AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Alright, here is chapter 2 and there are flashbacks as well as some UST because UST is a lot of fun to write. Also, this starts setting up the hunt.
WARNINGS: Language, Blood, Sex, Violence, Dark Themes

ENJOY!

xxxx

Lana knew from experience dealing with the boys that there was a lot they weren't telling her—in fact the only person that seemed to keep her in the loop was Lily and Lana understood that. Sam was always going to be on 'Dean's side' regardless of his kinship with Lana and Lily was always going to want what was best for everyone no matter what that was. Still, things felt a bit awkward and Lana didn't know exactly what to do about it because she couldn't just wave her hands and make everything okay.

"Your music taste hasn't changed," Lana said with a sigh from the backseat of the car as she researched this hunt on her laptop.

Dean looked at her from the rearview mirror. "Your attitude hasn't changed."

"From what I recall, you liked your women feisty," Lana shot back without taking her eyes off of her laptop screen.

"Yeah, but you don't want to be like the women I like, now do you?" Dean teased with a grin.

Lana paused and then continued. "I've always wanted to be like the women that you like…"

"What?" Dean asked after a moment or two.

Teasing was Lana's and Dean's way of things, something that Dean had been getting used to because on top of that he had PDA moments. Sure, it started off slapping her ass as she went by just to show other men she was off the market, or holding her hand here and there—he'd even kissed her in public places before—but this was different. Dean Winchester was in love and he knew he was, but he was a hunter and he wasn't about to get Lana killed and then have to live without her. She could persuade him all she wanted, but his number one priority was to keep her safe, not to let himself get in too deep.

"You can't honestly tell me that now just because Sam and Lily are here too that you don't know that deep down…this relationship of ours is more than just two business partners enjoying each other's company." Lana told him shaking her head. "You practically beat men off of me with a stick and I've never let you go home with any woman you hit on at the bar…not once we started sleeping together."

Dean ran his fingers through his hair. "You're exactly the kind of woman that I've always wanted, Lanni…I just won't be the reason you get killed."

"I appreciate that, Dean, but I'm a grown woman and I can make my own choices," Lana replied with a gentle sigh. "One of those choices, I'm afraid, is wanting to be with you."

"You only get to make your own choices if they're the right choices for you," Dean teased again, trying not to get too serious here when Sam and Lily could walk through the door any moment.

Lana laughed and rolled her eyes. "You just love winning arguments, don't you?"

There was really nothing that Dean liked more than winning an argument with Lana and before she had a chance to throw anything back at him, Sam had spoken up.

He cleared his throat first. "Turns out that the witch we're looking for is somehow connected to your mother but you know how she is…"

"Yeah, I do," Lana sighed loudly, glancing at Sam.

Much like John Winchester, Florence Meckenzie knew how to keep herself out of the picture when she wanted to remain hidden. There was so much about her that no one knew but one thing was sure: she was to be trusted. While she had had Lana, Azazel had possessed her in order to have Lana with her and Florence had been friends with Mary for as long as they all knew, in turn being Sam and Dean's Godmother and she helped John get into hunting in the first place. Now, she was off because her daughters were grown and Lana barely even heard from her anymore.

Lily only knew part of the story with Florence, but she had met the woman and she was fun and full of life just like Lana was. What scared her though, was that Florence and Lana had all this untapped power and she never knew if one of them was going to snap or not, regardless of how much she liked them. Honestly, when she'd found out about Lana's father—the same demon that slaughtered her whole family—she couldn't even look at Lana for weeks, but Lana was not her father, and the way she carried herself and helped others spoke volumes all on their own.

"Any idea where we should start looking?" Dean asked Lana slowly.

Lana sighed and shook her head. "I'll see if I can't send her a few messages, but it might help to pick a place and stay there for a little while and seeing as how we're a bit far to just turn around…"

"That's a hint for me to turn around," Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

"It might be easier to lay low at Lana's," Sam suggested, shrugging when Dean shot him a look. "I'm just saying that until we have Florence, what else are we going to do? No offense, but I'm afraid that you and Lana might kill each other before we kill a ghost or a demon or anything—I don't feel safe hunting with you two and your animosity."

"I agree with Sam," Lily put in. "I would rather like to live for as long as possible."

Lana and Dean both made faces and noises of protest, but deep down they knew that Sam and Lily had a good point about it all. The two of them were due for another good fight soon and they'd been taking digs at each other since they'd met back up—even more so since getting into the Impala. As much as they wanted to claim that they were professionals, they were doing exactly what they had both sworn they would never do: they were putting their personal lives before their professional one.

"Dean and I can handle a hunt," Lana said shrugging. "We want to protect you two more than we want anything else."

Dean nodded, agreeing with her for the first time that day. "Agreed—in fact, let us prove it."

xx

"What if they killed each other?" Lily asked Sam as he pulled out of a kiss.

Sam stroked her hair and smiled. "As mad as they are at each other, I don't actually think they would kill each other…do you?"

"She's pretty hurt," Lily said as she made a face. "I know that Dean is too, but he pretty much told her to start being more realistic and I don't know, Sammy. I think the idea of having a future with him was what was keeping her together there for a while."

"Yeah, coming into her powers was really hard on her," Sam agreed with a sigh. "Dean just doesn't know when to let himself be happy. He's been sabotaging himself for as long as I can remember—Lana too."

