Superman Tonight (11/?)
Title: Superman Tonight (11/?)
Author: lonelyphoenix85
Rating: R overall, mainly for the odd swear-word
Genre: Pre-slash, angst, hurt/comfort
Pairing:Sam/Gabriel pre-slash, implied Dean/Cas
Spoilers: through to Changing Channels (5x08)
Warnings: None
Word Count: 2689 (this part, 23243 total so far)
Disclaimer: It only belongs to me when I'm dreaming! Bon Jovi owns the song, and the rest is property of the almighty Kripke!
Author's Note: Just wanted to say thanks to my awesome beta for this story, of_red_clouds - you're awesome!
Previous Chapters: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 And now:
“So basically dude, you’re like…Angel-married? To the Trickster?!”
Sam wasn’t sure what to make of Dean’s reaction.
“Uh…sort of…?”
“Sammy, I’ve gotta hand it to you - you don’t do anything by halves! I’m not sure whether to laugh or kill the bastard.”
The anger that had coloured a lot of their recent conversations was completely absent from Dean’s tone.
He didn’t know exactly what kind of reaction he’d been expecting, but this almost easy acceptance hadn’t been it.
“Laughing’s probably better for your health and long-term survival, if that helps…?”
Dean chuckled dryly at that, not answering.
“You’re not angry.”
Sam wasn’t sure if he wanted an answer, so it came out as a statement rather than a question.
“It wouldn’t matter if I was, this thing is pretty permanent from what you’ve said.”
“It matters to me Dean.”
Dean was being level-headed about the situation - if Sam hadn’t already known it was the apocalypse, that would’ve confirmed it.
“Don’t push Sammy, this is not the time for a chick flick moment.”
“When is it ever the time? I just…I need to know where you stand on this Dean. Like you said, it’s pretty permanent, which means Gabe’s probably gonna be around a lot…I mean, if he doesn’t…”
*…get killed.*
Which was a stupid thought, right? Gabriel was an Archangel - they weren’t exactly easy to kill…
Except Sam couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
It might’ve had something to do with the fact that his side had been aching sharply for the last couple of minutes, and he was feeling decidedly lightheaded.
*Yup - something’s definitely not right.*
He should probably say something soon…
“Fine, you really want to know what I think? I think the whole shitty situation sucks ass, Sammy. I think something good finally happened, and it’s about to be torn apart and it’s not fucking fair. So until the shit hits the fan can we please forget it and relax for five seconds?”
“Something good…?”
“You’re free of the demon blood. You’ve got a freaking Archangel on your shoulder for the rest of his life. We’ve got a way to help Cas. As much as I don’t like the guy, all of that is thanks to Gabriel. Right now he’s off trying to save Bobby - a hunter who, the one time they met, tried to kill him - from his dickhead brothers so that we can get Cas somewhere safe. You heard him when he left Sammy…he didn’t think he was coming back and he went anyway, for his baby brother… So yeah, I’m having a hard time being pissed that you’re stuck bonded to the guy.”
Sam was…shocked would be a good word for it, he supposed. Although, when he thought about it, it sort of made sense that this was what it would take for Dean to accept him.
Gabriel was finally being something Dean could understand, could relate to.
All manner of sins were forgiven because Gabriel was trying to be a good big brother.
Sam opened his mouth to respond, but was blindsided by a white hot burst of pain through his shoulder, causing him to double up with a gasp.
“Sammy?!”
“M’fine…s’not me…think it’s Gabriel,” he managed to force out through clenched teeth.
The pain faded to a dull ache to match the one in his side, but his entire arm felt numb now, useless.
“He’s hurt, Dean…badly. I can feel it…”
“What? How?”
“It’s like…I don’t know, phantom pains or something - and dizziness…it was only a bit at first, but now I can barely focus, I’m so lightheaded. It’s weird though, because at the same time, I know I’m fine. I think…Dean, I think he’s losing.”
Black spots danced in his vision now, and combined with the motion of the car it made his stomach heave.
*Dean’ll kill me if I throw up in his baby!* he thought hysterically.
“Shit!”
Dean thumped the steering wheel.
“Shit!”
It took Sam a second to realise that Dean had only spoken once. The second curse had come from someone else.
