The next day passed pretty much like the first, as did the one after that. Bobby was still looking on his end, but the curse wasn't coming undone no matter what they tried and the feelers they'd put out on the witches in Atlanta were coming up empty. It's not like Dean could give them names, or even descriptions. They'd keep trying, of course, but it looked like they were just going to have to wait this out. Sam was strangely okay with that. And Dean…Dean was in heaven.

Well, mostly in heaven. Sam was still getting glares at dinner time. It was the one meal his brother didn't eat with the other rabbits and the only time Dean seemed to mind getting roughage as his main course.

"You eat it fine when it's served on dirty, germy grass! What, Styrofoam offends your delicate bunny sensibilities now?"

Clover wants me to spend the night, Dean sulked.

"What in the woods? No way, Dean. Forget it.

Dean wiggled his ears innocently and blinked up at his brother. We just want a little alone time.

"Alone time? What for? I can't think of anything you could possibly do in private that you haven't already done dozens of embarrassing times in public."

Not be cooped up in here. Dean stamped his hind feet and hopped to his bed, throwing himself on it and not looking at his brother.

"Cooped up? You were outside all day! You're not going to be outside all night too. Didn't you get enough excitement this morning?" The cat that came bounding out of the woods into the midst of the grazing rabbits had been more than enough excitement for Sam. He wasn't expecting his brother to charge the damned thing, though in retrospect he had no idea why not.

Dean's ears twitched irritably. Sent it packing, didn't I?

Sam rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and you almost gave me a heart attack. Cats kill rabbits, Dean!"

Not this rabbit, they don't. What, I should have let it cut poor little Bramble out of the pack and eat him?

"Yes. No." Sam let out a long breath. "It's just that you're not the mighty Dean Winchester any more. Could you try to remember that before you go off trying to save the world?"

Dean turned to look at his brother and Sam wanted to bite his tongue off at the sudden weariness on Dean's face. Yeah, I know. Not like you haven't been perfectly clear about it for months.

"No. Dean, that's not what I meant." Sam shook his head. Not what he meant this time, anyway. "You're a rabbit, that's all. Sure, you got the best of the cat today, but what if it had been a dog?"

Dean's gaze hardened. I would have gotten rid of it too.

"Yeah, okay." Sam threw up his hands in defeat. Dean in human form was panicking now whenever a dog got too close, Sam could just imagine how his rabbit self would handle one. "But just on the really off chance a dog could get rid of you instead, no slumber parties. Deal with it."

Dean burrowed between two t-shirts until he was just a small, twitchy lump and it wasn't long before his breathing evened out and muffled bunny snores buzzed through the room. Sam sighed and turned in himself, sure his brother would have him up extra early the next morning.

When Sam woke, sunlight streamed through the crack in the drapes. He sat up and stretched, eyes automatically going to Dean's makeshift bed under the window. "Jesus Christ!" Sam almost bit his tongue in half as his jaw snapped shut mid-yawn. His brother sprawled on his back, face tented by a t-shirt that puffed up with each breath. The rest of his totally human body was bare and Sam quickly averted his gaze, partly horrified and partly relieved that Dean was going to have to take care of his morning needs the old fashioned way. Sam grabbed a pillow and flung it at Dean, grinning as it landed squarely on his brother's crotch. Dean rocketed into a sitting position with the t-shirt still draped over his head and froze, breath coming in short gasps.

"Sam?"

"Dean?"

"Am I…?"

"Yes, you're a real boy again," Sam said with a laugh. "Ungh," he added, wrinkling his nose. "Dude, you need to hit the showers."

Dean glanced quickly at the door then sighed, shifting under the pillow. "Yeah," he replied morosely. "I guess I do." He got to his feet, sending the pillow back into Sam's face before his brother could duck and darted into the bathroom.

Sam waited until the water had been running for a few minutes before banging on the door. "Still human in there?" he called.

"Feeling more human by the minute," Dean yelled back.

Sam opened the door and poked his head inside. "I'm going to grab us some breakfast. Anything special you want for your first re-humanated meal?"

"Scrambled eggs, bacon and home fries…and a side salad sounds good. Can you get a salad with breakfast?"

Sam stared silently at the shower curtain for a moment before replying. "Still got some whiskers there, Dean?"

