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A Reluctant Match

Chapter 1: First Impressions Aren't Everything

Castiel grumbled to himself in frustration as he tried to focus on the old and worn book open in front of him on the map table inside the war room. The angel did his best to block out his brother Gabriel as he paced back and forth beside the table. His arms were crossed over his chest, exaggeratedly huffing and sighing his annoyance. The Archangel didn't want to be there in the first place. He had barely made it out of Apocalypse World alive, and now the Winchesters had the nerve to ask for his help again.

If it hadn't been for Jack asking, along with Castiel, he would have told them to shove it and not let the door hit them where his father split them on the way out. But, it

had

been for Jack. So he agreed and went with his little brother and the young nephilim to the bunker, only to find a note from Sam and Dean that simply said: Helping with a salt and burn. Be back soon.

That was four hours ago.

Gabriel roughly, and loudly, plopped down into a seat across the table from Castiel. The younger angel glared at his brother through his eyebrows.

“You know, Gabriel,” Castiel started, not bothering to hide his annoyance of his brother, “there are far more productive things to do then stomp around like a toddler in a temper tantrum.”

Gabriel's eyes quickly cut to him in a cold glare. “Like what exactly, Cas? Go over the same books you all have been through a hundred times?”

Castiel slammed his book shut and opened his mouth to argue, but before he could the metal door of the bunker swung open harshly and banged against the cement. Both angels jumped to their feet as Sam and Dean came rushing through the door.

Dean was carrying an unconscious woman in his arms. Her long blonde hair, pulled back into a ponytail, was caked with dirt and blood. He was holding her close to his body, and his jacket was wrapped around her torso. But the fresh blood seeping through the clothing was unmistakable, coming through at such a rate that it started to drip to the ground as he sprinted down the iron staircase with Sam hot on his heels.

“CAS!” Dean shouted, his voice strangled.

When the brothers caught sight of both angels standing in the war room with wide eyes, relief washed over them. Dean hurriedly brought the young woman over to the map table and laid her on its surface. The lighting within the table accentuated just how pale and sickly her skin had become as her head lolled to the side. The elder Winchester removed his jacket and revealed the deep gashes to her stomach that poured her blood onto the table.

“Cas you have to heal her!” Sam pleaded.

The angel simply nodded and rushed to the other side of the table to lay his hand upon the woman's forehead. He concentrated and his hand began to glow with healing light.

“What the hell happened?!” Gabriel demanded. “I thought it was just a salt and burn?”

“That's what we thought,” Sam said dejectedly. “But once we started to dig deeper we figured out it was a witch. We killed her, but right before she died she threw this black dust at Aylia, and then those gashes just started to appear in her stomach. Our phones were dead and we weren't far from the bunker so we just took off and got here as fast as we could.”

“She passed out about ten minutes ago,” Dean added, not taking his guilty eyes away from Aylia as Castiel continued to heal her.

“It was a simple dark self defense spell,” Castiel revealed as the wounds on Aylia's torso started to fade away. “Luckily she doesn't appear to have inhaled too much of it, so healing her is proving easy. She is going to be in pain for a few days, though.”

The angel removed his hands from her as the last of her wounds dissipated and the color returned to her skin.

“She's going to be OK then?” Dean asked.

“Yes,” Castiel confirmed. “I recommend she stay here for a few days while she recovers. We should keep an eye on her.”

A groan escaped Aylia's lips as she started to stir. Her hunter green eyes fluttered open and focused onto Castiel.

“I'm guessing you’re Cas?” she said with a small smile, even though her voice reflected how weak she still felt.

“I am. How are you feeling?”

“Like I got hit by a semi,” she grunted as she started to try and sit up.

Dean quickly offered her his hand and helped her down from the table to sit in a chair. Castiel moved around the table to kneel in front of her. He gently took her chin between two fingers and she let him move her head from side to side.

“The magic is gone, but you will feel some pain for a few days,” he explained to her as he released her chin and stood. “I think you should stay here for a few days, just so we can make sure you are good to go.”

She glanced questioningly at Sam and Dean.

“Is that alright?” she asked.

“Like you even have to ask, Lia,” Dean told her.

“Yeah, you know you're always welcome here,” Sam added.

“Thanks guys,” Aylia said appreciatively.

“So, who screwed up and got the girl hurt?” Gabriel asked, his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his lips.

All eyes in the room turned to him. Aylia scrunched her face in disdain for the Archangel.

“And who the hell are you?” she asked angrily as she stood from her chair.

“This is the other angel we told you about,” Dean explained with just as much ire in his voice as her. “This is Gabriel.”

Aylia’s furious eyes never left the Archangel as she took a step forward. “Not that it's any of your business

flyboy,

but I'm the one that missed something!”

“

Don't

call me flyboy!” Gabriel growled in response as he closed the remaining distance between them.

“Don't be a dick!”

“I wasn't even talking to you!”

“Hey guys, chill!” Sam exclaimed as he pushed himself between the two, forcing them to take a step back. “We all need to coexist here for a while. Let's try not to rip each other's heads off!”

“Uh, no, actually I don't,” Gabriel said as he moved toward the stairs.

“Seriously?! You're going to bail on them because I insulted you?!”

Gabriel spun on his heel to face her again. “Not that it's any of

your

business,” he mocked, “but I'm not

bailing

on anyone. I'm just getting out of this room because you're a bitch!”

“Fuck you, asshole!” Aylia shouted and turned to storm out of the war room and into the remainder of the bunker.

“In your dreams, sweet cheeks!” Gabriel retorted before he turned and ascended the stairs. He slammed the metal door behind him as he left.

“Well that went well,” Dean said sarcastically as he looked between his brother and Castiel.

Later that night after Sam and Dean had gotten Aylia settled into one of the rooms at the bunker and introduced her to Jack, the brothers sat at the table in the kitchen. Each sat silently as they nursed a bottle of beer. However, when Castiel entered the room looking slightly haggard, they set their bottles on the surface of the table as their senses prickled instinctively.

“What's wrong, Cas?” Dean asked, fully on alert

“I convinced Gabriel to come back,” the angel said as he slumped into the seat next to Dean.

“Shouldn't that be a good thing?” Sam asked cautiously.

“We went to see Jack when we came back,” Castiel told them. “Aylia was in his room.”

Sam and Dean groaned their understanding.

“I just

thought

you and Gabriel didn't get along, Dean,” Castiel continued. “But these two make it look like you're best friends.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “They seem to mix about as well as oil and water. Should be a fun few days.”

“Hundred bucks says they are screwing within a week,” Dean said as he picked his bottle up to take a drink.

Sam and Castiel turned flabbergasted looks his way.

“How do you figure that, Dean?” Sam asked.

“They can't stand each other!” Castiel added.

“Mark my words boys, by this time next week, they'll be all over each other,” Dean said with complete confidence.

Aylia let out a frustrated growl as she let herself fall back onto the full size bed in the bedroom Sam and Dean were letting her stay in. The pain Castiel had mentioned she would experience had been starting to set in for a while now, and thanks to that infuriating Archangel, she now had the beginnings of a migraine to go along with it.

Why was he even here? Why did Sam and Dean trust him after everything he had done to them?! He obviously didn't want to be here either. Exactly how much help could he be with this whole other world Michael thing, and helping with Jack, if he didn't want to do either?

He was rude, a smart ass, and just plain disrespectful! But, honestly, what did she expect from an angel, and an

Archangel

at that! Castiel was alright and Jack was sweet and endearing. They were the only exceptions. Gabriel, however, was exactly what she had been expecting from what Dean had told her about him.

Pain suddenly seared through her abdomen, knocking her perturbed thoughts from her mind. She whimpered as she turned to her side and curled into a fetal position. The pain was so sharp it took her breath away. She started to pant as a layer of sweat broke out over her body. Just as she was starting to consider calling for Castiel, the sharpness dulled to an ache and then was gone.

Rolling back onto her back and stretching her legs out, she wove her fingers through her hair as she tried to bring her breathing back to normal.

It was going to be a long few days.

Gabriel sat in the library, his feet propped on the table in front of him with his fingers laced together behind his head. Anger burned in his whiskey eyes as he stared at the bookcase so hard in front of him he could have burned a hole in it. How could one woman be so utterly rage inducing?

She was an outright bitch! How could Sam and Dean even be friends with this girl? He wasn't terribly fond of the Winchesters either, but he knew they were good men and did a lot of good for this world. Aylia was judgemental, crass, and hostile! How either brother could stand her was beyond him.

After the screaming match that they had just had in Jack's room, about what he couldn't even remember now, the only thing he wanted to do was get as far away from this woman as he could. He would’ve taken off if he hadn’t promised Castiel that he wouldn’t do just that before entering his nephew’s room. He sighed heavily and dropped his arms to his sides.

It was going to be a long few days.

The next morning, with Gabriel and Aylia seemingly having come to the unspoken decision of just simply not acknowledging each other, Sam and Dean stood around the end of the counter in the kitchen with Aylia, while Jack and Castiel sat with Gabriel at the table. While the arrangement was still obviously awkward, it seemed to keep the peace. So, they all just went with it.

Aylia sipped coffee from a large mug while she listened to Sam and Dean's brotherly banter. A soft smile sat on her lips; she had been friends with the Winchesters for a few years now, and her favorite moments with them would always be the ones just like this: when they were all just normal for a second. A loud bout of laughter from across the kitchen pulled her attention and she discreetly cut her eyes toward the table where the angels and nephilim sat. The laughter had come from Gabriel. A smile still clung to his lips as he responded to whatever had caused the joyful noise to come from him.

Aylia found herself taken by surprise at the sight of him. He looked much different with a smile on his face instead of that smug little smirk or a scowl. His honey brown hair that fell just past the top of his ears and led into slight curls at the nape of his neck was silky and looked absolutely touchable. His golden amber eyes sparkled beautifully, taking her breath away for just a moment, and the soft little flat tip of his nose was adorable. He was just wearing a simple dark blue t-shirt and jeans this morning, and her eyes roamed down of their own accord to his defined arms. She could see the muscles working as he shifted in his seat to rest them on the table in front of him. He wasn't just attractive, he was, and she absolutely positively hated to admit it,

hot

!

“Earth to Lia!” Dean called as he waved a hand in front of her face, shattering her thoughts.

“Huh? What?” she stammered as she focused on the elder Winchester.

Dean quickly shot a knowing grin at his brother who rolled his eyes and quietly took a drink of his coffee.

“I asked if you wanted me to take you to pick up your car this morning?” Dean repeated as he turned his eyes back to her.

“That would be great!” she exclaimed, a bright smile taking over her features.

Gabriel had looked over just in time to see Aylia's lips curl into an enchanting smile. He couldn't believe how much different she looked this morning. She had taken her long golden blonde hair out of its ponytail, and it flowed gracefully down her back in waves. Her deep green eyes were lit up with excitement for whatever the Winchesters had just said to her, and he couldn't help but stare for just a moment. Without her face scrunched up into a glare, he could see the soft features of her face. The form fitting spaghetti strap black tank top and skin tight jeans she wore perfectly showed off the ample swell of her breasts, flat stomach, and the heart stopping curves of her hips and tight butt. All of it combined made his breath hitch in his throat. Why did this infuriating woman have to be so beautiful and, as much as it pained him to admit,

sexy

?

“What do you think, Gabriel?” Jack asked, pulling the Archangel back to the conversation.

“About what?” Gabriel asked as he turned back to his nephew.

He didn't see Dean watching from across the room with a small and contemplative smirk on his face.

When Dean had exited his Impala after he and Aylia had returned from retrieving her car, he had announced that he needed to speak with everyone in the library. One by one they all gathered into the room, Gabriel and Aylia taking seats at opposite ends and sides of the table with the others spread out between them, Dean standing at the head. Once they were all seated and looking at the eldest Winchester expectantly, he had informed them that Jody had called and needed Sam, Castiel and himself to come help her with an issue a few hours north of her. When he had furthered his explanation by telling them that he thought it was a good idea for Jack, Gabriel, and Aylia to stay behind, it was like lighting the wick to a stick of TNT.

“I'm sorry, Dean,” Gabriel started sarcastically, “but do I

look

like a fifteen year old girl?! I'm not a damn babysitter!”

“Well you sure as hell act like one!” Aylia shot back. “Besides, pretty sure it's

you

that needs the babysitter. You're the flight risk from what I understand!”

“You really think you can just run that pretty little mouth of yours about whatever the hell you want don't you?! You don't know or understand

anything

about me! Don't act like you do!”

“I understand enough!” Aylia retorted. “Don't just assume Jack and I need you to

babysit

us, as you so

eloquently

put it! I can take care of my damn self and I’m sure Jack can as well!”

“Then why the fuck are you still here?!”

“I could ask you the same question!”

“OK! ENOUGH!” Dean shouted over them. “No one is asking anyone to babysit the other. You all have your respective issues at the moment and it's better if you guys stay here. That's it!”

Gabriel and Aylia both scoffed at the other as they leaned back in their chairs, crossing their arms over their chests, and grumbling under their breath about the other.

Jack was looking back and forth between the two with wide eyes, contemplating about asking Dean if he could move his mini fridge into his room so he could hide out until they got back. Castiel pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and pointer finger as he shook his head. Sam, however, regarded his brother with suspicion in his eyes.

“Are you

sure

Jody needs all

three

of us to come up

?

” he asked, not bothering to hide his wariness of the situation.

“Sam, you know Jody wouldn't call unless she really needed us,” Dean said a little too casually for Sam's liking.

The younger Winchester narrowed his eyes at his brother's ambiguous response. What the hell was he up to? “I know she wouldn't. That's why I asked if

you

were sure.”

“Of course I'm sure we need to go,” Dean replied quickly. “We will be back in a few days.”

Sam released a heavy sigh as he looked between Aylia and Gabriel, who were still angrily avoiding looking in the other's direction. He was certain he was going to return in a few days to find that they had killed each other, or reduced the bunker to rubble trying to.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 2: An Unexpected Turn

“I just had to break up

another

fight! When are you guys coming home?” Jack complained into the cell phone he held to his ear.

It had been two days since the Winchesters had left with Castiel to go meet Jody, and since then Jack had lost count of how many times he had had to step in to quell an argument between Aylia and Gabriel. It was getting old, and he was seriously considering buying a bus ticket to Sioux Falls. Hearing Dean chuckle on the other end of the line just frustrated the young nephilim even more.

“It's not funny Dean!” Jack grumbled. “They are going to kill each other!”

“No they won't,” Dean assured him. “What was it over this time?”

“Aylia and I were doing the dishes after dinner, and Gabriel walked in and said she missed a spot. It erupted into a screaming match from there until Gabe took off to take a walk.”

“Are they still staring at each other when they think no one is looking?” Dean asked.

Jack's face contorted with confusion. “Dean, what the hell does that have to do with anything?!”

“Just answer the question.”

“Uh...yeah...I guess I've caught them glaring at each other here and there.”

Dean laughed again. “They'll be fine then. If you want to tune them out though, my noise cancelling headphones are in my room on the nightstand.”

“When are you guys coming home?” Jack asked again, his annoyance clear.

“We'll be home in a few days. I gotta go now, but I'll check back in later. Call if you need us.”

Jack heard the phone disconnect and he pulled the device from his ear to stare at the blank screen with a frustrated look consuming his features. Maybe those noise cancelling headphones were a good idea.

Aylia grumbled to herself as she wiped down the counters in the kitchen for the fifth time. Who the hell did he think he was?! Couldn't he just keep his nose out of other people's business, just once?! She and Jack had had a nice dinner talking and getting to know one another. She could clearly see why the Winchesters thought so highly of the boy. He was an absolute joy to be around, and he helped her to ignore the now near constant thrum of pain vibrating through her. While they were happily washing the dishes they had used, the offending Archangel had strolled into the kitchen with that infuriatingly sexy smirk on his face and immediately started running his mouth.

She had never missed Sam and Dean so much in the entire time she had known them. She even missed Castiel, and she had just met him four days ago. At least with them there, she had a better chance of not having to interact with the annoying celestial being.

Aylia huffed and turned to toss the rag in her hand onto the counter. The kitchen was probably cleaner that it had ever been at this point. She needed to find something else to occupy her mind. Deciding she was going to go clean the library, she moved to walk out of the room.

Out of nowhere, white hot pain seared through her chest, eliciting a whimper from her as she reached out to grab the counter in an attempt to keep herself from falling to her knees. The room started to spin as her vision blurred and began to double.

“Aylia!” she heard Jack shout in fear.

He sounded like he was miles away from her. Raising her head in the direction of the doorway, she blinked her eyes, trying to focus on the blurry image of two of the nephilim rushing to her. She felt like her skin was on fire as his arm wrapped around her waist trying to support her so she wouldn't fall.

“Aylia!” she heard him shout again, then darkness closed in on her vision like a curtain.

Gabriel violently shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans as he angrily walked down the path leading from the bunker. What the hell was her problem?! He was just trying to joke around with her, and apparently she didn't understand the concept! He could have been a dick about her conveniently forgetting to let him know that she and Jack were hanging out in the kitchen. He had every intention of doing so in fact, but seeing her standing at the sink in those tight jeans with her hair pulled back into a bun looking frustratingly hot had thrown him off. Then she had started running that mouth of hers again and he saw red.

He missed the Winchesters. He actually

missed

Sam and Dean! What the hell?! He never thought that was possible, let alone that he would actually admit it to himself.

He grumbled under his breath, trying to decide what else he could do to calm the fury raging through every cell of his being. The cell phone he had stuck in his back pocket as he stormed out of the bunker ringing shrilly jerked him from his thoughts. He pulled the device out and saw Jack's name across the screen. Now what?! He stopped walking and accepted the call. Before he could even get out a greeting, the nephilim's terrified voice came shouting through the speaker.

“GABE!!! YOU HAVE TO GET BACK HERE NOW!!!”

“Jack, what's wrong?!”

“It's Aylia! I walked into the kitchen and she was doubled over the counter in pain, and then she passed out! Gabriel she's burning up! Please get back here!”

The fear and urgency in his nephew's voice sent the Archangel's heart racing. “I'm on my way!”

Gabriel disconnected the call and shoved the phone back into his pocket before he turned and took off at a dead run towards the bunker.

Gabriel skidded into the kitchen to find Jack on his knees on the floor with an unconscious Aylia supported in his lap. The nephilim had a wet washcloth pressed to her head as he turned his terrified eyes to his uncle.

“Her fever is getting worse!” Jack shouted.

Gabriel rushed over to them and dropped to his knees. He laid his hand on Aylia's forehead and his stomach dropped. His grace may have been low, but he could still feel a human's body temperature, and hers was well over a hundred and three degrees and quickly climbing to a hundred and four. He had to get that number to drop, and fast.

“Jack, I need you to get as much ice as you can possibly find and bring it to the bathroom,” Gabriel instructed as he scooped Aylia into his arms and stood. “We have to bring her fever down as fast as we can!”

The Archangel didn't even wait for Jack to respond before he was sprinting out of the kitchen and to the bathroom.

A few minutes later, Gabriel and Aylia were sitting fully clothed inside the bathtub. It was full of ice water, and she was resting between his legs, her back against his chest. Jack was still running back and forth with buckets of ice from a motel ice machine Dean had somehow managed to acquire and install in the bunker, and dumping the ice into the tub. Gabriel gently maneuvered Aylia's head to rest back onto his shoulder, exposing her neck so he could use his cupped hand to pour cold water over her.

He knew that an ice bath wasn't exactly the safest way to lower her fever, but it was the best option he had at the moment. As a result, he had opted to sit in the tub with her so he could wrap his body around hers to physically feel how much and how fast her temperature was dropping. He took a wet cloth that was draped over the side of the tub and dipped it into the water. With the cloth fully saturated he brought it up to her head and squeezed, letting the water soak into her hair and down onto her scalp. He repeated this process until her hair was as drenched as the rest of her.

With the tub now full, Jack sat on the ground watching Gabriel squeeze more water from the cloth over her neck and chest as he spoke softly to her, trying to pull a response from the unconscious woman. Fear and anxiety filled the nephilim for his new friend. He felt absolutely helpless that neither him nor Gabriel could simply just heal her.

“Should I call Sam and Dean?” Jack asked, his voice coming out as a croak.

“No,” Gabriel responded, not taking his eyes off of the woman that laid against him. “Not yet anyway. Her fever is starting to break now.”

“Can I do anything?”

Gabriel turned his eyes to his nephew, seeing how terrified he was. He knew the nephilim needed something to keep him busy.

“You can go get her some dry clothes and some more towels. Maybe find some acetaminophen?” he suggested. “I think her duffle bag is in her room.”

Jack nodded and stood from the ground to go complete the tasks he had been given. As he reached the threshold he paused to turn back to Gabriel.

“Gabe?” he said sheepishly.

“Yeah, Jack?” Gabriel responded, turning his head to look at his nephew.

“I'm really glad you were here tonight. I wouldn't have known what to do and she could've…thank you.”

A small smile tugged at the edges of the Archangel's mouth at his nephew's sentiment. “She may infuriate me to no end because of this animosity she has towards me for whatever reason, but I wouldn't let anything happen to her.”

Jack pursed his lips as he debated to speak the words on the tip of his tongue. Deciding it wasn't his place to reveal things she had told him in confidence, he smiled and nodded at his uncle, then turned to exit the room.

Gabriel focused back onto Aylia, using what little grace he had to determine her temperature. A sigh of relief left his lips when he realized her fever was finally starting to fall below a hundred and two degrees. She finally started to shiver, and he knew her body was starting to regulate her temperature again. He hoped it wouldn't be much longer until she returned to consciousness.

Aylia suddenly jerked and took in a sharp breath as her eyes shot open. Her basic instincts screamed at her to get out of the bitterly cold water and she fought against Gabriel's hold, sloshing the liquid over the sides of the tub as he wrapped his arms around her, trying to hold her in place.

“Aylia! Aylia, you have to calm down! You had an extremely high fever, and we had to put you in an ice bath!” When she continued to try and squirm from his hold, he maneuvered his arms to pin hers to her sides and wrapped his legs around her own. “Stop fighting me! I'm trying to help you!”

It took her a minute for all of her senses to come back to her, and when they did she recognized Gabriel's voice and slowly tried to wrap her brain around what he was saying to her. As her body relaxed, so did his hold on her.

“Are you calm now?” he asked cautiously.

She nodded as her body began to shiver again. “W-w-why are y-you in here w-with m-me?”

“This isn't exactly the safest or smartest way to reduce a fever,” he explained. “I had to make sure your temperature didn't drop too far, and the best way for me to do that was to be in here with you.”

She had a million more questions swirling in her mind, but now her body was shaking so bad her teeth were chattering. “Th-th-thank y-y-you,” was all she could manage to get out of her mouth.

“You're welcome. You may be a giant pain in my ass, but I wasn't gonna let you die.”

A few minutes later, Jack returned with his arms full of towels, Aylia's duffle bag, and an old bottle of acetaminophen pills. Relief washed over him when he saw that his friend's eyes were now open. Gabriel instructed the nephilim to dry up the water that had splashed onto the floor and to lay a couple towels onto it. Aylia's fever had finally gone down enough to take her out of the ice bath, and he didn't want her to step directly onto the cold tile floor or spill more water.

