A/N-This and the next chapter have virtually no bearing on the plot. They're just for fun and as such, there's a fun times version. You can find the link over on my profile page.

Mae got up early, though not too early, to make sure she could set her plan into action. She had considered several options but decided it would be easier to have Sam on her side, working with her, rather than having to manage both brothers. Sam would have more questions than Dean and she didn't have any of the same leverage points with him that she did with Dean.

Maybe, she hoped, Sam would see this as an opportunity for him too. At the very least, it would be a chance for him to decompress. Although, he might not be looking for alone time. That was the one part she wasn't certain about. If Sam wasn't interested in her plan for the next week or so, she had a plan b, though it wasn't as much fun.

Mae snuggled close to Dean. She leaned in close to his ear and whispered his name. Lightly, playfully, she nipped at his ear. "Rise and shine, handsome."

He groaned softly in protest and made no move to open his eyes, let alone wake up. From his ear, she pressed kisses along his jaw to his chin and then back up. At the same time, her hand slid under the covers to rub his bare chest.

When her hand drifted to his stomach, Dean began to stir, with a low and piqued groan. He didn't open his eyes, savoring the sensation of Mae's soft lips on his skin and the slow glide of her hand. His hand found its way to her bare thigh, caressing it lazily as he let out a contented sigh. Slowly, he opened one eye and peered at her with a sleepy yet adoring gaze. "Mornin', beautiful," he mumbled, his voice heavy with sleep. "What time is it?"

Mae smiled, a playful glint in her eyes as she leaned in to brush her lips against his. "Oh, it's time for you to get up." She purred, her hand now sliding further south, teasing him gently.

Dean's eyes flew open at that, all traces of sleep vanishing in an instant. "I can do that."

The hand that played on her thigh moved sensually over her ass, up her back, and cupped the back of her head, pulling her down for a firm, deep kiss. His hand threaded through her hair. For a moment, they locked in their tangle of passions, as Mae found herself lost in his touch, her plan flying out of her mind.

When they broke apart for air, Mae remembered why she had crawled back in bed with Dean and what she wanted to do in order to have far more fun later rather than right this minute. She shifted away from him.

"Sorry, babe," she purred, "but as delicious as that sounds, I have something else in mind."

Dean groaned in frustration but couldn't help but smile as he let his eyes linger over her. She was wearing his shirt, a sight that made him curiously possessive and prideful. "You're a cruel woman, Maeby." He reached out to grab her, but she was already out of his reach. He propped himself up on one elbow and called after her as she walked away from the bed. "Hey, what exactly could be more fun than this? Tell a guy!"

Mae turned around, a mischievous grin on her face as she looked over her shoulder at him. "Breakfast."

"That's not more fun, Mae! Come back to bed, c'mon. I'll make it worth your while." He said with a waggle of his brows and a smirk.

Mae laughed, feigning a pout, as she pulled on her jeans. "I'm sure you could. And I know it's hard to believe, but I'm starving. Besides, I need you on your A-game for what I have in mind later."

She winked at him as she took his shirt off and tossed it at him. He caught it, pressing the still warm cotton against his nose, savoring her lingering scent on the fabric. By now, he supposed, he should be accustomed to her casual nudity with him. They lived together, after all. It was unavoidable.

To his surprise, the sight wasn't immediately arousing. Or rather, it wasn't immediately erotic. He didn't let that stop himself from enjoying the curves of her body. Turning him on wasn't her intention, as she moved efficiently to grab a plain black, cotton bra and a tee shirt of her own out of her duffel bag. He was chagrined to see her warm and inviting flesh get covered by cloth again.

"Alright, alright," Dean grumbled, sitting up and swinging his legs off the bed. "But you owe me." He stretched, every muscle in his naked torso flexing as he did so. He winked right back at her when he found her watching him with unambiguous lust, just as he intended. "And don't think I won't collect, either."

With a shake of her head but an eager turn of her lips, she grabbed her jacket and car keys and closed the door behind her, leaving Dean growling with frustration and anticipation.

Whatever Dean thought Mae's would do when she returned with breakfast for them in styrofoam containers, it wasn't that she would invite his brother to join them. At least he decided to dress, he thought, rather than lay out naked and expectant when Mae returned with Sammy in tow.

