Fic: The Unrecognised Hero 2/2
The Unrecognised Hero, Part Two
Back to Part One
***
Nine years later
“Hannah, sweetie, stay where I can see you, okay?” Jenny called out to her four-year-old daughter, who was running excitedly across the small park towards her best friend, Daisy, long, blonde hair flowing in the breeze as she ran.
“She’s growing up so fast, isn’t she?” commented Cathy from her seat beside her on the wooden park bench. “Seems like just yesterday she was a baby.”
“I know.”
Jenny shook her head with a smile as she watched Hannah having fun on the slide. Some days she couldn’t believe it herself. So much had happened in the last few years; meeting Ben, moving with him to Illinois, then getting married and having Hannah. It had been a whirlwind, and even now, four years later, life had yet to slow down. After leaving Virginia back in 2000, she had gotten a job teaching high school physics here in Bloomington, but since Hannah had come along, she’d been a stay-at-home mom, Ben supporting the three of them with his job at the bank.
She had a new life here in Illinois, what with Ben and Hannah taking up most of her time, but she was still in contact with a couple of her friends from Charlottesville, and Cathy would come out to visit for the weekend now and then. This visit however was just a fleeting one, as Cathy was on her way to a wedding a couple of hours away in Effingham and had just stopped by for a short time on her way down there. They’d had brunch in the café across the street earlier, and then decided to enjoy her friend’s last couple of hours in town by soaking up the early afternoon sunshine in the local park.
Jenny watched Hannah for a moment longer, before turning back to Cathy. “So, how’s life back at Middleton High?”
“Oh, you know, same old, same old.” Cathy shrugged. “Nothing much happening in my area of the world, as usual. Not like here in the Midwest, it seems.”
“What do you mean?”
Cathy perked up, turning to face her more fully. Jenny knew the expression on her friend’s face. It was her ‘I have gossip and I have to tell you right now’ expression.
“You didn’t hear about that murder spree down in St. Louis the other week?”
Jenny frowned, shaking her head. “No, I don’t think so.”
Cathy looked surprised. “Seriously? It’s been all over the news.”
Jenny shrugged unapologetically. “Cath, I spend all my days with a four-year-old, remember? All I ever do is watch kids TV and read kid’s books. I can’t even remember the last time I actually sat down to read a newspaper or watch the news.”
“Wow, so you’re seriously out of the loop then?” Cathy leaned forward conspiratorially. “So, there were these freaky murders in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago. Two women were tied up and beaten to death in their own homes. They arrested the husbands; apparently there was all this evidence that it was them.”
“Oh my God.” Jenny’s eyes widened in shock. What kind of people could do something like that to their own family?
“Yeah, I know. But then there were all these weird similarities in the cases, things that couldn’t have just been coincidence, and so when a third woman, who wasn’t even in a relationship, survived and gave her statement, they discovered it was just one guy, a serial killer, who was going after all of the women.”
“Wow, that’s messed up.” Jenny shuddered at the thought.
“That’s not even the worst part,” said Cathy. “You remember that kid and his brother who went to Middleton for a while, just before you met Ben? They just disappeared one day and never showed up again. Dean Winchester, his name was?”
The words sent a rush of surprise through Jenny. Wow. Dean Winchester. She hadn’t heard that name in years. Memories of another time flooded her mind; memories of ghosts and woods and two teenage boys, older than their years, who hunted monsters and saved lives.
“Dean Winchester?” she echoed faintly. “Yeah, I… I think that name rings a bell.”
“Well, if you didn’t remember before, you definitely will now.” Cathy gave her a pointed look. “They say he was the guy who did it, he was the one who killed those women.”
“What?” Jenny straightened, her mouth falling open in shock. No way. “No, that can’t be right.”
Cathy shook her head. “Totally true. They found his body at the third woman’s house. Positive ID and everything.”
His body? Dean was dead? Jenny shook her head. She refused to believe that.
The whole story just didn’t seem to ring true to her. Something wasn’t quite right. There was no way that the boy who had saved her life from an angry, wife-murdering ghost all those years ago, the boy who had thought his father a hero for saving people, who had felt it was his job to keep his brother safe, would ever deliberately murder innocent an woman.
She hadn’t seen or heard from Dean or Sam since they’d left Charlottesville nine years ago, but she had occasionally thought of them over the years, usually whenever she’d heard of a so-called ‘haunted house’ story or news reports of strange creature sightings, and she’d always hoped they were still out there, hunting monsters and doing good in the world.
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell Cathy that Dean Winchester couldn’t be who she thought he was, to reason that he couldn’t possibly have been responsible for those murders, but she couldn’t… she had never told anyone about what had happened that day in the woods, never even hinted that she knew anything more about the Winchester boys than any of the other teachers at the school.
“Seriously?” she said instead, letting her gaze slip back to where Hannah was laughing with her friend as they played in the sandpit. “Wow. Guess you never really know a person, do you?”
“Guess not,” replied Cathy as she looked at her watch. “Look, sorry, hon, I really gotta get going. I have to be at the hotel by six.” She leaned over to give Jenny a quick hug, before standing up and shifting her handbag onto her shoulder. “It was lovely to see you and Hannah again though.”
“You too.”
