They took their positions on either side of the door. Dean pulled his Bowie knife, luckily the ants hadn't been smart enough to give him a pat down and Buffy was clutching a large rock. If nothing else, she figured she could get some payback for Dean.

They held their breath, muscles tensed, as they listened to the distinct sound of a lock being rattled. After a few moments the door began to swing slowly inward. The Slayer raised the stone over her head and prepared to bash in the head of the first creature that dared enter, but lowered her arms with a sigh of relief when she saw a rather beat-up looking Sam standing in the doorway… and Dawn smiling happily behind him like she didn't have a care in the world.

"Dawn! Thank God you're okay," Buffy breathed, "because I'm going to murder you."

"Yeah right, you couldn't live without me," Dawn said smugly, giving her sister a hug.

"Sammy?" Dean questioned from behind the door, sounding hopeful.

"I'm here, Dean." His brother answered stepping through the doorway. "Are you alright? I found this," Sam said, holding up Dean's duffel.

"I'm great," Dean said, smiling, "but you look like ass dude. Guess you had a little run-in with our freaky new friends, too. How'd you manage to squeak out of that?"

Sam was looking a little rough around the edges. Aside from the swollen and most likely broken nose from earlier, he was also sporting a black eye and a large cut across his cheek. Dawn, on the other hand, didn't have a scratch on her. She was the only one of the group who had managed to remain perfectly groomed.

"Yeah, we ran into one. Got him right here," Sam answered, pointing to the base of his throat. "Turns out, if you can get a blade between the plates in their exoskeleton, they aren't so invincible after all."

"Look at the college boy," Dean said proudly.

"It was Dawn's idea, actually. The girl knows her ants."

"Oh no," Buffy groaned, joining the conversation. "I completely forgot about Dawn's cursed seventh-grade science fair project."

"It was a perfect project until somebody knocked over my ant farm. I got a C on that Buffy – a C! Thanks to you. And that was only because Ms. Mayes felt sorry for me. It's kind of hard to have a project on ants when you have no ants."

"Would it get me off the hook if I told you that Spike broke your ant farm?"

"Spike! Why was he even in my room?"

"It was when he first got chipped. You and Mom went to some gallery thing for the weekend and Giles needed a break from babysitting, so I kinda brought him to the house. It was a really bad idea" Buffy added, hoping it would make her appear less guilty.

"That still doesn't tell me what he was doing in my room."

"Being Spike. He was snooping around everywhere. I caught him in my underwear drawer and I think he read your diary."

"What! Why didn't you tell me about this? I'm so going to kick his ass. Just wait."

"Be my guest," Buffy sighed. "He'll probably even give you a free shot. He always did have a soft spot for you."

"Oh, it's going to happen," Dawn promised. "Just as soon as we get ourselves out of this mess, it's the first thing on my list. I still owe him one anyway. For the "by the way, I'm not dead" phone call that he didn't make."

"I'm sorry, Dawnie. If it helps, I did beat him up for costing you that A."

Dean was completely confused by the entire conversation. Apparently Buffy liked to spend her weekends babysitting perverts. Nosy perverts. He was a little jealous to be honest.

"Are we about done with the middle school geek-trauma?" he interrupted gruffly. He was irritated with himself for getting jealous over a conversation that made no freaking sense. "We need to be working on a plan to get ourselves out of here."

"Well," Buffy answered cheerfully, "I'm thinking we kill a few monsters, save the kids, and then tacos. I'm in the mood for Mexican. After we take you to the hospital of course," she added more seriously.

"Please, I don't need a hospital. I've got half-a-bottle of pain killers plus a refill. A couple of those and some cerveza. Trust me, I'll be one happy camper."

"Dean," Sam said, joining in on Buffy's side. "I really think you should get that head wound checked out. It looks like you've lost a lot of blood."

"It's not just his head," Buffy added. "He broke his arm again, too."

"Narc!" Dean scolded the Slayer, who did not appear to be ashamed.

"Obviously you're too bull headed to help yourself. So, I'm counting on your brother to have a little sense."

"Fat chance," Dean grumbled.

"How the hell did you even manage to do that?" Sam asked, brushing off the insult.

"It was actually kind of cool," Buffy replied, answering for him. "Best overall use of an improvised weapon this season. He definitely won the slay-of-the-week award. I'm not accepting any other applications."

"No way!" Dawn exclaimed, looking impressed. "I can't wait to see him in the tiara."

"I left it in Cleveland," Buffy frowned.

The Winchesters exchanged baffled glances. Sometimes it was impossible to understand what these girls were even talking about.

