At the motel, Mae took aim with her gun weapon, dead center at Sam's chest. The last thing she expected to find there was Sam. There was something wrong with it, with him. The hair on her arms stood with gooseflesh. She forgot to breath and those seconds felt like they stretched on for hours. The blood rushing in her ears was the only thing she heard. This was bad, objectively bad. What was worse was that she didn't entirely know what was going on. A thousand different theories rushed through her mind about how to address this, most of which Dean wouldn't like. The rest didn't seem like they would work.

"Dean!"

Her voice was low but laced with alarm as she turned her head to call back to the man in the parking lot. She heard the scuff of Dean's shoes against the pavement and the barely audible sound of fabrics moving against each other as she envisioned him reaching for his weapon. Her pulse slowed, if only by a few beats. She looked back over her shoulder for a second. Then, she turned her focus back to Sam only to find herself alone in the room. Mae blinked. Sam couldn't be fast enough or soundless enough to disappear. Nor was the room big enough for him to get far. Mae's weapon dropped to her side, though still firmly gripped in one hand, in case she needed it as she moved inside to explore.

Behind her, Dean watched as she enter the room, resisting the urge to charge in after her blindly. Mae wasn't given to unusual panic, but he didn't have the same sense of fear that he registered in her voice. There were no shots fired, no other sounds. She had gone inside, not back out. Not knowing what had alarmed her, prudence was the wisest move. He was prepared to take any action needed though, as he readied his weapon.

Inside the room, he found her on her knees, peering under the queen beds. She didn't look hurt. He scanned the room, unsure of what might have seen. Or didn't see. The room was seemingly empty and upon the hurried inspection, nothing seemed out of place so whatever happened quickly.

"Red,?" He asked, approaching her and shutting the door behind him with a foot.

Mae turned her head to the side towards him but kept her eyes closed tightly. "What do you see?"

"So far? A crazy lady." He joked but her expression didn't change. "I don't see anything. What are you talking about Mae?"

She heard him step closer, along with that soft swish of fabric again as he set down his gun. He thought things were safe, at last superficially. While he was the least affected of them, and she wasn't convinced that wasn't because he hadn't been the kitsune's preferred target. Given more time, perhaps Dean would be just as susceptible as Sam, or she had been. He also hadn't been able to sense or see the damn thing. But surely, if this weren't a hallucination of hers, Dean would see something.

Her back bowed towards the floor with a heavy sigh. "Just...tell me what you see in the room?"

His pause was too long, she thought. "Nothing. Nothing different."

Nothing different. She repeated it in her head, although she wasn't certain if she actually said it aloud. There were too many permutations to what was happening. Mae sat back on her heels. What she saw was real, a hallucination, a trick, a trap, all of the above? Was it because of the kitsune, the strange old woman she had been seeing, or some other form of psychosis? Whatever was happening, whatever the cause, everything felt like it was closing in on her.

She stood again and proceeded to sweep the room, and the adjoining, as well as both bathrooms. Sam couldn't have been hiding so he, or whatever she saw, must not be there. If he had ever been there. Was it her hope or fear or the kitsune? She was willing to doubt that she had even seen anything to start with at this point. In all likelihood, Sam was a goner. There was no reason for the kitsune to reveal where it had Sam if he was still alive. She wouldn't voice that to Dean, even if he were thinking it, he wouldn't accept it.

Mae was no longer sure she saw Sam at all. Whatever she saw, if anything had been there at all, seemed to be a way to torture her. Unless of course, the thing had Sam for a meal and now it was going to simply disappear. Then, maybe it was just a new hallucination. Maybe the old woman she had been seeing was dead and now Sam was too. It didn't make sense to her why that would have started all of the sudden or why it would have started with that mystery woman. At least Sam was a friend. Shaking her head, she sighed. Dean stood in front of her now. While she didn't recall him moving there, she was fairly certain he was real. She put a hand out, touching his chest gingerly. Undisguised on his features were twined worry and pity, perhaps a little exhaustion and despair. But that should have been something she was reading into his face.

"What did you see?"

