How many girls in the world can make me feel like this?
Baby I don't ever plan to find out
The more I look, the more I find the reasons why
You're the love of my life

And you know one of these days when I get my money right
Buy you everything and show you all the finer things in life
We'll forever be in love, so there ain't no need to rush
But one day I won't be able to ask you loud enough

I'll say, "Will you marry me?"
I swear that I will mean it
I'll say, "Will you marry me?"

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE HUNTER'S SOUL

Salt Lake City

-6 months ago-

Beth's POV

I hurried back from the diner down the street carrying a bag full of food, my mind anxiously on what awaited me back at the motel. When I'd left, everything had been calm, but it was probably going to be short lived. There was a monster in my bed and for the last two days it had been trying to consume me.

The sound of more coughing and moans greeted me when I opened the door and I realised he was awake. Damn. I had hoped he might be able to get a few more hours sleep, it had been a rough couple of days and it was doing nothing for either of our moods.

"There you are!" Dean said with a scratchy voice. "Where have you been?" He asked, looking at me with miserable green eyes. I smiled and put the food on the table, crossing over to sit on the side of the bed next to him. I placed a hand across his forehead, gauging his temperature manually.

Although still a little clammy, his forehead had cooled immensely in the last four hours, and I was starting to hope that he was getting through the worst of it.

"I went to get some food and medicine," I said softly, looking at him.

"I didn't know where you'd gone..." Dean said with a pout and smirked, he was kind of cute when he was like this. For the last two days he'd done nothing but cling to me and want attention showered upon him. I didn't mind indulging, any time spent with Dean, even the sick moments, was welcomed.

"Sorry," I said, trailing my lips along his jawline. "I thought you'd sleep the whole time I was gone, God knows you could use it." Dean sighed and turned to kiss me and then pulled away.

"I don't want to make you sick," he said, covering his mouth as his whole body shook from a deep, rattling cough. I turned and rubbed his back with my hand, making soothing noises.

"It's a little late for that Dean, besides, you need some doctoring." I replied with a smile.

Dean smiled and nodded. "Did you get pie?" He asked, hopeful.

"No, they were out," I said, watching his face fall. "Besides, you need something better than sugar." Dean sighed and threw himself back on to his pillow.

"I'm fairly certain I brought you pie when you were sick," he complained, I snickered, shaking my head at him.

New Orleans, Louisiana

-2 years ago-

Beth's POV

Water dripped from the pipes above us, a constant sound that echoed down through the alleyway we found ourselves in. Dean crouched behind a couple of crates, looking at the scene ahead of us.

We'd come down here on a routine enquiry about a Voodoo witch who had been delved into human sacrifice and was raising zombies for some unknown reason. Thinking it was a simple find and kill, John had sent us alone. He couldn't have anticipated finding us caught up in a whole Voodoo war that was brewing between two of the biggest witches in town.

Babies had been going missing, and there was a disturbing report that they were being sacrificed to old gods to bring about the darkest, most powerful magic there was – the power of life and death.

This is where the zombies had come into play. They were being used as foot soldiers over a turf war. I was amazed at the stupidity of these witches, using supernatural creatures in their own personal power play.

Dean looked back at me and nodded, gesturing that we should move closer the group of people who were gathering at the end of the alley. There was a large stone slab which people had encircled, they were chanting and through the night's air the piercing cry of a baby rang out, chilling my blood.

Moving on quiet feet, Dean scooted further down the alleyway, gun drawn, looking for the person who held the baby. I flicked the safety off my own gun, swallowing hard and struggling to see in the dimly lit alley. Silently, I joined Dean behind a dumpster, peeking out at the crowd before sliding back beside him.

"Eight, not including the priestess," I whispered and he nodded.

"Not going to be easy," he said, "we need back-up, but we don't have time." I nodded in response. It was now or never, this child was getting murdered tonight.

Dean pulled a second gun from the small of his back and checked the clip, sliding it back into place. Gun in each hand he took a long steadying breath. I stilled my own fast beating heart, slipping into a kill zone that we would need to get through this. We had to be completely in the moment, relying on our instincts only.

Crouching, Dean scooted around me and at the last moment he kissed me, eyes meeting mine with concern. "Be careful," he said quietly.

"You too," I said, nodding.

