Thanks so much for the reviews...sorry it's taken me so long to update...life is crazy but I haven't forgotten the story.
Enjoy. :)
Summertime is so close, I can almost taste it! WOOT WOOT!
All the best,
Love Claire :)
Jorie rolled over to her side and felt something heavy pinning her legs down. With alarm, she sprang up, her heart in her throat, only to see Rumsfeld staring at her from the darkness. His tongue dropped from his mouth as he silently heaved and put his head back done with a whine. She fell back against the pillow on the sofa willing her heart to slow down. The dog whimpered and she sat up again to scratch him behind his ear.
"Sorry for disturbing you, Rumy," she murmured softly and gently kissed his head.
She looked around in the darkness trying to remember how she'd gotten here. The last thing she recalled was listening to the brothers and their uncle talking about her dad and bickering over a plan to use African dram root to recover him. As hard as she'd tried to stay awake, sleep must have won out in the end.
The deep rumble of voices followed by footsteps was heard coming toward the room, so Jorie quickly lay back down and closed her eyes feigning sleep. This time she planned to stay awake so she could hear exactly what the brothers had in mind.
"Did you grab me a beer?" The loud voice belonging to Dean said.
"Be quiet, Dean, you'll wake up Jorie," Sam's whispered voice said as they entered the room. A light switched on and Jorie squeezed her eyes tightly shut hoping they wouldn't notice.
"Relax, Sammy. The kid's down for the count."
"Sure looks like old Rumsfeld has made himself at home," chuckled Sam.
Their voices were so close, Jorie knew they must be standing close and staring at her and the old, grey muzzled watchdog.
"You love all the attention, dontcha fella?" Dean said with a chuckle. "He always loved when we stayed here as kids." Jorie heard him pat the dog. Rumsfeld shifted and grunted like a happy puppy. Jorie pinched herself to keep from laughing. Rumsfeld was supposed to be some kind of fierce watchdog, yet he was just a huge baby.
"Never felt more like a kid than I did today," Sam mused, his voice moving further away from her. Jorie envisioned the two brothers sitting back in the same chairs they'd occupied earlier while their Uncle Bobby chewed them out.
"Tell me about it. I haven't seen that old man so pissed since we hotwired one of his old jalopies and went joyriding around the salvage yard."
Sam laughed. "Gawd, I'd forgotten about that."
"I'm not sure how you could. He about wore us both out that night."
"I almost thought I was headed in that direction tonight," Sam all but whispered.
The beat of silence following made Jorie squint her eyes a little so she could stare at the brothers. The dimness in the room shrouded her just enough so they wouldn't notice she was awake and watching them. Dean sat with one leg crossed, his ankle resting on his knee, leaning back in the ugly, stained easy chair with a faraway look on his face. Sam sat back with both feet on the floor staring up at a strange star shape on the ceiling.
"Why do you suppose Bobby was so mad?" asked Dean.
Sam shrugged. "Dad and Bobby were always a little protective when it came to Mac and his mom." Then Sam chuckled, "Mac sure could give dad a run for his money."
Dean laughed. "That's for sure. Mac was more of a wild child than me."
Sam ran his hands through his hair looking thoughtful. "Dean, you wouldn't have dared to disobey a direct order from dad. We knew better. Mac, on the other hand, was completely out of control."
"Gawd, feels like a lifetime ago. How old were we?" Jorie watched Dean take a long pull from his beer.
Sam shrugged. "Mac went to Waverley High School with us for one semester, so I'd say you were both in 11th and 12th grade by then. That was one of the first times we ever stayed put in one place for an entire semester."
"Ah, yes. Waverley." Dean's face looked nostalgic. "I dated Sue and Alyson Brinston."
"How would you remember that?"
"C'mon, Sammy," Dean said incredulously. "You never forget twins."
Sam rolled his eyes and scoffed quietly. "Mac met Jenna. That's what I remember."
"Oh, yeah, Jenna MacKay," said Dean, and the brothers fell quiet again.
Jorie tried hard to stay perfectly still but the sound of Jenna's name made her fidget a little. Jenna MacKay had been her father's first love or so he'd once admitted to her. Jorie knew all about her because whenever her dad had a nightmare, Jenna was always in it, even all these years later. Her father always blamed herself for her death.
"Took me a long time to forget about her."Sam's voice again.
