"Hey, are you okay? You seem really distracted."

Sophia's head snapped around from where it had been almost entirely turned around, looking out the window. Dean had his fork halfway up to his mouth, but his wide eyes were trained directly on her, filled with concern.

"Yeah, I'm good," Sophia muttered, turning her attention back to her food but still feeling the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. "Just a little out of it."

She was more than a little out of it. It had been a few days since she thought someone had followed her home and she discovered the connections between herself and the victims of the United States' latest serial killer, and it was driving her mad. She panicked every time she saw a car that looked even remotely similar to the one that had appeared to follow her, and Graham was constantly appearing in the corner of her eye. She couldn't focus on anything, not herself, not her job, not on Dean.

Dean. She still hadn't told him. She didn't have a good reason as to why, but every time she tried, the words didn't come out. It would make it too real, he would make her do something about it, or worse, she really was just overreacting and it would cause a lot of worry for no reason at all.

"You haven't eaten much."

Sophia stared down at her plate. Her pancakes remained mostly untouched. "I guess I'm just tired, is all," she said. Her red-rimmed eyes spoke truth to the statement, and it certainly wasn't a lie. "It was a long night."

Dean frowned at her. "You want to go home?"

Sophia shook her head and forced her attention on him. "No," she said firmly. "We rarely get to do this, I want to enjoy it."

The pair sat at a table in Sophia's favorite diner, both having got off work at the same time early in the morning. Sophia had come for breakfast after a night shift less and less since she met Dean, always preferring to spend time with him at home instead of going to the diner. But today presented the perfect opportunity to go together.

"I really do want to be here with you," Sophia said quietly once she realized she had let silence permeate for too long. "Just, rough shift, I guess."

Dean nodded and reached across the table to grab her hand. "Don't worry about it. But I do want you to eat something."

Obediently, Sophia speared a piece of pancake and shoved it into her mouth. "Better?" she mumbled.

"Better."

Sophia focused on one steady breath at a time as she made her way through the pancakes, enjoying Dean's silent company despite her own anxiety.

"Hey, Soph?"

Sophia looked up at him from her almost empty plate. "Yeah?"

He looked nervous and shifted around in his seat. "Never mind," he said. "Now's probably not a good time."

"A good time for what?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about something, but it's fine."

His nervousness was infectious. Oh God, what if Carson had said something to him about the serial killer? Was that what this was about?

But Dean continued to ramble. "Or, maybe this is a good time, I'm too tired to be so nervous that I can't get this out, but I also don't want you to think—"

"Dean!"

"What do you think about getting married?"

Oh. Sophia's jaw dropped as she stared at him, all thoughts about serial killers and stalkers and Graham wiped from her mind at Dean's words. She didn't even remember to feel the curtain of anxiety that had wrapped around her for the past few days.

"Like, I'm not asking you to marry me," Dean continued on, his rambling on increasing in speed. "That's the whole point of this, so I don't just spring it on you and force you to make a split-second decision 'cause that's like, not cool at all. But I guess it's something that I've been thinking about for a while now and honestly, there's no one that I could ever see spending my life with besides you and I just, I want to spend my life with you, and you're taking a really long time to answer to I'm just going to keep talking—"

"Dean." The word came out in a whisper, but Sophia couldn't muster much more.

As cheesy as it was, she could picture it. Dressed in white and walking down the aisle toward him, them buying a house together, maybe having children one day. They had talked about it, and while neither of them was in a hurry to expand their family, it's something they both considered wanting later in life, potentially by non-biological methods. Traveling together, cooking together, doing everything together.

He stared at her with wide, hopeful eyes, completely vulnerable to whatever she was about to say.

"So, you know you want to propose but you want to make sure we're on the same page so you're asking permission to propose to me, essentially?" Sophia asked, unable to keep the grin from sneaking onto her face.

Dean thought about it. "I guess?" he asked. "I mean, you're the only one who can give permission, so..."

"Dean." Sophia's hands started to shake, so she clasped them together, trying to keep herself from completely falling apart as fireworks exploded in her stomach. "Yes. Of course, I, I've wanted to spend the rest of my life with you for a really long time, now."

Dean's eyes sparked at her as Sophia covered her mouth with her hand, the grin expanding and not going away any time soon. "I guess this means I have to start sending you engagement ring inspiration, huh?"

"Oh, God, please do," Dean told her. "I want you to love it."

Giddiness bubbled up into Sophia's chest, so much so that her exhaustion was long forgotten. Her gaze flickered down to her left hand, her imagination running wild with the thought of a ring there.

"I guess that's that, then." Dean couldn't keep the adoration out of his stare. "Everything is so easy with you. Now all I have to do is plan out a proposal."

"Why do I have a feeling you've had one planned out for a while."

"I plead the fifth."

With her stomach and heart full, Sophia walked out of the diner hand in hand with Dean, only to find her anxiety rushing back to her as they entered the parking lot, causing her to physically stumble.

"Woah, you alright?" Dean gripped her hand to keep her from falling.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sophia shifted from foot to foot. "I'm just, I'm a little worried about driving home right now." She swallowed hard, not letting herself think about how that was technically a lie. She worried about driving home, but not because of sleep.

Dean frowned. "You really are exhausted, aren't you?"

Sophia gave a small shrug. She hadn't been sleeping well, and the constant anxiety was taking its toll on her ability to rest as well.

"I'll drive us both," Dean said firmly. "We can just leave your car parked here for a little while, and then once we've both gotten some rest we can come back and get it, okay?"

Sophia doubted her anxiety would go down much after just a short nap, but she nodded anyway. Her paranoia only increased as she got tired, so at least coming back to drive the car home would allow her to be in a slightly better mental state.

Dean wrapped his arm around her as they walked to his car, and he delicately helped her into the passenger's seat. "You're sure nothing else is going on?" Dean asked her as he started driving.

Sophia shook her head, flinching inwardly at the next lie. She kept her eyes trained on the side mirror, on the lookout for anything suspicious looking. "I just need rest," she repeated. "I don't really feel myself, right now, but sleep will help."

"You didn't, you didn't give me permission to propose to you just because you were exhausted, right?"

Sophia's head turned away from the mirror at the uncertainty lacing his words. He kept his eyes on the road, but his mouth bent into a frown. "No," she said firmly, hating that she was making him doubt how she felt about him. "Trust me, exhaustion came rushing back, but I've never been more awake than when you said you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me."

Dean's shoulders dropped and his eyes flickered over to her. "Good," he said. "Well, not good that you're so tired, but good—"

"Dean," Sophia cut him off, "I get it." Her attention went back to the mirror. "I would never lie to you about how I feel about you," she said softly. "You're too important to me to ever do that."

He gave her a soft smile. "Good," he said. "Neither would I. I'm completely yours, Sophia. And I have a feeling I always will be."