his little brother's shin under the table. The older Winchester didn't even get the chance to look all too smug before he was kicked back with enough force to make the cutlery rattle on the table.

"Stop it! Both of you!" Gabriel exclaimed, sounding by far too close to some parents he had played tricks on in the past for his liking.

Luckily the waitress came back with their drinks that moment and both Sam and Dean seemed to decide at the same time that they would behave for that adult. Gabriel would have felt a little offended, if he hadn't been quite happy with them just sitting there quietly. Besides, he had to admit that their blonde waitress with her quite prominent D-cup would have distracted him from any squabble he might have had with one of his brothers, too. Sam probably was too far from puberty to appreciate Viola's assets, but Dean apparently was close enough to ball dropping territory to spend some extra time pretending to read her conveniently placed name tag.

"He'll have the chicken nuggets, but make that whatever healthy and growth supporting vegetables you have instead of the fries," Gabriel ordered their meals, "A bacon cheeseburger with extra fries for brat number two and the biggest slice of chocolate cake you have for me."

The waitress looked a little perplexed by his choice of words for a moment, but with the charming smile he had plastered on his face especially for her, she figured that he was just joking which was at least partly true. The two kids were sort of bratty, but they actually weren't bad enough to be called such in public, so he had been exaggerating for sure.

"Just eating dessert was an option? Why did nobody tell me that was an option?" Dean complained, looking like someone had just kicked his puppy as soon as he was done looking after Viola's retreating form, "They have pie. I could have gotten an entire pie!"

Dammit, he didn't even get an entire pie just for himself for his birthdays. This would have been his chance! The older Winchester vowed to try and order at least a slice of pie later, anyway. It didn't seem so unlikely that the adult would let him get away with it. Hell, both adults they had had to deal with today seemed much more easygoing than their dad usually was. Cas had given him enough quarters to keep the magic fingers going for hours just because he had told him to and Gabriel had taken them out to a diner after Sam had demanded his chicken nuggets.

"It's not healthy, Dean," the younger kid stated in a snotty tone, adding in a mumble, "Your cheeseburger isn't, either."

He could hardly protest against the burgers his older brother liked so much, because not eating at all wasn't healthy either. Besides, their dad took them to burger joints quite often and he knew what was good for them. In the very least he got tired of Sam's complaining very quickly, so it wasn't that much of a good idea to be a total smartass about stuff like that when their dad was listening. Things seemed to be a little different with their current babysitter, however.

"Listen to your brother. You kids need to eat the reasonable and healthy stuff," Gabriel agreed with a slight grin, reaching for the chocolate milkshake he had ordered earlier, "I'm not going to grow anymore, anyway."

Dean of course wasn't exactly happy about being told to listen to his little brother of all people. Sam enjoyed hearing the adult agreeing with him, of course. In fact it was the moment the younger Winchester decided that he really liked Gabriel.

"Imagine how tall you might've gotten, if you had eaten your veggies!" the younger Winchester exclaimed enthusiastically, loving the positive feedback the archangel had given him.

Gabriel couldn't help laughing at the way Sam's eyes lit up with the thought of how tall someone could get simply from eating the right things. The archangel ruffled the kid's hair affectionately, ignoring his pout and groan of protest.

"Just you watch, kiddo, one day you'll be taller than big bro," the archangel nodded to himself. Yes, he knew he was annoying Dean when he said things like that, but he had always liked picking on the older Winchester. Okay, he had enjoyed picking on the younger brother too, but as things were he was just a little kid and a rather adorable one at that, if Gabriel allowed himself the thought. The big hazel eyes and the floppy hair made Sam look rather cute, while Dean was in the awkward transitory stage where he was too old to be cute and too young to be anything else. Alright, he probably was cute as well when he wasn't being bratty. It was an unproven theory this far, however. Not to mention that the kid would hardly like to hear anything of that. Men were not cute in the older Winchester's mind!

"Never!" Dean stated with conviction, "Little brothers need to stay little, it's only natural!"

Gabriel used the few moments the older Winchester was distracted by the reappearance of their waitress to turn toward Sam and mouth 'Just you wait a few years' which immediately made the younger boy giggle again. Yeah, he was quite the adorable kid.

After the first few bites Dean gave up on pretending that he wasn't completely happy with his bacon cheeseburger and so they managed to have a mostly quiet, but nice meal. Both Sam and Dean kept eyeing him as he devoured the chocolate cake he had ordered for different reasons. The younger one of the two seemed somewhat disapproving while the older brother looked a little jealous still.

"Alright, Dean-o, knock yourself out," Gabriel said after they had finished their meals, pushing the menu into the pre-teen's hands, "Choose a pie for us to take back to the motel."

The older Winchester completely forgot to point out how nobody but his father – and sometimes maybe Sammy – was allowed to call him by any nicknames over his enthusiastic search for the perfect pie to take away with them. Of course, it was only fair that he got to choose the pie when Sam had dictated where they were going to eat, but life wasn't always – if ever - fair, so it was still special to him.

The cherry pie Dean was carrying kept him stupidly happy nearly all the way back to the motel while Sam was walking next to Gabriel quietly. Unfortunately something both Winchesters hadn't noticed before caught their eye once they got close enough to get a good view of the motel parking lot.

"Dad!" the eight year old yelled the moment he saw the Impala. He forgot all about his weariness as he started to sprint toward their room, his older brother a few steps ahead of him.

The archangel decided to follow them slowly to give himself a few more moments to come up with an explanation the children were going to buy without further questions. By the time he followed them into the room that Dean had hurriedly unlocked with the key he had been allowed to carry the two of them had already realized that their father was nowhere to be found.

"Your dad left the car here, because it was making strange noises and he didn't want to risk it breaking down on the way." Gabriel shrugged, trying to ignore how disappointed yet resigned both boys looked, "He borrowed Cas' for now."

Apparently, neither one of the boys cared much for the explanation, however. Dean put the pie on the table and turned away as if he had lost all interest in it, while Sam plopped down on the bed the furthest from the door belly first, trying not to show how close he was to crying.

"Oh, c'mon guys, you two just get washed up and into your pajamas and then we can watch a movie," Gabriel suggested cheerily with a forced grin, pointedly ignoring the slight heartache the scene he had just witnessed caused him.

"Whatever," Dean muttered, banging the bathroom door behind him.

As things were the archangel had two emotionally hurt children on his hands and the motel room they were in was just this side of being called a rat's nest. It looked like they had a really promising evening together ahead of them.