[IC] Supernatural - Hell On The Horizon

[FuriePhoenix]

MIKA

Mika hated it when Bobby frowned because of something she either did or said, this time was no different. It was a reason for her needing to get it all off her chest and explain all their states the moment she let go of him. Not only that, she was convinced that if she held onto him any longer she would just utterly break down once more and never let him go. He wasn’t just her uncle in her eyes, he was her father. Even when her parents were around, Bobby treated her with more respect than her own dad ever did. So even now as an adult, she felt like such a small young girl when he held her and was glad she had come home alive.

His reaction to her updates about Duke wasn’t surprising to her in the slightest and she was almost thankful that it was her who broke the news to him about Duke, and not anyone else. Then came the words that she was partly expecting from him about Cason and Nat. “I know…none of us were expecting it. You’ll have to chat with Nat about it all privately. But yes, I do mean that kind of something and I agree it’s out of character for her, it’s making me worried and I know if I hadn’t seen the clues myself then I wouldn’t believe it” she replied to him before she yawned and he let go of her shoulders.

She listened to his words intently, needing his wisdom more than ever right now. “Okay” she said one last time with a nod before she had whispered to Bobby reminding him to be civil with Cason, especially in front of Natalia. She walked into the kitchen, waiting for others to eventually all gather in there whilst grabbing a beer, cracking it open and taking a long hard swig with a sigh afterwards. She had no idea how much longer she could possibly stay awake for and hoped that the beer would help to just knock her out when the time came round. Leaning against the worktop as she usually did, crossing one foot over the other she tried to still block out everything that had gone down as she wanted to forget some of the sights she witnessed. Disembodied demons being one of the big ones.

She was convinced that when she did eventually fall asleep, that would be one thing that would no doubt haunt her dreams and she really didn’t want to wake up in a cold sweat because of it. She heard Bobby greet Natalia, feeling relieved that they were all eventually filing into the house but it was Dean she was most concerned about. He was just as confused and haunted by Duke coming back from the dead as she and Esme were and she had no idea how harshly everything was going to hit him now they were in a place they could relax and shred the stress off their shoulders.

NATALIA

Nat saw how cautious Cason still was when it came to entering the house and she really couldn’t blame him. It wouldn’t have surprised her if Bobby did do extra precautions after the last demon ambush in the house and like Cason, she didn’t want anything to harm him after everything that he had possibly gone through. So when he trusted her words, she was glad he followed her inside before she greeted Bobby. Bobby’s words felt so on brand for him and she knew he would never disappoint when it came putting out drinks for them all.

She headed straight for the kitchen with Cason following behind, noting how he did the respectful thing to Bobby by letting go of her hand. She didn’t like the fact they were hiding their closeness from the man, but she understood it. Seeing all the options on the table that Bobby had put out for them all, Nat tried to decide what she was in the mood for as she also watched Cason just pour himself a large bourbon. She eventually chose a beer like Mika had clearly done and gave Cason a smile back as she sat in a chair opposite him, even though every part of her wanted to sit next to him.

His comment about being the least damaged person in their group did make her smirk a little bit as he wasn’t exactly wrong in that statement, but the idea of a ‘family show’ about to happen brought dread to her mind. It made her realise that Bobby probably wouldn’t let any of them leave his sight until information was fully divulged to him on what actually happened. She weighed up her options on what would be better when it came ‘getting her looked at’ as Cason put it before she finally came to a decision. “You. You’ve already seen the worse before Cass healed a lot of me, only difference now is much better lighting. You know where I was hurt” she said to him. If anyone tried to stop him from looking her over, they’d get an earful from her.

After talking, she took a swig of her beer and sighed as it went down her throat. She didn’t realise just how dry her mouth was until she took that first sip and had to tell herself not to just chug the entire bottle down. Looking up, she saw Mika was watching the two of them, but also seemed partly spaced out so instead of questioning her, she just looked down again and more to Cason as she heard all the others filing in finally.

SAM

Seeing Anna close to shivering got Sam all the more worried about her. He was glad to be able to get her inside after a few of the others had already got in, hearing small bits of chatter between Cason and Nat in the kitchen. The fact that Mika was being so quiet was one of two things; something to be really concerned about or something to just put down to one of her moments where she needed to not talk for a while. He gave Bobby a nod to say hello as he saw him give Anna a smile of sympathy whilst Duke looked like death walking. He too followed Anna’s gaze to the staircase that led to the basement and the demon proof panic room, his heart breaking just that bit more as he saw she was worried about going down there again.

