To the Death

Kacey stayed at Ethan’s that night, needing space to clear her head and get her focus back on the upcoming battle, whilst Dean returned to Bobby’s to help with research. Lying on her bed staring at the ceiling, she found her mind wandering back to when she was younger, and the way she had grown up.

Although she had only really been hunting for a short period of time, her dad had made her fully aware of what lurked in the darkness when she was small, and she had never thought about the affect that had had on her.

By the age of ten he had taught her to shoot, hunt and kill, taking away her innocence and moulding her into a soldier just like Dean. Thinking back to her childhood, it made her wonder if her dad had known about what was coming, and had simply trained her early to prepare her for it.

She didn’t sleep much that night, but she did get a lot of thinking done, and by early morning she had decided what she was going to do. Leaving Ethan’s at three o’clock that morning, Kacey made her way back to Bobby’s, and headed inside.

Everything was quiet as she entered the house, and so she made her way upstairs to Dean’s room, where she found him sleeping. Closing the door quietly behind her, she approached his bed and shook his shoulder lightly to wake him up, almost screaming when he rolled over with his gun pointing at her face.

“Dean it’s just me,” Kacey said quickly with her hands raised in the air.

“Jesus Christ Kace, I could have blown your damn head off… what the hell?”

“Dean, if I was a demon I wouldn’t be shaking you awake would I?” Kacey stated as Dean put his gun away and turned his attention back to her.

“What are you doing here so early?” Dean asked.

“I need you and Sam to come somewhere with me.”

“Like right now?” Dean added looking at her confused.

“Yeah right now.”

“If you didn’t know already there is a war coming Kacey… we don’t have time to be slipping out and taking road trips,” Dean snapped before letting Kacey explain.

“You know something… you’re right it’s not, so you’re going to stay here and I’m going to go. You can sit by and wait for this war to happen, looking through books that we all know don’t hold the answer, whilst at least one of us is out there trying to prevent it,” Kacey replied leaving the room and grabbing her stuff.

She had reached the truck, when she heard footsteps approaching and stop a few feet behind her. Kacey turned to find Dean watching her, as she put her bags in the back of the truck and slammed the door.

“When are you going to be back?” He inquired.

“I’m not sure… things around here have become a little too crowded for my liking, plus I don’t know how long it will take for me to find the person I’m looking for.”

“I didn’t mean to snap at you the way I did, the truth is that if my dad wasn’t here I’d be in that truck already, but he is and his given me an order.”

“You’re not going to like what I’m about to say, but I’m going to say it anyway… at some point you need to step out from your dad’s shadow, and start making your own decisions,” Kacey said walking forward and taking his hands, “Don’t get mad at me… I just don’t want to see you and Sam get hurt by him.”

“He’s my dad Kace,” Dean mumbled.

“I know and I get it, I was the same way with my dad until he left me to hunt on my own, and that hurt me more than anyone will ever know… especially him. I don’t want to see you and Sam go through that.”

“We’ll be okay… can you do me a favour?” Dean asked squeezing her hands gently.

“What is it?”

“Don’t say goodbye… with everything that’s going on, the last thing I want to hear is you saying goodbye.”

“How about we stick with see you later?”

Dean chuckled, nodding once before pulling Kacey into a hug, and kissing her head. Kacey stayed in his arms for a few minutes, before pulling back and kissing his cheek.

“Be careful okay, we need everybody in this fight.”

Kacey nodded knowing that that wasn’t the real reason he wanted her to be careful, and climbed into the truck, sending Dean one last smile before pulling away. If she was honest she didn’t know if she would be back, you never really knew how things would turn out with hunting, but she didn’t need to tell Dean that.

Just like he didn’t have to tell her how he felt, she knew how much he cared about her, and she also knew that it wasn’t his style to announce it. It was strange how hard Dean tried to hide his emotions, and yet Kacey could read him like she was inside his head. Focusing on the road ahead, Kacey couldn’t help wondering if the trip would be as easy as she hoped, but with demons on her tail she found it extremely doubtful.

It took her four hours to drive to Nebraska, but it was another hour before she finally came across Harvelles Roadhouse, parking her truck up outside and climbing out. Looking up at the building in front of her, Kacey wasn’t so sure that turning up un-announced was a good idea, but with a deep breath she pushed open the door and approached the bar.

“Can I help you sweetie?” A brunette haired woman asked.

“I’m not sure, I’m looking for Shane Lawson and I heard that he comes here quite often… Do you know where I can find him?” Kacey inquired.

“Why would you be looking for Shane… he’s not the sort of person you want to cross paths with?”

“His my dad, I just need to ask him some questions, then I’ll be gone,” Kacey mumbled feeling a little nervous with all the guns surrounding her.

“My names Ellen, come on through he’s just got back from a job.”

“I’m Kacey.”

Kacey hesitantly followed Ellen through to the kitchen, freezing in the doorway when she spotted her dad sitting at the small table, which was positioned in the centre of the small square room. Silence fell over the room as he looked up; anger clear in his eyes when he spotted Kacey, and from that moment she knew that the trip had been a bad idea.