The Hollow Men

by Isabel5

Chloe/Dean - When Castiel goes in search of God, he finds Chloe instead. What does she have to do with Lucifer and the end of the world? Can she handle the destiny that is thrust upon her? More importantly can she handle Dean Winchester?

13. The Show Must Go On

The Show Must Go On

Empty spaces

What are we living for?

Abandoned places

I guess we know the score

On and on

Does anybody know what we are looking for?

November 4, 2011

"I was wondering if I could have the day off?" Jo asks apropos of nothing. Chloe has barely had a sip of her coffee and she hasn't even had a chance to look at her list for the day. "I've just got a few more things to do and you have a really light day, Chuck can pretty much take care of anything you would have needed me to do. He's already taken over keeping track of inventory so he knows that better than me anyway."

"Have you assigned all the new people jobs yet?" Chloe asks her absentmindedly.

Jo looks down at her clipboard. "Everyone except for Father Mac. He's been busy with the chapel I haven't had a chance."

Chloe looks up and smiles slowly. "Oh, let me," she holds her hand out and Jo passes over the clipboard.

"OK." Jo says slowly. She turns to Dean confused but he doesn't look any more informed than Jo. "So is that a yes?"

"That is a yes," Chloe nods studying the clipboard intently. "Have a fun day planned with Jason?" Jo freezes and slowly turns around. "He got back last night, asked me for a free day today, I can put two and two together." Jo still looks like a deer caught in the headlights. "You could have told me you know, I'm not going to punish you or forbid from seeing him. I can't actually forbid you to see him, you do realize that?"

"I do," Jo says slowly. "I mean I figured you of all people didn't care about fraternization-" She cuts her eyes to Dean and stops cautiously.

"What gave you that idea?" Chloe laughs.

Jo cuts her eyes to Dean once more. "You're not very open about…" Jo's whole face is turning a very unattractive shade of red. "I just wasn't sure what your policy on public displays of affection was." she swallows hard and Chloe closes her eyes and shakes her head.

"Jo, as long as you're not doing it on my desk in front of me, I don't care what or who you do is that clear?" Jo nods quickly. "Also what I do is my own business and I choose to keep it private for my own reasons."

"Yes, ma'am, of course," Jo walks over to the computer and starts typing.

"Well that was incredibly awkward," Dean walks over, trying to break the tension and it works slightly, Chloe cracks a smile. "So why are you so keen on assigning Father Mac a job?" Chloe looks up and her smile turns evil. "Why do I not like that look?"

Chloe is about to answer him when the door creaks open. Jason's head slowly peaks around the corner; it's obvious he's trying to be stealthy. "Good Morning Jason," Chloe calls out loudly and when he spots her, he smiles sheepishly and pushes the door open all the all the way. "Won't you come in?"

Jason steps through the door, hands in his pockets. "Hey, Chloe, Dean," Dean nods a hello.

"Jo's got a few things to finish up then she's all yours. You are more than welcome to wait. May I offer you some coffee?" Chloe smiles at him.

"No thank you." Jason crosses the room and sidles up to Jo.

It's quiet for a while as Chloe looks over her morning reports and Dean pretends to look over the morning reports. Jo and Jason's conversation is like a low murmur in the background until suddenly it stops all together. Chloe frowns when suddenly Jo whispers, slightly louder than before, "I'm not telling her."

"I'm not telling her," Jason counters. "You're her assistant," he argues, his voice low and wary.

"And I'd like to stay her assistant by staying alive." Jo shakes her head. Chloe looks up at Dean confused. He's obviously hearing the same thing she is because he shrugs and stands up. Chloe follows his lead.

"She won't kill you she likes you." Jason shakes his head. "You have to tell her."

"Tell me what?" Chloe asks from right behind Jo's shoulder. It startles Jo so much she actually jumps a little, shoving the papers in her hands at Jason who grabs them in surprise. Chloe raises her eyebrows and holds out her hand. "What's that?"

Jason looks down at the papers in his hands but he can't seem to get a good enough grasp on the English language to give her an answer. "This week's list," Jo bites her lip grabbing the papers from Jason and handing them to Chloe.

When they'd finally managed to get in touch with the guy in Cardiff who sent out the initial list of the dead, Chloe offered her help and between her and Oracle they'd managed to set up a site, , where anyone who wanted could upload their own lists. Then once a week they would all be compiled and sent out to whomever was listening.

"And what's so important about this week's list you think I'm going to kill you?" Chloe looks down at the pages in her hands.

"Page two, first column, sixth from the bottom," Jo answers, her voice barely a whisper.

Chloe frowns and flips to the second page, sees the first column and counts six up from the bottom. Her finger freezes on a name and Dean squints to read it. "Gabe Sullivan?" He looks at Chloe confused. "Is he-"

"My dad." Chloe drops the papers to the table and forces herself to take a few calming breaths.

"Maybe it's a mistake." Dean offers.

"It's not," Chloe shakes her head. "He was working in a refugee camp in Brussels. I talked to him two weeks ago. He was telling me about a supply run they had coming up, straight into Croat territory. I was almost expecting this." She laughs weakly. Dean isn't sure exactly what to say in this situation so he says nothing. She pushes past him to the door. "I've got a training session with Alia." Chloe calls as the door to the cabin slams behind her.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

It takes less than two hours for the news to spread through the entire camp so when Chloe finally walks into the mess for breakfast with Alia at her side everyone stops talking to look at her. "What is going on?" Alia asks confused.

"Either I have something on my face, or it's because my dad died." Chloe deadpans and turns to Alia who checks her over briefly.

"There is nothing on your face." She says matter-of-factly before walking off to grab her food.

"Must be the dead dad then." Chloe takes a deep breath and walks over to the line to grab some coffee. She stares at the food laid out in front of her but nothing looks appetizing. The mere thought of trying to eat something makes her stomach recoil but she grabs the plate of toast and eggs that Martha passes to her.

"Chloe." Martha smiles at her but somehow knows that's all she needs, or possibly all she can handle because she simply goes back to work, and for that Chloe is very grateful. The room is still completely silent as Chloe makes her way to a table and sits down. She pushes the plate away from her, the smell making her nauseous. She manages to swallow a sip of coffee before Lois sits down across from her. Chloe is dreading this.

"Yes?" Chloe looks up and Lois smiles sadly at her.

"I was thinking we could have it tomorrow," Lois offers.

"Have what tomorrow?" Chloe set her mug down.

"The memorial," Lois says.

"What memorial?" Chloe shakes her head.

"Gabe's." Lois explains confused.

"Oh. No, thank you." Chloe goes back to her coffee.

"What do you mean?" Lois frowns. "No thank you?"

"I mean we're not going to have a memorial." Chloe picks up her fork for lack of anything better to and takes a bite, but she can't taste a thing. "So thanks but no thanks."

"Chloe, you can't just push this aside, pretend that it never happened. You have to deal with this." Lois says annoyed.

"I am dealing with this Lois, I'm dealing with it my way and I'm hoping you can respect that." Chloe puts her fork down and glares, grabbing her coffee. She gets up and heads for the door.

Lois stands but doesn't follow her. "Your dad died." Lois calls over the tables at her and the room freezes. Lois falters slightly at the sudden attention she's drawn to herself but she keeps on. "Your dad died and you need to have a memorial, you need to grieve for him."

Chloe looks across the room at her cousin, pain and anger shining in her eyes. She heads back toward Lois then changes direction and walks to the board. She tears off the list that Jo posted that morning and starts reading. "Brian Darden, Suzanne Tucker, Colleen Rodd, Kenneth Price…"

"Chloe." Lois steps forward and Chloe looks up, glaring at her, stopping her in her tracks.

"Lauren and Tim Nichols," Chloe continues, "Curt Gilliam, Dale Macias, there are…five more pages." Chloe counts them. "Three columns each," she angrily throws the list at Lois and the pages fall to the ground. "They're all dead too. They were someone's fathers, someone's mothers and brothers and sisters and children." Lois winces. "Why does my father deserve a memorial more than them?"

"That's not what I meant," Lois argues as Chloe walks closer to her.

"I can't grieve for my dad, Lois because if I grieve for him, I have to grieve for all of them and frankly I don't have the time." Chloe storms out of the room as Lois bends down and picks up the pages.

Chloe barely makes it out of the mess before she has to stop walking because she can't breathe. Her vision is swimming and she's angry and upset. She's got so many emotions swirling around inside of her it's like there's no room for anything else, especially oxygen. She collapses against the wall of the building, sucking in air as fast as she can but that just makes things worse.

"Chloe!" Dean calls, grabbing her shoulders, and her head snaps up. Her vision is still swimming and it takes a second to clear. When it does, and she can see his face, he looks worried. "I've been calling your name for five minutes."

"I'm fine." She shrugs away from him, pushing herself off the wall. "I need—I've got to see Father Mac." Chloe starts to walk away.

"Good." Dean smiles sadly at her. "That's good." Chloe turns and gives him a strange look. "That's not good?" Dean asks confused as Chloe slowly begins to smile.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"This is the Armory," Chloe says ten minutes later opening the door and allowing Father Mac to step in ahead of her. Dean slips in behind them, pretty sure that nothing good can come of this.

