After their experience with the kitsune, Mavis Singer and Dean and Sam Winchester stayed at her house a few more rather uneventful days. Despite the lingering pressure of needing to get back on the road, get back to hunting, Dean found himself enjoying her home, the lack of pressure, and the freedom to do nothing. It didn't hurt that he and Mae had plenty of time to do whatever they wanted, which more often than not was sex.

But, they couldn't stay in that wonderland forever and in the next week, they found themselves back on the road. As they drove down a two down a two-lane blacktop, Dean made his case once again to his brother. "Come on, Sam, I'm begging you. This is stupid."

"Why?"

"Going to visit Mom's grave? She doesn't even have a grave - there, there was no body left after the fire." Dean cast his eyes up to look towards Mae in the rear view mirror. She was reading a news paper, seemingly checked out of the conversation but he was sure she was listening.

"She has a headstone."

"Yeah, put up by her uncle, a man we've never even met. So you wanna, go pay your respects to a slab of granite put up by a stranger? Come on."

"Dean, that's not the point."

"Well then, enlighten me, Sam."

"It's not about a body, or, or, a casket. It's about her memory, okay?"

"Hmmm."

"And after Dad it just... just feels like the right thing to do."

"It's irrational, is what it is. Mae, you're with me on this, right?" He caught her eyes in the rear view mirror."

Mae shook her head. "I'm Switzerland here."

Dean frowned at her but she still didn't look up. He had assumed that having a live-in girlfriend, or whatever someone would call Mae, was that she would side with him on debates with Sam. As soon as he had that thought, he realized that wasn't in Mae's nature. She'd side with whoever she thought was right. Or stay the hell out of it.

"Look, man. No one asked you to come."

"Why don't we swing by the roadhouse instead? I mean, we haven't heard anything on the demon lately. We should be hunting that son of a bitch down."

"That's a good idea, you should. Just drop me off, I'll hitch a ride, and I'll meet you there tomorrow."

"Right. Stuck ... stuck with those people, making awkward small talk until you show up? No thanks."

At the graveyard, Sam located their mom's headstone. Dean didn't join him and Mae hung back at the car with him. It felt like she was already intruding and there was nothing she could do, or say to help anyone in that moment.

Dean watched his brother walk away but after a few moments, he couldn't stand still and needed to walk. Mae was unsure if she should join him but he paused, turned back to Mae and put out his hand. Taking it, she walked with him through the other plots. Dean paused at one, marked as "Loving Father". She knew he didn't know that man but that clearly wasn't what caught his eye. She wanted to say or do something to ease his turmoil but knew there was nothing she could do for Dean either. Maybe it was enough to be there with him. She squeezed his hand.

When he looked back up at her, they exchanged small smiles but said nothing. His eyes wandered from her pretty face and landed on a nearby tree, dying. It seemed quite out of place in the well tended cemetery. Frowning, Dean walked over to it with Mae in tow.

When the arrived at the tree, he knocked on the trunk, considering, then notices a perfect circle of dead grass surrounding a gravestone. He crouches down, fingering dead flowers. "This is weird, right?"

"It's...out of place sure but maybe, it's just... a normal bad plant thing."

"Would you bury someone under a dead tree? With a perfect circle of dead grass around it?"

Mae frowned but sighed. What was the worst thing that would happen if the did a little digging? They hadn't left her house with a job lined up and if all they found was nothing, they could move on but if Dean was on the trail of something, it was worth it to track it down. "Let's see if we can find the groundskeeper, yeah?"

Mae thought it would take much longer to find and get information out of the cemetery caretaker. The man was quite helpful, providing them some details about the history of the cemetery and who was buried in the now dead spot. He gave Dean his business card and with that, the pair returned to Sam.

"Angela Mason. She was a student at the local college; funeral was three days ago."

The three walked together now, back towards the Impala. "And?" Sam asked.

"And? You saw her grave. Everything dead around it, in a perfect circle? You don't think that's a little weird? Back me up here Mae."

"It's a little weird." She repeated.

"Maybe the groundskeeper went a little agro with the pesticide."

"No, I asked him, I asked him. No pesticide, no chemicals. Nobody can explain it."

"Okay, so what are you thinking?"

