Sorry for the shortness of the chapter compared to the last few ones I did, but this one serves as a sort of closure chapter until I get into the next one. It deals with how Dean and Issa handle what happen in the last one and I'm pretty satisfied with it, if I do say so myself.

Oh, and prepare yourself, because I'm gonna throw in a particularly hated person for me in the series in the next chapter :)

The next morning, Issa awoke warm . . . warmer than she had ever been, in fact. She snuggled closer to the source of the heat, trying to cling to the last vestiges of slumber, a grin breaking out on her face when she remembered that it was the arms of Sam that she slept in, and that they had made up earlier yesterday morning -

The warmth was moving . . .

The warmth smelled amazingly like musky Curve cologne . . . very unlike Sam's own choice of Ralph Loren . . .

Her eyes immediately sprung open and she was momentarily blinded by the light and by the sight of the strongly sculpted chest before her and muscular arms holding her in a surprisingly loving, protective embrace. Issa froze and waited for her brain to catch up to her eyes.

Dean . . .

Her . . .

Close. Warm.

Together . . .!

A blush crawled its way up her cheeks, and Issa silently tried to extract herself from where Dean was holding her surprisingly gently against his chest. She had been sleeping half on top of him with her head resting on his shoulder, an arm around him and a leg slung rather haphazardly over his waist . . . his naked waist . . .

Dean groaned and tightened his grip on her, thwarting her escape. Blush bloomed more ardently across her cheeks when she felt him stir against her thigh and mentally berated her body for yearning most inappropriately for him at the feeling. She violently resisted the instinctual urge to arch into him.

"Hey, where're you goin' . . .?" He mumbled as he buried his face into her dark hair, his eyes not opening once.

Issa squirmed. "Dean, I have to use the bathroom!"

He sighed and gave her neck an open mouth kiss, "Fine!" He sighed playfully as his arms loosened enough for Issa to slip out of bed and scamper into the bathroom, where she firmly closed the door behind her. She immediately collapsed onto the toilet seat before her legs could give out underneath her, and buried her face in her hands, her body shaking visibly at what she had just done the previous night, and she rocked herself on the toilet, forcing herself not to cry.

Oh dear God, what has she just done?

She moved to instinctively rub her arms, but stopped when she was hit with a realization. She wasn't cold. She had thought she would be cold by now – cold because she had been without Sam's warmth for a day and a quarter, but no. She was warm – a toasty warmth that was different than the all-encompassing sunny warmth that Sam bestowed upon her, but it was warmth, nonetheless.

And nothing scared her more than knowing that Dean could give her warmth aside from Sam.

But nothing also made her more confused.

Dean chuckled and stretched like a large cat on the bed, lounging naked against the pillows except for one thin sheet slung carelessly over his hips. He listened to Issa move around in the bathroom. Is this what she does with Sam in the morning? Dean pondered for a moment before he sighed and put his hands behind his head, where he closed his eyes. He opened them then, realizing the enormity of what he just did.

He slept with Issa . . .

He had slept . . . with his brother's girlfriend.

Before he could think too much into it and start to freak himself out, Issa emerged then; wearing one of Sam's old shirts that he had stuffed into the army bag he handed to her (this one just happened to have a washed-out Batman on the front). On her, it was so big that it fell down to her knees, but Dean's apprehensive eyes could still make out her form. It was strange, but Dean inexplicably thought that she looked both adorable and sexy. But then he realized that it was Sam's shirt she wore and not his, and immediately felt his heart fall down into his stomach again.

She hesitated for just a moment, standing in the middle ground between the bed and the bathroom – the bed that held such an enticing Dean stretched out naked with just a thin sheet to cover himself with (which barely did that!). She swallowed heavily and looked away. "We should . . . we should probably get going back to Sam, Dean . . ." She spoke quietly, and Dean nodded in agreement as he swallowed heavily. She could see in his eyes that he realized what they had just done . . . the enormity of it . . . the guilt that wracked her soul because of it . . . the very same guilt that now wracked his.

And of course, neither of them wanted to admit just how good it had been.

Dean stood up, where naked, he moved over to his clothes, where he plucked them up off of the floor. He moved unabashedly naked, with the confidence of someone who had been this situation many times or was naturally, just very comfortable naked. He moved to head to his room but paused and turned to gaze at her.

"At least tell me . . . that I wasn't the only one who thought that last night was fucking amazing . . ." He asked her, his voice thick with emotion and not having the strength to look at her. Issa swallowed heavily and turned a tight smile onto him as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Eventually, she shook her head, and she saw Dean's body lose some of its tension.