He squinted at Mae in suspicion but the scent of hot coffee and food won him over. That and the playful, innocent smile she gave him, followed by a sweet peck to his check as she handed him one of the containers.

Dean caught her arm after she turned from him to take a seat at the small square table in the room, flanked by four chairs. She paused. "Damn woman," he whispered, planting a kiss on the back of her neck as he wrapped an arm around her waist, giving her a squeeze. "You know how to win me over but you still owe me."

Mae leaned into his embrace for a brief moment before looking over her shoulder. "I know. Trust me, I know."

Dean knew better than to bring up any annoyance he might have felt around the direction their morning took. It wasn't as if Mae regularly turned him down for sex, quite the opposite, unless she was upset with him. They were getting along, consistently getting along. She had been more that eager the night before so while Dean wanted to complain about not having lazy morning sex instead of breakfast, he held his objection. After all, he was hungry too and she'd brought back a perfect meal of sausage, eggs, and hash browns. It was hard to be annoyed at Mae. But moving to breakfast with all three of them in the room meant she was shifting to business mode. He knew that irritated him more than anything else.

He wasn't ready for that. It seemed like Sam was going full bore into hunter mode and his suggestion that they lay low for a white, decompress a little seemed to fall on deaf ears. Dean wanted to savor every moment they had not being on the job. After they finished breakfast, because Dean wasn't particularly interested in work or yet another demonic scheme to tear them apart, he decided he would put reality off for a while longer by taking a shower.

As he got up from the table, he pressed a kiss to the top of Mae's head. She cleaned up their to-go containers and put on another pot of coffee while Sam took out his laptop. Mae waited until Dean was in the bathroom and she heard the shower turn on before she cornered Sam at the table. Her eyes flicked over her shoulder one last time, searching for any sign of a specific eavesdropper, as she sat back down and leaned in to speak to the younger Winchester brother. "Hey Sam," she said quietly, "what do you think about heading west for a while?"

Sam raised an eyebrow before turning back to his computer as he searched for any reports of Ava's whereabouts. He didn't bother to speak with the same low-tone as the redhead. "Why are you asking me?" he asked, "I can't imagine you can't figure out a way to convince Dean to take a job. Unless you're looking to meet up with an ex-boyfriend or something." He paused, casting his gaze back up to her, suddenly worried. "It's not that, is it?"

Mae shook her head. "No. What? Why would I be looking up an old boyfriend. No. If there were a job he might not want to take, I think I could make something up that he'd go along with." She shook her head again, hated that she let him take him distract her. Dean could be quick in the shower when he wanted to be. "But that's not why I'm asking you."

Confusion crossed Sam's face. "So... what exactly are you asking me? Dean's not going to say no to going to your house. Hell, he'll probably just go there anyway. You know he's been itching for a break. I'm sure he's been spending an unusual amount of time trying to…convince you to let us go back there."

"Well, he wouldn't have to convince me." Mae chuckled, "It's my home. I live there. And, you know, it's your home too." Sam looked up at her, oddly touched by her assessment, even though her attention had turned back to the bathroom door for a moment, "Neither of you have to ask to go home. But I actually wasn't thinking of going home quite yet."

Sam sighed, "Then…what?"

She turned back towards him, her brows knit together for a second. "You really have any idea what's coming up in the next week?"

Sam pursed his lips in thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"No?" Mae paused, expectantly before continuing. "Dean's birthday. I was thinking..." she paused, lower her voice again, "maybe we could do something special for it. More than just beer and burgers."

Recognition dawned on Sam's face. "Oh yeah, I guess you're right. Although, he'd like what you just said."

"I know. I'm not new here. I wanted to surprise him, as much as he can be surprised when we all live and travel together all the time," Mae continued, excitement evident in her voice. "I was thinking maybe we could get couple rooms at a resort or something for a few of days. No jobs, no…anything. Just some… fun."

Sam chuckled and nodded. "I'll do whatever you want, as long as you promise not to tell me what you mean by fun with my brother."

A mischievous glint appeared in Mae's eyes. "Well, seems like you've already figured it out, so that takes the enjoyment I might get out of tormenting you."

Sam grimaced. "Gross. You're perfect for each other because the two of are both gross."

Mae rolled her eyes at Sam's teasing, her lips curving upward in a half-smile. "Alright, enough of that. So this place I've been thinking about is up in Colorado. Beautiful mountains and a shimmering lake. It's an old Victorian-style setup and it's absolutely stunning. They've got horseback riding, hot springs, hiking... everything."

