Back with another prompt from Unnatural Writers Club and honestly, this has to be my favourite prompt yet! I just loved this little one-shot and wish I could've added more to it (darn word limit).

There aren't any spoilers for this, but brief mentions of stuff happening from season 1, 5, 6, 7, and the story is set in season 10 about mid way through the season.

Prompt: 3:45am

From a very young age, Sam always had a fascination with the stars and space. As a kid, he'd tell Dean about how he wanted to be an astronaut, begging Dean for visits to the library to take out books about space or stay up late to see the night sky. Whenever Sam heard the guy on the radio or television announce that tonight there would be a meteor shower or in a few days there'd be a chance of seeing the new super moon in the sky, he'd stay up past midnight, dragging a chair out to the front door of the motel and sit outside, eyes focused up on the dark sky to watch. Didn't matter if it were a school night or not, Sam would stay up long past his bed time waiting to catch a glimpse of the strange space phenomenon and Dean, being the good brother he was, never talked Sam out of it. Their father tried, finding Sam's love for stars odd and not much help, useless as the boy was destined to be a hunter, but it was a fruitless try.

Sam never grew out of it and Dean would always sit next to him, both of their necks craned to see the dark sky, Sam rambling on and on about whatever they were looking for this time.

Even when hunts grew harder and Dean would stumble back to the motel with their father late at night, he'd still stay up with his little brother to stare at the stars or moon.

And Sam did this all the way until he left to Stanford. The kid didn't miss a single meteor shower or solar eclipse or super moon. He had seen mars appear in the night sky and could name every constellation in the sky. Sometimes, even to cheer him up after a bad day, Dean would drive the two of them to an open field outside of town, and they'd sit on the hood of the car looking up at the stars. Sam would point out every constellation and Dean, by the time Sam was nine, knew each one as well so the two would have competitions on who could name the most constellations.

But after the fight and Sam walking out, the younger Winchester stopped looking at the stars. He left behind his battered books of planets and stars and space behind, heading off to school. There he filled his head with other things, pushing away the nerdy fascinations he had for their solar system and never once did set foot outside during a meteor shower and didn't count the constellations anymore as it felt wrong. So long he had been doing it with his brother and without Dean; Sam found looking up into the dark void above him seemed lonely and cold. There was no excitement there as there once was for him.

After Jess' death, when Sam joined his brother once more, the two Winchester boys started to look up at the stars once more though it wasn't like the first time. Sam's rambling was gone as he had forgotten some of the knowledge he once had known and this time, it was Dean that was naming every single constellation. That hardly stopped Sam from falling right back into his old hobby, finding his favourite space themed books in the trunk of the impala and in between hunts, the hunter re-educated himself about the stars and the planets, filling it back up. It was balance, an escape from the monsters and hunting, something Sam was grateful for.

Years passed though and with Dean dying and the Apocalypse happening, Sam spent less and less time worrying about the stars and more about hunting. With either his brother or the world at stake, Sam Winchester no longer spent his nights staring up at the dark sky searching for stars but rather bathed in the glow of his laptop, desperately searching for answers on how to fix things.

Jumping into the pit, stopping the Civil War in Heaven, Leviathans, the tablets, all of those events pulled Sam's eyes away from the stars and back to the laptop, ignoring their twinkling calls and preferring to spend his nights on the web, hoping for a way to fix things. After the angels fell, Sam completely stopped with his night sky watching, it reminding him only of all the falling angels and it wasn't until almost five years later did Sam look back up at the night sky.

Things were going south, quickly, and no matter what Sam did, nothing seemed to work. Dean was still trying to fight the mark, Cas was still not back to his old self and Sam was at wit's end trying to find a solution to everything.

Yawning, the younger hunter continued to search the news online for any cases, coming up empty handed when his eyes caught a certain headline of an article. A comet would pass the earth, visible in Lawrence at a quarter to four in the morning. He hadn't seen one of them in a few years, especially not on a night of a full moon and knowing he had hit a dead end with research, the tired hunter glanced at the time displayed on the bottom right corner.

3:25 am.

He still had time to get out above the bunker hatch and catch the comet.

Rubbing his face, he rose from his seat and shuffled to his room, grabbing a warm sweater and pulling it on. He then, on his way outside, paused at Dean's door, wanting to ask his brother to join him but decided against it. Dean needed his sleep, now with the mark causing his four hours to turn to two and should Sam offer Dean to join him, the older hunter wouldn't decline. With Cas gone and Dean asleep, Sam made his way outside alone, laying a blanket he had grabbed from his room as well down on the grass. He sat down on the blanket, pulling out his phone and checking the time.

3:38am.

