"I win!" shouted Dean.

"Congrats." The reply was accompanied with a slow, sarcastic clapping.

"And that's 150."

"What?! No way."

"I win, you pay," Dean insisted. Surprisingly his mood remained elevated. Seth wondered how long before it hits him.

But finally Seth surrendered. He reached into his pocket and took out fifty bucks. "Here."

"And the rest?"

"I'll give you another fifty tomorrow."

"But you owe me one hundred," Dean counted. He wasn't mistaken. Seth just had different opinion.

"Technically, you won only the second bet," he maintained. He started wondering. He lost; how come he thought he had one victory certain? There had to be a major miscalculation. Whatever. . . . One bet still hasn't been resolved and maybe never would.

"I can't give you victory that you have no claim for."

"What are you talking about? We're here first." Dean was prepared to fight for it.

"But Roman's not here at all. You said he'd be here second."

"That's basically the same thing," argued Dean. He wanted the rest of his money.

"Phrasing, Dean. You don't win."

Dean spat with resentment. "Fine," he uttered in between his teeth. "But then I can still win."

Seth ignorantly shook his shoulders. "Perhaps."

Now that the discussion was over and the whole place fell silent, Dean's eyes set on the empty spot not that far from them. Slowly the joy that he felt was decreasing until it disappeared completely. What a bitter victory. The car was gone. And Roman was not there either.

"We're trapped here now, aren't we?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, well, I've been trapped here since yesterday, so now you know how I feel," Seth let him know and walked away. There was no point in standing there, waiting. Yet that was exactly what Dean was doing. And he'd welcome some reassurance too.

"He'll come back, won't he?" he asked but got no response.

Seth was already on his way to the tent. He unzipped it and got in. In about two minutes, he knew Dean would join him inside. One can only desperately stare at nothing for so long.

Seth lay down. A recurrent yawning reminded him how tired he actually was. He could so easily fall sleep. Why wouldn't he? Oh, yeah, that's why, he realized when he noticed Dean entering the tent. It took him faster than Seth thought.

"So what are we going to do?" Dean asked.

"You mean now or generally?" All depended on how much faith the two guys had in Roman. Would he or would he not return?

As if Dean suddenly lost his interest, he gave no answer. But he lay down next to Seth. Peaceful look on his face. Exhaustion in his eyes. For sure he did not appear to give much damn about their current situation. They've been in deeper shit and they got up again. There's always a way; if you don't find it, it'll find you.

Just for the sake of it, Dean started singing.

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair

Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air

Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light

My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim

I had to stop for the night

There she stood in the doorway;

I heard the mission bell

And I was thinking to myself,

"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"

Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way

There were voices down the corridor,

I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the Hotel California

Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)

Such a lovely face

Plenty of room at the Hotel California

Any time of year (Any time of year)

You can find it here

Dean's voice was soft and had a calming effect. So calming that Seth fell asleep. He was snoring quietly. Dean noticed it and smiled. He sat up a bit and continued, mostly for his own delight.

There were some lyrics he did not remember so he just improvised with na, na, na.

Then he remembered.

How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.

Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the Captain,

"Please bring me my wine"

He said, "We haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine"

And still those voices are calling from far away,

Wake you up in the middle of the night

Just to hear them say...

The peacefulness of the melody was now making it difficult for Dean to continue singing. His eyelids were becoming heavy and blinking became more frequent.

Welcome to the Hotel California

Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)

Yawning was preventing him from keeping the right pace. He slowed down but he was aware that he couldn't go much longer. Soon his body would refuse obedience and shut down.

Such a lovely face . . .

At that point he yawned one last time and his eyes shut for good.

The sound of car woke Seth up. First, while remaining lying down, he kept his eyes open, focusing on the sound. Could it really be a car? Then, once he knew this was not a dream, he sat up. He did a bit of stretching, yawned, and finally got out.

There really was a car. And a very familiar one.

"Roman?" he shouted with rising level of enthusiasm.

Yes. The person who got out of the car was Roman.

Seth was so excited to see him that he totally forgot he actually should be angry with him. "You returned!" he cried, running toward his old buddy.

"Hey, hey," Roman soothed him, trying to push him away as Seth was sort of invading his personal space, "you didn't think I'd leave you here, did you?" It was a nice change to see Seth wearing clothes. But he better not ask what happened in his absence.

Something inside the car caught Seth's interest. His mouth was slightly, or a lot, open, and his eyes suggested something between fear and surprise. It was unexpected frenzy close to ecstasy actually.

Roman smiled seeing Seth's longing for the object that Roman kept inside the car until now. But he reached inside and got it out. "I thought you'd like some pizza," he explained. That was actually the reason why he left. That and because he needed to escape from the madhouse that this place was turning into.

"Yes, please."

Now that one dog was being fed, Roman wondered about the other one. "Where's Dean?"

"Inside. Sleeping."

