It had been ages since Dean and Chloe had had any kind of time to themselves, so he intended to take full advantage of the next few days. Sam was off on some kind of surveillance mission; he'd been reluctant to tell them where he was going so Dean was sure that he was off checking up on Mel again. Somehow, Dean had no idea how; Sam had managed to convince Cas that Chuck and Mel were no threat to 'heaven's secrets' and therefore shouldn't have to have their memory screwed with. Cas wasn't particularly happy about it but made it clear that if they were to go back on their promise not to say anything then there would be dire consequences. They'd agreed and everybody had left happy, except Sam, who couldn't seem to stay away from Mel. Sam had spent as much time as he could with her since their close encounter with heaven a few months ago and, frankly, Dean hadn't seen Sam this happy in a long time and it was nice. He was happy so Sam deserved to be too because, for the Winchesters, 'happy' isn't something that comes along too often.

Dean had been secretly planning something special for days and he wanted everything to be perfect. Chloe had no idea what he was planning and it was driving her crazy, she was just about as patient as him (which isn't very), much to his amusement. They'd travelled to a small town out in the middle of nowhere and found a nice hotel. Needless to say, there wasn't much sleep going on that first night, so it was late when Chloe woke up and found that Dean was gone, leaving only a note that read:

'Be back to pick you up at 6… Pack warm clothes. Love you xx'

Chloe couldn't help but smile even though this 'big surprise' was irritating the hell out of her. She hated surprises and something big must be going down for Dean to be so excited so she was just going to go with it because seeing Dean this happy was worth the anxiety of the impending surprise. She looked over at the clock and saw she had 5 hours until Dean would be back so took her time having a shower and getting ready and then decided to call Sam.

"Hey!" Sam answered cheerfully.

"Hey yourself." Chloe replied, "How are you?" She asked.

"I'm good, really good. How about you?" Chloe could almost hear the smile he must have had on his face when he said it.

"I'm being slowly tortured to death by your brother, but I'm glad you're okay." Sam wasn't sure whether to laugh or to be worried,

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Dean has a surprise up his sleeve for tonight."

"Whoa! Too much information." Sam yelled down the phone making Chloe laugh.

"How's Mel?" Chloe asked, changing the subject.

"She's good. She got onto that urban legends course I was telling you about."

"Wow, tell her congratulations from us." Chloe was genuinely pleased for her, Mel was a nice girl and it was good to hear that she was doing okay.

"I will." Sam promised, followed by a rustling noise through the phone and his muffled voice saying, "Hey, Sir Sweetness, Chloe says congrats on getting on the course." And then he laughed, followed by more rustling as Sam removed his hand from over the microphone of his phone. "Mel says thanks." He said to Chloe. She had heard what Sam had called Mel, but really didn't want to ask about it so she let it slide, but it made the conversation kind of awkward from her perspective.

"Umm, well I better go. I've got some stuff to do before Dean gets here." She lied.

"Oh ok," Sam replied cheerfully, "Have an awesome time. Make the most of it." He emphasised that last part because he knew how little time they actually got to spend alone with each other.

"Thanks, Sam. Speak to you soon. Bye."

"Bye." Sam replied, hanging up. Chloe checked the time on her phone and it said that she still had just less than 4 hours until Dean would be back to pick her up. With impeccable timing, her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten in almost 20 hours so she grabbed her wallet and headed to the supermarket across the road to find something to eat. To occupy herself she spent longer than necessary browsing all the shelves in the shop before deciding what to buy.

Back in the hotel room she turned on the TV to the news channel to see what was going on in the world. It was weird how cut off from reality she felt when she wasn't spending more than a week at a time in one particular place. She found this quite ironic when she considered that they spent most of their time fighting the world's hidden realities while most of the population remain blissfully ignorant. Her phone buzzing pulled her out of her deep thinking. Dean had sent her a text saying:

'Change of plan. Be ready for 4… Love you xx'

Her heart swelled with excitement at not having to wait quite so long to find out what her surprise was, and also because in the last few, but seemingly long hours, she had missed Dean. She was so used to being with at least one of the Winchesters 24/7 so she'd forgotten what it was like to be lonely. Several times in the following few hours Chloe picked up her phone to text or call somebody for a chat, but then abruptly remembering that there wasn't anybody. Her entire contact list pretty much consisted of Dean, Sam and Bobby. It wasn't like she could talk to Andy anymore and she had never really had that many friends.