Dean poked his head around the edge of the curtain and squinted at his brother through a screen of shampoo. "Well, yeah. I haven't shaved in a week; of course I've got whiskers." He blinked a few times and added, "Go get me some food, I'm starving."

Sam sketched a salute and headed out the door. He was out of luck in procuring early morning salads, but he did manage to order a tomato and green pepper omelet with bacon and fried potatoes that he hoped would satisfy his brother's newfound vegetable needs. When he got back to the room Dean was dressed and sitting at the table, nervously tapping his fingers on the wood.

"No salads," Sam announced right off the bat. "But I got you some veggies in your omelet." He grinned as Dean tore off the cover and dug in. "Looks like you being a bunny for a week was good for something at least."

Dean shot him a look full of something that was there and gone so fast Sam couldn't catch it. "Yeah," he replied. "I guess."
Sam waited until Dean was wiping up the last of his omelet with a few potatoes before broaching the subject of leaving.

"So," he said diffidently, "where do you think we should head next?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, where do you want to go now?"

"Back to Atlanta, of course. Where else would we go?"

"You're going after the witches?"

"Yahtzee."

"Why? " Sam stared at his brother through narrowed eyes. "This wasn't exactly the worst week of our lives and you might just end up as something way less cuddly for a whole lot longer if you piss them off again."

"You can't go around turning people into rabbits, Sam. I mean to find those ladies and make sure they realize the error of their ways."

Sam muttered something indistinct but negative into his egg-white and avocado wrap.

"Want to wait here?" Dean asked. "I'm sure it wouldn't take you long to scare up some company."

Sam didn't rise to the bait, thinking of the furious texts and voice mails from Ruby that were currently sitting unanswered on his phone. If Dean was going after these witches his brother was going to be right behind him in case it was necessary to scoop him up and beat a hasty retreat. "Nah," he replied. "If they turn you into a lizard or something, you're going to need me to get you a tank and a lifetime supply of mealworms."

"Haha." Dean's lip curled in a totally non-amused way. His eyes flicked to the door then back to his brother. "Um, I'm just gonna…why don't you finish your breakfast and get packed." He pushed his chair back and stood, grabbing his duffle from the bed.

"What, you're packed already?"

"I didn't exactly unpack, genius."

"Manage to get your knife back in there okay?" Sam asked innocently.

Dean just wrinkled his nose at his brother on the way out the door and Sam grinned. "That was a lot cuter when your nose was tiny and pink and twitched all the time."

Dean's middle finger was the last thing Sam saw before the door closed behind him. Sam took another bite of his sandwich and chewed slowly. He knew his brother was going to say goodbye to the rabbits and he wanted to give Dean enough time to get his emo over with before joining him. The thought that it would embarrass Dean to be seen getting sentimental was amusing Sam to no end. Dean was fine with having wild, public bunny sex, but having a mist in his eye while making his farewells would have him deflecting for days.

Sam meandered around the room, gathering what little he'd left lying around back into his duffle. He snorted softly when he came to his t-shirt, the only bit of Dean's bed left beneath the window. A quick peek around the curtain revealed his brother's back as he squatted on the grass across the parking lot. Small brown shapes surrounded him, the nearby pile of food ignored in favor of nibbling on the cuff of Dean's jeans and his bootlaces. Sam tucked the shirt into his bag and went to join the party.

Dean was rubbing a finger between the ears of a small, dull brown bunny and Sam was a little pissed that the animal wasn't trying to take a chunk out of him. Apparently even wild animals took to being petted better than his brother did.

"Now listen, Bramble," Dean said, stopping the petting and using the finger to tap the rabbit on the nose. "If something comes after you, run if you can, but if you've got no other choice you rush it and knock it off balance. That goes for all of you," he added, sweeping his gaze over the group that had its big brown eyes collectively fixed on him. "Run if you can, but fight like hell if you can't. Understand?"

Sam almost expected the tiny heads to nod, but a mass of twitching whiskers was the best the bunnies could manage. He was so engrossed in the speeches Dean was giving on everything from self defense to rabbit practical jokes that he barely restrained himself from taking Angie down when she laid a hand on his arm.

"Who's the hunky rabbit whisperer?" she asked, staring at Dean.

