A/N: This fic is part two of an AU series I'm working on called Words Against Skies. (If you haven't read the introduction book, Dead and Content, I suggest you do, otherwise you may be confused…) This series involves the concept of Sam Winchester and Jo Harvelle working as a hunting team post 3x11: Mystery Spot. It's sketchy, and angsty and rough. But, again I ask you to bear with me here in hopes part two will be finished by Christmas. (I'm still waiting for Santa to bring me Jensen and Jared on top.) So without further ado, I give you Lock, Shock and Barrel.

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural– you can ask Nitefang, as I've complained to her over this a billion times.


part two, words against skies


we're his little henchmen / we take our job with pride

Tim Burton.


It's been four months, maybe five, maybe forever since Jo Harvelle last saw Sam Winchester.

She'd been on her own for a while when an old family friend, Dennis O'Callaghan, phoned in and asked her to pick up a hunt for him in Old Hollywood. The place was called Valentine Hotel, and was haunted by malicious hoodoo minions with a knack for catching Jo off-guard while she was naked. Upon arrival, she'd stumbled into Sam, the infamous Winchester now that his older brother's dead and gone. See, most of the time you hear that where that shiny black car is, death has followed close behind.

Jo's never believed it.

Sam saved her ass a good number of times at that damned hotel, and she'd even saved his from the evil bitch of an owner, Trish Feldman, in return. Yeah, that Trish. The Trish who's a witch by trade and made a deal with the Devil– a deal with the yellow eyed demon that's been after Sam ever since he walked in on his girlfriend roasting against the ceiling of their apartment. Hey, Dean might not have shared her bed and stuff, but that didn't stop him from telling Jo things.

Jo won't admit it, but she kind of misses Sam on those lonely nights of highway and headlights; even misses Dean at times too. She's been on the hunt for Trish for what seems like an eternity, since the bitch got away in the middle of Jo untying Sam from a pole in a laundry room with billowy sheets that Jo still gets the shivers from when thinkin' about it. Just like when The Doors starts playing in the background...

But it's imperative she finds Trish, bad memories or not, 'cause the psycho has information that Jo needs to know. Like if it's possible that Yellow Eyes is coming back. What he wants with Sam even though the boy's visions got dead along with their creator.

Jo's talked to Rufus, about the Apocalypse and what it means that Yellow Eyes is still communicating even though Dean shot him right in the heart with the Colt she's heard a million rumors about. Apparently once things are dead, even in Hell, they like to rattle the chains a lit'le. Like to get a vessel for world domination. A vessel like Sam. And Rufus knows his shit too, so Jo's been serachin' for Trish ever more malicious.

And when she's stagnant, signs of Trish vanished, Jo often wonders how Sam is doing, if he's found this Trickster thing he's after. But she guesses she won't know, and she's okay with that.

She's okay with the fact that people think she's too stupid to do the job and makes stupid mistakes, too. 'Cause hey, Jo Harvelle isn't stupid when it comes down to it, when it matters. She might be a lit'le naive, a lit'le bit of a romantic with half-baked notions, a school girl, a freak with a knife collection– but she isn't stupid.

And she can do the job just fine.