Yeah, it's been a hot minute since I posted anything, especially for this little 'verse. I did finish this back in October but held off posting it until now because I had to go back and fix a few inconsistencies in the timeline. I definitely recommend you go back and reread the others first, but you don't have to to fully understand everything, if anything, you just have to read Say No to This.

Anyhow, if there are still any major inconsistencies in this universe after I've gone through and edited everything, please let me know! I did also go back and add dates to roughly map the timeline of everything so hopefully, that makes things less confusing/shows how much time has progressed between each fic in the series. No Cas in this, sadly. It's Lisa's reaction to the whole affair because I believe I read somewhere that Maria Reynolds (which the whole series is my spin on the Reynolds Affair/Pamphlet if you didn't know) historically tried to write her own pamphlet of what happened but was rejected or it just never got published. I know that what happens to Lisa when she tries is probably unrealistic (the media can be vultures at times and something like this would've been juicy but for the sake of drama and shit, it happens. (If you came for realism,,,, yikes. That ain't me luvv)

But I hope you enjoy!

Series Order:

Say No to This

(Someone Under stress and) Someone looking pretty

I'm Burning the Memories

Villain in His Story (You are here!)

Congratulations

Not Playground Gossip

CW/TW: slut-shaming, victim shaming, derogatory language, reference to past abuse/abusive relationship (nothing too graphic though!), reference to an affair/cheating

September 4th, 2018 - October 3rd, 2018

It's been tough, but Lisa has been doing fine the last few months. Between the messy divorce and moving to the other side of New York City, Lisa had been feeling rather lost and in a daze. It had been hard, mainly because she had to do the whole move on her own. She had no family in New York, and she was very much uneasy at the time with trusting people. So it had been just her backing their meager belongings with her lawyer hovering just off to the side to ensure James didn't come back, before shoving it in her car, putting Ben in his car seat, and driving as far away as she could from that house.

She and Ben had spent the next week and a half in a motel while she tried to find work and get more money to support them, and only recently she had been able to afford a decent apartment for the two of them.

It was long nights, not enough sleep, and babysitters for Ben, but here they were, almost six months after the divorce, sitting in their small apartment and doing okay. Ben had just returned three and Lisa was able to breathe without complete fear.

Smiling, she watched her son as he sat on the floor, colouring away at an animal colouring book they had picked up last week as a treat from the local Dollar Store. For the first time in ages, Lisa felt free. She was free to be her own person, to make decisions without looking at another for constant approval, free from walking on eggshells every time James was nearby in fear of upsetting him. Free to just be Lisa.

Things would still be tricky, yes. And there were times where she forgot she was free. She'd flinch at loud noises, hesitate with every phone call expecting it'd be James, fearing he would somehow find her again. In the beginning, she'd stay up late into the night, watching the door, expecting him to walk right back in.

But she was getting better.

Between seeing a therapist and the new friends she made through work, Lisa was able to become Lisa Sampson, not Lisa Braeden. The brunette couldn't be more grateful for what Dean had done - after they had met again at her husband's house while laying side by side in bed, Dean had sat up all of a sudden.

He had been quiet the whole time he was over, and she had just brushed it off as he was tired. James used to ignore her and such when they were having sex (or just in general), and Lisa had learnt to just accept that sometimes things were that way. But he had then moved to grab his clothes and told without looking her in the eye, Dean said:

"We can't keep doing this anymore, Lisa."

She had been confused, and hurt, and had asked him what she had done wrong.

(Because back then it was always Lisa's fault things went wrong.)

"James, he still treats you like crap, doesn't he? Even if I pay him for all this."

Lisa had nodded at the time. But before she could tell Dean she had grown used to it, the lawyer looked back at her.

"You need real help. For your's and Ben's sake to get away from him. I...I know someone who can help. A co-worker of mine I can give you the number. He's done a number of pro-bono cases before too, so he won't be too focused on money but he can help you, Lisa," Dean had explained, and all she could do was wonder what spurred such thoughts.

As much as she had wanted to leave James and get away, she had buried that thought long ago and accepted she could never leave James. But now Dean was offering her the option and she was speechless and confused.

"Why are you doing this?" She had asked him and Dean never gave her an answer. He just repeated that she deserved to not live in fear of her husband.

