God willing, I'll see you on the other side

[hunter_returns]

Sam had been driving most of the night, energized by a combination of caffeine and elation. He knew how to do it. After two, nearly three years, he finally knew how to repay a very old debt. Dean was taking care of things with Benny and frankly, the less Sam thought about that, the happier he was going to be. At least this time it was an amicable

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[hesnoangel]

Archangels were made of heavenly light, a grace greater than that of any winged footsoldier.

In the absence of light, there was darkness.

Dull, dark, dampening darkness. No thoughts. No being. An endless nothing. The emptiness of space. The bottom of the ocean. Buried alive.

It might have been perceived as the perfect rest to one who had an even temper, the sort of great calm and wiseness you expected from a being so far above human troubles.

When Gabriel had thoughts again, the first thing that formed was that this had been as close to hell as he would ever be.

His grace was a flickering, half-suffocated flame, but Gabriel was still an archangel and when it returned into his vessel (the body untouched by decay), a gust of wind blew through the hotel that threw tables into walls, shattered windows and flung around just about anything that wasn't nailed to the floor. When that storm died down, another one began outside. Sudden black clouds wept a sea over the house as Gabriel stirred, eyes flickering open.

Gabriel noticed at once that he felt more... corporeal. He had gotten very used to his vessel, but he'd never felt it - hurt. It hurt now from a half-healed stab wound and the limbs were stiff from disuse as he shakily got to his feet, trying to understand what had happened. His wings were also not the customary shadow, he noticed, when black feathers unceremoniously wiped the floor. He had large, wide wings that had split his shirt open at the back and which he shook like a bird coming out of a rain.

"Well," he said, the voice of his vessel rough as he gingerly folded his wings, staring blearily ahead and obviously just coming slowly back into a state approximating awake, "that sucked."

[hunter_returns]

The storm of power had done more than break windows and toss around discarded furniture. It had also tossed around one burly hunter like a ragdoll. As Gabriel got slowly to his feet, Sam was dragging himself out of the corner he’d been flung in to. Fortunately, a banquet table had broken his fall. Unfortunately? He was fairly sure he’d cracked at least one rib on the way down. As Dean would say, awesome.

He might be seeing double after the knock he’d taken to the head, but Sam was fairly sure he was no longer the only living person in the room. The archangel’s wings were.. incredible. If Sam looked at them long enough he’d swear he saw six instead of two, but that might just be the blow to the head talking.

A hard shove pushed the last of the debris off his legs and Sam got very carefully to his feet, favoring his bruised left side. It had worked. The spell had done it, Gabriel was back.

“G-Gabriel?”

[hesnoangel]

While Gabriel was still trying to understand why he was not himself (the manageable size of a regular four-story house, six wings and made entirely of a light bright enough to burn out any living being's retinas) when he heard the voice. Spinning on in his heel, he focused on the figure stumbling to its feet.

"Brother?" He blinked, a cold shower of fear running through him, but then his senses kicked back in. He couldn't read the man's thoughts, which was very distracting indeed, but at least he could still feel he didn't have an angelic plus one on board. "Sam!"

This wasn't less confusing, but it did make the veritable redecoration of the room with about a hundred Enochian signs a bit more sensible. If Lucifer had really gotten his grabby little hands on Sammy's body here, he'd have not needed to make such an almighty song and dance trying to get him back, Gabriel suspected.

"You must have missed me more than I thought." Seeing the way Sam limped, Gabriel casually snapped his fingers. Without even paying attention to Sam's reaction, he immediately noticed that it had done jack all. There was a slight glow around his hands, though, so - he wasn't cut off, if his wings weren't enough indication of that. He didn't feel fallen. Just... exhausted. And right now, a little bit uncomfortable, being for the first time in his long life without the power to casually reshape reality into his very own special episode of the Twilight Zone, or whatever else he felt like. "Huh. I think you might have to cuddle up to the nurse for this one."

[hunter_returns]

Relief swamped Sam as Gabriel turned. It really was him. He'd done it. Gabriel was alive.

Then the archangel raised his hand, making to snap his fingers and Sam can't help but flinch and expect the worst. Lucifer. Raphael. Castiel. Every other angel that made to snap their fingers normally meant someone was about to get pasted.

His heart was still somewhere around his vicinity of his throat when he realized that nothing had happened. Whatever Gabriel meant to do, it obviously wasn't horrible, he hadn't exploded.

"Hn? I'm fine, it's nothing." Sam can't help but stare at the expansive wings behind Gabriel. Which is probably why he asks a very stupid, but very him, sort of question. "Are you.. I mean.. are you okay?"

