SPN: Into the Light: The Leader (3/4) [MA - NSFW]
Fandom:
Supernatural
Title:
Into the Light: The Leader
Part 3a:
Pestilence (part 1)
Author:
lt_indigo
Pairing(s):
Sam/Gabriel, Dean/Cas, Bobby/Karen
Warning(s):
Explicit sexual content. Canon-typical violence & gore.
Word count:
8,368 this part
Written for:
sabrielbigbang 2015-16
Back to Part 1
Back to Part 2
Read on AO3
It took them a couple of hours to round up all the bodies, including those of the zombies’ victims: twenty-three in total. Instead of Bobby’s scrapyard, they built the pyre in the graveyard. It seemed more fitting; it wasn’t like they were burning monsters this time. This time it was people; families, in the case of the Thompsons. And they didn’t really hide what they were doing: the people of Sioux Falls had been through something unbelievable over the last few days and coped well until things had gone wrong. Those that needed some closure came by and paid their respects.
Jody coped amazingly well, between checking that everyone was okay and faking death records for the newly deceased and fielding the occasional call from the press and creating a new identity for Karen and the whole supernatural thing in general. Sam thought that she was probably doing and thinking about everything else to avoid dealing with the empty house, but if it was working for her then it was working. It wasn’t like Sam hadn’t employed that exact same strategy himself when Jess had died. Sam wasn’t sure how well he would have handled things had he not gone on the road with Dean, had he had to go home to their apartment every night after classes, see the place where Jess had lived and laughed and died. He honestly wasn’t sure how Jody did it. Maybe it was crashing at Bobby and Karen’s kitchen table, her face in a lore book, every other night and just not facing the house, even though Gabriel had cleaned it up good and proper.
And as things began to return to normal for Sioux Falls, the angels started to resume their not-human things - Cas hunting down God, Gabriel doing who-knew-what - the hunters decided they needed to find Pestilence, sooner rather than later, before someone put the pieces together about the plan; in case God had told someone else about the key to the Cage and the angels tried to stop them. They hadn’t wanted to get Karen or Jody involved with them being so new to the idea of hunting, let alone the life itself, but as so often happens with these things, they eventually insinuated themselves into the search. And, given her history in law enforcement, it probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that it was Jody who managed to connect the dots and made the connection that probably should have been obvious to the rest of them.
“You boys are looking for a thing that causes sickness?” she demanded one evening, hands on her hips and scowling, still in full uniform from her shift at the station.
“Yeah?” Sam ventured, glancing at Dean and Bobby in confusion.
“You been hiding under a rock? Haven’t you heard of swine flu?”
“Yeah, but…”
“But nothing, Dean Winchester. ‘Pestilence’ means any disease, not just your Rage virus thing. CDC are investigating an outbreak in Ocotillo, in southern California right now, and - and here’s the omen-y part - there are reports of the statues in the town weeping.”
Jody suddenly had the full attention of all three men, and had gone from lecturing mom-mode to smug pretty darn quick. She pulled a bunch of papers from her jacket and tossed them onto Bobby’s desk. From where he was sat, Sam could see they were print-outs of articles from a local newspaper. Bobby looked them over and gave a nod that Sam knew was all good. He had hit Gabriel’s speed dial before things fully registered.
“Nice work,” Bobby said gruffly to Jody while Sam was telling Gabriel to get home, and he could hear Dean doing the same thing from the sofa. The angels appeared in a flurry of displaced air and rustling feathers, making Jody yelp and press her hand to her heart; Gabriel landed directly in Sam’s lap, ghostly wings draping lazily all over the place as they settled, and Cas was standing next to Dean a second or so later, with the phone still pressed to his ear.
“I swear you do that on purpose,” Jody scolded Gabriel in particular. “You’ll give me a heart attack.”
Gabriel gave her a smile that was oddly lacking in general mischief. “I’d fix you right back up again if I did. So, what’s the biz, kids?”
“Jody reckons she’s found Pestilence,” Dean said, stashing his phone back in his pocket, then reaching out and dragging Cas right into his personal space.
“Bunch of swine flu cases in southern California,” Jody told them, much more gently than she had originally reported. Maybe she just didn’t think the angels would have noticed something so innocuous as flu, so she was being nicer to them. Or maybe she just didn’t want to piss them off. “Couple that with some omens and it sounds a lot like your guy.”
Gabriel looked over at the articles on Bobby’s desk approvingly. “Surprisingly low key for Pestilence,” he said, “but looks promising.” He craned his neck to see the image attached to the statue report. “Heh, weeping angels. Don’t blink.”
Sam snorted, but he was the only one: everyone else looked blank, except Jody who had a very peculiar, frozen expression.
“Doctor Who? Anyone?”
“Nerds,” Dean said affectionately, rolling his eyes.
“Is that still on?” Karen asked from the kitchen door. “I used to like that.”
“Owen loved it,” Jody said quietly, looking at no-one. “I didn’t like him watching it, but Sean would sit and watch it with him all the time.”
It was the first time she had talked about her family since the day the zombies had turned.
“Tell me about him,” Karen said, grabbing Jody’s elbow and steering her gently into the kitchen. “I always wanted children myself, but Bobby didn’t think he would be a good father. What bullcrap that turned out to be; look at how great his boys turned out. But I got possessed before we properly talked and, well, you know what happened there.”
Bobby looked down at the papers, flushing. Sam prepared himself to have to stop Gabriel saying or doing something to make that embarrassing situation worse, but his gaze was oddly soft, thoughtful even, his feathers sleek, and Sam gave up even trying to anticipate Gabriel’s moods any more, because it seemed like he was losing that almost viciously jokey edge to his personality the longer he stuck around. Dean, for his part, was tapping furiously at the computer, eyes firmly on the screen. The back of his neck was flushed red, although whether because of the compliment or because of Karen’s easy acceptance of him as ‘Bobby’s son’, Sam couldn’t tell. Dean wasn’t good at dealing with any kind of praise about his character at all, and least of all from someone he deemed to be important to him in some way.
Cas, for his part, didn’t seem to understand what all the fuss was about and looked to Gabriel for guidance. After a moment, something seemed to dawn on him, and he turned his attention back to Dean. Instead of saying something direct, like he would usually do, he surprised Sam by leaning over Dean’s shoulder, one hand landing lightly on the opposite shoulder very naturally, to read the computer screen and ask softly:
“Is Jody correct? Has she located Pestilence?”
It was probably the single best thing he could have said, because it gave Dean and Bobby something tangible and useful to focus on; a distraction from something that Bobby definitely didn’t want airing in public, and Sam couldn’t really say that he blamed him for that. Although Sam did love the way that Karen’s easy chatter could relax a person almost immediately and get them to discuss things that needed to be discussed. Bobby had definitely picked a good one in her.
“But why go for swine flu when he’s got the Croatoan virus up his sleeve?” Dean was asking. “That just doesn’t make sense.”
“Who knows?” Gabriel said. “He could have gone for anything: Croatoan, Ebola, malaria, trypanosomiasis; literally anything.”
“War and Famine both started out in small areas to test out their capabilities,” Cas pointed out. “Perhaps this is Pestilence’s way of testing modern civilisation and its response to infection; something so innocuous we almost missed it.”
“And that’s why he’s the strategist and I’m not,” Gabriel said, looking so proud of his little brother. “CDC doing anything about it yet?”
Dean shrugged helplessly. “I need an interpreter for their website - it’s full of medical bullshit I haven’t heard in Doctor Sexy. Maybe one of you can take a look?”
Sam was so proud of Dean, actually asking for help for once. Brady had been pre-med back at Stanford, before he flaked and changed majors, but Sam hadn’t ever become fluent enough with the lingo that he could have helped Dean. They could handle emergency medicine and its terminology because of how much experience they had with it, but diseases and epidemiology? Nope.
“I’ll take a look,” Gabriel promised.
.oOo.
As it turned out, the look turned out to be after their meal. Jody seemed to be a little calmer after talking to Karen, but both women’s eyes were red-rimmed as if they had been crying. No-one commented on it, which seemed to be the best thing, because it seemed that a good cry, no matter how little, had been exactly what Jody had needed. She was a lot less tense as soon as she realised that none of the men were going to call her on her weakness, and her sense of humour started to creep out for the first time as the evening went on.
Gabriel looked over the CDC reports while Sam and Dean washed the dishes (because apparently using mojo all the time was an ‘abuse of power’, but creating candy bars out of thin air was just fine and dandy), and reported back that there wasn’t all that much going on - the cases weren’t that bad, and the people who were the most sick were getting the appropriate treatment. The CDC were ramping up the pressure on the pharmaceutical companies to get their vaccines tested, but that was about it.
“Hold on,” Dean piped up. “No-one’s dying?”
Gabriel shrugged, which was a really weird manoeuvre when the wings got involved too, because it wasn’t like Gabriel was just tugging strings to make his vessel move in a way that looked socially acceptable: his whole being was doing it. And it still looked like a shrug.
“Not a soul,” he confirmed. “Yet, anyway, but it’s only a matter of time. I’d still be dismissing it as a coincidence it if it wasn’t for the weeping statues - nice catch, Jody.”
She nodded once in thanks.
“But you do believe that this is Pestilence’s handiwork?” Cas asked.
Gabriel shrugged again. “Probably. It’s worth a look.”
“Any idea where he’ll hit next?” Bobby asked, earning himself a disapproving glare from Karen. “What? I meant for them - I’m too old to be chasing after Horsemen.”
Gabriel gestured grandly around the room. “And this is where I yield the floor to the strategists and analysts. Grab a map, boys.”
Dean turned to dig out the appropriate map from Bobby’s huge stash, and Sam immediately set about clearing the desk so they could spread it out. After a moment, Cas joined him, lifting stacks of four or five books with ease.
Once they were ready, Gabriel read out the list of towns that had been struck, in order. Dean dutifully located and marked them on the map.
“Gabriel? You sure that’s the right order?” Sam asked, frowning at the plot.
“Yep. Why?”
“Come and see for yourself,” Cas said. “This makes no logical sense, if indeed Pestilence himself is the cause.”
