Catching Up, Season 2

Chapter 22 - Tall Tales

A/N: Hey guys. Sorry for the late upload. Once more your princess grossly underestimated her timelines but fear not, the remaining 8 uploads are on their way in short. I expect another couple chapters will be up tonight after this set. Also yes, sabriel is canon in this world but longtime readers will know I've been setting that up since the beginning. Also having Gabriel present in the room means I can do away with the italics for a bit

Sam and Gabriel went to the den, Gabe invisible to everyone but his hunter. "Hey man," Dean greeted him. "Where'd you take off to?"

"Bathroom, wanted to stretch my legs a bit." Sam looked at the couch and then called a quick audible. "Actually Cas, can I switch with you and take the recliner?"

"Of course." Cas joined Dean and Mary and Sam popped the leg rest on the recliner. The new position gave them room for Gabriel to nestle into Sam's side without it looking too weird.

"Clever babes," Gabriel praised.

Sam just smiled, "So what's up next?"

"Tall tales," Crowley reported from the DVD case. "Sam and Dean call upon their family friend and fellow hunter Bobby for help after they are stumped by violent and inexplicable happenings on a local college campus. Bobby arrives with a suspicion as to the culprit behind the killing spree - and the brothers' escalating feud."

"One of the few times Bobby was wrong," Dean snorted.

"To his credit, he got all the signs right. Just wasn't expecting an imposter." Sam shrugged and whispered to Gabriel. "Did you wait for this episode before showing up?"

"Maayybbeee." The show starts and a college professor is approached by a beautiful woman, claiming to be a student. He apparently teaches about morality but has no issue becoming intimate with a student. The scene cuts to a certain 'janitor' leaving the building just as the professor is thrown to his death. "Still maintain he deserved it."

"And screwing with us?"

"That was just a bonus."

The TV!Winchesters appear on the screen but seem to be at each other's throats. Something has happened to TV!Sam laptop and the Impala making them both tetchy. "So juvenile, the pair of you," Rowena commented. "For once you're acting your age."

"I didn't have a sibling to gripe at," Mary frowned. "So I ended up butting heads with my dad. Not nearly as fun since he could pull the 'parent' card."

"Oh Dean tried it." In the midst of their snippiness, Bobby arrives to help them out on their hunt. In a flashback, the brothers came to investigate the professor's death but TV!Sam and TV!Dean end up squabbling over the class of Dean's would-be companion for the night and his ability to actually flirt. "Entertaining as this is," Cas touched the bridge of his nose. "Surely there are more important things to be focusing on."

"Really what had gotten into you two?" Mary snorted.

"My brother," Cas shook his head fondly.

"What?"

"It'll take a few episodes to explain but…" In the show, the boys went to Crawford Hall, a story from the bar made them think they might be dealing with a vengeful spirit. The janitor showed them the professor's office. Dean hit pause, "That mom," he said pointing to the screen, "is the archangel Gabriel."

Mary's jaw dropped, "THE Gabriel, messenger of the Lord and judge of Heaven?"

"The one and the same."

"Is he…still around?" Mary ventured as said archangel was octopussed around her younger son a foot away. .

"No," Dean said sadly. Both Cas and Sam squirmed a little, Sam more so all things considered.

"Oh the irony of it all," Gabriel sang. They started again and the janitor explained that the professor had a habit of bringing women back to his office.

"Got more ass than a toilet seat," Mary and Gabriel chorused with the television. "So much for morality," Mary sipped her orange juice.

"Dude is mom on the same wavelength as Gabriel?" Dean looked at Sam.

"Yes, yes she is."

Meanwhile, the brothers return to the motel, going over next steps. TV!Sam wants to do research but his laptop is now frozen on a less than savoury site. "I still hold you somewhat responsible for that."

"Just download some virus protection or whatever."

"That's not…nevermind." Sam dropped it.

