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Chapter Summary: Jay takes another step forward toward Y/N. Meanwhile, Y/N’s anxiety reaches a point.
Word Count: 1.5K+
Warnings: toxic workplace/workplace bullying
A/N: I am so sorry for leaving this here like this! Things went a little stir-crazy in my personal life but I promise I have more in this story!!
SERIES MASTERLIST || JAY HALSTEAD MASTERLIST
Chapter 4 || Chapter 6
After half a beat, you look up in surprise, even though you haven’t moved, your phone vibrating under your palm as Jay’s warm hand rests atop yours.
As your eyes met Jay’s green ones, Jay pulled his hand back gently, taking your phone and turning it face down. The vibrations could still be felt, but it wasn’t as in-your-face as it had originally been.
You couldn’t really read the look on Jay’s face, so he spoke.
“How often does she do this?”
Your lack of an answer was enough of an answer for Jay.
Jay looked like he was struggling to say something but ultimately decided to keep his comments to himself as he took another swig from his beer, one hand still resting atop yours.
You raised an eyebrow at him and Jay merely gave you a smile.
You felt the corners of your lips tugging upward subconsciously and you looked back down at your drink. You heard a faint chuckle before Jay gently pulled his hand back.
You hadn’t even realized when your phone had stopped vibrating.
You didn’t make any effort to flip your phone back up, merely taking another sip from the drink in front of you.
The rest of the evening passed with comfortable banter, and you didn’t even feel the urge to get up from your seat, until Jay stopped you from ordering another drink, insisting that he take you home even though your apartment was walking distance from the bar.
Jay even insisted on walking you straight to the door. You glanced back up at him.
“Thank you,” You said, quietly.
A small silence passed between the two of you and you swallowed, almost losing yourself in the deep green eyes that were looking at you.
Jay seemed to pull himself out of it first, clearing his throat.
“Good night, Y/N.”
You smiled back at him, unsure if what you were feeling was relief or disappointment, maybe a bit of both.
“Good night, Jay.”
“Thank you, Mr. Riley.” You said, shaking his hand as the signed contract now sat on the table.
Andrew turned to shake hands with Jay as well, smiling. “You got a good one here.”
Jay turned to smile at you without saying anything.
“We’ll set up another meeting with your team once we have everything sorted.” Jay assured the client, seeing him all the way out as you went to wait in his office.
You didn’t hear the door open as your fingers fidgeted, but you looked up when the door closed. Jay gave you a smile, that reminded you more of the Jay at the bar, rather than your boss.
“This was impressive, Y/N.” Jay said quietly. “This deal is even better than…”
Jay paused, unsure if he really should bring it up again. After all, he’d snapped at you without getting all the facts and he still couldn’t shake the expression you had on your face when it happened. You weren’t upset or disappointed. Jay hadn’t been able to pinpoint it at that moment but later he’d realized. It was a look that told him you’d been here before. That really bugged him.
You glanced at him, your eyebrows raised. You had no idea where he was going with this.
Jay cleared his throat, deciding not to bring it up.
“It was a job well done, we should celebrate.” Jay said, pausing a little to read your micro-expressions.
When you didn’t respond, he continued, “Am I being too forward if I ask to buy you dinner tonight?”
You froze, glancing back up at him, your eyes slightly widened as you blinked stupidly back at him, a thousand thoughts racing through your head.
By instinct, you’d almost said yes immediately, before you were reminded once again that you needed to get the Jay from the bar out of your head and remember that he was your boss. He was everyone’s boss here.
Jay seemed to be able to read your thoughts and spoke again. “I know we got off to a rough start and given the situation right now, the optics aren’t… ideal. Especially for you. So, no pressure, alright? I just… I wanted to put it out there. I want to buy you dinner. Just… think about it. I promise I won’t hold it against you if you say no.”
He ended with a smile, and the Jay from the bar jumped to the forefront of your brain again.
You couldn’t help a smile as well, before nodding. “I’ll… think about it.”
Jay smiled. “That’s all I ask.”
You nodded, excusing yourself before you left his office.
The small victory you had with Life Construction, along with the acknowledgement you’d gotten for a job well done, for the first time since you’d joined this darned company, seemed to keep you afloat for the rest of the day.
It felt like you’d finally found a life buoy after treading in deep still waters for a long time.
The effect was so dizzying that even Laura’s snide remarks or Edward’s quiet glares seemed to float past you as if they weren’t there at all.
At least, until Laura arrived at your desk with a stack of invoices.
You weren’t even sure if you managed to keep the disdain out of your eyes when you looked up.
“It’s that time of the year again.” Laura gave you a grimace. If you didn’t know better it would look like she empathized with you and felt bad about having to leave this yearly stack of invoices on your desk.
But you knew better.
In the first place, this stack of invoices had absolutely nothing to do with you.
Stuffing all the things you really wanted to say into a deep dark corner of your mind, you merely nodded.
You’d been inclined to say yes to dinner. You hadn’t really worked out what it all meant. Maybe it was just Jay being a nice boss, but what he said about optics kind of off-balanced that argument. However, you’d shoved it to the back of your mind, refusing to think about it or let it confuse you further.
You opened the in-house chatting application the company subscribed to which allowed for quick internal communications and typed Jay a private message.
Dinner sounds great, but maybe not today.
You were slightly tempted to add in a reason, but it just wasn’t in your nature, and it felt like you were stooping to their level, running to the boss to make other people look bad. Even though they were just facts.
So, you decided to leave it as that, especially after Jay responded with a thumbs-up emoticon that seemed as positive as it could be.
However, as you worked and the clock ticked later, you felt the unmistakable pains of stomach cramps. You felt yourself wondering if it was because you hadn't had anything but an extra cup of coffee since lunchtime.
That was probably it, mixed with the negative emotions and anxieties toward Laura and the mountain of invoices she had left on your table. You'd spent the last hour mentally calculating in your head if it was even possible to finish tonight and if your anxiety wasn't this crippling, you might have finished more than you already had. However, you'd made significant progress, anxiety and all.
You had barely finished that thought when another cramp ripped through your abdomen.
Reaching into your bag for your medications, you figured you would take a pill to alleviate the symptoms and at least finish what you were working on.
Yet, that plan was shot to the ground when your fingers alone weren't able to locate your pill box and you remembered with a sinking feeling that you had taken it out last night to refill it. With annoying clarity, you even knew exactly where you had left it - right in the middle of the table so that you wouldn't forget it.
So much for that.
You glanced at the mountain of documents that hadn't seemed to go down and tried mentally calculating if you could at least finish the one you were working on.
You'd tried your luck but you had probably pushed it a little too far. When you had finally gotten up from your desk after finishing an extra unplanned document, you'd been greeted with a pain that seemed to rip through your abdomen, and through your middle. You swore you were almost torn in half.
The pain brought you to your knees as your legs buckled.
Cramps weren't new to you, but the intensity of the pain was. The shallow breaths you were taking didn't seem to help much and you felt a little disoriented as if the room was spinning and getting faster with each second that you remained stuck on the ground before your desk.
You didn't hear him walk in, but you know who the voice belonged to, without a doubt.
"Y/N? What's wrong?"
You couldn't answer him but the one hand that was pressing onto your abdomen twitched, exerting even more pressure, as if you could outdo the pain the cramps were exerting on your body.
"Alright, that's it. I'm taking you to the hospital. Can you stand?”
You didn't know what he was talking about honestly. You could barely maintain your current position. Which was why the moment he tried helping you up, you all but collapsed into his arms.
“Y/N!”
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Chapter Summary: Y/N sees a different side of Jay after he chances upon one of her late nights in the office.
Word Count: 1.8K+
Warnings: toxic workplace/workplace bullying
A/N: Sorry for the drought! Lunar New Year can be really draining for more reasons than one but I'm here!!! I'll try to update more regularly! Hope you guys enjoy this. Do leave your footprints behind!
SERIES MASTERLIST || JAY HALSTEAD MASTERLIST
Chapter 3 || Chapter 5
You hadn’t been totally sure about this. Putting aside the fact that this was totally out of your official job scope, you were sure there would be some unhappiness brewing in the other departments. Honestly, you should be used to it by now, but it still created the familiar void of anxiety in your gut.
Surprisingly, it had been pretty quiet.
Jay had been weirdly easy to work with. He pretty much let you take the lead, and it was a weird feeling having someone in an actual mentor position who seemed willing to teach you and let you grow.
You’d been skeptical at first, sharing just a portion of your ideas with him. Yet, he’d surprised you during the first meeting with the client when he’d let you take the lead, and didn’t take credit for a single idea that you had put forward, explaining that he’d just taken over and would merely be in a support position.
Life Construction had taken well to that idea, the manager making it clear that the reason he’d agreed to a meeting was because he trusted you, to which Jay had given a smile that had a hint of pride in it.
So you’d slowly let down your guard. You had a feeling that Jay kind of knew that you were holding back, and yet he’d just paced you, especially since the project was moving somewhat smoothly.
Overall, things had been looking up. Just a little, because you didn’t let down your guard about such things anymore. But up, nonetheless.
“Y/N? What are you still doing here?”
You were brought out of your thoughts by the only voice in this office that didn’t make your heart sink.
You glanced up at Jay standing half confused with his jacket draped over his arm on his way out of the office.
Your eyes darted towards your screen as you weighed your options. A part of you really wanted to tell him that you were stuck finishing up a task Laura had asked you to do, although for the life of you, you didn’t understand why the hell you had to calculate numbers for her.
Infuriating as it was, you were still hesitant about speaking up, your old boss’ words of “I don’t have time for this” seeming to ring in your ears.
But while you’d been immersed in the thousand considerations running through your head, Jay had reached your desk.
He peered at the screen from behind you, his eyebrows now bunching together as he frowned.
Even if he didn’t know what it was for, the numbers that jumped out at him made it perfectly clear that you were crunching numbers. Jay’s eyes flicked towards the calculator lying near your laptop before he looked at you.
You didn’t seem willing to say much, and while Jay’s heart sank a little as he realized he had a lot to do to clean up the culture of this place, it also made him sure that he hadn’t been wrong about you.
Jay glanced at you without saying anything, but you weren’t looking at him, your eyes drawn back down to your hands.
A part of Jay wanted to tell you to fuck it and go home. However, as the new director of this company, the work being done every day was a very vital part of making sure this place ran smoothly. Besides, Jay also knew that there was a limit to how much he could help you. If you didn’t get this done by tomorrow, it wasn’t like he could step in to say anything.
While he’d been thinking, a silence had fallen. This prompted you to look up at him, and you suddenly realized that this was the first time you’d been in such close proximity to Jay.
Jay glanced back down, and you quickly looked back at the screen in front of you.
“How do you feel about Chinese?”
Your brows furrowed. “Huh?”
Jay raised his eyebrows, but a hint of a smile danced behind his green eyes before he looked away, his eyes sweeping the rest of the darkened office.
“I’m sure two brains are better and faster.”
So that’s how you found yourself two hours later sitting next to Jay in one of the smaller meeting rooms, the projector whirring as it projected the sheet of numbers you’d been working on onto the screen, your Chinese food lying to the side as you buried your head in calculations.
“Who came up with this incredible rental fee model?” Jay didn’t hide the sarcasm in his voice as he keyed in the numbers onto the calculator in front of him.
You hid a smile, looking down without answering.
The evening passed quicker than you’d prepared for, working in silence save for a few choice comments from Jay once in a while. And as time passed, you found yourself being less and less able to keep your laughter to yourself.
By the time you and Jay made your way down the list of numbers towards the end of the sheet, you found that the numbers weren’t the only thing you had made progress with.
You glanced sideways at Jay as the both of you packed up your respective things. Things had turned out sort of weird yet it was a good weird, a feeling you hadn’t felt before.
Feeling your eyes on him, Jay glanced up.
“I’ll drop you home.”
You opened your mouth to reject but Jay put a hand up. “It’s late.”
Knowing it was probably useless to argue, you just took a breath and smiled. “Thank you.”
“Where’s Laura?” Jay asked as he stopped at your desk, glancing at the clock.
You looked up at him but didn’t respond. What were you supposed to say? It was normal for her not to be in at 9? She was probably just claiming her non-existent overtime?
But you should have known that Jay wasn’t likely to give up without a response.
“My office. Now.”
To anyone else, it looked like Jay was probably pissed at you, and you could even see the few gloating faces that were telling you, “See, nothing has changed”
But they were wrong.
You’d almost missed it, the softer look in his eyes even as he spoke gruffly.
It was only confirmed when you closed his office door behind you.
“Now, can you tell me?” Jay asked, pointing to the couch in his office.
So, today, instead of sitting across his desk, you sat on the couch in his office, which was usually reserved for meetings when clients came over to speak to him.
You sat but you didn’t speak.
Jay didn’t push, but he also wasn’t planning on dropping this without an answer from you.
You glanced up at him now, surprised to meet his bright green eyes since he was staring at you.
You sighed, knowing there was no way you were getting out of this one.
“She comes in at about 9 to 9:30 I guess. And it’s the start of the month, which means she’s probably going to send you an email to tell you she’s taking time off for working overtime last week.”
Jay frowned.
“Overtime?”
You shrugged.
“She wasn’t asked to work overtime," Jay said.
You gave him a forced smile. “Yeah, but she did.”
“That’s not my problem,” Jay answered, and you weren’t able to hide the surprise on your face quick enough.
Jay picked up on it almost immediately.
“This isn’t new, I take it.”
You didn’t answer and Jay just nodded. “Y/N, listen…”
You glanced up again, and Jay gave you a small encouraging smile. “I know what’s going on. Kind of. And I’m working on it, just… bear with me for a bit.”
Your frown was one of confusion and Jay just smiled, before nodding to signal you could leave.
You knew something was off the moment Laura swept into the office the next day. You could always tell when she was in a bad mood, because she’d ignore anyone’s but mostly your morning greetings, which you only kept up out of politeness.
Victoria shot you a look from where she was seated diagonally opposite you, and you just raised an eyebrow.
Despite the fact that she was one of the only friendly faces around here now, you were still a little guarded. After all, Victoria reported directly to Laura, and you couldn’t be sure where her real loyalties lay. Another real reminder that the longer you worked here, the more jaded you’d become.
The weird thing was that unlike the usual screaming or sarcastic, mean comments she would make when she was in a bad mood, Laura kept to herself, merely storming around the office. You could even see the concerted effort it took her to speak somewhat civilly to you and Victoria.
You were confused until you spotted Jay leaving his office, the icy look on his face disappearing the instant he met your eye, giving you a discreet smile before he left for another meeting.
It didn’t make you feel less confused, not really. But a small warmth felt like it blossomed right in the middle of your chest. It was a strange feeling you’d never had before, but it was a good kind of strange.
Later that night, you opened the door to your usual bar, the bartender flashing you a smile as you slipped into your usual chair and he handed you a drink before you said anything.
“Y/N?”
You glanced up, your eyes meeting the familiar green eyes of Jay Halstead.
You blinked back at him without saying anything, mainly just shocked to see him here.
“No, I’m not stalking you.” Jay said, before you could say anything and you felt your eyes widen just slightly.
You just smiled. “You didn’t tell me you could read minds, Mr. Halstead.”
Jay just smiled as the bartender handed you your usual drink and Jay nodded at him. “My tab.”
The bartender glanced at you and you smiled, shrugging. He gave a friendly grin before nodding. You rolled your eyes because you knew what he was thinking. You’d never let someone else, more specifically any guy in the bar, buy you a drink before.
The look wasn’t lost on Jay but you didn’t talk about it and he didn’t ask.
Technically, it should have been awkward, sitting with your boss in a bar, but even the short silences between your conversation seemed comfortable.
Jay had just asked you a question when your phone buzzed.
You glanced at it, the familiar name flashed across the scene in big words and the knot in your stomach tightened in a natural and familiar way.
Things had always been like this. You’d be decompressing after a horrible day at work, be it here or at home, and Laura would call. If you were lucky, it was about something for you to do tomorrow morning. When you weren’t, she would ask for it within an hour or two, and you’d either have to race out of there or open your laptop at the bar.
You sighed and reached for the phone about to answer it but froze when Jay put his hand over yours, the warmth from his fingers spreading right into yours.
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Chapter Summary: Y/N gets the brunt of the tensions in the aftermath of her meeting with the client, only to be surprised when things take a different turn.
Word Count: 2.7K+
Warnings: toxic workplace/workplace bullying, allusions/slight mentions of sexual harassment (non-graphic)
A/N: hi guys, sorry for delaying last week! Things have been a little crazy, but wanted to get this out today regardless! I hope you guys will enjoy this update!
SERIES MASTERLIST || JAY HALSTEAD MASTERLIST
Chapter 2 || Chapter 4
You’d thought Jay sounded a different than usual when he’d called you but the moment you opened his office door you knew it was nothing good.
“You wanted to see me?”
You didn’t like the look on Jay’s face.
“You want to explain to me why Triumph Systems is pulling their business?” Jay asked quietly, looking up at you with his arms crossed.
Your eyes widened a little. You hadn’t seen that coming.
“They’re pulling their business?” You asked, even before you could stop yourself.
Jay didn’t answer you immediately, but the look in his eyes was piercing, almost as if he was looking right through you. “You met him.”
It wasn’t a question and you nodded, wanting to explain more but Jay didn’t seem to want to hear it.
“Why were you even meeting a client? I don’t believe that’s part of your job scope. Are you even trained for this?” Jay’s voice was rising with each question that came flying out towards you.
“I…”
Jay didn’t even let you get a word in. “Do you know how much this contract is worth? Are you going to take responsibility for the losses we potentially face because of this?”
You opened your mouth to argue, the rational part of your brain saying that you had to find some way to defend yourself. However, other than the fact that it was so difficult to just get a word in sideways, the reality and futility of the situation hit you like a ton of bricks.
What would be the point in trying to defend yourself? It wasn’t for lack of trying that you found yourself in this position once again. You could hear your old boss’ voice in your head. “There’s a reason why they’re reacting to you this way.”
Trying to defend yourself was just futile. Everything would once again be your fault.
So you chose not to say anything.
“This is your mess. So, you come up with a solution. But everything comes through me.” Jay snapped.