“It looks natural,” Karen said softly, uncertainly, as Cas traced the route for Gabriel, showing it zig-zagging back and forth, crossing itself more than once. “Like people moving from town to town, not like someone doing it deliberately.”
“That’s what I’d do, if I wanted to stay below the radar,” Jody piped up. “I mean, why be obvious and draw attention to yourself if you’re the last Horseman standing?”
“Doesn’t help us, though,” Dean growled, staring at the points he had plotted. “Where the hell do we look for him?”
“Me and Cas can do that,” Gabriel pointed out, flexing his wings subtly. Sam would have thought he was showing off his strength, except that Dean couldn’t see them - only him and Cas. “We can check it out tonight. Should be easy enough to cover California in eight hours.”
Jody and Karen both looked shocked by that, and Sam supposed they just weren’t used to being around the angels yet. Or maybe the rest of them were becoming desensitised to the awe that Cas and Gabriel should inspire in them. It should be impressive that two individuals could search such a huge area in such a short time, but Sam had seen Gabriel in particular do much more extraordinary things.
But Cas looked a little uncertain, and Sam was confused: maybe Cas was worried that his failure to find God meant he just wasn’t good at finding things? Who knew. But Gabriel stretched out a wing and draped it casually over Cas’ shoulders, kind of the same way Dean used to drape an arm over Cas’ shoulders, back when he was pretending they were just friends. It was about reassurance, and Cas gave Gabriel a little smile.
Jody got a call not long afterwards, and left them with dire warnings to call her and let her know what was going on. And, for some reason, after she left, Karen broke out an ancient Monopoly board, one that hadn’t been used since he and Dean were little kids (at least, Sam didn’t think so, and the sheer amount of dust Karen brushed from the box supported that). Dean rolled his eyes, but remained mercifully silent; Gabriel rubbed his hands together gleefully, which would have been terrifying if not for his covert feathers fluffing up; Bobby simply got up to grab some beers from the fridge.
As the board was set up at the kitchen table, Sam took the time to explain the objective, and the rules to Cas, which then of course led to an argument between Dean and Gabriel about deviations from the standard rules. Bobby put a stop to that by pointing out that he had taught the boys to play, using the rules Karen had taught him, and he was pretty sure that someone as clever as an archangel could keep up because they weren’t that hard: Free Parking pot applies, as does the actual Free Parking rule; and no damn annoying auctions.
Which then required Karen to explain to Cas that the ‘rules’ of Monopoly varied from home to home, because very few people actually played to the exact letter of the standard rules; a situation that was not only approved of but actively encouraged by the manufacturers. Cas, who had followed the rules his entire life until now, didn’t look as if he should find it encouraging or disturbing that humans could so easily disregard the rules (and that they seemed determined to drag him down with them in their sinful shame).
“Ain’t free will wonderful?” Gabriel observed eventually, with a flourish of his hands as he plunked himself gracelessly down on a chair.
.oOo.
The game took an hour and a half before Cas was declared the winner. Dean grumbled good-naturedly about beginner’s luck and Cas tried to point out that he had made strategic errors that had lost him Park Place early on, and had allowed Cas to capitalise on his misfortune. Karen had come second, mostly due to a windfall at Free Parking just when she needed it, but she was a shrewd player too and didn’t gamble too much of her money away on property early on.
Karen dragged Bobby away at the first yawn, pausing at the door only to make sure that the game went away properly, because she didn’t want to find little green houses all over the kitchen come morning. Gabriel did it with a snap of his fingers as soon as she turned her back on them again, and turned to Sam.
“Fancy hitting the hay before me and Cas head off to California?”
“Fuck’s sake, Gabriel - could you be more subtle?” Dean asked with a groan.
“You mean like Karen was?” Gabriel retorted wickedly. Which had Sam’s libido take a total nose-dive, because as much as he loved Karen, and how happy Bobby had been the last few days, that was something he didn’t need to hear. He should be happy for Bobby, but… Sam imagined it was the same as the idea of your parents having sex.
“Thanks for that.”
“Any time, Deano. Come on, Sammy.”
Sam let Gabriel lead him downstairs and through their apartment door, mostly because he wanted to spend some time with Gabriel even if it wasn’t time spent having sex. He loved feeling those phantom wings around him as Gabriel either held him or snuggled into his side, and he wanted to make the most of it while he could still see and feel them.
As things turned out, Gabriel was still feeling decidedly amorous, and kissed and petted Sam’s body until he relaxed and began to respond. Sam was too relaxed, too heavy-limbed and heavy-eyed, to do anything other than enjoy Gabriel’s attention, to watch Gabriel’s hazy golden feathers stroke their tingling, ghostly paths over his arms and torso as Gabriel’s mouth slowly and skilfully eased him over the edge, then cradled him until he fell asleep.
.oOo.
“Hello, Sam.”
Sam froze. He knew that voice.
“Long time, no see.”
It had been a while, and Sam had been grateful for every night he had slept soundly, not hearing that voice. He could happily not hear that voice again for the rest of eternity; the one that had chills running up and down his spine and sound so friendly at the same time.
“How did you manage to hide from me, Sam?”
Sam could guess, actually, now he thought about it, but there was no way he was giving that away.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter now,” Lucifer purred. “You slipped up with your warding tonight and we’re finally together again.”
They were in a non-descript den, and Lucifer was leaning casually against the back of the couch. He spread his arms in a gesture of friendship. Sam didn’t move from his spot near the door. Maybe if he didn’t react at all, Lucifer might get bored and leave.
“Come on, Sam, why are you being so difficult? Is it about your friend Bobby? I’m sorry about that ugly business with the dead rising: it’s foretold, you know. There are certain things that have to be done.”
He didn’t look ashamed as such, but he did at least give some appearance of remorse. Not that Sam believed it for a second. But that also meant that Lucifer didn’t know about Karen, and probably not about Gabriel either. Maybe they were ahead of the game after all?
“Come on, Sam, say something. Tell me where you are, and I’ll make this apocalypse business nice and quick for everyone. It doesn’t have to drag out, you know: timeframes can be moved up. I don’t want to delay any more than I have to.”
“I’m never going to say it,” Sam snapped. “You’ll never get what you want from me.”
Lucifer sighed and gave Sam a pitying look. “Oh, you will. I know you don’t believe it now, but it will happen. There are millennia-worth of prophecies that say you will, and I know you better than you know yourself.”
“You don’t know anything about me!”
Lucifer just shook his head, with a condescending little smile. “One day, you will stop believing these lies you tell yourself.”
Sam reached behind him for the door handle. It turned easily in his hand, and he sat up, gasping for breath in the darkened room he normally shared with Gabriel. He groped out towards the nightstand and found the glass of water Gabriel always left there for him if he forgot himself (i.e. if Gabriel had distracted him too much for him to get it himself). Trembling, he took a long drink, swallowing down the residual fear.
As he expected, he was alone. Gabriel had gone out with Cas to see if they could find Pestilence all the way down in California. It wasn’t any spell or wards, as Lucifer had assumed, that had been keeping Sam’s dreams safe; it had been Gabriel, and now he was so far away. It wasn’t the first time that Gabriel had left Sam alone during the night, not by a long stretch of the imagination, but Gabriel had been looking strained for a while now; to the point that he hadn’t even been reading Sam’s mind for ages, and he used to say that was something he couldn’t help doing. Had keeping Lucifer out taken that much of a toll on Gabriel? And was the distance really a factor, or was it something else? Something awful?
He fumbled for his phone and hit Gabriel’s speed dial. It rang a couple of times before the line clicked on.
“Sambo? Everything okay?”
Sam gave a sigh of relief and ran a hand through his limp hair. “Fine.” His voice sounded shaky, even to him, so he amended it to: “Now, anyway.”
“What happened, kiddo? I left you dead to the world. Not that that means too much these days.”
“Lucifer,” Sam said. “He’s taken up dreamwalking again.”
“Aw, crap.”
“He said something had been keeping me hidden,” Sam said, needing to explain why he was ringing Gabriel, not wanting to seem like he couldn’t handle one little visit from Lucifer. “He thought it was warding, but I figured it was you and… I thought maybe… maybe something had happened to you.”
“Nah, I’m okay,” Gabriel assured him, his voice all soft round the edges. “Just spreading myself a bit thin, that’s all. Pestilence is one slippery SOB, and I was focussing too much on him. I kind of thought the whole pocket dimension thing would keep him out, especially with it being hidden by all those wards at Bobby’s place.” He sighed. “Maybe some warding would help. Me and Cas’ll put our heads together and see if we can work something out.”
“Yeah. Thanks. But… I’m glad you’re okay.”
“You want me to come back?”
Sam wanted to say yes, he really did, but Gabriel was doing something important down in California, and Lucifer had never visited more than once in a night before anyway.
“No. You and Cas do your thing. We’ll catch up tomorrow.”
“You sure, Sammy? I know my brother - he’s not much fun to be around.”
Sam dropped his head onto his knees. “Yeah, I’m sure. You be all important. I’ll see you in the morning, right?”
“You want me to wake you up the same way I sent you to sleep?”
A huff of laughter escaped him. “Not gonna complain if you do.”
“Excellent. I’ll be there in a few hours, cupcake, and make it a really good morning for you.”
“Promises promises,” Sam teased, as if Gabriel never delivered on his promises.
“Scout’s honour,” Gabriel shot back, and Sam could hear the smile in his voice. At least this kind of interaction was normal for them, a more even footing than panicked phone calls at two a.m.
“Like you were ever a Scout. Now stop procrastinating and get back to work.”
“Aye sir!”
Sam laughed and hit the ‘end call’ button. There was something about Gabriel that always seemed to put him at ease, and he had absolutely no idea what it was. It defied all logic, because really he should be on edge all the time around someone who had spent almost a year torturing him in that pocket universe back in Florida, but Sam understood Gabriel a lot better now he knew about his background; understood the choices he had made, and why he had done what he did to Sam two years ago.
He puttered about the apartment’s kitchen for a little while and made himself a cup of chamomile tea. The familiarity of the brewing process calmed him almost as much as the tea itself, and between that and the phone call, Sam soon found himself sleepy again and ready to try sleeping.
