April 28th
12:30 pm

Gabriel held the small box close. It held only a few items, among them was a letter. Gabriel had the other letter in his back pocket, the one addressed to him. He had been reluctant to clean the jacket that he currently wore, despite it being several sizes too large. He hadn't wanted it to lose the familiar smell of his lover. 

He hesitated at the front gate. Would he be able to do this? He nervously ran a thumb over the lid of the box, what would he even say?

The house was quaint, small and a cheerful yellow in colour. Did they know yet?

Gabriel took a steadying breath, he had to do this. He steps through the gate, which squeaked on its rusted hinges, and slowly walked up the front path. He could do this, he had to. For Sam.

He raises a hand, softly knocking on the wooden door. There was a moment of silence, then footsteps ran towards the door. It swings open to reveal a small boy who looked up at him with a toothy smile. Of course, this smile quickly disappeared. Obviously the boy had hoped he was someone else, Sam.

"Who are you?" The boy tilts his head.

Gabe closed his eyes briefly. God this kid looked so much like Sam, it hurt to even look at him.

"I-I'm a friend of Sam."

"Sammy? Is he here!?" The little boy, whose name Gabriel recalled to be Adam, looked past Gabriel's legs.

"Uh-"

"Adam! What have I told you about answering the door..." A taller man came over, his green eyes instantly settling on Gabriel with a frown. Then, this frown dropped into a gutted look as he saw the jacket that Gabe wore. 

"Sammy...?"

Gabriel swallowed thickly. They didn't know.

Dean opened the door wider, letting him in and they all moved to the living room.

"I'm... I'm Gabriel Novak, I was a good f-friend of Sam's."

"Was," Dean echoes, defeat sounding in his voice. 

Gabriel runs a hand down his face, his emotions getting the best of him for a moment. 

"What happened? We heard the ship went down but hoped..." Dean stops to take a shaky breath.  "He- He promised."

Gabriel shook his head. "He was on the life- lifeboat with us," he had to stop for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut as more tears threatened to fall. "But, there was this li-little girl, her pa tried getting her onto the boat but there was no room-" This was even more painful than Gabe had feared it would be.

"Where's Sammy?" Adam spoke up, his young face looked so broken. 

"He, well you see, he gave up his spot, so that little girl could get on."

Dean nods slowly, "that's Sammy for you, always putting others first." His voice betrayed his emotions even as he kept his face stoic.

Adam's face falls upon realizing what Gabriel had been saying. Then he starts to cry. "He said he'd come home."

God that just about set Gabriel off crying again.

"He uh, he wrote a letter for you and sent it down on the last lifeboat to escape." Gabriel handed the small box over.

In it, along with the letter, he had put whatever possessions of Sam's he could find in the jacket pockets. This had been his 'lucky' lighter that he said Dean had given him for his birthday, a small handful of money, a small folded up drawing that Adam had obviously made him and finally, a creased photo of the three boys as kids with their parents.

Dean doesn't speak a word as he looks through these items. It was when he unfolded and started reading the letter that he finally broke, crying silently.

"Dammit Sammy," he whispers.

"I'm so sorry," Gabriel whispers, looking down at his hands. "I tried  to have her take my place instead but Sam..."

"That's Sam for you, always putting others before himself."

Adam sniffles, wiping at the tears that fell from his eyes. "So... Sammy's not comin' home?"

Dean pulled the small boy in against his side. "No Adam, he isn't."

Adam's expression cuts through Gabriel's heart. 

"I'm sorry-" Gabriel stood up abruptly, unable to sit there any longer. 

He runs out of the room, ignoring Dean's calling after him as he opens the front door and jumps down the front steps. 

"Wait!" Dean had followed him out.

Gabriel pauses, turning around to tell Dean that he should go, when he caught sight of something in Dean's hand.

"Look, if you're really Sam's good friend, then I reckon that he would have liked you to have this, y'know, to remember him by," Dean smiled sadly, handing the small picture to Gabe.

