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?

21. Wicked Game

Wicked Game

The world was on fire, and no one could save me but you.

It's strange what desire will make foolish people do.

I never dreamed that I'd love somebody like you

And I never dreamed that I lose somebody like you

-Chris Isaak

June 9, 2013

Chloe studies Dean's face while he sleeps and feels a soft smile tug at the corner of her lips. He's got a bit of drool trailing from the corner of his mouth to the pillow and she resists the urge to reach out and wipe it off. She lifts up onto her elbow and looks over him to check the alarm clock. It's 5:54 a.m., he's only got a few more minutes before the alarm goes off but she lets him sleep.

She rests her head back down on her pillow and just stares at him. Once upon a time she never thought she'd see him again but here he is, in her apartment, in her bed and sometimes she has to pinch herself because she's afraid this all might end up being one big dream. She wiggles further under the covers and a hand shoots out to her hip. "Stop squirming." Dean mumbles, sleep heavy in his voice.

"Sorry did I wake you?" Chloe whispers and he cracks one eye open.

"No the constant squirming woke me." Dean frowns when he notices that she looks rather wide eyed. "How long have you been awake?"

"About thirty minutes." Chloe answers sheepishly.

Dean puts two and two together, the squirming and the waking up early and curses, sitting up. "You have to go to the bathroom?" He asks her but doesn't wait for an answer before getting out of the bed and walking over to her side.

"A little." Chloe admits as he grabs the crutches that are leaning up against the wall on the opposite side of Chloe's nightstand and passes them over to her.

"You could have woken me up." Dean reminds her for what feels like the hundredth time. She braces herself, one hand on either crutch and pushes as hard as she can, slowly lifting her body to a standing position. Dean stops himself before he can offer to help. He knows that she'd take him up on it but whenever she manages something on her own these days she gets this soft secret little smile and Dean can admit that he likes seeing that because lately it's one of the most genuine smiles that he gets to see from her. When she finally makes it upright he gets a small glimpse of it before she looks up at him.

"I didn't want to bother you." Chloe tells him. "You needed your sleep and I'm a big girl, I can hold it."

His reply is cut off when the alarm clock goes off and he hurries over to stop the incessant beeping. He turns around to assure Chloe that waking him up to help her to the bathroom is not bothering him but she's already gone, and the bathroom door is closed. "I'll go start some coffee." He says into the empty room and the only reply he gets is the sound of the shower running.

Their morning continues on like regular. Dean makes the coffee and Chloe tries and fails to get out of the shower and dry herself off on her own. "I told you I don't mind." Dean scolds her as he dries off her legs while she balances herself by holding onto his shoulders.

"Maybe I mind." Chloe comes back with and Dean looks up to see the frustration in her eyes.

"Well I'd mind it a lot more if you slipped and fell and hit your head." Dean points out standing up and handing her the towel so she can wrap herself up then passes over the crutches. "You're coffees on your vanity." He says and places a soft peck on her lips before stripping down himself and jumping in the shower.

They get dressed and ready in relative silence. "Where's my work shirt?" Dean asks lifting up the edge of the mattress and Chloe turns around and smirks at him.

"Why would it be under there?" She asks amused.

"Because it's not anywhere else." Dean says exasperated.

"Have you tried the closet?" Chloe tries and fails to hide her smile and Dean glares at her, insinuating that of course he tried the closet but he goes and checks anyway, emerging a minute later, slightly annoyed, buttoning up the grey shirt, a patch for Aamco Garage on one side of his chest and a patch with his name on the other.

"You ready?" He asks and she nods, grabbing the crutches and pushing herself to her feet.

"We've got some time." Chloe comments as they walk to the door. "I can make you a quick breakfast." Dean hides his grimace by turning and making sure the door is locked, he still remembers her last attempt at breakfast, the taste of the eggs stayed with him for a week.

"No thanks I can just pick up something on the way to work." He assures her.

The drive into Metropolis is quiet, a morning talk radio show playing softly in the background. Dean pulls up outside the hospital and puts the car in park, grabs Chloe's crutches from the trunk and helps her out. "I'll pick you up after your session and we can grab lunch." Dean offers.

"It's weights today." Chloe says shaking her head. "I'm going to be exhausted. I can just get Lois to pick me up, head back home, rest a bit."

"Sounds like a plan." Dean smiles and kisses her cheek before walking back over to his side of the car.

"I was thinking I'd try a pot roast for dinner tonight." Chloe calls after him and he pauses, making a mental note to grab something quick to eat on the way home then pastes a fake smile on his face and looks up.

"Pot roast sounds perfect." Dean assures her before getting in the car and waiting for a chance to pull back into traffic.

Chloe makes her way slowly to the hospital doors and turns around at the sound of the Impala's horn. Dean waves as he drives off and Chloe waves back, one hand on the door knob of the hospital until Dean disappears around the corner a few blocks away. She drops her hand and turns, heading back for the street before sticking her arm out and calling a cab. One stops for her right away, one of the only perks of the crutches and she slides into the back seat. "6th and Waverly." Chloe says and the cab driver nods once as she settles herself in her seat.

The cab ride is short, normally she would have walked it but with the crutches it would probably have taken her half the morning so she doesn't sweat the extra expense. She climbs out onto the street in front of the Watchtower and gives the man a generous tip before heading into the building. When she gets off the elevator and heads through the main doors she doesn't bother turning on the lights. Most everything in the apartment is covered in dust clothes except for Chloe's desk. "Oracle, wake up." Chloe calls out from across the room and the monitors in the back corner of the space spring to life as she makes her way over.

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

Dean passes up the Mechanic's shop that matches the name on his shirt without a second thought and makes his way further across town, pulling into a familiar parking garage and settling the Impala in its usual spot.

Oliver doesn't even look when the elevator call button blinks, simply presses the lock release and picks up his coffee cup. "Morning." Dean says, pulling off his jacket as he walks into the Clock Tower.

"Morning." Oliver nods at him and flips the page of his paper.

Dean steps over to the bookshelf and pulls the third book on the fourth shelf toward him, opening up the clock and revealing Oliver's secret room. Whereas before the room was only used to house Oliver's Green Arrow equipment and then later some of the teams stuff it now also has a corner completely dedicated to Dean. There's a small desk upon which are numerous leather back books. The wall surrounding the desk is covered with maps and newspaper articles.

Dean pulls off his jacket and sits at the desk without another word and Oliver stares at him for a second then sets his coffee cup in the sink and grabs his jacket. "Lock up when you're done." He says simply before heading to the elevator.

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

Oliver steps into the Watchtower the only real source of light in the room coming from Chloe's monitors and he shakes his head, flipping the switches on the wall by the door and turning all the over head lights on. Chloe doesn't even lift her head. "Hey." He says heading for her desk. "It's one o'clock." He tells her and still she doesn't look up at him. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you haven't stopped for lunch."

Chloe looks up at this but only offers him a small smile. "Figured." Oliver rolls his eyes over dramatically and drops a brown bag on the corner of her desk. "Corned beef on rye, light on the sauerkraut, from that Deli you like downtown."

"You're a Prince you know that?" Chloe offers him a real smile this time and grabs for the bag, pulling out the sandwich.

"Actually I'm a Queen." He says making his way to the kitchen then stops and turns around. Chloe's got a mouth full of corned beef and she's trying not to laugh. "Scratch that last remark." He says hopefully and she offers him a small nod, swallowing her food.

He pulls a bottle of water from the fridge and brings it back to the Chloe, setting it on her desk next to the sandwich. "You need the jet today?"

"No, thank you, it's only a two hour drive." Chloe wipes the corner of her mouth. "Just the car please."

"The driver's waiting down stairs." Oliver looks over the mess of papers on her desk and then at the board on the wall behind her and once again tries to make sense of the information. "Are you ever going to tell me what you're doing here?" He asks.

"Maybe." Chloe says through a mouthful of sandwich.

"Are you ever going to tell Dean?" Oliver asks cautiously and turns back around.

"Thank you for lunch." Chloe says, ignoring the question and Oliver takes that as his cue to leave.

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

Dean settles the phone between his ear and shoulder as he digs through the papers on his desk. "I don't know why salting and burning his bones didn't work. I'm pretty sure we're dealing with a run of the mill ghost here Sammy. I found the article from about twenty years ago, guy lost his job, went psycho in the lobby with a machine gun then blew his brains out in his bosses office on the fourth floor." He checks his watch and curses. "Look, I gotta go, I'm gonna be late for dinner but Topeka's only an hour and half from here, I can sneak out after Chloe goes to bed and meet you there. Maybe the guy left some of himself in the office carpet or something. We'll figure it out and I can be back in time for breakfast." He hangs up the phone and hurries out of the Clock Tower, making sure to close off the room and lock up behind himself.

By the time he gets home he's debating between a "traffic was a nightmare" excuse and "got a roadside assistance call" excuse to explain why he's almost an hour late. When he opens the door to the Talon apartment smoke pours out into the hall way and immediately into his lungs. "Chloe!" Dean screams out and he hears her coughing from the kitchen.

"I'm fine, help me get the window open." She calls back to him and hurries into the room and around the island. He can see the shape of Chloe leaning over the sink, trying to reach the edge of the window but she's just too short and she can't get the proper leverage with the crutches. He gently pushes her aside and flings the window open.

The smoke in the room immediately begins to thin as the small breeze outside pulls it from the apartment. Dean wipes at his eyes and looks around the room. "Why didn't the smoke detector go off?" He asks.

"It did." Chloe reaches beside her and retrieves a crumpled broken piece of plastic and wires. "I turned it off."

"With a shot gun?" Dean asks slightly amused.