"Mac and Jenna were attached at the hip. Kinda thought she was the one for him."
Sam didn't reply to that.
"Can't believe she OD'd…" Dean said.
"Her father was so controlling. I thought dad was bad but he never outright abused us. Jenna's old man should have gone to jail for what he did." Sam's face looked grim. "It was no wonder she didn't see any other way out."
"Yeah," Dean said, a faraway look in his eye.
Sam sat back once again. "Mac wasn't the same afterward."
Dean nodded. "Once we hit the road, I never heard much from Mac. The last letter I got was after he married Rebekah, I think. I never was much good at writing back."
"Yeah, me neither, and then dad started getting on my back about everything…"
Dean groaned. "Don't remind me, Sammy. I spent three good years of my life trying to save your ass from Dad's belt."
Silence again. Jorie began to squirm realizing the sudden need to use the washroom now. She didn't dare move much though as she hoped the brothers would talk more about their plans to find her dad. All their reminiscing was kind of interesting. Her dad hadn't ever told her that Jenna overdosed on pills, just that she'd died of a broken heart because Jenna's father wouldn't let them be together or something like that. Jorie stored that information away for later when she could mull it over some more.
"So, what's the plan?" Sam's voice said softly.
Jorie slowly crossed her legs willing herself to hang on a little longer before making it known that she was awake.
Dean heaved a sigh. "Well, now that Bobby told us about the African Dream root, I think that's our best bet."
Sam groaned. "I was afraid you were going to say that."
"I know things didn't go so well last time, but…"
"There are no buts, Dean, I could have died."
"I know." Dean's voice sounded much more contrite, something Jorie didn't hear very often from him. "Your abilities make you able to manipulate and control circumstances as well as people in dreams, Sammy."
"Dean, that's what Bobby thinks but I'm not so sure."
"It makes perfect sense. You conjured up a memory for that dude…"
"I killed a man, Dean. Sure, it was in self-defence and in a dream, but that guy died in real life."
"Okay, I get it." Dean cleared his voice. "You don't have to go, but I am. My gut tells me that the Jargeru has Mac stuck somewhere in dreamland. We need to find him for Jorie's sake."
"And then what Dean?"
"Dean shook his head. "I don't know, Sammy."
"Why do you suppose Mac went after it?"
"Isn't that what Hunter's do? You know, the whole saving people and hunting things?"
Sam scoffed. "You know what I mean. It's not like a vamp nest or some kind of supernatural creature going after groups of people. There is little lore on the Jargeru…just legends and myth, and it doesn't seem to be a danger to humans. So why now?"
"I'm sure Mac had his reasons…"
Jorie felt herself growing impatient with the brothers now and she tuned out the rest of Dean's sentence. They were rambling now and her full bladder was soon going to win and she needed to know more. She was desperate to know more. She scrunched up her eyes and mentally pressed the brothers to get into some kind of action. She didn't care if it was the middle of the night.
You must go to him now! Her mind screamed out to them.
Her head began to cloud and suddenly she could see Sam and Dean getting into their car. Clear as day, she watched them drive out of the Salvage yard towards something. Jorie rubbed her head with her hands as she pushed further to see where they were headed. The road in front of Sam and Dean was dark and ominous. Dean kept driving until there was blackness surrounding them and then the car hit something…
Jorie's eyes flew open and her heart pounded against her rib cage when Dean stood to his feet knocking over the side table. His beer scattered to the floor at his feet as he slipped in the remainder of its contents when he walked towards the archway of the room without saying a word.
"Dean, where are you going?" Sam asked in bewilderment.
"I'm going to find Mac." Dean walked from the room. "I'm done sitting around doing nothing. Dad would want us to find Mac right away."
Sam stood to his feet. "Wait. Now? Dude, it's 2:00 in the morning. We don't have any dream root….we need to wait until morning. Dean, c'mon, we need a plan."
Dean kept walking and Sam went after him, continuing to talk but Jorie got to her feet and cautiously followed them, hoping to find the bathroom along the way. Dean walked to the kitchen door and opened it.
"Dean, c'mon man, talk to me. You can't just go off half-cocked like this. This isn't like you. What's going on?"
Dean stopped and abruptly spun on his heel to speak but froze when he locked eyes with Jorie. He looked fearful like a deer caught in headlights. Jorie swallowed and reluctantly broke the connection with him. Dean blinked a few times and then frowned at her. "Kid?"
