![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skylar0graceTitle: Fractured Hearts Trilogy: Part Two - Collision
Author: SkylarGrace
Status: Complete
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It was bound to happen…
Spoilers: All of ‘Supernatural’ and ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
Disclaimer: ‘Supernatural’ and all related characters are copyright Eric Kripke, Kripke Enterprises & The CW Network. No infringement intended. ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and all related characters are copyright Joss Whedon and ME. No infringement intended.
Chapter Five
Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great - Comte DeBussy-Rabutin
Author: SkylarGrace
Status: Complete
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It was bound to happen…
Spoilers: All of ‘Supernatural’ and ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
Disclaimer: ‘Supernatural’ and all related characters are copyright Eric Kripke, Kripke Enterprises & The CW Network. No infringement intended. ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and all related characters are copyright Joss Whedon and ME. No infringement intended.
Chapter Five
Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great - Comte DeBussy-Rabutin
“Give me what I came for and I’ll leave you all alive.”
“Only if you ask nicely,” Buffy replied with a smile.
She moved forward to attack. The man raised his left hand and she was flung backwards into the wall behind Sam and Dawn. Sam and Dawn backed further down the room trying to make for the back exit whilst Owen moved to get some weapons from behind him. The man moved his hand toward Dean and flung Dean in the same direction as the fallen slayer. With satisfaction, he dropped his hand and advanced, his eyes focused solely on Dawn. Buffy and Dean got up from their heap on the floor. The man turned to them and growled.
“Get down!” he yelled in frustration.
His hand shot forward and a ball of green energy shot out. Dean pushed Buffy to the side but the ball stopped a metre in front of him, hitting a yellow wall. Buffy stood up as the demon looked shocked. He raised an eyebrow.
“Got yourselves an effective little spell. How much can it hold?”
He gave a smile and a series of blasts shot from his hands. They all stopped short. He glared and eyed the group in front of him, stopping when his eyes fell back on Dawn who was standing slightly off to the side. Her lips were moving and her head was bowed in concentration.
“It only works as long as you’re alive,” he said, flicking his right wrist.
A small pot behind Dawn was flung into her, knocking her over and effectively dropping the shield. Buffy and Dean advanced on him again
“Not today kiddies. I’ve got business to attend to.”
Raising his hand again, they were both flung into the wall hard. Dean slid down, unconscious. Buffy battled for consciousness as she struggled to stand. This time, he flung her into Owen, sending them both into a wall and into a heap on the floor. From her spot, Dawn reached out and grabbed Sam’s hand. Drawing on his energy, she spoke a few words and they both disappeared. The demon screamed in anger. Turning around, he left, running from the house.
~
Buffy and Dean started stirring. Buffy looked over to the fallen desk on the floor and realised Dawn was gone. She stood up in a panic.
“Dawn?”
Dean sat up. His head was killing him. He opened his eyes when he heard Buffy yell for Dawn, panic obvious. Looking at the desk where he last saw them, he realised both Sam and Dawn were gone. He stood up.
“Sam?”
Their eyes met across the room. It was if there was a mirror placed between them; fear and panic reflected in each others eyes. Buffy and Dean ran to the window and looked out. Although it was day, there was no one on the street.
“Dawn?” “Sam?” both yelled simultaneously.
Buffy turned to Dean crestfallen. He placed his arms around her and held her momentarily before letting her go and moving quickly to Owen.
“Thurman? Man, are you okay?” Owen groaned and Dean helped him sit up. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
“Good. Now let’s get on this computer and find the damn house.”He tried to keep the anger out but it showed.
“What was that?” Dean asked turning back to Buffy as Owen moved the laptop onto his lap.
“The shield? A friend of ours taught it to Dawn before she died.”
“Would it have drained her energy?” He remembered what Sam had said about Dawn being unconscious in the vision. Buffy shook her head.
“Eventually it would have but she can hold it for a while and it wasn’t up that long. But she was knocked down by that desk. I don’t know if she would have even been conscious.”
Buffy cringed when she remembered Sam had told her Dawn looked unconscious on the balcony and a tear started to well up in her eyes. Dean pulled her into a hug.
“We’ll find her. I promise,” he whispered.
Owen looked up at the two briefly before turning his attention back to the computer. “I obviously didn’t see the house but I am looking for houses in the area with the same characteristics. Balcony over lawn, stone, two storey, etc.”
Buffy and Dean moved over to the computer and stood behind him looking at the satellite images, Dean keeping his arms around Buffy’s waist and offering comfort.
