Disclaimer In Re - Supernatural: I don't claim to own any of the characters from Supernatural. I am not gaining a profit from this fan fiction, or any other benefit other than seeing the characters I love manipulated in a way that is currently satisfying to my mental and emotional fangirl needs.

Disclaimer In Re - Stay With Me Lyrics: I have bolded the lyrics from the song by Stay With Me as sang by Sam Smith. I have manipulated them into the fan fiction below. I am not gaining a profit form the use of these lyrics in this fan fiction, or any other benefit other than associating my story below with the song when heard on the radio.

Author's Note: This story's central concept is based Destiel, however the story itself is a bit of a prequel to Deannmarie (Dean x Ann Marie, to be introduced in Season 10). Please read and keep an open mind. R&R if you have the time :)

"I guess it's true." She mumbled from behind me. I've been bar hopping across Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and now through Ohio. I couldn't really say where I was anymore. Even though I'm a monster now I can still get drunk, and I don't bother to sober up before I hit the road. I know it's bad and Bobby is somewhere damning me for it – but I always know that's not what he's most ashamed about when it comes to my life choices.

"What's true?" I dare to ask even though I've already got my seventh bottleneck opened and ready for consumption. The beautiful blond behind me wrapped the sheet form the motel bed around her and joined me at the end of the bed. Her arms crossed over her chest confirmed that she was disappointed and little bit irritated. I was hardly surprised.

"What the girls said at the bar. They said I'd regret coming back with you." She explained, not even having tried to hide the fact that was upset with the night's results. I laughed into the bottle as I chugged it. I knew what she meant.

I took in a deep breath and sat my bottle down, "I'm not good at a one-night stand? Is that what they've been saying?" I shouldn't have asked because I knew I'd get an honest answer. She proved me right by nodding and sighing simultaneously. I brushed it off and laid it out for her, "But I still need love."

"I don't think that word means what you think it means, Dean Winchester." It had been too long since I'd actually talked to anyone about anything other that getting a quickie squeezed in before he had to check out, or luring yet another lustful girl into his bed. Somehow I just let words fall out of my mouth.

"No, I suppose not. But it's true 'cause I'm just a man. I need intimacy just like you and every other girl that I've met this week." It was a dick move to admit that I'd been seeing plenty of other women. I felt it when she elbowed me angrily but I barely registered it beyond the swaying of my body at the time. Afterwards we both nervously laughed to fill the silence.

After I coughed for a minute I turned to her and shook my head, "These nights never seem to go to plan."

I did not even remember her name. I don't remember the bar I picked her up in. I have no recollection of how I met her or how I managed to get her back in the room. But, through my bleary eyes she was the most wonderful sight he remembered seeing in a long time. She stood up but I reached out towards her, "I don't want you to leave…"

Her eyes ran me over with shock and conflict. Her thumb eventually rubbed over my skin in affirmation, exactly what I'd longed for from her. "Will you hold my hand?"

We crawled back onto the center of the bed. She was still completely naked and I'd not even made it out of my boxers. Lately I was lucky to get my shirt off, let alone my shoes and pants. She put her arm around me and eventually rested her head on my shoulder. Oh, I didn't even know what to do anymore.

"Won't you stay with me?" I pleaded.

"What do you mean?" She questioned in returned.

"Stay here for the night. Do you mind?" I couldn't stop it from being said, the words fell from my lips like the tears falling from my eyes.

"Why?" She asked in a breathy tone as if she needed to convince herself, even though we both knew I had to give the reason.

"Because you're all I need. I just need someone to talk to… about… Cas…" I hadn't spoken the name in months. So many months that after I said his name I questioned if it hadn't been over a year now since…

She sighed again, but in a different way. It was an awestruck sort of sound that I'd usually hear form girls when I passed them in public. I don't illicit that noise from women anymore, not unless I approach them after a few drinks with a skimpy pick-up line that maintained enough charm to fool them into believing I was genuine. "I hope someday I'm loved the way you loved her."

Her conclusion stabbed me in the chest. This is what Sam had said right before I ran away. His exact words rattled around in his head…

"Goddamn it, Dean! He still bent over backwards for you after you changed!"

"He didn't care. He didn't care enough. Cas didn't care about me!"

"Are you deaf, dumb, and blind? Cas loved you. You never wanted to see it."

I punched the nearest table and put my hand through it. After I grabbed a gun.

"If he loved me then why is he gone?" I shot the ground. Twice.

Sam stepped in and took it away from me. I crumpled into a ball and screamed a lot for a long time. I cried too. There was nothing I could do to stop it. I just kept throwing a fit like it was going to change the reality I lived in… it was probably the least destructive thing I'd ever done.

"Dean, I know it hurts. You two were great together, you belonged together."

I shook my head, and then I immediately nodded. Then I started punching Sam's back lightly in an attempt to not lose any composure I thought I had at the time.

"I hope someday I'm loved like that, Dean. You loved him the way you're supposed to love someone. With everything you have. But he had to go, that's what we fight for – for people to die properly."

