Fate of the Heart

u Summary: /u Set after The Usual Suspects in Supernatural, and There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb in Angel. I do really sharty summaries, so just check it out, ok? It's Dean/OC, and it shows him in a different light. One of our new characters may seem a bit familiar to you… Read the story and find out…

"No, please God no, let me stay, please! I promise I'll be good, I'll do whatever you want, just please don't make me go!"

"I'm sorry Selena, but it must be. You will be reunited with him soon, I promise."

She seemed such a sweet picture of innocence and divinity. She told Selena that she had a great destiny to fulfill. Oh, but she was excited. Ecstatic even! But then she realized that to follow through with her destiny, she would be taken from the arms of the only man who had ever loved her.

It had taken her three years to finally get up the courage to ask him out, and even then she had been shaking so much that she had torn a book in half by accident. They had been together for six years, and those years had been bliss for the girl who had never been noticed before. Then, a supposed angel came to her in the middle of the night and told her that she had to go fulfill her destiny.

She refused outright to leave, and even then she had been almost physically forced to leave. She had pleaded, begged, sobbed, asking the angel to let her stay, to let her be happy. She wanted to help people, but she never wanted to leave her only love to do so. He had clung to her, begging the angel not to take her, to take him instead, to let them be. But the angel would not hear of it.

Before she knew what was happening, Selena felt herself violently ripped from the arms of her beloved John, and sent hurtling into a bright white light.

Sam and Dean were dreaming, tossing fitfully in their hotel room beds, unknowing of each other, and uncaring. Their dreams were one and the same, however, the same images flashing through their heads, the same screams, the same voice of pain, in perfect synchronization.

i The woman was slender, and black hair fell down in front of her face in beautiful curls. Her body was covered in a coppery skirt and a small shirt that covered her breasts in beautifully sculpted copper and gold. She was crouched on a dark wood floor, blood pooling around her. She was shaking, and muttering to herself, a knife in one of her hands. The knife was slick with blood, the thick liquid coating every inch of it.

She was sobbing now, and she moved to slash at something with her knife. Then the two brothers saw that her face was covered in a gold mask in the style of an Egyptian mummy. She sobbed more violently, and cried out as a black clad arm reached out and grabbed her. From behind the woman came a man with a pointed pale face, and piercing yellow eyes.

He smirked at the Winchesters, and said, "She's a pretty one. Powerful too. I'll enjoy hearing her scream while I rip her heart out. Are you ready to watch her die, Deanie? Do you think you could bear it?" He laughed loudly and cruelly as the woman screamed.

Almost immediately, the brothers found themselves in a small white painted room. The girl was there, facing them as she muttered to herself. Behind her, the wall was being written on by an invisible hand, and the ink was blood. The message read, "Angel Investigations, The Hyperion Hotel, Los Angeles."

She leapt forward, and the boys were pinned against the wall. He mask flashed off for only a moment, but long enough for the brothers to see large violet eyes, and dark red lips. She leaned up to them and whispered in their ears only two words, but those words struck them like a bolt of lightning.

"Help me." Then she was gone. /i

Dean and Sam Winchester bolted awake at the same time, gasping for air and shaking with a terrible and unnatural chill that gripped them. They stared at each other for a few moments, trying to catch their breath.

"We're going to Los Angeles." They said, and gaped.

"Why the hell do you wanna go to Los Angeles?" Dean demanded. Now was the time for the defenses to be up, because he could not afford for Sammy to find out who that girl was. The subject was just too painful to bear.

"I was about to ask you the same question, Deanie." Dean winced at the nickname.

"Well, I just had this…um, sudden urge to… uh, see the big city?" Dean attempted lamely.

Sam frowned at him. "Nice try big brother. You had the dream about the girl with the Egyptian mask didn't you?"

"Yes. NO! ... Maybe?" Dean stammered, and winced as Sam groaned in frustration. "Okay, yeah, I had the dream! So what? It's not like it means anything."

Sam sighed heavily. He knew that once his brother had decided to hide something, he would keep it hidden as long as he saw fit. It was in his nature to do so. If he wanted to tell Sam about it, he would. But right now, he didn't feel like sharing.

