School is starting soon and I'm not happy about it but on the bright side, Supernatural comes back in October! I promise to keep updating through the school year.

G

The world was burred. Blacks mixed with greys and flashes of color. It was like when Gabriel had let Sam pick what to do and he took them to an abstract art exhibit. Gabriel stared at the moving picture.

He couldn't move. He couldn't think. There was peaceful bliss as his mind struggled to come to terms with the world around him. Gabriel had only had this feeling before when drugged out of his mind on painkillers. Something in his mind immediately dismissed that possibility.

Awareness was slowing arriving like the first drops of a thunder storm. Sure it could be beautiful, but Gabriel wasn't sure he wanted it. He couldn't even remember why he dreaded waking up. Glazed golden eyes stared at the car ceiling as it started to hit him.

Gabriel felt like he had a fever at first. His throat was scratchy and dry. He felt as if the sun had been beating down on him for hours and he'd been careless enough to forget sunscreen. His eyes sharpened and a gasped escaped his dry throat. Pain. It took over his senses. He was on fire! He could smell smoke and he dared himself to look and his body. Failing at first, Gabriel closed his eyes tight as waves of pain crashed over him. Finally, he looked to the side.

His arm was an alarming shade between dark pink and light red with small sections of black. Memories slowly found their way into his -very likely concussed-brain. An explosion replayed in his head. Gabriel stared at the cuff securing him to the chair and then his eyes widened as the true horror of the situation registered.

He was cuffed in a car. He barely had the energy to keep his eyes open. He was severely injured and there was only one person would would still want him captive after this. Gabriel clenched his hands into fist as he forced himself to turn his head. Burst of pain exploded and forced him to squeeze his eyes shut tight, but when he opened them the smirk aimed at him was unmistakable. If Gabriel could've talked in that moment, he would've cursed so bad he'd put soap in his own mouth. He allowed himself to go limp in the seat.

S

No music played in Sam's car. His hands gripped the steering wheel like a life line. He was so close. Gabriel had to be in the cars in front of him. Sam knew it. The thought made the good kind of nervous Sam had grown accustomed to want to put a stupid smile on his face. Sam also knew that getting Gabriel back wouldn't be easy. He didn't know what state Gabriel would be in. He refused to believe his agent had died or broken.

Sam could make Gabriel smile after a hard mission and comfort him until his heart rate slowed after a nightmare. If Gabriel had given up, that wouldn't be so easy to fix. Sam shivered as an image of Gabriel with dead hopeless eyes invaded his mind.

He remembered when a young agent had come back from being captured a few months ago. The boy was twenty one. He was in his first year of field work and was captured. When they got him back, he had been ready to die. What Sam had discovered was once someone gave up to death coming back to life was near impossible. Gabriel had tried everything to get the kid to smile or laugh. Sam had been the one to bandage his agents bloody knuckles after the kid hung himself and Gabriel broke a mirror.

The world was broken and they were damaged but they had always held on. Once someone really let go of life, it was gone to them. It didn't slow down to let people catch up and it never would.

Sam pushed down on the gas a little harder.

D

Once Dean finally reached the barrack of police cars he sprang out of the car as if it was on fire. He was never going to work with Balthazar ever again. Balthazar smirked and calmly got out of the car. "Dean I think your observation skills aren't up to par today.", he stated in his ever present accent. Dean glared and said, "Shut up or I will leave you here. I don't want you in my baby ever again you son of a bitch!"

Balthazar nodded, raised an eyebrow, and said, "Um. Okay then." He was silent for a whole half a second before he said, "That's the car Sam took." He pointed to their right. The car was one of the agency's. The door was open. What really gave it away as Sam's was the laptop resting on the passenger seat. Dean felt a stab of worry. Sam had left his freakin' laptop behind? Sam treated that thing like it was his child.

Dean ran up to one of the cops and asked, "Hey! Did you see the guy that was in that car? Shaggy hair, tall. I mean really tall." He put arm arm up over his head to demonstrate. Dean glared when Balthazar chuckled.

The man nodded. "Yeah. Sam right? I was the one who looked at his ID." Dean nodded quickly and said in a rush, "Yeah Sam. I'm his brother." Dean flashed his ID. "Did he go in there?" The cop nodded and answered, "Yes he did. He was real frantic about it too. He said his agent's in there. If his agent was anywhere near that blast he's dead already, but he didn't give me time to say anything. Poor kid."

The cop really did look like he felt sorry for Sam. Maybe he had lost a partner as well. Dean knew that the cop didn't even know the half of it. At much as Dean hated to admit it, Sam needed the annoying pipsqueak. Dean cursed and ran under the was right on his heels.

Dean had never seen the bodies of people killed by fire before. The smell alone had made him want to throw up. Smoke floated around him and made the world appear through a grey haze. Dean didn't allow his gaze to linger on the bodies, blackened beyond recognition or half charred. He refused to believe that any of them could be his little brother. Dean and Balthazar eventually crashed into a clearing.

