𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐀𝐍

𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐘-𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

When Katherine opens her eyes, she's looking down on the cemetery. Light. Floating. Foggy.

She sees her bloody body in Dean's lap, his hand still pressed hard into her wounded chest, knees curling to draw her closer to him. Sam is knelt in the mud by a tombstone. Bobby and Ellen are holding each other...and John Winchester's spirit is hovering behind Sam.

Just out of eyesight, like he always has been.

There's something pulling at her belly button...a gentle pressure, like someone has tied a string to her middle and is tugging. There's one on the other side, too...up. Towards a brilliant white light.

It's just white. Blinding. A break in the storm.

Something iridescent is hovering above her, and she wonders if that breeze she feels is real.

You can come, if you wish.

The voice is inside her mind. Not a voice at all, though...a thought. Difficult to discern, but she'd been hearing it long enough that she knows it isn't in her own tone. She stares at that glistening edge of the rainbow, trying hard to make the figure out. A wing?

But our work here is not done. Your work is not done.

Work...what work?

Katherine looks down at her body. Raindrops are passing right through her, landing on her skin below. Dean's sobs carry over the rolling thunder. A bloodied hand cradles her head. He's whispering...almost to her...but how? Her body is down there...

"I can't," he whispers. She feels pressure on the back of her head, watches his fingers tighten on her hair. "I love you...please, I can't."

She drifts down some. Love?

Oh...but she's so tired.

I'll have to do this for the rest of my life, won't I? Katherine turns her gaze up to the bright light again. Heaven, she supposes.

The winged creature nods once. Katherine looks past it.

There's nobody waiting for her there. Not like everyone says they would be. Hope sparks in her chest, and she remembers what Yellow Eyes said.

They're still alive.

I have to find them.

She almost sees an iridescent hand extend towards the land beneath them. Then go. Do what is just. We'll meet again.

It's like waking up from a deep sleep. The paralysis hasn't worn off yet, and her eyes won't open. But she can hear things through those shell-shocked, numbed ears. She feels that pressure on the back of her head, the grip on her back. She feels something slick on her cheek, and her face feels smushed, arms crushed. Breathe.

Warmth creeps along her body, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. Gentle, welcome.

Katherine's eyes open so, so slowly. It's all blurry first, but she realizes Dean has crushed her to his chest, and she's looking over his shoulder. She opened her eyes just in time to see John Winchester vanish, and that light overhead dissipated into the rest of the bleak, rainy sky.

Thunder cracks, splitting her ears.

Sam sees her blink and thinks he may have imagined it. He's seeing things through his own angry tears and the rain.

Katherine breathes again, deep, wishing that warmth would come back into her body. Dean stiffens. Her fingers straighten, her wrist twists, and she touches the collar of his jacket.