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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄

𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘴

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"I don't understand, Dean. Why not?" Delaney snapped at Dean, pissed that once again he wouldn't listen to a plan she had to save his life. It was as if she was the only one that cared at this point that Dean was going to die in less than a year.

"Because I said so!"

Delaney waved the Colt around in her hand and stared incredulously at her older brother. "We got the Colt now. We can summon the crossroads demon, pull the gun on her, and force her to let you out of the deal."

"You don't even know that it'll work! We aren't summoning anything!" Dean yelled over Delaney's argument, shooting her a stern gaze to drop the subject. Though, Dean should have known by now that Delaney was extremely stubborn and wouldn't give up.

"Well, we'll just shoot her! If she dies, the deal goes away!"

"We don't know if that will work either, Delaney! All you're pitching me is a bunch of ifs and maybes! That's not good enough! Because if we screw with this deal, you die! I'm not losing you, Delaney, not again! Not ever, okay? So drop the subject if you know what's good for you."

"Yeah? Well, if we don't screw with it, you die!" Delaney barked, face burning red with anger and frustration.

Sam ran his hands over his face and whined in frustration, head pounding from his siblings' incessant screaming the past twenty minutes. He had tried to intervene a few times at this point, but had given up when his attempts went unheard, especially by Delaney who was pissed at him for siding with Dean. Never had he been more happy to be sat in the backseat for once.

"Delaney, enough! I am not gonna have this conversation!"

Delaney scoffed and sent Dean a sarcastic look. "Oh, how come? 'Cause you said so?"

"Yes, because I said so!" Dean screamed, visibly annoyed with Delaney not dropping the subject.

"Well, you're not Dad!" Delaney argued and crossed her arms like a child who hadn't gotten what they wanted.

"Delly..." Sam warned quietly, shaking his head to signal her to stop while she's ahead. 

It was a known fact by now that Dean had finally sort of accepted the fact that John was dead and gone. Delaney's whole life, Dean had tried to be the best father figure he could be for her because John was always off on a hunt to find Azazel for killing Mary. He practically raised her and the fact she threw in his face that he wasn't her father, did sting a bit even though she was right. He didn't expect Delaney to look at him as John, but he did hope she saw him as a father figure as well as her brother.

"No, but I am the oldest and I'm doing what's best for you. You are to let this go, Delaney Elizabeth Winchester. You understand me?"

Delaney huffed and turned away from her brother, propping her chin in her hand and staring out the window as Dean continued to speed down the dark, empty highway. She had half a mind to strangle Dean for not even bothering to listen to her. He only cared about what he wanted and the fact that Sam sided with him, pissed her off even more. Since when did Sam side with Dean and not her?

"Tell me about the psychotic killer," Dean instructed in a calmer tone than he had used previously. He glanced to his sister when she didn't make a move to reply to him. "Come on, Della, tell me about the psychotic killer."

Delaney rolled her eyes and snatched the newspaper that sat on the seat between her and Dean. "The psychotic killer rips victims with brute-like ferocity,"she read monotonously.

"Okay, any mention of his razor-sharp teeth or his four inch claws, animal eyes?" Sam asked, pulling himself forward so he could read over Delaney's shoulder.

"No, but the lunar cycle's right. If it is a werewolf, we don't have much time. Full moon is this Friday, and that's the last time it changes for a month," Delaney said.

"Two days. No sweat."

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"I'm detective Plant. These are detectives Page and Bonham," Dean informed the man, Kyle, that laid in his hospital bed before them. He had been the only survivor from the animal attack. "We're with the county sheriff's department."

"Yeah, uh, I've been expecting you," Kyle replied.

Delaney tilted her head and stared at the man in confusion. "You have?"

Kyle shifted in bed so he was more comfortable against his pillows and winced slightly when he brushed against the cut on his forehead that had been stitched up. "All morning. You are the sketch artists, right?"

"Absolutely! That is exactly who my partner is. The things she can do with a pen," Dean chuckled nervously and pat Delaney on the back who glared at him. "But listen, before we get started on that, I wanted to ask you - how'd you get away?"

"I - I have no idea. I was hiding and he found me. He was coming right for me and then just stopped. Stared at me with a blank look. After that, he just took off running."

