This chapter follows the previous chapter which was inspired by the episode 'Jump the Shark' (4x19).
Windom, Minnesota.
"Whoa!" Adam exclaimed as he looked at the three small holes close together inside a very small spray-painted ring on one piece of metal which was actually a sign. Sam had decided to start training Adam by teaching him how to use a gun. To do so, Dean had to drive the three of them in the middle of an unvisited part of a forest not that far away from Adam's neighbourhood.
Sam lowered his gun and turned his gaze to Adam, "It's easy. Just feel the recoil and time the trigger pulls. Three taps."
"Yeah?"
"Go ahead."
Adam took the gun from Sam's hands and positioned himself. He fired three times, kicking up leaves; and surprisingly enough, all three shots hit the sign, fairly close together, one on and two inside the inner ring. This caused Sam to grin, surprised and proud of the young Adam.
It hadn't earned the same reaction from the elder Winchester who was leaning against the Impala, a distance away from the two younger men. All that Dean could do was shake his head and avert his eyes away, not wanting to watch the mistake they were doing. Indeed, for him all they were doing right now was turning another normal and innocent person into a killing machine, and it was one of the things Dean hated the most. If there was anything he always wanted to preserve within people, it was that innocence and unawareness of the terrifying and ugly things creeping out there in the dark. He had tried to keep Sam as away from all of that as possible when they were kids, but his father had made it impossible. Dean frowned as he realized that his father had made all of this impossible for himself and his little brother while he had made it all perfectly possible for his other son, Adam.
"Beginner's luck, right?" Adam told Sam, lightly shrugging.
"Nah, man. You're a natural. Good shooting," Sam clapped him on the back.
"Thanks."
Kate pressed on the button of her camera, capturing the whole structure of the Fontaine Saint Michel. It was a very early morning in Paris; in fact it was so early in the morning that the entire Place Saint Michel counted not more than ten persons passing by, and that had given Kate the opportunity to photograph the fountain from all the possible angles she wanted without having to wait for a tourist to get out of the way.
As she pulled the camera away from her eyes, she looked down at the one before last picture she had just taken. Her eyes studied the picture, from the two winged dragons on either side of the fountain to the rock under the two central statues. She had always found this fountain very intriguing, both by its use of different colors of stone and by its representation and the meaning behind it. There were many conversations over the years about what story exactly that fountain wanted to tell since it was composed of works from different artists. However, the one story that stayed the most famous within the tourists and even her Parisian college mates, was the most obvious one which focused on the centrepiece of the Fontaine Saint-Michel. The triumph of the archangel Saint Michel over the devil. Somewhat that thought triggered something in the young woman. Kate slowly lowered her camera and looked up at the centrepiece.
Saint Michel triumphing over the devil.
Her brown eyes focused on the devil laying on the rock, defeated, before they travelled up to the archangel standing above the devil. The archangel's wings weren't as tremendous as the ones she had imagined angels to have in her childhood, however unlike the devil's ones which looked like bat's wings, the archangel's were feathery. But what caught Kate's attention the most wasn't the wings, nor was it the fact that the devil was naked while the archangel was clothed. No, what caught her attention the most was what the archangel was holding up in one hand while the other was pointing a finger up to the sky.
A sword.
The archangel was holding up a sword. A simple sword, but somewhat this sword was captivating Kate like nothing else. It seemed to be so much more than a simple weapon.
She took a few steps towards the fountain, never looking away from the sword that seemed to call out for her. Suddenly, she realized that the sound of the water flowing in the fountain had stopped. No longer walking, she shifted her eyes to the water and frowned as it looked frozen in time. Her gaze shifted slightly to a tiny brown bird on the edge of the fountain that looked frozen in spot as it was bending down to drink water. All of sudden, she realized that there was no noise at all. She looked to her left and right as the whole weird and almost unreal scenery caused a shiver to run down her spin.
"Did you know that Ernest Hemingway spent some good time around this place?" A familiar voice said, startling Kate who spun around in less than one second. "I've always had a soft spot for that writer. So simple, yet so successful in his simplicity."
When her brown eyes spotted who was talking to her, everything made sudden sense as she realized why there hadn't been that much people on the Place Saint Michel this morning and why time had seemed to stop. "I'm dreaming, aren't I?"
"And the prize of quick-witted goes to..." The grey-suited angel grinned as he waved his hands towards her. He laughed as she just stared at him with an almost glare in her brown eyes. He stopped laughing, looked at her and sighed heavily, "Someone's not in a good mood today."
"I'm just trying to understand why you're here," she simply replied, her face emotionless.
"Well, it's been a while since we've seen each other, don't you think?" Zachariah replied as he took the camera from her hands and looked down at the picture she had just taken, a smirk on his lips. "Nice picture. You know, this dream is actually one of your memories that I remodelled so it could be less crowded."
"Have I done something wrong?" She asked as her eyes never looked away from his face. He looked up at her, a wide smirk appearing on his lips.
"When someone asks this, that usually means they did something wrong and they are trying to make sure they can avoid getting in troubles for it," he told her and she did her best to stay as emotionless as possible, while trying to think of nothing but of the present time in case he could read her mind. "Have you been a naughty girl again, Katie?"
"I've helped Sam, Dean and Bobby to stop a few seals, like you asked me to," she replied as he watched her quietly, "and I tried to stop more seals by sending Matt to some coordinates too."
"And, what are you doing nowadays?"
"I'm, er, I'm with Matt," she started, not sure if what she was going to say was going to bring her any trouble. She didn't want anyone she cared about to be tortured because of the choices she made. "We're in Maine."
"Yeah, I know that. But, what are you doing?"
"We're, um, we're trying to find a way back to my universe," she admitted and his lips curled into a wide grin. He approached her, one of his hand patting her cheek as she stayed still.
"See, you can be a good girl sometimes," he told her before walking past her, towards the fountain. She let out a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding and then turned around. Zachariah was facing the fountain, giving his back to her as the camera magically disappeared from his hand and he tapped the sides of his lap. "Everything is so easier when there's no lies and betrayals between us, don't you think?"
"I'm pretty sure you're not here just to praise my good behaviour," she told him, ignoring his comment. "So, what is it?"
"Such a smart girl," he turned around and looked at her for a moment before remaking his way towards her. "I know what you are attempting to do, you and your friend Matt. And, I know how obedient and nice you are now that we made a few things clear last time we talked," he told her as she kept her lips tightly pressed together, her eyes glued to him with an almost stern look. "But, I feel like I should remind you of our little deal. You behave and obey, and no one will get hurt. Remember?"
"In which way looking for some way to get back to my universe is breaking this deal?"
"In a very delicate way. See, I told you we'd need you if anything went wrong with Dean Winchester. So, if you ditch us before we've even made sure Dean is going to execute all of our orders, it's sort of breaking our deal, don't you think?"
Kate looked away for a few seconds, her mind filling with several and different memories of the hunter. She clenched her hands, her fingertips resting on the four faded scars that Dean had traced so tenderly weeks ago. Turning her brown eyes towards the angel, she felt the little courage that showed up once in a while, rebuild itself inside of her, "You never said, what you need him for exactly?"
Zachariah was slightly taken aback as he watched her face for a moment before answering with a scoff. "That is God's will."
"I know that, but I didn't ask the reason. I asked the purpose," she told him, her tone stern and her look hard. Zachariah's lips curled into a corner smirk.
"You already know that. He was chosen to save this world from the Apocalypse. That is the purpose."
