𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐀𝐍

𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑

Diamonds mocked Dean Winchester wherever he went.

Haunted diamonds, new diamonds, layaway diamonds, diamonds in his dreams, big ones, little ones, diamonds named after fruit.

Diamonds.

He tried hard not to think about the one Charlie Taylor put on Katherine's finger. She's not wearing it now, and he wants to wonder why, but he forces himself not to care. It isn't his business. She isn't his.

She drums her brown manicured fingernails on the table and he stares at the tan line on her left hand. She's had a lot of time in the Florida sun, apparently.

It's November second, and she was on a beach forty-eight hours ago.

In the silence, Dean works out Katherine's soon-to-be new name in his head. Katherine Taylor. He wants to grimace.

"What?"

Maybe he did.

Dean looks up from his coffee cup with raised eyebrows. Katherine's chin rests in her palm, big blue eyes trained right onto his, seeing right through him. It sends a jolt into his stomach.

"It's been kind of quiet the past few months," he says. 

He hasn't called her, he hasn't texted her, he hasn't emailed her. He left it all to Sam, if he wanted to talk to her at all. Of course he did. She was his best friend. So Dean knew all about how radio silent the demons were over the past three and a half months.

Her hair was a brighter blonde then. 

The first thing he's said to her since July 6th was "Hey." What else was there for him to say? He didn't know. She made him nervous.

"Yeah," Katherine sighs, leaning back in her chair with folded arms. He feels the toe of her bootbrush against his ankle as she crosses hers underneath the table. Her gaze focuses on the iron, brows furrowed. "Kind of makes me afraid of what's going on. What they're planning."

It seemed so easy for her. She's talking like they've been in the same motel room for months on end. Like it's business as usual. 

He doesn't want to feel how painful it is.

Katherine Taylor.

"How've you been?" He asks after a few moments of silence. Blue eyes snap up to his.

"Good," she quietly replies. "My legs itch though."

A ghost of a smile tugs at the corner of Dean's mouth. "Bloodthirsty Blonde."

Katherine chuckles, but doesn't say anything else in regards to the past three months. He doesn't know if she's angry at him for not calling. He's angry at himself. And not.

"Sam went after a crossroads demon," Dean blurts. Katherine stills, and her eyes float up to his.

"Yours?" He nods. "How..." She clears her throat and sits up a little. "How do you know?"

"There's a bullet missing from the Colt."

He can see the wheels turning. Thank God. He thought he didn't know her anymore. "Does that mean you're out of your deal?" Her voice is a soft, guarded kind of hopeful. He thinks.

Dean swallows and shakes his head. He watches her eyes dim. "Someone else holds the contract...he couldn't figure out who."

Katherine's lips roll into her mouth. "Has asked two questions and he killed it, didn't he?"

Dean chuckles. "Probably." He sips at his coffee with two shots of vodka. "We got into a big fight about the whole thing."

"Inconceivable." He looks up with furrowed brows. Katherine is smirking behind her coffee cup, blue eyes shining with challenge and humor.