"And why are we here again?" Father Mac asks Chloe cautiously.

"Well, everyone who lives at the camp works at the camp. Those are the rules." Chloe informs him.

"I was under the impression I would be working in the chapel, in a spiritual capacity." He looks over at Dean for help but gets a shrug for his trouble.

"Yes, well I'd much rather you work in a useful capacity." Chloe tells him and typical of a man of the cloth, he disregards the jibe at him and turns the other cheek. "The spiritual wellbeing of my people comes in far behind the physical wellbeing of my people, I'm sure you can understand that."

"I do understand." Father Mac nods solemnly. "Well, working in a church required me to thrown many potluck suppers. I suppose I could be of some help in the kitchen."

"I was thinking you'd be more help in here." Chloe looks around the room, more than slightly satisfied with herself. Bobby is ignoring the goings on as best as he can but Lucas has looked up with interest by now.

"You want me to work here? With the weapons?" Father Mac asks, staring at what he's pretty sure is a rocket launcher leaned casually in the corner. Chloe nods. "And what purpose do you think I could serve in this place?"

"Actually you'd be really helpful." Lucas speaks up and Father Mac turns his attention to the boy. "The ritual we have to do to turn a regular weapon into a demon killing weapon is pretty involved and it seems to help if you have a certain…affinity with the occult."

"Are you calling my dedication to God an "affinity with the occult"?" Father Mac looks at him astonished.

"Well it kind of is." Lucas stutters. "I mean a normal person can make holy water with the right ritual but a priest can just…bless the water."

"Because he's been endowed with that power by the Lord our God." Father Mac explains.

"Exactly." Lucas nods excited. "Our process would go much faster with that power behind it."

"I see." Father Mac turns to Chloe who has a huge smile on her face. "You understand that the demons you use these weapons on are inhabiting human bodies don't you?"

"I do." Chloe nods.

"And you understand that there is still a person inside of that body? It may be bound, it may not be in control, but it is in there and it is innocent." He points out. "You are asking me to create a weapon that will be used to kill an innocent human being."

"I'm asking you to create a weapon that will kill a demon. A demon who is unfairly inhabiting that human body, which in all likelihood is already dead."

"You can't know that." The priest protests.

"If the demon is careful, the human body can withstand a few months of the intrusion and these guys are being anything but careful. They know if they wear one body out they can always jump into another one. Meanwhile the people of the bodies they're using are in there, suffering, every day, every second the demon is in there. We're doing them a favor."

"By killing them?" Father Mac snaps at her.

"They're already dead. They're nothing anymore." Chloe yells then takes a deep breath. "The Hollow Men." She whispers, something in her softening, just a bit. "Our dried voices, when we whisper together, are quiet and meaningless…Shape without form, shade without color, paralyzed force, gesture without motion…"

Dean coughs, drawing the priest's attention to him. "She does that sometimes. It's a poem."

"T.S. Elliot." The priest swallows. "I know it well. What if they aren't dead? What if they fight, what if they hold on? How do we repay courage like that? With death?"

"It's for the best." Chloe says to him in the tone of voice that Dean has come to know means the subject is closed. "Lucas will tell you what you need to do."

"And if I refuse?" Father Mac asks her.

"There's a refugee camp in DC. I'm sure they could use a man of the cloth," Chloe starts to walk out. There's a pile of 9mm bullets on the table and Chloe pauses. She picks one up, studying it for a second before turning and dropping it in Father Mac's palm. "You can start with this." The two of them stare at each other before Chloe turns and walks away. Dean offers the priest an apologetic smile and hurries after her.

"That back there, was completely unnecessary and you know it. It's like you're testing him or something." Dean pulls up beside her and she stops, turning to him amused. "You're testing him?" He asks her incredulous.

"It's just a little test." Chloe protests, truly not understanding why Dean is so upset by this as she continues on her way to the cabin.

"It's an impossible test, one he can't even hope to pass." Dean catches back up with her and grabs her arm, halting her movement. "If he passes he fails." Chloe just raises her eyebrows at him. "If he makes the bullets he's a bad priest, if he refuses, he's a bad soldier."

"I don't see any reason why he can't be both." Chloe jokes but obviously it's the wrong time because Dean doesn't seem amused. "Oh come on, if he's smart, he'll figure it out." She can see Chuck making his way toward her from across the camp.

"Figure what out?" Dean asks her. "Ever since he got here you've been on him for something or other, I get that you have some sort of problem with the guy."

"I have no problem with him, he seems like a genuinely nice guy." Chloe counters. "It's his boss I have the problem with."

"You've got a problem with his faith." Dean corrects her and she thinks for before nodding, that's accurate enough. "But don't you get it, it's his faith. It has nothing to do with you."

"It has everything to do with me." Chloe argues. "If he's going to stay here, if he's going to be a part of my team, I need to know that when it comes down to it he's going to follow my lead, not God's. I need to know that I can trust him to do what needs to be done even if it's not necessarily the right thing to do."

Dean takes a deep breath. "You could have gotten that point across differently if you wanted to. You did it this way because this way it's fun for you," Dean accuses her.

"You think this is fun for me?" Chloe asks him. "None of this is fun. I'm not enjoying any of this." Her voice is raising now and Chuck pauses a few feet away, not daring to get closer. "We're in the middle of a war, why is it that I'm the only one who seems to realize this."

"I know that." Dean snaps. "We all know that Chloe."

"Then start acting like it." Chloe screams at him and it seems to echo through the whole camp. "I can't afford to be patient; I can't afford to be nice all the time. I don't have time to huddle in the corner and cry. Sometime's I've got to be harsh, sometimes I've got to be blunt and sometimes there are going to be lessons that people just have to learn whether they, or I, like it." She's panting now, her fists clenched at her sides.

"If this is about your dad—"Dean starts.

"It's not about my dad, it's not—it has nothing to do with my dad." Chloe says frustrated. Chuck takes a tentative step closer and Chloe snaps at him without even looking in his direction. "What do you want?"

Chuck freezes again. "Dr. Emil sent me to get you. He's running low on medical supplies." Chloe closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "It sounded kind of important."

"I'll be right there." Chloe says, not taking her eyes off of Dean. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"It's not me you need to apologize to." Dean tells her stiffly. "You should probably go," he nods at Chuck. "It sounds important."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe doesn't make it back to her cabin until much later that night and she's surprised to say the least when she sees Dean sitting in front of Oracle staring at something on the screen. "You can move the seven of hearts onto the eight of clubs." Oracle says.

"I see it." Dean grumbles moving the card.

"Solitaire?" Chloe asks amused, stepping into the room.

Dean turns quickly. "I wouldn't exactly call it solitaire," he rubs the back of his neck. "Oracle can't seem to grasp the concept."

"I am only trying to help." Oracle tells him.

"Did you get things cleared up with Emil?" He asks ignoring the computer.

"Yeah." Chloe nods. "It's nothing special. Gauze, tape, antibiotics, aspirin. We'd been so worried about the big stuff we didn't think about the everyday medical supplies. We should be able to get everything at the local hospital."

"We?" Dean raises his eyebrows at her.

"I'm going to take a team out tomorrow." Chloe looks over at him. "It won't take more than a few hours to get everything. It'll be a piece of cake."

"You're going out?" Dean asks her.

"I haven't left the camp since we went to Washington. I think getting out would be good for me."

"Maybe." Dean shrugs. "Did you talk to Father Mac?"

Chloe stills. "No." She tells him defiantly.

"Ok then." He turns back to the computer and closes the program. "I guess I'll see you sometime tomorrow. Think I'm going to stay in my cabin tonight."

"Oh." Chloe straightens up surprised. "Right, ok. Did you want to come with us tomorrow on the supply run?"

"I'll pass." Dean shakes his head. "You said yourself it would be a piece of cake. I think you can handle it on your own."

Chloe just stares as he walks out letting the door close behind him. She ignores it, pushing herself off the edge of the table and toward the bedroom. She stops in the doorway, staring at the bed, the huge empty bed and swallows hard. Spinning on her heals she heads for the door of the cabin. She hasn't slept alone in over a year and tonight she's not sure she can handle it.

Her feet carry her across the camp, trudging through the woods, around the lake, without any real sense of direction. It isn't until she's made it to her destination that she even realizes where she was headed the whole time, the chapel. The building itself looks no different than what it used to be, a old unused boat house, except the very large steeple affixed to the top of the roof line. She hasn't bothered to come check it out since Father Mac started fixing it up. He's done a good job, the paint is fresh, the window panes unbroken and clean, and the rotten wooden steps have been replaced.

She takes a deep breath, climbs the steps and opens the door. It's completely empty inside, no one needing any emergency spiritual guidance at this hour, no one but Chloe. Despite its intentions, the building seems cold and uninviting to Chloe. She feels as if she doesn't belong here, shouldn't be allowed in but she forces herself to lift her feet and step inside.

