Title: A Hunters' Thanksgiving
Author: BlazeorFade
Rating: T
Summary: Jack is staring down soccer mom's trying to get a turkey, Sam is burning the pies and Dean is drinking and trying to avoid the Almighty Spoon. Yup, its Thanksgiving and Missouri is giving the Sam, Dean and Jack a family holiday. Whether they like it or not. Takes place right before 'Bad Day'.
Disclaimer: Jack is mine, all mine, to do with what I please ::evil laugh:: The others are toys I borrowed for Jack-Jack to play with in their world.
They rushed as fast as they could back to Lawrence after receiving an urgent message from Missouri Mosley. She'd told them to get there immediately, even giving them a timetable. After speaking briefly with the telepath, Sam had concluded that whatever it was must have been too horrible to speak of over a phone line.
"Its the demon, it has to be. She didn't even want to talk about it over the phone." He'd told Dean and Jack frantically.
"Ten hours tops." Dean said arrogantly of the time he could get them to Kansas in from Seattle, Washington. It was less than half what it would take any decent, law abiding citizen. But no one could accuse the trio of ever being either of those things, Sam so willingly pointed out.
They drove at high speeds and went without needed sleep and much more needed showers after their last hunt, to get to Kansas in eleven hours and fifty nine minutes. Dean did not take the defeat well. Never mind that they were a day early on the deadline to get there. He just fixated on that extra time. He swore it wasn't his baby's fault, just her passengers.
"You just had to stop so many times to use the bathroom, didn't you?" He glared at Sam as they parked in front of Missouri's house.
"Yeah, I just had to have the luxuriant truck stop restroom experience." Sam said sarcastically.
"And you, you just had to eat right?" He pointed at Jack. She gave him a look, completely unimpressed.
"Yeah, what can I say? The ticktack I had last week just didn't hit the spot like I thought it would." Jack yawned. She was filthy and she stank, but so did the boys, especially Sam, damn truck stop rest rooms, so she couldn't feel too self-conscious about her odor.
Dean ran up to the door, shotgun in hand and kicked in the door.
"What the hell was that-!" Missouri came through the hallway yelling. She saw them there, the busted door and their current brand of dirty. She shook her head at them in disapproval and put her hands on her hips saying, "Dean Winchester what the hell are you doing, breaking down my door? And look at you three, you're a mess and you're tracking mud all through the house."
"You said to get here?" Sam said in confusion. "What's the hunt?"
"Hunt? Who said anything about a hunt?" Missouri said with a touch of sly amusement to her tone. Truthfully, she'd expected something like this but she didn't really expect them to barrel in guns blazing. She was just happy they'd made it and hadn't shot anything upon their noisy entrance.
"Go upstairs and get cleaned up, you're a day early. I guess I should be thankful you didn't arrive here tomorrow night like that." Missouri clucked, shooing them up the stairs.
"What? What's going on? What's tomorrow?" Sam asked.
"Its Thanksgiving." Missouri said scowling at them. The three paused in various stages of mid-step on the stairs and turned to gawk at her.
"Thanksgiving?" Dean said furrowing his eyebrows as thought this was a foreign concept he had no knowledge of. Something Missouri knew was not the case.
"Yes, Thanksgiving. Did you go deaf on the last job?" Missouri asked sarcastically.
"No." Dean said indignantly.
"Good, now go upstairs and shower up. I have a list of things for each of you to do." Missouri said pushing Jack, who was nearest to her, up the steps.
"Fine, fine." Jack scowled and started up the stairs thinking-
"Don't you cuss at me!" Missouri called up at her.
"Busted." Dean snickered.
"That goes for you too Dean Winchester." Missouri said.
"Haha!" Jack poked him in the temple. He batted her hand away, leading to neck and arm pokage.
"Go clean up!" Missouri called in frustration.
"Yes, ma'am!" Jack and Dean called in unison while Sam cracked a shit eating grin.
"Boy scout." Dean accused on his way to their usual room.
