Dean Winchester sold his soul. Of course he did. That's how Sam was alive, that's how Dean was going to hell, that's how the apocalypse would spark if they weren't careful. Of course.
Gabriel had kind of figured Dean would've gone to hell anyway, considering he seemed to be the poster child for the seven deadly sins, but this just had some more poetry to it. And then there was Sam, the loyal little brother, doing everything in his power to save Dean. It was laughable. There was no saving Dean. But Sam would try. And Sam would fail. The world would burn to a cinder as a result of Sam's failure. Gabriel knew what he needed to do, and Sam Winchester was not going to like it.
It was a good thing the boys were hunters; it made it much easier to lure them in. A weird missing persons case and the Winchesters hit town faster than Gabriel could snap his fingers. This was going to be so much fun.
The first time Dean died, it wasn't Gabriel's fault. That guy was jumpy and trigger happy without any Trickster intervention. It still fit with the trick, though, so Gabriel used the opportunity readily. With a snap of his fingers, Sam was right back in bed, waking up to the dulcet sounds of Asia.
It only took Sam one go around to cross off deja vu.
The second time, Sam caught on to the time loop without hesitation.
Honestly, after what happened at Crawford Hall, Gabriel was endlessly happy that Sam had a brain in his head. He was worried, though, about Sam. The first loop had him confused, but the second loop just made him angry. That rage wasn't good. It was dangerous. It could start the apocalypse much sooner than was good for anyone.
Things were fine the way they were. Sure, Gabriel wasn't a fan of his brother being stuck in a box, but it was better than Michael and Lucifer ripping into each other again. At least there was a small amount of peace right now. The end would come. It was written, and there was no stopping it, but it didn't have to be now. It didn't have to be so soon.
Dean had to go to Hell, he was marked for it, there was just no way around that. If Sam didn't learn how to let go of his brother, he could really go dark side. It was one thing if Dean did break the first seal when he was down there. It was another thing entirely if Sam allowed himself to play his role, too. But here Sam was, angry and frustrated and not getting the point.
Gabriel had no time to waste. Plus, fucking with Dean was just good old fashioned fun. As Sam and Dean walked on the sidewalk below him, Gabriel snapped his fingers, dropping a piano and flattening Dean like a pancake. An exploding pancake. It was great.
But the look on Sam's face tore at Gabriel something awful. Nothing but fear and heartbreak. The kid had no right to be able to get a look on his face like that. But he needed to do this. Gabriel had a lesson to teach, and Sam needed to learn it, or it would be the end of everything.
A good thing out of all of this was watching Sam wake up. Gabriel chose Asia for the alarm clock. It was loud and jarring, but it was also catchy. He hadn't counted on Dean also being loud and jarring, but that was really a bonus. The third loop seemed to go a bit better. Sam was scared and sad, but his anger had subsided. It was something.
Gabriel sat at the bar at the diner, slowly enjoying his pancakes when Dean called to the waitress, "Excuse me, sweetheart! Can I get sausage instead of bacon?"
Gabriel had to pull all of his strength to keep from laughing. Oh, this was going to be great. While Sam wasn't as angry, he was still very much not getting the point. Gabriel hoped Sam would figure it out sooner rather than later. He wasn't sure how much more pain he could see on that kid's face before Gabriel would have to pull the plug just to keep his sanity.
But he had to keep it up. And well, making Dean choke on a sausage? With how much that boy overcompensated, Gabriel couldn't resist. It was more just desserts than anything. After Dean died, choking on the meat, Gabriel worried slightly that he'd been too on the nose, that Sam would recognize his MO.
But when Sam woke up to "Heat of the Moment" again, Gabriel's worries subsided. They were still trying to change things to save Dean. It wasn't progress, but his cover wasn't blown either.
Gabriel snapped his fingers, and Dean slipped in the shower and cracked his head. If it wasn't for the pained look on Sam's face every time, this whole thing would be incredibly fun. But Sam just had to go and ruin it. How could a human that big manage to look that vulnerable? How was it even possible?
