If You Will Go With Me [Part Three]
Masterpost | Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Soundtrack | Art
+++
The drive to Chicago went faster than Jo had thought it might. If Dean hadn't been so happy to avoid angelic transport, she would have fought harder against Missouri's insistence that they go alone, with no supernatural help. When they got through Kansas City, and then Springfield, without encountering any traffic or state troopers, despite Dean driving at least twenty over the speed limit the entire time, Jo concluded that they were getting help from someone. She wasn't sure if it was an angel, or Death, or just plain dumb luck, but she was grateful for it anyway.
It had taken a while for Jo and Dean to get away from the farmhouse and all the protests against their solo mission. In the end, Missouri had written down all the info she'd seen about it and hustled them both out of the house and into the Impala, ignoring Ellen and everyone else. Jo wasn't exactly looking forward to what her mom would probably have to say when they got back, and she hadn't even been able to talk to Lorael before they left. Anna had pulled her in for a hug and a whispered "good luck," before leaving to prepare for her own mission.
When they reached the address Missouri had given them, Dean swore. "Fuck, this can't be it." He parked anyway, carefully away from the one or two other cars in the lot, which Jo found kind of obsessive in that (mostly) endearing way Dean had about him.
"Why is Death hanging around a strip mall?" Jo murmured, mostly to herself as they walked up to the stores.
Dean's voice sounded choked. "Uh, not just a strip mall - look at the store number Missouri wrote down."
"Hot Topic? What the hell?"
Jo swallowed uneasily. The entire mall was deserted, at least, which meant no one was around to witness them going in. Inside, the store looked exactly like a typical Hot Topic, and Jo suffered a flashback to ninth grade and begging her mom to let her wear black lipstick and hot pink miniskirts. Dean looked like he might be sick, which made Jo feel a little better. They both saw the door almost immediately, large and ornate in the back of the store, out of place with the space around it. When Jo opened it, they saw a huge, almost empty room.
Jo looked through the doorway warily, and when she didn't see anyone, stepped cautiously inside. Dean kept pace with her and they made their way to the table in the center of the space. Two chairs stood on one side of the table, while a more elaborate one was settled on the other side. It was a fairly clear sign, and after Dean and Jo had a silent conversation via facial expressions about it, they each sat in one of the simpler chairs.
Death, when it entered the room, made Jo laugh. She couldn't help it, and Death didn't seem offended, just twirled a little in the short black skirt and flipped a pigtail behind her shoulder as she sat down in her chair. Her hair was dark, and she was wearing a Hello Kitty t-shirt and elbow gloves. She put two different pairs of knee socks on the table in front of her.
"I can't decide if I should go purple or stay with classic black," Death said, wrinkling her nose.
"Wow," Dean managed to say, and Jo laughed again at the look on his face.
"Isn't that whole look a little cliché?" Jo asked, feeling brave, which was probably stupid, but this whole encounter was stupid, so what did she have to lose?
Death, wearing the body of what looked like a sixteen-year-old goth girl, looked at Jo then, and she suddenly felt the fear she should have had all along when those eyes fixed on hers, fathomless and ancient.
"I'm older than you can comprehend," Death said. "I like to appear young, every now and then." She nodded to herself decisively. "Purple. What's the point if I can't have fun with it?"
Dean and Jo didn't argue, because neither of them were quite stupid enough to pick a fight with Death, no matter what she happened to be wearing.
"You're moving much quicker than I'd hoped," Death said, setting the socks aside and assuming a serious manner that didn't seem as out of place with her appearance as it should have. "I had thought I might have to send the dreams more than once, but you picked up on my message right away."
"Glad to be of service," Dean replied, only half sarcastically, and Death grinned sharply at him.
"Well," Death said, "it is good to know that the saviors of humanity aren't entirely stupid. To get right to the point, Lucifer has overstepped his boundaries for the last time, and I want out, but I couldn't come to you, you had to come to me. My agreement with Lucifer is no longer useful or beneficial, but he's using loopholes to keep me trapped."
Jo shifted uneasily in her chair. She didn't say it, but she wondered on how earth Lucifer could be more powerful than Death.
Death looked at her and shrugged. "Lucifer wasn't always so annoying," she said, and great, Death could read minds. "I went along with his ideas for a while, to see where it would get me, but I'm bored now. Everything always ends with me, no matter what else happens beforehand.
"Anyway, I shouldn't be tethered to Lucifer's madness, so I freely give this ring to you. I assume you know what to do with it." Death held out her ring, heavy and dull in her palm, but when Dean stretched out his hand to take it, she held it just out of reach.
"There is a condition," she said, and Jo slumped in her seat. Of fucking course there was a condition.
"My firstborn?" Jo asked, and Dean laughed. Death frowned at her, and even though it shouldn't have been intimidating to have a tiny goth girl scowl at her, Jo flinched away at the look.
"A favor," Death said. "I can't say precisely when or what, but should I call on you in the future, I will expect you to come."
Jo and Dean exchanged glances, and Jo sighed. A vague future favor was better than immediate disaster, so she nodded her acceptance and Dean followed suit.
"Done." Death's voice rang out, deeper than her body alone could have produced, and Jo felt a shiver run down her spine at the word. Dean looked equally uncomfortable.
"Just to clarify," Dean said, when Death stood without saying anything else, "you're not going to kill everyone in town, right?"
Death smiled, her teeth gleaming against her black lipstick. "I suppose not," she answered. "You should leave before I change my mind. Once I've gotten a new outfit put together, I'm not going to have much to do for entertainment."
They left. Jo felt pretty sure that what had just happened was the kind of miracle or coincidence that only occurred once in a lifetime, and she didn't want to look too closely at the details for fear it would fall apart.
She did whine when Dean insisted that they had to go straight back. Eight hours in the Impala might be fun for Dean, but Jo was not looking forward to it.
When Jo and Dean finally made it back to the farmhouse after taking turns driving and napping, they were both dead on their feet (and getting Dean to let her drive - that hadn't been fun). Everyone else had returned already, and Pestilence and Famine's rings were safely residing in one of Bobby's magically-fortified lockboxes. Ellen had hugged Jo tightly, her lips in a thin line, but her eyes proud. While Bobby and Sarakiel recounted what had happened with each Horseman, Jo listened with half an ear, only really noticing Sam's silence. Sarakiel seemed to be carefully choosing her words, and Jo knew that something must have gone wrong. But they'd all gotten back safely, Anna had told her that as soon as she'd walked through the door, so Jo couldn't bring herself to care about the details. They had the rings, and that was all that mattered.
Dean told their story, with Sam interrupting every few minutes to verify details, but Jo was too distracted looking for Lorael to really pay attention. By the time Dean was winding down his explanation, Lorael still hadn't gotten there, and Anna must have noticed how on edge Jo was, because she grabbed Jo's hand and gave it a squeeze.
"She'll be here, soon," she whispered, and then Lorael appeared in the doorway. Anna looked pleased with her own excellent timing, but Jo only saw Lorael and the way her eyes moved restlessly around the room until they found Jo. Lorael practically ran across the room and crushed Jo in a very uncomfortable and unexpected hug as soon as she saw where Jo was sitting.
"Don't ever do that again," she growled, and then let Jo go, who felt dazed, trying to decide if that had just happened. Lorael strode back across the room to the far wall.
"Now you know how it feels when people run off for dangerous missions all willy-nilly," Jo grumbled, very conscious of the fact that the whole room was staring at them, but Lorael ignored her.
"I don't want this," she said.
Jo blinked, still trying to clear her vision. "You don't want what? And hello, by the way."
"It's not the right time," Lorael replied quietly, coming back to Jo's side. "There is too much at stake and I can't make this decision now."
Jo started getting annoyed. She wasn't exactly at full strength, physically or mentally, her mother and Bobby and the goddamn Winchesters were listening to every word she and Lorael were saying, and she didn't have the stamina to handle cryptic angelic messages. She reached out and laid a hand on Lorael's shoulder, as much to steady herself as to get Lorael's attention.
"Please just tell me what you mean," she asked.
Lorael met Jo's gaze with her eyes and Jo sucked in a deep breath at the longing in them. "Oh," she said, desperately hoping she was the only one who could see Lorael's face. She hadn't really entertained the possibility that Lorael might feel something other than friendship for her, hadn't let her mind wander into what she assumed were unachievable fantasies. Seeing Lorael looking at her like that, like Jo was everything she wanted, almost took Jo's breath away.
"When this is over," Lorael said softly.
Jo nodded. "When this is over," she repeated. She might have tried for some clarification, or to get them into a different room for a private conversation, but her phone rang, the display flashing Missouri's name on the screen, and almost at the same time, Castiel blinked into the room next to Lorael. They both needed to hear the Death story, and Jo and Lorael were pulled apart for the rest of the day and night.
Jo kept the look she'd seen on Lorael's face close to her thoughts, even through the strategy sessions and unending phone calls and well-meaning lectures from her mother that night. It gave her the energy she needed to keep going, and every once in a while, Lorael would find a way to look at her and share a small, private smile. Jo couldn't help but feel as if they wouldn't actually be able to wait.
+++
Exhausted though she was, Jo slept restlessly, and woke up early. The day was spent talking to everyone imaginable about the different parts everyone would have to play, and it went by so quickly she couldn't even remember everything she'd done when she went to bed. The next morning, it seemed like the whole day would be more of the same, and Jo finally lost it in the late afternoon while arguing with Dean and Sam about something so stupid she couldn't even remember how it had started.
"Can we just fucking do this?" she yelled, loud enough for Bobby and Missouri to interrupt their conversation over in the corner and stare at her. "I mean it, we've got everything in place. Let's just have a final run-through, and do it tomorrow. We have to strike while Lucifer might still not know what we're up to."
Dean grinned at her, their disagreement forgotten on his end as well. "Hell, yes," he said. "Hang on, I'll grab everyone."
That turned out to take a long time, and when Ellen insisted that the humans eat before any planning happened, Jo almost despaired of ever getting started. Castiel, Anna and Lorael left for important angel business, which Jo was pretty sure actually meant deserting Jo in her hour of need to go have fun. Eventually, though, the angels came back, and Missouri and Ellen herded everyone into the dining room, and once they all managed to fit around the long dining room table, Anna took charge.
"We know where and when this needs to happen," she said. "Now we just need to figure out the details of how."
"I think I have a solution for the rings," Missouri offered. "From what Sarakiel tells me, Lucifer will be able to tell the exact moment we spring the trap and he'll shut it again, and that won't work for us. But I think we'll be able to use a spell to mask the rings, and the opening to hell."
Sam looked intrigued. "How?" he asked. "I'm pretty sure most spells don't work on him."
Missouri smiled. "That's why we worked Enochian sigils into the standard masking spell. It's worked so far on every angel I've tried it with. As soon as I cast the spell, they're unable to sense the rings at all."
"We can eventually break through the spell, however," Sarakiel said. "It's taken an hour or so for most of us, but Lucifer will be much stronger. Once he realizes that something is being masked from him, he'll put everything he has into breaking it. And he has to be expecting us to try something like this."
"Faster, like, five minutes and we're toast faster?" Dean asked.
Sarakiel and Missouri shared a glance, and Missouri replied. "Yes, but the spell increases in power if more people are involved in the casting, and distance won't be much of a factor. If we have everyone who is capable cast and hold the spell at the same time, it will last longer."
"How many people?" Bobby asked, and Ellen snorted. Jo smiled, knowing exactly what her mom was thinking.
"As many as we know," Ellen said. "We can have every hunter in the US do it. At least half of them'll be willing to do that even if they couldn't or wouldn't come here to help in person."
"And Missouri knows lots of psychics," Jo said, looking at Missouri to make sure she wasn't presuming too much.
"Yes, I do," Missouri said. "And they're all on board."
"How much time can they give us?" Castiel asked.
"I hope an hour," replied Missouri. "But I can't do a test run of this, so I wouldn't count on more than twenty minutes."