"Jerk."
"Bitch."
"Dean!"
"Sorry ma'am."
(Snickers)
"Shut it Psychic Wonder."
After their much needed showers, the hunters gathered nervously in Missouri's kitchen. She surveyed the troops with an assessing eye and finally brought out two lists, handing one to Jack and the other to Sam.
"How come they get lists?" Dean asked looking over Jack's shoulder at hers.
"Turkey, yams, pumpkin filling…." Jack read aloud. "This is a shopping list."
"You're very observant." Missouri told her. Jack rolled her eyes and looked back down at the list.
"Um, we don't usually do the whole Thanksgiving thing." Sam said scratching his head as he read his list, this one of ingredients for pie and stuffing.
In fact, he'd celebrated Thanksgiving exactly one time in his life. His first year going out with Jess, she'd talked him into going with her to her parents' house for dinner. Let's just say, he was never asked back.
"You are this year. We're going to have a nice family dinner and you three are going to rest up for a couple of days. I already spoke to your father." Missouri said.
"And he was okay with taking a few days off?" Dean asked skeptically. Missouri snorted.
"What do you think? I told him this was happening whether he liked it or not and if he made a stink, I'd make him come and help too." Missouri said. She grabbed her purse and took out her wallet, handing a credit card over to Jack.
"I've got one." Jack said waving the card off. Missouri grabbed the girls hand and forcibly gave her the card.
"No fraud on Thanksgiving. It isn't right." Missouri said sternly. "And make sure you get everything on that list."
"Okay, how hard can it be to get all this stuff?" Jack shrugged. Missouri looked at her, laughed a little and then broke into a fit of loud guffaws, actually holding the table for support.
Jack, Dean and Sam exchanged looks. Dean shrugged and reached into his pocket for the Holy water.
"Don't even think about it." Missouri snapped back to serious, pointing an accusing finger at Dean.
"Alright, just don't reach for the spoon." Dean said only half joking.
Missouri turned to Jack. "I was going to have both you and Sam do the shopping but now Sam has to help me in the kitchen and Dean is going to fix my door." Missouri glared at the blonde, who gave her his most innocent smile.
"You know, I think I should go with Jack." Sam said looking nervously at the pie ingredients already set out on the kitchen island.
"No, you'll help here. She can handle it on her own." Missouri said.
"I think he's thinking more about us getting food poisoning than Jack's shopping ability." Dean snickered. Sam punched him in the shoulder.
"I'm not that bad." Sam lied.
"Its okay, I'll be here to help." Missouri assured him. She poked Dean in the chest.
"You get to work on that door." She told him.
"How come I always get the crappy jobs?" Dean whined as he started walking towards the closet where Missouri kept her tools. He'd have like to know who the hell was her personal home improvement bitch when he wasn't around.
"A nice young man who's paying his way through college. He's off today though and he didn't kick down my door." Missouri called.
"I hate it when she does that." Dean whispered to Jack. Damn telepaths.
"I heard that." Missouri said. Dean and Jack hurried towards the front door, leaving Sam to stare in confusion at a whisk, wondering what the hell its purpose was.
"You have to shop." Dean laughed, taking the list from her.
She grabbed it back and stuck her tongue out at him. "How bad can it be?" She asked with an arrogant smirk.
Very, very bad, Jack soon discovered.
Werewolves, vampires, evil or just generally discontented spirits? Easy. Demons who wanted to suck her soul out her nose? Piece of cake. Assorted fey who spoke in riddles? No problem.
House wives doing last minute shopping? Pure Evil, Jack decided, looking out over the maylay from the supermarket entrance. She was tempted to grab her gun, before she remembered that Missouri had confiscated it before she walked out the door, obviously sensing this would happen.
'Alright girl, you can do this.' Jack psyched herself as she navigated the last empty cart she'd managed to snag.
"Okay, yams, yams, what the hell is a yam?" Jack said to herself looking at the list.