He waited as Jack quickly did as he was told, then slowly moved to where he could stand, helping Aylia to her feet with him as he did. As she set her full weight onto her feet, her knees buckled and she fell onto Gabriel, clinging to whatever part of him she could.

“Hey, it's OK,” he soothed as he wrapped his arms around her waist to support her. “I got you.”

Not taking any chances, he scooped her up into his arms bridal style. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he carefully stepped out of the tub, not letting go until he gently set her on the ground on top of the towels Jack had laid across the floor. Gabriel grabbed a few more and the bottle of medicine the nephilim had placed on the sink. He wrapped the towels around her and handed her the medicine.

“You need to take a couple of those,” he instructed.

She nodded as she clutched the bottle and looked up at him. “W-why didn't y-you just h-heal me?”

Gabriel's demeanor instantly changed. She could see the anger burning in his eyes as he abruptly started to walk away from her.

“Damn! Can't you just be grateful?!” he said, much harsher than he intended. He didn't give her time to respond as he turned on Jack. “I'm going to get out of these wet clothes and get her something to take those pills with. Don't leave her!”

Jack just stared as his uncle stormed from the room. He knew exactly why her question had struck a nerve with the Archangel, and he didn't exactly know what to say to him.

“W-what the f-f-fuck?!” Aylia said. “W-what's his d-deal?!”

Jack sighed as he turned to her. Something had to give, and it looked like it was going to be him. “Gabriel can't heal you. His grace is too low. He can't even fly right now.”

“W-why?”

Jack's eyes darted to the door as he chewed his bottom lip. When he met her gaze again, his voice was much lower as he explained.

“Gabe was held captive by a demon named Asmodeus for seven years in hell. He tortured him and fed off his grace the entire time he was there.”

Aylia didn't even know how to respond. She suddenly felt like complete scum for some of the things she had said to him in anger. She and the nephilim sat in silence until Gabriel reentered the room a few minutes later, now wearing a dark grey long sleeve shirt and a pair of jeans, and carrying a glass of water. The cold glare was still set in his eyes as he wordlessly handed her the glass. When she had finished taking the acetaminophen, he took the glass and medicine bottle from her and placed them on the sink.

“Do you think you can stand now?” he asked, his voice monotone. “You need to get out of those wet clothes or all this would have been for nothing.”

She nodded and he helped her to her feet.

“Your clothes are there,” he said pointing to the duffle bag in the corner of the room. “Come on Jack, let's give her some privacy. We'll be right outside the door if you need us.”

With that he turned and left with Jack close behind him. Aylia stared at the closed door. She had cut him deep with her words this time, and she hadn't even meant to.

Sam and Dean sat across from Castiel and Jody Mills at her dining room table. The woman smiled as she sipped from a glass of red wine.

“I really appreciate your help boys,” she said. “But, you all three didn't have to come.”

Castiel's brow furrowed in confusion as he looked at her. “Dean said you asked for all of us.”

Jody instantly focused her attention on the elder Winchester. “Dean?” she half scolded.

“What?!” Dean responded defensively. “I thought you could use all of us!”

“No you didn't!” Sam outed him.

Castiel and Jody gazed at the younger Winchester with questions in their eyes, and he met their stare before he continued.

“He's convinced our friends Aylia and Gabriel are going to hook up, and he thought leaving them to their own devices with just Jack there would speed things up!”

“Dean Winchester!” Jody exclaimed while laughing. “Are you playing matchmaker?”

“Trying to,” Dean confirmed.

“Why, Dean?!” Sam said in exasperation. “They can't be in the same room longer than five minutes without trying to rip each other's heads off, and you don't even like Gabriel! Why are you trying to get him laid?!”

“Just because I don't like him doesn't mean I don't want him to be happy,” Dean said like it was something Sam should have already known. “He really came through for us with getting Mom and Jack home, and he’s here helping us again. It may be reluctantly, but he's still doing it. Lia deserves some happiness too. She's been through a lot. I don't know why, but I just have a feeling about the two of them. It's going to happen, and if I need to give them a subtle nudge in the right direction then so be it.”

“That's actually really sweet, Dean,” Jody said with a hint of astonishment.

“Now tell her about the hundred dollar bet you placed on it,” Sam said indignantly.

“DEAN!” Jody scolded once again.

Before Dean could defend himself, his phone inside of his pocket started to ring. When he pulled it out, he saw Jack's name displayed across the screen. The eldest Winchester quickly excused himself and stepped outside to take the call.

“Hey kid, what's up?” he greeted as he held the phone to his ear.

“Well,” Jack started, then launched into an explanation of the night’s events from finding Aylia in the kitchen to her finding out about Gabriel's grace.

“What the hell?!” Dean exclaimed, concern evident. “Are you guys sure she's OK? Cas said she was healed and should just have a little pain, not that! Maybe I should call Rowena-”

“Gabe already did. First she said we were idiots and we should have called her first thing, then she told us that because of how the spell was administered that even after it's broken, or healed in this case, there is a chance that some residual magic could be left behind. Her body is just trying to work it out of her system. She gave us a potion recipe to help with the negative effects, a list of things to do for her, then told us to stay close to her.
We have to keep an eye on her fever until it's completely gone, but the worst should be over with now.”

“Wow, I guess Gabe really took care of this one,” Dean commented, a little stunned.

“He did!” Jack agreed. “We are all camping out in your 'Dean Cave’ tonight so we can keep an eye on her.”

A Cheshire cat grin spread across Dean's face. “So, I take it they are getting along better now?”

“Um...kind of...but...not really.”

“What do you mean?”

“They aren't screaming at each other now, but...it's just really awkward and uncomfortable. I think her asking him why he didn't just heal her cut him a little deep because of...well...you know, and I think she feels really bad. Neither knows how to handle the situation, or they are both too stubborn to.”

Dean's grin fell from his face and was replaced by irritation. Dammit! Now what? His brow raised slightly as an idea started to form.

“Alright, Jack, here's what’s up, and what I need you to do.”

Gabriel and Aylia were in the library, the Archangel standing at the head of one of the tables with a metal bowl and different ingredients for a potion spread out in front of him. He pushed the sleeves of his shirt up as he read from a piece of paper that held the instructions for the tonic, which he’d scribbled down himself as Rowena had recited them over the phone. Satisfied that he knew what to do, he set the paper on the table and began mixing the ingredients into the bowl.

Aylia watched from a chair near him with her knees pulled close to her chest and her arms wrapped around herself. Even in dry clothes, the chill in her bones from the ice bath remained. All she had brought with her when she went on her last hunt with the Winchesters were tank tops, jeans, and a pair of fleece sleep pants. With so few options, she had chosen a pale blue tank top and her sleep pants. Not being able to find a hair dryer, her long hair was still wet across her back. She fought hard against her body's urge to shake against the cold, however every now and then she lost that fight.

“Ya know, if you're still cold, putting on something more than that thin little tank top might help,” Gabriel said shortly, not taking his eyes off of his task. He was obviously still a little peeved.

“What a phenomenal idea,” she shot back. “Let me just pull a long sleeve shirt out of thin air! This is all I have with me. I wasn't exactly planning on taking a polar bear jump.”

He rolled his eyes and set down the glass vial of crushed sage he had been holding. He pushed his sleeves down, then took his shirt off and held it out towards her. “Here, put this on.”

Tentatively, she reached out and took the shirt from him, trying not stare at his toned chest and defined abs that, mixed with the sight of his strong muscular arms, now caused her to fight down the blush threatening to rise in her cheeks. He waited for her to do as he had said and reached out to touch his fingertips to her hair. In seconds her hair was completely dry. She looked at him with surprise shining in her eyes as he pulled away.

“I’m not completely useless,” he said crossly as he returned to mixing the potion.

“I didn't say you were!” she retorted, forcing herself not to stare.

He simply grunted in response.

She folded her arms on top of her knees and buried her face into the crook of her elbow. The scent of his unique Archangel pheromones still hung deeply into the fibers of his shirt. She couldn't help but close her eyes as she breathed in the intoxicating scent: a combination of sweet fruits, like peaches and pears, mixed with a rosewood musk and sandalwood, along with subtle notes of sweet spicy cinnamon. Dear God, he smelled good!

Gabriel carefully added the last of the ingredients to the mix in the bowl. A deep purple cloud of smoke erupted from the mixture, then quickly faded away. He picked up the bowl and poured the unappetizing, thick, dark green liquid into a small cup. He scrunched his nose in disgust at the sight of it as he picked the cup up and handed it to her.

“I have to drink

all

of this?” she asked as she placed her feet back to the floor and stood.

“Yup,” he said, finally looking at her again. “Bottoms up, Sugar.”

Aylia grimaced as she looked down into the cup. With a deep breath she brought it to her lips and drank the concoction in one big gulp, trying not to spit it out once the foul taste exploded over her tongue.

“Fuck!” she coughed as she placed the cup back on the table. “That was terrible!”

“It was a potion, not a milkshake. It wasn't

supposed

to taste good,” he said, his tone still short. “How do you feel?”

“Fine, I guess, I don't really feel any diff-”

A fierce cold suddenly punched her in the chest, feeling like she had been stabbed with an icicle. She clutched her chest as her world started to spin and her knees buckled. Without a second thought, Gabriel quickly reached out to catch her before she fell, wrapping his arms tightly around her and pulling her body close to his. She instinctively snaked her arms around his torso and rested her head onto his shoulder.

“Aylia!” Gabriel said with urgency. “Are you OK?! Talk to me!”

“I'm alright,” she stammered, the effects from the potion waning.

Slowly, she raised her head to look up at him and their eyes locked. Their breaths hitched as they became acutely aware of their closeness, how their bodies were pressed together and their arms wound around the other.

His eyes were like molten gold, their deep amber color pulling her into their depths. She could feel the warmth of his bare skin where it touched hers, and it radiated throughout her, pushing away the chill she had been feeling. His body was soft and firm in all the right places, sending all her coherent thought into a fog.

He couldn't help but compare her dark green eyes to emeralds sparkling in the sun, mesmerizing him with how he was suddenly enthralled by them. Holding her, minus the ice water and heavy wet clothes, was different this time. She fit perfectly in his arms, her slender body curving into him in a way that was short circuiting his brain.

“Hey guys! I got the movie set up in the ‘Dean Cave,’” Jack called as he strolled into the library.

The sound of the nephilim's voice broke Gabriel and Aylia from their trance, and they both hastily ripped away from each other, spinning around to face Jack, both their faces red. Jack regarded them with wide eyes as he looked back and forth between them.

“Um...am I... interrupting something?” Jack asked cautiously, noting that Gabriel wasn't wearing a shirt.

“Of course not!” Gabriel replied quickly as he ran a hand through his hair. “The uh...the potion made her dizzy...I caught her. That's it.” His eyes met hers for a split second before he started to hurriedly make his way out of the room. “I'm gonna get another shirt. I'll meet you guys in there,” he grumbled, and left before either of them could respond.

Jack and Aylia walked through the hallways of the bunker side by side on their way to the 'Dean Cave.’ The nephilim glanced over at her; she had been quiet since he had found her and Gabriel in the library.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, I'm good,” she replied quickly. “Just still feel a little off I guess.”

He nodded, searching his brain for something else to say. “So, what was going on with you and Gabe back there?”

She cut her eyes to him, surprised by his question. “Wh-what do you mean? Nothing. It was just what he said: I got dizzy, almost fell, and he caught me.”

“You sure? Because...it kinda looked like more than that.”

“Of course I'm sure, Jack! He can't stand me!”

“Don’t you mean you can't stand

each other

?”

“What are you getting at Jack?” she asked defensively.

Jack held up his hands in gesture of surrender. “Nothing, I swear! Just making conversation.” He hesitated for a moment. “But...maybe you should tell him why you have reservations against angels? You did tell me yourself that the only reason you gave me and Cas a chance was because Sam and Dean spoke so highly about us.”

“Why would I tell him that?”

“Might help clear the air,” Jack said with a shrug. “You two didn't exactly get off on the right foot. If you can give

me

a chance after what happened, then why not try with him? Besides, we have a few more days of just the three of us in this bunker. It would be nice to spend them without any fighting or whatever weird awkwardness you two are currently in.”

“I'll think about it,” she said with a sigh.

They continued the rest of the way in silence until they walked through the door of the room. Aylia chuckled to herself as she crossed and took a seat in one of the twin plush navy blue recliners in the middle that had a small table placed between them.

“Looks like Dean got an upgrade,” she commented as she pulled her knees up close to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself. “He definitely didn't have these last time I was here. Still only two seats, though. How are we all going to sit in here?”

“You and Gabe can have the chairs. I brought blankets so I could take the floor,” Jack said as he pointed to a stack of folded blankets and a of couple pillows that were laid on top of the foosball table that was behind the recliners.

“Are you sure?” Gabriel asked, causing both Aylia and Jack to look toward the door he had just entered through. He had donned a maroon short sleeved t-shirt with his jeans. “I can drag in a chair from another room.”

“No, I'll be fine,” Jack reassured him with a smile and went to gather the blankets and pillows.

Gabriel walked further into the room, his eyes falling on Aylia huddled in the chair. “Are you

still

cold?” he asked, trying to ignore how good she looked in his shirt.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “That potion kinda made it worse.”

“You want a blanket?” Jack asked as he dropped his arm full of blankets into the empty chair.

“She can't,” Gabriel said. “Remember, Rowena said no wrapping up with anything unless we had a way to have a constant watch on her body temperature, and I've looked all over this bunker and there isn't a thermometer anywhere.”

“But we do have a way to do that,” Jack said, looking over to his uncle. “You. You can read her body temperature just by touching her,

and

angels run a few degrees hotter than humans. So, you could help keep her warm safely and make sure her fever doesn't spike just by sitting in that chair with her. Oh! And it solves the seating arrangement dilemma!”

Gabriel and Aylia shared an uncertain glance with one another as they mulled over the nephilim's suggestion. After a beat, Gabriel averted his eyes to the ground as he brought his hand up to rub the back of his neck.

“Well...I mean...it

is

a good idea,” he stammered, and forced himself to look back to her. “I'm uh...I'm OK with it, but...it's up to you.”

“I um...I guess it's better than sitting here freezing,” she agreed.

“Then it's settled!” Jack said enthusiastically as he tossed one of the blankets at Gabriel, all the while smiling ear to ear as he watched their awkward exchange.

Gabriel caught the blanket with ease, and as soon as it was in his arms Jack started moving about the room, grabbing the remotes to the TV and DVD player and setting them on the table between the recliners and then setting up his chair how he wanted. When he was done, he turned back to his friend and his uncle. They were still in the same positions, gainly trying to avoid the others eyes.

“Come on guys!” Jack encouraged. “Get comfortable so we can start the movie!” The nephilim sat down in his chair and held expectant eyes on them.

Another beat of time passed in an awkward silence before Aylia moved to stand from the recliner.

“So...um…how do you want to do this?” she asked, turning to take her phone out of the pocket of her pajama bottoms and placing it on the small table so she would have a reason not to look at the Archangel.

“I uh..I guess you'll have to...uh...sit on my lap.”

She nodded, fighting down the crimson that wanted to tint her cheeks. Gabriel moved to sit down, making sure his arms stayed on the arm rests, then motioned for her to sit. Aylia hesitantly placed herself onto the left side of his lap, resting her hands in her own lap, and when he raised the foot rest she draped her legs across his. Once they were settled, Gabriel took the blanket he had been holding onto and laid it across them. Neither of them noticed the grin on the young nephilim’s face as he watched their awkward movements, and how they tried not to look at one another.

She sat stock still on Gabriel's lap, her eyes looking anywhere in the room but at him, but she couldn't deny the warmth he radiated. It was taking everything she had not to give in and curl into him. She wasn't sure if it was her need for warmth causing those feelings, or if it was simply because she wanted to be close to him and have his arms wrapped around her again, to be completely surrounded by his scent that was still tickling her nose from his shirt she wore. Why was this even a thought? Not three hours ago she was cursing his name! Of course, that was before he had saved her life and then continued to take care of her, even literally giving her the shirt off his back. Before she had nearly drowned in those sunshine and whiskey eyes of his. Maybe he wasn't as much of a jackass as she had originally thought.

Gabriel had tried not to look at her, tried like hell to keep his focus on anything but the beautiful woman sitting in his lap. But, he couldn't help it: she drew him in just like her dark emerald eyes had earlier. The way she absentmindedly bit her bottom lip as she nervously kept her gaze from him, and the slight flush to her cheeks had him gripping the arm rests of the chair with his hands, fighting the urge to wrap his arms around her and pull her body close to his. He wanted to feel her flush against him again. But, why?! How did this happen? Hardly three hours ago they had been screaming at each other, and not twenty minutes prior he had been mad at her again. However, now he realized his anger had been unfair. The question she had asked

had

been legitimate. There was no way she could have known that was a sensitive issue for him. She had been grateful, and told him as much. As for her earlier behavior towards him, he was realizing he hadn't exactly been welcoming.
He was starting to see that his first impression of her may not have been completely accurate.

“You wanna get the lights, Gabe?” Jack asked, clicking on the TV and pulling the Archangel from his thoughts.

“Sure,” Gabriel replied, and snapped his fingers, extinguishing all the lights in the room except for the blue glow of the TV. “What are we watching anyways?”

“Fifty Shades of Grey,” Jack replied nonchalantly.

“What?!” Aylia exclaimed, her body going even more rigid. She couldn't even remember how long it had been since she had sex, and watching

that

movie while sitting in the lap of the Archangel that was causing such conflicting thoughts in her head...she wasn't sure if she could handle it. “Are you

sure

you want to watch

that

movie, Jack?!” She hated how high her voice sounded at the moment.

“Yeah, Dean said it was a good movie, even if it’s what he calls a ‘chick flick,’” Jack answered calmly like he couldn't hear the sudden urgency in her voice.

“

Dean

suggested this?!” Aylia said, trying to control the pitch in her tone.

“Why?” Gabriel asked, confused by her reaction. “What's wrong with it?”

As Jack worked the remote to turn on the DVD player and start the movie, Aylia reached over to grab her phone. With a quick search, she pulled up the most detailed synopsis for the movie she could find and handed it to Gabriel. He took the phone from her with a raised brow of speculation and read what was on the screen as the opening credits of the movie started to roll. Aylia watched him as he read, seeing his eyes widen and flick up to the TV once he understood her reaction.

“Oh,” he said his voice strained. “You sure you don't want to watch an action movie or a comedy, Jack?” He was suddenly regretting letting his nephew choose their entertainment for the night.

“Nope,” Jack replied, and made himself comfortable in his chair, tucking both remotes close to his body.

Gabriel sighed in defeat and sat Aylia's phone back onto the table. He was going to have to think of something to get Dean back for this awkward moment he had caused. Why the hell was he recommending this kind of movie to Jack in the first place? Within the first five minutes of the movie, however, Jack was snoring softly in the recliner. Gabriel rolled his eyes; at least the kid wouldn't see what he suspected was coming in future scenes.

Aylia shifted in his lap, completely throwing away any other thoughts he had as his eyes shot back to her. The rigid position she was in, sitting completely upright, was obviously starting to become uncomfortable.

“You don't have to sit like that,” he ventured, his voice low so he wouldn't wake his nephew. “You can get comfortable.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, turning her head to look at him.

“Yeah,” he said, using his body to recline the back of the chair.

Aylia nervously accepted his offer and let her body lean against his, her head falling to rest on his shoulder. His intoxicating scent and warmth instantly surrounded her, causing her to involuntarily shudder. Thinking it was simply just because she was cold, he reached for the blanket and pulled it further up and around her, his fingers grazing her shoulders and back as he moved to assume his position, gripping the arm rest.

Her heart was hammering in her chest. She wished he would have put his arm around her instead of pulling away. She wanted to run her fingers down his chest, suddenly hating that he had put another shirt on. She slowly pressed her thighs together, praying she wouldn't draw attention to the fact she suddenly needed friction between her legs. Why was she reacting this way?! This wasn't anything more than keeping her from freezing. He couldn't stand her. All he was doing was helping the poor human, nothing more!

Gabriel tried to swallow the lump in his throat. It shouldn't feel this good to have her pressed against him. He shouldn't be wanting to wrap his arms around her, nor should he be having to try and discreetly shift his hips so a certain part of his body, that was starting to strain uncomfortably against his jeans, wouldn't dare come in contact with her. He had a fleeting thought that maybe he should just sit on his hands, because, yeah, that wouldn't be weird at all. That's not what this was! It was simply just her needing his body heat. He knew she couldn't stand him, and she definitely wasn't having the same thoughts he was having about her!

Gabriel knew he needed to distract himself, and the movie probably wasn't going to be a good option. He asked the first thing that popped into his head. “How are you feeling? Are you warming up?”

“I am. You're really hot.”

His eyebrows raised in slight surprise at her wording as she coughed when she realized what she had said, then jerked her head up to look at him.

“I mean...I didn't mean

you

are hot...I mean...well... you are...but,” she was talking quickly, fumbling over her words, her brain not computing that he was doing his best not to laugh. “I just meant...your body...oh fuck!” Her head dropped back to his shoulder to bury her face. She was fairly certain her cheeks would permanently be a dark shade of crimson. “Yes, I'm warming up, thank you.”

It took her a second to realize his body was shaking, then a moment more to figure out it was because he was laughing, trying to be quiet so he wouldn't wake the sleeping nephilim. She slowly raised her head to look at him and found him with one hand covering his mouth to muffle the sound of his laughter. When her eyes met his, his hand dropped and he bit his lip, doing his best to quell his chortling.

“Are you laughing at me?” she asked, a smile tugging at her lips.

“Nooooo!

Never

!” he said in playful sarcasm as he shook his head. “Why ever would you think such a thing?!”

“You're an ass!” she exclaimed, laughing as she swatted at his chest exuberantly with her hand.

A sly smile played across his lips as he calculated his comeback to her chide. It was a little risky, but what the hell. “Before I execute my comeback to that, I should remind you: Jack is sleeping.”

She tilted her head slightly in confusion. “What does that have to do-”

A high pitched yelp of surprise ripped from her lips when his fingers suddenly danced across her sides. She jerked and writhed against him, trying to escape as laughter bubbled out of both of their mouths, but he held her securely in place as he continued tickling her.

“Gabe! Please!” she pleadingly whispered loudly, grabbing at his hands and attempting to flatten them against her in an attempt to stop the onslaught.

Jack groaned in his sleep and Gabriel hastily stopped his movements, dropping his hands from her sides but leaving one to rest on her hip. They both stared at the nephilim as their laughter died away, smiles still on their faces. When they turned back to look at each other they were nearly nose to nose. They both turned their heads quickly as she pushed away slightly, Gabriel running his free hand through his hair and Aylia laughing nervously. She was suddenly very aware of the warmth of his hand on her hip, and he noted she made no effort to remove it.

“Hey, you called me 'Gabe’,” he said, again trying to distract himself from the growth below his belt as he shifted his hips once more.

“Yeah...I guess I did.”

They turned back to each other, making sure to keep a safe distance between their faces.

“I think I'm starting to grow on you,” he quipped, a smile back on his lips.

She rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but return his grin. “Yeah, yeah, maybe a little bit.”

