Those Three Words (Eighteen/?)
Title: Those Three Words
Authors: xtremeroswellia and clarksmuse
Rating: R to NC-17 for language and sexual scenes
Pairing: Chlean (Chloe/Dean) :D
Characters: multi-fandom -- Smallville, Supernatural, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Disclaimer: Neither of us own these characters. We're just borrowing them, so please don't sue!!
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen A | Sixteen B | Seventeen | Eighteen | Cocnlusion
Chloe drank a sip of coffee, watching Clark gaze out the window with a distant look in his eyes. "It's okay, Clark."
He shook his head, a slight movement that betrayed the confusion in his mind. "How's that?" he asked a little sarcastically.
A smile touched her lips. "You're wanting to head back to Smallville. It's okay."
Turning, he looked into the face of his friend, who was changed in a way that he would probably never understand. "Yeah, I do. I told Lana and Mom I'd be back in a couple days, and... well, I need to go."
She slowly stood up. "I really appreciate you coming out here."
"Yeah, so I could help that one vampire kill a super-power charged one," he replied, a little bitter over the entire situation. He looked over at Chloe, whose eyes were wide.
She looked down at the floor for a moment. "It's okay if you're pissed."
Clark studied Chloe. "I'm not pissed, Chlo. I... I don't know what to say," he said honestly. "I just don't feel like I know you anymore." He shrugged his shoulders, as if he didn't want to have that conversation.
Her heart sank a little. "I guess you don't," she said quietly.
Shaking his head in agreement, he quietly said, "Glad I could be of help, though. Means a lot, you calling for help." He moved to the door and looked at Chloe, his eyes sad. "Should I at least tell Lois I saw you?"
Chloe hesitated a moment. "I don't know, Clark. I'll let you make that call. Whatever you think will be easiest on her."
He looked down, unsure how to answer that. "I don't know what would be best for Lois, Chloe. You were the only one who ever knew that."
"She can't know who I am or what I do." Her voice was quiet.
Nodding, he replied, "Guess that'll be the thing we have in common now, Chloe. Our secret." He glanced back at her, then walked to her and hugged her tightly. "Take care of yourself."
"You too," she whispered, hugging him. "And not that you'll never need a vampire slayer to help you out, but... if you need a vampire slayer to help you out, give me a call."
"I will," Clark whispered back, "and I'd like to say I'd return the favor, but you've got... Dean... for that shoulder to cry on, huh?" He backed away from her.
"Dean hasn't replaced you, Clark," she told him quietly.
"Don't be so sure about that," Clark replied, moving towards the door again. "He's more into you than you know. I can see it."
"Maybe," she murmured. "Thanks again for your help. Bye, Clark."
Nodding at her wordlessly, Clark Kent turned and walked out of her apartment, his heart sinking beneath the pressure of the burdens he now had, and supersped into the night.
&&&
Dean's face carefully held an even look as he and Sam trudged up the steps to Chloe's apartment. The brothers had managed to talk more about the files on Chloe's computer without really saying anything. Because, really, how hurtful could it be to talk about his girlfriend? He asked himself as he opened the door and walked in to see Chloe at her computer, obviously researching.... something.
Confusion flickered over her face as she looked from Sam's blatantly angry expression to the more distantly angry one Dean was currently wearing. "No. I'm updating the database on the Turok-Han," she said honestly.
"So then you don't have any information on us in your database?" Dean replied, looking back to Sam as he spoke.
Sam just looked at Chloe, ignoring his brother.
"I didn't say that." Her voice was reserved. "I just said I was updating something else at the moment."
Sam was anxious, as evidenced by the twitch in his leg. "When were you planning on telling us about... those files on us?" he asked, his voice trying to conceal the hurt.
Dean just looked at Chloe, torn between his allegiance to his brother and the belief that things with Chloe might go south quickly.
"I didn't realize it was that big of a deal, Sam," she said, shifting her gaze to him.
His foot thumping quickly on the floor, Sam didn't meet Chloe's eyes. "It's a big deal, Chloe. And you know why."
