Dean rolled up to Bobby's small house, he barley put it into park before running out of the car, leaving the baby girl alone in the backseat, again.
"Typical, you know if I wasn't here to watch you, you would probably have wondered off a cliff by now." Cass talked to the baby, even though he knew she didn't understand, she just looked at him.
Dean knocked on Bobby's door frantically, which meant loudly and in rapid succession. Bobby ran to the door, a knock like that at his house could only mean one thing.
"Dean, whats going on?" The look on his face told Bobby something had gone terribly wrong.
"She's dead Bobby, Suze, I... couldn't save her what was I thinking." He sagged against the house letting the door frame hold him up.
"Its alright son, what about Jo?" Bobby was worried about the little baby, Dean managed to let go of the doorway when he answered
"She's in the car... I need to find Dad." Bobby went back in the house.
"Their working a case in Omaha I can take you where there stayin, let me get my coat, and a car seat."
He said the last thing as an after thought knowing Dean wouldn't have one.
Dean followed him in, "where'd you get a car seat?" Its not that he didn't look its just he didn't think they were all that necessary.
"You think I just let you and your brother roll around the car when I had to take you somewhere?" Bobby thought it should be obvious why he would have one.
He found what he needed and got back to the car. Bobby strapped Jo into the seat and Dean sat next to her in the back seat while Bobby took the driver's seat.
Cass left seeing that she was properly secured now. As soon as he did she started crying. She didn't stop the whole way there.
"Jesus kid what are you doing to her?" Dean was trying to calm her down making silly faces and humming.
"She was quiet on the way up, maybe she doesn't like the car seat." He was trying to find a reason she would be so upset this time around, as this was the only change, he knew of, it was a logical conclusion.
"Well tough, she's much safer in that than wrapped in 50 blankets." Bobby was skeptical about his homemade solution.
When they got to the motel Dean unstrapped the baby and got out.
"Thanks Bobby, you don't think you could go up with me?"
"Sorry kid this is something you have to do on your own." He drove off, Dean was with them now so if he needed a ride ,he could get one with them. He didn't like the thought of Dean driving at 13 anyways, if he didn't have to.
Dean climbed the stairs, knowing which hotel they would choose. He got to the door and just stood there. He hadn't talked to either of them since she was born, so asking them to let him tag along again ,with his infant child no less, wasn't something he wanted to do.
He took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Sam opened the curtains beside him and when he saw who it was he opened the door.
"Dean!" Sammy attacked him with a hug, then stepped back and looked at the tiny child in his brothers arms, she was being quiet again.
"Where's dad?" He walked into the room now and saw that Sam was alone.
"Searching for a cursed object, he said it'd be dangerous so..." He trailed off dad still didn't really trust either of them to have his back on hunting trips.
"So why are you here? What happened?" Sammy could see that Dean was upset but also that he was relived that his dad wasn't here to kick him out.
"It was a demon it attacked Susan and tried to take Jo, I got there just in time." Dean looked like he wanted to collapse, but he was holding the baby so he couldn't very well do that.
"Oh thats awful, are you okay?" Sam was worried about his big brother, he knew how tough he normally was, even when people died on his watch. The Dean he was seeing now was tired and crumbled but he still held his head up high.
"Its going to be okay Sammy, this just means I get more time with my daughter." He laughed but it was fake enough to see through.
"You should get some sleep Dean, I'll watch... the baby." Dean laughed but he was too tired to resist so he put Jo in Sam's arms carefully showing him how to hold her. Like everyone else that looked into that tiny babies face, he instantly loved her.
"Whats her name?" Sam was asking this as he rocked the little baby in his arms.
"Joanna, but I like Jo more." Dean peeled off his jacket then sunk into bed exhausted.
"Sweet baby Jo-Jo." Sammy hummed to her in a sing-song voice.
Dean fell into a sleep heavy with dreams, most of them about what would have happened to Jo if he hadn't been there to save her. Some of them thought she would have survived, dreams can pick up on things you can't see when your awake. Susan's corpse was cold when he got into the room. Which meant she was dead way before he got there. Which means the demon was just waiting for him, holding his baby and waiting for him to kill it. Why?
He couldn't ponder on that for very much longer as he was awoken by Jo's high pitched cry. He sat up automatically like he was hard wired to be alert at that noise.
"Shhh, Jo-Jo go back to sleep." Sammy was laying down with the baby supporting her head with his arm, they were both sleeping until she started wiggling and crying. Dean got up and took the baby from Sam.
"She doesn't understand you, she's probably hungry." Sammy got up and ran his hand through his messy hair.
"Do you have any food for her?" He was sleeping just as hard as Dean was and was still very groggy. Also, he was clueless about how babies work, having never had to spend more that an hour with one before.
"Normally Suze would breast feed but... I don't think that will work here." Dean also had no clue what to feed a baby when you don't have anyone to breast feed her.
"So do we need a woman to breast feed her? Do you think one would if we asked?" Sammy was trying to find a solution, Dean thought asking a random woman to breast feed his baby was a little strange but couldn't think of a different solution.
"Okay.. do you think we should just knock on the hotel doors until we find one?"Dean was actually on board with this so its a very good thing that their dad walked into the room just then.
"Dean, will you shut her up?" Their dad, as always got right to the point, no, hello son I missed you, or what are you doing here? Bobby had called him to tell him about the situation so there was no point.
"I'm trying, we don't have any women here." John just looked at him confused on how he could be so clueless having spent more than a year around baby stuff.
"We don't need a women.. what? I got formula, I figured you would know what to do with it. Also diapers, you know what do with those right?" Dean nodded but Susan took care of the babies needs he just watched her sleep and held her sometimes. He'd never even changed her diaper. John saw all of that written on his face.
"Okay, give me the baby, Sam mix this with water and microwave it." He handed Sam the formula along with a bottle.
"Okay Dean, I guess, i'll need to teach you how to take care of her." John showed Dean how to feed and change the baby, also how to burp and put her to sleep comfortably. After that they went to the car and he showed Dean how to strap her into a car seat. Then he told Dean he was in charge of doing this from now on. Dean took that to mean they were going to drop him off somewhere and leave him there with the baby, but John told him he could stay around as long as he needed.
As it turned out he what he needed was his family, as he stayed with them until his dad went missing 13 years later, but Jo only stayed with them for 2 years at first.