The Small Print

Part 3

The night was cold and crispy. Remains of dead stars still glistened brightly in the sky. Stacy sat on the hood of a disused car and dug her heels into its rusted bumper. She stretched her head back twisting it from side to side. Her whole body cracked in the silence. She closed her eyes for a few moments and thought about leaving. She knew every second she was there was becoming more and more unsafe.

"Full moon tonight," a voice appeared around the back of the car.

"Yeah," she didn't look behind instead she looked back up at the sky again. "It's a perfect night for hunting," she joked. She watched her breath dance in the frosty air as Dean leaned against the hood of the car she was on.

"So... how's has the ghost busting business these days?" he asked after a few moments of silence. He dug his hands into his pockets.

"Slow, thank God!" she turned her head to at him and smiled affectionately. "It's good to see you again."

He looked her up and down and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, you too."

She leaned her head back and closed her eyes again. "Easy cowboy!"

"So," Dean started after a few minutes of pleasantries. He kicked the dirt out from under his boot. "John was your godfather. Does that mean… we're related?"

"No," she shook her head franticly. "God, no! I think I would have said something after our poltergeist experience."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, I can go back to having those dirty dreams then," he smirked.

She quickly raised her head and kicked him on the elbow causing him to jerk it back. She laughed and shook the unwanted image out of her head. Remembering what happened in that house was bad enough but the last thing she wanted to hear was that he was having dreams about her. "That night you guys told me your surnames, my jaw nearly dropped through the floor," she said remembering back. She never in her wildest dreams thought she would meet John's boys so far ahead of the Apocalypse. She brought her jaw forward causing it to crack. It always seemed to crack louder at night and she wondered if it was as noticeable to others as it seemed in her head. But Dean didn't seem to be aware of it.

"But I can't believe your dad never spoke about me. I mean... how could he not?" she breathed on her nails and polished them in her coat.

Dean laughed at her cockiness. She was still the same as when they first met. Always wanting the last word no matter who was speaking. "Bobby did say dad was smitten with your mother."

She smiled. "Yeah... his eyes always lit up whenever she walked into the room... like puppy love," she thought back. "It would have been cute if she weren't married to my dad!"

She lifted her feet and slid down the hood to join Dean. Her heavy sigh told him she was hiding something and he asked her what it was. "You know what the funniest thing is about this whole angel crap," her eyes twinkled in the moon light when she looked at him. "When I was about four years old, I used to have an imaginary friend called Ralph."

"No way," he laughed. "Are you serious?"

She nodded. "And I never understood why mom hated me talking about him." She thought back to one morning at the breakfast table. She gave out to her father for sitting in Ralph's seat. Her mother grabbed her by the arm and told her she was too old to have imaginary friends and she never wanted to hear that name said again.

"Do you think your parents knew all that time?" Dean asked. "Do you think that's what spooked them into telling you the truth about demons?"

She narrowed her eyes. She never thought about it before. Raphael did say Annabel hid her from him, but for how long? Did the time line fit?

Dean thought about the time line too. He remembered her saying she had three hunting partners before going rogue. Her mother was the first, a friend was second and a boyfriend was third. Was John the second?

"You say it like it was an equal partnership," she shrugged a laugh and let her head fall to the side. He had so many ideas and plans for her. He wanted to train her so that she could eventually go on hunts with him and his sons. "He trained you two like… soldiers. I wasn't brought up like that. So, when he gave an order, it was easy for me to say no."

Dean's jaw dropped a little and his eyes widened. Disobeying a direct order was never an option when he was growing up. She noted his surprise and told him of a vein in John's right temple that always looked like it was going to explode. Her smile slipped. "Of course, when it did," she swallowed hard, "he was a different man."

She remembered one of the last cases they worked on together. They were running out of options with a demon and John suggested that she be the bait. After saying no many times, he erupted and she squirmed when he drew back his hand to slap her. She took down her arm when nothing happened and noticed a look in his eyes. Something she hadn't seen since he helped her torch her parents. Regret and fear but most of all, she saw love.

She looked back up to the sky and smiled. "What is it about you and John? You're the only two who could get the truth out of me."

Dean flashed a blinding smile. "Maybe it's our ravishing good looks!"

Stacy threw her head back with laughter. "No, I don't think that's it."

He opened his jacket and pointed down at his chest. "Are you saying this isn't sexy?"

"Ah now, hang on," Stacy waved her hand and laughed. "If I say yes to that, it means I was attracted to your dad as well and then it just gets creepy."

OoooO

The curtains of the house window rustled slightly. Jo stepped away and let them fall in front of her face. "I thought you said you only met her once," she was suspicious from the moment she saw her interact with Dean and Sam. It wasn't the kind of friendship you get after one case, she thought.

