Scarecrow – Part Three

Sam sighed, his stomach tight with frustration and worry, as Dean's cell went straight to voice mail...again. He tried Buffy's – for the nth time – and got the same response.

"Hey, Sam!" he heard Meg call out excitedly from behind him. "Our bus is here. Finally! Better get a move on, big boy, or we'll end up getting stuck in this crappy place for another night. I've been a good girl so far but I'm just not sure I'd be able to keep my hands to myself if we were here much longer."

He didn't even seem to hear what she'd said, let alone react to her suggestive remarks. "I'm not coming." He glanced up from his phone just in time to watch the smirk on her face turn into a horrified grimace.

"Sam?" she began. "What do you mean you're not coming? The bus is here. Now. You know, the one we've been waiting around here all night for?"

"It's just...I've been trying to get a hold of my brother for the past three hours and nothing. It's like he's just vanished."

"So what? You two said goodbye, right? Maybe this is his way of showing he meant it?"

"But I can't get hold of my friend, either. The girl he's with."

Meg grinned knowingly. "Maybe they're...busy."

It took Sam a moment to realize just what she was implying, and when he did, he blushed in horror at the thought of his big brother doing...that. There were just some images that didn't need a place in his brain. "What? No! No. They're not together...like that. They're just friends, so they wouldn't be doing...whatever. It has to be something else. Something bad. They wouldn't just switch off their phones like this, not unless something went wrong. I have to go back."

She blanched at his final statement. "Are you being serious? Sam! After all that stuff you told me about your brother? Have you forgotten about that already? You're really just gonna drop everything to run back to him just because the guy hasn't charged up his cell?"

He shook his head, knowing that there was just no way that he could make Meg understand. No way that he could tell her, explain it to her with explaining all that other stuff. And he did not have time to be accused of being crazy right now. "Look, I...I don't want you to miss the bus. Like you said, it's about to go. You should get on."

Her wide eyes became water rimmed as she stared disbelievingly up at him. "Sam...please. Just come with me. Come with me now. To California. Just like you were going to before."

Sam felt his heart plunge right into his belly, and knew that she would be one new friend that he would definitely be sad to lose. "I'm sorry, Meg. I just...I can't. I have to go back."

"Why?" She looked down towards the ground and scuffed the toe of her boot against the concrete.

"Because he's my brother. Family. And so is the girl he's with. If they need my help, I'll always be there to give it to them."

Her face was resigned when she looked back up at him. "Then I guess this is goodbye, Sammy."

He nodded regretfully. "I guess it is." He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "Look, I have to leave kind of...right now. There's someone important I have to go and find."

"No need, Sammy boy," said a leather clad figure, stepping out of the shadows with a gigantic grin on its big red lips. "I'm right here."

Less than half an hour later, Sam found himself hot-wiring a much too flashy car – he would have gone for something more inconspicuous, but Faith had insisted – with the girl in question stood anxiously behind him, impatiently tapping her foot on the ground.

"Faith," he started, ducking his head. "I wanted to...I just...I'm-"

"No need to apologize," she acknowledged, waving a dismissive hand through the air. "Just promise me you won't be such a jerk next time a hot piece of ass walks by."

Sam smiled, bashfully.

When Buffy opened her eyes, she was confused as to why everything appeared so blurry, and why there was a gentle hand running its fingers through her hair.

"Hey, sleepyhead," came Dean's voice from above her. "How're you feeling?"

She realized that her head was resting on his outstretched legs and, ignoring her dizziness, hurried to sit up, embarrassed to be caught so vulnerable in front of him. Her confusion didn't ease any when she glanced around the dark, dank room they were occupying. "Woozy," she answered his question. "Where are we? What happened?"

His heart heavy in his chest, Dean filled her in on the epic betrayal of her aunt and uncle, hating the way her skin paled the longer he spoke.

She watched him talk, her mouth dropping open as she processed his words. "No," she announced finally. "No way. Aunt Stacey and Uncle Harley...they wouldn't do this to me. They wouldn't do it to anyone, let alone me."

Dean sighed with a mixture of sadness and impatience. "Sweetheart, I know you don't wanna believe this, but I watched your uncle throw you in here. Hell, I caught you with my own two arms while he was locking us in."