Then he had written his co-worker's number on a sheet of paper, got her to memorize the number in case she needed to hide it from James, and pulling on his shirt, Dean finally met her eyes.

"But for this to all work out - we can't see each other anymore. This… I have a husband and I was an idiot and I can't do this anymore to Cas but I keep going and pretend all is okay. So this between us? It's over. For good."

After that, he had left, before she could ask why, before she could understand his sudden development of a conscience in all of this, and Lisa was left with that string of ten digits.

- and, in a way, she owed part of her freedom to Dean's help. They hadn't talked at all since that night, but Lisa hadn't minded. It was better that they let the past die. The affair hadn't been good, and looking back, despite being blackmailed and extorted by her husband so he wouldn't hurt Ben, it wasn't exactly the healthiest thing and she did feel bad for sleeping with a married man so her ex-husband could take his money.

But she was getting better.

A hand taps her knee, and Lisa blinks, looking down at Ben. The three-year-old smiles up at her and holds out a red crayon.

"Momma? You gonna colour too?" He asked and she nodded.

"Of course sweetheart."

They both were.

Her phone, which sat on the table beside the couch buzzed and she frowned.

"Momma?" Ben whined and she reached for the phone.

"In a moment, love. Momma just needs to check her phone," she explained and the child huffed before going over to his colouring book.

At first, Lisa had expected it'd be one of her co-workers. She and another lady, Margaret, were trying to set up a playdate for their sons, and she had been waiting for Margaret to get back to her with a time for the playdate. But it wasn't Margaret.

A quick flash of fear turned her blood cold. The tiniest voice in her mind told her it might be James, who somehow, against all odds, found her new number and was coming back to drag her back. Or worse, take Ben away from her. But it's someone else from work - Iris, who worked with her waitressing on the evening weekend shifts.

Taking a deep breath, she exhaled slowly. He's not coming for you. Not today, or ever, she reminded herself. James was gone - he couldn't haunt her anymore like a poltergeist too stubborn to move on. She was okay.

Iris: Hey Lisa, you said your ex's last name was Braeden, right?

Her heart stopped. But, before she could type an answer back, another text came through.

Iris: cause you might wanna check this out

Iris: [Link]

Iris' texts worry her. She might've mentioned her ex-husband's last name once, in passing while with Iris, but seeing that in a text wasn't good. In fact, it filled her with uneasiness. Biting her lip, Lisa's finger hovers over the link. She's not sure what it holds and part of her doesn't want to know. Is it James? Did something happen to him, or did he try and say something about her?

Taking a deep breath, she clicks on it. The link takes her to a news website, and for a moment she's confused. Had James gotten in trouble with something? But before she can wonder more about why the article might be linked to James, her eyes see the name in the headline.

Dean Winchester.

They hadn't spoken in at least a year. Not since that night, and beyond the number to contact for his co-worker, Dean had moved on as if the affair never happened. Went back to Castiel like all was fine, like he hadn't been cheating on his husband, and Lisa in turn had pretended they had never met.

So to see this headline now, after no contact for so long, it catches her off guard.

What did you do Dean? She thinks and when she reads the full headline, she knows. And it makes her want to throw up.

The Charge of Speculation Against Dean Winchester, Trial Lawyer of Roman Enterprises, Fully Refuted

But still, she reads it.

Every last word and the further she gets into, the worse her stomach churns. After two years of silence, of pretending nothing happened, Dean had come clear of the whole affair, publically. And, not only that, the amount of detail he used almost makes her wonder if she isn't reading the synopsis for a bad porno.

Throughout the article, he refers to her as Miss Braeden, as if trying to detach her from her marriage status she had held at the time. But that's not it - no, the way it's written… she scrolls back up to the top and finds to her horror who wrote the article.

Dean himself.

He wrote this, every word, and put it online for the world to read and for every news source to pick up and report on.

And, he writes himself as detached from it all. It's all about how she said, she seduced me, she forced me, how he was….

It's at that moment she swears her heart stopped.

How he was the victim in this.

Lisa drops the phone, fingers having gone slack.

Ben looks up at her from his colouring book but Lisa doesn't notice.

Dean wrote the article so he was the victim in all this.