~
Sam groaned and lifted his head. He looked around and saw nothing familiar. It appeared that they were lying in a park. He moved over to Dawn and rolled her over. She was still out. Picking her up off the ground, he carried her in his arms to a park bench. Realising the need for a location, he tried to determine where they were but there were only trees surrounding them. Sam gently shook Dawn. He had no idea what had happened. He remembered getting hit by the desk, feeling Dawn reach for him and then feeling really tired. He woke up here.
Dawn slowly came to. She felt a warm body against her and snuggled into it. Then her headache hit. She raised her hand to her head and groaned in pain. As she slowly opened her eyes, she saw Sam’s green ones, looking down at her concerned. Her face flushed and she sat up abruptly.
“Where are we?”
“I was hoping you could tell me. I have no idea where we are or how we got here.”
Dawn looked away for a moment with a pensive look on her face then looked back at him with wide eyes as she stood up and looked around.
“Oh no. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Dawn spun around trying to look for a street sign or landmark but found only trees. Sam grabbed her wrists and looked in her eyes.
“Tell me what happened?” he asked softly. Dawn looked down.
“I knew he was coming our way and so I did the only thing I could think of and teleported. But I needed more energy because I was taking you so I used yours,” she looked up at him ashamed. “I’m really sorry Sam.”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I don’t mind. But we need to find out where we are.”
He looked around for a path. Finding one, he led her to the right and hoped it led out of the park. Dawn followed him, allowing him to lead holding her hand. After a few moments of walking, he turned to look at Dawn.
“Why did you take me with you?”
She blushed and gave a half smile. “I didn’t want to go by myself?”
Sam smiled. He turned back to see light shining through the trees. As they came to the street, Dawn searched for a street sign.
“I know where we are,” Sam said, “I saw it when we came in.” Sam pointed to the left. “I think it was this way. I remember seeing this park sign on the way here.”
“When I teleported us, I was trying to concentrate but I couldn’t concentrate properly. I guess we ended up here. At least it wasn’t in a wall or something,” she half-heartedly joked.
Sam smiled at her, looking her straight in the eyes. “I trust you.”
~
Buffy was frantically pacing. It had been an hour and with each passing minute, she got more and more wound up. She had given up looking at houses. She needed to do something. She heard footsteps on the porch and tensed. She turned to Dean and saw that he had straightened too. Owen reached for the sword beside him. They heard a low voice. Buffy moved to the wall.
Her muscles relaxed when she saw Sam’s head poke through. Dean strode past her and pulled his brother into a hug. As the door opened wider she saw Dawn.
“Dawn!” she said running to her. As she hugged her, she heard Dean speak.
“Where the hell were you guys?”
Sam pointed behind him to Dawn. “She teleported us out; it didn’t work so well and we landed in the park.”
Owen came up behind Dean with a flask. “Sorry man,” he said apologetically. “But we have no idea if it is you.”
Sam took the flask and took a swig of holy water before passing it to Dawn. Owen sighed in relief.
“Teleporting huh? You are just a bundle of tricks, aren’t you?”
The five moved inside, Owen repositioning himself at the laptop. Dawn and Sam sat back on the lounge and Dean and Buffy stood above them like concerned parents.
“You know you shouldn’t be teleporting in a battle Dawn. You don’t have the reserves. Besides, how did you take him with you?”
Buffy frowned. Willow had taught Dawn that teleporting took a fair bit of energy out of someone with Dawn’s skill level. At the moment she could only take herself and Willow warned against it in battle as it could tap all of her energy, leaving her defenceless. Dawn glanced at Sam before looking up at Buffy.
“I sorta borrowed it?” she said a little sheepishly.
“What?” Dean asked confused. Buffy turned to Dean.
“She took some of Sam’s to get them both out.” She turned back to them, this time addressing Sam concerned. “How do you feel?”
“I feel fine. I was a little tired when I woke up but I feel fine now.”
“You’re lucky she didn’t drain you.” Owen said, speaking up.
Dean started to get worried. “What?”
Dawn stood up getting a little angry at the accusatory direction this was taking. “I can choose how much I take. I was careful.”
Owen held up his hands. “I wasn’t accusing you of anything. I just know that you can’t always control how much you take from someone you don’t know. You don’t know their strengths and weaknesses or how much they could stand to lose.”
Dawn turned to Buffy, desperate for someone to understand. “I could feel his energy. I only took what I needed to get us safe. That’s all.”