Back in the bedroom, his hand found the golden feather Gabriel had left on his pillow, as he did every time he left - almost entirely without fail - and clutched it tightly. It, like the others, smelled the way Gabriel smelled; kind of sweet, but mostly like a pine forest; all rich and fresh and clean and Christmassy. Just inhaling that scent was enough to push any lingering doubts about Lucifer to the back of his mind and allow him to relax into sleep once again. And this time, it was dreamless.
.oOo.
Gabriel woke Sam bright and far too early in the morning, but exactly as he had promised. He draped himself over Sam’s chest, tracing lazy patterns with his fingers as they basked in the afterglow. It wasn’t until Gabriel started nudging him to move his lazy ass or miss out on the breakfast that Gabriel was making that Sam remembered why he had woken up alone in the middle of the night (or, honestly, that he had even woken up at all).
“How did it go with Pestilence?”
Gabriel rolled over, sliding down onto the bed with a sigh. “Not great. We can’t get a handle on him. His movements are too erratic, and it wouldn’t be difficult for him to keep a lid on his power if he wanted to stay low key. Cas thinks we could do with a bit of good old human intuition to help us catch him.”
Sam could feel the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You mean, you need our help?”
“Yes,” Gabriel growled, like it pained him to admit it. “We’re… not all that good at thinking outside the box.”
Sam planted a kiss on the crease between his eyebrows. “I know. World Weekly News. Plus, I met Uriel.”
Gabriel snorted, the frown softening. “Yeah, he was never one for breaking moulds. Breaking everything else, yes, but jeez, if ever you wanted an example of angel programming at its worst, he’s probably the best one. What happened to him?”
“Cas found out he was pro-apocalypse,” Sam said. “We thought he was an anomaly at first, but it became pretty obvious after, well, you know, that he knew the party line. He was killing angels who didn’t agree. I think Anna killed him in the end to protect Cas.”
Gabriel went quiet and still, his eyes blank and staring and his wings drooped alarmingly. Sam gathered him up into his arms and wrapped his long body around Gabriel’s, not knowing what else to do. If nothing else, it wasn’t as if Gabriel couldn’t break free if the contact wasn’t appreciated.
“I hate this,” Gabriel said eventually. “I hate that my brothers are killing each other. I hate that they are choosing this just because our Father said it’s what should happen.”
“I know,” Sam said, stroking his fingers through Gabriel’s hair. “I can’t imagine.”
“Yeah, I think of all people, you can. I set it up so you killed Dean at least three times. And the first time, you didn’t even know about the Groundhog Day thing.”
Any other time, Sam would probably be angry at Gabriel for bringing it up, but he sounded so sad and desperate that he couldn’t possibly be mad.
“And you’re stuck in the middle of all this, with outside-the-box Luci taking strolls through your sub-conscious.”
Sam pressed a kiss to the top of his golden head. “I’ll deal. We’ll deal. We’ll get Pestilence, and trap Lucifer and your brothers can go back to hating humanity in peace.”
“It’s not going to be that easy.”
“Pretend. For me.”
There was a groan. “Fine: Luci will step willingly back into his prison cell, because he’s not a complete dickbag after all, and Michael definitely won’t be pissed that we’ve put a stop to it all and just leave us alone instead of exacting revenge. We’ll have it done by tomorrow afternoon and it’ll be sunshine and daisies forevermore afterwards.”
Sam grinned despite himself. “That’s better. Come on now, you promised breakfast. You wanted to give Karen a break, remember?”
.oOo.
It wasn’t that simple, not least because Dean insisted on driving to California, because that was how they normally did things, and he wasn’t feeling this flying thing and he just wanted this to be something they did under their own steam for once. But Southern California was a whole day’s drive away, not counting stops for food and refuelling, which probably meant both the drive and their search for Pestilence was going to be fuelled by caffeine. Sam sometimes thought it was a miracle he had survived his teenage years, given how early in life he had discovered the ‘triple red eye’.
After Gabriel’s epic breakfast, with waffles and bacon and even a fruit salad, yoghurt and granola all appearing on the menu and the cooked items all being actually cooked in front of Sam’s disbelieving eyes, they loaded up the car, kissed Karen goodbye, and promised to meet the angels at the other end.
As they were pulling away, Sam saw Gabriel whisper something in Karen’s ear. He would have to remember to ask when he saw Gabriel later on what it was. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Gabriel as such, nor Karen’s common sense, but if Gabriel was planning something, he might not necessarily have thought the consequences through, and Karen could still be a little star-struck occasionally, the way people probably should be by Gabriel.
Maybe he was imagining it, he considered as Dean turned onto the road and they set out on their long, arduous journey. Maybe Gabriel was just being properly grateful that Karen had cooked for them, provided for them, for over a week without any complaint whatsoever. Maybe it had been a kiss on the cheek before taking off himself.
Sam took some time to read the standard English synopsis of the CDC’s information that Gabriel had produced at some point when Sam wasn’t looking. There was a lot of it, but real hard, helpful facts were pretty sparse: reports of the epidemiology that still made little sense to Sam; analyses of the viral strain showing it to be fairly mild as swine flu went; a greater push for vaccine from companies like Pfizer and Niveus. There were no real indications of where Pestilence would go next. Maybe he wouldn’t even stick in the same area - make it look like someone carried the virus onto a plane or something. That could incite panic, which Pestilence might see as being interesting, either just because War and Famine had enjoyed the mayhem they caused, or because of how the virus would either spread or be hindered by whatever form the panic took. That sounded like something a being like Pestilence might get his jollies off to.
Wading through it all killed a couple of hours’ driving time, by which point Dean was pulling over in a Gas n Sip in Atkinson, Nebraska, for coffee and provisions, because Karen meant well with her carefully wrapped pies and healthy snacks, but Dean wasn’t touching the granola bars and pie wasn’t easy to eat while driving, and he needed some junk food, dammit.
On the next leg, Sam puzzled over Pestilence’s movements, faithfully transcribed onto a more portable map by Bobby earlier that morning. He thought that maybe looking at it anew, with fresh, rested eyes might yield something, some little scrap of a clue that might help them out, but nothing leapt out at him. If he really stretched, the last four towns - Borrego Springs, El Centro, Desert Shores and Ocotillo - made up four points of a pentagram, but… no, actually, that was too much of a coincidence not to flag up as important, even if none of the other towns fit any kind of pattern anyone, including the angels, could see.
He tapped at the map a couple of times, considering, before pulling out his phone and hitting Gabriel’s speed dial.
“Well howdy, sugar buns,” Gabriel greeted him cheerfully. “You fed up with Deano already? Want me to come and rescue you from two days of ‘the open road’?”
“It’s been useful, actually,” Sam said. “Call it a hunch, but you and Cas might want to check out Niland, at the south-east end of the Salton Sea.”
Dean was staring at him, and Sam knew that an explanation would be demanded the instant he was off the phone, but as far as Sam was concerned, it would have to wait until they stopped to eat.
“Okay,” Gabriel said readily, “we’ll swing by, take a look. You sure you don’t want me to swing by and abduct you first?”
Sam gave a soft snort of laughter. “Yeah, I’m good here right now.”
“You’re better at FBI than Cas,” Gabriel grumbled. “He’s too weird.”
“CDC might be a better cover,” Sam said with a grin. “He’s probably not too weird for them. They’re all research doctors.”
Gabriel chortled. “Point. I’ll let you know…”
The line dropped out. God, the mid-west sucked for cell reception. He put the phone back into his pocket and prayed quickly, telling Gabriel to text him if they turned up anything in Niland. Then he had to face the questioning ire of Dean.
“Might not be anything,” he said without needing to be asked. Dean’s eyes were doing plenty of demanding without needing anything vocalised . “I’ll show you later.”
Dean shrugged, which was as close to acceptance as Sam was going to get right now. It wasn’t dropped, but Dean was willing to wait. He normally was, because he wasn’t an idiot and he knew some things needed showing instead of telling, and his eyes needed to be on the road right now. Also, they were so far away from California that Dean being in the dark for a couple of hours wasn’t going to make a difference to any immediate plans.
.oOo.
They broke for at lunch in a little diner North Platte, Nebraska and over a frankly excellent chicken salad Sam showed Dean the potential pattern he had spotted. Dean agreed that checking out Niland seemed like a good idea, but he also agreed that it seemed very suspect that only the last four town hit formed any kind of recognisable pattern. Sam mused that maybe the original patterns had been something Enochian that they couldn’t see, but Dean pointed out that Cas would have probably seen that straight off.
“Is it me,” Dean said slowly, after staring at the map again, “or does it seem like Pestilence is doing this pattern thing right now to mess with us? All those towns have been hit since you ganked Famine.”
Sam nodded: the same thought had occurred to him about a hundred miles back.
“Have you just sent Cas and Gabriel into a trap?”
Sam scowled. “Probably. I sent Gabriel a text to warn him a while back. I got this back.”
He pulled up their text conversation and passed the phone over to Dean.
Be careful - it’s probably a trap.
Lol, of course it is. But I think I’ve set enough of those up to recognise one by now.
Surprised you recognised it ;)
…funny guy.
You love it.
Seriously, be careful.
Yes, Mom
Dean scowled at the screen, and Sam knew exactly what the issue was there: they tended to try and ignore their more fractious history with Gabriel in favour of the camaraderie they had now, and there Gabriel was, rubbing it in. He clicked a few keys quickly and hit send before passing the phone back to Sam, with a new message reading:
Springfield, dude
Sam shook his head and put the phone on the table. He speared the last few leaves on his plate, chewed, and washed them down with the last of the coffee. Dean also finished off his last few fries, and turned his attention to folding up the map. By the time they were done, there was a reply from Gabriel:
:D Tell Deano he’s trailing by 2 points there. But if he wants to see the girls again, all he needs to do is ask.
Sam decided not to share that one, mostly because Dean would mutter under his breath for the next fifty miles, sulk for another fifty, then blare Led Zep at full volume until Sam’s ears bled, and he would prefer to be sane by the end of the trip, thank you. He tucked the phone away and pulled some cash out of his wallet. Ever since Gabriel had come onto the scene, they had been inexplicably better off than they should be so Sam could afford to leave their lovely waitress a generous tip before they headed back to the road.
