Epilogue

[low_key_angel]

Gabriel doesn't know how he managed it - only that he had. The last thing he remembered clearly was Lucifer's frozen grip like a vice around his wrist, driving his sword up and back into his chest. Then he was laying flat on his back in the middle of a mini-mart, much to the consternation of the young clerk. A shaky reassurance later, he stumbled outside and into the night, giant slurpee in hand.

Hey, he can't think on an empty stomach.

It takes a few days for Gabriel to put it all together, where he'd been and what had happened. The memories were fuzzy but they were real. Anna, Sam, Dean, Loki, friends and family that he'd never had in this world. A family that had loved him and a family he fought and died for more than once. What he remembers best is Sam. Tangled in bed with him, laughing on the couch over something ridiculous, even charging headlong into danger with the hunter at his side.

Gabriel sends out quiet feelers, seeking out the hunter and what he learns is a fucking horrorshow that rivals any of the hazy memories of the prison they had been trapped in together. Dean, ever the self-hating moron, had gone and taken the Mark of Cain and was currently rampaging his way across the west coast with Sam hot on his heels.

So he follows, waiting for Sam to pull off at a motel for the night before he simply appears in the passenger seat with a faint flutter of wings. Will he remember him? Gabriel hopes so. He doesn't really relish starting from scratch.

"Heya Sammy."

Comments

[fromfryingpantofire]

There's a moment of shock that reverberates down the bond, then a more cautious feeling out of things. This is Sam, after all, and it's not like he's completely unused to this sort of thing.

Just...never from a bond outside of himself, that's all.

He takes a shuddering breath, letting it out slowly as he raises his head to look at Gabriel. You can talk, he manages down the bond. Or think or...whatever. Not entirely unused to this, you know.

[low_key_angel]

The first thing that rolls across the new bond is amusement and Gabriel strokes a hand along his hip, soothing the burn. "Yeah, I know you aren't. But this is a little different too, kiddo. This is mutual, and it's for both of us." A light feather of grace dances across the bond, warm and tentative.

No more being alone. No more wondering.

[fromfryingpantofire]

It feels better almost immediately, the burn lightening to a duller pain with Gabriel's touch. He knows that it really shouldn't, that the touch should only intensify the pain. Probably would have if it were a normal burn.

He lets out a sigh of relief, though, settling against Gabriel more easily. "It's nice." It's going to take some time to get used to the bond, to know what can be done with it. But it already feels better, being able to feel Gabriel before him in a way that's more than physical.

[low_key_angel]

They might not be any safer here than they had been.. wherever that prison had kept them. But they were together and the bond meant that nothing would keep them apart again. He had Sam back. The rest of the world could frankly go hang, as far as Gabriel was concerned. At least for tonight.

Gabriel leaned for a kiss, mischief lighting up his eyes. "And I bet it's going to have all sorts of fun applications once we get the hang of it."

[fromfryingpantofire]

The kiss is good for settling Sam, though he laughs and shakes his head as Gabriel speaks. "It very well might. Right now, I'm just glad to have you closer." Physically as well as spiritually. Or however you wanted to define the bond.