13

The next morning Dean roused Sam around five in the morning. "Let's go, sleeping beauty. Rise and shine." Sam pulled his head out of his bag, rubbing his eyes. He glanced over and saw that Dean's bag was rolled and his pack was ready go go.

"How long have you been up, man?" Sam stretched his long arms up to the heavens.

"All night, let's go."

"You didn't sleep at all?" Sam gave him a look of concern as he made his way out of his bag.

"Yeah, man, I do that a lot. I already had a banana and an MRE. You want...umm..." He scrinched up his eyes, trying to read the smudged print on the MRE's in his hands. "...what looks like scrambled eggs? Or the, um... steak something smudged?"

Sam inwardly frowned at Dean's dismissal of the lack of sleep. "I'll take the smudged scrambled eggs. Be right back." Sam headed into the weeds to take care of business and Dean heated up the MRE.

Dean rolled Sam's bag while he ate and stowed it with his gear. "What do you think? Two hours of strong hiking will get us to the car?"

"Maybe if we didn't have Shilassa with us. I'm thinking more like three. Definitely by lunch, though." Sam took another bite and said around his food. "What are we going to feed her?"

Dean barked out a short chuckle. "Yeah, um, don't think we'll need to worry about that." He proceeded to tell Sam about her late night fishing habits.

"Dude, I'm eating here." Sam looked at what was left of his breakfast with distaste.

"Yeah? Well, so was she. I wonder how long a small doe like that will keep her for?"

Sam forced the last few bites down. "Why don't you go dunk your head and ask her?"

"I think I'm good, thanks. When was she going to be joining us?"

"I told her sunrise." Sam looked at the horizon. "Should be any minute now." He added his garbage to the small bag they had. They would toss it in a can in the larger camping area on their way by.

They sat on the ground, leaning back against their packs, and watched the sunrise. "Hey Sammy. Remember that sunrise we saw in Richmond last year?" Sam gave him a blank stare. "You know, when we were staking out that witch with the cursed ritual knife?"

Sam's face lit up. "Oh yeah! We see so few sunrises, you'd think I would've remembered that better."

There was a scuff behind them and they both whipped around to find Shilassa, dressed and standing behind them. "Guess it's time to head out." Dean said. They stood and gathered their gear. This time, Shilassa grabbed the small green cooler, offering to carry it. Dean gave her a quick nod and smile and they headed out.

It turned out Sam was closer on his guess than Dean. They made it to the parking area in almost exactly three hours. Dean dumped his gear at the trunk, leaned against his baby, and took a long pull on the water left in his bottle. Shilassa hung back, looking at the car with what appeared to be a mixture of fascination and fear. Dean dug in a pocket of his pack and pulled out his keys. He popped up the trunk, gave a quick glance around the area and then lifted up the lid on the weapon's box. He stowed their rifles, dropped the lid, and then threw their bags in on top.

He turned to Shilassa. "This is our ride." She tilted her head to the side. "We ride inside and it does all the work. Okay?" When she didn't move, Sam stepped in.

"Here, let me take the cooler and show you." He reached out and she handed the cooler over but didn't move. Sam went over and opened the back door and set the cooler down on the floor behind the driver's side. "Look, a nice comfy seat for you." He patted the seat and then backed out. He then opened his door and climbed in. "This is where I usually sit." He pulled the door shut behind him, rolled the window down, and grinned out at her. "See?"

She took a hesitant step forward, bent a little and looked into the car as if she were waiting for something to jump out at her. "Listen, if we're going to get you home, this is the way we're doing it. Climb on in, we're wasting daylight." Dean glanced down at her legs and his jeans. "And, uh, your legs aren't going to stay forever." That seemed move her a bit more. She came over and stopped at the door. "Hey. Me and Sam ride in Baby, here, every day and we're fine. You'll be fine." She crawled into the back seat hands and head first. She shifted around in there for a bit and finally got herself seated with her legs spread out across the seat. "There. That wasn't so hard, was it?" He pushed the door shut and Shilassa jumped.

"Okay. Cisco by the Bay. Next stop." Dean pulled his door shut, rolled his window down, and started up the car. He glanced back at Shilassa, who had made a small screech when the car roared to life. He shook his head with a grin and backed out of the lot.

Dean checked in the rear view mirror off and on, but Shilassa seemed to adjust to the car pretty well. As he drove, he kept his eyes peeled for a mini-mart. When he found one and pulled in, Sam gave him a questioning look. "Be right back." Dean shot at him as he hopped out of the car. Sam looked back at Shilassa and just shrugged his shoulders. Dean was back in a few minutes with a squirt bottle that he held over the seat to Shilassa.

"I'm going to make some time if I can. So you take this if, um, you need to, uh, you know, keep damp." He handed it back to her and headed back out on the road. Sam looked over at him. "What?"

"I'm impressed Dean. You thought of someone other than yourself."

Dean smirked at him. "Oh! That reminds me! Yo, Shilassa!" He called into the back. "Keep that on you, alright? Try not to douse the whole car." Sam rolled his eyes.

The brothers soon fell into the rhythm of the road. Dean flicked on the radio and lost himself driving. About two and a half hours down the road there was a pop sound followed by a kind of squishy splash sound. "What was that?" Dean asked, glancing at his brother.

"I'm not sure. It wasn't the car, was it?" Sam started looking around. The car suddenly swerved and Sam let out a grunt as he grabbed the dash. "What the hell, Dean?" He looked out the windows but could see no discernible threat.

"Shit!" Dean pulled the car to the side of the road and jumped out. He whipped open the back door and put his hands on his head. "Is that...ectoplasm or something?" Sam turned around and saw that Shilassa's legs had gone back to a tail. All around them was a wet jelly-like substance, all over the seat and the floor. Shilassa started to make her screechy speech. "Whoa, whoa! You know what? Nevermind!"

Dean went around to the trunk and dug around back there for a moment. When he came back he had the small towels they had taken camping with him. "Here! Try to...I don't know. Clean this up, would ya?!" Dean paced around outside the car for a moment and then finally got back into the car. He ran his hands through his hair.

"Deep breaths, bro." Sam said with a grin. He learned pretty quickly that Dean had an unnatural attachment to this car and to just step back and let him go. "Deep breaths."