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]

Not good, yeah. Worse if they had to burn all the bones, but Gabriel wasn't sure about that one. Whichever way it was, the bones trapped in the car currently trying to run them off the road had priority, Gabriel had to agree there. Besides, this was a real learning experience. You didn't get so many of these anymore as a being older than the earth itself.

You also weren't often frightened. Gabriel might not die; but there were two humans in this care who he'd rather not see toasted via pissy ghost. Yeah, it didn't make that much of a difference when seen from a greater perspective, but he wasn't, he was with them in the car, awkwardly catching the woman that almost flew off the backseat as the demon car rammed them, trying to reach past the tangle of legs into the cleaning kit, trying to keep an eye on the demon and Sam... it wasn't a very high and mighty situation.

"Hate to break it to you, but I'm kind of a traditionalist when it comes to this. You know, cleansing fire and smiting, all that. I'm going to need you to run this past me," Gabriel said. Really, who learned how to make bombs when you could snap them out of thin air?

However, the woman had taken the flask and rag from his hand before he had finished. Gabriel's brows shot up.

"College," she said and had the good manners to blush in front of the angel as she began putting the makeshift bomb together. The car crashed into them again, harder this time. Gabriel extended his arm and caught the driver's seat with his elbow to catch both him and the woman in his iron grip. A low grunt escaped him as something cracked audibly; some bone shattered. Usually, it healed so fast he hardly noticed. Now, he found himself biting back some very choice curses. "Sam, you alive?!"

[hunter_returns]

Sam would answer, but keeping the car on the road was currently taking all of his concentration. There was noise and movement from the back seat; he was going to take that as a good sign for the moment. The demon car had rammed the back of the Impala hard enough to bounce his head off the glass and he swiped his hand across his forehead, trying to keep the blood out of his eyes.

At least Gabriel had healed his rib, or he'd be in far worse shape.

His hand closed around the homemade bomb and he thumbed the cigarette lighter. "Stay in the car!" he barked before swinging the Impala towards an old barn, parking it behind the structure.

Shotgun and freshly lit molotov in hand, Sam dove out of the car and readied himself for the wobbly, but determined car. The blow to his head hadn't been hard enough to screw up his aim and he felt a moment of grim satisfaction as the bottle exploded in the back seat and flames began to consume the inside of the car.

A flash of electricity threw him against the side of the old barn. This time he did see stars, but kept his hand on the shotgun.

[hesnoangel]

Gabriel didn't like Sam playing army of one, but leaving the woman alone was about the same as putting her on a silver platter with an apple in her mouth and some parsley on top. Besides that, his arm hung broken and useless to his side, wrist at a rather odd angle (and it hurt like a bitch, really, he got why humans could be so cranky sometimes), so who knew how much use he'd have been.

They couldn't see the fight, but heard the explosion and the telltale bristle of electricity. Gabriel felt his somach lurch slightly. What he didn't hear was a gunshot...

The ghost had cornered Sam. It was wailing now. However, as it started to smoulder, it did a sharp turn, passing the barn. "Mommy?!" It shouted; still searching even as its voice seemed to be wavering. The next flash of electricity was uncontrolled. One of the Impala's headlights exploded. Then, lighting up in a sudden flame like a phoenix (though hopefully not to rise again-again, Gabriel thought), the ghost burned.

The woman sank down next to him. It took him a moment to realise she had fallen unconscious. Carefully, he draped her figure over the backseat, waiting a long moment if it was really over before he got out to jog around the barn. "Sam? Tell me there's no fried sasquatch for dinner today."

[hunter_returns]

His ears were still ringing and he was pretty sure that he'd managed to screw up his shoulder when he landed. But otherwise, he was alive. The fire had done it's job and the vengeful spirit was at rest.

Which is good because he was in no shape to go gravedigging. Staggering to his feet, Sam froze when he saw the unnatural angle Gabriel's arm and wrist were sitting at. His injuries forgotten, he loped towards the archangel, brow furrowed in concern. "Jesus Gabriel, your arm.."

"Come on, it's over and that fire is going to draw attention pretty fast. We need to move."

Circling around the front of the Impala, Sam winced. Raising Gabriel didn't kill him. HUnting the ghost didn't kill him.

Dean, however, would. The car was a mess of dings and scrapes, a cracked windshield and a blown out headlight.

[hesnoangel]

"That?" He grinned. Hey, he wasn't going to whine in front of a human. Especially not in front of this one. "Just a flesh wound. It'll heal. Bad weeds grow tall, yadda yadda." With annoyance, he noted that he was short of breath from the pain raging through his arm and stretching out trendrils into chest and side. It wasn't like the cold fire of the angelblade, but it was still pretty damn uncomfortable. Perhaps getting his powers back was moving a little higher on his priority list right about now.

"So this is your day job, kiddo? I gotta say, it's not boring."