“Double shit! I am so sorry, brother…”
Gabriel.
He could hear Gabriel.
But why was he apologising…?
All of a sudden Sam’s head cleared, his arm and side lost the numbness, and he realised what was happening.
Gabriel was drawing away from him, away from the bond, before he did whatever he was about to do. He was trying to prevent the backlash he’d warned Dean to watch out for.
And he was apologising to Cas…
“Shit!”
This time it was Sam cursing.
“Pull over Dean…pull over now!”
Dean didn’t ask questions, just did as Sam asked, skidding to a stop alongside the road.
“Sammy…?”
“Get Cas out of the car; Gabriel…he’s out of time, and if Cas needs help, you’ll need room.”
As he spoke, Sam was already climbing out of the passenger-side door.
“Take him in the opposite direction to me - I don’t know what’ll happen to the grace in me when he does it…if it reacts too it’ll hurt Cas. It won’t hurt me, before you argue,” - Because Dean had definitely been about to argue - “so just worry about Cas, please?”
With that Sam took off running away from the car as fast as he could go. He hoped Dean listened.
SPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPN
Dean skidded the car to a halt and turned to look at Sam questioningly.
He copied his brother’s movements, climbing out of the car, and moved to the rear door as Sam kept talking.
When Sam said he didn’t know how the grace in him would react Dean wanted to argue - it could hurt his brother, he needed to stay close so Dean could help him…
Sam claimed it wouldn’t hurt him, but Dean didn’t know whether to believe him. Did Sam know, or was he just saying what he knew Dean needed to hear?
He watched without a word as his brother ran back down the road, and cursed whichever son of a bitch had caused this situation.
Shaking his head, he quickly pulled open the door, and grabbed Cas under the shoulders. He dragged him carefully back until he had more room, then manoeuvred him around to get a better grip as he hoisted him up into his arms.
Walking a few feet from the car, he placed Cas carefully on a soft patch of grass and laid him out flat.
Now what?
He glanced up to see how far away Sam was - Damn kid better not have been lying about being okay!
That was when everything went to hell.
He saw Sam’s figure in the distance, running in long strides down the road.
Then the figure crumpled to the ground out of sight.
Before he had even half-risen from the ground, Castiel began jerking on the ground, his body seizing uncontrollably.
“Fuck! Sammy, you better be alright!”
Dean did his best to still the angel’s movements as worry for his friend and his brother fought for dominance in his head.
When Castiel suddenly fell still he breathed a sigh of relief, before realising that the figure on the ground next to him was too still.
Cas wasn’t breathing.
Dean’s hand shot to the angel’s neck, feeling for a pulse he knew he wouldn’t find.
“Don’t you fucking dare! Not now! Come on Cas!” Dean shouted as he leaned over his friend, pressing his hands firmly against his chest.
He didn’t know what had happened, but if Dean could just get his heart beating again…just get him breathing again…well then there was still a chance that Gabriel’s friends could do something.
Music that he vaguely recalled was his cell ringing was quickly dismissed as unimportant.
Dean’s vision blurred as he worked, the faint splashes dropping onto his hands from his eyes ignored.
So what if he was fucking crying.
Cas was dying…hell, until he got him breathing again, Cas was dead! He deserved to have someone who cared enough to cry over him, even if there was no way on earth Dean was letting him stay dead.
The stuttered wheeze that escaped the angel was music to Dean’s ears.
The steady breath that followed it, the ones that followed that, were better than any symphony ever written, and Dean gulped back a sob of relief.
He checked the Angel’s pulse and, finding it strong and steady, pushed himself to his feet and spun, running blindly towards his brother. His hands rubbed at tear filled eyes, trying to clear his vision as he went.
*If you’re dead I’ll fucking kill you Sammy! Please be okay, please be okay…*
He skidded to a stop on his knees alongside his brother’s prone form, ignoring the burn where tarmac wore through thin denim to scrap his skin bloody.
Sam’s eyes stared dazedly up at him, and his hand reached out to grab Dean’s sleeve.
“Cas…?” He forced out, his face a mask of pain.
Half unconscious in the middle of the highway, in agony by the looks of it, and all he wanted to know was if Castiel was okay.
