"Gwen... Gwen, please. Wake up." I didn't open my eyes. If this was going to be a rerun of this morning, I would pass. "Gwen... Gwenny... Come on sweetheart. I wanna know you're ok." A note of desperation had come to Gabriel's voice and I sighed. "Ok, ok... I'm awake. Happy?" I blearily opened my eyes and saw Gabriel's worried face right above me. "Geez!" I jumped. "You startled me!" Gabriel put his hand on my forehead and I felt the same tingling I had when Cas healed me at the warehouse. Gabriel pouted thoughtfully. "No fever, no cold, no nothing. Not even on your period." I jerked my head back. "Excuse you! That's pretty private, thank you very much!" I straightened my nightgown. "Now you know I'm not getting sick, or on my period, can I go back to sleep?"
A faint smile graced Gabriel's lips. "Not just yet, honeybuns. I wanna know what the Hell happened to you. I'm not gone for an hour, and when I come back, the Hardy boys are snoring in the kitchen, their plates of food cold and barely touched. And you. You're AWOL." He shot me an accusatory glance and sat down on my bed. "So I finally get Samsquatch to respond, and he tells me you suddenly turned on the waterworks like no tomorrow, and after minutes of flooding the kitchen, you tell them you need a nap. Seems legit, after all that, but then he tells me he and Dean-o both felt simply exhausted, and must have dozed off right after you left." He cocked his head at me. "That about right?" I nodded, warily. "Except that I can't vouch for the last bit. I was here, sleeping."
His entire chipper and somewhat sarcastic demeanor vanished. "As you should have been. Now tell me your side of the story. What happened and I wanna know everything! What triggered the crying, how you felt, if there was anything weird about it... Every. Thing!" I looked at him. His golden eyes were totally serious. He dropped his gaze and popped a sucker in his mouth. "Come on, Gwen. Spill the beans!" I rubbed my face with both my hands, partially to wake up, partially to stall. "I will, but first... Did you and Cas get Jehoël out?" He flashed his gaze up at me before popping his sucker out again. "Yeah... He was in a very bad state, but glad we got him out. He said to thank you for paying enough attention to remember his name, even though you were roughed up yourself." Another accusatory look. "Something you failed to mention to me." I shrugged. "So I was. Cas patched me up. First thing he did actually, before popping off to check for further danger."
Something sparked in his amber eyes, but I couldn't quite see what, because his gaze quickly dropped to his sucker, which he was twirling between his fingers. "I still would have liked to know, Gwen. You're my responsibility, I should have been there." I put my hand on his knee. "Gabriel, we've been through this. You are not to blame. I have made the decission to ignore my gut feeling. I'm the one who messed up. Besides, I'm ok now." His head shot up. "No thanks to me! If you hadn't prayed to Cas, you would've bled out before I got back from my break." His guilt poured off him in waves, almost tangible. I felt it bubble in my mind, like it was my own, yet again I felt it wasn't. What it was, was horrible. It was crushing! "Gabriel... Don't feel guilty, please. Maybe this was meant to happen." He sighed an very softly he said: "Maybe.. But why did it have to be you?"