Author's note: Thanks a lot to Ghastly Eternity for beta-reading and to Maknatuna, Mello18, Creativity Incarnate, ChevyImpalla1967, Maddy Love Castiel, midnight0211, musicfeind2392, keacdragon, Larkafree, kb18142 and FireChildSlytherin5 for last chapter's reviews. You guys are amazing!

2

This time, Sam put Gabriel back into the crib before he went to get the telephone. He might have been incredibly lucky that the baby apparently hadn't been hurt when he fell the last time just as well as the tiny archangel really having enough of his powers so he couldn't get hurt easily, after all.

The younger Winchester's hands shook when he dialed the number that was ingrained in his brain so deeply that he doubted he could ever forget it. He didn't really know what he would say, but there probably was no protocol for this kind of situation, anyway.

"Don't hang up, please Bobby, just don't hang up!" Sam said very quickly as soon as the connection had been established, "Just grab whatever stuff you'll need to make sure I'm actually myself and come to the Crossroads motel in Walkerville, Montana. Please!"

There was silence on the other end of the line and honestly, Sam couldn't blame the older hunter for that one. He had realized that he sounded insane the very moment he had opened his mouth, but he hadn't been able to stop himself.

"I don't know what happened. I woke up here about an hour ago and…" the younger Winchester trailed off, because he clearly wouldn't make things better with talking more. The truth was that he wasn't feeling all too great and that he'd give anything just to have a familiar face around, but if he was starting to say things like that now, Bobby would hang up for sure.

"Sammy?" a voice from the other side finally asked. It wasn't the voice he had expected to hear, but it was no less welcome.

"Dean," Sam sighed, incredibly relieved but at the same time so very tired, "Look, I know what you're thinking, but I'm not a Crocotta or something."

The older Winchester snorted. He didn't have to point out that that was exactly what some monster trying to deceive him would say, because it was more than obvious.

"I'll come for you," Dean stated in a tight voice after a couple of moments of consideration, "And that's a threat, if you're anyone but my brother!"

The younger Winchester nearly laughed with relief. He had thought that simply getting someone to Walkerville would be much harder, but it seemed that he was lucky that one time.

There was no use saying much more before his brother was convinced that he was really who he said he was and they both hung up at the same time.

As soon as Sam had put the receiver down, he slumped to the floor and took a few shuddering breaths. A part of him had not believed that he could actually interact with anybody outside of this room until the very moment Dean had picked up. Now, a part of him was once more waiting for this illusion to end. Clearly, it had to end. He was actually having hopes that his brother would come to pick him up, so they had gotten what they had wanted. He once more had something they could take away from him.

The younger Winchester snapped out of his thoughts when Gabriel started to wail. He struggled to get back to his feet and picked the crying infant up as soon as he trusted himself to actually remain upright.

"Okay, I get it, you're not happy," Sam told the baby a little helplessly when his bawling didn't die down after a couple of moments. Gabriel's little face was scrunched up and tears were still running over his chubby cheeks. Apparently, he hadn't simply wanted to be picked up this time. Dammit!

The infant's rumbling stomach was a rather good clue for what the problem was. It didn't tell the younger Winchester how the hell he was supposed to solve it, though.

Under normal circumstances it wouldn't have been tricky at all. He would have taken his wallet and looked for the closest diner. Then again, there was nothing to indicate that the circumstances weren't perfectly normal, except for Gabriel being a baby and Sam being back from the cage and all that.

Sam tried his best to hush the infant and his own anxious thoughts while he reached for his back pocket. He could clearly feel that his wallet was there, now that he was concentrating on it, but that didn't have to mean anything.

It looked like they were lucky, though. The younger Winchester found that he had enough money on himself to get them through quite comfortably, even.

"Seems your father understands the concept of child support," Sam told the complaining baby with a small smile. The meaning of what he had just casually said, following a sudden impulse, only hit the younger Winchester a couple of moments later.

Thinking about it, God would have the means to get both of them back from the dead without breaking a sweat. It was the first explanation for everything that had happened that didn't make him feel on the verge of panic, too. It would mean that everything was real and that Michael and Lucifer had nothing to do with anything, after all. The only question was why God would have done this.

Sam didn't get the time to come up with possible answers, because Gabriel's wails were becoming louder again, though. He quickly stuffed his wallet back into his pocket and held the infant with both arms, rocking him gently and making soothing noises.

Maybe the younger Winchester was really going insane, but he could have sworn that the baby archangel gave him a look that said something like 'What the hell, human? I'm hungry! Feed me!'. The moment was over when Gabriel calmed down and even giggled quietly. Well, Sam was doing something right, it seemed.

He still decided that it was time to face the fears that were still there – albeit at the back of his mind – and leave the room. Dean and Bobby were too far away to simply sit and wait. They needed supplies, especially if baby archangels needed food and God knew what else! Pun absolutely intended.

Sam stepped out into the parking lot, Gabriel securely pressed against his chest and looked around nervously. He sighed deeply and started to walk toward the diner that was conveniently located just across the street after a couple of moments.

All those ordinary, everyday tasks should not have been as strenuous as they were. The younger Winchester was pretty much convinced that he would have given up by now, if it weren't for the rather helpless angel depending on him, for all it looked like.