Dean choked back another sob at the thought that this was Sammy…not Sam, who’d run off with Ruby and lied and kept secrets and freed the freaking devil, who’d left Dean alone again after it, who hated and fought and was just so angry at everything. It was Sammy…his baby brother who never once thought of himself first, who cared about everyone around him and believed that they could fix what was broken in the world and stop the monsters…
Gabriel had helped give him back Sammy, and he was never going to be able to repay the Archangel for it.
“Alive, for now…shit Sammy! You scared me to death! Are you…is he…?”
“I think he’s still alive, but if what I’m feeling is only a shadow…”
Sam was cut off by the ringing of Dean’s cell, and the elder hunter pulled it from his pocket quickly.
“Bobby…?”
[About bloody time boy! Why weren’t you idjits answering your damn phones?]
“Oh thank fuck! You’re not dead! Is Gabriel…?”
[He’s here…later you’re gonna explain why I got a Trickster claiming he’s an Archangel in my living room. You boys okay?]
“We’re alive. Ask Gabe if it’s safe for us to come back? Cas’ heart stopped - I don’t think he can wait much longer Bobby…”
[He says to get your idjit asses back here on the double!]
“Gotcha…we’re on the way.”
Dean ended the call quickly before reaching out to grab Sam’s shoulder.
“Wait here Sammy, I’ll grab Cas and the car and come get you. Your Archangel’s alive and kicking - looks like he really pulled us outta the shit this time dude.”
SPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPN
“They’re on the way, and all still alive - barely, in the angel’s case, but alive is alive.”
He didn’t miss the way the Trickster’s shoulders sagged that little bit lower at the news, all tension disappearing from his bloody form in a sigh of what he could only assume was relief.
Bobby’s throat was killing him.
Still he’d take that over dead any day - it had been a close thing, that was for sure.
“Not that I don’t appreciate you saving my ass, but why are you here?”
Oh, he’d put two and two together and got that Dean’s ‘extra help’ was the Trickster - who apparently wasn’t a Trickster after all - but he still hadn’t figured out why the self-proclaimed Archangel freaking Gabriel was swooping down to save his miserable hide from Zach and his goon squad, or why he’d been posing as a Trickster before, for that matter…
“Hadta keep Cas safe, keep Sam safe…” Gabriel mumbled softly. “Gotta look after baby brother, Deano knows…”
Bobby might not know much about angelic physiology, but even he knew it probably wasn’t a good thing that the other man sounded drunk, or that he appeared to still be bleeding.
He eyed his chair, halfway between him and the Trickster, and gave a sigh as he pitched forward and began dragging himself towards it.
Once he was settled, he made short work of fetching the first aid kit from the bathroom, before wheeling over to Gabriel.
“Can ya stand?”
“Hmmm…?”
The bleary stare directed up at him was in no way confidence-inducing.
“Can ya get up, ya idjit? Yer bleedin’ all over my floor, and I can’t exactly kneel down there to fix ya up.”
“Bleeding?”
He glanced down and seemed surprised to see blood still leaking slowly from his wounds.
“Tha’splainsit…never been this tired before…mus’be th’blood loss…”
Not that he hadn’t already been useful, but this was their ‘extra help’? He couldn’t even help Bobby help him, let alone be any use to Dean’s angel when they got here…
Sighing heavily, Bobby pulled open the first aid kit and started working on the shoulder wound, since that was mostly in reach.
He worked in silence, glancing up only when Gabriel spoke.
“Bobby, right? Think we might have a problem here - f’got to fix my vessel when I took out Zach.”
The words were spoken slowly, formed carefully as if it was taking all the man’s concentration. Bobby listened quietly as he worked.
“You said Cas was barely alive, what does barely mean Bobby? What happened when I ki…killed Zachy?”
He ignored the way the archangel stumbled over the word.
“Dean said his heart stopped,” he replied softly.
“Definitely can’t risk it again then…I’ll have to bleed and bear it, huh Singer?”
“You bleed much more and you’ll have bigger worries than fixing Castiel, boy.”
“You do know I’m millions of years older than you, right?”
“Idjit.”
Bobby pulled the bandage he been wrapping tight, before glancing down at the wound in Gabriel’s side.