Sam kept trying to save Dean, and Gabriel just kept pulling out the stops. With how stubborn Sam was, he worried about running out of new ways to kill Dean. But honestly, running out of new ways to kill Dean Winchester was a pretty awesome problem to have. It was great, so fun. And he had no idea about any of it. Sam did, and that did take the wind out Gabriel's sails a bit, but c'mon, the look on Dean's face every time he bit the dust was priceless. And the tacos were a classic. If Sam were a bit less biased, Gabriel knew he would've laughed at least once. Seriously, he killed Dean with tacos. This was comedy gold, and Sam was missing out. Electrocution from the shaver was fun, definitely a laugh riot.
When Sam decided the rip the Mystery Spot down to the studs, however, Gabriel realized he needed to step up his game a little. Sam wasn't angry anymore. No, now, he was growing desperate. And that was worse. Much worse. Gabriel had to deter him from that.
That loop, he made Sam be the cause of Dean's death. A slippery hatchet and a blood splatter later, Gabriel felt worse about that kill than he had about any other. It wasn't Sam's fault that Dean was going to Hell. Dean made that choice for himself. It wasn't Sam's fault that he died. It wasn't his fault that Azazel chose him, that God chose him.
But he had to make that loop's death Sam's fault. He had to. If Sam got too desperate in his crusade to save his brother, he'd destroy everything. Rage was one thing. It blinded you, it motivated you to do things you'd never accept otherwise. Desperation, on the other hand. Desperation made you accept lower standards, do things you'd never have done, but you weren't blind. Desperation just made you okay with these things. It was different if Sam accepted Lucifer out of blind rage, thinking that somehow he'd get revenge for his family. If Sam accepted Lucifer out of desperation... Lucifer was capable of unspeakable things, and it was becoming clear, that if Sam was desperate enough, he'd do unspeakable things as well.
So, Gabriel had Sam kill Dean. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right, and it wasn't the first time he'd wanted to end this whole charade, but it got through to Sam. He stopped trying to change things, he stopped being so violent. Instead, Sam started to use his head. He started interviewing people, asking questions, and paying incredible attention to detail. It was sort of impressive.
Sam was very smart. He learned about Cal's misfortunes, Mr. Pickett's cataracts, Doris' allergy to mushrooms, the furniture movers and their families, he learned the names and stories of nearly everyone in the town. Gabriel was a little blown away. This whole thing would be over if Sam would just give up, but he never did. Even though Sam was definitely not getting the message, Gabriel could respect Sam's inability to back down.
Several times, after a particularly grisly death, Sam would walk into the diner with a haunted look on his face. It was all Gabriel could do to keep sipping his coffee and eating his food. He wanted to stop this. He wanted to stop this whole thing. All he wanted to do was get up from his seat, go over to Sam, hug him, tell him it would all be okay if he'd just let his brother go. He just wanted to see Sam smile again. It shouldn't have gone on this long. Sam should've accepted his defeat weeks ago.
But he didn't.
So, Tuesday continued. While Sam grew more and more tired of watching Dean die, he also grew more and more impatient explaining the time loop to his brother. That was some solace in the torture, for lack of a better word, that Gabriel was staging. Gabriel had never known the true meaning of agony until he heard Sam and Dean say in unison, "Sam Winchester cries his way through sex," and he couldn't laugh. If he laughed, he'd give himself away, and it'd all be sunshine and blood-tipped stakes from there. Holding in that laugh was one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do, topped only by leaving Heaven and torturing the smile off of Sam's pretty face.
Sam explained to Dean all the ins and outs of the people in the town, and Gabriel was speechless. Yes, he'd seen Sam find all of this information out, he'd laughed particularly hard when Sam caught Judge Meyers in his furry bunny outfit, but knowing that Sam retained it all...Gabriel would have to be extra cautious. One false step, and it would all be over. Not that that would be a bad thing, but Sam hadn't learned his lesson yet. If he didn't learn, then what would be the point of all of this?
Everything in this loop was running smoothly until Dean turned around and ran over to Dexter Hasselback's daughter. Gabriel had her walking around for continuity purposes in the beginning. Dexter Hasselback didn't really exist, he'd just needed a lure for the boys to start this whole thing. If anyone asked her about her father, she'd just say he went missing, and if they knew anything to contact her. He hadn't really given her anything else to do or say. When Dean ran over to her, that wasn't a big deal. Dean hadn't started delving into as much detail as Sam had. When Sam ran over to the daughter, Gabriel knew he was going to be in deep shit.