The chanting had picked up; we moved quickly, the sounds of the people muffling our approach. I circled around to the right of the group and hid in the shadows while I waited for Dean's signal. An old Voodoo priestess walked out into the centre of people, her long dark tresses knotted and tangled down her back past her backside.

She had the appearance of an old, gnarly tree, brown and rotted with age, but when her eyes looked around the people they were green, brighter and more vivid than Dean's eyes, and I found them incredibly striking.

A woman stepped forward with the screaming baby. I cringed to watch it. They were supposedly special children, not any child would do, which was the reason the war had erupted as the two sides of a feud fought to gain the advantage on the other. According to the people we'd spoken to, this was the last child in a group of three that would be born for fifty years. We'd come across the baby girl's distraught parents in the process of our investigations, and they'd explained the history behind the special children.

The woman handed the child to the priestess, who raised it over her head.

"Tonight," she said loudly to the gathered people, "we gain the last of our people back from the dead, and together, we shall reclaim what is rightfully ours! We will take it all!"

The crowd cheered and at this moment Dean pushed his way into the centre of the circle, guns held extended out to either side of him, one pointed directly at the priestess.

"Yeah, I have to disagree," he said with a cocky grin. "Only thing you're getting tonight is a big bag of disappointment."

The crowd moved and Dean swung his gun around, waving it at the people who had broken into the circle. They froze. I swallowed hard, thankfully there was no presence of the zombies we'd been hearing about, or we'd be in a world of trouble.

The priestess smirked and that's when I stepped from the shadows, bringing my gun up to the back of her head as I pushed into the circle.

"Give me the child," I ordered her, and she turned those green eyes on me. They were bewitching, and someone who hadn't been around the supernatural for the last eight years might have crumbled, but we'd expected as much, and had worn hex bags against glamour.

I raised the gun slightly higher, pointing it toward her forehead. "Child, now." I said calmly. With narrowed eyes, she flicked a look over at Dean who was holding his own. We could definitely kill half of them if we had to, but right now we were bluffing our way through this situation. If they decided to call our bluff, things were definitely going to get interesting.

Suddenly a lightning bolt lit up the area and I struggled to keep my focus as our surroundings erupted into complete chaos. The priestess looked panicked for just a second before falling behind her dark mask. She grasped the child to her bosom and started to walk away.

We were surrounded; the eight from the initial group were throwing energy bolts back and forth with another faction, it was like being in the centre of a storm cloud. Dean was ducking and moving toward me as I followed the priestess, grabbing her arm and spinning her toward me. She raised her hand and it was as if blue lighting were in the palm of her hand.

She reached forward but was stopped in her tracks. Dean raised his gun and shot at the woman, hitting her in the forehead twice. The priestess looked shocked for a moment, and then fell to her knees. Her eyes went dim and then she fell forward, the child still in her arms. I caught them both, pulling the child to my chest and letting the woman fall.

"Let's go," Dean said as I looked at the witch, dead at my feet. We started to back away when a man stepped in front of us. Without warning he pointed in our direction and blue lightning seemed to fork from his fingers. I turned, facing my back to him to protect the baby and felt a ripple of heat course the length of my spine in both directions and then fan out.

"Beth!" I heard Dean call out and then there was the sound of gunshots being fired. I fell to the ground, my eyesight fuzzy and head spinning. The next thing I knew Dean pulled my left arm around his neck, supporting me to stand as I held the baby in my other arm. I stumbled, and he picked us both up, carrying us away from the commotion, the people, seeing their leaders dead were beginning to run, the battle seemingly over now.

"You'll be okay," Dean said, his green eyes guarded and assessing as he put me in the car, settling the baby in my arms. I leaned back against the seat, barely able to nod as he rushed around to the driver seat. I didn't feel like I was going to be okay. I felt like I'd just been zapped with a 10,000 volt taser, the last thing I remembered was trying to protect the baby as everything went black.

Salt Lake City

-6 months ago-

Dean's POV

I rolled over, a burning pain stabbing down my throat as I coughed and gagged into my pillow.

"Argggh!" I moaned involuntarily, I felt like death warmed up, I couldn't remember ever being this sick. I definitely blamed it on our stay at the Hard Rock Hotel, and the fact that they had swim-up blackjack and craps tables. We hadn't even needed the tux and little black dress, a bikini on Beth had been even better – even if lady luck hadn't been with us.

