AN: Sorry for the late-ness in posting! Again, spoilers for Episode 22- "All Hell Breaks Loose(Part II)"
He watched her as she moved around the guest room, shoving her clothes into her bag. He wanted to say something to her, to explain himself. But he didn't know how. He didn't know how to not hurt her. He stepped further into the room, watching as she glanced back at him. But she didn't say anything as she went back to packing up her things. They were going to leave as soon as possible but Bobby didn't want to go in without being armed and ready. "Lucy..."
She spun around to face him, shaking her head. "Don't, okay? I get it."
"Get what?"
"I get that he's your brother. I get that he's all you have left in your family. But I wish you would've done something else. I just wish there had been another way." She let out a sigh, running a hand through her hair. "I guess I wish that you would've thought about it more Dean. A year?"
"He's my brother. I had to save him!" He stood up and the two were standing not a foot apart.
"And what's he going to think when he finds out what you did? Because you know he will!" She pushed at his shoulder. Her eyes were starting to water and she really didn't want to cry in front of him.
"You can't tell him Lucy."
"I'm not! I wouldn't do that to him, you jackass." Lucy stepped away from him, turning back to her stuff.
"You think I don't care about you."
She kept her back to him but paused in what she was doing. "I'm really starting to wonder, actually."
He moved closer to her, close enough to where Lucy could feel the body heat radiating off of him. He moved slowly, his hands coming to rest on her hips before he bent down, resting his chin on her shoulder. "I do, you know."
"You do, what?" She asked softly.
His lips pressed against her neck and he sighed. "I do care about you."
"And what's going to happen in a year? You're just going to...what, drop dead?" She turned around to face him, putting a little bit of space in between them.
"I guess so. Just...let me figure it out."
Lucy eyed him for a moment but she nodded, turning back to packing her things. "Okay. Figure it out Dean."
"Would you quit being mad at me? Please?" He stepped around her, forcing her to look at him. "Please Lucy? I can't have you being mad at me anymore."
"I'm not mad. I don't know what I am. Things have been happening so, so fast." She zipped her bag, looking up at him. "I just want everything to slow down for one damn minute."
"I know, I know." He reached up and began to fool around with the amulet he was wearing. Unhooking it, he looked down at it in his hand before holding it out towards her. "Here."
Lucy stared at the amulet and raised an eyebrow. "What're you doing with that?"
"Take it."
"For what?"
He sighed and just gave her a look. "Just take it Lucy. And when this is all over, if you want to stick around and do...this with me then keep it. And if not, then I'll respect your decision."
She stared at him for a moment but took it from him. "We might not even survive all this though."
"Always the cynic, huh?"
She cracked a smile and shrugged a shoulder as she picked her bag up. "Fine. But don't get in my way out there, you know I can shoot as good as you."
"Not going to." He smiled at her and followed her out of the room. He might not get in her way but he was going to make sure nothing happened to her, whether Lucy wanted it or not.
It was dark by the time the five of them reached the graveyard and got into position. She was pressed up against a tall, thin tombstone. She could just make out Dean's form on the one to her left. Looking to the right she could see Bobby and Ellen huddled behind a shorter, wider one. Sam was behind her but she couldn't see him. She was fairly certain her heart was pounding loud enough for the dead to hear. Her palms were sweating and the grip she had on the gun in her hand felt like it was constantly slipping. She shifted a bit, enough to feel the amulet still in her pocket. She'd thought of putting it on but there hadn't been time. She just didn't want anything to happen to it, just in case things went south. Lucy wasn't even sure what she was going to do. Dean had a year left to live, where did that put them? She froze when she heard the creak of the gates to the cemetery open. Bending down to hide herself more, she could just make out the top of Jake's head as he entered. She had to move around to the other side of the tombstone as Jake walked past and she held her breath, certain that he would see her or one of the others. But he didn't and he continued walking towards the old church.
They all moved quickly and silently with their guns drawn, sneaking right up behind Jake. "Howdy Jake." Sam was the first to speak. Lucy was willing to bet that was definitely the last voice he expected to hear, especially when Jake turned and spotted him. The look on his face said it all.
