Fic: Darker & Wilder (Supernatural) 5/6
Title: Darker & Wilder (pt.5)
Fandom: Supernatural
Character(s): Jess, Dean, Sam
Pairing(s): Gen
Word Count: 4,871
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine. Like at all.
Summary: Jess is worried when Sam leaves in a hurry one Friday afternoon. The only thing he can offer her before he goes is a phone number and promise to be back by Sunday night. When he doesn't show up on time, Jess makes the call.
They finished the rest of their meal in silence. When Sam had scraped up the last of his soup, Dean hauled him away to check his stitches in the bathroom. Jess finished sipping her soda and people watched while she waited on them. There was a little old man sitting at the counter who had been nursing along a cup of coffee for a good twenty minutes and a woman with two boys sitting in a booth near the door. It was late. The kids were obviously tired and grumpy. They kept throwing things and arguing with their mother. They must have been on their way to somewhere. Jess wondered where that was.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Sam leaning against the table and smiling down at her. “Come on,” he said. “Dean’s flirting, so I told him he could pay the check. Let’s head out to the car. He could be a minute.”
Jess stood. She let Sam put his arm around her and guide her back out into the open parking lot. From outside, the diner seemed even more abandoned. Together, Sam and Jess leaned up against the side of the car. Sam tipped his head back to look up at the sky. Jess copied him, surprised when she could pick out a handful of constellations. As far into the city as they lived, they rarely saw more than a few brighter stars in the sky. Out here, even under the neon sign, the sky was full of them.
Sam shifted beside her. He didn’t turn to look at her, still studying the night sky, but his tone was heavy when he said, “Jess, I know I said you could come on this one, but it’s turned out a bit more complicated than we expected. Spirits like this don’t go easily. There’s every chance we could just piss her off. I think it might be better if you stay in the car.”
Jess pushed away from the Impala, spinning to face Sam. “Like hell,” she said. Jess was many things, but a coward wasn’t one of them. “I’m going and that’s that.”
“Jess,” he said. His eyes were wide and pleading when he finally looked over at her. “I mean it. This one is too dangerous. You saw the ghost. That was the point. Let us handle this one.”
“Why,” she snapped. “Because I’m not some dyed in the wool hunter raised in the life from birth? I can take care of myself and I’m not letting you go trotting off towards trouble alone.”
“No, because this case just got a lot more dangerous in a way I can’t really explain and I promised I’d keep you safe. Besides, I won’t be alone. Dean will be there.”
“If it was Brady or Luis you wouldn’t have a problem with it.”
Sam snorted. “Are you kidding me? Brady would pee himself and run screaming the first time he saw a ghost and Luis would faint the first time someone pulled out a gun. I wouldn’t trust them within a hundred miles of this stuff. They would only get themselves hurt. It’s nothing to do with you.”
“I’m coming,” she said. She made her tone as firm and final as she could.
“But-“
“Save it.” She really wasn’t in the mood for this argument. “I’m going. You really can’t stop me. Quit acting like you’re responsible for me; I can make my own decisions.”
Sam sighed, but settled back against the car, returning his attention to the stars. Jess crossed her arms over her chest. She just couldn’t understand what Sam was so against her seeing. “What?”
Sam just shook his head. That just fed the fire growing in her. “Sam,” she said, low and menacing. “What.”
Sam gave her a strange look, somewhere between a grimace and a smile. “Nothing.”
“What part of that statement do you disagree with?” She narrowed her eyes, glaring at him. He had better tread carefully. She was about done with both their bullshit.
Sam stood and reached for her. He let his thumbs rub gentle circles against her skin where his hands had curled protectively around her arms. He gave her a sad smile and said, “Regardless what you think, I am responsible for you out there.”
Jess opened her mouth to tell him exactly what she thought of that, but he barreled ahead, cutting her off. “If you rode along with a cop or a soldier, someone who had a physically dangerous job that they were highly trained for, they would be responsible for making sure you stayed safe while you were with them. It’s the same thing here. This may not be as glorious or nice as those jobs, but it’s just as dangerous with just as many things that could go wrong. When you are out with us, we are responsible for keeping you safe because you don’t know the things we do. You don’t know what to expect or how to prepare for these threats or how to know when things have gone sideways. You are trusting us to tell you what you need to know and to know our stuff. It’s nice that you are that confident in us, but I need you to really understand. This isn’t some anti-feminist crap. It’s got nothing to do with what I think you’re capable of. It’s got everything to do with what you know at this point. So while I love you for how stubborn you are and your dedication, I just want to make sure you get why I’m concerned.”
Jess paused. She hadn’t thought of it that way. She had ridden out with her father back when he was still an active duty officer, and Sam was right. She had gotten to come in on some of the really small calls. Any time anything bigger happened, she had been relegated to the car. She hadn’t questioned it because she understood how a hopped up gang kid with a gun was dangerous and that she was a liability in that situation. She got that in an armed robbery she was only going to be in the way or worse, in the line of fire. It hadn’t really occurred to her, probably because these were ghost they were talking about, that she might be taking the same kinds of risks here.
She still didn’t like it, but she got where Sam was coming from. “I get it. I do,” she said. “I understand that this can be dangerous. And I do trust you to protect me, but I can’t learn if you don’t trust me enough to teach me.”
Sam frowned and looked away from her. “I don’t want you to learn this. Once you know about these things, you can never really escape it.”
“So ignorance is bliss? That’s your defense? Besides, you don’t get to make those decisions for me.”
“In this case, it’s true.”
“Sam...” she said, losing her patience.
