Chapter 2

Baby dropped down next to them, the blanket falling off her shoulders yet again. "He's cold," she said, sounding oddly startled. Twisting around, she grabbed the blanket and began to tuck it around Dean. Sam didn't even try to argue. Nudging her aside with his shoulder, he lifted Dean into his arms, blanket and all. He stood, grunting as the weight of Dean's heavily muscled body made his knees creak ominously. This always looked so easy in the movies. Of course, in the movies he'd be carrying a beautiful woman off into the sunset, not lugging his twenty-eight-year-old brother around like a sack of… rock salt.

Sam made his way to their room as quickly as he could, Baby holding onto the edge of the blanket with one hand and coming within a hair's breadth of tripping him with every other step.

"Son of a bitch!" As curses went, even Dean could not have imbued this one with more heartfelt frustration. The door had swung closed behind them. Sam was contemplating how he was going to get his key out of his pocket without putting Dean down, and preferably before someone noticed the naked woman dogging his steps, when he had a sudden, vivid memory of his key sitting on the formica table right next to the coffee carrier. Hitching Dean a little higher up in his arms, Sam leaned against the door jamb, using it to help support his brother's considerable weight. "Son of a bitch," he repeated, rolling his eyes skyward. Naked girls, stubborn brothers, stolen cars and crappy motels… enough was enough already!

"What's wrong, Sam?" Baby asked, gently placing a hand on Sam's arm. She stood very close to them, her other hand maintaining its hold on Dean. But then, she was probably desperate for the shared body warmth. The icy wind was beginning to make Sam's cheeks feel numb and he was fully dressed. God only knew what that same wind was doing to her bare skin. Why wasn't she complaining? Why hadn't she demanded the blanket back at the very least? Why did she claim to be the Impala? The whole situation was bizarre and rapidly closing in on the Crazy Town city limit sign.

"The door is locked," he admitted grudgingly, dropping his chin to his chest. There was an itch starting on the tip of his nose.

"Oh," she replied softly. Then, after a moment, "Don't you have a key?"

Sam did not raise his voice no matter how much he wanted to. They couldn't afford the attention. "It's inside. On the table."

"Does Dean have a key?"

Still no yelling, damn it. "It's inside. On the nightstand."

Her brows crinkled ever so slightly. "What's a nightstand?"

Sam's chin snapped up. "What's a – are you serious? How can you not – " Sam broke off in mid-expostulation as his brother started shivering more violently. When a sudden twitch nearly caused him to drop Dean, Sam hastily knelt down on the threshold. He laid Dean up against the wall, trying to keep him out of the wind as much as possible. Before he could lower Dean's head to the cement, however, Baby was there, sitting bare-bottomed on the cold ground and taking Dean's head into her lap. She stroked his hair, looking up at Sam with anxious, doe-like eyes.

"Is he going to be all right?"

"He'll be fine," Sam replied, not certain who he was really trying to reassure, the potential demon or himself. Trying not to think too hard about which portion of her anatomy Dean's nose was almost touching, Sam turned back to the door and rapidly evaluated the lock. Huh. He wouldn't even need his lock picks for this. Darn good thing too, since they were currently in his go-bag and his go-bag was inside the locked room. Digging out a credit card purporting to belong to one Jacob Steinman, Sam made quick work of jimmying the piece-of-crap door open. They really needed to start staying in more upscale places. Someplace this easy to break into just wasn't safe, and he had to keep Dean safe. He had to.

The moment the door swung inward on its hinges, Sam scooped Dean up and sidled through. The sudden blast of warm air set off a volley of sneezes, and he stumbled forward and dropped Dean unceremoniously onto the nearest bed. He was blinking the tears out of his eyes when he saw Baby dash through the still open door and climb onto the bed beside Dean. His brother shivered and pulled away when her nose touched the bare skin of his neck, but that probably had more to do with the frigid temperature of her skin than anything else.

Cursing under his breath, Sam dragged all the blankets off of his bed and then plopped them down on top of them both. Then, more satisfyingly, he vented a little of his spleen on the hapless door and kicked the damned thing closed. He didn't need this crap. He really didn't.

It was the work of mere moments to fetch the first aid kit from the bathroom. Dean was stirring when he returned, his eyes flicking behind their lids. Sam shook him by the shoulder, trying to jar him all the way back to consciousness. "Dean. Come on, Dean. Open your eyes. I need you to open your eyes." When his brother's eyes remained closed, Sam reluctantly called upon his best John Winchester. Deepening his voice he barked, "Wake up, Dean!"

Dean jerked suddenly forward, struggling to hold himself upright on trembling arms. His bloodshot eyes looked terrible against the icy paleness of his skin, but they were open and that was what mattered. His pupils were even, and after a moment his eyes tracked to Sam's face in puzzlement. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, Sam held Dean steady with one arm while he bunched the pillows up behind him with the other. Then he eased him back down until he was reclining against the pillows.

"What happened?" Dean demanded, still shivering despite the blankets, the heated hotel room and the warmth of the naked woman curled up beside him. She appeared to have fallen asleep, though part of Sam couldn't help wondering if it was all still part of some murky and convoluted act.

Dean's eyes widened when he noticed the girl beside him, and he turned a curious look on Sam. Only his exhaustion seemed to stop curious from turning into panicked once again. Sam shrugged and, taking hold of Dean's chin, turned his head away to get a better look at the rapidly reddening bandage on Dean's neck. It was so saturated with blood, that skinny red trails had begun winding their way down Dean's neck and soaking into the edge of his t-shirt. Damn it. Damn it. "Damn it! Why won't this stop bleeding? Dean, have you been picking at –"

"Anticoagulant."

Sam and Dean turned in unison to stare at the top of Baby's head. She was all but invisible, buried beneath layers of blankets, with one of Dean's arms draped lightly around her back. "What did you say?" Sam demanded.

"Anticoagulant. Vampires release an anticoagulant when they feed," she murmured sleepily. Looking more than a bit mesmerized, Dean raised his hand from her back to her hair, running his fingers idly through the glossy black strands. She made a sound suspiciously like a purr and nestled even more snugly up against his side.

Anticoagulant? Could that be true? And even if it was, how could she possibly know unless she was a hunter herself? Sam wouldn't even consider the possibility that she could actually be the Impala. That was crazy. It was beyond crazy. It was… Dean was still bleeding. Popping open the first aid kit, Sam pulled everything he would need to reseal the wound. Cursing silently to himself, he peeled off the old bandage, dropping it onto the floor between the beds and rapidly replacing it with a triple thick set of sterile pads. Then, once the bleeding had slowed enough that he could stop worrying about his brother bleeding out right in front of him, Sam pulled the pads away and carefully cleaned and disinfected the bite. Then he smeared on an extra thick layer of antibiotic cream and redressed the wound with another triple thick set of sterile pads and taped it in place. Dean was remarkably compliant throughout the procedure, and Sam abruptly realized that both his brother and the girl were asleep again.

Damn Gordon, Sam thought, careful to keep the anger off his face in case Dean wasn't as deeply asleep as he seemed. Dean didn't react well to Sam getting emotional these days, and Dean was already so infuriated with Gordon that he didn't need Sam's anxiety ramping up his own. Especially now. God, especially now. Sam cleaned up the mess and cranked the heat up an extra notch. Then, jaw set, he walked over and quietly shook the girl awake.