Jenny called Hannah over to say goodbye to Cathy and they walked her to her car, waving her off with promises to see each other again soon.
“Okay, Hannie,” Jenny said to her daughter as she took her hand. “It’s time to go home now.”
“No, I wanna play some more.” Hannah looked up at her, bright blue eyes wide and lower lip pushed out in a pout. “Please?”
Jenny shook her head. “Sorry, honey, we need to get home so I can finish making dinner.” She crouched down in front of Hannah, still holding her hand. “Look, how about we get some ice cream on the way home? Would you like that?”
Hannah’s expression lit up excitedly. “Yes, please.”
“Okay, then. Ice cream it is.” Jenny chuckled at her daughter’s response. Ice cream was always a winner.
They walked the two blocks to the ice cream shop, Hannah chattering excitedly the whole way about playing in the sandpit with Daisy. Jenny ordered two cones, handing the strawberry one to Hannah, and leaving her Rocky Road in the holder on the counter so she could pay. As she was handing the money to the cashier, movement from the entrance caught her eye and she turned to see Hannah heading towards the door.
“Hannah, wait for Mommy, please,” she called. “Don’t go outside, okay?”
It was too late. Hannah had ducked underneath the arm of a lady who was holding the door open, chatting on her cell phone, and was walking out into the street. The scene unfolded almost in slow motion, and before she had even had time to run out of the shop to grab her, Hannah had collided with a tall man walking down the street. Jenny’s eyes widened as she watched her daughter’s precious ice cream scoop topple over and land right down the poor man’s jeans. She sighed when she saw his expression turn into one of annoyance, as he held his hands out to the side and looked down at the mess, then rolled his eyes at his companion, an even taller man standing just behind him.
“Hannah!” she gasped quickly, making her way out of the ice cream parlour, her own ice cream forgotten.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” she apologised quickly as she reached her daughter, who looked to be on the verge of tears at the loss of her precious cone. She dug into her pocket for a tissue, and handed it to the man. “Here, use this. Hannah, what do you say?”
“Sorry,” whimpered Hannah softly, tears welling up in her eyes. “Didn’t mean to.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” The ice-cream-splattered man smiled then, relaxing a little as he took the tissue from Jenny and began swiping at the rapidly melting mess on his jeans. “It’s only a little ice cream.”
Jenny was a little surprised at the warmth in his tone. From his earlier expression, she had expected him to be more pissed off than this. He crouched down in front of Hannah, so he was almost eye-level with her.
“Hey, it’s Hannah, right?” She nodded sadly, looking up at him. “Well, Hannah, I’m real sorry about your ice cream. I didn’t mean to walk right into it. I can be a real klutz sometimes, just ask my brother.”
He glanced up toward his companion and Jenny saw the other man’s lips twitch in amusement. She found herself hiding a smile at the interaction as well.
“Here, let me make it up to you, okay? I’m gonna go get you another ice cream,” he told her. Hannah’s eyes lit up in pleasure. “It was strawberry, right?”
At her nod, the man stood up and turned towards the store. Jenny reached out a hand to stop him, her fingers landing on the soft, worn leather of his jacket.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“No, it’s okay. I want to.” He flashed her a winning smile, before turning to Hannah. “One strawberry ice cream coming right up.”
He wadded up the tissue in his hand, tossing into a nearby trashcan, before disappearing into the ice cream parlour, leaving Jenny standing on the sidewalk with his friend… his brother, it seemed.
“Mommy?”
Hannah tugged on her hand, looking up at her with wide eyes, tears still shining in them. Jenny hoisted her daughter up into her arms.
“You okay, sweetie?” she asked. Hannah nodded, burying her head in her shoulder. “The nice man is going to get you a new ice cream.”
“I’m really sorry about this,” apologised the other man, still standing in front of her, his hands shoved in his jeans pockets.
“It’s not your fault.” Jenny shook her head. “She shouldn’t have gone out into her street on her own… should you, honey?” Hannah shook her head against her shoulder.
As they waited for the replacement ice cream, Jenny took a moment to observe his friend standing before her. He wasn’t so much a man as a boy, she noted. Despite his gangly height, his appearance was youthful, shaggy brown hair falling over his forehead, his attire baggy jeans and a hoodie. He looked more like a college kid rather than a fully matured adult.
“Okay, here you go.” The other man appeared beside them, holding two cones. He handed the fresh strawberry one to Hannah, who took it eagerly and then shrugged at the one in his other hand. It was her abandoned Rocky Road cone. “The, uh, cashier said you left this one.”
“Thanks,” smiled Jenny, letting her daughter down so she could take the ice cream from him. “I’m sorry, again.”
He just held up a hand in dismissal. “Really, there’s no need. It’s forgotten.”
He crouched down in front of Hannah again, his expression soft. “But you gotta listen to your mommy, okay? She gets scared if you run off like that.”
“Okay.” Hannah nodded solemnly.
“Okay then.” He smiled widely and ruffled her hair.
Jenny smiled at the interaction, warmth flooding through her at the interaction. For all the tough demeanour he seemed to be displaying, what with the leather jacket and workman’s boots, and the way he carried himself, he certainly seemed to have a way with kids. He stood up and turned to his friend.
“You ready to go, Sammy?”
The younger man shot her a quick smile as he shrugged. “Sure thing, Dean.”
