[text: Jade] Any news on Oliver?
[text: Sam] Still comatose. I said I would tell you if there was a change.
[text: Jade] Dean's been asking, I have to tell him something.
[text: Sam] I don't know Sam, I'm sorry.
Jade let out a long sigh, staring at her phone. It had been nearly four months since Oliver had entered his coma. Since then Jade had been in contact with Sam. He had been a rock for her, someone who understood the pain she was going through.
[text: Sam] I have to go open up the shop, talk to ya later.
Her days were a collection of the same few activities, open the shop, run the shop, go to sleep. Occasionally she went out to dinner with Marlow, who tried to get Jade out more. It didn't work.
One day while running the shop Jade froze when she saw who walked in the door. "Dean! I wasn't expecting you to visit," she said, trying to hide the shaking in her voice and failing miserably. "What are you doing here?" She glanced between Dean and Sam, desperately looking for an explanation from the latter.
"Cut the bullshit Jade, where's Oliver?" Dean demanded, his voice gruff.
She looked over at Sam, desperate for some form of help.
Sam looked away, letting out a little sigh. "I told him Jade. I can't just keep lying forever," he said.
"Dean I'm sorry, but he wouldn't have wanted you to know," she said, her voice breaking slightly.
"Oh so you thought that you could just keep lying forever right? That this would just all disappear? Jesus you are stupid," Dean spat out, stepping forward until Jade backed into the counter. "You had no right not to tell me! No right!"
Jade stayed there, squeezing her eyes shut and just breathing deeply.
"Dean, calm down," Sam said, taking a step towards his brother.
"No Sam! She knew how I felt about him," he said, rage barely contained.
"Dean what are you talking about?" Sam asked, stepping closer to his brother. He looked over at Jade, who seemed to have calmed herself down enough to open her eyes again. If he had learned anything about Jade in the past few months of texting her, it was that she was anything but a stable person. He doubted that the shouting was helping that.
"I... Oliver and I had a thing. He was more than just some guy Sam," Dean explained. He hadn't planned on coming out today, and he sure as hell didn't think that it would happen because his almost boyfriend was in a coma. "Sam I really liked him. I wanted to come back here just to see him, but you always came up with a case, always had a reason why we couldn't. Guess she had something to do with that, huh?" He jabbed his thumb at Jade.
Sam stared at his brother for a moment. He wasn't surprised by the fact that Dean was bisexual, he'll be had suspected it for ages himself, but it was different to actually hear it coming out of his brother's mouth. "No, don't-"
"I asked him to Dean, please don't be mad at Sam for this," she said quietly. "But the full truth is they really don't think that Oliver is ever going to wake up. He wouldn't want to bring you down like that. I just wanted to make sure that you were happy, that you could move on easy, like he would have wanted you to."
Dean nodded a little and rubbed his face. He was getting too old for this. What he was getting too old for he wasn't sure, but there was certainly some part of him that desperately needed a break from everything he went through on a weekly basis. "Yeah uh... could we visit him? I just really want to see him for myself now that I know."
Jade nodded and offered him a thin smile. "Promise me you won't try anything stupid to wake him up? Like for sure no selling your soul," she joked, smirking a little at the surprised look on Dean's face. "Sam told me, I mean we did talk about stuff besides lying to you."
He let out a small laugh. There wasn't any joy in it, but it was something. "Nice, real nice... let's get going, I can drive us there."
As they walked out Sam looked at his brother. "Do you want to talk about well..."
"I like guys and I like girls, there isn't much to it Sammy," Dean said and shrugged. "Just how I am."
Sam nodded as the three of them got in the car, feeling like he was just a bit closer to his brother now.
The room was almost exactly the same as it had been before. The only difference was a few books on a desk near the bed. When Dean flipped through them, just doing something for the sake of doing it, he saw Jade had written her name on the inside cover of each one. "So is there any news at all about him?" Dean asked, looking at her and raising an eyebrow.
"The doctors are pretty confident that he won't die now," she said softly, sitting in her usual seat by her brother. "They're also pretty confident that he won't be waking up anytime soon."
Dean sat down beside her and patted her arm. She shrunk away from his touch for a moment, but relaxed just a moment later. "But what do you think? Do you think he's gonna get up?"
"My brother is a witch, an asshole, and a tough son of a bitch, but honestly? I have no clue," she said and sighed, hanging her head. "And before you ask about spells, Marlow and I have tried just about everything."
"Well, maybe he just needs some more time," Dean said, gears already turning in his mind to figure out some way to wake Oliver back up. He wanted to be there when it happened. When it happened, not if it happened. He was hopelessly optimistic when it came to Oliver.
"I hope you're right Dean," she said softly. "I've been praying every day, but I feel like I'm not getting anywhere with it. You'd think that after meeting an angel that I might have a bit more faith, but hey, why would anything I do make sense?"
"Maybe I could ask Cas for help. I mean he can heal people just like that," he said, snapping his fingers. It would be worth a shot. "It isn't like Oliver has done anything wrong."
"Besides be a witch," Sam pointed out. "I'm pretty sure that they used to set them on fire back in the day."
"Yeah but this is Cas, he'd do this for us," Dean said stubbornly. "And just give him those puppy dog eyes of yours, how can he say no?"
Jade laughed a little under her breath, trying to hide just how much better she felt being around other people. Maybe the constant isolation of the shop wasn't as healthy as she had convinced herself it was. "Why don't you two stick around for awhile? I was going to make pasta for dinner tonight, and I could always use the company."
