Part Four
A shot rings through the night, a bullet flies through the air and rips through the flesh of Sam's stomach dropping him to the ground.
Terror, a kind she's only ever experienced twice before in her life slams through her system and in that moment Haley realizes she loves him.
The epiphany has pretty much guaranteed that she's screwed.
*-*-*-*-*
The urge to comfort Dean is almost stifling and Brooke has to physically stop herself from reaching out to him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
She sits on her hands and wills herself not to cry because she's never seen a man look so broken before while trying to be so stoic.
*-*-*-*-*
They give Dean sometime alone with his brother and sit together quietly on the stoop of Bobby's porch.
They're huddled resting against each other lost in their own thoughts but still there with the other completely.
Brooke doesn't need to say she feels helpless because Haley reads it in her eyes and Haley doesn't have to show her heart is breaking because Brooke can faintly hear it shatter.
*-*-*-*-*
Hours later Sam opens up his eyes but to those around him it feels like it's been a lifetime. Dean hugs him like his faith has been restored and Brooke's smile threatens to explode off her face.
Haley waits until the others have left the room and approaches him timidly her eyes shining with so much emotion he almost gasps from the intensity.
She lays in his arms curls herself round him and does the crying for the both of them.
*-*-*-*-*
Now that his brother is effectively out of the woods he can finally breathe again and the feelings that he tried desperately to push aside during their latest crisis slowly creep up on him.
He doesn't realise he's sobbing until Brooke places a hand on his cheek and wipes the tears tenderly away from his bloodshot eyes.
His whole body seems to sag into her waiting arms and for the first time since they've known each other they're both content with just holding on.
*-*-*-*-*
Pain and sadness can tear people apart, rip into their souls and destroy any light left they have inside. But sometimes it can take a broken person and finally give them the strength to start the journey towards healing and when that happens there isn't anything that holds more beauty.