Gabriel was once again, sound asleep when Sam called. This was getting very annoying.
"Sammy, I swear in heaven that if this isn't a life-or-death emergency I am going to shoot you, twin or not."
Sam paused, before he decided that calling later would be a better idea. Gabriel grumbled before going right back to sleep.
Ten hours later and multiple pots of coffee, and Gabriel finally called Sam back.
"Now what in heaven's name was so damn important that you woke me up for it?"
Sam quickly explained about the case and the second he heard even a small detail he started cackling. Loki looked up from his lunch to hear the details.
"So... so let me get this straight... this angel used a hooker to gank someone?" he said crackling up.
Hearing that confirmation, even Loki started snorting. No way in the Pit would an angel sink so low as to use a hooker as a vessel, not unless she suddenly became a nun first.
"Okay Sammy, have you interviewed this witness yet?"
"No. Dean's going to see her later."
"Right. Here's how you know if you've really got an angel or if it's something else. Ask her if this angel just told her who to kill or if they asked permission first. If they just gave her directions then chances are it's a ghost."
"And if they asked permission?"
"Then it might be an angel. Chances are it's not. Angels think themselves above humans, and there's no way in the Pit they would lower themselves to jumping into a hooker unless she became a nun first at least," said Gabriel.
"Gotcha."
"By the way... Why is it exactly that you keep calling me at four in the damn morning?" asked Gabriel innocently.
"Dean convinces me to call you ASAP whenever we need info. We usually get it after midnight at least while trolling through papers. Why?"
"No reason. By the way, tell Dean I am not getting him off the hook for Loki later."
"What..."
Gabriel hung up before Sam could ask what he meant by that.
"So does this mean I get to prank Dean-o later?" asked Loki grinning.
"Oh, you'll get to prank Dean and Sam. And best of all they won't know it's you until after Sam realizes there's a spell on you."
Loki cackled evilly. So Gabriel was going to help him prank them. This was going to be fun.
Sam would call a few days later to tell them that the 'angel' was actually a priest trying to help from beyond the grave by cleaning up the neighborhood of some of the worst offenders. He sounded disappointed.
"Ugh... what the hell hit me?" said Gabriel.
He had taken Sam's place for the week, not bothering to tell Dean because he still couldn't tell the difference between them.
Gabriel looked at the date on his cell phone and blinked.
How in god's name did he lose a week? And why did his head sound like a drum?
He could feel something trying to take control inside his mind, but something was keeping it at bay.
The first thing he did was call Loki.
"Hey Lo' when was the last time you heard from me?" he asked carefully, rubbing his head.
"Gabe! Where the hell have you been? Dean's been blowing up the phone looking for you!" said Loki.
"I just woke up. Hang on... What the hell?!" said Gabe looking down to find suspicious stains on his shirt.
It almost looked like blood, but the color was way off.
Washing it in the sink, it still didn't turn the right color, even for dried blood.
Which meant someone was trying to make him believe he had killed another person, but had been unable to pull it off. The throbbing was getting worse.
Gabriel leaned against the sink.
He needed to deal with this pain now, before it drove him to do something he wouldn't regret later.
Gabriel sat on the bed and went inside his own head.
"What in the name of Lucifer? How did you do that?!" shrieked the source of his current headache.
"Hmm. Female voice, either stupid enough to possess a Winchester directly or on the good side of yellow eyes... Forgive me if I'm wrong but are you... Meg?" asked Gabriel mockingly.
"Very good Sammy. Give yourself a gold star! Isn't going to do you a damn bit of good once I get past whatever these mental shields are," sneered Meg.
"Yeah, about that. I don't know how you got into my head or past my defenses long enough to possess me, but I happened to have a good way of dealing with idiots like you. So enjoy your time bitch, because once he gets here you're in for it,"said Gabriel grinning.
He left his head after reinforcing his shields and called Loki.
"Hey Lo', how long would it take for you to get here?"
"Why?"
"I do believe a demon has slipped past the shields you put up. You know, the ones you swore would keep nuisances like that out?" said Gabriel.
"A WHAT?! I'm heading over there right now!" said Loki angrily.
Loki appeared five minutes later looking rather pissed. Fortunately for what Gabriel had planned, that did not involve revealing what he actually was.
He wanted this bitch to pay for slipping past the shields. Say what you would about Gabriel Winchester, when you pissed him off he got really creative when it came to payback.
Dean and Sam made it in time to catch the end of Gabriel's revenge.
"Gabe! And...Loki?" said Dean confused.
"Demon bitch got in past Lo's shields. Naturally I felt some retaliation was in order for that offense."
"Who?" asked Sam.
"I believe you know this particular bitch. Meg."
"What?!"
The demon inside the fake body screamed as Loki hit it with more holy water. It had taken him five minutes to make it, two seconds to pull her out of Gabriel and put her in the fake body, and they had spent hours interrogating the bint without losing sight of the fact she was close to yellow eyes. Close enough to possibly know the location of the tournament's main area.
"There's...there's two of you?" she gasped, looking between Sam and Gabriel.
"Didn't I mention Meg? The one you took possession of but couldn't mark with your sigil wasn't Sammy. It was Gabriel. As in the one your father dumped in England because he didn't want Sammy to have the competition," said Gabriel, leaning close to Meg.
Her eyes widened in horrified shock.
"What...what are you?" she said.
