⌜ chapter four ⌟

"I like when we come out to look at the stars." Ellie says, laying on her back on the hood of her father's car.

"I do too, mama." MJ says as she brushes her daughter's bangs off of her forehead.

"We should do it more." She says, and her mom sighs. "I really wish you would stay with us for longer, Mommy."

"I know, baby. I'm sorry."

"Your mom's work is very important." Matt says. "She helps a lot of people."

MJ sighs as she turns to her head to face him, her eyes closed. He presses his lips to her forehead, and she tries to find comfort in the small notion.

The three of them are laying on the car and they have their daughter between them. MJ and Matt are angled so their heads are near each other, and she's resting hers on his shoulder. Ellie has her head on her mom's stomach and she's laying crooked with her legs across her dad's lap. Jr. isn't with them, he's sick so he stayed with Matt's mom.

"What does Mommy do?" Ellie asks.

"She saves people from very bad guys."

"Like a superhero?"

"No, baby. I'm not a superhero." MJ says as she looks back up at the stars. "I'm not a hero." She mutters, and Matt tightens his hold on her, pulling her closer to him.

"You're our hero." He whispers in her ear and then kisses the side of her head.

"What are you doin' way out here?" Daryl asks as he walks over to MJ. She's laying on a car looking up at the night sky.

"On clear nights like this, my brothers and I would take the car and we'd drive out to the middle of nowhere." She tells him. "We wouldn't say anything, never needed to. We just sat back, had a couple beers, looked at the stars. The kids always loved it whenever we took them."

"Kids?"

"My two, and Dean's daughter." She smiles at the memory. "The first time we took Dana out, she was mesmerized. So, when Matty and Ellie got older, we took them too. Our dad was never one for sitting down and just doing nothing, but he liked that we went. I could tell. Our life was far from perfect, but it wasn't all terrible either."

Daryl looks up at the sky and then glances at MJ. She hasn't taken her eyes off of the stars once since he walked over to her.

"Addy and Matthew liked coming out too. It became our own little tradition." The blonde sighs.

"Who?"

"Dean's wife, and my husband." She glances at him. "We both met them when we were fifteen. That's how old we each were when we had our kids. Dana and Matty anyway. I was seventeen when Matt and I had Ellie."

"How old are you now?"

"Twenty-nine."

"So, your son's, what, fourteen?"

She hesitates for a second. "He was."

"I'm sorry." He says, and she leaves it there, not wanting to talk about it anymore. And he doesn't push it. "You said that Crowley's the king of hell. He said you've been there."

"Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to." She says as he leans against the side of the car.

"I want to know."

"You think you want to know." MJ shakes her head. "Nobody really wants to know the things that I know."

"I know what I saw." He says. "I ain't gonna be forgettin' that anytime."

She sighs. "Crowley's a demon. So was the one that I killed." She tells him.

"Demons." He scoffs.

"You don't have to believe me, just don't tell any—"

"Who said I don't believe you?" He asks, and she looks at him. "People show up to talk to you and then disappear into thin air. I saw that thing you killed... Wendigo."

MJ sighs as she looks back up at the night sky. She's never liked telling people about the monsters that are out there lurking in the dark, but the world's changing.

"What is a wendigo anyway?" Daryl asks.

"Just a different type of monster. Another that eats people." She tells him.

"And the demons?" He looks at her. "What do they want with you?"

"Most just want to kill me and my family, but Crowley... I have information that he wants." She sighs. "And I have someone that he wants dead."

"Jack?" He asks, and she nods. "Why?"

She shakes her head, not willing to answer that question.

"You actually been to hell?"

"Yeah."

"How?" He asks, and she takes a deep breath.

"Crowley's a crossroads demon — he was the crossroads demon. King." She tells him. "If you get the necessary stuff and bury it in the center of a crossroads, a demon will come to bargain. You can ask for whatever you want — fame, fortune, love... Whatever you ask for, you get it for ten years. Then, when your deal comes due... Hellhounds show up to collect your end of the bargain. They kill you and drag your soul to hell."

"And that's what happened to you?"

"My younger brother died, and Dean couldn't live with it. Growing up, our job was to watch out for Sam. And when we failed... He made a deal with a demon and brought him back, but he didn't get ten years." She tells him. "He got one."

