status complete
spoilers minor, but up to Season 5. Jo never died in this AU, though.
background the domestic!au. Jo and Dean are happily married, still (sort of) hunting, and have a boy named Matt.
notice This universe is literally a godsend to me. I've had a couple of drabbles about the married life of Dean and Jo written down for a long while, but I couldn't fit them into a multi-chaptered story. Here's a milder one; Matt is only mentioned but I promise that we will see him in action pretty soon. I have this fear that I'm running out of things to say in those author's notes.

cure for optimism;
tie your heart at night to mine, love, and both will defeat the darkness.

"Well, if it isn't the wayward son," Jo said with a smile, as their bedroom's door opened and Dean walked in. She placed the book she was reading — one of Bobby's books with Greek poems in it; she was brushing up on her Greek — on the nightstand and sat up on the bed, while Dean leaned down and kissed her softly. "Hello there," she greeted lively.

"Hey," he threw back while he started taking off his boots. "How was your day?"

"Same old, same old," she answered with a yawn. "Matt wanted to go to the park, so we drove into town. The whole thing was going well, until he got in a fight with an older kid. Seriously, I don't get what reasons he has for picking up fights. He takes too much after his damn father," Jo said pointedly, earning a laugh from Dean. "I mean it, Dean—you're a bad influence. He's not even five yet and I can already hear him humming Metallica to sleep."

"Not a bad thing, if you ask me. Kid's got taste," Dean said cockily, knowing full well that Jo used to sing REO Speedwagon to their son as a lullaby, in hopes of passing down her music preferences on him. "And I recall someone else being called 'the freak with a knife collection' in college. 'Sides, you socked me in the face the first time we met."

Jo shrugged. "Not my fault you were an ass." Dean rolled his eyes at that and shook his shirt off his shoulders. "Mom called, too. Said she'll drop by sometime next week to see her grandson. Ash said he found something weird on the radar, but they'll wait until it's confirmed before spreading the word."

"A demon?" Dean asked.

Jo pursed her lips. "Not sure. They wouldn't give me details. Did you hear anything?"

"Nope," he offered, reaching down to take off his socks. "I'll do a quick research in the morning. It's too close to home for us to ignore it."

"That's what I said." She sighed and scooted closer to him, sliding her hands up his back and massaging his shoulders. "So, how's Sam?"

"Fine," Dean answered with a low moan of appreciation at her masseuse skills. "Jess is pregnant."

Jo's hands stilled and Dean frowned. "Really? That's great! Do they know what it is already?"

Dean snorted and shrugged his shoulders for her to go back to working on the knots in them. "Nah, she's like three weeks along. Sam's pretty freaked out, too."

"Takes one to know one. I seem to recall that you were no calmer when we had Matt. In fact, you were freaking out more than I was. Must be a Winchester common trait."

"Not my fault he came early," Dean defended himself, leaning into her arms.

"Yeah, right. Like you would've been any calmer if he came on time," Jo argued, but decided to drop the subject. "Where'd you go?"

"Bobby got us a lead in Carthage, Missouri—the town with that factory fire last month. He thought there was a catch. Turns out it was a simple salt and burn case."

Jo rested her head on his shoulder. "Why so disappointed, Dean-o? Hoping for a werewolf or something, weren't you?"

"No." Dean shook his head. "It's just... It's too quiet."

"It's been too quiet since the Apocalypse ended and Sam got back," Jo countered. "You need to relax, Dean. I'm a hunter, too, I can see that you're worried, but Lucifer's gone. It's been four years since we last came across any demon. Don't you think it's finally time you got that burden off your shoulders?"

Dean ran a hand over his face and sighed. "I don't know, Jo. I've been too long on this job. I can't stop thinking that they're holed up somewhere, planning something big."

Jo pulled away and placed a hand on his shoulder, making him turn so that he was facing her. "Even if they are, we've got no leads. Besides, if something was off, don't you think Ash or Bobby would've picked it up? They're like freaking gurus when it comes to the supernatural. And don't forget about Cas. I'm sure that if something was threatening the world's balance, he would've zapped here in the middle of the night to warn us. So, until we have something to actually worry about, how about you stick to mechanics and salt and burning, okay?"

A low rumble rose in Dean's throat as he leaned in and kissed his wife deeply. "Add family on that list and you got yourself a deal," he said, lowering her on the double bed they shared.

Jo chuckled heartily against his lips and slid her arms around him, as their tongues engaged in a dance older than time itself. She felt Dean stifle back a groan, and she rolled them over, so that she was lying on top of him. Dean's hands traveled down the expanse of her back to her hips, and then came back up to get lost in her hair.

Pulling back from their kiss, Jo quickly got rid of his undershirt, exposing his skin to her eyes. Slowly, almost agonizingly slow, her lips detached themselves from his and trailed a path of kisses from his jaw line to his chest. Eliciting hearty groans from her husband, Jo dragged her teeth over his nipples and down to his abs, often poking her tongue out to trace his scar-ridden skin.

When she reached the waistband of his pants, Jo quickly unbuckled his belt and rolled his jeans down his long legs. Discarding his pants, Jo looked up at Dean, mostly expecting to find his eyes half-lidded with lust and desire, and his lush lips parted. What she did find, was far from that.

Dean's mouth was parted indeed, his breath coming out in slow huffs, but his eyes were sealed shut, his brow barely creased, and the tiniest of snores escaped his lips.

Jo resisted the urge to laugh at him. Dean was never one to turn down sex, especially when she was offering to take extra care of him, so the current situation could mean only one thing — he was utterly and completely exhausted.

With a smile on her lips, Jo lay down next to him and drew the blanket up to his neck. Even though she was determined to give him a hard time the next day for leaving her all hot and bothered, she would let him sleep in peace for now.

After all, Jo thought as she wrapped her arms around Dean's warm torso, simply the fact that her Winchester was back in her arms, was reason enough for her to shut up and be the happiest woman alive.

But still, that didn't mean that he would get off the hook that easily.