She shook her head and scooted back a couple of feet, backing herself up against the wall and bringing her knees up to her chest. Dean let her go, knowing that she needed the time and the space to sort out the jumble of thoughts tumbling around in her head.

Long minutes past though, and he could bear the silence no longer. "So, did they knock you over the head too?"

She glanced up from where she had been scratching at a patch of dirt on the floor, fire and anger burning in her eyes. "No!" she answered. "They spiked my apple freakin' pie! Who does that?! It's like...a crime against good pie! What, am I Snow White now or something?"

"You looked more like Sleeping Beauty to me."

She blushed. "I said or something."

Dean smirked and sat back, cringing as he felt the dirt of the floor grate against his hands. "You think you're strong enough to break us the hell outta here?"

Buffy peered up at the hatch in the ceiling hopefully, but her face dropped within seconds. "No, it's way too high up. I wouldn't be able to get any power into it. Besides, the hatch looks to thick, anyway."

"Guess we're gonna be stuck down here for a while, then. Or at least until the residents of crazy town decide it's time to feed us to their god of straw."

"Mmhmm." She scooted sideways and pulled herself up onto a crate that had been left sitting next to the wall, leaning her head back wearily.

Dean, frustrated by the situation they were stuck in and unable to keep still, stood up and began to pace, clenching and un-clenching his fists.

She watched him for a while, fascinated by the way his t-shirt would pull tighter over his muscles whenever he tensed, before realizing that she was behaving like a hormonal teenager and dropping her head into her hands tiredly. "So," she began after a couple of minutes had passed. "My aunt and uncle wanna sacrifice us to a scarecrow, huh?"

Dean paused and moved over to the opposite wall, leaning against it to watch her carefully. "Pretty much, yeah."

"Did you get one of those professors to help you figure out how to kill it?"

"Yeah, actually. The old guy was surprisingly helpful before he had me beaten around the head and tossed in a deep, dark hole." He shook his head disgustedly. "We have to burn down some sacred tree, which I'm guessing is in the orchard."

She rolled her eyes. "So all we have to do is find this tree? In that big ol' field full of trees? Sounds like a picnic."

"Well, there's that or plan B."

"And what's plan B?"

"We die."

"Huh." She swallowed hard, trying to force the burning tears of betrayal to stay in place, to cease from falling. "God!" she burst out. "Can Celia's death really have screwed them up this much? I know it hurt, but they killpeople! Every single year. Innocent people, just so their apples grow extra big and shiny. They're so...so...sick!"

"I'm sorry," was all he could think of replying. After all, he mused, she was right.

"No," she mumbled, returning her face to her hands, "I'm the one who's sorry."

Dean frowned, his confusion evident. "Why are you sorry? You didn't lock us down here."

She shrugged helplessly and removed her hands from her face so that she could wrap her arms around her knees defensively. "Well, I'm sorry you're stuck down here with me for one thing."

He took an involuntary step forwards, baffled by her words. "With you? What's wrong with being stuck down here with you?"

She rested her cheek on the tips of her knees to avoid looking at him and shrugged. "I'm not stupid, Dean. It's become blatantly obvious these past couple of days that you really don't like me very much, despite what you said before. So I'm sorry that, out of everyone, I'm the one you got stuck down here with."

With a groan, Dean stepped back over to the wall to bang his head against it. Turning back around, he rubbed his hands over his face harshly. Finally he stilled and dropped his arms to his sides. "You didn't leave!"

Buffy lifted her head and cocked it. "What?"

Beginning to pace once again, Dean continued. "Everyone else left! Every single other person in my damned life left me! Sam left. Dad left. Sam left again! Hell, even Faith went and left on me! But...not you. You're the one person in my whole goddamned life who hasn't walked out on me, okay? I mean, I have been the biggest asshole to you these past couple of days – I know that! And yet you still didn't leave me! I just...I just..." His voice trailed off, hopelessly.

"I thought you were being that way 'cause you didn't want me around any more," Buffy admitted, her tone quiet.

