The man smirked. "What happened? You look at me like being a ghost or dead", the man said and leaned towards them. "What habe I missed?"

Dean starred at him, how could that be possible? "When? How? You're dead!", he stammered and ignored the beeping cars behind him on the highway. Because of the full brake application the Impala was standing in the middle of the road and the people wanted to pass but that wasn't possible without causing a multiple crash because of the many cars coming on the left side of the road. "Perhaps you should drive on, I think they don't want to stay longer on this dusty highway and inhale emissions", he said and the angel lifted an eyebrow. Sam hit to Dean's upper arm and nodded, Dean turned slowly, his sight directed more to the driving mirror than on the road and he started the engine. With the roar of the engine the steady beeping of the other drivers stopped and left again more space for Dean's confused thoughts.

How could that be possible? How could he sit on the back seat and handle as if nothing had happened? As he had been away for eternity, as he had called, as... As he hadn't died...?

"Dean is right, where have you been? You haven't called, we thought you were dead!", Sam said and looked backwards to his friend. "Don't worry about, Bigfoot, it doesn't matter where I had been. But it really hurts me that you thought that I were dead", he said and grimaced played offended. " But ok, so it actually should be, where was my funeral service? ", he asked and looked at Sam reproachfully. "I would have earned a big party after saving your asses! And what did I get? Sad faces for a few days and then no more word. That hunted me deeply." Sam starred at him. "You watched us?!" Sam and Dean asked at same time. "I didn't had much to do, but I actually had to disappear and because you still had busted my disguise I had to fake my death, not being the first time." He sighed and put his chin to the back of the front seats. "So what have I missed? I missed about the last 7 months, after passing 3 it bored me and I looked for another activity." He shrugged his shoulders for a short moment.

The car was wrapped in silence. "Guys?", he broke the silence and looked at both. Dean starred without a word and Sam was unsure if he still recognized the traffic. His eyes were red but hr did everything to reserve the tears. "Hello? Earth to Winchesters!" Impatiently like always he waved with his flat hand about Sam's nose. "Cass is dead..." It didn't need more than these three words to break the dams and Dean had to drive to the right. The tears disguised his sight and he got out the car without turning. "What...?" Gabe's voice trembled. "When...?" "Four months ago, we don't know what really happened but it seems that he was perforated by an angel blade", Sam said quietly. His eyes were resting on Dean's back. His brother had leaned against the cowling of the Impala and his hands against the face. "It had been an angel?!", Gabriel asked tonelessly and angry. "Why does your brother covers the cowling with tears? He hasn't the right to do that! Castiel was my brother!" The rage had grown unusally fast, Sam had never seen Gabriel like this before. Surely he knew thathhe somehow he and Cass had a closer relationship to each other than most of the other angels but he had never expected such an outburst of Gabe. Sam swallowed. "Dean and Cass..." He stopped talking. The rage soaked of Gabriel's face and he smiled. It was a sad smile, a relented and painful smile. "So it does... So they managed to get together", he said and Sam nodded. "So my brother was happy?" The tremble in his voice decreased but it hadn't disappeared. "More than that... They were engaged, surely unofficially and they were..." He formed the sentence to end in his thoughts but the words didn't want to come over his lips. Gabriel watched Sam how he tried to find the right words and tried to bring him into the right order. "What, Sam, what were they?", he asked and his eyes grew big when the eyes of the brown-haired became glassy. "They... Fathers..." His voice broke off and Gabriel shook his head. "No... don't say..." Sam nodded. "Dean lost everything that day. I think, no I'm sure that on that day not only Lil and Cass died, a part of Dean has gone with them, not even the largest. He doesn't live anymore, you understand? He simply sits there and is starring to the distance, he cries into sleep, also he thinks that I don't hear him, I can hear him every night in his room. Shouting to Lillian and Cass in his dreams." Now there were also tears in Sam's eyes. It did well to let out everything and to talk about with somebody. "Every night they come back to him, but I don't think that they are good dreams. Again and again I heard him crying, it sounded as if he were experiencing their death! Do you understand what I mean?" Sam didn't wait for an answer. "He lies when he says that the alcohol helps him to numb the pain and I know it! Although he is so broken he still tries to protect me, protect me from him. He doesn't want that I see him breaking down, but I do! I can see it day by day. When he pours down the alcohol or picks in his food half-heartedly, when he plunges in his thoughts and memories for hours, I can see it in his gave and his eyes. He suffers and he won't last it for long..." The last words were only a whisper but Gabriel did hear everything. He had put his hand to Sam's shoulder and pushed it softly. "We'll help him... I don't know how, but we will already get him back on his feet." The voice of the archangel sounded sure so Sam was very happy to believe it. The young Winchester needed that saving straw floating in the huge sea of desperation because otherwise he would sink with the ship