Jack was about to move forward when her cart was dinged by a thirty something woman with two kids bouncing up and down and a determined expression on her face.
"'Scuse me." Jack sneered.
The woman turned, looked Jack over, from the top of her knotted, damp hair to her scuffed ass kicker boots and just snorted her disdain before bustling off in the other direction. Three more cart hit and runs and having to finally steal the yams from a vicious old granny's cart and Jack was beginning to hate this damned holiday. She groaned and looked down at the list, one down, twenty to go.
Sam stared in wonder and fear at the lump of pie dough he was supposed to be whipping into shape.
Woman could never do anything the easy way could she? He thought picking up a rolling pin. If he had a headache she made him drink vile little concoctions, which he was starting to think were just mixtures she made up to torture him (Dean was in on it, Sam was sure), instead of letting him take Advil. And instead of just ordering pies from a bakery, Missouri insisted on fresh baked pastries. Evil woman.
Sam started to flatten the dough, getting a bit more confident in the job he was doing when little bits of dough started to stick to the pin, till eventually, much to his consternation, most of it was wrapped around the wooden baking tool.
"Missouri." He called over his shoulder to where she was peeling apples for the pie.
"What, Sam?" She asked putting down the apple and knife. She walked over to him and looked over his shoulder.
"Its sticking and I can't get it to stop." Sam said with a perplexed look. To her amusement(carefully concealed, the poor, helpless boy), Sam started to flick the pin back and forth, trying to shake loose the dough.
"Well of course its sticking. You were supposed to put flour on the dough first." Missouri said taking the pin from him. She started to peel the dough off while Sam scowled at the offending ingredient.
"Missouri." He started.
"I know, Dean was right." Missouri said. Dean popped his head around the doorway.
"Did I just hear that right?" He grinned at them.
"No, now go finish fixing my door before I get the spoon." Missouri said.
"Nu-uh, you said I was right, I heard it." Dean said in his most annoying big brother way.
"Are you thick? Go fix my door or no dinner for you Dean." Missouri said un-sticking the last of the pie dough.
"I was right though." Dean said smugly tapping out a victory song on the door frame. He disappeared before Missouri could threaten him with starvation or physical abuse anymore.
Sam glanced at Missouri and looked away, biting his lip.
"What's on your mind Sam?" She asked.
"Um, can I ask you something?" Sam asked her.
"You know you can." Missouri replied smiling at him encouragingly.
"Why are you doing this for us?" Sam asked her gesturing all around him. "I mean, I don't want to sound ungrateful but I'm sure you had plans other than feeding a bunch of dirty, hungry freeloaders." He joked with a little bit of that look that always made Missouri want to hug him.
"I usually spend Thanksgiving with some close friends and some family members I have left. This year I wanted to spend it with you three." Missouri said smiling fondly at him.
"I know how hard it is for you three. I know you don't get to rest and have someone give you a break." She continued. "You should be with your family this time of year and I've learned that sometimes you choose your family, Sam. I've chosen you."
Sam cleared his throat and nodded, shuffling around awkwardly. Missouri just smiled and shook her head.
Dean flipped the hammer up in the air and caught it. He had a relatively easy task for the day. Compared to Sam trying to cook, which was just a call to the fire department waiting to happen. He wondered if Jack had hurt anybody at the grocery store yet. Dean whistled out a tune and replaced his hammer with a drill to repair the hinges, deciding when he was done there, he'd be the awesome big brother he was and mess with Sam for a while.
Only one of the hinges was busted, but the glass inlay on the door was cracked and he'd need to get out to the hardware store to replace it. And his boot print was in the wood now, meaning varnish. Fuck he hated that stuff, he'd take demon gook any day over that varnish smell.
Dean was glad to be there. He barely remembered the Thanksgiving he'd been old enough to recall when as a kid, it was fuzzy and distant though. He knew the concept, just not the practical application of it. Seemed simple; cook, eat, be thankful. He was especially happy about the eating part, since he wouldn't have to pay for it.
