IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE! Hopie sounds like Hopi the Indian tribe, not Hope Pie. lol okay maybe it wasn't that important, but I thought it was vital to know. Enjoy the story! :)
He had stood up, everyone’s jaws dropped, still uncertain how this happened.
Bobby gave a small smile, “You’re staring you know.” Sam raised his eyebrows as Dean looked at Bobby, his whole face a question. Even I--who had said something—still was unsure how I had been able to talk moments before. Unsure of what else to do, I grasped Dean’s hand.
Bobby retorted. “Annie’s here too, by the way.”
“Hi—Annie,” Everyone managed to stammer.
“She says you boys both look uglier than she remembered.”
Breanna replied with a smirk, “Well that’s pretty good since she—ow,” She rubbed the back of her head before she could spit out that Annie had slept with Dean and Sam. Maybe Bobby didn’t know, and frankly I didn’t want to rain on his parade. I didn’t even want to think about it myself.
“Sorry Annie, Breanna and I have never had the pleasure. Sorry about…your loss.” I said, unsure of how to word her death. I was still unsure of how to word my own death, let alone anyone elses.
Bobby turned and listened to the invisible character, “She says its fine, she might have tried to kill you based on first appearances anyways.”
My eyes widened, “Did she see me—”
“Wolf out while you were Scoobey Dooing for clues?” Bobby chuckled, “Uh yeah, if you had sniffed in the right places ya might have found Whitman’s chamber where he stores all the bodies.”
“Sorry I didn’t,” I answered truthfully in reply and Bobby nodded in understanding.
This time Sam spoke, “Bobby, how did this happen? How did you stay at the house?”
Bobby’s eyes averted ours for a moment, “Yea, well, uh,” He turned and walked over to a drawer and opened it, which was impressive since ghosts usually can’t do that unless they are infuriated. He reached into the drawer and pulled out the flask, tossing it to Dean. “Suck on that, Swayze,” he said with a crooked smile.
Sam realized something. “That’s why you never answered me, I tried calling you on the Ouija Board, but I was always alone when I tried it.” So Dean wasn’t with him, so the flask wasn’t in the room when he tried it. “Dean always had that thing in his pocket.”
“You’re why the EMF goes off half the time!” Breanna pointed, “and why it was freezing in the museum, right?” Bobby didn’t think he had been the cause of the temperature in the museum, but then again, he had been trying to move that lamp pretty bad. It must’ve made the room temperature drop.
“We thought we were going crazy,” Sam declared.
Dean looked at the flask then his eyes met Bobby’s, “So—what happened, did you get stuck or what?”
“I wanted to stay,” Bobby said honestly.
Dean looked at him regretfully, “Bobby,”
“I need to help,” He argued at Dean.
Sam looked at him and said quietly, “Not if it means if you have to be…this?”
“Well life wasn’t comfy—why should death be?” He said gruffly. “Now come on, Annie and I found all the bodies. And Hopie,” He said and my eyes flashed up to his.
“Hm…not many people call me that.” I said, but I didn’t think him calling me that actually bothered me that much. “What?”
“How’d you dodge your death?” He asked, “I’ve been wanting to find out but I must’ve been in a ghost coma or something from helping out the boys a couple of times when you explained yourself.”
“Oh,” I said, “Balthazar brought me back to my home world and I dragged my butt here to help out.” I answered truthfully, “He claims that by saving me I’m supposed to help him when I die again. We’ll see just how well that goes.” I grinned, causing Bobby to chuckle as we walked up the stairs.
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We had put them all to rest, excluding Bobby of course. Annie had wanted her Hunters Burial so we had given it to her. I leaned against the hood of the car, scratching Isis’s ear while Breanna readjusted the song on the radio. She frowned when she couldn’t find anything she liked.
“Sorry Breanna,” I grinned, “No Korean Pop on your local radio station.”
She frowned, “I listen to more than that, and it should be on there!” I chuckled as she continued to fiddle with the radio.
Dean and Sam were putting away the kerosene and salt when Bobby approached. Isis ran up to him, and incidentally straight through him. He looked at her unsurprised, I guess that wasn’t the first time someone’s walked through him.
“I’m gonna miss her,” he declared, talking about Annie.
“Me too.” Dean admitted.
“Yeah, well you didn’t know her like I did,” Bobby said with a smile. Dean and Sam exchanged awkward glances while Dean chuckled and Sam cleared his throat. I tried not to meet Bobby’s eyes, trying to find something more interesting. Hey that squirrel climbing a tree looks interesting…
Breanna muttered under her breath. “Yeah well, unfortunately they did,” Only I heard her, and I refrained from giving her a piece of my mind. I actually did see some of the humor in that, but she didn’t need to know that.
