September 19th, 2008
Work sucks, Lizzy thinks as she gets dressed for the early shift at the bar. She loved her job, but some days it felt like such a heavy burden to pretend to be normal and happy. Today was one of those days.
Luckily she got in some time at the self-defense center that morning and did what she could to beat away the pain of yesterday. She still isn't sure if she's going nuts or what, but that voice over the phone still haunts her. It was him, she knows it, but was it real is the true question.
She drops her new cell phone into her purse and makes a mental note to call both Bobby and Sam tonight. They must be worried about her after not getting a hold of her on such a difficult day.
Boobs pushed up and in full effect (for the assurance of good tips, of course), she pulls on her v-neck black t-shirt followed by tight, light blue jeans. She's just about to put on her red cowboy boots when the doorbell rings. Certainly not expecting company, Lizzy leaves her boots on the floor of her bedroom and flies down the stairs. Just being able to make out the trucker hat through the stained glass window of the door, she forgoes reaching into the small bureau by the entrance for a weapon and hurriedly unlocks the front door.
"Bobby!" Lizzy smiles widely and jumps up onto him in a tight hug. He is standing ready for her in the screened-in porch. He shouldn't be startled by her excited reaction as she's always been over the top with her emotions, both good and bad, but he still is. It's been so long since they've seen each other that they're elated to do so now.
"Hi Lizzy," Bobby grins right back. Sure, there are some serious matters at hand, but he takes a moment to enjoy seeing her. He's missed her terribly, even though they talk all the time on the phone. It wasn't the same as actually seeing her.
"I've missed you, man!" Lizzy tells him brightly as she lets go and looks up at the bearded man she sees as a father.
"You too, kiddo. You know that. How are you?"
"Getting ready for work," she tells him.
"You look good… a little too thin though," he observes. He worries that she hasn't been eating. For her, not eating is about as serious a sign as anything.
"Well, you know…" she waves off, not wanting to get into that discussion right away. Happy greetings now, fatherly advice and guilt-trips later.
"Lizzy, we need to talk." Bobby's face turns serious and Lizzy's stomach drops.
"Aw crap. Shoulda known you wouldn't come all this way just to say hey. What's wrong?" Lizzy wonders as she backs up through the doorway to let him in. At the same moment, someone opens the porch door and walks through, causing Lizzy's eyes to bulge out of their sockets. She's stock still, heart immediately racing, sure now that she's really going insane with what she sees.
"L," Dean calls to her and stands in place a couple feet from the front entrance, waiting for her reaction. He knows people will need a moment to adjust to seeing him as he's supposed to be in hell, so he gives her time. He'd be freaked to high hell too.
"I'm so fucked," Lizzy whispers to Bobby without taking her eyes off of Dean. "I'm seeing Dean right now, Bobby. Shit, I'm going crazy for good." Her face twists with the realization that she's slowly descending into madness and presses her palm to her forehead.
"Lizzy, it's me," Dean quietly says while cautiously taking a step toward her. He just wants to run to her, hold her, but he knows he can't. He'll either traumatize her or she'll kick his ass thinking it isn't actually him.
"No fucking way," she responds, backing up to the bureau she now regrets forgoing moments before.
"Lizzy, hon, it's really him," Bobby tries to calmly explain while walking through the door and reaching for her.
"That's impossible," she whispers, lip quivering and tears threatening. "Who the fuck are you!" she yells suddenly while aiming the gun she stealthfully grabbed from its hiding place by the door between the look-a-like's eyes. There is no way it's him.
"Jesus, Lizzy," Bobby says as he reaches for the gun. Lizzy pushes him away and Bobby hits the wall of the foyer with some force. She may not have been hunting, but she kept up on some things. Her strength and agility just happened to be some of those things.
"Whatever you are, you're gonna regret taking that fucking form, you piece of shit," Lizzy threatens, aim retrained.
"L, calm down. I promise, it's me," Dean takes two more slow, extremely cautious steps forward.
"Yeah, well I have about eight silver bullets in this fucking bitch that say differently," Lizzy remarks while taking off the safety. "What the fuck are you?" she demands in a loud, stern voice.
"L... don't make me do this," Dean says as he reaches out, ready to do what he must to ensure his own safety. He clearly has to stop her from doing something stupid. Making quick eye contact with Bobby, he shakes the older hunter off. He can handle this one on his own.
