"I think'm bein' haunted." Tandy declared as she re-entered the sitting room. She dropped a pile of books onto the coffee table and they landed with a loud and resonant thud. Years' worth of dust that had gathered between the yellowing pages escaped the weathered tomes in a single and effluvious gust, emitting a dank, musty scent. She felt faint, peaky. At first, she wasn't entirely sure, but now, after seeing what she had just seen, she couldn't avoid it any longer. She felt it in every fibre of her being, the surety, the unearthliness, the unwelcomeness. There was definitely some bad ju-ju afoot, and for reasons unknown to her, she was the target.

She fell, cross-legged, to the floor and propped her elbows onto her knees, pouting.

If she didn't look so unmistakably forlorn, Dean would have found her out-turned lips utterly adorable.

"What?" Sam laughed, confounded by her unexpected and slightly odd declaration. "Haunted? You?" He quizzed, skeptical. "That's ridiculous."

"I mean it." Tandy sulked. "Either that or I'm goin' crazy."

Sam smirked and hitched his shoulders in a playful manner. "Well, if the shoe fits ..." He teased.

Tandy threw a pillow at his head, distressed. This was serious. "This ain't a laughin' matter. Heavens to Betsy, why do I even bother to tell y'all anythin' anyway?" She groaned. She already felt as though she were losing her mind, and when paired with the pressing matter of the end of the world, she really didn't need his mockery right now.

"No, no. I'm sorry. Seriously." Sam snickered, apologetic but still somewhat facetious. "What are you talking about, Tan?" He asked, biting back a smile.

Tandy rolled her eyes but continued nevertheless. "I dunno, I've been hearin' things ... seein' things." She confessed.

"Like what?" Dean interjected, clearly more concerned than his brother.

Tandy shrugged. "Smells, laughter ... a cigar."

"What?" Sam snorted.

Tandy rubbed at the back of her eyes with the palm of her hands. "This is goin' to sound crazy, I know, but in light of recent events of an apocalyptic nature, maybe not so much." She began, offering each of them a grave look. "But I think I'm bein' haunted by ... get this ... Baron Samedi." She finished, feeling even more ridiculous when she spoke the truth out loud.

"Baron What-a-dee?" Dean asked, bewildered.

"Baron Samedi." Sam repeated, his eyes pirouetting beneath their lidded confines. His brother could not be more uncultured. "He's a Haitian God." He explained, showcasing his erudition. "The God of -"

"- Death." Tandy cut in, the frown on her face deepening.

"Okay." Dean responded slowly, absorbing the information. "And why the Hell would he be haunting you?" He narrowed his gaze at Tandy. Discretely, he felt somewhat betrayed. Was there really something that she wasn't telling them? After all that he had told her? Lately, he thought that they had been making great progress. He thought that she was beginning to let her walls down, to peel back her many layers, offering him a taste of what made her tick, a peek into her soul, but maybe there was a lot more to his Southern baby than she was letting on.

"He must think I need a favour." Tandy sighed, miserable.

"Oh?" Sam breathed. "And why is that?"

Tandy hitched her shoulders, biting her bottom lip. "Well, Sam, my mama believes that you don't just summon Baron Samedi, it is he who comes lookin' for you. Usually it's to grant you a favour, and in 'turn, you owe him one." She explained.

"What favour could you possibly have to ask of him?" Sam inquired.

Tandy shrugged again. "I have no freakin' idea."

"That sounds like some shady crossroads demon deal shit to me." Dean said unhappily.

"By comparison, I guess it kinda is." Tandy agreed.

"And we all know how those turn out." He added, like they needed reminding.

"Guess we're going to have to postpone those dinner plans then." He murmured as an afterthought, low enough so that Sam was unable to hear him.

Tandy pursed her lips. "Guess so."

It was a cruel revelation, and it came at the worst possible time, as cruel revelations often did. She'd had to postpone a lot of things lately. When she thought about it, she hadn't even heard back from Cadence since she had bailed on their night out either and hoped that the other girl wasn't still mad at her. She made a mental note to call her when this all blew over, if it blew over. Heck, she'd never come up against one of the loa before, especially not Mr Shadow Man himself. Her odds didn't fare well. She was in way over her head and was beginning to feel like an infinitesimally small fish in an outrageously large pond; a pond brimming with deities and monsters. The apocalypse, Baron Samedi, what next, she thought helplessly, the actual God of all God's himself?

Tandy exhaled. Well, that's what happened when you played in the Winchester's league, she supposed. These boys did big. End of the world big, apparently. And with Dean beginning to wedge his way back into her heart once more, she couldn't just back out. Not now. Not when she so clearly needed them. Not when she so clearly needed him.

