Ryan Rose stood leaning up against the black 1967 Chevy Impala, waiting. She'd been standing there for twenty minutes and after another minute Dean and Sam walked out of the motel room.
"Ry, how long have you been waiting there?" Dean asked, hurrying forward and pulling her into a hug.
"Just a bit." Ryan said, grinning. "I got your message, what's wrong?"
"Let's take a walk." Dean said, giving a glance to Sam.
"Hey, Sammy." Ryan said, walking over to him and kissing his cheek. "We'll talk later, yeah?"
"Of course." Sam said, giving a sad smile.
Ryan nodded and followed Dean as they started to walk around the block.
"So what's up? Why is Sammy here?" Ryan asked.
"Dad's missing, I was doing this voodoo thing in New Orleans and he was up in California and I get this weirdo message saying we're all in danger and he won't answer his cell so I go get Sam and we spend the weekend figuring out what he was hunting and we get it and then I go take Sam back to Stanford and his girlfriend Jessica – whatever killed our Mom's killed her, now Sam and I are after whatever did it and we could use your help, Ry, you're family."
"Of course, I'll help Dean." Ryan said, smacking his arm. "Why would you think I wouldn't? How's Sammy taking it?"
"He's having nightmares, he won't talk to me at all." Dean said. "I'm worried about him."
"I've missed you Dean; tell me again why I wanted to go in search of my Dad?"
"I have no idea, did you find him?"
"Yeah, I did."
"And, what did he say?"
"I don't know, I couldn't hear him from six feet under." Ryan said, raising her eyebrows.
"I'm sorry, Ry."
"Don't be sorry, I don't know what I was expecting. He never wanted me; even if he had been alive I don't think it would have done any good. You're my family Dean, you and John and Sammy, nothing else matters, except getting the evil son of a bitch that killed our Mom's."
"I've missed you Ry." Dean said, pulling her into another hug.
"So, what's next?"
"Dad left his journal, there are coordinates we're gonna go there next. We've been digging around here for a week now but we've got nothing. We we're just leaving, how did you get here anyway." Dean asked, by now they were back at the motel.
"I stole a car." Ryan said, pulling Sam into another hug. "How tall are you now, Sammy?"
"6'2" –ish."
"Ish, more like 6'4"."
"Yeah." Sam said, smiling bashfully.
Ryan sat in the passenger seat of the Impala, impatiently tapping her fingers against the car door.
"That's getting really annoying." Dean said.
"Yeah, well, this whole thing is really annoying. I mean, why do things have to be so far away, Dean?"
"Because that's how things are." Dean said.
Before Ryan could reply Sam jerked awake in the backseat.
"You okay, Sammy?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Another nightmare?" Ryan asked, nodding her head.
Sam awkwardly cleared his throat but said nothing else.
"Do you wanna drive for a while?" Dean offered, to him driving the Impala was the best thing in the world.
"In your whole live you never once asked me that." Sam said, laughing.
"Look man, you're worried about me, I get it and thank you but I'm perfectly okay." Sam said, rubbing his eyes. Dean made a noise of agreement but said nothing else.
"All right…where are we?"
"We are just outside of Grand Junction." Ryan said.
"You know what?" Sam said, pulling out a map. "Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon."
"Sam, we dug around there for a week, we came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica…" Dean said.
"We gotta find dad first." Sam finished.
"John disappearing, and this thing showing up again after twenty-years, it's no coincidence. John will have answers; he'll know what to do." Ryan said, taking the last swig of her big gulp.
"It's weird though, these coordinates he left us, this Blackwater Ridge."
"What about it?" Dean asked.
"There's nothing there, it's just woods. Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?"
"Can you go any faster?" Ryan asked. "I have to pee."
"I told you not to drink so much."
"Well, you're not my boss, so let's hurry it up."
Dean grinned and slowed down marginally grinning happily, that is until Ryan hit him on the shoulder.
"That hurt, Ash." Dean complained.
"My bladder is hurting right now, so go quickly."
Ryan pushed past Sam and into the Visitors Center, clutching her crotch and wiggling from one foot to another.