Dean sighed. "Okay. Twenty minutes to lure Lucifer to the right place, open the trap, get him in, and get the hell out of dodge. We can do that."
"Yeah," Sam said slowly, and Jo could tell Dean wouldn't like whatever Sam was going to say. "I'm the bait, then, I guess."
"No fucking way," Dean retorted immediately, to absolutely no one's surprise.
Sam's forehead creased. "We need him to be there are exactly the right moment, Dean. He'll come if he thinks he has a chance to get me to say yes, even if he knows it's a trap."
"Winning doesn't include letting you become Lucifer's prom dress, Sammy," Dean growled.
Jo broke in before Sam could protest. "Sam is the bait, yeah, but he won't be the one setting the trap. You guys are the ones Lucifer will be after. If Sam puts on a good show, and gets Lucifer to the right spot, someone else can have the rings set up and ready to go, outside of anyone's notice."
Ellen smiled, a tinge of bitterness warring with pride in her eyes. "Are you the "someone else" in this scenario?"
"Yes," Jo said decisively, surprising herself. "I'm the best choice. I don't have any other important role to play, I can learn the spell to open the trap, and I'm small and easy to miss."
No one could contradict her logic, but Dean still made a token protest. "It should be me," he said. "I started this, I should finish it."
"We can't forget about Zachariah," Castiel put in then, glaring at Dean until he stopped grumbling. "He will be focused on you, Dean, and you won't be able to be as discreet as will be needed. Zachariah will also do his best to find an alternate vessel for Michael, and either way, he and the angels loyal to him will fight us, especially after they realize we plan to trap Lucifer instead of killing him."
"That's where I come in," Lorael said from her place across the table from Jo. "We have thirty angels now, who no longer believe Zachariah's lies and are able to fight without a borrowed human vessel. We'll keep him occupied - the chance to recapture the rebels will be one he can't pass up."
Dean grinned. "Man, I really wish I could watch that. He needs his ass kicked so badly."
Lorael grinned back, and Jo was sort of surprised at how similarly bloodthirsty their faces were. Mostly, however, she was only surprised at herself for not noticing that sooner. Apparently she had a type, and it had nothing to do with gender.
"What we need to do," Bobby said, "is get them fighting each other. There are gonna be a lot of demons for just our little group of hunters to take care of, but if some of the angels would fight them and not us, we'd probably do okay."
"The angels under Zachariah's control will kill demons, but they won't discriminate against anyone in their path," Sarakiel said. "All the human hunters should stay clear of the angels if possible, or make sure to have a demon in between them and any angels."
They all hashed over the details more times than Jo would have thought possible, until she was sitting slumped over in her chair, focusing on Lorael's passionate speeches more for the shape of her mouth as it moved than for what she said. Ellen finally called it quits for all of them at midnight when Bobby started literally growling instead of talking.
"Okay," Ellen said, her voice cutting through all the conversation. "Those of us who are still human need to get some sleep, and we all know what we're doing tomorrow. No point in talking it to death now."
The angels were all camped out in one of the out-buildings, and Anna and Lorael left together, smiling at Jo on their way out. Jo stood to make her way to her own small room, but Dean snagged her arm as she passed him in the doorway.
"What's wrong?" she asked, searching his face. He looked tired, but almost hopeful, something he hadn't seemed to be in a long time.
"Nothing," he said. "I just, uh, wanted to say that you - you've been doing a real good job with all of this, and I'm," he broke off and ran his hand over his face before continuing. "Fuck it, I'm sorry for treating you like a kid before."
"It's okay," Jo said softly, even though she sort of wanted to tease him for it. "I know it can be hard to see me as an adult."
"Well, people change," he said, looking over her shoulder at something in the hallway. "And that's not always a bad thing."
"Yeah, I guess," Jo said, feeling like she'd lost the thread of the conversation.
"Dean," Castiel's voice called from the hallway, and Dean gave Jo a quick smile.
"Goodnight," he said, and walked away. Jo shook her head and called good night back to him over her shoulder before heading for bed.
+++
Jo kept turning restlessly that night, until she was sure she wouldn't be able to sleep at all. When she snuck carefully outside onto the deck of the old farmhouse, she wasn't surprised to see Lorael standing at the far end, looking out over the empty fields beyond. She was surprised when Lorael turned, clear tear tracks on her face.
"What's wr - " Jo began, and then stopped as Lorael walked to her with quick, determined steps. She took Jo's face in her hands, and Jo couldn't do anything but stare, breath quickening and palms heavy at her sides.
"I don't want to wait," Lorael said, and kissed Jo with desperate ferocity. Jo could feel all her own pent up fear and desire and uncertainty welling up at the sensation, too much to push back down, and she kissed back as hard she could.
Lorael's arms wrapped around her body, one hand low on Jo's hip and the other rubbing almost frantically at her upper back. Jo had to tilt her face up to accommodate their embrace, and finally managed to move her own arms, using them to pull Lora even closer as they kissed. Her body couldn't process all of the things she was feeling and her brain felt fuzzy. Lora pushed her toward the nearest wall easily, and the reminder that Lora wasn't human, that the person kissing her could snap her neck with no effort, only made her want Lora even more.
Lora pulled back when she realized that they'd hit the side of the house. "I'm sorry," she murmured, in between pressing small, soft bites to Jo's neck. "I know I said I couldn't, but I keep thinking that you might not be here tomorrow night, and how short and temporary your whole life is next to mine, how I might not even be able to keep this body or survive myself, and I can't face it without knowing what you feel like, what you taste like."
Jo rolled her hips into Lora, barely hearing the words over the roaring in her head. She might have tried to argue about the supposed fragility of her human lifespan, but nothing seemed worth losing Lora's mouth on her body. Lora pushed her flannel shirt down her arms and let it fall to the ground, and it wasn't until Lora began to pull her tank top up that Jo remembered where they were.
"We can't do this here," she protested, not wanting to stop, but not really wanting to get any surprise visitors, either.
Lora paused in her attempt to get Jo naked and glanced around them, as if she'd forgotten where they were as well. Her face was flushed, her dark eyes hungry, and Jo wanted nothing more than to see exactly what Lora planned to do to her.
"Do you trust me?" Lora said, and what kind of question was that, Jo thought, as she replied "of course," and then the world twisted around her. When she could see again, she was standing in a nondescript hotel room, nicer than Jo usually stayed in, bland art on the walls, and more importantly, an empty, clean bed. Jo almost giggled at the ridiculousness of an angel breaking into a hotel room for sex.
Lora still held Jo tightly around her waist.
"Is this what you want?" she asked, running a hand lower and lower down Jo's back, skirting the waistband of her loose pajama pants.
"Fuck, yes," Jo panted, and pulled Lora with her to the bed, pausing only to finish pulling her tank top off, glad that she hadn't been wearing a bra. Lora watched as she tossed it onto a chair, and Jo flushed even harder as she stood in front of Lora almost naked, her nipples hard and her breath catching.
"Your turn," she managed to say, because this wasn't going to work unless Lora took off at least a few pieces of her clothing. Lora smiled, a dangerous glint in her eyes, and blinked once. Her shirt and jeans disappeared, along with the band that had been holding her hair back and any underwear she might have been wearing, and Jo sat down on the bed weakly, staring.
"That's a novel use for angelic powers," Jo said, and Lora laughed.
"It's my favorite one, now, I think," she said, and climbed onto the bed on her knees, pulling Jo up and kissing her again. It was even better now that Jo could feel the swell of Lora's bare breasts against her own, could reach down and rub her hand down Lora's angular hip, and then back up to her waist. She had worried, a little, that she wouldn't know what to do with a woman's body, but her fears had been pointless. Her body knew what to do, and she didn't resist the pull of her desire, just followed as it led her to kiss down Lora's neck to her breasts, relishing the moans that fell from Lora's throat as Jo lightly kissed one of her nipples.
Lora's eyes glittered at her in the dark, and she lay back against the pillows, pulling Jo with her.
"More," she gasped, and Jo wasn't going to stop any time soon. She could feel the heat coming from her cunt start to spread outward, and the slickness that came with it, and wondered if she should take off her bottoms before they were soaked. She ignored the thought to focus on Lora's nipples, tugging first one, then the other with her teeth, but Lora took care of it for her, pulling at her pants and getting them down around her ankles.
Jo settled her body between Lora's thighs, propped on one elbow with her other hand rubbing slow circles into one of Lora's nipples, and couldn't resist grinding her pelvis against Lora's, nothing between them but the thin cotton of her underwear. It was a good decision. Lora hissed and attacked Jo's neck with her teeth, hard and just enough, pushing up to match Jo's thrusts.
"Yes," she panted, "I want to feel you everywhere."
Jo couldn't speak, not for her life, but she obliged by shifting onto her side to the left of Lora's legs and moving her right hand down Lora's stomach to the damp curls at her crotch, and her own hips stuttered when she felt the heat emanating from Lora's cunt. Her finger dipped inside the wet folds and Jo's heart pounded in her ears in time with Lora's audible breathing. She kept her touch light and teasing, just trying to learn what Lora liked, until Lora growled and grabbed her hand, pushing her fingers to Lora's clit insistently.
"There," Lora moaned. "Touch me there, don't make me wait, please."
Jo had almost forgotten that this was new to Lora as well, that she hadn't had any kind of sex before. At least Jo knew what an orgasm would feel like, and that she would be able to have another one after the first.
"I'm sorry," she whispered against Lora's ear, shifting her left arm underneath Lora's shoulders to hold her close, and moving the fingers of her other hand in fast, rhythmic circles over Lora's clit. "Like that?"
"Yes," Lora managed, her hips pushing up into Jo's hand with such force that Jo almost couldn't keep her hold on Lora's shoulders, as her whole body shuddered and shook. Jo couldn't tell how long it took, too caught up in her own desire, but eventually Lora threw her head back and ground up into Jo's hand with graceless jerks as she came. Jo watched her face greedily, drinking in the whimpers and the short burst of "oh - oh - oh" from Lora's mouth as she slowly relaxed back into Jo's hold. Lora smiled, her eyes closed for a long moment as she recovered, and when she opened them to look up at Jo, they were huge and dark.
"What do you want?" Lora asked quietly, running her hand up and down Jo's neck, and Jo had no idea how to answer.
"What?" she managed, tilting her neck to give Lora's hand, and then her soft kisses, better access. Her whole body buzzed insistently with arousal, and she wasn't sure she could give voice to any of it articulately.
"What do you want me to do to you?" Lora repeated, and Jo flushed hot. "Do you want my mouth, my hands?"
"Whatever you want," Jo replied, suddenly nervous and unsure in the face of Lora's complete confidence. "Aren't you supposed to be new at this?"
Lora laughed, a low, husky sound. "I have been in existence for longer than you can imagine. What I don't know in practice, I can extrapolate from the theory."
Jo grinned. "Okay," she said, shifting to lie on her back and pulling Lora up to press against her side. She took Lora's hand and pressed it against her cunt, biting back a small moan. "Use your hands."
Lora stared intently at her own hand, moving swiftly to find Jo's clit, then shuddered with Jo when her finger pressed against it.
"Put a finger in me," Jo managed to say around her closed-up throat, and Lora kissed her hard and did as directed, one long finger pushing into Jo with a steady movement. Jo felt herself stretching around it and began moving her hips in tiny circles, almost involuntarily, as the pressure of arousal built inside of her. She was already so wet, and almost every movement of Lora's fingers sent another pulse of wet heat through her.
"Yes," she gasped, as Lora used her thumb to press against Jo's clit while she added another finger. Jo's head fell back and her thighs tensed, the pleasure she felt only enhanced by the stretch of Lora's fingers thrusting more and more quickly. Lora sat up without moving her hand and knelt in between Jo's spread legs, using her left hand to tug at Jo's nipples, alternating between both of them. Jo hardly had any time to prepare before it hit her, and she could feel herself clenching hard around Lora's fingers as she came, moaning and moving her hips with Lora's thrusts. She felt Lora still rubbing her clit, aftershocks mixing with the sweet pain of over-stimulation.