All this talk about past flings when I was clearly right by the car, was getting to Dean. He needed a drink, he opened his flask, “Well uh, here’s to Annie. She, uh, got the Hunter’s Funeral she always wanted." His eyes focused on Bobby, "Kind of like the one we thought we gave you.”
That was uncalled for, “Dean,” I said softly, trying to get him to shut up.
“What were you thinking Bobby?” He said, looking at Bobby with regret, “You could be in heaven right now, drinking beer at Harvelle’s—not stuck—”
“Stuck here with you?” Bobby interrupted, obviously offended. “We still have work to do.” He reasoned, “I just thought that was kinda important, Dean.”
Tear’s had started to build up on Dean’s eyes as he said regretfully, “It’s not right…you know that.”
I stared at him in shock. Its not right…what? How could he say that? How could he think those things when I had come back from my world to help him in his? I had come back from dying as well.
“Sorry, you’re right,” Bobby retorted sarcastically, obviously filled with anger, “What was I thinking?” Then he vanished in an instant, surprising everyone.
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“Dean,” I said once we were in the car, “Don’t you think you’re being a bit hypocritical?” He was silent staring down the road, “Look at all the times you’ve died, Sam’s died and you just keep coming back swinging.” Look at what happened to me.”
“Yea,” Breanna agreed, “If it wasn’t for Balthazar bringing her back to her home world she wouldn’t have been able to come back to you guys.”
“I just don’t think that he should have come back.” Dean said, “Its unnatural law of things.”
I snorted, “Almost everyone in this damn car has been in the “unnatural law of things” then,” I looked at him offended. “I’m sorry but he did to help out, and it’s just a little late for him to change his mind, so don’t you think you should cut him some slack?” Dean went back to being silent.
“Listen, I think if I had been in that exact situation—I am pretty sure I would have made the same choice. I think you would have too.” I said softly.
Breanna nodded, “Maybe I would have, maybe I wouldn’t—you never know these things until it happens to you.”
Sam had been quiet during this whole thing. I think it’s because he didn’t know what to think either.
Dean was quiet, and I realized he wasn’t going to say another word on the subject. I sighed, massaging my temples, my headache was coming back. Perhaps some rest would help.
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“So what do you think we should do?” Sam asked quietly, with the girls sleeping out cold, in the back seat. Dean raised his eyes to the mirror, staring at Hope’s reflection as she leaned against the windowsill, her eyes closed and her long layers of brown hair falling across her shoulders. She had come back from the dead too, Dean realized, just not in the same way. Balthazar, that winged idiot, had brought her back to her world in one piece, so he could get one more chance at using her. It was her decision to come back to him.
“We did what we should do,” Dean answered honestly, “Now I don’t know.”
Sam reasoned, “ I don’t know, don’t you think it’s possible we could—I don’t know, maybe make it all work somehow?”
“I have no idea, maybe,” Dean admitted, glancing up again at Hope’s reflection. If Hope and him could work together, what’s to say he couldn’t work with Bobby? But a Hunter Ghost? “I’ve never heard of it.”
“Yea,” Sam agreed, “We haven’t heard of a lot of things like that, but I guess we’ll be the first ones to try.”
Dean’s brows furrowed and he looked ahead at the winding road. One thing that he did know, was his gut told him that Bobby being a ghost, still lingering around them, could be a comforting thing, but deep down in his gut though, he knew.
It was not the natural order of things. Every living thing was supposed to find peace, find an end. No living thing should have to go on forever. Balthazar’s contract with Hope was one thing that he would figure out how to break, but until then he would have to try and worry about the Leviathans first.
Couldn't he have just one good ending for a mission. Sure Annie was at peace, but Bobby certainly was not. He glanced up in the mirror for Hope's refection once more and sighed. What in the hell was he going to do about her?
Despite his warnings, Hope always tended to herself. For the most part that was a good thing, but he was worried. What if something did happen to her, and she got stuck with Balthazar as her master? Dean did not see that ending well, especially with Hope endangering her life on a daily basis…but of course he didn’t see much ending well these days. His knuckles tightened on the steering wheel and he decided something. It didn’t have to be a good ending of a mission. Just a good end of a day would be satisfactory. He thought of Hope’s offer on the table. She had offered to take him, and Sam away from this mess, hang up her Hunting jacket and call it a day, living up in Michigan. Dean could sleep at ease, with his arms wrapped around her, and he could kiss her, love her without worrying about a damn demon, or any monster every twenty minutes. He could have a good ending, damn it, they all could.
Dean really had considered it…
……… but his mind was still open for options.
Dick Roman wasn’t dead yet after all.
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