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Erin

Dean had been unconscious for nearly a day. Despite needing massive blood transfusions and almost eighty stitches he had been labeled a difficult patient when he tried to leave on his own immediately after getting stitched up. The doctors were now wisely keeping him sedated to give his body a chance to heal.

I was sitting in one of the chairs beside his bed with my legs folded up underneath me. The door opened and I turned to see Sam. He had dutifully been manning the chair on the other side of the bed. He handed me a cup of coffee.

"Thanks," I said wrapping my palms around it.

Sam nodded, taking a sip of his own. Exhaustion lined his face, as did the stress of seeing his brother in the hospital again. I remembered what Dean had told me about his last time in the hospital. Sam had nearly lost him. If it wasn't for the deal John made with the demon he would have. It accounted for the low level worry coming off of Sam like static electricity, that no matter how hard I shielded I couldn't ignore.

"I just got off the phone with Bobby," Sam said taking a sip of his coffee.

I lifted my eyebrows. Bobby had been called away suddenly last night. Neither he nor Sam had given me any details. So either it was something they didn't trust me with, or they were worried I was too fragile after what had happened. I probably could have dropped my wall and found out, but honestly I had been too exhausted to care. 

"You know that witch out in Kulm?" He asked.

I nodded.

"She's dead."

I froze for a minute in shock. "Seriously?" I asked breathlessly, remembering her ominous last words. "It was us," I said.

Sam scowled. "You didn't kill her, Bobby said she was torn apart, looked like a wild animal. At least that's what the police are calling it."

Bile rose in my throat. Demons. "It's my fault," I said. Everyone I came across paid the price, I looked down at Dean, even him.

"You don't know that, Bobby said she had all kinds of shady contacts."

I shot him an incredulous look. We both knew why she had ended up dead. Erin Beckett strikes again. I closed my eyes. I was so tired of death and violence and pain.

Sam cleared his throat. "Any change?" He asked gesturing to his brother, even though he had only been gone for half an hour.

I welcomed the distraction from my dark thoughts and slid my hand over Dean's. I shook my head after a moment pulling my hands back into my lap. "Still nothing," I reported for maybe the fiftieth time.

"And you're sure it's just because he's drugged?" Sam pressed.

I nodded. "I would feel if he were dreaming, and..." I worried my lip, uncertain if I should say the next piece.

"And...?" Sam asked.

I trusted Sam in a way, but had only ever gone into detail about my power with Dean. "Well, I can feel ghosts," I told him.

Sam pulled back with a frown. "You can?"

I nodded. "Yeah, if I'm not shielding hospitals are pretty tough places for me to be, but I would know." I promised him gently.

Instead of looking reassured, like I had hoped, Sam looked thoughtful. "You could tell when people were possessed," he pointed out.

"Yeah, I don't get anything from them unless they touch me. Then I can't block the demon."

"But you threw that demon out of you."

I looked down at my hands, I had been waiting for the third degree, honestly I had expected it from Bobby. "I don't know what happened or what I did," I told him meekly.

Sam's expression softened. "Can you feel any other creatures?" He asked after a moment.

I frowned thoughtfully. "I've never really tried," I told him honestly.

Sam nodded. "I mean not that it matters," he said. "It's done and you're leaving so-" he dragged off when he saw the expression on my face.

He was right of course, none of this mattered anymore. It was over. We hadn't exactly won, but we had survived.

Sam cleared his throat uncomfortably and moved away as I shifted in my seat.

"I-" he started to say but stopped. Instead he pulled out his phone. "I should call Bobby, give him an update."

I was polite enough not to point out that he had just been on the phone with Bobby. I needed a minute to myself anyway.

"Hey Sam," I called, stopping him before he reached the door. He turned back to face me, embarrassment still heating his face. "Can I borrow your laptop?"

Relief lighted his face and he nodded. He reached down into his bag beside the bed and logged in for me. I set it up on the table beside me and opened up the search bar. I stared at the blinking cursor for a few minutes before I began typing. Sam was right, It was over. It was time to move on and sort out the rest of my life.

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Dean

I was in the hospital for two days. By the end of it I was going stir crazy, but Erin never left my side. While I drifted in and out that first day, every time I opened my eyes she was sitting in the chair next to the bed, working away on Sam's computer.

When they brought me in I had lost a lot of blood and needed seventy-seven stitches. Sam had made up some bullshit story about a bicycle accident, no one looked like they bought it, but there was no evidence of what else could have caused all the cuts.

Some time when I was out Erin had decided she wasn't going back to Montana or Jack's house. She wanted a clean slate and a fresh start. I couldn't say I blamed her. In the week it took me to get back on my feet Erin had set herself up a whole new life. New house, new car, new job, she was ready to start over.

It was a little over six hours to Duluth from Sioux Falls. Sam and I were in the impala, following her new, very sensible SUV to her new home. I had given her a hard time about the SUV, offering several times to fix up the old mustang in Bobbys scrapyard were we had shared our first kiss. She just laughed and turned me down. Now I was glad, winters on the north shore could be brutal and I felt better knowing she had something that would do well in the snow. She told me I was being a mother hen and kissed me, she was probably right.

She had told us she didn't need any help moving in, but the truth was I wouldn't be comfortable until I saw where she was living. And I couldn't just stand in the driveway of Bobbies and wave goodbye, too much had happened between us to just walk away.

Sam and I hadn't talked about what happened with Yellow Eyes. Honestly we hadn't had much of a chance. Bobby has been hovering all week and while I loved Bobby, I didn't trust anyone with Sam's secret.

"So what did he do exactly?" I finally worked up the courage to ask when we were just a little ways outside of St. Cloud.

Sam looked up from the book he was reading. "What?"

"The demon," I clarified. "You felt something, right?"

