The soft, polite knock on the door makes Sam's heart skip when he hears it. She's here. Rina's here. Holy crap.

Getting up from his chair at the table, Sam smoothes his hands down the front of his striped button down and combs his fingers through his hair to get out his nervous energy. He really likes her and for her to come all this way just to help his brother has to mean something, right?

One solid deep breath and he's ready. Sam unlocks the deadbolt and turns the knob, pulling the door open with a smile.

"Rina," he kindly says her name when he sees her standing there waiting for him. Her dark, black hair is pin straight and not wavy like when he last saw her. He dark eyeliner and red lips haven't changed however. Her gold bangles on her left wrist jingle and she adjusts the strap of the bag on her shoulder. Her white V-neck t-shirt and jeans make her look comfortable yet reveal her shape quite well. She looks fantastic. "Hi."

"Hi, Sam," she smiles widely and drops her bag onto the ground. She steps forward and reaches up to give him a hug. Sam of course obliges her, his own arms wrapping around her waist as she circles his neck. "So good to see you."

"Yeah, you too," he returns truthfully. He backs away as much as he doesn't want to and gives her space. She just got here and after not having heard from him much and not having seen him since he left her home months ago he has no idea how she really is feeling about him right now. He gives her another solid look over. "You're looking well."

"I could shockingly say the same about you," Rina jests. "Never know what to expect when I come across a hunter."

Sam laughs a little before picking up her bag for her. "Come in."

She follows him inside and looks around the motel room, noticing the protection and warding symbols everywhere along with salt lines and strategically placed weaponry. "You hiding from something?"

"Uh, generally," Sam answers, placing her bag on the floor by the door. "Dean's a little vulnerable right now and we had to leave him today for a bit… or we had to leave her, really."

"Where is Dean, by the way?" Rina asks, wanting to see the man turned woman very much. Call it morbid curiosity.

"Out with Lizzy scoping out a bar," he explains. "We know it's a witch and we know what she looks like but that's all we got. Dean ran into her the other night at a dive joint and the next morning he was a she. We're trying to find her now."

"How's Lizzy taking all of this?" Rina questions. "I know Dean must be a mess but she can't be doing too well herself. This is a big change."

"No, ah, she's handling it surprisingly well." Sam pulls a chair out for Rina on one side of the table before sitting down on the other. "She's been level headed and just awesome. I'm pretty sure she's the only reason Dean hasn't killed anyone quite yet, or lost his mind for good."

Rina takes a seat and folds her hands on the table top. "She's extraordinarily strong so I'm not that shocked. She seems to have the ability to handle things with even temperance when most would crumble."

"You got that right," Sam admits wholeheartedly.

"So Dean hasn't gone crazy yet, huh?" Rina questions with surprise.

"Nah, he's held his own."

"Now that surprises me."

"Why's that?"

"He seems very reactionary to me, and angry at times. When Lizzy was cursed he was ready to erupt at any point until she was back to normal. I only met the real Dean on the day you all left."

"That's because he's the one in trouble this time," Sam starts to explain without having to think about it. "When it's me or it's Lizzy, he's much worse."

"It's that big brother charm."

"I've always assumed so." Sam huffs with how true it is.

"So you don't know the spell or the witch you're dealing with so you don't know her strength… sounds like you are up… shit creek."

Sam pauses for a moment while just looking at her with slight shock. "Did you just swear?"

Rina pauses, smiling for ear to ear with the observation. "What? You know, I just… I'm not like some… have I never cussed in front of you?"

"Cussed? No, never." Sam has to laugh a little at what he's heard. It sounded so wrong.

"Yeah, I usually don't," she admits with an embarrassed laugh and some rosy cheeks. "You three swear like sailors so I was trying not to seem too goody-goody." She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear with her anxiety. "Lizzy made me look like a totally wimp last time I saw you all."

"Lizzy is a loud, foul mouthed, fist throwing pain in the ass," Sam informs her of the truth. "I love her like the sister I never had but please, don't try to be like her."

