I figured launching into an in depth conversation with Sam while Coyote wasn't feeling too hot wouldn't be the best idea so I put it on hold for now. Her left hand had wrapped around mine, it felt clammy and she had tucked her head into my stomach to try to block out more light. More things I wished I'd asked before letting her do something like this. I shifted my coat so it tented over her head, tried to focus on what we'd found out and what we should do next. This whole mass campaign thing wasn't really something I had a lot of practice in. I also kept my eyes on Sam, he seemed normal, at least normal for the situation. He kept checking for people following us and glanced back at us once or twice, but didn't say anything.

Facts were, we didn't know all that much more, we'd just confirmed suspicions, which I guess is something but still didn't give me a direction. Montana didn't sound right to me. Why the hell would Gordon have gone there? He knew killing Shayna would get us moving. Did the monsters really think we were that stupid or impulsive? That we'd tear off to parts unknown based on their word? Gordon sure as hell knew otherwise. I tried looking at things from their point of view, we'd usually show up out of nowhere, go in guns blazing, kill them and leave by the next day. Gordon knew everything that was involved in hunting but what if he wasn't running things? What if he was just taking advantage of the situation or whoever was running it was using him as bait for us? It'd become pretty clear that the end goal was to take out all hunters. The quickest way to pull hunters out of the woodwork was make a big ass scene, which they'd just done. Maybe monsters really did just think that we were idiots, reacting and not actually taking the initiative on anything. Technically that's what we did, react to what they had done. What they didn't know was how much work went into prepping ourselves to take them out. Pinstripe and his buddy hadn't seemed all that impressed by Gordon either, which could mean he was just a cog in the machine, or they were being dicks because he'd been a hunter first. Course, they could just hate him.

We pulled up to the motel, parked in front of the room and Roy parked next to us. "Hon? We're here." I told Coyote, she nodded and lifted up just enough so I could open the door and slide out. She got up, but she was moving slow, way too slow for my liking.

"No one was behind us," Oliver rolled down his window and looked up at us. "You two watch her, Felicity said our tagged friend has camped out somewhere. Roy's going to take me back. We'll keep an eye on him. When you decide to leave let us know. Roy will follow behind you until your outside city limits to make sure no one picks up your trail, then double back and we'll go from there. Sound good?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Sure."

Roy was backing out while Oliver's window was still rolling up, solid as hell, both of them. Coyote got her arm around me, Sam got the door and I helped her get to the nearest bed. I hadn't even finished helping her lie down when Sam appeared on the other side of the bed, three aspirins in the palm of right hand and a glass of water in his left. "Here."

"Thanks Sam," she mumbled as she took the aspirins and laid back down. "I'll be fine, just need a bit of time to recover."

I kissed her forehead, "All right. Sam and I need to talk though but we'll be right outside."

"Okay." She rolled onto her side and curled up.

I jerked my head towards the door, he frowned but walked out. I followed him and made sure to shut the door as quietly as I could. "First things first, when did you become the cold as ice guy?" I started out, "I mean, I get the threats to Crowley you told me about, but what the hell side of you did I just see?"

I had no idea why but that seemed to piss him off a lot more than it should, he actually leaned forward and got in my face before answering, "What? Are you the only one of us allowed to threaten monsters?"

I took a long look at him before I answered that question. Sam's not the person to get in someone's face, no matter how hard you push him. I'd seen him in plenty of fights and tight spaces over the years, he's always been the calm one trying to get people to talk things out. Not that he can't kick some serious ass, but he usually doesn't have a temper when he's doing it. It wasn't anger pushing him though, it was something a lot deeper than that. I'd heard about how he'd been when I was a demon and was trying to find me, but I hadn't seen it. He'd got in my face trying to keep me from killing people when I had the Mark, but it hadn't been intense like this. He'd been protecting me from myself, the source of my issues hadn't been something tangible, this threat was. It was tangible, new and taking out people he knew a lot better than I did. He viewed them as extended family after working with them this past year, which meant he'd go to Hell and back for them. I hadn't put that together until right now. I had to handle this right, "No, I'm not. Never said that. What I am saying is you're towering over me like you're about ready to throw punches and that won't bring Matt's family back. Maybe I'm not the one that Coyote should be worried about here." His nostrils flared as he stared me down for another second or two. "Look at yourself." I pointed toward the window, the way the light was hitting it we could see our reflections. His eyes shifted right. He froze for a second as he saw how wound up he was and that he was less than four inches away from me.