As they walked past her, Jenny frowned in recognition. Sammy… Dean… it couldn’t be, could it? Everything suddenly clicked into place. The familiar leather jacket; the shaggy hair surrounding that youthful face. Of course it was them. And Dean was definitely alive and well, just as she had thought.
“Wait!” The two of them stopped, turned back towards her in unison. “Sammy… Dean…. Winchester?”
They both froze, eyes wide, mirroring startled expressions on their faces. Dean swallowed harshly, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he did so.
“What?” he said tightly, expression cautious.
“It is you, isn’t it?” Jenny took a step forward.
“I don’t know what you mean.” Sam feigned innocence.
“Jenny Morris.” She pointed to herself. “Well, I was Jenny Bradley back then. I was a teacher at Middleton High in Charlottesville, VA. You boys saved me from a ghost in the woods about nine years ago.”
They both frowned for a moment, before Dean’s expression cleared into one of realisation. “Wait… Miss Bradley?”
“Yep, that’s me. You can call me Jenny, though.”
“Wow.” He smacked Sam’s arm with the back of his hand. “You remember, Sam? That case we worked when Dad was on that job in Augusta?” He turned back to Jenny. “You were the physics teacher, right?” She nodded. “Wow, long time, no see.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “So how are you boys?”
She watched as they exchanged an uneasy glance, before Sam shrugged. “Yeah, we’re all right.”
“Look, I don’t live far from here. Why don’t you come in for a coffee and a slice of home-made chocolate cake?”
Sam’s expression was hesitant as he said, “Thanks for the offer, but I think we should-”
He was cut off by Dean’s elbow in his side, as he grinned at her boyishly. “What are you talking about, Sammy? We’d love to.”
***
As Sam and Dean settled down onto the comfy sofa in her living room, and Hannah settled herself on the floor of the den next door with a few of her toys, Jenny fixed some coffee and cut them each a slice of the cake she’d made that morning before Cathy arrived. She had been saving it for dinner tonight, in case her friend had decided to stay, but she might as well offer it to her unexpected guests instead.
“Okay, here you are,” she announced, entering the living room and placing mugs and plates down on the coffee table in front of the Winchesters.
“Thanks, Miss-uh, Jenny.” Dean grinned sheepishly as he caught himself and she smiled in response. She wasn’t Miss Bradley anymore; hadn’t been for a long time.
“Not at all.” She gestured to the plates. “Please, go ahead.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Sam rolled his eyes as Dean picked up his plate and eagerly dug in, before reaching for his own place and cut a small mouthful of the cake.
As they ate, Jenny observed the two young men before her. They’d certainly grown up in the last nine years, Sam especially, having gone from a scrawny 14-year-old, barely 5 feet tall, to the lofty, lean man in front of her. He would be 22 or 23 by now, she supposed, and he had to have grown to well over 6 feet, taller than Dean, even. Despite the overall bodily transformation he’d been through since then, she noticed that his facial features hadn’t changed all much after all. Even his hair was still styled similarly to when she’d last seen him. Dean on the other hand, now that she was looking at him properly, really hadn’t changed much at all; he’d just matured. His features were more defined now and his body had filled out; he’d grown into himself, she though, and he carried himself more confidently than he had before. She was surprised she hadn’t recognised him immediately outside the ice cream parlour earlier.
“So, Dean, I’m guessing the fact that you’re sitting here means you didn’t die in St. Louis recently?”
Jenny cringed as Dean froze, forkful of pie halfway to his mouth. The words had spilled from her lips without even thinking about them.
“Uh, you heard about that?” He lowered the fork and placed the plate back down on the table.
“Not really,” she shrugged. “I’ve been pretty busy with Hannah lately, no time to watch the news. But my friend, Cathy mentioned it earlier this afternoon.”
“What happened in St. Louis was a misunderstanding. That wasn’t me, it was a shapeshifter.” He looked up at her, apparently seeing the confusion on her face. “A shapeshifter is basically human, but it can change its shape to look like anyone. This one went after women, changing his form to look like their husbands and boyfriends so that they would take the fall for the murders, not him.”
“Wow, that’s just, uh…wow.” Jenny didn’t know what to say to that. Shapeshifters? That was a new one to her, although it meant that things were starting to fall into place a little more now. “So, this, um, shapeshifter… it changed itself to look like you? Set it up so that you would get caught?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Dunno. It knew we were on to it, I guess.” Dean shrugged. “And the third woman, Becky, she’s one of Sam’s friends from college.”
Jenny hid her surprise at hearing Sam had apparently gone to college. She had assumed, like Dean had said, that college wasn’t in the cards for either of them.
Dean continued, “Her brother was the first victim’s boyfriend. The shapeshifter impersonated him, but he was the one arrested. The shifter later changed and went after her while he looked like me. I killed him, but the body was left behind… which means the cops now think I did it.”
“Wow… that’s kind of...”
“Crazy? Yeah, we know,” said Sam, leaning forward and putting his plate down. “We’re having to lay low now, considering everyone thinks Dean’s a serial killer… not to mention that he’s supposedly dead too.”
“Geez…” Jenny whistled under her breath. “That’s really messed up.” She looked between them. “But, other than that, you boys are doing well? You’re still hunting with your dad?”