"Holy fucking hell," Jo managed, pulling Lora's hand away from her sticky thighs. Without thinking about it, she sucked Lora's wet fingers into her mouth, wanting to taste herself on Lora's hand.
"Oh," Lora said, a shocked, pleased expression on her face. Jo smirked up at her around the fingers, letting them slip almost all the way out. She slid her tongue around them, let Lora push into her mouth the way she'd pushed into her cunt, and then pulled them out, kissing the tips. Jo sat up, pushed Lora back onto the bed, and settled on her stomach, head between Lora's legs.
"So," she said, breathing in the sweet smell of Lora's cunt. "The best thing about having a clit is that you can go again pretty much right away." She looked up at Lora. "I've never done this, but I'm a quick learner, and I've been told I'm pretty good with my mouth."
Lora's hips pushed up, pressing her cunt into Jo's mouth insistently, and Jo went to work. Yeah, Jo thought, as her tongue teased Lora's clit, this having-sex-with-women thing was going to work out just fine.
"I have to tell you something," Lorael said, about two orgasms later, once they had managed to stop touching each other long enough to find a comfortable resting position with Jo curled carefully into Lorael's side, her head on Lorael's shoulder.
Jo tensed at the words, but Lorael smoothed a hand down her arm. "Nothing bad," she said. "At least, I don't think so."
"Then what?" Jo asked, pretty sure that an angel's definition of "not bad" and her own were probably light years apart.
Lorael sighed and pressed a kiss to Jo's hair. "Our bodies, the ones that the angels made for themselves, they - they cannot be kept after the final battle. It takes too much power to keep them as human as possible, without also limiting our abilities, and if we stay in them for much longer, Sarakiel doesn't know what will happen. The angels will have to return to heaven and give up some of the humanity we've gained in order to survive."
Jo froze. "This - wait, this was real, wasn't it?" She could feel Lorael's mouth form a frown against her head, and went on. "You wanted me, you didn't just - your body didn't make you do anything, did it?"
"Of course not," Lorael said. She used one hand to lift Jo's face until their eyes met. "I want you with all that I am, body and spirit. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you that right now, I just… needed you to know everything."
"Then tell me everything," Jo replied, still not sure if she could relax, the warmth she felt at Lora's declaration not quite enough to assuage her paranoia. "What will happen to you?"
"I don't know," Lorael admitted. "I want to stay, if you'll have me, and if I do, I will probably fall, slowly, until I am nothing more than human. Assuming we win, and that Zachariah loses power in heaven."
"I can't ask you to do that," Jo whispered, her heart heavy.
"Then it's a good thing no one said you had to," Lorael snapped back. Her face was defiant, which made Jo ache with affection, but a hint of fear shone in her eyes as well. "It's what I want, Jo. I want to feel as much as I can, to have a body I can love you with, and if I have to be human for that, then so be it."
Jo raised her hand and pulled Lorael down to her mouth, kissing her with desperation. When they pulled apart, Lorael smiled brilliantly.
"Screw heaven," she said, and Jo laughed. "I don't want to go back. I was already cut off from the host anyway, when Zachariah discovered my disobedience. I made this choice a long time ago."
"I do," Jo whispered, overwhelmed with gratitude and worry and love, hiding her face in Lorael's neck. "I do, uh, love you. I want you to stay." Lorael wrapped an arm tightly around her back, and they didn't say anything further as they rested.
"The earth trembled and the heavens dropped," Lorael said into the silence sometime later, and Jo shivered.
"What does that mean?" she asked sleepily.
Lorael smiled, looking over Jo's shoulder at nothing Jo could see. "It's something I said once, a long, long time ago during a different battle. It means we're going to do it," she replied. "We'll succeed, and the world will be safe again."
Jo could almost believe it when Lora said it like that.
+++
When Jo crawled back into her tiny closet of a room, it was very late, or very early. Lorael had insisted that Jo needed to sleep, alone, and Jo had grumpily agreed to spend the night back at the farmhouse. Anna appeared in the doorway as Jo was just turning off the bedside light, and Jo jumped in surprise, nearly falling off the bed.
"Fuck," she whispered as loudly as she dared. "I thought everyone was still asleep."
Anna giggled, a sound which Jo still found slightly disconcerting when it came from an angel. "Angels don't sleep, you know that. So, Lora finally jumped you, huh?"
"Really?" Jo asked. "The world could end tomorrow, and you want to spend the night having girltalk?"
Anna shrugged and flopped down on the narrow bed with Jo. "What better time? We know what’s going to happen tomorrow, and there's nothing else we can do to prepare. We might as well have fun."
Jo couldn't really argue with that logic. "I guess," she said, tucking her legs under her chin.
Anna smiled widely. "It sounds like some of us already had a little fun."
"Anna!"
"Did I ever tell you that Dean and I had sex once?"
"What?" Jo spluttered and almost choked on her own spit. "When?"
"It was last night on earth sex," Anna replied. "Literally - I became an angel again the next day."
"Okay," Jo said. "That actually explains a lot about the way Dean acts around you. I don't think he's used to seeing his one night stands more than once."
Anna smiled. "It's pretty funny, isn't it?"
"You don't," Jo began, and then halted, unsure if she should continue.
"I don't what?" Anna asked.
"You don't, um, want him still?" Jo asked, wincing at how awkward she sounded.
Anna shook her head. "No. I may not be a robot angel, but I've been focusing on this battle for too long to have time for that kind of worry. I admire Dean, but we had our chance, and it's gone now."
Jo couldn't help it, she really couldn't. "So, how was it?"
Anna laughed, but then she actually answered, and that was how Jo ended up spending the night before the end of the world gossiping with an angel until she was too tired to keep her eyes open.
+++
When Jo finally made it outside in the morning, having quickly downed a piece of toast, Lorael and Anna were waiting for her in the long driveway. She would be driving them to the abandoned field they'd chosen as their battleground, and she wanted to get going as soon as possible. Missouri had left already with some of her psychic friends to find a safe-but-close location in which to set up their operation, and Ellen, Bobby and several other hunters were loading up their cars. Sam and Dean were arguing about something in front of the Impala as Castiel watched them with a slightly amused expression, which Jo was pretty sure he'd learned from Anna.
Anna smirked suggestively at Jo when she reached her car, and Lorael glared at Anna and pulled Jo into a surprisingly passionate kiss, considering it was seven am, and Jo's mother was watching. Jo went with it, though, unable to resist the pull of Lorael's lips as she relived flashes of the night before.
"Oh my god," Dean said loudly, distracting Jo from the kiss. "You're a lesbian now?"
"Shut up, Dean," Sam stage-whispered.
Lorael just kept holding Jo close, not kissing, but with their foreheads touching, and Jo found it easier than she would have thought to ignore their audience. It wasn't exactly the way she would have chosen to come out to her friends and family, but it sure beat sitting everyone down and having a fucking conversation about it.
"Don't tell me to shut up," Dean protested. "Lesbians!"
Jo laughed, and finally turned away from Lorael. "You're a pervert," she told Dean.
Dean just kept staring, until Ellen hit him on the back of the head.
"If you don't stop it," she warned, "you won't be able to enjoy anything sex-related once I'm through with you."
Jo shook her head at Dean. "You do realize that angels don't technically have a gender?" she asked. "I guess that makes me more of an angel-sexual than a lesbian right now."
Dean blinked. "So? She's hot, you're hot, what else can I say?"
"I don't understand your prurient interest in two female bodies having sex," Lorael said.
"The answer's in the question," Dean muttered, ducking when Ellen went to hit him again.
"Stop over-compensating, Dean." Sam said with a sigh.
"Really?" Bobby said. "We're about to stop the apocalypse, and you're making gay jokes?"
Jo laughed, and even the thought that she might be about to die couldn't diminish her joy in that simple moment. She stuck her tongue out at Dean and pulled Lorael away to her car, and laughed again when Anna gave Dean a meaningful look and his face went red. She stopped when Ellen came over, and Lorael stepped back tactfully.
"You sure about this?" Ellen asked, her face warm and knowing and concerned. "And it's safe, for both of you?"
Jo smiled and hugged her mother tightly. "Yes," she said. "Yes, I'm sure."
+++
Jo clutched the rings in her pocket, unwilling to let go of them for fear she'd lose one. She didn't want the apocalypse to happen because she had a hole in her jeans. Ahead of her, placing themselves strategically in the empty field, Sam and Dean got ready to call down the angels and Lucifer. Lorael and Sarakiel were still masking their presence, wanting to keep themselves (and Bobby, Ellen, Missouri and the other human hunters) back until they were needed.
Anna and Castiel stood by Dean, Anna glaring defiantly at the sky and Castiel focused on Dean, both ready to fight as soon as Zachariah appeared.
Jo closed her eyes briefly, and went to stand closer to Sam, skin tingling as the masking spell covered the rings. She whispered the incantation for the portal over and over again under her breath, and Dean caught her eye and grinned when he saw it. Jo smiled back, a poor attempt of a smile, anyway, and nodded once. Sam touched her shoulder awkwardly, then closed his eyes to summon Lucifer while Dean muttered a less-than-holy prayer at Zachariah.
And then everything happened at once. Jo was peripherally aware of the angels arriving, could hear the shouts and clinks of metal that meant the fighting had started, but she focused completely on Sam, and then Lucifer, when he appeared.
Jo did her best to look frightened and unthreatening, which was easier than she would have hoped, since she was actually scared. Up close, Lucifer crackled with power and even her human eyes could sense it. He slid his gaze over her briefly, obviously dismissing her, which she wasn't going to get indignant about - this all hinged on her ability to seem innocuous. Lucifer never looked away from Sam once their eyes met, and the three of them stood almost frozen in the middle of the battlefield, a small pocket of quiet in the noise around them.
Jo counted down the minutes remaining in their safety net, and realized she needed to start opening the trap, but before she could try, Lucifer shot out a hand in her direction. A demon slammed into her, and the ensuing fight dragged her yards away from where she needed to be. A hunter she didn't know helped her exorcise the demon, and Jo smiled a tight thank you before turning and running as fast as she could toward Sam.
As Jo fought her way back, she checked her pocket for the rings again, and nearly panicked when it took her a second too long to close her fingers around them. She started murmuring the words of the spell as she ran, and when she reached the ground directly behind Lucifer, she threw the rings into place.
"Sam," she yelled, as the opening to hell swirled into being in front of her. He and Lucifer, still locked in their intense conversation/battle of wills, both turned to look at her. The spell must have still been in effect, because Lucifer just looked puzzled. Sam wiped a hand through the sweat on his forehead and lunged forward, pushing at Lucifer with all his strength. In that exact second, Jo felt a tingling run through her arms, and Lucifer put out one hand to stop Sam, holding him at an arms-length and staring right at the portal to hell. His eyes were still human-looking, but the rage in them had Jo stepping back a little.
"So it's come to this," Lucifer said calmly, belying the anger in his face as he picked up Sam by the neck. "Sam, I always wanted to believe that you were smarter than your brother, but I see that hope was in vain."
"Sam!" Jo screamed helplessly.
Sam grabbed uselessly at Lucifer's hands, and Jo overcame her shock and ran around the portal to try and help, even though she knew her strength would be useless. Lucifer didn't wait to find out what either of them could have achieved - he tossed Sam away, so far that Jo could barely see where he landed. Lucifer turned back to face the portal, which he could obviously now see.
"You thought this would fool me?" he asked, although Jo was pretty sure he wasn't speaking to her. He was still mostly ignoring her, as if she was so insignificant she wasn't worth the trouble of acknowledgment. She used his disdain to get closer to the portal, hoping to at least keep him from shutting it down.
"You're not as clever as you think, brother," said a clear voice, and Jo nearly fell over in relief as Anna appeared, sword in hand, forcing Lucifer to take a defensive position, caught between Anna and the portal.
