Transmission from the Trickster

Chapter 13

Sam hurries back to the war room the next morning. Those four hours of sleep just made him feel worse, and he would like nothing more than to go back to bed, but he said he'd only be gone for a few hours, and he means it.

He's not surprised to find that Castiel is still sitting with Gabriel. It's sort of weird to see Cas sitting on the floor like that. It almost seems out of character of him. He was probably able to see that Gabriel was uncomfortable with their height difference and decided to adjust to make him more comfortable. Hopefully that means he was able to adjust to all the signs the archangel gave him.

Gabriel's head snaps over to look at the doorway when he realizes Sam is there, but when he sees who it is, he seems to relax a little.

"Hey," Sam greets the angels with a polite nod.

Gabriel doesn't answer, but Castiel does.

"Sam, can we...?" He gestures for them to take a moment alone to talk, which Sam quickly agrees to. He definitely wants to know how their night was, and if Gabriel is still okay. He's not sure what it would take to scare him back to his frightened former self, but Castiel easily could have done it just by accident.

"What's up?" Sam asks when they're alone in the hallway.

"He still didn't say anything," Castiel tells him.

Sam scoffs. "Four hours and you couldn't get him to talk?"

Castiel just shakes his head.

"Clearly, you're doing something very wrong here," Sam tells him. "What did you say to him? Maybe that's the problem."

Castiel shrugs. "The same things I would say to you and Dean on a normal day, I suppose. Just casual conversation."

"Nothing about anything that's happened these last eight years?" Sam asks. He can imagine that would throw the archangel off.

"Of course not," Castiel says as if the idea is ridiculous. "I'm a bit better at socializing than that. It is possible I said something wrong, but it wasn't anything like that."

"Then I don't know what you did," Sam tells him.

"Can you show me how you talk to him?" Castiel asks.

"Do you just want to hang back and watch?" Sam offers. "I can't guarantee it'll teach you anything, but at least you'll see that his vocal chords still work."

~~

Gabriel has been sitting for the entirety of his stay at the bunker, so returning to the war room to find him standing up is a surprise, to say the least. He's bending and stretching his leg, almost like he's testing it to make sure it still functions. He looks over immediately when Sam and Castiel walk back into the room.

"You can stand," Sam observes, just to make conversation.

Gabriel doesn't answer. He just keeps glancing over at Cas.

"Feeling better, I'm assuming?" Sam asks.

Once again, he doesn't answer, which Sam finds strange. Something like that should at least earn him a nod. Maybe Gabriel just has to get accustomed to him again.

"How was your night?" Sam asks.

Again, Gabriel doesn't answer.

"Are you okay?" Sam asks cautiously.

Gabriel glances over at Castiel, so quickly that Sam almost doesn't notice.

"Is it Cas?" Sam asks him. "Do you want Cas to leave?"