"Hey babe, it's late," She said as she walked into the garage we'd built a few months back. "Sam won't be here for another week." She'd already changed out of the pantsuit she'd worn to the latest meeting about projects to make her people's lives better. I don't like her in suits, she's just not comfortable in them. Stick her in jeans, show her a monster and give her a gun, that's when she gets to be who she really is. Of course that wasn't much of an option these days. She was barefoot, wearing a pair of my sweats, an old t-shirt and half asleep on her feet.

I stuck my head out of the window of Sam's birthday present and gave her a quick kiss. "I know, but the interior is always a bitch and I still have to finish the last coat of paint. How was the meeting?"

She smiled which was a huge improvement over how she usually looked after dealing with tribal stuff. "Good, we worked out a way to get money for the new school and everyone's on board, finally. Somehow Rising Dove managed to make this part seem a lot easier than it is. I think he was just better at dealing with people than I am. Half an hour into these things I usually just want to start throwing punches."

"Nah, I think he'd just mellowed over the years. Rabbit's got some great stories about Rising Dove's pre-Shaman days. You should get him to tell them to you some time."

She sighed and yawned, "If I ever get time. You coming with me to the site tomorrow? Gerald called, he and his hunter buddies have more building supplies they "acquired." We can finish the main building by the end of the month at this rate."

I laughed, "Hey, you asked for my help on getting things together. Not my fault the only people I know tend to be slightly criminally minded."

"Thank God we're building it on tribal land or else we'd have been busted by someone for stolen goods months ago."

"Perks of being a sovereign-ish nation. What time do you want to head to the site?"

"Nine-ish I guess. Gerald said he'd be there by eleven. That will give us plenty of time."

"Sounds good, get some sleep. I'll be up soon."

"All right." She took another look at what I'd spent the last month on, "He's going to flip when he sees this."

"Well, he'll need wheels after I take Baby back and new cars are a pain to maintain. Besides, I think he's old enough to have his own car now."

She laughed, "I still think you're rushing things, why not wait until he's forty?"

"I'll start with the car, if he can handle that responsibility then when he's forty we'll talk about him dating and moving out."

"How generous of you," she kissed my cheek, "Don't take too long, I didn't get to punch people so have all this pent up energy."

Her lips touched my neck but she pulled back quick, her face all twisted up like she'd eaten a salt covered lemon and drank a shot of cheap ass tequila right after, "Uggh, forgot you'd been out here all day. You taste like the damn ocean."

"Still want me to help out with that pent up energy?"

"At this exact moment, no. After you clean up, I'll kiss you again and go from there."

"Hmm, how pragmatic."

"If nothing else I get another kiss out of the deal."

"True that, now scram or I'll never get this done."

"Scramming. Love you."

It still tripped me out when she said that, even though it'd been almost a year since the first time. "You too." I could tell by her smile that she was in the same boat as I was. She left and I decided to take a break and grab a beer. I'd been installing seats and upholstery all day and finishing up the electrical crap which is my least favorite part of rebuilding a car. It's just so damn tedious. I gotta say though, looking at how far it'd come since I'd found it made me smile. Coyote had been slowly introducing me to people over the first few months I'd been there. She'd started with the people that were friends of hers that wouldn't have such a fit that she was dating a white guy. There were a few who were pretty standoffish but most of them seemed okay with it, it wasn't like I was a complete stranger to them, I'd met some of them when her and I were still doing our on and off thing. When a few of the guys found out I'd rebuilt Baby more than once we hit it off. One was Sleeping Rabbit, he was about my age, was married to Singing Fox, had two sons and a daughter and was an absolute car nut. He had a fully stocked garage and was pretty much the Reservation mechanic. They ran the tiny grocery/liquor store that was in the center of town and Singing Fox sold art stuff online. They did okay for themselves as Reservation life goes. There was a pretty high number of beat up old cars on the Reservation, a lot had been abandoned by people moving or passing away and they just sat there for the most part. One day I asked him about all the old cars, who owned them or if they were just sitting there. He told me that for the most part they'd been sitting there for years. He'd thought about restoring them and trying to sell them online but with the store, the kids and the cars he was already working on he didn't have the time. I did but I wasn't going to sell them to people online, mainly because I'd looked up a lot of the license plates and vins and found out they'd been stolen. I wasn't sure if the people who lived there stole them or they'd been dumped elsewhere and the Natives just helped themselves. Turns out that knowing a large group of people that like older cars and weren't too interested in the Carfax history ended up being a benefit in this case. Most hunters aren't like me, they don't emotionally attached to their wheels. They keep their weapons stash portable and trade cars out fairly often to throw off cops when they blow town after a hunt. They also pay cash which is always easier.

