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The first thing Sam noticed when Gabriel opened the door was that the room reeked of sex. The second thing he noticed was that Dean and Cas were as far away from each other as possible, lying down in the far corners of the room.

"Dean!" he exclaimed, nearing his brother.

He saw with alarm that something was very wrong. Dean was propped up against the wall, his face pale and sweaty, his eyes half shut. Sam could hear his laboured breath as he touched his shoulder.

"Dean? Are you okay?" he asked worriedly, eyes scanning Dean for signs of injury.

"Of course he's not okay," Gabriel said, sounding annoyed. "Castiel, you stupid little -"

"What the hell are you talking about, Gabriel? What's wrong with him?" Sam snapped, interrupting him.

"Look, first things first. Let's get both these idiots back to safety." Gabriel snapped his fingers and they were in their motel room, Dean lying on his bed.

The latter cracked open an eye, attempting to smirk at his younger brother. "Hiya, Sammy."

"What the fuck happened to you, Dean?" Sam demanded, touching his brother's forehead. "You're burning up."

"I'll tell you what happened. Your brother and little Castiel here have been screwing," Gabriel said, raising his eyebrow, his mouth twitching into a smirk.

"What the fuck is this jackass doing here?" Dean grunted, before doubling over with pain.

"I'm here to help you, smart ass," the archangel snapped.

"Why?"

That was the first word Sam had heard Cas say since they'd found them.

"Look, it doesn't matter. Gabe, Dean doesn't look good," Sam barked, interrupting anyone who was planning on speaking.

"All right, all right, Sam. Castiel, come here."

Cas stood up, swaying slightly as he walked over to the bed.

"Cas, take Dean's shirt off."

"Woah!" Sam exclaimed. "Now isn't the time to indulge in your weird fetishes, man."

Gabriel rolled his eyes at Sam. "Do it."

After a moment of hesitation, Cas pulled Dean's shirt off.

"Your hand."

"But Gabriel -"

"For fuck's sake, just do it!"

Cas glanced at Sam before slowly putting his hand on Dean's hand print. Dean jerked up, his eyes flying open with a gasp. Cas looked like he was about to explode, and with a grunt he fell to his knees.

"Gabriel-!" Sam began.

The archangel put a hand on both Dean's and Cas' forehead, closing his eyes. Suddenly, the room was filled with a white light, accompanied with a high ringing sound which pierced right into Sam's skull. He gasped, crouching down and covering his ears with his hands.

"Sam!" Gabriel shouted. "Get out of here!"

Sam collected all his strength and crawled towards the door, trying to feel his way around. When he finally felt the door, he scrambled up and reached for the door handle. The sound piercing through his head quickly made him cover his ears again, though, and he sunk to the ground, groaning. All he could see and hear and feel was white light and white noise.

"Dean.." he groaned, before he fell flat on his face and passed out.

A few minutes later, he woke up to the light and noise fading, Gabriel truly looking like the archangel he was as he stood there, eyes lit up and pure power crackling around him like lightning. His enormous wings were silhouetted against the wall.

Sam sat there watching breathlessly as everything faded down.

Eventually, Gabriel turned his head, looking at Sam. He winked. "How you doing?"

Sam just stared at him before scrambling up, rushing over to Dean. Cas was on the ground next to him, seemingly unconscious.

"They won't wake up for another, say, 24 hours," Gabriel commented, fishing a chocolate bar out of his pocket.

Sam just stared at him, trying to form words. "Gabriel, what the hell?!"

Gabriel had just been about to take a bite out of his snack. "What?"

"Why.. what just.. how?" Sam spluttered.

The archangel rolled his eyes. "All right, sit down."

He snapped his fingers and suddenly Sam was sitting down in the most comfortable chair he'd ever put his backside on. Another chocolate bar appeared out of thin air.

"Chocolate?"

Sam shook his head wordlessly. Gabriel shrugged. "More for me."

"Gabriel."

Gabriel sighed. "All right. Dean and Castiel had sex."

As much as Sam wanted to cringe, he forced himself to let Gabriel continue.

"Having sex is the worst thing you can do when you're bonded together and you don't want to be."

"'Cause then you officially bond, right?"

"No."

"Wait.. what?"

"Nothing can undo a bond when it's properly formed, Sasquatch. Not even an archangel. I can't break bonds, I can only.. undo almost bonds."

Sam blinked. "You lost me."

Gabriel sighed. "All right, look. A bond is properly formed when their souls connect. It's not the same as having sex. Once the souls have connected, there is no way to ever undo it. They stay like that forever."

He took another bite from his chocolate bar before continuing.

"However, dear old Dean and Castiel here hadn't connected their souls. Yet."

Sam nodded, he had no doubt that if they'd been a bit later they would have done just that.

"That's why I could still undo it. They're a pair of very lucky idiots."

The youngest Winchester frowned slightly as he processed the information. "But.. what was wrong with Dean? Why did he look so bad?"

"Yeah, about that," Gabriel said while rolling his eyes, "My fucking idiot little brother didn't think. A bond between two angels is hard enough to withstand, never mind between an angel and a human being. When they screwed.." - Sam pulled a face - "Dean's soul became.. sick. It's like they'd been so close together, being apart was going to slowly kill him. It's a good thing I found him on time."