"Let me see it," Sam said, reaching to examine Dean's arm.

"Get off me, Sam," Dean ordered gruffly, pulling away.

"Fine. But you are going to the hospital. By the way," Sam added smiling, "I love that scarf on you. It brings out your eyes." He couldn't resist at least one dig. If positions were reversed, he knew Dean would show him no mercy.

"Bite me."

"That's enough children," Dawn interrupted, giving Dean a nasty look for his little geek-trauma comment. "Sam," she said, turning toward her favorite Winchester, "don't you think we should fill them in on your theory?"

"Sure. But, it might sound a little crazy," he warned the group.

"With the way this day is going," Buffy assured him, "I doubt you can say anything that sounds crazy to me. The bar is set pretty high."

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you," he replied. "Dawn was telling me about her ant farm and it got me to thinking about why the ant people would want young children and, if I'm right, there's a good chance that those kids are okay."

"Sounds like a good start to me. Lay it on us theory-boy," Dean encouraged.

"Remember, I did say it was weird," Sam warned again before getting into the meat of his theory. "The thing is, most species of ants have fairly complex social structures. It's actually kind of amazing. They have workers, soldiers, drones, and of course they have a queen. According to what Dawn says, what an ant grows up to be depends a lot on what they were fed when they were larvae. Or, in this case, little kids. It has something to do with chemicals and hormones in the food. Anyway, I'm thinking that if these things have been dormant underground for possibly centuries, there probably aren't very many of them left. And, if that's true, they'd be looking to increase their numbers."

"Are you saying they want to adopt these kids and turn them into little baby ants?" Dean asked, obviously disgusted.

"I hate stupid ants," Buffy added.

"Maybe," Sam allowed, "but it would likely take years. It would explain why three of the children they decided to take are girls. If they need to build up their numbers, then they're definitely going to need a queen… or queens. I'm guessing some of these guys were human once themselves."

"I thought you said they came here in a UFO?" Dean asked with a smirk.

"Dude, I never said that!" Sam turned toward the Summers women and attempted to defend himself. He was clearly flustered. "I never said they were aliens. Dean just can't let anything go. He always has to try and be funny. Smart ass," he accused, narrowing his eyes at his brother.

"You're too high-strung sometimes, Sammy," Dean responded, putting on his best innocent face. "Just chill. Learn to take a joke."

"I'm a little stressed out right now, Dean," Sam growled back, obviously not amused.

"Yeah, I can tell, cause you're rockin' the bitch-face."

"You're a real jerk," Sam shot back through gritted teeth.

"I warned you about this," Buffy said, addressing Dean under her breath.

"Do you want to know why I'm so stressed out?" Sam continued. "Do you? For starters, guess how I found you?"

"I marked the trail, dude," Dean said smugly.

"You sure did," Sam agreed with a nod. "And when you ran out of paint, I see you decided to leave me a giant trail of blood to follow. Not to mention, I had to make it here without getting Dawn killed. And I had to try and fight one of these things with one lousy knife. So, excuse me, if I'm not in the mood for any of your stupid crap!"

Dean felt a little ashamed. If he'd had to follow a trail of blood belonging to his brother, he'd be pretty damn freaked too. He probably should give Sam a break and apologize.

Then Dawn stepped in and caused a distraction by announcing in a stage whisper,"Don't say anything about flashlights."

"That's another thing!" Sam roared pointing a finger at Dawn. "She's you. You two," he said, gesturing between his older brother and the girl, "are the exact same person. You're a teenage girl, Dean."

"Hey!" Both of the accused parties protested in unison.

"It's okay," Buffy said sincerely, giving Sam a pat on the back. "Just ignore them. I think you did an awesome job finding us before we were eaten."

"Thanks," Sam replied, deflating a little.

"Yeah, good job, Sammy," Dean added. "I'm glad you made it here in one piece. Sorry I gave you so much shit."

"Well now that that's settled," Buffy said, grabbing Dawn by the arm. "Will you two gentlemen excuse us for a moment? I'm going to kill my dear baby sister."

Dawn rolled her eyes and retreated with Buffy to the other side of the room. Her sister was apparently determined to give her little 'safety first' speech now. It wasn't like there weren't more pressing matters at hand.

"So, Dawn," Buffy started, "you do know this is one of the dumber stunts you've pulled, don't you?"

"What was I supposed to do, just leave you in here to rot? I was trying to help."

"I know that, but you really should have stayed outside. I have enough to worry about."