Dean grinned positioning a screw over the bracket. Yes, free meals were something to be grateful for. Anytime he didn't have to pay to fill Jack's bottomless stomach and Sam's rapidly growing appetite was a cause for celebration.
"Ow!" Dean heard Sam cry out.
"How did you burn that, the oven wasn't even on?!" Missouri exclaimed.
"The toaster was." Sam said guiltily.
"Why. Was. The. Toaster. On?" Missouri asked with rapidly disintegrating patience. Dean recognized that tone, he'd been on the business end of it enough times.
Jack found the turkey, the last thing on her list, the grand Pooh-Bah of Thanksgiving dinners. She steered her cart with what could only be described as Cart-Rage towards the poultry, with her eyes on the biggest one in the bunch. Unfortunately, she had competition.
'Miss-My-Kid-Is-A-WhoCaresElementarySchool-Honor-Roll-Student', who'd given Jack the nasty once over before was back and her walking sugar highs were buzzing around her like tiny vultures, waiting to swoop in at Mommy Dearest's behest. Jack squared her shoulders and thought in terms of simple battle strategy. If she did a duck dive she'd get to the bird first and from there all she had to do was hold on to it like a pit bull and she'd be green.
Jack went in for the kill, leaving her cart temporarily behind in her mad pursuit. Three feet…two feet. Mommy was gaining…one foot and she hit a six foot five inch road block that was supposed to be in Missouri's kitchen, burning tomorrow night's desert.
"Jack, finally, I've been looking all over for you." Sam said with relief.
"Hey, that's mine!" Jack snapped as Soccer Mom reached triumphantly for Jack's turkey, which the huntress's stomach whole heartedly disapproved of.
"Sorry but I got here first." Soccer mom said tilting her head to one side.
"Bullshit." Jack said shoving past Sam to stand barely two inches across the woman, putting one hand on the turkey.
"Excuse me!" The woman replied looking appalled, "There are small children present."
"Don't care." Jack said. She glared at the woman and the two women stared one another down.
Sam stood by and watched the exchange in bewilderment. The place was packed and he'd witnessed at least two other incidences that went similar to this one since entering the supermarket twenty minutes earlier, he just couldn't believe Jack was involved in one. In fact Jack looked like she was about to hurt the middle aged woman standing in front of her.
"Mommy said grandma is a cow and that she can't stand daddy's damn family." A little blonde girl looked up at Sam to say.
"Kristen!" The woman looked a way from Jack to grab stare aghast at her little girl.
"Ha! I win!" Jack said snatching up the turkey. She swung the thing into Sam's arms and pointed towards the cart.
"Onward, slave boy." She said marching ahead with new resolve.
"What the hell was that?" Sam asked looking back at the woman, how was tugging her daughter by the hand while grabbing a turkey smaller than the one she'd lost to Jack.
"Showdown at the O-K Corral." Jack said. "And I am Wyatt Earp."
"Well, Wyatt, lets get home before Dean drives Missouri up the walls." Sam said jerking his chin towards the lines. The long, twisting lines. Damn, he missed the kitchen already.
"Why aren't you back at Mo's?" Jack asked as they got on line.
"Um.. I don't want to talk about it." Sam coughed into his hand trying not to blush. She'd pounce on that.
"What did you do?" Jack asked, starting to grin.
"Shut up, the lines moving, and we have to go get some pies from the bakery before it closes." Sam said, his face heating up. Jack started to cackle, drawing odd looks from those around them.
Dean had taken over when Sam was banished from the kitchen. Mostly doing cleanup because everything they needed to cook anything that wasn't fifty percent sugar was on the shopping list.
"I don't understand it. I really don't." Missouri said scraping burnt dough off the kitchen counter.
"I tried to warn you." Dean said shaking his head sadly.
"Don't be so smug." Missouri scolded without any real heat.
Just then the newly fixed(except for the glass) front door banged open and seconds later Sam and Jack dragged bags of food into the kitchen, looking tired, victorious and worn out. Like after a hunt, Dean mused.