"Why him? What more does he have that others don't?"
"I thought you asked me the purpose, not the reason," he gave her a smug smile causing her to clench her jaw as the angel took a few steps away. "You know what?" He said turning around, "You should ask him. Ask him why they say that 'the righteous man who begins it, is the only one who can stop it'."
And with that, Kate opened her eyes to find herself asleep on the passenger seat of Matt's car as he was driving down the road back to Bobby's. She frowned, as the last thing that Zachariah said, echoed in her mind.
'The righteous man who begins it, is the only one who can stop it.'
Windom, Minnesota.
Milligan's house.
After Sam's little speech on how being a hunter was a life style and not a job, Dean had called him to have a private conversation. Dean made his way by the staircase and Sam followed him, leaving Adam alone sitting in front of a few books about ghost and other creatures opened in front of him.
"What the hell was that?" Dean asked Sam once they were out of hearing.
"What?"
"'Hunting is life. You can't have connections.' Dad gave you that exact same speech, remember? It was just before you ditched us for Stanford. You hated Dad for saying that stuff, and now you're quoting him?" Dean asked him, his voice low enough just in case Adam could still hear them from where he was sitting.
"Yeah, well, turns out Dad was right," Sam replied taking his brother aback.
"Since when?"
"Since always. Dean, when I look at Adam, you know what I see?"
"A normal kid," Dean suggested.
"No. Meat. Because to the demons and monsters out there, that's all he is. Kate understood that and she's trying not to get eaten before having a chance to get back home. Adam's gotta understand that before he gets eaten too. And you know what? I hated Dad for a long time. I did. But now I think I understand. So we didn't have a dog and a white picket fence. So what? Dad did right by us. He taught us how to protect ourselves. Adam deserves the same."
"Listen to yourself, man."
"You think I'm wrong?" Sam asked him.
"I think it's too late for us. This is our life. This is who we are, okay? And it's fine. I accept that. But with Adam, he's still got a chance, man. He can go to school. He could be a doctor," Dean told him.
"What makes Adam so special?"
"What, are you jealous of the kid?" Dean asked him.
"Are you?" Sam asked him back but Dean just looked at him without replying. "Dean...all this...it's not real. The dad Adam knew—he wasn't real. The things out there in the shadows—they are real. The world is coming to an end. That's real. Everything else is just part of the crap people tell themselves to get through the day."
"Dad didn't have a choice with us, okay? But with Adam, he did. Adam doesn't have to be cursed," Dean replied.
"He's a Winchester. He's already cursed," Sam told him.
"No. No, whatever's hunting Adam, I'm gonna find it," Dean told him with determination. "And I'm gonna find what's tormenting Kate, too."
"You already looked everywhere for what's hunting him, Dean."
"Well, then I'll look again," Dean replied before passing by his brother who slightly clenched his jaw.
Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Night.
Kate and Matt were still on the road heading to Bobby Singer's house, as the blue-eyed hunter hadn't stopped driving for hours. They had left Maine a couple of hours after Matt had brought those books from the library. He had told her that going back to the hundred-mile Maine wasn't worth it now that they had another and safer way to send her back home. From that moment, he had noticed how bizarre she had been acting. She looked more thoughtful, less enthusiastic, and above all else she looked torn. Thoroughly torn. Although Matt had noticed that, he hadn't mentioned anything to her. And when she had asked him not to tell Bobby about his discovery yet, Matt had known that something wasn't quite right, but still he had remained quiet.
Throwing a glance at her as she was now sitting on the front seat after their last stop at a gas station an hour ago, he couldn't help but wonder if all of those things she had told him about her life were real. A few days ago, when they had been in the middle of the forest of the hundred-mile Maine, she had assured him that she had only lied about her being from this world and being Bobby's niece. He believed her. He did. Even though he felt as if she had lied to him during months. He knew she hadn't lied this time in the forest. Besides, he knew that what she had said about her father, her mother and her time in Paris were all true. There had been this peculiar sparkle in her brown eyes when she had recounted him a few memories; this sparkle that appears in someone's eyes when they are reminiscing too deeply.
"What?" Her voice asked pulling him out of his thoughts as she kept her gaze focused on the road ahead of them and she pulled the earphones of the tape-player off her ears. She had felt his gaze on her.
"Nothing," he replied, his greyish blue eyes returning their attention on the road. "I was just wondering something."
"What?" She asked again, turning her head to look at him.
"Were you really studying Physics and Biology back in college?" He blurted out.
She looked at him, an expression of soft surprise on her face. This was the least thing she expected to hear him ask her. As he glanced at her, she nodded slowly, "Yeah, I was."
"At the Sorbonne?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "But like I told you, it wasn't as huge as it seems."
"Back in your universe, maybe. Here it's pretty big of a deal to go to the Sorbonne."
"If you say so," she whispered as a little smile forming on her lips. She looked down at the stirring wheel for a few seconds, "I hated it."
"What?" He asked as he turned his gaze towards her.
"I hated what I was studying," she said with a nervous chuckle, bringing her hands up to put her hair behind her ears. "It wasn't really my thing. I mean it was interesting, but still it wasn't my thing. I had very good grades back at high school, so everyone kinda pushed me into doing something great in science, you know? But, mostly, I wanted to get out of that place I was with my mother… I just wanted to get as far away as possible," she confessed, her voice pensive and sincere, as he kept glancing at her once in a while.
"And… I wanted to make my father proud. So, I tried my best to get a place at a prestigious university… It's funny 'cause I hated being so far away from him, but he kept telling me that as long as I was doing what I wanted, as long as I was doing what was making me happy, then I shouldn't worry about the distance between us. A few years later, he realized that I wasn't truly happy studying Physics and Biology even though I was succeeded pretty well. He just, you know, he could read in me like a book," she smiled thoughtfully, and Matt couldn't help but smile too as he looked at her.
"When he found out that I sneaked into other courses such as history, theology, philosophy and so on, you know what he did? He came to Paris the day after he found out. He came with a luggage full of books about all those courses I was sneaking into. And he looked right into my eyes, and as cheesy as it sounds, he told me that if I didn't go after my dreams, if I didn't do all my best to live them, then he'd be damned," Kate stopped, tears forming in her eyes as she took a deep breath. "Two weeks later, he went back to the States and he found out that he didn't have long left. I had registered to the History degree, but when I heard about my father's state of health, I just… I just went back to him. And then,… Well you know what happened then."
Matt turned his head, and studied Kate's face as she was now looking down at the tape-player on her lap. He felt bad for causing her to bring up this subject, but this feeling which was spreading thickly and heavily inside of him provoked a particular need within him; the need to confess as well.
"I didn't really like studying ancient languages back in college," he said and Kate looked up at him, surprised once again by his words. Although they had spent quite a lot of time together, Matt had been very selective on his personal life sharing. He had told her a few things, but had kept a few others very secretive and for some reason his years in college was one of them.
"I was really good, though," he continued, "I've always had some facility to memorize languages. But, my parents didn't really care what I chose to do, as long as I did something. I didn't have any plans on what to do after high school. I thought about working in business marketing or whatever. But, there was this girl… God, she was so beautiful..." He told her, with a smile. "Blond hair, hazel eyes and a smile that drove me crazy throughout my whole high school years. She wasn't really one of the popular girl, you know? She was a bit shy and kind of a nerd. But, she was just perfect to me. And I spent four years in that high school, wasting my time with silly girls while I had the most perfect girl right in front of me… We were close friends, and while I used to have quite a lot of dates, she never dated anyone. Single from the first day of high school 'till the last. I don't even know how someone so beautiful didn't have any date. And, then at senior year, I managed to figure out what she was going to study after high school. Ancient language."