I ran the idea by Coyote since I didn't want to take over Rabbit's garage and she went for it pretty quick. I got a bunch of guys together, built a garage in a few days and she ordered tools and a jack. Rabbit has a truck that can tow just about anything so we started hauling junkers to my garage and I went to work. I wasn't all that surprised about how quick the cars moved once I got the word out and I started making some decent money fairly soon. I also helped Rabbit with Reservation mechanic duty which he appreciated and so did the people who had been waiting for him to finish up their cars. Oddly enough fixing cars got a lot of the people who had issues with me over them pretty quick, probably because they saw I wasn't just passing through this time.

Along with hooking hunters up with new rides I also took their previous rides off of them and the moment this car pulled up I knew what I was going to do with it. It belonged to a hunter named Sylvia, it wasn't too trashed but it had definitely seen better days. As soon as it pulled up I could tell the engine was about gone and the transmission was begging to be put out of it's misery. She'd snagged it in a hurry from an old car lot after a job went south and had coaxed it along well enough to get it to me. It needed a whole new interior and just about every panel was a different shade of paint. I sold her a 76 Dodge Truck I'd just finished, she left the car and took off. After she pulled out I sat and stared at the car for awhile, it had a large enough trunk, he'd fit into just fine and it needed a home.

I'd only been on five hunts since deciding to give Coyote and I a shot. Sam had asked several times if I wanted Baby back and I'd been putting it off for a few reasons. First, he needed wheels, sure he could steal them but she was made for the job. There was no point in him lugging weapons around in bags or whatever when she was already equipped with all that and warded. Second, I wanted to make as clean a break as I could from the past. I wasn't going to cut Sam out obviously and he knew if he needed me he could always call but having Baby sitting out in front of the house would be a reminder of what I used to be. If I wanted to be there a hundred percent for Coyote and really live a different life I needed to not see Baby for awhile. Third, as much as I love Baby and view her as mine, she really is part of the family. Sam was the only one of us hunting and her and hunting have always gone hand in hand. Just because I was contemplating quitting didn't mean she didn't still have to work to do. He never said it but I think he'd have been hurt if I'd just taken her, she's always been our home on the road.

He and Roy had teamed up after I left but Roy had listened to what we'd told him about Thea and his choices. He limited the time he hunted, he'd go on two jobs in a row tops and then go back to Starling, help Oliver and spend time with her. I asked him why he did both, hunt and work with Oliver. He said that there were other people on the team there now and while he liked them well enough but he didn't really like having that many people involved with what they did. There were too many different personalities and agendas to deal with for him, too much history between people. He and Sam didn't have history, when they hunted they were focused on the job and that was all there was to it. He'd never abandon Oliver but that didn't mean he had to be there all the time either. I think in some ways it made hunting easier for Sam too for the same reasons. Sam and I had nothing but history and over the years that history had crowded out the job. From things I heard when other hunters dropped by the two of them had turned into a pretty kick ass team which made me feel a whole lot better about Sam. I knew he was with someone who'd have his back no matter what. When Roy went back to Starling Sam kept plugging away at slowly digitizing the Men of Letter archives just in case somehow the place burned down, when he wasn't doing that he'd come for visits. He said he liked the downtime between hunts since we'd never had much of that before and it was nice to come see Coyote and I and have half a normal life.

The last time he'd dropped by he started asking questions to try to find out if I had made any firm decisions on what I was planning to do future wise.

