Sorry for the late update and for the many misspellings and other grammar errors that you will find in this chapter. Unfortunately, it wasn't beta-read, so please be try to be forgiving for all my terrible grammar mistakes.
This chapter was inspired by the episode 'The End' (5x04), it contains a brief mention of the episode 'I Believe the Children Are Our Future' (5x06), and finally it contains elements from the episode 'The Curious Case of Dean Winchester' (5x07).
Enjoy!
It had been about ten minutes since Dean found that already - and fortunately - fuelled car and hotwired it so he could drive himself to the only place he knew he could get the answers to the multiple questions he was asking himself ever since he woke up earlier. Indeed, he had woken up to a completely trashed, destroyed, devastated city in the future.
It wasn't April 2009 anymore.
It was August 2014.
And except from the military guys he had seen earlier, there was no other human to be seen. The little girl he had thought to be a human turned out to be infected by the demon virus that he and his brother had stumbled across a couple of years ago. It hadn't taken long for him to be chased after by a dozen of people infected by the Croatoan virus.
Needless to say, Dean was rather worried about the whole situation. And his worry didn't lessen as he found out that there was no cell service.
Reaching for the radio, he switched the stations for a few seconds, but only got a static sound.
"That's never a good sign," he muttered, his green eyes focused on the empty and dark road he was driving down as he headed to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
""Croatoan pandemic reaches Australia'," Zachariah's voice suddenly said, startling the hunter who whipped his head to see the angel he hated so much, sitting in the shotgun seat with a newspaper in his hands.
"I thought I smelled your stink on this Back to the Future crap," Dean told him, his hands tightening their grip around the stirring wheel.
"'President Palin defends bombing of Houston.' Certainly a buyer's market in real estate," the angel reported, ignoring Dean's comment. "Let's see what's happening in sports. That's right—no more sports. Congress revoked the right to group assembly. What's left of Congress, that is. Hardly a quorum, if you ask me."
"How did you find me?" Dean inquired, eyeing him with great suspicion.
"Afraid we had to tap some unorthodox resources of late—human informants. We've been making inspirational visits to the fringier Christian groups. They've been given your image, told to keep an eye out."
"The Bible freak outside the motel—he, what, dropped a dime on me?"
"Onward, Christian soldiers."
"Okay, well, good, great. You have had your jollies. Now send me back, you son of a bitch," Dean grunted.
"Oh, you'll get back—all in good time. We want you to marinate a bit," Zachariah replied, a little smirk on his lips as he returned his attention to the newspapers.
"Marinate?"
"Three days, Dean. Three days to see where this course of action takes you," the angel explained, looking at him from the corner of his eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean asked, almost growling at him. Having that douchebag of an angel next to him was making his insides boil with anger and fury. There was so many things he wanted to do to that angel and most of these things he had learned during his time in Hell.
"It means that your choices have consequences. This is what happens to the world if you continue to say 'no' to Michael. Have a little look-see," Zachariah told him.
"You really think that I'm gonna change my mind because of your little trick? Or maybe you think I forgot how you played me and what you did to Kaitlin," Dean responded, a hard expression on his face that mirrored the hardness of his tone.
"You really don't wanna let any of this go, do you?" Zachariah sighed. "We wiped it all off her memory, she doesn't remember any of those things-"
"She still had to go through them!" Dean cut him off. "I know everything that you did to her you bastard and trust me, I'll make you pay."
Zachariah huffed, his lips twitched up in a smirk as he scanned the man's face before he vanished into thin air.
Dean let out a heavy sigh when the angel disappeared. He turned his attention back to the road, his jaw tightened as his mind travelled to all the things he wished he could do to that dick of an angel to make him regret.
A few hours later.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Bobby Singer's.
Walking out of the car, Dean quickly walked up to the front door of the old man's house. He opened it and called, "Bobby? Bobby I'm coming in!"
There was no answer so the hunter decided to walk in, his eyes looking around the place in search of Bobby, but finding absolutely no sign of him. He was a bit taken aback by the place as it was pretty thoroughly trashed compared from the last time he saw it weeks ago when he brought Bobby back home after the event at River Pass. If he really was in the future, then these weeks ago had happened years ago. The spider-webs and dust covering most of the furniture confirmed him that no one had been around in a while.
"Oh no," he sighed as he walked into the kitchen and saw Bobby's wheelchair on its side, on the floor. He headed towards it, grabbed it and set it upright and when his gaze caught the bullet holes through and the dried blood on the back of the seat, he crouched down and looked at it. He frowned as scary scenarios explaining the state of the wheelchair started to form in his mind.
Standing up, he looked around the room again, one hand rubbing down his face as he muttered to himself. "Where is everybody, Bobby?"
When his eyes looked over at the fireplace, a slight frown appeared on his face as he remembered Bobby's hidden compartment. Taking big and rapid steps towards the fireplace that was settled behind Bobby's desk, he didn't lose time to open that compartment and pull out a journal that looked like his father's. He was a bit surprised to find only one journal since he knew Bobby owned several ones, but when he flipped the pages, he was even more surprised to find a peculiar photography inside. The photography gathered Bobby, Castiel, three unidentified men and Kate. Many questions twirled in his head, but he knew that he wouldn't get any of them answered if he didn't find that place written on the sign in the picture. Folding the photography, he put it in his pants' pocket and walked out of Bobby' houses, heading towards that Camp Chitaqua.
April 2009.
Fives miles north of Boulder, Colorado.
At one of the many Bobby Singer's cabins in the wood.
"Wait, what exactly do you mean by Zachariah took Dean?" Kate asked as she fixed at the angel standing in the middle of the main room of Bobby's cabin in which she and Matt had settled down in a couple of days ago.
"I can't find him anywhere," Castiel replied, his blue eyes staring right into her brown ones.
"Did you forget that you craved our ribs with something to prevent angels from finding us?" She told him, tapping her chest to illustrate what she was telling him.
"I didn't forget. Dean told me where he was so I could come after he's done sleeping. But, when I came he wasn't there anymore," he explained.
"So, maybe he went out," Matt replied with a shrug as he sat down on the old couch he had spent the last couple of nights sleeping in since he let Kate have the only bed that was in the corner of the room.
"No, he was supposed to be sleeping at that moment," Castiel told him, causing the young hunter to frown.
"Wait, why did you go there if he was supposed to be sleeping back then?" Matt asked, rather confused by the angel's actions. "It's a bit creepy."
"I wanted to watch over him," Castiel simply answered.
"Still creepy," Matt commented under his breath as Castiel stared at him with squinted eyes, not understanding why it would be creepy.
"What about Sam? He wasn't there either?" Kate asked Castiel whose eyes were still glued to Matt causing this latter to feel a bit awkward.
"He hasn't been there for a while."
"W-what do you mean 'he hasn't been there for a while'?" Kate asked, her brows furrowing.
"Sam and Dean have gone separate ways a couple of weeks ago," he said moving his gaze back to the woman who had walked out of the bathroom with only a bathrobe and wet long hair.
"What?!" She exclaimed.
"Didn't you know?"
"No!" Kate replied before she bit on her bottom lip as she slapped one hand on her forehead.
She couldn't believe that the two brothers had gone on separate ways. The thought that Dean didn't fight to keep his little brother by his sides was unbelievable. When Sam had told her that he wanted to go away, Kate had been sure that Dean wasn't going to let him do that. Truth be told, it was a reassuring thought because Kate was fairly convinced that Sam and Dean needed each other and that they couldn't be apart. She had witnessed their close relationship and she had read about it too. Sam and Dean weren't just inseparable, they relied on each other and made each other better and happier. But to know that Dean had let Sam go on his own, broke her heart in a way that months ago she didn't think possible.
"What's the matter? They can't be on their own once in a while?" Matt inquired, looking at Kate.
"No, they…" She sighed, dropping her hand at her side as her mind was hit by the thought of Sam blaming himself for the Apocalypse and the thought of Dean still blaming himself for what Zachariah did to her among all the other things he continuously blamed himself for. After a short pause, the young woman whispered, "No, they shouldn't be alone... Especially not in times like these."
Matt observed her face for a few seconds. It was all written on her face. The affection and the constant concern she had for these two brothers, were once again blooming out of all her pores. After these past couple of weeks far away from them, Matt had believed that Kate's attachment for the Winchesters would lessen, which he knew was what she needed so that when she would go back to her universe, she would go back with no hesitation nor regrets.
"Anyways," Kate said as Matt stood up and went to the bathroom without a word. She glanced at him and then looked back at the angel. "How do you even know Zachariah is the one who took Dean?"
"I just do," the angel simply replied. "But, I don't know if he was taken in Heaven or elsewhere. You need to help me locate him."
"What do you mean I need to help you locate him?" Kate asked, confused by his words.
"I know a spell to locate angels, but I don't know any spell to locate humans," he informed her.
"Oh, and you assume that I do?"
"You did frequent a witch."
"I didn't frequent any-" She cut herself when she remembered Ruby. Sighing, she frowned at the blue-eyed angel, "It wasn't frequenting, Cas. I met her just a couple of times so she could give me a few useful tricks. But, please, don't mention it anymore."
"So, can you help me?"
"Well, I remember that she taught me a way to locate people on a map, but, the notebook on which I wrote down all these spells is at Bobby's-" she was cut off by Castiel immediately putting his hand on top of her shoulder and making her and him disappear from the room.
When Matt walked out of the bathroom, he frowned. "Uh, Kate?" He called, his eyes looking everywhere in the empty and silent room. "Trench-coat angel?"
August 2014.
Camp Chitaqua.
"What the hell?" Dean exclaimed as he woke up from his blackout to find himself handcuffed to a ladder and his future-self sitting just a few feet away from him, cleaning a gun.
Staring him down, Future Dean addressed him, "I should be asking that question don't you think? In fact why don't you give me one good reason why I shouldn't gank you right here and now?"
"Because you'd only be hurting yourself?" Dean suggested.
"Very funny." Future Dean told him before returning his attention to the weapon in between his hands.
"Look man, I'm no shapeshifter or demon or anything okay?"