"Me? I'm Crowley's pet collector. And you, little brat, are going to be destroyed utterly so you can't run to tell daddy about the fact the kid he tried to get rid of after dosing is back. And the best part is that the same one you tried to possess is dating an angel. Ah, now you see how badly you screwed up. Lo, I think she's about ready to see the light," said Gabriel grinning coldly.
Loki shivered and Dean shot him a look. He knew that particular shiver and he so did not want to be around Gabriel when Loki lost his cool. Gabe was so walking around with a limp for the next few days.
"So, who wants to do the honors?" asked Gabriel. In his hand was a silver blade he had found by accident at Midnight's and paid several rare high-end artifacts from one of John Winchester's multiple storage lockers to get.
Dean had only a few of their locations. When he looked up the records of all of John's usual aliases he found several hits.
He hit one that the two hadn't known about and used it as his personal treasure trove.
John Winchester might have been the man who supplied the needed materials for Mary to have him and Sam, but he wasn't his father. At best he was the sperm donor.
And the fact John had refused to even consider having an in with demons was all the reason Gabriel had needed to pretend he didn't exist. Sam and Dean were much more reasonable.
Meg's eyes, upon seeing that blade, tripled in size. With that reaction Dean just had to ask why.
"This...is an angel blade. Made during the Angel Wars up in heaven shortly before Lucifer was booted out along with several others. Now this particular blade is from a captain, specifically one that ruled over a small contingent of angels. Poor fool must have dropped it and someone found it on Earth. Midnight got it settling someone's bar tab and I had to trade several high-end items in order to get it. Can kill anything from a lower angel to the highest class demon."
"And of course if that doesn't work I can kill the bitch myself," said Loki far too cheerfully.
If Meg had been given bowels, she would have pissed herself in fear. Loki had shot a tiny bit of his aura when he said that to her, and she had felt what it was.
An arch angel. The last thing a demon ever wanted to piss off!
Whimpering pathetically, it was only in the last moments of her life that she cursed the fact she had tried to possess Sam...and had gotten his magically-trained and rather sadistic twin by mistake.
Sam was a nice person. He gave people second chances.
Gabriel was a cynical, damaged bounty hunter who worked for demons because they were at least honest about their true nature and who enjoyed pissing them off for fun. Not to mention he was dating an arch angel who was extremely possessive of his boyfriend. He didn't give second chances unless someone he actually liked and respected gave him a very good reason to.
As such, she really should have done her research first.
Azazel would be pissed to find out that his daughter had not only been killed, but completely erased. And more than slightly confused to learn that an angel had done the killing.
Gabriel was snoozing in the rather nice room Loki had rented for the next few months. Loki had somehow convinced him to go on a pranking spree to get out some of his vengeful tendencies...after Gabriel recovered from Loki jumping him.
Apparently dominate Gabriel with a vengeful side turned Loki on. Who knew?
He had his phone turned off, his mirror on silent, and he had no bounties in the area or in the states adjacent to him.
He was having his week off dammit.
"Morning babe," said Loki, tossing him some quick breakfast. Well, technically it was lunch but for Gabe it was breakfast.
"What time is it?" yawned Gabriel.
"Two. How are you enjoying your night off?"
"Loving every minute."
No hunts, no sudden four AM wake up calls, just him and Loki out pranking some very deserving people.
Like that one douche who kept bringing the co-eds to his room with his fame. Or the arrogant jock who really pissed Gabriel off.
The only time Gabe would get involved was if a hunter showed up. Or if, better yet, his brothers showed up looking for a hunt.
With the death of that arrogant professor, Gabe kept an eye out for the Impala.
And he wasn't disappointed.
"So what have we got Sammy?"
"I have no idea. A professor took a nosedive out of a high window and there's no sign of foul play," said Sam.
"Have you heard from Gabriel?" asked Dean, not paying any attention to the clock.
Sam, however, looked at the time and winced. It was nearly four in the morning.
"Dean, the last time I called him the message explicitly stated that if it wasn't an end-of-the-world emergency or I was kidnapped, that the next time he saw the caller he would shoot them in the leg and ass," deadpanned Sam.
"Fine, I'll call him then," said Dean reaching for his phone.
Sam winced, but he made sure to plug his ears when he heard Gabriel start to cuss Dean out. Dean winced at the volume...and then blinked.
"What the hell?" he said.
"What is it?"
"That was a voice message. From the last thing the message said I think he had that recorded in case he got a call from anyone at... Shit, it's four in the morning?" said Dean.
"You just now noticed that?" said Sam incredulous.
"I thought it was just two!" said Dean.
"Dean, half the time you've had me call Gabe, it's either around three or four in the morning. The last time he threatened to toss me in his pool and exorcise me with holy oil and a lighter!" said Sam incredulous.
"Holy oil?" said Dean.
"Apparently it's one of the more painful ways to die, extremely flammable," said Sam.
"Where would he get holy oil?"
"He wouldn't say."
"That does it...we're pulling over until morning," said Dean.
"We're switching until we find a hotel. I don't know about you Dean, but I'm tired of sleeping in the Impala."
"Fine, but you're laying the wards down," said Dean.
One of the first lessons in magic (it turned out that Sam had it too, but they had moved around so much that the magical government had been unable to find him until he was too old for normal classes) Sam had was runes and wards.
Because he had learned about it so late, Sam's core wouldn't stretch normally as he learned. So Gabriel had him focus on things that a hunter would use frequently, slowly readjusting his core so that he could be like him.
Sam yawned but agreed.