Rating: PG-16

As in previous times of crises or confusion when Dean wasn’t sure what to think or do he went home and made love to his wife. He needed to reconnect with the good in his life. Cassie seemed to understand this time, for someone like Dean who refused most often to be emotional he had to have an outlet. She looked in his troubled face and knew this was how he reached out to her. At first she just held him wanting to cry for him but he asked that she provide more. Of course she couldn’t turn him away. She loved her husband with all that she was. He needed to be close to her; she wanted to comfort him in whatever way possible.

Missouri arranged the funeral from the guest list to the music choices and Cassie was grateful because she had to deal with an inconsolable husband. Dean moped and fought with Sam for several days not listening to Cassie’s advice about just letting the tears flow. She knew he had to grieve in his own way but it was disturbing the household so Joshua had a talk with him.
“Dean we are all grieving here I know it’s hard to let go of the shell that you have so tightly wrapped around yourself but please try to give everyone else the courtesy of some peace.”
“So big brother now that you have seen my true self do you still wish you had known me when we were younger?” Dean asked with no intention of waiting for a reply, but Joshua stopped with a hand to the shoulder.
“I will always wish I had been able to grow up with you and Sam,” Joshua insisted as he looked into the eyes of his hurting brother.

On the day of the service everyone was at the church except Dean; he told Cassie that he would meet them there. When he finally showed up he reeked of alcohol. He took a seat beside Cassie on the front row and Jessica reached for him. He held her close to his chest as if nothing was wrong. Cassie laid a comforting hand on his leg as she smiled into his watery hazel eyes while he stroked the baby’s head. Cassie loved Dean despite his faults he was a good man that loved and hurt deeply. Jessica had been the only one able to stand him though Cassie tried to be supportive in the end she had given him his space. But Jessica’s presence seemed to calm him in this new world. A world where his father no longer lived.

Before they left for the grave site Sam yelled at Dean for being so weak as to get wasted for his own father’s funeral. Dean punched him just before Joshua jumped in between them.
“We aren’t going to do this, you both need to settle down,” Joshua said. He sent Sam off with Missy to calm down while he prepared to speak with Dean but Missouri walked up to them just long enough to grab Dean by the arm and take him for a walk.
“Now you listen, boy, I know you loved your father but this isn’t the way to honor him. He was a good man; now because of the three of you a lot of lives have been saved. Don’t go and ruin your reputation with these good people by getting out of control. You know you will regret all of this tomorrow if not sooner,” she advised before strutting off to get in her car.

Dean went back to sit on the steps of the church beside Cassie and Jessica. “I’m sorry,” he said before he put his arms around her.
“It’s okay Sweetie, we know you’re hurting just like the rest of us you just have a harder time letting things go,” she said before his tears finally fell.
Jessica just looked from one to the other before she reached for her daddy.

Things settle down and couple of nights after Missy went back to Ohio, they finally performed the cleanse. They met in the den in front of the fireplace. Everyone had their prayers to read but first they burned all of the pages that had anything to do with Mary Keith, their mother and her mother Margaret’s involvement in the coven. It turned out that Mary had grown up in the coven. Dean wondered if there wasn’t more information since it seemed to be a family thing. But they burned what they had until it was ashes; then read the prayers out loud; God in heaven we denounce all ties to the occult. We denounce them as a family and as individuals. This curse has no place in our family because we know you exist and you have the greatest of spiritual powers on earth and in heavenly places. Amen. They recited it together as a family then each one silently using their own names.