“No! You don’t understand. This was my childhood. Dean did his best to give me a chance to be a kid, but I’ve lived with this stuff from the time I was old enough to handle a gun. I read the news and I don’t see a runaway teen or a freak storm or an animal attack on wayward hikers. I see witches and demons and werewolves. I will probably never not know what the current phase of the moon is or leave the house without laying salt lines. I can never not know about the supernatural. Never. Every monster I’ve seen or researched or killed has been real, and I have to make my peace with that. The world is so much darker and wilder than most people think. Knowing all that changes you. And I never wanted you to have to deal with any of it.”
Jess stared at him, speechless. She knew from the start of this that Sam was keeping so much from her. She’d known that his family situation had been tough to say the least and she’d always assumed they had been part of something illegal. She had no idea that he saw the darkness in the world or how hard he’d been trying to shield her from it.
“Sam,” she said softly. “It’s okay.”
He shook his head. “Nothing about this is okay.”
She pulled him into a hug, mindful of his injured side. “The situation is fucked up. I’ll give you that, but it’s okay. We are here and together. I want to see this, not because I don’t believe you, but because it’s the only way I’m really going to understand. It’s okay to be angry. It’s okay to admit that this sucks. Just don’t shut me out again.”
“It’s just…I came to Stanford to get away from all that. I didn’t want my life to be a living horror movie or to go out bloody in some ramshackle house somewhere. I wanted a clean start. And now, here we are. I’m banged up from a hunt and trying to solve a salt and burn that until an hour ago, I thought was going to be a cake walk. This life doesn’t let people go.”
“Then we make it. You’re mine. I’m not giving you up.”
Sam laid his head on hers. They stood like that for a moment, taking strength from each other. Jess knew that as confusing as this had been for her, it was painful for Sam. There was so much history and hurt built into this whole thing that she didn’t know where to start to untangle it.
Dean chose that moment to reappear from inside the diner. He grinned when he saw them. “You two lovebirds ready to do this?”
Sam sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”
“That’s the spirit.” Dean clapped him on his uninjured shoulder. The three of them climbed into Dean’s beast of a car and headed back to the hiking trail they’d left an hour earlier.
When they pulled in, Dean cut the engine and turned over the seat to look at Sam. “So, we got a plan?”
Sam shrugged. “Ring of salt and fast talking? Do we have another option?”
“We could always get a room. Do some more research and see if there have been any Jane Does that fit the description. But I don’t know how long we have before she pitches the next poor sucker over. You saw that fall. You don’t walk away from that one.”
“Then I guess we better go see if Rebecca is feeling talkative. Pro tip,” Sam said. “Maybe don’t shoot her in the face this time.”
Dean scowled and climbed out of the car. Sam snickered that his barb had irritated his brother, but followed him to the back of the car pausing to help Jess get out behind him.
“So what do we do?” Jess asked as she brought up the rear of their little group in an eerie reenactment of their earlier trip.
Sam handed her back the iron pipe. “We lay a salt circle. Ghosts can’t cross them. Then you stay inside the circle, no matter what. We’re going to see if she’s still human enough to reason with. Be ready to run. We may have to make another quick exit.”
This time the hike to the top was filled with silence. All of them were caught up in their own thoughts. Jess was feeling particularly nervous. Not only was she returning to the place where she’d nearly been pitched over the side of a cliff, she was willing walking there with someone who had just told her a ring of salt on the ground would protect her from the same thing happening again.
Jess’s sense of disbelief had been suspended somewhat. She definitely didn’t think what she’d seen earlier could be explained away and she’d known that it had been real, but she was still skeptical that it was a ghost. Sam could have shown her any random girl that fit the general description and she’d have believed it was the same person she’d seen at the top of the trail. Even as she thought that though, she was reminded that Sam had no reason to lie. At this point, she believed whole heartedly that he had been telling the truth, at least as much of it as he knew. If this girl wasn’t a ghosts then she was definitely something supernatural.
Jess was roused from her thoughts when Sam bumped her shoulder with a soft, “Hey.” He had dropped the bag he’d been carrying on the ground and pulled out a large container of salt. “We’re going to set up over at the edge of the clearing.”
“Why there,” Jess asked as she followed him to the spot he’d pointed to.
“Always a good idea to have an area of safety close enough to reach the action, but far enough away that it doesn’t attract unwanted attention from the ghost. It should be far enough back that she’ll ignore it until we’re ready for her, but close enough for us to reach if something goes wrong.” He stopped and straightened from where he had been working to look her in the eye. “Remember what I said. This can be dangerous. No matter what you see, stay in the circle. Dean and I know what we’re doing and this one could go either way.”
“Got it.”
Sam went back to laying out a large circle on the ground, then motioned for her to get in. She stepped over the boundary, careful not to break the line with her shoes. She couldn’t help feeling a little ridiculous trusting a ring of table salt to protect her, but she trusted Sam and he said it would work.
Sam went to join Dean closer to the edge. Dean was holding a device that was letting out whistling pitches at intervals. He seemed to be scanning for something. Sam motioned at the device and Dean shrugged, but tucked it away. She could see them whispering about something from her spot but couldn’t hear what they were saying. Dean gestured back towards her. Sam shook his head. Dean gave him an unhappy look, but eventually walked out almost to the lip of the cliff. Sam hung back, gun at the ready. Jess guessed Dean was going to be the bait. Regardless, she didn’t like how close to the edge he was standing.
The effect was instantaneous. The girl appeared again, nearly on top of Dean with arms outstretched towards him. Dean flung his hands up. “Wait! Rebecca, we know what happened to you.”
The girl paused.
“We know about Gary, how he assaulted you. Then when you spoke out, he brought you up here and pushed you over. He probably promised to make it right, didn’t he? Lied to get you to come with him.”