He looked like he was in shock, staring and blinking at Sam before he finally realized there were four other people surrounding him with guns pointed right at him. Looking back at Sam he said, "You're dead. I killed you."
"Yeah well, next time finish the job."
"I did! I cut clean through your spinal cord man."
Lucy swallowed hard and stole a glance up at Dean but he was staring straight ahead, his jaw clenched tightly. Sam and Dean shared a quick look and she had to wonder whether Dean's little secret was going to stay a secret for very long. "You can't be alive. You can't be," Jake continued.
"Okay, just take it real easy there son." Bobby said. None of them needed to antagonize Jake more than they had to, he wanted this to go easy and he wanted it to go quick.
"And if I don't?"
"Wait and see!" It was easy to tell that Sam was getting fed up with Jake. He wanted it over as well.
"What, you're a tough guy all of a sudden?" He grinned at Sam, shaking his head some. "What're you gonna do, kill me?"
"It's a thought."
"You had your chance, you couldn't."
"I won't make that same mistake twice."
Jake started laughing, the kind of laugh that was irritating to the bone. Lucy thought it would be nice if she could just reach out and punch him, just to get him to shut up. Dean was pretty fed up as well, it would be easy enough to just pull the trigger and end all of this right now. "What are you smiling about you little bitch?"
He looked at Dean, the grin still on his face before he glanced at Ellen. "Hey lady, do me a favor. Put that gun to your head."
They all watched as Ellen did as she was told, the gun going straight to her temple shakily as she tried not to do it. "See, that Ava girl was right." Jake said, "Once you give into it there's all sorts of new Jedi mind tricks you can learn."
"Let her go." Sam's finger was on the trigger and looked about ready to just start shooting at any second. Lucy was nearly there too, especially when Ellen told them to shoot him.
"You'll be mopping up skull before you get a shot off." And Jake was probably right about that. "Now, everybody put your guns down. Except you sweetheart."
The four of them sort of looked at each other before they moved and put their guns down on the ground.
Jake nodded as he watched them all carefully. "Okay. Thank you." He turned and hurried forward, pulling the Colt out of his jacket. Shoving it inside the door, something clicked. Dean turned and grabbed Ellen's arm, pointing her gun up towards the sky just as it went off. Jake turned the gun just as Sam picked up his gun and started shooting. Lucy bent to grab her gun and had it about halfway pointing at Jake as Sam continued to shoot him, even after he fell to the ground. Her eyes widened as Sam fired off two more shots, leaving Jake to be little more than a bloody mess on the wet ground.
Moving around him, she joined Bobby and Ellen at the door. The lock was spinning around and around, with the Colt still inside. "Oh no," Bobby muttered.
"What is it?" Ellen asked.
"It's hell."
Dean reached forward and grabbed the Colt after the lock stopped spinning around just as Bobby yelled for them to take cover. Dean grabbed the back of Lucy's jacket and pulled her backwards before for a moment it looked as if she was just going to stand in front of the door. Dean had enough time to push her down behind a grave before he ran behind the one next to it. Lucy covered her head just as the doors burst open, throwing dirt and debris and who knows what (or who) else out at them. "What the hell just happened!" Dean yelled from where he was crouched down.
"That's a devil's gate, a damn door to hell!" Ellen answered from where she and Bobby were hiding. "C'mon! We gotta shut that gate!"
Lucy scrambled up from where she was hiding just as Sam did, hurrying towards the doors. She was sure Dean was behind her but didn't have a chance to make sure, they had to get the doors closed before too many of the demons got out. She wasn't expecting the doors to weigh so much and even with Bobby helping her push on one side, with Ellen and Sam on the other, it didn't seem to be budging even an inch. She heard Sam yell for Dean and watched as he left Ellen alone on her side of the door, rushing back through the graves. Looking over her shoulder, she could just make out Dean on the ground and the yellow-eyed demon not too far from him. Instinct told her to go to him to help but another part of her said to stay. She left Bobby and went to help Ellen push on the doors, glad when there seemed to be a little give. Too many were getting through as it was but they didn't need to let the entire depths of Hell out.