You were at least proud of the fact that you’d managed to hold your tears back until you made it to the washroom.
The tears of frustration mixed with the feelings of disgust swirling in you. You could almost feel that creep's hand on yours again. That just made you feel like throwing up or screaming, maybe both.
But by the time you made it back out to your desk, you’d regained your composure, almost perfectly. If no one knew, they’d think it was just another day in the office.
There were only two ways you could solve this - talk to a higher up in Triumph Systems to override that asshole, or pull another client that could give the same amount of money or more for an advertising contract.
You put your head in your hands. It was easy thinking of a solution that was so up in the air. But actually getting either of these plans to work was way out of your comfort zone.
You spent the next couple of hours clearing the outstanding work that you had, and by the time you were ready to clear your brain for this crisis, it was already the end of the day. You could already hear the bustle of people leaving.
Whatever, it wasn’t like you were going anywhere.
You reached out for your headphones, slipping them over your ears since it was officially the end of the day and you didn’t have to listen out for people calling for your attention.
The good thing was that you were pretty good at blocking everything out, your entire focus and energy being pulled into whatever was in front of you.
The next time you looked up, the sky was already dark, and so was the office, save for your desk light. You’d barely even blinked when someone had turned off all the lights in the office. That was typical. You pulled your earphones off your head, glancing up as you heard footsteps.
Jay paused on his way out of the office, your eyes meeting briefly before he looked away.
You rolled your eyes and glanced back at your laptop. It had been kind of productive. You didn’t let on to anyone else, but you did have some experience in sales and marketing. It just hadn’t been something you had wanted to delve into when you’d joined, so you’d kept this piece of information to yourself. At least there was something you could do with these skills.
And for tonight, you were done, ready to get started on your plan tomorrow.
You glanced up at the building, letting out a sigh that seemed to be filled with puffs of anxiety.
It had sounded like a brilliant plan in your head when you’d sent out an email to Life Construction to ask for a meeting. You’d turned it over in your head as you sourced around for companies that had a similar financial standing as Triumph. Life Construction was one of your top choices, but you’d also sent emails to other companies. Surprisingly, it was Life Construction that had replied to you first thing in the morning, so you’d dropped Jay an email to take the morning away from the office and made the trip across town to get here.
Swallowing down the waves of anxiety, you approached the counter, letting them know you had a meeting with Anthony Riley.
The guy at the reception counter nodded with a smile, picking up the phone before putting it down after all of two minutes to let you know that he’d be down in a bit.
You tapped your foot anxiously, glancing up and pausing as a familiar figure crossed your peripheral vision.
At the same time, he paused and turned, both of you looking at each other at almost the same time.
“Y/N?”
“Matt?” You couldn’t help the surprise in your voice.
You hadn’t seen Matthew Casey in ages and honestly this was the last place you’d expected to see him.
Matt let out a chuckle before changing his course and heading for you, pulling you into a hug.
“What are you doing here?” Both of you asked the question at the same time, making you smile. You noted that this was the first time in a long while you’d felt so at ease. After all, you were finally seeing a friendly face.
Matt echoed your smile. “I was supposed to meet a friend. He wanted my help with…” His voice trailed off as his eyes looked over your shoulder. “Andrew!” Matt called across the lobby.
“Matt, listen. I’m sorry.” You heard the voice before turning to look at guy decked out in a suit. “I have to meet someone from an ad company. Can you wait?”
Matt nodded before you blinked. “Mr. Riley?” You spoke.
Both Matt and Anthony turned to you at the same time, and you gave a sheepish smile. “I’m from Blossom Advertising.”
Anthony blinked back at you before turning his head to look at Matt. “You know each other?”
Matt smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be her character witness.” He joked.
Jay sighed as he locked his phone and slipped it back into his pocket. Maybe he’d been too harsh on you yesterday, which had prompted you to take the morning off.
Making a mental note to himself not to get overly on your case today, he headed to the first floor to grab a coffee.
The previous day's events still weighing heavily on his mind, Jay ordered a coffee before standing off to the side to wait for his order, turning it over in his head.
Do I handle the people first or the problem at hand? The rational part of his brain knew that he should handle the pending business issue, but he couldn’t get the look on your face out of his mind, which concerned yet also irritated him.
It was only as he was in the middle of these thoughts that he picked up on the conversation happening behind the coffee machine.
“…the 4th floor?”
“Yeah, Y/N.”
Without even meaning to, Jay’s attention spiked up at your name.
“…looked like a meeting with some guy. He was all handsy with her, and she bolted out of here. I couldn’t even be annoyed by the mess of spilled coffee left behind.”
“Handsy? Gross. What’s wrong with men seriously?”
The feeling that lay in Jay’s gut now was guilt. Putting aside the reason why you’d been having a meeting with a client, he’d torn into you for losing a client that was probably only pulling out of the project because you’d spurned his advances.
The barista was right. Gross.
“Black for Jay Halstead.” The barista called, and Jay stepped forward to take his coffee.
“Thanks.” Jay paused as he took the coffee from her, and she raised her eyebrows a little.
Against his better judgment, he addressed her directly. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear. He got handsy with her?”
The barista paused like she wasn’t sure about him.
“Sorry, rude of me huh? I’m Jay. Executive Director up at Blossom on 4th. If someone tried to take advantage of one of my people, I need to know. Promise I’m not a creep.” Jay’s lips tilted up in a polite smile.
She glanced at her friend before she nodded.
“Yeah, he took her hand a few times. If anything else happened, I don’t know.” She said quietly.
Jay ground his teeth quietly. “Thanks.”
He hadn’t been expecting that when he had stopped for morning coffee. He felt the guilt make its way around his chest and gut once again but more than that, his brain started working.
Things had gone way smoother than you’d expected.
You were pretty sure things had gone better after Andrew had found out that you and Matt were friends. As it turned out, Life Construction had met a wall when working with an advertising company and were in the midst of finding another company with such services when your cold email had hit them.
It made sense why they’d replied you so quickly then.
Thanks to your experience in the early years at Blossom, you could work out a general gist plan with Andrew, and he’d agreed to come down to your office the next day to work out more kinks with the team.
Shaking his hand, Andrew smiled. “Sounds good. If Matt trusts you, I’m sure we’ll work well together.”
“Thank you Mr. Riley.” You said, smiling.
He nodded. “Call me Andrew. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Matt put a gentle hand on your shoulder. “Let’s catch up soon.”
So it was with a much lighter heart that you’d stepped through the doors of your office building after lunch, ready to face your new boss.
But something felt kind of different, especially after you walked into Jay’s office.
You weren’t ecstatic to see Edward already there, a look on his face that looked almost triumphant like he was waiting to see Jay chew you a new one.
Taking an additional breath to steady yourself, you closed the door behind you, turning to look at Jay who had an unreadable look on his face.
Alright, bring it.
“I just wanted to get some facts in about what happened yesterday,” Jay spoke, his voice considerably calmer compared to yesterday.
You could see Edward glance at you from your peripheral but you chose to ignore him.
“Why was Y/N meeting a client?”
You felt the jolt of confusion before you realized he wasn’t talking to you, Jay’s eyes flicking towards Edward now.
You could feel the air freeze in the room.
This was new.
“I don’t…”
You didn’t say anything, merely looking down at the ground.
“Why don’t you just assume I already know. That would save us a lot of time.” Jay said, his voice firm, but he didn’t raise his voice this time.
Edward didn’t answer immediately. The awkwardness of the pause felt familiar yet different, especially since now it wasn’t you that needed to fill the silence for once.
“I had an urgent meeting to attend to with the rest of my team.”
Jay exhaled softly. “And you neglected to mention this information to me when I asked you yesterday, after you brought me the news that Triumph was pulling out.”
It wasn’t a question.
“This doesn’t happen again,” Jay said quietly. “You can go.”
You looked up but Jay shook his head. “Y/N, you stay.”
Now what?
You swallowed the anxiety you felt bubbling up inside you, reminding yourself that even if he tore you a new one, maybe the good news about Life Construction might relieve it some.
Jay didn’t speak immediately, but there was a knock on his door. When the door opened, in walked… that creep from yesterday.
Damn it.
Instinctively, you put another two steps between the both of you, an action that Jay didn’t miss.
“Mr. Halstead, I agreed to come down only because you asked, but I’m not changing my mind. This employee of yours is extremely rude and I will not…”
“I’m not trying to change your mind,” Jay said, his voice icier now. “We will not take any of Triumph’s projects as long as you are the project manager.”
Your eyes flicked towards Jay’s in surprise. This was a 180 change in attitude.
“Would you like to make this a legal issue?” Jay asked, raising his eyebrows.
Declan Fisher blinked back at Jay, surprised. “We haven’t signed the contract yet. There’s nothing stopping me from…”
“Yeah yeah. There’s nothing we can do about the contract. Sexual harassment on the other hand is a whole different ball game.” Jay snapped.
Your eyes widened as Fisher glanced at you furiously.
“Don’t look at her.” Jay growled.
You blinked.
“This is ridiculous,” Fisher said as he turned to leave.
“Fisher.” Jay stopped him in his tracks. “You come anywhere near this building or her again, we’ll have a problem.”
Declan Fisher narrowed his eyes before he stormed out of the office.
You didn’t know what to do. This was completely new to you. So you just kept quiet.
“Why didn’t you tell me what had happened?” Jay asked, his voice considerably calmer and softer as he pointed to the chair in front of his desk.
You shrugged. “I didn’t… Because you were right, I shouldn’t have been the one going to meet him.”
Jay sighed, looking you in the eye. “I’m sorry.”
You raised your eyebrows in surprise.
“I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions about what happened, and I shouldn’t have lost my temper,” Jay said, his voice gentle.
You felt a weird sort of warmth that you’d never felt here before.
When you didn’t say anything, Jay continued. “I know something’s off here, but I could use some help. I’m not the enemy.”
You looked up quietly at him before you nodded.
“We good?” Jay asked with a small smile, sticking his hand out.
You nodded and smiled back at him, returning the handshake.
“If there’s nothing else…”
“Oh, wait.” You interrupted him, pushing the file you had towards him. “I went to see Life Construction today with this. I made it clear that this was just a proposal, but their director will be here tomorrow for a meeting. I told him you would join us.”
Jay glanced down. “You met with Life Construction?”
You gave him a sheepish look. “You told me to solve the problem.”
There was a hint of a smile on Jay’s face before he nodded. “Alright, I’ll take a look at this.”
“Do you need me to loop Edward in?” You asked, expecting a positive answer since Edward was supposed to take such meetings in the first place.
Jay shook his head. “Just you and me.”
You paused but nodded.
Jay nodded back, which was your cue to go.
“Y/N.”
You turned back towards him.
“If anything like this ever happens again, you come to me. With the full truth.” Jay said, his voice firm but gentle.
You nodded. “Thanks, boss.”
The last thing you saw before you closed his office door behind you was Jay’s warm smile directed at you.
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Chapter Summary: Once again coming to terms with the fact that nothing significant was going to change, Y/N comes to a decision. Meanwhile, Y/N is cornered into meeting a client.
Word Count: 2.1K+
Warnings: toxic workplace/workplace bullying, allusions/slight mentions of harassment (incl sexual)
A/N: Here's Chapter 2! I'm nursing a cold (again) but I wanted to get this out! Hope you enjoy this and remember to leave a footprint if you liked what you read!
SERIES MASTERLIST || JAY HALSTEAD MASTERLIST
Chapter 1 || Chapter 3
“And why exactly do we do this?”
Jay could feel the irritation in his voice rise, only further exacerbated by the answer that he was given. “Procurement documents fall under Operations.”
So by the time you’d pushed open his office door, Jay was already running on a shortened fuse. You’d noticed it the moment you’d walked in, the frigid air doing nothing to relieve the anxiety that felt like it was coursing through your veins.
Jay nodded, extending his hand and motioning to you to have a seat.
You nodded quietly, slipping into the chair that was across from him.
Jay pushed the document file towards you. “Explain this to me.”
You blinked at the procurement documents in front of you before looking up into the green eyes that felt like they could penetrate right through you.
“The date isn’t filled in. The request form is submitted at the same time as the order?”
You held back a sigh.
This was all Laura’s doing - insisting on a shortcut in order to lessen her work, even though it was against policy. You’d tried bringing it up for discussion before, but you were shot down within a minute with justifications of efficiency and other big words you didn’t bother committing to memory. The department never had any power to talk about from the beginning, but saying all that just felt like you were making excuses.
And then you realized you’d just been sitting in silence while your new boss was waiting for an answer.
You bit the inside of your cheek like a habit before you spoke.
“It was a decision made by…”
“Stop.” Jay snapped, making you flinch.
Jay paused, inhaling to regain some composure and trying to keep his voice at a moderate level. “Don’t you dare tell me that this decision was made by someone else or so help me…”
You should have known.
“It’s just the truth. Next time I’ll ask if you want the bare truth or the politically correct answer, sir.” You couldn’t help snapping back even as your stomach coiled with semi-regret.
To hell with this.
You’d called your friends a week ago and started to put feelers out for a new job, so you were just hoping to get out of this hellhole as soon as you could. There was a limit to how much a girl could tolerate.
Jay raised an eyebrow.
“Everyone here knows that Finance calls the shots. Call it an unspoken rule. I’ve tried to change this.” You pointed at the document on the table now. “Tried and failed. Multiple times. No one in senior management wanted to touch this issue so I’ve accepted this.”
“So this is your process, but you can’t do anything about it. Is that what you’re telling me?” Jay asked, irritation seeping back out.
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Laura’s now the head of administration. Has she not briefed you on this?”
Seriously, you needed this meeting to end before you actually lost what little composure you had left.
Jay didn’t respond, merely nodded at you as a dismissal.
“Y/N, right?” He said again, just as you got up from your seat.
You didn’t respond, just looked back at him.
“I don’t know how you did things before, but I’m telling you now. We follow the rules. Remember that.”
You resisted the real urge to roll your eyes. “Yes, sir.”
Jay sighed as the door closed behind you. The way things were done here was a real problem.
The moment you crossed the threshold of your apartment, you sunk into your couch, wanting nothing more than to stay in there, the folds of the cushion feeling like a giant hug.
Reaching out for your phone, you turned one of your favorite playlists on, letting the soft beats from the music fill your quiet apartment.
As the melody slowly crescendoed, you sank further into the cushions, feeling the tears well up in your eyes like you’d expected and kind of wanted. You just needed to let it all out for the day, so you could go back to work with an empty brain and empty feelings tomorrow to face a new day.
You didn’t know how long you lay there huddled in your couch cushions, crying softly, but when you finally felt the frustrations slowly leave your tired body, you sighed, turning onto your back to stare up at your ceiling.
This was one of the times you were glad you lived alone - no family, no roommates, nothing. Just left to your own devices, the privacy of your own home to let out all the negative feelings without having to consider anyone else.
You only crawled out after you felt satisfied that most of your emotions were all cried out, and you had a new plan - you were leaving. You were going to get out of this hellhole the moment you found another job. Meanwhile, you would keep your head down, you weren’t going to talk to anyone, make any decisions, or give any opinions. Staying out of everyone’s way sounded like a great idea.
At least until your new boss thought it’d be a great idea to call for a meeting about policies and single you out with a “what do you think, Y/N?”
Trying your hardest to control your sass like you’d done almost every single day in this office, you looked up from your laptop.
Jay raised an eyebrow quietly at you, waiting for you to speak. “No wrong answers here, I just want your opinion.”
You wanted to give him a short dry laugh. That assurance wasn’t much of one, especially when you saw the look on Laura’s face as if she was daring you to disagree with whatever she had just said, or even the other exchange of looks from the unfriendly faces in the room.
The exasperating thing about you was that even at a time like this, you couldn’t speak against your conscience. Not even to save your own ass.
“I think if we do this on the website, we might be sending the wrong message,” You said, looking straight ahead at Jay, even though you didn’t really want to look at him either. But you figured the safest bet was the lesser of the many evils.
So, you swallowed and offered an alternative suggestion.
To no surprise at all, you’d barely reached your desk when a sarcastic comment from Laura reached your ears. You couldn’t tell what Jay was thinking, but if you didn’t know better, you would think he kind of liked what you had said.
But you knew better.
Things wouldn’t get better. Not here. Not by a long shot.
Things fell into a weird kind of routine as you got used to the new way of things.
Nothing much had changed except that you could tell Jay seemed to be trying to subtly change things around the office, including the current workflows.
You hadn’t had much one on one interaction with him ever since that less than productive discussion on procurement shortly after he’d taken over, and you kind of hoped things stayed that way.
But now you had more important things to worry about.
“I need you to do it.”
You looked back up at Edward, trying your hardest not to glare or show any trace of emotion on your face.
You raised your eyebrows. “I handle internal communications. I don’t think I’m supposed to…”
He didn’t let you finish. “I’m about to go in to an important meeting. No one else is available. Just go down, meet him and see what he needs. I have to go.”
“Wait…”
But he wasn’t waiting.
Biting down a few curse words, you looked around the office. No one else was around to help and technically, you were the one who took care of visitors or walk-ins because there was no one else.
Left with little choice, you grabbed your notebook and headed out of the office, going straight to the lobby on the ground floor.
“Mr. Fisher. I’m Y/N. What brings you here?” You asked, extending your hand for a handshake.
You didn’t particularly like the glint in his eye as he smiled and took your hand, his hand lingering on yours for a bit longer than a normal handshake.
Even so, you swallowed down that weird feeling, directing him towards a table at the cafe in the lobby of your office building. “Black coffee?”
Declan Fisher nodded back at you with a smile and you went to get the drink, smiling at the part-timer behind the counter.
As you put a cup of coffee down for him, you were reminded that you hadn’t done this ever since Edward had been brought in to head an entire team just for this purpose. You didn’t even have enough information about the client to be down here.
Sure, you used to do this when the team had been at half the strength they were at now. There’d been no one to take on extra responsibilities, so you’d pitched in as much as you could. But what was the point of hiring an entire team if this was going to happen?
Even so, you knew you had to clear your mind and focus.
“I haven’t seen you before.” He said, bringing his voice lower.
