#Two Minutes To Midnight | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

spnhunter4life · 2 years ago

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Two Minutes to Midnight

Summary: Y/n is out for a fun day with Sam when things take a turn for the worse. Desperate for help, they turn to Castiel for answers. But how helpful will the unreliable angel be?

Word Count: 5.5k

A/N: My first time writing Cas! As you can tell, I went with the seasons 4 and 5 socially awkward, only moderately helpful Castiel. That's my favorite version of him. I've had this idea floating around for quite a while and I finally got around to writing it. This isn't my favorite thing I've written by any means, but I'm happy enough with it and figured since I took the time to write it, I might as well post it. Hope everyone enjoys!

Masterlist

Sam, Dean and I were at Bobby’s, taking a couple days of downtime. Dean had been hard at work giving the Impala some routine maintenance – his version of relaxing – and Bobby was busy doing research for a case, so Sam and I had taken one of Bobby’s functioning old junk cars into town to go see a movie, something we rarely got the chance to do. Dean had originally been planning to come with us, but opted out when he realized we were set on watching a documentary.

Our movie finished just after six so we were on our way to grab some food for everybody when it started. I gasped out loud at the sudden painful ache in my chest. I wished I could take back my reaction after the initial shock of it wore off. It wasn’t so bad. It could definitely be ignored. Sam had already been alerted that something wasn’t right though and asked about it.

I brushed it off, telling him everything was fine. We walked to a diner and put in an order of food to go and then settled into stools at the bar to wait. But by the time our food was ready twenty minutes later, it was getting a lot harder to ignore. Sam noticed and seemed concerned, but I waved him off again.

The drive back to Bobby’s finally pushed things over the edge into problematic territory.

“Sam. Something’s wrong,” I said through gritted teeth when we were still about ten minutes away.

“What’s going on?” He asked, looking at me in alarm.

“I don’t know. My chest hurts. It’s getting a little hard to breathe.”

“Why did you keep telling me nothing was wrong?” He hissed out in frustration.

“Wasn’t that bad,” I told him. “Thought it would go away. But it’s getting worse.”