The yellow-eyed demon had taken the Colt from Dean, throwing him halfway across the cemetery. Dean had landed with a sickening thud, managing to hit his head on the corner of a particularly sharp edge of a grave. He'd tried to get up but he was being held in place. He'd watched as Sam had come to help him but the demon just pushed him up against a tree, grinning at him. "I'll be with you in a minute champ! But I'm proud of you, I knew you had it in you."
He walked over to Dean, kneeling down in front of him. "I gotta thank you. You see, demons can't resurrect people unless a deal is made. I know, I know, red tape. It'll make you nuts. But thanks to you, Sammy's back in rotation! Now I wasn't counting on that but I'm glad. I like him better than Jake anyway. Although I was kind of pulling for your girlfriend over there too. Either one would've done the job well. But tell me Dean, have you ever heard the expression, 'if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is'?"
"You call that deal good?" Dean spat towards him.
"It's better than what your dad got. And you never wondered why. I'm surprised at you!" The demon leaned in closer, obviously enjoying himself and enjoying the fact that he seemed to have the upper hand in all of this. He was going to get what he wanted, for once and for all. "I mean, you just saw what your brother did to Jake. Right? That was pretty cold wasn't it? How certain are you that what you brought back is one hundred percent Sam? You of all people should know that what's dead should stay dead. Anyway!" He stood then, looking down at the Colt as he held it in his hands. "Thanks a bunch. I knew I kept you alive for some reason. Until now anyway. I couldn't have done it without your pathetic, self-loathing, self-destructive desire to sacrifice yourself for your family."
Dean's heart felt like it was in his throat and he was suddenly sure he was going to die right then and there. He was trying to prepare himself for the blast, to feel the bullet tear through...well, would it be his head or would it be his chest? No, the yellow-eyed son of a bitch would probably go for the chest just to make him suffer. Dean wasn't sure how he was supposed to prepare himself but he was trying to stay as still as possible when he noticed a familiar shape appear behind the yellow-eyed demon. A familiar shape that was cloudy and smoky at first before it materialized and his eyes widened. John Winchester had managed to crawl his way out of Hell, wrapping his arms around the demon until it was shaken from the human form it'd taken. The body and the gun fell to the ground while John and the demon fought with John eventually being tossed backwards much like a rag doll. The demon inhabited its human form again and stood, looking around for the Colt. Dean knew he had one shot and one shot only. If he didn't do it now there would never be another chance. He pulled the trigger as soon as the demon saw that he had the gun, firing the last bullet right through his chest.
It seemed to be over in a matter of seconds, although it really felt like a lifetime. The light in the demon's eyes went out, releasing Sam from the hold against the tree. Lucy and Ellen managed to get their side of the door shut just as Bobby got his closed. The three of them stepped back, watching as the locks spun around and sealed the gates shut again. They turned around, looking for Sam and Dean but were surprised to see John standing between them. Lucy couldn't count the years it'd been since she'd seen John Winchester but she knew that's what Dean and Sam needed, to see that he was okay. And he'd finally gotten rid of the thing that had torn his family apart.
The two Winchester's stood over the human form that the demon had inhabited, the wound from the bullet still smoldering. Lucy approached carefully, standing just behind Dean's shoulder until he reached out to pull her forward. "Well, check that off the to-do list." He said, a half smile crossing his face for just a fleeting moment.
"We did it.." Sam seemed to be in disbelief. They'd been chasing it for so long he was beginning to think it'd never end.
"I didn't do it alone."
"You think dad really climbed out of hell?" It had seemed to unlikely when they lost their father and figured out what had happened to him, Sam was sure they'd never see him again.
"The door was open Sam." She said it quietly, her eyes still on where the demon laid on the ground.
"And if anyone's stubborn enough to do it, it'd be him."
