Part Eleven: Coming Undone

Sam hated this stalemate, it was driving him insane. The wolf was just pacing up and down the entrance of the cave, waiting for the return of its mother, who had left in a flourish without saying a word.

"Do it now," Dean whispered, nudging his brother with his arm.

"I can hear you…" the beast suddenly announced, "I've heard everything you've said. So if you want to try and shoot me, go on."

Sam placed his finger on the trigger and slowly moved the gun towards the beast. But his mind kept flashing with Robin's face and he found himself hesitating.

"Just can't do it, can you?" the beast sneered, as he charged forward, tackling Sam to the ground.

Dean quickly rolled onto his feet and tried to grab the wolf off his little brother but it seemed that the thing had increased in strength and prowess, in the matter of minutes since its transformation.

As Sam tried to keep control of the gun, he felt the wolf's teeth sink into his arm and he let out a scream, as the smell of blood filled the air.

"Sammy!" Dean cried, as he watched his brother being bitten and then with every bit of power he had, he heaved and the beast finally fell back with him.

The younger Winchester fell back with relief, the gun still intact in his hand and knew he had to shoot now.

As the bullet sped through the air, the wolf heard it whizzing towards him and found plenty of time to move out of the way.

"Too slow!" it howled, jumping up and down like an excited child.

"Damnit!" Sam swore, knocking his head onto the floor. Only 1 bullet left.

"Oooh…that wasn't very nice, was it?" the beast asked, "think I'll have to take another bite out of him. He tasted so good the first time…" the beast said evilly, smirking at Dean.

"You're dead!" the man screamed, diving onto the thing, pummeling it with his fists but getting nowhere.

The beast allowed the man to hit him, he would tire soon and then Dean would be his.

Sam watched, waiting for his brother to move so he could get a clear shot, but the man kept smacking the animal over and over again, his arms never letting up.

As Dean thumped the wolf with every fibre of his being, all he could think about was his mother, Mary. He didn't know why but her face had just appeared in his mind. Right at the time when he should have felt the most hate in the word, all he felt was pity and sadness. His mother had sacrificed her life for Sam to protect their family and now that was all Lucas wanted. He just wanted to save his family. It was weird but he could feel the boy still inside the animal, crying out for him to kill the beast and thus kill him too, that was all he wanted. Eventually, Dean's fists stopped their pounding and he sat on top of the animal, overwhelmed by his feelings and thoughts.

Sam suddenly saw his chance and aimed the gun quickly, ready to…

"STOP!"

Lucas watching through the beast's eyes, saw Robin standing at the cave's entrance, her clothes covered in dirt and her hair, flying wild. She looked like she had been to Hell and back.

"Robin…I…" Sam stuttered, her appearance had thrown him off guard.

"What are you doing here?" the girl asked quietly, as she walked into the cave, observing Dean straddling the wolf while Sam had a gun pointed at it.

The animal seeing an opportunity, bounded into the air, throwing Dean crashing onto his back, "welcome, dear girl," it said in an unusually polite tone.

Robin stared at the thing in front of her, the beast that once was her husband. Imogen's words echoed in her head, "no matter what you do, the beast will get him." She had been right; there was nothing left for her now.

"Is my husband dead?"

"No…he's still here," the wolf snarled, expecting her to break down but the girl stared blankly back at him, finding herself completely numb now.

"Why are you two here?" she asked flatly, her eyes burning into the brothers.

"We came…because…" Dean started.

"They came here to kill me. A last plea by your pathetic husband…" the beast snapped, trying to force a reaction.

"Is that true?"

"Yes, Lucas did ask us…" Sam said, trying to find an explanation that wouldn't hurt her.

"And you didn't think to tell me that you were going to murder my husband?" Robin asked coldly.

"Well we…"

"I'm curious…" Robin snapped, cutting Sam off, "were you going to tell me after you'd done it or were you going to run away like cowards, leaving me to wonder what really happened?"

The girl seethed with bitterness. How could they do this to her? They were meant to be her…but she couldn't say it. Something inside of her had disappeared, now she felt nothing, she just wanted it all to end. She just wanted an escape.

"Of course, we would have told you…" Dean murmured, wishing the girl wouldn't look at him like that.

Inside the beast, Lucas wanted to scream out his defence for the two brothers but his mouth was clamped shut, the animal was still in control.

"Hurt, are we?" the wolf growled, drawing closer to the girl.

"No…" Robin replied sternly, feeling how near the beast was but still her feet wouldn't run. She just wanted…

Then quick as lighting the beast sped over to the girl and grabbed her by her throat, lifting her up into the air.

"Hurt now?" it bellowed.

Dean screamed out in outrage and ran towards the pair to help Robin but the girl although struggling for air, held a hand out to stop him.

"Trying to be brave, are we?" the wolf yelled, taking his other claw and ramming it into Robin's side.