"With one of my crutches." Chloe smiles.

"What happened?" Dean asks her and her smile fails. She nods behind him to the open oven and he sees a hard blackened lump of what he's assuming used to be pot roast. He tilts his head wondering how she manages to burn practically everything she cooks and sighs. "Still looks better than the chicken that one time." Dean offers and Chloe slaps him with the pot holder.

"What are we going to do for diner?" She asks upset.

"I'll be right back." Dean kisses her cheek and heads for the door. Twenty minutes later he comes back with two pizza boxes and the apartment is smoke free. The roast is sitting heavily in the bottom of the trashcan and Chloe is opening up a bottle of wine.

"Perfect timing." She smiles.

They eat diner, exchanging fake stories about their day. Chloe tells him about how she almost dropped one of the weights on her physical therapists toes and Dean tells her about a guy who came in complaining that he'd just spent three hundred dollars to get a radio installed in his car and it didn't work. After checking all the connections Dean realized that the man had simply failed to turn the thing on.

They sit and watch television for a while and when Chloe starts yawning Dean walks her over to the bed, waits for her to settle in then rests the crutches up against the wall. "Come to bed." Chloe mumbles to him half asleep and Dean kisses her forehead.

"In a minute." He promises her.

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

The sound of Chloe's phone is jarring in the complete silence of the apartment. She's been back for a while now and it still takes her a minute before she recognizes the noise for what it is. She slaps her arm around the nightstand until she finds the phone, cracks an eye open and stares at the screen catching the time first, 2 a.m., then the name of the caller. She answers the phone and brings it lazily up to her ear. "Sammy, do you have any idea what time it is?" She mumbles, still half asleep.

"Chloe, it's Dean."

"Dean?" Chloe frowns and rolls over, only to find the other side of the bed empty. Suddenly she sits up in bed, wide awake and scans her eyes through the darkened apartment. "He's not here." Chloe says slightly panicked.

"I know Chloe, he's with me." Sam says.

"And where is that?" She asks cautiously pushing herself to the edge of the bed very carefully.

"Topeka." Sam tells her as she reaches down and grabs the pair of jeans off the floor, wincing as she pulls them on. "More specifically St. Francis Hospital in Topeka."

"What are you doing in Topeka?" Chloe asks pushing herself to her feet with her jaw clenched. She keeps one hand on the nightstand as she reaches out as far as she can for the crutches balanced up against the wall. They're slightly too far out of her reach. Dean always puts them too far out of her reach because he doesn't think, because he's normally there get them for her. "Wait, did you say hospital?" She asks sinking back down to the mattress.

"There's been an accident." Sam tells her. She listens half in a daze while Sam explains what happened. They were out. Hunting. It was supposed to be a simple haunting but the ghost was a bit more violent than they had anticipated and it threw Dean out of a fourth story window. He somehow managed to land in a dumpster but by the time Sam had gotten to him, he was unconscious and not responding, he didn't have any other choice but to take him to a hospital.

Chloe assures him that she'll be there as soon as she can and she hangs up the phone, setting it back on the nightstand. She allows herself a few deep breaths before pushing herself back to her feet. She reaches out again for the crutches and stumbles, falling to the ground in a heap. She tries to push herself back up but she can't get enough leverage so she pushes herself along the floor until her back hits the bed. She grips the top edge of the mattress and pushes up as hard as she can until she's off the floor.

She has to take a minute to catch her breath before she forces herself back to her feet. She can hear her physical therapist's voice in her head saying, "Baby steps" so that's what she does. With both hands on the edge of the nightstand she inches her way over to the crutches.

Two and half hours after Sam's phone call she hobbles her way through the sliding glass doors of the ER and makes her way to the nurses' station. "Dean Winchester." She says simply and the nurse doesn't even bother looking up she simply turns to the computer and types in his name.

"And who are you to him?"

Chloe opens her mouth then stops, unsure exactly what to say. When she receives no answer the nurse does look up. "It's not a difficult question honey, who are you?"

"I—" She's not his fiancé. Though they've talked about marriage he hasn't actually bothered to propose to her. She could say sister but that would look suspicious after such a long pause and if she says anything else, girlfriend, or friend they won't tell her anything.

"Chloe!" Sam calls to her from down the hall, saving her, and Chloe lets out a sigh of relief. She turns away from the nurses' station and heads toward Sam.

"Where is he?" She asks when she makes it to him.

"In here." Sam nods over his shoulder. "He's fine, he's definitely got a concussion and he broke his arm but other than that he's fine." Chloe nods silently and turns to the Doctor for confirmation and he reiterates everything that Sam told her, giving her a prescription for some painkillers and telling her he's got to take it easy for a while.

"But he's free to go?" Chloe asks and the doctor nods before walking off.

"Look, I'm sorry to call you like this in the middle of the night but the Doctor gave him some painkillers and they won't let him drive and I'd have brought him back but I had to leave in the middle of the job, that ghost is still in there and-"

"It's fine Sammy." Chloe assures him and he lets out a sigh of relief.

"You look good." Sam offers her. "It's good to see you."

Chloe smiles at him. "It's good to see you too." She says. "You know you could visit more often."

"I—" Sam stops, he could visit more often but that would require lying to Chloe and where as Dean as obvious made a sport out of that, Sam still isn't very comfortable with it. But seeing as how he's just spilled the beans that isn't going to be a problem anymore. "You're right, I will make more of an effort to get out to Metropolis." He feels better when she beams at him and vows to visit as soon as he can. "Look, I really got to go."

"Go." Chloe pushes him toward the door.

"Chloe," Sam stops her with a soft hand on her arm. "Just go easy on him."

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

The curtain's been pulled but she can see Dean's silhouette, perched on the edge of the bed. "Finally." He says getting to his feet when he hears the door open and grabbing his jacket off the chair. "We've got to leave now if I have any hope of getting home before Chloe wakes up." He throws back the curtain and freezes. "I told Sam to call Oliver." Dean says lamely.

"Well he called me." Chloe sighs. They stare at each other for a while and then she holds out her hands. "Come on, let's go."

"I—" Dean starts then stops. "My car's at the office building, Sam brought me."

"You can come get it tomorrow." Chloe says and Dean looks as if he's about to protest. "You're not cleared to drive with all the medicine the Doctor pumped into you and I can't." She motions down to the crutches. "I had to wake Oliver's driver up at three in morning just to get here because it was either that or pay for a four hundred dollar cab ride so you can come get it tomorrow."

"Ok." Dean nods. "I'll come get it tomorrow." Satisfied Chloe turns and walks out of the room Dean following behind her.

The sun's just starting to rise by the time they make it back to the Talon apartment and the both of them trudge tired through the door. "Sit." Chloe commands and Dean obeys without thinking pulling a chair out from the table and collapsing into it. She drops a bottle of pills in front of him and then walks over to the fridge and starts pulling out butter and eggs and bacon.

"What are you doing?" Dean asks her.

"Making breakfast." She says, grabbing a pan and setting it on the stove.

"I'm not hungry." He tells her.

"Well you shouldn't take those on an empty stomach so it's either breakfast or left over cold pizza." Chloe says.

Dean shuts up as she turns on the stove and drops some butter in the pan. "Are we going to even talk about it?"

"About what Dean? The fact that you've been hunting behind my back or the fact that when you get hurt you'd rather call Oliver to pick you up instead of me because honestly I'm not sure which one I'm more upset about." She tells him.

"Look it was one time, Sam needed some help—"

"Please, don't." Chloe turns around and walks over to the table. "It was a simple haunting, Sam can do that in his sleep and don't sit there and tell me it was a one time thing Dean, I know ok, I've known for a while now. I know about San Antonio and Chicago and Memphis."

"You…" He looks up at her. "What?" He asks confused.

"So to answer your question, no I really don't want to talk about this right now. I'm exhausted, I'm hungry and I have a physical therapy session in two hours."

"Right, now it's Tuesday but I forget is Tuesdays a real physical therapy day or a fake physical therapy day?" Dean asks her and she freezes. "You know where you let me drop you off at the hospital but you never go in, instead you catch a cab to the Watchtower."

"You…" Chloe stares at him wide eyed. "How did you find out?"

"Oracle told me." Dean shrugs.

"God, she is such a tattle tale." Chloe groans with a laugh.

"How did you find out?" Dean asks her.

"Sam let something slip once and I got curious so I well…" She smiles then and pulls out her computer, turning it on. "Oracle can you open Operation Shadow Rockford?" Chloe asks and a large map pulls up on the screen. There are a few large red dots, two of them are in downtown Topeka and the other is in the middle of Smallville. Dean looks down at himself.

"That's my car and…you're tracking me?" Dean asks her incredulously. "How, where?" He starts to pat his pockets. "Wait a minute." He gets up and walks over to his nightstand, rummaging around until he finds what he's looking for. He walks back to the table and drops something in front of her. "Is this yours?"

"Yeah." Chloe picks up the small tracker and frowns. "Where did it come from?"

"Inside the steering column." He answers her.

"That was for sure the one I never thought you'd find." Chloe frowns. "What were you doing rummaging around inside the steering column?"

"There was an…incident. I had lost my keys and I needed to make a quick getaway." He says defensively.

"You hotwired the Impala?" Chloe's eyes widen comically and Dean winces.

"It wasn't my finest hour." He admits, the memory still stinging him a little. "I take it there are others?" He asks changing the subject.

"There's one in your phone, one in your watch and one in your wallet." Chloe tells him then looks back over at the screen. "If it makes you feel better they're on Sam too." She shrugs. "As for your car there's one in the back of the glove compartment, one under the weapons in the trunk and one under the engine block." Dean opens up his mouth. "I also have a program that checks the police records for any mention of your alias', all your old credit cards are flagged so if you use them I know." Chloe shrugs.