"You're not alone, Dean . . . it was amazing." She managed to choke out through heavy, unshed tears, and although she saw his reflexive need to cross to her and soothe her before the tears came, he managed to rein himself back. He nodded stiffly and swallowed heavily before he left her hotel room and entered his. She closed her eyes and took in a shuddering breath as she sat down on the edge of unmade bed that looked more like a warzone than a bed that had been made love in that previous night.

Dean Winchester made love like he hunted demons – confidently and cockily – with a strength that left bruises where he had gripped her too tightly, yet she could not say that it had been nothing short of amazing. The man knew what he was doing.

She forced herself to calm down before she stood and headed for the shower, where she cut it on. After stripping and moving into the warm spray, she gingerly cleaned the dried sweat and sex from her body – relishing in the warmth and clean smell of the soap as she scrubbed Dean from her skin – for it was his sweat and sex that coated her body like a second skin.

She stood there under the shower spray for a moment when she was done, smelling as clean as the cheap hotel soaps could get her, and allowing the hot spray to trail down her body and down the seemingly fathomless drain at her feet. She was mentally butchering herself for allowing herself to fall for the wiles of Dean Winchester – his charm and natural sexuality that made any length of time with him unbearable if you had standards, and whose wiles she had previously thought herself immune to. Well it seemed she had been mistaken. She had been mistaken, and now she had gone and committed one of the worst of God's sins: Adultery.

After spending a few more minutes soaking, she cut off the shower and dried off with one of the towels before she dressed and ran a pick through her hair. When she decided that she didn't look too bad – too incriminating - she left the bathroom and found Dean sitting fully dressed and showered on the edge of the bed, his face buried in his hands and his zipped army bag sitting on the floor at his feet. She coughed slightly, and he immediately brought his head up, where he smiled genially at her.

"You ready to go?" He asked her, and she smiled a small smile and gestured for him to wait.

"Wait just a minute now, Barbaro! I'm not finished packing yet . . ." She spoke as she hurriedly packed away her toiletries, her eyes then settling onto the one thing that she had yet to pack: the clothes that she had stripped off on her way to the bathroom before she was apprehended by Lucifer.

Lucifer . . .

Oh God, she still had what he had told her to contend with!

She quickly picked them up and after stuffing them into a clear plastic bag, shoved them down into her army bag, where she zipped it up. After slinging it over her shoulder, she turned to face him. "You ready to go?" She asked him, and he nodded and stood as well. He picked up their room keys and the both of the left the hotel room, both wanting desperately to forget what had happened there. Dean stepped aside and holding open the door to the Spanish maid, who entered the hotel with upraised eyebrows. Dean smiled a strained smile as they moved to the Impala. They both set their bags in the trunk before they headed into the front office, where Dean set the keys down on the counter. The woman glared at him over her rhinestoned glasses in amusement, her gaze flickering to a still shell-shocked Issa as well.

"Well my, my, don't you two look like you just committed a sin!" She spoke, somewhat gleefully, and Issa blanched and swallowed heavily, but Dean simply smiled another strained smile and tapped a finger on the keys.

"Yeah, whatever, here's the keys – we're leaving, have a nice day!" He informed her coldly before hooking a hand underneath Issa's elbow and leading her to the door, where beyond laid the Impala that would take them to their judge.

But that was if Issa even chose to tell Sam.

The Impala sped out onto the highway towards their temporary home and Sam, the both of them staying quiet except for the classic rock that played out on the radio. Dean glanced at her and swallowed heavily. "So, are you . . . gonna tell Sam what happened?" He asked her hesitantly, and she shrugged lamely.

"I don't know Dean. If he ever figured out, he would kill us, but then again, if he figured out later and that we didn't tell him, then he'd be even more pissed off!" Dean nodded and turned his gaze back onto the road.

"So, we just pretend this never happened and just go on our merry way?" He asked her, and she shrugged.

"I guess . . ." Dean shrugged too.

"Great. I can do that." He spoke, and Issa had to admit . . . it hurt a little that he had agreed so quickly to pretend it never happened. He glanced at her and noted her hurt expression, in which case he groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Well how the Hell did you expect me to react, Issa?" He demanded, his voice laced with anger and irritation. "I can't fight for you like every fiber in my body screams out for me do! If I fought for you and you left him, both of you would eventually die from your Bond breaking – so what the fuck would be the point of that?" He shrugged lamely then, his voice growing quieter and losing much of its irritation and anger. "All I have is one night of pure fuckin' bliss to hold dear, and even then, I'm supposed to forget it!" Issa swallowed heavily and turned her eyes out onto the passing scenery beyond the car's window as rain plopped down onto the windows with a laziness that mimicked how they were feeling at that moment.