"Why don't you spell it out for me," she said calmly.
Sam looked up at Dean, his eyes angry and hurt, silently asking him to tell her himself. Daring him to.
"He thinks that information might be used against him one day, because of his visions," Dean said slowly, maintaining eye contact with his brother, deciding that it was more important to get the truth out.
She looked between them, even more confused. "I don't have anything about Sam's visions on my computer."
"But apparently you have information on our mother, on Jess... and how they died," Dean replied, turning to look at Chloe, his face blank of emotion, though his dark eyes churned with some unspoken emotion he dared not acknowledge.
Chloe folded her arms across her chest. "I have information on a whole lot of things, Dean. Everything I've collected is public record."
"But what's not public record is the truth on how they died," Dean replied sternly. "You know how the Demon killed them, right?"
Sam's look changed abruptly. "Dean..."
"Shut your cakehole, Sammy," he replied. "She should know."
"Yes, I know how the Demon killed them," Chloe said, meeting Dean's hard gaze with a steely one of her own.
Gazing back at Chloe, he replied, "Sam and I have a theory that the Demon wants Sam because of his abilities." He glanced at his brother, who had put his head between his hands.
Chloe's gaze softened a little and she shifted her gaze from Dean to Sam. "What makes you say that?"
"It's just some feeling Sammy has," Dean said, shrugging as he looked over at Sam for further explanation.
"Don't you find it strange that the two women I've loved have died, in the exact same way?" Sam asked harshly, his heart sinking.
She was silent for a moment. "So you think that Demon's after you specifically?"
Sam nodded silently, not trusting his voice to speak to her.
"Why do you need to keep our information in your files, Chloe?" Dean asked for his brother. "What if someone gets a hold of that information and puts two and two together?" He took a step towards her, keeping his anger at bay as he sought more information.
She turned her gaze back to Dean once more, feeling his anger despite how hard he tried to hide it. "Trust me when I say no one can hack my system, Dean."
"Nothing's fail-safe, Chloe," he whispered, moving to her and sitting next to her. "Nothing."
"You have to wipe that stuff from your files," Sam butted in suddenly.
Her jaw tightened. "Fine." She sat down in her chair and opened the file of information she'd collected, pausing briefly before hitting the delete key and then deleting it from the trash bin.
"Don't let us make you do something you don't want to," Sam retorted harshly, watching her hesitate before deleting the files. "After yesterday, I thought...." He didn't finish his thought as he stood, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and headed to the guest room, his anger bubbling up to the surface.
Dean turned to look at Chloe. "I'm sorry, Chlo. He's seriously pissed about this, and I don't know that I can calm him down."
"Don't stand there and pretend like you're not every bit as pissed because you're hoping to get lucky," she said harshly, her eyes narrowed.
"Honestly? I'm so pissed I could spit nails," Dean retorted, allowing his anger to come to the surface. "And this isn't about getting lucky, dammit! This is about being honest with me." He stood up and moved to the other side of the room.
"What the hell wasn't I honest about?" she demanded, glaring at him.
"Why didn't you tell me the two hardest moments of our lives are in your database?" he demanded. "You think I want to re-live that night Mom died? Hell, I was only a kid, but I'll never forget that. And Sammy was affected by Jess's death more than you'll ever know!"
Tears filled her eyes involuntarily at his angry tone but she blinked them back. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but the two of you asked me for my help," she said darkly. "And while you might be fine just running headlong into any situation without a plan, it's not my style. I research, I learn what I can and then I attack. I'm sorry if that pisses you off, but it happens to be a big part of the reason I survived Smallville, and being called as a Slayer!"
Dean blinked in shock, hearing things about her that he had never told him before. "Funny, I seem to recall your axe-grabbing to rush out over to find Spike not too long ago. Where was the plan in that?" He smiled lazily.
"All bets are off when a friend is in trouble." The anger and hurt didn't fade from her eyes as she moved into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water.