"Is that all?" Dean asks amused.

"Oh, and I modified Sam's drivers license, turned it into an RFID card, it's something Vic and I were working on before. It gives off a signal that allows me to remote access his laptop so that I know what he's researching, just in case you guys need any help."

"So it was you?" Dean asks exasperated. "I told Sammy, I knew there was no way that all those people kept showing up, right when we needed them. Jo in Dallas, Victor in Albuquerque?" Chloe nods.

"I sent whoever was nearby." She admits.

"And in Boston. I didn't actually see him but Clark—"

"Yeah." Chloe nods swallowing hard remember Clark coming back holding a crumpled bullet in his hands which otherwise would have been inside Dean's chest. They'd cut that one a little close. "You didn't notice that I didn't talk to you for like two weeks after you got back?"

"No." Dean shakes his head. "I thought everything was normal."

"When exactly did we start living separate lives?" She asks him thinking about all the separate trips that they were each taking.

"I don't know, probably around the same time we stopped talking." Dean shrugs. They stare at each other in silence and then Dean's nose crinkles. "Do you smell something?"

Chloe looks at him in horror, "Breakfast." She says and he jumps to his feet, turning off the stove and pulling the pan away from the heat.

"Butter, you even burn butter I don't understand it." Dean says in astonishment and Chloe starts laughing and then he starts laughing and then they can't stop.

"Wait, I've got one question, how exactly where you planning on hiding that from me?" She motions to his cast.

"I would have come up with something." Dean assures her.

"Oh really?" Chloe crosses her arm over her chest. "About as brilliant as your excuse when you came home with those huge scratches all down the side of your neck?" Dean looks at her incredulous. "You really thought I believed that some feral cat had been hiding in some old ladies engine and jumped out and attacked you when you went to change her oil?"

"Hey, I'll have you know that story was actually true." Dean bristles and Chloe laughs again. "Now the story I told you about swerving to miss a deer and hitting a telephone pole, that was made up."

"I believed that one." Chloe slaps his arm playfully.

"Yeah I was actually swerving to miss this well, zombie, you should have been there, Sam screamed like a girl." Dean smirks and Chloe leans forward eager to hear the story. "So we're in Mobile…"

Two hours later Dean grabs the last slice of cold pizza from the box and notices the clock on the microwave. "You missed your session." He tells Chloe.

"I can reschedule." She shrugs happily. They'd just been talking, about everything about anything and it felt good. She reaches across the table and grabs a slice of pepperoni of his pizza and tosses it in her mouth.

"So what do you in the Watchtower all day?" Dean asks, tearing off the crust and handing it to Chloe.

She pauses for a second, the food halfway to her mouth. "Do you want to see?" She asks pushing herself to her feet and Dean drops the pizza to the counter and wipes his hand on his pants.

"Yeah I think I would." He nods.

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

When they get to the Watchtower Dean has to stop a second. He remembers staying here right after Chloe got moved to Metropolis General for a few weeks but the place had reminded him too much of her and so Lois had offered up the Talon apartment. Oliver had covered everything in dust cloths and said that the Watchtower was Chloe's and they would shut it down until she was back in it. He hadn't been back since.

The dust clothes were still on everything but Chloe's equipment now and the only other sign that anyone ever came there were the take out containers in the trash and the dirty coffee mugs in the sink. "I was having a hard time coping after I woke up. You guys could tell I know you could but it was like you were afraid to say something to me and I was afraid to say something to you because well, I'd been so strong for so long I wasn't sure how to admit weakness."

"I would have understood." Dean assures her, stepping closer to the desk.

"I know, but I didn't even know what was wrong, I couldn't figure out how to put in into words. I mean I understood that everyone came back but I think because I'd been so isolated at first, spending four months after I woke up in the hospital, that it didn't mean anything to me. I knew what it meant that you guys were back because I saw you every day, but I couldn't really seem to grasp the enormity of it all because it was so enormous. Nothing was different." Chloe explains. "Nothing was different, but everything had changed." She pointed out. "You guys got to go out into the world and experience it and I didn't until a few months after I woke up and by then I think it was too late." She turned away from Dean rapidly typing something on the computer screen.

"I got the idea from a guy I met in Physical Therapy. Corporal Graham Fisher, he's a marine, was stationed in Afghanistan. He got injured in a roadside bombing and sent back stateside for PT." Chloe smiles softly. "The first time I walked in the room he stopped what he was doing and stood at attention. He remembered. He'd survived the first wave of the virus and then ended up stationed in Georgia. He said he got to fight with me at the battle of Macon." Dean shivered he remembered that battle, it was particularly bad.

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

"Did you make it to St. Mary's?" Chloe asks panting on the balance ball as Graham finishes his last few reps on the weight machine.

"Oh yeah." He smiles strangely. "That was some fight."

Chloe grabs her water bottle and takes a long gulp. "Did you die?" She knows it's a strange question but he doesn't laugh.

Graham nods, setting the weights down and then sitting up. Chloe hands him a towel to wipe his face. "When I woke up on that field, I thought I was in heaven at first. Then when we'd all realized what happened, what it meant, man I tore out of that place so fast. Made it back home to Texas in record time. I remember knocking on my mama's door and holding my breath. She didn't make it past the first stage of the virus." He softens. "But then she opened that door and I don't think I've ever hugged someone so hard in all my life. And she didn't remember a thing. No one did, my sister, her husband, they all died in the first stage but they didn't even remember it. The more people I talked to, shops I went in the more people I realized had no clue what happened."

"How did you cope?" Chloe asks.

"No one else remembered, but I remembered. For a while there I thought I'd gone crazy. I'd done a tour in Iraq before everything went down and I was going to blame the whole thing on some delayed form of PSTD, maybe get some counseling but then I thought about those guys I was stationed with in Macon. They weren't from my unit before, I'd never met them before so I thought if they were real then I wasn't crazy, so I looked a few of them up on Facebook."

"Did you find them?" Chloe asks.

"First guy I found was Rodriguez." He smiles. "This dude was crazy, he was a bomb guy, the ones who go in and disarm them you know like in that movie. I find his Facebook page and he was real, but that didn't really mean anything until I saw his status. It said, 'I'm not on the list'." Chloe looks confused so Graham elaborates. "That's what we used to say to each other after a fight, a sound off to make sure everyone was alive. We'd say we weren't on the list."

Then Chloe gets it, the list of the dead, they weren't on the list of the dead. "That helped? Knowing someone else out there remembered?"

"A little." Graham nods. "Between the two of us we tracked down the rest of our unit and they all remembered. The thing was, a few of those guys never made it to St. Mary's. A few of them got infected before the cure and we had to—I had to—" Chloe puts a hand on his knee to tell him she understands. "We set up a time, we were all gonna drive down to Macon and meet up, have a few drinks, reminisce. I don't think I really got it until I walked into that bar and had a beer with the guys that I…" He trails off.

"The ones that you killed?" Chloe asks and he nods.

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

"So the next day you dropped me off at the hospital but I came here instead. I made this." She opens up a web browser and types in an address, and a page pops up on the screen. Dean looks at it confused and Chloe takes pity on him. "Oracle, pull up the Today Show clip." Chloe smiles and the screen splits, on one side is the website on the other Meredith Vieira on the set of the Today Show smiling down at Dean.

"I'm sure no one ever imagined the day when a new social networking site would come along that might rival Facebook but we here at the Today Show think we might have just found it. It's called "The List", the address is . The owner and creator of the site is unknown. It showed up a little over two weeks ago seemingly out of nowhere. News of the website has spread through other social networks like MySpace, Twitter, and yes, even Facebook and through good old fashioned word of mouth."

"There are no walls to post on, no groups you can join. There is no place to post photos, no status' to update, and absolutely no poking. You don't even have to have an e-mail address. It asks nothing of you but your name. The entire site is nothing more than one long list of names.

When we visited the site yesterday morning, a mere two weeks after its launch, it already contained over 200,000 names. This morning when we checked it before air, that number had more than tripled to a staggering 750,000 names. It was estimated that before this segment is over, the number will be far beyond 1,000,000 names. And that's all it is, names with a question at the top, "Are you one of the living?"

You can add your name to the list if you want but you don't have to. It also gives you the option to sign up for e-mail alerts, you can get daily or weekly updates of all the new names added or if you want to you can enter in a specific name and receive an e-mail when only that name has been added."

"There are no ads on the site, no way to make money off of it and as far as we can tell, no reason for it. It doesn't appear to be a scam, or a trick, or a marketing ploy. It simply appears to be what it is, a list of names. The site itself is simple in design but apparently very complex in its programming. To talk to us a little more about it is Craig Markson, an internet securities expert formerly with Microsoft now working for the government." They pan out and there's a man on the couch next to Meredith, graying hair, dark glasses, wearing a non descript suit. "Is it safe?"

"It's completely secure." Craig tells her. "For one thing it doesn't ask you for any information other than your name so there isn't really any information to gain from hacking it. Also, even if you tried to hack the site you'd fail. I couldn't hack it, the best people I know couldn't hack it, I hear there's even a contest out in the underground community, offering a reward for the first person who can crack the code."

"It's un-hackable?'

"It's…I hesitate to use that word but yeah." Craig nods. "It was weird. It seemed like no matter what method I tried to get into it, it found a way to stop me, almost as if it was learning from me."

"You're saying 'it' like the website itself is keeping you out." Meredith says.

"That's how it felt." Craig shrugs. "I sounds crazy, I know but the other's I've talked to have all said the same thing."