For the second time in the last few minutes, Jenny immediately regretted her words, their reactions pretty much saying it all. They both stiffened, looking uneasily at each other for a moment, before Dean spoke.
“Dad’s missing; has been for a couple of months now. We don’t know where he is or if he’s even…” he trailed off, looking down at his hands, before straightening his shoulders. “But we’ll find him. I know we will.”
“I’m sorry, Dean… Sam,” said Jenny sympathetically. “I’m sure he’s okay.”
“Yeah, we hope so,” added Sam, hands pressed together, forearms resting on his knees.
The Winchesters exchanged another glance, and Jenny got the feeling there was more to the story than that, but after her epic foot-in-mouth faux pas just now, she wasn’t going to push it.
“Mommy?” Hannah’s soft voice from the doorway caught her attention and she turned to see her daughter standing a couple of feet away, fingers curled around favourite teddy bear, Snuggles.
“What is it, sweetie?” she asked gently.
“Can we play a game?”
Jenny gave her an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, honey, maybe later, okay? We have guests right now.”
“You know what, Hannah? How about I play a game with you?” Dean piped up then, causing Jenny to turn to face him in surprise. “Would you like that?”
“Yeah!” Hannah’s mouth curved into a wide smile, as Sam and Jenny exchanged bemused looks. “Come on.”
Dean shot Sam a look that said ‘what?’ as he allowed Hannah to grab his hand and lead him over to the far corner of the room, where Jenny kept the board games. She and Sam watched for a moment as Hannah selected Snakes and Ladders and Dean helped her set it up and get the game started.
“He’s pretty good with kids, isn’t he?” said Jenny softly a moment later.
“Yeah.” Sam’s voice held a hint of wonder, as if this was a fairly new thing to him as well. “I guess so.”
“So, uh, you went to college then?” Jenny asked.
“Yeah, I did.”
“From what Dean said back then, I didn’t think it was something you would be able to do.”
“Yeah, well… not for him,” admitted Sam with a shrug. “He loves this life; always wanted to be a hunter. But me… I wanted to get out. So, I worked my butt off and got myself a full ride to Stanford.”
“Wow, Stanford? Good for you, Sam.”
“Yeah, well…” He looked down at his hands uncomfortably. “It was good until recently. I was getting good grades, applying to law school, making a new life for myself, but then… well, Dad disappeared, and then my girlfriend died right after that…”
“Oh my God, Sam. I’m so sorry.” Jenny felt a painful tug in her chest at his admission. “What happened to her? It wasn’t something… you know…was it?”
Her heart sank when he nodded. “Yeah, it was. We don’t know what did it… it was a fire… she burned on the ceiling.”
A fire on the ceiling? That sounded familiar. Her mind flashed back to what Dean had said the day after the ghost incident.
“A fire… like your mom?”
Sam’s head snapped up at that, gaze piercing. “How did you know about that?”
“Oh, um…” She shifted uncomfortably on her chair, then nodded toward Dean. “Dean told me. He came to see me the next day, after the ghost thing.”
“He did?” Sam looked over at his brother in surprise. “Wow, I didn’t know. He almost never talks about that stuff.”
“Really?” Jenny murmured softly, wondering why Dean had felt the need to tell her about it.
“We think maybe what killed Jessica was the same thing that killed Mom, and maybe Dad knows something about how to find it. We’ve been looking for him, but we don’t know where he is.”
Jenny nodded and was about to say something else, but it seemed Sam had decided the conversation was getting a bit too heavy for him, and he quickly turned the focus onto her, and what she’d been up to over the last few years. They chatted for a few minutes longer, while Dean finished up his game of Snakes and Ladders with Hannah. He helped her tidy everything away and then stood up.
“Hey, Sammy, we should get going.”
“Oh, of course.” Jenny stood up. “You probably have somewhere to be. Don’t let me keep you.”
“Thanks for the coffee, Jenny.” Sam smiled warmly.
“And the cake.” Dean grinned.
“My pleasure.” Jenny gave them a warm smile. She glanced down at the pinkish stain on Dean’s jeans. “And sorry again about the whole ice cream incident.”
“No big.” Dean shook his head. “I’ve had to deal with much worse than a bit of ice cream on my jeans before.” Jenny wasn’t even sure she wanted to know what that might have been. He looked down at Hannah, who was standing beside her now. “You have a great daughter, Jenny.”
“Thank you.” She smiled, running her hand over her daughter’s hair.
Dean bent down to Hannah’s height. “You take care of your mom, now.”
Hannah nodded, burying her face against Jenny’s leg.
“You boys take care of yourselves too,” Jenny said as she walked them to the door. “I hope you find your Dad.”
“Us too.” Sam nodded.
They said goodbye and as she watched them walk away, heading back to where they had parked their car, she found herself smiling. Despite what she imagined most people thought of them, they were good boys; good men, she corrected. The moment Cathy had said Dean’s name earlier, she had known in her gut that what she was saying couldn’t have been true, and the last couple of hours with them had only confirmed those suspicions.
She hoped that they would be able to continue helping people and doing good in this world for a long time to come, even if their actions largely went unnoticed and unrecognised by the world. It sounded like they had been through so much in their lives already and they deserved to find their father and to catch whatever it was that had killed their mom and Sam’s girlfriend. They deserved to be happy.
