Chapter Eleven: All in

(Set during Born Under A Bad Sign)

A deep, heavy metal chord echoed across Jessica's apartment. She looked up from her homework, ears homing in on the source of the sound. It wasn't coming from the neighbor or even the street outside the window. It was coming from her phone, the same chords playing in a loop. A ringtone.

It wasn't a ringtone Jess would have chosen. It wasn't one she would have considered downloading. But there it was, blasting out of her phone as if to invite her to a Metallica concert.

"What?" Jessica grabbed her phone. No, there was no mistake. Her phone was blasting out a Metallica ringtone. The music paused, and then started again as the caller ran into her voicemail message, hung up, and called back again.

"Hello?"

"Jessica. Have you seen Sam?"

"Dean?" Jessica could barely process the voice she was hearing, much less the question he had asked.

"Look. I'm sorry to call you-"

"Dean, did you change the ringtone in my phone for your number?"

"What? Oh yeah! Good song." She could hear the satisfied smirk in his voice, but it vanished a moment later. "Look, I'm sorry to bother you but-"

"When exactly did you have time alone with my phone?"

"Um—when you were having some alone time with my brother." Dean's tone sounded as if he felt the answer should be obvious.

"Why did you-"

"Jessica, Sam's missing." Dean cut her off firmly, all trace of humor gone. "Have you heard from him?"

"Sam's missing?"

"Yeah. A week ago when I woke up he was just gone. I'm worried something has happened to him. If you see him, I need you to call me."

Sam is in trouble. She knew it would happen at some point. It was a fact she had never truly forgotten. It was the reason she had moved so far away from anything that contained a memory of her time with Sam. She couldn't think of him because she couldn't think of what could be happening to him now.

She had thought so carefully about her decision to go talk to Brady, and then to go find Sam. She had considered every angle of the situation when she decided to leave him again. Now, there was nothing left to think about. She didn't know if it was a good idea, and she didn't know if she could make a difference. But she still loved Sam, and that meant she had to ask.

"Dean, where are you?"

o0o

"There's a pit stop up ahead in five miles. We should pull over there." Jessica looked up from the map she was reading to point the road sign out to Dean.

"You had a pit stop two hours ago. I warned you not to drink too much. We can make at least a hundred more miles before we need to find a motel." He had gone over the rules of the road with Jessica before he ever let her into his car. Let her sit in the seat that Sam normally occupied.

Would occupy again. As soon as they found him.

"Your stomach just growled for about the fifth time." Jessica tapped on the window. "We're pulling over and putting food in it before your blood sugar drops and you pass out one me."

"I'm not-" Dean had told her that the driver was boss. The driver picked the music, and the pit stops, and the speed. Apparently, she hadn't been listening.

"Ignoring your body so that you can push through and find Sam? Look, whatever has happened to him, he's in trouble. When we get there, I want you in fighting shape. Unless you think I can handle whatever monster took him all by myself."

Dean grunted, but shifted the steering wheel to the right when the turn came up, pulling them off the road at a gas station. As soon as the smell of hot dogs and nachos hit him, his stomach stood up on its hind legs and begged, making another loud, gurgling sound.

Dean, ignoring his stomach. If Sam were here, he would have made a comment about how that signified the end of the world.

But Sam wasn't here.

"I'll fill her up, you feed yourself and grab something for me." Jessica was already halfway out of the car, her credit card ready to pay the pump. Normally, Dean would have protested at the idea of anyone else putting fuel in his baby. But she was right; they could be on the road that much faster if Dean ate while she pumped gas.

He had to admit that having Jessica along hadn't slowed down his search for Sam one bit.

Even though it hadn't helped, either. They had been on the road for a week, and still had no leads. Dean was about to lose his mind with worry. Might have lost it already if Jessica hadn't been there to keep him fed, watered, and threaten to knock him out when it was time to sleep.