"Yeah, I know. I did the drill while you were out. Silver, salt, holy water. Nothing. But you know what was funny? Was that you had every hidden lock-pick, box cutter and switchblade that I carry. Now you want to explain that? And the fact that you had this picture in your pocket?" Future Dean showed the picture that Dean took at Bobby's earlier. "Oh and the uh, resemblance while you're at it?"
"Zachariah." Dean simply replied causing his future-self to stand up, his hard eyes glued to Dean sitting on the floor.
"Come again?"
"I'm you from the tail end of 2009," Dean explained. "Zach plucked me from my bed and threw me five years into the future."
"Where is he? I want to talk to him."
"I don't know," Dean shrugged, a bit suspicious as to why his future-self would seem so in need of seeing the dick angel.
"Oh you don't know." Future Dean told him, his tone and his eyes showing that he wasn't very convinced by the words his past self was saying now.
"No, I don't know. Look, I just want to get back to my own fuckin' year, okay?"
Future Dean watched him for a short while before he approached the other Dean and crouched down in front of him, "Okay, if you're me, tell me something only I would know."
Dean had to think for a moment in order to find something he was sure no one else but himself would know. An old memory popped in his mind making him smirk as he looked at the man in front of him, "Rhonda Hurley. We were nineteen. She made us try on her panties. They were pink and satiny. And you know what? We kind of liked it."
"Touché," Future Dean nodded before standing back up and going over the table where several weapons were lying next to a bag. "So what Zach zapped you up here to see how bad it gets?"
"I guess. Croatoan virus right? That's their end game?" Dean asked as he watched the other Dean put the weapons in the bag.
"It's efficient. It's incurable and it's scary as hell," was the simple reply of Future Dean. "Turns people into monsters. Started hitting the major cities about two years ago. World really went in the crapper after that."
"What about Sam?" Dean asked which only caused his future-self to stiffen. He pulled his hands away from the weapons and the bag while Dean watched him.
"Heavyweight showdown in Detroit. From what I understand Sam didn't make it."
Those words needed some time for Dean to swallow them down. Not only was he understanding that his little brother wasn't part of this world anymore, but he was also realizing that he hadn't been with him in Detroit.
"You weren't with him?" He asked to confirm his terrible realization, even though he'd rather have his future-self telling him that he didn't get it right and that Sam was alive and alright.
"No. No, me and Sam, we haven't talked in, hell five years," Future Dean replied making Dean understand that he truly hadn't even been there to protect his brother like he should have.
"We never tried to find him?" Dean inquired, his voice as sad as his eyes.
"I got other people to worry about," Future Dean replied as he took the picture from earlier and looked down at it. Dean noticed the expression of pain on the face of his five-years-older-self and that caused him to frown. He could feel that there was more in addition to the loss of his little brother.
"What happened to Bobby?" He asked him, remembering the state of the wheelchair back in the old man's place.
"He got killed. It was two years ago. He went back to his place to gather some books to bring here and was attacked," Future Dean just said as his eyes stayed glued to the picture he was holding. Dean's frown deepened as he analysed the face of his older-self.
"What about Kaitlin?" Dean asked and he saw the way his future-self tensed, almost the same exact way than when he mentioned his brother.
When Dean was driving his way down to this Camp Chitaqua, he had thought about that picture and he had come to the realization that Kate's presence on the picture meant that she was still in their universe. He was ashamed by the little wave of joy and relief that he had felt to know that she was still there. However, seeing the way his future-self acted when he asked about her, Dean realized that something must have happened to her.
Future Dean looked up, his green eyes going over his past self as he stared at him in silence for a moment before looking away as he folded the picture and slid it in the inside pocket of his military jacket, without saying a single word.
"What happened to her?"
"What do you think?" His future self just told him before he put the rest of the weapons in his bag, zipped it and then grabbed it while Dean watched him in silence.
"Wait. Where you going?"
"I got to run an errand."
"Whoa. You're just gonna leave me here?"
"Yes. I got a camp full of twitchy trauma survivors out there with an apocalypse brewing over their heads. The last thing they need to see is a version of 'the parent trap'. So yeah, you stay locked down."
"Okay. All right. Fine. But you don't have to cuff me, man. Oh, come one don't you trust yourself?"
"No. Absolutely not." Future Dean replied before walking out the door.
"Dick," Dean muttered before taking a quick look around the room.
And then, his eyes shut as his head lowered. He exhaled a long breath as he slowly felt the pain of all the losses he just learned about, sinking down in him.
2009.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Bobby Singer's.
His eyes were getting heavier and heavier by the second. Bobby Singer had spent five hours relentlessly researching for the case one hunter called him about, but finding absolutely nothing. At almost two in the morning, he wanted to call it a night and let this hunter research on his own, but he wasn't the kind of man to give up so easily. Besides, he was pretty sure that this hunter wouldn't have called him if he wasn't truly struggling to find a lead on his case.
Reaching for his cup of black coffee, he took his flask and poured some of its contents in his cup. Putting the flask on his desk, he brought his cup to his lips and drank a good sip of it as he turned the page of the book he was reading. His exhausted attention was pullee away from the book when a sound of flapping wings appeared and some of the papers piled up on his desk just flew everywhere.
Looking up, Bobby frowned as his tired blue eyes landed on Castiel and Kate standing in the middle of the room, "What the hell?!"
"Oh God," Kate let out as she looked around herself, taking in the fact that Castiel had just teleported the both of them. In no time, her eyes met the old man's. "Bobby!"
"What the hell are you two doing here?" He asked as he wheeled around his desk, so he could face them properly.
"Kate needs to take something that is hers," the angel replied as Bobby moved his gaze to Kate and frowned at the fact that she was wearing only a bathrobe and that her hair was wet making it obvious for him that she had just gotten out of her shower.
"And you couldn't wait for me to get dressed?" Kate asked Castiel before Bobby even got the chance to ask himself.
"We have to take action urgently," Castiel responded as he turned his head to look at her.
"What's going on?" Bobby asked, looking back and forth at the two people standing in the middle of his living room.
"Dean is missing and Castiel thinks Zachariah took him," Kate explained.
"What?" Bobby breathed out, taken aback.
"I don't think he was taken by him. I know he was," Castiel corrected her, earning a little rolling of her eyes.
"Wait, we're talkin' about the same asshole who did those things to ya?" Bobby asked Kate and she nodded.
"We need to locate Dean," Castiel informed Bobby.
"How?"
"I left some of my notebooks here. And, in one I wrote down a few spells that, um, that Ruby taught me," Kate explained to the old man. "One of these spells is a locating spell. If we're lucky, it might work to locate Dean."
Bobby was going to say something when his cellphone rang, he fished it out of the front pocket of his flannel and answered without even looking at who was calling him, "Yeah?... Oh, yeah… No, no. She's with me. Castiel brought her here… No, she's fine…." Kate glanced at Castiel as she understood that Matt was the one talking on the other end of the line.
"I'm gonna get dressed," she told the angel who opened his month to retort, but she didn't let him interrupt her. "Once, I got clothes on, we'll do the spell."
With that, the brunette walked upstairs, heading to what was her room for months. Like always, stepping in that room brought a feeling of comfort inside of her, certainly due to the fact that she had spent a lot of time in there and it was one of the places she felt the safer in this universe, no matter what. She didn't linger with any of that, though. She knew she had to hurry herself so they could locate Dean before something bad happened to him. She quickly put on her underwear, a casual t-shirt and a pair of denim pants before walking downstairs, barefoot, without forgetting to grab a hair-tie on her way.
When she got in the living room, her hands up gathering her wet hair up in a ponytail, she found Bobby reading out loud the ingredients for the locating spell, out from her notebook that he had in hands. She had almost forgotten that a while back, before Lucifer got freed, the old man had found not only all of Chuck's books about Sam and Dean's journey, but also all of her notebooks.
Castiel vanished into thin air and Bobby turned his head to Kate, standing at the doorway, "He went to bring all the ingredients for the spell." She nodded at the man in his wheelchair. It was still pretty hard for her to see him stuck in that wheelchair. "Gotta say, even if the circumstances ain't the best, it's good to see you, kid."
Kate's lips curled into a little smile as she approached him, bent down and gave him a proper hug, "It's good to see you, too, Bobby." When she pulled away, she let her eyes travel in the room, taking in the emptiness of the upper shelves of all the bookcases and the piles of books on the floor or on the coffee table. She wondered if it was Doctor Parks who had put all of the books at Bobby's reach. She knew that the Doctor visited Bobby quite often, making sure that everything was doing alright with him and that he didn't need anything. But Bobby being Bobby, he didn't want anyone to look after him as though he was a child, therefore, the very next day he returned to his house, he had the bathroom of the first floor completely redesigned in a few hours so that its use would be easier for him.
"So, I had to find out through Ellen how amazing you had been back in River Pass," he told her as she took a few steps back. She huffed, shaking her head.
"Amazing? I didn't do much," she replied, sitting down on the couch.
"You kept a good number of people safe, that ain't what I'd call not doing much," he told her as she kept her brown eyes glued to the piles of books on the coffee table.
"She exaggerated. All I did was move these people to a Church with me," she simply replied while Bobby watched her carefully. He remembered how Ellen had told him that she had put Devil's traps and salt lines at every exits, and how she had managed to keep the people as calm as possible even before the Winchesters came to save the day.
"You got any news from Chronos?" He asked her.
"No. Not yet. I mean, he did say he'd come back in a few months. So, I guess we'll just have to be patient," she answered. "Did you know about Sam and Dean?" His silence made her look up at him with a frown. Of course he knew. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you had to keep your focus on your own problem," he simply explained and they stared at each other. She could sense that there was more behind these words.
The sound of flapping wings echoed in the room, immediately followed by the trench-coated angel's deep voice, "I've got everything."
Kate turned her head to the angel while Bobby's blue eyes remained on her for a few more seconds as she stood up and went to the angel. She took the large bowl packed with all the different ingredients that he had gathered so quickly.
"We should do this in the kitchen," she decided, glancing around the messy living room. Castiel immediately made his way to the kitchen as Kate moved her gaze to the quiet Bobby, she bit on her bottom lip, "If you want, we can leave and do it elsewhere. I know how much you hate witchcraft-"
"No, it's alright," Bobby cut her off, looking up at her with a light frown on his face. "It's just… Why don't you let me do that instead, huh?"
