"On the way, see you around one." Sam's text woke me up. Coyote and I had stayed up late the night before getting things ready. Oliver and the rest had flown in to Denver late Tuesday and were hopping a flight to a small airport in Nebraska which was about a two hour drive away. They were planning to get in around eleven. Roy had had to find ways to stall Sam since they'd finished off the vamps a lot sooner than we'd thought they would. He'd actually ended up finding another job for them to take on which had surprised Sam since they'd already been on the road for three weeks. Roy's excuse was, "Well, it's not too far. May as well get it out of the way." It'd been risky since jobs can go sideways fast but it'd worked out.

"Got it, see you soon." I sent back then rolled out of bed. Coyote had been giving me good- natured crap all week about how into this whole thing I was getting. Since she'd said she was on board with having everyone over I'd dove headlong into it. I'd told her this was sort of my way of repaying Sam for the last minute, impromptu Christmas thing he'd thrown together before I went to Hell among other things. We'd ended up moving to another room that night because the combined smell of his air freshener tree decorations gave us headaches but it didn't matter. Never having a real home was always the worst around the holidays. Dad had tried to do what he could when we were kids but there's only so much you can do in a motel room. Bobby'd thrown some parties for us but in general holidays and birthdays were something normal people did, not us.

When we took our month off at Oliver's place he'd told me about Amelia getting him a cake for his birthday and how much it'd meant to him, even though he was totally confused at first as to what she was doing. Both of us tend to forget when our birthdays are. We'd done Christmas at the Bunker over the last few years, it was usually just him and I though. Cas had come by one year but he didn't really understand the point of the holiday, Jesus had been born in the spring after all.

There was a lot of reasons that going all out on this felt right but the one that kept running around in my head the most was probably the cheesiest but it was also the most important. I could still remember what it was like to have a big, happy family holiday, barely, but I could. Sam didn't have that and that needed to change. Being with Coyote gave me something I hadn't had in years, or maybe ever; hope and actual happiness. I'd managed to work my way through the things that finding out what Azazel had done to me had brought up and in a lot of ways forgiven myself for things I never should have felt bad for in the first place. The only reason I'd ever had the chance to do that was because Sam refused to give up on me, seeing as how it was one of the most important things in my life I wanted to say thanks in the most over the top way possible.

So sure, the living room was horribly, almost painfully over decorated for this but I didn't care. Coyote had drawn the line at decorating with anything that had glitter though, that shit gets everywhere and never really goes away apparently, but other than that she'd given me free rein. It looked like the birthday section of a craft store had been dropped off by a tornado, I had crap hanging from everywhere but the look on Sam's face was going to be worth every bit of it.

Coyote and I had grabbed tons of food so I headed down to the kitchen to start prepping what we couldn't prep the day before. She wasn't too far behind me, she was about as excited as I was for this to get going. I'd never understood why people who do these things are so wiped out the next day, at least until now.

"If they don't eat every last scrap of this food I'm going to be pissed," I said.

"There's always left overs, part of the fun. You end up with food for a week, which is good because you're sick of cooking after you get all this done."

"I can see that." I looked at my watch, "Are we going to get all this done before they get here?"

She finished slicing the vegetables she was working on and set that bowl aside, "That, my dear, is why you provide snacks. They can snack while the rest of this is getting done."

"Screw that, they all know how to cook. Their asses are pitching in when they get here. The only one who gets a pass is Sam."

"Such a gracious host you are."

My eyes were tearing up from the onions she'd started cutting, I hate that. "I bought food and alcohol, that's gracious enough."

"Right, so event planning is definitely not a career option for you."

"Hell no, this is way too much work to eat and get drunk."

She stopped slicing, looked at me, shook her head and rolled her eyes with a rather large smirk on her face. "Just remember, this was your idea."

"Yeah, yeah."

Coyote was going all Martha Stewart on arranging all the snack food, which I thought was downright pointless. I was trying to figure out a way to get out of helping when there was a knock at the door. "Awesome! They're early."

She glared, "Slacker."

I gave her a huge smile and walked to the door, "Can't keep them waiting can I? Wouldn't be very gracious of me now would it."

"Bite me."

"Later. Promise." I pulled the door open and Felicity about knocked me over when she hugged me.

"Hi! This is going to be such a blast! I haven't gone to a surprise party in years! We brought presents. Do you need help?" She let me go and looked around me, "Hi Coyote! I love your house! It's beautiful! Ooh you got party hats! Oliver has to wear one, like now!"

She rushed past me and hugged Coyote, I looked back at Oliver, Dig and Thea who were all wearing huge smiles, "She's a bit excited," Oliver rather needlessly stated.

"Ya think? Wow. How much coffee did she drink this morning?"

"None actually." He gave me a quick hug, Dig and Thea followed suit and they walked in.

"She must store caffeine, like a camel," I suggested. "Well, welcome to our place. Drinks are in the fridge and ice chests and help yourself to food. Thanks for making the trip."

"Our pleasure," Oliver replied. "Roy texted, said they were about an hour out. He figured you guys would be busy getting ready so might miss his text so sent it to me instead."

