Lucifer Deux

Eighteen

Sam was up early the next morning. He headed down to the kitchen around seven to start coffee. When he got there, he found Gabriel sitting at the table. "Morning."

Gabriel flinched and yelped, both in surprise and fear. He was very jumpy whenever someone entered the room and he didn't notice.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," Sam said.

Gabriel took a deep breath. "Don't apologise. All you did was walk into your own kitchen. It's not your fault I'm afraid of every little thing."

"It's not yours either," Sam said before going over to the coffee maker. He found that it was full. "You made coffee."

Gabriel nodded. "I couldn't sleep, so I thought I could make myself useful."

"Thanks, but you didn't have to," Sam said. He didn't want Gabriel to think he had to do anything.

Gabriel shrugged.

Sam poured himself a cup of coffee and joined Gabriel at the table. "You couldn't sleep because of nightmares?"

Gabriel nodded.

"I still get them sometimes too," Sam said.

"Great. So, they'll never go away," Gabriel said miserable.

"I mean, it's not as bad as it used to be. At least it wasn't until he...well, it, was released," Sam said.

"How did whatever that thing is get released again?" Gabriel asked curiously. He'd never heard the story of how the being with his brother's Grace got back out of the cage.

Sam quickly explained what happened with Amara and how Cas had consented to let Lucifer's creation possess him in order to stop her. He also explained how the situation with Amara ended.

"Bastard," Gabriel said a bit angrily. "Dad nearly destroyed Luci by giving him the Mark and hen goes ahead and forgives her. The whole thing was for nothing!"

"Dean too," Sam said.

"It was majorly stupid for him to take that mark," Gabriel said.

"He wasn't thinking clearly at the time, plus he had Crowley with him. That probably didn't help his rational thinking process. Plus, I can't really judge Dean on a stupid mistake. No one can argue that I've been there," Sam said.

"But it sure makes him a hypocrite, doesn't it? He continues to go at you when he's done his fair share of stupid moves," Gabriel said.

Sam nodded sadly. He saw it that way too. It wasn't fair that Dean constantly made his own stupid decisions, but when Sam did it, it was the worst thing in the world.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. You should be able to enjoy your brother's absence without me reminding you of what a dick he's being," Gabriel said.

"No, it's okay. It's not like I wasn't already thinking about it. I...I don't know how much more I can take, Gabriel. I can tell that Dean doesn't trust me. If he did, he would've believed me when I said I wasn't with Lucifer. He hasn't trusted me in a long time. It's becoming more and more clear that he won't. I don't know if I can accept that much longer," Sam said.

"You shouldn't have to. You know, you've always reminded me of Lucifer. He was the best of us, just like you were of you and your brother. Then he made one mistake and he was judged for life," Gabriel said.

Sam laughed. "A few weeks ago, a comparison to Lucifer would've made my skin crawl. Now, I know he's not as bad as I thought. He's not the one who tortured me. He's not exactly good, but he's better than a lot of angels I've seen. Hell, he's better than a lot of humans I've seen too."