"I'm serious, Dean," Jody said, almost whining on the other end of the phone. "I do not want to go. I've got a week off and I just want to sit here in my own house by my own fireplace with my own stuff. If you guys are taking this case, you should take the cabin too. It's right there."

"Right," Dean snorted, balancing the phone on his shoulder as he tossed a folded t-shirt into his duffel. "You don't want to go stay in a fully furnished, fully stocked cabin in the woods with a fireplace and a hot tub. For free."

"No," Jodi insisted for at least the third time. And it was, for the most part, true.

"And how do you know this woman again? What was her name, Dottie? Dottie? Really?"

"Dean, are you even listening to me?" Jody was starting to wonder if he was just stalling so he could come up with a good excuse not to take her up on her offer.

Dottie Wilson meant well. She really did, Jody knew that. But over the past few days Jody had been wishing that someone else in the sheriff's department, anyone else, had taken on her case. The domestic violence situation Jody had rescued Mrs. Wilson from had left her eternally grateful and had left Mr. Wilson rotting away in prison. That is, until the heart attack he'd had two weeks after his incarceration. Dottie Wilson was now the sole owner of a mansion in Sioux Falls, and on the "other side of town", The John Wilson Inn (where Dottie had reported three mysterious deaths), The Den, and several hundred acres of forest in The Black Hills. This was all in addition to a few other properties across the country. The John Wilson Inn was a large, historic tudor style resort and The Den was a cabin a few miles away. The Den was small, but what it lacked in size, it made up for in furnishings and amenities. It was a one bedroom cabin that could sleep 4 located in the wilderness of Black Hills, South Dakota. Rustic, Dottie had called it, but Jody had seen pictures. Dottie's version of rustic was wide planked hardwood floors instead of carpet or marble, 9 foot ceilings instead of 12, and a fireplace that burned real wood. The cabin was furnished with the most high end "rustic" furniture available.

Dottie had been calling Jody for the past three days, insisting that the Rapid City police department was completely incompetent and could not handle this situation. Despite Jody's reminders that the Black Hills Forest was not her jurisdiction, Dottie was hoping Jody might stop over at the police department and see if she could "sort things out", then she could stay at The Den for a few nights and take advantage of the place while Dottie flew off to her chalet in Colorado. While there had been some strange occurrences at the inn, The Den was completely safe and she'd stocked the place up with everything Jody could possibly want and more. She was not taking "no" for an answer. So Jody had finally said yes.

"Look," Jody continued. "Maybe if she'd offered me the condo in Naples I would have taken her up on it. I've been working 60 hour weeks for almost three weeks now. I'm cold, I'm tired, I want my own bed. The place is six hours away. As soon as I heard you were going to be in the neighborhood, I called her up. You guys are going to be right there, I thought you'd jump at this. That's why I told her to go ahead and stock the place up! I even told her I liked burgers and whiskey-"

Dean laughed on the other end. "So you made that poor woman drive all over creation to fill a cabin with groceries and booze so that-"

"First off, she is not poor. That good for nothing husband of hers left her enough to keep her quite happy for the rest of her life in addition to what she already had coming into the marriage. Second, she has a service that does all the stocking and maintenance for her. Dottie Wilson does not have time to go grocery shopping. Nor does she have the time to take care of her many estates." Jody uttered the last two sentences in a thick British accent.

Dean snorted and rolled his eyes, throwing another pair of socks into his duffel. "Dottie's from across The Pond?"

"No," Jody groaned. "She just talks that way. Anyway, the cabin's a few miles from the inn so it would make a perfect base camp for you to work from. I don't even mind helping you out with research-"

"Ok, ok. You know what?" Dean stopped her. "Fine. Why not-"

"Yes, YES! Thank you. You will not be sorry!"

"Famous last words."

"Really, Dean. You and Sam need this! You work too hard, and when do you ever just take a break?"

"Who said anything about taking a break? We're going to crash over night, eat all the food and be on our way!"

"Dean! No! No, you need to shut down for a couple days, relax! Walk in the woods, soak in the hot tub, watch some movies, just... be."

"Just be? You sound like a yoga instructor." Dean zipped up the duffel bag. "Jody, listen...I have to ask. I know you love us, really, I do, so don't take this the wrong way... but what's in it for you?"

'Wha-? Dean! I..." Jodi stammered, trying to sound shocked.

Dean just waited. She was pushing this way too hard.

Finally, Jodi sighed. "Ok, fine. I need this woman off my back. She keeps insisting that I need some time away and I 'need to stay at the cabin'. I 'need to bring a gentleman friend out to the cabin'" The British accent again. "I can't stand it anymore. So when she mentioned all that weird stuff going on, I kind of wondered if you two would be coming out this way, and sure enough..."

