Dean collapsed wearily against the side of the Impala at the same time as Sam slumped beside him. They were breathless and exhausted, bruised and beaten, and covered in slimy ectoplasm.

"Fuck. I hate ghosts," Dean grumped, pouted and running his fingers through the goo coating his jeans and then wiping them down his shirt.

"I'm gonna havta agree with you on that one, Dean. Give me a demon any day. Much easier to wash the smell of sulpher out of our clothes and they don't goo on anything they touch. I bet ectoplasm takes a lot more scrubbing, that's if it comes out at all. And these are my last pair of decent jeans, too. I wonder if Bobby knows what'll get it out, there must be something cause I bet soap won't…"

"Dude, do you ever stop and listen to yourself? You're gonna make someone a wonderful wife one day," Dean rolled his eyes at his dork of a brother. "And you know you stink, right?" Dean chuckled, plucking at his own clothes and sniffing them.

"What? And you don't think you do?" Sam quipped, giving his brother a shove.

"Think we'd better take a shower and get changed before we drive back to the Roadhouse," Dean mumbled as he pulled himself up off the ground and dusted himself off as best he could before sliding behind his baby's wheel.

Sam rolled his eyes, he'd hoped that this hunt had got Dean back into the swing of demon-hunting and out of the Tallie-hunting, but it seemed it had failed. Dean's eyes blazed with lust, and even if he swore on their mom that he wasn't thinking about Tallie, he was. Maybe getting Tallie out of his system was all his brother needed to get back on the job. Nothing was ever going to change Dean, he would always be a tom-cat when it came to the opposite sex.

Slipping into the passenger seat, Sam ran his hands through his shaggy hair, yawning. "Dude, I think I could sleep for a week."

"You're gonna have to hold that thought, little brother, because I'm on a promise and I fully intend to collect on it. You can get your head down over at the Roadhouse," Dean smirked, brow cocked.

Sam was about to make some remark about always thinking with his downstairs brain, but he bit it back because at least the food was good at the Roadhouse.

The drive back to the crappy roadside motel was quiet. They were both exhausted, hungry and yet adrenaline spiked through both their systems. It was always like that after a hunt, especially one that ended successfully.

The boys both quickly showered and changed, with one packing while the other showered.

oooOooo

Sam scoured Dean's shoebox of tape cassettes looking for something that had been recorded during the most recent century and failed to find anything. He huffed and Dean laughed, digging his hand into the box and pulling out Styx.

"Now, Sammy, don't roll your eyes at me. That's good music there, classic, in fact."

Sam returned to staring out of the window as they sped down the highway, fully at the mercy of Dean's loins

Just for once though, he wished it was the other way around. Sure, there had been girls along the way, he'd be a fool not to notice the looks women gave him in bars, or wherever they were. But there hadn't really been anyone since Madison – and look how well that had turned out.

Thinking about it, it was better if he avoided women all together and just stuck with his right hand. At least that hadn't let him down, or died, yet.

It had come down to that: his hand and Dean's stash of skin magazines. Well, just as soon as he could he was going to change all that. He was going to take a leaf out of Dean's book and get laid. He was going to have a meaningless, casual, one-night stand, and get it over with.

Ok, so that wasn't ever going to happen, but it didn't mean he didn't think about it from time to time. Sam wasn't Dean, and he was never going to be. He would just have to be satisfied with his lot for now.

Letting his fall shut, he let his dreams go places he couldn't. The girl stood before him was everything he could want in a woman…and more. She'd seduced him with little to no effort considering how horny he was, and he was just moving things into the dream bedroom when he was woken by the screech of tires and the feeling that the Impala was about to lurch sideways.

Scrambling to right himself, he forced himself out of the arms of his dream woman and into the real world. Dean was putting the Impala through a rigorous U-turn.

"Wha- What's…Dean? What's happening? Is it a demon?" He screamed the words, fearing for his brother's life.

"S'ok, Sammy. Saw something, need to check it out," Dean tipped him a wink, laughing as the Impala straightened.

oooOooo

It always amazed Dean how Sammy could scrunch down and sleep in the car. He wasn't sure even he could scrunch up that much and he was at least two-three inches shorter than Sammy. Dean guessed it was because over the years he had just gotten used to being able to sleep anywhere, anyhow.

But right at that moment Sammy was the least of his worries. He could swear blind he had just seen Tallie parked by the side of the road. It had taken less than three second to spin the car and head back the way they had just come.

The ancient green jeep was parked by an outcrop of rocks about 30 feet from the side of the road, and the one figure sat atop the formation was most definitely Tallie.

"Say, Sammy, how 'bout you take the Impala back to the Roadhouse and I'll meet you there later," he winked again, nodding his head in Tallie's direction.

Sam rolled his eyes but took the keys. Once again, Dean's loins won out.

"Get one scratch on my baby, and you're a dead man, Sammy," Dean warned him.

"Yeah, yeah. Been there, done that already," Sam sighed wearily and climbed into the driver's seat.

Dean waited until Sam had disappeared down the road before he ambled cockily over to where Tallie still sat.

He must have left his stealth mode in the car because as he crept up to her, she spun around and laughed at him.

"So, you're back then?"

Dean smirked, "Looks like it. What'ya doing all the way out here?"

"Thinking. I was on my way back from Bobby's and this was always my favorite spot to sit and think, watch the sun go down between the mountains," she told him.

Dean's brows shot up. Bobby knew about her too and had never mentioned her. He wondered what other secrets they would find out eventually. Maybe Bobby had a daughter tucked away somewhere. He shrugged and climbed up on the rock formation to sit beside Tallie.

"Sun should be setting any time soon," she smiled, snuggling up to him and linking her arm through his comfortably. "Unless you can't wait that long?"

Dean swallowed long and hard before he managed a strangled: "I'm good."