He chuckled softly. “If someone would've told me four days ago, hell four

hours

ago, that I would have you sitting on my lap while we were not only getting along, but joking around with each other, I would've laughed in their face.”

“Heh, yeah, we didn't exactly get off on the right foot did we?”

“No, we really didn't.”

After a beat of silence between them, they both spoke at the same time. “I'm really sorry-” The apology cut off as they both laughed softly.

“So,” he started hesitantly, not wanting to destroy the new-found friendship they were seemingly building, “what

did

happen on that hunt?”

Aylia sighed deeply. “I had caught wind of a few suspicious obits a few days ago near here, so I went to check it out. When I got there, it was obviously a spirit, well, actually, three spirits. I called Sam and Dean to help so it could be taken care of quickly. But, when we dug up the first body, the bones were gone. It was the same with the other two. We did some more investigating, figured out it was a witch, tracked her down, and while Dean burned the bones, Sam and I riddled the bitch with witch killing bullets. She threw this black dust at me as she was falling to the ground and I guessed I inhaled it. This blinding pain shot through my stomach and then the next thing I knew, I was here.”

“I thought you said you messed up?”

“I did. I should have seen the signs that it was a witch before I called Sam and Dean. I could have gotten us all killed. Hell, I obviously almost got myself killed.”

“Yeah, but you didn't.”

“But, I could have.”

Gabriel chuckled softly. “Are you always so hard on yourself?”

“Most of the time,” she said honestly.

A loud and sensual sigh coming from the TV suddenly cut through their conversation. Their eyes went round as they both turned to look at the movie on the screen. The first sex scene was playing out, the volume suddenly seeming much louder than it had before. For a moment, neither could take their eyes from the scene, both secretly wondering what it would be like to be in that position with each other.

“Uh...hunter...you're a hunter,” Gabriel said quickly, ripping his eyes from the screen and focusing on her. He was so hard now he could break, and had no more room to scoot away from her. “Uh..how did you get into hunting?”

Her eyes shot to him, trying to focus on his question in order to ignore the need for pressure and friction between her legs. Her senses finally came back to her and she realized what he had asked. She didn't want to answer that specific question, but she didn't have much of a choice at the moment, and she needed the distraction.

“Um...well,” she started, quietly thankful that the scene in the movie had changed. She fidgeted, unsure how to finish.

He caught the nervousness in her eyes. “You don't have to tell me if you don't want to,” he offered comfortingly.

“No, it's OK,” she sighed heavily, dropping her eyes to stare at his chest. “Lucifer killed my parents and my sister.”

“What?!” Gabriel suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe. No wonder she hated him the moment she saw him. She had the worst impression of Archangels she could possibly get.

“I'm from Springfield, Missouri. The town he killed to summon Death. The hardware store Jo and Ellen blew up to get rid of the hellhounds? That was my parents’ store.”

“How...how did…” He was having difficulty finding the words. “How did you get away?”

The unshed tears he saw shining in her eyes made it feel like his heart was being ripped out of his chest.

“I wasn't there. I was going to college in Texas.” She tried to keep her voice from shaking. “I damn near lost my mind when I got the call. I became obsessed with finding out what happened, picking up the whole hunting thing along the way, until one night I managed to follow the breadcrumbs to Sam and Dean and, after some persuasion, they finally told me what really happened. Over time, the three of us formed a friendship.”

A tear slipped from her eye and Gabriel couldn't take it anymore. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him, holding her against him tightly. She froze at first, the sudden affection taking her off guard, but after a few seconds she took her arm that wasn't pinned between them and snaked it around his middle, tucking her head into his neck as she did.

“Aylia, I'm so sorry,” Gabriel whispered, resting his cheek on the top of her head. “My brother was...he was obsessed with revenge and destroying everything. He even tried to kill me. I'm so sorry.”

“Gabe, it's...I've made my peace with it,” she said, not making any move to leave his embrace. “I've done a lot of good as a hunter and I'm proud of that.”

She raised her head to look at him and they were suddenly nose to nose, their eyes locking immediately. Their breaths caught in their throat, but this time, neither pulled away. He brought his hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear, letting his hand linger and his fingers trace her ear.

“You're beautiful, you know that?” he said softly.

“You're not so bad yourself.”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “I think you established you thought that.”

Gabriel slowly started to close the distance between them, their eyes fluttering closed when their lips were mere millimeters apart...and her cell phone began ringing shrilly on the table beside them, completely shattering the moment. They quickly pulled away from one another, hastily untangling their arms, and Aylia sat up straight as Jack jerked awake from the sudden loud ringtone, accidentally pressing a button on the remote that turned off the DVD player. The nephilim turned to them quickly, his brow raising in suspicion as he was met with their 'deer in the headlights’ stare.

“Are you going to answer that?” Jack asked when neither of them moved.

“Uh...yeah,” Aylia stammered, trying to get her brain to function properly again as she reached over and grabbed the phone, not even looking at the caller ID before she accepted the call and held the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

“Aylia?” It was Castiel.

Gabriel heard his brother's voice over the line and he had never been more annoyed with the angel than he was at that very moment.

“Yeah, Cas, what's up?” Aylia respond, a little unsure as to why he was calling so late.

“Dean told Sam and I about what happened tonight, and I just wanted to call and check on you and... apologize for not being able to help you. I should have known.” Castiel's voice was full of sincerity and remorse.

As much as Aylia wanted to be annoyed with him right now, she couldn't help but smile at the empathy and genuine apologetic nature of the angel's voice.

“Cas, no, please don't blame yourself. I'm fine, really,” she assured him. “According to what Rowena said, there is nothing you could have done. Besides, Gabe and Jack are taking excellent care of me.”

Neither Aylia or Gabriel saw the grin spread across Jack's face at the use of the Archangel's nickname.

“Are you positive? We are finished with things here, we could head out tonight.”

“Really, Cas, I'm fine. You guys just get some rest. We will hold down the fort here.”

“If you insist.”

“I do,” Aylia confirmed.

“Then I will talk to you all tomorrow.”

“OK, bye Cas.”

When the phone disconnected, she laid the device back onto the table and looked over to Gabriel. Their eyes met, but neither knew how to proceed from where they were.

“Aww, I guess I accidentally shut off the movie,” Jack said as he looked over to see the blue screen on the TV. “You want me to turn it back on?”

“Why don't we choose something different?” Aylia suggested quickly, turning her gaze on the nephilim. “We weren't really watching it anyway.”

Jack sighed and stood from his chair. “If you want.” He moved to kneel in front of the TV, taking a stack of DVDs from a shelf of the entertainment stand the TV sat on and began looking through them.

Aylia turned to meet Gabriel's gaze again, seeing the invitation in his eyes. She let herself lay back against him, pulling the blanket that had come off back up around them. His arm came up to wrap around her waist as she laid her head on his shoulder and let her hand rest on his chest. The two watched Jack as he busied himself with putting another movie in, both wishing that he would fall asleep quickly like he had before so they could hopefully, somehow, find their moment again.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 4: Falling

Their moment had not found its way back to them. Jack had outlasted both of them during the second movie. However, that didn't stop Gabriel and Aylia from testing the boundaries of the new dynamic that had unexpectedly been created between them under the cover of the blanket with seemingly innocent and subtle touches that had them both wound so tight they could snap. Her fingers tracing along his chest, his trailing lightly up and down her side. His hand came to rest on her thigh just above her knee, hers on his shoulder to let her fingers barely graze the sensitive skin of his neck. But, Jack being awake had kept them from daring to venturing any further, and they had both eventually drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Gabriel slowly started to wake, something he couldn't quite place pulling him from his slumber. The lights were still off in the windowless room with just the blue glow of the TV screen illuminating the three occupants. The Archangel didn't think he would ever get used to this whole sleeping thing, and he hated how he felt so groggy and almost disoriented just after waking. At least he hadn't been plagued with nightmares this time. In fact, his dreams had been filled with the girl curled up to him in his lap, still sleeping. He gazed down at her with an affectionate smile. She looked so peaceful and perfect, wearing his shirt and snuggled up to him with his arms around her. For a fleeting moment he had a thought enter his mind that he wouldn't mind waking up like this every day, only minus the clothing barriers between them. He desperately wanted to feel her skin against his. He shook his head, clearing his mind of his impossible thoughts.

Despite himself, he couldn't help but bring his hand up to trace his fingertips softly along her jawline. He stalled, his fingers on her chin. Something wasn't right. Was this what woke him? He tilted her head to look into her face as he snapped the fingers of his other hand to turn the lights on, the sudden bright lights waking the sleeping nephilim. Gabriel's stomach had dropped. Aylia's skin was pale, her heart rate low and her breathe shallow.

“Gabe, what's wrong?!” Jack asked urgently as he looked to his uncle and saw the petrified look on the Archangel's face.

He didn't answer his nephew. Instead he closed the footrest and righted the back of the recliner. His stomach churned when the movement didn't rouse her in the slightest, her head lolling backward as he shook her gently.

“Aylia!” Gabriel called loudly, hoping to wake her.

She didn't move.

“Aylia!” Gabriel's voice was more frantic this time as he shook her a little harder.

Still nothing.

Jack had jumped up from his chair and hurried over to stand in front of his uncle. He looked down at his unconscious friend with fear in his eyes.

“Gabe, what's going on?! What happened?! Why won't she wake up?!”

Gabriel wasn't sure how to answer the nephilim's questions. She had been fine before they had fallen asleep, and he hadn't sensed any magic in her but the potion she had drank, and it was doing exactly what it had been supposed to do: stop the pain and push the remainder of the dark magic from her system. However, now he could feel the rush of a sinister magic attacking her system. The Archangel cut his eyes up to his nephew.

“Jack, call Rowena,

now

!”

Jack and Gabriel leaned against the wall on either side of the door inside of the bedroom Aylia was staying in at the bunker. They both watched anxiously as Rowena held her hands above Aylia's body laying on the bed, slowly moving them up and down it as she quietly chanted in Latin. It had taken the witch a few hours to arrive at the bunker, and the Archangel and nephilim had kept a constant watch on the human, both silently praying to whatever higher power was listening that Rowena wouldn't arrive too late. After what seemed like hours to the two beings against the wall, Rowena lowered her hands and turned toward them. They both sprung to attention, taking a step toward her.

“What's going on, Rowena?” Gabriel asked quickly. “Is she going to be OK?”

Rowena placed a manicured hand on her hip as she glanced back toward the human. “It appears that curse was much more thorough than we realized. It has attacked the potion she drank last night like a cancer, and is now practically eating her alive from the inside out.”

Gabriel felt like his knees might give out beneath him. How had he missed that? How could he have let this happen? Jack was quiet, fear and uncertainty of what to do running rampant in his mind.

“Can you fix her?” Gabriel asked, his voice strangled.

“I believe so,” Rowena claimed as she turned back to face the Archangel. “I have to make her body purge the dark magic inside of her. It could get a little messy. So, we may want to do this somewhere that has a drain?”

“What can we do to help?” Gabriel asked.

Rowena paused for a moment as she studied the Archangel. “I have sage ash with me, but I will need five bay leaves, fennel, jasmine, some nettles, a ceramic pot with a lid, some matches, and a hammer. Also, someone will have to hold her up while I perform the counter curse, because when I say she will purge the dark magic, I mean it is going to be spewing like The Exorcist. The magic has quite a hold on the lass.”

“I'll hold her,” Gabriel offered without a second thought.

Rowena nodded slowly as she pondered on Gabriel's adamant willingness to help.

“Very well,” the witch agreed and turned to Jack. “Jack, be a dear and go fetch the items for me please? They are fairly common ingredients so I imagine the boys keep them on hand here.”

Jack nodded vehemently and hurriedly left the room to gather the items Rowena had requested. The witch turned toward the bed and opened her shoulder bag that was laying next to Aylia and began searching through it.

“Does she have something without sleeves she can wear? I need to draw a few sigils on her arms.”

“Yeah,” Gabriel confirmed. “She's wearing a tank top underneath my shirt.”

Rowena raised a brow in speculation as she pulled a glass bottle of sage ash from her bag. Without having to be asked, Gabriel moved to sit beside Aylia on the bed. Rowena regarded him thoughtfully as she watched the Archangel gently raise the human's body, letting her limp frame rest against him as he took great care in removing the long sleeve shirt from her. When he softly laid her body back against the bed, tossing his shirt beside them, he turned his gaze back to the witch. She had a small smile on her lips as she met his eyes while unscrewing the cap to the bottle in her hands.

“What?” Gabriel asked, his brows knitting together.

“Nothing,” Rowena replied like she knew something he didn't. “Now move, I need to start.”

Gabriel moved, letting Rowena take his place as he stood hovering close by. He watched intently as the witch poured some of the ash into her palm, then placed the bottle on the floor.

“Who is this girl to you, Gabriel?” Rowena asked with an air of simply just making conversation to her tone as she dipped her finger into the ash and started to draw sigils down Aylia's left arm.

“What are you talking about?” Gabriel returned defensively. “I told you last night who she was. She's our friend!”

“No,” she remarked, not averting her eyes from her task. “Last night she was Sam and Dean's friend. You've known her what, five days now, and all of a sudden she is

our

friend. If I'm not mistaken, the tone in your voice last night indicated you were

not

her biggest fan.”

“Things change.”

“I see,” Rowena replied listlessly as she started the sigils on Aylia's right arm.

A few minutes later they had all gathered in the bathroom. Jack and Rowena sat opposite one another on their knees beside the tub, Gabriel inside the empty tub with Aylia in the same position they had been in for the ice bath with her nestled between his legs, her back resting against his chest. However, this time his arms were protectively wrapped around her middle. Upon Rowena's suggestion, Gabriel had pulled Aylia's hair back into a ponytail.

They sat in silence as Rowena removed the lid from the ceramic pot and began adding the ingredients to the container one by one. When she had added the final piece of jasmine, she began to wave her hands over the pot in a circular motion while she chanted in Latin.

“Non magis corrupta iterum solutos, et iterum ipsa pupula.”

She then picked up the matchbook, struck one and tossed it into the container. The items inside instantly ignited as she replaced the lid.

“Non magis corrupta iterum solutos, et iterum ipsa pupula.” she chanted, waving her hands over the pot again

She picked up the hammer, raising it above her head and looking between the two beings. “Get ready boys, it is about to get messy.” Rowena brought down the tool hard against the ceramic, shattering it with a loud bang.

The pot and the contents inside burst into dust and then swirled wildly, becoming a thick white cloud that filled the room. Rowena raised her open hands and pointed them toward Aylia, chanting again.

“Non magis corrupta iterum solutos, et iterum ipsa pupula.”

The smoke in the room spun violently like a tornado as Aylia's eyes shot open, and she sucked in a harsh breath taking in every bit of the twisting smoke until the room was clear. An ear-splitting scream ripped from her mouth as she shot forward, Gabriel's hold keeping her from doubling over. Her body jerked and heaved violently as thick black goo spewed from her mouth, quickly covering her, Gabriel, and the tub in the sticky substance. Her body started to go slack, and Gabriel tightened his hold on her to keep her from falling face first into the vile liquid still expelling itself from her body.

“It's OK, Sugar! I've got you! You're going to be OK!” Gabriel reassured her over and over again, pressing his forehead just below her neck.

He felt completely helpless, holding her trembling body as she wretched with tears streaming down her face and choking as more of the dark magic brutally evacuated from her body. Finally, the last of the dark black substance fell from her lips and she slumped in his arms, breathing hard and shaking. Gabriel gently moved her to lay against him again, unimaginable relief washing over him that her eyes were still open.

“What...what happened?” she asked as she let her head fall back to rest on his shoulder, weakly taking in the other occupants of the room as she did.

“That curse had a deeper hold on you than we had originally thought,” Rowena informed her. “I performed a counter curse to expel the dark magic from you, which is what you just experienced. I promise you, this time you are definitely cured.”

All she could do was nod in understanding while she clutched at Gabriel's arms still around her, trying to control the tremors still wracking her weakened body.

“I know moving seems daunting right now, but we really need to get the two of you, and this room, cleaned up,” Rowena said as she stood. “Come on boys, she will need our help.”

Aylia was very glad there were multiple bathrooms in the bunker with a water heater that apparently didn't have a bottom. It had taken her nearly forty-five minutes to scrub all of the black goo from her skin in the shower. When she had finally gotten her bearings back enough to stand, Gabriel had helped her out of the tub and into another bathroom. Jack had brought her a dark purple tank top from her bag and let her borrow a pair of black and gray flannel pajama bottoms with a drawstring so she wouldn't have to wear her jeans. When they were both sure she could stand unassisted they left her so she could get clean.

She had managed to make it through the shower and put on her clothes, and she had even accomplished brushing her hair. But now exhaustion had set in so severely, she was sitting on the floor next to the closed door of the bathroom with her back against the wall and her feet stretched out in front of her, trying to find the strength to stand up and walk back to her room. The only thing she wanted to do was just sleep. She had debated on calling for one of the others to help her, however her own pride had kept her from doing so and they all three had done so much already. Aside from that, there was really only one of them she wanted with her at the moment, and she kicked herself for wanting him. Surely he was getting tired of coming to her rescue by now.

A knock on the bathroom door pulled her from her thoughts, and she turned her head toward the sound.

“Y-yeah?” she stammered.

“Everything OK, Sugar?” Gabriel called from the other side of the door. “You've been in there for a while now.”

“I'm fine,” she lied, trying to hide the trembling in her voice.

“You don't sound fine,” he replied. After a beat of her not responding he continued, “Can I come in?”

“Um...sure.”

She tried to hastily stand before he entered, but her weary legs felt like jelly and she slid back to her sitting position against the wall. Gabriel opened the door and entered, his brow furrowing a little in confusion when he didn't see her right away. When his gaze fell on her, worry crept back into his features as he knelt down beside her. She noticed that he, too, had obviously showered and changed into a pair of dark green sweatpants and a black t-shirt . She remembered him being covered in as much of the sticky black liquid as she had been.

“What's wrong?” he asked, reaching out to touch her hair, drying it instantly. “Do you need me to get Rowena?”

“No, I'm just...I'm just really exhausted,” she responded, trying to sound convincing. “I think I just need some sleep. It's been a rough morning.”

“I would say that's a bit of an understatement,” Gabriel chuckled softly as he held out his hand to her. “Come on, I'll help you up.”

Aylia stared at his hand for a moment, trying to decide if she should tell him how weak she really felt. As if he had just read her mind, he changed his tactic and moved to pick her up. He stood with her in his arms bridal style as her arms went around his neck.

“G-Gabe,” she said nervously, a blush painting her cheeks as their eyes met. “You don't have to carry me. I can walk.”

“Can you?” he asked, raising a brow at her. He was met with silence as she bit her lip. “Thought so. Besides, it's not even the first time I've carried you like this in the past twenty-four hours. At least this time you're conscious and I'm not afraid I'm...I mean...

we

are going to lose you.”

Something in the way he looked at her with those golden eyes and the way he held her so gently, yet protectively, sent butterflies exploding into Aylia's stomach. Could there really be something developing between them? Was there really more to how attentive he was being than just taking care of the poor cursed human the Winchesters had dumped on him? Was she starting to fall for him?

Holding her in his arms again sent emotions spinning in Gabriel's head, and the softness in her eyes stopped his breath. Some part of him that he kept buried down deep stirred, telling him that what he was feeling went beyond just physical attraction. Was he starting to feel something for her? The way she gazed back into his eyes sent a hope through him that maybe she was starting to feel it too.

“Well don't you two just look cozy,” Rowena said from the doorway.

They both quickly turned their heads to see the witch taking a step into the room with a sly smile on her face and a hand placed on her hip. Her eyes turned to Aylia, examining her with her eyes.

“It appears the exhaustion has set in,” Rowena concluded, and then turned to exit the room. “Come on, Gabriel. She will need to sleep for a few hours so her body can recuperate.”

Gabriel followed the witch out through the hallways and to Aylia's room. All the while both he and Aylia did their best to avoid the other's eyes. Once inside the bedroom, the Archangel placed her to sit gingerly on the edge of the bedding, then moved so Rowena could step closer.

Rowena took Aylia's face between her hands, tilting her head up and turning it from side to side. Satisfied that the only thing ailing the human was indeed just exhaustion, she released her and took a step back.

“You will be fine,” the witch told her. “But, like I said, you need to sleep.”

“Thank you, Rowena,” Aylia said.

“You are quite welcome,” Rowena replied, then sighed as her hands went to her hips again. “It's apparently what I do now.” A smile found the witch's lips. “Get some rest, you will feel much better once you wake up.” She went to exit the room, turning as she reached the doorway. “You may want to stay with her Gabriel, just to be on the safe side. I'll be helping Jack with the rest of the clean up if you need me.”

With that the witch was gone, closing the door behind her and leaving the other two occupants of the room in an awkward silence.

“I guess we should let Sam, Dean, and Cas know what happened,” Aylia said, staring at the ground and needing something to break the tension.

“I called Sam,” Gabriel informed her as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed, keeping space between them. “They were ready to head back now, but Rowena said it would be better if they waited until tomorrow so she can make sure all of the dark magic is cleared from the bunker. So, they are heading back in the morning.”

After a few more seconds of silence, Gabriel stood and turned to pull down the blanket on the bed. “Here, get in. You really should get some sleep so you can start feeling better.”

He moved aside, standing close by so she could attempt to stand on her wobbly legs. Once she was seated with the blanket over her, he took a step back.

“Do you need anything?” he asked, finally looking at her again.

Need? She wasn't sure if she

needed

what was on her mind, but she knew she wanted it. Her eyes met his as her cheeks twinged pink.

“Could you...would you...lay with me for a while?” she asked sheepishly.

There was no fighting the smile that spread across his lips at her request, making her release a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

“I can do that.”

She scooted over, laying down onto her side as he slid beneath the covers to lay behind her and not hesitating to wrap his arms around her. The comforting heat from his body surrounded her, relaxing all of her aching muscles, and within minutes she was asleep, Gabriel following her not long after.

Several hours later, Aylia slowly opened her eyes. A sleepy smile crossed her lips at feeling Gabriel's arms still around her. As they had slept, the Archangel had thrown one of his legs over hers and turned them to the side, slightly angling the spooning position they had fallen asleep in, his pelvis pressing against her thighs which had spread slightly apart because of the leg he had thrown over her. She shifted her hips a little as her sleep fogged brain slowly started to realize something else was between them: something long was lying up along her inner thigh, the tip coming dangerously close to her mound through her pants. Her eyes suddenly shot all the way open when she realized what it was.

It was his...and he was hard...and...huge!

Big enough that even through the material of his sweatpants, there was nothing left to the imagination. But, he was still sleeping, and this was just his 'morning wood’, nothing more, and it wasn't like

she

was the reason for it.

“Aylia,” he mumbled in his sleep, subconsciously rutting his hips into her, causing his tip to press against her slit through her clothing.

Her head spun as she bit back a moan. Was he...could he be dreaming about

her

?!

She couldn't take it anymore. She needed him. Now.

She turned in his arms, being careful not to hurt the appendage between her legs. Her hand came up from between them to trail her fingers along his jawline, causing him to stir. His eyes slowly fluttered open, her heart jumping at the sleepy little smile that touched his lips when he saw her.