"I just drank a drink about three times the size of my bladder and if I don't find a bathroom in the next two seconds I'm gonna pee right here all over the floor and I won't clean it up and you will so I suggest you hurry up and tell me where I can find a bathroom."
"Through there." A man said, pointing to a door.
"Thank you." Ryan said, hurrying into the bathroom.
After going pee Ryan walked back into the main lobby where Dean and Sam where talking too the Ranger who had pointed Ryan in the direction of the bathroom.
"Actually you know what would help is if I could show her a copy of that backcountry permit you know so she could see her brothers return date."
"Let me get it." The Ranger said.
Once the ranger returned with the permit they left, Dean gleefully laughing at his accomplishment.
"What are you cruising for a hook-up or something?" Sam asked.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked.
"The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge so what are we waiting for, let's just go find Dad. I mean why even talk to this girl?"
"Sammy, we can't just run into the woods half-cocked, we find out as much as we can before we get there that way we don't get killed by whatever is there. Since when are you all shoot first ask questions later anyway?"
"Since now." Sam said, stubbornly.
"Oh, really?" Ryan asked.
Ryan stepped up onto the porch of the house that belonged to the girl who's brother was out camping, Dean who was use to taking the lead knocked on the door and after a few minutes a girl answered.
"You must be Hailey Collins, I'm Dean, and this is Sam and Ryan. We're rangers with the park service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over; we wanted to ask you some questions about your brother Tommy."
"Let me see some ID." Hailey said and Dean dug in his pocket for one of the many fake ID's he had.
"Here ya go." Dean said.
"Come on in." Hailey said, after looking at through the screen door for a second.
"Thanks."
"That yours?" Hailey asked, gesturing to the Impala.
"Yeah."
"Nice car." Hailey said.
"So if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?" Sam asked, getting straight to business.
"He checks in every day by cell, he e-mails photos, stupid little videos…but we haven't heard anything in over three days now." Hailey said, setting down a plate of food in front of a teenage boy.
"Well maybe he can't get cell reception." Ryan suggested.
"He's got a satellite phone too."
"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean asked.
"He wouldn't do that." The teenage boy snapped.
"Our parents are gone; it's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other."
"Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Sam asked.
"Yeah." Hailey said, opening a laptop. "That's Tommy."
Hailey pressed play and a boy who looked a lot like the teenage boy but a few years older was talking into a camera.
"Hey Hailey, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge, we're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, talk to you tomorrow."
Ryan noticed Sam frown slight, at something he'd seen in the video.
"Well, we'll find your brother, we're headin' out to Blackwater Ridge first thing." Dean said.
"Then maybe I'll see you there." Hailey said and Sam, Dean and Ryan all gave her a "look". "Look, I can't sit around here anymore, so I hired a guide. I'm heading out in the morning and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."
"I think I know how ya feel." Dean said.
"Hey, you mind forwarding these to me?" Sam asked.
"Sure." Hailey said.
After Hailey's Sam went to the library and Ryan and Dean went to the local bar and had a few beers and played pool before Sam came back.
"So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic, local campers mostly." Sam said, pulling out newspaper articles and showing Dean and Ryan. "But still, this past April two hikers went missing out there, they were never found."
"Any before that?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack and again in 1959 and again before that in 1936. Every twenty-three years, just like clockwork." Sam said, pulling out his laptop. "Okay, watch this. Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy, Tommy's, video to the laptop. Check this out."
Sam played the same video frame by frame, this time a shadow of something moving extremely fast outside the tent is visible.
"Do it again." Dean said.
"That's three frames." Sam said, playing it again. "That's a fraction of a second, whatever that thing is, it can move."
"Told ya something weird was goin' on." Dean said, smacking Sam's arm.
"Yeah, I got one more thing. In '59 one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid, barley crawled out of the woods alive."
"Is there a name?" Dean asked and Sam gave a brief smile.
Ryan sat beside Dean and Sam on the small couch in the living room of the survivor's house.
"Look, ranger, I don't know why you're askin' me about this. It's public record; I was a kid. My parents got mauled by a …"
"Grizzly? That's what attacked them?" Sam asked.
