When Scarlett returned to her motel room next to brothers' that morning she noticed The Impala was not in the parking lot and figured the boys had left for breakfast. She quietly praised her luck and went inside to shower and change before heading back out to walk around Los Angeles. They'd spent so much of the last month just looking for abandoned buildings and canvassing the areas around ones they found that Scarlett hadn't had any downtime to actually enjoy the city. She dodged calls from the brothers for most of the daytime and they finally stopped trying around 4PM. At 5PM Scarlett gave BJ a call and the two made plans to meet for dinner at 6; Scarlett was extremely anxious to talk to another female about witchcraft, especially one that seemed to be so well-adjusted.

"I swear to GOD I am going to put a GPS tracker her damn phone." Dean huffed as he tried her cell for the twentieth time that day.

"Dean, calm down. Don't you think you're overreacting? I'm sure she'll be back from her dinner soon and we'll hear all about it."

"I'm overreacting? I'M overreacting?" Dean scoffed. "I'm getting shit-tested by a woman who isn't even my girlfriend."

"I don't know, man, I think she probably just needs some space. We've all been cooped up together for months. Emotions are bound to run high." Sam reasoned. "And by the way, calling her time-out a 'shit-test' makes you sound like an asshole. You guys have been bickering for like three weeks straight, maybe let this night off do you some good."

"Well, she doesn't bicker with you."

"Yeah, dude. That's my point."

"What point?"

"Sometimes you are so dense it's like a miracle we're related." Sam shook his head.

Dean took a deep breath. He knew his little brother was right and that his behavior last night was not totally Kosher, but he'd never been good at apologies...something he picked up from his father, no doubt. And he was frustrated with Scarlett for disappearing without so much as a note; she knew what was out there now, how could she be so careless?

A knock came at their motel door.

Dean rushed over to answer it.

"Dude!" Sam whispered before Dean he opened the door. "Chill. Don't be so desperate."

"Fuck!" Dean didn't even recognize himself. "You're right. You answer."

Sam walked over. "Who is it?"

"It's Scarlett."

"Decided to grace us with your presence finally?" Sam asked as he answered the door.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I just...was busy." Scarlett entered.

"Apparently." Dean muttered from across the room.

Sam cleared his throat.

Dean rolled his eyes and walked over to the other two. "So, how was your 'dinner'?"

"It was good, BJ is really nice."

Dean's eyes lit up. "BJ...as in-"

"Don't!" Scarlett stopped him.

"Dean's humor hasn't progressed past the 7th grade." Sam said.

Dean sighed. "You both are no fun."

"Anyway! Turns out BJ is a….a hunter." Scarlett opted to leave out the part about BJ being a practicing witch...again.

"Really?"

"Yep, a demon kidnapped her sister when they were kids; been at it ever since."

"Huh. So what about the vampire nest?" Sam asked.

"Apparently that's all squared away."

"Really?" Dean was skeptical.

"Yeah, three months ago she and another hunter friend took care of them. My vision just cut out before her backup came through."

"Well then...so glad we wasted all this time here." Dean grumbled.

"Hey, better safe than sorry right?" Sam offered. "I'm glad she's okay."

"Yeah, plus we have a new contact; BJ seems really knowledgeable about...psychic stuff."

"Psychic stuff?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, she said that she thinks there's a reason behind why psychics see certain things, like...a higher power or whatever uses them to communicate."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Sounds like a whack-job."

"Ok so, let me get this straight: Hell you believe in but not Heaven?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Dean nodded.

"And black magic you believe in, but not white magic?"

"Correct again."

Scarlett shook her head and thought back to when Sam was possessed, how easily Dean gave into the negativity. She'd thought about it before, how odd it was that someone so strong and with such purpose as he could accept defeat over his spirit so quickly. But now she started to understand: Dean had no hope, just drive. A sense of duty and responsibility that he let consume him in order to push forward. "That's so depressing."

"Reality is depressing, but at least I'm not living in a fantasy world deluding myself into believing in rainbows and unicorns."

"Dean, rainbows are real." Sam interjected.

"Oh, you know what I mean!" Dean groaned.

"Well you're wrong." Scarlett said decidedly.

