A/N: I just wanted to say thank you for all the encouragement over the literal years that I've been writing. I don't say much because I'm so busy lately, but I hope y'all know it means the world.

Dean didn't need to make eye contact with the Doctor to know they were on the outs, but it still stung, somehow, when the Doctor barely even glanced his way. He had promised to get rid of the ship for them, so he couldn't just storm off—but it looked like that was exactly what he wanted to do.

Not that that was terribly surprising. Dean hadn't had a win in a while. Not where it counted, anyway. Not with the people he cared about.

Probably won't see him again, he thought. Briefly, he remembered a few times the Doctor or his companions had mentioned other adventures, but… maybe he was misremembering. Or maybe he'd just meet the companion sometime.

While his neighbor was trying to pick up the pieces of her life, Dean knew he didn't have much to offer there, so he backed out of the house, his hands in his pockets. He was planning to just go back home so he didn't have to listen to the Doctor once again try to lecture him about his way of doing things. The guy had known from the start that he was a hunter; he should have been used to it by then.

But then, he saw the TARDIS at the end of the street. He glanced over his shoulder, confirmed that the Doctor was still cleaning up inside, and walked a little bit faster, coming to rest his hand on the outside of the TARDIS with a tired smile.

"Hey," he said quietly. "Thanks for coming to see me, but I don't think the Doctor wants to hang out with hunters."

He rested his head against the TARDIS door, but he could only hear a hum of energy from inside it.

"Yeah, I get it. I wouldn't want to talk to me either," Dean said. He picked his head up to go, but as soon as he did that, the TARDIS dinged, sounding indignant.

"What?" Dean spun around, holding his hands out to his sides. "What'd you bring him here for anyway? I was going to have dinner with those creeps soon. I'd have figured out what was wrong and would've killed them with or without the Doctor getting involved. I don't need your help. I'm glad we're friends, but you can't save me, okay? Stop trying."

No response.

Dean let out a sound from the back of his throat and spun on his heel—almost directly into the Doctor, who had somehow managed to sneak up on him.

"Don't do that," Dean said, taking a step back, already prepared for a fight.

But to his surprise, the Doctor's anger had faded. He looked tired, and for the first time since Dean had met him, he looked like he was as old as he claimed to be. "She really does care about you," the Doctor said.

Of course his expression softened for the TARDIS. She was his greatest love. Dean shouldn't have been surprised.

"Yeah," Dean said with an easy shrug. "Feeling's mutual."

The Doctor tipped his head to watch Dean for a moment longer before, with a heavy sigh, he reached past him to open the door to the TARDIS. "One of these days, you'll realize how rare that is."

"Maybe she just needs someone who speaks her language; that's all," Dean said. He looked past the Doctor toward the TARDIS interior, toward its warm light, toward the constant hum of energy that he could see as well as feel.

"Maybe." The Doctor paused, his hand still on the open door. He hadn't stepped inside. "You're giving up the life?"

"Yeah."

"Seems like you have a good thing going with this family of yours."

"I hope so."

"I hope so too." The Doctor still hadn't stepped inside. "You could come with me, you know. I'd bring you right back where I left you."

Both of Dean's eyebrows shot up, and he looked past the Doctor once again to the TARDIS interior. It was tempting… unbelievably so. And it would be exciting. There would be constant adventure. Constant movement.

It would be easy to lose himself in a life like that. To forget. To get away from Earth.

From the memories of Sam.

And it would be easy to find something that might finally be the end of him…

But, no, he'd promised Sam he wouldn't do that. And a temptation like that, at every new planet, was probably not a good idea. Not this soon after everything that had happened.

He wasn't very good at this—at this emotion thing—but he knew enough to know when to play it safe.

"I promised I'd try this normal life thing," Dean said, though he felt as if he were hearing himself from far away.

"I know." The Doctor sighed and tucked his glasses away into a pocket on his long coat. "But you're not a hunter anymore. Might be time to start acting like it."

Dean couldn't think of anything to say in response, and he certainly didn't know what to do with the expression on the Doctor's face as he disappeared into the TARDIS. But he stepped back as he heard the TARDIS start whirring, staring at the big blue box until it disappeared from view.

"See you next time," he said, pressing his mouth into a line before he shoved his hands into his pockets and turned around.

And tried very hard not to think about what would have happened if he'd agreed to go with the Doctor.