Roman chuckled. "You kids exhausted yourselves so much that you fell asleep?"

Originally, Seth wanted to counter with something clever, but in the end, there was considerate amount of truth in it.

Roman considered going inside the tent and waking Dean up but that could wait. "Give me a slice," he asked Seth and put the other three boxes on the hood of the car.

As the food was filling Seth's stomach he felt more and more calm. He found that pizza had similar effect on him as Dean's singing. Remembering that, he put the rest of the slice he was eating back in the box, took all the boxes and changed direction toward the sleeping beauty.

Roman did not ask anything. He got the drinks and followed him.

After getting inside, Seth approached Dean and wondered if the smell would wake him up. So far it did nothing. Maybe Dean has already entered his REM sleep. However, Seth gave him a couple more seconds before upgrading to waving a slice of pizza in front of Dean's nose.

"Leave him alone," Roman from behind said in a friendly, advice-like manner. Then he returned to paying attention to his pizza.

Seth started counting. "One, two, three –"

"What are you going to do?"

". . . Four, five." That sufficed. Pizza slaps followed.

Roman was genuinely amused. He had a show and a snack with it. And there was coke on the ground next to him.

Dean still did not wake up and it started to annoy Seth. He watched him with hostility. Then he spotted the head injury. It was still somewhat bloody. Seth touched it, slowly, with care and concern. But he probably wasn't as careful as he thought because Dean woke up in pain. He cried in discomfort. Then he saw Seth's face in exquisite detail. The proximity disturbed him. Just as much he felt uneasy about the touch.

Seth let go immediately. "Hey, you're awake," he said cheerfully. "Guess who's back."

It took Dean a while to adapt to the situation. Strangely, the tent felt crowded to him. Maybe it was because he just woke up and needed to take in too much information.

But, although he could, he decided to not make a big deal of Roman's actions. Similarly to Seth, he did not mention Roman's disappearance. He himself disappeared yesterday so he would be quite a hypocrite to make a big deal of it now. And he was still too much in post-sleep state to get rid of that serene expression that felt really comfortable resting on Dean's face. Instead, he had a suggestion. "I've already mentioned this to Seth," he started. "I booked us a room in the hotel for tonight. Now that you're here we can pack up and go."

Roman did not feel very comfortable making that decision. He looked back at Dean, then at Seth.

"Seth'll be glad to be gone from here," Dean gave Roman the answer he searched for.

But Seth changed his mind. "You know, I'd actually prefer staying here."

"What?" Dean asked, surprised.

"It's the last night. And it's the first night we're all here." He was looking at Dean for a reason.

"I'm staying tonight," Dean assured him that there would be no more escapes. "So you really want to spend the night here, in a small tent, outside in nature, without toilet or bathroom, instead of being in a warm hotel room with bathroom, minibar, and hotel room service?" That was something he honestly found strange and hard to understand.

"Yep," Seth confirmed.

Now Dean waited for Roman's reaction. "Look, I don't mind. I'm fine here."

"Alright," Dean said. He was pleased that the two still wanted to be with him after everything. But neither he felt any differently. This was exactly what he wanted to whole time. "Now give me that pizza."

Dean started eating when Seth paused to say something. "It hasn't been that bad, after all."

Other two laughed. "Apparently we've been at two different places," Roman said jokingly.

"You think you're joking but think about it," Seth countered. It was true there were many moments they weren't together or their activities were too distinctive. "But I think it's safe to say, never again."

"Come on," Dean interrupted with mouth still full. He unintentionally spat a bite. He picked it up and placed it back in his mouth. "I've put a lot of effort into planning this."

"And tell me again, how many times did things get out of hand?"

"Not once," he replied persuasively.

Roman laughed.

"I'm with Seth. Never again."

Dean looked down to show his disappointment. In another minute, though, his pretending was gone. He got interested in something else. "Have you got Seth's invaluable phone?"

"Yep, actually, I do," he said while reaching for it into his pocket. "There you go." He handed it to Seth who was glad to have it back.

Roman chose to omit telling about the content he contributed to. Anyway, if Seth decided to delete it, he's got it transferred to his phone so it would not be gone forever. Now that would be a disaster. Such a waste.

"Can you send me the pictures?" Dean asked.

Seth's reply was resolute. "No."

"Yeah, Seth's right," Roman joined the discussion. "Those pictures are evidence, and we certainly don't want anyone to know what happened here."

"Exactly. That's why I'm deleting them the first thing I get home."

Dean gave Seth a suspicious look. Sure you are. . . . If only he knew that Roman was now in possession of the guilty memorabilia as well. Yet the one, without whom none of the events represented in the pictures would have happened, had no reach to them. Life's unfair.

"We got carried away a little. Nothing anybody has to know," Roman said to conclude that topic.

Then the three of them returned to their delicious pizzas. Seth wanted to open a new topic, a more innocent one, but Dean was faster. "So . . . you got plans for winter?"