Sam took over the driving for the next leg and Dean climbed into the back seat, clearly intending to nap. This was a great tactic for when they had large distances to travel, so they could rest up and trade driving shifts whenever they needed to, but it wasn’t the best bed in the world for anyone over about three feet tall, let alone grown men north of six foot. Nevertheless, Dean balled a blanket under his head, draped his jacket over his eyes to block out the light and settled in. Within half an hour of getting back onto the I-80, Sam could hear soft snoring that indicated Dean was asleep.
Grabbing sleep whenever and wherever one could was apparently a Marine trick that their dad had managed to pass on to them. Either that or they had just picked it up out of necessity, because their lifestyle demanded it of them. Sam couldn’t do it as well as Dean - now even less so because of the ever-present threat of having his sleep invaded by the devil - but he managed okay. It looked like today was one of those days where he would have to manage, because Dean never went for a nap if he wasn’t planning on driving through. It kind of made sense because the sooner they got Pestilence, the sooner the whole Apocalypse thing would be over and done with, and they could get back to hunting normal things like vampires and werewolves. Sam never thought he would see the day where he considered them boring, but compared to angels and demons they were pretty small fry. And it would be bliss to deal with them instead of the complex crap they were up to their eyeballs in right now.
The car ate up the miles, the landscapes starting to blur together as he switched onto the I-76, following the road signs for Denver. One good thing about the way they travelled was they had a pretty good idea of where they were anywhere in the country, and an idea of which direction to head in to get to where they were going. Both of them were perfectly capable of driving for long stretches without needing to consult the map, or cajole shotgun into navigating. That only came in when they were almost at their destination and a ‘general direction’ was no longer good enough.
By the time they stopped to eat again, Dean had woken up, broken his ‘driver picks the music’ rule twice, tried to go over the CDC stuff (Sam watched in the mirror as Dean’s eyes glazed over and he dropped off again), grumbled about the Denver traffic even though he wasn’t driving, and mocked Sam for filling up Karen’s thermos with coffee during a brief stop (not that he was fooling Sam - he was grateful and drank the coffee appreciatively).
This time, there was little talking; they ate a mediocre meal of meatloaf and potatoes and Sam used the WiFi to check up and see if there were any fresh news stories from South California about swine flu. As it turned out, there weren’t. Dean rang Cas for an update, of which there wasn’t really one - they had searched Niland as thoroughly as they dared without drawing any attention to themselves from any other supernatural beings, and found nothing.
“But there were days between the others,” Dean pointed out. Apparently Cas agreed with him, because they said they would keep looking, and would meet them there the following day.
After a huge slice of cherry pie that Dean thoroughly enjoyed, Sam settled himself back into the passenger seat, glad he wasn’t the one driving directly into the sunset. His mind drifted as the I-70 made its way through the mountains and he found himself, as he often did these days, thinking of Gabriel. This was the first time they had really been apart for more than a few hours in weeks: Sam had thought at first it would be nice to a bit of time where it was just him and Dean and the road - and it was - but he found he was missing Gabriel more than he thought he would.
His thoughts must have drifted over into prayer territory because he was snapped suddenly to awareness by his phone, a message from Gabriel.
I miss you too, you big sap.
He smiled as he read it. There had been a time, not all that long ago, where their text conversations would have looked one-sided to anyone who snooped, because Sam’s half was done entirely by prayer; back when their relationship was just figuring itself out, when Gabriel had taken off to give Sam space and make sure he really wanted it - whatever ‘it’ was, because they still hadn’t really defined ‘it’ - and wasn’t being influenced by any angel mojo. But those conversations had tended to be teasing, or even outright sexual, and Sam didn’t want to risk that with Dean sat beside him in the car.
Sam let the car lull him to sleep somewhere around the Utah border, and he found himself suddenly being hugged by an amorous archangel, glorious golden wings folding around him just as tightly as the arms.
“Why didn’t you say where you’ve stopped?” he demanded, his face smooshed into Sam’s chest. “We would have flown to meet you.”
“We… uh…”
Gabriel went all stiff in his arms, the wings snapping back to their normal position. Sam was the most disappointed about that, because he loved being enveloped by Gabriel’s wings and they were more tangible in a dreamwalk than in the real world.
“Do not tell me you’re not stopping.”
“Um.”
“Fuck that!” Gabriel declared. “Sleep is good for you. Horizontal sleep in a proper bed, not scrunched up in that car. Wake up and tell me where you are.”
Sam hated the startling awakening that always seemed to happen after a dreamwalk - unlike most dreams, it was particularly jarring and probably because it was real. Dean gave him a wary look, but before anything could be said, they passed a sign saying they were just entering Green River. Sam quickly prayed to Gabriel and they had a pair of angels in the back seat before Dean knew what was going on. He gave a particularly unmanly yelp and glared at the rear view.
“Warn a guy,” he snapped.
“Sam knew,” Cas pointed out. Because it was clearly Sam’s fault for not warning Dean and not the angels’ for arriving before he had a chance to say anything.
“Find a motel,” Gabriel said firmly. “No way are you two driving through the night.”
“What the…? Why the hell not?”
“Your body requires sleep, Dean,” Cas said bluntly. “And, moreover, I intend to fuck you tonight.”
Dean choked and turned red. Sam grinned openly: Cas was wonderful for his brother, mostly because he was so upfront about what he expected from their relationship. Turning to the angels, Sam found that Gabriel was grinning too, his phantom wings fluffed up in amusement, and Cas had some expression that Sam thought might be mischievous. Maybe Cas wasn’t above bribing Dean to make him do things that were good for him, and that was even better, in Sam’s opinion. Dean did very little to look after himself, including driving through the night, and he would have been complaining about this development had Cas not said exactly what he had just said. This time, though, Dean turned the car into the first motel he saw without complaint and they quickly grabbed their gear and got themselves two rooms for the night.
.oOo.
Sam pushed Gabriel’s jacket from his shoulders, dropping it to the floor.
“So, that kind of night, huh?” Gabriel chuckled. “I’m game.”
“Shut up,” Sam growled. He pulled Gabriel close and kissed him, hard and bruising and relentless. Being cooped up in the car all day was frustrating, and he had a lot of pent-up energy, especially after thinking about the naughty prayers he used to send to Gabriel.
Gabriel just melted into him, yielding to the kiss with a tiny sigh, as if he had been looking forward to this all day. Maybe he had. Maybe this was exactly what they needed right now. It was definitely what Sam needed: closeness to Gabriel was exactly what he wanted right now. That feeling when Gabriel’s glow reached out to him just seemed to touch something inside him and make him feel just so safe and loved.
He lifted Gabriel easily, legs wrapping around his hips, and carried him over to the bed. He had this whole plan of just laying Gabriel down, all smooth and sexy, but he stumbled over the curled-up edge of the rug, putting him off balance, and Gabriel was heavier than Ruby was, and the devious little shit didn’t let go of Sam’s neck and pulled him right down onto the bed. They landed heavily, all the cool gone and with Gabriel cackling madly underneath him. Sam bristled with indignation briefly, but Gabriel’s cheer was infectious and it only took a second or so for his head to drop onto Gabriel’s shoulder with a huff of laughter.
“Ass.”
“Always,” Gabriel pressed a kiss to the corner of his jaw, and Sam felt the wings come up and over him, and suddenly he was torn between just lying there, all secure in his phantom feathery cocoon, and the hopeful chubbiness of his dick that was trapped against Gabriel’s equally promising groin. Gabriel kind of made his mind up for Sam when he rocked his hips up, pressing deliciously along the line of Sam’s cock, and drawing a groan from him. The next time, Sam moved with him, and the next, and the next; rutting together like horny teenagers. But that wasn’t what Sam wanted, just chasing the orgasm for the sake of it; that wasn’t the point of this. He slid his hands under Gabriel’s shirt, finally touching warm, delicious skin. A moment later, they were both naked and Sam’s cock was sliding up against Gabriel’s, skin on hot skin, leaving Sam gasping at the sudden change in sensation.
“Lube,” he said breathlessly, and the bottle appeared in Gabriel’s hand. Sam took it, slicked up his fingers and reached back, sliding them in and stretching himself as quickly as he dared. Gabriel’s eyes went wide and dark when he realised what Sam was doing.
“Oh, Sammy,” he breathed. “You have no idea how glorious you look right now.”
“I’ll look even better in a minute,” Sam panted as he shuffled himself up the bed, so that he was crouched over Gabriel’s waist, and grabbed the lube again. He slathered his hand and grabbed Gabriel’s dick, spreading the slippery stuff all over and pulling a strangled moan from Gabriel. He held Gabriel’s cock steady as he positioned himself over it and slowly sank onto it. His hasty prep had not quite been enough, and it burned as he took Gabriel inside him. As much as Sam would normally like that, he was going to need to be able to sit for hours at a time tomorrow so he started off slow, giving his body a chance to adjust rather than setting off at full tilt.
“Yeah,” Gabriel said, his voice rough and cracking as Sam worked a few different angles to try and find that perfect one to nail his prostate. “Yeah, that does look amazing. Look at you, all gorgeous and flushed and messed up for me, riding me like a pro. Gotta say, I like this side of you.”
Sam gave a sharp intake of breath in response as he found his perfect position, and his cock dribbled a spurt of precome onto Gabriel’s belly. He rested a hand on Gabriel’s leg to maintain his position and picked up the pace. He could feel his own precome splattering both him and Gabriel as he bounced. Gabriel’s hands came up to rest on his butt at about the same time as he started to glow; that gorgeous pure white luminescence just starting to flow over his skin like a shimmering mist. The tingling of grace across his own skin, wherever he touched Gabriel, was a sensation his body still didn’t know quite what to do with. Sam could feel his breath starting to come in pants as he spiralled towards completion, could feel Gabriel begin to thrust upwards to meet him as his legs tired of keeping up the punishing rhythm.