"You followed her after high school?"
"I couldn't let go of her," he smiled as he glanced at the brunette who gave him a kind smile as she stared at him. "And, I asked her out at our graduation ceremony. This was one of the best days of my life," he almost whispered the last part, as his eyes were glued to the road now. "And you know what? She was worth all of those freaking long and boring hours of studying ancient languages."
"What happened then?" Kate asked in a soft murmur.
A silence settled in the car and the young woman realized that there were very little chances he would answer her now as he fixed the road with a deep expression. She licked her lips, bit down on her bottom lip and turned her attention to the tape-player on her lap. Her fingers pulling the earphones up to her ears, when he spoke up, stopping her in the process.
"A demon," he said in a grave voice. "A demon happened."
Meanwhile in Windom, Minnesota.
"You sure we should do this?" Sam asked as he watched Adam's body, wrapped in sheets and lying on a pyre. It had been a very rough night, physically and mentally. Finding out that the Adam they met wasn't really their brother, but some ghoul that had already killed the real Adam, while getting tortured by the two ghouls that were Adam and his mother, had made Sam feel down in the dumps. When Dean had been sewing up the wounds on his arms, he hadn't stopped wondering what could have been if they had known about their step-brother before the ghoul had attacked him and his mother.
"Ghouls didn't fake those pictures," Dean told Sam as he opened a bottle of lighter fluid. "They didn't fake Dad's journal," he sprinkled the fluid over Adam's corpse as he continued speaking, "Adam was our brother. He died like a hunter. He deserves to go out like one."
"Maybe we can bring him back. Get a hold of Cas, call in a favour," Sam said, pensively.
"No, Adam's in a better place," Dean replied as he lighted a match and tossed it on the pyre, the covered corpse immediately going up in flames. An almost calm silence fell upon them as they watched the flames, but Dean broke it as he felt the need to share his thoughts. "You know, I finally get why you and Dad butted heads so much. You two were practically the same person." Sam looked over at his brother whose gaze never left the flames in front of them. "I mean, I worshipped the guy, you know? I dressed like him, I acted like him, I listen to the same music. But you were more like him than I will ever be. And I see that now."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Sam said making Dean throw a glance at him.
"You take it any way you want."
Ten days later.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Bobby Singer's.
Her brown eyes were squinted in a suspicious way as she never looked away from the hazel eyes staring right back into hers. She was struggling with herself not to let a single emotion settle on her white face. She didn't want to give any clue away. After all, this was the first time after five times that night that she was still in the game, and there was absolutely no way for her to give up now. She had to give her best poker face ever.
"So what is it gonna be, Katie?" Sam asked, never breaking the eye contact with her.
"Well," she replied, slightly tapping her forefinger on the back of her cards as she reached for her pile of pretzel and pushed it over the middle of the table. "All in."
"What?!" Bobby and Dean exclaimed at the same time, causing the young woman to shot her brown eyes up at them.
"Not interference guys," Sam told them as Kate watched Dean rub his jaw as he shook his head slightly. Bobby was shaking his head too, as he brought his glass of whisky up to his mouth, mumbling something under his breath. "I'm gonna follow you."
"You what?" Kate asked as she turned her gaze back at the younger Winchester who gave her a smile and shrugged as he pushed his pile to the middle of the table, right next to her pile. "You're sure about this?" She asked, tapping her forefinger nervously on the back of her cards, while keeping her poker face.
"Pretty sure," he replied as he threw a quick glance at her hands holding her cards in front of her, which went unnoticed by the young woman.
"Alright," Kate nodded as she felt Dean's eyes glued to her face while Bobby was rubbing his eyes, tiredness had started to strike him a few minutes ago but he had wanted to stay until the end of this game to see if Kate would finally win one.
The dimpled-face Sam put his cards down, showing off his really good hand, a slight smirk on his face. Not a second later, Kate put her own cards down on the table, showing off her good hand too. She reached out for the pretzel, a smug smile on her face, but Sam reached out for the pretzels in the same time.
"What are you doing?" She asked him, confused. "I won."
"Uh, no, I won, Katie," he replied as her eyebrows furrowed at him. "I've got a straight flush."
"And?"
"A straight flush beats a four kind, kiddo," Bobby said, sitting on her right. She looked up at him, her hands still around the pretzel pile, just as Sam's.
"What?!"
"Yeah, sorry," Sam said pulling the pile towards him, but she didn't let go and dragged it over her.
"I've got one King in my cards! That has to beat his hand where there's not even a Queen," she exclaimed looking back and forth at Bobby and Sam.
"Sorry, but that's the rules," Bobby told her as he yawned.
"Seriously?" She turned her head towards Dean, meeting his green eyes immediately as he was taking a sip of beer with his eyes fixed on her.
"It's okay, you can keep the pretzel, Katie," Sam replied, chuckling as he pulled his hands away.
"It's not about the pretzel, Sam. It's just that I was sure that my hand was great, and besides, I had the best poker face ever! How did you even know I wasn't bluffing?"
"Your poker face was good, I owe you that," he nodded, standing up, "But you've got another nervous tic thing that you do when you're nervous."
"What? Okay, you know what? Let's do this one last time! I'm sure I can beat you," she told him with determination and Sam laughed.
"Yeah, what about we do it tomorrow? It's getting late," Sam replied and Bobby nodded as he stood up and walked over his living room.
"Yeah, we better go to bed. We got a long day tomorrow," Bobby said, as he stared at the new pile of books he had on his coffee table. All the papers and maps that used to be scattered all around his living room days ago, weren't there anymore as he had brought them down to his basement with the help of Kate. Even though there wasn't as much things scattered all around the place, that didn't mean Bobby didn't have still a lot of work to do; quite the opposite.
Dean nodded at the old man' statement, standing up and bringing his arms up in the air as he stretched his whole body, which made Kate's eyes travel from the little stomach skin that his stretching was giving her, to his face. When she met his gaze, she quickly looked away, pretending not to have let her eyes travel up his body.
"You're all just scared I kick your asses," she muttered as she took a pretzel and shoved it in her mouth.
"You know us way too well," Sam replied as he passed by her, tapping the top of her head on which the wild brown locks were falling freely on her back after she had taken off her messy bun earlier. "Goodnight." He said as he headed to his room upstairs.
"Hey Bobby, do you want me to clean our mess before we go to sleep?" Kate asked the old hunter who was scratching the top of his head, holding his cap in his other hand, as he stared at the books thoughtfully.
"Mmh?" He mumbled turning around to look at Dean who was pouring himself a full glass of whisky not far away from the kitchen' sink, and then at Kate still sitting at the table while chewing on a couple of pretzels that she put in her mouth. "Nah, it's okay. Just go to sleep, kiddo," he told her, his voice sounding a bit too distant for her liking. Swallowing down the pretzels, she frowned, stood up and approached him as he was standing at the doorway between his kitchen and living room.
"You're alright, Bobby?" She whispered to him, her eyes filled with genuine concern.
"Of course, I'm alright! Just a little bit tired," he replied, putting his hand on one of her hoodie-clad arms. He tapped it gently, throwing a glance at Dean who was standing against the sink. "Make sure he goes to sleep too," he told her in almost a whisper.
