The Deal
Title: The Deal
Author: hopenight
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Sam/Gabriel (pre-slash)
Word Count: 2, 957
Warnings: none that I can think of at the moment
Prompt: “Tell you what Winchester, I'll give you my protection. I'll even help you find the demon bastard that did this. But when your youngest turns eighteen, I want to take the kid on."
Gabriel gives his protection to John Winchester in exchange for having Sam Winchester as his apprentice when he turns eighteen. He wanted to give the kid a way out of destiny, not a way into his heart.
Summary: Sam and Gabriel really had no hope once John made the deal with the angel.
A/N: *sniff* This is my last fic written as a high school senior. I have graduation and exams. But this is basically it for staying up until after one in the morning knowing that I have classes the next day. I’m glad it’s a Sambriel fic though.
“O white-robed Angel, guide my timorous hand to write on a lofty rock with iron pen the words of truth, that all who pass may read.” -William Blake ‘Samson’
Gabriel stared at the young father before him. His honey-colored eyes were dark and serious (possibly the serious he had ever been in a long time). He licked his lips pondering over the father’s request.
“I have a question of my own.”
The man looked up. His dark brown eyes were like flint and steel. Gabriel wondered briefly what those eyes would look like happy. Eyes were the windows to the soul after all. (Not that humans had a clue how true those words really are.) But all Gabriel can get is a willingness to do anything, sacrifice anything. And it scared the archangel to even think about how deep that sacrifice would go.
“Yes?” growled out the man. His eyes would wander to the car behind Gabriel, where his children slept. Gabriel hoped that he didn’t keep his children in the car when he hunted the big bad motherfuckers; that was just bad parenting, even for a hunter.
But the man had caught his interest on several matters.
“How did you get the ritual to summon me?” asked the archangel, “I worked extremely hard to have my summoning erased.”
He worked really, really hard dammit. It was like trying to destroy all the copies of your freshman year of high school yearbook photo. However, there is that one copy that inevitably creeps up on you like a ghost of bad hair days past. Now Gabriel had never actually known a bad hair day, but he totally saw this summoning as that one picture that popped up in the senior year slide show.
“Friend of a friend of a friend,” answered the hunter vaguely, “Why did you not want to be summoned?”
Gabriel snorted delicately, “Look I get that humans have these notions of sunshine-y rainbows and unicorns blowing fairy dust outs of their asses Heaven with the nicey-nice angels who read your stories and put mints on your pillow. But hate to tell you, it’s a bureaucracy up there and most of my brothers are dicks. And I made sure to get rid of the summoning as to not be called by one of them.”
The man stared at Gabriel for several beats, clearly wondering what the hell he had gotten into summoning him.
The archangel raised an eyebrow delicately in response.
The man blew out a breath, “Look…I just want my family protected. This psychic that I saw said that my boys were going to have a hard life. And I know that I can’t give them a stable one,” the man went quiet, “Not after what happened to my wife. I just can’t.”
Gabriel remembered his long existence with painful clarity.
Michael got the obedience and power.
Lucifer got the charisma and beauty.
Raphael got the steely emotions and the calm manner.
Gabriel got the brains and the talent.
Most importantly, Gabriel got a special gift.
He could see the melody of the universe; hear it whisper into his ears. It was more of background noise at this point in time.
But when he first heard it, and his brothers could not; he knew that he was going to be different from the smile on His Father’s face.
Gabriel heard the music, embraced it, sang it, and allowed the melody into his Grace with all his heart.
It’s why he was so good at the being the Messenger.
(Shamefully, it’s also why he was so good at running away. His brothers disrupted the melody.)
So Gabriel looked at the man and considered for several moments his options. He could run, take the ritual, and erase this meeting from the man’s mind. He could decline and kill the man when he tried to attack him (don’t think that Gabriel didn’t notice that knife) before dropping the kids off into some family that would take them in.
Or…he could maybe…
Gabriel shuddered, not even daring to finish that thought. He was that man anymore or that angel case may be.
He heard the two small heartbeats in the backseat of the car from where he stood. Both of them sounded like the fluttering wings of birds. The soft huffing of their breathing huddled together in the backseat attempting to find some sort of comfort.
Gabriel sighed, knowing what he must do.
He was the one with the brains after all. He was the one who could add one and one together to get two before the numbers even existed. A plan was already forming in his mind. (It was highly possible the plan was forming the moment the man uttered told his name to Gabriel.)
Gabriel felt his mouth twitch upward into a smirk.
It would be fun to screw with his brothers, to destroy plans for the Apocalypse that are older than himself, to stop Destiny in its tracks.
Gabriel was an advocate for free will after all.
Besides, he would bet all his Monopoly money that the Apocalypse screwed with the melody of the universe. And Gabriel enjoyed the background noise that he was currently getting.