"Where do you think he is now?" Right then, Sam reminded both Dean and Lucy of the little boy who always asked questions. He could never get enough answers, sometimes hitting on a nerve with Dean and sometimes stumping the hell out of her.
Dean shook his head, wondering just where their father had gone to. "I don't know." But he hoped it was somewhere where he would finally be at peace. And hopefully it was with their mother finally.
"I...kinda can't believe it." Lucy said, looking at the two of them finally.
"Our whole lives have been in preparation for this and now, I don't know what to say.."
"I do." Dean knelt down to get one last look at the thing that had tortured him for over twenty years. "That was for our mom and Lucy's parents. You son of a bitch."
Lucy stayed behind to help Bobby and Ellen dispose of Jake and of whoever the demon had been living inside. She had a feeling that the two boys needed to talk. Sam had heard Jake loud and clear as they all had, he had to know something was up. And as much as she wanted to be there just in case fists starting flying, she knew it was something they needed to talk about on their own. She would catch up with them after the cleaning-up process was done with.
"So what are you going to do now?" Bobby asked as they finished up what they were doing.
The truth was, she didn't know. Dozens of demons had gotten out through the devil's gate so she supposed she could stick around and help with that. But on the other hand, she'd promised herself that once this was over and she'd found the thing that'd taken her parents that she would go back to a 'normal' life. Of course normal was relative but she wasn't so sure that hunting was normal, in any sense of the word. Shrugging a shoulder, she felt around in her pocket for the amulet Dean had given to her. "I don't know just yet." She said after a long moment.
Ellen smiled at her, patting her shoulder as she passed Lucy. "You'll figure it out."
"Yeah I hope so."
They came upon Sam and Dean and just from the looks on both their faces, she knew that the truth had come out. "Well, the yellow-eyed demon might be gone but a lot more got through that gate."
"How many you think?" Dean asked.
"A hundred. Maybe two hundred." Sam had seen enough get through, that was enough for him.
"It's an army." Lucy remembered the yellow-eyed demon's words very well. "He just unleashed their army."
"Hope to hell you guys are ready because the war has just begun."
She had to admit that it was hard to believe that the yellow-eyed demon was really gone. It seemed as if it had been hanging over Dean and Sam forever, it didn't seem it would ever be over. Now it pretty much was. And now she didn't know to do.
"Did you know?"
Sam asked it so quietly she wasn't sure he'd even said anything but she turned to face him as Bobby, Dean and Ellen were all talking. Chewing on her lip, she nodded before looking down at her shoes. "Yeah. I...found out not too long after you and Dean showed up to Bobby's."
"How come you didn't tell me? I died Lucy."
"Because I didn't know how!" She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Dean didn't want me to tell you, he didn't want you to find out. And I really didn't want to be the one to tell you what happened, it wasn't my place Sam."
He stared at her for a good long moment before he nodded his head. "Okay. I'm...sorry."
She smiled at him, shrugging a shoulder as she looked over to the other group. "It's fine Sam. I think that we've got a lot of other things to worry about now though."
"You're right." And she was, they had a lot of other stuff to deal with now. A whole new chapter had opened up. Sam was just afraid he wouldn't be able to save his brother before it was too late. He just wasn't sure how to wrap his head around the fact that he had actually died or that Dean had a year left to live...well, less than a year if they were already counting down the days. How could he do something so stupid? It was unthinkable that Dean would d something like that. But Sam knew that he would've done the same thing if the tables had been turned. He wouldn't give up on Dean though, not when two hundred-some odd demons had been let loose and not when it seemed almost plausible that Dean could have a "normal" life.
Lucy was pretty lost herself. There weren't too many things that could be considered stable in her life but Dean had managed to worm his way in. Sam had too, to an extent. It was hard to imagine her life without either of them now. But she was torn now, about staying with the Winchester's and going...somewhere. She honestly didn't think she could bear to stay and watch at the end of the year as Dean just died. She knew that it was selfish on her part and it really was. But didn't she deserve to be, just this one time?