"So you can't get in?" Meredith says.

"As far as I know, no one can get in. Which means that the site can't be altered by any third party. The only thing you can do to it, is add your name. Anyone can add a name, can add as many names as they want which lends itself to nothing more heinous than juvenile pranks. The sight is updated in real time and we noticed people adding fake names, or even names of dead people, but those were usually taken down with in the hour.

"So someone out there is policing the list?" Meredith asks.

"It would seem that way but a cursory check shows that the website itself hasn't been accessed by anyone since its creation." Craig shrugs.

"Wouldn't whoever had the ability to create something like this want to brag about it." Meredith asks.

"They would, which is why it's so strange that no one will come forward claiming to be the sites creator. Hell I'm starting to wonder if it even has a creator." Craig jokes. "Maybe it was born from the internet itself."

"Immaculate website creation." Meredith offers and Craig laughs. "So it's safe?"

"As far as I can tell." Craig smiles. "I added my name last week."

"I added mine yesterday." Meredith says and turns to Matt Lauer. "Are you on list?"

"I am." Matt nods. "I added my name this morning." He turns to Meredith. "You know I think that's going to be the number one question in the country for a while, 'Are you on the list?' what do you think?"

"I think you might be right." Meredith turns to the camera. "So, are you on the list? Let us know at our website: .com."

The video ends and Dean turns back to the list. The count at the bottom now reads a little over 10,000,000. "It kind of took off after that aired." Chloe says sheepishly.

"How did I not know about this?" Dean asks.

"Well you're not really a big internet person, I mean unless is demon research or you know porn." Chloe shrugs and Dean cracks a smile.

"So you made this?" Dean asks astonished.

"Technically Oracle created it, I just came up with the idea. I kept thinking about that other list, the list of the dead and I thought about Rodriguez and Graham and they're not on that list, they're not dead anymore and people need to know that, I need to know that." Chloe says. "So I figured the easiest way to do that was to make another list."

"But you're not on it?" Dean asks confused looking for her name.

"I don't think I'm ready for that just yet." Chloe answers truthfully. "There are still some things I think I need to do, to see, before I think I can be..."

"One of the living?" Dean asks.

"Yeah." Chloe nods.

"This is what you do? You sit here all day and check the names on the list?" Dean asks her.

"God no, Oracle takes care of all that." Chloe shakes her head. "I do this." She pulls a good old fashioned whiteboard out from behind the large computer monitor and Dean moves closer to look at the lists of names and places.

"Another list?" Dean asks confused.

"Sort of." Chloe puts her hands in her pocket and waits for him to understand.

"These are…" He turns around to her. "These are the people you killed." He says. "Personally."

"Not all of them obviously. I didn't stop every demon to ask the name of its vessel but the ones I remembered." Chloe nods. Dean understands that to mean the ones she regrets without her having to say it. "Graham said he didn't get it until he was sitting down having a beer with the people he killed so…"

"You have a beer with them?" Dean asks confused.

"No." Chloe rolls her eyes. "I just go and see them. Make sure they're really there. None of them have even remembered me so far. I just like to know that they're okay I guess." Chloe shrugs, feeling foolish.

"And are they?" Dean asks her with a soft smile.

"This is Kevin Reynolds." Chloe says pointing a familiar picture on the board. "You may remember him as Barbas' preferred vessel." Dean nods remembering. "I went and saw him yesterday. He lives in Kansas City with his lovely wife and four kids. He lost his job recently and they had to take a second mortgage out on the house but he's alive and he's not one of the Hollow Men anymore so." Chloe turns to Dean and he throws an arm over her shoulder. "Plus, I hear he just got a job offer from Queen Industries so I think they'll be alright."

"Chloe you can't help everyone you know?"

"I know." She nods. "But I can help him." She pushes the board back to its place and shuts down Oracle's screen.

"Why did you hide this from me?" Dean asks her.

"I don't know. You guys didn't seem to be having any problems adjusting and it was different for me. I mean everything that happened, happened to all of you but, it happened because of me and I still don't know how I feel about that or what that means, how could I explain it to you? I didn't think you'd understand." Chloe sits down. "And then in the hospital you just kept going on and on about having a normal life finally and not worrying about demons and when ever Oliver tried to bring up me coming back as Watchtower you got this look on your face so I brushed him off and I thought that's what you wanted." Chloe looks over at him. "Why did you hide hunting from me?"

"I didn't want you to worry? I didn't want you to…you didn't talk about anything after it happened. You didn't talk about anything much less what went down that day. Then you were having such a hard time I thought the best thing would be to just keep you away from all of it, the hunting and Oliver and his Meta's. So the whole normal life thing was…I thought that's what you wanted. And I tried for a while there I really did. I didn't go out with Sam when he asked, I stayed away from that life and I actually did work in a garage for a while but I'm a hunter, it's in my genes." Dean shrugs.

"Ok, can we both agree that we're idiots and that really need to work on communication and that we'll stop hiding stuff from each other?" Chloe laughs.

"Yes, please. It was getting harder and harder to come up with reasons for a mechanic to go out of town so much." Dean groans.

"I don't care if you want to hunt Dean, I actually love that you still fight even after everything, hell if I could walk more than a foot without holding onto something I'd be out there with you." Chloe tells him. "I just need to know where you are so I'm not getting surprise phone calls in the middle of the night that you've been in an accident. That really scared me."

"I'm sorry." Dean pulls her closer and kisses her forehead. "And I want you to know you don't have to do it alone. It can't be easy, seeing all those people again so if you ever want some company."

"I might just take you up on that." Chloe tells him.

"And if you ever do want to talk about what happened, I'm here."

"I know, but I'm not quite ready for that just yet." Chloe admits.

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

By the end of the week Chloe has the Watchtower re-opened, no more dust clothes, no more hiding in the dark. She gets Oracle back to doing what Oracle does best, Oliver and his team back to doing what they do best and before the month is over they're are already checking out a possible 33.1 in Arizona. It's just like old times, only it's better.

Because now the Watchtower isn't just for superheroes it's for hunters too. Dean moves out of Oliver's clock tower setting up his desk next to Chloe's, his bookcase full of old leather bounds books next to her server farm. Oracle, more than capable of doing two things at once as she constantly reminds them, stays on top of her duties for the JLA, keeps up with , and also maintains the site Chloe made for hunters, another things that managed to carry over after the change.

In two months they've got a reputation for being a safe haven for hunters. Anyone is welcome to come by whenever they need to for whatever they need. Most of them are just looking for the next job, a few of them for discrete medical care which Emil happily provides, some of them just need someone to talk to and a home cooked meal. This all means that the Watchtower is generally pretty busy.

So when Chloe walks in one day to find only Dean and Bobby hunched over Dean's desk, she's surprised but not necessarily disappointed. Dean meets her at the door, taking the bag from her as she sets the crutches against the wall. Her Physical Therapist had suggested she might try not relying on them so much. She's not ready to go completely without support however and Dean knows this so he slips his arm in hers and helps her to her desk. "How was your trip?" He asks.

"Great." Chloe smiles. "There's some pie for you in my bag. Hey Bobby." She leans over and offers him a peck on the cheek, smiling at the small blush that rises on his cheeks then turns to Dean. "There's more than enough pie for two." She says pointedly and Dean actually pouts as she scratches Beverly's name off her board.

"Can you stay for dinner?" Chloe asks.

Bobby pauses. "Are you cooking?" He asks her and she glares at him.

"I will be if you don't watch your tone." Chloe challenges him and he snorts.

"I can't." Bobby says. "Gotta get to Tulsa." He grabs the papers he and Dean had been looking through.

"Oh, helping Jo out with her 'Woman in White'?" Chloe asks and he nods. "Fine, but stop by on your way back through." Chloe tells him and it sounds more like an order than a suggestion. "I'll get take out."

"Deal." Bobby kisses her cheek this time and heads for the door.

Dean helps Chloe to her chair and she lowers herself into it slowly, then he perches himself on the edge of her desk, checking out her wall. "There's only one name left on there." Dean points out.

"I've been saving that one." Chloe admits. "I'm not sure I can do it alone."

"Sure." Dean turns back to the board and frowns. "The Barringers, who are the Barringers?" He asks and looks more closely at the sheet and pauses. "Wait a minute, I know that address." He says slowly.

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

Dean can see Chloe's entire body clench the second he turns onto the familiar street. He wasn't sure she'd even been aware enough the last time they were here to recognize the place but apparently enough of the surroundings seeped into her subconscious. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Dean asks, slowing the car as they get closer, eventually stopping in front of 1630 Revello Drive, home of the Barringers.

"Yeah." Chloe stares up at the house. There are two rocking chairs swaying idly on the large wraparound porch. "Yes, I want to do this." She nods decisively so he puts the car in park and turns it off.

"Ok, then." He grabs her crutches from the trunk and brings them to her. She takes her time, making her way slowly up the front walk and Dean keeps pace with her, staying by her side. When they're a little more than halfway there the front door swings open and a boy, about nine or ten comes barreling out of the house and down the porch steps.

Chloe's breath hitches in her throat and her hand reaches out, grasping onto Dean's arm in a vice like grip. "Dean." She whispers. She's seen that boy before, only the last time she saw him, he was dead, clutched tight against the chest of his mother.

"I know." He tells her, trying to sooth her and her grip slackens just a bit. The kid is so intent in his getaway that he doesn't even see Chloe and Dean has to hold out a hand to keep him from slamming into her. "Whoa there." Dean smiles at him.

"Tyler." A woman scolds him from the doorway. "Watch where you're going and tell the lady you're sorry."

