The Angel of Anxiety [A Supernatural FanFiction]

Chapter IV - We Didn't Start The Fire

"Kid, are you sure you don't have a key for this thing?" Dean was standing at the top of the staircase in the bunker, holding Leila's case in his hands.

"You're right, I was just going to let you break the case when I had the key the entire time. Silly me." Leila's arms were crossed as she looked up at Dean, Sam beside her. "Drop it, Deano."

Dean rolled his eyes. "You have been hanging out with Gabriel," he muttered under his breath.

Sam had made them wait until the next day to try and open the case, Dean and Leila were both exhausted from the trip to Fairfax. Leila was wrapped in a flannel of Dean's he had lent her that morning, along with a pair of Charlie's jeans. They still hung from her frame, but they were the closest size to Leila in the bunker. Leila hadn't taken many clothes from Al's when she left.

"Fore!" Dean said, dropping the case. The crack as the case hit the floor sounded promising. He jogged down the stairs as Sam and Leila knelt by the case.

Leila opened it and immediately began to dig through the contents, without saying a word to Sam or Dean. They all knew she didn't owe them any words, either. From what Sam could tell of the contents inside, it mainly looked like government documents. Birth certificates, passports, old drivers licenses. Sam and Dean both crouched beside her.

"Leila," Sam said, "Can I ask how this managed to survive the fire? I mean, it's a case..."

Leila let out a sad laugh that was basically just a breath through her nose. "My dad was a conspiracy theorist. Always thought about the worst thing that could possibly happen, and planned his life accordingly."

"What does that mean?" Dean asked.

"It means he kept what he considered important," Leila said, holding up a stack of papers. "In a case that could survive anything spare, like, a nuclear bomb. I just... wanted to see what he put in here."

Leila froze when she found a photo album. Not because she hadn't seen the photos, or because it was the only photos she had left from the house. Because on the front it said: In loving memory, 1998-2015 in cursive letters Leila wished she couldn't read.

Leila looked up at both Sam and Dean, who both had pained expressions. Though, she could barely see them through the tears that built up in her eyes. "They..." Leila's voice caught in her throat. "They held a funeral without a body?"

Sam swallowed hard. "It was probably closure."

"Kid," Dean said, "that doesn't mean they didn't love you."

Leila stared at her hands, not wanting to look at either of them. "I thought about going back. To see them."

"This isn't your fault," Sam said.

"It is," Leila said. "And I don't need you to tell me that it wasn't."

"You didn't do any of this," Sam said, "you know that, right? You thought it was the right thing to do."

"Sammy," Dean said, standing up to his full height. "Can I talk to you in the other room?"

"Uh." Sam looked up at his brother, who gave him a look that didn't need any words to be translated. "Sure."

"We'll be right back, kid," Dean said. "Okay?"

Leila nodded, still holding the closed photo album in her hands.