Her, To Home

He was leaning on the uncomfortable chair, staring at her. His whole body felt numb, like every emotion and feeling had lost its touch from his body. He had spent the time beside her sleeping figure like a hungry man to open her eyes. He shouldn’t be worried, didn’t have any reason to either but he still found himself unblinking as he took in her sight. It felt like forever since she last looked at him with those glaring, adoring eyes. His starvation for her attention was too selfish for him to fall asleep. He wanted to meet her eyes when she finally wakes up.

The shadows in the room started appearing slowly like they were mocking him in slow painful dance which he wanted to dance and yet, was forced to only watch. As the glass window slowly creeped in the sunlight, he finally saw some movement from her. Just to make sure she won’t move too harshly, he quickly held her down. She grabbed his arm with a snap as her eyes opened suddenly and she simply stared at him.

Time stood still for him; it was like going back to finally meeting her eyes after two years yet the two years had never felt as long as the time, he had stood alone without her. He was watching as her widen eyes slowly gained focus and then she blinked, moving her lips but he heard no sound.

“…. an. Dean.” She whispered from her chapped lips and he clutched his jaw as he leaned lower and kissed her lips, his eyes tightly shut as he breathes in the warmth of her skin. His numb mind was haywire into life as he kept his lips on hers. The wetness he had been keeping from flowing finally escaped his eyes. Two tears rolled down and fell on Sara’s neck as he held her to himself while embracing her lips.

He didn’t know what it was, he hadn’t been afraid till he reached there. Wasn’t scared even when June pointed a gun at him but the second, he realized that June had planned to hurt him in the worse way possible, he felt the images of his whole life crumbling down to sand. When she fired the shot at Sara, he wasn’t able to move, was just watched as Sara fell down on the ground, her eyes on his as her body lost life. The noise around him of his surroundings had been like a background noise he couldn’t hear. His mind flashed his whole life through his eyes and slowly, painfully his chest exploded in pain. For him, he had never stood in the moment where he ever had to image the life without O’Brian simply because he knew he was going to stay in her life whether she knew or not but the thought that she might never even have a life for him to stay in, the thought was so unimaginable that it never crossed his mind but there he was, living in the very moment where his mind was making every possibility of losing her, his O’Brian.

“Dean…” Her whisper pulled him out of his darkness and he leaned back, opening his eyes and taking in her sight once again. Her confused eyes were staring at him, asking a million question at one time but he didn’t want to answer anything, not yet, in fact if he could remove the time from existence, he would.

“Hi, baby.” He sighed and grabbed her hands.

“Dean… what happened?”

He found himself unable to meet her eyes but he knew that in this reality, there weren’t such things as escaping so he took a deep breath and once again looked at her and said, “You got shot. Thankfully it hit your shoulder instead of your heart.”

He was wishing she would stop asking anything after this but she probably read his eyes better then he hid them and she tighten her hold on his hand and almost breath out, “And June….?”

He gulped and cupped her face saying, “When she shot you, the police also fired. Since she was shooting to kill you, they didn’t care for just disarming her. She was shot…. on the chest. She died on the spot.”

He could still remember when he finally gained his mind back, he found June’s lifeless body on the cold ground, the eyes were wide open as it stared at nothing. The goth girl he should have been hating with his every ounce of life was suddenly too pitiful for him to despise. Her lonely and ignored body suddenly reflected her own life in front of him. He could never have imagined that a girl’s simple obsession could go far and ruin so many lives. The blood which was leaving the traces of red from her body had him stand alone and for a second there, he could see himself in that lifeless body.

Is that what obsession looks like if it’s not fed? Or was that where it finally stops? June had been feeding on the hatred of her sister for so long that it became her very own madness. As her sister will continue to live in her delusions which was at least keeping her alive, the same delusions had become June’s reality till she believed and lived inside it till when she finally faced the truth, she was unable to leave her insanity behind.

Would he have been also like that? Dying somewhere as he bled alone, staring into nothing if O’Brian had not belonged to him. Was he exactly like June and her sister? Fallen so deep that maybe his love had become his madness.

He watched as his love breathe out a pained sigh and then slowly her eyes filled with tears which escaped like sudden rainfall from the sky. He could only helplessly watch as his O’Brian pulsed like a dying animal. He knew her mind was in chaos, the very person she had adored, loved like a sister had died while trying to take her life.