"Sorry." Tyler throws Chloe's way.

"It's fine." She assures him. "I'm fine."

"Where are you going in such a hurry anyway?" The woman steps out onto the porch, tossing the dish towel in her hands over her shoulder.

"Just across the street to play in Matthew's yard." Tyler says exasperated.

"Fine, but you stay in our yard or Matthew's yard, don't go wandering off. Dinner will be ready soon."

"Fine." Tyler grunts and runs across the street where a few other kids are running around playing a lazy game of soccer.

"Sorry about him, they're just a big ball of energy at that age you know. Can I help you?" The woman walks down the porch steps and smiles at Chloe and Dean.

Chloe opens her mouth but nothing comes out, all she can see in her mind's eye is the woman in front of her, lifeless, huddled up in a corner. "Yes, I'm Dean, this is Chloe. We're interested in buying the house down the street, but we're new to the area and we wanted to get a feel for the neighborhood first."

"I'm Keri." She steps forward and shakes Dean's hand. "It's a great place to live." She turns to Chloe and smiles sheepishly as Chloe tries to figure out how to stay upright and shake Keri's hand at the same time. "I'm so sorry, I'm being rude you must be…come inside. I just made some fresh coffee, I'll tell you all about the area, what stores to shop at, which neighbors to avoid, what schools are the best." Keri turns around and heads back to the house, Chloe and Dean following behind her. "Do you have any kids?"

"No." Chloe says.

"Are you planning on having kids?" Keri glances behind her.

"Eventually, yes." Dean answers catching Chloe slightly off guard.

"This is a great neighborhood for kids." Keri says. "It's really safe."

"I'm sure it is." Chloe steps into the house and is immediately brought back to that day. It looks exactly the same, minus the dead body on the couch and the stale smell in the air.

"David, we've got guests." Keri calls out as they walk into the kitchen. There's a man at the sink furiously scrubbing his hands and Chloe assumes this is David. "This is Chloe and Dean, they're interested in the Miller's house."

"That's a great house." David says. "They've got the pool right?"

"No." Keri answers before Chloe or Dean have to. "That's the Meyers, the Millers have the theater room in the basement."

"Oh right." David smiles. "Well, it's a great neighborhood. Sorry I'd shake your hand but—" He holds up his hands which are covered in grease, despite his vigorous scrubbing from earlier. "I've been working on my car all morning."

"Is it running yet?" Keri asks.

"Not exactly." David winces.

"Hey." Dean says, laying a hand in the small of Chloe's back. She's frozen in the doorway to the kitchen staring at the corner. "It's ok." He whispers in her ear.

Chloe looks over where David is threatening a laughing Keri with his nasty greasy hands and Chloe takes in a deep breath. "Yeah, it is." She steps into the kitchen and smiles.

"You know, David, I've got a bit of experience working on cars. My dad was a mechanic and I do all the work on my own car. I can take a look if you want." Dean offers.

"I'd really appreciate it actually." David nods him to the back door and Dean follows him out.

"He doesn't have to do that." Keri says to Chloe.

"Oh, he wants to." Chloe says. "If he didn't love his car so much, I'd go so far as to say he breaks it on purpose sometimes just so he can fix it."

"Sit please." Keri pulls a chair out and Chloe slowly lowers herself down into, balancing the crutches against the table. Keri sets a cup of coffee and a platter of cookies in front of Chloe and then sits down opposite her. "If you don't mind my asking, what—" Keri grabs a cookie and motions to Chloe's crutches.

"There was an accident." Chloe says vaguely but Keri just nods. "So tell me about the neighborhood, have you lived here long?"

"We moved in just before Tyler was born so almost ten years now. We love it." Keri tells her honestly.

Less than thirty minutes later David and Dean come back in the house and find Keri and Chloe laughing hysterically. "Look at that fast friends already." David smiles.

"I take it you managed to get the car started?" Keri got up to refill Chloe's mug.

"Oh yeah, Dean figured it out in about five minutes. Runs better than before." David turns on the water and they take turns washing their hands.

"Then what have you been doing out there for almost half an hour?"

"Having a beer in the garage." David smiles. "So did she convince you to buy? I think you'd be a great addition to the neighborhood and I was just telling Dean, there's enough room downstairs at the Miller's you could add a third bath for not too much out of pocket and it would really increase your property value."

"You just want a mechanic down the street and a fifth for Friday night poker." Keri says as a timer goes off somewhere. "That would be my pot roast." She grabs for a pot holder and pulls a pan out of the oven. "You guys should stay for dinner."

"No, thanks, we don't want to intrude, plus it's getting late, we should probably head out." Chloe pushes herself to her feet.

"Right then, I'll walk you to the door." Keri smiles and follows them to the door.

As Dean helps Chloe down the front steps Keri calls across the street, "Tyler! Dinner!"

"Five more minutes mom." Tyler calls back.

"No, now." Keri says and looks at Chloe. "Kids huh?"

Chloe laughs but stops at the sound of a very familiar bark. She swings her head around across the street and her breath catches when she sees Malachi chasing after Tyler. "You have a beautiful dog." Chloe says, her voice shaky, she hadn't realized until this moment how much she'd missed him.

"Oh, he's not ours." Keri steps down and walks over by Chloe. "He's not anyone's as far as we know. He's got no tags and we've seen no signs. He just showed up one day, a few weeks ago, started hanging around the neighborhood. I'd call animal control but he's really gentle, great with the kids and I'm afraid they might put him down. I see him sometimes, staring down the street, it's weird it's almost like he's waiting for something."

Chloe takes a deep breath and then whistles. Malachi stops chasing Tyler immediately and swings his head around and stares at her before taking off running, straight for her. Chloe lets her crutches drop to the side and she falls to her knees just as Malachi comes to a stop in front of her. She buries her hands in his fur, clutching at the skin under his ears and he licks her face with abandon, his tail wagging wilding. "Good boy." Chloe laughs, resting her forehead on his. "I missed you too."

"Wow, he really likes you." Keri says. "It's like he knows you or something."

"Or something." Chloe agrees.

Dean turns to Keri and smiles. "You sure he doesn't belong to anyone?"

Five minutes later they're driving out of the neighborhood, Malachi lying on the front seat his head in Chloe's lap. Dean can't help but think about how similar this is to the last time he drove out of this neighborhood, Chloe sitting quietly at his side, Malachi lying in her lap but that's where the similarities end. Chloe's face is relaxed calm, almost at peace this time around. He thinks about where they'd been heading last time and where they were heading this time and he relaxes. "Back home?" Dean asks.

"No." Chloe takes a deep breath. "I'd like to make just one more stop if that's alright."

"Of course." Dean glances over at her. "Where to?"

"The camp." She says and Dean just nods. She turns to look at him then, shifting completely in her seat to face him. "That's what you want right?" She asks him. "That's what you're waiting for?"

"What?"

"What Keri and David have. I mean the house in the suburbs, I mean working on your car on a Sunday afternoon and having a beer in the garage while I make a pot roast? Kids playing in the yard, Friday night poker games with the neighbors?" Dean thinks about it for a minute.

He never had that growing up, living out of the Impala and motel rooms. He made the most of it at first because his dad always told him how soldiers didn't complain and the second his mom died he became a soldier and because he had to put up a brave face for Sammy. So when Sammy came home from school upset because the other kids had backyards and sleepovers, he acted like he loved it, pretended like living in motels was so much cooler than living in a house and pointed out that someone had to mow those yards and Dean wasn't going to do it so it would have been Sam's job and eventually Sam stopped complaining but Dean never stopped wanting.

By the time he got to high school he'd resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't ever going to have that, a place to call home, the knowledge that no matter what he always had a place to go to, a place that was safe, a place that was his and he tried to make himself hate it, hate the normalcy of it, hate the people who got to experience it and take it for granted and at some point he maybe even convinced himself that was true but apparently he hadn't been able to convince Chloe.

"Yes." Dean finally admits out loud and suddenly the longing is so strong for it that he can taste it.

"I don't know that I can give you that." Chloe says sadly, still staring out of the window."

"What do you mean?" Dean asks, fear gripping his heart at her words.

She turns to him and sighs, "I would do anything for you but I don't know that I'll ever be able to give you that. I like helping Oliver, I like my work with the Justice League and I like helping the hunters and I can't stop doing that, I can't turn my back on that fight because that's who I am and I don't think I could do that and be the picture perfect Donna Reed wife and mother and I think that's what you're looking for."

Dean wants to protest but Chloe's obviously not finished. "I'm not cut out for suburban life Dean, that's just not me, paying Suzie homemaker and organizing block parties. You've seen firsthand my attempt at a pot roast and if you think my cooking's bad you should try my baking, seriously I make the most dreadful chocolate chip cookie you'll ever have. I'm not kidding you could never believe in your wildest dreams that a simple chocolate chip cookie could taste so bad and I absolutely hate mini-vans, abhor them really. I don't care about increasing my property value with a third bathroom and who needs a movie theater in their basement—"

"Chloe." Dean snaps at her, drawing her out of her tantrum. "That's not what I want."

He'd never really given much thought to what exactly he wanted, never allowed himself to because it would just hurt too much when he didn't get it. But now, with the future wide open in front of him, with more possibilities available to him than he ever thought he'd have, he knows exactly what he wants.

"I want to build a life with you. I want to be with you. And I'd never ask you to give up doing what you love, I wasn't planning on giving up hunting. I love that you help Oliver, I love that you help the hunters, I love that even after everything you still want to fight the good fight and I want to fight it right there with you. And we could live wherever you wanted to, we could live on a farm like Clark of even in the city, except not at the Watchtower because as much as you love that place I need some privacy and you need to be able to shut off that part of your life and just be Chloe, with no missions and no jobs." Dean smiles.

