Previously: Dean and Jenna along with Tyler (mind-reader) and Caitlyn (zaps into devil's traps) escape on foot into the National Forest near the house (Los Padres is real, by the way, and is actually 3000+ square miles of wilderness right next to Montecito). They quickly get lost and with demons still searching for them, they decide to make for the top of a peak that Dean is sure will have a fire tower so they can see where they are. Meanwhile, Sam and Quinn get to the demon house to find them gone. Chelsea recognizes Sam and tells them what happened. Sam figures Dean will head for the fire tower so he and Quinn head there also.

CHAPTER 9 - WAITING

The road inland to the peak with the fire tower got rougher and rougher as Sam and Quinn pushed on. They were pulled over fairly quickly by a Forest Ranger and told the park was temporarily closed but a couple of sly tests proved her to be human, not demon so the hunters simply apologized and pretended to leave before pulling off the road and hiding in the trees until she had gone by so they could double-back and continue on their way.

A little deeper in, another Ranger flagged them down but they didn't need to do the tests to know this one was a demon. His eyes widened in shocked recognition when they fell on Sam in the driver's seat but Quinn was already out, flying over the hood to douse him with Holy water. Between the two of them, the hunters managed to keep him still enough to get through an exorcism.

Quinn grinned as she got back in the passenger side. "We make a good team, Winchester. We should take this on the road."

By the time they hit the bottom of the mountain, the road officially became an ATV trail. They took the stolen and now severely-abused Range Rover as far up as it could go and parked it, dragging over some brush to cover it from possible passer-bys, demon or otherwise. They had to walk the last quarter mile or so of steep, rocky trail, each carrying a duffel of weapons.

"Won't they come up this way?" Quinn asked. "Maybe we should wait at the car, catch them on their way up."

Sam shook his head. "There's more tree cover on the other side of the slope," he pointed out. "Dean'll probably bring them up that way. He'll be avoiding the main paths and roads. The only thing we know for sure is he's gonna get up to that tower."

The fire tower was a sixty-foot high steel-legged structure with a single-room shed on the top and windows all around offering a view of the forest for miles. They broke the padlock to remove the ladder-guard and climbed up, entering through the trapdoor in the floor. They both immediately moved to the windows and their eyes searched in every direction for any sign of movement.

"The tree cover's too thick," Quinn grumbled. "I don't even see any demons moving around. Nothing."

"That's a good thing," Sam pointed out. "If this was a good vantage point, we'd have demons up here with us."

Standing next to him, she elbowed him playfully in his good side. "Well, aren't you a glass-half-full kind of guy."

Sam chuckled and looked around the tiny room. There was a small desk on one wall with a locked drawer housing the radio. He picked it and got to work tuning into any frequencies the Rangers or the demons may be using while Quinn salted the trapdoor and the window sills. When finished, she sat down on the single bunk on the other side of the room.

"So what now?" she huffed.

Sam shrugged. "Well, I'd say it could go one of three ways. Either they show up here, or they get to a ranger station, or they make it out of the woods."

"Fourth scenario - they get caught by demons again."

"You don't know Dean. That's not gonna happen." Sam pulled the small wooden chair over to the south-facing window and sat down. "If they get to a Ranger station, we'll hear something over the radio. If they get out of the forest, they'll phone us." He checked his cell phone. "I've still got a good signal."

Sam couldn't deny he was worried but logic and reason told him waiting here was all he could do for Dean right now. "Now we wait," he said flatly.

Quinn gave him a dubious look. "I gotta warn ya," she said leaning back on her palms. "Waiting isn't exactly my strong suit." A slow smirk spread across her face and she raised an eyebrow at him. "Whatever shall we do to pass the time?"

~X~X~X~X~X~

Dean finally gave in to his own exhaustion and the pleas from the youngest two of his companions and agreed to stop for the night. It was past dusk and was getting dangerously dark beneath the heavy tree cover, the frequency of stumbling and tripping increasing exponentially. The last thing he needed right now was for one of them to sprain an ankle or worse. Caitlyn had been walking by herself for a few hours in the late afternoon, but weakness from hunger had her fisting her hand in Dean's shirt for additional support the past couple of hours.

