Gosh golly thank you everyone for all the wonderful feedback and support! I really am so grateful and touched!
So, this next part is my take on Gimme Shelter and again thank you to Supernatural-wiki Transcripts. I really needed to address a few things, as much as I love the idea of Chestervelle's I needed Jo to realize it can't happen before Chuck is dealt with. I also wanted to build up Jo's feeling for Jack here too for the next chapter.
Anywho thank you again and I hope people enjoy this part!
Chapter 37
Jo looked up from the laptop in front of her. "I'm sorry did you just say that Jack is going out on a hunt…with Castiel?"
"Yup," Dean said as he began putting some clothes into his duffel. "And Sammy and I are heading to Atlantic City to look for Amara."
"Yeah, but Lorna and I…" Jo began to argue.
"Are moving Lorna into her room in the bunkhouse and putting the finishing touches on the bar before opening next week." He said.
Jo chewed on her lower lip, "but to send Jack out with Castiel on his first real hunt."
Dean smiled as he sat down on the bed, "Sweetheart, he'll be fine. This is probably nothing and it will do him some good to get out."
"I guess," she agreed halfheartedly.
Dean reached over and closed Jo's laptop, placing it on the nightstand. She smiled as Dean tugged her forward and kissed her. "Jo, I love that you're as compassionate as you are but Jack has a heavy job ahead of him and he needs our support and help preparing for what he has to do. I know your instinct is to mother him and that isn't a bad thing but you need to accept he is committed to what he has to do."
Jo sighed as she nodded her head, "have I told you lately that I hate Chuck."
Dean chuckled softly as he leaned forward and kissed her forehead, "ditto."
They both turned when they heard a knock on the door and Jack calling from the other side, "Jo…do I have any black socks? Sam says I can't wear white ones."
Dean shook his head in amusement, "maybe he needs a little mothering."
"Yeah," she replied with a smirk as she stood up. "You can take a couple of Dean's," she called out as she got up.
SPNSPNSPN
Jo and Lorna hung back at the bunker for a couple of days after both Dean and Sam and Castiel and Jack had taken off respectfully. Lorna to catch up on her laundry and to pack her stuff and Jo to have some quality Mommy and Ami time before they had dropped Ami off at Ellen and Bill's new house they were renting.
"You're actually more worried about Jack than the fact your husband is heading to Atlantic City to find a primordial entity that is a beautiful woman that he has a strong connection to?" Lorna asked as Jo pulled up in front of the new Roadhouse.
Jo rolled her eyes, "please Dean's a lot of things but unfaithful isn't one of them and I think he can hold his own with Amara."
"Okay then…let's get this party started." Lorna announced as she clapped her hands before opening the passage door.
"Right," Jo agreed with a grin. This was basically an excuse for a girl's weekend since Lorna's stuff should only take a few trips and there really wasn't too many final touches besides placing the fresh sheets and towels at the foot of each bed, a few things in the lounge area of the bunk house needed setting up and then the most important thing was Jo brushing up on mixing cocktails that her and Lorna will be 'forced' to test. "Let's do this."
SPNSPNSPN
Jo and Lorna sat on the couch in the lounge area of the bunkhouse with a pitcher of Mai Tai sitting on the coffee table in front of them. It was funny but this was one of Jo's favorite spaces.
It was like an oversized family room with a few couches, a ping pong table as well as a few game tables set up with backgammon, chess/checkers, and scrabble boards. They had even added their own personal reading material to the built-in book cases. Everything in this room was intended to help a hunter relax.
"I have to say those were the best margaritas I've ever had," Lorna said as she reached over and put down her container of beef and broccoli while Jo settled her container of orange chicken down.
"And the Chinese food was a great suggestion. I haven't made a Mai Tai in forever." Jo said as she took a sip of her drink.
Lorna smiled at her friend, "you were the one who suggested tacos for lunch."
"And I definitely needed to perfect my margarita." Jo reasoned.
"And you definitely perfected it on the third pitcher." The other woman agreed as she raised her glass in salute to Jo.
Jo grinned as she lifted her glass and the two women sat back and laughed. Jo sighed as she looked around the room, they had finished setting up earlier and her smile quickly turned into a frown when her eyes landed on the bookcase. "Very funny turning all the books around and so they're facing out backwards."
