A.N.: Man, this is a tough crowd- very few reviews! Thanks to those of you who took the time, I really, really appreciate it. You know, even if you think the story sucks, I'd be interested to hear why you think so. Please, gimme something... ANYTHING! :p

I'd also like to mention that I'm finding it a bit challenging to write a story about a character in a currently airing series when there's such a major story arc developing. Somehow, it was a little easier with my CSI fics! lol So again, I will ask you to bear with my novice attempts.

Dani snuggled in closer to the wonderful source of heat beside her, sighing contentedly. Clutching tighter at the chest beneath her, she started to open her eyes... and was momentarily confused by the persistent darkeness. She blinked her eyes to make sure they were really open, her head resting on her boyfriend's shoulder. She couldn't remember how she'd come to be back with Jack, especially since she'd been planning to-

OH.

It all came flooding back to her in an uncomfortable rush.

This isn't Jack.

And now she was all too aware of the hard packed dirt beneath her. And every single tantalizing point where her body was touching Dean's. Her face began to warm up with embarrassment... and something else she'd rather not think about right now.

She'd awoken in the "middle" of the night to find herself freezing and had decided to bite the bullet and make the move to share the blanket. She had scootched over to Dean, who had fortunately been turned away from her, and had slipped carefully under the thick woollen material next to him. Instantly appreciating his body heat, she'd fallen back to sleep.

And now she was wrapped around the poor guy. She hoped she hadn't hit his injured leg at any point during her unintentional mauling.

As she considered how to extricate herself before Dean woke up, she felt further confusion and bemusement at her uncharacteristic behaviour. This was bizarre- she'd never been the type to sleep this close to someone; Jack could attest to that. She had always relished having her side of the bed all to herself when she went to sleep and it had frequently been a point of contention between the two of them. In a reversal of the age-old man vrs. woman "cuddling argument", Dani had always fought the female norm and complained that she "needed her space," much to Jack's constant annoyance. And yet here she was, practically pasted into Dean's side with one arm thrown across his chest and one knee wedged between his legs.

She listened to his quiet breathing as she slowly removed her arm from his chest. Her goal was to get out of this situation before he-

"Mornin'."

Dani just barely held back an embarrassed groan when she recognized the amusement in Dean's voice. "Uh... good morning."

"Sleep well?" More amusement.

Utterly mortified now, she pulled her knee from between his thighs and sighed heavily. "Yeah. I guess I did." He chuckled softly as she pushed herself to a sitting position beside him and she couldn't bear it any longer. "Dean, I... I didn't mean to... I don't normally-"

"Dani. Relax. It's no big deal. It was cold." He sat up himself and rubbed his bare arms. It was warmer now, but there was still a damp coolness in the air.

"But still... I'm sorry about the... the..."

"Snuggling?" She could hear the grin on his face now.

She laughed lightly, finally allowing herself to see the humor in the situaion. "Yeah, that." She fumbled around looking for the candle and matches. "I'm not normally a cuddly person. I guess I was just cold and I was-"

"Drawn to my warm personality?"

She lit a match and held it to the candle wick. His eyes were sparkling with suppressed laughter and she shook her head, uanble to hold back a grin. "Yes, that's exactly it, Dean. I found you irresistable."

He smiled widely. "Sweetheart, if I had a dime for every time I'd heard that before..."

They both laughed and Dani felt a little more relaxed again. "Seriously though, I hope you weren't too uncomfortable, stuck under my dead weight."

One side of his mouth tweaked up at the corner. "Yeah, it was a real hardship. I hate it when beautiful women drape themselves over me."

She laughed again, a blush forming. God, I feel like I'm 16 again... "Yeah, well... I didn't hurt your leg did I?"

"Nope."

"That's a relief. I should probably take a look at it anyway..." His unrelenting smile was beginning to drive her to distraction and she swallowed carefully. "Um... Hungry?"

"I'm starving, in fact." He continued to grin, unsettling her even more. He was enjoying her little diversionary tactics after his compliment. Maybe she wasn't used to compliments? While he found that hard to believe, he had to admit he found modesty very becoming on her. Fully aware of her dicomfort, he decided to give it a rest and started rummaging in the bag with her.

"OK, what do we got here?"

Vagrancy? This was getting ridiculous.

Sam pushed the mess of string beans around on the plastic plate, more unimpressed with the situation than ever. He couldn't believe they'd managed to keep holding him here on such a trumped-up charge. It didn't take a pre-law background to realize it was totally bogus. He'd fully expected to get the "don't leave town" speech, but the extended stay behind bars had come as a bit of a surprise. Clearly the Archers had some pull around town.

The only good luck he seemed to be having at the moment centered around the fact that his current alias seemed to be holding up. He'd had no doubts about all the red flags that would have shot up if he'd given the last name Winchester. That shapeshifter in St. Louis had unfortunately left Dean with a rather colourful police file, regardless of the fact that he was also supposed to be dead. He could only imagine how much deeper the hot water he was in right now would be if he'd thrown out the name Sam Winchester.

And so, Sam Corbett sat in an Albuquerque jail cell while Dean Corbett was missing in action and suspected of kidnapping.

Sam came close to throwing his tray across the room in frustration but he managed to control himself; they'd probably add littering to his list of charges, with his luck. Somehow, he failed to find amusement in the thought. He needed to find Dean, and quickly.

But how the hell am I supposed to do that from behind bars?

His only hope right now was that the police actually tracked Dean down during their bullshit kidnapping investigation. He knew that it couldn't be just a coincidence that Danielle Archer had gone missing at the same time and place as Dean. Add to that the fact that Sam had had a vision about one of the twins (he realized now that he had no way of knowing which one) and he was sure they were together somewhere.

