A/N: Sorry it took so long! My beta's exams are now and she's really busy! I'll try to finish chapter 21 so that she can proof-read it soon. Please let me know what you think! ^.^

Chapter 20 – Brotherly love

Two days after going to Gabriel's house, both Winchesters were lying awake in their bedroom, facing the ceiling early in the morning. The room was quiet for a while, and the silence was a blessing to the boys, who knew it would end as soon as John woke up.

After a while, Sam rolled on his side to face Dean. He was a bit anxious about what he wanted to ask, but he felt that he needed to do it.

"Hey Dean… What have you been doing?" Dean looked at Sam, raising his eyebrows in question. "You look tired all the time and I hardly see you around… We haven't done anything together lately… We hardly talked in the last two weeks!"

Dean turned back to face the ceiling , enjoying the last moments of relaxation he would get for the day. Training with Benny took up a lot of his time and strength, so these quiet moments in the morning was all he had. If he wasn't too tired, he would enjoy a few contemplative moments late at night too, just enjoying the feeling of his brain unwinding, dispelling all troubling thoughts.

"I've been busy Sammy." He replied, trying to keep the room peaceful.

Sam sat in his bed, thinking about how he could make his brother open up to him.

"I'm your brother, Dean! I think I deserve a better explanation than that!" He snapped, knowing it would trigger something in him.

Dean sat up and faced Sam, he wanted to be there for his brother, but it was not easy. He had so many things to do! Apart from the trainings with Benny, he worked with Bobby every day, he cleaned their house, he did everything their father asked –demanded- him to do, he did his best at school to keep his grades like they had always been –as good as they could be- and sometimes he even helped Jo… What time left did he have? Time to sleep. Nothing else… He was sad that it was like that, but he kept remembering why he was doing this. He needed to learn how to fight, and this was the only way. Sam could live a without his brother bickering in his life for a while… Couldn't he?

"Well I'm sorry Sammy! I'm sorry I haven't been around, but I've been trying to do too many things at the same time." The older Winchester said huffing in annoyance, still trying not to be too loud, or else John would wake up.

Sam, not really understanding what his brother had meant by 'trying to do too many things at the same time, gave Dean a puzzled expression. What could that mean? Was school taking that much time? Or was it for working with Bobby and Jo's mother? Or could it even be something else?

"What do you mean by that? What have you been doing Dean?" His voice came out a bit angry, what wasn't he telling Sam?! And most of all, why didn't he say what it was? Sam was starting to wonder if Dean was doing anything illegal; feeling the need to keep it a secret.

The feeling of guilt trespassed Dean; he hadn't been planning to tell Sam what he'd been up to after school these past few weeks. As the guilt increased, Dean looked away from his brother, trying, hoping this feeling would subside; which didn't happen, it only made him feel angry at himself, for not telling him sooner.

"You don't need to stress over it, Sammy… I'm not doing anything illegal." The older Winchester said, trying to get his brother to stop worrying so much over the situation.

Sam rolled his eyes, but Dean knew how relieved he felt just by the statement he had given him. He was starting to relax, but not completely, he still didn't know what Dean had been doing.

"Then what the hell have you been doing Dean?" He asked, still as insistent as ever, but a little less tense than he had been before.

Dean thought for a few seconds, he was going to tell Sam, that was for sure, but he couldn't help feeling nervous about it; what if Sam didn't agree with his decision? The only thing that mattered in the whole fighting thing was his family, and if his family didn't agree, Dean didn't know what he would do… Sam questioning him, reminded him that he hadn't told Charlie either.

I guess today is going to be a long day… More than usual at least…

"I've been learning how to fight." He said in a sigh.

The confession brought a smile to Sam's face. Not only his brother told him what he has been doing, but it's also something as amazing as –finally- learning how to defend himself.

"That's awesome Dean!" Sam chirped excitedly, jumping from his stop to sit down in Dean's bed.

Dean gave him a look to lower his voice, not wanting to wake their father up.

"Can I learn how to fight too?"

Upon listening to his younger brother's request, a smile crept to Dean's lips.

"You know what, Sammy… When I know how to fight I'll teach you." Dean told him whilst ruffling Sam's curly brown locks with affection, making the boy close his eyes and smile, content with his brother's caring actions.

Sam opened his eyes and looked excited to his brother."Promise?"

His brother smiled widely at him and nodded. "I promise, cross my hear and hope to die." He said, placing a hand on his chest.

Sam threw his arms around Dean and hugged him.

"Thank you Dean! Oh I can't wait." He said, not bothering to contain his excitement.

"You know, you need to learn how to be patient before I teach you anything…" He started, only to get interrupted by his brother.

"Deeeeeeeaaaaaaan! Don't be mean!" Sam whined, only to pout soon. "And I'm very patient!"

Dean chuckled."Of course you are Sammy."

The room fell silent once again, and they just let themselves relax, knowing that everything was alright between them once again.

Feeling that he hadn't been in his brother's life lately, Dean decided it was time to know what had been happening with the younger Winchester.

"How about you, Sammy? What have you been up to?"

Sam smiled widely at his brother's question. He was really excited to share the news about Gabriel. They had become such close friends in so little time and that was something huge for him.

"I'm glad you asked! I made a friend a few weeks ago!" Sam told his brother. As soon as the words left his mouth, Sam remembered a little detail; Dean would ask him who his new friend was… That was for sure. He noticed how Dean didn't exactly like Gabriel, so he wasn't sure how he would react to their newfound friendship.

