We'd stayed up way too late but it was worth it. They got themselves all sorted out sleeping arrangement wise and Coyote and I were too tired to go for round two. Along with the car Sam had scored some pretty cool presents from the others. Felicity and Oliver, well mainly Felicity, had given him a top of the line, custom designed laptop with fingerprint locks and all of her latest hacker tricks loaded up. I was starting to wonder if he was planning to take down governments when she listed off everything she had on it. That wasn't all though. She'd taken all the scanned books and documents from the Men of Letters files he'd scanned in and put them on all some super secure server so he and I could access them from anywhere. He could also upload them to the server as he went along. Eventually the entire Men of Letters library would be on two servers, one that was hooked up to the internet and one that was in storage off site. There was no way any of that knowledge would be lost now.

"I know you're not hunting anymore Dean," she'd said, "But you are a Legacy after all and if for some reason Sam loses that laptop or it gets damaged while he's on the road you can help him until he gets a new one."

Both of us were pretty happy about that. Roy wasn't that interested in delving into the lore and I had kind of missed research, not that I'd ever say that out loud. There's always been this deep sense of satisfaction that comes with cracking a mystery using ancient lore.

Thea and Roy had got him a bunch of new clothes. I hadn't realized how much stuff you could pack into a few boxes until he started working his way through them. Coyote had said she'd have to take folding lessons from Thea for the next time we went on a trip.

I thought Dig and Lyla's gift was the coolest though. When Sam goes to Starling he stays with them and I guess Lyla's cooked a lot of awesome meals for him. She'd written out all her recipes that she'd cooked so far and given him two versions, one for three or four people and one for just one serving so he could make enough just for a meal when he was at home. The book she'd put them all in had plenty of room to add more so he could keep collecting hers or add his own when he wanted to. When he'd realized what it was he was so touched by it he called Lyla to thank her.

Coyote took on making breakfast for everyone, told me I could sleep in since I'd been busting ass for the last month with the car. I tried but once I heard people start talking and smelled food I couldn't get back to sleep. I did take my time getting out of bed though. The way the acoustics of that house work I didn't have to be in the same room to hear the conversations. Roy and Thea were chatting about what they wanted to do when they got back home. Sounded like they were going to be heading out of state for some couples R and R time. That was one thing that never failed to impress me with Roy, how he could separate out what he did from who he was. He hadn't let hunting or the vigilante gig warp him like it had Oliver and I. Maybe it's because we were warped before we started and the gigs were our way of dealing with it. Course Sam had been like that too, but not as much as Roy was. Probably helped that Thea was in on the life and it's secrets, he didn't have to hide what he did. It wasn't just that though, I hadn't seen any sign of that darkness that even Sam had in Roy. From what Sam said, Roy stayed objective about the job, monsters had to be stopped. He didn't get emotional about it, didn't get pulled down by what he did. He was proud of what they were doing and it didn't weigh on him. I don't think I'd ever been able to pull that off. Dig's voice joined in and a few minutes later I heard Oliver and Felicity say something, since everyone else was up and about I figured it was about time for me to get off my lazy ass and get moving.

After I got all cleaned up and back in my comfy jeans and flannel, just to mess with Thea, I headed down to grab some grub and coffee.

As soon as Thea saw me she sighed, "Couldn't last forever I guess. I think I'm going to start sending clothing care packages to you Dean. Your wardrobe needs a serious overhaul."

"Hey, Coyote is just as bad."

"I've got her measurements in my head, don't worry about her."

Coyote rolled her eyes, "I am not adding closets Thea. I appreciate the offer but I don't really have that much use for dresses out here."

"Now hold up sweetheart, I'm sure we could find out something to do that you could get all dressed up for."

She gave me a pretty interesting look, "You mean you'd actually let me get out the door looking like that? Or would whatever we'd be doing be in house."

Everyone looked at me, smirks and suggestive stares abounded, "Don't most high end dinners have like four courses? I'm all down for adding another few more to the list, pre-dinner and post-dessert festivities. We'd get out of the house eventually. I'd get hungry at some point."

Dig and Oliver did this long slow clap, "Well done Dean, well done," Dig said.

"I'm learnin', I'm learnin'." We all got down to eating breakfast after that.

