But You Don't Have A Heart

The crater was nothing more than a charred and smoking hole in the heart of the city. It ate up the intersection, and barely touched the sidewalks that lined the streets. The rain kept the fire down. Melinda, who's knees had failed her, began to crawl. She crawled into the shallow crater and crawled towards the middle, and kept crawling, because she knew she was in no condition to stand.

"Melinda, get back here!" Dean shouted. Melinda couldn't hear him. She couldn't hear the roar of the crowd of people. She couldn't even hear the sirens. Everything was silent to her. She kept her eyes to the body in the center of the crater. Her limbs and knees were matted with soot, and her hands were scraped from the jagged and freshly cut up road. However, known of this mattered, she thought to herself as she began to cry.

"Castiel." She mearly called out. Her voice was cracking and barely there. Soon, she'd be choked by tears and completely unable to speak. "Castiel, Castiel." She called silently again. Melinda crawled faster and faster until suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks. Melinda just had to take a moment to stop and stare.

There were people calling out to her, shouting at her to come back. She looked back and saw Dean and Sam running to her. Everything seemed to slow down, however. Melinda had been blinded by her own tears as she looked down at the body beneath her. Gently, and ever so carefully, she scooped Castiel's head and pulled his body into her. She wrapped her fingers in his damp hair. Melinda got off her knees and sat down now, cradelling him in her arms, rocking back and forth, sobbing, calling out his name weakly. She knew she looked like a mess, and she was.

Melinda looked down at Castiel's scratched up face, his beautiful face, and it was partically destroyed. Rain washed away the blood, but red streams trickled down his cheeks. Melinda wiped it all away quickly, cleaning him, treating him like he still had life. She called his name one more time, shaking him, hoping his eyes would open. Just as Dean and Sam came huddling over her, the truth had hit Melinda like a crater in the earth. Castiel was dead. There was a permanet hole straight through Melinda's heart.

"Mel." Dean called from above her. Suddenly, every sound came rushing to her ears. She could hear the people, the sirens, the rain. She could even hear her brothers. Melinda looked up at them. They couldn't tell the rain for the tears, but they knew she wasn't okay.

"Mel, we have to go." Sam crouched down beside her. He looked at Dean; Dean was making sure the police hadn't arrived yet. Now, civilians were making their cautious way down the crater to assist the Winchesters. Sam looked back at Melinda. "Listen, we've got to go, now!" He put his hand on her shoulder, gripping it with eager.

Melinda simply looked at him with tired eyes. "I.. can't leave.. him.." She barely whispered.
"Look, Melinda, the police are going to be here in about 30 seconds now we have to go." Sam said with urgence. Melinda began to cry again.

"I know you don't want to leave him, but that isn't Cas anymore! That's Jimmy's dead body." Dean hollered.

Melinda looked down at Castiel, one more time.
"Let's go!" She heard Dean shout at her.

She took Castiel's face into her hands, and lowered her head to his. Melinda glanced at his dead face.
"I'm sorry," she kissed his lips, "I'm so sorry."

Before she knew it, Melinda had been pulled away from Jimmy's body, and lifted to her feet. She never took her eyes from his body.
"No!" She yelled, reached down for him. "No! Let me stay!" She shouted even louder. In seconds, she was picked up off the ground, and thrown over Dean's shoulder. She found herself travelling backwards, watching Castiel's body being surrounded by suvillians.

Sam reached the top of the crater before Dean. Dean simply handed Melinda to Sam. Dean cralwed out of the hole and looked back at the forming crowd. Ambulences, police, and even the fire department had just arrived. Paramedics rushed to Jimmy's body, but they were far too late. With a face of disgusted sympathy, Dean turned away and followed Sam and Melinda back to the impala.