Ok, so this is the last chapter. Big thanks to EmSyd, seemingly my one and only fan, I posted the final part of this just for you! it doesn't seem fair to leave you wondering! R&R if you like.
Chapter 9: Revelations
Eve decided that the hospital was just too creepy at night. She was not normally easily spooked, but this night in this place was weird. There was a distant crash and she flinched, moving into the shadow of a dark, open doorway before moving on. She reached Dean's room quickly, certain of the direction. He was asleep and she wondered if the nurses had been exaggerating when they had said that he would not sleep. She was about to turn to leave when she heard a tortured moan from the bed. She froze and looked back at him, forcing herself to remember that she was not dealing with the Dean Winchester that she knew so well, this Dean did not hide his pain so easily.
She made her way to the bed quietly, seeing his lips move.
"Don't you let it kill me," she heard him whisper, barely audible, and she thought back to what Sam and John had told her, it was surprisingly little she realised, she did not even know if the demon had been in its true form or if it had possessed one of them. "Dad, please." It was almost the sound of Dean begging and to hear this strong man do that broke her heart. She could not stand to let it continue any longer and she took his hand in hers.
"Shhhhh, Dean, it's ok, it's a dream," she whispered, squeezing his hand gently, "just a dream." He came awake with a startled jolt and he stared at her for a long moment, as though trying to figure out who she was.
"Eve?" He questioned.
"Well who else would be stupid enough to sneak into the hospital at this time of the night?" She demanded. He grinned weakly at her and she felt her heart break again. "Oh, Dean," she sat next to him, "what is it that keeps you afraid to sleep?" He looked away from her, silent. "You'll have to tell me, if you don't I'll ask tomorrow when I come back with your Dad and Sam, I guarantee that they won't let it drop if I'm there."
"Not Dad, I can't face him. I shouldn't be so damn weak."
"You aren't." He laughed miserably.
"How much do you know about what happened to put me in here?" He demanded. "I'll bet that its only what Dad wanted to tell you, I'll bet that he left out all the things that he didn't want you to know." The bitterness in his voice worried her.
"To be honest I was too concerned about you to ask, I assumed that John would tell me when he was ready." Another bitter laugh.
"I killed two people, Eve, two innocent people to get to the demons that were possessing them, I had a chance to end it all and I couldn't, Sam had a chance to end it and I wouldn't let him." Then he told her everything, every detail, even the words of the thing that had possessed his father and to his surprise, tears rolled freely down her cheeks as he spoke. His bitterness faded slowly and by the time he told her about stopping Sam from shooting their father, he was shedding his own tears.
"Oh, Dean," she said then as they clung to each other, "I had no idea, I'm so, so, sorry."
"It's not your fault, Dad should have told you."
"Maybe,"both fell silent, simply taking comfort in each others nearness. "You know that nothing that it said was true, don't you?" Eve asked finally.
"I don't know, the bit about my family not needing me the way that I need them seemed to be pretty accurate."
"Not true, they need you."
"Yeah, because they both just up and left me. So did you, so did..." He stopped and looked away.
"Who?"
"No one," she looked up at him and her expression made him tell her. "Cassie."
"Who's Cassie? Should I be jealous?" She tried to lift the atmosphere of the room, he barely smiled.
"No, there was a time when... well, when I thought that I could be with her, but she couldn't accept me for who I was."
"You told her what we do?"
"Yeah, she freaked out, kicked me out, I actually thought that she would be ok with it. Stupid, huh?" His arms tightened around her and she snuggled closer, feeling so peaceful and so at ease with him in this moment. "You left me too, I remember it all now, I even remember why you left. Do you still think that you were right?"
"Maybe, Davian probably wouldn't have sent the vampire after you if I hadn't shown up."
"What do you mean?"