The brothers rubbed sleep out of their eyes as they got ready to leave, packing their small bags, and having quick, cold showers in order to wake their tired bodies. Soon the Impala was loaded with their luggage and they were checked out of the rundown motel they had been forced to stay in.

Once they were a good ten miles away from the motel, Dean settled himself into a safe secure shell to think. The dream had brought up frightening memories, forcing him to relive the most painful moments of his life. He remembered the girl, but for his own good, and for the welfare of his brother he never spoke of her.

She was a beautiful woman, smart, funny, and shy as hell. It had been a Saturday night in L.A. when he met her. She was wearing a wine colored dress and was dancing with no one in particular in the dead end bar of nowhere. What song was playing again? It didn't really matter, but it was always nice to hear… She was so gorgeous, her body was swaying to the beat of the song, her thin frame strongly built, and her body that of an exotic dancer.

He was planning on getting drunk and playing a few rounds of pool that night with his dad. They were in L.A. working a poltergeist case when it happened. She was just so enchanting, and this was way before his stage of one-night stands. And she was just so elegant, yet strong, and she drew him to her like no one he had ever met.

She had thick, black, and curled hair that fell down to the middle of her back. Her eyes were large and violet and they sucked him in and never let him out. Her lips were full and red, her skin a light chocolate color.

She had come up to the bar, and tossed her hair over her shoulder. Dean gathered up his courage and walked over to her. For someone who fought demons on a regular basis, you'd have expected him to be able to talk to a girl. But it was not one of Dean's strong suits at the time, and so he was nervous when he offered to buy her a drink. She accepted his offer politely, giving him a small smile of thanks.

"I wasn't going to be able to get anything in any case. I spent my last bit of cash on getting here." She said, and her voice sounded beautiful, but ill fitting, as if she had traded with someone for the night. He smiled at her, and she laughed.

They had talked for a long time about this and that, mostly about martial arts, and boxing. She was a black belt, and a pro boxer. She would've been able to enter into competitions if she had wanted to, but felt no desire to follow a path that all her trainers wanted her to pursue.

"I just don't want to box. I mean, I'm really good at it, but it's just not something I want to do. I know, not a very helpful few sentences there, and I know it was repetitious, but it's true. I know what I want to do with my life, and I'm gonna do it."

Dean leaned his head into one hand, watching her with fascination. "Well, if you don't want to box, and you don't want to be one of those scholarly types, then what do you want to do?"

The girl chewed her lip for a minute, thinking how best to answer. "I want to help people. I know, kill me now, here comes the soap opera kind of crap, but it's true. I want to help people, because I know I can. I'm strong, I'm smart, and damn pretty—" Dean chuckled and winked at her."—and I also have special talents that make me pretty damn good for the job."

Dean stretched his back and asked, "What kind of special talents? X-ray vision? God, you're not Superwoman, are you?" They laughed, and Dean took a sip of his beer.

She gave him a sly smile and said in a conspiratorial way, "That's for me to know and you to discover, isn't it?"

"Hey, I never really introduced myself did I? I'm Dean Winchester." He said, remembering his manners.

"Well, I'm glad we got that out of the way," she winked at him slyly, "Well, since you introduced yourself so nicely, I guess I'll have to too. I'm—"

"Dean!"

Dean jumped at the sound of his brother's yells, and realized that he'd almost run them into a road sign proclaiming "Los Angeles Next Exit." He quickly sped up and got off onto the ramp.

"Sorry. I must've dosed off for a second there…"

Sam sighed in exasperation and turned to his older sibling. "Dean, what the hell is going on with you?"

Dean looked sharply at him, and turned his eyes back to the road. "What're you talking about?" Dean asked angrily, "I'm fine."

"Dean, you've been distracted and distant ever since we had that dream and you won't say who this girl is, even though I know you know her. So Dean, tell me. Who is she, and what has she got to do with you?"

Dean glared pointedly ahead, and sighed heavily. He pulled over, moving the Impala sharply to the left of the road, causing other drivers to honk and curse at him. He paid them no attention however, and turned off the car, then turned to his brother.

"I've been keeping quite a few secrets from you, it's true. But I made a promise to myself that I would never speak about her again. It's just hurts too much to remember, but I guess now I really have no choice, do I?" He laughed hollowly, and there was no mirth in his voice. Sam was listening closely, knowing that his brother wouldn't ever repeat what he was about to say.

