"Fucking hell… how long of a shower do you need?!" Dean shouted through the bathroom door. He received a frustrated growl in return before the water shut off. "Bout damned time…"

"Shut the hell up Dean" Jade said as she wrapped the towel around her body. "Maybe next time you feel like hunting down zombies, we can do it in a place that isn't swampland? Because let me tell you… trying to wash that decrepit and likely disease filled gunk off my body was no easy task." She shouted before she opened the door assaulting Dean with a rush of hot steam.

"I offered to help" he said playfully as he took a few steps closer to her only to be met by an angry glare and her hand on his chest holding him back.

"Don't give me that shit Dean. You should have known I wasn't going to let you near me after what you pulled out there tonight" Jade said as she pulled her arm back and started running a comb through her wet hair.

"What I pulled? Oh I'm sorry, I guess when that damned shapeshifter showed up I was supposed to just let him kill Sam so I could help you fend off two zombies. I don't know why you're so pissed at me…" Dean trailed off angrily as he stood his ground just outside of arms reach of her.

"Oh you so don't get to pull that heroic shit with me Dean" she said and turned to face him "You ran off, left Sam unconscious on the ground and me alone to fend off five… that's right, five zombies, on the edge of the fucking swamp!" She screamed at him, slamming her hand hard enough into the wall next to the mirror to make Dean jump just slightly. "Now tell me why shouldn't I be pissed at you?"

"Fuck's sake Jade, there was only one when I left! I had no idea the other four would come out of the woodwork… besides, you've always been able to handle things like that before." His tone softened as he watched her shake out her hand, and saw the large red area that would form into a deep bruise. He was suddenly filled with a need to take her hand in his and comfort the injury to her knuckles… but he decided it wouldn't be wise to do that while she was this upset at him. He learned long ago that the last thing you want to do, is piss off a redhead. Yet somehow, he always did anyway.

"On solid ground yeah!" She shouted at him as she turned to face the sink again, her knuckles turning white with her grip on the edge of the counter. "When I'm suddenly tackled by some mindless creature into a muck and mud filled liquid, then no I can't. I was lucky those damned things didn't have the motor skills to get out."

"I wouldn't have ran after the shifter if I'd known-"

"Whatever Dean… just fuck off and die right now okay?" She said cutting off his words and pushing past him into the main area of the motel room.

"Whoa… hostile" Dean said as he leaned in the doorway and watched her move across the room and rummage through her duffle.

"Yeah you would be too…" she muttered under her breath as she sifted through her clothes, eventually dumping her duffle out on the bed and searching for her last set of clean undergarments. "Where the hell-" Jade started to say and cut herself off as she heard Dean chuckle. She looked up at him and saw him dangling not only her underwear, but her bra from his finger. She so was not in the mood for his antics right now.

"Looking for these?" He said with a cocky grin on his face. For months they'd been at each others throats, and he thought maybe some lighthearted fun would…help.

The low growl that leaked from the girl went unheard. Before he even knew what happened, she'd crossed the room and had one hand around his throat and the other holding a knife to his chest just under his heart.

"You're pushing your luck Dean. My patience is not infinite" she growled at him. "You forget just how easily I could end your life" she muttered as her hand twitched around his neck wanting so much to take out her frustration by just squeezing off his air supply.

"And you forget that you're in a towel" he muttered and yanked the towel down from her body hoping to get her to relent her attack on him to cover herself.

"Right like you've never seen me naked before" she said as she felt the towel fall from her body and the droplets of water from her still wet hair dribble down her back.

"True… but I'll bet Sammy never has" Dean said and smiled as he moved his eyes to look toward the door of the motel room, where Sam stood with a rather perplexed look on his face.

"Am I interrupting something?" Sam asked as he stood in front of the now closed door with the bags of take out in hand.

"Not at all Sam, come on in." Jade said as she glared at Dean pressing the tip of the blade just a little harder against his chest "Dean was just apologizing for being a jackass and returning my missing clothes" she said removing her hand from his throat and grabbed her undergarments from his hand. She gave him one last glare and lowered the knife and walked back to her duffle.

"Dean… I don't even want to know what you did to piss her off" Sam said as he set the food on the table. "But she is really pissed off" He muttered under his breath suddenly wishing he had stopped at that bar he saw down the road.

"Man… that so didn't work the way I had planned it in my head" Dean mumbled as he crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at Jade.

