Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural! I only own this idea and my two OC's!

Dean

He had taken a quick shower, just to get the smell of sulphur away, before putting on some fresh clothes, leaving the ones he had worn yesterday on the floor in the corner next to the bed. With heavy footsteps and a heavy heart, he walked out into the hallway, his eyebrows shooting up as he smelled the smell of pancakes coming from downstairs.

Slowly, he walked down the stairs, his ears suddenly hearing something which he hadn't heard for quite some time.

Laughter. The laughter of a child mixed with his brother's. It came from the kitchen and so, he walked towards it. Somehow, it reminded him of the time he had spent with Ben and Lisa which only made him smile even more. Yes, Lisa didn't have the same space in his heart as Eleanor, but it had still been one of the happiest years of his life. When Sam came back from the dead, without a soul and without having told him that he had been alive all this time, something inside of him had felt saddened. He had finally accepted that Sam was dead and he had almost moved on with his life, although it was hard as every sound that was unusual had made him flinch during the night. The one thing he had never really had, he finally had. A family. But, a hunter will always be a hunter and it is not something you can run from.

He entered the kitchen, his slightly heavy heart lightening up when he saw Lily, Sam and Bobby sitting around the kitchen table with pancakes on their plates. There was a huge pile of pancakes placed on a single plate in the middle of the table and Eleanor herself, who Dean assumed had made the pancakes, was preparing a cup of coffee for herself. When she turned her head towards him, her dark eyes met his and she smiled a smile that made his heart flutter. He nodded back, ruffling Lily's thin yet hair as he passed her, which made the little girl giggle slightly, before walking over to Eleanor, kissing her cheek. He noticed Bobby watching them but decided to ignore his stare.

Instead, he grabbed a glass and poured some juice in it before sitting down next to Lily on the edge of the kitchen table, Sam sitting next to him with Bobby next to him. Eleanor soon joined them and something about the entire scene made Dean smile. He watched Eleanor as she cut up Lily's pancake for her, talking to Sam and Bobby about ordinary things such as the weather and news that she had heard of from the few times that she actually read the papers. It all seemed so normal and so family-like. But it all had to end soon.

"Are we going to talk about what happened yesterday or not?" asked Bobby, the entire room going silent after his question. He eyed them all curiously before letting his gaze fall on Dean lastly, a meaning look in his eyes that told Dean that although it hurt, they had to talk to him about it in order for him to be able to help.

"Hey, Lily-girl," said Dean, earning the attention of the little girl, a little bit of jam still on her cheek which Eleanor quickly wiped away with her thumb. "Why don't you go play in the living room?"

Lily nodded quietly before jumping down from her chair, making her way out of the kitchen to leave the adults talking alone. Although she probably didn't understand a lot of what they were talking about, Dean felt more comfortable talking about hunting when she was not in the room.

"The Ark of the covenant?" asked Bobby, his gaze falling on the empty plate in the middle of the table that used to be filled with pancakes.

"Yes," replied Sam. "I've heard of it before but I can't really imagine what the demons want with it."

"Me neither," said Eleanor, shaking her head as he hands grabbed her cup of coffee, holding it in her hands, letting the warmth warm her hands. "It's not a weapon, right?"

"It was in Indiana Jones," stated Dean, knowing it was a useless comment but still feeling the need to say it.

"Well, I have heard of the Ark of the Covenant," said Bobby. "And from what I understand, that ain't something you can just play around with. There's a reason that thing was hidden from both angels and demons. The bible speaks of how Moses placed the tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them in the Ark of the Covenant but also of there being even more holy artefacts in there. It was also the symbol of God's presence to the Israelites back in the day so… whoever holds the power of the Ark of the Covenant can most likely communicate with God… or worse, become God."

"Sorry what?" asked Dean, cocking his head to the side as he furrowed his brow at Bobby. "God's dead, right?"

"Well, he ain't present anymore," said Bobby.

"Are you actually saying that that box can give someone the powers of God?" asked Eleanor, furrowing her brow as well.

"Yes," said Bobby. "In a way."

"So why do the demons want it?" asked Dean, slightly shocked that the crate they had seen only yesterday held that much power.

"They said they were going to trade it," said Sam, all three hunters looking over at Bobby.

"Don't ask me. I'm only giving the facts here," said Bobby, shrugging.

"It still doesn't make any sense. If Crowley possesses that much power… why give it away to someone else?" asked Eleanor. "Why not use it himself?"

"Maybe he's trading it for some form of position?" suggested Sam.

"He's already the king of hell. What more would he want?" asked Dean, earning a surprised look from Eleanor, Dean realizing that she hadn't been told that fact yet.