"And what makes you so sure?" Dean asked.

"BJ."

"BJ? The girl you just met? Miss everything happens for a reason?"

"Yes." Scarlett decided to tell the boys what she'd been dancing around since her first vision of BJ. "BJ is a good witch; practices white magic," Dean's eyes looked like they were about to explode and Scarlett wondered if maybe she made a bad decision, but since she'd already started, might as well finish: "and so does her coven."

"HER COVEN?!" Dean exploded.

"Oh shit." Sam peeped.

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN?!"

"Since my first vision."

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"

"Oh my God, calm down-"

"I AM CALM!"

"You're about as calm as a hurricane." Scarlett rolled her eyes.

"DID YOU JUST-" Dean closed his eyes and took a deep breath before reopening them to give Scarlett a very serious stare. "You will not see her again."

"Excuse me?" Scarlett put her hand on her hip.

"You heard me. I forbid you to see her again."

Scarlett scoffed. "I know you did not just fucking say that."

"Oh I said it, and I mean it."

"HAH! Well, you better get used to disappointment cause not only am I going to see her again, but I'm going to a New Year's party with her." Scarlett said in a taunting tone.

"Oh come on, stop acting like a petulant fucking 16 year old!"

"Maybe I would if you'd stop acting like you're my fucking parent!"

"Yeah well, stop acting lik-"

"Oh dear God, would both of you SHUT UP?!" Sam yelled.

Scarlett and Dean both fell silent.

"Thank you!" Sam huffed. "Scarlett, it was really irresponsible and reckless of you to go off with a witch without telling us she was magical or where you were."

"Thank you!" Dean threw his hands in the air.

"And, Dean! Stop talking to Scarlett as if she were a child, it's bordering on misogyny at this point."

"That's right!" Scarlett nodded.

"Now can both of you act like adults and compromise?"

Scarlett and Dean looked begrudgingly at each other.

"I know I can." Scarlett said snidely.

Dean rolled his eyes. "What do you have in mind?"

"Scarlett, do you think we could meet BJ and check her out a bit before you go running off into the night to party with a complete stranger?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I guess that's fair."

"And Dean, can you at least meet this BJ before you judge her and entertain the possibility that good people can also be supernatural; after all, Scarlett and I are."

Dean sighed. "Yeah, I guess I can."

"Great, now can I have the keys to the Impala?" Sam continued.

"What, why?" Dean didn't follow.

"Cause I want to go to the movies or something; I need to get the fuck away from both of you."

"I guess that's fair too." Dean tossed the keys to his brother. "You be careful with my Baby, though."

Sam stormed out.

Scarlett and Dean sat on opposite beds in silence for a moment.

"So-" "Wha-" They both started at the same time.

"What?" They said in unison.

Each paused for the other to continue.

"I'm-" "We-"

They both groaned and fell backwards onto their beds.

"Why do we keep fighting like this?" Scarlett asked genuinely.

"I don't know." Dean sighed. "I don't mean to, I just get so...so…"

"Frustrated?"

"Exactly."

"Same." Scarlett sighed.

Dean sat up and looked over to her.

"Why didn't you tell me about her being a witch?"

Scarlett sat up. "Truthfully?" She looked at Dean.

"Please."

"Because it's so obvious you hate everything supernatural. I thought you wouldn't want to help her."

Dean walked over, sat down next to Scarlett, and looked her straight in the eye. "I don't hate everything supernatural."

Scarlett felt her eyes well and she tried to swallow back her emotion. "Really?"

"Absolutely." He put his arm around her. "What I do hate is that you felt you had to lie to me."

"I know, I'm sorry." She let her head fall to the side and rest on his shoulder.

"That's-" Dean lost his train of thought for a moment after he absentmindedly inhaled the sweet smell of citrus-rose from Scarlett's hair.

"That's…?" Scarlett called his attention.

He cleared his throat and caught up to himself. "That's alright, it's on me too." Dean exhaled. "I'm not very good at expressing worry - being an asshole comes a lot easier, let me tell you."

Scarlett chuckled. "Yeah, I default to bitch pretty easily myself."