Jorie froze and held her breath. If it was like the times she'd pressed her father, it wasn't going to be pretty, especially when he figured it out. Just then, Dean moaned loudly and grabbed at his head, appearing to be in agony.
"Dean, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
Jorie held her breath as Dean collapsed to the floor.
xXxX
Sam dropped to his knees beside Dean's unconscious form shaking him. Dean remained still. Jorie's heart hammered in her chest. She'd done it again. She'd managed to mentally influence Dean into doing what she wanted. She'd done it a few times to her dad in the past and every time, the same thing happened. Her dad would collapse into unconsciousness and wake up with a crippling headache to boot. Usually, Jorie would get very sleepy herself often sleeping for hours afterwards so she rarely dared to try it. She didn't like how exhausted she felt afterward and sometimes for days later. Not knowing where her dad was made her desperate. Dangerously so.
"I didn't mean to…" Jorie whispered.
Sam looked up at her in confusion. "That was you?"
Jorie nodded.
"Dean!" Sam shouted, slapping his cheek lightly.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as Jorie tried to explain. "I just wanted you to find my dad so I put the idea in your heads to go look for him right away. It's been so long and all you're doing is sitting around. What if he is fighting for his life…or worse."
Dean groaned and began to gain consciousness again. Sam kept staring at her in disbelief as he helped Dean to sit up.
Her urgent bladder made itself known once again. "I need to pee," Jorie said, her face was pale and desperate.
Sam took in her squirming and nodded. "3rd door on the right, down that hallway." Sam pointed her in the right direction. Jorie ran quickly to the bathroom.
"Come right back," he hollered after her.
Once inside, she quickly relieved herself and scurried back to see Sam helping Dean to sit down in a nearby chair. She knew Dean would be okay but he'd have a whopper of a headache. The only thing that didn't make sense was why Sam hadn't followed the prompt as well. He seemed oblivious to her suggestion.
"What the hell?" Dean mumbled. "Did anyone catch the licence plate of the transport that hit me?"
"Jorie, get him something to drink."
Jorie nodded and rushed into the kitchen to fill a tumbler with water. Her hands were shaking as she worried about how the brothers were going to take her messing with their minds. She couldn't explain how she did it to them. She couldn't even always do it. The fact that she'd felt stressed and desperate and had to use the washroom…those urgencies seemed to work together to power it. But, why hadn't it worked on Sam? Jorie walked a little slower back to Bobby's study and handed the glass of water to Dean.
Dean held his head and Sam narrowed his eyes at her. "Explain what you meant."
Jorie swallowed hard. "I…uh…" She was stopped by a large yawn that nearly split her face in half. The crushing fatigue was closing in on her. Her eyes drooped.
Sam reached out and shook her. "Jorie! Tell me how you put the idea in Dean's head!"
At that moment, a very scruffy-looking, half-asleep Bobby entered the room, squinting in the brightness of the light. He reached out and flicked out the light, casting them all into darkness.
"For God's sake, Sam, what is all the shouting about?" Then noticing Jorie standing there, he softened and took in her exhausted frame.
"Hey there, darling. Did you just wake up?"
"Jorie somehow forced Dean to look for her dad." The irritation was plain in his voice.
Bobby scratched his scruffy bearded face. "What in tarnation are you talking about, Sam?"
"Why didn't it work on you?" Jorie asked through the next yawn that devoured her face.
Dean looked up at her. "Sam has supernatural abilities."
"I felt something probing around but I didn't know what and I could easily block it."
Jorie felt herself wobble a little. She knew she'd soon fall into a deep sleep and there was nothing she could do about it. It was becoming difficult to even form a logical thought. The last thing she heard before she collapsed was Sam angrily calling her name.
XxXx
Jorie was startled awake to the sound of loud snoring. Her eyes fluttered and opened and she looked down to see Rumsfeld sleeping at the end of the bed she was laying in. She sat up and looked around the room. The dark navy curtains were half open allowing the sunshine to dance around the room, showing off the barrenness. It took Jorie a moment to figure out she was in on one of the brother's bedrooms. The walls had a few posters of bands she didn't recognise scattered around the walls, probably old from back in the day and also some ribbons, discoloured with age. The one bookshelf in the room had a few trophies sitting on it, covered in dust, along with some old yellowed books. She slid to the end of the bed and scratched Rumsfeld behind the ear. The old dog moaned with pleasure and licked her face.