“Come on…let’s get a drink before the others drink it all dry” he remarked, in an attempt to try and distract her from what could be, as well as distracting himself. He didn’t want to have to put her down there, knowing how much she hated the process last time but he also knew if the bed was made up down there it would have been a reasonable suggestion by someone. He walked with her to the kitchen to see everyone except for Dean had so far got inside, which wasn’t a shock as they had passed Dean on their way in. He grabbed a beer off the table and went to stand in a corner that was closest toward Nat as he still hadn’t seen for himself just how badly she was hurt in the asylum. He was worried about her, as he was about everyone, but he couldn’t bring himself to stray too far from Anna either.

He listened to the chit chat between them, catching the end of Nat’s reply to Cason. He wanted to check her over himself, but it was clear Nat had made her decision and only Cason seemed to matter to her nowadays. He looked up from his bottle in his hand when Dean finally came inside with Bobby following him in and asking for the story of what exactly happened. “Everything went wrong Bobby” he began to speak when it was clear no one else was going to speak up.

“It started off as a simple recon job and we just got ambushed from all sides. That’s when it started going wrong. Anna and Cason got taken into this barn, Duke got stabbed, Nat got knocked off a roof gaining a serious head injury. Due to her injury we all left her in the impala whilst going back for the other three but then Nat got kidnapped by the time we got back to the cars. Demons took her back to the asylum…” he began to explain but when he got to the word ‘asylum’ he couldn’t bring himself to continue, so he looked around the group to see who could continue on for him as he really didn’t want to.

Nat certainly didn’t want to talk about it but she knew she would have explain some of that stuff herself as she was the only one who knew exactly what happened to her. “They took me because they wanted Esme back there and to mess with the others…as well as myself. Said they weren’t done with me when Sam got me out last time.” she began to explain, trying not to let her voice break or look at anyone as she spoke as she didn’t want to see their faces when she said what she was about to. “They only kept me conscious by breaking my shoulder with a h-hammer along with slashing at my neck with a knife, arm and hip…got punched in the face a few times when I wouldn’t give in to their mind games” she described. “I tried to get away but I was strapped to a gurney. A gurney that they then threw in a water torture pool and tried drowning me and I blacked out by that point, I don’t know what else happened until Cason yanked me out and got me to wake up” she finally said.

Sam listened to her add to the story, every word she spoke made him feel worse about not going with Dean and Mika to get her. “Oh Nat…” he said quietly, but gave Cason a thankful look for getting to her in time. He saw how Nat couldn’t look at any of them as she spoke and he didn’t blame her in the slightest. That girl was scarred and not just physically.

[Wolvena]

Esme

As soon as Esme walked through the door of Bobby’s, and the familiarity of it hit her, she felt safe and could feel herself relaxing. Her eyes instantly fell on Bobby and how he was looking at Duke, like he was a ghost, before he made his way over to them. When Bobby brushed his thumb over her cheek with a fatherly smile, she smiled back warmly. As he moved to Duke and spoke to him, she let go of Duke’s hand, taking a step back, watching as Bobby hugged Duke and looked him over. It wasn't hard to see how much Bobby had missed him and was worried about him. The lack of a smile from Duke as he responded to Bobby, worried her, especially after getting a slight smirk outside moments ago. When Bobby sent Duke to the kitchen, Esme turned her gaze to Bobby, just as he wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled her into him. She quietly whimpered at the action, then wrapped her arm around Bobby, hugging him back. “Yeah, I know. I don’t feel so hot either.” she replied softly with a smile at him calling them idjits. “Missed you too, Bobby.”

Esme then headed to the kitchen after Bobby had let her go. Once in the kitchen, she grabbed a beer from the table and found a place on a wall near Duke. She then took a long drink of her beer, wincing slightly at the soreness in her throat. Leaning against the wall, she crossed her arms in front of her, waiting for the others to file in. She knew that Bobby wasn’t going to let any of them go to bed without looking them over or without hearing what happened that night. It had definitely been one hell of a night for all of them. Esme had zoned out briefly, staring at her beer, when Dean and Bobby came in last, and Bobby spoke, snapping her out of it. Esme wasn’t looking forward to talking about what happened. She didn’t want to relive it. But when Sam spoke first, she closed her eyes and listened to what he told Bobby. Then Natalia chimed in when Sam couldn’t finish. She winced when Natalia said her name and that she was taken because the demons wanted her back at the asylum and to mess with the others. She remained quiet as Natalia spoke.

