Transmission from the Trickster

Chapter 17

Two days later, no one has caught sight of Gabriel, and Sam's starting to get concerned. Every time he has a free moment, he wants to check on the angel, but he always has to convince himself not to. The whole point of this was to get him to come out of hiding, and Sam is determined to make sure that happens.

Still, that doesn't stop him from walking by the library more often than necessary, just to listen for some sign that Gabriel's still in there. It's usually fairly quiet, but occasionally, he can hear the flipping of pages in a book, which is both reassuring and slightly concerning — how bored is he in there if he thinks lore books are the best source of entertainment?

Sam is searching through the archives with Dean, Cas, and, unfortunately, Ketch for something on the Seal of Solomon when Gabriel finally makes an appearance. He stands in the doorway almost timidly, not making a sound. Sam barely notices he's there, but when he does, he can't help but feel a pang of relief.

"Hey," Sam greets him, which gets everyone's attention in the otherwise silent room.

"Finally decided to join us?" Dean adds.

Gabriel gives him a halfassed smile before walking over to Sam, peering over his shoulder and reading the papers in front of him. "Well, that's boring."

"Trust me, I'm well aware of that," Sam replies. "Since you're here, want to grab a book and help us out?"

"Help you open a portal to bizarro world?" Gabriel scoffs. "Not a chance."

"Gabriel, think fast," Dean says as he throwing a book at him, definitely not leaving enough time for anyone to catch it.

Gabriel doesn't even turn around to face him, just reaching a hand back and grabbing it, almost out of instinct. He reads the cover and groans. "I'm not reading this. I think I might literally die of boredom."

"Ah, yes, the two ways to kill an archangel," Dean says. "And archangel blade and a lame book."

Gabriel just throws the book back at him, barely missing his head.

"Hey!" Dean whines. "That could've decapitated me."

"Oh, you're right," Gabriel agrees. "Quick, give it back. I wanna try it."

"Do they always fight like this?" Ketch asks.

"The few times they've met, it does tend to go like this," Castiel replies.

"Oh, I don't know if I'd say that," Gabriel replies. "First time we met, we talked about hookers and aliens. Not a bad first impression, if you ask me. Now, the stabbing me part, that kinda ruined things a little, not gonna lie."

"Oh, please," Dean says, rolling his eyes. "You knew it wouldn't kill you."

"Yeah, but you didn't," Gabriel replies. "It's the thought that counts."

"Well, you killed me a hundred times later, so I think we're even."

"Touché," Gabriel replies. "Tou-freaking-ché."

"Back to the important matter at hand," Ketch interrupts. "Are you going to help find the Seal or not?"

"Nah, I'll just watch and make fun of you," Gabriel replies. "You lot can go on your wild goose chase to open the rift that will do nothing but get you killed if you want."

"Wow, thanks for the concern," Dean deadpans. "We should've just left you in Hell."

Sam shoots him a glare. That was rude, though not quite uncalled for. He's used to Dean's sarcastic remarks, but that's cold, even for him. He probably doesn't realize just how cold it is, though.

Surprisingly, Gabriel doesn't take offense to it, though. Instead, he just says, "Yeah, you should've, but you didn't, so now you have to deal with the consequences, and those consequences include my complaining to distract you from what you're trying to do so you never actually get around to opening the rift."

"Why do you care?" Dean asks as if there's no possible way this should affect him.

"Because it's stupid, even for you," Gabriel replies.

Sam can already sense a fight ensuing from this, so he steps in to take care of it before it reaches that point.

"Look, Gabriel, I know you don't like this, but you have to look at it from our perspective," Sam says.

"But your perspective is usually wrong," Gabriel replies.

Sam ignores that. "Our mom is over there. Jack is over there. Maybe it's too late for your family — the angels, the pagans. Maybe they're too far gone to save. But there's a chance that ours isn't. Can you honestly say that if you thought there was a chance to save your family, you wouldn't do it?"

Gabriel just looks at him for a few tense seconds. Suddenly, the book he threw at Dean flies into his hand. He sits down on the floor, his back against one of the shelves, and opens the book without a word.

Dean looks between Sam and Gabriel in disbelief. He pulls out a pen and writes on the corner of one of his papers, "How did you do that?"

Sam shakes his head at his brother and takes his phone out of his pocket. The first thing he texts his brother is, "Don't write on the MOL archives. Those are pieces of history."

Dean just rolls his eyes.

Sam texts him again, this time to answer his question. "Once you get to know him, it's not that hard to reason with him."

Dean raises an eyebrow. "You say that like you've been best friends for years." There's a brief pause, and then Dean adds, "You haven't been friends for years, have you? This is a new thing, right?"

Sam has to fight the urge to roll his eyes. "I didn't even think he was capable of having friends until a few days ago."

"No passing notes in class," Gabriel says suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Castiel asks.

"Those two," Gabriel specifies, gesturing to Sam and Dean with his head.

"No one passes notes anymore," Dean tells him, completely ignoring his sentiment. "It's called texting."

"Well, yeah, but I never pretended to be a teacher in the era of cell phones," Gabriel replies. "I'm more a late-twentieth-century type than the gen-z kids."

No one questions that. Instead, they just embrace his reminder to get back to work, so that hopefully, they can find something on the Seal of Solomon sooner rather than later. It's silent for a while. Occasionally, something will fly off a shelf and land in Gabriel's lap, but otherwise, nothing happens.

Suddenly, Gabriel stands up — which in itself is weird, because he seems to enjoy levitating things — and walks over to Sam. He places the open book on the table without a word, and Sam has to keep mentally repeating that now is not the time to get excited for it. There's no guarantee that it's anything on the Seal.

But it is.

Sam looks up at him with a grin. "Nice. See? You're already part of the team."

Gabriel rolls his eyes. "Don't remind me." With that, he walks away, leaving a very confused group of people behind.