"Well, if I'd stayed outside by myself, then what would I have done if one of those ant things had come out there? I wouldn't have had a chance, that's what. At least if I came in here, I knew there would be somebody to look out for me. It was possible I might even survive. I was just trying to look at the situation logically."

Buffy sighed. Her sister always tried to wear her down with some crazy form of circular reasoning. It didn't seem to matter that her conclusions were usually based on a whole lot of hot air. Naturally, she totally neglected to mention the fact that Buffy had begged her to stay at the hotel in the first place. The truth of the matter was, Dawn knew most people finally just got tired of arguing with her. It was a well-known and very effective strategy of hers.

"Never mind, Dawn, that's not what I really wanted to talk to you about anyway. I would've died from shock if you hadn't insisted on risking your life by coming in here."

"Then what?" Dawn asked, sounding confused.

"I just wanted to ask if you and Sam … If earlier… You know?"

"What?" Dawn asked innocently, attempting to force her sister to say the words.

"You know what I mean," Buffy said impatiently.

"Are you the morality police now? Jeez, I'm eighteen. What I do and who I do it with is my business... and for the most part completely legal. But if you have to know, yes, we did. And it was amazing. Sam is waaay kinkier than you'd ever imagine. I'd never even read about some of the things he tried. The guy should really write a how-to manual. It'd be a best seller. Anyway," she continued on, despite Buffy's shocked expression, "have you ever heard of something called a Furry Convention?I'll have to look into it, because Sam wants to take me to one in Vegas this summer."

Buffy was speechless. She wasn't quite sure how to process this new information. She glanced over at the Winchesters and back to her sister, her mouth hanging open. There was no way she would ever be able to look Sam in the eyes again. She would never have pegged him for such a degenerate. His brother maybe, but not Sam. He apparently had everybody fooled with his boy-next-door act.

"I'm messing with you Buffy," Dawn finally said, deciding to let her sister off the hook before her brain short circuited. "You're so gullible. Besides, I don't know why you're picking on me anyway. You're the one who's half-naked."

"I am not."

"I seem to remember you having a shirt earlier and it looks like Dean over there is wearing at least part of your missing wardrobe. Now that's what I call kinky."

"Good one, Dawn. I hope you realize, you will be paying for all of that."

XXXXXXXXXX

"I think Cas might be in trouble," Dean said to his brother as soon as the girls were out of earshot.

"What makes you think that?"

"I tried calling and he never showed."

"That can't be good. Then again, you know how he's been lately. You think this is connected to the angelic civil war they've got going on up there? Raphael, maybe?"

"I don't know," Dean sighed, "probably. That guy is one major league bag of dicks. Shame you didn't throw his ass in the pit too."

"No kidding. I'm just glad the good ole' Winchester lucky streak is holding out today. If that whole mess is heating up, we've got more problems than we thought."

"Yeah, it's an early Christmas," Dean agreed.

Sam was silent for a moment, appearing to consider the situation.

"Hold on a second," he said – starting to smile. "You're telling me that you, Dean Winchester, called for help in under two hour and neither one of us was dead or dying? That's a record, man."

"Buffy was all upset," Dean replied defensively. "She was worried sick about her little sis. I didn't have a whole lot of choice. I had to do something."

"You've got it bad dude."

"Grow up, Sam. I was just cleaning up your mess, since you can't seem to handle one little girl."

"Uh huh. Whatever you wanna tell yourself," Sam twisted the knife a little deeper, continuing on in a sing-song voice, "But I think that you have a crush."

"Oh, shut up! I swear, I'll … "

"What? What are you going to do, Dean? Sic your superhero girlfriend on me?" He was definitely enjoying his brother's discomfort. He did kind of deserve it.

"Just can it, Sam. You've been spending way too much time with your little Mouseketeer girlfriend. You're being immature. And wipe that goofy-ass grin off your face. You look like a moron."

Dean was about to continue laying into his little brother when he felt a hand touch the middle of his back. It was Buffy. He prayed she hadn't caught much of the conversation.

"Do I need to break-up a fight between you two?" she asked teasingly.

"No," Sam answered, trying not to laugh. "Dean's just grumpy."

"Are you okay, Dean?" she asked sweetly, much to Sam's amusement. "We really need to get out of here and get you checked out. Plus, I have to get my scythe back right now. I just know those weirdos are touching it with their creepy, pokey-fingers. Gives me the major wiggins just to think about it."

"Then let's get this crazy show on the road," Dean said, squaring his shoulders and trying to shake off his embarrassment. "I owe those bitches a serious beat down."