~υπερφυσικός~

Holly entered the office where there was a table with Danish and donuts with coffee and water for tea. She selected two large to-go cups, poured black coffee in both, sweetening only one with sugar substitute. She was in the process of piling donuts and Danish on a plate to take back to the room when she overheard a voice speaking at the desk across the lobby.

"His name is Dean. He's about six-one with spikey hair, green eyes," the man who spoke was tall with longish hair. "Travelling with a woman…"

She gathered the coffee and food in her hands and slowly walked to move out of the office. She paused when she heard the man answer the desk clerk's question of who he was with "I'm his brother."

She turned, then. "Sam?" she ventured.

The man turned and leveled hazel eyes at her. "Yes," he narrowed his eyes. Then he smiled. "Are you Holly?"

She smiled. "Yes. Wow, you drove fast –"

The door behind her flew open. "Holly?!" Dean's gruff growl practically yelled. "What the hell, Holly?!"

Startled by his loud voice at her back, Holly jumped, dropping the food and coffee, immediately dropping to her knees to clean up the mess, apologizing fervently.

Dean immediately regretted his actions as he rushed to her side, just as Sam came to her aid also. "I'm sorry, Hol'. I freaked when I saw you weren't in the room…"

"I'm s-s-sorry," she sniffed. "I thought you h-h-heard me."

He saw her tears and it hit him in the heart. He stopped trying to help her clean up and grabbed her hands. Standing with her in tow, he pulled her into a fierce hug. He glanced back at Sam, who nodded toward the door as the clerk arrived to help clean up, and walked her out of the door and back to their room. Once inside, he grasped her by the arms, carefully so as to not to make her feel like he was trying to hurt her. "Holly, listen to me: I'm not him. I will never hurt you like he did. I'm so sorry I scared you! I don't want you to ever be scared of me again."

When she wouldn't look at him, he gently cupped her face in both his hands. "Holly," his eyes sought hers with urgency. "Please believe me! I was only worried that the demon had gotten you. Even though we haven't seen it since we left, doesn't mean that it's not out there. You weren't in the room or the parking lot and I guess I freaked. Believe me, Hol'," his voice was deep and gruff. "I would never hurt you."

She swallowed and nodded in his hands, tears still in her eyes.

His eyes searched hers. "Next time I yell at you, I want you to tell me to go to hell or kiss your ass or something, okay?"

She almost smiled.

He tilted her head down and kissed her forehead. Then he pulled her into a fierce hug, holding her tight.

She melted into his arms, wrapping her arms around his waist and taking refuge there for a while.

Their moment was ended when there came a knock on the door. She tried to pull away from Dean but Dean held on for a moment longer, causing her to smile. When he let her go, at the second knock, he cupped her chin, gently, and searched her face. He could see the bruise under her eye more clearly since tears had washed away a portion of the makeup. It made him feel angry and sad at the same time, angry at himself and Brett and sad that she'd spent so many years learning to fear men. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

Hiding his anger, he smiled down at her as a third, more insistent knock called to them. "I suppose we should let Sam in before he starts thinking we're in the throes of something…" he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.

She couldn't help but laugh at this and swatted his arm as she moved quickly into the bathroom.

Dean opened the door to find Sam carrying a beverage carrier with three coffees and a brown paper bag.

"Dude," Sam groused. "It's about time."

Dean took the bag from his younger brother and growled. "What? I was in the middle of something."

Sam looked around the room. When he saw the bathroom light filtering under the door, his eyebrows came together. "Is she okay?"

"Considering I'm a thoughtless jackass? Sure, just flashbacks to her bastard sonofabitch demon husband, whose ass I am going to use to decorate the road from Sioux Falls to the Canadian border if I get the chance. Other than that, great. Just peachy."

"Didn't she tell you where she was going?"

"I was in the bathroom, the fan in there is loud."

Sam nodded. "So if she did, you didn't hear. You came out, she was gone and there was no way for you to know what might have happened. Completely understandable, Dean."

"Maybe, but my reaction wasn't. I had no right to lose my temper with her. Not her, Sam! Not with what she's live with for the past ten years. Hell, as far as she's concerned every man might be capable of beating her up!" Dean cursed. "Demon or not, that bastard deserves to die."

Sam nodded. "I agree, Dean. But we've got to get her to Bobby's first. He'll take care of her while we go after him."

Dean nodded. "I know. I'm just pissed that I put her through that terror."

The bathroom door opened and Holly emerged. "You can stop that, now, Dean," she said, softly. "I know, in my heart, you aren't like him. It was just an ingrained reaction. It will take time to get out of my system, I guess."

Dean frowned, but indicated to the table. "Sam brought us coffee."