She felt sorry for the woman. She should have never had to go through all that again. She knew she needed to fill in the rest of the story from her perspective when things fell quiet. She didn’t look up from her beer as she sighed and prepared herself to tell the rest of the story. “After we found Nat had been taken, Mika found items that belonged to Nat and a pamphlet for the asylum. There was a note for me to come back on it. We took Duke to the hospital, and I was the only one they would let in with him. He was in such bad shape they took my blood to give him. But a little later, they came and said he…. Died.” Esme paused for a moment, gripping her beer tighter. “I fell apart, and then Cason showed up to take me to the asylum to help get Nat. I fought my way through the demons, lost control of myself, and found the two demons that tortured me in that hellhole for two years. I killed one before Cason came back for me. When he found me, I was….. Not myself. I was feral. I had lost all control over my emotions.”

“I know I scared the hell out of him with the state I was in. I almost attacked him before the second demon showed up, I killed her, and almost attacked Cason again when Dean showed.” Esme sighed heavily. She didn’t want to tell this part of the story. “I was at the point of going nuclear when Dean showed. He tried to talk me down, but it was too late for me to stop it. I tried to get him to leave, but he refused. I went nuclear and took out the asylum. As it crumbled, hellhounds jumped in and shielded us from the rubble. Castiel showed up and pulled us out of the rubble and healed Dean and Nat. Then we found Duke walking down the road, dazed and confused on our way back to the hospital. He didn’t think Dean and I were real.” Esme felt silent, squeezing her beer until her knuckles turned white. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out to collect herself. Suddenly, her legs gave out, and she collapsed hard to the floor with a groan. She knew it was only a matter of time before her legs finally gave out, but she hoped it would have been near a bed or the couch.

“Tapadh leibh uile!” she breathed, closing her eyes tightly as immense pain washed over her. Opening her eyes, Esme tried to get back on her feet, but couldn’t get her body to cooperate, it felt like a lead weight. It had finally succumbed to the energy drain of her going nuclear. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes as she sat on the floor of the kitchen, shaking from the immense pain that shot through her body from the fall and still hadn’t subsided. Esme dropped her head, trying to breathe through the pain the best she could.

[JustAnna]

Anna

Anna nodded to Sam as he suggested that they go into the kitchen and get a drink with the others. She wasn’t exactly excited to look any of them in the eyes, especially Dean, who she wanted absolutely nothing to do with. But she also, in a way, missed all of them in one place, safe.

She followed Sam to the corner, glancing around and finally deciding to sit on a piece of counter, within arms distance of him. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about…them, but she knew that in that moment, when the basement might be an option, she wanted to keep him close. She also wanted to hold onto a glimmer of the hope she had felt when she saw his face in the barn, like seeing an angel coming to save her.

Anna climbed up onto the counter, turning her back to it and using her sore arms to hoist herself up with a groan of pain from her shoulder, mostly. She then reached a hand out and wrapped a corner of Sam’s flannel around her fingers, like a little leash to hold onto him. Her head perked up, however, when Dean stepped into the kitchen, and picked up a drink Cason had prepared for him. She kept her eyes on Dean, until his eyes turned up and looked straight at her.

She turned her eyes down for a moment, and then glanced up, and Dean was still staring at her, as if he had something to say. As if Dean and Cason were communicating silently, Cason poured another glass of Bourbon, and slid it to Dean, who picked it up and pushed himself away from his spot. He stepped over to Anna, and without a word, held the whiskey out to her.

Anna turned her eyes down, taking the glass, as Dean shoved it at her a bit more insistently. She said nothing. She told him she was done and she was done. She released Sam’s shirt and took a small drink of the amber liquid, as the hard conversations suddenly started. She didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t want to talk about the barn, or Dean…

But she did want to know why they were there in the first place. Maybe the others had figured that out, by this point. Maybe the conversation could be a good thing.

