" No, don´t say anything right now", Dean lifted his hand to prevent her from telling him some bullshit. Shaking his head at her, he turned around to go back to their room, all the while berating herself for caring so much. He could have spared to look for her, worrying that she could be in a danger and imagine the worst, although it was the worst that could happen. At least to him.

Maria had seen the hurt shining in his eyes and she felt bad, not wanting to be the one causing him any heartache. Pushing Rath away from him, she pulled her pants back up and straightened her hair. She had to clear that before it would destroy everything between them and she didn´t want to lose what she had with Dean because of a moment of pleasure. Glancing at Rath she felt guilty for appearing so ungrateful. " Thanks for the ride. Uhh...".

Rath stopped her before she could make promises she couldn´t keep. He hadn´t expected to have more with her and although he would have liked it to be different he knew that whatever had been going on with them was over now. " Go after him. And call me if you need my help".

" Thank you", kissing his cheek she stormed away, intent of mending things with Dean, no matter how angry he was with her and she knew how he was in that state. Stumbling into the room she shared with the boys the first thing she realized was that one brother was gone, the one she wanted to talk to while the other brother was looking at her in pity. " Where is he?".

Sam pointed at the bathroom door with his head, not knowing what had been happening when Dean had been out to search for their third member. All he knew was that his brother had been coming inside with a crestfallen expression and immediately locked himself in the bathroom. " What´s going on?".

Maria ignored the question and instead focused her attention on the man behind the door. She tried to sense what he was feeling right now, wanting to make sure that she wouldn´t get herself in danger when she approached him. But all she could feel was this emptiness and she feared the worst. Knowing that it could get ugly in the next few minutes she turned to Sam. " Take Alex and drive around with him for an hour. I think it will be safer if you both are gone".

" Do I have to worry?", Sam hated to feel so out of the known, especially when it was affecting people he loved. Something bad must have been happening to let both of his companions act so strange. Discovering the slight swollen lips and the pinkening of Maria´s cheeks he feared he realized what it was. Jumping to his feet he walk towards her, worried about her state. " Did my brother force himself on you?".

Maria shook her head, wondering how he could think something cruel about Dean. The guy was maybe a hot head and most of the time close to the edge, but he wouldn´t force her to do anything, probably because he knew that she would kill him painfully. But also because he was one of the good guys. " No, nothing like that. But I need a little time alone with him".

Sam noticed the sadness in her gaze and he was sure that it wouldn´t be smart to push. He would find out what it was that he had obviously missed one way or another. But not with this tactic or surely not now. Squeezing her shoulder a small smile appeared on her face. " Fine. But if you or Dean need any help you call me. I will be checking out what Meg is doing here".

" Thank you", Maria reminded herself to ask later when everything was over what they had figure out from Meredith and what the girl Sam had been meeting a while ago had to do with anything. But for now she was glad that he accepted her decision to not talk about what was going on. Waiting until he had been carefully picking up Alex and was out of the room, she turned to the closed door where Dean was hiding behind. Knocking quietly she listened for any sound, putting her forehead on the wood surface and hoping that he was giving her the chance to explain what he had seen. " I know that you´re in there. Please come out so that we can talk".

The only thing that followed for a few moments was silence on the other side. Then a quiet rustling and steps. But the door neither opened nor got unlocked in any way. Again there was a small silent moment before Dean spoke. " Leave me alone".

Maria had been expecting him to burst out and scream at her, raving and ranting like a lunatic. But this resigned tone in his voice was scaring her more than his more than explosive nature. She wasn´t used to this side of him and she hadn´t even been sure he had such a side. " I can´t. I´m afraid that if I don´t fix this thing between us I will lose you and I don´t want that".

" Yeah, you really showed me how much I mean to you today", Dean snorted angrily and it was the first sign that the storm wasn´t over, instead it was just at the beginning to break loose. Whatever there was still happening it was very apparent it would get really loud and heavy.

Maria closed her eyes at the dig in her direction and she felt her heart break a little, which surprised her. The last time words had been having such an effect on her Michael had been the one throwing them at her. And it made her realize how much she felt for Dean, even though she was still struggling with her love for her spaceboy. " Please come out. It´s just a misunderstanding".

Finally the door was forcefully opening and Maria almost fell down because of that. Catching herself in time she glanced up and walked backwards at seeing the fury in Dean´s face, twisting it in a ugly mask. He was coming towards her in big steps, appearing ready to rip her apart. " A misunderstanding? How can I misunderstand something there! You screwed some guy in the back of an alley, a guy you claimed you didn´t know! What is there to not understand? Hu?".

