A Little Help From A Friend- xover Joan of Arcadia, Supernatural, Criminal Minds - Part 07
Title: A Little Help From A Friend
Rating: R/FRA
Summary: Everyone needs a little help from time to time. In this case the Winchester boys find help in their search for God the Winchesters find him in the most unusually normal place, Arcadia Maryland.
Crossover: Supernatural, Joan of Arcadia, Criminal Minds
Disclaimer: Criminal Minds belongs to Jeff Davis and The Mark Gordon Company. Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke and Wonderland Sound and Vision. Joan of Arcadia belongs to Barbara Hall. This is a work of fiction, done for fun, no money gained.
Word Count: 18,860
Spoilers: Both seasons of Joan of Arcadia. Up to the end of season 4 of Criminal Minds. All of Supernatural just to be safe.
Authors Notes: AU from Common Thread (2x21) with some information from Something Wicked This Way Comes (2x22) of Joan of Arcadia. Ryan Hunter still makes his appearance and still saves Adam but I’m regressing his age a bit so he’s closer in age everyone else making him 24 instead of however old he was in the show. AU from To Hell…And Back (4x25/26) for Criminal Minds, if you know what happens in the end of 26 basically for this story that never happen. AU from Lucifer Rising (4x22) for Supernatural but with Dark Side of the Moon (5x16) being thrown in because it works for this fic. These are in all honestly mostly arbitrary decisions on my part so don’t look to closely into them.
A side note any facts Reid sprouts are probably horribly incorrect as I made them up for the point of this story so don’t take any of them as value.
A special thanks to ficfinishing for prompting me through this because without them I totally would have dropped out. To Rebecca who doesn’t watch any of these shows but still beta’d for me anyway.
"Joan, Joan Girardi," a voice called after her as she left the school.
Turning around clutching her bag to her chest she found Agents Reid and Morgan jogging to catch up with her.
"Yes?" She asked looking at them confused.
"We need to talk to you, we have a few more questions to ask you about the Winchester brother and their accomplice Jimmy Novak," Morgan said.
"Look I don't have anything else to tell you guys, I only talk to them once and it wasn't even for that long," Joan said turning around to start walking away.
"Miss Girardi, we know that isn't true, we know you saw them again in a diner a little ways out of town," Reid said falling in step behind her.
"What are you guys following me now? I have rights you know," Joan snapped glaring at them.
"We need to know why you lied to us Joan, the Winchester no matter what they told you they're bad news, people die when they're around and we don't want you to be their next victim," Morgan said placing his hand on her shoulder to keep her from walking away.
Joan glared at him shrugging his hand off. Looking over his shoulder she spotted a familiar little girl with a ball watching them. As the girl smiled at Joan and began walking over Joan frowned and shook her head minutely trying to tell the girl no. Following Joan's line of sight to the little girl Reid frowned confused.
"Hello Joan."
"Look now's not the best time to talk can this wait?" Joan said trying to convey with her body for the little girl to go away.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Spencer Reid, who are you?" Reid asked looking down at the little girl.
"I know exactly who you are Doctor Reid," the girl said smiling at Reid and Morgan in turn before looking directly at Joan.
"Really isn't a good time," Joan mumbled looking between the two agents then at the girl.
"Now Joan," the little girl raised her eyebrows at Joan giving her a slightly chastising look, "Now is more than a good time to have this conversation."
Morgan took a surprised step back at both the girls words and tone, though girl looked like a small child the words coming out of her mouth were not that of a child's. The tone was not of simply a precocious child or even a genius child but rather an adult and an adult who'd seen and knew a great deal of things.
"Who are you?" Morgan asked moving his hand minutely towards his gun though he knew there was no way he would pull his gun on a child no matter how strange or creepy the child was.
"God," the little girl said smiling at them.
Reid and Morgan shared looked as Joan groaned. Joan glared at the little girl who smiled sunnily at her.
"Trust me Joan," the little girl said to Joan.
"Trust you, trust you," Joan mumbled, "Sure what the heck whats the worst they'll do lock me the funny farm forever."
"You'll have to excuse Joan, she's had some bad experiences with this sort of thing," the little girl said.
"God? Supreme Being? All knowing and all seeing higher power God?" Reid said sounding skeptical.
"That would be me," she said with a smile.
"I don't believe you," Reid said.
"I'm not surprised Dr. Reid
"Spencer," Reid said automatically.
