Title: Mystery Spot Misunderstanding
Author: wolfish_willow
Pairing: Sam/Gabriel
Rating: PG-13 this part, NC-17 overall
Genre: angst, hurt/comfort
Spoilers: Anything up to and including 5.14
Warnings: angsty!Gabriel (switchin' it up!... or not)
Word Count: 1264
Disclaimer: Not my characters. Just using them for a bit of fun. They belong to Kripke.
Summary: Gabriel goes all angsty, and Sam suffers for it. (AU from 5.14 - so all episodes after My Bloody Valentine are being totally and utterly disregarded. *nodnod*)
Chapter Summary: Gabriel worries about Sam's reaction to him
A/N 1: beta'd by the amazing ladyeternal. Thanks so much, bb! Any remaining mistakes are my own.
A/N 2: Well, I got my flash drive back, my beta was awesome and got this to me. But now my laptop charger is broken, so I have to wait for the new one to get here. Just warning you that it may be another while before I post again. And I'm sooo sorry that I took forever with this one. There's been some major drama irl right now.

Masterpost

Gabriel looked around to find himself back at the cemetery; specifically, the plot where they had reunited the bodies of the spirit and its wife earlier. He hadn’t consciously made the decision to end up here; he’d just snapped… fled really – and aren’t I good at running? he thought bitterly as he scuffed at the ground with the toe of his shoe. The area around him was dark, but he could still make out the freshly manipulated ground left by the Winchesters. He ran a hand over his face and sat down cross-legged in front of the patch of dirt, running his fingers lightly over it and listened to the quiet surrounding him while his mind seemed to be screaming.

Gabriel just didn’t know what to make of Sam’s behavior – his words, and the tone with which the hunter spoke them. What the hell could have happened in a week to make Sam act like that? Because Gabriel was sure that, even if Sam had been more invested in their relationship than the archangel originally thought, ending it would still not have caused Sam to look at him how he had. But nothing had happened. Nothing could have happened. Neither of the brothers – though Sam probably would have gone to Castiel before Gabriel if earlier had been any indication – had called for help all week. They’d been free of demons, free of Apocalypse-grade catastrophe of any kind. Hell, their hunt of the week had turned out to be just some lovesick, lonely ghost who only wanted its bones to be moved closer to its family. The week had been quiet. So what was he missing?

The patch of dirt refused to give him any answers as he ran his fingers through it, though he stared long and hard at it just in case. Gabriel sighed, long and slow, as he thought over what his next course of action should be. What he wanted to do was wallow in self pity, as far away from the Winchesters as he could get. What he needed to do was check on Sam, see if he could find out what had the kid so rattled. Because people don’t get that bad, that fast, without something or someone pushing them to it.

Gabriel thought he understood what Dean meant now, though. All of his reflecting over the night allowed him to recall what the older Winchester said while Sam had been locked away in the bathroom. The archangel had been avoiding them for days. Which meant that there had probably been signs in Sam’s behavior that he hadn’t witnessed – something those spirits had seen, his mind saw fit to remind him. Though, if Sam had been acting strange, and Dean hadn’t once called on the archangel to see what was going on, then Dean was in for a long talking-to (because Castiel wouldn’t be thrilled if Gabriel actually did anything to the man). Dean obviously thought that the break-up was the cause of Sam acting the way he had.

That had been his first theory, too, and Sam had looked completely heartbroken when he begged – God, Sam begged him – to leave him alone. It didn’t set right with Gabriel, though. Because, even if Sam’s normal reaction to a break-up was to essentially break down, Sam had also seemed scared, and Gabriel couldn’t imagine that was normal. And, as horrible as the things Gabriel had done to Sam in the past had been, he’d never done anything since joining Team Free Will to earn being looked at so fearfully - especially not by Sam (and in Gabriel’s experience, a person didn’t look terrified when confronted by their ex, unless they were worried about some awkward situation).

Minutes passed silently as Gabriel lost himself in thought. He pushed his fingers into the ground in front of him, trying once again to figure out what the ghosts had seen in Sam earlier. Anything seemed better to think about than seeing Sam again, seeing how small he’d managed to make himself look. But eventually the need to check on Sam outweighed his apprehension over Sam's reaction. Gabriel stood from the ground slowly and brushed the dirt off of his pants and hands, clearing it all off with a thought, and sent one last look to the plot of dirt below him before snapping himself back to the motel.

***
The room was dark and quiet when Gabriel returned – though he was able to see a Sam-shaped lump on the bed furthest from the door, could hear the human’s soft breathing. He wasn't all that surprised when he saw that Dean's bed was empty. Sam had made it clear that he didn't want to talk about anything with anyone; he had been talking to Gabriel as he said it, but the angel figured the same had probably been applied to Dean as well. The archangel just hoped that Castiel would be able to take Dean's mind off of Sam and the past week for a bit. Gabriel needed to deal with Sam on his own right now.

It wasn't until he was standing right next Sam's bed that he noticed the way the human was twitching and the lines of discomfort etched on his face. If there was one time of day that Sam should be calm, it should have been while he was sleeping. Gabriel had set up barriers to keep his nightmares at bay, to work against anything Lucifer tried to send at him. But as he watched, Sam's small movements seemed to only become more fitful, the lines on his forehead creasing deeper.

Gabriel knew he needed to keep himself out of Sam's head, that if Sam reacted so horribly to him in waking life, it would likely be worse if he just popped up randomly in one of his dreams - nightmares if Sam's restlessness was any indication. Not wanting to freak the kid out any more than he already had, Gabriel decided that leaving something to soothe Sam was the best course of action he could take. So he snapped his fingers as softly as he could manage and the next second a small, trumpet shaped pendant appeared in his hand. Since he wanted to stay out of Sam's head, he planned on letting the little charm take care of the problem for him.

The pendant glowed briefly in his hand as he infused a small amount of his presence within it, before he leaned in to set it down next to Sam. But his close proximity to Sam, only seemed to agitate the human further. Sam's flinch away from him felt like a blow to Gabriel's gut and he could have sworn that his heart broke when he heard the whimper that tore itself from Sam's throat. Apparently, whatever had Sam feeling afraid of him while he was awake had even transferred to when the hunter slept. And that was just too much for the archangel to take.

He needed to get to the bottom of these reactions Sam kept having to him. And as afraid as Gabriel was of what he'd see when he entered Sam's mind, he knew that he couldn't stay away any longer. He'd done enough with his absence over the week, missing all the signs Sam had been giving off. There was no way he would ignore these new signs as they presented themselves right in front of him. Determined, Gabriel pressed two fingers to Sam's forehead and slipped himself into the kid's mind.

Chapter Seven                                                                                                                                                                                  Chapter Nine