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

[hunter_returns]

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

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[hesnoangel]

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

[hunter_returns]

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

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

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

“G-Gabriel?”

[hesnoangel]

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

[hunter_returns]

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

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

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

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

[hesnoangel]

Another no-go topic for Sam, it seemed. There were apparently lots of those. Gabriel was reminded of when he got his hands on a computer for the first time, sometime back at the end of the last century. What was the game called, Minesweeper? That felt something like that

[hunter_returns]

Sam snorted out another laugh, wincing as Gabriel lifted his shirt. And he might just be a little touch starved, because he found himself focusedmore on the warm press of a hand to his bruised side than the slow prickle of energy dimming the pain. Well, he’s never had the best set of priorties, has he?

“Don’t have a kilt for a proper caber toss.” Breathing no longer hurt, which was pretty awesome. “Thanks.”

After tugging his shirt down, the big hunter stood and ambled towards the minifridge in the corner, pulling out a beer for himself and a sugary soda for Gabriel. “I guess I should fill you in on what happened since.” Since you died saving our lives.“You were right, you know. About the rings of the Horsemen. We got them and we, ah, we opened the Cage.” What he wanted to do was look away as he starts to lay this all out, but Gabriel deserved the truth, he deserved Sam to look him in the eye. “But the only way to get Lucifer in was for me to say yes. So I did

[hesnoangel]

"You have good memory," Gabriel praised as he took the soda and sipped the no-brand orange sugar water. The rush of sweetness was good. Perhaps it was his new closeness to his vessel or the memory of a great big nothing. But then, sweets were always really good

[hunter_returns]

Like he was going to forget Gabriel’s affinity for all things sugar related. The orange soda had just been an extra nod, a vague smile as he’d picked it up at the gas station before setting off to resurrect him.

Gabriel’s response merited a strained smile. “Yeah, getting the rings was the easy part. But the only way to shove him back in was to.. to jump.” And that fall was not something he wanted to be thinking about, not if he wanted to sleep anytime soon. The touch snapped Sam out of his memory and he smiled again, taking a hasty sip before the beer was set firmly down on the nightstand

[hesnoangel]

Gabriel watched as Sam pulled the door shut behind himself. He really was going to have to pay back this particular debt to the hunter, wouldn't he? The resurrection had been more than he could have ever even guessed at and now Sam was playing angel room service. Luckily (more or less), with the sort of supernatural drama these two kids always seemed to find themselves in, it couldn't be that difficult to get an opportunity

[hunter_returns]

No wings. That’s progress. Sam followed Gabriel into the room, leaving everything on the cracked linoleum table and let the archangel drag him towards the television.

News, weather, Dr Sexy, every channel they flipped to, the same blonde boy was staring back at them. Not at the people surrounding him, he was looking right at them. He sat on the corner of the bed, a frown slowly forming on his face.

Crap. Raise an archangel and here’s a job he can’t walk away from.  With a grimace, Sam cricked his neck. “Great. Looks like we’ve got a salt and burn on top of everything else. No one else sees the kid, which means he’s probably spectral.” Ghosts of kids. God he hated those jobs.

“Go ahead and eat. I’ll start researching, see what I can find out.” He flashed an apologetic look at him. “We’ll have to take care of this before we move on."

[hesnoangel]

As he unwrapped the food - wrinkling his nose at the Very Health Conscious Choice of salad and reaching over to the table to deposit it there -, Gabriel kept switching from channel to channel, finally settling on a kids show in which the pint-sized studio audience was generally unaware of the creepy first grader threading his way between the costumed men and women on stage.

"A ghost? Some reaper slacking off on the job?"

This really was reaper stuff, though. Gabriel was aware that ghosts existed, you couldn't walk the earth so long without noticing. He was prime messenger to God's beings, though, and not the intern who cleaned up after the scythe-wielding type, so he hadn't had reason to consider them.