"We have the food. I'm going to bed." Jack said succinctly. She didn't wait for the protests that it as only eight thirty at night or any possible teasing about being a light weight.
"Those people are nuts." Sam said shaking his head like a shell shocked war vet.
"Why do you think I sent someone else to do the shopping?" Missouri asked with a chuckle.
"I'm tired." Sam said with a yawn.
"Go to bed. I'll put this away." Dean said as he started emptying one of the bags.
"You sure?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, go." Dean waved him off.
He and Missouri worked in a rare, comfortable silence, setting up the ingredients for the next day. When there was nothing else to put back Dean put himself to fixing the glass, which he'd had Sam pick up earlier too, till he was too tired to do anything else. Before going up to bed Dean turned to Missouri.
"I..uh, heard what you told Sammy earlier." Dean said looking down at his feet. "And I wanted to say thanks you know, for letting us crash and everything."
"Your welcome Dean." Missouri said, the response that wouldn't make the man more uncomfortable than he already was.
"'Night." Dean said turning around to go up the stairs.
Missouri as up at five in the morning cooking. They knew that because she'd reminded them of it since waking them at ten to help out.
Dean stole a sip from the bottle of wine, airing out. He had to be discreet, they were strictly forbidden from snacking at all. Sam's knuckles were still red from the cookie he snuck before breakfast.
Dean smelled the stuffing, his stomach rumbled and he took a deeper gulp. That plus the beers he bogarted left him pleasantly buzzed and fighting the happy grin on his face.
"You're going to get in trouble." Jack teased coming up behind him.
"What are you talking about?" Dean asked in a phony, affronted voice, somewhat discredited by the slight slur to his words.
Jack laughed and grabbed the wine from him before he could get entirely shit faced. The kitchen looked like an atomic bomb of food had been dropped on it. With the three kitchen competent people doing the cooking and Sam being their errand boy. It was very easy to abuse the position when Sam was playing Kitchen Bitch but Jack curbed the impulse to send him on wild goose chases for ingredients that didn't exist. At least after getting whacked upside the head twice she did.
Dean didn't quite get it so fast in his inebriated state and kept Sam looking for whatever food sounding thing popped into his deranged head.
"Dean!" Missouri snapped coming up behind him like a friggin ghost.
"Damn, don't sneak up on me!" He yelped.
"Don't cuss at me." She wrapped him hard on the hand and stepped in closer. He backed up looking at her warily. She went with him till he back against the kitchen counter, half sitting up in it.
"You've been drinking." She accused sniffing at his breath.
"No I haven't." Dean started. He clapped a hand over his mouth so she wouldn't smell him anymore and glared when Jack and Sam fell into a fit of laughter at his expense.
"Oh I oughta-" Missouri was interrupted by a loud buzzer going off. She whirled away from him and went to the oven.
She looked inside for a few minutes and then smiled widely at them all.
"Turkey's done." She said.
Dinner was filled with the usual back and forth, some shop talk, which was par for the course.
Missouri sat back watched them, as she was want to do when they were all together. She wondered at how the three could spend nearly every moment together, waking or sleeping and not want to kill each other. Instead they joked and talked like they were normal, catching up with one another. Aside from the occasional supernatural reference it was very much a regular holiday dinner.
Missouri cleared her throat and they fell quiet, looking at her expectantly.
"I'd like for each of to say what we're grateful for now." She said to the young people.
They looked at her in various stages of horror and dread. She rolled her eyes at them.
"Uh, thankful for?" Sam asked.
"Yes." Missouri said patiently.
"My new Sig Sauer." Dean said with a note of pride in his voice.
"No weapons." Missouri scolded him.
"That's no fun." Dean pouted.
"I-I think I can try." Sam said sitting forward. He'd hated this part of his lone Thanksgiving experience too. And his answer back then had been somewhat similar to Dean's now. Probably why he wasn't invited back.
"I'm thankful for, um, nobody getting hurt this week." Sam said.