The wince he misread as a sign of pain. From the sound of it, Sam had taken a bit of a beating.

"I think you need Dr. Sexy again once we find a place that's not a ghostie killing ground." After checking on the unconscious woman and loping two seat belts around her body, he slid into the passenger's seat.

[hunter_returns]

"Just a flesh wound? Dude, your arm is a wreck. Heal yourself, I'm fine. I've had worse." Gabriel might be a nearly invulnerable archangel, but that didn't stop a spike of worry as they slid into the car.

"Yeah, this is what I do," he confirmed with a nod, grimacing at the sudden wave of pain. Nodding was off the list. Check. "Let's get her back to the motel. Then we'll take care of your arm." Sam rubbed his forehead. "Then Dean can murder me for what happened to the car."

He flashed him a wry grin. "Hope your batteries are recharged by then."

[hesnoangel]

"Don't play the hero with me or I'll read all your embarrassing wet dreams while I sift through your thick skull for your pain centre," Gabriel threatened. Now, the mind reading wasn't working much at all at the moment, but Sam looked like he'd competed in a hardcore wrestling match, half-dried blood that had gushed from his forehead covering his face, and you didn't need to read minds to understand that this must hurt.

"Not a bad show. I think I could get into this. Just need to work on my human weapon skills, or I'll get showed up by a twentysomething civilian again." Despite the edge of hurt to his voice, Gabriel sounded - felt - rather merry.

"So you should watch out. I'm gonna snatch all the best monsters away from you two knuckleheads. Provided you survive your brother's wrath." Smirking, he put his good hand against the window. "Maybe I'll try my hand at fixing the car. Think Deany would like some angel magic on his baby?"

[hunter_returns]

The levity in Gabriel's voice made the pain diminish and Sam can't help but crack a smile at him despite the throbbing in his head. "Shown up? Dude, you didn't get shown up. We did it together." Together. He really shouldn't have that ridiculous giddy feeling in his chest when Gabriel mentioned hunting. It was just adrenaline, right?

A pass of his sleeve helped to scrub at least some of the blood from his forehead. "Nothing bleeds like a head wound. Really, it's not as bad as it looks." He flashes him a half smile. "Trust me, been doing this since I was a kid, remember?"

"Dude. Only if you're sure you can fix it and not make it worse. If I'm lucky he'll only try and kick my ass over this."

[hesnoangel]

"I guess we made a good team, Brother Samuel," the angel joked and leaned forward, rapping his knuckles against the windshield. Like a video on reverse, the cracks in the glass retracted. Maybe he shouldn't waste his 'battery power' on this, but if Sam was already driving through a head injury, he should at least be able to see the road. Would be kind of a bad joke if they got iced in a car crash after surviving this.

"Alright, but the ghost of Pikachu here still got your pretty good and eff-why-eye, I'm literally older than dirt, so if I say it needs healing, then it does need healing."

The easy banter with Sam was a welcome, unexpected part of their new comradery. He'd always liked the two muttonheads, in a way, and this was surely nothing else (well, he'd mostly liked riling up Dean, but if the guy could get over that pesky murder-loop thing, then they did have the same sense of humor, as his trickster episode with them had shown Gabriel).

"I could try... of course, I don't have a lot of experience assembling cars, so if I accidentally build a few camouflage mousetraps into the trunk and a radio that plays nothing but Miley Cyrus, I really couldn't be blamed," he said with an innocent smile.

[hunter_returns]

"I wouldn't chance it Mr Older Than Dirt. Dean has access to holy oil and he wouldn't hesitate to use it if you did that to the radio," Sam answered wryly. "And I don't know if I can pull off raising you twice in the same week."

He glanced into the backseat. "Let's get her back to the motel, get her situated. Then we'll worry about things like healing, the car and where we're going from here."

Taking Gabriel hunting. He'd like that. Dean could have his.. whatever in the fuck it was with Benny. Sam could hunt with Gabriel. Maybe then they could stand to be around each other without everything spiraling into yet another argument.

[hesnoangel]

"I was just about to say your brother wouldn't deep-fry me in the chip pan over something petty like that, but then I remembered who your brother is," Gabriel said with that ususal impish smile of his, trying to rearrange his mangled arm that had slipped off his lap like a tacked-on appendage.

Gabriel hadn't really thought about going hunting with Sam, specifically - he'd always been on his own. But this wouldn't have been as... interesting if he'd just have to drag himself to some hotel to lick his own wounds. The bickering was nice and Sam, he wouldn't have minded staying with Sam for a bit longer. Gabriel was not the sort to deny himself.

The woman made a noise in the backseat. Gabriel turned just in time to see the blonde blink awake. "Is... Is it over?" She asked, staring at the two of them.

"He is gone," Gabriel said, voice switching immediately back to that solemn tone he'd used before.

She nodded her head once, her face softening with relief, sadness. After resting her head against the seat, she suddenly started up again.

