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There was no escaping the morbid train of thought that Benny was on, and it wasn’t even his. Dean squinted at him. “Hey, you good?”
“I don’t know what I am.” Benny replied and turned his back on Dean.
The island was on fire, and now, at this moment, Dean’s brain had chosen to worry.
Benny had just walked as calmly as a lamb into the lion’s den, and then killed every last one. And that meant things here were through, weren’t they?
Prentiss Island, Benny’s nest, and everything he’d come to avenge had fallen before him like a stack of dominoes. Including the woman whose death he’d come to avenge.
Dean had sent her to Purgatory and Benny hadn’t said a word. The hunter sat in the boat and watched the vampire’s jaw clench as he looked back behind them, at the gouts of flame. He really wanted to say something meaningful to him, but every time he opened his mouth he thought of Benny’s face when Andrea crumpled to the floor between them, and Dean had to shut his mouth.
The boat rocked a little and Dean felt unsteady, and reached out without thinking to grab Benny by the shoulder.
Benny’s whole body jerked and he glanced over at Dean before shoring up something uncertain with a tired smile. “Hey brother,” he reached for him and even managed a shallow laugh. “These waves ain’t nothin.”
“Yeah.” Dean squeezed his arm.
“There’s a man waitin’ on the dock. Hidin down low. You and him smell somethin’ similar.”
He should have been used to the many ways that Benny could remind him that he wasn’t exactly a man, but still the range of his nose surprised him. After a moment, he reluctantly let go of Benny. “That’s probably my brother,” he cleared his throat nervously.
“All right then.” Benny let it lie, as though those three words were a complete sentence.
And Dean knew that he was going to have to leave his friend there, and that Benny would say that he was fine with it. It wasn’t really okay, but he had to let it go at that. Dean couldn’t bring back every stray figment of Purgatory, even if some of it was as big as life and liked to call him up on the phone now and then. Even if Benny called him brother, it didn’t mean that he had to carry him and protect him too.
“Thank you, Dean.” Benny nearly whispered.
Dean stepped off the boat and onto the dock. This was going to hurt.
“I’m Benny.” The vampire reached out to shake his brother’s hand. “Heard a lot about you, Sam.”