Dean

Dean sighed as Bobby came into the room and demanded answers and explanations. He knew that the conversation was coming, but there was a tension lingering in the air, between all of them, and Dean couldn’t see how the conversation wasn’t going to be just full of more confusion, heartbreak and potentially anger and fighting. He wasn’t quite sure.

His eyes fell on Anna, a million reasons to have a conversation with her running through his brain, but he also hadn’t figured out how to explain himself to her. There really wasn’t anything to explain. In a moment of panic, he had made a harsh decision and as it appeared…it was the wrong decision. Seeing Nat with Cason, in that moment, he couldn’t imagine the shape that Natalia would be in, if Cason had died in that barn. But how could he look Anna in the eyes and just tell her he was wrong? It was a bigger deal to her than him simply ‘making a bad decision’. She had watched the person she believed kept her alive, in that barn get left behind…because of Dean’s decisions.

After a moment, Cason read his expression and poured a glass of bourbon, sliding it toward Dean’s empty hand and Dean sighed, picking the glass up off the counter before pushing himself away from his spot in a moment of bravery. He walked straight over to Anna, and pressed the glass into Anna’s limp hand on her lap. As she took the drink, he dropped his hand and tried his best to coax her to look up at him, but she didn’t, and he gave a sad nod, stepping away from her and returning to Mika’s side.

Once there, he sighed and scratched at his eyebrow as Bobby asked the million dollar question, prompting Sam to begin a general run down of how things went south as fast as they did. Dean tensed when Sam brought up the barn, watching the body language of everyone in the room, especially Cason. Cason didn’t react at all, simply taking a drink from his glass. But when the word ‘asylum’ was uttered, Dean looked down at his feet, taking a deep breath.

He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to have this conversation tonight. Part of him wanted to dip out of the room and run upstairs, before anything progressed. But then Nat began explaining what happened at the asylum further. Dean frowned, hearing every single thing that Nat had gone through in that horrible place, and thanks to Dean, she probably would have died, if Cason wasn’t much more crafty than Dean had given him credit for. Dean glanced up, tears in his eyes, at Cason, giving him a simple nod. The gesture was a mix of ‘thank you’ and ‘we need to talk later’.

Dean was tempted, as Esme began her part of what happened, to step forward and convince her that she didn’t have to tell anything. She didn’t have to tell Bobby she wasn’t human. She didn’t have to break that news to Duke, in the state he was in. She didn’t have to relive all of it, but he kept quiet, glancing to Mika briefly, before taking a long drink of his bourbon.

As Esme worked through every single piece of the asylum, Dean tensed. He knew what he had seen. He knew that he had felt the Hellhounds wrapping themselves around he and Esme, but part of him thought he imagined all of it and got out purely on luck. Of course that wasn’t the case and of course it was something uncomfortable and belief challenging that had saved him.

Before Esme could get to the ‘not human’ part of her story, she collapsed and Dean quickly forgot about the hammering of his own heart in his ears, suddenly having flashbacks of himself, Duke and Esme in the very same kitchen, all of them worse for wear and worried about each other. His body went into that protective mode, and he sat his glass down on the table, rushing around it as Duke scrambled out of his own chair. Dean placed a hand on Duke’s bare chest and shook his head, “I got her.”

The look he got back in return caused him to raise his eyebrows briefly, as Duke seemed angry, or at the least ready to fight Dean, as if Dean was stepping in between himself and Esme.

“Duke. You’re not in any shape to handle anything, alright? Just sit down and relax, and let me help…it’s alright.” Dean comforted Duke, his hand sliding up to Duke’s shoulder to sit him back down in the chair. With a sigh, Duke looked away from him, spacing out, and nodded.

“Esme. Hey…Hey sweetheart. Let’s get you laid out, alright? C’mon…” Dean cooed to Esme, softening his voice as best he could as he carefully slid an arm under her legs and around her back, before hoisting her from the floor. Before stepping around the table, Dean glanced down at Duke, a little uncomfortable with how angry he seemed with the whole situation. Anger wasn’t even an emotion Duke was capable of, half the time…and jealousy? Never.

