Saints or Sinners | {BOOK 3}

46| Slow Trust

Dean convinced Benny to go far underground where nobody knew him. We felt bad that he had to leave his hometown and Elizabeth, but he was grateful we didn't give up on him. Before he left, Benny asked to talk to me privately.

"What is it?" I asked once we had gotten out of earshot of Dean.

"What made you change your mind about me?" Benny asked me.

I gave a chuckle, smiling a little as I stared back at him.

"We might have gotten off on the wrong foot in Purgatory, but you're not a bad person, Benny," I admitted. "You helped out a lot more than I gave you credit for. I'm just sorry it took me so long to come around to it."

"He stopped referring to you as Eleanor," Benny noted.

"Yeah, I know," I nodded, glancing back at where Dean was waiting. "I think we're starting to trust each other again. Slowly."

"Promise not to say anything to him if I tell you something?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, giving him permission to continue.

"He knew you were there, too," Benny said. "He acted more torn up about the possibility of never finding you than finding that angel. When we did find you and all he did was fight with you, I wondered what switch had flipped in his brain. He cares about you, a lot, Eleanor, and I don't think he'd survive if he lost you."

I swallowed thickly, fighting the urge to look back over my shoulder at Dean again.

"Thanks, Benny."

"No problem, sister. Keep him out of trouble for me, alright?"

"Will do."

I held out a hand to shake his, but he pulled me in for a hug, surprising me. When he pulled back, we made our way over so he could say goodbye to Dean and then he climbed into his camper and left. Dean called Martin on the road several hours later and threatened him to stay away from Benny and find a new line of work.

"What'd Benny want to talk about?" he asked me.

"Just was curious about what made me change my mind about him," I shrugged. "Told him the truth, that I was wrong to judge him so harshly when we first met."

Before Dean could ask anything else, his phone rang.

"Yeah?" he answered it. "H-hang on? Elizabeth?"

I looked over at him in shock.

"What do you mean? Roy? Is- is he there right now? Elizabeth what's going on?"

I braced myself as the tires screeched, Dean doing a complete 180 and gunning it back in the direction we'd just come from. When we pulled up to the café, Elizabeth was sitting on the steps covered in blood, her hands shaking. Dean and I walked over to her and she just pointed behind her. While Dean went inside, I pulled the cloth I'd used on my neck earlier out and gave it to her to use on hers before putting a hand on her shoulder and following Dean in.

There was blood on the floor and I walked over to where Dean was standing to see Martin laying in a large pool of blood. Martin's knife was laying next to him and his neck was badly mauled.

"Dean," I said gently, afraid to speak too loudly.

He didn't respond, turning on his heel and heading back out to the Impala. I sighed, closing my eyes against the onslaught of tears that threatened to fall.

⁘

Dean and I had been driving in silence for a while when a phone rang. Opening the glove compartment, I took out the burner he'd had me text Sam with and answered it.

"Sammy?" I asked.

"'Sam, I need your help. Come quick,'" Sam quoted. "Dean's idea, right? Nice one. Swapping Amelia's phone out for a burner, sending a distress signal... You guys got me good. When did he do that?"

"While back, in case he needed it. Looks like he made the right call," I swallowed, glancing over at Dean. "So, did you see her?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I saw her. And she's doing just fine. But Dean already knew that."

"Actually, he didn't. He did know it was the only way to get you to lay off, and I agreed with him."

"So? Is it done?"

"Yeah, it's done."

"Any casualties?"

"Martin," I admitted, looking over at Dean again, but his face was stoic as he concentrated on driving.

"Was it Benny?"

"He had it coming, Sam. I'll tell you what happened."

I'd talked to Elizabeth after Dean had stormed out, getting the full story out of her. Martin had provoked Benny by threatening Elizabeth. Benny had saved her, and then made himself scarce.

"I-I know what happened, Ellie."

"Okay, you want to listen to me or not?"

Sam hung up on me and I sighed. A silence fell inside the Impala once more.

"He had to do it, Dean," I started hesitantly. "Martin threatened Elizabeth. He was just trying to protect her."

Dean didn't respond, still staring out the front windshield with a hard expression. His fingers twitched on the steering wheel, like he wanted to reach over and hold my hand, but was fighting it. Slowly, I reached over and pried the hand from the wheel, entwining our fingers together and rubbing the back of his hand with my thumb. I noticed his shoulders relax slightly out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't say anything else as we continued our drive to Kermit, Texas.

After a few more minutes, I felt my eyes start to droop. Without saying anything, Dean adjusted our hands so while our fingers stayed entwined, his arm was wrapped around my shoulders and I could lean into his side and fall asleep while he drove. That was one of the great things I loved about Dean and I. After knowing each for so long and so intimately, we knew what each other needed without saying a single word to each other. As I drifted off to sleep, I could have sworn I felt his lips press against the top of my head and then he whispered quietly, calling me something I thought I'd never hear him say again.

"Sweet dreams, Ellie Bear."