Dean was starting to see what his brother had been so attracted to in this girl. She had grown up in a happy family with a normal life, and was as different from Dean in just about ever way he could see. But they had one thing in common; she seemed to care about Sam as much as he did.

Last week, Dean would have said that was impossible. No one cared about Sam as much as his big brother. Dean found himself pausing to search the shelves of the convenience store for something truly edible, rather than just grabbing the first thing that came to hand. She hadn't mentioned that she was hungry, too, but she had to be. She'd been on the road just as long as Dean.

He returned to the car with armful of packaged food.

"Pizza, beef jerky, hey—I even found an apple." Dean handed Jess a handful of food as she settled the pump back into its socket. "Best dinner a gas station has to offer."

She crinkled her nose, but took the food and bit into the pizza. "How do you manage to eat this stuff every day? I mean, I love pizza as much as the next girl, but—right now, I'd be happy never to have another bite of gas station food ever again."

Dean slid into the driver's seat and put the Impala back in gear. "You get used to it. Sammy didn't though, he eats salad as often as he can get it." Dean's lips pressed into a tight line as he pulled the Impala back onto the highway.

Jessica finished her pizza and then took up the map again. She had fallen into Sam's role as navigator with ease, charting the best path through the back-roads while Dean kept his focus on the steering. It was part of why he'd been able to cover so much ground this week.

Not that it had done them any good.

Now, Jess glared at the map as if it were hiding a demon in the creases.

"You know, this is never going to work."

"We'll find him." It didn't sound any more reassuring when he said it out loud than when he repeated it to himself over and over again, but he had to say it anyway. One way or another, it would be true. They would find Sam.

"Yes. I know, but—not like this." Jessica held up the map. "We're just trying to cover as much ground as possible, but this map. It's full of empty spaces. There is no way that we can get close to covering enough ground to really have a chance of finding Sam."

There were times when Jessica's logic had been extremely helpful. Dean already felt better for having stopped for a snack. But there were times when it was downright uncomfortable. Like now.

Dean knew better than anyone that there was no method to his madness. This search depended on hitting a lucky break, running into an elusive clue. He could drive the rest of his natural life and still not search every town on the map. But in lieu of a better option, he had to try.

"Hey, if you want out, just say the word and I'll drop you and the nearest airport." Dean felt a wrench in his guts as he said it. As awful as this entire week had been, it had been nice to have someone else with him, to know that he didn't have to face this alone.

"Will you stop trying to get rid of me already? I'm not going anywhere."

"Ok. So we keep looking."

"Yeah, but looking won't help." Jess folded the map and set it aside. "I think we need to start asking the right people for information."

"I've asked everyone I know!" Dean had called every number in his phone, in his Dad's phone, and ever number that Ellen Harvelle had been willing to give him. Twice. Some of them three times. A few of them probably weren't going to answer their phone for his number again.

"Not everyone. Dean, hunters won't know where Sam is because hunters didn't take him. Something else did. You told met that you met other people with powers like Sam's, and they all seem connected to this demon. The one with yellow eyes. So why don't we summon it?"

Dean hit the brakes so hard his chest banged against the steering wheel. Jess had to brace herself against the dash to keep from hitting her nose as Dean pulled over onto the shoulder.

"You want to summon that thing? You?" Dean had seen people mauled by monsters. He had seen people survive demon possession. He had never seen anyone walking around with as many scars as Jessica carried.

"It makes sense. The demon wants Sam for some reason. So the demon might want to help us find him and keep him alive. Or—the demon is the one who kidnapped him."

"We can't summon it. We don't know its name."

"Your dad summoned it."

Yeah, and he wound up dead less than an hour later. Dean gripped the steering wheel tight, not quite believing that he was actually having this conversation. "The demon is the only one who can give us answers, yes. But we don't have the Colt. We have no reason for that thing to take us seriously or answer our questions. No. It's suicide."

Dean wasn't that desperate. Yet. "We'll find Sam another way."