Duke

Duke barely remembered walking to the kitchen, as his body ran on autopilot and he took his seat that he always sat in, next to Cason at the table. He reached across the table with a shaky hand and picked up a beer, quickly cracking it open and taking a drink as he spaced out, staring toward the blowing curtains in the open window above the sink. The drink felt foreign and strange as he swallowed, and his sore throat screamed at him. He hadn’t even realized until that moment how much damage the breathing tubes and crap they shoved down his throat to try and save him had done.

As the explanations began, Duke continued to stare off into space, memories of the kitchen flooding his brain. Small bits of the conversation rattled around in between images, especially when Esme told her own story of what happened. So, they had told her he died, of course. Obviously she had told Dean, who told Mika and so on. That’s why they were all looking at him so weird. He was dead and they had all left the hospital to go save Natalia, which was why he woke up alone.

The memory of the night that Dean had confronted Duke about his attachment to Esme played over in his brain, as he zoned out once again. They were young. Duke hated seeing Esme alone, when Dean was away…especially right before John went missing. Dean buried himself in work, but refused to let anyone come with him. He had his dad. So, Duke stayed back, and for once didn’t run away, because if he had, Esme would have been alone. That conversation hurt their relationship, and Duke couldn’t remember them ever fixing things, other than time just healing some of the wounds. He felt like Dean blamed him for losing Esme in the first place…

Hearing that Dean had ‘sacrificed’ himself to try and save Esme almost made Duke shake his head, his only reaction coming out as a small finger tap against his bottle, which perked Cason’s head up. Duke sniffled, tilting his head to the side as he grappled with how easy it seemed for Dean to just…move on from people dying, these days. Even with Mika, who Duke looked up to like a big sister, Duke couldn’t help the sinking feeling that Dean was relieved he was dead…

Duke was snapped from his thoughts as Esme collapsed, and he sprung from his chair, ignoring the tugging of his stitches to tend to her. And like clockwork…like a bad dream, there was Dean. Duke stepped up close to Dean, almost nose to nose with him as his blue eyes burned into Dean’s. Dean quickly began to talk him down, pulling the same brotherly crap that always worked when they were kids and the feeling in Duke’s stomach felt foreign. He wasn’t the jealous or the angry type. This unresolved, pushed down feeling didn’t feel right at all.

He sighed, and turned back to his chair, sitting down heavily with a nod, before turning his eyes up to Bobby, who frowned down at him, as if he was disappointed…but worried. Duke then zoned out, turning his beer in circles in his hands as he stared at the window once again.

Bobby

As Bobby heard everyone’s stories, he tried his best to just stay quiet and stoic, being the solid that held them all together as best he could. But his emotions were a mess internally, as tears played at the corners of his eyes. This all seemed so hopeless, even with them safe, now. A million thoughts were rattling around in his brain, along with questions that he would need answered before he could make any sense of what was happening. Why would the demons want them back at the asylum in the first place, just to mess with them? Who was messing around at the barn, and why? Why set such a simple trap, just to…kidnap some of the girls and leave the boys alive after a fight?

But when Esme collapsed, Bobby was snapped from the questions rattling around in his head, and he turned to run and help, seeing both Dean and Duke springing into action. It was a reminder of one of the most tense and heartbreaking summers he had ever had with his kids. He watched them tear each other apart over attachments. He watched Dean leave, break Duke’s heart, and at the same time, bring Mika back to him. He stepped forward, as Duke’s aggression rose, ready to grab his son and keep him from making a mistake…after all the years of holding those emotions in.

“Duke. Don’t.” He called out to him. As Duke agreed to sit down, Bobby simply shook his head the second he made eye contact, trying to keep his face neutral for Duke’s sake. He was really starting to worry about the kid. As soon as Duke settled, and Dean stepped out of the room, Bobby turned to call back to Dean, “I’ll be in there in a few to check her over.”

“Yeah! Her head, man. She needs someone to look at her head.” Dean called back as he carefully laid Esme on the couch.

“Ten-four.” Bobby called back, before turning to those who were left in the kitchen. He looked around at the group and sighed, “So, here’s what I want to know. What the hell did they want with you in Missouri, anyway? I mean there has to be a reason, other than just messing with you.”

“I wasn’t going to bring it up, but I might…I might have managed to dig a bit of info from one of the demons I killed on my way out of that barn.” Cason started, and Anna’s head snapped toward him with raised eyebrows. “They told me some things about the farm…and Anna…and Lilith.”

“What?” Anna asked, straightening with wide eyes as she stared down at Cason.