"Sure," she replied with a nod, and he pulled his hand away as a tiny smile appeared on his lips before he turned around. "Goodnight, Bobby," she told him as he walked away waving his hand up in the air. Once she heard him walk up the stairs, she spun around and looked at Dean drinking his glass of whisky with his eyes glued on her. She let out the first thing that popped in her mind, "Your brother is really good at poker."
"Or you're really bad at poker," he suggested arching one eyebrow as he moved the glass in his hand towards her. She scoffed as she grabbed a pretzel and put in her mouth before walking over one of the upper cupboards where dishes were stored in.
"Do I have to remind you kept on getting out of the game pretty quickly from the third game to the last one we've had tonight?" She told him, reaching up to a big bowl.
"I'm actually really great at poker," he replied, watching her as she stood on the tip of her toes, trying to grab the bowl. "I was just trying to be a gentleman and let you win. Actually, so was Bobby. I guess, Sam was the only one who didn't get that hint." Kate let out a scoff as she glanced at him.
"Yeah, sure."
He looked at her as she struggled to reach that bowl up there, before drinking his whisky all in one go. He settled the glass on the edge of the counter and made the two steps towards her, before stopping right behind her.
The front of his body was very close to the back of hers as he reached out for the bowl and she watched his large hand as it grabbed the bowl with easiness and an almost sensual way. She watched as his fingers were wrapped around the edge of the transparent bowl and he descended it slowly before holding it right in front of her eyes. She could feel the heat emitting from his body and going through the fabric of her clothes to get into her skin, causing a not so uncomfortable shiver to run down her back. Although she wasn't sure why her body reacted that way, she was pretty certain she could blame him for the warmth she could feel rising in her cheeks.
Clearing her throat as she realized her reaction made absolutely no sense, she grabbed the bowl, "Thanks."
Kate was expecting Dean to just step away once she had the bowl in her hands, but he didn't. Licking her lips before pressing them together, she lowered her head as she started to notice Dean's warm breath hitting the back of her neck. Out of the blue, she remembered that she had been waiting for them to be alone since he got here this afternoon with his brother. So, she quickly and abruptly turned around, taking Dean off guard as he nearly stumbled back but managed to hold himself back by holding the edge of the counter with both of his hands. The process caused Kate to be completely trapped in between him and the counter.
"Sorry," she mumbled as she looked up at him. He didn't say anything but a light and rapid snort escaped him before he settled his green eyes into her brown ones. "Dean, I, um, I was wondering something," she cursed herself mentally for showing so much nervousness in her voice.
"Mmh?" He just said, not moving an inch as he stared almost intensively at her. Kate tried to explain to herself his behavior by mentally repeating to herself that he had drunk quite a lot of alcohol tonight, and it was starting to show.
"Um, it's a weird question," she frowned looking down at the bowl she was still holding in between them. It permitted a more appropriate distance between their bodies.
"When isn't it?"
"Seriously," she looked up at him. "You might hate me for asking… Or you might just avoid the subject."
His facial expression changed as he took one step back, his green eyes studying her face. Not a second ago he was looking at her in a way that she couldn't truly describe, but that built up a tingling feeling in her she couldn't deny; and now he was looking at her as if he was apprehending what words were going to leave her lips if he gave her some kind of permission to ask him that 'weird' question. Noticing this quick switch, Kate shook her head, with a kind smile.
"You know what? Just forget what I said, okay?" She told him as she went over the table they had been playing at earlier, making sure to avoid his gaze. She could feel him watching her as she gathered the pretzel inside the bowl, not wanting to let it laying around until the next morning.
"Kaitlin-" Dean started as she put the bowl on the table and turned around. But she did it so quickly and abruptly, once again, that this time she managed to bump her tiniest toe on one of the seat's feet.
"Ouch!" She yelped and jumped on one foot as she held the other up in her hands. Within a few seconds, the hunter was by her sides.
"You okay?" He asked her, as he wrapped his hands around her waist helping her to not stumble down. She groaned as he looked down at her hands holding the edge of her foot, before he settled her down on one of the seats behind her. "Damn, why are you always barefoot, Kaitlin?"
"It's alright, I just bumped my toe," she replied as she massaged her tiny toe and he took a step back to look at her. When she looked up at him, he was holding back a laughter. "Don't you dare mock me, Dean."
"I'm sorry," he chuckled. "If you'd wear shoes or at least those slippers Bobby got you, you wouldn't hurt your feet that much," he told her as she analyzed her toe. He crunched in front of her and took her foot in his hand. Too surprised by the action, she let him do. "You got nothing," he stated after a few seconds of looking at her toe in almost every angle possible.
"Thanks, Doctor Winchester," she said earning a smirk from him as he looked up at her, his hand still holding her foot.
"Did you know that the scars you had here are all pretty gone?" He told her and she nodded. "This should have been a pretty good lesson for you to start wearing shoes… Why do you even insist on walking with no shoes on?"
"Why do you insist on me walking with shoes on?" She threw back at him, and he squeezed her injured toe. "Hey!"
"'Cause of that," he replied as she pulled her foot away and he stood up.
"It was uncalled for," she told him with a little frown.
"Just wanted to make my point obvious," he replied and she didn't say anything as she analyzed her toe again as she massaged with her forefinger and thumb. "What were you gonna ask me?"
She stopped massaging and looked up at him. He looked even taller from this angle and even though he should look more impressive too, somehow she didn't find him anymore impressive. His features were soft despite his attempt to make it look emotionless and possibly a bit more serious than usual. It was as if now that she had read all of the 'Supernatural' books until the moment he went to Hell, she could make his true feelings and emotions out with one simple glance at him while it used to be harder. As a matter of fact, this was why she was so afraid of what her question was going to ignite within him. She thought that she knew him fairly well now, and she was rather certain that his reaction wouldn't be a joyful one if she asked him this question that had been wandering in her mind for over a week now. However, the curiosity sadly took the best of her as the question escaped her lips.
"Why do they say that the, um, 'the righteous man who begins it, is the only one who can stop it'?"
Dean's features dropped faster than ever, his gaze falling to the table nearby Kate. Surely, he hadn't expected her to ask him such a question. However, not a couple of seconds later, Dean's brow furrowed as he returned his gaze to meet hers.
"Who told you about this?"
"I read it in some book while doing research a few days ago," she replied. She had prepared herself to be asked a few questions about this peculiar sentence, days ago.
Dean gave her a slight nod, and then he sighed walking towards the counter where the bottle of whisky was settled. She watched him as he took the bottle, unscrewed it and stared at it for what seemed to be long seconds as he gave his back to her. "I thought you already knew about it back in December."
"What do you mean? How would I have known about it back then?"
"Well," he said, still not facing her as he held the neck of the bottle in one hand while the other put the cap of the bottle on the counter. "When I tortured Alastair. That's what he told me… And that's what Cass confirmed to me," he brought the bottle up to his lips and drank a long sip before putting it away. He swallowed down, his green eyes glued to the sink, "The righteous man who begins it, is the only one who can stop it… I'm sure you can make it out on your own, Kaitlin."
Kate didn't say anything, her eyes fixing him as he brought the bottle up to his lips once again. One of the main things that Kate had noticed since her first day in this universe, it was that Dean drank a lot of alcohol. From what she had been told and what she had seen, she had understood rather quickly that he was trying to drown his inner demons with alcohol. And reading all the 'Supernatural', she had realized that it truly was Hell that had given him the most of those inner demons. Still, she couldn't blame him. After going through a few of his memories of Hell and after seeing a few others of those, a great respect for this man had grown inside of her. Because, while she had spent several times crying in her shower and even avoiding sleeping because of those terribly awful tortures, he had done his complete best to always stand tall and strong, and keep going on. Sure, he had had his breaking down moments, but for someone who had been through forty years of torture in Hell, this was utterly impressive. Anyone else would have gone completely crazy. She almost did.
