Angel in Flannel [d.w.]

//Chapter 21: Blue Light//

Dean Winchester

"You gotta say your goodbyes, Dean." The words sent shocks through the young hunters body, Bobby wanted to take his daughter back home and go bury her ashes in Oregon with the rest of her family.

Dean felt numb as he kneeled beside Tess's mutilated body, maybe it was the alcohol, but he felt as if his heart had been ripped from his body and stabbed with the very tools that killed the two most important people in his life.

He pushed her light hair away from her closed, lifeless eyes that he once had the pleasure of waking up to every morning, now he would never get to see her stunning blue irises in their glory beneath the morning sun. "You know, the first thing you ever said to me was that I had pretty eyes. I think that's when I first fell in love with you. From the start I knew you were the one, the only one. And now-now I'm here, baby. How the hell am I supposed to say goodbye to the love of my life?"

He caresses her pale, lifeless cheek, letting out a sharp breath as another round of sobs shook his chest. "I was supposed to protect you, fight for you, and I let you slip through my fingers. I wanted to grow old with you, Tess, live that life we talked about... a house, kids, marriage... the whole nine. But you're gone," his voice cracked, a sob breaking through his words. "Now I'm here alone, I can't breathe without you here. You broke my heart, Tessie. I'll never get over you, not ever. God let you leave me, the guy who plagued your life, made you miserable, caused you pain, all for His meaningless cause. And He let you die in the mud with a stake through your stomach, you died believing in Him. So, in light of what He took from me, here's something of mine."

He slipped his mother's wedding band off of a necklace, gently placing it on Tess's cold ring finger before placing his fathers wedding ring on his own. Symbolically unifying them as husband and wife. "You've always been a Winchester, Tessie. Since the day you came into our lives."

Bobby stepped into the room, signaling that he was ready to take his daughter, another sob ripping through Deans chest as he kissed her forehead. "I love you, Tess Winchester."

Bobby patted his shoulder in condolences, trying to keep it together himself as he handed Dean the huntresses most prized possession, her hunting journal. The weight of the thick book caused Dean to swallow hard. "She wanted you to have this."

Dean took the leather bound book in his hand, earning more tears due to the gesture. "W-Why not you?" He recalled the last time he read this book. He had found Tess's wild ramblings of the Lord, her mind plagued with what she referred to as 'the ravings of a lunatic'.

"I reckon that was between the two of you." Bobby began to wrap her body up in a sheet, blood staining the light material as he lifted her in his arms. "She loved you more than anything, Dean. She wanted you to know that." He then left with the dead girl in his arms, loading her body into the backseat of his truck before heading home to Sioux Falls to salt and burn his daughter.