You gave him a polite smile. “I don’t usually sit in on client meetings.” You offered, as some sort of explanation. “You can share with me any concerns or requests you may have, though. I’ll make sure the right team gets it.”
He nodded back at you. “Not worried in the slightest.”
That was kind of a weird response but you didn’t react, flipping open your book as he told you about some big idea he had for a project he said was new, listening as he told you he was even more sure about working with Blossom after meeting you.
You tried to ignore the comment as you wrote down as much detail as possible, reminding yourself to have it out with Edward when you got back.
“Sure, I’ll get this to the team and get them to call you for another meeting so that you can discuss the creatives further.” You answered with a smile, slipping your pen back into the holder that was attached to the book.
Fisher didn’t look like he was ready to get up though, glancing at you. “Stay until I finish my coffee?” He asked.
Before you could even respond, he leaned over to put his hand over yours.
You felt the sinking feeling in your stomach, pulling your hand away instinctively.
Not even fazed, Fisher reached over further, putting his hand over yours again, his thumb grazing over your knuckles.
Without even thinking, you pushed your chair backwards as you shot to your feet, the chair clattering to the ground behind you as the table shook, the black coffee spilling onto the table and inevitably onto Fisher’s suit.
Now, Fisher just look pissed.
Biting back a few well-chosen words that were hanging off the tip of your tongue, you chose not to apologize for the mess. “Someone will call you, Mr. Fisher.”
Your skin still crawled from the physical contact so you turned, escaping through the lobby and through the gantry that prevented non-employees from walking through without a pass.
Jay tapped his fingers on his desk as his eyes roved over the company website, rolling over the ideas and discussions from the meeting a few days ago.
His thoughts unconsciously drifted towards you, especially since you’d once again surprised him.
Calling someone out in a meeting like that wasn’t something he did regularly, but he wanted to see how you handled it. You’d passed with flying colors, surprising him with a well-chosen suggestion that he felt no one else had seen coming either, even though they’d been working with you for a while.
Before Jay could get any further, he was interrupted by a knock at his office door.
“Edward, right? Come on in.” Jay said as Edward opened the door.
“Jay, we have a problem.”
Jay raised an eyebrow. “What kind of problem?”
“I just got off the phone with Declan Fisher from Triumph Systems,” Edward said, glancing up at Jay uncertainly. “He just told me he wants to pull his projects. We’re just about ready to sign the contracts, and it’s a big sum.”
Jay sat up a little straighter. “Did he say why?”
Shaking his head, Edward looked up. “He just said that the girl he met was extremely rude and he’s never been this insulted in his life.”
“Girl?” Jay asked, his voice slightly sharper.
Edward nodded. “Y/N met with him an hour ago.”
A silence fell in Jay’s office before he spoke again, nodding. “I’ll handle this.”
As Edward closed the door behind him, Jay held back a sigh and pressed the numbers on his phone.
“Y/N, can I see you in my office? Now.”
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Series Summary: As Y/N struggles to find a way out of a toxic work environment, a new CEO arrives to turn her world upside down. Just as she thinks things are taking a turn for the worst, she finds herself surprised by the changes Jay brings with him both personally and professionally.
Chapter Summary: Change descends on Blossom Advertising just as Y/N was deciding on her next steps.
Word Count: 1.2K+
Warnings: toxic workplace/workplace bullying
A/N: Hi everyone, dropping the first chapter! I took so long for this but decided new year, new fic! Or before @halsteadlover actually hunts me down haha! This is going to be a self-indulgent fic but I hope you guys will enjoy the ride!
SERIES MASTERLIST || JAY HALSTEAD MASTERLIST
Chapter 2
You felt the familiar pit of fire in your stomach, anger mixed with disbelief, as the director’s raised voice floated out towards you from the open office door.
Regretting leaving your headphones at home, you tried to focus on your computer screen, but her voice was so piercing you could hear words drift back out at you. You figured it was more the words she used than her voice that had always struck a chord with you.
You knew it was useless as the words dripping with sarcasm made their way back to you again.
“Give it to her. She’s got the most time.”
Her.
You held back the temptation to retort that you had a name, glancing at the line of to-do flags in the corner of your screen, and letting out a quiet exhale.
You’d wondered more than once what the mistake that you’d made was. Was it applying for a job in a general department? Was it more to do with the fact that you’d joined the company when it was still really small? Or was it just your luck?
Maybe it was just you.
“Y/N.”
You glanced up at her voice. Victoria gave you a small smile, “Laura asked me to hand this to you.”
You held back a sigh and nodded, taking the document from Victoria and putting it down next to you.
You’d joined Blossom Advertising’s operations team when it was starting, and each team had only been made up of one to two people back then. So, it had made sense back then for you to juggle multiple roles and functions, helping out with procurement or other ad-hoc duties that technically didn’t belong to you.
But, as the business grew and the teams expanded, nothing much seemed to have changed. For you, at least.
What made it worse was the sarcasm, the screaming voices that echoed down the hallway when a mistake was made, and all the other things that seemed like nothing on their own, but all contributed to making this place as toxic as it was.
It hadn’t been that bad at first, especially when Laura had only been the head of Finance. You’d get screamed at or be the butt of her insults once in a while, but her attention was always needed elsewhere. Then, she’d gotten a promotion and hired Victoria as her assistant.
Things had gone steadily downhill as Laura had just gotten meaner and meaner. Rationally, you knew that it was just insecurity and that you shouldn’t take her seriously, but it was really tiring feeling like you were back in high school all over again. You were supposed to be done with that phase of life and maturity level.
Honestly, things were a mess, and the current CEO was no help, choosing to ignore and avoid conflict rather than face the obvious problems the company was facing.
You’d been playing with the idea of leaving this place when the news had hit the ground - he was handing everything over to a new CEO.
You didn’t really know how you felt about that.
Change just stirred your anxiety up the wrong way. However, at the same time, maybe new leadership was exactly what this place needed. So you’d decided to hang in there for a while more and wait to see if anything changed for the better.
It was just as things quietened down in the office that he arrived, the beep from the access pass making you look up.
Damn.
Maybe it was the fact that you were expecting a middle-aged man to walk through the door that caused the jolt of surprise to rip through your body when you laid eyes on him. His short brown hair was pulled back as he quietly took his sunglasses off his face while looking around the office. The dark blue suit he had on fit his shoulders very nicely, almost snugly, since they probably were tailor-made. Although his expression barely changed, you could feel a weird kind of aura, sternness mixed with something else.
“Jay, great timing.” Your current boss’ voice interrupted the silence as he stepped next to the new arrival, before turning to address everyone else. “Everyone, Jay will be taking over from me officially today.”
Jay looked around the office with a small smile before he nodded at everyone. “Jay Halstead. I look forward to working with all of you.”
Change had always been hard for you. Especially when it involved so many unknown variables.
You told yourself that you had to give it some time. New management always came with teething issues, and being in the corporate office meant you felt every change firsthand.
You glanced at the clock, noting that the meeting was about to begin. You never looked forward to these meetings since you’d always come out of them with twice the amount of work you had, and maybe a side order of some blame for something not moving along.
Even so, you pulled yourself out of your chair, taking your laptop and the other files you needed into your arms before heading for the meeting room, ignoring the turn of anxiety in your stomach.
As expected, the meeting had been a replay of literally every meeting that you’d had ever since the only other person in your department had quit a few months ago. No one cared about the potential burnout you were facing. All they wanted was to get things off their plate, and you had a feeling they wanted you out of the way as well.
Even as you tried explaining yourself in the meeting, you knew it was futile as you watched the frown deepen on your new boss’s face, his arms crossed in front of him as he watched what was happening in the meeting.
You should have known things wouldn’t change. The only things that changed were a new face, maybe some new rules, but at the end of the day, nothing substantial was going to change.
You kept your eyes down as you silently left the meeting room. You didn’t notice the eyes that were watching you, even though someone else was still talking to him.
Jay was listening as someone else filled him in on one of the projects they were working on, but that didn’t stop him from watching the minute body language cues that you probably had no idea you were letting out.
He hadn’t missed all the cues in the meeting. The sideways glances people gave each other, the way things had naturally slid over to this vague “operations” department. And above all, he’d picked up on the look on your face when you’d looked up at him as he had frowned in confusion.
He knew that look.
It wasn’t even stricken or worried, more… resigned.
Jay reminded himself that he didn’t know anything other than the official operations and business of this place. He didn’t know anyone or the dynamics, so he couldn’t jump to judgments. But he sure as hell was going to find out.
There was something brewing under the surface in this place, something that was bugging him, and if he didn’t get to the bottom of it, he wasn’t Jay Halstead.
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Chapter Summary: In the aftermath of the battle, the team returns to the bunker.
Word Count: 1.8K+
Warnings: canon-typical mentions of death/nightmares, insecurities
A/N: Final chapter is here!!! Thank you so much for being here throughout this ride and most importantly thank you to those who waited so long for me to finish this! Hope you guys enjoyed this!
SERIES MASTERLIST || DEAN WINCHESTER MASTERLIST
Chapter 17
It felt like everyone was frozen in time.
Dean broke the silence first. “Y/N…?”
You were panting, your eyes darting here and there.
“Hey, hey. Easy. It’s us. Just us.” Sam’s voice broke through now, his hand reassuringly over yours.
You turned your eyes up toward Dean. You remembered everything, and as much as you were just as shocked to find yourself back here right in Dean’s arms, you were terrified of the aftermath. Dean would never forgive you for what you did, for breaking your promise.
The thought had barely formed in your mind when Dean pulled you into a crushing hug. “Damn it, Y/N.” His voice was soft, quiet. You were sure only you could hear him.
“You scared the hell out of me.” Dean’s voice cracked as he buried his face into your neck now.
You exhaled, letting yourself sink into Dean’s embrace.
Even while you were squashed into Dean’s arms, Castiel put a hand over you. “It’s stabilized. It settled within you.”
Dean pulled away a little, looking up at Castiel. “English, Cas.”
“The grace settled within her. It isn’t moving around within her anymore. It recognized her. It must have just... purified the demon.” Castiel said.
Dean frowned. “So she obliterated the bastard?”
Castiel looked back at Dean and nodded. “There’s no other trace of Corson or anything other than her and the remnants of grace in her. It might take some time to settle down fully, but I think she’s good.”
“Hey, Cas.” You greeted, giving him a weak smile. Castiel nodded back at you, even though his relief was obvious as well.
“This conversation isn’t over,” Dean half snarled at Castiel.
In fact, you knew Dean was kind of pissed at you too, but his relief had overwhelmed everything else. For now.
“Alright, seriously, let’s get out of here.” Sam said, climbing to his feet.
You nodded and climbed to your feet but swayed as a wave of dizziness hit you.
Dean caught you gently. “It’s okay, I got you.” His voice was gentle, even with a gruff undertone.
“Let’s go home.”
It had been a few days since you’d returned to the bunker. Everything was mostly back up, especially since Sam had a restoration ritual that he’d found and tucked away safely just in case. Castiel had helped Sam with the magical restoration, putting up new sigils and wardings.
They hadn’t let you anywhere near the restoration. Castiel had warned that even though the grace had mostly stabilized within you, it would still take some time before you were back up and running as usual.
Dean, on the other hand, hadn’t spoken much since you’d been home.
He would sit by your bedside until you fell asleep, but you’d always wake up feeling a small tug of disappointment and a tinge of fear that he wasn’t there. Even if he was, he was sitting in a chair next to your bed or on the floor.
You knew he was angry with you and the fear clawed at you.
You finally couldn’t take it anymore. You had to know.
“Dean. We need to talk.” You said quietly, sitting up and swinging your legs off the bed.
Except for some occasional weakness, you generally felt fine. Even so, all of them had teamed up to force you to stay in bed.
Dean glanced up at you from where he was cleaning his gun at your desk.
“Y/N, just get some rest,” He said quietly, turning back to what he was doing.
“Dean. Just…” You took a deep breath. “Is it over? Are you done?”
Dean’s head snapped up.
“What…? What are you talking about?”
You didn’t answer him. The tears you were trying to hold back had now blurred your vision. You knew your voice wouldn’t hold steady, so you merely lowered your head.
“Y/N. What’s…”
You heard him take the few steps toward you before he bent down in front of you, bringing his face level to yours.
Gently, Dean lifted your chin, and even through the tears, you could see the startled look in his eyes as the tears fell past your cheeks.
Dean sighed, wiping the tears away with a thumb.
“I’m not…” Dean sighed. “I… You scared the living crap out of me, Y/N. I lost you. I actually did. You lay dead in my arms, and there was nothing I could do.”
There was nothing you could say to that.
“Dean, I… I wasn’t going to use it. I swear. Yeah, I had the blade infused with Castiel’s grace before we set off. But, I was going to hold out until the end. But I couldn’t let you or Sam get hurt. I just couldn’t…” Your voice broke and you took a deep breath.
You continued, “He backed me into a corner, and I didn’t have a choice. I had to protect you and Sam.”
Dean sighed before he leaned forward and pulled you tightly into him, holding you against him so firmly as if you would break to pieces if he let go.
“Don’t you ever do that to me ever again,” Dean whispered quietly.
You just buried your face into his neck.
“And don’t you even think about going anywhere.” Dean said, his voice rumbling against you. “Don’t you dare even think it. I’m not losing you again.”
Dean pulled away gently, looking you right in the eye.
“So you’re not going to shut me out anymore?” You asked quietly. “You still…”
“I’ll tell you what you didn’t give me a chance to say.” Dean said. “I love you.”
Then, Dean leaned in, his lips pressing firmly and gently against yours. You felt yourself sink into Dean’s touch, feeling safe, wanted, and loved.
“Hey sport.” Sam got up as he heard your footsteps down the corridor. “Dean finally let you out?”
There was a small hint of teasing in his voice, but as he put his arms around you firmly, you felt the relief in Sam’s entire body as well.
“Sorry.” You whispered to Sam.
Sam pulled away gently and just smiled. “I’m just glad you’re back.”
“Sam, I…” You looked up at the older brother you had never asked for, but welcomed all the same. “Thank you.”
There was nothing you could say that could even begin to describe how much Sam meant to you, but those two words seemed to do it. At least, for Sam.
Sam gently ruffled your hair. “Just don’t scare us like that again.”
So much was left unspoken, but you both understood it.
You turned just as Castiel walked in through the door.
“Y/N.”
Castiel’s voice held obvious relief at seeing you on your feet.
Even though you’d never done it before, as Castiel reached you, you put your arms around him in a hug.
“Cas, I…”
“I’m sorry, Y/N.” Castiel beat you to it, even though his body stiffened a little in surprise when you had hugged him.
You stepped backward, confusion lining your face.
“Maybe if I had told you everything from the start. Maybe, if we had more time…”
You shook your head. “No, Cas. I… I know I was mad before, but I was just hurt. I don’t… You’re family. So, thank you. It’s your grace that’s in me now. It’s your grace that kept me…”
Castiel shook his head. “It’s not my grace that’s keeping you here. It’s you. It’s all you.”
“Alright, we done with the chick flick? Can I get my girlfriend back?” Dean interrupted, rolling his eyes.
Sam chuckled. “Yeah, I’m going to make a food run anyway.”
“Pie!” Dean yelled at Sam’s retreating back, making you chuckle.
It had already been a week since you’d taken out Corson, but Dean was still concerned about you. You could tell he was climbing the walls from being stuck indoors, but he still hovered near you, like he was afraid you’d collapse again.
You’d all but pleaded with Sam to take his older brother out for a hunt before you killed him.
Sam had chuckled, but had gone ahead and found a case. You’d almost kicked Dean out of the bunker so he’d stop hovering over you, even reminding them that Castiel had confirmed the angels had backed off. After all, Corson’s death had undone the great cosmic evil plan he had to use you against Heaven. They had no reason to want you dead any longer.
Even so, Dean had taken care of the hunt in record time before making up some excuse to quickly return home, although he wasn’t fooling Sam.
“Y/N?”
Dean called, moving toward the library when you didn’t respond.
He found you with your head on the table, where you’d fallen asleep after reading.
With a small smile, Dean grabbed one of the small blankets they kept in the library and draped it over you quietly.
Right on cue, you sat up with a start, your eyes flying open like you’d been startled.
“Woah, woah. It’s me. It’s okay.” Dean’s voice was gentle as he bent toward you.
Your eyes darted around and your breathing slowed.
“Hey.” You responded, trying to play it off.
“Hey, what’s up?” Dean asked.
You shook your head and smiled. “It comes and goes. I’ll be fine.”
It wasn’t the first time Dean had witnessed this. He’d even pulled you out from dreams once or twice before. It was one of the reasons he opted to stay close. He knew it was a process.
The dreams weren’t all bad though, sometimes they were filled with Seth’s giggles and Leah’s laughter.
I did it, Leah. I miss you and Seth everyday.
The thought was quiet and repetitive.
Almost like he knew where your thoughts were, Dean leaned in to take you into his embrace.
“Yeah, I know.” Dean answered, before he pressed a kiss to your temple.
“Up for some pizza?” Dean asked after a short silence.
You grinned, sliding your hand into his. “Always.”
So you’d stepped out of the library, greeted by smells of pizza, the familiar sounds of beer bottles being put down, and the sight of the three people, well two people and one angel, that were now your whole world.
It was in the midst of all this bustling in the bunker that you felt it, the quiet that settled inside you even as Sam bickered with Dean and Castiel asked strange questions no one could answer.
But it was later that night, in the quiet of the bunker, as you lay in Dean’s arms that it really hit you.
The world might never be at peace, no matter how many evil sons of bitches the four of you put down day after day. But, inside the bunker, in a place you now called home, this was peace.
Peace, surrounded by Dean, Sam and Castiel. That, you felt deep in your core for the first time in a long time.
And, that was all you really needed.
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Chapter Summary: Stuck in a dangerous predicament, Y/N knows there's only one thing left to do. Meanwhile, Sam and Dean desperately find a way to finish Corson off and save Y/N at the same time.
Word Count: 1.5K+
Warnings: typical mentions of death, violence, blood
A/N: Hi guys! Sorry, I meant to get this out last week but been overwhelmed with hospital visits and the like. Here's the next chapter and the final chapter will be posted by the end of the week too! Thank you so much for being here!
