The change in atmosphere helped Gabriel relax out of sheer relief, and then Skul's fumbling prayer made him grin, if a little shakily. His head still ached, but between having drunk the whole bottle of holy water and the relative soothingness of his treated wounds, he felt like he could respond.

'It's not that, exactly.' But it was too complicated to explain using just telepathy while he was in the state he was. 'He'd likely notice I'm gone, but he won't know where, and he won't be able to get to where I left the door in my universe. He can't leave Earth.'

It was unfortunate Gabe couldn't see Fletcher's face, and the Archangel tried for a moment to turn before settling down at Kenspeckle's grumble. He could hear the good humour in the boy's voice, though, and that made Gabriel grin too. A moment later, Tanith and Valkyrie made him laugh. "Well, we drove bumper cars, of course. As for the games, mostly we just made bets as to who could win the most teddy bears. As long as the games didn't include cards, I could actually win pretty frequently."