Good Morning! Hell's Bells Part 3, coming at you.
Love, hugs, and pie to all of you. I can't do this without you.
A/N- this is part 3 of a 3 part story. If you haven't already, please go back and read the previous two chapters, otherwise this ain't gonna make a lick of sense. In this story, Natalie is 10. Please see profile page for disclaimer.
"And that's when she stopped moving," Dean said to the officer who was taking their statement. He watched as the paramedics wheeled the remains of the poor woman outside. His eyes immediately went to the end of the room, where Natalie had been sitting, quietly, on a bench. He smiled- the kid was carefully observing the area, making mental notes of everything she could see. Of course, being only ten, the police weren't too anxious to have her wandering around the scene, but she was doing great staying out of the way and still working. He smiled with pride. She caught his eye, and gave him an encouraging smile. His heart warmed a bit to see it.
The officer didn't have any more questions for him, so Dean walked over to his daughter and sat down next to her on the bench. He nudged her side. "You okay?" he asked quietly. She nodded, but didn't say anything else. It wasn't like she hadn't seen death before- her father and her uncle were the Winchester Brothers, for heaven's sake. But it still was a lot for a ten year old to handle. He knew she would be embarrassed if he pushed the issue further, seeing as she clearly didn't want to talk about it right now, so he didn't say anything else. He just put a hand on her knee, trying to be consoling. He could feel her relax at his touch, which made him feel a little better at having to keep her here for the time being. He scanned the room, looking for Sam, who was still being questioned. Sam was trying to mop up Amanda's blood still covering him, with a towel that one of the paramedics had given him.
Dean's eyes narrowed, looking at his brother. Something was definitely up with him. He was acting even more fidgety than normal. Once, he stopped talking completely, seeming to lose his train of thought- very unlike Sam. After a shake of his head, he started speaking again, but this time, his eyes were darting around even more nervously than before. Finally, he stepped away from the police. He approached Dean and Natalie, looking ashen.
"Ready to go?" he said overzealously, given that he looked white as a sheet. Dean's eyebrows shot up. This was clearly the scene of the case. Why wouldn't Sam want to stick around and check it out? Before he could ask, however, Sam, anticipating the question, said quietly, "Dude- I'm covered in blood. All I want to do right now is go home and take a shower. Besides- the only eyewitnesses are us. And there's nothing more actually on the bell. Believe me, I looked. There's nothing else we can get from this place."
"Fair enough," Dean said. He patted Natalie's leg. "Come on, kiddo. Let's beat it."
*SPN SPN SPN*
Later that night, around ten, Natalie was sitting at the table, working on a self assigned report of the museum today. Dean had looked at her like she had two heads when she declared that she was doing homework that Sam hadn't given her. He had to ask why she was assigning herself extra work. She simply shrugged and said, "There was a lot of cool stuff at the museum. I want to remember as much as I can about it."
Dean shook his head and went for a beer. Sam rolled his eyes at his brother, then turned to his niece. "Let me know if you remember anything else about the Bell, okay?"
"Will do," she said, turning her attention back to her laptop. Sam walked over to the kitchen area, yanked open the fridge, and pulled out a beer himself. Dean was still standing there, leaning up against the counter. He watched as Sam violently twisted the top off his bottle, and proceeded to down half the contents in one gulp. Dean's eyes widened, watching Sam down the alcohol. He couldn't take it anymore.
"Dude. What's going on with you," Dean whispered to him. It wasn't a question, but Sam answered him with one.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, ever since we got back, you've been all kinds of cranky. You had a little thing for that tour guide chick or something?"
Sam turned away without looking at his brother. "Don't know what you're talking about." He took another swallow of beer. Dean sized him up for another moment, waiting to see if Sam was going to come clean. When it became obvious that he wasn't going to, Dean bobbed his eyebrows once, and turned to look at the clock. It was now a little past ten. He looked at Natalie, still typing away on her computer.
"Alright squirt, bed."
"Can't I just finish this first? Please?"
"You can finish it when you wake up in the ungodly hours of the morning that you do. Get a move on."