SERIES MASTERLIST || DEAN WINCHESTER MASTERLIST
Chapter 16 || Chapter 18
It was dread that filled Dean now.
He still remembered those charcoal black eyes on Sam, but that had been nothing compared to this.
Dean caught himself wondering if this was part of the failsafe you’d mentioned, but his brain seemed to be fogging up right at this moment.
He could barely process what he was seeing.
Sam had caught on as well, hurrying up to his brother now.
“No, that's impossible. She had it…"
Sam's eyes fell on the burned-off area on your upper arm that Dean hadn't even noticed.
Sam turned to look at Dean.
Whatever Sam was feeling, Dean had it a thousand times worse.
Then, as if to break the silence that had taken them by the throats, your body started laughing.
It was clear as day that this was Corson. The Winchesters didn't need any confirmation.
"You know I really have to thank you two for bringing her here."
Dean stiffened and this time, Sam growled.
"Couldn't have done it without you boys," Corson said again, chuckling.
"Get out." Dean growled.
Sam glanced at his older brother, immediately recognizing the signs.
Dean was about to lose it and Sam knew if Dean tried to kill Corson and ended up hurting you, he would never forgive himself.
Sam stepped closer to his brother.
He was about to say something when he saw Dean's expression change.
Sam's head whipped up just in time to see your eyes flash.
Flashes of white and black, and Dean could swear he even saw a flash of your eyes.
"Y/N, sweetheart, you can fight this!"
You heard it, even though it felt like Dean's voice was coming from a really long distance away.
You had had every intention of honoring your promise to Dean about not using this failsafe, but you had been equally serious about making sure this ended today. You were not going to let anyone else get hurt because of you or Corson, especially not Dean or Sam.
The moment Corson had forcefully expelled Castiel away from the three of you, you knew what you had to do.
While the Winchesters had been busy with the horde of demons flanking them, you'd baited Corson right where you wanted him.
You didn't lose that furious look in your eye as you let Corson step closer to you. You needed Corson near enough to you to pull off this failsafe.
You'd had this conversation with Castiel without Dean knowing. A part of you knew that Castiel was somewhat working off the guilt he had about keeping things from the three of you. So, even a slight push from you had caused Castiel to cave.
Castiel had handed you a vial of his grace. A significant portion, enough to make sure the plan worked. The trick was getting close enough to Corson.
"You should tell Dean about this. I don't think…"
"You didn't have a problem with half-truths before," you had snapped back.
You had regretted it the moment the words were out of your mouth, but they were already hanging in the air between the both of you.
Castiel had merely nodded, pausing before he said, "You're not just a number to me either, Y/N.”
You watched him quietly and nodded, "I know."
You'd been this close to the plan, but Corson had suddenly grabbed you, burned off your tattoo and before you knew it, he was inside you.
You could hear your own voice ringing in your entire being as Corson taunted Sam and Dean, but more importantly, you could hear Dean.
Dean's voice was laced with barely disguised panic and even stuck in your own head, you could feel the rage that Dean always had boiling just under the surface. You knew you had to do something.
Dean’s faint voice reached you once more.
“Y/N! Baby! You can fight this! I know you can!"
Almost immediately, your own laughter, laced with Corson’s poison, rang out once more.
"Hey Y/N, don't waste your energy, alright? Don't worry, I'll take care of your boys out here." You heard your own voice speak back out at you.
You felt a desperation to claw out of your own meat suit claw at you.
"I can feel her clawing around inside." Your own voice was full of taunting, and you were sure Dean was ever more enraged than you were.
Then, like a beacon of hope, you felt it.
Warmth.
You felt it flood you, like a reel going off in your head.
You didn't know if Corson could see or hear your thoughts but it felt like it didn't matter.
In fact, maybe a part of you hoped that the memories playing in your head right now were flashing right in Corson’s face - laughing with Sam about something Dean said, laughing with Dean about something dumb Sam had done, pie night with just the four of you in the bunker thinking of nothing else but the food in front of you and the company surrounding you. Even memories with Leah and Seth made their way in.
All of a sudden, surrounded by these memories, you knew this was it and with a burst of effort, you shoved Corson down, gasping.
Your vision seemed to clear just slightly, and you saw him - your Dean.
"D."
Dean’s green eyes lit up with recognition and just a tiny bit of relief.
"I'm sorry." Your voice was quiet.
Dean shook his head, taking a step closer to you. “ No, sweetheart, it's going to be alright. We can fight this."
"There's no time…” You paused, feeling the effort it took to hold Corson back.
You glanced at Sam, who seemed to know exactly what you were thinking. His hazel eyes betrayed panic as well, and you turned back to Dean.
“I love you."
You pulled out the blade you kept inside your jacket. The blade glowed and Dean immediately knew.
It was already imbued with grace. Cas' grace.
"No, Y/N, don't!” Dean yelled.
At the same time, you heard Corson roar from inside your own head. “You can't kill me and survive!"
As both voices from opposing ends screamed at you, you smirked in reaction to Corson's roars. "I don't care." You growled back at him before you sank the blade, glowing with Castiel’s grace, right into your own body.
Both Dean and Sam could only watch on in horror.
Your body glowed as the blade pierced your flesh, the angel grace coursing through your veins and amplifying, almost threatening to take everything down with it.
"Dean!" Sam yelled, tackling his brother to the ground as the grace exploded from your body. Remnants of grace shot out of you, and Sam was pretty sure that any other demon standing around would have been burnt into oblivion.
As the shockwave of grace finally blew over, Sam and Dean glanced up.
It was quiet now and you lay in the middle of the room now, motionless.
Shoving Sam off him, Dean stumbled toward you.
“Y/N…”
You didn't move. Your eyes were closed, your hand resting over the hilt of the blade you'd just used but there was no sign of movement or life.
"No…please…" Dean fell to his knees heavily, pulling you into his arms.
Your body lay in his arms, lifeless.
"Come on, open your eyes. Sweetheart..." Dean's voice turned pleading.
Sam lowered himself right next to Dean, bending over your lifeless body as well.
Sam looked up at the sound of fluttering wings.
There was blood running down the side of Castiel’s face, and his trenchcoat had patches of blood on it as well, likely a mix of his own as well as whatever else he killed.
Dean didn't look up, his eyes still trained on you.
"Cas. You gave it to her." Dean’s voice was quiet. "We agreed to can this damn plan.”
Castiel leaned in.
"I'm sorry, Dean."
There was unmistakable grief in Castiel's voice, along with the guilt that he hadn't made it back here sooner.
Logically, everyone knew that the only reason Castiel was able to stand here right now was because the shockwave of grace had destroyed almost everything, including the sigils that Corson had prepared beforehand.
Yet, logic didn't sit well with grief. Especially grief that ran as deep as this.
Castiel leaned in closer to your body, reaching his hand out above you.
"The grace…" Castiel frowned, like he was confused.
Dean seemed to have shut everyone else out again.
"You promised." Dean's voice cracked. “Come on, don't do this."
Sam reached out for his brother.
" Dean. She's…” Sam’s eyes flicked back to you, and his voice cracked slightly. “Let’s bring her home."
Sam couldn't even bring himself to say it - that you were gone.
Dean pulled you closer, pressing your body tightly against him.
Castiel put his hand on Dean's shoulder, reaching for Sam.
“I don't know how far I can get us.”
Sam nodded.
Then, just as Castiel reached over to Sam, your body jolted, a faint glow shining just below your skin.
Everyone froze.
You gasped, and your eyes flew open once again.
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Chapter Summary: Forced out of their home, they decide that their best course of action is to head directly for the source.
Word Count: 2.7K+
Warnings: language, canon-typical violence
A/N: We're winding down to the end soon! I'm a little sorry about how I ended this chapter but hehe if you know me, you know me! Promise an update will be soon! Posting this a little earlier because I'll be working tomorrow. Enjoy!
SERIES MASTERLIST || DEAN WINCHESTER MASTERLIST
Chapter 15 || Chapter 17
Dean looked up when he felt the first rumble. A part of him wondered if he'd imagined it.
He was about to head to the door to check on you and Sam when the lights flickered.
That was never a good sign.
Dean moved faster, but it was already too late. The explosive sound hit the bunker, sounding like it was going to tear the entire place apart, followed by a loud crash. Dean had been in enough situations to make a guess.
As his brain reached that conclusion, he felt his heart sink, contracting in his chest, and making it almost hard to breathe. He didn't have time to think before his body reacted, and he was already out the door.
The scene in the middle of the bunker didn't make Dean feel any better.
"Y/N!” Dean yelled, his voice cracking a little with the panic almost clawing its way out of him.
Dean glanced upward. He knew he didn't have much time. It didn't take a genius to guess that the only thing that could blast the bunker this way from the outside were those assholes with wings.
"Sammy! Y/N!” Dean called, working his way through the rubble.
“Dean! Over here!" Sam's voice called, sounding a little muffled.
Dean quickly moved, climbing over the rubble more carefully than usual as he searched for you and Sam.
"Sammy!" Dean barked again. He didn't like how quiet you were so he quickened his movements, almost like he was fighting against the concrete that was littered all around.
As he mounted the next slab of concrete, he finally spotted you. You were sprawled on the ground, a trail of blood down the side of your face as Sam held a part of his torn jacket against your head.
"Y/N!”
You were conscious, which was a good sign.
You smiled up at Dean. "I'm fine."
Dean didn't say anything but you felt the pressure on your wound change as Dean took over.
"Dean," Sam said, almost like a reminder.
Dean nodded at Sam. Nothing more needed to be said. They both knew that the three of you had to get out of there as quickly as possible. There was no way that the angels were done.
"We're getting out of here,” Dean said.
He glanced at you. "You good?'
You smiled back at him, and Dean nodded. “Keep the pressure on. We’ll fix you up soon."
"I know," you answered, even though your voice didn't have your usual gusto.
Dean took a second glance at you before he swept you up into his arms.
Just as he pressed you close into his arms, the floor started to shake again.
"Fuck." Dean muttered under his breath, exchanging a look with Sam, who pulled out an angel blade, almost like an act of desperation. After all, all three of you know that you might be able to cause some damage to one angel with a blade, but not a chance with an unknown number of them waiting to blast all of you into oblivion.
You glanced up at Dean.
"Don't do that." Dean warned, without you saying anything.
You didn't have time to argue though.
"Let's go," Dean said, starting to move.
The floor rumbled harder, making your hair stand on end.
"They're coming," you said quietly.
Just as you braced for the next impact, the sound of fluttering wings reached your ears, closely followed by the familiar sound of Castiel's voice.
"Dean."
You didn't even have time to feel relief before Castiel took hold of Dean and Sam, whooshing all three of you away from the bunker.
By the time you took another breath, you were no longer surrounded by concrete.
"Cas, what the hell? Where's Sam?"
Castiel had not taken both of you very far. Somehow, he had sent Sam off track as well.
Castiel didn't answer Dean directly, merely motioning for him to set you down.
Dean set you gently on the ground and Castiel gently placed two fingers on your forehead. This wasn't new to you but you'd never really gotten used to the sensation that made its way through your body.
"Thanks, Cas,” you said quietly just as Dean's phone rang.
Dean answered almost immediately. “ Sammy? Where are you?"
You heard Sam’s voice crackle on the phone before Dean agreed on a location to meet.
The moment Dean hung up the phone he glanced at Castiel. “Something you need to tell me Cas? How the hell did Sammy get run off somewhere else? Something up with your juice?”
Castiel held Dean’s gaze. Even you could tell Castiel wasn’t up for sharing but he also knew he couldn’t avoid the question. After all, you’d just had a big fight about him keeping things from you, and most importantly, Dean.
“I’m not sure. Something must be happening in Heaven. Maybe they found a way to isolate my grace.”
Dean frowned, like he wasn’t totally convinced, but he didn’t say more.
“We gotta go back for the car,” Dean said. He wasn’t asking.
“Dean. It’s too dangerous.” You pressed, even though you knew it made sense. It wasn’t just about the car. Dean had been loading almost everything they needed into Baby.
Dean glanced at you. When he didn't say anything, you quipped, “Fine. We’ll all go."
“No.” Dean shot it down without a second of hesitation.
“D.” Your voice got low and quiet.
“No, Y/N. It’s you they’re looking for.” Dean said.
When the stubborn look in your eye didn’t dissipate, Dean spoke again. “Fine, look. Let’s go and meet Sam. We can figure the rest out later.”
You knew what the plan was going to be. They were going to stick you in a motel with Castiel and Dean was going to go with Sam to get the car.
You wanted to argue, but the alternative was Dean going alone, so you held your tongue and nodded.
True enough, you were twiddling your thumbs in a stupid motel while Sam and Dean had gone back to see if they could get the Impala. At least Castiel had gone back to check it out beforehand, so you weren’t that worried.
But, you recognized that dark gaping hole in your chest.
Guilt.
The bunker was their home. It had been your home too. Now, because of you, everyone had been forced out.
“Y/N…”
Castiel had picked up on the space you were in.
“No, Cas. I don’t want to talk about it.” You shut him down immediately.
Castiel didn’t push, just remained quiet.
So the both of you sat in silence until the motel door finally opened again and Dean walked in with a triumphant smile on his face. He dusted his hands and grinned.
You smiled back at him even as the hole in your chest threatened to swallow you alive. “No problems?” You asked.
“In and out,” Dean said, pausing as he saw the look in your eye.
“Y/N?” He asked.
You raised your eyebrows. “What?”
When Dean didn’t say anything more, you cleared your throat. “I’m gonna get some air.”
You pushed past the brothers, feeling tears blur your vision once again.
Yet, you weren’t surprised that you were barely half a step out of the motel room before you felt his hand close around your wrist.
“Sweetheart, what is it?”
Dean’s voice was soft and gentle. Much more than you deserved.
You turned to look up at him, unable to pull back the tears no matter how hard you tried.
"Talk to me." Dean's voice was soft but firm.
You took a deep breath, trying to steady your voice as much as possible, but it was useless. Your voice cracked slightly, " I'm sorry."
Dean frowned, the confusion framing his features.
"What are you…"
You shook your head. "You and Sam should never have been involved in the first place. It's all because of me. The bunker… Now you can't even go home."
"We." Dean corrected gently, stepping forward and pulling you deep into his arms.
You let him envelope you without saying anything.
"Look at me," Dean prompted, pulling away just slightly. His arms were still locked securely around you, pressing your body tightly against him, only leaning back enough to look you square in the eyes.
" I wouldn't have it any other way. Neither would Sam." Dean said. "This is not your fault. If anything, I'd like to take out every single one of those assholes, I don't care which side they're on."
"D…”
Dean leaned in, pressing a firm kiss against your lips. “We'll get them. All of them."
You smiled, the smile finally reaching your eyes.
Without saying anything, you buried your face back into his shoulder. "Just one more minute. I just need this for another minute."
Dean rested his head atop your head. "Let's take five."
You were pretty sure it was more than five minutes, but it had definitely done the trick.
By the time you returned to the room with Dean, you felt more like yourself.
Sam seemed to notice as well, but he didn’t say anything, going about as if this were any other day and any other case.
“It’s time to end this.”
You broke the silence first.
Sam and Dean both looked up at you. Castiel didn’t say anything but you could feel him watching from the corner of the room.
“This isn’t going to end and we’ll always be on the losing end of this deal with both sides coming for us… well, me.” You paused and took a deep breath. “I’m not letting anyone else lose something because of me. This ends.”
Sam glanced at Dean, and they nodded almost at the same time.
“You’ve made up your mind?” Dean asked.
You nodded. “I’m done with this. He wanted a fight? He’ll get a fight. This ends with him.”
You almost thought Dean would argue.
Instead, he smirked.
“Let’s do it.” Dean glanced at Sam, who smiled and nodded.
“Let’s cut off the head.” Dean growled, even as he reached over to squeeze your hand reassuringly.
Dean pulled up somewhere not too far off from the abandoned church that Castiel had scoped out before.
“You ready?” Dean asked quietly.
“Yes,” Castiel answered, to which Sam smiled, knowing that Dean was directing the question at you.
You glanced back at the brothers, and Castiel, before you nodded. “Let’s do this.”
The four of you made your way inside cautiously. You’d been expecting angel warding, and the lack of it just made you nervous. You glanced at Sam, the same thought crossing both your minds.
They weren’t worried about the angels.
You weren’t sure why. Considering Corson’s network, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he knew that Castiel was with the three of you. The thought was concerning but you didn’t really have the energy to ponder on it more.
Sam just nodded, reassuring you not to worry and the four of you moved again.
There was something about this place that made your hair stand on end.
You weren't sure if it was actually the air, or if it was just the anticipation.
You were just thinking that everything seemed a little too easy and quiet when Dean suddenly yanked you behind a pillar.
That's when you spotted one of them, walking past as if he was out on patrol. Next second, Sam had stepped out of the shadows and with one swift blow to the neck, the demon flashed out, the body it had been possessing slumping to the ground.
The three of you moved through the grounds in this manner, heading to the main church as you'd planned. Castiel brought up the rear, clearing demons from behind you. There was the occasional flash of grace, but Castiel was trying his best not to use it.
You nodded at Dean as you reached the doors to the main building and pushed them open.
It was eerily quiet.
You could still see traces of the church it used to be - the stone altar stood further to the back of the room. Only one or two pews were left in the main church, leaving the room looking larger and even emptier.
You paused for a moment.
Dean didn't say anything but stepped up closer to you.
You were about to take another step forward when movement near the altar caught your eye.
You stiffened, even as you felt Sam and Dean step closer, flanking you.
"You came. it's nice to see you again, Y/N."
You heard a low growl escape Dean's throat as the chilling voice said your name.
“Corson.” His name left your lips, leaving a bad taste in your mouth.
Corson chuckled and stepped just a little more into the light.
He was still in the same body he had been in from the last time you had met him. However, this time you didn’t freeze.
“You were expecting me?” You asked, your voice cold.
Corson let out a dry laugh. “Oh honey, of course. I was just waiting. After all, once you’re here, we can finally wrap things up.”
Dean stiffened and you could hear Sam shift his stance next to you.
