Esme had fallen silent as Duke spoke. As she sat next to him, she scanned his face as he rambled nervously about Sarah. She almost laughed softly when he mentioned he didn’t go around hanging out with demons often, but apparently, the Winchesters were. If only he knew what had transpired between Dean and Cason and just how much Dean disliked Cason, he’d probably think differently. She also didn’t consider Sarah a pet by any means. She didn’t think she could consider a Hellhound as a pet at all. Esme saw her as an invisible friend, protector, and as a shield from the emotions she felt daily, but she hated having to keep her a secret from the others since they weren’t comfortable with her being around but was sure they knew she was there at that moment. In the back of her mind, she knew Sarah could turn on her at any moment, and there was nothing she could do about it.

When Duke brushed his thumb over the back of her hand, she looked down at their hands briefly. A light laugh escaped her and a small smile came to her lips when he said to keep Sarah on a leash if that was a thing. Sadly, it wasn’t, but she knew Sarah knew she didn’t want Duke or the others harmed. As far as she could tell, as long as they held a bond, Sarah would do as she asked and keep her happy. But she would make sure she kept her distance from him so he wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable with her being around. As he helped her lie back, she looked at him and relaxed some as her back rested her against the headboard. When he called her Sweetheart, her smile grew slightly, but soon faded as she laid her head on his shoulder as he continued. A silent sigh escaped her lips as she closed her eyes. Even with him saying she could lay it on him, she was afraid to, for fear of it being too much and running him off. “You may think differently after I tell you.” she whispered, almost too softly to hear.

What she had to tell him was far heavier than her telling him she had a Hellhound for a bodyguard and she knew that. Yes, knowing someone had a Hellhound at their side was extremely heavy news to someone, especially a hunter, but telling someone you weren’t a normal human was even heavier news. She had already laid the news of her being an Empath on him, which told him she knew every emotion he felt. He took that news fairly easily, but how would he take what she was about to tell him now? Though she knew if she didn’t tell him now, he would find time to ask her about it. “Recent events have shed light on something about myself.” she breathed.
Gripping Duke’s hand tighter as she opened her eyes, Esme gently pulled him closer to her so she could hold him close when she told him. Once he was closer to her, she lifted his hand that was in hers, then rested their hands on her stomach as she gently leaned into him.

Bringing up her other hand, she rested it on his arm before her eyes closed again. She was preparing herself to calm him if needed, though she was hoping just being close would keep him from freaking out too much. She knew there was no way this news wouldn’t affect him in some way. “What happened at Bobby’s…… Has shown I may be Psychic.” she told him. She felt silent, fighting with herself on if she should tell him more or not, but knew he would more than likely ask why she thought she was Psychic. She knew she would have to tell him what happened for him to understand, and it caused her to grip his arm a bit. Esme would have to tell him about the events in the shortest way she could. “At Bobby’s, a horde of demons looking to take Annabeth attacked us. We put up a good fight, but there were too many. They overpowered us and held all of us in Bobby’s living room…...” she told him in a hushed tone before trailing off. She could see the night playing all over again behind her closed lids and she sighed heavily as a shiver ran through her.

The image of Dean laying motionless on the floor with blood pooling under his head still haunted her and would, for some time. She gripped Duke's arm as the image lingered behind her closed lids. “The demons had roughed us up, broken my arm and ki….. Killed Dean by hitting him in the head with a crowbar.” she spoke slowly and softly, pausing at some parts. “The emotions in the house were high, and I felt them all. Sadness, anger, defeat, and the strongest of them all, rage. They hit me hard and overwhelmed me with so many in one room and so close together. I thought the rage would build up and take me over, but no, it was something else that built up within me. It kept building and building, causing my skin to heat up and heat radiate off me to where it burned the demon holding me.” She paused, giving herself a chance to breathe and collect her thoughts before continuing. “I tried to keep control, but it was too much for me to handle and I lost my hold on it.”

“I became a….. A demon nuke…… I fried every demon that was too slow to smoke out.” she mumbled, tensing up and giving a shiver. Now thinking back on it and actually talking about it caused her to fear herself a bit, not to mention, she had almost done it again at the roadblock the demons made earlier. “Cason only survived because Sarah shielded him with her body, but didn’t come out of it unscathed. He was burned pretty badly.” Interlocking her fingers with his with a sigh, she opened her eyes slowly and tilted her head so she could look up at him. Now that Duke knew what she was and what she’d done, she didn’t know if he’d run from her or even look at her. She had dropped a lot on him in the short time they had been together. If he ran or needed some space to wrap his head around it all, she wouldn’t blame him in the least. She half wanted to run herself or just hide herself away, so she didn’t have to worry about losing control again.

She knew the blast could have easily taken out the others as well and still didn’t quite understand how or why it only targeted the demons, and that’s what scared her more than anything. She had always feared rage taking her over and causing her to harm someone or someone she cared for. Now, she had this to worry about as well. That was if Sarah wasn’t around to block out anything that may overwhelm her.

NATALIA WINCHESTER

When Cason's voice rang through her quiet room, Natalia jumped having not expected anyone to have barged their way into her room when she wasn't in it and without her permission. "Son of a bitch!" she cursed, placing her hand on her chest as she forced herself to gather herself from Cason's actions. Once she had gathered her sanity and breath she gave him a glare and then proceeded to roll his eyes when he acted like he hadn't done anything invasive and be smug about it with the addition of the whiskey.

"Seriously!? Dude, you can't just waltz into a woman's room without her permission or knowledge! Major creep vibes" she told him, whilst under her breath muttered 'why me?' and feeling annoyed that out of all them, it was her that had to deal with him as a room mate. She knew deep down it was possible as she was really the only one who wasn't already bunking up with someone and hated him the least, but still highly disliked him. "And of course you overheard everything" she said rolling her eyes once again, deciding that he was incredibly lucky she didn't just grab for her handgun and shoot him on principle like Esme did previously.

"What troubles you got to drink away anyway? You probably not got a clue what real troubles are" she asked him, her tone of annoyance still evident, but it wasn't as vicious as it was to begin with. She grabbed some clothes out her bag, pulling out her black jeans, washed out black vest and her cropped hooded leather jacket. If she was going to be having to do a hunt at a halloween party, then she was going to try and blend in a little abit so she didn't scream 'hunter' to their suspects. Shrugging off her blazer from the FBI getup, she laid it out on the bed as despite all her complaining about feeling disgusting in said suit, she still took care of it instead of scrunching it up into her bag.

She was also desperate for some of the whiskey that Cason had on the table but she promised Dean she'd remain professional with a simple nod and not get drunk whilst they still had a threat on their hands. Despite her grievences with Cason being in the room, she still pulled off her work button up shirt but kept her back to him which would reveal the one large scar that went diagonally from her right shoulder blade to the left side of her waist. Whilst another that wasn't as long but just promiment going in the same direction just above it. Unlike Mika, Natalia never tried to have them covered up, they were markings from her time in the asylum and the torture she went through, her reminder for why she hated demons so much.

Yet they were also a reminder of how she met her brothers, how they saved her from said place even if it include Azazel's interferring at the time. She grabbed her vest, pulling it over her head and down her body then continued to turn and sit on the edge of one of the beds where she unzipped and unbuttoned the suit trousers, pulling them down her legs so she could change into her black jeans. Pulling herself into her jeans, she pulled on her cropped hooded jacket and turned straight to her makeup where she wasted no time in grabbing her eyeliner and making it heavier and slightly more smudgy.

MIKA CHAMBERS AND SAM WINCHESTER

Mika couldn't help but smirk ever so slightly when Dean reminded Nat that this wasn't some frat party for her to get drunk at and mess around on. Those two may not always see eye to eye but it was clear that for someone who never wanted a sister, Dean sure did show some kind of protectiveness over the woman when it was warranted. Anna messing around with Nat also made her smile as it seemed so normal for their group in a day of stresses and anxiety.

With Nat now out the room and them all showing some level of disgust at the news Sam gave them about the bones being infant bones, Mika found herself all the more determined to succeed in stopping this seal from breaking whilst Sam gave his nod to Anna to meeting him in their room before smiling at her PDA action then leaving the room.

He looked at his brother and just gave a casual shrug wordlessly. "I guess I'll see you guys outside. Mika dont let him burst a blood vessel in his stress for this hunt" he said with a smug and teasing smirk, one that always made Mika snigger a bit. "I could make burst a blood vessel from many things, but that is not one of them" She teased back making Sam grimmace and head to the door. "you two are too alike" he pretended to complain and then left the room, heading to his and Anna's room.

With now everyone out of the room, Mika went to her own bag and pulled out some more appropriate clothing for hunting, or at least, what she considered appropriate clothing. Her usual faux leather jeggings and vest combo which always brought her that sense of empowerment and confidence that she very rarely had deep down. "What do you think our chances are? Realistically that is" she asked Dean, as she changed into her comfortable clothing and into her combat boots.

Sam made it into his room with Annabeth and instantly went to his own bag to change. "If you and Nat need help, please hollah for me straight away" he told Anna, knowing that he was practically repeating himself from moments ago, but he was concerned about the girls being with Cason.

Cason raised his eyebrows and he stifled a quiet laugh as Natalia responded to his voice exactly as he had expected. He was happy she didn’t have a gun in her hand at that moment, but as she turned and scolded him for entering the room, he raised his hands with a shrug and wide eyes, “What do you mean? I said I was taking you out. I can be anywhere I want, any time I want. I chose to be here. It’s not my fault that your spatial awareness is shit…”, he said simply, tapping his fingers on the table casually.

He straightened and frowned a bit, almost offended when she asked him what his troubles could possibly be, as if he wasn’t allowed to have feelings as a demon, “Ouch. That’s rude. It just so happens that a friendly Winchester squad cowboy with a washboard smuggled under his skin decided to show up and flip my entire life upside down, and now I’m stuck with you. So, yeah. Real problems.”