“Hey, Su-” he started, and then his eyes went wide. His brain had registered that his hardness was pressed between them and he

knew

she had to feel it. “Shit! Aylia, I'm so sorry!” he exclaimed, untangling himself from her and jerking away so fast he fell over the side of the bed, taking the blankets with him and hitting the night stand beside the bed with his head, the rest of his body tumbling to the floor with a thump.

Aylia couldn't help but laugh as she crawled over to the side of the bed to peer down at him. The blanket was tangled around him, his hair mussed, face bright red, whiskey eyes full of frantic embarrassment. He looked positively adorable.

“Are you alright?” she asked through her laughter.

He hastily sat up, his eyes meeting hers as he quickly tried to get his rattled brain to comprehend her question. The dream he had been having of him thrusting into her against the wall of the very room they were in while she screamed his name and begged for him to fuck her harder was still very prominent in his mind, making his erection twitch underneath the blanket he was using to block her view of it.

“I'm so sorry!” he said again, talking fast. “I didn't mean... sleeping is still kinda new to me...the way my body reacts…” He hung his head and sighed. “I'm sorry.”

“Gabe, I'm not complaining,” she assured him, her laughter calmed now.

“I know, you have every right to be mad,” his head shot up, finally computing her words, “Wait... what?” He turned to her with a raised eyebrow and a small smile pulling at his lips.

An impish smile had spread across her features and her eyes narrowed invitingly at him as she licked her lips. His eyes glued to the action, following the tip of her tongue as it slid agonizingly slow across her mouth. He watched in disbelief as she crawled off the bed and straddled his lap, pulling the blanket to the side and placing herself over his rock hard erection. His hands went to grip her hips as her face moved closer to his, bypassing his lips and going towards his ear.

“What were you dreaming about, Gabriel?” she whispered seductively, her lips just barely brushing his earlobe.

“Are you guys awake yet?” Jack called from the other side of the door as he knocked. “Sam's on the phone.”

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” Gabriel grumbled as he let his body fall back against the nightstand, and he dropped his head backwards to rest on its surface.

“Yeah, Jack, we’re up,” Aylia called back, trying to stifle a giggle at the Archangel's reaction as she pulled herself off of him to sit on the edge of the bed. “You can come in.”

Jack entered at Aylia's invitation, his eyes immediately falling on the sour-looking Archangel with the blanket wadded up and covering his lap again.

“Why are you on the floor?” the nephilim asked, his head tilting slightly to the side in confusion.

“Getting acquainted with the color blue apparently,” Gabriel responded, a little harsher than he intended.

Jack's brow furrowed, the Archangel's response baffling him further. “Well, anyway,” he said, and stepped forward and handed Aylia her phone.

Aylia accepted the device and held the phone to her ear. “Hey, Sam,” she said cheerily.

Gabriel tuned out the conversation as he did his best to will away his situation under the blanket. He rolled his eyes when he caught sight of Rowena entering through the door his nephew had left open, the expression on her face matching the nephilim's when he had entered. Did the both of them

really

have to be in here right now?!

“Gabriel, why are you on the floor? That's definitely not where I expected to find you,” she said.

“He's getting acquainted with the color blue,” Jack informed her before Gabriel could answer.

Rowena snickered loudly as her hand came to cover her mouth.

“Shut up, Rowena!” Gabriel barked, raising his head.

“Sam, no, you don't have to do that,” Aylia said, pulling the attention of the room. “Really, I'm fine and there is plenty of-” something Sam had said cut her words off and she sighed, “OK, if you insist. Thank you.” There was another pause while the younger Winchester spoke. “Alright, we'll see you tomorrow.” She hung up the phone, reaching over to place it on the nightstand and meeting the expectant eyes on her.

“What's up?” Gabriel asked.

“Sam wants to buy us dinner,” she informed them. “Said it's the least he could do for not being here to help. He said Gabriel could take one of the cars in the garage to go get it, and that Jack would know where his money and the car keys were.”

“Do I need to go

now

?” Gabriel asked, his voice somewhat strained.

Aylia's stomach growled in response to his question and she smiled apologetically at him. “I

am

really hungry. I haven't eaten since yesterday evening.”

“And it's almost 6 o'clock in the evening now,” Jack added.

Gabriel's eyes suddenly lit up with an idea as a smirk crossed his lips. “You wanna come with me?” he asked Aylia, having every intention of finding a secluded spot, without cell phone reception, to stop at along the way.

Aylia matched the Archangel's expression; she could see exactly his train of thought. “Yeah, I wanna come. We can just take my car.”

“Hey! Yeah! That's a great idea! We can all go!” Jack said enthusiastically, completely misconstruing the situation.

“That does sound like a much better time than being cooped up here all night,” Rowena agreed.

Gabriel and Aylia's faces fell in defeat. Neither of them had the heart to tell Jack he couldn't go with them, and Rowena agreeing had just made the young nephilim even more excited about the idea. Gabriel sighed heavily, the sound coming out closer to a growl as he pushed himself up from the ground, taking the blanket with him.

“Let me go get changed and we can go,” the Archangel groused as he made his way out of the room.

The mismatched group of Archangel, human, witch, and nephilim strolled down the sidewalk in the heart of Lebanon, chatting happily with one another. Each of them saw the lingering stares from different townspeople and had been aware of the whispers of the employees of the restaurant they had just left, but truth be told, they really didn't care. Their night had been one of those rare moments where the only thing they had had to worry about was which wine they could all agree on to have with their dinner.

“Well that was lovely,” Rowena said as she walked up to Aylia to link their arms together. “What do you say to keeping this party going?”

Jack and Gabriel shared a worrisome look as they walked behind the two women when they saw Aylia raise her brow in interest at the witch.

“What did you have in mind?” Aylia asked.

“Why don't we go have a drink or two? My treat.” Rowena said pointing a delicate finger at the bar across the street full of locals enjoying their Saturday night.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea!” Aylia exclaimed, letting the witch start to lead the way to the bustling establishment.

“Come on ladies, we have plenty to drink at the bunker,” Gabriel protested even as he and Jack followed them. The Archangel really just wanted to get Aylia alone again, sober.

“Oh hush, Gabriel!” Rowena playfully scolded. “I know from experience you are more adventurous than that!”

Aylia raised a suspicious eyebrow at their banter for a moment.

“Jack can't even get in there,” Gabriel reminded them.

“I will take care of that,” Rowena promised.

“Hey it might be fun, Gabe,” Jack agreed, jumping on the bandwagon with Aylia and Rowena.

Gabriel sighed and threw his hands up in defeat. “Fine!”

With triumphant smiles on their faces, Aylia and Rowena led the way, arm in arm, to the bar. They paused briefly for the employee standing at the door checking IDs, Rowena saying a few words of a spell to let them in the door. The quartet found a booth on the far side of the bar, the seat angled in the corner in a way that blocked the other patrons’ view of them. Rowena, bringing Jack along with her, left for the bar and shortly returned with their first round: a beer for Jack, a glass of Merlot for herself, whiskey for Gabriel, and a Long Island Iced Tea for Aylia.

The night carried on much the way dinner had, with easy conversation and laughter. Jack was intrigued by the cocktail Aylia had requested. Sam and Dean usually drank straight whiskey, rum, or vodka. After some persuasion on his part, saying that Dean lets him have, and sometimes sneaks him, a nip of the liquor, he had convinced the other three to let him try it. The face he had made when the potent concoction of vodka, tequila, light rum, triple sec, and gin hit his mouth had sent them all laughing. The large drink he took went straight to the nephilim's head.

Three rounds later, Aylia and Gabriel were waiting at the bar to give their order for their fourth. The place was still packed, and the lone female bartender hadn't stopped since they walked in. Aylia watched as the young petite woman quickly filled orders and took every chance she could to take a shooting glance in Gabriel's direction. Aylia had never really been one of those jealous girls, especially not over someone she hadn't even kissed...yet. But, in her alcohol induced haze, the woman's actions were getting on her nerves.

“Seems someone has an admirer,” Aylia said hotly, looking over to Gabriel, who had been looking somewhere else other than the bartender.

“Huh? What?” he said, perplexed at her words as he turned to her. He had been too busy glaring at a man on the other side of the bar who was leering at Aylia, daring the man with his eyes to approach her, to even realize what she was talking about.

Aylia tilted her head in the woman's direction. Gabriel followed her gaze just in time to meet the bartender's hazel eyes, and she flashed him a flirtatious smile. His eyes came back to Aylia as a smirk came about his face. “Are you... jealous?”

“No!” Aylia exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest and looking out into the room.

Gabriel easily reached out to slip his arm around her waist to pull her close to him so he could place a light kiss on her cheek, making sure both the bartender and the man across the room saw his actions. He grinned widely when he saw the bright blush rise in her cheeks and her eyes go round. “Didn't even notice her.”

Aylia grinned and turned to face him, his arm still around her, as her hands raised to thread through the small curls at the base of his neck.

“What can I get for you folks?” the bartender asked, suddenly in front of them from behind the bar.

“Uh, yeah,” Gabriel replied, he and Aylia pulled away from one another. “Bottle of Margiekugel, Merlot, whiskey, and a long island.”

“Oh! And two double shots of tequila!” Aylia added.

The bartender nodded and walked away to prepare their drinks, her curly raven hair bouncing with her movements. Gabriel turned back to Aylia with a smirk on his face.

“Aren't you getting enough tequila in the three long islands you've already had?” he asked with a chuckle.

“You're doing a shot with me,” she informed him. “You've been drinking whiskey all night and you aren't even buzzed.”

“Yeah, Sugar, tequila isn't going to change that.”

“Why?”

Gabriel raised his eyebrows at her, trying to remind her why. He saw it the moment it clicked in her alcohol buzzed brain.

“Oh. Yeah. Forgot about that,” she said, disappointed. “So, you can't even get tipsy?”

“I can. It would just take way more than they have here.”

Aylia nodded as the bartender reappeared to place the bottle of beer and the two shots on the counter before them.

“I'll have the rest in just a sec,” the young woman said and hurried off again.

An idea struck Aylia, and she turned mischievous eyes toward the Archangel. He raised his eyebrows in question and then watched as she dipped her finger into one of the tequila shots, slid her finger over the salted rim of the glass, and then wiped the mixture onto the pulse point of his neck. Before he could stop her, she was on her tiptoes slowly running her tongue over the tequila and salt on his neck. He shivered involuntarily at the feeling of her hot mouth on him, sucking in a sharp breath. With the smile still on her face, she pulled away from him, took the lime from the shot glass, downed the tequila, and stuck the lime into her mouth. Her eyes met the sputtering Archangel's and she giggled, placing the shot glass back on the bar next to the rind of the lime.

Gabriel quickly grabbed the other shot and drank it, not even bothering with the lime. He desperately tried to get the blood flow back to his brain instead of between his legs as he placed the glass back on the counter. He suddenly regretted not arguing the decision to go to the bar more now, because what he wanted to do, what he couldn't get out of his head, he would never do while Aylia was drunk. He was beyond grateful when the bartender showed up with their other drinks. He paid the woman and then grabbed two of the drinks, Aylia talking the others, and led the way back to their seats.

Aylia slid into the bench seat of the booth, placing Jack and Rowena's drinks in front of them, and Gabriel scooted in beside her, handing her the long island. The Archangel was still trying to reel himself back in when he sat down, her moving her body so close to him their thighs were touching didn't help.

“Are you alright, Gabriel?” Rowena asked, regarding him with an amused grin. “You look a little flustered.”

Gabriel narrowed his eyes in a glare at the witch, but chose to ignore her comment. Instead, he looked over at his nephew, realizing he was much drunker than he should be, but quickly figured out why when he saw him take another sip from Aylia's drink. Gabriel chuckled to himself as he shook his head. He had a feeling he would be carrying the nephilim to his room later.

“Sam and Cas are gonna kill me for letting you get dr

UNK!”

Gabriel said, his voice hitching and body jumping when he felt Aylia's hand land on his thigh and drag her fingers toward the bulge in his pants.

He quickly grabbed her hand before she reached her destination and placed it in her own lap. He was met with, he was positive, the sexiest pout he had ever seen when he turned to look at her.

“What he don’t know won't hurt 'im,” Jack said, his voice a little altered from the alcohol, and too drunk to compute his uncle's flustered state.

Rowena sipped her wine, softly chuckling to herself, as she watched the Archangel interact with the two of them.

Gabriel turned with a glare at the sound of the witch's laughter, his mouth open and ready to speak when his voice cut off. Aylia had slipped her hand under his shirt and was trailing her fingers across the small of his back. His hand flew behind to grab hers and put it between them, this time lacing his fingers through hers and holding her hand in place. When he chanced a look at her, he was met with that same irresistible pout from before. Why did she have to be drunk right now?! More than anything, he wanted to crash his lips to hers and let his hands roam all over her body.

“Maybe we should head back,” Gabriel suggested, looking over to the now dozing nephilim.

“I was just thinking that,” Aylia agreed.

He turned just in time to see the human completely downing the rest of her drink. The Archangel had a feeling

he

would be the one to regret that decision later.

Just as Gabriel had suspected, he had had to carry Jack back to his bedroom. With the nephilim's arm thrown around the Archangel's shoulders and Gabriel leading him with his arm around his waist, they entered Jack's room. He gently laid the nephilim on his bed and then stood back, chuckling, as the nephilim rolled over and looked up at him.

“Tonight was fun!” Jack enthused.

“It was. You get some sleep, buddy,” Gabriel agreed as he turned to leave.

“Are you and Aylia together yet?” Jack asked as he snuggled into his pillows.

Gabriel paused, his hand on the doorknob, and turned toward his nephew. “What?”

“Are you and Aylia together yet?” Jack repeated. “Dean thinks you will be. That's why he got Sam and Cas out of the bunker this week.”

“He what?!” Gabriel exclaimed.

Jack responded with a soft snore, the alcohol having knocked him out finally. Gabriel shook his head as he ran a hand through his hair. It seemed he would have to call and have a chat with the eldest Winchester.

“Careful, dear,” Rowena cautioned as she led a wobbly Aylia to her bed with her arm around the woman's waist.

“Thanks Rowena,” Aylia said as she sat on the edge of the bed and let herself fall back, her legs still dangling at the knee off the bed.

“Your quite welcome. That last drink really did you in didn't it?” Rowena said as she took a seat at the end of the bed.

“Yup!” Aylia confirmed. “Where's Gabriel?”

“He's putting Jack to bed,” Rowena said smiling to herself. “I'm sure he will be along to check on you soon.”

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” Aylia asked as she propped herself up on her elbows to look at the witch, taking a second to focus against the buzz of the alcohol.

“Of course.”

“What did you mean earlier when you said you knew from experience that Gabriel was adventurous?”

“Oh that,” Rowena's smile faltered, but only for a second, not nearly long enough for Aylia to catch it in her drunken state. “Gabriel and I have just had our moments is all I meant.”

Aylia stared at the witch for a long moment, trying to decide if she believed her. The answer had been very vague, but she ultimately decided it was a statement to be deciphered when she wasn't so drunk the lights in the room seemed to blur.

“He seems quite taken with you,” Rowena mused, knowing she needed to take the focus off of herself. “And if I'm not mistaken, the feeling is mutual?”

A goofy grin spread across Aylia's face. “Kinda crazy, considering we couldn't stand each other five days ago.” The smile suddenly fell from her lips. “I'm sure it's just a current infatuation for him though, or pity.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, for one thing, he's an Archangel and I'm a human. Even low on grace, I don't see why he would waste his time on me longer than a night or two. Especially after the thrill of the chase is gone.”

There was a small part of Aylia that screamed at her for being so honest with the witch she hadn't even known for twenty-four hours. But, tequila had always been like a truth serum for her and she had consumed plenty of it that night.

“You know about him being low on grace?” Rowena questioned.

“Jack told me.”

“Gabriel, and Castiel, aren't like other angels. You being human doesn't matter in the slightest. I know this for a fact.”

“Well, then it's a damsel in distress type thing then. He pities me.”

Rowena's brows knitted together, “I do not believe that for one second. The way he looked at you during the midst of the situation was not a look of commiseration. It was one of a man absolutely terrified he was going to lose someone he cares for.”

“Then it's just a physical thing.”

Rowena pursed her lips in agitation. “Why are you

trying

to find excuses to keep yourself from admitting you care about him?”

Aylia sighed in defeat and let herself fall back to the mattress. “Just easier that way I guess. But then he looks at me with those eyes and that freaking smirk and I just...I don't know.”

“Anything worth having isn't going to be easy to get my dear. If you want my advice, I think if you gave it a chance, he might just surprise you.”

Aylia sighed again and rolled into her side, facing the headboard to hide the tears swelling in her eyes that she had no clue for why they were there. “I don't think I wanna talk about this anymore.”

Gabriel stood in the hallway outside the bedrooms with his phone to his ear, grumbling in frustration when Dean's voicemail picked up.

“

This is Dean Winchester. Leave your name, number, and nightmare at the beep.

”

The Archangel rolled his eyes at, what he considered, the ludicrous message while he waited for the beep indicating the recording.

BEEP

“Yeah, Dean, I think you and I need to have a serious conversation. Call me back as soon as you can.”

Gabriel muttered under his breath about the eldest Winchester, shoving his phone into his back pocket just in time to see Rowena exit Aylia's room and quietly shut the door.

“How's she doing?” he asked, pulling the witch's attention.

“She's fine. Drunk, but fine,” Rowena told him. “She's still awake if you'd like to check on her.”

She didn't wait for his response, just simply started to walk away and into a room further down the hall. Gabriel watched until she had closed the door, and then made his way to knock softly on Aylia's door.

“Hey, Sugar, can I come in?” he called.

He waited for her to give him the OK, and then let himself in. His face fell a little as he closed the door behind him, seeing her petite frame curled into a ball facing her headboard. He made his way over to her, crawling on to the bed to lay on his side behind her, propping himself up on his elbow.

“You alright?” he asked softly, placing his hand on her hip and squeezing gently.

She nodded.

“You wanna turn over and look at me?”

She shook her head and he heard her sniffle. His brow furrowed with concern. Was she crying?

“Please turn over and look at me,” he urged gently.

She huffed and rolled onto her back, his hand following the movement of her body to rest on her stomach. Her eyes were puffy and wet from the silent tears falling from them, making him frown.

“What's wrong, Aylia?” he asked, his hand coming up to wipe away her tears with the pad of his thumb.

She stared at him blankly for a few passing seconds. What was she supposed to say? That she had known him for five days and despite trying to hate him, she was starting to fall hard for him and it absolutely petrified her, because everyone she had ever gotten close to had died or left? That that's why she wasn't closer with Sam and Dean? That she was afraid if she were to admit how she felt out loud, that it would bite her in the ass and he would break her heart? That the thought of him breaking down those walls she had built so high and so thick, and that she knew in her heart he could do it easily, sucks the air from her lungs? That it absolutely scares the hell out of her that, if he wanted it, she would let him in her heart and not only give him the metaphorical loaded gun pointed at her heart, but trust him, unequivocally, to not pull the trigger?

No, she couldn't say that. It was ridiculous that she felt that way. They had known each other for five days. He would think she was insane. She loathed how emotional she was being. With a sigh, she turned herself to bury her face into his chest.

“I'm fine,” she mumbled. “I'm just an emotional drunk sometimes.”

Gabriel pulled his arm from beneath himself to slip under her head, letting her rest on his bicep while he wrapped it around her shoulders. His other hand came up to card affectionately through her hair. He had seen the pain, uncertainty, and fear in her eyes before she had turned into him, and it had damn near ripped his heart out. What had happened? She was in high spirits when they had returned to the bunker. What was weighing on her heart so heavily that it was pulling this response from her? He would have given anything to take it all away from her. His reaction to her emotional state was causing questions in his own mind.

He wasn't sure how she had managed to completely enamor him in such a short amount of time. But, she had. She had evoked emotions within him that he had spent over a millenia burying down into an impenetrable box that he had thrown away the key to. He hadn't been sure if he was capable of feeling those emotions. She had also made him feel glad to be alive again. Something he hadn't felt it nearly a decade, and after Asmodeus, something he never thought he would feel again. More than anything he wanted to tell her these things, to pour his heart out and hope she wouldn't reject it. However, his own insecurities kept those words locked away.

He couldn't tell her. It would terrify her that it all came on so strongly and so quickly. She would run, and he really would lose her.

“Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?” he asked instead.

A sly smile passed over Aylia's lips, her mood suddenly changing. As a matter of fact, there was something he could do to make her feel better. She quickly used her body to roll him over onto his back and maneuvered her own to sit atop him, straddling his pelvis. She looked down into his surprised face as she ran her hands down his chest.

“I can think of a few things, actually,” she said seductively, then bent down to attempt to press her lips to his.

He jerked his head to the side at the last second, sending her lips to connect with his neck. He fought to get his brain to function properly as she started to kiss up his neck to his ear, where she took his earlobe into her mouth and sucked gently.

“Ay-Aylia!” he stammered, finally getting his wits about him again as he took her by her shoulders and lifted her up. “We can't do this, Sugar, you're drunk.”

She gave him that sultry pout and his resolve faltered enough for her to wriggle from his grasp and slither down to his jeans. His honey eyes grew impossibly wider when her deft fingers started to unbutton them. His brain clicked and he grabbed her hands, sitting up and pulling her with him so they were face to face.

“What's wrong?” she asked, moving her body to sit on his lap with her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms over his shoulders. “You don't want me?”

“Are you kidding me?!” he responded in disbelief, his hands coming to rest safely on her waist. “Sugar, I want you so bad it hurts!”

“Then what's the problem?” she asked, that alluring pout that was driving him insane back on her face.

“You're

really

drunk.”

“So.”

“I won't take advantage of you. You're in no shape to make those kinds of decisions right now.”

“I wanted it before I was drunk and you know it!”

Gabriel sighed deeply. Damn she was stubborn. A small smile came over his features as he let his hand come up to cup the side of her face. “Call me old fashioned, but I would prefer for you to remember our first kiss, and the first time we have sex.”

“

First

indicates that there will be more than one.”

“Well, I mean, I would hope there would be more than one time for us. I really don't see you being in the 'one and done’ category. Unless, that's what you wa-”

“That's not what I want,” she confirmed quickly.

“Then waiting one more night won't hurt,” he assured her, his smile growing.

“If you say so,” Aylia grumbled, and dropped her head to rest on his shoulder, his hand carding through her hair as she did. “Maybe I should just sleep.”

“I think that's a great idea,” he agreed, and placed his hand on the back of her head. He reached out with his grace and quickly lulled her to sleep.

He let out a breath as he moved her to lay right on the bed, putting the blanket over her as he got off of the mattress.

“Goodnight, Aylia,” he whispered, and bent to place a soft kiss on her forehead.

Quietly, Gabriel made his way out of her room, shutting off the light and closing the door behind him. He walked the short distance down the hallway and entered his own room, leaning his body against the door’s surface once he was inside, letting his head fall back with a thump as he looked around the dark room. This definitely wasn't how he had thought he would be spending the night a few hours ago. Alone with his own thoughts usually wasn't a good place for him to be. He wished he could use his own grace to put himself to sleep.

