A/N: For those of you who don't know the movie, Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo spent most of 'To Wong Foo' dressed in drag. And see if you can catch the Ten Inch Hero reference in this chapter. Also, remember this is set in 2009 so iPhones and Google Earth were still pretty new, the boys were nearly 8 years younger than they are now (now being season 11), and Dean is still very much the big brother who sees Sam as a kid in a lot of ways.

CHAPTER 7: Like Patrick Swayze in 'To Wong Foo'

Back at Cabin four of the Celtic Lodge, the group discussed the best way to take down Arawn. Dean and Sam were fairly positive evergreen stakes would work, as they had successfully killed two Pagan Gods last Christmas using them. The problem was, as Alex and Josh were both quick to point out, getting close enough to this monster with evergreen stakes would be insanely dangerous, even using the Winchesters' crossbow.

"How about just destroying the portal?" Dean suggested, cringing at how much that sounded like a Star Trek quote.

The others nodded in agreement. "The lore suggests it's a stone circle," Sam offered. "Probably somewhere on the McCulloch property."

"Like Stonehenge?" Dean looked doubtful. "I didn't think there were any real stone circles in America."

"It wouldn't necessarily have to be that old," Alex offered. "Or that big. Just have the right supernatural mojo on it."

"And who knows how old these four actually are," Josh added. "They could have been doing this for a century or two before they came to this country. They could even have brought the stones with them from Scotland."

Dean turned to Sam. "You said the McCulloch property is huge and mostly wilderness. What do you figure is the best way to find the circle? Google Earth?"

Sam shrugged, surprised his brother had remembered the time Sam had shown him Bobby's place on the website. "It's worth a try."

His face lit up like a kid at Christmas morning when Josh got up and handed him the Brentons' laptop to look it up on. Catching the look, Dean made a mental note to pick Sam up a new one. He would get some advice from Josh before they split at the end of this hunt. Maybe he'd even pay for it - well, with a fake credit card.

While Sam was logging on to the website, he gave Dean a concerned glance. "Oh yeah, the cop took our fingerprints and he's running them at the station right now. Just a head's up. Could complicate things."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Just what we need."

Alex gasped looked down at her black thumb. Dean noted the quick look of fear she threw at Josh and the reassuring look he returned, accompanied by a slight shake of the head as if to say Don't worry about it. "Different database," Josh said quietly. Neither Brenton offered an explanation of the exchange.

The McCulloch property was not well focused on the website and nothing was visible. Alex got up and headed for the door. "I'll go ask Brody," she offered. "He knows everything about this town."

"Not by yourself!" Josh scolded, getting up stiffly, his ankle still bothering him. "Remember those guys will be after you now. Neither of you should go anywhere by yourselves." He extended his suggestion to Sam. "Besides, sis, you have a concussion, remember?"

"I'm feeling fine, I swear," Alex groaned. "The fresh air will do me good. It's just over to the motel office."

Dean stood up. "I'll go with her," he offered, tucking his gun back in the top of his pants and heading to the door behind Alex before Josh could argue further.

There was a cool breeze outside despite this being an unusually warm October. Dean and Alex headed around the row of motel rooms and towards the office at the far end. Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Dean spoke up.

"So what was that all about?" he indicated her blackened finger. "You got a record?"

She smiled at him. "Of sorts," she replied evasively. "I can only imagine how many charges are on you Winchesters' rap sheets, though."

Dean grinned. "Our records are clean."

Alex snorted. "I seriously doubt that."

"Well," Dean explained, "there aren't current charges because officially, Sam and me are dead."

She shot a surprised look at him. "Dead? How did you manage that one?" she asked, sounding impressed.

Dean shrugged. "Friend in the Bureau," he answered vaguely, not really wanting to get into a conversation about Hendricksen since it still brought up feelings of guilt about how that night had ended. "Your turn. What did you do? B&E? Larceny? Grand theft auto?"

She looked as if she was debating coming clean but decided against it at the last second.

"Your brother told me about the demon-stalker thing of yours," he confessed, figuring she was worried about spilling the big family secret.

"He did?" she asked, sounding surprised but suddenly making a deliberate effort not to catch his eye. Her shoulders stiffened as she walked, eyes on the ground in front of her. They continued in silence for a moment before she shot him a quick sideways glance, her face full of apprehension.

