All You Did was Save my Life

Confrontation

            Gabriel was lying on his bed staring up at the ceiling. The younger boys were napping which meant Gabriel had nothing to distract him from his thoughts.

            "Why didn't he come back?" he muttered to himself, "Why did it take him a year?" He was interrupted by a knock on the door and he sat up.

            "Come in!" he called, already knowing who it was. Sure enough, the door opened and there stood Sam. "What do you want Sam?"

            "I want to talk to you," Sam said, but Gabriel didn't reply. "Come on Gave, we can't go on like this!"

            "I'm not doing this here," Gabriel stood and went to walk past him.

            "Gabe, listen-" Sam started, grabbing the angel's arm.

            "I said I'm not doing this here!" Gabriel hissed, pointing towards Henry's crib, "Downstairs. Now." Gabriel stalked out of the room, Sam hot on his heels. The pair entered the kitchen and Gabe turned to face Sam.

            "What?" he said sharply and Sam was suddenly reminded that he was facing an archangel.

            "We can't go on like this," Sam said, "We don't talk anymore.. I haven't even held Henry!"

            "You could have held him a year ago," Gabriel said coolly, "You chose not to."

            "I couldn't come back a year ago!" Sam exclaimed.

            "Why not?' Gabriel asked, "What were you doing that was so important, huh? Hunting?" Sam said nothing. "That's what you were doing, wasn't it? You were hunting!"

            "I had to," Sam said.

            "You had to?" Gabriel said sarcastically, glancing at Dean and Cas as they entered the room, "You had to spend the past year hunting instead of telling your family you weren't dead?"

            "I-" Sam started, but Gabe wasn't finished.

            "Instead of spending the past year with your son, you were hunting?!" Gabriel exclaimed, eyes glinting dangerously.

            "I had to," Sam said, "I don't expect you to understand-"

            "That's good, cause I don't!" Gabriel cried.

            "I had to be out there!" Sam shouted, "I couldn't come back! I couldn't stay here! I didn't want to come back!" The room fell silent as everyone stared at Sam in shock. Before Sam's eyes, Gabriel seemed to deflate. The all-powerful archangel lost the anger in his face and it was replaced by what can only be described as anguish.

            "You didn't want to come back?" he said quietly.

            "Look, I fell into the pit which meant I was dead. I don't know why I'm back and I wanted to figure that out," Sam said as Gabriel stared at him in disbelief, "I needed to figure out what had happened. So yeah, I was hunting. I was hunting down every demon I could find to figure out how the hell I got out of the pit. I didn't want to come back until I did that."

            "And did you?" Gabriel asked.

            "What?" Sam asked.

            "Did you figure out how you got out of the pit?" Gabriel asked.

            "No." Sam shook his head and Gabriel leaned closer to him.

            "Then why did you come back?" he hissed before turning and walking out of the room. Sam stared after him, but made no move to follow. Cas looked at Dean before following his brother out of the room.

            "Gabriel?" he said gently, "Are you... alright?"

            "No Cas," Gabe laughed bitterly, "I'm not alright." He turned and Cas saw his brother's eyes were puffy and red-rimmed.

            "Sam is not himself," Cas said, "I don't know what it is, but we will figure it out."

            "Well, when you figure it out come and find me, will ya?" Gabriel said, looking away.

            "What?" Cas said in confusion and Gabriel turned back to his little brother, smiling sadly.

            "I can't stay here Cas," Gabriel said, "Not with him here, knowing that he could have come back and he just didn't... Sam was right about one thing, we can't go on like this. It's not fair on Jesse and Henry, and I don't want to do this anymore!"

            "So... what are you going to do?" Cas asked.

            "I'm going to contact Balthazar and get the boys ready," Gabe told him, "I have to leave. Tonight."