Back in the show, the flashback ended as TV!Sam tells Bobby he wasn't able to dig up any suspicious history on the building. However, according to the boys, things got weird even for them. The flashback starts anew with the college jock TV!Sam had been speaking to getting full-on abducted by aliens. Bobby is a hard skeptic but the boys say they went to speak with him anyway. Jumping back, they meet the jock at the bar and find out what all these 'aliens' did to him. Both Sam and Dean coughed into their hands at the description of the probing.

"Boys," Mary admonished. "It's not funny, he was violated."

"You're right mom, sorry," Sam apologized.

"Yeah sorry," Dean concurred even as his television self made a crack about an alien making the guy his bitch.

"The epitome of compassion you are, Dean Winchester," Crowley scoffed.

Then the boy described how he was made to slow dance with the alien and the entire room cracked up in earnest. "Okay," Mary wheezed. "That one was good."

"I could never hear Careless Whisper again without thinking of you," Sam muttered.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

The brothers once again start bickering over TV!Sam's laptop and Bobby seems suspicious of the pair. Meanwhile, another death happens. An animal testing researcher is apparently ravaged by a sewer gator. However they sre once more sidetracked by the air being let out of the Impala's tires. A money clip leads TV!Dean to think his brother did it. They actually start a physical fight that ended about an hour before Bobby arrived. The veteran hunter tells them they have a trickster on their hands, playing deadly pranks on the high and mighty and causing chaos for the TV!Winchesters to keep them off its tail. TV!Dean could only think of one person who's been present for all the madness and sure enough the scene shifts to Gabriel's apartment with a dog, desserts, and conjured scantily clad women. "Hold on," Mary hit pause on Gabe and his decadence. "THAT is an angel?"

"In the biblical sense, not so much the moral one." Cas grimaced. Gabriel lifted his head to stick his tongue out.

"You have a dog?" Sam asked Gabriel under the sounds of the boys returning to speak with the janitor.

"That's what you took from that scene? Anyway yeah, named him Hershey. I'll let you meet him sometime." TV!Sam searches Gabe's locker for clues and only comes across a tabloid that he used for inspiration. TV!Sam is still not convinced that the janitor is the trickster so he makes TV!Dean wait at Crawford Hall while he goes to look for more evidence, all the while Gabe is looking on.

"Not the best place for that argument boys," Mary commented.

"Keep watching," Dean winked.

Night falls and TV!Dean gets impatient, going in to confront the trickster only to find the auditorium decked out with a bed and two women waiting for him. Gabriel claims to want to make peace, that he actually likes the brothers. He asks TV!Dean to look the other way and let him go but TV!Dean won't let him go on hurting people. He manages to get a jump on the trickster by having TV!Sam and Bobby emerge as back up. "I knew," Gabe shrugged. "Just didn't care."

A fight breaks out with TV!Sam and Bobby taking on a chainsaw wielding monster while TV!Dean fights the two women. Just when the trickster begins to gloat, the older Winchester gets him in the chest with a stake. The illusions disappear and the group has to get out of dodge. The brothers apologize but Bobby insists they leave already.

Dean cackled, "Bobby was so sick of our shit."

"You say that like he was the first to be…or the last," Cas groused.

"Especially considering I'm sitting right there," Crowley indicated to himself.

"Shut up charcoal," Dean dismissed.

"That's King Charcoal to you boy."

"Now everyone is sick of this shit," Mary said with Rowena nodding along. The final shot of the show was the trickster revealing his corpse to be another illusion while he was still alive and well. "Oh so that's how he did it," Dean nodded in appreciation. "Gabriel did have style. Shame he couldn't pull the same trick twice." Cas pointedly looked away and Sam bit his lip to keep his face neutral. "Anyway, let's clean up this breakfast stuff before we move on." Him and Cas went to pack away the leftovers while Mary and Crowley took the dishes into the kitchen. Rowena excused herself, leaving Sam and Gabriel alone.

"You're very good at dying but not really," Sam said.

"Right backatcha kiddo," Gabriel returned warmly. "You know I am surprised you're so comfortable with this, with me."

"You did give me a lot of time to think about it. I don't know where we go from here but right now, this," he squeezed his angel, "this is good."