"I don't know how long we can-"
"Sounds great," interrupted Dean, smiling over at Jade. "I'll try getting in contact with Cas tonight, we can see what he can do, okay?"
Jade nodded, and for the first time in ages she felt hopeful. It suddenly struck her that perhaps all of this could have been solved much faster if she had just been honest with Dean, but from what Sam had told her about Dean's relationship with rationality, the two weren't very close. She rocked back and forth in her chair slightly, feeling like the entirety of herself was just a bundle of nerves.
"I am very sorry that I never told you Dean," she said quietly. "I just wanted to do what I thought would make Oliver happy, but I ended up dragging Sam into it and…"
"It's okay Jade," he said softly. He looked down at Oliver and took his hand gently. He missed the stupid jokes that Oliver would make, the silly way that he would try to flirt with Dean. He especially missed when Oliver wasn't just being silly. Yet it hit him that he and Oliver had only known each other for a few days at most. He certainly wanted to spend more time with him.
"Why don't we head back to my place and I'll get started on and you can contact Castiel," she said and stood up. Even if it was the only place where she could see her brother Jade hated hospitals. They were too clean and had too many bad memories in them. There was never enough quiet and it made her far too anxious to effectively function. Before getting a response from the other two she left, hands balled up in fists.
"So Cas, can you do it?"
"Dean it's more complicated than just tapping his forehead," Castiel said, his hands in his lap.
Despite repeated explanations from Sam and Dean, Jade had still put a plate of pasta in front of Castiel. She didn't want him to feel left out, even if he was an angel. "Why is it more complicated?"
"Your brother is deep in his own mind, like his soul doesn't want to be found," Castiel explained, speaking simply. After all she was only human. "The most I could do would to wake him up, but he wouldn't be there. He would still function, but just barely. Like a machine."
Jade nodded, knowing that anything like that wouldn't be her brother. He was made of passion and excitement and light. Barely doing anything wasn't something he was even capable of. "Is there anything we can do Castiel?" she asked softly, a sort of reverence in her voice.
"Keep praying I suppose," Castiel said. "Try talking to him more. Something that gets a more emotionsl response from him might be best."
At that Jade glanced over at Dean. If there was anyone that could get a strong emotional response from Oliver it was certainly Dean Winchester.
"What? Are you saying that me hitting on him is gonna make his soul get a hard on so he wakes up?" Dean asked, looking confused, disgusted, and overall shocked.
"Not necessarily, just any base emotion would do. Love even," Castiel said. "You don't need it to be sexual."
"Thank god because I never wanna see that shit," Jade said, then turned pink as she realized she had sworn in front of an angel.
"Yes… I need to be going, I wish you the best with your brother Jade," he said and nodded to her, before disappearing as if he had never been there.
"Well, at least we have some idea of what to do," Jade said, taking a bite of her pasta.
"Basically we have to convince you're entirely comatose brother that he should wake up with the power of love. Sounds like some hippie crap to me," Dean said and rolled his eyes, but it wasn't like they had an alternative.
"Maybe that other witch you know could help us out," Sam suggested.
"Marlow? Yeah, sure. We usually meet for dinner a few times a week so it won't be hard to see her," Jade said, nodding. "But she does tend to skip town if she even suspects there's danger, so maybe I should go alone. I mean she just disappeared last time…"
Sam pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded. "Alright. I'll go with Dean to the hospital then," he said and looked over at his brother, who seemed visibly uncomfortable with the idea of hot only flirting with a comatose man, but doing so in front of his brother.
"Why don't you just hang back Sammy? Watch the cats or something."
Sam made a noise that was somewhere between a gasp and a scoff and focused on eating. The rest of the night passed without incident, but the presence of Oliver was missed in every lull of conversation.
"You're still up too?" Sam said, walking over to where Jade was curled up on the couch. It was nearly two in the morning.
"Yeah, I usually text you until I fall asleep but uh… it's not like I can do that when you're just in the next room over, you know?" She tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, and smiled at him weakly. She had what looked like a history textbook open in her lap. "Sit next to me, I want some company anyway."
Sam smiled at her and sat down, a little closer than necessary, but Jade only smiled at him. He noted just how small of a person she was, barely five feet tall, the way her black hair curled around her shoulder, and how her glasses seemed like they were at a risk of falling off of her nose at any minute. He moved just a bit closer, putting an arm around her shoulders.
Jade let out a small hum and leaned on him, using his chest as a sort of pillow. "You're warm," she said quietly, and seemed to be quite happy with this observation. Sam smiled down at her and just relaxed. It was rare they had the time to do this, to just enjoy a moment. It seemed they might be in town for at least a few weeks, he saw no reason not to enjoy it.
Absently, Sam traced patterns on Jade's arm. He smiled when she let out a happy hum and leaned into his touch. His actions got a bit more bold, and he ran his hand down her side, smirking when he elicited a gasp from her, making her stiffen. "Sam… how long until Dean figures it out?" she asked softly, looking up at him.
Sam shrugged. "We could just tell him you know. He won't die from finding out we're… what even are we?"
"Two people who have been texting and decided they liked each other a lot?"
"That does sound nice," he said and smiled down at her.
Jade couldn't help but laugh softly, just shaking her head as she walked to her room. It would certainly be an interesting time while the Winchesters were there.