"You're a good old fella, aren't you, Rummy?" The dog licked her face again and dropped his tongue from his mouth to pant happily. Jorie planted a kiss on his face and stood to her feet to inspect her surroundings. "So, whose room am I in, Rumster?"
The dog stood up and shook himself before jumping off the bed with a thump. He nosed open the door and proceeded to leave, stopping only to look back at her. Once the door was ajar, the smell of bacon wafted into the room making Jorie's mouth water. She was famished. That was the other side effect of mind-bending. She was blurry-eyed and starving the next day. Her stomach rumbled in reminder. One last look at the barren room, devoid of much to tell her whose room she was in, she followed the old Rottweiler out of the room and downstairs. Jorie froze on the stairs when she heard the deep rumbling of their voices, sitting on the steps just out of their sight. Rumsfeld finished the descent and disappeared from her sight.
"…believe she had powers, Sammy. She's a kid…"
" I know what I felt." Sam's voice still sounded irritated.
"It could have been something else." Dean insisted.
"Damn it, Dean. I don't know how but she did it. Jorie has abilities whether you chose to believe it or not. She manipulated you. You should be mad as hell at her."
"Now hold on there, Sam," Bobby chimed in. "Jorie is just a little girl. She's not a demon or something."
"I never said she was, Bobby." Sam sighed. Then his eyes darkened. "Is that what you think I am?"
Bobby narrowed his eyes at him sternly. "You know what I mean, boy. Don't put words in my mouth."
Sam relented and dropped his gaze to the floor.
Jorie stood up and decided to finish her way down the steps and join them in the kitchen.
"Sam's right." She said as she came into view.
Two sets of green eyes and one set of chocolate brown eyes turned to look her way as she entered the dingy kitchen space.
Bobby stood to his feet and skirted across the kitchen to grab a plate out of the cupboard.
"G' morning, Sleepyhead. Want some bacon and eggs?"
Jorie nodded and walked over to sit across from Sam and Dean. Both men stared at her but remained silent. Jorie fidgeted under their scrutiny. Sam still looked irritated while Dean looked a little bit intrigued. Seeing the flip flop in the brothers was a little disconcerting. Usually, it was Dean who was pissed at her and Sam was coming to her rescue. She wasn't sure what to make of things now. She wasn't used to Sam being upset with her. She highly doubted Dean would come to her rescue should Sam lose his cool though. He seemed too amused by it all.
Bobby set a plate of steamy food in front of her and Jorie couldn't stop herself from devouring the food.
"Slow down, sweetheart," Bobby chided as he sat down to watch her eat. "There's plenty more where that came from. Didn't those boys feed ya?"
Sam grimaced. "Of course, we fed her, Bobby. I think the hunger is because of how much energy it took to manipulate us."
Jorie kept shoving food in her mouth until her hands stopped shaking. She didn't know why it happened but it felt like her blood sugar bottomed out and she couldn't get the food in fast enough to bring it back up. Soon, she slowed down and looked up to see the three men gawking at her.
"Take a picture, it might last longer."
Dean smirked. "There it is. There's that snark we know and hate."
Jorie dared to poke her tongue out at him.
Sam glared at her and she pulled it back in quickly. Sam looked to be in no mood to play around.
"Explain."
Jorie took a deep breath and did her best to explain what she did and how it wasn't something she could exactly do on command but if the forces were right and if she was upset enough, it just sort of happened. Dean continued to look fascinated. Bobby leaned back in his chair, deep concern laced across his face. And Sam looked dubious.
"So, you're saying you can't just randomly get into someone's head and force them to do things against their will?" Sam said. It was obvious that he was not convinced.
"It wasn't exactly against his will," Jorie began weakly. "You want to find my dad, don't you?"
Sam stood up and went to pour himself another cup of coffee. "Jorie, I felt you in my head last night. Not that I knew it was you, but I felt something telling me…compelling me…giving me a desperate urgency to go look for Mac right away without delay. It made no logical sense to me, so I was able to withstand the temptation to just jump up and go. But when Dean just blindly got up…"
Dean cleared his throat. "Wait a minute…I did not just blindly get up…"
Sam leaned against the counter. "Yes, Dean, you did. If I hadn't broken the connection, who knows where you would have been this morning."