“Alright,” said Gabriel with a grin sticking his hands in his pockets, “I’m in a good mood today. Let’s make a deal.”
“What?” spluttered the man.
“A deal,” said Gabriel with a pleasant smile, “You didn’t think that this came for free after all. I’m risking my own hide for your family by accepting this. Also to throw my brothers off the scent, I need the deal to keep with pagan niceties. Otherwise they’re going to be wondering why a Trickster is playing nice with a hunter, comprende?”
“Yeah I guess,” said the hunter gruffly, “We don’t have to kiss or anything, right?”
“Sorry hun, but I like my men a lot taller.”
The hunter shuddered, “So what do you want?”
Gabriel paused thinking about it. He slowly peered into the man’s mind. He saw two boys, but his gaze was kept on the youngest. Floppy hair, a wide dimpled grin, and big puppy eyes were completely adorable on him.
For the briefest moment, Gabriel could see the man that he would become in the place of the young boy. He saw a kid hating the life and resenting his family for caging him there. He saw the melody of his life leading down a path of destruction and sadness and despair.
Gabriel knew the price. He stared into the young father’s eyes.
“Tell you what Winchester, I’ll give you my protection. Hell, I’ll even help you find the demonic bastard that did this. But when your youngest son turns eighteen, I want to take him on as an apprentice.”
“Sammy,” rasped out John Winchester slowly.
Gabriel shrugged, “That’s my offer, Johnny-boy. Take it or leave it. It’s a onetime offer.”
The young father stared at the archangel, who held out his pointer finger.
“Going once!”
“I…”
“Twice!” the middle finger flicked upward.
John helplessly looked over at the car, where his sons’ slept peacefully. With a silent apology toward his son, the eldest Winchester male looked at the angel who’s ring finger was curling upward.
“Alright,” growled out the man.
Gabriel stood and smiled. He conjured three pendants out of the air.
“These two,” he held out the two pendants in the shape of a lantern, “are for your oldest and yourself.”
John took them slipping one of them over his neck. Gabriel held another one: a trumpet with a lily wrapped around it.
“This one is for your youngest son. They all represent my protection. The one for your youngest shows his status as future apprentice. Merely call my name with your hand on it and I will be there.”
John held the pendants tight. He nodded tightly, spinning on his heel and going to his car with his eight and four year old sons asleep in the backseat.
Gabriel watched him leave before disappearing with a snap of his fingers, wiping away any traces of Grace clean. He totally would have made a kick ass thief in another life.
“Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” -G.K. Chesterton
“So you’re my guardian angel,” whispered nine year old Sammy with wide eyes to the nice and smiling blonde man across from him. Sammy was left alone in the motel room, while Dad and Dean went out on a special mission somewhere. Sammy didn’t like it when Dad and Dean went on this missions (or hunts as Dad called them) because they would come back hurt most of the time. So he rubbed the pendant that he had around his neck as far back as he could remember and wished for someone to come to keep him company.
Then the man appeared and kneeled down to his eye-level asking why he called him. He told Sammy that he was his guardian angel and that he would always protect him.
It made Sammy feel warm and safe.
“You bet’cha, kiddo,” answered the angel as he scooped Sammy up, “My name is Gabriel.”
“Like from the nativity story?”
“One in the same, kidlet,” said Gabriel with a cheeky grin and wink as he plopped the nine year old on the bed.
His Dad had always said that they were protected by a powerful and terrible being. It had scared Sammy as child, like the monster under his bed.
But Gabriel didn’t seem scary. He seemed nice.
“I don’t like it when Dad and Dean go away on these mission things,” confessed Sam looking at his sock clad feet, “I worry about them all the time. I’m scared what’ll happen when I’m old enough to go on these trips. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
Gabriel looked at this young boy, scared of even hurting a fly. How could this boy be Lucifer’s vessel? How could he hold his arrogant and prideful brother, who only valued some life? Gabriel felt his resolve strengthen to protect Sam from his destiny.
“I know you don’t kid,” said Gabriel, “All life is sacred but sometimes people and monsters do things so bad, so terrible that they need to be punished. I wish that it wasn’t so.”
“Me too,” mumbled Sammy as he curled into Gabriel’s side.
“You too old for a bedtime story kid?”
“Yeah,” whispered Sammy, “Too scared to sleep.”
“How about you try? I promise I’ll watch over you until your dad gets back,” said Gabriel as he ran his fingers through Sam’s hair.
“M’kay,” murmured the boy as he eyes drifted shut.
When Sammy woke up the next morning to see Dean and Dad safe and a long, beautiful golden feather next to his head, he mentally sent a quick thank you to Gabriel.
He kept the feather.
And the being called Loki smiled as he set to work on his latest trick.
