The Soul's Paw Print

2

The drive to Sioux Falls had taken almost seven hours from the bunker. Dean was still pretty antsy to get there so he made a two stop policy for the entire trip. Both for gas and only one for food and bathroom. Cas, unfortunately, had managed to eat through his three bags of Cheetos in the fourth hour and had begged Dean to stop for food even though they had hit their stop limit.

Ever since Cas had depleted nearly all his grace to help remove the Mark of Cain, he had become more human than angel. He had needed to do things like sleep for more than three hours and eat more than a turkey sandwich every seven hours. When questioned why he hadn't used the bathroom since he had to start eating, Cas simply said that his remaining grace had begun to act as a replacement for his "bowel system" since it basically got rid of any unnecessary waste and used the rest for energy. Sam and Dean opted not to question him further on the subject not wanting know anymore than they were told about Cas' "inactive plumbing" as Dean affectionately called it.

When they finally spotted the green sign that read 'Welcome to Sioux Falls' they found and checked into a motel that happened to be about 10 minutes from the abandoned Avera Heart Hospital and half that from the police station.

The room they had checked in had two beds, a couch, a couple chairs, an old looking wooden table, a TV, and thankfully a heater for the unbearable cold that South Dakota brought.

Cas set his own small duffel on one of the beds, Sam and Dean raced towards the other. They ended up setting them both down at the same time. Sam and Dean looked at their duffels, looked toward the couch, and then fixed narrowed eyes on each other.

"I ain't sleeping on that couch." Dean said trying to shove Sam's duffel off the bed.

Sam held tight to his duffel to keep it from falling off and began to shove at Dean's duffel bag.

"And you think I am?" Sam shot back.

"I'm older. It's bad for my back." Dean gritted out while shoving harder at Sam's bag.

"Bullshit! You've never had 'back problems' unless it's convenient to have them, you jerk!" Sam shouted back and began shoving at Dean's face with his large bear hands.

"Bitch!" Dean hisses against Sam's hand, sounding more like 'itch' than 'bitch'. He began to grab tightly on Sam's hair and pulled roughly at the long locks.

"I can take the couch if it is more convenient for the both of you." Cas said casually while organizing the contents of his duffel bag.

Dean stopped pulling on Sam's hair and turned a dejected look towards Cas.

"Ah, no, Cas. You don't have to do that." Dean said.

Cas tilted his head and gave a small shrug, "You two need sleep more than I do. I can bare the stiffness of the couch."

Dean shook his head and gave a final shove to Sam's forehead before he made his way to Cas. "Cas, listen to me, alright?" He gripped Cas' shoulders tightly and looked into the angel's eyes.

"You don't have to keep taking one for the team alright? You gotta know by now that you're family, okay? Hell, you've always been family. You're not our dog. You don't have to sleep on the couch if you don't want to."

Cas seemed to contemplate Dean's words before nodding slowly. "Okay." He said simply.

Dean smirked and patted Cas' shoulder a couple times. "Hey, ya know what?" Dean said suddenly, "We'll decide this the old fashioned way to be fair. Rock, paper, scissors."

Sam groaned and rolled his eyes. Cas simply looked confused.

"Rock, paper...scissors?" He repeated skeptically.

"Oh right. You've never played that before have you?" Dean said mentally slapping himself.

Cas simply shook his head and looked between Sam and Dean with even more confusion.

"Sam, get over here. We're gonna teach Cas the old fashion decision making method."

Sam rolled his eyes again and climbed awkwardly off the bed to where Dean and Cas stood.

Dean shifted them into a sort of circle and held out his hands in front of Cas. "Alright, here's the gist of the game. You have three materials; rock, paper, and scissors. Rock beats scissors, scissors beat paper, and paper beats rock."

"How does paper beat rock?" Cas said interrupting with a puzzled expression back on his face.

Dean looked at Sam with triumph and waved his hands towards Cas wildly, "See? Even Cas gets it!"

Sam narrowed his eyes at his brother before ignoring him and turning his attention towards Cas. "As he was saying, you hold your hands out like this," He held out one palm flat and held the other above it in a fist, "And you bring your fist down four times while saying 'rock, paper, scissors, shoot!' On the 'shoot' you have to pick either rock, paper, or scissors. For example, if I had scissors and you had paper, you would lose. Got it?"

Cas squinted at Sam's hands in concentration before looking up at Sam with an oddly serious expression. "I believe I have the concept of the game now. I am ready to compete."

Sam and Dean smiled at the angel's seriousness and placed their hands in position.

"Alright. Ready?" Dean asked.

Both Sam and Cas nodded, hands poised.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" Dean splayed out his hands in scissors, Sam as well had scissors, and Cas had his hand formed as a rock.

"Does this mean I win?" Cas asked looking at the brother's expectantly.

"Yeah, Cas. You get one of the bed's." Dean said through gritted teeth. He hated losing at this game. He just had to win against Sam and he would have the last remaining bed.

Cas sat down on his 'prize' and watched the brother's intently as they went into the last round.

Dean held Sam's gaze with narrowed eyes as he raised his hands.

"Best 2 out of 3." Dean said simply.

"Unh uh. Nope. Once, then we're checking out the hospital." Sam countered.

Dean grumbled something incoherently under his breath before nodding stiffly in agreement and raised his hands.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"