Dean woke up, his head a bit groggy, the sun shining through the drapes. White drapes. White drapes? The motel didn't have white drapes, did it? He sat up slowly, hissing as stabs of pain hit his side, only noticing the IV drip attached to his arm because it restricted his movement. A groan escaped his lips. He was in the hospital.

Strange. He didn't remember going to the hospital. As he slowly forced himself into a seated position, he saw Sam and Tyler, across the room. Sam was slumped down in a highly uncomfortable looking chair, asleep. And Tyler was seating cross-legged, on a chair near the window, staring outside. She looked peaceful, and yet almost like she wasn't really there.

Or at least her thoughts weren't. A half-smile was on her face, the sunlight hitting her glossy black hair just right, her green eyes softened. Dean smiled to himself. She looked so different, sitting there looking at nothing. Young. No longer scarred by the hunters life. Because that was the ugly truth. All of them were scarred. Messed up. Broken. No one in their right mind would ever choose this occupation freely.

And yet, she had. Her family was gone now and yet she had decided to keep on hunting. At first she had done it for revenge, but over the past few days, Dean had seen that fiery and determined look in her eyes disappear. Whenever their eyes met these days, they were full of life, amusement and a little bit of mischief maybe. The same words he would use to describe her.

Dean frowned. Why was he being thoughtful again? Hospitals tended to make him think deep thoughts and reflect upon himself. He watched Tyler jerk, and touch her watch as her mind returned from wherever it had gone before. That watch. There was something about it. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something wrong with it. He didn't know why he thought that. But he could feel it.

Tyler stretched the finger of her left hand – the hand with the watch – and Dean's frown deepened. Did he just see a spasm of pain in her face? No, that couldn't be. Maybe the watch was on too tight. He shifted almost imperceptible, but Tyler noticed anyway and turned to him. When she saw that he was awake, she got up and stretched before sitting down on his bed; careful not to initiate body contact which would result in pain.

"How're you doing?" she asked softly.

Sam moved in his chair, but didn't awake.

Dean winched as he said: "Alright, I guess. I'm still breathing."

"Painfully, probably."

He grinned and after a few seconds she rewarded him with a crooked smile.

"How did I end up here? I don't remember anything other than us driving off to bury the Magura thingy."

"You fainted while we were driving. Sam and I decided it was best if he drove you to the hospital, while I buried the damn thing."

He fainted? Dean grimaced. How very unmanly.

"Glad you're alright though. I didn't mean to take so long to get back, but man, is it hard to find a hose in this neighborhood!"

Dean barked a laugh.

"Um," Tyler was at once serious again. "Look Dean. I recon you and Sam would want to get back to searching for something to save Castiel. It was really nice of you guys to offer hunting with me for a while, but-"

"Tyler, you're not a burden."

This silenced her.

"You're actually a nice asset to the team. We can hunt and do something about Cas at the same time. But thank you, for considering walking away."

"Well, Castiel sounded like someone very important to you guys. I don't want to be in the way of his salvation."

"You won't. Actually, I think Cas would actually like you."

Tyler raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Yes, you two have some things in common."

"Like what?"

"You're both masters at deadpan, though Cas just doesn't get most jokes. And you're both very handy in a pinch."

"Aha."

"And you're both my friends."

Tyler looked at him.

"Friends?"

"Yeah, don't you consider Sammy and me as your friends."

"Hm…you know, when we started out I saw us as partners. Friends huh? I could live with that."

"Good."

Behind them, a still sleeping Sam tried to untangle his legs and promptly fell off the chair. He woke with a start.

"Sammy, good to see you up again," Dean teased.

"Shut up. You know how hard it is to sleep in these chairs?"

"Bitch."

"Jerk."