7th story in my Gabriel's Recovery series. In which Gabriel chooses a few shirts to add to his collection of...one. And finds himself a comfort item, all the while keeping in almost constant contact with Sam to try and stave off panic.

Clothes Make the Man

Sam and Dean had taken the Impala with three backseat passengers to the nearby town of Lebanon, while he, Castiel and Jack took the truck.

His little brother was driving a truck. That was still not as weird as Lucifer knowing how to drive a bus. That must have been one he got from the vessel he was using, but he didn't know anything about Nick. Gabriel guessed he'd never know now Lucifer was gone.

Castiel seemed to take to driving well. Though with the horrible shape his wings were in, that didn't really surprise him. Gabriel never learned to drive, mainly because he still had use of his wings when he was powered up.

His wings twitched uncomfortably at the thought of not being able to fly again. Jack watched the golden appendages with rapt attention, his head cocked to one side in the common way of angels and birds.

"Why do you have three pairs of wings?" the boy asked, his staring moving from his wings to his face.

"All archangels have three pairs. You didn't notice that with your bio dad?"

Jack's brow furrowed in confusion. "Bio dad?"

"Yeah! Lucifer is your father in the sense that you came from him and Kelly Kline."

"Oh, short for biological. Yes, I did notice. I thought it was something Hell did to him or something."

Gabriel shook his head. "Nah, we were made that way. In fact, it's probably one of the reasons you have your own wings. Nephilim don't generally have wings."

Jack's eyes widened and his own pair of wings, a dark red in colour, twitched.

Castiel sighed. "We are almost there," his young bro stated, before pulling into a parking lot.

Gabriel yawned and waited for Jack to get out, since he was in the middle seat. He was still feeling tired from his lack of any good sleep but he did need new clothes. Right now he just had one shirt, two jackets and several pairs of pants.

He hated wearing the same clothes over and over again. Sighing, Gabriel looked down at his feet and frowned at Jack's shoes. "No one has taught you shoelaces, huh?"

Jack shook his head, but smiled. "I think I like the Velcro slips too much to want to learn."

Gabriel grinned at the kid. "Okay, but if you ever change your mind, and believe me you probably will, you know where I am."

With that said, he walked over to where the Winchesters were, showing the three refugees through the doors of the clothes shop they were at. It was a thrift store, naturally. He soon was beside Sam, bumping into his side to squeeze through the door with him at the same time. He had no idea why he was suddenly so clingy, but he didn't want to leave the one human that he had a connection with in this place.

The people from the alternate world were smiling widely, looking at the clothes, getting out a list they had of everyone's sizes and favourite colours. None of them were fussy on style. Their world obliterated that for the time being, but clean good clothes, even if second hand, would probably hold up better than the worn old clothes they were all wearing.

He stuck by Sam while he watched the three newcomers grabbing what they wanted, before walking to the cashier with their purchases. Dean had stuck by them the whole time, watching closely to make sure they didn't steal.

That struck him as weird, but considering they were going to have to wait for his Grace to go up before they tried to get back home, and they had a solid plan on defeating Michael, these people would probably have to get a job at some point.

Oh shit, would he need to get a job? At last he had work experience as a janitor in the bag. He could do that. He had actually kind of enjoyed it.

His chest felt all tight and he shifted so his side was pressed against Sam's from shoulder to hip. Sam looked down at him.

"You okay?"

Gabriel shook his head. "It's a little overwhelming, you know?"

Sam nodded his head in reply, his eyes showing nothing but understanding. "Yeah, I know. Come on, let's go find you something you'll be willing to wear."

He was so glad Sam hadn't said something he liked, because right now he had no idea what he wanted when it came to clothes. All he knew was he liked dress shirts because of the buttons and he liked tight shirts. Loose fitting shirts tended to set him off. Too much like the clothes he had spent 7 years stuck in.

He started walking in the direction of a rack of clothing, grabbing at Sam's hand so he was still in contact with him. He was glad there was no objection to the move, even if it did make people think on what their relationship was.

While shifting through the clothes, he touched the moose of a man with his side again. He found a few shirts he'd be willing to try. One a maroon colour, another forest green he actually liked the look of. He also found another dress shirt, this one minus the holes and blood stains on it. So, he grabbed that too.