A soft knock on his door pulled him from his thoughts and he rolled his eyes. What now? He knew it couldn't be Aylia, she would be out until morning with him using his grace to put her to sleep. At least she wouldn't have a hangover this way. Begrudgingly, he pulled himself from the door and turned to open it. His eyes went wide with questions when he saw the identity of his visitor.

“Can I come in?” Rowena asked.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 4: Running

Aylia cautiously opened her eyes the next morning, fully expecting a pounding headache and her mouth to feel like a desert. She blinked in confusion when neither symptom hit, nor any other ailments that usually came with the hangover she knew she should have. Gabriel was in there the night before. He had to have done something before she fell asleep...

on top of him

...

after she had thrown herself at him

.

“Oh no!” she groaned loudly, running her hands over her face as the previous night came flooding back to her in full.

The conversation with Rowena, the things Gabriel had said. Her hands slipped back to her sides as she analyzed the words he had spoken. He had told her he wanted more than one night with her! Was there a chance her feelings could be reciprocated?! She had to find him! She had to find out!

Without a second thought, she ripped the blankets away from her and bounded out of the bed. She sprinted to her door, throwing it open and running down the hall, skidding to a stop in front of his room. She raised her hand to knock, but realized the door was ajar.

“Gabe?” she called as she pushed the door open and poked her head inside.

He wasn't there.

Where the hell was he? She navigated her way through the bunker, checking in the war room, both libraries, infirmary, garage, the 'Dean Cave', storage room that doubled as a weird dungeon, kitchen, and knocking on the doors of the bathrooms.

Seriously, where was he?

Running out of options, she turned the corner back into the hallway holding the sleeping quarters, just in time to see Rowena's door open and Gabriel stepping out carrying the witch's bag. Aylia threw herself back behind the cover of the corner wall, and discreetly peered around to see Rowena follow him from the room.

What the fuck?! Why was he in there with her?! Had he spent the night in there with her? Did they…

“Thanks for last night, Rowena,” Gabriel said as Rowena closed the door and turned to him. “I really needed it.”

“Oh, it was my pleasure, Gabriel. Just remember what we talked about,” Rowena responded, and reached up to place a quick kiss on the Archangel's cheek.

They had! He had slept with her last night. Or so Aylia assumed. She felt her heart shatter in her chest. How could she have been so stupid?!

“Are you sure you can't stay longer?” Gabriel asked. “Jack will be sorry he didn't get to see you off, and the boys and Cas will be back soon.”

“Yes, I'm sure. I have a long drive ahead of me.”

“Then let me walk you to your car,” Gabriel said, offering her his arm.

She smiled warmly as she accepted, and linked her arm through his. “Such a gentleman, Gabriel!”

“I have my moments,” Gabriel chuckled.

When they started walking down the hallway toward Aylia's hiding spot, she took off running away from them. Tears streamed down her face as she ducked into the kitchen. She dragged herself over to the table and sat down heavily. How could she have been dumb enough to think there could have been anything more with him? Why would Rowena say the things she had and then turn around and stab her in the back? Maybe that was just a witch for you. Aylia folded her arms of the table and buried her face in them, letting her tears fall freely.

By the time Gabriel entered the kitchen, Aylia had dried her tears and hardened her heart. She was standing at the coffee maker, staring as the dark liquid trickled into the glass decanter. She heard him come in and fought desperately to keep her eyes glued to where they were.

His face lit up when he saw her, a gesture she didn't see. At first he didn’t realize she had a foul expression on her face as he made his way over to her and attempted to slip his arm around her waist. He was left with his brow knitted together in confusion when she dodged his affection and started to walk out of the room.

“Are you mad at me?” he asked.

“Why would I be mad at you, Gabriel?” she returned coldly, and then exited the room without giving him a chance to answer.

“What the hell?!” he mumbled.

He stared at the doorway she had just gone through, completely confounded by the way she was acting. What had changed? He was under the impression they were in good standing after last night and he knew, because of his grace, she wasn't hungover and that she would remember the previous night. With a sigh, he took off after her, catching up to her in the main library.

“Aylia, what's going on?” he questioned, standing in the entryway.

“Nothing!” she snapped, turning to face him with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Uh, it's obviously something,” he said, taking a step toward her. “We were fine last night! What changed?!”

“That was before this morning.”

“What?!” he exclaimed, completely perplexed by her. “I haven't even seen you this morning until like two minutes ago!”

“No, but you've seen Rowena!” Aylia's voice was harsh and cold.

“Yeah,” he said, thoroughly bewildered as to what she was getting at. “I walked her to her car when she left. So?!”

“I'm not a fucking idiot, Gabriel!” Aylia half shouted. His, what she considered, act of playing dumb angering her even more. “I saw you walk out of her room this morning!”

“Yeah, so?!” he said back, his own voice raising as his patience lowered. His eyes suddenly went round as the reason for her ire finally hit him like a smack to the face. “Do you think I slept with Rowena last night?!”

“Don't even try to act like you didn't! I'm not stupid! I saw you two all chummy this morning!”

“Sugar, no! I didn't...we were just-”

“DON'T LIE TO ME!” she shouted.

“I'M NOT!” he yelled back, taking another step forward.

“Bullshit! And to think, I

almost

believed you!”

“Aylia!” he pleaded, trying to calm his voice. “If you'll just lis-”

“I can't believe I fell for this act!” she exclaimed. “I can't believe I almost let myself fall for

you

!”

“Aylia! Let me-”

“And oh my God! Those lines you fed me! What the fuck was I thinking?! I almost believed you were different than any other sleazebag I've met!”

“Dammit! I didn't sleep with her last night! Will you please just shut up and let me explain?!”

“MAKE ME!”

Aylia wasn't exactly sure what she had been expecting when the childish comeback tumbled from her lips. A chide remark about how immature she had sounded? His own witty comeback that would instantly trump hers? Or maybe just him simply walking away? However, she had definitely not been expecting what actually happened, nor had she been expecting it to happen so fast.

Gabriel didn't think twice. He closed the distance left between them in two easy strides. He wrapped one arm around her waist to pull her body flush against his, the other hand coming up to thread through her hair and cradle the back of her head. He pulled her face close to his and then crashed his lips onto hers.

Fireworks danced behind their eyes as every drop of her anger evaporated. Her arms slid around him, desperately pulling him as close as possible. Their lips moved together, effortlessly in sync, and he eagerly drank down the moan that escaped her as his tongue slipped into the wet heat of her mouth. Both of them poured every ounce of the emotions they had been keeping at bay into their movements. Their tongues tangled together, hands starting to roam the other’s body, his falling to her hips and then sliding to grab her ass, pushing their groins tighter against each other. Her fingers tangled in his hair, another moan falling from her when she felt his rock hard erection pressing into her even through their layers of clothes. The kiss only broke when she had to pull away, gasping for air.

“I didn't sleep with Rowena last night,” Gabriel said, breathless. “We talked. About you, and how I feel about you.”

Aylia nodded, and then pulled his lips back to hers. They had plenty of time to talk and hash out the details. Right now, she just needed him. Needed his mouth on hers, his hands on her body, and he was more than willing to give her everything she needed and more. He felt like he had been waiting his whole long life for his lips to meet hers, and he already couldn't get enough.

He picked her up, her legs locking around his waist as his hands went to support her weight under her thighs. Turning, he kicked one of the chairs out of the way, sending it crashing to the ground and skidding across the floor. He sat her on the table's surface and his hands were immediately sliding up to her waist, his fingers slipping under her shirt and caressing her back, sides, and stomach. He smiled against her lips at the way her muscles quivered at his touch.

His mouth trailed hot kisses down her jaw line and to the pulse point of her neck, eliciting sounds of desire from her. Her hands tightened in his hair, pulling him closer with her legs as his mouth fell to where her neck met her shoulder. She bit her lip, trying not to scream in ecstasy as he sunk his teeth into her and sucked harshly, leaving a dark purple mark on her skin that he soothed by lavishing with his hot tongue. He raised his head, searching out her lips again, and delved his tongue back into her mouth as soon as they were connected.

“Hey guys, we're ho...WHOA!!!” Dean called as he, Sam, and Castiel walked into the library, having come from the garage.

Gabriel ripped away from Aylia as she scrambled off of the table. Both turned to face the trio, Gabriel grabbing a chair that hadn't been kicked away to pull in front of himself in an attempt to hide the now straining bulge in his pants, gripping the back so tight the wood cracked. Sam and Dean stared at them with large shocked eyes, their mouths hanging agape and Castiel purposefully looking everywhere in the room except at the bright red faces of his brother and Aylia.

“HA HA! I so called it!” Dean exclaimed proudly. “Pay up, Sammy!” he continued, swatting his brother's shoulder with the back of his hand.

Sam rolled his eyes at his brother and then turned back to Gabriel. “Damn, Gabe! What the hell is it with you and this library?! First Rowena, and now Aylia!”

Gabriel flinched and glared at Sam for his remark, thoroughly ready to punch the younger Winchester for dropping that bomb before he had fully had a chance to explain himself to Aylia.

“Wait...WHAT?!” Aylia demanded, her embarrassment quickly turning to anger as she took a couple steps forward, placing herself in the middle of the group.

Sam and Dean shared a fretful glance before they focused on the woman.

“Uh, exactly which one of us are you talking to?” Dean mumbled hesitantly.

“How about all of you!” Aylia said, her voice cold again. She turned on Gabriel. “You just told me that you didn't sleep with her!”

“Uh...no,” Gabriel started cautiously. “I told you I didn't sleep with her...

last night

.”

“So, you just decided to leave that bit of information out?”

“I didn't think something that happened

before

we met was important right this minute!”

“I just...I can't even deal with that right now!” Aylia exclaimed in exasperation and turned back to Dean, the ire in her features increasing ten fold as she walked closer to him. “Now, you! Explain!”

With all of them caught up in the thick tension hanging in the room, none of them noticed Jack walking into the room. The young nephilim squinted his eyes against his headache and tried to figure what all the shouting was about.

“Uh…” Dean started, dragging his eyes from her to stare at the ground.

“DEAN!” Aylia shouted.

His eyes snapped back up to her, trying to find the words to explain himself. Castiel huffed and rolled his eyes, pulling Aylia's attention.

“The night before we left for South Dakota, Dean bet Sam that you and Gabriel would have sex within a week. That's why he made me go with him and Sam to help Jody. He thought if you two were left to your own devices it would speed the process along,” the angel told her.

“WHAT?!” Aylia and Gabriel shouted together.

“Did you have any clue about this?!” Aylia demanded, turning on Gabriel again.

“What?! No!”

She turned back to Dean, glowering up at the elder Winchester. “What the hell is wrong with you, Dean?! Are you really that bored that you have to disrespect someone that's supposed to be your friend for your own entertainment?!”

“I told him it was stupid!” Sam chimed in, and took a step back when Aylia turned her fury filled eyes on him.

“Don't you dare stand there and act like you're innocent, Sam!” she shouted.

“What the hell?! I didn't make the bet!”

“No, but you sure as hell didn't stop it or say anything!”

“It was a bet?!” Jack interjected, finally understanding what was going on and turning all eyes in the room to him. “Dean you told me you thought there was something between them! That's why you had me help by getting them close and watching that movie?! I'm so sorry guys, I didn't know! I feel terrible!”

“That's what you meant when you asked if we were together?!” Gabriel asked, complete shock and anger that the nephilim had been pulled into this in his features.

Aylia spun around to face the Archangel again. “You just said you had no idea what was going on, Gabriel! Or was that another thing you didn't think I needed to know

right now

?!”

“You seriously think I knew about this?!” Gabriel demanded. “I had no idea what the kid was talking about, and I couldn't get a hold of Dean to find out!”

“That's bullshit!”

“No it's not!”

“Dean! I can't believe you dragged Jack into this!” Castiel scolded.

“Yeah, Dean!” Sam added. “What were you thinking?!”

“I told you what I was thinking, Sam!” Dean tried to defend himself.

Aylia was quickly in his face again. “Please, Dean, enlighten us on why you thought it was a good idea to try and manipulate us using Jack!”

“I WASN'T MANIPULATING YOU!” Dean yelled.

“THEN WHAT THE HELL DO YOU CALL IT?!”

Dean and Aylia were nearly face to face now, both of their anger spilling over.

“I ACTUALLY THOUGHT THERE MIGHT BE SOMETHING BETWEEN YOU!”

“LIAR!!!”

“NO I'M NOT!”

“You expect me to believe that you thought two people, who couldn't be in the same room with each other for longer than five minutes without ripping each other's heads off, were a good match! No, fuck that, you saw it as a challenge!”

“No I didn't! And obviously I was right considering we just walked in on the two of you about to fuck on the table!”

“What we were or weren't about to do is none if your business!” Gabriel snapped, pulling the room’s attention. “Neither is

anything

that's between us! You shouldn't have stuck your nose in it!”

“Oh like you have any room to talk, Gabriel!” Dean shouted, striding past Aylia to the Archangel. “How many times have you fucked with us just for kicks?!”

“It was

never

just for kicks!” Gabriel spat. “I had my reasons for all of it!”

“Yeah! You had a reason to throw us in a herpes commercial!”

“At least I didn't fuck with an innocent woman's heart!”

As the other three men in the room crowded around the arguing Archangel and Winchester, Aylia rolled her eyes. She had had enough of the fighting, lies, and manipulation. Without a word to any of them, and without any of them noticing, she turned and exited the room just as the tears she had been fighting started to well in her eyes.

The fighting between Gabriel and Dean persisted for several more minutes, each throwing low verbal digs about the other's past transgressions. Their anger built until Castiel and Jack were restraining the Archangel while Sam held his brother back, all of them attempting to keep the two from coming to physical blows with each other.

Jack suddenly looked around the room, finally noticing the missing member of the squabble. “Guys, where's Aylia?”

The arguing ended abruptly as they all looked around the room.

Where the hell did she go?” Dean demanded.

“Aylia!” Gabriel exclaimed, taking off out of the room in search of her.

He knew he had to fix this. No matter how they had gotten to this point, he knew his feelings were real and he would do anything to prove himself to her. Losing her wasn't an option he could deal with. He checked in every room he passed on his way to her room, finally finding her door wide open, but with her nowhere to be found. Instead, his shirt he had given her was folded neatly and laying on the bed with a folded piece of paper, his name scribbled on it, laying on top of the article of clothing. He rushed over to the note and picked it up to read it, his heart falling to his feet when he read the words she had written.

Gabriel,

I don't know what to believe right now. I'm not sure I can even trust my own feelings. I need to take a step back. I'm sorry, but this is goodbye.

Aylia

The note fell to the ground as he tore out of her room, running through the hallways of the bunker as fast as he could to the garage. He had to get to her before it was too late! Had to stop her from walking out of his life. He needed her in every possible way, had to tell her how he felt, tell her everything.

“AYLIA!” he shouted, his voice strangled with urgency and fear that he was too late.

Dread set in over him as he looked around the garage, not seeing her car where he had parked it the night before. The others came barging into the room, their expressions closely matching the Archangel's.

“Gabe!” Jack said urgently. “What happened?!

Gabriel didn't bother to look at his nephew. He just continued to stare at the now empty parking place where her car had been.

“She's gone,” he whispered, feeling his heart shatter in his chest.

Aylia sighed happily while lying in her bed at the bunker as Gabriel snaked his hand from her back to splay his fingers over her stomach. He pressed his body into hers, placing soft kisses along her bare shoulder. The heat from his naked chest flowed through her and wrapped her in comfort only he could provide.

“I missed you so much,” he whispered when his lips traveled up to her ear.

She turned in his arms and reached up to thread her fingers through his honey brown locks. His eyes sparkled like drops of golden stars as she pulled his mouth to hers. The kiss was soft, full of adoration and affection. His tongue traced her bottom lip, requesting entrance that she readily gave. He rolled her onto her back, placing her beneath him and settling his pelvis between her legs. He rolled his hips, pressing his hard erection against her, and she arched her back into him, breaking their kiss.

“Gabriel!” she mewled loudly, locking her legs around him.

Aylia's eyes snapped open as the infernal, and obscenely loud, beeping from the cheap motel alarm clock filled the small dingy room. The irritatingly red digital numbers flashed six a.m. as her hand shot out from beneath the blankets, blindly searching for the off switch. She growled and rolled to her back when she finally stopped the incessant beeping. Her eyes stared at the stained ceiling of the small room, her mind replaying the dream that had been so rudely interrupted.

She hated that she couldn't get

him

off her mind when she was awake, and utterly loathed that her mind forced her to see him every night in her dreams. It had been four days since she had sped away from the bunker in her black 2009 Chevy Cobalt. Four days since she had felt the warmth and security of his arms. Four days since she had tasted his sweet kiss. Four days since everything had fallen apart. When she had run away, with anger coursing through her veins, she never dreamed that she would miss him so much, and that it would feel like there was an empty hole in her chest.

Her phone suddenly rang out, tearing her from her inner turmoil. She rolled her eyes; they were apparently starting early today. On the day she had left, she hadn't made it ten minutes down the road before her phone had starting ringing. Gabriel's name flashed across her screen fifteen times before he had stopped, and tears had streamed down her face as she pretended not to see his desperate attempt to reach her, to stop her before she walked out of his life. No sooner had his calls stopped, the others started calling.

Sam.

Dean.

Jack.

Castiel.

Sam.

Dean.

Jack.

Castiel.

Over and over and over again, until she had turned off the device and thrown it into her back seat. That was when she heard the roar of the Impala behind her. Saying a thank you to the mechanic whose life she had saved a few months back and had repaid her by suping up her engine to go well over what her speedometer read, she slammed her gas pedal to the floor and left Dean's classic car in the dust. She only slowed down when she was forced to stop for gas, but by then she had sufficiently lost him.

She sighed as she rolled over to grab her phone, her heart squeezing in her chest when she saw Gabriel's name displayed on the screen. She watched it ring until her voicemail picked up and then tossed it back on to the nightstand where it had been. Laying on to her back with tears brimming in her eyes, she waited for the ding of her voicemail, shortly followed by the sound indicating that he had also sent a text message. A debate sparked in her mind, arguing with herself on whether or not to read the words the Archangel had sent to her. Her need to have some kind of connection with him, even if it was one sided, finally won and she reached over to grab the device again, clicking open his message.

Aylia, please, talk to me. Just hear me out. Five minutes, that's all I ask. Please, give me a chance.

She threw the phone on to the bed beside her without sending a reply. No. She wouldn't let him break her heart any more than it already was. She would eventually get over him. Eventually not think of him every moment she spent apart from him. Eventually wouldn't dream of him every night. Eventually he would give up on her and move on. After all, how hard could it possibly be to get over something that had never even started.

With a deep breath, she threw the blankets from herself and dragged her body from the bed. Her joints creaked and cracked with the reluctant movement. She wouldn't dare admit that she missed the sleeping arrangements at the bunker. No, it was time to pull herself back together. She had work to do in this middle of nowhere town she had run to when she caught wind of a case. The ghoul wasn't going to gank itself.

Gabriel ran his hands down Aylia's sides to her hips, finally caressing to her backside, relishing in every curve of her body as he backed her into the cement wall of one of the hallways in the bunker with his lips melded to hers. She was here. She came back and he was never letting her go again. One of her hands clung to his bicep while the other came up to thread her fingers through his hair as he brought his mouth to her neck. He sucked, nipped, and kissed the sensitive skin until she was writhing against him with his name tumbling from her lips. He raised his head and their eyes locked, her deep green emeralds taking his breath away.

“I missed you so much,” she whispered, and he captured her lips with his own once again.

His fingers slipped under her shirt, tracing the waistband of her jeans and lingering over the button. Her stomach muscles jerked with heated anticipation when he popped open the fastener and slowly pushed down the zipper.

Gabriel jerked awake when his cell phone rang shrilly beside him. He was sitting at the kitchen table, hunched over with his head on his folded arms, an open laptop in front of him. He had spent the previous night watching traffic cameras that Sam had hacked into, hoping to spot a glimpse of Aylia's car. Hours of monotonous footage had wielded nothing. He figured at some point he had taken a break and fallen asleep, an act which he had grown to despise over the past six days since she had left. Every time he shut his eyes he saw visions of her, and every time he was woken to the painful reminder that she wasn't there.

His brain quickly shifted gears, telling him that his phone was still ringing. He shot straight up, snatching the phone to peer at the caller ID. His heart dropped with disappointment when it wasn't the name he wanted to see, however Rowena finally calling him back did spark a cautious hope within him.

“Why haven't you been answering your phone?” he demanded, quickly answering the device. He hadn't intended to sound so harsh and immediately regretted it.

“Hello to you too, Gabriel,” Rowena responded, annoyance in her voice. “Contrary to what you and the Winchesters might believe, I do have a life that doesn't revolve around you lot. What is with the urgency anyway? I figured you would still be locked up somewhere with Aylia.”

Her question felt like a punch to his gut. “She's gone.”

“Gone? What do you mean she's gone? Gabriel, what did you do?!”

What had he done? To put it simply, he had fucked up, royally. Just like he always did. Instead of paying attention to the woman he felt like he had waited eons for, he had been focused on his own anger. Instead of going after her the second she walked out of the room, he had been arguing with Dean. Gabriel took a deep breath and told the witch everything that had transpired after he had walked her to her car six days prior.

“Bloody hell,” Rowena sighed. “And she isn't answering any of your calls or messages?”

He wasn't even sure she hadn't ditched her phone at this point. As soon as his mind had wrapped around the fact that her car was gone he had started calling her. Somewhere around the fifth attempt Dean had pulled the car keys from his pocket and they all piled into the Impala. The oldest Winchester brother had peeled out of his parking space before the last door was shut all the way. Gabriel had gotten Aylia's voicemail ten more times as he sat in the backseat before he met Sam's eyes in the rearview mirror and the younger Winchester took out his phone and dialed her number. When he received no response either, Dean had called, followed by Jack, and then Castiel. She didn't answer for any of them. But they didn't give up, each calling in succession until her phone started going straight to voicemail. She had finally turned her phone off.

The Archangel had grasped on to a glimmer of hope when he saw tail lights up ahead of them. It was quickly destroyed when her little Cobalt took off at a speed that had Dean cursing under his breath. They tailed her for a while but had ultimately lost her when she started taking random side roads. The ride back to the bunker had been quiet and thick with furious tension just waiting to explode. Nevertheless, they had started trying to track her down as soon as they set foot in the garage. It didn't take them long to realize she had warded herself against angels and blocked the GPS on her phone.

“What is it that you want me to do, Gabriel?” Rowena asked. “If she isn't responding to any of you, she certainly won't for me.”

Having exhausted any chance of Gabriel or Castiel being able to sense her location, and Sam and Dean trying every technological way they could to find her within the first twenty-four hours, Gabriel had called Rowena. Curses flew wildly from his mouth when he couldn't get a hold of her, but his nephew had reminded him that her tracking spells had found the Archangel, surely she could find Aylia.

“I will try,” Rowena agreed. “But, I'm not making any promises.”

“Thank you, Rowena.”

“I will be in touch soon.”