He looked over at me, eyes full of worry, and then pushed the old car to go faster.

~~~~~

The door rebounded against the wall with a bang as Sam carelessly threw it open. My arm around his neck and his arm wrapped tightly around my waist was the only reason I was still standing.

“What the hell happened?!” Bobby demanded, jumping to his feet and rushing over to help. He put his own arm around me and together they helped me over to the couch. I immediately rolled onto my side, curling into myself in a futile attempt to stop the pain that had spread throughout my whole body.

“I don’t know!” Sam answered, sounding a little panicked. “She was fine and then she was just in pain all of a sudden! I asked her about it and she said she was fine. But it’s obviously getting worse.”

“Alright, settle down now. We need to stay calm. We won’t solve anything if we’re not thinking straight,” Bobby said. “Now think. Did you guys see anything strange? Did you come across anyone who seemed a little suspicious? Was there anything that caught your attention?”

“No, there wasn’t anything. We didn’t even talk to anyone except the waiter at the diner,” Sam said.

“Y/N? Can you think of anything Sam’s forgetting?”

I searched my memory as best I could, but it was really hard to concentrate. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever been in this much pain.

“I don’t know,” was all I could manage to say.

“Ok. Well we’ll just-”

“Wait!” Sam interjected. “There was that guy. You bumped into him on the sidewalk. I mean we didn’t think anything of it, but what if…” He came over and started carefully patting me down, checking my pockets and apologizing as he did it.

“Damn it. No hex bag,” he said. “It had to be him though. I mean, who else could it be? I’m gonna get Dean. We should go track him down.”

“Now hold on a minute,” Bobby warned. “Could be this has got nothing to do with anybody. She might just be sick.”

“Bobby, what sort of sickness affects a person this way?” Sam scoffed.

“I ain’t a doctor, and last I checked, neither are you! Now go get your brother. Maybe we can get Cas to come take a look at her.”

Sam hesitated for a moment but then relented and walked out the still open door to bring Dean in.

“Alright, just breathe now,” Bobby said to me in a calm voice. My breaths were coming out in gasps, each inhale making the pain in my chest worse. It felt like someone was trying to twist a knife straight into my heart. He brushed the loose hair away from my face and then placed the back of his hand against my forehead. His brow wrinkled in concern.

“You feel a bit warm,” he told me. “I’m going to grab you a cool rag.”

He went to the kitchen and I closed my eyes, trying to focus on anything else. I opened my eyes a moment later, alerted by a breeze, to see Dean’s quirky angel friend standing over me with his head cocked, looking at me in that strange way he did. He walked over and placed his hand on my head.

Sam and Dean came barreling through the door a second later.

“Y/N!” Dean called out as he ran towards me, stopping an arm’s length away. “What’s wrong with her Cas?”

I gasped out in relief, the pain receding back from my limbs until it only remained in my chest. I saw Bobby come back in the room, a washcloth in his hands.

“How’d you know?” I asked Cas. He had his eyes closed in concentration.

“I heard Dean’s prayer.”

Sam must have seemed worried enough that Dean didn’t even wait to reach me before asking the angel for help.

“What’s wrong with her?” Dean demanded, anxiously watching Cas work.

“I’m ok, Dean,” I told him.

“No you’re not! Sam said he had to practically carry you in here!”

“Really. I’m feeling better. Whatever Cas is doing is helping.” Cas whipped his head towards me at that statement.

“I’m not doing anything,” he contradicted me.

“What? Then why am I feeling better all of a sudden?” I asked.

“You feel completely better?” Bobby asked.

Cas removed his hand and took a step back. He looked at me expectantly.

“Not completely. My chest still hurts, but everything else feels better and it’s a little easier to breathe. It got better when Cas touched me. You really weren’t doing anything?”

“I was simply assessing your condition. I did nothing to relieve your pain,” he informed me.

“Well then what’s wrong with her? And why’s it suddenly getting better?” Bobby asked.

That’s what I wanted to know. I wasn’t exactly prone to sporadic outbursts of extreme pain. Clearly there was something wrong with me, whether it was supernatural or medical, I had no clue. I needed an explanation though, because even though the pain was better, it was still intense and I wasn’t having the easiest time focusing on the conversation.

“Where does it hurt?” Cas ordered more than asked.

“Right now?” He nodded. “Just my chest. Before you got here it was everything.”

“But where on your chest? I need you to be precise.”

“Right here,” I answered, pointing to right above my heart, the place the pain was radiating out from.

“That’s where the pain originated? And then it started to spread and get worse?”

At my confirmation he looked at every person in the room, lingering on me the longest.

“I have a theory.”

Everyone waited for him to elaborate further, but he just continued to stare at me curiously, the way he often looked at people. Like he was seeing something for the first time that he’d only ever heard about before.

“Which is?” Dean snapped, his patience wearing thin.

“Perhaps we should discuss this matter in private,” Cas suggested.

“Private? Everyone is going to find out eventually. And I don’t want to leave her right now. Just tell us,” Dean ordered.

“I wasn’t suggesting you leave her,” Cas answered. “I was speaking to Sam.”

“So I don’t get to know what’s going on? And what about Y/N? She’s the one suffering right now. You’re not even going to explain why or how to help her?” Dean snapped.

Cas didn’t even answer. He just walked out of the living room and into the kitchen, telling Sam to come with him. Sam looked a little torn. After a second’s hesitation, he gave an apologetic smile and followed after the angel.

“Don’t worry. Sam’ll tell us everything we need to know,” Bobby said.

“I don’t like how evasive Cas is being,” Dean sighed. He ran a hand through his hair and came to sit on the coffee table. “Are you still feeling better?” Dean asked.

“Yeah. Thanks for calling Cas.”

Dean snorted.