The article had said quarter to four so the comet would most likely be making an appearance about seven minutes. Shoving the phone back in his pocket and then stuffing his hands in his hoodie pocket, Sam looked up at the sky, eyes jumping from star to star. He could make out a few of the constellations in the sky from where he sat, but not many, and to pass the time, named them.

3:42am.

Sam soon found himself waiting, alone to his thoughts as he sat outside, staring at the stars. A gentle breeze blew and he shivered, drawing his knees close to preserve body heat. It wasn't winter anymore, but the early spring morning was still cool and Sam wished he had brought a second blanket to wrap himself in.

"Hey," he said softly after a minute of silence. He glanced around to check if he was alone before continuing. "It's me again, Sam." There was a pause and the younger hunter was almost hesitant to continue. Much like star gazing, Sam had stopped praying a while back but these little prayers were a bit different. He knew God wasn't listening and the angels didn't give a rats ass about the boy with the demon blood (some still would hiss that under their breaths at him) so Sam found a different way to share what was going on without pretending to have hope.

He would pray to Gabriel, knowing the Archangel was long dead and wouldn't be able to hear what he said. Sam had used to pray to him as a child, being born on a Monday and Gabriel was the guardian of children born on Mondays and even after meeting said archangel, he didn't really change to whom the prayers were directed to.

"It's been awhile since I prayed to you," he said softly, giving a small chuckle. "Things got pretty rough and we both know with the kind of luck Dean and I have, it's only gotten worse. I'm fine, for once, but Dean, he's got the mark of Cain. I'd explain it but you probably already know what it is." Sam shifted on the blanket, pulling one part to cover his socked toes. "Cas and I have looked everywhere for a cure, a way to remove it but we got nothing Gabriel. It already turned him into a demon once and I don't want that to happen to him again but other than him passing the mark – which we both know he won't do – we are at a dead end."

A sigh left his lips and he ran a hand through his hair. "You'd know what to do if you were here. Hell, you'd probably double over laughing cause it would be something so obvious that we missed." One corner of Sam's mouth quirked up into a small half smile. "I just wish you were here."

Pulling out his phone to check the time, he found the time, 3:45 am, staring right back at him and dropping his phone, Sam looked upwards. The giddy feeling he had thought he had lost long ago returned as he watched the comet race across the inky black sky. It made him feel younger, taking away the stress that weighed down his shoulders and for the first time in what felt like forever, Sam smiled.

He took in the sight, sitting there without moving, not wanting it to end. It was calming, remaining out here with the stars while the rest of the world slept. Yawning, Sam rubbed his eyes, not quite wanting to go inside yet. Going in meant going to sleep and that meant waking up to face the real world and all its horrors.

"Correct me if I'm wrong Sammich, but don't people usually make wishes on shooting stars?"

Sam jumped at the voice, being startled out of his thoughts and turning his head, saw another person sitting on the blanket. No, not a person.

"Gabriel?" He gasped eyes wide and the gold eyes staring back at him seemed to glow faintly. A familiar smirk appeared over the supposedly dead Archangel's face and Sam blinked, quickly rubbing his eyes. He assumed it was the lack of sleep from the last few days finally catching up on him and making him see dead Archangels.

"In the flesh kiddo."

"How? Lucifer killed you; we saw your burnt wings on the ground!" Sam exclaimed.

Gabriel chuckled. "You can't trick the Trickster, Samalam. Not even dear ol' Luci can beat me. And as for not showing up sooner, I needed to lay low and recharge my batteries. That trick took a lotta juice and it didn't help with the angels falling. Kinda pushed my healing back a bit," Gabriel explained and Sam gave a small nod, wrapping his head around that.

"So I'm not hallucinating from lack of sleep?" He jokes and Gabriel frowns, shaking his head.

"No, but you gotta take better care of yourself bucko," Gabriel told him and Sam tried to stifle a yawn.

"It's just-"

"The mark, I know. But I'm here to help and we don't need a sleepy moose running himself to the ground."

The hunter gave a sleepy nod, head falling onto Gabriel's shoulder. "You're actually gonna help us?" He asked and Gabriel smiled, looking at him.

"Knowing the two of you idiots, if I don't, something catastrophic will happen." There was humour in his tone and Sam smiled. He snapped and suddenly a soft weight was draped across Sam's shoulders.

Silence fell between the pair, eyes focused on the stars and through half lidded eyes, Sam whispered, "Tell me about the stars, Gabe."

"Thought you knew everything about them already."

Sam shook his head. "Tell me your stories about the stars."

And Gabriel did, telling Sam about every star he ever created and the stories behind each one.

Only after Sam fell asleep did he snap them back into the Bunker, Sam tucked away into his bed. And when he'd wake up, maybe things wouldn't be better but at 3:45 in the morning, Sam did find one thing. Hope.

let me know what you guys thought and excuse me while i cry about all the homework i have to finish for tomorrow...

-Ally