10: A Day in the Life

Word of the leader's estranged wife and the leader's former best friend knocking boots spread quick, as vicious gossip was wont to do. Castiel already had quite the reputation for being a 'ladies' man', with his love guru crap and orgies, not necessarily a horrible reputation, he didn't catch shit for it. Her, on the other hand, was just known as the weird, psychic sort of wife of Dean. The pair of them, spending a few nights together, had ignited the gossip.

Life went on, with or without the whispered rumors, and nothing seemed like it had really changed between her and Cas. He was still smoking weed, still associating with his groupies, and still bringing her food whenever he thought she was starving herself. They were still friends, still close, they weren't making things awkward and that worked for her.

Dean was taking her out quite often now. She knew how to use a gun, had her psychic ability, and was now apparently both demon and virus proof. She was an asset and he was using her like one. She was also getting her ass kicked. She had been 'infected' at least twice more since the original bite.

What sucked about the Croats, the infected, was that while they were subject to seriously murderous rages, they hadn't lost any of their reasoning abilities, they just tended to focus them on how to get and infect, or kill, other people.

Just because she couldn't be infected did not mean she enjoyed the attempts being made. She had had blood hocked in her mouth so far and been slashed with a knife coated in lovely virus germs. She was genuinely more worried about infection from the wound than turning into a rage freak. "Did you find what you were looking for?" She asked tiredly, holding a relatively clean towel to her collarbone, where said knife slash wound was located, and bleeding.

"Still looking." Dean glanced over his shoulder at her, frowning slightly. "Do a perimeter check. If we're clear, we'll hole up here for the night and head back to camp in the morning."

"Gotcha, boss." She mock saluted, sort of, before picking her way out of the destroyed, once upon a time, office. Dean hadn't bothered telling her why they had ventured to this town, what was left of it, and she didn't bother asking. She didn't care. She knew why she was there and just did her job.

The place looked like an old warzone, at one time it had probably been an active warzone. Clearly some sort of militia had come through and tried cleaning house. They'd gotten a good number of the Croats but not all, obviously, or else she wouldn't be stemming the blood from her new future scar. She finished her walk throughout the building, not that it was overly large to begin it, sensed and found nothing.

"Anyone hurt?" She asked as she stepped down into what was once a lobby, taking note of the barricades and blockages covering anything and everything that could be used to get in.

"Nothing serious." Castiel had already gone over all that fun stuff. Injuries were minor, and most of it was due to panic and not paying attention, fortunately nobody had been infected. "You look like you need a med kit."

"I do, after I do a check outside."

"I'll walk with you." He bent down to retrieve his rifle, shouldering it. "You probably can't aim for shit right now."

Probably not. She followed him out the side door, which seemed to be the only way in or out, and came to a halt. The sun would be setting soon, and the area around them looked like hell. This town had gone through the wringer. "We'll never win this."

"No." He said just as softly as she had. "We won't."

"Are you any good at this?"

"Uh, I'm not bad."

Jane frowned, eyeballing the curved needle Castiel was preparing. Stitches, she needed stitches, and she wasn't able to do it herself. Ideally, Dean would have been able to do it, Lord knew he had years of experience, but Dean was still sorting through what was left of the offices. A few people were in the lobby, pulling guard duty, while others hunted for supplies. They were sitting off in what used to be a break room, maybe, Jane with her back to a wall, Castiel in front of her with a first aid kit. "Don't suppose there's anything with drinkable alcohol in that kit?"

"No…"

"Well hell's bells, this is going to suck."

"Deep breath, Jane." He advised, leaning in.

Jane did as told, closing her eyes.

"You're lucky this isn't as deep as it could have been." He remarked, getting to work. "Could have been worse."

If she were one of the poor soul's susceptible to Croat infection, yeah, a lot worse indeed. "See, it seems that way, but at the moment, having a needle sliding in and out of my skin seems pretty bad."

