The End | {BOOK 5}

42| Jack Kills Michael

Dean came out to where I was waiting with a case of beers by the Impala.

"Where's the party?" he asked.

"It's right here," I replied, tossing him a beer. "I mean, we're celebrating, right?"

"Okay," he shrugged, opening the beer.

"Yeah, but not too much," I continued. "Tomorrow morning, we're, uh, back on track. No rest for the self-destructive."

"Well, I will call this a win. Kinda nice. Going out on a high."

"'Going out' being the operative phrase."

He winced, giving me a sympathetic look.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"'Sorry'?" I echoed. "How sorry are you? Sorry to fight to keep Donatello alive, but when it comes to you, you just throw in the towel? Or are you sorry that after all these years, everything we've been through... it- it- it all means nothing now?"

"Who's saying that?"

"You are, when you're telling me and Sam we have to kill you. When you're telling us that we have to throw away everything we stand for, throw away faith, throw away family. We're the ones who save the world. We don't just check out of it!"

I shoved Dean in the chest, sending him back a step.

"Ellie, I have tried everything. Everything! I have one card left to play and I have to play it."

"You have one card today!" I shouted. "But we'll find another tomorrow. But if you quit on us today, there will be no tomorrow! You tell me, uh, you don't know what else to do. I don't either, Dean. Not yet. But I know what you're doing now, i-it's- it's wrong. It's quitting! I mean, l-look what just happened. Donatello never quit fighting. So, we could help him because he never gave up."

I took a step closer to my husband.

"I believe in us, Dean."

He didn't respond, and I got angry, punching him in the face.

"I believe in us," I repeated, going for another punch.

Dean grabbed my fist, stopping me from hitting him.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey!" he yelled.

I pulled him toward me, wrapping my arms around him in a hug.

"Why don't you believe in us, too?" I asked.

"Okay, Ellie," he said, tension leaving his shoulders. "Let's go home."

"What?"

I pulled back, staring at him wide-eyed.

"Let's go home," Dean repeated. "Maybe Billie's wrong. But I do believe in us."

Sam and Cass walked over to join us.

"I believe in all of us. And I'll keep believing until I can't. Until there's absolutely no other way. But when that day comes- if that day comes... Ellie, you have to take it for what it is- the end. And you have to promise me that you'll do then what you can't do now, and that's let me go. And put me in that box."

Dean looked over at Sam and Cass.

"You, too," he told them.

"Yeah, alright," I nodded. "Alright. Alright."

"Now, you heard me. Let's go home."

He put a hand on my cheek, rubbing a stray tear away with his thumb.

"Don't hit me again, okay?"

He climbed behind the wheel of the Impala. Sam got in the back with Cass, allowing me to head around to the passenger seat and climb in. Dean started the car, reaching over and taking one of my hands in his while keeping the other on the wheel.