[h2]Esme[/h2]
As soon as Esme came to and felt Dean’s hands on her upper arms, she could feel that he had tensed up even more than before. She watched him as she gave her vague answer. She knew it was vague, but how could she tell him what she saw at the end of her vision? How could she tell him they might lose someone when she didn’t want to believe it herself? Esme watched as Dean looked over at Mika, knowing he now was probably tempted to sneak off without her. She barely heard Mika delegate Natalia’s care to herself, Duke, and Cason as she watched Dean. Esme’s eyebrows knitted together at Dean's words, and her eyes grew worried. “You always do.” she mumbled inaudibly. Dean always did what he thought he had to do, no matter what anyone said. As he backed her into Duke’s chest, she was tempted to tell him to take at least one more of them as backup but knew he would shoot her down. When Duke wrapped his arms around her, Esme sighed, leaned into him, and placed her hands on his arms as Dean spoke to all of them. She didn’t want to listen, but in a way, she knew he was right. 

Esme hated the idea that they had to stay behind while Dean and Mika went on to do whatever the angels wanted Dean to do, especially after her vision. She understood that they both wanted to keep Natalia safe, but she felt like two just wasn’t enough on this case. But again, she knew Dean wouldn't change his mind and knew that he probably had to fight to have Mika go with him. At the arrival of the angels, Esme’s mind and herself fell silent. She grew tense and gripped Duke’s arm slightly as she watched and listened to the interaction between them and Dean. When Duke spoke up, she nearly flinched and gripped his arm a little tighter, then narrowed her eyes at Uriel’s answer, threat, and him calling Natalia a whore. Even though she had words she would have liked to say, Esme stayed quiet as Dean snapped at Uriel. All she could bring herself to do was stand there with Duke, watching and listening silently, even though she agreed with Duke on deserving to know where they were going. But of course, they wanted to make sure they stayed back and away. As the bickering and conversation continued, Esme watched and listened on, her ears perking when Castiel asked Dean the magic question. 

Dean may not have known what they wanted, but she did, which made her stomach knot painfully. She had never seen that side of Dean and didn’t want to, though she had seen it twice due to her visions. Esme dropped her head and closed her eyes, unsure how much more she could hear or handle between them. It was becoming too much. When they left, she sighed silently as silence filled the kitchen momentarily before Cason broke it. As Esme felt Duke stepping away, she stood straighter and removed her hands from his arms. With Duke closer to Cason, Esme stepped back until her back hit the wall, then she slowly slid down it to sit on the floor, keeping her eyes closed. Cason’s voice sounded distant as the image of Duke crying while cradling someone flooded her mind. She tried to shake it from her mind but failed. ‘Who is Duke holding? Out of all of us. Who would he cry that hard for? Me, Dean, and Mika. Sam?’ she thought. She wasn’t sure if he knew Natalia and Anna well enough to make him cry that hard, but it was possible. She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but it scared her not knowing who Duke was holding.

Knowing how Dean could possibly come out of this scared her as well. With how Dean looked, it could easily be Dean that Duke was holding and crying over, but she knew it could easily be Mika because she was there, too. Squeezing her eyes shut tighter, she released a shaky breath and brought her trembling hands to her swimming head. “Who is it? Who is it?” she softly whispered.