For the first time that night, Jess heard the girl say something beyond just a wordless scream. “Gary…” Her voice was thin, almost reedy. Her words seemed to echo as though she was speaking from the end of a long tunnel.
“Was a great big bag of dicks,” Dean supplied. “He deserved what he got.”
“Gary is a murderous, lecherous bastard!” Rebecca advanced on Dean, although she didn’t try to push him over. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. He waited for me. I came out to my car one night and he grabbed me. He told me he was doing me a favor before he took me. He had me for days! Days! Then, when he got tired of me, he brought me out here. He threw me down, there,” she said. Her thin arm pointed off to the side at a large oak tree growing near the edge of the bluff. “I fought him. Just when I thought I had the advantage, he shoved me over. I didn’t die from the impact. That just hurt enough I couldn’t swim. I drowned. The last thing I saw was that bastard’s face watching me go under.”
“I take it back,” Dean said. “Gary deserved more than what he got. Good on you girl.”
“Gary deserves every last thing I plan on doing to him.”
Sam stepped forward then. “Rebecca, Gary’s dead. You killed him. You pushed him over the cliff three years ago.”
Rebecca’s attention snapped to Sam. “No. I died a few days ago. I haven’t found him yet, but when I do I’m going to make him feel what he did to me.”
“It’s 2014. You’ve been dead for four years now. Gary is gone. You got your revenge.”
“No!” Rebecca was howling now. “He’s not! You’re lying!”
“I’m not lying. Why would I? Rebecca, you’ve got to realize these other people you’re pushing aren’t him. Gary’s dead. These people didn’t hurt you. You got your revenge, now it’s time to move on.”
“No! They let it happen. They all let it happen,”
Before Jess could blink, Rebecca was flying at Dean. Sam dove at the same time and managed to keep Dean from going over. Together they shot up and sprinted at Jess, leaping over the salt ring and doubling over.
“That went great,” Dean said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He wrinkled his nose, eyeing Rebecca from where she was standing out in the clearing. “What’s she doing? Why isn’t she coming after us?”
Sam shook his head. “It was a 50/50 shot at best. Maybe she’s protecting something. If there’s anything tying her down besides her body, it’ll probably be up here or wherever she was held.”
“Fine. I’m on distraction duty. You start looking. And make it quick.” He shoved the same device he’d been using earlier at Sam and gathered his gun back up, then sauntered out of the ring into the clearing where Rebecca had been watching them. Jess got a quick glance at the item. It looked like an old Walkman someone had wired lights into along the top. This was their detection system?
Jess jerked when a shot ring out ahead of her. Rebecca had waited until Dean got within a few feet of her, then attacked. Dean’s shot struck home. Rebecca disintegrated.
Sam dashed out, running for the lookout. He had discarded his gun in favor of waving the little Walkman device wildly around the area. Jess cried out when he strayed too close to the tree she had point out and was met with Rebecca’s hand around his throat. She pinned him against a nearby rock, holding him against the stone as he struggled against her. Jess snatched the iron rod up and started towards Sam, when Dean came to the rescue and whipped his crowbar through her insubstantial form.
Sam collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. He didn’t even take time to catch his breath before he grabbed the shrieking device, and frowned down at the flashing lights in his hand. Still coughing, he pushed it closer to the oak. “Dean,” he gasped. “She’s guarding the tree!”
He staggered to his feet and stumbled the few steps back to the tree trunk. Sure enough, the moment Sam got close enough to the tree to touch it, Rebecca spun away from Dean fully focused on stopping him. Sam ducked her swooping figure, although he couldn’t dodge the tree branch she flung at him. He slammed against the bark and dropped to the dirt.
Sam groaned and forced himself up on shaking arms. He started scrambling around in the debris that had caught against the tree’s trunk. Jess couldn’t just sit by and watch. It was obvious they needed more hands than they had and so far Rebecca didn’t seem to care about her. She cast one fearful glance over at the action, then stepped out of the circle and made her way along the edge of the trees. She skirted around the open area, carefully keeping an eye on Dean and the ghost as she made a wide loop towards the back of the tree. She had no idea what she was going to do when she got there, but she figured two sets of hands were better than one.
Jess sank down out of view of the clearing and hissed, “What am I looking for?”
Sam glanced up at her, panic blossoming on his face. “Jess, get back in the circle.”
“Too late. I’m here. She doesn’t seem to care about me. Tell me what I’m looking for.”
Sam focused back on his search, unearthing rocks and scattering leaves while still running his little detector over everything in front of him. “Anything that might have belonged to her. Something she might be attached to. If it’s an object tying her down, we can get rid of her.”
Jess began to ask what kind of object when Sam was lifted and flung away from the tree. Jess wanted to check on him, but even she realized that the fastest way to help Sam was to find whatever she was looking for.
“Something that belonged to her....” she was scrabbling through the debris too, even digging under the top layer of dirt. If Rebecca had died here four years ago, whatever they were looking for might well be buried by now.
Jess straightened. This was stupid. Even if the girl had dropped something there, how were they supposed to find it? She looked up, hoping there might be some clue. A dark shape up in the branches caught her eye. It looked like a nest.
“Dean!” She shouted. “How good a shot are you?”
Dean grunted as a branch flew at his head. “Little busy here.”
“So am I. How good is your aim?”
“Good.”
“Come here.”
“Right,” he muttered. “Never mind the pissed off spirit, come look at the pretty tree.” Dean scowled at her as he trotted up. “What?”
She pointed up into the branches at the nest. “There’s nothing obvious on the ground, but if it was small it might have gotten picked up by a bird or something. Can you hit the nest and knock it down?”