"Okay," Delaney whispered and pulled out a pad and pen from her suit jacket pocket. "I need as much physical detail as you can remember."

"Uh, yeah, uh... he was about six foot tall... dark hair."

Delaney scribbled down as best of a sketch as she could, but she was definitely no Picasso. No way this was going to come out remotely good, but she had to try. "Uh, what about his eyes? What color eyes did he have?"

"Maybe... blue? It was dark."

"Did they seem, uh, animal-ish?" Dean asked, stuffing his hands into his pant pockets.

"Excuse me?" Kyle asked, screwing up his face in confusion.

Delaney stepped in front of her brothers and smiled innocently. "Ignore them. You notice anything odd about his teeth?"

"No, they were just teeth."

"How about his fingernails?" Sam questioned next.

Kyle closed his eyes and shook his head at the trio, visibly growing tired of their questions. "Okay, look, he's - he's a normal guy with normal eyes and teeth and fingernails. Those were my brothers. This guy... he killed my brothers. How would you feel?"

Delaney was quiet for a long moment as her eyes momentarily glanced to her brothers out of the corner of her eye. The thought alone sent a wave of nausea and pain through her. "Can't imagine anything worse."

Dean side-eyed his sister, not liking the way her eyes still seemed to be far away. It was almost as if her body was here, but her mind was still far away in her thoughts on how to save him. "I know this isn't easy, but if you could remember any more details..."

"There was one more thing. He had a - a tattoo on his arm of a cartoon character. Uh, ugh, it's the guy who - he's chasing the Roadrunner."

Dean grinned and pointed a finger at Kyle as he instantly knew who the man spoke of. "Wile E. Coyote!"

"Yeah, that's it."

"Kyle?" the doctor called, walking into the room behind the Winchesters. "How you holdin' up?"

"Okay, Dr. Garrison, considering..." Kyle trailed off, not wanting to say out loud what happened. The wound still clearly fresh for him.

Sam smiled sadly at Kyle before he turned to Dr. Garrison. "You're Kyle's doctor? You mind if we ask you a few questions?"

Dr. Garrison nodded and motioned for the brothers to walk out ahead of him, shooting Kyle a finger to let him know he'd be back in a moment.

"Don't I get to see it?" Kyle asked, pointing to Delaney's pad that she had just closed over.

"Uh..." Delaney trailed off, laughing nervously and flipping open the pad again. "Yeah, yeah. Uh, yeah, it's a, you know, work in progress."

Kyle took the pad from Delaney and Delaney could tell he tried to hide the grimace at Delaney's childlike drawing. "It's really - it... huh."

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Dean barked out a laugh as he looked down at Delaney's drawing of whatever attacked Kyle. "Aw, Della, this is real cute. It's a real piece of art."

Delaney rolled her eyes and snatched her pad back from Dean. "Yeah, like you could have done any better. What did the doc have to say about Kyle's brothers?"

"Not much. They were D.O.A. at the scene. He did give Dean and I the lowdown on the coroner's report," Sam informed.

"Let me guess, their hearts were missing," Delaney stated before Dean or Sam could say anything.

"Nope," Dean sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "Nope, but chunks of their kidneys, lungs and intestines."

Delaney scrunched up her face in disgust. "Gross."

"Yeah, also definitely not werewolf behavior," Dean concluded.

"So, what - demon? Attacker could have been possessed," Delaney suggested.

"Why would a demon stop halfway through an attack?" Sam countered.

"I think that, uh, could've - yeah, I got nothing," Delaney stammered and awkwardly scratched the side of her face when she realized what she said made zero sense.

"Me neither, Della."

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A few hours later, Delaney stood in a small house in the woods with her brothers. They had spoken to another victim where her and her husband had been drugged with pie by an older woman. The husband hadn't made it out, but she had after attacking the woman and caused her to hit her head on the oven. The wife had mentioned seeing a young girl around the age of either with dark hair and pale skin stood outside the house while it all went down.

"There's no sulfur anywhere. What about the EMF?" Dean asked Delaney as he and Sam entered the kitchen from their scope of the house.