"Turn what?" Lorna asked in confusion as she looked in the same direction as Jo.
"The books, I set them up earlier and…" Jo stopped talking when suddenly the temperature in the room dropped and her breath came out in puffs of white smoke.
Lorna shook her head as she put her glass down, "now we know why this place was so damn cheap…it's has a ghost."
Jo sighed as she placed her drink down, "and I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend."
"Well come on, I'll put a pot of coffee on while you boot up your laptop. I think it's time we do some research into this place."
Jo looked at the pitcher of drink and huffed, "dammit I really do make a mean Mai Tai." Before joining Lorna as they made their way to the house.
SPNSPNSPN
"A ghost are you kidding me," Dean said as Sam held the phone up that he was face-timing with while he drove.
"Forget the ghost...you told Cas to let Jack go in as bait. Dean he's not ready." Jo argued.
"Told you Jo would be pissed," Sam said as he looked up from the map he was reading.
"Well, you should have stopped him," Lorna's voice chimed in. "Jo's right, you basically sent a toddler in to do a man's job."
"Okay...A Jack isn't a toddler and 2 he's more than capable of doing this," Dean argued.
"But he's never been on a hunt before!" Jo cried.
"Well technically he has," Sam admitted.
"What...when?" Jo demanded.
"Okay Mama Bear calm down. He was with us the whole time and it was a shapeshifter that he helped us take out a couple of years ago." Dean told her. "How about you tell us about your case."
"We're just starting to research it now," Jo admitted as she took a sip of coffee.
Dean cocked an eyebrow at his wife, "coffee huh...so you girls trying to sober up enough to do the research?"
"Noooo," Jo said a little indignantly, blushing slightly when she burped. "Excuse me…maybe."
"Yeah, maybe you two should sober up some more before you tackle this ghost," Sam said as he actually looked at his sister-in-law and his...well whatever him and Lorna were and notice that both women were definitely drunk.
"Hey we're about five hours out of Atlantic City. We're going to grab a motel and get some shut eye and then hit the town tomorrow to look for Amara." Dean explained as he avoided looking over towards the phone Sam held out towards him.
Jo frowned slightly at the way Dean was avoiding looking at her and could tell something was bothering him but decided he would talk to her when he's ready and instead said, "we're going to bunk together in the panic room and then tomorrow we'll start a deep dive into the property."
Dean glance over at the phone and swallowed when he saw the look of understanding in his wife's eyes. "You two sure you're going to be okay tonight?"
"Ellen and Bill had no problems when they slept here," she reassured him.
"Okay just call-in backup if you need it. Ash doesn't have anything on his plate." Sam told them.
"We've got this," Lorna told him as she smiled into the camera.
"Have some more coffee. We'll call you tomorrow to check in." Dean said as he spotted a motel up ahead and put his blinker on to make the turn.
"Kay…love you," Jo said.
"Love you too," Dean said as he put the car in park before grinning and looking over at his brother and teased, "Sam, don't you want to say good night to Lorna."
Sam glared at Dean as he heard Jo giggle and Lorna hissing at Jo, "don't encourage him," before calling out, "ignore the children Sam. Watch your six and talk to you later."
"You too," he said as they both hung up at the same time.
Sam shot a look at his brother and could see something was weighing heavy in the older man's eyes, "Hey, you sure about this?"
"Yeah sure, like I said we don't find her, casino buffet. Pretty good consolation prize." He said as he went to open the door to check in.
Sam reached over and placed his hand on his brother's arm, "that's not what I meant. We've been on the road for almost two days, and I get not wanting to talk about it, I do, but, you know, what we're planning on doing, killing Amara."
Dean shrugged his shoulders, "well, we're not pulling the trigger."
"Sure, but we still have to find her. And then, if we find her, we have to lie to her. We got to set her up for her own death," he said as he watched Dean's face.
Dean exhaled the breath he was holding in and reassured his brother, "hey man, Billie called us "Messengers of God's Destruction," okay? Did you think that was, what, gonna be easy? Bloodless? Huh? We knew there was gonna be a catch. Least this time it's not you or me. Now can we go check in? I need a hot shower."