Dean spun on his heel and let off another shot at Rebecca before he considered the task. “It’s not going to fall cleanly, but I can probably knock it down. Be ready when I do. The show’s really going to start if that’s what she’s guarding.”
Jess nodded. She gripped the pipe tight in her hand, ready to swipe if the girl showed up while Dean was aiming. Dean fired up into the tree and cursed. A few twigs splintered off, but the nest stayed lodged in place. He fired again. This time, the nest tipped and fell. Feather down and twigs rained down on them. The nest itself lodged on a low branch. It was hanging sadly upside down, but several small objects had fallen free to the ground.
Jess jumped forward to sort through the handful of shiny bits that had fallen onto the dirt. In the mix, there was a small, golden locket. It looked old. It was the kind of thing that might have been passed down through families as a memento. She snagged the chain and held it up for the brothers to see. “This look right?”
Sam was climbing to his feet again. He squinted through the gloom and nodded. “That’s it. She’s wearing it. See? Jess, bring it here. Dean, cover us.”
Jess jogged to where Sam was digging through his pockets. “Throw it on that rock there.”
Jess laid the locket on the bare rock that Sam had waved towards. As soon as she did, she felt a chill hand grab her shoulder. She was flung back, sliding on the hard dirt path. Dean’s shotgun rang out and she disappeared again, blinking back into existence almost on top of Sam, who was dumping salt over the locket.
As Sam began to pour lighter fluid over the necklace, a rock rose on his left side. Jess forced herself up and lunged, tackling him to the ground before it could make contact. Next thing she knew Dean was loping past them, tossing his lit lighter onto the rock.
The entire thing went up in flames. They danced across the bare rock where Sam had been careless with the lighter fluid and licked at the golden jewelry. Behind them, she heard a shriek. She turned to find Rebecca being consumed by flames herself. The heat of the inferno blazed warm against Jess’s cheek, then was gone.
Jess stayed where she lay, breathing hard and staring at the after image that had burned into her eyes. Beside her, Sam relaxed back onto the ground with a groan.
“Sam, you good?” Dean sounded unreasonably happy for someone who had just been fighting an incorporeal girl.
Sam grunted and scowled at him. “See,” he said. “That time I busted a stitch.”
“Better a stitch than your head. Good thinking, Jess. You still in one piece?”
Jess registered that he was talking to her, but she couldn’t seem to coax her brain into putting together a coherent response. What did one say when some spirit that had tried to murder them all had just gone up in flames. “Jess? You okay over there?”
Jess shook herself, trying to focus on the present. “I think?”
Dean snorted. “Yeah, first time is always a little weird. I’m good too, in case anyone was wondering.”
“Dean,” Sam said, plaintively. He raised an arm from his spot on the ground.
“Do I look like your nursemaid,” Dean asked. He stomped over and took Sam’s hand, letting Sam pull himself up slowly. Sam stumbled as he gained his feet and Dean was there to steady him.
“Next time I say I want to go on a hunt, remind me of this,” Sam said.
Dean smirked, “You mean the time I was awesome and you were too slow to keep from being roughed up by a girl? Sure thing, Sammy.”
“It’s Sam,” he said with no heat behind his words.
Dean looked over at Jess as he was supporting Sam, an unspoken question in the tilt of his head. Jess nodded and climbed to her feet. She was fine, or as fine as she could be.
She brushed the leaves and dirt from the front of her pants, wincing as she realized she’d skinned the whole of her right arm when she skidded across the ground. She was also covered in dirt. “I need a shower.”
Dean nodded in approval. “Me too. I call dibs!”
She wrinkled her nose. “If we’re going home, it’s my shower. I get first go.”
“Nah,” Dean said, guiding Sam forward as he limped along. “It’s a two hour drive to get you two home and we’re all beat. There was a little Cowboy Comfort Inn as we came into town. We can stop there for a few hours. We’ll head back in the morning.”
“No,” Sam said pinching Dean in the side. “I showed Jess hunting. She did her first greasy diner research stop. She even got to help in a salt and burn. But no one deserves the roach motel treatment. I’ve got a little cash set aside. There was a Holiday Inn back towards the highway. At least I know we won’t catch the clap from the sheets there.”
“Aw, come on Sam. Jess deserves the authentic experience. Save your money.”
“No one deserves the authentic experience.”
“Um, boys?” Jess was feeling almost light now that the danger was over. Their bickering felt celebratory. So she didn’t hesitate to jump in and tease them by asking, “Don’t I get a vote?”
Both Dean and Sam turned to look at her with equally wide eyed expressions. It was amazing how they could be arguing over her, and yet have totally forgotten she was there at the same time. Finally Dean shrugged, “Sure, lady’s choice.”
Jess blinked, surprised at the turn that had taken. “I vote whichever’s closest,” she said, finally.
Dean crowed. “Western theme it is!”
Sam shook his head, but kept trudging. “You’re going to regret that choice,” Sam said. “Last cowboy motel was decorated liberally with horse everything. Remember the horse shoes? I thought Dad was going to have a coronary.”
“What happened?” Jess asked.
“They were all hung upside down, which is bad luck according to superstition, but apparently also attracts some sort of little trickster sprite. I dunno. We never saw anything, so it could have just been Dad being paranoid.”
Jess sighed in relief when the car came back into view. “Well, either way I need a shower. The motel could be spider themed for all I care as long as there’s hot water.”
“Sam,” Dean said with a grin. “I’ve said it already, but you picked a good one. She’s got her priorities straight.”
Sam huffed as he fell into the passenger seat. “You only say that because she made you pie. I mean, you are right but that’s not actually a basis for judging people and it’s going to get you in trouble one of these days.”
Dean huffed in disbelief, but his only response was to climb in and start the Impala.
