A.N.: Just a reminder- this story takes place about halfway through season 2. The finale hasn't happened yet, and they're not on the Fed's most wanted list yet. Sorry for the long delay between chapters but it can't be helped at the moment...

"Well, that was incredibly... unsatisfying."

Dani laughed lightly. "Still, I'm sure these are the finest granola bars to be had in all the land. And maybe we can spice them up with some of this pile of salt and pepper?"

Dean grinned. "I think we better save those for a special occasion." He sighed heavily. "I never thought I'd be dreaming of all the crap I eat when we're on the road- things that generally need to be microwaved before eaten. Where's a 7-Eleven when you need one?"

She nodded her agreement. "I'd give up my next year's tuition for a hot dog right now."

"A woman after my own heart."

And therein lay the problem: the more time Dean spent with Dani, the more he realized he couldn't find a damned thing wrong with her.

It was true enough that he usually found it easy to be attracted to the opposite sex when the situation arose, but this was getting out of hand. He liked her more and more with every passing moment, despite the fact that she was so far out of his league it wasn't even funny. Normally, he didn't care about status when it came to his... female interactions. But when he looked at Dani, he didn't immediately think "excellent one-night stand candidate", and that never boded well- just look at how things had turned out with Cassie. Yeah, there was no doubt in his mind: He shouldn't even be considering the idea. But he couldn't seem to help himself.

Especially when he seemed to keep waking up with Dani snuggled up against him every morning.

Boyfriend. She has a boyfriend. Focus on that fact and don't let go. He figured the guy that snagged Danielle Archer would have to be quite the catch. He was probably some soon-to-be hotshit rich lawyer, or a doctor like herself; someone on her level, anyway.

But the more he imagined this guy in his head, the more incensed he felt at the thought of Dani with someone else. He quickly realized that maybe this hadn't been the best strategy for him to utilize in trying to lessen his attraction to her. Afterall, he'd never been one to shy away from a little healthy competition- especially rich, probably super smart, high-class competition. If anything, those were his favourite asses to kick. And he was pretty sure he could out-streetsmart any elitist assho-

"Dean?"

Knocked from his internal battle against unknown foes, Dean's eyes looked a little sharper than usual when he responded. "Yeah?"

"You OK?" She wasn't sure what had come over him, but she was sure he wasn't giving off these aggressive vibes over some lousey granola bars.

"Uh, yeah... Yeah, I'm good. Just... just thinking about some stuff." Man, am I that easy to read?

"So I gathered. You seemed a little... intense. You sure you're alright?"

He leaned back and exhaled noisily. "Yeah, everything's cool. Don't worry. I was just thinking about an unresolved... case. Sorry."

She passed him a bottle of water, grinning. "Here, maybe this will get that bad taste out of your mouth."

He laughed and accepted the bottle with a shake of the head. "Seems to me you're a little too perceptive, Miss Archer. Stop reading me so well, you're making me nervous."

It was just a joke, but Dani looked more than a little uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Hey, I'm just kidding with you. Don't look so serious."

She smiled awkwardly, but he could tell it was mostly for his benefit. While he was wondering what he'd said to make her uneasy, she stood up and reached for the flashlight. "You ready to take another shot at digging our way out of here? Maybe the storm has loosened off some more dirt...?"

Her smile was a little too bright, but Dean didn't think it was wise to push her just then. Something had clearly unsettled her, and he didn't want to make it worse. In truth, they just didn't have the time to worry too much about "feelings" at the moment. Dani was right: if the storm had helped them at all, they needed to take advantage of the chance before the sun came out and resealed everything into a hard, dried-mud wall.

He stood up slowly, his leg a little stiff.

"Lead the way, doctor."

"No, thank you. I'd rather just stay in a hotel."

"It's really not an imposition, Sam. In fact I-"

"No thank you." Sam waved her off as he began to head down the block towards where they'd left the Impala, wondering when it was that she'd decided they were on a first-name basis. "You have my cell number and I have yours. I'm going to get settled and see what I can sort out from the information you've given me."

Drew sat steaming in the passenger seat beside her sister's fiance, Jack, but she somehow managed to hold her temper... at least outwardly. Jack started the car and they pulled away from the curb. Drew rolled down her window as they were passing Sam. "OK, fine. I'll let you know if I come up with anything."

Jack was about to speed up when they both noticed that Sam had stopped suddenly on the sidewalk and was staring blindly into the distance. Drew was sure she recognized that look... She'd seen it on her sister's face numerous times, including the day that she'd disappeared.

