Chapter 9

When Love & Hate Collide

Stephanie was dragged for about thirty feet and then she was suddenly picked up and hoisted over a shoulder. Things were hazy; she wasn't entirely sure what was happening to her. Had she been drugged? She felt like she was slipping in and out of consciousness. What was happening to her?

She could feel her body being set somewhere, in the sitting position. Why couldn't she see? She tried to reach her hands up to her eyes so that she could figure out why they weren't working but she couldn't; she couldn't move her arms. She was too groggy to figure out what was happening to her.

She tried to scream but couldn't find her voice. Her head felt so heavy, she had such a hard time trying to keep her head up. She soon discovered that it was a losing battle and just let her chin fall to her chest, giving in to the darkness that surrounded her.

The next time she awoke things were a bit clearer. She was in a room, half laying and half sitting on something comfortable. It felt padded and there was something soft behind her back. A pillow. It was clear that she must have been on a bed. When words came out of her throat they were scratchy and sounded foreign to her own ears, "Let me go, please!"

"I can't do that, Stephanie." He told her, his voice giving away no emotion.

She recognized the voice immediately; how could she not? "Chuck?"

He sighed, "Yes, Steph, it's me."

"Why….what?" She couldn't formulate compete sentences to ask the question that she needed the answers to.

He went to her and pulled the blindfold off her eyes. She drew in a harsh breath when the light hit her eyes, making her blink and squint until her eyes adjusted. "How long have I been—"

"It's been a few hours." He told her, looking at her, sadness on his face. "You should probably just sleep because it will take a few more hours before you're going to feel better."

"What did you—" She started to ask as she found herself dosing off again. Whatever he had given her had really knocked her out.

He moved toward her, gently running his hand along her cheek, in a caressing manner. "Please Steph, don't be mad at me. I thought you were going to leave me. I just couldn't let that happen." He had been desperate and had lost control of himself.

She didn't respond because she was basically a vegetable. She could hear him, vaguely, but she couldn't react. Her body was so tired, so extremely wiped out. One of her wrists had been bound to the bed, but he quickly reached over and untied the knot, realizing there wasn't really anywhere that she would be able to go in her condition. "I did everything for you, Steph. All I ever wanted was you, that's all."

Tears fell from Chuck's eyes as he watched his wife slipping in and out of consciousness because of something that he did to her. He always told himself that he could never hurt her, there was no way that he would be able to, but didn't this qualify as doing just that? Wasn't he hurting her now, keeping her against her will? He fought nausea at the thought of what he was doing; kidnapping his own wife. "It's pretty bad when you have to do that, you know. I shouldn't have to keep you with me by force; you should just want to be with me. Isn't that why we were married?"

A soft little sound slipped from her lips and he knew that she was trying to communicate with him, but she couldn't. He hated this, more than he hated anything in the whole world. He hadn't wanted or intended to do anything of this nature, but she was going to flee. She was going to put herself in danger. Worse than all of that, she was going to go back with….them. He couldn't stand the thought of that. No, he had to do everything he could to keep her away from the Winchester brothers. They were bad news and had done all of this to her in the first place. If she had never met them she wouldn't be freaked out and anxious all the time. If those assholes hadn't planted all those thoughts into her head then she wouldn't be the way she was. She would have been happy, healthy, ALIVE inside. "Baby, sweetie, I love you. I know it may not seem like it right now, but honestly…I love you." His voice caught in his throat and sobs wracked through his body. This was not at all what he envisioned for their lives. This was completely…insane. INSANE. The word that had been used against her so many times; maybe the word described him more than her. What the hell was he doing?

He had their cell phone numbers. He could call them and tell them where she was. He could do that, should do that, for her. He should let them come here and rescue her from him so that he couldn't do things like this to her ever again. No, they were the enemy; there was no way he could let them get to her. Not after everything he had learned about them. Thank God he had connections to keep him informed about all kinds of things out there. He slid his body over beside hers so that he could wrap his arm across her sleeping frame, holding her, protecting her from the things out there. Big, messy tears fell from his eyes as he held her close and fell asleep beside her.

Three hours later, Stephanie awoke with a huge headache. She felt groggy and disorientated; but she recognized her surroundings, she was in a motel room. Moving her head was painful but she was able to do it carefully, so that she could try to make some sense of what was going on around her. She vaguely remembered being blindfolded or tied up or something. She looked down at her wrists and there was bruising there, as if she had struggled with binds. What the hell had happened to her? There was also something heavy against her body. She moved a bit to the left side so that she could see what was there and she found Chuck, practically lying on top of her.

She gently poked at his arm, her body hurt to move, so she made slight movements. "Chuck?"

He stirred rather quickly. When his eyes opened they widened in shock at the recollection of what he had done to her. He groaned, "Stephanie, I'm so sorry."

"What the hell did you do to me?" She asked, trying to find some strength within herself to get truly mad at him and defend herself from him.

"It was just a couple of pills. I would never hurt you, Stephanie. I would never, ever hurt you." He told her, trying to hold her against him, feeling her resistance.