Luckily, Dean was standing next to a dog. He could've just restarted the day again, but if Dean didn't die, that would definitely stick out to Sam. The friendly golden retriever went Kujo on Dean, and Gabriel snapped Sam back to Tuesday morning before he even had a chance to react.
It was nice not seeing the hurt on Sam's face this time. When Sam sat up in bed, listening to Asia yet again, he and Dean went to go brush their teeth as usual. Sam looked deeply troubled, but really, what else was new.
Gabriel stood invisible against the wall, and for the first time since he'd started this whole mess, he listened to the song that was playing. "Heat of the Moment" was a classic, definitely an energetic song, but it was the first time Gabriel stopped and really listened to it. "It was the heat of the moment, telling you what your heart meant," sang through the air with the chorus. Gabriel felt a small ache in his chest.
Dean and Sam left, and Gabriel knew he had to get back to the diner before they did. He snapped himself to the bar at the diner without anyone being the wiser. Still, the words from the song floated around in his head. Lines like "I never meant to be so bad to you" just kind of stung after all of this. Nothing annoyed him worse than "One look from you and I would fall from grace," though. He just had to pick the one song that was from the implied perspective of a fallen angel. He just had to. A small, very small, almost too small to count, part of him wondered if he'd picked "Heat of the Moment" for any reason other than its volume and fast cadence.
At this point, he'd been watching Sam go about his Tuesdays for nearly six months. If Sam would smile just once, Gabriel probably would fall from grace. He'd give anything to undo what he'd done to that boy. But there was more at stake than just Sam. There was more at stake than either of them. Enough was enough. He was done. Sam didn't want to let his brother go? Fine. Gabriel couldn't keep doing this anyway. He couldn't grow attached to a human like this, especially not Lucifer's vessel. What kind of archangel was he? He was done. He'd gotten way too close and involved.
So, he reverted to his backup plan. Gabriel quickly snapped his syrup from maple to strawberry. He knew it would be enough to get Sam's attention. After he paid for his meal, as luck would have it, Sam came to the Trickster conclusion even before noticing the syrup change. The kid was good, much better than he'd given him credit for.
That loop, Gabriel didn't kill Dean. He just snapped Sam back to bed, so they could have their encounter correctly in the morning. Gabriel was so done with this whole thing that killing Dean wasn't even fun anymore.
As Gabriel ate his pancakes, he could feel Sam staring at him. If Sam wasn't intending to murder him, Gabriel might've mistook it as flirting. He was planning to stick him with some wood, so...okay, that wasn't very funny. Premeditated murder was premeditated murder. Sexual innuendo was only appropriate when he wasn't the intended victim. Gabriel just wanted to wash his hands of this.
When Sam snapped at Dean a quick, "Eat your breakfast," Gabriel wondered if Sam would ever be okay after all this. Given who Sam was and what destiny had in store for him, Gabriel didn't have very high hopes, but he hoped he hadn't done too much damage. He had one final blow to deliver, and Sam would need to deal with it.
Gabriel stood up, walked out of the diner, and down the street like he had every Tuesday. Sam followed him quickly while Dean tagged along more out of confusion than anything.
Before he knew it, Sam grabbed Gabriel's shoulder and shoved him up against a fence. It was hard for Gabriel to keep his mind from imagining Sam shoving him up against other things like bedroom walls...but now was not the time.
"Hey!" Gabriel protested, but he quickly stopped after Sam held a bloody stake to his throat.
"I know who you are," Sam said, voice menacing, "Or should I say what."
"Oh my God, please, don't kill me," Gabriel begged, still playing his role. He couldn't wait to see the look on Sam's face when he revealed himself.
"Uh, Sam," Dean said, concerned.
"It took me a hell of a long time, but I got it," Sam said.
Voice full of forced fear, Gabriel asked, "What?"
"It's your MO that gave you away. Going after pompus jerks, giving them their just desserts. Your kind loves that, don't they?" Sam hissed.
