"Dean?"

The knock was light at first. Sydney rolled onto her back and pinched the bridge of her nose to calm her throbbing headache.

"Dean, wake up."

Another body moved on the bed, and Sydney's eyes flew open. Slowly, she tilted her head to look at Dean's bare shoulder and exposed back muscles. Sam knocked harder and more furiously, then Sydney heard the handle click. As Sam's head appeared, Sydney grabbed the comforter and threw it over her.

"De…OH. Uhmm…"

Sydney could feel her cheeks turn bright red as the comforter fell over her face. She waited until she thought the door had snapped shut again to slowly emerge from her cocoon. Dean grumbled as Sydney threw the bedding away from her and jumped out of the bed.

"Wake up Dean!" Sydney hissed.

"No," Dean whined back.

"Sam saw us together!" Haphazardly putting on her bra and underwear, Sydney slammed her hand down on the bed when Dean didn't respond. He jolted and rolled onto his side to look at her sleepily. "Are you understanding me?" She reiterated slowly.

"Hmm?" His eyes were still glazed over as he yawned and smacked his lips together.

"Your brother is going to murder me!" Sydney enunciated each word carefully.

"Why would he wanna do that? He likes you."

Sydney threw her hands up in frustration and finished getting dressed. She left Dean lying in the bed and quickly checked Sam's room before clambering down the stairs. In her haste to find the younger Winchester, Sydney turned the corner and almost toppled backward after hitting his chest.

"Sam!" Sydney breathed, putting her hand up to her chest. "Hey! How did you sleep last night?"

"Great, how did you sleep?" He questioned, a broad smile widening across his face. He shifted his feet and leaned against the railing.

"Fine, fine, have you seen Dean?" She didn't know why she was attempting to play dumb, Sam wasn't an idiot by any means. "I wanted to ask him…"

Sam's grin widened as he watched her get more flustered.

"Don't give me that look!" Sydney moaned, trying to keep her tone and emotion low to not wake her mother. Sam began to laugh. "It just sort of happened, it was the turducken! Sam, stop laughing!"

Sydney knew her cheeks were the shade of a tomato. Sam finally stopped chuckling and shook his head.

"I don't know what to do with you, spitfire."

"Please just don't be mad at me." Sydney could feel her eyes watering a little, fearing some of the emotion that had been skimming the surface of their conversation a couple days ago. Sam sighed and his tone sobered.

"I'm not mad. But if this is something more than just an accident, just…be careful."

"Everyone has got to stop telling me that," Sydney ran a hand through her hair nervously and pulled her tongue between her teeth, a habit she realized she had picked up from Dean.

"Who else…" Sam's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"My mom…"

"Oh…" The look on Sam's face said it all. He knew there was something going on, that Sydney had wanted this to happen, even though she had never meant for it to be this fast. All of his musings and observations hadn't been false. "You…?"

"I didn't want it to happen like this! But yes, I felt something, and we kissed the other night, and…" Sydney was starting to pace around the hallway. Her head felt like a whirlwind as her emotions slammed into her. The effects of the turducken had worn off completely, and now Sydney was getting more flashbacks from what had happened the previous night.

"Hey," Sam's hand was on her shoulder, his eyes gentle. "Give it time. You clearly aren't just in this for fun, and if you're serious, let him know…"

"What are we serious about?" Patricia's feet appeared between the spacing of the railing as she came down the stairs.

"Todd called me," Sydney blurted out quickly, shooting Sam a look as he removed his hand. "He was being a prick and saying he missed me."

"Well, then, please tell him that he is not welcome back into your life." Patricia ran a hand over her daughter's head as she passed into the kitchen. "Do we need a coffee run?"

"Bobby's on it," Sam hollered back to her. Not a minute later, the front door opened and Bobby appeared with a drink carrier. The three adults crowded around him to grab for the drinks while Bobby gave them all sour expressions.

"Idjits," he grumbled before taking his own cup to sit in front of the TV. "Sam, go wake up your brother."

Sam, who had already grabbed the second cup meant for Dean, nodded his head at the stairs and eyed Sydney. She followed him up, let Sam hand her the cup, and watched him barge into the room.

"Up! Now!" Sam bellowed.

"Dude!" Dean jumped out of his sleep as the door slammed into the wall. "Privacy!"

Sydney stepped into the room and closed the door behind her as Dean sat up and pulled the sheets around him. Dean looked between the two of them, a smile gracing his face when he looked at Sydney, and then throwing a glare at Sam. Sydney moved to hand him the coffee, trying not to stare obviously at his chest and adorable bed head.

"Drink and listen. Me and Bobby talked last night after we sent you both to bed and agreed whatever happened yesterday was because of the meat. Ranger Rick…"

"Who is Ranger Rick?" Sydney questioned.

"Someone we utilized as a tour guide when we thought this was a monster hunt. He wasn't of much help and actually got eaten by whatever was in the woods."

