For my Elke

The expression on the woman's face was a perplexing combination of intrigue and pleasure as she watched the young couple dancing and laughing in front of the car that Dean had spent so many hours painstakingly repairing. The woman had never understood happiness, probably because she rarely saw it. In her line of work, she usually dealt more with the opposite emotion.

The woman couldn't explain why she felt so drawn to Dean Winchester. Maybe it was because he was a fighter. The woman respected fighters, admired them in a way. She didn't meet many people who clung to life as much as Dean Winchester did. No matter how rough his life was, Dean refused to give up. Fighters were few and far between in this world, and when Joanna Harvelle, another strong fighter, had died, the woman knew that a major mistake had been made.

Joanna Harvelle was supposed to live for many more years. She was supposed to grow old, have children, grandchildren… The woman didn't know what to do, but she knew she couldn't let Joanna cross over.

So she took Joanna, took her to this hallway – it was the only place she could think of where Death couldn't find her. After taking her to the hallway, the woman left Joanna on her own. She needed to see with her own eyes that she'd made the right decision in saving her. At first, the woman had had doubts, but, once she made it out of the blackness the woman had created, Joanna proved that she deserved to live.

Trying to rescue dying strangers was admirable, refusing to give up even after discovering that the door was locked was impressive, but when she found the door that would lead her to Dean, it occurred to the woman that making the decision to save Joanna wouldn't only save the girl, but it would save Dean. Once she realized this, the woman immediately unlocked the door and watched from afar as Dean and Jo were reunited. Seeing the love in the couple's eyes as they regarded each other made the woman feel as close as she'd ever come to happy.

As much as she wanted to let Joanna stay with Dean, the woman had no choice but to make her come back into the hallway. Allowing Joanna to stay in the real world took away some of her power and she needed that power to continue on with her job. If anyone got the suspicion that the woman had been shirking her responsibilities, they'd surely find out about her disobeying and rescuing Joanna.

The woman had meant to move Dean's door so Joanna could find it easily, but she became overwhelmingly busy and didn't have the time to give the girl a visit with her beloved. When the woman returned from a job to find that Joanna had picked the lock and escaped into Dean's world, she couldn't say that she was surprised, although she was a little annoyed at herself for underestimating the girl.

The woman knew that in order for Dean to survive, she would have to get this girl back into his life permanently and in order to do that, the woman would have to make herself known, and she supposed that now was as good of a time as any to reveal who had been behind saving Joanna. She took a step towards the door, opening it with the faintest click and walking out into the world.

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Jo bent forward, her arms encircling her waist as she convulsed with laughter. "I-I can't b-breathe!" she wheezed between cackles. "Do the, do the thing again!" she requested, straightening up slightly and gesturing wildly.

Seeming to understand, Dean did his spastic version of the robot and Jo doubled over with laughter again, tears pouring from her eyes as she stumbled forward into Dean's arms. Dean himself was cracking up as he held her close. Regaining a shred of his composure, Dean looked down at the quivering woman in his arms. Feeling his gaze upon her, Jo looked up too, still lightly snickering from Dean's dance moves.

Dean shook his head with a chuckle. "God, I love you."

Jo smirked, her face contorting with the effort of trying to control her maniacal giggles. "And I love you, even if you do dance like a deranged monkey!" she added, bursting into a whole new round of guffaws that left her gasping for air.

"What am I going to do with you?" Dean asked. Jo grinned in response as she stood up on her tip-toes to give him a kiss. When the couple broke apart, Jo frowned with confusion as she stared at something over Dean's shoulder. Following her line of sight, Dean turned to find a raven-haired woman standing beside the car.

"Tessa?"