[h2]Esme[/h2]
Esme did her best to keep up with Dean as they walked up the hill to the cars with Duke, his longer strides making it a little challenging. Nearing the top of the hill, she glanced over at Dean to see which car they would take. At his signal, she walked with him around the Impala, also noticing Mika picking something up off the ground. Once at the driver’s side backseat, and the door was open, Esme did what she could to help Dean get Duke lying in the backseat, which wasn’t much because of the room. She stood at the side while the two exchanged a few words, her head popping up to look over the Impala as Mika spoke. “What?” she said in surprise, moments before Dean jogged over to Mika. When Anna murmured, Esme’s eyes shifted over to her, her words causing her to tense up. Her gaze went back to Dean as he growled, then flinched at his scream. This night was just getting worse and worse, and she knew Dean wouldn’t be able to take much more. None of them could. It was all getting to be too much to handle. They didn’t need more. 

When Dean looked back to Mika and asked her his question, Esme turned her gaze to the woman. Esme could clearly see that the woman was struggling to get out the words to tell Dean. Making sure Duke was all the way in the Impala, Esme shut the door and quickly walked around the back of the car. She stopped beside Mika, looked at the items in her hands, and then took the pamphlet. She lifted the pamphlet to look at it. As soon as her eyes fell on the picture of the asylum, her face went ghostly white, and she began to tremble. All the memories she had suppressed from that place flooded her mind instantly. Esme fell back against the Impala, nearly falling through the open door. It was then she realized that she and Natalia had more in common than she thought. They had both been taken to that god-forsaken place, held captive, and tortured. Taking a deep breath to collect herself, she looked up at Dean. “She’s been taken to the asylum.” she told him, her voice shaking. She sat on the edge of the backseat and turned the pamphlet over, seeing a note written in red. She read it in a shaky whisper. 

Little Dove, 
You’ve been away from home for far too long. 
It’s time to come home, Little Dove. Come alone, or the little Winchester girl dies.
If you’re followed, she dies, and I’ll let you use your imagination for what will happen to the others. 
Valdin

[h3]At the hospital[/h3]
Esme quickly got out of the Impala as the nurses rushed out. As soon as they had Duke on the gurney, she was at his side, holding his hand as they made their way inside. When a nurse stopped Dean, she looked back and met his gaze, giving him a look to say she would update him when she could. She turned back to look at Duke as the nurse that had stopped Dean came up and put a respirator on Duke. “Stay with me, Duke.” she whispered, then kissed his fingers. She pulled her eyes from Duke when the nurse spoke to her, feeling how suspicious the woman was of her. “I am.” she replied, her voice cracking. Esme followed as far as the nurse would allow her and reluctantly let Duke’s hand slip from hers as the nurse stopped her. “Come back to me.” she whispered. She watched after Duke until he was out of her sight, barely earring the nurse's words. She knew there was nothing she could do at this point but let the nurse take her blood and wait. The nurse was right; it would take a miracle for Duke to walk out of here. 

Esme was then led to a room and placed in a chair to have her blood drawn. The nurse went to roll up the sleeve of her jacket, but Esme pulled her arm away. She unzipped her jacket and pulled her left arm out with a wince as pain shot through her shoulder from the movement. Once her arm was free of the sleeve, she laid her arm out in front of the nurse, who looked at her concerned. “We’ll have to take a look at that shoulder later.” the nurse said, then went to work drawing Esme’s blood. She nodded silently to the nurse, closed her eyes, and reset her head in her right hand, praying for a miracle to happen and have Duke come back to her alive. Once the nurse had Esme’s blood, she told her not to move before she quickly left the room. Esme said nothing as the nurse left. Opening her eyes, she lifted her head from her hand, pulled her arm into her lap, and pulled her jacket over her shoulder. She pulled out her phone with shaky hands and texted Dean. “Duke’s in surgery, and they’ve taken my blood to give him.”

A few minutes after she texted Dean, a male nurse came with juice and crackers for her. She couldn’t bring herself to eat the crackers. Her stomach was too knotted up to eat anything, even something as small as crackers, but she did drink the juice. “Can I look at that shoulder?” he asked after she had drank a bit of the juice. “Yes.” she said, her voice cracking again. She could have said no, but she knew he would insist and not leave until she said yes. As he examined it, she winced as he moved it around, and then he asked the dreaded question: how did they end up in this shape? She turned her head from him and closed her eyes tightly. Everything played out behind her closed lids, and she began to cry silently. After a bit, the nurse left her alone with her thoughts, not saying much as he went. Now alone, she pulled the pamphlet for the asylum from her pocket, looking at the words in red as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I never thought I would have to see that place again.” she whispered. “How can I go? I can’t just leave Duke here.”