"𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙣, 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨. 𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙖 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙗𝙖𝙗𝙮 𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙡 𝙗𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛?"

Delaney sat in the car she'd hot wired and hid in the inky disguise of the night in the alleyway a few miles from the motel she'd stayed at. After the visit from Lucifer, Delaney couldn't get herself to go back to sleep and she sure as hell couldn't stay in that motel room any longer. Not if Lucifer could possibly figure out where she was before she could even have a plan in motion. She was pretty sure that telling Lucifer no would go over well at all and she'd need a full blown plan in mind for if ( or when ) Lucifer eventually found her. 

The universe had thrown many things Delaney's way that she was able to work out on her own. Minus Randy, but she tried not to think about that because it only sent both a shockwave of guilt and a shockwave of heartbreak to her entire being. This situation, however, Delaney knew she couldn't handle alone and she sighed as she stared at Dean's name that currently took over her screen. It was 4:15 AM and Delaney was certain that him, Sam and Theodore were all asleep and that her call would surely awaken the bear that is a cranky Dean Winchester. Though, the thought of Lucifer and what had just happened a few minutes prior played on a loop in her head and drove her to press on the small phone icon before pressing the ringing phone to her ear.

"Castiel, I swear to your father, I said we need sleep," Dean's raspy and irritated filled tone sounded on the other side.

"What? Dean, it's me," Delaney responded, her eyes darting around her to make sure no one saw her. If Lucifer wanted her, she was sure that there were demons littering around trying to find her for him. Much like they had done when Lilith was on her tail to try and get rid of her. It seemed like a never ending cycle when it came to Delaney Elizabeth Winchester.

"Della? It's quarter past four in the morning. What's wrong?"

Delaney took a deep breath and had Dean place the call on speaker so Sam could hear. She was a bit nervous to say anything with Theodore in ear shot even though Theodore already knew everything else. Theodore was still a guy that Delaney hadn't seen in years and someone she'd previously had some sort of fling with. It was a bit daunting to say anything about Lucifer, especially with him in ear shot but it was still important to get Dean and Sam on her side to help her fight this thing. 

Once Dean had mentioned that he'd placed the call on speaker, Delaney launched into everything that happened the past week they'd been apart. Between the dreams of Will, then the hunters trying to get her to drink the demon blood and then the Lucifer dream from just a few minutes before. The boys had all stayed quiet and allowed the youngest Winchester to rattle everything off her chest. It was a quiet for so long on the other end after Delaney finished that she actually had to check if Dean had hung up on her mid-way through her retelling.

"So . . . you're his vessel, huh? Lucifer wants to wear you like a puppet?" Sam questioned after a long, tense moment of silence.

"Yeah, that's what he said. That what I was always destined to be his vessel  the second Azazel bled into my mouth. I guess no one would expect a five foot three girl to be terrifying," Delaney tried to joke, but it fell flatter than a pancake and she collapsed back into her seat. 

"Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in, huh, baby girl?" Dean chimed in, the sound of of a beer cap popping off the bottle echoing in the background.

Delaney scoffed at Dean's response, wishing that he would have reacted a little differently. Sure, she was trying to joke and make the situation lighter, but Delaney wanted Dean to tell her what to do. Not brush the whole issue aside like it didn't mean anything. She half expected Dean to go into total overprotective brother mode like he used to and it actually kind of hurt. It was something that Delaney never expected herself to want in her life. "That's it, Dean? That's all you have to say? I was looking for a little bit of panic or for you to go into big brother mode."

"I guess I'm just numb, Della, to the earth-shattering revelations at this point. What do you even want to do about it?"

"Well, I want back in for starters and I mean it. I am sick of being a puppet to these sons of bitches," Delaney admitted to her big brother, tugging her hand through her already unruly curly hair. "I'm gonna hunt him, boys."

"You want revenge on the devil?" Theodore's voice questioned in astonishment. He'd heard quite a few things about the Winchesters and how they operate during hunts. It was no secret that they all threw themselves in the line of danger to save the ones they loved. Revenge was something that the Winchesters were also good at getting, even though most of the time it ended in even more tragedy than it was worth. So Theodore shouldn't even be surprised that Delaney was willing and able to seek out Lucifer and kill him, but that still didn't stop a part of him from being shocked at how determined the girl had sounded.

"It's not revenge! It's redemption," Delaney huffed out, shifting in her chair as she prepared to drive off once again to get to the highway and find her brothers and Theodore. "I can do this, boys, I can. I'm gonna prove it to you."

A long sigh was heard from Dean and Delaney could just picture him rubbing a tired hand over his face. "Listen, Della . . . it doesn't matter . . . whatever we do. I mean, it turns out that you, Sammy and I, we're the, uh . . . the fire and the oil of the Armageddon. On that basis alone, we should just pick a hemisphere . . . stay separated for good. Sammy and I can't be touched because we're Michael and Zadkiel's vessels and you can figure out the whole Lucifer thing. We can fight this thing, but not together. We aren't stronger when we're together, Delaney. I think we're weaker because whatever we have between us - love, family, whatever it is - they are always going to use it against us. You know that. We're better off apart and can dodge Lucifer, Michael and Zadkiel better if we're apart. I mean, you handled Lilith so well on your own, Delaney, that you can do this one just fine."