"Well, a friend is potentially in danger now," he said, pointing at Sam's room. "You going to help him out now or not?" He moved into the kitchen, blocking her retreat. They were going to talk about this, whether she liked it or not.
Her jaw tightened once more and she turned to face him. "Well, how exactly do you expect me to go about that if I'm banned from doing the thing I do the best, Dean?" she demanded.
Grabbing her by the arms, he rasped, "I'm not banning you from the thing you do best. What you do best is out there..." he nodded his head "... slaying the vamps and the demons. Only you can help us."
She pulled away from him. "Great. So then find the Demon and point me in its direction so I can slay it and you can move on if that's damn easy."
"Who the fuck said moving on is easy for me, dammit?" he yelled. "I love you too damn much to move on!" With that, he crushed his mouth onto hers before she had another chance to speak.
She kissed him back only a moment before yanking herself away from him. "I meant if finding the demon was that easy then find it!"
"There's finding it, and then there's killing it. Both are damn hard and your researching abilities will come in handy." He gripped her shoulders to emphasize the point.
"Yeah except for the part where the two of you just had me wipe everything I know about it off my hard drive. You came in here, and basically accused me of spying on you and putting your lives in danger!"
"Why do you need to have someone on your hard drive to understand what's going on?" Dean demanded. "Why leave a paper trail?"
She threw her hands in the air. "A paper trail for who, Dean? The CIA?"
"No, dammit! For any Demon who can posses anybody and find ways to hack into your computer! Why can't you see we're trying to protect yourselves, and you in addition to that?"
"Well, I hate to break it to you, Dean, but if this Demon is after Sam and the other kids like him, he already knows where to look!"
"You know what?" he finally said after a moment. "Fine, keep Sammy in your Wall of Weird database. Because that's what he is, isn't he? A freak of nature because he has special powers? And could potentially become evil so you'd have to kill him? Yeah, that sounds perfect." He let her go abruptly and left the room, making his way to the guest room.
Stunned at that accusation, she followed him. "Are you kidding me? That's not what I'm saying at all!"
"Isn't it?" he asked, rapping on Sam's door. "Sammy, open up, dude!"
"Go away," Sam said bitterly, not wanting either of them to see the tears he'd shed in his room.
"No, it's not," she snapped, hurt deeply. "It's about being able to see what this thing's pattern is, trying to figure out where it's going to strike next, and hopefully preventing it from ruining anymore lives!"
"Then why don't you go do just that?" he snapped, looking at her. "When you're done, let me know. I'm sleeping on the couch tonight." He continued pounding on Sam's door without any answer. "Dammit, Sammy, don't make me break down the door!"
She stared at him, then pushed him aside, kicking the door in so hard it slammed against the wall, nearly off its hinges. "I think it's time for you both to go," she said shortly, heading down to her bedroom.
"Fine. Whatever," Dean said, shocked and more hurt by her comments than she'd ever know. Grabbing his brother by the arm, he said loudly, "Get your shit together. We're leaving."
"What?" Sam asked, confused over the events that happened while he was in his room.
"I said! We're leaving, goddammit. In two minutes, you'd better be ready to leave." Dean left the room and kicked in Chloe's bedroom door, which had been locked shut. "Forgot my stuff," he said, not looking at her as he threw everything into his bag.
She didn't reply as she knelt at her weapon's chest, pulling out a small sword and wordlessly heading out of the room without so much as looking at him.
Watching her leave the room and apartment, Dean bit back the tears he felt prick the back of his eyes. "I love you, Chloe Sullivan," he whispered to the empty room. "More than you'll ever know." He threw his bag onto his shoulder and went to get Sam.
"Dude, come on, we're going."
Sam reluctantly got his things and followed Dean down the hall. "I'm sorry," he grumbled.
Dean said nothing as they left the apartment and got to the Impala.
Neither of them noticed she was standing at the front of the car until they were already inside. She met Dean's gaze through the windshield then slowly moved around to the window, waiting for him to roll it down.
"What?" he snapped, motioning her to get the hell out of the way.
