Sweet Dreams

Marissa swallowed uncertainly, bowing her head in submission to Hypnos's will. There was nothing that she could do. She let her eyelids fall close.

"You can't let him win!" she heard Sam bellow and all six foot four of him shoved her out of the way as he tackled Hypnos. His weight and height proved advantageous in accordance to his surprise attack. He wrestled with the pagan god, breaking Hypnos's wrist in order to get the knife away from him without actually handling the knife.

Marissa darted forward, shocked but functioning as she grabbed it. Dean was moving too, working on freeing Andrea. She went to stab him but he was moving already to claim another dead body. She stumbled to her feet and jogged over to the bodies behind Andrea, stabbing them repetitively. She didn't know what else to do, and horror began to spread through her and she was forced to look away as each thud sounded more and more hollow and the bodies beneath her surrendered their unyielding flesh. It was disgusting, but she didn't know what else to do.

Sam came behind her, gently pulling her away. Her arms felt like lead and she didn't want to think about the fluid that she was no doubt covered in. She was breathing harder than she had been aware of, Sam's large hands resting on her shoulders as he looked around their surroundings distrustfully. The black gates of Tartarus had not disappeared and they were still flickering with the Nightmare Knife. There was definitely a shared reaction between the two; she could feel the knife practically buzzing in reaction to the nearness of the gate.

Marissa turned around in time to see the brunette moving again and she lunged, plunging the dagger straight into her heart. She felt something give away beneath her and she could have sworn she heard a scream echoing. As soon as it faded, her powers slammed back into her as though the barrier had only been a part of her imagination. A myriad of images overwhelmed her, tumbling one over another as they slammed into her skull and knocked her back. Sam caught her and kept her from falling onto her back.

A spasm jerked her whole body and she was vaguely aware that Sam had carefully set her down, away from all sharp objects. She convulsed for a second as she fought the stream of images in her mind, pushing them back and picking out the relevant ones before setting them aside as she vainly attempted to organize the visions. At some level, from her trip to the future that she had been granted, she knew that if she didn't at least do this much that her visions would drive her mad.

It was a future she had long since forgotten but now it seemed that there was nothing worse for her to have set aside. It was supposed to happen when she was an adult, not when she had just accomplished something so useful here and now.

A broken groan broke her lips, agony flashing in her skull as a migraine and made its home in the center of her skull. She tried to get her body to respond to no avail, another convulsion seizing her frail form and jerking it all over the place. She gave up and let her body do as it wanted, trying to force the images back behind a wall of some sort.

Andrea with a knife-

Dean, dead, blood underneath him.

Sam.

Sam at her doorstep, furious tears in his eyes and a gun cocked and aimed at her chest.

Dean, with a sweet blonde and a bouncing baby boy.

Sam, standing at doorway to hell and turning away, no longer Sam but Lucifer.

Andrea, running. Always, always running. Her eyes flashed black –

Sam would catch her now, he was Lucifer and he would avenge Dean's death. Michael could have been out of the way but now it was time for their battle to take place and rake the earth to ash. But first, he had given the stubborn Winchester his word and he revived Dean. Or he wo-

Andrea stood over a grave, tears on her cheeks. Winchester, Dean was engraved on the stone tablet and she clutched his amulet in her hand.

Dean hugged the blonde, kissing her cheek and waving to the toddler before walking out to the shiny white Honda car. There was nothing to indicate who he was…

Sam curled up, crying bitterly trapped within the recesses of his own mind as he witnessed horrible things. As he realized –

Andrea stabbed through the heart and dropped into the empty ground.

Lucifer, wearing the amulet like a trophy.

Sam coming back to see her, lost and indifferent. Marissa welcoming him with an embrace.

Dean leaving his family, in the Impala with the set of a hunter coming back to work like he'd never left.

Marissa reaching for Sam, meeting a block of ice with a knife protruding through it and past her heart.

Marissa, unable to feel.

Sam burning –

Dean alone –

The blonde crying, clutching a phone as a baby cried in the background.

Cas, Cas covered in blood and looking like he was falling apart.

