Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Treeni, FireChildSlytherin5, CherylB1964, kb18142, alena, random yet lovable, keacdragon, Keefer, XxZessxX, Maddy Love Castiel, Kirabaros, RachelPhobia, PercyJfan1802 and Soulless666 for last chapter's reviews!

Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading. You rock, girl!

7

Cooking the human way was one of the things Gabriel actually enjoyed every now and then. Sure, he could snap up anything he wanted and it probably would look better that way, but somehow a self-made meal always tasted just that little bit better. Thinking about it made Gabriel recall some human phrases about love and care. Something he would have likely laughed at a millennium ago.

The archangel liked to think that he had become quite the good cook over the years. Pancakes were hardly the most elaborate meal he could prepare, but he was pretty sure that both his guests would enjoy them. Not to mention that he technically owed Sam a short stack and a breakfast he could really enjoy. Alright, technically he owed him that short stack a hundred times over and then some.

Gabriel banned the thought from his mind as quickly as it had come up, though. Eight year old Sammy was the one he had to concern himself with and he maintained the thought process that he didn't owe a thing to adult Sam. The archangel might have a better understanding for the why and how the mystery spot incident had gone as wrong as it had, but that didn't mean that he thought he had been wrong in what he had done.

Exactly as Gabriel had planned, the smell of breakfast woke both boys up fairly quickly. While the two still looked sleepy and hardly mumbled a 'morning' each, they also looked like they were happy to be there and looking forward to their meal.

The archangel waited until all of them were seated and ready to eat, before he brought up another thing he had decided he would try. "Alright, kiddos, what do you want to do today?"

Sam looked at the adult from under his bangs, but kept quiet. There were a couple of things he could have said, but he was sure that Dean wouldn't like going to some science museum and for all he knew Gabriel wouldn't either. Next to him his older brother was trying to figure out how serious the archangel was about letting them decide in the first place. Neither boy wanted to make a suggestion just to have it shot down immediately, so they kept quiet.

"Guess we'll just go to the Laundromat to wash my stinky socks then," Gabriel joked, before he added in an energetic tone, "C'mon, I want to hear some suggestions! Anything goes, just keep it realistic."

Of course, the archangel could have taken them for a picnic on the moon without breaking a sweat in theory. However, chances were that something like that would draw a lot of unwanted attention from all the wrong sources. They needed to stay hidden, staying among other humans was their best bet. Not to mention that the boys were apparently under the impression that all the supernatural things they hunted for a living usually didn't exist.

"We could go to an arcade," Dean shrugged, "I still got some of Cas' quarters."

Going to an arcade would also mean that they could all do their own thing and then meet up again later. The older Winchester would probably try to stick close to his baby brother just to make sure that nobody was picking on him, but the adult wouldn't have to find a way to entertain them. All in all, Dean thought that he had made a pretty solid suggestion.

"That's something," Gabriel nodded to himself, considering the idea. Giving the boys a bag full of quarters and sending them off to a bunch of game consoles would help them pass the time for sure. It wasn't exactly the most creative or extraordinary thing they could do, though. "What else?"

There had to be something else the two Winchesters could come up with. They were young boys, for crying out loud! They were bound to have wishes and all sorts of things they wanted to do! Gabriel understood that John Winchester had been big on the military style upbringing, but keeping the boys from having and expressing all the desires other children their age had, was just plain wrong.

"Don't know, man. Watch a game or something?" Dean groaned while his brother kept stubbornly quiet. Checking out all the channels the TV around the place offered the other day, the older Winchester had seen that there were a couple of sports channels available. Something interesting was bound to be on. In fact, they might even be able to find something Sam would like to watch too, even if the bitch deserved having to watch whatever Dean wanted to see just for leaving him hanging when it came to making the stupid suggestions the adult wanted to hear! Seriously, did Dean have to do everything around here?

"Okay, you two get ready for the day and I'll see what I can do," Gabriel stated, clapping his hands once for emphasis. He would have liked it better, if one of the ideas had come from the Samunchkin too, but beggars couldn't be choosers and Dean's ideas had a lot of potential.

A lot of people would get a good laugh out of Gabriel – or rather Loki – playing the responsible adult, but he nearly automatically grabbed his phone and left a message to Castiel to tell the seraph to meet them for dinner at 6 pm, while the two boys went to get washed up and dressed. The archangel knew that his dark-haired brother wouldn't let the Winchesters down on purpose, but he most likely would need the reminder to show his face regularly.

"The Wilmington Blue Rocks are having a training match against the Salem Red Sox today," Gabriel announced when the two Winchesters came back to the kitchen a few minutes later, "And we're going to be there."

It was a minor league thing and didn't count toward any championships or anything, but on really short notice, there was only so much even an archangel could do. Both boys looked like he had just told them that Christmas was in October that year, anyway.

The good mood lasted until they reached the parking lot where Gabriel had willed the car of his choosing into existence. He could hardly drive around in the Impala with the boys all too much since he had claimed that the car was possibly damaged. Moving the vehicle to a safe spot had been one thing, using it more excessively was just asking for the boys to get suspicious. Plus, the Impala wasn't exactly an inconspicuous car and you never knew where you might come across someone who had some sort of unresolved issues with the Winchesters.

"That's your car?" Dean asked incredulously, pulling a slightly disgusted face, "Dude, c'mon! I can't be seen riding in that tacky hunk of plastic!"