"Don't call me that you son of a bitch," Lizzy warns as tears start to fall and her heart aches when she hears the nickname again. She closes her eyes briefly with the emotional pain and it's then that Dean takes advantage. He quickly reaches out and takes the gun from her. Tossing it to Bobby quickly, his eyes leave her for a split second and she pounces on the opportunity. She strikes fast, hitting him with the open heel of her palm squarely in the side of his ribs like she had practiced with Mike.
"Fuck off or I'll make you regret not listening," she warns, taking a ready stance that tells Dean she's kept up on her skills… and informs him of the ass whooping he's about to receive.
"Lizzy, c'mon!" he gasps out, holding a hand to his side where she hit him. "I swear it's me!"
"Bullshit!" she yells, taking another swing but before she can land the blow he ducks to avoid it and quickly grasps her wrists, attempting to restrain her.
"Let go!" she demands, looking to Bobby for help and gets nothing in return. "Really!" she shouts to the older man, upset that Bobby is falling for whatever game this creature is playing. She's on her own and she knows it now.
"I ran the tests!" Bobby shouts to reassure her. "Silver, holy water, salt, the whole nine. It's Dean!"
"Lizzy, stop it! Listen to me!" Dean shouts out and fights against her. Accepting that her arms are now useless, she brings her right leg to the side and sweeps it under him with all the power she could muster, striking the back of his knees and making them buckle. Dean lands hard on his back on the hardwood flooring and Lizzy falls with him as he never let go of his hold on her wrists. Crashing on top of him, she moves hurriedly, sitting atop his chest and yanking her elbows behind her as hard as she can. He can't keep his hold on her with the forceful movement and her arms are freed.
"Now I'm sure you're not him," she quips while landing a punch just to the side of his left eye. Dean groans with the pain as his head whips to the side and before he can regain his wits Lizzy has his arms pinned to his sides underneath her knees. She puts her full weight on his forearms, digging them into the floor and ensuring that he isn't going anywhere while she reaches out for a knife from the small set of drawers she grabbed her gun from. "Dean would never underestimate me like you just did. Now, you're fucked."
"Lizzy, knock it off," Bobby yells while running over, locking his arms around her and preventing her from taking up the silver knife she was reaching for. "It's Dean! Our Dean!" He pulls her off of him until she's standing and forces her to face him. "Don't you trust me!"
"With my life!" she shouts back in all honesty. "But I don't trust that thing!" She points to the floor where she had just left Dean's twin and realizes it is now empty. The… whatever it is… is now standing and pulling her from Bobby's grasp. Dean pushes her backwards by her shoulders until she hits the stairs, losing her balance as she does and falling back until she's seated on the second to last one. Dean drops to his knees in front of her and grabs her upper arms, forcing her to stay seated and look him in the eye.
"Shit," she sobs out as their eyes meet. It's his beautiful green eyes that look back at her and her heart can't take any more. It's been miserable and impossible enough. This is too much. "Just get it over with."
"What?" Dean asks with confusion, searching her face for answers.
"Just fucking kill me already," she cries. "I give up."
"L…"
"It's too fucking much, I can't do this anymore!" she says while breaking down completely. "Go ahead. Do me the favor."
The painful show is too damn much to handle. Dean cups her face gently in his hands and looks at her. "Look in my eyes and tell me that you don't see me, the real me." He challenges her, makes her actually see him, but it does nothing. She just sobs harder when she really takes in the sight of him. He tries again. "L, I love you," he says quietly before moving in to kiss her. The second their lips meet, Lizzy jumps at the contact, the familiar, heated, loving contact she knows better than anything else in the world. Dean pulls away, not wanting to overdo it. Her breathing is erratic and her mouth is dropped open with shock.
"Oh my God," she sighs out between sobs. "It's you."
"I've been trying to tell you," Dean says with a small smile.
Lizzy grabs the back of his head and pulls him back in, kissing him desperately. This is real, it's all real. He's here. He came back to her.
"It's you!" she shouts again and wraps her arms around his neck, clutching to him and letting the wonderful feeling overcome her. She cries for the millionth time this year, but for once she cries with complete and utter happiness. She shakes in his arms, defeated by her emotions.
"You were always with me," he tells her with his face buried in her neck. His own tears fall when he himself is overwhelmed by the moment. Forty years of sheer torture and he'd do it again as long as he could be with her. "I never stopped thinking about you. Never."