There are rows of pews lined up on either side of an isle that goes right down the middle of room, drawing your eyes down it to rest upon a simple alter set up with various religious artifacts that Chloe vaguely recognizes from the few times that Jimmy dragged her off to church with him. Behind the alter, staring down at her is a rather large crucifix. She doesn't know where it came from, doesn't even know how they got it in the building. It almost looks as if they built the chapel around it. Jesus is hanging limply from the cross, ribs protruding from waxy colored skin, blood dripping from his hands and feet and the cut on his left side. The crown of thorns that lies atop his head is visibly pushing into the skin, puncturing it in some places. He's looking to the sky, his facial expression a mixture of hopelessness and thankfulness that Chloe can relate to far too well. There is a sign above his head, the letters INRI which Chloe somehow remembers standing for, Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum or Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.

She turns away from the cross, unable to look at it any longer for some reason. Her eyes roam around the room until she spies a little table in the corner. It's practically overflowing with small glass votive candles, a few of them lit. This table she's more familiar with and a memory comes unbidden to the front of her mind.

Jimmy had dragged her to church again. She was still barely awake. They'd been running late and hadn't had time to make coffee and Jimmy wouldn't let her stop at Starbucks because according to him you didn't bring coffee to church. Apparently it was in the bible somewhere. When Mass was over he got up like he always did and walked over to the small table covered in votive candles that sat nestled in the corner of the chapel. He lit a single candle, bowed his head in prayer and then stood, dropping a few dollars into the box on the side of the table.

"What's that for?" Chloe finally asked him that day. She'd always wondered but never really had the courage to delve into his faith. She always felt like it was something personal, something that was Jimmy's, something that she had no right to.

"Just a prayer." He shrugged.

"And the candle?"

"Some people light a candle for the dead, others light a candle for the person they're praying for." Jimmy explained.

"Who were you praying for?" Chloe frowned at him and he smiled and placed a kiss on the top of her head.

"You."

Chloe grabbed thin wooden stick as she'd seen Jimmy do so many times and lit it from another candle. She moved the flame over to an unlit candle and caught the wick; one for Jimmy. She pauses, debating something internally then lights another candle, one for her dad. She blows out the stick and sets it on the table top. She tears her eyes away from the flame and looks once again at the large crucifix, moving slowly until she is standing directly underneath it. "How did you do it?" She asks him. "How did you handle the pressure? Everyone was expecting you to save them, looking to you to have all the answers and you never cracked, you never wavered. You were so sure. How did you do it?"

"With a little bit of faith and quite a lot of patience." A voice says from behind her. She turns around, instinctively defensive and relaxes only slightly when she sees it's Father Mac. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine." Chloe assures him.

"Were you looking for me?" Father Mac steps forward a bit. "I'm assuming that you didn't come in here to talk to him." He nods in the direction of the crucifix.

"No, I…" Chloe shakes her head. "Dean thinks I should apologize to you."

"What do you think?" Father Mac moves over to one of the pews and sits down. Chloe follows his lead.

"I think Dean's overreacting." Chloe says. "I don't think I have anything to apologize for."

"So you're not here to apologize then?" Father Mac steals a look at her.

Chloe pauses for a minute, thinking about it then shakes her head. "No, I'm not."

"Good." Father Mac smiles decisively and Chloe feels as if she's the one whose just been tested and she's just passed. "I understand why you did what you did Chloe. I could have done without the theatrics but…you are responsible for the lives of everyone in this camp and so many more besides. You need to know that the people you rely on aren't serving two masters."

"And?" Chloe asks him hopeful. "Do you serve two masters?"

"I have pledged my life in service of God and his teachings, the fact that he is…temporarily displaced does not waver my loyalty." Father Mac says and Chloe deflates slightly. "However, I believe, even if you do not, that what you are doing here is God's work and to serve you is to serve him. So, as long as it is in within my power, I will do whatever you ask of me."

"And what if I ask you something that doesn't fit into your ideals, that doesn't fall in line with God's teachings?" Chloe asks him. "What happens then?"

"I hope you never have to ask but I am not so naive to think the situation impossible." Father Mac concedes. "I can't answer that question now; I may never be able to answer that question until the situation arises. All I know is at the end of the day you have to make your own choices because you and you alone are the one who will have to live with the consequences."

November 5, 2011

"He didn't even tell me to be careful." Chloe mumbles under her breath as she picks the lock on the Buena Vista hospital pharmacy. She'd managed about an hour of shut eye after falling asleep at her keyboard around three. She didn't see Dean at breakfast, only caught a brief glimpse of him coming out of the cabin he shares with Sam as she was climbing into the Jeep. He'd made a habit of telling her to be careful and giving her a kiss goodbye after that first time and Chloe always found it slightly annoying before. But it had become something of a ritual, and without it, without that one stupid little thing, it almost felt as if everything else was off balance.

"What?" Jason looks over his shoulder at her.

"Nothing." Chloe sighs as she catches the tumbler with the paper clip and the lock unhinges. She stands up and grabs her bag, walking into the room.

"So, I'm sorry about your dad." Jason calls from where he's sifting through the receptionist's desk.

It takes Chloe by surprise because he's actually the first person to say that, to apologize to her. "Thanks." Chloe swallows hard trying desperately to keep breathing.

"Losing a parent—it sucks." Jason offers.

"It really does." Chloe nods dumping whatever she can find in her bag, figuring Emil can sort through it later.

Just when it seems that the atmosphere might be getting a bit heavy Jason cuts the tension. "Oh, score." He yells excited.

"Antibiotics?" Chloe looks out from the supply closet hopefully.

"Better." Jason holds up a small black thing. "Nintendo DS." He shakes the hand held game at Chloe in triumph.

"I understand the thrill of playing Mario Kart on the small screen, trust me but at the moment I'm a bit more worried about making sure we've got enough antibiotics and painkillers on hand." Chloe points out.

"I know, I'm totally on top of that." Jason holds up his own bag and shakes it, letting her hear the bottles clang together. "It's just, Lucas' birthday is next week and a few years ago he got one from mom and dad, the last thing they ever gave him actually and I sort of broke it last year in Middleton. He didn't talk to me for two weeks."

"Chloe we've got a situation on the east side." The radio on her hip squeaks with Clint's voice. "Croats."

"On my way." Chloe looks over at Jason who's already moving to the door. "I've got this, you finish up in here then meet me at the Jeep." She passes over her bag and heads out the door.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe makes her way cautiously into the room where Clint had said there were Croats. It looks like a lab of some sort, there's a large table in the middle of the room with equipment on it, microscopes, a centrifuge, some broken glass that probably used to be beakers, but Chloe notices a distinct lack of anything helpful in the room. There's no gauze or bandages or antibiotics, medicine of any kind either, so she's having a hard time understanding why Clint was even in this room in the first place.

Her question is somewhat answered when she hears the door close behind her, hears the lock click into place and she freezes on the spot, turning around. "Hey, Clint." She says slowly.

"Hey, Chloe." He tilts his head to the side, a somewhat crazed look in his eyes. Before she can ask him why exactly he felt the need to lock them in the room he's got his gun pulled from his waistband and aimed at her head. He walks over to her slowly, pulls her gun out of her waistband and her sword from the sheath at her back and tosses them to the other side of the room. Chloe cringes when she hears the clang of the sword hitting the floor. Clint then reaches around her and pulls out her radio shutting it off and tossing it behind him as well.

"So there are no Croats." Chloe makes another quick examination of the room and finds it is in fact just the two of them.

"Not anymore." Clint nods his head to the left and Chloe strains to see over the lab table. Lying on the other side are two dead bodies, obviously infected if the filthy clothing and unkempt hygiene is anything to go by. "Tried to get the drop on me when I got here but they were easy enough to deal with. Then I got to thinking, they would make the perfect cover story."

"Perfect cover story for what exactly?" Chloe asks cautiously.

"Your murder."

"Right." Chloe nods. "Sure, it's just—"

Clint frowns at her annoyed. "What?"

"Well I'm assuming the plan is to shoot me then blame it on the Croats. Your story will probably be that they managed to wrestle the gun away from you, then somehow had the presence of mind to figure out how to work it and shot me, but you got the gun back and killed them? Is that about right?" Chloe asks and Clint nods. "The thing is no one's going to believe that."

"Why the hell not?" Clint barks at her.

"Look at them, it's obvious they've gone feral." Chloe edges closer to the Croats. "There's no way they'd manage to shoot a gun, they can't even manage to not piss themselves."

"No one's going to worry about that." Clint shakes his head. "Because you'll be dead."

"OK, OK, so we've covered the 'how', what I'm still a little confused on is the 'why'." Chloe takes a deep breath, subtly trying to force Clint to do the same.

"Why? You want to know why? Did you think you could get away with it?" Clint asks her. "Did you think no one would find out?"

"Find out what?" Chloe asks him confused.

"What you're going to do." Clint sneers at her and recognition slowly dawns on Chloe's face. "Yes, I know, I know all about your plan to kill God."

"OK, Clint, listen to me because this is very important." Chloe edges slightly closer to him. "There is no plan, I'm not planning on killing God, I don't want to kill God."

"Don't try to deny it." Clint angrily stabs the gun in her direction. "I know about the prophecy, I know what it really says."