"She keeps insisting that you 'need some time away'? That sounds familiar."

Jodi's voice raised an octave. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry! Dean, honestly? I think she really just wants me to go check the place out. She gave me explicit instructions to stay away from the inn, but then she started in about all the eerie experiences she'd had there. I think that's her way of making it seem enticing."

Dean heard the hesitation in her voice. "So... you think she's full of it."

Jody sighed. "Well, three people are dead, so it seems like there must be something happening. But as for her 'eerie experiences', I think she's just gunning for a spot on Ghost Hunters. She'd love the attention."

"Yeah, well... I guess I can take one for the team here."

"Thank you."

"Don't tell Sammy, though. I'm going to surprise him. Might be nice to crash some place clean for once," Dean cringed as he thought of Sam and The Trials and all the newly forming worries that were brewing in his gut, the unshakable feeling that something was wrong with his little brother. He took a breath and shook the thoughts away. "Burgers and whiskey, huh? I think Sam is more into rabbit food and tea."

"Oh, don't worry. I think that's all she eats. The cabin is probably already full of that. And really, I can call her and ask for anything you want. Like I said, she's got that service at her beck and call. She would LOVE it if I actually asked for something. Seriously, what do you want?"

Dean thought for a moment. "Anything I want, huh?"

"Anything." Jodi replied.

"I'll text you my requests later. We're about ready to head out."

"So what do you think is going on out there, anyway?"

"Not sure, but it sounds like a vengeful spirit. This all started happening around the time of Mr. Wilson's death in prison, so I'm guessing he might not be too happy about not being in charge of his hotel anymore. Should be pretty simple. Salt, burn, in, out and on our way."

Even as he said the words, he knew very little of what they ever experienced was 'pretty simple'.

Just as he hung up the phone, Sam appeared in the doorway of his room. For the most part, he looked put together and ready to go, but something was off: the slightly dark circles under his eyes, the way he carried himself, hell- even his hair didn't fall quite right anymore. Nothing glaringly obvious, but Dean was sure it was more than just big-brother-worries about the Trials that was setting off his internal alarms. Something was wrong with his little brother and he didn't like it one bit. But he also knew he wasn't going to get anything out of Sam just yet. So for now, he would jut try to keep things as routine as he could while they weren't trying to close the Gates of Hell.

"Well, what do you say- ready to go?" Dean asked, daring to hope that Sam might just look at him and admit he didn't feel well. Maybe he would ask if they could pass this job onto another hunter. Dean already knew who he would call to take the case. Then he would find every blanket in the entire bunker, get the kid propped up with a bunch of pillows, feed him soup until he couldn't eat another bite, and make him rest for a week.

But, quite as expected, Sam just nodded, turned on his heels and headed for the stairs. He wasn't being curt or aloof... he was just exhausted. Dean followed close behind, knowing that for now, the best he could do was just be by his brother's side.

The first several hours went off without a hitch. They arrived in Black Hills, questioned the hotel manager, looked around and interviewed some of the staff. They confiscated a number of items that had belonged to Wilson that the victims might have come in contact with. Though Mr. Wilson had been tried and jailed in Sioux Falls, he'd been buried in the family cemetery in The Black Hills. A salt and burn that evening of bones and possessions, a quick check for EMF after that, and they would be on their way.

The snow started falling lightly as they pulled out of the hotel parking lot. Dean sighed and glanced at his watch. They were both hungry, dirty and exhausted, but could be back in Lebanon just before daybreak, asleep in their own beds. Sam was already curling up against the door. What had he been thinking, really? A plush cabin in the woods? When had glamping become his thing? He rolled his eyes.

The cell phone rang.

"You boys still at the hotel?" Jody asked, sounding concerned.

"No, we finished up a while ago."

"What time?"

"Uh... just over an hour, why?"

"Because there's been another death at the hotel. Another one of the house keeping staff- Sally Butler. Just under an hour ago. Dottie called me."

Dean pulled the car over and turned around as he hung up the phone. "We missed something," he muttered.

Sam let out a frustrated sigh. "What could we have possibly missed?"

"I don't know, but Jody said there was another death- after we burned the bones." So much for a deep sleep on the memory foam. "I guess we'll be stopping off at Camp Dottie after all... eventually."

"What?" Sam gave a confused scrunch of his nose.

Dean shook his head. "Oh, you'll see. Let's go tie up these loose ends first."

Please, just be loose ends, Dean thought, trying with everything he had to find a flicker of hope.