With a sigh, Natalie said, "Yes, sir." She saved her report, and closed the laptop. She snatched her pajamas and her toothbrush from her bag, and made her way into the bathroom. Once Dean heard the door shut, he turned to Sam again.
"Now that the kid's out of earshot, you wanna try this again?" he asked gruffly.
Sam just shot his brother a bitch face. "Dean- I'm fine. It's just been a big day, okay?"
"No bigger than normal."
"Easy for you to say."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Sam threw up his hands in frustration. "It means...it means that we still have a long way to go on this case. And no leads to go on. We don't know how to stop it, we don't know how to destroy it..."
"We don't know who the next victim will be," Dean said offhandedly. That made Sam stop short- a moment that didn't go unnoticed by his brother. Sam recovered in a moment, and took another swig of beer before answering.
"Yeah. Right. So I'm going to try to do some more research. You should get some shut eye. We need to be on our A-Game tomorrow." Sam looked like he was going to say more, but he suddenly pinched his lips together. He turned his face away, and shook his head, just once. Dean's brow furrowed, watching Sam. As Sam stopped shaking his head, Dean surreptiously looked at his watch. His eyes narrowed. At that moment, Natalie walked out of the bathroom, clad in her sweatpants and a tank top. Dean's attention focused on her.
"Alright. Need some shut eye before Researchapalooza tomorrow," he said to her. She dropped down heavily on the sofa with a grumble. She never liked sleeping, but knew it was a necessary evil. That didn't mean she didn't grumble and complain every time she was sent to bed. "I don't wanna hear it," he said, his tone surprisingly light and joking. "Besides, you're still in trouble from knocking over that goblet today at the museum."
She sat upright from her sofa bed, a mixture of outrage and amusement on her face. "I did NOT knock that thing over and you know it!"
Dean just pinched his lips together in mock shame, turned to Sam, and pointed to Natalie, then pointed to himself and shook his head, indicating that it was all her and he was completely innocent. Sam cracked a smile.
"It was so you!" she giggled upon seeing her father throw her under the bus.
"Can't prove it."
"I wasn't tall enough to reach it!"
"So you admit that you tried?"
To which Natalie responded by flinging a pillow at Dean's face. He caught it easily, and held it up as if to say See? Evidence! Sam couldn't help but laugh at the two of them. Dean grinned and sauntered back to his giggling daughter, tossing the pillow back down on the sofa. He then leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Hey," he said, looking in to her eyes.
She gave him her dazzling smile back. "I know. You too."
"I know." She lay back down, and pulled the covers over herself. Dean had to resist the urge to make sure the blankets were snug around her- a throw back to when she was younger. She was getting older now, and wouldn't exactly appreciate the feeling of being tucked in. Dean stared at her for a moment. It was odd. Before she had dropped into their lives, he had dreaded the idea of having to care for a kid. Even something as simple as tucking one in used to be terrifying to him. He was now surprised that he actually missed it, just a little. He smiled gently, then turned, and caught Sam staring at them. Sam had a bizarrely sad smile on his own face, something that made Dean do another double take. Before Dean could comment on it, Sam turned away, and opened his own laptop. Dean knew that Sam didn't want to talk, but it didn't stop him from being concerned about whatever was going on with his little brother. Sam spoke up, his eyes never leaving his computer.
"You should turn in too- I'm just going to work for a little while longer," Sam said casually. Dean, for once, chose not to argue. He kicked off his boots, grabbed his clothes, and made his way towards the bathroom.
A couple hours later, when both Dean and Natalie were sound asleep, Sam was still feverishly clicking away at his laptop, the icy blue electric glow of the laptop reflecting off his increasingly panicked face.
*SPN SPN SPN*
The next morning, Sam sat straight upright in bed. The ringing in his ears had woken him from a sound sleep. The bells were getting louder each time they chimed. After all his research last night, he knew what that meant. He was getting closer to his time being up. He had expected this. What he wasn't expecting, however, was Dean, sitting on his own bed, elbows on his knees, watching him.
Sam blinked a couple times, then stretched his eyes wide in an effort to wake up. "Hey," he said sleepily. "What's uh...what's up?"
