There wasn't much joy in their lives. They did their best with practical jokes and inappropriate innuendo, but in the end, a lot of the smiles were forced, and the laughs were wooden. Their eyes could never hide the weariness they felt, or the weight of the burdens they carried. Every cliched metaphor used to describe a difficult life applied directly to them - except that they actually had to live each second out.
Faith had gone off the deep end once. It had been dark and painful, and it had brought her to the edge of a darkness that no one ever came back from. And it had taken a creature born of that darkness to pull her back, to save her just as she was about to leap off.
She couldn't help but want to pay it forward sometimes, even if she could never put that into words.
Dean was like her. Five-by-five, brushing things off like that leather jacket of his was actually bulletproof. He had seen worse than she could even imagine, and the fact that he was still fighting - still fighting and making a difference, instead of just warring with himself - meant that he could still be saved.
He was nursing a beer when she came back into the hotel room, and he watched her wearily.
"Where the hell have you been?"
She smirked at him over her shoulder as she crouched down in front of the VCR. "Since when are you my keeper, Short Round?"
Dean frowned. "Short?"
Faith shrugged, grabbing the remote and walking over to him. Leaning over, she patted his stomach playfully. "Well, round anyway."
She sat down next to her, and he just kept frowning at her. "Don't you have an elsewhere to be?"
"Oh, you mean my room?"
"Exactly."
"Yeah. Your brother and B are doin' the horizontal mambo."
Dean's eyes widened. "What?"
She grinned. "Gotcha." Dean opened his mouth to respond, but Faith just pointed at the TV. "Shut up, Winchester. Show's about to start."
Despite is annoyance, he turned his attention to the screen anyway. And as soon as he saw Charlie Brown, a chuckle rippled through him. His frustration melted away and he relaxed, suddenly glad that Faith had barged in.
She watched him out of the corner of her eye and grinned. Maybe there was some joy left after all.