Beth came out of the bathroom wearing a robe and drying her hair from the shower she'd just had. I traced the line along the robe down her leg and felt other parts of my body perk up at the view.

"Hey," she said, placing a cool hand against my forehead. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Do I look like I'm feeling any better?" I sighed, shaking my head. "No!" She smiled patiently at me, which tempered my mood a little bit. I reached out and tugged at the robe's belt, opening the robe and slipping a hand in to run it along Beth's naked hip. She groaned and looked down at me, her eyes darkening with desire.

"Cut it out, you're nowhere near well enough to be thinking about that," she said with a grin, but she didn't pull away as she kept drying her hair. I raised any eyebrow and snaked my hand further around her waist, pulling her up against the bed so I could kiss the soft skin at her stomach.

"Maybe it's exactly what the doctor ordered?" I suggested, my voice hoarse and throat burning with the short spoken sentence.

Beth looked thoughtful and then leaned down to kiss me. "Maybe," she said quietly, "but first you need to eat something, you haven't eaten all day."

I groaned in frustration and grabbed her about the waist, pulling her over me and rolling her on to her back beside me so I could start kissing along her neck, my hand pushing open her robe so I could leisurely run my fingers along her bare milky skin.

When she moaned instead of fighting me off, I grinned, taking a nipple in my mouth, sucking it in between my lips and flicking my tongue across the tip. I was rewarded with a sharp intake of breath as Beth arched beneath me.

With a groan, I sucked on it a couple more times before breaking away and starting to lick and kiss my way down her stomach just enjoying the touch of her skin beneath me – so soft and inviting. I trailed my hand up along her leg and delighted in the shaky breath Beth took as I parted her legs, brushing along her inner thigh in soft, teasing circles.

The tickle in my throat was back and I groaned, trying to ignore it because how often did I actually get a few weeks alone with Beth? I needed to be able to take advantage of this, not be stuck in bed sick! My body had other ideas as a cough rose in my throat and I pulled away, covering my mouth. When the coughing fit was over I buried my face against her stomach, groaning.

"Man!" I complained and she laced her fingers through my hair, gently massaging my scalp.

"Another time," she said softly, lifting my chin to look me in the eyes. "You need to rest."

I sighed and nodded, crawling up beside her and placing a kiss in the crook of her neck. Beth smiled and turned to kiss me again before rolling to the side of the bed and getting up. She pulled out a pair of leggings and baggy t-shirt from her bag, and got changed.

Within minutes she was microwaving some soup from the diner down the street and sitting on the side of the bed spoon feeding me.

New Orleans, Louisiana

-2 years ago-

Dean's POV

The doctor was looking at me with quiet concern and I glanced over at Beth who was in the hospital bed asleep. She was shaking and feverish and they didn't know why.

"Now, you say she was electrocuted?" The doctor asked and I nodded. "There's no evidence of any heart damage or anything related to electrocution."

"Well then what the hell is wrong with her Doc?" I asked, crossing my arms and watching her closely.

"We need to run some more tests, but at this point there doesn't seem to be anything we can identify," the doctor answered. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

"Yeah, okay, well whatever you need to do, just do it," I said. The man nodded at me, patting me on the shoulder as he left. I turned and gazed over at Beth again all manner of worry running through my mind. I hated this, when there was something so out of my control. I hated having to rely on doctors and outside people to fix something; it was just so much easier to fix it myself.

I pulled out my phone and called Dad, letting it ring until it hit voicemail. I sighed and waited for the beep. "Dad, it's Dean. Listen we're gonna have to stay down here a few more days, Beth was hurt last night. We've taken care of the witch doctor thing, I just have to wait and see what's happening the doctors. I'll keep you posted." I hung up after leaving the message and went into the bathroom that was shared with the room next door.

Taking a wash cloth I wet it with cold water and went back out to Beth, placing it against her forehead. She whimpered softly at the coldness of the cloth but settled down as I stroked along her face. I smiled as her brown eyes fluttered open and she looked up at me with a sigh of relief.

