Happy Birthday, Lorita!
Title: What The Water Gave Me
Pairing: Dean/Memory of Castiel
Rating: M for Mature and Violent Images
Summary: Dean can't let go.

Sammy’s got his problems with Lucifer – he’s out of his mind, but the difference is, Sam’s at least told people he’s having visions of things that aren’t there. Dean can’t tell anyone about what he’s been seeing. If he does, it means he’s let Sammy down. He’s let Bobby down. He can’t focus on it right now.
But that’s hard to do when Dean steps off Rufus’ back porch and finds himself standing at a reservoir that’s miles away from where they now.
Cas is pale green when he emerges from the lake, still spewing black slime, and eyes that were one blue and capable of seeing through every nuance of Dean’s soul are empty and white now, but he’s still Cas. He is to Dean and it’s Dean’s fault he’s trapped here, stuck as a shade of hatred and sorrow. He’s begging Dean not to leave him, and really, it’s what the hunter feels he deserves.
“You did this to me, Dean.”
“Yeah, Cas…I shoulda listened to you.”
The veins under the former angel’s skin are prominent, black as a cruel reminder that the Leviathans are still out there, only Dean can’t tell if they’re from that or just decay. Bodies decay differently in water. “I would’ve been fine, had you asked me to stay. You never did.”
“What? You’re gonna tell me you didn’t have a war to fight? What would you have done if I’da asked? Would it have even mattered?”
Dean is highly unprepared for the backhand that knocks him to the ground, just as hard as he remembers it being. He tastes blood in his mouth instantly as he sprawls on the shore. “I wouldn’t be rotting at the bottom of a lake somewhere, all because you never thought to question what I was doing!”
Before Dean can get up, Cas is striking him again, knocking him back down. “You knew! All of you knew, but you did nothing! Then when I needed you, you turned your backs on me! This is all I have now, Dean! There’s nothing left! No Heaven, no Earth! Not even Hell or Purgatory! I’m lost, I’m nothing!”
“So what, you’re gonna blame me for everything?” Dean asked, spitting out blood. “It’s not my fault you…!”
“But it is, Dean,” Cas’ corpse hisses. “This isn’t me blaming you, this is you blaming yourself! I’m trapped like this because of you!”
He’s persistent now, grabbing Dean by the throat and crushing the bones easily with a decaying hand. There’s hurt in his expression, along with barely tempered rage. No angel should be lowered to this. “What am I to you, Dean?” he shouts.
Dean hits the ground hard as Cas flings him, deceptively strong for a corpse.
“Am I your guilt? Or am I just the fact that you can’t let go?”
“You’re a monster, Cas,” Dean persists. “You’re not real!”
Cas drops him and Dean thinks he can see some kind of crawfish flex against the clammy skin of the angel’s neck. The body begins to spasm again, just like when it first started to break down from the Leviathans.
“I will ask you one more time before the end,” he deadpans, voice calm again.
Dean watches him wobble his way back towards the water, back towards what’s now his grave. As he sinks back down again, Dean knows he doesn’t have an answer to the question.
He can’t answer it. Because if he does, he knows he’ll have to let go.

Title: These Things
Pairing: Nelson/Lucy
Rating: T
Summary: Lucy's not the dumb Dora everyone thinks she is.

It’s been almost an hour, but Nelson is still trying to get in. Theoretically, he could just kick the lavatory door in – it’s what he ought to do, but why he doesn’t goes unquestioned. In truth, he really doesn’t want to know how she’s been amusing herself in there because if there’s anything he knows about Lucy Danziger, it’s that she can’t remain idle for too long.
“Ya ain’t getting’ in here, Nelson, so you can just go and shove it! I ain’t your prisoner, you hear?”
He has to set his jaw – when she’s angered, her voice hits a certain pitch that seeks out the nerves in the spinal cord.
“Lucy, you’re being ridiculous! We’ve discussed this before! You simply cannot go out until the child has been carried to term, now if you please…!”
Something clatters against the inside of the door loudly – it isn’t the first time she’s thrown something at him. And really, she’s fortunate he has more sense than to throw something back. “Don’t you go gettin’ all high and mighty on me, Nelson! You don’t wanna believe it, but I’m smarter than you think I am – you act like you’re so good, takin’ care of me until the baby comes, but all you’re lookin’ out for is yourself! You’re not a good man, Nelson! You’re no better’n Nucky!”
No matter how hard he squeezes his eyes shut or how heavily he leans against the door jamb trying to think of something to say, he knows she’s right. But he can’t accept it.