Then, a look dawned on Corson’s face. “You don’t know. You haven’t figured it out.” After a pause, he continued, “Figures, since the angel doesn’t know either.”
You glanced at Castiel who had his eyes trained on Corson.
“You’re the key.”
The words seemed to drop like a bombshell, exploding all around you. You could barely feel Dean and Sam hovering behind you anymore. It was as if Corson had picked you up and put into a bubble, cutting you off from everyone but him.
“Honestly, I was just collecting souls. Well, corrupted souls. Then, you changed everything.”
You clenched your fists.
“You couldn’t be corrupted. Everyone else died trying to crawl out of the despair I created. But you… you survived.”
Corson paused, almost like he was letting his words seep into you.
He laughed again, and you felt your hairs stand on end.
You gripped the blade in your hand tighter.
“So, it dawned on me. You’re the key to it all. We’re going to tip the scales and rewrite Heaven’s order.”
“I’m not your damn antiprophet.” You spat, the hatred rolling off your tongue.
Corson laughed. “Five stars to Y/N for a perfect answer.”
Dean growled again but he didn’t say anything.
“After today, we’ll…”
“There’s no we.” Dean spat, unable to continue listening to this any longer. “There’s nothing in this world that would ever put the two of you together.”
“But you’re right about one thing.” Dean continued.
“This ends now.” Sam finished his brother’s sentence.
Corson laughed, spreading his hands. One of the sigils on the walls that you hadn’t noticed before shimmered.
You recognized it almost immediately.
The angel banishing sigil.
“Cas!” You yelled, almost at the same time as Dean, as Castiel was cast away in a bright light.
You glanced at Dean but it was too late. In the moment Castiel was cast out, demons had come swarming in, heading straight for Sam and Dean.
You’d led them right into it.
Dean didn’t need the warning. The look on your face said it all.
“Sammy!” Dean warned, before he spun around, blade swinging.
It wasn’t Dean’s first fight up against a horde of demons. He fought, placing Sam in the corner of his eye. At the very least, he knew Corson needed you alive.
Finally, it was down to one.
“Pack leader, huh?” Dean said, as he pinned the demon down against one of the walls.
The demon smirked. “I don’t think you have the luxury of worrying about me right now.
There was something about what he said that stirred up a pit of unease deep in Dean’s stomach.
Dean never looked away from a fight, but he couldn’t help himself, his head spinning around toward you.
You were standing right where he’d left you, but Corson was nowhere to be seen. You were bent over, your upper body leaning forward just slightly.
Even from the distance he was at, Dean could see the heaving of your shoulders and hear your heavy breathing coupled with a small groan, which only meant one thing.
You were in pain.
“Y/N!”
With one more swift motion, he dug the blade right into the demon in front of him before he turned toward you, rushing to your side.
“Are you hurt? Y/N? What’s happening?”
Dean’s voice was frantic, the panic rolling off his tongue.
You didn’t answer.
“Y/N?”
All of a sudden you raised your head.
Dean could only look on in horror as a pair of black eyes flashed in front of him.
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Summary: When Kelly’s daughter is faced with a new confrontation that she can’t handle on her own, Y/N steps in, changing the dynamic for all three of them.
Word Count: 2.3K+
Tags/Warnings: Dad!Kelly, mentions of anxiety, feelings of being unwanted, single parent
A/N: Hiii, just one of those ideas that got away from me. Also in my Kelly feels so here's a Kelly fic after a long time!!
KELLY SEVERIDE MASTERLIST
You picked up your phone on the second ring, just as you were about to open your car door.
“Hey, shift over?” You asked.
You heard Kelly let out a little chuckle. “Soon. I need a favor.”
“Shoot,” You answered, propping your phone between your ear and shoulder as you climbed into your car.
“Ellie left one of her school files at my place, and she needs it today. She’s freaking out about getting in trouble. Can you swing by and get it, then come meet us at our usual breakfast spot?"
Without any trace of hesitation, you immediately agreed. “Sure, I can be there in 15.”
“Thanks, babe. I think it should be on the kitchen counter. See you soon.”
You hung up and made the all too familiar drive to Kelly’s place.
You’d known Kelly had a 12-year-old daughter even before you’d started dating. Kelly shared custody with his ex-girlfriend, and Ellie was given pretty free reign to decide when she wanted to sleep over at Kelly’s, as long as he wasn’t on shift.
You had a pretty cordial relationship with Ellie even though things had been a little awkward at first. You could tell that Ellie had tried her best to accept your presence in her father’s life, so you’d also done your best to give Ellie the space she needed while also making sure she knew you were happy to spend time with her and Kelly.
You made the quick trip to Kelly’s place and sure enough, 15 minutes later, you’d pushed open the diner door, spotting Kelly with his daughter in her usual favorite booth seat.
“Here you go.” You said with a smile, handing her file to her across the table.
Ellie smiled back at you. “Thank you. Sorry for the trouble.”
You smiled back. “No trouble. So, what are we having today? Pancakes?”
Ellie stuffed a forkful of pancakes into her mouth. “Dad wanted to order that for you but I told him he should just order the sausage platter instead."
“El, you better eat if you want to make it to school on time.” Kelly said, a tinge of a smile playing on his lips.
Ellie had just made a face at her father when your breakfast arrived at the table, a plate with a generous serving of sausages, hash browns and eggs.
“You know me much better.” You said, as Ellie smiled.
Kelly smiled as the both of you joked at his expense, but he was just happy that Ellie seemed much more at ease recently. There was still a tinge of awkwardness once in a while, but you’d reminded him it was to be expected and that you were fine and didn’t mind.
Ellie sat across from her mother’s boyfriend, Jake, feeling her stomach flip over and over.
“So, Ellie, I know you’ve been living with your mother for many years. Maybe it’s time for you to go live with your father.”
Ellie glanced up, feeling the pit in her stomach grow larger.
“Don’t you think this is too much for me? I’m barely in middle school. Why are you talking to me?” Ellie asked.
Jake gave Ellie a small smile. “Because it should come from you. You should tell your mother that you want to live with your dad. That would put your mom at ease.”
When Ellie didn’t say anything, Jake continued. “Listen, Ellie. Your mom hasn’t gotten around to telling you this but she’s pregnant. We’re having a baby.”
The words seemed to thunder through Ellie’s brain almost like they were going to swallow her whole.
This was the part she’d always been afraid of - her mother moving on, her father moving on. She could feel her body start to tremble just slightly.
“So, you see? It’ll be hard for all of us to keep staying together, right? Your mom has taken care of you all these years so don’t you think the baby should get some of that love, too? Besides, it'll be too much of a squeeze, don't you think?”
Ellie tugged at the hem of the sweatshirt she was wearing before she spoke again, her voice trembling slightly. “Does Mom know about this?”
“Ellie, Jake talked to me about it.” Almost as if on cue, Ellie heard her mother’s voice but it didn’t make her feel better or safe. "Come on, don't make things more difficult than they need to be."
Her mother had known. In fact, she was on Jake’s side.
"Ellie, you understand, don't you?" Her mother pressed again.
Then, another voice pierced through the fog that seemed to be about to engulf Ellie.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Ellie’s head snapped up just as you reached the table. You stood close to Ellie but still angled in a protective stance right next to the table they were seated at.
You’d been seated two tables away and the voices had traveled toward you. You’d hesitated about getting involved. After all, you weren’t sure how Ellie fit into all of this and honestly, you were in no place to talk to Ellie’s mother about her own daughter.
However, it had hit a nerve and you couldn’t sit back any longer. Before you knew it, you were already standing in front of Ellie.
“She’s a kid.” You said. Then, you turned toward Ellie’s mother. “She’s your kid.”
“You stay out of this.” Her mother snapped. "I don't need Kelly's new piece telling me how to take care of my daughter."
“I can’t. Not if you’re going to make Ellie feel like she’s an inconvenience. I won’t stand by and let her feel like she’s being dismissed. You…”
You were interrupted as you felt Ellie’s hand close around a couple of your fingers.
You turned to glance at her in surprise, half wondering if Ellie wasn’t too happy about you getting involved.
“Y/N, I wanna go.” Ellie’s voice was soft but firm.
This was also the first time she’d directly told you what she needed.
You nodded. “Shall we go see your dad?”
Ellie glanced up again. “Could we?”
“Yeah, come on. I’ll take you to the firehouse. Get your stuff.” You told Ellie before you led her out of the restaurant without another word.
You’d driven all the way to the firehouse in mostly silence, only breaking the silence once to apologize to Ellie for getting involved.
Ellie had just shook her head without saying anything.
You’d always known that Ellie’s mom wasn’t the greatest at decision making. She cared about Ellie in her own way but ultimately, she put her interests first. It drove Kelly crazy but at the same time, Kelly wasn’t keen on making too many big changes for Ellie’s sake, so he left it alone as long as Ellie was safe and relatively happy.
But today, things had gotten a little out of hand.
“Come on.” You said, as you killed the engine and got out of the car, leading the way in.
Kelly’s usual chair was empty, so you figured he was in his office.
“Hey Joe. Kelly around?” You asked, as the firefighters who were outside greeted Ellie enthusiastically.
“Hey, you guys! Yeah, he’s in his office. You want me to get him?” Cruz answered, flicking a concerned look at Ellie who seemed quieter than usual.
You shook your head. “No, we’ll go in.”
Cruz nodded and you led Ellie through the firehouse, waving at the rest of the guys in the common room, heading straight for Kelly’s office.
He spotted you just as you were approaching the office and he frowned.
“Hey, what’s…”
Kelly caught the look on Ellie’s face. “El?”
Ellie didn’t say anything, just walked straight into her father’s arms, burying her face into him.
Kelly was caught off-guard but still put his arms right around her. “What’s wrong?”
Ellie didn’t say anything but glanced at you.
“Hey El, why don't you go right in. I'll talk to Y/N for a bit then I'll come in, alright?” Kelly said, patting his daughter gently on the back of her head.
Ellie nodded, closing Kelly’s office door behind her.
Kelly took another glance at his daughter before he turned toward you.
“You good? What’s going on?” Kelly asked.
Honestly, you should have asked Ellie how much she wanted you to tell her father. Instead, here you were, stuck wondering how much you should tell Kelly.
Ultimately, you knew Kelly had to know everything, so you condensed it as much as possible, telling him everything you heard and saw.
You saw the emotions flicker across Kelly’s face - worry, disappointment, anger, and then worry again.
“Look, Kelly. I’m sorry.” You said.
Kelly frowned now. “What are you sorry for?”
“I know I shouldn’t have gotten involved. I just…” You paused. “I couldn’t let her sit there thinking she was unwanted. I know what it’s like. Hell, I was Ellie. Except, I didn’t have a father I could count on.”
Kelly leaned in to press you into a hug. “Thank you, Y/N.” He whispered, after a short beat.
“Hmm?” You hummed, even as you welcomed the hug.
“For being there for her.” Kelly said in a low voice.
You pulled away just slightly to look at him. “Look, I gotta run to a meeting but listen… you should do what’s right for her, alright? We’ll adapt around her. Whatever you decide, I’m good. Promise. Talk tomorrow?”
An unreadable look crossed Kelly’s eyes but he nodded. “Yeah, we’ll talk. Go do your thing.”
Kelly reached over to press a kiss against your lips.
“Be safe.” You said, before you turned to leave with a final wave to Ellie.
Kelly watched you go before he turned back around to glance at his daughter who was sitting perched on his bed.
With a small sigh, Kelly headed toward her.
Ellie looked up when Kelly came back in. “Dad, I…”
Kelly sat himself next to her. “Y/N told me some of what happened.”
Ellie just nodded, looking down.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened?” Kelly pushed gently.
Ellie exhaled before she looked up at her father again. “Mom’s pregnant.” She paused. “So, he told me to go stay with you.”
Kelly already knew this, yet he couldn’t help the way his body stiffened.
“Mom didn’t even argue.” Ellie shrugged.
Kelly exhaled slowly. “El, listen…”
“But Y/N did.” Ellie said, getting the words out quickly as if she was afraid she wouldn’t say it again if she lost this opportunity.
Kelly fell silent again.
“Y/N… she… no one other than you has ever done that for me.” Ellie said quietly. “Not even Mom.”
Kelly leaned toward Ellie, pulling her gently into his arms.
“El, what do you want?” Kelly asked.
Ellie looked up at her father.
“El, I told you before. You can stay with me whenever you want. So, what do you want to do?"
Ellie hesitated. “Dad, can I come live with you? I promise I won't get in your way."
“I would love to have you with me.” Kelly said quietly, pressing a kiss to the top of Ellie’s head. "You don't have to earn your right to be with me. You were born with that right."
Ellie just quietly buried her face into Kelly’s embrace.
When you arrived at the loft the next day, it was empty.
You figured Kelly and Ellie would be here soon. Kelly had dropped you a text to let you know that Ellie was staying with him at the firehouse that night and they’d be home once his shift was over. You didn’t need Kelly to tell you anything else.
You knew.
Ellie had been an unplanned pregnancy. In fact, Kelly had only found out after they’d broken up but Kelly had always been involved in Ellie’s life. So, it was a given that Kelly would choose the best for his daughter, and if that meant living with him, you knew Kelly would do it.
So, you headed into Kelly’s bedroom, clearing out some of your stuff that you’d left there before heading to the second bedroom and cleaning it up a little.
You figured Ellie would be feeling a little raw and vulnerable, so you didn’t want her to feel like this wasn’t her home.
You’d just straightened up most of the room when you heard the main door open.
“Hey.” Kelly greeted, heading toward you and giving you a quick kiss.
“Hey, good morning Lieutenant.” You said, before turning toward Ellie.
“Hey Ellie.” You greeted.
Ellie smiled at you as Kelly put Ellie’s bag on the ground.
“So, listen. I spoke to Ellie’s mom. We decided that Ellie would stay here. I think a change of pace will be good for her anyway.” Kelly said.
You nodded and smiled. “That sounds like a good plan.”
There was a small silence and Kelly’s eyes flicked to the small bag by the couch.
“Y/N?” Kelly asked, an eyebrow raised.
You smiled at Kelly. “Listen… I figured you guys might need some space… So, I can come around less for a bit. At least until things settle.”
Kelly frowned. “What…”
“You don’t have to go.” Ellie interrupted.
Both you and Kelly glanced at her.
Ellie was already settled into the couch, looking at the both of you.
“I… I want you here.” Ellie said quietly.
“You sure about this, Ellie?” You said. “I’m not… I’m not really leaving. I’ll just come around here less. We can still have breakfast and…”
Ellie shook her head. “No, I want you to stay. Please?”
You paused, your eyes scanning Ellie’s face.
“Yeah, of course.” You paused. “Thank you, Ellie. And if you need anything, you know you can come to me. I love hanging out with you. At least I have someone on my side when your dad’s being difficult.”
Ellie cracked a smile and Kelly’s hand closed around yours.
“Thank you, Y/N.” Ellie said quietly.
You smiled. “I’ll always be on your side, Ellie. Even against your dad.”
Ellie smiled, but after a beat she spoke again. “And, it’s El.”
You paused. Ellie usually only let her dad call her that.
You echoed her smile as it sunk in. “El, it is.”
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Chapter Summary: Sam finds demonic omens and everyone gets ready to confront Corson. Y/N finds a failsafe and pitches the plan to the group.
Word Count: 1.4K+
Warnings: canon-typical language
A/N: We're closing in!!! Thank you everyone for being here <3
SERIES MASTERLIST || DEAN WINCHESTER MASTERLIST
Chapter 14 || Chapter 16
After Sam had found the demonic omens, all four of you had moved immediately to make sure you covered all bases. The demonic omens had only served to solidify what you knew had to be done. You couldn't be passive any longer.
Castiel had headed to the site of the abandoned church. You had pointed out that it was unlikely for Castiel to get too close. After all, any demon with half a brain would put up angel warding on a site they wanted to use. And Carson was anything but stupid.
Even so, it still made the most sense for Castiel to make a quick trip, getting as close as possible to see if there was any information that could help.
Meanwhile, you and Sam delved into deeper research. Of course, Sam and Dean had killed their fair share of demons, but it was precisely because of this experience that Sam knew you could never be too careful. Now that all of you were forced to face a demon like Corson, it definitely wouldn't hurt to have several backup plans.
Dean did what he did best. When he wasn't checking on you and Sam, he was busy with the arsenal of weapons, stocking most of what would potentially be useful in a demon fight into the trunk of the Impala.
You felt like you had two sides of your brain arguing, and both sides had annoyingly taken on Dean and Sam’s voices. The part that sounded way too much like Dean would argue that you could have a thousand plans, but things would most likely go a whole other way, so any plans would be thrown out the window anyway. In other words, “instinct is the best thing to have”.
Meanwhile, the Sam in your head argued that going in without a plan was practically a suicide mission, reminding you that you were only alive because Corson wanted you to be. That reminder merely served to irritate you further.
You glared up at Sam.
“What?” Sam asked.
You ground your teeth together, “Nothing.”
Sam gave you a puzzled look before you stormed out of the library, more annoyed with yourself than anything.
It was at least a few days later before it finally felt like you’d made a little more headway.
Castiel had taken longer than you’d expected, and Dean was about to go check on him when Castiel walked through the doors.
“What the hell, did you walk back, Cas?” Dean snapped.
Castiel paused, like he was evaluating the question before he spoke again. “I couldn’t get close enough, so I waited.”
The silence almost seemed loud.
“And?” Dean asked impatiently.
Castiel glanced at Dean. “He’s gathering demons. I think he’s ready. We have to move.”
“Ready for what?” Sam asked, turning to glance at you.
Castiel didn’t seem to notice and merely shook his head. “I’m not sure. I can’t hear much from Heaven. They must have blocked me out. But what I do know is that Corson will need Y/N for his plan. Whatever that is. Which means he’ll be coming for her.”
You took a sharp inhale, unable to stop yourself.
Dean reached over for your hand and squeezed gently without saying anything. Sam didn’t say anything either, taking a small step closer toward you.
“So, we move first,” You finally said.
Dean glanced at you.
“I found a failsafe,” You said.
“No. Absolutely not.” Dean snapped.
You gave him a look which he promptly ignored. “Dean.”