"The spell?"
"Yeah."
"Um, why? I mean, aren't you already busy?" She asked him, nodding towards the open books on his desk.
"Yeah, but I'd rather you read those books and I do the witchcraft," he just told her, confusing the brunette.
"Um… I guess," she conceded, handing him the large bowl as she wondered why the old hunter didn't seem to want her to do that spell.
August 2014.
Camp Chitaqua.
"So, that's it? That's the Colt?" The young woman called Risa asked from where she was leaning in the headquarters cabin where she, Castiel and both Deans were reunited.
"If anything can kill Lucifer, this is it," Future Dean replied, his eyes glued to the gun laying on the table in the middle of the cabin. He had spent so long looking for that weapon, in hope that it would finally help them kill the Devil and the way he was staring at it said it all.
"Great," she replied, a bit of an attitude linked to her tone. "Have we got anything that can find Lucifer?"
Future Dean frowned as he looked at her, "Are you okay?"
"Oh, we were in, uh, Jane's cabin last night. And, apparently, we and, um, Risa have a connection," Dean chipped in, earning a glare from his future-self.
"You wanna shut up?" He told him having Dean raising his hands in surrender. After a very short moment, Future Dean continued, "We don't have to find Lucifer. We know where he is. The demon that we caught last week, he was one of the big guy's entourage. He knew."
"So, a demon tells you where Satan's gonna be, and you just believe it?" Risa asked with still a bit of sarcasm in her voice as she tightened her arms over her chest.
"Oh, trust me, he wasn't lying," Future Dean replied, slightly smirking while Dean watched the whole interaction.
"And you know this how?" Risa inquired, an annoyed expression on her face.
"Our fearless leader, I'm afraid, is all too well schooled in the art of getting to the truth," Future Castiel spoke and Dean's eyes got slightly wide as he put two and two together.
"Torture? Oh, so, we're—we're torturing again," Dean said, standing up from his spot. "No that's—that's good. It's not like we almost lost it after all we've done down there or all the other consequences it brought. Like with Kaitlin for instance. No, it's just... Classy."
Future Castiel laughed at that last word, causing Future Dean to glare at him. "What? I like past you."
"Lucifer is here," Future Dean stated, ignoring both Dean's little speech and Future Castiel's following comment as he put a map down on the table. "Now. I know the block and I know the building."
"Oh, good—it's right in the middle of a hot zone," Future Castiel remarked as he looked at what Future Dean was showing them.
"Crawling with Croats, yeah. You saying my plan is reckless?"
"Are you saying we, uh, walk in straight up the driveway, past all the demons and the Croats, and we shoot the devil?" Future Castiel asked him.
"Yes."
"Okay, if you don't like, uh, 'reckless', I could use 'insouciant', maybe," Future Castiel replied; sarcasm the new asset that Dean noticed the angel owned very well now.
"Are you coming?" Future Dean asked him.
Sighing Future Castiel nodded, "Of course. But why is he?" He nodded towards the 2009-Dean. "I mean, he's you five years ago. If something happens to him, you're gone, right?"
"He's coming," Future Dean just said as his past- self watched them all in silence, still taking in all the changes that these five years with Lucifer on Earth had caused.
"Okay. Well, uh. I'll get the grunts moving," Future Castiel replied as he stood up.
"We're loaded and on the road by midnight," Future Dean announced.
"All righty," Future Castiel replied as he and Risa walked out of the cabin, leaving the two Deans alone.
"Why are you taking me?" Dean immediately asked Future Dean. It didn't make any sense for him that his future-self would endanger his own life so stupidly by bringing him to this reckless mission of killing the Devil.
"Relax. You'll be fine. Zach's looking after you, right?" Future Dean said as he packed his bag while Dean just looked at him.
"And Zachariah is such a reliable guy, of course," Dean sarcastically said, thinking about all the manipulation that angel had done to him and all the tortures he had had given the young brunette. "But, that's not what I meant. I want to know what's going on."
Future Dean stared at him for a short while as though weighing the pros and the cons of telling him before eventually pulling his hands away from his bag. He walked towards his past-self and stopped just a couple of steps away from him, "Yeah, okay. You're coming because I want you to see something." He paused. Then, he said what he had been hiding from him, "I want you to see our brother."
"Sam? I thought he was dead," Dean frowned, taken aback by what he was now hearing.
"Sam didn't die in Detroit. He said 'yes'," Future Dean replied causing the other man's eyebrows to shoot up in confusion.
"Yes'?" He let out in a breath before a long silence fell upon them during which his future-self stared straight into his eyes, his facial expression harder than Dean had seen it before. And it was that expression that gave it all away for Dean, "Wait. You mean-"
"That's right. The big 'yes'. To the devil," Future Dean replied as he returned to the table where his bag was. "Lucifer's wearing him to the prom."
"Why would he do that?" Dean asked, confusion and loss in his now little voice.
"She… She said he needed me to be there for him... Being left alone pushed him into doing the wrong thing. At least that's what she told me," Future Dean almost whispered as he kept his gaze focused on the bag he zipped it closed.
"Who?" Dean asked him, scanning his face in hope of understanding.
"Who do you think?" Future Dean replied, looking up at him. The way he looked at him, Dean didn't have to ask twice. He knew who his future-self was talking about.
"I never once heard you say her name," Dean remarked, studying the face of his future-self. "What happened to her?"
"She was with Bobby that day he went back to his place... When I got there, Bobby was already dead and she was losing a lot of blood... She died on our way back to here," he replied, his eyes looking down. "Kaitlin and I, we… After Matt died, Bobby got her back with us. And we," Future Dean paused while his past-self just watched him, completely quiet, waiting for him to let as much as possible out. It seemed that even five years later, Dean wasn't able to speak about some things out loud. Not even to himself. "She was there for me. Everyday. After every mission, she was there waiting for me… When the world burns and you know that everyday might be your last day on Earth, your eyes open to things that have been there all along," Future Dean looked up at the man standing in front of him. After another short pause, he continued, "If I hadn't let her and Bobby go on their own, or if I had come just a few minutes earlier, or just if I was with them… With her… Then, maybe... You have no idea what I would do to just…"
"So, you and Kaitlin," Dean said, his hesitant voice almost gentle. "You guys were…" He trailed off.
Dean wasn't sure if what his future-self was telling him meant that the impossible girl from another universe and himself had seen their somewhat friendship grow into something bigger and more intimate. For Dean it was absolutely impossible to imagine Kate wanting more with someone as wrecked as him. But then again, he'd be lying to himself if he said the idea wasn't creating, deep inside of him, sparkles of jealousy for his future-self.
"All I can say is that I wish it didn't take the end of the world for me to open my eyes," Future Dean just told him before taking the Colt in his hand and looking at it. "But, tonight's not about it. Tonight it's about the Devil. And, now we don't have a choice. It's in Sam, and it's not getting out. And, we gotta kill him, Dean. And you need to see it—the whole damn thing, how bad it gets—so you can do it different."
"What do you mean?"
"Zach said he was gonna bring you back, right? To oh-nine?"
"Yeah."
"Well, when you get back home," Future Dean told him as he walked towards his past-self. "You say 'yes'. You hear me? Say 'yes' to Michael."
"That's crazy," Dean told him as he stared at him with frowned eyebrows. "If I let him in, then Michael fights the Devil. The battle's gonna torch half the planet."
"Look around you, man," Future Dean told him. "Half the planet's better than no planet, which is what we have now. If I could do it over again, I'd say 'yes' in a heartbeat!"
"So why don't you?"
"I've tried! I've shouted 'yes' till I was blue in the face! The angels aren't listening! They just—left—gave up! It's too late for me, but for you—"
"Oh, no. There's gotta be another way," Dean shook his head.
"Yeah, that's what I thought. And, that's what she thought, too. She tried to call the angels every nights! She wanted to become that weapon so they could stop all that was happening here. She was ready to sacrifice her body and soul if it meant that our world was saved, if it meant that I was saved... But they didn't listen to her either. So, she started blaming herself and I tried to reassure her. I told her that in no time everything would be settled back to normal. I was being cocky. I never actually thought I'd lose. And, I told her that we didn't have to say 'yes' to the angels and their plans. But I was wrong, Dean. I was wrong. I'm begging you. Say yes," he paused, looking at his past-self who silently stared at him. "But you won't. 'Cause I didn't… Because that's just not us, is it?"
2009.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Bobby Singer's.
With her fingers fidgeting the corner of the open book laying on the messy desk she was sitting at, Kate couldn't help but throw a few glances towards Castiel and Bobby while they performed the locating spell. Still a bit puzzled as to why Bobby preferred her not to do the spell, her concern about where Dean was and what was happening to him wasn't helping her either to focus on the research Bobby had given her.
Biting on her bottom lip, she tried to put her whole concentration in the book when Bobby's voice echoed, causing her head to snap up.
"Balls!"
Looking over at the kitchen, Kate freed her lower lip as she asked from her seat, "Everything's alright over there?"
Castiel turned around and looked at Kate from where he was standing in the kitchen, "Dean is not anywhere."
"What?" She stood up and quickly joined them in the kitchen.
"We can't locate him on the map," Bobby said and Kate looked down at the world map settled on the table and surrounded by all the little things used for the spell.
"Maybe he's in Heaven, then?" Kate glanced at Castiel who shook his head.
"He's not there either. While Bobby was preparing the spell, I listened to Heaven's whispers. Dean isn't there."
"But, how can he not be anywhere?!" Bobby demanded in frustration as Kate looked down at him. "That doesn't make any sense!"
"Do you think that..." The young woman began as both pair of blue eyes watched her.
"He's not dead," Castiel immediately told her with a voice that showed it was a fact he was sure of.
The brunette looked up to meet the angel's sparkling blue eyes; their intensity was somehow reassuring. She knew that this angel wouldn't lie to her or to any of them. She knew that she could trust him when he said that Dean wasn't dead. As a matter of fact, she knew she could trust him, period. Although his words didn't really lessen her deep worry for the green-eyed hunter, she still gave a little nod at the angel who then looked at the map, his face wearing a pensive expression.
