A/N: One-shot! Maybe... I might be up for writing a follow-up chapter, or doing more of these one-shots. Let me know what you guys - the readers! - want and I will do my best to make it happen! I would suggest you listen to the song while you read – it'll give you the perfect background music and it'll help you set the scene.

Song: When You're Lonely by Jana Kramer

Who:Dean/OC

When You're Lonely

She knew this phone call was coming. It always came. Usually at night when he'd had a couple to drink, or when he was drowning in his feelings, his fears, and had no idea how to deal with them. When he was feeling lonely, and needed someone there. Someone who may not completely understand his life but would be sympathetic and help him forget about everything.

She had known him for such a long time, had been friends for so long, that a part of her suspected that he took that for granted. Assumed she would always be there for him, just like she had always been. They hadn't tried the dating thing. The both of them knew that it wouldn't work out, as much as she wanted it to.

He travelled with his brother for a living, never staying in one place for too long. Travelled across America to hunt down and kill things that went bump in the night. Things that wanted to kill and maim people. He hunted monsters.

When he had told her, albeit reluctantly and only upon her insistence about what he did for a living, she had laughed. He couldn't be serious, she said. Monsters only existed on TV and in crappy B-rated movies. He insisted differently, and could tell her stories that her worst nightmares wouldn't even touch. He had said it with such a definite tone too. The kind of tone that made her blood run cold and her heart stop. He wasn't lying – she could tell that he wasn't. Not with the tone, or that hard look in his deep green eyes.

People always said that one's eyes were the window to the soul, and in that moment, that phrase couldn't have been more true. She could see the truth he was telling her in his dark eyes. His very soul was trying to make her understand.

While she had never personally witnessed him work (and Thank God for that, she would think), she had headed to the library a few days later while he had left town again (naturally unsure of when he'd be coming back) and sat for hours. Stacks of books around her as she read up on demons, spirits and ghosts, shapeshifters. Whatever she could get her hands on. She had wanted to at least try to understood things from his perspective.

While she read and began to learn about the world that he and his brother lived in, she began to feel so many things for the man. Pride for the man who saved as many lives as he could, sadness for the lack of stability in his own life. Heartbreak for the personal sacrifice that Hunting demanded.

When she had asked why couldn't he just quit one night, his answer was simple: "Once you're in, you don't get out."

That one sentence could break her heart, and had, a thousand times over. So, one night when he had returned back to the small 1500 person town of Avery Creek, North Carolina that she called home, they had met up for a few beers, and she listened patiently as he detailed a few of his most recent cases, and what he had been doing since they last saw each other a couple months previous.

He would often take swigs of his beer every few minutes, his gaze on the beer in his hands as he talked, hands cradling the cool bottle. His grip switched between gentle or tight grip, depending on what part of the story he had been telling her at the time.

She had stayed silent until the very end, choosing to only speak his name and gently swiping a hand across his back, before leaning into him and hugging him. He had tensed up for only a brief moment, before letting his muscles relax. Taking one final pull of his beer, draining the rest, he had looked at her with a dark look, with lust (if she weren't mistaken), and asked if she wanted to get out of there. If she wanted to go home.

She had said yes.

That was how it had started. He'd call her up when he was close to Avery Creek, ask if she were free for the night. Ask if she wanted to meet up for a beer after she got off her shift at the local diner. He would try to hide the exhaustion from his voice, try to sound casual, but she knew. She knew that he was feeling any number of things at the time, and besides her and alcohol, had no other outlet. No other way to just forget.

And she would say yes. She always said yes.

If she were honest with herself, it was because the sex was fantastic. He was a man who knew just how and where to touch a woman to make her cry out with passion. He would say all the right things and whisper sweet nothings in her ear. He would make her want to scream his name, to come hard enough to forget that the world was still spinning.

But she also said yes because he was broken. Losing himself in the arms of another person was therapy for him. It would make him forget all the horrible shit that he experienced in life. Make him forget about all the dark secrets of the world that only a handful of people knew about.

Tonight, though…

She stared at the vibrating cell phone in her hand, biting a plump lower lip in hesitation. She wasn't sure she wanted to answer, she wasn't sure if she wanted to say 'Yes' tonight.

Regardless, she found herself sliding her thumb across the phone's screen, and lifting the device up to her ear.

"Hey," she greeted after a minute, swallowing the lump in her throat.

"Hey, beautiful. I'm in town."

"Oh yeah?" she questioned, trying to remain calm and casual. She risked a look at the clock on her bedside table. 1:06 am. "When did you get in?"

"About an hour ago." There was a pause, before he asked the inevitable question: "Are you free tonight?"

"Yeah." She found herself replying.

She was sure he was grinning. Those full lips pressed together in a crooked smirk. She could practically see it through the phone. "Feel like meeting up to grab a couple beers?"

She licked her lips, as she moved to sit on her bed. Getting comfortable, she grabbed a pillow to hug it. He may not have been physically in her room, but he was there. On the phone. In her head. And the pillow would act as a defense shield. An anchor for reality. She hugged it so tightly, she was sure her nails would rip it open.

When she didn't answer right away, she could hear his deep, husky voice come through the line again.

"Julia? You there?"

She swallowed again. God, did she love it when he said her name.

"Yeah, I'm here." She could hear her own voice crack in response, the lump in her throat growing bigger, making it harder to swallow.

"Julia? What's wrong?"

Ever the protector, she thought. A knight in shining armor.

"Nothing. I'm okay."

"No, you're not. What's going on? Are you hurt?" His voice grew tight. Tense, as if he was preparing to drive over with his arsenal of weapons. Ready to take on whatever was or had been attacking her. Ready to fix her, save her, because that's what he did.

"No, I'm fine."

"I'll come over-"

"Please don't."

There was silence on the other end of the line. It may only have been for a few moments, but it felt like years to her. She let out a shaky sob, instantly regretting it. She needed to do this for herself. She needed to keep herself together.

"Why not?"

There it was. The Big Question.

"Because my heart can't take it."

She could feel her own heart shattering into a thousand pieces, as she let out another sob. Voice cracking, hot tears running down her cheeks.

He was silent on the other end of the phone, as if he didn't know how to respond.

"I can't do this anymore, Dean..."

"What do you mean? We're not doing anything."

"Exactly. We're not doing anything." she sobbed through the phone. She was gripping the device so tightly, her knuckles were turning white. "You only want me when you're lonely..."

"Julia-"

She cut him off. She didn't want to hear what he had to say. She didn't want to give him the chance to make her rethink this decision.

"I can't be that girl anymore, Dean. I can't be your therapy anymore. My heart can't take it." She took a shaky breath, closing her eyes tightly. The hot, angry tears that rolled down her cheeks went ignored. "I love you, and I care about you. I do. I'm not an idiot. I know what your life is like and I know you can't stay... But... I can't be waiting around for you to come around anymore, and only when you need me."

She let that settle, taking another shaky breath. With a final sob, she made one final request: "Please don't call me again."

Before he had the chance to protest, she hit the 'End Call' button, and tossed her phone away, hearing it clatter onto the hardwood floors. She didn't care if it broke. She could always replace it. Her heart on the other hand... that meant everything to her. As heartbroken as Dean might be, he would get over it. This, she was sure of. He would probably find another woman to drown himself in, and probably routinely had whenever he wasn't in Avery Creek. But her... she had tried for so long to be what he needed, his own personal drug, and in the end, her heart couldn't hack it. Not with feelings growing more and more intimate and knowing she was ever only going to be that.

Curling up into a ball, and hugging her pillow, she let herself sob until she couldn't sob any longer. Until the sun rose, and the dawn of a new day began.

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