Sam internalized a sigh. Human or rabbit, his brother always got the girl. "That's my brother, Dean," he said with a little shrug. "He's just…really into rabbits, I guess."

"Where's yours?" she asked, scanning the furry assembly.

"Oh, um, he's gone."

"Gone?" Angie stared at Sam so accusingly that he backed up a step. "What happened?"

"Nothing!" Sam raised his hands in placation. "A friend took him back to his place when he dropped Dean off last night. He's fine, really."

"Oh. You scared me there for a minute." She turned her attention back to the rabbits just as Dean tried to scoop Clover up and she leapt from his grasp, landing a few feet away and settling in to scamper further if he should try it again.

"Come on, sweetheart, don't be that way." Dean's attempt to wheedle Clover back into his clutches was unsuccessful and Angie stepped up and smacked him on his shoulder.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I was just trying to pick her up," Dean muttered, defensive in the face of Angie's outrage.

"Well, don't. Can't you read the signs?" Angie made a sweeping gesture and Dean followed it until his eyes landed on a sign reading, 'These are wild creatures, please don't touch'.

"Look, I wasn't going to hurt her. And I've handled much wilder creatures than a tiny little bunny. I'm not afraid of her hurting me."

"Well, I'm sure you had no intention of hurting her," Angie conceded. "But she's been a busy little bunny this past week and in about a month she's likely going to have a litter."

"A litter?" Dean looked pole-axed and Sam really couldn't blame him. "As in…"

"As in a bunch of baby bunnies, yup. And any sort of stress could mess everything up and we don't want that to happen, right?"

"No. I definitely don't want that." Dean stood, sticking his hands in his pockets and staring at Clover in dismay. "But she should be someplace safe, right? We could take her with us and…" He stopped, mouth opening and closing helplessly, obviously at a loss for what his former paramour could do while he and Sam drove constantly and tried to stop the apocalypse. "I can't just leave her here."

"She's a wild rabbit," Angie said, obviously perplexed. "She belongs here. She's raised one litter already and hopefully she'll have many more."

Sam wanted to laugh at the thought of having nieces and nephews with long floppy ears, but he couldn't in the face of Dean's distress. He gripped Dean's sleeve and gently steered him out of Angie's earshot.

"Look," Sam said. "You know we can't take her with us, right?"

Dean glared at him then nodded his head miserably. "Yeah, I know."

Sam turned back to Angie. "You feed them all year round, right?"

Angie nodded. "Of course."

"And they're safe here?" Dean's voice was tense.

Angie smiled and gave a small shrug. "As safe as they can be. Nothing's guaranteed in this world, but this bunch has been around for a while, so I think they've got pretty good survival skills."

Sam smiled back and gave his brother a nudge. "See?"

Dean nodded, but his expression didn't lighten. He dug into his duffle and pulled out a wad of cash, flipping through the bills before peeling a few off and handing the rest to Angie. In Atlanta he'd managed to get a good bit of pool hustling in between witches.

"Good food," he said. "And lots of it. And…and… bunny houses for them to stay in when it gets cold."

Angie stared at the money. "I can't…this is…are you sure you want to give me this much?"

Dean nodded and rubbed his hand across his lips. "Just…just take good care of them, okay?" He turned to the car and tossed his duffle in the back seat before making his way cautiously back to Clover. He squatted a few feet away and she slowly made her way over to him. "You take care, sweetheart," he murmured. "I'll be by to see you when I can."

Sam watched his brother run his hand over Clover's head one last time then slid into the passenger seat seconds before the driver's door slammed. Dean's face was closed off, but Sam knew how upset he was.

"That was a lot of money for rabbit food," he said, trying to make a joke of it.

"Child support," Dean answered flatly, his tone making it clear that the conversation was over. Sam steeled himself for a long ride back to Atlanta.

"This is the place?"

"Yup," Dean replied with a grimace. "Hooked up with all of them right here."

Sam snorted softly, but didn't respond. Dean wasn't up for recriminations, even if Sam had any right to give them. "Well, let's see if any of them are on the prowl tonight."

The bar wasn't packed, but it was doing a brisk business and Dean didn't spot them right away. It wasn't until a tiny brunette stood up and waved at him from a table in the corner that he realized all four were here. He nudged Sam and gestured across the room.

