DEDICATED: to shadowglove ( u/827845/ ).

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Supernatural, nor Smallville; not even the house I live in, so what would you wanna sue me for?

L-v Y-u B-th

A fucking staircase.

Out of all the things that could bring them down, it was a fucking dilapidated staircase in a house that wasn't even fucking haunted!

Let Dean explain.

Passing by Kenton, Ohio, they heard rumors about a house called the Shrieking Shack by kids and the Butcher House by their parents. The abandoned building had a violent history so they decided to check it out.

Which turned out juuust peachy for them when said old fucker of a staircase decided to collapse beneath their legs, leaving Chloe lying tummy down on a girder, and Sammy balancing on a fucking inch of the remaining stair, pressed to a wall as if trying to convince it he wasn't 6'4'' and over 200 pounds.

Oh, and a pissed little Dean hanging on the previously mentioned girder for his dear life after he hit his head when falling by. It hurt like hell and he really really wanted to kill something to make it feel better (shut up, it made sense in his head).

Chloe fumbled around her body before crawling over to Dean.

„Get up here, whatcha waiting for," she groaned.

„Sorry, babe; concussion," Dean tried to pull up but his body fucked him over just like the son of a bitch of a staircase. There was nothing but a long fall and more ugly stairs waiting below. This just had to happen to them in a building with freakishly high ceilings.

It took him a while to understand why she grabbed his jacket about three times before she was satisfied about hooking her arm in it. She was getting ready to catch him in case he fell. She didn't even feel the need to comment, she just did it.

Mmm, you just brought a whole new angle to the topic, Mr. Winchester," she told him two nights ago when he entered her at a ninety degree angle, one knee beneath her and the other leg crouched over her sweaty body. The fit was balls deep and he almost came before he finished chuckling.

Dean wished he had woken up next to her this morning (instead, the honor went to Sam). He would've done something special, like wake her up playing with her tits but not in a selfish way, he meant something like feather-light touches until her nipples were all erect and puckered up for kissing and then kiss them so lightly she'd have to wake up enough to ask him for more...

And he was sure she'd call the right name, she always did even when it was pitch black or when she was falling asleep; he was afraid to ask how she knew but he went and asked anyway because shut up, the post-coital haze was a thing and it made him say stupid stuff. She told him it was all about the way they touched her, something about softness on the surface and roughness in the core or the other way around or some shit like that.

„You okay there, Sammy?" Dean had just asked when they heard a crack and Sam came flying into their joist. He tried his best to grab it, but the force he hit it with threw him off.

Chloe was there to catch his hand, securing it around his watch.

As she did that, Sam's body collided with Dean's and made his fingers slip.

Chloe yelped as the weight of two giant men crushed her into the girder, her chin hitting the metal hard.

No no no fucking no!

They were gonna rip her arms out of the sockets!

Dean didn't know if the sudden urge to throw up was the image in his head or the consussion.

„Clark's pager," Sam remembered but both Chloe's hands were obviously occupied. He tried to climb up her arm but the moment he did the first pull-up, she screamed as something got torn in the limb.

Her breathing grew panicked.

„Chloe, honey, just try swaying me, okay?" Sam got another idea. Chloe tried, but there wasn't enough strength in her to do more than just hold them.

„I c-n't" she spoke through teeth that were forced together by the pressure pulling her head into the metal body.

„My side won't work either," Dean noticed that the girder was a little too wide for Chloe's petite torso; the edge was cutting into her arm and if he put more pressure on it either her shoulder was going to pop out or her bone was going to break.

„J-st wait..."

„For what? We need to get to the pager!"

„Scream his name! That worked the last time," Dean remembered.

„Claaark!"

„CLAAARK KEEENT !"

„CLAAAAAAAAAAAARK !"

Dean could see, hear and feel it when Chloe's shoulder got dislocated.

The gasping sound meant that she started crying.

„Chloe, drop me."

„What?!" Sam cried.

„Drop me, baby, come on, I'll be alright."

„If you're dropping someone it's me, I'm heavier!" Sam chose the perfect moment to fight with him.

„Shut your mouth, Sammy, I'm older and she's dropping me!"

„Nuh," Chloe groaned.

„You've gotta drop someone, honey," Sam urged her.

„No!" Chloe protested.

„Baby you can't hold us both," Dean joined the twisted intervention. „We're ripping you apart!"

„Nnnh!" Chloe whimpered in denial.

Now Dean really wished he'd woken up next to her this morning. To tell her the words. (To probably tongue her for hours till she said them first so he could say them back, just to be on the same page.)

