Chapter Ten- Time's Up

A/N- Hey everyone, thanks for reading and reviewing. You're all amazing. Italics past this point are other people's thoughts, not her own.

I stared up into the woman's eyes then looked down to her extended hand. I became confused. What was happening?

She smiled at me. She was willing me to take her hand, "Roxanne."

I gulped and slowly began to sit up. I was backing away from her, pressing myself against the door of the car and hitched my legs up to my chest. I clutched on to the sheets and pulled them up with me. The pain this should have caused would have crippled me but I either didn't feel it or I was just too focused on the woman.

The guys in front were starting to notice that something was wrong. I saw them turn and watch me and they muttered to each other.

"Sam?" it was a worried question.

"Yeah," he seemed distracted.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"I sure hope not."

I opened my mouth so I could speak. Not to them but to her. At first I couldn't because I was too scared. Was she a demon, an angel or something a hell of a lot worse?

I took a breath and gasped, "Who are you?"

She smiled some more at me. She appeared to be mildly curious, "my name is Tessa and it is your time."

"My time for what?" my voice broke. I began to cry. Silent tears ran down my flushed cheeks.

I heard the alarm that passed between Sammy and Dean but it was distant somehow like a scene playing out on the television set with the volume turned down. My attention was completely on this Tessa.

"Holy crap," I heard Dean mumble, "It's a reaper."

"A reaper?" Sammy pondered.

"Cas had better get here quick," he said sternly.

She relaxed her arm a little and came down into the car sitting on the other half of the unoccupied back seat where I had been laid down previously, "Roxanne. You're dying."

"It's Rox," I mumbled, "I know that I'm dying but where will I go?"

"I can't tell you that," she smiled again, "but you're not the first soul I've helped to pass over to the other side."

I nodded, "after everything I'm still dying. I survived all that for nothing. I went through all that pain for nothing."

"Sometimes that's just how it has to be," she told me honestly.

No it doesn't, do not listen to her.

Bambi?

I cried some more and closed my eyes.

"All you have to do is take my hand and it will be all over," she soothed me.

Please do not take her hand. Stay strong.

For a second I wanted to. I wanted to take her hand and let it all be over. His voice made me hesitate but what good would come of me living?

The demons, or more specifically Alistair, would find me and I didn't know if I could live through that again. I wanted to embrace the next life and make the pain stop. So I could see my parents face to face and not know them from photographs in picture albums and say sorry to Robby and to hug Jay again. I began to reach out, my fingers nearly met hers in the air between us when I heard something else.

You must have faith. It is not your time. You have work to do.

My hand twitched backwards for a moment. The voice wasn't Bambi's and it wasn't mine. I gulped and wondered what it had meant. It was a man that much was for sure. It was someone with an accent that I'd heard before. For a second I could've sworn I knew the face of the person who owned the voice but the feeling disappeared before I could pinpoint who.

And something snapped inside me. Something just clicked, it was something that hadn't quite made it to the surface before now but had simmered where I just couldn't reach it. I was in my mid-twenties and I hadn't gotten married nor had kids but that didn't mean my life was worthless or anywhere near over.

It just meant I hadn't done a couple of things but heck I hadn't done an awful lot of things. I'd stayed in a dead end town but if I fought for my life like I had done with Alistair then I could make it. I could have a second chance. I could find out why all this had happened and I could get revenge.

I had strength within my now burning deep in my chest that made me shake my head, pull my hand away from her and protest shakily, "no. It's not my time."

I bit my lip not knowing what was going to happen or how Tessa was going to react.

"Ah," I heard someone say.

Tessa seemed sad. Almost disappointed in me, "oh, you do know what will happen if you-"

She never finished her sentence. She stopped abruptly and her eyes seemed to focus on somewhere else. She looked around for a few moments before looking back at me with dawning in her eyes, "oh."

I blinked to clear the tears and when I opened my eyes again she was gone. The seat was empty and I still had the same feeling inside me. I gulped and looked into the front seat.

The two guys were staring at me appearing shell-shocked. They were partly amused but mainly shocked by what had happened. I guessed that they could see the woman too and it was her disappearance which had confused them although they didn't seem that easy to shock.

I pulled myself up and gripped onto their seat. My fingers were digging into the leather and my nails were starting to hurt with the amount of effort I was putting into it.

"Whoa," Dean whistled.

Sammy seemed more concerned, "what the hell?"

He shrugged, "whatever happened it must've been good."

I looked them in the eye. Beads of sweat were forming on my skin. The fever was starting to come back and that coupled with my effort level was slowly starting to send my body over the edge yet again.

I was still bleeding a hell of a lot and the pain was worse than ever before. I suspected I was living on borrowed time but I still managed to speak in a determined but shaky voice, "it's not every day I get to turn death down."

Dean turned to Sammy, "I like her."

The other man simply rolled his eyes.

My eyes unfocused and everything went blurry for a few moments. Then I felt bile trying to rise in my throat. I managed to hold it down.

"Guys, can we hurry this up?" I asked breathing hard.

They took my verbal prod and they turned around to face the road. Sammy got out his cell and called someone, I guessed it was Bobby, to keep him updated on the situation.

Dean on the other hand pulled us out onto the freeway and he didn't care about how fast we were going. I eyed the speedometer warily at one point and saw we were well over the suggested speed limit.

Oh well, my fever was catching up on me. I needed help.