Dean passed by Sam in the stairwell of their apartment building on his way back from most likely failing his test.

"Hey, Sam," he said, "Where you off to?" Sam rushed off, shouting a quick "Luci's" over his shoulder. Dean continued upstairs assuming he wouldn't be seeing Sam till the next day if he was lucky. As he opened the door to his apartment, he heard Charlie and Dorothy come rushing out of their bedroom.

"Hi," he said, closing the door behind them.

Charlie asked instantly, "How was your test? Did it go okay? Did you study this time?" Dean sighed and threw his backpack and jacket on a chair at the table.

He sat across from his stuff and said, "It sucked. It sucked. And I tried." Charlie knocked Dean's bag and jacket to the floor, earning a glare from him, and sat down.

"Dean—"she started.

He shook his head, "The only reason I took this stupid class is because you said it would be good for me."

"Women's History is good for you."

"Sure, if I learned anything," he argued.

"If you ever went to class, you might actually learn something," she countered.

He rolled his eyes, "What is there to learn? Women had some bad shit for a long time, now it's better." Dorothy scoffed and retreated to her room.

Charlie stared at Dean, "Are you serious? Now it's better? Yeah, it's better than it was, but oh my goodness—Yeah, you need to go to class more. Badly."

He sighed loudly and said, "Yes, Mom."

Charlie stood up and said, "Well, I'm going to put on The Hobbit for when Ben gets here. Ben is still coming over, right?" Dean nodded.

It was really lucky Charlie and Dorothy didn't have to work tonight. Though Charlie's manager at the comic book store absolutely adored her and basically let her make her own schedule, it was nice to have people to babysit Ben so Dean and Lisa could go out for once. Part of Dean was jealous of Charlie. She got to hang out with Ben and her girlfriend in perfect peace. Dean was already gearing up for battle with Ben's mom. Lisa had been at him all week to take her out, but he wasn't expecting the date to soften the arguments much.

Dean hopped in the shower and hoped he'd be done and dry by the time Lisa came by.

By the time Dean was done getting dressed, Charlie was already interrogating six-year-old Ben about his favorite videogames and if he'd ever read The Lord of the Rings. Ben seemed to like Charlie and Dorothy enough, which relaxed Dean somewhat. When he saw Lisa wearing a black cocktail dress, he started to rethink his AC/DC shirt a bit.

"Hey, Lisa," he said, reaching for her hand. Instead, she dodged his touch by gesturing to the door.

"You ready?" she asked. He nodded. She hadn't said anything about his shirt, so he figured he was in the clear. He followed her out to her beat up blue civic and missed his baby with a fierce passion.

She was in the shop, still awaiting parts to heal her. 1967 Chevy Impala parts weren't exactly cheap or common, and it had taken some serious convincing for Crowley to even put the order in when he insisted on paying in cash. He didn't trust the guy as far as he could throw him, and he especially didn't trust him with his baby, but Dean really didn't have the time to put into her like he wanted. If she wasn't ready by the end of the school year and graduation if he was lucky enough to pass his classes, he fully anticipated breaking her out of the shop and fixing her himself.

As it was, they needed Lisa's piece of crap car to get around. They sat in silence to where ever they were going. The air strangled them with the jagged shards of unspoken thoughts and emotion.

Finally, Lisa asked, "Did you think about what I said at all?"

He answered, "I did. And I know you want us to move in together, but I'm really needed at my place." Another long silence filled the car. Dean idly considered jumping out of the car. They weren't going very fast, and he was sick of being suffocated by the corpse of their relationship.

"You know I don't want us to move in together just because of Ben, right? I do actually want to live with you," she said. He nodded acknowledgement. He wasn't ready to move out with her, though. Some days, he felt like he was only still dating Lisa because he loved Ben so much.

Hesitantly, he asked, "Hey, Lisa, umm, where are we going?"

She sighed in exasperation, "You don't remember? Wait, you did make reservations, didn't you?" Dean knew he must have been pulling off his best impression of a deer in the headlights. Thankfully, his phone rang before he could try to bullshit his way out of being completely fucked.

"Charlie?" he answered. He noticed Lisa stiffen.

"Hey, Dean," Dorothy answered, "I'm using Charlie's phone. We're at the hospital."

"What?!" Dean shouted. Lisa shot him a worried look.

"No, Dean, it's not Ben," Dorothy explained.

She paused and then said, "I told you we shouldn't have called him. It's just an ankle. We could've just taken care of it at home."

Charlie said something to her that made her say to Dean, "Charlie thinks you should know that Sam's in the hospital. He just twisted his ankle. It's not even that bad."

"What happened?" he asked.

He mouthed to Lisa, "It's Sam." She visibly relaxed.

"I don't know," Dorothy answered, "He said something about tripping down a flight of stairs. I have no clue. Oh. Charlie says you need to come to the hospital so we can admit Sam since he's only a freshman and you're his official guardian."

"Right," Dean said, "We'll be right there." He hung up and pictured Sam falling down a flight of stairs. Stupid kid. He told Lisa about the situation and remained in uncomfortable silence all the way to the campus hospital.

Luckily, Sam's ankle was only sprained, and Charlie had overreacted, but Lisa was still less than thrilled to find Ben sitting with them in the waiting room. Dean didn't know what she had expected them to do. It's not like they could have left him back at the apartment by himself. Still, date night ended before it even began. He hugged Ben goodbye, telling him, "Be good for your mom, okay?" Ben nodded quickly and followed his mom out to her stupid car.

Regardless of the problems he and Lisa had, Dean knew he couldn't leave Lisa. He loved Ben too much to be able to say goodbye.