"You're okay…" She said softly with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said with a kiss to her forehead. "I wasn't the one who got hit with some Voodoo lightning." She frowned and nodded. Suddenly she lurched forward and jumped out of the bed, running for the bathroom. She reached the toilet just as the entire contents of her stomach came up. I hurriedly followed, holding her hair back as retched into the bowl in front of her.

With a groan she sat back and I handed her the cloth that I'd been using to wash her face. "Well that was unpleasant," she commented with a wry smile. I grimaced and stood up to pour her a glass of water, conscious that she was trembling again from the strain of moving so quickly into the bathroom.

Beth stayed kneeling by the toilet, resting her head in her hands. The fact that she hadn't moved told me volumes in and of itself, she was weak, and that was rare for her. I handed her the water with a concerned look and she drank it with a grateful smile.

"Come on, let's get you back to bed," I said, holding out my hand for her to take. She climbed unsteadily to her feet and wavered there.

"Dean.." She gasped softly, grabbing my arm. I put my arm around her waist, pulling her body into mine and softly caressing her cheek with my free hand.

"You okay?" I asked, she shook her head.

"I'm really dizzy, I don't think I can walk," she answered. This had me instantly on alert, how on earth could the doctors stand there and tell me there was nothing wrong with her? She gagged again and turned back to the toilet, leaning over and dry retching. There was nothing in her stomach to come out except for a disgusting green bile. I watched helplessly as she shuddered against the involuntary spasms of her entire upper body.

After a moment she stood up again, tears in her eyes from the effort of being sick. She took another drink of water and then turned to me with a sigh, wrapping her arms around my waist and pulling me close. I bit my lip and groaned in frustration, holding her against me. What the hell were we going to do now?

Dean's Journal – 1 week later

It's been a week since Beth was hit with that energy bolt. The doctors can't find anything wrong to explain her sickness, so I've checked her out of the hospital and taken her to a motel, at least she's comfortable and I can watch over her a little better. Dad hasn't been in touch, I'm starting to worry because he should have checked in by now. I called Cole, Caleb, Pastor Jim and Jefferson. Cole hasn't heard from him in a couple of weeks, the rest of them haven't heard from him in over a month. I haven't told Beth yet, I don't want to worry her, she has enough on her plate. I contacted Celine, the mother of the child we rescued, trying to get some answers as to what might be going on with Beth, She was hesitant to get involved but no one else will help, and I am about to reach the end of my patience with these people. I think she heard it in my voice, because she's bringing someone to see us tonight.

Beth's POV

Dean had been stressing for the last week about what was happening to me, and we'd gotten no closer to finding any answers. I'd started to feel slightly better, I wasn't throwing up anymore, but the dizziness and weakness remained. I closed my eyes, snuggling in a little closer to Dean as we lay on the bed watching re-runs of Gilligan's Island. His hand was lightly tracing up and down my back and it was comforting. In this moment I could almost forget that anything was wrong.

I ran my hand down his chest to the end of his t-shirt, and then slid it back under the fabric, splaying my palm across his stomach and stroking in long, languishing touches. Dean groaned and leaned down to kiss the top of my head. "What are you doing?" He asked, lifting my chin up to catch my gaze.

"Isn't it obvious?" I asked, coining a phrase he used way too often on me. He chuckled and kissed me.

"Well it is to me cherry-pie, but are you sure you're up for it?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. I grinned and scooted up on the bed, turning to climb into his lap, my legs either side of him as I kissed along his jawline and down his neck.

"Mmhmmm," I said softly into his skin, rocking against his groin.

Dean growled from sheer deprivation, rolling me in one smooth motion to my back, leaning over me and running a hand up my side in one long slow stroke. He grasped the waistband of my shorts, sliding them down in one movement taking my underwear with him. I gasped at the determination and sudden directness of his movements.

With hot, tantalising kisses, Dean trailed his lips over my left knee, and breathed along the skin of my inner thigh, placing kisses as he went. I groaned and laid back, enjoying the sensations it was generating deep inside of me. He reached my hip and licked along the soft skin toward my centre and I groaned in anticipation.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Dean sighed, looking up at the clock by the bed. "Damn, it got late all of a sudden," he said, looking at me apologetically. I chuckled and gestured for my shorts which he tossed to me while standing up. He grimaced down at his lap and I almost laughed at his arousal standing half-mast.

