Side note: One of my favorite Dean and Lizzy convos ever!

"Alright, what are we doing?" Dean asks once they hit the main highway and he has an idea of where he's going. This whole mystery trip is weird to him, the way he was shoved out of the cabin for Sam and Lou to call on Crowley. He has no idea what his part in all this is.

Lizzy looks up from her phone where she's doing yet more research. "We are on bone duty."

Dean blinks once while remaining frozen in his seat before his eyes slide to the side to look at her. "I get the feeling we're not talking about the good kinda bone duty."

Lizzy just grins. "We're getting the bone of a human that was purely light and good for the weapon while Sam and Lou handle the blood part."

"Wait, they're gonna get Crowley and an Alpha's blood on their own!?" Dean wonders with shock.

"Yeah…."

"And we just need to dig up a bone?"

"That pretty much sums it up, yeah," Lizzy answers him with obviousness.

Dean instantly looks pissed off.

"Dean, don't start…." she tries to prevent the upset but it's too late.

"So they're gonna drain an alpha and the King of Hell… while we just do some easy ass milk run?"

"Yes. Absolutely," Lizzy answers back, voice certain.

"I don't like it," Dean tells her. "I should be there. Backing them up."

"Sam and Lou can back each other up. They're damn good hunters."

"And another hunter can't hurt when going up against that kind of evil!"

"Shh!" Lizzy shushes him right away, looking back behind her to see Sammy luckily unmoving. He's absolutely knocked out after the day he's had.

Dean grits his teeth and grabs the wheel hard. White knuckles and jaw jutting, he's clearly angry and not even trying to hide it.

"They have the flask too," Lizzy reminds him. "If they need backup then Bobby'll help them."

Dean's still quiet.

"This is exactly what we said we would be working on, Hot Shot," Lizzy has to remind him. "You and Me. We said we're not separating anymore, not for long periods of time."

He doesn't flinch.

"And Sammy's with us," she keeps trying. "You wanna summon Crowley with him there? Or find an alpha and what? Pop our son in a Baby Bjorn while we hunt it down?"

"What the hell is a Baby Bjorn?" Dean slowly asks with disdain as he turns to her with a face of disgust.

"Not the point," she brushes aside. "We got the easy task this one time because we're parents."

Dean loosens up once she reminds him of that. "I'm still getting used to that."

"Well, you better get used to not putting yourself in the position to die anymore," Lizzy tells him. "We have to be there for Sammy. That's a priority."

He doesn't respond, just sits with the reality of his life. He's been charging at evil straight on his whole life and he's had his close calls. And then he thinks about the way he was raised and how he wants Sammy to have a completely different experience. Sammy should have two parents.

Guilt. Yet more guilt. Just what he needed.

"And… it's not easy. I get it," Lizzy explains to him. "I stopped hunting when he was born and… sometimes I miss it."

He's shocked by this. "I thought you always wanted out."

"I did. Still do. I just… I miss the adrenaline," she gets very honest. "I miss the actual hunt. Ugh, and I miss punching things so bad!"

"Punching things is so satisfying," Dean agrees.

"I know!" She sighs. "But Sammy trumps it all. I don't love beating the shit out of monsters more than I love that little face. And the idea of dying and not being there for him? Way scarier than it's ever been. I don't want to leave him."

Nodding absently, Dean realizes how right she is. He doesn't know anything outside of hunting but now he has to. He has no choice. He can't do that to Sammy. He can't keep this life up and guarantee that he won't get killed. And what a terrible influence. He keeps going like this and the line between he and John will only get thinner and thinner.

"You alright?" Lizzy asks after she allows him to be in his own head for a bit. She knows he needs that now and then, to think things through in his own way and for her to let it happen. Generally she likes the conclusions he reaches when he has time.

He glances at her. "Yeah." He clears his throat. "Yeah. Just, you know… getting used to the idea."

"Domestic Dean," Lizzy jokes a little and smirks at him.

"What is that?" he scrunches his face.

"It's your new label. Domestic Dean," she jokes.

"And why is it that we're labeling me?" Dean asks, eyes narrowed with the awkwardness.

"You know… because that's what people do to us," Lizzy says like it's nothing.

He doesn't know what to say to that as he's completely lost. Dean turns his head and fixes her with a lost look.