I ran away an hour later.

She waited for me to speak first after that. Her brain probably had been creating these scenarios where she met a man who would fall apart without her and needed her to be with him always. That's what all women wanted. It's what all men wanted to, even if they never admitted it. All anyone ever wants to be loved and know they could rely on someone beside themselves. I put my trust in Sam for years even when I shouldn't have. I put my trust in Cas even when I knew I shouldn't have. It always failed me.

And as those thoughts lingered I turned my head and kissed the beautiful woman behind her ear, lingering and breathing onto her before I spoke.

"This ain't love. It's clear to see. But…" I couldn't stop myself from sobbing again.

"Darling..." Her voice was soft and nurturing. It was exactly what he needed.

"Just, please, stay with me." My fragile state must have convinced her because she stayed. But only if I agreed to tell her what happened to Cas. I started off by correcting her assumption: Cas was a man that he loved more than he loved himself. I then corrected her by stating that I never got to enjoy a relationship with him because I always denied my feelings.

I had to leave a lot of the supernatural stuff out. I substituted it for other romantic and dramatic crap that women seem to love so much. She ate it up and cried with me at times, but at the end of it all she was laying next to me, hand still intertwined with mine. She listened and she was compassionate towards me. When I turned to look at her she lifted a sheet to my face and wiped it off. I pushed it away and finally separated myself. I walked to the sink in the kitchenette and turned the faucet on with cold water.

The woman grabbed my shirt and pulled it over her head, chuckling while she did it having clearly found something comical about the evening. She propped herself next to me on the counter. I glanced at her and grinned widely even though it hurt.

"Why am I so emotional? I am such an ugly crier." I admitted. She nudged me and reached behind her for a glass. She held it under the water and looked me in the eyes with a lighthearted pleasantry in her expression.

"No. It's not a good look. You should gain some self-control. If you feel too much your menstruation might spread like the plague." As soon as she said it we both tucked our chins in aware that she had been joking with me. My eyes jumped back up to hers and even though she was not Castiel, the man that had changed me so much, she was certainly very understanding. I just wanted her.

"What are you and I thinking? Deep down I know stuff like this never works. Oh, what a mess am I getting into?" I groaned in frustration before I returned to the bed with another beer. She grabbed one too and followed in my footsteps. Her lean frame stood bare with a sheet hanging over her arm and a hand on her him. Her head shook and my eyes remained glued to her face.

"But…" She said with a cocked eyebrow.

We both knew what I was going to say, though. If every woman in the world couldn't have guessed what I had been thinking then I would have been surprised, wholly and legitimately surprised.

"Buuuut, you can lay with me so it doesn't hurt for the night." I found myself admitting something to her aloud again, but she had that air about her that made me do it. I just felt comfortable and open with her. She grinned and walked around the side of the bed and pulled the blanket straighter and dropped the sheet in my lap.

"Oh, Dean Winchester… do you think you can ask me just one more time?" She teased politely. I don't know why I complied, but I did. Her voice basically commanded my inebriated and fragile mind to do so with punishment. It was repayment for not sleeping with her, probably.

"Won't you stay with me?" I uttered it again, clearly so she would hear me with out any questioned.

"Because?" She pushed her limits but, again, I responded promptly.

"You're all I need, even though this ain't love and it's clear to see, but darling you know why I need it. So, on last time, won't you stay with me for the night?" I tried to avoid the whole conversation again. I may have been buzzed and pushing to be black-out-drunk but I knew that I'd been repeating myself for nearly two hours. I had had enough of repeating myself.

She crawled into the bed with a look of satisfaction on her face. I nestled against her chest and felt her arm wiggle to wrap around me. I emptied my bottle and she offered her own, which she'd taken maybe two drinks out of at most. I emptied that and still felt little to no effect at the time. My thoughts had been how nothing would ever been enough to forget the pain of losing Cas. Not even this poor woman's company…

When the morning came around there was a note on the table and an empty space next to me in the bed. This was normal and I was hardly shocked by it, but there was a twinge of added pain that she had gone through all the trouble to comfort me and she still left like everyone else. I wanted to scream. I wanted to shoot something. I wanted to break something. I settled for slinking over to the damned table and reading the words she wrote.

Oh, Dean, won't you stay with me?

Because I didn't know it until this morning, but somehow you're all I need.

I know you're a mess and this ain't love yet.

But it's clear to see that you need me, too.

I'll never be Cas, but I'd never try to be either.

I think we have a chance, darling. Call me?

Oh…

And – maybe if you could – would you stay with me?

I immediately grabbed my phone and called the number scrawled at the bottom of the page. When she answered I didn't know who to ask for so I just did the only thing I could think of…

"You never gave me your name, did you?" I couldn't recall even asking for it the night before, which had become somewhat regular in the last few weeks. I stopped caring.