Dean seemed nonplussed by this piece of news while Sydney felt her jaw fall open.

"We hid the body and went to do an autopsy last night. That creature was full of blue goo and his adrenal gland was the size of a pineapple. Still had a bit of Dean's leftover sandwich and found the same goo in the meat. We need to go investigate the shipping company and figure out where Biggersons is getting their product."

"You think this has to do with the entire chain?" Sydney asked, her eyes widening as another thought occurred to her. "And why they wanted me in the first place?"

"It's as good of a guess as any," Sam replied. "Get dressed, we're leaving in 30."

Dean took a long pull from his coffee as Sam left. Sydney stood awkwardly in her place, not sure if she should follow or stay. As she decided it was best to leave, Dean's eyes met hers and he cleared his throat.

"Morning," he muttered with a smile. "Sorry about earlier."

"It's fine," Sydney said stiffly, taking a sip of her coffee and looking out the window.

"That turducken packed a punch, I was pretty out of it."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Sydney ducked her head to avoid meeting his gaze as her heart started to hammer.

"Syd…"

"Dean, I…" She felt the exasperation from when she had talked to Sam fill her again. He patted the bed next to him and she sat without second thought, curling her feet under her and cradling the coffee in her hand. "This is so new, and awkward, and I don't know how to act here."

"You mean you don't know if I'm okay with what happened last night."

"Well I'm sure you're fine with it! It's just…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow your roll, what do you mean I'm fine with it?" Sydney took a drink to distract from the heat flaming across her face. Dean leaned in closer, his forehead covered in wrinkles. "Sydney, what are you not telling me?" His eyes were full of concern, and Sydney could feel the stupid butterflies flittering in her stomach for the hundredth time.

"Everyone keeps telling me to be careful, so I…"

Dean's sigh was loud in response to his, and he pressed his thumb and index finger against his closed eyelids. Sydney bit her lip nervously, feeling completely lost about everything that was happening.

"This is…" He stopped to finish off his coffee then his eyes were open and staring right into hers. "What is it you assume when people have said that?"

"I…" His words left her speechless as her brain processed all the feelings she had been making up just because of people saying two little words. Suddenly she felt more like a child getting in trouble than a 30 year old woman with little dating experience. "I guess I thought that it meant you had a tendency to…hurt women. God, that sounds awful, I'm..."

"If you had known me five years ago," Dean cut her off, sensing the rambling that was about to start, "that would have been a spot on answer. I had fun in my twenties, I knew that we changed towns at least twice a month and I would never see these girls again. That doesn't mean that I'm the same person now."

Now tears were prickling in the corner of Sydney's eyes. Her judgement may have been partly true, but she hadn't taken the Dean she had come to know into account. She hugged her arms together and rubbed her shoulder, feeling the guilt consume her.

"You gonna cry on me again?" Dean teased softly.

"No, I'm not," she laughed back. "This is just all moving so fast."

"Well, I can tell you that I do not regret last night one bit. So how about we restart our morning and get ready to go hunt down some...whatever they are"

"I'd like that." Sydney whispered with a smile. "I'm sorry I was so quick to judge."

He hooked his finger under her chin and bent at the waist to plant a kiss on her lips. Sydney moaned quietly, leaning into him, but he parted and ran his hand over the hair at the base of her neck. Tossing the sheets to the side, Sydney felt herself giggle as he walked his bare ass into the bathroom.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"How are you not bored?" Patricia asked as she paced back up the length of the wall.

"Because I'm reading," Sydney answered dully.

The guys had been gone for the entire morning and now a good chunk of the afternoon. Sydney had misunderstood Sam, and after getting herself ready, found out they didn't intend for her to tag along. She had tried to put up a fight, saying that it was fine and she deserved to know what was going on with her company, but Sam had reminded her about what her mom would think, and that was the end of that conversation.

"Weren't they supposed to keep in touch? I would think if they were just going to check out a place they would be back by now."

Sydney twisted her wrist to look at her watch, silently agreeing with her mother but refusing to add anything. They had been gone for a long time.

"If we don't hear anything after dinner, I'll try to give them a call."

The hours passed without a word, and Sydney fulfilled her promise and pulled out her phone. No matter who she tried, they all went to voicemail. She left a short one on each, asking for them to call her back. Anxiety started to take its hold as Sydney figured she should get ready for bed. What if something had happened? Was one of them hurt? Did they just have bad cell reception? Before heading upstairs, Patricia kissed her daughter's forehead and they agreed if they didn't hear anything they would actively do something in the morning.

Sydney tried to keep her eyes open reading for almost another hour before she had to give in to her exhaustion. She didn't know how long she was out before the ringtone blared through her room. Digging around under the sheets and pillows, Sydney brought the phone to her ear.

"Hmmm?"

"Syd, hey."

Dean's voice was quiet, cracking with emotion, and Sydney sat up immediately.

"What's wrong?"

"I…it's…it's Bobby, Syd."