Dean felt his heart shatter into a million pieces, and cursed himself for making her feel this way. He stepped forwards and dropped to his knees in front of the crate she was sitting on, taking both of her hands in his. "Baby, you are the only one in the whole world I feel I can rely on right now. The only one. I know I've been pushing you away...I guess in my own idiot way I thought if I did it would hurt less when you eventually didleave me." He ducked his head as his voice became choked. "But all this time and you didn't go. You never left me. And I've just been being a total dick to you when all I really wanna do is kiss you and touch you and hold you and...and tell you how damned crazy I am about you..."

"Crazy about me?" Buffy whispered, her heart filled to the brim with overwhelming emotions, and her eyes pooling with tears.

"God, yes. In every kind of way. And I'm talking about the sweet, dreaming about you every night and day kind of crazy, and the mental, going out of my mind when I don't get to see you for a whole five minutes kind of crazy. Seriously. The whole shebang."

When Buffy giggled sweetly, Dean took it to be a good sign that he was somehow managing to fix the stupid little mess he'd created, and with a smirk, he tugged at her hands so that she fell forwards off the crate and onto his lap. Just like he hoped she would, she shifted a little, straddling him and wrapping her arms and legs around him.

"Just promise me something?"

"Anything."

She pressed her forehead against his. "No more stupid games. No...pushing away."

"And no more hiding things from each other. We have something to say, we say it."

Buffy kissed him in agreement, and with a happy moan, Dean pulled them both backwards to fall on the floor.

Buffy wasn't sure how much time had passed as she pulled her panties back on, a satisfied smile on her face. With a giggle, she watched as Dean crawled in circles, looking for his missing sock.

"That was kinda dirty," he boasted proudly, finally finding his sock and pulling it on.

"Well duh. That's what happens when you sex it up on a cellar floor."

He smirked and winked. "Didn't mean that kind of dirty."

Buffy blushed and pulled on her jeans. "I know."

Minutes later, when they had thankfully found and put on all of their clothes, they heard a sound from above, and glanced up just in time to watch the hatch reopen. Half a dozen shotgun wielding townsfolk were nudging each other aside to peer in.

"Come on now, honey," Stacey called down sadly, throwing down the rope ladder. "It's time to go."

With six ominous looking guns being carefully pointed in their direction – and Dean's unfortunately missing in action – Buffy and Dean had no choice but to allow the people of the town to lead them to the orchard and chain them to large trees.

"How could you do this?" Buffy demanded furiously of her aunt. "How could you kill all these people?"

Before Stacey could reply, the sheriff bustled in front of her and leaned in towards Buffy's face. "We don't kill them."

"No," a disgusted Dean commented. "You just lead them right up to death's door and then clean up his mess when he's done."

"And what about me?" Buffy interjected, still focused on her aunt. "I mean, I'm family! Your own flesh and blood! If you don't even have the humanity in you to care about innocent strangers, don't you at least care about that?"

"Oh, sweetheart! Of course I care, we all do. But you and your fiancé went and ruined everything for us this year, so we really have no choice. We have to do this. It's what sacrifice means."

Buffy jolted forwards in anger at Stacey's words, but her movements were halted by the heavy chains. "You think I don't know what sacrifice means, you stupid idiots?" she cried, remembering Glory all too well. "I know more about sacrifice than you could ever imagine! It's about protecting people, keeping them safe! Keeping your family safe! Not feeding people to stupid scarecrow gods just to make your crops grow bigger!"

Her aunt shook and dropped her head solemnly. "You could never possibly hope to understand, my dear."

As the townsfolk, secure in the knowledge that Buffy and Dean were securely chained up, began to drift away, Buffy threw out a few curses after them that had even Dean impressed.

But not a single one of them looked back.

"You might as well save your voice," Dean expressed after a few loud moments. "You're probably gonna need it later. For, you know, screaming in agony and stuff when the scarecrow is slicing off your skin to wear."

She stopped her yelling and turned to glare at him, her eyes narrowed and cross. "Fine. So tell me, smart guy, what's the plan?"

"Uhm...I'm working on it?"

"Great," she huffed. "We're gonna die."

Dean pouted sulkily. "Why do I have to be Mr Plan Man, anyway? Why couldn't you have thought up a plan before we got chained to these trees?"

With a pretty blush, she looked away pointedly. "Well, I was a little bit occupied at the time, in case you've forgotten."