She smiled a small smile. "Hello, Sam. Pleased to meet you. Dean's spoken at length of you."

Sam grinned. "Only believe about half of it."

Holly's smile became more relaxed. "The saintly hunter with a compassionate heart of gold half or the pain in the ass little brother part?"

Sam laughed. "I like her, Dean. Holly, I would say believe the saintly little brother."

"Ha!" Dean scoffed. "If anything, it should be the pain in the ass hunter part."

Holly smiled. She sobered looking at the coffees. "Shouldn't we be on our way?"

Dean recognized that there was still an edge to her voice and kicked himself internally again. He looked at his watch. "Yeah. Sammy, you probably didn't sleep all night to be here this early. You want to jump in the back?"

Sam nodded. "Sure. We can come back later for the other car."

Holly grabbed her coffee and started out the door. When she got there, she paused and looked back, a familiar, more relaxed, smile finding its way to her face as she said. "Little brother chaperone? Oh, well, I guess the honeymoon is officially over, Dean."

Sam's eyebrows disappeared under his hair as he look from a disappearing Holly to Dean.

"Shut up, Sam! You know nothing happened!"

Sam looked around the room. "If that's true, you're slipping, Dean. Did you sleep on the floor?"

With a growl, Dean shouldered his bag and grabbed his coffee and the bag of pastries and stalked out, leaving a laughing Sam in his wake.

~υπερφυσικός~

Holly was humming along with the country music she convinced Dean to let her play. She felt a little guilty because she knew he only said yes because he still felt bad for scaring her, but she was enjoying the respite from 70s rock. She looked back at Sam who was snoring softly in the back seat, stretched out as much as his six foot four inch frame could be in the backseat of a car, and remarked. "He's going to be in pain when he gets out of the car, isn't he?" When she looked at Dean, she noticed his jaw was set and his eyebrows drawn together. She frowned. "Dean, please tell me you're not still thinking about this morning."

He looked over at her and faked a smile. "No. We're cool, right?"

She nodded, then tilted her head. "Then you dislike country music that much?"

He looked confused. "What?" He looked at the radio. "Oh, no. No, this isn't bad."

"Then what is it? What's bothering you?"

Dean shook his head. "Nothing."

"Dean," Holly spoke softly. "I like to think you haven't lied to me since we met. Why do I feel like you are now?"

He looked at her, fully. He seemed to be weighing his words before speaking. Finally, he looked up in the rearview and returned his eyes to the road, without speaking.

Holly looked into the side mirror to see a large black pickup truck behind them, at some distance. "What is it, Dean?" she whispered, fervently.

"We're less than two hours from Bobby's." He hit the steering wheel. "Hey, Sammy!"

Sam immediately sat up. "What?" he was hoarse and slightly groggy, but awake.

"We've got a tail," Dean growled.

Sam looked out the back window. "How long?"

"Last hour. Since the gas station."

"Any chance it could be coincidence?"

"C'mon, Sam!" Dean almost shouted. "You don't think I could figure out the difference between someone going in the same direction and someone following?!"

Sam leaned forward. "Okay, Dean," he said, calmly.

"How?" Holly asked, softly.

Dean looked at her and cleared his throat, responding more calmly. "I speed up, it speeds up. I slow down, it slows down. Always keeping the same distance between us."

She nodded. "Oh."

Sam put his hand on Holly's shoulder, gently. "Holly, I'm going to need for you to open the glove compartment and pull out Dean's gun and hand it to me."

Holly didn't hesitate and did what she was told, though she held the gun gingerly like someone who had never held a gun before.

"What's the plan?" Sam asked Dean, pulling out the gun's magazine and checking the ammo.

"Make it to Bobby's before they decide to catch up," Dean growled, looking back.

"'They'?" Holly asked. "How do you know it's a 'they' and not just 'him'?"

Dean looked at Holly, almost apologetically. "I can see two heads."

"And what happens if they do catch up?"

Dean glanced at Sam. Sam cleared his throat. "Then we fight," Dean said.

"If it comes to that, Holly, it will be very important that you stay calm and do absolutely everything we tell you," Sam said.

"Same goes for at Bobby's," Dean said. He hit the steering wheel. "I was hoping to get you there, safe and take the fight to them. The last thing Bobby needs is a freaking fight in his house again!"

She nodded, her eyes set on the road ahead, as if willing the distance to be shorter. "My mother used to say 'When Men make plans, God laughs'."

Dean looked at her, then. After a moment, he smiled, despite himself. He reached across the Impala's front seat and patted her hand. "Your mom was right."

Holly nodded. She swallowed. "So, tell me how to help. What can I do?"

~υπερφυσικός~