Gabriel disconnected the call and stared at the now black screen arguing with himself. He knew what would happen if he called her. The phone would ring six and a half times, if she didn't instantly dismiss the call, and her voicemail would pick up and he would leave the same voice message he had left what felt like a million times now, begging her to talk to him. Then he would hang up and send a similar text message. None of them were ever returned. Why put himself through it? Why stab himself in the heart over and over again?

Because he couldn't bring himself to give up on her and what they almost had. What he was convinced they still could have.

With a heavy sigh, he dialed her number and waited to hear her voicemail.

Aylia sat at the counter of some random bar in a nowhere town, staring down into her glass of whiskey. She thought the sign as she entered said Stillwater, Minnesota. The djinn she had taken out a few hours ago three towns over had been hell to kill. She could still feel the dull ache from the nasty bruise forming on her torso where he had landed a hard kick. She took a deep breath, trying to hide the wince as she swirled the golden liquid in her glass. The color reminded her of a certain Archangel's eyes that she had run away from ten days prior. With a growl she brought the rock glass to her lips and drained the alcohol in one big gulp. She relished in the burn as the liquid went down her throat, trying to focus on that feeling instead of the one she had felt when Gabriel kissed her.

“Well, hey there, sweet thang,” a man said to her as he slid on to the barstool beside her.

She turned her head slightly, raising an eyebrow in disgust at his greeting. He was maybe in his early thirties, with pale blue eyes and short platinum blonde hair. He looked at her with what she assumed was supposed to be a sultry gaze, but to her, he just looked desperate.

“So tell me, gorgeous,” he continued, “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?”

She couldn't help but laugh at the lame pick up line. This guy had absolutely no clue. Unfortunately, he took her laughter as a sign that his advances were working, and he reached over to place his hand on her thigh. Hunter senses kicked in and she snatched his wrist, pulling it off of her and twisting his arm at an angle that had his eyes bulging with fear and his body sliding off the stool to fall on the floor to his knees.

“One: I didn't give you permission to touch me. Two: your pick up line was lame. Three: I'm

really

not the girl you want to mess with tonight,” Aylia said, and released him, turning back to the bar as he scrambled to his feet and sprinted to the other side of the room.

Aylia chuckled to herself when she heard him telling whoever he was with about the “psycho bitch” at the bar. With a small smile still on her face, she looked up to get the bartender's attention, but found the young woman was already in front of her and refilling her glass.

“This one's on me,” the woman said with pride shining in her hazel eyes. “I can't tell you how awesome it was to see that prick put in his place.”

Aylia's face scrunched up as she looked at the bartender; she had seen her somewhere before. Her crimped raven hair and hazel eyes stirred a sense of familiarity.

“Uh...thanks,” Aylia paused. “Have we met before?”

The bartender laughed again as she pulled out another rock glass and poured herself a drink. “Not officially, and you were pretty drunk the last time. Name’s Chloe.”

Aylia's eyes went round as recognition dawned on her. “You were the bartender in Lebanon! Why are you here? We're over six hundred miles from there. I'm uh...I'm Aylia, by the way.”

“I was only visiting,” she explained. “The owner of the bar was helping me out by letting me pick up a shift.” She paused to take a sip of her own whiskey. “So, where is that sexy man of yours? I was half expecting him to show up and knock that guy into next week. He sure looked like he was gonna do that to a guy back in Lebanon.”

“Huh?”

“Wow, you

were

tanked. There was this guy looking at you like a piece of meat, and one look from your boy had him cowering in the corner.”

“I didn't know that,” Aylia said quietly. She was a little annoyed; talking about Gabriel was the last thing she wanted to do right now.

“So where is he?”

“He's not here.” Aylia's tone was short. She hoped the woman would take the hint.

“Did you guys break up?”

Aylia fidgeted in her seat. She really didn't want to have this conversation. “We were never together. Things fell apart before we could get there.”

“Aww, that's too bad. I swear, he looked at you like you hung the stars,” the bartender told her, and took a sip from her glass. “You don't see that look very often anymore. I would have put money on you two falling in love.”

Aylia felt a stab of anger run through her. “Yeah, well, sometimes things don't work out the way you want them to.”

Gabriel slammed the passenger side door of the Impala and stood on the sidewalk waiting for Sam to come around from the driver's side. After another blow up argument between Dean and the Archangel, Sam thought it would be a good idea for him and Gabriel to go on a supply run in town. The ride had been quiet, the tension so thick Sam could physically feel it weighing him down. Gabriel was beyond mad, and Sam knew he had every right to be that way. The elder Winchester and the Archangel had only spoken when it was absolutely necessary since Aylia had left two weeks ago. Neither had apologized for the words they had said that day, nor had Dean taken any responsibility for his part in causing her to leave. So when Dean had suggested that it was time for them to give up and for Gabriel to “move on to his next flavor of the week”, Sam, Castiel, and Jack all knew what would happen. This time it had taken all three of them to pull the Archangel away from Dean.

Still, even though Sam wouldn't admit it out loud to his surly travel companion, Dean had a point. To an extent anyway. Sam was now fully convinced that Aylia wasn't just some “flavor of the week”, as Dean had put it so eloquently, to Gabriel. He obviously cared so much more for her than that. He had proven that over the past two weeks. However, they had searched high and low by human means and supernatural ones. Castiel and Gabriel had even driven to a few surrounding states looking for her. Rowena hadn't even been able to pinpoint her location because, the witch assumed, Aylia had some type of magical object deflecting the spell. It had become painfully obvious to all of them that Aylia simply didn't want to be found, and until that changed, they were wasting their time trying to find her. But Gabriel refused to give up.

“How are you doing?” Sam asked as they walked side by side down the sidewalk, trying to break the heavy silence between them.

“I'm swell, Sam,” Gabriel replied sarcastically.

Sam nodded slowly as the tautness of the moment settled between them again. The Winchester looked ahead, focusing on the path they were taking to the hardware store a little ways ahead of them. Maybe it would be best if they bought the rock salt that was on sale in silence.

“I know it's hopeless,” Gabriel said suddenly, taking Sam off guard. “I just can't bring myself to give up on her.”

“Then don't. We will find some glimpse of her eventually.”

“You really believe that?”

“I do.”

Just as they turned the corner, they collided with a young woman with a shock of curly raven hair. The two of them stood stable, but the young woman nearly fell. If it wasn't for Gabriel's quick reflexes, she would have. The Archangel instinctively reached out and grabbed the woman by her arms, balancing her back onto her feet. She quickly jerked away from him and stood staring at him with wide hazel eyes, rubbing the skin on her arms like his touch had burned her. Both Sam and Gabriel shared a worrisome look, then focused back on the woman.

“Are you alright?” Gabriel asked, concerned.

She quickly recovered, his question apparently bringing her some clarity, and flashed a bright smile at him. “I'm good, thanks for catching me, Gabriel.”

The Archangel's eyebrows raised in suspicion. “How do you know my name?”

“I was your bartender a few weeks ago when you were on your date with Aylia. Remember?”

Suspicion turned into full blown red flags for Gabriel. “Neither of us gave you our name.”

Chloe laughed off his suspicious tone. “Oh, calm down! I'm not a stalker! I ran into your girl, err, well, I guess ex girl, a couple days ago when I was in Minnesota. It's a shame you two ended.”

“You've seen her?!” Gabriel asked, his suspicion giving away to hopefulness. “What part of Minnesota?!”

“Stillwater. She kinda looked like she had been in a fight to be honest. Well, anyway, I'm running late. Nice to see you again, Gabriel!”

Without another word, Chloe took off down the sidewalk and disappeared into the crowd of people. Gabriel wasted no time in turning to the Winchester who already had his phone to his ear.

“Sam!” Gabriel exclaimed with urgent hope.

“Already on it, Gabe,” Sam assured him, and then the person he had been calling picked up. “Hey Donna!”

Donna Hanscom had been driving around her sleepy little town of Stillwater, Minnesota, for three hours looking for Sam's friend in her police cruiser. So far, her search for the woman's black Cobalt had proved fruitless. The sheriff hated that she was beginning to think she would have to call the Winchester and tell him that his friend had apparently already left town.

“One more time,” she whispered to herself.

She would make one more pass of the whole town before she would make that call. Sitting up a little straighter into her bucket seat, she steered her car to make a U-turn so she could begin the round again. As she passed one of the small little diners, Donna had to physically stop herself from slamming on her breaks and causing the car behind her to plow into her. There, sitting on the side of the building in the parking lot was a little four door Chevy Cobalt. It was the same color, and even had the same dent in the back driver's side door that Sam had described. With hope brewing, she pulled her cruiser into the parking lot, praying that the car would have the Florida plates the younger Winchester had also spoke of.

She nearly cheered when she caught sight of the two little oranges and emblem of the sunshine state on the tags, and pulled her car into the space beside it. Donna cut off the engine to her car and exited the vehicle, standing and looking at the other woman's car as she shut her door. An idea suddenly struck her and she went to her trunk to pull out a large hunting knife. Making sure there were no prying eyes, she made her way to the back passenger's side tire and shoved the blade into the black rubber. She quickly retracted the blade and went to toss it back into her trunk and closed the lid. Leaning against her vehicle, she watched as the tire slowly deflated. When enough air had seeped out to be noticeable at a glance, she smiled to herself and made her way into the diner.

Donna was thankful that the only occupants of the restaurant were two waitresses, the cook, who they were talking to through the window to the kitchen, and the blonde woman sitting alone in a corner booth staring down at her coffee. The sheriff waved at the employees behind the counter as she entered, and they greeted her with smiles.

“Hey Sheriff Hanscom!” the cook called. “How's it going? You here for lunch?”

“Oh, you betcha! How bout one of your BLTs to go!” Donna replied happily.

“On it!” the cook said, and set about making her sandwich.

With the pleasantries out of the way, Donna turned and made her way to the blonde woman's table, who appeared not to realize, or didn't care about, her presence.

“Hiya!” Donna said as friendly as she could. “Is that your Cobalt outside?”

The woman finally turned her green eyes up at her, and Donna fought the urge to hug her. The sheriff knew a broken heart when she saw one, and this girl's eyes held that pain. She could tell she had been crying recently, and noticed that the cell phone sitting beside her on the table had its battery lying beside it.

“Yeah, that's mine,” the woman responded. “Is there a problem?”

Donna suddenly felt terrible for her plan of keeping the girl here.

“Not a problem with you,” Donna assured her. “But, it appears one of your tires has been slashed.”

“What?!” the woman exclaimed, and jumped up from her seat, throwing a twenty on the table and rushing outside.

“Be right back guys!” Donna told the employees, and followed the woman.

She made it to her just as the woman’s green eyes were surveying the damage.

“A friend of mine owns the local tire shop,” Donna informed her as she walked up to stand beside the woman. “I can give him a call and get him to come and tow the car back to his shop. He's about to close, though, so it may be tomorrow morning before he gets the tire fixed. I can give you a ride to wherever you are headed.”

“I was actually headed out of town,” the woman grumbled.

“Well then I'll take you to a motel. Either way, you gotta get this fixed.”

The woman sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “I guess you're right.”

Donna smiled brightly and held out her hand. “I'm Donna Hanscom. I'm the sheriff.”

The girl stared at her hand for a minute before she hesitantly took Donna's hand and shook it. “I'm Aylia.”

“This is ridiculous, Sam!” Dean said in irritation as he stood in his little brother's bedroom, watching him shove clothes into a shoulder bag. “It's been over three hours since you talked to Donna. If she hasn't found any trace of her by now then she isn't going to.”

“We've gone further for less, Dean,” Sam replied, not taking his eyes from his task.

“Yeah, for a hunt, where people were

dying

! This is just some rogue hunter who doesn't want to be found!”

“No, Dean!” Sam half shouted as he finally rounded on his brother. “This is our

friend

, who is hurting! You would think since

you

are part of the reason, that you would want to find her!”

“I'm sorry if I don't want to find her just so Gabriel can add a notch to his bedpost, and then throw her to the side!”

“Oh!

Now

you are growing a conscience about that?! Because you sure as hell didn't care about that two weeks ago! And another thing, if you

really

think this is just about sex for Gabriel, then you obviously haven't been paying attention to anything since we got back from Jody’s!”

“Then, please, enlighten me Sam!” Dean shot back angrily. “What is this about?!”

“Dammit, Dean! He's in love with her! Can you really not see that?!”

“He's not in love with her! They spent six days together, four of which they continuously fought for!”

“Need I remind you of a woman you spent a weekend with and ended up

living

with?”

“This is different!”

“Why?! Because he's an angel or just because it's Gabriel?!”

Sam's phone ringing in his pocket brought a halt to the argument. He quickly pulled the device from his pocket and put it on speaker phone.

“Hey, Donna!” Sam said, hope in his voice. “Please, tell me you have good news!”

“I got her, Sam,” Donna replied.

Dean was quiet while Donna quickly filled Sam in on the specifics of what had transpired. When Sam had all the details he bid Donna a farewell, hung up the phone, and looked to his brother.

“Are you with us on this or not, man? Because either way, Gabriel and I are leaving now.”

Dean rolled his eyes and pulled the keys to the Impala from his pocket. “I’m in. Let's get a move on. We are already looking at rolling in around one in the morning.”

“Donna, you really don't have to do this,” Aylia said as she followed the sheriff to her personal vehicle, a black SUV.

“Oh, hush. We both gotta eat don't we?” Donna replied.

After Donna had waited with Aylia for the tire shop owner, who Aylia found out was named Kenny, the sheriff had taken her to the Asteria Inn and personally saw to it that she had gotten a room. A few hours later, just as Aylia had finished getting dressed after a shower, Donna had showed up at her door again, this time in her regular street clothes. She asked if she had plans for dinner. When Aylia had told her she was just going to order some Chinese food from a place she had seen down the street, Donna wasn't having it, and insisted that she let her buy dinner, saying it was the least she could do to make up for the bad experience she'd had with her “tire predicament.”

Aylia had told her over and over again that she was fine, and used to being on her own, but Donna had been relentless. The huntress felt like it was almost as if

she

felt guilty for her tire being damaged. A good twenty or so minutes passed before Donna had finally convinced her to go to dinner with her. Even as they walked to the woman's vehicle Aylia had try to worm her way out of the social interaction. However, after another twenty minutes, the two women were seated across from one another at a table in a busy restaurant.

“You got it ladies,” the young waiter said after he had taken their orders. “I'll have it out to ya in a jiffy!”

After the exuberant waiter had all but skipped away, Aylia turned to her dining companion, who was smiling brightly at her. She shifted uncomfortably under the woman's friendly gaze and took to looking about the restaurant. It wasn't that she didn't like or didn't trust the sheriff. In fact, Donna's bubbly personality had had her smiling more than once. But, she was still a cop, and hunters and police didn't usually tend to mix well.

“So, what brings you to Stillwater, Aylia?” Donna asked.

Aylia reluctantly focused on the woman across from her. “Just passing through really.”

“Where ya headed?”

“Key West.”

“Why so far?!” Donna asked, a little too much emotion in her voice.

Aylia chuckled softly at the woman's reaction. The truth of the matter was that Key West was the most amount of distance she could put between herself and Kansas without a passport. She had attempted to convince herself that the more distance she had between her and a certain Archangel the easier it would be to get over him. Deep down she knew she was wrong, but it was worth a shot.

“Just need to get away,” Aylia said honestly.

Donna regarded her for a moment with empathy when she saw the same pain from the diner flash through the hunter's eyes. Sam had told her everything that had happened with Aylia, and she knew what the poor girl must be going through, but she knew she couldn't let on she knew anything...at least too much.

“What's his name?” Donna asked.

Aylia raised an eyebrow; she hadn't been expecting that question.

“You aren't the only one at this table who’s put back together a broken heart,” Donna told her.

Aylia nodded with a knowing smile on her lips. “Gabriel was his name.”

“And what happened with this Gabriel?”

“You don't wanna hear my sob story.”

“Oh you betcha I do! Consider me your personal therapist for the evening!”

Aylia regarded her for a moment, internally weighing the pros and cons of spilling her heart to this woman she had just met. Eventually she decided: what the hell? It's not like she would ever see this woman again, so she told her a censored version of the story, leaving out the hunterish parts of the tale.

“But, I mean, it's all a little ridiculous. We barely spent six days together. I shouldn't be feeling this way,” Aylia said as she finished her story.

“I wouldn't say that. When the heart knows, it just knows. It's the mind that has to catch up,” Donna said.

“It doesn't matter, it was all manipulated. I can't even be sure if any of it was real, and Gabriel will move on soon enough.”

“I'll admit, the bet was out of line, but, with or without it, those feelings would have surfaced eventually. Love is funny like that.”

Aylia choked on her drink that she had just taken a sip of. “I never said anything about love!”

Donna threw back her head and laughed. “Maybe you need to retell that story to yourself, cause I think you missed some key things. You wouldn't be feeling the way you are, and he wouldn't still be begging you to talk to him, if love wasn't a part of this.”

All Aylia could manage was a blank stare at the woman across from her as she went over every second she had spent with Gabriel and every moment they had spent apart. Could Donna be right?

The Winchester brothers and Gabriel were already six hours into their road trip to Minnesota. Most of the drive had been made in thick silence that was only broken up by the classic rock station on the radio and a few words from Sam in the front passenger's seat when he would try to break the tension. The younger Winchester was beyond thankful when his phone rang and Donna's name flashed across the screen. He quickly answered and put the device on speaker.

“Hey Donna!” Sam said, Dean perking up behind the wheel along with Gabriel in the backseat.

“Hiya, Sam!” Donna replied cheerily. “I just dropped Aylia back off at the motel, convinced her to have dinner with me tonight. We had a good talk I think.”

“Is she doing OK?” Gabriel asked. “That Chloe chick mentioned she looked like she had been in a fight.”

“She seemed fine physically. Whatever that girl had seen must have been post hunt.”

Gabriel's sigh of relief was audible. The thought that she could have been hurt had been eating at him since Chloe had mentioned it so offhandedly.

“She was hurt?” Dean questioned, looking back and forth between Sam and the road.

Fresh anger rolled over the Archangel. “You would have known that if you would have actually listened to us when we got back to the bunker earlier instead of cutting us off and bitching about how we were wasting our time trying to find her.” Gabriel's voice was full of venom.

“Don't even start!” Sam warned before Dean could open his mouth for a comeback.

Dean grumbled under his breath and gripped the steering wheel tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

“How's her car?” Sam asked, knowing he needed to change the subject.

“It's done. Kenny had the tire replaced pretty quickly. I got him to give me the keys, though. I'll let you have them when you get here. When are you guys looking at getting in?”

“We've made good time so we should be in between 12:30 and 1,” Sam informed her.

“Sounds good!” Donna said. “I'll be waiting up for you guys.*

“Hey Donna?” Gabriel spoke up.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for this.”

“Oh you betcha, Gabriel! Just...do me a favor will ya?”

“Uh...sure,” Gabriel replied.

“Tell the girl how you feel for crying out loud!”

Gabriel chuckled as a smirk crossed his lips. “That's kinda the plan.”

Aylia's eyes shot open from yet another dream about Gabriel. She huffed in agitation and rolled to her side in the hotel bed, her gaze falling on the old digital clock on a nightstand beside her. She groaned when she saw it was 1:30 in the morning. Were these dreams ever going to stop, or at least finish? It was all one gigantic tease! Getting so close to finally being with him, only to be awakened by one thing or the other to the stark reminder that she was alone.

She sat up, throwing her legs over the side of the bed, stretched, and then froze. The sound of an all too familiar engine from right outside her room filled the space she was in. There was no way! She had taken every precaution possible to hide herself: blocking all GPS signals on her electronic devices, warding herself against angels, a hex bag that blocked tracking spells. They simply could

not

have tracked her down!

Aylia jumped up from the bed and hurried over to the large drape-covered window next to the door. Carefully, and slowly, she pushed the large curtain to the side just enough to peer out without being noticed. Her heart leapt into her throat when she saw the Impala parked in front of her door with Sam and Dean exiting the car. Then she saw

him.

Gabriel pulled himself from the backseat saying words to Sam that she couldn't hear. It took every bit of strength and restraint inside of her to not run out of the room and into his arms, crashing their lips together and then pulling him inside to make all the dreams she had been having about him a reality.

She forced those thoughts from her mind as the trio closed in on her door. What the hell was she supposed to do now?! How the fuck did they find her?! She couldn't just not answer the door, one of them would just pick the lock and come in anyway. Climb out the window in the bathroom? And then what? She didn't have her car, and wouldn't until the next morning. Call Donna? Tell her three guys were trying to break into her room? No. She was mad at Dean, but she didn't want to cause that much hardship to him. A knock on the door shattered her thoughts.

“Aylia?” It was Sam. “Hey, it's Sam, Dean, and Gabriel. Can we please come in and talk?”

“Go away!” The shouted and angry words were out of her mouth before she even realized she had said them. Tears stung at her eyes and she hated herself for it.

“Sugar, please,” Gabriel's voice was soft and warm, pulling at her heart. “Let us in. We just want to know you are in one piece.”

“Listen, Aylia.” That was Dean. “We aren't going anywhere until we talk to you. So either we camp out in front of your door, because you gotta come out eventually, or you let us in and we get this over with.”

“Dean!” Sam and Gabriel scolded.

While the older Winchester's brass comment had brought her anger back to the front of her mind, he had a point. All of them were certainly stubborn enough to stand in stalemate on either side of the door until, at least most of them, were old and gray. With a sigh, she flipped on the light to the room and unlocked the door.

“It's open,” she called, and moved to stand in the center of the room with her arms crossed over her chest.

As if none of them could believe she had let them in so easy, there was a beat of hesitation before the door slowly opened and the three of them filed in. Aylia felt her heart jump when she met Gabriel's eyes, and she quickly tore her gaze away, choosing to focus on Sam.

“How did you find me?!” Aylia demanded as soon as Dean had shut the door.

The three of them shared a look before Dean took a step forward and pulled her car keys from his pocket. “Donna is a close friend of mine and Sam's,” he said and tossed her the keys. “Your car is outside the guy's shop, tire has been paid for.”

Aylia had caught the keys easily and stared down at them in her hand before she looked back to Dean, making a conscious effort not to look at Gabriel. She could feel his intense eyes on her, searching for the right words just like she was. They had both been playing over in their mind a million times: what each other would say if they were ever face to face again. But now, neither of them could think of a single word.

“So, what?” Aylia asked the elder Winchester, choosing to go with anger to mask the broken feelings inside of her. “I'm just supposed to forgive and forget because the three of you paid for my tire?”

“No, we paid for the tire because that was kind of our fault,” Sam said nervously.

Aylia turned skeptical eyes to him and then the realization hit her. “Donna slashed my fucking tire didn't she?!”

The awkward and nervous glance shared by Gabriel and Sam answered her question.

“So now everything is out in the open!” Dean said, his almost cold attitude still very much present.

“So now what?” Aylia asked, her arms dropping to her sides.

“We were kinda hoping you would come back to the bunker with us so we can all hash this out,” Sam said cautiously.

“I don't think so,” Aylia snapped.

Gabriel walked up to stand in front of her, his close proximity making her resolve waiver, and with no hesitation, he slipped one of his hands into hers, lacing their fingers together. Her head swam with emotion, the intimate gesture almost breaking her.

“Aylia, please,” he whispered. “Give us a chance.”