End
Back to Part One
Back to Part One
***
Nine years later
“Hannah, sweetie, stay where I can see you, okay?” Jenny called out to her four-year-old daughter, who was running excitedly across the small park towards her best friend, Daisy, long, blonde hair flowing in the breeze as she ran.
“She’s growing up so fast, isn’t she?” commented Cathy from her seat beside her on the wooden park bench. “Seems like just yesterday she was a baby.”
“I know.”
Jenny shook her head with a smile as she watched Hannah having fun on the slide. Some days she couldn’t believe it herself. So much had happened in the last few years; meeting Ben, moving with him to Illinois, then getting married and having Hannah. It had been a whirlwind, and even now, four years later, life had yet to slow down. After leaving Virginia back in 2000, she had gotten a job teaching high school physics here in Bloomington, but since Hannah had come along, she’d been a stay-at-home mom, Ben supporting the three of them with his job at the bank.
She had a new life here in Illinois, what with Ben and Hannah taking up most of her time, but she was still in contact with a couple of her friends from Charlottesville, and Cathy would come out to visit for the weekend now and then. This visit however was just a fleeting one, as Cathy was on her way to a wedding a couple of hours away in Effingham and had just stopped by for a short time on her way down there. They’d had brunch in the café across the street earlier, and then decided to enjoy her friend’s last couple of hours in town by soaking up the early afternoon sunshine in the local park.
Jenny watched Hannah for a moment longer, before turning back to Cathy. “So, how’s life back at Middleton High?”
“Oh, you know, same old, same old.” Cathy shrugged. “Nothing much happening in my area of the world, as usual. Not like here in the Midwest, it seems.”
“What do you mean?”
Cathy perked up, turning to face her more fully. Jenny knew the expression on her friend’s face. It was her ‘I have gossip and I have to tell you right now’ expression.
“You didn’t hear about that murder spree down in St. Louis the other week?”
Jenny frowned, shaking her head. “No, I don’t think so.”
Cathy looked surprised. “Seriously? It’s been all over the news.”
Jenny shrugged unapologetically. “Cath, I spend all my days with a four-year-old, remember? All I ever do is watch kids TV and read kid’s books. I can’t even remember the last time I actually sat down to read a newspaper or watch the news.”
“Wow, so you’re seriously out of the loop then?” Cathy leaned forward conspiratorially. “So, there were these freaky murders in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago. Two women were tied up and beaten to death in their own homes. They arrested the husbands; apparently there was all this evidence that it was them.”
“Oh my God.” Jenny’s eyes widened in shock. What kind of people could do something like that to their own family?
“Yeah, I know. But then there were all these weird similarities in the cases, things that couldn’t have just been coincidence, and so when a third woman, who wasn’t even in a relationship, survived and gave her statement, they discovered it was just one guy, a serial killer, who was going after all of the women.”
“Wow, that’s messed up.” Jenny shuddered at the thought.
“That’s not even the worst part,” said Cathy. “You remember that kid and his brother who went to Middleton for a while, just before you met Ben? They just disappeared one day and never showed up again. Dean Winchester, his name was?”
The words sent a rush of surprise through Jenny. Wow. Dean Winchester. She hadn’t heard that name in years. Memories of another time flooded her mind; memories of ghosts and woods and two teenage boys, older than their years, who hunted monsters and saved lives.
“Dean Winchester?” she echoed faintly. “Yeah, I… I think that name rings a bell.”
“Well, if you didn’t remember before, you definitely will now.” Cathy gave her a pointed look. “They say he was the guy who did it, he was the one who killed those women.”
“What?” Jenny straightened, her mouth falling open in shock. No way. “No, that can’t be right.”
Cathy shook her head. “Totally true. They found his body at the third woman’s house. Positive ID and everything.”
His body? Dean was dead? Jenny shook her head. She refused to believe that.
The whole story just didn’t seem to ring true to her. Something wasn’t quite right. There was no way that the boy who had saved her life from an angry, wife-murdering ghost all those years ago, the boy who had thought his father a hero for saving people, who had felt it was his job to keep his brother safe, would ever deliberately murder innocent an woman.
She hadn’t seen or heard from Dean or Sam since they’d left Charlottesville nine years ago, but she had occasionally thought of them over the years, usually whenever she’d heard of a so-called ‘haunted house’ story or news reports of strange creature sightings, and she’d always hoped they were still out there, hunting monsters and doing good in the world.
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell Cathy that Dean Winchester couldn’t be who she thought he was, to reason that he couldn’t possibly have been responsible for those murders, but she couldn’t… she had never told anyone about what had happened that day in the woods, never even hinted that she knew anything more about the Winchester boys than any of the other teachers at the school.
“Seriously?” she said instead, letting her gaze slip back to where Hannah was laughing with her friend as they played in the sandpit. “Wow. Guess you never really know a person, do you?”
“Guess not,” replied Cathy as she looked at her watch. “Look, sorry, hon, I really gotta get going. I have to be at the hotel by six.” She leaned over to give Jenny a quick hug, before standing up and shifting her handbag onto her shoulder. “It was lovely to see you and Hannah again though.”
“You too.”
Jenny called Hannah over to say goodbye to Cathy and they walked her to her car, waving her off with promises to see each other again soon.