"NOOOO!" the brothers shouted together, both running forward.

But still the girl halted them with her eyes, even though her blood was pouring out onto the floor, she didn't scream, just waited, waited for her freedom…

Lucas could see his wife slowly running out of air and it was worse than when he had found out about the curse, it was worse than having the wolf beat him, it was worse than dying.

Dean didn't know what to do, was the girl on a suicide mission? And as his thoughts rushed through his head, his eyes flicked to Sam's side.

The gun. It was now or never.

And he hurriedly, ripped it out of Sam's hand and pulled the trigger without hesitation, straight for the heart.

As the bullet hit the wolf's core, the world seemed to fall into slow motion for Robin and she saw how the wolf's face fell, how it suddenly betrayed a heart-wrenching pain and grief that its life was over. How its eyes started to change from yellow back to beautiful blue and the fur disappear back into pinky flesh. How suddenly she was watching her husband die.

Dean stood stunned as the beast finally changed back into Lucas and he was finally confronted with the horrible truth…he had killed a man.

"So that's what really happened?" the police officer asked again.

Robin nodded, glancing to the brothers at her bedside. Lying to the authorities wasn't as hard as she had thought it would be.

"Well…alright then," the officer said a little hesitantly, throwing a suspicious glance at Dean.

"Thank you, sir," the girl said sweetly, smiling.

The policeman grinned back warmly and after saying a quick goodbye left the three to themselves.

Immediately, Robin's manner changed and she slumped back into bed, turning her head away from the Winchesters.

"Are you feeling ok now?" Sam inquired tentatively, trying to sound friendly.

"I'm fine."

"Robin, I feel like we should explain. I mean we owe you that…"

"You don't owe me anything," the girl replied distantly, refusing to look at the men.

"You going to be mad at us forever?" Dean asked sharply.

"Did you kill my husband?" Robin shot back, turning her head fiercely to face them.

"Yes."

"Then yes."

"I did it to save your life, to save you from that thing!" Dean said loudly, glaring at the girl. She couldn't fault him for that, could she?

"And who asked you to!" Robin yelled, her blood boiling with anger and betrayal.

"What!"

"You two go around 'saving' people's lives and you never ever think that what you do has consequences. It's so easy for you, isn't it? You just turn up, shoot something and then you're done, off to the next hunt. But what about the people you left behind? You go around with these massive chips on your shoulders, this tragedy in your eyes, telling the world how difficult your lives are, when in reality, it's the people you saved that have the most difficult lives. Everyday after you left, they have to keep going as if nothing happened. They have to lie themselves everyday that those things they saw you kill weren't really there, just to keep sane, just to be happy. It's not hard living with the fact that there are evil things in the world, it's hard knowing they exist and that there's nothing you can do to stop them. So please, don't peddle your self-righteous, the truth is out there crap to me because I have a life to piece back together. Thanks."

And as the last words left the girl's mouth, a silence fell onto the room, enveloping them like a mist, no one able to see a way out, a way back to the way they were.

Dean could feel the quiet growing longer as Robin looked at him, waiting for a response but he couldn't think of anything to say. She may have been angry and crazy with grief; she may even regret her words later, but still that didn't change the fact that she had a point.

Sam watched as his brother was reduced to nothing by the girl's speech and to be honest, he felt exactly the same way. Even though he had never liked hunting, had been embarrassed of it, had wanted to escaped it, never had he felt guilty for doing it, for killing things that hurt people. But Robin's words they made him feel so ashamed that he just wanted the floor to swallow him up, to make him disappear.

"If you have nothing else to say then, I think you should go…" Robin said forcefully, breaking the silence.

Dean nodded and got up, his eyes glued to the floor with Sam following, his mouth clamped down with shame. But as they got to the door, Dean paused for a moment.

"I only did what I could, and I'm sorry that wasn't enough…" he whispered.

Robin felt her stomach crunch up as the brothers left her alone. But still she refused to believe that she had said something wrong. They deserved it, she thought to herself, they had betrayed her trust, they had hurt her. It was only right she had said what she had.

"Dean, are you ok?" Sam asked, as they got onto the main highway.

"Yeah, why shouldn't I be?"

"Just, I mean, what Robin said…it looked like it rattled you."

"I killed her husband, Sam. I didn't expect a parade," Dean replied, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter.

"But still…"

"But nothing. She said what she had to, it's fine."

"Ok. So…what now?"

"What it always is, Sammy. Hunting sons of bitches down," Dean quipped, flashing his brother a smile, pushing the ache in his heart to the bottom of his soul.

He may be judged for what he had done in the end but until that day, he would just have to do what he could, even if it wasn't always right.

THE END

Writer's Note: Well that's it...finished. Well almost, I still have the epilogue...didn't think people would like it if I just left it like this. So read on.