The vacation had actually been going pretty well, Sam decided.

Dean had been playing along for the most part, although he suspected his brother was probably just making nice for his sake. The man was way more transparent than he'd ever admit to being. Sam honestly hadn't meant to make him feel guilty about his 'hell wall situation' as he was starting to think of it. Truth was, he was making this little side trip more for Dean's benefit than his own.

His older brother was really starting to worry him.

Sam knew that Dean had been in trouble for a while – years, in fact. It wasn't that he hadn't noticed. He didn't think he could feel any worse than he already did about the part he played in it all. But, neither of them had exactly been in the best of shape since Dad died and it was an understatement to say it only got worse from there.

He felt like this was the first time - in what felt like a million years - that he'd been able to look past his own issues long enough to really see what was going on with his only remaining family member. It was funny what having Lucifer stuffed back in his cage did for ones' ability to focus.

They had found a pretty decent motel (clean, anyway) a few miles from Grand Canyon National Park. Their room had an impressively cheesy Southwest motif. Dean had gotten a lot of mileage out of the painting of the Indian maiden hanging above the toilet. He swore he couldn't concentrate on taking a piss with her "staring at his junk".

Sam had to admit her gaze did seem to be disturbingly focused toward that general area and, once again, had to wonder if these places hired crackheads for interior designers.

Another weird design decision was the positioning of the air conditioning vent. It was literally right below the rim of the toilet bowl and always seemed to kick on at the worst possible time. That morning, he'd heard his brother telling the painting to, "lay off the damn, smart ass expression, because it's freakin' cold in here."

They had gone out to a local diner the night before. Sam made sure to drive them to one that looked like a family-friendly establishment, meaning no alcohol. He didn't want a repeat performance of the previous evening's drunken, painkiller fest. He had to admit that Dean could hold his liquor exceptionally well, but that all seemed to fly out the window once narcotics were added to the mix. Not to mention the fact that combining the two wasn't known to be the safest thing in the world - even by the Winchester family's famously low standards.

Their waitress had been a really cute redhead who didn't seem at all shy about showing off her generous cleavage. Dean was predictably impressed and had flirted with her throughout the meal. He didn't seem to make any real effort to move beyond that, though. Sam never thought he'd say this, but he was beginning to think the guy needed to get laid. He realized he was still hurting over the way things went with Lisa. But, from what little he'd been able to pull out of his brother, it appeared like she was moving on and he thought Dean should do the same. He should at least try, anyway.

After dinner, he'd actually- and he was proud of this one - talked his big brother into going to the movies with him. They watched the most brainless and crude comedy that was currently running.

He couldn't remember the last time they'd actually gone to a real theater. They usually watched whatever was on cable or the occasional pay-per-view - especially if whoever they were currently pretending to be had a pretty decent credit limit. Of course, his brother couldn't let the night go by without mentioning at least twice that Sam was by far the ugliest chick he'd ever been on a movie date with.

By the time they got back to their room it was just before midnight. They had both nursed a beer while watching Seinfeld reruns. He was glad to see that Dean barely finished the one. He guessed they had both fallen asleep with the TV on by 1am. Another rare occurrence.

It had actually turned out to be a really fun night. He knew his brother would never admit it, but it was nice to just chill out and spend some time together that didn't involve mortal danger and/or copious amounts of alcohol.

All things considered, Sam was pretty happy at the moment. Dean had made one or two smart ass comments that morning after he'd returned from the lobby with a handful of brochures, but his older brother still seemed to be in a passably good mood. Also, he'd only put up minimal resistance to getting ready and heading out for the day.

It looked like they might actually have a decent time in Arizona, after all.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dawn was kind of enjoying herself, although she'd never admit that to her sister. She did have a reputation to uphold and, more importantly, a super sweet spring break trip on the line.

Buffy had kept her word about the hotel. She'd gotten them a suite at El Tovar, a hotel that was actually inside the park itself. It was pretty swank and Albert Einstein had once stayed there. So, that was cool.

Xander had given Dawn a little speech before she and her sister had left Cleveland and she really was trying to play nice. The speech went something like: "Take it easy on Buff, this is important to her … blah blah… you're almost a free woman."

A free woman.

Now that was something Dawn could not wait to be. Buffy had been waaay too smothering over the past year. She loved her sister, but she was very much looking forward to Fall when she would be in college… and hours away from the Slayer.

After Sunnydale imploded, things had been extremely hectic for about a year. Buffy had been super busy helping to rebuild the Council and organizing the potentials-turned-slayers. It had all been a whirlwind.

Finally, they had setup a new headquarters in Cleveland – because, hellmouth - and Buffy actually had an office now, of all things. She was mostly in charge of training the newbies. She still patrolled, but usually with a few junior slayers along for the ride. Her sister usually let them get in most of the staking for the 'on the job experience' factor. Buffy herself was mostly on reserve for special occasions, i.e. the big nasties with world-ending ambitions.

The new situation had left her sister with a lot more free time. Unfortunately, Buffy had decided that mothering Dawn was a good way to spend her down time. Dawn appreciated it. She did. Intheory, anyway.

She knew Buffy felt like she had a lot to make up for and that she'd been a poor replacement for Mom. The thing was, Dawn didn't expect Buffy to be Mom. She'd grown up a lot in the past few years, even though her sister seemed unable to see it. She had come to appreciate what her sister had been through. Now that she was only two years younger than Buffy had been when Mom died, she could begin to imagine how terrifying that time had to have been for Buffy. The sheer weight of suddenly being responsible for a teenager and being the one-and-only Slayer would have been too much for anyone.

She just wished her sister would try to be more of a friend and less of a mom. When Dawn had lost her virginity last year, she thought the Slayer was going to cut the guy's head off. She should have known better than to even tell her. She was just trying to bond on a more adult level.

What a mistake that turned out to be.

You'd have thought Buffy was 'little miss pure and innocent' the way she'd flipped out. Apparently, it was all well and good for her to screw a 240-year-old dead guy when she was 17, but Dawn messing around with a plain old living high school boy was cause for panic on an epic scale.

Of course, she did wonder if Buffy might be practicing to be a nun. Since the thing with 'The Immortal' had fizzled, she hadn't really done anything in the dating department. That guy's ego had deserved its own country - that was for sure. Fortunately, her sister hadn't seemed all that broken up when it ended. She kind of got the impression that Buffy had actually been the one to blow him off. No great loss there. Too bad that, ever since, she'd dedicated herself to being Super Mom.

Super Annoying Mom was more like it.

But, no worries …because, come August, she was going to be 500 miles away in the mountains of Tennessee.

She'd decided to go to the University of Tennessee, because the original forensic Body Farm had been founded there AND it was 500 miles away. She was a CSI junkie, plus the council could probably use somebody that could identify a cause of death. Or, she might just decide to do her own thing. She could work for the police or something. She bet she'd be really good at badgering witnesses.

So, she'd let Little Miss Suzie Homemaker have her old fashioned, family vacation. It wasn't so bad, really. At least it had its perks.

Hopefully, their time apart next year would force her sister to realize that Dawn was an adult now, an adult who gets to have her own life … and sex, if that's what she wants. Maybe they'd be able to be more like the friends she hoped they could be. Besides, Buffy needed to get a new hobby. If anybody needed to get laid, it was the Slayer.