Ok, now I know that I just have to bribe you guys for reviews. Good to know. Haha. Thank you all so much for all the reviews and alerts and favorites. :)

"Cheers, man."

Jo silently entered Dean's room early that morning and woke him up at 7:00 am sharp. "It's quite a drive to Seattle. We need to get an early start." That's what she said, but Dean wasn't buying it. He saw that smug smirk on her face when she poured a glass of ice cold water on his sleeping form. Sadistic, that's what it was. That or she just wanted to see him soaking wet. Either option was likely in the foggy mind of a half-asleep Dean. She didn't wake up Sam that way; that was for sure.

He tried to shake some of the water from his hair. He would get his revenge, he vowed. Just as that thought was crossing his mind, he remembered she mentioned breakfast. Revenge could wait. Besides, she still owed him a favor from their pool tournament last night.

Shortly thereafter, he sauntered down the stairs in a pair of well worn jeans and a black tee shirt just as Jo was taking her seat. On the table sat pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs, with orange juice, milk, and coffee.

"Dean, there you are." Ellen called in greeting, "Come. Sit. Eat."

"Yeah, Dean. This food is amazing!" Alec agreed enthusiastically between shoveling fork-fulls of egg into his mouth. Dean, never one to turn down a meal from Ellen, readily sat down in the closest out of the two empty chairs. It just happened to also be the one next to Jo. From her close proximity, she could clearly see that he still had some residual water droplets sprinkled throughout his hair and that it was still somewhat wet from her visit earlier that morning and couldn't fight the smile that broke out. Her sun kissed hair fell like a curtain in front of her face as she playfully ducked her head when Dean shot a light hearted glare in her direction. Alec had been down the hall while Dean's unexpected shower had been taking place, but thanks to transgenic hearing, he had a pretty good idea of why Jo was smiling.

With everyone talking and laughing all throughout the meal, the seven of them almost forgot about the mission ahead of them for a while and simply enjoyed each other's company. Ellen was the first to break the spell. She looked reluctant to send her baby away again but she knew that it was necessary, no matter how painful.

She rose from her seat and cleared her throat. "If you guys want to make it to Washington by nightfall, you had better get going." She advised with a fake smile. The group stood up and grabbed their bags with sad smiles as well. They weren't getting off without a proper goodbye, however.

"Now, Bobby, you take care of my little girl, same goes for you boys. I don't want to have to deal with any of you getting' yourselves hurt. Alec, good luck. Make those SOB's pay for what they're doing." Ellen leveled a concerned glare at them all until they promised to be careful. They quickly finished saying their own good bye's and the five hit the road.

Out in the parking lot, Jo grabbed her bag of weaponry and said farewell to her beloved truck. She instead rode with Bobby in his with Alec's bike riding proudly in the bed. Sam, Dean, and Alec took the Impala for the trip. Before the left, they put a walkie talkie in each vehicle so they could communicate easily through the trip. They spent a good portion of time brainstorming ideas for how to take down Manticore and discussed the best way to eliminate the familiars in the process, but mostly, the radios were used to facilitate Dean and Jo flirting from a distance. Sam had fallen asleep after the planning faze was complete and around the time they crossed into Idaho, Bobby declared a radio silence, apparently fed up with having to listen to Jo and Dean never shut up. At which point, Alec decided he might as well bring up the subject of the lively young blonde in the other car since she was obviously the only thing on his counter-part's mind, if the scowl he'd been wearing ever since Bobby's last transmission was anything to go by.

"So you're into Jo?" The handsome transgenic asked while pretending to be preoccupied with eating one of the many sandwiches Ellen had packed for them.

The question pierced through the fog covering the Winchester's mind and caught him a bit off guard, not that he let it show. He threw his clone a skeptical glance.

"Nah, she's not really my type." He lied with ease. He was a professional after all.

Alec stifled a laugh, trying to pretend he didn't just see his twin slip into his own little version of the 'Manticore Mask.' "Dude, I'm a new and improved version of you. You think I don't know when you're lying? Come on." He said smoothly and leaned forward from his spot in the back seat. Dean looked over at him with an expression of surprise and confusion.

"And I thought transgenics were emotionally dense." He muttered to himself and rolled his eyes. "She's obviously into you, bud. Even if it wasn't evident before, it should be now after you've spent over an hour flirting with her."

