sun ray, sam winchester

02 | SAVIORS... AGAIN

IT HAD BEEN FOUR months since Sam and Dean Winchester had saved Elenora Starek's life.

Four months that Elenora did not reach out to the brothers once. Four months that Sam awaited a text message or a call that never came.

She wanted to reach out. She really did. But she had no idea how. Making new friends was difficult for her; she always felt very awkward. Instead of facing her fears, she hid away and never pressed the call button, no matter how many times she typed the number into the keypad.

The first week of her daughter, Noelle's, life was spent cooped up in her house. Her entire worldview shifted the moment that her daughter was born. Everything was suddenly scary to her; everything a threat to the defenseless little human, in her eyes. All she could think about was her baby. It was consuming.

Elenora had been diagnosed with depression when she was seventeen-years-old after a series of traumatic events that began when her Aunt Josette died when she was fourteen. Anxiety, however, had been part of the girl's life since she could remember. She got officially diagnosed with it when she was only eleven. Her teenage years were a train wreck, and honestly, she hardly remembered them from how much her brain had blocked out.

After finally getting her life under control and somewhat managing to control her anxiety, she left her toxic boyfriend, Toby, only to find out a day later she was pregnant with his child. Surprisingly, Elenora handled everything well.

Until she had the baby.

Her anxiety had come back in full force, and she only wished she could shut it all off. Her best way of protecting herself was hiding away in her bed, under blankets, her baby right next to her or in her arms. If she didn't leave the house, nothing could possibly hurt them that way.

On the day that her baby turned ten days old, Elenora's own mother, Raffaella, finally had enough of her daughter letting her anxiety control her. She knew how strong her daughter was, she just needed to be reminded.

"Ella, that's enough." Raffaella sternly spoke, walking up to Elenora's bed that Wednesday morning, where she was sitting, her baby curled up on her chest. "I understand what you're feeling, babe, but Noelle is ten days old now, and the doctor said it's okay for her to be outside, as long as she's not around too many people or germs. You can't sit here until she's a year old. As your mother, I'm worried about you, too. Go take a walk on the beach for me, okay? It'll be so good for you, just to get fresh air. You can come right back if you're overwhelmed, I won't even say anything. Neither will Millie."

​​Elenora wanted to protest. Every part of her body told her to hide away with Noelle forever, but when Raffaella brought up being her mother, she softened. The tenseness and readiness to fight evaporated. She seemed to forget that her mom was a mom, too, and her nagging to get her out of bed was only because she knew how her daughter got when she got anxious. She understood now. She sighed, nodded, and stood up. The beach was within walking distance, she could do it.

"I should probably get dressed." The corner of Elenora's lip quirked up a little bit as she looked down at the pajamas she was in.

"I'll take my granddaughter." Raffaella smiled, eagerly reaching her hands out for the baby, who she'd hardly got to hold. She sighed with relief when she was out of her daughter's bedroom, grateful that she was finally able to get her out of bed.

It took Elenora a little bit longer than she'd like to admit to find a decent enough outfit for a walk on the beach, but she'd finally decided on a striped tank-top and white pants.

Luckily for Elenora, the beach was pretty empty. They lived in an extremely small part of Delaware that had a private beach, and she had to admit that it was pretty nice to enjoy a silent summer beach walk with her baby.