"That's them?" Sam muttered disbelievingly. How the hell Dean managed to score attractive, high class women like these appear to be was beyond his brother. Even if they were witches. "Is she waving at us?"

"Yeah." Dean was just as perplexed as Sam.
"Dean!" The woman continued to wave as she called out his name. "Hey! Come join us."

Dean reached behind his back and cocked his gun, confident that Sam was checking his own weapons. They threaded their way through the crowd until they reached the table and a leggy blonde pushed two chairs out. The women looked neither threatened nor threatening. Two sipped white wine spritzers, one was chugging a Margarita, while the fourth nursed a tumbler of bourbon on the rocks.

"Have a seat, boys," the Margarita grinned.

"We don't drink with witches," Dean snarled and the bourbon drinker burst into laughter.

"Do everything else with them though, don't you?"

Dean actually blushed and his lips began to twitch up before his brother elbowed him in the side and hissed, "Dude, upstairs brain time! Witches, remember? Gave you long floppy ears and a hankering for leafy greens? "

Dean gave his head a hard shake, trying to recapture the anger that had fueled him during the long drive to Atlanta. The women were relaxed, smiling and he got the same feeling from them now as he had before.

"Come on," the blonde Margarita drinker said, more seriously. "Sit down."

Dean nodded and took a chair, Sam following suit. The blonde, Jenna, Dean remembered suddenly, called to the waitress for two drafts and then all four were staring at him intently.

"How do you feel?" Kristy, the bourbon drinker, asked with a smile. "I've got to say you're looking better."

"Something wrong with the way I looked before?" Dean was a little offended here, and his reply was sharp.

"You looked tired, sweetie. Chewed up and spit out." It was the brunette who had waved them over now. She offered a hand across the table to Sam. "Hi, I'm Maggie." Sam looked at it suspiciously and she snorted. "It's not catching you know. Being a witch."

"Chewed up and spit out? I looked good enough for all four of you to…." Dean was cut off as the women burst into laughter.

"You sure did, honey." Lauren was the last to speak. "Even chewed up and spit out you're easy on the eyes. But now you look like you've spent a week eating your vegetables, sleeping through the night and getting some good healthy exercise."

"Got good healthy exercise with you," Dean muttered and the women raised their glasses in a toast.

"You certainly did," Maggie grinned. "You kept going and going and going. A rabbit was definitely your spirit animal."

"Well," Jenna interjected, "there was a little discussion over that. Kristy wanted to turn you into a stallion, but we managed to convince her that it would be a logistical nightmare. A horse trailer behind that classic Chevy? And where would poor Sam find a hotel that had a pasture? A rabbit was much easier to manage, right Sam?"

"Oh, I think he would have been perfectly easy to manage if you hadn't turned him into anything at all." Sam wasn't going to play into their 'we're just a bunch of girls out for a night on the town' charade.

"Yeah, because you've been managing him so well since he got back from hell." Kristy was staring daggers at Sam and Dean and Maggie spoke at once to defuse the tension.

"Managing? What the hell?" Dean was pissed. The last thing he needed was to be managed.

"Now, Kristy, this isn't about Sam. We all agreed to keep it civil tonight." Maggie sent Sam a rueful grin. "Can we at least agree that there's a lot on his shoulders and he needed a break?"

"You want us to believe you were actually trying to help him?" Sam stared at her incredulously. "You're witches. We know that ultimately, you work for the other side."br
"Figures you'd buy into that anti-witch propaganda," Kristy muttered, gesturing to the waitress for a refill.

"Propaganda?" Sam glared at her through narrowed eyes. "You're witches!"

"And all of us are the same, is that it? Hypocrite." Kristy's eyes were just as angry as Sam's. "I mean, you've got yourself convinced that a damned…" Her mouth snapped shut and she swallowed whatever she'd been about to say, but she was clearly furious.

Dean couldn't tell for sure, but he'd bet money that Maggie had kicked her under the table. He was pretty sure what Kristy's next words would have been and was just as glad she'd been cut off.

Sam seemed equally happy to let the subject drop. "So," he started, obviously choosing his words carefully. "You're good witches? How does that work, exactly?"