"When did they start?" Dean asked.
"When did what start?"
"Sammy, don't even try it," Dean growled. Sam sighed, and dropped his head.
"Where's Natalie?" Sam said, looking around for her. He didn't want her hearing this. Dean jerked his head towards the bathroom.
"Taking a shower. Start talking."
"I heard the bells right after Amanda died," Sam confessed. Dean rolled his eyes heavenward and leaned back upon hearing the confirming words. This was what he had been afraid of. "I spent all night doing research, and I couldn't find anything, Dean. That's why I didn't want to tell you. Just in case I couldn't find anything." His eyes dropped to the carpet- he couldn't look at his brother. "There's no hope man. There's no way out of this."
To his immense surprise, Dean chuckled. Sam jerked his head up. What the hell could Dean possibly find funny right now? Dean looked right into Sam's eyes.
"Well, it's a damn good thing we've got a ten year old who is apparently better than both of us at...well, just about everything," Dean commented wryly. Sam's brows wrinkled in confusion. "Natalie did more research this morning before either of us was awake, and she found something."
Sam's mouth dropped open in disbelief. "Where the hell did she look?! I searched everything, every possible site and book I could."
Dean shook his head. "Do NOT ask me to explain how her brain works, okay? I don't have a damn clue. She found some site on ancient artifacts and...well...Yahtzee. But she figured out how the curse transfers. Check this out." Dean got up from the bed, and walked to the laptop. "Apparently the curse can transfer to someone else if they touch the person who's cursed while they're hearing the bells chime."
Sam exhaled loudly. "That's how Amanda got it from Colin."
"And how you got it from Amanda," Dean said in a low voice. "It's a good thing you didn't touch her ears."
"What?" Sam said, confused. Dean pointed to the highlighted section of the screen.
"If you touched her ears, you would have absorbed the curse at its current state," Dean said in a slightly strangled voice, not wanting to say what that actually would have meant. "Well, for once, you not touching a woman was a good thing."
"Dean..." Sam said slowly. "I could have saved her."
"Then you would have died," Dean said, in a dangerous don't-go-there voice.
"Dean, unless Natalie found some way to stop the curse, I'm dead anyways."
Dean opened his mouth like he was about to tear Sam a new one, but then took a breath and scrolled to a different part of the page. "It says the bell can be destroyed by like, some kind of...holy fire or something."
"Holy fire?" Sam said, disbelieving. "It can't be that easy."
"Why not?"
"It...that's just almost too...easy."
"You're seriously complaining because it's too EASY?"
"Dean- think about it. If it can be destroyed by holy fire- how come it's still around? Don't you think those ancient Egyptian priests would have worked that out for themselves?"
"Sammy, you wanna argue with the information that may save your life, or you wanna try to start a freaking fire?" Dean said, exasperated. Just then, they heard the shower turn off. Sam's eyes darted to the bathroom door, panicking.
"You didn't tell her, did you?" Sam asked, praying that Dean had showed some restraint for once.
"Of course I didn't tell her, dipshit," Dean growled. "No need to scare her when we know how to end this."
"Dean-" Sam began, about to argue that they DIDN'T know how to end this. Dean pointed a finger in Sam's face.
"This will work," Dean said, not to be argued with. Sam just shook his head. Dean pretended not to see it. Just then, Natalie came out, rubbing her wet hair with a towel.
"Morning, Uncle Sam!" she said brightly. "Did Dad tell you what I found?"
Sam put on his fake smile. "Yeah. Yeah, he did. Good job, Bug."
"Thank you, thank you," she said, pretending to take a bow. Even in the midst of this serious moment, Sam found himself chuckling at her antics. "So- we gonna go destroy that thing tonight?" she asked, tossing her towel under the motel bathroom sink.
"WE are not going. Sam and I are going to go take care of it, right now," Dean said, reaching for his boots. Natalie's face turned to outrage.
"But I found out how to destroy it!" she argued.
"Exactly. You did your part. Now we do ours."
"Dad!"
