maternal · protective · naive · resilient · supernatural · demon lore · tragic heroine · religious themes · winchester universe
The silence between us thickened, charged and waiting. Kelly's eyes narrowed, sharp with hard-won suspicion. "What are you?" she asked, the words stripped bare of any polite pretense. Months of lies had taught her to see past names and titles, down to the core of a thing. Her hand moved unconsciously to cradle the swell of her abdomen, a gesture of protection that momentarily overrode the visceral shame of how she'd been used. She had spent a childhood dreaming of this—of holding a child close—and now that it was real, she would not let terror or prophecy dictate her path. Who the father was meant nothing. Her son, she believed, could be the hope this fractured world had stopped daring to imagine.