"Yeah, sure, okay," Gabriel said, actually feeling almost a little afraid of Sam, "Just put the stake down." The stake wouldn't be able to hurt him, but the look on Sam's face was enough to put fear in the heart of anyone, including heartless bastards like Gabriel.
"Sam, maybe you should," Dean said, clearly not wanting to kill an innocent man.
"No!" Sam shouted, "There's only one creature powerful enough to do what you're doing. Making reality out of nothing, sticking people in time loops? You'd pretty much have to be a god. You'd have to be a Trickster."
And there it was, but Gabriel really had to know how far Sam would take this. "My name is Ed Coleman," he said, pleading, "My wife's name's Amelia. I've got two kids. For crying out loud, I sell ad space."
"Don't lie to me!" Sam yelled, "I know what you are. We've killed one of your kind before."
Gabriel slowly revealed the vessel Sam and Dean knew with a smirk on his face. The look on Sam's face was one of pure shock. Totally worth the delayed reveal. They thought they'd actually managed to kill him. Priceless. Even if he weren't an archangel, nobody tricks the Trickster.
"Actually, Bucko, you didn't," Gabriel said, raising his eyebrows at Sam teasingly. It didn't matter how surprised the boys were, though. Sam didn't drop the stake for a second.
"Why are you doing this?" Sam asked. Gabriel kind of felt it should've been obvious by now.
"You're joking, right? You chuckleheads tried to kill me last time," Gabriel said, "Why wouldn't I do this?" He wasn't going to just spell it out for him. He could see in Sam's eyes that he didn't buy Gabriel's answer anyway.
"And Hasselback? What about him?" Dean asked angrily.
Gabriel thought about telling them of his innocence. A fabricated disappearance was easier than a five dollar hooker. But Gabriel had a reputation to uphold. "That putz? He said he didn't believe in wormholes," he said, "So I dropped him in one." He laughed, trying to get Dean and Sam to appreciate the irony. He also needed to sell the lie. Sam needed to learn something, but Dean didn't need to know there was a lesson. "Then, you guys showed up. I made you the second you hit town," he said. Dean would think they had a case of wrong place, wrong time, and Sam would maybe figure out the lesson with Gabriel's next trick.
"So, this is fun for you?" Sam asked, more upset than Gabriel was entirely comfortable with, "Killing Dean over and over again?"
The time for lies was running out, and he did really enjoying pissing off Dean, so Gabriel said, "One, yes. It is fun. Two, this is so not about killing Dean. This joke is on you, Sam. Watching your brother die everyday. Forever." After he said it, he realized his words sort of made him sound like a sadist. Maybe he was a sadist. That wasn't his intent, though.
Sam breathed, "You son of a bitch." Apparently, Sam had taken the words the way they'd sounded and not the way Gabriel had meant them. Great.
Not all hope was lost, and Gabriel really didn't care what they thought of him. Entirely. Kind of. Even if it did bother him that Sam thought he'd done this for fun, he left the miscommunication where it was. Better to break ties with. But Sam really needed to know the lesson. That was all that was important.
Gabriel smiled and asked, "How long will it take you to realize? You can't save your brother. No matter what."
"Oh, yeah?" Sam asked, "I kill you, this all ends now." He pressed the stake harder against Gabriel's throat. Well, that wasn't entirely unexpected. Still, before any trickery with the boys came the preservation of his identity. He needed them to believe he was vulnerable to the stake.
Gabriel flinched and said, "Oh, hey. Whoa. Okay, okay. Look, I was just playing around. You can't take a joke? Fine. You're out of it. Tomorrow, you wake up. It'll be Wednesday. I swear."
"You're lying," Sam said. Oh, how Gabriel wished he was lying. But this had to be done.
"If I am, you know where to find me. Having pancakes at the diner," Gabriel said.
Sam and Dean exchanged a look. Dean looked more worried than anything, but Sam had half a second of indecision before he said, "No, easier to just kill you."
"Sorry, kiddo," Gabriel said, "Can't have that." He snapped his fingers and zapped the boys to Wednesday morning.