"The reason why I'm the only one who can stop the Apocalypse, is because… Because, I broke the first seal," he confessed after a minute or so of silence. Kate's eyebrows knit together in confusion as she stood up from her seat without even noticing it herself.
"What?" The question left her mouth in a breath.
"I broke the first seal, I started it all… If Lucifer gets out of his cage, that's… That's all on me," he said through gritted teeth as his free hand clutched at the edge of the counter and his other hand around the bottle of alcohol. "The first soul I tortured… That-that was me breaking the first seal…"
"Dean," she softly said, her head tilting to the side as she watched the back of his head which he shook at the sound of her voice. She walked towards him, her bare feet making no sound as she reached her hands out to him. She put one hand gently on his back, slightly startling him, before she reached out her other arm so that she could grab the bottle from his hand.
Her hand rested on top of his, around the bottle, and Dean looked down at it. As his eyes settled on the pretty faded scar on the back of her hand which she had had during a hunt with Matt, she slid her hand to the very top of the bottle and pulled it softly yet firmly out of his tight grip. From the corner of his eye, he could see her standing right next to her, but a bit behind, as the hand she had rested on his back was softly rubbing him. He slowly turned around and she brought her two hands on his bare forearms before sliding them up to his strong arms, covered with his dark grey t-shirt, and then tightened her fingers around his biceps as she looked up to his green eyes which were already looking down at her.
He tried to focus on her and what her presence always brought him. However, this time, he found it difficult to only focus on the soothing calm she usually brought him. Since what happened with Adam, he had started to feel even guiltier about everything he had done and kept doing. Accepting the soft peace that this good girl brought to a monster like him, was one of those things. He had decided that the only thing he had to do was keep her safe and help her get back to her safe universe. But, right now, as much as he really needed to embrace the calm she usually gave him, he couldn't manage to do so. So much guilt was eating him, and with that sorrow, exhaustion, despair and pain.
"You don't deserve to carry so much on your shoulders," she told him, her gaze mirroring the tenderness and sincerity of her tone. "But, you can't always try to drown it all in alcohol neither, Dean."
"If I don't, I'll just get crazy," he admitted, his voice sounding almost broken. "Booze has the power to calm me down a little bit…"
"Don't I have the same power?" She asked, a soft smile forming on her lips. He couldn't prevent his eyes from scanning her whole face, his lips turning into a weak smile as he saw her own smile.
"Yeah, but there'll come a time when you'll go back home," he told her causing her smile to fade a bit. She looked away for a second, recalling that she hadn't told anyone of Matt's findings about a way to get back to her universe by summoning the Opener of the Way.
"Yeah, that's true… But, I'm here now," she told him before wrapping her arms up around his shoulders and pulling him down to her so she could hug him properly. Dean's eyebrows frowned a bit at her action which he found himself not able to get accustomed to. Right when he was going to wrap his arms around her middle, when he was going to finally accept this whole soft calm he cherished so much back, the sound of a ringing phone stopped and tensed him.
Kate, who felt Dean tensing, leaned slowly back as she turned her head towards the ringing cellphone on the table. It was hers. She slowly unwrapped her hands and stepped away from Dean, her eyes focused on the cellphone. As she stepped towards the cellphone, she quickly turned her head towards Dean. "Give me one second, okay?"
"Who's callin' you at this time anyway?" He just asked, his tone strangely distant.
"I'm not sure," she replied as she approached the table, took the cellphone in her hand and looked down at the screen before answering. "Matt, what's going on?" She replied in a little voice that could almost show how she felt that the time he chose to call her, wasn't the best at all.
"Great, you're awake!"
"What's going on?" She asked quietly as she looked down at the cards scattered on the table while Dean just stood near the counter watching her hair as it fell until the mid-section of her back.
"I've got it."
"Got what?"
"The last thing we need to summon the Opener of the Way. I got the Jadeite crystal," he told her from the other end of the line, and she froze for a couple of seconds.
"What?" She asked in a breath, completely taken aback.
"Yeah, I know," he chuckled on the other end as she stayed quiet. "I found a collector in the Montana, and I kinda stole it from him. Anyways, you've told Bobby about the summoning spell?"
"Um, no. Not yet," she whispered quietly. "Could we talk about this tomorrow? I'll call you."
"Don't bother calling me, I'm already coming over tomorrow," he told her and she nodded even though he couldn't see her. "Sleep well," he said before hanging up. Kate pulled the phone away and looked down at it.
"It was just-" She started to say as she turned around. But, as she noticed Dean wasn't in the room anymore, she didn't finish her sentence and stared at the empty kitchen.
When she heard the sound of a door closing, coming from upstairs, she understood that he had left while she was talking on the phone. Letting out a soft sigh, her brown eyes moved to the kitchen counter. She bit on her bottom lip as she realized he had taken the bottle of whisky with him. As much as she wanted to join him in his room in order to stop him from drinking himself to sleep, she was pretty sure that he wouldn't let her in. Now, he was going to take comfort and calm from that bottle, and as sad as it made Kate feel, she knew she had to let him do. After all, he was right. She was going to go back home soon.
The next day.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Bobby Singer's.
When Kate woke up that morning, she didn't leave her bed until almost an hour of deep thinking. Indeed, the previous night her dreams had been filled with a lot of different events mixed together, leaving her a bit confused when she opened her eyes. Her dream altogether made absolutely no sense at all, but even though that was something pretty usual when it came to dreams after all, she hadn't been able to keep herself from thinking about it over and over again.
At the beginning of her dream, she was still a teenager living at her mother's and she was packing her stuff for her usual spring holidays with her father. When she came downstairs with her luggage, she wasn't at her mother's anymore but at her cousin's house. Not any cousin. Her favorite cousin; the one with who she had shared so many good memories, the one who had been so supportive of her, the one who she knew she could count on no matter what. Smiling at her cousin Alina, Kate giggled when she saw Alina's son, Thomas, aged of only two years old, running towards her with his little arms wide open. Kate bent down and held him up laughing along with him and her cousin. Then, the three of them walked out of the house, Kate who was holding the little boy in her arms, was talking with Alina about how Paris had given her the possibility to have a fresh new start far away from all the misery and anxiety that she used to live with every day. She didn't even notice that she didn't have her luggage anymore as she let Thomas return in his mother's arms. Then a growling sound of a car engine was heard and both Kate and Alina turned their heads towards the 1967 Chevy Impala that parked right in front of her cousin's house.
"Go."
"What? You're crazy, Alina. I can't do that. I gotta back to Paris."
"Kate, they need you."
"That doesn't mean I should throw my whole life away. I mean, what about my life? I gotta go back to University, and I-I… I made a promise to my father, Alina. You know that."
"Yes, I know. You promised him to listen to your heart. You promised him to do what you love. You're not gonna tell me your heart is telling you to leave them?"
Even before she had the chance to reply, the rain started to pour causing Alina to run back into the house with her son. Kate watched her go before turning around to look at the Impala, but it was gone. Instead, there was her father's car. She ran to it, opened the passenger door and sat on the seat. Her father was behind the stirring wheel laughing.
"Sweetie, why didn't you take an umbrella?"