Dean was happy. After so much time, Sam finally made a new friend. After what had happened to Ruby, no one wanted to be friends with Sam. They didn't exactly know what happened; all they knew was that after becoming friends with Sam she got beaten up; most of the people in his middle school thought it had been Sam who did it and others thought it had been Dean, so they didn't try to talk to him much. They didn't want to risk being beaten up. The only people who were kind of friends with him, were the ones he had known all his life: the twins from his classroom Michael and Lucifer –also known as: Mike and Luc-, a cute girl named Jessica –who threw a smile at him every time they walked past each other-, a funny guy named Garth and a girl named Lilith, but not even them dared to be very close to him, just a casual 'Hey' and the occasional lunch together.

"Oh really?" Dean asked, looking at Sam with a smile.

So little Sammy got himself a new friend!

Sam nodded, starting to panic slightly.

"Yeah! He's not from my school, but he's very funny!" Sam said, eyeing his brother carefully. He was going to bring every good characteristic of Gabe he could, he wanted his brother to think Gabe was a good guy. He wanted to remain friends with him, and Dean wouldn't agree with that so quickly.

"He's not from your school… Then how did you meet this guy?" Dean said with a frown, not really liking the possibilities.

Could it be someone bad… I don't want Sam to have someone influencing him to do bad things!

"I met him through you, actually." Sam could feel the cold sweat in his forehead. He felt like crap for lying to his brother; he didn't like not telling stuff to his brother. Sam sighed slightly. He was afraid Dean would condemn their friendship when it wasn't at its fullest.

"Through me?" Dean asked as his brows rose.

When did I introduce someone to Sam?

"Yeah…" Sam said simply, his eyes meeting the floor.

Who the hell could it be? I don't remember having many friends and introducing one to him?! When the hell did I do that?!

"Are you going to tell me when I introduced you to your friend?" Dean asked. It was better to ask than to think of all the possibilities that would take his mind away from him for the rest of the day.

Sam couldn't face his brother. He was too scared to reply; he was deep lost in thoughts, trying to think of ways to avoid telling the truth.

"Sam?" Dean's voice brought him back to reality, making him face his brother again.

Sam gulped and took a deep breath.

"I met him that day when I asked your friend to take you to the nurse's office." Sam ended up saying, not really wanting to say it.

Dean frowned. That day he wasn't exactly thinking much about his surroundings, he was a bit lost in his own feelings to care about anything else.

"You mean Cas?" Dean didn't want to mention him, but he didn't remember who else could have been.

Sam shook his head and Dean remembered that Cas always walked to school with his brothers, it was known in the whole school why they didn't bring their cars, it was something along the lines: 'I don't want someone to beat my car in this stupid parking lot!'. Something clicked and Dean knew that there were only two possibilities.

"Which one of the Novak brothers is your new friend?" He asked, is face starting to show a bit of anger.

In a very small voice, Sam replied.

"Gabe."

Sam spoke in such a small voice, that Dean couldn't figure out which name he said.

"Who?" He asked again, this time paying full attention to Sam.

"Gabriel." Sam said, a bit more loudly this time.

No. That couldn't be true… He must have heard it wrong. Yeah, that was it.

Gabriel?! That douche is Sammy's new friend?! How the fuck did that happen?!

"Why are you friends with him?!" Dean asked his brother in complete disbelief.

"It… hmm… kind of happened." Sam said, not really sure on how to explain it.

"That doesn't answer it! Why Sam?!" Dean asked, his voice low despite his anger.

Suddenly, Sam felt angry. Why was Dean asking him that again? Didn't they just cover that.

"What do you mean why? I told you why already, Dean!" Sam hissed, trying to see why Dean was so stressed over this. "You weren't there for me. He was. That's why!"

Guilt crushed through Dean. He knew he hadn't been the best brother ever in the last weeks, but he had a good excuse for it.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there, Sam." Dean replied. "But that doesn't tell me how you became friends with him!"

Sam knew it. He could tell the story of how he met Gabe as many times as he was asked, he just didn't know if he wanted to tell it to his brother.

"Tell me!" Dean begged, and Sam had no way of escaping it now.

"He was shocked that I didn't take candy when he offered me, while he was stalking me… And he came back later, asking how I could not like candy." Sam said, as a smile crept to his face from the memory. "I told him I liked candy and he offered me some. After that we just kind of clicked. I don't know, Dean… It just happened."

It sounded strange. Would Gabriel Douchebag Novak actually care if someone didn't like candy? His first answer was of course that guy loved candy more than anything else… But was that really a reason to befriend Sam? He wasn't so sure about that.

"Why did you trust him?" The question left Dean's mouth before he could stop himself. He was angry that Sam befriended such a guy; he was angry that he hadn't been there to prevent it; and most of all, he was angry because Sam trusted him, right now probably more than he trusted Dean himself.

"He's not as bad as you think!" Sam told him, anger starting to poison him too. "He has been nothing but a good friend to me! And he has been here! I don't feel so alone because he's there for me!"

His words were like harsh blows to his gut. It made him feel like he hadn't been good enough for his brother.

"You know what? You can befriend whomever you want." Dean told him. "You're old enough to choose your friends, I just hope he doesn't hurt you so much that you come crawling back to me."

Sam looked away, seething with rage, embarrassment and hurt. How they managed to be angry silently was a bit difficult for others to understand, but after having silent fights with each other while their father slept in the next room, it had just become a habit.

"I'm going to get some fresh air." Dean said as he dressed himself quickly and walked out of their room to the front of the house. He couldn't leave just yet; he still needed to make his dad breakfast, and clean the kitchen, but he felt a bit of freedom as soon as he stepped outside, as the cold air hit him in the face. It was the only freedom he was going to get, for a while anyway.