Cherry Pie

Dates and Surprises

[Rayne]

The sweet as sugar voice picked up on the fourth ring. "Hello?"

"Missouri?" I asked, still a bit breathless from jogging to the park, which was a few blocks down the road from the motel. "Missouri, it's Rayne Adams."

"Rayne?" she asked, worry immediate in her tone. "Baby, what's wrong?"

"Oh, no. No, nothing is wrong," I quickly assured her. "It's, well...something has happened, and I don't really know what to make of it. I was hoping maybe you could help."

"I'll try my best. What is it, honey?"

Placing the heel of my right foot on the bench, I leaned over to touch my toes, trying to stretch out the tight muscle in my calf. It had been way too long since I last jogged, and even the short distance had me falling apart piece by piece. "Well, remember the connection between Dean and I? The one that you said 'hummed'".

"Well, of course I do." She laughed softly. "You don't come around that sort of thing every day."

"Right, well some things have happened since we last saw you."

"Like what?" she asked cautiously.

"Not long after you gave us the bracelets, I got really hurt on a hunt, and we sort of ended up losing them, as I'm sure you've heard."

"What do you mean? You know those Winchester boys never call me when I ask them to."

That made me pause. "But I thought that Dean called to let you kn-"

"Oh, right," she quickly cut me off with what sounded like a nervous laugh. "Of course — how could I forget? Yes, so what happened after that?"

"We pretty quickly found out that we couldn't stay apart for longer than ten minutes."

"Well, that must have made things difficult."

I chuckled. "It was interesting, that's for sure." 

"I'm sorry, baby," Missouri said, "but as I....told Dean, I don't have any more of those bracelets."

"That's the reason I called, actually. We don't need the bracelets anymore because the connection between us is gone."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "What do you mean, 'gone'?"

"I mean it's gone. I'm not with Dean right now and no pain, no sickness."

"Well, where did it go?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that."

"Oh, Rayne, honey, I didn't know much about your connection to begin with. There's nothing you can think of that could've caused it?"

"Well, I got really sick...apparently it was an infection. And then when I got out of the hospital, Dean and I were no longer connected."

"Hmm, that doesn't make much sense, now, does it?"

"Not really, no."

"Well, I don't know why it would suddenly disappear, but I do know that it was extremely powerful. If something, someone, put it there, I would guess that only that same someone could take it away."

"So you think it happened for a reason? That someone did it intentionally?"

"Yes, that's what I think."

"Missouri-" I paused, uncertain if I wanted to know. "Do you think this has anything to do with the darkness that's inside of me?"

"Rayne, I also saw light. Don't forget that. You know how the story goes; it all depends on which dog you feed. If you feed the darkness, the darkness will win. Feed the light, and you have nothing to worry about."