Author's Note:

This is the last chapter, guys! Thank you so much to everyone who stuck with this story. I'm thrilled that you all liked it so much, and the 200+ followers are very encouraging.

I will be starting a new Sabriel story soon, with a hint of Destiel showing up eventually, but it's a slow burn. I'm really excited about it, so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks to SlasherFiend14, XxZessxX, starkidindia, yuffb, and .wonderland23 for their reviews on chapter 20!

Chapter 21 - Thank You

In the future, Gabriel would make sure to take Sam on vacation a lot. It wasn't that Sam necessarily needed the escape, or that he needed an excessive amount of downtime. Rather, Gabriel had just become addicted to look on Sam's face when he saw something really cool. As a result, Gabriel took Sam everywhere he could think of that Sam might like. Sam spent most of one day of their honeymoon in the British Museum. When he realized that Gabriel had plenty of stories to tell from all of the time periods Sam was looking at artifacts from, Sam dragged him to a local cafe and sat him down, insisting he spill every memory he had of anything of historical merit.

Really, spending his honeymoon ferrying Sam from one historically significant thing to the next should have been boring, but Gabriel never got tired of Sam's face. Even Parliament, which really wasn't all that old, got him excited. Arguably the best reaction Gabriel got out of Sam was when he took him to Buckingham Palace. During large parts of the year, that wouldn't be that big of a deal, but when the Queen is in residence, tourists aren't allowed in. Sam really shouldn't have been surprised that Gabriel was able to get them in anyway, but he was. Gabriel had done it for purely selfish reasons. Prince William and Kate Middleton happened to be visiting the Queen that day, and Gabriel was eager to see the look on Sam's face when he was introduced.

Sam really wanted to know how the hell Gabriel knew the royal family, but the archangel wasn't saying. He just grinned broadly at Sam's floundering attempts to make polite conversation with several of the most famous people in the world.

Realistically, Gabriel shouldn't have been able to top introducing Sam to the royal family, but when was Gabriel ever realistic? That was how Sam found himself at Leavesdon Studios, the set of the Harry Potter films. Sam wasn't exactly fanatic for the series, but he definitely enjoyed it, and it had a hell of a lot more appeal to him as an adult when Gabriel snapped functioning wands into existence for them and proceeded to challenge him to a duel on the set of Diagon Alley. The spent an entire day there too, and Sam made Gabriel swear to never tell Dean. Gabriel agreed, providing Sam bought him a chocolate frog and promised to visit Hamley's.

As it happened, Sam enjoyed Hamley's too, if only for the obvious enjoyment Gabriel got out of being in the world's largest toy store. Watching Gabriel play with some kind of bubble gun demo, using his grace to turn the bubbles colors so he could confuse the shop workers, Sam realized that everything was pretty much perfect. Dean had Castiel, and if they weren't the most perfect couple in history, who was? They had a house and a life that they enjoyed. Sam had always wanted to see Dean happy, and he was, blissfully so. It wasn't just Dean though; Sam got his own perfect mate, and nothing had ever made him enjoy anything as much as Gabriel made him enjoy life and love. It was cheesy it was so blissfully perfect. With a start, Sam realized that he'd practically forgotten about the one person who had essentially made all this possible. It would really be impolite to forget to say thank you.

"No way in hell, Sam," Dean declared firmly, reclining on the sofa in an attempt to convey the fact that he wasn't leaving. He and Castiel had bought a majority of their furniture at IKEA, but it was good stuff, and Dean was a fan of this particular sofa. It was definitely comfortable, and big enough for two, allowing him to have his arm around Castiel's neck like he currently did.

Sam scowled at his older brother petulantly. "We owe her a thank you," he argued pointedly. "Do you really think all of this would have played out the way it did if we didn't get that swift kick in the ass to get us going?" Sam and Gabriel had only been home from London for about a day, and Sam had insisted on visiting Dean and Castiel immediately to run his idea by them.

"Sure we would have!" Dean protested. "Eventually."

"See?" Sam jumped on the last word. "Eventually. As in, it would have taken way longer for us to get to this point. The least we can do is say thank you."

Dean squirmed awkwardly, avoiding looking at Castiel, who he was pretty sure was on Sam's side of this debate. "That's going to be freaking weird though, man!" He offered as a deterrent.

Sam rolled his eyes. "I didn't ask you to pay Becky a visit, Dean."

Dean visibly cringed. That would definitely have been worse.

"Dean," Castiel's low rumble cut through the debate the brothers were having, drawing both of their attentions. "I understand why you find the prospect uncomfortable, but I agree that this girl deserves our gratitude."

Relaxing slightly, Dean nodded slowly. "I guess. I still say I would have done something eventually."

Castiel smiled slightly and patted Dean's arm soothingly. "I'm sure. Regardless, I am grateful I did not have to wait for eventually to come around."

Sam was relieved that that seemed to end the conversation. "Great, so we're going?"

Dean sighed and nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, I guess we are. Where's your better half so we can get this over with?"

Gabriel, who had been in the kitchen, reappeared next to Sam holding a glass full of whipped cream and looking confused. "Since when am I the better half?"

"Since Sam decided to force me to go thank a teenager for writing porn," Dean growled.

"I'm pretty sure she's in her twenties," Sam corrected.

Gabriel's eyes lit up. "We're going to visit the girl who wrote those stories?" He asked excitedly.