The fugitives had eaten miner's lettuce and a couple of cactus-looking plants that Jenna had insisted were edible. Dean had been leery about them but was so hungry he took her word for it. So far, none of them had thrown up or run a fever so maybe she had been right. He had thought of trying to throw the knife at an annoying chirpy squirrel - yes he was that hungry - but didn't bother because with fire not being an option, they would have to eat it raw – no, he wasn't that hungry.

The weary group had made it to the lower slopes of the mountain, the top of which Dean was sure would have a fire tower. As the crow flies it was probably only eight or so miles from the house but they had been doing so much side-tracking and circling and cutting through the brush to avoid demons that he figured they had traveled more like twenty since their escape at dawn. They hadn't seen a demon in a while and Dean hoped this meant the search was focusing on the river valley they had been winding around in all day.

Caitlyn lay down almost immediately in the shelter of a large rock face and curled up to sleep, shivering in the cool night air. Dean motioned for Jenna to watch her while he took Tyler with him to gather some brush to make a lean-to type shelter over them for the night.

Tyler was pale and tired but to his credit, had hardly complained all day. He didn't argue now and obediently followed Dean into the surrounding thicker woods to gather brush. When they were out of earshot, Dean looked over to find the kid grinning at him.

"What?" he demanded with feigned brusqueness.

"Nothing. Just wondering if you were gonna hook up with Jenna."

Dean chuckled and shook his head. "Bad timing," he answered. "Not that it's any of your business."

"Why not? She likes you as much as you like her. More even, coz she's not weirded out by you having a psychic thing like you are with her."

"Hey," Dean admonished, well aware of Jenna's self-doubt in regards to her 'psychic thing' and figuring the other two must have similar issues. "I don't... you three and your... I'm not weirded out... exactly."

Tyler tugged emphatically on a large branch on the ground, trying to break it free from entanglement. "Yeah, I know," he dismissed, not sounding offended in the least. "You like us. But you are weirded out by us - just a bit. And you're scared, but more for us than of us. I get that. We are kinda creepy."

Dean grew slightly uncomfortable at the kid's bluntness. "Didn't I warn you to stay outta my head?"

"Sorry; habit."

Dean watched him as they worked and found himself wondering why Tyler and Caitlyn were younger than Sam, Jenna, Ava and the others they had found so far. They weren't born in eighty-three. "How long you been able to do your thing?" he asked curiously.

"It started about a year ago," Tyler answered him. "It was weird coz I didn't really know what was happening the first few times. Once I figured it out, I started playing with it but that turned out to be kinda… well it sucked. I mean, I knew I wasn't one of the cool kids at school or anything but to hear what the other kids were really thinking about me..." He shuddered. "That was brutal. Especially girls. That goes double for Naomi Freemont."

Dean winced at the honest admission, not having really thought about that particular side-effect. Tyler was a skinny kid with a lot of freckles but was smart and sweet and brave as all fuck for a seventeen year old. As far as Dean was concerned, Naomi Freemont didn't know what she was missing out on.

Of course, as foolish as teenage girls could be, the hunter knew from experience that they could be downright wicked as well. "Yeah, I can imagine," he acknowledged with genuine sympathy.

Tyler snorted and laughed out loud. "Yeah right. It wouldn't suck for you! Girls don't think you're a dork."

Dean raised an eyebrow.

"Jenna and Caitlyn both think you're dreamy." He gave the hunter an exaggerated eye roll and waved his hands in the air as he said the last word.

Dean grinned. "It's all in the attitude, kid."

Tyler laughed again. "It's not your attitude they're having dirty thoughts about."

"Hey! Have you been reading all our minds?" Dean demanded, dragging the branch he had found to the pile they were making and dumping it on top. "I thought you had to touch someone."

Tyler gave him a sheepish smile. "I've been at this a while. I learned how to slip an accidental hand graze or a stumble-and-touch in there without anyone ever noticing. Dude, can I have the knife to chop this branch?"

"Sure." Dean handed him the knife he had taken from the kitchen in the house.

"See?" Tyler continued. "It's easy."

Dean had to think for a second before he realized the kid had just grazed his hand when taking the knife, so lightly he hadn't even noticed. "Son of a bitch," he mumbled.

"Don't worry," Tyler teased. "I won't tell anyone about you wearing Rhonda's pink undies."