Delaney turned away from the window with the pulsating EMF reader that had been noisy ever since she turned it on by the window the little girl apparently stood by. "Yeah, it's going nuts when I went over here by the window. There was definitely a spirit here."

"Who stood outside the crime scene and watched?" Dean asked incredulously.  "What the hell do you make of that?"

"I do have a theory, but you have to promise not to make fun of me," Delaney announced, turning to her brothers with a sheepish smile.

"No promises, baby girl."

Sam nudged Dean in the side with a deadpan expression before he flashed his sister a reassuring smile. "We promise, Delly."

"I was thinking fairytales."

Dean froze in place and eyed his sister oddly, an amused grin appearing on his face. "Oh, that's - that's nice. You think about fairytales often?"

Delaney slapped a hand to her side, expression hardening as she glared at her brother. "No, jerk,  I'm talking about the murders. A guy and a girl hiking through the woods and an old lady tries to eat them? That's Hansel and Gretel. Then we got the three brothers arguing over how to build houses attacked by the big bad wolf. That's Three Little Pigs."

"Actually, those guys were a little chubby," Dean recalled and chuckled softly to himself. "Well, wait, don't those things usually end with everybody living happily ever after?"

"No, not the originals," Sam replied and leant against the table behind him. "See, the Grimm Brothers' stuff was kind of like the folklore of its day - full of sex, violence, cannibalism. Then it got sanitized over the years, turned into Disney flicks and bedtime stories."

"So, Delaney, you think the murders are, what, a re-enactment?" Dean inquired. "It's a little crazy."

"As crazy as what? Every day of our lives?" Delaney retorted with a light scoff.

Dean seemed to consider it for a moment and nodded. "Touché. How's the creepy girl involved?"

"Um, she must have been here for a reason. I am willing to bet you top dollar she was at the construction site, too."

"We go to do research now, don't we?" Dean whined.

"Pretty much."

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Dean had spent six hours in the library and came up with nothing on what the little girl could be. No one had gone missing or died that matched up to the little girl that the woman had described to the Winchesters. Sam and Delaney had found out that there had been a British medium named Lillian Bailey from the 1930s. She had gone into these weird unconscious states where her thoughts and actions would be controlled by spirits. Practically making her a ghost puppet master. 

Delaney thought that maybe that was what the little girl did and that's why she appeared outside the window when the older woman attacked the married couple. They just needed to find out if the little girl appeared at the construction site, but Delaney was pretty sure she was there.

"This is seriously bizarre even for us," Dean said as the three walked through the park.

Delaney stopped in front of a bullfrog that blocked their path and croaked at them continuously. "Yeah, this is totally normal, Dean."

"Okay, maybe it is fairytales, but I'll tell you one thing. I am not kissing a frog."

Sam shook his head and glanced across the street, motioning for his siblings to look as well when he noticed a pumpkin sat outside on the porch of the house.

"Yeah, so? It's almost Halloween, Sammy," Dean remarked, not seeing why Sam cared about a pumpkin of all things.

"You remember Cinderella? The pumpkin turns into a coach and the mice that becomes horses," Sam recalled, pointing at the mouse that ran around near the pumpkin on the porch.

"Dude, could you be more gay?" Dean scoffed.

Sam gave Dean an unamused glance, jaw working for a moment. "Unless you forgot, that's all Delaney wanted to watch when she was four."

"It's a good movie!" Delaney argued, throwing her hands in the air. "Plus, Prince Charming is very charming."

Dean ignored his sister's comment and walked across the street with his siblings right behind him. He had picked the lock on the front door and pushed it open to peek inside, stepping inside quietly with Delaney and Sam when they didn't see anyone. "Oh, who knows, Della? Maybe you'll find your fairy godmother."

Delaney narrowed her eyes at Dean in annoyance before the siblings split up and began to search the house. A noise was heard nearby and they drew their guns out, slowly aiming them around in case something popped out. A girl drenched in sweat and arms littered with bruises was found handcuffed to a drawer in the kitchen and Delaney was quick to stuff her gun away and kneel next to girl.

"Hey, it's okay. We're here and we got you, okay?"

The girl strained against the handcuffs to try and get them off, but it was useless because they weren't going anywhere. "You have to help me. She's a lunatic. My stepmom - she just freaked out, screamed at me, beat me, chained me up."