Lily nodded and let Sam kiss her again, smiling into the kiss until the door opened and she and Sam were greeted with arguing. The two had come back from questioning the witness and while things had gone smoothly during the questioning, all they were doing was bickering. Sighing, Lily fixed her shirt and she and Sam turned to the two from the couch, Sam crossing his arms over his chest because it seemed he and Lily were the ones actually acting like the adults.

"I actually want to dare you to make me!" Lana shouted at Dean, eyes going to his mouth as she huffed angrily at him.

Dean caught the look and did the same, shaking his head. "We both know that's not a road you want to go down, Baby."

"Don't fucking, 'baby' me!" Lana shot at him, finger jabbing his chest. "Next time we do it my way or we don't do it at all!"

Nothing quite turned Lana on like an angry Dean Winchester and as her eyes darted to his mouth and then his eyes, he was aware of it too. Angry or not, Lana intoxicated him and just like that he was kissing her passionately, letting her claw at his clothes and his arms. He let her make quick work of their clothes, the garments getting tossed this way and that, neither of them caring about anything other than each other in that moment.

Her skin on his made him feel like he'd stuck his finger in a socket and he would know how that felt—this was amazing, however. She fit perfectly into him and the sounds she made were music to his ears, making him moan as he placed his hands all over her, the mattress moving as they did. Even if someone walked in on them, they couldn't stop if they wanted to…and they certainly didn't want to.

"I'll still be mad when this is over," Dean pointed out, smiling when Lana laughed.

She bit his bottom lip. "I bet I can make you forget all about it…"

"Are you guys hearing this?" Dean asked Sam and Lily, Lana still looking Dean over before she turned to face them too.

"Are you guys actually doing this?" Lily asked slowly.

It was nice to be acknowledged, but Lily and Sam had a feeling that maybe bringing Lana back into this was too hard for them. They weren't arguing because they were childish—they were arguing because it was the only way to mask the pain that they felt being in the same vicinity and not really being together at all. Still, Lily's tone made them both feel childish; especially Dean, who was seven years older than her and should know better.

"We're looking for Lan's mother—the ball is in her court," Sam said shrugging.

Lana grinned smugly at Dean. "Here that? I'm the point guard."

"Oh go—"

"—suck a lemon? Sounds good to me."

"I'm old enough you don't have to try and make things PG for me," Lily responded, crossing her arms over her chest in a huff. "I thought this was going to be fun, the four of us back together, but you're both fun suckers."

Lana nodded because she felt bad but then she shrugged. "Hunting isn't supposed to be fun."

Lily made a face, but her heart was warmed a little bit when Lana offered to play a chess game with her, Dean miming strangling her. Sam chuckled a little bit and then asked Dean to take a walk outside with him, Dean reluctantly agreeing—it was that or stay in the motel room with Lana and Lily and the chess pieces. What bothered him the most was that angry or not, he was still turned on by not only Lana, but Lana's nerdy chess habits.

Sam smiled as he caught Dean's look in the direction of the door

"I'm wearing her down," Dean told his brother shrugging. "Give me a week and Lana and I will be just fine."

Sam nodded and put his hands in his pockets. "You really think it's that easy, Dean?"

"Why not? We've always patched up things before," Dean replied as he went for the vending machine, Sam in tow. "The only difference here is that I've let her stew for six months."

"The only difference is she's not yours to have…" Sam said slowly.

Dean stood up tall after fetching his bag from the machine, turning to look at his brother with pain in his eyes. Hearing that Lana wasn't his kind of made him feel like his knees were going to buckle underneath him and he didn't know what Sam meant by that, but he was going to get to the bottom of it.

"Six months is a long time and for someone who wants to settle down and have a baby…" Sam started to explain, shrugging his shoulders. "She wasn't going to wait for you, forever."

He didn't want to admit how much pain that admission caused him, but it was nothing compared to the sick feeling that Lana had in her stomach at the moment. She and Lily had somehow started talking about Dean's coping these six months—she was vaguely aware of having brought the subject up—and hearing about a girl he'd gotten really close to and even brought to meet Sam and Lily made her want to throw up. Lana wasn't disgusted that it happened, but she was definitely hurt.

"You should talk to him," Lily said gently, resting her hand on Lana's. "You clearly still have feelings for him."

Lana bit her quivering lip and shook her head, eyes glossy with tears. "No…he threw me away like last week's paper and I'm not crawling back on my hands and knees. I offered him everything and he made me feel like an idiot. All I wanted was an actual future with him: kids, a job, a home…an actual life. That's all I wanted. He didn't, and he made me feel like I should have known that that was what he wanted and I wasted 3 years of my life waiting on him."

"You don't really think they were a waste," Lily told her, squeezing her hand.

"This job isn't going to give you anything that you want, Lily," Lana said, slowly pulling her hand back and making her move before blotting her eyes. "I suggest figuring out what that is before you get sucked in so far that you can't see straight anymore and suddenly every dream you have isn't even a dream anymore."

"Sam and Dean aren't the same, you know," Lily responded after thinking over the words a moment.

Lana smiled and shook her head. "No, they're not—if you ask Sam to quit and have a life with you, he will."

Note: ANGST. Next chapter has cuteness, another fight (big surprise there) and a hunt. I hope you guys are enjoying this! Feedback is always appreciated!