Jorie's little brows rose. "You can do that?"
Sam nodded. "When I pulled you out from behind the door, I interfered with your connection with Dean."
"But, how?" Jorie hadn't felt anything different. Surely she would have known if someone had broken her mind connection on Dean; she would have felt it, wouldn't she? She'd thought she'd been the one to break the connection. She was certain of it, wasn't she?
"I'm a lot older than you, Jorie and I've had these abilities a lot longer. I have learned to control them. I can choose to do it or not and I can feel when someone else is messing with my head. Once I figured it out, it was easy to break the connection." Sam studied her for a moment and then continued. "Don't you try that on me or Dean again! Understand? Messing with people's heads isn't something you do for fun or to get your way. You could mess them up."
Jorie blinked. This was a completely new side to Sam. He was serious, uncharacteristically stern and visually shaken. 'Yes, Sam," she said, hoping it would appease him.
"Sam, aren't you being a little hard on her?" Dean asked. "This is a special ability. We should be encouraging and teaching her to hone it wisely. You never know, she might need to protect herself one day."
Sam glared at Dean. "Oh yeah, Dean, just like you wanted me to hone mine?"
Bobby stood up just then. "Okay, that's enough, Sam. You made your point." Jorie looked up at him, tears sparkling in her eyes. He winked at her kindly. "I don't know what happened but let's just let it slide for now. We've got more important things to focus on right now like finding Mac." Bobby reached into his pocket and tossed a packet on the table. "There's your dream root, boys."
xXxX
Jorie kept her distance from Sam for the rest of that morning as the brothers began to make plans on entering dreamland to look for Mac. Sam appeared to ignore her which was probably for the best considering his earlier disposition. Jorie found Sam's coolness towards her more than a little upsetting. Sam was always the one who she'd felt drawn to and now she understood why. He had abilities too. She didn't know why her having similar abilities bothered Sam so much but in his current state of irritation, she wasn't about to ask him. Instead, she hovered in the background, hoping the three men would forget about her. It seemed to work as they prepared and planned, apparently ignoring her or forgetting she was there. Jorie hadn't minded; it was easier to glean information without directly asking when she was overlooked.
Bobby dragged the other bed across the room and stood up to stretch out his back. "That ought to do it. Now, I can keep an eye on you idgits." Bobby walked across the room and grabbed one of his filthy hats from a hook and placed it on his head. "I need to get out to the Salvage yard. Rufus has a load of stuff he's bringing in and I should be there to make sure he's not ripping me off." Bobby's voice sounded gruff and full of disdain at the mention of the name of Rufus.
"Who's Rufus?" Jorie surprised herself by asking.
"Bobby's best friend," Dean said with a snicker. He sat nearby polishing his guns.
"Best friend, my ass. I can't stand that ole codger. Most untrustworthy son of a…" Bobby looked at Jorie and stopped mid-sentence. "In any case, I should be back in a couple of hours." Bobby looked down to where old Rumsfeld snoozed contentedly. He poked the dog with his boot to wake him up. "C'mon Rumsfeld, come earn your keep. You can bite Rufus or something." The dog groaned but rose to his feet looking happy at the thought of going outside. He walked to the door, looked back at Bobby and whined. Bobby patted the dog lovingly and looked back at the brothers, "You boys be careful now. If you ain't up and bushy-tailed by supper, I'm gonna toss a bucket of dishwater at ya both." Bobby winked at her and said, "Try and stay out of Dean's head, kid. It's already spaghetti."
"Hey!" Dean said, feigning hurt and tossing a rag in Bobby's direction.
Bobby chuckled and disappeared out the kitchen side door.
Dean rose to his feet and came up behind Jorie who was staring at the two beds sitting side by side in Bobby's study. He ran a hand over his scruffy face and puffed out his cheeks. "I am not looking forward to this, Sammy."
"I'm not either, Dean but unless you have any other suggestions, this is the only way we'll be able to know if Mac is there. There's no telling what other kind of stuff we're gonna run into considering we aren't necessarily entering Mac's dreams. We have no idea if he's even asleep or not."
Dean nodded and turned back towards the kitchen. Jorie followed him, her curiosity piqued.