“Okay, Hannie,” Jenny said to her daughter as she took her hand. “It’s time to go home now.”
“No, I wanna play some more.” Hannah looked up at her, bright blue eyes wide and lower lip pushed out in a pout. “Please?”
Jenny shook her head. “Sorry, honey, we need to get home so I can finish making dinner.” She crouched down in front of Hannah, still holding her hand. “Look, how about we get some ice cream on the way home? Would you like that?”
Hannah’s expression lit up excitedly. “Yes, please.”
“Okay, then. Ice cream it is.” Jenny chuckled at her daughter’s response. Ice cream was always a winner.
They walked the two blocks to the ice cream shop, Hannah chattering excitedly the whole way about playing in the sandpit with Daisy. Jenny ordered two cones, handing the strawberry one to Hannah, and leaving her Rocky Road in the holder on the counter so she could pay. As she was handing the money to the cashier, movement from the entrance caught her eye and she turned to see Hannah heading towards the door.
“Hannah, wait for Mommy, please,” she called. “Don’t go outside, okay?”
It was too late. Hannah had ducked underneath the arm of a lady who was holding the door open, chatting on her cell phone, and was walking out into the street. The scene unfolded almost in slow motion, and before she had even had time to run out of the shop to grab her, Hannah had collided with a tall man walking down the street. Jenny’s eyes widened as she watched her daughter’s precious ice cream scoop topple over and land right down the poor man’s jeans. She sighed when she saw his expression turn into one of annoyance, as he held his hands out to the side and looked down at the mess, then rolled his eyes at his companion, an even taller man standing just behind him.
“Hannah!” she gasped quickly, making her way out of the ice cream parlour, her own ice cream forgotten.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” she apologised quickly as she reached her daughter, who looked to be on the verge of tears at the loss of her precious cone. She dug into her pocket for a tissue, and handed it to the man. “Here, use this. Hannah, what do you say?”
“Sorry,” whimpered Hannah softly, tears welling up in her eyes. “Didn’t mean to.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” The ice-cream-splattered man smiled then, relaxing a little as he took the tissue from Jenny and began swiping at the rapidly melting mess on his jeans. “It’s only a little ice cream.”
Jenny was a little surprised at the warmth in his tone. From his earlier expression, she had expected him to be more pissed off than this. He crouched down in front of Hannah, so he was almost eye-level with her.
“Hey, it’s Hannah, right?” She nodded sadly, looking up at him. “Well, Hannah, I’m real sorry about your ice cream. I didn’t mean to walk right into it. I can be a real klutz sometimes, just ask my brother.”
He glanced up toward his companion and Jenny saw the other man’s lips twitch in amusement. She found herself hiding a smile at the interaction as well.
“Here, let me make it up to you, okay? I’m gonna go get you another ice cream,” he told her. Hannah’s eyes lit up in pleasure. “It was strawberry, right?”
At her nod, the man stood up and turned towards the store. Jenny reached out a hand to stop him, her fingers landing on the soft, worn leather of his jacket.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“No, it’s okay. I want to.” He flashed her a winning smile, before turning to Hannah. “One strawberry ice cream coming right up.”
He wadded up the tissue in his hand, tossing into a nearby trashcan, before disappearing into the ice cream parlour, leaving Jenny standing on the sidewalk with his friend… his brother, it seemed.
“Mommy?”
Hannah tugged on her hand, looking up at her with wide eyes, tears still shining in them. Jenny hoisted her daughter up into her arms.
“You okay, sweetie?” she asked. Hannah nodded, burying her head in her shoulder. “The nice man is going to get you a new ice cream.”
“I’m really sorry about this,” apologised the other man, still standing in front of her, his hands shoved in his jeans pockets.
“It’s not your fault.” Jenny shook her head. “She shouldn’t have gone out into her street on her own… should you, honey?” Hannah shook her head against her shoulder.
As they waited for the replacement ice cream, Jenny took a moment to observe his friend standing before her. He wasn’t so much a man as a boy, she noted. Despite his gangly height, his appearance was youthful, shaggy brown hair falling over his forehead, his attire baggy jeans and a hoodie. He looked more like a college kid rather than a fully matured adult.
“Okay, here you go.” The other man appeared beside them, holding two cones. He handed the fresh strawberry one to Hannah, who took it eagerly and then shrugged at the one in his other hand. It was her abandoned Rocky Road cone. “The, uh, cashier said you left this one.”
“Thanks,” smiled Jenny, letting her daughter down so she could take the ice cream from him. “I’m sorry, again.”
He just held up a hand in dismissal. “Really, there’s no need. It’s forgotten.”
He crouched down in front of Hannah again, his expression soft. “But you gotta listen to your mommy, okay? She gets scared if you run off like that.”
“Okay.” Hannah nodded solemnly.
“Okay then.” He smiled widely and ruffled her hair.
Jenny smiled at the interaction, warmth flooding through her at the interaction. For all the tough demeanour he seemed to be displaying, what with the leather jacket and workman’s boots, and the way he carried himself, he certainly seemed to have a way with kids. He stood up and turned to his friend.
“You ready to go, Sammy?”
The younger man shot her a quick smile as he shrugged. “Sure thing, Dean.”