"So, if what you said is true, then we can't just summon Baron Samedi and ask him what gives." Sam speculated, tapping his fingers against his chin in an alternating motion.

Tandy shook her head. "Nope. He'll only appear on his terms, when he thinks the time is right, and judgin' by the lore he can be quite the colourful character."

"And you can't just tell him to piss off?" Dean suggested quietly, earnestly.

Tandy laughed. "You're soundin' like the crazy one now, Dean. You don't just tell a Haitian God to 'piss off'."

"Haitian God, Christian God, who the fuck cares?!" Dean growled, leaning forward in agitation. "I am so sick of these freakin' Gods just appearing out of nowhere and messing shit up for me!" He bellowed angrily.

"For you?" Sam asked, cocking his head to one side. Of course Dean would make this about him. His brother had an ego the size of Mount Rushmore. Sam wanted to smile, and he almost did. Almost.

"I mean for us." Dean hissed, correcting himself. "For the whole freakin' world."

Dean rose to his feet and flinched. He clutched his ribs and bit back a pained cry. He probably disturbed his healing bones, but right now, he didn't care. He was pissed. Royally. He clenched his fists tightly and the skin across his knuckles grew pale.

"So help me, if one of these bastards were to show their faces right here, right now, I swear, I would strangle him within an inch of death with my bare hands!" He yelled.

Tandy shuffled backwards, out of his war path, and he paced the floor. He was positively furious, frantic. At the rate that he was going she was almost certain that he would wear track marks into the wood. She'd never seen him so mad and a part from finding herself oddly aroused, another part of her, the more prominent part, was completely terrified.

"So, what do we do?" Sam probed, his rich bangs flopping forward as he bent over to grab one of the books that Tandy had just bought them. "I mean, do we do some research?"

"What else can we do?" Tandy sighed. "Mr Shadow Man won't show, and these seals keep bein' broken and I ... I ... wait." She stuttered, her eyes suddenly becoming large and clear. "What if ... what if this is my favour?" She gasped.

"Come again?" Dean quipped, pausing mid-stride to offer her a stern look.

"These seals. Your whole damn apocalypse. What if I asked Baron Samedi to stop it?" She suggested, hopeful.

"No." Dean replied, his voice firm and resolute. "Not happening."

"Oh, c'mon. What other choice do we have?" She asked.

"I don't know, we'll find one, but not that one."

"And how many other seals will be broken in the process?" Tandy challenged, turning her eyes towards Sam. "You're with me, right, Sam-boy?"

Sam pushed out his bottom lip and slowly shook his head. "I'm sorry, Tan, but even if he had that kind of juice, I'm with Dean on this one. That sounds like a bad idea." He said.

"You'd owe him a favour. It could be your life." Dean added gruffly.

"And if it means that I'd be savin' millions of others, then so be it. I'd say that's a small price to pay in comparison." Tandy retorted.

"Damn it, Tandy, I said no!" Dean shouted. His green eyes glared at her, daring her to challenge him, and she could almost feel the intensity of his gaze like a lazer piercing through her flesh.

Tandy swallowed the few choice words that rose to her lips, along with her pride, and wisely chose to remain silent.

After several long and awkward moments in which Dean continued to pace and Sam pretended to be reading the book in his hands, she stood.

"I'm takin' these upstairs." She mumbled, reaching for the top two volumes on the pile. "Holler if you find something."

Dean watched her as she crossed the room, feeling like a complete and utter dick bag. He hadn't meant to yell, but what she was suggesting was unfathomable. Had they learned nothing? You didn't make deals with devil's. You just didn't. The consequences could be - and had been – catastrophic.

When Tandy disappeared through the door, Dean collapsed into the classical chaise lounge, exhausted. Without speaking, Sam handed his brother another book, his eyes soft and heartfelt.

We'll find a way, they whispered.

Dean accepted the book, grateful and flipped it open.

Once a gambling man, Dean found that forty years had been more than enough time to reflect on the mistakes that he had made, particularly the ones that had cost him his life. And if there was one thing that was for damned certain, it was that nobody else was going to just throw theirs away in some inhuman deal again, not if he could help it, not while his heart was still beating.

Dean settled into the lounge and focused his gaze on the literature before him. Already the words began to blur in and out of focus, blending together as one, and he could tell that it was going to be one Hell of a long night.


Slowly, Dean made his way back up the stair case.

He and Sam has spent hours pouring over rites and rituals, some of which almost made his eyes bleed, and still, they had managed to turn up bupkiss.

Sam had told him to call it a night, to get some rest and that they could resume their research tomorrow and for once, he couldn't find it within himself to argue.