Dean sighed again, took a deep breath and began, "We met in L.A. Kind of a coincidence, really that we're going there now, of all places, but I know that we have to be there. We were really close from the moment we met, and so we called each other a lot, even if we had nothing to talk about. That's kind of one of the reasons why I got a cell phone in the first place.

"She's the most beautiful and kind woman I've ever met. She was a pro boxer, and a dancer. You could tell by the way she moved, as if she could never stop dancing…" Dean shook himself out of his memories and continued, "Dad and I were getting EMF readings off the chart in LA, no matter where we went, so he suspected a powerful psychic was messing with our EMF readers. He wanted to find the psychic and kill them, and I was all for it, so we went on the hunt."

Dean paused, gathering himself to tell Sam the worst part of his story. "We were walking around the neighborhood where she lived, 'cause we wanted to maybe get some coffee with her later that night, and we were gonna go meet her at around ten. So, we figured we might as well check out there, just to be sure. When we got up to her house, the EMF reader melted in dad's hand, so I got scared and ran inside."

Tears welled up in his eyes and Dean's voice sounded choked as he spoke next. "We went inside, and I heard screaming from the bedroom, so I ran in." He sobbed slightly, covering his face with his hands. Sam was worried about seeing his brother so choked up, and wished he could comfort his big brother somehow. Dean wiped his eyes and said, with much difficulty, "The demon was there. He h-had tortured her, almost to i-insanity, and was g-gonna k-kill her w-w-when I got there. I g-got there just in t-time to s-save her l-life. The demon said he wasn't done with her y-yet, and that he'd c-come b-back for her later."

"Oh god…" was all Sam could say. What could he say? What Dean had endured was far worse than what Sam had, and that was all there was too it.

Dean was clearly holding on by a thread as he said, "Dad and I stayed with her for a week, but he didn't show, so we decided to take her with us. That's when we found out that her family had been killed by the demon. She was the psychic that destroyed our EMF reader, and who blocked our signals. She didn't know she was doing it though, and so she decided to go with us to see if she could find someone to help her control it. She wouldn't have suffered so much if she had just stayed home, if we hadn't taken her with us. It's all my fault."

"No, Dean, don't say that…" Sam whispered, feeling the pain and guilt rolling off his brother's skin like waves of heat. He wished his brother hadn't had so much pain in his heart, but there wasn't much he could do, except be there for him.

"It was my fault, Sam!" Dean was shouting now, tears streaming down his face, burning his cheeks. "I shouldn't have left her alone! If I hadn't left, she'd never have disappeared. She'd be here right now, telling me what and idiot I am, but I left, and she's gone…"

Cordelia Chase was organizing files in the Hyperion Hotel Lobby, humming a happy tune to herself softly. All was good and right with the world as she knew it. She hadn't had any painful visions for a while now, Angel was working for them, and everyone was friends again. Good times…

Suddenly, a terrible pain in the head threatened to tear open her skull, and she collapsed on the ground, a hand at her forehead. Cordelia fell to the ground with a great thump, her hands pressing against her head, trying to force the pain out. Somehow she knew that she was not being sent this vision by the PTB, but by a different, equally powerful source.

i A woman, golden mask flashing in the fluorescent lights of Lorne's karaoke bar, her body smeared with blood. Two young men in a car at the side of the ramp going into LA, one of them shaking with sobs, the other looking at the crying man with concern and brotherly love. The woman yet again, this time reaching out to Cordelia, telling her of her pain, of the need for her to see these young men, of Cordelia's mission being to help them, to protect them. Three names stood out amongst all the chaos… "Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Merrick Munroe." /i

"Oh god, painful vision… OK, names, names, gotta copy down the names…" Cordy got to her feet shakily and groped around on the desk for a piece of paper and a pen. She soon had the names copied down and put on the priorities list, and then sat back in one of the couches of the Hyperion to rest.

The sound of clomping feet soon greeted her, and Gunn, Angel and Wesley soon came into her line of vision, bloody and with goo-covered axes, apparently from the demon they had just slaughtered. When they saw her collapsed on the couch, her three friends ran forward and began asking after her health, and the nature of her vision. She told them of the bloodied woman, the men in the car, sobbing, and of the urgency expressed in the vision.

