The first thing he notices is the blood. It's everywhere, soaking his clothes, dripping from his blond hair. He can't see where it's coming from, and dimly in the recesses of his mind he knows it's a dream, nothing but a dream, but it's so real. He sees ghouls, reapers, demons, all crowded around him, hears them cackling...
"Mom!" Adam cries, tossing and turning in bed. But the voice that soothes him, the hands that comb through his hair, they aren't Kate's, and he remembers. Kate's dead. He should be too. She's in Heaven, Michael's seen her. He knows that she's happy. He curls up to Michael miserably, feeling more alone than ever.
The first thing he notices is the heat. The heat from the flames of the Pit, licking up towards the Cage, where he is suspended with what he thinks must be the worst combination of people to be contained in one place. Michael and Lucifer don't stop fighting, Sam and Adam just curl in opposite corners, too exhausted to even try and stop the two archangels. Not that it would work anyway. The screams of tortured souls echo around them - he hears his mother's shriek and frowns. This isn't right, Kate went to Heaven. That one detail throws him off slightly, but soon even Kate's screams start to cut into him and he retaliates with his own yells, clawing at his hair.
"Michael! Michael, please!" Adam shrieks, thrashing. Michael looks up from where he is trying to figure out the hunter's iPod, and in an instant is standing next to Adam. He frames the boy's face in his hands, pushes his hair off his damp forehead, whispers to him in English, Enochian, Latin, until Adam's eyes fly open and he launches himself at Michael. The archangel catches him easily, rocking him as Adam's legs wrap tightly around his waist like a child, arms round his neck, and Adam just cries and cries. Michael's whispers never stop, gentle endearments as he kisses Adam's shoulder. He doesn't even realise that Adam cried out for him, not Kate.
Adam eventually cries himself to sleep, refusing to let go of Michael, and it breaks the archangel's heart to see the boy so destroyed, Adam, who has been through so much. He's never seen Adam this way and it hurts him because he knows that the boy is usually so strong. All he can do is lie down with Adam, still holding onto him. The peace lasts a few hours before Adam is once again screaming for Michael, and the brunette wakes him with some difficulty. Michael holds him until he goes back to sleep, his whispered words soothing the boy. Every time Adam wakes during the long night, crying out for Michael, he is right there, murmuring whatever he can think of to quiet him again until he sleeps. After the third time, Adam asks him why he bothers to stay, and Michael realises that he will never leave Adam. As long as he is needed, he will not leave him; and it is painfully obvious that Adam needs him right now, more than ever, no matter how tough he tries to act. Night is Adam's weakness, the thing that reduces him to a complete wreck, and Michael has to be there for him.
"Father, I came for advice." Michael doesn't dare to look up at his Father, kneeling in front of him, afraid of what he will see. He is unsure whether God will accept that he has bonded with Adam Milligan, but knows that he has no secrets from him. Not here. He feels a gentle hand on the top of his head and immediately relief spreads through him as his Father speaks. He tells his eldest son to be there for Adam for as long as he is needed, because there is no way to help a soul like Adam's - broken, damaged, but still so pure and bright - other than to love him until his scars are healed, no matter how long it takes; but Michael has eternity and he would stay with Adam for that long. He stays in Heaven for a few days, 'recharging his batteries' as Adam would put it - the thought of the human makes him smile immediately - and reacquainting himself with the angels who were the closest things to friends he had, hearing their news and avoiding the subject of his own. He has forgotten how peaceful and slow-paced life in Heaven is.
On the first night, Adam manages to tear himself out of his nightmares with ugly sobs that rip out of his throat and wrack his body. He screams for Michael, Kate, even Sam and Dean, but no one comes. Michael has left for good. The single thought makes his stomach start rolling and he barely makes it to the bathroom.
On the second night, Adam doesn't sleep at all. He stays sitting in the same position, only moving for water, terrified of what sleep will bring. He stays up that night, and the night afterwards, sitting in the dark, mouthing wordlessly; prayers, songs, curses, random facts his mind picked up God knows where - anything to distract him.
On the fourth night, around 9pm, to be exact, Adam is sitting in exactly the same place, eyes fixed on the wall, listening to the couple next door screaming at each other again. He feels a small breeze whisper over the back of his neck, but doesn't bother to turn around. If it's a demon, let it come. He will welcome death. Michael isn't here to save him now.
Michael is immediately struck by how still Adam is. He moves round into Adam's eyeline, trying to get him to look at him, but it doesn't work. He whispers Adam's name softly, stares at the young hunter. Adam has changed in the last four days, more than Michael imagined. The blond hair is dull; dark shadows around the eyes that seem to have grown in his face; his cheeks are thin, almost as thin as when Michael dragged him out of the Cage, and pale, deathly pale. He sees the note he left for Adam still lying on the table next to the bed, and knows that Adam hasn't opened it. "Adam?" Michael kneels in front of him, grabbing his hand, and it is so cold that for one moment Michael is convinced that Adam is dead and he feels his heart sink. Then Adam mouths something Michael can't hear, his throat too dry to get the words out, and gestures towards his bag. Michael disappears for one second, reappearing with a bottle of water that Adam finishes in one breath. He sits, holding his breath, waiting for Adam to speak.
"I thought you left me." Those five broken words completely decimate Michael's stony exterior. No matter how much he pretends, he loves Adam too much to leave him, and the fact that Adam thinks he would hurts him more than he thinks he can bear. He grabs Adam and pulls him into a hug until the boy is protesting that even if Michael doesn't need to breathe, he does. Lifting him off the ground is a little too easy for Michael's liking, and he can feel Adam's vertebrae against his hands when he rubs the youngest Winchester's back soothingly, whispering that he will never, never leave Adam. The boy feels his eyes prickling but he's a Milligan, damnit - not a Winchester, no matter what anyone says - and he's not going to let himself cry, so he just buries his face in Michael's shoulder, lifting his legs to wrap them around his waist, arms around his neck again. He's never felt younger than he does right now, clinging to the archangel like a child, ignoring the growling in his stomach. He won't let go, and ten minutes later sees Michael sitting on the bed with Adam still holding onto him, feeding him spoonfuls of soup that he had to create from thin air because Adam wouldn't leave the room. Wouldn't let go of him long enough to leave. Adam gave into his tears and started to sob the second he smelled Michael; his smell is so familiar and yet so otherworldly. He accepts the food from Michael tentatively, but the archangel promises that he will never leave him again, and he trusts him.