And she remembers. "Shit… you wouldn't know about that because of how good you are with denial," Lizzy accepts her fate right there. She has to fess up. "Ok, so… I've been bored a lot lately."

"Ok…." Dean trails off while looking out the windshield, still confused.

"And so, I figured, I wanted to read a little. For fun. Not for work. My brain is fried with the Bible and copies of Bobby's old volumes."

"Sounds fair," he responds, still waiting for it.

"So I went online and looked up the Supernatural book series."

"L…" he immediately complains.

"Don't do that!" she points at him. "You never even really read a single one of them."

"I read enough," he tells her, remembering the far too detailed retelling of he and Lizzy's first night together, full frontal and all.

"You read just the sex parts, didn't you?" she challenges, knowing her husband well enough.

He doesn't answer and therefore confirms it for her.

"Ok, so Chuck kind of sucks at writing sex…" she starts.

"No shit," Dean interrupts, agreeing.

"But the rest of it wasn't so bad."

"Why the hell would you want to read those? You lived it."

"Exactly," she grins. "I lived it. And who in this world gets to read their own memories, preserved perfectly in words? It's better than pictures, it's better than videos… it's every thought, feeling, and experience we had perfectly captured. I wanted to relive some of us and our relationship when you weren't around… and when we weren't working."

"Why?"

"Because… I wanted a reminder of what I might lose. And I wanted to be sure I was willing to lose it."

Dean hums a grumbling sound, her answers always too good. He can't ever rebut them.

"So I went to search for some of the books," she continues. "Maybe get some used ones on Amazon or something… and what popped up was… interesting."

His heart skips. That could mean anything. He somewhat knows what's out there.

"You ever heard of fanfiction?"

"Jesus Christ…" Dean hangs his head for a split second. "Don't tell me you read that crap."

"Ok… I won't tell you then," Lizzy answers and Dean groans from deep with true discomfort. "Now, before you go judging the shit outta me…"

"Too late."

"Just hear me out," Lizzy asks of him, knowing he's already built a brick wall between this subject and himself. "Honestly, most of it was crap. I mean, the amount of gay sex these people write…."

"Whoa!" Dean stops her right away. "Gay… what!?"

"Oh yeah. Tons of it. Apparently I'm just a distraction, keeping you from your true love of your brother."

The horrified look on Dean's face makes her giggle. "We're brothers! Why can't anyone seem to understand that!?"

"Two exceptionally hot, extremely gorgeous guys that look nothing alike getting it on? Gee, I can't seem to figure out why people would fantasize about that." Her tone is caustic and earns her one seriously pissed off expression. "Relax, these days the whole Wincest thing seems pretty played out for the most part."

"Win…" he starts to repeat the word but just can't get it out. "You're gonna go ahead and do that whole shutting the hell up thing now."

"You know that's not gonna happen," she laughs again at him. "Mostly what people are writing these days is straight Dean and Cass stories. Well, maybe straight was the wrong word…."

"What. The hell. Are you talking about?" Dean asks, his stomach in knots.

"Oh. Fans seem pretty convinced that you and Cass are an item. Unrequited love and all that."

Looking to the roof of the car for a brief moment, Dean counts to ten before saying, "That's asinine."

"Well, he is hot. Or… Jimmy is. And he is your best friend," Lizzy points out.

"No, he's not," Dean huffs a laugh at the idea. His best friend. An angel. Crazy.

"You sure about that?" Lizzy patronizes, knowing she's totally right.

"Cass is not my best friend."

"Who is then?" Lizzy wonders. "And don't say Sam, huh? Co-dependent brother is his proper label and it's weird enough as it is."

"You and Lou are worse!"

"Never said we weren't," she quickly comments and keeps him on track. "Best friend. Who?"

Dean thinks about it quickly. "You."

"Nope. Can't be your wife. You fuck your wife. You don't fuck your best friend."

"Apparently I do…," he dryly jokes.

Lizzy nearly busts a gut at the funny comment. "See! He's your bestie for life. You and Cass are best friends. You depend on him, he needs you. There's a love there, man. Bromance, all the way."

"No," Dean shakes his head. "I mean, sure, Cass is a friend. He's been there for me. But he's fucked up a lot too."

"And you never turned him away," she points out. "In fact, you even helped him after he broke Sam's brain. You gave him forgiveness. That sounds like a best friend."

