"Are you okay?"

It was over an hour later. Erin had sobbed into his shirt for most of that hour, and about fifteen minutes ago had abruptly retreated to the couch. He followed suit, careful to sit on the other end of the sofa so he wouldn't upset her again.

"Yeah. Sorry." She was speaking in monosyllables, looking away from him. He couldn't tell if she was angry, upset, or just uncomfortable with him. He cleared his throat, unsure of what to say. He got the feeling that this was a side of Erin a lot of people didn't see.

"You're not going to toss me into the wall again, are you?" He was only half-joking.

He heard a snort from the other end of the couch. "Why would I? You haven't done anything. I'm just…annoyed with myself."

"So you cried. It's not a crime."

She whirled around on the seat to face him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You wouldn't tell me about my dad because you thought I'd blame you, right? Well, I don't. You miss him; he was a good friend to you. It's all right to mourn him. Besides, the guilt was killing you; I could see it in your face."

He sat forward and sighed. "I don't feel like you…… kept him from me either. The problem between me and my dad….part of it was my fault. I'm the one that left home. I went to college and wanted a normal life. Before that, if my dad didn't come home, it was usually because we fought every time he was there." He smiled sardonically.

"He probably thought you were a better kid."

"Oh, sure. A psychotic college drop-out is sooo much better than a Stanford-bound lawboy." She flopped back against the back cushion and let out a deep sigh. Sam waited for her to say something. In the continuous silence, he thought about what she had told him. He knew that his dad had known Ellen for a while, but he never would have guessed he was that close to their family.

He couldn't say what he would have done if anyone else had told him that his dad helped raise them. Most likely, he'd feel betrayed and angry; or maybe he would think that his dad had tried to start over, like he screwed up with him and Dean. But with Erin, he couldn't feel that way. For some reason, it was more like watching his own emotions being played out in somebody else. He felt guilty about his dad's death too; only his guilt was caused by not sensing what his dad was going to do. If only he could have had a vision about that…

"We're pathetic."

He looked over as she sat forward again to stare at the coffee table. She had an expression of serious contemplation.

"And how exactly are we pathetic?"

"For starters, instead of getting some work done and discussing the demon, we're sitting here wallowing in self-pity." She shifted her gaze over to him. "Think about it. John wouldn't want us to sit here, dwelling on his memory when we could be trying to find the demon. In fact, he'd probably kick our ass if he was here."

"Well, you're right about that." He propped his elbows on his knees and rested his chin on top of his hands. Somehow, he knew this was Erin's way of cheering herself up. He went along with it, mostly because she had a point.

"Well, what do we do now?"

She glanced over at the clock and sighed. "I suppose you should go back to the Roadhouse. Jo gets up early, and she probably woke your brother up. Which means everyone's up, and your brother's probably pissed about his car." She snickered.

"You're right about that. He's going to kill me." He made a slight face. Standing up, he stretched for a minute. An idea came to him.

"Why don't you come back with me?"

She looked up at him from where she slumped lethargically on the couch. "What, to the Roadhouse? I…guess I could, but why?"

He shrugged. "Ellen seemed pretty worried about you. It'd probably convince her more if she saw you than if I told her. And, I want to talk about the demon some more. You could bring the files..." he gestured to the box on the table, "and we go over them again."

"You have a valid point." She hopped off the couch, seemingly more energetic. "So, my choices for how to spend my day are: go to the Roadhouse with you or sit here and watch daytime television while scarfing Cheese-its." She made a weighing motion with her hands as if she was really considering her options.

"Let me get dressed." She vaulted over the back of the couch and ran down the hallway in a flurry of excitement. Sam tried not to laugh at her apparent joy of being saved from daytime television.

"I'll be right back!"


Meanwhile, at the Roadhouse, there was the most unusual scene unfolding. Dean Winchester was standing out in the dusty parking lot, wearing nothing but his blue jeans and a scowl. Jo stood on the porch, practically laughing her ass off at him.

"I'M GOING TO KICK HIS ASS!!"

He kicked up dust in vain, only succeeded in getting dirt all over his pants. Irritated and pissed off to no end, he threw up his hand in disgust and turned to go back inside. He was going to hike to town if he had to, but once he got his hands on Sam….

"Missing something, Dean?" Jo managed to get her giggles under control as he came even with the porch. Seeing the older Winchester aggravated to this extent was hilarious. It would only be funnier if she was the one that had irritated him to begin with.

"He…I'm…Just wait till I get hands on him…" At a loss for words, he made a wringing motion in the air.