"Perfect. Everything's pretty much set." Oliver was in jeans and a v-neck black t-shirt, Dig was wearing those linen pants you take to the beach and a loose fitting white button up shirt. Felicity was in a knee length flowy flowery skirt and white blouse and Thea, as usual, looked like a model for a high fashion store. She was wearing this purple and white checkered shirt/shorts outfit which she could probably wear for a business meeting just as easily as a party. All she'd need to do was take the sandals off and put on heels.

Coyote gave everyone hugs, looked down at her clothes and smiled. She was in an old tank top and shorts. "Well I feel under dressed. Guess I should go change. You too Babe, I didn't buy those slacks to provide decoration for your closet."

"I know. You guys settle in, be back in a few."

We went upstairs, Coyote decided to take a quick shower, I just did the guy sink bath thing. Towel, soap, get your pits and face, dry off and thrown on some deodorant. I mainly just needed to get the smell of all the crap I'd been chopping and dicing off my hands. She'd bought me a pair of dark green slacks and a black button up shirt and informed me that come hell or high water I'd be in something other than sweats or jeans for this thing. I didn't argue the point since she'd been more than willing to let me go nuts with planning this party. I took a quick look in the bathroom mirror after I got dressed, "Hmm, not half bad. May have to get a few more sets of nice clothes."

"Damn straight you will," Coyote agreed from the shower.

"You haven't even seen me wearing this yet."

"Don't have to, I know you look hot."

"Well then, feel free to shop for me more often."

"Planning on it. I'll be out soon. You should head down and mingle."

"All right." I started to walk out, "Hey, what are you wearing?"

"Sam's not the only one getting a surprise."

I was liking the sound of that, "Don't think lingerie is really appropriate for this kind of thing."

She turned the water off, reached out, grabbed her towel and threw it at me. "Mind out of the gutter for five seconds, seriously."

I tossed the towel back and laughed, "Sorry, years of watching porn, the word surprise has a very definite connection to lingerie in my mind."

"Sure, blame it on the porn. Move it, I've got to get dressed."

"Moving, moving." I headed back downstairs.

"Coyote has good taste," Thea said before I was even halfway down. "Never thought I'd see you in something that wasn't made of denim or flannel. You look good."

"Thanks." I grabbed a beer and some chips and sat down next to Dig. "Oh man, feels good to sit."

Oliver was sitting on the recliner across from me and Thea and Felicity were over by the table where the party hats and stuff was. Felicity had slipped off her shoes, grabbed a hat and made a bee line for the back of Oliver's head. I was pretty surprised how fast and quiet she moved, got it strapped around his chin and set on top of his head. He flinched but managed to keep himself from reacting to the sudden movement near him.

"Ha! Told you I could do it Thea."

He scowled but his eyes told a different story, they weren't cold or empty. He was letting his guard down already. He gave me a quick wink, blanked his face out so he looked more pissed than he really was and looked over his shoulder at Felicity. Thea busted out laughing and Felicity was in full giggle mode, "Was that really necessary?"

"Yes, yes it was," Felicity answered, "You're wearing that for at least two hours, time for you to lighten up."

He sighed and looked back at me, "They're awfully bossy aren't they?"

"Yeah, but they're cute so it's kind of worth it."

Dig nodded, "And sometimes they cook, that helps too."

Thea gave us the obligatory put upon woman sigh, "Let's see, all the men we're dating are in crazy good shape and taller than us. That should tell you guys why we keep you around."

"You have exacting standards and wouldn't dare be seen out in public with anyone else?" Oliver said.

Thea walked over and patted his shoulder, "That would work if we actually got to be seen out in public with you. Tall things and heavy objects brother dear." She gave him a smug look and walked to the other chair and sat down.

"You tried Oliver, you tried," I said.

Thea was still smiling when she looked up at the stairs and a rather appreciative look crossed her face.

"I don't keep Dean around for tall things," Coyote's voice floated down from the stairs. "But he does know how to fix cars so that helps."

I turned around and immediately wished it was just her and I in the room so I could put into action all the thoughts that slammed into my brain. I was pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. She was wearing this silver, slinky, knee length dress that was just this side of one night stand hot. It was sleeveless and looped up around her neck and had one of those keyhole openings in the front and hugged her curves in ways that made me want to run my hands all over her. Her hair was all the way down so it was brushing the top of her ass and she'd added some feathers in which always got me going. She had on some low heels that tightened her calves up just enough to show off her muscles. "Damn! I retract my prior comment as to the surprise, this is much better than that."

"Guess I clean up pretty good, " she said. The smile that was dancing around her lips made it pretty apparent that this is what she'd been excited about, not just the party.

"I'd say so."

"So would I," Felicity added. "Gorgeous dress!"

"Thanks." She'd made it down the stairs and was walking towards me.

I debated on not kissing her for half a second, didn't want to make things awkward for everyone else; but she'd picked out that dress knowing how hot it looked on her. I figured since she'd put in the effort I should reward it. "Apologies in advance guys." I reached out, grabbed her waist, pulled her down to my lap and showed her just what I thought of how she looked. I kept it decent but she got the idea.

She leaned back once I let her go, "Guess you like it."

"I'll give you a full report on just how much I like it later."

"Right then," Thea said a bit awkwardly, "Who needs a drink and how much longer till Roy gets here?"