Delaney fumbled in her pockets for her lock pick kit and gave the girl a worried look. "Where is she now?"

"Della..."

Delaney glanced up to Dean and went to question him about what was wrong when she followed his gaze to see the little girl the wife had told them about. She was dressed in a white dress with a red ribbon around the middle and had a red ribbon in her dark as night hair.

The boys ran off after the little girl while Delaney helped get the sobbing girl out of her handcuffs and called the paramedics. She sat outside on the porch with her and stayed until they had loaded her into the back of the ambulance before she made her way back to her brothers where they stood by the Impala. Dean played with a red apple in his hand when she approached them again.

"Paramedics took Cinderella."

"That's good," Dean said and tossed the apple in the air again. "So... little girl, shiny red apple. That means something to you, fairytale-princess?"

Delaney caught the apple when Dean tossed it to her and rolled it between her hands. "I think it means Snow White."

"Snow White? Oh, I saw that movie. Well, the porn version, anyways. There was this wicked stepmother - she was wicked," Dean whistled and his grin widened so much Delaney wondered how it didn't hurt his face.

"There is a wicked stepmother and she tries to kill Snow White with a poison apple," Sam informed his brother, motioning to the red apple in their baby sister's hands. "It doesn't actually kill her, just puts her into a deep sleep - so deep, it's almost like she's dead."

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The three Winchesters went back to the hospital to find out if there were any comatose little girls that were at the hospital. It turned out there were none, just a girl named Callie that happened to be Dr. Garrison's daughter. She had been at the hospital for a long time and Dr. Garrison just didn't want to give up on the girl.

They stood outside of Callie's room to see Callie was a young adult with dark hair that were a stark contrast to the white sheets beneath her and had a white gown on her frame. Dr. Garrison sat in a chair next to her bed and read from The Complete Works and Tales from the Grimm's Brothers. Now everything made total sense on why everything turned out to be a fairytale.

Dr. Garrison noticed the siblings and placed the book down, pushing himself out of the chair and walking over to them as he removed his glasses. "Detectives, can I help you?"

"We just heard that Callie is your daughter and we wanted to say how sorry we are," Dean explained to Dr. Garrison, leaning against the doorframe.

Dr. Garrison placed his hands on his hips and glanced over his shoulder to his daughter. "Well, uh, thank you. If you'll excuse me..."

"Oh, we're heading this way. We'll walk with you," Sam offered and the three siblings surrounded Dr. Garrison as he walked. "How long has Callie been like that?"

"We don't mean to intrude," Delaney cut in, shooting Sam a chastising look for not being more considerate on how he worded that. "We can't possibly understand how hard it must be for you seeing her like this."

"Yeah, it's not easy. She's uh, been here since she was eight years old," Dr. Garrison informed the trio. "She was poisoned by swallowing bleach. I don't even know how she got her hands on the bottle. My wife found her and brought her to the ER here and I was on call."

"Your wife - was that Callie's stepmother?" Dean questioned which earned him a shocked look from Dr. Garrison. "Lucky guess."

Dr. Garrison sighed and stuffed his hands in his pant pockets. "Well, Julie was the only mother that Callie ever knew. My wife passed away last year, and, uh, it's just Callie and I now. She's all I got left. Now if you excuse me, I have to get back to work."

The trio exchanged a look before they made their way back through the corridors of the hospital. 

"Well, you were right, Della. It's Snow White in spades," Dean said.

"Yep. Stepmom poisons the girl, puts her into a deep sleep. What's the motive, you think?" Delaney asked her brothers.

"It could be like Mischa Barton. Sixth Sense and not The OC," Dean suggested and shrugged at the looks he got from Delaney and Sam. "You guys know fairytales, I know movies. She played the pasty ghost. Remember the mom had that thing, you know, where you keep the kid sick so you get all the attention?"

Sam nodded as he caught on to what Dean tried to say. "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Huh, could be."

"So, say, all these years Callie's been suffering silently because nobody knows the truth about what mommy dearest did."

