Dean awoke in the sun-filled room with his arm going numb. Reagan's head was lying on it as she slept peacefully. Lifting her head as gently as he could, he pulled it from beneath her. She made a few grumbles and turned over onto her stomach. Her head faced the opposite direction. Dean wanted to run his fingers over the creamy skin of her back but fought against the impulse.

Instead he stretched his arm out above him, wincing as he did so from the needle-like stabs as blood rushed back into it. Staring at the ceiling, he thought about his conversation with Reagan just before they'd fallen asleep.

He had told her that he was a hunter. And she believed him. The thought echoed in his head. Just remembering it shocked him. Reagan had simply believed him, without proof, without having saved her life. Before now, Dean hadn't thought a person like her existed. She was so trusting and open-minded.

Dean sighed and ruffled his hair as he considered the impact he would have on her. Surely, continuing to hang around her would take those endearing qualities away. His lifestyle was diseased. Would it break her? Dean cringed as he thought of an alternative in which Reagan became embittered and filled with hatred at him for bringing her into a world of revulsion and violence.

But could he be without her? Was he selfish if he denied her a life of serenity and safety?

Dean ran his hand down over his face. He needed to talk to his brother. He dressed quickly and quietly before slipping a note onto the pillow next to Reagan's head.

I went to the motel to change clothes. I'll be back soon.

-Dean

"You TOLD her?" Sam was gaping at Dean. "Why would you do that?" He sounded a little aggravated.

"I had to." Dean didn't really have much of a defense.

"Did you think it through at all? Have you thought about how this would affect her?" Sam asked incredulously.

"A little. But Sammy," Dean shook his hands in front of him as he spoke. "I needed to tell her."

Sam gawked at him in disbelief. When he spoke again, his voice was level. His eyes were squinting. "Dean, what do you see happening here?"

Dean crossed his arms over his chest and paced the room. "Fuck, I don't know. I just know…that I don't want to go another year without her." He mumbled the words. It was not easy for him to admit these things to anyone other than Reagan.

Sam stared out the window and Dean stared at the carpet for several long, quiet minutes.

"What exactly did you tell her?" Sam asked in a low tone.

"I told her how Mom was killed and that Dad raised us on the road teaching us how to kill evil things. She believed me."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "She believed you?"

Dean gave a short humorless laugh. "Yeah. She just believed me. Without proof. Isn't that amazing? She had seen a ghost before and said she'd figured if there was good, there was evil."

"What kind of ghost?" Sam curiously questioned.

"It was a family member. Private thing. But it wasn't harmful to her." Dean gave Sammy just the basics that he needed to know. He didn't feel right sharing Reagan's personal story.

Sam shook his head; brown waves of hair falling over his forehead. "Well Dean, I don't know what to tell you."

Dean's lips were in a hard thin line as he glared at the floor in deep concentration.

Sam went on, "I'm really glad that you found someone you feel this way about. You know now how I felt about Jess." Dean glanced at him in understanding.

"Maybe this is a good thing. I didn't tell Jess about our lives and it hurt her." Sam paused and then said slowly, "I think…that you should tell Reagan more details. She needs to be aware of how serious it is. And then I would let her make her own decisions."

Dean looked at his brother and felt loved. How far they had come, he mused. Aloud he spoke with a grin, "Funny, huh? You actually giving me love life advice?"

Sam gave a gruff chuckle. Then he said, "Yeah, but Dean…this is our third day here. We're going to have to move soon."

Painful acceptance showed on Dean's face. "Yeah, I know."

Reagan met him on the steps of the porch wearing a long white skirt with pale pink ruffles and a white cotton tank top. Her toes poked out of a pair of sandals. She had her hair pulled up into a ponytail. Dean stood on the bottom step and just gazed at her. He was taken aback. Lovely didn't even begin to describe her. She was the picture of comfort yet she looked soft and feminine.

"You're beautiful." Dean said.

Reagan's cheeks flushed bright red. "You are too."

When he reached the top step she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Pulling away from him she grimaced. "Ow."

Dean's brow creased, "What's wrong?"

She smiled at him, "Nothing. I'm just a little bruised along my spine. You know, tile floors will do that to you."

He frowned, "I'm sorry I hurt you."