He nodded his head and blew her a kiss. "Damned straight you were."

"Yeah, 'cause now is so the time for you to start bragging."

"Fine. What about that freaky super strength of yours, huh? Couldn't you have used it to fight them off? They're just a bunch of dumb farmers. Wouldn't have been a match for either of us."

"A bunch of dumb farmers with some very shiny looking guns."

"Good point." He sighed, and then perked up slightly. "What about now? Can you break free now?"

She rolled her eyes at his constant, pointless questions. "Hello! I'm chained to a big frikkin' tree here! With like, actual chains. Lots of them. Big fat metal chains. I'm strong and all, but I'm not superman."

Dean hummed in disappointment

"All out of plans?" Buffy asked dryly, when he failed to speak any further.

"Yup."

Josh watched, his arms folded tightly across his chest, as a handful of serious looking townspeople – hisneighbours – huddled back through town, shotguns at their sides. Owning and carrying guns wasn't unusual for a town like this, but he'd never witnessed them all out in a group together like that before.

He frowned. Now that he thought about it, everyone in town had been acting suspicious all day. Jumpy, afraid.

His heart began to thud as he spotted a pile of chains in the sheriff's hands. What the hell did they need themfor?

There was something seriously weird going on here.

With his stomach churning uncomfortably, he moved swiftly into Ella's room and packed up a bagful of her belongings.

"Poppa? Wuzgoin' on?" she questioned sleepily as he picked her sleeping body up from her bed.

"You're going to spend the night with Johnny and Olivia. You remember Daddy's friends from the next town over? You liked them, right?"

"But I'm sleepy."

"Then you go right on back to sleep, honey," he instructed soothingly, wrapping her up in a blanket and picking up her bag and heading for the stairs. "You go back to sleep and when you wake up tomorrow, this'll all be over."

By the time Josh arrived back in town after dropping Ella off with friends, it was already beginning to get dark. "Right," he mumbled to himself, determined to get to the bottom of what exactly was going on.

He climbed out of his car, raising an eyebrow at the brunette couple having a heated conversation no more than a couple of feet away. He'd never seen them around town before, but now was not the time to be friendly and ask if they needed help.

About to head over to the sheriff's office to demand some answers, he jolted in surprise when the woman of the brunette couple suddenly appeared besides him and grasped a hold of his arm.

"Hey, you," she snapped. "You live around here?"

A little afraid of her fierce expression, he nodded slowly. "I do...why?"

"We're looking for some friends of ours. Maybe you've seen 'em? Little blonde chick and a smartass with a helluvanass?"

"Are you talking about Buffy and Dean?"

Her face brightened instantly, and the tight grip she'd had on his arm lessened somewhat. "Yeah, kid, that's right! Man, that's such a relief. I was worried no one would have seen them. Are they here? Whereabouts? Damn idiots aren't picking up their cellphones."

"Uh...well, I saw Buffy just this morning in the garage." He pointed down the road to where Harley's sign was just visible. "I work there for her aunt and uncle. But then Harley asked me to go out and run an errand and by the time I got back she'd already left. Stacey said she'd had to take off quickly. No time for goodbyes, you know?"

The man of the brunette couple, who had joined them midway through Josh's explanation, looked at his companion with worry. "What about the guy?" he demanded of Josh. "Dean? What about him?"

"Oh, he was hassling some customers in the diner yesterday, so the sheriff had to escort him outta town. I guess Buffy must have joined him, right?"

The man glanced at the woman again. "Well?"

"They wouldn't have just bailed on a case, Sam. Even if Dean did get kicked outta town he'd have found a way back in."

Josh, who had been watching them closely, took a step closer to the couple. "Look, is there something going on, here? What case are you talking about? Are Buffy and Dean undercover cops or something?"

"Hey, thanks for the info, kid, you've been a real sport," the woman said patronizingly, clearly trying to brush him off. "Now don't you worry your pretty little head about it. Go on home and we'll sort everything out."

"What? No! Wait!" he called out after them as they turned around to leave. "I know there's something going on around here, so don't you dare try and blow me off on this. Buffy and Dean were asking all kinds of weird questions while they were in town, and I know some of the folks around here didn't like it. And now you say they haven't been answering their phones? They're missing? I've just left my kid with some pals a whole town over because I can tell there's something bad going down here. So stop treating me like a dumb child, because I deserve the right to know the truth, okay? Tell me what the hell is going on!"