"I... well... I haven't been entirely honest with you all, it's really complicated. I don't want to try to tell it twice..." she looked up at him, fear and confusion was written all over his face. She took a deep breath and plunged into her confession. "I'm not entirely human, I'm... it's hard, I never thought that I would have to tell you... it's gonna sound nuts, I'm the child of an Angel, an honest to God, real Angel." Dean stared at her in total silence for a long time. "Dean, please, say something."
"What do you want me to say? Congratulations? How long have you been lying to us?" He pulled away from her.
"I never lied, I never told you that I was that werewolf's daughter, you just assumed it. I didn't find out until I was sixteen, do you have any idea how terrified I was? Do you know what I thought that you would do to me when you found out?"
"So why tell me?" His voice was sullen and she could see a measure of fear and distrust in his eyes that she had never wanted to see there.
"Because three days ago I did something that I never thought I could do, I nearly took an innocent life. I did it to save you and Sam and even your dad. The worst of it is, it wasn't a knife, or a gun, it came from within me, this overwhelming power and it scared me." She was almost in tears. "I'm so scared of it, I have no control over it, it just comes out when you are in danger, I turn into this other person, this person that doesn't feel or care about the incidental circumstances, all it wants is to wipe out any and all demons, even their hosts if need be. I'm so frightened that one day it may lead me to do something drastic." She broke down and he pulled her close to him, enveloping her in his arms. As he held her he realised that despite her confession, she was still Eve. She had not changed in anyway, she had been this person all her life, he even had some idea about this second, powerful, personality, it had made an appearance on occasion when they had hunted together. It was possibly even the reason that she had been able to fight off the Devil's Milk enhanced possession during their last encounter. Little things that had made no sense at the time had now fallen into place, they made sense, because he now realised that the angel part of her had always been there just below the surface, just waiting for a chance to be free, for just a moment, to help them. This Angel part of her was as much a part of that he loved as the human half, it made her stronger.
"Dean, I..."
"Shh, it's ok. I understand why you couldn't tell us," he stroked her hair gently. "Hell, I even understand why you were so frightened of getting close to me, in case I found out, but why would your being the daughter of an Angel mean that the demon would send the vampire after me?"
"Because my presence blocks the sense of yours and your family, for about two hundred miles, it stops the demon from knowing where you are. He sent Kate because she had your scent, she would be able to find you even if I was nearby. I'm sorry Dean, I should have told you sooner." They were lying together now, Eve's head was rested on his chest as she spoke quietly. Dean rested his chin against the top of her head and sighed. "Your dad won't like this will he?" She asked then.
"I don't know," he admitted, wrapping his arm around her. She wriggled closer to him and made a small noise of content, then sat up when she heard movement outside his room.
"Dammit, Dean, I better go. If they catch me here..."
"I know," she could hear the disappointment in his voice even if he was trying not to show it.
"I'll be back later, I promise, try to get some sleep."
"I'll try."
The last thing that Eve wanted to do was tell John Winchester the truth about her father, it had been hard enough telling Dean and she had known that he would forgive her practically anything, Dean was like that sometimes. John, on the other hand, may well never forgive her for keeping this from him. She knew that Pastor Jim and Caleb were dead, she knew that Meg had killed them to get to John and his boys, and she suspected that John would blame her for it, especially when he found out that she had only been fifty miles away at the time, Meg had been trying to draw him out of Eve's circle of influence and it had worked like a charm. Part of her strongly regretted leaving the boys and their father to deal with the demon alone, part of her knew that they would have wanted to do it alone. As far as they were concerned, the demon was not a part of her fight, it was their revenge and she respected that.
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The sun was rising as she pulled into the parking lot at the motel and she unlocked the door to her room with a twinge of reluctance. By coming back to the motel and back to her surrogate family, she had sealed her fate. She had to tell John the truth and she had to tell him and Sam before they got to the hospital, she knew that John was not going to react well. She flung her small travelers bag on the bed and began to strip off as she kicked the door closed with a foot, walking towards the bathroom as she shed her jeans, then stepping into a long hot shower, trying to wash away the stress and fear of the last week. After nearly an hour, she became aware of the increasing coolness of the water and a banging on the door to her room. She switched off the shower and pulled a towel around her before going to the door and opening it.