"Just for your information," she said quietly, her voice hurt but steady. "I never would've hurt Sam. Ever." She shifted her gaze to Sam, then back to Dean. "But you don't know that because you don't me at all." Without waiting for a response, she headed away.
"Fuck," Dean replied, hitting the steering wheel in utter frustration. Damn her, he thought, looking at Sam. "I'll be right back." Getting out of the car, he went after Chloe. "If I don't know you, it's because you don't let me in, dammit," he called after her, running to keep up with her.
She whirled to face him. "And here I thought I let you closer than anyone else," she whispered, her eyes full of betrayal. "Maybe it's not me that's the problem."
"What are you trying to say?" he asked, his heart sinking at the dangerous look on her face.
She smiled bitterly. "Maybe you have trust issues. Or maybe you're just looking really hard for a way out of this whole situation. Well, you don't have to look. I'll make it easy for you. I'll still help you find this demon. But it'll be because I'm the Slayer and I promised I'd help. Then we can just go our separate ways."
"Get this straight, Chloe," he replied, pulling her close to him. "I'm not looking for a way out. I don't tell someone that I love them lightly. Hell, I don't say that to Sam, and he's the second most important person in my life. He's just afraid, okay? He doesn't understand why you'd keep that information from us, and quite frankly, neither do I."
"I wasn't keeping it from you," she said quietly. "If I was trying to hide it from either of you, do you really think I would've let Sam use my computer whenever he wanted?" She pulled away from him, trembling involuntarily.
"I don't know what to think anymore," Dean replied honestly, looking down and backing away from her. "If you want to let us go, that's fine. We'll... I'll find out a way to... move on." He hoped to hell he could, he thought.
"I think we need some space," Chloe said in a strained voice.
"Fine," Dean said, resigned to his fate of being alone for the rest of his life. "Sam and me'll be at the same hotel Giles is holed up in. When you're ready to talk, we'll be there." He turned his back to her and headed to the Impale.
She didn't answer, simply watched him walk away as tears glimmered in her eyes, wondering why the hell fate had it out for her so bad.
Authors: xtremeroswellia and clarksmuse
Rating: R to NC-17 for language and sexual scenes
Pairing: Chlean (Chloe/Dean) :D
Characters: multi-fandom -- Smallville, Supernatural, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Disclaimer: Neither of us own these characters. We're just borrowing them, so please don't sue!!
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen A | Sixteen B | Seventeen | Eighteen | Cocnlusion
Chloe drank a sip of coffee, watching Clark gaze out the window with a distant look in his eyes. "It's okay, Clark."
He shook his head, a slight movement that betrayed the confusion in his mind. "How's that?" he asked a little sarcastically.
A smile touched her lips. "You're wanting to head back to Smallville. It's okay."
Turning, he looked into the face of his friend, who was changed in a way that he would probably never understand. "Yeah, I do. I told Lana and Mom I'd be back in a couple days, and... well, I need to go."
She slowly stood up. "I really appreciate you coming out here."
"Yeah, so I could help that one vampire kill a super-power charged one," he replied, a little bitter over the entire situation. He looked over at Chloe, whose eyes were wide.
She looked down at the floor for a moment. "It's okay if you're pissed."
Clark studied Chloe. "I'm not pissed, Chlo. I... I don't know what to say," he said honestly. "I just don't feel like I know you anymore." He shrugged his shoulders, as if he didn't want to have that conversation.
Her heart sank a little. "I guess you don't," she said quietly.
Shaking his head in agreement, he quietly said, "Glad I could be of help, though. Means a lot, you calling for help." He moved to the door and looked at Chloe, his eyes sad. "Should I at least tell Lois I saw you?"
Chloe hesitated a moment. "I don't know, Clark. I'll let you make that call. Whatever you think will be easiest on her."
He looked down, unsure how to answer that. "I don't know what would be best for Lois, Chloe. You were the only one who ever knew that."
"She can't know who I am or what I do." Her voice was quiet.