"Don't be. I enjoyed it."

Dean nodded at her.

"You hungry?" Reagan asked.

He followed her inside and watched her as she busied herself making sandwiches. There was a slight heaviness to the air as they watched one another. Something had shifted between them. It wasn't bad: just different. It felt deeper. Like more of a connection. He opened his mouth to begin the conversation about hunting but closed it again. Dean wasn't ready just yet.

Reagan suggested they eat in front of the tv and he felt so at home with his feet propped on the coffee table beside hers. The show was a silly comedy and Reagan laughed so hard that it made him laugh. But when the show ended Reagan pushed a button on the remote and flicked the tv off.

"Why don't you say what's on your mind Dean?"

Dean's smile faded from his lips as he turned to her. "We do need to talk."

She waited and her fingers twisted in her lap.

"I need you to understand what my life is like; my job. It's dangerous Reagan. Very dangerous. And it doesn't go away. There's always more to be done."

Dean talked for an hour, explaining to Reagan what a day in the life of Sam and Dean was like. He told her about some of the more prevalent legends, some of the cases he had worked, and of the network of other hunters he had met. It wasn't easy to tell her about how he'd been beaten, electrocuted and a number of other atrocious things.

Reagan never interrupted. She let him speak freely. Her face did, however, alter to reveal the horror she felt at some of his descriptions. She blanched when he described having to dig up graves and salt and burn bones. There was no denying the disappointment on her face when he depicted how they lived off of credit card scams and pool hustling.

"I just need you to know that these things we fight; well we just piss a lot of them off. It tends to make us targets. Being around me can be dangerous. I'm not sure I could handle it if you were somehow threatened."

Reagan asked, "Why do you do it? Why don't you just quit?"

"We save people. It makes it worth it in the long run. And it's how we were raised. It's all I know." Dean shrugged as if he were talking about driving a truck.

"For Sam too?"

"Sam has his own reasons. He quit for awhile when he went to Stanford but he had to come back to it." Dean left it at that. Just as he wouldn't share Reagan's secret, he wouldn't share Sam's. Perhaps one day they would be friends enough to tell each other themselves. "That's another reason why I can't quit. I can't leave Sam alone. We're all the other one has and if something happens to Sammy…I've taken care of him my whole life. I can't lose him."

"I understand that." And Dean knew Reagan did. He couldn't imagine the pain she'd felt losing her sister.

They sat in silence for a full five minutes.

"Reagan, what are you thinking?"

She opened her mouth slowly. "I think I'm going to need some time to digest all of this. It's…it's not what I thought. I…I don't know what I thought but it wasn't this." Her eyes squinted and her mouth tightened in apology.

Dean nodded and stood. "I'm gonna go check on Sam. I'll call you later?"

Reagan absentmindedly nodded. When he reached the door, he glanced at her still sitting on the couch, staring at the coffee table with vacant eyes. Sorrow filled him as he left.

Sam hadn't spoken to him in the last three hours. Dean looked wretched. He was sitting in the far corner of the room staring at the wall just as he had been all afternoon. The hair on his head was dishevled from his hands constantly running through it. There were circles beginning to form under his eyes from anxiety.

He shouldn't have told her. He shouldn't have started anything at all. It would have been best if he'd walked away after bumping into her on that sidewalk. Now, he'd scared her. She was probably scared of him. Dean felt sick to his stomach and the pain sliced through him. Two hours ago, he had phoned her just as he had promised he would. There was no answer and Dean could only assume she didn't want to talk to him. The last year had been hard for him with Reagan as just a distant memory. Now, she was vivid in his mind. He could smell her and taste her even when they were parted. How could he live his life with that torment?

Sam sat at his computer, glancing at Dean in concern every twenty minutes or so. Dean didn't notice. He could only see Reagan's face, filled with fear and disappointment.

There was a knock at the door and the brothers jumped. Dean moved for the first time in hours, his instinct making him alert and wary. Sam strode to the door and looked through the peephole. He glanced at Dean and then opened the door. The visitor was blocked by Sam's tall frame.

"Come in." Sam invited.

Her scent hit him before he saw her. A hint of coconut drifted through the room and Dean's heart raced. Reagan stepped around Sam and looked at Dean shyly.