“It’s okay,” Sam soothed, placing a hand on her shoulder. Dawn calmed and leaned back into the lounge and Dean saw the affection pass between them. He decided to trust Sam in this instance and he relaxed his stance. Buffy wasn’t going to admonish Dawn in front of everyone, so she changed the topic.
“Are we anywhere on this house yet?”
Owen showed Sam the different houses and Sam recognised the third. “That’s it I think. Same brickwork, same balcony.”
“Well,” Buffy said nodding, “I’ll do a little recon tonight. See if they are there or not. You guys stay here and do what you can to protect the house. You up for that Dawn?” Dawn nodded.
“I’ll go with you,” Dean said raising his hands before Buffy could speak. “You need to get out there somehow and if we split up, we can get it done faster. If something happens, we’ll know.” Buffy just nodded.
~
The drive to the mansion was done in silence, neither one knowing what to say. Dean parked a short distance from the mansion, just behind the woods surrounding three of the sides. Buffy turned to face him.
“I’ll take the left side, you take the right. We only need to know what we are facing, numbers and stuff. We’ll meet up round the other side. Okay?”
She opened her door, holding her stake in her hand and Dean put his hand on her arm. She turned back to him. “Be careful.”
“You too.”
Exiting quietly from the car, they moved in opposite directions toward the mansion, staying close to the shadows. Buffy dusted four vamps along her path. On the first floor Buffy could see a nest of vampires. There were thirty or so and lights were coming from the second storey. She saw one demon move in front of a window but that was all. No matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t move close enough to see more without risking being spotted. As she reached the halfway point, a vampire jumped her from behind trying to take a bite out of her neck. Buffy scolded herself for not paying enough attention to her surroundings.
“Sorry,” she whispered, “but I’m with someone else tonight. Maybe later?”
Buffy threw him over her shoulder. He landed in front of her and she moved down to stake him just as he reached up and pulled her down, twisting the arm holding the stake around, causing her to yelp in pain. As she hit the ground beside him, she rolled, trying to get some distance and ignoring the pain in her elbow. She flipped into a standing position, squaring off against the vampire again. She kept one eye on him whilst she looked for her fallen stake.
The vampire lunged at her once again and Buffy used the force of it to push her back, taking him with her as she flipped them both. Her elbow screamed in agony. She delivered one good punch before he pushed her off, sending her into a nearby tree. A stab of pain ran up her spine as she shakily stood on her feet, using the tree to stand. The vampire smiled as he advanced. Buffy steadied herself for the next attack as her attacker burst into a cloud of dust, leaving behind a worried looking Dean. She gave a small smile and sunk to the ground.
“Buffy are you okay?” Dean asked running over and falling to his knees beside her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
Buffy nodded. “Just give me a sec.”
She started shouldering off her leather jacket and was surprised when Dean leaned forward to help. Glancing apologetically as she hissed in pain, he helped her get both arms out and she took a look at her elbow. It wasn’t broken but it was definitely dislocated and already an ugly purple colour. Without having to ask, Dean held both parts of her arm as she leaned her head on his chest, took a deep breath and pushed it back into place. Tears ran freely down her face and Dean just held onto her, making sure her arm was free. After the wave of pain subsided, Buffy pulled back and looked at Dean. He gave her a small smile and took off his jacket and outer shirt, using the shirt as a makeshift sling. After tying the knot around her neck, Dean put his jacket back on, draped hers over her shoulders and helped her stand.
“Ready to go?”
“Yeah. Thanks,” she said, giving him a small smile. He returned the smile and led the way back out of the woods surrounding the mansion.
“What did you find?” Buffy asked, breaking the silence.
“About five or six vampires inside. There is some sort of altar set up on the sea side. I also saw maybe three or four of those Sisterhood demons. You?”
“Four vamps, five including the one you took out, patrolling the area. Maybe thirty inside. I only saw one demon on the second floor.” Dean looked over at her as she held her arm in the sling. She noted his look.
“Slayer healing. I’ll be as right as rain in no time!” she said cheerily before a frown fell over her face. “Does rain fix things? I mean, okay, droughts, yeah, but anything else? Was that phrase invented for droughts?” She turned to look at Dean and saw a huge, genuine smile on his face.
“What?”
Dean continued to smile as he looked ahead. “Nothing.”
The tree line finally broke and the Impala appeared before them. Dean opened her door and held it open as Buffy got in. Buffy gave a shy smile as Dean closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side.