“No, it’s too damn dangerous Y/N! What if we can’t get to you in time? What if Cas can’t actually heal you or bring you back?” Dean’s voice rose a few notches, the emotion shaking in his voice.
Your failsafe was something you’d found almost buried deep in the archives of the bunker’s library, almost as if it had been hiding from all of you, hoping it wouldn’t be found. If you didn’t know better, you might have entertained the thought that Dean had something to do with it being so hard to find.
Castiel’s mention of anti-prophets had gotten you thinking, so you’d gone deeper into the library, abandoning your laptop altogether, since the Internet didn’t seem to be much help.
Then, after much deeper digging, you'd found it.
Honestly, you should have thought of it sooner. Now that you had come across it, it seemed all too obvious.
“A blade imbued with angel grace would do it, wouldn't it?” You turned toward Castiel.
Castiel glanced at Dean with a trace of hesitation before he nodded. "Yes, but Y/N will need to do it. She’s the one Corson has chosen. No one else will be able to do it.”
Dean shot Castiel a look. "It's not even her grace.”
Castiel didn’t respond for a beat before he continued, “Yes, but Y/N is likely the only one who can get close enough to Corson.”
There was a heavy silence.
“How failsafe is this?” Sam asked.
Before anyone else could respond, Dean raised his voice again. “No way in hell. I don’t care how failsafe it is, we are not taking that kind of risk!”
You didn’t argue with Dean. You could hear it in his voice - the predominant emotion was anger, but it was fear driving him now.
“Alright, okay.” You reached out for Dean.
“Promise me,” Dean said, his green eyes practically boring into your soul.
You just reached over and put your arms around him, your head laying gently against his chest. You could hear his heart beating wildly but Dean just pulled you deeper into his embrace, his hand gently and protectively laying on the back of your head.
“Okay, I promise,” You whispered quietly.
Since Dean had shot down your failsafe, the plan had fallen back to the other backup plans Sam had prepared - devil’s traps carved into bullets, the demon knife, angel blades, but no one brought up the angel grace anymore.
There was a part of you that just wanted to leave the bunker. It felt as if the longer you prepared, the easier it would be to chicken out of the whole thing, not that it was an option for you.
You’d tried to tell Dean maybe it wasn’t worth risking his and Sam’s lives on this when it had nothing to do with them. “He’s after me. If you’d never met me…”
However, all that had done was cause Dean to give you a look like you’d lost your mind. “You are not going anywhere near that place by yourself. We’re going to kill that bastard.”
It hadn’t made you less anxious but it still made you feel that familiar warmth in your veins that Dean and Sam so often made you feel.
However, Dean had easily picked up on your anxiety, despite your best efforts to hide it from everyone. So, he stayed close by. There was this moment every morning when you opened your eyes, Dean’s arm draped over you, his light snores still sounding in your ears, when you felt this level of peace. it was just for a second, but you could almost forget about the angels that wanted to wipe your existence off the map, or the demons who needed you for whatever power plan they had.
Then, just as easily, it would come flooding back to you, and you'd pull yourself into Dean’s arms again, just to feel that sense of security and to give yourself the courage to swing your legs out of bed again.
“Hey, you okay?"
Sam broke you out of your thoughts and you glanced up at him, giving Sam a tight smile.
Sam didn't say anything else and merely leaned down and pulled you tightly against him. "Things will work out. We'll make sure of it.”
You smiled against his shoulder before you pulled away gently.
"Thanks, Sam. For everything. I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you. Pretty sure you're the one who convinced Dean to let me stay."
Sam chuckled lightly, "He's all talk."
You were about to say something else when you felt a rumble.
"Did you hear that?"
Clearly, Sam had because he was no longer looking at you.
The both of you wandered out of the library as the lights flickered.
Sam stepped in front of you cautiously.
You felt the floor rumble again, followed by a deafening cracking sound, which almost sounded like the bunker was cracking open. Then, there was a blinding light that seemed to fill the place.
"Dean…"
You turned, wanting to head for where he possibly was.
"Y/N! Wait!” Sam yelled.
But, it was almost as if you knew.
You turned your head upward as there was another loud clap, and you felt yourself thrown by what was undoubtedly angelic energy, before the ceiling caved right above you.
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Chapter Summary: The group returns to the bunker with the weight of new revelations. Sam and Y/N find a new working theory pointing them to Corson, while Castiel weighs in to try to make things up to Y/N.
Word Count: 1.9K+
Warnings: canon-typical language
SERIES MASTERLIST || DEAN WINCHESTER MASTERLIST
Chapter 13 || Chapter 15
You stood outside the motel, leaning against the railing, your eyes looking out into the distance.
You knew better than to wander too far. In fact, if not for the raised voices and Castiel’s presence in the motel, a part of you just wanted to go back in and sob into Dean’s embrace.
So you stood here outside the motel instead, hearing them argue about who wanted to kill you, how Heaven thought you didn’t deserve to exist, and how Corson wanted you for his own means.
The worst part was knowing that Castiel had known.
Even if he didn’t know everything, he knew enough.
You’d all gone back to the bunker, Castiel included.
Castiel had healed all your physical wounds but there wasn’t anything he could do about the emotional turmoil he’d left you in.
You’d retreated back to your room since returning, keeping to yourself.
However, now that your relationship with Dean had been mostly solidified, Dean was having none of that.
A quiet knock on the door made you look up before Dean poked his head in.
“Hey.”
You gave him a small smile.
“I brought drinks. Well, and me.” Dean joked.
“I’ll take the second one,” You answered, reaching your hands out for him.
After all that had happened, as well as the trip home, you and Dean hadn’t really had much time to yourselves.
Dean joined you on the ground and you curled into his arms automatically.
Dean put his arms around you, cradling you close to his chest.
“I know it’s been a rough few days,” he said quietly. “Sammy’s worried.”
You nodded quietly, “I know. I just…”
You could feel the hot sensation behind your eyes that signaled the onslaught of tears. You didn’t feel like holding back this time though.
You let the hot tears trickle down your cheeks.
Dean felt them fall on his arm but chose not to say anything, his arms merely tightening around you slightly.
It was like words were no longer necessary.
“Listen, I’m not asking you to forgive Cas. Hell, I don’t even forgive him,” Dean said. “But he’s not… he’s different.”
“I know,” You whispered. “Logically, I know Cas probably did everything he could. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that he knew and he didn’t say anything. He watched us dive into everything and anything we could get our hands on... He was there when I came face to face with Corson that time with the witches… I…”
Your voice choked up and Dean just pulled you tighter against him, his body rocking gently.
“I know, sweetheart. It’s alright.”
You took a deep breath before you pulled yourself upright and turned to look at Dean.
“I want to kill him.”
When Dean gave you a bit of a startled look, you cracked a smile.
“Corson, I mean. I haven’t stopped turning it over in my head. If this was all because of me… that means Leah and Seth and my parents… they died for nothing. Nothing, Dean.” You paused, and Dean reached for your hand, squeezing it gently.
You continued, “I don’t understand why… How did my existence become something that upset the balance? If that’s the case… if my existence means nothing…”
“Stop.” Dean interrupted for the first time. “I don’t care what those dicks say. Your existence doesn’t mean nothing. You… You’re everything, Y/N. And I will not let a bunch of feathery asses and a wanna-be demon tell us otherwise.”
You looked up at Dean, and he smiled slightly, using a thumb to wipe off the residual tears on your cheeks. “You’re amazing, Y/N. Look at you. You survived.”
You gave him a small, sad smile.
“I’m going to end this, one way or another. I’m going to show them that they’re wrong.” You said.
Dean leaned in and pressed a firm kiss to your temple. “Of course you are.” He paused, then continued, “Tonight, I want you to think of nothing. You’re going to get a good night’s sleep. Anything else we will handle tomorrow.”
You looked up at him. “Will you…” You hesitated. “Will you stay tonight?”
A look crossed Dean’s face that you couldn’t quite pin down before he squeezed your hand. “Wild horses, Y/N. Not even a monster could make me leave your side.”
You woke up in Dean’s arms the next morning. Dean was already awake, and you knew he’d made a conscious decision to stay in bed with you, like he was showing you that he wasn’t going anywhere.
You climbed out of bed with Dean, slipping your hand into his before you smiled. “You ready?” Dean asked quietly.
You nodded.
Sam hadn’t seen you since you’d arrived at the bunker two days ago, so a look of relief crossed his face as you appeared.
Dean slipped off to the kitchen and you met Sam’s embrace.
“Sammy, I…”
Sam just patted your head gently. “Don’t worry. We got this.”
The assurance just seemed to fuel the fire of determination that seemed to be growing in your belly.
Castiel hadn’t left the bunker and quietly averted his eyes when you walked into the library.
You weren’t sure how to face Castiel yet, so you slid into the seat opposite Sam, turning away from Castiel until you were ready.
“Here,” Sam said, handing your laptop to you. He paused, taking one glance at Castiel before looking back at you and speaking in a deliberately lowered voice, “He’s trying. Let’s see if there’s anything we can find that would give us a clue to Corson’s next move. We know more now, maybe we can find something we didn't notice before.”
You nodded and looked up at Sam. “I’m trying too.”
“I know.” Sam smiled, then glanced back up at you. “Y/N, we’ll always have your back, you know that, right?”
You smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
You and Sam spent the rest of the afternoon holed up in the library. You could feel Dean hovering nearby as he paced around the bunker or when he spoke to Castiel with a tone that was gruffer than usual.
“Sam.” You broke the silence.
You weren’t even sure how long all of you had been holed up there, but it wasn’t like Dean was going to let you go wandering outside the safety of the bunker.
Sam scanned the information you had just pointed out, heading for one of the shelves and pulling out a few books.
After a bit more digging, between you and Sam, you’d found something that pointed most closely to what Corson might be up to.
“Anti-prophet.”
This was the first time you’d heard Castiel’s voice since he’d last patched you up at the motel.
“I’m an anti-prophet?” You asked, your voice trembling a little until you felt Dean’s hand on your shoulder.
Castiel shook his head, “Not exactly. But it’s probably the closest to what Corson is trying to accomplish.”
You glanced at him without saying anything.
When Castiel didn’t sense any trace of hostility in your voice, he continued, “When I first started looking into him, I thought he was just harvesting souls.”
Castiel paused when he felt the shift in your emotions but Dean nodded at him to continue.
“You know, when demons corrupt or damage souls to collect them to harness more power for Hell. But the patterns seemed different, so I dropped the idea. But maybe…”
“The experiments,” You exhaled, suddenly remembering that case where you’d come face to face with Corson. The demons had coined them as experiments, and you didn’t understand it at the time.
Castiel nodded. “As of now, I believe the only other living survivor is you.”
So far, this was the most plausible theory. Everything had been some warped version of "survival of the fittest”. If this was true, then somehow or other, you were the one who had passed Corson’s test.
"So, he's after me too, right?"
Your question was met with silence, until Dean broke it.
“He’ll have to go through me. They all will."
The working theory of what you'd all been chasing all this time kept the atmosphere in the bunker serious.
Just as you found yourself missing the simplicity of even going on regular hunts, Dean entered the library, putting a pack of beers on the table.
"Alright, we're having drinks today,” Dean announced.
That had its intended effect, seeming to break the heavy silence in the room.
You raised your eyebrows at him.
"Right now, I could care less about what those dicks from Heaven think. Neither do I care about that black-eyed asshole. We're going to drink, we're going to rest and then we're going to get rid of them."
You smiled. Dean was always this way. He didn't need tight and foolproof plans like Sam did. He moved best by instinct, so rather than pore over research materials, he usually opted for going in with guns blazing.
However, now, Dean merely wanted to take your mind off it all. At least just for tonight. You knew that.
Dean shot Sam a look and Sam shut the laptop, nodding and taking a bottle.
You took a bottle from Dean, hesitated, before turning and handing it to Castiel.
The action made Castiel freeze, like he didn’t know what to do.
“I don’t need to drink,” Castiel answered.
Dean rolled his eyes. “Shut up, and take the drink man.”
You glanced at Castiel, who seemed to finally have gotten the memo.
The rest of the evening passed in a weird sort of contentment. Even while all of you were shrouded within the comfort of having each other, there was a weird uneasiness that sprouted from the new knowledge all of you had. You felt it from Dean the most, especially the way he hovered around you, as if he was afraid any one of them would appear all of a sudden and snatch you up.
Yet, Dean's closeness didn't bother you. In fact, it made you feel a weird kind of warmth. This was new, even to you.
You knew Dean was being protective. Yet, at the same time it was like he was trying not be too overbearing - a hand on your shoulder, a gentle swish of his thumb across your knuckles. They were gentle and subtle, telling you he was right there.
Despite everything that was happening, you liked this feeling. Returning to the bunker after the last hunt had been different. It had been gut-wrenching revelation after revelation, but tonight it felt like the bunker you'd known for the past year. The place where you knew you were safe.
“Guys?” Sam’s voice traveled out from the library.
You and Dean had been sitting outside the library, after Dean had physically dragged you out of the room, claiming that you needed a break. It was hard to argue when Dean used emotional blackmail to claim you’d neglected him ever since the both of you had officially started your relationship.
So, you’d relented even though you shot him accusing looks to tell him that you knew he was just using it as an excuse.
However, in the time you’d been outside the library, it looked like Sam had found something.
Both you and Dean got up immediately, jogging into the library.
Three of you crowded around Sam, who started pulling things up onto his computer screen.
“This, this and this. What do you think?” Sam asked.
They were all clear signs of demon activity, most noticeably, electric storms and a clear line of cattle mutilation, which all seemed to end in one specific area.
“Where’s this?” You asked, pointing to the area on the map.
Sam shrugged. “As far as I can tell, it’s an abandoned church of sorts.”
You glanced at Dean, whose jaw tightened.
All four of you exchanged looks before you spoke.
“Corson’s on the move.”
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
It felt as if flames were licking at your skin, the pain searing right through you. It was so intense that you barely felt the pain from your impact with the ground.
“Y/N!” Dean’s voice seemed to break through the pain as he skidded toward you.
You wanted to swallow down the pain and pretend like nothing was wrong but this pain felt different.
“Y/N, are you with us?” Sam’s voice joined in.
You nodded, taking a huge shuddering breath.
There were burns up and down your arms but the injuries weren't as severe as you had expected.
Sam and Dean quickly helped you up, the three of you quickly making your way back to the motel. After putting up some defensive wards, Sam glanced down at you.
"Hang in there just a little more. I'll make a quick supply run then I'll fix you up." Sam's voice was reassuring and even with everything that happened, you smiled at him and nodded.
Sam gently ruffled your hair and closed the motel room door behind him gently.
What Sam left behind was a heavy silence, filled with all the unspoken words between you and Dean.
Dean broke the silence first, unable to contain the anger that was bubbling to the surface.
"Y/N, what the hell was that! Do you have a death wish? You almost got yourself killed!" Dean’s voice was rising with each word as he continued speaking.
On any other day, you might have recognized how his voice was choked up just slightly with emotion. However, your emotions were having an inner battle of their own.
"That's rich coming from you! You kept me in the dark and stuck Sam with babysitting duties. If we hadn't been there, you wouldn't have stood a chance!” You raised your voice as well, easily matching Dean's volume.
"I told you, you weren't supposed to be there! I knew you would never agree to hanging back! What choice did I have?"
"Of course I wouldn't agree! This is my fight! This wouldn’t even be happening if…" Your voice trailed off slightly, both you and Dean still glaring at each other.
You took a breath and continued, "Why do you care anyway? You haven't cared about me for weeks, Dean!”
Dean froze. When he next spoke, his voice was significantly softer, even though you could still hear his anger seeping through. "What are you talking about?"
"Whatever, I did what I had to, and I would do it all over again." Your voice held a note of defiance, like you were daring Dean to continue fighting with you.
But Dean hadn't gotten the anger out of his system. Not yet, at least.
"You think you're the only one who has lost someone they care about? You planning to make me and Sam bury someone again? How could you be so damn selfish?"
Those words seemed to strike a chord, and you raised your voice again, "Selfish? Sam I get, but what's got you all up in a twist? Since when do you care anyway! I'm just a one-night mistake you can't wait to forget!"
"Because I can’t lose you, damn it!"
Dean's voice seemed to echo against the motel room walls. There was a silence again that seemed to be pressing against both of you as if you were stuck in a vacuum.
“And that makes it okay for you to shut me out?” You asked, your voice significantly softer. “I’m supposed to believe that we didn’t talk for weeks because you were protecting me?”
Dean stepped forward and you braced yourself for another argument.
Instead, Dean grabbed you and pressed his lips against yours. The action was firm yet gentle at the same time. You could feel his anger and also the hidden tenderness of the action as Dean’s lips moved against yours.
You didn’t even know when you had started kissing him back.
When the both of you finally pulled away from the kiss, neither of you moved your bodies backward, your faces still pressed close to each other.
“Believe this.” Dean whispered.
Your eyes narrowed slightly. “That’s supposed to just make everything better?”
“No,” Dean exhaled. “But I’m no longer hiding anything from you.”
The silence was no longer heavy. In fact, it felt like you were moving in slow motion. You could hear and even feel Dean’s every breath. Just as everything seemed to calm down, a pain shot through your arm, almost jolting you back to reality. You winced and Dean glanced down at your burns again.
Dean sighed quietly and pressed a kiss to your forehead. “It was never a mistake. I never regretted a single moment with you.”
You nodded quietly, your fingers now intertwined with Dean’s as you stood close together.
Just then, the door opened.
“So… everything good with you guys now?” Sam’s voice sounded in the room a little hesitantly before you looked up.
Dean shot him a glare. “What, did you go to the next town to get supplies?”
However, Sam didn’t miss the fact that Dean hadn’t let your hand go.
Sam smiled, stepping in. “Look who I found, or rather he found me.”
Both you and Dean looked up as Castiel stepped in behind Sam.
You were still raw from the angel fight but seeing Castiel still filled you with a sense of relief.
“Let me.” Castiel said, as his eyes fell on the obvious injuries you had on you.
You sat quietly at the edge of one of the beds, and Castiel bent before you to work on healing you. This wasn’t the first time that Castiel was healing you, but for some reason, it felt different.
