Pelion, with all its woods: Deleted and unfinished scenes

[whit_merule]

So, Pelion was originally going to be much longer: one scene from each of the weeks that Gabriel, Sam, Castiel, Gwen, and Rachel were Outside, told in such a way that they conveyed a sense of what had been going on throughout the rest of the week. But that one central scene, with Gabriel and Sam, just kept getting longer and longer, and I didn't

Comments

[auroramama]

This is just too much fun.
some small part of him wishes Sam would fight for him, would want to keep him and say to hell with everything else, but as if that would ever work out, and he wouldn’t be able to let him fight for it
"...to let him fight"? Good luck stopping Sam from fighting for anything he wants. I bet Dean would be laughing if he knew.

Having been reminded of Gabriel in canon claiming that it's the boys' fault Michael and Lucifer are going to fight -- literally refusing to pardon them for existing -- one thing I really like about your universe is that no one is saying that here. Sam is haunted by his actions in Gabriel's unmasking and captivity, but he's not responsible for the other archangels. The Winchesters aren't anyone's fighting uniform.

[whit_merule]

I think Gabriel probably could stop Sam fighting just at this point - Sam is so confused by it all that Gabriel can effectively shut him down by never giving him anything to fight against, not letting him know where he stands. But Sam regains his own footing later, and also a sense of exactly what he wants to fight for: not the sex, but for being allowed to be Gabriel's friend, to not be shut out, and of course to travel with him.

(... Sex will come later.)

Yes, Dean gets to feel guilty for a few things he's done or not done in the course of the story, but the Michael and Lucifer fight was never theirs. :)

[auroramama]

Oh, the Kafka Relationship Dissolver (see Judith Martin, Miss Manners) -- the more difficult disappearing-in-place version. (Now you see me, now I'm still standing here but attempts to communicate blow right through me.) Sam is completely out of place and can only go on what the angels give him, and it's not like he has experience with sophisticated derailment techniques and tricksy folk to fall back on. Stubborn and emotionally unforthcoming, yes; sophisticated, not so much.

So if Gabriel could do it, it could work on Sam. But somehow Gabriel doesn't quite manage to do it. I wonder how much of that is Sam in need of hands-on contact, and how much is sheer loneliness. Friendship is tempting and appears less dangerous than sex. Oh, and I wonder if Sam's canine form left Gabriel off-guard. It's hard to barricade yourself against something as innocent as a friendly, bewildered dog.