"Oh boy," Rina sheepishly comments. "I just feel so out of place with you guys sometimes. You're all so tough and brave and…"

"We're not like you, no," Sam tells her, knowing the difference is staggering between her demeanor and theirs. "We're weary and worn down and way too jaded for our own good. You're still nice and caring and innocent. You don't want to be like us… and I like you the way you are."

The awkward pause fills the room, making it stuffy and strange with Sam's admission until they hear the knob of the main door move.

"Rina?" Lizzy calls out as she suddenly unlocks the motel room door and peeks inside. She saw the old VW bug outside and knew she'd find their friend in the room. "Rina!" she calls out loudly when she sees the woman sitting at the table. "You made it!" Lizzy pushes through the door and walks in, Dean hot on her heels.

"Yes I did," she laughs, instantly recognizing that maybe Lizzy drank too much when she stands up and gets a crushing hug from the woman.

"It's so good to see you again," Lizzy admits while backing away.

"You too," Rina responds. She then gets just a quick look at Dean as the new woman walks around Lizzy and makes a beeline for her.

Surprising everyone in the room, including herself, Dean wraps Rina up in a grateful hug.

"Thank you for coming," her unsteady voice says in a genuine moment. Rina tentatively hugs back, not having been prepared for the moment. Neither were Lizzy and Sam as they watch with utter shock and awe.

"I, um…" Rina starts while not too sure what to say. Dean backs away with self-shock.

"Um, sorry… 'bout that," she says with her head down and sights lowered. "Just got real happy to see you here. It's like help finally arrived, you know?"

"Wow," Rina whispers to herself while practically studying the woman and ignoring her words. It's Dean, she doesn't second guess that for a second. The way she's standing, the eyes, the lips, the clothing choices… it's Dean through and through. "I can't believe this."

"You're not alone in that," Dean complains, shifting awkwardly on her feet under Rina's critical eye.

"I… it's… holy crap," Rina continues to marvel at her. She takes up one of Dean's hands and holds tight with her eyes closed, feeling the confirmation of who she is. This woman is definitely Dean. He feels the same. "I'm sorry, I just haven't seen anything like this before."

"Us either. So you think you can help?"

"Oh," she pauses while eyeing Dean still. "I have some really old curse wards and spell reversals that if I make some black magic substitutions I could possibly convert. Could be worth a shot."

"I'll take anything," Dean admits immediately.

"Well, we can try it tomorrow. There are a few things I have to pick up before I'm ready. Also, I'm going to need Sam's help in converting some of this stuff from Romanian gypsy magic to black magic… in Latin."

"Yeah, haven't had a chance to go over much with Rina yet," Sam tells Lizzy and Dean. "She just got in. I think we need to sit down and sort through the whole thing so she's totally caught up."

"Good idea!" Lizzy smiles bright, immediately grabbing her duffle from the floor. "We should get out of your hair for a while."

"Oh no, that's not necessary," Rina says while watching the woman pack up her basic belongings as fast as possible. She doesn't want to put Lizzy and Dean out at all.

"No, it's fine," Lizzy continues to grin to Rina. "Dean and I will get another room. You can have our bed… if you need it…" Implication noted by all. Dean perks up a little bit.

"Oh yeah," Dean starts, grabbing her own essentials as fast as she can. "And you came all this way the least we can do is give you a night to relax and catch up on your sleep… or not…"

"Guys," Sam shames, eyes screwed shut with utter horror for their obviousness.

"No, no, no," Lizzy assures, her bag already fully packed. She stumbles on her way to the door. "It's totally fine."

"Oh my God!" Sam complains when he watches the way they conduct themselves a little closer. "You got drunk!"

"I'm not drunk," Lizzy rebuts instantly as she opens the door to leave. "Dean is."

"Oh, I'm loaded," Dean pauses and shares a dumb, drunken, and completely silly grin with her brother before dropping it back into a serious face once Sam's disapproval was obvious. "I didn't know it would take so little these days to sink my Battle Ship. Honest mistake." She makes whatever excuse she can.

