"Damn it." Jo hung up the phone and slapped it down on the dash of the jeep. She slumped in her seat, seething. Beside her, Erin kept one hand on the wheel while changing radio stations with the other. The brunette threw a glance at her car-mate.
"What's up with you? Is everything ok?"
The blonde blew a piece of hair out of her face, frustrated. "Oh, everything's fine. Except for the fact that the no-good, chauvinist, lying, stealing—."
"Ok, calm down. I'm going to assume you're talking about Dean Winchester."
"Damn right."
"What did Aunt Ellen say, exactly?"
Jo took a deep breath. "Ash said that he heard the Impala peel out around 1:00. Which means Dean and Sam left last night so Dean could sneak off to the hunt without me. He tried to steal my hunt again, and when I find him I swear to God--…"
Erin held up hand for silence. "Once again, calm down. First of all, we know where the hunt is. It's not like he knows something we don't. Second, when and if we catch up to them, you're not killing anyone with written consent and a will. Got it?"
She exhaled sharply as a thought came to her. "Although, it's going to be hard to find them. If they left at midnight, they're at least two hours ahead of us by now. Its 6:00 now and we're just now coming into town …" She glanced at her watch and sighed.
"Yeah, but that's a lot of time to work with. Even if they've been here for two hours, they can't have done much. Nobody's awake!" Jo gestured to the darkened houses on either side of the street.
"Besides, the first thing Dean's going to do is get a room and find some food. I know him. And this town isn't that big, so there can't be too many places to get breakfast. We'll search all of them if we have to." Jo sat back, a smug expression on her face. Dean wasn't going to outsmart her any time soon.
Erin sighed in resignation. "Ok, fine. You know, we could just go straight to the site and you could still rub that in his face."
"Nope. I want to see his expression when we walk in and surprise the hell out of him. He thinks I'm not good enough to hunt? Well, he's gonna have to get up pretty early to pull that shit on me."
"Earlier than 1:00? I don't know Dean that well, but I think you're pushing it."
"It was a figure of speech. You know---Just drive." She put her foot on the dash and rolled her eyes.
"I still don't see why we had to leave so early." Sam stared at his over his cup of coffee. Dean had his head propped up on the palm of one hand, and he looked like he was about to drop off.
"I told you, I didn't want her following us." He gave Sam a look. "She'd do it, too."
"What is the big deal with Jo and Erin coming with us? She's not that bad, you know. Jo, I mean." He took a sip of his coffee and sighed.
"One: she's freaking annoying. Two: she's a pain. Three: see 1 & 2." Dean held up his fingers for emphasis and sighed.
"And there's the death threat from Ellen. Don't know if you've realized it, but she's scary."
"You're scared of Ellen? Man, you have issues."
"I have an issue. Its name is Jo."
"I haven't seen you this freaked out about a girl since Dad told you all girls had cooties in the 5th grade after Stacy McGuiness kissed you."
"How do you even remember that? You were only 7!"
"Hey, you're the older brother. Embarrassing, blackmail worthy things don't happen as often to you. I make sure to remember every one of them."
"Bullshit. You couldn't remember a lot."
"In the 8th grade, your pants leg got caught in the camera tripod on school picture day, which resulted in the camera falling and a nice shot of your bare ass." Sam didn't even look up from the newspaper he was skimming over, although a small smile cracked his face.
"You're a bitch, you know that?"
"Jerk."
"Impala! Pull over!"
"Jo, that could be anybody's car."
"I recognize the license plate. PULL OVER!" She began to pull on Erin's right arm fitfully. "Pull over, pull over, hurry up and pull over!"
"Ok, just get off me woman!" She managed to shake Jo off her arm and maneuver the jeep into an empty parking space at the same time. Shutting off the engine, she shot her cousin a glare.
"Do you want to die? Next time you do that, the vehicle is going through a wall."
Jo had already gotten out and around the front of the jeep by the time Erin shut her door. The brunette rolled her eyes in disbelief.
"Jo, we're just going to see Dean and Sam, not buy a puppy. Calm down!"
"You're such a killjoy."
"Just shut up and walk. I missed sleeping last night, so I need caffeine before I'm civil." She glanced up at the diner's sign before following Jo into the place. It was a small mom-&-pop place, with a cozy, homey atmosphere.
As the door shut behind her, she got the feeling that the entire restaurant turned to look at her. In front of her, Jo scanned the small crowd eagerly. A few seconds passed before she perked up and headed straight for the back of the place. Erin shook her head and followed. Why did she get the feeling there was going to be a scene?
In the back, Sam was on his second cup of coffee. Dean was still in a sleep-deprived slump, but at least he perked up enough to down at least four half-&-halfs. It was official; Sam would never understand the eating habits of his brother.
"How can you drink that stuff straight?" He grimaced as Dean downed another one.
Dean looked at him, nonplussed. "What? They're really good. Try one, you'll----Aw, damnit!"
"What?" Sam gave him a perplexed look. It took him a few minutes to figure out what Dean was cursing about, but he soon figured it out.
Jo sauntered up and slammed her palms down on the table top. She smirked, although even the smirk had a faint tinge of pissed off.
"Hey honey. Miss me?"
"What the—how the hell did you get here?" Dean stood up, his irritation apparent.
"You're not the only one with a brain, Dean, although you may be the only one incapable of using it."
"I'm going to ignore that."
"Just as well, you probably didn't understand any of it."