"I didn't know I would cause so much strife . . ." She confessed, somewhat bitterly, and Dean scoffed in agreement.

"I didn't know you would either, sweetheart. Actually, I didn't plan on fighting for you period, but then you had to drag me to Abby's and I found out that for the past three or four fuckin' lifetimes, I've been romantically involved and/or married to you! And when I figured that out, it was something rose within me. I suddenly felt the urge to protect you – to claim you as mine, despite the blatant claim made by Sam already!" He spoke before she shook his head. "Issa . . . I love you. I love you so damn much, but . . . I gotta be fair. I've had you for the past three or four lifetimes all to myself - I didn't have to share you with anyone, selfish bastard me!" He smiled a small, tear-stained smile at her and chuckled. "What do you say we let Sammy have a go at love for this turn? Why don't we forget each other for this one, single turn and allow Sam to be happy for once?" She grinned and laughed, tears brimming in her eyes.

"But that means it's a free-for-all the next life!" She spoke, and Dean laughed.

"Oh honey, in our next life . . . in our next life your all mine again!" He glanced at her. "Because our sex was fantastic, you weren't lying!" He shook his head. "And I ain't giving that up for long!"

Issa adopted a soft look on her face as she leaned over and pressed a gentle, loving kiss to his cheek. "Thank you Dean . . . you aren't as half bad as Sam ever made you out to be!" She teased him gently, and this time, when he turned his eyes onto her, they were amused and mirthful but within his eyes, she saw sadness and mourning. He didn't want to let her go. He had, had her for too long, that letting her go now bordered on agony.

"But hey, don't be telling anyone! I have a reputation to uphold with the women, believe it or not!" He told her and she smiled thankfully before she leaned over on him and buried her face in his leather-jacketed chest, her tired eyes closing in contentment as she breathed in deeply his cologne and the underlying masculine smell of him. He found one of his arms wrapping around her protectively as she grinned.

"You wore me out last night, Dean, I must say!" She teased him in slight approval, and he grinned.

"Yeah, but from where I was laying, you weren't exactly complaining! You seemed to be doing the exact opposite, actually!" He spoke, and she smiled and laughed a little before she soon fell asleep, once again nestled in his warm, protective and dare she say – loving - embrace, but this time, in a much tamer manner.

They arrived back a couple of hours later when the car clock shone eight o'clock am, and the both of them shuffled huge yawns as they pulled up and Dean cut off the engine. They sat there for a while, feeling that they should say something to each other, but not knowing what else to say. Everything seemed to have been said already.

They got out of the car instead, the both of them heading around to the front, where Dean took a seat on the hood. Issa stopped and turned to look back at him. "You uh . . . you gonna be okay?" She asked him hesitantly, and he nodded and waved her away.

"Yeah, I'll be fine! I just wanna . . . I just wanna think for a minute, okay?" He told her, shooting her a small, comforting smile, and Issa returned it and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, I understand! Just . . . I'm here if you need me." She told him, and his face was soft as he gazed at her.

"Go to Sam, Issa," He told her, his voice a tad cold. Issa shivered in the slight coolness as he spoke and for a moment, she wondered if the coolness of his voice had nothing to do with the coolness of that morning's wind. "Go back to Sam and forget last night. It would be best for both of us if you forgot it."

"How can you tell me to forget it when you won't?" She asked him a tad snappishly, and he grinned and laughed as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked down at the nearby sidewalk.

"I can say that, Issa, because I don't have someone else to create memories with to replace that one!" He told her, and she swallowed heavily but didn't reply as she turned around and opened the door to the motel room she shared with Sam. She closed the door gently and silently behind her – blocking out the world and Dean, and gazed at the motionless man lying on his side in the bed in the gloom. His cellphone lay on the nearby bedside table, and she smiled a tight smile as she stripped and crawled into the bed beside him, trying not wake him.

But no matter how slowly she moved, Sam was, after all, a demon hunter, and startled awake at the first movement he felt beside him. He startled awake, his eyes wide as he saw her, and eventually, the shock disappeared to be replaced with one of love and softness. "Hey, when you guys get back?" He asked her tiredly as he opened his arms to her, and she readily dove into them, her face burying into his naked chest as she snuggled into the warmth of his arms.

And indeed, what warmth it was! While Dean had only given her trickles, Sam gave her waves! They washes over her like ocean waves over sand as she lay there, and eventually, she felt herself grow tired. "Just a few minutes ago . . ." She told him, and she felt him nod tiredly.

"What did you guys figure out?" He asked her, and she shrugged as she closed her eyes.

"I'll tell you in the morning."