FIC: Tom Hanks, Eat Your Heart Out
Pairing: Gabriel/Sam Winchester
Summary: Gabriel likes to pop in on his favorite hunters and his best little brother to make sure they're doing okay and not in danger of dying or breaking the world again. Finding Sam chilling in a tiny motel bathtub with a massive scaled and finned tail was definitely a new one, though.
Tags/Warnings: Involuntary Species Change, Dean Being An Impulsive Idiot, References To Canon Torture, Winchester Guilt Complexes
IF HE EVER managed to discover the twist of fate (or Fate) that had Frigga showing up in the middle of Loki's diatribe against the death of Odin and broken vows made to gods, Gabriel was absolutely going to have to do some pretty grand gestures of gratitude. Despite still being visibly in mourning for her murdered husband, Frigga had been absolutely incensed over what Loki had planned to do to the Archangel "in retribution" for something that she had already Seen wasn't even his fault and which he had tried repeatedly to stop to his own detriment. Furthermore, given her general purview, Frigga had already "read ahead in this story" and had no intention of losing more family members to senseless acts of unnecessary revenge.
"All that research you have done into binding an Archangel might be better served offered to that little Seraph who is trying to keep our Gabriel's third brother from picking up where the eldest two left off before his desperation drives him to do something all of us will regret," she had told Loki tartly, and promptly taken Gabriel out of her brother-in-law's presence and off to the tender mercies of Asgard's healers.
Gabriel heard about the eventual showdown after the fact once Eir had deigned to release him from her clutches and he had managed to track down the "little Seraph" in question. Castiel had been understandably wary to have another Archangel in front of him so soon after having dealt with Raphael, but he was at least willing to listen when Gabriel explained where he had been (stuck in Asgard first in their prison because Loki was pissed off that Lucifer killed Odin, and then in the Healers' Hall) and what he wanted (to find out what the hell was going on because the rumors were wild) and what he planned to do now (to go back to as much of his former life here on Earth as he could manage, preferably with less dying). Hearing from Castiel about the second War of Heaven was heart-wrenching enough that Gabriel was begrudgingly willing to admit that Frigga and Eir had been right to keep him bedridden for as long as they had. Hearing what had happened to Sam and Dean Winchester while said second War was happening had not been any better, especially when he heard about the damage to Sam's soul and how one of Raphael's agents had broken the wall in his mind that Death had put up as a distraction technique, and to his own aggravated dismay Gabriel felt a very strong need to see them for himself to make sure they were really all right now.