Lucifer Deux

Fourteen

Sam woke up the next morning with a groan. His back and neck ached from sleeping in a chair by Gabriel's bed. He began to rub the back of his neck in an effort to soothe it.

Gabriel woke not long after Sam did. He rubbed his eyes a bit and then started to sit up.

"Hey, Gabriel. Did you sleep well the rest of the night?" Sam asked.

Gabriel didn't answer. He just looked around the room. "L...Lucifer?"

"I'm not sure. He should be back by now. Maybe he crashed in another room," Sam said. He hoped that was the case anyway. If Lucifer and Amenadiel weren't back yet, it probably meant something went wrong. "Are you hungry? We can go down to the kitchen if you want?"

Gabriel was very reluctant to do that. He didn't like being around too many people. It made him feel cornered. But he knew Sam wanted him to go, and he didn't want to disappoint him.

"You don't have to. I can bring you up some breakfast," Sam said. He didn't want to pressure Gabriel into doing something he wasn't ready for. Gabriel needed time to heal from what Asmodeus had done to him.

"I...I'll go," Gabriel stuttered. It was still hard for him to speak. It had been so long since he was able to speak that his voice came out very raspy, and the simplest of words hurt to get out.

"Okay, great," Sam said before standing up.

Gabriel got up and started walking as well. He limped a little as he walked. He was still healing. It would probably be a long time before he could walk normally again.

Sam led the way down to the kitchen. Halfway there, he smelt something burning. As he turned into the kitchen, he saw Cas by the stove with Amenadiel hovering over him.

"Castiel, I do not eat, so I may be the wrong person to give advice on cooking, but I'm pretty sure bacon isn't supposed to be black," Amenadiel said.

Sam immediately rushed over and pushed the seraph out of the way. "Cas, what are you doing?! Are you trying to burn down the bunker?"

"No, I was attempting to cook the morning meal, but Amenadiel says I have failed," Castiel said.

"Spectacularly, Cas. You have failed spectacularly," Sam said as he took over control of the stove. He took the burnt bacon out of the pan and put it on a waiting plate. "One of you throw that away."

Amenadiel snapped his fingers and the burnt food disappeared.

"Okay, I guess that works too," Sam said before putting fresh bacon in the pan and turning the burner down.

Amenadiel, meanwhile, turned around and noticed his younger brother hovering in the doorway for the first time. "Gabriel, hey. How are you feeling?"

Gabriel just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't really know how to answer that. He wasn't great, but he'd also been much worse, like in that cage with Asmodeus torturing him. He shuddered just thinking about that. Suddenly he found himself terrified of going back there. He'd been safe here with Lucifer for the last few days, but Asmodeus wasn't just going to let him go. He was going to come after him.

Sam noticed the terrified look on Gabriel's face. "Gabriel, are you okay?"

"N...Need L...Luci," Gabriel said in a scared voice.

"He's upstairs sleeping, brother. He hasn't slept in about three days, so he conked out last night," Amenadiel said. He was surprised to hear Gabriel speak, but he immediately went to reassure his brother.

"Days?" Gabriel asked confused. They hadn't been gone for days. It had only been one night.

"Yeah. We were in Hell, so time moved differently," Amenadiel said.