[h3] Anya [/h3]

Anya kept her eyes on Sam’s face, choosing to help him work through whatever his emotions were running to with Anna. She thought about what advice she would give to him if he wasn’t a potential partner, and she tilted her head to the side, letting her curly hair fall around her face. She pulled her hand from Sam for a moment and typed.

“You tell her that whatever you did was to keep her safe, whether she likes it or not. You tell her you’re sorry that you didn’t come back for her. She needs to hear that you’re sorry. I would. She needs to know that it’s not her fault you stayed away. That’s what I would want to hear. And if you’re lucky, she’ll at least understand enough to not hate you. I can tell by the look on her face that she’s shouldering everything you did, like she made a mistake and drove you away. It’s not hate. It’s regret.” 

After she typed the message, she placed her hand back into Sam’s, letting him use the back of her hand like a stress ball, if he needed to. But as he apologized for dragging her into the drama, Anya shook her head, and she wiggled her phone in front of her face, not letting him read the message just yet. But after a moment, she turned the phone and held it close to his face so he could read the entire message.

She then pulled his hand up and kissed his fingers, just as Natalia approached them. With a small smile, Anya listened to Nat and after a moment, she shrugged her shoulders and absentmindedly signed, “Why not?” 

She didn’t know if Nat understood ASL but hopefully she could read body language. Pulling Sam’s hand up to her cheek, she flattened his fingers against her skin, and then tilted her head toward Anna, giving Sam a look that told him to ‘try to talk to her’. She then turned to Nat and dropped Sam’s hand slowly, pointing her finger at the spiral staircase to tell Nat she was ready for whatever.

[h3] Dean [/h3]

Dean had to agree with Cason. Both of Anna’s deaths had affected her, but she came back on the other side just as strong as she left. Other than the demon blood addiction, Anna had always carried herself more like a hunter than almost anyone he had seen dragged into it so suddenly. Maybe it was her love for Sam that carried her, or maybe it was just a natural draw to the life. Dean never knew. He turned his eyes over to Lexi as she mentioned that Anya was supposed to begin her training the day before. Dean had never planned to throw Anya into all of this so quickly, like Anna was forced to. Even if Anna took well to it, that didn’t mean Anya would. 

Dean reached his hand across as Nat bucked up against Lexi with the training. Dean wanted Lexi to be the one to train Anya, if anything so that she would know her capabilities when they were out together, and so that she could work with Anya to make sure she was strong enough to handle what she would see. But Natalia was a good ally for Anya to have as well. Nat was a Winchester. She had a lot of the natural strengths that Dean and Sam had, and she was patient. With Anya being mute, that patience would likely work really well.

He squeezed Lexi’s thigh, and he leaned in, “Me and you can go and gather some tools. We’re gonna need everything we can carry. Who better to pack up, than us?”

Dean paused and he thought about things for a moment and then he glanced over at Anna, who was already scanning the far end of the library for any books she could find. She was gathering books quickly, and glancing up at Sam and Anya every now and then, “And, if we let the little one gather those books, we can make ourselves disappear to the armory, give Sam and Anna time to squash all of this.”

He lowered his voice to a whisper, making sure only Lexi could hear him, “If they ever touch, trust me when I say…we’re not going to want to be around. So, partners? Me and you?”

[h3] Anna [/h3]

Anna had stepped away from everyone else, when Cason gave her the order to search the books for anything she could find about rogue demons. She had long lost the habit of arguing with Cason when he was on a roll. She just went along with it, nodding and doing her best to keep him in a good mood. As she skimmed the massive library of the bunker, she recognized a few books that she had flipped through, and pulled them, stacking them in an open area of the shorter bookshelves on her side.

As she sat a book on the shelf, she glanced over, seeing the way that Anya touched Sam, and the way they spoke. She could tell that Sam was used to talking to the doe eyed brunette through a lot of texting and crutches, which would have made Anna smile, if it wasn't obvious that this girl had Sam's heart in a chokehold. She knew his looks. She knew his body language better than almost anyone, and he was fighting his emotions, to try and be present for this girl.

Anna tried to fight with her jealous emotions. She fought with the thought of someone being so close to 'her Sam'. But he wasn't hers anymore...not really. Sure, they had their rogue moments, if he came too close, or if their fingers touched during a moment of being too close in the same room. But Sam wasn't hers. The memory of why just made her slam a book rather loudly on the stack as Anya stepped away from Sam and followed Nat, presumably to go and, as Nat said 'learn to use a knife properly'. As Anna calmed herself, she gathered the books, wiping a hand across her forehead, and brought them over to the table, dropping them in front of Cason.

"I need to take a walk." She grumbled, pulling her hair behind her ears and crossing her arms. Cason glanced up at her, scanning her face for a moment, before he nodded.

"Alright. Take a walk. We have a bit of time." Cason said softly, giving Anna his neutral understanding face that bugged her. She rolled her eyes, and didn't uncross her arms, as she turned and walked toward the war room. It wasn't as if there weren't plenty of areas of the bunker to walk around in. If anything, she would go to the gym and beat something, just to get this frustration out. "Just don't get lost!"

"I used to live here. I'll be fine." Anna shot back at Cason as she reached the corridors.