He was pleasantly surprised to find that while he’d been working the angel had pulled a tea towel from the heater behind him and was attempting to staunch the bleeding some.
“Can you stand? I can’t reach your side down there.”
“Not sure…” The man looked up at him with a smirk. “Guess we’ll find out!”
With that he grabbed onto the arms of Bobby’s chair and pulled himself up, dropping the towel in the process.
“You might wanna work fast - I’m gonna need my strength when they get here.”
“Jus’ hold still, boy - dunno how you got any strength left, anyhow. Thought you were at death’s door earlier, all that nonsense you were mumbling…”
“You and me both old man…still, you know what they say about gift horses…” he broke off in a wince as Bobby pressed a pressure bandage to the stab wound.
“They got bloody ugly mouths and they’ll bite ya in the ass if ya stare?”
A snort of laughter burst free from the archangel and Bobby grinned. The guy wasn’t too bad when he wasn’t actively trying to kill you.
“Precisely. You ‘bout done? Think maybe I need to sit before the room starts doing loops around my head again…”
“Baby!” Bobby snarked softly. “Fine, fine, yer wrapped - sit down b’fore ya fall down, idjit.”
Gabriel fell back against the wall and slumped to the floor, before looking up with a tired smirk.
“How do I look, old man?”
“A bloody mess, boy. Literally.”
Gabriel closed his eyes with a chuckle, and Bobby turned his attention to dressing the gash on his arm from his flight into the wall.
They sat in silence as the minutes stretched on, each preparing to deal with the next batch of problems that were coming in their own way.
When the unmistakable sound of the Impala’s engine rumbled to a halt outside, and Bobby headed for the door, glancing over his shoulder when he heard footsteps behind him.
“Sure you should be up?”
“No, but they don’t need to know that. Cas can’t wait.”
Bobby found himself pinned with a look that dared him to argue, and for once he felt absolutely no desire to challenge it.
He chuckled hoarsely - his throat hurt like a bitch! - as he considered how similar Dean and the archangel were…where baby brothers were concerned at least.
“Fine - just don’t blame me when ya fall on yer face. Idjit!”
Chapter 12
Author: lonelyphoenix85
Rating: R overall, mainly for the odd swear-word
Genre: Pre-slash, angst, hurt/comfort
Pairing:Sam/Gabriel pre-slash, implied Dean/Cas
Spoilers: through to Changing Channels (5x08)
Warnings: None
Word Count: 2689 (this part, 23243 total so far)
Disclaimer: It only belongs to me when I'm dreaming! Bon Jovi owns the song, and the rest is property of the almighty Kripke!
Author's Note: Just wanted to say thanks to my awesome beta for this story, of_red_clouds - you're awesome!
Previous Chapters: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 And now:
“So basically dude, you’re like…Angel-married? To the Trickster?!”
Sam wasn’t sure what to make of Dean’s reaction.
“Uh…sort of…?”
“Sammy, I’ve gotta hand it to you - you don’t do anything by halves! I’m not sure whether to laugh or kill the bastard.”
The anger that had coloured a lot of their recent conversations was completely absent from Dean’s tone.
He didn’t know exactly what kind of reaction he’d been expecting, but this almost easy acceptance hadn’t been it.
“Laughing’s probably better for your health and long-term survival, if that helps…?”
Dean chuckled dryly at that, not answering.
“You’re not angry.”
Sam wasn’t sure if he wanted an answer, so it came out as a statement rather than a question.
“It wouldn’t matter if I was, this thing is pretty permanent from what you’ve said.”
“It matters to me Dean.”
Dean was being level-headed about the situation - if Sam hadn’t already known it was the apocalypse, that would’ve confirmed it.
“Don’t push Sammy, this is not the time for a chick flick moment.”
“When is it ever the time? I just…I need to know where you stand on this Dean. Like you said, it’s pretty permanent, which means Gabe’s probably gonna be around a lot…I mean, if he doesn’t…”
*…get killed.*
Which was a stupid thought, right? Gabriel was an Archangel - they weren’t exactly easy to kill…
Except Sam couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
It might’ve had something to do with the fact that his side had been aching sharply for the last couple of minutes, and he was feeling decidedly lightheaded.