Title: Poison & Wine
Pairing: Anna/Cas
Rating: T
Summary: He won't stop following her

“Why are you following me, Cas? I told you to go back to Sam and Dean.”
Anna’s tone is tight, trying to contain her frustration. They’ve been walking for half a mile, yet she still hasn’t turned around to look at him. Her thumb is out to hitch a ride, but they haven’t seen anyone since parting ways with Sam and Dean, the Impala having been the only vehicle on the secluded dirt road for some time.
Cas simply adjusts the strap of the bag over his shoulder – he has enough to get them through to the next town, or at the very least the next roadhouse. He knows what to do from there. He can acquire more money and accommodate them for the night – he’s determined to do this. He would also carry her bag if she would let him.
“Sam and Dean have each other. I…am no longer necessary where they are concerned, it is time to move on.”
“So what? You’re just going to follow me?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want you to follow me!”
“Perhaps you should have thought of that before you engaged with me intimately and angered an entire cult of demons.”
His statement wasn’t meant to annoy, but it gets her to stop. She turns around, eyes closed as if she’s trying to put something into words he understands. “That was just one night, Castiel,” she says, striving for a gentle tone. “It wasn’t…it was to say thank you. And good-bye.”
He nods. “Yes. You made that very apparent when I awoke to find you already gone. Also, my name is no longer Castiel.”
Anna bites her lip, clearly frustrated. “Look, your place, it isn’t with me anymore. It’s with…”
“My place is wherever I am needed,” he says firmly. “You have no vehicle, questionable means of survival, and no one to assist you, should the need arise. I betrayed you. I do not expect you to accept me, or lie with me, or even acknowledge me with anything other than contempt. I have earned that. But your behaviour towards me in the past several days has indicated that you are in need of something and if I can prevent your death twice, I will gladly do it again. My place is here, Anna. With you.”
“…You’re never gonna stop, are you?”
“I believe I learned my stubbornness from someone other than Sam or Dean Winchester.”
Anna knows she has no choice but to accept him after that.

Title: Good Friends, Bad Habits
Pairing: The 10th Doctor/Rose/Jack
Rating: Mild M
Summary: As much as he loves them, the Doctor knows Jack and Rose will end him, or at least his remaining sanity.

“How did I get here with one shoe?”
Really, that’s a question the Doctor shouldn’t be used to hearing, but it’s the most normal thing he’s been asked in the last twenty years or so. Jack is gone, at least in all the ways that matter – intellectually, logically, and more importantly, silently. That’s an improper use of the word, but oi, he’s the Doctor and he can appropriate a word in any way he means to, thank-you very much. It works just fine with the way Jack is giggling and groping for anything that vaguely resembles flesh.
Epidermis, soma, skin, ohhhhh, all the words that can relate to that sort of idea, it really is astounding. Wait, that’s not what he ought to be focusing on, there’s a pharmaceutically influenced Time Agent in his bed. Right. Shot with an alien tranquilizer dart, this ought to be interesting.
“Considering the state of undress you were in when we found you, you’re lucky all that’s missing in one..aah, aah okay, Jack! That’s quite enough, that’s not a handle!”
The amount of sheer stupidity that fills Jack’s wide grin at the moment is comparable to the amount of sunflower seeds it would take to feed seventy percent of the Earth’s sunflower seed enthusiast population, and that’s a maths equation the Doctor will work out for fun later, but right now he’s just trying to figure a way of keeping himself from finding that grin endearing in any way, shape, or form. Especially since he’s still trying to pry Jack off his more…intimate parts and is doing a very poor job of it indeed. Out of his mind or not, Jack is still very good at that.
“Is my crab okay?”
Rose comes around the corner carrying fresh clothes and a bin, placing that beside the bed. She seems slightly put out, but then again, she was very nearly taken as collateral because the people Jack had angered thought her blonde hair was good luck. Until they found she wasn’t nearly as blonde as her hair product wanted you to think.
“He’s in the sink,” she pointed out. “I’m terrified to think of what else you just shoved in your pockets and unless you can come up with a better name for him, we’re just calling him Crab. Honestly, am I interrupting something?”
Whether the Doctor’s relieved or disappointed that Jack removes his hand in favour of rolling over to grin stupidly at Rose, he realizes she’s still staring at them. Licking her lips like she has plans.
“What?” the Doctor asks, trying to hide his apprehension.
“You so owe me,” Rose purrs.
The Doctor protests vehemently. “No!”
Jack giggles and it’s unbecoming, even for him. “Aww, c’mon, I’ll let you be on top this time!”
“Jack, you’re whinging,” the Doctor protests. “I haven’t got any patience for someone who whinges, let alone someone I’m desperately wanting to call Little Whinging and ooh…wait, Harry Potter reference, I know this is…”
“Then I guess the idea of Petunia Dursley is what’s got you ready to pop a zip,” Rose points out.
The Doctor looks down and swallows.
Bugger.