She tried to fight him off, but she was so weak. She pushed against him and he grabbed onto her more tightly. He couldn't run the risk of her trying to get away on him again, so he quickly retied her wrist to the bed, a bit more tightly than last time. She glared at him, fire in her eyes, "Can't you see how much you've already hurt me? Every day of my life you've been hurting me. I can't even trust you anymore!"

He looked at her sadly, "No, I never meant to hurt you. I would never do that on purpose. I was trying to protect you. Everything's been for you."

"No!" She spat, "Let me go, now!"

"Steph, please, I can't do that. You know I can't just let you go, it's not safe."

She wrinkled up her forehead, "I thought you didn't believe in the monsters out there? I thought you thought I was crazy?"

"No, I don't really believe in ghosts, demons, vampires and all those other mythological things, but I do believe in psychotic killers. I believe in real living people who have killed tons of innocent people and escaped every time."

She had no idea what he was talking about and then the realization hit her. "You think the Winchesters are going to kill me?"

"They're bad, Stephanie. I know all about the things they've done. They're crazy, psychotic and they're making you that way too. I just wanted to protect you, keep you safe. That's all I've ever wanted to do." He went on, but she drowned out everything he was saying.

"You can't keep me here against my will, it's called kidnapping. I have rights you know."

He shook his head, "You're unstable. You're paranoid, delusional, you're….the doctor said it himself. I have the reports. Nobody in their right mind is going to think it's safe for you to be on the streets. You could hurt yourself or someone else."

What? He was going to keep her prisoner with him for the rest of her life on the premise that she was emotionally unstable to be alone? "Maybe you should have some psych evaluations done on yourself! Maybe you'll learn some things that you don't want to learn." She found some strength and she kicked her legs out, trying to fight back, screaming, "Help! Help me!"

Out in the hallway, the Winchesters were scouring the place, trying to find her. The GPS in Chuck's phone had led them to this motel, but they didn't know what room it was. The receptionist had revealed herself to being a demon and they had killed her, running away quickly to search the rooms. "I told you we should have hijacked that computer." Sam told his brother.

"There wasn't time, now shut up!" Dean had little patience for anything at the moment. His only goal was to find her and keep her safe. Suddenly he heard something and stood up straighter, extending his arm out, stopping Sam, "Do you hear something?"

Sam listened more closely too. Then they heard it; someone screaming for help. "Yeah, it's coming from two rooms down." They ran two rooms to the right and backed up, "F.B.I., open up!"

They could hear muffled screams and Dean didn't wait any longer, he cocked his gun and kicked the door in, like it was a feather. Pure adrenaline was racing through Dean's body as he raced into that room, seeing Stephanie bound and gagged on the bed. "What a sick fuck!" Dean spat at Chuck.

"Dean, don't shoot if you don't need to!" Sam exclaimed. "We don't kill people."

"That's not what I heard." Chuck told them, in panic mode.

Dean didn't care what Chuck said; he had no interest in any of it. "That depends on whether he's even human." He pointed his gun right at Chuck's head and directed Sam to untie Stephanie.

Sam did as he was instructed and felt Stephanie's relief. "Thank you." She said weekly. Sam helped her to stand and then focused his attention back to Dean, who still had his gun aimed at Chuck. Sam started to move toward his brother but felt Stephanie's body giving away beside him. He quickly reached out to catch her before she could hit the floor. He scooped her up in his arms and turned his attention back to Dean. "Dean, please…"

Dean used his head to point at the door twice, "Get her out of here. I can take care of him."

Once Sam and Stephanie were out of earshot, Dean looked at the other man and a snarl formed on his lips. "I swear to God, Chuck, if you try to find her we will kill you!" he spat. "Don't think we're ever going to let you touch her again!" With that Dean backed out of the room, keeping his gun on Chuck the entire time.

When Dean made it out to the parking lot, he found Stephanie curled up in Sam's arms, sobbing her eyes out against his chest. Dean's heart shattered into a thousand pieces. He swallowed the lump in his throat, "Sam, how about you drive, okay?" He wanted to sit in the back with Stephanie and hold her. It had been such a long time; entirely way too long.

Sam nodded at his brother, knowing that Dean needed this. Sam helped Stephanie into the back seat, feeling her almost fight back against being let go of, and got into the front seat.

Dean slid into the back with her, immediately reaching out to her. She slid over and curled her body against his, needing him more in that moment than she had ever needed anyone. She began to cry deeply again as she felt him there for the first time in over a year. His body was warm, hard and safe. Never a safer place had ever existed for her than his arms in that moment.

Sadness, pain and joy ran through Sam's body as he caught a glimpse of the scene playing out in the rearview mirror. He hadn't seen his brother cry the entire time she was gone. Dean had been cold, distant and generally pissed at the world. In this moment Sam saw pure emotion on Dean's face; he could feel the love that he felt for this girl. So, as Sam witnessed that display before him, he found tears sliding down his own cheeks.

Stephanie was crying for so many reasons. She was crying because she was terrified by what had just happened to her mixed with the feeling of impending doom. She was also crying because she had gotten free of someone who had been bringing such strain and stress into her life. More than anything she was crying because she was looking into the faces of her two human saviors; the two people who understood more than anyone what she was going through. Seeing them again and being able to be close to them again gave her a feeling that she had not felt in a very long time; hope.