The last seal breaking wide open, unleashing Lucifer, a flash of light disappearing Sam and Dean.

Sam and Dean presented with a second chance and another mission.

Sam and Dean, old and laughing as their children started a food fight.

Andrea at Dean's side.

No, the blonde at Dean's side.

Marissa entering the kitchen with food for Christmas, mistletoe hanging at the doorway, the love of her life walking towards her.

Richard rotting in Hell, being tortured as he turned to become a demon.

Her children –

Dean lying unconscious in a pool of blood barely breathing –

Sam convulsing on the floor –

Bobby, in a hospital room with curtains drawn, monitors beeping.

Cas dying.

Cas walking through a field of dead bodies.

Sam stabbing Ruby through the heart with Dean, satisfied.

Dean talking with Andrea –

The knife –

Cas –

S-

With a scream Marissa used all of her energy to shove all the visions away from her mind, unable to process them. Like a tidal wave they swept back towards her and she struggled to push them away, fighting tooth and nail. She was going to be with Sam goddamit. She was. She was. That was her future, her hope, the promise of a better world.

A small thin man was looking at Sam frightened. "W-well of course it's true. How could it not be? Doesn't it explain everything?"

"No, it doesn't. I shouldn't –I can't feel like this."

"You can't fight it either." It sounded like he was slightly satisfied with that revelation.

"I have to. I can't do this to her, Chuck, I'm a hunter."

"And what, you can't settle down?"

"No! I can't. It'll put her in danger."

"Well obviously someone up there thought that you needed this. Don't you think so? That at the end of the day, when you go to bed there's someone beside you who knows you better than yourself? Who knows what you've gone through and won't push? She'll just cuddle up to you, wrap her arms around you and tell you that she loves you. Don't you deserve that?"

"I –"

"I love you," she murmured as they crested the hill, having just left the shack.

"You're a child," he retorted unapologetic.

"I love you," she repeated.

"No, Marissa. I can't."

"Why?" she could hear the tremble in her voice. "Why? Why can't I be happy too? Why can't you be?"

"I am a hunter and you're –"

"A child. Yeah, I know." She looked away bitterly, clenching her hands.

What was she supposed to do now?

It was winter, the middle of winter. Christmas. This was when she'd seen that Sam had proposed to her, showing up on her doorstep when she thought all hope had been lost. That was what was supposed to have happened. It was New Years and Sam still hadn't come by. She knew that he never would.

She clutched the bottle of vodka closer, taking the last slurp of the bitter, stinging liquid before shoving the note inside it. She balanced precariously on the edge of the bridge, wobbling. A giddy smile appeared on her face and she let the bottle go first, unable to track its progress. The clock chimed midnight and she dived off the side, plummeting down -!

With a whimper Marissa tried to push the visions away, her strength gone. Her whole body ached and she could feel Sam's hands on her, brushing her hair back from her face worried. Who knew that this was how she was going to die? She never would have guessed. At least, to an extent, she would be with Sam in her last moments. Kind of pathetic, maybe a lot pathetic but a welcome thought.

"Cas, why do I feel like this?" It was her own voice, low and nervous.

"You don't know yet?"

She glanced up at him, her hands locked together. "I need someone else to say it first."

"Why?" he tilted his head to the side.

"Because I don't know if I can believe it. That we're…"

"Soulmates? It is true. It was decided at your births, your souls branded uniquely to only recognize the other. You can't deny him any more than he can deny you."

Marissa stared at Cas in awe. She knew it was true. She knew it at level that it just seemed to be so completely true, that the rightness of it reverberated through her whole being.

"Why won't he see me?"

"He is afraid, of himself and you."

"I miss him…"

"He'll be back. Don't worry about that."

"I know… you've been keeping an eye on things, with him and Dean… Could you tell them, that I, I, miss him."

"I am not a cellular phone."

"If I phone him, he'll hang up. Or he'll answer it and give some excuse so he won't have to talk to me. And Dean's under orders to not say anything to me, but he sort of broke them when he told me that Sam had told him not to say anything. But I know he's doing the same thing to Kora, so he's being a hypocrite. But he's allowed to be, I know that they're just trying to keep us safe but…"

"I will let him know."