Dean recognized the look as one he had seen Sam throw at him a hundred times in the past three years. Searching to see if he thought she was some kind of weirdo freak. Telling him she would understand if he wanted to get as far away from her as possible. Begging him to believe her and not call her crazy. Since Jessica's death, he had seen that look in his brother's eyes too many times to not know what self-loathing and self-doubt lay beneath it.

Every time Sam had mentioned a vision, the possibility of turning 'darkside', or Yellow-Eyes' plans for him, he had thrown Dean that exact look. Dean had tried to alleviate his little brother's doubts while avoiding or at least keeping the excruciating 'chick-flick' moments' to a minimal, but still wasn't satisfied he had managed to convince his troubled brother. His mind raced to figure out a way to put Alex at ease without getting himself trapped in an awkward 'emo' moment.

"Hey," he said, trying to sound casual, "I don't care if you've got the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding at your heels, okay? It's not like any of this is your fault," he said sincerely. "My family's had our fair share of obsessive demons, trust me. One demon bitch even hitched a ride in Sammy for a week and tried to get me to kill him. And we hunted this other stubborn bastard of a demon for over twenty years."

Her shoulders loosened and a smile spread across her face. "Thanks," she said gratefully. "See, that's why I like hunters. You guys are all so screwed up, you make Josh and I look like the fucking Waltons."

"Don't mention it," he replied sarcastically, glad at least he had been convincing enough to put her at ease. "So what was it, Drunk and Disorderly?" He continued his previous line of questioning.

Alex sighed. "If you must know, none of the above," she said quietly. "When I was young, my parents didn't believe me about Red-Eyes and thought that I was hurting myself so they kept sending me to shrinks, including my mother's brother, Uncle Bryce. When my parents died, I was still considered a minor and Josh was in a coma for eleven days so my uncle stepped in and sent me to a psychiatric hospital."

She rolled her eyes, embarrassed, ashamed even.

"Anyway, after Josh woke up they wouldn't release me so he broke me out and that's when we disappeared, got fake ID's and took off. But my uncle issued a psych warrant basically saying I'm a danger to myself and others around me and I need to be confined to a secure psychiatric facility. It's called a 5250 involuntarily hold but if he gets me in there, he'll appeal to make it permanent. And he'll succeed."

Dean listened in silence, Josh's comment about the different database now making sense. So the Brentons were running from both an obsessed demon-thing as well as the law. Perhaps he and Sam had more in common with these two than he had originally thought. But at least the Winchesters had never been forced to run from their own family.

In the last few steps to the motel office, he decided killing Alex's demon-stalker would be at the top of his to-do list, right after killing Lillith, stopping the apocalypse, and keeping Sam safe. If anyone had ever needed Winchester help, it was the Brentons.

They arrived to find Brody half asleep behind the desk, staring blankly at the small TV screen, Seinfeld's nasally voice floating from the small, scratchy speaker. His eyes lit up when he saw Alex and he jumped up to greet her. "Alex! How are you?"

His expression dimmed somewhat when Dean walked in behind her.

"I'm good, Brody," she smiled sweetly at him. "I was wondering if you could help me out with something."

"Sure, anything," he offered, trying to sound suave but saying it much too eagerly to be successful.

"You seem to know so much about the area, I was wondering if you could tell me if there are any stone circles around? Like maybe on the McCulloch property?"

Brody's eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Stone Circles? You mean the rock band? Or like Stonehenge?"

Alex laughed playfully. "Like Stonehenge. Anything like that?"

"Oh," Brody flushed. "You know, I have heard something about there being one on the old McCulloch property, but I dunno if it's true, or where it is." He looked disappointed for a second, before his face lit back up. "Oh, but I do know where you could find out!"

"Where?" Alex asked.

"My Uncle Jonas. Well, he's my mom's second cousin's husband but he's my dad's first cousin so I always called him Uncle. Anyways, he does like, maps and stuff and he has really cool aerial shots of this whole town and he knows like every inch of it. I know he'd know about your stone thing!"

"That sounds great. How can we get a hold of him?" asked Alex, trying really hard to dispel the stereotypical judgments about the small-town kid and the double-dipped family tree.

"He'll be running his booth all day tomorrow at the fairgrounds," Brody told her eagerly. "He puts all his maps in one of the tents and actually thinks people are interested." The teenager rolled his eyes. "Tomorrow's the last day of the festival. You'll find him there for sure. Just tell him I sent you." He leaned over the counter, pointing to the rack of pamphlets. "There's a map of the fairgrounds in the rack; his tent is marked on it."