[hesnoangel]

(OOC: So sorry but that might be the most adorable icon in the history of icons.)

"Oh, c'mon, now, Sam. I'm not that bad of a guy. As far as I can see... you just woke me from whatever subdivision of hell that was." Gabriel shook his head briefly, trying to get rid off the lingering feeling of suffocating silence. "I wouldn't smite you. Even if I could, which... I'm not sure right now."

He stepped forwards slowly. The wide wings gave a last shake, then folded around him, too expansive to fit behind his back, instead draping him like a high cloak.

"I don't know how you did it because... believe me, it's not all that easy as drawing the signs, or every psychic pay-tv hotline would be able to draft us. But then again, we do know you're Little Jimmy Special." While he was teasing as usual, there was nothing unfriendly in his tone. "So, you can now officially say that an Archangel owes you one - though, since I feel about as powerful as your average second-grade cupid, let's see if that comes in handy."

There was a pause at the question. Gabriel looked vagualy bemused between Sam's face and then the tear in his own shirt, where Lucifer - Lucifer, his favourite big brother - had pushed in the knife. "Well," he said, quietly, "that depends more on how you are. Apparently, the world hasn't ended, so... what's the general situation? How are you and Dean?" How many of my brothers am I burying? One or two?

[hunter_returns]

((Hee! The great Winchester Puppy Peek. My favorite, really.))

Sam held up his bloodied palm. "Takes the blood of a true vessel to fuel the spell." And yeah, he'd thrown himself headlong into research, pulling every obscure legend and even calling in a couple of favors to make sure that he was raising the right archangel. God knows he didn't want to raise a rather pissed off Michael, Raphael or Lucifer.

Gabriel's brothers.

Yeah, this isn't news he's looking forward to sharing.

"I booked a motel a few miles back. Think we can talk there? I'm pretty sure this spell just pinged every radar on this side of the planet." And neither one of them were probably in any shape for a long, drawn out fight.

[hesnoangel]

"Seriously?" The thing was - he had never been in a situation were raising an archangel would have been necessary. None of them had died before. That state was obviously over.

"You gained some common sense since I last saw you," Gabriel said as he craned his neck, gaze going past the corpses of pagan gods that were strewn over the room, recently disturbed probably by the trouble of his awakening. He'd known these guys, too. They weren't as powerful as his father. Not even as his brothers. They had been in a way too human, but also alltogether more humane and none of them deserved this fate.

"It's a good thing you got me back." Gabriel looked up to catch Sam's gaze, grinning. "I did my I-know-my-destiny speech about thirty seconds before I bit the dust. Would have been rather pointless last words."

[hunter_returns]

Common sense? Sam can't help but laugh. He just walked into a motel full of murdered deities to raise a fallen archangel. Common sense left the building a few years (and one or two deaths, really) back.

It's also been a long time since he's really had any reason to laugh and it feels good. Hell on his ribs, but it feels good overall. Sam jerked his head towards the door. "Come on man, car's outside."

Then he paused. "Um. You might have to sit in the back. I don't think I'll be able to drive with a wing in my face."

[hesnoangel]

"Yeah. I hope I'll have the chicken limb thing under control in a few," Gabriel said as he stalked after Sam. The stab wound still hurt, but not deadly - he guessed. He'd never been hurt like a human. That probably meant he was a total sissy about it, though, so it's more likely to feel worse to him than better.

When he arrived by the car, he peered inside, but found no permanent attachment (or brother, as the Winchesters called it, which really didn't describe the situation between them as well) inside.

"Dean let you borrow the car?" Or is he just dead? There really wasn't a tactful way to phrase that question and Sam had just dragged his ass out of limbo, so Gabriel tried not to offend him right away.

[hunter_returns]

The chicken limb crack gets another snort of laughter followed by a wince of pain. Goddamnit. But he was probably just a little giddy with relief that the spell had worked. Right?

His expression went tight at his question for reasons that had nothing to do with his aching side or the fact that it hurt to breathe. "Dean's taking care of something for a," A what? Friend? Vampire? Monster that he trusted more than his own brother?

"For someone else." It was a lame finish, but he really didn't care at this point. Benny was not someone he was ready to talk about. "All right feathers, into the back seat."

[hesnoangel]

Gabriel couldn't help but notice the way Sam still twitched when he turned. "You sure you're alright? You know, from what I can tell you should still be mostly a breakable little human. I can't instant-heal you, but I'm fairly sure I could still do a little Dr. Sexy M.D. impression."