" Okay first of all I´m sorry for lying to you about him. But you´re always so strange when I start talking about Michael that I thought it was better if I shut my mouth about him", Maria felt intimated from him for the first time since she was travelling with the brothers. Not once she had been having the need to flee. Until now.

Dean was momentarily confused about that statement, wondering what her ex boyfriend had to do with everything. Remembering the picture he had been seeing from small article about the disappearance of a group of graduates in Roswell, it clicked that he had just had his first glimpse of his rival. " That had been him?".

Maria breathed a sigh of relieve as soon as she noticed that he was getting calmer. Maybe she could get him to listen to her and explain the situation. But she was afraid that he would start again when she told him about Rath. " Not exactly, it was his dupe. There had been two batches and he was one of the other set, kinda like Michael´s twin brother".

" There are two of his kind? Is there one more I need to know about or had it been everything?", Dean found it hard to try to measure up to one guy, he was sure that he couldn´t take two of them. It was already bad enough that he knew about the one hour orgasm she had told him about some night and although he wasn´t such a wimp in the sack he couldn´t compare with that. But now there was another man with the same traits and he knew that it would be harder for him to get through to her.

Maria sat down on the bed, feeling the need to give her legs a little rest and she was sure that he wouldn´t kill her, which made her realize that she didn´t need to be close to the door into freedom. Looking up at him she was slightly nervous about approaching the topic, but she knew it was necessary. " Okay, I give up. I need you to be straight honest with me here at this point because I know that you´re not acting so crazy because you want to watch out me. So I want to know what´s really behind your bad mood this past months".

Dean was torn between denying that something was even wrong with him and behave like usually or he could do something really drastic and be honest. Considering the way he was cheating through life and the many times he had lied to get what he wanted was making it hard for him to change his way of living. It was like a second nature to him to let out some sarcastic comment to overplay how it looked inside him. Strangly the only person he didn´t feel like he had to play an act was Maria. So he jumped over his stupid pride and took a seat besides her, ready to open himself up. Even if that meant he would scare her away because she wasn´t feeling the same. " All right, you want to know what´s going on, here is the truth. I don´t want to share you with other man, because I want you for myself. I´m so deeply in love with you that the thought of losing you to someone else is making me crazy. I know it sounds insane, but I fell in love with you the moment our eyes met in that fateful night when I almost drove you over. It had taken a long time for me to realize that I felt more towards you than friendship and even more time to accept the fact. And that´s all".

" I don´t know what to say", Maria was stunned about his courage to declare his love so openly to her without sounding too mushy or fake. She had to admit she found that he had proven that he was man enough to talk about his feelings, even if she knew that he would deny everything as soon as Sammy was with them again. But she admired his strength in that regard, because she didn´t had the strength. At least not yet.

Dean was grateful that she hadn´t run away, that had to be good sign and she hadn´t laughed at him, which meant there was still some hope. But he also knew that she didn´t have the same feelings for him, because then she would have told him that she was in love with him, too immediately. " You don´t have to say anything. It´s okay when you´re not sharing the same feelings".

Maria took his hands in hers, trying to find the right words to get across what was going inside her at his words. It wasn´t like she didn´t love him back and dreamed about having more with him, but she was still so heart broken over Michael that she needed time to get over him before she could think about starting a new relationship. " It´s not about that. If we would have met under different circumstances you would have needed a crowbar to get rid of me. You´re exactly the kind of guy I wish for myself. But I´m still hurt from my last relationship and I need time to work my way through that. If you really love me that much like you say, then you´ll wait until I´m ready".

" Are you saying what I mean you´re saying?", Dean couldn´t believe what he heard and he wanted to be sure that he understood everything correctly before already thinking about ways to make her heart heal quicker. He was glad to have opened up to her and get out what had bothered him for months now. He finally felt better again, but it didn´t mean he would start sharing every feeling. He wasn´t Sammy after all.

Maria smiled at him while she saw him reverting to his cocky self again. Damn he was quicker to please than she thought. If she would have known how fast she could get him to be normal again she would have gotten him to talk sooner. " Yeah. You´re not alone with your feelings. Just give it time".

Dean smirked seductively at her under the impression that he could cut the chase and get to the core. Bending towards her he was intent on kissing her wonderful lips. Unfortunately she pushed him away from her, shaking her head at him. " What?".