*Yup - something’s definitely not right.*
He should probably say something soon…
“Fine, you really want to know what I think? I think the whole shitty situation sucks ass, Sammy. I think something good finally happened, and it’s about to be torn apart and it’s not fucking fair. So until the shit hits the fan can we please forget it and relax for five seconds?”
“Something good…?”
“You’re free of the demon blood. You’ve got a freaking Archangel on your shoulder for the rest of his life. We’ve got a way to help Cas. As much as I don’t like the guy, all of that is thanks to Gabriel. Right now he’s off trying to save Bobby - a hunter who, the one time they met, tried to kill him - from his dickhead brothers so that we can get Cas somewhere safe. You heard him when he left Sammy…he didn’t think he was coming back and he went anyway, for his baby brother… So yeah, I’m having a hard time being pissed that you’re stuck bonded to the guy.”
Sam was…shocked would be a good word for it, he supposed. Although, when he thought about it, it sort of made sense that this was what it would take for Dean to accept him.
Gabriel was finally being something Dean could understand, could relate to.
All manner of sins were forgiven because Gabriel was trying to be a good big brother.
Sam opened his mouth to respond, but was blindsided by a white hot burst of pain through his shoulder, causing him to double up with a gasp.
“Sammy?!”
“M’fine…s’not me…think it’s Gabriel,” he managed to force out through clenched teeth.
The pain faded to a dull ache to match the one in his side, but his entire arm felt numb now, useless.
“He’s hurt, Dean…badly. I can feel it…”
“What? How?”
“It’s like…I don’t know, phantom pains or something - and dizziness…it was only a bit at first, but now I can barely focus, I’m so lightheaded. It’s weird though, because at the same time, I know I’m fine. I think…Dean, I think he’s losing.”
Black spots danced in his vision now, and combined with the motion of the car it made his stomach heave.
*Dean’ll kill me if I throw up in his baby!* he thought hysterically.
“Shit!”
Dean thumped the steering wheel.
“Shit!”
It took Sam a second to realise that Dean had only spoken once. The second curse had come from someone else.
“Double shit! I am so sorry, brother…”
Gabriel.
He could hear Gabriel.
But why was he apologising…?
All of a sudden Sam’s head cleared, his arm and side lost the numbness, and he realised what was happening.
Gabriel was drawing away from him, away from the bond, before he did whatever he was about to do. He was trying to prevent the backlash he’d warned Dean to watch out for.
And he was apologising to Cas…
“Shit!”
This time it was Sam cursing.
“Pull over Dean…pull over now!”
Dean didn’t ask questions, just did as Sam asked, skidding to a stop alongside the road.
“Sammy…?”
“Get Cas out of the car; Gabriel…he’s out of time, and if Cas needs help, you’ll need room.”
As he spoke, Sam was already climbing out of the passenger-side door.
“Take him in the opposite direction to me - I don’t know what’ll happen to the grace in me when he does it…if it reacts too it’ll hurt Cas. It won’t hurt me, before you argue,” - Because Dean had definitely been about to argue - “so just worry about Cas, please?”
With that Sam took off running away from the car as fast as he could go. He hoped Dean listened.
SPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPN
Dean skidded the car to a halt and turned to look at Sam questioningly.
He copied his brother’s movements, climbing out of the car, and moved to the rear door as Sam kept talking.
When Sam said he didn’t know how the grace in him would react Dean wanted to argue - it could hurt his brother, he needed to stay close so Dean could help him…
Sam claimed it wouldn’t hurt him, but Dean didn’t know whether to believe him. Did Sam know, or was he just saying what he knew Dean needed to hear?
He watched without a word as his brother ran back down the road, and cursed whichever son of a bitch had caused this situation.
Shaking his head, he quickly pulled open the door, and grabbed Cas under the shoulders. He dragged him carefully back until he had more room, then manoeuvred him around to get a better grip as he hoisted him up into his arms.
Walking a few feet from the car, he placed Cas carefully on a soft patch of grass and laid him out flat.
Now what?
He glanced up to see how far away Sam was - Damn kid better not have been lying about being okay!
That was when everything went to hell.
He saw Sam’s figure in the distance, running in long strides down the road.
