Lean on Me

harplesscastiel:

Occurs during 13.18 Bring ‘Em Back Alive

(Anonymoose says:  It always bothered me that Cas didn’t seem particularly distraught about Gabriel’s condition, besides a basic, “you didn’t tell me it was that bad” so this is my attempt at fixing it)

Cas arrives while Sam is in the bunker kitchen, staring at the grace container on the table in front of him.  Sam startles when he hears the tell tale flapping sound of the angel arriving.

“Sam, I got here as soon as I could…what is this?”  He gestures to the container.

“Gabriel’s grace.”

“Gabriel’s….grace?”  Cas says, unbelievably.  Sam fills him in as he places it in a silver tray and as they walk to Gabriel’s room.

**********

Once they leave the room, after the disastrous attempt to feed Gabriel his own grace, Cas leans back against the wall outside Gabriel’s room.  Sam starts walking towards the library, not realizing that Cas isn’t behind him. When he does, he turns around and walks back to Cas, concerned.

“Cas?” he asks, softly.

“Asmodeus…..what he has done….” he looks up at Sam.  “Gabriel is an archangel, Sam. To break one of the strongest of us….” he looks back at Gabriel’s room, conflicting emotions fluttering across his face.  “He’s one of my brothers, Sam. It is terrifying to see him broken down like this.”

Sam places his arm around Cas.  “I know. I am terrified when Dean is hurt, I can’t imagine what it must feel like for you to see another angel in that condition.”

“Especially when there isn’t anything you can do to fix it.”

“Especially then.”  Sam pauses. “Come on, let’s give Gabriel some space.  Hopefully with some time he will realize we aren’t trying to hurt or use him like Asmodeus.  Meanwhile, why don’t we do something to get our minds off of our brothers.”

“Like what?”

“Well there’s that bookcase in the back of the library that hasn’t been cataloged yet.  I mean, it’s not the most glamorous of activities, but it will keep us busy and productive.  We can check in on Gabriel again in a couple of hours and see how he’s doing.”

“Yea, okay, Sam.  Let’s do that.” He allows Sam to walk him to the library.  Hopefully Sam is right, and all Gabriel needs is time. He takes one last mournful look at Gabriel’s room, and then turns forward, leaning a little into Sam’s embrace.  Sam has a lot more experience in this situation, he’ll trust his advice. As they reach the library, he asks, “Okay, so where do we start?” and Sam grabs his hand and leads him to the back of the library.  “Over here,” he says, leading Cas to a messy bookcase at the far end of the library.

“So, the Men of Letters used a variation of the Dewey Decimal System….you know what that is, Cas?”  Sam asks. When Cas shakes his head no, Sam goes into lecture mode and starts explaining the different book classification methods, and as Cas watches Sam happily share his knowledge, he feels so honored that he has this…whatever this is with Sam.  He feels confident that with Sam, they can get Gabriel back on his feet. For the first time today, he feels some sense of hope for the future.

“Cas, you got all that, you ready to start?” Sam startles Cas out of his reverie.  

“Yes, Sam, I am ready.”

And he was. He honestly, truly was.