"Sorry," he mumbled as he stepped back, opened and closed his fists once or twice and relaxed.

"No problem, I get it."

A frown twisted his lips up, "Guess shoe's on the other foot this time. I'm the one feeling responsible for everyone."

"Sucks doesn't it?"

"Yeah." He pushed the hair out of his face and the intensity faded from his body, not his eyes though. "Okay, next move."

"You think Montana is legit?"

His forehead scrunched up as he stared off into space, "Maybe. I mean, if he flew there, but then he'd have to leave that blade behind. Unless he knows someone that has a small plane or something."

"I think we can rule out Gordon running things, at least by himself. The vamps didn't act like the Alphas didn't exist, just that they'd never met them."

"Good point. I think we'd be better off heading home and seeing what pops up. I agree with Dig that we're better off not being out on the road right now. At least until we know where we should actually be heading. Especially if we want to keep Oliver's crew off the radar. The more fights we get in, the higher the chance they'll get spotted." He tilted his head a bit as he waved his hand at the door to the room, "And if spotting the bad guys wrecks her this badly we should come up with other options, even though she'll probably fight us on them."

"She might not," I said, "She knows we can't afford for her to be wiped out when things heat up. We'll figure something out."

"Okay."

My phone rang, "Well, maybe this will help. Hey Dig."

"These guys are heading your way. You may want to pull up stakes and get underground. One of the cars stopped for gas, Cas stayed in the car with the windows up as I did a bit of eavesdropping. Their door was open while they gassed up, from what I heard the orders are to capture you guys, like now, especially since you have new toys. I managed to tag the car before they took off so Felicity's tracking them."

"Well, isn't that interesting. Thanks for the heads up. We'll get back to you."

"Sure thing."

He hung up, "Dig's party pals are heading this way. Guess the new shells made an impression, we've just rocketed to the top of the monster to do list."

Hatred flared in Sam's eyes, but he reined it in, "Weren't we there already?"

"Maybe I should have said we've been underlined, in red."

"We staging up here then?"

He really wasn't thinking things all the way through, "You want to have this fight in the middle of a city full of people? I doubt that's the only group heading this way." A few teenagers walked by, laughing and talking on their phones. He watched them as they passed us, that seemed to get his head back on straight. When he looked back at me he was a lot more rational.

"No, no I don't."

"Felicity's tracking them. Let's meet them somewhere on the road, preferably out in the middle of nowhere. They won't be expecting that. Have Gerald and the rest meet us. We'll lay waste that whole group, maybe get the ones in charge stirred up enough they come for us themselves." He didn't even have to say anything. I wouldn't say it was a full on bloodthirsty look, it was more along the lines of a "I'll bring them to justice," vibe that poured from him. "You call Oliver, see if he's got anything on our runner, fill him in, see what he thinks. I'll check on Coyote. Get a hold of Felicity and verify she's got eyes on Dig's guys. Then touch base with Dig and Gerald. Okay?"

"All right."

I needed to keep him busy, I know all too well what happens when some idiot decides to threaten people we care for. Hell, I'd taken out three guys for just talking shit about Coyote, that was nowhere near as serious as what was going on now. Looks like I was going to have to keep Sam on an even keel this time, instead of the other way around. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started scrolling on his screen, I went back inside.

Coyote wasn't curled up in the fetal position anymore, I took that as a good sign. She'd propped her back up on the wall with a pillow so she was upright even if her eyes were still closed. I waited a minute before I said anything, I wasn't sure if she was meditating or just in pain.

"How's Sam?" Her words were drawn out and I got the feeling she wasn't all here. She must have sensed me or heard the door but hadn't come all the way back from wherever her mind was.

"Kind of complicated. I'll wait until you're done."

