Transmission from the Trickster

Chapter 20

"Gabriel?" Sam says quietly. "Gabriel, you can open your eyes now."

Gabriel just whimpers.

"Gabriel," Sam repeats, more forcefully this time. "Open your eyes. You're okay. Everything's okay. Now open your eyes."

He doesn't.

"Gabriel!" Sam snaps his fingers in front of his face. "Open. Your. Eyes."

When Gabriel flinches, Sam begins to think that was a bit too harsh, but apparently not, because Gabriel slowly opens his eyes and looks around. His grip on Sam's hand begins to relax as he remembers where he is.

"Are you okay?" Sam asks. "He didn't take too much? Didn't break your vessel or something?"

Gabriel takes his hand back and looks down at it as if comparing it to his other hand, and it occurs to Sam that this may be the first time in a very long time that he's been able to look at his hands and see that they're not covered in dirt or blood. It must be a weird reality for him, especially after having had his grace sucked out again in a way that probably only ever happened in Hell.

Finally, he just says, "No."

"To which question?" Sam asks.

Gabriel doesn't answer for a moment. Then, "All of them."

Sam sighs and crouches in front of him, down to eye level. "You're okay. You're safe here. Don't forget that."

Gabriel swallows hard and nods.

"Can I do anything for you?" Sam asks. "Anything that will make you feel better, or...?"

"Just..." Gabriel reaches down and takes his hand again, gently this time. The dull throbbing from when Gabriel squeezed it too tight disappears, but if he took his hand just to heal it, he must change his mind, because he doesn't let go. "Stay."

~~

Sam and Gabriel sit in silence for a long time. Occasionally, one of them will say something, but it never results in more than one minute of conversation. Eventually, Sam falls asleep with his head on the library table, making up for the hours of sleep he missed the night before, too preoccupied with getting back to Gabriel's side to rest for long.

He's not sure how long he sleeps for, but he wakes up to find Gabriel sitting back in his chair, his feet propped up on the table, and a laptop in his lap. It takes Sam a moment to remember that Gabriel doesn't have a laptop, so if it's not Gabriel's, whose laptop is it?

The answer is obvious, of course. Sam scowls and grabs it from him to find that he's watching the newest Star Wars movie. How he got the movie on here, Sam is sure he doesn't want to know.

"I swear to god, Gabriel, if you gave my computer a virus to get this..." Sam mutters, exiting the movie without a second thought.

"Hey! I was was watching that!" Gabriel whines.

Sam shuts the laptop and slides it across the table. "How did you even get my computer?"

"You left it out. I found it. I used it." Gabriel shrugs. "Not much to it, really." He reaches a hand out and the laptop flies back over to him. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a few years worth of movies to catch up on."

Sam scoffs. "Seriously? With everything that's going on right now, you're just going to watch Star Wars?"

"Uh, yeah. Where's the problem?"

Sam opens his mouth to say something, but when he realizes he that nothing he says is going to be nice, he just closes his mouth and sighs. "Fine, whatever. But just this movie, then you're off my computer."

"I knew you'd come around," Gabriel says with a grin. He puts the computer on the table between them and lets the movie continue playing. "Have you seen this before?"

"Everyone has seen this," Sam replies.

"Really?" Gabriel frowns. "Great. Now I'm behind on pop culture for the first time since pop culture became a thing."

"You'll survive," Sam replies.

They lapse into silence as they watch the movie together, and it's all going fairly smoothly until Gabriel randomly rewinds the video and plays part of it again with no explanation. Sam gives him a puzzled look, but he doesn't seem to notice. Gabriel pauses it again suddenly and asks, "What the hell is he doing?"

It's during the Kylo Ren and Rey fight scene when they're fighting the guards together, and apparently, Kylo thought it was a good idea to stab the ground just for the pretty lights.

"That is an excellent question," Sam replies. He tries to think of some logically reason that this would seem like a good idea, but he has nothing.

"And look, these two guards are fighting each other," Gabriel adds, playing the video again and pointing at them. "What even if this?"

"Stupid," Sam replies. "It's stupid. But it's Star Wars, so it's pretty good just on principle."

"It's the stupidest Star Wars movie ever," Gabriel mutters under his breath as they finish out the scene.

It's not until the end of the movie that they really talk to each other about it, without pointing out any more of the stupid production flaws.

"Is it just be, or is Kylo Ren the definition of a whiny douche bag?" Gabriel asks.

"Trust me, it's not just you," Sam replies. "You either love him or you hate him, and if you have a brain, you probably hate him."

"This is just a really crappy money tree for Disney," Gabriel says. "The only real Star Wars movies are the original three, and I will stand by that until my dying day."

"You and me both," Sam agrees. "They totally butchered the original characters' personalities in these movies, and I'm kinda glad they're killing them off, one by one."

"One more movie about Leia, and we're done with them, right?" Gabriel asks.

"I think that was the original plan," Sam says. "But Carrie Fisher's dead, so that kinda throws a wrench in the plan."

Gabriel freezes, seemingly genuinely shocked. "I'm sorry, did you just say that Carrie Fisher is dead?"

Sam rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "You probably didn't know that one, did you?"

"No! No, I didn't, and I think you should've prefaced that with something to soften the blow!"

"You say that like I just told you your best friend died," Sam says, trying not to roll his eyes out of respect for Carrie Fisher.

"Well, I wouldn't say best friend, but yeah, we've met a few times," Gabriel says. "This hurts, man. This is not what I wanted to come back to."

It's then that Ketch runs into the room, breathing heavily. Gabriel flinches at the sight of him, but quickly regains his composure, and they both wait for him to speak.

"The rift's closed," Ketch tells them.

"And Dean and Cas?" Sam asks.

"Gone."