"Son of a bitch!" He cursed and I watched as he closed his eyes and started muttering to himself about old grandma's, smelly feet and damage occurring to the Impala. The last thought seemed to do the trick when combined with a second knock at the door. He stopped to tuck a gun at the small of his back, covering it with his t-shirt.

He then opened the door to reveal Celine, the mother of the child we'd rescued. I looked at Dean curiously and he waved her inside. She had an old lady with her who turned piercing brown eyes to me as soon as she came into the room. She unabashedly walked over to where I was sitting up on the bed, and Dean frowned watching her every move.

"You the one saved our Sadie?" She said to me in a thick dialect. I nodded, and looked over at Dean. "Bonne," she said, nodding back at me as she clicked her tongue. With a wrinkled hand she reached out and grasped my face between her hands.

"Etourdi? Malade?" She said in French, questioning me. I looked over at Celine, questioning.

"I don't..." I shrugged, not understanding. We tended only to do dead languages in our line of work. Celine murmured and translated for us.

"Um, Etourdi... Dizzy? Sick?" She asked, looking at me. I nodded.

"Yes, both," I said to the old lady. She clicked her tongue again and shook her head.

"Sickness is passing," Dean commented, coming to stand by her. "But she is still dizzy and weak."

She nodded, it seemed she understood English just fine, but simply didn't speak it very well. The old lady muttered to herself, shaking her head, and then stood to look at Dean sadly. I frowned, looking over at Celine.

"What's wrong?" I asked, sitting up straighter. "What's wrong with me?"

The old lady looked back at me and crossed over to Celine, speaking in low tones to her. Celine's eyes widened as she listened and when she had finished speaking she looked over at me.

"Mama says you have the spirit sickness. The .. uh.. lightning? It was energy taken from the edge of life and death. It has caused an imbalance in you, which is why you feel so sick and dizzy. It's like the curtain between worlds has been pulled back slightly," she explained.

I frowned, looking up at Dean in alarm. "Well what does that mean?" He asked, looking over at them. "How can we fix it?"

The old lady shook her head and muttered to Celine again.

"She says …" Celine paused and looked down at the little lady beside her. "Ange?" She clarified with the lady who nodded vigorously. With a frown Celine turned and looked at me apologetically. "I'm sorry, my grandmother has a very strong belief system. She says... you must ask your angel to assist. It may get better, it may not. She cannot say. I'm sorry." Celine relayed to us.

I covered my face with my hands and sighed, running my hands through my hair as I sat back against the headboard. "Great," I said. How on earth was I going to hunt like this? Dean was chewing on his bottom lip, thinking about all this new information.

"Okay, well... thank you for coming out," he said, nodding at them. They all said their farewells and Dean showed them out of the room, turning back to me.

"Oh my god Dean! I can't live like this!" I said, feeling my voice starting to rise a little in panic. He crossed the room and pulled me into his arms, holding me close.

"You won't have to, we'll figure it out, I promise," he said as I clung to him, feeling my breathing start speed up. He sounded so sure of himself, so I let myself relax into his arms and be calmed by his assurances. I trusted him, if Dean said it was going to be okay, I believed him. "It'll be okay Beth, I'm going to take care of you."

Salt Lake City

-6 months ago-

Dean's POV

Beth was spoon feeding me like a little child and part of me was really enjoying it; the other part of me was simply frustrated at my inability to take care of myself.

"I can do it myself..." I whined at her, taking another spoonful as it was offered.

"I know," she said with a smile. "But it's my job to look after you."

"Just a job?" I asked, feigning hurt.

"Well... yeah... but you know I love my job," she said with a smile.

I watched her as she methodically spooned me chicken and vegetable soup, claiming it was going to cure me of all my woes. Just having her there made me feel better. I couldn't remember a time when I'd felt so cared for, when someone had dropped everything for me and just devoted their time to looking after me. It made me love her even more.

There was a knock on the door and Beth put the bowl of soup down to go and answer it.

"Good morning dearie!" Mrs Krasel's voice sounded. She was the grandmother of the motel owner and a lovely old lady. She peered into the comfortable motel room as Beth stepped back and opened the door further.