"Me neither," she continues to sob and keeps her iron clad hold on him, not willing to let go for even a second, fearful that this isn't real. "Not once." She pushes off of the step and presses into him, both propped up on their knees and arms intertwined. It's awkward and uncomfortable and so necessary.
She backs up just enough to clutch is face in her hands and kiss him again. She couldn't stop herself. The feel of him, it was real, she wasn't crazy after all. "I tried," she confesses between kisses, needing to let him know she did her best to keep that vow she made to him. "So hard… I did, I promise… I just couldn't." She kisses his cheeks, eyelids, freckle-covered nose, everything she always worked so hard to remember clearly.
"Doesn't matter," Dean tells her before pressing his lips to hers. "That doesn't matter, L." She was everything he needed, everything he dreamed about while down there and he knows in his heart that it's the only thing that kept him glued together and at least a little bit human.
Bobby stays quiet and washes a hand down his face to get rid of the evidence. If there were a single man on Earth who wouldn't be completely moved by what he's witnessing, then that was a man without a heart. Good things happening aren't the norm for Bobby, so this, well, this is complete bliss, happiness at its purest, and he's emotional to say the least.
Lizzy crumples to the floor, sitting on the hard wood and sobs out her overjoyed feelings. She reaches up and grabs onto Dean's jacket, and he takes a seat facing her. She leans her head onto his chest and lets his arms encircle her.
"I love you," she tells him again as the sobbing starts to subside a little and Dean smiles for the first time since he dug himself out of the ground. "More than anything. More than life."
"Feels so damn good to hear you say that," Dean tells her, his cheek resting on top of her head, the cherry-vanilla smell of her shampoo making him feel at home just like it used to.
"How?" she asks thought the cloth of his shirt. "How is this happening?" She looks up with her reddened eyes, dark black eyeliner streaking her cheeks. She's baffled, the events being so beyond any form of normal reasoning, or hunter's reasoning for that matter.
"Honestly don't know," he truthfully says. "I was just… suddenly back. No idea who did it or how. Best guess, Sam might of…"
"No!" she interrupts him, shaking her head. "No way. He tried but he couldn't bring you back. Been completely torn up about it since you…."
"Then I got nothing," he says with a furrowed brow.
"Maybe it doesn't matter." She reaches up and runs a hand through his hair and down the side of his face. He leans into her touch involuntarily. "I mean, you're here. Really, actually here. Gift horse, right?"
Dean doesn't answer her, knowing that it does in fact matter a lot why he's back and how it happened. Who knows what could do something like that. It's terrifying to think about because this thing could want him, be after him. The mysterious circumstances around this whole situation are intimidating. But right now, Dean stops and thanks his lucky fucking stars as he pulls her close again and holds her, realizing that this was never supposed to happen. He was never supposed to see her, feel her, or be able to tell her he loves her again. The rest can wait for just a little bit longer.
"Uh, Lizzy?" Dean asks as he stops dead at the top of the stairs. Lizzy, who had led him into the apartment after their emotional reunion and was holding his hand, yanks his arm as she continues to move forward. She stops when he pulls her back to get her attention and now she turns to him with a confused expression.
"What?"
"I don't know…" Dean trails off as he looks around the apartment. Something feels familiar about the place, eerily familiar. "I've been here before?" he questions.
"Doubt it," Lizzy tells him, concern written all over her face with his odd reaction to her new home. "I just moved here."
"No, I know I've been here before," Dean tells her as he turns around, his eyes searching the place frantically. "With dad. Wow! That sounds really weird."
"You sure that hell didn't Gallagher your watermelon?" Bobby asks worried.
"No, Bobby, I'm fine I just… I've seen this place before." Dean closes his eyes with the confusion he's feeling and his memory flashes scenes of himself coming through the downstairs doorway, Lizzy dancing in lingerie, and his father smiling warmly. "Oh shit." Dean rolls his eyes as he puts it all together.
"What?" Lizzy quickly asks, bringing a hand to the side of his face and staring deeply into his eyes, trying the gage what the hell is happening with him. "What is it?"
"You remember that dream?" Dean asks her and he gets a confused look in return. "In your grandmother's house. We both had it."
"Yeah, kind of," Lizzy tells him. "I remember John was in it and it was your birthday."
"And we were here. L, that dream happened here," Dean says with wide eyes. He looks to the open space next to them at the tops of the stairs. "There was a bar right here. And you left me a note and a beer on it."