Nodding, he replied, "Guess that'll be the thing we have in common now, Chloe. Our secret." He glanced back at her, then walked to her and hugged her tightly. "Take care of yourself."
"You too," she whispered, hugging him. "And not that you'll never need a vampire slayer to help you out, but... if you need a vampire slayer to help you out, give me a call."
"I will," Clark whispered back, "and I'd like to say I'd return the favor, but you've got... Dean... for that shoulder to cry on, huh?" He backed away from her.
"Dean hasn't replaced you, Clark," she told him quietly.
"Don't be so sure about that," Clark replied, moving towards the door again. "He's more into you than you know. I can see it."
"Maybe," she murmured. "Thanks again for your help. Bye, Clark."
Nodding at her wordlessly, Clark Kent turned and walked out of her apartment, his heart sinking beneath the pressure of the burdens he now had, and supersped into the night.
&&&
Dean's face carefully held an even look as he and Sam trudged up the steps to Chloe's apartment. The brothers had managed to talk more about the files on Chloe's computer without really saying anything. Because, really, how hurtful could it be to talk about his girlfriend? He asked himself as he opened the door and walked in to see Chloe at her computer, obviously researching.... something.
Confusion flickered over her face as she looked from Sam's blatantly angry expression to the more distantly angry one Dean was currently wearing. "No. I'm updating the database on the Turok-Han," she said honestly.
"So then you don't have any information on us in your database?" Dean replied, looking back to Sam as he spoke.
Sam just looked at Chloe, ignoring his brother.
"I didn't say that." Her voice was reserved. "I just said I was updating something else at the moment."
Sam was anxious, as evidenced by the twitch in his leg. "When were you planning on telling us about... those files on us?" he asked, his voice trying to conceal the hurt.
Dean just looked at Chloe, torn between his allegiance to his brother and the belief that things with Chloe might go south quickly.
"I didn't realize it was that big of a deal, Sam," she said, shifting her gaze to him.
His foot thumping quickly on the floor, Sam didn't meet Chloe's eyes. "It's a big deal, Chloe. And you know why."
"Why don't you spell it out for me," she said calmly.
Sam looked up at Dean, his eyes angry and hurt, silently asking him to tell her himself. Daring him to.
"He thinks that information might be used against him one day, because of his visions," Dean said slowly, maintaining eye contact with his brother, deciding that it was more important to get the truth out.
She looked between them, even more confused. "I don't have anything about Sam's visions on my computer."
"But apparently you have information on our mother, on Jess... and how they died," Dean replied, turning to look at Chloe, his face blank of emotion, though his dark eyes churned with some unspoken emotion he dared not acknowledge.
Chloe folded her arms across her chest. "I have information on a whole lot of things, Dean. Everything I've collected is public record."
"But what's not public record is the truth on how they died," Dean replied sternly. "You know how the Demon killed them, right?"
Sam's look changed abruptly. "Dean..."
"Shut your cakehole, Sammy," he replied. "She should know."
"Yes, I know how the Demon killed them," Chloe said, meeting Dean's hard gaze with a steely one of her own.
Gazing back at Chloe, he replied, "Sam and I have a theory that the Demon wants Sam because of his abilities." He glanced at his brother, who had put his head between his hands.
Chloe's gaze softened a little and she shifted her gaze from Dean to Sam. "What makes you say that?"
"It's just some feeling Sammy has," Dean said, shrugging as he looked over at Sam for further explanation.
"Don't you find it strange that the two women I've loved have died, in the exact same way?" Sam asked harshly, his heart sinking.
She was silent for a moment. "So you think that Demon's after you specifically?"
Sam nodded silently, not trusting his voice to speak to her.
"Why do you need to keep our information in your files, Chloe?" Dean asked for his brother. "What if someone gets a hold of that information and puts two and two together?" He took a step towards her, keeping his anger at bay as he sought more information.
She turned her gaze back to Dean once more, feeling his anger despite how hard he tried to hide it. "Trust me when I say no one can hack my system, Dean."
"Nothing's fail-safe, Chloe," he whispered, moving to her and sitting next to her. "Nothing."
