[h3] Dean [/h3] 
Dean watched the way Nat handled Cason and even tilted his head to the side in amusement at the way that Cason simply nodded, almost like a puppy in Dean’s eyes, and pushed past both her and Dean.

“Isn’t that cute?”, Dean muttered without even realizing it.  He quickly looked down at Nat’s face, and shot her a cheeky smile, before wiping it from his face completely.  She would kill him before she would give him the satisfaction of insulting Cason, at the moment.

“So, he seems to listen to you.  That’s nice.  My question would be, why?”, he asked, scanning Nat’s face.  He knew she was probably going to blow up on him.  She would probably find every reason in the world to defend Cason, and honestly?  He was tempted to give the guy benefit of the doubt, if his story was true.

[h3] Cason [/h3] 

Cason met Sam halfway, after leaving Nat, albeit reluctantly.  As soon as the taller man stepped in front of him, he held the paper out in front of him and nodded, “Yeah.  She was exactly where I figured she would be.  She’s a creature of habit, which is good for you, bad for her, I guess.”

Cason let Sam take the piece of paper and sighed, scratching his neck awkwardly to decide how to even talk to Sam as anything other than some random human, or at the least, the awkward new boyfriend of his ex.  It wasn’t as if he hadn’t noticed Sam hovering here and there in the background, at Stanford.  Or like Sam didn’t pop up and come across Anna in coffee shops, where Cason would have to distract her to keep her from getting too close to him…for reasons.

“I have to warn you.  She’s not alone.”, he started, before holding his hands up to let Sam know he would explain, “I don’t know if you remember Max.  Short little guy with a bit of a droopy lip, dreamy blue eyes…had a bit of a crush on Anna before I met her.  Well, she’s staying at his place.  He’s a good kid.  I don’t recommend, if your plan is to bring her home, that you hurt him.  Just trust me on that.”

Cason stepped over to the railing of the motel sidewalk, and leaned against it, pulling out a cigarette and a lighter, before lighting up.  Now that Nat was all but demanding he stick around, even looking at the others was awkward.

[h3] Duke [/h3]

Duke was relieved as the smile appeared from nowhere on Esme’s lips, and when she pulled her other hand down, he dropped his shoulders with relief, a bright and familiar smile flooding over his face.  But that smile faded after a moment, as she started to apologize.  He gripped her hands a bit tighter and started to argue with her, but he knew that arguing, while trying to get his own apology in was probably not the best move.

What surprised him was her explanation for her apology.  Not only had she lost it on him but apparently she had all but bullied Cason into leaving, which was successful, so he didn’t see harm.  But he also knew Esme well enough to know that she was very VERY sensitive to manipulation.  

“So, you stop with that…first off.”, he corrected her about him being there with her, “And as far as the blow up at me?  You’ve blown up at me before.  At least this time, I was being dumb…”

His accent shined as he reached out and tilted her chin with one of his fingers, a smile spreading over his face again, “It takes a hell of a lot more than snappin’ my head off, over bounty hunter drama for me to just run off.  You know that.  At least you didn’t hit me, this time.  No stitches…no foul.”

Duke pinched her chin gently, brushing his thumb over her bottom lip, while watching the contact intently, “I just assumed you were hungry.  You always did turn into some other not so human kind of creature when you were hungry.  Hangry…”, he teased, before flashing his pearly white smile again.