Sam closed the book. "I'm not really sure," he said honestly. "It was like a strange flash of anger, but that was it."

"Anger?" I asked in disbelief. "I don't buy for one minute that Yellow Eyes went to all that trouble to make a couple of psychic kids feel angry for a second."

"Yeah, but not just anger, like Hatred. It was weird," he said shaking his head.

"Well do you feel anything now?" I asked a little sharper than I should have. The fact that Sam had this whole other piece of himself that we knew nothing about was disconcerting.

Part of me wished he had been there to meet Clara, maybe we could have gotten some more answers, but another part of me didn't want to push it. Didn't want to know what it meant that this big daddy demon had been able to reach out telepathically or whatever to Sam.

Sam shook his head with a shrug. "No, I feel fine."

I frowned and turned back to the road. It didn't feel fine. I was bummed to say goodbye to Beckett, but the selfish part of me wanted to get her as far away from this crap as possible.

"But," Sam started to say. "Do you have any idea what he meant about all that stuff about Erin?"

"What stuff?" I asked innocently, but my knuckles turned white as I tightened my grip on the steering wheel.

"You know that stuff about her power and how she was different from the others. Did you know she told me she can feel the difference between demons and ghosts? I did some digging this week and I can't find a reference anywhere of that being among an Empaths powers. What do you think she is?"

"She's psychic, that's it. We don't need to complicate things."

Sam frowned in confusion. "Yeah, but the things he said..."

"Demons lie Sam," I snapped a little too quickly. Maybe it was because I didn't want to think too hard about it. I certainly didn't think Beckett was dangerous or evil, but I wanted to think of her exactly as she was.

We sat in an awkward silence for almost half an hour before Sam spoke again. "So this next job in Baltimore, what do you think, ghosts?" He tried. When I still didn't respond he cleared his throat. "You really care about her, huh?" Sam asked a little more gently.

I squirmed in my seat. I opened my mouth to deny it, but he didn't bother waiting for a response.

"You meet someone like her, does it ever make you wonder if it's worth it? Putting it all on hold to do what we do?"

I swallowed, because I honestly didn't know if I had an answer.

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Erin

I glanced in my rear view mirror and watched the Impala for probably the millionth time. I had tried to convince Dean they didn't need to go with me, but he claimed they were in their way to their next job and insisted. It was the only time I hadn't pointed out when he was lying to me.

I was determined to do this on my own. Dean may have taken care of me when we were running from the demon, but I was going to be responsible for the rest of my life. I wasn't going to drag the Winchester's down with me. They had been kind to me and helped me, now it was my turn.

Something had happened to the connection between us since what happened with the demon. I could still feel his emotions even though we were in separate cars. I had been able to feel him, even outside of the hospital. I had never been able to feel someone from so far away. I wasn't sure how far it extended. I guess I would find out when he drove away.

The townhouse was exactly as advertised. The super had left the keys under the mat as we discussed. It was more expensive than I probably needed to spend, but it was furnished and on the hill and the upstairs room had a view of the lake. The lake was the real reason I had chosen Duluth, and I wanted to enjoy every minute of it.

It took the three of us two trips to unload my stuff. Sam excused himself with a lame excuse of needing to make a phone call, leaving Dean and I standing in my new living room.

"Well I guess this is it," I said lamely as I rocked back on my heels. I didn't know what to do or say. Dean had become such a huge piece of my life over the last two weeks. I truly wasn't ready for what it would feel like to have him walk out my door.

Dean stood over me. He reached out and cupped my cheek in his warm hand. "I-" he started to say and he stopped, unable to find the words.

But I didn't need words. I could feel everything he wanted to say and didn't know how. I reached up and covered his hand with mine. "I know," I told him. "It's okay."

And it was.

Dean turned away from me, letting me go and paced a line across the room and back. "My dad and Sam..." he dragged off.
"They both lost the-" he stopped himself, pressing his lips together. "They lost people," he said. "People they cared about. I swear Winchester's are cursed. What we do...I just can't," he confessed and I could feel how much it broke his heart to say those words.

I reached up and cupped the side of his face and he let me. He knowingly let me feel everything he was feeling in that moment.

"Dean, my power is curse. It has killed every single person I have ever cared about directly or indirectly. It nearly killed you more than once. I can't either," I told him gently and I wrapped my arms around his waist and let him pull me into his chest. He rested the side of his face against the top of my head.

"Quite the pair we make," he tried to lighten the mood, but I could feel the heaviness around us.

"Tell you what," I said into his shirt. "I'm going to get settled, and you call me the next time you're in Minnesota. Okay?"

He looked down at me in surprise. He had been all ready for me to be angry with him because he had to go. As though I would begrudge him his life.

"Dean, I know what you do, I have no delusions about what that means." I pushed myself up onto my tiptoes and brushed my lips against his.

"I-" he started to say and I could feel his remorse.

"I know." I promised him and I flashed him a brave smile because I knew that's what he needed to be able to leave. And if he didn't leave soon I was going to start crying. "I'll be seeing you Dean," I said and I gently pushed him towards the door.

Dean glanced back over his shoulder at me, indecision and regret swirling around him. "I almost wish I could stay."

I snorted and shook my head. "Liar," I called after him. He chuckled and I was glad we could end it this way.

Dean chuckled and nodded as he started down the stairs. "Bye Sweetheart," he called to me and I waved.

I watched him climb into the Impala and drive away down the street and out of sight.

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Erin and Dean will return.

There you have it. The end of the very first Dean and Erin adventure. I hope you enjoyed it!

I have several stories planned, some of which overlap already existing episodes. Let me know if there are any specific episodes/storylines you would like to see Erin in!

Thank you as always for being such amazing readers. It's your incredible support that keeps me writing!