"No. No… it's not…. Like… shit," Dean gives in, realizing halfway through his denial that it was just that; denial. Castiel, angel of the Lord, is his best friend. "What is my life?"

"Very weird," Lizzy says with too much enjoyment. "But because of your 'profound bond', which is a term that people love to quote, fanfic writers desperately want you to dump my ass and get with the sexy trench-coated angel with a deep baritone and some tousled bedhead."

Dean shifts uncomfortably. "Gross."

Lizzy just laughs at him. "But relax, there are other, uh, interests out there. Oh, for example, a lot of people are into Lezzy."

"Lezzy?"

"Lesbian Lizzy."

"Really?" Dean lights up now, his tone completely changing.

"Absolutely. You're not the only one on the hook here. Some writers think I make a great lesbian… especially when I'm with Lou. Or, the more popular one, some chick named Charlie… I don't know who that is though."

"We met her when digging into the Dick Roman Death Star. She's a computer nerd."

"Is she cute?" Lizzy wants to know.

"She's… like a little sister type. Annoying but, like… oddly adorable." Dean thinks it over quickly. "Actually, she does dig chicks."

"Oh yeah?" Lizzy asks with pure curiosity.

"Yeah. And she'd totally dig you," Dean lets her know, looking her over once. Charlie would love her. He's sure of it.

"Huh…." Lizzy nods, the whole thing not really bothering her all that much. People interpret things their own way and are letting out creativity. Whatever.

"Lesbian Lizzy. Well, see now… that's not so bad," Dean comments, lightening his mood.

"But some of it's with Lou. She's my sister."

"Yeah, but can you blame them? I mean, I can't figure out why anyone would want to see two hot chick together…."

"I get your point," she smiles at his turning it all around and quoting her former rebuttal back to her. "But there's stories about everything, not just sex. Lou as a vampire not dying and having a relationship with Sam while still a bloodsucker. Us having a really sweet and regular life with a whole bunch of kids. Ones where I'm an angel and you're a demon and we have an angel-demon hybrid baby…."

"Me a demon?" Dean scoffs. "That'll be the day."

"I know, right?" Lizzy laughs quietly at the absurd idea. "But, I gotta say, there's an uncomfortably huge amount of BDSM stories."

Dean's face changes, interest piqued. "Like whips and chains?"

"Like the real deal," Lizzy nods. "People fixate on that shit. I blame Fifty Shades, honestly."

"Huh…."

"I personally liked the one where Cass brings you to a BDSM club and keeps you on a leash the whole time, like a dog…."

"No, no," Dean immediately tries to stop her.

"And you're his sub and you listen to him like an obedient puppy…

"Nuh-uh. You're done talking…."

"And then he fucks you in front of the whole club…."

"Dude!" Dean gets angry again.

"And he makes you call him master the whole time."

Dean fixes her with a cold, angry stare and she just simply smiles wide. "Stop reading that shit, L! It'll rot your brain!"

Lizzy's near hysterical in the seat next to him with his horror over everything. She knew he had to find out sooner or later and she definitely wanted to be involved in it. His face makes it all worth it.

"Jesus. What is wrong with you?" Dean asks her.

"Curiosity is a hell of a thing," she laughs and winds down. "But I'll be honest. I mostly just read summaries and was too afraid to actually read the stories. Man, a lot of smut going on online."

"Yeah, because it's the internet. Its main use is sex."

She considers this. "Very true."

Lizzy revels in her happiness for a moment as Dean grows very quiet. After some time he actually speaks up. "That's all backwards, anyways."

Lizzy snaps her head to the side with a very interested look. "What is?"

"The whole… Cass thing."

"Just, the whole you two being together thing? Because yeah, I'll admit, it's super weird."

"No the… you know… Cass being the one to… be all…," Dean tries to explain but whenever he hits a word he refuses to say he stops. In the end he just waves his hand in the air and gives up.

And it clicks with Lizzy what he's trying to tell her. "You're an idiot."

"What? Why?"

"I know what you're trying to say," she tells him. "You're saying that you'd be the one fucking Cass and being all dominating because the other way around is absurd."

She can still read his mind. Dean answers by not saying a word.

"Ha! No fucking way, man," Lizzy shakes her head.

"Yes way!" Dean fights her, already insulted.

