AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I guess this chapter is a little filler.

It's kind of angsty and definitely moves along a little bit of the plot at the beginning, but then it's just a smidge of foreshadowing and a bunch of feelings that were already there, but some characters are still dwelling.

WARNINGS: Language, Violence, Sex, Dirty Thoughts, Innuendo, Dark Themes

ENJOY!

xxxx

"What exactly is this about?" Dean asked Zachariah as he stood there in front of them.

Zachariah looked at him. "What I need from you two is Asmodeus' head on a platter."

"I'd like to give that to you, but news flash: he's too powerful for us." Brooke reminded him. "Now…is that all?"

"Do not brush me off—you are an insignificant speck in the grand scheme of things." Zachariah told her, raising his voice a little bit. "Vessel or not, you're simply human and if I had the time to hunt him down I would, but I don't. Demons are killing vessels left and right and you two can stop the demon behind it all—you have the bait."

Dean really didn't like the idea of Brooke being bait, but he was fairly certain that she would be on board with the plan. Brooke had this idea in her head that she had to prove herself even though she really didn't like the idea of hunting. She wasn't against it—in fact she thought it was honorable—she was just very against her doing it since she was so worried about people being killed while possessed. She had learned Latin for a reason, and was still beating herself up over the fact that she hadn't used it when the moment presented itself.

"I don't feel comfortable using Brooke as bait." Dean said when Brooke opened up her mouth to speak.

She looked at him as Zachariah glared. "Dean…I don't think that we have a choice."

"Yes we do," Dean responded nodding. "There's always another choice."

"I don't care how you do it—just make it happen." Zachariah told them, and then with a rush of wings he was gone.

Brooke bit her bottom lip and then took a deep breath, putting syrup on the toaster waffles and then eating them in silence. Dean followed suit even though he wanted to argue with her, not wanting Brooke to get the idea in her head that she was going to be bait for the demon that had beaten her. He didn't want Brooke to have to come face to face with him again, and while he tried to come up with a better plan, Brooke realized that this was all almost over.

She knew that she and Dean had a relationship going and that it wasn't going to be over in the sense that he would just walk out of her life, but at the same time this would be done. He would no longer be her bodyguard, he would move back out, he would go back to his job, and he'd realize that she was holding him back. He was a hero and he saved innocents and Brooke ran a company…she didn't belong in his world.

"Asmodeus is almost dead," Brooke said softly. "A little bittersweet and ironic, isn't it? He brought us together and now he's going to be the reason that we go back to our old lives."

Dean looked up at her and shook his head. "Don't talk like that, Brooke. I'm not going anywhere, remember? We talked about this already."

Brooke took a deep breath as she and Dean lay there in her bed, Dean holding her, spooning her and running his fingers through her hair. He knew that she was having a rough time, but he also knew that for that moment it didn't have anything to do with the hunt or directly with Asmodeus…it had to do with him.

"You realize right, that pretty much nothing will change?" Dean asked her.

Brooke kept her eyes closed as she felt his body heave as he breathed in and out. "What are you talking about, Dean? Everything will change. You're not going to live here anymore, you're going to have a lot of cases, and I have to make some trips to New York to deal with some corporate issues now that Mom is starting to let me actually be part of my own company financially…she's trying."

"I'm still going to be around, Brooke. I'm still going to check in, and I'm still going to spend the night sometimes, and I'm still going to love you." Dean explained to her, whispering the 'I love you' and kissing her temple. "I really need you to believe that."

"I do," Brooke told him, kissing his hand and pulling him closer to her. I just think that eventually you'll realize that it's not enough.

Brooke just forced a smile and then nodded, wishing that she didn't feel like this was all going to be over once Asmodeus had a Colt bullet in him. She just couldn't get over this feeling in her stomach that the time away from each other was going to make Dean realize that he could do better…then again maybe that was just nausea and not nervousness.

"You okay, Brooke?" Dean asked her softly.

Brooke shrugged a little bit. "Just a stomachache…let's get to the store, shall we?"