"Maybe I could try restructure your locating spell with the one I know for locating angels," he thought out loud after a short silence.
"You think that'd work?" Bobby asked. "Altering a spell like-"
"We gotta try," Kate interrupted Bobby as she kept her brown gaze full of determination on Castiel while Bobby looked up at her. "What do you need for mixing these two spells together?"
Bobby stared at her, not very delighted by the idea of her doing the witchcraft. The truth was that Bobby had a couple of conversations with Matt that had made him realize how unhealthy it was for Kate to get so used and so comfortable in their universe. Although he didn't want her to not feel at ease around all of them, there was something else he didn't want her to feel. He didn't want her to feel torn about going back to her safe universe. Not too torn at least. But above all else he didn't want her to die because they would have let her get too much involved in their world. They had to look after her and to keep her safe, because at the end of the day, she was still an innocent.
No. She was more than that now.
She was family.
2014.
Miles away from Camp Chitaqua.
Dean couldn't help it. His eyes were enthralled by Future Castiel as this latter was driving his car at the tail of the other cars filled with the team ready to kill the Devil. Even though there wasn't too much light outside since it was already past midnight, Dean could still notice all the differences on his friend's face. It wasn't just the beard and the too-laid-back personality that made this Castiel so different from the one he knew back in 2009. Indeed, Dean could see the weariness that was lurking behind that seemingly constantly stoned Castiel, but he could also see the sadness. Nevertheless with all these drugs, the hunter wasn't sure that his friend knew about his own sadness and fatigue. Or maybe he was just good at not acknowledging them.
When Future Castiel took a tiny bottle of pills and swallowed one down, Dean frowned, "Let me see those."
"You want some?" Future Castiel asked him in a casual voice as he handed him the pills.
"Amphetamines?" Dean read out loud before he looked over at the blue-eyed man.
"It's the perfect antidote to that absinthe," Future Castiel explained as Dean watched him for a moment before returning his gaze to the pills in his hand.
"Mmm," Dean said as he put the pills back on the dashboard. "Don't get me wrong, Cas. I, uh. I'm happy that the stick is out of your ass, but—what's going on—w-with the drugs and the orgies and the love-guru crap?" That question caused Future Castiel to laugh until wrinkles formed around his eyes. "What's so funny?"
"Dean, I'm not an angel anymore," Future Castiel told him, his blue eyes looking at the hunter before they moved back to the road.
"What?"
"Yeah, I went mortal."
"What do you mean? How?" Dean asked, his eyes glued to his friend's profile.
"I think it had something to do with the other angels leaving. But when they bailed, my mojo just kind of— psshhew!—drained away," Future Castiel explained. "And now, you know, I'm practically human. I mean, Dean, I'm all but useless. Last year, broke my foot, laid up for two months."
"Wow."
"Yeah."
"So, you're human… Well, welcome to the club."
"Thanks," Future Castiel responded. "Except I used to belong to a much better club. And now I'm powerless. I'm hapless, I'm hopeless. I mean, why the hell not bury myself in women and decadence, right? It's the end, baby. That's what decadence is for. Why not bang a few gongs before the lights go out? Maybe it's not your thing, but I'm pretty sure that if we got a couple of more months, then you'll roll just like me." Dean frowned as he watched him continue, "Well, not really you. But, future-you."
"I'm pretty surprised to hear that future-me ain't already doing what you do," Dean lightly scoffed as he looked out the windshield.
"Oh, I'm not," Future Castiel replied with a tilt of the head as Dean shifted his gaze back to him.
"Speaking about," Dean said before pausing. "What was it between, um, between Kaitlin and me?"
"Woah," Future Castiel said, his eyes going round as he glanced at the hunter. "It's been a while since I heard your voice say her name. Actually, no one has the right to mention her anymore back in the Camp."
"Why?"
"Let's say that you weren't the most pleasant man if we mentioned her. And, just imagine the kind of hell you'd bring us if we mentioned Sam!" Future Castiel told him before pausing. "So yeah, it became an unspoken rule. Never mention her, Sam or even Bobby." Throwing a glance at the hunter, Future Castiel decided to elaborate, "When Bobby brought Katie to our camp, she was in a pretty bad shape. She had lost a lot of weight and you wanted to take care of her, but she ended up being the one taking care of you. You might say some things never change. But, they actually did."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you never let another woman inside your cabin for three years," Future Castiel replied.
"You mean…" Dean trailed off, his green eyes scanning Future Castiel's face as he searched for a complete understanding of what his words meant.
"I mean you made her move in your cabin in a couple of months, and you never let me get too close to her. I think you were scared I would ask her to join one of my orgies," Future Castiel chuckled. "But, I think that fear was irrational. It wasn't her kind of things and even if it would have been, she wouldn't have done this to you. You know how I know?" He asked Dean as he turned his head to look at him. "Because of the way she looked at you… It was just the same exact way you looked at her."
2009.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Bobby Singer's.
"The future?" Kate let out with wide eyes as she looked at the angel in his usual trench-coat he never took off.
"August 2014 to be exact," Castiel answered, his blue eyes still focused on the mess they had done on the table as they tried to combine his locating spell with the one Ruby had taught her.
"Why would Zachariah send Dean to the future?" She asked as the angel glanced at the old man who was talking on the phone with the hunter who had asked for his help in researching what creature he was dealing with.
As Bobby unwillingly let Kate team up with Castiel to find a new locating spell to find the missing hunter, he had then opened the notebook Kate had given him a while back – the notebook on which she had written down notes about some of the creatures she had studied from his books and Matt's books. It was a miracle when the old man found in said notebook a creature that matched all of the descriptions that the hunter had given him. It had impressed Bobby how her so-well classified notebook had come in good use so easily and the old man told himself to look up in it the next time he had to research information about a creature. Because even though not every living creatures and monsters written down in that notebook of hers, it was still filled with a lot of good and useful information. He didn't want to fully admit it to himself, but Kate surely remained a person of a good help.
"Whatever the reason is, it's not important," Castiel stated.
"What do you mean it's not important?" Kate exclaimed, frowning. "Zachariah's got Dean with him-"
"Exactly," he cut her off, looking up at her. "That is important. He can manipulate Dean into saying 'yes' to Michael."
"Dean's not stupid. He would never say 'yes'," she shook her head.
"You and I both know that Zachariah is not one to give up until he gets what he wants," the angel told her, his eyes looking straight into hers as though reminding her of the tortures they both had to endure because of Zachariah's obsession to motivate and punish.
Taking a deep breath in, Kate licked her lips as she rubbed her forehead, "How are we supposed to bring him back here?"
"I could go to the future," Castiel replied, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Zachariah must be watching him there," she told him. "If you get there, he might trap you. We can't risk that."
A frown appeared on Castiel's face as he looked at the young woman. He wasn't expecting her not to let him endanger his own life for Dean's. He believed that she would be ready to do anything if it meant that Dean would be saved, but apparently, no. Apparently, for some reason, she wasn't ready to let him sacrifice himself.
"But, we can't let Dean in Zachariah's hands," he replied, confusion wrapped in his deep voice.
"I know, but if we're logical, he won't do any harm to Dean. If Heaven really wants Dean to work for them, I don't think Zachariah will risk this again by doing anything to him."
After considering it for a few seconds, Castiel asked her, "So, what do we do now?"
"We wait," Bobby replied from the living room, causing both the angel and the young woman to turn their heads to him.
August 2014.
Jackson County Sanitarium Garden.
All in white, from his suit down to his shoes, Lucifer who was possessing Sam's vessel looked at Dean, "You've come a long way to see this, haven't you?"
"Well, go ahead. Kill me," he sternly hissed at him, his facial expression hard as rock, hoping that it would hide the fear and grief that was inside of him when facing Lucifer wearing his brother's body.
"Kill you?" Lucifer asked before looking over at the corpse of Future Dean he had just killed moments ago. "Don't you think that would be a little...redundant?" Sighing, Lucifer walked towards Dean. "I'm sorry. It must be painful, speaking to me in this—shape. But it had to be your brother. It had to be." He reached for Dean's shoulder but the hunter moved back, not wanting to be touched by the Devil who was in the body of his little brother. "You don't have to be afraid of me, Dean. What do you think I'm going to do?"
Lucifer walked over a red rose just behind Dean. He examined it as Dean gave his sarcastic reply, "I don't know. Maybe deep-fry the planet?"
"Why?" Lucifer asked as he turned around to look at Dean. "Why would I want to destroy this stunning thing? Beautiful in a trillion different ways. The last perfect handiwork of God. Did you know that this universe is the last one God created? " Seeing as Dean remained quiet, the fallen angel decided to continue. "You ever hear the story of how I fell from grace?"
"Oh, good God, you're not gonna tell me a bedtime story, are you? My stomach's almost out of bile," Dean told him with sarcasm again as he stared at him with hatred and sadness. He hated the fact that this fallen angel was possessing his little brother just as much as it saddened him. To know that his brother might still be somewhere in there was hurting him too much, but he did his best not to let it show on his face. However, the tears forming in his eyes were slowly betraying him.
"You know why God cast me down?" Lucifer asked him. "Because I loved him. More than anything. He created so many universes in order to create this one. Then he chose three of his creations to take care of these universes, while he went on creating something else," he paused, smirking. "You. The little...hairless apes. And then he asked all of us angels, to bow down before you—to love you, more than him. And I said, 'Father, I can't.' I said, 'These human beings are flawed, murderous.' And for that, God had Michael cast me into hell. Now, tell me, does the punishment fit the crime? Especially, when I was right? Look at what six billion of you have done to this thing, and how many of you blame me for it."
"You're not fooling me, you know that? With this sympathy-for-the-devil crap. I know what you are," Dean told him after a moment.
"What am I?"
"You're the same thing, only bigger. The same brand of cockroach I've been squashing my whole life. An ugly, evil, belly-to-the-ground, supernatural piece of crap. The only difference between them and you is the size of your ego."