"What happens now?" she asked.
Dean measured some dream root into two mugs and looked up at her. "We find your dad."
"What will you do if you find him?"
"We try to convince him to wake up."
"What about me? What do I do?"
Dean set his hand on her head gently. "Stay put and wait."
Jorie sighed and crossed her arms. "I can help."
Dean shook his head. "You are helping by staying put. Your dad would kill us if anything happened to you."
"Jorie," Sam called from the other room. Both Dean and Jorie walked to the doorway to see Sam run a hand through his hair and look from his notes at them. He poked at the paper a few times before saying, "Do you have anything of your dad's? Like a toothbrush or hairbrush?"
Jorie frowned. It was the first words Sam had spoken to her since earlier that morning at breakfast. Even now, his words were clipped and filled with impatience. He was still mad at her. Her lower lip trembled a little as tears threatened to fall.
Dean looked down at her. "We need a hair or something with your Dad's DNA."
"Why?"
"Stop asking questions and answer mine," Sam snapped at her.
Dean's face darkened and he shoved Jorie behind him. "Go get me something to drink, Jore. I need to talk to Sammy alone for a minute."
Jorie stepped back and Dean shut the door in her face. She pressed her ear against the door to hear Dean ask Sam what kind of pickle he had up his ass. Jorie licked her lips as an argument ensued between the brothers. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she turned and leaned against the door. She sucked in a deep breath and wandered back into the grimy kitchen.
Bobby was a good cook but housekeeping was not his forte. The dust and dirt on the floor made it obvious that Bobby didn't believe in washing it. Maybe Jorie could help by washing up a little. Jorie dragged a low stool over along with a bucket. She stood on the stool so she could reach the sink properly and proceeded to fill the bucket. She scanned the room for a mop of some kind but didn't see one. She shrugged as the bucket filled. Washing floors on hands and knees never killed anyone yet. Once the bucket was about a third of the way full, she turned off the water and added dish soap. She grunted as she lifted it to the floor and tossed a sponge into it. Then she proceeded to wash the floor in front of the sink. It seemed to be the filthiest right there. In the background, she could still hear the brother's arguing. Scratching at the side door got her attention just then so she stood up and looked out the window to see Rumsfeld begging to come inside. Jorie smiled as she opened the door for him.
"Come inside, Rummy."
The Rottweiler happily padded inside slipping and sliding across the floor bumping into the soapy bucket and knocking it over. The dog whimpered as he attempted to get up but kept slipping. Jorie giggled at him. "Silly dog. Look what you did."
Jorie grabbed a towel off the back of the chair and attempted to dry the floor. She put her hands on her hips to survey her work. "It looks worse than before," she mumbled to herself.
"You can say that again."
Jorie startled and spun on her heel to see Sam smiling at her this time, a welcomed change from earlier.
"I just wanted to help…"
Sam crossed the distance between them and leaned on the back of one of the rickety kitchen chairs, weathered by time. "I know. I'm sure Bobby will appreciate it. Can we talk, Jore?"
The blonde hair little girl nodded.
"Have a seat."
"Shouldn't I clean this up first? I don't want Bobby to get mad."
Sam smiled again. "I'll help you clean it up in a minute." He pulled out the chair and ushered Jorie to sit down. Jorie sat. Sam walked around to the other side of the table and tossed another towel on the floor so Rumsfeld could get up. The dog scrambled onto the towel gratefully and sat down with his tongue hanging out. Sam scratched him behind the ear.
"I'm sorry I got so mad at you," Sam began turning to look at her, finally looking like the Sam she'd gotten to know. "I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you."
Tears ran down her cheeks now and Jorie swiped them away. "I didn't mean to make you so mad…"
Sam walked over and crouched down to her level, taking her hands in his gently. "You didn't, sweetie. You surprised me but I was never mad at you. If anything I'm mad at me. I'll admit you scared me though. I felt something in my head and couldn't pin it down and when Dean collapsed, I panicked. But it wasn't because of anything you did. I promise."
Her lower lip quivered a little. "I can't always do it…but sometimes I can. And I miss my daddy so much, Sam. I just need him to come home. I won't do it again…"
Sam embraced her. "Shh…it's okay, Jorie."
With Sam holding her and talking sweetly to her, it became Jorie's undoing. She began to sob.