"And after all this time her spirit just gets angrier and angrier until it finally just starts lashing out. Meanwhile, she has to listen to Dad tell her deranged stories about a rabid wolf or a cannibalistic old lady," Delaney finished for Dean, stopping near the exit of the hospital. "It's enough to drive anyone nuts."

"Okay, but how are we gonna stop her?" Sam inquired, raising the million dollar question. "I mean, Callie is stuck here and her father is keeping her alive. Makes it kind of hard to burn the bones, Dean."

Suddenly, a seventy-two year old woman was rolled into the hospital and she had sinus tachycardia. She appeared to have a bite on her neck to looked like a wolf or mad dog had mauled her.

"Della, what was the last story Dr. Garrison was reading Callie?"

"Little Red Riding Hood."

Dean had gotten a name of the woman's granddaughter from the paramedic that brought her in on the gurney. He dragged Sam and Delaney away from the ER and back over to the exit of the hospital. "Della, you find a way to stop Callie, alright?"

"What about you and Sammy?"

"We're gonna go stop the big bad wolf... which is the weirdest thing I've ever said," Dean grumbled and squeezed his sister's shoulder. "Be safe, yeah?"

Delaney nodded and offered her brothers an assuring smile before they split up. She made sure she had her gun tucked properly in the waistband of her jeans and made her way back through the corridors to find Dr. Garrison. Thankfully, she didn't have to look long when she saw him down one of the corridors.

"Dr, Garrison, I need to speak with you!" Delaney called as she jogged up to the doctor.

"Detective, what can I do for you?"

Delaney cleared her throat awkwardly and gestured blindly behind her to where Callie's room would be. "It's, um, about Callie."

"My daughter? What about her?"

"You know, maybe - maybe could we sit down a minute?" Delaney suggested, not wanting to do this in the busy corridors of the hospital.

"No. What about her?" Dr. Garrison demanded, clearly annoyed with Delaney's allusiveness.

Delaney sighed heavily and dropped her hand to her side. "Okay, well, um... alright, Dr. Garrison, this isn't gonna be easy. What happened to Callie wasn't an accident. I'm sorry, but it's true."

Dr. Garrison crossed his arms and looked none too pleased with Delaney in the moment. "You have no idea what happened to my daughter."

Delaney groaned to herself when Dr. Garrison turned to start down the corridor and she ran to catch up to him. "There are things you don't know about your wife. Your wife poisoned, Callie!"

Dr. Garrison whirled around and Delaney stumbled back a step at the fierce gaze on his face. "Why would you say something so horrible to me?"

"Because I need your help," Delaney replied, walking closer to Dr. Garrison when he didn't make a move to walk away. 

"You stay away from me and my daughter, you understand?" Dr. Garrison snapped, walking into Callie's room and shut the door behind him.

"Can't keep me out if you don't lock the door, genius," Delaney mumbled to herself and pushed the door open, shutting it behind her as she entered. "Please, don't call security on me. Just... please listen to me. I don't have time to do this gently and I can't be bothered to care at the moment. If you don't listen to me, more people are gonna get hurt. Callie is going to hurt them."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Dr. Garrison barked.

Delaney took a deep breath and glanced over at Callie, feeling sorry for the girl. "You're gonna think I'm crazy, but just understand me. Your daughter, Callie, is still here. She's a spirit."

D. Garrison looked over at Callie sadly and he walked over to sit end of her bed, sad eyes flickering back to Delaney. "So, you've seen her, too? I sensed her... Callie. Her presence, her scent. I even saw her standing at the foot of my bed, but I never believed it. I thought I was dreaming."

"It wasn't a dream," Delaney whispered and walked over to Callie's bed so she was stood in front of Dr. Garrison. "She looks like she did when she was eight. White dress, red ribbon in her hair. She's been trying to talk to you."

Dr. Garrison chuckled softly and shook his head. "You're not a cop, are you?"

"No," Delaney replied honestly and crossed her arms. "I'm just someone who knows a little bit about this kind of thing."

"Well, what you said about my wife poisoning Callie, that - "

"Sir, Callie told us," Delaney cut across Dr. Garrison and smiled sadly at him. "Not in so many words, but in her own way, she told my brothers and I."

Dr. Garrison seemed to deny the thought almost immediately. "No, my wife loved Callie! So, how's that possible?"

