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Gabriel was dead. Killed by Lucifer to give the Winchesters time to escape the hotel with Kali. Castiel had heard it directly from Sam and Dean, but it still seemed impossible to believe. Gabriel was powerful. Gabriel was clever. Clever enough to be able to avoid all contact with their family for longer than Castiel really cares to count.

They say the first stage of grief is denial, and Castiel would even deny he's grieving for the estranged older brother he hasn't really spoken to in at least centuries. Despite that, though, he still leaves the motel room without so much as a word, just a rush of air as he takes flight. He can't even begin to imagine how many times, as the Trickster, Gabriel has faked his death, so he wants to confirm it for himself.

Within seconds, he reappears in the ballroom of the Elysian Fields Hotel. His eyes land on Gabriel, laying on the floor and he sighs. No, this certainly didn't look like another trick.

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"All right. I know somewhere. Hold on." Castiel grabs the Archangel blade and tucks it under his coat for safe keeping. He moves to a crouch beside Gabriel and reaches down to grip his shoulder, hearing the faint wail of approaching sirens.

He takes off once again, both of them vanishing from the hotel and reappearing in moments in a small cabin that serves as a safe house for hunters on the road.

Gabriel grits his teeth, trying to ignore how much the travel hurts, it driving in what terrible shape his wings are in. If he wasn't already laying flat on the floor, he'd fall over. As it is, he goes limp and closes his eyes. "Passin' out now."

Carefully, Castiel moves Gabriel to the bed and lifts him onto it. He watches him for moment, frowning in concern before turning away to go find some paint to ward the cottage against any intruders.

Once he's content with his efforts, he sets the paintcan down by the table and returns to Gabriel's side. He rests a hand on his brother's chest and makes another attempt at healing, infusing Gabriel with more of his Grace, trying to undo the damage Lucifer's done.

He'll probably notice the feedback loop Gabriel managed to get going to help with the Grace side of things. Fortunately, it doesn't require Gabriel to be paying attention or even conscious to keep running.

Gabriel stays unconscious longer this time although at least this time it was to aid in healing faster rather than just shutting down. When he wakes up again several hours later, he feels considerably better although still nowhere near a hundred percent. He estimates about another week after taking a moment to mentally check himself over.

Then he opens his eyes and frowns down at himself. It was time to do something about that shirt. What with the hole and being soaked through with dried blood, it has to go. ~~One less reminder of what Lucifer did to stick around.~~ It finally belatedly occurs to him to look around for Castiel.

Since Gabriel seems to be doing all right on his own with his feedback loop running, Castiel's spent his last few hours a bit more productively than he did at the hotel. He's been in touch with Bobby and Sam and Dean to let them know where he is, but figuring Gabriel would prefer discretion, he's been deliberately vague on the details, promising to explain fully at a more appropriate time.

He's put the paint back where he found it, and turned on the radio, but the volume is low, and when Gabriel wakes, he's busying himself by taking stock of how well the cabin's supplied. As soon as he realizes his older brother is conscious again, though, he's back by the bed.

"How do you feel?"

"I think I can get up without falling over." That's enough detail, right? He sits up slowly and carefully swings his legs around to sit on the edge of the bed. "One, where's the bathroom, and two, are there any clean shirts around? I've gotta get cleaned up."

He's pretty sure that wasting energy on snapping himself clean would be a bad idea and just have him flat on his back again.

He'll accept it for now, but he'll also just kind of... hover close by, prepared to help in case Gabriel's overestimating his ability to get up on his own.

"I found some clothes earlier when I was looking around." Castiel goes to the closet to retrieve a shirt and brings it back to Gabriel. It's one of Bobby's, so probably a bit big, and plaid. Sorry.

"The bathroom is down the hall, on the left hand side."

He'll live with plaid. At least he's alive to wear it. He shrugs off his jacket as Castiel retrieves the shirt for him, doing a once over to check it for blood before setting it down.

Gabriel takes the shirt and stands, making his way slowly to the bathroom. "If you hear a crashing sound, it's probably just me falling over and taking something with me."

Castiel follows Gabriel down the hall to the bathroom and pushes the door open for him. Alive is a good start, alive and not doing further injury to yourself is even better. He stops short of following him right inside, though, figuring that probably wouldn't be welcome.

"I'll stay here in case you need help."

If he tried to follow him in, he'd get subjected to 'what are you, my mother?' style snark and locked out.

"I'm just gonna use a wet washcloth to wipe off the blood, nothing major." Although now that he thinks about it, a hot bath sounds amazing. Sure, overkill on the getting clean part, but sitting there and soaking in the heat would give him something relaxing to do and he deserves it, dammit.

He closes the door firmly, giving himself to have a few minutes alone. He has the feeling that little brother will be following him everywhere. May as well take a moment to himself while he can.

The shirt is peeled off slowly, allowing him a chance to see the amount of blood on both him and it. Clean-up comes next while trying not to think too much about who was responsible for it, followed by shrugging on and buttoning up the new shirt, not bothering to tuck it into his jeans. Then the door is opened again and he raises his eyebrow at Castiel as if to ask 'well?'.

Castiel has learned that most people don't appreciate him being in the bathroom with them, but of course he stays right by the door just in case Gabriel falls. Yeah, following his older brother everywhere might be a thing for awhile, but it's only done out of concern and good intentions. Besides, what are little brothers for?

He steps back when the door opens so he's not blocking the way. "You should go back to bed. Get some more rest."

"Yes, Mom," he deadpans, carefully making his way back to the bed. He takes a moment to get his shoes off before curling up on the bed, closing his eyes to rest quietly. "Anyone know what you're up to?"

Castiel's about to point out they don't have a mother, but thinks better of it. He follows Gabriel back to the bed and pulls over a chair to sit beside it.

He shakes his head. "Not exactly, no. Dean, Sam, and Bobby know where I am, but I told them I would explain why later."

"We can figure out what to tell them later. It would be best if none of them know I'm still around. They can be told when Lucifer's locked back up." Talking with his eyes closed is go. He can hear his little brother well enough without looking at him.

"You don't want them asking you for help."

To be fair, though, Castiel isn't sure he'd want to see Gabriel try to go toe to toe with Lucifer again either, given how well it went this time.

"Well, that too. But I was mostly thinking that if they knew I was alive, Lucifer could pull that information out of their heads." Big bro finding out he was still alive? No thank you. If he actually slept, the past night or whatever would be enough to give him nightmares for a long time.

"That's also a valid point." Castiel nods. "At least he won't be able to find us here."

Gabriel cracks open an eye to give Castiel an evil look. "Try not to jinx it."

Just what they need, Lucifer popping out of nowhere to scare the crap out of the both of them.

"I'm sorry." That likely wouldn't end well for either one of them, so no, absolutely no jinxing going on. "I have to admit, I'm surprised you tried to stand against him."

"Blame Dean. He's the one that shamed me into it." And look what it got him. Worst decision.

"Yes, well, Dean can be very convincing at times." He can understand that.

"He reminds me of Michael," Gabriel grumps. "In the way that gets me to listen to him, not the way that makes me inclined to tell him to go fuck himself."

Castiel thinks about that, and nods, smiling, "They do seem to have some things in common, don't they?"

"Yeah. Although Dean's more flexible, less rigid, which is gonna be of help whenever our oldest brothers meet for their date." He's pinning everything on the Winchesters now. The Apocalypse is out of his hands.