"There's a spare room out through that door there Thea," I pointed out, "Just in case."

"You two keep going on like that and we may have to take you up on that. He's been gone awhile."

"It isn't a party till people sneak off and have sex. At least that's how I remember it," I said as I shifted Coyote to the couch.

"I'm guessing you were the one they snuck off with?" Dig asked.

I shrugged, "Well, chicks do go for the "bad boys" for some reason. Who was I to disagree?"

Oliver nodded, "Can't say I see a problem with that."

Thea looked at Oliver, then me, then back at Oliver. "I just had a really disturbing thought. Can you imagine if you two had known each other back before the shipwreck? I mean, if Dean had traveled in our circles and not been a hunter. You two would have somehow managed to get into more trouble than you and Tommy did Oli."

I rolled that around in my head for a second or two, "I think I could handle being a billionaire playboy."

Oliver gave me the once over, "All you'd really need is a better wardrobe and a high end sports car."

"You seriously underestimate the sex appeal of muscle cars, Baby's always worked just fine for getting hook ups."

Dig laughed, "Gotta go with Dean on that one. Women lose it when they hear a V8."

"Hence why I drive one," Coyote said, "Screw waiting for a guy to show up. When I want to get my rocks off by driving fast I'll do it when I want to. No strings attached."

"Preach it sister," Thea declared.

"Damn straight!" Coyote replied.

I stood up, "Crap, I better start doing something useful before they decide they don't need us anymore. Guess I'll go grill up some overly complicated snacks that she picked out."

Dig and Oliver smiled and stood up, "We may as well join you," Dig added.

"Men burn food good, uggh!" Oliver grunted.

Coyote, Thea and Felicity cracked up laughing; Oliver, Dig and I grabbed the plates of snacks and some beers and headed outside.

"This is a gorgeous house," Dig said after he put the plate he was carrying on the table by the grill. "I've never even heard of a dome home till now, such a unique design."

"She built it. It comes in a kit. It's supposedly one of the more energy efficient and safest designs for a home. Took me a couple of months to get used to it though. Back when I was still a lot more paranoid it felt too open, no good places to take cover. Now that I'm more used to it regular houses feel cramped. Crazy what you can adapt to."

"True that. Seems like you've adapted to retired hunter life pretty well."

I hadn't seen Dig since Coyote and I had gone to Starling which was about eight months ago. I'd relaxed and changed a lot since then, sometimes it even surprised me how relaxed I was now. "I had a lot of help. It wasn't easy, I'll tell you that. Worth every minute though." I took a quick glance at Oliver and caught his eyes shifting to look at Felicity. I was pretty sure that me retiring had set some thoughts in motion inside his head but we'd never talked about it. We'd gotten closer but not that close. If he was going to have those conversations it'd be with either her or Dig, not me. Personally I didn't think he was ready to let go of his personal demons yet. He was trying, but I got the feeling that he still felt the debt he owed to people in his past was nowhere near paid off.

We shot the shit, delivered food inside and drank a few beers. I kept my eye on my watch and about fifteen minutes before Sam and Roy were due to show up we went back inside.

"So we going all out and shouting surprise or not?" Thea asked.

"Hang on," I shot a quick text to Roy, "How hard was the last hunt?"

"Not bad, he's pretty chill and has no clue what's going on." He replied.

"Yeah, let's go all out. Roy says the last hunt wasn't too rough so he's not on edge." It was things like that which had made this group feel like an extended family over the last year. Normal people would never think about someone reacting badly to something harmless like a shouted out surprise that was all in good fun. Every person here got Sam and I, understood us. Once we'd lost Bobby and the rest we'd pretty much been on our own, our tiny world kept getting smaller and smaller, which resulted in some pretty desperate decisions on both our parts. I'd noticed that since Sam and Roy had been hunting that Sam was less tense in some ways which I think was linked to the downtime and the fact that he had other people to talk to. No matter how much you love someone, being around them 24/7 in highly charged situations for years on end will wear on you.

I got closer to the window by the front door and pulled the curtain back just enough to see out. Baby rolled up and they got out. Roy, not being afraid of flying, would fly out to Kansas so Sam could pick him up when they went hunting. They grabbed their bags, Sam looked tired but not stressed, I looked back at everyone. They hadn't clustered around the door but were all standing where Sam could see them. Coyote, Thea and Felicity had pulled on party hats. Dig and Coyote both had their phones trained on the door, recording their entrance. I took a deep breath and hoped to hell I'd made the right call by doing this. Roy had drifted behind Sam as they walked up, I dropped the curtain so Sam wouldn't see me and waited.

The door opened and everyone yelled "SURPRISE!" Sam froze and dropped his bag. His hand stopped halfway through reaching for his gun.