“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth unseen, both when we sleep and when we awake.” -John Milton
Sam twirled the hilt of the dagger in his hand. At fifteen, he was small and scruffy. He could easily fight kids three times his size and took down a fully grown werewolf while his family fought the other two off. He knew exactly ninety-three ways to kill a man. He also knew how to pick locks, make believable fake I.D.’s, get pretty girls (or boys) to give him information, how to research monsters that he wished weren’t real.
Sam Winchester was dangerous. Thanks to his father preparing him and his brother to battle down the demon that killed their mom.
However, thanks to Dean, he knew how to flirt with girls and treat them right. He knew unconditional love of family and how his brother will always have his back. He knew how to do stupid tricks with lighters and his dagger. He learned how to hustle with the best of them.
Sam Winchester was loved. Thanks to a brother that would do anything in the world for him, including walking through fire and going to Hell if it meant Sam was safe.
Then there was Gabriel, who taught him how to love life. He would take Sam to amusement parks and stupid comedies. They would go to ice cream parlors and play pranks on people who deserved them. Sam learned how to laugh in the darkest times and that there was always another adventure.
Sam Winchester knew what it was like to have a true friend. Thanks to an archangel/Trickster god who danced through life and protected what he cared about. He learned how to calm down and suppress his rage.
However, when Sam watched Gabriel climb out of the pool that he pushed the angel into with his long jeans clinging to his legs and his t-shirt stuck close to his chest. Sam tried to ignore the sudden rush of blood downward.
Later, he reasoned that he was a teenage boy. That it happened to everyone.
It still didn’t stop the dreams though, or how his heart pounded when the angel was near.
Sam Winchester knew how to keep some things private.
He taught himself that all on his own.
“The soul at its highest is found like God, but an angel gives an idea closer of Him. That’s all an angel is: an idea of God.” -Meister Eckhart
Gabriel had been looking forward and dreading this day all at once.
He appeared in Sam’s room, as the clock struck midnight, feeling it better to tell the kid one to tone then have his Dad tell him.
“Gabe?” asked Sam as he glanced up from his Calculus book, “What are you doing here?”
“We need to talk, kiddo,” said Gabriel as he sat down on the bed.
“Alright,” said Sam as he closed his book.
“You know that your dad got my protection.”
“Yes.”
“There was a condition to it.”
Sam stared at Gabriel and sighed, “I’m guessing it’s me?”
“Sorry, kiddo.”
“What is it?”
“That you become my apprentice when you turn eighteen.”
Sam leaned back and stared at Gabriel, “That’s not as bad as I expected.”
“Really?” asked Gabriel, “I expected a huge…”
“Blowout?”
“Kind of?”
“This is a way out of hunting, out of this life. Isn’t it?” asked Sam.
Gabriel knew how desperate Sam was to get out of the hunting lifestyle. How much he had despised deceiving people, killing things; even if it meant saving others. He also knew the full ride to Stanford that Sam had been offered. (That he will encourage Sam to take. A good apprentice needs to expand their knowledge. Besides he’s been keeping the demons away so far. He can do just as well at a college. Plus those Ivy League schools were riped with people waiting to be pranked.)
“Yeah, it is.”
“Alright then.”
And that was that apparently.
Sam smiled at Gabriel, soft and gentle. Gabriel smiled back.
The archangel/Trickster really, really tried not to notice how Sam’s mouth dimpled ever so slightly or how the light of the full moon caught in his hair. He tried to ignore how the song that was woven between them changed into something beautiful and full of promise. The notes sounded like smooth jazz on his ears.
“Aren’t you made at your dad at all?”
Sam shook his head in the negative, “Not really because then I wouldn’t know you.”
And, dammit, Gabriel felt his Grace glow so brightly that it almost broke its binds.
The archangel stared at Sam, who had gone back to studying.
“I have to go.”
Sam looked up and grinned, “Good-bye Gabriel.”
With a snap, the archangel disappeared leaving a feather in his place.
Sam picked up the feather and placed it in a box under his bed with all the others.
He smiled to himself. Maybe there was some hope for this crush of his after all.
“I feel that there is an angel inside me who I am constantly shocking.” -Unknown
Gabriel needed to get a little drunk to process this.
He knocked back another tequila slammer as he thought about floppy hair and dimples and a six foot two frame. He thought about bright laughter and dark intensity and overwhelming smarts. He pictured a huge manic grin as they pranked his brother.
He had fallen in love with Sam Winchester, without even realizing it.
And the scary thing? It was that he was so far gone into it that it felt good.
Gabriel laughed.
Well, maybe this apprentice thing wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
He was good with seducing Sam Winchester.
(That would probably give Destiny that bitch-slap in the face that she needed, after all.)