"No! You're so wrong!"

"I'm not letting Cass… do that!"

"Dean, if you and Cass ever hooked up do you really think that an angel, a warrior of God with some of the strongest powers in the universe, would be topped by a mere human? I don't think so!"

"Who the hell are you calling a mere human!?" Dean gets upset all over again. "You know I'm no mere human in the sack."

"Not the point," Lizzy shakes her head, loving that she's making such words come out of Dean Winchester's mouth. "Cass would fuck you into oblivion. Hell, he might even be like Superman. You might not even be able to survive it." She lets out a big laugh. "He'd probably fuck you to death, ha!"

"Why are we even talking about Cass having sex with me like Superman!?"

"Because you brought it up!"

"No I didn't!"

"You said if you and Cass hooked up that you'd be the one fucking him…."

"Only because you brought up us fucking in the first place!"

Lizzy thinks a quick second. "Oh, right," she calmly remembers.

"I don't want to talk about Cass… and sex… and me. Ever!" Dean declares and ends the whole thing where it is with his hands waving through the air above the steering wheel with anger.

Lizzy just laughs hard in her seat. "Fine," she giggles out, wiping her eyes when it's all too much. "But the point was that people are writing all different versions of us. And some it wasn't so bad. Domestic Dean was a good guy. I liked him."

"The whole thing sounds terrible," Dean counters, not wanting anything to do with it if it's all sex with angels.

"Well, I read a couple with no gay sex or weirdness," Lizzy defends. "And… they were nice."

"How could any of that be nice?"

Lizzy smiles sadly. "Some people are on our side and like to pretend we got out. Some people erase our pasts and… we're so happy." She laughs and fights the lump in her throat. "In one story, Sammy had a little brother. And you were a mechanic. I helped out that the kids' school. Sam and Lou lived next door and had a daughter…. We tucked our boys in at night and knew they were safe. No salt, no guns, no demons. We were civilians and there was no evil. Just us and our boys."

The longing in her voice crushes him and the entire mood in the car shifts. All the things she wants so desperately are all the things he can't quite give her. And clearly even fans of the book series see how badly she deserves a better life.

"Life will never be like that," Dean has to remind her, as much as it hurts to.

"I know that…."

"But it'll get better. I'm gonna get us somewhere better," Dean says with all the confidence in the world. "It might take time. It might not be perfect when we do get there… but I'll get us somewhere good. Count on it."

Lizzy smiles over at him. "I know, baby. I know you will."

"Do you?" Dean has to check, needing her to truly believe in him about this. "Because L, I'm gonna do it. I'd do anything for you and Sammy. Anything."

"And I couldn't love you more for that," Lizzy nods, a syrupy sweet grin on her face. "It's just… the waiting to get there is just really hard."

Dean nods, understanding that. "I'm tired as hell, too."

"Exhausted," Lizzy adds in. "Maybe we just focus on putting one foot in front of us at a time. First, get a nun bone. Then, get back and make a weapon."

"Then… I'm stabbing Dick fucking Roman in his smug, friggin' face," Dean gets dark when he says it.

Lizzy peers at him funny. "I thought it was me that promised Dick I'd be the one to kill him."

"You're not going anywhere near him," Dean tells her and Lizzy's eyes widen.

"Thought we were getting past this," she starts cautiously, not wanting to start a fight but needing him to lighten up on such issues.

"It's not about you," Dean says to her quickly, also not wanting a fight. "It's about Sammy. If one of us has to do this and goes down in the process then it's gotta be me."

"Why?" Lizzy asks, shocked with the statement.

"Because you're his mother,' Dean tells her. "Because he needs you more than he needs me. I die then I know what will happen."

"What?" Lizzy challenges.

"You'll throw yourself into raising him. You'll hide away, make a life, you'll give him everything he could ever need and then some and he'll turn out great… and nothing like Sammy and me."

"And if I died instead?" she wonders.

Dean shakes his head. "Then I'm scared to death that he'll be just like me. And I'll raise him like dad raised us."

"You learned from John, though," Lizzy points out. "You learned from his mistakes…."

"But when I'm put into those shoes, losing you will end me," Dean tells her honestly. "And Sammy… he'll have no chance. You gotta stay behind and stay with him. It's not for me and it's not because I think you can't handle it." He glances at her. "I know you can. I know you want to kill Dick dead and you could absolutely pull it off… but Sammy? He needs you. I need you to stay with him."

