Disclaimer: I (unfortunately) do not own Supernatural, Sam, Dean, Jess, or literally anything else I have written here. Just the brain that wouldn't leave this idea alone.

Author's Note: So, I'm well aware that we're in Season 12 and this is a fic based in Season 1, but it's been rattling around in my head for a while, so I had to write it anyway. I wrote this with the assumption that Jericho is only a couple of hours from Stanford (the only Jericho, CA I could find on Google Maps was Jericho Canyon in Napa, which is a little over 2hrs. from Stanford, so that's what I'm going with) and that in the actual pilot the boys don't get finished until fairly late on Sunday. Given the fact that it's dark and it seemed like Jess was getting ready to get in the shower before the demon got to her, I'm assuming that Sam made it home somewhere around eleven, maybe. I could be completely wrong, but that's what I'm going with. This is my only my second attempt at writing and my first attempt writing something with more than one chapter. The first chapter is slow, as it's all setup for the rest of the story, but the chapters that follow will pick up. Constructive criticism would be great, and I have some pretty thick skin, so I won't break if you're hard on me. I don't know exactly how many chapters this will consist of, but I'm going to post the first one and then update as regularly as I can until the characters tell me that the story's done. Thanks in advance!

CHAPTER ONE

"Come on, Sammy! We got rid of that Constance chick with plenty of time to spare," Dean argued. "Let's find a bar, have a drink together. Just like old times."

"No, Dean," Sam rolled his eyes at his brother. "I have to get back to school. You promised. Besides, Jess doesn't even know where I am and she's left me a couple of messages that I haven't had the time to return. And its Sam."

"You said you didn't have to be back until Monday, though," Dean reminded him. "It's barely even seven-thirty on Sunday! We have plenty of time to have a couple of beers before we need to be on the road."

Sam shifted uncomfortably. He couldn't shake the nightmare he'd been having about Jess the past few nights. Seeing her on the ceiling, her stomach ripped open, and then suddenly burning. The way he'd been told any number of times that his mother had died. He knew Dean would just tell him he was overreacting and that he'd always been prone to nightmares. This felt different, though. It was to vivid, not at all like a plain old garden variety nightmare.

"I just really want to get back," he finally mumbled, realizing that Dean was still waiting for an answer. "If you still want to sit and have a drink or two, we can do that after we get back to Stanford. And that way Jess can come with us."

Sam hadn't missed the way Dean had looked at Jess the night he broke into their apartment. Hell, a blind man wouldn't have missed the way Dean had looked at Jess. He felt a little guilty using her as a bargaining chip, but knew it was the argument to use if he wanted to get his way without much more arguing.

"Fine," Dean shook his head. "I swear, you're such a bitch sometimes."

"Yeah, yeah, right back at you, jerk," Sam didn't even bother to hide his smile.

xxxx

"Jess! I'm home," Sam called as he unlocked the door and let himself and Dean into the apartment. They'd caught a little bit of traffic on their way home, but hadn't made horrible time. It was only ten, Jess didn't have classes tomorrow, and all he had was the interview. They could afford to be out a little late tonight as long as he could catch a few hours of sleep before the interview in the morning.

"Sam!" Jess's voice came from the kitchen.

Sam and Dean heard the oven close and the sound of something clattering down on the counter. Then Jess came running to the living room and threw herself into Sam's arms, not even acknowledging Dean's presence.

Dean, not wanting to be rude, didn't interrupt. And he most certainly was not noticing the fact that all Jess was wearing was a silky nightgown.

"Is everything okay? Did you find your dad? Where have you been?" Jess started firing questions off rapidly.

"I'm fine. We were a couple of hours away, in Jericho," Sam laughed. He had already decided on the way home what he was going to tell Jess about Dad. Like so much (too much) else, a half-truth was going to have to do. "We didn't see our dad, but he got in touch with us. Dean came back with me, we figured the three of us could go out for a few beers and catch up."

Jess finally noticed Dean standing behind Sam. She smiled and he nodded to her with a decidedly lecherous look in his eye. It took her a second, and then she realized how she was dressed.

"That sounds good," she said, quickly crossing her arms over her chest. "Let me go throw something on and I'll be right out. I just finished making some cookies. They're on the counter, if you guys want some."

The brothers walked into the kitchen as Jess went into the bedroom. They munched cookies in delighted silence for a moment, until Dean opened the fridge looking for some milk to go with the cookies and wrinkled his nose slightly.

"Dude, do you have eggs that you forgot about in here?" he asked, snagging the carton of eggs and sniffing at it suspiciously.

"No, those are brand new," Sam frowned. "We just picked them up the other…"

He broke off quickly as the lights in the apartment flickered on and off several times. He looked at Dean with wide, frightened eyes and whispered one word.

"Jess."

As if on cue, Jess screamed and both brothers bolted the short distance from the kitchen to the bedroom, guns in hand. They burst through the door to see Jess pinned against the wall and a strange man standing in the middle of the room. The man turned to look at them, eyes flashing yellow in the dim light, and Jess slowly started sliding up the wall towards the ceiling.

"Let her go!" Dean ordered, gun trained on the yellow-eyed man. Normally he was a shoot first, ask questions later type of guy but he had no idea what kind of reaction there would be to his loud .45 going off in a crowded apartment building filled with college students.