“I get the angels not stepping in when… when my family died. But why would they want the survivors… why would they want me dead now?” You asked quietly.
Castiel didn’t answer immediately, his fingers gently touching your forehead.
You felt a warmth spread through your body and the next moment, you felt as if you were good as new again.
“Cas?”
Castiel looked up at you. “They’ve been trying to track you down all along. Corson seems to be getting further ahead with his plan as Heaven expected, so they felt that some order needed to be restored.”
The revelation felt like you’d just run headfirst into a brick wall.
Dean stepped forward, “You knew about this?”
Castiel glanced at Dean. “They asked for my help, but I couldn’t just…”
“So you knew. You knew they were coming for me.” It wasn’t a question.
Castiel just looked at you with a look of sadness in his eyes.
“I need some air.” You said, moving toward the door.
“Y/N, wait.” Dean stepped forward.
You turned to Dean and shook your head. "I just need some air, Dean. Give me a few."
"It's not safe for you to be alone."
You forced a smile at Dean and shook your head. "I'll be fine. I’ll be right outside.”
The door closed behind you.
Dean paused for just a second before he reached for his jacket again.
“I’m going with her,” Dean said.
“Dean.” Sam shook his head at his brother.
Dean frowned. “Sam, she…”
Sam shook his head again. “Dean, she just needs some space. You of all people should know that. If you follow her now, it will just make things worse. She’s more like you than you think.”
“I can’t just…” Dean opened his mouth to argue even though he knew Sam was right.
“Yes, you can. Let her calm down. Meanwhile, the answers we need are here.” Sam motioned behind Dean.
Dean’s eyes flicked toward Castiel and he felt the rage rise up in him all over again.
“You knew,” Dean said, his voice low now and it was no longer a question.
“Dean…”
Dean’s voice rose again. “No, Cas, we’ve been down this road before. I thought we were done with all this! You knew those dicks were after her all this time, but you didn’t say a damn thing! What if she had died today?”
“Dean, I couldn’t. Look, they identified Y/N early on, but I tried to buy some time to find another way. I kept redirecting them elsewhere. I didn’t think they were going to resort to killing the survivors. But the other survivors’ deaths didn’t seem to restore as much balance as they hoped. Now they think she’s the key.”
Dean narrowed his eyes. “That doesn’t change anything, Cas! You should have told us! What if Sam hadn’t found her in that alley when that dick first found her? I would have lost her just like that! This is Y/N we’re talking about! She’s not just a number to me and Sam! I’m not letting those dicks be the reason I lose someone else again! Screw their damn Heavenly order!”
“Dean, if I’d told you, the angels would have just moved faster. I had to pretend like I didn’t know anything. Otherwise, all of you…”
Dean interrupted, furious, “How does that help us at all? Name one time those dicks didn’t try to make use of us, or one time demons didn’t try to gut us any chance they had! But if we don’t know we’re targets, we’re just sitting ducks! It’s blind luck that we’re none the worse for wear now!”
Dean was getting more agitated, so Sam stepped up.
“Dean, it’s done. What’s important now…”
“No, Sammy! I’m not doing this all over again! Every single time he kept us in the dark about Heaven’s will or all that crap, someone ended up dead! I am not losing Y/N over this!” Dean yelled, his voice cracking slightly as he spun to glare at Castiel again.
There was a short silence, then Castiel spoke again, his voice still calm. “I didn’t know they’d changed their course. By the time I found out they were after her specifically, Amriel was already here. All I know is that they believe getting rid of her will be a cog in Corson’s plan and might be the key to stopping or even killing him.
“Might be? They’re doing this on a damn maybe?” Dean raised his voice, shooting Castiel another dark look.
“So you’re saying we’re stuck between Heaven and Hell? Again?” Sam asked quietly.
Castiel just looked back at Sam with a gentle sadness in his eyes.
“So, Corson needs her alive.” Sam concluded. “And the angels decide the best way to handle that is to kill her? The human they should be protecting in the first place?”
Castiel looked up and nodded. “As far as I can tell.”
He continued, “Corson’s plan seems to be accelerating, so Heaven isn’t going to back down now. What we need to do is make sure none of them can find her. At least not until we have a plan.”
“Then, that’s what we’ll do.” Dean said, his eyes hardening with a resolve that Sam was all too familiar with.
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Chapter Summary: The case takes a dark and personal turn. With such personal stakes, Dean makes a call in a bid to protect Y/N.
Word Count:
Warnings:
A/N:
SERIES MASTERLIST || DEAN WINCHESTER MASTERLIST
Chapter 11 || Chapter 13
The trip to the coroner’s office only served to prove your suspicions. Without a doubt, this was an angel’s doing.
There was no way to say definitely that it had been the angel that had approached you last night, but the chances of there being two angels on different missions in the same town on the same night was highly unlikely.
You’d retreated back to the motel to do some extensive research while Sam and Dean went to check the crime scene out.
You knew they were secretly relieved that you’d volunteered for it. At this moment, none of you could know for sure what the angels really wanted.
The questions in your head seemed to have multiplied since your encounter with Amriel the night before. However, Cas seemed out of reach and there was no other way you could get answers at this moment. So, the only thing you could do was to work the case like how the three of you always did.
Your first theory was that the victim, Libby Davis, had been possessed by a demon. After all, you’d pored through ten years' worth of news articles and no similar deaths had been found. So, you expanded your search, looking for weird or suspicious deaths, including any happenings recently that might indicate a demon’s presence.
Still nothing.
You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, like you were resetting your thought process.
Then, you started typing again, expanding it even more to any deaths in the past ten years around Libby.
Bingo.
Yet as you took in the news articles on the screen before you, you felt your hair stand on end.
Libby’s entire family had died five years ago. Her youngest sister had gone missing for six months, only to be found two states over. Libby had lost her entire family overnight and no one had been arrested.
You could almost hear Leah’s last words play in your head again.
You barely heard the door open, much less register Sam and Dean entering the room.
“… so I think… Y/N?” Sam had been talking when he realized you were barely present.
Your hands shook slightly as your eyes remained fixed on the screen.
It couldn’t be… right?
You were fighting a losing battle in your mind, and the intrusive thoughts seemed to threaten to engulf you.
“Y/N.”
You felt Sam’s hand on your shoulder, and his steady voice right in your ear before your vision cleared and you turned to look into his hazel eyes.
“What’s going on?” Sam asked gently.
You fought back the tears you could feel pricking beneath the surface and cleared your throat.
“I… I’m not sure.” You said, your voice barely louder than a whisper.
Sam frowned, sliding into the chair next to you and turning the laptop towards him.
You knew Sam was thinking the same thing you were as his eyes scanned the article, the confusion seeming to intensify before they morphed into something you were all too familiar with - worry.
"What?” Dean asked, looking from his brother to you.
Wordlessly, Sam handed Dean the laptop and glanced at you.
“It can’t be a coincidence, right?” You asked, just as Dean glanced up with a look that was hard to read.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions, alright? Let me do some extra digging.” Sam said, taking the laptop back from Dean.
There was an awkward silence that filled the motel now, broken only by the sound of Sam’s fingers across the laptop’s keyboard.
When Sam finally looked up, he glanced at Dean.
You didn’t miss the silent communication.
Half of you felt the chill of disappointment, like they were keeping something from you. The other half of you wanted to scream that this was your issue and you shouldn’t be kept out of it. Most importantly, the logical part of your brain knew that they were trying to be considerate of your feelings.
Sam caught on quicker.
“Y/N, we’re going to get to the bottom of this, alright?”
You didn’t say anything and Sam nodded.
“Alright, unfiltered here it is.”
Sam had found something. He’d found a consistent pattern. Limiting his search to the past 10 years, there had been dozens of families who’d been murdered, survived by one child, usually the eldest. Out of these families, most of the survivors didn’t last long, most of them succumbing to suicide, some involved in accidents, or some form of violent death.
However, the most important thing that Sam found was the pattern that had surfaced in the last year. There were a select few survivors who had been found exactly like Libby - their eyes practically burned out of their sockets.
“We knew Corson was doing this for a long time, but we never stopped to check the survivors. Except you, of course,” Sam said.
“What do you think we’re looking at?” Sam asked, ignoring the look Dean gave him.
You took a deep breath. “The angels are getting involved, aren’t they?”
There was a heavy silence. Dean didn't say anything as Sam leaned over, patting your arm gently. “Y/N, we’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
You looked up and gave Sam a smile that you knew they would see through immediately. “I know,” You said quietly, unable to stop yourself from glancing at Dean.
Dean remained quiet and you couldn’t help the small bubble of disappointment in your chest.
“Dean, are you sure about this? Are we really doing this again?” Sam asked.
Dean shot him a furious look.
Sam put both his hands up. “I’m not saying we give up. I’m saying maybe there’s a better way than pissing the angels off all over again.”
“They started it when they came after her.” Dean growled.
Dean paused, then continued, “Look, Cas is off to who knows where, and there’s no other way we’re going to get answers. You just make sure you keep her here. I’ll call once we’re clear.”
“What are you going to do, Dean? Trap it there before the three of us make a run for it?” Sam pressed. “Besides, Y/N is going to kill you when she finds out.”
This was the part that Dean hated the most. All he knew was that he was going to find out everything and protect you.
“I don’t want her anywhere near this. It’s too dangerous. Better pissed off than dead.” Dean snapped before driving off in the Impala.
Feeling like he was backed into a corner, Dean had decided if there was no other way to find answers for you, he would force out the answers.
With Sam’s help, they’d found an abandoned warehouse that was almost perfect to lay a trap for an angel. It wasn’t the first time he was doing this, so Dean was confident he could do this.
He took a breath before beginning the summoning ritual.
Dean had just lit the match, about to drop it into the bowl right in front of him to complete the ritual, when the door slammed open. At this point, Dean didn’t care what it took. He was determined to get to the bottom of this. He wasn’t going to lose anyone else.
“Dean Winchester, what the hell!” Your voice rang out through the warehouse.
The match slipped out of his hand, igniting the bowl of ingredients that he had prepared for this.
“Damn it, Y/N!” Dean yelled. “You’re not supposed to be here! This isn’t your fight!”
“Like hell it isn’t!” You yelled back. “This is all…”
“Guys!” Sam yelled, calling back for your attention.
Dean pulled you backward, shielding you with his body as the angel materialized exactly where Dean had wanted him to.
“Sammy!”
Without missing a beat, Sam threw a match and flames danced around Amriel. The flame flickered a little unsteadily almost as if something was stopping it from roaring at its peak. However, Amriel’s appearance had driven all other thoughts out.
“You guys don’t get tired of this?” Amriel asked, a lazy tone in his voice.
“You’re going to tell us what we want to know.” Dean said, letting go of your arm and stepping forward.
Amriel frowned. “Y/N, you’re choosing the difficult path? Is that really your decision?”
A low growl escaped Dean’s throat.
“What’s the easy path?” You challenged. “Standing still while you blast my soul out of my body?”
You tried to ignore the stiffening of Dean’s back as he listened to you.
“It’s a justifiable sacrifice for something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. I thought you’d understand.” Amriel said.
Even without seeing Dean’s face, you knew he was getting irritated.
“Justifiable?” Dean raised his voice. “That’s all you dicks know how to say! What kind of sick justification could there be for you smiting innocent people!”
Amriel exhaled slowly before he spoke again, “Unfortunately, Corson is messing with divine order. We’re merely restoring it.”
You felt your blood run cold.
“Restoring divine order by killing those who Corson didn’t? How is that any different from Corson?” Sam snapped, unable to listen quietly any longer.
“You know, I think I’ve been more than generous. You know more than you need to already.” Amriel spoke, just as the flames died down and he stepped out of the holy oil as if it wasn’t even there to begin with.
Dean frowned in confusion, glancing at Sam.
That’s when Sam saw it, a slight break in the oil pattern. It must have been disturbed when the both of you had come in, or during the argument. Whatever it was, Amriel had never been trapped. He’d just been biding his time.
Damn it.
Without a sliver of hesitation, Dean stepped forward, pulling out the angel blade he carried with him.
From behind him, it was like everything was going in slow motion. Your brain had not fully grasped everything that Amriel had told you but it felt like everything was clumping together and fogging up your brain.
But even through the fog you could see it unfold - Dean moving forward to meet Amriel, while the angel’s eyes shone, before he pulled out a blade that shone with angel grace.
You knew Dean wouldn’t stand a chance.
Before Sam could even twitch, you were already moving, throwing yourself between Dean and Amriel just as the grace blade came crashing down.
Sam pressed his bloodied hand onto the angel banishing sigil he just finished carving into the ground as quickly as he could. However, he was still a second too late as you were thrown backwards with the force.
“Y/N!”
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Chapter Summary: Y/N is approached by an angel which leaves her feeling raw and confused. Meanwhile, a case falls into their laps just as they are leaving town.
Word Count: 1.2k+
Warnings: canon-typical mentions of violence, canon-typical language
A/N: Meant to post this earlier but mehhh flu bug :( anw this is a short chapter but things are picking up soon! I'll start posting more regularly since I kind of finished writing! As always, leave a footprint if you liked what you read!
SERIES MASTERLIST || DEAN WINCHESTER MASTERLIST
Chapter 10 || Chapter 12
A chill made its way through your body as you heard your name leave his lips.
The man standing before you looked harmless enough. If it wasn't for the fact that your body was sending you warning signals about the fact that he was anything but human, you might not even have been concerned.
“ Who… What are you?"
You glanced toward the head of the alley, regretting your decision to step into the alley earlier. You'd been annoyed with Dean and you weren't too keen on Sam coming to check on you, so you’d opted to stay out of sight.
You twitched, itching to reach for the angel blade you kept hidden on you ever since Dean had given it to you. Your first guess was demon, but something felt off about it.
"I'm Amriel. I'm an angel. "
You stared back at Amriel, as if you were waiting for him to continue. When he didn't say anything, you held back the urge to roll your eyes. "And?"
"We can help each other.”
"You want to help me?" You raised your eyebrows questioningly.
"I'm sure you are already aware that you're a target. Wouldn’t you prefer to be to be on Heaven’s side?”
You felt a jolt, almost like an electric current pass through you.
“A target? What do you mean?”
The angel didn't answer. He didn't really need to. You knew there was something he wasn't telling you.
However, what came first was a surge of anger. "Help me? Where the hell were you when I needed that? Where were you when Seth and Leah were…” Your voice trailed off slightly as you felt the memories hit you.
“If you let me do what I need to, you’ll be helping Heaven right something that never should have existed.” Amriel stepped forward toward you. Instinctively, you stepped back, your back hitting the brick wall behind you with a thud.
“And how does that help me?” You asked, your tone almost defiant.
Amriel merely smiled back at you. “You wouldn’t be worried about Corson coming for you.”
You froze. “Corson?”
You felt a familiar feeling of panic claw its way to the surface. Your breathing quickened and you reached for the first weapon on you that you could get your hands on.
"Hey!"
Sam's voice broke through the strange silence that seemed to envelope the entire area.
A conflicted expression crossed Amriel’s face and with a flurry of wings, he vanished.
You sank toward the ground, your body feeling strangely light, as if the encounter had sucked all the energy out of you.
The next moment, Dean’s familiar voice broke through the fog in your brain.
“Y/N.”
There was a short pause as you looked up into the pair of green eyes that you trusted the most in the entire world.
"Dean."
His name was expelled from your lips as naturally as if you were merely breathing.
Dean frowned, his eyes scanning your face and travelling across your small form, curled up into a little ball. "Are you hurt?"
It took another beat before you shook your head.
Dean looked like he wanted to ask you more but Sam shot him a look.
Dean's eyes swept the alley one last time before he took your arm, gently hauling you upward. “ Let’s get out of here."
You nodded, trying to ignore the relief flooding you now. Just another untimely reminder of Dean’s unwavering presence in your life now.
No one said anything as Dean drove to a motel and the three of you piled into the last available room in the motel.
You sighed quietly to yourself. It wasn't the first time the three of you had shared a motel room. It didn't happen often and was usually not a problem but this was the first time you'd all be sharing a room since you and Dean had…
" You sure you're alright? " Sam asked, breaking the silence.
You nodded but you should have known that Dean wasn't about to let it go.
Dean didn't say anything but merely gave you a look.
You sighed, perching yourself at the edge of one of the beds. "He said he was an angel."
As briefly as possible but without missing details, you filled the both of them in, "I think we need to talk to Cas.”
Dean, however, wasn't ready to move on just yet
“They said they want to help you?" There was a note of incredulity in his voice.
You shrugged. “He said we could help each other. But it sounded more like I’d have to sacrifice a lot more. I remembered what you told me early on.”
Indeed, Dean had warned you off trusting anyone or anything, no matter how sincere they sounded. The only angel any of you trusted was Castiel.
"So what did you tell him?"
You glanced up at Dean and Sam before answering in a matter-of-fact voice," I asked him where the hell they were in the first place.”
Dean cracked a smile. "That's my girl."
It was a casual comment that both warmed your heart and filled you with a mix of relief and confusion. You were glad Dean seemed less awkward with you now but you couldn't help wondering if Dean meant anything with that comment.
You smiled back at him.
Sam reached over to squeeze your shoulder. Both Sam and Dean knew that there were much deeper emotions that rang with the answer you'd given the angel. You were just grateful that they let it pass.
"Get some sleep. We'll head back to the bunker tomorrow and we can try to track Cas down once we're home.” Sam said.
The three of you were about to blow out of town when a police cruiser pulled into the motel parking lot.
Sam glanced at Dean as an officer got out of the car.
“Agent Walker, I’m glad I caught you guys before you left!”
Sam nodded back at the officer.
You remembered meeting Jamir Dotson briefly for that vampire case when the three of you had first blown into town, but Sam had been the one who had handled the police.
“Officer Dotson? What can we do for you? You remember my partners Agent Grimes and Berger.”
Dean and you nodded back at him and Jamir continued, “If you guys don’t mind sticking around for a while more, I have a case that I could use your help with.”
You could feel Dean’s resistance even without looking at him. Dean usually wasn’t keen on sticking around town for longer than necessary and now that an angel had approached you yesterday, Dean was itching to get back to the safety of the bunker.
