June

The Tide Is High

It was getting way too late, and Dean felt much too old to have still been doing this.

And yet there he was: sitting deep underground in the belly of the Bunker and doing research. Dean Winchester had spent countless years doing pretty much the same thing, and it was crazy to him how easy it was to fall back into the familiar routine. If he closed his eyes, he could all too easily imagine he was back in some dingy motel room with Sam and Rayne, preparing for one of their hunts.

Sera had left the previous morning to take care of a fairly tame haunted house case in a nearby state, so it was just he and Sam scouring for information. Sam didn't feel comfortable leaving quite yet after everything that happened with June, and Dean was glad for his help. It was nearing one in the morning, however, and the two Winchester men were having a hard time staying focused. The events of the last few days had taken a toll on them, and they were exhausted in more ways than one. June had miraculously survived her first brush with the supernatural, but the problem remained of how to keep her from having any more of those brushes. None of them knew why Tom came for June in the first place, and they didn't know whether he would come back for her. 

But before they could figure that part out, they had to make sure that if he ever found her again, he wouldn't be able to hurt her.

The task was starting to feel impossible, and suddenly, having a permanent guardian angel as well as all of Cas's spells of protection didn't seem like enough to Dean. He still felt that his daughter was too vulnerable...to exposed. And that was precisely why he would do as much research as it would take to find something that would keep her safe from Tom or any other monster that was stupid enough to mess with their family.

"There must be some kind of sigil or ritual...anything!" Dean said. He had his fists balled up to hold up his head as he stared down at the ancient book under his nose. There were stacks of the supernatural-themed texts around the room, and so far, each one had proved to be as useless as the last. 

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, Dean," Sam said as he looked up from his laptop that contained the virtual archive of even more ancient books. "There's nothing. At least nothing like what we need. Most of these sigils and rituals are pretty hardcore. And if I'm not mistaken, that's precisely the type of weird that you want to keep June away from."

Dean's response was a growl of frustration. "This is bullshit! He's just a demon – nothing we haven't seen before. I won't lie down and accept that there's absolutely nothing out there that we can use to protect her from him."

"Look," Sam said as he exhaled from his nostrils. "We can keep her in this bunker for the rest of her life and there would still be a chance that he would find her. There's nothing out there – no spell, no nothing – that would give us an absolute guarantee that she would be safe."

"Well, I don't know...keeping her in the Bunker might not be such a bad id–"

"Dean! Are you even listening to yourself? We're not locking your daughter up in an underground metal tin can! Besides, that doesn't exactly fit in with your 'normal life' plan, now does it?"

Dean slammed the book he was reading shut and tossed it aside. It skidded across the surface of the table and landed on the floor in a heap of pages. He rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding his brother's eyes. He didn't want to admit that training June to protect herself might be their best option. Not yet. 

"With everything that she's been through," Sam said in a quiet voice, "I don't think she can have the normal life that you and Ray wanted for her anyways, Dean. Not any more. Our only chance now might be ensuring that nothing like what happened the other day happens again. And I can't think of any other way of doing that."