As they walked past her, Jenny frowned in recognition. Sammy… Dean… it couldn’t be, could it? Everything suddenly clicked into place. The familiar leather jacket; the shaggy hair surrounding that youthful face. Of course it was them. And Dean was definitely alive and well, just as she had thought.
“Wait!” The two of them stopped, turned back towards her in unison. “Sammy… Dean…. Winchester?”
They both froze, eyes wide, mirroring startled expressions on their faces. Dean swallowed harshly, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he did so.
“What?” he said tightly, expression cautious.
“It is you, isn’t it?” Jenny took a step forward.
“I don’t know what you mean.” Sam feigned innocence.
“Jenny Morris.” She pointed to herself. “Well, I was Jenny Bradley back then. I was a teacher at Middleton High in Charlottesville, VA. You boys saved me from a ghost in the woods about nine years ago.”
They both frowned for a moment, before Dean’s expression cleared into one of realisation. “Wait… Miss Bradley?”
“Yep, that’s me. You can call me Jenny, though.”
“Wow.” He smacked Sam’s arm with the back of his hand. “You remember, Sam? That case we worked when Dad was on that job in Augusta?” He turned back to Jenny. “You were the physics teacher, right?” She nodded. “Wow, long time, no see.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “So how are you boys?”
She watched as they exchanged an uneasy glance, before Sam shrugged. “Yeah, we’re all right.”
“Look, I don’t live far from here. Why don’t you come in for a coffee and a slice of home-made chocolate cake?”
Sam’s expression was hesitant as he said, “Thanks for the offer, but I think we should-”
He was cut off by Dean’s elbow in his side, as he grinned at her boyishly. “What are you talking about, Sammy? We’d love to.”
***
As Sam and Dean settled down onto the comfy sofa in her living room, and Hannah settled herself on the floor of the den next door with a few of her toys, Jenny fixed some coffee and cut them each a slice of the cake she’d made that morning before Cathy arrived. She had been saving it for dinner tonight, in case her friend had decided to stay, but she might as well offer it to her unexpected guests instead.
“Okay, here you are,” she announced, entering the living room and placing mugs and plates down on the coffee table in front of the Winchesters.
“Thanks, Miss-uh, Jenny.” Dean grinned sheepishly as he caught himself and she smiled in response. She wasn’t Miss Bradley anymore; hadn’t been for a long time.
“Not at all.” She gestured to the plates. “Please, go ahead.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Sam rolled his eyes as Dean picked up his plate and eagerly dug in, before reaching for his own place and cut a small mouthful of the cake.
As they ate, Jenny observed the two young men before her. They’d certainly grown up in the last nine years, Sam especially, having gone from a scrawny 14-year-old, barely 5 feet tall, to the lofty, lean man in front of her. He would be 22 or 23 by now, she supposed, and he had to have grown to well over 6 feet, taller than Dean, even. Despite the overall bodily transformation he’d been through since then, she noticed that his facial features hadn’t changed all much after all. Even his hair was still styled similarly to when she’d last seen him. Dean on the other hand, now that she was looking at him properly, really hadn’t changed much at all; he’d just matured. His features were more defined now and his body had filled out; he’d grown into himself, she though, and he carried himself more confidently than he had before. She was surprised she hadn’t recognised him immediately outside the ice cream parlour earlier.
“So, Dean, I’m guessing the fact that you’re sitting here means you didn’t die in St. Louis recently?”
Jenny cringed as Dean froze, forkful of pie halfway to his mouth. The words had spilled from her lips without even thinking about them.
“Uh, you heard about that?” He lowered the fork and placed the plate back down on the table.
“Not really,” she shrugged. “I’ve been pretty busy with Hannah lately, no time to watch the news. But my friend, Cathy mentioned it earlier this afternoon.”
“What happened in St. Louis was a misunderstanding. That wasn’t me, it was a shapeshifter.” He looked up at her, apparently seeing the confusion on her face. “A shapeshifter is basically human, but it can change its shape to look like anyone. This one went after women, changing his form to look like their husbands and boyfriends so that they would take the fall for the murders, not him.”
“Wow, that’s just, uh…wow.” Jenny didn’t know what to say to that. Shapeshifters? That was a new one to her, although it meant that things were starting to fall into place a little more now. “So, this, um, shapeshifter… it changed itself to look like you? Set it up so that you would get caught?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Dunno. It knew we were on to it, I guess.” Dean shrugged. “And the third woman, Becky, she’s one of Sam’s friends from college.”
Jenny hid her surprise at hearing Sam had apparently gone to college. She had assumed, like Dean had said, that college wasn’t in the cards for either of them.
Dean continued, “Her brother was the first victim’s boyfriend. The shapeshifter impersonated him, but he was the one arrested. The shifter later changed and went after her while he looked like me. I killed him, but the body was left behind… which means the cops now think I did it.”
“Wow… that’s kind of...”
“Crazy? Yeah, we know,” said Sam, leaning forward and putting his plate down. “We’re having to lay low now, considering everyone thinks Dean’s a serial killer… not to mention that he’s supposedly dead too.”
“Geez…” Jenny whistled under her breath. “That’s really messed up.” She looked between them. “But, other than that, you boys are doing well? You’re still hunting with your dad?”