Lizzy sighs heavily.

"Don't be mad at me for that," Dean asks of her once she's quiet for a moment.

"I'm not," she tells him with truth. "I just… the idea of going right back into watching you leave and not knowing what's going to happen…."

"I know," Dean tells her. "And I want it to be different."

"We do what we have to," Lizzy reminds. "Sammy comes first."

"One thing we've never disagreed on," Dean comments happily.

"And… if I have to stay behind I will," Lizzy tells him. "But you better come back to me."

Dean nods and grows silent, the car filled with only the car engine and the low volume of the local classic rock station. They're both aware of how bad this could get. They just don't know what else to say within the life that won't change and let them just be safe and together.

"You ready?" Lou asks as she stands by the table in the cabin, box of matches in hand. She has one ready to strike.

Sam just nods once, gripping Ruby's knife a little tighter.

"Et ad congregandum eos coram me," Lou says the spell and lights the match, dropping it into the prepared gold bowl.

Flames rise from the bowl, smoke filling the room, and when it dissipates Crowley is standing there in the middle of the devil's trap in the center of the cabin's splintered wooden floor.

The King looks around at the dusty place and groans. "Would it kill you people to clean before summoning royalty? I mean, where's the pride…?"

When he turns around he sees the two hunters staring at him unimpressed. He sighs.

"Hello… boy," he snarks at Sam and then looks to Lou. His disappointed expression disappears completely. "And good day to you, darling." He bows slightly in a showy way, Lou scrunching her face at him. "And to what do I owe the pleasure of being in your fine presence today?"

Both shift uncomfortably with his sudden change in demeanor. He's slightly pleasant now and the King of Hell is rarely pleasant.

"We need something," Sam answers shortly, already irked by Crowley's presence alone. Combine that with the way Crowley is looking at Lou and he's already done with this visit.

"Not surprised," Crowley comments and Sam's brow lowers. "So, what's the craic? I assume this has everything to do with a certain quite powerful… Dick."

Lou rolls her eyes. "Good guess. We wanna ice him."

"Dick Roman? You know how to kill Dick Roman?" Crowley asks, looking back and forth between the two of them, both staring back at him with straight faces. "Well, Moosie. You and the Moosette here never cease to surprise. Figured you'd be spinning those wheels for a while longer but it seems the addition of your long lost love has really upped the I.Q. around here."

Once more Lou makes a confused and unhappy face at him for the out of place compliment that comes her way. "We need your help for the weapon."

"Of course you do," he rolls his eyes, not liking this one bit. "So, that's what all the rumble-rumble was about."

"We need your blood." Sam stands a little taller after walking a step closer to Lou out of instinct.

Crowley narrows his eyes up at him. "Why?"

"It's just part of what we need," Lou sharply explains. "We need the blood of a fallen angel, an Alpha… and your ass."

"I see…" the demon thinks it over. "Quite the potent mix we're talking."

"You gonna give us the blood or not?" Lou gets impatient with him, his arrogance irking her the longer he's around.

"Happily, my dear… but not quite yet," Crowley smiles, wagging a finger. "I'm all for chopping Dick, but I can't have you running around with a vial of my blood, now, can I? You know the sheer number of nefarious spells my enemies can use that blood for?"

"When?" Sam asks.

"Last." Crowley already sees what he has to do. "After you've got all the other components you get my goods."

"No problem," Lou comments with sheer overconfidence.

"Really?" Crowley surprises.

"We can handle it."

"It won't be easy. Most difficult, the angel part, I'm assuming. Given your overgrown boyfriend and his lover-brother's role in their little apocalypse, I can't imagine the choirboys upstairs are wetting their vestments to do you… what's the word… a solid. Unless, of course, you have an angel up your sleeve." He eyes them hard, still pissed at Castiel for screwing him over completely and hoping they've seen him around.

"That'd be convenient, but… no." Sam lies his face off to cover Castiel's tracks for as long as he can.

"Don't worry about it, dude," Lou tries to appease the demon. "We'll get the angel blood one way or another. We just need your ugly mug to show the next time we call, capiche?"

"Such a sharp tongue for such a lovely specimen," Crowley quickly comments and moves on. "Fine."