"Natalie." At that tone, she shut her mouth, not daring to say anymore. She didn't see what the big deal was- she had started plenty of fires; most of them on-purpose ones. She could easily handle something like this. But when he said her name like that, it was unwise to continue to argue with him. She pinched her lips together, and looked at Sam, imploringly. She was disappointed to find him shaking his head at her too.
"Sorry, Bug, I'm with your dad on this." Just in case things...went south...Sam didn't want to take the chance at having his niece there. She let out her usual dramatic sigh.
"Well, how are you planning on getting in?" she asked, pressing them to give her at least the details on the case. Dean shrugged.
"We'll waltz right in, just like we did yesterday."
"Um...it's Sunday. It's closed."
Dean looked patronizingly at his daughter. "Are you seriously questioning whether or not your uncle and I can break into a locked building?" He snorted and rolled his eyes. "Geez. And you're supposed to be the smart one."
"I am. That building is locked up tighter than Fort Knox, remember?"
Suddenly, Dean recalled all the security cameras, the laser sensors, even the iron bar doors that came down around the glass hallway doors. "We'll figure it out when we get there."
"Oooorrrrrrrr..." Natalie said, drawing out the word and looking impishly at her father. Dean sighed and took the bait.
"Or what."
"Or maybe you know someone who could possibly hack into their security system, disable the cameras and sensors, and who just may be small enough to shimmy through the vent to let you in to the building." Natalie shrugged nonchalantly, looking exactly like Dean did when he knew he was winning whatever battle was waging. Dean gritted his teeth. The kid had a point. Dammit.
"Alright. You can come. But you listen up. You do exactly what I tell you, and no more. Go where I tell you to go, stay where I tell you to stay. Got it?" he said sternly, pointing a finger in her face.
"Yes, sir!" she chirped. She then jumped onto the couch to start lacing her sneakers up. Dean and Sam exchanged a look, and had another one of their silent conversations.
Are you nuts? Sam thought at Dean, who shrugged.
Unless you've suddenly become Neo and can manipulate the Matrix, what other option do we have?
I don't want her there. Just...in case.
Don't argue with me.
When it came to saving Sam, Dean would do whatever it took.
*SPN SPN SPN*
A very speedy hour later, the Winchesters screeched to a halt outside of the museum. Natalie jumped out of the car and instantly got to work trying to remote-hack the security system from her laptop, which she had placed on the ground right behind the Impala. Dean walked around the car, keeping one eye on his watch, and one eye on his kid. They still had three hours before Sam's time was up, and Dean had no earthly clue as to how long it was going to take her to do all this hacking mumbo jumbo. He peered over her shoulder, trying to make sense of the crap on the screen, when she jerked the laptop away, annoyed.
"You're in my light," she said. Dean stepped to the side and tried to peer at the screen again. She let out an annoyed groan. "Oh my god. Dad. Just give me a minute." She yanked the laptop off the ground and stormed to the front of the car. Dean watched her go, surprised. She usually didn't have this much attitude. And he didn't like it. Sam walked up to him, having seen the entire exchange, and smiled a bit.
"Just give her a minute," he said soothingly to his big brother.
"If this is any indication of what her teen years are going to be like, then we're dropping her off at the orphanage when this is all over," Dean growled. Sam snorted a laugh and shook his head. Three minutes later, Natalie looked up at the building. She just stared at it for a solid thirty seconds. The boys didn't see any change, so they had no idea what she was looking at. Suddenly, she pointed to the front doors. They heard a triple beep, and she turned to them with a grin.
"Disarmed," she said proudly, and slammed her laptop closed. She opened her door to the Impala, tossed her computer in, then walked up to Dean. "See? Told you I just needed a minute." She tugged on his arm to get him to lower down, and she planted a quick peck on his cheek before skipping towards the back of the museum. Dean just stared after her for a moment, unable to comprehend her sudden attitude shift. Mood swings, he thought. Great. Two PMS-ing chicks in the family. Lucky me.