"Thank you Cas… Please, look out for them?"

"That's what I do."

Darkness grabbed at her, wrestling her as it tried to drag her into its depths. Like the ocean and like her suicide. She would never die for Sam. She would never let herself give up. There was always something to be done, something that she could do. She loved him, but she wasn't totally dependent on him. She wouldn't waste her life away pinning after him when the reality became that he would never be apart of her life. She would move on as best she could and live.

Sudden lightness flared inside her, banished the darkness and giving her the strength to put her visions back into order and place them where they needed to go. It was a relief to have sudden help; her whole essence ached and felt as though it had just been run over a few times by heavy machinery. She let herself slip away with the familiar light…

She opened her eyes to find Sam looking down at her worried. Andrea was clinging to Dean, face pressed against his chest as she fought her emotions off. Dean looked stricken until he saw Sam relax. Sam helped Marissa up; as though he knew that she was unable to do it herself and kissed her. It wasn't chaste or sweet like her own had been, but something urgent and demanding and unforgiving. His lips pressed against her own and just as suddenly as it had happened he had pulled back.

Dean whooped, no doubt just to embarrass them, and Marissa blushed bright pink. Sam blushed too; she was pleased to see, and smiled shyly at her.

"I'm uh glad that you're awake," he informed her awkwardly.

Marissa smiled slightly and then she started to laugh. And it was quite some time before she was able to stop laughing. It had been too good of a day as horrible as it had been. She couldn't wait to talk to Sam.

Unnoticed, a dark haired figure with striking blue eyes went to the knife and claimed it. He took it with him back to the heavens.

The human's laughter echoed around as they realized that they had averted Tartarus from being opened. And as soon as the knife was gone, the gates had disappeared.

Sam helped Marissa up, almost carrying her as Dean and Andrea made their way out to the Impala. Andrea was limping heavily, resting all of her weight on Dean as he helped her out. Marissa smiled shyly up at Sam and he glanced down at her, patting her on the back. It felt like a congratulations between friends and friends was more than they had been in a while. Or at least it felt that way to her. It felt like that fight was more than just a day ago somehow.

"Why were you awake? N-not that I'm ungrateful or anything…"

Sam smiled softly. "I woke up, that's why. I can't… exactly explain it. But I woke up. One minute I was in this dream that was strangely similar to the trials and I knew it wasn't real but his powers made me feel like they were, as though I wanted to stay when I didn't. I couldn't wake up.

"I remembered what Dean told me about his experience with the Djinn and then my own when Andrea had saved me and," he paused to chuckle weakly. "You stabbed me and I woke up."

"I stabbed you?" she inquired worriedly.

"In my dream, yes. With a silver butter knife, not very effective but I didn't know until I saw your expression."

"Why did I stab you? Or do you just see me as a violent person?" she frowned at Sam.

"I kind of said something that really ticked you off and you went to wave the knife at me, jokingly and I grabbed your hand and made you… stab me…"

Marissa blanched. "Oh."

"I'm… sorry."

There was a certain amount of amusement in that line if she wasn't mistaken. Last night he hadn't even apologized and this time he was apologizing to her for what he did in his dream to fake/dream her? It was nice that he had apologized, but completely unnecessary.

"It wasn't really me though," she offered warmly.

"I thought it was you though."

"I won't hold it against you unless it's a sharp knife," she smiled teasingly.

Sam smiled back slightly and grabbed her hand, stopping her from following Dean and Andrea. She wondered if Dean and Andrea had signaled Sam to indicate that they wanted some time to themselves or something, once again forcing them to be alone. It was okay though, at least. But it was depressing, just a little. They had Andrea back and Hypnos was dead.

Sam gently tugged her close and she obliged, stepping closer. He hesitated before wrapping his arms around her, holding her close. Marissa let her eyes close, completely relaxed against him. This was everything she had wanted. This perfection, of having Sam. Friends perhaps, but she knew there was something between them that connected them. She wasn't sure if they were really soulmates, no matter how perfect it seemed. If that vision ever came true, then maybe it would be true. But it didn't mean that there weren't ways to break soulmates, or circumstances that would keep them apart.