There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the “us” he was referring to had nothing to do with the brothers standing by the door, but everything to do with the Archangel and the human woman with their eyes locked on to one another. Aylia felt the tears well in her eyes again and she gently pulled away from Gabriel as she nodded her head.

“Just...uh...let me get dressed,” she said as she turned and crossed the room to the nightstand.

She picked up her duffle bag and placed her phone and gun that were on the nightstand inside of it, and then disappeared inside the bathroom without another word.

“Well, that was easier than I thought it was going to be,” Sam said, a little unsure if he should believe it.

“Yeah, it was,” Dean agreed. “I'm gonna wait outside.”

Dean wordlessly turned and exited the room, closing the door behind him.

Aylia had quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt upon entering the small bathroom, and shoved the clothes she had been sleeping in into her bag. Now she stood in the middle of the small room arguing with herself on what her next move was. She could walk back out there, get into the Impala, and go back to the bunker with them, possibly fixing everything. Or...she could protect herself, reinforce those walls around her heart that Gabriel had started to break through, and make her escape. Her gaze fell onto window above the toilet. Yeah, running away was better.

As quietly as she could, she unlocked the window and opened it, climbed up on to the back of the toilet and then maneuvered her body out the tiny opening. Her feet hit the ground and she spun on her heel to take off running. But, for the second time that night, she froze in her tracks as she looked up into the face of Dean Winchester.

“Going somewhere?” he asked.

She stared at him with wide, shocked eyes.

“Trust me, Sweetheart, I know the look of fight or flight,” he told her.

“Get out of my way, Dean,” Aylia spat as she attempted to walk past him.

He moved into her path, locking his eyes with hers. “On one condition.”

“What?!”

“You tell me why you are running away.”

“Are you for real, Dean?!” she almost shouted. “You know exactly what this is over!”

“Oh, come on, Aylia!” Dean said. “I see right through you. OK, I'll admit that making that bet was fucked up of me, and I'm truly sorry for that. But, so what?! Yeah, I got myself, Sam, and Cas out of the bunker, and I put a few suggestions in Jack's head. But it's not like I tied strings to either of you and controlled you guys like marionettes or had Rowena throw a love spell on you guys!
There was a bunch of other stuff that happened between the two of you that I had no control over whatsoever. All I did was nudge you in a direction. You two are the ones that chose to take that path!”

“Gabriel didn't tell me about Rowena!” she said, not being able to argue with what he had said.

“Yeah, that's bullshit, too! You, Sam, and I know better than anyone that people have pasts, and there is nothing anyone can do to change that. All that matters is that he didn't sleep with her

after

he met you, and I know you could care less of his past conquests. Hell, Aylia, you have a few questionable choices of your own that I'm sure you haven't told him about! So, I'll ask you again:

why are you running?!

”

“BECAUSE IT'S EASIER THIS WAY! It's easier to not get attached and not have people in my life that can be used as weaknesses!”

“You mean it's easier than having people in your life that would destroy you if you lost them!”

“It's the same thing!” Aylia shouted, tears breaking free from her eyes. “Everyone I have ever loved has died or left! Why would I let myself fall for someone just to set myself up for heartbreak?”

“Not everyone leaves, Aylia! If you haven't noticed, Sam and I have been in your life and have tried to be there for you for eight years! You've just been adamant about keeping us at arms length! So we let you, because as long as you kept some kind of contact with us, we knew you were alive. But, whether you like it or not Aylia, you're our friend and we care about you. And after re-examining the events of the past two weeks, I can tell you, Gabriel does too. A lot more than you are letting yourself realize!”

His words cut her deeper than she wanted to admit. Deep down, she knew he was right. Sam and Dean had always been there for her when she needed them. Helped her to navigate through the truth of what had happened to her family. Had blamed themselves for her loss and done everything in their power to make up for it. They had more than proven their loyalty to her, and they weren't going anywhere. So had Gabriel. He hadn't given her any reason to doubt him, and had fought harder than anyone ever had to keep her in his life. She hadn't meant for it to happen, but he had found his way through her defenses. But she had hardwired herself to protect herself, and she wasn't sure if she could break that habit so easily.

“You're right,” she whispered.

“Finally!” Dean said, and reached out to pull her into a tight hug. He felt her wrap her arms around his middle, and he rested his chin on the top of her head. “Will you please come back to Kansas with us? You don't have to be alone anymore.”

Aylia nodded into his chest and he released her. Taking a step back, he tilted his head in the direction of the parking lot.

“Let's get back in there,” he said and turned, starting to walk back to her room and fully confident that she was following him.

When he had made it to the end of the building and was about to turn the corner, her silence started to worry him and he turned around to ask if she was OK.

She was gone.

“SON OF A BITCH!” he shouted as he looked around frantically.

Where the hell did she go so fast?! He took off down the side of the building he had come from, scanning the wooded area around the hotel as he ran. He turned the corner of the building to find that the main road curved behind the building, and saw Aylia jump into a random car that she had flagged down. He tried to catch up to her, but the vehicle sped away before he was able to get to it.

“SON OF A BITCH!”

With a growl of frustration, Dean spun on his heel and jogged back to the room. The quick way he stormed through the door and slammed it behind him had both Sam and Gabriel spinning around with perplexed looks.

“Dean, what the hell?” Sam demanded.

“Aylia took off again!” he said. “I had a feeling she was going to try and ditch us, so I cut her off at the pass and was waiting outside the bathroom window when she crawled out of it. I really thought I had gotten through to her and that she was coming back. I turned my back for a second and she gave me the slip. By the time I caught up with her she was already hitching a ride.”

“Dammit, Dean!” Gabriel raged. “Why didn't you say something?!”

“I was trying to help!”

“Well, do me a favor and stop

trying to help

!” Gabriel shouted. “Every time you do, she fucking takes off!”

“It's not my fault she's a damn flight risk!”

“Guys!” Sam yelled over them. “This isn't helping! We know where she's headed. Dean gave her her keys. Let's just go get her!”

“Sam's right!” Gabriel said, heading for the door. “Let's go.”

Gabriel flung open the door open and stopped cold, Sam and Dean nearly plowing into him. The brothers followed the Archangel's confused gaze to the woman with hazel eyes and curly raven hair standing just outside the door.

“Chloe?!” Gabriel questioned, completely taken aback by the woman's sudden appearance.

“Isn’t it funny how we keep running into each other?” she asked with an unnerving smile on her lips.

Not giving them a second to react, she raised a closed fist to her mouth, opened it, and blew bright canary yellow dust into their faces. The three of them coughed and sputtered as they clutched at their chests, gasping for air. Chloe watched with dark glee as, one by one, they fell to the ground unconscious.

Aylia waved a thank you to the man who had given her a ride to Kenny's tire shop as he drove away. As she turned to start walking through the tire yard looking for her car, her heart was heavy. Guilt raged through her mind, making her feet feel like they were stone. Her mind was at war with itself, one part wanting to get in her car and drive as fast as she could toward that big seven mile bridge in Florida leading to The Keys, the other screaming at her to go back to the motel and beg Gabriel’s forgiveness for running away from him again. Because, if she were truly honest with herself, the only place she wanted to be was with him.

It didn't take her long to spot her car at the far end of the parking lot, but she had lost any sense of rushing. Maybe it was because she hoped that before long the Impala would come screeching into the parking lot and Sam, Dean, and Gabriel would tear out of the vehicle calling her name. Then again, there was a possibility that it wouldn't. What if this last great escape was the last straw that caused Sam and Dean to wash their hands of her, the one that caused Gabriel to realize she wasn't worth fighting for?

She was standing at the driver's side door of her car before she realized it, and she stared at her reflection in the darkened window. When had she started crying? How long had those dark circles been under her eyes? She wiped her tears away and pulled her keys from her pocket, pressing the unlock button on the key fob. As she reached for the door handle, her cell phone rang inside her bag, ripping straight through her heart. She just knew that when she pulled out the device Gabriel's name would be staring back at her. Sure enough, when she pulled it out, that was the name on the screen. However, something, call it hunter instincts, woman's intuition, but something inside of her was screaming at her, telling her that this time she

could not

ignore the call. She accepted the call and held the phone to her ear, and before a hello could even fall from her lips, a familiar female voice spoke over the line. And the woman’s words made Aylia sick to her stomach.

“I have your angel, Aylia.”

“Who the hell is this?!” Aylia demanded.

She heard sickening laughter on the other end of the line. “Come now, Aylia, I know you weren't drunk the last time we seen each other.”

The wheels in Aylia's head suddenly clicked into place. “Chloe?!”

“Ding! Ding! Ding! Give the hunter bitch a prize!”

“What have you done to Gabriel?! Where's Sam and Dean?!” Fear and panic we're setting in to Aylia's mind.

“Just put them to sleep...for now.”

“What do you want?!”

“You. You have thirty minutes to get back here before I start killing your friends and your angel boyfriend...slow and bloody.”

“Why are you doing this?!”

“The witch you and the Winchesters killed.”

“What about her?”

“She was my sister. Now hurry hunter bitch. You don't want to be the reason the Archangel loses the rest of his grace.”

The phone disconnected and Aylia ripped it from her head to stare at the blank screen. How was she going to get them all out of this one alive? An idea struck her, and she tossed her duffle bag onto the hood of her car, furiously looking through it, and finally pulling out a small white business card. Quickly, she dialed the number on it and held the phone to her ear, praying for an answer. When the recipient of the call picked up, Aylia almost cried out in relief.

“Hello?” Donna Hanscom said uneasily on the other end of the line.

“Donna, it's Aylia. Sam, Dean, and Gabriel are in trouble and I need your help! Please!”

“Tell me what you need me to do.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 5: Coming Home

Gabriel felt like someone was taking a sledgehammer to the back of his head as he fought to open his eyes; an action he quickly regretted when the bright artificial light hit them. It felt like his retinas were burning in their sockets. The clarity of his vision wasn't much better. Blurred images of different colors swam through his sight. His hearing was the first thing that came back to him in full. He heard groaning from Sam and Dean on either side of him slowly registering in his brain. The images in his sight started to sharpen as he tried to move, and fear and panic shot through him like wildfire. He couldn't move. Why couldn't he move?!

Gabriel forced his sight and other senses to come back into focus. He was sitting in a metal chair. From the sting and bite he felt around his wrists secured behind his back to the chair, and his feet bound to each front leg, the handcuffs holding him in place were ones inscribed with Enochian symbols that kept whatever grace he had locked down tight. He looked to either side of him. Sam and Dean were in identical chairs and positions, regular steel handcuffs holding them in place. The brothers were still fighting their way back to consciousness as Gabriel looked around the room.

They were still in Aylia's motel room, only now all the furniture in the room had been moved into the tiny kitchenette on the side save for one small table holding the Winchester brother's weapons and lock picks they kept on them, along with his Archangel Blade. In the center of the room, painted in black on the wooden floor, was a large circle with ancient Greek symbols drawn along its outside edge. Symbols that he recognized instantly as ones used to call up on the power of Thanatos, the Greek religion's personification of death.

Out of his peripheral vision, he saw Sam and Dean raise their heads, slowly taking in the room as he had. Gabriel's eyes narrowed into a glare as he took in Chloe leaning against the door of the room with that same unnerving smile she had worn when he had opened the door. When all three were focused on her, she moved to stand directly in front of them.

“Glad you three are waking up,” she said. “I thought you were going to sleep through all the fun!”

“Who the hell

is

this bitch?!” Dean demanded, his voice still groggy.

Fury flashed through Chloe's eyes and she backhanded the elder Winchester across the face, snapping his head to the side. A guttural growl erupted from him as he slowly turned his head back to her with a deadly look in his eyes.

“I would show me some respect if I were you, Winchester!” Chloe snapped. “I'm the one that decides whether your death is fast or slow.” She bent down to eye level with Dean and took his chin between her index finger and thumb. “And right now, I'm feeling like taking you apart piece by piece.”

“Bite me, bitch!” Dean snarled.

Chloe made a tsk-tsk noise with her mouth as she released his face and stood straight, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Why are you doing this?” Sam asked.

Chloe moved to stand in front of Sam, looking down at him with disgust. “Revenge...mostly. The witch you killed a few weeks ago...my sister.” A soft thump coming from behind the bathroom door caught her attention, but her focus quickly shifted to Gabriel. He met her gaze with ire “My original plan was to track down the Winchesters, and that other little bitch, and simply just kill them. But then they ducked into that infernal bunker and I couldn't even get close enough to even try to break the warding around that place. Then when these idiots surfaced they had the angel with them, but not the girl.”

Chloe stood in front of the Archangel and bent down to place her hands on the back of his chair, leaning in face to face with him.

“Imagine my surprise when she finally comes out with none other than the Archangel, Gabriel. But, the real kicker, she had my sister's mark on her soul. You see, that spell that I'm sure the red headed witch you were with had to break, was a spell very specific to my sister's magic. That's why no one could specifically identify it. The spell was supposed to kill her so my sister could take over her body. Unfortunately, that witch was able to remove the spell. But, my sister's mark was still very well hidden. So well, in fact, that only a few beings on this Earth could sense it.”

Chloe stood straight again, walking toward the bathroom door as she continued her tale. “The other angel wouldn't have been able to sense it; he doesn't have the juice. But, an Archangel? An Archangel should have been able to spot it from a mile away, especially with how googly eyed you were when you looked at her. But,

then,

” she spun back toward the trio, placing one of her hands on the doorknob to the bathroom and raising her other in the air with her index finger pointed to the ceiling, “I remembered how long Asmodeus was feeding on your grace.”

The Winchester brothers and Gabriel shared bewildered looks.

“How do you know about that?!” Gabriel demanded, his anger bubbling inside of him as he turned back to her.

Chloe lowered her hand in the air and pointed to the table holding the weapons. Two knives raised off the table, floating in the air. Slowly she moved her hand toward the trio and the knives sailed through the air, coming to rest, suspended, with their points touching Sam and Dean's throats.

“I think we should have your girl join us before I explain that,” Chloe said with a sickening joy in her voice. “I'm sure she will

love

to know just how

weak

the Archangel she's fallen so helplessly head over heels for really is.”

“She left me,” Gabriel growled.

“But did she?” Chloe turned her head to the side to continue speaking to the bathroom door. “I would advise you ladies not to make any sudden movements. If my concentration breaks, knives go into the throats of your friends.”

The witch flung the door open and took a step back, standing so she could keep her eyes on the trio in the chairs and on the open bathroom. Gabriel's heart dropped when he saw Aylia and Donna walk out of the bathroom with their hands in the air, his eyes momentarily pausing on the bandages around both of their right arms. Both women glared at the witch as they walked into the room.

“Weapons on the ground!” Chloe ordered. “

Slowly!

”

The two women did as they were instructed and took their guns, Donna from her holster and Aylia from the back waistband of her jeans, and laid them on the ground. They stood straight with their hands back in the air.

“Now!” Chloe said. “Where were we? Oh! That's right! Asmodeus!” She moved to stand behind Gabriel, smoothing her hands over his shoulders to his chest, taking delight in the pure fury she saw flash through Aylia's eyes as she bent to speak into Gabriel's ear. “Who do you think supplied Asmodeus with the magical roofie strong enough to knock out an Archangel? That idiot couldn't of come up with that on his own.”

Gabriel strained against his bonds, his now pure loathing for the witch fueling his actions. Chloe laughed as she pulled away from him to walk over to Aylia, grabbing her by the wrist and throwing her toward the circle on the floor. The human hit the ground within the circle hard, momentarily forgetting herself and starting to lunge at the witch.

“No, no,” Chloe said teasingly, raising her hand toward Dean.

Aylia followed the witch's hand with her eyes in time to see the knife in front of Dean bite further into his skin. The hunter tried not to show any emotion, but the trickle of blood now running down his neck in a thin line had Aylia backing down.

“On your knees in the middle of the circle hunter bitch!” Chloe ordered.

Aylia growled as she did as she was told. Chloe smiled wickedly as she came around to wrap her hand in Aylia's hair and pulled her head back forcefully.

“Did your angel tell you that he was the play thing of a Prince of Hell for seven years?” Chloe asked, locking her gaze with Aylia’s. “Did he tell you about how his grace is so low, he didn't even sense the witch stalking you?” Chloe loosened her hold on Aylia, and her head came forward as the witch bent to speak near her ear. “Do you have any idea how fucked up he really is?”

“I do know,” Aylia said, her gaze finally meeting Gabriel's. “I could care less about the level of his grace. That's not why I lo-”

Chloe jerked Aylia's head back harshly, forcing her to look at her. “How could you not care?! Power is everything!”

She threw Aylia roughly to the ground and stood to exit the circle, coming around behind the human and raising her hands out to either side. The circle and symbols surrounding Aylia started to glow with an eerie green light.

“You may not care,” Chloe said, a sickening smile growing on her face. “But my sister and I do. Once you're dead and she takes over your body I know she will be right on board with hooking him back up and turning him into our own personal power enhancer. Of course, that's after we kill the rest of your friends.”

Protests resounded through the room from the hunters, Sheriff, and Archangel held at bay, and Aylia jumped to her feet to charge at the witch, stopping short when she came to the edge of the circle.

Chloe cackled as she watched them. “Nice try, hunter bitch, but Thanatos is already starting to lend me his magic to keep you where I need you.”

The witch's eyes widened as they took on the same glow as the symbols surrounding Aylia. The lights in the room flickered as magic surged through the room. Sam, Dean, and Gabriel fought wildly against their restraints, each of them doing their best to slip out of their metal bindings.
Neither of them had noticed that Donna had been quietly smiling during the entire ordeal, nor did they notice the door of the room slowly opening.

Chloe's whole body began to emit the bright green light and when she opened her mouth to chant, there were two female voices coming out of her mouth. “Megálos Thanátos! Sas parakaló na mou daneísete ti megáli sas dýnami kai na férete ton agapiméno mou gia na analávei aftó to sóma! Férte tin píso se ména!”

With the witch completely preoccupied, Donna sprinted to the trio in the chairs, grabbing the knives at the brothers’ throats and throwing them to the ground.

“Donna! Don't worry about us!” Dean hissed. “My gun on that table still has witch killing bullets in it!”

“Hush, Dean!” Donna scolded as she ran behind them to start working on their restraints. “Aylia and I have this under control!”

“What is

that

supposed to mean?!” Gabriel demanded.

“Just trust us!” Donna said as she successfully picked the lock on Dean's wrists and handed him the tool for him to work on the ones around his ankles. She moved down to Gabriel, pulling another lock pick implement out of her pocket. “Just don't charge as soon as you’re free.”

“Megálos Thanátos! Sas parakaló na mou daneísete ti megáli sas dýnami kai na férete ton agapiméno mou gia na analávei aftó to sóma! Férte tin píso se ména!” Chloe chanted again.

The markings on the floor around Aylia started to move like a liquid towards her, crawling up the hunter's body as she fell to the ground screaming. She heard Gabriel scream her name, and then Donna hiss at him to calm down. Chloe was still chanting the same words as her body started to glow brighter. The magic liquid was covering most of Aylia's body now, closing in on her sight. When she saw Donna free the men from the last of their restraints and usher them to the corner of the room, she turned her eyes back to the witch and a smile crossed her face when she saw a flash of red behind her.

Aylia reached up and wiped the magical substance as she stood. Chloe halted in her chanting as the lights returned to normal and the rest of the liquid fell from Aylia's body, leaving her dry and untouched, the triumphant smile still on her face.

“NOOO!!” Chloe screamed as the glow faded from her and the lights in the room returned to normal. “HOW?!”

Aylia chuckled as she lifted her shirt to reveal her stomach, an ancient sumerian sigil written in blood on her skin. “My friend is more powerful than you,” she told the witch. “Also...you might want to turn around.”

Chloe spun around and found herself facing Rowena with her hands held open palmed in from of her.

“Succendam auferetur!” Rowena shouted, sending Chloe flying into the air and crashing into the nearby wall.

Aylia quickly turned and dove for her gun,
springing to her feet as she aimed at the witch trying to scramble back to her feet. Chloe froze when she saw the gun pointed straight at her chest.

“Don't fuck with our boys bitch!” Aylia said, and unloaded her clip of witch killing bullets into Chloe's chest.

As Aylia lowered her gun and watched Chloe's lifeless body crumble to the ground, Rowena walked up next to the huntress.

“Well that was fun,” Rowena said.

“That’s one word for it,” Aylia said with a chuckle.

The two women turned their attention to the stunned faces of the Winchester brothers and Gabriel.

“Aww! They're speechless!” Rowena teased playfully.

“How did...When did...What the hell just happened?!” Dean demanded.

“There'll be plenty of time to talk about all that later,” Donna said. “Right now, you five need to beat feet out of here. With as much commotion as we just caused,

someone

is bound to have called the police.”

“Donna, are you sure?” Sam asked.

“Yes,” she assured him. “I'll take care of things here. Get your stuff and go to my house. I'll let you know when it's safe. Now, go!”

None of them needed further convincing. They all scattered throughout the room to collect any evidence of their presence and rushed out the door.

“Where's your car, Lia?” Dean questioned when the only vehicle he saw was his own.

“Back at Donna's. We came in her car. It's around back,” Aylia replied quickly.

Dean nodded his acknowledgement and got into the driver's seat of the Impala. The others followed suit, Sam up front next to his brother, Gabriel, Aylia, and Rowena filing into the backseat. Just as Dean pulled onto the main road, seven police cruisers came screeching into the parking lot of the Asteria Inn.

Aylia looked to her right from the middle of the back seat and met Gabriel's whiskey eyes. Her mind screamed at her to tell him everything that was running through her head, but her mouth didn't seem to want to cooperate. She saw a small smile cross his lips and he shifted in his seat, resting his hand palm up on his thigh. Without any hesitation she slipped her hand into his, lacing their fingers together. He raised her hand to his lips and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles. Her head tilted to rest on his shoulder as he brought their hands back to rest on his leg.

“So, do you two want to explain exactly what the hell happened back there?” Dean asked, glancing into his rearview mirror at the two women in his backseat.

“Yeah, Rowena, how are you even here?” Sam added.

“Castiel called,” Rowena said. “So, I decided to head this way. I was very curious as to how Aylia was reflecting my tracking spells.”

“And what about the rest of tonight?” Dean asked again.

“Chloe called right as I got to my car,” Aylia started. “She told me I had thirty minutes to get back to the hotel or she was going to kill you guys. I called Donna and she told me to meet her at her house. On the way there I called Rowena. Thankfully, she had just gotten to town.”

“I met her at Donna's and the three of us started to devise a plan to save you three,” Rowena added.

“With some help from Cas and Jack,” Aylia continued, “we found out that Chloe and her sister's powers were given to them by a demon. We had a feeling that her plan was either to kill all of us or try and bring her sister back.”

“With that knowledge,” Rowena said. “I cast a shielding spell on Donna and Aylia so whatever Chloe threw at them wouldn't take hold.”

“So that's why you have this,” Gabriel said as he touched the bandage on Aylia's right arm.

“Yup,” Aylia confirmed. “The sigil had to be written in our own blood. Once Rowena was done, we left for the hotel. Donna and I slipped into the bathroom right as you guys were waking up. We waited for Rowena to let us know she was at the front door ready to pop the lock, and Donna shut the window in the bathroom so the noise would catch her attention instead of Rowena unlocking the door. Then we just had to keep her occupied so Rowena could get into position.”

