Hayden & Dean (The Sequel) - A Tethered Love

Chapter 7: Another way

"How is married life, Hayden?" Pastor Gideon asks me when I meet him outside of his church. Only this time, it's not covered by weeds and overgrown bushes. The yard work was completed and the windows were replaced.

I look at the church in shock "it's great" I return with my mouth open in awe.

The Pastor notices my shock "I've decided to re-open the church this summer. It's still got a few things to touch up, but looks good, don't it?" He beams proudly.

"Sure does. How you get it all done so quickly? I mean, the inside was already in good shape but out here.. it's like a new plot of land." I exclaim admiring the flowers and scenery set up.

He shrugs "there's a lot of people in town wanting this place running again. Come in." He says happily. I follow him in, unsure of where his kind attitude was weeks ago when we first arrived. Whatever it is, I'm pleased he's so happy. Maybe he can give some more advice about Dean and help us further along in our journey.

"well, I'm glad things are working out for you." I say as I follow him inside of the church. We head back into the basement and everything is the same there. He sits at the desk and I sit across like before. "So, Dean and I have been happily married a little over a month now.." I trail off, not really sure where I was going with what I was saying "and Paul is turning 6 months soon... Do you think Dean could accomplish this thing before his first birthday?" I finally spit out the question I've been wanting to ask.

He rubs his hand across his chin while thinking. His silence ties my stomach in knots as my leg starts to bounce "you know, I've been doing some more research since you guys have left.." He finally says sitting back into his chair now. I lean forward, waiting for him to continue "I'm not sure how long it could take a man like Dean to acquire an innocent mind. He's been around some dark things.."

My heart plummets and my world turns cold. He can not be telling this to me, not now, not after everything we've done. "But.." I go to say but he stops by holding up one finger.

"although that can be done, I think I found another way to possibly remove the mark.." his fingers points down and smashes onto a piece of paper on his desk. I don't take it as a sign of anything, although I guess I should have as his finger starts to tap at the paper impatiently cuing me to look at it.

"what is it?" I sit up even further, basically on top of the desk now, to get a better look at whatever it is he is talking about. His finger lifts up and it's a security photo of a woman. She's an older woman who's petite with wavy hair. Her smile is devilish as she looks into the gritty camera. "or who is it?" I correct myself.

"I'm not exactly sure, but she was able to get her hands on a book that's been locked away for eons.. She's some kind of dark force, I'm just not sure what kind exactly." He returns looking at the photo intently.

"How long have you had this information?!" My voices raises a little with anger. If he's known for awhile he could have told us sooner. We could be out looking for this woman, or thing, or whatever she is instead of trying to accomplish something that may never be able to happen.

"Only a few days.." He responds.

I take a deep breath "a few days?!" I yell out louder this time.

"I wanted to come to you with a bit more information about the woman.. we don't have much from just a photo." He explains.

"Ya, well we have our own ways of getting information.. we've got some pull in places." I quip back thinking about Castiel and Crowley.

He puts his hands up defeated "alright, I'm sorry. I was going to call in another day or two, I just wanted to exhaust all options, but then you showed up and well.." he pauses, "here we are.."

"right" I say annoyed, "well what other options do you have to exhaust? I'll help you with that and if we can't find anything further I'll leave and we'll do our own research." I decide quickly. I pull out my phone to call Dean.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Pastor Gideon says while I scroll to my recent call list to dial him. I look at him dumbfounded. Of course it is, he is my husband and this could work. "Dean has come a long way with his faith. If this woman is of no help, you would have just wasted more time he could have been continuing to grow."

"But you just said she could help?" I spit back confused.

"What if she chooses not too? I don't know what's in that book exactly, I just know it's old. Before man-kind old." He says.

The phone sits in my lap now, the screen lighting up at me waiting to push his name to send a dial. I don't want to lie to him, we're married now and I want to be with him through this journey. I want to do it the right way. I let the phone go dark and think. I don't know what I want to do with all of this information now. All I keep thinking is that I wish Dean was here with me, he'd know what would be best for him. However, my mind clicks when I think that my train of thought switches. I can't just think about what is best for Dean, but what is best for our family. I've gotten on Dean so many times in the past about that exact thing. I stay frozen in the chair and weigh all of the options I have. A while passes before I think I've decided what I want to do. "Okay. I'm going to call Sam and tell him anything and everything you know about this woman and this book.. I'll stick around until my flight leaves tomorrow and work on those last bits of information you wanted to dig up before calling us.." I explain to him the new plan. "That will buy Sam some time to research her and by the time I get home we can tell Dean together and go with whatever plan we think is better.. This way, I'm not lying to Dean, I'm just holding off on telling him." I finally shrug, second guessing my plan. I know it's not the best thing for us to keep things hidden, but this time it's for the better. Besides, it's only another day, what could possibly go wrong?