Gabriel could already see the hope on Sam's face when he woke up to "Back in Time." It stung horribly to see that look, because this had to happen. Sam had to realize that Dean was a lost cause. As Sam and Dean got ready to leave, without breakfast and without trying to come after him, Gabriel saw Sam almost smiling. He had enthusiasm and energy, and Gabriel hated himself for having to take that away. But the world depended on it. His brothers depended on it.
Dean went to pack up the trunk when Gabriel materialized Cal behind him.
"You sure we should just let the Trickster go?" Dean said, clearly thinking Cal was Sam.
Cal held a gun to Dean and said, "Gimme your wallet."
"Whoa, whoa, buddy. Just relax," Dean said.
"I am relaxed!" Cal said.
"Okay, alright. Nobody wants this to end the wrong way, let's talk about it a second," Dean said calmly.
The second the gunshot rang out, Gabriel vanished. He sat on a beach in Brazil and put his head in his hands. He knew what was happening. He could feel Sam hearing the gunshot and running out to find Dean, dead on the ground. Dean wasn't coming back this time, and Gabriel had never felt more like a monster in his entire existence. He picked up a fistful of sand and tossed it towards the tumultuous waves.
It shouldn't bother him that he hurt Sam. Sam was going to destroy the world if he didn't. Sometimes, these things were necessary. But just when Gabriel had convinced himself that doing this had been the right thing, Sam Winchester started praying. "I'm supposed to wake up. Please, let me wake up. This isn't supposed to be happening. Please, this isn't supposed to happen today. Just let me wake up. I'm supposed to wake up. Please. Not Dean. Not Dean. Not my brother. Not like this. Let me wake up. Please. Please."
The words filtered through Gabriel's mind, and the archangel slammed his fist into the ground. None of the other angels would do anything. None of them cared anymore aside from the younger angels, the ones who had never even seen humans. The only one who would answer Sam was Gabriel, and Gabriel couldn't bring Dean back. He couldn't.
But he went back to Sam. He had to make sure he'd be okay. He had no doubt in his mind that Sam would kill him if he got the chance, so he stayed hidden. He watched, he listened. He heard every sob, he saw every angry punch at drywall. He watched as Sam started hunting Gabriel with a purpose. He watched Sam slowly shut down each emotion until only vengeance drove him. He cut everyone out and dealt out death more efficiently than ever with seemingly no regard for himself. He'd just patch himself up later with barely a flinch. Nothing hurt Gabriel worse than seeing Sam like this.
Every morning, Sam made the bed perfectly. Every night, he ate alone in silent fury. And every day, Gabriel hated himself more and more, but he had to believe that Sam would eventually be okay without Dean. He had to be. This was going to be his life. Dean was going to hell, Sam needed to be okay on his own. But six months after Dean's final death, enough was enough.
Gabriel, posing as Bobby, called Sam and left a voicemail to add to the pile of unanswered messages. "Sam, it's Bobby. I found him."
When Sam arrived at the Mystery Spot, Gabriel, still posing as Bobby, was kneeling on the floor in front of some fancy ritual work. Sam came in silently, but Gabriel knew he was there. He needed to know. He needed to know that Sam was still in there, that he still had some life in him.
"It's good to see you, boy," Gabriel said with Bobby's gruff voice. He gave Sam a hug, but the hug wasn't returned. No welcoming smile, no relief at seeing a familiar face, nothing. This was ten kinds of bad.
"What are we doing here, Bobby?" Sam asked quietly.
"This is the last place we're sure the Trickster worked his magic," Gabriel said. Honestly, he'd picked this place to see if Sam would risk returning. Clearly, he was desperate enough to venture back.
"So?" Sam asked.
"So, you want this thing?" Gabriel said, "I found a summoning ritual to bring the Trickster here."
Sam asked, "What do we need?"
"Blood." Gabriel wasn't going to make this easy. Sam couldn't be that far gone.
"How much blood?" Sam asked.
"Ritual says near a gallon. It's gotta be fresh too," Gabriel said. Sam had to have a breaking point. Knifing a random guy had to be too far for him.
Sam understood the implication, saying, "Meaning we have to bleed a person dry."
"And it's gotta be tonight," Gabriel said, raising the stakes, "Or not for another fifty years."