"What other way?" Jessica demanded.

Dean leaned his head back against the seat, drawing in a deep breath. He needed sleep. He needed rest, real rest, which he hadn't gotten for over a week. Not since Sammy vanished.

It was like having Dad or Sam with him again. The same gung-ho attitude. The same disregard for the consequences. "Look, Jessica. I appreciate that you are here and I appreciate that you are willing to help. But if you are going to be effective at this job, you have to do it the right way. You can't just jump in with guns blazing all the time. You'll just get yourself killed and be no good to anyone that way. I would love to summon this demon and put a bullet in its brain. But I don't have a way to kill it and I don't have a way to control it. So until that happens, that option is off the table. We're no good to Sam if that thing gets us first."

"Right. You're right." Jessica nodded, no hint of argument in her expression. Ok, so maybe not quite like Sam or Dad. She picked up the map again. "Where to next?"

o0o

The feeling of wrongness had niggled at Jessica ever since Sam called. At first, she had been to relieved to pay any attention to it. After two weeks of desperate searching, she didn't question why Sam would suddenly call his brother out of the blue. She was just happy that they had found him. He was safe. In one piece. Thrilled and amazed to see her, and looking completely lost as they reconstructed the events of the past two weeks.

Sam had done things that he did not remember. He had done things entirely out of character, and it wasn't just killing Steve Waddell. Driving a little blue bug, smoking and drinking..those weren't things Sam would do.

But Jessica remember who had done things like that. Someone who had been a nice guy the first two years she new him, and did a complete personality flip for no apparent reason. Brady had smoked and drank those last few months. During the time when he had been possessed.

A time he could barely remember. It was a blank.

Lost memory. Strange behavior. A bloody murder. All of the pieces were the same.

Now, she wanted Sam hold out a gun to his brother and beg him to pull the trigger. She held her breath, watching as the horrible scene played out. She may as well have been a fly on the wall for all of the attention they paid her.

They might not see her, but she saw them. She saw the way Sam's shoulder's shifted when he dropped the act. She heard the shift in his tone before the butt of the gun collided with Dean's head.

"You should have killed me when you had the chance."

He didn't see her reach into her duffle and twist off the cap of her flask of holy water. She had filled it up before leaving Blue Earth, have been assured that holy water had no expiration date. It was as potent as the day it had been blessed.

Sam didn't bother to take a bag on his way out. His eyes passed over Jessica as if she wasn't there. She didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. She was leverage and nothing more. They didn't care that she was still alive; she had served her purpose on the day of the fire. That was why Sam—no. That was not Sam. That was why the thing that was possessing Sam didn't bother to look for the flask in her hand, didn't see the spray of holy water in time to dodge.

Sam's skin hissed and the demon screamed in rage and pain. Jessica threw herself between him and the door. If the demon walked out of this room with Sam's body, who knew when they would see him again?

"You're not going anywhere."

Hateful black eyes glared at her out of Sam's face. "You! You're supposed to be dead, you little slut. I think its about time I finished the job."

"Exoricamouste-" Jessica flung the holy water again and began to recite the exorcism she had memorized on her first day in Blue Earth. She recited it every night instead of saying her prayers, just to make sure that the words would never be forgotten. You never knew when they might be needed.

The demon howled and writhed, but no black smoke appeared in Sam's mouth. After a moment, the demon gave her a knowing grin and laughed. "Nice try, bitch. Now try this."

With one gesture from the demon, Jess found herself pinned to the wall again. For an awful moment she was back in their apartment at Palo Alto.

"No." Dean had staggered to his feet, one hand holding the back of his head. He lifted a crowbar taken from his duffel bag and slammed it into Sam's back. His brother staggered, then dropped to his knees. One more smack, and Sam lay flat on his face.

Jessica dropped to the ground, released from the demon's telekinetic grip. She scrambled to Sam's side, feeling for a pulse, then checking for blood.

