[h3] Dean [/h3]

Dean felt a warmth in his chest after he and Lexi finished part of their conversation enough to go and check out to keep Sam from killing them.  It was almost as if something in the universe validated everything he was feeling, all at once, but he couldn’t place what that could be.

He glanced around, as if he would find the answer, until the time came to pay.  Jumping in front of Lexi before she even had a chance to pull out her wallet, he quickly threw some cash to the cashier and gathered up the items to place them back in the cart with a cheeky smile toward Lexi. 

“I got you.  I might…MIGHT let you buy me a beer when I take you out next time.”, he teased, nearly flinching at the words ‘next time’, as it sounded so strange coming off his lips after all this time.  But he honestly meant it. He wanted to take her out, on a real date, without his brother being nosey or asking him a million questions.

He turned the cart around and began pushing it out the door as the cashier held out the receipt to Lexi with a smile, as if she found them to be absolutely adorable.  As soon as they stepped outside, Dean thought for a moment and then turned to Lexi, “You know what I just realized?  Sam hasn’t texted me a single time.  Normally he’s more hovery than an angry girlfriend, but he hasn’t…he hasn’t even checked in.  Maybe he’s lost in a library somewhere or something.”

[h3] Anya [/h3]

As soon as Sam saw the image, Anya knew he recognized the gun, but the disappointed look on his face echoed on her own before he even spoke up.  Taking a deep breath, she braced herself for the let down she knew was coming, letting the breath out through her nose as he explained that he didn’t have the gun…but that he had heard of it.  Great.  Another goose chase.

She turned her face away from his gaze, and stared out the window of the coffee shop for a moment, pulling her cup up to take a drink of her coffee.  She scanned the scene outside, as if reading it like a book, as she tried to decide how to proceed from here.

Should she lie to him, and just leave, like she hadn’t been looking for them to get her closer to the demon that she was now obsessed with?  Or did she admit to him that she wasn’t only looking for them for the gun…but rather, to become a hunter herself.  She had nothing to lose.  She had no one.  It’s not like she had anywhere to go.

Thinking for a few more moments, she straightened herself, the corners of her eyes full of tears from concentration…not sadness.  She then pulled the notepad toward her, and wrote down, “Can I be honest with you?”

Without waiting for him to answer, she simply pulled it back, writing, “I had a feeling the gun was gone.  I didn’t just come here for the gun.  I would like to…”

She quickly scribbled the last part out, and simply wrote, “Sorry I bothered you with it.”