"I dunno. Unholy ground, maybe?"

That stopped Sam in his tracks. "Un-"

"What? If something evil happened there, it could easily poison the ground. Remember the, the farm outside of Cedar Rapids?"

"Yeah, b-" Sam started before being interrupted again.

"Could be the sign of a demonic presence. Or the, the Angela girl's spirit, if it's powerful enough." Sam nodded but turned away. Annoyed, Dean continued, "Well, don't get too excited, you might pull something."

"It's just... stumbling onto a hunt? Here, of all places?"

"Weird shit happens literally everywhere. It's not weirder than anywhere else."

Dean pointed to Mae, in agreement with his girl. "Yeah. So what's your point Sam?"

"So - are you sure this is about a hunt, and not about something else?"

Mae said nothing. Evidently, Dean hadn't been as forthright with Sam about what he was going through as he had been with her. She understood it but she believed Dean was on to something here. Both things could be true.

"What else would it be about?"

Sam gave a heavy sigh and with a shake of his head moved to get back in the car. "You know, just forget about it."

"You believe what you want, Sam, but - I let you drag my ass out here, the least we could do is check this out.

Dean looked over at Mae, waiting for her to register her protest. Or support. She only offered a curt nod.

"Yeah. Fine." Sam said.

"Girl's dad works in town. He's a professor at the school."

The trio found their way to the school and located Dr. Mason's office. They knocked on the door to the man's office.

"Dr. Mason?" Dean asked when he answered.

The man responded 'yes'.

"I'm Sam. This is Dean and Mae. We were friends of Angela's. We ... we wanted to offer our condolences."

"Please, come in."

They entered and Dr. Mason closed the door behind them. Inside, he sat down while he showed Mae and Sam a photo album. Mae kept an eye on Dean, who stood in the corner, looking through an old book. Sam wasn't the only one worried about Dean, but she suspected her reasons were different from Sam's. She had tried to help him unburden himself but wasn't sure it helped. There was still something disturbing Dean, still something he hadn't yet come to terms with. Was this really the best case for them right now? Maybe it would have been better to spend a few more days doing nothing.

Mae turned her focus back on the photos. Fortunately Sam was more engaged than she was. "She was beautiful."

"Yes, she was." Her father said.

"This is an unusual book." Dean said, showing the cover of the book he had been leafing through, with Greek letters and a triangular symbol on it.

"It's ancient Greek; I teach a course." Dr. Mason replied.

"So a car accident, that's, that's horrible."

"Angie was only a mile away from home when, uh ..." he trailed off. There was no reason to discuss it more.

Dean continued. "It's gotta be hard. Losing someone like that. Sometimes it's like they're s- still around. Almost like you can still sense their presence." Concern etched over Sam's face. "You ever feel anything like that?"

"I do, as a matter of fact."

Sam hadn't stopped looked at his brother. "That's perfectly normal, Dr. Mason. Especially with what you're going through."

"You know, I still phone her. And the phone's ringing before I remember that, uh ... Family's everything, you know? Angie was the most important thing in my life. And now I, I, I'm just lost without her."

"We're very sorry." Sam said.

That night, back at the motel, the trio gathered to discuss the case and next steps.

"I'm telling you, there's something going on here. We just haven't found it yet."

"Dean, so far you've got a patch of dead grass and nothing." Sam countered.

"Well, something turned that grave into unholy ground. "

Sam was exasperated. "There's no reason for it to be unholy ground. Angela Mason was a nice girl who died in a car crash. That's not exactly vengeful spirit material. You heard her father."

"Yeah, well, maybe Daddy doesn't know everything there is to know about his little angel, huh?"

"You know what? We never should have bothered that poor man. We shouldn't even be here anymore."

"So what, Sam? What, we just bail? Without even figuring out what's going on?"

"I think I know what's going on here. It's the only reason I went along with you this far."

"What are you talking about?"

"This is about Mom's grave."

Dean scoffed. "That's got nothing to do with it."

"You wouldn't step within a hundred yards of it. Look. Maybe you're imagining a hunt where there isn't one so you don't have to think about Mom. Or Dad." Dean turned to look at this brother, who sighed in response, "You wanna take another swing? Go ahead, if it'll make you feel better."

