Title: Maybe it's better to forget

Author: OpheliacAngel

Characters: Dean & Bela

Genre: Angst & Drama

Rating: Teen

Summary: "You don't know, Dean." You don't know why this is the only life I can have. And even if you did, you wouldn't care. Spoilers for Season 3, no slash.

A/N: I've been wanting to write something like this for a while, an explanation as to why Bela never tried to explain or Dean never tried to find out more. This is how I imagine it would have went down, because I think the two are actually a lot alike when it comes to having a hard time opening up and talking about the past. I really wish the two could have started up something though, friendship, relationship, however brief I wish I could have seen that. Enjoy.

"You don't know, Dean", her hands twist and turn behind her back, at her side, fingernails digging into her palms near deep enough to draw blood. "You don't know what my parents were like."

You don't know why I can't open up, why my past won't let me move on and live any other life but this one.

He wonders why he's here in the first place, agreeing to let Bela explain after the last wrong she had caused Sam and him. Her thievery, her tricks, it's enough to make the Winchester want to strangle her at times. Yet he agreed to come, for no coherent reason other than to hope her explanations won't sound like lies to his ears that have been bullshitted to for so long.

"Yeah well", he shoots back, "I think I know enough. You were what? Neglected a little too much? Pushed aside for pressing family matters when you thought you needed them most? Cheated of your allowance?"

You don't kill your parents when the going gets too tough, Bela. You think my life was always a slice of pie?

"No", Bela wipes a stray tear away, wishes the man before her who doesn't seem to care much about anything except himself and his brother, wouldn't have to see that action, wouldn't be so cruel when he can clearly see how much in distress she's in.

How sorry she is.

"It was actually the exact opposite." She finds it hard to continue with her throat closing up as much as it is. This was probably a huge mistake after all. Bela looks him straight in the eye because that's what tough girls, thieves like her, are supposed to do. Show no guilt, have no shame, pretend that nothing rattles you. "I wished day in and day out that they would just forget about me."

Dean remembers Sam telling him that once, so Dad wouldn't expect so much, could stop being disappointed and angry and stop pushing him.

"But why bother? It's not like Dean Winchester ever cared about a thief like me."

She walks away then, leaving the hunter curious to know what the hell she's getting on about, but also glad to not be permitted to enter into that twisted mind. Bela doesn't have sympathy, it's just easier for him to come to that conclusion and move on. If she was sorry, she'd stop gunning for the Colt and start staying out of his way, if she cared at all about good people trying to do good things, she'd stop being such a bitch and start helping them even.

Those tears were faked, he has to believe that and move past it because Dean Winchester has given her far too many chances, has forgiven her one too many times and all he received was a knife in the back.

Bela Talbot is a thief, a liar, a predator that was created when she made the move to kill her parents. Nothing can justify those actions, not even if she managed to take up all his time tonight.

And he can't worry anymore, about any of this because he's dying in less than a few months and there's more things left unsaid between him and his brother than there are between him and freaking Bela.

She doesn't care. He doesn't care. Now he's moving on.

Now he's forgetting he even met Bela Talbot at all.

FIN