"Thanks Brody; you've been a big help." Alex moved over to the rack to search for the map.

Brody moved over closer to Dean, who had been watching the exchange with amusement from the far end of the counter.

"Dude, you totally stole her from surfer boy didn't you?" he said with open admiration and more than a hint of jealousy. "It was the car, right?" He shook his head, knowingly. "It had to be the car."

Dean grinned slyly and leaned in close. "You got it all wrong, kid. She's not with me," he said quietly. "And she's not with surfer boy either. I went for it, man, but she turned me down flat. Said she liked younger men and that she had her eye on someone."

Brody's eyes widened.

"I think you got a chance, pal," Dean continued, marveling at how easy this was, and feeling just a tiny bit guilty. The kid was just about one card short of the full deck. "And I know for a fact she digs flowers. Daisies especially. Just so you know," he winked at the teen and turned towards Alex with an innocent raise of his eyebrows as she called out that she had found the festival grounds map.

SPN-SPN-SPN

The following day was again unusually warm for mid-October, without a cloud in the morning sky and the sun promising to shine brightly for the duration of the afternoon. Sam woke up early and glanced over at his brother, pleased to find him still sleeping soundly. Dean hadn't been getting much sleep recently and Sam had been concerned that Dean's stress and worry for Sam during yesterday's excitement would have brought on another nightmare. He knew without a doubt the night terrors were a result of his brother's time in Hell but Dean, being Dean, refused to talk about them.

He showered quickly and quietly and slipped out to the diner for coffee just after 6:30 am. By the time he was halfway there he was second-guessing his decision to walk as his knee was still swollen and painful, but starting the Impala up would definitely have woken his brother. Heck, walking past the Impala would probably wake up his brother with the sixth sense he possessed that was reserved only for Sam and the Chevy.

When he limped back into the room, Dean was awake and up, shirtless and pacing impatiently with an irritated look on his face.

"Where were you?" he demanded before Sam could even cross the threshold.

Sam holding up the coffees with a 'duuuh' look on his face did nothing to improve his brother's mood.

"Why didn't you answer your phone?"

Another 'duuuh' look to remind Dean the Sheriff had taken his phone only succeeded in frustrating him further. Sam handed Dean his black coffee and huffed to his classic Sammy pout.

"Look, Dean, I'm sorry, I forgot to take the spare. You know that Darius still has mine. I was at the diner for like, five minutes," he defended.

"In case you forgot your little internet search last night, Ben Darius happens to be the town Sheriff!" Dean reminded him crossly. "And he wants your body!"

Sam snorted, choking and spewing a mouthful of his vanilla-flavoured coffee back into his cup. He looked up to see Dean grinning sheepishly.

"That didn't come out exactly the way I had intended," the older Winchester admitted with a smirk. He took a sip of his coffee and started raking through his duffel for some clean clothes. "Double entendres aside, we agreed you don't go anywhere alone, Sam. You and Alex both. Not 'til this job is finished."

Sam rolled his eyes but nodded his reluctant agreement. "So when are we going to the fair?" he asked.

"Booth opens at nine," Dean replied as he headed towards the shower. "We're supposed to meet Paris and Nicole at their room."

SPN-SPN-SPN

Dean pounded loudly on the motel door of their new acquaintances, getting a disapproving shake of the head from his brother for the lack of subtlety. Alex opened it and smiled in greeting at them.

"The Brothers Grimm. Morning. You two ready to try your hands at the caber toss?"

"The what?" Dean grunted.

"The caber toss," Sam explained. "It's a traditional Scottish heavyweight competition of the Highlands. The contestant throws a log end over end and whoever throws it the farthest wins."

Dean looked skeptical. "Seriously? They couldn't find anything better to do, like sheep tossing?"

Alex laughed and stepped outside as Josh followed and closed the door behind him. "They also throw a bundle of hay, a big rock, and an iron ball on a stick. You do realize this is a Scottish festival we're going to, don't you?"

Dean waved his hand. "Hey, I saw Braveheart."

"Twenty times," Sam muttered.

Dean ignored him and fifteen minutes later found them strolling through the already busy fair grounds in search of the tent belonging to Brody's Uncle Jonas. Dean, walking up front with Josh, was expressing his annoyance at the constant hum of bagpipes playing tunes from every corner of the field. "Their parents must have hated these kids growing up," he joked.