"I'm going to choke him with my bare hands!" He stomped up the steps and brushed past the blonde.

"What's the matter, Dean? Losing your car make you feel insecure in your manhood?"

Jo leaned against the porch railing and smiled mockingly. Ok, so maybe she didn't commence the aggravation, but she'd be damned if she didn't get some fun out of it. After all, when you worked at a roadside bar in the middle of nowhere, you took her jollies where you could get them. In her case, that would be annoying the piss out of the elder Winchester brother.

Dean turned around and marched over to her, grabbing the porch rail on either side of her hips. Leaning in, he came closer until their noses were touching. Jo held her breath, unsure of what he was going to do. Part of her was hoping he would do something, and that's the part of her which made her heart race. It didn't help that he was completely naked from the waist up. He smiled that devilishly handsome smirk of his, and his eyes glinted mischievously.

"Don't. Mock. The. Car."

He let go of the railing and walked away before she could regain her senses. As he walked back inside he had the satisfaction that, for once, he had shut her up.


The Impala pulled into the parking lot two hours later. They would have been there sooner, but Erin suggested they stop at a diner in town and grab an actual breakfast. Sam couldn't argue, seeing as how the ham sandwich from earlier had long disappeared. But apparently, Sam noticed as he shut the engine off, their little detour gave Dean just enough time to reach his breaking point.

Before the younger Winchester could get out of the car completely, Dean had made it out the door and across the parking lot. And he was livid. Sam watched as his brother tried to resist the urge to throttle him. Was that a vein popping out of Dean's forehead?

"Sam."

"Yeah, Dean?"

"You are so dead." He took a menacing step towards his younger brother. "You stole my car! What the hell were you thinking?!"

"I borrowed your car, Dean. There's a difference." Sam tossed him the keys. "I brought it back, and I didn't run it into anything. Calm down."

"Calm down my ass. You took my car! Why did you take my car?" Dean was acting as if he had caught Sam having sex with his girlfriend, a reaction which Sam was finding increasingly amusing.

"What the hell is he raving about?" Erin came around the hood of the car with the safe box in her arms. Sam shrugged and started to explain, only to be cut off by Dean.

"Wait a minute. You stole my car to go pick her up? Sam, why?" Dean whined, grabbing his brother by the shoulders.

"Sam, this car is a delicate machine, not the taxi for the crazy farm! I'm not going to stand in the way of you getting laid, but for the love of god, stop picking up insane chicks!" He shook his younger brother roughly.

"Get off of me, Dean!" Sam threw his brother's hands off and shot him a glare. "First, we didn't sleep together. Second, she's not insane, ok? So just stop saying that."

Erin chimed in from behind the brothers. "Well, that depends on whether you mean insane in 'I slashed by ex's tires and torched a lemonade stand' or insane in 'We the jury find the defendant'. I would think I'm the former."

Sam turned to give Erin an incredulous look. "Where did that come from?"

She shrugged. "What? I thought it was a good explanation of my mental facilities."

"All right, whatever. I'm going back inside. And you--," Dean pointed to Sam threateningly.

"You are never touching these keys again. I'll sleep with 'em in my boxers if I have to." He spun around, heading back inside the bar. Sam looked back at Erin to see a look of disgust on her face.

"Erin?"

"I really didn't need to know what kind of underwear your brother wears." She gave a mock shiver. "Bad mental images…."

He grinned, amused. "Come on, we better go." They started across the parking lot together, making it all the way to porch before Sam asked.

"Did you really torch a lemonade stand?"

Erin opened her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by the sound of Ellen's voice as they walked through the door.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in."

"Hey, Aunt Ellen." Erin sat the safe box on the counter and walked around the end of the bar to give her aunt a hug. "How's it going?"

Ellen dutifully hugged the younger girl, nearly squeezing the life of her in the process. "It's going." She moved back so she could look Erin up and down. "How in the hell did Sam manage to convince you to come out of that hole you live in?"

Erin rolled her eyes and walked back around the bar to join Sam on the other side. "Oh, he just offered to rescue me from the horrors of daytime television." She patted Sam on the shoulder.

"Such a gallant hero."

Dean looked up from his place at a table in the back of the room. "Freakin' daytime television. That Snuggles bear's a bitch."

"Language." Ellen gave him threatening look, silencing anything else he was going to say.

Returning her attention to the two in front of her, Ellen just shook her head and sighed. "So, I suppose you two have worked out your differences. You're going to play nice, right Erin?" She shot her a warning glare.