Sam shook his head as Dean got out of the car and slammed the door shut, not bothering to wait for him as he stormed towards the motel office.
SPNSPNSPN
Jo plopped down in one of the beanbag chairs they had set up in the panic room looking at the two boxes of personal documents and family photos Mrs. Gavin left behind and had said she would pick them up next time she came back through town aka it's your junk now…you can deal with.
"Isn't it nice when people leave us clues?" Jo quipped as flipped the cover off of the top of a box.
Lorna snorted in amusement, "I'm sure Mrs. Gavin was just trying to be helpful so that we can deal with whatever is going which is most likely the reason she sold this place so cheap."
"You mean it wasn't my sparkling personality?" Jo gasped as she starting going through some photos.
"I'm sure your sparkling personality was the deciding factor," Lorna teased as she began going through a stacks of paperwork.
They had been true to their words to the boys. They made another pot of strong coffee they had put in an insulated caffe, made enough hang over snacks to feed a small arm before heading down into the panic room and securing themselves inside.
Jo yawn as she put the pictures down, "okay don't think less of me but I give in. I'm still too buzzed to think clearly. I'm gonna call it a night and sleep it off."
Lorna chuckled as she put down her own stack of papers, "thank goodness, wasn't sure how much longer I could keep my eyes open."
Jo stood up and stretched, frowning slightly as she looked over at the corner where the privacy curtain was, "dammit I need to pee."
Lorna wrinkled her nose in understanding, "Okay I know your powers might not be ready for something like this...but I say when we're done here, we get either Gabriel or Castiel to mojo it clean."
"Agreed," Jo sighed as she made her way over to the designated area where the porta-potty was. "At least we were smart enough to get one with a separate tank." She called out as she did her business.
"That's what I like about you Jo…you always find that silver lining." Lorna quipped as she put the papers, she had decided she would go through in the morning on the table.
Jo came out from behind the curtain wiping her hands with a wet wipe before tossing it into the trash and grabbing a couple of bottles of water, "here you go," she said as she handed a bottle towards Lorna.
"Thanks," Lorna murmured around a yawn as she unscrewed the top and watched as Jo went over to the desk in the corner and retrieved a bottle of aspirin. Shaking a couple out she popped them into her mouth before taking a large sip of water.
Jo walked back to her friend and handed the aspirins to her, "hopefully this will help with the hangover." Jo said as she took another sip of water.
"Hopefully," Lorna agreed as she popped a few aspirins too. They had a job in front of them tomorrow and it would be better if they weren't too hung over.
"Let's get some sleep," Jo suggested. "Then in the morning we can get started on the case."
SPNSPNSPN
Dean was standing at the gas station pump as he filled Baby up while Sam paid inside. They would be in Jersey in about four hours. Sam came out munching on a protein bar.
"Not going in for a snack?" He asked his brother.
"Saving room. I got four hours till all-you-can-eat. I have a process." He explained.
Sam smiled at Dean as he looked down at his phone to check the traffic and sucked in a deep breath and said, "can your process last for six hours? Lane closures I-76."
"Damn it!" Dean snapped as he put the gas nozzle back.
"Pork rinds?" The younger Winchester suggested.
Dean nodded his head, "yeah pork rinds."
The brothers turned to head back inside and stopped short when Amara was standing before them.
"I think we can do better than that. Hello, Dean. Miss me?" Amara said as she gazed into the hunter's eyes as she added, "you heading somewhere fun?
"Well, we were heading to you, actually." Dean told her.
"How'd you find us?" Sam asked.
Amara continued to stare at the older brother as she said, "I smelled you from two states over. You have a very distinctive musk."
Dean shot his brother a smug look as he said, "thank you."
"And I got wind of your friend Castiel's angelic APB. I knew you were looking for me." She explained.
"Yeah, we are," Sam agreed.
"We wanted to talk," Dean added, stopping when Amara held up her hand.
"First, lunch." She told them as she pointed to a billboard.
"Pierogis?" Dean said in disbelief.
"You're hungry, I'm hungry. I like new, Earthly experiences, and I have never had a Pennsylvania pierogi," she reasoned as starting walking towards the restaurant.
