All I need is a miracle/All I need is you

[fromfryingpantofire]

Things had been going well lately. Hunts just seemed to fall into their laps, the book Sam needed at the library had just been handed in or just been reshelved, the sheriff or local law looking the other direction when they needed to get to a cemetery for a salt and burn. It had been going really, really well.

It should have occurred to Sam that things were going a little TOO well, honestly. But he didn't even think about it until a knife that should have had his name on it simply ricocheted off his chest, as though he had some forcefield up around him.

Later that night, Sam pulled his overshirt off at the hotel, looking at the spot where the knife had definitely started to pierce the fabric. "Okay. There's definitely something weird going on here."

Comments

[fromfryingpantofire]

Sam, on the other hand, spends most of the drive looking out the windows of the Impala or halfway to nodding off. He didn't entirely sleep well, having to force himself not to get out the DVD again. It had been months since he'd watched it, tired of the ache of things could have been, if only one or the other of them had been able to speak up. When he had slept, though, it had been filled with the same warm, golden light that had filled his dreams recently. So it hadn't been entirely bad.

Still, by the time one rolled around, Sam was more than ready to get out of the Impala and stretch his legs. He groaned as he stepped out of the car, stretching so that his back almost cracked.

[a_righteousman]

A quick stretch, realigning the back and Dean is headed towards the door. "Come on Sammy. I smell cheeseburgers." Man food. Just what he needed after a long drive.

The bar wasn't much different than any of the hundreds they'd been in before. Polished wood floor, tables, beer lights on the walls. Dean gave the place a quick once-over looking for anything out of the ordinary before dropping into one of the booths near the bar and picking up the menu.

So maybe he gapes just a bit when two beers are set down at the table by a freaking dead angel.

"Of all the bars in the world, you two meatheads happen to walk into mine." Gabriel was grinning easily at them, and doing his very level best not to stare at Sam. The spell was doing it's job, he could feel it humming in his bones. His very mortal bones.

[fromfryingpantofire]

It's not like Dean's the only one gaping. Sam's doing his best impression of a fish out of water as well, his stomach twisting as he tries his best to sort out what's just happening.

Because Gabriel...Gabriel is alive and handing them beers. And Sam couldn't decide if he wanted to punch him or do something else.

Right now, the punching was winning out, which is why Sam forced his hands out flat on the table. "Somehow, I'm thinking this wasn't just coincidence."

[low_key_angel]

Seeing Sam.. it's like getting stabbed all over again. His chest is tight and he can't quite breathe as much as he'd like to. Needs to now, considering he's human.

"Probably not. Let me guess, someone tried to hit you with a car or something and it bounced off you like a superball. And you, being you, went and hit the books."

The spell was supposed to be unbreakable and more importantly, untrackable. Sam was supposed to live out his life safe and never really knowing that Gabriel had not only died for him, but he'd offered up his grace to keep him protected.

Fucking loopholes.

[fromfryingpantofire]

"Knife, actually. Should have had my name on it and instead bounced off of me like I was Superman." Sam looks up at Gabriel, trying his best to keep his expression neutral. He's not sure how well he does, because he mostly feels angry and hurt. "It also seems to grant a stupid amount of luck when it comes to finding what you're looking for."

Which explained how they found a way to track the spell and how they found Gabriel at all.

[low_key_angel]

Anger he's used to. Most people were never terribly happy to see him in his old life. It's the hurt that surprises Gabriel for a long moment before it finally hits him.

"You watched the whole thing, didn't you?" His message to Sam. The one he wasn't sure he'd see. A declaration that he would have stayed for him. That he could have loved him. "You did. You watched everything."

He barely notices Dean sliding out of the booth. He'd always had his eyes on Sam, even back then. "So you're not here to ask why then."

[fromfryingpantofire]

Gabriel may not notice Dean leaving, but Sam does. And he doesn't try to stop him because...because this is something that he and Gabriel apparently need to hash out between themselves. Dean knew about the message, after all.

"Not exactly," he says, pushing himself up straight to look Gabriel in the eye. "See, we were on our way to ask why. Seeing as, you know, the only angel we knew about who would willingly give up his Grace to protect me was dead and all."

[low_key_angel]

"And I should have been. I woke up in the same place maybe a year later. No one had recovered the bodies. Too much bad juju in a place like that where so many gods died. I don't know who brought me back Sam, before you even ask."

Since Dean is gone, Gabriel steals his beer. "Took another year before my grace was back in any sort of functioning shape. You hadn't retired, so.. I made a decision. After one last flight and building this bar, I cut out my grace and used it to protect you."

Right about here is where Gabriel expects to get hit. Being human, it's probably going to hurt too.

[fromfryingpantofire]

He might actually have hit him if Sam wasn't working out the timelines on that. A year after his death, tracking Sam down wouldn't have done much good, what with him being without a soul and all. Another year and that was when Castiel had opened Purgatory.

Reaching up, Sam pinched the bridge of his nose. "We...you could have come to us, you know. Not just...carved out your Grace and did this." He made a motion to himself. "Which, by the way, seems to have had one hell of a time delay on it. It only actually started working in the last few months."

[low_key_angel]

“Considering how much trouble you two were already dodging? You kind of didn’t need me making both of you a bigger target. I’ve already got enough people hacked off at me, angel and pagan alike. If I showed up on your doorstep, they’d have followed.”

Not that he didn’t want to see Sam, to talk to him and tell him what he’d done and why. But given what he was dealing with? Distance seemed far safer.

Gabriel picks at the label on the bottle. “It’s not the easiest spell to put together. There are a lot of moving parts and it took time to get it working. Besides, you would have said no."