"You have to wipe that stuff from your files," Sam butted in suddenly.
Her jaw tightened. "Fine." She sat down in her chair and opened the file of information she'd collected, pausing briefly before hitting the delete key and then deleting it from the trash bin.
"Don't let us make you do something you don't want to," Sam retorted harshly, watching her hesitate before deleting the files. "After yesterday, I thought...." He didn't finish his thought as he stood, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and headed to the guest room, his anger bubbling up to the surface.
Dean turned to look at Chloe. "I'm sorry, Chlo. He's seriously pissed about this, and I don't know that I can calm him down."
"Don't stand there and pretend like you're not every bit as pissed because you're hoping to get lucky," she said harshly, her eyes narrowed.
"Honestly? I'm so pissed I could spit nails," Dean retorted, allowing his anger to come to the surface. "And this isn't about getting lucky, dammit! This is about being honest with me." He stood up and moved to the other side of the room.
"What the hell wasn't I honest about?" she demanded, glaring at him.
"Why didn't you tell me the two hardest moments of our lives are in your database?" he demanded. "You think I want to re-live that night Mom died? Hell, I was only a kid, but I'll never forget that. And Sammy was affected by Jess's death more than you'll ever know!"
Tears filled her eyes involuntarily at his angry tone but she blinked them back. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but the two of you asked me for my help," she said darkly. "And while you might be fine just running headlong into any situation without a plan, it's not my style. I research, I learn what I can and then I attack. I'm sorry if that pisses you off, but it happens to be a big part of the reason I survived Smallville, and being called as a Slayer!"
Dean blinked in shock, hearing things about her that he had never told him before. "Funny, I seem to recall your axe-grabbing to rush out over to find Spike not too long ago. Where was the plan in that?" He smiled lazily.
"All bets are off when a friend is in trouble." The anger and hurt didn't fade from her eyes as she moved into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water.
"Well, a friend is potentially in danger now," he said, pointing at Sam's room. "You going to help him out now or not?" He moved into the kitchen, blocking her retreat. They were going to talk about this, whether she liked it or not.
Her jaw tightened once more and she turned to face him. "Well, how exactly do you expect me to go about that if I'm banned from doing the thing I do the best, Dean?" she demanded.
Grabbing her by the arms, he rasped, "I'm not banning you from the thing you do best. What you do best is out there..." he nodded his head "... slaying the vamps and the demons. Only you can help us."
She pulled away from him. "Great. So then find the Demon and point me in its direction so I can slay it and you can move on if that's damn easy."
"Who the fuck said moving on is easy for me, dammit?" he yelled. "I love you too damn much to move on!" With that, he crushed his mouth onto hers before she had another chance to speak.
She kissed him back only a moment before yanking herself away from him. "I meant if finding the demon was that easy then find it!"
"There's finding it, and then there's killing it. Both are damn hard and your researching abilities will come in handy." He gripped her shoulders to emphasize the point.
"Yeah except for the part where the two of you just had me wipe everything I know about it off my hard drive. You came in here, and basically accused me of spying on you and putting your lives in danger!"
"Why do you need to have someone on your hard drive to understand what's going on?" Dean demanded. "Why leave a paper trail?"
She threw her hands in the air. "A paper trail for who, Dean? The CIA?"
"No, dammit! For any Demon who can posses anybody and find ways to hack into your computer! Why can't you see we're trying to protect yourselves, and you in addition to that?"
"Well, I hate to break it to you, Dean, but if this Demon is after Sam and the other kids like him, he already knows where to look!"
"You know what?" he finally said after a moment. "Fine, keep Sammy in your Wall of Weird database. Because that's what he is, isn't he? A freak of nature because he has special powers? And could potentially become evil so you'd have to kill him? Yeah, that sounds perfect." He let her go abruptly and left the room, making his way to the guest room.
Stunned at that accusation, she followed him. "Are you kidding me? That's not what I'm saying at all!"
"Isn't it?" he asked, rapping on Sam's door. "Sammy, open up, dude!"
