Set after Season 7, Episode 17.

Dean and Sam leave the mental hospital with Cas in their wake, and Dean contemplates how he really feels about leaving Cas behind. After a while on the road, Dean notices that they're being followed. Both Winchesters and pursuer pull into a motel lot, and a showdown between themselves and their oldest friend will be one that Dean will never, ever, nope, never ever ever forget.

Leaving Cas at the mental institution had been harder on Dean than he had let on to Sam. When they had climbed into the car to leave, Dean had been blunt - he'd tried his hardest to pretend to Sam that they were making the right choice. But deep down - no, not deep down. Barely hidden under his skin, Dean wanted to grab Cas by the wrist and pull him into the car with them. He wanted to help him, he wanted to care for him and kill that son of a bitch who had made his brother's life a living hell, and now his best friend's. It broke Dean's heart to drive away from the hospital. He could almost see a pair of crystal blue eyes watching him as he drove away, reflected in the rear view mirror. A lump formed in his throat - tight and hot - and he tried to swallow around it, but ended up catching his breath. He was forced to splutter a gasp - to try to hide it from Sammy - but his brother noticed none the less.

"I know you don't want to leave him there." Damn, the boy was good.

"It's for the best."

"Mmm." Sam hummed his reply softly, turning back to staring out of the window. The topic didn't arise again. Maybe Sam didn't want to talk about it, because he was just glad to be free from it all. Maybe Sam knew Dean didn't want to talk about it, so he was saving him the pain.

They shot onto the highway, and when they pulled off eventually to find a motel in the town they had entered, Dean couldn't help but glance again, for about the hundredth time, at the car behind them.

"I swear, that dude's been trailing us for the past half hour."

Sam roused from a light slumber and peered into his wing mirror.

"...You sure? It might just be coincidence?"

Dean shook his head. "No. He keeps driving too close. There's something...off about whoever it is. Look," he pointed to the left, "there's a motel just over there. If we pull in, and he does too, we'll confront the bastard. If he's drunk...man, I'll lay into him because if I'm gonna sock anyone, it's best that it's someone who won't remember in the morning."

For once, Sam didn't argue with him. It should have surprised Dean, but he guessed that maybe Sam wasn't surprised that Dean wanted to punch someone.

The car turned into the lot of the motel, and Dean's nostrils flared as the car behind followed them in. His knuckles gleamed white from how tightly he was gripping the wheel. Oh man, he was gonna demolish this guy if he had even the slightest hint of alcohol on his breath.

Dean slammed the door just as the other car rolled into a parking bay. When no one climbed out, Dean and Sam stood there, fists clenched - one brother with his jaw set very tensely on edge. The door to the other car - an old red Mustang - opened, and Dean's eyebrows narrowed. What emerged from the car was a clean-cut, damned (goddamned) attractive son of a bitch, with jet black locks and piercing blue eyes. They reminded Dean of Cas'. Adorned in a black tee and skinny jeans ensemble topped with a (pretty rad, Dean resisted to think) leather jacket, the man strolled over, a smirk curled onto his lips. It was when he grew closer that Dean felt a strange tingle - like he recognised this guy from somewhere. Now that he really concentrated, he did know this guy, he was sure of it. But from where, he couldn't place. It was the weirdest feeling, and he couldn't describe it.

"Winchesters," the man said with an odd tone of compassion. It contrasted with his snarky expression. Dean didn't like it.

"Who the hell are you?" Oh, Dean was so ready to hit a home run with this guy's head at the end of his fist.

The man didn't reply at first. He stopped half way across the lot, and tucked his hands into the backs of his jeans. There was a touch of confusion and a whole lot of amusement in his eyes.

"You don't recognise me?" he asked innocently. "I thought we were closer than that, Dean."

As he spoke, the man ran his tongue across his top lip. Dean didn't know if he'd done it intentionally or not, but it did things to Dean that he was ashamed to admit at that precise moment in time. It struck Dean then that this guy could be one of his old hook-ups from the past. The ones that Dean had never told Sam about. But clearly now he didn't have to because Sam was giving him the You-Are-So-Busted eyes.

"No," Dean lied. "I don't recognise you."

"That's such a little lie. You are such a little liar, Winchester!" The man pointed at him and laughed, causing Dean to growl under his breath and reach behind him for the gun tucked away in the back of his jeans. The man waggled his finger.

"Uh uh uh!" he sing-songed. "Don't be pulling that shit on me, Dean."

How the hell did he know about the gun?

"How the hell do you know...?"

"I know a lot of things." The man sat on the bonnet of the car Dean had just been driving. "In fact, I know pretty much everything. Apart from what's been happening in the past few months. Where the hell have you been? How could you just leave me like that? After all we've been through?"

Now Sam was totally giving him the eyes. Fuck, Dean thought. Fuck fuck fuck. Who the hell was this guy?

"I don't have a clue who you are!" Dean exclaimed in desperation. "I've never seen you before in my life!"

