A/N: thank you to my reviewer. However I have written ahead several chapters already so I can edit with fresh eyes, you'll just have to hang on for a bit. Sorry.

Chapter Five

Sam and Jess were once again bundled into the car and Jess, for one, was extraordinarily relieved not to be handcuffed to the door this time. She sat in the back next to Sam, he had been a rock for her to cling to over the last two days as life had battered her. She didn't know how he could be so placid, he emanated tranquillity, and Jess had no room left in her to be embarrassed; she clung to him and soaked it all up, and he seemed to give it freely, whenever Jess found herself gravitating towards him he always moved to allow her better access or pulled her closer.

He had an arm around her shoulders now as she leaned into his side, he was large and warm and solid, his arm held her with just enough firmness to indicate the strength flowing though him but with enough gentleness to not make her feel claustrophobic.

It seemed the two men had reached an uneasy truce and Jess had been slightly aghast to realise that the keystone holding them together was her. It felt like a lot of responsibility.

She sat staring into space wondering just what her life had come to, trying to collect and use as much of Sam's cool composure as she could as she tried to come to terms with the way reality seemed to be warping around her.

The day was much like the previous. Dean drove and got annoyed with Jess over how many stops they had to make, but Sam was her champion and Jess was mostly relieved she didn't have to defend herself. But even so, she knew she was using him as a crutch, she just wasn't ready to stand on her own two feet in this rocky new world yet. However the threat today wasn't a concrete being sitting right next to her, physically dividing her from comfort and safety, now it was nebulous and hovering uncertainly in the ether and she wasn't sure which was worse. At least she wasn't restrained and she could lean into Sam and borrow some of his serenity.

When they stopped for lunch the gun made no reappearance and they were allowed into the shop to choose what they wanted to eat instead of a packet of whatever was cheapest. Dean left them to it once Sam had waved his wallet in his face and effectively told Dean to piss off.

Jess was grateful for the absence of the pressure. He had seemed impatient but Jess found it difficult not to revel in the freedom of movement as she was unused to spending such long periods in a car.

When they had paid for their food and exited the shop Dean was leaning against the car holding Sam's phone, "A dude called Henry phoned while you were dawdling in there."

Sam picked up his pace and tried to snatch his phone out of Dean's grasp but he dodged Sam's fingers, however the trick only worked once and Dean's shit eating grin fell into an expression of offended pride, "Dude, where's the fire?"

"Henry is my boss and I was supposed to work the lunchtime shift today," Sam hissed as he checked the screen then he stalked away with a thunderous expression in his face, throwing an addendum over his shoulder, "And you should probably give Jess her phone back aswell."

"Boss? Did daddy dearest cut his allowance or something?" Dean tried to keep up the joking atmosphere but he was the last person Jess wanted to share a joke with.

"He doesn't get an allowance, he was at Stanford on scholarship and that barely covers the basics." Jess snapped. She held out her hand, "And I would like my phone back now please."

Dean heaved a great sigh then fumbled in the glove box and returned with her phone and plonked it unenthusiastically into her hand. He seemed like a naughty child forced to make amends for his misdeeds rather than a hardened criminal in that moment, but Jess couldn't forget the sight of him pointing a gun straight for her, or of him knocking Sam out with the butt of his weapon.

To give her something to do she checked her phone but had no missed calls, yet. She didn't have the commitments Sam did but it wouldn't be too long before her absence would be noticed.

Then Sam was walking back towards them with a grim expression on his face, "I told Henry that a family emergency had come up unexpectedly and I had to just drop everything and go and I didn't know how long I would be away for... He was pissed and told me not to bother coming back." He spoke more to Jess than Dean, his eyes flickered to the phone in her hand and his expression mellowed, "Anyway, it doesn't matter now. You should probably tell people you're going to be away for a while too. Before they get suspicious."

Jess had been feeling a little proud of the way she had stood up to Dean, not quite as satisfying as the slap that morning but still, yet now she was reminded of how different her life was from just a few days ago.

"I don't know what to say," she said as she looked down at her phone.

Sam shrugged, "Family emergency is always good, it's vague and people tend not to ask too many questions."

"But you've already said you've got a family emergency, if we both tell our friends that they're going to get the wrong idea."

Sam's expression flashed for half a moment into something Jess couldn't decipher but his face was schooled before Jess could begin to wonder and he said, "Maybe tell them you're going on a surprise holiday with your family?"

Jess nodded and Sam got in the car, joining Dean who had apparently ensconced himself within the metal while she was talking to Sam. She pondered for a moment: on what to tell her friends, on what to tell her family... on why the hell she was going along with this. Surely she should call the police? She was innocent, Sam was innocent... Dean wasn't but did she even care? That whole dirty cop excuse seemed a little flimsy to Jess.

She was going to do it, her finger hovered over the button to dial the emergency services but she bottled out at the last minute. Surely there must be a reason Sam hadn't called the police already. She would ask Sam about it later, right now she wanted to put her mind to rest for a bit, she wanted to eat some lunch and she wanted to shower, God she wanted to shower. She hoped Dean would call it quits on the road early tonight.

She phoned Becky, the girl was a huge gossip, and left a message to the effect that her family had swept her away on a surprise holiday and she wouldn't be back for a while then threw herself into the backseat and moodily began to eat the sandwich she had picked for lunch.

