"Who're you?"

Sam's heart broke at the words. Shattering in a way he had never thought possible.

"Who're you?"

Gabriel had been in a car accident, it could be assumed that he hit his head at some point, and it would be perfectly normal for him not to remember Sam just then. It was perfectly normal.

"Who're you?"

If it was perfectly normal, then why was Sam feeling like his entire world was shattering around him? Why did he want to find the nearest cliff and jump off it? Why did he feel the telltale weight of tears behind his eyelids?

"Who're you?"

Castiel reached out a hand, meaning to offer some sort of comfort to the man that had made his brother so happy. Trying to think of something, anything, that would make this situation better, if only slightly.

Dean sucked in a quiet breath. He had heard Gabriel's slurred words, he knew the impact they would have on his brother. And there was not a single thing he could do about it. He couldn't fix this with a beer or two and some wise words. He couldn't put a band aid on Sam and tell him to man up.

And it was fucking killing him not to be able too.

A smile broke across Gabriel's face, he started giggling madly, Castiel got up, worried that there was something wrong with his brother, something worse that had happened in the minute that Sam had been there.

"I got you," Gabriel said, pointing a finger at Sam. "I got you good." He burst into another fit of giggles. Gabriel patted at Sam's hand. "I could never forget about you sweet cheeks. You're too yummy." He trailed off into quiet laughter. "Get it? Sweet cheeks, yummy?" He stared up at Sam, who had his mouth hanging open wide. "Ah, I'll explain it later," he grumbled. "'m sleepy."

Gabriel dozed off, his hand still on Sam's.

Castiel and Sam shared a look, for Castiel it was a long suffering look, for Sam it was a mix of rage and relief.

"I'm gonna kill him, this time I'm really going to kill him," Sam said quietly, feeling the smile that was breaking across his face.

"I'll help you bury the body," Castiel whispered to him.

The first week was the worst, Gabriel was still on a morphine drip for the pain, and he mostly slept unless the nurses needed him to do something. The second week was better; he was up and on a lighter pain medication, one that didn't make him feel loopy.

He never did apologize for tricking Sam into thinking he had forgotten him. If anything Gabriel thought it was a very good joke, one that had been wasted on this audience.

"If Luke was here," he had said during one of the few times he had been awake during the first week. "He would've thought it was hilarious," he had slurred.

"If Luke was here, you would be trying to climb out the window," Castiel told him.

"Ah, c'mon, I would at least tell 'im the joke first."

Gabriel got better, but he was still had far to go before he was well again. The car had hit the driver's side of the car head on. So that Gabriel had taken most of the damage, his left arm had been badly damaged. Gabriel had a lot of pain in his shoulder, pain that made his hand shake just enough for it to be noticeable. He mostly kept himself from using his left hand in front of anybody. They didn't need to know about that, not really anyway.

The nurse from before, Meg, still came to visit them. Mostly just as visiting hours were ending, when she started her shift. Castiel had a simple friendship with her, sharing jokes now and then. Dean didn't like it, and said so on more than one occasion. He was ignored.

Anna came to visit Gabriel in the hospital midway through the second week, having been busy with work and unable to get there sooner.

On seeing her younger brother lying in bed, with an IV in his arm and a cast on his leg, she had burst into tears.

"I could have lost you," she sniffled, holding onto his hand just a little too tightly. "You could have died and my last words to you would have been 'bring a lamp next time', oh god!" Fresh tears fell down her face. Gabriel threw a scared look at Castiel, who shrugged. Like he would know any better than Gabriel what to do with a crying sister, it was asking too much of him.

"Um," Gabriel began. "There, there." He patted the top of Anna's head.

Sam rolled his eyes at the scene. Honestly, it was like he was the only emotionally mature one around.

"Anna," he said, gently rubbing her back as she sobbed. "It's all right, Gabe's getting better all the time, and you don't have to beat yourself up over it." Instead of quieting the sobs his words seemed to make it worse.

Gabriel did his best to shift away from his sister, he had only seen her cry this hard once, and when she was done she had been madder than Gabriel had ever seen her before.

"When Gabriel first woke up he pretended not to know who I was." It was a last ditch effort, a distraction technique Sam had learned from Dean. Stop someone from focusing on the bad thing they had done, by telling them about something someone else had done.

Anna sat right up straight, her grip tightening on Gabriel's hand, hard enough to make him let out a yelp of pain. Her eyes were full of steel and were red from crying, and there were tear tracks down her face, she was half Sam's size and he had never seen anything scarier than her. She turned her head, tilting it just so as she glared at where Gabriel lay on the bed.

"Is that so?" she asked, her voice deceptively calm.

Sam decided in the aftermath Anna had left behind her, never to use that tactic again.

A/N

Did you really think I would write it so that Gabriel didn't remember Sam? Where is the trust here?

I hope you're happy with yourselves, thinking that I would even do that. For shame.