"Hi."

Sam stood there for a second and said, "Dean, I'm gonna take the car and get some food. I'm starving."

Dean nodded, grateful for his brother's tactful gesture.

"See you later Reagan." Sam nodded at her and left with his coat and keys in hand.

Dean stood up and looked at Reagan. He wanted to take her in his arms and kiss all over her. However, she looked unsure of herself. She glanced around the room and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

"Hi." Dean initiated the conversation.

"Hi." Reagan said.

"I tried to call. You didn't have to ride over here." Dean held a palm up towards the ceiling.

"I've been sitting outside. I must not have heard the phone ring. Besides, I wanted to speak to you in person."

Dean's stomach made nervous flips. "Do you want to sit down?"

Reagan sat on the edge of one of the beds and Dean sat on the other.

"Thanks for letting me have time to think Dean." Reagan began.

"Of course."

"I'm sorry I acted so…freaky."

Dean looked at her in shock. "No. You don't need to be sorry. I hate that I had to tell you all that."

"Why did you tell me?" She asked softly. Her head was tilted to the side as she looked at him.

"I just needed you to know. I don't want to keep secrets from you." Dean's eyes met hers as he answered.

"I appreciate that."

"Do you want us to leave now?"

Reagan shook her head and quickly replied "No."

Dean clasped his hands together as he pressed his elbows onto his knees. "What do we do then?"

"I was hoping we could just take it one step at a time. Figure it out together as we go along."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Did she actually want to stay with him?

When he didn't say anything, she gained a little frustration in her voice. "You know, it's crazy to assume we can make sense of all this in one day."

Dean let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. "You can't know how that makes me feel."

Dean slid over to kneel in front of Reagan. Placing his hands on her knees, he looked up into her face. "It might be tough. You'll have to be patient with me." She nodded. "And if you ever decide you've had enough, I will understand." She nodded again. Her eyes welled with tears.

Reaching his hand up, he cupped her face. "Reagan, I promise to try and be good to you."

As he lifted himself up, she bent down and their lips met in a kiss. Not breaking their connection, they glided up onto the bed. He hovered over her. His kisses were unhurried and Reagan's lips touched all over his face; his forehead, eyelids, nose, cheekbones and chin. She kissed him like he was something delicate and precious. Dean's chest constricted as sharp pangs shot forward and back. This moment felt absolutely beautiful and Dean had never thought that before with a woman.

They removed each other's clothes carefully before laying back down on top of the linens. Lying on their sides, they faced one another. Their faces and bodies were mere inches apart. Reagan shivered as Dean took in every part of her, from her beautiful blonde hair spilling across the pillow to her little crooked toes, which he found so endearing.

They kissed and fondled slowly. Dean lifted Reagan's leg and draped it over his hip as he shifted to place himself at her entrance. Just when he was poised to delve inside of her, Reagan touched his face.

"Dean…I love you."

Bliss flooded his entire form; it stretched into his brain and wove through his chest.

He stared straight into her eyes, dark blue with emotion, and pushed himself inside her as he spoke, "I love you too."

It was unlike any of their previous couplings. It was measured and sweet. Dean was tender and Reagan was yielding. They moved in harmony; watching each other, breathing in the other's breath.

When they released, it was simultaneous and they held each other through the afterglow.

Dean could now say he'd made love to a woman.

"Is this real? Is it really possible?" Dean asked in wonder. He stroked the back of his index finger down the length of Reagan's jaw.

"What?"

"To fall in love so fast. I didn't know people could."

Reagan gave him a devoted look. "I don't know about other people. I only know about us and how I feel. I know I love you. I think I've known for a year now but didn't realize it until today."

Dean agreed. "I've never been in love before. I thought I had but it was nothing compared to this."

And he knew it to be true as he spoke the words. Reagan felt like everything to him. All the dreams he'd had of an ideal woman, she fit all the roles: a lover, a friend, a companion, a playmate. She could be all of those things. He made a silent vow to make it work. Somehow, it had to work.

"We should go before Sam gets back." Dean said.

"Oh yes I agree! That would be awkward." Reagan made a face showing all her teeth clenched in embarrassment.

Dean laughed. She always knew how to lighten the mood.