Dean returned with a rather loquacious nurse.

Before Lucifer could comprehend what was about to happen to him, the nurse already was all over him, touching his forehead, checking his infusions, and looking after the readings without actually stopping to talk.

"When Mr. Gorgeous brought you in, you were in pretty bad shape," she chatted happily without noticing that Lucifer obviously was trying to incinerate her with his glare. Dean blushed when he heard the nickname the nurses had given him.

"All dehydrated and some other big words the doctors always use to show us they're better than us, only because they studied at Harvard while normal people had to support their five siblings in a suburb in Detroit and barely graduated high school," she said, her grip on his arm becoming rather forceful.

Lucifer wondered if all human females were like this particular one or if he had just been particularly unfortunate to end up in her care. But Lucifer gathered Dean wasn't used to so much…bluntness – or at least, that's what Dean's pitying expression indicated. And pity was something Lucifer could use to manipulate Dean. So, the female had her use, Lucifer wouldn't try to end her; at least not now.

Although right now, her endless talking was slowly weakening his resolve.

"Be that as it may," the nurse continued, "Emily and I thought it was so romantic how he brought you in." She gave Dean a longing gaze. "Holding you in his arms, demanding that we take care of you." She sighed. "I wished I had a boyfriend like that. Oh, I bet the sex is so…hot and steamy and…"

Dean choked and stared at her with an expression of both horror and disbelief. Lucifer had to suppress a snort: leave it to the humans to jump to the wrong conclusions. Although, if what she had said was true, it indicated deeper emotional involvement on Dean's part than he had anticipated, which could be used to his advantage. Or perhaps it was simply in Dean's nature to be caring for his fellow humans, which was highly likely, seeing that Dean was the Righteous Man.

"I´m not…how could you…totally wrong," Dean tried to say, but his mind was still too shocked from trying to comprehend how the nurse had come up with all this to be able to form a coherent sentence.

"Don't worry," the nurse said and patted Dean's cheek. "We don't judge you for it. As long as you're happy in your relationship – and you seem to be, if your entrance was anything to go by – you shouldn't worry about others."

Then her smile grew wider.

"But I totally have to tell Amanda," she said. "We have a bet going on. I said you were gay and your lover had been beaten up by some homophobe folks, whereas she was all about the two of you loving the same girl and having a fight over her. But she was wrong, and now I am twenty bucks richer! Those lovely red shoes from Clue's Shoes have my name all over them. Anyway, the doctor said that your boyfriend will probably be discharged tomorrow."

And with that, she was out of the room like a tornado, leaving behind a blushing and stammering Dean and a confused Lucifer.

"Man, that chick was absolutely nuts," Dean commented when he found his voice again.

"She was definitely…out of the norm," Lucifer agreed, thinking that it would be the best to agree with Dean.

"She said that you're going to be discharged tomorrow," Dean mentioned, and for the first time genuine relief flooded through Lucifer imagining himself out of this dreadful hospital. Humans were despicable: they harmed and injured each other then admitted the victims to their hospitals for the purpose of making them usable as cheap labor or an object to dictate again. They were better off dying than living in this world.

"Then I can take you home and you can forget this whole episode," Dean said nonchalantly.

That was something Lucifer had to rectify. He could not allow Dean to be separated from him. He needed the human male to lead him to his true vessel: Samuel. He needed to manipulate Dean against Michael in order to gain victory over his brother as soon as possible and he needed to be sure that he'd win. But to cultivate the trust he needed Dean to have in him, he had to stay with him for a significant period of time and probably help him while hunting. Lucifer knew that there was nothing that built up trust as quickly as fighting together. After all, he had witnessed it himself.

He just had to come up with a plan that would allow him to stay with the lone hunter. Dean probably thought him to be a clueless civilian who had wandered through the forest aimlessly, unaware of all the supernatural in this world. Maybe this was an angle he could work on, portraying himself as a hunter who had become the victim of some creature and was now on the look-out for said being to take revenge on it. To increase the sympathy Dean was bound to feel for him after hearing his story, he could make up a tragic story of having lost everything – loved ones and a normal life – to some sort of attack.