"You were supposed to be on the lookout for the witch!" Sam angrily shouts, his frustrations with them on high.

"We did. Bitch never showed so we got drunk," Lizzy shrugs. "S'been a shitty few days."

"And I feel so much better about having no dick when I'm drunk apparently," Dean adds in, slinging her bag over her shoulder and heading to the door. "I'm actually kinda ok with it at the moment. You know, because I'm drunk."

"Worthless," Sam shakes his head as Dean and Lizzy stand outside the door looking in.

"Oh, Sam. Relax," Rina says to the suddenly worked up Sam. "If these two can find a way to have fun while going through something so crazy and scary, then good on them." Rina turns to the hazy couple. "Go sleep it off and we will perform some gypsy magic on you tomorrow Dean. It's fine."

"Dude," Dean cheers happily, looking quickly to Sam before pointing to him. "You better marry this one."

"Dean…" Sam practically whines as Lizzy pulls the door shut, Dean nodding with a giant shit-eating grin behind her as she did. The display now over Sam sighs heavily with his hands on his hips. Rina didn't come all this way for that kind of unnecessary pressure. "I am so sorry about that."

"Don't be," Rina assures him while walking to her bag and leaning down to grab a book from it. "They are two people that seriously found their better half in each other, aren't they?"

"You have no idea."

"Well then, if they can deal with this so well then I think you should let them. And really Sam, you sent them out just the two of them to a bar." She smiles while taking a seat at the table again. She opens the old, worn, book bound journal and starts leafing through it. "How did you not see it coming?"

Sam cracks an honest smile with the thought. "I really should have seen it, shouldn't I have?"

"Yes, and now you're making me think twice about assuming you're the smart one of the group." Rina then motions for Sam to sit back down at the table, which he does. She passes him the open journal and points to a page. "So I think that with your help we can modify this old Romanian prayer of protection and virility into a Latin spell breaker. It's the closest thing I could find to any form of sex-change-back-magic."

"Huh," Sam thinks. "Is that possible?"

"Converting spells?"

"Yeah."

"I've done it once before," Rina assures. "I helped out a hunter about seven years ago. He was cursed to die a horrible death in less than forty-eight hours. I modified a gypsy prayer that I remembered from my grandmother as a kid. With the hunter's help we made it work. It broke the witchcraft that doomed him."

"No shit," Sam awes while looking at her with pleasant surprise.

"Yes, um, shit," she hesitantly replies.

Sam grins at her with the awkward swearing before looking down at the journal in his hands. "And you think this is the one that will work for Dean?"

"I've got a couple others but this one is the best option I could come up with," she admits. "It's about protecting the ultimate male of a group of people, making him stronger, braver, and more of a man than any others in the tribe."

"He's our pack leader you're saying?" Sam narrows his eyes at her with the assumption.

"At least he thinks so," Rina smirks and gets Sam to huff a laugh at her joke. "This prayer was reserved for when the next in line leader was weak, unready, and all around considered as having negative, or female, qualities… which according to these arcane rules of gender definitions were unwanted."

"This is good," he tells her while highly impressed. "Really good."

"Oh, well, thank you," Rina brushes off.

"No seriously, I'm impressed. It takes a lot of creativity to come up with this solution."

"Now you're just trying too hard to flatter me," Rina laughs a bit with his complimenting as she leans back in her chair.

"Just being honest," Sam tells her with full sincerity.

"I guess with all I've seen from your kind this wouldn't be the first time I've…."

My mind's telling me no…

The music that's loudly playing through the walls of the next door room interrupts their conversation.

But my body, my body's telling me yes.

"Fucking asshole," Sam clenches his jaw with closed eyes. He knows exactly what is happening right now.

I don't want to hurt nobody…

Sam gets up from his seat to walk to the adjoining wall that the music is playing loudly from, the wall he's now sure is separating himself and his brother… sister.

But there is something that I must confess

Pounding his fist three times against the fading, peeling wallpaper, Sam begins shouting, "Dean! Knock it off!"

