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It had been hell, dying, really dying this time. He had at least expected it to be peaceful, after the excruciating pain faded, but it had been everything but. He woke up in a black room, nothing to see, but a familiar figure. It was him. He was looking at himself.
“You’re not supposed to be here…” The man said, looking him over. “You have already been laid to rest.”
Gabriel looked at him with a squint, wanting to explain he hadn’t actually died before, but the figure held out his hand, shutting him up before he could say a word.
“You’re not supposed to be here at all…” His copy said. “This worlds Gabriel has died long before you arrived, there is no place for you here. But what to do with you then?” The man smiled as he tapped his finger against his cheek, looking Gabriel over thoughtfully. “If I send you back to this earth you’ll just end up here again… I guess there’s only one solution.” The man snapped his fingers and Gabriel’s vision went black.
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When he opened his eyes the room was dark again, but a different kind of dark. Not the eternal darkness of the angels’ last resting place, the darkness of a room with no lights on. As his eyes adjusted to it, he realized he knew this room. The one that watched over the resting angels send him back to his world. Back to where he had crossed over. Back to the men of letters bunker.
Gabriel looked around, running his fingers over the table just to make sure it was real. It seemed real. That meant they would be there as well, the Winchester’s, Castiel and his new nephew Jack.
He doubted whether to tell them he was here, or to leave and hide again, with them believing him to be gone, forever this time.
Then he remembered Sam’s face as the man had cut through the stitches that held his lips closed. The broken look he had as he tried to get Gabriel to talk again. The way he had seen Sam cry when Lucifer stabbed his illusion. Back then he had chosen to hide, but this time he could make it right. He went over to Sam’s room.
The youngest Winchester slept so light these days, if he slept at all that was. He was haunted by everything that had happened and sleep just brought images to mind he could bare. In his dreams things were fine, until they weren’t.
Cas and Dean were happy together, until ‘Dean’ laughed at how they didn’t realize Michael never left his vessel and stabbed Cas with an angel blade.
Sam was at diner with mom, Bobby, Dean, Cas and Jack, until they all melted away letting out agonizing screams as Lucifer loomed over him in the cage he had never left.
Gabriel walked into his room as his usual happy smug self, until his stomach bursted open and shines blue grace before it leaves his body completely and there’s nothing left but a broken vessel and charcoal black wings on the floor.
So when the door opened and Gabriel walked through, waking Sam from his light sleep, Sam didn’t smile. Instead tears rolled over his cheeks. Gabriel smirked, misreading the tears as a sign of relieve.
“I didn’t know you’d be that upset at me being back.” He joked as he walked closer. Sam shook his head. “You’re not real.” He told him. “You died.”
He clutched his sheets, shaking. “I can’t watch you die again… Please…” He begged as he hid under the blanket, but nothing happened. Nothing aside from the angel stopping in his tracks. “Sam?” He asked unsure. “I… I didn’t die…” He told him in a soft voice, walking closer again, wary of every step. “You should be used to this sort of thing by now, right...?” He joked, eying Sam to see if the joke was in bad taste.
Sam came out from under the covers. “Gabriel?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, kiddo.”
“Let me feel you.” Sam told him as he looked into his eyes.
Gabriel lifted his eyebrow. “Well that’s straight forward, not that I’m complaining.” He grinned as he walked over to Sam, not hesitating for a second before getting into the bed and pressing up against the taller man.
“I meant your hand or something…” Sam laughed, before his eyes grew big in realisation. “In my nightmares, nothing felt whole somehow…”
“But I do now?” Gabriel filled in, pretending he wasn’t at least a bit humiliated about jumping into the bed, apparently uninvited.
Sam smiled. “Now you do.” He said as he put an arm around Gabriel, wanting to feel him closer now that he could. He sighed as he forced himself to move away slightly when his worn out brain made sence out of the situation. “I guess we should wake up the others.” He told him, reluctant to get out of bed now that he was suddenly sharing it with Gabriel.
At the snap of a finger Gabriel was wearing a hoody and sweatpants, more comfortable in a bed than his jacket could ever be. He pulled Sam closer. “We can tell them tomorrow. I think you need some more sleep and someone to chase those nightmares away." He told Sam before placing a kiss on his cheek.
Sam didn’t protest, instead he let Gabriel pull him close, and whether Gabriel actually did something to ward him against nightmares, or whether it was just him holding Sam through the night, Sam didn’t have a single nightmare as he slept, cuddled up with the archangel.