"Son of a bitch!" Dean repeated, a horrified look on his face.

Tyler burst out laughing. "You were thinking really hard about not thinking about it."

Dean jabbed his finger in the air at the teenager. "Stay out, you hear me? You are way too young to be poking around in there."

"Okay, okay," Tyler agreed, still chuckling. "I've seen way worse." He dumped a branch and reached for another one. "I think it's nice how you keep encouraging us even though you don't really think we're gonna get out of here alive."

~X~X~X~X~X~

Quinn hadn't been kidding about her lack of patience. She fidgeted and paced worse than Dean and was irritable, short-tempered, and refused to relax and just accept that they were doing all they could right now. She had agreed that finding a high-ground vantage point would have been her game plan had she been down there with Jenna but was having a hard time trusting that Dean would make it to the fire tower.

It took Sam insisting that Dean was just as good of a hunter, if not better, than he was before she agreed to just take his word for it. Sam wasn't sure if he should be offended she believed Dean was better or be flattered that it was enough to convince her.

They had been up here a long time and the orange hues of dusk were disappearing quickly over the western horizon. Any attempts at real conversation on Sam's part had been relentlessly parried with witty remarks or deflective changes of subject. In the last five hours of sitting and watching, he had practically told Quinn his entire life history but she was still being stubbornly elusive with her past.

"So what made you join the Army?" he questioned, perched on the desk where he could still see out the window.

"I wanted to shoot big guns."

"No, seriously. There had to be a better reason than that."

"What's wrong with that reason?"

Sam gave up on that one. "Were you upset when you got discharged?"

"IWell, I was upset I had to spend six months in prison before they booted my ass out anyway."

"Would you have stayed in the Army?"

"And miss out on the fun life of a hunter?"

"I'd gladly miss out on that if I had been given a choice," Sam admitted. "But like Jenna, I can't just walk away, not now. You and Dean can but you don't."

"Jenna is walking away. As soon as I get her back, we're dropping off the grid completely."

"You really think the demons will let you do that? Yellow-Eyes has plans for her."

"Fuck Yellow-Eyes."

"Wouldn't you rather find out what those plans are and stop him once and for all?"

"Not if it keeps Jen in his sights."

"And how about you?" he pressed. "Don't you ever want to settle down and not have to worry if you're going to get killed at work today?"

She gave him a cocky grin. "You questioning my hunting skills, Winchester?"

Sam was quickly losing his patience. "Oh my God, Quinn," he groaned. "Are you ever going to drop your cocky, tough-chick defense mechanism?"

She jerked her head around to give him a surprised look. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, I know guarded when I see it," Sam confronted her. "I live with it every day and you know what? - it's exhausting. Trying to chip past my brother's walls to figure out what's going on inside…"

Quinn remained silent from where she sat on the bed, spurring Sam to continue. "And you know what else? It's not helping." He sighed. "Can't we have an open conversation? We're on the same side. I'm just trying to figure out what this is all about and what the demons have planned for me – and for Jenna. I've told you my whole story. After everything that's happened, you still don't trust me?"

She looked at him for a moment, her expression thoughtful. "Actually I do," she shrugged. "And I usually don't so… it bothers me that I do."

He hadn't expected that admission. "Really? Why?"

She huffed and waved a hand dismissively. "Oh you know, the classic, 'if I don't let them in they can't hurt me' deal."

Sam wasn't sure what to say. That was his brother's unspoken life motto, at least when it came to women or anyone outside their family circle, but Sam had never understood it. The nomadic, lonely life of a hunter had never appealed to Sam. He had always wanted to make friends, to have normal human connections and relationships. He had craved them desperately but he just couldn't seem to forge any lasting ones beyond his small hunting circle. Jessica had been the first and last.

"What about Jason?" he blurted. While speaking of Jenna's brother had been the only times he had seen a crack in Quinn's defensive walls over the past two days so he decided to risk exploiting it. "What was he like?"

Quinn smiled, leaning back and planting her feet with crossed ankles on a log clearly intended to be used as a coffee table. She surprised Sam by answering honestly. "Like Jenna, in a lot of ways. Like me in others but… smart. He used his head. And he was sympathetic and... good. A bit of a do-gooder, actually." Her lip curled up into a cheeky, lopsided grin. "He was a lot like you, too."