“Not that he’s being any help. You’re clearly in a lot of pain,” he worried. “How bad was it before if this is better?”

“Doesn’t matter,” I told him.

“Bobby,” Sam called from the kitchen. We all looked over to see him motioning the older hunter over. Bobby sighed.

“Here,” he said, handing the washcloth he’d grabbed earlier to Dean. “Try and cool her down a bit. She felt awful hot when I touched her.”

I thanked Bobby as he left the room. A cool rag did sound kind of nice, although I wasn’t sure how much it would really help.

Dean grabbed my hand in a comforting gesture and then pressed the back of his hand to my forehead to confirm Bobby’s statement. And just like that, the pain was gone. I let out a relieved sigh. It wasn’t immediate. It was slow enough that I could feel it as it lessened and then disappeared, but quick enough that the whole thing happened in a matter of seconds. Dean had a much different reaction. He hissed and quickly replaced his hand with the washcloth.

“This is really not good,” he muttered.

I couldn’t decide if I agreed with him or not. On the one hand, the absence of pain after going so long with it being so intense was indescribable, and I was so grateful it was gone. On the other, it must have something to do with Dean. The pain went away the second he touched me. Why? How was that possible and what did it mean?

I looked up into the kitchen where Bobby stood with his arms crossed and Sam was wearing a big frown. I could hear enough of their tone to know they were having an argument. I couldn’t hear what they were saying though.

In the end, guilt won out. I couldn’t just sit here letting Dean worry about me because I was too scared to admit what just happened.

“That helps. A lot,” I told him.

“Not enough. You’re burning up. I mean, you’re dangerously hot. Cas!” He yelled, fed up with waiting. “We need solutions here.”

“No, Dean. I mean it doesn’t even hurt anymore,” I told him, sitting up.

Three pairs of feet shuffled in from the kitchen and three sets of eyes looked between me and Dean. Sam and Bobby looked frustrated, but resigned.

“What’s going on?” Bobby asked. But by his tone of voice, I thought it seemed like he already knew the answer.

“I don’t know. I feel better,” I told him.

“How can you just feel better all of a sudden? Especially when you’re this hot? We need better than a wet rag Bobby, we need ice,” Dean said. “I mean, she’s-” he cut himself off when he removed the rag and felt my forehead again. “I don’t get it. Ten seconds ago you were practically on fire.”

“I don’t get it either,” I said, conveniently failing to mention Dean’s apparent role in my recovery. Not out of embarrassment or anything like that, but because I couldn’t come up with a way to say it that wouldn’t make me sound crazy.

Dean let go of my hand and dropped his head. He ran both hands through his hair, took a deep breath, and then stood up. He marched right over to Cas.

“What’s going on here? What was your theory that for some reason we couldn’t hear, and why is she better all of a sudden?”

“Dean. It doesn’t matter. Just let it go,” I begged. But as I said it, I thought I noticed the pain coming back. It was faint, but it was definitely there. I whimpered a little, not wanting to go through that again.

“No, it does matter!” He insisted at the same time Cas said, “She’s not better.”

Dean took a second to process.

“What did you just say?” Dean asked.

“I said she’s not better. And I can’t tell you what’s going on.”

“Dean,” I winced. The pain was quickly returning, almost back to the level it had been at before Cas got here.

“No. Look, I’m sorry that no one else seems to care what’s going on here, but I do!”

“Dean,” Sam said firmly. When Dean turned an angry glare at him, he nodded towards the couch. Towards me. Dean turned and saw me curled up on my side again.

“What is even the point of having an angel around if you’re always going to be so useless? I’m begging for your help here, man. Do you not see how much pain she’s in?” Dean pleaded.

“Of course I see it.”

“Then why aren’t you doing anything about it?!” Dean shouted.

Cas was quiet for a minute, looking almost regretful.

“I’m sorry, Dean. Truly, I am. But I can’t help. Any intervention on my part will only make things worse. You have to figure it out for yourself.”

I watched through teary eyes as Dean clenched his fists a few times. Knowing him, he was debating whether or not to punch Cas.

“Dean,” I called for him again.

He let out an angry breath and then came to sit beside me.

“It’s ok. I’m right here. We’ll figure it out,” he told me. He lifted my head and placed it in his lap, running a hand soothingly through my hair. I let out a deep breath.

“Why does Dean make it better?” I asked. I no longer cared if it sounded insane. This was the second time his touch erased the pain. It couldn’t be a coincidence. And if he was the only way I could get any relief, I wasn’t going to hide the fact from him.

“What do you mean?” Dean asked.

“When you touch me, the pain goes away,” I told him. And then turning to Cas I again asked why.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I need to go. But I can tell you this much. You have a six hour window from the start of symptoms. Based on what Sam has told me, you only have about four more hours before this becomes fatal. I’ll be back to check on you.” And then he was gone.

“Cas, you’re the most useless son of a bitch I ever met,” Dean fumed.

“Fatal?” I questioned, trying to be sure I heard him right. I sat up and took Dean’s hand in order to keep physical contact.

“I’m afraid so,” Bobby said sympathetically. “I wish we could help. Believe me, I do. But Cas pretty well tied our hands.”

“Then untie them,” Dean ordered.

“We can’t. He made it pretty clear that you two have to figure it out on your own. If we help then it doesn’t count and we can’t save Y/N,” Sam said apologetically.

“It’s ok,” I said to a panicky Dean. “It’s not the first time we’ve been in circumstances like this. We’ll figure it out.”

“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that to you?” He asked.

I just smiled.

“I honestly think this hurts you more than it hurts me.” And I didn’t doubt the truth of those words. Dean cared and felt things more deeply than anyone I’d ever known. When someone he cared about was in pain, so was he.

“Let’s just get you better,” he said.