The man – Sam, Josh was guessing – and the woman turned back around, eyeing each other in surprise and defeat.

Finally, the woman turned to Josh, looking slightly impressed. "Fine, you want in? I need you to show us the way to the orchard."

"Soo...you come up with a new plan yet?" Buffy sang out, after she and Dean had been chained up for...well, it had gotten dark so she was guessing a while.

He huffed and rattled at his chains. "Working on it, angel-face, working on it."

She moaned sadly and stuck out her bottom lip. "Don't wanna be all skinless and gooey and dead."

Dean chuckled at her childish tone and sent a smouldering glance her way. "You'd still be the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world even if you didn't have any skin."

"Aw!" Buffy melted inside. "That's the grossest romantic thing anyone's ever said to me!"

"I know, right?" He smirked, looking all too proud of himself. "Hey...we're totally having a moment here, aren't we?"

"We went over this time and place stuff already, didn't we?" Yet Buffy couldn't help but smile. "What's the status on Mr Scarecrow?"

He stretched his neck around, cursing when the only results he gained was a cramp. "Can't see him from here."

"Crap, me neither. What time do you think he-" She stopped talking abruptly when the sound of a loud rustle came from somewhere behind them."

"Holy mothering Jesus!" Dean whispered, and began to yank on his chains with much more gusto.

"At least last time I died pretty," Buffy muttered under her breath.

With his heart pounding for more than one reason, Dean stopped tugging at his chains and turned as much as he could to face Buffy, his face pale and nervous. "Sweetheart, I...Just in case we die here, I want you to know that I...I...Uh, you're the best sex I ever had." He swore at himself silently for being such a damn coward, and for losing his nerve and opting out of saying the thing he really wanted to say.

Buffy was about to reply when they heard a shout from nearby.

"Dean?" a male voice yelled. "Buffy? Are you here?"

Everything inside Dean melted with intense relief at the sound of his brother's voice, and he made a mental note to buy the kid a freakin' crown. "Sammy? That you? Oh, thank God! We're over here!" When Sam appeared through a set of trees, Dean felt that for the first time in his entire life, he could have hugged him and not wanted to puke.

"Wow," came the sound of Faith's voice as she and Josh – what the hell? - followed Sam. "Kinky. What is this guy? The god of naughty bondage?"

"It's a long and very weird story," Buffy retorted. "Think you could help us out here?"

"Sure. Got my trusty axe." Faith held up said object with a happy grin.

Eyeing her warily, Josh took a little step away.

Faith laughed, openly enjoying his obvious fright. She moved behind the tree Buffy was chained up to and had the metal off within less than a minute.

"Wow," Josh blurted. "You're like...really strong."

She shrugged nonchalantly as she repeated her actions on Dean's chains. "It's a whole destiny thing. You know the drill."

"No I don't."

"Whatever."

Pulling the chains off of themselves, Buffy and Dean thanked Faith, gratefully.

"I really thought we were gonna die out here for a moment," Buffy admitted.

"Okay, seriously now, what the hell is going on?" Josh demanded, the situation clearly beginning to sink in and cause him to freak out. "Faith, I thought you were yanking my chain about the scarecrow! But you're not, are you?"

Dean glared at Sam, pissed off. "You told him? Him?"

Sam shrugged helplessly in reply. "We didn't really have that much of a choice. He was minutes away from figuring the whole thing out for himself and going out alone and getting himself into trouble. Besides, he's the one who helped us find you. You'd probably be scarecrow food by now if it wasn't for him."

"Oh." Feeling awkward and stupid, Dean turned to Josh and slapped him on the arm, coughing gruffly. "Uh...thanks...I guess. For the whole, saving our lives thing. Appreciate it, man."

"As touching as this guy love moment really is, we should really get outta here before the scarecrow comes down off his perch and cuts us all up," Buffy pointed out.

Sam glanced around. "Where is his perch?"

"Right over..." Dean's sentence trailed off miserably as he raised his eyes to find an empty, lonely looking perch. He whipped his head around to face Buffy, who was watching the same spot as he was with approaching horror. "Okay, kiddies, time to go."