"I don't know, but it is."

"No, no. I don't believe you."

"Look, Callie is killing people. She's angry. She's desperate because nobody will listen to her. So you have to listen to her. Please... listen to your daughter."

Dr. Garrison shakily turned to his daughter and gripped her hand in his. "Callie, it's me, Daddy. Is it true? Mommy did that to you? I – I know I wasn't listening before, but I'm listening now. Daddy's here. Please, honey, is – is there anyway that you can tell me?"

Delaney glanced over Dr. Garrison's shoulder and noticed the spirit of Callie, pointing it out to him by nodding to his side.

"Is it true?" Dr. Garrison asked Callie's spirit who nodded silently in response. "Oh, I'm so sorry, baby. You listen to me, okay? You got to stop what you're doing because you're hurting people. I know everything now. I know the truth. It's time for you to let go. It's time for me to let you go."

Delaney frowned as she watched Dr. Garrison turn back to Callie's body and press a tender kiss to her forehead just as her spirit vanishes and her heart monitor flat lines, signaling the end of the hunt.

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

"And the girl's okay?" Dr. Garrison asked Dean and Sam as he stood in front of the nurse's station with the three siblings about an hour later, receiving a nod from the eldest Winchester. "So... it's really over."

"All thanks to you," Delaney said with a small smile.

"Callie was the most important thing in my life, but I should have let her go a long time ago."

"See you around, Doc," Sam said and Dr. Garrison said his goodbyes back before leaving behind the Winchesters.

Dean turned to Delaney and placed his hands on his hips. "You know what he said? Some good advice."

Delaney licked her lips and turned to Dean, an incredulous expression crossing her face. "Dean, is that what you want Sammy and I to do? Just... let you go? As if it's nothing?"

Dean doesn't answer, just raised his eyebrows at his baby sister before he walked off down the corridor of the hospital alone. 

"Sammy, is it wrong for me to want to save him?"

"No, but you have to understand something, too, Delly. Dean and I can't stand the thought of you dying. If you mess with this deal, it'll be like whatever Dean did was for nothing and that you're throwing it in his face. Why do you think I haven't tried to find anything else, Delly? I'm between a rock and a hard place because no matter what, I lose one of you. Dean thinks it's better if he goes so you can live your life as you're meant to. Why can't we just enjoy the time we have left with him?"

Delaney's hard gaze settled on Sam and shook her head, not one to back down from a challenge. She understood where Sam came from, wanting to make Dean happy in his final days. However, Delaney wasn't just gonna sit back without a fight. "Because... I'll be damned if I let my big brother die."

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

Delaney took a deep breath and glanced around her at the four routes of the crossroads she stood in between. She had crept out of the motel room once the boys were asleep and took the Impala to the crossroads. Thankfully, Delaney had everything she needed in order to summon one and she had already buried the small box into the gravel beneath her feet. Now it was just a waiting game for the demon to show up.

"Well, if it isn't Baby Winchester," the crossroads demon said from behind Delaney and she whirled around to face the dark haired, red eyed demon. "I'm so touched. I mean, your big bro's been to see me twice, but you... I never had the pleasure. What can I do for you, Del?"

Delaney's jaw ticked as she glared at the demon, pulling out the Colt and aiming it in between the demon's eyes. "You can beg for your life, sweetheart."

The crossroads demon didn't even flinch at the sight of the Colt, just continued to wear the condescending smile. "Shame, we were having such a nice conversation. Then you had to go and ruin the mood."

"If I were you, I'd drop the wisecracks and start acting scared," Delaney threatened, not moving the Colt from where it was aimed.

"It's not my style," the crossroads demon eyed the Colt and laughed. "That's not the original Colt. Where did you get that?" 

Delaney didn't respond, just glared down the barrel of the gun at the demon. When was this chick gonna give it up? Delaney could end her life in two seconds flat and she didn't even bat an eyelash about it. It was actually quite infuriating.

"Ah, Randy. Had to be. He is such a pain in my ass. He'll get what's coming for him. You can count on it."

"That's enough," Delaney growled and stepped closer to the demon so the barrel almost pressed against her forehead. "I came here to make you an offer."

