Disclaimer: Supernatural isn't mine.
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For the third time, Sam Winchester's world erupted into demonic flame, but this time he carried her out. His knees gave out at the tree line. Flames danced behind him, contorting themselves madly in the background, in defiance of the rain that came sluicing down in a dark gray curtain. It was done. Finally.
She moaned as he lowered her to the mud and wrapped her in what was left of his charred hoodie. Something that might have been his name escaped from between her lips. Or maybe he was imagining things. The space between his ears was ringing, one eye wouldn't open, and the rain water that streamed passed his eyes was pink with blood. "I'm here, Ava… It's Sam. You're safe now."
Her eyes wobbled open but unseeing in her head. He remembered her as pretty; the demon's touch had made her horribly beautiful. How could she have ever passed as normal once His aspect was on her? The air around her shimmered with power to Sam's eyes. Had shimmered when they'd first come to the barn—Dean and him—armed to the teeth and prepared to do anything to end this battle once and for all. The battle that had determined their entire lives since before Sam could remember.
The rain was taking away the aura around her, leaving her just a regular girl again. The cute-as-a-button secretary who should have been walking down the aisle tonight, not lying in the mud. Sam licked his cracked lips and stared down at her with knot of something heavy behind his sternum. "You're lucky, you know," he slurred. "I had a girlfriend. She burned on the ceiling, same as my mom. I'd just started shopping for a ring—that's how in love with her I was. But then He took her, same as He took your fiancé, and I never got the chance to tell her… Tell her I wanted to spend the rest of forever with her. Just her."
The knot swam up and lodged in his throat, making talking impossible. Reaching up, Sam took hold of the chain around his neck and yanked. The clasp snapped, a small sharp pain at the back of his neck. With trembling fingers, he slid the small ring off into his palm and then lifted Ava's hand. Her skin was cool to the touch. The nail of her first finger had been bent back and then half torn off. Sam swallowed, knowing that it could be his doing. But that didn't stop him from sliding the ring onto her fourth finger. The band fit perfectly into the skin's indention.
It was the engagement ring she'd shown him the night they met. The one he'd found on the carpet of her little house, near the corpse of her fiancé. A man who was just that much braver than Sam for telling the woman he loved that he wanted to stay with her for eternity.