The thought that Dean probably wasn't alone was something of a comfort to him, although a small one. But it was all he had right now.

"They definitely didn't put a lot of thought into the food." Dean grimaced as he bit into one of the energy bars they'd found in the food sack.

"No kidding. I'm not quite sure why they thought we'd need all these packets of salt and pepper." Dani shook the small paper sack from KFC and frowned. "At least all the wet-naps might come in handy."

"They probably just grabbed 'em on the way here..." That got Dean to thinking. "Do you know of a KFC that borders the town, maybe? One on the way to the desert?"

Dani shrugged. "There are plenty of them, unfortunately. Or at least, there's not a location that stands out to me."

Dean nodded. It wasn't like their exact location was their biggest problem right now, anyway. He looked past Dani as he crinkled up the wrapper. "Ah, doesn't matter. Anyway, I think it's time we headed back over to see if there's a way out of here."

"Yeah, but let me just take a quick peek at your leg first."

Dean pulled his pant leg back to reveal the bandage and she gently pried it back. "Well, I said it before and I'll say it again: you're a fast healer."

"Ah, just one of my many innate abilities. You should see me play pool."

She smiled. "I'll take your word for it." She stood up and wiped her hands on her pants. "Shall we?"

Dean grabbed the flashlight from the bag and Dani snuffed out the candle. She walked at his side as they made their way back towards what they assumed used to be an opening to the cave. They stopped a short distance away and Dean flicked off the flashlight.

This time, instead of pitch blackness, a few pinpricks of light appeared high up in the pile of rubble. Dani felt her hopes rising. "OK, we just need to get up there and dig-"

Dean reached out from beside her in the darkness and laid a hand on her arm. "Hold on, there. That may not be as easy as it sounds." He flicked on the flashlight and pointed the light towards the top of the pile. "This stuff is loaded up here, but who knows how packed it is? We're going to have to be careful."

"We? Dean, you're not going to be able to climb up there. Your leg is-"

"Forget it. If anyone's climbing up there, it's me."

He held the light between them, the beam reflecting off their respective chests and casting a glow on their faces. Stubborn eyes regarded stubborn eyes.

"That's ridiculous. I think I'm reasonably fit, and I can handle myself... and more importantly, I'm not injured. I'm the smarter choice."

"Maybe. But I'm still the one who's going up there." She didn't even have a chance to sputter out her indignation before he was thrusting the flashlight into her hand and angling it upwards for her. "Keep the light just ahead of me."

And then he was trying to climb. Dani helf the flashlight tightly, trying to keep her temper from boiling over. "Fine. But if you fall down and crack your head open-"

"You'll be there to fix me up." He turned his head slightly and she could see a smug grin on his face. "Another reason why I should be doing this and not you. If you fall and hurt yourself I'm not really qualified to fix you up, now am I?"

She muttered something about it not mattering in the long run if he was crushed by tumbling rocks, but apparently sounds carried well through the cave. "Well Dani, like you said, you seem pretty fit. I'm sure you could pull me out."

The matter-of-factness in his tone just pissed her off more. "Will you quit yapping and pay attention to where you're climbing. Just because I can try to fix you up if you get hurt doesn't mean I want to."

He laughed out loud, pausing for a moment in his slow climbing. "You got it, boss."

Still annoyed, she didn't respond.

It was slow going, but Dean finally made it up near the top after a few sliding setbacks. Dani watched carefully as he pulled and pushed at various decent sized boulders, unable to ignore the sympathy she felt for him when he groaned in frustration at not being able to budge any of it. Her temper had simmered somewhat while she'd been watching him hopefully.

"Dammit." He pounded one particularly large chunk of rock. "This stuff isn't moving an inch. It's jammed in here good. In fact, I'd be afraid if I did manage to move one, the rest would just come smashing down."

Dani was now regretting her earlier mutterings about Dean getting crushed by rocks. She'd probably jinxed them. Not to mention how much of an effort he'd been putting in up there, trying to free them. It was childish of her to be standing down here with a bruised ego when clearly Dean was doing the best he could... and undoubtedly a better job than she could have. Facts were facts: he was stronger than her. And if he couldn't budge the stuff, there's no way she could have done it either. They seemed to be as trapped as ever. She sighed with disappointment, but Dean misinterpreted the source.

"Look, Miss Super Doctor... C'mon up here if you think you could do a better job." His irritation was palpable and she almost took a step backwards at his vehemence.

"No, Dean I... I know I couldn't do a better job. You... you've done all you can. I can see that."

He didn't reply as he turned and started to ease his way back down the rock and dirt. He finally slid the remaining distance to the bottom and she moved towards him sheepishly. She wanted to say something more to remove the terse expression on his face, but she couldn't think of a single thing. She handed him back the flashlight and tried to avoid his eyes.

"I'm sorry I yelled. I was just a little... frustrated."

"It's OK. I know you tried. There's... there's obviously nothing we can do. It's not your fault."

A dismal mood had descended upon them once again, and they both remained silent as they made their way back to their "home base". Dani sat down dejectedly and grabbed for the candle. They'd used about half of this one, but they still had quite a few more. Hopefully they'd last...

But for how long? How long will be stuck in here?

She lit the candle and Dean flicked off the flashlight, dropping it beside the duffle bag. He was grabbing at a bottle of water and she watched his profile distractedly, suddenly more worried than ever.

Are we going to die in here?

A.N: OK, I had this pretty much written before last night's new episode aired. While it doesn't affect my story that much, I did make a random shapeshifter reference. Anyway, just for the sake of fighting to stay ahead of a moving storyline, I'm just going to pretend like last night's episode, "Night Shifter" hasn't happened. I can't worry about the FBI right now! lol