Everyone but Sam got ready to go by about noon. They had planes to catch, Oliver waited until everyone else had walked out before saying goodbye. He took a long, hard look at the house, the decorations and then finally looked at me.

"Thinking you want to do this back home sometime?" I asked. "Coyote and I would love to see you guys sooner rather than later."

"Remember after we killed those demons and you told me we all had scars? That they reminded us of what the cost was for doing what we do, that they meant we hadn't failed. You said we can't save everyone no matter how hard we try."

"Yeah."

"I think I should start worrying less about who I haven't saved and more about who I have, stop getting scars and start taking some time to heal."

"Might not be a bad idea."

He smiled, and it had a lot more behind it than any I'd ever seen on his face before. "Thank you Dean."

"No problem, brother." He wrapped his arms around me and it wasn't the usual quick guy hug, he was letting himself open up to the possibility of having a real life with Felicity and have emotions again. When he let me go the Arrow side didn't come right back into play like it usually did when he was going back out into the world again. Instead he stayed relaxed.

He gave Sam and Coyote hugs, "See you soon."

"I'm holding you to that," I told him.

"Deal," the smile never left his face as he turned and walked out the door.

"I never expected that," Sam said, "Looks like retirement's contagious."

"He's not anywhere close to that point yet, but at least he's letting himself feel something again. It's a start."

"Yeah."

I took a look around, "Guess I should start taking all this stuff down. What's next on your agenda?"

"Figured I could stay and help clean up at least. Been on the road a few weeks, could use some time off of it. If you guys don't mind that is."

"Not at all," Coyote answered.

"Thanks." He cleared the dishes off the table and took them to the sink. I wasn't quite ready to tackle the decorations and I had something more important to do. I grabbed Baby's keys off the table next to the door, went outside, opened the garage door and walked down the driveway. My hands glided along her lines as I walked to the driver's side door, "Hey Baby, hope you're not too mad at me for letting Sam keep you for a while. I had to get some things straight in my head, needed a break. Missed you though."

It felt good to be sit in her again, she started right up and I just listened to her for a minute. He'd kept her in good shape but I could tell she needed a bit of tuning up. I put her in gear and pulled her into the garage. "Welcome home Baby, time for you to take a vacation. I'll tune you up tomorrow, been working on that Mustang for over a month. She's hot, no doubt, but not nearly as hot as you are." I turned her off, got out, patted her hood and went back inside.

Coyote greeted me with a smile, "Baby all tucked in?"

"Yup, safe and sound."

"Good. I kind of missed her too."

She's not a complete car nut but she'd always had definite opinions on what a car should be which usually coincided with mine. Sam was up on a foot stool pulling down some streamers, I was trying to get used to the sight of him needing something to make him taller when my phone rang. I didn't recognize the number.

"Hello?"

"Hi Dean? It's Krissy, Krissy Chambers."

"Krissy?" Sam turned around when he heard the name, "What's up? Haven't talked to you for a few months."

"Um, try a year and a half."

"That's a few. What do you need?"

"I need your help with something. I know you're retired, Sam told me about six months ago, it's not a hunt. Well not really. It's a kid, a kid I can't help."

Sam, I and Garth had kept an eye on her until she'd hit eighteen, then she went to college for some psych or social work degree or something like that with the intent on helping other hunter's kids that last their parents or kids that lost their parents because of a monster. She'd managed to foster a lot of them and transition them to other families somehow. Her and I still talked about once or twice a year, I felt some sort of responsibility to her after showing her the truth about Victor. As far as I knew she'd been pretty successful with getting kids straightened out, so I had no idea why she was calling me.

"Not sure how I can help a kid out. Don't have much experience with that."

"I heard stories about things that have happened to you and Sam over the years, Sam sort of confirmed them last time we talked. He didn't mean to, I think he was tired and slipped up. This kid, Jacob, a cursed item took him over and made him kill."

That sent a chill down my spine.

"It's a pretty long story, we've got the object out of his hands but he's not really coming around. He hasn't really spoken or slept since then. I don't know what to do."

"Who'd he kill and how long has it been?"

Coyote and Sam both stared at me.

"His family and a month."

Goddamnit.