Sam looked up from his notes. "Huh? Oh, yeah," he replied assuming she was talking about Stacy. "About three years ago on February twelfth," he looked back down to his books still trying to decipher the code in front of him. Every time he blinked a new problem arouse. He knew he was going to have another sleepless night.

"You remember the date?" she turned to him and narrowed her eyes.

"Uh yeah, it was important to the case," he shrugged, taking little notice of her.

Jo slowly stepped towards the desk Sam was sitting behind. "Did something… happen between her and Dean?" she asked slyly picking up a pencil and twirling it in her fingers. She wanted to know everything but tried not to sound too forward.

Sam put his pen down and pulled his hand through his hair. "Yeah, but there was a spell on them at the time, so I don't think it counts. Why? What's with all the questions?"

"No reason," she shrugged.

"Are you jealous?" he smiled noting her trepidation of their relationship. They told her they worked a case for two days, yet they acted like they were best friends for two years. Them being more than just friends seemed easier to understand.

"No, of course not," she shot the idea down. "I just... don't know if I trust her is all."

He could see why she was suspicious but he began writing again. "Don't worry, Jo. She saved Dean's life. She's one of the good guys."

OoooO

Grey clouds began to dance across the smiling moon but still the air was cold. "You should have told me about Michael," Dean said after their fun had stopped.

"You weren't ready to know," she shook her hair away from her face. "Hell, I wasn't ready to know. I was seventeen for Christ sake. Just when I thought my life couldn't suck anymore, I was given a shitty ultimatum."

He pouted. "Still, you should have told me."

"And what would you have said if I did?" she shot back. "Do you remember your first thoughts were when you heard about the existence of angels? Because I sure as hell remember mine and I certainly wasn't prepared to be the loo-la to tell you there were real."

He was silent for a few moments. "Do you know what dad last told me just before he died?" his voice began to rise and crack under the pressure. "He said I might have to kill Sammy."

Stacy shot a look at him. She couldn't believe John would say that. She couldn't believe he would intestinally put that much pressure on his eldest son. That wasn't what they agreed upon.

"And then you came along telling me the Devil was looking for revenge, random strangers were coming up to us saying Sam was destined to be evil and while you were off playing tea parties, Sam was having me promise to pull the trigger if horns started to appear."

"Hey," she yelled back. "It's not like I was just sitting around putting French plaits in my hair. I had my own hell to go through and my own demons to deal with. The world doesn't stop moving once you leave the room!"

They both sighed heavily allowing their bodies to release the anger that had suddenly built up inside them. Stacy pulled the collar of her jacket up around her neck. It was nights like these that she missed using her long hair as a scarf. She dug her hands deep in her pockets to try to get warm.

"You're right though, I shouldn't have been so cryptic," she said by way of an apology and shook her head. "And if I had known what John told you, I probably wouldn't have said anything at all. But..." she thought about her words carefully before she spoke. "John wasn't supposed to die that night. He was supposed to kill the demon and leave the hospital with the Colt. I thought that… if he could change his destiny so much, maybe my words would cause a ripple effect to change ours."

Dean shook his head. "If angels can't change our destiny, how do you expect mere mortals to?"

She twisted her tongue in her mouth and sucked some cool air in making a hissing noise. "Do you really believe we're mere?"

Silence became their third companion and hovered between them again. "You're not hiding anything else from us, are you? I mean you've no other surprises."

She looked over at him and saw hope in his eyes. She did have one secret but she wasn't ready to reveal it just yet. The last thing she wanted to do was to cause him any more grief. She shook her head. "Nope, nothing worth mentioning," she gave have a smile.

He nodded thankfully.

"Still, I don't know how you do it," he brought his shoulders up to his ears and narrowed his brow. "I have Sammy to back me up but you have no one. Do you ever think of saying yes?"

"Hell yeah," she said louder than she expected. "Raphael has a beautiful habit of turning up at the death of a friend with promises that I don't even know if he can keep. They are tempting though," she trailed off. "To be honest, I was taking my cue from you guys," she swung her head around. "If you guys caved in, there was no point in me saying no again."

He asked her how she could possibly trust people she hadn't met before. "I trusted John," she shrugged. "That was good enough for me."

"Still," Dean watched her think of all the people she could have saved. "I remember what I was like when I was seventeen and if I was told I was going to be a part of the Apocalypse after my parents' death, I don't think I'd be so strong."

She gave him a shoulder of affection, with-holding her one moment of weakness which involved an unsuccessful suicide attempt just after her parents died. It was how John became her in case of emergency contact.