Then the figure crumpled to the ground out of sight.
Before he had even half-risen from the ground, Castiel began jerking on the ground, his body seizing uncontrollably.
“Fuck! Sammy, you better be alright!”
Dean did his best to still the angel’s movements as worry for his friend and his brother fought for dominance in his head.
When Castiel suddenly fell still he breathed a sigh of relief, before realising that the figure on the ground next to him was too still.
Cas wasn’t breathing.
Dean’s hand shot to the angel’s neck, feeling for a pulse he knew he wouldn’t find.
“Don’t you fucking dare! Not now! Come on Cas!” Dean shouted as he leaned over his friend, pressing his hands firmly against his chest.
He didn’t know what had happened, but if Dean could just get his heart beating again…just get him breathing again…well then there was still a chance that Gabriel’s friends could do something.
Music that he vaguely recalled was his cell ringing was quickly dismissed as unimportant.
Dean’s vision blurred as he worked, the faint splashes dropping onto his hands from his eyes ignored.
So what if he was fucking crying.
Cas was dying…hell, until he got him breathing again, Cas was dead! He deserved to have someone who cared enough to cry over him, even if there was no way on earth Dean was letting him stay dead.
The stuttered wheeze that escaped the angel was music to Dean’s ears.
The steady breath that followed it, the ones that followed that, were better than any symphony ever written, and Dean gulped back a sob of relief.
He checked the Angel’s pulse and, finding it strong and steady, pushed himself to his feet and spun, running blindly towards his brother. His hands rubbed at tear filled eyes, trying to clear his vision as he went.
*If you’re dead I’ll fucking kill you Sammy! Please be okay, please be okay…*
He skidded to a stop on his knees alongside his brother’s prone form, ignoring the burn where tarmac wore through thin denim to scrap his skin bloody.
Sam’s eyes stared dazedly up at him, and his hand reached out to grab Dean’s sleeve.
“Cas…?” He forced out, his face a mask of pain.
Half unconscious in the middle of the highway, in agony by the looks of it, and all he wanted to know was if Castiel was okay.
Dean choked back another sob at the thought that this was Sammy…not Sam, who’d run off with Ruby and lied and kept secrets and freed the freaking devil, who’d left Dean alone again after it, who hated and fought and was just so angry at everything. It was Sammy…his baby brother who never once thought of himself first, who cared about everyone around him and believed that they could fix what was broken in the world and stop the monsters…
Gabriel had helped give him back Sammy, and he was never going to be able to repay the Archangel for it.
“Alive, for now…shit Sammy! You scared me to death! Are you…is he…?”
“I think he’s still alive, but if what I’m feeling is only a shadow…”
Sam was cut off by the ringing of Dean’s cell, and the elder hunter pulled it from his pocket quickly.
“Bobby…?”
[About bloody time boy! Why weren’t you idjits answering your damn phones?]
“Oh thank fuck! You’re not dead! Is Gabriel…?”
[He’s here…later you’re gonna explain why I got a Trickster claiming he’s an Archangel in my living room. You boys okay?]
“We’re alive. Ask Gabe if it’s safe for us to come back? Cas’ heart stopped - I don’t think he can wait much longer Bobby…”
[He says to get your idjit asses back here on the double!]
“Gotcha…we’re on the way.”
Dean ended the call quickly before reaching out to grab Sam’s shoulder.
“Wait here Sammy, I’ll grab Cas and the car and come get you. Your Archangel’s alive and kicking - looks like he really pulled us outta the shit this time dude.”
SPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPN
“They’re on the way, and all still alive - barely, in the angel’s case, but alive is alive.”
He didn’t miss the way the Trickster’s shoulders sagged that little bit lower at the news, all tension disappearing from his bloody form in a sigh of what he could only assume was relief.
Bobby’s throat was killing him.
Still he’d take that over dead any day - it had been a close thing, that was for sure.
“Not that I don’t appreciate you saving my ass, but why are you here?”