Thankfully, 4pm arrived before Chloe got the stage of wanting to tear her hair out from boredom. She heard the familiar roar of the Impala as Dean pulled up outside, she grabbed her bag and flew out of the door almost knocking over Dean who was just walking from the car.

"Whoa!" He laughed, "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

"Oh, I met a guy in the bar earlier and we're running away to Vegas to get married." Chloe replied sarcastically throwing her bag in through the open window of the Impala. Dean reached out, putting his big hands on her waist and pulled her close to his chest, holding her there tightly for a minute, making the most of their time together.

"I missed you today." Chloe confessed quietly, her face still pressed against Dean's chest. He leaned down and rested his cheek on top of her head.

"I've been so busy today I've barely thought about you." Dean taunted. Chloe smacked Dean on the arm and tried to pull away from him but he still held her tightly. "I'm kidding, of course I missed you too." He looked deep into her eyes, "But today was necessary to make tonight perfect." He leaned in and kissed her passionately, completely taking her breath away. When she could breathe again Chloe said,

"Let's get it over with then." She was trying, and failing, to sound irritated. Dean smiled at her weak attempt at being pissed at him and pulled her towards the car pulling a blindfold out of his pocket as he went.

"Is this really necessary? I feel like an idiot." Chloe complained for the millionth time in half an hour. Dean rolled his eyes, also for the millionth time in that half hour.

"Will you stop complaining? Of course it is necessary! Would I make you do it if it wasn't?" Dean asked.

"Yes." Chloe shot back grumpily, making Dean laugh.

"You can stop complaining now because we're here." Dean said with a smile as he pulled off the road and parked the Impala in a perfectly secluded spot that he had spent ages looking for to make the execution of his plan immaculate.

"Good, I can take this blindfold off now then?"

"No." Dean replied, to which Chloe responded with a string on curses under her breath. Dean got out and walked around the car to open the passenger door and helped Chloe out. He then helped her walk a few steps forward and positioning her exactly where he wanted her before standing behind her, slowly pulling her blindfold off and letting his hands fall to rest on her waist.

Chloe's mouth dropped open. For the first time in her life she was literally lost for words, all her previous complaints forgotten. Since they had left the hotel darkness had fallen and they were standing at the top of a hill looking out over the landscape, where the lights of several towns were glowing beneath them and the sky was lit up with a large full moon and millions of stars.

"Wow." Was the only thing Chloe was able to say. Dean slid his arms around her waist and held her to him, leaning the side of his head against hers. When Chloe was eventually able to tear her gaze away from the sprawling landscape before them she turned and noticed a small tent pitched next to where Dean had parked the Impala and before that was a small fire that was burning brightly. She turned round in the protective circle of Dean's arms and asked,

"Did you do this?"

"What do you think I've been doing all day?" Dean laughed, more of a statement than a question. She put her arms around Dean, and stretched up to kiss him, never wanting the moment to end.

"It's perfect." She sighed. Dean rested his head on top of Chloe's, smiling to himself, pleased that she was happy.

For several hours Dean and Chloe sat and talked, ate and drank. They sat on the front of the Impala and leaned against the windscreen, both of them with beer bottles in their hands, looking up at the stars. Chloe's head was resting against Dean's shoulder while his arm was around her shoulders, holding her close.

"I got you something." Dean said suddenly, getting up and going to grab something out of the car. When Chloe saw him returning with a small box in his hand, her eyes widened and she suddenly felt an overwhelming feeling of panic wash over her. She had been dreading the day when this moment happened. As Dean slid back next to her he noticed the look on her face and laughed loudly.

"Don't panic, I'm not proposing to you. Well, not properly anyway." Chloe frowned, but relaxed a little. Dean rolled his eyes and launched into the speech he had been going over and over in his head for weeks, "I love you and I want to be with you forever, but as hunters the concept of marriage doesn't even come into it, it's virtually impossible. So I got you this," He handed Chloe the box, "Just to show you how much I love you and it's also my promise to you that, one day, when this is all over I will propose to you properly." Chloe wasn't an overly emotional person but she was on the verge of tears, until Dean bumped his shoulder against Chloe's and added, "And then we can grow old and wrinkly together." Chloe couldn't help but laugh at that. She had opened the box and inside was a gorgeous ring, it was simple and she loved it because it showed a complete contrast to their life and their relationship. For the second time that night Chloe was speechless. Dean carefully took the ring out of the box and placed it on Chloe's finger.

"I love you." Chloe managed, eventually. Dean grinned,

"I love you too, forever."

And then, as if on cue, Dean's phone rang.