[fromfryingpantofire]

"Well, you're entirely right about that." He still can't really believe it, that Gabriel carved out his own Grace to protect Sam. "I don't...I don't understand, I guess. I would rather have had you with us, enemies or not."

[low_key_angel]

He lays his hands flat on the table, looking down at them in a gesture oddly reminiscent of that last message he left on the DVD before facing down his brother. "I know Sam. And don't think that I didn't want to be there. Don't think that I didn't want to see you."

"It was the one way I'd know you were always safe. I needed you to be safe Sam. To get that chance to be happy."

[fromfryingpantofire]

It takes a few moments, but Sam finally reaches over, placing his hands over Gabriel's. He's still hurt more than mad, but the urge to hit something is still there.

It's just that that something isn't really Gabriel anymore.

"I would have been happier knowing you were alive," he finally said. "Maybe not at first. There was...there was a lot of stuff going on about the time you were brought back. But I still would rather have known." It might have made other things so much easier.

[low_key_angel]

"Problem with being an average joe, even with the ridiculously high IQ. Sometimes I even make bad calls. No more power to poke at all the potential outcomes." Gabriel flips his hands so his palms are up beneath Sam's.

"It was enough for me to know that you were safe Sam. That whatever you were going up against, I'd be able to protect you."

[fromfryingpantofire]

He probably doesn't have to tell Gabriel that, for some things, it was too late to protect him. Especially after the debacle with the last tablet. Instead, he squeezes Gabriel's hands and pulls his back.

"We were headed for Chattanooga," Sam says, reaching for his bottle. "At least, that's where the spell told us to go. Really weren't expecting to meet our quarry about half way." Even at Dean's driving speeds, he hadn't expected to reach the city until close to nightfall or just after.

[low_key_angel]

"Sometimes the aim on those things is a little wonky. I also messed with a few wards around the place, which probably muddled up where the spell thought I was." Hey, he's mortal now. Gotta be careful.

Gabriel lets Sam's hands go and leaves his on the table for a moment. "So now that you've found me, you two sticking around for a couple of days?"

And he wishes his voice didn't sound quite so hopeful at the question.

[fromfryingpantofire]

"It was enough to put us on the right road. Though I'm pretty sure the spell you laid on me was the one that made sure what route we took." And the fact that they'd stopped at this bar.

Sam glances up, more to figure out where Dean is than anything. "I'd...I think I'd like that. I'm not sure what Dean will do, though. He might head back to Lebanon instead." It didn't hurt to let Gabriel know where they were. If anybody was likely to know where the Men of Letters bunker was, it was going to be the archangel who had spent so long among humans.

[low_key_angel]

"Back to the Batcave, hm? Yeah Dean's gotta be pretty stoked about that place. I'm glad you guys finally found it." He knew of the Men of Letters, their connection back to the Winchesters. They found their legacy and finally had a home. Win-win, really.

"I've got a place close by, more than enough room for two if you wanna crash there and not bother with the local no-tell motel?"

[fromfryingpantofire]

Even if it has taken time for Sam to come to terms with the place as an actual home rather than a place to work. But he really does love the bunker now.

Sam takes a breath and nods. "That would be good, actually. Really good. Save a bit on the funds as well." Though that has been going their direction, too, when they're hustling. Or when Sam's hustling, mostly. He's not sure if that's the spell or just running into suckers, though.

[low_key_angel]

"Sure thing. Mi casa and all that stuff." It would be nice to have Sam nearby for a few days while they figured things out, or at least had some time to talk. He'd left him that message at the back of the dvd, but never had the courage to tell him how much he really cared.

Maybe they'd get that chance now.

"I can hand over the reins to someone else if you wanted to talk? Or are you two going to set up shop in a corner for a few?"

[fromfryingpantofire]

The truth of the matter is, it's probably going to end badly. That's how it always ends for Sam, at least. It's just the way that his life is.

And yet, there's still a part of him that hopes. It's the reason why he's been able to survive when everything else has gone so wrong over and over again.

So he looks over again and catches Dean's eye, tilting his head back toward the table. "I think Dean and I need to talk at least for a couple of minutes. I'll let you know what the decision is, then."

[a_righteousman]

"Sure. Talk it over, lemme know what the deal is before you two skedaddle." Gabriel pushes away from the table and heads back towards the bar. Focusing on simple, mundane tasks like work while Sam is sitting right there won't be easy but he can fake it reasonably well.

Dean slides back into the booth, peering back at Gabriel with a frown. "What the hell is he even doing alive?"

[fromfryingpantofire]

Sam shakes his head, focusing on Dean because it's easier than trying to deal with what's in his head right now. "He doesn't know. Woke up in the same place where he'd died and just...sort of did his best to stay low. Didn't want to come to us when he'd only bring more enemies to our door."

Which, honestly, Sam thought was a bit bullshit. All the Winchesters have ever done is deal with enemies. It isn't like it would have been new or different, even dealing with the Leviathans or Crowley.

He takes a breath, letting it out slowly. "I'd...kinda like to stay for a few days."

[a_righteousman]

"Mhm." Dean pulls a face as he glances over at Gabriel. "Yeah because he's been so good at looking after more than his own ass in the past."

But hey. It's not his call to make. Dean shakes his head. There was always something a little different between those two and better that they sort it out now, inbetween disasters. "All right Sam. 's your call. You want me to stick around?"

[fromfryingpantofire]

"I'm pretty sure we've got proof of at least one time when he's looked after more than his own ass." Because Sam's now Superman or something. He's not too certain he should look too deeply at it.

Sam shakes his head after another moment of thought. "No, you don't have to. I should be able to get home on my own if you'd rather not hang around."