"This isn't happening, this isn't happening, I can't believe this is happening," Josh murmured to himself as they jogged out of the orchard. "It's sick, it's crazy. You guys are crazy. No...wait! The townspeople are crazy!"

"I think we broke your boyfriend," Dean crooned to Buffy, his amusement evident.

"Idiot."

"So what we need to do is destroy this ancient tree?" Sam questioned breathlessly. "Because it's the source of the scarecrow's power?"

"Something like that," Dean replied. "But not now. We'll come back in the morning when it's safer. This guy is way too strong, even for us."

The sound of several guns clicking stopped the group in their tracks. They huddled together as members of the town appeared from between the trees, furious looks on their faces as they aimed their guns in their direction, completely surrounding them and blocking off all possible chances of escape.

"Aw, come on!" Dean mumbled. How could these dumb-ass farmers get the jump on him twice?

Another sound, this time most definitely supernatural, sounded from somewhere nearby, and there wasn't a single person in the orchard who failed to shiver in fear.

"Oh God, oh Jesus," Josh whispered loudly. He glared at Stacey and Harley, betrayal in his eyes. "How could you do this? I trusted you, all of you! How could you do this? Kill innocent people? Try and hurt me? Buffy? I don't understand! Don't any of you get how wrong this is? How messed up it is?"

Harley sighed and shook his head. "I'm afraid it's you who doesn't understand, son. You need to let this happen, for the good of the town. Now, he'll only take two of you, I promise. That's all he wants. But we just can't let the rest of you go. You'd tell the-" A large scythe scythe suddenly appeared through his chest, effectively cutting off his speech as his mouth filled with blood.

Stacey shrieked, her scream growing louder when a leathery arm wrapped itself around her neck. The dark, shadowy form of the scarecrow became visible as Harley's dead body dropped to the floor, and the remaining townsfolk began to flee, screeching in horror and terror.

"Come on," Faith yelled urgently, grasping Josh's arm and yanking him to follow her. "We need to go. Now!"

But Buffy, who could still see her aunt and uncle being dragged mercilessly away by the scarecrow, made to go after him, determined that she could save them. Seeing her movements, Dean wrapped his arms around her waist to stop her. "It's too late," Dean cried desperately. "I'm so sorry. It's too late for them. You can't fight this thing. We can't fight this thing, not like this. Please, baby, we need to go. We need to get out of here!"

Thankfully, his words seemed to get through to her, because she stilled, and allowed him to pull her with him to chase after the others.

The silence that filled the motel room later that night was awkward and stilted. Buffy wasn't talking – not that anyone had any clue about just what to say to her anyway. She'd perched herself on the edge of her bed, her hands clasped tightly together on top of her knees as she stared down unseeingly at a frayed piece of rug.

Josh had left an hour before, choosing to spend the night with his friends, wanting to be as close to Ella as possible. No one blamed him.

Buffy stood up quickly, causing the remaining three in the room to stare up at her.

"You okay, B?" Faith asked carefully.

Buffy looked at her, blinking. Her expression was surprised, like she'd forgotten that she wasn't alone in the room. "Yeah. I just...need some air."

"Okay." Faith nodded in acceptance.

"She forgot her jacket," Dean piped up once they'd watch her walk out of the room. "I uh...better go give it to her."

"I think she kinda just wants to be alone right now," Faith pointed out.

He stood up anyway and gathered up the jacket. "Yeah, I know. I get that. I'll just take this out to her and get out of her way. Wouldn't want her getting cold or anything."

He was out of the room before either Faith or Sam could protest any further.

Dean found Buffy not to far away from the motel, sitting on a wooden bench with her arms wrapped around her torso.

"Thanks," she expressed quietly when he offered her the jacket. She laid it down carefully on her knees and looked away, pointedly.

But he refused to take the obvious hint. Instead, he stepped closer and sat down next to her on the bench. "Come on," he encouraged gently. "We're not doing the whole shutting out thing any more, remember? We have something to say, we tell each other. Yeah?"

For a moment, he was worried that he'd said the wrong thing, pushed her to hard and caused her to climb back into her shell, but when she finally turned to him, her eyes were filled not only with tears, but trust.