I don't see nothing wrong…

"Dean! Come on!" Sam shouts, already feeling like the teenage little brother he used to be when his big brother used to fuck with him every chance he got.

With a little bump and grind.

I don't see nothing wrong, with a little bump and grind.

Dean laughs though the pounding on the wall as she enjoys the moment of purely childish pranking.

"Ok, I think that's enough," Lizzy laughs hardily from her spot on one of the beds in the room as she watches Dean by the far wall.

"Fine," Dean grumbles while pulling the IPod dock away from the wall and pausing the song.

You're a fucking jerk!

"Stop being such a bitch, Sammy!" Dean shouts right back through the wall with a grin before walking back towards Lizzy as she's sitting cross-legged on the mattress. "What're you doing?"

"Trying to take advantage of the free night Sam just gave us," she explains while holding up the joint in her hand. "You in?"

"When am I not?" Dean responds a she places the IPod dock on the nightstand once she puts on the playlist 'Blues Got Me Down'. Janis Joplin starts singing 'Turtle Blues' while she takes a seat next to Lizzy, back against the headboard and legs stretched out and crossed. There was just something great about the blues while stoned that mellowed Dean out on even the shittiest of days. Now is the time for just such a moment.

"It's good to know we can still have fun even with our current weirdness," Lizzy remarks as she lights up the joint and takes a large lungful with relaxed happiness. "Ah. I had a good time drinking with you tonight… as always." She exhales with grateful relief to have the time alone with Dean.

"Yeah, it wasn't bad," Dean agrees, taking the offered joint from Lizzy.

"I'm just glad you aren't freaking out or anything anymore. I'm really proud of you," Lizzy turns herself to sit Indian-style while facing the blond woman next to her. "You're taking it like a man."

"That's supposed to be a joke, right?" Dean asks caustically while releasing a large cloud into the air.

"Not really," she explains. "You're still my man."

"You're ease with everything seriously worries me." Dean takes another drag and Lizzy shakes her head.

"Why do you have to say that?" she has to ask. "Why can't you believe that I really do love you for exactly who you are and not anything external or superficial or whatever else?"

"Because this is a huge change," Dean reminds her, passing back the joint. "This isn't like I got a jacked up hair cut or whatever. This isn't just gonna grow out. Everything is different now."

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is," Dean says in a voice showing his growing frustrations. "L, everything is different now… and what if… just, what if I…." Biting her tongue with a hefty sigh she stops short.

"What if what?" Lizzy pries, inhaling hard as she sees this conversation might start to suck at any moment. Might as well get fucked up through it.

"It's just, we have so little leads, you know? We know practically nothing and we can't find the stupid witch that did this to me. What if we can't figure it out? What if we don't fix this and this is it for me for good?"

"It won't be, first of all," she explains, handing back the pot and shaking her head. "I told you we'd fix this and I meant it."

"And you can't promise that."

Lizzy pauses as she watches Dean smoke a little more. "You're right. I can't promise we'll get you back to normal… even if I seriously think we will because I'd do anything to help you." She then takes Dean's free hand in hers. "But even if we can't get you back to normal, I'm not going anywhere. What I can promise is that I'll always be with you."

"You're insane."

"No, you're insane for thinking I'd ever be able to leave you," Lizzy reminds. "I've loved you from the second I fucking met you. Even when you left for a year, even when you went to hell and back, even when you went behind my back and made a deal with the angels without even talking to me first I never left you. This is not big enough to change how I feel about you. I still love you just as much as I always did."

"And that's great," Dean says immediately. "But how are you going to live like this, huh? We don't fit together like we used to. You're not a lesbian, L. You never have been."

"Damn, you're close minded, you know that?"

"Excuse you?" she takes a huge drag and burns through the last of the joint.

"You really don't listen to me, do you?" Lizzy tries to reign in her annoyance. "I told you that I love the person first and foremost. I love you and that hasn't change. Because of how I feel about you I am still just as attracted to you as I always have been. I still want you and only you, Dean."