~~~~~

We spent the next three hours scouring every lore book we could get our hands on. Bobby had an impressive collection, but it wasn’t proving useful. A couple of times Sam would watch us for a few minutes looking like he wanted to say something. Bobby always hushed him before he could though, and after about an hour, the two of them decided to leave. Bobby said since they couldn’t help us anyway, they might as well give us some space and remove the temptation to just give us the answer.

Dean and I had been very careful to stay together. He never left my side for more than a minute, and only when we needed more books to look through. We’d held hands for a while, but when both of our palms started to get sweaty, we experimented a little with how much contact was necessary. We discovered that sitting pressed up against each other, thigh to thigh and shoulder to shoulder, worked fine.

Impending death unless we could figure out a cure aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this time with Dean. Working together and being so close was nice. And if the minor crush I had on him caused my brain to go a little overboard with the release of dopamine, who was it hurting?

But when the three hour mark hit, the pain started to make a reappearance, despite Dean and me currently touching. I shifted uncomfortably which of course Dean immediately noticed.

“Are you ok?” He asked.

“Yeah,” I assured him. “Just… it’s starting to hurt again.”

He grabbed my hand.

“Is that any better?”

I waited a few seconds, but it wasn’t getting any better. I reluctantly told him so. Dean bit his lip as he glanced at the clock. It was 11. One hour left.

“We’re running out of time. Maybe that’s why. We just need to hurry up. Can you still help?”

“Yeah,” I told him. “It’s not that bad.”

“Ok. I’m gonna get some more books,” he warned me. I nodded in understanding and he hurried over to Bobby’s bookshelf. He was less selective than he had been in previous trips, just grabbing up an armful of the first books he found. By the time he got back to the couch I was gritting my teeth, trying to hold back a pained noise.

“Ok, here we go. Keep looking,” he instructed me as he sat beside me and grabbed my hand. It helped, but the pain didn’t fade entirely the way it had before. I did my best to ignore it, focusing on the book in front of me.

The pain got steadily worse. Dean took his jacket and flannel off, pressing our bare arms together in the hopes that more skin on skin contact would help. It didn’t. I really tried to help, but within ten minutes I was no longer processing the words I was reading, my mind too distracted. After half an hour I was back to the excruciating level of pain I’d been at when Sam dragged me through Bobby’s door. I was laying down again, my feet in Dean’s lap. Dean was in a panic.

“That’s it. I’m calling Bobby,” he said decidedly, standing up and fishing in his pocket.

“No. Don’t. He can’t help. And you’ll only worry them,” I managed to grit out.

“Well there’s certainly reason to worry!” Dean yelled. “Y/N, I don’t know what else to do! I can’t just sit here and watch you die!”

“Come here.”

“What’s the point? It’s not helping anyway. I just- I’ve gotta do something. I’ve gotta-”

“Please,” I said. He let out a frustrated growl, but relented. He knelt on the floor by my head and ran a hand through my hair.

“Cas, if you don’t do something to help real soon, I’ll never forgive you,” Dean threatened. “Come on you son of a bitch. After everything we’ve been through, this is really how you want things to end?”

We waited, but Cas didn’t come.

“Dean,” I said.

“Don’t worry,” he told me, fresh determination in his eyes. But also fear and doubt. “I’m going to fix this. I don’t know how. But I will,” he promised.

“Dean, just listen to me,” I said. “There’s something I want to say to you.” I was interrupted by a particularly bad wave of pain washing through my body. I tried to be quiet, but a whimper worked its way past my lips. Dean squeezed my hand through it, the only comfort he could offer. “I know this is… really crappy timing,” I told him through my sobs. “But I need you to know.”

“Y/N. Don’t,” he said. I wasn’t sure if he could tell what I was about to say or was just protesting what he clearly knew I considered to be my deathbed confession.

“I love you,” I said anyway. “And I’m sorry to put that on you. But I needed you to know.”

Dean was crying now too, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

“And that’s exactly why I have to save you,” he said. “Because I love you too.”

His lips closed over mine. He kissed me gently, as if afraid of hurting me. The pain intensified and I groaned. Dean immediately stood up and grabbed his phone out of his pocket. Then it started to fade away. I imagined I could feel five different lines of pain – each branching out in a different direction – start to disappear. Starting at the ends of my limbs, it worked its way inwards towards my heart. And then it was gone.