He took another drink of his whiskey, watching carefully as Nat laid out her clothes and then turned her back to him, undressing. He raised his eyebrows, scanning over her back, and turned his eyes down to his glass, as if she could see that he was trying to be respectful. He couldn’t help his eyes from scanning back up, tracing over the scars on her back. As she sat down on the bed to pull her pants off, and replace them, Cason flipped over the second glass that he had brought with him, and he poured a bit of whiskey into the glass, quietly standing from the chair. He waltzed over to her, his feet nearly silent against the carpet, and as he stepped up behind her, he leaned in close to breathe against her neck.

“Have some whiskey. It’ll relax you a bit…you know, for the hunt.”, he whispered, brushing a few strands of her hair to the side with his nose, and a wide smile, “We need to make this look real.”



Dean waved Sam off before Sam left the room, and turned back to Mika. He watched her for a moment as she walked over to her bag, but after a moment, he picked his own bag up from the floor and rummaged through it for a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. Finding them, he stripped his pants off, tossing them over the back of one of the chairs in the room, and unfolded his jeans, slipping them on quickly. He slowly unbuttoned his shirt as he watched Mika get ready, a lot faster than he managed to.

As she spoke up, Dean sighed, “I um…i don’t know. I think we have as much of a shot as we ever did. We don’t have much of a choice. I mean, the angels seem pretty adamant about the consequences of our failure, you know?”

He pulled his jacket and white shirt off, tossing them over the chair with his pants, and pulled his t-shirt over his head. He stepped back over to the bag and pulled a flannel, shoving his arms through it and then stepped over to his boots, stepping into them.

“What I do know, is that we’re all coming out of this safe. Even if we fail, and we have to go at it with every angel in the universe, we’re gonna come out of this. Just…please stay close to me. Don’t do anything stupid, and help me keep an eye on the demon.”, he finally finished, almost grumbling as he thought of Cason just having free reign with the other girls. He didn’t like him with Esme any more, but at least with Esme, he knew Cason would stay out of trouble.



By the time Sam arrived back at the room, Anna was already dressed in a plain black sun dress, her curly hair bouncing effortlessly over her shoulders as she stepped into her boots. When he started digging through his bag for clothing and repeated his and Dean’s paranoid orders, Anna sighed and leaned against the table.

“I promise. If anything happens, you’ll be the first name I call. Okay? You don’t have to worry about me with Cason. He’s not going to hurt me, and if I remember him the way I think I do, he won’t let me get hurt either.”, she explained softly, pasting on the convincing smile that always seemed to warm Sam up to her ideas. She turned and glanced at the wall behind Sam, and sighed.

“He might have technically kidnapped me when I was a kid…but if he hadn’t, I would probably be dead. Bait, or worse. I think you can trust him. I can’t even believe I’m saying that…”



Duke couldn’t help the sad grimace that covered his face as Esme essentially doubled down, almost silently about her fear of him not being able to take the news she was about to lay on him. He squared his shoulders, and nodded his head, giving her the go ahead to just tell him. He watched her face carefully. He nodded once more as she began speaking, and glanced down at their hands, tightening his own grip as she did.

As she leaned into him, he furrowed his brow. She seemed to be trying to get as close to him as possible, as if she could hold him steady and keep him from running to the door. He simply stayed still, and let her pull herself into him, as she continued. He raised his eyebrows with a small nod at the word ‘psychic’, taking a deep breath. He knew a few psychics, and not all of them were bad people. They were actually pretty helpful, depending on their brand of powers, which he had a feeling he was about to learn about Esme, “Alright. That’s not so bad…”

But as she continued, he frowned at the story. Part of his brain wished he could have been there as an extra set of hands during the battle. It seemed brutal. He brought his hand up to brush his thumb across her cheek as she broke off her words, and gripped his arm, before continuing. He wrapped his fingers around her jaw, keeping her close to him as he sighed through his nose. Dean had died. Esme had been injured pretty bad. Why hadn’t he been called about the whole thing? At least Bobby could have called him.

But then she began to speak about her skin heating up, and her burning a demon, and as she kept describing what had happened, he realized that her psychic powers went way beyond just being able to see the future, or find someone on a map. He took a deep breath and held it in, his heart speeding up with a bit of fear. This was beyond anything he had ever heard of, and part of him wanted to call her a liar, and scold her for pranking him. But judging by her body language, and the sound of her voice as she finished, this was no prank. She could kill demons with…her mind? But she needed provocation. Her powers didn’t work on humans. They didn’t work on humans.

“But you can’t hurt humans…”, he muttered suddenly, not pulling away from her. He didn’t look down at her face for a moment, just staring off into the distance as he rolled all of the information over in his mind. His heart hammered against his chest, and he swore she would be able to hear it, if he didn’t calm himself.

“I um…I don’t know what to say. I mean…you’re a demon nuke. I can’t see a downside to that, other than it has to mess with you. If you get too mad you get super tired and stuff.”, he rationalized out loud, staring around the room randomly, before turning his eyes down to her, “What am I supposed to make of that? If I know you, I know you’re expecting me to run, or whatever, but…I can’t do that. I need…I need to take a short walk, if that’s okay. I need to take a deep breath, and kind of wrap my head around everything because…I love you. I do. But I haven’t seen you in years and then…this is all…and…”

Duke broke off, and he leaned forward, pressing a tight kiss to Esme’s forehead, closing his eyes as he released a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding in, “ I’m not leavin’. Don’t get that in your head, alright? I need a drink. I need to order pizza and get a drink, and then let’s talk about this. I got some questions..”

Duke felt guilty stammering everything out so fast, but it was a lot for his brain to handle. He untangled himself from Esme, and slowly stepped out of the bed, before he walked over to the dresser. He picked up his phone, and stepped into the bathroom, to both order food and take a deep breath, closing the door behind him.

As Esme spilled her guts to Duke, she had leaned into his hand when he wrapped his fingers around her jaw and was also aware of his change in emotion as well as his heartbeat picking up. When the news didn’t affect him right off, she had a feeling he thought she was pranking him. If someone had told her what she was telling him, she would have thought the same. She figured it was her body language and the tone of her voice that told him she wasn’t lying to him. Although she had no reason to lie to him about anything other than to keep him from being afraid of her, it was clear her news scared him by the way he held his breath and by his heart beating faster. It was the last thing she wanted, but he deserved to know if he was going to be sticking around for a while, and he needed to know before it happened again. If it just happened without him being aware, it would affect him far worse than it was now and possibly have him see her differently.

His sudden mutter almost startled her as she watched him, and it surprised her he hadn’t pulled away from her, then again, he was still working through what she told him. She gave a small nod to his words, letting him know he was right. As far as she knew, the blast wouldn’t harm anyone that was human. She continued to watch him as he rationalized and looked around the room before finally looking down at her. As she listened to him, her eyes and face held a mixture of emotions, not really knowing how to answer him or if she should at all. But he was right in what he said and she gave a silent nod before her eyes softened at him telling her he loved her. When he broke off, her eyes dropped then closed as he leaned forward and kissed her forehead and released the breath he was holding. “I understand. I know this is a lot to process, take the time you need.” she whispered before he pulled his lips from her forehead and spoke once more before she could say anything else.

Duke’s next words caused Esme to bite her bottom lip and close her eyes tighter, but she still nodded her head when he told her he wasn’t leaving and not to get it into her head. She slowly opened her eyes as he continued, and she nodded once again silently. “I’ll answer what I can.” she breathed. She let him go without a fight as he pulled himself away from her and left the bed, her gaze barely lifting to watch him grab his phone and step into the bathroom. “I love you too.” she said faintly when the bathroom door closed. She then slid down the headboard and sunk into the pillows with a heavy sigh as she felt most of his emotions leave with him, but were still heavy in the surrounding air. Running a hand down her face, then through her hair, she gently rolled onto her uninjured side, curled up slightly, and buried half her face into the pillow. Her eyes landed on Sarah, who had her head propped up on the side of the bed, staring at her with her ears down.

“Was I right in telling him so soon?” she asked faintly, questioning herself. “Should I have waited longer after telling him I was an Empath?” Sarah then lifted her head from the bed and stood, carefully jumped up on the bed, and gently curled herself around Esme with a soft whine as she rested her head on the pillow above Esme’s head. She relaxed into Sarah almost immediately as her closeness shielded her from the weight of the lingering emotions, leaving her to process her own and breathe. Sarah slid her head down closer to Esme’s, so it was slightly resting on hers and gave a soft whine that made Esme release a sigh through her nose. “I know, but it was a lot to put on him at once and it scared him.” Her voice was still faint as she spoke to Sarah before she reached down and pulled the blankets up to her neck. “I should have waited longer before telling him I was a demon nuke.” she continued. “It was too much at once.”

When Esme fell silent, Sarah gave a low growl to which Esme shook her head and brought a hand up, resting it on Sarah’s side and petting her. Sarah heaved a sigh as she curled more around Esme and she ran her hand down her side. As she laid there with Sarah, she could feel herself relaxing more and more even though she felt horrible for putting so much on Duke at once and scaring him. Her free hand came up and fiddled with the pendant of her necklace, out of habit. It wasn’t long before she felt the tiredness hit her and she realized just how much she had been pushing herself to keep going after everything that had happened, but she had to stay awake so she could answer Duke’s questions and eat. If she fell asleep now, she’d be out for hours and in a deep sleep that would be hard to wake her from. She would rest but fight sleep until he was ready to come out of the bathroom and ask the questions he needed answers to.

NATALIA WINCHESTER

Seeing Cason stifling his giggles from her reaction just made Natalia glare all the more at him. His response didn't help her in the slightest either as there was nothing wrong with her spatial awareness in her mind and she had every right to react the way she did when she wasn't expecting someone to be hiding in the corner of her room likesome movie villain or something. "My room my rules, no one comes in here without my permission. That goes for any situation, any hunt any location- got it?" she responded, pointing her finger at him firmly to carry her point all the more. There was a reason she considered her motel rooms her sacred private safe place, and she didn't appreciate having Cason break that rule she had in place, even for her brothers. To her, it didn't matter that Cason wouldn't have strictly known about the rule, it was common courtesy to knock before entering someone's room.