Dean was yelling in the background, and Jo could see him racing toward them from where Sam had landed and was now miraculously sitting up with help from Ellen. Anna and Lucifer fought, swords clashing together with heavy thuds of metal and power. Jo watched, and kept one eye on the portal to make sure it stayed open, repeating the words of the spell over and over again. Lucifer seemed to grow taller, and his last lunge knocked Anna's sword away. She weaved in and out carefully, on the defensive, and managed to lure Lucifer closer to the portal. Jo caught her eye, and Anna winked, then lunged forward and hit Lucifer hard against the head. He took the hit, losing control for a second, and Jo spun without hesitation, kicking Lucifer in the back of his knees and knocking him to the edge of the precipice. She felt triumphant for one small moment, and then Lucifer ran Anna through with his sword, white light pouring from the wound. Jo froze, couldn't think, couldn't make her arms or legs work. She opened her mouth to yell for help as Lucifer moved his hand, reaching toward Anna with dark satisfaction in his eyes.
Dean finally reached them at the precise moment that Lucifer's hand fell on Anna's forehead, and Jo watched in horror as Anna burned up in front of her, the image of her wings flashing in the air before Lucifer's body obscured them as Dean pushed him into the hole opened by the rings. The portal closed, and the shadow of Anna's wings settled into the ground. Jo reached a hand to touch them before the image faded, and left her hand in the dirt long after it was gone.
Dean fell back, panting, and stared at Jo, saying something, probably trying to apologize for not getting there in time, but Jo couldn't hear him.
Lucifer was gone for good, and so was Anna.
+++
Jo didn't remember the details after that. She knew, somewhere in the part of her brain that dealt with crises and moved on to the next practical concern, that she had helped clean up the straggling demons left behind when Lucifer fell into the pit. She knew she hadn't faltered, hadn't cried or gone comatose the way she'd wanted to at first. She had said goodbye to Sarakiel, who left with most of the angels to escort the remainder of Zachariah's supporters back to heaven. Jo's next clear memory, though, wasn't of the aftermath of Anna's death or the many small but necessary tasks involved in getting all the wounded taken care of or falling into an exhausted heap when it was all finished, but of waking up in her bedroom above the bar the next morning. She had no idea how she had gotten there.
Sam knelt next to her folded-up body on the bed, shaking her shoulder gently.
"What, what's wrong?" she asked, sleepy and still sure that her nightmares hadn't been real. She seemed to recall Lorael being wrapped around her for most of the night, but it was a hazy thought she couldn't quite grasp now that she was awake.
"You need to eat," Sam said. "You haven't had anything since before - since yesterday, and Ellen will have all our heads if you pass out from hunger."
Jo sat up and pushed her hair behind her ears. "It all happened?"
Sam nodded, his forehead wrinkled in sympathy, and waited while she rummaged for a cleaner shirt in the battered duffle bag sitting on the floor in the corner of the room. He didn't speak again, and neither did she as they walked downstairs to the bar and joined the small group sitting around several tables pushed together in the middle of the room.
Jo remembered more of the previous night now, could recall saying goodbye to Missouri and other people as they headed back to their homes, eager to forget the bad parts and start spreading the story of the apocalypse they helped to prevent. She wished she could be so optimistic, and then she felt guilty when she immediately thought of Lorael, as if being grateful that she and Lorael had both survived was betraying Anna in some way.
Ellen stood when Jo and Sam reached the table, and tugged Jo down into a seat between her and Lorael. Sam collapsed next to Dean at the end of one long bench, resting his head in his arms on the table, and Castiel shared a worried look with Dean. Ellen pushed Jo into Lorael's arms, and then poured them all a shot of the good stuff, but no one moved to take a drink.
Bobby looked them all over after a moment and shook his head. "Alright," he said, raising his glass of whiskey. "To the fallen." He drank deeply, and slammed the glass down.
Dean snorted and grinned, a weak facsimile of his usual charm. "May the fucking devil rot in hell forever," he said, and drank his own shot.
Lorael raised her glass, her other hand clutching tightly to Jo's cold fingers. "May we honor the memory of those we lost," she said solemnly before tipping her glass and swallowing.
They all drank then, and even though she didn't say anything, Jo felt as if she'd just participated in a ceremony, something that would bind her to these people in the future as much as fighting alongside them had.
She shouldn't have let her guard down; she knew that, of course. But it felt as if the worst had come and gone in the days that followed Anna's death, and Jo had trained herself not to think about anything past defeating Lucifer, so she was almost completely unprepared when Lorael pulled her outside one afternoon a week later and broke the peace she'd precariously built up in her mind.
"I have to go," Lorael said, sounding apologetic but sure. Jo stared, temporarily speechless.
"Sarakiel needs my help," Lorael continued, reaching out a hand and then pulling it back when Jo flinched away. "Heaven is in disarray, Castiel is not returning - she faces an impossible task if she can't bring together the rebels with Zachariah's followers. A war, a civil war in heaven, it would be - it would be disastrous."
"Is that what you want?" Jo asked, doing her best to stay calm, frozen and aloof. She didn't succeed. "You want to go back to being a robot up there? You said you wouldn't go back even if they begged you!"
Lorael clutched at Jo's shoulders, meeting her eyes and holding her gaze. "Things will be different in heaven now. I hope there will be room for us all to acknowledge what we feel, but I will come back," she said. "I'm not giving up my body, and I will come back to you after I make sure that my brothers and sisters, those who do still want to be angels, will have a safe home."
"You promised to be with me," Jo protested weakly, hating herself for the smallness of her voice.
Lorael closed her eyes for a long moment, and then spoke. "I always thought Anael would be there to help," she said in a pained voice. "Without her, Sarakiel needs me."
Lorael opened her eyes and met Jo's gaze, sorrow and regret and sacrifice bleeding through her expression. Jo couldn't be selfish then, even though her heart sank and she didn't believe she would ever see Lorael again if she left now. How could Jo compare to a brand new heaven? She felt the loss of Anna all over again, and the vision of her future she'd been almost looking forward to crumbled into pieces in her mind.
"Right," she said out loud, and smiled shakily, closing her eyes to stop the tears. Lorael pressed soft lips against her temple and stepped back, and when Jo opened her eyes again, Lorael was gone.
Jo straightened her spine and walked back inside.
+++
After those long months full of mess-ups and problems, and things and feelings she'd never encountered before, it wasn't any surprise that Jo didn't have a clue about what to do next once it was over.
Sam was thinking about school again, and Dean was trying to talk him out of it (or at least have a say in where he went) while Castiel tried to talk Dean out of dissuading Sam, and Bobby told them all they were idiots who needed looking after in the worst way. They came by the bar often enough, since the newly revived hunter's network, and the fact that the hunting community mostly trusted them again, meant they could finally think about a home base instead of constantly being on the move. When they were around Jo felt a little better, if still mostly directionless.
She missed Anna more than she'd ever missed anyone before, and it kept her from thinking about the future in any real way. They'd known each other for less than a year, but she kept turning to catch Anna's eye and share a joke about Castiel's mostly-faked-now cluelessness or an eye-roll over something stupid Dean did or said, and every time Jo was so sure Anna would be looking back that when she wasn't it would hit her all over again. It didn't help that despite her last words to Jo, Lorael never showed up or sent word. Jo guessed that being home in heaven had felt more important than remembering a wild, half-baked promise to a mere mortal. She dreamt every night, and then wished she hadn't when she woke up reaching her arms out for Lorael or for Anna, she wasn't sure which, and never found anything but emptiness next to her on her bed.
Dean tried to cheer her up with well-meant jokes about wingmen and helping her find a new girl, which didn't help at all. Jo suspected they were also meant to be a way for Dean himself to avoid thinking about the fact that Anna had died for them all. Sam's outrage at Dean's audacity did help a little, though, even if the pity and understanding she saw in his eyes every time he looked at her made her want to scream. She also couldn't help but feel a little jealous of both Winchesters, ridiculous as it was, because Castiel had stayed, had chosen humanity even when he'd been offered a full angelic power-up from Sarakiel. It wasn't the same, not exactly, but it wasn't different enough to keep her from feeling it.
She helped her mom at the bar, to keep herself busy. Ellen put up with her pouting for a while, but soon enough, she started in on the motherly nudging. Jo sat in the backroom one night, a month after the end, messing around online and actually thinking about school or a real job. Ellen came in and sat next to her, pulling her into a one-armed hug, and it said a lot about her mental state that Jo let it happen without protest.
"I know you miss her," Ellen said softly, "and Lora, too. But maybe it's time you stopped mooching off your old mom and did something to make yourself happy."
Jo smiled faintly. "I know, I'm just kinda stuck trying to figure out what I want next." She didn't add that she mainly had trouble with that concept because she wanted Anna and Lorael there to tell her what they thought, but Ellen probably knew that anyway. Jo hadn't made a major decision without feedback or argument from at least one of them for a long while. If Lorael had stayed, they could have tried things, found their paths together. The prospect of doing it alone seemed pointless and daunting now that she'd had a taste of partnership.
Ellen pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Maybe you don't need to know exactly what you want," her mom said. "Maybe you just need to start experimenting and stop waiting on someone else to prod you along. You aren't the mellow kind anyway, it's not in your genes."
It was true - stubborn and independent was more her style than this aimlessness she'd been nursing. Easier didn't equal better, and it definitely wasn't as fun. Back to the basics, Jo thought to herself, imagining the look on Anna's face if she could have seen Jo being so introspective.
"No," she replied out loud. "No, I guess I'm not."
About a week later, Jo watched a gorgeous sunset from the wooden bench out behind the bar. She'd decided to move on in the morning, check in with Bobby, maybe see if Missouri had any need for her help. She wasn't sure of the specifics of this plan yet, but she figured if she started traveling she'd eventually find out where she was headed. Her mom was right, not that Jo would ever tell her that. It was time.
Sunk deep in her thoughts, she didn't notice her company until she heard her name, low and soft in a familiar voice.
"Jo."
It was Lorael.
Her throat constricted and her mouth felt too dry to form words, so she just stared at Lorael's familiar face, her hawk-like nose and smooth brown skin. She looked nervous and slightly defiant, her dark eyes wide and her mouth tight with tension, and that spark of her rebellious nature pushed Jo out of her stupor and made her forget why she should have been mad at Lorael's sudden appearance weeks after she'd said she would be back.
"This just a visit, or should I expect to see you around more often?" Jo asked slowly. "Because I need to know if - if you really do want this." Jo tried to put all of her uncertainty and her hope into the words.
"I'm back for good," Lorael said, her voice steady. "Heaven is on its way to repair, and if you'll have me, I won't leave again, not willingly."
Jo must have telegraphed something with her expression, because Lorael knelt and touched her cheek. "I promise," she whispered. "I don't know what will happen, if I will stay an angel or slowly fade, but I don't care, Jo, I don't."
"Okay," Jo managed, shocked to feel herself trembling. She reached for Lorael's face and drew her in, kissing her with all the hope she'd been trying to squash down for weeks.
Lorael kissed back, her hand never leaving Jo's cheek. She pulled away after a moment, though, and laughed, her face relaxing into a wide smile. "And here I thought I'd have to grovel for at least a week," she said, standing up and stepping back until she stood between Jo's knees, looking down. Jo felt a sharp pang of longing as she kept Lorael in her space and met her gaze.
Lorael's eyes turned serious again and she didn't blink as she spoke. "I'm sorry it took so long for me to come back - I meant every word I said before, but things were so hectic and Sarakiel needed help managing…" she trailed off, realizing from Jo's hopefully not too besotted expression that her excuses weren't necessary.
Jo stared back steadily. "Sit down, then," she said. "We're planning my future."
Lorael reached out and ran a long-fingered hand through Jo's hair, then took Jo's hand in hers and sat down on the bench. Jo tightened her fingers around Lorael's and looked out at the brand new world she'd helped to create, and thought about how many choices she had, how amazing things could be.