"Dude, it's not like I haven't seen her naked before." Sam said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"What?" Dean said as he broke from his reverie of his failed plan and looked at Sam.

"It's not like I haven't seen her naked before Dean" Sam reiterated as he met his brother's eyes.

"When the hell would you have seen her naked Sam?" Dean's defensive side came to life at the idea of his brother seeing his girl naked.

"Um… well… uh…" Sam seemed to stumble for words for a moment before Jade finally broke in and reminded Dean that she was still in the room.

"Well…the three of us have been sharing motel rooms for like the last four months, it's kind of inevitable that you'll walk in on people while naked." Jade stated while pulling on her underwear. Sam looked sheepishly down at the bags as he pulled all the cartons of Chinese food out and set them on the table.

"Actually, it's only been three months since Onyx left…" Dean mumbled with a touch of sadness to his voice and watched the look of hidden and well fought off pain cross Jade's face. It was a subject that was rarely brought up… for many reasons.

"Is that all?" Sam said with a bit of a bitter tone to his voice. The mention of her name usually set off his anger. He'd never let anyone in on the fact that he still hadn't dealt with her leaving, but it was painfully obvious to anyone with half a brain, which is what prompted Jade to give Sam a look of death that he never even saw.

Dean gave off a low whistle and a smirk. "Jeez Sammy… I feel some repressed rage in that statement! Maybe you should find someone to work that out with" he waggled his eyebrows at his brother then, and a moment later a pillow slammed into his face hard enough to knock him back through the open doorway, landing him on his ass in the bathroom. "Son of a-" Dean shouted as he scrambled to get up off his ass and glared at a half dressed Jade who was doubled over laughing and clutching the side of the bed to keep stable.

"The look… on your… face was… classic!" Jade spoke in broken gasps through a fit of laughter before her legs finally gave out on her and she collapsed to the floor still laughing before a snort escaped her as she tried to breathe. Sam, who had been laughing silently the whole time, finally broke out into a fit of laughter when Jade snorted. Even Dean couldn't help but let a chuckle out at that, which was quickly replaced by a scowl.

"Dude, you gotta admit it… that was funny. You got knocked on your ass by a pillow" Sam said after composing himself enough to speak.

Dean just scoffed at Sam and walked away towards the couch a few feet away from where he was standing and turned on the T.V. and propped his feet up on the table. Jade stood up, still relearning how to breathe correctly and sat on the edge of the bed and looked at Dean, who ignored her.

"Dean" she said trying to get his attention, but failing. "Dean?" She made his name a question this time as she stood up and walked to him. "Earth to Dean…" she said as she waved a hand in front of his face, not liking that he was ignoring her now. With a sigh of frustration she took the only idea she could come up with and straddled his legs just above the knee. "I thought we agreed to not play the silent game anymore… considering how the last time ended, I thought it was a good idea" she said, trying in her own way to apologize to him. She realized that she'd been overly harsh earlier and she figured her half dressed figure might appeal to the more… active… part of his brain. "Dean?" She asked again as she leaned forward and trailed her lips along his jaw line, smirking as she felt the muscles of his cheek twitch reflexively. Dean just continued to ignore her and finally pushed her back as he shifted on the couch to look around her at the T.V. receiving a stern look from her. "Fine! Be a jackass!" she said as she stood up and kicked his legs off the table "Good thing you like that couch because that's where you're sleeping tonight" She gave him a raised eyebrow and nod when he looked up at her with an expression of disdain. Jade just scoffed at him and walked away towards the bed, putting on a bra, then turned to Sam and the table full of food cursing Dean under her breath.

"I got you some sweet and sour chicken" Sam said and motioned toward one of the containers on the table. He watched as Jade sat down in the chair across the table from him with a frustrated glare aimed at Dean and made no move towards the food. "Jade?" Sam said and snapped his fingers in front of her, catching her attention.

"Huh? Oh sorry Sammy. Thanks for the food and whatnot… I just-"she scoffed again and glanced at Dean "is it just me or has he been difficult lately?" she said as she finally grabbed a set of chopsticks and the container of chicken.

"Well, I think it's been rough on all of us with her gone… and I noticed that you and Dean have gotten…" Sam searched for the words to say.

"Annoying?" Jade asked with a mouthful of food and got a soft chuckle out of Sam.

