Thanks to "JustOnePogoStick" for her suggestion about Dean in the storyline and to "Twinchester Angel" for her help with characterization and her constant support.

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The whole group who had, up until that point, seemed to think that they were engaging in a conversation quiet enough for her not to hear, turned to stare at Jo as she stood beside the car, her hand resting on the rolled-down window and her nostrils flaring in rage. Dean, looking shocked, silently opened his mouth a couple of times and then exchanged a quick look with Sam, who nodded at him. Dean stared at him for a second and then nodded back, as if they were concluding some sort of silent discussion, and then he turned back to face her. "I think –" he began, but Ellen whipped her head around to shoot him a warning glare, effectively stopping his sentence in its tracks. He looked away from Ellen, then fake-coughed and cleared his throat. "I think we should let you guys talk this one out. Sam and I will be over…" he pointed in some vague direction to the right and then tugged at Sam by the elbow and his brother came away with him willingly. They finally stopped at a spot in the parking lot about twenty feet away from the group and then stayed there, silently talking to one another.

Ellen and Bobby watched them go and then Ellen turned towards her, anger evident on her face, while Bobby continued to stare wistfully back at the boys as if he wished he could be standing with them. Another warning look from Ellen and Bobby sighed and finally turned towards Jo, looking resigned and thoroughly miserable.

"Just exactly what the hell is wrong with you?" her mother asked her, phrasing it more like a statement than a question. "Hasn't this day been difficult enough?"

"Mom! What exactly do you want us to do? Traipse into that vampire nest all by ourselves and get us, plus all the victims trapped in there, killed?"

"Now, you know that's not gonna happen –"

"Are you kidding me? Twelve or thirteen vamps, and that's only as far as we know. They've been turning people like crazy lately, who's to say that a couple of the people they captured haven't already been turned? There could be even more of them by now. And, what, you want to go in there with three hunters armed with a few machetes?" She gestured an arm towards Sam and Dean. "Why do you think we came here to get their help in the first place? We need as many trained hunters on this as we can get!"

Ellen sighed. "Alright. Maybe you're right; we do need more people on this." She turned to Bobby. "Put out that call to Frank and Jarrett and I guess we'll just wait a day or two for them to wrap up their damn case and get over here."

Jo stared at her mother in open-mouthed shock. "What? No!"

Ellen turned to Bobby, who was making no attempt to either pull his phone out from his pocket or put his two cents into the conversation as he shifted his eyes back and forth between the two women standing in front of him as if he was watching a tennis tournament. "Well Bobby, you're fingers broken? Get a move on it!"

Bobby scrunched up his face in annoyance. "I aint your bitch. And, anyway, they're too far out; we'd be better off going with a couple of good hunters already in the area."

Ellen looked at Bobby with a look of utter seriousness. "Jo can't handle those two coming along right now."

"Mom!" she screamed in frustration, "For god's sake, I'm twenty-three; I'm not a little girl anymore!" She resolutely stabbed a finger to her own chest. "Why don't you let me decide what I can handle?"

Ellen cocked an eyebrow at her. "You're telling me that you're going to be able to do the job with Sam and Dean there after what just happened?"

"Why not? It's not like they're going to celebrate every decapitation with a make-out session afterwards!"

Bobby wrinkled his nose and grimaced as he was no doubt presented with a mental image much like her own, of Sam and Dean covered in blood, arms wrapped around each other, kissing each other so hungrily that it looked like they were trying to devour one another while still each still clutched a machete in one hand. "Well, at any rate, we gotta figure out what we're doing and head out; we're burning daylight. It's already 3:30 and it's going to take us a little while still to get there."

Ellen looked back and forth from Bobby to Jo and back again, looking completely torn as to what she wanted to do.

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As Ellen, Bobby, and Jo began their conversation, Sam and Dean watched the three of them from across the parking lot. They were too far away to hear what exactly was being said and Sam, at least, was a little grateful for that. Jo was the only one whose voice he could sort of hear as she spoke passionately and gestured emphatically with her arms. Ellen just looked pissed as hell, and Bobby appeared like all he wanted to do was escape. He turned towards his brother. "Well, whatd'ya think?"