It was then that he spotted a hoodie that would absolutely drown him, considering it was something along the lines of XXL in size and he was small in his human vessel. There was something about the hoodie though that drew his attention. He walked over to it, felt the material and how warm it was and, without even using a dressing room, pulled it over himself. He then sat on the floor, pulled up the hood and tucked his knees under it.

It was nice and warm, dark and the stretch of it with his knees made it seem not as loose as it was. It covered his eyes. And it was perfect to hide in and rock. He hadn't even noticed he had automatically started rocking until Sam sat down next to him.

He could hear the human chuckle at his side, body leaned slightly into his and the rocking stopped to lean towards the chest beside him.

"I want this."

"Yeah, I can see that. Okay but you need to take it off right now."

He shook his head. "A few more minutes. This is calming me down."

"Okay but we're being eyed by staff."

Sighing, he pulled the hood up a bit so he could look around the store and saw that Sam wasn't lying. The staff was giving him weird looks. Groaning, he pulled the hoodie off and held it in his arms protectively. No one was allowed to buy it but hi.

"Okay, come on, up you get and we can get home quicker. We'll have to stop at the grocery store first, but you'll get there."

He nodded, not really wanting to get back up but knowing he couldn't spend all day sitting on the floor. He took another look around and blinked. "Where's Cassie and the kiddo?"

"Cass and Jack are at the candy shop. Jack wanted to show it off to you, but we decided it would be best to leave that for another time."

He grunted at that, though he had meant to laugh. "Good call on that. I don't think I'm up to a bunch of kids right now. Or candy for that matter. The last thing I need is to go hyper while paranoid."

Sam chuckled. "You'd probably accidentally destroy the bunker."

He rolled his eyes, but turned to look at Sam, a small smile on his face. "Nah, probably just my room in it. And I am trying to preserve Grace right now."

Sam nodded and grabbed his hand, helping him to his feet. Gabriel looked around him and grimaced when he realised everyone in the shop was watching him. "What?" he said, looking around. He'd pull himself up taller, but he just didn't have the strength right then. He settled for leaning against Sam.

Damn, the hoodie worked wonders. He was half asleep. "I need to go home. I'm falling asleep on my feet..."

Sam held him around his waist and together they walked over to the counter to buy the things he had. He had left the last good credit card he had in his other jacket. Ooops.

He was beginning to get upset over that when Sam pulled out his and paid for it. It was only cheap and a small amount of clothes, but until he got to a proper store, with more clothes, they would do. He'd have to pay Sam back.

He didn't remember closing his eyes, but he was nudged in the side and he opened them again to stare at Sam and Dean.

"What?" he asked, voice slurring slightly in his lethargy.

"I asked you if you wanted to go back in the Impala or the truck," Sam asked.

He blinked slowly at him. "Umm, I think I'll just go in the truck."

Sam nodded and Dean seemed to relax slightly. Well, that sucked. He thought he was getting on better with the older Winchester boy.

"Okay, well, Castiel and Jack are waiting for you. They will take you back to the bunker, while we stay and get food for everyone."

He frowned, because he knew the reason Cassie had taken the truck to begin with was to use the tray to carry the food. They were feeding a small garrison of people after all. They would need a lot of food to keep them all going and as healthy as possible.

Sam must have seen what he was thinking on his face. "Cass is going to be coming back, don't worry. Jack wants to go back too, since he is done with his search for more candy."

Gabriel knew it was also to get him home faster, but at least it wasn't going to stop them getting the food they needed. He was just thankful he was going back now. There was just one slight problem. "You're not going, are you? I don't want to go back alone..."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Dude, calm your ass down. You won't be alone. You'll have your brother and your nephew with you."

Gabriel nodded, but didn't let his gaze turn away from Sam. Suddenly the much taller man nodded. "You'll be okay, Gabe. But you're right that you're falling asleep and Jack wants to go back. You're not putting us out or anything. And I'll be back soon enough. Here,"

Sam reached into the bag that held his clothes just bought in it and pulled out the hoodie. "Take this with you. You can curl up in bed and wear this while waiting."

Gabriel grabbed at the hoodie and held it close to him, sighing when he realised he didn't have much of a choice. He turned towards the door of the shop when he heard it open only to see Cassie and Jack entering the shop. Jack was holding a colourful bag.

Sighing again, Gabriel wandered over to those two and soon he was once again sitting in the middle seat of the truck, half listening to Jack going on about the candy he had bought.

Halfway through he started to drift off to sleep.

He woke up in his bedroom 8 hours later.

He had forgotten to buy pyjamas.