She rolled her eyes when he continued to reply to her by saying her assumption on him was rude, but the moment he described Duke she paused in her spot and smirked as she had turned to lay out her clothes and then get dressed. "Didn't think I'd see Duke making an appearance again, oh yeah you definitely got competition with that one." she remarked, deciding to leave her comments at that. She was hyper aware of him taking glances at her back, but unlike Mika who could still be very cagey about who saw her back, she didn't care too much. Infact, when it came to Cason she would gladly point out it was his kind that inflicted those scars onto her.

By the time she reached the point where Cason thought it was perfectly acceptable to sneak up behind her and bring a glass of whiskey to her vision whilst whispering flirtatiously in her ear, she paused what she was doing and looked down at the glass. The brushing away of some of her hair with his nose, she could feel him smiling against her neck and ear as he kept tempting her with the whiskey. "This isn't a game Cason, I need to be focused on the hunt...Dean would also kill me if he smells alcohol on my breath" she pointed out, desperately not wanting to cave into the temptation of drinking the alcohol.

She even refused to turn her head to look at him initially as she did not want to be the next woman that fell for his antics. She still didn't fully believe he was fully under Cupid's influence when he slept with Mika. Her eyes however kept glancing down to the glass in Cason's hands and groaned. "..fine! But I ain't your damn date!" she told him, taking the glass from his hand and downing the drink in one swig, closing her eyes as she let the liquid flow down her throat and hit her. She then put the glass in his hand and only then did she look at him in the eyes.

"I swear...if you get up to anything dodgy tonight I'll set Dean on you" she warned him, prodding her index finger into his chest, causing her to be what would be uncomfortably close to him in any other situation. It was what could deemed a childish threat, but in this case they both knew Dean would love nothing more than to kill him for the littlest thing, so she figured it would have some weight to it this time.

MIKA CHAMBERS

Mika was used to the times when she would just get changed faster than Dean, but then she also knew there were plenty of times he would be ready way before her, so she considered it even. She listened to him as he gave his answer to her question, the idea of the Angels just wiping out a town still didn't sit well with her in the slightest. There were so many innocent people in this place and so many young children, who would all be punished unjustifiably. It wasn't very angelic in her eyes to destroy a place if they failed and seemed very over the top.

As she perched on the edge of the bed to tie up her combat boots, she continued to hear him out and could hear the underlying tone in his voice that told her he wasn't joking when he said he would make Angel pay for acting out if they failed. She knew him inside out and knew what he was saying meant so much more than what he verbally said. "I promise Dean" she began saying as she stood up, looking at him.

"I won't stray far from you, do anything reckless and keep an eye on him for the sake of the girls. I know Nat will be able to keep him at bay to a certain extent but I'd rather he wasn't allowed an inch of a room to get any closer to them than strictly professionally possible." she finished saying to him, stepping closer to him and sliding her hands over his shoulders and to the back of his head.

"we've lost each other enough times now, I'm not prepared for us to lose each other again" she said to him honestly, just hoping that no matter what he was right in that they would come out of this situation. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach about this case but she didn't want to verbalise it....not yet anyway. She hated feeling so defeated at the beginning of a hunt but she always trusted her gut so she wasn't going to stop trusting it now.

SAM WINCHESTER

He knew that he didn't have to repeat Dean's paranoid request but he couldn't help it. He was worried for Annabeth being away from him and Dean where he couldn't protect her even if he did trust Natalia being perfectly capable of doing it for him. Seeing and hearing Annabeth repeat her reassurances to him made him nod and sigh with relief. "I know you're capable of looking after yourself and you got Nat in your corner so to speak but...I guess I'm just worried. Last time we separated stuff happened to you and I don't want that to happen again" he admitted to her.

Her smile did help to assure him that she would be alright and he couldn't help but smile back at her. "I'll trust him when he proves himself worthy of earning it. I may not be as pissed at him for what he did to Mika as Dean is, but it still feels like he took advantage of family ya know?" he told her back.

With his words said, he changed out of his suit and laid it out neatly on the bed before changing into his usual jeans and flannel shirt, then pulled on his boots. Dressed within a few minutes, he grabbed his hunting bag and checked his guns over, making sure everything was in check. "Changing the subject though, you look lovely in that outfit" he smiled.

Cason laughed softly, his breath washing over the side of Natalia’s neck as she agreed to take the glass from his hand after some protest, and worry about her brother’s opinion. To his delight, the worry of Dean Winchester’s approval didn’t outweigh her need to have a stiff drink before this hunt. He took the glass back from her as she shoved it into his hand, only stepping back far enough to let her turn and make eye contact.

With their noses almost touching, he scanned her eyes, glancing down briefly at her hand as she poked at his chest, and warned him. He simply leaned in, centimeters from her lips, and snarled his nose, “Noted, princess.”

He pulled back from her, walking back over to the table, and sat the glass down. He picked up his phone from the table, and texted Anna to tell her to hurry up, before he and Natalia managed to lose their cool with one another, before the case even got started. He then dropped his phone on the table and turned to lean against it, “Is it really so bad being my date? I mean…I would rather be watching a certain blonde sleep off her trouble that I might have caused, because I have a lot of enemies and…that’s not important. But instead, I have to hang out with you, your sociopathic brothers, and my ex girlfriend. You think I’m excited? Let’s just try to have a good time.”

He tapped his fingers on the table, and turned his eyes toward the floor, glancing over at his phone after a moment.



Dean smiled down at Mika, his smile small and tired but he nodded, “Thank you. I would just like for one thing to go our way. Just one win.”

Her fingers brushing through the hair on the back of his head was enough to settle his nerves just a bit, as he scanned her face. She was right. They had all lost enough, been through enough. There was no way anyone was coming back from this mission any less than whole and sane, if he had his way about it. Without saying anything further, he simply leaned in and pressed a tight kiss to her lips, bringing a hand up to cup her cheek gently. After a few moments, he broke the kiss and smirked, “And you still owe me for this morning. So, if nothing else, we can lean on that.”

He laughed softly, brushing his hand back through her hair, and pressed a kiss to her nose, “Let’s go. It’s probably better if we get Nat in and out, since she has to take the asshole with her.”



“I know you don’t.”, Anna muttered quietly, in response to Sam speaking about the last time they had managed to get separated, as she finished putting on her boots. She stomped them against the concrete gently, and turned fully to face him as he dressed. She simply watched, and shrugged her shoulders at his final words. Cason wasn’t good at gaining anyone’s trust, with his attitude. So, it wasn’t that surprising that Sam was so against giving him a chance, until he proved he deserved one.

She walked over to him, as he checked his weapons, brushing a hand over his chest as she stared up at him and he complimented her outfit, “Thank you. I figured a dress was the easiest thing to move in, but you won’t get too much of a view unless I have to do some badass kicking.”

She giggled and brushed her hand up the side of his neck, trailing her fingers up over his jaw, “Promise me something? You’ll be careful too. I don’t really believe in the whole ‘love’ thing, but I know that I don’t want anything to happen to you, and I would hate to come home to a cold bed. Promise me that when this is over, you’ll be at the finish line with a kiss and a smile…and minimal blood on your clothes.”, she finished with a smirk, her bright eyes shining up at his.



After several moments of toilet thinking and calling in an order for pizza, Duke stood from the closed lid, and squared his shoulders. He stepped up to the mirror and looked himself over, making a few faces at himself, to attempt to bring forward a poker face of some sort. Esme needed support. He had a lot dumped on him at once, sure, but he had to think of all the stress she had been under for the last few days, having any sort of powers around the Winchesters.

Dean alone wasn’t the most supportive type, when it came to psychics, unless they were useful to him. Duke had to be the way he always was, Dean’s buffer. He needed to be more supportive. He needed to be less rash and quick to judge. He needed to make sure that she had told him everything, but that he took most of it in stride, because he had nothing to fear. She couldn’t hurt humans. The only control she had over humans was the ability to help them feel better, or possibly…worse.

“You’re gonna go out there, and you’re gonna tell her that you’re good. There’s no reason you can’t move past this, along with everything else. She needs someone…”, he muttered to himself, staring into his own blue eyes. After a few moments, he huffed and nodded his head. Pushing his dirty blond hair away from his forehead, he pushed it back, and checked himself over one more time, before turning to the door. He opened the door and walked back into the room, his hands on his hips.

As he stepped into the room, he could tell that Esme was likely curled up next to Sarah, by the way the bed dipped on one side. He sighed, and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, before clearing his throat, “I um. I ordered a pizza. But if you need to rest, I can just head him off and um…and get my own room. But I wanted you to know, if you’re even awake, I’m not going anywhere. I want to know more. I want to try to…to understand, because you deserve that. You would do the same for me, and um…if you’re awake, maybe we can just, eat some pizza?”

As Esme waited for Duke to collect himself after the bomb she laid on him, she continued to lay on the bed curled up against Sarah and mumbling to herself. “He’ll get through this, just like he always does. He just needs time to process it…… I put a lot on him at once after so much time apart.” Sighing, she nuzzled more into the pillow and stared at Sarah’s chest as she rubbed it, which was soothing in a strange way. She didn’t think anyone would or could understand how she could be so calm around a Hellhound since they were associated with death and Hell. Maybe it was the fact she was an Empath and could somewhat communicate with them on an emotional level and even shield her from the emotions of others. Which was something she would have never thought possible in a million years. She still thought she was a little crazy for allowing herself to become attached to Sarah and letting her stick around, but she couldn’t deny the fact she was thankful to have found something that shielded her from everyone's emotions.

