The Records of Dean Winchester and Elena Gilbert

Imbroglio

            "No! No, of course not. You didn't do anything wrong," he assures her.

            "Then what? What is it? Why is he acting like this?"

            Sam's mouth hangs open, unable to articulate the words. He knew his brother inside and out, knew his strengths, his faults, his warning signs. Sam had seen it coming from a mile away, even when Dean and Elena had not. Dean's protectiveness, his suffocating and guilty protectiveness, was second nature. It was only a matter of time before it kicked in. Sam had thought Elena's kidnapping would do the trick, tear them apart before they were even together, but he had been wrong.

            This time he wasn't.

            "He loves you," Sam finally says, the fear and emotion in Elena's eyes killing him. "Maybe he loves you... too much."

            Elena's shoulders deflate as she says, "So it is me."

            "It's the fear of losing you," Sam corrects, reaching across the table and covering her small hands with his. She chews on her bottom lip as she stares at him. "He was reminded that he could and that he wouldn't be able to stop it from happening. He's scared, Elena."

            "You know, before all this happened," Elena starts, looking down at their intertwined hands. "I was planning on asking him to marry me. I thought Christmas would be a good time."

            "Oh, Elena—"

            "I know, I know," Elena says, waving off Sam's pity. "He's touchy about the subject. For a while I was just going to bring it up casually, see if he wanted to ask himself. But then I thought maybe it would be easier... I guess it doesn't matter now."

            Sam swallows hard, not knowing what to say to soothe Elena's mind. He knows what Dean's answer will be—well, would have been—but he doesn't have the heart to tell her. She just looked so fragile, so small, in that chair across from him. So all Sam can do is wait; wait for the moment to pass, for her hopes to be crushed on their own, for Dean to ruin her.

            "How long will it be like this?"

            Sam jerks his hand back, suddenly feeling sorry for the poor girl sitting across from him. He rises from the table, ready to make his escape to the kitchen for dinner.

            "Until you're immortal."

March 20th, 2019

            "The service entrance is here," Dean says, pointing to a particular spot on the map spread before him. The hunters around him lean forward, nodding to themselves as if they too had spent a copious amount of time at the Men of Letters' base. "The back gate leads straight to it. We could get one van in and out, at best two. I think this is our best bet."

            "How guarded is this area?" The man speaking is large and broad shouldered, decked out in the usual hunter apparel of plaid. Having been introduced to so many hunters in the past hour, Elena has already forgotten his name.

            The group surrounds the table in the bunker's library, all heads together as they plot their attack. Dean stands in the center, hands on the table, and Elena sits beside him. She doesn't know many of the hunters here—only the Winchesters and Jody, to be exact—and she can't help but feel like an outsider despite being crammed in the center of the group.

            "Not as severely as the other two entrances," Sam says, nodding as if to agree with his brother's plan. "This area is mainly for loading."