The Winchesters all snuck around to the back of the building, finding an air shaft about five feet off the ground. As Natalie had predicted, it was very small. But luckily, so was she. Dean pried the grate off, and Sam lifted her into the air shaft. In a second her sneakers disappeared into the duct work. Pretty soon they couldn't hear her moving through the vents anymore. Dean tried not to panic at the idea of his daughter getting herself trapped in there. She was a smart kid- hell, she had just remotely disabled a high tech alarm system from a cheap laptop. Surely she would be fine crawling through an air vent. However, the longer it took without her making reappearance, the more freaked out he became. His heart started racing and his palms started sweating as the minutes ticked by. Just when he had decided to run the Impala through the glass front doors to get in and rescue her, the fire escape door at the back of the building opened, and Natalie poked her head out.
"Yahtzee!" she said, pleased as punch. Dean just shook his head and grinned.
"Kid, when we're done with this, we are heading straight for Fort Knox." Natalie's eyes lit up at the idea of hacking into a government facility.
"Okay, one thing at a time," Sam said. He and Dean walked through the open door, holy oil jar in hand. The three of them quickly made their way towards the Egyptian Exhibit. And there it still was- just a seemingly innocent artifact on a plain pedestal. Sam exchanged a quick look with Dean- they still hadn't told Natalie that Sam was hearing the bells. If they could just destroy the bell, they would never need to. Dean read what was in Sam's eyes, and turned to his kid.
"Alright squirt. I want you to go sit on the bench by the door while Uncle Sam and I light this thing up," he said. He half expected her to protest, but she instead just nodded, and went to sit on the bench as instructed. Huh. Maybe there was hope for her teenage years, after all.
Sam and Dean walked towards the bell. Dean kept a watchful eye on his brother, waiting to see if there was any indication that Sam was hearing the chiming again. They still had about two and a half hours to go. Dean had to convince himself that they were fine- that Sam would be okay once they torched this thing. He quickly poured holy oil all over the bell, then pulled a book of matches out of his pocket. He struck them quickly, and tossed them at the bell. However, just before the matches reached the bell, they all suddenly extinguished. The smoking book dropped harmlessly to the ground. Dean was shocked- what the hell had just happened? He took out another book of matches, and tried again. This time, the matches were a good six inches away when they all blew out. He exchanged an incredulous look with his brother.
"Dude- that thing should look like the Human Torch right now. What's making it go 'Flame Off'?" Dean looked around to see if they were under a vent or something weird like that.
Sam shrugged. "No idea. Here." He produced a lighter from his own pocket, and walked towards the bell. He flicked the lighter.
And the world blew up.
Suddenly, there was a blast of energy from the bell. It was powerful enough to knock Dean back several yards, knocking him off his feet, landing hard on his back. Once he got his bearings and his breath back, he looked around behind him, panicking, for Natalie. She had been sitting up against the wall already, so the blast didn't knock her over- she seemed okay. She was breathing hard like she'd been winded, and she was staring at the bell in horror. Dean's head whipped around. The bell was now hovering over the pedestal where it had been sitting. It had an unholy blue aura around it, and the light from the aura was pulsing. He looked over, just in time to see Sam hit his knees as the pulsing light increased.
Dean scrambled up and ran towards his little brother. "SAMMY!" he roared. Sam just shook his head, and looked like he was in extreme pain. No, no, no, Dean thought. We're supposed to have another two hours. He searched his pockets for another lighter- another match- anything. He came up with nothing. In desperation, he pulled out his revolver and shot at the bell, thinking that maybe he could destroy it like that. As the bullet passed through the blue aura surrounding the floating object, it turned to sand, sprinkling to the floor in a harmless pile. The bell didn't want to be destroyed- and the damn thing was fighting back- taking Sam with it.
Dean tried to think of what Natalie had found on the website- how else could someone be kept from falling prey to the curse? Dean's head shot up as he remembered. The curse could be transferred...and he had an impossible decision to make.
He looked over to see Natalie staring horrified at Sam, who was still crouched on the ground. In a flash, everything that had happened with her for her entire life raced through his mind in a split second. Her birth, her first steps, her first tantrum, the time he taught her how to pull a prank, fixing her scraped knee that time she fell in the parking lot, teaching her how to shoot, everything. And he suddenly realized- the last ten years had been the happiest of his life. How could never have seen that before now? He had started to feel complete- like a whole person again. Like a worthwhile person again. How could he leave her? How could he leave the best thing that had ever happened to him?