Just as Sam was fishing around for an excuse, Jamir spoke again. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t a weird one. Her eyes are practically burned out of her skull.”
That got the attention of all three of you.
“Burned?” Dean spoke.
Jamir nodded. “You can take a look for yourself.”
You exchanged a look with Sam and nodded.
It was too much of a coincidence to be overlooked, especially since all three of you knew that at least one angel had been here.
“Lead the way,” Dean said.
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
Chapter Summary: Dean and Sam rush to get to Y/N before it's too late.
Word Count: 1.9K+
Warnings: canon-typical language and mentions of violence, anxiety, fear/trauma
A/N: hi guys, here's chapter 10! almost forgot I was supposed to be posting an update this week! Anyway, this was tweaked to fit chapter 9's rewrite so I hope this worked well! Let me know what you think!
SERIES MASTERLIST || DEAN WINCHESTER MASTERLIST
Chapter 9 || Chapter 11
“Dean.” Sam warned, as the older Winchester paced behind him.
Dean didn’t say anything but stopped walking.
“Look, the footage isn’t much help. All we can see is that it’s a woman. Let’s go back and see if this has happened in this town before.”
Dean nodded, glad that at least he had something to do.
Even so, it was difficult to concentrate when it felt like his whole body was on fire. There was no doubt that the djinn had taken you, so they were literally racing against time to find you.
Dean went as fast as he could, going through articles of deaths in town, strange or otherwise. They couldn't afford a miss right now.
"Sammy."
Sam looked up as Dean turned the laptop screen toward him.
Sam frowned, his eyes scanning the screen before he looked up at Dean.
"What are the chances that the deputy still looks exactly like that and forgot to mention something like this has happened before?" Dean asked.
Sam turned back to his own laptop, his fingers typing quickly across the keyboard.
"In our line of work? Zero." Sam fell silent for a few minutes before looking up.
"He has a warehouse."
Dean was already halfway out the door. "Of course he does."
Dean pulled up near the warehouse, both him and Sam arming themselves with knives, making sure the blades were dipped in lamb's blood before moving into the building.
The place was quiet, and Dean nodded at Sam, as they moved in opposite directions.
Dean held the knife ready, and then he saw you.
You were sitting bound to a chair in front of a couple of stacked industrial containers. Your head was lolled downward.
"Crap." Dean muttered, heading straight for you.
Dean cupped your chin gently. “Y/N?”
Dean knew that what he really needed to do was gut the djinn that did this to you.
“Dean!”
Sam’s voice echoed in the warehouse as Dean turned, the knife barely missing the djinn who was headed straight for him.
“Hunters. Barging right in and interfering with my meal," the djinn growled, hurling Dean backward.
Dean hit the ground a few feet away with a groan but got up almost immediately, parking himself right in front of you protectively as Sam hurled himself right into the fight.
Dean took another glance back at you before heading for Sam, who was struggling with the djinn.
Sam landed on the ground with a thud, just as Dean thrust the knife right into the djinn atop his brother.
"She's not your meal,” Dean growled as the djinn fell back to the ground, no longer moving.
Dean looked up, hurrying toward you now.
Sam reached you first, pushing the antidote into you with no hesitation.
When that still didn't rouse you, Dean glanced at Sam. “Something’s wrong, Sam.”
Dean leaned forward, putting a gentle hand against your forehead. "She's burning up. We don’t have time.”
Sam could hear the strain in Dean's voice, which was a clear sign he was really worried.
"Then we'll just have to do things the hard way," Sam said, pulling out the African dream root he'd taken with him as a precaution.
As Dean watched you anxiously, Sam had already finished mixing the concoction and handed it to Dean.
"Alright, let's do this." Dean said, taking it from Sam with no hesitation and downing it in one gulp.
It felt like the hundredth time that you'd made it through this street, and also the hundredth time that you'd spotted Seth standing over Leah’s dead body before you hightailed it out of there, Corson's laughter seeming to follow you down the street and echoing in your head.
You couldn't do this anymore.
Every time you got anywhere close to getting off the street, it seemed to restart all over again and you'd be back in your room in that moment just before Leah burst right in, whisper yelling that something was wrong and you needed to get out of there.
Then, as if by pure willpower, something changed.
Just as you were about to reach the edge of the street, someone grabbed your arm.
You spun around in confusion, your body reacting almost instinctively to the bright green eyes staring back at you.
"Dean?"
His name escaped your lips with an exhale of your breath.
“You okay?” Dean asked, glancing around.
You were about to nod before you paused, half wondering if Dean was even real. Yet, you decided he had to be. After all, Dean wasn't a part of your life at this moment. Not yet. You swallowed. “I just… need to get out of here. Did you kill it?”
Dean nodded. “Yeah, but the antidote didn’t do anything for you. So I…”
Dean hesitated, almost like he was explaining himself to you.
You glanced around. “Dean, I can’t… I don’t know how…”
“Y/N, I know what this is, alright? There’s only one way out.”
You blinked back at him.
“This djinn feeds on fear. You need to face it.” Dean said.
You shook your head. “You killed it.”
Dean’s expression softened. “I know. But that doesn’t change anything.” He paused before he continued, “This is that night, isn’t it?”
Dean had hit the nail right on the head.
You didn’t answer, merely looking away. “I can’t do this, Dean.”
Dean took you by the shoulders and turned you around to face him. “Yes, Y/N. You can. I’ve seen you.”
“I froze, remember?” Your voice was quiet, the memory of your last face-to-face with Corson and the aftermath almost haunting both you and Dean.
“Listen to me. Look him straight in the eye and tell that son of a bitch you’re going to kill him. Because you will.” Dean said, his voice steady. For the first time since that night, it finally felt normal standing here next to Dean.
“You got this. And I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
You looked up again at Dean and he nodded, reaching down for your hand and squeezing. “Promise.” Dean whispered, for extra measure.
You turned back to face the direction you’d come running from. You could still vaguely make out the house where you’d all lived in as one big happy family.
You were ready. You were ready to look him in the eye. You would kill Corson if that’s the last thing you did.
Then, the echoing laughter surrounding you and Dean stopped.
Dean glanced back at you with a smile.
“Dean?” Sam headed towards his older brother as Dean’s eyes fluttered open once again from next to you. “You okay?’
Sam pulled Dean upright as Dean blinked a few times. “Yeah, I’m… I’m fine.”
Getting his bearings, Dean turned straight to you.
Your eyes were already open.
“Y/N?”
You looked up at Dean, your eyes shaking slightly.
“I’m sorry.” Dean lowered his voice slightly.
You got to your feet shakily, taking a small step toward Dean. When Dean didn’t back down, your eyes filled with tears and Dean stepped forward to envelope you gently into his arms.
You couldn’t say anything, merely sobbed quietly in his arms.
Dean rested his chin gently on the top of his head, his hand gently patting the back of your head as you leaned into him.
“I’m going to get another drink.” You announced as you got up from the table.
The three of you hadn’t done this in a while - grabbed a ‘successful hunt’ drink. You kind of felt like you were to blame for that because things wouldn’t have changed otherwise.
You weren’t sure if the hunt and the aftermath had made things better or worse. Things had seemed normal until you’d stopped sobbing and realized you were in Dean’s arms again. So you’d tried to keep things from getting too awkward again by just stepping backward and allowing Sam to give you a relieved hug as well.
Now, you drummed your fingers quietly on the bar top, before you felt someone hovering and you turned quickly, frowning and the guy behind you took a step back.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”
You didn’t say anything, feeling the edge of the bar table press against your back just as the bartender handed you your drink.
“My tab.” The guy told the bartender before he looked at you. “If the lady would oblige.”
Figuring it’d be a good distraction, you smiled and gave him a small nod that still showed an obvious tinge of wariness.
“Thanks, then.”
Meanwhile, Dean was glaring in your direction, feeling an unfamiliar indignant feeling bubble up in his chest, something that Sam didn’t miss.
Sam opened his mouth to say something, but Dean shot him a look. Sam rolled his eyes, merely taking a drink of beer from the glass in front of him and choosing not to say anything.
It was frustrating because Sam knew that all it really took was for Dean to open his stupid mouth and talk to you. Instead, his dense older brother chose to seethe here while watching you laughing at a bar with some random guy. Honestly, you weren’t even really laughing, but Dean was probably too annoyed to really see that.
Sam cast one more frustrated look at his brother before he rolled his eyes again and looked back down at his phone.
At least, you and Dean seemed to be talking again.
A tinge of awkwardness still hung in the air, exacerbated by what had happened during the djinn attack, followed by Dean’s snarky attitude that day in the bar after the hunt, or even now, as the three of you sat here, joined by a fourth hunter.
Dean was making this entire thing more awkward than it needed to be.
Spurred by the success of working a case together, despite the fact that you and Dean had had a close shave, Sam had immediately found another case, and the three of you had headed straight for a town that seemed to be having a vampire problem.
True enough, you’d barely blown into the next town when you’d chanced upon someone in trouble.
“Hey!” Dean yelled, and the vampire looked up baring its fangs.
That was all the three of you needed before jumping in, Sam easily lopping its head off.
You ran up to the guy sprawled on the ground. He was not much older than you and a blade lay next to him.
“Hey you okay?” You asked, as he climbed to his feet.
The suspicion had barely formed in your mind before he glanced between the three of you. “Boy, I must have lucked out to have three hunters stumble upon me. And a badass one.”
Dean rolled his eyes as the guy turned toward you.
“I’m Leon.” He said with a smile.
You gave an awkward laugh before introducing yourself, only Sam noting the look on Dean’s face changing.
It wasn’t as if you hadn't noticed the change in Dean’s mood or aura but it just served to annoy you.
“What is he, some hormonal teenager?” You grumbled under your breath.
You’d left the bar for some fresh air, especially since it had been frustrating when Dean had kept snapping at Leon. As you grumbled, you suddenly felt eyes on you and looked up. You felt a weird vibe, which seemed to run through your body, which only told you one thing - whoever this was, they weren't human.
“Y/N, nice to finally meet you.”
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Chapter Summary: Y/N and Dean deal with the aftermath of that night. Stuck in the middle, Sam tries to push Dean in the right direction.
Word Count: 1.7K+
Warnings: canon-typical language, violence,
A/N: I rewrote this chapter LOL but anyway, here's Chapter 9! I've finished the drafts so I'll likely be posting every week to finish up this series! If you read and liked it, do leave a footprint behind! Thanks for bearing with me!
SERIES MASTERLIST || DEAN WINCHESTER MASTERLIST
Chapter 8 || Chapter 9
Sam glanced at his brother driving, his eyes trained on the road, before he glanced in the rearview mirror, watching for a moment as you stared out at the scenery that was rushing by. He held back a sigh as well as the very real urge to smack his brother upside the head.
As much as he hated to admit it, the stubborn gene definitely ran in the blood of a Winchester.
Meanwhile, your eyes wandered quietly towards the back of Dean’s head, before you quickly looked away just in case he chose that moment to look into the mirror.
It had been two weeks.
Two long excruciating weeks.
Other than the horrible feeling that had settled in the base of your stomach that smelled suspiciously of rejection, as well as the lingering feelings of guilt that you and Sam had talked about, you also felt sorry that Sam seemed to be stuck in this awkwardness along with the two of you.
Dean barely spoke to you for the first few days, and you thought maybe he was pissed off. Then the awkward one-liners came, and it was suddenly as if the months you’d spent together had disappeared in a flash.
After the first week, the thought that you should leave the Winchesters entered your mind for the first time. You talked yourself out of it in no time, based on none of the practical reasons, but the fact that you couldn’t imagine not hearing Sam and Dean bickering in the next room, or the smell of pies or burgers wafting in when Sam returned from a food run, or even the purr of the Impala as you sat in the back seat like you were now.
And you knew you were screwed.
So you did the next best thing you could. You acted as normal as you could with Dean, to save Sam the awkwardness of being stuck in the middle. Besides, if you pretended hard enough, maybe you could go back to normal as well and forget about that night, even though you were sure it was the best night of your life since everything had changed, where you felt semi-normal, and semi-happy.
The fact that the three of you were headed to check out a potential case was less than ideal now, since there wasn’t much research you could do to distract yourself.
The only silver lining right now was that Dean was finally turning into town.
Dean glanced at you from where you were standing at the counter, holding back a sigh, especially since his younger brother seemed to be watching him.
He knew he’d screwed up the moment he’d crossed the line. He cared about you and he hadn’t meant for it to happen like this. So, he’d pulled back enough to give you space. He’d been there throughout the time when Sam was struggling with Jessica’s death, he’d had struggles of his own, and he knew that moving on or being happy after such a devastating loss was easier said than done. So, he wanted to try to balance it out without making things too hard for you.
Dean had been disappointed that you hadn’t said anything to him, but he wanted to give you space so he hadn’t said anything either. But now, he was wondering if that was the wrong move.
“Dean.”
Dean looked up at his brother, putting on a nonchalant expression that he kind of knew wasn’t fooling Sam.
“What?” Dean asked, his voice half exasperated.
Sam gave his older brother a look. “What the hell are you doing?”
Dean didn’t answer him.
“I don’t care what happened between the both of you. Take your head out of your ass and fix it.”
Dean opened his mouth to argue and then promptly closed it again as you reached the table. It didn't go unnoticed.
Ignoring the sinking feeling in your chest, you pretended like you hadn’t noticed, just handing him the drink you’d gotten before sliding Sam his.
You remained silent throughout the meal, trying to ignore the invasive shadow of your siblings’ deaths every time Dean opened his mouth and said something to annoy Sam. You even tried to ignore the way your heart skipped a beat when Dean laughed, or did anything, really.
Maybe staying with the Winchesters wasn’t the smartest thing in the world, huh?
You ignored the mocking voice in your head and took a breath, just as a radio crackled from the next table where two uniformed officers were sitting.
The voice from the other end of the radio crackled, but you and Sam were close enough to hear what they were saying - another body.
Sam glanced at you and you could feel Dean’s eyes on you as well but you swallowed whatever was in your mouth and nodded at them. “Come on, let’s go.”
You'd tried to bargain to stay behind for "research” but Sam had given you a look, telling you that he wasn't buying any of it.
You knew Sam was going to try to push both you and Dean to make the trip to the coroner’s office, for more reasons than one.
Honestly, under any normal circumstances, both Dean and Sam would try pushing the other to take the dead body duty after hearing "liquefied insides".
However, you also knew that this wasn't the only reason Sam was doing this.
Dean, on the other hand, wormed out of it by announcing he was going to head down to the station and heading out the door before Sam could object.
You weren't sure if you were more relieved or disappointed, but you felt Sam's eyes on you. You swallowed your feelings down and cleared your throat. “Come on, let's go."
The coroner's office wasn't far, but Sam still managed to sneak an unbelievable amount of glances at you.
You ignored him, choosing to avoid it altogether. After all, you had decided you were going to keep things as normal as possible so that Sam wouldn't be stuck in the middle.
Lost in your thoughts, you barely noticed that you had almost reached the office. By the time you'd actually snapped out of it, you were already standing at the door, while the coroner sitting behind the desk gave you a curious look.
You glanced up at Sam, who nodded at you.
"Agents Barnes and Tate," You introduced, both you and Sam pulling your badges out at almost the same time.
The coroner stood, nodding politely. "Agents, you here about the three bodies?"
Sam nodded, as the coroner handed the reports over to the both of you.
"The sheriff called ahead, said you might need to see these."
Both you and Sam quickly leafed through the reports and asked to see the body of the latest victim, liquefied insides and all.
“Next disgusting body is yours." Sam shot at Dean the moment you both returned to the motel.
Dean couldn't suppress the smile that crept onto his face.
You smiled as well, almost feeling like things were back to normal until you locked eyes with Dean and felt your heart give a jolt.
The smile froze on Dean's face and he cleared his throat, turning away.
Sam rolled his eyes but you didn't say anything, merely grabbing your laptop and settling into a corner of the room to start your research and continue pretending that nothing had happened between you and Dean.
You weren't sure how long you'd sat huddled in that corner, narrowing down possible monsters that could turn someone's insides into that gross mush that you and Sam had seen earlier. Your concentration was only broken by Dean’s phone ringing.
You glanced up, watching Dean's expression switch to slight confusion before he ended the call with, "We'll be right there."
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Another one?"
Dean shook his head," The sheriff said there's evidence we should take a look at.”
Sam nodded grabbing his jacket before glancing at you.
You nodded at both of them. "I'll be here.”
Dean nodded. “We'll call if we get anything useful."
You waved casually as they both left, your eyes traveling back to your laptop screen, just grateful that the case seemed to have turned both yours and Dean’s focus elsewhere, at least for the time being.
Dean and Sam rolled up to the Sheriff’s office, heading straight in.
“Agents, that was quick.”
Dean nodded. “You mentioned footage of the latest murder?”
The sheriff shook his head. “Not exactly.”
Sam frowned in confusion.
“We’ve got some footage from the area where the last victim was last seen. We barely managed to salvage a small part of it before the camera seems to blur out.”
That was never a good sign.
Dean and Sam leaned in as the sheriff turned his computer screen toward them before playing the video.
The footage showed the man turning a corner, seeming to pass someone else on the street. It was a split second from the footage that anyone else would have missed. Anyone except a hunter looking out for it. Dean didn’t miss the flash of blue eyes, and by the look Sam had given him, Sam hadn’t either.
A djinn.
Sam stayed to get a copy from the sheriff as Dean hurried out of the building, his phone already pressed to his ear.
As the ringing in his ear died out, Sam caught up with Dean.
“What did she say?”
Dean shook his head. “Come on, let’s get back. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Dean practically floored it all the way back to the motel.
The door to the motel was as they left it but as Sam creaked the door open, he noticed the table lying on its side.
“Dean.” Sam said in a low voice as they both instinctively drew their guns.
The room was empty.
Your phone was lying in the middle of the floor, the laptop strewn haphazardly in the corner like you’d gotten up in a hurry.
“She wouldn’t leave her phone unless…”
Dean didn’t need to finish his sentence.
“We’ll find her,” Sam reassured his brother, quickly bending down to pick up the laptop from the floor, his fingers already flying across the keyboard as he started typing.
THANK YOU FOR READING!! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS!!
