Dean stepped into the door that night, ripping his plate carrier off his body ,and tossing his helmet onto a soft pile of clothes. He marched into the dining area of his home, noticing that the lights were off, the music was on, and Katherine was sitting on the sofa drinking alone while deep in thought.

She had practically not even noticed his entrance, not until he sat down with a drink in his hand and forcefully groaning after stripping off his snow clad boots and the socks beneath.

Resting his feet on the table in front of him, he sighed heavily, taking a sip from his glass while taking the beanie off his head.

Chuckling softly as he relaxed on the sofa, finally realizing what song was playing.

It was from his third studio album, Reaper’s Embrace, and the song they were listening to was titled "Lucky Ones." And while the music was loud, experimental, and heavy, it matched the introspective and nihilistic lyrics, questioning whether those who survived were truly lucky, or if that belonged to dead who fell by their side first.

His expression turned somber as he listened to the music continue, before taking another sip from his glass, sighing heavily as he forced a conversation to stir.

"You know the one good thing about this whole mess?"

Katherine finally looked up and over at Dean, there was a complicated expression in her eyes as she downed the last of her drink, pouring herself another as she indulged Dean’s thoughts with a single word.

"What?"

Dean’s eyes were clearly not staring at the present, but off into the distance past he had lived before the world fell apart. He shook his head before taking another sip, putting his glass down on the table in front of him.

"I can finally talk about all the shit I did over there.... I mean who the hell is going to prosecute me for divulging classified information?"

Katherine looked over at Dean, an almost accusatory glance in her eyes, her voice subtle, but by no means soft.

"Oh?"

Dean rolled his eyes as he heard the tone in Katherine’s voice, pouring himself another drink while thinking back on this past year, and all those that had come before the long winter.

"Truth be told, I don’t really remember what I told you about my years in the Guard, if I even did at all. I never really had a drinking problem before the snow first fell.... But I used to tell people that I never deployed, it was easier than having them bug me to divulge classified information, even after I told them about its status. Some people just refused to listen."

The chorus suddenly played in the background, and Katherine instantly connected the dots.

"This was your last album... Did you write this about something that happened during one of your deployments?"

Dean didn’t speak, not at first, and when he did, he switched the conversation. Almost as if, despite finally realizing he was free to speak, there were no words to describe what he had seen and done all those years before.

"What about you? You seldom speak about who you were before?"

Katherine shot Dean a nasty side eye, her comment was far more passive aggressive than it needed to be.

"We seldom speak in private these days, maybe if you were around more often to share a drink, then you would have learned all there is to know about me by now."

She continued to watch Dean’s reaction from the corner of her eye as she pretended to look away from him entirely disinterested.

Dean surprised Katherine, he didn’t protest, he didn’t appear wronged, he just went silent as he continued to pull off his extra layers of clothing and toss them aside. His eyes seemed distant, as if focused on something just out of his reach.

In the end, he simply sighed and poured himself another cup.

"What can I say? I’m a busy man, between making sure this little commune of ours survives, leading its ad hoc militia that we dare to call an army, and taking care of the physical and emotional needs of two wives, I’m usually spent by this hour of the night, or occupied with those two...."

Dean rolled his eyes, almost as if in exhaustion as he said that last part, before downing more liquor.

Normally Katherine would have chuckled at his self-flagellating humor, but she didn’t this time. She remained quiet, reserved, and for a moment Dean could have sworn she physically tried to create distance between the two of them, not that they were even sitting on the same sofa.

He couldn’t help but feel like he had just said something wrong, or perhaps stepped on a landmine, but he couldn’t guess quite what it was. Instead, he decided to poke a bit more into her background.

"So... what about you?"

Katherine looked over at Dean, almost with scorn as he asked, forcing him to clarify his stance.

"What about me?"

"I mean... you had to have had somebody before the world froze over, right? Husband? Boyfriend.... Girlfriend?"

Katherine looked at Dean with almost sheer appall by the insinuation. And scoffed profusely, shaking her head, before finally letting loose her secret.

"None of the above?"

An inappropriate joke immediately entered Dean’s mind, but he didn’t dare say it, not in the current atmosphere, instead he leaned back, smirked and pointed at her.

"I don’t believe you, nah... you’re beautiful, intelligent, and not a total pain in my ass. That’s a rare combination, especially these days. Some man had to have at least tried to sweep you off your feet and make you his misses, right?"

Katherine scoffed at Dean’s statement, drinking until her cheeks became rosy before finally commenting on his remarks.

"Sure, many tried... But I was too busy. I spent almost the entirety of my twenties becoming a surgeon, and by the time I had finally made that dream a reality... I don’t’ know... I just sort of no longer cared to try? Does that make sense?"

Dean could more or less surmise the meaning behind the woman’s words, and was quick to pry, even it meant angering her.

"Who was he? The guy you fell so hard for, you felt the need to close yourself off from anyone else?"

Katherine’s face twisted into something nasty, not ugly, she was as refined as ever, but it was an expression like Dean had just seriously wounded her.

But she didn’t yell, scream, throw something at him, or even insult him. She simply drank, until finally she could bear talking about it.

"Before you get any ideas, it wasn’t like that... I mean it never had the chance to be.... But... If you must know, I fell in love with one of my professors when I was a wide-eyed freshman in college. He naturally didn’t feel the same, was already married, and when I finally worked up the courage to tell him how I felt, he didn’t just say no... he made me feel foolish for ever thinking he might."

Dean thought about what this meant for a second and asked one more question.

"That was it? Nobody before that? You didn’t date in high school?"

Katherine shook her head and laughed at the idea.

"God no, my parents would have killed me... Hell, if they knew how I felt about my professor it would have been the end of the world for me. They tried to set me up with someone once I turned thirty, but I turned down all attempts. Even the ones that hurt their reputation in their own circles..."

Dean’s mind jumped to a singular conclusion as his mind processed both the weight and absurdity of the situation. Accidentally letting his thoughts escape for a second without thinking through the damage they could cause.

"Hold on... does that mean that you’re a...."

Katherine’s stare caused him to freeze in spot ,as if he had just been petrified by Medusa’s gaze. Her words were equally jarring, but were by no means violent, hissed through her teeth.

"Not another word..."

She placed her glass down on the table and walked off, leaving Dean completely alone in shock at the personal revelation.

And when he concluded that his assumption was right based on her reaction he stared off towards the staircase where she had run off to and voiced his thoughts aloud.

"Oh, shit... don’t tell me she’s about to make me take responsibility..."