Warnings: yaoi SLASH GabrielxSam. mild sexual hints and mild language

Disclaimer: Nothing from Supernatural belongs to me. I just like to poke at them.

Every Life is Worth Saving

chapter: one-shot

Sam Winchester was driving the classic 1967 Chevy Impala back to the motel. It's sleek black color shone off the street lamps over-head in the dark. It was almost a rare occasion that Sam got to drive Deans beloved car that had once belonged to their father. Dean refused to make a second set of keys for him so the only time he got to touch the ones that constantly lived in his older brother's jacket pocket was when Dean was 1. Drunk, 2. hurt too bad to drive, or 3. Going to be spending the night elsewhere.

Tonight it was the 3rd option. The poltergeist hunt had been a bust and nothing more than an irritated, lonely teenager that hated her new house and wanted to scare her parents into moving back home. They'd almost blasted the poor girl right through the wall with rock salt before Sam realized what had been going on all along and knocked the shotgun out of Dean's hands at the last second, sending a shower of salt into the ceiling that made the ceiling fan shake threatening to fall down.

They'd already paid for their room in the motel though so there was no point in letting the money go to waste. They'd agreed to stay in town until they found a new hunt or had a lead on defeating Lucifer rather than sleeping in the Impala on the road to who-knows-where.

Deans 7th sense picked up a local bar nearby and he parked his baby gingerly on the curb. Dean's 7th sense was knowing where bars with hot and hopefully single and flirtatious bartenders or waitresses worked and it went off like a charm as soon as they'd pulled onto the street, not even needing to look at the illumine-scent sign lit up or listen to the amid bar-chatter over the clinks of mixing drinks and the sharp crack of another beer bottle being thrown into the recycling bin.

Dean's 6th sense of course was knowing when his little brother Sammy was in danger. But that sense was quiet as the hunters climbed out of the old car, the door hinges creaking with age and gently slamming back shut.

For a long time Sam had played the obnoxious role of the younger brother, whining about Dean's need to be a semi-alcoholic, man-whore, gambler. But after past events he dialed down his tone. With the world going to shit around them he could use a few beers himself and a good round of pool. Not hustling pool for money, but a good, friendly game between just him and Dean for old-time's sake.

Dean had other ideas in mind as the perky bartender scurried over with a sly smirk as soon as she spotted them sitting down at the bar. Sam didn't know if it was his rough exterior, the green color of his eyes or just his laid back cocky attitude, but girls seemed to flock to Dean as soon as he entered the room. He scanned the area seeing several other girls, some with their friends and some with boyfriends, checking out the older Winchester. And it wasn't long before it was apparent that the waitress named Trixie could use someone to come home and keep her warm at night even though she insisted over and over again that it wasn't something she usually did with a fake shy voice. She could twirl her brunette hair around her finger all she wanted but Sam knew the look she had in her eyes too well, the look that said 'wow that guy is hot and I want him to bang me senseless into a wall.' He rolled his own hazel eyes as Dean handed him the Impalas keys, feeling the familiar weight and feel of the plastic and metal in his hands as he slipped four singles onto the counter for his beer and patting his big bro on the shoulder before heading out the door to where the car was parked, gleaming against the black asphalt. At least Dean would have fun and hopefully fall into a drunken and fully satisfied slumber tonight.

He let his mind drift to the current events that had been crashing down around the Winchesters that made sleep difficult to come by lately for the both of them as he slowly slid to a stop at a red light. The streets were completely empty as he sat at the intersection. On one corner there was a church with a brightly colored playground that he could see even in the dark, and another un-identifiable building across the street from that. On his side of the road, he could see the dimming lights of downtown as he headed into the quieter section of town that their motel was in and the darkness of a small section of woods to his right, surrounded by construction sites as they seemed to be building a new neighborhood. He found himself thinking about past events - how everytime he seemed to encounter a construction site back in the old days where it was just simple monster hunting everyday there was either an Indian Curse or Changelings to fight. Now all he could think about was how in a few months, whatever got built of those houses might be demolished and the surrounding streets wouldn't be empty because everyone was in bed or downtown partying- but because everyone would be dead.

He let his head touch the steering wheel, the never-ending red light glowing in his perifial vision to finally turn green. He gave the construction site one last, sad glance before he stepped on the accelerator and noticed something moving by the bushes out of the corner of his eye.

Something small and orange emerged from what remained of the woods and was bravely wobbling towards the road, it's tail swishing back and forth. As it got near the street lamp Sam could see the tiny kitten's mouth opening and closing in a meow he couldn't hear through the windows and steel surrounding him and got lost in the moment staring at something so small and innocent, that could easily be crushed under the foot of a demon without ever knowing what happened.

Looking into his rear-view mirror he saw headlights quickly approaching. He looked back and forth between it and the ginger tabby kitten that was still approaching the road, oblivious to the 4-wheeled dangers that zoomed across it.

Dean would mock him forever if he found out about this, Sam mentally sighed as he pulled the car over to the side of the road, letting the other car easily pass by and putting the Impala into park. But Sam had spent his entire life protecting other lives. Anything innocent and living was worth being kept alive and he kicked himself as he climbed his lanky body out of the car.

The kitten had stopped walking now and was now watching him with wary, bright green eyes.

He slowed his step and slouched over a bit to make himself seem smaller and less imposing to the thing on the ground that could fit in the palm of his hand.

"Heeeere Kitty, Kitty..." He called out softly, crouching down lower and holding his hand out.