Gabriel shrugged lightly and smirked to himself before he pressed the button on the key that unlocked the apple-green VW beetle.

"You know, Dean-o, the stadium isn't any further away, if you walk," the archangel commented casually, not giving his voice any kind of threatening quality. What he had just said felt enough like a parent thing to say without making it a threat, as well. Not to mention, that he wasn't willing to back that particular threat up with actions, anyway. He wanted to give the boys a nice day with a baseball game and a visit to the local arcade, after all.

"Whatever," the older Winchester huffed, walking up to the co-driver's side of the stupid car. He wasn't going to sit in that back, that much was absolutely clear in Dean's mind. When they were in the Impala with their dad driving he sometimes sat in the back with Sam to keep him company and so they could pass the time better with games and stuff. The backseat of the Impala was much more spacious, however.

"I think it's cute," Sam whispered, making sure that only Gabriel could hear him. He didn't want to hear a lecture about cars from Dean later on and he especially didn't want his brother to hear what he was going to say next.

"It suits you," the younger Winchester mumbled, feeling how his ears grew hot from embarrassment. He half-hoped that the adult hadn't heard him, but when Gabriel smiled warmly and patted his shoulder Sam had to smile, too.

The fact that the younger boy didn't fight his brother over which one of them got to sit in the shotgun seat, combined with the fact that the archangel made sure that the radio was playing some of those classic rock songs Dean was so fond of, made their drive to the baseball stadium pleasant enough for all of them.

Once there, it became clear that the nice late October weather had attracted many baseball fans. The archangel wasn't worried that they wouldn't get tickets, though. Even if it looked like a lot of people were around, there weren't anywhere near enough to fill up the stadium. Not to mention that they would have gotten their damn tickets, even if every single seat had been sold out. If the archangel Gabriel and trickster god Loki wanted something, he got it!

A short stop at the snack bar later and they were on their way to their seats. The stadium really wasn't so packed that Sam had to be scared of getting lost, but that didn't keep the Munchkin from grabbing Gabriel's hand. If the younger Winchester felt better that way, the archangel wasn't going to reject him. However, if Gabriel was going to develop a serious case of empty-nest-syndrome as soon as the two kids would inevitably be taken out of his life again, he was so going to blame Castiel for it. His blue-eyed brother better expect to be pranked to the end of the universe and back again for ever dragging him into this. He would pay, if Gabriel had to suffer through any kind of anguish because of it!

"What are you thinking about?" Sam suddenly asked, squeezing the adult's hand a bit to get his attention. The eight year old had noticed that their babysitter sometimes got a sort of distant look on his face and that he always had to shake his head to get his focus away from whatever he had been thinking about again later. The younger Winchester recognized that kind of behavior, because he often did the same, when the thoughts of things he'd much rather not think about wouldn't leave him alone.

"Nothing important. Don't you worry, Sambo, you have all my attention now," Gabriel grinned just a little too widely to be completely natural, squeezing the boy's hand back. The archangel had the sinking feeling that the kid was looking straight through him. There was no way that Gabriel would ever admit that he was scared that he was getting too attached to the Winchesters brothers, though. He had no idea what exactly they would and wouldn't remember once the spell was broken and he really couldn't have their adult selves running around with the knowledge that he had a soft spot for them.

They found their seats easily enough and it turned out that they had a great view over the field. Being completely honest, Gabriel wasn't that thrilled by the prospect of watching the game. After a thousand or so major league games, a little training match between two minor league teams wasn't exactly the highlight of his day. However, both boys were excited and enraptured from the moment the players set foot on the field and that was what really counted for the time being.

It wasn't that surprising that Sam was a quiet watcher while his brother was yelling instructions to the players every other moment. Gabriel chuckled under his breath when Dean's enthusiasm didn't allow the twelve year old to remain in his seat and he had to jump to his feet gesticulating wildly as he yelled, "Swing!"

The archangel didn't have to think for longer than a moment before he decided to make the older Winchester's day just that little bit better still. The next time the batter that Dean liked to yell to the most was up to bat, Gabriel concentrated his powers and reached out toward the ball and the bat, making sure that they connected with each other in exactly the way needed to give the home team a home-run and let the older Winchester catch the ball.

Dean looked at the baseball in his hands in complete silence, his eyes widening more and more as his mind fully processed what had just happened. The victory dance, complete with happy howling, started up soon afterward. If there had been room for doubt that he had done the right thing in the archangel's mind, it would have been gone that moment.

"No way!" Sam exclaimed disbelievingly, staring at his brother and at the ball the older boy was showing to him. The chances for catching a ball like that just had to be very slim! The stadium was fairly big and there were a bunch of other people, but Dean had been the one who had been in the perfect place at the right time.

"Yes way!" the older Winchester shot back, his wide grin nearly splitting his face in half.

The game wasn't over yet and both boys suddenly knew exactly which team they wanted to win. To the credit of the Wilmington Blue Rocks, it had to be said that they would have played more than decently without the little angelic push they received every now and then, but Gabriel wasn't going to take any chances there. The two boys were going to have one of the best days of their lives and their team winning was going to be a part of that.

"C'mon, Dean-o, we're going to get that signed for you," the archangel stated decisively once the game was over for good. Both boys might have looked like they didn't believe that getting an autograph for Dean's baseball was possible, but they didn't know who they were hanging out with. Gabriel wanted to see them both smile like it was Christmas and their birthdays again and what Gabriel wanted, Gabriel got.