Sam hardly missed a beat before saying, "Let's go get some."
Gabriel stared at him. He was serious. He'd actually go kill another human for this, for Dean. Shit.
Gabriel said, "You break my heart, kid."
"What?" Sam said.
"I'm not gonna let you murder an innocent man," Gabriel said.
Sam asked, "Then, why'd you bring me here?"
"Why?," Gabriel asked, speaking as Bobby as much as himself, "'Cause it was the only way you'd see me. 'Cause I'm trying to knock some sense into you. Because I thought you'd back down from killin' a man."
Sam said in a low, dangerous voice, "Well, you thought wrong. Leave the stuff. I'll do it myself."
"I told you, I'm not gonna let you kill a-" Gabriel said.
Sam cut him off. He shouted, "It's none of your damn business what I do!"
Gabriel took a breath. Fine. If that's the way Sam wanted to play it. There was only one way Gabriel would show himself, and that was if Sam was utterly and completely gone.
Gabriel looked at Sam with Bobby's face and said, "You want your brother back so bad..." He grabbed a sharp athame from his bag and show it to Sam. "Fine," Gabriel finished.
Sam asked, "What are you talking about?"
"Better me than a civilian," Gabriel said, clarifying the situation. If Sam was willing to kill Bobby, Gabriel would have a lot more work on his plate than he was aware of.
Sam said quietly, "You're crazy, Bobby. I'm not killing you." For the first time since Sam showed up, his face softened. Instead of the mask of emotionless ferocity, his expression showed his pain and vulnerability. It wasn't a look Gabriel particularly liked to see, but it was definitely a welcome change.
"Oh, now I'm the crazy one," Gabriel said. He couldn't believe Sam was willing to kill one of the people he always fought so hard to protect. And yet he could. He could believe it. He'd seen it before when his brothers turned on each other. Unless something changed and fast, the world was fucked if its fate was in the hands of Sam Winchester. He wouldn't let Sam kill anyone else but his image of Bobby. It was a test, not an operation to rile Sam up and set him lose on innocent people. Even the Trickster had morals about killing people, and their innocence played a big part.
"Look, Sam. I'm old. I'm coming near the end of my trail. But you can keep fighting. Saving people. But you need your brother. So, let me give him back to you," Gabriel pressed.
"Bobby..." Sam said.
"You and Dean. You boys are the closest thing I have to family. I want to do this," Gabriel said.
He held out the knife to Sam, and Sam took it without much hesitation, saying, "Okay."
"Good," Gabriel said. He turned around and got on his knees. "Just make it quick," Gabriel whispered, "Do it, son."
Sam was definitely going to kill Bobby. He hadn't wanted to the first time it was suggested, but it took little to no pushing to get him to change his mind on that. Shit. This was a lot worse than Gabriel could've imagined. He'd have to do something to fix this. Sam needed to be okay. He had to be.
"Okay, Bobby," Sam said, drawing closer, "But you want to know why?"
Gabriel felt Sam put an arm around his chest and felt the tip of a stake digging into his back. It was a copy that Sam ran through with the stake, though. Of course, the stake wouldn't kill him, but the less Sam knew about that the better.
The copy of Bobby died as Sam growled, "Because you're not Bobby."
Well, the kid wasn't wrong, but Gabriel still felt the need to put some fear in him about this whole mess. He should never have gotten desperate enough to kill Bobby, he should never have gotten so angry and vengeful as to obsessively track Gabriel down. Sam should have gone home to Bobby, cried, mourned, and moved on with his life, because this was coming one way or another, and Sam needed to be ready.
The copy corpse fell forward, the stake sticking gruesomely out of its back. When the copy didn't disappear or change at all as Sam was so clearly expecting, doubt crossed his features.
"Bobby?" Sam asked quietly.
Nothing happened.
Sam said, a little louder, breathing a little heavier, "Bobby?" He seemed on the verge of tears for the first time in months when he tried again. "Bobby?!" he cried.
Gabriel wanted to cry out of relief. Sam was feeling. He was still in there. Thank Dad. Gabriel dissolved the copy and made the discarded stake fly directly into his waiting hand. No need to let Sam try a fast one just because Gabriel was showing his face again.