"Fine," Lou snaps right back.

"Oh, here's a tip," Crowley tells them quickly. "I have it on good authority there's one Alpha still among us."

"Whose authority?" Sam asks, confused. Cass killed all the Alphas.

"Mine," Crowley answers with obviousness. "Wily character, that Alpha vampire. Somehow made good with his prison break before Cass went nuclear on the place."

"And you know this for sure how?" Sam has to be certain.

"Keep your friends close, your enemies… blah-blah," Crowley answers. "I mean, you two did call on me yet again, did you not?" They angrily stay quiet with the good point he makes. "Needless to say, I keep tabs. He moves around quite a bit. But I have an inkling I know where to start the Easter-egg hunt. Happy trails." He turns to Lou and winks. "Try and call me when the Moose isn't around next time, darling. We'll have a chat. I'll bring the Craig."

Crowley disappear.

"Uh, hello?! Where do we start?!" Sam calls out into the air when Crowley never told them where they could start looking.

Immediately, flames burst out on the table. They roar for a few seconds before dying down on their own. Once they're out, there is a location left behind.

"Hoople, North Dakota," Sam reads.

"Piece of paper would have worked," Lou bitches.

"Alright," Sam nods. "We got a lead. Let's go."

Lou smiles wide. "Sweet," she cheers evenly as she walks for the back room she and Sam share. She picks up her yet-to-be-unpacked duffle and slings it over her should. "So excited to see some fucking action."

"Baby poop is some pretty scary action," Sam laughs and pulls his own bag over his shoulder and picks up a weapon filled bag.

"Not the same," Lou tells him, her mood immensely improved now that she's going to be out on the road hunting again.

"Come on," Sam says to her. "I think it's like a half day drive or more."

"The sooner we get this shit and call back Crowley, the sooner I don't have to see that little shit again," Lou says, getting such a slimy feel from the demon. "Dude, does he seriously have, like, a thing for me or something?"

"Definitely," Sam huffs a laugh as he opens the front door for her.

"That's funny to you?" Lou pauses and asks.

"That I have the one thing the King of friggin' Hell can't even have?" Sam smirks knowingly.

Lou smiles wide at that, seeing it from his angle. As she passes him and he shuts the door, she tells him, "Alright, that's pretty funny."

"What do we think?" Lizzy asks her son as they walk the aisles of the Gas N' Sip on a food break. She is holding his hands over his head as he's walking in front of her with her assistance. "We want… chicken and carrots?"

Sammy just makes a babbling sound as he marches aimlessly on through the store, almost ready to take some steps on his own but not quite there yet.

"Or maybe beef and peas?" Lizzy keeps talking, looking for the limited baby food selection if the convenience stop even has one.

"Looks like it's either green beans, carrots, or bananas," Dean tells her as they round the aisle corner and find him crouched on the floor looking through the minimal jars on a bottom shelf. "That's all they got."

"Damn," Lizzy sighs. "He can't have green beans."

"I certainly don't wanna drive around with a sink bomb in the back seat," Dean comments, knowing the smelly results of giving his son green beans. "Alright. Carrots and bananas it is."

"And I'll grab some apple sauce," Lizzy tells him once he's placed a few jars of each food into a shopping basket by his feet. Sammy walks with his mom right for Dean and by the time he reaches him Dean's arms are wide open for him.

"Slow down, lead foot," Dean jokes around with Sammy when the boy picks up speed once he was headed right for his dad. Sammy lets go of Lizzy and grabs Dean's jeans to hang on. "What about Cheerios?"

"Good idea," Lizzy nods, walking to another aisle to get cereal and apple sauce. "What about us?"

"Yeah, we should probably eat too, huh?" Dean says as he picks up Sammy. He pops him on his hip and holds him with one arm, carrying the shopping basket in the other.

"Definitely, I'm starving," Lizzy speaks over the aisles.

"So… burrito or hotdog?" Dean says and he hears her groan with disgust. He laughs at her and looks at Sammy. "Did momma get used to having a kitchen for so long that she's a fast food snob now?"

"Momma is sick of sodium packed pigs' anuses," she calls over and Dean laughs a little.

"Burrito it is then," he assumes and heads for the prepared food corner of the mart, hoping there's maybe some prepacked sandwiches there instead. When he turns around he stops short and watches the man already over there for a moment. His behavior is all off as he puts mustard on his hotdog. "Hey. L."

