[h3] Anna [/h3]

Anna almost smiled as Sam seemed to breathe in her actions. He always seemed to calm along with her as long as she was playing with his hair and holding him close. Their heartbeats syncing could be stressful at time, because there was never any warning for which of them was going to be ‘the one’. So, if either of them was particularly stressed, there was a chance the other would feel every bit of it.

As Sam’s nose nudged hers, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to keep herself under control, being this close to him. She had to restrain the urges to just let everything go, kiss him, and make up. Her proclamation of sticking around wasn’t the end of this. It was just the beginning. She wouldn’t run, but she couldn’t promise that things would just go back to normal.

“How horrible is it that this is the closest I’ve felt to you?” Anna spoke, her right thumb brushing over his ear as she opened her eyes and stared into his. She knew her skin was burning hot and that she was probably in for a rough few days of detox, but she was going to ride her current high until it faded. And she didn’t want to send him mixed signals, “All this time, and in the one moment I can’t kiss you…I really want to.”

[h3] Cason [/h3]

Cason glanced back at Nat as she willingly got in the car, causing him to sigh with relief, but Mika was beginning to raise her voice as the reality of what was happening was setting in. As she saw the light, and Cason recognized the cry of anguish and the motion of her feet to run into the building, he stepped forward. He reached for her, right as she fell to the ground and he groaned.

He felt like the odd man out in this situation. He couldn’t empathize with Mika at all. He didn’t care if Dean lived or died. All he cared about was that Nat was safe, and that he could pick up her pieces after this was all over. He stomped over to Mika, and wrapped his hand around her upper arm, dragging her to her feet as she cried.

“Come on. We have to go. You can hate me. You can cut my head off. You can do whatever you feel like you need to do later on, but you have to come with me. NOW!” He shouted, wrapping both his arms around her in a mixture of control over her body and an actual hug to attempt some sort of human comfort.  He dragged her back toward the car, and turned her to him, wrapping his arms around her again in a tight hug. “He wouldn’t want you to fall apart and get yourself killed. Get in the car.”

Cason opened the back door, gesturing for Natalia to scoot aside, and then he roughly shoved Mika into the seat, just as Castiel appeared next to the car. With the wave of his hand, the Impala roared to life with no keys, and drove itself with a squall of the tires, straight backward, all the way into the field adjacent to the asylum.

As the car rolled to a stop, Cason stared out the window as the entire asylum crashed to the ground in a massive pile of rubble and dust. His eyes were saucers as he turned slowly and stared through the windshield.

There was no way Esme and Dean survived that.
[h3] Dean [/h3]

Dean watched Esme walk away from him, his heart racing as the light within her grew brighter with every anguished scream. Every time she told him to leave, he shook his head and tried to yell over the sound of the rumbling beneath his feet, “NO! I’m not leaving. I’m not leaving you here!”

As she professed her love, something he hadn’t heard from her mouth in what felt like forever, his stomach lurched and he looked toward the window. He realized this was the point of no return. He could jump out the window, break a few bones and survive this. But his mind wouldn’t let him run for it. He turned back toward Esme, shielding his eyes from the light as she began to erupt. He ran over to her, and wrapped his arms around her as tight as he possibly could. He placed a hand on the back of her head, pressing his chin into her shoulder as she screamed, piercing his ears and the light engulfed both of them. “I’ve got you. It’s okay. It’s okay, Esme.”

A little later, Castiel walked over the rubble, his face blunt and unmoved as he searched for any sign of life. He glanced around, and after a few moments of kicking at stone and glass, he saw a hand hanging out of the rubble. He recognized the ring instantly, and began moving the heavy stones away from Dean’s body, until he completely uncovered him. 

“I found him.” Castiel barked toward the Impala, not really caring if anyone heard him. He tilted his head to the side, squinting as he pushed a foot forward and kicked a piece of rubble next to Dean’s head, uncovering part of Esme’s shoulder. Two of the Hellhounds were alerted to things moving around and unburied themselves, shaking dust and pebbles from their invisible fur as they fluffed up. They stepped over the rubble, but had uncovered the majority of Esme’s upper body.

“Dean. Hey…Dean.” Castiel called to Dean, uncovering the rest of his body. When Dean didn’t respond to him, he sighed, and looked around for a moment, watching the Hellhounds pacing around on their way back to the Impala to meet back up with Cason. He didn’t waste much more time, as he looked back down and noticed that Esme was awake. “Hey! Are you hurt?”

He leaned down and pushed some of the rubble aside, before lifting Esme onto her feet. He held onto her, and bent slightly to wrap his other hand around Dean’s wrist, dragging him over the rocks and rubble with full plans to fix whatever was broken once he got him safe. 

Castiel approached the Impala, still mostly carrying Esme and dragging Dean as Cason quickly jumped out of the car and ran over, hesitantly wrapping an arm around Esme’s back to help her stand. He walked her over to the drivers seat of the Impala and eased her down, holding a hand out, “Are you alright? I mean…physically? What about him? Is he alive?”

As Cason turned to Castiel, Castiel shrugged and tilted his head, “Yes. More or less. He has several broken bones, and his brain seems to be bleeding. I was hoping he would wake up on his own.”

Without another word, Castiel squatted next to Dean and pressed his fingers to his forehead, causing Dean to awaken with a loud gasp. He sat straight up, feeling around him for Esme. “Esme?!”