"John!" She knew that she should not have been surprised but she was.
"When did you get back?" He asked in reply, not seeming to notice that she was only wearing a towel and that water was pooling around her feet.
"About an hour ago," she studied his face carefully, he looked tired and worn, lines and shadows that had not been there when she had left were no prominent. "Look, I need to get dressed, but when I'm done, you, me and Sam need to have a bit of a talk." She saw him shy away from the idea. "It's important, John, trust me." She winced inside as she said it, knowing how angry he would be when he realised that she had deceived him for the last eleven years. He nodded and walked away and she breathed a sigh of relief, even though she knew that the hardest part was still to come.
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The three were sat in Sam and John's room, Eve fiddled nervously with the zip of her jacket, unable to look either of them in the eye. Both had been silent since she had told them the truth about her father and she was finding the suspense difficult to take. Finally Sam spoke.
"Does Dean know?" Just like him to think of his brother first.
"He knows, I told him last night." She confessed quietly in reply. John rose and grabbed his coat, " John..."
"I need to think about what you just told me, I need to take a walk." He did not look at her or Sam and Eve felt, in some obscure way, like she had betrayed him. The slam of the room's door brought her abruptly back to her senses and she looked at Sam warily, half expecting him to begin yelling. When he did not she buried her head in her hands.
"Eve?" He sounded genuinely concerned and she looked up again, her heart in her eyes.
"What am I gonna do, Sammy? If your dad's acting like this over..."
"Finding out that you lied to us for eleven years," he finished.
"I didn't lie, Sam, I omitted a few details that you didn't need to know, now you do and he can't handle it? God knows he's kept things from us in the past."
"This was dangerous, Eve, what if this thing had come out when we were hunting, or worse, in a public place, you already said that you can't control it!"
"I'm learning, Sam. That's not the worst of it. Dean told me why he can't sleep, he remembers, Sam, he remembers everything."
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Silence was the hardest thing to tolerate. When his family were not with him, Dean found the relative silence unbearable. The nurses came and went, he walked slowly around his room, waiting for them to come, it always seemed to be an eternity. Today it seemed like longer and Dean knew that Eve was telling the others her deepest secret, the one that she had felt was so terrible. He glanced at the clock, looked at the wallet lying next to his bed, the one that had the right fake I.D. and the right credit card in there. If her remembered correctly he had only used it once, so there was plenty on there to max it out and leave. His father did not want Dean to leave until he was fully recovered. Dean felt that this time he wanted to leave on his own terms. He wanted out of the hospital and if that meant disobeying his father, then so be it. He was leaving and no one could stop him.
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John had not yet returned from his walk, Eve and Sam could only conclude that he had taken her news harder than they had first thought. Eve looked at her watch for the fourth time in as many minutes and sighed.
"Dean's going to be waiting," she quietly reminded Sam. He grinned tightly at her. "I'm serious, Sam, he'll worry." As much as Sam hated to admit that she was right, he could see her point. Dean may never admit to worrying about them, but he would all the same.
"We should go," he replied, though she could see that he was not entirely thrilled with the idea of going without his father. She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, about to speak when they heard a knock on the door. Each looked at the other, neither able to think who it could possibly be. Sam opened the door as looked around it cautiously.
"Dean!"
"What?" Eve pulled the door out of Sam's hand so that she could also see the tired man who stood there. Dean pushed his way past them into the room. "What the hell are you doing here?" She demanded angrily.
"I was tired of waiting in the hospital."
"Nurses not hot enough for you?" Sam jibed.
"I didn't notice," Dean replied, looking right at Eve as he did. "I thought that you would be happy to see me out."
