Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural

Synopsis: Season 5. Something threatens Sam, himself. And it leads Dean, Castiel, and even Gabriel to reveal how they feel about the youngest Winchester. At least post-5x10

Blood, Bone, and Family- part 1

He'd been gone a half hour tops, Castiel popping into the Impala (and once more scaring the ever-loving hell out of Dean) after calling to ask his whereabouts.

"Jesus, Cas!"

"Apologies." It was an automatic response now, he wasn't going to change how he entered a room…or an Impala. "Where are we going? You haven't questioned all the victim's families yet."

"How do you kn- no, nevermind, I don't care. I left something I need at the hotel so I'm going back to get it." He had everything. Truth was, he had tried calling Sam earlier and gotten voicemail both times. His big brother spidey sense, which had corroded a little in disuse over the last two years, had raised an alarm. Sam had been doing extra research lately that he didn't think Dean noticed. He'd been twitchy and easily startled and overly polite, acquiescing to most anything Dean wanted and while he knew Sam wasn't off after demon blood, it was still alarming. Sam had been decidedly…off for a while now, but no one but Dean would have noticed.

His concerns sounded stupid and overbearing and he wasn't going to tell Cas any of that. He'd just go check on Sam, grab something random from the room (claiming it was something essential under his younger brother's scrutiny), and be gone. Then he'd get himself back together again, assured then that Sam was fine, and jolt back to the hunt, kicking himself for being such a pansy.

"What are you doing here anyway?"

Castiel's gaze narrowed a bit.

"What is it Cas?"

"Maybe nothing"

Dean rolled his eyes.

"Cryptic is just innate in you angels, isn't it?"

"Perhaps. But it's unintentional. I felt the need to check on you and Sam"

Dean eyed the passenger then. Maybe Dean wasn't the only one who had noticed something… The angel's statement was an innocuous statement, but for some reason he felt tension settle deeper into him and he stepped more on the gas.

They pulled up to the hotel and Castiel followed Dean to the door.

The next thing the eldest Winchester would later remember was dropping to his knees on the cheap carpet and hearing it squish beneath him.

"Sam!"

Blood pooled under notbodydon'tthinkbodySamnotbody Sam. He flipped Sam onto his back and started tearing at his shirt to see the damage because he couldn't see, couldn't tell where all the blood was coming from. It was everywhere.

"Sammy! Sam! Open your eyes!" His entire being felt cold at already knowing what he'd find.

Red filled the bone-deep gashes in his arms and the knife-

Dean was going to be sick

The knife was still in Sam's loosely curled fingers, cradled by his brother like something beloved, like salvation. The wounds to Sam's chest apparent.

Dean's trained hands fluttered uselessly for a moment, moving to stop the blood flow and then pulling back because he was hurting Sam, but he had to hurt him to help him and Sam had done this. God, Sam had done this. He didn't know what to do.

Sammy…

Another hand clenched around Sam's arms pulled Dean back.

"Dean!"

Cas sounded off, almost frightened and Dean shuddered. If Castiel was worried, if he was showing emotion, it was bad.

"Get-get some shirts out of the bag over there." Wide blue eyes met his own "Now!"

The angel scrambled, yes scrambled, to do as asked. Dean tied his own over shirt around Sam's arm and pressed hard on his chest wounds.

Sam didn't so much as flinch.

"Dean."

"Hurry it up Cas!" his brother was hurt. Now was not the time to dick around.

"Dean"

What to do, what to do. First put tourniquets around Sam's arms. Then take care of the knife wounds. And this shouldn't freak him out, it really shouldn't. Neither of them could die. Heaven and Hell were keeping them alive. Nothing to worry about.

"Dean. Dean, his arm."

Dean was beyond annoyed and something like tears (but not tears because nothing was that wrong) blurred his eyes.

"I can see his friggn' arms Cas!"

"Dean. The backs of his arms"

'You're wasting time', his mind screamed, furious at the angel. He spared a glance up to scream at Castiel and saw what he was talking about.

Sigils were carved into the tops of Sam's arm. Deep and bloody as the rest of him. Fine. Weird, but not important right now.