Tire marks looked like scribbles on the dirt ground. Balthazar sighed and said with clear sarcasm, "Well that was a fun little chase." Dean shook his head. "Who said we're done?" He pointed to a dirt road leading out of the clearing. He didn't stick around to hear Balthazar's protest. Sammy was down that road. Dean had to make sure he was alright. No. If the cop was right and Gabriel was dead, Sam wouldn't be alright, but Dean had to be there to hold him together.

It was his job after all.

S

The cars came to a halt in front of an old house. Sam parked near the trees and grabbed his gun and the gun of the dead driver. He looked out his widow. Sam's brown eyes darted around the clearing searching frantically for his agent. He found it hard to breathe as people piled out of their cars and Gabriel was nowhere in sight. Sam's eyes began to water and a mantra of 'no' filled his mind. Hope left him with every shaky exhale before it came rushing back at Sam's exhilarated gasp.

He sat up and pressed himself against the car door as he tried to get a good look at his agent. Gabriel wasn't conscious. That was clear. He was being carried bridal style by a man around Sam's height. The man's back was to Sam and he was walking into the house. Sam could only see Gabriel's ash covered chestnut hair and his burnt and blood splattered pant legs. Sam resisted the urge to run out towards Gabriel. He needed to hold his agent close and feel his heartbeat like he did after every mission.

Sam knew if he ran over now he'd be shot and they would both die. That didn't make it easier for Sam to watch Gabriel disappear into the strange house. It was especially hard knowing Gabriel wasn't going to be able to defend himself.

Sam had always been irrationally protective over his small agent. Watching sparring matches had once been Sam's own personal version of Hell. Sure, Sam knew that Gabriel could easily protect himself against most people. That had never stopped him from glaring at anyone who so much as looked at his agent the wrong way. Gabriel had always just laughed and tugged Sam away from the person receiving his communicator's rage. Now, Gabriel actually needed protection and Sam couldn't be there. It was torture.

Sam had forced himself to wait until most of the people had entered the building. He searched his backpack for a smoke bomb. He heard outraged screams through the mist he'd created as he ran to the house. Sam blindly felt around for the door, and all he'd felt was the smooth side of the house. The smoke was starting to clear and Sam's search became more frantic.

He hissed as his foot slammed into an object protruding from the house. He grinned and breathed out a huff of relieved laughter. He'd found the stairs. Sam was in the house not one minute latter.

L

Lucifer had put a great deal of though into this and he had to say he was quite pleased.

He smirked as his little brother moaned and started to wake. "Good morning Vietnam!", he yelled to get Gabriel to wake up faster. He'd run out of patience. Hazy gold eyes stared at him for a few moments and Lucifer was reminded of when they were kids and Gabriel would fall asleep leaning against either him or Michael. He pushed those memories away. He'd give Gabriel a chance to be on the winning side. He'd refused and was now just another enemy to be torn apart. Nothing more.

Lucifer watched as Gabriel took in his surroundings. Gabriel had learned in his training that movement lead to life. Being stationary on the battlefield doomed an agent. Gabriel stared at the handcuffs around his ankles and his eyes widened for a split second before he put on a blank face. That second was enough to make Lucifer add a point to his mental scoreboard.

Gabriel didn't like to feel trapped. He always needed an exit even with friends.

When Lucifer was eleven, he'd locked his little brother in a closet for snooping in his room. He hadn't actually meant anything by it. He'd just wanted to freak Gabriel out a bit. Lucifer wouldn't have left Gabriel there more than a few minutes and he never left the room. He couldn't say he wasn't pleased when his little brother broke the doorknob with his shoe and stumbled out in a panicked state not three minutes later. It was the first time Michael had ever really yelled at Lucifer.

Gabriel predictably looked around the small room. There was no windows and the only door was blocked from view by four huge men. Lucifer grinned. "Cozy. Isn't it Gabe?" Gabriel winced as he pulled weakly at the cuffs. "Yeah, moving isn't the best idea bro. You look like a rare steak.", Lucifer said nonchalantly. Gabriel opened his mouth to answer and started to cough. "Talking isn't that good for you either." Lucifer smirked and knelt down in front of his little brother. "It'll all be over soon anyway. Last word are too mainstream."

Lucifer laughed when Gabriel flipped him off. He could almost imagine Gabriel's thoughts. "Pretty good last words. I would've gone with something a bit more creative but smoke really is a bitch." How Gabriel managed to show sass while lying curled up on the floor and weak, Lucifer would never know.

Lucifer responded by slapping his little brother. The hiss he got in response made him almost giddy. "Let's get started already!"

Sam is so close to saving Gabe! I know this chapter doesn't have much action, but it was needed to get everyone to the big fight. I promise next chapter will have lots of action and some Castiel. I'd love to know your thoughts both positive and negative. Criticism is always welcome. I'll try to update as soon as I can! : D !