<< Previous Chapter ~~~ Master Post ~~~ Next Chapter >>
Fandom: Supernatural
Character(s): Jess, Dean, Sam
Pairing(s): Gen
Word Count: 4,871
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine. Like at all.
Summary: Jess is worried when Sam leaves in a hurry one Friday afternoon. The only thing he can offer her before he goes is a phone number and promise to be back by Sunday night. When he doesn't show up on time, Jess makes the call.
They finished the rest of their meal in silence. When Sam had scraped up the last of his soup, Dean hauled him away to check his stitches in the bathroom. Jess finished sipping her soda and people watched while she waited on them. There was a little old man sitting at the counter who had been nursing along a cup of coffee for a good twenty minutes and a woman with two boys sitting in a booth near the door. It was late. The kids were obviously tired and grumpy. They kept throwing things and arguing with their mother. They must have been on their way to somewhere. Jess wondered where that was.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Sam leaning against the table and smiling down at her. “Come on,” he said. “Dean’s flirting, so I told him he could pay the check. Let’s head out to the car. He could be a minute.”
Jess stood. She let Sam put his arm around her and guide her back out into the open parking lot. From outside, the diner seemed even more abandoned. Together, Sam and Jess leaned up against the side of the car. Sam tipped his head back to look up at the sky. Jess copied him, surprised when she could pick out a handful of constellations. As far into the city as they lived, they rarely saw more than a few brighter stars in the sky. Out here, even under the neon sign, the sky was full of them.
Sam shifted beside her. He didn’t turn to look at her, still studying the night sky, but his tone was heavy when he said, “Jess, I know I said you could come on this one, but it’s turned out a bit more complicated than we expected. Spirits like this don’t go easily. There’s every chance we could just piss her off. I think it might be better if you stay in the car.”
Jess pushed away from the Impala, spinning to face Sam. “Like hell,” she said. Jess was many things, but a coward wasn’t one of them. “I’m going and that’s that.”
“Jess,” he said. His eyes were wide and pleading when he finally looked over at her. “I mean it. This one is too dangerous. You saw the ghost. That was the point. Let us handle this one.”
“Why,” she snapped. “Because I’m not some dyed in the wool hunter raised in the life from birth? I can take care of myself and I’m not letting you go trotting off towards trouble alone.”
“No, because this case just got a lot more dangerous in a way I can’t really explain and I promised I’d keep you safe. Besides, I won’t be alone. Dean will be there.”
“If it was Brady or Luis you wouldn’t have a problem with it.”
Sam snorted. “Are you kidding me? Brady would pee himself and run screaming the first time he saw a ghost and Luis would faint the first time someone pulled out a gun. I wouldn’t trust them within a hundred miles of this stuff. They would only get themselves hurt. It’s nothing to do with you.”
“I’m coming,” she said. She made her tone as firm and final as she could.
“But-“
“Save it.” She really wasn’t in the mood for this argument. “I’m going. You really can’t stop me. Quit acting like you’re responsible for me; I can make my own decisions.”
Sam sighed, but settled back against the car, returning his attention to the stars. Jess crossed her arms over her chest. She just couldn’t understand what Sam was so against her seeing. “What?”
Sam just shook his head. That just fed the fire growing in her. “Sam,” she said, low and menacing. “What.”
Sam gave her a strange look, somewhere between a grimace and a smile. “Nothing.”
“What part of that statement do you disagree with?” She narrowed her eyes, glaring at him. He had better tread carefully. She was about done with both their bullshit.
Sam stood and reached for her. He let his thumbs rub gentle circles against her skin where his hands had curled protectively around her arms. He gave her a sad smile and said, “Regardless what you think, I am responsible for you out there.”
Jess opened her mouth to tell him exactly what she thought of that, but he barreled ahead, cutting her off. “If you rode along with a cop or a soldier, someone who had a physically dangerous job that they were highly trained for, they would be responsible for making sure you stayed safe while you were with them. It’s the same thing here. This may not be as glorious or nice as those jobs, but it’s just as dangerous with just as many things that could go wrong. When you are out with us, we are responsible for keeping you safe because you don’t know the things we do. You don’t know what to expect or how to prepare for these threats or how to know when things have gone sideways. You are trusting us to tell you what you need to know and to know our stuff. It’s nice that you are that confident in us, but I need you to really understand. This isn’t some anti-feminist crap. It’s got nothing to do with what I think you’re capable of. It’s got everything to do with what you know at this point. So while I love you for how stubborn you are and your dedication, I just want to make sure you get why I’m concerned.”
Jess paused. She hadn’t thought of it that way. She had ridden out with her father back when he was still an active duty officer, and Sam was right. She had gotten to come in on some of the really small calls. Any time anything bigger happened, she had been relegated to the car. She hadn’t questioned it because she understood how a hopped up gang kid with a gun was dangerous and that she was a liability in that situation. She got that in an armed robbery she was only going to be in the way or worse, in the line of fire. It hadn’t really occurred to her, probably because these were ghost they were talking about, that she might be taking the same kinds of risks here.
She still didn’t like it, but she got where Sam was coming from. “I get it. I do,” she said. “I understand that this can be dangerous. And I do trust you to protect me, but I can’t learn if you don’t trust me enough to teach me.”
Sam frowned and looked away from her. “I don’t want you to learn this. Once you know about these things, you can never really escape it.”
“So ignorance is bliss? That’s your defense? Besides, you don’t get to make those decisions for me.”
“In this case, it’s true.”
“Sam...” she said, losing her patience.
