Christmas day had been one of the worst days and one of the best days of Dean's life so far. His dad had come back; Jewels had patched him up and had watched him like a hawk while he and Sam went with Ray DiAngelo to hang out at the sheriff's office. They had gone on a 'ride along' in the cruiser to the train depot at Silver Plume to make sure there were no mishaps when the old steam locomotive was taken out for its Christmas day winter run around the loop high above Clear Creek overlooking Georgetown and back again to Silver Plume.
Sam had gotten to sit in the engineer's lap and hold onto the throttle. He got to blast the whistle at the appropriate crossings and sometimes just when he felt like it causing mini-avalanches to fall down into the creek bed. No longer planning to become a ninja turtle the youngest Winchester now wanted to be a train engineer and had returned wearing his new "old and thoroughly broken-in" engineer's cap.
Jewels noticed the cap and told him that Junior Gates had been wearing that same cap since before she'd moved to town and that Sam must have really impressed the if he gave it to him as a gift. If offered to her she would have more than likely held it with a pair of tongs and thrown it away but one woman's trash is one little boy's treasure.
At the sheriff's station they'd messed around taking turns throwing each other into one or another of the holding cells and handcuffing themselves to the iron bars. Ray fed them Beanie Weenies and Sprite and they voted it their new favorite lunch on the spot. The three of them also played a record number of games of checkers. They'd had a blast and Dean thought Ray had a good time, too, although he kept reminding them to tell Jewels that she owed him big time until Sam wondered just how much money he'd loaned her in the first place.
Back at Jewels' Dean had slept like a log and only woke up once to shove Sammy away when the goober farted. When he finally got up out of bed the first thing he noticed was that Jewels had re-arranged the furniture. The couch was now situated right in front of the door to their bedroom and he thought it was a good thing he hadn't had to whiz in the middle of the night because he would have run smack into it.
He could see Jewels' head as she sat in the middle of the couch. Sam spotted her, too, and crawled out of bed, grabbed his turtles and made his way quietly over to the doorway. Clutching his toys to his chest with one hand he gently smoothed down her serious case of couch hair with the other.
She turned her head and smiled at him.
"Mornin', Sammy," she said pulling his engineer's cap down over his eyes.
"Morning Jewels," he replied, "I need the bathroom."
She turned around on her knees and hoisted him up over the back of the couch to freedom and he ran to the bathroom. Dean rested his elbows on the couch back, his chin in his hands, and watched as Sam headed to the can.
"Climb on over," Jewels told him and moved a blanket to make room for him to sit next to her.
He hopped over effortlessly and bounced down beside her.
"How's my dad?"
"'bout the same," she told him passing off her coffee mug to him.
Dean took a sip and grimaced. It was stone cold and when he reached to set it on the newly relocated coffee table he caught a glimpse of the Colt tucked under an accent pillow.
"He looked like hammered dog crap yesterday," Dean continued, ignoring the gun.
Jewels snorted a laugh and replied, "Why yes, yes he did. He looks about the same today."
After a moment of silence Dean then told her, "I like what you've done with the living room."
This time Jewels guffawed then clapped her hand over her mouth and hoped she hadn't awakened John.
"Thank you," she told him…then pushed him over.
Dean knew exactly why she'd moved everything around, why she'd slept on the couch, if she had even gone to sleep at all, because she looked like hammered dog crap, too. He knew that to get to him and Sammy his dad would first have to go through her.
Sam came bounding out of the bathroom and stood in front of her awaiting further instructions.
"You want hotcakes for breakfast?" she asked him.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he chanted excitedly.
Dean stood up and grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet, "And some decent coffee."
In the kitchen the three of them worked like a well-oiled machine. As they made pancakes and brewed fresh coffee, Dean threatened to de-shell the next mutant ninja turtle that karate chopped him and Sam, wisely, hid his herd of turtles in a drawer while they ate. The younger Winchester had just begun to explain how awesome it had been to drive the train when a noise came from the other room. Her face draining of all color, Jewels stood up and yanked open the junk drawer where she had put John Winchester's Sig and motioned for the two boys to stay quiet.
The living room was empty so she made her way cautiously to her bedroom doorway and saw that the noise had more than likely come from John as he tossed restlessly on the bed. She pressed the back of her hand to his forehead. He was burning up with fever and mumbling unintelligibly. Next she ran her hand down his cheek and, grasping his chin gently, she saw only the familiar shadow of his heavy, dark beard but, to make sure, she lifted his lips.
The sudden sound of Dean's voice made her yelp and clutching her chest. She turned quickly and he backed away thinking she was pissed. Seeing his obvious distress she held a finger to her lips and quietly moved toward the door grabbing a book from the shelf before ushering him out. In the living room she handed Dean the book, a first aid manual.
"Find the chapter on reviving an old woman after sneaking up on her and scaring the crap out of her."
Thoroughly duped, Dean started to turn to the index page of the book then stopped. He looked up at her and she laughed. "I just wanted to tell you that it probably wasn't dad…being a werewolf," he explained, "It's not nighttime or a full moon any more."
Jewels realized she still held the gun in her hand and tucked it out of sight behind her then remembered that everybody knows that "Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night may become a wolf when the wolf's bane blooms and the moon shines full and bright." "I knew that," she said flipping her hair nonchalantly.
"Yeah, right," Dean said and grabbed John's backpack from the floor next to the door. He set it on the couch and rummaged through it until he found the battered leather day runner resting at the bottom. Handing it to Jewels he told her, 'It's got all about werewolves in there...and lot of other stuff, too."
Jewels really didn't want to read it, or even touch it for that matter, but took it anyway. It was the book of the dead, the not so dead and, if one didn't take care, the soon to be dead and she knew if she read it it wouldn't put her to sleep like most books did but would more than likely keep her up for nights to come.