[b]NATALIA[/b]

Nat didn't move the entire time Sam and Anna were gone, doing who knows what. She had no idea Sam stepped outside and broke down or that Anna followed him out before coming back inside to wrap Mika's body. She just stayed beside Dean's sleeping form in Mika's room, so she could at least be there for him if he woke up from a nightmare or something. She didn't want her big stupid brother to wake up alone. Now wasn't the time to be the typical almost twenty four year old, now was the time to grow up and be mature, even though she was worried sick about where everyone else was. She checked her phone a few times in the silence to see if there was an update from Cason about Duke but there was nothing still, and there was no shouting or messages from Anna to have help with Sam. It didn't matter how many times she told herself ‘no news is good news’, the worry for everyone else only grew in the pit of her stomach. “I wish I could help you more Dean…” she sighed, watching over him, feeling the exhaustion starting to hit her. 

As she sat beside Dean, she folded her arms across her chest and began to close her eyes, only to force them open time and time again right up to hearing Cason's voice by the door which made her look up. “You're back!” She quietly exclaimed, suddenly waking up a bit more, not wanting to wake Dean, but quickly got up off the edge of the bed she was on beside Dean, and walked over to him, pausing for him to text Esme, then hugged him tightly. “Is Duke safe?” She asked, pulling her head back just enough to be able to talk with him. It was then she looked him over to see just how much damage he took from Duke's self destructive rampage. “Are you okay? You look like shit” She then asked, finally laying her eyes on his, not letting go of him. She didn't mean to say he looked like shit, but her tired brain wasn't quick enough to stop her filter from just blurting it out. “Sam stepped out but I've not seen or heard him for a while, Anna went to find him. I couldn't bring myself to leave Dean. He's an idiot but I couldn't risk him waking up alone…especially in here…” she explained, unable to stop talking for a moment whilst not knowing Sam and Anna were in the basement. 

[b]SAM[/b]

As Anna walked up to him to try and help him with Mika's body, he forced himself to listen to her words otherwise he knew he would just break all over again and be in the corner being utterly useless. He never imagined her death would hit him so hard, they all knew being a hunter had its risks, but the longer this went on, the harder it seemed to get. He could hear the shakiness in Anna's voice and it was becoming more clear that she was struggling over this situation just as badly, but her determination to remain strong for him was admirable. As she spoke again, he looked at her to truly listen as she hit the nail on the head about what Mika would have probably said to him at that moment. He knew as well as Anna did that Mika would have told him to pick himself up and get what needed to be done, done but that doesn't mean his grief was utterly invalid. He also knew Anna was right and this is what Mika would want, over the years he had heard Mika say plenty of times how she always felt she was living a life she wasn't meant to have, that she was given another life she was thankful for but there was always a part of her that felt wrong for still living when others didn't. He knew of how whoever the young girl was who had died in her place had haunted Mika. “You're right…she had said to me plenty of times she wanted this if she died…” he said to Anna. “I just didn't think it'd come round so soon…” he sighed, keeping his breathing as slow and controlled as he could muster to get through this process. 

Wrapping her body took longer than he thought it would because it felt so different than just preparing any other Hunter's body. It still felt so wrong to him, even though he knew it was the right thing to do. It also felt wrong as they were doing it without Dean, but he also knew Dean probably couldn't muster up the courage to do this himself, even if he wasn't all battered and bruised from Duke's onslaught. He hadn't even noticed a good hour had passed since they first decided to come down stairs to begin this process until he heard Cason's voice call down to the basement, having now returned. Yet he was so emotionally drained, he didn't even have it in him to reply by calling up to him. He heard Cason's faint footsteps move away from the doorway to the basement and he figured he was just going to find Natalia, not checking to see if it was safe for Duke and Esme to come back in. He eventually stepped back two steps when Mika's body was mostly wrapped, only her face being left unwrapped for anyone else to say goodbye. Looking down at her, he couldn't help but think she looked somewhat serene in a way that baffled his mind. “Seeing her like this makes me think she'd think of herself as some fantasy protagonist in one of her books or something…” he commented, remembering how when they were kids she was such a big reader of fantasy romance novels and classic literature. He could almost hear her voice in his head quoting some kind of literature that would match the situation at hand. He didn't know what that quote would be, but he was certain if she was still alive, she would have quoted something. 

[I]“Tomorrow will be better. It might be only a foot more than today, but it will be a foot longer that you can run.”[/I]