Note: Hey babes <3  Thank you, as always, for being absolute angels (but not the douche-y kind, the Cas kind).

It's been ages since I added an installment to the Glass Lives series. And this one is sort of a wrap up for that era. So here you are. 

Anna is fifteen.

And It Starts To Come Together

Dean wiped slick black grease off his palms with a formerly white rag and straightened. He looked down at his handiwork and smiled contentedly. There was nothing as relaxing to him as a morning spent under the hood of his Baby.

"Guess what."

His smile broadened at the sound of his sister's voice. "Hey, kiddo," he said as he turned around.

Anna wrinkled her nose and gave him a hint of a smile. She was finally starting to regain some of that youthful energy she'd had before her mother died. It was refreshing and so relieving to see her smiling easily again. "You're in a good mood," she observed. She held one arm out to him, and Dean grinned even bigger when he realized she was offering him a fresh cup of coffee.

"Thanks, Rugrat," he said and held an arm out invitingly.

Anna tucked herself against his side, and Dean gave her a one-armed hug before just letting his arm rest behind her shoulders. He felt good this morning, even with the stupid Mark burning on his arm. He felt like he was in control of his life, if only for today. He had his Baby and his baby sister. He had a hot cup of coffee, grease between his fingers, and the rubbery scent of the garage in his nose.

"So guess what," Anna said, looking up at him through a curtain of stray curls.

Dean raised his coffee cup toward his lips, inhaling the rich scent before he asked, "What?" and took a sip.

Anna bit her lip and looked over toward the Impala's open hood. "I'm officially caught up on my homework."

Dean's eyebrows popped up in surprise before he even had time to think about what she'd told him. He nodded at her, and the smile returned to his face. "Congratulations, Munchkin, you're free for the weekend."

"I know!" Anna said excitedly. "I even pulled a total Kate move and finished everything that's due on Monday last night. I wanted to be completely free. And I am!" She paused and made a face. "Until Monday night."

"Your grades comin' up?" Dean asked and took another sip of hot coffee. It was still just a little above drinking temperature, so it hit the back of his throat hard on the way down. But he kept drinking. The caffeine was worth the discomfort.

"Yeah, I'm actually a B student now. I mean, technically my math grade is still a C minus, but my teacher said he has a bunch of grades to put in still that'll bring it up to at least a B."

He had an answer behind his teeth when Sam suddenly slammed into the garage, phone in hand. "What?" Dean asked at the intrusion. His brother looked frazzled. "What?" he said again when no answer was forthcoming.

Sam looked at Anna with apprehension, and Dean understood. This was about Abaddon. It had to be.

"Anna, go to your room," he instructed. He removed his arm from around her and instead ruffled her hair once and gave her a gentle nudge. "Go," he said again when she just looked curiously between him and Sam.

"Okay," Anna murmured. He could see that she was winded at the sudden change of atmosphere.

As soon as their sister was out of earshot, Sam looked Dean dead in the eyes. "Crowley's got a beat on Abaddon. We need to move."

Dean just held Sam's gaze. Goodbye morning coffee and greasy fingers. This day was going to light a fire in the Mark on his arm. And who knew how it would end.

"Dean, we gotta get Anna somewhere safe."

"I know," Dean said, holding out a hand for Sam to slow the fuck down. "I know. Sam, we have to tell her."

"What, are you kidding me? Dean, you know how she's gonna react. I mean, this thing with Abaddon, it's the most reckless I've ever seen her."

"I know," Dean repeated. "But she's a smart kid. She'll figure it out, and it's better if we tell her ourselves. Look where all the secrets got us last time."

Sam's hunched shoulders suddenly set themselves back. "You're right," he said quietly. "You want back-up?"

"She's a teenager, I got this," Dean replied. "Load the car. I'll get Anna."

"Dean."

He swiveled around, a question in his eyes.

"I think Jody's... I think that's the only place we could really take her."

"Then call Jody."

()()()

Anna already looked like she was going to vomit, and he hadn't even told her the worst part yet.

"You okay?" he asked hurriedly. They didn't have time for damage control, but she was his little sister, dammit, and he was making time.

Anna straightened her spine as if the question was a blade he'd drawn and she was ready for a fight. "Yes," she said daringly. "Where do we go?"

Dean tilted his head back just slightly, his chin coming forward. "Anna," he said calmly and saw her body language change in response to his tone. She knew what was coming. She had to. "You're not coming with us."