“No! You don’t understand. This was my childhood. Dean did his best to give me a chance to be a kid, but I’ve lived with this stuff from the time I was old enough to handle a gun. I read the news and I don’t see a runaway teen or a freak storm or an animal attack on wayward hikers. I see witches and demons and werewolves. I will probably never not know what the current phase of the moon is or leave the house without laying salt lines. I can never not know about the supernatural. Never. Every monster I’ve seen or researched or killed has been real, and I have to make my peace with that. The world is so much darker and wilder than most people think. Knowing all that changes you. And I never wanted you to have to deal with any of it.”
Jess stared at him, speechless. She knew from the start of this that Sam was keeping so much from her. She’d known that his family situation had been tough to say the least and she’d always assumed they had been part of something illegal. She had no idea that he saw the darkness in the world or how hard he’d been trying to shield her from it.
“Sam,” she said softly. “It’s okay.”
He shook his head. “Nothing about this is okay.”
She pulled him into a hug, mindful of his injured side. “The situation is fucked up. I’ll give you that, but it’s okay. We are here and together. I want to see this, not because I don’t believe you, but because it’s the only way I’m really going to understand. It’s okay to be angry. It’s okay to admit that this sucks. Just don’t shut me out again.”
“It’s just…I came to Stanford to get away from all that. I didn’t want my life to be a living horror movie or to go out bloody in some ramshackle house somewhere. I wanted a clean start. And now, here we are. I’m banged up from a hunt and trying to solve a salt and burn that until an hour ago, I thought was going to be a cake walk. This life doesn’t let people go.”
“Then we make it. You’re mine. I’m not giving you up.”
Sam laid his head on hers. They stood like that for a moment, taking strength from each other. Jess knew that as confusing as this had been for her, it was painful for Sam. There was so much history and hurt built into this whole thing that she didn’t know where to start to untangle it.
Dean chose that moment to reappear from inside the diner. He grinned when he saw them. “You two lovebirds ready to do this?”
Sam sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”
“That’s the spirit.” Dean clapped him on his uninjured shoulder. The three of them climbed into Dean’s beast of a car and headed back to the hiking trail they’d left an hour earlier.
When they pulled in, Dean cut the engine and turned over the seat to look at Sam. “So, we got a plan?”
Sam shrugged. “Ring of salt and fast talking? Do we have another option?”
“We could always get a room. Do some more research and see if there have been any Jane Does that fit the description. But I don’t know how long we have before she pitches the next poor sucker over. You saw that fall. You don’t walk away from that one.”
“Then I guess we better go see if Rebecca is feeling talkative. Pro tip,” Sam said. “Maybe don’t shoot her in the face this time.”
Dean scowled and climbed out of the car. Sam snickered that his barb had irritated his brother, but followed him to the back of the car pausing to help Jess get out behind him.
“So what do we do?” Jess asked as she brought up the rear of their little group in an eerie reenactment of their earlier trip.
Sam handed her back the iron pipe. “We lay a salt circle. Ghosts can’t cross them. Then you stay inside the circle, no matter what. We’re going to see if she’s still human enough to reason with. Be ready to run. We may have to make another quick exit.”
This time the hike to the top was filled with silence. All of them were caught up in their own thoughts. Jess was feeling particularly nervous. Not only was she returning to the place where she’d nearly been pitched over the side of a cliff, she was willing walking there with someone who had just told her a ring of salt on the ground would protect her from the same thing happening again.
Jess’s sense of disbelief had been suspended somewhat. She definitely didn’t think what she’d seen earlier could be explained away and she’d known that it had been real, but she was still skeptical that it was a ghost. Sam could have shown her any random girl that fit the general description and she’d have believed it was the same person she’d seen at the top of the trail. Even as she thought that though, she was reminded that Sam had no reason to lie. At this point, she believed whole heartedly that he had been telling the truth, at least as much of it as he knew. If this girl wasn’t a ghosts then she was definitely something supernatural.
Jess was roused from her thoughts when Sam bumped her shoulder with a soft, “Hey.” He had dropped the bag he’d been carrying on the ground and pulled out a large container of salt. “We’re going to set up over at the edge of the clearing.”
“Why there,” Jess asked as she followed him to the spot he’d pointed to.
“Always a good idea to have an area of safety close enough to reach the action, but far enough away that it doesn’t attract unwanted attention from the ghost. It should be far enough back that she’ll ignore it until we’re ready for her, but close enough for us to reach if something goes wrong.” He stopped and straightened from where he had been working to look her in the eye. “Remember what I said. This can be dangerous. No matter what you see, stay in the circle. Dean and I know what we’re doing and this one could go either way.”
“Got it.”
Sam went back to laying out a large circle on the ground, then motioned for her to get in. She stepped over the boundary, careful not to break the line with her shoes. She couldn’t help feeling a little ridiculous trusting a ring of table salt to protect her, but she trusted Sam and he said it would work.
Sam went to join Dean closer to the edge. Dean was holding a device that was letting out whistling pitches at intervals. He seemed to be scanning for something. Sam motioned at the device and Dean shrugged, but tucked it away. She could see them whispering about something from her spot but couldn’t hear what they were saying. Dean gestured back towards her. Sam shook his head. Dean gave him an unhappy look, but eventually walked out almost to the lip of the cliff. Sam hung back, gun at the ready. Jess guessed Dean was going to be the bait. Regardless, she didn’t like how close to the edge he was standing.
The effect was instantaneous. The girl appeared again, nearly on top of Dean with arms outstretched towards him. Dean flung his hands up. “Wait! Rebecca, we know what happened to you.”
The girl paused.
“We know about Gary, how he assaulted you. Then when you spoke out, he brought you up here and pushed you over. He probably promised to make it right, didn’t he? Lied to get you to come with him.”