Delaney felt her heart drop to her feet and Sam's quiet protests to Dean that he needed to rethink this decision. Her whole life Dean had fought for the three of them to stay together, even going so far as to fight her on staying home for college. To just go to one of the local colleges nearby Bobby's house so that she could be close and stay around people she knew. It had taken a month before Dean finally talked to Delaney again when she left for Stanford and now he wants to just toss her off to the side? She knew that she'd hurt her brothers with her decisions regarding Lilith and Randy, but Delaney didn't realize just how strained their relationship truly was till just then. 

"Dean, don't do this. You're gonna make your baby sister tackle the devil by herself?" Delaney cried, hoping that the cracking in her voice and the emotion that had filled it would latch on to the soft side that Dean had for Delaney and only Delaney. She'd always been that one little girl to so much as smile and Dean was handing an extra piece of chocolate even though it was almost dinner time. Even Sam had succumbed to Delaney after a while and it quickly became  obvious that Dean and Sam would do anything for their baby sister. When did that all change?

"Bye, Della."

Delaney whimpered to herself when she heard the dial tone on the other end and slowly lowered the phone from her ear to see CALL ENDED flash across the screen. Her teary eyes blurred the screen as it went to black and she let out a shaky, anxiety filled breath. 

Now what was she going to do?

Delaney had barely made it into the next state before she'd gotten another call from Dean to meet him, Sam and Theodore. He didn't give her much information on why he suddenly wanted to meet her when just a few hours ago he'd said that they shouldn't even be in the same vicinity of each other. However, Delaney knew better than to argue with Dean and drove as quickly as she could to meet up with the boys. She'd tracked the boys to the side of an isolated area just below the highway. The area was quiet save the four of them and Delaney figured it was a better place for them to talk quietly.

Delaney stepped out of her car and took cautious and timid steps towards the boys. The trio had pushed off the side of the car and a pair of sunglasses rested over Theodore's eyes. There had barely been any sun out but Theodore had always been the type to feel blinded by even just the tiniest bit of sun being out. Plus, Delaney figured Theodore just liked having that extra layer of mystery on top of the other layers of he'd already had. She tried not to focus too much on the Mitchell boy and focused on her brothers instead.

Dean's eyes raked over Delaney's small form as if trying to find anything out of the ordinary or wrong with her. She'd been dressed in her usual boots, jeans, plain blue t-shirt and her leather jacket Dean had bought for her. Her keys dangled from her fingers as she absentmindedly fiddled with them anxiously, not knowing where this conversation would go. After a long moment of silence, Dean had reached into his pocket and pulled out Randy's knife, flipping it around to the handle side and holding it out to Delaney. "I know this is probably the last thing you want to hold right now, but if you're serious about wanting back in . . . you should still hang on to it. You're probably rusty."

Delaney flickered her gaze over to Sam who offered her a flash of a smile and a small nod, silently confirming Dean's words. She tentatively reached out her hand and wrapped her hand around the handle of the knife, taking it from Dean's hands. She stared down at the knife for a moment before she glanced back over at Dean who looked like he had more to say to her.

"Look, baby girl, I'm sorry. I don't know. I'm . . . whatever I need to be, but I was, uh . . . wrong."

Delaney rose her eyebrows at the fact Dean had admitted he was wrong. It was a very rare thing for Dean to admit and she was almost stunned into silence that she actually was alive to even hear those words. "Did I miss something or did you actually admit to being wrong? What changed your mind?"

Dean coughed awkwardly while Sam and Theodore both shifted on their feet uncomfortably, all of them clearly holding something back from Delaney. "Long story. The point is . . . maybe we all are each other's Achilles' heel. Maybe they'll find a way to use us against each other. I don't know. I just know that we're all we've got now. More than that . . . we keep each other human."

"I won't let you down, Dee. Either one of you," Delaney promised Dean, determined not to let this second chance go to waste.

"What? Is Theo a sack of potatoes?" Theodore mused, hoping his joke would lighten the mood even more and he smiled charmingly at Delaney when she shot him an unamused glare.

"We know you won't, Delly. I mean, you're the third best hunter on the planet," Sam teased, earning a small and tense laugh from Delaney. "We'll make our own future."

Delaney smiled softly and stuffed the demon knife into the waistband of her jeans. "Can't wait."

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi hey hello

Pretty short filler-ish chapter for ya'll. Didn't originally plan to put both scenes in this chapter, but then it was too short with just the phone call so we added in the end scene for THE END as well to this bad boi. Sorry if it was a bit dull and rushed, but we are making way through season 5 woo woo! I just wanna get into Theodore/Delaney already, okay?