Chloe takes a step back and another deep breath. "I'm not denying that there's a prophecy. I'm not even denying that it can be interpreted in a way that suggests I might, in fact, kill God." Clint smiles smugly at her and Chloe raises her hands. "But, that's not the whole story ok. There are two sides to every story and there are two ways that you can read this prophecy."

"Just stop, stop lying, stop pretending that you're one of the good guys, I know better ok." Clint shakes his head at her. "You never fooled me you know. From the moment I first saw you, I knew."

Chloe pauses at this statement. "You knew before you came to camp." She says slowly and looks at him. "This is why you came to camp."

"Huh. You actually are as smart as they say you are." Clint snaps at her. "Of course this is why I came to camp why else would I have come? Do you think I wanted to take orders from you? To be with the people who started this whole mess in the first place? Oh yes, I know about Sam and Dean and the seals, I know everything." He laughs manically at her.

"How?" Chloe asks cautiously. "How exactly do you know all this?"

Clint offers her a smug smile. "You didn't think you were the only one who talked to angels did you? A few months before I came to the camp I got a visit from a man who said he was the Angel Zachariah, that he was a messenger of the Lord and that he had a very important job for me to do." Clint explains. "He told me about the Winchesters, how Dean started it all, stepping off the rack in hell and torturing innocent souls, how Sam finished it when he killed Lilith."

"Those were accidents." Chloe says helplessly.

"Accidents?" Clint laughs. "He told me, he told me how the angels tried everything to stop it, how they tried to stop the seals from breaking but when they couldn't they told Dean that he could fix it, that he could end it. All he had to do was allow Michael to take over his body, that Michael was the only one who could stop Lucifer and Dean refused, flat out refused."

"Did he also tell you that if Dean says yes, if Dean lets Michael in and he fights Lucifer, that's it, endgame earth. The battle will torch half the planet and millions of people will die." Chloe yells at him.

"Millions of people are already dead." Clint argues. "Look around, would it have been any worse than this?"

"Look Michael is not an option ok, it never was and it never will be but I can end this." Chloe tells him.

"Why? Because Castiel says you're our Messiah?" Clint asks her. "A Messiah sent to us to kill God."

"I'm not supposed to kill God, I'm supposed to heal him." Chloe says desperately.

"You don't even believe that." Clint whispers to her. "I can see it in your eyes."

Chloe takes a deep breath and stares straight into his eyes. "Well the angels do," she tells him. "Your precious angels-you think they're innocent in all this. Who do you think orchestrated this whole thing? Do you honestly believe that they couldn't have ended this before it began if they really wanted to? They wanted Dean to break the first seal, they wanted Sam to break the last seal. They wanted Lucifer free."

"No, shut up." Clint says, his eyes are darting around frantically, he's getting more and more desperate with every word Chloe says.

"They wanted this, to wipe the world clean and start from scratch in their image, not Gods." Chloe keeps talking. She tries to keep her face neutral, she can see the door knob jiggling behind Clint.

"No, they want to stop you, they want you dead, while the demons are doing everything in their power to keep you alive." Clint tells her.

"Of course they are. See the demons think I'm going to kill God and that works out perfectly for their plans. Now the angels, well, see they want God out of the way too, but they believe that I'm going to heal him, and that definitely does not fit into their plans. They've gone rogue Clint, they're not on God's side anymore, it's every man or rather angel for himself out there now." The knob turns all the way and the door creeps open a crack. Jason peeks through and stops when he sees Clint, his gun aimed at Chloe's head.

"No, Castiel's the rogue one, he's the one that's gone against God." Clint rants. Chloe tries to convey a message to Jason, using her eyes to indicate that she has the situation under control and if Jason just leaves, Chloe can handle it. Jason nods in the affirmative and Chloe relaxes, at least she doesn't have to worry about him as well.

But then Jason stands up abruptly and slings the door open, slamming it against the wall as he struts into the room. "Hey Clint, what's up with the gun?"

"What are you doing here?" Clint spins around in surprise aiming the gun at Jason.

"Yes, Jason, what are you doing here?" Chloe asks him through clenched teeth.

His eyes open wide and he stares at her confused. "You told me…with the eyes…it was a signal right?"

"Yes, to go away." Chloe groans in frustration.

"Well I'm sorry, I'm not really up on my cryptic eye movement codes." Jason snaps at her. "I was trying to help."

"Great help too." Chloe points out. "Now we're both being held hostage."

"Hey!" Clint snaps at this. "Look, Jace I've got no beef with you. Just walk away and forget you were here and everything will be fine. I don't want to hurt you."

"Yeah but see, it's obvious that you want to hurt Chloe, and I just can't let that happen." Jason swings the bag hanging at his side in an arc right at Clint's temple. It knocks Clint off guard, splitting the bag at the seams and pill bottles go flying in every direction. Clint starts to fall to the ground, but not before, in a panic, he manages to pull the trigger.

"Jason!" Chloe screams, running to his side as Clint's head slams into the edge of the desk and he falls to the floor. When Chloe reaches Jason his left hand is in a white knuckled grip on his right arm, blood is dripping through his fingers and his face is pale white.

"I'm fine, I'm ok." He swallows hard. "It's just a flesh wound. A flesh wound that's seriously bleeding."

"Let me see." Chloe pries his hand away. She grips the edge of his shirt sleeve and pulls, ripping it at the seam and allowing her access to the wound.

"That was really hot." Jason smiles weakly at her.

"You're delirious from blood loss so I won't tell Jo you said that." Chloe smirks up at him as she grabs what she needs out of the bags they filled earlier, taking her time to relieve an unconscious Clint of his weapon.

"So, what the hell was all that about?" He nods over his shoulder at Clint.

"He…got some bad information." Chloe shakes her head and begins to stitch Jason's wound as best as she can. "I told you to finish up in the pharmacy then meet me by the Jeep, do you remember that?"

"You weren't answering your radio." Jason points out wincing in pain as the needle slides through his already tender skin.

"It doesn't matter, I gave you an order. When I give you an order I expect you to follow it. Do you understand?" Chloe asks.

"Yes ma'am." Jason smirks at her.

"That being said…thanks." She offers him a small smile. "You should know however that I had a plan." Chloe points out.

"Really? What was it?"

"Well I was going to just…you know, let him shoot me and then—"

"Let him shoot you?" Jason asks his eyes wide.

"Come on, it's not like it would have done any damage." Chloe scoffs.

"Yeah ok, cause you're invincible." Jason rolls his eyes at her and Chloe stops and just stares at him a second. "Oh, wait, you're being serious. So then, the stories are true?" He sits up straighter. "So the sword thing…and getting shot in Washington?"

"You think I just made them up?" Chloe asks.

"I thought they were just exaggerations, you know a way to make you seem….scarier." Jason shrugs.

"Why would I need to be scarier?" Chloe glares at him.

"Yeah ok, good point." Jason laughs.

"Jo's gonna kill me." Chloe inspects her amateur sutures and Jason looks down at it.

"Nah, that's totally gonna scar and chicks dig scars." Jason pulls himself to his feet.

Chloe nudges Jason in the shoulder and pulls herself to her feet. "Get the radio, call for back up then help me clean up this mess." She looks around at the pill bottles scattered all over the floor of the room.

"Yes ma'am." Jason offers her a mock salute.

"While we're at it, we should probably tie up—"she spins around and freezes. "Clint." She swallows as the man in question is standing in front of her, a crazed look on his face. He's holding a very long hunting knife in front of him and there's blood dripping from the cut on his head into his eyes.

Before Chloe can even form a thought in her head she feels fingers wrap around her wrist and pull her quickly back and then she can't see anything but the broad expanse of Jason's back. "Look." Jason is saying to Clint. "I have absolutely no idea what's going on here, what beef you may have with Chloe but I'm telling you right now, you want her, you're going to have to go through me."

Chloe tries to move Jason out of her way but he's holding her wrist in an iron grip at a very odd angle and she can't seem to get herself free. "That's fine by me." Clint says, lunging forward, sliding the knife hilt deep into Jason's gut. "I said I didn't want to hurt you." Clint says twisting the knife slightly before pulling it out. "Didn't say I wouldn't."

Jason's grip on Chloe's wrist turns slack almost immediately and she twists herself free. She reaches out and grabs onto Clint's arm, squeezing so tightly he loosens his grip on the knife and lets go, dropping it to the floor. She hears Jason stumble behind her but she can't think about that right now. Clint takes a swing at her and she dodges it easily, kicking her leg out and catching him hard in the knee. She hears a satisfying pop that lets her know she's at least succeeded in dislocating his knee cap, possibly shattering it, he howls in pain. She spins him around, twisting his arm up behind his back as he collapses to the ground and has his gun pulled, cocked and aimed at his head before he even knows what hit him.

"Don't." She hears weakly from behind her and she looks out of the corner of her eye to see Jason, barely holding himself up on the edge of the counter. Blood is dripping down his leg from the wound in his stomach and his face is pale and sweaty.