Dean and Sam exchange a bewildered look before shrugging their shoulders and follow Chuck's sister.
SPNSPNSPN
"Oh man…I think I know who we're looking for," Jo said she looked up from her laptop.
"Who?" Lorna asked as she poured herself and Jo a cup of coffee.
"Seems Mr. Christopher Gavin inherited this property from his parents in October 1975. Him and his brother…his twin brother Thomas...the same twin brother who disappeared six months after they inherited the property." Jo explained.
"And let me guess, once Thomas was declared legally dead his brother inherited his estate which included this property." Lorna reasoned.
"Yup," Jo said as she clicked on some more documents. "Nothing here about his body ever being recovered."
"So, you thinking he's here somewhere?" Lorna asked.
"Makes sense...still don't understand why he didn't make his presents known when Bill and Ellen were here."
Lorna shrugged her shoulders, "who knows. They didn't do much work in the bunkhouse, maybe it's just that we were hanging in there."
"Maybe...I'm guessing his body is on the property somewhere. We'll have to find it so we can salt and burn it."
"How about we go head into town and visit the county clerk to look up the original blue prints and any permits that have been pulled in the last thirty years."
"Sounds like a plan," Jo agreed as she took a sip of her coffee. "We can also grab some breakfast while we're there."
"I could eat," Lorna agreed. Soon the female hunters were getting into their car, neither noticed the figure in the window of the bunkhouse watching them before disappearing as they drove away.
SPNSPNSPN
Dean and Sam watched as Amara began cutting into one her pierogis. Dean cleared his throat and said, "we want to take your brother down, and we need your help."
Amara stopped what she was doing to look at the brothers, "what makes you think I'd do that?" She asked.
"Because you've got beef with him. Past and present," he told her heatedly.
Sam shook his head at his brother and gave him the 'calm down or we lose her look' before turning towards their companion and reasoned, "Amara, I saw into Chuck's mind. His memories. He asked you for help."
"Refusing to help him isn't the same as betraying him," she said.
Dean cleared his throat as he tried to keep his emotions under control. "You know what he's been up to the past couple of months? Snuffing out universes, one after the other?"
"I know. I can feel it. He's very nearly done with the others." She admitted as she took a bite of her food.
"And you don't care?" the elder Winchester asked."
"It doesn't matter," she told him honestly.
"Well, it matters to me. It matters to my brother and it sure the Hell matters to my wife and daughter!" He snapped.
Amara turned slowly to look at Dean, "I was wondering why you hadn't mentioned them before. Were you afraid I would be jealous?"
Dean swallowed as he eyed her, "look you and I have a connection...a bond. I don't deny it and Jo, she understands it...sometimes I think she understands it more than me. You're right I didn't know how you would feel about my wife and daughter."
Amara gave him a slight smile, "we are connected but I've always known the attraction was very different for the both of us. Yours is your typical primordial attraction...mine was a spiritual one. So, you had no reason to fear my reaction to this development."
Sam smirked at his brother as Dean cocked an eyebrow at her response and said, "fine then help us.
Amara sighed as she put her fork down, "there's nothing you two can do."
Dean shook his head as he argued, "there is. See, our pal Jack, he's a Nephilim, and he's getting stronger every day. And soon he'll be strong enough to overpower Chuck. Now, we have a way to trap him, but we can't do it without you."
Amara looks at him, thinking about it before saying softly, "no."
"No?" Dean repeated.
"No. I won't betray him like that." She told them.
Dean glared at her in disbelief, "why? I mean, I get he's your brother, but..."
Amara groans in exasperation as she huffed, "apologies, Dean, but you don't get anything. You see me sitting across from you. You see a woman. You see Chuck as a squirrelly weirdo. But you can't imagine what we really are. We came into existence together. We are the same."
Sam leaned forward slightly and announced, "the former Death, he told us you were the firstborn."
Amara rolled her eyes, "or he told you what you needed to hear. Chuck and I, we're twins. Creation and destruction, light and dark, balance. And when we split apart, all this was created."
"The Big Bang?" Sam asked.
Amara cocked her head slight in confusion, "eh."