For a few minutes or hours, she can't tell, she's frozen, staring down at her phone in shock. The story before her is spun so perfectly, painting her as the seductress who, along with her husband, plotted to whisk a wealthy married man away from his ever-loving husband.

Hands shaking, she snatches up her phone and clicks out of the article. Then, she opens Google and searches her and Dean's names in the search bar. Articles and Twitter threads pop up in the immediate results and Lisa clicks on the top result.

Seductress.

That's what they call her. Swallowing, she leaves that and clicks on another, frantically reading.

Vixen.

Clicks out. Clicks another.

Wicked.

And another

Whore.

Giving up on news articles, Lisa goes to Dean's Twitter, scrolls through the replies to his tweet and it's all there. All the wicked comments. Some shame him for what he did, others are reaching out to Castiel, but most of them...most mock Lisa. They call her names, turn her into a greedy slut who blackmailed a happy man into doing her bidding. Seeing all of it, she tries not to vomit. It makes her heart pound and makes it hard to breathe. Her mind's blank, running nonstop with all the names they've called her, how Dean's words have twisted and distorted her into this...this…

It's not my fault! His words read, trying to wash his hands from it all. It was all her.

Pouring a finger at anyone but himself and Lisa's not sure what she hates the most. That he painted her as the villain in his story, or that he neglected to mention why she had gone through with the blackmailing in the first place.

He knew about Ben, he knew why Lisa was doing all that, and yet not a word of it.

I was forced by my husband to do this, she wants to say, wants to shout over Dean's own words. It wasn't my choice!

But that's not what the media knows. They see her as what Dean painted: a seductress, a whore, who is just as bad as her ex-husband. At that, Lisa actually does gag because she is not ever, at all like James.

(And yet, in black and white, it says she is. And that is the worst part of it all. Not him making her the villain in all this, or neglecting to mention why she did all this. It's that he equates her to James. )

Now, Lisa knows it was wrong. She should've never done it, but Ben was on the line. Her husband, he could hit her and say whatever he wanted and use her however he wanted but Ben was where she drew the line. He would never hit her son, and when things got really bad, this was her only choice. Blackmail the happy and wealthy lawyer, Dean Winchester, or let her one-year-old son face James' anger. And, if she had to do it over again, she would. Every damn time.

Because Ben was all she had had, and he didn't ask for a shitty dad, and if James had hurt him, or took him away… Lisa had bowed, giving in to James like always because that was her best option.

Tears fall down her cheeks, and Lisa exits Google and pulls up her phone messages. Sending a quick text to her boss, she says she won't be able to come in to work tomorrow. She can't dare face her co-workers or customers, not with her name in the papers like this. Lisa then wonders about Dean's husband, Castiel. They had never spoken more than a few words that one time they bumped into each other on a walk a while back, but he had seemed like a good man. How had he responded to all this? Had Dean told him beforehand? Or was Castiel just as in the dark as she had been about learning about the article?

With a shaky breath, Lisa pulls up one of the newspapers reporting on Dean's affair again. Reading it, it felt unreal. He turned her into this caricature of herself, and it isn't fair. There's so much missing from her perspective, and she needs to set things right. She's not the villain behind all this, just as Dean is not the victim. So she opens an email and begins typing, trying to explain to the reporter her side of all this.

After that, she sends another to a different reporter. And another. Email after email Lisa sends, explaining her husband's actions, how she had been forced into this, how Dean's article had put such a negative light on her. Because it isn't fair, because edge just got away from that past life and now it's digging its teeth in threatening to swallow her whole.

Afterward, Lisa plays the waiting game. She wipes her years and stays home with Ben, trying to pretend everything is okay. Like she isn't just barely holding herself together. Her boss gives her a week off work, and Lisa stays inside the whole time. Deletes any bit of her online presence (not that it's anything big. Just a small private Instagram account because one of your younger coworkers had convinced her to get it so they could send her interesting posts), and waits for someone to get back to her.

But none of the reporters do. She emailed almost ten, and not a single one has responded, and suddenly it's two weeks. Then three. She's gone back to work, but she doesn't talk to anyone, and she does her best to ignore the looks she gets. During her break and as she travels to and from work, she checks her phone. At home, she does the same.