Sam shuddered as orgasm washed over him, come spurting in stripes, seemingly everywhere, from his bouncing cock. Gabriel flipped him onto his back effortlessly and continued the assault on his prostate, and Sam wasn’t sure if the white at the edges of his vision was a pleasure overload, or if it was Gabriel’s grace extending out as hot come filled him.
On to Part 3b
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It took them a couple of hours to round up all the bodies, including those of the zombies’ victims: twenty-three in total. Instead of Bobby’s scrapyard, they built the pyre in the graveyard. It seemed more fitting; it wasn’t like they were burning monsters this time. This time it was people; families, in the case of the Thompsons. And they didn’t really hide what they were doing: the people of Sioux Falls had been through something unbelievable over the last few days and coped well until things had gone wrong. Those that needed some closure came by and paid their respects.
Jody coped amazingly well, between checking that everyone was okay and faking death records for the newly deceased and fielding the occasional call from the press and creating a new identity for Karen and the whole supernatural thing in general. Sam thought that she was probably doing and thinking about everything else to avoid dealing with the empty house, but if it was working for her then it was working. It wasn’t like Sam hadn’t employed that exact same strategy himself when Jess had died. Sam wasn’t sure how well he would have handled things had he not gone on the road with Dean, had he had to go home to their apartment every night after classes, see the place where Jess had lived and laughed and died. He honestly wasn’t sure how Jody did it. Maybe it was crashing at Bobby and Karen’s kitchen table, her face in a lore book, every other night and just not facing the house, even though Gabriel had cleaned it up good and proper.
And as things began to return to normal for Sioux Falls, the angels started to resume their not-human things - Cas hunting down God, Gabriel doing who-knew-what - the hunters decided they needed to find Pestilence, sooner rather than later, before someone put the pieces together about the plan; in case God had told someone else about the key to the Cage and the angels tried to stop them. They hadn’t wanted to get Karen or Jody involved with them being so new to the idea of hunting, let alone the life itself, but as so often happens with these things, they eventually insinuated themselves into the search. And, given her history in law enforcement, it probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that it was Jody who managed to connect the dots and made the connection that probably should have been obvious to the rest of them.
“You boys are looking for a thing that causes sickness?” she demanded one evening, hands on her hips and scowling, still in full uniform from her shift at the station.
“Yeah?” Sam ventured, glancing at Dean and Bobby in confusion.
“You been hiding under a rock? Haven’t you heard of swine flu?”
“Yeah, but…”
“But nothing, Dean Winchester. ‘Pestilence’ means any disease, not just your Rage virus thing. CDC are investigating an outbreak in Ocotillo, in southern California right now, and - and here’s the omen-y part - there are reports of the statues in the town weeping.”
Jody suddenly had the full attention of all three men, and had gone from lecturing mom-mode to smug pretty darn quick. She pulled a bunch of papers from her jacket and tossed them onto Bobby’s desk. From where he was sat, Sam could see they were print-outs of articles from a local newspaper. Bobby looked them over and gave a nod that Sam knew was all good. He had hit Gabriel’s speed dial before things fully registered.
“Nice work,” Bobby said gruffly to Jody while Sam was telling Gabriel to get home, and he could hear Dean doing the same thing from the sofa. The angels appeared in a flurry of displaced air and rustling feathers, making Jody yelp and press her hand to her heart; Gabriel landed directly in Sam’s lap, ghostly wings draping lazily all over the place as they settled, and Cas was standing next to Dean a second or so later, with the phone still pressed to his ear.
“I swear you do that on purpose,” Jody scolded Gabriel in particular. “You’ll give me a heart attack.”
Gabriel gave her a smile that was oddly lacking in general mischief. “I’d fix you right back up again if I did. So, what’s the biz, kids?”
“Jody reckons she’s found Pestilence,” Dean said, stashing his phone back in his pocket, then reaching out and dragging Cas right into his personal space.
“Bunch of swine flu cases in southern California,” Jody told them, much more gently than she had originally reported. Maybe she just didn’t think the angels would have noticed something so innocuous as flu, so she was being nicer to them. Or maybe she just didn’t want to piss them off. “Couple that with some omens and it sounds a lot like your guy.”
Gabriel looked over at the articles on Bobby’s desk approvingly. “Surprisingly low key for Pestilence,” he said, “but looks promising.” He craned his neck to see the image attached to the statue report. “Heh, weeping angels. Don’t blink.”
Sam snorted, but he was the only one: everyone else looked blank, except Jody who had a very peculiar, frozen expression.
“Doctor Who? Anyone?”
“Nerds,” Dean said affectionately, rolling his eyes.
“Is that still on?” Karen asked from the kitchen door. “I used to like that.”
“Owen loved it,” Jody said quietly, looking at no-one. “I didn’t like him watching it, but Sean would sit and watch it with him all the time.”
It was the first time she had talked about her family since the day the zombies had turned.
“Tell me about him,” Karen said, grabbing Jody’s elbow and steering her gently into the kitchen. “I always wanted children myself, but Bobby didn’t think he would be a good father. What bullcrap that turned out to be; look at how great his boys turned out. But I got possessed before we properly talked and, well, you know what happened there.”
Bobby looked down at the papers, flushing. Sam prepared himself to have to stop Gabriel saying or doing something to make that embarrassing situation worse, but his gaze was oddly soft, thoughtful even, his feathers sleek, and Sam gave up even trying to anticipate Gabriel’s moods any more, because it seemed like he was losing that almost viciously jokey edge to his personality the longer he stuck around. Dean, for his part, was tapping furiously at the computer, eyes firmly on the screen. The back of his neck was flushed red, although whether because of the compliment or because of Karen’s easy acceptance of him as ‘Bobby’s son’, Sam couldn’t tell. Dean wasn’t good at dealing with any kind of praise about his character at all, and least of all from someone he deemed to be important to him in some way.
Cas, for his part, didn’t seem to understand what all the fuss was about and looked to Gabriel for guidance. After a moment, something seemed to dawn on him, and he turned his attention back to Dean. Instead of saying something direct, like he would usually do, he surprised Sam by leaning over Dean’s shoulder, one hand landing lightly on the opposite shoulder very naturally, to read the computer screen and ask softly:
“Is Jody correct? Has she located Pestilence?”
It was probably the single best thing he could have said, because it gave Dean and Bobby something tangible and useful to focus on; a distraction from something that Bobby definitely didn’t want airing in public, and Sam couldn’t really say that he blamed him for that. Although Sam did love the way that Karen’s easy chatter could relax a person almost immediately and get them to discuss things that needed to be discussed. Bobby had definitely picked a good one in her.
“But why go for swine flu when he’s got the Croatoan virus up his sleeve?” Dean was asking. “That just doesn’t make sense.”
“Who knows?” Gabriel said. “He could have gone for anything: Croatoan, Ebola, malaria, trypanosomiasis; literally anything.”
“War and Famine both started out in small areas to test out their capabilities,” Cas pointed out. “Perhaps this is Pestilence’s way of testing modern civilisation and its response to infection; something so innocuous we almost missed it.”
“And that’s why he’s the strategist and I’m not,” Gabriel said, looking so proud of his little brother. “CDC doing anything about it yet?”
Dean shrugged helplessly. “I need an interpreter for their website - it’s full of medical bullshit I haven’t heard in Doctor Sexy. Maybe one of you can take a look?”
Sam was so proud of Dean, actually asking for help for once. Brady had been pre-med back at Stanford, before he flaked and changed majors, but Sam hadn’t ever become fluent enough with the lingo that he could have helped Dean. They could handle emergency medicine and its terminology because of how much experience they had with it, but diseases and epidemiology? Nope.
“I’ll take a look,” Gabriel promised.
.oOo.
As it turned out, the look turned out to be after their meal. Jody seemed to be a little calmer after talking to Karen, but both women’s eyes were red-rimmed as if they had been crying. No-one commented on it, which seemed to be the best thing, because it seemed that a good cry, no matter how little, had been exactly what Jody had needed. She was a lot less tense as soon as she realised that none of the men were going to call her on her weakness, and her sense of humour started to creep out for the first time as the evening went on.
Gabriel looked over the CDC reports while Sam and Dean washed the dishes (because apparently using mojo all the time was an ‘abuse of power’, but creating candy bars out of thin air was just fine and dandy), and reported back that there wasn’t all that much going on - the cases weren’t that bad, and the people who were the most sick were getting the appropriate treatment. The CDC were ramping up the pressure on the pharmaceutical companies to get their vaccines tested, but that was about it.
“Hold on,” Dean piped up. “No-one’s dying?”
Gabriel shrugged, which was a really weird manoeuvre when the wings got involved too, because it wasn’t like Gabriel was just tugging strings to make his vessel move in a way that looked socially acceptable: his whole being was doing it. And it still looked like a shrug.
“Not a soul,” he confirmed. “Yet, anyway, but it’s only a matter of time. I’d still be dismissing it as a coincidence it if it wasn’t for the weeping statues - nice catch, Jody.”
She nodded once in thanks.
“But you do believe that this is Pestilence’s handiwork?” Cas asked.
Gabriel shrugged again. “Probably. It’s worth a look.”
“Any idea where he’ll hit next?” Bobby asked, earning himself a disapproving glare from Karen. “What? I meant for them - I’m too old to be chasing after Horsemen.”
Gabriel gestured grandly around the room. “And this is where I yield the floor to the strategists and analysts. Grab a map, boys.”
Dean turned to dig out the appropriate map from Bobby’s huge stash, and Sam immediately set about clearing the desk so they could spread it out. After a moment, Cas joined him, lifting stacks of four or five books with ease.
Once they were ready, Gabriel read out the list of towns that had been struck, in order. Dean dutifully located and marked them on the map.
“Gabriel? You sure that’s the right order?” Sam asked, frowning at the plot.
“Yep. Why?”
“Come and see for yourself,” Cas said. “This makes no logical sense, if indeed Pestilence himself is the cause.”
“It looks natural,” Karen said softly, uncertainly, as Cas traced the route for Gabriel, showing it zig-zagging back and forth, crossing itself more than once. “Like people moving from town to town, not like someone doing it deliberately.”