"Go away," Sam said bitterly, not wanting either of them to see the tears he'd shed in his room.
"No, it's not," she snapped, hurt deeply. "It's about being able to see what this thing's pattern is, trying to figure out where it's going to strike next, and hopefully preventing it from ruining anymore lives!"
"Then why don't you go do just that?" he snapped, looking at her. "When you're done, let me know. I'm sleeping on the couch tonight." He continued pounding on Sam's door without any answer. "Dammit, Sammy, don't make me break down the door!"
She stared at him, then pushed him aside, kicking the door in so hard it slammed against the wall, nearly off its hinges. "I think it's time for you both to go," she said shortly, heading down to her bedroom.
"Fine. Whatever," Dean said, shocked and more hurt by her comments than she'd ever know. Grabbing his brother by the arm, he said loudly, "Get your shit together. We're leaving."
"What?" Sam asked, confused over the events that happened while he was in his room.
"I said! We're leaving, goddammit. In two minutes, you'd better be ready to leave." Dean left the room and kicked in Chloe's bedroom door, which had been locked shut. "Forgot my stuff," he said, not looking at her as he threw everything into his bag.
She didn't reply as she knelt at her weapon's chest, pulling out a small sword and wordlessly heading out of the room without so much as looking at him.
Watching her leave the room and apartment, Dean bit back the tears he felt prick the back of his eyes. "I love you, Chloe Sullivan," he whispered to the empty room. "More than you'll ever know." He threw his bag onto his shoulder and went to get Sam.
"Dude, come on, we're going."
Sam reluctantly got his things and followed Dean down the hall. "I'm sorry," he grumbled.
Dean said nothing as they left the apartment and got to the Impala.
Neither of them noticed she was standing at the front of the car until they were already inside. She met Dean's gaze through the windshield then slowly moved around to the window, waiting for him to roll it down.
"What?" he snapped, motioning her to get the hell out of the way.
"Just for your information," she said quietly, her voice hurt but steady. "I never would've hurt Sam. Ever." She shifted her gaze to Sam, then back to Dean. "But you don't know that because you don't me at all." Without waiting for a response, she headed away.
"Fuck," Dean replied, hitting the steering wheel in utter frustration. Damn her, he thought, looking at Sam. "I'll be right back." Getting out of the car, he went after Chloe. "If I don't know you, it's because you don't let me in, dammit," he called after her, running to keep up with her.
She whirled to face him. "And here I thought I let you closer than anyone else," she whispered, her eyes full of betrayal. "Maybe it's not me that's the problem."
"What are you trying to say?" he asked, his heart sinking at the dangerous look on her face.
She smiled bitterly. "Maybe you have trust issues. Or maybe you're just looking really hard for a way out of this whole situation. Well, you don't have to look. I'll make it easy for you. I'll still help you find this demon. But it'll be because I'm the Slayer and I promised I'd help. Then we can just go our separate ways."
"Get this straight, Chloe," he replied, pulling her close to him. "I'm not looking for a way out. I don't tell someone that I love them lightly. Hell, I don't say that to Sam, and he's the second most important person in my life. He's just afraid, okay? He doesn't understand why you'd keep that information from us, and quite frankly, neither do I."
"I wasn't keeping it from you," she said quietly. "If I was trying to hide it from either of you, do you really think I would've let Sam use my computer whenever he wanted?" She pulled away from him, trembling involuntarily.
"I don't know what to think anymore," Dean replied honestly, looking down and backing away from her. "If you want to let us go, that's fine. We'll... I'll find out a way to... move on." He hoped to hell he could, he thought.
"I think we need some space," Chloe said in a strained voice.
"Fine," Dean said, resigned to his fate of being alone for the rest of his life. "Sam and me'll be at the same hotel Giles is holed up in. When you're ready to talk, we'll be there." He turned his back to her and headed to the Impale.
She didn't answer, simply watched him walk away as tears glimmered in her eyes, wondering why the hell fate had it out for her so bad.