[h2]Esme[/h2]
As soon as Esme walked through the door of Bobby’s, and the familiarity of it hit her, she felt safe and could feel herself relaxing. Her eyes instantly fell on Bobby and how he was looking at Duke, like he was a ghost, before he made his way over to them. When Bobby brushed his thumb over her cheek with a fatherly smile, she smiled back warmly. As he moved to Duke and spoke to him, she let go of Duke’s hand, taking a step back, watching as Bobby hugged Duke and looked him over. It wasn't hard to see how much Bobby had missed him and was worried about him. The lack of a smile from Duke as he responded to Bobby, worried her, especially after getting a slight smirk outside moments ago. When Bobby sent Duke to the kitchen, Esme turned her gaze to Bobby, just as he wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled her into him. She quietly whimpered at the action, then wrapped her arm around Bobby, hugging him back. “Yeah, I know. I don’t feel so hot either.” she replied softly with a smile at him calling them idjits. “Missed you too, Bobby.” 

Esme then headed to the kitchen after Bobby had let her go. Once in the kitchen, she grabbed a beer from the table and found a place on a wall near Duke. She then took a long drink of her beer, wincing slightly at the soreness in her throat. Leaning against the wall, she crossed her arms in front of her, waiting for the others to file in. She knew that Bobby wasn’t going to let any of them go to bed without looking them over or without hearing what happened that night. It had definitely been one hell of a night for all of them. Esme had zoned out briefly, staring at her beer, when Dean and Bobby came in last, and Bobby spoke, snapping her out of it. Esme wasn’t looking forward to talking about what happened. She didn’t want to relive it. But when Sam spoke first, she closed her eyes and listened to what he told Bobby. Then Natalia chimed in when Sam couldn’t finish. She winced when Natalia said her name and that she was taken because the demons wanted her back at the asylum and to mess with the others. She remained quiet as Natalia spoke. 

She felt sorry for the woman. She should have never had to go through all that again. She knew she needed to fill in the rest of the story from her perspective when things fell quiet. She didn’t look up from her beer as she sighed and prepared herself to tell the rest of the story. “After we found Nat had been taken, Mika found items that belonged to Nat and a pamphlet for the asylum. There was a note for me to come back on it. We took Duke to the hospital, and I was the only one they would let in with him. He was in such bad shape they took my blood to give him. But a little later, they came and said he…. Died.” Esme paused for a moment, gripping her beer tighter. “I fell apart, and then Cason showed up to take me to the asylum to help get Nat. I fought my way through the demons, lost control of myself, and found the two demons that tortured me in that hellhole for two years. I killed one before Cason came back for me. When he found me, I was….. Not myself. I was feral. I had lost all control over my emotions.”

“I know I scared the hell out of him with the state I was in. I almost attacked him before the second demon showed up, I killed her, and almost attacked Cason again when Dean showed.” Esme sighed heavily. She didn’t want to tell this part of the story. “I was at the point of going nuclear when Dean showed. He tried to talk me down, but it was too late for me to stop it. I tried to get him to leave, but he refused. I went nuclear and took out the asylum. As it crumbled, hellhounds jumped in and shielded us from the rubble. Castiel showed up and pulled us out of the rubble and healed Dean and Nat. Then we found Duke walking down the road, dazed and confused on our way back to the hospital. He didn’t think Dean and I were real.” Esme felt silent, squeezing her beer until her knuckles turned white. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out to collect herself. Suddenly, her legs gave out, and she collapsed hard to the floor with a groan. She knew it was only a matter of time before her legs finally gave out, but she hoped it would have been near a bed or the couch. 

“Tapadh leibh uile!” she breathed, closing her eyes tightly as immense pain washed over her. Opening her eyes, Esme tried to get back on her feet, but couldn’t get her body to cooperate, it felt like a lead weight. It had finally succumbed to the energy drain of her going nuclear. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes as she sat on the floor of the kitchen, shaking from the immense pain that shot through her body from the fall and still hadn’t subsided. Esme dropped her head, trying to breathe through the pain the best she could.