"Sorry, Sammy," Dean muttered. He dropped the crowbar and hovered next to his brother. "I didn't have a choice." Dean tossed the keys to the Impala to Jessica. "We need to move fast, he won't be out very long. Bring the car up to the door and open the trunk. Draw a devil's trap inside."

"Where are we going? Why didn't that exorcism work?"

"I have no idea. That's why were going to see Bobby. He's the best expert on demons I know." Dean tilted Sam's unconscious body and hefted it over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. "Hey, Jess. You did good."

A small smile flicked across Jess' face. "Thanks."

o0o

It was like waking up from a nightmare, except he wasn't in his bed. He was on the floor in Bobby's house, staring up at a busted devil's trap. His arm hurt like hell, and so did his head. Dean was on the floor next to him, looking worse for wear.

"Did I miss something?"

Dean grimaced, reached up, and slugged him.

Sam put a hand to his jaw and looked around the room again. Bobby was there, looking concerned, and behind him- "Jessica?"

This was wrong. Everything was wrong. He didn't know how he got here, but he remembered doing things he hadn't wanted to do. He didn't know why Jessica was here, but that was her voice, her face, looking at him with wary eyes.

"It's him now, isn't it?"

"Should be." Bobby stepped aside and Jessica dropped to her knees next to Sam. She place an ice pack on the burn on his arm and pushed his hair out of his eyes. It was so good to be close to her again, to feel her skin on his, to smell the familiar scent of her shampoo.

Why was she here?

"Are you ok?"

Sam stared at the woman in front of him. She looked so calm, so self-assured in the middle of the chaotic mess that was Bobby's library. Books were scattered across the floor. Chipped paint fell from the ceiling. But Jessica looked like it was just another day at school. Sam closed his eyes and opened them again, but the scene did not change. "You're here."

"Yes. Can you get up? You'd be more comfortable on the couch."

Sam put his hand on her shoulder. She wasn't a ghost or a figment of his imagination. She was warm and real and solid and here. "Why are you here?"

"Because Dean said you were in trouble."

"But you left."

"I did."

"What happened?"

"A demon possessed you and ran away with you." Dean was hauling himself up off the floor and ransomed a second ice pack from Bobby's freezer for his own face. "Jessica helped me look for you. It's been two weeks."

"Two weeks?" Sam repeated. He stared at Jess again. "Why? Why would you-you wanted to be away from all this."

"I still love you, Sam Winchester, and that means that I couldn't do nothing when I knew you were in trouble." She stepped away and came back with Bobby's first aid kit and a bottle of whiskey, which she poured into a rag. "What happened to the antiseptic ointment I bought?"

Bobby shrugged. "Used it up, I guess."

"Well then I'll have to fetch more. But this time you're paying for it. Really. Why do you use whiskey when there is cheaper stuff at the drugstore?"

"Because it don't taste as good." Dean waited until Jessica was done cleaning Sam's cuts and stole the whiskey bottle to take a large gulp.

"Jess, you don't need to restock the first aid kit before you leave-"

Jessica pressed a finger to his lips. "I'm not leaving, Sam. I'm not going anywhere until this is over."

Bobby and Dean shared a concerned look. "It is over. Demon's gone," Bobby said.

Jessica finished with Sam and moved on to Dean. He ducked away from her hand in surprise, but she caught hold of his head and cleaned his cuts, too. "I'm not talking about this demon. I'm talking about the demon. The one with the yellow eyes. The one who started all of this." Jessica set the whiskey aside and pulled out a butterfly bandage to tape across Dean's cut. "Like it or not, I'm part of this now. I'm not going anywhere until it's over."

What do you think of Jessica and Dean as a hunting team? What do you think of Jessica's idea to summon the demon? The story is getting closer to the season two finale at Cold Oak. Will Sam learn to use his powers? Will Jessica's presence change anything?

Please Review!