The little girl smiled, "Spencer."
"Prove it," Morgan said looking at the girl skeptically.
The little girl smiled and waved her hand towards where she came from, "Look."
Following the girls line of sight they saw a tree, old and large planted across from them.
"It's a tree," Morgan said.
"Yes, yes it is," the girl smiled again.
Morgan and Reid both looked confused and Joan sighed, "Yeah kinda hard to get straight answers from this one."
The two agents turned to Joan unsure of what to say. Morgan looked at Reid mentally asking Reid what they should do.
"The belief that one is speaking to God isn't an uncommon delusion," Reid murmured to Morgan, "And given the Winchesters religious fanaticism this does explain a lot."
Joan however heard him and glared, "I'm not crazy."
Reid blushed embarrassed that she'd heard him.
"Joan, tell them," the girl commanded.
"Tell them what?" Joan asked confused.
"Everything,"
"Because that went over so well last time," Joan snapped glaring.
"Trust me," the girl repeated, taking Joan's hand in her smaller ones.
Joan looked down at their clasped hands then back up to the little girls face before turning to face Morgan and Reid.
"I guess we should sit down for this," Joan said looking around for a bench.
Spotting one not to far off she made her way over to it still holding Gods hand.
"You know how my brother is paralyzed right?" she asked, seeing them nod she continued, "When it happened I prayed and prayed to God promising to do whatever he wanted so long as my brother lived, so God saved my brother and in return he asked me to do," Joan trailed off, "Things."
"What kind of things?" Ried asked still skeptical especially after his encounter with Tobias and ‘Raphael’.
"Join the chess team, take AP Chem, work at a book store, babysit this kid, random things," Joan said, "But I don't know, its hard to explain," Joan shrugged looking at the little girl sitting next to her.
"So what? Gods been talking to you for the last two years?" Morgan asked.
"Yeah that's about right," Joan said nodding.
"And how exactly are the Winchester brothers involved in this?" Morgan prompted.
"I honest don't really know exactly they just kinda found me," Joan replied with a shrug.
They shifted to look at the little girl God was masquerading as. Feeling their eye on her she looked up at them and smiled pushing her glasses up on her nose.
"I do hate doing this but," the little girl said before hopping off the bench and walking to a nearby bush. The little girl plucked a flower from the bush before coming back over.
"Now watch, I'm only doing this once," she said holding the flower before tossing it gently in the air. Reid, Morgan and Joan all watched the flower as it began to flutter down before stopping just level to Morgan's chest. The three of them gasp in shock looking from the flower to the little girl before them.
"Normally I wouldn't do this kind of thing, its very showy offy," the little girl said, "Beside it ruins the point."
"The point?" Joan asked.
"I unlike Tinkerbell don't stop existing because people stop believing but if I proved I existed every time someone demanded it of me it would ruin," little girl God paused to think, "It would ruin the faith people had in me."
"Hey, why didn't you do that for me?" Joan asked touching the still floating flower which fell into her hand the second she touched it.
"You, Joan unlike these two don't deal in absolute facts," God said, "You simple believe."
"Why are you telling us this?" Reid asked finally overcoming his shock.
"Because there are things going on, things happening that Joan can't handle," God replied.
"Like what?" Morgan asked.
"The apocalyptic," both God and Joan replied at the same time.
"Apocalypse?" Reid repeated.
"My son," God started, "My son wasn't happy about something I asked him to do, nor was he to pleased with human kind, he wanted to change what he thought were flaws in humans, I said no."
"Son?" Morgan asked confused having not gone to church often as a child.
"Lucifer," God said shortly.
Reid nodded as if he understood, "What did he see as flaws?"
"Dean and Sam said he thinks that human kind is ruining the Earth and that we don't deserve it," Joan said.
"He sounds like angry superpower eco terrorist," Morgan said.
"That about sums it up." God said nodding.
"What do you expect us to do?" Morgan asked.
God smiled at Morgan as if she knew something he didn't which was true given her state as God, "When the time comes you'll know what you have to do, just have a little faith."
"Why don't you just stop him?" Reid asked.
"Free will, there are rules even I have to follow them."
"Rules? There's someone out there to enforce them?" Joan asked surprised to hear this though it wasn't the first time God mentioned something like this.
"Sort of," little girl God shrugged tilting her head as if she were listening for something that they couldn't hear, "You should get home Joan."