For the first time that night, Jess heard the girl say something beyond just a wordless scream. “Gary…” Her voice was thin, almost reedy. Her words seemed to echo as though she was speaking from the end of a long tunnel.
“Was a great big bag of dicks,” Dean supplied. “He deserved what he got.”
“Gary is a murderous, lecherous bastard!” Rebecca advanced on Dean, although she didn’t try to push him over. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. He waited for me. I came out to my car one night and he grabbed me. He told me he was doing me a favor before he took me. He had me for days! Days! Then, when he got tired of me, he brought me out here. He threw me down, there,” she said. Her thin arm pointed off to the side at a large oak tree growing near the edge of the bluff. “I fought him. Just when I thought I had the advantage, he shoved me over. I didn’t die from the impact. That just hurt enough I couldn’t swim. I drowned. The last thing I saw was that bastard’s face watching me go under.”
“I take it back,” Dean said. “Gary deserved more than what he got. Good on you girl.”
“Gary deserves every last thing I plan on doing to him.”
Sam stepped forward then. “Rebecca, Gary’s dead. You killed him. You pushed him over the cliff three years ago.”
Rebecca’s attention snapped to Sam. “No. I died a few days ago. I haven’t found him yet, but when I do I’m going to make him feel what he did to me.”
“It’s 2014. You’ve been dead for four years now. Gary is gone. You got your revenge.”
“No!” Rebecca was howling now. “He’s not! You’re lying!”
“I’m not lying. Why would I? Rebecca, you’ve got to realize these other people you’re pushing aren’t him. Gary’s dead. These people didn’t hurt you. You got your revenge, now it’s time to move on.”
“No! They let it happen. They all let it happen,”
Before Jess could blink, Rebecca was flying at Dean. Sam dove at the same time and managed to keep Dean from going over. Together they shot up and sprinted at Jess, leaping over the salt ring and doubling over.
“That went great,” Dean said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He wrinkled his nose, eyeing Rebecca from where she was standing out in the clearing. “What’s she doing? Why isn’t she coming after us?”
Sam shook his head. “It was a 50/50 shot at best. Maybe she’s protecting something. If there’s anything tying her down besides her body, it’ll probably be up here or wherever she was held.”
“Fine. I’m on distraction duty. You start looking. And make it quick.” He shoved the same device he’d been using earlier at Sam and gathered his gun back up, then sauntered out of the ring into the clearing where Rebecca had been watching them. Jess got a quick glance at the item. It looked like an old Walkman someone had wired lights into along the top. This was their detection system?
Jess jerked when a shot ring out ahead of her. Rebecca had waited until Dean got within a few feet of her, then attacked. Dean’s shot struck home. Rebecca disintegrated.
Sam dashed out, running for the lookout. He had discarded his gun in favor of waving the little Walkman device wildly around the area. Jess cried out when he strayed too close to the tree she had point out and was met with Rebecca’s hand around his throat. She pinned him against a nearby rock, holding him against the stone as he struggled against her. Jess snatched the iron rod up and started towards Sam, when Dean came to the rescue and whipped his crowbar through her insubstantial form.
Sam collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. He didn’t even take time to catch his breath before he grabbed the shrieking device, and frowned down at the flashing lights in his hand. Still coughing, he pushed it closer to the oak. “Dean,” he gasped. “She’s guarding the tree!”
He staggered to his feet and stumbled the few steps back to the tree trunk. Sure enough, the moment Sam got close enough to the tree to touch it, Rebecca spun away from Dean fully focused on stopping him. Sam ducked her swooping figure, although he couldn’t dodge the tree branch she flung at him. He slammed against the bark and dropped to the dirt.
Sam groaned and forced himself up on shaking arms. He started scrambling around in the debris that had caught against the tree’s trunk. Jess couldn’t just sit by and watch. It was obvious they needed more hands than they had and so far Rebecca didn’t seem to care about her. She cast one fearful glance over at the action, then stepped out of the circle and made her way along the edge of the trees. She skirted around the open area, carefully keeping an eye on Dean and the ghost as she made a wide loop towards the back of the tree. She had no idea what she was going to do when she got there, but she figured two sets of hands were better than one.
Jess sank down out of view of the clearing and hissed, “What am I looking for?”
Sam glanced up at her, panic blossoming on his face. “Jess, get back in the circle.”
“Too late. I’m here. She doesn’t seem to care about me. Tell me what I’m looking for.”
Sam focused back on his search, unearthing rocks and scattering leaves while still running his little detector over everything in front of him. “Anything that might have belonged to her. Something she might be attached to. If it’s an object tying her down, we can get rid of her.”
Jess began to ask what kind of object when Sam was lifted and flung away from the tree. Jess wanted to check on him, but even she realized that the fastest way to help Sam was to find whatever she was looking for.
“Something that belonged to her....” she was scrabbling through the debris too, even digging under the top layer of dirt. If Rebecca had died here four years ago, whatever they were looking for might well be buried by now.
Jess straightened. This was stupid. Even if the girl had dropped something there, how were they supposed to find it? She looked up, hoping there might be some clue. A dark shape up in the branches caught her eye. It looked like a nest.
“Dean!” She shouted. “How good a shot are you?”
Dean grunted as a branch flew at his head. “Little busy here.”
“So am I. How good is your aim?”
“Good.”
“Come here.”
“Right,” he muttered. “Never mind the pissed off spirit, come look at the pretty tree.” Dean scowled at her as he trotted up. “What?”
She pointed up into the branches at the nest. “There’s nothing obvious on the ground, but if it was small it might have gotten picked up by a bird or something. Can you hit the nest and knock it down?”