"I was going to say distant. At least from each other. Then again you used to take time out to spend with your sister, and with her gone I think it's put a strain on everyone. I know it has for me." Sam said and looked at her with an expression that was lost on her. He figured out that she wasn't understanding him when her eyebrow went up and she started to look around like she was wondering what she was missing. "Nevermind…" Sam muttered and went back to eating.

"Nebermine wat?" Jade asked Sam with a confused look and a mouthful of food.

Sam scoffed and smiled as he shook his head. "I forgot that you and Dean have the same table manners…"

"Escus-" Jade started and then finished her bite of food. "Excuse me?" She asked with a sharp edge to her words.

"I just mean, that… I don't know, the two of you share a lot of qualities."

"Like what exactly?"

"Like your shared ability to completely disgust me while eating" Sam said and motioned towards the empty container leaking its sauce contents onto the table top. That plus the fact that she was holding chopsticks and a container of orange chicken in one hand, and using her free hand to actually eat the chicken and occasionally licking her fingers then wiping them on the wad of napkin sitting on the table.

Jade just smiled at him and then reached into the container of chicken in her hand, pulled out a slimy looking onion and flicked it at Sam. "Take that cranky man!" Jade yelled playfully and then set her container on the table, which fell over immediately and went ignored, and walked into the bathroom to wash her hands. When she came out she walked straight over to her bed, pulled on an old cotton tanktop that had once belonged to Dean… but she'd managed to shrink while at the last trip to the Laundromat… just another event he was holding against her. After a moment of rifling through the pockets of her duffle bag she pulled out her cell phone and something else that Sam couldn't quite make out and swiftly walked towards the door.

"Just where do you think you're going?" Sam asked but got no answer from her as she closed the door quickly behind her. Sam looked over at Dean who seemed oblivious to anything that had just happened, other than the movie that was he was watching on the static-y television. "Dean?" Sam asked as he stood up and walked over to the couch to see what he was watching. "Earth to Dean" Sam said as he waved his hand in front of Dean's face twice still receiving no reaction.

"Dude. Seven. I can't believe they can show this on normal TV" Dean said without even looking away from the screen.

"Dean… do you care at all about her? I mean, seriously dude… come on. She's unraveling, and you're watching Seven?" Sam asked with scorn and watched as Dean avoided his question by laughing at something on the TV and then making some stupid comment that Sam completely ignored. "In case you didn't notice, she was trying earlier to say she was sorry… and you just blew her off."

"Yeah whatever" Dean said and Sam just shook his head.

"I'm so tired of cleaning up your messes, no wonder she's always pissed off…" Sam said as he walked outside.

Jade sat just to the left of the motel door her back leaning on the stucco of the exterior wall, her legs stretched out in front of her. Her wet hair was pulled up and trapped between her head and the wall. She didn't even look up when Sam opened to door and looked down at her as she stared out into the night, her cell phone held tight in her right hand.

"You okay?" Sam asked as he leaned in the open doorway. He could tell something was bothering her, but he didn't know what it was… and that bugged him more than he thought it would.

Jade took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Yeah, I'll be fine" she said her voice just a little shaky and set her phone down on the pavement next to her and then brought a lit cigarette up to her lips and took a long draw. After a moment she let the snake of smoke roll from her lips and looked at her phone again.

"You're smoking?" Sam asked and walked around to her left side noticing the package of cloves and lighter sitting on the ground. "Jade…"

"Please don't lecture me Sam…" She said and pulled her knees up to her chest wrapping her arms around them before taking another draw from the cigarette. She moved her head to rest her chin on her knees letting her hair topple down her neck to rest on her shoulders.

"Jade… I know things are difficult, but this isn't helping anyone." Sam spoke quietly.

"Did you know I'm the reason Onyx started smoking in the first place?" She said as she looked up at him. "Yeah. I went missing, and she got so stressed out that she started smoking my cloves just to have the familiar smell around. Then she turned 18 and… I never stopped blaming myself for it… Sam, she wont even return my calls… I just want to know she's okay… it's been almost a month… we never go this long without talking" She tried a few times to get a full sentence out but never managed to and finally wiped at her eyes, which were slowly filling with warm tears. "I just miss her Sam. I feel like my life is falling apart. I can't do this alone anymore and Dean just doesn't seem to care, or notice. I just don't know how to handle this shit. I mean it's basically my fault she left, ever since that night that…I mean it was so stupid…well you know…" she said and rested her head on her knees.

