Saints or Sinners | {BOOK 3}

57| Settling In... Ish

Two weeks had passed, and we were still trying to figure out the Bunker. Dean had gone to check up on Kevin while Sam was continuing his long and grueling task of cataloguing everything he found. I honestly didn't understand how he had the patience to do it. With how massive the place was, he could be cataloguing for years. While the younger Winchester brother hadn't really unpacked or settled into the space, Dean had been going to town.

He'd decorated the walls of our room with various guns and weaponry, including both of our Purgatory blades, and had even been asking me about my opinion on how to set things up. I hadn't seen Dean act like this since we bought the house to raise Maddie in, and even then, he wasn't nearly as giddy considering we were both grieving the loss of Sam at the time. I was torn in an in between place on the scale of the two brothers.

Part of me was excited like Dean to finally have a place to settle into and call our own, but another part of me was hesitant like Sam. A place like this seemed too good to be true. I still wasn't completely positive I wasn't dreaming the whole thing. I had often had dreams about the stories of the Men of Letters my dad would tell me when I was younger. They'd stopped as I got older and didn't hear the stories as often.

A couple times, I'd wandered into some of the unclaimed rooms, trying to imagine them set up for Maddie or Zep. We would have to swap the big bed out for kid sized ones, of course. Zep would have a toy chest in the corner of his filled with balls, and cars, and whatever else he wanted to play with. Maddie would have a dollhouse and have all sorts of friends in addition to Ellie Bear and her Angel Doll, even though those would be the ones that would end up spending the night in bed with her.

Maybe they'd want to paint their walls their favorite colors, just to claim the rooms even more as their own. Any time I would start going down that rabbit hole of thinking, I'd hurry out to track down Dean wherever he was and then I'd throw myself into his arms until I felt better again. He never asked for an explanation, just holding me protectively until I stopped shaking or crying, and I was grateful for that. He sensed how torn I was, always in a sort of limbo between here and there.

"Hey!" Dean called, coming into the library with a duffel bag.

Sam was sitting on his laptop and I had found a book on angels I hadn't studied yet.

"Hey!" I greeted him, looking up from the book. "So... how's Kevin doing?"

"You know. He's okay, I guess. In his corner, hacking out his Da Vinci code- nothing actionable yet."

Dean set the duffel on the table, going over to grab a beer from the mini fridge.

"Garth says hi, by the way. Any word from Cass?"

"No," Sam informed him, smiling. "No- not a peep. Why? You?"

"No, he's, uh- he's not answering," Dean looked over and made eye contact with me.

"Right. Well, uh, so I have been trying to chart out the Letters' network of hunters, their allies, uh, affiliated groups they worked with, kept files on..."

"Circa 1958?" I quirked an eyebrow.

"Yeah. True," Sam acknowledged. "Uh, most are dead or defunct, but others- I'm not so sure, and this one... you should definitely check this out."

He put a file with the Aquarian Star symbol on it in front of Dean on the table. I moved closer to look at it over his shoulder.

"The Judah Initiative?" the elder Winchester read.

"European team- they were active during World War II."

"Really? Hunters fighting in a war- that's cool."

"Not exactly hunters, n-not exactly fighting, but, uh..." Sam trailed off as Dean got further down the page.

"Rabbis? Rabbis? Really?"

I grabbed the photograph from the file, looking closer at the group of men.

"The Letters' file on them is- is sketchy, but, apparently, they were hard-core saboteurs. So, I ran a search on the Initiative's entire roster, and I got a hit- one Rabbi Isaac Bass. He was 17-years-old when he joined the Initiative and 85-years-old when he died... two weeks ago."

Sam turned his laptop to face us so we could see what he'd been studying.

"In a college town back east, he was capped."

"'Capped'?" I repeated.

"Yeah. He was there doing research, and according to eyewitnesses, he spontaneously combusted."

"So... this is a case?" Dean clarified unnecessarily, looking around as Sam raised his eyebrows at him. "I just got back."

"You guys take this one," I said, standing up and grabbing the book I'd been looking at.

"Wait, what?" Dean asked, eyes snapping to meet mine.

"Yeah... I, uh... I'm not really feeling it..."

It was a lame excuse, and I could tell Dean wanted to protest. With the exception of a few supply runs, I'd barely left the Bunker since we'd arrived. In all honesty, a hunt would probably do me some good; allow me to stretch my legs a bit. Even Sam looked hesitant to leave me behind. He wasn't stupid and had picked up on my behavior, especially since he'd been around some of the times I had found Dean for comfort.

"You sure, Ellie?" Sam piped up first. "We could-"

"Yeah, I'm sure," I cut him off. "Go figure out what killed the Rabbi. And if you really end up needing me, you can call."

I didn't wait to hear either of their responses, moving down the hall with my book in hand to Dean and my room. I settled on the bed to read some more, and a few minutes later, Dean came in to grab a few last things he had left.

"You should come with us, Ellie Bear."

"I'll be fine, Dean," I said, not looking up from the page I was on. "Keep me updated, though, alright?"

He didn't respond, and after a minute, I looked up from my book. Dean's bright green eyes had darkened, and he was staring hard at me, making me lick my lips involuntarily and fight not to squirm from the intenseness of it.

"Dean?" I whispered hesitantly.

"Promise me you're not going to do anything stupid while I'm gone."

"W-what?"

"Promise me, Ellie."

"Why would you-"

"Please," he cut me off, moving closer to the bed.

I swallowed hard, staring up at him.

"I promise. You be careful, too."

Instead of answering, Dean leaned down, capturing my mouth with his own.

"Okay," he whispered when he finally pulled back.

After kissing me one last time, he headed out the door to go deal with the case with Sam.