"Sam? Are you OK?"

He finally turned around to face her a moment later, and she felt a shiver slip down her spine at the intense but somewhat unfocused look on his face as he asked, "What do you know about the desert around Albuquerque?" He furrowed his brows as if he was remembering something. "Are there... caves?"

Drew swallowed in a suddenly dry mouth but spoke casually. "I don't know. I mean, yes- there are a lot of caves, but I don't know much about them, personally. Why?"

Sam considered his answer carefully and then turned back towards his car, trying to respond offhandedly over his shoulder. "No reason. I'm just trying to consider the most likely places around Albuquerque to hide out or hold someone captive. The caves would probably fit that bill, don't you think?"

"Yeah... yeah, maybe. I just hope the police are wrong about-"

"I don't care what the police told you. Just because there was no ransom demand, it doesn't mean they aren't still alive. My brother's a survivor. And if yours sister is with him, then she's in good hands. We'll find them."

She didn't bother to respond since Sam had already started moving away. But after his weird little performance, Drew began to suspect something:

Was Sam Corbett a seer?

"I definitely think this seems to have loosened off a bit."

Breathing heavily with the effort, Dani managed to force some more mud and rocks away from the small hole she'd been working on. Dean clambered to her side and began helping her, even though they were both becoming exhausted with their efforts.

Exhausted and disappointed.

Despite her hopeful comment, neither of them had much hope of breaking through. They'd been at it forever and weren't making much progress. The only bright spot was that keeping busy and focused on the task at hand had kept Dani from worrying that Dean might discover her strange abilities.

And then things went downhill, literally.

Tired and distracted, Dani overshot the mark on one of her digs and instantly found herself sliding down the slick mound of mud towards the cave floor. Dean grabbed for her as she slid past him but missed, and succeeded only in sending himself sliding after her.

Landing with a grunt, Dani didn't move for a second, uninjured but embarrassed. When Dean splashed to a halt beside her, quickly followed by the flashlight, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. As she slowly raised herself to a sitting position, Dean made the choice easy.

"Jesus fucking christ! I am so sick of dirt and rocks and this goddamned cave. When I find the son of a bitch who stuck us in here-"

Her laughter erupted so suddenly that she almost shocked herself. Dean's brows went up in amazement. Aware of his shocked gaze, she tried to rein herself in, worried she might piss him off. "Oh, Dean... I'm sorry... It's just... I..."

And then the tears started to squeeze out of her clenched eyelids as another bout of laughter overwhelmed her. Dean watched her, still amazed, and wondered if maybe she was in shock. But the more he watched her sitting there in a mud puddle, holding her sides and laughing uncontrollably, the more amused he became. And then he was laughing himself.

He moved closer but inadvertantly splashed her some more. "Oh... sorry." But then he was laughing harder when he realized she was pretty much soaked anyway. One little splash didn't really make a difference.

Dani, it seemed, disagreed.

"Hey!" She splashed some muddy water in his direction, an impish sparkle in her eyes.

"Oh no... No. You did not just splash me."

He crawled menacingly towards her, scooping up a little mud en route. She squealed between giggles and tried to crawl away but Dean managed to get a hold of her foot and he held her in place. They both laughed in gasps as they fought each other. And just when Dani had finally managed to clear the puddle and thought she was homefree, she suddenly felt hands grasp both her ankles and begin to roll her around onto her back and drag her back. She screamed in outrage and started laughing even harder. Dean sputtered laughter between panting breaths. She was putting up a solid defense... but he was stronger.

With a good yank, she was suddenly beneath him, and he had her arms pinned over her head with one hand. His good leg lay over hers to keep them from flailing about. With his free hand, he scooped up a little more mud and held it threateningly over her face while she squirmed in panic.

"You don't want to do this, Dean. I'll make you pay. Seriously."

His smile grew wider. "Promise?"

Her face instantly heated up and she wriggled hopelessly again, trying to get free.

Dean merely tightened his hold. "Uh uh... Be careful. You don't want to hit my bad leg."

Dani stopped moving, her protective instincts kicking in automatically. And then she came to her senses. "Hey wait a min-"

She stopped talking and even breathing as Dean squeezed some of the mud through his fingers and his hand moved closer to her face.

"Dean... Come on... Please..."

He couldn't deny that having her trapped beneath him and saying "please" was turning him on something fierce, but he stayed on target. "Sorry, beautiful... I'm just going to perform a little plastic surgery here."

She gave one last struggle... and then shut her eyes tight as she felt mud being spread across her... forehead? She started giggling again. "What in the name of Pete are you doing to me?"