Still, Sam felt ready to crawl into bed and sleep for a decade when he finally managed to get them seated in a booth and the back of the diner. Gabriel was thankfully quiet and just cuddled up against the younger Winchester's shoulder while sucking on his thumb and looking up to his caretaker's face trustingly. That probably shouldn't have freaked Sam out as much as it did, either.

"Aww, look at that little cutie!" the waitress cooed and didn't realize that she had just startled the younger Winchester badly, because she went to get a highchair for them, immediately.

"What do you even eat?" the tall human mumbled a question, looking at the infant as if he expected an answer, even though he really didn't at this point.

He ended up ordering peas, mashed potatoes and applesauce, just hoping that one of these things would agree with Gabriel. The cup of coffee he had ordered for himself was really necessary by that time, too.

"Okay, just a minute now," Sam whispered reassuringly when the baby's face adapted a look like he was going to cry any second, again. The way his little tummy was rumbling suggested that he had a really good reason to be displeased, however.

The younger Winchester decided to pass some time by getting Gabriel set up in the highchair. This, too, should not have been as hard as it proved to be. The archangel just didn't want to let go of Sam's shirt and when he finally had to release it, he started to bawl miserably and very loudly. The tall human very quickly brought the baby back to his chest, after that.

He wouldn't have told anyone, but Sam found that he preferred simply holding Gabriel, too. He idly wondered if this was how all young parents felt, or if it was just how – let's face it – mentally unstable and thoroughly exhausted people straight back from hell felt. Then again, maybe there wasn't that much of a difference between those two.

Their food arrived quickly enough and the younger Winchester was insanely happy that new customers arrived just that moment, so the waitress had to leave them alone. Okay, it was just about getting the little angel to eat something, but Sam didn't like the idea of being watched all the same.

The peas didn't agree with Gabriel which the baby announced loudly to the entire diner. Also, the younger Winchester knew that he was reading a meaning into something where there wasn't one, but he really thought that the infant gave him a look saying 'You can eat those, yourself!'.

The mashed potatoes triggered a similar reaction and Sam really started to fear that someone would call the police on him for mistreating a baby. A couple of people were looking his way and shaking their heads, already.

The younger Winchester brought the spoon with the applesauce to the infant's mouth with a rising feeling of dread, but instead of another complaint he got silence.

"Figures," Sam snorted, too tired to be amused, "We should have started with the sweeter stuff, huh?"

He was quick to fill the spoon and feed Gabriel some more before he could demand it loudly. The content silence that followed was exactly what the tall human needed to pull himself together and prepare to keep going for just a while longer, too.

"You really should have given the peas a chance, Gabe," the younger Winchester commented when he found a second to eat something, too, "They are good and healthy."

He hadn't even realized that he was hungry before he had started to eat and he was quite sure that he had never enjoyed something as simple as peas as much as he did that very moment.

Between eating the peas and mashed potatoes the baby hadn't wanted and feeding Gabriel the applesauce he very much wanted, quite some time passed and the diner became quiet once more as lunchtime was over. That meant the waitress was free to lurk around them, again.

"What's his name?" Helen – as the nametag said – asked in a honeysweet voice when she decided that pretending that she was just wiping the table next to them wouldn't work anymore, anyway. So, it wasn't every day that she got tall, attractive customers with cute, little babies, sue her!

"Gabriel," Sam replied automatically, offering another spoonful of food to the tiny archangel. Now that they had found something he liked, the younger Winchester didn't have to worry about him not eating anymore.

"He's your first one?" she wanted to know next, even though it was quite clear that she thought she already knew the answer, anyway. Well, the assumption didn't come from nothing. It just had to show how unsure Sam was about handling the infant.

"Yes," the younger Winchester replied a little reluctantly. But really, what else should he say? He could have explained something about babysitting for a relative or anything alike, but he didn't feel like making up a story, so he just went with what Helen had suggested.

"He really looks like you," she stated with a smile and leaned over to tap Gabriel's tiny nose gently, "You'll need to eat well, if you want to grow up to be as tall as your daddy!"

The baby angel looked back at the woman uncomprehendingly for a second and then tried to reach for the spoon that wasn't as close to his mouth as it should have been. Sam quickly complied, even as he tried not to chuckle. That was one fight he lost, however.

"I really have this strange feeling that he'll stay rather short," the younger Winchester shrugged lightly. Also, his exhausted brain found it amusing that the archangel was meant to somewhat look like him. Of course, that was just one of the things people told the parents of a baby, no matter what they really looked like.

"Can you tell me where I can find a shop to buy some stuff for him?" Sam suddenly asked and then added a little lamely, "Our trip is taking longer than anticipated and we didn't bring enough clothes."

He still didn't know which bodily functions a baby archangel would have, but he knew that Gabriel was a messy eater and needed at least some more clothes. The baby seemed to be full and ready to go, or possibly take a nap, anyway.

"Oh, there's a superstore just down the street," Helen gladly informed him and Sam got the impression that she would have come along for some shopping immediately, if he had asked her to.

"Thank you," the younger Winchester said with a short, dimpled smile and wiped off the baby's face with a napkin. As tempting as it might seem to take someone who might have known something about infants along, Sam just didn't think that it would have been a good idea. Instead, he left Helen a rather generous tip.

Gabriel was fast asleep and drooling against his shoulder before they had even left the diner.