"Bagpipes are one of the coolest instruments going," Alex called out in their defense. "They're very passionate."

"They're played by kids who won't ever get laid," Dean retorted, turning around to grin at Sam and Lex walking behind their big brothers. "They're not real music."

"Oh yeah?" Alex challenged. "Nazareth, Hair of the Dog – bagpipes. Steve Earl, Copperhead Road – bagpipes. The Scorpions, Wild Child – bagpipes. AC/DC, It's a Long way to the Top - bagpipes."

Sam cackled. "Ha! She's got you there, Dean."

Dean scowled, shooting Sam a traitorous glare but admitting defeat at the mention of one of his all-time idols, AC/DC. He turned back around and gave Josh a shoulder bump. "Thanks for the warning, pal. Chick knows her friggin' classic rock."

"Hey," Josh chuckled quietly, "I'm already on her bad side this morning for not letting her go on her run. I gotta live with her ya know. And bro, she knows all music, not just classic rock."

The older pair kept up a stream of friendly banter as they crossed the crowded field. At one point, a stunning redhead in daisy dukes walked between the two, giving them a polite 'excuse me' as they stopped to allow her to pass. Both of them turned around as she walked on, checking her out appreciatively as she continued on towards their younger siblings following a few feet behind.

Both Sam and Alex caught the not-even-a-little subtle ogling being done by Dean and Josh and laughed. After basically ignoring the two older brothers, the girl looked up at Sam as she passed, giving him a lingering smile and a sweet "Hi." Sam gave a quick shy nod of his head but didn't reply as she passed directly between him and Alex, her hand grazing lightly across his chest.

Dean and Josh both shook their heads in disgust. "That was so wasted on you, bro," Josh whimpered to Sam.

"He's limping, he's got a bruised up face, and he's walking with a girl," Dean said in disbelief. "Small town chicks, man. I just don't get 'um."

"Maybe she's just not into geriatrics," Alex teased with a giggle.

They reached the edge of the field where Jonas' tent stood, proving the motel's festival map to be surprisingly accurate. Inside, a few tables were crammed tightly into the small space, all covered with hundreds of aerial photographs and maps. There was a lean man in his mid-thirties with a slightly receding hairline and a toothy smile pulling some more maps out of a large canvas bag near the back of the tent.

"Excuse me?" Dean called over. "You Jonas?"

The man looked up from his work. "Yes," he replied. "Can I help you?"

"I'm Dean," the hunter offered. "Your nephew Brody told us to come and see you."

The man smiled knowingly and nodded his head. "Ah, yes," he said. "He called me this morning and told me some friends of his would be stopping by." He turned to Alex. "You must be Alex. Brody speaks quite highly of you," he said with a wink. Alex blushed and caught the stifled snickers of the three men next to her.

Jonas laughed. "My boy Brody may not be the sharpest tool in the shed," he admitted with a fond smile, "but his heart's in the right place."

"We're looking for a stone circle that's rumored to be somewhere on the Old McCulloch property," Dean pressed.

"Oh, yes," Jonas said excitedly. "Not many people even know about that, the Sheriff being such a private person and all. Sheriff Darius owns what is still referred to as the McCulloch property. It actually hasn't been owned by a real McCulloch in well over a hundred years."

"Don't be so sure about that," Dean mumbled quietly.

Jonas rummaged through a pile of photographs on the corner table. "I've never seen the stones up close, but I did spot them on one of my passes."

"Passes?" Josh inquired.

"Yes, passes over the property with my plane. I do all my own aerial photography." He waved his hand over the hundreds of photographs on the tables. "I've photographed every inch of this township," he added proudly.

"Aha!" he exclaimed, pulling an aerial map from the middle of the stack free and placing it on the center table so they could all see it. It showed mostly trees with a large river running through the center and a road at the top right corner. The latitude and longitude were marked down the sides of the map. He pointed to a small light-green spot in the center. "See, there they are. Five of them, all in a perfect circle."

The four hunters bent their heads in closer to see but could not make out any details.

"Do you have anything zoomed in closer, Jonas?" Josh asked, hopefully. "We're pretty interested in the stones themselves."