"I second that." Dean said.
"You have to think of your own thing. That's the rules." Jack said throwing a piece of bread at him.
"How do you know?" Dean asked retaliating.
"No playing with your food. And you do have to think of your own Dean." Missouri said intervening before she ended up with a full blown food fight on her hands.
"Ah Geez," Dena scratched the back of his head. What was he thankful for? The Impala? No, if she didn't accept guns, he didn't think she'd accept the car. The hunt going good? Maybe, but t hat didn't feel right to him. His family? Of course, that went without saying and it was going to stay that way.
"I'm thankful for good food." He said finally.
"Hey, that was mine." Jack protested eyeing another piece of pie. She'd already had two for desert.
"That wouldn't be a surprise, you say it every day." Sam teased.
"Shut up." Jack said with a wide smile. Sam pulled the pie closer to her so she could just eat it from the serving plate. Missouri clucked but allowed it. Jack took a large bite and thought, her eyes lighting up when she thought of something.
"Hot water." She said through a mouthful of pie.
"You have no manners." Missouri said in disapproval.
"Hot water?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, we barely have hot water at the dives we stay at." Jack said. "I'm grateful for hot water and a safe place to sleep."
Sam nodded to the last part. It was a relief to stay with someone who automatically protected their place, no extra work, just crashing at the end of the day.
"Think we're all grateful to be staying here at all." Dean said quietly. He glanced up at Missouri, letting his gratitude show in his face. The other two nodded in agreement.
Missouri looked from face to face and knew she was thankful she'd decided to stay home and do this for the three hunters. Sometimes the smallest kindness could keep you form losing faith, especially in their line of work. She was thankful they were there and that they were safe for the time being.
"Help me clear the table." Missouri said past the lump in her throat.
"I'm still hungry." Jack said munching on more food.
"Where the hell do you put it all?" Dean asked looking her over. Missouri smacked him upside the head.
"Ow!"
The cleanup took an hour and by then the tryptophan trip had kicked in. They were too bushed even to walk up the stairs.
Jack climbed onto the kitchen island and lay her head in head arms.
"Sleepy." She yawned, closing her eyes.
"You're going to have a neck ache tomorrow." Dean warned her from the chair he'd collapsed into at the kitchen table.
"I'm just resting my eyes." Jack murmured.
"My ass." Dena said yawning himself.
Sam was already snoring into his hand, face down on the table. Dean watched them sleep for second before rallying his energy to get up and go to the sink where the clean dishes were drying.
He grabbed one pot and a spoon and started banging loudly. Jack started and rolled off the island and Sam jumped up like the house was on fire. Dean fell over laughing at them.
"What happened?" Missouri asked running into the kitchen.
"Dean's a jerk." Sam said bitterly.
"I'm an awesome big brother." Dean corrected when he could speak without laughing much. "You guys need to get your asses to bed."
"So tell us, don't kill us with sound." Jack groused.
"Shut up and go upstairs." Dean said chuckling.
Sam and Jack peeled themselves off the floor and away from the table and trudged out of the kitchen.
Dean went to follow them.
"Dean," Missouri stopped him.
"What?" He asked turning back to her in the entry way.
"In the next few months." She started and Dean recognized that look and that tone of voice.
"I don't wanna know." He said quickly. "I don't wanna know if you saw something." Missouri studied the young man.
"Alright. Just don't lose hope, okay Dean?" Missouri said. She kept her voice steady and hard, something Dean would respond to more than sympathy.
"Okay." Dean said wanting to get back to his friends now.
"And Dean." She said as he was about to leave.
"Yeah?" Dean asked not turning around again.
"You take good care of them. I'm sure they are very thankful for that." Missouri said earnestly.
"We take care of each other." Dean replied. He looked over his shoulder at her.
"Thanks." He said meaning a lot of things.
-FIN
AN: Okay this started as a funny little humor story and it took on a life of its own. Not sure hoe that happened but I like the end result. Hope you do too. Happy Holidays!