Afterwards || Dean Winchester [3]

Chapter 10

"You're kidding, right?"

"No."

I could clearly see how he felt about my sudden revelation. He was frustrated, angry. And I knew I couldn't mess around with his feelings like this, but seeing him get attacked by Meg, it just made me realise that I couldn't stand to lose him again. It had taken me so long to find that feeling again. I guess I was just scared to accept him back into my life. If I convinced myself that I didn't love him, then I wouldn't have to acknowledge the significant role he played in my life. He was the one constant thing I had in my life. He never left. And when he did, he always came back. He was my home. He was the love of my life. I couldn't just erase him. He was everything to me.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked, his voice breaking a little.

"What do you mean?"

"You can't just tell me you love me and expect me to come crawling back to you. I'm not that pathetic."

"But I mean it this time. I do love you. It just took me a while to realise it."

"Seriously, you've gotta stop doing this! You can't keep giving me false hope, if it's not gonna work out between us!" He yelled, his face twisting in anger.

"Dean! I think it can work between us. I think we still have a chance. I want us to have a chance."

"Well before, you seemed pretty certain that we couldn't be together anymore!"

"I know. And I thought that was what I wanted, but I realise now that I don't. I'd just convinced myself that we didn't have a future because I couldn't handle losing you again."

"Why would you think you'd lose me?!"

"I dunno. I guess that's just what always happens. So I figured I needed to feel nothing for you in order to protect myself from the pain of losing you."

He paused for a moment before speaking. "So do you still love me?" His voice was quiet as he struggled to speak.

I nodded slightly. I could feel tears pooling in my eyes.

All of a sudden, he marched forward and took me into his arms, gently pulling me towards him. His warm hands positioned themselves at the sides of my face. And he carefully—but passionately—pressed his lips against mine. They were cold and soft. It was nice. I was grateful for his touch. I never realised it but I was longing for his warm embrace. All I wanted was to stay like this forever. I felt safe in his arms. I felt happy.

***

"So, they're all people we know?" Sam questioned. We were all back together now. And it turned out that Sam and Bobby had been attacked too.

I watched quietly as the two brothers discussed the situation. "Not just know. People we couldn't save." Dean said in a monotone voice.

He was silent for a moment before speaking up again. "Hey, I saw something on Meg. Did she have a tattoo when she was alive?" He asked, a look of concentration evident on his face.

"I don't think so," Sam answered.

"It was like a mark on her hand. Almost like a brand."

"I saw a mark too, on Henriksen," Sam added.

Bobby was sitting in the armchair. He appeared to be in deep thought. And then all of a sudden, his face lit up, like he'd had some kind of realisation. "What did it look like, the mark?"

Sam quickly snatched a piece of old paper up from the coffee table and pulled a pen out of his pocket and began scribbling something onto the small sheet. Once he was done, he held the paper up, revealing an odd drawing. It was completely foreign to me, but Dean seemed to recognise it from his encounter with Meg. "That's it."

"I might have seen this before," Bobby grumbled, still sitting completely still in the armchair.

"What is it?" I asked quietly. He didn't answer. Instead, he just got up and proceeded to wander off into another room. He used to do that a lot so I wasn't offended by it. It was completely normal behaviour for Bobby. A few long minutes had passed and he'd finally returned to the room we'd been left waiting in.

"Found it." He stated, carrying a fairly large book in his hands.

A puzzled expression was displayed on Sam's face. "What?"

"Mark of the Witness."

"Witness? Witness to what?"

"The unnatural. None of them died ordinary deaths. And these ghosts—they were forced to rise. Someone rose them...on purpose."

"Who?" Sam questioned.

"Do I look like I know?"

Sam didn't answer. He just let Bobby continue talking. "Whoever it was, used a spell so powerful it left a mark, a brand on their souls. This all fits into an ancient prophecy. This is a sign."

Dean looked confused. "A sign of what?"

"The Apocalypse."

***

"But Mommy! What happened to Castiel?"

I smiled at my daughter before answering her question. "We became friends with him. And now he lives here with us, because we're a family now."

"Castiel isn't really an angel," she giggled.

"Of course he is. And that's Uncle Cas to you."

She just smiled widely and I smiled too, gently wrapping my arms around her. We lived in a bunker now. Dean had found it on a hunt one day and we decided to stay here. We'd been here for years and I fell pregnant with Hope after the first year of living here. She was seven now and all I wanted was to keep her safe. We were interrupted when Sam and Cas entered the kitchen.

"Hey sweetie? Why don't you go and say hi to Uncle Cas and Uncle Sam?" I suggested, softly nudging her in their direction. I stood up and watched as she skipped over to them. Dean came and stood behind me as I did so.

"Hey, should we really be telling her all this stuff?" He asked quietly.

"Relax. She's seven. She's not gonna believe half the crap in that story," I chuckled. "She doesn't even believe Cas is an angel."

Dean let out a heavy sigh, wrapping his arms around me from behind. "I just wanna keep her safe."

"She will always be safe, I promise."

"She can't even go to school," Dean said sadly.

"Yeah...but it's necessary if we wanna keep her safe."

"And you're sure she's not too young to hear the tragic story of how we finally got together?" He joked.

"Just stop worrying. In her head, it's all just a fairytale. She totally thought I was making most of that stuff up."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I love you."

"I love you too." I paused for a moment before speaking again. "Looks like we got our happy ending after all."

***

a/n
Okay, so we're now at the end of the story. I hope you liked it. And I really hope you like the ending. Honestly, I wasn't sure about it but I think it's sweet aha.
Thanks for reading!