"I never give my name to one night stands, so you would be correct." I could hear her voice more clearly over the phone and it stunned me. Her face was bleary in my memory, too. For a split second I was ashamed. But I knew at the time, too, that if I hadn't been a mess she wouldn't have stayed the night before. She wouldn't have left the letter either, so I let it roll off my shoulders quickly.

"Well – if you want me to stay I'm going to need a name." I toyed with the thought of staying behind with this woman. She had given me comfort the night before. She had put up with my brokenhearted bull crap. She stayed behind even though she wasn't getting laid. There was every reason for my to give her a chance. And I felt like it had been long enough that maybe I deserved a chance too.

"Ann Marie." She replied.

"Nice to have met you, Ann Marie. I'm Dean Winchester." I formally introduced myself as I shoved things into my duffel bag and checked that both guns I'd brought with me were stilled tucked in the bottom. They were, but something didn't feel right in the bag. I couldn't figure out what.

"You're not staying, are you?" She questioned after hearing me shove a chair back into the table. I froze in place thinking that she was outside watching or something, but when I walked to the window there wasn't another person to be found anywhere. There wasn't even a car…

"You took my car!" I exclaimed angrily. Seconds later she pulled into sight and waved from afar.

"I'll return the car if you'll stay one more night." Ann Marie bargained with me. It had been a very long time since I'd slept in the same bed twice. I didn't really feel resistant to the idea, but her conditions did not stop at staying one night longer, "You can't drink this time. Not at all."

I didn't agree to it. Instead I closed the curtains and shut my phone off. Was living with the reality of Cas' absence harder than the possibility of losing the Impala? I had rebuilt that thing so many times, repaired it and tore it apart. The only reliable thing in my life had been that damn car. Yet, somehow I seriously considered letter her keep it and hiking my way to somewhere else.

I paced back and forth and kicked things around. When she walked in she was wearing a tan trench coat with a box that smelled like greasy burgers and fries. She sat the box on the table and locked the door before she walked over coolly and placed my keys back in my hand. My jaw was nearly on the floor because a lot of things happened in my mind, none of them really worked together.

"Why are you wearing that?" I had asked but seconds later it was apparent to me.

It wasn't just my keys that had been missing that I subconsciously noticed when checking the guns. My phone had been in the wrong place on the table too. I rolled my eyes and groaned heavily into the air. This was somehow a sweet nightmare.

"Oh, this number? I checked your phone because I figured you won't stay with me if I can't prove to you that I can give you something worth staying for." Ann Marie reached up and began unbuttoning the coat. My eyes waivered momentarily but I didn't forget what I was supposed to be looking at: her face.

"Because this is how you do it, right? Looking like Cas is you're ticket into my heart." I snapped at her. I was offended not just at the fact that she snooped in my stuff, but that she degraded herself so much that she felt it necessary to become someone that she could never be…

"All I need is a chance, Dean. You didn't ask me what broke me." Her voice trembled as she shed the trench coat and revealed a blouse that buttoned up and slacks that couldn't have matched Cas' more if they'd been taken right from his body. I shook my head at her and felt a tear roll down my cheek. I was so frustrated I could hardly manage a counter.

"This ain't ever going to turn anything. Love doesn't start like this." I explained to her. I'd been in love with Lisa before I met Cas, and I was in love with Cas even if I never admitted it while he was still in existence. But I knew that love didn't start the way she tried to make it.

"It's pretty clear to me that you don't care, Dean. You see, I don't care either! But, darling, you are going to listen to me. You owe me a favor and I'm here to cash in." She demanded nothing shy of acceptance. I looked around for a way to avoid the entire mess but after a lackluster effort I just complied. It couldn't have been worse than any other ideas I'd conjured at the time. So I sat down and gave her gruff before she just started talking…

"Let me guess – you're going to ask - " I had started, but she quickly interrupted.

She shook her heard, "I'm not asking. I'm telling."

"Is that so?" I shouted. I had risen to my feet and gotten very close to her. I was ready to fling her into the television set behind her. She had no place to barge into my life and take my problems into her own hands. No matter that I had pursued her and cried into her chest the entire night, and groaned about the loss of Cas. At the end of the day, she went further than I'd invited her. I was pissed off.

"Stay with me."

Author's Note: Thanks again for reading my fan fiction. I hope you enjoyed it. However, I do have a final disclaimer that I felt was best placed at the end of the story.

Please note that the lyrics were not simply copy and pasted into this fan fiction, and were repurposed as dialogue (primarily) in this story. I only write all of this as an extra precaution. This is not a "songfic" and was not written to resemble such, therefore keeping this story within the parameters and rules laid out for FFN. I've seen stories with less effort made to repurpose lyrics to a song that inspired them, which I hope users are willing to take into consideration after reading this story. The words that make up the lyrics of this song and are used above would not be the song if unbolded in this format, again remaining within the parameters and rules of FFN. The bolded phrases which are lyrics from the song are done this way to add emphasis to the inspiration of the song and the importance of those words in this particular 'plot.'