"I forgot to grab one. Besides, I didn't know it was going to rain."
The car started and soon enough they were driving in the middle of an empty road as the rain kept on pouring wilder and wilder outside.
"Your mother is gonna kill me. I was supposed to bring you home this morning."
"Come on, Dad, it's not home there… I mean, do you remember what grandma used to say? A home isn't just a place."
"It's where your heart is. Of course, I remember… So, what are you gonna do, Katie?"
"What I'm supposed to, I guess… I know they need me, but I'm not supposed to be with them, Dad."
"Maybe you are."
"But, I still gotta do the right thing. I'm not from this place, so the right thing to do, is to replace everything at its own place, right? The right thing to do is for me to go back to Paris."
"Is that really what you want to?"
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Bobby Singer's.
11:12 am.
"You think this is a seal?" Sam asked as he looked over at the papers Bobby was showing him, as they were sitting across each other at the old hunter's desk.
"There's a high chance," Bobby nodded. "I think I'm gonna send Pete and Sean there."
"Maybe, Dean and I should go?"
"Oh 'cause your princess of a brother has woken up yet?" Bobby said sarcastically as he stood up.
"Hey, it's not my fault if he got wasted last night," Sam replied raising his hands up in defense. "You know what? Just give me ten minutes, and we'll be ready to go down there."
"No," Bobby shook his head pulling his phone out. "I need you around for a couple of days," he said as he started dialing a number. "Matt called me earlier, he's coming over today. Apparently, they found something pretty interesting when they were in Maine, but Kate doesn't wanna talk about it yet. So, he's coming and he's gonna bring the subject up so that she can tell us about it."
"What? Why wouldn't she want to tell us what they found?" Sam asked, his face showing puzzlement over what Bobby had just told him.
"Heck if I have an idea! I'm crazy about this kid, but most of the time she just acts weird and secretive, you'd think she's a double-agent who has no idea what she's doing," Bobby replied as he brought his phone up to his ear and walked towards the kitchen to pour himself a mug of black coffee.
Sam looked down at the book laying in front of him, frowning his eyebrows as he thought about Kate and her very strange behavior. It was already worrying him a lot, but when someone else brought this subject up, it only increased his concern. The thing is that Sam had grown a very soft spot for her in his heart. After all those months with her around, he found himself caring about her much more than he ever thought possible. She was a sincere, caring, understanding and big-hearted person, and she brought them all a touch of gentleness, delight and humanity that seemed to go lacking more and more in their life. So knowing that she was keeping things from them – things that was certainly tormenting her – it just made Sam worried.
"Hey Sam," Kate voice said pulling Sam out of his deep thoughts as he turned his head towards the young woman who had caused him to be lost so deeply in his thoughts.
"Hey," he coughed, clearing his throat as he gave her a little smile.
"What were you so deeply thinking about? I said good morning twice," the brunette in a white long-sleeved shirt and a pair of dark blue denim told him in a teasing tone.
"Nothing," he shook his head. "How did you sleep?"
"Pretty well," she replied with a little smile as she approached him and leaned down on the edge of the desk. She looked at him as his hazel eyes were glued to her face, "No nightmares, if that's what you're wondering."
"Great."
"Yeah," she nodded, before she tucked her hair behind her ears, Sam's eyes falling to the bracelet around her wrist. "Hey, I was thinking about doing a supply run later. Wanna come along?"
"Sure, why not," he replied, his eyes returning to look straight into hers, when Bobby returned in the living room.
"Oh, one of the two sleeping beauties is awake," Bobby commented as he looked at the brunette who frowned.
"Dean's still asleep?"
"Yeah, you didn't know?" Sam asked her. "I tried to wake him up around nine, but when I got in his room I found him completely passed out with two bottles of whisky."
Kate immediately looked up at Bobby with an apologetic face, "Bobby, I'm so sorry. I know you asked me to make sure he sleeps tight and well, but um, Dean took advantage that I was busy doing something else to go up to his room with one of the bottles. I didn't even notice that he had taken two bottles…"
"It's alright, kiddo. You ain't his mother or his wife to have the power to boss him around 24/7," Bobby waved at her as he circled his desk and sat down on his chair. "I just thought that he'd listen to you."
"Why would you think that?" Kate asked as she stepped away from the desk and looked at the old man whose eyes went to meet Sam's.
"You kiddin' right? Haven't you noticed the way he was acting with ya yesterday?" Bobby said and she shifted her brown gaze to the younger Winchester who looked at her before he let out a slight sight.
"Dean cares about you, Katie. And even if you don't think so, he feels responsible of your safety and protection-" Sam told her and she cut him off.
"Yeah, that's the way he is. He feels responsible of everything, what's new about that?"
"Um, no. Look, with what happened with Adam, Dean developed a kinda big need to keep you as safe as possible. He made it his number one mission to make sure you're safe and sound, and especially away of everything dangerous until we find a way back to your universe," Sam explained to the brunette who felt a heavy feeling of guilt forming on her shoulders now. "And, I know you're gonna say we shouldn't but, we're all pretty worried about you… Is there anything you wanna tell us, Katie? "Sam said making the young woman's gaze look up at his face.
When her brown eyes met his hazel eyes, she couldn't stop the wave of memories from flowing in her mind. However, those memories were neither memories of things she had lived nor were they memories of things she had seen. Truth be told, those memories weren't even hers. They were things she had read in those 'Supernatural' books. Things about Sam. How he grew up feeling like he was a freak. How he grew up wanting nothing more than to get out of the life their father had given to him and his older brother. How he found peace and love with Jessica Moore in Stanford. And, how all of his hopes of a peaceful and normal life crashed when Jessica died. Then, everything happened so fast for him that he couldn't even prevent any of those. His father dying. Dean selling his soul to save his little brother. Dean going to Hell. And, finally what she knew without having to read it in any book or manuscript: Sam starting to drink demon blood to get more powerful, only causing him to feel more miserable every day.
Kate didn't have to give Sam a reply as Bobby received a text causing him to talk about the seal he had just sent two hunters on. Kate found out that many seals he had sent hunters on, hadn't been stopped in time, and this caused Kate to worry a bit more about what was going to happen next. The more seals got broken, the closer they got to the possibility of Lucifer getting released from his cage. However, Bobby seemed not to want to worry Kate about all of this as he asked her if she could go down town to buy some things, and Sam stood up at this moment saying he was going to get ready so they could go for that supply run right away.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
At a supermarket downtown.
"No, Dean, I'm not gonna bring you the three. You make a choice."
Leaning on the shopping cart, the young brunette in her black leather jacket covering her white long-sleeved shirt couldn't help but have an amused smile at Sam's conversation with his brother on the phone. She glanced up at him and saw him roll his eyes before she returned her attention back to the ingredients written on the package of a slice of chocolate cake. There were so many chemicals in that piece of cake, but she couldn't stop herself from wanting to eat it. Who could even say no to a piece of chocolate cake this beautiful?
"Alright, yeah, yeah, I got it. Yeah, fine," Sam sighed and hung up.
"So?" Kate asked as she looked up at the young man in his brownish jacket covering his blue flannel.
"So," Sam said as he slid his phone in his pocket and reached out for a slice of apple-pie, a slice of cherry-pie and a slice of blackberry-pie. "Dean wants the three kind of pies, and if I bring only one, he'll make me regret by using my laptop for his personal use."
"And that's so bad?"
