[h2]Esme[/h2]
Esme watched Dean’s face contort into a frown when she decided to forego the usual remedies for pain. She could also tell he was ready to argue with her about it, but her smile seemed to have won him over. It was always funny to her how her smile could win him over in an argument. It made her smile even more. She had also noticed how he seemed to zone out before she reassured him she didn’t need anything for the pain she was feeling. Esme couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking before his attention was pulled back to her. When he conceded, she smiled warmly, letting her hand drop as he rolled her over. Esme did her best to hide her wince in pain as he did, and again after, he slipped his arm under her head and pulled her to lay on his chest. She gave a little laugh at his words, which she immediately regretted from the pain she felt shooting through her torso. “Would you have wanted it any other way?” she teased softly. Then she moved her arm just enough to rest her hand on his stomach, feeling completely content and relaxed. 

Esme sighed softly, gently nuzzled her head against Dean’s chest, and yawned. She was becoming more relaxed by the minute and could feel herself drifting off, but she wasn’t ready to drift off just yet. She wanted to lay there for a moment and listen to his breathing and heartbeat while he was in “puppy mode,” as she liked to call it. Sleep soon won out, and she drifted off with a soft nuzzle against his chest and a sigh. 




[b]The next morning[/b]

Esme was in such a deep and peaceful sleep that she didn't feel Dean shuffle himself from under her head and then sweetly lay her face against the doubled pillow. When her face touched the pillow, she breathed deeply and shifted slightly but continued sleeping peacefully. She was so exhausted from the day before that it would take much more than Dean moving off the bed and putting a pillow under her head to wake her. Moments after Dean left the room, Esme’s peaceful sleep turned into the complete opposite. She began to twitch and softly whimper in her sleep, and her breath quickened. A few moments passed before she bolted upright in the bed, hissing as pain shot through her sore body. “Not again.” she whispered as she closed her eyes and sighed. Esme brought a hand up and carefully wiped the sleep from her eyes, then opened her eyes and looked around the room, momentarily forgetting where she was. “It wasn’t a dream…. I really am here.” she sighed. She then looked to her right to see Dean was already up and downstairs by the bickering she heard traveling up the stairs. She softly shook her head, smiling.

Carefully and painfully, Esme got off the bed, changed her clothes, and attempted to tame her hair while looking in a small mirror in the room. She sighed as she looked at herself. Her face was bruised and slightly swollen on the right side, and she had bruises on her neck and arms. “Don’t you just look beautiful.” she told her reflection sarcastically. She looked downright terrible. She could easily cause a child to cry with one look. Sighing again, Esme let her hair fall in front of the right side of her face, then turned from the mirror, headed to the door, and walked out to the stairs. She stood there listening to the bickering between Dean and Duke while also taking in the smells of bacon and coffee. Her gaze focused on the stairs before her, and grimaced. “This is going to hurt like hell.” she whispered. Esme slowly descended the stairs, wincing and gritting her teeth with every step she took. Once at the bottom, she stopped to collect herself, regulate her breathing, and wait for most of the pain to subside. She then made her way to the kitchen, stopping just shy of the doorway as she heard Bobby’s comment.

 “You know…. You boys make it hard for a girl to get her beauty sleep with all the bickering going on.” she said after a few minutes. Esme crossed her arms loosely across her stomach as she tried her best to hide how much it hurt standing there, but she knew her eyes would likely betray her. Looking into her eyes would almost always tell you how she felt, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.