Mae shook her head, closing her eyes again. "I'm not even sure anymore. Sam, I thought. But I don't know. He's not here, is he?"

Instead of an answer, Dean pulled her close. His hand pressed against the back of her head, gently guiding it to his shoulder. He had several days growth of beard that bristled against her skin as he kissed her temple. His frame was solid, steady. He smelled warm–leather, a light spicy but fading cologne, musk, and a faint hint of acrid fear-sweat. He was unquestionably real. She didn't cry but she did relax into his arms. Vaguely, she heard the shotgun thunk to the floor as it finally escaped her grip. She didn't care. Again, her heartbeat filled her mind but this time, it slowed. Somehow, Dean singularly had this effect on her. How or why it he was able to do this was beyond her. He stroked her hair and kissed her head again. "It's okay."

She though he would be mad that she aimed a weapon at his brother or that she lost him. His worry and support was worse in someways. She wrapped her arms around his waist and whispered 'okay'.

It must have been difficult for him to take these few precious minutes to comfort her when they were no closer to finding Sam and the longer the waited, even Dean had to be thinking, the less likely the resolution would be a good one. If she let herself stay in the embrace, she wouldn't want to leave, so she pulled away from Dean, trying to ready herself for whatever they needed to do next. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he steered her back towards one of the beds. The back of her knees hit the edge and Dean used the momentary shift in her balance to easily push her down, so she sat on the edge of the bed. "Just sit and... take a minute."

Mae didn't fight his direction this time. She didn't trust her own instincts. Right now she was no more than a liability. The only way to solve this was to give the kitsune something it wanted more than Sam. She lay back, staring at the nondescript but suspiciously discolored ceiling before closing her eyes. Was there was something it wanted more than Sam? Maybe the only option left for them was for her to give her life to make up for the kitsune she killed. Even with Sam missing, it wasn't something Dean would agree to at all. But maybe if there was no other choice, they would have to make that deal. Her eyes popped open. Was that the message the woman in her visions, or whatever they were, was telling her? Was she supposed to let the kitsune take her in exchange for Sam? She could hear Dean in the other room, on the phone. No sense in being prideful at this point. If they could hold their ground until someone arrived, maybe they could get out of this cycle. Maybe if they were lucky, they would get Sam back too. Draping her arm over her eyes, she attempted to cut off the next line of thought. Hell, she didn't want to think at all right then, but she couldn't.

Mae couldn't hear whatever Dean was saying but she imagined it was to Bobby. There weren't many other people he would call for help these days. Bobby was at least a day away though. That was a day too long, but she imagined he'd feel pretty guilty about letting her know about this job in the first place, especially while he tossed it her way because he wanted to get her out of the way and thought it would be easy. The first part was. Bobby couldn't have anticipated this. Had he taken the job himself, maybe he would have ended up in the same place. She lost track of how long Dean had been on talking. He didn't suppress the sigh as he came back in the room.

"How pissed at me are you?" Mae didn't risk moving or opening her eyes, half because she was afraid she would see something that wasn't really there, half because she was afraid of whatever expression Dean was wearing.

"I'm not mad at you." He cleared his throat. "Unless this was some elaborate plan to lure us here so some evil little fox could chow down on my brother."

There was the barest hint of a smirk in his words. She didn't reciprocate. "Nope, just a good, ol' fashion fuck up."

Dean's fear was always disconcerting to her but his calm now made her more uncomfortable. "Then I'm not mad at you. I'm…worried. About Sammy, about you, about just how fast this thing could...and quite frankly has gone tits up. And I want to kill this thing. And if Sam…"

He didn't need to finish the sentence, even if he could have. Mae only pressed her lips together. It didn't assuage her guilt, nor did she think it would. But she held onto a sliver of hope that it might. The edge of the bed dipped as Dean sat beside her. He rubbed her knee a bit before patting her thigh. "I fucked up here too, you know. I… I just didn't want to lose anyone else after… I was too afraid to let you come with Sam and me–too afraid to admit…well, I guess it's never been a secret how I feel about you."