He watched her eyes float, swim, and then drown in rage, all in a matter of a couple seconds. Her teeth were grit, and her nose was wrinkling at the bridge where her eyebrows were furrowed. She was pissed.

Maybe another time, Dean would have taken a few minutes to talk her down. But they didn't have the time for that now. Abaddon had been giving them the run-around for months. If they didn't jump at this opportunity to catch up with her now, there was no telling when they would get another chance. Their priorities were simple: Get Anna somewhere safe and go kill Abaddon. ASAP.

"You can't do that!" Anna practically shouted at him. She didn't often lose her temper, and it was almost startling that she'd already raised her voice at him. "After all this time waiting and everything she did, you wanna leave me at the bunker again?!" She had her arms crossed over his chest, unconsciously mirroring Dean's own stance. But she was about ten times more wound up than he was.

Dean's heart was hammering in his chest, the Mark on his arm was coming to life, and his thoughts were racing. But he was trying his very best to maintain control. He had to. Anna was just a kid. A kid going through some heavy shit.

"You're not staying here," he said. Anna tilted her head at that. "You're gonna stay with Jody and Alex for a couple days."

He wasn't the least bit surprised when Anna's eyes widened and burned. "You can't do that!" she cried again.

Dean raised an eyebrow. He might have been angry about the insinuation that he couldn't protect her as he saw fit if the situation were different. But he felt calm in the face of her anger, and there was no time to debate dynamics.

"Anna, I'm not askin' you to like this, okay? But you're goin' to Jody's while we head out to take down Abaddon. Go get your jacket on and get in the car. Now."

Anna was breathing heavily through her nose, clinging to her last bit of self-control. It was clear from the tension in her shoulders and face. They didn't have time for this. "No," Anna bit out finally. They really didn't have time for this.

"This isn't up for debate, Anna Grace. Go. Now." When his dad had used this voice years ago, it had always been enough to make Dean concede.

But Anna was a more courageous kid than Dean had been, and she felt safer with Dean than he had with John. She didn't move.

"No," she said again.

It wasn't often she looked him in the eyes and said that word. It almost hurt. But Dean knew how painful this whole thing was for Anna. She was only fifteen. If he had to be her enemy for the moment, then he could live with that so long as she was safe.

"Don't make me drag you outta here, Sweetheart, 'cause I will." He dropped his arms and stepped closer to her, letting some of his empathy show in his face. "This gig is dangerous, and we don't have time to argue."

Anna looked offended that he would threaten such a thing. She tilted her head back and jutted her chin out stubbornly just the way Dean had a minute ago. "You won't," she said confidently. But she looked halfway between tears and outrage, her cheeks pink and her eyes a flaming shade of green.

Dean closed his eyes for a second, counted to five in his head, and made the call. He didn't want to do this. He never ever wanted to do this.

But safety came first.

He took Anna by the shoulders and started to guide her toward the hallway. She tried to shrug him off, but he held fast. "We're going, Anna," he said sternly. He was being careful not to hurt her or be too forceful, but she was fighting him every step of the way. When her elbow nearly caught him in the mouth, Dean snapped, "Anna!" She didn't stop shoving at him.

Final option. Dean wrapped an arm around Anna's waist and pulled her clear off the ground.

"Hey!" Anna cried. She kicked and caught him in the shin.

But Dean locked his jaw and swallowed down his regret. This was for her good, he reminded himself as he dragged her toward the hallway.

"Put me down!" she was yelling at him. "Dean, put me down! Fuck!" she finally screamed at him and then dissolved into tears.

Dean could feel the phantom ache in his own throat from her tears. He held on through her kicking and hitting until they were in the garage.

Sam looked up when they walked in, and his face dropped at the sight.

As soon as Dean had set her down, Anna turned around and pushed him away with two hands to his chest.

He was trying to be a steady, unemotional force in all this. But the look of stunned betrayal on Anna's tear-damp face was so foreign to him. And it hurt. It hurt like a motherfucker.

"We need to go," he said, his voice husky. He was careful not to glance Sam's way. He didn't want to see what his brother was going through too. He didn't have space for it. "Just get in the car, Rugrat, please," he requested. He watched Anna's face crumple and her chin begin to wobble.