And then he looked at his little brother, and everything that had happened with Sam's life raced through his mind in another heart squeezing second. He was there for Sam's first steps, too. The time they carved their initials into the Impala's interior. The time they snuck into that bar underage when Dean taught Sam how to be a wingman. Sam sacrificing himself by jumping into the Cage. And a promise. A promise to always watch out for Sammy. To always take care of his little brother. How was he supposed to break that promise?
A third scenario took the forefront of his spinning mind. A memory from two days ago. Sam and Natalie, sitting together, working on homework. And he remembered that Sam was there for all the sleepless nights with a kid who just didn't want to sleep. For the time she got lost in the hardware store, and Sam was the one who kept it together- not him. He was there when she got sick. Dean remembered all the times he had the secret thought that Sam would have made a better father than him.
The choice was easy, when you thought of it like that.
Dean tore over towards Natalie. He grabbed her by the front of the shirt, and dragged her towards the glass hallway. Just then, Sam started screaming. That only doubled Dean's resolve. He pushed Natalie into the glass hallway. She stumbled back, surprised- what the hell was he doing? She regained her footing just in time to see Dean shut the glass doors to the room. He grabbed an artifact next to the door- a long, jewel encrusted scepter that had undoubtedly belonged to a pharaoh, and jammed it between the door handles, essentially locking her in the small hallway. He then looked directly at her, and seemed to freeze for a moment. She ran up to the glass door. He put his palm on the door, low enough so she could reach it. Even though she had no idea what was happening, the adrenaline in her system made her mimic his actions. She pressed her tiny hand to the glass door, right where his was. He looked into her wide green eyes.
"I love you," he said.
"I know," she said, still confused. With the most bravery he ever had to summon in his life, he turned away from her and walked towards Sam. Natalie was shocked to see the blood starting to trickle down Sam's face from his ears and eyes. Just like Amanda's...
And it all came together for her. Sam was hearing the bells. He was going to die next. Unless the curse got transferred. She gasped, and smacked her fist against the window, crying out "No!", just as Dean clapped his hands on either side of Sam's head. Sam's screaming stopped. And Dean's face contorted in pain.
Natalie began furiously pounding on the glass door, throwing her weight against it, but it was no use. The door wasn't budging. She stopped her fruitless struggle for a moment, watching her father and her uncle in sheer horror. Dean's face was twisting in excruciating pain, but he was keeping his hands over Sam's ears. Sam recovered just enough to realize what was happening. He weakly grasped Dean's wrists, trying to pull them off of his ears.
"NO! DEAN, NO!" Sam yelled, trying desperately to remove Dean's locked hands. Dean gritted his teeth against the pain, just as streams of blood began pouring from his eyes.
"Take...care of ...her...Sammy," Dean managed to choke out, before the pain rendered him unable to talk. Sam was still too weak to do more than feebly pull at Dean's wrists.
As this horrific scene played out in front of her, Natalie began throwing herself at the door again, not even sure what she would do to stop the curse if she did manage to break out of the glass prison. As the screams of her father filled her ears, it was like being trapped in a nightmare. She was helpless. She was hopeless. All of the things she still needed Dean for were racing through her mind. She couldn't lose him. She thought about all the times that she had worried about him. All the times she hoped he'd come home safe. All the times she'd sent up silent prayers to whoever might be listening to watch over her father and her uncle, and bring them back home, both alive. All those prayers were about to be answered with a resounding "No".
Prayers...
Suddenly, desperately, Natalie screamed a name at the top of her lungs. She screamed it so loud she thought her vocal cords might shred, or that she may blow out the glass walls surrounding her.
"CASTIEL!"
