"I am... not here to hurt you. I need your attention."

The situation was almost humorous. Almost. The three of them sitting around a motel kitchenette table, Sam, possessed by a kitsune, with Mae and Dean both aiming shotguns at him. If the kitsune knew what Sam knew, then it knew the rock salt wouldn't kill him or it, although at close range, it wasn't going to leave either unscathed. It also had the upper hand if it knew anything about them.

Aside from the weapons and tension in the air, one might think this was almost friendly. Even after sitting, neither hunter lowered their guns, but Mae was intrigued. They couldn't trust what this creature might say but maybe there would be a hint of truth somewhere if they listened. The actions of the kitsune had been relatively non-violent so far. It seemed to be feeding occasionally, not enough to kill the victims but enough. It was targeting them, but no long-term harm had been done. So, maybe it really wasn't here to hurt them. It was definitely trying to manipulate them.

"Then you'd better make it worth our while." Mae said.

It tilted Sam's head in confusion. "You will talk?"

"Yeah, Go right ahead."

"No... weapons."

Dean spoke before Mae could. "Not a chance."

"You will not hurt… the host."

"Wanna bet?"

Mae hoped her face remained neutral. There was something in Dean's tone that made her wonder if it was more than talk, if he'd reached that point where more drastic measures needed to be taken. She wasn't convinced they were there yet. Perhaps it was just for show. If so, it was a good one and maybe convincing enough to make the kitsune think twice about their intentions.

It paused, tilted Sam's head, and seemed to think a while. "No, I do not wish… to gamble. I have not hurt this host. He is safe."

"That's one point for you. Maybe we won't kill you the second you leave. Now let go of my brother."

"I have a... proposition."

"This isn't a negotiation. You don't get anything unless it involves letting my brother go and you being dead."

She flicked an annoyed, sideways glance towards Dean for a second but the kitsune didn't take its eyes off her.

"What do you want?" Mae asked, in a slightly softer tone, than Dean's demand, as her neutral mask fell back in place.

"Protection."

Dean bit out a sour laugh. "Fat chance. Try again."

"You do not... have the upper hand."

Mae lowered her shotgun but kept her finger on the trigger, barrel resting on the table and aimed at Sam. She put a steadying hand on Dean's knee. "Protection from what."

"People. People like you." Sam's head tilted, "Hunters."

Confusion touched her features for a moment. "People? People aren't after you, except for us. You're the one hurting them. You're the reason they end up dead or in hospitals."

"That's not...the whole story. No. Not...I did not kill any of them. Maybe… injured but not forever. They will heal. I needed to."

Mae frowned. "You needed to? And that makes you think we'll protect you?"

"Yes."

With a scoff, she shook her head. "Why would you think that we could protect you from people like us?"

"Because you have open minds. Some of you." Sam pinned Dean with a look momentarily before shifting back to Mae. "You do not kill innocent creatures."

"You're not–"

Mae cut Dean off. "What exactly happens if we protect you? You're smart enough to know that once you let him go and you go back to hurting people, we or someone like us, will kill you."

Dean leaned in trying to speak low enough so the kitsune couldn't overhear. "Are you crazy?" he hissed, "You want to talk to this thing? It's got Sam. Who knows what it will do to him?"

Mae moved her head so she could whisper back without the kitsune seeing her lips move. "That happens if we talk or not. We don't have any idea if a regular exorcism will work or not and the ones we do know work could kill Sam in the process. He... seems okay right now. It's not using its powers on us right now either and we both know it could right now. This might be our only chance to do something. So... let's not piss it off while we figure out our next move. That's the best thing we can do to keep Sam safe. Do you think I want something bad to happen to him?"

Dean mirrored Mae's previous head move and she took over the task of staring down the creature. "No but...this is somehow the worst plan we've come up with yet."

They traded positions once more. "You keep sayin'. Listen, it couldn't cross the salt line if it's intact so we can trap it. That might be the only advantage we have. If we can maneuver it into a smaller area than this room…I don't know, we'll at least stop chasing it around. If we can get it out of Sam and get it to manifest in its fox form, we have to cut its tail off to kill it. As much as we have ever had the upper hand in this situation, we have it now."