Strange that Sam was laughing. He couldn't remember that. To be fair, though, he'd usually dragged the two brothers through hell to prove a point whenever they met. Anyhow, the laughter stopped at the mention of Sam's brother, but not because he was kissing worms, so that was as much as Gabriel needed to prod right now.

Gabriel nodded his consent as he crawled into the backseat, forcing the wide wings in as grumbled a little curse, "oh my Dad." He knew for a fact the wing looked very impressive unfolded, especially when he had access to his full set. Now, they were a hassle that forced him to sit facing the window so he could store them behind his back on the two free seats. "Alright, so what do you guys listen to on car rides? Wait, let me guess - Backstreet Boys?"

[hunter_returns]

"I'm fine," the reply is automatic as his hand goes gingerly to his ribs. "Don't think one is broken so I'll survive once I get 'em taped up. If you can't heal, you can just do a nurse's impression and help."

Another laugh tapered off into a groan and Sam shoved the car into gear. "Ohgod you suck."

He hadn't even been listening to the radio, really. The entire drive to the hotel he'd been so focused on the spell, the sigils and the certainty that he could do it, Sam had forgotten to even turn it on.

After a moment of fumbling, he finds a decent classic rock station and lets the sounds of Clapton's guitar fill the Impala. "Better?"

[hesnoangel]

"We'll see in the motel how much I'm good for right now. If nothing else, I might be able to follow instructions and will a sexy nurse outfit into existence."

Grinning, Gabriel settled into the backseat, shifting into a position that was halfway comfortable. "And you brought me back. Bet you'll never regret that choice."

Tears in heaven. Of course. There was a god of irony somewhere out there, and he was an asshole. Actually, Gabriel was fairly sure he'd get along with him, but right now he would have strangled the guy. The angel fell into an uncharacertstic silence.

Would it be the same, if I saw you in heaven? Would I have to try and stab you again? How did they even get to this point, pulling knives on each other - they were brothers, damnit. At least the thought of his siblings kept him from fully realising the magnitude of his powerlessness. He'd always been a clever sort, he figured he'd think of something worthwhile to do until he could get his powers back, if there was a way.

[hunter_returns]

Ouch. Bad choice. Reaching out, Sam switched the radio off. The patter of rain on the roof of the car will have to do for background noise. "Jury's still out on that one I'm afraid." His voice might be strained, but he's clearly teasing right back. "And are you sure you've got the legs for one?"

Amicable back and forth in the car. Sam can't remember the last time he'd experienced this. Things with Dean had been tense and quiet for months now and he really didn't see a way back out of it again.

All of that could be shoved aside in favor of more pressing issues. He needed to take care of his ribs, get Gabriel sorted and figure out where they go from there. If he couldn't heal him, did that mean he didn't have any of his powers?

Sam pulled the car off the highway and headed towards the little motel he'd checked into earlier. Luckily, the room was towards the back of the place so no one would notice Gabriel's rather massive wings.

[hesnoangel]

Gabriel looked up in surprise when the music stopped. Perhaps Sam just didn't like schmaltzy ballads. Or perhaps he'd picked up on his discomfort, in which case... either his brothers had all done a complete one-eighty since he'd died, which was rather on the freaking impossible side of things, or Sam could look past his own opinion so far he realised the mass-murdering, human-trampling Godsquad might still matter to Gabriel. That would mean the man had an angelic sort of compassion not found in a single actual angel.

"What, just because my poor vessel here is not eight foot nine with legs like telephone poles, like you? They didn't make 'em like that back when I found him, around the time when Beowulf was still kicking around."

It was certainly nice to take his mind off things. As the car stopped, Gabriel got out and took care not to let his wings slide through the mud, instead keeping them spread; they reached much higher than his head at a slight angle, and with a grin he moved over to Sam, his right wing shielding the man from the downpour. "Angel wing, umbrella... it's all the same thing, really."

[hunter_returns]

It was what Sam did. He was the empathetic one, the one who talked to witnesses, who listened to people, who paid attention to the details Dean always dismissed as too 'chick flick'. Naturally Gabriel isn't going to want to hear a song about Heaven for one of about a thousand reasons.

Never mind that he wasn't too keen on Heaven himself.

Sam quirked a faint grin into the rear view mirror. "Nothing wrong with being on the short side of things." Teasing an archangel for having a short vessel. Yeah, he probably hit his head a little too hard in the hotel.

The last thing he expected was Gabriel to sweep a wing over their heads to shield them from the rain. A pleasant surprise, but a surprise all the same. And maybe his ribs hurt just a tiny bit less when Gabriel stepped in close, but he's not thinking about that. Nope. Nosir.

"Room 42 on the end there is us."