Mr. Shaw paused for a second and then nodded his head.
"The other people that went missing that year…those bear attacks too?" Dean asked.
"What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?" Ryan asked. "If we knew what we were dealing with, Mr. Shaw, we might be able to stop it."
"I seriously doubt that." Mr. Shaw said, sighing. "Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make. You wouldn't believe me, nobody ever did."
"Mr. Shaw, what did you see?" Ryan persisted.
"Nothing, it moved too fast to see, it hid too well. I heard it though, a roar, like…no man or animal I ever heard."
"It came at night?" Sam asked and Mr. Shaw nodded.
"Got inside your tent?"
"No," Mr. Shaw said, shaking his head. "It got inside our cabin, I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window or break the door, it unlocked it. Do you know a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up till I heard my parents screamin'."
"It killed them?" Sam asked.
"Dragged them off into the night, why it left me alive…been askin' myself that ever since. Did leave me this though." Mr. Shaw said opening the collar of his shirt to reveal his chest with three huge scars that looked like they were made by three huge claws. "There's something evil in those woods, it was some sort of a demon."
"Thank you for your time." Ryan said, standing up and shaking his hand.
"Good luck." Mr. Shaw said.
"Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors, if they want inside they just go through the walls." Dean said, once they where back in the Impala.
"So it's probably something else, something corporeal."
"Corporeal?" Ryan asked, making a face. "Excuse me professor."
"Shut up," Sam replied. "So what do you think?"
"That claws, the speed that it moves, could be a skin walker, maybe a black dog." Dean guessed. "Whatever we're talking about, we're talking about a creature and it's corporeal." Dean teased, slightly. "Which means we can kill it."
By this time they where back at the motel and Dean walked too the trunk and propped it open with a shotgun.
"We cannot let that Hailey girl go out there." Sam said.
"Oh yeah? What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?"
"Yeah," Sam said.
"I agree with Sammy on this, she could get hurt out there." Ryan said.
"Her brother's missing, she's not just gonna sit this out. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator-friend."
"Finding Dad's not enough?" Sam asked, slamming the trunk shut once Dean was finished filling a duffel bag with some pistols. "Now we gotta babysit too?"
Dean stared at Sam for a second but didn't say anything?
"What?" Sam snapped.
"Nothing." Dean said, shrugging, tossing the duffel bag to Sam.
Ryan was half-asleep as she drank her second cup of coffee and climbed out of the Impala, they where at the base of the trail. Hailey, Ben and another man where waiting.
"You guys got room for three more?" Dean asked.
"Wait, you want to come with us?" Hailey asked.
"Who are these guys?"
"Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for search and rescue." Hailey said, sarcastically.
"You're rangers?" The guy asked.
"That's right." Dean said, grinning.
"And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?" Hailey asked.
"Well, sweetheart, I don't do shorts." Dean said, grinning impishly.
"What, you think this is funny? It's dangerous backcountry out there, her brother might be hurt."
"Believe me," Ryan said. "We know how dangerous this could get. We just want to help her find her brother, that's all. My names Ryan by the way and that's Sam and Dean."
"I'm Roy." He said, turning and starting off without another word.
"This is gonna be a great hike." Ryan said, sarcastically.
They walked in near silence for twenty minutes or so until Dean finally spoke.
"Roy, you said you did a little hunting?"
"Yeah, more than a little."
"Uhhuh…what kind of furry critters do you hunt?"
"Mostly buck sometimes bear."
"Tell me, uh…Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" Dean asked and Roy grabbed Dean's shoulder. "Whatcha doin' Roy?"
Roy said nothing but grabbed a stick and put into a bear trap. "You should watch where you're stepping…ranger."
"It's a bear trap." Dean said, grinning like he had known it was there.
"You almost became a pirate Dean." Ryan teased, walking past him.
They walked farther in more silence until Roy stopped and looked around.
"This is it…Blackwater Ridge."
"What coordinates do we have?" Sam asked.
"35-111." Roy said, pulling out a GPS.
"You hear that." Ryan asked.
"Yeah," Sam said. "Not even crickets."
"I'm gonna take a look around." Roy said.