"We're just here to do a spot of cleaning," she said. On unsteady legs she came into the room bearing her weapons of choice – a cloth and surface cleaner in a spray bottle. I chuckled, she was a funny little lady. Her granddaughter Lucy wheeled the cleaning trolley up behind her and started to collect fresh towels for us.

"Hey Mrs K," I said to the old woman as she moved over toward the kitchen and started wiping down the bench.

"Hello handsome, how are you feeling today?" She asked with a big smile in my direction. I grinned at Beth, taking in the compliment.

"Do you want the sheets changed today Beth?" Lucy asked with a chuckle at Mrs K and Beth shook her head.

"No, I think they'll be all right thanks Lucy. Someone's using them at the moment," she answered with a grin, coming back to the bed and sitting down, resuming the feeding.

Mrs K chuckled and moved about the room dusting. There wasn't much soup left, and when I'd finished Beth looked at me approvingly, standing up and placing a kiss on my forehead. I settled back into my pillows, chatting away with Mrs K as she tottered around the room.

Beth pulled on a pair of shoes and grabbed her wallet and I looked at her questioningly.

"I'm going to go get a couple of supplies while Lucy and Mrs Krasel are here, I won't be long," she said, blowing me a kiss from the door.

"Don't you worry about him Beth, I'll stay here until you get back and make sure handsome is taken care of," Mrs K said with a smile. Beth nodded and chuckled, shaking her head in amusement. Mrs K had been doting on me since we'd arrived.

I watched Beth through the window as she crossed the road to the supermarket, she was unhurried, graceful as she jogged out of the way of oncoming traffic. My eyes never left her until she was out of sight, safely entering the store. I smiled happily until another coughing fit grabbed me.

Mrs K was cleaning bedside table surfaces and looked at me sympathetically as the coughing subsided.

"You're very lucky to have a girl to take care of you like this," she said and I nodded. I completely agreed.

"Yes I am," I said tentatively, hoping that talking didn't set off another round of barking. She nodded approvingly at me, as if I'd just told her something I wasn't supposed to admit to. Sometimes I simply didn't understand women at all; in fact, most of the time I didn't understand them and that was the sad truth of it.

New Orleans, Louisiana

-2 years ago-

Beth's POV

I'd been feeling a lot better in the last week since Celine and the old lady had come to visit. Dean was on the phone again, he'd been making a lot of calls about me. This time he looked more troubled than usual when he turned to me.

"What's wrong?" I asked, frowning. Dean sighed and came to sit on the bed.

"How are you feeling, really?" He asked, his eyes stating that I needed to give him an honest answer, this was important.

"Better than a week ago," I answered honestly. "The sickness is gone, the dizziness only coming now and then."

"Good enough to travel?" He asked, and I raised me eyebrow at his question.

"Yeah... I think so. Why? What's going on?" I asked, sitting forward and grasping his hand in mine.

Dean looked down at our hands and paused as he gave some thought to his answer. When he looked up at me there was a deep worry in those hazel eyes. "What's wrong?" I asked again, holding my breath.

"It's Dad," he said, and my heart skipped a beat. "He hasn't checked in, I haven't heard from him in weeks." I'm sure my face paled at the thought. It wasn't like John to miss a check-in, and definitely not to disappear for weeks without some kind of message as to where he was and why he was extending a hunt.

"Well we need to go find him," I said, a sense of urgency rising in my chest.

"Not with you in the shape you are, I'm not about to let you throw yourself into an unknown situation without being able to protect yourself," Dean said.

"Or protect you," I added, biting my lip. Dean nodded soberly, and it was clear as day that we had a problem. We relied on each other to back the other up, it was our strength, and if something had been strong enough or bad enough to make John disappear off the radar, then we needed to be functioning at full capacity.

"What do you want to do?" I asked. He'd have a plan, Dean always had a plan.

"You're not gonna like it," he said quietly, looking over at me, a frown creasing his brow. I looked at him curiously, raising an eyebrow.

"We need to get Sam to help," he said at my wordless question. I sucked in a breath at the idea that he was talking about pulling our younger sibling out of a normal, safe life at college and back into the fray.

"No, absolutely not," I said, shaking my head.

"Beth, we don't really have a choice. I may need some back-up. And you know how good he is at picking up on patterns that we don't always see," Dean reasoned. He'd clearly been giving this a lot of thought and it wasn't an easy decision to come to.