Maybe he could even add a deceased younger brother to make Dean identify himself with him. From the few times he actually had lowered himself to watch humanity, he knew that humans liked to project themselves onto others, no matter how the other party felt about it. Many of the conflicts Lucifer had been able to witness had simply arisen because one human wasn't able to comprehend that not everyone felt like they did about certain matters. Lucifer had been greatly amused to watch a human king kill his subjects when they dared to laugh as he mourned the death of his son and heir.

Lucifer smiled. Now he had a plan and he only needed the right moment to put it into motion. The only thing he had to find a solution for was his grace problem and then everything would be to his liking.

Although Dean didn't know the stranger he had picked up on the street for that long, he couldn't help but feel rather comfortable around him. He didn't know why exactly that was; his whole life he had been taught to never trust strangers because even if they were just ordinary humans, they weren't hunters and, more importantly, weren't family. They couldn't be trusted. But when he saw Luke lying in the hospital bed, looking rather thoughtful and then smiling, he couldn't help but smile a little bit as well. The guy definitely hated hospitals as much as Dean did if his previous demeanour was any indicator. And everybody who disliked hospitals couldn't be as bad as someone who enjoyed staying in such institutions.

"I´ll go to the diner," he said to Luke and was about the leave when he, halfway through the door, turned back.

"Do you want anything?" he asked the bed's occupant. "I mean, you probably shouldn't eat anything too greasy. But I didn't listen when the nurse counted all the things you shouldn't do, so I´ll just do it anyway."

Luke just looked as if the thought of someone bringing him food was something completely new to him. Poor guy, maybe he'd never had someone to bring him something when he was ill. Wait, where had this thought come from? Dean shook his head.

"No," Luke answered. "I am in no need of sustenance." After a moment of silence he added, "Thank you," as if he had to remember common courtesy.

"Suit yourself," Dean grinned and went out of the room.

He walked past the nurse office as he left the hospital.

"…and you should have seen the two of them when I commented on them being boyfriends," Dean heard the nurse saying. He was sure that he had never blushed that fast in his whole life. He wasn't inexperienced with women, not by far, having started his womanizing career when he was fourteen. Nevertheless, he preferred not to talk about his conquests so blatantly. Or rather, he only talked about his love flings with Sam. It made him nervous when strangers, like this nurse, talked about his love life like that, because he couldn't help but feel that they silently judged him for it, labelling him as some kind of man-slut.

"They wanted to deny everything, probably terrified after the attack on the cute one, and I just said that we wouldn't judge them and that they should be happy." Her last statement was ended with a sigh.

"They're really dreamy," another nurse commented. "I wish my boyfriend was as handsome as leather jacket." Dean grinned. He just had a way with the female gender.

"You don't have a boyfriend, Lorette," another voice chided.

"But I can dream!" Lorette exclaimed.

"Who do you think's the bottom?" another nurse threw in. Suddenly, it felt way too warm in there.

"Leather jacket," Lorette answered without a second's hesitation.

"Why's that?" the nurse from before asked.

"Oh, come one," Lorette said. "It´s obvious. Outside he plays the macho, the womanizer, the tough one who stands alone against the world with his rough exterior. But in private, he wants to be dominated, to be thrown against the wall while his boyfriend fucks him senseless, begging shamelessly for more and more…"

That was enough. With cheeks burning bright red, Dean walked away as fast as he could, not wanting to hear any more of the nurses' gossip. How did they come up with something so ridiculous? He wasn't Luke´s boyfriend and he wasn't into men. Not that he couldn't and wouldn't appreciate an attractive male when he saw one, but women were the only ones he was interested in.

Assured of his own sexuality, Dean left the hospital and made his way to the diner. Tomorrow he would bring Luke home and then he could leave this town and its gossiping hospital staff.

AN: And another chapter. For all those demanding more plot: Be assured that the next chapters will be more focused on that. I just wanted to write one 'easy' chapter before I have to write the more complex, character defining and changing, ones. I hate those, but alas they have to be. And I always wanted to write such a noisy nurse. Do I have anything else of importance to say? The voices in my head say no and I chose to believe them this time. But they do remember me to remind you to write some fancy reviews in the box below. Till next time, dear readers!