"Yeah…" Dean said with a nod, raising his eyebrows.

Brooke had been acting a little weird lately and he knew that she'd been through a lot and that she was still getting over the hunt and that she was still trying to reconnect with her parents, but what was going on? She was sore, she was tired, she solicited sex from him more often than in the beginning…maybe she was getting sick. Dean didn't want Brooke to be sick, but at the same time maybe he could take care of her—prove to her that no matter what, he was going to be there.

He drove her to the store and they talked to Milly for a bit, then Milly went on a break and it was just Brooke and Dean, Haley coming in with Jamie and Sam. Brooke told Dean to go and talk to Mary in that time since she would be there with people and Dean headed out, Haley going with Brooke in the back room as Sam and Jamie looked for something to buy for Brooke since her birthday was soon.

"Something up, Brooke?" Haley asked her, adjusting her purse on her shoulder. "You seem kind of sad today—since Dean's been around you've been pretty happy sans those occasional fights."

Brooke smiled a little and shrugged. "I'm just out of it, Hales. Dean is pretty sure he's found the man that attacked me and when that's done so is this."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa—what do you mean by that?" Haley asked her, raising her eyebrows. "I thought you two loved each other."

"We do, I just…I'm his charge, Hales," Brooke said even though it hurt her to say it like that. "I hate it every time Peyton says it but she's right. The second this is over and Dean has to go back to his job he's moving out. What if in giving this relationship a real chance we don't work out? What if our schedules never match up, or he meets someone else, or—"

"—Brooke, Brooke," Haley cut her off, taking Brooke's hands in hers and looking up at her, smiling a little bit. "Sweetheart, what's really up with you right now? You've been a little out of it the last couple of weeks and I don't know what's going on. You and Dean are happy and trust me when I tell you that that boy loves you. He would do anything for you and if it comes down to it, he'll just transfer to the station here."

Brooke nodded slowly. "Yeah…part of me wants to ask him to just move in permanently, but the other part of me wants to go back to standing on my own two feet. I want to be me, whoever that is, and also have him in my life—if he'll continue to have me."

"I know he will." Haley assured her, wrapping her arms around her friend.

She knew that Brooke over thought things sometimes, but more often than not that thinking made her change her mind. Brooke gave herself so fully to others and sometimes what could be good for her was overlooked for what was good for everyone else. Haley had never seen Brooke so invested in someone nor someone else so invested in her and she didn't want anything to ruin what Brooke and Dean had…but she had no control over this. All she could do was talk to Brooke when she needed it, just as Mary knew that was all that she could do for Dean.

Mary knew that her baby birds had flown the coop, but at the same time whenever they came back to her she opened the nest back up to them. When Dean came to her with demon problems and started talking to her about Zachariah, she knew right away that on top of those issues were the issues he was having with Brooke. The two had been doing so well, but now they were nearing Asmodeus and once he was taken out, Bobby would let Dean out of his services. This was more than that now, though…Dean's heart was on the line and Mary was determined to protect it.

"Have you told her you're not exiting her life?" Mary asked him as she handed him a cup of coffee, looking over the spell book that she had been flipping through to help Dean out in calling Asmodeus to them.

Dean nodded slowly as he sipped the hot, black coffee. "Yeah…but she's convincing herself that she isn't good enough for me. She thinks I'm this hero and that she's dragging me down and I can't make her understand that this isn't exactly my world. I had a childhood—I had a life. You kept me in school, I went to college…other than a hunt here and there once a month or once every couple of months, I'm a person. I'm just a regular guy and I want my extraordinary girl."

"Just explain that to her," Mary said as she squeezed his hand reassuringly. "In fact—invite her over for dinner tomorrow night. Your father and I wouldn't mind having the company and John still has yet to meet her face to face."

"Yeah…I'd like that." Dean told her as he smiled, handing her a book. "I think this spell could work if Dad and Bobby helped."

Note: Next chapter is fluffy with a cliffhanger and the chapter after that is a lot of angst and action. Feedback is always appreciated!