"Yeah?" she answers as she comes over to him, dropping some items in the basket he holds.

"Check out that guy over there," Dean nods to mustard man. "He seem a little out of it to you?"

"Huh," Lizzy hums as she observes him layering endless amounts of mustard onto his hotdog from the pump, seemingly so dazed he doesn't realize what he's doing. "I don't know. Maybe a little."

Dean's getting an odd feeling. He looks around the store and catches a portly woman with white hair staring into a wide open cooler of cold beer. "What about Paula Deen over here?"

She looks and catches exactly what Dean did. The woman just stares vacantly into the cooler, the cold air not effecting her at all and she makes no move to take a beverage. "Yeah, uh… they look…." She turns back and checks on mustard man. He still hasn't moved, the only thing having changed is the size of the mustard mountain on his hot dog. "Stoned to hell." She looks at him with a smile. "Wonder where they got their shit. It looks like it's good."

"They look like the Turducken people," Dean comments, looking out the big store front windows to see a man slowly struggling to put the key in his car door to unlock it in the parking lot. He munching on a burrito and he can't focus on the task at hand. "What the hell is going on?"

"No idea," Lizzy responds. She watches Dean drop his basket on the floor and take out his phone as clearly he knows something is happening. "Sam?"

"Yeah," he answers quickly as the line rings.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Sam pulls his phone out of his back pocket when it rings. He looks at the number and right away answers it. "You guys run into trouble already?"

"Crap," Lou worries from the driver's seat.

"Not sure. You guys driving?"

"Yeah."

"You got a place to pull over… a busy, public place?"

Sam looks ahead and sees a sign for a plaza coming up on the two lane route. He points to it. "Pull in there," he tells Lou.

"Why?" she asks despite her blinker already on.

"Dean, why are we pulling into a shopping plaza?" Sam asks.

"I want you to get out of the car and go into a store."

"What store?"

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"Any store, I don't care," Dean gets short with him the more he looks around. He walks around the front of the store while on the phone and observes a little more. The cashier is sitting on the counter while watching the small television rigged to the corner of the wall, the only thing on it being the security footage in black and white. He watches as if it's an action flick, his mind enthralled as he chews away at a big wad of gum.

"Seriously, dude. What's happening?"

"Something big, maybe. Just do it, Sammy," Dean tells him, looking back at Lizzy and seeing her face. It's starting to settle in. Whatever this is it's huge and she can also tell.

Dean waits and listens as Lou and Sam get out of their car and walk to the nearest store.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"What's the point of this?" Lou asks impatiently. "We gotta get going. Time's a-wasting."

"Just go with it," Sam tells her, looking around as he knows that Dean would never ask him to do this if it wasn't for good reason. They walk into a small, local grocery store in the middle of a small town. "Ok. We're in a grocery store," Sam tells his brother.

"Look around."

"Uh, ok…."

"Just do it. Both of you look around and tell me what you're seeing."

"Look around the place," Sam tells Lou and she crosses her arms over her chest, annoyed. "Just do it. For me."

Lou rolls her eyes and starts walking. They get through the produce section and find nothing off, no people even around. When they head back into the bakery section Sam stiffens his posture and pauses.

"What?" Lou asks.

Sam points to a man standing in front of the donut and muffin display, a donut half eaten as he stares at the baked goods barely moving. He looks zombified, powdered sugar all over his mouth as she chews without thinking and takes another massive bite. Jelly dribbles onto his shirt and he doesn't even notice.

"Whoa. He ok?" Lou asks, ready to step over and ask him if he needs help but Sam grabs her upper arm and pulls her back. "What?"

"Look around," Sam tells her. "They're all whacked out."

The deli attendant is shoving slices of ham into his mouth and leaning into the counter behind the meat cases. There's a woman eating a lollipop and continually pushing her shopping cart around and around a cheese display at a slow pace, never stopping. Another woman drinking a to-go coffee is so dazed she doesn't see the cart of produce in front of her and walks right into it, spilling apples, oranges, and lemons everywhere.

No one else in the store even flinches with the noise.

"Shit," Sam quietly says with fright.

"It's happening there too?"

"Yeah," Sam tells Dean. "It's starting."

"What is?" Lou asks.

"What's starting!? What the hell is this?"