Dean shook his head slightly. "I don't need this crap." He grabbed his jacket and key to head for the door.

"Dean, where're you going?"

"I'm going to go get a drink. Alone."

Mae didn't say anything but did follow him. The argument was between brothers and while 'alone' clearly didn't include Sam but she couldn't help herself. If genuinely being alone was what he wanted, rather than space, she'd give it to him.

"Hey." Her voice was soft but still cut through the night air.

Dean stopped and turned back to her. "I'm fine, really."

"I know you're fine," she said with a flirtatious smile, and despite himself Dean smirked back, "C'mon."

"I just...there's something here, okay? It's not just a distraction. Sam wants to make this a big therapy session and... ignore what's right in front of us. He's making this just as much about whatever he's dealing with as I am."

"Okay. I just wanted to see how alone you wanted to be for this drink. I'm very good company to keep when you're drinking alone. I'll even let you feel me up, you know, alone."

Dean relented, not that he needed much convincing from the redhead, since he didn't really want to do any of this alone. "C'mon, then."

Mae's brow crinkled as they pulled into another motel parking lot, rather than at a bar. "This is where you're getting a drink?"

"This is where we're going so I can feel you up." A lusty glint was overtaking the frustration in his eyes now.

It had been deceptively easy to get used to being able to simply cloister themselves away in one of the rooms in her house or really, anywhere Sam wasn't and indulge themselves with themselves. "We're getting another room at a different motel just to screw."

"Can't exactly do that with Sam around and there aren't good places around to do it in the car."

Mae smirked. "You've thought about this a little more than I have."

"I'm always planning."

"To fuck me?" she laughed.

"Yeah, among other things." he grinned, his mood lightening slightly, "You don't wanna?"

"I didn't say that."

Dean parked the car but Mae paused him before they got out of the car. Her fingertips touched the side of his face, angling it towards her and kissed him. Soft and gentle. Mae could see the frustration in Dean's eyes, and the need to let off steam. She understood it all too well. She offered him a sympathetic smile and then nodded in agreement and followed him into the motel lobby. They quickly booked themselves a room and made their way to it.

Mae smiled, relishing being connected to Dean. She curled up next to him, their bodies still intertwined. Mae traced lazy circles on Dean's chest with her fingertip. "You know, I never thought we'd be like this again." she said softly.

With the arm wrapped around her shoulder, Dean reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. His hand migrated down then to her chest and, in a what seemed to be a new habit he developed, he cupped her breast and ran his thumb over her nipple mindlessly. "What, smoking hot and satisfied?" he teased.

Mae laughed. "Well yeah, but I meant...this. Being comfortable with each other again, being together like this after all of the...everything that went down between us. And I'm glad we're here."

Dean pulled her closer. "Me too. I'm happy to be here with you, Mae."

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too," he replied, pressing a soft kiss to her temple. "You know, if we check out of here now, the clerk is gonna think you're a lumberjack hooker."

"I think that says more about you, the dude who picked up hooker basically dressed just like him."

"Hmm...I guess I'm still into it."

"You guess? You were fully hard before you even had the door unlocked. Maybe lumberjacks are just your thing."

"Yeah well...you're insanely sexy. Like you weren't ready to go too."

"Guys dressed like lumberjacks are totally my thing. That paper towel dude? Wicked hot."

For just a moment, they were alone. The world outside the bubble fell away. No more worries of what future they would build beyond their love's light and life. The weight of humanity dropped off their shoulders, leaving them with nothing but each other in a pool of pure happiness.

"Okay so...you wanna talk?"

"Not you too. Do you and him both need to get after me on this?"

"Hey, I'm not getting after you. I'm mostly interesting in getting in to your pants." Dean chuckled, "Seriously, babe, I just don't like seeing you...unhappy. If you don't want to talk, that's fine. But you know, you can talk to me if you want."

"I know. I have. You know I'm dealing with it, right?"

"Yeah, I do. And it's not easy. I'm not judging you for it."

"There's something here. You have to see it too."

"I think their might be. Don't know what yet but also...what's the worse thing that happens if this is nothing? We waste a few days on dead ends? If not, we find some fucked up shit and stop it."