"You're right," Gabriel said, "I'm just screwing with you. Pretty good, though, Sam. Smart. Let me tell you, whoever said Dean was the dysfunctional one has never seen you with a sharp object in your hands. Holy Full Metal Jacket." He expected to see some anger at his teasing, but when Gabriel looked at Sam, the kid just looked so utterly tired and defeated. And broken. And sad. Gabriel had put that look on his face.
"Bring him back," Sam said softly.
"Who, Dean?" Gabriel asked, "Didn't my girl send you the flowers? Dean's dead. He ain't coming back. His soul's downstairs doing the hellfire rumba as we speak."
"Just take us back to that Tuesday or Wednesday, when it all started. We won't come after you, I swear," Sam said.
"You swear?" Gabriel said skeptically.
"Yes," Sam insisted.
"I don't know," Gabriel said, "Even if I could-"
"You can," Sam said urgently.
"True. But that don't mean I should," Gabriel said. Hurting Sam in person was much harder than Gabriel was expecting. He needed to get through to him. He needed Sam to be okay.
"Sam," Gabriel said sternly, "There's a lesson I've been trying to drill into that freakish Cromagnon skull of yours."
"Lesson?" Sam asked, eyes welling with tears, "What lesson?"
"This obsession to save Dean? The way you two keep sacrificing yourselves for each other? Nothing good comes out of it. Just blood and pain," Gabriel said. He couldn't spell it out, otherwise Sam's efforts to avoid the apocalypse would start it faster. Self-fulfilling prophecies and all. He just had to tell Sam something. Something that would hopefully prove to him that he needed to stop being so dependent on Dean's survival.
"Dean's your weakness," Gabriel said, "Bad guys know it, too. It's gonna be the death of you, Sam." He took a step back from Sam and said, "Sometimes you just gotta let people go."
Sam said with a tear thick voice, "He's my brother."
"Yep," Gabriel said, "And like it or not, this is what life's gonna be like without him." The fact that they were brothers wasn't exactly excuse enough to stop all of this. This was the fate of the world they were dealing with.
"Just..." Sam tried, desperate for something to sway Gabriel with.
Gabriel couldn't believe he was still trying. Why couldn't he just let Dean go? He'd been dead for half a year. Time was supposed to heal not make you crazy.
"Please," Sam said.
Gabriel couldn't do this anymore. Sam was literally begging for him to stop. He couldn't look at him like this. He couldn't see him with tears in eyes and pain in his heart that Gabriel had so carefully put there. He couldn't.
Gabriel bent his head for a moment. The world was going to burn if Gabriel didn't do something. This had all been completely necessary. But Gabriel knew he'd very willingly let the world burn if it meant seeing Sam happy just one more time. He couldn't do this anymore.
"I swear it's like talking to a brick wall," Gabriel said, trying to show exasperation but feeling nothing but guilt and failure, "Okay, this whole thing stopped being fun months ago. You're Travis Bickle in a skirt, pal. I'm over it."
"Meaning what?" Sam asked.
Gabriel looked Sam in the eye and said, "Meaning that's for me to know and for you to find out." He snapped his fingers and sent Sam back to the motel on that Wednesday with Dean.
Gabriel took a deep breath and followed. He hoped Dean would realize how much pain his brother was in. He hoped Dean would take care of Sam after the damage Gabriel had done. This wasn't how any of this was supposed to go.
Sam stopped as they left the motel room, turned around, and stared sadly into the room. Gabriel feared for a short moment that Sam could see him. Instead, Sam looked at the unmade bed. Gabriel wondered if he was remembering all those mornings that Sam had straightened everything out, made everything perfect, just for the ability to focus on something.
Even if Sam wasn't, Gabriel sure was. He'd been there everyday. He'd seen all of it. It was definitely going to be weird getting used to not seeing Sam. They'd spent every single day together for nearly a year, not that Sam was aware of Gabriel's presence for any of it.
Sam left the motel room to catch up with his brother, and Gabriel dropped on the bed sadly. He hurt Sam. He broke him in ways no one had any right to. For the first time in centuries, Gabriel the archangel allowed himself to cry.