𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐀𝐍

𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐎𝐍𝐄

"So you told Charlie."

She wasn't surprised Dean didn't speak to her for a few days following whatever happened in Ohio with the trickster—though she still had her questions. She wasn't even surprised he decided to break his silence towards her, because he always squeals at one point or another. The nature of his silence break, though, was surprising....and that he referred to her boyfriend by "Charlie."

"Yes," Katherine said. "And Sophia." Dean's brow shot up. "And they are still speaking to me," she continued, answering his silent question. He could sense the tension in her voice.

"You don't have to leave them, you know," Dean told her. "You can stay. Protect them."

She shook her head. "I'm protecting them by leaving," she murmured. "The closer I am to them, the closer I bring them to any demon or creature that comes after me. I told them what to do to protect themselves. And we have an agreement."

"Agreement?"

Katherine nodded. "Whenever I'm close, I'll swing by for a visit." She smiled a bit.

"And Charlie's okay with that?" Katherine barely shrugged. "He's okay with you road tripping, hunting evil things, with a couple of guys?"

"He trusts me," Katherine said. "And he knows I never belonged in Haley. Not like that, anyway." Dean frowned a little. "What?"

He shook his head. "Nothin'. Just seemed like it was your kinda thing. Apple pie life—"

Katherine couldn't help the incoming eye roll.
"Oh, don't you start—"

"The good job, the house. Hell, you've got a boyfriend and a kid—"

"Julien's not my kid. I told you that."

"Well you could have kids," Dean murmured. "And I've just gone and screwed up whatever chance of a normal life you had—"

"Stop with the kicking yourself in the shin thing, all right?" Katherine snapped. "You don't have so much power over me to decide the way I live my life. From the start, Dean, you knew where I stood. I know where I belong. I thought you understood that."

Dean sighed and then nodded. "Right. Sorry." He taps his fingers against the counter top. "He took it well, then?"

"Yeah," she murmured. "He thought it was kind of badass, actually. I mean, aside from the bullet thing. He even made me soup."

Then he started talking to her more after that. Things started to feel like they had before. It was fun. They laughed and joked, stayed up late and snorted at each other. He teased her still for Charlie's phone calls—especially on Valentine's Day. She ran right out of their case briefing to talk to him, all smiles and pink-cheeked and generally, annoyingly, smitten. In love, probably. She was still wearing that blissful expression when she returned.

The thought made Dean's stomach turn. So to distract himself, he runs through the case again.

"So this lawyer guy," he begins. "First heart-free corpse in town?"

"He's the first man," Sam revises, pulling a chair over near the bed Dean is sat at. He and Katherine are cleaning their pistols, careful to not mix their parts. "The past year, several women have gone missing. Their corpses all washed up in San Francisco's bay area too deteriorated to draw any conclusions."

"But no hearts," Katherine hums, loading her slide into place. She grins widely at the smoothness of it. What with her beretta being completely ruined from her fall into the freezing waters of Lake Superior last month, she had to get a new gun, and she had never been more thankful for Dean.