His frown deepened but he pulled away from Mae and faced Sam full on again.

"We have an agreement?" The kitsune asked.

Mae shook her head. "No. You still haven't answered our questions. What does protection look like? Why exactly do you think we can protect you? And how can we possibly trust that you're not just going to turn on us."

The kitsune chuffed, a half animal, half human sound. Mae thought perhaps it meant the creature was thinking, rather than planning, or about to try to turn of them now.

"You only have…middle hand." Dean's face twisted in confusion before the kitsune continued. "I have your brother and will not let him go without…assurances. But I do not want to die. If I leave this human, you will try to kill me."

"You're right about that."

"Dean…"

Mae said quietly but firmly.

"Don't 'Dean' me." He muttered back.

"You have encountered yako. I am zenko. If you protect me, I can become tenko. Soon now. If you let me live."

"What exactly does that mean?" Dean asked

"It means this is a benevolent, or at least not outright anti-human kitsune. They can, I don't know, evolve. Become something like a celestial fox and they don't have to exist with us mere mortals." Mae said to Dean. Then her attention turned back to the kitsune. "So, we let you ascend, and you let him go?"

"Yes. We have a deal."

Mae knew her face didn't remain neutral, at least for a second. A spark of memory flashed to life in her stone blue eyes. 'Make. Deal.'

That's what the old woman said. Maybe she was a hallucination or something worse. And yet, she trusted what the woman had to say. She half expected, half hoped the woman would appear to her just over Sam's shoulder or whisper some kind of confirmation that listening to the kitsune was the right, or wrong, thing. Waiting, she held the silence longer than comfortable.

"No." Her own voice surprised her. She was almost certain she would have agreed. She had to swallow the lump of fear and regret that stuck in her throat. "You need to leave Sam first. Now. Then we'll…take you somewhere safe."

"No. You could still hurt me."

"Then we don't have a deal, fox." Dean said forcefully and Mae wasn't sure it that was directed at her or the kitsune at this point.

The expression was on Sam's face was almost as if Sam and not the kitsune were thinking, weighing options. Dean wondered for a brief second if his brother really did have some degree of control or communication with the thing. Sam would have wanted them to hear this thing out. He did with the vampires, and he would want to now, even being possessed. He didn't like it but for the time being, it seemed to be the best path. So, the trio sat at the table, he and Mae facing off against Sam and the kitsune.

"If you deliver me somewhere safe, then I will leave this human."

"Then what?" Mae asked.

"I do not understand."

"You're safe, you leave Sam, and then?" There were more possibilities for something to go wrong but they only had to get as far as the next step.

"You leave me alone, keep others from killing me, and let me ascend."

"Why did you have to do all this to ask us for that?" Dean asked.

"…would you have listened if I had appeared to you in my true form?"

Mae brushed passed Dean as he continued to glower at her. "Are you going to help or just going to be in the way?" she asked as she packed up her car.

"You know, I have disagreed with you and thought you had terrible ideas in the past, but I can't believe you're even considering this. I can't even begin to list the terrible things that could happen here. You know it's going to try to kill you the second it gets you alone. You know that right?"

He didn't have to say it aloud for her to know he was thinking exactly that. His expression was halfway between a disapproving scowl and a pout. Mae didn't blame him. Of all the plans they could have come up with or deals they could have struck; this was almost the worst one. Second only to the exorcism where they smoked the kitsune out where there was a likelihood that they would kill Sam, either by asphyxiation or burning.

She sighed. "Yeah, I know it's a possibility but what's the alternative here? You want me just to… let it have Sam?"

"No! But it doesn't get to take you either."

"I'm not…I'm not letting it. I don't think it can. It's gonna be okay. I think you need to throttle down a bit, okay?"

"You think I'm the one who's reactions are off base here? And let's go back to this whole 'I don't think it can take me' thing. What the hell does that mean and why do you possibly think that?"

