"Gosh…how in the hell did you get so lucky?" I hear my co-worker say. I look up from my patient's chart to Alice, a slightly overweight but still gorgeous red-headed nurse standing next to me at the nurses' station. I follow the dreamy gaze she had on her face to the front doors of the ER we worked at to the handsome man standing in there.
A smile slips onto my face as I watch Dean's gaze finally land on me. A smirk grows on his face as he starts to walk over to me. "I don't know if I'd call it luck," I tell Alice as Dean nears me. My gaze drops from his face to the white bag in his hand. "I just got him trained well."
"Yeah, trained by fear," Dean adds as he nears us. I eye the bag hungrily as he sits it down in front of me, missing Alice visibly swooning as he reached in front of her to give me the bag. "You do not want to see her when she's hungry."
"Mm-hmm," I nod in agreement. "It's almost as scary as when Dean misses his 'show'."
"Yeah, keep talkin like that and see how often I bring you lunch," he says, narrowing his eyes at me a fraction. I roll my eyes at him as I walk around Alice to be nearer to him.
"Yet again, he knows me too well," I say, placing a hand on my hip. He gives me another smirk before starting to reach out towards me. Instinctively, I take a small step back while holding my hands up, keeping him from coming any closer to me. "Nuh-uh, honey," I say with a smile. "No touchey. Who knows what kind of germs I got on me!"
"Mmmm," he says. He halfway looks at Alice and rolls his eyes. I have to suppress a laugh at the way Alice's breathing speeds up when he looks at her. "The joys of dating a nurse, huh? Can't even touch her half the time."
A small giggle leaves my lips as I take a step closer to him. Craning my neck, I reach up a plant a chaste kiss on his lips, careful not to let any other parts of our bodies touch. "Thank you for lunch," I say, my voice dropping in volume slightly.
"Anything for you," he says, a tight smile on his face. "You get off at seven?" I nod my head at him, a piece of hair falling into my face. "Alright, I'll pick you up then."
I shut my eyes in voluntarily as Dean leans forward again and plants a kiss on my cheek. When I open my eyes again I watch Dean walk away from us and out the front door, throwing back one last smile my way.
I hear Alice let out another sigh. "How in the hell did you get so lucky?" she repeats.
To any outside observers, me and Dean were a perfectly happy couple. Heck, most days I could fool myself into thinking the same thing too. It was the other days that reminded me of what had happened, and that it was still haunting us. When we first arrived at my Granny's cabin, where we mutually decided we would reside, Dean spent the first two weeks in a drunken stupor. I let him ride it out, checking on him to make sure he hadn't drunk himself to death. Finally, I poured all the alcohol down the drain. He stared at me as the last drop circled the drain, emotions playing across his face. The next day, he came home in the evening, sober, stating he had gotten a job at a garage in town.
After that, our lives settled into somewhat of a normal routine. We would both ride into town together to work, me to the small hospital and him to the auto garage. Once our days were over, we'd head home where Dean or I would cook dinner. We even made friends with some people we each worked with, going on outings with them. On the outside looking in, you'd never be able to tell we were both former hunters. At night though, as we were going to bed, I pretended I couldn't see Dean checking the devil's traps by the doors or holy water and gun he kept under the bed.
Life was…normal, just like Sam wanted for Dean. We never talked about Sam or hunting, or anything that had happened since we had met. Bobby was only mentioned every now and then. Post-Sam Dean, as I referred to him in my mind, was someone I had envisioned myself meeting and marrying someday: a perfect gentlemen, stable job, made me feel safe, a normal guy. But, Post-Sam Dean wasn't the man I had fallen in love with. I figured I could learn to live with him though, adjust my former expectations. That was until one night about a year after Sam had left.
"Something is off with you," I say, staring across the truck at Dean. He had just picked me up from the hospital and I could tell by his flushed skin that something was up. "You look like…"
"I look like what?" Dean says, giving me a too-calm glance. "I just had a drink with Rick at the bar."
"That's it?" I prod. He looked like he had just run for his life…or like he had just hunted something.
"Yeah," he says, giving me a grin. "Well, maybe it was two drinks."
