Type: Omitted scene (removed from the original story but still happens off-screen)

Summary: Sam receives a call from Jess who, surprisingly, has a case for them.

Characters: Sam and Jess

Timeline: Takes place in Season 1: Chapter 11

Chapter Recap: Sam and Dean have begun hunting once more, leaving Jess in Boston with her parents. When it comes to the shapeshifter in St. Louis, Dean is successfully able to avoid the entire rapist/murderer accusation fiasco by catching the thing in the sewers before it can impersonate him.

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The Road So Far (This Time Around)

Season 1: Chapter 11

Deleted Scene

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"I'm just saying. We could at least try listening to something from this century," Sam was saying from the passenger side of the Impala. Dean wasn't really listening, considering he was talking utter nonsense. Baby Blasphemy, really.

"How many times I gotta say it, Sammy? Drivers picks the music-"

"-and shotgun shuts his cake hole." Sam rolled his eyes as he dug into his jacket pocket as his phone started vibrating against his side. "And it's Sam."

"Course it is."

The young hunter ignored his brother, since his answer was tantamount to ignoring him first, and stared down at the unfamiliar number on his screen. "Hello?"

"Sam?"

Sam's brow furled immediately and he glanced at his brother with a panicked look that Dean didn't miss. He didn't pull Baby off the road just yet, but he was ready to at a moment's notice. "Jess? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Yeah," came the answer down the tinny line, and Sam relaxed marginally at the tone of her voice. It wasn't panicked, but it was still off. She was definitely upset about something. "Yeah, I'm fine. We're all fine. I just…um…"

"What is it? Is it your dad?"

"No, he's okay. Thanks, Sam. I'm- I'm sorry to call you like this-"

"Not at all, Jess. You can always call me, for anything." Sam shook his head at his brother's questioning look, gesturing for him to keep driving. "Tell me what's going on."

"It's… You remember Becky, right? Becky Warren and her brother, Zach?"

Sam's brow tried to furl and rise at the same time, making for an interesting mix of facial expressions his brother would surely call him on if he weren't driving and also trying to listen to the other end of the conversation.

"Yeah, of course I remember them. Why?"

Jess's voice seemed hesitant as she relayed a recent telephone call she'd gotten from Becky. She had been understandably upset, seeing as her brother was currently in jail in St. Louis on suspicion of murdering his girlfriend. Security cameras caught Zach at his apartment at the time of the murder, despite Becky's adamant assurance that he'd spent the evening with her, nowhere near the scene of the crime. She didn't know who it was on that security feed, but it wasn't her brother.

"I know I don't know a lot about your, um, family business. But it just…I don't know, it seemed…"

"Weird?" Dean piped up from the driver's seat, glancing at the phone before catching his brother's expression and throwing a 'what?' look his way. Luckily, Jess didn't seem to hear him, and finished the sentence with a meek 'you're sort of thing.'

Sam missed the days when there wasn't this awkward elephant standing between them labeled 'Supernatural.'

"No, that does sound weird." Dean shot him a look which he ignored. "And I'm happy to help Becky out. We'll look into it, Jess, I promise."

Silent rang down the line after her appreciative thank you. Dean pulled off the freeway at the next exit, flipping a U-ie to get on in the other direction, back the way they came, back towards Missouri. Sam angled himself away from Dean and into the door, as much as a large man could in a small interior space. For his part, his brother took up a not-at-all-subtle whistling tune and kept his eyes locked on the road in front of him and ever so slightly to the left, away from his brother in some cartoon render of privacy. Sam took what he could get.

"How are you?" he asked, softly down the line. She hummed lightly, and he could tell she was smiling, even if the circumstances of their call weren't optimal.

"I'm good. I'm okay." She didn't sound it, but then again, it had only been a couple weeks since the incident. "Dad's doing well. He's mostly healed. Mom mother-henned him to the point where he threatened to move out, so…you know."

The smile fighting for control of his face eventually lost out to that black hole that had burrowed in his chest ever since he left the Moore family home behind.

"Jess, I'm so sorry-"

"It's not your fault, Sam." Her words were soft, but firm and still very much that spitfire girl he'd met two years ago and instantly fell for. "You'd never hurt anyone, least of all me. I know that."

He took a shaky breath, fighting back the water that welled in his eyes. Before he could say anything in return, however, she pushed on. "Thank you for the psychiatrist, by the way. Or, um, thank Bobby for me. She's been really helpful."

"I'm glad to hear it."

Their conversation once more fell to silence, as Sam struggled with what to say in a way he never had with her before.

Eventually, he heard her huff down the line: a little deprecating laugh that usually meant her wicked tongue was about to get the best of someone.

"Dean's there?"

Sam sent a sidelong glance to his brother who immediately looked back, then caught himself, froze, and looked away like he hadn't obviously been watching and listening. Oh yeah. Real subtle.

"Uh, yeah. He's here."

She huffed again, more of an exhaling of noise than a chuckle but serving the same purpose. "Well call me sometime when he isn't. We'll catch up, without comments about Smurf pajamas or eyebrow waggling."

Sam couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of him or the warm that filled his chest. "I'd like that."

He could hear her smiling down the line. "Bye, Sam."

"Bye, Jess."

He hung up the phone with a smile on his face and an immediately 'bite me' for his brother. He felt good. Not great, but certainly better than he had in weeks. That goodbye had felt a lot less final this time around.

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Reason it wasn't Included: I had this planned out in my head before I ended up writing the section concerning those early hunts. I wasn't sure if I'd end up going into detail with them or condensing them into a summary – the montage of the written world. I ended up condensing them, so this bit did not end up included in the story, but it still happened, at least in my head. Plus, it made for a good little tag.