When she finally turned away from him again and yanked the car door open, Dean closed his eyes. He scrubbed a hand over his face and held it there, giving himself just a few seconds to feel all that guilt and frustration full force. When he dropped his hand, his green eyes were ringed in red and glossy with pain.

He looked over at Sam, and they both put their game faces on. "Let's go," Sam told him in solidarity.

It made Dean feel at least a little bit less like an ass. But he looked briefly through the window into the backseat, saw Anna lying on her side on the seat with her face buried in her hands, and just like that, Dean felt like a dick again.

"Fuck," he said to no one. And he got in the driver's seat.

()()()

It was like walking on shards of glass, stepping through the door into Jody's house.

Sam hurried in behind her, brushing past her with her duffel bag and dropping it by the couch in the living room. "Jody, thank you. Seriously. We'll be back as soon as we can."

"Of course," Jody said.

Anna didn't look at her or Sam, just stared at the floor and let it blur in front of her eyes.

"Hey," Sam said and put a hand on the side of her head, his palm trapping her hair against her cheek.

"I love you."

Anna tilted her face toward him, her eyes hot and wet but emotionless. She couldn't move her jaw enough to speak, so she just nodded.

"Okay," Sam said, more to himself than Anna or even Jody. "Okay." He cast one more glance at Jody and then disappeared out the front door and jogged to the car.

The Impala's engine roared to life, and Anna ached so badly to feel its energy under her back. She longed to go home to that car, lay in the backseat, and listen to Dean's familiar rock music. Hell, she longed to go home. Period.

She'd had enough of all this chaos. She wanted to go back to the simple days. She wanted her stuffed frog and her dad's empty promises and her Uncle Bobby. She wanted to believe everything Dean ever told her and trust that he would always make it home. She wanted rage to be a foreign concept and revenge to never cross her mind.

But she was stuck here in this stupid teenage body with this idiot brain that had gotten her mother killed. She was stuck knowing Dean was just a person, stuck wishing she could stick a knife in Abaddon's chest, stuck feeling irate about both of those things.

"Fuck," she choked and then started to sob. In Jody's living room. She tried to stop, but it was like the glass was under her eyelids, making the tears run like blood. She had no measure of control in this.

"Oh, Anna," Jody said softly. Her hand had just brushed Anna's shoulder when Anna pulled away and curled in on herself. "Hey," Jody tried again. "You don't have to talk about anything you don't want to. But I'm here."

Anna shook her head. She was alone. She was alone, and she was surrounded. And Jody was great, but she couldn't change that. She couldn't fix it.

She couldn't fix Anna's life. The one that hadn't needed fixing just this morning. How unfair was that?

She'd finally managed to puzzle some of those glass shards together so that they formed the beginnings of a familiar shape. She'd finally started to hope that it would all be whole again soon.

Then Abaddon had reared her head, the boys had taken off after her, and Anna had been left once again on an old warehouse floor littered in broken glass.

()()()

She was trying not to move too much. The glass still bit into the bottoms of her feet, still imbedded itself in her half-healed skin. But if she didn't move... well, at least it could only cut her in one place.

"Are you coming?"

Anna looked slowly up. She felt like she was dreaming, and not in a pleasant way. "What?"

Alex rolled her eyes. "Are you coming to eat?" she said again. When Anna didn't speak immediately, she added, "Dinner," like Anna was being a moron.

It was work to speak, but Anna managed it. "No."

"Suit yourself," Alex replied, and suddenly the doorway was empty.

Anna looked down at her hands, her head moving at a snail's pace. These hands... She remembered the cuff around her wrist that had made her bleed, the sound of her own screams tearing up her throat and shattering the air, the sight of her broken wrist in the car ride to the hospital. But she remembered it like she was living this moment. She remembered it like a dream– a nightmare.

As she looked at her hands, turning them over with interest, Anna tried to convince herself that they really were hers. She mistakenly found a memory of her mother's hand righting her glass of rootbeer at that diner in Lawrence. It was the moment the roofie had been dropped in, and Anna hadn't noticed a damn thing.

She felt the pavement against her back. Felt the sun overhead. Heard the clicking of footsteps. Her fingers were being crushed against concrete. Pale green eyes turned black.

"What's the matter, Baby Girl? Roofies didn't agree with you?"

"What's the matter? Anna?"

She was shaking. Her fingers were cold and tingling. "Nothing," she said. Her eyes slowly focused until she could see her hands again.

