Song Remains the Same

Chapter 108: Exit Strategy

"We are the ever-living ghost of what once was."
- Band of Horses

The angel and the hunter were tangled in an embrace that had been a very long time coming. An embrace they both had probably doubted would ever happen. And they were kissing. Again.

"All right, all right," Dean complained in uncomfortable but good nature, trying not to watch what was, admittedly, sorta touching. "Get a room," he joked awkwardly.

Cas and Alex sheepishly stopped at his comment but didn't pull away very far from each other. Instead they hugged each other tightly again, faces buried in each others shoulders and necks, arms wrapped around each other hard. It was easy to see how overcome they were to be with each other again. To even know the other was still alive.

Dean watched how they held each other like that and it sank in completely. He'd known that in theory that he was done hating them together but seeing them together again made it concrete: He really was done with the impulse to tear them apart. It was so obvious how much they cared about each other and how deep their feelings went, it was clear that this thing between them was not ever going to end. And maybe, in a world so dark and fucked up and loveless and transitory... those two picking each other and holding on like they did... well, it had to count for something at the very least. After all the months in here, after getting to know Cas all over again and being given so much time to think things through... after contemplating himself and his life and his siblings in ways he never had before and regretting the way he had handled so much in the past... Dean was surprised at how he felt... so okay with this. Dean's face showed his inner feelings in a tired, soft little smile. Because when it came down to it, he felt a small spark of happiness for Alex and for them. And that was something he could never fake or force himself to feel.

Alex hadn't noticed or seen him yet, but Benny had drifted down from the ridge a moment after Cas's appearance and was standing near to Dean and watching the embrace with a dubiously amused expression on his face. When Cas and Alex drew apart enough to look at each other and exchange another tearful smile and wipe the others' tears away, the raggedy vampire scoffed. "Well, now I just feel left out," he teased in his soft, heavily-accented drawl. That got Alex's attention and she looked over, immediately becoming hard outwardly where she'd been soft a second prior. Benny smiled slightly, secretively, in a way no one would really like to be smiled at. "Enchanté, little lady," he said, and there was a vaguely sinister quality to the greeting. Cas clouded over.

Alex's face gave away her suspicion and her eyes narrowed deeply, briefly flickering to Dean questioningly and then landing and staying on Benny. "Who's this?"

"Charmed, I'm sure," was his cryptic, baiting reply. His eyes twinkled at her as he apparently enjoyed her mistrust.

"Benny. The, uh, vampire," Dean supplied, and at the shocked look on his sister's face, he shrugged and chalked it up with mild chagrin to what it was: "Desperate times."

Her eyebrows were frozen in place, raised doubtfully as she eyed Benny. "You don't say..."

Dean gave Benny a pointed, warning look. Alex might be petite and less than half of Benny's brawn but Dean knew it firsthand: screwing with her didn't end well. The vampire should get the hint from how armed she was, but he seemed mostly entertained by her so far. Could be a mistake on his part. Dean wasn't the only one giving Benny the evil eye... Cas was joining the oldest Winchester in staring sharply at the vampire.

The angel still held Alex gently by an upper arm and he turned his eyes back to her. His face softened, then his eyebrows worked in towards each other and upwards. "What are you doing here?" She turned her attention back to him and her face softened as he continued to look at her in vast worry. "How are you here at all?"