"What? He was tall?" Sam joked.

She laughed, not letting him off the hook that easily. "No, he was too damn good-looking for his own good."

Sam blushed, immediately regretting the line of questioning. Damnit, why did this woman rattle him so? He held up the deck of cards they had found in the drawer. "Go fish?"

~X~X~X~X~X~

Dean sat on the top of the rock face, hugging his knees and keeping a wary eye out into the surrounding darkness. Jenna and Tyler were cross-legged next to him, both shivering slightly while Caitlyn slept soundly in the shelter they had built below. The blonde had given Caitlyn her heavy leather bike jacket for warmth since the younger girl had left the house in nothing but a t-shirt.

Dean could see Tyler was ready to fall asleep also but decided to take the opportunity to get some information before he sent him to join Caitlyn.

Tyler informed them that Caitlyn had been at the house for a couple of weeks and he figured he'd been there close to a month. He had seen Caitlyn a few times when they were allowed to sit in the living room and watch TV. She hadn't even known she had powers until the demons had shown her what she could do. They had tried to get her to use them, tried to make her practice, telling her she would get better and 'the sky was the limit' but she had been resistant. Reagan, on the other hand, had been there less than a week before she agreed to work with the demons and then suddenly Dean, Jenna, and Chelsea were brought in.

Dean let the questions roll, asking what Tyler knew about the demons' plan, about their boss, the demon war going on, and if they ever had a girl called Ava in the house. Tyler insisted he didn't know much, informing them he couldn't read the mind of a demon. When he tried in the first couple of days, all he kept getting was the fear and pain of the person inside the possessed body so he was careful not to touch them after that. He was fairly certain they had never mentioned a girl called Ava.

As for their boss, they never used his name. They had called him a 'limey prick' a few times and seemed to be absolutely petrified of his wrath if they screwed up. He also wasn't very forthcoming with the big picture, so none of the demons they had met knew the whole story, just their assigned tasks.

He told them that Reagan could see flashes of the other psychic kids, visions of their futures, and from them could tell where they would be at some point in time, which the demons used to capture them. Jenna was to be used as their recruiter, bringing topside the demons they knew would be loyal to their cause. Caitlyn was to be a weapon against hunters, sent to rescue any trapped demons in danger of being exorcized. They hadn't really used Tyler yet, but told him his powers would come in to play later.

"And Sam?" Dean demanded.

"Your brother? They talked about him," Tyler admitted. "They really want him bad. Kept saying he's gonna be their big weapon."

"Weapon?" Dean's heart missed a beat. "But he just has visions; that's it!"

Tyler shrugged. "Sorry. All I know is the little bits and pieces they said when they forgot I was there."

Dean assured him he'd been a big help anyway and suggested he go get some rest with Caitlyn. He told Jenna to do the same but she claimed she was too wound up to sleep just yet and insisted on keeping watch with him.

There was a cool breeze, not unexpected for January even in California, and Dean saw a shiver run through the blonde as they sat atop the rock together. He was cold too, the demons having removed his jacket along with his weapons and lock-picks before he had regained consciousness in the van, so he lifted and arm and beckoned her over. She tucked herself under it and slid her bare arm beneath his blue shirt. The two sat huddled together in silence for a long time, lost in their own thoughts.

"Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"You said before that your dad died saving you. What happened to him?"

Well, that came out of left field. "Uhhh," Dean stammered, not particularly relishing a discussion on what was a very sore subject for him. "We had a run-in with Yellow-Eyes," he admitted. "I didn't come out of it so good and then when we were driving away, a semi slammed into us. Between what the demon did to me and the injuries I got in the crash, I was in a coma and the doctors weren't holding out much hope for me. But my dad just had a broken arm." He wasn't sure of it was bone-deep weariness or having spent almost every minute of the last two days with her, but Dean surprised himself when the truth started tumbling out of him. "Next thing I know, I'm fine – some kind of miraculous recovery – and my dad's telling me all sorts of things he never would have said, like how he's proud of me and how he should have been a better dad. Then half an hour later, he's dead."

She didn't look up at him. "He just died?"

He nodded and swallowed at the guilt that always hit him when he thought of where his father was now. "But I knew something was up. I knew he'd… he'd done something, made a deal. Then I ran into a crossroads demon and she confirmed it." He sighed and his voice grew soft. "He sold his soul for me to live. He's in Hell right now because of me."