"Like anything else." Lauren set down her glass and folded her hands, staring at Sam intently. "There's power everywhere if you know how to look. " She took a sip of her wine, never taking her eyes off Sam's. "Sometimes that power is a snare, designed to drag you down into the worst evil imaginable. Sometimes it's a gift, full of light and promise and the opportunity to do good things for the world."

Dean looked up as the waitress placed a loaded cheeseburger and a glass of water in front of him then set a chicken Caesar salad and a draft in front of Sam. Lauren's lips quirked into a smile and Dean exchanged glances, then glasses with his brother.

"Um, we didn't order this," Sam protested.

"Oh, these ladies ordered it for you," the waitress said. "They told me you boys would be along eventually and to just cook it up when you got here."

"Thanks," Sam said to the table in general and shot a glance at his brother, who just shrugged.

"So," Dean said, taking a big bite of the burger and continuing on while chewing, "turning me into a rabbit was a 'gift full of light and promise that did good things for the world'? How do you figure?"

"You needed a break," Maggie said, laying one hand on Dean's arm and reaching across him to grip Sam's wrist with the other. "And I'm sure Sam didn't mind taking care of you for a while."

"I'm fine," Dean said, baring his teeth in an unconvincing smile.

"No you're not," Kristy said. "But not having the weight of the world on your shoulders for a week has helped a little. Tell me it wasn't fun."

Dean's lips curved into a smile as he remembered his time with Clover and the other rabbits, then dropped as he remembered that he'd been forced to leave her there with babies on the way. "Why does it matter to you?" he asked. "What's your stake in all this?"

"Our stake?" Lauren stared at Dean. "It's the Apocalypse, Dean. Everyone in the whole world's got a stake in this fight, don't you think?"

"Well, unless you're planning on turning the entire demon army into rabbits, your idea of fighting leaves a lot to be desired."

"Ha," Jenna said with a laugh. "If only. No. One rabbit is doable, barely, but we're not that powerful."

"Really," Sam said. "So, how did you even know who Dean was? Why was it so important that you help him?"

Maggie sighed and answered. "You think you're fighting this war on your own, but you're not. You two are the big guns, but there are soldiers out there doing what little they can in whatever way they can. We happen to be among them."

"That doesn't answer the question of how you even knew who we were."

"You hunters have a network," Jenna answered. "There are other networks out there as well. And we, well, we went to Missouri and learned the truth."

"Missouri?" Dean choked on his mouthful of burger and Sam slapped him between the shoulder blades until he stopped coughing. "She put you up to this?"

"She told us you'd be in our town and that you needed some help and we did the rest," Maggie said with a grin. "Trust me, the getting to know you part was no hardship."

"No offense, ladies," Sam broke in, "but most witches we've met could have helped a lot more, if you know what I mean."

"There are more powerful practitioners than we are, that is very true." Maggie gave Dean a rueful smile. "But each of us has to fight with the weapons we possess. There are things you have to do, lines you have to cross, to get that kind of power and we're happy with what we've got, thank you very much."

Sam shifted, suddenly unable to meet Maggie's direct gaze. He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed slowly, keeping his eyes on the table.

Dean looked at his brother curiously, but took up his line of questioning without comment. "So, what exactly can you do?"

"We can misdirect." Maggie answered. "We can hide. There's a certain bunch of rabbits that are under our protection from now on. We'll take care of the little things while you take care of the big ones."

"Specifically," Jenna said with a smile, "we'll take care of your little things."

Dean pinked up a little around the ears. "You can protect them?"

"To the best of our ability," Jenna replied. "And in this kind of thing our ability is pretty damned good."

"Well, uh, thanks." Dean dragged his palm across his lips and rose from his chair. "I gotta, um, yeah."

Sam waited until Dean entered the restroom before excusing himself and pulling out his phone. It had been vibrating in his pocket for the last ten minutes and he was pretty sure what he'd find when he checked his messages. Sure enough, it was another furious text from Ruby. Sam sighed and answered this one. Dean was back to himself now and it was time for Sam to continue his training. The witches might think that they'd helped Dean by giving him a week off, but it wasn't close to being enough, of that Sam was sure. He made sure he was back at the table before Dean and had barely settled in his chair before Maggie gripped his wrist.