"Baby."

"Angel bitch."

"Ouch." He was grinning though, glancing up at her to see her eyes were half-open, and she seemed amused as well. "Words hurt, Jane."

"You'll survive." She muttered, leaning her head back against the wall.

They were both quiet as he finished up, eventually taping a bit of gauze over the area. "Done."

She nodded, not bothering to open her eyes again. "I don't sense anything around. Think it's safe to sleep?"

Castiel considered that, finally pushing himself to his feet to go out into the lobby, see who was on watch. He spotted Dean, bobbing his head in acknowledgement before going back into the other rom. "You can sleep." He informed her, dropping back down alongside her.

"Sweet." Jane leaned into him, letting her head drop on his shoulder. "Cas?"

"Hmm?"

"Is this okay?"

He couldn't keep himself from chuckling softly, resting his own head on top of hers. "Yeah, Jane, it's okay."

"Come with me."

Jane had just emerged from the lesser ruined bathroom, where she had enjoyed a morning piss in a broken toilet and utilized the sort of working tap water to do a sponge bath. She looked at Dean, then around the lobby. People were sort of waking up, outside the current guards, and a glance off to the side room showed that Castiel was still asleep. "Where too?" She asked finally.

"There's a pharmacy across the street. I figured we could go have a look before we head back to camp."

She nodded, taking a moment to go retrieve her gun before joining him outside. She immediately wished she had thought to grab an extra shirt or something, it was getting cold out. "Winter will be here soon."

"Yeah." He wasn't looking forward to that. If this winter was anything like last year, they would be screwed. They had just barely managed to make supplies last, and venturing out when there was nobody left to plow the roads, was pure hell. "We're going to have to make more trips out over the next month and really boost up what we got." They had more people at the compound this winter then they had had last year.

She mentally reviewed the things they would need, groaning. "We might have to venture into one of the actual cities, Dean." She said reluctantly. Sure, civilization still existed, but even the major hubs were still risky as hell. The Croatoan virus was liable to break out, not to mention the fact that most high ranking officials these days were either possessed by demons or had demons surrounding them.

"That's what I'm thinking. We might as well start here." He gestured to the doors they were about to enter. "I seen a few other stores on our way into town. Maybe we could do a sweep of some neighborhoods…"

"Maybe the ones that don't look like they've already been raided." She let him go in first, closing her eyes and scanning for weird displacements, getting nothing. "I think we're clear."

"Good." But he didn't lower his gun.

Jane headed immediately for the back, stopping long enough to retrieve a few discarded paper bags. If there was any medicine left, she was taking it. Expiration dates meant dick at this point, sometimes you just had to work with what you had. She figured Dean would be going for the food, not surprised at all when he eventually showed up with a shopping cart full of what had been left on the shelves. That was a lot stale potato chips… She showed him her own bags, knowing there was still the other aisles to hit. Cough syrups, creams, soaps –oh God, she wanted shampoo-, personal items, all that fun stuff… "Did you let anyone know we were coming over here?"

"Yeah, we'll fill the carts, plant them by the doors and bring a truck over."

"Good." She put the bags into the cart, eyeballing the nearly bare shelves.

"You and Castiel a thing now?"

"Really?"

"Yeah." He followed her out of the pharmacist area to the nearby diabetes and diet foods section, helping her gather what remained. "I know it's not my business but… it is my business."

"You don't want me, Dean. I think that's been made quite clear."

"Admit it, Jane, from my perspective, it's shady. He's an angel and you were hand-crafted by God."

"Former, and didn't know." She was moving onto cough, cold, and allergies.

"Maybe, anyways… oh hey…"

Jane watched as he slipped around the corner, following his gaze and shook her head. He had found the magazine rack, and the black plastic covered 'adult' magazines. While he browsed for spank bank material, she continued plundering. When she heard a chuckle, she knew he had probably found Busty Asian Beauties… some things never changed.