"We're playing; we don't mean anything by it."

Alec scoffed but conceded. "Whatever you say, man." He knew when to cut his losses. He wasn't going to be able to get anything through Dean's thick skull in one car ride. He reached forward, turned up the radio, and dropped the subject in favor of continuing his lunch. At least he had planted the seed.

By the time the sun had set and night had fallen, the concept of Jo and him being together had been festering in Dean's mind for over six hours. As much as he hated to admit it, he was slowly but surely falling in love with her. Somewhere between the smart ass remarks and the playful banter, he had found a strong, beautiful, independent woman who could understand his life. 'Maybe we could finally have our right place, right time.' He thought. He figured the feelings he'd been harboring for her since they met would fade over time and distance, especially after Ellen told them about her father's last hunt, but after seeing her again, he realized beyond a shadow of a doubt, they had not. He knew that originally, he just wanted to get in her pants and then for a short while, he thought she was doomed to be more of a little sister to him than anything else, but now he knew that she was anything but a sister to him.

"We there yet?" Sam's words were slurred by the remnants of sleep. They also effectively yanked Dean out of his reverie about young Miss Harvelle and brought him back to the present. They had finally made it to Seattle. Even with Dean driving, it had taken them all day and well into the evening. Alec had earlier offered his apartment as a base camp for the visitors and they were in no position to refuse. Within half an hour, the team hauled their duffle bags up to his place and were setting up on his floor with pillows and blankets.

At one end of the room, Sam and Dean set up their sleeping bags. It came as a surprise to no one that they would sleep side by side. They always had. From a very young age, it was instilled in them to sleep comfortably only when around the other. It was useful when they were growing up because they felt safe and were protected and then John could relax knowing that Dean was right there to take care of Sammy. It had taken weeks at Stanford before Sam could get anything more than intermittent, fitful bouts of sleep while being so far away from Dean.

On the other end, slept Bobby and sandwiched in between lay Jo. Alec had given the thickest blankets to Jo to allow her to sleep as well as possible in the chilly Seattle air. Even so, Dean, Sam, and Bobby had graciously offered their own blankets to her. She thanked them but refused and rolled her eyes and scoffed when Dean offered to keep her warm in a significantly different way, waggling his eyebrows. They turned off the lights a few minutes later, once everyone was situated for a deep and well earned sleep.

For them, morning came much too early and once again, Jo was the first one up. When she first opened her eyes, she was surprised to find herself surrounded by Bobby and the Winchesters instead of alone in her bed but her mind was quick to fill in the pieces. She carefully detangled herself from the mass of sleeping bags and sleeping hunters, tip toeing around Dean to get to the kitchen, to make some breakfast. Unfortunately, Alec's pantry was anything but well stocked so all she could muster were some toast and eggs. Fifteen minutes in, Alec woke up with his hair mused from sleep to help cook. The stringent schedule of Manticore was too deep seated for him to ever sleep past 6:30 anyway.

A comfortable silence filled the air as the two moved seamlessly around the small area. Neither one wanted to deal with the irritableness that would inevitably come from waking Bobby or Dean up at this time of day. It was, after all, shortly after 6:00 am. Sam, on the other hand, was already beginning to stir. Jo put some coffee on and soon after, he was up and eating. When 7:10 rolled around, the hibernators, as Alec mentally deemed them, woke up as well.

Alec was surprised at how comfortable he was with these people after such a short time. He could admit that he was perpetually slow to open up and accept outsiders but these ordinaries were already dear friends in his mind.

"When are we going over to see your contact, Bobby?" Dean asked while taking a bite of toast.

"I told Logan we'd meet him in about an hour." He gruffly replied.

Alec cleared his throat. "I should probably tell you guys beforehand; Logan isn't exactly my biggest fan."

"What exactly does 'not you biggest fan' entail?" Jo piped up.

"Well the guy basically hates my guts." His statement got many curious stares from the others in the group.

"Well that's too bad, princess; 'cause we're gonna need you there to help with the battle plans." Bobby said with finality.

"Fine. I'd better call Max then. She's not going to want to miss this."

A/N: Again, thank you guys so much. I would really love to hear what you think of it so far. Favorite lines, predictions, suggestions: they all make for excellent reviews. God bless. Oh, and there may be a short little deleted scene for those who review. *wink*