"But I buried him in unblessed ground!"

Gabriel rolled his eyes profoundly as he looked forwards, searching for the road to the motel. Blessed ground. Yeah, he had messed with one too many debauched priest to take the church too serious. Consecrated ground existed, but it hardly mattered where you put the gift wrapping when the content, the soul, was long gone. "No place on God's earth is truly more blessed than another."

[hunter_returns]

"Are you kidding? He'd deep fry both of us in holy oil for scratching the car," he snorted.

Sam doesn't expect Gabriel to stick around, but he hopes that he will anyway. They're a good team, and the banter they've been firing back and forth has been relaxed and easy in a way Sam's almost forgotten. The eyeroll doesn't go unnoticed either and he had to bite his bottom lip to keep from chuckling.

"It's okay. As long as he's laid to rest. The parts that got left behind, that's what was causing the problem. It's all right. It's over. We're gonna get you back to the motel, get you situated okay?"

Then they can do things like take care of their own injuries and figure out what exactly comes next.

[hesnoangel]

"I... I see. I guess I'll call my husband. He can get me. And we're in no more danger?"

"No," Gabriel said, with a shake of his head, 'unless you have anymore child corpses buried anywhere', but he doesn't say that out loud.

"I wonder... why he would chase after me? I didn't know he was dead for a really long time and - he was my big brother. I thought he liked me," she said quietly. "I suppose we didn't know each other for too long, but I never forgot him. For fifteen years, when I thought he was kidnapped, I prayed every night that he would be returned to us."

"My child," Gabriel turned to her again, hesitating for a moment, "sometimes, when someone is locked away for such a very long time and their thoughts circle only around the hurt that has been done to them, they emerge as very different, very ugly people. But it doesn't mean your big brother didn't love you."

Oh, wow, great. Yeah, that had been a very heartfelt little consolation there and she gave him the thankful smile to match, but Gabriel had turned away, staring out of the window, not looking at her, especially not at Sam either.

"Look, we're almost there," he proclaimed, as the hotel parking lot came into view.

[hunter_returns]

Amateur hocus pocus, little brother.

His knuckles went white on the steering wheel as Sam resolutely stared out at the road. It doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out who he was talking about. When he'd been possessed and fighting for control, Sam had been forced to claw through Lucifer's consciousness and he'd heard that echo of sorrow when it came to his baby brother and how he'd met his end.

But his explanation to the woman is enough, enough to mollify her into checking in again and contacting her family. She begged Gabriel for a blessing before going back into her room and Sam fell back with a vaguely amused look.

So much for witness protection.

Back in the quiet of their shared room, Sam found a clean towel to mop the dirt, grit and blood from his forehead. "You're not hurt anywhere else, are you?"

[hesnoangel]

From the corner of his eyes, Garbiel could read Sam's suddenly rigid pose and chose not to comment. Gabriel wanted Sam to look at him and feel unburdened, he realised. He wouldn't get there if he revealed Lucifer had been his favourite brother. Sam would never know Lucifer like Gabriel had and it wasn't like that wasn't Lucy's very own fault.

Indeed, Sam should go his whole lifetime without knowing how much he'd learned from Lucifer. How, when Gabriel was still half-formed, he used to enjoy the full splendour of Lucifer's shining grace warming him. How much the look on his brother's face had disturbed Gabriel, when, brimming with excitement, he'd returned from his first time in a vessel among the humans. That, and a thousand other little shards, a collection of a memory older than the earth, that were all family matter. After all, what could he do for Sam but stirr up memories of a Lucifer probably so hungry for his pain and fear he might as well be a Leviathan?

After he'd touched the woman's forehead (he wasn't sure that was still how it was done, but hey, she wasn't gonna correct the archangel on his blessing manners, right?), Gabriel followed after Sam.

"Nothing but a few scratches." He rolled up the shirtsleeve, grimacing. "Since I know you won't shut up about it, I could use a hand setting my bones at the right place before I heal them, or my arm's gonna look funny."

[hunter_returns]

It’s not Gabriel’s fault. Lucifer was his brother and at one point, they’d been everything to each other. Shared laughter, shared light, they were closer than any other two beings in creation and it had to be harder on Gabriel because he’d witnessed his brother’s fall into rage and anger until the warmth of his grace twisted into something cold and empty, unable to heal, unable to build. But they were still brothers in the end. A brother that killed a brother.

“Can’t have your arm looking funny. Grab a seat. Am I going to need to split it, or can you heal it once it’s all lined up?”

Because grabbing and pulling a compound fracture back into alignment was one thing, keeping it from slipping was another matter and he didn’t want to do it to Gabriel a second time. Setting bones was excruciating, and even for a somewhat underpowered archangel, it had to be uncomfortable.

“I think we can use a couple of the stakes in the weapons bag if we need them.”