It was almost as if someone had finally taken pity on her for all the emotional abuse she had endured all her life even if it was in a strange form. Who would have thought that Hellhounds could be a buffer for those that were in tune with the emotional states of those around them? If you were to tell those kinds of people or other hunters, they would deem you crazy without any questions asked, it sounded utterly absurd even though she was right in the middle of it. She laughed softly at the thoughts going through her mind about it all. “Only I could get myself into things as absurd as this.” she told herself faintly. “I know Duke has to think I’m crazy for allowing a Hellhound so close to me and hanging around. The others for sure don’t like that a Hellhound is hanging around. But they don’t understand why I allow it and I’m not sure they would understand even if I explained it to them.” She sighed through her nose and brought the blankets up more around her and rubbed Sarah’s chest some more.

She fell silent once again as thoughts swam through her mind, all of them about what had happened since she had heard of Dean being alive, meeting back up with him, everything that had happened since then, and what they possibly thought of her. In the end, Esme told herself that if they had a problem with anything, they’d come to her and tell her, they were all pretty straightforward individuals. Forcing her mind to focus on better things, she finally managed to relax more and get some rest without worrying about other things. As she laid there, her eyelids began to get heavy and she fought hard to keep her eyes from closing. She was still determined to stay awake until Duke came out of the bathroom, but it was proving difficult. “Come on, Esme. You need to stay awake.” she told herself with a yawn. She dozed off a few times and woke with a slight jump, and a few times Sarah woke her by nudging her gently with a small whine.

By the time Duke came out of the bathroom from his toilet thinking, Esme had dozed off again and Sarah had given up on keeping her awake. When Duke entered the room, Sarah lifted her head from the pillow and nudged Esme awake just before Duke cleared his throat. A little groggy, she listened to his words, almost a bit afraid to turn and face him, but as he continued, a small smile came to her lips as he rambled on and seemed to genuinely not want to interrupt her rest. When he finished, she patted Sarah’s chest, then carefully rolled to her back as Sarah once again slid off the bed and to the floor. She looked over at him, her gaze soft and a soft smile on her lips to keep things light. She wanted to keep things as light as possible after the bomb she had dropped on him, she didn’t want to scare him any more than she already had.

“Oh Bright Eyes.” she started with a soft sigh, knowing how hard he was trying to keep it together for her. “You don’t have to get your own room…… Unless you feel like you need to. Though I’d love nothing more than to sit here and talk while we have some pizza. I don’t want you to be in the dark on anything while you're here, I want you to be able to understand, but I also don’t want to lay any more on you than you can handle. I don’t want to scare you any more than I already have. It’s the last thing I wanted to do.” She then rolled slightly so she could look at him a little better and so she could really see his face, her features still soft but her eyes held some sadness. Her gaze dropped suddenly and a sigh escaped through her nose as she stared at the lump in the blanket that was her foot. “Who am I kidding.” she said faintly to herself before looking back up at him. “To be honest with you…… I…… I don’t want to be left alone. I want you to stay.”

Admitting to Duke she didn’t want to be alone was a surprise to herself, since she was never one to show that side of herself, but it was the truth even if she wasn’t truly alone because of Sarah being in the room. She wanted, no she needed the company of another human being after everything that had gone on that day and the days before especially from one that was like herself in ways. “Will you stay for a little while, please? Then later if you want to get your own room, you can. I won’t stop you.”

NATALIA WINCHESTER

Having Cason so close to her neck made Natalia feel uncomfortable but it was the kind of discomfort that got her irritated. So the fact he was shoving whiskey practically in her face, she felt it was a good enough way to ignore how bad he was with personal spce. If he wasn't so close, she probably would have kept her promise to her brother and not taken the drink. As he pulled back she felt a sense of relief to not have him in her face so much, but then he got closer again and she was convinced he was going to kiss her just to get under her skin all the more, so when he didn't but instead called her princess she gritted her teeth and glared at him.

"Don't ever call me that you got it? No one calls me a damn princess" she sneered at him, trying her hardest to keep some kind of composure and not let him get to her but he was really testing her. "i swear if Dean doesn't pop a cap in his ass I will" she thought to herself as he spoke to her. Hearing him talk about Esme in the way he was, she wasn't sure whether to find it endearing or downright creepy. "Esme will be just fine without you leering over her 24/7 and her and Duke have history, she'll be just fine with him." she began saying, trying to say 'stop creeping on her, at least Duke is a good man' without actually saying it.

"As for the second part, I won't be having a good time when this is work for me alright? I'm trying to do my part in keeping people safe and stopping damn Angels from nuking the town. You'd be the last person I'd pick to have a night out with no matter the situation, you're a bloody demon and my brothers are damn heroes. I won't have you trash talking them in front of me." she told him flatly, not sure she would ever be able to look passed that major part of him. She hoped that Annabeth wouldn't be much longer or the others in general as she just wanted to get this job over with. As for her brothers, she did see them as nothing but heroes, if it wasn't for them storming the asylum the night they did she never would have successfully escaped and would have probably still be in there to this day or worse...dead.

She saw for herself how many people they saved and how compassionate they could be, even if Dean could be brash and volatile at times, but she knew he had a big heart deep down- the way he and Mika stuck together was proof of that in her eyes. She idolised her brothers, even if she did favour Sam just that teensy bit more. The thoughts that came flooding back made her take a gulp and mentally shake them from her mind. Now wasn't the time to be distracted by the past. She permanately dreaded the day she would have to openly tell people what she actually went through in the asylum and admit just how much it haunted her still, she was amazed she managed to keep it secret for as long as she did.

With a sigh, she stared at the door hoping that someone, anyone, would come and break the tense moment between her and Cason. Not being able to take it much longerm she ended up pulling her own phone out and texting Dean as she was convinced it was Annabeth who Cason texted, so she saw no point in texting Sam, even though Sam was always her first go to. 'Dean, if we're going can we go now? Cason decided to invite himself in my room and he's driving me mad already' she text, pressing send and shoving her phone into her jacket pocket.

MIKA CHAMBERS

Mika could see how her simple small actions still managed to calm him even just a little bit, just like they did before he went to Hell. She also agreed that they really needed a win, just once even if she wasn't sure this would be it, she just made herself hope it would be a win. Instead of replying to his comment, she just kissed him back as he planted the tight kiss onto her lips.

As he pulled away and said the next bit, she couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her lips at his comment. it was so typical of him to practically ruin a personal moment with such a comment. With her head leaning into his hand she kept smiling up at him, "That I do" she replied to him with a chuckle as he brushed his hand up through her hair and kissed her nose. "Yeah we probably should, I don't envy Nat that's for sure." she told him.

She just hoped that Cason's attutude and Nat's ability to be extremely snarky (a trait she saw in both Nat and Dean), that nothing would go wrong and neither would end up seriously hurt or dead because one or the other couldn't withstand the other's antics. She pulled on her trusty jacket as she had a feeling it would soon get cold this evening and grabbed what she needed weapon wise, mostly consisting of her handgun with the specially customised witch killing bullets. "i'm guessing it's you, me and Sam in your car and Nat, Annabeth and Cason in Nat's?" she queried her assumption.

SAM WINCHESTER

Annabeth's touching of his chest and moving upwards with her hands made him smile as he looked down at her. Her remark about ass kicking being the only way he would see anything made him chuckle. He then let her continue talking, deciding it was better for her to get whatever it was off her chest now, rather than him interrupting her. Hearing her make him promise that he would come back safe made him smile softly at her and stroke her cheek with his thumb.

"I promise that I will come back relatively unscathed and alive" he promised to her. "I will be fine with Dean and Mika on my team, I just hope you don't have to be in between Nat and Cason, she can be damn snarky when she gets going and annoyed just enough" he smirked and chuckled. It was then he became aware in his periferal vision that Annabeth's phone had an flashing alert on her phone due to a message coming in.

"Think you got a message, probably from Cason" he told her as he put his weapons of choice away into his bag, letting Annabeth go for her phone if she wanted to get it. He knew they couldn't be much longer as he knew Natalia would lose her mind if she was left to thinking about having to deal with Cason for too long, as he was unaware that Cason had just invited himself into her room and was already annoying her.

Cason held his hands up, raising his eyebrows at Natalia’s outburst. But when she mentioned Esme, he frowned deeply and clenched his jaw. He knew from the moment he saw Duke that he had some sort of history with Esme, but he didn’t know the extent of it. Now, judging by the nudity, and the closeness…he had to assume that it was a little more than friendly. The thought made his stomach clench painfully and he groaned.

But Nat wasn’t finished with him. She defended her brothers, while also insulting him, and he held his hand to his chest, feigning anguish, “So mean! You know that demons can actually be helpful, right? I’m still here. I’m still helping your perfect brothers. So, calm down with the insults, or I might leave…and then where will you all be, without me, and my connections?”

He stared down at her phone, the longer she stood and stared at the door, but when she picked it up and texted Dean, he tilted his head to the side, “And now you’re going to get him all worked up again, right? Great. You’ll come to appreciate me. I think you’ll be surprised.”, he chimed, his smile widening to show all of his teeth as he scoffed.



Dean pulled his phone from his pocket as it vibrated and sighed, reading over Nat’s text. He kept his frustration under control, only clenching his jaw for a moment before turning his aggressive gesture into a forced smile, “Looks like Cason’s tried to start the party early. Nat’s ready to kill him and we haven’t even left.”

He texted her back a simple, ‘On our way’, and closed his phone, throwing it back into his pocket as Mika ran over the driving arrangements. He tilted his head from side to side as he weighed them over, “I think that’s our best bet, even though Cason might end up with a missing voice box by the time we get to where we’re going. We should go.”

He turned and grabbed his bag, tossing it over his shoulder, and reached out for Mika’s hand before opening the door to step out.



Anna rolled her eyes at the thought of Cason and Nat getting at each other’s throats. She knew there wasn’t much she could do to get in between them, but she did think she could control Cason, if he got too out of hand. She knew him best, afterall. She reluctantly pulled her hands away from Sam, even though his hand brushing her cheek was a lot more relaxing than anything they were about to deal with. There would be plenty of time for that, when they came out of this.

