Redeemed

Chapter 29: We Can Do This

[[Elena P.O.V.]]

I take a deep breath in, pushing a strand of hair behind my ear as I slowly approach Dean. His strong hands hold onto the white, wooden fence tightly with worry and his eyes suddenly direct themselves toward me as he hears the gravel crunching underneath my shoes.
  He plays it off, pretending like the whole conversation he just had with Sam didn't happen. I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know that I could hear everything that was said.
  I swallow thickly, stopping beside him as my pregnant belly stops me from being able to lean all the way up against the fence like Dean. I look out onto the beach, just watching the waves crash peacefully, staying silent for a moment as I try to think of the right thing to say.
  I feel his green eyes studying me, and he lets out a deep sigh just before softly placing his hand under my chin to turn my gaze toward him.  I place my hand softly onto his as I grab it, moving it down to my belly.

We both pause for a moment with our eyes on each other before I finally say something.

"I want you to stop."  I say calmly, swallowing thickly again as I wait for him to question me as always. His brows narrow in confusion and he tilts his head. "...Stop...what?" He asks, leaving his hand on my pregnant belly only for another moment before pulling away to cross his arms.

"I want you to stop feeling guilty. Stop blaming yourself. Stop worrying.........Stop, doing this.  This thing that you always do where you bottle everything up and you literally absorb everyone's problems. You make it your mission to protect everyone all the time and I want you to stop. Just for a moment, please."
   He shakes his head, even more confused than he was with my first sentence. "Elena, this isn't the right time to relax and ignore what's going on around us. We have to do this, or we'll die. We have to protect ourselves. I have to protect you. I have to protect our baby, who will be here any day now." He argues.
I nod quickly, "No, I know that. I understand that." I place my hands on either side of his face and I pull him closer to me. "Look at me. Just look at me for a minute." I say as I look deeply into his eyes with nothing but calmness and love, and I softly rub my thumb against the side of his jaw bone. "I love you........I love you so much, Dean Winchester. Everything that is happening to us right now isn't a surprise. This isn't new. Yes, it really sucks. It sucks that we don't get a normal life. We don't get the same happiness that everyone else gets. But....that's our job. It's our job to make sure anyone gets to live their normal life. We protect people. It's who we are. People will always come for us, trying to take everything away because the bad will never go away. It's our job to stop it as much as we can. Because who else is going to do it?" I say as Dean's eyes slowly start to tear up, but he seems to begin to understand what I'm saying.
"We make the best of it........We make the best of all of it whenever we can. We're going to have a child soon-". Dean cuts me off for a moment, "A child that needs to be protected." His voice shakes as he says "protected", and a small tear falls down his cheek. My eyes begin to tear up as well but I stay strong for him, trying to hold it in as much as I can.
"He will be protected, Dean. We will protect him. Caroline, Bonnie, Sam, Cas.....We have so many people that love us who will love our son just as much. We won't be alone. We will never be alone." I softly run my fingers through his hair on the side of his head, beginning to smile warmly at him with confidence. "We will be okay." I say, trying my best to believe it, because that's the only choice we have. "We will." I nod. Dean lets out a deep sigh, slowly beginning to nod in agreement. "You're right." He says, the confidence and strength slowly beginning to come back into his eyes. "You're right Elena. We're going to be okay." He says, I think actually starting to believe it. He grabs ahold of my face and crashes his lips onto mine, kissing me deeply. His hands slide down to my shoulders and he wraps me into a tight hug, kissing the top of my head softly. "No more giving up, okay? We can do this." Dean says, sniffling just a little.