Chapter three
Sam led her to the room and opened the door. It had been unused for a time and Julianna walked to the window to let in some fresh air. Sam came from the hall closet with sheets and a blanket for the bed. "Here you go. This should do it for now. Do you want me to make the bed for you?" Sam smiled hesitantly at her.
"No thank you Sam. I will take care of it." He is sweet, she thought but he is struggling with something.
Sam turned to leave but Julianna put her hand on his arm. Sam felt a strange tingling from her touch. She took his hand and put both her hands around it. Sam looked at her and a feeling of peace covered him. "Thank you Sam" she said, staring intently into his eyes and let go of his hand.
Sam was hesitant and stuttered, "um,, it's just a blanket, no b-big deal. "
"No, I meant thank YOU Sam" Julianna said quietly. Thank you for what you did for Father's children. You threw yourself in the cage to save them. I wasn't sure if anyone had thanked you for that." Julianna then turned and proceeded to make the bed.
Sam watched her for a few minutes and then quietly backed out of the room.
When he got back downstairs, Bobby was trying to convince Dean that Julianna wasn't his personal cook or maid and they were not asking her to make dinner on her first night.
Sam had to smile to himself listening to Dean's argument.
"Bobby, all I'm saying is she said herself she wants to be useful. Welllllll, cooking is useful! I'm thinking only of her. It would probably make her happy to do something."
"No Dean, not happening! She is scared and out of her element. We need to give her time to adapt, get to know us, figure out her boundaries. That's why I wanted her to have her own room. You know, in case she needed to be alone while she sorts things out, poor kid." Bobby felt bad for Julianna watching her cry to her brother in front of strangers.
Bobby barely had the words out of his mouth when Julianna came down the stairs. "Are you hungry Bobby? This is the customary dinner time, correct? Can I cook something for you? I know how. One of my charges was the owner of his own restaurant. He only made burgers and things but I'm pretty good at it if you want."
Bobby was speechless seeing the change in her in such a short time. Somewhere in his mind, he heard Dean yell "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSS"!
After dinner, Dean fell asleep on the couch and Sam sat at the table researching their next hunt. Julianna was cleaning the kitchen when Bobby walked in.
"Can I help?"
"It's not necessary but you can if it pleases you" Julianna replied handing him a towel to dry the dishes.
They stood there together for a while, neither one speaking when Bobby laughed quietly to himself.
"What is it?" Julianna asked.
"The last time I did this was with my wife, years ago. I always hated this job but missed it terribly when she was gone."
Julianna smiled with understanding and continued cleaning.
"So Julianna, you walked up the stairs to your room with tears still in your eyes and came down ready to cook dinner like you had been here for weeks. Want to tell me how that change of heart happened?" Bobby asked, looking at her seriously and putting his towel down on the sink.
Julianna turned to him. He was really intuitive. She won't be able to get much past him. She put her back to the sink and leaned against it. "I'm sorry but I was listening on the stairs. You were so concerned about my feelings and Dean was so concerned about eating. I want to be helpful while I'm here. I want to be useful. Judging from Dean's snoring, I think I might have passed the first test. So, can the cooking be my job?" Julianna hesitated and then added "Please Bobby?" staring into his eyes with a look of hope.
It was that moment that Bobby looks back on and realizes was the moment she got to him. He already liked her presence in the house. He must be getting soft. "Yeah sure. It's your job if you want it. My cooking, well no one ever really described it as cooking."
"Thank you" Julianna said and smiled sincerely.
Sam walked in the kitchen then. Bobby immediately could see something was bothering him. "What's up sport, you ok?" he asked. So much like a father to him, Julianna thought.
"Just a headache" Sam said. I'm going up to bed".
"You need an aspirin or something?" Bobby asked concerned. There has been a couple of times that he caught Sam just looking in the distance, not really sure what he was looking at. Sam always brushed it off as nothing or claimed he had a headache but Bobby wasn't so sure. Dean had noticed it too. There isn't anything that goes on with Sam that Dean doesn't know about.
"No, I'm good, thanks. "
Sam went up to bed and Bobby decided to leave Dean on the couch. He just looked too comfortable to disturb. "Will this be one of the nights that you will be sleeping Julianna?" Bobby asked, not sure if this was the third day that Cas had been talking about.
"No, not tonight Bobby. I'll be fine. You can go to bed. I promise I won't run away when you are sleeping." Julianna said with a smile.
"Well, thanks. I wasn't even thinking that you might do that. Now, it will be on my mind." Bobby grumbled.
Julianna smiled and thought, this might not be so bad after all.