“Buffy,” Dean began as he sat in his seat and closed his door.
He turned to face her just as she moved toward him, using her good hand to hold his face as she kissed him. Dean was momentarily surprised but responded in kind, deepening the kiss and once again enjoying the feeling of her soft lips against his. Kissing her now made him realise just how much he had missed it, how much he had missed her. As he pulled back, he saw her smiling at him.
“Let’s go tell the others what we found,” he said, returning her smile.
The engine rolled over effortlessly and the Impala drove off into the darkness.
“Only if you ask nicely,” Buffy replied with a smile.
She moved forward to attack. The man raised his left hand and she was flung backwards into the wall behind Sam and Dawn. Sam and Dawn backed further down the room trying to make for the back exit whilst Owen moved to get some weapons from behind him. The man moved his hand toward Dean and flung Dean in the same direction as the fallen slayer. With satisfaction, he dropped his hand and advanced, his eyes focused solely on Dawn. Buffy and Dean got up from their heap on the floor. The man turned to them and growled.
“Get down!” he yelled in frustration.
His hand shot forward and a ball of green energy shot out. Dean pushed Buffy to the side but the ball stopped a metre in front of him, hitting a yellow wall. Buffy stood up as the demon looked shocked. He raised an eyebrow.
“Got yourselves an effective little spell. How much can it hold?”
He gave a smile and a series of blasts shot from his hands. They all stopped short. He glared and eyed the group in front of him, stopping when his eyes fell back on Dawn who was standing slightly off to the side. Her lips were moving and her head was bowed in concentration.
“It only works as long as you’re alive,” he said, flicking his right wrist.
A small pot behind Dawn was flung into her, knocking her over and effectively dropping the shield. Buffy and Dean advanced on him again
“Not today kiddies. I’ve got business to attend to.”
Raising his hand again, they were both flung into the wall hard. Dean slid down, unconscious. Buffy battled for consciousness as she struggled to stand. This time, he flung her into Owen, sending them both into a wall and into a heap on the floor. From her spot, Dawn reached out and grabbed Sam’s hand. Drawing on his energy, she spoke a few words and they both disappeared. The demon screamed in anger. Turning around, he left, running from the house.
~
Buffy and Dean started stirring. Buffy looked over to the fallen desk on the floor and realised Dawn was gone. She stood up in a panic.
“Dawn?”
Dean sat up. His head was killing him. He opened his eyes when he heard Buffy yell for Dawn, panic obvious. Looking at the desk where he last saw them, he realised both Sam and Dawn were gone. He stood up.
“Sam?”
Their eyes met across the room. It was if there was a mirror placed between them; fear and panic reflected in each others eyes. Buffy and Dean ran to the window and looked out. Although it was day, there was no one on the street.
“Dawn?” “Sam?” both yelled simultaneously.
Buffy turned to Dean crestfallen. He placed his arms around her and held her momentarily before letting her go and moving quickly to Owen.
“Thurman? Man, are you okay?” Owen groaned and Dean helped him sit up. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
“Good. Now let’s get on this computer and find the damn house.”He tried to keep the anger out but it showed.
“What was that?” Dean asked turning back to Buffy as Owen moved the laptop onto his lap.
“The shield? A friend of ours taught it to Dawn before she died.”
“Would it have drained her energy?” He remembered what Sam had said about Dawn being unconscious in the vision. Buffy shook her head.
“Eventually it would have but she can hold it for a while and it wasn’t up that long. But she was knocked down by that desk. I don’t know if she would have even been conscious.”
Buffy cringed when she remembered Sam had told her Dawn looked unconscious on the balcony and a tear started to well up in her eyes. Dean pulled her into a hug.
“We’ll find her. I promise,” he whispered.
Owen looked up at the two briefly before turning his attention back to the computer. “I obviously didn’t see the house but I am looking for houses in the area with the same characteristics. Balcony over lawn, stone, two storey, etc.”
Buffy and Dean moved over to the computer and stood behind him looking at the satellite images, Dean keeping his arms around Buffy’s waist and offering comfort.
~
Sam groaned and lifted his head. He looked around and saw nothing familiar. It appeared that they were lying in a park. He moved over to Dawn and rolled her over. She was still out. Picking her up off the ground, he carried her in his arms to a park bench. Realising the need for a location, he tried to determine where they were but there were only trees surrounding them. Sam gently shook Dawn. He had no idea what had happened. He remembered getting hit by the desk, feeling Dawn reach for him and then feeling really tired. He woke up here.