Dean paused, a few steps from Tandy's room and shuffled his feet, contemplative.

Light spilled out through a narrow crack in the door, and he could hear the rustling of pages from within.

Cautiously, he crept forward and pushed the door open.

Candles burned in every corner of the room, their many flames flickering brightly, casting shadows across the floor. Tandy was lying with her stomach pressed flat against her bed and her feet locked behind her. She had changed into her pyjamas, a pale blue button-up shirt and matching plaid shorts, and was surrounded by numerous papers, each covered in her neat, thin handwriting.

Dean hovered in the door way and she glanced up, finding his silhouette through the darkness in the hallway.

"Hey, uh, you're still up." He said, taking a tentative step forward.

Tandy pushed herself up into a sitting position and released a muffled yawn. "Looks like it." She uttered, giving him a timid glance.

The remorse that Dean had felt earlier reared its ugly head once more and he regretted the way that he had spoken to her. He didn't want her to walk on egg shells around him. He was volatile, sure, it wasn't something that he was proud of, and typically he didn't apologise for it, but this time, he felt like he needed to.

"I was hoping that we could talk." He said.

"Sure." Tandy breathed, unwilling to meet his gaze as she pushed aside a collection of papers beside her to make space for him on her bed. "Come on in."

Dean sauntered into the room and took the space beside her, noting the softness of her mattress and the pleasant musk it emitted, like vanilla and peonies.

"So, what's up, Dean?" She asked; eyes staring purposely at her fingers. "I take it you're not here to tell me you've found somethin'?"

Dean shook his head. "Actually, I wanted to tell you that I, uh ... that I'm sorry for snapping before. I guess I know how it feels. How you felt."

Tandy met his gaze then and a single brow rose to her hairline. "Huh?"

Dean leant back onto his hands and fixed his gaze on a dimly lit candle opposite them. "When you talked about sacrificing yourself, I just ... I couldn't bear the thought. I didn't realise that what I had done meant so much to you, what it could do, what it had already done. Not until the words left your mouth. It's funny, y'know, I talk a big game about taking one for the team, but the truth is, it's just easier for me to deal with if I'm the one with my head on the chopping block." He paused and his eyes wandered back towards her, capturing her gaze and she met it this time, unflinching, so he continued. "Losing Sammy, losing you, heck, I don't think I'd be able to cope. I couldn't cope. It's why we're in this whole mess in the first place. It's because of me. All of it is because of me. Because I couldn't ..."

Tandy placed her hand on his, silencing him. As much as she wanted to stay mad at him, she couldn't. It wasn't in her nature. She played it cool, and she sure as heck played it well but in actuality, indifference wasn't her thing, not really. Her expression had softened into one of sympathy and sincerity, of understanding and she inched forward, if only a fraction.

"Since when did havin' a heart that beats for your family become such a bad thing?" She questioned, her voice faint yet husky. "I've been thinkin' a lot lately, Dean, and if you ask me, I'll tell you, look, I get it. I'd have done the same thing if it were one'a my brothers ... if it were you." She admitted, trailing her gaze down his face, past his neck and towards the amulet that Sam had given him. "I was mad as Hell at you, boy, but that don't mean that I would have done any better." She whispered.

Dean watched her take a deep breath and studied her face, searching for something to say, to find a way to put how he felt into words, but instead, she beat him to the punch.

"Dean, I forgive you." She breathed, and it was almost as though a weight had been lifted between them. "I should have forgiven you the moment I heard that you were back, but I was stubborn and bitter and I guess I just felt a little hurt that ya didn't, y'know, come'n see me."

Tandy's gaze flickered upwards, to recapture his. Her eyes were deep and blue, like the oceans he so rarely had the chance to see, and he cleared his throat.

"Tandy, I wanted to." He conceded, humbled by her undeserved forgiveness. "I mean, I know I stayed away, that we stayed away, but I was stupid. I thought I liked you for all the wrong reasons, but it turns out that you're as honest and as strong and just as downright good as they come, and you care about your family, you care about Sam - sometimes more than me - that much I'm certain of and what more could I ask for than that?"

Tandy bit her lip, touched by what he had said. This, coming from him, the guy who fell into bed with a new woman almost every week, was a major breakthrough.

Dean had made it his mission to be a better man, and better men didn't let a good woman like Tandy Kinsella just slip away. He'd fight for this. He'd fight tooth and nail.

"I just don't want you to say those things 'cause I'm, well, 'cause I'm convenient for you." Tandy murmured.