"Yeah, that sound great but isn't really Dean's style." Sam cut in.

"Oh, I'm well aware. Those are more the things you could do. I've got your brother's itinerary well in hand. You know…"

Sam sigh, closing his eyes with a grimace and shake of his head. "Okay so, aside from staying out of all that, what do you need from me? I'm not sure you can really surprise Dean, unless we knock him out and take him there. But, I mean, he wants a vacation or something like it. We could tell him we were on board."

"I've thought about that," Mae replied, her fingers tracing invisible patterns on the wooden tabletop. "And sure, we don't have to trick him, but c'mon, it's kinda fun to surprise him with something other than, you know an arrest or one of us going missing. It's the closest to a surprise party I'd do to him. So, if you can help me make him think we found a job, I think that would be enough to get us there. It doesn't have to be complex. Maybe a ghost?"

"Haunting? In a resort? That's some Shining shit right there," Sam laughed, but he liked that Dean had found someone who wanted to make his brother happy, who cared for him the way Mae did. "he'll love that. Although, you're bringing the non-stop Nicholson impressions down on us and you can't say I didn't warn you."

"Well…I think it might be worth it to genuinely surprise him with something fun," Mae said with a wicked grin. "So, if you're willing to help me, we'll tell him we've got a lead with some recent sightings, scaring off guests, and some historic flavor that screams to us restless spirits. A nice, simple ghost hunt."

Sam chuckled, shaking his head. "You're kinda devious, you know that?"

"Thank you," Mae replied with a mock bow. "It's one of my many charms."

Sam excused himself and returned to his room. He wasn't lying about needing to take some time to find a job for them. He seemed sort of excited about coming up with a mystery intriguing enough to overcome Dean's reticence and detailed enough that he would buy it but not try to poke holes in it. Mae hadn't expected it but she grateful to have Sam on board. As Sam worked on finding the perfect "job" to lure Dean to the resort, Mae turned her attention to making arrangements, booking two suites at the Silver Falls Resort.

When Dean finally got out of the shower, he found Mae alone at the table on her laptop. She looked up at him with a welcoming smile as she closed the computer. "Hey there, handsome."

"Where's Sammy?"

Mae mocked a pout. "You've been trying to get me alone all morning and now that you have me, you're worried that your brother isn't here?"

"No I…I just figured you'd both have found some job somewhere."

She stood, crossing the room to him and wrapped her arms around his bare shoulders. "Not yet but he figured he'd get more done on his own without us doing a terrible job not flirting with each other."

"Hmm…so you're gonna look for a job solo then."

"Actually, I was thinking..." she continued, her hands slipping down his unclothed chest teasingly, "we could probably think up a job to do just the two of us."

"Yeah," Dean said, closing his eyes reflexively as her nails trailed lightly down his abdomen. "I can think of a job or two I'd like you to do right now."

While Mae and Dean entertained themselves, Sam spent the next few hours delving into his laptop, researching various haunted locations in Colorado, and putting together a fake but believable case that would take them to the Silver Fall Resort. He did a cursory search to see if there were any legitimate reports of the resort. Maybe it was genuinely haunted, although that might not work for Mae's plan.

He wanted to be annoyed at the distraction away from hunting, away from figuring out what the demon was planning, or finding Ava. But he knew that maybe this was exactly what Dean needed. If not the trip itself, a few days away from everything, pretending like they didn't have a ton of shit to deal with right then. It wasn't the worst thing that his brother had someone in his life that wanted to make something special for him, Sam thought. He wasn't sure if he could go back to being normal, if he ever had been, but having moments of normalcy was nice and Dean deserved that.

That was why he was going to put something together as if this was a real case. He was counting on Mae's enthusiasm and acting skills to cover up any gaps that might exist since it was all fake. He scrolled through articles and websites, taking care to note down any interesting details or legends that could be woven into their fabricated ghost story.

Dean wasn't going to complain about this, not at all. He was almost used to the way he responded to her, the way she responded to him, and how much he simply wanted to be with her. The smile that settled on his lips was all due to this woman in his arms. They settled on watching middle of the day re-runs, a relaxing departure from searching for their next gig. He thought she'd get right back to work after she showered and they both dressed. Instead, they curled up on the bed together.

