[h3] Cason [/h3] 

Cason smirked as Nat pulled her face back to look at him after a few moments, brushing more of her hair behind her ear as her breath washed over his lips, “I just hope when you find that answer, you remember how safe you feel, right now…”, he whispered, trailing his fingers around her face to help her fall back to sleep.

“Get some rest.  I’ll be right here.”

—-

The next morning, Cason glanced over toward the window, seeing the light peeking through the thin curtains.  Nat was sleeping somewhat soundly, and he didn’t want to wake her.  But he also knew it would only be a matter of time before Dean started his normal banging on doors to start their day.  The last thing he wanted was to let her oversleep and put her at any new odds with Dean.

“Nat…”, he murmured, brushing a thumb down her cheek as he scanned her closed eyes.  He winced at how deep her slumber seemed, feeling a bit guilty, but he still tried again, “Hey, it’s morning. You know as well as I do, your brother will be over here in the next ten minutes.”

He chuckled, and tugged at her ear gently.

[h3] Dean [/h3]

As Dean and Mika returned to their room, Dean closed the door behind them and let out a stressed sigh.  He ran both his hands through his hair, his eyes closing with stress, and then dropped them to his sides heavily. 

“You can say that again…”, he retorted to Mika’s first statement.  Luckily, it seemed like the ‘it can’t get worse and then it does’ part of the day was finally over and they could get some rest.  At the same time, it never seemed to be that simple.  There was always something worse around the corner.  It made him not even want to sleep.

“I think she told us because she thought it would scare us off or something.  That seems to be her thing.  She’s too broken.  She’s too mean.  She’s too…something.  What she doesn’t understand is that we’ve seen just about everything.  How am I going to judge her when I have Sam for a brother?”, he chuckled at the end of his sentence, kicking off his own boots and unbuckling his belt as he watched Mika undress in passing.  Any other time, he would have wrapped her up and had a little fun while they were finally alone, but tonight, they were both on the brink of collapse.

“I just don’t know much else to do with the Cason situation.  It’s not like I can make her stay away from him, you know?”, he asked, pulling his shirt over his head and then dropping his pants to strip down for bed, “At the same time I want to tie her up…and make her listen.  But. I can’t do that.”

He finished his sentence with a sad look toward the floor, but then noticed that Mika was gesturing for him to come to bed.  With a small smirk, he crawled toward her on the bed, wrapping his arms around her before collapsing with her wrapped in his arms against his chest.  He instantly closed his eyes, hearing her words with a frown.

“I know she will…she always does.”, he muttered, before drifting off to sleep, with a tight grip on Mika’s body.

———

The next morning, Dean’s alarm blared like a shotgun blast through the room.  He groaned loudly, and reached for the bedside table, finally landing on his phone, and turning off his alarm, “Ugh.  It’s morning.  Mika…”, he groaned again, shaking Mika’s shoulders a bit.  He finally slid his arm from underneath her, knowing that if he stayed in bed, he would likely fall asleep and sleep all day.

“I’m gonna go get some breakfast sandwiches or something, while we wait for the others to get their lazy asses out of bed.”, he grumbled, quickly grabbing a tshirt from his duffel and a pair of jeans.  He slipped them on as quickly as he could and shoved his feet in his boots, before stepping out of the room.

At first, he didn’t even notice Sam pacing outside his room, as he walked sleepily across the parking lot, toward the Impala.  Passing Duke’s truck, he noticed the cowboy hat sat on top of the toolbox, and his stomach plummeted for a second, thinking something had happened to Duke, until he got a bit closer.

“Well aren’t you guys disgusting…”, he chuckled, before slapping the side of the truck with his flat palm.  Duke quickly turned over, toward the sound, as if Dean had fired a gun near his head.

“What the hell is your problem, man?”, he groaned, as Sarah huffed but simply stared at Dean.

“I mean, I would say this brings back old memories, but if this had happened when we were all together, I think I would have killed you…”, Dean laughed, and Duke simply flipped him off, curling back up on Esme, in case she woke up to the noise, “Get your ass up.  I’m going to run for grub.”

“Don’t hurry back, dickhead…”, Jace teased, flipping him off one more time as Dean walked away.  But before Dean could open the Impala door, he noticed Sam.  And boy did Sam look worried.  He tossed his keys back into his pocket, and strolled back across the parking lot, toward his worried looking brother.

“Sammy?”, he asked as he approached, lowering his head so he could gaze up at Sam’s eyes, trying to judge what kind of crisis this was, “You alright?  What’s going on?  And where’s Anna?  She hasn’t left your side since you guys met…”