"Are we going ghost-busting?" He rose to his feet and placed the salad firmly between Sam's hands. "I'm game. Before we start, you should have a bite, though, because I'm not eating your rabbit food. Besides, you just raised an archangel. Trust me, we're kind of pretty special snowflakes. You're going to be exhausted sooner or later

[hunter_returns]

A kid's ghost haunting a kid's show. God. There was no end to the creepy. At least until the clowns showed up. At that point, Sam reached over and switched the television off. Ghosts and archangels he could handle. Clowns? No thanks.

"Probably. Sometimes they just get stuck between points A and B. We'll have to find out where he's buried. Usually a salt and burn will take care of things."

He shot him a grateful look as he fished around for a fork and dug in. Now that the adrenaline was finally starting to burn off, he might be able to sit back and shut his eyes for at least a couple of hours. After he ate. "Thanks. We'll have to check the papers, see if there's been any news of attacks, or if this is just a random spectral echo of some kind."

Sam stifled a yawn into his fist. Okay, so maybe he was a little more wiped out than he thought. "In the morning."

[hesnoangel]

Gabriel was distracted from his book and his thoughts (don't think about Lucifer, Michael, Raphael... pretend you're an only child, Gabe) by Sam in his fitful attempt at what could only jokingly be called 'rest'. He obviously wasn't sleeping very well, if the trashing and noises were anything to go by.

Can't possibly imagine why.

His body surely did like the recuperation, Gabriel figured, despite a distinct lack of experience concerning sleep. However, there was also something to be said for waking him before he ended up rolling off the bed and cracking his head on the corner of the bedside table. Sam startling awake took the decision from him.

"Sam, I'm not criticising your diligence, but you know it's half past four am, right?" Gabriel called after him, closing the book with his finger between the pages. "You sure you don't wanna give the whole sleeping thing another shot?"

[hunter_returns]

Not even five in the morning yet. Well, it was a safe bet today was going to suck. Sam ran the cold water, splashing his face and doing his level best to ignore the way his hands were shaking.

"I can't really get back to sleep after.." After a nightmare of your brother tearing me apart over and over again. "After." Sam dried his face with the coarse towel before turning back to Gabriel. "I'll be fine. I just need a few minutes."

He's still exhausted and his eyes burn, but Sam did his best to shove that away. "I've operated on less sleep. Just need some coffee." It's a lie, and a weak one given the haggard expression on his face, but it's all Sam has. Work the job, stay in the moment. Don't dwell.

Besides. It's not like Gabriel needed Sam to unload on him. He had enough to deal with already.

[hesnoangel]

Maybe it was because Sam had dragged him out of limbo or because this was something his lovely brothers had messed up, but Gabriel found himself worrying about the human. The notion wasn't completely new. After all, many of his trickster episodes had also been inspired by a fleeting, but honest pity with the victims of his future playthings. If he'd not cared about the damage they did, there would have been no reason to punish. Still, this got a bit deeper under his skin

[hunter_returns]

It wasn't complete support, but it was enough. A quiet acknowledgement of that hurt meant more than Sam expected it to. At least it was better than denial. Not that he blamed Dean for it, his coping mechanisms had pretty much unraveled over the last couple of years.

"Knew I shouldn't have mentioned clowns," he muttered, rummaging in his duffel for clean clothes and his laptop. "There's cash in my wallet for coffee. Breakfast too if you're hungry."

And before he lost his nerve, Sam looked up as Gabriel neared the door. "Hey. I.. thanks." For what, he's not sure. For sticking around, for making him laugh, for giving a crap.. maybe all of the above.

[hesnoangel]

"How... how did you know

[hunter_returns]

Sam swore under his breath. Leftover bones were easy enough to deal with. But bones in a car that was set on killing them?

"It's not good." He kept his voice even, watching the car start to get closer. Turning the car down a country road, he glanced back at Gabriel. "You did the right thing for him. But sometimes when people die violent deaths, they get.. stuck. They forget where they need to be. But it's okay. We know how to make sure he gets his rest."

"Whatever happens, you need to stick close to Gabriel, okay? He'll take care of you." Sam glanced over his shoulder. "Gabriel. I need you to make me up a molotov. There should be a bottle of whiskey and a rag in my gun cleaning kit."

The Impala lurched forward as the car smashed into their rear. "Really fast."

[hesnoangel]

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

[hunter_returns]

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