"You shouldn't go off by yourself." Sam said.
"That's sweet." Roy replied sarcastically. "Don't worry about me."
"All right," Dean said, shaking his head. "Everybody stays together, let's go."
"Hailey, over here." Roy called from a few yards away.
Hailey ran toward the voice as did everyone else and a campsite came into view, a tent is torn open and covered in blood.
"Oh my God." Hailey said, putting her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide.
"Looks like a grizzly."
"Tommy?" Hailey called, taking off her backpack. "Tommy?"
"Shh." Sam whispered, putting his finger to his lips.
"Tommy?" Hailey called again, ignoring Sam
"Be quite." Ryan hissed.
"Why?"
"Something might still be out there." Sam aid, a little kinder.
"Sammy, Ry," Dean called and they both turned at the same time and walked over to him. "The bodies were dragged from the campsite, but here the tracks just vanish. That's weird, I tell you what…that's no skin walker or black dog."
Dean looked over at Hailey who was holding a cell phone that was torn open and splattered with blood.
"Hey, he could still be alive." Dean said.
"Help! Help!" A male voice called from the woods.
The group immediately ran off toward it.
"It seemed like it was coming from around here didn't it?" Hailey asked.
"Everybody back to camp." Sam said and they all quickly ran back to the torn up camp to find there supplies missing.
"Our packs." Hailey said.
"So much for my GPS and my satellite phone." Roy complained.
"What the hell is going on?" Hailey asked.
"It's smart; it wants to cut us off so we can't call for help." Sam said.
"You mean some one – some nut job out there just stole all our gear?" Roy asked.
"I need to speak with you two…in private." Sam said, and Sam, Dean and Ryan walked some distance away. "Good, let me see Dad's journal."
Dean handed it to Sam and he opened it up and pointed to a drawing of a thin lanky figure. "Alright, check that out."
"Oh come on, Wendigoes are in the Minnesota woods or northern Michigan. I've never even heard of one this far west."
"Think about it, Dean, the claws, the way it can mimic a human voice." Sam said.
"Great." Ryan said, pulling out a pistol. "Well then this is useless."
Sam angrily handed the journal back to Dean.
"We gotta get these people to safety." Sam said, walking back to the others. "All right listen up, time to go. Things have gotten more…complicated."
"What?" Hailey asked.
"Kid don't worry, whatever's out there, I think I can handle it." Roy said.
"It's not me I'm worried about, if you shoot this thing you're just gonna make it mad. We have to leave now." Sam said, quickly.
"One you're talking nonsense, two you're in no position to give anybody orders." Roy snapped.
"Relax." Dean said, trying to intervene.
"We never should have let you come out here in the first place, alright? I'm trying to protect you."
"You protect me?" Roy scoffed. "I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you goodnight."
"Yeah?" Sam asked, angrily stepping forward. "It's a damn near perfect hunter. It's smarter than you, and it's gonna hun you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid sorry ass out of here."
"You know you're crazy right?" Roy asked, laughing.
"Yeah?" Sam asked, angrier. "You ever hunt a win-." Roy pushed him in mid-sentence.
"Roy!" Hailey called out at the same time Ryan pulled out her gun, pointing it at Roy.
"Chill out." Dean said, hurrying forward.
"Get that thing away from me." Roy said, inching away.
"If you ever push him or anyone else here, I will end you." Ryan said, pulling the hammer. "Do you hear me?"
"Yeah, just point that somewhere else."
"Ry, Ry, stop it." Dean said, putting his hand on her arm.
"Oh come on, no one will miss this idiot." Ryan said but she pushed the hammer back and returned the gun to her jacket pocket.
"Stop; stop it, everybody just stop." Hailey said. "Look, Tommy might still be alive, and I'm not leaving here without him."
"Don't you think we could do a better job getting him without having to worry about you?" Ryan asked, she was getting tired of everyone.
"It's getting late." Dean said, putting his arm around Ryan's waist. "This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night. We'll never beat it, not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves."
"How?" Hailey asked.
Without a word Sam and Ryan started to collect wood and start a fire and Dean made a large circle with different Anasazi symbols.