Smiling, Lucifer looked down for a moment before shifting his gaze back up to the hunter, "I like you, Dean. I get what the other angels see in you. Goodbye. We'll meet again soon."
As the fallen angel turned around and made a couple of steps away, Dean called after him. "You better kill me now!"
"Pardon?" Lucifer asked, turning back to look at him.
"You better kill me now. Or I swear, I will find a way to kill you. And I won't stop," Dean replied, his voice slightly breaking although he tried to still sound strong and unafraid.
"I know you won't. I know you won't say yes to Michael, either, just like I know that your dear Kaitlin will never let the angels use her as a weapon. And, I know, oh so well that you won't kill Sam. Just face it, Dean. Whatever you do, you will always end up here. Whatever choices you make, whatever details you alter, we will always end up—here," Lucifer told him as Dean couldn't help the tears that escaped his eyes and fell down his cheeks. "I win. So, I win."
"You're wrong."
"See you in five years, Dean," Lucifer smiled at him before disappearing.
2009.
In the middle of an empty road.
Dean was surprised to find himself in the middle of a road while just one second ago he was facing a very pissed off Zachariah. Turning around, Dean was relieved to find the blue-eyed angel in his usual trench-coat, standing there with a tiny smile on his lips.
"That's pretty nice timing, Cas," the hunter told him.
"We had an appointment," the angel replied as Dean put a hand on his shoulder and looked right into his eyes.
"Don't ever change."
"We had some difficulty finding you," Castiel told Dean who frowned.
"We?"
"Kate, Bobby and myself," he replied, causing the green-eyed man to blink a few times. The information was surprising considering that he had pushed the woman away the last time. "How did Zachariah find you?"
"Um, it's a long story," Dean replied as he took a look around himself. "Where are they?"
"Who?"
"Bobby and Kaitlin," Dean replied as though it was the most obvious thing.
"Bobby is at his house and I brought Kate back to Matt's sides," Castiel simply replied. "The moment I sensed Zachariah was back, I knew you were with him. So, I dropped Kate back in Colorado and came to take you away from Zachariah."
"I see," Dean muttered before quickly fishing his cellphone out of his pocket as one important thought washed all the other thoughts away. "Oh, and before I forget, keep in mind that we gotta stay away from Jehovah's Witnesses from now on, okay?"
"What are you doing?" Castiel asked as he looked at Dean who was scrolling down his contacts' list.
"Something I should have done in the first place," he replied as he pushed one button to make his call and then brought his cellphone up against one ear.
"You're calling your brother," Castiel commented and Dean gave him a nod. The angel let another tiny smile form on his lips, "Kate will be happy to hear that."
Dean slightly frowned at that before a memory of his trip in the future appeared in the back of his head.
"She… She said he needed me to be there for him... Being left alone pushed him into doing the wrong thing, at least that's what she told me."
The next day.
Fives miles north of Boulder, Colorado.
At one of the many Bobby Singer's cabins in the wood.
As Matt walked out of the tiny bathroom, he tossed his two towels on his bag that was laying open on the couch that had become his bed the last few days. He glanced at Kate as she was quietly packing her bag at the end of the only bed of the whole little cabin. She hadn't been very talkative since Castiel dropped her back here around four in the morning, and it was almost seven in the morning now. Neither of them had succeeded getting some shut eye during these short three hours, so when Matt got a call from a fellow hunter asking for his help on a delicate case in Bismarck, North Dakota, he decided they would hit the road.
After a moment, Matt realized that Kate may not have been very at ease with the idea of following him to a hunt where there was a man she didn't know at all. "I'll drop you off at Bobby's if you want?" When she didn't say anything and just kept folding her clothes and putting them in her bag, the young man frowned. "Kate?"
"What did you say to Bobby?"
"What? I didn't call him yet," he replied as she dropped her last article of clothing in her bag and looked up at him.
"I'm not talking about right now. I'm talking about the other times. You must have told him something because last night when I was trying to perform those spells, he was…" She paused before continuing with a wistful little voice, "I don't even know… He was kinda cold." Matt sighed as he stared at her. "So, what did you tell him?"
"I just told him what I told you," he replied with a light shrug. "That you should be careful around the Winchesters because they make you lose your focus on your problem."
"Lose my focus on my problem?" She frowned, puzzled. "Matt, you were there when Chronos said that for now there was absolutely no way for me to travel back. You were there when he said that he'd come back to make that deal with me, and he said it wouldn't be before months. So, what am I supposed to do until he shows up? Huh? Am I supposed to twiddle my thumbs while this whole world is marching towards its end?"
"That's not what I'm saying," he told her before taking a deep breath and quickly letting it out in a frustrated breath. "You're old enough to look after yourself and decide if you wanna help with the freakin' Apocalypse or not. But, that doesn't mean you gotta put your life in danger. And I'm sorry, but hanging out with the Winchesters can only do that!"
"And hanging out with you cannot?" She snapped back at him, her eyes staring right into his. "You are a hunter just like them, and just like them you mix with monsters and death everyday. Hell, you're bringing me along to another hunt right now!" She scoffed, waving her hands at him. "I'm sorry, but I don't see in which way I'm safer with you than with them."
"Well, first and most obvious reason I don't have Heaven screwing up with me and the people I care about!" He shouted and she slightly flinched at that. He sighed and continued in a calmer voice, "And, let's be honest here, if you had to trade my life to save theirs, you wouldn't even think twice about it."
"What?" She breathed out, utterly confused now.
"I don't-"
"How can you even say that?" She asked him, her eyes roaming his face as though he had grown a second head. "How can you believe that I'd think this low of our friendship?"
"I'm not blind, Kate."
"Obviously yeah, you are!" She told him in half a scoff half a shout. "If you think that I care any less about you, after all you did for me. Then you're not only blind, you're stupid, too! Matt, you are as important for me as they are."
The grey-eyed man was taken aback by her reaction, and although he was touched to hear that she valued their friendship just as much as the one she shared with the Winchesters, he wasn't happy with her answer. He mumbled, "You just put a lot more of pressure on my shoulders."
"Pardon?"
"If you care about me as much as you care about Sam and Dean, then that makes it all worse, because I know what that means," he replied as he looked up to meet her confused brown eyes. "That means that the Winchesters and Bobby aren't the only ones that can be the death of you. So can I."
"Chronos said that he would see me in a few months, right?" She softly told him after a short silence. "Don't you think that means I'll still be alive in a few months? After all, he knows what's in our future, so he'd know if I happened to die. It means that I don't have to be afraid of risking my life by being with you or with Sam and Dean. You can stop worrying so much," she finished with a little smile before grabbing her bag and her jacket and walking out to the car.
Matt stayed still as he realized that her words weren't as reassuring as he would have wanted them to be. Because, at the end of the day, what Matt feared the most was that she wouldn't be able to leave this world unbroken and in tears as she would go back to the world where she was so lonely.
But maybe that was it.
Maybe he should let her enjoy the lack of loneliness in her new life for as long as she could. After all, if anyone deserved to be happy in this crappy universe of theirs, it had to be that brown-haired visitor.
One month and a half later.
San Francisco, California.
A dinner across St Francis Memorial Hospital.
"You're sure about that? 'Cause I've read that book a lot of times and I'm pretty sure that's never been mentioned," Kate spoke as she held her phone with one hand and grabbed her tiny spoon with the other.
"Maybe the versions are slightly different from one universe to another?" Sam suggested on the other end of the line as she used her spoon to cut a piece of her slice of apple pie.
The day following Dean's return from the trip in the future that Zachariah had given him, Kate had been genuinely and happily surprised to receive a call from the younger Winchester. After apologizing for not keeping in touch with her, Sam had offered her to come back by his and his brother's sides, but Kate had refused. She wanted to stick with Matt who, she had then realized, showed some issues in believing that she valued their friendship. Besides, she wanted to be there when Rosemary's sister would come to San Francisco to sign the official decision of unplugging her sister from her life support. Since then, Sam called every two days or so. Within a couple of weeks, their phone calls went from lasting only five minutes to lasting half an hour or maybe a little more sometimes. Sam had roughly told her what happened to him and Kate had roughly told him what happened to her. Between Sam telling her that he was Lucifer's vessel and Kate telling him that Chronos wanted to make a deal with her the next time he'd come by, the good news were pretty lacking, so Kate started making casual conversation with him. Somehow, she knew that it made Sam feel better as he could think about something else than anything Apocalypse-related.
And, truth be told, it also made her feel better.
Nevertheless, even though Kate loved talking with Sam who was always so easy to talk with, she was a bit sad that Dean had talked to her only three times all of this time. The first time was when she called Sam and he answered the call instead of his brother, the second time was when Sam put his phone's speakers on and the third time was when she was at Bobby's with Matt and that the old man had passed the phone to her. Needless to say, all three times had been rather short and awkward. But, in the same time, hearing his voice had made the young woman happy, too. Happy and relieved to know that he was alright, or at least as alright as Dean Winchester could be.
The return of Sam's usual calls wasn't the only thing that happened after Dean's little trip in the future. Indeed, Matt's training sessions had also come back into an everyday routine: from physical training with jogging early in the morning, doing tons of push-ups, working on her abs and her fighting skills, to technical training with learning how to fight with a knife and how to shoot. Unfortunately, it seemed that firearms didn't agree with the young woman at all, and Matt started to believe that it was a hopeless case. However, he still brought her along to four different hunts, and let her out of the researches to actually help killing the monster twice. No doubt researches were her forte, but she wasn't that bad on the field. Well, as long as she didn't have to use a firearm.
"I'll have to check this out. Maybe I should re-read all the books I've ever read and see if there's differences with the versions I've read back there," Kate replied as she brought her spoon full of pie to her mouth.
"You do that," he chuckled. "Meanwhile, I'd be knocking myself out with researching what in this town turns every lies we tell kids true."
Kate chuckled before talking with her mouth full, "You know what I should do?"
"Not speak with your mouth full?" He teased her on the other end of the line.
She swallowed down, "You think you're funny. No, I'm thinking that I should write a book."
"I thought you were supposed to re-read all the books you've ever read, not write one."
"No, but seriously, I could make a lot of money by writing about all the things you fight in here," she told him.
