[h3] Duke [/h3]

Duke rode back to the house pretty quietly, only letting out the odd sniffle here and there or a groan at certain bumps. When the sign for the junkyard came into view, Duke let out a shaky sigh. On one hand, he was home, and felt as if he could relax. On the other hand, he knew that there was a lot of tension and potential judgement inside those walls. There was even a small possibility that Dean was worse off than expected, which was a whole other issue…even if he had an angel on his shoulder.

As the truck stopped and Cason stepped out, Duke didn’t move. He simply stared forward, completely zoned out and reliving the scenes from earlier in the night. It almost didn’t feel real, any of it. It felt as if he had been outside of his body, through all of the grief and anger. He turned his face, just watching Cason step into the house, half expecting an explosion to throw Cason back out into the gravel. Luckily, Duke was pulled from his intrusive thoughts by Esme turning to him and climbing into his lap. 

Duke took a deep breath, tightening his hold on Esme’s body as she wrapped his arms around herself. Neither of them needed to talk, during these moments. Everything that needed to be said, was said through touch. He felt oddly calm at that moment, even though the whole world was still crumbling into pieces around him. Everyone probably hated him, or at the least were afraid of him after his outburst. But Esme was there with him. She wasn’t afraid of him. His hands, that had done so much damage that night (including causing a broken wrist), Esme trusted. She trusted him not to hurt her, and to keep her safe.

Taking a deep breath, Duke leaned his cheek against the side of Esme’s face, tightening his arm around her to just listen to her breathing for a few moments until her phone buzzed in her pocket. As Esme pulled her phone, Duke leaned his head back a bit to give her room, and he stared through the windshield for a moment, letting her respond to whatever ‘bad’ news Cason was giving. But then, her voice brought him back to her and he contemplated her words. Memories flooded his mind of bathing in buckets, something that he rarely asked her to do with him, due to the cold water from he garage. It was miserable, especially in the winter.

“You never were much for the bucket.” Duke whispered with a bit of a strained voice. He smirked a bit, thinking about the water fights over the years but then shook his head, “We should probably take a shower. It’ll at least get all the grossness off without leavin’ a stain on the concrete.”

Duke scoffed, and surprising himself, he pulled his good hand away from Esme’s body, and reached for the door handle shoving the door open. Scooting to the side with her still across his legs, he turned and dropped to the ground, carefully sliding Esme down his body and onto her feet.

“I just gotta figure out not gettin’ my cast wet…and how to approach the others. I’m sure none of them want to see my face right now.” Duke grumbled, quietly closing the door behind them. He didn’t even want to think about the basement. He didn’t want to think about how Bobby would react if he saw him. He just wanted, for once, to let Esme help him through the worst of the awkwardness…and to survive the night.

[h3] Cason [/h3] 

Cason’s head seared the second that Natalia acknowledged his voice, a feeling that he could only assume was his own relief in seeing her okay and at least in one piece. Or maybe it was relief in seeing the excitement on her face when she stood from the bed and approached him. Cason wrapped his arms around Nat, as she hugged him tightly and began asking questions.

“Duke is alive. He’s in mostly one piece at least.” He answered, and then he followed her eyes down to his own body, noticing the holes in his clothing, and all of the blood that he had honestly forgotten was there. The wounds were mostly all healed, other than a bit of surface damage from Ruby’s knife. “I am also fine. Duke didn’t exactly come back willingly, and it was better me bringing him down than Esme. Not that I think he would have ever hurt her. I didn’t want to take a chance. He was trying to fight a barn full of demons with a knife…”

As Nat began to just spill her guts, Cason was made aware of the fact that she had likely been alone for a while, with her thoughts. It caused his stomach to cramp, that he had left her alone after everything that had gone down and how upset she had been, even if she had wanted him to go after Duke. He could see it in her eyes that she needed to be anything but alone with all of this.

“Alright. Well…take a deep breath. C’mon.” He almost whispered, bringing both his hands up to Nat’s cheeks. Tilting his head forward, Cason pressed his forehead to hers and scanned her eyes, encouraging her to close them and breathe with him. “Take a deep breath. I’m here. I’m right here.”

[h3] Anna [/h3] 

Anna didn’t say much else, letting Sam work through his emotions through his own words, without any input that might walk them backward. To her relief, Sam began working with her to wrap Mika’s body, and seemed to hold it together. As they finished, Anna flinched, hearing Cason enter the house. She thought about calling out to him, just to let him know they were okay, but as she crossed her arms and looked down at Mika’s body, words escaped her. 

Then Sam spoke up, and Anna turned to look at him, flicking a tear away from her cheek with one of her hands as she smiled softly, mostly a reaction to him saying something that wasn’t completely negative or heartbreaking. 

“At least she would be able to see something good come out of all of this. Written into a book and sent off on her own terms…in a way.” Anna sniffled, turning her eyes back to Mika as the truck door quietly closing drew her attention to Duke and Esme returning.

“And it seems like the kids are home. I haven’t heard Duke’s voice yet, but I can’t imagine that Cason would come back with Duke’s truck if Duke and Esme weren’t with him.” Anna grumbled, shrugging her shoulders. The demon blood in Anna’s system was beginning to settle the room a bit, and she could suddenly hear Cason’s heartbeat buzzing as he talked to Nat upstairs. “I’m going to um…I’m going to go check on them.”

Reluctantly, Anna stepped away from the side of the bed and walked up to Sam. She picked up his hand as gently as she could and brought his knuckles to her lips, pressing a tight kiss there, before dropping his hand and jogging out of the room and up the basement stairs. As soon as she hit the night air, Anna took a deep breath and then let it out in pure relief to see Duke and Esme standing next to Duke’s truck.

“Oh my god, you’re okay…” She sighed, her voice barely above a loud whisper. “Both of you. You’re okay!”