"Considering he goes on some websites full of virus, yeah, that's bad," he replied as he ran one hand through his hair. Kate put the slice of chocolate cake with the other supply they've been piling in the cart since they got in this supermarket. From the necessary to make a good cheeseburger to quite a lot of kale salad, Kate and Sam had bought enough to last a whole week without having to return to the supermarket. On the other hand, seeing how much alcohol Dean could drink on his own, Kate was pretty sure that the two six packs of beer and the three bottles of whisky weren't going to last as long.
"You've got like a dozen of illegal software, and you never thought of putting an antivirus software on your laptop?" She asked as she pushed the cart and they restarted walking down the section.
"I've got an antivirus software, it's actually one of the best. But, I don't know, Dean always finds a way to get my laptop frozen on some of his busty Asian websites." Kate shook her head laughing softly, as Sam glanced down at her. "You stayed up with him last night before he got himself completely drunk?"
"Um, no. Not really," she replied looking up at the younger Winchester who was staring at her, his hands in his jacket pockets. "Why?"
"Just wondering if he said anything that would have explained why he got himself wasted last night," he shrugged. "I mean, for some reason he usually doesn't drink that much when you're around."
"I beg to differ," she replied. "He doesn't mind drinking a lot when I'm around. Remember that time we went to a bar after meeting Chuck? He drank so much that the waitress offered to leave the bottle of whisky at our table."
"Yeah, I know. But, he still didn't got hammered back then, you know?"
"True."
"I'm just trying to understand if he's still not over what happened with Adam," Sam admitted as Kate looked up at him. His profile didn't give a single clue on how he felt about what he was saying, although there was a slight expression of hardness that Kate had never seen on him.
"Can you blame him?" Kate said causing Sam to look at her. "I mean, even though you didn't know about Adam before, this guy was still your little brother, and he was killed by a creature," she noticed how he shifted his gaze and that made her slightly frown as she stopped walking. Sam turned around as he noticed she had stopped walking and he looked at her.
"What's wrong?"
"You're sure you're okay, Sam?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"I dunno. You look kinda…"
"Kinda what?"
"Kinda not okay," she told him, her brown eyes scanning his face with concern. The tall young man let out a light snort as he lowered his head for a moment, before raising his hazel eyes to look into her brown eyes.
"I'm fine, Katie. To be honest with you, you shouldn't be worried about me or even about Dean. Because you look kinda not okay, either," he told her and she looked away, licked her lips and nodded.
"Yeah, that's because I'm not really okay," she told him and his brow wrinkled as he approached her, and stopped right next to the cart. He didn't say a word, hoping she'd just say what was bothering her. But, after a few seconds during which she looked very pensive, she shook her head, raised her head and gave him a weak smile full of kindness before pushing on the cart.
Sam put one hand on the cart, pressuring enough to stop her from pushing it. When she looked up at him with a bit of surprise, he gave her a gentle gaze, "Katie, what's wrong? You know you can tell me anything."
"It's no big deal, Sam, really."
"You're not having those nightmares again, are you?"
Kate shook her head because even though she still had a few of those, she wasn't facing that much aftermath than she used to. In fact, she was facing a different kind of Hell, and this was due to one angel who didn't seem to want to let go of her until he was certain that Dean Winchester played the role he was given. The righteous man who begins it, is the only one who can stop it. She still had doubts on what she might be asked to do if Dean didn't carry his role out. But, deep down, she couldn't help but think that Dean might be too broken to succeed. And, this was worrying her, although she didn't know what worried her exactly. Was she worried that Dean would do whatever Heaven was going to ask him to do, which she was sure wasn't going to be neither nice nor pretty, or was she worried that Dean would not be strong enough to do it, and she would have to replace him?
"So what is it?" Sam pulled her out of her thoughts.
"Nothing, just worrying about the seals, you know," she lied as she looked up at him and tried to look as convincing as possible.
"You know, you don't have to worry about that. It has nothing to do with you," he told her and she gave him a little nod before she averted her eyes to the check-outs.
"I better go stand in line before too much people come," she said and he nodded as he let go of the cart and she went over the check-out. He watched her, a deep concern filling him as he was sure that there was still something else bothering her.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Bobby Singer's.
When Sam and Kate came back at Bobby's, they quickly put all of the grocery away as the old man received quite a lot of phone calls from other hunters. After a few minutes, Sam and Kate knew that Dean was finally awake when they heard the shower from the second floor starting to run.
While Sam and Kate were trying to decide what to cook for lunch, the doorbell rang. The brown head who was standing in the middle of the living room while Sam was sitting on a chair right in front of Bobby's desk, started to walk towards the front door when Bobby stopped her.
"That must be Matt," Kate said causing Sam to look up at her as the old hunter wasn't in the living room anymore. Sam didn't know that she knew he was coming along. "He called last night, and said he'll come over."
"Yeah, um, he called Bobby this morning too," he told her and she frowned.
"No one told me."
"You didn't say he called you either," he said and she looked at him, understanding suddenly that something was up. "He said there was something important we had to know." Kate stared at him when Bobby's voice appeared.
"As long as you bring lunch and beers here, you'll always be more than welcome," Bobby was saying as he walked in the living room with a couple of brown bags that he put down on the coffee table.
"Thanks! I appreciate the warm hospitality that you always offer me so kindly, Bobby," Matt said as he arrived right in front of the doorway. "Hey guys."
When Kate looked at the blue-eyed hunter holding a six pack in one hand as he bent down to put his bag down on the floor, she realized that there was no need to delay the announcement of Matt's discovery anymore. And, even though Zachariah had told her not to leave this universe before Dean achieved his destiny, she knew she could still work on this summoning spell. The only spell that would guarantee her a way back to her own universe.
"Matt found a way to send me back home," she blurted out, before quickly spinning around to look at Sam and Bobby stared at her, both agape.
The right instant when the words left her lips, she realized how wrong they sounded; especially the last word. Home. But, she knew that she had to do the right thing. And, that was the right thing do. But, then again why didn't she feel that way?
A few minutes later.
Kate kept her hands tightly pressed in between her legs as she was sitting on the couch, her eyes looking at the wooden floor when Matt finished telling Bobby and Sam what they had found out back in Maine. Kate hadn't wanted to go too much on the recounting, so Matt had simply taken the lead to continue.
"Alright," Bobby said after a moment of silence. He was leaning against the edge of his desk, his arms folded against his chest as he watched Matt who was sitting on a chair nearby the doorway leading to the kitchen, while Sam was still sitting on the same seat in front of Bobby's desk. "So, what else do you need to summon this entity?"
"A couple of things. But, I've already asked Rufus to bring them along later," Matt replied as he stood up and walked towards his bag. "Actually, the thing that was supposed to be the hardest to find was a pure Jadeite crystal, and I've already managed to get one."
"A Jadeite crystal?" Sam asked as he watched the blue-eyed hunter returning to his seat with his bag.
"Yep. I suppose the summoning needed something pure and rare to make it all very hard to achieve," Matt said as he opened his bag and ruffled through it until he got out a little brownish bag that looked like a typical hexbag. "But, I guess no one planned for someone like me to be looking for it," he continued as he untied the little bag and took out the shiny precious stone that was barely bigger than a tiny clementine. "Here we go. Three millions of dollars in between my fingers."
Kate looked up to Matt who was holding up the green stone in between his forefinger and his thumb, when Sam decided to ask Kate a question as he stared at her.
"Why didn't you want to tell us?"
The young woman turned her brown head towards him, the expression on her face mirroring the almost puppy dog face he was giving her.
