His profile is silhouetted against the rising sun shining through the windows. Mornings are their favorite. In the morning they can just lay in bed; no one around to pull them apart. In the morning she counts the scars on his skin as he sleeps beside her. In the morning the sunlight trickles through the window and Mai watches it creep across her bedroom floor. In the morning Jett makes a weak pot of coffee and Mai drinks it anyway. In the morning he kisses her softly on the lips and slips out of bed to start the day. Mornings are their favorite.

This particular morning they lie in bed with heads at opposite ends. Mia's feet rest upon Jett's chest. She sips her coffee; Jett has his nose in some lore book he picked out in the study. She thinks the title reads something about demons, but she isn't really paying attention. There have been a few mornings spent like this.

It happened so quickly. She wonders how they got here. Sure, they had another fight and yes, he kissed her, but suddenly they are real people waking up beside each other. It feels good. His familiarity feels good, his soft spirit and his desire. She's not just wanted but needed and she can see it in his gaze. Mai has never felt as alive as when he looks at her like that. It's as if she's been waiting her whole life to feel like this but didn't know what she needed.

And man, she thinks he's magnificent; all soft skin, strength, and charm. He is hers for the taking. Looking at him has become too much. Now that she knows what his lips taste like, she craves them when he's close enough. The energy in the air is charged with lust; the yearning to lean in and kiss him just because she can. She's enthralled with the rise in tension, the goosebumps, her shortness of breath just before he places his lips against hers. Mai takes what she wants from him when she wants it and it is liberating. There is a new form of satisfaction in having the freedom to kiss a person; to kiss a person who so desperately wants to kiss you.

Jett's phone rings on the nightstand. He doesn't seem to hear. It rings again. Mai tilts her head up slowly trying not to spill her drink.

"You gonna get that?" She asks.

He drops his book and pick up his phone with indifference. His thumb hovers over the call button, but after a moment he silences the phone. He sets it back on the nightstand. It immediately begins ringing. Jett picks up his book and continues to ignore the call. The phone rings out. He visibly cringes.

She wonders if she should even ask. Jett flips a page of his book, intently focusing on its contents. Mai stares up at the ceiling, feeling restless.

"Whacha' reading?"

Jett peaks over his tome. Mai raises an eyebrow; he's ignoring the world for whatever's in that precious book. She awaits an answer, but Jett only presses the pages closed and sets it down on the nightstand.

"Nothing." He says folding his hands on his lap.

"…Are you hunting?"

"No, I'm here with you."

Mai purses her lips, "Are you researching a case?"

Jett rolls his neck and leans forward propping his arms on his knees, "You're so far away down at that end." He reaches out his hand dramatically. She takes it, pulling herself up to mirror his position. Jett sets his forehead against hers, looking into her dark blue eyes. Mai takes a deep breath to sooth her rapidly beating heart.

"Can I kiss you?" he asks.

She nods softly. The ecstasy of his touch explodes within her. Small touches make her jump; the pressure of his lips, his thumb rubbing circles over her knuckles, interlacing her fingers with his, sweaty soft palms, tender sweet lips. She can feel his heart beat jumping; it's comforting. They fall onto each other, laying on the bed. Every kiss simple, delicate. The rest of her skin begs to be touched.

Jett hovers over her body; their legs tangling together. She lifts her chin, guiding his lips down her neck. Shivers build at the contact; that all-consuming, needing, wanting kind of contact. Jett presses his lips into the hallow of her neck, then her collar bone biting down gently, then trailing hot kisses up her neck and nibbling her ear. She's putty as he places his lips on hers again.

"Jett…" she mutters into his kiss.

"Jam-on" he mumbles, still greedily kissing her.

Mai pulls her head aside; Jett trails the tip of his nose up her cheek and softly kisses her ear. "What?" she asks.

He stops and hovers above her. His chest bare, his hair falling forward into his face, his eyes contemplative as they stare into hers. She composes her breathing as she stares back up at him.

"Jamison…" he states.

Mai knits her brows together, tilting her head inquisitively. Jett opens his eyes wide, unblinking.

"That's my name."

Her mouth drops.

"Jett is a nickname," he explains, "My… my sister gave it to me." A faint smile graces his lips, his gaze filled with memories. "I wanted to be honest with you. You deserve that."

Mai's not sure what to do with this new information; she cautiously crosses her arms over her body. "…So you have a sister."

He rolls onto his side and brushes a strand of hair out of Mai's face. "Yeah…" he takes a long sigh. Mai watches his sullen face with tender eyes. He speaks softly, still running his fingers through Mai's hair.

"Her name was Hannah. She was constantly pulling me out of trouble… …She died. Possession. The demon killed my parents while it was in her."

Mai doesn't say a word, but Jett's expression lightens. "That's how I got here…" he says with a shrug.