"And the suburbs aren't that bad. Malachi would probably love a yard to run around in and sure we wouldn't have a movie theater in the basement, it would probably be more like a secret underground command center and I think you'd actually be pretty great at organizing a block party and who says chocolate chips cookies have to be made from scratch, you know they sell the premade cookie dough now, already cut into perfect serving sizes you just have to stick them in the oven." He jokes and she laughs. "I want a life with you Chloe."

"And kids?" She asks hesitantly.

"Yeah, I mean well, eventually." Dean stutters and Chloe can see a soft blush rise on his neck. "Why? Don't you want kids?" He looks over at her quickly.

"Yeah." Chloe nods. "I do."

"Good, that's…that's good." Dean smiles and trains his eyes back on the road.

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

Dean stops the car when they make it into the old archery range. He cuts off the engine and pulls the key from the ignition. "It looks exactly the same." Dean marvels, staring at the camp grounds.

"Oliver hasn't done anything to it." Chloe tells him. "I mean he cleared the guns out just in case and cleaned out Emil's lab, but other than that, he hasn't touched it." She frowns. "It looks empty." Chloe says quietly.

"It is empty." Dean tells her.

He opens his door and Malachi jumps out of the car and immediately heads for the porch of Chloe's old cabin, settling down in his usual spot, his tail wagging. Dean shakes his head then walks around the car, popping the trunk and grabbing Chloe's crutches and a shovel then walking to her side of the car and pulling her door open for her.

"Where to?" He swigs the shovel over his shoulder.

"Behind Emil's lab, into the woods." Chloe says and they head off in that direction, she whistles to Malachi. "Come on boy." The dog jumps to his feet and happily trails after them. Dean helps her when they get into the woods and there's tree roots and things to maneuver around. "Here." Chloe stops suddenly when they get into a small clearing. "Right here."

"You want me to dig here?" Dean asks looking around, there's nothing there.

Chloe nods and makes her way over to a small stump, lowering herself onto it. Malachi sits down next to her and rests his chin on her leg. "Please."

"Ok." Dean slams the shovel into the ground and starts digging. Two hours later the entire clearing has been dug up and Dean is covered in sweat and dirt and there are blisters all over his hands. "Nothing, there's nothing here." He looks over and that statement brings another secret smile to Chloe's face. "What were you expecting me to find?"

"Nothing." Chloe breathes a sigh of relief. "Nothing." She says again and Dean thinks, then remembers something Castiel said to him a long time ago.

"When they die, she buries them. Digs their graves at night in the woods, just her and a shovel."

"This is where you buried them." He looks around the clearing. "Where you buried the bodies of the infected?" Chloe nods as a tear falls down her face.

"And there not here anymore." She lets out a sort of watery laugh, wiping at the tears.

"You're happy about this right?" Dean asks. "This is a good thing."

"Yes." Chloe says. "This is a good thing."

Dean smiles up at her. "So can I stop digging?" Chloe laughs and nods and Dean lets the shovel drop to the ground before collapsing next to it. Chloe pushes off of the stump, lowering herself unsteadily to the ground next to him. He doesn't hesitate, moving his head to lie in her lap and Malachi walks over, lying across the both of them. Chloe brings one hand up to scratch behind Malachi's ears and the other to Dean's head, running her fingers through his hair.

"After you died." Chloe says suddenly. "I was tempted, so tempted to just let him have it." Dean doesn't have to ask who he is or what Chloe was going to let him have. "I mean it seemed pointless to fight anymore because you were dead and Sam was dead and I didn't know, if we won, that I would be strong enough to do it without you. But then—" Chloe cuts off and Dean looks up at her.

"You don't have to."

"I want to." Chloe assures him. "Then I thought of you. I thought about how strong you were. How you said no even if it meant that I had to say yes. How you trusted me to do the right thing, trusted me so much you died for me and I knew I couldn't give in. It was you Dean, I didn't give up because of you."

Dean stares at her unsure of what to say to that, unsure if he even can speak after hearing that and Chloe saves him the trouble by continuing her story. "Then something happened and I wasn't on the field anymore…" Chloe lets out a breath and tells Dean everything. It's easier than she thought it would be to explain her conversation with God, it's harder, so much harder than she thought when she gets to the part about Joshua and the sacrifice that she made, that the both of them made. But he's there, listening to the whole thing, his hand warm and strong in hers and that makes it easier.

When she finishes, they lay there, just the two of them together in silence, watching as the sun dips down behind the lake. Chloe knows it's not her picturesque sunset on a secluded beach in her weird utopian dreamland. The ground is slightly damp and it's actually pretty chilly and she has no idea how but there's dirt in her underwear but, it still a thousand times better because it's real. It gets even more real when Dean breaks the moment. "I don't have to fill all this back in do I?" He asks and pulls himself to his feet surveying the area.

"No." Chloe laughs struggling to pull herself up. He leans down, grabbing her hands and lifting her to her feet in one quick smooth motion. It startles her and she lets out a bark of laughter. "I need my crutches." She reminds him.

He just stares at her and lifts her wrists over his head. She locks her hands together around his neck and he trails his fingers down her arms, past her shoulders and to her waist, gripping her tight, holding her steady. "Lean on me for a while." He offers and she nods, somewhat shyly.

He just can't take it anymore and leans forward capturing her mouth with his. It makes him realize how long it's been since he'd really kissed her and slides his tongue softly along the outline of her lips. She makes a greedy little moan in the back of her throat at that and Dean growls and pulls her closer, slotting their hips together. That reminds him of the last time they actually slept together. She'd been in a coma for almost a year and then she was recovering from the coma and by then it had been so long that he didn't even notice. But he notices now, so much so he wants to head to their old cabin to check and see if Oliver had gotten around to clearing out the beds yet.

Her knees give out suddenly bringing him back to reality and he'd like to think it's because of his kissing but he knows it's due to the strain on her muscles. Reluctantly he pulls his mouth away from hers and slides one arm up her back and another under her knees, lifting her up against his chest. She laughs again and kisses him softly as they head back to the car. "What about my crutches?" Chloe asks, looking at where they're lying against the stump.

"I'll get you another set when we get home." Dean says seriously, planning on breaking a few speed limits on the way.

"And what happens until then?" Chloe asks him, unable to wipe the smile off her face.

"Until then? I'll just carry you." He says matter of factly.

"You don't have do that Dean, really put me down, I'll use the crutches." Chloe tells him.

"No." He shakes his head. "You carried me—you carried everyone for two years. It's my turn now."

"Ok." Chloe whispers, a soft blush gracing her cheeks.

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

Chloe lets her head fall back into the pillow, a smile on her face, desperately trying to catch her breath. Her body aches all over but this isn't like the ache she gets after physical therapy this is a good ache, a comfortable ache, an ache that she hasn't felt in a while. Dean collapses on the bed behind her, a heavy arm draping over her stomach, pulling her back up against his chest. Her skin is still tingling and it's like all her nerves are extra sensitive and she can't stop the moan that escapes when he drops a soft kiss to her shoulder. "Again?" He asks half exasperated, half excited by the prospect. "Give me an hour nap first ok, I'm not as young as I used to be."

Chloe laughs and turns around in his arms so she's facing him. "You've had almost two years." She reminds him and he smiles, loving that she noticed how long it had been as well. She can't believe how easy it had been for her and Dean to come together again, like they'd never been apart. She reaches out and traces the lines of his face, her fingertips ghosting over his cheeks and down the strong line of his jaw and then across the soft skin of his mouth. Even in his exhaustion he leans into her touch, whimpering when she removes her fingers only to be satisfied when she replaces them with her lips. "Maybe I don't need a nap." He jokes against her lips and slides a leg between her thighs.

And Chloe can't help it she pulls away and laughs settling down on the pillow, her forehead touching his. "What did you mean earlier when you asked if that's what I was waiting for?" Dean whispers, running his fingers up and down her sides.

Chloe pauses, trying to remember what he's talking about and when she does, she feels a blush creep up her cheeks. "I mean, well, it's just, we've talked about getting married, as far as everyone else is concerned we're pretty much married already, but you never—you haven't proposed yet."

"Oh, sorry." Dean smiles and moves closer, lightly brushing the tip of his nose against hers. "Marry me." He whispers.

Chloe's breath hitches in her throat but rolls her eyes, putting her hands on his chest and tries to push him away. "Not funny." He grabs her wrists holding her hands in place, not letting her pull away.

"Not joking." He says seriously, he rolls away, not letting go of her wrists as he digs for something in his bedside drawer. When he rolls back around he's holding a small black ring box. "I've had this for three months I just didn't know…I've never done anything like this before. But I can wait, do the whole down on one knee thing if you want."

"No." Chloe looks at the box and shakes her head. "No, now's fine."

"Ok." Dean nods and opens the box. "Marry me."

"Yeah, I think I can do that." Chloe whispers as he slides the ring onto her finger. She reaches forward and kisses him again, trying to show him everything she can't say. They still have some things to work out, some problems to work through but they'll stick it out because neither of them are quitters and because he promised her forever. She can't guarantee that forever will go smoothly. She might push him away again, he might let her. They'll fight, probably a lot and he might even leave once or twice, but that's ok because she knows he'll always come back.

Neither of them are very good at the whole relationship thing and they're doing the best they can, but this, right here, this they never got wrong. Chloe pulls her lips away from his when his kisses slow, become languid. "So what happens now?" He asks her.

"I think we deserve a vacation." Chloe says suddenly.

"Hey, as long as it doesn't involve digging I'm there." Dean assures her.