But there's nothing. The media talked about the affair still from time to time, mentioning both Dean and Castiel, but no mention of her emails to the reporters were brought to light. No one saw her side of the story, and the words they said were like rocks slung at her skin.

After three weeks of the talk of the affair, just as it starts to die down, the buzz returns as word of Castiel and Dean's divorce is made public. Still, they say nothing else of her beyond being a slut and convincing Dean to cheat on his husband.

After a month, Lisa caves and calls Dean. Despite switching to a new number, she still kept half her contacts - Dean's number especially. She hadn't seen the need to delete it, and plus, if things went wrong, she always reasoned she might be able to call him for help. And now, she needs help. No, she needs answers. She has too many questions for one Dean Winchester who blamed her for his affair and has now made what little bit of a new life she had made unstable and rocky.

(The only thing she's glad about in all this is that it happened long after the divorce was finalized. She couldn't imagine how James might've used this to hurt her or gain some form of custody over Ben if the whole affair came to light much earlier.)

The phone in her hand rings, and she waits with bated breath that Dean will pick up. Her other hand tapping an anxious beat on the arm of the couch.

Do it, she silently tells Dean. You made yourself the victim, slandered my name in every way possible. The least you could do is answer my call.

But it goes to voicemail. So, with a huff, she gets to her feet and walks towards the kitchen, dialing the number again. Again though, it rings without any answer. Not leaving a voicemail, Lisa tries a third time.

Answer me.

It rings four times, and for a moment, Lisa's convinced she'll go to voicemail again. However, this time, Dean picks up.

"Lisa-" he begins, voice low and raspy. He sounds tired, rough even, and Lisa doesn't care to think why.

"Why didn't you tell them about what James did to me?" She asks bluntly, cutting him off before he can finish his sentence.

"What?"

Taking a deep breath, she tries to steady herself. "I read what you wrote. And what all those other articles wrote but you didn't once mention why I was involved in the affair. You never spoke about what James did to me, how he blackmailed me essentially." Glancing back at the doorway to where she knew Ben was still in the living room, added, "How Ben was on the line."

"I-"

Again, she cuts him off.

"Have you seen what they say about me?" Without waiting for a response, Lisa plows on. "You knew why I did this, why I couldn't say no to James and yet you painted yourself as the victim in all this. I was just the homewrecker, the villain in your story."

She hopes some of what she's saying hurts him.

"And now that's all I am."

There's a moment of silence over the phone, and Lisa has to check to see if he hung up on her or not.

Then, just before Lisa decides to hang up and call it quits, Dean speaks. "Lisa, you have to understand. I didn't want to go public about the affair, but I was being accused by my co-workers for embezzling from my firm to help James. And when I told them what was actually happening, I knew that if I didn't go public about it, they'd somehow find a way to twist my words on me, to make it worse than it actually was. So I had to do it."

Lisa's speechless at that. She knows Dean's trying to sound sorry, words laced with guilt and anguish, but Lisa's numb to it. To anyone else, those words might make one pause, or look at Dean with pity, but she's heard it all before. It's a similar script that Lisa's grown accustomed to over the five years she was with James. She had been gaslit and hit and told how everything is her fault, and she's tired and angry.

Gritting her teeth, Lisa feels her anger rising. "You were worried they'd twist your words?" she echoes. "Just like how you did with mine?"

There's a sharp inhale that carries over the phone, and Lisa almost feels giddy at it. Good.

"You pointed your finger at me because the good and mighty Dean Winchester was just an honest and kind husband who was lured away by a siren, tempted by a serpent. It wasn't his fault that he kept crawling back, even after his husband had come back from his trip with their brothers. No, it was all. My. Fault," she growled. "I am not proud of my actions, but my son's life was on the line, Dean. Tell me, what was yours? What did you have at risk that didn't stop you from saying no the second time we met? Or the fourth? Or a year in?"

The words hang in the air, and tears prick at her eyes, threatening to fall.

"It took you ages before you decided to call it all off, Dean. And you said you did it so Cas -"

"Don't you dare say his name!" Dean snaps, and Lisa's caught off guard by it. "You don't get to say his name!"

She bites her lip, and one hand comes up to shakily wipe the tears from her cheeks.