"Exactly. I don't know why Sammy keeps insisting it's more than that." Mae didn't say anything but he felt her little head bob against his shoulder and knew the exact expression on her face, suggesting that she thought there was something more. "Hey, you're supposed to be on my side here."

"I am totally on your side Dean. And maybe Sam is wrong. Maybe he's right. I would hazard a guess that he doesn't want you to be miserable either. He's worried about you too."

"Are you worried about me?"

"Yes."

"Don't worry about me Mae. There's nothing wrong with me."

"Not wrong but...you know, it's not out to the realm of possibilities that just talking about how you feel solves how you feel. Maybe you just feel that way."

Dean frowned. "This was more fun when it was just sex."

"Oh please, it was never just sex with us and you know it." She kissed his neck. "So, what do you want to do to prove Sam wrong?"

The pair did not return to the motel where Sam was staying. It was far more fun, far more relaxing to spend the night together. Alone. Dean was still annoyed with his brother and would have been happy to let him stew but Mae sent a text message, jut to let Sam know they were okay and wouldn't be back that night. He could figure out the rest.

To make the most of their time alone, Dean decided the would go to Angela's apartment in the morning. As usual, it wasn't difficult to pick the lock and break in. They'd be in and out quickly and hopefully have something more to go on. Mae wandered a little further into the room, scanning for any usable clues or evidence but didn't know what exactly they were searching for yet. Looking around the apartment, Dean picked up a framed picture. It wasn't the photo inside that caught his attention but the reflection of a figure, only moments before she saw him.

"Who the hell are you?" The woman exclaimed before she shut herself in one of the bedrooms.

Mae was by Dean's side quickly as he followed after the other woman. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on!"

"I'm calling 9-1-1!" The woman responded.

"We're Angela's cousins!" Dean explained.

That seemed to calm her, a bit. "What?"

"Yeah, her dad sent us over to, uh, pick up her stuff, my name's Alan? Alan Stanwick? This is Lola."

Lindsey opened the door. "Her dad didn't say that you were coming."

"Well, I mean," Dean held up a set of keys, "How else would I have the key to your place?" He tried to laugh reassuringly but it was a bit uncomfortable.

"Sorry," Mae added sweetly, "we didn't mean to scare you. We didn't think anyone would be home."

Dean's discomfort continued. This would have been a far better job for Sammy, he thought, but handed the girl a tissue as she continued to cry. "So. I'm sure you got a, a view of Angela that none of the family got to see. Tell me, what, what was she like? I mean, what was she really like?"

"She was great."

Dean agreed with a non-committal hum.

"Just great. I mean, she was so... so..."

"Great." Dean said, a bit of his irritation seeping into his voice. Mae elbowed him lightly.

The young woman didn't seem to notice the tone or the action as she agreed before starting to sob again. "Yeah. Yeah."

"Yeah." Dean handed her another tissue and elbowed Mae right back, wanting her to jump in with the questioning. "Here you go. You two must have been really close, huh?"

"We were. But it's not just her, it's Matt."

"Who?" Dean asked.

"Angela's boyfriend."

"Right, Matt. What about him?"

"He killed himself last night. He cut his own throat. Who does that?" Lindsey said

"Are they sure?" Mae said. "It wasn't...foul play or something."

Lindsey just shook her head but it wasn't clear if it was a no or she just didn't know. It's not like the authorities would have shared that with her.

"That's - terrible."

"He was taking Angela's death pretty hard, and I guess... I mean, he'd been messed up about it for days."

"Messed up how?"

"He kept saying that he saw her everywhere."

"Well, I'm, I'm sure that that's normal, I mean with everything that he was going through."

"No, he said that he SAW her. As in, an acid trip or something."

Mae made a quite 'hmm' as she started to consider what that might mean.

"Were Angela and Matt a happy couple? I mean, is there any reason that Angela would be angry with him?"

Lindsey was confused. "What? No, of course not, why do you ask?"

"Just asking. Where did Matt live?"

Dean tossed Mae the keys. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothin' but I'm gonna read this" he pulled a pink colored book out of his jacket.

She started the car once they were and drove towards the mote.

"You ever keep a diary?"

"No, I'm not a girl."

Dean smirked, letting his gaze run over her distinctly girly figure. "I have some evidence to the contrary there Red."