"When you split...that was the Big Bang," Dean reasoned before he continued, hoping to use her anger to get Amara to do what he wanted. "So, when he...when Chuck threw you in a cage. When he betrayed you. When he trapped you for an eternity? That was the Big Bang that created earth."
"You can't play on that, not with me," Amara told him before explaining, "Maybe I'm a fool, but I believe caging me hurt him deeply. And I know for me to do that to him would be an agony. I'm sorry. I can't help you."
The brothers watched the sadness in her eyes and knew they had failed. Gradually they stood up and made their way out to the car as Amara signaled for her check.
SPNSPNSPN
Jo and Lorna looked at the screen on Jo's laptop. They lucked out that the county clerk was a nice and was more than willing to email the original blue prints and schematics for the properly that had been scanned into the county office system a few years ago. Now they were back in the bunkhouse looking at the blueprints.
"So, looks like the blueprints for the bunkhouse were submitted around the same time Tom disappeared," Lorna said as she sat back.
Jo snorted, "yeah like that's not a big ole honking red flag."
Lorna looked around the bunkhouse. "You know what's funny, I don't feel threatened. Do you?"
Jo shook her head, "no. It's weird but I don't think he wants to hurt us."
"Me either but can ghosts be...and I hate using this word because I feel silly...but can they be friendly?"
"You mean like Casper," Jo teased before sitting back and grabbing the photos she discarded last night. "Yeah...I mean I wasn't angry. That dick Osiris forced me to testify against Dean and he tried to force me to carry out Dean's death sentence even though I never believed Dean was responsible for mine or my mother's death."
Lorna looked at her friend, "you remember it?"
"I don't remember it the way Dean and Sam do...I just remember a sense of sadness more than anything. They kinda filled in the gaps."
"Sadness? Because of what he was forcing you to do?"
Jo shook her head, "no...sadness because I wasn't at peace...I knew I had been pulled out of Heaven and taken from the love and serenity I felt there."
Lorna swallowed as she fought the tears she suddenly felt, "it amazes me sometimes what you…you, Dean and Sam have suffered through."
"And that we aren't just sitting in a corner drooling," Jo laughed mirthlessly. Jo stopped as she landed on a photograph of a man and a young pregnant woman. Flipping the picture over she sucked in a sharp breath as she read 'Tommy and Mandy, New Year's 1976' and murmured, "I think I know what Tom wants from us."
Lorna looked up from the blueprints she was studying, "huh?"
Jo held up the photo, "Tommy and Mandy, New Year's 1976. I think Tom wants us to find his remains so that Mandy knows that he didn't run out on her and their baby."
"Wow…I'm just going to say it…Christopher was a dick."
"Agreed," Jo said as gazed at the photo. "He never got to meet his child," she murmured sadly.
Lorna grabbed her laptop and began searching for Tom Gavin, "maybe we can find out Mandy's last name."
"Okay," Jo said as she flipped through some more pictures before putting them back on the table. She cocked her head slightly as she looked over at the bookcase.
Standing up she crossed the room and plucked a book from the middle shelf. She read the title of the book and frowned before laughing softly and calling out, "try looking up a Mandy Hawthorn,"
Lorna typed in Mandy Hawthorn and got several local hits and when she did a search for Mandy Hawthorn and Tom Gavin she found an engagement announcement from 1976, less than a month before he disappeared. "Bingo but how did you know?"
"I just realized there was one book that was facing out the correct way," she explained as she passed the book to her partner.
"The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorn…good catch," Lorna said.
"Thanks, but that was all our friendly ghost doing," Jo said as looked at the blueprints on the laptop and frowned as she realized the room, they were in didn't match the plans. Sighing she looked over at Lorna who was still looking up Mandy Hawthorn online and shouted, "found her…gotta love LinkedIn and Facebook…she's a retired nurse two towns over…has one daughter…Missy who is 44 and two grandchildren."
Standing up Jo went over to the door that led into the room and walked to the opposite wall were the bookcase was toe to heel to measure the width of the of the room. Lorna looked up watching the other woman.
"This room is supposed to be 30 feet by 30 feet but I just walked it and it was only 27 steps for me," Jo said when she stopped and looked at Lorna.
"With your tiny feet, shouldn't it be more like 35 or 36 steps?"