She groaned as he mentioned her phone, turning to pick it up from the table, “It is Cason. And he’s practically begging us to hurry. I think they’re already ready to kill each other. Should be a fun night!”, she joked, picking up her backpack from the chair in front of her. She turned back to Sam, leaning up on her tiptoes as she picked up his hand. She pressed a careful kiss to his lips and pulled at his hand, “Let’s go save whichever one of them is closest to being killed by the other. I would like for ALL of us to get back unscathed.”



Duke stood awkwardly until Esme turned to him, and just his nickname falling off her lips caused his heart to swell, and calm a bit. He chewed at his lip, just watching her face as she spoke to him, and he shook his head lightly. He wanted anything she wanted to lay on him. He wanted all that she was willing to give, because for the first time since knowing her, he was overwhelmed, but she was his to protect and to keep. They could just…be.

As she admitted that she didn’t want to be alone, Duke inhaled deeply, fighting his legs from jumping back on the bed. He wanted to stay. He wanted to stay with her as long as she would have him, even if he was a little afraid of her powers, and what she had laid on him. He still wanted to stay, “I want to stay.”, he said quickly.

He approached the bed slowly, as if she would suddenly change her mind and hit him if he touched her. He placed his palms on the mattress, carefully crawling onto it, and glanced up at her face, before resting in front of her, and sinking back under the blankets. He scooted, until their noses were almost touching, “I’ll stay as long as you need me to. But…tell me to move or to go…or to fuck off. Don’t be scared to push me away if it’s too much.”

He sighed through his nose, his heart still a bit high in his chest from the lingering anxiety and he brought a shaky hand up to brush a thumb across her cheek. He leaned forward slowly, his head still laid against the pillow, and swallowed heavily, before pressing his lips to hers. The touch was feather light, as if afraid she would break or punch him out, just brushing his lips over her bottom lip as he held his breath.

Esme watched Duke as she finished talking, taking in his face, body language, and his emotions. She still feared he’d bolt for the door out of fear of her powers and after everything she had told him. Though something told her they could work through this, they had always been there for each other before she had left. He’d helped her through disagreements with Dean and plenty of other things when Dean didn’t seem to know how to help. She was pulled from her thoughts and a slight smile crept to her lips when Duke said he wanted to stay. She couldn’t have been happier to hear those words leave his lips, even if she could still feel his fear. The fact that he could still bring himself to stay there with her through his fear spoke volumes to her. It also showed her just how much he still cared for her and wanted to be there for her.

When Duke approached the bed slowly, her eyes never left him. It hurt seeing him move so cautiously towards the bed as if a flip would switch, causing her to change her mind about him being there or lash out. There were only two people she’d want with her right now, two that she considered family, and trusted her life with. As he crawled onto the bed, she could feel her body trying to tense up on her, but she fought against it by taking in a breath and slowly letting it out. By the time he’d rested in front of her, sank back beneath the blankets, and scooted close enough for their noses to almost touch, she was holding her breath without realizing it. As he spoke, she looked into his blue eyes, her gaze growing soft at his words. She nodded softly, finding it hard to find her own words at that moment because of the fact she was getting lost in his gaze.

From the corner of her eye, she saw him bring up a shaky hand, the fact it was shaky held back the flinch she felt coming. Esme’s eyes closed briefly as he brushed his thumb across her cheek and finally let out the breath she was holding in. As he slowly leaned in, she didn’t move her head away. The way he leaned forward so slowly with his head against the pillow and swallowed heavily before lightly kissing her, kind of got to her. Did he really think she would hit him or use her abilities against him at that moment? She really hoped not. Leaning forward slightly, she returned his kiss as her eyes slowly closed, then soon deepened the kiss. After a moment, she slightly pulled back from the kiss so that their noses were touching, opening her eyes to look at him, a warm smile on her lips and in her eyes. Slowly bringing up a hand, she brushed her fingers across his cheek then her thumb.

“I can’t see making you leave anytime soon unless you piss me off.” she whispered softly with a laugh. She then moved her hand up and brushed some of his hair from his face, before letting her hand rest at the back of his head and play with his hair. Tilting her head up, she placed a gentle kiss on his nose, then let her nose touch his again and nuzzled hers with his. “I want you to know, I’ll never use my powers of Empathy on you unless you ask or if I feel I need to, like earlier.” she told him as she continued to play with his hair. “I know my powers scare you. Hell, I’d be scared if I was in your place, but know I’d never hurt you or anyone else. I love you too much to hurt you with them, it would kill me if I ever did.” She looked deep into his eyes to drive home what she was saying, which was the honest truth. The only ones that would get the full taste of her powers were those that came after her, those she cared for, and the monsters they hunted.

NATALIA WINCHESTER AND MIKA CHAMBERS

Nat knew her outburst was probably not fully needed, but he was beginning to really get on her wick about everything. His attitude was so full of smugness that it just got under skin more than it should by this point, but she put it down to the fact that the demons in the asylum that all but tortured her were also incredibly smug about their actions. They all thought nothing could stop them from targeting those hunters or family members of hunters (whether those family members knew it or not like herself).

His reaction just made her roll her eyes as he texted her brother practically an SOS for her sanity. She had a feeling Cason would know who she was texting, but considering he no doubt texted Annabeth, she felt more than justified to text her brother. "Then stop winding me up, if we could just act professional for this I'd be very grateful" she replied to Cason with a sigh, deciding that saying that instead of what she was actually thinking which was 'yeah and demons also have a sadistic streak where they're all but non caring when it suits them'.

At his remark about her texting Dean she sighed yet again. "you'll have a lot of proving to do to make me appreciate you" she pointed out to him, noting how he was putting on that signature smug but flirtatious smile to her again, which made her wonder why she was suddenly being the next target to his ways and not someone else. Sure, she was the only one not in a relationship with someone (something she prided herself on) or being tangled up in but things still felt like the universe was being against her all over again.

Dean's reaction to the text that he got made Mika just know that the subject matter had to be about Cason. It was the only logical assumption she could come up with, so when he confirmed her suspicions by saying what the situation was, she sighed. "Guess we better go save her then. Gotta admit that's ballsy of him to go for her. I mean, she hates demons more than the rest of us, even if we don't fully know why" she commented.

She nodded her agreement that it was entirely possible that Cason might not survive this night unscathed, but then again she couldn't help think it wouldn't fully be a bad idea. She just didn't think it would be entirely great if Natalia dished out the agression as something always told her in her gut that Nat would be more scary and ruthless than Dean could be.

Grabbing her bag, slinging it over her shoulder then taking Dean's hand as he reached out for hers and left their room with him heading straight to Natalia's room. At the room, she did the coded knock Nat always requested of them to do, "Nat it's us" she called through and it wasn't long before she heard Nat jumping up and walking to the front door and opening it, "about time" Nat commented, grabbing for her bag.

SAM WINCHESTER

Sam let Annabeth grab for her phone and read it, grabbing his bag in the process. He hoped that due to Annabeth knowing Cason the best, she could be of some sort barrier between Natalia and Cason. He knew Nat would keep Anna safe and be there for her, even if she was a bit younger than Anna, but he also knew there was a lot of unsaid things that Natalia kept to herself when it came to the subject of demons and with Cason being a said demon, he knew if they weren't careful, things could go south real fast.

At the announcement that the two people in question were ready to kill each other he sighed, pinching his nose and shaking his head. He then looked at Annabeth, "guess we better go save the day if Nat hasn't asked for help herself yet." he started saying. "Do me a favour and do your best to keep Nat calm around Cason tonight? Dean and I saved her from demons, so it won't take much for her to lose her cool around him. I really worry about her, she clearly has PTSD but she won't tell us about it. I don't want Cason triggering something in her" he finished saying.

He too wanted them all to come back unscathed as much as possible, especially Annabeth and Natalia. He may be the middle sibling but he was fiercely protective of Nat even if it didn't always show as much, especially in the time that they all kind of spearated for a bit during Dean's time in Hell. That was something he felt incredibly guilty about as he was so focused at the time trying to Dean back, he felt like he neglected his sister. Something he wanted to make amends for if he possibly could.

Taking her hand when she was ready to go, he left the room with her and headed to Nat's room where he saw Dean and Mika already standing outside. "Seems Nat turned to Dean for help" he remarked, a tiny pang of almost jealousy hitting his heart at that realisation.

Cason’s face fell from a bright smile into curiosity as she agreed to appreciate him more, if he just stopped being provocative and then he heard the edge of her voice, that told him everything he needed to know about why she was so closed off to him. It wasn’t just that she didn’t know him. There was something else. Something stronger than a simple hunter’s disdain for demons.

“Alright. I’m finished.”, he said softly, just watching her face as she waited for her brother to come rescue her, “I just enjoy your company. I won’t hover and I won’t pry into your life, like I did Esme. Clearly that wasn’t as appreciated or even a good idea, really. She’s in pretty rough shape, but I want you to know something.”

He stood straight from the table, and pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants, “I’ll protect you, if you’ll let me. There’s not a demon on this planet that could touch you, unless I get ambushed, which most won’t even try. But you have to let me, and I’ll do my best to not…push you in a weird direction, if you promise me you’ll tell me what demons…”

His words broke off as he heard Mika’s voice ring through the door, and he sighed, turning his eyes toward the floor. He pushed away from the table and walked toward the door, close behind Natalia, only to be greeted with Dean’s scowl.

“Everything okay in here?”, Dean asked, turning his eyes down to Nat’s face. He may not have had the full story about her time in the asylum, but he knew that demons were the one big thing that made her skin crawl. She just happened to be stuck in a room and on a mission with the one demon who seemed better than anyone at making people uncomfortable.

“We’re fine.”, Cason chimed in, grabbing Nat’s bag before she had a chance to pick it up. He shrugged it up on his shoulder, and stepped close to the door, gesturing with his eyes for Dean to move. Dean stared him down for a moment, tightening his grip on Mika’s hand, and then stepped to the side for Cason to get past him, with a low growl.