The crossroads demon laughed in amusement and clasped her hands in front of her. "You're gonna make me an offer? That is so adorable."

"You can let Dean out of his deal right now. He lives, I live, you live. Everyone goes home happy or... you stop breathing. Permanently."

"Hmm," the crossroads demon hummed and began to circle Delaney who followed her with the gun cocked and ready to fire if she needed to.. "All this tough talk. I got to tell you, it's not very convincing. I mean, come on, Del. Do you even want to break this deal?"

"What do you think?" Delaney snapped at the demon, gripping the Colt tighter in her hand.

"I don't know. Aren't you tired of cleaning up Dean's messes, of dealing with that broken psyche of his? Aren't you tired of being bossed around like a bratty baby sister? You're stronger than Dean. You're better than him."

Delaney's lip curled in anger at the demon's words and she had half a mind to put the bullet between her eyes now. "Watch your mouth, bitch."

"Admit it - you're here, going through the motions, but truth is, you'll be a tiny bit relieved when he's gone."

"Shut up."

"No more desperate, sloppy, needy Dean. You and Sammy can finally be free and live your lives as normal people. You don't have to constantly worry about Dean or what's around the next corner. You can finally have your life back, Delaney."

"I said shut up!" Delaney yelled, hands shaking visibly in anger and frustration with this demon.

The crossroads demon lifted a shoulder in a half shrug and grinned. "Doth protest too much, if you ask me."

"Alright, I have had enough of your crap. You let Dean out of his deal right now!" 

"Sorry, sweetheart, but your brother's an adult. He made that deal of his own free will, fair and square. It's iron clad," the crossroads demon whispered, circling Delaney again and kept her back to the youngest Winchester.

Delaney scoffed and narrowed her eyes at demon, not believing a word she said. "Every deal can be broken."

The crossroads demon turned back around to face Delaney a feigned a look of remorse even though Delaney knew it was bullshit. "Not this one, cupcake."

"Fine. Then I'll just kill you. If you're gone, so is the deal."

"Guess again," the crossroads demon grew visibly more amused at the shock that flashed across Delaney's face. "Aw, its so sweet how you thought that would actually work. I'm just a saleswoman, Delaney. I got a boss like everybody. He holds the contract, not me. He wants Dean's soul bad and believe me, he's not going to let it go."

"You're bluffing," Delaney snapped, not wanting to believe that there wasn't a way to save Dean. That no matter what she did, Dean was going to die in under a year.

"Am I?" the crossroads demon challenged and shrugged, gesturing to the Colt. "Shoot me, if it will get you off, but the deal still holds. When Dean's time is up, he's getting dragged into the pit."

"Then who's your boss? Who holds the contract?" Delaney demanded.

The crossroads demon smiled as Delaney lowered the Colt back to her side. "He's not as cuddly as me, I can tell you that. I can't tell you, Delaney, I'm sorry. There's no way outta this one - not this time."

Delaney felt her world shatter around her at the thought of not being able to save Dean from his impending doom. Needing to let her frustration out, she raised the Colt again and shot the crossroads demon between the eyes. The demon lit up before she fell backwards, dead. At least the Colt definitely worked.

Sniffling, Delaney dropped to the gravel beneath her and buried her face into her knees, allowing her tears to soak up the knees. She could feel the growing anxiety grasp her by the lungs and her airways closed up, making it difficult to breathe while her chest heaved to try and get air into her lungs. Delaney was going to fail Dean because she didn't have a way to save him. There was only one other option she had.

Trusting a blonde haired and blue eyed demon named Randy.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi hey hello

Welp, Delaney's a bit... off isn't she, mates? She's definitely blinded by something and not so sure it's because of Dean's deal... woops. 

Also, lowkey sorry about the laziness I exuded in this chapter with skipping scenes and just describing them, but I just wanted to get through this chapter quickly because I wanted to get to the crossroads demon bit. It's just another part in the OH, SHIT, IS DELANEY REALLY DELANEY OR IS PART OF HER DERANGED NOW BECAUSE SHE'S BEEN BROUGHT BACK FROM THE DEAD series. Will we ever find out? WE'LL SEE, PEEPS!