A flash of blinding white light filled her eyes. This time, it did knock her off her feet. She blindly scrambled, trying to feel for the glass wall in front of her to orient herself. When the light subsided enough for her to see, she looked at the two men that had been in the center of the room. There were now three men in the center of the room. Castiel was standing behind Dean, his hands clasped on either side of Dean's head. The white light emanating from the angel seemed to be warring with the blue light emanating from the bell. Dean's face was still slick with red blood, but it was no longer contorted with pain. Castiel threw his head back and opened his mouth. Suddenly, the blue light that had been pulsing off the bell came shooting straight out of his upturned mouth, through the ceiling. When the light no longer poured from his mouth, the bell exploded, sending shards of metal flying through the room. Then all was silence.
Dean gasped, catching his breath, his hands still tight on Sam's face. He shook his little brother once. "Sammy! You okay?!" he said hoarsely. Sam gulped and nodded, still barely able to speak. Castiel released his hands from either side of Dean's head, and stumbled back. He slumped over, his hands on his thighs. Dean turned around, and weakly reached out to the angel.
"Cas?" he said, his own voice still raw from screaming. Cas just nodded to him that he was alright, and stumbled towards the glass door. He pulled the scepter out of the handles and threw the doors open. Natalie raced forward and grabbed his trench coat in her small hands, and Cas pulled her in to him. She buried her face in his stomach. She didn't want him to see the tears that were streaming down her own face. He wrapped his arms around the child, comforting her.
"Thank you," she finally whispered. That was as much as she could trust herself to say. Cas pulled her away from him, and leaned down. He took her face in his hands.
"Always," he said simply. "Now go see to your father." That was all the permission she needed. Natalie raced across the floor littered with metal debris and blood, and threw herself into Dean's waiting arms. He was still weak enough from the curse that the force of her body knocked him back, and they ended up on the ground together. As much as she wanted to be brave and tough just like her dad, she couldn't help it. She burst into full blown tears, not even bothering to contain her sobs. Dean pushed them both to an upright sitting position, with her on his lap. Her arms were tightly wound around his neck, and she was crying into his shoulder. He wrapped his arms as tight as he could around his little angel, putting his hand on the back on her head, keeping her pressed into his shoulder, letting her cry it all out, keeping her safe in his arms.
"I'm so sorry, Baby Girl. I'm so sorry," he kept repeating, whispering into her ear as he rocked her. Every thought and feeling he had about leaving her was warring to escape from him in a flood of emotion, but he locked it down, choosing to give all his comfort to her instead. He slowly started to unwind from the tense moment as he continued to hold her, feeling her desperation as she clung to him. Her solidity and warmth breathed life and wellness back into him, and he in turn gave it back to her, just by holding her. Finally, when her torrential tears had slowed down, she picked her head up and looked him in the eye.
"Don't be sorry. You saved Uncle Sam," she said, her own voice raw and shredded. "That's what we do. I'm just glad you're safe too." She turned and reached a hand out to Sam, who scooted closer to them, and began rubbing her on her back, trying to help her calm down. "Are you okay?" she whispered to Sam. He just nodded and continued rubbing her back. She exhaled in relief, and then shot him a bitch face.
"Next time, tell me, okay?" she glared at Sam, who chuckled at her. She grinned again, knowing from Sam's laugh that he was really okay, and she squeezed his hand. "I'm glad Dad saved you."
"And you saved me too, squirt," Dean said, gently wiping some of her tears away.
Natalie sniffed and then giggled. "Well, technically Cas saved you," she joked, breaking the tension in the room.
Despite the blood on his face, Dean was still able to pull off his cocky grin. "Ah, he's saved me before. I'm sure he'll be happy to let you claim this one." Natalie leaned back and saw Castiel stumbling back towards them. He collapsed on the floor next to Dean, looking at the girl.
"I would appreciate you all trying to stay out of trouble enough so no one has to save anyone," the angel said, dryly.
"Aw, come on Cas. What's the fun in that?" Natalie said, still sniffing, but with her own smile plastered on.
"Now, that's my girl," Dean said, pulling her into his chest again. Sam clapped his brother on the shoulder, and Cas reached out, touching Natalie's head. They all just sat there, taking in the moment. They lost track of how long the four of them stayed there, just holding on tight to the reason they all kept holding on- each other.
Please read and review, and keep those requests coming in! Love you guys!