Jenna didn't gasp or seem all that horrified but simply nodded, which struck Dean as strange even through his new wave of guilt. "So you know," she said simply.

"Come again?"

"When the demons took me out of the room the last time, I didn't pull a demon out of Hell for them."

"Then what did you do?" His voice nearly broke at the possibilities and thoughts flying through his mind at this moment.

"You must have noticed I wasn't in as bad shape when they brought me back," she continued, still not looking up at him. Her head was on his shoulder but she kept her gaze downward, her arms still wrapped beneath his outer shirt and her voice quiet. "That's because I didn't bring a demon back with me. They gave me a name and told me to find him, but he wasn't a demon."

"What are you saying?"

"He was a soul, a damned soul. The name was John Winchester. They sent me to find your dad."

Dean was sure his heart was beating so fast the demons would hear it a mile away. "And?" was all he managed to choke out.

"And he was in a bad place. Like, I know Hell is all bad but there are levels and he was… in a really bad one. I couldn't pull him out because he's not a demon – I'm sorry, I can only take a demon in – but I moved him. The demons wanted me to move him."

"Why?"

"I don't know." She turned her head to glance up at him now. "They asked me to help him."

Dean struggled to make sense of what she was telling him. Why would these demons want to help his father? They were obviously on opposing sides to Yellow-Eyes, but still, why would they help John Winchester?

"What's Hell like?" he blurted, regretting the question instantly and suddenly dreading the answer. Ignorance was surely bliss in this matter.

She shook her head. "I'm not going to tell you that, Dean. You… you don't want to know. But where your dad is now is better than where he was, if that helps any." She gave him an apologetic look for her vagueness.

"Did you talk to him?"

She nodded. "A little. I mean, he was… kinda messed up. The demons there were… He was in a bad place and…" She breathed out a long breath and Dean could tell she was holding back on the gory details for his sake, for his peace of mind and he didn't push.

"When I found him, he wasn't free to roam," she elaborated slowly. "I did what Darksuit told me to do and just grabbed his arm and concentrated on being somewhere else. It worked and we ended up in a lesser level of Hell, but I only had a minute…" She paused again, biting her lip before continuing. "I told him I was with you, with Dean, and he pulled himself together enough to ask about you."

"What did he say?" Dean's voice was thick and raspy, his insides twisting into a knot of fresh grief and loss and bitterness.

"He just said 'Dean? How's my boy?' I said you were fine and he smiled. Then demons came near and he told me to go and… and I went." She flashed a guilty look up at him. "I'm sorry. I know it's not much but…"

"No," Dean assured her sincerely. "No, it helps. Thank-you." His face pulled into a frown, the irony still eating at him. "But why? Why would the demons want to help him?"

"Well, I don't think it was out of the goodness of their hearts. They said if he stayed on the ra…uhh, where he was, then he might do something they didn't want him to. That's all I got. I wasn't going to say anything at all but when you said you already knew he was in Hell, I figured I could tell you."

Dean just nodded, his mind in a daze and his heart in a vice. Stripping the emotion from it all, he supposed this was good news. His dad was better off than he was yesterday, even if he was still in Hell. He couldn't stop his brain from wandering a dark path with regards to Jenna's psychic talent. The possibilities… She couldn't pull his dad out but she could talk to him. God, he needed to talk to his dad!

"So your uh, talents, keep improving, huh? I mean, what you did today, sucking in that demon then spitting him out into a devil's trap…"

He felt Jenna shudder against him and instantly regretted even entertaining the idea of asking her to go back down to Hell so he could get some chat-time with his father.

"Yeah, I guess," she said quietly. "What I did today worked the same as before. I pulled that smoke-demon into me pretty much the same way as I did the one from Hell the other day. It's… disturbing to use. I feel this energy inside and it's… dark. Evil. I mean, it's a little exhilarating, but it's not good. It's definitely demon power."

"It saved our necks today," he pointed out, almost reluctantly. "It worked against the demons."

