The room was suddenly still with everyone first looking at Jenna confused, and then stunned when they saw what she held in her hand. Dean could have kicked himself for leaving everything out on the kitchen table like that, and he didn't even want to think about how Sammy was feeling at the moment; the kid had just got the courage to tell them last night, and with Hurricane Jenna on the loose who knew what type of damage could be done.
Stephen was the first to step up, "Jenna, look…"
"Don't tell me it's you Stephen; you're mom's a nurse and I know for a fact that she taught you better than that. I also know that there is no way that any of you would be idiotic enough to be doing drugs, so shooting up is out of the question… so which one of you didn't think before you acted?" Jenna was upset and she didn't care who knew it. She knew what she saw, and she knew that someone that she cared about was going to go through the same hell as her mother because of their own stupidity.
Dean wasn't going to take the chance of her misguided anger getting turned to Sammy, he liked Jenna, respected the Colonel more, but if there was a choice to be made; his little brother came first. "Ok Jenna stop, we get that you're upset, but…" The Colonel said trying to interrupt his daughter's tirade.
"Oh, you get that I'm upset. Well I would hope so Daddy, don't you think that they should have learned something from Mom's death? How many times did she harp on them to be careful and to take things slowly, and now what… one of them didn't? Are you going to stand there and tell me you're alright with this?" she asked, not believing what she was hearing.
"Jenna, put the stuff down so we can talk about this." Taylor said. He knew that the anger was really fear, but she was already pushing some very sensitive buttons, and he knew that they wouldn't be able to contain Mt. Dean for much longer.
Not believing what she heard, she turned to Taylor and demanded, "Talk about it, you want to talk about it? I would expect something like this from Dean being the man whore that he is, but from the rest of you? Let me guess, you had a transfusion you forgot about before 1985 and it's just now catching up to you?"
"That's enough Jenna," Sam said, standing from the couch, "leave my brothers out of this. You know for someone who spends so much time supposedly helping people, you sure are quick to jump to conclusions and judge someone. I have to wonder how those people at the clinic can feel comfortable talking to you about their condition." When she saw the hurt look on her face, he walked to the door, "Those pills are mine, I wasn't 'idiotic' enough to shoot up, I didn't get a transfusion before 1985, I guess that only leaves one other way doesn't it? So I'll save you the trouble of being around my 'stupid' man whore self and ask you to leave, or I can go; either way, but choose!"
Jenna stood there in shock, wondering why Sam would say something so outrageous, "Sam… no."
"No what Jenna? No you aren't going to leave, no you don't want me to? What?"
"You don't have to lie Sam, they're big boys, they can face up to it." Jenna said quietly, watching Sam for any indication that he had been lying.
"Not lying here Jenna, I've known about it for two years, those are my pills you're holding in your hand, and those are my brothers that you were bashing. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's obvious what your decision is." Sam said calmly before he walked out the door.
Dean reached over and took the items out of Jenna's hand before looking at the Colonel, "Sir, I hate to ask, but…"
"No Dean, you don't have to worry, we should have left earlier. Tell Sam that I want to finish our discussion, and I'll call him later." The Colonel said as he guided Jenna out the door. The guys heard them quietly arguing as they went down the stairs before the front door closed soundly behind them.
Letting out a deep breathe, Joseph asked the others, "Any idea where to start looking?"
Stephen and Taylor had just grabbed their keys when the phone rang. Dean talked for a minute, relief in his voice before he smiled and looked at them. "He was just downstairs; he's on his way up now."
When the door opened, they looked at Sam carefully, seeing how the argument with Jenna had hurt him greatly. Knowing that he probably wouldn't want to talk about it for awhile, they ushered him to the couch and made him lay down. "Look, just humor us, ok?" Taylor asked Sam, hoping that he'd listen and stay down for a little while. Smiling, Sam nodded and closed his eyes.
So wrapped up in little bro's drama, they weren't expecting the door to open and was surprised to see Mandy walk in with her arms filled with grocery bags. Jumping up, they helped her in the door before asking what she was doing.
Looking puzzled, she replied, "I thought we were having a cookout this evening. Oh, did I get the day mixed up again? I'm sorry!"
Taylor smiled and wrapped her in a hug, "Don't worry baby, you did good. I have a feeling that this time it was us who forgot. We had some excitement today and everything else just kind of slipped away."
Happy that she hadn't messed up, she started to put the items away to be used later when she looked at the table. "Uh guys? Who has HIV?"