Gabriel took it, sure enough it was a photo of Sam that had probably only been taken a few months ago. In the photo, a black and white Sam smiled back, his eyes crinkled in laughter.

"I can't imagine how hard it must have been for you to go through what you did," Dean places a hand on Gabe's shoulder. "But I'm sure that you and Sam had some great times before..."

Gabriel nods, "yeah, he was a good person, not a great dancer... but a good person."

Dean chuckles softly, "yeah Sam didn't have what you would call dancing legs so much, but he has- had a good heart."

"He really did," Gabriel whispers now, looking down. Should he mention Azazel?

No, Gabriel took one look at Dean's broken expression and decided that there was no point in opening past wounds.

"Thank you, Gabriel, this means a lot that you came here."

"Of course," Gabriel murmurs. "Just, look out for yourself and the kid, alright?"

Dean nods, his eyes holding an impossible sadness. 

With that, Gabriel turns and walks out through the front gate. 

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Gabriel sat on the end of the jetty, a bottle of bourbon next to him and the letter in his hands. The photo Dean gave him sat safely in the pocket of Sam's jacket. 

He could still remember that night. Sitting in the lifeboat, shivering and terrified as he made his voice raw crying for Sam. Balthazar had kept trying to calm him down, but nothing he did could calm the hysterical Gabe. 

It hadn't been much long after that the ship had finally sunk. Gabriel had screamed out Sam's name in that moment, watching the ship disappear into the black water. 

Jo had started crying for her dad again then. 

It was after they had been picked up by another ship that he had been tracked down by a somber looking women who had given him the letter. 

He looked down at the letter now, rereading it for the hundredth time, taking a swig of bourbon.

Gabriel

Honestly I do not expect to get off this ship now, not when there are so many women and children that remain. As I write this, I watch a father try to explain to his daughter why the first class child will survive and how she will not and I cannot believe that that is how things are.... but words won't be able to express my anger so lets move on.

I'm so so sorry, I know we talked about what we'd do when we got to New York and I'm just sad to think about how we'll never get to find out now.
Honestly, I can't explain what it was between us. I can barely understand how it only took 4 days to feel so strongly about you. How that happened, I'll never know, but I do know that I am so glad that we did have what we had, no matter how brief. 

I wish that we could have had longer together, but unfortunately the world seems to be against us... still I hope that you know that as I sit here with Bill watching the musicians play, I'm thinking of the future we could have had.

Maybe, in another life, we could have had a chance to be happy together. I like the thought of that.

So, once more, I'm sorry for doing this, but you know that I would never let a little kid die.

I love you Gabe (and yes I know that some would say that that's impossible to feel in such a short time), but I do, love you and I'm so happy with what time we did have.

Goodbye.

Love, your Samoose.

Gabriel sniffs, taking another swig of bourbon. Maybe, in another life, they could have had a chance. And who knows? Maybe they could have had a great love, and maybe they would have parted ways.

All Gabriel knew was that he was damn glad that he had the pleasure to know Samuel Winchester.

"Hey brother, you okay?" Balthazar came up behind Gabe, taking a seat next to him.

Gabriel nods, carefully folding the letter up and putting back in the pocket of the jacket.

Balthazar takes the bourbon, having a swig. "To Sam Winchester, possibly the bravest man I know."

Gabriel takes the bourbon off him, nodding. "Amen, to Sam." He raises the bottle to the ocean before downing some.

And so the people who escaped the terrible fate of the titanic all held the silent promise that they would forever honor the many people that had been condemned to lie forever at the bottom of the icy ocean. Dead, but not forgotten. And Gabriel would always be admit that Sam had been the bravest of all.

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Do you guys wanna epilogue? I think I might write one...
But first, seeing how this was going to be my last chapter, I just want to thank LPCollins for being such an amazing reader that has stuck around here and kept reading each update, your comments are amazing! And im_asadboy for being the one that actually encouraged me to write this in the first place and gave me amazing ideas when I was stuck!!