“Seriously, are you going to be okay today? Be honest with me.”, Dean asked Nat, finally, now that she was alone.



Annabeth raised her eyebrows as Sam asked her to essentially protect Nat and Cason from each other. She nodded slowly, although she wasn’t entirely sure she would be much help, other than her ability to calm Cason down if he was angry. But she nodded her head a little faster, “I promise I’ll try. I want us all to come out alright, even Cason. So, that means working on them both.”

She took Sam’s hand, squeezing tightly as they left the room, to walk over to Nat’s. Seeing Dean there, along with Sam’s eyes meeting their backs, Anna stared up at him and frowned, “Are we surprised? If he showed up in her room, and started his normal heavy handedness, she probably called Dean for a buffer, because you’re nicer. I’m sure Dean would love nothing more than to break Cason’s jaw…again. He’ll heal in a few hours.”

She shrugged as if it was the most normal thing in the world and watched Cason squeeze between Dean and the door frame, walking out toward Nat’s car, “I’ll go work on him, now. If you want. I have to ride with him, anyway. So, I might as well get started early.”

She pulled Sam’s hand up to her lips, and pressed a kiss to his knuckles, smiling sweetly behind his hand. Without another word, she pulled her fingers from his, took a deep breath and stepped away from him, reluctantly, to go and try to smooth over the tension before the car ride that promised to be long and awkward.



Duke was surprised when Esme deepened the kiss, his hair standing on the back of his neck as a jolt of electricity shot down his spine. She was leaning into him. She wanted him to kiss her. The thought brought forward the idea to push her back onto the bed and just…love her. But then she broke the kiss, and her nose brushing across his only furthered the electric buzz along his spine. He smiled softly at her, his skin blushing as she brushed her fingers along his cheek.

He then listened to her intently, furrowing his brow as she told him she didn’t plan to ever send him away. He wasn’t surprised as much as relieved that she wanted him there. She wanted him in her hands, on her lips, just…around. But as she brushed his long blond hair from his forehead and played with the back of his hair, he smiled a little bigger, his eyes burning into hers until she kissed his nose. He couldn’t hold back a wider smirk, his teeth peeking out from behind his lips. He nuzzled her nose a little rougher, and settled into her eyes as she continued speaking.

She spoke his own thoughts back to him, easing his worry a little with every word. He believed with everything he had in his heart that she would never hurt a soul. Esme could never hurt anyone that didn’t absolutely deserve it. He just had to make sure he didn’t deserve it, but as she spoke the worlds ‘I love you too much’, Duke froze and his eyebrows raised almost into his hairline. They had said it to each other when they were younger, when the three of them were an unstoppable trio, scaring any monster they came across, but that was when he was Dean’s best friend. That was when he came with a package. Hearing her say it while they were alone, and he was just himself was a bit shocking.

“So, I don’t have to worry much about gettin’ blown up, or manipulated into givin’ you my wallet…or my heart. Some sort of mental love potion.”, he murmured, brushing his thumb across her cheek as he softened his face into a wider smile, “That’s a relief and I believe you, babydoll. You don’t have to give me the serious…mom face.”

He laughed softly, his body less tense, just at the look in her eyes, and he brushed his fingers across her surprisingly rapid healing eyebrow. He couldn’t help himself and tilted her head back gently, catching her bottom lip between her teeth, before pressing a gentle kiss to her lips, “And I love you too. Just…throwin’ that out there.”

Even if Esme wasn’t fully in tune with her Empathy or an Empath at all, it wouldn’t have been hard to miss how her actions and words affected Duke. His surprise at her deepening the kiss and his soft smile as his cheeks flushed from her touch made her smile to herself. Even before she had said it, she wanted him to know she wanted him there with her. She wanted her actions to speak just as loudly as her words to show him what she said was true and not lies just to make him feel better. She wanted him to know her for who she was now and not be afraid of her because of the unknown or surprising him with it later down the road. What she wanted at that moment, more than anything, even her beloved car, was him there within arms reach, his arms around her, and his lips on hers. She wanted to be locked away with him and away from everything else to have at least a day where she didn’t have to worry about anything she normally did on a daily basis.

She almost lost her hold on her serious face when Duke’s smirk widened to show his teeth from her brushing back his hair and then play with his hair and from kissing his nose. Just seeing him relaxed enough to smirk like this relaxed her as well, then more when he nuzzled her nose and looked into her eyes as she spoke to him. It was a relief when she felt his worry fading with every word she spoke, that’s what she was hoping for. She wanted to ease his worry with her words and her touch, and let him know she’d never hurt a soul that didn’t have it coming to them. She saw how her confession of love affected him, it surprised her that it came out of her mouth with them alone together just being themselves, when every other time it was said they were part of a package. But it was time it was said even if it was shocking and surprising to them, plus there was no denying the love that was between them any longer.

After Duke spoke and brushed his thumb across her cheek, Esme’s serious face faded into a smile that grew to show her own teeth. “No, you don’t have to worry too much about that.” she replied with a soft laugh in her tone. It was a relief he believed what she had told him and that he was less tense now. “You don’t know what a relief it is to hear that you believe me…… The serious mom face was too……” She trailed off, losing her train of thought from the way he looked into her eyes and brushed his fingers over her fast healing eyebrow, then tilted her head back to catch her bottom lip between his teeth then kissed her. She kissed him back before he broke the kiss, a smile rested on her lips, then grew at his words before she sighed contently as she rested her forehead against his, closed her eyes as she rubbed her forehead against his gently. “I know.” she whispered with a soft smile. Releasing his hair, she brought her hand to his cheek and softly brushed her lips across his.

“It’s been so long since I’ve heard those words.” she spoke faintly, her lips just inches from his as a few tears escaped her closed eyes. She pulled herself closer to Duke, feeling the need to be closer to him, brushed her lips against his once more before softly kissing him. Her hand slid from his cheek to the back of his head and her fingers tangled into his hair. She could feel the rest of her worries about Duke fading away as well as the tension her body had, it wasn’t long until she was completely at ease there with Duke. The only thing that could ruin the moment was the pizza arriving since the others had the case to worry about, which she hoped they could take care of and come back in one piece and not too badly injured.

NATALIA WINCHESTER AND MIKA CHAMBERS

Before Natalia had opened the door, she found herself unable to look Cason in the face after she said what she did, and thought what she thought. She kept trying to convince herself of the facts- he was proving useful to their group when it came to this case and been helpful when it came to bringing Esme back, despite the bad shape she was in and that he had extra information he gave them all. Yet all that was still hard to overtake the past experience she had with demons outside of the hunting world, and he still was seeming to make an effort to be nice to her.

These facts only got proven once again when he told her he would protect her. In that very second when those words came out of his mouth and hit her ears, she went wide eyed and damn, she even went breathless for that moment. A demon that was so willing to protect her!? Was she in some kind of weird alternative universe or something? Why would Cason want to protect her? It didn't make a heap of sense to her.

If it wasn't for Mika's voice calling through the door to alert her that Dean and Mika were there, she would have found it incredibly difficult to either not let a tear fall down her face in shock and Cason somehow hitting a spot in her heart that she hadn't had hit since Sam and Dean saved her and agreed to get her the hell out of that asylum. Skaing those thoughts and the echoing words of Cason's from her mind, she had opened the door and said what she did to Dean.

Then for a third moment, Cason had surprised her by grabbing her bag and exiting the room swiftly with it, clearly heading to her car, but not before Cason and Dean exchanged scowls and short words. She noticed how Dean's grip tightened round Mika's hand and how Mika instinctively stood closer to Dean, slightly behind to make more room for Cason to get out of the room and head to the car.

With Dean looking back down at her and asking her yet again if she would be okay, she sighed. "I'll be fine" she said, her words coming off a bit harsher than she actually intended them to be. She didn't like being short with Dean or Sam, so when her words came across as that, she visibly winced in regret. "honestly...I'll be okay" she repeated in a much more calm tone and looked him in the eyes. She couldn't hide the conflicted torment that was in her eyes but she could hide why it was reering its ugly head all over again. The same torment that she had in her eyes the night they saved her.

"I just wanna get this over with Dean, if it gets too much I'll bail out. I promise" she told him before he could even think about suggesting it to her. She also had a feeling that after tonight, depending on how things went down she would have to open up about what happened to her to them. It wasn't a surprise to her that the big conversation would have to happen at some point, she just hoped it didn't have to be tonight, but it seemed the world thought otherwise.

"Nat if y-" Mika began to speak softly from behind Dean but Natalia just rose her hand up to shh the woman. "I said I'll be fine and I'll remove myself fromt he job if I compromise it okay? Just...lets get it over with!" she said exasperated, grabbing the room key and exiting the room, shutting the door firmly behind her and speed walking to her car, pullng out her car key whilst putting the room key in the same pocket, seeing Annabeth had made her way to Cason and the car.

Mika looked between Dean and Natalia a couple of times wondering what the hell went down in the room to have made Natalia's attitude go from positive and jokey to the stand off-ish old Nat they hadn't seen in a very long time. In fact it had been so long Mika could barely recall the last time she saw Nat in such a mood that wasn't related to Dean being sent to Hell. "what the hell was that?" she asked Dean.

SAM WINCHESTER

Sam felt more relieved when Annabeth said she would look out for Natalia. He knew that Nat could handle herself, he knew whatever she had managed to survive before they came into her life, it was rough and if she could survive that, she could survive dealing with Cason. What he didn't know, like Dean didn't, was just how bad it was. All he could tell was that Natalia clearly had PTSD from whatever it was and out of the many things they had spoken about together when Dean had done the many food runs , what went down in the asylum was never a topic.