"You need to stop, Sam," she said, giving him a stern look. "If you think what you're doing is going to help Dean, you're wrong."

Sam didn't pretend that he didn't know what she was talking about. "It is going to help him," he insisted. "Those angels…they don't know how…" Sam stopped just short of saying broken, "different he is now. He can't do what they're asking."

"And you can?" Kristy's gaze challenged Sam. "You think what your demon is giving you is the answer?"

"'Each of us has to fight with the weapons we possess'," he replied with a small smile.

Maggie just shook her head sadly, and released Sam's arm. "That's true," she said. "But you don't possess that weapon, Sam. In fact, if you let it, it's going to possess you."

"I've got a handle on it," Sam asserted with a humorless smile. "Trust me, I'm fine."

"Sure you are," Kristy drawled. "Just like your brother."

"What about his brother?" Dean asked, dropping into his seat. Sam slid his phone surreptitiously into his pocket, but Dean didn't miss the furtive move.

Kristy's face softened when she switched her gaze from Sam to Dean. "I was just saying, we maybe shouldn't let you off so easy. Come back every once in a while and we'll let you improve the gene pool of every species we can think of."

Dean snorted into his beer and a wistful look flashed though his eyes. "I don't think so. But it wasn't too bad while it lasted."

Jenna stood and tilted Dean's chin up, kissing him softly on the lips. The other women followed suit, with Kristy's kiss briefly devolving into a lap dance.

"You boys remember what we told you," Lauren murmured. "You're not alone in this fight."

"Good to know," Dean said.

"The bill's taken care of." Maggie added. "And don't worry about the bunnies. I'm sure you'll be looking in on them too, but be careful. It might be better to just let us handle it."

"Thanks, and we'll keep that in mind," Sam told her, knowing that his brother would never let his family be totally in anyone else's charge.

"Keep everything we said in mind," Kristy said, slinging her purse over her shoulder. "Never know when a nugget of wisdom might finally sink in."

"You're leaving?" Dean asked.

"If you're going to be in town a while, you know where to find us," Jenna said with a slow smile. "But right now we've got work to do and you know how that goes."

"Yeah." Dean nodded, sighing. "Yeah." His gaze tracked the women through the bar, eyes crinkling slightly when they collectively blew him a kiss before pushing through the swinging doors.

"So," Sam asked, fingering the phone in his pocket. "What's the plan now?"

"Why do we need a plan, Sam?" Dean took a swig of his beer, already beginning to crave something stronger. "Why don't we just wing it for once? You know what I want to do tomorrow?"

"No," Sam replied. "What do you want to do?"

"I," his brother said with a grin, "want to go for a hike. What do you say, Sammy. Wanna go check out some wild animals with me?"

Sam shrugged with a smile. All too soon they'd be back in the fight and Dean would again be beaten down by the weight heaven had piled on his shoulders. He wouldn't be able to hook up with Ruby for a day or so anyway. One more day spent on R&R with his brother wouldn't hurt anything.

"A hike sounds great to me," he said.

Dean's eyes lit up and Sam swallowed hard. It had been too long since his brother's eyes were anything other than exhausted and careworn. Maybe he was going to have to revise his opinion of these witches after all.

"What's the matter?" Dean asked.

"I don't know. It's just that I haven't seen you this relaxed in, oh, ever. Maybe you being a rabbit wasn't such a bad thing after all."

Dean's mouth curled up in one corner. "I was a pretty awesome rabbit, Sam."

"Yeah." Sam's lip quirked in response. "Once you got over the shock of meal time, you had being a rabbit down pat. You going to keep up with the healthy food thing?"

"Dude," Dean replied, popping the last of his fries into his mouth, "I'm still craving lettuce, but only with tomato and mayonnaise on top of a cheeseburger."

"Well," Sam said with a sigh, "all good things must come to an end."

"Yeah." Dean's smile dimmed a little. "But not yet. Until some angel or other shows up, we're on our own. Which means we can do things our way."

Sam sighed again. Dean might have gained ground in the last week, but Sam had lost it. Lilith was consolidating her power, growing stronger while he'd been sitting still. He wished that he had the time to rest and take things as they came, but his enemy wasn't giving him the option. Dean might not like it, but Sam was going to be ready to fight this battle and he fully intended it to end with Lilith's head on a plate.