It appeared that she was nervous. It was also obvious to him that she was still wary; that she hadn't quite yet made up her mind about him. Hell, he couldn't exactly blame her if she was still feeling a little confused, especially when he'd been acting so damned confusing.

"Convenient?" He chuckled. "Girl, there is absolutely nothing about you that is convenient."

Tandy shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I still have doubts."

"I understand." Dean reasoned, his voice taking on a fervent tone. "It's just, I thought we were starting something good here, I really did, and it sucks ass because now the world is ending and I'm only just beginning to get to know you properly and for the first time in my life I feel like I'm actually doing the right thing, but then all of these wrong things keep popping up and I - "

Tandy leant forward at that moment and hushed Dean's ramblings by pressing her lips against his.

Dean stiffened, stunned by her sudden and intimate display of affection and his entire body became immobile.

Tandy kissed him softly, chastely. Her mouth fell open slightly, just enough for her to take his bottom lip between her teeth and Dean hummed, feeling the tightness within his shoulders ease, the urge to cup her face between his hands rising. He relaxed into her mouth, finding comfort in the closeness of her skin and moved his hand to her hip, deepening the kiss further, hungry for more.

Tandy drew back slowly, coyly and exhaled against his mouth. Her breath was warm and smelt of cotton candy.

"What was that?" Dean murmured, his lips barely brushing against hers. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you did it, but I thought you weren't, y'know, there yet."

"Honestly, I still don't think I completely am." Tandy admitted. "But you were talkin' too much and I needed you to cool down."

"Well, I think that that had the exact opposite effect." Dean replied, offering her a toothy grin.

"Oh, shush." Tandy blushed, and she folded a piece of hair behind her ear. "The truth is, Dean, we're all sufferin' from somethin' and I think that when you meet someone who is willin' to suffer through it with you, well, you don't let lame ass shit like ego get in the way of that. I'm done with lettin' my ego ruin things for me." She stated passionately.

"So, what are you saying?" Dean asked, his stomach suddenly becoming aflutter with the tinny vibration of a thousand tiny wings. Dean Winchester did not do butterflies. He'd have shot the little bastards dead in the past, but today, heck, he didn't know, he kind of liked the feel of them.

Tandy tipped her head back, incredulous, and offered him a pretty, half-smile. "I'm sayin', dumbo, that I wanna give this a go." She giggled.

Dean blanched. "Wait ... actually? You want to ... what ... you and me?" He asked quickly, unable to contain his excitement.

"No, me and Sam." Tandy joked. "Yes, you and me, you dang turnip!"

"Tandy, that's, that's awesome. Are you sure?"

"Carpe diem, mon cher." Tandy grinned.

Dean offered her a confused look, which only served to deepen her grin further, and she elaborated in words that he could understand. "No, not really, Dean, but I can't deny these feelin's that I have for you any longer and I don't wanna waste another second hopin', prayin', thinkin' maybe, what if."

She shuffled closer and smiled once more, shyly. "So, here I am, just a girl, standing in front of a boy, askin' him to love her."

"You did not just quote Notting Hill." Dean chuckled.

"You did not just know that I just quoted Notting Hill." Tandy countered, the dazzling smile that he had so rarely seen suddenly gracing her lips in full effect.

By response, Dean leant forward and kissed her deeply, and in that moment, his gesture spoke volumes.

Tandy melted against his mouth and gripped his shirt tightly. She made a move to pull him closer, to fall, body-to-body, upon the paper-strewn mattress but instead she hesitated. She glanced down at his chest, seeing the yellowing bruise peeping up at her between the buttons on his shirt, and regretfully released him.

"Well, damn." She murmured hotly, leaning away from him, much to his disappointment.

Dean dropped his head, wiped his lower lip with the pad of his thumb and smirked, cheeky. "If you're worried about my injuries, I can assure you, sweetheart, they have absolutely no effect whatsoever on my -"

"I'm goin' to have to stop you right there, sweetheart." Tandy interjected. "You still owe me dinner first." She instructed, a wicked grin taking shape on her lips.

Dean exhaled deeply, but conceded nevertheless. "Okay. Fair." He murmured. "But you should know, I'm a stranger to this whole 'dating' thing."

"Lemme make it easy for you then. Invite Sam. I'll call Cay. Maybe your brother'll be a welcome distraction from her." Tandy replied, releasing another muffled yawn.

"Okay, sleep head, and what about the seals and your whole creepy God of Death problem?" Dean rejoindered.

"Let 'em wait." Tandy muttered, flippant. "If the world is goin' to end, I wanna pass at least one more good time before it does. So, are you with me?"

Again, by way of a response, Dean smiled, leant forward and kissed Tandy on the mouth. And it felt damn good when she kissed him back.