Fifteen-minute walk seemed too much to Seth. "When are you going to admit that you have no idea where we are?"
Dean stopped. He wouldn't support that attitude on his watch. "Can't believe how little faith you have in me, Seth."
"And I can't believe how confident you are even though you know we're lost."
Dean shook his head. So much disappointment.
"Fifteen minutes! It's been fifteen minutes and there's no progress."
"Would you like to reconsider?" Dean stretched his left arm and pointed to Seth's right. The place they had been "desperately" looking for was only some 250 feet away.
As a result, Seth was made to look at his feet because embarrassment prevented him from looking straight at Dean. And in no way he would apologize.
"Unless you believe in magic, Seth, you have to admit that my skill was what got us here." He showed no signs of being mad at Seth, though. This was alright. He knew that inside Seth felt obliged to admit he was wrong, and it did not matter that he wouldn't say it out loud. Dean had made a point and that sufficed.
Seth continued walking and Dean soon followed him. "I'll need to find my phone," Seth said with great urge. "Meanwhile you can take care of the clothes."
"What do you want me to do with it? Pile it up and set it on fire?"
"Sure, why not. . . ." Seth replied, but it was clear he did not pay any attention to Dean. He had to find the phone. It contained the evidence. And more. There was too much personal information and pictures he wouldn't want anyone to see. "Where is it, damn it!" he exclaimed.
"Don't know, don't care."
"You know, Dean, it's also in your best interest to find it."
"Yeah, still don't care. . . ." As he was speaking, he was collecting all the ripped up, smelly, muddy, dirty clothes. Not one piece was perfectly fine. In the end, it was probably better to not being able to use it ever again.
"Seriously? You wouldn't mind if people saw the picture?"
Dean stood still for a minute and thought. Well, at least that was how it appeared. In reality, he had the answer thought out right at the beginning. "No. Who knows, maybe it would even make a good storyline. . . ." He started thinking in wrestling terms. If WWE Universe liked it, they could make it work. It could go on for months, maybe even years. For sure, it would be an interesting development of his character. "Hey, we three could reunite and it would be like," he made his voice sound serious, "The Shield, close than ever." Dean laughed.
Seth did not find it that much funny but he smiled. "Except it wouldn't be quite PG," he reminded Dean. "Anyhow. . . ." His eyes again locked on the ground. "I can't see it," he said, clearly disappointed. He sounded to have given up, though. Maybe it was better to prepare for the worst scenario. "It's gone."
"I'm sorry for your loss. But then again," Dean said, "maybe Roman's got it."
That was a possibility. One that confused Seth as to whether to be happy or angry with Roman for taking it. Either way, he would have to wait to find out if it even were true.
Now that his to-do list was empty, he decided to help Dean. Except Dean was doing fine on his own. He had already made a hill out of the clothes he found lying all around. He even got a lighter in his hand. . . .
"You're kidding, right?" Seth shouted. "You can't start a fire here."
"You said it was okay," Dean objected.
"When?!"
"A few minutes ago."
The sight of flame made Seth nervous. He knew it wasn't a candle and there was no wax that could accidentally fall on the shirt. Not that it would start a fire. . . . Even if the lighter fell out of Dean's hand, the flame would disappear before hitting the ground. He was aware that the possibility of an accident was slight, but seeing Dean having a lighter in his hand, he felt really uneasy.
"Panicking, aren't we?" Dean grinned. "You know, my T-shirt may be saying Unstable, but don't believe everything you see." That sentence did not have the anticipated calming effect on Seth. "Breathe, Seth, I'm not that stupid as to actually burn it." He thought and then added, "At least not here." The idea of burning the evidence attracted him, so he would not claim to never do it. Maybe a bit later.
"Could you put out the fire?"
Dean was too hypnotized by watching the flame to make Seth's wish come true.
"Dean!" The call did not succeed in making Dean respond. "Dean!" Seth noticed the smirk on Dean's face as he happily put a finger through the fire, playing with it. "Dean! Dean! Dean! Dean! Dean!"
"What? What? What? What? What?!" Dean finally replied, loudly and angrily.
"Stop! You can do this in your free time."
"This is my free time."
"Okay," Seth involuntarily gave in. He realized orders would not do. A change in strategy was essential. "I'd just like to point out that it's getting late and we've done nothing."
"And whose fault is that?" By Dean's tone it was evident he thought it was not his fault. "I had a great plan. I had planned a funny day full of activities. But no," he changed his voice to bass and continued speaking in a really low voice, probably imitating somebody. "We don't trust your innocent intentions, Dean, so we're just gonna kidnap you and do things to you that you will never forget about." He returned to his regular voice. "So dear Seth, don't blame me."
Seth let Dean finish his monologue, only then replied. "Yeah, that's not quite what I meant. I meant that we need to clean this up and find Roman."
"First, done," he said and pointed at the sculpture in front of him that he so masterly created in two minutes, "and second, I thought we agreed we wouldn't look for Roman, we'd let him find us. Although. . . ." Dean did not finish the thought.
"Although what?"
Only after a minute of contemplation Dean decided to reveal to Seth what he realized. "Roman's got all the stuff. He has the gun, he very likely has your phone, and, most importantly, he has the car keys. For all we know, he might be out of here already."
"No." Roman would not leave them there, would he?
"So how about a new bet? I bet you when we'll return to the campsite, our car won't be there. And to make it more interesting, I bet double."
"You now that double nothing is still nothing, right?" Seth told him.
"Alright, smartass. The first bet is fifty, this one's a hundred."
They shook hands. Seth decided to keep the fact that if Roman really had left Dean had no chance of winning the first bet secret. So while Dean could possibly win only one bet, which made Seth a half-winner already, Seth could win both. He just needed for Roman to be quicker than them. And of course no sudden disappearance of their car, which would complicate things. But in general, Seth had good reason for elevated mood. Even if Roman found the place where they had their temporal home, Seth trusted him enough to believe he wouldn't leave. Hopefully, Roman would not disappoint him.
"Grab half of this," Dean said while already forcing several pieces of clothing into Seth's arms. He looked around if there was anything else that needed to be done, but it looked good enough. No personal things, that had to suffice. That looked as time to leave. "Alright then. Let's find out who wins, shall we?"