She held on to them for so long. He couldn't believe it. She who couldn't reach the top of his car when he popped the hood. She who still couldn't give a proper bare-handed punch without hurting herself. She who bruised at the drop of a hat. She whose soft pale skin went red at the mere contact with his stubble...

There was another whine of pain and Chloe probably realized her body wasn't going to last much longer.

„I l-v y-u b-th," she sobbed.

Something broke in her arm and the spasm made her drop them both.

The last thing that went through Dean's head was how much he hated anything free fall related. Planes, roller coasters, falling to death, all of those made his stomach go ape shit.

«´¨'•.¸¸.•'¨`»

Things rarely affected Sam this physically: breathing so difficult his lungs almost hurt, fingers trembling and all. The last time he felt like this was Jess. (Jess is not a woman's name anymore; Jess is a memory of loss, guilt and injustice.)

Two hours since the accident happened and he was still in a bit of shock.

One second, Sam and Dean were surely going to die and if Chloe was to lose consciousness and fall off, she would've followed their demise. The next, they were saved by Clark Kent. Turns out Chloe pressed the pager button first thing before crawling over to Dean.

After bringing Dean and Chloe to the nearest hospital, Clark took 10 seconds to be an utter dick (not the it's-all-in-your-head-Dean! kind of a dick; the real kind), telling Sam off for timing their near death in the middle of his big bad battle with some Zod character.

As soon as the overbearing superhero vanished into thin air, Sam remembered the other one so he fished out Oliver Queen's number. The phone call with his new boss was a serious déjà vu: How dare you get her hurt?! How dare you get her hurt right now?! Followed by: I don't want her around Metropolis or Star City right now. I'm sending my best doctor over. Gotta go, Zod menace.

Sam convinced the hospital staff to let him hang around till the morning. Dean was kept overnight for observation. Attending to Chloe took so long that by the time they were finished, Dean's painkillers kicked in and he passed out.

She was unconscious when they finally let Sam in.

One shoulder badly dislocated. Some arm muscles torn. Two ribs cracked from landing on the girder. A broken finger and an ugly scrape on her chin. She was a mess of bandages.

Sam finally let the blame seep in. If she was up right now, she wouldn't stand for such thoughts. There was no way an unstable staircase could be his responsibility, right? Well, she was asleep right now so he could think anything he wanted. Sitting next to Chloe's hospital bed with only the night light on, Sam allowed himself to be weak for a minute.

„I'm so sorry, Chloe," he jumped at the sound of his own voice. He looked around the room, finding a calendar next to the night light.

„Look, it's mid-May already." Almost half a year since the last time we saw the Demon. I can't believe it's been so long since I even thought about him.

„Which is all your doing, of course," Sam accused her gently.

I don't know how you do it, Chloe. There is this thing about the Winchesters, this urge to hasten our way to self-destruction that you manage to beat.

The moment mom died... It's like we jumped off of a cliff, me and my brother and dad. My whole life I've been falling into the pit of hell.

Escaping to Stanford felt like a moment of suspension midair...

„But then I was thrown back," into the good old Winchester destiny crap.

And then, you. You came and broke the law of gravity. Even for Dean! I've never seen him so laid back, as if for the first time there was no darkness breathing down his neck with its clock ticking.

I don't think I want to face the Demon again.

„I want to stay like this..."

You came to me scared about our future once. You could see what I saw: That in our world, with our lives, we couldn't possibly be forever. I told you not to worry. Of course I lied. I'm more than ready to lie for us.

I'm ready to be the quiet one, the undemanding one, the wise one, the cruel one... Whatever it takes to keep us together.

With you, I can keep Hunting with Dean and still make sense of my life. With you, I can have a brother, a girlfriend and a purpose, all at the same time. With you, I think I can finally face my darkness. I found a miracle in you and I won't let go of it.

„I won't."

«´¨'•.¸¸.•'¨`»

Queen's doctor did his best, then ordered Chloe to stay in the hospital for two weeks and recommended two more weeks of bed rest (yeah, sure).

Instead of feeling useless during that time, the brothers were busy with Hunting.

First they were alarmed that Gordon Walker broke out of prison and found himself another vampire job which turned even worse the minute he walked in. Chloe agreed that something had to be done; so they kissed her goodbye and promised to be careful.

Dean turned around in the door to whisper something in her ear before he left.

They came back later than they promised, ten fingers, ten toes, telling her about blood-spiked drinks and Walker turned vampire. She gave each a big relieved kiss only to send them on yet another hunt. There was something odd going on in Elizabethville, just a few towns away from her hospital.

The story they returned with was even wilder than the previous one. Believing in some prophecy about the Devil King's nearing arrival on Earth, several demons had organized their own Sin City in Ohio.

