"Come on Jo, think about it!" Ellen hit the steering wheel in frustration. "The looks they give each other, how they're always in each other's personal space…"

"None of that has to mean anything!"

"The way Sam looks at Dean when Dean flirts with you?"

"That doesn't have to mean anything either!" She crossed her arms defiantly. It didn't; if they were in each other's personal space all the time then it could have been because they were just around each other in tight quarters and if sometimes Sam looked a little angry when Dean flirted with her, it might have been because he had a stick up his ass about getting to work right away on whatever case they were working and he was pissed at Dean for wasting their time. None of that had to mean that they were together and if her mom had suspected a while ago that they were then she should have had the decency to say so.

"Oh, come on sweetie! Sam's as jealous as the day is long whenever Dean even looks sideways at you and that's always been obvious to everyone."

Jo eyed her up suspiciously. "What do you mean, everyone?" Ellen quickly turned her gaze solely to the road, looking uneasy as if she'd realized, a little too late, the implications of what she'd just said. "You talked to Ash about this?" This was beyond belief. Was everyone gossiping about this relationship behind her back?

.

Ellen swallowed hard as she recalled that nearly forgotten conversation with their friend from so long ago. The boys had just left the Roadhouse minutes after their second meeting with them and she was standing behind the bar, clearing their beer bottles from off the counter and then wiping it down, when Ash came up, leaned against the counter and looked at her. "That Sam sure keeps a tight leash on his boyfriend," he said casually.

Ellen, who had been thinking the same thing, didn't turn to look at him and tried to keep her face impassive as she kept working. She looked down and began rubbing the rag she was holding against the surface of the countertop with extra gusto. "Those are John's boys. They're brothers."

Ash snorted amusedly. "Yeah, I look at my brother that way whenever he talks to pretty girls, too."

She stopped what she was doing and looked contemplatively at him. "Dean's a spitting image of John."

"Oh, I think they're brothers. But that's not all they are," he drawled slowly, "if you catch my drift."

Ellen nodded. "Don't tell Jo."

With that, Ash smiled and winked at her, then lightly slapped the counter and walked away, leaving Ellen to finish cleaning up.

.

Now, years later, Ellen once again worked to keep her face impassive as she was confronted by her daughter. "Ash might have mentioned something to me once."

Jo stared open-mouthed. "And?"

"Nothing. It was really nothing, sweetie."

"Don't tell me it was nothing!"

"Why are you taking this out on me? You had to have seen the signs. Didn't you feel at least a little suspicious when Dean openly declared that he would rather die than live without Sam? He sold his soul just to get Sam back when he died!"

"So? They love each other!"

Ellen looked at her sadly. "Yes, they do."

Jo looked at her mother incredulously and threw her hands up in the air. "How can you just be okay with this?"

"I'm not saying I'm okay with it and I'm not saying I'm not okay with it. But like it or not, Sam and Dean are grown men who can make decisions on their own. And, apparently, they have decided to be in a relationship with each other. You don't have to like it, baby, but you are going to have to tolerate it to some extent because those boys are still a part of our lives and they're going to stay that way for as long as we can keep hunting and dodging death."

Jo sat back sullenly in her seat as they pulled back into the parking lot and she saw Sam standing outside and talking to Bobby. He was all tan, lean, hard muscle in the clothes he had chosen to wear for the day, as if he had decided to openly mock her with his good looks. She still couldn't believe that her sexual competitor was the brother of the guy she was interested in. As the car slowly came to a stop a few feet away from him, Sam looked up and locked eyes with her for a moment before ashamedly diverting his gaze. She glared at him. Sure, Sam was a pretty good-looking guy; Jo had seen that even from the very start, even if he wasn't the Winchester she wanted. But she had never, not in a million years, thought to be jealous or suspicious of his relationship with the object of her affections; after all, they were freaking brothers! Her mind involuntarily flashed back to the scene in the shower and she shuddered. If someone had told her that she would one day walk in on Dean with some guy's cock in his mouth she would have bet a million dollars and her favorite knife against it, but if they told her that she would walk in on Dean with Sam's cock in his mouth…

Ellen looked disapprovingly over at her. "Stop staring at him like that; this day is unpleasant enough without that." She lightly tapped her fingers against Jo's face, giving her a slight yet reprimanding slap. "Stay in the car." With that, she got out and crossed the parking lot over to Sam.