"Whoa," Lizzy says with shock and brings her hand to her mouth when the memories come back. "Holy shit! And I was in the door way…" she turns to look down the open hallway and points. "Over there, waiting for you to get home!"
"Yes!" Dean exclaims loudly, glad she's on board with him and he isn't losing it.
"What the fuck is going on here?" Bobby questions them both.
"Wish I knew…" Lizzy says. "Although it makes me feel better. When I first came to check the place out I had, like, déjà vu and felt oddly at home instantly. And for some reason unknown to me then, it made me think of you being in here." She looks to Dean with a slight smile.
"Guess dad knew a lot more than he let on, huh?" Dean says. It makes him wonder about the future. In the dream he was living there with her, he had a regular job, they were normal people. Was that something in store for them? Was that where their lives were actually headed? The idea is just too hopeful and Dean pushes it aside.
"I'd say so," Bobby responds, thinking he would love to research what exactly it is these two experienced that can be a look into the future and bring back the dead. Whatever it is, they need to understand it.
"Alright, I'm gonna say we file this one away for a minute," Lizzy says. "Bigger fish to fry right now. And I need to call Sam."
"Yes," Dean says quickly at the mention of his brother. "Call him. Now, please."
Damn it, Sam-I-Am! Answer your phone! 911 dude. Something's happened, something huge. Not telling you over voicemail. We need you. Call me! Love ya'.
Sam ends the call and sighs. Whatever Lizzy has gotten herself into, it sounds bad. And we? Who's we? He begins packing up his things, readying himself to check out and start the long drive to her apartment based on her tone of voice alone. Something is wrong, very wrong. Lizzy hasn't once called on him like this before, not since Dean was gone.
"Where the hell are you off to?" Ruby asks as she walks into the motel room and watches him fly around gathering his things.
"Massachusetts," Sam tells her. "Lizzy called."
"And?"
"She needs me," Sam state simply. "Have to get to her."
"Well, what's going on?"
"Not sure. She didn't say." Sam picks up his fully packed duffel, slings it over his shoulder and reaches for the keys.
"So you're bailing on me so that you can go help Lizzy and you don't even know what she needs help with?" Ruby asks incredulously. "Sam, that's crazy. We're so close to our goal and you need to keep training. You're almost ready and leaving could…"
"Stop," Sam loudly demands. "Doesn't matter. If Lizzy says she needs me, then I'm going."
"What the fuck, Sam!" Ruby shouts as she watches him walk to the door. "Get your priorities straight."
"They're straight, trust me," Sam says in a serious tone. She better tread lightly here.
"This is crazy! She's just the chick that your brother was banging before he went to hell."
"Ruby…" Sam warns but she doesn't take it.
"You act like she's your family or something. Open your eyes Sam! You barely see her or talk to her! I'm the one who's been around, looking after you! You need to be here!"
Sam pauses and turns on his heel, glaring at her as he does. The insulting words that come from her cut deep and make him irate.
"You are way out of line here, Ruby," Sam grits out as he takes three long strides and stand before her, leaning down so their eyes are level and just inches apart. His voice is low and drips with danger as he continues. "You know nothing about Lizzy and who she is to me. And she is my fucking family. Clearly you don't know what that word means."
"So then educate me," Ruby challenges, not backing down from the furious man ten times her size though her eyes betray her. She is a little fearful in the moment.
"Fuck you," Sam tells her off and turns to leave. He grabs the door handle and stops before opening it. "Family isn't defined by just blood. It's defined by love. Lizzy has been there for me without question and without second thought since the day Dean died, no matter how shitty I've been to her in return. I owe her everything. She's my sister, my real sister," Sam says with fire in his words while opening the door. "Now you know."
He slams it forcefully behind him. He's beyond words. Ruby saved his life and has helped him find a way to get his ultimate revenge, but this was not right. She still never knew when to shut her mouth.
Dropping his bag in the trunk first, Sam then gets into the Impala and starts her up. He thinks about calling her back now, but he's too angry to talk. Sam decides to head out, drive for a while and clear his head, before he talks to her. He's on his way anyways. Calling her sooner rather than later won't change much.
"No answer, but he'll call back," Lizzy informs Dean as they sit on her couch, hand in hand and sitting right up against each other, Lizzy with her legs tucked underneath her. They've been constantly connected, not willing to part at all. It just felt way too good to separate themselves. Dean's eyes haven't left hers for more than a couple of seconds at a time, studying her as he tries his best to take her in. It had been forty years without Lizzy and he just can't stop staring, admiring, and making sure he didn't forget a single detail that whole time.