Chloe takes a few deep breaths and un-cocks the gun dropping it to her side. "Don't go anywhere." Chloe says shoving Clint in the back of the head and sending him all the way to the ground. She looks and sees that his knee is already swollen; he won't be getting up this time. She turns around and Jason smiles slightly as he loses his grip. Chloe lunges forward and catches him, slowly lowering him to the ground.

"OK, so this one might be more than just a flesh wound." He coughs, his face screwed up in pain.

"Shut up." Chloe tells him angrily, grabbing a handful of gauze and packing it around the wound. "Why did you get in front of me?" She asks him. "I told you…you stupid. Why did you do that?" Chloe presses into the wound with as much pressure as she can manage. Jason grunts in pain.

"Sorry, but hearing you say you're invincible and knowing you're invincible are two different thing." He offers her. "I couldn't take the chance."

"You called for back-up right?" Chloe asks and Jason nods weakly. "Where the hell are they?" She turns to the door. "I could bring you to them but I doubt it'll be quicker, and it might do more damage. Can you walk?"

Jason shakes his head. "When I move, it hurts like a mother fucker." He coughs again, this time, little specks of blood appear at the edges of his lips, which, combined with the wheezing tells Chloe that he punctured a lung. He must have come to the same conclusion because a look of fear crosses his face briefly. "Besides, I'm pretty sure it's not going to matter either way."

"Just give me a minute ok, hang on for one minute." Chloe pleads with him. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and calms herself. Her hands stop shaking and she tries hard, searching for something, somewhere deep inside of her. She can feel it, for the first time in a long time, since she accidentally healed Castiel, she can actually feel it, a warm sort of ball of light curled up in the pit of her stomach. "Yes." She whispers. It feels different than before but she doesn't pay any attention, that doesn't matter.

Only, when she tries to grab it, it's like it's just beyond her reach. "No." She can feel the blood pouring out of Jason, feel his pulse slowing down and she knows that there's nothing she can do to stop it. "No." She grits her teeth and pushes harder. She can feel it, she can see it at this point but she can't touch it for some reason.

"It's ok." Jason croaks out. "It's ok." His fingers weakly circle her wrist, pulling her hand off his stomach. "Look, I need you to take care of Lucas for me. I know he can be a pain in the ass sometimes but he's my kid brother you know."

"Stop-" Chloe swallows, choking back a sob. "Stop saying goodbye."

"Give this to him." Jason reaches down and pulls the Nintendo 64 out of his pocket with shaky hands and passes it to Chloe. "Tell him I'm sorry."

"You're going to tell him yourself." Chloe glances over at the door wondering where in the hell her back up is.

"I'm not and we both know it." Jason shakes his head his wheezing has gotten more pronounced and it's obvious that the simple act of breathing is very painful. "Tell Jo I…I never actually said…I mean I know it's the end of the world and everything but I thought we'd have more time…"

"She knows." Chloe assures him. "Trust me, she knew before you did."

"She probably did." Jason laughs which turns into another coughing fit. "Always was smarter than me." He says slowly as his eyes flutter, then close, then there's nothing.

Ten minutes later when her back up finally makes their way into the room they find Chloe leaning up against the wall, her shirt covered in blood staring at Jason's dead body while Clint groans in agony. "Tie him up." Chloe says pulling herself to her feet. "Then load up the Jeeps, I want to get the hell out of here."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

For a second Chloe thinks the crowd gathered in the archery range is for her and she's confused because they can't know, not yet. She climbs out of the Jeep and sees Dean on one side of the crowd, Oliver on another. Dean looks over his shoulder and catches her eye for a second before simply looking away. She sighs and makes her way over to Oliver. "What's going on?" She asks him quietly, wrapping her arms around her middle at the chill in the night air.

"Sam just got back from Washington." Oliver says then turns around, surprised to see Chloe. "Hey, where have you been?" Oliver looks at his watch. "I thought you said it was only going to be a few hours.

It isn't until then that Chloe notices how dark it is outside. "What time is it?" Chloe asks him absently.

"Almost ten." Oliver looks over her shoulder as two guys drag Clint out of the back of one of the Jeeps, his arms tied behind his back, his face bloodied and bruised.

"I didn't realize it had gotten that late, sorry." Chloe shakes her head.

"Chloe what—" Oliver looks back at her and notices the blood covering her shirt for the first time.

"Where do you want him?" One of the hunters shoves Clint to the ground at Chloe's feet, forcing him to his knees, which drawls a yell from him, pulling the attention away from Sam and Chloe really didn't want this.

"Bring him to my cabin and watch him until I get there." Chloe says ignoring Oliver.

"What about—the body?" Another asks.

"Take him to Emil's for now." Chloe says. They nod and walk off, dragging Clint behind them.

"What the hell happened?" Oliver asks her as Dean realizes something's going on and makes his way over.

"Hey, you're back." Jo walks up with her ever present clip board. "Where's Jason? He owes me five bucks, I told him no way you guys would be back by dark." Chloe turns to her, her face drawn and clammy and she closes her eyes.

"I'm so sorry." Chloe looks over her shoulder and they all follow her gaze. Two guys climb down from the back of the Jeep carrying a makeshift gurney, a body lying on top of it, a white sheet draped over it.

"Chloe, where's Jason?" Jo's voice wobbles slightly. Chloe doesn't say anything, just closes her eyes and looks away. Jo drops her clip board to the ground and pushes past Chloe. "Stop." She calls to the hunters, tears already falling from her eyes as she reaches out a tentative hand and pulls back the sheet.

Bart is at her side in an instant, holding her up as her knees give out. "No." Jo sobs, collapsing into Bart's embrace.

"Someone go find Ellen please." Chloe starts to walk off.

"Where are you going?" Oliver calls after her and she stops.

"I have to go talk to Lucas." She says.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chloe stands in the doorway of the Armory and watches Lucas for a second. There's a shot gun completely disassembled on the table in front of him and he looks relaxed and content. He could clean and reassemble that gun in his sleep, he looks happy and Chloe hates that she's the one that has to ruin it all. "Something happened didn't it?" He asks her without looking up.

"Yeah." Chloe walks closer in the room and Lucas's hands still.

"How bad is it?" Chloe doesn't answer him and he looks up at her. "What am I saying, they sent you in here, it must be pretty bad."

"They didn't send me." Chloe walks over and sits at the table. "I volunteered." She grabs a random piece and flips it over in her hands.

"Seriously, how bad is it?" Lucas wipes his hand on the cloth slung over his shoulder. "I mean bad enough to get him off guard duty? You should check that he's not faking, he hates guard duty."

"He's not faking." Chloe coughs. "Jason's dead Lucas."

Lucas's knuckles tightened on the cloth in his hands. "Dead?"

"Lucas." Chloe reaches out her hand and he jumps back.

"Who messed up?" Lucas glares at her. "I know Jason and he doesn't mess up so if something happened to him, that means someone else messed up. Who was it?"

"Me." Chloe tells him. "I messed up." Lucas just stares at her. "I…he…" She swallows, she simply just cannot do this. "He died trying to protect me, from Clint."

"Clint?" Lucas asks confused.

"He was trying to kill me. Jason…it doesn't matter. I messed up and I'm sorry, I'm so very sorry." Chloe dips her head and rubs at the back of her neck. "Look, that obviously doesn't mean anything, I could say I'm sorry a hundred million times but it won't bring your brother back.

Lucas doesn't say anything so Chloe stands up. She pauses and digs something out of her pocket. "Jason found this," she slides the N64 across the table to Lucas, "In one of the desk drawers at the hospital. Said he broke yours a year ago in Middleton and you didn't talk to him for two weeks."

Lucas reaches out and grabs the device flipping it over in his hands. "I was one level away from beating the new Mario Brothers. I was so pissed, but it was my fault actually." Lucas looks up. "He told me to wait in the car and I didn't listen. He was hunting a Strega, it was a second floor apartment. I followed him and when the thing realized it wasn't going to get anything from the kid, it came after me. Jason threw me out of the second story window into the dumpster; I landed on it, smashed it to pieces." He set it aside. "What do I do now?"

"Whatever you want." Chloe says. "I'd understand completely if you wanted to leave, I could talk to Washington, Lord knows they need someone with some weapons expertise." Lucas stares at her and she swallows. "Or you could stay, I'd like it if you stayed. We can take care of you here."

"I'd like to stay." Lucas nods.

"Good, then that's settled." Chloe takes a deep breath.

The door swings open and they both turn around. Jo hesitantly steps in the room, closing the door behind her. "Lucas." Jo whispers and Lucas crosses the room in two steps, sliding into the open embrace of her arms as he finally brakes down and cries.

"We'll have a bonfire tomorrow night if you like?" Chloe offers, the idea of leaving Jason's dead body in Emil's lab for a whole day physically hurts her but she's honestly just too tired to deal with it tonight and he deserves a proper hunter's funeral. Lucas nods his thanks.

"I've got to go." Chloe coughs. "I need to deal with Clint."

"What's going to happen to him?" Jo wipes her eyes.

"I'm not sure." Chloe shrugs. "What do you think should happen to him?" Chloe asks Lucas.