She's shocked at his earnestness. She doesn't believe that he owes her anything, let alone this kind of sensitive information. Her own secrets flash in her head. Does she now owe him honesty in return? She hopes not, but guilt bubbles inside her.

"I'm sorry." Mai returns lamely.

Jett leans over and kisses her again, "I wanted you to know. You should know me."

She leans into his embrace. From the across room her cellphone rings.

Really? Now?

Mai reluctantly pulls herself from his arms.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Mai; It's Sam."

Great… "Oh, hi Sam."

"…yeah… Hey! I'm calling to give you a heads up. We're just outside of Pittsburgh and we'll be home in a little bit."

"You're coming home?"

"Yep!"

Mai screws her face up, "Why?"

"Well," her Uncle sighs, "We're done with the hunt and since you'll be starting school in a couple weeks, we wanted to get some family time in."

Shit. "So you're coming home…"

"Yes, but we're just picking you up, so pack a bag."

"We're going on a vacation?"

"We're going to Bobby's!"

"…Uncle Bobby's. We are going to Uncle Bobby's for vacation?"

"Family time." He reiterates.

"Is this vacation a requirement or obligation?"

"I'm sorry. Do you have something better to do? Somewhere to be?" his words bite.

Yes. With Jett. "I guess not."

"Come on Mai, this will be fun. We can go see the Falls!"

"There are no falls in Sioux Falls, Sammy…"

"Well it'll be good to go see Bobby, have visiting time, find some sights to see like normal people."

"We aren't normal people."

"Mai. We're going."

She can hear Dean in the background, "Speed limits sixty-five asshole!"

"How long?" She asks.

"At Bobby's? We were thinking maybe like ten days."

Jeez I won't have any time at home before school. "And I really have to go?"

Sam's voice softens, clearly trying to avoid his brother overhearing, "Is this because of Dean?"

Mai grimaces, Maybe. "Not particularly."

"Mai, please just don't fight this. We miss you and we're coming home."

She sighs, "Fine."

"Okay?"

"Okay."

She hangs up and childishly tosses her phone across the room. It's just like after the fight, shipping her off to Bobby's. She doesn't know if she can take a whole week with her uncles. Jett's touch, pulls her out of her fit. She doesn't want to leave him. They've only had a few days together. After feeling the high of his company, anything else is like isolation. She might lose it if she has to give him up so soon. Who knows really when next they will see each other.

"We're leaving." She mutters hotly.

"I heard." He nods.

She bites her cheek, ripping flesh and tasting the coppery tinge of blood. "Family time…"

Jett presses his face into the crook of her neck. Mai sighs, "I don't want to leave you yet…"

"It's okay Miss Mai," He breathes into her skin, "I'll be back."

God knows when…

"Do you… What if… you stayed here?" she tests.

Jett pulls his head back, "I actually should go…"

Nice. Mai. Over commitment, way to creep him out. You can't keep him here like some trophy. You don't even want a relationship. Don't want a relationship. Hunter Mai, he is a hunter. And!

"Yeah, no that's cool." She runs a hand through her hair.

He straightens up on the bed; his eyes attentive, "I mean, I have work to do. Calls I should return, information about hunts I should check into… I'd stay, but there's work to do…"

She nods. "I don't want to go back out there with them." She confesses.

Jett laces his fingers gently around hers, leans in an kisses her right behind the ear. "Mai…" he hushes, "Can… I ask what happened? Between you and your Uncles?"

Barriers start go up within her, but never stand fully constructed. Does she owe him this honesty? Does she owe her past to the man softly peppering her neck with kisses? Does she owe him her story since he shared his? She doesn't think so. But then again a sense of guilt is building within her.

"My mom was eaten by ghouls." She whispers as he kisses her collarbone. "She and lived in a little apartment in Baltimore. I didn't know my dad…" Jett rests his head on her chest, listening to her heartbeat. It's rapid. Mai continues. "She got pregnant in high school, never told my father, she just had me and worked hard, went to community college when I was really young. When my grandparents died she got a job at a nursing home, working crazy hours. It was just the two of us for a long time."

Mai found herself idly running her free hand through Jett's hair. "Tell me about her." he whispered.

"Her name was Kristen McGhee. She was beautiful, and kind, and determined, and eaten alive by ghouls… in front of me. I was eight…" She pauses, remembering it all. Hiding in the closet, the stench of blood , her mother's screams… "That's when Sam and Dean came in… blew their brains out. Apparently, the ghouls had some vendetta against my family. I guess it started with John Winchester killing a couple of their kind off so they ate his son… er, Adam… my dad. How my uncles found us, I still have no idea… it was like magic. A crazy monster eats my mom and then long lost half-brothers of my long lost father show up to save the day and… take me home.

