Dean gave the man an odd look. "Of course I can, Agnes" said Dean raising a brow.
"Great, I hope you two make awesome reports" said Agnes, leaving them alone.
The man gave Dean a huge smile. " Hi! I'm Jack Daniels and I'm a reporter for the World Weekly News."
"World Weekly News?. Don't you mean Weekly World News?" asked Dean suspiciously.
"Oh yeah, World, I mean News…I mean ….crap! Sorry man, I'm new. This is my first assignment, you know," Jack was sweating.
"If you say so. Can I ask you a question?" Dean equested.
"Shoot."
"How long have you been hunting?"
"Hunting? I'm not a hunter. I'm a reporter at the News..crap!"
"Well, Mr. Reporter, tell me since when a reporter needs a Glock in his waistband and a shotgun under his armpit?" asked Dean finding this conversation a lot funny.
"…."
"Not to mention that you don't have a notepad or a laptop."
"errr….." Jack was feeling a lot awkward.
"And that you have in your hand a pink, floral and perfumed piece of paper that match exactly with the one Claire give me two hours ago." Dean was enjoying so much torturing this man.
"I…I'm not….. Ok, I give up, six years now" said Jack with sad eyes.
"Dean Winchester" said Dean and offered his hand to the stranger.
"Jack Russell" said that man squeezing Dean's hand. "I can't believe I'm in front of one of the fierce Winchester boys."
"Fierce? We are adorable," laughed Dean. "So, when did you meet the girls?"
"An hour ago. I met Claire outside Sammie's house and when I started asking about this spirit she told me about the ghost hunter she's met. Some research and here I am! Can I join you in this hunt?"
"I don't usually work with people I don't know well…"
"Oh!…… I understand," said Jack disappointed.
"But as I'm on my own for a week you can help me if you want."
"Sure!!!" said Jack almost jumping in joy. "You guys are legends in the hunting world. Can I ask you why are you hunting alone?"
Dean's eyes filled with tears, but he changed to his "everything is all right" mask in a second. "A chick, my brother is with this hot chick and you know two are company but three's a crowd."
Both laughed, but Dean's laugh was almost a cry.
"So, what do you know so far?" asked Dean.
They exchanged information for a couple of minutes and then started researching. Jack was almost as geek as Sam and that made Dean blue. "In five days Sammy, hang on" thought Dean.
After an hour of hard work they managed to get all the information they needed.
Anthony Dinozzo was buried at the Leroy Jethro Gibbs cemetery lot 43A.
Dean was happy hanging on with Jack. He was smart and easy going and he hoped a good hunter too.
"So," started Dean "who's going to do the dig, salt and burn and who's going to be with the girl?"
"As you wish. You are the expert here."
"Ok. I'll dig and you´ll entertain Tony."
They spent the rest of the afternoon in a small bar drinking beer and telling each other their exploits. Jack was a newbie at this job but in his few years hunting he managed to kill a lot of nasty things. He started hunting after a beauty-stealing witch killed his fiancée two weeks before their wedding.
After a few weeks of mourning he started researching about this weird illnesses that make young ladies look like a 10,000 year old mummy in a week. After a year, ollowing the few leads he could find, he had tracked down the witch responsible and killed her and a new hunter was born.
"So… my Dad and I were at this black dog lair waiting for it and suddenly a six year old Sammy walked in wearing his Spiderman pajamas and his blanket telling us that he needs to poo….." they laughed so hard that Jack almost fell from his chair.
Beer followed beer and Dean and Jack bonded. Dean had never had a friend in all his life beside his little brother and his dad, so many miles on the road, so many hunts and too many secrets cut all Dean's dreams of having a normal life. It might be because he hated being alone and he missed Sammy and John but he felt like he could trust in Jack.
Before dawn they were at Dean's hotel room picking weapons and planning the hunt.
"So, you stay home with Kendra…."
"And you dig, salt and burn. I got it the first time Dean. Are you sure you don't want the funny part?".
"It's gonna be a nice night, dude, and I'm feeling like digging," said Dean, the truth was he needed to know if he was up to do this kind of job.
It was 12 o'clock, Jack was at Kendra's room after emailing her. He was sitting in her bed trying to make her laugh with little success.
"Are you sure you're gonna kill him? You swear he won't hurt me?" asked Kendra sobbing.
"Positive, beauty. Don't worry, my friend Dean is the best ghost hunter in all the world. He really knows what he's doing" Jack tried to comfort her but it was a lost job.
Dean was walking with the spade in his shoulder and the torch in the other hand looking for Dinozzo´s grave.
"Gotcha!" said after a while. Anthony Dinozzo grave was ruined, covered with grass and almost demolished.
Dean knelt on the ground. "Show time!" he said and drove the spade in the dirt.
In Kendra's room everything was silent, an extremely tense silence. Lights off, Kendra looked like she was sleeping and Jack was in the corner shotgun at ready, waiting.
After ten minutes of digging Dean was exhausted. He was sweating, covered with dirt and panting. His heart was pounding too fast, so fast he could feel it in his ears, so fast it hurt. " I can't give up! I can't give up!" Dean repeated shoveling. " If I give up Sammy dies!. If I give up Sammy dies!"
At Kendra's everything was chaos. As Kendra worst nightmares where about snakes, her room was filled with them. Kendra was standing on a chair crying and Jack was trying to kill them with his hunting knife but it was useless.
Hundred of snakes were moving, fighting with each other, twisting, trying to bite Kendra and Jack. Jack caught something with the corner of his eyes, a human figure laughing. As soon as Jack put his full attention to the figure it disappeared.
"Tony!, Tony! Come with Jacky to play a bit," said Jack sarcastically. And Tony showed up, or sort of. A dense mist with an ugly, vicious laughing face appeared. Tony appeared and disappeared making Jack circle around his spot in the room and forget the snakes.
The snakes, sensing this lack of attention, started biting him and Kendra, twisting around their legs and going up trying to bite and suffocate them.
Jack forgot Tony for a moment and ran to help Kendra with the snakes. He tried to cut the snakes heads but he realized that if he cut off one head three more grew.
"We are so screwed. C'mon Dean!!" said Jack and in that precisely moment Tony decided to start playing with Jack.
Tony appeared by Jack side and vanished. He touched him in the back or in the face and disappeared. And then the pain started, hot slashes in the face and torso, extremely painful, they last only a few seconds but left Jack in agony.
Dean was in agony too. Panting, on all fours, trying to catch his breath, trying to make his heart rate slower, trying to make the chest pain vanished, trying not to pass out.