"What are those?" Hailey asked.
"Anasazi symbols, it's for protection. The Wendigo can't cross over them."
Roy laughed at Dean's statement and Ryan through him a dirty look.
"Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy." Ryan sneered, walking over to Sam who was sitting near a tree, Dean followed.
"You wanna tell us what's goin' on in that freaky head of yours?" Dean asked.
"We're not Vulcan's, Sammy, you have to talk to us." Ryan said, sitting down beside him.
"I'm…"
"No you're not fine," Dean interrupted. "You're like a powder keg man, it's not like you. Ryan is supposed to be the belligerent one, remember?"
Ryan gave a small smile at the comment but didn't say anything.
"Dad's not here, I mean that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message, a sign, right?"
"Yeah you're probably right. To tell the truth I don't think Dad's ever been to Lost Creek."
"Then let's get these people back to town and let's hit the road, go find Dad. I mean why are we still here?"
"We can't do that Sammy and you know it. If we leave now, Tommy dies for sure and so does Roy, Hailey and Ben because they're not gonna leave. Roy may be a dick but I don't want him to die."
"This is why, too" Dean said, holding up John's journal. "This book, this is Dad's single most valuable possession everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he's passed it on to us, I think he wants us to pick up where he left off, you know saving people hunting things, the family business."
"That makes no sense, why doesn't he just call us? Why doesn't he tell us what he wants; tell us where he is?"
"That makes no sense. Why doesn't he just call us? Why doesn't he tell us what he wants; tell us where he is?" Sam asked.
"I dunno, but the way I see it, John's given us a job and I intend to do it." Ryan said.
"No, I gotta find Dad. I gotta find Jessica's killer. It's the only thing I can think about."
"Okay, all right, Sammy, we'll find them I promise, but listen, you've gotta prepare yourself. I mean this search could take a while, and all that anger, you can't keep it burning over the long haul, it's gonna kill you. You gotta have patience."
"How do you do it?" Sam asked. "How does dad do it?"
"Well for one…them." Dean said, gesturing to Hailey and Ben. "I mean, I figure our family's so screwed to hell; maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little more bearable. I'll tell you what else helps, killing as many sons of bitches as I possible can."
They where silent for a few seconds when the creature spoke from somewhere in the woods.
"Help me! Please! Help!"
"He's trying to draw us out." Dean said, hurrying to the others. "Just stay cool, stay put, inside the magic circle."
"Help! Help me!"
"Okay, that's no grizzly."
"It's okay, you'll be all right I promise." Hailey told Ben and then she screamed loudly as something circled around them.
"It's here." Sam said.
Roy shot at the dark several times. "I hit it!"
"Roy, no! Roy!" Dean yelled but Roy ignored and ran into the dark. Dean turned to Hailey and Ben. "Don't move."
Ryan waited with them but itched to join Sam and Dean in search for Roy, worry made the seconds feel like hours until finally they came back – without Roy.
No one got much sleep that night, Ryan got an hour with her head resting on Dean's lap, when morning finally came everyone was edgy to get going.
"I don't…I mean these types of things they aren't supposed to be real." Hailey said, she had spoken much that night.
"I wish I could tell you different." Dean said, running his fingers through Ryan's hair, her head still on his lap.
"How do we know it's not out there watching us?"
"We don't, but we're safe for now."
"How do you know about this stuff?"
"Kind of runs in the family." Dean replied, with a shrug.
"Hey," Sam said, standing up, he was a little bit away from the rest of them. "So we've got half a chance in the daylight, and I, for one, want to kill this evil SOAB."
"Well hell, you know I'm in." Ryan said, sitting up.
"Wendigo is a – Indian word. It means evil that devours." Sam said.
"They're hundreds of years old. Each one was once a man, sometimes a frontiersman or a miner or a hunter." Ryan said.
"How does a man turn into one of those things?"
"Well it's always the same." Sam said. "During some harsh winter a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help, becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp."
"Like the Donnor Party." Ben said.
"Yeah." Sam said. "Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality."
"If you eat enough of it, over years, you come this less than human thing. You're always hungry." Ryan said.