Oh, he’d put two and two together and got that Dean’s ‘extra help’ was the Trickster - who apparently wasn’t a Trickster after all - but he still hadn’t figured out why the self-proclaimed Archangel freaking Gabriel was swooping down to save his miserable hide from Zach and his goon squad, or why he’d been posing as a Trickster before, for that matter…
“Hadta keep Cas safe, keep Sam safe…” Gabriel mumbled softly. “Gotta look after baby brother, Deano knows…”
Bobby might not know much about angelic physiology, but even he knew it probably wasn’t a good thing that the other man sounded drunk, or that he appeared to still be bleeding.
He eyed his chair, halfway between him and the Trickster, and gave a sigh as he pitched forward and began dragging himself towards it.
Once he was settled, he made short work of fetching the first aid kit from the bathroom, before wheeling over to Gabriel.
“Can ya stand?”
“Hmmm…?”
The bleary stare directed up at him was in no way confidence-inducing.
“Can ya get up, ya idjit? Yer bleedin’ all over my floor, and I can’t exactly kneel down there to fix ya up.”
“Bleeding?”
He glanced down and seemed surprised to see blood still leaking slowly from his wounds.
“Tha’splainsit…never been this tired before…mus’be th’blood loss…”
Not that he hadn’t already been useful, but this was their ‘extra help’? He couldn’t even help Bobby help him, let alone be any use to Dean’s angel when they got here…
Sighing heavily, Bobby pulled open the first aid kit and started working on the shoulder wound, since that was mostly in reach.
He worked in silence, glancing up only when Gabriel spoke.
“Bobby, right? Think we might have a problem here - f’got to fix my vessel when I took out Zach.”
The words were spoken slowly, formed carefully as if it was taking all the man’s concentration. Bobby listened quietly as he worked.
“You said Cas was barely alive, what does barely mean Bobby? What happened when I ki…killed Zachy?”
He ignored the way the archangel stumbled over the word.
“Dean said his heart stopped,” he replied softly.
“Definitely can’t risk it again then…I’ll have to bleed and bear it, huh Singer?”
“You bleed much more and you’ll have bigger worries than fixing Castiel, boy.”
“You do know I’m millions of years older than you, right?”
“Idjit.”
Bobby pulled the bandage he been wrapping tight, before glancing down at the wound in Gabriel’s side.
He was pleasantly surprised to find that while he’d been working the angel had pulled a tea towel from the heater behind him and was attempting to staunch the bleeding some.
“Can you stand? I can’t reach your side down there.”
“Not sure…” The man looked up at him with a smirk. “Guess we’ll find out!”
With that he grabbed onto the arms of Bobby’s chair and pulled himself up, dropping the towel in the process.
“You might wanna work fast - I’m gonna need my strength when they get here.”
“Jus’ hold still, boy - dunno how you got any strength left, anyhow. Thought you were at death’s door earlier, all that nonsense you were mumbling…”
“You and me both old man…still, you know what they say about gift horses…” he broke off in a wince as Bobby pressed a pressure bandage to the stab wound.
“They got bloody ugly mouths and they’ll bite ya in the ass if ya stare?”
A snort of laughter burst free from the archangel and Bobby grinned. The guy wasn’t too bad when he wasn’t actively trying to kill you.
“Precisely. You ‘bout done? Think maybe I need to sit before the room starts doing loops around my head again…”
“Baby!” Bobby snarked softly. “Fine, fine, yer wrapped - sit down b’fore ya fall down, idjit.”
Gabriel fell back against the wall and slumped to the floor, before looking up with a tired smirk.
“How do I look, old man?”
“A bloody mess, boy. Literally.”
Gabriel closed his eyes with a chuckle, and Bobby turned his attention to dressing the gash on his arm from his flight into the wall.
They sat in silence as the minutes stretched on, each preparing to deal with the next batch of problems that were coming in their own way.
When the unmistakable sound of the Impala’s engine rumbled to a halt outside, and Bobby headed for the door, glancing over his shoulder when he heard footsteps behind him.
“Sure you should be up?”
“No, but they don’t need to know that. Cas can’t wait.”
Bobby found himself pinned with a look that dared him to argue, and for once he felt absolutely no desire to challenge it.
He chuckled hoarsely - his throat hurt like a bitch! - as he considered how similar Dean and the archangel were…where baby brothers were concerned at least.
“Fine - just don’t blame me when ya fall on yer face. Idjit!”
Chapter 12