"I mean, it's not like the kidnapped me… but the cops thought I was dead and Sam asked me if I'd like to stay with them. It sounds creepy saying it out loud. Two strange men, told me they were my uncles and that I could go live with them… but what were my other options? Everyone I knew was dead; except for these guys." Mai sighs. "We made a twisted little family for a while… My uncles got day jobs, we moved in here, I went to school. They were good to me. Things were good. We were happy."

"But?" Jett mumbles from her chest.

"But I got curious two years ago… I wanted to know about my dad. Sam and Dean were talking to me about the Apocalypse. Apparently, Adam was in the mix of that shit cocktail. Angels used him for a vessel and he fell into the pit of hell at the end. Which… drove me crazy. I mean, after I found out that they left my dad down there, I was pissed. I screamed and screamed at my uncles.

"They tried to talk to me rationally, but I was hysterical. I shut myself up in my room for hours that day, but my anger didn't really subside… when I came downstairs, Sam had gone out and I guess Dean had been drinking because when I picked a fight with him, he fought back. We screamed at each other. I said things I didn't mean, he said things I only hope he didn't mean… We were loud and aggressive and everything got heated.

"He said he didn't choose me; that Sam had forced him to settle down and raise me. I lost it… We had migrated to the kitchen at that point, so I took an empty bottle off the table and threw it at his head. It missed him by a long shot, but he fell back on the floor; shocked and swearing at me. All I remember was feeling rage and hurt. The next thing I knew my hand was wrapped around a knife and I was throwing my arm around trying to stab him. Even drunk he could block me. But I was hot headed and out of it and eventually sliced him in the face.

"He flipped, shoved me against the wall; took the knife away. I got the breath knocked out of me and I think he saw that through everything, because he lessened his grip. I was too upset at him to notice that at the time. So I spit in his face and I told him to get out of my house. I told him to leave and go on his precious hunts and never come back. And he just let me go. I fell to the floor and he walked out.

"I didn't see or speak to him for a year. I mean, Sam shipped me off to Bobby's right after Dean walked out the door. When I came back I just asked him to leave too. I told him to go back on the road with his brother, that I was fine, that I could handle myself. It took some convincing, but he let me be."

"But you're talking now?"

"I cooled down eventually. It took me a year but I realized that there wasn't anything they could do really. It's not like you can get someone out of hell, that's crazy. It was a stupid, stupid fight. It was a ridiculous fight that I let escalate until it was too big for me to fix… It's like I cut us up and left the open wound to fester and the flesh of our relationship to rot… and by the time I was ready for the pain to go away we had to amputate the limb…"

A heavy silence fills the room.

" Anyway, I got calls from Sam and in that year I saw him a few times. He got fed up with dean and me not talking, so he brought Dean home. At first it really sucked. It got better with time, until the nightmares, but those are gone now."

"Why are you here Mai?" Jett asks

"What do you mean?"

"Why do you still live with these guys?" he asks lifting his head from her chest, "Are you happy here?"

Is she happy here? Here? …no.

"I'm okay." She says.

Jett gazes into her eyes. She holds his stare, trying to read him. "Miss Mai…" Jett says firmly, "Come with me."

Mai frowns, "Come with you where?"

"Anywhere. Just the two of us out there, away from everyone who's hurt us." He presses himself into her chest again, resting his head right below her chin. "We can be this forever. I'll even stop hunting… I'll get a day job and you can do whatever you want."

"Jett, I can't leave."

He intertwines his fingers with hers, "Why not?"

"I have a life here. Family! School to go to in a couple weeks, I can't just up and leave it all"

"People do it all the time…" he whispers sweetly.

"Jett…" she sighs.

"I promise I'd be good for you Miss Mai. No collateral damage."

She momentarily indulges in the idea. Mai and Jett… no hunting, no harm, no lies, no Sam, no Dean, no Bobby…

"No…" she runs a hand down her face, "I can't do that to my family. I can't leave them."

"You don't even want them around half the time…" he replies, "I will never hurt you like they've hurt you. I'll never touch you or lie to you," he laughs, "I'll even force you to talk about our feelings so we'll never even fight."

"No matter what happened in the past, they are the closest thing I have to family. They took me in and raised me when my mom died, Jett. I can't just walk away from them in the middle of the night. I can't just leave with you."

Jett sits up in the bed again. Tension builds as she waits for him to say something. He stares at her with a dejected expression. Finally he sighs, shaking his head.

"Yeah…" he says, "I'm sorry you're right."

She feels guilty, like she's crushed his dreams or kicked a puppy. Jett leans in and kisses her. His hair falls forward into her face, brushing against her skin. She wishes it could be like this forever; just her and a boy who adores her feeding her endless need for affection. But it can't. She has a family to look after even when she sends them away, even when she starts stupid fights and holds onto pointless pride, she can't hurt them like that. They have done so much for her and all arguments aside, she can find love in her heart for them.