"I just came to see if I could get some dinner into you. You know, if I asked really nicely," Jody said and smiled amicably.

Anna shrugged one shoulder.

"You haven't eaten since you got here. Did you eat this morning?"

Another shrug.

"If I bring you something small, will you eat it?"

Anna just stared at the skin of her hands and let the wrinkles blur inside her eyes.

"Okay," Jody said. "I'll let you be. But come morning, you need to eat something."

It was her stern voice. Anna didn't hear it often. But it was odd the way it reached her. Like there was a film between Jody's voice and Anna's senses. Like it couldn't possibly make it all the way to her brain.

"Okay," Jody murmured again to herself.

Anna felt the room empty itself. And she tried not to move too much. She tried to avoid the glass all around her. But it didn't matter. It didn't matter that she wasn't moving, that maybe she couldn't move. She was still bleeding from a hundred places, still feeling the shards bite patches of skin all over her body.

The fragments were still winning, because they were still getting at her. Even when voices and feelings couldn't seem to breach the invisible wall around her, the glass could. But it was more than that. The fragments were winning because they were still controlling her.

Their victory was in her catatonia.

()()()

"Hey."

"Hey. Where'd you go?"

Anna swallowed and then bit her lip. "I gotta stay with a friend for a little bit," she said. "Sam and Dean had to... they had to do something important. And I guess they were worried I wouldn't be safe at home."

Kate's worry was tangible even across all the miles between them. "Why?"

"It's... They're..."

"It's okay, A, you don't have to tell me," Kate said like she wasn't dying to know.

Anna took a shallow breath. "No, it's fine," she answered. "I just... you know how that whole thing happened? With... with C-Chloe." She stumbled over the name. She never knew whether she had the right to call Chloe her mom.

"Oh," Kate said, half-swallowing the word. "Yeah, of course I remember."

"Yeah, so... So, they've been looking for Abaddon. She's this- this demon... She's the one that killed- killed my mom. Chloe."

Kate was quiet. "They found her?" she asked eventually.

"Yeah," Anna responded. "And I wanted to go with them. I wanted to- Kate, it's horrible how bad I wanted to kill her."

The line was silent for a moment. When Kate finally spoke, Anna could hear her friend's throat closing around empathic pain. "She traumatized you. She's a demon. I think... I mean, I think it's okay that you wanted to."

Anna held herself carefully, spooning tension into her jaw so that it wouldn't open and let any sound out when her chest hitched in a sob.

"Anna, you're a good person. You're, like, the best kid I know."

Anna had to let herself laugh, and her jaw failed and let a sob out with it. "I'm not, Katie. I'm really not. I've done some awful things. I... I... You know, I think I'm the reason my dad died. I know I'm the reason my mom died. I... I get people hurt all the time. I mean, the number of times Sam and Dean alone have gotten hurt trying to protect me or- or-" She stopped talking. It felt like she was telling herself these things for the first time. Really admitting them for the first time. And it hurt. It hurt like a motherfucker.

"Anna, that's not true," Kate argued, audibly crying now. "You're only fifteen. You were just a kid when your dad died. You were a kid when your mom died. That stuff happened to you. It wasn't your fault." When she finished speaking, Kate let out a sound that was half cough and half cry.

Anna let that sound punch the side of her head and felt her brain shift with the blow. Kate was hardly an objective third party to all of this, but she was a smart person, and Anna respected the hell out of her. So hearing all that from her... Well, it meant something. It meant a lot.

"Thanks, Kate," she whispered then sniffled. She picked her feet up. They were bleeding, but there was no glass trapped under their skin. Not at this very moment. "I- I kinda know, I think. It's just- It's hard to believe it."

"I know," Kate whispered back.

They sniffled at the same moment, and it was so sad and so them that it made them both giggle. Again at the same time. They giggled again and soon were reduced to a near hysteric fit of giggles.

By the time it ended, they were both half-crying again. "Stay perfect," Anna murmured into the phone.

"You too."

Then Kate was gone and Anna had to gasp at the sudden sharpness of glass replanting itself under her skin. Fuck.

()()()

She was curled up in bed, her stomach rumbling with hunger, when she heard it. The Impala. The boys.