"How do you know?" Dean questions, worried that Sam won't call back soon enough for his impatient liking.
"He always does. And he knows better than to not call me back," Lizzy smiles out slightly while squeezing his hand tighter. She puts her cell phone on the coffee table in front of her and then turns back to Dean, lightly running her fingers over the already bruising spot off to the side of his eye where she clocked him good. "Sorry about hitting you like that."
"It's fine," Dean smiles. "If you didn't attack like you did, I'd be disappointed in you."
Lizzy laughs quietly, knowing how true his words are. She knows he must have expected to get a little roughed up.
"Thank you for doing what you could with Sam, L," Dean says with all sincerity. "I know it hasn't been easy on either of you, but I really appreciate that you got him to keep in contact."
"Guilt's a hell of a thing," Bobby comments from the recliner he's sitting in. "Still don't know what you did or said to that boy, but ya' got through to him. S'all that matters."
"Just told him the truth. He was all I had left beside you, Bobby, and I wasn't willing to lose him," Lizzy looks down at her hand intertwined with Dean's. "Plus, I promised him to not nag and pry too much. He needed space and I gave it. Over time I proved I was telling the truth and he trusted me completely."
"What's he been up to then?" Dean wonders.
"Wouldn't know," she partially lies to him and Dean's face twists with worry. She knows he's after Lilith, Dean probably does too, but she waits for Sam to have that conversation. She doesn't want to speak for him. Lizzy leans over and kisses Dean quickly, looking to help ease his mind, but the fire behind their embrace rears its head. That desire is still there, that crazy connection as Dean had once called it, and they're only holding back because of their father-figure sitting in the corner.
"Bobby?" Dean breaks in when they end their very quick but very passion filled kiss. "Do you think I could have some time with Lizzy to talk? Some things I need to tell her and it's kinda weird with dad in the room." He shares a lopsided smile and hopes he isn't being too obvious.
Bobby's formerly concerned look melts into a loving one at Dean's words. He referred to him as dad and that was something else to hear. Granted he meant it in an overbearing, half-insulting, let-us-kids-be-kids kind of way, but still it was nice to hear.
"I'll go grab some dinner or something… maybe stop by that bar and let them know you aren't coming in?" Bobby suggests to Lizzy.
"Shit, that's right," Lizzy says, remembering she was supposed to be at work in about two minutes. "Thanks Bobby. I appreciate that." She really did adore his kind gesture, though she's sure that she'll lose her job over this. Oh well, she can sling booze somewhere else. This is much, much more important right now.
"Alright, see you kids in a little bit," Bobby waves as he leaves the room. Once they hear the front door close, they practically launch themselves onto each other, not willing or able to hold back any longer.
"Thank fucking God," Lizzy lets outs while she scrambles onto Dean's lap, her hands reaching to the back of his head and her lips colliding onto his while she adjusts herself so that she had a knee on each side of his hips. Keeping her need at bay was getting pretty damn difficult and getting Bobby out of her apartment was all she had wanted but didn't have the heart to do.
"What you said," Dean sighs out while looking up into Lizzy's eyes and pulling her down to kiss her again. He doesn't deserve this at all, he's well aware, but in the moment it's pretty hard to find that guilt he's supposed to be experiencing. After thirty years of pain and horror maybe he did earn this moment, he thinks briefly while trying to justify his actions. Lizzy hums her love and want against his lips and the internal battle gets easier. But still, the whole thing nags at him.
"Hey," Lizzy stops and looks at him, sensing something is very off. "What's wrong?"
Unsure of how to answer her, Dean pauses and looks away. How does someone explain what he did? It was awful and disgusting and she would never look at him the same.
"Dean, hey," she soothes and cups his face, making him look at her as she studies him. "Talk to me here."
"Not sure what to even say," Dean quietly says as she dips down to kiss him again.
"You're different," she tells him against his lips.
"No shit." Seemed obvious to him.
"No, I mean you're definitely you. You're my Dean in there, I can tell when you kiss me. But you're sad, burdened, and… guilty maybe. You've changed."
"That's putting it very lightly," Dean explains, blown away by her reading him so easily.
"I would never expect you not to change having been through what you have. No one could ever pretend to know or understand what you've experienced. I'm just trying to figure out how you've changed."