Dean spun on his heel and let off another shot at Rebecca before he considered the task. “It’s not going to fall cleanly, but I can probably knock it down. Be ready when I do. The show’s really going to start if that’s what she’s guarding.”
Jess nodded. She gripped the pipe tight in her hand, ready to swipe if the girl showed up while Dean was aiming. Dean fired up into the tree and cursed. A few twigs splintered off, but the nest stayed lodged in place. He fired again. This time, the nest tipped and fell. Feather down and twigs rained down on them. The nest itself lodged on a low branch. It was hanging sadly upside down, but several small objects had fallen free to the ground.
Jess jumped forward to sort through the handful of shiny bits that had fallen onto the dirt. In the mix, there was a small, golden locket. It looked old. It was the kind of thing that might have been passed down through families as a memento. She snagged the chain and held it up for the brothers to see. “This look right?”
Sam was climbing to his feet again. He squinted through the gloom and nodded. “That’s it. She’s wearing it. See? Jess, bring it here. Dean, cover us.”
Jess jogged to where Sam was digging through his pockets. “Throw it on that rock there.”
Jess laid the locket on the bare rock that Sam had waved towards. As soon as she did, she felt a chill hand grab her shoulder. She was flung back, sliding on the hard dirt path. Dean’s shotgun rang out and she disappeared again, blinking back into existence almost on top of Sam, who was dumping salt over the locket.
As Sam began to pour lighter fluid over the necklace, a rock rose on his left side. Jess forced herself up and lunged, tackling him to the ground before it could make contact. Next thing she knew Dean was loping past them, tossing his lit lighter onto the rock.
The entire thing went up in flames. They danced across the bare rock where Sam had been careless with the lighter fluid and licked at the golden jewelry. Behind them, she heard a shriek. She turned to find Rebecca being consumed by flames herself. The heat of the inferno blazed warm against Jess’s cheek, then was gone.
Jess stayed where she lay, breathing hard and staring at the after image that had burned into her eyes. Beside her, Sam relaxed back onto the ground with a groan.
“Sam, you good?” Dean sounded unreasonably happy for someone who had just been fighting an incorporeal girl.
Sam grunted and scowled at him. “See,” he said. “That time I busted a stitch.”
“Better a stitch than your head. Good thinking, Jess. You still in one piece?”
Jess registered that he was talking to her, but she couldn’t seem to coax her brain into putting together a coherent response. What did one say when some spirit that had tried to murder them all had just gone up in flames. “Jess? You okay over there?”
Jess shook herself, trying to focus on the present. “I think?”
Dean snorted. “Yeah, first time is always a little weird. I’m good too, in case anyone was wondering.”
“Dean,” Sam said, plaintively. He raised an arm from his spot on the ground.
“Do I look like your nursemaid,” Dean asked. He stomped over and took Sam’s hand, letting Sam pull himself up slowly. Sam stumbled as he gained his feet and Dean was there to steady him.
“Next time I say I want to go on a hunt, remind me of this,” Sam said.
Dean smirked, “You mean the time I was awesome and you were too slow to keep from being roughed up by a girl? Sure thing, Sammy.”
“It’s Sam,” he said with no heat behind his words.
Dean looked over at Jess as he was supporting Sam, an unspoken question in the tilt of his head. Jess nodded and climbed to her feet. She was fine, or as fine as she could be.
She brushed the leaves and dirt from the front of her pants, wincing as she realized she’d skinned the whole of her right arm when she skidded across the ground. She was also covered in dirt. “I need a shower.”
Dean nodded in approval. “Me too. I call dibs!”
She wrinkled her nose. “If we’re going home, it’s my shower. I get first go.”
“Nah,” Dean said, guiding Sam forward as he limped along. “It’s a two hour drive to get you two home and we’re all beat. There was a little Cowboy Comfort Inn as we came into town. We can stop there for a few hours. We’ll head back in the morning.”
“No,” Sam said pinching Dean in the side. “I showed Jess hunting. She did her first greasy diner research stop. She even got to help in a salt and burn. But no one deserves the roach motel treatment. I’ve got a little cash set aside. There was a Holiday Inn back towards the highway. At least I know we won’t catch the clap from the sheets there.”
“Aw, come on Sam. Jess deserves the authentic experience. Save your money.”
“No one deserves the authentic experience.”
“Um, boys?” Jess was feeling almost light now that the danger was over. Their bickering felt celebratory. So she didn’t hesitate to jump in and tease them by asking, “Don’t I get a vote?”
Both Dean and Sam turned to look at her with equally wide eyed expressions. It was amazing how they could be arguing over her, and yet have totally forgotten she was there at the same time. Finally Dean shrugged, “Sure, lady’s choice.”
Jess blinked, surprised at the turn that had taken. “I vote whichever’s closest,” she said, finally.
Dean crowed. “Western theme it is!”
Sam shook his head, but kept trudging. “You’re going to regret that choice,” Sam said. “Last cowboy motel was decorated liberally with horse everything. Remember the horse shoes? I thought Dad was going to have a coronary.”
“What happened?” Jess asked.
“They were all hung upside down, which is bad luck according to superstition, but apparently also attracts some sort of little trickster sprite. I dunno. We never saw anything, so it could have just been Dad being paranoid.”
Jess sighed in relief when the car came back into view. “Well, either way I need a shower. The motel could be spider themed for all I care as long as there’s hot water.”
“Sam,” Dean said with a grin. “I’ve said it already, but you picked a good one. She’s got her priorities straight.”
Sam huffed as he fell into the passenger seat. “You only say that because she made you pie. I mean, you are right but that’s not actually a basis for judging people and it’s going to get you in trouble one of these days.”
Dean huffed in disbelief, but his only response was to climb in and start the Impala.
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