"He should pay, for what he did." Lucas swallows. "But don't…Jason wouldn't want you to…he wouldn't want someone dead because of him. No matter what they did to deserve it." Chloe thinks about that moment when she had the gun barrel pressed into Clint's back, how easy it would have been to pull the trigger and how desperate Jason's voice had been when he'd asked her not to.

"Jo." Chloe calls out and the girl looks up at her. "He wanted me to tell you…he said he never got a chance to say…." Chloe doesn't understand why this is so hard for her to do, it's not like she's saying 'I love you', she's just saying it for Jason but she still can seem to make her mouth form the words.

"I know." Jo assures her with a soft smile.

Chloe nods and then side steps them, leaving them to their shared grief. She makes her way through the crowd gathered outside of the mess hall and into her own Cabin where Clint is being physically detained in a chair. His knee is wrapped now so Emil must have stopped by. Oliver, Dean, and Castiel and the others are there as well waiting impatiently for some sort of explanation. "Thank you." Chloe nods to the two hunters who brought him in, effectively dismissing them.

"What the hell happened out there?" Oliver is the first to speak, asking Chloe what's on everyone's mind.

"Clint killed Jason." Chloe tells them simply refusing to look at Clint for the moment, not sure she actually can look at Clint right now without giving into every urge in her body that is screaming out for revenge.

"What?" Oliver looks between Clint and Chloe confused. "Why would he do that, is he infected?"

"No." Chloe says. "He wasn't actually trying to kill Jason. He was trying to kill me, Jason just…got in the way."

"He was trying to kill you?" Castiel steps forward and Chloe puts a hand on his arm.

"Why?" Dean asks. He hasn't moved but Chloe can see his knuckles clenched tight with the effort to hold himself back.

"Because I know." Clint speaks up for the first time since Chloe detained him. "I know who she really is, I know what she's going to do."

"You don't know what I'm going to do anymore than I know what I'm going to do." Chloe snaps at him.

"Ok, you heard, about the prophecy?" Sam asks calmly.

"Everyone's heard about the prophecy, but they've all got it wrong." Clint spits out. "They think she's our savior. They think she's going to heal God. But I know the truth."

"You know the truth?" Dean scoffs. "I highly doubt that."

"She's going to kill God." Clint snaps expecting outraged gasps or surprised exclamations, instead his proclamation is met with nothing but silence. "You know." He accuses them.

"We know that is one way to interpret the prophecy." Castiel answers. "We choose not to believe it."

"You choose?" Clint asks outraged. "You choose not to believe it? Oh ok, so you choose not to believe and it that makes everything better." He says sarcastically. "How can you stand there and take that chance? How can you let her walk around free knowing what she might do?"

"Because it's what she might do." Dean tells him. "I didn't realize we were in the habit of punishing people for crimes they haven't even committed yet."

"You should wait until after she kills God?" Clint scoffs. "Nice plan."

"She is not going to kill God." Castiel snaps at him and Chloe holds up a hand.

"This is useless. He's going to believe what he wants to believe. We can't change that. What we need to do is figure out what to do with him now." She says.

"What do you mean?" Oliver turns to Chloe.

"He killed a man, an innocent man and he did so with full knowledge of the act. It was murder plain and simple." Chloe says. "It can't go unpunished."

"Oh it won't." Dean assures her.

"No." Chloe snaps at him. "We're not taking justice into our own hands."

"We can't exactly arrest him." Oliver points out. "It's not like there's a jail we can put him in, there's no judges to give him a fair trial, what exactly can we do?"

"We're not killing him." Chloe says firmly.

"Please, you can't keep me alive." Clint practically spits at her. "You can't risk all your little followers out there finding out who you really are."

"Is that what you think?" Chloe asks him and he simply stares back at her defiantly. "Follow me." She says before turning around. Oliver grabs Clint and pulls him to his feet, following Chloe out the cabin, everyone else hot on her heels. She ducks her head into the Armory quickly where Jo is helping Lucas put away the weapons that Sam brought back from Washington. "You two come with me." Lucas turns around, a sword still in his hand and they follow her without question.

Practically the whole camp has congregated in the mess by now, everyone talking to everyone else, trying to figure out what exactly happened on a supply run that was supposed to be a piece of cake. Chloe pushes through the crowd and makes her way to the front of the room, stepping up onto a table.

"Excuse me, can I have everyone's attention please." Chloe calls out. Everyone stops what they're doing and looks up at her. "As you all have probably heard by now, Jason is dead. He was murdered by Clint." A low murmur goes through the crowd as Chloe simply confirms all the rumors that have been swirling around the camp.

"Why?" Someone in the middle of the crowd calls out and Chloe takes a deep breath.

"Clint was trying to kill me and Jason got in the way." She admits and the low murmur upgrades to a cacophony of people shouting questions at her, at each other. Chloe holds up her hand and they all quiet, giving her their full attention.

"He was trying to kill me because he believes that I'm going to do something horrible and he wanted to stop me. By now you've all heard the rumors of a prophecy, a prophecy that says that I will heal God." A hum of agreement. "That's not true." Everyone is staring at her now. "No one knows what the prophecy really says because the prophecy doesn't even exist anymore. There is a good chance that it did say that, that I'm supposed to heal God, but apparently there is just a good a chance that I'm supposed to kill him. That's why Clint tried to kill me." The murmur starts up again.

"Look." Chloe calls stopping the talking once again. "I don't know which one's right, maybe none of them are right. But if you're going to follow me I just think you should know the truth, have all the information available to you so you know who I am, who you're taking your orders from. What you choose to do with that information is up to you. Tomorrow morning we'll be dropping Clint off at the edge of town, any of you who want are more than welcome to go with him. For those of you who wish to stay…you've probably got work to do."

Chloe steps down off the table and makes her way to the door. No one says anything, no one moves except to make a path for her. She's careful not to look at anyone, not to say anything, she just focuses on the door. Suddenly Lucas is standing in front of her. Chloe stops, frozen in place, her eyes moving briefly to the sword he'd been polishing earlier that is now hanging loosely by his side. He follows her gaze, he hadn't realized that he'd even brought it with him. He drops the sword to the ground with a clang, steps forward and it's almost as if the entire room sucks in a collective breath.

"He knew." Lucas tells her. "He knew exactly who he was taking his orders from," he clarifies. "He's known for a while." Lucas cuts his eyes quickly to Jo who ducks her head. It's not like Chloe can mad at her for telling, she just blabbed to the whole camp. "But even after he found out he didn't care. He told me that it didn't matter, that regardless of what some ancient prophecy said. You were what mattered, keeping you safe was the mission and nothing else was more important than fighting for you, watching out for you."

"That is a very nice sentiment." Chloe tells him, her heart in her throat. "But it's completely unnecessary and it ends now." She takes a chance to look around the room now. "Alia come here." Chloe looks over at the Kandorian who steps through the crowd without a second thought to stand in front of Chloe. "Lucas, sword." Lucas hesitates, unsure. "Give me the sword." Chloe tells him more firmly. He complies this time, bending down to pick it up, then passing it to Chloe who in turn, hands if off to Alia. "Run me through."

Alia doesn't hesitate, she simply balances the sword in her grip, steps forward and slides it into Chloe's chest then up through Chloe's heart. The crowd explodes in an uproar as Chloe gasps for breath. She'd forgotten how painful getting stabbed actually was until that moment and she doubles over in pain, grabbing onto the Kandorian's shoulders in an effort to keep herself upright. She takes a few deep breaths, grits her teeth together then pulls herself upright.

"Take it out." She manages to growl out and Alia yanks the sword cleanly out. Chloe staggers slightly again but before Alia can move to steady her, Dean is already at her side, holding her up. "I'm okay." She whispers to him, shaking him off a little so she can stand on her own. Her fingers seek out the wound, putting a bit of pressure on it so that she's not standing there spilling blood all over the Mess hall floor because recently stabbed or not, she has a feeling that Ellen's going to make her clean this up.

"As you can see," Chloe pants, standing a little straighter with every word. Her face is white, her skin clammy and she thinks Alia may have punctured a lung because it's really painful to breathe. "I'm not dead. We're not sure at the moment if I even can die, so don't waste your time. I can take care of myself. It's not your job to fight for me. It's my job to fight for you. Your job is to stay alive so you can fight for everyone else. Understood?"

A chorus of 'Yes ma'am' spreads through the room and Chloe turns and walks away. Oliver follows her out, dragging Clint behind him. "So that's it? You're just going to drop me off in the middle of nowhere?" He calls after Chloe. She stops, her hand still on her chest. She can feel the insides of the wound healing but it's still bleeding a lot at the surface.

Chloe turns and studies him. "Would you rather I simply kill you?"

"If those are my options then, yes," Clint takes another step toward her.

"No." Chloe shakes her head. "You're not turning me into a murderer and I'm not turning you into a martyr. We'll give you enough supplies to last you a few days. If you're lucky you might make it to another camp."

"I'll tell everyone." Clint warns her. "Maybe I'll even head to Washington, I'm sure the President would love to know who exactly she got into bed with."