"Oh, right," Jonas nodded. "Well, you'd love these ones. There are markings all over all five of them, Gaelic symbols, I believe." He looked apologetically at them. "I had a beautiful shot blown up large scale, but I gave it to a friend of mine. He's quite obsessed with Gaelic History and Gaelic folklore. He asked the Sheriff if he could go have a look at the stones but the Sheriff refused to let him on the property. Darius was actually quite rude about it; he's known to be quite a quick-tempered jack-ass."

Dean snorted. "I'll say."

"What did your friend find out about the stones?" Sam pressed.

"Frank's a bit obsessive. He spent weeks deciphering the symbols. He thinks the stones were erected as some kind of portal for who knows what to who knows where. He thinks that hundreds of years ago, ancient Scots used to recite verses or spells that they believed would open portals to different times or different worlds. You know, Druids and all that mumbo jumbo." He laughed as if to himself. "Frank even researched the spells. He speaks fluent Gaelic. Like I said, he's a little obsessive."

"I would love to meet him," Sam said, truthfully. "Could you tell me how to get in touch with him?"

"Sure," Jonas replied. "Frank Pelter. He is a professor at Grace College. He teaches Religious Studies. You'll find him on the Campus seven days a week; he pretty much lives there."

Dean bought the aerial photograph showing the location of the stones, thanked the man for his time and his help, and the four left the tent to head back towards their cars. On the way they passed a shooting carnival game, sporting some decent looking pellet rifles at the counter and rows of stacked cans and paper targets at the rear.

"Hey!" the seedy-looking carnie called over to Dean and Josh as they passed. "Wanna test your skills?"

Dean scoffed and waved a dismissive hand at him. "Naw, man, we're good."

"I understand," the carnie jeered back. "You fellows don't wanna embarrass yourselves in front of the lady. No problem. Have a great day!"

Neither Josh nor Dean could let that one slide. They both stopped and turned towards the carnie. Sam just sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Actually, I just don't want to deplete your stash of wonderful prizes here," Dean answered back, waving his hand at the gaudy array of stuffed animals and tacky jewelry hanging from the roof of the tent.

Josh elbowed Dean. "I bet I can kick your ass," he goaded.

The challenge made, within seconds both older brothers were moving up the row of pellet guns chained to the front counter picking up each one to find a suitable one. Sam groaned but didn't join in, inwardly glad to see Dean having some fun but knowing full well Josh would never beat the elder Winchester at this game. Alex grinned with amusement at the serious looks on the older brothers' faces as they made their selections and handed their money over to the smug booth-owner.

Within two minutes, the carnie realized he had made a mistake in goading these two into playing. After the first few shots, they had both figured out the deliberate misalignment of the pellet guns and were skillfully compensating for it. The first round went to Dean and the carnie handed him a stuffed pink rabbit prize. Looking at it with more annoyance than gratitude, Dean turned and tossed it to Alex. "Here," he called out before quickly turning and picking up his gun again. "Another round?" he challenged Josh.

"Damn right!" Josh agreed fervently, disappointed at losing. He considered himself a pretty good shot and generally did well at games of this sort. He concentrated hard and managed to come out ahead of Dean by a small margin after the next round, arguably because Dean's gun had jammed and the Winchester had missed the first two shots with the new rifle he had selected.

"Aha!" Josh cried triumphantly as the carnie scowled and handed him a stuffed Tigger. He turned and tossed the toy to Alex. "Here, sis!"

Alex frowned. "What am I supposed to do with these?" she complained to Sam, who just laughed.

The older brothers started a tie-breaker round, during which the teasing and name-calling between them ranged from "Ha ha, dude you suck!" to "Sammy had better aim than you when he was being potty trained!"

By this time, a small group of onlookers had started to gather around the booth as the two men nailed almost every target dead on. Dean won the third round, receiving a very large brown teddy bear for his efforts. He turned to toss it to Alex again, but she held up her free hand and took a step back, shaking her head, refusing to have another toy offloaded on her.

So Dean turned to Sam, who was standing behind him watching the competition with a grin. "Here," he said as he unceremoniously shoved the giant bear into Sam's arms so he could get back to his game. A few snickers escaped from the five or six onlookers behind him and Sam's cheeks grew red as he stood there holding the stupid bear with the big pink bow around its neck. Alex burst out laughing, tears nearly rolling down her cheeks as she noticed Sam's pout.

Josh and Dean were oblivious to the attention they were attracting as they went one last round.

"Come on Josh!" Alex cheered as Josh hit three targets in a row with perfect bullseyes. "This one will tie it up!"

