Well, no one would have actually touched him. No one would have dared open the door, for one thing, though if they'd actually decided to go with the torture option (as Bobby and Dean and others have, doubtless, for some other creatures in the past) they could have daubed up some of the other bars and grilles and dropped them in place to pin him into a smaller area.
Which Gabriel would have known. All Bobby ever did was talk to (at) him from outside the cage, but Gabriel would have been constantly aware of the possibility of more - especially once people started getting nasty and he could hear it from inside.
So, yes, three weeks of hating the space he's trapped in and clinging to it as a flimsy refuge that's liable to be violated any time, of not being touched and missing and dreading it because of what touch would mean now, because even if it isn't torture it's control and compulsion and a trap.
No one actually laid a hand on him during that time - the only skin-on-skin contact he had with anyone was him reaching out to Sam through the bars (and of course punching Dean) - but he was imagining it vividly enough to have a lasting effect.
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Date: 2012-10-21 10:10 pm (UTC)Which Gabriel would have known. All Bobby ever did was talk to (at) him from outside the cage, but Gabriel would have been constantly aware of the possibility of more - especially once people started getting nasty and he could hear it from inside.
So, yes, three weeks of hating the space he's trapped in and clinging to it as a flimsy refuge that's liable to be violated any time, of not being touched and missing and dreading it because of what touch would mean now, because even if it isn't torture it's control and compulsion and a trap.
No one actually laid a hand on him during that time - the only skin-on-skin contact he had with anyone was him reaching out to Sam through the bars (and of course punching Dean) - but he was imagining it vividly enough to have a lasting effect.