Dawn slowly came to. She felt a warm body against her and snuggled into it. Then her headache hit. She raised her hand to her head and groaned in pain. As she slowly opened her eyes, she saw Sam’s green ones, looking down at her concerned. Her face flushed and she sat up abruptly.
“Where are we?”
“I was hoping you could tell me. I have no idea where we are or how we got here.”
Dawn looked away for a moment with a pensive look on her face then looked back at him with wide eyes as she stood up and looked around.
“Oh no. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Dawn spun around trying to look for a street sign or landmark but found only trees. Sam grabbed her wrists and looked in her eyes.
“Tell me what happened?” he asked softly. Dawn looked down.
“I knew he was coming our way and so I did the only thing I could think of and teleported. But I needed more energy because I was taking you so I used yours,” she looked up at him ashamed. “I’m really sorry Sam.”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I don’t mind. But we need to find out where we are.”
He looked around for a path. Finding one, he led her to the right and hoped it led out of the park. Dawn followed him, allowing him to lead holding her hand. After a few moments of walking, he turned to look at Dawn.
“Why did you take me with you?”
She blushed and gave a half smile. “I didn’t want to go by myself?”
Sam smiled. He turned back to see light shining through the trees. As they came to the street, Dawn searched for a street sign.
“I know where we are,” Sam said, “I saw it when we came in.” Sam pointed to the left. “I think it was this way. I remember seeing this park sign on the way here.”
“When I teleported us, I was trying to concentrate but I couldn’t concentrate properly. I guess we ended up here. At least it wasn’t in a wall or something,” she half-heartedly joked.
Sam smiled at her, looking her straight in the eyes. “I trust you.”
~
Buffy was frantically pacing. It had been an hour and with each passing minute, she got more and more wound up. She had given up looking at houses. She needed to do something. She heard footsteps on the porch and tensed. She turned to Dean and saw that he had straightened too. Owen reached for the sword beside him. They heard a low voice. Buffy moved to the wall.
Her muscles relaxed when she saw Sam’s head poke through. Dean strode past her and pulled his brother into a hug. As the door opened wider she saw Dawn.
“Dawn!” she said running to her. As she hugged her, she heard Dean speak.
“Where the hell were you guys?”
Sam pointed behind him to Dawn. “She teleported us out; it didn’t work so well and we landed in the park.”
Owen came up behind Dean with a flask. “Sorry man,” he said apologetically. “But we have no idea if it is you.”
Sam took the flask and took a swig of holy water before passing it to Dawn. Owen sighed in relief.
“Teleporting huh? You are just a bundle of tricks, aren’t you?”
The five moved inside, Owen repositioning himself at the laptop. Dawn and Sam sat back on the lounge and Dean and Buffy stood above them like concerned parents.
“You know you shouldn’t be teleporting in a battle Dawn. You don’t have the reserves. Besides, how did you take him with you?”
Buffy frowned. Willow had taught Dawn that teleporting took a fair bit of energy out of someone with Dawn’s skill level. At the moment she could only take herself and Willow warned against it in battle as it could tap all of her energy, leaving her defenceless. Dawn glanced at Sam before looking up at Buffy.
“I sorta borrowed it?” she said a little sheepishly.
“What?” Dean asked confused. Buffy turned to Dean.
“She took some of Sam’s to get them both out.” She turned back to them, this time addressing Sam concerned. “How do you feel?”
“I feel fine. I was a little tired when I woke up but I feel fine now.”
“You’re lucky she didn’t drain you.” Owen said, speaking up.
Dean started to get worried. “What?”
Dawn stood up getting a little angry at the accusatory direction this was taking. “I can choose how much I take. I was careful.”
Owen held up his hands. “I wasn’t accusing you of anything. I just know that you can’t always control how much you take from someone you don’t know. You don’t know their strengths and weaknesses or how much they could stand to lose.”
Dawn turned to Buffy, desperate for someone to understand. “I could feel his energy. I only took what I needed to get us safe. That’s all.”
“It’s okay,” Sam soothed, placing a hand on her shoulder. Dawn calmed and leaned back into the lounge and Dean saw the affection pass between them. He decided to trust Sam in this instance and he relaxed his stance. Buffy wasn’t going to admonish Dawn in front of everyone, so she changed the topic.
“Are we anywhere on this house yet?”
Owen showed Sam the different houses and Sam recognised the third. “That’s it I think. Same brickwork, same balcony.”