“Go on.” Bobby urged Cason to continue. His eyes were narrowed in curiosity.

“Lilith wanted her there.” Cason continued, and Anna shifted uncomfortably on the counter. “Lilith wanted her in the place where it all began, because she wanted to use her to break a seal…well…a couple of seals, actually. The house up the way? The one that was burned to a husk? It’s where your family died, Anna.”

“No. No no no. This didn’t all happen because of me.” Anna shook her head, looking around at everyone as if they were going to blame her for the terror they had all experienced the night before. Cason shook his head.

“No. We all just got wrapped up in it. They would have gotten to Nat either way. No matter what we did, we would have ended up somewhere…ambushed and it would have happened either way. This was just the path of least resistance for them.” Cason explained, before taking a drink. Bobby tilted his head, knowing that this information was a lot for Anna to take in, but he was careful not to press. Instead, he moved onto his next question.

“And was it one of the big bads that took her?”

“Alastair.” Cason and Anna said in unison. Anna could almost feel the tension from Dean in the next room as the name slipped from her lips.

“Well that’s great. Here’s a good question, while we’re sharing and caring.” Bobby started, taking a deep and exasperated breath as he tried to handle all the information he was just strapped with, “Why the hell does Dean look the way he does…and Nat looks the way she does…and yet, Esme looks…”

“Because she’s not human.” Cason blurted out, interrupting Bobby. Duke's eyes shot over to Cason, and he narrowed them. Cason nodded sadly, trying to convey to Duke that it wasn't his conversation to have with the cowboy. Esme needed to talk to him.

“Come again?” Bobby asked, looking around at everyone in the room, lingering on Sam and Mika and then Duke, who turned from Cason with a lost and devastated look that Bobby couldn't quite place.

[FuriePhoenix]

NATALIA

Hearing Esme's voice be the next to speak made Nat go silent. She stared at her bottle on the table, her hands at the base of the bottle, one finger simply tracing over the dark glass bottle. Flashes of what she went through kept repeating through her mind now she had said everything out loud, whilst also half listening to what Esme experienced. She only managed to mentally press pause on her memories when Esme mentioned how she too was tortured in that same place. It all now made sense to her why Esme said she knew what Nat was going through and had gone through. No wonder Esme felt genuine empathy for her situation and never got surprised by her outbursts defending Cason so strongly. She knew at some point when they weren't all beat up and tired she could talk with Esme now that there was someone who can truly get her.

As Esme continued to talk, Nat went back to spacing out once again not wanting to look at any of them, especially after she did moments ago, see how Dean and Mika reacted to what she said out loud. Everything Esme said about what she did on the top floor of the asylum sounded like a strange echo, almost like she was listening to their conversation from under that watery pool all over again. Which just triggered her memories in her mind to play all over again. She could hear her own screams in her head as she felt the blade cutting through her flesh or when her shoulder got hammered down upon. The lingering pain coming back as if someone had just whacked her with the hammer all over again. Nat didn't want to hear anymore of what happened after that, but she knew she couldn't move from her spot as her body just refused to move.

She only snapped out of her memories when Esme's legs finally gave out from under her and made her drop to the ground before cursing about the action. Like the others, she looked up quickly to see both Duke and Dean rush to Esme's side and aid, only for Dean to push Duke back and make it his duty to pick Esme off the ground and carry her to the couch in the main room. Seeing Duke get angry, jealous and hurt at Dean having to be the girl's saviour didn't go unnoticed by her, just as it didn't to anybody in the kitchen.

Bobby's questions were completely valid in her eyes, they were questions she also wanted to know answers to. There had to be more of a reason as to why the demons felt the need to take her and convince Esme back to the asylum. She didn't want to be left thinking they only took her because they could and they considered her an easy target out of her family. She didn't want to be an easy target or someone who just became a liability like the demons tried making her believe. "I wanna know too" she mumbled, pulling her bottle closer to her and up to her lips to take another swig of the drink. When Cason finally spoke up and said he might have a theory about that, she finally looked up from the table top and looked at him to listen.

Hearing the ultimate goal was to get Anna for Lilith, she didn't know how to process that. She didn't blame Anna for anything that happened, far from it. Cason was right, they all did just get swept along to create chaos amongst their group. This wasn't anyone's fault- not directly at any rate. She felt so sorry for Anna having to find out more and more was stacked against her, which she figured wasn't going to help Dean's conflicted opinion about the girl.

