A couple of hours later, Gabriel was sitting in the living room with a drink in his hand listening to music. That was how he usually tried to calm himself, and boy did he need to calm himself. He'd felt nothing but rage since he rescued Sam. Well, rage and sympathy. He managed to quell the rage when he was around Sam, but away from him, all he could do was picture what those men did to him and it made him want to tear the house apart. Again. He'd already done so a couple of times after getting Sam out of that basement.

Gabriel had never imagined that that was what he'd find when he heard Sam's prayer. He figured that he and his brother had gotten in over their heads with the the latest monster they were after and one of them was hurt worse than normal. For that reason, he should've ignored him. Well, that and the fact that he was peeved at both brothers for stupidly starting the end of the damned world. But something just wouldn't let him ignore Sam, and he was grateful for that now. He doubted those bastards would've gotten the chance to kill him, as Gabriel's brothers would've responded to the prayer, but who knew what they would do to him if they realized he was blind and unhealable. To them, all Sam was was a vessel for Lucifer, and with him blind, that wasn't an option. There was no way Lucifer would take a blind vessel. That was probably the only silver lining to this whole thing. Not that Sam would see it that way.

Gabriel had to wonder how Sam got caught by the men. Where the hell was Dean? Why wasn't he there to watch out for his brother, like he always had been in the past? And why didn't Sam want to return to his brother. When given a choice, Sam had opted to stay with him, someone he hated, rather than go back to Dean. Why was that?

Gabriel was cut from his thoughts by the sound of movement upstairs. He immediately got up and headed that way, knowing that Sam would likely get hurt if he was moving around up there, as he had no clue what he was doing.

Sure enough, the second Gabriel got upstairs, he saw Sam knock into a wall and land on the floor. He immediately went to help him up. "What part of 'call if you need anything' did you misinterpret?"

"I don't need anything from you," Sam spat as he tried to pull away. He wasn't asking the Trickster for anything, not even help getting to the bathroom. He didn't know what game the Trickster was trying to pull on him, but he knew he couldn't be trusted.

Gabriel didn't let Sam pull away and instead firmly led him down the hall. "I can only assume you're looking for the bathroom."

Sam merely grunted in response, but he stopped trying to pull away.

Gabriel led Sam into the bathroom and turned on the light before moving him to the toilet and positioning him in front of it. "You're right in front of the toilet. I'll wait outside."

"I...I wanna take a shower too," Sam said somewhat reluctantly. Again, he didn't want to ask the Trickster for anything, but since he was already there in the bathroom, he figured he might as well. He really wanted a shower. It had been at least a few days.

Gabriel snapped his fingers and a towel as well as fresh clothes appeared on top of the sink. Then he went over to the tub and turned the water on. He snapped his fingers again to make shampoo and soap appear on the edge of the tub. As an archangel, he didn't need to bathe, so there was no reason to have those things handy. "Okay, the tub is right next to you. There's shampoo and soap that will be on your right when you get in. There are three shower nozzles. The two on the ends adjust the temperature. When you're done, turn them both outward to shut the water off. There's a towel and a pair of clothes waiting on the sink when you're done. If you have problems, let me know."

"Thank you," Sam said somewhat grudgingly.

Gabriel quickly left to give the hunter some privacy. He didn't go far though. He waited just outside the door, knowing that Sam would once again try and fail to find his own way around instead of asking for help.

It was about a half hour before Gabriel heard the water shut off. He wasn't surprised Sam was in there so long. It had to have been a while since he was allowed the luxury of bathing, plus, he was fumbling around in darkness. That couldn't be easy.

About ten to fifteen minutes later, Sam came out. It had taken him a while to get dressed. Apparently it just wasn't so easy when you were suddenly blind. Luckily, it was just a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, so it wasn't as hard as it could've been.

"You good?" Gabriel asked.

Sam jumped a bit. He hadn't expected the Trickster to be waiting when he got out. "Don't do that, man. I didn't think you'd be waiting."

"Well, if I hadn't been, you would've tried to get back on your own," Gabriel said before taking the man by the arm.

"Don't need your help," Sam grumbled.

"No, you don't want my help, but you sure as hell need it. What now? You can come downstairs if you'd like. You don't have to stay curled up in the bedroom," Gabriel told him. He doubted the kid would take him up on the offer though. For one, Sam didn't like him, and for another, he probably wanted some more time alone to grieve the loss of his sight. While he didn't want to encourage that too much, Sam did deserve some time to mourn the loss.

"Bedroom," Sam said shortly.

Gabriel wordlessly led the hunter back to the bedroom he'd been sleeping in and helped him back into bed. "I'm gonna get you something to eat. Any opinion?"

"I'm not hungry," Sam said. Well, okay, that was a lie. He hadn't had a real meal since before he was kidnapped. Tim and Reggie gave him enough to keep him alive, but it was never much. Honestly though, he didn't really have a desire to eat. He was too miserable.

"Well, I'm gonna get you something anyway. You can decide to eat it or not," Gabriel said.

"Why are you doing this?" Sam asked. He really wanted to know what the game was. This was the Trickster for crying out loud. He had to want something.

"Honestly, kid, I'm not sure, but I am," Gabriel said.

"Yeah, right. You're the Trickster. You're not gonna help me for nothing," Sam sneered.

"You don't know anything about me, Sam," Gabriel said in a warning tone.

"Sure I do. I know you like to toy with people. You kill people. I know you killed those hunters," Sam said. He didn't need to see it to know Tim and Reggie were dead. He'd heard their screams.

Gabriel huffed angrily. "You're damn right I killed them! They're lucky I was too pissed off to do something worse than kill them. You're really going to judge me for killing two animals who tortured you and blinded you?"

"They were still human, and I deserved it anyway," Sam said. As bitter and miserable as he was after being blinded, he felt he deserved much worse. He started the apocalypse. People had died and still would die because he let Lucifer out. He deserved anything that happened to him.

If anything, Sam's words made Gabriel even more angry. "You did not deserve it! What those assholes did to you was monstrous. No one deserves to have that happen to them! As for being human, you and your brother don't give any other creature a pass for doing terrible things. Why should humans be any different. If you pour acid into a man's eye sockets, you deserve to die," he said in a tone that booked no room for argument.

Sam didn't seem to have an argument anyway. He just looked away as if contemplating the words.

"I'm gonna go make you something to eat," Gabriel said before quickly leaving the room.

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