Dean scoffed as he raised his rifle and took his turn, nailing every target dead on. "Give it up now and end your humiliation," he teased, nodding to Josh for his turn.

Alex turned to a couple of kids beside her, "Do you guys want these stuffed toys?" she asked, handing the rabbit and the Tigger to them, their eyes wide with awed surprise. Sam decided to follow suit and turned to a boy standing beside him also.

"You want this bear, little guy?" he asked the kid.

The kid, about eight or nine years old, looked at Sam with a disgusted sneer. "No way! Do I look like a pussy to you?" he said as he moved quickly away from Sam. Alex hid her face to try to conceal that her eyes were again watering with laughter at Sam's humiliation, but her shaking shoulders gave it away. She took pity on the beet red younger Winchester and decided to help him out, reaching for the bear and handing it to a passing couple with a toddler walking between them. She received a thank-you for her efforts from both Sam and the young couple.

Though Josh did well, it wasn't good enough in the end, and Dean took the fourth round also. The carnie was about to hand him the largest prize there, a six foot high pink flamingo, but, with a glance back at the glaring Sam and Alex, he waved his hand at the booth-owner. "Can I have something smaller?" he asked. "Gimme some of that jewelry over there." The carnie went over to the wall and pulled off a leather beaded bracelet, handing it to Dean.

"You guys cops?" he asked, looking from Dean to Josh.

Dean's snort conveyed his answer in the negative. He took the bracelet and held it up at Josh. "Victory!" he gloated, before turning and tossing the prize to Alex with a cocky grin.

Sam couldn't help but smile at his brother's glee. A rare sight these days. He had pegged Josh for a bit of a boy scout, not the type Dean usually hit it off with, but they seemed to be quite buddy-buddy after hanging out for the day yesterday. From what Sam had gathered last night, the two had spent the day shooting pool, hitting on the bar waitress, and drinking beer while working on the Bronco.

He noticed Alex about to protest at getting landed with the latest prize but she stopped and looked the bracelet over for a few seconds before slipping it on her wrist, shooting a guilty glance at her defeated brother.

Back at the entrance to the fairgrounds, Dean, Sam, and Alex waited while the competition's loser - at Dean's insistence - stood in line at a nearby canteen for coffees. Dean shook his head in disgust as a couple of guys in kilts walked by.

"Dudes are wearing skirts, man," he clucked. "That can't be comfortable. Sammy, are you sure you aren't Scottish? You'd fit right in."

Sam huffed but didn't bother with a retort. He had been expecting the remark from the moment they had all stepped out of the cars and the first marching band in kilts had walked past them. Deep down, his brother didn't judge and didn't mean any harm, but on the surface, Dean spoke without thinking and often missed the mark when it came to political correctness.

"Are you kidding?" Alex offered, giving an openly appreciative look at the two men who had passed. "Guys in kilts are hot. You should try it sometime, Dean."

Dean snorted where he stood leaning up against the fence. "Never gonna happen. I got a reputation to uphold."

Alex laughed. "Dean, you could pierce your nose and get a giant purple mohawk with sideburns and you'd still look hot in a kilt."

The elder Winchester flushed slightly, not sure what to make of her comment. She had said it casually with no hint of flirting, but she had still undeniably called him hot. Not for the first time, he found himself slightly confused by her. She could make fun of him without making him feel stupid or insulted and could compliment him without it seeming like a come-on. Same with her brother, though in a different sort of way.

"What about Sam?" he deflected. "You have to admit he'd look like Patrick Swayze in To Wong Foo in a kilt."

Alex laughed again, giving Sam a wink. "Nah," she said. "He'd just have to take his shirt off. Nobody would even notice the kilt."

Now it was Sam's turn to flush, thinking to himself that Alex seemed to find his embarrassment as entertaining as Dean did. Of course, she tended to inflict a rather gentler form of humiliation than Dean's usual burrito-farting jokes and he couldn't help but smile with her and his brother.

Josh returned with four coffees, two black and two with extra cream. "Sorry, Bro," he said to Sam. "They didn't have any vanilla shots."

"So what's our next move?" Alex asked, removing the lid of her coffee to cool it faster.

"We have the location of the stones," Dean stated simply. "Let's just blow them up."

Both Brentons turned sharply towards him. "Blow them up?!" Josh looked shocked and more than a little skeptical.

"Well, they're a little big to destroy with a hammer," Dean replied sarcastically, enjoying their startled reaction.