Dean stared angrily at his brother. "What do I think? I think that this whole situation sucks, that's what I think."

Sam nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"I mean, right now, I'm a little afraid to come near Jo while she has a weapon in her hands, but it's not exactly like we've got much of a choice. I mean, thirteen vampires versus three hunters? Bobby's getting reckless in his old age."

Sam snorted. "Says the guy who just last week almost let a werewolf rip his heart out just so he could get close enough to force-feed it silver."

Sam's tone sounded gentle and teasing but there was real tension and anger behind his words. They'd just worked a case involving a werewolf prostitute who was hunting down and turning her johns and the two of them were working out a way to poison one of the monsters by force-feeding it silver so they could trap and interrogate it and find out who was responsible for the sudden lycanthropy spike in the area. They hadn't come up with any great plans right away, but Sam was sure that they could have figured something out that was way safer than just walking right into the werewolf hunting ground and screaming, "white meat, come and get it!" which was exactly what Dean had done. Dean had, once again, just formulated his own plan at the last second, leaving Sam horrified at how close his brother had come to death when it was all over. He'd been doing that a lot in the two months since he'd sold his soul and Sam was getting fed up.

Dean glared at his brother. "It worked, didn't it? And I'm being serious here, Sam. We can't let them go this one alone. But whether they let us come or we have to sneak in to help, Jo might cut our heads off either way."

Sam sighed and nodded. Dean was right; they were dealing with bigger problems at the moment and would have to fight about Dean's recklessness later. "Okay. Well, at least she didn't shoot us."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Thanks, that's very comforting. You know that if we come, she can't come along, right?"

"Yeah, of course I know that. I thought we decided that right before Ellen shot you the death glare."

"Yeah, and that's what I was going to say –"

"But you're scared of Ellen," Sam teased.

"Shuddup."

At that moment, the three of them stepped apart and Ellen gestured as if she was calling them over to her. "Alright boys, pack whatever weapons you wanna bring; we're leaving in five."

Jo, Ellen, and Bobby began to turn to walk to their cars, but Dean held up his hand and shouted, "Wait!" and all three stopped and looked at him. Dean chanced one glance back at Sam, who tried his best to look supportive, and then looked back at the rest of the group. "Jo should sit this one out."

Jo stared at him in outrage. "What!"

"Sam and I happen to agree on this one. We should go and you should stay; you're head's not on straight right now and if you come along it'll just put us all in danger."

Jo squinted at them both. "Weren't you just saying that we need as many hunters as we can get?"

Dean spread his arms wide. "Hey, four is better than three!"

"Damn it, Dean! When are you going to stop treating me like I'm an idiot?"

Dean looked confused but after a couple of seconds he quickly caught on. "Oh, you're talking about back at that apartment building when I didn't want you to go off by yourself because you were an amateur." He took a step towards her. "And then you insisted on going off by yourself and got yourself kidnapped by the ghost about thirty seconds later. Is that –"

Sam gruffly grabbed Dean by the arm and pulled him back. "Dean, stop! This isn't going to get us anywhere!"

Jo, however, stared defiantly at them both. "Well, I'm not an amateur anymore. And I know what I'm doing. So I'm coming. And we're going to take out that nest, like a bunch of professionals and then I'm going to kick both your perverted asses later."

Dean narrowed his eyes and smirked at her. "Okay, bring it on, sweetheart." His voice was suddenly so calm and even that it was a little scary. "But just remember, you asked for it."

"Balls!" Bobby growled. "Are you two done making us feel safe about this plan to bring everyone along or what?"

Dean and Jo gave each other one last hard glare and then Dean looked up at the worried faces of Bobby and Ellen. "Yeah, sorry. We'll be fine; take out that nest with no problem. Sam and I just need to do a weapons check and then we're good to go."

With that, Ellen, Jo, and Bobby reluctantly turned and began to make their way to their cars and Sam and Dean trudged back towards the motel, headed straight for the Impala. "Terrific," Dean grumbled under his breath. "Sam, do me a favor; the next time we walk into a motel room, don't touch me until we've locked the damn door, alright?"