The appearance of the Doctor beside them caught Gabriel's eye and the archangel tried to shift, to shove the gun toward the older man. The motion made the cat lurch and hiss, its ears flattened, and Gabriel eyed the sharp claws bearing down on him, but he felt the weapon being yanked away. The cat's paw shot out toward the Doctor and Gabriel grabbed wildly to deflect it, his arms shaking something fierce, about to buckle.

Next moment there was a flash and the feline went limp, collapsing on him. Gabriel coughed at the sudden weight, though luckily that last-minute reach for the Doctor had shift its weight so it was ... sort of ... to the side.

That didn't mean he could breathe. "Tell me--that's all," he croaked. He couldn't see past the cat's bulk and his legs were going numb already. And his arms? Forget his arms. They could just go lie in the sand somewhere. He'd never known the meaning of the word 'exhaustion' before this moment.