"Hey, Sam." Dean's voice cut into his brother's reverie. "Do you see what I see?"

"Probably," Sam replied. "We're in the same room after all. What in particular am I supposed to be looking at?"

"College kids." Dean tilted his head toward the back of the bar. "Well dressed ones around a pool table. Wanna go make back some of the money I left with Angie?"

"Considering how much money you left with Angie, I think we're going to have to," Sam said, raising a hand as his brother's face grew indignant. "Hey, I'm not begrudging the bunnies that money and I'm sure you'll be supplementing it on a regular basis. I'm fully behind you subsidizing your family."

"Been subsidizing your ass for years," Dean said, grinning as he turned toward the back of the bar. "Let's go fleece us some preppies."

"Yeah, whatever," Sam mumbled with a smile as he followed his brother to the pool tables.

A few beers and a couple of hundred dollars later, Dean headed out of the bar with a swagger Sam hadn't seen in what seemed like years. The Impala was parked down the block in front of a hole in the wall package store and Dean's steps hitched as he passed the door.

"So," Sam said, bumping Dean's shoulder companionably. And hard. Dean grunted as the force spun him away from the store and toward the car. "A hike? In the actual woods? For fun? What's up with that?"

Dean's lip curled in a way that made Sam's stomach twist.

"Well, I recently found out that rabbits are way more awesome than I had any idea they could be. Makes me wonder what else is out there that I've been missing all my life. I just want to spend one day watching deer or birds or fucking ants go about their lives with not a worry in their heads about the damned apocalypse."
Sam blew out a long breath. "Sounds like a plan, Dean. But one day only, man. Then we have to get back to work. The demons aren't just sitting on their asses waiting for us to get back in the game, you know."

Dean's gaze drifted back toward the liquor store as he pulled open the car door. "So we start off behind the eight ball again, Sam. What else is new?" Sam slid into the passenger seat without answering and Dean took a deep breath, and then another against the need beginning to gnaw at his gut. As he gunned the Impala down the street he had a single thought. One more day. Just let the damned angels and demons keep their distance for one more day.

It was dark when Dean started awake, but for once his heart wasn't trying to burst out of his chest and there wasn't even a vestige of a scream strangled in his throat. He stretched; a long and luxurious tightening of his muscles that didn't devolve into pain of any kind for the first time he could remember. Stilling, he listened for Sam's snuffly sleep noises, but only silence reached his ears and the boulder he'd known wasn't gone for good settled right back onto his chest. A sliver of light under the bathroom door caught his eyes and he thumped his head back onto his pillow with a sigh. He'd wake up some night choking on blood and ash, because a week in the fresh air and sunshine wasn't making hell go away, and Sam would be gone, but not tonight. Not yet.

The remnants of the beer he had at the bar weren't exactly agitating to be freed, but they were going to be ready to hit the road soon so he rolled out of bed, ready to bang on the bathroom door and get Sam's ass in gear. All the kid had to drink was water; maybe it was the salad that was keeping him in the bathroom so long. Stifling a yawn, and then a curse as he tripped over Sam's gigantic boots, he was just about to bring his hand down to knock when he heard the murmur of Sam's voice from the other side of the door. A word became clear, then another and then a name. Dean's fist dropped to his side, clenching and unclenching along with his jaw. Even one more fucking night was apparently too much to ask. The damned angels would probably pop in any minute to yank his chain.

He considered getting dressed and heading out to find a hot witch to spend the night with. Let Sam worry about him disappearing in the middle of the night for a change. He thought about grabbing the spare bottle of Jack out of the trunk of the Impala and drinking himself into a coma until the angels did fucking show up. With a sigh and a shake of his head he climbed back into bed, ready to pretend that he'd never heard Sam talking to Ruby just like Sam will pretend he'd never called her. The Winchester way. He closed his eyes, fighting to recapture the relaxation he'd had only moments before. Small brown bodies raced each other behind his eyelids and he wondered if the baby bunnies, when they came, would be close. If they'd take care of each other, watch each other's backs. If he'd be around to see it if they did. "One more night," he whispered like a mantra, sinking back into sleep, breeze ruffling his fur as he ran with the rabbits under the warm, sun bright sky.