"I mean, I just drink and stew about my issues, like a normal person. I don't jot them down in some pink thing some weirdo is going to steal when I die."

"Yeah," he said with a chuckle as he continued to skim the diary, "She wrote a lot about this guy, Neil. Super sweet, always there to listen to her, just the nicest guy." Dean said with a saccharine inflection.

"So, what you think some unrequited action on his side since she was banging this Matt dude?"

"Maybe."

"I mean, normal people style, maybe he kills the boyfriend but it doesn't really explain the unholy ground or anything else."

"Yeah. There's something here though. Right?"

"Do you need me to tell you yes here?"

"I need... I'm not inventing a case."

"You ever think Sam doesn't want there to be a job here?"

"Why?"

"I don't know. Probably the flip side of why he thinks you're seeing something that isn't here. Does it matter?"

"I guess not. He's annoying the shit outta me though."

"You're both annoying me, if that helps."

"It's not like I'm...fine with everything, you know? But that doesn't mean I'm wrong here."

"I know. Can I...without getting too pink diary here, maybe you need to tell Sam some of what you've told me. He's dying to know what the hell is going on with you."

"Yeah, like I can tell him that."

Back at their original motel room, Sam sat on the edge of the bed, watching television.

"Next, on the Skin channel, Casa Erotica Four. A tale of two Latin beauties ..."

Mae and Dean entered the room then, startling Sam who hastily turned off the TV and tossed the remote away from himself. "Hey."

Dean glanced between the television and Sam.

"What?" Sam asked, trying to come across as innocent but failing.

"Awkward."

"Where in the hell were you?"

"Working my imaginary case." Dean said.

"Yeah? And?"

"Well, you were right, I didn't find much." Sam nodded, sympathetically, and just a bit self righteously, "Yeah. Except Angela's boyfriend died last night. Slit his own throat. But, you know, that's normal. Uh, let's see, what else. Oh, he was seeing Angela everywhere before he died. But you know, I'm sure that's just me transferring my own feelings.

"Okay, I get it. I'm sorry, maybe there is something going on here."

"Maybe? Sam, I know how to do my job, despite what you might think."

"We should check out the guy's apartment." Sam suggested.

"We just came from there. Pile of dead plants, just like the cemetery. Hell, dead goldfish too."

"So, unholy ground?"

Mae shrugged, but said nothing more.

"Maybe. I'm still not getting that powerful angry spirit vibe from Angela."
(He gets up, crosses the room to pick up a pink book.)
I have been reading this, though.

"You stole the girl's diary?"

"Yeah, Sam. And if anything the girl's a little too nice."

"So what do you want to do?

"Keep digging, talk to more of her friends."

"You get any names?"

Dean grinned a bit now, holding up the diary. "Are you kidding me? I have her bestest friend in the whole wide world."

"You're not coming with?" Dean didn't hide his disappointment when Mae didn't follow him and his brother.

Mae shrugged as she took a seat at the table. "Yeah, I'm gonna hang back, dig into town history, see if there's any curses or other weird shit going on. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky."

"Hmmm."

"What?"

"I-I've kinda hoped you might keep being a buffer, between Sam and me."

"Yeah," she scoffed, "I'm clearly not buffering anything. You two are just having your weird thing with me in the middle. Listen, if you want to talk to me about it, great but the two of you are getting on my nerves."

Dean frowned. "I like being with you."

"I'm not leaving town. I can work this case too. I don't know that I can fix whatever is up with you and Sam."

"I told you what's been bothering me about...all this. Isn't that enough?"

Mae nodded. "Yeah, for me. But, for once, the issue isn't with you and me. I can't help you work this out with Sam."

"I know. I'm not asking you to...I just...I don't know."

"If there's something I can actually do that isn't just existing and fucking you, let me know. I have other skills."

"Believe me, I know. Although, let's not rule out that second skill because who knows what will help us."

Mae laughed. "Sure, you figure out what we're dealing with and if us banging it out will stop it, we'll get right to it. Now, go do your digging with Sam and work out this weird thing you've got going on." She kissed his cheek. Dean closed his eyes, smiling slightly as her soft lips pressed against his skin and her hand cupped other side of his face.