Jo cocked and eyebrow, "I think Bill left some of his tools…feel like helping me demo a wall?"
SPNSPNSPN
Sam and Dean sat in the car and watched Amara as she paid her bill. Sam looked at his brother, "you know, maybe it's for the better."
Dean looked over at his brother before cutting the engine, and turns the motor off again causing the younger man to look at him questioningly, "what's going on? What are you doing?"
"Wait here," Dean said as he started to get out of the car. "I'm gonna ask her something."
Sam watched as his brother got out of the car and went back into the diner and sit back down across from Amara.
"Why?" Dean asked as she looked up as he joined her.
"I told you, Dean, he's my…"
Dean shook his head, "no…no…no. Why did you bring her back? You said that you wanted to show me something, that you wanted to, uh to teach me something. I don't know if you were following along, but your little experiment, it came to a not-so-happy ending. My mom is dead. So, what exactly did you want to show me? What was the point?" He asked.
She looked at the hunter sadly, "I wanted two things for you, Dean. I wanted you to see that your mother was just a person, that the myth you'd held onto for so long of a better life, a life where she lived, was just that, a myth. I wanted you to see that the real, complicated Mary was better than your childhood dream because she was real. That now is always better than then. That you could finally start to accept your life."
Dean swallowed as he looked away as his thoughts went to his wife and daughter. He couldn't help wondering if he didn't have that time with his mother…dealing with losing her again would he had let himself finally admit his feelings for Jo that he fought all those years.
"And the second thing?" He asked as he stared down at his hands.
"I thought having her back would release you, put that fire out. Your anger. But I guess we both know that is still something you're working." She explained.
Dean snorted in disgust, "yeah well that didn't happen did it! You're just another cosmic dick rigging the game. You're just like your brother."
Amara frowned in confusion, "it was a gift, Dean, not a trial."
Dean snorted in disgust, "I'm not angry, Amara. I'm furious." He hissed as he went on, "to know that all my life, I've been nothing but a hamster in a wheel, stuck in a story. And you know whose fault that is? Chuck's. And it ain't just me. We're all trapped. Sam, Jo, Ami, Cas and Jack and even you. And you want to talk about the people that he's killing right now."
"Stop," Amara cried.
Dean paused for a heartbeat and smiled to himself when he saw that he had struck the right nerve and drove in the final nail. "Why? He's not stopping. And you're doing nothing to stop it. Think he gives a rat's ass about you? Well, now who's living in a dreamworld?"
Amara looks down as she took a shallow breath before lifting her head and stared into Dean's eyes and asked, "can I... trust you?
Dean swallowed as he held her gazed and said, "I would never hurt you."
Amara slowly nodded her head and said, "then I'll think about it."
SPNSPNSPN
Jo and Lorna stared at the corpse they finally uncovered. Lorna tilted her head when she saw the way Jo took a deep breath and release it slowly, a sad smile tugging at her lips. "Jo?"
"I guess I'm so use to vengeful spirits…I'm glad to be able to bring peace to one instead," she told her.
"So, you don't think we need to salt and burn his remains?" She asked.
"I don't think so. I think we figured out what he wanted us to figure out and now that you found Mandy, we can go see her and tell her that he didn't walk out on her and their daughter."
Lorna thought about what the other woman was saying before she nodded her head in agreement, "okay but we need to discuss what we're going to do about the body."
"What do you mean?" Jo asked in confusion.
"Jo there is obviously blunt force trauma to his cranium. I think we should treat this for what it is...a murder and we need to call the police and report finding his body. We should get him the justice he deserves."
"The person who killed him is dead and Mrs. Gavin didn't meet her husband until a few years after Tom disappeared." Jo reasoned.
"I know but what are you going to do, call this Mandy woman and say, 'hey guess what, we found you old fiancé and baby daddy behind one of our walls, want to come over while we give him an illegally cremation?"
Jo sighed knowing Lorna had a point, "had to put your Ranger hat on there and be all reasonable," she huffed before adding, "fine you're right but this will seriously delay the opening once it becomes a crime scene and you'll have to move back into the bunker."
Lorna chuckled as she shook her head, "I never even unpacked my bags."
"What?" Jo asked in confusion.
