fic: wish you were here (we all shine on)
Title: Wish you Were Here (We all Shine on) pt.2/2
Characters/Pairing: Jo, Sam, Dean, Bobby / Eventually Dean/Jo
Rating: pg13-ish
Word Count: 2,522
Notes: AU fic that picks up sometime after the end of season 3 (yeah I'm really late to the game, I know, ha). The end still feels kind of iffy to be, it's supposed to read kind of like a fade out in a show but I'm not sure if it really worked.
Disclaimer: As much as I wish, so not mine, belongs to Kripke etc.
It wasn't the first place Dean wanted to be, he wanted to find Sam but that was hard when all he got from dialing the number was a "we're sorry, the number you are trying to call has been disconnected." It had been a hellish (even for him) journey from where he found himself suddenly alive and in one piece to Bobby's house, his mind a mess of all the things that could have gone wrong to Sam while he was gone. He did this to save his brother dammit it'd be a waste if the damn fool got himself killed just over a year in.
The familiar Singer Salvage Yard is a welcome sight when he spots it, especially as the fuel gage in the crappy sedan he hotwired sinks dangerously low. He knew he should have been expecting it but the holy water thrown in his face before he could even get two words out still takes him by surprise. He passes and Bobby hands him a silver knife.
"Bobby come on, I don't have time for this..." he starts but presses the blade to the inside of his arm and draws a thin line of blood.
He passes that one too and he can barely breathe with the hug that Bobby gives. "Good to see you boy," he mutters and Dean swears he sees a little bit of moisture in the man's eyes.
"You too Bobby, you too," he pulls back and takes a few steps around the room. "Is Sam..." he pauses and he can't quite bring himself to say it, "I can't get a hold of him."
"He changed his number a while back," Bobby explains as he starts to look around for his phone. "I haven't seen him nearly half a year."
He knows he shouldn't be shocked, he left, he sold his soul and left his little brother all alone but the idea of Sam out there without anyone tore at him He gives Bobby a look. "And what, you just let him break off all contact with the world?"
"I tried Dean, I did. But he didn't want any of us around," he buries himself in a box on his desk, "no one 'cept her," he mumbles and Dean doesn't really catch it. Bobby re-emerges with his phone in hand and starts dialing.
Dean paces as Bobby's on the phone, most of it lost on him as the only thing he can think of is Sam, finding Sam. He needed to see for himself that his brother was okay. Though he does notice when Bobby says daughter, uses the female pronoun as he pleads his case of a worried father looking for a wayward child. He also notices the sigh and the way Bobby says she's run off again. Again.
"While I agree with you that Sam can be a bit of a girl sometimes that's just cruel. Bobby," is all Dean says about it as the get in the car.
Bobby shakes his head and Dean swears he looks amused. "You'll see," he replies.
Dean wants to ask but he finds he doesn't have much head for anything but watching the road pass and thinking about seeing Sam. The rest will just be whatever.
He stays outside while Bobby talks to the motel clerk, scanning the parking lot for his Impala, and it worries him that it's nowhere to be found. He tries to convince himself maybe Sam is out, maybe Sam just left, maybe he was never even here to begin with.
Bobby motions him over, standing in front of room 13.
"I don't think he's here," Dean starts as he walks over, "the car isn't in the lot," he points out.
"Look, Dean, there's something you ought to know, your brother, he..." Bobby starts but is cut off.
"Hasn't been calling, dropped off radar, I know this, you told me," Dean all but snaps and raps his knuckles against the door.
"That ain't it, boy," Bobby mutters and crosses his arms over his chest, waiting for what he was sure would be a spectacular show.
"I swear to God Sam if you forget your key one more time..." Dean hears from inside the room and he stiffens as the voice makes its way through his brain and pulls the image of the person it belongs to. He quickly darts a look to Bobby and the son of a bitch is laughing, full out laughing and good Lord he is going to kill him.
"You! You knew and you let me...” he starts and turns to stare at Jo staring at him. "You are so dead Bobby," he manages to deadpan before she moves.
She's quicker and stronger than he remembers and she takes him by surprise, has him up against the wall, her forearm digging into his throat, her knee dangerously close to the goods and a gun pressing against his temple before he really even has time to register the first move.
"Who the hell are you?" She demands and he can barely breathe as her arm presses harder into his throat.
"Come on Jo it's me, Dean, thought you'd be happy to see me," he tries and fails at a grin, it's a little hard when she's got him in a rather delicate situation.
He feels her arm shove harder into his throat and he finds himself really not liking the way her eyes shift at his words, the way they seem a little bit too sad and a little bit too angry all at once. "Dean Winchester is dead," she replies and it's cold, short and to the point.
"Jo!" Bobby finally steps in, moving to touch the blonde’s shoulder and pull her away from Dean. "It's him Jo, I promise girl," he says to her calmly, looking at her with something close to a tender expression and it strikes Dean at that moment that he really never knew the first thing about Jo, about who she knew and who made up her life and who shaped her into the person she became. "Would I lie to you?" Bobby asks her, pulling the gun from her hand.
"Bobby...” she starts and dares a glance back at Dean who barely moved when released from her grip, he was man enough to admit right then she scared the hell out of him and he really didn't want to repeat being held at her mercy again. "How?" She asks still looking at Dean and he simply shrugs.
"No freaking clue," he tells her. He's just about to ask her where Sam is when her fist hits him square in the face. "What the hell, Jo?" he asks, glaring at Bobby who is again, laughing. "Not funny, Bobby."
Bobby shakes his head and calms somewhat, "it's a little funny."
"Do you have any clue, any freaking idea what you did to your brother?" Jo snaps and she knows it's an illogical argument at best because if Dean hadn't done what he did Sam wouldn't even be alive, but still. She moves and sinks to the bed again, sitting on the foot of it and looking up at Dean.