Joan looked confused by God comment before looking down at her watch and nodding at the time.
"My dad's probably going to flip, I'm still grounded," she groaned.
"We'll walk you home Joan," Reid offered.
Joan looked at Reid for a moment before shaking her, "No, I'll be fine."
"Besides Reid we need to go talk to Hotchner, if what you're saying is true that we've got bigger issues that the Winchester brothers," Morgan pointed out.
"Are you sure?"Reid asked Joan who nodded.
"Whatever Dean and Sam have done its been for a greater good," Joan said.
Morgan and Reid nodded turning to head back to where they'd parked their car but not before giving Joan both their business cards with instructions to contact them when everything went down. Joan turned to where God had been sitting ask her a question only to find the spot empty save for the ball God had had with her.
"I hate it when he does that," Joan muttered.
~*~*~*~
"Did you talk to Joan again?" Hotchner asked Morgan and Reid when the walked into the conference room where everyone was waiting.
Morgan and Reid shared a quick look before taking their respective seats.
"We did," Reid replied.
"And?" Rossi prompted.
"Nothing," Morgan said sounding frustrated, "Whatever reasons she's hiding from her parents she's no keener to share with us."
"Damn," Prentiss cursed.
"Though I do think I know why," Reid said.
Morgan looked at Reid confused at what he was about to say. Reid smiled at Morgan mentally asking him to trust him.
"Well?" Prentiss asked.
"Her parents sent her to a rehabilitation center for a summer," Reid started, "Whatever reason she's not telling us about the Winchesters its because she's afraid they'll send her back."
"Dave?" Hotchner said.
"Joan was diagnosed with Lime diseases after an incident at school and a confession that she apparently thought she spoke to God," Rossi said.
"The Winchesters are know to be religious fanatics," Prentiss said, "Whatever they've been talking about must be related."
Rossi however shook his head, "Joan doesn't even go to church, Will mentioned in passing the only person in the family that's religious is Helen."
"Damn," Prentiss cursed again.
"Did you find anything else from Chief Girardi?" Hotchner asked.
"Not much," Rossi said, "She's pretty much a good kid if you ignore the snit in the funny farm, there was an incident her sophomore year where she destroyed a friends art work in an attempt to keep him from dropping out of school to be an artist, a friend that she made when she was at Gentle Acres committed suicide which depressed her for a while and a few days ago her ex-boyfriend got lost during a pretty bad storm but was found by the towns newest resident and local billionaire whom Joan seemed to have befriended."
"I stopped by the motel the Winchester had been staying at earlier this afternoon," JJ said when no one said anything after Rossi finished, "And not to be the bearer of more bad news but I talked to the day clerk and he told me that the Winchester's packed up and left earlier this morning."
"What?" Hotchner asked, "Why didn't you tell us earlier?"
"I wanted to wait for what Reid and Morgan had for us," she explained, "Maybe Joan knew where they'd gone."
"She didn't indicate that she knew anything more than they were in town for something," Reid said.
"Do we have any other leads?" Hotchner asked rubbing his eyes tiredly.
The teams silence spoke volumes.
"What should we do now?" JJ asked.
"Nothing," Hotchner said with a sigh, "We came to find out what the Winchester were doing in town and to prevent any murders from happening while they were here, nothing happened on either front."
"So what we pack up and leave?" Rossi asked.
"No, not yet," Hotchner said looking up at the mostly empty pin board, "We'll wait a few more days, see if anything else turns up or if they really did leave town, if nothing happens then yes we pack up and head back to DC."
"I don't like this Aaron," Rossi said.
Hotchner shook his head, "There have been times that the Winchester have been spotted and nothing come of it."
Rossi just shook his head before standing up and leaving the conference room, "I'm going to go tell Will we're leaving then."
~*~*~*~
After the two agents left Joan sat on a bench in the park thinking not only about having told Reid and Morgan but also their reactions and the fact hat unlike the last time she'd told someone she spoke to God, this time God had come to back up her claim. Sighing to herself she wondered why he hadn't done the same when she confessed to her parents. Shaking her head deciding not to put too much thought into it.
"You don't look anything like I thought you'd look, Joan," a voice said from behind her.
Joan jumped in surprise whipping around to find herself face to face with a creepy looking man. He looked in his late twenties early thirties with a scruffy beard and face that would have been attractive in a Jacob from Lost kind of way if not for the puss and burn like splotches of skin that decorated his face. Joan flinched back from him in surprise as he was leaning close enough to her that they were just about sharing the same breathing space. Before she could ask who he was or how he knew her name he grabbed her arm and yanked her up off the bench.
