GOD'S BLESSING ( dean winchester.. ) ✔

o1. hunter and prey..

"There's no need to point that gun at me so eagerly, Dean," Crowley honeyed his tone and crooked a grin of satisfaction at the grim hunter. "Whatever you need to know, I can tell you. We are friends after all..."

"As if," Dean did not lower his guard around the demon. Not now, and not after countless of deeds Crowley has underwent to prove his worth. For all those good acts, there were dozens of bad times to shadow everything again. "Rita told me what you tried to pull on her and I wouldn't put it past you to be behind this too. Where is she?"

"Now, now," Crowley rolled his eyes and got his hands up in the air, to show his not so defensive mannerism. "Miss Temple and I had our differences in the past, but times change. And in my defense, Dean-o, I had no idea you were head over heels for her-"

Dean moved the position of his gun and shot one bullet past Crowley's ear, "Where is she? If I find out that you've done anything to her again..."

"I never hurt her in the first place," Crowley quickly added, rather irritated. "It's not my department. I think you are well familiar that Alastair is in charge of torture down in Hell. But whatever made you think Rita is with us? What happened, boy?"

What happened was that not even two days after the incidents in the ghost town, Dean understood two things. One, there was no more doubt regarding his feelings for Rita. No matter the circumstances and the constantly uncovered drama, he did love her, more than he could have ever planned.

Two: he had a duty to protect. He failed protecting so many people before, he lost so many of those he cared for, but this time... the duty was fuelled by how he felt. He didn't feel chained to Rita, it was no spell; Dean felt peace from a lifetime of wars and battles.

Damn, he missed her voice, her smile, those silly country songs, her laugh at all his stupid jokes. She brought light into his dark life and restored hope that maybe his dreams of having a home and family of his own... maybe those dreams were not so impossible after all.

With her gone, a second time, Dean finally understood that feeling peace by someone's side counted as that wretched, unlucky L-word too; making him feel less empty, less dead inside. And maybe he deserved it, if it came in his path. Sam was right, it would be wrong to throw that chance at happiness away without even giving it a try.

And Rita deserved to be safe too.

Whatever happened from the moment Rita got inside that church to the second they woke up in the Impala, was just another mysterious blank, another case to solve. Dean Winchester was Hell bent on figuring this one out fast, so he pulled, without remorse, his best weapons and tactics, starting off strong with setting this trap and getting an audience with the King of Hell.

"She's missing," he kept his explanation short. "Last time she did that, you were behind it. Any chance I get a tip on how to get Alastair's opinion on this too? That, of course, if you want to leave this lovely trap, totally your choice, but don't take your time."