"It's just that...sometimes I don't understand the world," she mumbled hoarsely. "I don't get what it is I'm supposed to be fighting for. Who I'm supposed to be fighting for. People don't want to be saved, Dean. Humans are...they're worse than the monsters." Her voice cracked and her tears fell, and Dean could do nothing but pull her into his arms. She buried her face in his chest as she cried. "What am I gonna tell Dawn? What am I gonna tell my dad?"

He rocked her gently and softly kissed the top of her head. "You tell them whatever you think's best, beautiful. And whether that's the truth or some made up story to make them seem less evil...that's up to you. It doesn't matter." He squeezed his arms tighter around her. "Don't you go giving up on me now, you hear me? There's still reasons to fight, still people who need our help. Like Josh and Ella. They're the ones who deserve it. And hell, we'll still do it even for the ones who don't. Because that's who we are. That's who you are. A fighter. You fight because you know it's right."

She gave him a watery smile as she looked up at him, trailing one of her hands along his stubbly jaw. "How is it that you always know what to say to make me feel better?"

Instead of answering her, he kissed her.

She kissed him back. Hard.

The next morning, the foursome and Josh rode to the orchard for what they all hoped was the last time. They stood in a little circle, the task ahead of them weighing upon their shoulders.

"I can't freakin' believe this," Faith moaned. "We have to find this one tree? In all of these stupid trees? This is gonna take forever. Shoulda let the scarecrow have me."

"It's that one there," Josh informed them blankly, pointing.

Faith looked impressed. "Huh."

"Look, it has all these weird etchings on it," he explained further. "People in town were always going nuts over it. I guess now we know why."

Sam emptied a tub of fuel over the tree, and Dean held out a lighter to Buffy. "Want the honours?"

She shook her head. "Let Josh do it."

Dean shrugged and held the lighter out to Josh, who looked at it wearily.

"So, I do this, the whole town gets destroyed, right?" he asked.

"That about sums it up, yeah."

Josh took the lighter out of Dean's hand with determination. "Good."

"I'm sorry my aunt and uncle turned out to be creepy murdering freaks," Buffy stated dully to Josh as she helped him carry his and Ella's bags over to his bus.

"Not your fault."

"I know. But even so, I'm still sorry you had to get caught up in all of this. You're a good guy, you don't deserve to have something like this scar you."

"Really, it's okay. I mean, it's not...and I doubt I'll be getting over it in like, ever...but..."

"I know, I get it. Really. So...what are you gonna do now?"

He puffed out his cheeks and sighed. "I think I'm gonna go back home. To my real family. It's time for Ella to get to know them."

Buffy nodded. "I hope everything goes well for you, I really do."

"Yeah, you too. And hey, thank you."

"All we have is each other," Sam told Dean, as he explained that he would in fact be sticking around after all, and not heading back out to California to find their dad. "If we're gonna find him, then we need to do it together. We need to be a team."

Dean sniffed loudly and pulled a face, wiping away an imaginary tear from his eye. "That was just...beautiful, Sammy. Just beautiful."

"You're such a jerk." But Sam couldn't help but pull a small smile, anyway.

Simultaneously, they turned and began to slowly head back over towards the car, where Buffy and Faith were waiting for them.

"There's just one thing you should remember," Dean said quietly to his brother.

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Well, for the first time in our lives, we're not in this by ourselves, Sam."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. We've got Buffy. And I think she plans on sticking around for a while."

Sam nodded thoughtfully. "Don't forget Faith."

"Yeah. Faith too."

Holding his arm out to stop his brother from walking, Sam quickly checked that they were still far away enough from the girls to risk talking without being overheard. "Is something going on between you and Buffy?"

Dean's heart began to thud uncomfortably in his chest. He and Buffy hadn't discussed telling Sam or Faith anything about what was going on between them yet, and he was pretty sure they needed to before he started singing about it. He was also aware that the situation with Faith would need to be addressed at some point, no matter how much he'd rather avoid it. "What? No! Why would you even think that? Me and Buffy hate each other, remember?"

"You and Buffy used to hate each other. Now...man, I don't know. Do you want there to be something?"

"Sam, what the hell are you even talking about?"