"Yes ma'am. No more throwing people into walls, I got it." She sat down on the bar stool on Sam's right and exhaled. After a few minutes, she slumped forward onto the bar.

"I'm dying of boredom..."

Ellen patted her on the head lovingly. "I'll get you a beer. You drinking, Sam?"

He thought about it for a second. "Sure, why not?" At least it would give him something to do. Ellen nodded and went to retrieve some cold beers.

Meanwhile, Dean was surprised when Jo came over and plopped herself down on the chair beside him. He continued to the stare into his beer, and waited for her to say something. He didn't have to wait long.

"Why are you guys still here?"

He turned to look at her, nonplussed. "Isn't it obvious? We haven't had a hunt in three weeks. We've got nowhere to go. Besides," he looked her up and down before returning to his beer watching, "what are you doing here? Last time I called, your mom said you had gone off hunting." He held back his opinion of her being all alone out there, hunting on her own.

She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. "I had to come back when Erin did." When she caught the millisecond look of surprise on Dean's face, she smirked. "What, you thought I was out there all alone? I don't care how big a fight my mom and me got into, that would never happen."

Dean gave the girl at the bar with his brother a once-over. "So, she's a good hunter?"

Jo nodded enthusiastically. "She doesn't talk about it, but before dropped out of college her majors were mythology and parapsychology. If it's supernatural she's killed, exorcised, or studied it. Plus, she trained with your dad." She looked apologetic. "Maybe I shouldn't have said that."

He shrugged. "Doesn't bother me." He took a swig of beer and swallowed. "If my dad trained her, at least I know you're not going to die."

"Aw, were you worried about me, Princess?" Jo gave him an overly-dramatic starry-eyed look. "That's so cute."

"Cut it out; you're scaring me." He finished his beer. "That face doesn't work for you."

"Ok, how about this?" She gave him saddest puppy-dog look she could muster.

He stared at her for a few moments before groaning in defeat. "Ok, ok. Just stop it! You're making me want to donate to charity of something…"

"Or maybe this." She batted her eyelashes seductively and leaned closer to him.

"What are you doing?" He instinctively backed up, despite the fact that he was already on the edge on his chair.

She put his hand on his knee and leaned close enough to whisper. "Dean…"

He couldn't move, let alone breathe. Instead, he tried to focus on something, anything else. Like the fact that her mom was in the back and could walk out at any moment. Or the fact that she was younger than him. Or….was she licking her lips?!

He swallowed, hard. "Jo, you need to…" He trailed off as she leaned close enough that he nose was touching his cheek, while her hand wandered farther up his thigh. Damn it, this was getting out of hand.

"Dean…"

"Yeah?" He breathed the answer, unable to do much else.

"Payback's a bitch, ain't it?" A triumphant grin broke out across her face as he realized this was retaliation for earlier and not an attempt to seduce him.

"Go to hell." He snatched his leg out of her reach and sulked as he stared at his empty beer bottle. Jo howled with laughter.

"You should have seen your face!" She laughed so hard she cried.

"Go clean a damn table or something."

She started to answer, but instead just let out another cackle. Dean groaned and shook his head. He was never going to live this down.

Jo managed to get a breather into between guffaws and put her hand on his shoulder. Surprised, he looked over to see her face red and her eyes gleaming with tears. He gave her a blank stare, attempting to appear unruffled.

"What?"

She beamed at him in amusement. This was by far the funniest thing she had ever done to him.

"You're blushing."

Dean stood abruptly and stalked towards the back door. Sam, noticing his brother's expression, turned away from the bar.

"Hey Dean, where're you going?"

He paused at the door, his hand on the knob. He didn't dare turn around to answer his brother's question, just in case Jo was telling the truth about his face.

"To the hose. To take a cold shower."

Ellen returned from the back just as the door slammed shut. Bewildered, she gave Erin a confused look.

"What happened?"

Erin shrugged. "No idea. But Jo sounds like a hyena back there, so maybe she knows."

Ellen turned her attention to her daughter, who had sauntered up to the bar. But before she could even ask her, Jo face turned a peculiar shade of scarlet as she cracked up again.

"Never mind." Ellen handed the two at the bar their beers and shook her head. "I don't even want to know."


Author's Note: I updated again, yay! I tried to give Jo and Dean equal spotlight time, which resulted in the little contest they're having. I'm trying to speed up the story, mostly because I'm known for drawing out a plotline (once, I wrote ten chapters of a story before I realized that absolutely no time had passed in the storyline. It was still the same day.) But you guys tell me if I start rushing, ok? Thanks!