Mae dozed lightly, head on his chest, hand resting firmly on his stomach and one leg resting over his. This turned out to be a pretty perfect morning. They deserved more days just like this, he thought. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"What makes you think somethin's wrong?"

"You got tense."

"Mmm…well, you know how best to relax me, Red." He stroked her bicep gently, wishing there was soft and warm skin under his fingertips rather than the well-worn flannel of her shirt.

She gave him that low laugh that was an aphrodisiac all on its own. "The way we're going at it, we might break something."

"Totally worth it. We're making up for lost time." He kissed her head again, letting his lips linger on her soft hair, inhaling her scent. "And we're just so good together."

"That's true." Mae lifted her head off his chest and scoot up to sit next to him. She turned and brushed her fingers through his short-cropped hair. "It doesn't hurt that you're this good-looking."

"You're not exactly hard on the eyes." Dean cupped the side of her face, "And that body?" He gave her a whistle as his eyes moved from her face, along her long frame before returning to her pretty eyes. "Damn, Mae."

With another brighter laugh, she leaned in to kiss him. The knock at the door caused them to break apart with a heavy sigh and a toss back of his head. "I swear, if that's a cock blocking maid…"

Mae kissed his forehead as she got up off the bed, sliding her body over his to do so. "It's probably your brother."

"That even worse!"

Ignoring his grumbles, Mae sauntered to the door. After a cursory check at the peep hole, she opened the door, letting Sam in.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said, trying and failing at sounding sorry, as he walked passed Mae to take a seat at the table again, "I think I found our next job."

"Yeah?" Dean asked, watching Mae sit down on the edge of the bed and putting her boots on. Dean didn't quite hide his disappointment, nor did he get off the bed. "Or we could stick around here a couple of days. Or go to Mae's for a while."

Sam held a small stack of papers out to Dean. With a beleaguered sigh, Dean moved from the bed to grab them. He stood as he glanced at the documents Sam hoped would be incredibly believable proof. Mae smirked for a moment, not thinking Sam would have gone this far into the illusion. "Let's just see what Sam found, yeah?" Mae said.

"Well, there's a hotel up in Colorado that has a pretty sorted history. Legend has it, some rich guy built his home on a cemetery in the late 19th century. The owner at the time had reportedly exhumed and relocated most of the graves to make way for his extravagant getaway mansion, except for one: a woman named Astrid. Rumor has it, she committed suicide after being jilted at the altar. Once the property was turned into a hotel, guests claimed to have seen her ghostly figure wandering the halls on the anniversary of her death, which is coming up."

Sam thought the story was both tragic and plausible enough to pique Dean's interest without arousing too much suspicion. Dean barked out a laugh. "Dude, we investigate urban legends now?"

"Yeah," Mae replied, "don't we? Didn't you boy deal with Bloody Mary and a Hook Man. If those aren't urban legends, what is? We just know that sometimes they're real. How is this different?"

Dean sighed. "I guess. This just seems…thin."

"That's not all I have to go on," Sam said, indignant, "I did some digging and there have been a few unexplained deaths at the resort, at the same time of the year."

"Every year?" Dean asked.

"No but frequently enough that there's a pretty clear pattern. No hard evidence of course, but still..."

Dean flipped through the pages his brother hand put together, skimming but not reading anything in depth, his brow furrowed in concentration. "If there's anything here, looks like a pretty straight forward haunting. Some of these reports seem kinda old. Anything new?" Dean asked.

Sam nodded nonchalantly, trying not to sound too eager or amused. "Yeah, I found a mention of something on…" he paused, deciding to commit to the full drama of Mae's plan, "an internet forum."

"Not those Hell Hound's Lair tools again." Sam looked sheepish at Dean's skepticism as he dropped the papers to the table.

"Hell Hound's Lair?" Mae asked.

"Just some wannabe hunter pains in the ass. They've already wasted too much of our time with their bullshit." Dean told her before he tossed the papers on the table. "C'mon Sammy."

"Okay, yeah but it's not them making the claim. It's a post from someone who stayed there. I came across the post by chance but it fits in with all the older ones."

Mae kept her own excitement firmly tamped down. They might have laid out just enough of a job to pique Dean's interest and left enough unknowns that he might want to solve it. "It does sound promising," she said casually. "Worst case scenario, it's nothing and we're closer to home."