Sam nodded, and Dean gave him a withering glare. Turning back to Gabriel, Dean asked, "What are you so damn happy about?"

"Are you kidding? I want to give her a hug!" Gabriel grinned broadly, bouncing on his toes and scooping a mouthful of whipped cream out of his glass with his tongue.

"Let's get this over with then," Dean grouched. "We're all here, so let's go."

"Gabe, you ready?" Sam asked, holding his hand out.

Gabriel took Sam's hand in his own and winked at him. "I'm definitely ready! Come on, I can't wait to meet this chick."

Reluctantly, Dean stood with Castiel and faced his mate, nodding to indicate that it was all right to transport him.

There was a whoosh of wings, and the four men reappeared in an alley outside the video game store. Thankfully, nobody was around to see.

"Do we have to do this?" Dean complained again, but three sets of eyes turned to glare at him, so he shut up.

Sam led the way, opening the door and stepping into the store where he had first learned of Gabriel's resurrection and attachment to him. He almost didn't recognize Kasey Kinder behind the counter. Her hair had been pink and in pigtails when they'd met before, but now it was french braided and bright turquoise.

Kasey looked up when the bell on the door dinged, and her mouth dropped open. "What...I mean, how...I mean...I'm still awake, right? Not dreaming?"

"Hey," Sam greeted her, towing an eager Gabriel along with him to walk closer to the desk. "It's good to see you again."

"Not dreaming?" Kasey asked again, her eyes as wide as saucers.

Sam chuckled. "Not dreaming. I thought we should come say thank you, since you were kind of a big help last time we were here."

Dean made a protesting noise in the back of his throat, but everyone ignored him.

"How did I help?" Kasey asked, her eyes finally sliding over to Gabriel, who was still holding Sam's hand. That was a natural point of contact for them, and both of them enjoyed the sensation. "Oh. My. God."

Gabriel leaned forward and stuck his hand out in greeting. "Nice to meet you, Kasey. I'm Gabriel. I gotta say, I'm a big fan of your work."

For a moment, it looked like Kasey was about to faint. She had frozen, and didn't seem to be showing any signs of coming back to life. Finally, slowly, she reached out and shook Gabriel's hand, almost on autopilot. "Oh. My. God." She repeated, her eyes still wide.

"That's my dad," Gabriel corrected.

That startled a nervous giggle out of Kasey, and she seemed to relax. "So...you guys, you're actually together? Because of me?"

"It's because of you that I found out he was still alive and decided to give him a chance," Sam explained. "It kind of progressed from there." In tandem, he and Gabriel held up their ring hands.

"You're married?!" Kasey squeaked. When they nodded, she began to breath quickly, practically shaking as she chanted, "It's canon, it's canon, oh my god it's canon!"

Sam shot a look backwards at Dean, who looked distinctly uncomfortable, and Castiel, who looked concerned that Kasey was losing her mind or something.

Eager to shift the attention, Sam cleared his throat and said, "Not just us."

Kasey froze again, eyes shifting immediately to Dean and Castiel. Her gaze found the rings they wore as well, and she began to grin. "Oh man, I can't wait until this book comes out! The best ships in the entire series are canon now, and it's because of me! This is awesome!"

At the reference to Chuck, Sam and Dean exchanged understanding glances. Chuck would be receiving a visitor soon, and whatever he was planning to write about their love lives would not be seeing the light of day. They didn't need a thousand more people like Kasey running around.

Castiel finally stepped forward, nodding to Kasey. "I wish to express my gratitude to you for your writing. It most certainly jump started our relationship, and for that I am grateful."

Kasey stared at him in shock. "Your voice is so deep," she commented reverently.

"Of for the love of..." Dean strode forward, rubbing his forehead and sighing. "Look, Kasey, let me just get this over with. Thanks for having us read the stories. It was helpful." He took a deep breath and turned, ready to leave. He paused, turned back slightly, and added, "You're a really good writer." Finished speaking, he gripped Castiel's hand and pulled, more than ready to get out of there.

Sam watched them leave, smirking, and turned back to Kasey. "Feel honored," he told her. "It was like pulling teeth to even get him in the store."

Kasey just nodded, still looked awed.

"Well, we need to be going," Sam hedged, moving towards the door.

"Thank you for coming," Kasey told him seriously. "Just...thanks."

"No problem," Sam said with a smile. He was glad they had. It felt right. "Gabe, you coming?"

"Yeah, one sec," Gabriel told him. He leaned in close to Kasey and whispered, "I follow you online." Turning quickly he strode over to Sam, and they walked out together.

Sam glanced back to see a look of shock and mild panic on Kasey's face, and turned to Gabriel, confused. "What'd you say to her?" He asked, his tone amused.

"Nothing important," Gabriel replied easily. "Come on, let's go get food."

"You don't need to eat!" Sam protested, not really hungry for lunch yet.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Doesn't mean I can't have a hankering for cherry pie," he explained as they walked up to where Dean and Castiel were waiting.

"Gabriel, you're a mind reader," Dean enthused. "I need pie, like now."

"There is a bakery two blocks from here," Castiel intoned, as though the fact that he knew that was not out of the ordinary.

Sam just chuckled and shook his head. "Okay, fine, we'll get pie." As Gabriel and Dean lit up and started off down the road, Sam walked beside Castiel and smiled to himself. Everything really was perfect, or at least way closer to perfect than the Winchesters ever thought they'd get. Maybe, somewhere, God really did care.