Her head dipped down then back up and she took several deep breaths, which I didn't mind watching. Deep breaths make for entertaining views, especially since her shirt was sitting lower than usual. I sat on the other bed and watched her breathe. After another minute or two her eyelids fluttered and the lines of her face became more defined, less relaxed. She slowly opened her eyes and turned her head to look at me. Just for fun, I lowered my gaze so it'd be fairly obvious as to what had my full attention.

"Men and mammary glands," she said, "Never ceases to amaze me how something designed for feeding infants can send full grown men right back to puberty." Her eyes were all the way open, left eyebrow arched and there was a rather large amount of joking exasperation on her face.

I shrugged, "What can I say? Boobs rock, especially yours." I tossed in an extra leer which got her to smile. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah, thanks. What'd I miss?"

"Tell me what you think," I filled her in. Her smile left as quick as it'd come as I told her all the details.

When I finished she nodded, thought it all over for a second, then started talking, "First, I like the idea of meeting them halfway, will really throw them off. Second, Sam. We both should have thought about how close to these hunters he's become. It makes sense, they look up to him, he knows that. You've been out of the scene for a year, Roy wouldn't be able to fill that gap by himself. He has his own life with Thea and helping Oliver. Sam's visited us a lot, sure, but he's still had plenty of time by himself at the Bunker. With everything he's put into organizing the hunters, it makes perfect sense he's gotten protective of them. No one does protective quite like the Winchesters do."

I couldn't really argue with that, "All valid points. How about you? Not sure having you scan for bad guys is such a great idea. We can use Cas for that once he and Dig hook back up with us."

She didn't like it, but she knew I had a point, "I can do it, but I can't do it for long periods. It's just too much input. I'm not used to it. If we get someplace and you need me to do a quick check, that I can do. Scanning a whole city as I drive through it, not so much."

"All right, we'll work around that then. No worries."

Sam knocked on the door, "Is it okay if I come in?"

"Yeah, we're not having sex." I replied.

"Not yet anyway," Coyote added.

Sam opened the door, "Yes would have worked you know."

I just shrugged, "So what's up?"

He pointedly looked away from me and talked to Coyote instead, "Oliver said his guy ended up in a hotel, was talking on the phone the whole way there though. From what he managed to pick up the guy was told by someone to call in the cavalry. Oliver wasn't sure how many people that meant but the guy made a lot of calls. I told him about our idea to meet Dig's group on the road and wipe them out, he agreed. He and Roy are heading back this way. Dig's going to stay trailing that group just in case they meet more people along the way or change directions. I told Gerald to stay sharp because we'll be calling him with a place to meet. Felicity is plotting where the best place is for us to meet up with them. Not sure how we're going to do that if they're on the freeway though, we can't exactly run them off the road."

"We won't have to," I said, "We pull in front of them, get their attention and lead them somewhere."

Coyote grinned, "Been years since I've been in a good car chase. Sounds fun."

Sam didn't grin, "Perfect, that's how they tried to take out Gerald. I'm in."

I heard Oliver pull up, he and Roy knocked, "Yeah it's open," I told them.

"So, plan?" Roy asked.

"Keep it simple," I answered, "We go where Felicity tells us, pull in front of their little caravan, get their attention, get them somewhere quiet and take them out. We can run them straight down the middle of a road where Gerald and the rest are waiting, shotguns locked and loaded."

"Brutal and efficient. It'll work," Oliver said, "Then what?"

"Then we use one of their phones to show their buddies what happened," Sam replied, his voice cold, "Grab one, find out who they're talking to and send them some photos of what's left. Their bosses will come after us or they'll give up on this whole scheme. Either way, we get what we want."

Oliver and Roy stared at him for a second but neither of them said a word.

"Everyone still in?" Sam asked.

"They're threatening hunters," Oliver matched Sam's tone, the room was getting downright frigid, "Roy's family, so are all of you, therefore a threat to any of you is the same as a threat to me. Things that threaten me or my family tend to have short lifespans."

Sam nodded, "Good." His phone buzzed, he looked at the screen. "Felicity has an area that will work. She's texting it to Dig. I'll send it Gerald. Let's go."

Something stirred deep down inside me and a chill ran up my spine. That clock in my head that was counting down to the next horrific thing felt like it'd just skipped ahead a few hours. Shit.