"I don't like it any more than you do," Dean said with a sigh. "But I'd feel a whole lot better about going on this search for Dad if we had someone with us."

"Jefferson can come up from Miami..." I countered, reaching for my phone, ready to put the call through.

"He's busy with a hunt of his own, he's not even in the country, he's up in Canada," Dean answered and I sighed.

"He won't come with us," I said, talking about Sam. We hadn't seen him face-to-face in over three years. I'd spoken to him on the phone a little in the last year or so, but even then it had been tentative and not like it used to be. Sam was still hurting badly from John's rejection of him and the ultimatum he had been given about college.

"Yeah he will," Dean said confidently. "It's Sam. He'll do what's right."

I sighed and brought my knees up to my chest, hugging my legs. "I don't like it."

"I know you don't. You think I do?" Dean asked. I questioned it a little. Dean missed having Sam around, as much as we all tended to fight like cats and dogs. That's what little brothers did, they annoyed the hell out of you and you loved them for it.

"Okay," I agreed quietly, nodding.

"Good, okay, well it's going to take us about a week to get to California with you in the shape you are. Are you up to leaving soon?" Dean asked, already getting up and starting to pace around the room collecting some of our things.

"Yeah," I said, looking about. It would be good to be back on the road and to get out of New Orleans. I'd seen enough Voodoo to last me a lifetime.

"You're sure?" Dean asked, pausing and looking at me worried.

I nodded and smiled at him, hoping that the smile reached my eyes regardless of the apprehension I felt. "Yeah, let's go," I said softly, picking up my journal and putting it in my knapsack by the door.

"Dean..." I said, standing up and balancing myself with an outstretched arm against the wall. Dean turned and looked at me with concern, crossing to me.

"What?" He asked.

"What if I don't get any better? I can't hunt like this, I'm useless!" I said angrily.

"Hey, hey it's only been a couple of weeks," Dean said, grasping my face gently between his hands. "Give it some time, okay? It'll be all right. You''ll come good."

I nodded with a sigh, wanting to believe him. I just wasn't so sure.

Salt Lake City

-6 months ago-

Dean's POV

Mrs K was staring at me as I started to flip through a couple of channels. She had planted herself at the table after Lucy moved on to the next room to be cleaned. Currently she was fiddling with the buttons on her cardigan as she waited for Beth to return.

"You don't have to keep me company Mrs K," I told her. "Beth will be back soon."

"So when are you going to ask her?" She asked, getting up and sitting on the side of the bed, looking at me expectantly.

"Ask her what?" I questioned, looking over at the kindly old woman, completely confused.

"To marry you, of course!" She said, raising an eyebrow. I froze, looking down at my hands with a sigh.

"Ah, well, that's complicated," I said quietly. Things were always complicated in our world, but more so now than ever. I didn't think it would be fair to extend any kind of proposal to Beth now that I was going to Hell - how was that fair?

"What's complicated about it? Do you love her?" She asked, looking over the top of her glasses at me.

"Yeah, I do," I said, looking up at her.

"Well that's all that matters," she said, tutting at me and standing up again, starting to run her cloth over the counter nearby.

"Can I ask you a question?" I said, gazing at her curiously.

"Ask away!" Mrs K said, taking the seat in front of her and turning bright blue eyes to me. She leaned forward expectantly, waiting.

"If you knew the person you loved was going to die in say, six months' time. Without a doubt, it was going to happen. Would you want to get a proposal? Especially if said person proposing had been messing around for about four years and not gotten around to asking earlier?" I said, looking over at her.

It's not that I hadn't thought about it, which was scary enough in and of itself, it was more the question of what kind of life could I offer her? We hunted creatures for an unpaid, thankless job. We put our lives on the line every day. We had no set home, no chance at peace and quiet unless we gave up hunting. We'd lost our baby, the one thing that might have settled that path down for us a little, and now we faced being separated forever, because once again the job – looking after Sammy – had come first.