Sam sat there in silence for a few minutes. Gabriel walked over to Dean, poking his face.

"Uh, Gabe.." Sam began quietly.

Gabriel looked up.

"Thanks. You.. you kind of saved Dean's life."

Gabriel smirked. "I know, Gigantor. Don't think I'm going to let you forget this."

Sam smiled. Gabriel cleared his throat.

"So. We've got about 24 hours to kill. How does Vegas sound?"

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\

He was back in the Pit. He couldn't see a thing – they probably burned out his eyes again – but he could smell and he could hear. He smelled the charred flesh and blood and meat. He heard the tortured screams and wails and shrieks of pure anguish and agony.

He felt a scream brewing in himself, but it seemed as if his mouth was sewn shut because he couldn't part his lips. All that came out of him was a desperate, muffled noise that made his lungs feel like they were on fire.

I can't be back. I can't be back. I can't be back.

"Hi there, Dean."

He froze completely as he heard that all too familiar voice.

"Did you miss me?" Alastair said, and even without seeing his face he knew he was smirking.

Dean started shaking uncontrollably, mentally begging anyone, anything, to get him out.

Please.

He heard Alastair chuckle as he felt a needle go into his throat. And another one. And another one.

Dean writhed around, choking on his own blood, praying desperately.

Sam! SAM!

Alastair started whistling, and Dean felt a blunt knife slice his body open from neck to navel. He felt – and heard – his guts falling out, and his uncontrollable, muffled and choked screaming intensified.

"CAS!"

Dean jolted upwards, sweat damp on his face as he panted harshly. He took a few moments to realise that he was in bed, that he was safe and warm and not being tortured. He looked around, and jumped when he saw Cas sitting next to the bed.

"Calm down, Dean. You were dreaming," Cas said in that solemn, reassuring voice of his.

"What.. what happened?" Dean asked, blinking.

Cas stood up, walking towards the window, facing away from him.

"Gabriel broke the bond," he answered rather shortly.

The hunter needed a few moments to process and understand that information. Everything came rushing back to him, up to the very last moment he was conscious. There were a million things he wanted to say and even more to ask, but he'd be damned if he knew how to.

"Where's Sam?" he asked instead.

"Gone with Gabriel."

"What? Why?" Dean asked, confused.

"It took you about 30 hours to regain consciousness, it took me 24. I suspect Gabriel didn't want to be bored. In fact, I'll let him know we're awake right now."

Cas hadn't turned around or even looked in his general direction during the whole conversation. Dean just stared at his back as the angel called his brother. He still felt dizzy and light-headed, and strangely empty.

A few seconds later, Gabriel and Sam appeared, looking way too happy for Dean's liking. His annoyance evaporated as soon as Sam grinned at him, his eyes lighting up.

"Dean!"

"Hey, Sammy."

Sam rushed over to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm just peachy."

Gabriel appeared next to him, and he abruptly put a hand on his chest.

"Woah, what the fuck?" Dean exclaimed, but the archangel ignored him.

"Come here, bro," Gabriel called over to Cas, and the latter obliged silently.

Gabriel put his hand on Cas' chest as well, and Cas showed no signs of emotion.

"Yeah. Bond is completely gone," the archangel then concluded, removing his hands.

"So.. it's over," Dean said slowly, looking up at Cas.

The latter stared back, nodding slowly. "I suppose it is."

Dean didn't know why, but he found that that sentence sounded incredibly human. Their eyes stayed locked, and the hunter felt weird fluttering in his guts, which he assumed was an after effect of the whole bond-removing thing.

Sam cleared his throat. Cas looked up, nodded at Gabriel, and vanished.

"Uhh.. wow," Sam said awkwardly.

"Guess no bond breaking could take away that stick up his ass," Gabriel said lazily. "You're welcome, by the way."

"Um.. yeah, thanks. Why the fuck did you agree to help us, anyway?" Dean asked, still a bit dazed and quite a bit hurt from Cas' abrupt disappearance.

"Because I like your brother," Gabriel said with a shrug. "Not that it was easy to convince me, though. Especially when I heard that it was to help you. But you were lucky since I was in a good mood."

"Great. I don't owe you anything now, do I?" he asked suspiciously.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "What do I look like, some crossroads demon?"

"Well, it's not like you usually do something out of the goodness of your heart. What's the catch?"

"Dean, there's no catch," Sam intervened. "He agreed to help me after some convincing. He found you, took care of that poltergeist and released you from that awful bond thing. That's it."

The eldest Winchester looked at Gabriel for a while, who returned his gaze with a wink. Finally, Dean sat up and held out his hand.

"Thanks."

Gabriel rolled his eyes, ignoring the outstretched hand.

"Right, I suppose that's my cue to go, Samsquatch. I'll see ya."

"Wait, Gabe. Can't you stick around for a while?" Sam asked.

Dean grimaced at the nickname, but didn't say anything. Gabriel grinned.

"I guess I could stay for a couple of days. Actually, I think I will stay, just to enjoy the show," he said slyly.

"What show?" Sam asked, confused.

Dean looked at Gabriel sharply. "Yeah, Gabe, what show?"

Gabriel just winked at them both, and vanished.

"Dick," Dean muttered.

Sam just rolled his eyes, standing up to get them some food.

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