"I don't care. I hope I never have to use it again, any of this shit. Ever." He heard a quiver in her voice and she leaned in tighter against him. "Fuck, Dean, these talents, powers, whatever you want to call them, they're inside me. Lurking in there like evil poison and I don't even know the extent of them. Who knows what else I'm capable of? Those hunters that tried to kill me were right about one thing - I'm tainted. I hate it. I hate all of it and …" She paused and shuddered again. "And it scares the shit out of me."

Dean pulled her closer with the arm he had around her and feathered a comforting kiss her temple. "Me too," he admitted, thinking as much of Sam as Jenna, thinking of his dad's warning.

If you can't save him, you might have to kill him. Did the same hold for Jenna now too? And Caitlyn? And Tyler?

They sat in silence for a long moment before Jenna spoke , her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm never using it again."

"You won't have to," Dean assured her quickly. "We're gonna get out of here and find a way for you to stay out of all this demon crap."

If only Sam would agree to run, he thought wistfully. Dean would gladly do the same.

She sighed into his shoulder. "Is that a promise?"

Dean knew better but he said his next words anyway. "Yeah, that's a promise."

She gave him a half-hearted smile. "S'okay Dean; it's not your responsibility."

"See, that's where you're wrong. Sam's one of you, remember, and he is my responsibility."

"Your little brother's lucky to have you." Her smile widened. "We're lucky to have you. You know, as far as fellow kidnap victims go, you're not half-bad."

He chuckled, looking down to catch a glint of genuine mirth in her eyes. He was glad to see her cheerfulness returning. He had been impressed by her on so many levels from the moment she had turned down his advances at the diner to now and he had really liked the strength he had seen in her today.

He didn't even realize he was doing it before his lips were on hers, her head tilting up to respond in kind. The kiss only lasted a minute but by the time he pulled away, her face was flushed and his hands were cupping her cheeks. A flicker of sanity pointed out to his rapidly beating heart that he should stop before this went past the point of no return, that this wasn't the time nor the place, that he didn't get to have... this. He pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes to regain control of his breathing.

"You should go get some sleep with the others," he managed, his voice huskier than intended. "I'll keep first watch."

She nodded and withdrew her hands from around him, giving him one last lingering peck on the lips before gathering her feet beneath her and pushing herself up. "Don't try to be the big hero," she warned with a smile. "Wake me up in two hours and I'll take the next shift." She let go of his hand and climbed down the rock to crawl into the lean-to with Caitlyn and Tyler.

"Oh crap," Dean grumbled to himself after she'd gone, rubbing his hand down his face. "Pull yourself together, Dean. This is not the time to be feeling like this."

~X~X~X~X~X~

It was dark out now, though the four upper walls of glass in the fire tower allowed in enough light from the half moon to make out faces and furniture. Using any sort of artificial light would be like sending out a beacon to the demons so Sam and Quinn waited in the darkness, staring out across the forest. Although he wouldn't admit it to his companion, Sam was starting to worry. He had hoped Dean would make it to the tower before nightfall.

There was no doubt that if Dean or Jenna had made it out of the forest, they would have called - the cell phones were still showing three bars. So Dean and Jenna and whatever psychic kids they had in tow had to still be out there in the wilderness.

"They're probably camped out for the night," Sam said absently, not even realizing he had said it aloud as he stood staring out over the trees.

He heard a shuffling sound and Quinn appeared standing next to him, her arms folded across her chest. "Jen can fend for herself in the wilderness. They'll be alright."

Sam nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, they'll be alright," he repeated, trying to settle the knot of worry in his gut. "They'll find their way here in the morning, trust me."

She stared out of the window for a long, silent minute before turning back to Sam. "I'm gonna hold you to that," she said evenly. His gaze lingered on her face and he thought for the umpteenth time how attractive she was, noting how the pale light pronounced her well-defined cheekbones and enhanced her dark eyes with shadow. She quirked an eyebrow at the unintended scrutiny and he turned away hastily, pretending to give the salt lines a visual inspection.

Twisting her wrist, she used the moon's light to look at her watch and let out a loud, disgruntled breath. "You realize that means we have another nine hours at least to wait in this sardine can."

Sam chuckled, not surprised at how quickly her frustrated tone had returned.

She turned and glanced at the single lumpy-mattressed bunk on the far wall and looked back at him, a single eyebrow twitching suggestively. "I'm tired of playing cards, Winchester. Any other suggestions to pass the time?"