"Stop wasting time and-"

"Lucifer can't find him"

Dean's head jerked up to see Cas's expression.

The angel looked…no, angels don't look devastated.

"I don't know how he figured it out…" Cas was staring at Sam, mouth slightly agape. "I didn't tell him. He asked but, I lied. They only work for death. It wouldn't have helped the dreams…I didn't tell him. Dean…" Cas looked at Dean, pleadingly, shaking his head back and forth slowly. "I didn't tell him…"

Castiel was flustered and his eyes looked bright and Dean couldn't take it.

"No! Fuck you Sammy!" Dean spat. "You're not doing this, you're not!" He pressed harder on the wounds and saw Castiel drop to do the same.

"He-" Castiel sounded choked "His heart stopped"

So did Dean's and the world went white around the edges.

There was a sudden flutter, the same thing he felt when Castiel or one of the douchebag angels did their warping thing.

"Move."

The trickster- Gabriel's- mouth was set in a grim line, his eyes hard. And not now! Not fuckin' now when his brother might be dead in his arms. Dean was pissed and choking on grief and done. They weren't getting Sam, they weren't.

Dean was up and pressing a knife to the arch angel's throat.

"You're not getting near him" tone low and dangerous with a touch of hysteria.

Gabriel's face scrunched in anger and Dean was flung effortlessly into the wall and held there.

Castiel stood defensively before his brother (and which one was his brother now, the angel wasn't sure), something fierce in his eyes.

A wave of Gabriel's hand and Cas was in the same position as Dean.

"Don't touch him! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" Dean snarled.

If he heard him, Gabriel didn't acknowledge it. He knelt next to Sam and immediately pressed his palm to the boy's cooling forehead.

Tears were flowing now as Dean gave everything he had in him trying to break free of Gabriel's power.

Sam gasped and immediately curled up onto his side, coughing wetly and weakly clawing at the carpet, choking on the blood in his throat.

Dean didn't know when he was freed, but he was grabbing his brother tightly and clenching a hand in his hair, speaking harshly into his ear.

"Sam? Sam! You hear me? Sammy, talk to me"

"You should wrap him up pretty quick or he'll bleed out again"

Castiel was standing between the Winchesters and Gabriel, but Dean didn't take his eyes away from Sam's violently shuddering form to see.

"What did you do?" It's how Castiel had sounded when he was speaking to Raphael and it chilled the air in the room.

Gabriel glared with a put-upon sigh as though he were speaking to a child

"I brought him back idiot. Tell me you haven't lost so much power that you can't tell that."

"Why?"

Gabriel folded his arms and shrugged

"Maybe I'm invested in seeing these two morons take up their roles." In a softer tone and glancing to the side slightly, "Maybe I'm invested in these two morons."

Castiel's eyes were hard and appraising.

"How did you find us?"

"I've been keeping tabs on you all since the warehouse." The archangel said casually "Been checking in now and then."

Before Castiel can question him further, Gabriel spoke again.

"I cleaned the pills out of his system, and dealt with most of the internal damage, but I couldn't heal all his wounds. It's already enough of a risk that something will be able to pick up on the power that I used."

"Why?"

"Again with the 'why'?" Gabriel threw his hands up in an exaggerated gesture and then pulled back in on himself. He looked to be considering his next words. "Kid was already on the edge, now our big brother's in his head all the time… Maybe I don't want Sam dead." He wouldn't meet Castiel's eyes and Cas saw something he had never seen in another angel's eyes, something like remorse. "Maybe I helped push him further when I didn't mean to…"

Castiel hears regret in the voice.

Gabriel straightens quickly and turns to Castiel again.

"I tie up my loose ends, brother."

And then he's gone.

Castiel stands a moment more before turning to help Dean. The green eyed man already bandaging Sam tightly, all the while murmuring softly to his unconscious brother.

Castiel notices his own hands shaking slightly as he works on the boy and wonders when these brothers, when Sam, had come to effect him so much that he would stand against an archangel to protect them, when his hands would shake and his breath quicken at the idea of losing one of them. He can't find an answer.

The angel watches as Dean's tears slip off his nose and roll down Sam's neck.

tears slip off his nose and roll down Sam's neck.