Dean wasn't used to sticking around for longer than a night or two. So many towns, faces, and a long string of broken hearts left behind. It was safer that way. Nobody for whatever went bump in the night to use against him. Nobody who could mean anything more than a passing fling.

He wasn't like Sam. He couldn't turn the hunter in him off and on. He was always on high alert. He'd never really left the job behind. He couldn't. The instincts lived in him like a dormant soul. His weapons were always primed and ready to go.

Dean didn't believe that he deserved to be saved. Not really. Why would someone choose to save him and not Sam? Why in the hell would anyone see his soul, the things he'd done, the people he'd hurt, and think that he deserved to go anywhere but the pit? He didn't believe in angels until he met one.

He was so tired. Tired of fighting against Heaven and Hell, tired of having to be careful what he did. He just wanted to sleep for a hundred years. But he couldn't sleep for three hours uninterrupted, let alone that.

Meeting you damned him.

Knowing that Hell and Heaven had it out for him should have kept him away from you. You reminded him a little of Lisa - but there were too many differences for him to think of her much. Your personality in and of itself was different. He loved how snappy you could get. It wasn't often that someone would snap back at him.

Your baby was an infant. Tiny, innocent, pure. Barely weighed ten pounds. And something in Dean's eyes just cracked when he looked at her. He'd had to put her down and excuse himself when he held her for the first time.

He put angel wards all over your place. Hidden Devil's Traps everywhere. And he had Bobby build a bunker similar to what he had at his junkyard. He made sure you had salt and knew how to defend yourself against anything and everything. You accepted the danger that you could potentially be in, learned quickly... and Dean was a weak, weak man.

Dean had just returned from a long hunt several states down. His body ached. He just wanted a beer and a hamburger. He habitually checked the entire house, freezing when he saw you. You were folding laundry with your baby sleeping in the bouncer next to you. Something inside him broke. "...Hey." His voice was even rougher than normal.