"You don't want to know," Dean tells her, low voiced and filled with shame. His lip quivers as he tries to keep it together.
"Probably not," Lizzy agrees. "But I do want to help you so therefore I want to know."
"L, I can't…" Dean shakes his head and fights the urge to release it on her. "It's too much."
"Well, it isn't too much for me," Lizzy tells him while knitting her brow together, witnessing his internal struggle. "You tell me what you can when you can. Just know I'll never turn you away. I'll never not listen to it all, not matter how awful. I'd do anything for you and you deserve that kind of support."
"No I don't," Dean tells her, tears falling. "I don't deserve anything good. Not a damn thing. I've done some… terrible things."
"What?" Lizzy is confused by his statement. What could he have done? He's been in hell being tortured. "I don't understand."
"You couldn't," Dean says and finally breaks down. He hangs his head when he feels himself succumb to it all and Lizzy, torn apart by his utterly devastated state, wraps him up in her arms and holds on tight, his head in her neck. "I remember it all. Every second of every horrible day. There aren't words, L. Not for what I've seen, what I've felt."
Lizzy's own tears begin to form as she listens to him. He's been completely broken down and destroyed by his experience. This man who used to be stronger than any other person she's ever met, the man who faced every challenge head on and fought fiercely without end for the ones closest to him and the safety of innocence, is no longer that person. He's weakened and, even though he's made it out, he's not all back. She can feel it.
"I'll never understand," she whispers quietly, making sure he knows she doesn't trivialize any of the past four months. "You're right. I couldn't. I just want to help..."
Lizzy's cell phone rings, interrupting her thoughts and making Dean's head shoot up with hope. Without getting up from her place on his lap, she reaches to the coffee table and grabs her phone. She smiles slightly to Dean and wipes away her tears before answering.
"Hi Sam," Lizzy says once she answers the call, never taking her eyes off of Dean.
"Hey, I'm on my way," Sam tells her quickly as she can clearly make out the rumble of the Impala's engine in the background. "Should be there by ten. What's the emergency?"
"I can't really explain it to you over the phone," Lizzy slowly says while narrowing her eyes at Dean as he looks up with excitement. To say he's dying to see his brother would be an understatement. "Just believe me, it's really important that you get here. Call me when you're close?"
"Lizzy, wait…"
"I know you want more info, Sam, but you're gonna have to trust me here. Just like I've trusted you for the past four months. Call me when you're almost here, ok?" Lizzy asks, knowing the guilt trip will work, just like it always does.
"You're a pain in the ass, you know that?" Sam asks with all seriousness.
"Love you too, Sam-I-Am," she slightly smiles and hangs up on him.
"He coming?" Dean asks quickly and impatiently.
"He's already on his way. Should be here in a few hours." Lizzy tosses her phone back onto the small table and returns her attention fully to Dean. "You ready to get attacked by another hunter who thinks you're a shapeshifter? Or demon? Or revenant? Or…"
"I get the point, and no," Dean answers truthfully.
"Well Bobby and I'll have your back either way. I'll talk to him first, see if that helps," Lizzy tells him before leaning down and kissing him once more before remembering something.
"Mmm," Lizzy hums out and pulls back, pressing her index finger to his lips to get him to pause. "I have something for you, something you might want back." She stands up off of him and leaves the room, Dean following close on her heels. She walks into her bedroom, reaches into her unmade bed and pulls out the cherished item Sam bestowed upon her months ago. Holding it tightly in her hands one last time, knowing she'll miss the comfort it's come to bring her, she extends her arm and offers it back over. "Sam had me hold onto it for you."
"Oh, yeah," Dean grins just slightly as he recognizes his father's jacket. Taking it from her hand, he feels the worn leather in his fingers and looks back up to her with a questioning look. Having watched her take the jacket out of her bed, he's now a little curious. She purses her lips, embarrassed somewhat.
"Slept with it every night," she explains while the pink blush sweeps her cheeks. "Smelled like you."
Dean closes the space between them and hugs her tight, knowing the toll this whole thing has taken on her. It was unfair.
"I just missed you so much," she says while leaning into him.
"I'm sorry I put you through that," he tells her. "It's my fault."
"Shut it," Lizzy says while looking up at him. "You did what you had to. And what does it matter now? You're here. That's all I care about." Pressing up on her tiptoes, Lizzy kisses him again. "At least one of you has come back to me. You came home."