"I know, doesn't mean you get to punch me," he glares at her.
"Maybe, but I feel better now," she says and grins.
"Well that makes one of us," he snarks back holding a hand to the side of his face. "Seriously, Bobby, shut it," he says and glares at Bobby still snickering a few feet over.
They all turn their heads in unison hearing the jingle of keys in the door and Sam's muffled voice from the other side as he starts to turn the handle. "Hey, Jo, they don't have anywhere with curly fries here...."
She's up in an instant, Bobby too, as they rush to Sam, gripping an arm each as he sees Dean holding him back from rushing at his brother, the screamed obscenities and threats making it clearly evident he doesn't think for a minute this could really be his brother.
"Sam... Sam... It’s him, Bobby checked..." Jo tries, thankful to have Bobby there to back her up, both physically and with the convincing part.
Sam darts his eyes between the three and finally settles on Jo, she nods and shrugs, a small smile tugging at her lips. "Would you go hug your brother, I don't think he's really feeling the love in this room yet," she lets go of Sam's arm and pushes him towards Dean gently.
"Come on, we should give them some time," she says to Bobby and the pair slip out the room as Sam and Dean hug.
Later, with a stomach full of pub food and Bobby's pleads to please phone her mother echoing in her head she lays on the top of a picnic table near her and Sam's room, knees bent and feet pressed flat onto the table top, staring up at the night sky. She's happy for Sam, happy for Dean and the weight of Sam's pain that had settled on her over the past year like it was her own was lifted simply because Dean was there but she can't help the new fears from sneaking up on her. The worry that things would be like they were before, that she would simply be left behind and forgotten. And it isn't that she's expecting anything really but her friendship with Sam was such a part of her now it was almost a panic that set in at the thought of being out on her own again.
She lets her head fall to the side hearing footsteps come up to her, offering Dean a smile as he walks up and moves to sit at her feet on the table top.
"You and Sam okay?" She asks.
She sees the outline of his head nod from her spot lying on the table and lets her eyes focus back up at the night sky. She doesn't really know what to say, there's no handbook for this after all. No Dummies Guide to Talking to the Recently Released From Hell.
"Hey Jo," he starts looking over at her. "Sam told me about what you've done for him, about how you found him, and..." he pauses, struggling with how to do this, how to explain what it meant to him. "And thanks, for watching out for him, when I couldn't."
She swings her legs over and sits up next to him, resting her forearms on her legs and glances to Dean beside her. "Look... I'm sorry for what I said before, it wasn't fair, Sam wouldn't even be here if it weren’t' for you." She wants desperately to ask what they're going to do now, wants to know if she even still fits in but she can't find the words for it and she knows it has more than a little to do with the fear of hearing she wasn't needed anymore.
"No, it was fair," he starts, "I was so concerned with how much I couldn't handle losing him I forget that it would be hard for him to lose me," he shrugs and looks over at her. "But I mean it, Jo. It really means a lot to me, what you did for Sam. Even Bobby couldn't really get through to him."
She shrugs a little, suddenly feeling something heavy fill the space between them, the feeling that things were different now, that everything had changed. And it was hard for her to tell if it was good or bad and even harder when he kept looking at her like that and making her mind a mess of incoherent thoughts. "That's because I'm more stubborn than Bobby," she tries to joke and grins at him.
He watches her and can't help but grin at hers, shifting in a little to fill the gap between them. He has Sam's words racing in his head, the stories of her and the life they had led while he had been gone. He realizes with sudden ferocity that he doesn't want her to leave, that he wants the time that Sam had. He realizes that there had always been something missing and it's a scary thought for him but he realizes that maybe it had been her. He grins again and tucks a stray piece of hair behind her ear and out of her face. "Stubborn is good," he points out and stands, holding a hand out to her. "Come on, we should get back in, Sam thinks he found something that might be able to explain my get of hell free card that he wants you to look at."
Her breath catches as his fingers graze her face, tucking that hair behind her ear and her skin burns where his hand left the trail and it does nothing to help that incoherent mess her mind had become. She barely catches his words but gets the meaning of them. She's staying, she's not an extra bit that isn't wanted anymore, she's part of this and he wants that. She takes his hand and lets him pull her off the table top and to her feet but neither move to let go as they walk back towards the room.
"There's just one thing that's bugging me..." he says and stops just before they reach the room.
"Oh yeah, what's that?" She asks, an eyebrow rising slightly.
"If You Want Blood? Really? Because Highway is the definitive AC/DC song, I thought you knew better than that...” he grins.
She smacks his arm lightly and rolls her eyes. "Shut it, Winchester..." she starts but is cut off as he tugs her closer to him and he presses his lips to hers. She kisses him back, arms wrapping around his back and a shiver runs down her spine as his hands move into her hair, deepening the kiss. And she thinks it a sappy thing to think but at that moment it feels like everything falls into place and the world is exactly how it's supposed to be and they've all come home to where they belong.
"What was that for?" she asks with a bit of a grin, slightly breathless, when he pulls away, his hands still tangled in her hair.
He shrugs a little and grins at her. "I feel better now," he mimics her response from earlier and drops his hands to open the door to the room for them. "You coming or not?" He calls back at her with a joking tone as she just stands there staring at him.
She nods. "Yeah..."
They walk into the room and Sam glances up from the laptop at the pair. Jo moves and sits beside him and he loops an arm around her and looks between her and Dean and the stupid silly little grins on their faces. He laughs and shakes his head letting go of Jo and going back to the laptop. "So, Bobby said he knows a psychic who might have some answers but I was going through some stuff here and I think I found...."