The normally shy hunter felt a blush coming on but shook it off. Fuck it. She had been flirting with him for two days now and damnit if she wasn't the hottest thing he'd seen since Jess in her smurf panties. Hell, in a bad-assery sort of way, she was hotter.

He lunged at her, his fingers weaving into the hair at the base of her neck to pull her head in closer as his lips crashed into hers. He didn't waste time waiting for permission he was sure would come; he just drove his tongue in and the kiss went from intent to intense in about one point two seconds.

He felt her gasp and her hands fisted into the front of his shirt but it took him a few seconds to realize she wasn't really returning the kiss. He pulled away as fast as he'd swept in, his eyes wide and his mouth floundering its way through an apology. "I'm sorry. I thought…I mean, you've been flirting with me and…"

"Uhh, I, uhh..." she stammered in return. Although vaguely triumphant that he'd succeeded in flustering her, Sam cringed at the awkwardness of his blunder and his hands retreated slightly before she regained control of her tongue.

"Honestly," she said, "I teased because I figured you were too shy and straight-laced to take me up on it."

"Oh," Sam felt incredibly foolish at this point, though a voice in the back of his head was pointing out to him that her fingers were still wrapped tightly in the fabric of his shirt. "You want me to stop then…" It was put out there as a statement, not a question.

The now-familiar smirk returned, curling the ends of her lips. "Hell no," she practically purred, pulling him closer so his chest was pressed against hers. "You stop and I'll throw you through one of these windows." She laughed and before Sam could even register her change of pace, her mouth was back on his.

It was fervent and fierce, tongues and teeth clashing in a dance of rivalry as the pair now locked in a heated kiss stumbled back from the window.

"Bed," Quinn mumbled into his mouth, fighting for control as she pulled him towards the cot on the far wall.

But the bed was too far away for the spike of lust surging through Sam. Using his superior strength to overpower her tugging, he pushed her up against the desk next to where they stood, his hands already shoving her jacket off her shoulders. She gasped but relented, helping him relieve her of her outerwear, followed quickly by her t-shirt and bra. Perched on the edge of the desk, she started working on the buttons on his shirt but her fingers fumbled and a loud moan escaped her when Sam ducked his head to bestow his tongue's attention on her now-exposed chest.

When he finally pulled back to work on removing her jeans, breathless and needy, she went for his shirt again and this time he let her. The instant his arms were behind him though, wrapped in a twist of flannel, she pounced, giving him a hard shove backwards. He freed himself of his shirt but was disgraced when her foot then wrapped around his leg and knocked him off balance, landing him on the lumpy bed behind him. His humiliation, however, was soon forgotten as she wasted no time in straddling him, her mouth once again locked hungrily on his as she fumbled with his belt buckle.

A fire ignited within Sam, one he hadn't known existed before. Sure it had been a long time for him, since Jessica, but this was something new. He wasn't striving for gentle or considerate and he wasn't trying to please the girl so he could keep his false world of 'normal' from crumbling. This time he felt free, guided only by a need to control, dominate, and mark her as his. For the first time in his life, Sam didn't hold back.

He rolled them over and within seconds, any remaining offending garments had been removed and Quinn was screaming blissful filth out into the room. The animalistic lust within him tore loose and had him manhandling her into positions he had never even dreamed of, murmuring dirty things in her ear he wouldn't have dared voice to gentle Jessica. Quinn quickly gave up any residual struggle for dominance, turning herself over to Sam to do with as he pleased, her loud moans interspersed with desperate pleas begging him for more. He was rough and feral and she was clearly as lost as he was in the passion burning between their sweat-soaked bodies. His fingers were bruising and his pace punishing as he brought them over the edge time and time again.

~X~X~X~X~X~

A/N: Yikes, hopefully that didn't push the boundaries of a T-rating (I kept body-parts out of it, lol). For those of you who like the pairings, there's a twist or two you may not (or may) enjoy later on. Those of you who don't want heavy romance, don't worry, this chapter was as heavy as it gets.

I have read a lot of speculation as to how John Winchester was able to walk out the Devil's Gate in the season 2 finale when he was supposed to be on the rack so I thought I would weave one possible explanation into my story. Hope you thought it was plausible. Let me know what you thought and as always, I'd appreciate any comments or reviews.