“Dean, wait,” I said. He ignored me and continued pacing as he dialed. I sat up first, and then I stood. Dean stopped moving, looking at me in surprise.

“It’s better,” I told him. “Ok? See? I’m up. And you’re not even touching me and I’m ok.”

“You’re ok,” he repeated, a little dumbfounded. He dropped his phone and rushed to me, wrapping me up in a hug so tight I worried I was about to lose my newly regained ability to breathe. “Don’t you ever do that to me again,” he breathed out, pressing a relieved kiss to my temple.

We spent a few minutes just holding each other before Dean, somewhat reluctantly, let go of me.

“We should call Sam and Bobby. Let them know you’re alright,” he said, picking his phone up off the floor.

“Yeah. We should,” I agreed. “I guess they’re probably pretty worried.”

Dean finished dialing the number he’d started to punch in earlier and I listened to the very short conversation that followed.

“Sam. Yeah, she’s better. You guys can come back now.”

He hung up the phone, hung his head, and took a deep breath, releasing the rest of the stress from his body. Then he turned to look at me. He smiled wryly before walking over and pulling me into another hug. I pressed my cheek against his chest, and he buried his face in my hair. I felt his chest rumbling when he spoke.

“You owe me. I haven’t decided what yet, but you owe me big. You just put me through enough stress to knock at least five years off my life.”

I just smiled, able to laugh about it now that it was over.

“I know,” I told him.

“I don’t think you do. I don’t think you can even begin to understand how scared I was,” he said.

“Yes I can,” I disagreed. I pulled away from him slightly and turned my face up to look at him. “I can imagine exactly how scared I would have been if the situation was reversed.”

He let out a deep sigh and pressed our foreheads together before tilting his chin down to connect our lips in another kiss. Now that the pain was gone, I was able to appreciate the softness of his lips. I wanted more, and I tried to deepen the kiss a little, but he pulled away. Before I could ask why, I got my answer in the form of the sound of the door opening.

“Never again,” Dean repeated in a playful, but very serious, tone. Then he took a step back just as Sam and Bobby walked in the room. “You two sure got here fast,” he remarked.

“We only went a mile down the road,” Bobby said. “We wanted to be able to get here quickly if we needed to.”

“Why? I thought you couldn’t help anyway,” he countered, standing with his arms crossed now.

“Dean,” I warned.

“No, I wanna know what exactly was so dangerous about them telling us what to do. Which, by the way, I still don’t understand what made you miraculously better all of a sudden.”

“It’s called an amare,” said a deep voice behind us. We both whirled around to see Cas standing there.

“And where exactly have you been?” Dean growled out. “I asked you for help Cas, and you abandoned us.”

“I was tracking it down. It’s been safely delivered up to the custody of Heaven,” he answered.

Dean clenched his jaw.

“Ok. So now that everything is over, explain. What is it? Why couldn’t anyone tell us anything?”

“Amares are… for lack of a better explanation, rogue cupids. They wander around looking for people who are in love but hiding the fact from the person they are in love with. When they find such a person, they infect them with a toxin. All it takes is one touch to infect their target.”

“That guy you bumped into on the sidewalk,” Sam said.

“Yes,” Cas confirmed “Whether the couple is a pair Heaven wants together or not, they don’t care. And as you’re aware, they don’t give you an easy moment of falling in love as cupids should. It’s extremely painful and oftentimes fatal since the victims rarely even get a chance to make it better. Their solution is always to go to the hospital which of course is useless.”

“What makes it better?” Dean asked again.

“Seeing as Y/N is fully recovered, I would assume you know the answer to that.”

“Well I don’t. One minute I thought she was about to die and the next she was fine. Explain that,” he demanded.

I shifted on my feet a little, curious about the answer myself.

“Y/N knows,” Cas said, noticing my discomfort. Dean turned to me.

“Y/N?” He asked, sounding a little betrayed.

“Well…” I started unsurely. I had a theory, but I didn’t want to admit it out loud. It was too ridiculous. Even by our standards.

“If you knew how to make it better the whole time, why did you put me through that? Why did you put yourself through that?”

“I didn’t know how to make it better! I just… well it seems kind of obvious. And extremely crazy at the same time,” I said, explaining my hesitation to answer. Dean was looking at me expectantly, waiting on an answer. I sighed. “It’s a direct cause and effect situation. When you touched me, it made the pain go away, right? Even if just temporarily?”