Dean removed his arm from across Scarlett's shoulders and turned to look her in the eye again. "Look, before we put this behind us I need you to understand something."

Scarlett's hazel eyes darkened to match Dean's intensity. "I'm listening."

"Hunting is about teamwork. We rely on each other out there and we are quite literally trusting our lives with each other. Misinformation, no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential, can get someone killed. I know I can be rough about this…Sometimes I forget you didn't grow up in it, you've taken so much in stride. But I also need you to remember that I've been living and breathing hunting since I was four; when I'm harsh it's because I couldn't live with myself if…" Dean broke eye contact. "I invited you with us, brought you into this; if you got hurt or worse- I just need you to take this seriously." He returned to her eye-line to gage her comprehension.

Scarlett realized how petty she'd been with him and felt the guilt of her actions churn in her stomach. "I'm so sorry...I haven't been thinking about anyone but myself." She hung her head.

Dean chuckled. "That's not what I meant at all." Scarlett looked back up at Dean and watched his emerald eyes relax into peridot as he continued. "You think so much about helping everyone else that I'm afraid you don't think about your own safety."

Scarlett laughed. "That's just called being a woman."

Dean felt his mouth turn into a soft smile. He loved the sound of her playful laughter and realized he hadn't heard it in a while; mentally he kicked himself for contributing to its declining presence in the past weeks. He kept her gaze and studied her expression for a moment; her eyes always seemed to smolder with all of her emotions just behind a hazel veil, like glowing embers below the surface of cooling coal. Scarlett inhaled deeply and Dean, holding steady his stare, took in her her expanding chest -causing his own breath to thicken. Scarlett bit her bottom lip and Dean almost lost it when he caught her eye flit to his mouth. He watched as she inhaled heavily and exhaled slowly, desperately trying to control her breath. Dean's mind came undone at the thought of how it would feel to have her claw into him again. He saw her eyes close and his own followed suit. He felt her breath on his lips as her gravity pulled him in. He slowly reached up, intent on holding her face, when Scarlett took a sharp inhale and broke his reverie. Dean remembered her dismissal at Bobby's and, not keen on revisiting that awkwardness, he pulled back from her. Scarlett opened her eyes and Dean looked into them and watched as opportunity curtailed into frigidity and that into indifference.

"Good talk." Scarlett said and got up.

Dean sighed. "Where are you going?"

"I think we both could use some rest." She walked towards the door. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight."

Scarlett paused in acknowledgement and, without turning around, she left the motel room: shutting the door behind her.

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Alone in her own motel room, Scarlett let go of the breath she hadn't realized she was holding and quickly dressed down and got into bed. When she turned out the light on the table beside her, she could almost see two piercing eyes staring back at her in the darkness. She tried to shake the sensation and closed her own eyes tight, only to see that beautiful stare intensify. Dean's sea-green eyes were burned into her mind like a hot-iron brand. How dare he look at her with such a noticeable hunger! How was she expected to react to that kind of primal tension? Regardless of what was expected, she did have an extremely potent reaction. Scarlett pulled her knees towards the ceiling and gently felt across her hip-dip, over her lower abdomen, down below her navel and slipped a hand into her soft cotton panties. She thought about how obviously she affected him as she slowly drew circles around her swelling clit. She loved seeing him react to her that way and she liked to imagined how pleased he must also feel at her own response to him. She slid her pointer and middle fingers in between her lips and down her damp slit, continuing the circles with her thumb. She thought about his hot breath on her face from his mouth just barely touching hers and pushed one finger into her moist cave, followed by the other. She thought about how dizzy her head became the closer he moved to her, much like the dizziness that overwhelmed her as she pulsed her g-spot. She imagined how good it would feel to have Dean's fingers inside her, beckoning her to climax. She pulled her fingers from her now soaking wet hole and rubbed her juices back up to her throbbing clit. She massaged furiously at the sensitive bead and thought about how Dean's tongue would feel flicking across the same spot. She felt her orgasm swell and plunged her fingers deep into her her hole causing her to spill over. Her toes curled and her body tingled in pleasure, but she knew it was only a fraction of the ecstasy it would be to have Dean inside her making her come.