“She is gone…? Dean, why am I sad?” She demanded as she tried to calm herself down but only found it harder to stop her tears.

He wanted to grab her into his chest and hide her but he knew that right now, the O’Brian who was hurting was simply alone. She was standing wounded while bleeding from something she couldn’t see and he really couldn’t help her. She needed to deal with her love for June and the reality herself.

“It’s okay, baby. You can cry, you can grieve. Someone has to.” He softly kissed her head.

Someone needed to know that June Parker was also a victim, a poisoned victim who had lived in her the delusions her sister fed her for God knows how long. Someone needed to feel sorry for her, someone needed to see that June Parker was capable of goodness, of normality if she was given a chance. She was something other then what she will be known as now. Given what had happened, the truth will come out and June Parker would only remain a heartless person who used someone to hurt another person.

Sara stared at him for few second before she closed her eyes and finally started crying. He could only watch as she suffered from the pain only, she felt. He just sat beside her silently, rubbing her hand and wiping her tears.

He knew she would be fine after all he was beside her but for now, he was willing to let June once again own his O’Brian. He owned the girl that much. Even if she had her selfish motives, she had stayed beside Sara when he couldn’t, when Sara was weak enough to escape to death, she had stayed beside his Sara and given her something to live for.

Sara cried for a long time till she was too tired to stay awake and after eyeing him for few minutes, she closed them, falling asleep once again. He smiled and kissed her head, clearing away the rest of the tears.

He was just about to call Jamie when the door opened behind him. The detective in-charge was standing there, waiting for him to come out. After making sure Sara was asleep, Dean came out of the room.

“What can I help you with, Detective?” Dean asked as they sat down in the cafeteria, Dean had a steaming cup of coffee in front of him.

“We still have few routine questions for both of you. Miss O’Brian can wait till she is healthy and able but I hope you can answer yours right away.'”

“Ask away.”

“You have really never talked to Miss Parker?”

Dean stared at the middle-aged man and slowly shook his head. He was tired to telling people that he really didn’t know anything about anything. He was as unaware of Jennet’s existence. It sounded sad considering what she felt for him but it had been impossible for him to keep his away from O’Brian.

“Never, I didn’t know she existed. If I did, I would have properly rejected her as harshly as possible so that she would never be able to create suck sickening delusions.” Dean spit out.

Though he had felt deep pity for June, for Jennet he really couldn’t find anything but disgust. For him, it was impossible to imagine any falling in love with anyone without even talking to them. Love at first sight was a different case, he just couldn’t understand what had fueled her love for him. He had never been unusually kind to any girl, never held a conversation with any girl he didn’t know. Love needs to be fueled, even obsession but that girl had a sickness. A sickness he refuses to pity.

“Did Miss June Parker ever let lose that she had such intentions?”

“No, she never liked me. There had been times where I almost thought she hated me but it was never to the point where I could imagine to do something like this. Never like this.”

“We have found Miss Jennet’s diary. It was less of her diary and more of information about you. She had spent a very long time on you, Mister Woodland.”

Dean looked at the detective blankly. What was he supposed to answer? Was he trying to gain pity? Jennet Parker never loved him because she never knew him. She didn’t a single thing about him outside the world she had created for them in which he was also in love with her.

The detective sighed and continued, “We also found pictures of you but there is something we have found strange. Neither of the sister had anything against Miss O’Brian. It is a bit understandable in Miss June’s case but why have Miss Jennet not approach Miss O’Brian even once?”

Dean had also been wondering this. In such cases, usually the obsession is enough for jealousy to grow at almost anything yet Jennet never did anything to hurt Sara. He was thankful but it didn’t make sense for her to not do anything.

“We have contacted the hospital to see if we can talk to Miss Jennet. We hope that Miss Jennet is in a state where she understands what had happened.”

Dean nodded and after asking few other details, he bought some food and left for Sara’s room and paused on the door to see that she was awake. She was sitting on the bed, staring outside the window. She turned to look at him and slowly smiled.

Dean came closer and touched her face, smiling but he knew his worried eyes caught hers.

She took his hand in hers and kissed the back of it, turning her eyes back to the window and very softly said, “I want to see her.”