Sam picks up a package of cookies nearby and reads the label. Exactly what he though. He explains it to both Dean on the phone and Lou next to him. "It's the corn syrup. Practically everything in the store is laced with it."

"So what?"

"So… Dick. He bought Sucro Corp," Sam says to his brother and Lou makes a face of recognition, remembering the video Sam showed her earlier in the day. Dick's already all over the corn syrup propaganda.

"And!?"

"And… he screwed with the corn syrup. It's part of his whole plan," Sam explains to him, putting the cookies down. "It's the same as the Turducken thing you ate from Biggerson's a few months back. They're gonna get us all high on the food, we're gonna be compliant, eat mindlessly, get fat…."

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"The perfect herd," Dean finishes as he looks down at his basket. He lifts the slice of cherry piece he put into it and reads the label. Corn syrup. "They fucked with everything?"

"Oh yeah."

"Hey, man, I'm gonna go into toxic shock, okay? I need my road food."

"That's what Roman is banking on."

"Hey. Hey," Dean gets a flash of hope as he keeps reading the pie label. "My pie says natural on it. That means it's safe. Right?"

He hears Sam sigh.

"Dean, put the pie down."

"But it says…."

"I hate to break it to you, but corn syrup is natural… technically."

Groaning with upset, Dean puts the pie back on the bakery display. He looks back into his basket and eyes Sammy's food. "Well, then what the hell are we supposed to eat?"

"Nothing processed, canned, with sugar in it… basically, you have to eat fruits and vegetables."

Dean's eyes slam shut with frustration. "I'm a warrior, Sam..."

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"Well, now you're a rabbit, Dean," Sam smirks slightly to himself over Dean's personal horror.

"What about Sammy? He can't eat baby food if he can't eat anything jarred."

"Or cereal."

He just makes out Lizzy's lament. Cheerios have been all their saving grace. If Sammy's cranky, hungry, bored, whatever she's always been able to hand over a small pile of Cheerios and Sammy is a happy boy.

"No Cheerios. And don't let him eat the baby food for sure!" Sam gets worried and so does Lou when she hears him say it.

She grabs the phone out of his hand. "Dean?"

"Lou?"

"Ok, listen up. When we were living in one place for a little while Lizard and I were making Sammy's baby food now and then."

"Seriously?"

"It's healthier and I was bored so I started doing it," she shrugs it off. "Just get a food processor and Lizzy will buy the produce she needs. Find a motel and make him everything from scratch. She knows how. And in the meantime he can eat things like bananas and strawberries."

"Ok, we'll try and hold him over until we get there."

"Hang in there," Lou tells him. "And don't eat anything stupid!"

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Dean just sigh, looking at his pie he put back longingly.

"Suck it up, dude."

He rolls his eyes with Lou's directive. "Watch your backs," Dean says to Lou and hangs up. He takes one look at Sammy and the little boy locks eyes with him. "We're gonna starve."

Sammy just giggles at him and reaches for his dad's moving mouth as Dean walks for his wife.

"What can we even eat?"

With a hesitant and apologetic face, Lizzy hold up a new basket, the old one ditched when they couldn't buy any of it. In the basket is a bunch of bananas, a carton of blueberries, some bagged baby carrots, and some bottles of water.

"Son of a…."

"We'll survive," Lizzy tells him. She heads for the cashier, avoiding the conversation from hell with Dean. She reaches the cashier and greets him. "Hi there."

He doesn't look down from the security monitor.

"Hello?" she tries again and he still doesn't move. She waves her hand in front of his face and slowly his eyes drift to her. "Hi, hon. Can we check out?"

The teen looks at her in his Gas N' Sip vest, no reaction whatsoever. He then takes his time in looking back up at the monitor and then back to her. He smiles languidly.

"Are you ok, kid?" Dean asks from behind Lizzy.

He laughs a purely stoner laugh as he points up at the monitor. They look and they see themselves on it. The fact that they're on the monitor is blowing the teenage clerk's mind.

"Jesus," Dean shakes his head and taps Lizzy's shoulder. "Let's go."

"And not pay?" she asks.

"Would he notice?" Dean points out.

Lizzy sees the opportunity and takes it. They were pretty cash-poor right now anyways. "Good point. Let's roll."

Crowley's got a crush, hm? ;)