"She knows." Chloe says. "It was one of the first things I told her, you know in the spirit of honesty. Now she's not thrilled with the idea but she's not exactly sending hit squads after me." Chloe pauses and turns to Archer. "Unless…"

"Not that I know of." Archer shakes his head.

"So you can tell whomever you like, whatever you like, recruit a bunch of people to your cause. You can even gather them all together, come back and try and finish what you started." Chloe nodded behind him at the crowd that's followed them out of the mess and smiles. "But I kind of like our chances." Clint turns around and sees everyone glaring at him.

"I'm not sure I like his chances of making it until morning." Archer points out staring at the angry crowd.

"Take him to the chapel. We should be able to trust the priest to keep him alive for another few hours," Chloe offers. Oliver nods, grabbing him and pulling him toward the chapel.

"You should go see the Doc." Dean steps up nodding down to the ever increasing blood stain on her shirt.

"It'll close in a few minutes." She brushes him off and heads back to her cabin.

When she gets to the porch Malachi whimpers and pulls himself to his feet, hurrying to her side, nudging at her hand. "I'm fine boy." Chloe assures him sliding her un-bloodied hand into his fur and scratching the top of his head. He steps ahead of her and pushes the door open, letting her in the cabin.

She by-passes the situation room entirely and heads into the bedroom, collapsing on the bed, so exhausted she doesn't even care that the other side is empty. She closes her eyes and curls herself into a ball on her side. She's expecting to see the familiar interior of the Talon apartment, she's expecting to hear the familiar voice of Jimmy telling her that everything's going to be ok, that he's there for her but all she sees is blackness. "Come on, come on, come on." She pleads with whoever can hear her, flipping onto her back, she screws her eyes shut tightly in desperation.

"If you're not going to go see the Doc you could at least clean it up," Dean says from the doorway. She can hear him walk into the bathroom and dig around for second before closing the door behind him.

Chloe opens her eyes when the bed shifts and she stares at the ceiling while Dean lifts the edges of her shirt trying to pull it over her head. "Help me out here?" He asks and she complies, sitting up and allowing him to discard the bloody shirt. "You really know how to make a point don't you?" He reaches for the antiseptic towels and tears one of the pouches open. "Maybe next time you could do it without all the blood huh?"

Chloe studies him. She knows he's mad at her, pissed actually and yet here he is, tending to her wounds, there for her when she needs him. She thinks about the last time she talked to Jimmy, how he suggested that maybe Chloe didn't need him anymore, maybe she needed Dean. She thought about how it would feel, to let him in, to lean on him, just a bit, just enough. "How long do you think?" Chloe asks him suddenly.

"How long what?" Dean glances up at her quickly while he starts cleaning the wound.

"How long do you think he's been dead?" She stares at him and his movements still. "I mean how long was I walking around without a dad without even knowing it?"

"Chloe, you can't think like that." Dean tosses the bloody cloth in the trash can and grabs the gauze. "You know what it's like out there; you always knew that was a possibility."

"Not if he was here, where I could watch him, keep him safe." Chloe argues.

"You tried that remember." Dean walks over to the dresser and pulls out a t-shirt, carrying it over to her. "You talked to him, you begged him to let you bring him in. He wanted to stay. He was helping there, doing a lot more than he ever could here. He wouldn't leave people if he knew he could help, it's just the type of guy he was. And he wouldn't be your dad if he wasn't that guy." Dean smiles softly as she pulls the shirt on then checks his watch, standing up. "Shit, I'm late. You should try to get some sleep," he kisses the top of her head and turns to the door.

"Do you have patrol tonight?" She asks frowning, pulling herself up.

"Western border. Why?" He looks at her expectantly.

"I was hoping you would stay." She sits up until she's on her knees. "Here. With me. Tonight." She clarifies.

She's never asked him to stay. He knows how hard it is for her to ask him this, to be this vulnerable, to allow herself to need him. "Yeah, ok." Dean smiles, slipping his feet out of his boots as he pulls his radio from his pocket. "Sammy."

"Yeah?" Sam answers him.

"You're on patrol tonight. Western boarder." Dean tells him, pushing his pants to the ground.

"No, actually I just checked the board. You're on patrol tonight." Sam comes back. Dean winks at Chloe and doesn't say anything else, waiting for Sam to take the bait. "Come on Dean, I just got back from Washington, I'm hungry I need a bath and a few hours of sleep." Dean just smiles at Chloe and turns off the radio, setting it on the table by the bed before sliding in behind her.

She lays down as Dean's arms wrap around her waist he doesn't say anything and neither does she. It isn't until he places a small kiss to the tip of her shoulder that she sucks in a breath and dives right in.

"I don't have a dad." She whispers, tears in her eyes.

"Neither do I." He responds after a second.

"My mom is…I don't know if she's still alive, I doubt it." Chloe burrows further into the pillow and sobs. "I don't have anyone anymore." Her voice is nothing more than a whisper but he hears her anyway.

"What about Lois?" His fingers are rubbing soothing circles on her stomach, edging around the tape on the bandage he just applied.

"We're not the same people anymore. After everything I've done, everything I've seen, sometimes I wonder if we're even the same species." Chloe grabs his fingers, stops their ministrations and slides her own in between them.

"I get that." He assures her. "I totally get that."

Chloe rolls around and stares into Dean's eyes. She knows he's thinking about Sam, about him and Sam and how the both of them went down different paths. "You do, don't you?" She brings a hand up to his face and traces his cheekbone with her fingertips, running her thumb lightly across his jaw line.

"You have me." He promises her, almost hesitantly, as if afraid of her reaction to his statement. "I'm not going anywhere." He kisses her softly.

She just nods and settles her head onto his chest, allowing her body to curl into his. To her surprise she seems to fit perfectly. She closes her eyes and for the first time in months allows herself to just relax. It takes only minutes before she gives into sleep.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Dean, Dean, I…" Sam glares at the walkie-talkie. "He turned his radio off." Sam drops the radio on the table and collapses in the chair. "I guess I have patrol tonight."

Jo and Lois laugh from the seat across from him. Lois is doing her best to help Jo in the only way that she knows how by getting her thoroughly plastered, if the half empty tequila bottle in front of them is any indication, she's well on her way. "What?" He asks them

"Tell someone else to do it." Lois shrugs pouring another shot.

"I can't just tell someone else to do it." Sam protests.

"Of course you can. You're like, fourth or fifth in command here." Lois tells him.

"Maybe sixth." Jo shakes her head downing another shot. "Chloe then Dean, Castiel, Oliver, Bobby…"

"Seventh at least." Lois says. "That's still like seventy five people under you." Jo nods her agreement.

Sam thinks for a second. "Jo, take my patrol tonight."

Jo and Lois laugh again. "She's above you. Plus she's drunk." Lois points out. "And don't even think about telling me to do anything."

"How is she above me?" Sam asks confused.

"She's Chloe's assistant, whatever, only like Chloe and Dean can tell her what to do."

"And my mom." Jo adds.

"Right, and Ellen." Lois nods.

Sam glares at them then turns around. "Chris." A guy with curly red hair walks over. "You're on patrol tonight, western boundary."

"Yes sir." Chris nods and then walks off. Sam raises his eyebrow.

"See how easy that was." Lois raised her glass to him.

"And fun, wasn't it fun?" Jo asks. "I've recently begun to appreciate just how fun telling people what to do can be." Jo grabs for the bottle of tequila and unsteadily pours another shot.

"It was kind of fun." Sam leans back in his chair. "Kyle, Sarah, go unload the Jeeps." They both mumble their 'yes sirs' and then walk off. "I could get used to this."

"Samuel Winchester!" He practically falls backward out of his chair and jumps to his feet, turning to see a very annoyed Martha Kent. "Well it looks like you've got nothing better to do then sit with your feet up on my tables." She rests her hands on her hips. "Don't think I haven't forgotten that you've slipped out of KP duty every time it came up this past month."

"I…" Sam tries to defend himself but it's no use.

"I have a kitchen full of dirty pots and no patience." She steps aside and Sam turns to Lois and Jo who shrug apologetically. His shoulders slump and he walks into the back room, Martha following him.

"We forgot about Mrs. Kent." Jo points out before tossing back another shot.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Dean stares down at Chloe, sprawled across his chest, her hair tickling the underside of his neck. The fingers of her right hand are still loosely tangled with Dean's, trapped in between their bodies. Her left leg is slung over his hip, her foot tucked under his and she is dead asleep, has been for the past three hours.

Dean isn't sure what to do at this point. It's not a situation that he's come across before because, simply put, Chloe doesn't normally sleep. Every now and then, not to brag, Dean can manage to exhaust her to the point where she gets a few hours of shut eye but more often than not she normally just waits until Dean falls asleep and then sneaks out of bed.

At first it woke him up every time but eventually he got used to it. He even took some comfort in the fact that she made a point to wait until he was asleep, but he was never surprised to wake up in the bed alone. Now it looks like he might actually get the chance to fall asleep and wake up with Chloe lying in his arms and he's the one sneaking out of bed. He places a small kiss on her forehead, reluctantly untangles himself from her and slides out of the bed. "Come here." Dean pats the edge of the mattress and Malachi jumps up smoothly, crawling over to Chloe and curling up beside her. "Watch her for me ok?" Dean pets his head softly.