"Like Chuck, you mean?"
"Kinda. But without the bankruptcy. Maybe I should ask him a few tips when I see him," Kate replied as she took her cup of black coffee and drank a long sip.
"You plan to see him?" He asked her as Kate heard him shuffle some pages, certainly still doing his researches while talking to her.
"Mmhmm," she hummed with a nod that he could obviously not see. Putting her cup back down, she grabbed her spoon as she elaborated, "I was thinking of paying him a little visit soon. Just to make sure that he's not keeping any writings about me in his room."
"You mean like a shower scene?" Sam asked her with a chuckle before she heard another voice speaking up behind him followed by what sounded like a door slamming shut. "Um, I'm talking to Katie."
"Dean's there?"
"Yeah, he, um, he just got back."
"And, let me guess, he's still trying to avoid talking to me for some unknown reason, huh? She asked.
"Take another guess," Dean's deep voice answered playfully on the other end of the line. Kate felt herself straighten on her seat as her cheeks turned slightly red.
"D-Dean," she stuttered and then mentally cursed at herself mentally for stuttering with no reason.
"The one and only," he replied with a little chuckle. "How are you?"
"Honestly? Um, a bit surprised that I'm talking with you right now."
"Why so?"
"You really have to ask?" She asked him, toying with her spoon and the Chantilly cream on her pie.
After a short moment during which Kate heard Sam say something about Dean snatching his phone in the back followed by a sigh from Dean and the sound of a door, once again, slamming shut, Dean spoke up again. "I don't know what Sammy's been telling you, but I ain't avoiding you, Kaitlin."
"Well, I don't know. I mean, you-" She cut herself off as she realized something. Frowning and putting her spoon down, she licked her lips before she asked in almost a whisper, "Did you just call me 'Kaitlin'?"
"As far as I'm concerned, it's still your name," he replied and Kate could nearly see the frown of confusion on his freckled face.
Her lips stretched into a wide smile on their own and she had to bit on her bottom lip to lessen that smile so she could reply. "Yes. It's just that… Never mind. I'm sure you needed to ask me something if you snatched the phone away from Sam."
"Yeah," Dean said with a thoughtful tone. "But, like you said, never mind." Kate slightly frowned at that, wondering if he had realized too that it had been a while since he called her Kaitlin and not Kate.
"So, you got any lead on your case?" She asked him, trying to break the silence that was slowly settling.
"Well," Dean started when Sam's cellphone made a noise indicating another upcoming call. "Ugh. There's… It's the hospital calling on Sam's phone for the case. I gotta take this."
"Oh, alright. I gotta go anyway," she replied. "You be safe, huh?"
"Yeah. You too," he told her before she hung up.
Kate looked down at her spoon and then put it down with a sigh as she moved her brown eyes and immediately met the blue eyes of a blond man sitting on his own at the next table. She gave him a polite smile before moving her eyes to the hospital building across the street that she could see through the grand window of the dinner. She absently stared at the building for a while, her mind playing in a loop the few words she exchanged with the elder Winchester. She had no idea why every little things with or about Dean seemed to make her brain think too much, just like she had no idea why she felt the need to always ask after him via Bobby or Sam while he surely didn't do the same.
This past month and a half as Matt kept Kate in shape with the training sessions and the few hunts, she had realized something quite weird about herself. For some reason, her thoughts always rambled around Dean and even how he would have taken care of the case she and Matt were working on. Maybe the fact that Dean was certainly still feeling guilty for what Zachariah did to her, pushed her mind into thinking that much about the elder Winchester. Surely, the reason remained odd, confusing and a little bit mysterious for the young woman who had never been the kind of girl to spend her nights awake thinking about some guy.
"Got some relative in there?" A male voice startled Kate out of her thoughts.
"Mmh?" She asked looking up at the blond man she had smiled to, just a moment ago. "No. Not really. Um, a friend of mine is visiting someone so I'm just waiting for him, here."
"You couldn't go in there with him?" He asked her, his voice gentle.
"Um, something like that," she replied before she noticed the sad expression in his eyes. She could tell that he had gone through something that pained him a lot and being the compassionate person that she was, she couldn't let him go without offering him to drink his coffee with her.
That was how, over a coffee, Kate and the blond-haired man had a nice ten-minute long conversation that mostly revolved around the hot temperature of the area and all the natural disasters that happened these past couple of months. Of course Kate didn't tell him that the reason behind all these disasters was that the Apocalypse had been launched. Their conversation remained the most normal conversation she had ever since she came in here. Not one single mention of anything supernatural at all. Talking with someone who was completely oblivious to the dark and monster-full side of this world, was rather refreshing for the young woman. However, the sorrow that was painted in the man's features and that made her have him sit down with her, pained Kate who couldn't help but ask him if he had some relative in the hospital across the street.
"No, no," he shook his head as he looked down at his cup of coffee. "It's more complicated." Kate didn't say anything knowing far well that when someone said that something was complicated, it meant that they didn't want to talk about it – especially if it was someone you just met. "It's just…" The man began, causing Kate to look up at him with kind brown eyes ready to listen to him if that was what he needed. "My father and I, we got into an argument a long time ago and we never solved it."
"Well, it's never too late," she gently told him.
"The thing is that he doesn't want to see me," he replied as he stirred his little spoon in the coffee he still hadn't tasted. "Besides, my brothers are all against me. My whole family turned its back on me."
"I'm sorry," Kate told him with a sincerity that made him look at her with arched up eyebrows. He scanned her face for a couple of seconds and then a corner smile of gratitude grew on his lips.
"Do you believe in destiny?" He asked her and she lightly frowned, not expecting him to ask her such a question.
"Um, I'm not sure," she shrugged as he watched her. She bit her bottom lip, thoughtfully before continuing. "I think I'm the kind of person who likes to believe that you can make your own future."
"It is a rather wise way of thinking," he commented, right when her cellphone vibrated on the table.
"Sorry," she said as she took the device and read the text Matt had just sent her.
"Meet you by the car in 5"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I gotta go," she looked up and saw the man sitting across of her, nod at her in understanding. Grabbing her bag that was hanging on the back of her chair, she stood up and pulled out her wallet.
"Please, don't," the blond-haired man told her. She was ready to insist on paying when he shook his head. "I'll pay."
"Thank you," she sighed as she put her wallet back inside of her bag that she etched up on her shoulder. "I hope everything will turn out okay with your family."
"We'll see," he replied as she gave him a soft smile before turning around, ready to head for the door.
"Oh," she spun around again, "I didn't catch your name."
"Oh, you can call me Nick," he told her before her cellphone rang as she was going to tell him her own name.
"Sorry, gotta go," she told him as she put her cellphone against her ear and walked out of the dinner while the blond-haired man watched her go with a wicked smile on his lips.
That night.
Carson City, Nevada.
After realizing that Kate had been fast asleep for about an hour now, Matt pulled up his car to the side of the empty country road, deciding that he could use some shut eye as well. It had been a rather long week for the both of them. They were in Montana when he got a call from Rosemary's sister, Martha Wilson, telling him that she was coming in San Francisco to sign all the required papers to get her sister unplugged from her life support. They had rushed to St Francis Memorial Hospital, leaving the case Matt was working on for another couple of hunters. Luckily, the circumstances made it that Martha had to wait another few months to sign those papers, and that made Matt happier than ever. Having these months filled with certainty that Rosemary would still be plugged to her life support, gave him hope that she could still wake up.
Matt was distracted from his thoughts when Kate lightly moaned and shifted on her seat. He looked over at her and saw the little frowny pout that her face was doing. He let out a soft chuckle at that and then positioned himself so that he could comfortably lay back in his seat. He closed his eyes, but another sound coming from the brunette sleeping on the seat next to him, got him to shut his eyes open. He turned his head to look at her.
"Mmh, Dean…" Kate let out in a whisper as Matt watched her with raised eyebrows and an amused smile forming on his lips.
"At least, she's having sweet dreams," he whispered to himself before exhaling a long sigh and shifting to a comfortable position in his seat. It wasn't long before he fell sound asleep, too.
At his right, the young woman started to shift more agitatedly in her seat as her sweet dreams slowly turned into a nightmare full of blood and screams.
A couple of minutes later, the brunette woke up with a gasp. Quickly realizing that it was all a dream, Kate started to breathe heavily, trying to catch back her breath as her brown eyes went to her left and she saw Matt snoring as he was sleeping deeply. She looked out the window and realized that Matt had pulled off in the middle of nowhere. Rubbing her fingers on her eyelids, she grabbed her cellphone from the dashboard and then looked down at the time.
1:07 am.
She stared at the numbers until the seven turned into an eight and then a nine, and then automatically, her fingers scrolled the short contact list that she had. She wanted to call Sam so he could help her think about something else than the bad dream she just had. But, something inside of her told her that it would be too much, considering they had already talked to each other this afternoon.
Biting on her bottom lip, Kate looked at the other names on the list; more specifically she looked at the name of his big brother. Looking at his name made her heart beat faster under her ribcage, and she felt herself getting flustered. Shutting her cellphone in one swift movement, she put it on the dashboard and shook her head. The memories of how that nightmare had started as another kind of dream making her uncomfortable and also making her wonder how the hell she could have had that kind of dream about him. Her eyes went big and round as detailed memories of that too sweet dream came back flowing in her head.
"Oh God," escaped her lips a bit loudly. She slapped her hands against her mouth and looked at Matt in case she would have woken him up. Realizing that he was still fast asleep, Kate sighed in relief that he had absolutely no idea what she had just dreamt about.
Four days later.
Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Kate started to get impatient as she knocked on the door for the third time and then rang the doorbell twice. She was starting to believe that the prophet wasn't at his house, and it made her regret not going with Matt to meet Rufus in Michigan. Before borrowing that car from Bobby and driving all the way to here on her own, she should have called the prophet and see if he was going to be there. Even if it meant risking the angels knowing what she was doing and even locating her.
Sighing, Kate looked around the neighbourhood when the door clicked open, causing her attention to get back to the door.
"Sorry, I was looking for my robe," the bearded man said as he pulled his door fully open, revealing himself in a brown bathrobe over his underwear, just like the first time she and the Winchesters had met him months ago.