"Need me to drive?" I say, returning his grin. He shakes his head at me as we roll out of town.
Later that night, I stand in the doorway of our bedroom, watching Dean double and triple checking the devil's traps under some rugs by the doors. When he turns around, he freezes when he sees me watching him. "I- um, yeah, um," he tries to stammer out.
I shake my head at him. "You don't have to explain yourself Dean," I say quietly. "Just come on to bed." He lets out a sigh as he walks over towards me, grabbing me around the waist as we walked into the room together.
"Dean?" I yell into the house as I walk in. I'm met with silence as dread starts to creep through my veins. I call his name out again and am once again met with silence. I walk back out of the house, the dirt still settling along our drive from where one of my coworkers had brought me home after Dean never showed up. I start off towards the shed that stood on the property, wondering if maybe Dean was in there. Walking into it, I see the tarp thrown off the Impala. "Crap, crap, crap," I mutter to myself, seeing the trunk open, weapons spread out in it. Sprinting back to the house, I pull out my phone, calling Dean over and over again.
After being sent straight to voicemail for the fifteenth time, I pull up a different number, one I hadn't called in over a year. "Rhiannon?" the gruff voice on the other end says.
"Bobby," I say, glad to hear his voice again. "I've got a problem."
"Well ain't that a way to greet me after not talking to me for a year," he grunts back.
"Bobby I'm serious," I say. I reach down under the bed, finding the gun missing. I walk over to the closet to start searching for my own. "It's Dean. He isn't home, his weapons are strewn all over the Impala, and he isn't answering his phone. This isn't like him."
Bobby lets out a sigh before responding. "Has he been acting different lately? Ever done anything like this before?"
"No, not at all," I say quickly, finally having found my gun. I check the clip, still fully loaded.
"Okay," Bobby says. "First off, don't panic, alright? Get in one room, salt yourself in. You got a gun?" I tell him I do as I walk from the room to the kitchen. "Good, load it up and stay put. I'll make some calls and see if he's contacted anyone."
"Okay, sounds good," I say. "Thanks Bobby." I hang up the phone, tossing it on the bed.
I sit in the bedroom for hours, making sure the salt lines are solid, calling Dean, checking my gun. After it becomes dark, I hear noise from the other side of the door. "Rhi?" I hear the voice I had been waiting to hear call out.
"Dean?" I yell back. Walking up to the door, I click the safety off my gun, holding it up. I steady it as the door slowly opens, revealing Dean.
"What the hell Rhi?" he says, holding his hands up at the sight of the gun. He glances around the room, taking in the salt lines beneath him and along the windows. "What's up with the salt and the gun?"
"What do you think?" I half-squeal at him. "You don't show up to pick me up, I come home and you're nowhere to be seen. Weapons are everywhere all over your car and you wouldn't answer your phone! What did you expect me to do!?"
"Okay, okay," he says, stepping towards me. "Look at me, I'm fine. Just put the gun down." I obey him, dropping the gun down by my side. "Okay, good, now. I have something to show you, but it's going to be a little bit of a shock."
"What do you mean…a shock?" I say, arching an eyebrow at him.
"I mean…" he says, trying to form the right phrase. "Well let's start with me taking that gun."
"Why do you want my gun?" I say, gripping it tighter.
"You're just going to have to trust me," he says, looking at me with a serious stare.
I pause a few seconds, staring at him. Finally, with a sigh, I hand him my gun. "You're lucky I trust you," I say. He only gives me a little smirk before the stony expression settles on his face again. Extending a hand towards the door, he steps to the side motioning for me to head towards the door. I give him a worried glance as I slowly step to the door. My stomach flips and flops, coming up with a thousand different scenarios as to what was waiting in the living room. I feel Dean's presence close behind me as I step through the doorway. A gasp escapes my lips as I spot the familiar tall hunter standing in front of me. "What the hell?" I exclaim. Out of pure instinct, I reach to the back of my waistband and pull out the sliver knife I had stashed there, holding it towards Sam, who was standing behind the couch smiling at me.