They all ended up back at Bobby's to be patched up and catch up on sleep before deciding on what to do. Lucy and Sam talked well into the early morning hours of the first day of life without the yellow-eyed demon on their tails. Everyone else was asleep in different corners of the house. But her and Sam wanted to figure out the beginnings of a plan. They wanted to find a way to get Dean out of the mess he'd gotten in. But she must have dozed off sometime after the sun had made its first appearance over the horizon.
When Lucy woke up, she found herself being carried up the stairs by Dean. He noticed she was wake and smiled down at her but didn't say anything as he kept on towards the room she'd stayed in back when she first showed up at Bobby's after her parents had died. He finally put her down on the floor, watching as she stretched her arms over her head and yawned. "You and Sam need to quit worrying about me." He said softly.
She looked back at him, "Yeah but...sorry we're not letting you die in a year."
He sighed and shook his head, walking towards her. Dean put both hands on her shoulders and bent down so he could see eye-to-eye with her. "You can't help me." He wanted to tell her what would happen if he tried to get out of the deal and that the last thing he wanted was for Sam to die again. He didn't want his sacrifice to be for nothing. Even if it meant hurting her.
She closed her eyes but didn't say anything as his fingers slipped under the shirt she was wearing, tugging on the bottom of it. Opening her eyes she watched as he bent down to dig around in one of his bags, handing her some clothes they both knew would be too big on her. He gave her a smile as she changed her clothes. "We still have a job to do. And if that means working right up until my own personal doomsday, then so be it."
"But Dean..."
He sighed, "If a year is all I have then a year is all I have. I'd rather spend it doing my job and being with you and Sam than watching you two fight to find some magical way to save me. It was my choice Lucy. And I knew what I was doing."
Lucy just nodded her head as she finished changing her clothes. He might have known what he was doing but Lucy knew what she had to do. She went through the motions that day, sleeping for awhile before showering and then eating whatever Ellen had cooked up. It was hard not to blurt out to Sam or to Bobby on what she was going to do. It was hard to act normal while Dean and Sam planned on where to go next. It was really hard to pretend to fall asleep that night even though Dean climbed in next to her. His body was warm and heavy as it lay against hers but she eventually decided it was time. She managed to climb out from under his arm and get her things. There wasn't much to grab but she still tried to be as quiet as possible. Dean did seem to sleep heavy and light all at the same time.
There were just some things that she could not do and watching him die was one of them. It physically hurt to think about that and she just couldn't do it. And even though her heart was screaming for her to turn around and crawl back into bed with him, her brain told her to go. Lucy slipped out of the house and into the dark, glancing around to make sure Ellen or Bobby or Sam weren't still up. But it was quiet and it was dark and it was cold. Leaving behind the only family she'd known since her own had been destroyed was hard and she knew Dean would be hurt but hopefully he would understand that this was one storm that just couldn't be weathered. And maybe one day he wouldn't hate her so much.
Dean woke up long after the sun had risen, feeling better than he had in days. For once his entire body wasn't sore and screaming for him to take a break. He reached over, expecting to find Lucy there next to him but that side of the small bed was cold and empty. Raising up he glanced around the room, thinking that maybe she'd just gotten up before him to shower or to eat. He turned to lay back down, catching sight of something lying on the pillow next to him. Reaching over, his fingers brushed across something familiar. Picking it up he recognized the amulet he'd handed to Lucy and then, he knew. Lucy had gone and it was just another strike against him in the big scheme of things. He sat up slowly, his bare feet hitting the floor with a soft thud. Part of him wanted to grab his things and peel out of Bobby's junkyard to go find her. But the other part of him just sat there, staring at the item in his hand. He only had less than a year to live, he wouldn't want to burden anyone with that so maybe in some way it was for the best. Even if it hurt like hell.
FIN.
AN: So that's the end! Did you love it/hate it? I was almost sad to have it end. I just have to say thanks to you all that took a chance to read my little fic on here and leave comments and reviews. There may be a sequel in the works after season three gets underway. And well, I'm sure there'll be other fics to pop up in my head.