It felt good. It felt like a beginning.
The end.
+++
The drive to Chicago went faster than Jo had thought it might. If Dean hadn't been so happy to avoid angelic transport, she would have fought harder against Missouri's insistence that they go alone, with no supernatural help. When they got through Kansas City, and then Springfield, without encountering any traffic or state troopers, despite Dean driving at least twenty over the speed limit the entire time, Jo concluded that they were getting help from someone. She wasn't sure if it was an angel, or Death, or just plain dumb luck, but she was grateful for it anyway.
It had taken a while for Jo and Dean to get away from the farmhouse and all the protests against their solo mission. In the end, Missouri had written down all the info she'd seen about it and hustled them both out of the house and into the Impala, ignoring Ellen and everyone else. Jo wasn't exactly looking forward to what her mom would probably have to say when they got back, and she hadn't even been able to talk to Lorael before they left. Anna had pulled her in for a hug and a whispered "good luck," before leaving to prepare for her own mission.
When they reached the address Missouri had given them, Dean swore. "Fuck, this can't be it." He parked anyway, carefully away from the one or two other cars in the lot, which Jo found kind of obsessive in that (mostly) endearing way Dean had about him.
"Why is Death hanging around a strip mall?" Jo murmured, mostly to herself as they walked up to the stores.
Dean's voice sounded choked. "Uh, not just a strip mall - look at the store number Missouri wrote down."
"Hot Topic? What the hell?"
Jo swallowed uneasily. The entire mall was deserted, at least, which meant no one was around to witness them going in. Inside, the store looked exactly like a typical Hot Topic, and Jo suffered a flashback to ninth grade and begging her mom to let her wear black lipstick and hot pink miniskirts. Dean looked like he might be sick, which made Jo feel a little better. They both saw the door almost immediately, large and ornate in the back of the store, out of place with the space around it. When Jo opened it, they saw a huge, almost empty room.
Jo looked through the doorway warily, and when she didn't see anyone, stepped cautiously inside. Dean kept pace with her and they made their way to the table in the center of the space. Two chairs stood on one side of the table, while a more elaborate one was settled on the other side. It was a fairly clear sign, and after Dean and Jo had a silent conversation via facial expressions about it, they each sat in one of the simpler chairs.
Death, when it entered the room, made Jo laugh. She couldn't help it, and Death didn't seem offended, just twirled a little in the short black skirt and flipped a pigtail behind her shoulder as she sat down in her chair. Her hair was dark, and she was wearing a Hello Kitty t-shirt and elbow gloves. She put two different pairs of knee socks on the table in front of her.
"I can't decide if I should go purple or stay with classic black," Death said, wrinkling her nose.
"Wow," Dean managed to say, and Jo laughed again at the look on his face.
"Isn't that whole look a little cliché?" Jo asked, feeling brave, which was probably stupid, but this whole encounter was stupid, so what did she have to lose?
Death, wearing the body of what looked like a sixteen-year-old goth girl, looked at Jo then, and she suddenly felt the fear she should have had all along when those eyes fixed on hers, fathomless and ancient.
"I'm older than you can comprehend," Death said. "I like to appear young, every now and then." She nodded to herself decisively. "Purple. What's the point if I can't have fun with it?"
Dean and Jo didn't argue, because neither of them were quite stupid enough to pick a fight with Death, no matter what she happened to be wearing.
"You're moving much quicker than I'd hoped," Death said, setting the socks aside and assuming a serious manner that didn't seem as out of place with her appearance as it should have. "I had thought I might have to send the dreams more than once, but you picked up on my message right away."
"Glad to be of service," Dean replied, only half sarcastically, and Death grinned sharply at him.
"Well," Death said, "it is good to know that the saviors of humanity aren't entirely stupid. To get right to the point, Lucifer has overstepped his boundaries for the last time, and I want out, but I couldn't come to you, you had to come to me. My agreement with Lucifer is no longer useful or beneficial, but he's using loopholes to keep me trapped."
Jo shifted uneasily in her chair. She didn't say it, but she wondered on how earth Lucifer could be more powerful than Death.
Death looked at her and shrugged. "Lucifer wasn't always so annoying," she said, and great, Death could read minds. "I went along with his ideas for a while, to see where it would get me, but I'm bored now. Everything always ends with me, no matter what else happens beforehand.
"Anyway, I shouldn't be tethered to Lucifer's madness, so I freely give this ring to you. I assume you know what to do with it." Death held out her ring, heavy and dull in her palm, but when Dean stretched out his hand to take it, she held it just out of reach.
"There is a condition," she said, and Jo slumped in her seat. Of fucking course there was a condition.
"My firstborn?" Jo asked, and Dean laughed. Death frowned at her, and even though it shouldn't have been intimidating to have a tiny goth girl scowl at her, Jo flinched away at the look.
"A favor," Death said. "I can't say precisely when or what, but should I call on you in the future, I will expect you to come."
Jo and Dean exchanged glances, and Jo sighed. A vague future favor was better than immediate disaster, so she nodded her acceptance and Dean followed suit.
"Done." Death's voice rang out, deeper than her body alone could have produced, and Jo felt a shiver run down her spine at the word. Dean looked equally uncomfortable.
"Just to clarify," Dean said, when Death stood without saying anything else, "you're not going to kill everyone in town, right?"
Death smiled, her teeth gleaming against her black lipstick. "I suppose not," she answered. "You should leave before I change my mind. Once I've gotten a new outfit put together, I'm not going to have much to do for entertainment."
They left. Jo felt pretty sure that what had just happened was the kind of miracle or coincidence that only occurred once in a lifetime, and she didn't want to look too closely at the details for fear it would fall apart.
She did whine when Dean insisted that they had to go straight back. Eight hours in the Impala might be fun for Dean, but Jo was not looking forward to it.
When Jo and Dean finally made it back to the farmhouse after taking turns driving and napping, they were both dead on their feet (and getting Dean to let her drive - that hadn't been fun). Everyone else had returned already, and Pestilence and Famine's rings were safely residing in one of Bobby's magically-fortified lockboxes. Ellen had hugged Jo tightly, her lips in a thin line, but her eyes proud. While Bobby and Sarakiel recounted what had happened with each Horseman, Jo listened with half an ear, only really noticing Sam's silence. Sarakiel seemed to be carefully choosing her words, and Jo knew that something must have gone wrong. But they'd all gotten back safely, Anna had told her that as soon as she'd walked through the door, so Jo couldn't bring herself to care about the details. They had the rings, and that was all that mattered.
Dean told their story, with Sam interrupting every few minutes to verify details, but Jo was too distracted looking for Lorael to really pay attention. By the time Dean was winding down his explanation, Lorael still hadn't gotten there, and Anna must have noticed how on edge Jo was, because she grabbed Jo's hand and gave it a squeeze.
"She'll be here, soon," she whispered, and then Lorael appeared in the doorway. Anna looked pleased with her own excellent timing, but Jo only saw Lorael and the way her eyes moved restlessly around the room until they found Jo. Lorael practically ran across the room and crushed Jo in a very uncomfortable and unexpected hug as soon as she saw where Jo was sitting.
"Don't ever do that again," she growled, and then let Jo go, who felt dazed, trying to decide if that had just happened. Lorael strode back across the room to the far wall.
"Now you know how it feels when people run off for dangerous missions all willy-nilly," Jo grumbled, very conscious of the fact that the whole room was staring at them, but Lorael ignored her.
"I don't want this," she said.
Jo blinked, still trying to clear her vision. "You don't want what? And hello, by the way."
"It's not the right time," Lorael replied quietly, coming back to Jo's side. "There is too much at stake and I can't make this decision now."
Jo started getting annoyed. She wasn't exactly at full strength, physically or mentally, her mother and Bobby and the goddamn Winchesters were listening to every word she and Lorael were saying, and she didn't have the stamina to handle cryptic angelic messages. She reached out and laid a hand on Lorael's shoulder, as much to steady herself as to get Lorael's attention.
"Please just tell me what you mean," she asked.
Lorael met Jo's gaze with her eyes and Jo sucked in a deep breath at the longing in them. "Oh," she said, desperately hoping she was the only one who could see Lorael's face. She hadn't really entertained the possibility that Lorael might feel something other than friendship for her, hadn't let her mind wander into what she assumed were unachievable fantasies. Seeing Lorael looking at her like that, like Jo was everything she wanted, almost took Jo's breath away.
"When this is over," Lorael said softly.
Jo nodded. "When this is over," she repeated. She might have tried for some clarification, or to get them into a different room for a private conversation, but her phone rang, the display flashing Missouri's name on the screen, and almost at the same time, Castiel blinked into the room next to Lorael. They both needed to hear the Death story, and Jo and Lorael were pulled apart for the rest of the day and night.
Jo kept the look she'd seen on Lorael's face close to her thoughts, even through the strategy sessions and unending phone calls and well-meaning lectures from her mother that night. It gave her the energy she needed to keep going, and every once in a while, Lorael would find a way to look at her and share a small, private smile. Jo couldn't help but feel as if they wouldn't actually be able to wait.
+++
Exhausted though she was, Jo slept restlessly, and woke up early. The day was spent talking to everyone imaginable about the different parts everyone would have to play, and it went by so quickly she couldn't even remember everything she'd done when she went to bed. The next morning, it seemed like the whole day would be more of the same, and Jo finally lost it in the late afternoon while arguing with Dean and Sam about something so stupid she couldn't even remember how it had started.
"Can we just fucking do this?" she yelled, loud enough for Bobby and Missouri to interrupt their conversation over in the corner and stare at her. "I mean it, we've got everything in place. Let's just have a final run-through, and do it tomorrow. We have to strike while Lucifer might still not know what we're up to."
Dean grinned at her, their disagreement forgotten on his end as well. "Hell, yes," he said. "Hang on, I'll grab everyone."
That turned out to take a long time, and when Ellen insisted that the humans eat before any planning happened, Jo almost despaired of ever getting started. Castiel, Anna and Lorael left for important angel business, which Jo was pretty sure actually meant deserting Jo in her hour of need to go have fun. Eventually, though, the angels came back, and Missouri and Ellen herded everyone into the dining room, and once they all managed to fit around the long dining room table, Anna took charge.
"We know where and when this needs to happen," she said. "Now we just need to figure out the details of how."
"I think I have a solution for the rings," Missouri offered. "From what Sarakiel tells me, Lucifer will be able to tell the exact moment we spring the trap and he'll shut it again, and that won't work for us. But I think we'll be able to use a spell to mask the rings, and the opening to hell."
Sam looked intrigued. "How?" he asked. "I'm pretty sure most spells don't work on him."
Missouri smiled. "That's why we worked Enochian sigils into the standard masking spell. It's worked so far on every angel I've tried it with. As soon as I cast the spell, they're unable to sense the rings at all."
"We can eventually break through the spell, however," Sarakiel said. "It's taken an hour or so for most of us, but Lucifer will be much stronger. Once he realizes that something is being masked from him, he'll put everything he has into breaking it. And he has to be expecting us to try something like this."
"Faster, like, five minutes and we're toast faster?" Dean asked.
Sarakiel and Missouri shared a glance, and Missouri replied. "Yes, but the spell increases in power if more people are involved in the casting, and distance won't be much of a factor. If we have everyone who is capable cast and hold the spell at the same time, it will last longer."
"How many people?" Bobby asked, and Ellen snorted. Jo smiled, knowing exactly what her mom was thinking.
"As many as we know," Ellen said. "We can have every hunter in the US do it. At least half of them'll be willing to do that even if they couldn't or wouldn't come here to help in person."
"And Missouri knows lots of psychics," Jo said, looking at Missouri to make sure she wasn't presuming too much.
"Yes, I do," Missouri said. "And they're all on board."
"How much time can they give us?" Castiel asked.
"I hope an hour," replied Missouri. "But I can't do a test run of this, so I wouldn't count on more than twenty minutes."