"Well, whatever the reason, it ain't going to be anything good," said Bobby before he stood up. "I'll be in my office, doing some research on this golden box of yours."

Dean sighed as Bobby left the kitchen, leaving Sam, Dean and Eleanor sitting around the table, a pressing silence hanging over the three of them.

"So you think Crowley wants even more power than he already has?" asked Dean, looking at Sam when he asked this.

"We know Crowley's after the souls in Purgatory in order to gain more power. At least, that's what he wanted before Cas supposedly killed him," said Sam, a flare of anger filling Dean at the thought.

It still angered him that Castiel probably had lied to them about killing Crowley and it also confused him as to why he would lie about that in the first place. Castiel was on their side, was he not? So, why lie? Or did he simply not know? Those were all questions that were still unanswered from Castiel's side, his response always being: "I will tell you more. But not now."

"I feel like I've missed a lot," said Eleanor, looking down at her cup with a sheepish smile on her lips that tried to cover the confliction she felt inside and that her eyes were clearly showing the Winchester brother's.

Sam scoffed before looking at Dean again, the both of them not wanting to talk about their adventures just yet. He seemed to feel fine, considering the fact that the wall inside of his mind was crumbling apart, though that could all be an act to not alarm Eleanor or Lily.

"So he wants to trade the Ark for something that can help him find Purgatory?" asked Dean, earning a shrug from Sam.

"I have no idea," said Sam.

Dean sighed, running a hand through his face in an annoyed way.

"I thought Purgatory was just a freaky religious thing that made you be against sinning?" asked Eleanor, looking between Sam and Dean before continuing. "Plus, when did your hunting take you this far into this kind of shit."

"Apparently it's our destiny to get ourselves in the deep shit," mumbled Sam, earning a confused look from Eleanor.

"Oh, yeah… You weren't there," said Dean, suddenly realizing just how much Eleanor had missed of their lives.

Actually, she had left them just when things started to get very heated. Of course, she had stayed until they had found out what had happened to their father, but she never stayed to get caught up in the same mud that they were in. The demon blood, the Apocalypse, Lucifer; everything. And something inside of him was relieved that she had missed all of that. She could have gotten hurt and so could Lily.

"No. I wasn't," said Eleanor, looking at Dean. "So tell me."

"Look, Elle, it's a long story and honestly… it's a painful one as well," said Sam, Eleanor's curious look softening into an understanding one. "You'll find out. Over time."

"Yeah…" said Eleanor. "If I stay…"

"Sorry?" asked Dean, tensing up.

"I mean… You guys are trouble. I mean, hunters are trouble, yes. But look at what you've dragged yourselves into. You're not just hunters anymore, Dean. You're… I don't know. But I do know that if I put my face out there and my name… They'll recognize me and start coming after me as well. They'll come after me and Lily," said Eleanor, her face calm and her voice sounding determined, though both Dean and Sam could clearly see the sadness in her eyes.

"You're safe here, Elle," said Sam, leaning closer to her as he sat on the opposite side of the table. "You're safer amongst us then far away from us."

Dean nodded his head before grasping her hand, cautiously as he was unsure of how she was going to react to it. Back in the days when they were out hunting, when Sam was away to college and it was just him, Eleanor and sometimes John, Dean would've known exactly how she was going to react to everything he did. They knew each other, they loved each other. But now that Lily was born and they both had missed a huge chunk of each other's lives, Dean was unsure of how she was going to react and it bothered him. He wanted to have the same relationship as before again, he wanted to be able to just be with her and feel relaxed. But now that Crowley had showed himself to her, obviously knowing about her as well from some source which Dean did not know off since he himself had never spoken of her since the day she left, she was different. She was on edge the entire time and she was worried all the time.

However, she reacted the same as she'd always do. She intertwined her fingers with his before placing her other hand on top of his, almost as if asking for support from him.

"I promise you that I'll end this son of a bitch so that we can just go back to our normal lives. Just hunts, no drama," said Dean as Eleanor looked at him.

"Not too many hunts," said Eleanor. "It's dangerous."

"As few as possible," scoffed Sam, smiling at her as she rolled her eyes.

"That's an empty promise, isn't it?" asked Eleanor before she shook her head. "You Winchester boys are all the same, you know that? Stupid and far too caring for your own good."

Alright, I've made up my mind. I'm going to continue this. I don't care if my real motivation to continue this is gone because it's bugging me that I've started something without ending it and to be fair, I kinda like it. So, for now, I'll try my best to figure out the rest of the plot and so on so that'll be interesting enough for you to read and so that you guys can continue enjoying a nice SPN fanfic. The next few chapters are going to be sweet and more of filler chapters but that's mostly because I love writing cute things and I still need to work out the rest of the plot :P