"So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" Hailey asked.
"You're not gonna like it." Dean said.
"Tell me." Hailey demanded.
"More than anything, a Wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It hibernates for years at a time, but when it's awake it keeps it's victims alive. It uh, stores them, so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother's alive it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden and safe. We gotta track it back there."
"And how do we stop it?"
"Well guns are useless so are knives, basically." Ryan said, pulling out a can of lighter fluid and grinning a little. "We gotta torch the suckers."
After cleaning up the small camp they'd made they started out into the woods, following tree's that where smeared with blood and had claw marks, after awhile Sam stopped.
"Dean," Sam asked.
"What is it?" Dean asked.
"You know…"Sam said, looking around at all of the tree surrounding them they where all covered in blood and the branches where broken. "I was thinking…those claw prints...so clear and distinct, they were almost too easy to follow."
The Wendigo growled and the group backed up, looking all around them as something circled them. Hailey backed into a tree and blood began to drip onto her shirt. She looked up just in time to see Roy's dead boy nearly drop on her.
"You okay?" Sam asked, running over to as Ryan examined Roy's body.
"His neck's broke. Okay, run, run, run, go, go!" Ryan said and they all ran off and Ryan couldn't help but think it was pointless to run. Ben stumbled and fell while hew as trying to run and Dean stopped to help him up, the group splitting up.
Behind a tree was the Wendigo and then everything went black until Dean was shaking Ryan, her hands where tied above her head and she was hanging.
"Ry, Ry, wake up, baby." Dean said, and after a few blinks he came into focus.
"You okay?"
"Peachy." Ryan said and Dean cut her down before going over to Sam.
"Are you sure you're all right?" Dean asked and Ryan nodded, grimacing in pain.
"Where is he?" Sam asked.
"He's gone for now."
"Tommy," Hailey cried, seeing her brother and Ryan looked over and saw him jerk awake.
"Cut him down." Hailey cried and Dean walked over and cut him down.
"We're gonna get you home." Hailey said.
"Check it out." Ryan said, walking over to one of the many packs that had been discarded by different hikers and campers over the years.
"Flare guns…those'll do." Sam said.
Ryan laughed and twirled them around her fingers.
They started down the tunnel, Tommy being supported by Hailey and Ben.
The Wendigo's growl echoed through the tunnels.
"Looks like someone's home for supper." Ryan said., turning too Sam and Dean.
"We'll never outrun it." Sam said.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Ryan asked, raising her eyebrows.
"I think so." Sam and Dean said together.
"All right, listen to me. Stay with Sammy, he's gonna get you out of here."
"What are you gonna do?" Ben asked.
Ryan winked at him before heading off with Dean.
"Chow time you freaky bastard!" Dean yelled. "Yeah that's right, bring it on baby, I taste good!"
Ryan and Dean walked around a few tunnels, calling for the Wendigo until they came back too where they'd been and saw the Wendigo cornering Sam, Ben, Hailey and Tommy.
"Hey!" Ryan called and shot the Wendigo in the stomach with the flare gun, it bursts into flame from the inside out. "Not bad, eh?"
They made the long hike back down the trail and called for an ambulance and the policeman, coaching Tommy, Ben and Hailey on what to say when they came.
While the paramedics checked on Ben and Tommy, Dean and Hailey said there good-bye's.
"What's going on with you and Dean?" Sam asked.
"What do you mean?" Ryan asked, looking up at him.
"Something just seems different, that's all." Sam said. "Do you – like him?"
"I'm in love with him and he has no clue." Ryan said, leaning up and kissing Sam's cheek. "You keep that a secret, Sammy."
"I will."
Dean walked over and leaned against the Impala beside Sam.
"Man I hate camping." Dean commented.
"Me too." Sam agreed.
"Actually, if it wasn't for the psycho cannibalistic monster hunting us, it was a nice trip."
"You're crazy." Dean commented. "Sam, you know we're gonna find Dad, right?"
"Yeah I know." Sam said. "…but in the meantime…I'm driving."
Dean grinned and tossed him the keys.
"I guess that means I'm in the back, huh?" Ryan asked.