Despite Sam's continued protests, I still helped with the hunt, pairing off with him instead of Dean when we split up to find whatever was keeping our ghost tied to this world since they had been cremated. I was sitting at the table in the library after when Dean slammed a packet of papers and a pen in front of me.

"What's this?" I asked, staring at the papers instead of him.

"Annulment papers."

I looked up at him in shock.

"Excuse me?"

"They just need your signature and it will be final."

"You seriously want an annulment?"

"Well, I thought about going the divorce route, but that seemed a lot more messy."

"Dean-"

"This isn't up for debate," he cut me off. "Just sign the damn thing so I can take it back down to the courthouse and we can be done with it."

My mouth was still open in shock as my eyes flitted down to look at his left hand. He wasn't wearing his wedding ring; a slightly lighter spot on his finger where it normally sat. A pang went through my chest, picking the pen up with a shaky hand. However, before I signed anything, I looked back up at him.

"Dean, are you-"

"Just do it, Eleanor."

I flinched, swallowing hard and biting my tongue as I put my signature in all the necessary places. I had barely finished the last one when Dean snatched the papers back up and headed out the door. Blinking back tears, I let out a choked sob and put a hand over my mouth. Out of the corner of my eye, a sparkle caught my attention and I looked down at my wedding ring that had caught the light for a moment. That's what really made the dam break, tears flowing freely down my cheeks.

Shakily, I pulled the ring off my finger, holding it in the palm of my hand as I sobbed. My mom came in, finding me sitting there still crying twenty minutes later. She didn't ask me any questions about what was wrong or why my wedding ring was now sitting on the table in front of me, just pulled me into her arms and held me comfortingly for several more minutes.

When my tears had somewhat subsided, I made my way to Dean and my room, leaving the wedding ring behind on the table. My mom helped me gather all my things, including some of my weapons off the wall, and carry them all to an unoccupied room. The numbness that had settled into my bones was very similar to how I'd felt after Dean had first said yes to Michael. I had never once imagined this would happen.

I knew the dynamic between Dean and I was rocky lately with everything that had happened, but for some reason, it never occurred to me that he would break up with me over it. The entire time I was taking my clothes out of the boxes and moving them into the dresser and closet, my glaringly bare finger sent an alarm to my head. Over... Over... Over... Different memories kept coming to my mind.

⁘

Dean chuckled, walking over to sit beside me.

"Sorry," he said after a moment. "You wouldn't be in this mess if Sammy and I hadn't shown up at the shop asking for help."

"Don't be sorry. I wanted to be here."

"No you didn't. From the second we walked through that door, you were looking for an excuse to throw us out... You know, I've been meaning to ask you... Did you know who we were? When we came in?"

"Not immediately. I pegged you two as hunters from the moment I laid eyes on you, and your voice sounded vaguely familiar, but I didn't put two and two together until I saw the Impala through the window. I was kind of surprised you guys didn't recognize me right away."

"Yeah, well, it's been nearly a decade, Ellie. You don't exactly look like the mousy little girl we left behind all those years ago."

"Mousy?"

"You were a funny looking kid."

"Yeah, well, you were-"

I was cut off as Dean's lips were suddenly on mine.

⁘

Sam hurried from the room, and I sighed, coming over to sit in front of the board.

"I swear, if you make fun of me for this..." I trailed off, not knowing exactly what to say.

I reached out, placing my hands on the pointer, but still not speaking, trying to form a coherent thought. As I sat there, the pointer began moving under my fingers.

I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U-T-O-O.

I just stared at the spot across from me, tears welling up in the corners of my eyes.

⁘

Dean took the necklace from me and I swept my long hair over my shoulder as he fastened it in place.

"There. I love you, Ellie Bear."

"I love you, too, Dean. Merry Christmas."

We kissed, and I knew we both felt the underlying passion and sadness that went into it.

⁘

Dean didn't respond, still staring out the front windshield with a hard expression. His fingers twitched on the steering wheel, like he wanted to reach over and hold my hand, but was fighting it. Slowly, I reached over and pried the hand from the wheel, entwining our fingers together and rubbing the back of his hand with my thumb. I noticed his shoulders relax slightly out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't say anything else as we continued our drive to Kermit, Texas.

After a few more minutes, I felt my eyes start to droop. Without saying anything, Dean adjusted our hands so while our fingers stayed entwined, his arm was wrapped around my shoulders and I could lean into his side and fall asleep while he drove. That was one of the great things I loved about Dean and I. After knowing each for so long and so intimately, we knew what each other needed without saying a single word to each other. As I drifted off to sleep, I could have sworn I felt his lips press against the top of my head and then he whispered quietly, calling me something I thought I'd never hear him say again.

"Sweet dreams, Ellie Bear."

⁘

"I wanna ask you something, and you can't laugh or make fun of me, alright?"

I swallowed hard, wondering what he could possibly want to ask me that made him feel like I'd make fun of him.

"I'd never."

"Okay. Okay, um..." Dean trailed off, pulling his hand away from mine and sitting up more on the blanket.

I mimicked his movement, pulling my legs in to sit criss-cross applesauce across from him.

"This, uh, this is probably going to come out wrong, and I know it's usually accompanied by some long ass speech that's all mushy or whatever, but like I said, we aren't exactly a traditional couple and this is really long overdue by, like, years, so... I'm just going to go for it. Will you marry me?"