"You made a deal to save him?" He asks, and she shakes her head.

"No demon would make that deal. Me and my brothers — we've made a lot of enemies, the demons hate us." She pauses for a moment before continuing. "Sam and I looked for any way to save Dean, but there was nothing to find. And I-I couldn't lose him and be there for Sam. I just couldn't. So, I went to make a deal, and Crowley showed up. I made a deal to bring my dad back. He had died saving Dean a couple years earlier, and I thought... I thought he could be there for Sam better than I could. I should've known better."

"How long did you get?"

"Two months." She says. "Crowley would only give me till the end of Dean's deal. My brothers and my dad... They were pissed, but what was done was done. There was no going back and there was no deal to be made to replace mine. It was a clause in my contract with Crowley. And Matt... He took the kids and he left. He was furious, and rightfully so. Dean and I died in May of 2008. We came back four months later."

"So people come back after their deal?" He asks, and she half laughs.

"Sort of." She looks at him. "Demons are the twisted and darkened souls of humans who have made deals in the past. Most souls spend centuries in hell and eventually they change. When they come back, they're evil and they possess people. They kill for fun."

"But you and Dean were different?"

"Time moves differently down there — it moves faster. It was four months here, but it was forty years for us. Forty years of torture." Tears fill her eyes as she thinks back to it. "I'd be there and these demons, they... They'd cut into me and they'd slice pieces away. I was torn to shreds bit by bit. And then the next day, I was back like nothing happened. I was suddenly whole again, but I remembered every agonizing moment of the day before... And then I was crawling out of my grave in Illinois. Dean and I, we were just back."

"How?" He asks, and she lets out a humorless chuckle as she wipes tears from her cheeks. "You still think I ain't gonna believe what you tell me?"

"We didn't understand it. We shouldn't have been back." She looks at him. "So, we went looking for answers. And we found...Cas."

"Cas?"

She nods. "Castiel." She says. "An angel."

"What?" His eyebrows furrow as he looks at her.

She shrugs. "If there's hell..." She sighs. "We didn't believe it at first either. Eventually..."

"Angels are real." He scoffs, but he believes her. "Angels, demons, wendigos, walkers."

"Gabriel's an angel." She tells him, and he looks at her. "The archangel."

"That's why you're afraid of him?"

She shakes her head. "Gabriel doesn't scare me, he annoys me." She says. "His brothers, on the other hand... Different story."

"Are they the ones​ that Jack's afraid of?"

"Among others."

"You said that Gabriel is Jack's uncle." He says, and she sighs as she looks down.

"Damn it." She mutters.

"He's an angel?" He questions.

"Jack's a Nephilim. Half angel, half human." She reluctantly tells him. "But he doesn't have his grace anymore. He's human."

"You think the angels want him dead?"

"I think they want us both dead. Dean killed an angel — Zachariah. Cas rebelled against heaven to help us stop their plans, and they killed him for it." She says. "And Sam..."

"What did he do?" He asks. "Why would they want you dead?"

She shakes her head. "If I tell you... You'll make us leave." She wipes away more tears as she looks at him, and he sees the fear growing on her face. "Jack likes it here, he likes you guys. And I... I finally feel like I have something again. I don't want to leave. Please..." She begs.

"Why are you so sure I'd ask you to go?" He asks, confused by her words, as well as the sudden water works.

"Daryl..."

"What?"

"We're not dangerous. We're not bad. That's why I took Jack and left." She tells him. "He is good. And we would never do anything to hurt anyone. I'm just trying to protect him, he's only a kid. And he is always terrified."

"Okay." He says, and she sighs in relief.

"Thank you." She says, and he nods before walking away from her.

He believes every word of what she just said — all of the monsters, and everything about heaven and hell. He believes that she and Jack are good people, that they aren't a threat. After everything that he's seen from the two of them, it's hard to think otherwise. But it's obvious that whatever secret she's been keeping is big and has the potential to be really bad.

For some reason that he can't quite explain, he wants to help her. He wants to make sure that she and Jack don't end up getting hurt. But he knows he's in way over his head.