[h3] Duke [/h3] Duke didn’t move or say anything on the drive home. He simply leaned his head against the window of the truck and watched the trees go by. Luckily, his mind didn’t wander much. For the most part, it was blank, like a fuzzy static screen on a tv. As they pulled into the familiar lot, Duke glanced up at the old ‘Singer Salvage’ sign swinging above the entrance. He sighed, knowing that they were coming home without Mika. Bobby was going to be devastated. Most of all, Duke wasn’t entirely sure he could stay in the house. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. Having Mika back, where he could pick her brain and lean on her whenever he wanted to was like a dream and now? She was just gone. No phone to call. No hearing her tired voice on the other side when she needed him for support. As the truck came to a stop, Duke didn’t move at first, but then he realized that Dean would be coming through with Mika’s body. Duke wasn’t even sure he could look at her, in that moment. He wasn’t sure he could look at anyone. He just wanted to be alone. He wanted to stew, and cry. He wanted to beat himself up on his own terms. He reached for the door handle, forcing his heavy legs to swing over the side of the truck as he opened the door. He dropped heavily onto the gravel, and closed the door, just standing there for a moment. He zoned out and stared at the rocks below his feet and then turned back to the window of the truck, patting on it to tell Esme he was going ahead. With his head hung low, Duke staggered over to the RV and he opened the door, slowly walking up the steps and closing the door behind him. [b] Day 1 [/b] Duke didn’t leave the RV. He simply sat at his table, rolling over his options to bring Mika back in his mind. He wondered a few times if they should go ahead and burn her body, give some closure to the family and let her rest. But those thoughts were fleeting, as he continued his search for options. [b] Day 2 [/b] Duke exhausted every option he could think of. Aside from possibly contacting a crossroads demon, there was nothing to do. He drank half a bottle of whiskey, actually spoke to Esme a few times coherently, and stared out the window a lot, watching the sun rise and set across the lot. [b] Day 3 [/b] It was day 3 that Duke began to lose his ability to not confront Dean. Dean was keeping Mika’s body, because Dean believed he could bring her back. Dean was the one that was working behind everyones back. The thought caused Duke’s stomach to cramp painfully, that Dean would throw himself back into Hell in order to bring Mika back. As bad as Duke wanted to see her again, touch her again, and have her back home, that was the last thing that Mika would want. “I have to talk to Dean…” Duke spoke suddenly after a long while of silence with Esme, as he lay in his bed. He was staring at the ceiling, as he tried to decide how to confront Dean in a way that wouldn’t end in a horrible outcome. But his emotions bubbled back up again. He didn’t want to fight Dean. He didn’t want to rip any hope away from Dean. But no one else was going to. “We-we can’t just leave her down there in the basement. We need to burn her body. We…we don’t know where she is, or what she’s going through. We have to.” Duke swung his legs over the side of the bed and he grabbed a flannel from the back of the bench at the kitchen table, sliding it over his arms before starting on the buttons. It was the most active he had been in days, and honestly, his muscles were screaming about it, as were his joints. The numbness was gone and he could no longer lay still, or sit still. “I don’t know if you wanna come with…but I gotta talk to him.” He said quickly, finishing the buttons on his flannel. He then climbed partially back onto the bed, pressing a kiss to Esme’s lips quickly, before stepping off the bed and into his boots, “I’ll be back, okay?” [h3] Dean [/h3] Dean spoke to Mika in whispers the entire drive back to Bobby’s. He told her how much he loved her. He asked her to fight back to him. He promised her that she would have a body to come back to. He just repeated those things over and over again. As they pulled into the lot, Dean didn’t move, simply burying his face in Mika’s hair as Anna pulled the Impala to a stop and turned the engine off. “Dean, do you need help getting inside?” Anna asked, looking over the seat at him. She did her best to avoid looking down at Mika in the process and Dean nodded his head. “Can you get the door to the basement for me?” “The basement?” Anna asked, confused as to why Dean would want her to let him into the basement. Sure, there was an outside door, but there was nothing in the basement he would want access to, with Mika’s body other than…the panic room. “Yeah. Just help me with the door?” Dean croaked out, and even though every bone in Anna’s body wanted her to protest the idea of just…storing Mika’s body, she slowly nodded her head and opened her door. Dean opened his door and he kicked it open, scooting to the edge of the seat as he awkwardly scooped up Mika’s body, and scooted out of the car with her, standing to his feet with a groan. Anna quickly jogged over to the outdoor basement door, wanting to get back to Sam as quick as she could, since like Esme, she was the most lucid one of her little family dynamic. She was happy to find that the door was unlocked and she pulled it open, stepping in and walking over to the panic room door. She cranked the dial and opened the door for him, knowing that he was headed there before he ever asked. After he walked inside, Anna just left the door open, not staying behind to watch him. She ran back out the basement door, closing it behind her, and then over to the car to be as close to Sam when the dam finally broke as she possibly could. [b] Day 1 [/b] Dean didn’t move from the panic room. He sat by Mika’s body, talking to her, promising her everything short of the moon as he believed that at any moment, she would wake up and be just fine. He was in absolute denial. [b] Day 2 [/b] Dean came out of the panic room only to use the restroom and to grab the occasional beer. The rest of the time, he stared at Mika’s face until his eyes burned and his body ached. Any time…at any time she would wake up. Day 2 was also the day when Dean began to contemplate a deal. He wasn’t sure about the deal, but it was beginning to cross his mind, the longer she was dead. [b] Day 3 [/b] The idea of a deal crossed Deans mind more consistently. He already knew what he would say to the demon, and what he was willing to offer. Immediate payment, and Mika gets away…completely unharmed. He sat there with her, explaining his plans, while he discussed with the side of her face every reason he was making the decision. He wanted her to move on and he wanted her to live as simply as she could, away from hunting, away from the curses. But Day 3 was also the day that Duke would break… [h3] Anna [/h3] Anna was stuck to Sam’s hip for all three days. Late in the evening on the third day, she sat with him on the hood of the Impala, their legs tangled and her body impossibly close to his, as if one of them was going to disappear any second. She didn’t know if it was Sam or herself that was so attached, that was clinging to the other. All she knew was that she was fine with it. As long as he was close, they were both safe. They were safer together. She looked up at him, as he wasn’t looking at her, and brushed her fingertips across his hair, and over his ear with a soft sigh. “How are you feeling today? Think you can eat?” She asked him sweetly, slipping her other hand into one of his, squeezing his fingers gently. She frowned as Duke’s RV door opened and she heard his boots on the gravel, something she didn’t think she would hear for a while as he had been pretty much locked in the RV with or without Esme for days. Where was he headed?