Marissa just knew that this, her wrapped in Sam's arms and held close to him was right. This feeling of rightness, or peace and perfection and love.

"I'm sorry about what I said. Earlier, at the hotel. I didn't… mean it."

"You just wanted me to go," she murmured contently. "I know. You don't want me to get hurt and you're a Winchester, if I'm with you I'm liable to die. I understand." She swallowed, hoping that this wasn't the ending. She had just gotten him and he wanted to go.

"Y-yeah… you've really seen everything, huh?"

Marissa hummed an affirmative, nuzzling him affectionately. Sam hesitated before lightly kissing her forehead, his grip on her tightening just a little as he pulled her closer. She knew that this was what she wanted, forever. To be held in his arms like this, it felt so perfect. She felt safe and she felt loved.

She sensed him on the verge of saying something, and she shyly stood on tiptoe, pressing her lips against his. She didn't want him to speak. She just wanted this, this moment to never end. It was absolutely perfect.

This was one of the moments that she would always look back on when she missed Sam, when she was alone or in trouble. Not a demon-kind of trouble, just having to pay the bills or having to reject some guy's offer of a date. Because there was only one person who would ever be for her and so long as he wanted her, she was his. She knew that moving on from that would be difficult, if she ever had to, but she would try. She would mope and she would cry, but she would get out of bed every day and do something for herself each day. And eventually, she would never forget Sam, but she would be able to move on.

Sam kissed her back, shifting slightly to press her body against his. Hard muscle and soft flesh met; his tongue prodded her lips seeking permission. She had barely granted it before he was taking it, delving into her mouth. Marissa wrapped her arms around his neck, playfully fighting him for dominance that she would give him to him in the end. Even though she would give it, it didn't mean that she couldn't make him work for it in the end.

XXV

"Andie," Dean murmured softly, brushing her filthy hair back from her face.

Andrea looked at him despondently. He leaned towards her and she turned away. From the corner of her eye she saw him tense, a hardness settling in his gaze he stepped back from her. She knew what she had to do and how she was supposed to do it. The problem was that she didn't want to do it anymore. She didn't want to kill Dean. He had just saved her life. She would destroy Marissa's chances with Sam and she would destroy her friendship and her life. The few things that she had just managed to gather for the first time in her life.

These were people outside of her parent's control. Outside of the demon's control. And she did like it. She liked living. But she owed her parents as well. Ruby would kill her, so would Lilith if she failed them now. Lilith was already plotting the end of the world, so what did it really matter? At the end, Sam would say yes and Marissa's heart would still be broken. If Dean died now it would be a faster pain and Marissa would have a better chance to recover.

And as demon maybe Andrea would have a chance to save Dean from some pain or something. She knew that Hell wasn't a nice place for anybody, but if she had to kill him then she might as well just go to Hell with him. She would deserve it. And it would keep Sam from killing her; keep Sam from breaking Marissa's heart just to hurt Andrea. It was probably stupid, but she didn't really care. She just…

Andrea reached over, grabbing Dean's hand and squeezing it slightly to show that she wasn't actually angry at him. She just wanted some space. And she wanted some time to go and shower before she let him kiss her. She wanted to change out of the disgusting dress she was trapped in. She got into the back of the Impala, exhausted, she pulled her legs close to her chest and adjusted the dress as she crossed her ankles. She did care, to an extent right now despite how tired she was.

Dean got in and looked back at her, with a gesture he had her looking out the window where they could see Sam and Marissa making out. She giggled, happy for her friend. She smiled slightly at Dean, and he smirked back at her. She exhaled softly, weaponless and unsure.

Okay everyone, the fluff you've been waiting for and the conclusion you've been waiting for... they're coming next.

I hope you're not disappointed with Hypnos, I didn't have the heart to do anything else with him and anyways he was never the main point of this story. This story has been about Andrea and what Andrea may or may not do. It's also about Sam and Marissa, of course.

There will be fluff for all!