In between - The Bucky / Dean Story

Chapter TWENTY

It was a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon. Maddy was taking a walk in the park. Two whole weeks had now passed after the day in the demon dungeon. Maddy hadn't heard from them since then, neither from Sam, Castiel, nor Dean. Her text message to Dean has remained unanswered to this day. She didn't want to press Dean and give him time, but she was also afraid that she would never hear from him again after everything. There was a small pond in the park, when she got to it, she sat on the bench and looked out over the water.
For a while, she just sat there and let her mind wander. When a voice rang out behind her, she spun around, startled.
"Hello, Maddy."
"Cass! Man, you scared me. One day I'll have a heart attack because of you." She theatrically touched her chest but then grinned at the angel: "Sit down. What's up?"
Castiel took a seat next to her: "I wanted to see how you are, Maddy?"
"I'm fine."
He looked at her suspiciously: "Really?"
"Yes, really. Except that I miss Dean and hope that everything is okay with him, I'm fine. He didn't reply to my message. Is everything okay?"
"Well," began the angel, "there was this incident."
Panic rose in her: "Incident? What now? Don't say he's a demon again?"
Cass shook his head: "No, not that. But the Mark of Kain continued to torment him very much, and he almost went crazy again," he put the last word with his fingers in quotation marks.
"Cass, just tell me what's going on," Maddy pleaded.
"It's a long and complicated story. He'll probably want to tell you himself. But let me tell you this much, the mark is gone, he's the same again."
He smiled at her when she looked at him in disbelief: "Really?"
Cass nodded, and Maddy started to smile: "Oh, Cass. I'm so happy."
Then her face became a little sad: "Cass, do you mean I can call him? Will he want to talk to me or want to see me?"
"I'm sure of that," he assured her, and added: "Just go to him in the bunker. He's been sitting there for two days and doesn't dare to call you."
"But I wrote him a message and waited for his answer. Of course, he could have called me."
Castiel shrugged his shoulders: "Just go there."
"I'll do it."
They said goodbye to each other, and the angel disappeared.
Smiling, Maddy got up and made his way home. Before she drove to the bunker, she freshened up a little and then went to the nearest supermarket, got a six-pack of beer, and stopped at the pizza shop. She got a great family pizza for all three.
She was so nervous when she got to the bunker. "Hopefully, this goes well," she thought. Then she gave herself a jerk, got out of the car, and went inside. At the foot of the stairs, she looked down at the large entrance hall, but no one was in sight. "Hello, guys? It's me. Is anyone there?" she called.
Suddenly she saw Sam coming around the corner downstairs: "Maddy," he shouted happily, "Come down. It's nice that you are here."
Maddy went down the stairs, put her souvenirs on the table, and greeted Sam with a hug.
"Hey, Sam. I hope you're hungry. I brought something to eat."
Sam's eyes shone: "That's nice. Dean is in his room. I'll go get him quickly."
Maddy nodded, went into the kitchen, and got a plate for each. Then she sat at the table and waited for the brothers. Sam was the first to come back: "Dean is coming immediately."
Maddy nodded and distributed a slice of pizza on each of the plates. She turned around, and there he stood, watching her, "Hey," he greeted her.
"Hey," she replied with a shy smile.
Sam cleared his throat: "Um guys, the pizza is getting cold, and I'm hungry."
They had to laugh. Dean came up to Maddy, hugged her, and sat across from her.
"So," Maddy began with her mouth full, "Cass told me the mark is gone?"
Dean nodded, pulled up his sleeve, and showed her his arm: "Yep, it's finally gone."
"How did you do that?" She wanted to know, and while they ate the pizza and drank the beer, the brothers told her everything that had happened in the past two weeks.
It hadn't been that easy to remove the mark. But with Rowena, Crowley's mother, they finally succeeded. When they were finished with the story, Maddy thought about what she had just heard.
Then she said, "I'm glad you're back, Dean."
Dean nodded: "Me too."
They sat together all evening, eating pizza, drinking beer, and talking. It was already late when Sam got up and stretched: "Well, I'll go to sleep then. Maddy, thanks for the meal. Good night you two."
"Good night Sam," both said in unison.
Maddy got up too: "It's getting late, I should go too."
"You drank beer, Maddy," put Dean in.
"Yes, but only a small bottle. That's okay. I have to get up to work early tomorrow, you know?"
Dean nodded, looked at her, and asked: "Would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow? At Kim's? Like before?"
Maddy smiled at him: "Yes, I would love to."
"Great. I'll come to you, and then we'll go over together. Shall we say eight?"
"Perfect, I'm looking forward to it."
"Me too."
They hugged goodbye, and Maddy drove home.