" You´re impossible. I can´t believe I told you something in the first place", standing up Maria went in the direction of the window to check the outside before she kicked his ass for trying that stunt with her. That guy was unbelievable, so damn much that she found it hard to resist. Glancing on the street she saw Rath still standing at the corner and watching the area around him, a cigarette gleaming in the darkness. As soon as he noticed that someone was looking at him he gazed at her. For a moment he appeared worried, but then he grinned at her and saluted. Turning around he walked away, flicking the cigarette on the ground.

Dean was just in the process to follow her and maybe annoy her a little more when his cell phone started ringing. Picking it up from the bed spread he had been dropping it on, he was confused to read that Sam was calling. Immediately lifting it at his ear he was slightly afraid that it was bad news. " What´s up?".

" Is Alex with you?I had been checking out Meg and when I came back he was gone. Please tell me he´s with you now".

Dean shoot Maria a worried glance, which she instantly picked up on and stormed at his side to try to hear something from the converation, hoping that it wasn´t so bad like the gaze from Dean had been telling. " No. He´s not here".

" Damn I was fearing that. Oh god what I´m gonna do, Maria will rip me to shreds before killing me", suddenly there was another noise in the background, sounding distinctly like the gibberish from a child. " Forget it. I found him. And he´s fine".

Dean noticed that his heart was beating again, he had been fearing that their small soldier had been kidnapped or abducted and already making plans to destroy the city in his haste to find the little cookie. " Dude, you´re like freaking scared me. Don´t do that to me ever again".

" Sorry man. If I just have you on the phone right now, we have to check out this warehouse Meg had been in. There was this altar and she was talking to someone in a goblet with some fluid in it. It was totally strange".

Dean exchanged a confused glance with Maria, wondering if Sam had been drinking when he mentioned the girl talking into a goblet. Repressing their smiles they turned their attention back to the boy on the other end. " Okay, come here and we both see what´s going on in the building. And keep an eye on Alex on the way here".

" Dude, that was so not my fault. The kid is faster than me. And now he´s laughing at me, can you believe it. I swear if he wouldn´t be so cute I would be very pissed. Damn kid, you´re just as bad as your mommy".

" Hey I heard that. Wait until you come home", Maria mocking glared at the phone, knowing that Sam couldn´t see it. But she was sure he would feel it over the line and feel bad, as usual when she shot her death glare in his direction.

" I think that´s my cue to hang up. See you in a bit".

Dean shut his cellphone, putting it in the back of his jeans pocket and went to retrieve his jacket. His brother would be coming soon and he didn´t want to waste any time. Even though he didn´t think anything bad about Meg, he trusted Sammies instinct and if the guy was worried he was worried, too. " You stay here with Alex until we come and get you".

Maria imitated him, of course behind his back and slightly overdone. Moving her hand like it was a mouth she was mimicking the was always talking to her. She knew the standard line for her. Stay back and keep safe. She wanted a little of that action, too. It had been too long since she had been able to kick demon ass. Seeing Dean turning to her, she immediately tried to appear innocent, smiling brightly at him. " Yes sir, drill sergeant".

" Sam is right, Alex got all the bad traits from you", he shoved his gun in the back of his waistband and pulled the jacket over it, not wanting anyone to see that he was loaded and that quite literally. Giving her a stern look he saw the pout slowly forming and he knew that it was time to leave before he weakened and get a bad idea like taking her with them. " Lock the door when you come back and don´t let anyone in".

Maria walked towards him to give him the dagger she had been receiving from her father, which was told had been made to kill all evil. She could be overprotective, too and especially with her boys. " Take it. But if you lose my baby you don´t have to come back ever again".

Dean smiled down at her, founding her way to take care of them cute. He hadn´t known how nice it was to have someone at his side that was so concerned about his well being and worried about the safety of him and his brother. Bending down he gave her a short kiss, nothing sexual but enough to let a few sparks fly around. " I´ll be careful with it, I promise".

" Yeah, yeah. Heard that sentence before", Maria turned away from him to hide the fact that her cheeks were flaming up. It had been a long time that anyone shown so much interest in her. Taking her jacket herself she made her way outside, hearing the Impala roaring in the parking lot. Hurring in the direction of the black car she was relieved to see her son lying peaceful in Sam´s arms. " Oh sweety", taking Alex in her arms she was so glad that he wasn´t aware of the danger around him. " I swear this child could sleep through a hurricane".

Sam glanced at her like he wanted to say that he got that from his mother. But he refrained from getting beat up after the scare of having lost the little man and he noticed his brother coming towards them, clearly in a better mood than he had seen him in months. " I see the motel is still standing and your both alive. Which means hopefully the storm is over".