He gets dressed quickly and quietly, slipping from the cabin with very little noise. The camp ground is dark but Dean knows where he's going. It isn't until he's well into the woods that he hears the twig snap behind him. He spins around quickly, his gun raised but relaxes when all he sees is Oliver with his hands in the air. "Hey." Dean lowers his gun.

"Hey." Oliver lowers his arms and looks over Dean's shoulders and smiles. "Guess we both had the same idea huh."

"Guess so." Dean turns around and stares at the chapel.

They both move take another step when the chapel door opens. Father Mac steps out in front of them, a disappointed look on his face. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this."

"Father Mac." Dean stares at him hard for a second. "I suppose there's no way we could convince you to go for a little walk? Just for five minutes or so, once around the lake?"

"Maybe twice." Oliver jumps in. "Just to be on the safe side."

"I'd have to say no." Father Mac shakes his head sadly. "And you know that."

"What I know is that he killed Jason." Dean points out, just in case Father Mac hadn't been told the whole story. "He tried to kill Chloe."

"And from what I understand, Chloe has already assigned him a punishment befitting the crimes he's committed." Father Mac points out to them.

"Befitting the crime?" Oliver scoffs. "She's kicking him out of camp, he's getting off scot free."

"Hardly." Father Mac shakes his head. "Have the two of you forgotten already what an inhospitable world it is out there? Should he actually manage to survive on his own, she's turning him away from his home, from the only place where he has shelter and safety."

It's Dean's turn to scoff this time, not buying it. "It's not enough."

"It was enough for Cain." A new voice says and Dean and Oliver spin around to see Castiel standing behind them. "God cast Cain out, banished him for killing Abel, 'a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth'." Castiel reminds them. "I suggest you head back to your cabins now." Castiel says walking around them to stand beside Father Mac.

Dean and Oliver stare at the angel before realizing that it's futile. "Fine." Dean says angrily, turning on his heal and storming off. Oliver stays for a few seconds longer, seeing something in Castiel's eyes that Dean may have missed. He offers the angel a small nod then follows Dean back in the direction of the camp.

When they are gone from sight the priest lets out a breath and his shoulders sag in relief. "Thank you." He turns to Castiel. "I'm afraid all people normally remember from the bible is "an eye for an eye", they seem to forget that it is not our place as mere humans to seek vengeance." Father Mac shakes his head sadly.

"Then it's a good thing I am not human." Castiel turns and reaches for the door of the chapel.

Father Mac stares at him in surprise. "I don't understand, you just told them…" He looks back at where Dean and Oliver had been standing.

"I told them what I needed to tell them to get them to go." Castiel explains. "Chloe would never forgive herself if they became murderers in her name."

"I thought you of all people…" Father Mac argues.

"But that is just it." Castiel reminds him. "I am not 'people'. Why do you think God created us? We were made as his instruments, to do his dirty work, I had no choice. Do you have any idea how many civilizations I've crushed in his name? How many lives I have taken? What is one more?"

"This is not done in God's name. If you do this now, it will be your choice, and yours alone."

"This is what I choose." Castiel says. "And I choose it not for him, but for her."

"And how will she feel when she finds out what you have become in her name?" Father Mac asks him and Castiel has no answer. "You know what? I think I will take that walk around the lake, give you some time to think." Father Mac steps away from the door to the chapel. He doesn't make it five steps before turning around and staring intently at the angel. "There is more to that bible verse of yours." Father Mac reminds him. "And the Lord said unto him, therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold."

Castiel's jaw clenches. "I will be sure to remind God of that, the next time I see him." He says cheekily and Father Mac can do nothing but shake his head and walk away.

November 6, 2011

Chloe and Dean sit across from each other at breakfast the next morning, a tentative peace brewing though they hadn't actually gotten the chance to talk about anything. Chloe knows that their differences will likely come to a head, sooner more likely than later and she can't say she's prepared for that fallout but for now it's like they've both silently agreed to put all that aside and for that Chloe is grateful.

Something happened last night, something changed between her and Dean and though she's not quite sure what the full ramifications of that change will be, for the moment she has no regrets. Especially when Dean smiles at her like he's doing at the moment. "Look, I think Bart's hitting on Cynthia." Dean nods over Chloe's shoulder and she turns her head quickly, but Bart's nowhere in the Mess. When she turns back to Dean she sees his cheeks puffed up like a hamster storing food and a guilty grin on his face. Chloe narrows her eyes and looks down at her plate which is now missing one warm buttered slice of bread.

"No." Chloe shakes her head in horror. "No, Martha baked that fresh this morning."

Dean swallows with a bit of difficulty and takes a long sip of his coffee. "You snooze you lose."

"You know the rules." Chloe argues. "One slice per person, no exceptions. She doesn't believe me when I tell her you steal mine."

"That's because you're like the boy who cried wolf." Dean points out.

"Fine, you go and you tell her that I stole yours, she'll give you and extra slice, for some reason I can't seem to understand she likes you." Chloe tells him.

"The same reason why you like me I suppose." Dean flashes her those billion dollar dimples and Chloe raises his eyebrows.

"I pray to God that she doesn't like you for the same reason that I do." Chloe jokes and Dean's smile drops from his face.

"And now I'm not hungry anymore." He grumbles pushing his plate away.

"And that's how I always get your bacon." Chloe says in triumph snatching the bacon off of Dean's plate and breaking it in half. She happily chews on one piece and drops the other piece to her lap where Malachi devours it in one bite.

She's smiling and she can't seem to stop, even when Father Mac stops beside her table. "Good morning," Chloe says to the priest, much to Dean's surprise. "Would you like to join us? Dean can go get you some coffee."

Father Mac shakes his head, the ghost of a smile on his face. "No, thank you. I have some bad news I'm afraid."

"Oh?" Chloe asks him confused.

"It appears that, at some point in the night, Clint managed to escape." Father Mac tells her.

The previous day's events come crashing back down on Chloe and she sucks in a breath when she remembers Jason and Clint. She can see Jo in the corner nursing a hangover, a sad smile on her face as she tries to get Lucas to eat something. Then the full meaning of the priest's words hit her and she turns to him, a frown on her face. "He escaped?"

"Yes, when I woke up he was gone. Oliver's had crews scouring the camp ground since first light but he's nowhere to be found."

"Right." Chloe nods slowly. "He managed to get pretty far on that bum knee of his then?" Father Mac freezes, obviously forgetting about the fact that the day before Chloe had messed up his knee cap. "It seems slightly strange that he would bother to run away when he could have just waited until morning and I would have given him a ride."

"Yes, well." Father Mac coughs and looks away from Chloe, unable to meet her eyes. "I'm sorry I let him slip through my fingers."

"It's not your fault." Chloe says slowly. "I mean even if you'd heard him sneaking out, I'm sure a man of your advanced age would have had quite a hard time keeping up with someone with two good legs, let alone one." Father Mac opens his mouth again and Chloe offers him a terse shake of her head letting him know that the jig is up and she'd rather not hear any more of his excuses.

Chloe pauses for a second before turning to Dean. "You left last night." She tells him slowly. "You got out of bed and then you came back about an hour later."

"I didn't." Dean tells her. "I swear to you Chloe, I didn't. I mean I did leave last night and I went to the chapel but Father Mac wouldn't let me in and then Cass-" Dean cut off and turned his head, seeking out the angel. "Cass told me to go back to bed." He says slowly, putting the pieces together on his own.

Chloe follows his gaze where Castiel is pouring over maps, talking to Bobby. "You don't think he'd do anything?" Chloe whispers. At that moment Castiel lifts his head and up and catches Chloe's eye and she can see it, staring her in the face, guilt. She turns back to Father Mac who looks slightly guilty himself.

"People must have the freedom to make their own choices, or they don't count for anything." Father Mac answers her unasked question. "And then they have to live with the consequences."

Chloe nods at him in understanding. "Speaking of choices, I finished the little project you gave me." He digs something out of his pocket and drops a single 9mm bullet to the table next to Chloe's tray. She looks from the priest to the bullet and then back again with a raised eyebrow. "A bullet is just a bullet. It's neither good nor evil until someone chooses to use it." He tells her and she smiles, pleased.

"Talk to Lucas, he'll tell you what you can do next." Chloe turns away but picks the bullet up and rolls it around in her hand.

Dean stares at the retreating form of the priest before turning to Chloe. "What just happened here?"

"You know that impossible test I gave him?" Chloe asks and Dean nods. "He just passed."

"You seem strangely pleased by this." Dean studies her.

Chloe shrugs. She feels the cold lead in her hands and slips it into her pocket. She actually is strangely pleased and she tells Dean this. What she doesn't tell him though is that in passing Chloe's test, Father Mac offered up one of his own.

It's neither good nor evil until someone chooses to use it.

Unfortunately Chloe's positive that this is a test that she will fail.

Another hero, another mindless crime

Behind the curtain, in the pantomime

Hold the line!

Does anybody want to take it anymore?

-Queen