"Shhhhh. I'm not... quite... done..." Finally, she could no longer feel him touching her face and she peeked cautiously up at him.

Dean was grinning smugly at his artwork. "Man, I wish I had my camera-phone on me. I've outdone myself."

"What have you done to me? If there's a Playboy Bunny on my forehead, so help me god..."

Dean looked pensive for a moment. "Actually, that's not a bad id-"

Dani burst out laughing. "Dean!"

He grinned boyishly. "What?"

She shook her head and then gave her hands a tentative flex where they were still being held over her head, but Dean only tightened his grip. "Uh uh... You have to prove you can behave before I let you go. And so back to my creation..." He pursed his lips, hemming and hawwing a moment before nodding again. "Yep, it's perfect. You are now a failry decent tribute to Led Zeppelin, darlin'. 'ZoSo' is simple, and yet it represents so many time-honoured rock n' roll traditions."

She stared up at him in amazement, but the laughter bubbled over again. "Dean Winchester, you're incorrigible."

The smile grew bigger. "You know, I used to see that word a lot on my report cards when I was a kid. It means 'devilishly handsome', right?"

She laughed, but also struggled a bit to remind him that she wasn't happy being pinned down. "Normally I might agree, but right now you're a filthy mess."

He tried to look suitably affronted. "Whatever. At least I don't have 'ZoSo' written in mud on my forehead."

"You could. Just give me a chance."

"Anyway, you should be honoured-"

"Yeah, whatever! What's it gonna take to get you to let me go, here?"

"Whaddaya got?" Again, the cheekiest of grins spread across his face.

"Come closer and I'll show you."

His brows went up. "Closer?"

"Yes, closer."

Deep down he knew it was a set-up, but his heart sped up a little all the same. "Closer how?"

"I'll let you figure that out." Now it was Dani's grin that was cheeky.

Suspicious but intrigued beyond common sense, he lowered himself closer to her body, his face nearing hers. "Like this?"

"Uh huh." She'd been aiming for 'smokey' but feared her voice had merely sounded groggy. Her heart was beating erratically now too. Either way, Dean didn't seem to notice as warm, brown eyes stared into big, deep green ones. One arm still held her pinned, but as his face drew to within a mere inch or so from hers, his leg shifted slightly from on top of hers... and then she made her move.

Distracted by her smouldering stare, Dean didn't realize what was happening right away. But as her knee slowly rose to within "killing" distance of his privates, he began to break free from her spell. "Hey now... wait a minute..."

He tried to close his legs together but it was too late- her knee was already situated exactly where she needed it to be. She smiled up at him. "So, what do you say we strike up a little bargain here?" She nudged her knee ever-so-slightly upward to make her point.

After flinching, he took one look at her smug, mud-tattooed face and burst out laughing. He released her hands without preamble and rested himself beside her on his elbow. "Hey, let's just forget it. You win; I give. I don't bargain when the jewels are involved."

Dani laughed, pleased with herself. She pulled her arms back down from over her head and started to rub at her wrists as she sat up.

"Hey... I didn't hurt you did I?"

Dean was looking at her wrists with concern and her heart lept into her throat. God, there was just so much going on with this guy: strong, brave, sexy, funny... and incredibly sweet. She looked away just as his gaze sought hers or he might have seen the uncontrollable flash of desire in her eyes. She tried to divert catastrophe with more horseplay.

"Yeah, you did. And now you will suffer the consequences." She quickly scooped up some mud but before she could drop it on his head like she'd intended, she was once again laying on her back, this time with Dean pressed into her, his elbows resting on either side of her head.

"You gotta move faster than that if you want to get me, sweetheart." He laughed softly at her outrage.

"You're truly unbelievable, you know that?" She tried to move from underneath him, but the best she got out was a mild wiggle. Dean felt his hips tighten immediately where she rubbed against him and he fought back a gasp as Dani went on, oblivious of his arousal. "If we ever get out of here, I swear to god I'm going to..." She broke briefly off when her eyes met his. "... have you...uh... brought up on..." She was finding it difficult to concentrate while he looked at her like that. "... brought up... on, um... charges of... of abuse." She swallowed in a throat that felt as though it was lined with thick cardboard.

Dean was having an equally difficult time focusing anywhere but on her upturned face. "Yeah, I... uh..."

Of their own volition, his fingers trailed across her cheek and she was lost. Pushing upward slightly, her lips met his as they descended and everything else disappeared.

The cave, the water, the mud... all gone.