“That’s what I’d do, if I wanted to stay below the radar,” Jody piped up. “I mean, why be obvious and draw attention to yourself if you’re the last Horseman standing?”
“Doesn’t help us, though,” Dean growled, staring at the points he had plotted. “Where the hell do we look for him?”
“Me and Cas can do that,” Gabriel pointed out, flexing his wings subtly. Sam would have thought he was showing off his strength, except that Dean couldn’t see them - only him and Cas. “We can check it out tonight. Should be easy enough to cover California in eight hours.”
Jody and Karen both looked shocked by that, and Sam supposed they just weren’t used to being around the angels yet. Or maybe the rest of them were becoming desensitised to the awe that Cas and Gabriel should inspire in them. It should be impressive that two individuals could search such a huge area in such a short time, but Sam had seen Gabriel in particular do much more extraordinary things.
But Cas looked a little uncertain, and Sam was confused: maybe Cas was worried that his failure to find God meant he just wasn’t good at finding things? Who knew. But Gabriel stretched out a wing and draped it casually over Cas’ shoulders, kind of the same way Dean used to drape an arm over Cas’ shoulders, back when he was pretending they were just friends. It was about reassurance, and Cas gave Gabriel a little smile.
Jody got a call not long afterwards, and left them with dire warnings to call her and let her know what was going on. And, for some reason, after she left, Karen broke out an ancient Monopoly board, one that hadn’t been used since he and Dean were little kids (at least, Sam didn’t think so, and the sheer amount of dust Karen brushed from the box supported that). Dean rolled his eyes, but remained mercifully silent; Gabriel rubbed his hands together gleefully, which would have been terrifying if not for his covert feathers fluffing up; Bobby simply got up to grab some beers from the fridge.
As the board was set up at the kitchen table, Sam took the time to explain the objective, and the rules to Cas, which then of course led to an argument between Dean and Gabriel about deviations from the standard rules. Bobby put a stop to that by pointing out that he had taught the boys to play, using the rules Karen had taught him, and he was pretty sure that someone as clever as an archangel could keep up because they weren’t that hard: Free Parking pot applies, as does the actual Free Parking rule; and no damn annoying auctions.
Which then required Karen to explain to Cas that the ‘rules’ of Monopoly varied from home to home, because very few people actually played to the exact letter of the standard rules; a situation that was not only approved of but actively encouraged by the manufacturers. Cas, who had followed the rules his entire life until now, didn’t look as if he should find it encouraging or disturbing that humans could so easily disregard the rules (and that they seemed determined to drag him down with them in their sinful shame).
“Ain’t free will wonderful?” Gabriel observed eventually, with a flourish of his hands as he plunked himself gracelessly down on a chair.
.oOo.
The game took an hour and a half before Cas was declared the winner. Dean grumbled good-naturedly about beginner’s luck and Cas tried to point out that he had made strategic errors that had lost him Park Place early on, and had allowed Cas to capitalise on his misfortune. Karen had come second, mostly due to a windfall at Free Parking just when she needed it, but she was a shrewd player too and didn’t gamble too much of her money away on property early on.
Karen dragged Bobby away at the first yawn, pausing at the door only to make sure that the game went away properly, because she didn’t want to find little green houses all over the kitchen come morning. Gabriel did it with a snap of his fingers as soon as she turned her back on them again, and turned to Sam.
“Fancy hitting the hay before me and Cas head off to California?”
“Fuck’s sake, Gabriel - could you be more subtle?” Dean asked with a groan.
“You mean like Karen was?” Gabriel retorted wickedly. Which had Sam’s libido take a total nose-dive, because as much as he loved Karen, and how happy Bobby had been the last few days, that was something he didn’t need to hear. He should be happy for Bobby, but… Sam imagined it was the same as the idea of your parents having sex.
“Thanks for that.”
“Any time, Deano. Come on, Sammy.”
Sam let Gabriel lead him downstairs and through their apartment door, mostly because he wanted to spend some time with Gabriel even if it wasn’t time spent having sex. He loved feeling those phantom wings around him as Gabriel either held him or snuggled into his side, and he wanted to make the most of it while he could still see and feel them.
As things turned out, Gabriel was still feeling decidedly amorous, and kissed and petted Sam’s body until he relaxed and began to respond. Sam was too relaxed, too heavy-limbed and heavy-eyed, to do anything other than enjoy Gabriel’s attention, to watch Gabriel’s hazy golden feathers stroke their tingling, ghostly paths over his arms and torso as Gabriel’s mouth slowly and skilfully eased him over the edge, then cradled him until he fell asleep.
.oOo.
“Hello, Sam.”
Sam froze. He knew that voice.
“Long time, no see.”
It had been a while, and Sam had been grateful for every night he had slept soundly, not hearing that voice. He could happily not hear that voice again for the rest of eternity; the one that had chills running up and down his spine and sound so friendly at the same time.
“How did you manage to hide from me, Sam?”
Sam could guess, actually, now he thought about it, but there was no way he was giving that away.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter now,” Lucifer purred. “You slipped up with your warding tonight and we’re finally together again.”
They were in a non-descript den, and Lucifer was leaning casually against the back of the couch. He spread his arms in a gesture of friendship. Sam didn’t move from his spot near the door. Maybe if he didn’t react at all, Lucifer might get bored and leave.
“Come on, Sam, why are you being so difficult? Is it about your friend Bobby? I’m sorry about that ugly business with the dead rising: it’s foretold, you know. There are certain things that have to be done.”
He didn’t look ashamed as such, but he did at least give some appearance of remorse. Not that Sam believed it for a second. But that also meant that Lucifer didn’t know about Karen, and probably not about Gabriel either. Maybe they were ahead of the game after all?
“Come on, Sam, say something. Tell me where you are, and I’ll make this apocalypse business nice and quick for everyone. It doesn’t have to drag out, you know: timeframes can be moved up. I don’t want to delay any more than I have to.”
“I’m never going to say it,” Sam snapped. “You’ll never get what you want from me.”
Lucifer sighed and gave Sam a pitying look. “Oh, you will. I know you don’t believe it now, but it will happen. There are millennia-worth of prophecies that say you will, and I know you better than you know yourself.”
“You don’t know anything about me!”
Lucifer just shook his head, with a condescending little smile. “One day, you will stop believing these lies you tell yourself.”
Sam reached behind him for the door handle. It turned easily in his hand, and he sat up, gasping for breath in the darkened room he normally shared with Gabriel. He groped out towards the nightstand and found the glass of water Gabriel always left there for him if he forgot himself (i.e. if Gabriel had distracted him too much for him to get it himself). Trembling, he took a long drink, swallowing down the residual fear.
As he expected, he was alone. Gabriel had gone out with Cas to see if they could find Pestilence all the way down in California. It wasn’t any spell or wards, as Lucifer had assumed, that had been keeping Sam’s dreams safe; it had been Gabriel, and now he was so far away. It wasn’t the first time that Gabriel had left Sam alone during the night, not by a long stretch of the imagination, but Gabriel had been looking strained for a while now; to the point that he hadn’t even been reading Sam’s mind for ages, and he used to say that was something he couldn’t help doing. Had keeping Lucifer out taken that much of a toll on Gabriel? And was the distance really a factor, or was it something else? Something awful?
He fumbled for his phone and hit Gabriel’s speed dial. It rang a couple of times before the line clicked on.
“Sambo? Everything okay?”
Sam gave a sigh of relief and ran a hand through his limp hair. “Fine.” His voice sounded shaky, even to him, so he amended it to: “Now, anyway.”
“What happened, kiddo? I left you dead to the world. Not that that means too much these days.”
“Lucifer,” Sam said. “He’s taken up dreamwalking again.”
“Aw, crap.”
“He said something had been keeping me hidden,” Sam said, needing to explain why he was ringing Gabriel, not wanting to seem like he couldn’t handle one little visit from Lucifer. “He thought it was warding, but I figured it was you and… I thought maybe… maybe something had happened to you.”
“Nah, I’m okay,” Gabriel assured him, his voice all soft round the edges. “Just spreading myself a bit thin, that’s all. Pestilence is one slippery SOB, and I was focussing too much on him. I kind of thought the whole pocket dimension thing would keep him out, especially with it being hidden by all those wards at Bobby’s place.” He sighed. “Maybe some warding would help. Me and Cas’ll put our heads together and see if we can work something out.”
“Yeah. Thanks. But… I’m glad you’re okay.”
“You want me to come back?”
Sam wanted to say yes, he really did, but Gabriel was doing something important down in California, and Lucifer had never visited more than once in a night before anyway.
“No. You and Cas do your thing. We’ll catch up tomorrow.”
“You sure, Sammy? I know my brother - he’s not much fun to be around.”
Sam dropped his head onto his knees. “Yeah, I’m sure. You be all important. I’ll see you in the morning, right?”
“You want me to wake you up the same way I sent you to sleep?”
A huff of laughter escaped him. “Not gonna complain if you do.”
“Excellent. I’ll be there in a few hours, cupcake, and make it a really good morning for you.”
“Promises promises,” Sam teased, as if Gabriel never delivered on his promises.
“Scout’s honour,” Gabriel shot back, and Sam could hear the smile in his voice. At least this kind of interaction was normal for them, a more even footing than panicked phone calls at two a.m.
“Like you were ever a Scout. Now stop procrastinating and get back to work.”
“Aye sir!”
Sam laughed and hit the ‘end call’ button. There was something about Gabriel that always seemed to put him at ease, and he had absolutely no idea what it was. It defied all logic, because really he should be on edge all the time around someone who had spent almost a year torturing him in that pocket universe back in Florida, but Sam understood Gabriel a lot better now he knew about his background; understood the choices he had made, and why he had done what he did to Sam two years ago.
He puttered about the apartment’s kitchen for a little while and made himself a cup of chamomile tea. The familiarity of the brewing process calmed him almost as much as the tea itself, and between that and the phone call, Sam soon found himself sleepy again and ready to try sleeping.