"We can make some explosives from pretty basic household compounds and use them to destroy the circle," Sam explained.

"You mean, I can," corrected Dean.

Sam looked sharply at his brother. "You're not going up there alone, Dean," he warned. "There are still two McCulloch's alive and the librarian has seen your face too, remember? Not to mention Arawn himself could be roaming around."

"Well, it's not like you two gimps can make it there," Dean pointed out, waving his hand towards Josh and Sam, both of whom were still limping. He ignored Sam's reproachful look at his politically incorrect comment. "Come on, you saw the map, the stones are like five or six miles from the closest trail or road."

"How are you going to find them anyway?" Sam argued, not liking this idea at all. He pulled out Jonas's map, laying it on the hood of the Impala and looked closely at the location of the stones. "There is no trail at all to them as far as I can see. They're almost half a mile from this river, but there are no bridges and it's at least class two rapids most of the way so you can't get there by boat. They're in the middle of miles of trees!"

"We can use the GPS," Alex suggested. "It's open along the river edge so we can follow it up from this road and cut in at the stones and go the last half mile through the trees."

"What do you mean, we?" Josh demanded. Upon receiving an indignant glare from his sister explaining her intentions, he added, "Hell no! You're definitely not going."

Alex's back stiffened and she glared at her brother. "Don't even go there," she said fiercely. "It's broad daylight, Arawn only comes at night. The chances of us running into Freaky Librarian and her Peter Pan Daddy in the middle of the woods are about eight million to one, so don't even think of treating me like a little kid on this one," she ranted with a tone of voice that dared her brother to challenge her.

Josh clenched his jaw and forced himself to think about the points she had just made. Dean and Sam watched the face-off in silent amusement, inwardly betting on who would win. They were both right.

"Okay," Josh relented. "You're right. But you had better take evergreen stakes and plenty of silver bullets." He turned to Dean, "You okay with this?"

Dean gave Josh an impudent wink. "She's safe with me, dude." He was fairly certain they wouldn't run into Arawn in the middle of the day and with Alex there, he wouldn't have to admit he wasn't sure how to use the new GPS that Sam had picked up in the months Dean had been gone.

"Good," Alex said, relieved and a bit surprised her brother had agreed so quickly. She was actually excited at the prospect of blowing up the stones. How cool was that? The thought of spending a day in the woods with Dean Winchester was a little more daunting but she would admit she found herself a bit intrigued by him. She liked both brothers and found Sam to be sweet and easy to be around, but she hadn't quite decided what she thought of the older Winchester yet. He seemed more complicated with a little more Harvey Dent thrown in the mix.

He was easy on the eyes, though.

Josh jerked his thumb at Sam, who was giving his coffee an unimpressed sniff. "What are Junior and I supposed to do all day?"

"Why don't you two go see Jonas' friend Frank, in case this doesn't work and we need more intel?" she suggested to her brother, not wanting to leave him with nothing to do as she knew he would just worry and call her every half hour. She loved her brother to death and knew more than anyone how much he had given up to become her protector, but sometimes she wished he didn't feel quite so responsible for her. She wasn't that thirteen year old girl that had cried and cried and begged him not to leave her when he went traveling for a year before college.

It was agreed, however reluctantly, that Josh and Sam would head to Grace College while Dean and Alex hiked to the stones. They decided to grab their gear and head out right away so they would be back well before dark.

As Dean and Sam drove in the Impala back to the motel, Sam once again expressed his distaste for the current plan. "This thing drags people to Hell, Dean. I don't think you should be tempting fate like this."

"You're just jealous 'cause this time I get Buffy and you get Angel," his brother teased.

"Dean, I'm serious," Sam continued. "You've already used your Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card. You think Castiel's gonna jet down there a second time if you get sent back? There's no way you're gonna be that lucky twice."

Dean sighed. "Look, Sammy," he softened his voice. "Arawn's not gonna be there. I wouldn't take a civilian with me if I thought he would be. I'm not taking any unnecessary risks here. If your theory is right and we don't stop him from coming back, two more people are gonna die. Actually, five more because now the Adams Family needs three more bodies to take over. Innocent people, Sam. Whatever else is going on, it's still our job to make sure that doesn't happen. And besides, if Arawn shows up, I promise, we spilt."

Sam relented but not without giving Dean a full-on bitchface to show that he still didn't like being left out of it.

SPN-SPN-SPN