for caffienekitty

[tigriswolf]

Title: Heaven’s last best gift
Fandom: Supernatural
Dedication: caffienekitty , for her birthday
Notes: spoilers for everything aired; title from Milton.  

On a dark and stormy night not too long after he buried what was left of Karen, a young woman showed up at Bobby Singer’s door.  In later years, he could never remember what she looked like, which he blamed on all the alcohol swimming around in his system.

“Well, c’mon in ‘fore you catch your death,” he slurred, and his drunken mind didn’t notice that no rain touched her, though the summer storm continued to rage.

“Thank you,” she said, following him into the house. “You must know that you will see your love again before you leave this life, and that you will meet the sons she had no chance to bear you."

Bobby took another swig of his beer, since it was all a delusion anyway. “Who’re you?” he asked.

She smiled. “You may call me Hope, if it pleases you. I have something to place in your care, Robert. It is vital. Are you trustworthy?”

He laughed, bitterly and hoarsely, and said, “I killed my life last week. Wife.” He considered that a moment, while Hope stood silent. “Same thing, anyhow.”

“Yes,” Hope said quietly, and Bobby felt something calming him, gentle and soothing, and he thought of Karen humming in the kitchen. “You are a warrior, Robert. A survivor. You will keep it safe, and know when the time is right to bestow it.”

From around her neck, Hope pulled a leather cord, and a small yellow amulet glowed on it. “This is very old, Robert,” Hope told him, and held it out.  “One of my sons crafted it from angel blood and demon tears, and the Creator’s sorrow.” She looked at him solemnly, and his mental haze lessened.

“Who are you?” he asked again. She didn’t look old enough to have a craftsman for a son, and those ingredients…

“A brother’s love was also poured into this,” she said. “And a son’s regret, a son’s pride. Keep it safe, Robert.” She placed the necklace on his hall table and it stopped glowing. He blinked at the amulet; when he lifted his gaze to look at Hope again, she’d vanished.

Bobby shrugged—it was, after all, just a drunken delusion. So he went to bed.

When he woke in the morning, he had a truly horrendous hangover and no desire to drink anymore. Instead, he began researching what happened to Karen, determined to save others from her fate.

Years later, when John Winchester showed up with two rugrats and a crusade not unlike Bobby’s, Bobby gave him advice and information, and then he found a small yellow amulet on a leather cord. He didn’t remember every seeing it before, and figured it must have come from Karen’s stuff.

One day, Sam Winchester called Bobby and asked if he had something cool that Sam could give his father for Christmas. For some reason, Bobby immediately thought of that yellow amulet. He didn’t think it was anything special, but it sure looked impressive.

So he gave it to Sam. And it wasn’t until Castiel requested Dean relinquish his amulet that Bobby remembered the woman who gave it to him half a decade before Dean’s birth.

But he still didn’t understand. He didn’t understand when Dean handed over his necklace, a gift from his little brother, what should have been a useless charm, a harmless knick-knack, but was actually so much more…

He didn’t understand when Death sent him a message through the long-dead love of his life, or when Lucifer himself knocked on the door and reached through all Bobby’s protections to vaporize him.

“You did well, Robert,” a young woman with a gentle smile told him. “I thank you.” She kissed him on the cheek and said, “Karen is waiting for you. Fear not—I’ll watch over your boys.”

“Hope,” he whispered. “I don’t—”

“I know.” She patted his hand. “Let go, my son. Be at peace.”

Dean and Sam, he thought. I’m sorry, boys. I wasn’t strong enough.

He closed his eyes and imagined Karen’s laughter, the way she murmured his name, how she taught him to bake her favorite cookies, and—