The man raised an eyebrow. "Oh but you have, Dean. You've seen me. You've seen what I look like. Inside and out. You've been inside me, Dean. Or isn't that important to you any more?"

Sam snorted, and Dean felt himself go red against his will.

"I...I..." So he had no idea what the hell was going on. "I've never...I've never met you!"

"You've known me for a long time, Dean. You've been inside me more times than you've had hot dinners. Trust me, I know. The amount of times you've gone all night without a meal...phew. Sometimes, I never thought you of all people could go without a bite to eat. Not when you're going for that long."

Sam was positively fit to burst between laughter and puking, because Dean knew he totally didn't want to be hearing this. Dean himself didn't want to be hearing this. Not when he still had no clue who this guy was.

"I swear, I don't-"

"Don't say you don't know me. Look at me. Tell me you don't recognise who I am."

"I-"

"Tell me."

Dean sighed. "There's something familiar about you, okay? There." He cast a glance at Sam. "There." His raised arms added effect.

"Oh, Dean. I've missed you."

Suddenly, the guy was uncomfortably close. They were mere metres apart, and now, more than ever, Dean could see that thing about him that was so...so...recognisable, whatever it was. Two more steps and the guy was literally on him. Fingers curled around the collar of Dean's shirt. Dean was too stunned to do anything about it.

"Now tell me how much you've missed your Baby," he purred in a purr that Dean knew from goddamn anywhere. He knew it because he'd heard that purr literally every day of his life from birth. It sent shivers down his spine, just like it always had, and went straight to his crotch - pleasant, but not overpowering - just like it always had.

But then again, it wasn't possible.

"It's not possible," he breathed. The man grinned widely, smirk dissolving into the happiness dawning on his face.

"Dean, anything's possible. Surely you out of everyone should know that..."

"No..." he mumbled, trying hard not to let his gaze flutter to those perfectly formed lips that were so close to his their breaths were intermingling. "No it can't be."

"Oh it can. It really can."

"...B...B...Baby?"

A flicker of glee, and the return of the smirk.

"Baby?"

"Strrrrrrrriiike!" the man cried, twirling away from Dean and shooting at him with pistols made from his hands. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!" he announced to the empty parking lot. Sam just looked astounded and very, very lost.

"How the hell, what the hell, huh?" Dean managed to pass from his pretty much incoherent tongue.

"You see, when you so uncaringly dumped me in the back of beyond, I sat there lonely and miserable for like, ever until I remembered that you'd left my trunk filled with all sorts of freaky shit. So, with my magical ass skills, I conjured up a spell with all those bits and bobs of witchcraft you had lying around, and thus, here I am. Flesh and blood and human."

"OH MY GOD."

It clicked in Sam's head. Clearly.

"YOU'RE THE IMAPALA?"

Baby waved his hand in disregard. "I've learnt some tricks over the years. I know everything there is to know about you two boys." Both Winchester's stood with their jaws swung open. "But the one thing I can't wrap my head around is why you abandoned me when all I've been is good to you all these years. Did I deserve it? No! Damn pissed me off to no end. Assholes." He crossed his arms and pouted. "No one put's Baby in a corner. Remember when you said that Dean? Remember? Yeah you're one deceiving son of a bitch."

Dean still couldn't really talk. "I...I...I'm uh...sorry?" He still hadn't gotten around to fully accepting that this was his car in human form. The fucking Impala.

"You're going to have to make up for it somehow..." Baby patted his lips with one finger, running his eyes up and down Dean's body. A glint of something which made Dean gasp quietly shimmered in Baby's eyes. "I've got some ideas..."

"How did you even get here?" Sam questioned, clearly eager to change the subject. "I mean, we haven't used you in months!"

"I resent used. More like...accompanied. I hate that you think of me as an object, Sam. Whereas Dean, Dean thinks of me as a person, don't you Dean?"

"Well, it's pretty hard not to now."

Baby laughed. "How did I find you, is that what you're asking? I've been trailing you. Waiting for the opportune moment to reveal myself. And so, opportune moment comes a callin', and here I am!" He spun round on the spot to prove his point.

"No but how did you drive?"

"Dude," Baby tutted. "I'm a car. All I DO is drive. You really think I wouldn't know how to drive?"

Sam mumbled something under his breath. Dean's eyes were glued on his Baby.

"You...you're really...you're really Baby, aren't you?"

"The one and only," Baby winked.

Dean couldn't hold it back any longer. He ran at Baby, throwing his arms around his neck and pulling him close. It didn't matter that Baby was a human, and that he hugged Dean right back. No matter what, Dean had missed his Baby, and he was overjoyed to have it - him - back.

"I've missed you so goddamn much."

Baby patted Dean's back, then rubbed it soothingly. "I've missed you too, Dean. Never leave me like that again, okay?"

Dean pulled away, wiping - no they were not tears - his eyes. "Never. Never ever. I promise."

Baby smiled joyfully, and ran at Sam, who didn't quite know what to do, or say, or apparently even feel.

"I...I...I..."

"I've missed you too, Sammy," Baby chuckled. "I've missed you too."