"I don't know," she whispered, looking away for a moment before meeting his hazel eyes again. "It seemed so unreal that we finally found a way to send me back ho - back to my universe."
"Is that all, Kate?" Bobby asked, pulling Kate's attention to him. "Is that all you've kept from us?"
"Yes," she replied. 'No.'
"You're sure there's nothing else?" He asked her as she held the eye contact with the old man that had been so good with her.
"Yes, there's nothing else," she told him. 'There's too much.'
Kate hated lying, but she had no other choice. If she told them all the other things she kept from them, they were all going to get tortured by Zachariah, and she didn't want this to happen. As strong as she wanted to believe in the fact that God would help her stand up against Zachariah, she had quickly realized that this belief was a simple waste of time and energy. And if God truly existed in this universe, he was on the angels' side and not on the humans'; even less so on hers.
"So, I was thinking we should perform the spell tonight. What do you think?" Matt said, causing Kate to snap her head at him.
"What?" She asked, surprised. "To-tonight?"
"Yeah. Rufus doesn't know yet what those things I asked him to bring here, are. But, he still said he's bringing them along later on today."
"Yeah, he called me earlier to tell me he was gonna be here around six," Bobby confirmed Matt's words.
"So, does that mean that if we perform that spell tonight, Kate will… Kate will be sent back tonight?" Sam asked, looking back and forth at Bobby and Matt.
"According to Lovecraft, the Opener of the Way can be called upon by mortals who want to ask him a favour, and when those favours prove to be right and fair, he's more likely to accept and fulfil them," Matt explained as he put the Jadeite stone back in the little bag which he put down on the coffee table.
Kate stared at Matt, not knowing what to say. She hadn't thought that when he'd come today, he would have already planned on summoning that entity. She had even less thought that he'd try to send her back right away. Of course, she knew that he wasn't trying to get rid of her, but he was only trying to send her back to her own universe as soon as possible. Besides, with this upcoming Apocalypse, Matt had showed a sincere desire to send her back to her safe universe before she got more in danger; just as much as Bobby and the Winchester brothers.
"So, yeah, I suppose tonight is the night," Matt said as he turned his greyish blue eyes towards the brunette who already had the eyes of Sam and Bobby settled on her.
"Tonight is the night for what?" A rough familiar voice appeared from the doorway leading to the hallway and the staircase. Everyone turned their attention to the hunter with bright apple green eyes, who was standing there in his holed jeans and a red opened shirt covering a black tee-shirt, his dirty blond hair darkened as it was still wet from the shower he had just gotten out of.
"Katie," Sam started before he cleared his throat as he looked up at his brother who stared at him. "She's going back to her universe tonight."
Author's note:
Why do I feel like this chapter is too messy…? I spent quite a long time wondering if I should change anything, but every time I tried to change something (even the slightest) I ended up creating an even messier text… Truth be told, this part didn't come out exactly the way I wanted it to be. I wanted to give Kate some random, fun time with the Winchesters and Bobby before announcing her departure, but for some reason, my fingers didn't want me to control them as they typed down this whole chapter and gave just one fun moment… But, I guess in some way it isn't a really bad one, is it? Anyways, I'm kinda relieved to have this chapter finally out because it was one of the two that I had to finish writing before focusing on the chapters that I had already written ages ago and that only need some editing. You know what this means, right? An update to come very soooon!
Alright, so now I wanna thank you dear readers for being so awesome! I don't know if you have any idea how amazing you are? You make me smile all day long with your beautiful support and if I could reach out to you, I would hug you all very tightly!
I'm going to reply to the latest reviews, but know that it doesn't mean I haven't read those other reviews full of sweetness and awesomeness. Because I did, and they made my day too, so thanks :)
Bjq: Thank you for reviewing! I know you hope that Kate is going to decide to stay, but as you can see things are pretty complicated for her now. She's a bit torn, because she started to care very much about all those people from this universe, and she doesn't really have anything that she wants to go back to in her universe… So, yeah it's gonna be pretty interesting, I hope you'll like what will happen ;)
Isabella Poulous: Actually, I hadn't realized how long it was until I posted that chapter, but who cares, right? Haha. Does that sound weird if I say that I was happy you shed a tear for Kate? I mean, that's actually one of the best way to tell me that I wrote Kate well enough to build up a sincere emotion within someone, so really thanks :) I feel like I tend to over-dramatize a lot in my story, but the thing is that I'm really trying to imagine how an episode of Supernatural would have turned out if my original character would have been in the show. And, well I'm pretty sure they would have done a lot of things to make us sympathize with the character and even shed a tear ;). As for delving some more into her past, it's the same thing: I'm trying to delving as much as it would have been in an actual episode. But, in the same time I try to give a bit of information about her once in a while. I like when you get to know a character one step at a time, so this is what's happening. (Same for Matt) Thanks for reviewing!
Klandgraf2007: Thank you for reviewing and welcome here! I hope you're gonna keep on loving it more and more ;)
Emily: Aww thank you ! I'm happy that you like my grasping on the characters because it's really one of the hardest thing! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reviewing :)
Jules: Yep, English is not my native language! But, writing a story in this language is one of the best ways I found to learn even more words and ways to manipulate them into a sentence. So yeah, I use my love of the show to improve my English while letting my imagination release itself, so it's really a win-win situation for me. Thank you for your review and I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. (Next one you'll get more reactions from all the characters).
Guest: I guess you're not that guest that used to review on the previous chapters, right? Anyways, I'm happy you found this story awesome. And I just laughed so much at your second review 'Why is Sam being snubbed?...' Hahaha. And I really need to explain myself on this review because you just said the same thing than one of my friends who read my work every time I'm done. So, aside from the fact that I'm a Dean girl, when I had the idea of writing this story I truly wanted Dean to have the girl I think he deserves. But when I started writing this story, I started to re-watching the fourth season of the show very seriously (pausing at some scenes, replaying a scene a couple of times,…) in order to not only manage rewriting the dialogues, but also to grasp as much of the characters features and emotions from that time of the show as possible. Since I'm watching season 10 sorta in the same time, I didn't want to mess up by mixing their emotions of season 10 with the ones they had six seasons ago. But, by doing so, I found myself liking Sam more and more… Like really like Sam. I'm still a Dean girl, but damn that little Sammy is too cute and sexy all at once, he's confusing me! Haha. So yeah, it obviously showed up a little bit in my writing which makes people want Sam and Kate to end up together… And that caused me to feel so guilty towards Dean. So yeah, while writing this story, I also feel very bad for friend-zoning Sam, but I'm trying to keep my focus on Dean. And maybe, I'll write another story about Sam getting the girl, who knows? So yeah, that's it. Thank you for reviewing and making me laugh so much!
Wolfenergy17: Yeah, English is still not my native language haha! You are such a sweetheart to leave me such a sweet and full of understanding review, thank you so much :)! Because, yeah like you just pointed it out, I'm not being paid for any of this, but truth be told, reviews like yours or others are better than any check! They make my day and they give me some real confidence in me that I can write something pretty good that makes some people enjoy. I enjoy writing this story even though life gets so crazy sometimes that I struggle to get my inspiration back or even to have some time to write… But, reading reviews like yours has the power to make me realize that my sorta creative writing is supposed to stay a fun time, and posting is sharing my fun time with people out there. So yeah, I wanna thank you again for your review and I truly hope you enjoyed this (messy) chapter. I can't wait to post the next chapter and read your review :)
Thank you to each and every one of you, and be safe out there,
A.