Dean listened to her story, remembering the bits and pieces she had already told him over time.  He stayed silent and still, his fingers running across her back every once in a while, absentmindedly.  It killed him, every second, that he hadn’t been there to pick her up, to save her…

As she finished with the three days she was out, which was also during the time that everyone around him was breaking the news to him, slowly but surely that she was dead, his heart almost seemed to deflate as he looked away from her, staring at the wall on the other side of the room.  Dean still held onto a lot of anger, in regards to the lies, and the hiding.  

But he wasn’t angry at her.  He had never really been angry at her.  He knew, inside his heart that the deception, on her end, had been her way of dealing with the way things were happening, but also a way to possibly let him down easy, while being near him.

Dean finally sighed, pulling her in to a tighter hug, and simply whispering, “I should have been there.  Any other time, I would have been there.  After finding out that you survived, I’ve had trouble looking my dad in the eyes, for a reason. His not understanding what we have, even now, is mind-blowing to me.”

He stopped, and gently kissed her nose, “It doesn’t change the past, but I can’t change what happened.  But maybe it will help the dreams, just a bit if you can tell yourself…that…that you’ll never be alone again, like you were that night.  You’ll never be too far from someone that can help you get away, and save those around you, even if it means taking your place…”

Dean was trying not to be too dark, but he needed her to know that he would have taken the monster that killed her parents, and nearly killed her, single handedly if it had been needed.  He knew that there was a chance he wouldn’t come out alive, but nothing…would ever hurt her like that again, as long as he was with her.

“And we will work out what saved you.  If you’re forced to have these dreams, and I can’t stop them for you…we can use them, maybe.”