"Hey…" Sam said and sat down next to her, placing the carton of cigarettes as far from her as he could manage. "You should know that Dean doesn't mean to be such an idiot. He's just not that great with… anything that isn't porn or demons." Sam said with a lost sound to his voice, showing that he knew his brother better than he ever wanted to know him. He then took the cigarette from her hand, snuffed it out on the pavement and flicked it into the gravel of the parking lot. "You know, just because I let her get away with slowly killing her lungs, doesn't mean I should let you do the same."

"Sam…" Jade said with a slight irritation in her voice.

"Besides the ones you smoke will kill you even faster you know." Sam didn't know if she heard him or not and let the silence settle around them for a few minutes. They both liked that they could share comfortable silence.

"Jade, listen to me" Sam said finally, knowing he had her attention now. "Onyx has her reason for staying away, whether or not it's a good reason is unbeknownst to anyone, but she has a reason." Sam went quiet for a moment as if pondering the words he'd spoken. "As far as Dean goes… he's dealing with all of this in his own way… which is more annoying than anything, but that's just Dean. I figured you'd have known that much by now" Sam said and bumped her shoulder with his.

"Yeah… I just wish I knew where she was so I could tell her that I want her to come back" she said so quiet it was barely a whisper. Just then a soft breeze filtered through the covered patio area dancing over her bare arms and feet making her shiver. "Cold" she said as she started to rub her hands over her arms.

Sam chuckled and stood up and held out a hand to her. "Come on, let's go back inside" He said and pulled her to her feet. "Everything's gonna be okay" he said and wrapped his arms around her in a hug and kissed her forehead. He smiled as the scent of her vanilla conditioner hit his nose and it was then that he noticed her hair was still wet. "No wonder you're cold… out here with wet hair"

"I know… I'm foolish like that" she said softly into his shoulder.

He felt her relax against him, and take a deep steadying breath as she wrapped her arms around him. He stood there a moment holding her before he released her. "I forgot what it's like to hug you. I'm not used to women being my height"

"Yeah but you still make me feel short…" Jade said and shook her head as she opened the motel door. The room was quiet, which meant that Dean had turned off the TV, but she furrowed her brow when she didn't see him on the couch. She sighed as she looked around and slumped her shoulders with a groan as she heard him snore from their bed.

"Well shit…" she said simply and walked to the table taking a drink from the bottle of water she'd left there. "Guess I'm sleeping on the couch tonight… unless you want to share a bed" She said with a playful grin.

"Or you could simply share the bed with him Jade. Might be good for the both of you…" Sam said as he pulled the sheets back on his own bed before pulling his shirt off and tossing it to the ground at the end of the bed. "I know it's been a while since you two slept near, let alone with, each other" He mumbled under his breath, hoping she didn't hear him.

Jade just stared at him as he pulled his shirt from his body and she swallowed hard at the sight before her. "Wow Sam…have you always looked that good?" Jade mumbled, then set her drink down on the table and moved to her bed keeping her back to Sam as he finished stripping down for bed. She did catch the confused yet amused look on his face as she walked to the bed. She did steal one last glance at him and noticed the smile spread across his face that he quickly tried to hide. Jade took a deep breath before pulling the sheets back causing Dean to stir. "Goodnight Sam" She said and clicked off the light on the wall between the beds and climbed under the covers. A moment later, she heard Sam crawl into his own bed and settle under the covers.

"Jade?" Sam asked quietly

"Yeah?" She replied and turned her head to look at him as he stared at the ceiling.

"You ever going to talk to him about what happened?" Sam asked quietly, knowing he was breeching a touchy subject.

"I don't know" she replied sadly

"You should, you can't just keep avoiding it" Sam said sternly to her "I see how it tears the two of you up inside you know…"

"Come on Sam… You must have noticed that I can never get him to talk to me without it ending up as a yelling match. We argue like an old married couple."

"Look… he knows he screwed up. You just have to be patient with him" Sam stated and turned his head to look at her and smiled softly. "He does love you"

"Yeah, I know. Night Sammy" Jade sighed and rolled over laying her head on Dean's shoulder and draping her arm over his chest. She sighed contentedly when she felt him reflexively wrap his arm around her and hold her to him. "Some day it'll be all right again. She'll come back and see that everything is all right." Jade mumbled and got only silence in return. She took a deep breath and drifted off into a fitful sleep.