Dean sighed. "Okay. Twenty minutes to lure Lucifer to the right place, open the trap, get him in, and get the hell out of dodge. We can do that."
"Yeah," Sam said slowly, and Jo could tell Dean wouldn't like whatever Sam was going to say. "I'm the bait, then, I guess."
"No fucking way," Dean retorted immediately, to absolutely no one's surprise.
Sam's forehead creased. "We need him to be there are exactly the right moment, Dean. He'll come if he thinks he has a chance to get me to say yes, even if he knows it's a trap."
"Winning doesn't include letting you become Lucifer's prom dress, Sammy," Dean growled.
Jo broke in before Sam could protest. "Sam is the bait, yeah, but he won't be the one setting the trap. You guys are the ones Lucifer will be after. If Sam puts on a good show, and gets Lucifer to the right spot, someone else can have the rings set up and ready to go, outside of anyone's notice."
Ellen smiled, a tinge of bitterness warring with pride in her eyes. "Are you the "someone else" in this scenario?"
"Yes," Jo said decisively, surprising herself. "I'm the best choice. I don't have any other important role to play, I can learn the spell to open the trap, and I'm small and easy to miss."
No one could contradict her logic, but Dean still made a token protest. "It should be me," he said. "I started this, I should finish it."
"We can't forget about Zachariah," Castiel put in then, glaring at Dean until he stopped grumbling. "He will be focused on you, Dean, and you won't be able to be as discreet as will be needed. Zachariah will also do his best to find an alternate vessel for Michael, and either way, he and the angels loyal to him will fight us, especially after they realize we plan to trap Lucifer instead of killing him."
"That's where I come in," Lorael said from her place across the table from Jo. "We have thirty angels now, who no longer believe Zachariah's lies and are able to fight without a borrowed human vessel. We'll keep him occupied - the chance to recapture the rebels will be one he can't pass up."
Dean grinned. "Man, I really wish I could watch that. He needs his ass kicked so badly."
Lorael grinned back, and Jo was sort of surprised at how similarly bloodthirsty their faces were. Mostly, however, she was only surprised at herself for not noticing that sooner. Apparently she had a type, and it had nothing to do with gender.
"What we need to do," Bobby said, "is get them fighting each other. There are gonna be a lot of demons for just our little group of hunters to take care of, but if some of the angels would fight them and not us, we'd probably do okay."
"The angels under Zachariah's control will kill demons, but they won't discriminate against anyone in their path," Sarakiel said. "All the human hunters should stay clear of the angels if possible, or make sure to have a demon in between them and any angels."
They all hashed over the details more times than Jo would have thought possible, until she was sitting slumped over in her chair, focusing on Lorael's passionate speeches more for the shape of her mouth as it moved than for what she said. Ellen finally called it quits for all of them at midnight when Bobby started literally growling instead of talking.
"Okay," Ellen said, her voice cutting through all the conversation. "Those of us who are still human need to get some sleep, and we all know what we're doing tomorrow. No point in talking it to death now."
The angels were all camped out in one of the out-buildings, and Anna and Lorael left together, smiling at Jo on their way out. Jo stood to make her way to her own small room, but Dean snagged her arm as she passed him in the doorway.
"What's wrong?" she asked, searching his face. He looked tired, but almost hopeful, something he hadn't seemed to be in a long time.
"Nothing," he said. "I just, uh, wanted to say that you - you've been doing a real good job with all of this, and I'm," he broke off and ran his hand over his face before continuing. "Fuck it, I'm sorry for treating you like a kid before."
"It's okay," Jo said softly, even though she sort of wanted to tease him for it. "I know it can be hard to see me as an adult."
"Well, people change," he said, looking over her shoulder at something in the hallway. "And that's not always a bad thing."
"Yeah, I guess," Jo said, feeling like she'd lost the thread of the conversation.
"Dean," Castiel's voice called from the hallway, and Dean gave Jo a quick smile.
"Goodnight," he said, and walked away. Jo shook her head and called good night back to him over her shoulder before heading for bed.
+++
Jo kept turning restlessly that night, until she was sure she wouldn't be able to sleep at all. When she snuck carefully outside onto the deck of the old farmhouse, she wasn't surprised to see Lorael standing at the far end, looking out over the empty fields beyond. She was surprised when Lorael turned, clear tear tracks on her face.
"What's wr - " Jo began, and then stopped as Lorael walked to her with quick, determined steps. She took Jo's face in her hands, and Jo couldn't do anything but stare, breath quickening and palms heavy at her sides.
"I don't want to wait," Lorael said, and kissed Jo with desperate ferocity. Jo could feel all her own pent up fear and desire and uncertainty welling up at the sensation, too much to push back down, and she kissed back as hard she could.
Lorael's arms wrapped around her body, one hand low on Jo's hip and the other rubbing almost frantically at her upper back. Jo had to tilt her face up to accommodate their embrace, and finally managed to move her own arms, using them to pull Lora even closer as they kissed. Her body couldn't process all of the things she was feeling and her brain felt fuzzy. Lora pushed her toward the nearest wall easily, and the reminder that Lora wasn't human, that the person kissing her could snap her neck with no effort, only made her want Lora even more.
Lora pulled back when she realized that they'd hit the side of the house. "I'm sorry," she murmured, in between pressing small, soft bites to Jo's neck. "I know I said I couldn't, but I keep thinking that you might not be here tomorrow night, and how short and temporary your whole life is next to mine, how I might not even be able to keep this body or survive myself, and I can't face it without knowing what you feel like, what you taste like."
Jo rolled her hips into Lora, barely hearing the words over the roaring in her head. She might have tried to argue about the supposed fragility of her human lifespan, but nothing seemed worth losing Lora's mouth on her body. Lora pushed her flannel shirt down her arms and let it fall to the ground, and it wasn't until Lora began to pull her tank top up that Jo remembered where they were.
"We can't do this here," she protested, not wanting to stop, but not really wanting to get any surprise visitors, either.
Lora paused in her attempt to get Jo naked and glanced around them, as if she'd forgotten where they were as well. Her face was flushed, her dark eyes hungry, and Jo wanted nothing more than to see exactly what Lora planned to do to her.
"Do you trust me?" Lora said, and what kind of question was that, Jo thought, as she replied "of course," and then the world twisted around her. When she could see again, she was standing in a nondescript hotel room, nicer than Jo usually stayed in, bland art on the walls, and more importantly, an empty, clean bed. Jo almost giggled at the ridiculousness of an angel breaking into a hotel room for sex.
Lora still held Jo tightly around her waist.
"Is this what you want?" she asked, running a hand lower and lower down Jo's back, skirting the waistband of her loose pajama pants.
"Fuck, yes," Jo panted, and pulled Lora with her to the bed, pausing only to finish pulling her tank top off, glad that she hadn't been wearing a bra. Lora watched as she tossed it onto a chair, and Jo flushed even harder as she stood in front of Lora almost naked, her nipples hard and her breath catching.
"Your turn," she managed to say, because this wasn't going to work unless Lora took off at least a few pieces of her clothing. Lora smiled, a dangerous glint in her eyes, and blinked once. Her shirt and jeans disappeared, along with the band that had been holding her hair back and any underwear she might have been wearing, and Jo sat down on the bed weakly, staring.
"That's a novel use for angelic powers," Jo said, and Lora laughed.
"It's my favorite one, now, I think," she said, and climbed onto the bed on her knees, pulling Jo up and kissing her again. It was even better now that Jo could feel the swell of Lora's bare breasts against her own, could reach down and rub her hand down Lora's angular hip, and then back up to her waist. She had worried, a little, that she wouldn't know what to do with a woman's body, but her fears had been pointless. Her body knew what to do, and she didn't resist the pull of her desire, just followed as it led her to kiss down Lora's neck to her breasts, relishing the moans that fell from Lora's throat as Jo lightly kissed one of her nipples.
Lora's eyes glittered at her in the dark, and she lay back against the pillows, pulling Jo with her.
"More," she gasped, and Jo wasn't going to stop any time soon. She could feel the heat coming from her cunt start to spread outward, and the slickness that came with it, and wondered if she should take off her bottoms before they were soaked. She ignored the thought to focus on Lora's nipples, tugging first one, then the other with her teeth, but Lora took care of it for her, pulling at her pants and getting them down around her ankles.
Jo settled her body between Lora's thighs, propped on one elbow with her other hand rubbing slow circles into one of Lora's nipples, and couldn't resist grinding her pelvis against Lora's, nothing between them but the thin cotton of her underwear. It was a good decision. Lora hissed and attacked Jo's neck with her teeth, hard and just enough, pushing up to match Jo's thrusts.
"Yes," she panted, "I want to feel you everywhere."
Jo couldn't speak, not for her life, but she obliged by shifting onto her side to the left of Lora's legs and moving her right hand down Lora's stomach to the damp curls at her crotch, and her own hips stuttered when she felt the heat emanating from Lora's cunt. Her finger dipped inside the wet folds and Jo's heart pounded in her ears in time with Lora's audible breathing. She kept her touch light and teasing, just trying to learn what Lora liked, until Lora growled and grabbed her hand, pushing her fingers to Lora's clit insistently.
"There," Lora moaned. "Touch me there, don't make me wait, please."
Jo had almost forgotten that this was new to Lora as well, that she hadn't had any kind of sex before. At least Jo knew what an orgasm would feel like, and that she would be able to have another one after the first.
"I'm sorry," she whispered against Lora's ear, shifting her left arm underneath Lora's shoulders to hold her close, and moving the fingers of her other hand in fast, rhythmic circles over Lora's clit. "Like that?"
"Yes," Lora managed, her hips pushing up into Jo's hand with such force that Jo almost couldn't keep her hold on Lora's shoulders, as her whole body shuddered and shook. Jo couldn't tell how long it took, too caught up in her own desire, but eventually Lora threw her head back and ground up into Jo's hand with graceless jerks as she came. Jo watched her face greedily, drinking in the whimpers and the short burst of "oh - oh - oh" from Lora's mouth as she slowly relaxed back into Jo's hold. Lora smiled, her eyes closed for a long moment as she recovered, and when she opened them to look up at Jo, they were huge and dark.
"What do you want?" Lora asked quietly, running her hand up and down Jo's neck, and Jo had no idea how to answer.
"What?" she managed, tilting her neck to give Lora's hand, and then her soft kisses, better access. Her whole body buzzed insistently with arousal, and she wasn't sure she could give voice to any of it articulately.
"What do you want me to do to you?" Lora repeated, and Jo flushed hot. "Do you want my mouth, my hands?"
"Whatever you want," Jo replied, suddenly nervous and unsure in the face of Lora's complete confidence. "Aren't you supposed to be new at this?"
Lora laughed, a low, husky sound. "I have been in existence for longer than you can imagine. What I don't know in practice, I can extrapolate from the theory."
Jo grinned. "Okay," she said, shifting to lie on her back and pulling Lora up to press against her side. She took Lora's hand and pressed it against her cunt, biting back a small moan. "Use your hands."
Lora stared intently at her own hand, moving swiftly to find Jo's clit, then shuddered with Jo when her finger pressed against it.
"Put a finger in me," Jo managed to say around her closed-up throat, and Lora kissed her hard and did as directed, one long finger pushing into Jo with a steady movement. Jo felt herself stretching around it and began moving her hips in tiny circles, almost involuntarily, as the pressure of arousal built inside of her. She was already so wet, and almost every movement of Lora's fingers sent another pulse of wet heat through her.
"Yes," she gasped, as Lora used her thumb to press against Jo's clit while she added another finger. Jo's head fell back and her thighs tensed, the pleasure she felt only enhanced by the stretch of Lora's fingers thrusting more and more quickly. Lora sat up without moving her hand and knelt in between Jo's spread legs, using her left hand to tug at Jo's nipples, alternating between both of them. Jo hardly had any time to prepare before it hit her, and she could feel herself clenching hard around Lora's fingers as she came, moaning and moving her hips with Lora's thrusts. She felt Lora still rubbing her clit, aftershocks mixing with the sweet pain of over-stimulation.