Then came the moment all of them were dreading- the moment that meant they had to come clean about Esme not even being human. Yet the way Cason bluntly told Bobby after he hinted that she and Dean still looked rough made her scrunch up her face in dislike. The words still didn't sit well on her mind, so she could only imagine how uncomfortable they were making Esme. She couldn't even begin to think how she would react if she was told she wasn't human after thinking her entire life she was.

SAM

Being in the kitchen finally, he let Anna wrap a corner of his flannel shirt between her fingers so she had that connection to him to feel safe. Sam knew that she still didn't know how she felt about him leaving Cason and they still had a lot of work to do to get the level of trust they once had with each other back again. So if just grabbing onto his shirt was what she needed right now, he would let her do so. He looked up when Dean came over with a glass of bourbon for Anna, he knew his brother was attempting to make small gestures of apology to her to show her he wasn't going to just give up even though she told him she was done with him.

He gave Dean a nod before looking round at the others in the kitchen, seeing Duke in his own world next to Cason, Mika against the back worktop where she usually was seen, Natalia sitting opposite Cason and Esme adjacent to to Mika. He sighed as he forced his mind and body to try and relax but the tension in the air was just too thick and it felt like he could cut it with a knife. So he had to admit, he was glad that Bobby entered the room and demanded information, making him feel like he had to be the one who started talking first.

After Nat had spoken her part and he tried to make himself move on from her haunting words in his mind, he listened partially to what Esme had to say and what happened with her. He looked wide eyed when she explained how she somehow made the whole building come down ontop of herself and Dean which got him wondering how either of them were still alive. He was also surprised that yet again Dean just willingly almost sacrificed himself for someone who wasn't Mika and he couldn't imagine that sitting well with the woman. It was messy and getting more and more complicated as each of them spoke up. He really needed to sleep this whole crap off at this stage. His mind couldn't take anymore information going into it, yet it seemed more information was coming.

He watched everything quickly unfold when Esme collapsed to the ground but stayed awake. He watched as Dean and Duke silently confronted each other over who would pick up Esme and take her to the couch until Dean won out, but it was clear Duke was angry and he couldn't say he ever knew a time when Duke was like this personally. He watched Mika instantly go to Duke's comfort whilst Dean was in the living room putting Esme down.

MIKA

With Dean's hand on her lower back, Mika began to relax a bit more as all she wanted to be close to be Dean without no one else really around. She promised Bobby she would go rest but at the moment that was the last thing she was able to do. At least, fully anyway. She hated hearing everyone discuss what happened, giving Bobby the lowdown in as much detail as they were able to do until Esme collapsed and she watched Dean get to her before Duke could. She understood why he did, it was second nature for him to rush to anyone who just drops to the ground when they're injured, but the fact it was Esme somehow still hurt her heart.

She saw Duke show jealousy and anger toward Dean and that hurt her just as much as she hated seeing her chosen brother get pushed out and away from the woman he loved and always had loved. She had always known how much Duke had cared for Esme, even if for a long time in the past, she didn't know who Esme actually was. There was always a part of her that knew Duke was in love with someone and he was always the one that people looked passed when he was an incredible guy.

With Dean out the kitchen with Esme briefly, she instantly went over to Duke and leaned over him from behind, wrapping her arms round his shoulders to hug him. She didn't even say anything at first, just let him know she had his back in her simple action, knowing exactly how to comfort him when he needed it but didn't ask. Then came the news of Esme not being human and she felt Bobby's eyes fell onto her, making her look back at him with sadness, not letting go of Duke. "We only found out after Cas healed Dean and for the most part Nat. He said he couldn't heal Esme because she was not human, but we don't really know what she is or how it's possible. She knows more than we do" she explained, nodding her head toward Esme in the other room.

Right now, Duke was her priority even though she didn't know how much longer she could be strong for everyone else before she eventually broke. "I know how you feel Duke....I got you little brother...I got you" she said softly and quietly to him, feeling so lucky and privileged to even be holding him right now. She wanted to protect him at all costs and show him that she was never going to hurt him or leave him. She just hoped he didn't hold it against them all for leaving him at the hospital to go get Natalia.