Back in the bedroom, his hand found the golden feather Gabriel had left on his pillow, as he did every time he left - almost entirely without fail - and clutched it tightly. It, like the others, smelled the way Gabriel smelled; kind of sweet, but mostly like a pine forest; all rich and fresh and clean and Christmassy. Just inhaling that scent was enough to push any lingering doubts about Lucifer to the back of his mind and allow him to relax into sleep once again. And this time, it was dreamless.
.oOo.
Gabriel woke Sam bright and far too early in the morning, but exactly as he had promised. He draped himself over Sam’s chest, tracing lazy patterns with his fingers as they basked in the afterglow. It wasn’t until Gabriel started nudging him to move his lazy ass or miss out on the breakfast that Gabriel was making that Sam remembered why he had woken up alone in the middle of the night (or, honestly, that he had even woken up at all).
“How did it go with Pestilence?”
Gabriel rolled over, sliding down onto the bed with a sigh. “Not great. We can’t get a handle on him. His movements are too erratic, and it wouldn’t be difficult for him to keep a lid on his power if he wanted to stay low key. Cas thinks we could do with a bit of good old human intuition to help us catch him.”
Sam could feel the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You mean, you need our help?”
“Yes,” Gabriel growled, like it pained him to admit it. “We’re… not all that good at thinking outside the box.”
Sam planted a kiss on the crease between his eyebrows. “I know. World Weekly News. Plus, I met Uriel.”
Gabriel snorted, the frown softening. “Yeah, he was never one for breaking moulds. Breaking everything else, yes, but jeez, if ever you wanted an example of angel programming at its worst, he’s probably the best one. What happened to him?”
“Cas found out he was pro-apocalypse,” Sam said. “We thought he was an anomaly at first, but it became pretty obvious after, well, you know, that he knew the party line. He was killing angels who didn’t agree. I think Anna killed him in the end to protect Cas.”
Gabriel went quiet and still, his eyes blank and staring and his wings drooped alarmingly. Sam gathered him up into his arms and wrapped his long body around Gabriel’s, not knowing what else to do. If nothing else, it wasn’t as if Gabriel couldn’t break free if the contact wasn’t appreciated.
“I hate this,” Gabriel said eventually. “I hate that my brothers are killing each other. I hate that they are choosing this just because our Father said it’s what should happen.”
“I know,” Sam said, stroking his fingers through Gabriel’s hair. “I can’t imagine.”
“Yeah, I think of all people, you can. I set it up so you killed Dean at least three times. And the first time, you didn’t even know about the Groundhog Day thing.”
Any other time, Sam would probably be angry at Gabriel for bringing it up, but he sounded so sad and desperate that he couldn’t possibly be mad.
“And you’re stuck in the middle of all this, with outside-the-box Luci taking strolls through your sub-conscious.”
Sam pressed a kiss to the top of his golden head. “I’ll deal. We’ll deal. We’ll get Pestilence, and trap Lucifer and your brothers can go back to hating humanity in peace.”
“It’s not going to be that easy.”
“Pretend. For me.”
There was a groan. “Fine: Luci will step willingly back into his prison cell, because he’s not a complete dickbag after all, and Michael definitely won’t be pissed that we’ve put a stop to it all and just leave us alone instead of exacting revenge. We’ll have it done by tomorrow afternoon and it’ll be sunshine and daisies forevermore afterwards.”
Sam grinned despite himself. “That’s better. Come on now, you promised breakfast. You wanted to give Karen a break, remember?”
.oOo.
It wasn’t that simple, not least because Dean insisted on driving to California, because that was how they normally did things, and he wasn’t feeling this flying thing and he just wanted this to be something they did under their own steam for once. But Southern California was a whole day’s drive away, not counting stops for food and refuelling, which probably meant both the drive and their search for Pestilence was going to be fuelled by caffeine. Sam sometimes thought it was a miracle he had survived his teenage years, given how early in life he had discovered the ‘triple red eye’.
After Gabriel’s epic breakfast, with waffles and bacon and even a fruit salad, yoghurt and granola all appearing on the menu and the cooked items all being actually cooked in front of Sam’s disbelieving eyes, they loaded up the car, kissed Karen goodbye, and promised to meet the angels at the other end.
As they were pulling away, Sam saw Gabriel whisper something in Karen’s ear. He would have to remember to ask when he saw Gabriel later on what it was. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Gabriel as such, nor Karen’s common sense, but if Gabriel was planning something, he might not necessarily have thought the consequences through, and Karen could still be a little star-struck occasionally, the way people probably should be by Gabriel.
Maybe he was imagining it, he considered as Dean turned onto the road and they set out on their long, arduous journey. Maybe Gabriel was just being properly grateful that Karen had cooked for them, provided for them, for over a week without any complaint whatsoever. Maybe it had been a kiss on the cheek before taking off himself.
Sam took some time to read the standard English synopsis of the CDC’s information that Gabriel had produced at some point when Sam wasn’t looking. There was a lot of it, but real hard, helpful facts were pretty sparse: reports of the epidemiology that still made little sense to Sam; analyses of the viral strain showing it to be fairly mild as swine flu went; a greater push for vaccine from companies like Pfizer and Niveus. There were no real indications of where Pestilence would go next. Maybe he wouldn’t even stick in the same area - make it look like someone carried the virus onto a plane or something. That could incite panic, which Pestilence might see as being interesting, either just because War and Famine had enjoyed the mayhem they caused, or because of how the virus would either spread or be hindered by whatever form the panic took. That sounded like something a being like Pestilence might get his jollies off to.
Wading through it all killed a couple of hours’ driving time, by which point Dean was pulling over in a Gas n Sip in Atkinson, Nebraska, for coffee and provisions, because Karen meant well with her carefully wrapped pies and healthy snacks, but Dean wasn’t touching the granola bars and pie wasn’t easy to eat while driving, and he needed some junk food, dammit.
On the next leg, Sam puzzled over Pestilence’s movements, faithfully transcribed onto a more portable map by Bobby earlier that morning. He thought that maybe looking at it anew, with fresh, rested eyes might yield something, some little scrap of a clue that might help them out, but nothing leapt out at him. If he really stretched, the last four towns - Borrego Springs, El Centro, Desert Shores and Ocotillo - made up four points of a pentagram, but… no, actually, that was too much of a coincidence not to flag up as important, even if none of the other towns fit any kind of pattern anyone, including the angels, could see.
He tapped at the map a couple of times, considering, before pulling out his phone and hitting Gabriel’s speed dial.
“Well howdy, sugar buns,” Gabriel greeted him cheerfully. “You fed up with Deano already? Want me to come and rescue you from two days of ‘the open road’?”
“It’s been useful, actually,” Sam said. “Call it a hunch, but you and Cas might want to check out Niland, at the south-east end of the Salton Sea.”
Dean was staring at him, and Sam knew that an explanation would be demanded the instant he was off the phone, but as far as Sam was concerned, it would have to wait until they stopped to eat.
“Okay,” Gabriel said readily, “we’ll swing by, take a look. You sure you don’t want me to swing by and abduct you first?”
Sam gave a soft snort of laughter. “Yeah, I’m good here right now.”
“You’re better at FBI than Cas,” Gabriel grumbled. “He’s too weird.”
“CDC might be a better cover,” Sam said with a grin. “He’s probably not too weird for them. They’re all research doctors.”
Gabriel chortled. “Point. I’ll let you know…”
The line dropped out. God, the mid-west sucked for cell reception. He put the phone back into his pocket and prayed quickly, telling Gabriel to text him if they turned up anything in Niland. Then he had to face the questioning ire of Dean.
“Might not be anything,” he said without needing to be asked. Dean’s eyes were doing plenty of demanding without needing anything vocalised . “I’ll show you later.”
Dean shrugged, which was as close to acceptance as Sam was going to get right now. It wasn’t dropped, but Dean was willing to wait. He normally was, because he wasn’t an idiot and he knew some things needed showing instead of telling, and his eyes needed to be on the road right now. Also, they were so far away from California that Dean being in the dark for a couple of hours wasn’t going to make a difference to any immediate plans.
.oOo.
They broke for at lunch in a little diner North Platte, Nebraska and over a frankly excellent chicken salad Sam showed Dean the potential pattern he had spotted. Dean agreed that checking out Niland seemed like a good idea, but he also agreed that it seemed very suspect that only the last four town hit formed any kind of recognisable pattern. Sam mused that maybe the original patterns had been something Enochian that they couldn’t see, but Dean pointed out that Cas would have probably seen that straight off.
“Is it me,” Dean said slowly, after staring at the map again, “or does it seem like Pestilence is doing this pattern thing right now to mess with us? All those towns have been hit since you ganked Famine.”
Sam nodded: the same thought had occurred to him about a hundred miles back.
“Have you just sent Cas and Gabriel into a trap?”
Sam scowled. “Probably. I sent Gabriel a text to warn him a while back. I got this back.”
He pulled up their text conversation and passed the phone over to Dean.
Be careful - it’s probably a trap.
Lol, of course it is. But I think I’ve set enough of those up to recognise one by now.
Surprised you recognised it ;)
…funny guy.
You love it.
Seriously, be careful.
Yes, Mom
Dean scowled at the screen, and Sam knew exactly what the issue was there: they tended to try and ignore their more fractious history with Gabriel in favour of the camaraderie they had now, and there Gabriel was, rubbing it in. He clicked a few keys quickly and hit send before passing the phone back to Sam, with a new message reading:
Springfield, dude
Sam shook his head and put the phone on the table. He speared the last few leaves on his plate, chewed, and washed them down with the last of the coffee. Dean also finished off his last few fries, and turned his attention to folding up the map. By the time they were done, there was a reply from Gabriel:
:D Tell Deano he’s trailing by 2 points there. But if he wants to see the girls again, all he needs to do is ask.
Sam decided not to share that one, mostly because Dean would mutter under his breath for the next fifty miles, sulk for another fifty, then blare Led Zep at full volume until Sam’s ears bled, and he would prefer to be sane by the end of the trip, thank you. He tucked the phone away and pulled some cash out of his wallet. Ever since Gabriel had come onto the scene, they had been inexplicably better off than they should be so Sam could afford to leave their lovely waitress a generous tip before they headed back to the road.