"What the..." He was totally lost, his eyes jumped from person to person, then he started noticing the decorations and I saw the hunter side start dropping away. His face relaxed, so did his shoulders and he went from being startled to confused, then it started sinking in what was going on and he finally looked at me.

"Dean?"

"Happy birthday Sammy."

"What?"

Roy stepped up next to him and grabbed his bag, "Happy birthday Sam."

"I, uh...thanks? Dean? You decorated? You hate decorations."

"Made an exception."

He still hadn't moved although Roy had already walked past him and given Thea a hug. Sam looked around again, I guess he wasn't sure that all of this was actually happening. "Oliver's wearing a party hat."

"Felicity insisted," Oliver replied with a smile, "Happy birthday Sam."

Sam looked back at me and a grin finally started breaking out on his face, "You did all this? Planned it?"

"Yup. Mostly."

"Wow.." He finally moved and the next thing I knew he was crushing the air out of my lungs. "Thank you."

I wrapped my arms around him, I'd definitely made the right call. "You're welcome."

When he let me go his eyes reminded me of how a kid looks when they first walk into Disneyland, all wide eyed and excited, of course he wasn't that innocent anymore. There were a lot more things going on in his head than wanting to get to the roller coasters before anyone else did.

"Wow, just...I don't know what to say."

Coyote walked up and held him tight, "Then don't say anything, just have fun. Happy birthday." She kissed his cheek and he started laughing. At first it was that weird, stuttering sort of laugh you see on TV when people have made it through some crazy ass catastrophe and are just happy they're alive, then it became a lot more relaxed. He worked his way around the room, hugging everyone and finally made it into the house all the way.

I shut the door behind him and turned back towards the living room, Coyote was standing right in front of me and her eyes were tearing up. She gave me a hug and got right next to my ear, "Things like this are the reason I love you you know. You've just made his whole year."

"It's just nice to be able to do something we always wanted to growing up."

"We both know it's a lot more than that Babe." She gave me a quick kiss and walked away.

Sam was standing by the food, beer in hand, laughing at something Thea had said when he looked my way as I went to join them. He didn't need to say anything, how he looked right then and the slight nod of his head said everything for him.

"Since you're all old and shit now," I said, "I don't want to hear any more comments about my age. "

"Pssh, if I'm old, you must be on your deathbed then."

"Guess you don't really need to eat any of this food we're making huh."

"You're the one putting on weight, not me," he pointed out, "This whole retirement thing is making you flabby. I'll save you a few pounds, take the pie off your hands and bail."

"Who said there was pie?"

He just stared, "Really Dean? Really."

"Crap...fine. You're not old and I'm not out of shape. Truce?"

"Truce."

"Let's get this going," Coyote said, "Margaritas coming up."

"I'll do that, you get some food." Thea offered, "I know you guys have been working all morning."

"Thanks," Coyote replied.

"She's not doing that out of sheer generosity," Roy pointed out, "She just likes her drinks extra strong."

"So do you," Thea shot back, "And I'll make two versions, one not so strong so hush."

"Good, because I was planning the strip poker for much later tonight," I said. "And we need to be good and plastered for that to be fun."

"Fair warning to all of you," Sam said, "He's undefeated in strip poker so if you have any sense of dignity left, run now."

"What the hell Sam! I bend over backward putting this together and you go and ruin all my fun."

He laughed, Coyote on the other had a completely different reaction. "Undefeated huh?"

"Oh shit." She'd kicked my ass a few times in regular poker. "Right, so poker's off the roster of games for the night."

"Not at all," she replied, "I'm down for a game."

Thea had been watching the back and forth and took a long look at Roy, "So am I."

"Dean, hide the cards. Now." Roy said. "Thea's a pro."

Dig put his hands up, "I'm pulling the wife being pissed at me if she found out about this card and bowing out now."

"There's got to be some sort of crime around here I can go fight," Oliver said.

"You know, poker's really all about math," Felicity pointed out. "I'm pretty good at math."

Sam just winked at me, "Go for it Dean. You have a reputation to protect now."

"I need a shot of whiskey like now, or maybe fifteen."

"Good, get nice and drunk sweetheart," Coyote purred.

"Careful what you wish for darlin', I get better at poker the more I drink. Until I moved in here I don't think I ever played a game completely sober. You may want to get more layers on. What you're wearing now won't last you more than two hands."

"Big talk for someone who's down four games to me."

"Four?" Sam said. "Were you letting her win to get laid?"

I shrugged, "Maybe."

She narrowed her eyes, "Were you?"

"Dean, there's no safe answer to that question," Dig warned.

"Yeah, sort of seeing that. Good thing I've got to start cooking."