Sam, on the other hand, was usually the opposite. Hell, he used to drive Dean insane with all of his questions and analyzing, and then over analyzing, and then researching, and analyzing yet again before finally making the decision to shoot. He didn't care this time, though. He saw his dream playing out, knew where this was going, and didn't waste time with threats. He quickly shot the yellow-eyed intruder twice before lunging forward and seizing Jess around the waist. For a terrifying, heart-stopping moment, she kept sliding up the wall and he couldn't pull her away. Then Dean fired and with a flash of his yellow eyes, the man was gone and Jess fell into his arms, sobbing.

xxxx

"Wait, so you're telling me that monsters are real and one just tried to kill me?" Jess looked incredulously at Sam and Dean. "Not only that, you're telling me that you two and your dad, who is now missing, hunt said monsters."

"I know how it sounds…" Dean started.

"Really? Because I really don't think you do. I've spent 22 years thinking that ghosts and zombies are just made up, horror movie crap and now you tell me they're actually real and are out to get me!" Jess was yelling by the end of her tirade.

As expected, the shots had caused several calls to the police. Sam answered the door and gave them an excuse about the TV being too loud before thanking them and they went on their way. That was the easy part. The hard part came next, when Jess wanted to know what exactly had just happened and Sam insisted that they actually tell her the truth.

"Baby, I'm sorry," Sam tried another tactic. "I'm sorry I haven't told you the truth about all of this. The reason I came to Stanford is because I was trying to get away from hunting. I wanted a normal life, and I thought I was finally getting it."

"So why now?" Jess asked. "Why has your dad gone missing and I get attacked at the same time? Is whatever this thing is responsible for both?"

"We can't be sure," Dean just naturally took over the conversation. "Could be that it's connected, could be completely random. We don't honestly know what we're dealing with here, so we can't say."

"You don't even know what this thing is?" Jess looked confused. "I thought this is what you guys do?"

"It is, but there's still plenty out there that we haven't seen," Dean got defensive.

"We do know one thing," Sam jumped in quickly. "Whatever this thing is, it's the same thing that killed our mom."

"It is?" Dean and Jess both asked at the same time.

"Think about it, Dean," Sam gave him a what are you, stupid look. "It was trying to pin her to the ceiling. Right over the bed. It's not exactly rocket science to figure out what was going to happen."

"What was going to happen?" Jess asked nervously. "Sam, you told me that your mom died in a house fire when you were a baby."

"Sammy, we don't know that he was trying to pin her to the ceiling," Dean argued. "Just because he was pushing her up on the wall doesn't mean she was going to end up on the ceiling."

"Um, can someone tell me what you're talking about?" Jess asked again.

"Do you actually listen to what you're saying?" Sam asked, avoiding answering Jess's questions for the moment. "She was practically on the ceiling by the time I got to her and whatever that thing was, it was still moving her."

"That doesn't automatically mean that it's the same thing that killed Mom," Dean was starting to feel a twinge of doubt, though.

"Will you two please shut up and answer me?!" Jess shouted.

Sam and Dean shared a look, neither wanting to be the one to talk about it. Dean crossed his arms and stared. He wasn't even convinced that this was the same thing that had killed their mom and besides, Jess was Sam's girlfriend. Sam seemed to get the message loud and clear because he hung his head and appeared to gather his emotions before he looked up at Jess.

"What I told you was mostly true," he admitted to her. "My mom did die in a fire when I was a baby. That's not the whole story, though. She had come into my nursery and something pinned her to the ceiling over my crib, cut her stomach open, and caused the fire."

"Oh my god," Jess put a hand to her mouth and her eyes filled up with tears.

"We've spent most of our lives hunting for whatever this thing is. We haven't been able to figure it out yet, though. So we can't know for sure that it was the same thing that attacked you tonight," Dean said pointedly.

"Dean, how many times do I have to tell you…" Sam started, but Jess quickly cut him off.

"I think we can be pretty sure," she said softly. "You said that whatever did that to your mom cut her stomach open? Well, look."

She lifted her shirt slightly, baring her stomach. There, running across it was a scratch. It wasn't deep and it wasn't bleeding, but it was clear what the intent had been if it had taken them much longer.

"Holy crap," Dean looked up at Sam. "Sammy, how the hell could you have known? Until she showed us that scratch you couldn't have, but you were convinced."

"Yeah, because I actually use my brain," the words were right, but Sam shifted in his seat as he said them. "It's not really a big deal, the fact is that it's the same thing. It killed Mom, and it tried to kill Jess. Now it's going to find out what that's like because I'm going to find it and kill it."

"Well you know I'm in," Dean smirked.

"What about me?" Jess asked. "I can't just stay here and wait for this thing to come back and finish what it started."

"It's too dangerous for you to come with us, though," Sam said softly.

"More dangerous than having me sit around waiting for whatever this monster is?" Jess shot back. "So that it can come back when you two aren't conveniently in the other room? No, I'm coming with you."

"No, Jess, dammit," Sam ran his hand through his hair anxiously. "I can't drag you into this. I can't. This thing is going after the people I love and if you come with us, I'll be putting you right in its path."

"If it's going after people you love then I'm in danger either way," Jess pointed out. "Or are you just going to stop loving me the second you walk out the door?"

"No, of course not!"

"It's settled then," she said. "I'm coming with you and that's the end of it."

Dean shot an amused glance at Sam, who glared back at him.

"I like her," he pointed to Jess, laughing. Then he turned towards her. "If you're actually set on coming with us, there are a couple of things we're going to need to teach you first. Once we get you all caught up, though, we got plenty of work to do..."