"And you are just a boatload of talk," Dean calls her out, not believing Lizzy fully. "This is a huge change…"

"That I am more than willing to make." Lizzy looks Dean in the eye with the same love, same devotion as ever.

"You're willing to lez out for me? For the rest of our lives together possibly?" Dean challenges, starting to come around to what Lizzy is claiming.

Without answering in words, Lizzy leans forward and kisses Dean. She is a stubborn person as much as her husband is and she wants to prove Dean wrong. That and she truly wasn't lying. She loves Dean still and would do anything for her. Anything.

Climbing onto Dean just like she usually does, Lizzy straddles her lap and cups her face, kissing her lips slowly and carefully. She's afraid to push too far. She's scared Dean will back off and make her stop when really she just wants to reconnect with her however she can. The past few days have been awkward and distancing. Dean is afraid even though she'd never say it and it's making them feel farther apart than they have been in a long time.

"I still love you," Lizzy whispers against Dean's lips. "I will never want to be anywhere but with you. I need you to believe that."

That old insecure streak that runs deep within Dean has really resurfaced through this. It's made her sure that Lizzy couldn't live with this, wouldn't want her anymore. Her wife now on top of her, kissing her like she always has, is starting to make that insecurity disappear.

Dean sighs while bringing her hands to Lizzy's waist, running her hands under the hem of her shirt like always. "I believe you. I do. I know you wouldn't lie about something like this."

"Thank you!" Lizzy cheers as she dives right back into kissing Dean. She holds tightly to her jaw, tongue playing against hers, and suddenly feels that familiar urgency within herself. She wants Dean. Wants her now, wants her every way she can have her.

"Wait, hold on," Dean interrupts, her hands wrapping around Lizzy's wrists and pulling them away when she can tell what her wife's intentions were. She looks up at her woman with sad, sorry eyes. "We can't do this."

"Baby, why?" Lizzy asks, looking for any solid reason for this pause.

"I… can't…" Dean fails to form words that make sense. "I don't know."

"What don't you know?" Lizzy asks, weaving her fingers through Deans. "What can't you do with me?"

"Everything," Dean explains. "I'm not me. I don't know how… this…" she looks down at herself. "Any of it… works. Don't know how… we can…"

"You're nervous?" Lizzy wonders, seeing the telltale signs of fear all over Dean.

"Hell yeah I'm nervous," she responds quickly. "I don't even like going to the bathroom right now, much less do anything else."

"Oh shit," Lizzy huff a little laugh. She completely forgot about how that must have gone the first few times. "That must be so weird for you."

"L, it fucking sucks," Dean admits. "Sitting down, having to wipe… God damn, what a pain in the ass. I can't believe half the world has to live like this."

Lizzy just nods and keeps quiet. If Dean is horrified by urinating then she prays that they figure this out before her time of the month hits. That's not going to go over well… at all!

"I don't know how it all works down there. It's fucking weird, ok?"

"I beg to differ," Lizzy rebuts. "I know for a fact, through much experience, that you know very well how it works down there." She smiles wide, knowing how true it is.

"It's not the same thing."

"Ok. Then why don't we… give it a trial run," Lizzy offers. "Together."

Dean shakes her head with uncertainty.

"Baby, please," Lizzy tries again, kissing Dean's lips very lightly. "I need you to trust me here."

Contemplating for a moment through the haze of booze and pot, Dean makes a snap decision. She nods her head in agreement before she can hide behind her fear again. After all, she did have Lizzy on her lap right now, practically begging to let her touch her and make her feel damn good. How does one turn that down no matter what the circumstances? Dean is just a man at the very base of things.

Lizzy moves in again, pressing her lips gently to Dean's as she brushes a stand of wavy blond hair that came loose from her ponytail out of her eyes.

"It's just me, remember?" Lizzy smiles warmly. "You don't have to worry or be nervous with me."

"Easier said than done."

"And we'll take it slow," Lizzy promises, doing anything she can to make Dean more comfortable.

"We know how to do that?"

Lizzy laughs a little at Dean's joke before kissing her again.