Red and orange flames engulfed the building, swallowing up everything and blowing charred bits of rubble everywhere. Dean stopped in his sprint and turned back around to look at the destruction. He wished there had been another way, some other option, but this was the last resort. On the outside, Dean's face was unmoved and placid, but inside he felt as if someone had split him in half.
"Jo," he heard someone sob, before he realized that it was his own shaking voice. Sam laid a hand on his older brother's shoulder and watched as something broke inside him.
Dean fell to his knees, his hands turning black as he sifted through the ashes in vain. Maybe she had somehow survived…but he knew that wasn't possible. He had wired together those bombs himself, and he knew that anyone who was inside would have been blown up instantly.
Hot, angry tears snaked their way down his bitter face and disappeared into the soot below. He briefly recalled the look Jo had given him as he placed her fingers around the detonation button. They didn't say anything, but nothing needed to be said. In that instant, he had known that the little Jo he had known for a good part of his life was not little.
"You're so brave," he whispered as he kissed the top of her forehead. She nodded weakly and glanced down at her bandaged stomach. She was losing blood fast, and Dean knew he didn't have much time.
In that instant, he regretted calling her his little sister, regretted not jumping at the chance to tell her how he really felt, but most of all, he regretted that her suicide was his idea in the first place.
He remembered Ellen holding her other cold hand and muttering softly to her body that was slowly losing consciousness.
"It's okay, Joanna Beth. Everything's going to be okay."
Dean took one last look at the first girl he had ever really loved. She was bloodied, dying, and yet she had never looked more peaceful.
"I'll probably see you sooner than later," he told her, a reassuring smile making its way onto his tear-stained face.
"Let's make it later," Jo replied with a small grin.
And then he saw the happy glow leave from her hazel eyes, and her head slump over on her crying mother's shoulder. He saw his opportunity die with her.
He turned his head away to hide his tears, and left the first girl he ever really loved, dead, and in the arms of her broken mother.