The kitten inched closer for a second, sniffing the air infront of Sam's outstretched fingers, but before he could grab it, it toke off towards the road and Sam felt an instinctive moment of panic as another car rushed by and he darted inbetween the furry creature and the modern deathtrap it was headed for.

It turned tail and rushed back into the woods. Well whatever, Sam wasn't going to play around in the dark all night with some cat that was too stupid to be saved. He stood up and walked back towards the car.

Only to hear it's soft meowing behind him and look over his shoulder to see it once more heading to the road.

'You've got to be kidding me...'He thought to himself as he jogged to put himself back inbetween the fur and it's doom.

The cat looked up at him before turning and walking in circles, meowing the whole time as it slowly weaved it's way back to the woods as if trying to coax him to it instead.

He grumbled and followed it, it's green eyes eerie and seeming to never leave him as it darted into the underbrush.

Sam squatted infront of the bushes, peering in. The orange menace was sitting just inside the underbrush, calmly meowing at him.

He rolled his hazel eyes once again, pushing his long hair out of his face before attempting to stick his arm into the woods to reach the tiny thing. Although it sat still, it remained just barely out of reach as the branches of the bushes scratched at his jacket and uncomfortably poked him in the arm.

As he felt his fingertips brush soft fur, it up and crawled over to the left, it's tiny four-legged body easily dodging the imposing wilderness and sitting in a new spot to stare at mew at him.

He fought the urge to give up and walk back to the car. This was ridiculous. He shouldn't be wasting his time with this. But a nagging fear in the back of his mind said that as soon as he left the kitten would unwittingly wander into the middle of the road and get hit by a car. He'd seen a vet's office when they entered town. If he could just get the damned thing out of the bushes he could hide it at the motel room while Dean was spending the night with Trixie and take it up there in the morning. Then it could be safe and get adopted. Well, safe until the apocalypse he'd triggered crash-landed into this town.

He found a small gap where the bushes formed a small hole, slightly higher off the ground. He laid down on the ground on his side and used his arm to pull himself slightly into the bushes, praying that one of the thorny branches wouldn't poke him in the eye. The last thing he needed during this war was impaired vision thanks to trying to save a kitten. Dean would never let him hear the end of it.

He reached out again, his massive body a third of the way into the bushes and felt the kittens orange fur on his fingertips once again. Feeling it's body rumble underneath them with a purr for a second before it darted off again.

Before Sam could pull himself out of the bushes and go after it, it darted into the road, barely missing a car that zoomed past oblivious to it's existance and launched itself at a tree planted in the median between the streets.

He ran after it, seeing it freeze and look around alarmed as it realized that it was too young to know how to climb the tree any higher than it'd jumped onto it and it's claws were too new to know how to detach itself from the wood to climb down.

He toke his chance and grabbed the furry pain-in-his-ass off the tree before it had the chance for another escape and felt a moment of success and triumph as he held the tiny furry body in his grip, holding it up to look at.

The orange tabby licked it's lips and he could swear it just winked at him.

Suddenly Sam felt himself being thrown to the ground, the wind knocked out of him as he landed roughly on the mixture of grass and cement the median was made out of. The street was thankfully empty as he looked up to no longer find a small orange kitten, but an Arch Angel with dark ginger hair and olive green eyes sitting on his stomach with an amused expression etched across his lips.

"Hi Gabriel." He muttered, a slight glare in his hazel eyes that he'd just wasted a good 30-45 minutes that he could have been warm and falling asleep in his soft motel bed instead of climbing around in bushes for another one of the Trickster's pranks.

"Oh-hai there sunshine. Fancy meeting you here." Gabriel tapped Sam's nose in mock innocence and taunting before the young human roughly shoved him off before a car could pass by and call the cops for public display of affection...or public display of homosexual affection which was probably worse in a southern town like this. Knowing his luck they'd be spotted by the town's belligerent drunk who wanted to throw them both off a bridge and would end up unknowingly snapped into oblivion by the powerful angel's wrath. Or even worse, a demon or other angel could spot them and then he'd be in for public display of homosexual trans-species affection. Or even another hunter. Dean, Castiel and himself were the only ones that knew of the Trickster's true identity and the last thing he needed right now was for another hunter with the mindset of Gordon Walker to see the troublesome Trickster creature straddling the demon blood drinking Winchester that was responsible for starting the end of the world. Things couldn't get much worse and he let his head fall backwards onto the not-so-soft Earth with a thump.

"What do you want now Gabe?" He sighed, all his energy gone, wrapped up in his depressing thoughts and wanting nothing more than to just crawl back into the Impala and go to sleep, no longer caring if he made it back to the motel or not.

"Just testing you." his trademark smirk was on his angelic features that rivaled the one of the Cheshire Cat.

Sam fought to keep the irritation out of his voice and lost the battle as he spoke. "What kind of test this time."

"Sammy -"

"Only Dean gets to call me that."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Saaaaam" He elongated the syllable sarcastically. "Your a good kid. You just keep forgetting that."

It was Sam's turn to roll his eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time this night and prop himself up on his elbows.

Gabriel pressed a finger to Sam's lips even though Sam wasn't going to interrupt him.

"As long as you still think that every life is worth saving and you try to save it...even a half-retarded cat on the side of the road, your still a good person."

Sam blinked.

"Did you just call yourself a half-retarded cat?"

Gabriel smacked him upside the head for his comment before vanishing into thin air in a soft breeze and flutter of invisible wings and leaving him alone to his thoughts.

Arch Angel with a twisted sense of humor or not, the idea of at least one person having faith in him still when Dean and Bobby's was waning was comforting. He just wished he hadn't felt the need to make him climb through dark bushes for that.

END