Mae said nothing so Dean continued, "I tried to keep you safe by keeping you away. But I missed you too damn much, even in just a week. When you called and needed me…well, I wanted to save you. Maybe I wanted to show you how dangerous this job is, and I kept hoping we were dealing with something else. Maybe if I had listened to you sooner, we wouldn't be where we are now. And now, I might have fucked things up, so I lose you and Sam at the same time."

"I don't know that you fucked it up. We all did because we're missing something. But you know, I know how dangerous all this work is, what we're up against, I know. I'm not blind to all of the ways this screws you up, screws you over...everything you can lose. If you're worried about people you love getting hurt, then maybe you're right, we should stop trying. But it's not going to get us less hurt. I can't go back to keeping you at arm's length. You're the only person I've ever been able to be…real with. I don't want to give that up but I'm not just a girlfriend and I can't be put on a shelf."

"I know, I know. Can we have this fight when we're done here."

"There isn't a fight to have, handsome. We're either all in together or… not. That goes for hunting, trust, relationship stuff. It's gotta be all or nothing with us, for me anyway.

"All or nothing." He repeated.

"Yeah. I mean, right now, looks like we're heading towards nothing now that we don't have your brilliant brother to save us with last-minute fix. It's down to me and you and I'm… not sure I can help myself, let alone you.

"I called Bobby. He isn't entirely sure what we should do but he's on his way."

"He's not–do you think we have that kind of time…plus whatever it takes for Bobby to figure this out? At this point, isn't this just luring him into the same thing that picking us off. I'd rather him not get mixed up in this. Listen, you and Sam…all you did was try to help me. Maybe we just need to give it what it wants."

"Not a chance. Because you think it wants you. We don't know that and even if it does, I'm not trading you for Sam, not even for Sam. I'm not livin' with that on my conscious, babe. There has to be another way and this thing isn't going to get to you unless it's already taken both Sam and me, okay?" Again, she said nothing. Dean squeezed her thigh. "You hear me? This thing doesn't get you unless it gets all of us and either way, I'm going to kill it."

Mae sat up, letting her arm fall away from her eyes but keeping them firmly shut. she didn't trust her eyes, didn't believe that she would open them to find only her and Dean in the room. she sighed. "Maybe that's the wrong way. We keep chasing it, keep trying to trick it, with the aim to kill it. But...you're right; we don't know what it wants. We've thought it was trying to kill men, feed on people, exact its revenge on me, and none of it has panned out. The last one I was after was like this. This one could be different. It doesn't seem like it's playing by the rules but what if it does? What if we just don't know what the rules are?"

"So, this is a happy, friendly little kitsune? It what, took Sam out for a play date?"

"No but go back to the lore. There are different kinds, from good to straight up evil. What if we're dealing with one of those middle ground ones, not good but not evil? They have rules, D. And they keep to them. That is one consistent. What are this one's rules?"

"Well, if draw a line between this one job and your last one, it's not actually killing anyone. It's feeding on them but not killing them. It's been trying to get close to you but…maybe just to...I don't know, not quite feed, not like the guys who've ended up in the hospital but...it does drain you."

"And it takes my form."

"Right."

"If it feeds on you, it seems like you can see it in all its forms but not if it hasn't touched you. And, for some reason, it doesn't want to feed off you."

"And you know I'm delicious," he bumped his shoulder against hers.

The corners of her mouth pulled up in a hint of a smirk as he put his arm around her waist. "Yes, we all know that. But not to this fox. I don't know what clue that gives us but…there's a good chance it will keep to this pattern and yeah, maybe it's feeding off Sam but it's not going to kill him."

"Maybe we check the hospital. If it fed and left him somewhere, maybe someone found him."

"Yeah, maybe. It could just be trying to survive but knows people like us will come after it, kill it, if it kills people. But why keep following me, why not just take a little energy from each person and move on to the next place. It could… almost go on doing this undetected if it were careful."

"Then maybe it wants to be found, it wants you to find it."

"Then why is it hiding now?"

"Maybe it's just waiting for the right time."