Jessica Moore: Heart of a Hunter
Chapter 1: Crash and Burn
"What would I do without you?" Sam Winchester asked sweetly, a small smile affixed to his face. Jess like to think of it as her smile. That little grin he saved for her and only her.
She smirked playfully back at him, "Probably crash and burn," she teased, laughing when her boyfriend kissed her across the high-top table. This moment was perfect. This night was perfect. She didn't want it to end. She wanted to stop time right here and now and just breathe in the sweet feeling of the future, their future, sitting there waiting for them to meet it.
But all good things come to an end. And everyone eventually has to crash and burn.
Jess didn't remember much of the fire. Even years later she couldn't recall more than jagged, broken fragments of that last hour. A therapist would have told her it was shock and Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. A hunter would have told her it was a rat-bastard-son-of-a-bitch-yellow-eyed demon's mojo. An angel would have given her a very technical explanation of how that 'mojo' worked. But Jess didn't really care about all that. She was glad she didn't remember much of that final hour. Some things are better not remembered.
The bits she could recollect could be summed up in a handful of words.
Cold.
Fear.
Yellow eyes.
Smothering, hot, crushing agony.
Darkness.
Flames.
And burning.
Burning.
Burning.
Then darkness again.
That should have been the end of Jessica Moore. Sam Winchester believed it to be so. Dean Winchester believed his little brother. The authorities believed that the apartment was fried crispier than McDonald's French fry. No one could have survived. The chances of recovering remains were next to nothing. However, no one bothered to take into account angels. Because, really, angels? Seriously?
But none of that mattered. None of their beliefs and impressions and interpretations of what should have been a tragedy made any difference. Because the apartment burned on a Thursday. And Thursday's angel is particularly proactive. Ask anyone.
….
Jess awoke slowly, dimly aware of the fact that the sheets tangled around her sleeping body smelled slightly off, their texture rough against her skin where hers were smooth. Blindly, she reached for Sam, wanting his warmth and the comfort of his arms around her, part of her already aware of how much everything had changed, even as her brain hadn't really caught up to the learning curve. The deal was sealed when, instead of finding the warm body of her boyfriend within arms' reach, she found the edge of a twin-sized hotel bed and (frigid) empty air. That absence was largely what jolting her awake and sent her sitting bolt upright in bed, shivering as her body registered just how cold the room really was.
Then the guy in the trench coat wandered in and she started swearing.
"What the FUCKING HELL?!" she yelped, awkwardly jumping to her feet on the bed, trying to get her balance and grab a nearby weapon all at the same time. The bedside table lamps were screwed into the wall, so she settled for the alarm clock. It detached from the wall with a satisfying jerk and made quite the nice projectile as it sailed across the room to bounce of the forehead of the creepy trench-coat-wearing-rumpled-suit-dude standing in the bathroom doorway.
He did absolutely nothing in response, jus tilted his head slightly to the side and stared at her with the bluest eyes Jess had ever seen.
That just made her angrier, "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" she shouted, "WHY IN GOD'S NAME DID YOU KIDNAP ME?!"
This finally elicited a response from Trench Coat. "Please do not take my father's name in vain. I did not 'kidnap' you. You are not a baby goat and you are no longer napping. I see no 'kidnapping' here." His tone was completely flat and almost disinterested, but somehow Jess still got the message of 'I am long-suffering, please don't make my life harder.'
Jess' eyes got wide, "Okay, so you're some sort of religious zealot…that set my apartment on fire for some reason… and then abducted me…?" She was scooting closer and closer to the phone, ready to call 911 any minute.
Trench Coat looked perplexed. His head stayed tilted to the side, messy black hair sticking up in every direction. Jess was reminded of a cat. Somehow, despite the intense little staring contest he seemed to have dragged her into, he really wasn't giving off the 'creeper' vibe. More of an 'innocent and confused' air, really. "No, I am not a zealot," he finally said after a long pause. Jess was nodding along, trying to encourage him to stay distracted and talking while she surreptitiously got ahold of the phone, when suddenly he dropped the biggest bombshell of her life. "I am an Angel of the Lord."
Okay, so her abductor was a nutjob. At least he didn't have yellow eyes. The vague memory of those things staring into her soul still made her skin crawl. And she took a theology class last semester, she was pretty sure of her footing as far as angels went. "Alright," she decided to test the little guy, "So which one are you?"
"Which one of what?" more perplexed-kitty-cat-look.
"Which angel. If you're an angel, which one are you? Gabriel, Michael, Raphael…?"
Trench Coat was shaking his head. "None of those. They are archangels. I am not an archangel."
"Are you sure?" she narrowed her eyes at him, "It seems like if you're going to pretend to be an angel, you might as well go for the biggest and the best." 'Smooth move, Jess,' she mentally chastised herself, 'antagonizing the criminal, great thought there.'
"I am an Angel of the Lord," he intoned, as if extra growly severity in his tone of voice would better convince her.
"Yeah, so which one?"
He stared at her even harder, blue eyes burning holes through her soul. Jess held her ground, staring back with equal venom. Finally he seemed cave. "I am Castiel, the Angel of Thursday."
Jess raised an eyebrow, "You made that up," she challenged.
He just looked wounded now. Like she had drop-kicked his puppy in front of a semi-truck and insulted his grandma while doing it. "All souls who ascend to heaven on Thursdays are under my protection."
"So why are you here, if you're such a hotshot in heaven?" Why was still talking to this guy? Maybe it was his eyes. They just begged to be trusted and understood. Like a small animal left in the rain. She needed to stop comparing Creeper-Trench-Coat-Dude to pets. It was weird.
"You," he said bluntly, "You were not meant to die on a Thursday. Reality was being perverted. I repaired it. However, it would appear that the demons who were pursuing your soul for reasons unknown are not content to let the matter lie. For now I am your protection against those who wish to kill you and drag you into the deepest pits of Hell."
Wow, he even said 'Hell' instead of 'hell'. He must really take this seriously. Time for one last attempt at talking him out of this crazy angel notion. "So, you're telling me that angels are just tax accountants in trench coats, because I'm a bit disappointed."
"You humans cannot behold my true form."
"Or what happens?"
"Your eyes melt in their sockets."
Wow, well then. Time to go for the gold. She had a grip on the hotel phone, she could call 911 any second, she had to keep Trench Coat distracted. "Alright then, how about some wings? Can you show me those?"
"Very well."
Light bulbs shattered and sparked, the whole room hummed with power, the hair on Jess' arms stood on end. And in the darkness she saw silver wings take shape around the smallish man in the trench coat. A small corona of light danced and shone around him, illuminating his blue eyes and making them glow from within. As soon as a feathered wing, cramped in the small space, brushed against her cheek, Jess knew.
This guy, this Castiel, was an Angel of the Lord. And her life was seriously screwed up.
Author's Note: It has always been my head-cannon that Cas and Jess would have been buddies if they had known each other. I see them having a strong sibling-ish relationship, and that's how it's going to be in this fic. I think Jess is one of the most underrated characters in the show and I love her relationship with Sam. This fic was created from me thinking about how Jess would have integrated into the Supernatural world. For a few chapters it will follow the canon plotline, but will quickly diverge from canon into a wonderful land of AU where anything can happen. Of course, all canon stuff will be from Jess and Cas' POV as Jess searches the country for Sam.
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