"When I met my Edmund, he was a navy sailor," Mrs K said. "And he was about to go to war." I nodded, listening with interest. "We had a whirlwind romance, two weeks, oh it was special." She had a glint to her eye as she talked, smiling at the memories she was replaying in her head. "On the day before he was due to set sail, possibly to never return, he asked me to marry him." She looked down at her wedding ring and smiled. "I said yes, of course, and we were married at the court house the very same day, no special dress, just our closest friends and family – whoever could come at such short notice. It was the happiest day of my life."

I nodded, I got the story; I really did. Sighing, I sat forward, leaning my arms against my knees.

"Yeah, but he came back, didn't he?" I asked.

She nodded. "I was lucky," she answered. "We had forty-five happy years together, four beautiful children, twelve grandchildren, and already five great-grandchildren!" Mrs K looked proud at her achievements, it made me smile albeit sadly.

"We lost a child this year," I said quietly, thinking about all that we'd been through.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Dean," she said, standing up and coming over to pat my hand. "It's never an easy thing to go through." I looked at her and there was sadness in her eyes.

"I know marriage these days doesn't seem that important, and maybe it shouldn't matter, that being with the one you love is the most important thing," Mrs K said, patting my hand. "But don't let her get away; you don't get too many girls who are willing to sit around feeding you soup when you're sick!"

I chuckled and nodded. "Thanks Mrs K," I said, looking up as Beth came back into the room carrying a couple of bags of shopping. She smiled as soon as she saw me and I loved it, she'd always been like that, so open – even before we'd gotten together.

"Well I'll leave you two alone, I have my work to do and Lucy will be wondering where I got to!" Mrs K stood up and wandered off to the door bidding us good bye.

"Bye Mrs K, thanks for the chat," I said, waving at her with a smile.

Beth looked over curiously at me once she was gone. "What were you talking about?" She asked, taking a container out of the bag she was unpacking.

"You," I said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh really?" She asked with a chuckle, grabbing a spoon from the drawer and coming over to sit on the bed beside me. I looked down at what she had in her hands, lemon meringue pie, and my mouth watered. Man did I love this girl!

"Yep," I said, looking into her deep brown eyes. "She thinks you should give me more sex too," I joked, grinning at her. Beth laughed and shook her head, offering me a spoonful of pie which I was quick to accept.

"I see," she answered with a twinkle to her eye. "Well, if you can get through all this pie without coughing and dying on me, maybe I'll have to do something about that." She offered me another spoonful of pie and I groaned at the thought. Looking at her here and now, and thinking about how much effort she'd gone through in the last few days to care for me made me think about how stupid I'd been, how I should have just made her my own years ago, regardless of our circumstances. Now it was too late.

I sighed and she looked at me concerned. "You okay?" She asked, and I nodded.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good. Thanks for taking such good care of me," I answered, leaning forward to kiss her.

Beth smiled and leaned her forehead against mine, nuzzling my nose with her own.

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be," she said, sitting back a little and offering another bite of pie. In that moment I realised that I felt exactly the same, I always had, and I started to play those words around in my head. I could marry this girl. I should have married her years ago. But now it was too late, what right did I have to ask when I'd be dead in six months' time? Even Mrs K had gone into marriage with a chance that her husband would return to her. Beth didn't have that. Didn't she deserve better than that? She deserved a man who wasn't going to abandon her for Hell, even if it meant saving her soul. She deserved better than me.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

The Song for this chapter is: Marry Me by Jason Derulo

Check out the Facebook page, put in the address, then add /pages/Dean-Beth-Supernatural-Fanfic/6167414450129 46

Hope you enjoyed this short chapter – was just a short one because I've been away last weekend and flat out at work ever since doing some overtime to get through a back log and so on. I'm also supposed to be packing because I have to move in four weeks (and still don't have a place organised! Man it's all a bit up in the air right now)

Welcome to all the new followers and favouriters, great to have you with us!

Please leave a review, you know how much I love to get them! Mahalo.

Normally I like to do a shout-out to whoever suggested the oneshot I've just written, but I'm having a moment and can't remember who suggested I do a oneshot about Dean getting sick. Whoever you were – this one was for you! :D (Sorry, I can't find the review to reference).

Next up it's Christmas! How is Beth going to cope with her favourite time of the year and Dean's impending doom? Flashbacks to Beth's first Xmas with the Winchesters and more on the way :D Will be a few days yet as I'm juggling a couple of things – at least I'm home this weekend so should be able to get a few updates out I hope!