Sam took over the driving for the next leg and Dean climbed into the back seat, clearly intending to nap. This was a great tactic for when they had large distances to travel, so they could rest up and trade driving shifts whenever they needed to, but it wasn’t the best bed in the world for anyone over about three feet tall, let alone grown men north of six foot. Nevertheless, Dean balled a blanket under his head, draped his jacket over his eyes to block out the light and settled in. Within half an hour of getting back onto the I-80, Sam could hear soft snoring that indicated Dean was asleep.
Grabbing sleep whenever and wherever one could was apparently a Marine trick that their dad had managed to pass on to them. Either that or they had just picked it up out of necessity, because their lifestyle demanded it of them. Sam couldn’t do it as well as Dean - now even less so because of the ever-present threat of having his sleep invaded by the devil - but he managed okay. It looked like today was one of those days where he would have to manage, because Dean never went for a nap if he wasn’t planning on driving through. It kind of made sense because the sooner they got Pestilence, the sooner the whole Apocalypse thing would be over and done with, and they could get back to hunting normal things like vampires and werewolves. Sam never thought he would see the day where he considered them boring, but compared to angels and demons they were pretty small fry. And it would be bliss to deal with them instead of the complex crap they were up to their eyeballs in right now.
The car ate up the miles, the landscapes starting to blur together as he switched onto the I-76, following the road signs for Denver. One good thing about the way they travelled was they had a pretty good idea of where they were anywhere in the country, and an idea of which direction to head in to get to where they were going. Both of them were perfectly capable of driving for long stretches without needing to consult the map, or cajole shotgun into navigating. That only came in when they were almost at their destination and a ‘general direction’ was no longer good enough.
By the time they stopped to eat again, Dean had woken up, broken his ‘driver picks the music’ rule twice, tried to go over the CDC stuff (Sam watched in the mirror as Dean’s eyes glazed over and he dropped off again), grumbled about the Denver traffic even though he wasn’t driving, and mocked Sam for filling up Karen’s thermos with coffee during a brief stop (not that he was fooling Sam - he was grateful and drank the coffee appreciatively).
This time, there was little talking; they ate a mediocre meal of meatloaf and potatoes and Sam used the WiFi to check up and see if there were any fresh news stories from South California about swine flu. As it turned out, there weren’t. Dean rang Cas for an update, of which there wasn’t really one - they had searched Niland as thoroughly as they dared without drawing any attention to themselves from any other supernatural beings, and found nothing.
“But there were days between the others,” Dean pointed out. Apparently Cas agreed with him, because they said they would keep looking, and would meet them there the following day.
After a huge slice of cherry pie that Dean thoroughly enjoyed, Sam settled himself back into the passenger seat, glad he wasn’t the one driving directly into the sunset. His mind drifted as the I-70 made its way through the mountains and he found himself, as he often did these days, thinking of Gabriel. This was the first time they had really been apart for more than a few hours in weeks: Sam had thought at first it would be nice to a bit of time where it was just him and Dean and the road - and it was - but he found he was missing Gabriel more than he thought he would.
His thoughts must have drifted over into prayer territory because he was snapped suddenly to awareness by his phone, a message from Gabriel.
I miss you too, you big sap.
He smiled as he read it. There had been a time, not all that long ago, where their text conversations would have looked one-sided to anyone who snooped, because Sam’s half was done entirely by prayer; back when their relationship was just figuring itself out, when Gabriel had taken off to give Sam space and make sure he really wanted it - whatever ‘it’ was, because they still hadn’t really defined ‘it’ - and wasn’t being influenced by any angel mojo. But those conversations had tended to be teasing, or even outright sexual, and Sam didn’t want to risk that with Dean sat beside him in the car.
Sam let the car lull him to sleep somewhere around the Utah border, and he found himself suddenly being hugged by an amorous archangel, glorious golden wings folding around him just as tightly as the arms.
“Why didn’t you say where you’ve stopped?” he demanded, his face smooshed into Sam’s chest. “We would have flown to meet you.”
“We… uh…”
Gabriel went all stiff in his arms, the wings snapping back to their normal position. Sam was the most disappointed about that, because he loved being enveloped by Gabriel’s wings and they were more tangible in a dreamwalk than in the real world.
“Do not tell me you’re not stopping.”
“Um.”
“Fuck that!” Gabriel declared. “Sleep is good for you. Horizontal sleep in a proper bed, not scrunched up in that car. Wake up and tell me where you are.”
Sam hated the startling awakening that always seemed to happen after a dreamwalk - unlike most dreams, it was particularly jarring and probably because it was real. Dean gave him a wary look, but before anything could be said, they passed a sign saying they were just entering Green River. Sam quickly prayed to Gabriel and they had a pair of angels in the back seat before Dean knew what was going on. He gave a particularly unmanly yelp and glared at the rear view.
“Warn a guy,” he snapped.
“Sam knew,” Cas pointed out. Because it was clearly Sam’s fault for not warning Dean and not the angels’ for arriving before he had a chance to say anything.
“Find a motel,” Gabriel said firmly. “No way are you two driving through the night.”
“What the…? Why the hell not?”
“Your body requires sleep, Dean,” Cas said bluntly. “And, moreover, I intend to fuck you tonight.”
Dean choked and turned red. Sam grinned openly: Cas was wonderful for his brother, mostly because he was so upfront about what he expected from their relationship. Turning to the angels, Sam found that Gabriel was grinning too, his phantom wings fluffed up in amusement, and Cas had some expression that Sam thought might be mischievous. Maybe Cas wasn’t above bribing Dean to make him do things that were good for him, and that was even better, in Sam’s opinion. Dean did very little to look after himself, including driving through the night, and he would have been complaining about this development had Cas not said exactly what he had just said. This time, though, Dean turned the car into the first motel he saw without complaint and they quickly grabbed their gear and got themselves two rooms for the night.
.oOo.
Sam pushed Gabriel’s jacket from his shoulders, dropping it to the floor.
“So, that kind of night, huh?” Gabriel chuckled. “I’m game.”
“Shut up,” Sam growled. He pulled Gabriel close and kissed him, hard and bruising and relentless. Being cooped up in the car all day was frustrating, and he had a lot of pent-up energy, especially after thinking about the naughty prayers he used to send to Gabriel.
Gabriel just melted into him, yielding to the kiss with a tiny sigh, as if he had been looking forward to this all day. Maybe he had. Maybe this was exactly what they needed right now. It was definitely what Sam needed: closeness to Gabriel was exactly what he wanted right now. That feeling when Gabriel’s glow reached out to him just seemed to touch something inside him and make him feel just so safe and loved.
He lifted Gabriel easily, legs wrapping around his hips, and carried him over to the bed. He had this whole plan of just laying Gabriel down, all smooth and sexy, but he stumbled over the curled-up edge of the rug, putting him off balance, and Gabriel was heavier than Ruby was, and the devious little shit didn’t let go of Sam’s neck and pulled him right down onto the bed. They landed heavily, all the cool gone and with Gabriel cackling madly underneath him. Sam bristled with indignation briefly, but Gabriel’s cheer was infectious and it only took a second or so for his head to drop onto Gabriel’s shoulder with a huff of laughter.
“Ass.”
“Always,” Gabriel pressed a kiss to the corner of his jaw, and Sam felt the wings come up and over him, and suddenly he was torn between just lying there, all secure in his phantom feathery cocoon, and the hopeful chubbiness of his dick that was trapped against Gabriel’s equally promising groin. Gabriel kind of made his mind up for Sam when he rocked his hips up, pressing deliciously along the line of Sam’s cock, and drawing a groan from him. The next time, Sam moved with him, and the next, and the next; rutting together like horny teenagers. But that wasn’t what Sam wanted, just chasing the orgasm for the sake of it; that wasn’t the point of this. He slid his hands under Gabriel’s shirt, finally touching warm, delicious skin. A moment later, they were both naked and Sam’s cock was sliding up against Gabriel’s, skin on hot skin, leaving Sam gasping at the sudden change in sensation.
“Lube,” he said breathlessly, and the bottle appeared in Gabriel’s hand. Sam took it, slicked up his fingers and reached back, sliding them in and stretching himself as quickly as he dared. Gabriel’s eyes went wide and dark when he realised what Sam was doing.
“Oh, Sammy,” he breathed. “You have no idea how glorious you look right now.”
“I’ll look even better in a minute,” Sam panted as he shuffled himself up the bed, so that he was crouched over Gabriel’s waist, and grabbed the lube again. He slathered his hand and grabbed Gabriel’s dick, spreading the slippery stuff all over and pulling a strangled moan from Gabriel. He held Gabriel’s cock steady as he positioned himself over it and slowly sank onto it. His hasty prep had not quite been enough, and it burned as he took Gabriel inside him. As much as Sam would normally like that, he was going to need to be able to sit for hours at a time tomorrow so he started off slow, giving his body a chance to adjust rather than setting off at full tilt.
“Yeah,” Gabriel said, his voice rough and cracking as Sam worked a few different angles to try and find that perfect one to nail his prostate. “Yeah, that does look amazing. Look at you, all gorgeous and flushed and messed up for me, riding me like a pro. Gotta say, I like this side of you.”
Sam gave a sharp intake of breath in response as he found his perfect position, and his cock dribbled a spurt of precome onto Gabriel’s belly. He rested a hand on Gabriel’s leg to maintain his position and picked up the pace. He could feel his own precome splattering both him and Gabriel as he bounced. Gabriel’s hands came up to rest on his butt at about the same time as he started to glow; that gorgeous pure white luminescence just starting to flow over his skin like a shimmering mist. The tingling of grace across his own skin, wherever he touched Gabriel, was a sensation his body still didn’t know quite what to do with. Sam could feel his breath starting to come in pants as he spiralled towards completion, could feel Gabriel begin to thrust upwards to meet him as his legs tired of keeping up the punishing rhythm.
Sam shuddered as orgasm washed over him, come spurting in stripes, seemingly everywhere, from his bouncing cock. Gabriel flipped him onto his back effortlessly and continued the assault on his prostate, and Sam wasn’t sure if the white at the edges of his vision was a pleasure overload, or if it was Gabriel’s grace extending out as hot come filled him.
On to Part 3b