“The way you reacted when that goo started covering you? That was all an act?” Dean questioned.

“Yeah, I also realized I had to keep her attention so Donna could get those knives off your throats,” Aylia told him.

“However,” Rowena interjected, “we had no idea about the apparent mark Chloe's sister left on Aylia, or the other things she revealed.” She focused on the woman next to her. “Now that I'm aware of it, I can feel it. It will need to be removed as soon as possible.”

“Can you do it?” Gabriel asked.

“I can,” Rowena confirmed. “It will not be pleasant, however.”

“Neither was throwing up gallons of black goo,” Aylia retorted.

Rowena sighed with sympathy. “This will be worse.”

Aylia sat on the bed in Donna's guest room between Gabriel's legs with her back resting against his chest. His arms were locked around hers, holding them to her sides, and his legs bent at the knee, caging her against him. Aylia's legs were stretched out along the length of the bed with Sam and Dean on either side, gripping and holding her ankles in place. Rowena stood to the side of the bed with her eyes closed, slowly waving her hands in the air over Aylia's body. The hunters and the Archangel watched the witch intently as she searched for the dark mark within Aylia.

“Got it,” Rowena declared as her eyes popped open, looking down at Aylia. “Are you ready?”

“As I'm ever gonna be,” Aylia told her.

“Get ready boys,” Rowena said as her eyes closed.

Aylia felt Gabriel and the Winchesters tighten their holds on her and she took a deep breath as Rowena started to chant.

“Munda prius mundaret! Munda prius mundaret! Munda prius mundaret!”

Aylia felt it the moment Rowena had started chanting. The witch's power started to crawl its way through her body, zoning in on the parasite that had latched to her soul. It was heavy and all encompassing, forcing its way into every part of her being. But then, it found the mark. White hot pain seared through her entire body. Aylia threw her head back onto Gabriel's shoulder as a blood curdling scream ripped from her chest, her body attempting to thrash away from the pain.

She was vaguely aware of Gabriel speaking to her, telling her to hang on, that he was there, that it would be over soon. She tried to cling to his words, tried to force herself to focus on only him, but the magic inside her felt like it was ripping apart her organs. Tears streamed from her eyes when she felt the power colonize in her chest. The conflicting powers warred for dominance. With a loud crack that echoed through the room, Aylia felt the magic erupt from her chest and she fell slack against Gabriel, looking up just in time to see black and purple smoke swirling above her and then poof from existence.

Gabriel released her arms and wrapped his own around her middle. “Say something Aylia!” he begged.

“I'm OK,” she whispered.

Sam and Dean released her ankles as a collective sigh of relief went around the room. Aylia felt the bed dip and looked up to see Rowena sitting next to her. The witch's hand came up and gently laid on her forehead, and after a beat she smiled.

“The Mark has been removed,” Rowena confirmed. “But, you will need to rest to get your strength up.”

Aylia nodded weakly, a heavy enervation setting in and making her eyes heavy. She heard muffled voices, and she tried to focus, but the fatigue was too much. Her eyes fluttered closed as she fell asleep in Gabriel's embrace.

The bright sunlight shining warmly through the sheer lace curtains of the guest room slowly roused Aylia. She groaned as she rolled to her side to peer at the clock on the bedside table. It was well past one in the afternoon, yet she still felt like she hadn't slept in days. Pulling on every ounce of strength she could muster, she dragged herself from the comfort of the soft bed to sit on the edge. After a few more minutes she convinced herself to stand and began the tiresome journey of searching out the other occupants of the house. She quickly realized the still quiet surrounding her, and a quick flash of fear went through her system.

Had they left without her?

She made her way to the living room window, her heart sinking in her chest when she didn't see the black Impala parked in the driveway.

“They will be back soon,” Rowena assured her as the witch entered from the kitchen. “They went to help Donna tie up some loose ends in town.”

Aylia spun around to face her, the movement jarring her more than she expected and causing her to reach a hand out to the window sill to steady herself. Rowena quickly closed the distance between them and slipped her arm around the woman's waist, leading her to a nearby couch.

“You shouldn't be out of bed!” Rowena scolded as she guided Aylia to sit.

“I'm fine, just got a little dizzy for a second. That's all,” Aylia said as the witch sat on the opposite end of the couch.

“You look fine,” Rowena said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “Hunters! I swear! How any of you make it past your twenties is beyond me!”

“Most of us are just too stubborn to die, I guess,” Aylia quipped with a small chuckle.

“Or to know a good thing when it's standing right in front of you,” the witch responded pointedly.

“I think we've already established we don't always make smart choices.”

“I suppose. Are you going to go back with them?”

Rowena's question had thrown Aylia. Yes, she had expected the question at some point, but she hadn't been expecting it to come so directly. She already knew her answer. She had known before she had even gotten the call from Chloe where she truly wanted to be, and who she wanted to be with. However, saying it outloud was still a hurdle she was trying to figure out how to clear.

“I'll answer that,” Aylia started, debating on her words, “if you tell me why you were already in Stillwater when I called you.”

“I already told you that. I was curious as to how you were avoiding my tracking spells.”

Aylia's brow raised in amusement. “Do you expect me to believe that

you

have no idea what was in my hex bag? Please, Rowena, don't insult my intelligence. We may not have known each other very long, but I've been hearing of you for quite some time from Sam and Dean. I know how powerful you are, and you know exactly what I used to deter you.”

“I knew I liked you,” Rowena said almost proudly as a smile grew across her features. “Yes, I know exactly how you avoided me and truth be told, I had found a way around it, and was on my way to you long before Castiel called to tell me they had found you.”

“Why?”

“Because I thought you and I should talk.”

“About?”

A laugh fell from Rowena. “I think it is a little obvious don't you think?”

“I meant exactly which part,” Aylia said, leaning against the armrest and crossing her arm over her chest.

“From your posture, I'm guessing I should start by saying there is nothing between Gabriel and me. At least, not like what you assume. Yes, we have had a quick push, but it's not like that now. I was there at a time he desperately needed a distraction from the monsters in his head, and I was happy to be that reprieve. However, now there is only friendship between us.”

Aylia visibly relaxed, her arms dropping to her sides and her features softening.

“He never looked at me the way he looks at you,” Rowena continued. “Nor have I ever seen the side of himself he's shown you. He let his guard down for you, and I think you understand how truly monumental that is for him because it's just as big a deal for you. He cares very deeply for you and wants to show you that.”

“You don't know that for sure.”

“Honestly Aylia, after everything do you really still doubt how he feels about you? He would have given up on you the

first

time you walked out on him if you weren't important to him. But, yes, I do know for sure. He told me himself the night you and Jack got sozzled on us. He and I ended up talking in great length that night in fact. What he was feeling for you had him up in arms and he needed help navigating through it. He did most of the talking really, I just helped him make sense of some of it. By the end he was ready to tell you. But, from what I've been told that didn't exactly go as planned.”

Aylia cringed as she thought about that morning and how things had gone so wrong, so fast. She knew in her heart she had overreacted now, and that she should have given him a chance to talk.

“I understand, though,” Rowena said, breaking into her thoughts. “There was a very long period of time in my life when I was convinced love and letting people in my life were nothing but weaknesses. Then I met those Winchesters and their angel, and my son died. Those three, Gabriel, and Jack have come to mean a great deal to me. But, if you tell them I said that I'll make your vocal chords disappear!”

Aylia laughed at the witch's empty threat. “Your secrets safe with me.”

“What I'm trying to say is,” Rowena continued, ignoring Aylia's laughter, “sometimes our hearts choose the path it wants to take against our better judgement, and we can either run from it and deal with the pain, or we can take a leap of faith and maybe get some happiness out of the deal. Now, the question is, which are you going to choose? Because if you walk away again...well...there is only so much a heart can take.”

Aylia stared at the witch, her mind contemplating the things that Rowena had said. The words she wanted to say were caught in her throat. The sound of the Impala pulling into the drive stopped their conversation before she could answer, leaving the human and the witch in silence as the Winchesters and Gabriel exited the car and made their way onto the front porch, turning the handle of the door.

“Hey! You're awake!” Sam said, genuinely happy about seeing her sitting on the couch as the three of them entered the house.

“Hope you're ready to get the hell outta dodge,” Dean cut in before Aylia could speak. “We got everything taken care of with the psycho witch ordeal, but Donna thinks we should get out of here while the gettin's good.” He turned his attention to Rowena. “She's good to travel right?”

“That's up to her,” Rowena responded, eyeling Aylia with interest.

“I really don't think it's a good idea for me to drive just yet,” Aylia said honestly.

“I could drive your car,” Gabriel offered, and Aylia turned to meet his gaze. “I mean...if we're going to the same place?”

Aylia didn't miss the hopefulness of her saying yes mixed with the fear of her rejecting him in the Archangel's eyes. A smile faded into her features. “Yeah, we're going to the same place.”

The over nine hour drive back to the bunker in Kansas had mostly been a blur for Aylia. After insisting that she help get them ready to leave, fatigue had set in heavy again and she fell asleep within the first few minutes of the trip. She only woke up when they pulled into the garage, and that was only so Gabriel could help her to the room Sam and Dean had given her and put her to bed. She had slept for the next twenty-four hours, waking up here and there when Gabriel had brought her food or something to drink. The Archangel had been more than attentive to her and when she finally awoke, fully rested and once again wearing the dark grey, long sleeve shirt he had given her, it brought a smile to her face that she couldn't have fought even if she wanted to.

Aylia stretched her body as she looked around the room. She stood, smoothing his shirt out over the pair of black cotton shorts she vaguely remembered changing into. She walked out of her room, pausing until she heard Sam and Dean bickering back forth about something around the corner. Her hand covered her mouth in an attempt to silence her laughter when she found the brothers trying to bring an oversized, fluffy, navy blue couch into the 'Dean Cave.’ Sam was on the furniture pushing with everything he had until he slumped over the armrest.

“It's not budging, Dean!” he said as he pushed himself up to stare at his brother with annoyance.

Dean's head poked from the doorway, leaning over the end of the couch that was firmly stuck in the door jam. “Are you even trying, Sammy?!” he exclaimed.

“Where did you even get this ugly thing?” Gabriel asked, not even trying to contain his laughter. The Archangel watched the brothers as he leaned against the opposite wall with Castiel to his right and Jack to his left. “I really hope you didn't pay a whole lot for it, cause it looks like we may have to make it a sectional to get it in that room.”

“Shut up, Gabriel!” Dean retorted. “This beauty was a steal and we aren't cutting it up. It will fit!”

“I don't think it will, Dean,” Castiel interjected. “The couch is wider than the door.”

“Didn't you measure it before you bought it?” Jack added.

Aylia's heart swelled at the gloriously domestic scene playing out in front of her. They were a perfect mismatched and dysfunctional family unit arguing over a heartwarmingly normal thing, and in their own unique ways they had all invited her to be a part of their family. Their home. Tears stung at her eyes, and for the first time in a very long time, she felt like she could actually belong somewhere. Like she could have a home again with these boys…

her boys

.

“Ya know,” Dean said angrily, “I don't need input from the angelic peanut gallery unless you three are going to do something to help!”

Sam rolled his eyes as he took a seat on the couch.

“What would you have us do, Dean?” Castiel asked.

“I don't know! How about some angel strength?” Dean turned to Gabriel. “Do you have enough in the tank to just snap this thing in there?”

Gabriel laughed again. “Actually, I think I do.”

“And you're just now telling me?!”

“Sometimes you gotta make your own entertainment, Dean-o!” Gabriel said, and raised his hand to snap his fingers.

The large couch vanished, sending both Sam and Dean tumbling to the floor. Aylia couldn't hold her laughter back as both brothers turned their heads to glare at the Archangel. The joyful sound had caught all of their focus and suddenly all eyes were on her. Her heart fluttered as she saw the welcoming smiles that had grown on every one of their faces.

“Aylia!” Jack exclaimed as he sprinted to her, wrapping her into a tight hug as soon as he was close enough. “I'm so glad you're home!”

“I am too, Jack.” she whispered as she returned his gesture.

Jack pulled away in time for Aylia to see Sam and Dean push themselves to their feet, the latter hurriedly walking up to her and gently taking her by the arm.

“Lia will appreciate what I'm doing!” Dean declared as he pulled her into the room with the others following them.

Aylia couldn't help but smile when she saw the oversized couch sitting longways to the far recliner, positioned to where whoever was seated could see the TV.

“I'm making this place multiple occupant friendly!” Dean told her. “Figured since there is so many of us staying here now, we'd all need a place to sit in here.”

He turned to her with a proud smile on his face.

“It's great, Dean,” she said.

“Here! Sit!” he encouraged as he guided her to sit on the middle cushion. “What do you think?”

“It's perfect.”

“See!” Dean said, turning on his heel to face the other men. “She appreciates it! Now, come on, I've got one more piece to pick up in town.” He turned to Gabriel as he walked toward the exit. “You stay with Lia. We'll be back in a few hours.”

“Why do we all have to go?” Jack asked.

“Because we just do,” Dean said, and exited with his annoyed brother following behind him.

Jack turned to Castiel, who rolled his eyes at Dean's enthusiasm for his venture. “Just go with it, Jack.”

The nephilim nodded and followed the other angel out the door. Just like that, Gabriel and Aylia were alone. The Archangel ran a hand through his hair nervously as he moved to sit next to her.

“How are you feeling?” Gabriel asked, his eyes not meeting hers.

“I’m a lot better now that I'm with you.”

Gabriel's eyes shot over to meet hers, a smile growing on his face that mirrored the one he saw on her lips. He reached up with his hand to cup the side of her face as he leaned his own in close. He paused, giving her a moment to pull away. When she didn't, he gently captured her lips with his own. The action started slow and sweet, both of them prologing and savoring the moment. But, as their arms wound around the other and he traced her bottom lip with his tongue, the kiss deepened and became heated.

As Gabriel slipped his tongue into the heat of her mouth, he gently pushed her to lay her down on her back, squeezing his own body next to hers on his side. The kiss continued hot and heavy for a few minutes, his hand slipping down to her hip and both of hers tangling into his hair, until they both had to break away. They both gasped for breath as he rested his forehead to hers.

“I missed you so much,” both of them said together.

They chuckled softly as Gabriel raised his head to look down into her eyes.

“There's so much I want to say to you,” he started. “About Rowena, Dean, and everything that just went so horribly wrong. I don't even know where to start.”

Aylia slipped one of her hands from his hair to caress the side of his face, a smile crossing her face when he leaned into her touch. “I know, Gabriel, me too. But, we have plenty of time to talk through all of that. Right now there is only one thing that matters.”

“And what's that?”

“I love you, Gabriel,” she said softly, putting as much sincerity in her words as she could.

A smile bright enough to encompass the sun came about his face. “I love you, too, Aylia,” he said, and his mouth was slanting across hers again.

With both of her hands back in his hair, Aylia ran her tongue across the seam of his lips. He eagerly granted her access and their tongues danced together as the kiss became heated and needy. His hand slipped under her shirt, skimming her skin upwards with his fingertips toward her breast. Deft fingers kneaded the plumb flesh through the fabric of her bra. A whimper escaped her as he teased her nipple, the small nub instantly becoming pert.

Slowly, he let his hands travel back down her body, her stomach muscles quivering under his touch when his fingers traced the waist of her shorts. He continued his descent, trailing down until his fingers reached the bottom and snaked underneath the fabric. A groan erupted from his throat when he traced her slit through the fabric of her panties, feeling her slick that had already started to pool. He couldn't wait anymore, he had to feel her. Pushing her underwear to the side, his index finger circled her clit, agonizingly slow.

“Gabriel!” she gasped as she threw her head back.

His lips found her neck, peppering hot kisses and nips along the sensitive skin as he ran his finger to her entrance and slipped inside.

“Gabriel!” she cried again.

He hummed approvingly against her neck. “I feel like I've waited an eternity to hear you moan my name.”

Her hands went to either side of his face and pulled his lips back to hers. He drank down her moans as he slipped a second finger inside of her. Her hips bucked against his hand, his tempo increasing when he felt her walls start to clench. When he sank a third finger deep into her core, the orgasm hit her fast and hard. Her lips ripped from his as she screamed her pleasure for him and he kept working his digits inside of her until she was panting and grasping at his shoulders.

“Mmmmm,” he hummed ghosting his lips to her ear. “I could watch you cum for me all day.”

His hand retracted from her and she reached down to grab it. Bringing his fingers up to her mouth, she wrapped her lips around them and sucked her juices clean from his digits. The sight made him groan with need and he could feel his hard member straining against its denim confines. With skillful movements he positioned their bodies to where she was straddling his lap. Wasting no time, he pulled his shirt she wore up and off of her body, revealing her black satin bra covering her ample breast. He admired her for a moment and then removed her brasserie, throwing it to the floor to join her other article of clothing.

As soon as she was bare from the waist up, she was pulling at his shirt, taking it off of him with haste. While her arms were still raised in the action of throwing his shirt to the side, his head dipped and he took one of her nipples into his hot mouth. She gasped as her hands fell to twist into his tresses. His tongue swirled over her hardened little nub, eliciting moans of desire from her when he sucked and grazed his teeth over it. He dragged his hands up and down her back, sides, hips, and thighs, memorizing the smoothness of her skin and her curves. She mewled and writhed on top of him, rolling her hips and making him growl when her heat pressed into his erection through his jeans.

Once again she pulled his mouth to hers, desperate to taste him, but only for a moment. Her lips trailed down to his neck as her hands found their way to the bulge in his pants and palmed him through the material.

“Aylia!” he gasped as his head fell onto the back of the couch.

Her mouth started a wet and hot descent down to his chest where she stopped to pay each of his nipples attention. His hands roamed every inch of her body he could reach as she made her way down, dropping to her knees between his legs when she needed to in order to continue her journey to the waistband of his jeans. He watched her with lust blown eyes as she released him from his jeans, lifting his hips so she could pull them down his legs and toss them to join their other clothing strewn about the room. Her eyes came back to him, seeing his shaft standing ridgid against his stomach, the tip surpassing his navel, and she gasped.

“See something you like, Sugar?” Gabriel asked, his voice husky with desire.

She grinned impishly up at him, biting the corner of her bottom lip, and nodded. Her hand went around his shaft, the moisture between her legs increasing when her fingers couldn't meet around his girth, and her mouth closed around his tip. Growls of approval erupted from his chest and his hands threaded through her hair as her skilled tongue twisted and swirled on the head of his shaft. She began to pump the lower part of his cock with her hand as her other came up to cradle and gently massage his balls. He followed the movement of her head as she started to move her mouth in tandem with her hand, pulling moans and praise from his lips. When she hollowed out her cheeks and added suction to her movements he nearly went over the edge.

“Fuck! Aylia!” he mewled. “I'm gonna...you're gonna make me…”

His testicles tightened in her hand and she increased her speed, working his shaft with her mouth and hand, moving with abandon. He cried out her name, fighting to keep from thrusting into her mouth when he felt the head of his cock hit the back of her throat over and over again. His orgasm hit him in waves, grunting and groaning as his hot seed spilled into her mouth. She drank down every drop he gave her, not slowing her movements until his body was jerking beneath her. She pulled off of him with a lewd pop and he was immediately coaxing her back up his body so he could crush his lips to hers again.

Quicker than her mind could process, she was lying on her back on the couch again and Gabriel was pulling her shorts and panties down her legs. He tossed them both to the side and looked down at her, his eyes roaming hungrily over her naked body.

“You're so beautiful,” he said.

He spread her legs wide, opening her up completely to him, and his mouth dove down onto her mound. His tongue teased at her folds, probing in and out of her drenched entrance, making her squirm and thrust her hips. His arms wrapped around her thighs to hold her in place, and he ran his tongue up to her clit, swirling expretly around the little nexus of nerves.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Oh Gabriel!” she moaned. “Fuck! That feels so good!”

She writhed underneath his ministrations, screaming out his name as her fingers knotted into his hair. His tongue did things to her that she never thought possible, making her beg him not to stop. His long tongue drifted back to her slit and he slipped between her folds, curving his wet muscle and hitting a spot inside her she didn't even know existed.

“GABRIEL!! FUCK YES!! DON'T STOP! PLEASE DON'T STOP!!”

One of his hands moved to splay across her stomach and slowly moved down so his thumb could run circles around her clit while his tongue worked inside of her. The added sensation sent her over the edge, screaming his name. The intensity of the release blurring the edges of her vision momentarily. He led her through the orgasm, prolonging her pleasure while he continued his actions. When she was verging on oversensitivity, he pulled his mouth from her and crawled back up her body to kiss her deeply.

She could taste herself on him, could feel his still rock hard cock pressing against her entrance. Her arousal crashed back in on her like a tidal wave, and her hips bucked, begging him to be inside of her. He broke their kiss to watch her as he slowly pushed into her. She gasped at the delicious burn as her sex stretched to accommodate his size. The feeling of her wrapping perfectly around his shaft sent shockwaves through his system, and he dropped his forehead to rest on hers.

“Fuck! Sugar, you're so tight,” he hoarsely whispered as he sheathed himself to the hilt. “Feels so fucking good!”

Their lips met again when he started to thrust, her arms winding around his middle and her nails digging into his back, leaving red marks in their wake as she raked her hands down his body. His hands came up to grip the armrest of the couch, the wood underneath the padding cracking under the pressure. Her legs locked around his waist, angling her hips in a way that sent him deeper into her. He increased his pace, his rigid and throbbing member dragging across every sensitive spot inside of her with every snap of his hips. The sounds of their pleasure filled the room, the other's name falling from their lips like a chorus reaching crescendo, her walls clenching around him like a vice.

“Gabriel!” she panted. “I'm so close!”

“Cum with me, Aylia!” he growled, his hold on the armrest increasing, sending the sounds of the wood splintering and cracking inside the upholstery echoing through the room.

Her heels dug into his ass, urging him deeper, and he obliged. Slamming inside of her, their release hit them simultaneously and the armrest ripped from the couch and hit the ground, sending tufts of padding floating around them as they shouted through their pleasure. He painted her insides white with his hot, sticky cum, and her spasming walls milked every last drop from him.

When their highs has begun to fade, he pulled out of her and brought his mouth back to hers in a slow and loving kiss. Their arms wound tightly around each other. Lips parted and words of adoration spilled from them as they basked in the afterglow of their lovemaking, slowly coming down from the stratosphere. As logical thinking started to come back into his brain, he realized that the couch was now sitting at a downward angle. He raised his head and started to laugh when he saw the mangled armrest lying across the room, wood and padding sticking out from the ripped upholstery. Aylia followed his gaze and laughter sprung from her as well.

“Dean is gonna kill us!” she said, not attempting to stop her giggling.

“Ehh,” Gabriel said as their eyes met again, a smirk on his lips “Consider it payback for that fucking movie!”

“I can get on board with that. But, we still should probably clean this up.”

“We will. Later. I'm nowhere near done with you yet.”

She grinned up at him, anticipation running through her. “Good, because I'm never leaving you again. I love you, Gabriel.”

“I love you, too, Aylia,” he said and captured her lips once more.

The End...For now...