Marie stared forlornly at the TV screen. Even doing her nails while watching Mr. Bean get locked out of his hotel room and eating left over chocolate cake and her favorite flavor of ice cream hadn't completely erased the thought that she wasn't important enough for Dean to remember her birthday. She had a mental image of Dean and a faceless, leggy red-headed woman naked in the back of the Impala, who was raking her nails down Dean's shoulders. She bit her lip at the sound of Dean's reciprocating grunt.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa hey." The plate she just threw narrowly missed hitting Sam. He jumped out of the way... actually, it was more of an awkward little hop. When she burst into tears, Sam stepped over the shattered plate and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, letting her cry into his shirt. He had observed how miserable she had been the night before, even though she had put up a brave smile while they played a sporting game of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey". They even had a piñata with a picture of Dean's face glued on it. Even though Marie was blindfolded, she went to town on the paper mache figure. After a moment, she turned up her tear-stained face to look at Sam's sympathetic brown eyes.

"Sorry. It's not your fault that your brother is a complete ass." Marie took a step back, continuing, "I could use some dinner...what about you, are you hungry?"

Sam's ringing cell phone put a temporary nix on the conversation. He checked the caller ID before glancing up at Marie. "It's Dean."

"Tell him I hope he got..." Marie but her lip, on the verge of tears again as she thought of every possible name for the red-headed 'skank' that had ruined her chances to fulfill her birthday fantasy she'd had of just her and Dean...no hunting...no obligations...no bloody skanks in bloody skimpy clothes and bloody long legs.
She finally had to leave, letting the door slam behind her. Sam literally jumped at the bang.

He let it ring so many times that now he heard Dean's half- annoyed, half- concerned voice on the other end.

"Sammy…did you lock yourself in the bathroom or somethin'?..Come on man, pick up.."

Sam let out an audible sight as he looked at the broken plate at his feet. "Yeah, man..sorry, I'm here."

"What happened? I was trying to call you last night."

Sam frowned. The only thing he could think was that something had happened to their phone connection. Actually, when they were watching their 'Beverly Hills Cop' marathon the previous night they *were* interrupted by a brief thunderstorm and everything that ran on electricity had gone on the fritz. Come to think of it, his cell battery had been dead and he had a heck of a time trying to charge it.
Finally Sam said, "Whatever man, I'm glad you called. Marie's really pissed at you for not being here for her birthday."

"Couldn't help it." In the background, Sam could hear the sound of a trunk closing and then a car door open, and then Dean muttering something about, "Come on, Baby…you can do it."

"Dean?"

Another male voice joined Dean's . "You looking for a tow?"

"If you weren't here because of car trouble, you need to call her," said Sam.

The tow truck operator whistled to get Dean's attention.

"Dean.."

"Yeah, Sammy, I heard…Gotta go."

The phone clicked in Sam's ear.