When Sam first left the house, he felt hopeful and victorious. He'd gotten away from Gabriel without alerting him and felt he had a good chance finding a way out of this case. Of course, that was at least an hour ago when Sam had felt a good sense of energy, fueled by his hope. Now he was getting extremely tired and his legs were starting to hurt. This stupid small body was taking its toll on him.

Sam made himself keep walking, despite the very deep desire to sit down and rest. Who knew how long it would take Gabriel to realize that he was missing, probably not long. As soon as he got over whatever was bothering him, he'd realize Sam was gone and come for him. Sam had to find a way out before that happened. If not, not only would the archangel keep a very close watch on him, he'd probably punish him as well.

Sam scowled at his last thought. Like the jackass had the right to punish him for anything. He was a grown man... sort of. And either way, Gabriel was not his father. He had no right telling him dictating rules at him.

Sam stopped abruptly as everything around him suddenly changed. There were no more houses, buildings, or even trees. All he could see wide open land. There was nothing else anywhere. Even when he turned around to look behind him, there was no sign of where he just came from. Gabriel must have hidden the part of the world that he'd created from anyone outside of it.

Starting to feel nervous and maybe even a little scared, Sam decided to go back. He didn't even make it five steps before some kind of strong invisible force knocked him through the air. He fell several feet away and hit his head, bringing unconsciousness upon him.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Gabriel didn't know how long he'd spent drowning in his grief. A while, he was sure. It hurt so much to feel Lucifer's death. He didn't expect it to. He told himself that he no longer cared what happened between Michael and Lucifer. He'd made the choice to walk away from it all and let them do whatever they wanted. He knew what the result would be, but he convinced himself it wasn't his problem. Well, it wasn't his problem, but apparently he still did care. Even after Lucifer attempted to kill him, he cared about the idiot. He just couldn't forget all the memories of his brother from before all the fighting.

Gabriel tried to pull himself together. Falling apart wasn't helping anything. Lucifer was gone. Nothing could change that. And it really shouldn't hit him so hard. It was always going to happen. He was always going to lose a brother and it was always most likely to be Lucifer. He knew that, yet, he was still unprepared for the feeling. Part of that might be because he didn't know he'd actually be able to feel his brother dying.

A part of Gabriel felt an urge to go home and see Michael, because despite his eldest brother's confidence that following their father's will was noble, Gabriel knew Michael would be devastated after killing their brother. He would feel just as terrible as Gabriel did now, maybe even worse. But it was one urge, Gabriel was going to ignore. Michael wasn't his problem anymore. He still cared about his brother, but Michael had made his choices. Gabriel's only concern now was Sam and giving him a good life.

Speaking of Sam, Gabriel suddenly realized he hadn't heard a peep from him, and that sent alarm bells off. Sam was meant to be going to bed, so obviously Gabriel wouldn't hear him talking or moving around much, but he'd at least hear him breathing. Right now, he heard nothing, which meant the boy either wasn't in the house or wasn't breathing.

Gabriel immediately feared the worst possible conclusion and teleported into Sam's room, only to find the bed empty and no indication that Sam had been in it. Next he checked the bathroom, finding that empty too. He checked the entire house and found no sign of the boy.

"Damn it!" Gabriel cursed. It became quite clear what happened. Sam must have come downstairs and saw that he was upset. He must have used that to try an escape plot, and because Gabriel was stupid enough not to pay attention, it worked.

Gabriel set off to find Sam. He needed to find him quick, hopefully before he got beyond the wards. Gabriel had placed wards around their little area of this world just on the off chance that one of his brothers or anything else tried to get to them. They wouldn't let anything in. If Sam got past those wards, he wouldn't be getting back in without Gabriel.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Sam starting whimpering as he regained consciousness. His head heard really badly. All of him hurt actual, and he was really cold. He wanted to go back. He wanted to be in his in his bed under the covers. He was scared. He couldn't get up and there was no one around. What if Gabriel didn't find him? What if he died out there.

As if on cue, Sam soon heard Gabriel's voice. "Sam!"

"Help!" Sam yelled out.

Gabriel was by Sam's side in a second. "Hey, kiddo. How are you doing?"

"It hurts," Sam said.

Wasting no time, Gabriel placed his hand on Sam's head, quickly healing the concussion he had, as well as the other bruises he'd received. Gabriel could only guess that Sam had tried to go back to the house and the wards through him back. If only he'd told Sam that the words were even there. In his defense though, he never thought Sam would get this far. If he'd been paying attention like he should've been, Sam never would've even made it off the porch.

Sam instantly felt better, though he was still freezing. "I'm cold."

"I can see that," Gabriel said before standing and picking the kid up. He could feel Sam shiver in his arms.

Sam cuddled close to Gabriel, trying to get as much warmth as possible.

Gabriel teleported them home, right into Sam's room. He immediately used his powers to adjust the heat. He always kept the house at a comfortable temperature so it was never too hot or too cold, but even that wasn't going to be enough for tonight. Sam had obviously been out there for a while. He needed more heat.

After placing Sam down on the bed, Gabriel went to Sam's dresser to get him a new pair of pajamas. His were dirty and not nearly warm enough. Gabriel pulled out a long sleeve pair of green pajamas with black dinosaurs all over them. He used a bit of his grace to warm them up. They would feel like they just came out of the dryer, only instead of the feeling only sticking around for a minute or two, it would last at least an hour. "Alright, you're gonna change into these."

Sam nodded and let him help him get changed.

Gabriel was a bit surprised by the lack of fight Sam put up, but he chalked it up to him being tired and a bit overwhelmed. Besides, Gabriel certainly wasn't going to complain about it. He wanted to get Sam into bed as quick as possible so he could try to calm down from all the excitement. He was starting to get over how worried he'd been, but anger was starting to set in. A part of him wanted to throttle the kid for this. He'd been very clear when he told Sam he wasn't to leave the house without him. Sam was going to be punished for this in the morning. In fact, the only things that stopped him from doing it now were that he was refused to punish him when he was this anger and that Sam wasn't likely to learn from it right now. He was too tired.

"Can I have some water?" Sam suddenly asked.

Gabriel snapped his fingers and plastic cup filled with water appeared in his hands. He immediately handed it to Sam.

Sam drank the whole glass and handed it back to Gabriel. "Thank you."

"Okay, it's time for bed," Gabriel said before pulling the covers back so Sam could get under them.

Sam immediately laid down and felt the blankets draped on top of him. He pulled them tight. He was still pretty cold.

"I'll see you in the morning, and will be having a talk about what you did tonight," Gabriel warned.

Sam nodded. He knew he was in big trouble for leaving when he wasn't supposed to.

Gabriel left the room, shutting the light off on his way out.

Sam was about to close his eyes when he noticed the stuffed bear on the floor. He immediately got up and grabbed it before bringing it back to bed and cuddling it close. Within minutes, he was asleep.