[h3] Dean [/h3]

Dean chuckled at Esme’s very good point. He was never one to turn down sex, even if he was in the worst pain of his life. There were more than one way to navigate things. But he really did want to make sure she was okay, before he allowed himself to potentially injure her worse than she would admit she was feeling. 

Her insistence that she was okay enough to forego the normal remedies for the pain she was obviously feeling caused him to frown, ready to argue. But the smile on her face was enough to win him over in any argument. It was a weakness. She had a chokehold on his emotions and as much as he tried to hold her at arms length when they first met, she had broken through something in his brain. All that pain, emotion and self hatred fell away when she was around, or at least it fell away enough to let her love him.

Did she love him? 
Wait…did he love her? That wasn’t even a subject he knew how to navigate, at this point in his life. He was a hunter. Love, especially new love, was sort of out of the question. As Dean zoned out and scanned Esme’s face, trying to find answers to his own internal struggle, she reminded him that she didn’t need anything and for the first time since they had known each other, he conceded.

“Alright. Well…” He rolled over her, moving to lay flat on his back on the small bed.  He then carefully slipped his arm under her head, pulling her to lay on his bare chest with a sigh, “If that’s all its gonna take to save the day, I’ll take it as a double win. I get the girl and the girl gets some much needed sleep.”





[b] The next morning [/b]

Dean blinked as the harsh light from the window hit his eyes. He frowned and opened his eyes, turning them toward the window and wiping his right eye harshly with his hand. He wasn’t used to waking up with anyone, and so Esme’s weight took him off guard, and he quickly turned back to his left and took a deep breath. She looked so peaceful, sleeping on his chest. He couldn’t help himself, bringing his hand up to brush a bit of hair from her face, pushing it behind her ear, careful to avoid any of the overly sore areas he knew had to hurt.

The smell of bacon and coffee were filling the house a little more every second, and Dean just knew that Bobby and Duke were downstairs, gossiping away the morning, probably eating up all the food. With a reluctant sigh, Dean glanced toward the door, playing over in his head how he would be able to get out from under Esme’s head and out that door. 

He began to shuffle, pulling his body, little by little to the side, until her head gently began to fall onto the pillow. He quickly reached his hand up and doubled the pillow, so her head wouldn’t fall too hard, and then gently laid her face against it. Hovering his hands, he made sure her breathing stayed even and she didn’t wake up, and then quickly shuffled off the bed and onto his feet, like diffusing a bomb.

As he padded downstairs, he buttoned his jeans he had just pulled on, and scratched absentmindedly at the back of his head. Before he could step into the kitchen, Duke stepped into view and smiled brightly. He was standing there, in the kitchen, his cowboy hat perched on his head, in only jeans. His smile was judgmental and caused Dean to roll his eyes.

“Mornin’ sweetheart!” Duke chimed, picking his piled plate off the counter, before sitting down at the table. Bobby didn’t even look up from his paper as he picked up his coffee cup and took a sip. Dean waved Duke off, smacking his cowboy hat over his eyes on his way to the food. “Rough night?”

“No. Not a rough night. Sleepy night. And keep your voice down. Esme’s still asleep.” Dean grumbled, making a plate for Esme with his back turned to Duke. Duke chuckled and took a bite of his bacon.

“Sure. I’m sure there was no way that after that little outburst, you just…went to bed.”

“I am capable of not having sex with a woman, just because she yelled at me. I know…foreign concept to you, right?” Dean scolded Duke, and Bobby cleared his throat.

“And if you don’t shut your mouths, that ‘Esme’s sleeping’ concept is going to be lost.” Bobby chimed in, glaring at both of them over his paper.