Roads Untraveled ~ Sam Winchester

Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Seven - Stolen Baby

Another week passed, Castiel had had no luck finding away round the Ma'lak box plan, neither had Eden. Even Rowena had scoured the entire Book of the Damned for a solution, coming up empty. Every time someone brought it up to Dean, it would be met with either a defensive reaction or a complete change of subject.
It was business as usual, otherwise. The boys had a case involving Donatello, whose recent hospital trip was screwing with the divine order of future Prophets.

Eden stood in front of the mirror in hers and Sam's bedroom, gazing into her own eyes. Images of the people she'd tormented and killed flashed through her brain at a million miles per hour. She flinched at a knock on the door, turning to see Sam holding two boxes of red hair dye.
"Hey." He greeted softly. "You okay?"
Eden gave a quick, unconvincing nod, making Sam sigh.
"I know you're not. What happened to you trying to be more open with me about your emotions?" He asked, stepping into the room towards her.
"I'm sorry... It's just; I've been this way since the dawn of Humanity. It's not going to go away just because I said I'd try." Eden huffed, glancing down to the boxes. "You know I can just use my magic for that, right?"
"Yeah, I know. I had this idea thatwe could do it together, the long way - the Human way, you know? Get you back to your old self with me by your side, as it should be. What do you say?" The Winchester tilted his head slightly, a hopeful glimmer in his eyes.
Eden gave a small smile, looking up at him through her lashes.
"Sounds like a good plan to me." When she looked down at the boxes, she noticed a couple of grazes on Sam's right hand. "What happened?"
Sam looked down, flexing his fingers.
"Oh, yeah... I, uh, had words with Dean." He uttered, his eyes darting around the room before theylanded back on her.
"And..?"
"And he's not gunna use the Ma'lak box - not yet, at least. He's gunna keep fighting until there's no other way." Sam nodded.
Eden's lips turned up in a smile.
"Best news I've heard all week. Now... How about we get me back to normal, yeah?"
Sam gave another nod before leading her to the bathroom.

Eden sat on the toilet seat, smiling to herself as Sam's gloved fingers ran red dye through her hair. The soothing feel sent her into a state of perfect contentment. In this moment, she didn't have a lot to worry about. She was fine, Sam was fine, Castiel was fine, Willow was fine, Jack was getting better, and Dean had his hope back.
As they waited for the dye to do its job, the pair talked about anything and everything - even a few wedding ideas for when the time came.
After, they stripped off and stepped into the shower.
Once again, Sam's fingers weaved their way into Eden's hair, massaging her scalp under the falling water. The red pooled at their feet, looking like something out of a horror movie, but neither minded. If anything, they found it a little funny - even a little comforting that for once, it wasn't blood.
After washing out some shampoo from each other's hair, they stood under the water in each other's arms, enjoying the peace that they lacked so often in their lives.

Wrapped in a grey towel, Eden looked over her damp red wine locks in the mirror she'd been torturing herself in front of before, except this time, she had a smile.
"That's so much better." She hummed.
"I agree." Sam replied, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind, kissing the crook of her neck.
"Thank you, Sam." She whispered, looking at him through the reflection. "For the whole thing. The idea to dye it back was... Amazing."
"I love you." He uttered, his lips grazing against her right shoulder.
"I love you, too."

"Ey! Look at you! Vampy Pants is back in business." Dean grinned as the Dark Angel wandered into the War room, where hewas sitting at the table in front of his laptop with a beer in his hand.
"Feels good to see red in my eye line again." Eden chuckled.
"Looks great. I mean, don't get me wrong, I kinda digged the silver, but this is just... You - a whole lot better." He shrugged as she came over to sit next to him. "You feeling better?"
"Yeah, I think so. I think that might've been the final step to getting back on track." Eden nodded. "What about you? How are you feeling?"
"I know you can hear him pounding on that door in my head." Dean sighed. "But, I'm dealing."
"Want me to see if I can quiet it down a bit for you?"
The Winchester gave another shrug and a nod, taking one more sip of his beer before placing it down.
Eden stood up again, moving over to crouch down in front of him. She placed her index and middle fingertips on his temples and closed her eyes. Black smoke danced around her fingers as her magic did their job and slowly but surely, Michael's never-ending banging began to subside, as though someone was turning a volume dial counter-clockwise.
Dean took adeep sigh of relief as Eden took her fingers away.
"Damn that feels better. Thanks, Red."
"You're welcome. I'm sorry I can't stop it completely-"
"No, no need. This is great. I appreciate it." He nodded, picking up his beer again.