Paradise Motel,

Wilbanks, Indiana.

The Winchester brothers were sitting alone in their room, reviewing the peculiar situation as Jennifer freshened up next door. Sam sat at the table in front of his laptop, as usual, while Dean reclined on one of the round, vibrating beds. The Magic Fingers, however, had not been turned on. The day had been awkward enough already.

Dean absent-mindedly fingered the lacy trim on a decorative heart-shaped pillow as he stared at the white card given to him by Madame Zendala. "This is the dumbest, cheesiest fortune ever," Dean said. "It sounds like it was written by a fourteen-year-old girl. I mean, come on. 'Your love will survive the battles'? Gimme a break," he huffed. "And 'The two of you will unite in love as you face the dark together'? Unite in love? What the hell does that even mean?"

"I don't know," Sam replied. He continued cautiously, fully aware that he was treading upon slippery turf. "Maybe…it means you two are supposed to get married."

"Married?" Dean wrinkled his forehead with disdain. "I don't think so." He stuffed the card in his pocket. "Maybe it just means I'm gonna get laid."

"Then you mean you're gonna sleep with Jennifer." Sam stifled a laugh.

Dean's eyebrows arched in response. He shoved the heart pillow away and rested against the headboard. "Yeah, something was seriously wrong with that machine."

"You know, it's weird," Sam focused on his laptop as he typed. "You sound a little…disappointed."

"Disappointed?"

"That the machine's wrong."

"Are you seriously trying to say I want to boink Jennifer?"

"Did you seriously just say 'boink'?"

Dean was quiet.

"Well…do you?" Sam asked, keeping his eyes on his computer.

"Do I what?"

"You know…"

"No," Dean responded, staring at the coin slot on the Magic Fingers. He heaved a sigh. "No, I don't wanna…go there. With her. Dude, why are we even having this conversation?"

"You're really saying that if you were given the chance, you wouldn't sleep with Jennifer?"

"That's what I'm saying."

"Wow, where's the real Dean?" Sam turned away from his computer screen to look at his brother. "You're really not attracted to her? Not even a little?"

"No, Sam, that's what I've been tryin' to tell you."

"Yeah, I know, but that's crap," Sam told him. "I've watched you two together, and I've noticed something. Every time she looks away, you stare at her. And every time you turn away from her, she checks you out."

The tiniest of smiles tugged at the corners of Dean's lips. "She does?"

"Yeah. She does. And you can't sit there and act like that doesn't make you at least a little happy inside." Sam twisted in his seat until he faced Dean. "It's just…I don't know, man. The two of you have chemistry."

"So do nitroglycerin and peroxide."

"I'm just saying…she'd be good for you," Sam informed him solemnly. "Look, you could use someone else in your life. You've got me, and that's it. God knows you've had your share of one-night-stands, but Dean, haven't you ever wanted more than that? More than just sex? Don't you want a real relationship?"

Dean stared at the red silk coverlet.

"I know with what we do, we've always ruled it out, never even considered it. We've thought it'd be impossible to have something like that," Sam went on. "But with Jennifer…she's already on the road with us. She's right here, hunting the same things alongside us."

"Maybe so, but it's not gonna be that way much longer," Dean reminded him. "She's only sticking around for a few hunts. To see how the job's done."

"Madame Zendala seems to think otherwise," Sam retorted. "And maybe she's right. Maybe the two of you really will end up together, 'facing the dark together'. The machine has been right about everything else so far."

"Speaking of which," Dean sighed. "You need to get back to your research there before you start picking out names for our kids."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Just think about it, okay?"

Dean shrugged off the conversation and leaned his head against the headboard.


In the next room over, Jennifer had her cell phone pressed to her ear as she updated her mother on her 'mission work' in 'Louisiana.'

"-and three more people got saved last night at the evangelism rally. Things are just going so well, they've asked us to stay a little while longer," Jennifer fibbed.

She felt bad enough for lying to her own mother, but lying about doing the Lord's work was especially guilt-inducing. Plus, she knew that sooner or later, her lies would fall through. Something was bound to happen to reveal the truth about where she was and what she was doing. It was simply a matter of time.

"Well, uh, I need to go," she continued, eager to end the chat. She wanted to keep the lies to a minimum. "I've gotta get back to painting that house." A pause. "I'll call you later. Love you." She was quiet as her mother returned the sentiment. "Bye."

Jennifer clapped her phone shut as she collapsed to the bed. The round, vibrating bed identical to the ones in Dean and Sam's room. She rolled over onto her back and stared at her reflection in the mirrored ceiling.

How the heck had she ended up in a place like this?

Her mom believed she was rebuilding hurricane-destroyed houses, feeding the homeless, and ministering to lost souls, when in reality, she was lying on a vibrating bed in a sleazy motel in Indiana after having run off with two guys she barely knew.

She gulped. When the truth came out, as it should surely would, she would be in deep crap. She feared her mother's reaction, her father's reaction, everyone's reactions. But more than that, she worried about what would happen next. What would she do? Was she supposed to go back to Antioch, back to her job waiting tables at Gene's Restaurant, back to her parents' house now that her apartment lease had ended?

She couldn't do that. Not now. And according to Madame Zendala, she wasn't going to.

Her second option frightened her as much as the first. Was she really destined to 'unite in love' with Dean Winchester? Whatever that meant? Were the two of them really going to become each other's futures as they fought evil together?

All that thinking was causing a headache.

Jennifer was relieved when someone knocked on the door to her room. She rose to answer it and found the protagonist of her thoughts. "Hey," she greeted Dean with a soft voice.

"Hey," he said. "We, uh, Sam found something."


Now in the guys' room, sitting on the bed closest to the door, Jennifer crossed her legs and placed her hands in her lap. "You think the machine is…a fetish?" she repeated Sam's theory.

Sam nodded. "A fetish is a man-made object that's been given supernatural powers. They're associated with a lot of obscure West African and a few Native American religions, but in this particular case, we're talking voodoo."

Intrigued, Jennifer waited from him to continue.

Sam slid his laptop around so the screen was visible to Jennifer and Dean. "The symbol you noticed on Madame Zendala's ring was actually two different symbols, one overlaying the other. This is one of them." A blown-up image of an occult figure filled the screen. "This one is actually an animation symbol used in some voodoo rituals to bring non-living things to life. In this case, whoever created the ring made it specifically to bring the mannequin to life." Sam clicked a few buttons and brought up another motif. "This is the other symbol. It's the mark of the soothsayer. Apparently, in voodoo spell work, whoever adorns themselves with this symbol obtains the ability to see the future."

Jennifer leaned in for a closer look.

"When you combine the two, you've got yourself a carnival attraction that makes accurate predictions of the future," Sam finished.

"Well, somewhat accurate predictions," Dean countered. "I think our fortunes proved that it screws up every now and then. Me and Jennifer are pretty friggin' far from 'uniting in love', and I'm not seeing any hot babes in trench coats chasing after you."

"True," Jennifer remarked.

Sam shrugged as he closed his laptop. "Nobody said those things were gonna happen today. It's your future. That's kinda the whole point, Dean."

"So, shouldn't we find the person who created the machine?" Jennifer wondered aloud. "Stop them from playing with voodoo before someone gets hurt?"

"Already tried," Dean told her. "Turns out it won't be much of a problem. The guy died over fifteen years ago."

"Oh. Then we're done?" she asked.

Dean dipped his head. "Seems that way."

"Well," Jennifer sighed. "That was easy."

"Wasn't it?" Dean grinned. "We should celebrate. I say we go back to the fair and ride that scrambler."