"I am," she reached up and touched his cheek, trembling slightly, "but didn't your dad say that he wanted you to stay in the hospital until you were recovered?"
"Screw that," it was a little out of character for Dean, but Eve could understand that, he had spent two months in a coma, lost his memory, and realised that his family had deliberately kept things from him, and from this unusual woman in front of him.
"Oh, Dean," she hugged him tightly and he did not shy away from the emotionally charged moment, "it's so good to see you out of there, I missed you."
"Yeah, me too," he tilted her face up and leant in to kiss her. They were interrupted by a cough from Sam. They flinched away from each other and Eve blushed furiously for a moment. The youngest Winchester laughed softly.
"I'm going to find Dad, you two might want to go to Eve's room to continue this."
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Eve raised her head from the pillow, trying to figure out what the warm presence behind her, in the bed, was. She thought for a moment before an arm draped over her and she remembered. Dean was in the bed with her, they had finally gotten to this point and this place. She frowned, trying to figure out what had woken her up. There was a loud bang on the door and she realised that someone was trying to get in.
With a groan she rolled out of bed and pulled on a robe before yanking the door open.
"John!"
"Where is he?" The man demanded. "Where the hell is he?"
"In bed, sleeping," it was dark outside now and Eve wondered how long it had taken Sam to find his father. She also wondered what had possessed her to tell John that he was here with her.
"I'm sorry?" She saw his eyes narrow slightly and she knew that it had definitely been a mistake. She opened her mouth to try and reply when she sensed Dean behind her and turned to look at him. He wore his boxers and had pulled on a black t-shirt.
"Dad," he greeted the man warily.
"Dean, what the hell are you doing?"
"Something for me for a change," he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, a very possessive gesture. Eve leant back into his embrace, feeling strangely safe, even though she knew that he was not strong enough yet to protect her.
"She's your sister!"
"You raised her, mom didn't give birth to her! You never told us to act like she was our sister anyway!"Eve stayed silent, knowing that this was something that the two men needed to fight out.
"Eve, I can't believe that you..."
"Don't lay this on me, John, we're adults, we can make our own decisions!" Something in her tone made him take a step back and look closely at them.
"You want this?" John's voice was subdued, and his eyes flickered from his son to his foster daughter. "Both of you?"
"Yes, sir," they both replied, Eve quietly and Dean with a little more force than was really necessary. John simply stared, unable to think of what to say. Then he turned back to his original reason for trying to break down Eve's door.
"What are you doing out of hospital?" He demanded then. Eve felt Dean shrug.
"I got bored," she slapped his chest lightly and he planted a kiss on the top of her head, not afraid to show his love for her in front of his father.
"You were supposed to stay there until the Doctors felt you were fit enough to leave."
"They kept me because I wasn't sleeping. Eve helps me sleep." He shrugged again and Eve felt herself blush. John hung his head briefly.
"Well, since you're out... I've got a lead on the thing that did this, I'm going after it."
"Dad!"
"John, no!"
"I have too, you'll be alright now. The impala is being repaired, it will be ready in a couple of days. Take some time, recuperate."
"John..."
"Eve, please, I know you have a house on the coast, take the boys there, please." She nodded silent, afraid. She could feel Dean tense, angry. He wrapped his other arm around her waist and she took his hand in her own, squeezing it, trying to calm him with that gesture. She felt him relax slightly, just enough that she knew that he would not lose control of his temper. John did not say anymore, it did not have too. At least this time they knew that he had gone. This time he had said goodbye. Eve only hoped that he lived long enough to come back to them.
Fin.
Ok, so there is actually another part to this, it was supposed to be a trilogy, the next story deals with Eve's Angel descent and crosses with season two a lot more, as well as some more family history. But then again, don't really know if I should post it... give me your thoughts, please, pretty please, because it would be nice to know! To those who did read (even if you didn't review) Thank you.
Artemis