"Thank you, I know she can look after herself but I still feel incredibly protective over her." He replied as they had began walking to Nat's room and then saw the confrontation that was happening albeit in a restrained manner. He couldn't help but smirk ever so slightly at Annabeth's words, knowing she was probably more right than either of them may have wanted her to be. "No doubt, she only ever calls for Dean if she feels it's really needed. Otherwise it's always me" he explained to her. Words that held a heavier meaning than anyone else would understand.

At her suggestion of going over to Cason and begin the process of lowering the tension, he nodded, thinking it was a good idea. "You are one amazing woman" he smiled to her as she kissed his knuckles before pulling away from him. "See you on the other side" he said again as she walked away to Nat's car and over to Cason.

He began walking up to Dean, Mika and Nat, deciding to purposely go slowly so Dean could attempt to get something out of Nat. Hovering back, it seemed that neither Mika or Dean were getting very far with Natalia, as it wasn't long before he was Nat abruptly exiting her room and looking all the highly strung woman they first had to deal with. He knew in that moment that it wasn't a good idea to call out to Nat, and instead just leave her to calm in her own time.

Reaching Dean and Mika he looked at them both, "How bad is she? I can't help but think we're gonna have to get the past out of her sooner than later if Cason is going to be hanging around" he said to them both, looking at Mika first then to Dean.

“So, why do you look like you want to kill everyone all the sudden?”, Annabeth asked as she stepped up behind Cason. He was trying to figure out the best way to get into the car, with Nat’s bag on his shoulder, “Did you try the handle?”

Cason turned to glare at her, but she passed him quickly and pulled the backseat door open with her eyebrows raised. Huffing, he tossed Nat’s bag in the backseat and stepped back to shove his hands in his jacket pockets, “I don’t honestly want to talk about it with you, of all people. And if you must know…I’m feeling a bit under appreciated right now. Can you get in the car?”

“No.”, Anna said simply, crossing her arms to stare at him. She rolled her eyes and shifted to one leg, “You’re feeling under appreciated because Esme isn’t interested in your bullshit, while she’s resting? Seems a little extreme. Also, I never said I didn’t appreciate you. I’m just still healing from the whiplash of finding out that the man I’ve been sleeping with for the past five years is a demon. Takes a minute, you know?”

“So, you’re cool with going on a date with me?”, Cason asked, his tone aggravated but hopeful. Anna shrugged.

“Why not? I mean, Sam is gonna be there. So, I don’t have to worry about you trying to get back with me, and I know you’re not going to do anything too stupid and get everyone killed. Let’s date!”, Anna reached a hand out and slapped his arm roughly, as she glanced over and saw Nat walking toward them. She stepped past him and crawled into the backseat, scooting Nat’s bag over, and then tossing her own backpack on top of it.



Dean reached carefully for Nat as she snapped at Mika and quickly closed everything up, walking to her car. He sighed, and wiped that hand through his hair, before dropping that hand to his side and turning to Mika with his eyebrows raised, “Honestly? It’s stuff she’s never really talked about, and I don’t even know where to start. Best to just let her do this her way, I guess. Keep her within arms reach, and save her if she gets in over her head.”

As Sam approached them, Dean simply shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, “That’s what I was just telling Mika. It seems Cason being around her is just making things bubble up. I hope she doesn’t snap, while he’s within proximity of too many weapons. We need them all in one piece through this. Let’s get this overwith, yeah?”

He tugged at Mika’s hand, and turned to walk toward the Impala. Once there, he opened the trunk, tossing his bag inside, and then quickly walked around to the drivers side. The stress was already running high and no one had even pulled a gun. Dean took one more glance at Nat’s car, before he sighed and sat down in the drivers seat.



Duke smiled a gently, his eyes a bit tired and hazy as he stared at her face and the words ‘I know’ left her lips. He stayed still as she brought her hand to his cheek and her lips brushed over his as she spoke, but then his brow furrowed. He pulled his hand down to cup her cheek, his fingers wrapping around her jaw. He brushed his thumb under her eye, and then pulled that hand away to brush the tears from the other side of her face and he shook his head, “You deserve to hear them every day. I ain’t nothin special, but I’ll volunteer.”

He teased her with a small smile, but as she pulled him closer, his smile began to fade into a pleasant smirk, and he gladly kissed her back. Having her initiating a kiss just sent his heart running off somewhere even further into the distance, away from him. He tightened his hand around her jaw and deepened the kiss, leaning her back quickly, this time. As he caged her in, he tangled his legs with hers carefully, trying to avoid her injuries.

His fingers traced the top of the towel around her chest, and he paused as the knock at the door pulled a flinch from him. He pulled from the kiss and sighed in frustration, pressing his forehead tightly to hers, “Pizza got here pretty quick.”, he laughed breathlessly, stroking his fingers across her cheek before scooting back off the bed. He tightened the towel around his waist and walked to the door to grab the pizza. He swiped his wallet from the dresser, and pulled a bill from it, before opening the door of the room with a wide smile. When he turned around, he had a large box in his hand, and he closed the door, wiggling his eyebrows, “Now…to seduce the lady with food.”

NATALIA WINCHESTER

By the time Nat had reached her car, she had missed the entire conversation that was had between Annabeth and Cason so she had no clue what they were discussion but she wasaware that they were talking, judging by the body language and how they were looking at each other. Just before she reached them properly, she gave an exhale to calm herself and her blood pressure, wondering how things could have gone so happy go lucky and amusing for her, to downright stressful and borderline triggering for her. Cason hadn't triggered her PTSD before now, so why was he being her trigger now?

Not only that, his parting words about protecting her were still very much on her mind. As she reached them, she saw Annabeth decided to go in the back seat with the bags which meant Cason was siting shotgun which made her sigh yet again to herself. "I guess we're all ready to go then" she remarked to Cason as Anna had already made herself comfortable in the back seat. She wanted to apologise for her attitude, but she just couldn't bring herself to do so..not yet anyway.

She walked round to the driver's side and opened the door, getting in, gesturing for Cason to do the same thing. Once in the car she put the key in the ignition and waited for everyone to be ready to go before bringing her car to life and without even looking back to see if her brothers and Mika were ready to go, she just started to drive out the car park and toward the cemetary where this so called party was being held. "So is there anything we need to know about this frat party that you know of?" she asked Cason, trying to show she wasn't angry at him for anything he had actually done or not done.

MIKA CHAMBERS AND SAM WINCHESTER

Mika got that it was probably something around what Natalia had never told any of them, but it still didn't stop her asking what this suddenly 360 degree whiplash of attitude change. It had been a while since any of them witnessed such a moment in Natalia and honestly, it concerned Mika greatly. She even wasn't sure if letting Nat be involved in the hunt tonight was even a good idea but she also knew that trying to tell Nat that was even worse of an idea.

"I guess it's all we can do, doesn't make it any less worrying with her though. I don't like it when she gets like this, it's worrying and it's when she gets the most dangerous." she replied as she saw Sam reach them and ask his own concerns for his younger sister. She nodded her agreement to both Sam and Dean's comments, before just letting Dean tug her toward his car as she saw Natalia going on ahead with Annabeth and Cason.

Like Dean, she tossed her bag in the trunk once they got to the car, as did Sam who was the last to do so, meaning he was the one to close the trunk. Mika sat in the front this time, making Sam sit in the back when both were ready to get into the car, both noticing that Dean took a glance at Natalia's car. Clearly all the concern for the youngest Winchester was also evidently plaguing Dean's mind as well.

"She'll be okay Dean, and if she's not? Then we'll remind her we're all here for her." Mika said, trying to give some kind of reassurance to him. She knew in the early days of them having Natalia in their ranks, he and Nat butted heads more so than with any of the rest of them, but she also knew Dean cared about Nat a lot more than the outward actions and body language sometimes showed.

"She's right Dean, I never know how but Nat always bounces back at some point." Sam commented in agreement, but his tone gave away just how worried he was about her. What none of them knew was that this time Natalia may not bounce back like they've seen before and it was only a matter short time before they got the shock of their lives with her.

Cason nodded his head as Nat came up to the car, and he scooted toward the passenger door. He didn’t say anything, only slipping into the seat. He closed the door behind him and chewed at his lip, staring through the windshield for a few moments as the girls got settled and Nat turned the engine over, leaving the parking lot. He was shaken from his thoughts as Nat spoke up, after they were on the road, and he tilted his head to the side, erasing his sour look from his face.

“From what I gathered, the kids are all going to be gathering in a crypt, because kids are stupid. If the lore is correct, they are all being served up on a silver platter for whatever Samhain draws out.”, he explained, before sighing, “And from the rest of what I gathered, we’re the babysitters. If I’m wrong, we’ll just be surrounded by alcohol and idiotic teenagers. If I’m right, we need to be prepared for what will be in that cemetery, at any point.”

He tapped his fingers on his thighs, and then pointed a finger, as if remembering something, “And there’s more than one crypt. One of your brothers will have to babysit the other one. But to be honest, there is no plan…only a roadmap of potential ritual spots. Hopefully everyone has their phones handy.”

“Well that’s not vague at all. I thought you had important information…”, Anna spoke up from the back seat.

“That is important information. You wanted a ritual location. I gave you one: the cemetary. It’s not like there’s a newspaper with theme park maps and push pins.”, Cason muttered grumpily, his frustration with the group’s lack of appreciation coming through in his voice.



Dean sighed as Sam and Mika both told him essentially to relax when it came to Nat’s behavior, but he couldn’t help the pain in his stomach. He messed with her, and he could be cruel at times with his teasing and the things that he said about her actions, but he loved her nonetheless. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel and turned the engine over, “I don’t know that it makes me feel much better to just let her run off with a demon.”

He tilted his head to the side and wrinkled his nose, “But I hate to say it…she’s safer with him than she is alone. He seems to want to protect the girls. Did you see the way he grabbed Nat’s bag, like it was too heavy?”, he scoffed, realizing that he did the same to Mika, all the time, just out of his overwhelming need to do everything. He would carry her if she would let him. But seeing Cason grab Nat’s bag, made Dean’s mind whirl with what his intentions could be, “Maybe it’ll be…just an interesting night. We need to be prepared for anything. Literally anything. We have stakes. We have the knife. We have machetes. And we don’t know if a damn one of them will work against whatever is coming…but we haven’t been attacked yet. Maybe the angels have decided to help?”