"Holy fucking hell," Jo managed, pulling Lora's hand away from her sticky thighs. Without thinking about it, she sucked Lora's wet fingers into her mouth, wanting to taste herself on Lora's hand.
"Oh," Lora said, a shocked, pleased expression on her face. Jo smirked up at her around the fingers, letting them slip almost all the way out. She slid her tongue around them, let Lora push into her mouth the way she'd pushed into her cunt, and then pulled them out, kissing the tips. Jo sat up, pushed Lora back onto the bed, and settled on her stomach, head between Lora's legs.
"So," she said, breathing in the sweet smell of Lora's cunt. "The best thing about having a clit is that you can go again pretty much right away." She looked up at Lora. "I've never done this, but I'm a quick learner, and I've been told I'm pretty good with my mouth."
Lora's hips pushed up, pressing her cunt into Jo's mouth insistently, and Jo went to work. Yeah, Jo thought, as her tongue teased Lora's clit, this having-sex-with-women thing was going to work out just fine.
"I have to tell you something," Lorael said, about two orgasms later, once they had managed to stop touching each other long enough to find a comfortable resting position with Jo curled carefully into Lorael's side, her head on Lorael's shoulder.
Jo tensed at the words, but Lorael smoothed a hand down her arm. "Nothing bad," she said. "At least, I don't think so."
"Then what?" Jo asked, pretty sure that an angel's definition of "not bad" and her own were probably light years apart.
Lorael sighed and pressed a kiss to Jo's hair. "Our bodies, the ones that the angels made for themselves, they - they cannot be kept after the final battle. It takes too much power to keep them as human as possible, without also limiting our abilities, and if we stay in them for much longer, Sarakiel doesn't know what will happen. The angels will have to return to heaven and give up some of the humanity we've gained in order to survive."
Jo froze. "This - wait, this was real, wasn't it?" She could feel Lorael's mouth form a frown against her head, and went on. "You wanted me, you didn't just - your body didn't make you do anything, did it?"
"Of course not," Lorael said. She used one hand to lift Jo's face until their eyes met. "I want you with all that I am, body and spirit. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you that right now, I just… needed you to know everything."
"Then tell me everything," Jo replied, still not sure if she could relax, the warmth she felt at Lora's declaration not quite enough to assuage her paranoia. "What will happen to you?"
"I don't know," Lorael admitted. "I want to stay, if you'll have me, and if I do, I will probably fall, slowly, until I am nothing more than human. Assuming we win, and that Zachariah loses power in heaven."
"I can't ask you to do that," Jo whispered, her heart heavy.
"Then it's a good thing no one said you had to," Lorael snapped back. Her face was defiant, which made Jo ache with affection, but a hint of fear shone in her eyes as well. "It's what I want, Jo. I want to feel as much as I can, to have a body I can love you with, and if I have to be human for that, then so be it."
Jo raised her hand and pulled Lorael down to her mouth, kissing her with desperation. When they pulled apart, Lorael smiled brilliantly.
"Screw heaven," she said, and Jo laughed. "I don't want to go back. I was already cut off from the host anyway, when Zachariah discovered my disobedience. I made this choice a long time ago."
"I do," Jo whispered, overwhelmed with gratitude and worry and love, hiding her face in Lorael's neck. "I do, uh, love you. I want you to stay." Lorael wrapped an arm tightly around her back, and they didn't say anything further as they rested.
"The earth trembled and the heavens dropped," Lorael said into the silence sometime later, and Jo shivered.
"What does that mean?" she asked sleepily.
Lorael smiled, looking over Jo's shoulder at nothing Jo could see. "It's something I said once, a long, long time ago during a different battle. It means we're going to do it," she replied. "We'll succeed, and the world will be safe again."
Jo could almost believe it when Lora said it like that.
+++
When Jo crawled back into her tiny closet of a room, it was very late, or very early. Lorael had insisted that Jo needed to sleep, alone, and Jo had grumpily agreed to spend the night back at the farmhouse. Anna appeared in the doorway as Jo was just turning off the bedside light, and Jo jumped in surprise, nearly falling off the bed.
"Fuck," she whispered as loudly as she dared. "I thought everyone was still asleep."
Anna giggled, a sound which Jo still found slightly disconcerting when it came from an angel. "Angels don't sleep, you know that. So, Lora finally jumped you, huh?"
"Really?" Jo asked. "The world could end tomorrow, and you want to spend the night having girltalk?"
Anna shrugged and flopped down on the narrow bed with Jo. "What better time? We know what’s going to happen tomorrow, and there's nothing else we can do to prepare. We might as well have fun."
Jo couldn't really argue with that logic. "I guess," she said, tucking her legs under her chin.
Anna smiled widely. "It sounds like some of us already had a little fun."
"Anna!"
"Did I ever tell you that Dean and I had sex once?"
"What?" Jo spluttered and almost choked on her own spit. "When?"
"It was last night on earth sex," Anna replied. "Literally - I became an angel again the next day."
"Okay," Jo said. "That actually explains a lot about the way Dean acts around you. I don't think he's used to seeing his one night stands more than once."
Anna smiled. "It's pretty funny, isn't it?"
"You don't," Jo began, and then halted, unsure if she should continue.
"I don't what?" Anna asked.
"You don't, um, want him still?" Jo asked, wincing at how awkward she sounded.
Anna shook her head. "No. I may not be a robot angel, but I've been focusing on this battle for too long to have time for that kind of worry. I admire Dean, but we had our chance, and it's gone now."
Jo couldn't help it, she really couldn't. "So, how was it?"
Anna laughed, but then she actually answered, and that was how Jo ended up spending the night before the end of the world gossiping with an angel until she was too tired to keep her eyes open.
+++
When Jo finally made it outside in the morning, having quickly downed a piece of toast, Lorael and Anna were waiting for her in the long driveway. She would be driving them to the abandoned field they'd chosen as their battleground, and she wanted to get going as soon as possible. Missouri had left already with some of her psychic friends to find a safe-but-close location in which to set up their operation, and Ellen, Bobby and several other hunters were loading up their cars. Sam and Dean were arguing about something in front of the Impala as Castiel watched them with a slightly amused expression, which Jo was pretty sure he'd learned from Anna.
Anna smirked suggestively at Jo when she reached her car, and Lorael glared at Anna and pulled Jo into a surprisingly passionate kiss, considering it was seven am, and Jo's mother was watching. Jo went with it, though, unable to resist the pull of Lorael's lips as she relived flashes of the night before.
"Oh my god," Dean said loudly, distracting Jo from the kiss. "You're a lesbian now?"
"Shut up, Dean," Sam stage-whispered.
Lorael just kept holding Jo close, not kissing, but with their foreheads touching, and Jo found it easier than she would have thought to ignore their audience. It wasn't exactly the way she would have chosen to come out to her friends and family, but it sure beat sitting everyone down and having a fucking conversation about it.
"Don't tell me to shut up," Dean protested. "Lesbians!"
Jo laughed, and finally turned away from Lorael. "You're a pervert," she told Dean.
Dean just kept staring, until Ellen hit him on the back of the head.
"If you don't stop it," she warned, "you won't be able to enjoy anything sex-related once I'm through with you."
Jo shook her head at Dean. "You do realize that angels don't technically have a gender?" she asked. "I guess that makes me more of an angel-sexual than a lesbian right now."
Dean blinked. "So? She's hot, you're hot, what else can I say?"
"I don't understand your prurient interest in two female bodies having sex," Lorael said.
"The answer's in the question," Dean muttered, ducking when Ellen went to hit him again.
"Stop over-compensating, Dean." Sam said with a sigh.
"Really?" Bobby said. "We're about to stop the apocalypse, and you're making gay jokes?"
Jo laughed, and even the thought that she might be about to die couldn't diminish her joy in that simple moment. She stuck her tongue out at Dean and pulled Lorael away to her car, and laughed again when Anna gave Dean a meaningful look and his face went red. She stopped when Ellen came over, and Lorael stepped back tactfully.
"You sure about this?" Ellen asked, her face warm and knowing and concerned. "And it's safe, for both of you?"
Jo smiled and hugged her mother tightly. "Yes," she said. "Yes, I'm sure."
+++
Jo clutched the rings in her pocket, unwilling to let go of them for fear she'd lose one. She didn't want the apocalypse to happen because she had a hole in her jeans. Ahead of her, placing themselves strategically in the empty field, Sam and Dean got ready to call down the angels and Lucifer. Lorael and Sarakiel were still masking their presence, wanting to keep themselves (and Bobby, Ellen, Missouri and the other human hunters) back until they were needed.
Anna and Castiel stood by Dean, Anna glaring defiantly at the sky and Castiel focused on Dean, both ready to fight as soon as Zachariah appeared.
Jo closed her eyes briefly, and went to stand closer to Sam, skin tingling as the masking spell covered the rings. She whispered the incantation for the portal over and over again under her breath, and Dean caught her eye and grinned when he saw it. Jo smiled back, a poor attempt of a smile, anyway, and nodded once. Sam touched her shoulder awkwardly, then closed his eyes to summon Lucifer while Dean muttered a less-than-holy prayer at Zachariah.
And then everything happened at once. Jo was peripherally aware of the angels arriving, could hear the shouts and clinks of metal that meant the fighting had started, but she focused completely on Sam, and then Lucifer, when he appeared.
Jo did her best to look frightened and unthreatening, which was easier than she would have hoped, since she was actually scared. Up close, Lucifer crackled with power and even her human eyes could sense it. He slid his gaze over her briefly, obviously dismissing her, which she wasn't going to get indignant about - this all hinged on her ability to seem innocuous. Lucifer never looked away from Sam once their eyes met, and the three of them stood almost frozen in the middle of the battlefield, a small pocket of quiet in the noise around them.
Jo counted down the minutes remaining in their safety net, and realized she needed to start opening the trap, but before she could try, Lucifer shot out a hand in her direction. A demon slammed into her, and the ensuing fight dragged her yards away from where she needed to be. A hunter she didn't know helped her exorcise the demon, and Jo smiled a tight thank you before turning and running as fast as she could toward Sam.
As Jo fought her way back, she checked her pocket for the rings again, and nearly panicked when it took her a second too long to close her fingers around them. She started murmuring the words of the spell as she ran, and when she reached the ground directly behind Lucifer, she threw the rings into place.
"Sam," she yelled, as the opening to hell swirled into being in front of her. He and Lucifer, still locked in their intense conversation/battle of wills, both turned to look at her. The spell must have still been in effect, because Lucifer just looked puzzled. Sam wiped a hand through the sweat on his forehead and lunged forward, pushing at Lucifer with all his strength. In that exact second, Jo felt a tingling run through her arms, and Lucifer put out one hand to stop Sam, holding him at an arms-length and staring right at the portal to hell. His eyes were still human-looking, but the rage in them had Jo stepping back a little.
"So it's come to this," Lucifer said calmly, belying the anger in his face as he picked up Sam by the neck. "Sam, I always wanted to believe that you were smarter than your brother, but I see that hope was in vain."
"Sam!" Jo screamed helplessly.
Sam grabbed uselessly at Lucifer's hands, and Jo overcame her shock and ran around the portal to try and help, even though she knew her strength would be useless. Lucifer didn't wait to find out what either of them could have achieved - he tossed Sam away, so far that Jo could barely see where he landed. Lucifer turned back to face the portal, which he could obviously now see.
"You thought this would fool me?" he asked, although Jo was pretty sure he wasn't speaking to her. He was still mostly ignoring her, as if she was so insignificant she wasn't worth the trouble of acknowledgment. She used his disdain to get closer to the portal, hoping to at least keep him from shutting it down.
"You're not as clever as you think, brother," said a clear voice, and Jo nearly fell over in relief as Anna appeared, sword in hand, forcing Lucifer to take a defensive position, caught between Anna and the portal.
