Gabriel was standing in the kitchen cooking dinner for himself and Sam. He was making chicken wings and macaroni and cheese. Sam was playing with a few of his toys in the living room.

It had been maybe a week since Gabriel had to tell Sam that his brother was dead. Sam was coping about as well as could be expected, but he'd become a bit defiant. More often than not over the last few days, when Gabriel asked him to do something or to stop doing something, the boy ignored him. Gabriel had to repeat the request two or three times, as well as Sam a firm warning before the kid did as he asked. Part of the problem was probably that Sam was testing him, but Gabriel knew most of it was Dean's loss. The little boy just didn't know how to cope with it.

With dinner about five minutes from being finished, Gabriel stepped away from the stove and went into the living room where Sam was playing on the floor with some toys scattered around him. "Sammy, dinner's almost ready. It's time to put your toys away."

The five-year-old kept playing as if his caretaker never spoke.

Gabriel sighed. He understood that Sam was in pain and that lashing out and misbehaving was the only way he could express that pain, but this couldn't continue. Sam needed to know that he had to follow the rules. "Sam, I said it's time to pick up your toys."

Sam turned this time and pouted. "No, I don't want to! I wanna play!"

"You know the rules, kiddo. It's dinner time and then we're going to settle down," Gabriel said. He had a firm routine going on. After dinner, they did something quiet, like lay on the couch and watch TV. It was a good way to transition into bedtime.

"No!" Sam yelled before throwing one of his toy cars across the room until it hit the wall. Even he realized afterwards that he'd gone too far. It was too late though, as he soon felt himself being pulled to his feet and tugged out of the room by the hand. "No, I'm sorry, Gabe."

Gabriel didn't answer him. He simply led him into the kitchen and over the far corner and spun him around to face said corner. "You stand here until I tell you otherwise. Do you understand?

Sam let out a whine in response, but he nodded his head.

Gabriel went back to making dinner and tried to calm down. He wasn't really that angry, but he was a little frustrated. It wasn't this one incident alone. The kid had been testing his patience all week.

Once dinner was ready, Gabriel waved a hand over the meal to make sure it stayed hot. Then he turned towards Sam. "Come here, Sam."

Sam turned around to face Gabriel. His eyes were wet and puffy from crying and his lip was quivering.

Taking in the sight of the little boy, Gabriel wanted to just scoop him up and tell him everything was okay, but he knew he couldn't yet. He had to be the firm parent and let Sam know that the way he'd been acting wasn't okay. So he simply held his hand out to the boy.

Sam slowly walked over and took the offered hand, letting himself be pulled him to the table.

Gabriel walked over to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair. He sat down and positioned the somber child in front of him. "Can you look at me please, kiddo?"

Sam lifted his head and rubbed the tears from his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"You are? Can you tell me what for?" Gabriel asked. He knew what for, but he wanted Sam to say it. He always wanted to make sure Sam knew what he'd done wrong.

"For not listening and for throwing my toy," Sam answered.

"Uh huh. You know that's not okay, right? We don't throw things in this house," Gabriel said firmly.

Sam nodded his head. "I'm sorry."

"I know you are, buddy, and you are always going to be forgiven, but can you tell me why you did it?" Gabriel asked.

"I was mad. I didn't want to stop playing," Sam said.

"Right, but I don't think that's the only reason. You've had a hard time listening to me all week. Do you know why?"

Sam simply shrugged his shoulders in response.

Gabriel picked Sam up and placed him on his lap. "You miss your big brother, don't you?"

Sam's lower lip began to quiver once more and he leaned against Gabriel's shoulder.

Gabriel held the boy against him comfortingly. "You know, my big brother died too."

"Do you miss him?" Sam asked.

"Yes," Gabriel said honestly. He did miss Lucifer. Well, he missed who you Lucifer used to be. He missed the older brother that raised him, not the monster that tried to kill him. "I miss him a lot, and sometimes I get angry that he's gone, just like you're angry that Dean's gone. Sometimes I wanna throw something too. But it's not a good thing to do."

"I know. I just want Dean to come back," Sam said sadly.

"I know you do, pal. I'm sorry he can't come back, but things will be okay. You won't stop missing him, but things will be okay," Gabriel promised.

"I'm sorry for being mean," Sam said.

"No, Sammy, you weren't mean. You were just missing your brother and didn't now how to handle it. It's gonna be okay. You and I are going to figure things out," he said.

"Gabe?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, kiddo."

"Are you my daddy now?" Sam asked.

"Well, I'll be taking care of you like a daddy would. I love you like any parent would. But you don't have to call me 'Daddy' if you don't want to. I know you already had a daddy. You can keep calling me 'Gabe' if that's what you want," Gabriel told him. He would love for Sam to call him 'Daddy', but it wasn't necessary. He would be whatever Sam wanted him to be.

"I'm not sure," Sam said. He wouldn't mind calling Gabe 'Daddy'. He liked him and thought he did things that daddies usually did, but his last daddy could be really mean sometimes. He used to yell at Sam all the time. What if Sam started calling Gabe 'Daddy' and he did the same?

"That's okay. You can think about it," Gabriel said.

"Okay. I'm hungry," Sam said.

"Well, it's a good thing dinner's ready, huh?" Gabriel asked with a chuckle before gently sliding the boy off his lap and to his feet. "Can you go put your toys away now while I get dinner on the table?"

"Okay," Sam said before running off to the living room.