"Catch," she smiled to him as she tossed him a tiny black canvas bag that he caught with his two hands.
Glancing down at it, he frowned, "Um, you really think this is necessary?"
"Considering the last time I came, a group of angels almost beat me to death, yeah," she replied.
"Yeah, but, um, if my archangel doesn't see me anymore because of it, he might show up," he explained, his tone full of worry.
"Mmh. I'm pretty sure he would have been here by now, don't you think?" She explained in return and he considered her answer for a couple of seconds before shoving the hexbag in his bathrobe's pocket. "So, I suppose you knew I was coming." He simply nodded. "Um, are you going to invite me in or-"
"Oh, yes! Sure, come on in," he stepped away, letting her walk in his house.
Kate was pretty surprised as her brown eyes immediately took notice of how cleaner and neater Chuck's place was. She made her way in the hallway and up to the living room, the prophet trailing behind.
"What happened in here?"
"Oh, uh, a new friend of mine has been coming almost every weekend and she just started to clean everything up," he explained and she turned her head to him, lifting her eyebrows as she smiled.
"She?"
"Yeah, she's just a friend," he shrugged, folding his arms over his chest as Kate turned completely around, her eyes fixing at his face. "Okay, she's actually a fan of the 'Supernatural' books. I asked for her help a while back, and now she brings me cupcakes or cleans my place, and I'm not even asking her to do any of that! But she does and then I have to pay her by writing her some new adventures about Sam and Dean. I have to come up with new things to write almost every weekend. It's pretty exhausting."
"Well, why don't you just give her some of the 'Supernatural' manuscripts you've written but haven't published yet?"
"Well, she's more demanding… She wants to read some particular things putting Sam and Dean in situations that are, well, not very kosher," he stammered.
Kate frowned for a moment before her eyes went big in realization of what he was telling her, "You mean, like, um, the Sam slash Dean, things?"
"It's a way to put it," he nodded.
"Oh. Don't ever mention it to Sam and Dean, then," she advised him. "Speaking about Sam and Dean, may I know why you gave them the manuscripts about me?"
"I didn't want to, but Dean didn't give me a choice," he immediately replied, a little panic in his voice as he held his hands up in defence. "Besides, I think they needed to know what happened to you, what angels did to you… I mean, it's kinda the same reason that pushed you into reading my books, isn't it? You wanted to know what happened to Sam and Dean and what made them who they are today."
Kate was speechless as she looked at the blue-eyed man. He was right. She couldn't blame him for giving the Winchesters the manuscripts about her while she had read all these books about them. It would have been unfair even though they still didn't know that she had read these books about them. Nevertheless, she couldn't help but wonder what they had learned exactly from these manuscripts aside from what Zachariah had done to her.
"Just so you know, my friend doesn't know about you," Chuck spoke in a little voice, pulling Kate out of her thoughts. She looked at him with a questioning expression. "I haven't let her see the manuscripts about you, just like I haven't let her see the manuscripts about Sam and Dean ever since Dean's return from Hell."
"Good," Kate just said.
"Um, you want something to drink?" He asked, walking to the kitchen. "I got some beers and a soda or two in the fridge. Oh, and I got some tea. Remember last time you were gonna make me some tea when I had that headache? Well, since then I got tea here. It's not as efficient as some good booze when I get a headache, but it's not bad for the following hangover."
As he rambled, Kate's eyes fixed at his new coffee table, her mind traveling down memory lane.
"Ugh," she groaned as she landed on the coffee table when the angel threw her.
"How come a little monkey like you can believe that you can fight us," the angel told her as he walked towards her as she climbed down the table, crawling towards the sword that Bobby had given her. The sword that had been soaked in something that proved to hurt angels. The angel kicked in her stomach, three times, causing blood to leave her mouth, before she managed to trip him up. Once he was on the floor, she reached for the sword, her eyes glancing up at Castiel who was still fighting against the other angel.
"Aah!" she screamed out in pain as her hand was stepped on by the other angel. She looked up to see him standing there and making a tsk sound with his tongue as he grinned down at her. The angel she was fighting against, already standing right next to him.
"You should have listened to Zachariah. You should have run."
"Kate?" Chuck called as he approached the woman with two beers in his hands.
"What?" She startled.
"You're alright?" He asked her with sincere concern.
She looked at him for a moment as another memory flashed in her mind.
"No!" Chuck shouted as he hit with a chair the back of the angel who was crushing Kate's hand, causing him to turn around, fuming at the prophet.
"You really shouldn't have done that," the angel hissed at him, approaching the bearded-man and Kate took that opportunity to grab the sword and to swing it at the other angel's leg causing him to yelp in pain.
"I just realized that I never thanked you," she softy replied.
"What for?" Chuck asked, puzzled.
"For that night," she responded. "You didn't have to fight by our side… But, you did."
"Well, I just knew that I couldn't let down a good person like you," he gave her a corner smile.
"Maybe you're right. I mean look at me, I-I'm not a good man, I'm an alcoholic and I steal about one hundred dollars from my publisher every month. But still, I don't think I'm a bad man, either. So what am I then, huh? It's gonna be the end of the world in a few hours and I'm just a miserable person," Chuck had told her that night, before the angels' attack.
"No, you're not. To me, you are a good person," Kate had replied.
The young woman smiled back at the man standing in front of her before looking down at the two beer bottles in his hands. She took one and then looked up at him, "What about you go put some decent clothes on and we go out for lunch, huh?"
"Y-you want to take me to lunch?" He stuttered. "I thought you came here to take your manuscripts and ask me about how the Apocalypse was going."
"We can talk about this over lunch, too."
"Well, I didn't see that coming," he nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.
"Wait, um, let's be clear here. It's not a date, okay?" She gently told him, fearing that he would misunderstood her.
"That I saw coming," he replied and she let out a very light chuckle. "Don't take it bad, but although you're an attractive woman, someone else that has piqued my interest lately, so…"
"Mmh," she said, thoughtfully. "Wouldn't that be a friend who comes every weekend and gives some sense to your messy place?"
"Well," he tilted his head, a little smile forming on his lips.
"Oh, we're so gonna talk about this over lunch."
A few days later.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
With her cellphone against her ear, Kate loaded the trunk of Matt's car that the hunter lent her as she announced she would do some grocery shop to fill the house with all the things Bobby has been running out of.
"Yes, Bobby, I got your whisky," she said as she pushed the two last bags of grocery in the trunk. "Yes. Five bottles. And by the way, people looked at me weirdly," she slammed the trunk shut as she chuckled at the reply he gave her on the other end of the line. "Yeah, see you in a few," she finished before hanging up.
As Kate pushed the shopping trolley to where it had to be put, she felt eyes watching her. Turning around with frowned eyebrows, the brown-eyed woman quickly realized that it was her imagination playing with her mind as there was no one else in the supermarket's parking lot, but her. She shook her head as she settled the trolley in place and turned around, only to bump into someone.
"Sorry-" She started to say before her eyes took notice of who was standing in front of her. "Nick!" She exclaimed with surprise as she took a step back, still watching him as a genuine smile formed on her lips. "What are you doing here? You're miles away from California."
"I could ask you the same question," he smirked down at her. Kate slightly frowned as she realized that he looked very pale comparing to the last time she saw him.
"Um, I got family here," she told him, before continuing with concern in her voice. "Are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be okay?" He asked her, the wicked smile plastered on his face started to confuse her. "So, family you said?"
"Y-yeah," she stuttered, starting to feel something off. "You?"
"Me?"
"Yeah, um, what are you doing here?" She asked before she let her eyes glance down at his clothes to find out that he was wearing the exact same clothes than back in San Francisco.
"Work. But also family. You know how these two can mix together, Kate," he simply replied.
"Yeah, I-" Kate started before she cut herself as she realized something that froze her. "Um, I… I never told you my name," she said in a little voice as she looked up at the pale blue-eyed man.
"Oh," he let out before chuckling as he shook his head. "And, I thought it would take much more time before I did this sort of stupid slip," he told her as she started to take steps back while quickly saying the exorcism chant. Nevertheless, it didn't have the effect Kate wished for, as he started laughing, "Oh come on, it's not because I created the demons that I'm one of them."
It froze Kate in spot as she stared up at him with wide eyes, finally understanding who he was.
"Oh God," escaped her mouth in a breath as she felt her heartbeats wildly increasing with the intense fear of who was in her presence.
"Try again," he smirked at her.
"How…"
"How did I find you?" He asked before taking one step towards her. "Well, it's true that you're hard to locate. Just like the Winchesters. But, I've been wanting to meet you ever since Sammy got me out and I heard about you. And well, back in San Francisco, you might say that it was pure luck. As for today, let's say that the last time I saw you, I made sure to keep track of your car."
Kate glanced at Matt's car a few feet away before returning her gaze to him, only to find him standing just a few inches away from her. She jumped in both surprise and fear.
"Oh, Kate," he told her, his voice sounding soothing and even seducing as he reached one hand to touch one long curly strands of her hair. She couldn't help the shaky breath she took in as he twirled his finger in her curl. "Don't be scared, I'm not here to harm you."
"Sorry if I got trouble believing your words," she told him sarcastically, yet her voice was shaking with fear.
"I see that my reputation has made its way across the universes," he commented before nodding as he sighed and put his hand away from her. She immediately took one step back as he stared at her, "Look, I like you, Kate. Not because you're not from here, and even less because of your soul that you're hiding oh-so well behind that magic tattoo. I like you, because you're incredibly and sincerely understanding, caring and compassionate. And, I know that's why you will help me. You will help me win."
"You're wrong. I will never help you do anything."
"Sure, you will," he told her with a sinful smile. "Because that's who you are. A helpful little human who always puts others before her."
"I will never put you before me," she distinctly told him, fisting her hands to help keep her fear as low as possible. If she had to keep her fear as invisible as possible to somebody, it had to be to that fallen angel.
"Maybe not me. But, someone else and by doing so, you will help me win."