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Jenna continued to look at her father in disbelief, "What do you mean you already knew? Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, not keeping the hurt out of her voice, "I would have kept my mouth shut if I'd known!"
"Maybe you should have done that anyway sweetheart." Terrence told her gently, "No one told me specifically, and the Musketeers only found out yesterday, it's all part of how Sam found out about who was behind the death threats and how to stop it. I wasn't going to push the issue since it's also a very sensitive subject on how he contracted it. Now let it go Jenna, before you do even more damage than what you did with your mouth not engaging your brain earlier."
Feeling as if she were a little girl being chastised for bad behavior, Jenna sat quietly in her seat and watched the scenery go by. "Daddy, Sam already said how he got it, what's so sensitive about it?" she asked, still in denial that the Sam that she knows and had been falling so hard for had been so careless when he was what, thirteen? It didn't make any sense; it didn't seem like Sam. She was pulled abruptly out of her thoughts when her father answered.
"Jenna sweetheart, for someone who helps people in dire circumstances, you still can be niave."
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For the second time that day, Dean could have kicked himself. 'Ok, that's it… I'm giving this stuff back to Sammy right now; he's a lot better at hiding it than we are.' He thought angrily, not believing that they hadn't learned their lesson the first time. As the guys looked around to see who was going to answer, Mandy walked into the living room and looked at them.
"Guys? Is everything ok? I didn't mean to be nosy, but there was the paper on the table talking about it and…" her voice trailed off when she saw that Taylor was trying really hard to find a way to tell her something in a way that wouldn't freak her out. She knew that she got a little weird at times, she couldn't help it, she just didn't deal well with the unexpected.
"Mandy, are you ok?" Sam asked, having only heard a little bit of her question and had to wonder why she looked so confused. Well, actually it wasn't too hard to keep her confused, but she seemed more concerned at the moment. "Mandy, what's wrong?"
Dean hated that someone else had found out. It was bad enough that Darla had left without knowing about it, then Jenna's tirade before she found out, and now they were going to have to deal with who knows what type of a reaction that was about to come their way. "Uh Mandy, why don't we…"
"Dean, was she asking about me?" Sam asked, wondering why everyone was looking so tense. Seeing Mandy look puzzled into the kitchen then back at the guys, he could only guess that was the problem. Looking over at Taylor he could see that he was worried, but he couldn't tell exactly why. "Mandy, that stuff in there is mine. I have HIV."
Mandy stood there in shock for a moment then rushed to the couch and started to ramble, "Oh my God! Are you sure? I mean, are they sure? Have they run the test again? They get false positives sometimes you know, make sure that they do it again, just to be safe. You don't want to have to take all that medicine if you don't have to, right? You know, my aunt is into herbs and she swears by some of her plants to keep her immune system healthy, I'll call her later for you, ok? Oh my! I should have gotten more veggies; that would help a lot! I'll go back to the store… don't move!" As she was just about to jump off the couch, Sam stopped her.
"Mandy, they're sure, I was diagnosed with it a couple of years ago. Uh, are you ok?" he asked, not sure what he was expecting, but having her be the one who took it well wasn't it.
Smiling, Mandy looked at him, "Of course I'm ok, why wouldn't I be? Wait…that didn't sound right, did it? I wish you weren't sick, Sam. You're such a sweet person; I've known it since the first time Dean told me about you. So I'm more worried about you than about me. Did that make sense? I swear it did in my head…"
Taylor couldn't keep his eyes off his very ditzy, very loveable girlfriend. Out of everything that he had thought her reaction would be, she surprised him by being the one that had kept her cool and kept everything in perspective; Sammy and how he was doing. Looking at the guys, he could tell that they were just as relieved and just as surprised as he was to the point of miming 'Marry that girl' behind her back.
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Hanging up the phone, Jim couldn't believe what he had just been told. If it was true then Sam was in more danger than they originally thought. It was bad enough that John thought that he could bring back his beloved Mary by using a summoning ritual to bring forth a demigod to help with bad deals, but to make matters worse, word had gotten out about Sam knowing the location of a Mayan artifact that opens the doorway regardless of time and keeps the binding power of the ritual stronger; effectively not giving the demigod a choice in the matter.
Having rushed in packing his bag, he paused only to grab his coat. He needed to warn Dean, and this was something that needed to be said in person, but how do you really tell someone that the one person they love the most in world has a bounty on his head with a timeframe of 'sooner rather than later' attached to it?