"No, no digging." Chloe thinks for a second. "How do you feel about tomatoes?"

Dean frowns and Chloe explains to him the concept of the Tomatina festival in Spain. "A giant food fight." He smiles. "Awesome." She laughs and then says that as long as they're in Spain, it would just be a quick train ride to Paris, maybe she could visit her dad. From there Dean points out they could head to Italy and then maybe even Greece and in a little under an hour they've planned a month long European trip.

Chloe slips out of the bed after he falls asleep and makes her way slowly across the apartment, supporting herself with the mattress then the walls because Dean really had left her crutches in the middle of the woods. She stops when she gets to the kitchen table where her computer is sitting. She opens up a web browser, goes to , then quickly types in her name. Her finger hovers over the enter key for a second. She looks over and sees the ring on her left hand and smiles, clicking the button letting out a deep breath. She shuts the computer down and slides back into bed next to Dean, laying her head on his chest and his hand automatically curls around her hip.

A second later, Dean's phone vibrates on the nightstand, on his screen a new message pops up that simply says, Chloe Sullivan has added her name to 'The List'.

August 1, 2013

Chloe rushes through the airport, it's more of a slightly fast walk because she just recently managed to get rid of the crutches. She slides to a stop when she finally spies the sea of camouflage. She leans over for a second catching her breath and then heads into the group of soldiers waiting to board their plane. "Graham." Chloe calls out, spotting the back of his head. "Corporal Graham Fisher?"

He turns around and Chloe sees a few other familiar faces around him turning too. Immediately when they see her a few of them stand to attention and Chloe rolls her eyes. "You know I'm not technically…" None of them make a move. "Oh for God sake, at ease." Chloe tells them but there's a smile on her face. "Can I talk to Corporal Fisher?" She asks and she receives a collections of 'yes ma'am' as the soldiers turn away.

"What are you doing here?" Graham smiles at her.

"I heard you got your medical clearance and that you were shipping back out today. I happened to be at the airport, thought I'd come by and wish you luck." Chloe shrugs.

"You just happened to be at the airport?" Graham asks.

"Actually yes. I'm on my way out too. Spain." Chloe tells him. "I know it's not Afghanistan but…"

"Hey, we go to Afghanistan so that you can go to Spain." Graham points out.

"Right." Chloe nods.

"I got an alert the other day, telling me that you added your name to The List." Graham says.

"Yeah, I did." Chloe says.

"The List." Graham says softly. "Now, why do I have this feeling that you had something to do with that?"

"Me?" Chloe asks feigning surprise. "I can barely check my e-mail, I couldn't possibly create something like The List." She jokes.

"Hmm…your lip twitches when you lie you know." He tells her and she glares at him.

"Look, you probably don't realize it but you helped me out a lot and I just wanted you to know that and," she reaches under her shirt and pulls Jimmy's crucifix out, pulling it over her head before holding it out for him, "I wanted you to have this."

Graham looks from the crucifix to Chloe. "I didn't do anything." He says confused.

"You did, you don't realize it but you did." Chloe says. "This helped me through a lot but I don't need it anymore, but where you're going you just might." Chloe drops it in his hand. "And maybe you'll find someone there who needs it more than you."

"What if you need it again?" Graham asks quietly.

"I don't think I will but if I do, it'll find its way back." Chloe assures him and he slips it in his vest pocket. Chloe turns back to the other men and one of them looks really familiar. "Lance Corporal Higgins, you were in New York before everyone got pulled out huh?"

"Yes ma'am." He nods to the others around him. "We all were."

"You better come back then." She tells him and there's no mistaking it's an order. "When you do, I'm buying you a beer because you guys have got to have some serious stories."

"Yes ma'am." Lance Corporal Higgins nods with a smile on his face.

As Chloe walks, they stand and salute her and she simply rolls her eyes. A few other soldiers come up and watch her go confused. "Who was that?"

"Chloe Sullivan." Lance Corporal Higgins says.

"And who is Chloe Sullivan?" The soldier asks him, needing more information than that.

"If you don't know, you don't know." Graham pats him on the back and walks off.

September 5, 2013

Chloe pushes open the door to the Talon apartment, or she tries to, it's not so easy with all the mail piled up on the floor. She gets an extra push from behind her as Malachi forces his way into the apartment, jumping up onto the couch and lying down in his usual spot. "Someone missed home."

"Make that two someone's." Dean says coming in behind her, dragging all their luggage behind him. "I want a shower and then a nap." He drops everything in the middle of the floor and heads for the bathroom just as Chloe's phone rings. "Don't answer it. You factor heavily into my nap plans." He calls out to her and Chloe laughs, digging her phone from the bottom of her bag. "I'm serious, it's probably Lois again wanting to talk about the wedding."

"Hello." Chloe answers, ignoring him and putting it on speaker phone as she searches for something in one of the bags.

"Chloelicious." Bart calls out and Dean glares from around the bathroom door. "We're still on vacation until tomorrow." Dean reminds him.

"He's right, Jo's still in charge." Chloe says smiling when she finds the picture frame and stands up.

"I know, but you told me to keep an eye on the mail, watch out for a specific envelope and tell you the second that envelope got here, well that envelope just got here." Bart tells her. Chloe sets the picture on the mantle and turns around.

"Are you sure?" She asks.

"Positive, you showed me what it would look like eighteen times." Bart says. "It's right here in my hands, you want me to bring it by?"

"No, I'll be right there to pick it up." Chloe hangs up the phone.

"No. Shower, nap." Dean reminds her.

"Later, I want you to come with me. There's something I haven't told you yet." Chloe admits.

"Ok." Dean looks past her to the picture on the mantel of the two of them, arms slung over each other's shoulder covered in tomatoes. "That looks good up there."

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

The walk into the Watchtower and are immediately bombarded with questions about their trip but Chloe leaves Dean to answer those and heads straight to Bart. He passes her the large envelop and she tears into it, reading the letter rapidly smiling to herself the more she reads. "Good news?" Dean asks and she nods, her smile beaming. "What's this all about?"

"I had a list of names that I had Oracle watch for on The List." Chloe explains. "I never actually thought his name would pop up I just, I don't even know why I told her to watch for it but then one day he added his name to the list."

"Who?" Dean asks her.

"Joshua Moore." Chloe says.

Everyone stops and turns to her. "Look, I know how it sounds and at first I thought maybe it was someone else. There's got to be more than one Joshua Moore on the planet you know but I couldn't get it out of my head so I did a bit of research and I found a Facebook page and it was him." She shakes her head remembering.

"But he wasn't real." Dean says.

"That's what I thought." Chloe laughs. "So I dug deeper, I found his birth certificate and National Insurance number, immunization records, school transcripts, and if they were made up I can't tell. I even found a few home videos. He was born and raised in Devon, England. His dad died when he was five in a car accident, his mom passed away a few years ago from cancer. When he finished school he got a scholarship to go to Med School in the states then lost it a few years later due to lack of funding. He works at a bookstore, here in Metropolis." She says. "He's real. He has a past and a life and he's real."

"Seriously?" Dean whispers.

"You want to meet him?" Chloe asks hopefully.

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

They stand outside the bookstore and Chloe takes a deep breath before opening the door. Dean trusts Chloe, especially where research is concerned but this just seemed so impossible that he doesn't believe it until he sees Joshua standing behind a cash register, handing a woman a bag and a receipt. His face lights up when he sees Chloe and Dean laughs in amazement. "Hey." Joshua comes out from behind the counter. "You're back, how was your trip?"

"It was great." Chloe assures him. "Fantastic."

"Did you bring me back something from England?" He asks hopefully.

"No." Chloe says.

"You know how terribly homesick I am."

"I know, be patient." She says cryptically.

"Fine. This must be Dean, I've heard a lot about you." Joshua holds out his hand and this takes Dean out of his trance and he smiles, shaking Joshua's hand. "So, how did the books work out?"

"Prefect as always." Chloe assures him.

"I've got some more in the back I think you'll like, let me go get them." He says, disappearing behind the counter.

"How long have you been coming here?"

"Almost a year now." Chloe says. "I just…I wanted to keep him a secret for a while, I was afraid if I told someone else then he'd…I don't know disappear."

"He's real." Dean says in amazement as his phone beeps with another text.

"Who are you texting?" Chloe asks him confused.

"Sam, he just got into town, wanted to know where we were because he has something important to tell you or show you. I'm not sure, he's not being very clear." Dean slipped his phone back in his pocket as Joshua emerged from the back with a bag of books, passing it over the counter to Chloe.

"You're not going to check them?" Joshua asks as he starts to ring them up.

"I trust you." Chloe shrugs. "Joshua's a genius when it comes to picking out the best books. He won't let me choose my own." Chloe explains to Dean.

"Yes well the first time you came in here, you tried to buy the DaVinci Code" Joshua points out. "Obviously you're not capable of making your own literary decisions."

"That was a while ago, I'd like to think I've grown as a person since then." Chloe jokes.

"So would I." Joshua smiles at her. "But I've yet to see actual proof of that." He deftly ducks the hand that she swats at him and Dean laughs.

"But seriously." Chloe sobers up. "What am I going to do without you?"

"Are you going on another trip?" He asks.

"No, but you are." She hands him a small envelope.

"You did get me something?" Josh reaches out slowly for the envelope, a smile on his face. "I was just kidding, you didn't have to do that."

"I really did." Chloe argues. "You have no idea how much I owe you—I couldn't even begin to explain what you've done for me and even if I did, you'd never believe me so just know that I'm grateful."

"I don't know what that means." Josh says quietly staring at the envelope.