“Well,” Buffy said nodding, “I’ll do a little recon tonight. See if they are there or not. You guys stay here and do what you can to protect the house. You up for that Dawn?” Dawn nodded.
“I’ll go with you,” Dean said raising his hands before Buffy could speak. “You need to get out there somehow and if we split up, we can get it done faster. If something happens, we’ll know.” Buffy just nodded.
~
The drive to the mansion was done in silence, neither one knowing what to say. Dean parked a short distance from the mansion, just behind the woods surrounding three of the sides. Buffy turned to face him.
“I’ll take the left side, you take the right. We only need to know what we are facing, numbers and stuff. We’ll meet up round the other side. Okay?”
She opened her door, holding her stake in her hand and Dean put his hand on her arm. She turned back to him. “Be careful.”
“You too.”
Exiting quietly from the car, they moved in opposite directions toward the mansion, staying close to the shadows. Buffy dusted four vamps along her path. On the first floor Buffy could see a nest of vampires. There were thirty or so and lights were coming from the second storey. She saw one demon move in front of a window but that was all. No matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t move close enough to see more without risking being spotted. As she reached the halfway point, a vampire jumped her from behind trying to take a bite out of her neck. Buffy scolded herself for not paying enough attention to her surroundings.
“Sorry,” she whispered, “but I’m with someone else tonight. Maybe later?”
Buffy threw him over her shoulder. He landed in front of her and she moved down to stake him just as he reached up and pulled her down, twisting the arm holding the stake around, causing her to yelp in pain. As she hit the ground beside him, she rolled, trying to get some distance and ignoring the pain in her elbow. She flipped into a standing position, squaring off against the vampire again. She kept one eye on him whilst she looked for her fallen stake.
The vampire lunged at her once again and Buffy used the force of it to push her back, taking him with her as she flipped them both. Her elbow screamed in agony. She delivered one good punch before he pushed her off, sending her into a nearby tree. A stab of pain ran up her spine as she shakily stood on her feet, using the tree to stand. The vampire smiled as he advanced. Buffy steadied herself for the next attack as her attacker burst into a cloud of dust, leaving behind a worried looking Dean. She gave a small smile and sunk to the ground.
“Buffy are you okay?” Dean asked running over and falling to his knees beside her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
Buffy nodded. “Just give me a sec.”
She started shouldering off her leather jacket and was surprised when Dean leaned forward to help. Glancing apologetically as she hissed in pain, he helped her get both arms out and she took a look at her elbow. It wasn’t broken but it was definitely dislocated and already an ugly purple colour. Without having to ask, Dean held both parts of her arm as she leaned her head on his chest, took a deep breath and pushed it back into place. Tears ran freely down her face and Dean just held onto her, making sure her arm was free. After the wave of pain subsided, Buffy pulled back and looked at Dean. He gave her a small smile and took off his jacket and outer shirt, using the shirt as a makeshift sling. After tying the knot around her neck, Dean put his jacket back on, draped hers over her shoulders and helped her stand.
“Ready to go?”
“Yeah. Thanks,” she said, giving him a small smile. He returned the smile and led the way back out of the woods surrounding the mansion.
“What did you find?” Buffy asked, breaking the silence.
“About five or six vampires inside. There is some sort of altar set up on the sea side. I also saw maybe three or four of those Sisterhood demons. You?”
“Four vamps, five including the one you took out, patrolling the area. Maybe thirty inside. I only saw one demon on the second floor.” Dean looked over at her as she held her arm in the sling. She noted his look.
“Slayer healing. I’ll be as right as rain in no time!” she said cheerily before a frown fell over her face. “Does rain fix things? I mean, okay, droughts, yeah, but anything else? Was that phrase invented for droughts?” She turned to look at Dean and saw a huge, genuine smile on his face.
“What?”
Dean continued to smile as he looked ahead. “Nothing.”
The tree line finally broke and the Impala appeared before them. Dean opened her door and held it open as Buffy got in. Buffy gave a shy smile as Dean closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side.
“Buffy,” Dean began as he sat in his seat and closed his door.
He turned to face her just as she moved toward him, using her good hand to hold his face as she kissed him. Dean was momentarily surprised but responded in kind, deepening the kiss and once again enjoying the feeling of her soft lips against his. Kissing her now made him realise just how much he had missed it, how much he had missed her. As he pulled back, he saw her smiling at him.
“Let’s go tell the others what we found,” he said, returning her smile.
The engine rolled over effortlessly and the Impala drove off into the darkness.
