Don't Go Eating My Heart

Goodbye Stranger

This chapter takes place during Season 5 Episode 21. I am not responsible for spoilers in the comments.

The purr of the engine was the only sound filling Marley's ears as they headed for Chicago. It had been a pretty quiet ride so far, in fact Dean hadn't even turned on music like normal. Marley's gray eyes were staring out the window, watching as trees flew by, each one bringing her closer and closer to the time she would have to say goodbye to Dean and walk away with Crowley. It still hadn't really sunk in with her yet what was about to happen, but the silence of the car ride allowed her thoughts to wander.

What was living with Crowley going to be like? Well not living with, more like working for, but she assumed living with was part of that. There was also the fact that he was a demon... that hadn't really sunk in yet either. He just never seemed all that horrible, so it was a little hard to buy that he was a big, bad demon. Crowley had come back to save them from the hellhound when they were with Brady, and he had given them the colt to kill Lucifer. How could someone who did that be bad?

Her mind was having a war with itself, part of her knowing she couldn't trust him, but the other part desperately denying it so she wouldn't have to admit how totally she had screwed up by taking the deal. He's been manipulating you. Marley frowned. No, that wasn't it, it couldn't be. He's a demon, he has a plan. He does not have a stupid plan. Think about it. A demon told you to talk to Crowley. Crowley pitched you the deal, with all of the conditions spelled out, and said your soul wasn't part of it. Souls are power, so what does he want you for that makes you more valuable than your soul?

Marley couldn't take it anymore. If she kept thinking about this, she was going to spiral out of control. She needed something to distract her. Her hand unconsciously curled into a tight fist , squeezing as hard as she could, but even the pain couldn't get her to stop thinking about it. The wheels in brain desperately churned, trying to come up with something, anything to distract her. And that was how she found herself  blurting out just about the most random question ever.

"What's your favorite holiday?"

The question had come out of nowhere, completely disrupting the silence. It wasn't something she had planned, but she so desperately needed her brain to focus on something other than the possibility that she had made a horrible mistake. It was too late to change anything, the deal was already made, there was no sense in dwelling on it. Instead, she would much rather distract herself, and apparently, asking Dean a random question was all her brain could think of to do so.

Dean looked over at Marley like she had just spoken Enochian for a solid 4 seconds before returning his gaze back to the road. "What?"

"We've been in this car for two hours, I just figured it might liven things up a little if we talked. Hence, random question, what's your favorite holiday?"

"Seriously?" Dean's jaw ticked, and his fingers flexed around the wheel of the Impala. He turned his head to her for a moment, fixing her with a glare that glistened with frustration that he couldn't understand her. His voice held an edge to it, clearly peeved with her and how naive she seemed to be about the whole situation. "You're leaving and you want to know my favorite holiday? You wanna talk? Fine, let's talk. What's your plan?"

Marley's head tilted to the side, not following what he was talking about. "Plan?"

"Yeah, a plan. For the next 10 years what's the plan? You work for him, so do you get time off, sick days, vacation?" Marley's entire face fell as she realized what he was talking about, her face pinching slightly in discomfort. But Dean pressed on, his hands animating his emotions as he talked. "Seriously, Marley, he asks you to start killing people, what then?"