"The truck stop you guys are building is moving quick." That was his opener one night as we were drinking on the porch. Coyote had gone out to help a family who's kid was sick. The parents had had to take the kid to the hospital which was about eight hours away so she went to watch the younger kids while the parents were gone. The truck stop had been a random idea her and I had when eating at Stella's place and I was complaining about how long it took to get there. We jokingly told them that if we built a place closer to home they could come run the diner. By the time we got home Coyote was already making plans in her head and trying to figure out how to get it done. Months later I'd ended up drafting hunters into helping build the place and getting us materials on the cheap. Most hunters don't grow up in the life like Sam and I did, most of them had had day jobs at one point. By the time I finished working my way through my contacts list I'd found two electricians, a former general contractor, a plumber and plenty of manual labor. They all wanted a bigger version of Stella's diner that had rooms next to it so they could stuff their faces and pass out. Hunters tend to be simple people. They want good food, clean beds and sex, you offer them that all in close proximity and they'll move mountains to get it done. Well, we weren't running a whorehouse but two out of three ain't bad. As soon as Coyote told her people what we were up to plenty of them jumped in as well. The whole thing was giving them a lot of hope which was in pretty short supply on the Reservation.

"Yeah, who knew we had a whole construction company at our finger tips?"

He gave me that look, it was going to be one of those conversations. "Well hunters have always been jacks of all trades."

"Kind of have to be."

"So, it's been almost a year. Can I have wild parties yet?"

"As long as you make sure the books don't get ruined, sure."

He threw his hand into the air, "Yes! Finally! I've got an e-vite list all ready to go!"

"E-vite? Is that what the world has come to?"

"Well strippers don't like to give out their phone numbers anymore, they all have Facebook pages now."

I almost dropped my beer, "What? Damn! I knew I was missing out not getting on there. They got vids posted?"

"Yup."

"Aw yeah, never have to leave the house."

"Good thing Coyote likes strippers too huh?"

"I pick my women well Sam." We both laughed at that one. Then he got quiet. "What?"

"You're out of it, aren't you? This is where you want to be now, where you're happy."

I leaned back in the chair and looked out across the plains. It was one of those nights where it's the perfect temperature, there's a light breeze and it's quiet. "If you need me to back you, I'll be there, you know that." I tried to dodge the question. Five hunts in a year was barely hunting at all, we both knew that. We also both knew that if you don't keep your hand in you get sloppy and get hurt or killed. Going back out there had made it pretty clear that it wasn't the life I wanted anymore. I was still helping people, just doing it differently. The truck stop was going to bring in a ton of cash, give people jobs and I'd been shuttling people money ever since I'd started working on the cars. I was used to living on nothing, Coyote's engineering gigs made plenty of money for both of us to live on and the people here were mostly good people. They just needed someone to give them direction and a bit of help.

"That wasn't what I was asking Dean."

"I know, just hadn't really made a decision. Why are you asking?"

"Kind of has to do with Roy. He likes the job, is damn good at it but I think he still sort of feels he's just filling in until you come back. In a way so do I. I know when you and her got back together it was sort of a trial run but seems to me that it's working pretty well. Have you guys even had a fight?"

"Not really, we had some disagreements about things at first. Just getting used to each other's habits but nothing serious."

"So? You haven't even come back to the Bunker after picking up all your clothes. Do you even think of it as home now?"

He wasn't accusing me of anything or mad, he just wanted to know where I was at. "Not really. I mean, it's still important to me and all that but I'm not homesick or anything."

"Okay, do you miss hunting?"

"No." I didn't even have to think about that one, which surprised me but not him. He took it in stride, which made sense since he'd quit the life twice already.

"How about we call a spade a spade then? You're done with the life."

That terrified me. In my head I still saw Coyote and I as some sort of surreal vacation from hunting. Something fucked up was going to happen at some point and rip it all to shreds, it had to. It always had before but still, living out in the middle of nowhere seemed to make it a lot less likely anything would find me. I'd put hex bags in the house to hide it from demons and the chances of them scoping out a place like this was pretty damn low. There wasn't any place for monsters to hide out here, we all knew each other. Sam actually saying that I was done was something I hadn't wanted to admit to, because then the inevitable other shoe would be more likely to drop. But he had a point. I wasn't actively hunting and didn't want to. It felt completely wrong and totally right at the same time.