Dean let his gaze linger a little on Maria, wriggling his right eyebrow seductively in her direction, making her throw him a nasty look in return. But under all that fake flirting was something serious blossoming. And if he had to wait for her to be ready for him than he would do it as long as she needed. " Yeah, the air is cleared".

" Thank god", Sam was in particular sure that he wouldn´t have able to live with them if they would have continued with the way their were acting towards each other. They were driving him and everyone else around them crazy, even Jack had noticed the tension and had said they should either fight it out or act on it.

Maria raised an eyebrow, staring him down with her scolding look she had practised in front of the mirror for when she would need it on Alex. Unfortunately she couldn´t cross her arms over her chest because her son was sleeping soundlessly there. But she was sure her eyes were having the same affect. " You´re a riot Sammy", she knew he hated to be called like that and before he could reply something she turned to Dean. " Be careful, both of you. Don´t let yourself get killed and have fun hunting".

Dean winked at her, making a last attempt to appear sexy and irrestistable. Sadly she just rolled her eyes at him, trying to hide her amusement about his rather bad flirting. Shaking his head he got inside his baby, knowing that it was the only thing appreciating him. Seconds later his brother followed and with a last salute they were gone.

" I swear if you start becoming like him we will have a serious talk", Maria told her sleeping son, who had snuggled closer to his mother but other than that hadn´t moved. She was amazed how obvious he could be to his enviroment, sleeping through the loudest noise and not even flinching when they heard a horrofying scream, which even scared her shitless. Walking back in their room she wondered how long this stage would last and when he started asking questions and realized that bad things were outside. She hoped she could protect him long enough to let him in the believe that the world was beautiful and peaceful. Opening the door she immediately froze when a gun was held to her head.

San Fransisco

Michael was working as a barkeeper in some joint that was called Club Hell and the name wasn´t exaggerating in any kind. It was hell, because there were usually so much people in this place that no one could even turn around, making the air pregnant with the smell of sweat, beer, smoke and sometimes even blood. Bar fights were normal and happened most of the times in his shift. He was probably the only one not even startling as soon as two guys were going at it, silently betting who would be the last to stand in the end. He hated to be here and more than sometimes he wished he would be somewhere else, but it was that or cook in some fast food restaurant and he had enough to smell like old grease and food, even though the scent from him now wasn´t any better. Glancing around he spotted Kyle in the crowd, trying unsuccessful to get Isabel to dance to the music, but the Princess wasn´t so into rock and so she kept seated, nipping at her water and watching her company making a fool out of himself. Michael wondered when they would finally admit to everyone that they were more than just friends. They both had been spending so much time together that it wasn´t such a surprise that feelings would grow, especially when he knew about Kyle being in love with Isabel for quite some time now, he thought it was even before they ran away from Roswell. Chuckling quietly he forgot for a moment the pain of losing that feeling forever, but now that they saw so much couples around he remembered that the only person he had loved had cut their connection to each other. It had been really painful and he had needed a few moments to figure out what had happened, having thought he was getting a heartattack. Sadly it was only the feeling of getting his heart removed, which was harder than he had imagined it. Even if he and Maria had been apart or were fighting, the connection between them had always been intact and the thought that she was there had calmed him. But now he didn´t even have that anymore and it made him realize that she really was involved with that guy and she burned all her bridges from her past life.

" Hey Brody! Hello! Are you still there!".

Michael snapped out of his trance and stared at Candy, one of the female waitresses working at this place. He wasn´t used to his new name, even though he had picked that one out himself, but he would probably still need some time to get familiar with the name. Glancing at the blonde in front of him he noticed that her shirt showed more than it was hidding. She always wore such clothes, probably thinking that she could pick him up with that. Since he started to work here she had been hitting on him nonstop. Although the girl was hot and obviously not too shy, he had always kept a distance to her, because she wasn´t Maria. " Yeah I´m there. What gives?".

Candy put her tray on the counter between two guys checking out her backside and bent closer to the barkpeeper. Chewing her bubble gum seductively she gave the guy behind the counter a good view into her cleavage. " My roommate is sleeping with her boyfriend tonight and the apartement is so scary when I´m alone in it. Care to join me?".

Michael pondered that question, torn between listening to his hormones which were clearly ready for some action and his mind, which was telling him to sort through his feelings before starting something new. But Candy didn´t look like a girl that just wanted to cuddle or watch a movie and if he slept with her wouldn´t exactly mean they were together. Besides he could have some fun, too. Maria moved on and it was time for him to do the same. " Sure".

TBC