Esme’s heart fluttered at his words before she had pulled herself closer to him, even if he was teasing her, it was nice to hear the words, they made her heart swell and made her feel warm and fuzzy which was something she hadn’t felt in what seemed like forever. When Duke tightened his grip around her jaw and deepened the kiss then quickly leaned her back, she smiled behind the kiss and held back a giggle, her heartbeat picking up a bit as he caged her in and tangled his legs with hers, moving her legs a bit to help him avoid her injures. Her free hand came up to rest on his cheek, while her other slid from the back of his head to the side of his neck as she melted into the kiss and the pillows of the bed. She was in complete bliss and was aware of nothing but Duke's emotions, breathing, heartbeat, and touch as everything else had faded away.

Her heartbeat picked up a little more and a new smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she felt him tracing his fingers around the top of her towel, but it faded quickly as she jumped from the sudden knock at the door. As he pulled from the kiss and sighed, she did the same as he pressed his forehead tightly to hers. His words and frustrated sigh brought a new smile to her lips and another small sigh from herself from yet another disruption. “Yes, it did.” she replied in a breathless laugh as he stroked her cheek. She was half tempted to hold onto him to prevent him from leaving the bed, but she loosened her grip on him as he scooted back and off the bed. Once his feet had hit the floor, she rolled to her side, propped her head on her arm, watching him as he adjusted his towel and went to the door. She rolled back slightly as she heard Sarah growling and heard her sit up. “Easy Sarah. It’s alright, it’s just the pizza guy.” she told her softly. “No need to get yourself worked up.”

Once Sarah had stopped growling, Esme rolled back to watch Duke, a soft smile rested on her lips as she watched him grab his wallet before opening the door. She couldn’t see it, but she knew he had a wide smile on his face just by what she felt in the room. When he turned around and closed the door, she looked at the large box before looking back at him. When he wiggled his eyebrows and spoke, she couldn’t hold back the laugh that escaped her, it made her think back on times when they were the unstoppable trio. They were times she thought back on fondly and made her happy that he hadn’t changed or lost that part of himself during their time apart. “Seduction with food, hm?” she said through her laugh as she brushed some hair from her face. “Just how does one seduce a lady with food?” Her tone was playful and a playful smirk had also made its way to her lips as she looked at him.

NATALIA WINCHESTER

Cason's sudden change of attitude didn't go amiss on Natalia and she couldn't help but wonder if it wasn't just Dean's hostility toward him due to his protective was of her that was playing on Cason's mind. The idea of it just being also down to him feeling under appreciated didn't feel like it could be main reason either but she felt she didn't know him enough to say anything, not only that she had her own memories trying to push to the forefront of her mind all over again, as well as the anxiety of his words to her before Dean and Mika interrupted them.

So when she could push everything to back of her mind just enough to ask Cason for more information about the hunt they were going into, she was glad he replied to her and gave her enough information that she could mull that over and not her horrific memories. The idea of school kids being practically hoarded into a crypt like cattle or lambs to the slaughter didn't sit well with her in the slightest. It made her think of how the demons lured her into what she was thinking of a safe place, thinking she was going to be released from the asylum, only to be shoved into another room for more torture.

Her thoughts made her barely hear what Anna was saying to Cason in response, but Cason's moment of practically snapping at Anna made her come out of her thoughts. "Cason is right Anna, it might not seem like much but for people like me, it's valuable information. As inconvenient as it is that there's more than one crypt in this cemetery, at least we know to find the one with the hoards of possibly already drunk students in Halloween costumes. There's bound to be some kind of hints laid out around the cemetery to show people where to go." she replied.

She then glanced at Cason, "so thank you Cason, I appreciate it" she told him truthfully as she glanced back at the road ahead of her. "I'm hoping this is a dead end and false lead but my head and heart is telling me we're sadly on the right track. You're right in thinking we need to be prepared for absolutely anything, whether it's witches, spirits, or anything else" she added. "we can only hope that the boys and Mika can stop it from the outside before anything happens in our location" she thought out loud.

MIKA CHAMBERS AND SAM WINCHESTER

The two of them didn't think their words would bring instant relief to Dean, they knew him too well for that after all, but they did hope it would eventually help him think rationally and help him work on reassuring himself that Natalia would be okay. Yet they would also be lying if they said they weren't worried sick about Natalia as well. Of course they were, Sam felt incredibly protective of his little sister, more so as he was the first one to find her that night. Dazed, head marked from whatever they did to her and medicated to high heavens, stumbling through the corridor as she exited her room in her lounge wear all patients were made to wear.

It was a sight that Sam was certain he would never forget. She was out of it but there was no denying that level of fear in her glazed over eyes, scrawny from what he could only assume was starvation, desperate to leave, begging him in a slurred voice to save her and get her out of there. It broke his heart then, and on days it came back to his mind, it broke his heart all over again.

Both he and Mika looked at Dean when he pointed out how Cason grabbed Nat's bag for her just as Dean always did for Mika, one thing he said that actually brought a sad smirk to Mika's face. "yeah, that didn't go unnoticed. Along with how he got defensive, standing in front of her" she replied then thought about the rest of what Dean was saying, "I agree. When it comes to Samhain we could be walking into just about anything, something we know well or something new entirely. But I hope you're right and the Angels are actually doing their part to help us out. But I'm unsure if we can rely on our hope for that" she said, wanting to be hopeful but just couldn't shake the foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach.

-----THE CEMETERY------

Arriving at the cemetery, Nat pulled up and parked, closing her eyes for a moment to try and get her mind focused all over again. Her grip on the steering wheel was tighter than it normally would be as she was finding it harder and harder to remain focused but she refused to pull herself out of the hunt. "let's get this over with" she told Cason and Anna as she pulled the keys out and shoved them in her jeans pockets.

Stepping out of the car, she closed the door behind her and headed straight to the back door opposite to Anna's door and pulled out her bag, rummaging through it and armed herself with as much as she could conceal like knives, a machete, guns and ammunition before she zipped up the bag and chucked it back in the backseat.

She looked out for her brothers and all too familiar view of the impala, shoving her shaking hand in her pocket to try and hide how she was truly feeling.

Cason raised his eyebrows as Nat essentially agreed with him, and praised him all within a few seconds, an absolute surprise to him. He turned to look at her, scanning her face, and then he let his eyebrows fall into a proud smirk. He nodded, “As bad as it hurts me to say it out loud, I do trust your brothers. If they play their cards right, we’ll just be headed to a Halloween party.”

He turned to side eye the backseat as Anna took a breath to retort to him, “And until we hear otherwise, we should just try to have fun. I’m not that bad to hang out with, am I? Anna? Tell Nat. I’m fun.”, he teased, trying to lighten his own mood with Nat’s efforts. If she wasn’t going to complain and be as rude to him as her brothers, he would keep the pleasantries, while keeping her safe.

“You’ll both be safe.”, he started again, before turning back to scan Nat’s eyes from his side, “I promise you, that. Relax. Enjoy the night. We’ll intervene if we have to…”

————-



Cason nodded shortly to Nat as she turned to get out of the car, after a moment of silence. He wanted to reach out, and try to make sure her head was on straight, but he was still afraid to touch her. After a moment, he followed her movements, opening his door and stepping out. Before he even opened Anna’s door for him, the Impala rolled up, and parked next to them.

He opened Anna’s door, gesturing for her to get out of the car with a huff, and she slipped off the back seat, having already stashed as many weapons as she could in her less than ideal outfit for a fight. She pressed her hands against his chest for a moment to gain her stability, and then quickly pushed him away to stroll over to the Impala, while calling out to Dean the second he stepped out, “Are you guys good? If we’re gonna make this look realistic, I think we have to split, here…”

“We do have to split here…”, Cason called out over her voice, and she turned to shoot him a glare, “I’ll take the girls. They’ll be safe with me at the party, and if anything comes up, I’m the hardest of the three to kill. So, I’ll keep them safe, regardless what you’re probably thinking.”

Dean furrowed his brow, still wondering what Cason’s angle was, “I’m not thinking anything, except that you seem lonely and like you would love nothing more than to take advantage of any one of the girls…You know what will happen if they raise a hand and ask for help.”

“Yes, Dean. I’m aware that you’ll slice my head off…blahblahblah. Let’s just go. We can fight later…again.”, Cason rolled his eyes and mocked Dean, which only made Dean clench his fists angrily at his sides, “And next time, I won’t let you beat me…”

“That’s enough. You boys can measure dicks later. We have a job to do…”, Anna reached out and wrapped an arm across Cason’s chest, turning him back toward Nat’s car. He chuckled, but didn’t turn back to egg Dean on further. Getting him that mad in such a short time was enough of a reward, for now.

“Let’s go dance…and drink…and be a thruple, before your brother slits my throat tonight, eh?”, Cason teased Nat with a wide smile.



Duke shrugged at Esme’s question as he brought the pizza to set it on the bedside table, pointing at it, “Well…you feed her. You tell her she’s beautiful. Feed her a little more. Once she has her belly full, and she enjoyed all that pizza, then you can just whisper sweet nothings in her ear and…seduction happens?”

He laughed, his wide smile meeting his eyes as he stood near the edge of the bed, glancing nervously over at Sarah. His smile never faded from his face, however, and he raised his eyebrows, leaning in close to Esme’s face, “Would that work? I mean…there was a day when you could have touched my knee and I would have been ruined for a month. At least I’ve grown up enough to touch your skin…and seduce you.”

He flipped the box open, and picked it up, carrying it with him as he crawled onto the bed on his knees, and sat it in front of her. He finally dropped himself to land against the pillows with another laugh, “How are you feeling, now?”