we should just kiss

“Honestly? The way I see it, if you don’t do anything the likelihood of Cyrus doing anything ends up pretty low.”

“That’s the right attitude to have,” Gabriel assured him. She couldn’t help laughing when Alex called her a natural at parenting. “I don’t know who or what gave you that idea, but I was just as lost as you were at first. I had to rely pretty heavily on Canaan and Skylar. The only difference is that now I have almost thirty years of experience. You’ll get there.”

She couldn’t help the little whine that escaped her in response to that. Which she followed up by placing a quick kiss on his cheek. “Who gave you the right to be so cute?”

“That’s.. a way to put it,” Gabriel replied, obviously amused by him.

“Like everyone else in this family? Absolutely.”

Gabriel moved on instinct when she hears Alex demean himself reaching out and grabbing him by the shoulders, hopefully not gripping them too hard. “You deserve these children,” she corrected quickly. Gabriel knew all to well about spiraling into shame and self loathing, but Alex didn’t deserve that. “You are a sweet and kind and caring young man, and you will be an excellent father. Even if the circumstances are not ideal.” She released his shoulders, but left her hands resting on them. “No one gets a perfect childhood, it’s sad but it’s true. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to be perfect. All you have to do, all you can do, in the end is love them and protect them and try to guide them in the right direction.”

“I love you so much,” she replied exhaustedly as she took the demon’s hand.

“Please don’t do anything impulsive.”

“I’m not really doing anything else. So we can have as much time as you want. At least until like sunset or whatever.”

Gabriel looked at his fist for a confused moment before she remembered what she was supposed to do and bumped it appropriately. “I suppose that’s the way of the world sometimes.”

“I appreciate that, Dean, and I’ve got your back too.”

“That sounds like a good skill to have.”

“Are you free? Could you hold me for a little while?”

“Okay so we plan to abduct all of our children and grandchildren who are in town, get Nathanael and Ornias on board with that plan, run, and then what? Most of them would just use their abilities to come right back here,” she wasn’t being sarcastic in her criticism. She genuinely wanted there to be a plan that could work here. Anything was preferable to being stuck here.

Gabriel went still as a stone for a moment, not even taking a breath as she watched Alex. An overwhelming rage was all she could comprehend; an urge to find who ever had caused Alex to feel like this and make them pay. Her instincts to protect weren’t always positive, she knew that, and she reminded herself silently that Alex would probably object to her causing anyone a slow painful death on his behalf, even if they deserved it. Eventually she inhaled and further reminded herself that the most useful thing she could do for Alex at the moment was support him. “They do,” she agreed. It didn’t seem worth it to deny the truth. “But eventually, they will get better, and in the mean time nothing is going to harm you. As unpleasant as it is to think about I am a weapon of the lord. Canaan is a hybrid bioshifter, as are our children. I would like to see anyone try to get to you through me, let alone all of us.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. Actually, despite my children’s best attempts I still don’t actually know what an instagram even is.”

“So when this town descends into complete madness I hope you know that our door is always open, and I can assure you there’s nowhere safer in New Orleans.”