There's a sigh, and in a softer tone, Dean says, "Lisa, I'm sorry. Fuck, I'm so fucking sorry."

But he doesn't explain why. Or for what. Just that he's sorry. I'm sorry. Two empty words that mean nothing anymore to Lisa. Just like, It won't happen again.

"Are you though?" She pauses, sounding small. "Do you know I tried to email a bunch of reports to explain myself? I told them what you posted wasn't the full story - that I wasn't the only one guilty in all this and…" Her words trail off as Lisa takes a shaky breath. "Do you know what they told me when I sent that?"

"Lisa-"

"Nothing. Fucking nothing. They didn't even have the gall to respond." So now this is all I am, she doesn't add, holding the phone tightly. "I just...I just wanted to know Dean if all this was worth it, clearing your name. You had been so dead set on never letting anyone know about this, and yet the first chance you had, you did. So I just want to know, did you fix everything you wanted to?" She hisses. "Because you're not the one who has to go to work, judged for something you couldn't control. Because you aren't the one who is gonna have to explain to her son why people call me a whore and other awful names and then have to explain what I did and why. Because you don't have to worry that maybe James might find a way to use this and argue I'm an awful mother and I shouldn't get sole custody anymore, or that I might get fired because the publicity is too much for my boss to handle, and maybe because you don't have to lie awake thinking any person you meet might think you just as bad as my abusive ex-husband. So, tell me, Dean. Was coming clean worth it?"

Because it's clear he never considered her in all this, how the fallout would strike her down and ruin what little freedom she had built. Whatever, she's been a pawn before, used by someone she thought cared about her and tossed to the side when not needed anymore.

More tears fall down her cheeks, and she rubs them away, waiting for an answer. The ball is in Dean's court and she wants him to show her something, anything that even hints at the regret he has for publishing all this. For posting what is essentially a smutty erotica online for the world to read, for the world to gossip and respond to.

One minute passes. Then two. It's absolutely silent and Lisa's shoulders slump.

Whore

Homewrecker

Slut

Nothing. He gives her nothing, not even an excuse.

"Ok. Ok," she says softly, her free hand gripping the edge of the counter. "Don't tell me. I guess I just figured that after everything, you could give me something, anything. But I understand. I'm not important in your story, nothing more than the villain that leads the hero astray." Because of course, Dean's the hero in his story, he's Odysseus sailing home from Troy and she's just Nausicaa or Calypso who held him from his lover. Lover. Lisa stops, eyes wide. She had always been aware of Dean's husband. They might have only met once, but even then, she had always felt guilty for what she did, because he had seemed so nice and caring, and if this was the shit she was dealing with, she couldn't imagine how it must've felt for him. Did Dean consider him when all this happened? "Did you at least tell him beforehand?"

Because halfway through this phone call Lisa had accepted Dean didn't care about dragging her name through the mud to save his image. After all, why should he? But his husband? Sure after they had been together for so long, he had offered him a moment of time to confess all this to him before the whole world knew.

...Or had Castiel been a pawn as well in Dean's chess game, sacrificed so he could take the queen piece?

"He found out afterwards, like me. Didn't he?"

There's a flinch, she knows even though she can't see it. That question struck Dean hard and she can hear how he growls out her name. He sounds ready to say more, but Lisa's heard enough. She'll never get her answers, she'll never be more than what he painted her as in Dean Winchester's great epic, so it's a waste of effort and will only hurt more. So she does the next best thing:

She hangs up, cutting him off mid-rant with a quick and cold "Goodbye Dean." Then she deletes the number, putting her phone on the counter, and slides to the cool tile floor, tears running down her cheeks.

She had been okay. They had been okay.

"Momma?" Ben calls and Lisa stifles a sob with her fist.

She had thought she had been getting better.

"In a moment, sweetie," she says back, voice wavering as she tries to sound like she isn't crying.

But now she wasn't so sure.

If you liked it, leave a favourite or review! Also, if there were any timeline issues, let me know and I'll go back and fix em! A heads up, minus the odd small one shot or two i might throw in, this 'verse is technically finished. I don't have any other major ideas for this verse, but if you guys have any ideas for possible short one-shots, i might be down to do a couple. That being said, i hope you liked this fic and this series!

fic verse wise, the next one is Congratulations

-Twist