If the boys noticed her mood they didn't comment - which was wise as she didn't know if she would bite their head off or start crying again. With every moment she felt like she was being pulled inexorably into a strange, dark world which may or may not have an exit. She was feeling more and more like a witness to her own life rather than a character in it.

The car was filled with the heavy riffs of classic rock and the occasional beat of Dean's fingers against the steering wheel at particular songs. No words were exchanged until two anonymous towns had sailed past the windows amidst the verdant blur of the intervening vegetation that occupied the sides of the highway.

"Hey, stop in this next town. Would you?" Sam leaned forward to speak to Dean rather than shout over the music. That was one thing Jess had noticed about Sam, he always seemed to try to be as unobtrusive as possible, even if he was trying to catch someone's attention.

"Nah, I'm good for another couple of hours, we can keep going." Riposted Dean.

"Yeah well you can, but we've been wearing the same clothes for three days straight without a shower. I'd like to stop while the shops are still open - and I'm sure Jess feels the same way."

Jess didn't appreciate the way Dean's nose wrinkled at the mention of not showering, it was all his fault after all. Dean seemed to hesistate, almost assessing them in the rearview mirror, before nodding his assent and turning off to enter the town.

She relaxed a little when she knew a shower was on the horizon. But she hadn't even thought about getting new clothes to change into afterwards... Well she told herself it's been a stressful couple of days.

Dean pulled up near the highstreet and turned to look sternly at Sam and Jess over the top of the car. "You've got an hour, go get whatever shit you need then meet me back here." He instructed before marching off in the direction of an old school record shop.

Jess watched him walk away wondering if he got a kick out of being so rude all the time.

Sam's voice coming suddenly from the opposite direction scattered her thoughts and she had to spin around and ask him what he had said. "Do you have any money? Or do you need some?"

Yes. Money. That's usually how buying stuff works. "Yeah, I had some on me when Dean showed up."

Sam nodded stiffly, then, with an awkward twitch of his lip that Jess guessed was a half hearted attempt at a smile and a little hesitation, turned and headed towards a charity shop huddled between a tacky nail salon and a pawn shop.

Jess watched him walk away wondering if he knew how good his ass looked in those jeans.

Probably not Jess thought as she ambled along the street in the other direction looking for a shop she recognised, he's too shy and awkward. If he knew how hot he was and decided to use it... And if he ever discovered the power of his puppy-dog eyes... Well it would be a dark day for womankind. No one should have that much power.

She floated among the racks of clothing, picking up anything that seemed half decent, she only had an hour after all to grab pretty much everything she would need for the next... how long? Her fingers fell from the jacket she was pondering, how long would she be on the run for? Was there any way of knowing? What would she do when the new year began at college?

Her mind fell into a mire of treacherous thoughts threatening to overwhelm her anew. Again the barbs tugged and pulled her towards a state of hysteria but this time she didn't have Sam to lean on, she was in an ordinary shop populated with ordinary people who would definitely stop and stare if she started breaking down over a jacket.

She took a deep breath and forced herself to focus on the task at hand, that was something she could do, could control. She snatched the jacket off the rail, angry with herself for tearing up again, and shoved it into the pile of clothes she had already selected and went to pay.

When she left the shop she still had nearly half an hour left to kill before Dean had told them to meet by his car. Well, she was going to make the most of not being cooped up in that contraption for as long as she could and turned her face towards the sun and began to meander with no goal in mind except to enjoy the early June sun. It was warming up her skin pleasantly but if they continued north the evenings would get cooler and she would be glad of the jacket she had just purchased. Only ten minutes had passed before she looked up to see Sam approaching.

He carried a few bags with him and Jess quirked her eyebrow at Sam's uncharacteristic display of enthusiasm for the materialistic. "That's a lot of bags," she commented.

"Yeah," he admitted, "The first shop I went in didn't have any jeans long enough and then I needed to go somewhere else for toiletries..." He heaved a weary sigh so typical of a man having been forced to shop - wait... Toiletries?

"Oh crap! I need to get some!" Exclaimed Jess to Sam's evident alarm.

He raised an arm to point out the shop which sold them and stepped back as she hurried to buy the rest of what she needed, all the while cursing her own absent mindedness.

When she stepped into the warm spray of the shower later that evening, she practically orgasmed from the relief. She had bought toiletries and made it back to the car before Dean had become too unreasonable and they had pulled up at the first cheap motel they saw, Dean marching to the office and booking two rooms this time.

Sam and Jess were to share, "I don't want either of you two perving on me while I'm asleep," he had said which earned him a disgusted look from Jess and a withering stare from Sam.

Sam had then insisted on her having the first shower when they had entered the room, Jess had put up a token resistance in the interest of being polite but she found she caved pretty easily.

She tried to be quick but with three day's worth of grime lodged deep in her skin she didn't feel fully clean until she had scrubbed vigorously everywhere. The clean clothes felt fresh as she pulled them over her and she felt her mood improve tremendously as she left the tiny room. Now all she needed was to get a decent night's rest in after trying to sleep the last two nights handcuffed to the bed. Not something she would reccomend.

She laid out on the bed as Sam went to take his turn in the shower and sprawled out as much as she could revelling in the space and the fact that this mattress was a whole lot more comfortable than the last one she slept on. Before she knew it, her eyelids were drifting closed and she was asleep.