For the second time in the last few minutes, Jenny immediately regretted her words, their reactions pretty much saying it all. They both stiffened, looking uneasily at each other for a moment, before Dean spoke.
“Dad’s missing; has been for a couple of months now. We don’t know where he is or if he’s even…” he trailed off, looking down at his hands, before straightening his shoulders. “But we’ll find him. I know we will.”
“I’m sorry, Dean… Sam,” said Jenny sympathetically. “I’m sure he’s okay.”
“Yeah, we hope so,” added Sam, hands pressed together, forearms resting on his knees.
The Winchesters exchanged another glance, and Jenny got the feeling there was more to the story than that, but after her epic foot-in-mouth faux pas just now, she wasn’t going to push it.
“Mommy?” Hannah’s soft voice from the doorway caught her attention and she turned to see her daughter standing a couple of feet away, fingers curled around favourite teddy bear, Snuggles.
“What is it, sweetie?” she asked gently.
“Can we play a game?”
Jenny gave her an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, honey, maybe later, okay? We have guests right now.”
“You know what, Hannah? How about I play a game with you?” Dean piped up then, causing Jenny to turn to face him in surprise. “Would you like that?”
“Yeah!” Hannah’s mouth curved into a wide smile, as Sam and Jenny exchanged bemused looks. “Come on.”
Dean shot Sam a look that said ‘what?’ as he allowed Hannah to grab his hand and lead him over to the far corner of the room, where Jenny kept the board games. She and Sam watched for a moment as Hannah selected Snakes and Ladders and Dean helped her set it up and get the game started.
“He’s pretty good with kids, isn’t he?” said Jenny softly a moment later.
“Yeah.” Sam’s voice held a hint of wonder, as if this was a fairly new thing to him as well. “I guess so.”
“So, uh, you went to college then?” Jenny asked.
“Yeah, I did.”
“From what Dean said back then, I didn’t think it was something you would be able to do.”
“Yeah, well… not for him,” admitted Sam with a shrug. “He loves this life; always wanted to be a hunter. But me… I wanted to get out. So, I worked my butt off and got myself a full ride to Stanford.”
“Wow, Stanford? Good for you, Sam.”
“Yeah, well…” He looked down at his hands uncomfortably. “It was good until recently. I was getting good grades, applying to law school, making a new life for myself, but then… well, Dad disappeared, and then my girlfriend died right after that…”
“Oh my God, Sam. I’m so sorry.” Jenny felt a painful tug in her chest at his admission. “What happened to her? It wasn’t something… you know…was it?”
Her heart sank when he nodded. “Yeah, it was. We don’t know what did it… it was a fire… she burned on the ceiling.”
A fire on the ceiling? That sounded familiar. Her mind flashed back to what Dean had said the day after the ghost incident.
“A fire… like your mom?”
Sam’s head snapped up at that, gaze piercing. “How did you know about that?”
“Oh, um…” She shifted uncomfortably on her chair, then nodded toward Dean. “Dean told me. He came to see me the next day, after the ghost thing.”
“He did?” Sam looked over at his brother in surprise. “Wow, I didn’t know. He almost never talks about that stuff.”
“Really?” Jenny murmured softly, wondering why Dean had felt the need to tell her about it.
“We think maybe what killed Jessica was the same thing that killed Mom, and maybe Dad knows something about how to find it. We’ve been looking for him, but we don’t know where he is.”
Jenny nodded and was about to say something else, but it seemed Sam had decided the conversation was getting a bit too heavy for him, and he quickly turned the focus onto her, and what she’d been up to over the last few years. They chatted for a few minutes longer, while Dean finished up his game of Snakes and Ladders with Hannah. He helped her tidy everything away and then stood up.
“Hey, Sammy, we should get going.”
“Oh, of course.” Jenny stood up. “You probably have somewhere to be. Don’t let me keep you.”
“Thanks for the coffee, Jenny.” Sam smiled warmly.
“And the cake.” Dean grinned.
“My pleasure.” Jenny gave them a warm smile. She glanced down at the pinkish stain on Dean’s jeans. “And sorry again about the whole ice cream incident.”
“No big.” Dean shook his head. “I’ve had to deal with much worse than a bit of ice cream on my jeans before.” Jenny wasn’t even sure she wanted to know what that might have been. He looked down at Hannah, who was standing beside her now. “You have a great daughter, Jenny.”
“Thank you.” She smiled, running her hand over her daughter’s hair.
Dean bent down to Hannah’s height. “You take care of your mom, now.”
Hannah nodded, burying her face against Jenny’s leg.
“You boys take care of yourselves too,” Jenny said as she walked them to the door. “I hope you find your Dad.”
“Us too.” Sam nodded.
They said goodbye and as she watched them walk away, heading back to where they had parked their car, she found herself smiling. Despite what she imagined most people thought of them, they were good boys; good men, she corrected. The moment Cathy had said Dean’s name earlier, she had known in her gut that what she was saying couldn’t have been true, and the last couple of hours with them had only confirmed those suspicions.
She hoped that they would be able to continue helping people and doing good in this world for a long time to come, even if their actions largely went unnoticed and unrecognised by the world. It sounded like they had been through so much in their lives already and they deserved to find their father and to catch whatever it was that had killed their mom and Sam’s girlfriend. They deserved to be happy.
End
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