"Do you like her? And I don't just mean like as in you'd like to have a quickie one time thing with her. I mean do you, and I can't believe that I'm asking this of you of all people, do you have feelings for her?"

Dean laughed so loudly that even Faith and Buffy looked up at him from the car. He might have overdone it, then. "You're crazy!"

Sam stared at him for a long moment, and then shook his head. "And you're a liar."

"Whatever, man. Think what you want."

"I know you, Dean. I've seen the way you look at her, the way you act around her. I just...think you should be careful. People could end up getting hurt."

"Then it's a good job nothing's going on then."

Faith huffed, her grumpiness apparent as they pulled into yet another run down motel car park later that evening, after they'd put a nice, long distance between themselves and Burkitsvile, Indiana. "Another day, another craphole motel room," she announced. "You know, we really should start staying in classier digs. I bet the council would give us some cash for it."

"It's better if we stay in places like this," Sam explained. "It makes us less noticeable."

"Makes sense I guess."

He squeezed her shoulder and smiled. "Come on. Maybe it's not so bad inside."

"Why don't you two go ahead and check us in," Dean suggested. "Me and Buffy will bring in the bags."

Faith shrugged happily, her bad mood temporarily forgotten, and climbed out of the car. "Sounds like a deal I could live with."

Dean and Buffy watched in silence for a moment and Sam and Faith ambled over towards the motel doors, nudging each other playfully and giggling like school children.

"I think running away together like two angsty teenagers made them closer," Dean observed.

Buffy hummed in agreement, though she wasn't really paying attention. She exited the car and moved over to lean against the hood, staring unseeingly out into the nearby forest.

Dean followed her and, after glancing around to make sure that no one was watching, pressed his body right up against hers, revelling in her warmth. Buffy smiled up at him and lifted herself to sit on the hood of his car, wrapping her legs around him to bring him even closer.

He shook his head, resting one hand lightly on her jeans clad thigh and stroking the side of her neck with the other. "You do realize that if you were anyone else in the whole wide world I'd be giving that cute little ass of yours a righteous kicking right about now for sitting up there?"

She nodded shyly, and with his heart full of something he couldn't quite describe, Dean moved his hand up higher to brush a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

Dropping his hand awkwardly, he cleared his throat and looked away. "So I uh...I might be too cheap to buy you expensive rings and gifts and crap-"

"Dean!" Buffy protested, remembering with shame what she had said to Stacey and Harley. "I was just kidding about that! We were just messing with each other, remember? I don't want any of that stuff! All I need is...you."

His face brightened up so instantaneously that it took Buffy slightly by surprise. He smiled at her words and shrugged in embarrassment. "Yeah, even so...Jesus, I'm bad at this...Look, I want you to have this." He pulled off the plain, silver band he always wore on his right hand finger. "I never gave a girl anything before. It's not much, but I wanted you to have something special. Something that means something to me.

Her mouth dropped open, but it was a long moment before she could get any words to come out. "Dean, I..."

"Take it," he insisted, pressing the ring into her hand. "Please. Before the violins start playing."

Nodding, she held up the band and studied it in awe. "I didn't think...I never expected..." She slid it onto her middle finger, grinning when she saw how much space their was to spare. "I don't think it's gonna fit."

Dean chuckled. "It's 'cause you have the fingers of a midget. We'll just have to put it somewhere else." He reached around the back of her neck and unclasped the necklace he'd bought her for her birthday, sliding the ring on to the chain and doing it back up.

"That's perfect," she approved.

"Have to make sure you keep it tucked into your shirt for now, though. Sam's already suspicious."

"Is that why he keeps looking at me weird?"

"Probably."

"Oh no," Buffy babbled. "I just realized I don't have anything to give you. I mean, I could give you a stake or something but that's not really very special and-"

"Buffy," Dean halted her. He slid his fingers over her soft cheeks and into her hair, looking down at her with hungry, intense eyes. "Listen to me when I say that you've already given me everything I ever wanted." He kissed her softly, but as with all of their kisses, it soon turned much more passionate. Pulling away slightly, he bit her bottom lip and kissed her nose. "How 'bout we take this inside the car?"

Buffy slid off of the hood and reached for the car handle, a wicked smile set firmly on her lips.