"Ah ah ah," a new voice chimed in from the door. "I'm afraid, little brother, that that's mine."

Runa jumped and whirled around, swearing violently in Latin. Sam also jumped and turned, gun up. Gabriel just grinned and gave everyone a jaunty wave.

Kyra jumped badly and hid behind Sam, because holy shit there was an archangel in the room.

"Gabriel." Cas looked stunned. He hadn't heard anything about Gabriel still being alive. "You... I thought Lucifer killed you."

Dean jumped and swore, turning to glare a bit at Gabriel.

"Funny, I could say the same thing about you, Cas," Gabriel replied easily. He glanced around the room, making note of everyone there. One of his eyebrows went up when he noticed the nephilim hiding behind Sam and the antichrist attempting to inch her way back there as well. "I see you've picked up a couple more strays since last time we talked."

Cas didn't even look back at the girls. "They're under my protection, Gabriel," he said quietly. For the moment, anyway. "What are you doing here?" He didn't try to get the Horn, though. It was rightfully Gabriel's.

"Honestly, Cas, I don't care about them," Gabriel said. "The spawn of Hell, maybe later, but I really couldn't care less about a nephilim. I'm just here for my stuff." He glanced at the Horn and back.

"It could help," Cas said. "With the War. You could help." He fixed his gaze on his older brother, not quite pleading.

"And why would I do that?" Gabriel asked. He looked at the others and then back to Cas. "Come on, Cas, do you really want to hash out family drama in front of the kids?"

"Fine. Pick a place, then. I will follow." Because perhaps it was better to keep them out of the process.

Gabriel nodded and vanished. He didn't go far, though; no sense in leaving the Winchesters and their strays unattended.

Once the angels vanished, Runa let out the breath she'd been holding, releasing another string of violent Latin under her breath. She tried to blink away her black eyes, but they wouldn't go just yet.

Sam, however, didn't relax right away.

Kyra, on the other hand, had a death grip on the angel sword she owned and was keeping it that way.

"What the hell is going on?" Dean demanded.

"Hell if I know, Dean," Sam replied, cautiously lowering his gun and looking around.

Runa carefully went over to Kyra.

"It's okay," she said softly. "Look, we're both still alive. I'd call that good."

"Alive. Yeah. For now." Kyra shifted her grip on her blade. "You know, there's a reason why there aren't many nephilim around. Archangels usually destroy them on sight."

"Well, that's just peachy," Dean said, grumbling a bit. "Goddamn angels."

"Gabriel isn't like the other archangels," Sam pointed out as he put his gun away. "Not really."

"Maybe not anymore, but once upon a time, he was one of the best nephil hunters," Kyra pointed out. "I'd really rather like to not be added to his list."

"You heard what he said," Sam reminded. "He doesn't care. And I'm kind of inclined to believe him, I think there are more important things to worry about right now."

"Yeah, well, I'll believe that when I still have my skin intact in a few days." Kyra shrugged. Until then she was going to keep her angel blade close at hand.

Runa nodded. She completely understood.

"Keep that thing where I can reach it, too," she murmured to her friend. "Just in case."

Kyra nodded her agreement, watching the others warily. But she relaxed when Cas and Gabriel didn't come back.

"Come on," Runa said after a few more minutes, "let's go back into our room and get comfortable. It's been a long evening."

Kyra nodded and headed back over to their room, setting the angel blade on the bedside table between the two beds before she grabbed her nightclothes.

"I'm going to take a shower," she said as she headed for the bathroom. "Let me know if either angel shows up again."

"Listen for the Latin profanity," Runa said, nodding. Stretching, she shimmied out of her skirt and pulled on some sleep shorts instead.

Kyra kept her shower short, instead spending a bit of extra time in the bathroom just calming down and reminding herself that she's lived this long, there's no reason for an Archangel to be after her now.

By the time Kyra was out of the shower, Runa was sitting in her bed in a tank and sleep shorts, sharpening her knife. Her gun was in front of her, already clean and ready to go.

"I salted the door," she said. "Nothing on my end of the spectrum is getting in here tonight."

"Good." Kyra put up some angel warding in the room, just in case. Then she settled down, trying to relax.

"I think we'll be okay, at least for tonight," Runa said as she put her weapons away within easy reach. "Let's try to get some rest."