"Go on then, open it." Dean smiles at him and Josh opens the envelope.

"It's a ticket to London." Josh looks up. "You got me a plane ticket to London?"

"I know how much you want to move home but you don't have the money and I mean there was no rush before but what with the fact that that's where your school is now. I mean you don't have to but if you stay here, the commutes gonna be a bitch." Chloe hands him the larger envelope that Bart gave her at the Watchtower and Joshua freezes when he sees the emblem for Kings College in the corner. Very slowly he opens it up and pulled out a crisp white piece of paper. He has to read the first line a few times to fully understand it.

"Dear Mr. Moore, we would like to congratulate you on being selected for admission and are pleased to tell you that you have earned a spot in our prestigiously competitive Medical programme…" Joshua looks up at Chloe. "I don't understand, I didn't even apply."

"I did." Chloe tells him. "For you. I know how much you wanted to go back to Medical school and earn your degree. You were meant to be a Doctor, you and I both know that."

"If I can't afford a plane ticket what makes you think that I could possibly afford even a semester at Kings College?" Josh sputters.

"Would you possibly believe me if I told you that a great Aunt you never knew existed recently died and left you with just enough money to pay for class and room and board?" Chloe asks him.

"Not even a little." Joshua shakes his head staring at Chloe. "Are you paying for this?" he asks suddenly.

"Not me personally, a friend of mine, but look he can afford it, he can afford it ten times over."

"I don't…this doesn't…" Joshua looks up at her speechless. "Why would you do this? You don't even know me."

"I know you." Chloe tells him. "You don't think I do and trust me I know this seems weird but it's not a scam and it's not a trick it's just a gift, because you don't know why but I owe you this."

"You should just take it and say Thank You." Dean offers. "She won't take no for an answer."

"Seriously you were never this disagreeable before. You're not supposed to ask questions, you're just supposed to jump remember."

"I don't know what that means." Josh tells her with a half strangled laugh. "Sometimes you say things like I should know what they mean and I never know what they mean."

"I know." Chloe sighs. "And sometimes I wish you did and other times I'm so very glad that you don't." She takes a deep breath.

"How do I…I could never pay this back." Joshua points out.

"Yes you can, just promise me you'll do great things. You are destined for something so much bigger than this Joshua and you might not think so but I do. You're going to become a doctor and you're going to help so many people and then one day maybe even cure cancer. That's how you pay me back."

"By curing cancer?" Joshua laughs. "So no pressure then."

Chloe places a soft kiss to his forehead and grabs her bag. "Oh and when you get to London, you should take a walk by the fountain in Russell Square. If you happen upon a cute girl named Beth in need of saving, help her, trust me. She'll probably ask you out for coffee, you'll be tempted not to go but go, but you should. I mean you can't stand her up, you're her knight in shining armor." Chloe winks and walks out of the book store.

"I don't know what that means." Josh calls after her, a soft smile on his face.

"You think he could really cure cancer." Dean asks when they're back out on the street.

"He didn't exist three years ago." Chloe points out. "I think if anyone can cure cancer, he can. What did Sam want?" Chloe asks.

"He knew we were coming back today but he went to the Watchtower and we weren't there and he went to the Talon and we weren't there, he wanted to know where we were, said he had a surprise." Dean shrugs and then stops in place when Chloe's hand grips his wrist painfully. He looks up and sees Sam in front of them but he's not alone.

"Cass?" Chloe asks, her voice nothing more than a whisper. He looks different. His ever present suit and trench coat is gone. In its place a pair of well worn jeans, a soft cotton t-shirt and a hoodie that Chloe recognizes as Sam's. He straightens when he sees her and it feels like the sidewalk has gotten ten times longer as she walks to him.

"Chloe." He breathes out when she's finally standing in front of him.

"I've been looking for you." She tells him sadly. "You weren't there when I woke up. You weren't anywhere, you just disappeared."

"I had some things to do." Castiel explains to her. "There were decisions, choices that I had to make and I couldn't see you until I'd made them."

"What kind of decisions?" Chloe asks, fearful of the answer.

"I—" Castiel can't seem to form the words so Sam helps him out.

"He clipped his wings." Sam explains.

"You're human?" Chloe reaches out with her right hand, laying it softly on his chest and she laughs when she feels his heart beat under her palm.

Castiel nods. "I traded my grace."

"For what?" Chloe asks, dreading the answer.

"For you." Castiel explains. "The damage that was done to your body, to your soul, you should not have recovered from it. You would not have recovered from it if it weren't for a very large influx of energy into your body. Celestial energy. I offered up mine."

"You shouldn't have done that." Chloe shakes her head at him.

"I knew the consequence." Castiel insists. "And to spare your life, it was more than worth it."

"But you gave up your grace." Chloe points out. "I can't imagine…you shouldn't have done that for me."

"I didn't." Castiel answers truthfully. "Not entirely. I did this for me. I asked you once, a long time ago, what was the point in saving the world if you never lived in it. Becoming human is not a hardship to be suffered, it is a gift."

She had been wondering why she was brought back, how she was brought back. Joshua made a big deal about free will and respecting the choices we made and Chloe had made her choice and she was ok with it. For a while there she thought that because she'd come back, because he'd brought her back, it diminished the sacrifice she'd made, rendered it meaningless. But he didn't bring her back, Castiel did, Castiel chose to bring her back just like she chose to die, and all he'd done was honor those choices. "Ok, so he brought me back because you chose to trade your grace for me, but why did he bring everyone else back? Why did he make it like nothing had ever happened?"

"He didn't." Castiel looks over at Chloe confused. "You did."

"I did?" Chloe asks and Sam and Dean both turn to her confused. "How could I…"

"The crystal." Castiel explains to her. "You had access to its power, it's likely the entire thing was done on a subconscious level. Before you smashed it, you wanted it to make everything better remember. So the crystal made everything better."

"But he said it couldn't, he said it had to…" Chloe shakes her head not really understanding.

"It was your choice Chloe." Castiel smiles at her, "and he hand to honor that choice."

Chloe smiles then in relief, it was an out. God hadn't wanted that to happen anymore than Chloe had and when she's made that comment, about making everything better and the crystal had done exactly that, God chose to honor that, for her, for all of them. "So what happens now?" she asks Castiel, a strange sort of giddy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Well, now strangely enough I find myself in need of a job." Castiel tells her. "And I hear you're in need of an assistant."

"You want to work for me?" Chloe slips her hands in her pockets and raises her eyebrows.

"Yes ma'am. I feel that I am uniquely qualified for the position." Castiel nods.

"Rule number one; never, ever call me ma'am." Chloe smiles, a distant memory itching at the back of her brain. "What special skills can you bring to the table?"

"Well I am already familiar with your filing system." He points out, the hint of a smile on his lips.

"Anything else? Do you have any supernatural powers that might be useful?" Chloe asks.

"No." Castiel smiles. "None at all, 100% human. But I didn't come here empty handed." He says suddenly producing from behind his back a steaming cup of coffee.

Chloe takes it from him and sniffs the brew suspiciously. "Did you filter the water?"

"No." He shakes his head.

"Roast and grind the beans yourself?" She swirls it around in the cup as he shakes his head no. "Put it through a French press?" She allows herself a small sip and grimaces at the bitter almost burnt taste.

"No. I bought it at the coffee cart around the corner." He admits and Sam coughs. "Sam bought it at the coffee cart in the lobby, I don't exactly have any money right now."

"It'll do." Chloe lowers the cup and nods.

"You have to say it." Dean points out.

"I'm not saying it." Chloe shakes her head.

"I'd like it if you said it." Castiel offers her and she slings an arm over his shoulder.

"Come on, Chloe." Sam nudges her.

"Is this how it's going to be from now on?" Chloe looks between them. "The three of you ganging up on me?"

They all looked at each other like they hadn't even considered that as an option. "Most likely."

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

September 3, 2009

"Cass right?" Chloe asks.

"Yes ma'am." He nods and she pauses, looks at Oliver and raises her eyebrows before turning back to him.

"Rule number one; never, ever call me ma'am again." Chloe smiles. "Ok?"

"Yes ma…yes." Castiel nods.

Chloe turns to him. "So what's your power?"

"My power?" Castiel frowns.

"Your ability, your meteor enhancement?" Chloe starts to frown. "Something you can do that no one else can, am I talking to a brick wall here?"

"No, he's just not used to talking about it so openly." Oliver jumps in. "He can levitate things."

"Yes, I can." Castiel agrees. "I can do that."

Chloe smiles. "Well that probably will come in pretty handy."

Oliver nods not so subtly at Cass and he jumps, remember something. "I made you some coffee."

"Hm." Chloe looks at him skeptically as he retrieves the cup from the counter and slides it across the table for her inspection. Chloe takes the cup slowly, wrapping her fingers around the glass and gripping it tightly. She brings it up to her nose, closes her eyes and takes a long deep breath. "Smells good." Oliver smiles encouragingly at Castiel who looks hopeful. She brings the mug to her lips and takes a tentative sip, swallowing slowly before she sets the mug on the table and opens her eyes, giving nothing away.

"So?" Oliver asks her.

"How did you make this?" Chloe asks him.

"I filtered the water, I roasted the beans then ground them fresh, and then put it through a French press." Castiel explains to her and Chloe turns to Oliver and mouths, unbelievably "French Press". The past few weeks, she'd been so busy she hadn't even bothered to take the used coffee out of the filter, at this point she was probably drinking lightly colored hot water and this guy roasted his own beans.

The edges of Chloe's lips curl up and Castiel relaxes as she looks at him like she just won the lottery. She swings an arm over his shoulder and smiles. "Cass, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."