Anna had hardly moved from her place in that bed in the whole three days she'd spent at Jody's house. But she was like lightning now, zipping to the front door with all the energy she hadn't seen for days. Glass bit at her heels, chasing her out the door and down the porch steps. Were the boys okay? Was Abaddon... was Abaddon dead?

To her great relief, both boys stepped out of the car, looking tired but okay. Safe.

Anna's face crumpled as she ran to Dean. Her body collided with his so forcefully that he actually stumbled back a step. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry-"

"Don't do that," Dean requested. He held her tight, one arm at her back and one hand on the back of her head. "You got nothin' to be sorry for," he promised.

Anna felt her stomach contract as she sobbed once into the canvas of her brother's jacket. Her mouth kept moving around the words, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Then something else. A question. "Is she-?"

"It's okay," Dean murmured into her hair. "She's dead, Anna. It's okay."

Anna squeezed her eyes shut and pressed herself impossibly closer. When she felt Sam nearby, she reached blindly out, grabbed his jacket, and pulled him in. They didn't do group hugs. Like ever. But sandwiched there between the two safest people on the planet, Anna finally felt like herself again.

"It's okay," Dean said again.

And maybe it was. Maybe it really was.

Because Anna could suddenly see a way to get those shards to form a whole again. She could see herself having a life, fragile but survivable.

"It's okay."

()()()

Dean took a massive bite of his burger and moaned in pure ecstasy. "That is good," he said around a mouthful of meat and bread. "That's so good." He looked up and saw the expected bitchface from Sam. When he looked next to Sam to where Anna was sitting, he saw a hint of a smile on her face. Mission accomplished.

"That's disgusting," Anna told him softly.

She'd ordered an actual meal instead of trying to get away with only eating a side like usual. Which made sense considering that she hadn't eaten much at all while she was at Jody's. Dean wished he could have blamed someone for that, even if it would have had to have been Jody. But he couldn't. Anna was fifteen, and she was a troubled kid, and she'd been dealt an even shittier hand than usual this weekend.

"Did you get enough?" he asked. "Cause I'll flag down the waiter-"

"Dean," Anna said and rolled her eyes. "I got plenty."

"Alright," Dean surrendered. But he glanced at her several times as they all ate their meals, just to make sure she was eating.

When they were all nearly finished, just nibbling on fries and sipping at their drinks, Dean decided he had to say something.

"Rugrat, I gotta... I gotta talk to you about something."

Anna looked up from her plate, half a french fry in her hand. "What?"

"About what happened. At the bunker, before we left."

He saw Anna searching for the memory, and when she found it, he watched her shrug it off. "It's fine," she said dismissively. "It's whatever."

"No," Dean said, shaking his head. She couldn't pretend it was nothing. He wouldn't let her. He was terrified that he'd hurt her somehow. Maybe not physically– he'd been careful– but emotionally. He couldn't shake that betrayed look she'd given him, the heartbreak in her eyes. "It's not fine. I hated that," he admitted. "I can't say I'd do it different if I had the chance, but I'm sorry. I just wanted to keep you safe."

"I know," Anna replied quietly. "I honestly... I mean, at first I felt awful about it. But... but I get it. And it's not like you hurt me or anything."

"No, but we forced you into something," Sam said. "And... we always said we wouldn't do that. Cause we didn't want to be like-" He cut himself off and shook his head. "We just... we didn't want to make you feel like you had no control."

Dean watched as Anna and Sam exchanged these looks that he couldn't understand. Those two had a language that even he couldn't read. Anna turned to him then, chewing on her bottom lip and dragging a half-smile up one side of her face. "I forgive you," she said.

It was what he'd needed to hear, and Dean loathed to think that was why she'd said it. But he smiled at her anyway, faint at first and then stronger. "You better clean your plate," he told her, vulnerability diminishing. "If you keep skippin' meals, you're gonna end up disappearing right off the planet one day."

"Oh, shut up," Anna grumbled and popped a french fry in her mouth.

Dean just gave her half of an upside down smile and raised his beer bottle to his lips. He felt strangely good all things considered. He had his siblings, a full stomach, and a bottle of beer. Abaddon was dead, Anna and Sam were safe, and the Mark was being quiet for once. It had been a rough few days, but it was over, and the Winchesters had come out on top.

When he came out of his thoughts again, Sam was grinning, and Anna's mouth was open as she let out one of her rare full-body laughs. Maybe now that she knew she was safe, the kid could heal. Maybe they could all heal.

La Fin