Mae straightened after placing the last of her bags in her car and closing the hatchback. When she turned, she placed her hand on his chest. For the merest second, she thought about letting him about the old woman. But she couldn't and didn't. "Hey, this is a kitsune. All of the lore about them says they will keep an agreement as long as we hold up our end. In fact, they tend to have really strict codes of morality, as they see it."

"Which includes killing people."

"Not without cause. At least not these ones. If this were the kind of kitsune that lured men to their deaths by looking like a hot chick…well, we probably would have already salted and burned you so…" She shrugged.

As she pulled away, Dean took her hand in his. "So, you just believe it?"

"No, not entirely. But I believe that it could have killed me a lot of times here, well before I called you. It could have done it easy or messy. But it didn't and, I don't know, I'm not going as far as to say it's a sign, but it means something. And either way, we can't stay here."

"It wants something."

"Yeah. We all do. It told us what it wanted and…I mean, everything I've read says it's possible. If you wanna play it safe, we can go back in that room and have a well-armed tea party with it. Or…we can take it and your brother to my house and work things out from there. I know you want it out of your brother. So…" She took a breath, "you got better options, Dean? I'll take 'em."

His frown deepened but he knew it was pointless to argue with her. Besides, they were already committed to a plan and hopefully a positive outcome. "We should drive together."

"So, if you're right and this thing double crosses me, we all die at the same time? And this thing gets away with it if it turns killer fox?"

"I…okay, that's a good point."

Her hand slipped from his. "It's like 14 hours to my house. We're not in great shape but with a few stops in between, we can drive straight through."

"Then you'll have a pet kitsune at your house."

"Yeah, well, that's tomorrow Mae's problem."

Mae was certain she had found herself in stranger situations but driving home with a possessed man to let a supernatural creature live under her protection until it ascended was the strangest. As she told Dean, the drive would take the better part of the day. There was no way she would make it without stopping at least for gas or a bathroom break, but they could eat on the road. She wanted to minimize the opportunities for the kitsune to interact with people. Someone might not notice how strange Sam was and it was possible while possessed, it could suppress Sam's bodily needs. The same couldn't be said for her and Dean.

Even though she and Dean weren't in the same car, she could practically feel his tension and worried energy. It didn't help that she habitually flicked her eyes to her rear-view mirror every few minutes. She couldn't blame Dean for feeling however he was feeling right now. He had to let go of a lot of control on this and everyone close to him was in danger. There were so many variables. What if this were a drawn-out trap? What if the kitsune had simply maneuvered them together to get her alone with it to take out its revenge? What if it was just using Sam as a hostage to get closer to other victims, once she brought it home? What if she was just inviting it to attack her at a later date?

The only reason she trusted the kitsune as far as she did was because the lore said they would keep pledges and agreements. Trust was the wrong word. She didn't trust it, but she did believe what had been said of them. They had made a deal that she would keep other hunters away from it as long as it stayed to her property and didn't attack any other person. If it did, she would come after it again. In exchange, it would be safe until it died or transitioned or ascended... whatever it did when it evolves to its next form or existence. If it kept to the agreement, they'd save its life, keep people safe, and have Sam back

"You are...different."

After hours driving in silence, punctuated by whatever sounds and commercials came on the radio, the kitsune was now getting chatty. Sam's voice was his but halting and somewhat alien. Mae didn't respond though; she wasn't certain what she would say or even what the statement meant. It felt like it could be a trick. Even if it weren't, discomfort filled her body.

"Difficult...to control. This one is...not."

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the movement of Sam's head and the odd tilt of the head as the kitsune stared at her through the younger Winchester's eyes. Her intention was to keep an impassive face, but she couldn't control the hard swallow or tightening of her lips. "Hm."

"Are you...human?"

"What?" It was the last thing she expected to be asked.

"Human...no, not entirely."

The creature wasn't asking as it made its assessment and statement. Engaging with the creature had been something she had been avoiding. They had a pact, more or less, but not having

"I'm not human?"

Sam–the kitsune, she corrected, was quiet again. It was quiet long enough that she thought it simply wouldn't respond.

"Part human. Yes, part human." It said, as if this clarified things for Mae.

"I'm part human? What's the other part?"

"Not human."