"I think its time you and I had a little heart to heart," He said pulling her around the bench.
"Who are you," Joan cried out trying to pull her arm away but failing.
"Oh what, he doesn't talk to you about his 'favorite son'," the man sneered at her.
"What, who?" Joan asked confused digging her heels in to slow them down.
The man laughed slightly at Joan's struggling, "Who is exactly what we're going to talk about little girl."
Joan again yanked her arm away from him this time succeeding in getting away but at the cost of ripping the long sleeve of her shirt. When he reached for her bare skin however his hand burned causing him to yank it back.
"What the?" he said confused jerking his smoldering hand back from Joan.
Joan used that time to scramble farther away from the creepy man tripping over her bag in her haste. Even as she cried out as she scraped her hand Joan still stumbled to her feet trying to get away. However she didn't get very far before the man was back grabbing at her sleeve covered hand.
"Let me go," Joan yelled twisting to kick the man but missing.
"Now, now Joan don't be like this," he said jerking her back to him.
Frustrated Joan slammed her head back hoping to hit his nose but failing though it did startle him enough to let her go and for her to stumble away from him.
"Joan," Dean called running down the path with Sam behind him.
Seeing the man behind her he flinched raising the gun in his hand and pointing it.
"Joan, come over here," Dean commanded stopping a few feet away from Joan and the man.
"No, I don't think so," the man said once again appearing at Joan's side but this time Joan was ready grabbing at his face with her open palm causing him to yell as he seemed to burn at her touch.
This time instead of letting her go however he pulled her closer and twisted her arm at a painful angle causing Joan to let go of his face to grab her arm in an attempt to stop him from breaking it.
"How did you find her Lucifer," Sam
Lucifer grinned, "Lets just say I know people."
Lucifer tentatively touched the burns on his face, "That's some trick you have girly," he said looking down at Joan.
Joan didn't reply looking at Dean and Sam begging them to save her.
"I'm going to enjoy this," Lucifer said as his free hand wrapped around her throat choking her ignoring the burns his hand was suffering.
"Now son, you know that there are rules against this."
Lucifer turned around pulling Joan around with him releasing her throat, "You," he hissed glaring.
"Now, let Joan go," standing down the path was a younger looking man dressed in simple jeans and sneakers rocking back and forth on his heels.
"No," Lucifer said tighten his grip on Joan's arm causing her to cry out in pain.
"This isn't your usual style, picking on little girls," God said walking closer.
"And what would you know about my usual style," Lucifer said sneering out the last word.
"Just because I sent you away doesn't mean I wasn't still keeping an eye on you," God replied, “Now its time for you to go.”
Huffing in annoyance Lucifer pushed Joan away from him causing her to fall to the ground, "This isn't over."
"Of course it isn't," God said smiling still even as Lucifer disappeared.
"Are you okay Joan?" Sam asked helping her to her feet.
Coughing slightly Joan said, "Yeah, I'm fine."
"I'm sorry about that Joan," God said as he came over to the three of them.
"What was that?" Joan asked still coughing.
"My irate son," God said with a sigh.
"No," Joan said shaking her head, "The burning thing."
God actually flushed in embarrassment, "You're more important than you think Joan and there are people out there who want you to stay alive and they may have pulled some strings for you."
"Pulled some strings?" Joan asked, "I burned my hand into the Devils face."
"Consider it protection," God said looking off into the distance, "I have to go, the BAU team is heading this way, I'd advise you two to high tail it as well," God said nodding to the still hovering Dean and Sam.
"Can the people who 'pulled some strings' for Joan pull the same for us?" Dean asked God.
God shook his head, "It was a one shot deal I'm afraid."
"We need all the help we can get," Sam said, "Why aren't you helping."
God shook his head, "I am helping, even if you can't see it."
Dean started to say something else but stopped when he heard the sound of several feet heading their way. Looking back to where God was they found him gone having disappeared.
"Go," Joan said as she started coughing again.
Sam and Dean looked between Joan and the direction the people where coming from.
"Go," she hissed again as she heard Agent Rossi calling her name.
"We'll find you later, okay," Sam said as Joan nodded.
They gave her one last look before taking off in the opposite direction. Joan sat on the foot path coughing still being choked.