Dean got to have a lovely conversation with a certain lady demon and what he heard bugged him a lot. Apparently, demons believe in Lucipher just like people believe in their gods; with no proof or witnesses, just with very old Hell myths.

„She said there were also demon atheists. Can you imagine that? But the strongest demons are all believers. You know, 'cause the higher the hierarchy, the older they are."

„Fascinating. There's nothing about hell's social conditions in Demon Anatomy. And I just finished it," Chloe remembered not to shrug her shoulders.

„Really? Anything we need to know?" The brothers sat down around her hospital bed.

„Basically this: Heaven and hell are the two worlds next to ours on the spiritual density scale."

„Oookay, I'm gonna need you to unsummarize that," Dean demanded.

„It's like... We live on different frequencies. Heaven and hell are both on Earth, not beneath or above ground, on Earth just like our world. We're divided not by space, but by spiritual density..."

„The manuscript mentioned that before," Sam interrupted her. „Different creatures have different amounts of, well, magic in them. Depending on their place on the spiritual density scale, they can travel to heaven or hell."

„Yes, that's how it works for individuals. The worlds have spritual density, too. Darwin's guess was that hell's is lower and heaven's is higher than ours, but he wasn't sure. It's also possible that each is attached to yet another world with even higher or lower density."

„Wait," Dean made a wild gesture of back-tracking. „So Heaven exists?" he sounded incredulous.

„Well, not exactly the capital H kind. There's no automatic soul transfer going on that Darwin knew of. This heaven is not Heaven, it's just a place. A world described by many old myths and many religions. Just like hell."

„But demons do transfer souls to hell."

„Yes, some creatures can enter our world and take our spiritual essence back with them. Darwin doesn't know why they do that."

„Because hell sucks," Dean remembered his conversation with the demon. „Casey said that demons hate humans because they aren't worth the amazing world they live in. In every demon's eyes humans are spoiled rich kids who got all the good stuff despite their pathetic character. So they bring humans home and torture them to make themselves feel better. She also said something about a slavery business down there in hell."

„Huh. Charming," Chloe deadpanned.

Dean rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms; it was clear he had a lot to take in.

„This is so weird," he complained. „Heaven and Hell are real, but technically they're not Heaven and Hell."

„Don't break your brain over it, Dean. You remember that existential crisis I had around Father Gregory's case? Honestly, when you think about it, this is the most logical explanation we could get," Sam declared.

Chloe made an I Know Right? face. Sam and Chloe exchanged these every time they said something the other one was just thinking.

„Anyway... Has your program found any more patterns that look like a possible hunt?" Dean asked.

„None in the area. And relax for a bit, you've been working your asses off. They're clearing me in two days anyway."

„I'll make sure we pick a decent motel," Sam agreed. „The visiting hours're up," he noticed.

„Daaamn, already?" Dean raised his head from his hands.

„I'll see you tomorrow, cowboys," Chloe motioned with her less injured arm that she wanted a kiss. In total she received two on the cheek, one on the forehead and three on the mouth.

„Oh, and Sam, would you mind hanging up some of my clothes? It needs some air..."

„Roger that."

„Why does she never ask me to do things like that?" Dean complained as they left her room.

„Because you'd get too distracted ranking her underwear by hotness levels to get anything done," she could hear Sam tease him.

«´¨'•.¸¸.•'¨`»

There was a new vibe between them as they drove Chloe from the hospital. Helping her out of the car with a sling on one arm and a splint on the other's little finger, they exchanged many reasonless smiles with her. There was something unspoken in the air (or maybe that was the thing; that something was spoken).

To Sam, the change in their chemistry wasn't different in a bad way. Even Dean seemed comfortable with it. It didn't feel like changing direction; it felt like simply moving forward. It felt good.

„Eww, you stink like hospital," Dean made fun of her.

They were laughing as Sam reached for the door, freezing when he found it open.

Sam and Dean drew their guns, entering the room slowly.

There was definitely someone inside.

A sitting figure in the dark.

Adrenalin rushing through their veins, the Winchesters switched the light on while keeping the figure at gunpoint.

It was a man with short black hair. There was dirt in his hair. There was dirt all over him.

The man slowly looked up, tragedy written all over his face.

That didn't make their aim waver in the slightest.

But he didn't pay the brothers and their guns any attention. His eyes ignored the threat and went behind them, to the doorway, to the beautiful blonde. There were so many different emotions in the stranger's eyes Sam almost couldn't look.

For a few seconds, everyone stayed motionless and silent.

„You're alive," Chloe said as if the mere context of those words escaped her.

«´¨'•.¸¸.•'¨`»

I love you too," was what Dean had whispered in Chloe's ear back at the hospital.

«´¨'•.¸¸.•'¨`»