Dean was yelling in the background, and Jo could see him racing toward them from where Sam had landed and was now miraculously sitting up with help from Ellen. Anna and Lucifer fought, swords clashing together with heavy thuds of metal and power. Jo watched, and kept one eye on the portal to make sure it stayed open, repeating the words of the spell over and over again. Lucifer seemed to grow taller, and his last lunge knocked Anna's sword away. She weaved in and out carefully, on the defensive, and managed to lure Lucifer closer to the portal. Jo caught her eye, and Anna winked, then lunged forward and hit Lucifer hard against the head. He took the hit, losing control for a second, and Jo spun without hesitation, kicking Lucifer in the back of his knees and knocking him to the edge of the precipice. She felt triumphant for one small moment, and then Lucifer ran Anna through with his sword, white light pouring from the wound. Jo froze, couldn't think, couldn't make her arms or legs work. She opened her mouth to yell for help as Lucifer moved his hand, reaching toward Anna with dark satisfaction in his eyes.
Dean finally reached them at the precise moment that Lucifer's hand fell on Anna's forehead, and Jo watched in horror as Anna burned up in front of her, the image of her wings flashing in the air before Lucifer's body obscured them as Dean pushed him into the hole opened by the rings. The portal closed, and the shadow of Anna's wings settled into the ground. Jo reached a hand to touch them before the image faded, and left her hand in the dirt long after it was gone.
Dean fell back, panting, and stared at Jo, saying something, probably trying to apologize for not getting there in time, but Jo couldn't hear him.
Lucifer was gone for good, and so was Anna.
+++
Jo didn't remember the details after that. She knew, somewhere in the part of her brain that dealt with crises and moved on to the next practical concern, that she had helped clean up the straggling demons left behind when Lucifer fell into the pit. She knew she hadn't faltered, hadn't cried or gone comatose the way she'd wanted to at first. She had said goodbye to Sarakiel, who left with most of the angels to escort the remainder of Zachariah's supporters back to heaven. Jo's next clear memory, though, wasn't of the aftermath of Anna's death or the many small but necessary tasks involved in getting all the wounded taken care of or falling into an exhausted heap when it was all finished, but of waking up in her bedroom above the bar the next morning. She had no idea how she had gotten there.
Sam knelt next to her folded-up body on the bed, shaking her shoulder gently.
"What, what's wrong?" she asked, sleepy and still sure that her nightmares hadn't been real. She seemed to recall Lorael being wrapped around her for most of the night, but it was a hazy thought she couldn't quite grasp now that she was awake.
"You need to eat," Sam said. "You haven't had anything since before - since yesterday, and Ellen will have all our heads if you pass out from hunger."
Jo sat up and pushed her hair behind her ears. "It all happened?"
Sam nodded, his forehead wrinkled in sympathy, and waited while she rummaged for a cleaner shirt in the battered duffle bag sitting on the floor in the corner of the room. He didn't speak again, and neither did she as they walked downstairs to the bar and joined the small group sitting around several tables pushed together in the middle of the room.
Jo remembered more of the previous night now, could recall saying goodbye to Missouri and other people as they headed back to their homes, eager to forget the bad parts and start spreading the story of the apocalypse they helped to prevent. She wished she could be so optimistic, and then she felt guilty when she immediately thought of Lorael, as if being grateful that she and Lorael had both survived was betraying Anna in some way.
Ellen stood when Jo and Sam reached the table, and tugged Jo down into a seat between her and Lorael. Sam collapsed next to Dean at the end of one long bench, resting his head in his arms on the table, and Castiel shared a worried look with Dean. Ellen pushed Jo into Lorael's arms, and then poured them all a shot of the good stuff, but no one moved to take a drink.
Bobby looked them all over after a moment and shook his head. "Alright," he said, raising his glass of whiskey. "To the fallen." He drank deeply, and slammed the glass down.
Dean snorted and grinned, a weak facsimile of his usual charm. "May the fucking devil rot in hell forever," he said, and drank his own shot.
Lorael raised her glass, her other hand clutching tightly to Jo's cold fingers. "May we honor the memory of those we lost," she said solemnly before tipping her glass and swallowing.
They all drank then, and even though she didn't say anything, Jo felt as if she'd just participated in a ceremony, something that would bind her to these people in the future as much as fighting alongside them had.
She shouldn't have let her guard down; she knew that, of course. But it felt as if the worst had come and gone in the days that followed Anna's death, and Jo had trained herself not to think about anything past defeating Lucifer, so she was almost completely unprepared when Lorael pulled her outside one afternoon a week later and broke the peace she'd precariously built up in her mind.
"I have to go," Lorael said, sounding apologetic but sure. Jo stared, temporarily speechless.
"Sarakiel needs my help," Lorael continued, reaching out a hand and then pulling it back when Jo flinched away. "Heaven is in disarray, Castiel is not returning - she faces an impossible task if she can't bring together the rebels with Zachariah's followers. A war, a civil war in heaven, it would be - it would be disastrous."
"Is that what you want?" Jo asked, doing her best to stay calm, frozen and aloof. She didn't succeed. "You want to go back to being a robot up there? You said you wouldn't go back even if they begged you!"
Lorael clutched at Jo's shoulders, meeting her eyes and holding her gaze. "Things will be different in heaven now. I hope there will be room for us all to acknowledge what we feel, but I will come back," she said. "I'm not giving up my body, and I will come back to you after I make sure that my brothers and sisters, those who do still want to be angels, will have a safe home."
"You promised to be with me," Jo protested weakly, hating herself for the smallness of her voice.
Lorael closed her eyes for a long moment, and then spoke. "I always thought Anael would be there to help," she said in a pained voice. "Without her, Sarakiel needs me."
Lorael opened her eyes and met Jo's gaze, sorrow and regret and sacrifice bleeding through her expression. Jo couldn't be selfish then, even though her heart sank and she didn't believe she would ever see Lorael again if she left now. How could Jo compare to a brand new heaven? She felt the loss of Anna all over again, and the vision of her future she'd been almost looking forward to crumbled into pieces in her mind.
"Right," she said out loud, and smiled shakily, closing her eyes to stop the tears. Lorael pressed soft lips against her temple and stepped back, and when Jo opened her eyes again, Lorael was gone.
Jo straightened her spine and walked back inside.
+++
After those long months full of mess-ups and problems, and things and feelings she'd never encountered before, it wasn't any surprise that Jo didn't have a clue about what to do next once it was over.
Sam was thinking about school again, and Dean was trying to talk him out of it (or at least have a say in where he went) while Castiel tried to talk Dean out of dissuading Sam, and Bobby told them all they were idiots who needed looking after in the worst way. They came by the bar often enough, since the newly revived hunter's network, and the fact that the hunting community mostly trusted them again, meant they could finally think about a home base instead of constantly being on the move. When they were around Jo felt a little better, if still mostly directionless.
She missed Anna more than she'd ever missed anyone before, and it kept her from thinking about the future in any real way. They'd known each other for less than a year, but she kept turning to catch Anna's eye and share a joke about Castiel's mostly-faked-now cluelessness or an eye-roll over something stupid Dean did or said, and every time Jo was so sure Anna would be looking back that when she wasn't it would hit her all over again. It didn't help that despite her last words to Jo, Lorael never showed up or sent word. Jo guessed that being home in heaven had felt more important than remembering a wild, half-baked promise to a mere mortal. She dreamt every night, and then wished she hadn't when she woke up reaching her arms out for Lorael or for Anna, she wasn't sure which, and never found anything but emptiness next to her on her bed.
Dean tried to cheer her up with well-meant jokes about wingmen and helping her find a new girl, which didn't help at all. Jo suspected they were also meant to be a way for Dean himself to avoid thinking about the fact that Anna had died for them all. Sam's outrage at Dean's audacity did help a little, though, even if the pity and understanding she saw in his eyes every time he looked at her made her want to scream. She also couldn't help but feel a little jealous of both Winchesters, ridiculous as it was, because Castiel had stayed, had chosen humanity even when he'd been offered a full angelic power-up from Sarakiel. It wasn't the same, not exactly, but it wasn't different enough to keep her from feeling it.
She helped her mom at the bar, to keep herself busy. Ellen put up with her pouting for a while, but soon enough, she started in on the motherly nudging. Jo sat in the backroom one night, a month after the end, messing around online and actually thinking about school or a real job. Ellen came in and sat next to her, pulling her into a one-armed hug, and it said a lot about her mental state that Jo let it happen without protest.
"I know you miss her," Ellen said softly, "and Lora, too. But maybe it's time you stopped mooching off your old mom and did something to make yourself happy."
Jo smiled faintly. "I know, I'm just kinda stuck trying to figure out what I want next." She didn't add that she mainly had trouble with that concept because she wanted Anna and Lorael there to tell her what they thought, but Ellen probably knew that anyway. Jo hadn't made a major decision without feedback or argument from at least one of them for a long while. If Lorael had stayed, they could have tried things, found their paths together. The prospect of doing it alone seemed pointless and daunting now that she'd had a taste of partnership.
Ellen pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Maybe you don't need to know exactly what you want," her mom said. "Maybe you just need to start experimenting and stop waiting on someone else to prod you along. You aren't the mellow kind anyway, it's not in your genes."
It was true - stubborn and independent was more her style than this aimlessness she'd been nursing. Easier didn't equal better, and it definitely wasn't as fun. Back to the basics, Jo thought to herself, imagining the look on Anna's face if she could have seen Jo being so introspective.
"No," she replied out loud. "No, I guess I'm not."
About a week later, Jo watched a gorgeous sunset from the wooden bench out behind the bar. She'd decided to move on in the morning, check in with Bobby, maybe see if Missouri had any need for her help. She wasn't sure of the specifics of this plan yet, but she figured if she started traveling she'd eventually find out where she was headed. Her mom was right, not that Jo would ever tell her that. It was time.
Sunk deep in her thoughts, she didn't notice her company until she heard her name, low and soft in a familiar voice.
"Jo."
It was Lorael.
Her throat constricted and her mouth felt too dry to form words, so she just stared at Lorael's familiar face, her hawk-like nose and smooth brown skin. She looked nervous and slightly defiant, her dark eyes wide and her mouth tight with tension, and that spark of her rebellious nature pushed Jo out of her stupor and made her forget why she should have been mad at Lorael's sudden appearance weeks after she'd said she would be back.
"This just a visit, or should I expect to see you around more often?" Jo asked slowly. "Because I need to know if - if you really do want this." Jo tried to put all of her uncertainty and her hope into the words.
"I'm back for good," Lorael said, her voice steady. "Heaven is on its way to repair, and if you'll have me, I won't leave again, not willingly."
Jo must have telegraphed something with her expression, because Lorael knelt and touched her cheek. "I promise," she whispered. "I don't know what will happen, if I will stay an angel or slowly fade, but I don't care, Jo, I don't."
"Okay," Jo managed, shocked to feel herself trembling. She reached for Lorael's face and drew her in, kissing her with all the hope she'd been trying to squash down for weeks.
Lorael kissed back, her hand never leaving Jo's cheek. She pulled away after a moment, though, and laughed, her face relaxing into a wide smile. "And here I thought I'd have to grovel for at least a week," she said, standing up and stepping back until she stood between Jo's knees, looking down. Jo felt a sharp pang of longing as she kept Lorael in her space and met her gaze.
Lorael's eyes turned serious again and she didn't blink as she spoke. "I'm sorry it took so long for me to come back - I meant every word I said before, but things were so hectic and Sarakiel needed help managing…" she trailed off, realizing from Jo's hopefully not too besotted expression that her excuses weren't necessary.
Jo stared back steadily. "Sit down, then," she said. "We're planning my future."
Lorael reached out and ran a long-fingered hand through Jo's hair, then took Jo's hand in hers and sat down on the bench. Jo tightened her fingers around Lorael's and looked out at the brand new world she'd helped to create, and thought about how many choices she had, how amazing things could be.
It felt good. It felt like a beginning.
The end.