Erin appeared beside Sam and motioned for him to slide over. He complied, allowing her to take a seat beside him. She gave a sigh of relief.
"Oh, thank god, a sane person." A relieved smiled broke across her face. He returned the smile, actually happy to see her.
"You consider me sane?"
"You're a lot saner than the woman that complained about Dean Winchester for three whole hours. All the way here. Nonstop. I don't even think she stopped to take a breath. Pancakes."
She directed the last comment at the waitress that had wandered over to the table, apparently drawn by the newcomers. Having taken Erin's order, she stepped back and gave the other two a wary look. Erin waved her hand nonchalantly.
"Oh, ignore them. They're newlyweds and the honeymoons over, you know? It's kind of sad, in a way." She gave the bickering couple a sympathetic stare. The waitress nodded, understanding.
"I'll just come back for her then." She departed, notepad in hand. Erin turned back to face Sam, only to find him giving her a peculiar look.
"What? I just worked with what I had. They do look like a married couple."
"If Dean hears you say that, you're dead."
"Same goes for Jo. I've never seen someone hold such a deep irritation for another person's existence before. It's exhausting just listening to her." She slumped over and laid her head down on the table top.
"I'm so tired! I had to leave at 3:00 this morning to satisfy her obsession with beating you guys here, and it seems my sleep deprivation was in vain! My back hurts, my eyeballs itch, I had Cheetos for breakfast, I haven't slept, I've had zero cups of coffee, I had to listen to Fran Drescher over there whine about Dean, and I think I hit a bunny…." She whined, her head resting on her folded arms.
Sam patted her back reassuringly, amused at her description of their trip. "I'm sorry." He slid the half-&-half dish over to her.
"Want one?"
She raised her head to stare at the dish before turning to him, perplexed. "You are a strange man. Who would drink those?"
"Hey, Dean drinks them."
"I rest my case. Weird." She pushed the dish back to other side of the table and laughed. "Thanks, but I think I'll wait for my pancakes."
"Good choice." He sat back and regarded his cup of coffee for moment. After a second, he offered it to her.
"Here, this might help. I drank some of it, but I don't think I have any strange viruses I could pass so---."
She took the cup and happily took a giant gulp of coffee. Swallowing, she beamed at him.
"Oh my god, I can feel my toes again. Seriously, Sam I think I love you." She took another sip of the coffee, sighing in contentment.
"I have caffeine and all is right with the world."
"You're a jackass!" The sound of Jo's voice resonated throughout the restaurant.
"Except that." Erin exhaled and set the coffee cup down. She slid out of the booth and gently guided her cousin away from the eldest Winchester. Directing Jo to the other side of the booth, she gestured for her to sit down.
"Jo, sit down. You're scaring the townspeople."
"I'm not sitting down. We're leaving." The blonde folded her arms defiantly.
Erin gave her a look that signified her patience was wearing thin. "Jo, I'm hungry and I need caffeine. Plus, I ordered pancakes. Do you remember what happened last time you stood between me and pancakes?"
Immediately, Jo slid into the booth in quiet resignation, although she was not happy. Satisfied with her cousin, Erin wheeled around on Dean. Silently, she pointed to the booth.
"You too. Sit."
"You can't order me around. What in the hell makes you think I'd listen to you?"
"I said SIT, Winchester!" The death glare emanating from the brunette was enough to turn even the most macho man into a mouse.
Dean slid into the booth beside Jo meekly. Elbowing his seat mate, he leaned over to whisper something to her.
"Are you sure she's not your mom's kid? Cause that was Ellen-scary."
Jo just rolled her eyes and pushed him away from her. Erin took her former seat beside Sam, and took a deep breath before talking.
"Now listen. I know that you two can't stand each other. I get it, ok? But I refuse to go through this entire hunt listening to the two of you bickering like a couple of ten-year-olds.
Dean, we caught up with you guys. We here, deal with it. Jo, you rubbed the fact that he's an idiot in Dean's face enough. Stop gloating; it makes you look as dumb as him. We're going to do this hunt together, and that's the end of the discussion. If you want to yell and insult each other, fine. Then you two can ride together in the Impala everywhere we go, and we'll take the Jeep. Got it?"
She sat back and stared at them. When they didn't answer, she sighed in contentment.
"Good. I'm so glad we understand each other."
"Erin, you sound like my mom."
"Yeah, well I'm dealing with two immature people. Of course I'm going to sound like a mom."
"Did you call me an idiot?" Dean's eyebrow shot up as he caught on to the not-so-subtle insult.
Erin gave him an innocent expression. "I was just going on Jo's description of you."
As Dean turned to confront Jo, Sam leaned over and whispered to Erin.
"Why did you tell them not to fight if you're just going to provoke them?"
She stifled a snigger.
"Because it's just so funny. Look at them!"
"I knew you were evil." He sat back in the booth and gave her a haughty look. "I am so disappointed in you."
"Oh, get over it. Like I said, they can just ride together. Besides, I don't think that either one of us is going to ride with them anywhere. Think about how much they'll bitch about each other after all this." She raised an eyebrow and waited an answer.
"…….I'm riding with you."
Author's Note: I updated, although it's kind of just a filler chapter. Dean and Jo bicker like they're married (as usual) and Sam and Erin bond over their shared exhaustion of listening to their relatives bitch about each other. I swear, there's going to be an actual hunt going up in these chapters. Eventually...Maybe...some far-off day...Until then, thanks for reading! (That's sounds so after-school special...)