"Woah, whoa, whoa," Dean says. He grabs my wrist holding the knife while also grabbing me around the waist, stopping my advance towards Sam. "Calm down Rhi."
"That can't be him," I yell, fighting the iron clad hold Dean has on me. His grip tightens on my wrist until my reflexes betray me, causing me to drop the knife. "He's demon or a shape shifter!"
"It's him Rhi," Dean says in my ear. "Rhi, I promise you it's him."
"It really is," Sam finally says, the smile gone from his face.
At the sound of his voice, I stop fighting against Dean. "Really," I ask. Sam looks at me, giving me his signature puppy dog eyes while nodding his head. I feel Dean release me, figuring I won't attack.
"I already tested him," Dean says. "Silver, holy water…he's him."
I stare Sam down as he looks back at me cautiously, not sure what I'm going to do. I take a couple steps towards him. "But…" I say, staring at Sam, like he was some sort of interesting science experiment. "How…" I was truly at a loss for words. It was hard to believe that Sam was standing right in front of me…but there he was. I look from him back to Dean. "I need some sort of explanation…right now."
Dean lets out a sigh as he looks from Sam back to me. I tried searching his face for something…any type of clue as to what was going, but his face was blank. "Last night- before I picked you up from work- I thought I saw something. And then again earlier today. Then, Sam showed up and saved my ass."
"It's a djinn," Sam says. I turn back around to look at him. He looks at me, his stare unwavering. "I've been tracking it down. It's been after Dean for a few days."
"A few days?" I say, my eyes shooting open wide. "You've been back for a few days?"
The silence hangs in the room as the two brothers look at each other with wary glances. I whip my head back and forth, looking at them. Dean takes a couple steps towards me and grabs onto my forearm, keeping a tight grip. "Rhiannon," Sam says with a sigh. "I've been back for a year."
By the way Dean was holding my arm, I guess he expected my first reaction to be rage. But instead, betrayal hit me. My knees wavered a bit and I fell back towards Dean, who placed a hand on my lower back to hold me up. "What?" I let out in a whisper. My mind was blank; I had no clue how to react. The silence was filling the room and honestly…I just couldn't take what was going on anymore. I hadn't noticed Dean's grip on my arm had loosened until I tried to walk away, his hand falling away easily. I stormed out of the house into the dark night, no clue where I was going. I turned to the right, heading towards the shed, still not sure why I was heading that way. Inside, the back end of the familiar black car was still exposed. Walking up to it, I run my hand over the smooth metal of it, trying to control the heaving breathing that was coming on. "Rhi?" I hear Dean's voice say behind me. I should've known he was going to follow me. I turn around to face him, seeing him flinch a little bit, probably because of the manic look that was creeping up on my face. "You okay?"
"Okay?" I snap back in disbelief. Sam walks up behind Dean, looking at me with a cautious expression also. It had escaped my noticed until that precise moment that I never really got the chance to "deal" with Sam's jumping in the pit or the fact that I had died. From the moment the hole closed up, I was only worried about Dean, after that it was the same story…keeping Dean from going off the deep end. But now, at possible the worst moment, I was able to let it out. "Am I okay?" I repeat. "Am I okay?" I full on yell it that time, the hysteria finally rearing its ugly head. "No Dean, I am not friggin okay! Your brother, one of my very best friends, jumped into a cage containing two archangels just moments after I came back from the friggin dead because the angel that was possessing me sacrificed herself to save you! Am I okay?" At this point I didn't realize I had been walking towards them, but now I was inches away from Dean, spewing my hysteria all over him. "How in the hell am I supposed to be okay! Sam is alive and has been for over a year? What kind of bull is that?"
"Rhiannon, I understand that-" Sam starts to talk before I cut him off.
"You don't get to speak!" I say, pointing a finger at him while more force than necessary. I turn my attention back to Dean who was still staring at, a shocked look on his face. "So what Dean?" I say to him, the hysteria finally subsiding. "This life is done? We're back in it?"
He lets out a sigh, closing his eyes. When he opens them, a glimmer of the old Dean resurfaces. "I don't know, but right now we need to get going."
I let out a sigh, suddenly feeling utterly spent. "Where?"