"The strange thing is, I don't think that the vision was from the Powers That Be." She said, as Gunn handed her a glass of water. "Thanks. I'm pretty sure that that girl sent it to me."

Angel stared at her for a moment, then said, "That's impossible, Cordy. She'd have to be an amazingly powerful psychic to send that kind of vision to you. As far as I know, no psychics that strong have existed for many millennia."

"Angel, honey, listen for a second. I know it's hard for you to comprehend, but I am the one who gets the visions around here, so until I see you get a vision, I'm gonna have to say that we trust my instincts on this one, ok?" She instantly regretted her words as she saw Angel sink into broody face. "I'm sorry, that vision was just more powerful than any I've had so far, so I'm kinda on edge right now."

Angel nodded his acceptance and was about to reply when the four of them heard a car pull up, and two people walking up to the building.

"I'm telling you Sammy, we got the wrong address!"

"And I'm telling you, we have the right one. Can't you take my word on it?"

"Do I really have to answer that question, little brother?"

"Gah, why do I still travel with you?"

"Because I am an awesome big brother, that's why."

The doors of the Hyperion swung open, and admitted two tall and strikingly handsome men. The first was tall with chocolaty brown hair that grew down over his ears, with a strong jaw, and kind, soulful brown eyes. The second man was shorter than the other, with well defined muscles and sandy blond hair and deep hazel eyes. They were clearly brothers by the way they were constantly bickering.

"Can I help you?" Wesley asked just as the brothers were going to start the old married couple routine again.

"Hey! Those are the guys from my vision!" Cordy cried, and Sam and Dean took a step back, staring at her open mouthed.

Gunn slapped himself in the forehead, Angel shook his head and sighed, and Wesley gave Cordelia a withering look. "What?" Cordy asked and her three friends gave an exasperated sigh.

Dean and Sam now walked carefully towards her, as one would a dangerously wild animal. "What vision? How do you know about us?" Sam demanded, curiosity filling his wary eyes.

"Well," Cordelia began, not knowing when to shut her mouth, "I was filing some bills and stuff when I got this vision of a girl in an Egyptian mask covered in blood, and she, at least I think it was her, showed me a vision of you two in a car on the freeway, and then I saw her in a demon karaoke bar, where Angel goes a lot to get readings, but he sings really badly, and it gives me nightmare to listen, but I do anyway because it's important, no offense Angel, 'cause I know you don't like to sing and all, and I'm just gonna shut up now, ok?"

The Winchesters stared at her for a few moments before Sam spoke up. "I'm sorry, but you lost me a demon karaoke bar."

Dean, however, once the mention of the woman he was in love with sunk in, rushed towards Cordelia and grabbed her hands in his. Kneeling down on the ground next to the couch she was sitting on, he asked quickly and urgently, "You saw Merrick? Is she ok? Where is this bar? Can you take me there, please? I need to see her."

"OK, slow down," Angel came to the overwhelmed Cordelia's rescue, "Look, Cordelia just had a really bad vision, and I think it's better for all of us if you just let Gunn, Wesley and me take you there. I'm sure Merrick is going to be ok, but you need to relax and tell us who she is."

Dean looked up at him, his eyes shining with unshed tears. He turned in indecision to his brother, who gave him a nod to say that he trusted these people. Dean swallowed, knowing that his next answer was something that even Sam didn't know. The answer felt unused and old on his tongue, and he stumbled over it for a second. He was careful of how he spoke, knowing he would collapse into sobs if he didn't speak in exactly the right way.

He took a deep breath and said loudly and clearly, "Merrick Munroe is my wife."

b Author's Note: /b OK, so this is my first fanfiction on this website, and I'd really like to know what you think. I'm going to be putting this under the category of Supernatural for now, but I don't doubt that it will be in other categories as well. So, please, R&R on this one, because I need to know if I'm a total whack job, or whether I can keep writing. These chapters will take me a while to write, so bear with me for now. I'll update as soon as I can.

Happy Hunting, Wish me Monsters.

Scarlet Rose de Lioncourt