Gabriel wasn't sure what Sam's reaction would be, he could hug the archangel, he could yell at him and all would be perfectly acceptable, but to say nothing? No. That was absolutely not okay. The looked of sadness on Sam's face was enough to tell him that, yes, he screwed up, and maybe he should've come back sooner but he couldn't and surely Sam would understand that.
But what Sam wouldn't understand was why the colours had faded when his soulmate was not truly dead, and when Gabriel explained it was very likely he was going to be punched.
Sam finally spoke after five minutes of silence. "I mourned you." He whispered. "I cried next to your body for hours... and all this time. Sure I hoped you were alive but I always thought if you were you'd come back." He said, staring at his feet.
Gabriel stepped closer to the hunter and sighed. "I know how it all ended, Sam. I had to die, well, pretend to die for everything to go to plan... I never expected it to hurt you so much or I wouldn't have done it."
"The worst part though was losing colour for the second. At first I thought you weren't dead because I could still see it but then it just slowly faded."
"That's my fault." Gabriel muttered. "I knew you'd try and find me if I didn't do something so I changed the way you saw, slowly, made you lose the ability to see colour, that's why you still can't even though I'm here." He explained and he swore he never seen Sam so angry in the whole time they'd known each other, even when he killed Dean in many different creative ways.
"You done all that to convince me you were dead?! Screw you!" Sam snapped. "I hated every second that I didn't have you, I blamed myself for your death, Gabriel. You obviously didn't care, did you? You must of heard me praying to you. Every single night, sometimes more than once and you never cared." He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head.
"I don't know where you've been hiding all this time but just go back, Gabe, you obviously don't want to be here."
"Sam, that's just stupid." Gabriel said, reaching out to touch him but Sam jerked away making him pull back. Sam said nothing would Gabriel hated, he wanted Sam to yell at him, hit him, anything but ignore him.
"I'll... I'll be listening, if you need me just pray, Sammy." He muttered.
Gabriel was gone before Sam could even look up from his feet and he couldn't help the slight feeling of guilt tugging at him, but he shook it off, he couldn't forgive him so easily, he'd just think it was okay to do it again.