“Yeah…” Dean answered, not seeing where I was going with this.

“So…” I prompted. “What happened right before I started to feel better?”

I watched the wheels turning in his head as he thought back. I saw the moment it clicked for him, and he looked at me doubtfully.

“You really think-”

“I told you it was crazy,” I said a little defensively.

“It’s not crazy,” Cas said. “Why do you think you humans have all those fairytales about true love’s kiss?”

“Wait, so you’re saying-” Sam started, but was interrupted.

“Not literally,” Cas said. “There’s no such thing as true love. There’s just people falling in love. Some are more compatible than others of course. But legends exist for a reason. There’s always truth to them. They’re a warning and a guide.”

“So you’re telling me that Snow White was made up as a warning about the amare?” I asked incredulously. “It’s not exactly a legend, it’s a children’s story.”

“And who should be warned about the dangers of the world if not children?” Cas said.

“Alright, fine. In this scenario Y/N was Snow White and I was… Prince Charming, apparently,” Dean summarized, rolling his eyes a little. “How does kissing her make her better?” His patience was wearing extremely thin, especially with the somewhat ridiculous turn this conversation had taken and how long it was taking to get answers.

“When an amare infects someone, it specifically targets the cure of the toxin to the DNA of the other person. This is why your touch and even your presence was able to help. But it is only your saliva that can break down the toxin completely, which is where the kiss comes in.”

I wrinkled my nose a little at his word choice. It just sounded so clinical and… really not romantic. Not that we had been in what I would consider a romantic situation anyway, but… I don’t know. For some reason talking about saliva made it weird.

“And no one could tell us this because?” Dean asked again.

“Apparently once they infect someone, they stick around to keep a close eye on them,” Sam explained. “They have a certain amount of control over the toxin. If anyone interferes, they’ll change the DNA sequence it’s been coded to so that the person can’t be saved.”

“Why?” I asked. “What’s the point? Just to hurt people?”

“No. Despite their unsanctioned methods, they are still cupids doing what cupids were meant to do. Their goal is to bring people together,” Cas answered.

“And they’ve got a great way of making it happen,” Bobby muttered.

“Ok, answer me this Cas,” Dean said. “If those things stay close to the people they infect and you left to track it, why did it take you so long to find it?”

“It didn’t. I found him very quickly.”

“Then why didn’t you-”

“Because that would be interfering. I had to wait until Y/N was better.”

“Thanks for your help Cas,” I said. I could admit that I had felt a little abandoned before, but now that I had all the answers, I could see he was honestly just trying to help. I knew it would be a while before Dean calmed down enough to see that.

“Of course,” he said. Then he disappeared again.

“He’s not really one for unnecessary conversation, is he?” I commented.

Bobby snorted and Sam grinned, pulling me into a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re ok,” he said. “You had me so worried.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” I told him.

Sam let me go and Bobby affectionately patted me on the shoulder.

“Don’t apologize,” Dean said. “It’s not your fault.”

“Actually, apparently it is. Both of your faults in fact. At least a little bit,” Sam teased.

“Yes. Because I knew that I was going to be targeted by an amare,” I said sarcastically.

“Well, lesson learned,” Sam replied. “When you get tired of this idiot and move on to someone else, be sure to tell the guy how you feel.”

I huffed out a quiet, tired laugh.

“Yes, well. If I get tired of him, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” I said. “It’s been a long day and I’m exhausted, so goodnight everyone,” I said as I headed for the stairs.

I took a quick shower and had just finished changing into shorts and a tank top for bed when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

The door opened and Dean took a step inside, hovering in the doorway.

“Hey, uh… is it alright if I join you?” He asked. I smiled at his obvious nervousness. It was something I saw on him so rarely. “I don’t really want to sleep on the floor. And it would be nice to have one night where I don’t have to listen to Sam’s snoring.”

“Is that the only reason?” I asked. Of course I didn’t mind. We’d shared a bed a few times before.

“It might be. Or maybe I’m also having a hard time letting you out of my sight after everything that happened today,” he admitted. I smiled and patted the bed.

“Come on in then,” I said.

He climbed into bed beside me and only hesitated a second before pulling me into his arms. I wrapped my arm around him and snuggled into his side. We definitely hadn’t done this before. But I liked it. I hadn’t lied when I said I was exhausted, and I felt myself quickly drifting towards sleep.

“Y/N?” Dean whispered, bringing me back to the edge of consciousness.

“Hmm?”

“I love you,” he said. I smiled into his chest.

“I love you too.”