Brothers Keep Her

Necessary Evil

***EDITED*** 

You open your eyes to a bright, blue sky. As your senses slowly return to you, you feel the soft pillow of lush green grass underneath you. The smell of honeysuckle lingers in the soft breeze that caresses your face. Where am I?

 "You've been out for a long time." The voice is familiar, but you can't quite place it. 

You turn your head, then push yourself up. Then you spot her. She stands a few feet away with her hands tucked into her pockets, leaning against the trunk of a giant oak tree. Her brown leather jacket moves with the slight touch of wind. 

"To be honest, I thought we'd lost you," she says. 

"...Billie," you say. What's going on?

"Glad to have you back, boss." She straightens up and takes a few steps toward you. "What do you remember?" 

You blink and shake your head. Think... Think... The images come to you in flashes and are too quick and abrupt to make much sense of. 

"Do you know who you are?" 

You furrow your brow as you watch the grass bending to the breeze. Who am I? You remember a coffee shop and a tall, quiet man. He smiles at you. "Sam," you whisper, and everything rushes back all at once like a runaway freight train. A trail of ice drags down your spine: Amara. Your eyes widen and dart to your friend. Your ally. Your confidant.

"The Darkness is no longer a threat."

You nod. Then you shake your head. "What? How?"

"Like I said, you've been out for a long time. Had she not been distracted by our friends Upstairs, I wouldn't have been able to get you out of there in time."

"So they did it? They killed her?" 

Billie smiles. "No. That first smiting weakened her, but she recovered. Long story short, your boys found God and talked Him into confronting her. You wouldn't have believed it; God," she says in a way that emphasizes the incredulity after all this time, "the witch, Crowley, Lucifer, the Angels - for a fleeting wink in time, they were allies. The most powerful witches on Earth tried to destroy her and failed. Demons banded together to attack her - and they failed, too. The Angels smote again, but all they did was weaken her again. In the end, she couldn't be destroyed." She shakes her head and a smile plays on her lips. "But Dean Winchester... Dean saved the day."

Dean. Dean! "How?"

"Even I don't know the answer to that. But you'll be happy to know that I helped him." She crosses her arms. "So, why'd you do it? Why did you go after her? You had to know you were out of your league."

Processing everything, you take a deep breath and look around you. Surrounded by grassy hills and patches of trees with not a house or car or telephone pole in sight, you remember that moment like it had just happened not five minutes ago. "I had to try."

"I just don't understand. You risked eternity for a shot in the dark?"

You shrug. "What's eternity when the world is ending?"

She studies your face. "That's not it."

You relive the crushing realization that Dean would one day leave his life on Earth. His soul would move on to Heaven (you'd make sure of that), but you would remain, because your place is here, now. The thought of eternity without Dean was so much worse than perishing at the hand of the Darkness. "I couldn't stand waiting around for Amara to just end everything." And now, because Billie intervened, you're destined to the fate you tried to avoid.