With these last words he vanished into thin air and the young woman let out a long breath that she didn't even know she was holding all along. She pressed her hands on her skull, lightly pushing her hair back as she closed her eyes and tried to breathe normally and to calm her heartbeats down.
She had just talked with the Devil himself.
A moment later.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Bobby Singer's.
"The Devil?!" The rough voice exclaimed from the other end of the line.
"No, the Queen of England!" Bobby sarcastically replied. "Yes, the Devil! Are you listening to a word I say or what?"
"I'm listening," Dean gruffly retorted. "But, what the hell does he want with her?" Dean asked, his voice remaining very agitated since Bobby recounted to him everything that Kate told him once she got back to his place.
"Apparently, he wants her to help him," Bobby replied. "Which means that he knows her true identity."
"He can see her soul through her tattoo?"
"No. She said that he told her he couldn't. But still, somehow he knew who she was," Bobby explained. "And, he certainly wanna use her as the weapon that the angels said she could be."
"She'll never say 'yes' to them and even less to him," Dean said and Bobby nodded even though the young man couldn't see him.
"Yeah, I know that, Dean. But, that's not what worries me right now. Katie told me that Lucifer didn't expect her to find out who he was that soon and she said that he looked almost relaxed."
"Of course Lucifer is chilled out. He's been partying out of his cage for some time now!"
"You don't get it, Dean," Bobby sighed. "He showed calm and patience. He's clearly not in a rush in wearin' Sam and getting' slayed down by Michael. Which means…"
"Which means he's preparing something," Dean finished.
"Exactly. And, I don't think Lucifer has a lot of plans for Saturday night," Bobby told him.
"Yeah, but what else could he be working on? I mean, he already got earthquakes, hurricanes and a fuckin' tsunami on the planet since he got out!"
"I guess that's just the start," Bobby muttered.
After a short pause, Dean asked, "She with you now?"
"No, she's takin' a shower," Bobby replied, not needing to ask who that 'she' was.
"Alright, I'll call you later. Sam just got back, I gotta tell him the good news."
"Right," Bobby scoffed before they hung up on each other.
The old man put his cellphone down on his desk and then rubbed his beard thoughtfully when the sound of his front door opening and shutting echoed. He looked over the doorway of his living room and not a second later, Matt walked in, letting out a long sigh.
"I searched from top to bottom, nothing. I'm pretty sure that it was the only nickel Lucifer put in my car," he said referring to the weird nickel they had found in his car earlier and that they had melted in flames when Bobby said that a spell was certainly casted on that nickel so that Lucifer could know where they were.
"Good," Bobby just said.
"You called the Winchesters?" Matt asked as he walked to the kitchen.
"Yeah. I just hung up on Dean," Bobby replied.
"And?" Matt asked as he opened the fridge and took two beer bottles out.
"And, he's thinking like me," Bobby responded as he took the beer that Matt handed him. "We're screwed."
"We were already screwed before the Devil came to Kate," the young man remarked as he opened his beer.
"We're even more screwed now."
"You think so?"
"What? You don't?"
"Well," Matt began as he tilted his head to the side before sitting down on the couch. "I'm pretty sure that whatever Lucifer wants Kate to help him with, she won't. She's not stupid, she knows he's the big bad boy. Besides, whatever happens, the Apocalypse's already here, right? It doesn't really change anything that Lucifer met Kate or not."
Bobby watched the young man quietly as he realized how wrong he was. The fact that Lucifer had met Kate changed absolutely everything. Not only did it prove to them that the fallen angel was slowly carrying out his plan, but it also showed them that Lucifer had in mind the same idea than the angels, which was to use Kate as a weapon. And now that he knew what Kate looked like, whether she had a tattoo shielding the view of her soul or cravings on her ribs keeping her out of the angels' radar, the young woman was inevitably in a higher danger. His last hope for her to not get too involved in all of this end-of-the-world mess, and for her to not die, was Chronos and his words. According to Matt, Chronos had said that he would come back to see Kate in a few months so they could do that still mysterious deal that could get her the answer about her arrival in this universe. And, if Chronos was true to his words, it meant that Kate will know how to travel back to her universe where she would be safe and sound while they handled the Apocalypse.
A few days later.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Bobby Singer's.
Licking the mayonnaise off her fingers, the young woman reached out for the napkin with her other hand before wiping both of her hands. She opened the fridge and started putting the cheese, lettuce, ham and the bottle of mayonnaise back inside of it while making sure to have a good hearing of the two voices echoing in the living room.
With Matt gone to a hunt in Canada, Kate had spent the last couple of days at Bobby's just like it used to be. Bobby was supposed to go to that hunt but his condition had made it impossible so Matt offered to go instead. Kate was left to take care of the old man and to take a break from all the training the young hunter had been putting her in lately. Nevertheless, out of habit she continued the physical training that was jogging early in the morning and do some work-out in the night, although she surely did it much less intense than what Matt had her doing. Moreover, she, of course, helped Bobby with his researches. Thankfully, he wasn't grumpy anymore about her getting too involved in the hunting world. Kate was pretty sure that Matt had talked to him about that, but she also believed that the old man knew they couldn't keep her completely out of their world.
It was too late anyway.
She had seen and lived things that she would never forget. Even Zachariah's tortures that had been rubbed off her memories by the angels, had still left a bitter trace that would never leave her. Aside from that, her time by all these hunters' sides, had got her to witness more than what an ordinary person could take without having nightmares every night; which was her case, even though she kept quiet about that.
The young woman shook her head, trying to keep her mind from wandering in all of these thoughts that could only bring up a too intense stress and pain inside of her that she was trying so hard not to let get the best of her.
Grabbing the plate with the two sandwiches she had just made, Kate entered the living room as Dean's voice echoed from the phone Bobby had put on speakers minutes ago.
"It sounds crazy, right?"
She put the plate on the coffee table as Bobby replied to the young man on the other end of the line.
"No. There's lore on it. Goes back centuries," he grabbed one of the sandwiches and nibbled at it before continuing with his mouth full while Kate sat down on the couch just across of him. "Travelin' card player pops into town. You beat him, you get your best years back. 'Course, most folks lose."
Kate took a large bite of her own sandwich as she quietly listened to their conversation.
"Well, that would explain the crunchy corpse," Dean said, thoughtfully.
"Supposedly, this player's a hell of a card shark. Got a lot of years in the bank," Bobby replied through chewing. "You find the bar he's workin' in yet?"
"There's a lot of dives in this town. We're gonna have to split up," Dean simply replied.
"Well, why you still talking to me?" Bobby grumbled at him.
"Woah relax, Bobby. Sam and I got everything in hand. I-I just wanted to check if everything was alright back there?"
"Why wouldn't it be?"
"Well, I don't know. I'm just asking-"
"Just go find that man," Bobby grumpily cut him off before hanging up and Kate looked up at him. "What?"
"Nothing," she hurriedly said, shooting her hands up in defence.
Bobby watched her as she returned her attention to the open notebook on the coffee table. With one piece of paper and a pen nearby, the young woman had spent the last couple of hours reorganizing all of her notes from all the researches she had done about her situation. After that, she was planning on listening to that last recording of Pamela's and reorganizing all the notes from the late psychic's recordings as well. Needless to say, Kate had plenty of work to do in order to set every finds on her situation in a much clearer file. However, even though she claimed to want to get it all done by the time Chronos returned to see her, she wasn't rushing herself at all.
With her fingers playing with her newly cut short hair that barely reached her shoulders, her brown eyes reading her own notes and her free hand helping her nibble at her sandwich, Kate looked more careless than ever. Of course, Bobby knew better than to believe what she was showing on the outside. He knew that Kate was trying her hardest to keep her never-dying fear, concern and anxiety in check. He knew that she was doing her hardest to not show how much this life had infected her and was still infecting her. Nevertheless, Bobby could still sense a delicate glimpse of solace that this world brought to Kate.
The solace of not feeling alone, and to feel useful.
Dropping his gaze to his paralyzed legs, Bobby's thoughts were stirred back to what he and Dean just discussed about. The case Sam and Dean were working on right now, was outrageously intriguing. The possibility of winning some years back through a poker game was interesting. But, it wasn't youth that interested the blue-eyed hunter.
What interested him was the possibility of getting out of this chair. The possibility of standing up and becoming useful again.
Author's note:
First of all I wanna apologize to all of you for taking so long to update this chapter! Nevertheless, I hope that you enjoyed it. Especially since it seemed that you guys didn't really enjoy the last chapter seeing as there was just two reviews from two guests until the sweet 'BloodVesselandBacks' left two reviews.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not doing this for the reviews but a little feedback is always very appreciated. It helps the writer improve what needs to be improved and it also keeps them motivated and inspired to write more. Keep that in mind when you finish a chapter and you wanna read another one but it hasn't been updated yet ;)
Guest 1: I'm happy that you enjoyed the 3rd chapter! People have been asking to know a bit more about Matt and I was afraid of the reaction after updating this chapter. But, to know that someone at least enjoyed it, makes me so very happy! Thank you very much for your prayers and for your review!
Guest 2: Well, that was a very uplifting review, thank you very much. I'm totally okay with you or anyone else not liking my story. It's human, some can love things that other hate and vice versa. But, saying that I should stick with my native language and stop writing in English, and that I should stop wasting my time with this story are both two things that are… Ugh. I don't even know what to say, because I believe that you have the right to speak your mind, but really, you should never tell anyone that they're wasting their time when they do something creative. Never. If you don't like what they do, just say it without telling them to stop it, and then just leave. I assume that you've read all of my story if your review was posted on the very last chapter I posted, so really, if you didn't like it, why did you bother reading all these chapters? Maybe, you thought it would get better? Well, sorry to disappoint, it's still the same pathetic story. Thanks for the review anyway.
BloodVesselandBacks: Thank you very much for your sweet reviews! Not only were you so kind and supportive about the people trying to bring me down with their review, but you also left me another review that made my day (and I was having such a bad day so it was exactly what I needed!). Thank you for your prayers and thank you for leaving these reviews! I truly hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Thank you for everyone else who's reading my story, and for favouring, following it but also for favouring and following me! I'm very touched and all I hope for is for you all to keep on enjoying my story :)!
Lots of love,
A.