"Come on Jo. This has been a nice distraction from everything we've dealing with but we all know deep down that we're safer in the bunker. That we can't really open this place until Chuck is off the board." Lorna reasoned.
They all knew Jo needed to have a goal and this place was it and gradually it had become a joint goal for all of them but realistically now wasn't the time to open the doors to Chestervelle's.
"I know you're right and I know Dean will never move Ami out of the bunker until this is over. It's just…all that time I lost." Jo murmured.
Lorna placed a hand on Jo's shoulder as she said, "this is going to happen Jo. You, Dean and Ami will move into that house, we'll open Chestervelle's and we'll live the lives we all deserve. I promise you."
"Thanks," Jo said as she took a deep breath before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone. "Let's do this."
SPNSPNSPN
"You really think you got to Amara?" Jo asked as she leaned back against the tub as Dean rested against as they soaked in the tub.
"I think so," he told her as he sighed well, she leisurely ran a soapy washcloth across his chest. "I can't believe you and Lorna ended up unearthing a murder victim in the bunkhouse."
"It was nice giving Tom the justice he deserved." She said as she leaned forward and kissed his shoulder. "Turns out Chris did confess to his wife that he and a buddy of his… a Greg Turner…killed Tom and then built the wall to hide his body…Chris paid him off with five thousand bucks."
"And she knew his body was walled in the bunkhouse?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, it's why she wanted to sell the place so quickly she admitted when she was questioned by the police."
"What about this Greg Turner?"
Jo snorted, "lifelong loser that one. He's serving a twenty-year sentence for robbery and assault. The cops said the D.A. plans to charge him with accessory of first-degree murder."
"What about Mrs. Gavin?"
"She's cooperating, looks like they'll give her a deal and put her on probation." Jo explained.
Dean nodded his head as he pushed forward so that he could step out of the tub now that the water had started to turn lukewarm. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist as he grabbed a second towel for Jo who was slowly getting out of the tub to join him on the bath mat.
"I hate to ask but what did the cops say about the property? How long will it be considered a crime scene?"
Jo finished wrapping the towel around herself before reaching up and letting her hair down from the messy bun she had put it in so it wouldn't get wet. "I've been thinking about that. I think we should wait until we finish this before we move in and open Chestervelle's."
Dean cocked an eyebrow at his wife, "why the sudden change?"
"You and I both know I wasn't being realistic. It's fine Dean, really. Stopping Chuck is the main goal and helping Jack anyway we can. When this is done, we can start that chapter of our life."
"I'm sorry," Dean said softly.
"Don't...you don't ever apologize for the crap Chuck is putting us through. When we win this our family can finally figure out what we all want, even if it's staying here. As long as we're together that's all that matters."
"I don't want to stay here Jo...neither does Sam and I'm pretty sure Lorna doesn't either. You picked a good property, plenty of space for us as a family and for Sam and Lorna too. The bar...the bunkhouse. It's solid and it's something we all can get behind."
"The bar and bunkhouse are what I want...the others may want to hunt...go back to law school...become a local police officer. We all have choices, Dean. It doesn't have to be what I want. If you want something else then I want you to do it. I just want us all to be healthy, happy and safe."
Dean smiled as he pulled her close and kissed her, "I think it's safe to say we all want that."
Jo chewed on her lower lip as she looked up at Dean, "I don't just mean us Dean. I...I mean Jack too. I want him to come with us, we have plenty of room in the main house. When this is done, he deserves to embrace his human side."
"Mama Bear, you want him to be our son?" Dean teased.
"He belongs with us Dean," Jo said as she rolled her eyes at the new nickname, he had bestowed upon her.
"Yeah, he does...if he wants to. We can't force him, Jo." He told her as they made their way into their bedroom.
"Right, I know but I want him to know we love him and we want him to be part of our family permanently." She explained.
"That we can do," Dean agreed as both began to put on their night clothes, both still aching...Dean from his long ride and Jo's back from swing a sledge hammer to find Tom Gavin's body.
They both slipped into their bed and Jo snuggled against Dean as she yawned and said, "I just hope you really did convince Amara to help us."
"Me too Sweetheart, me too," he said as he kissed the top of her head before they both fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.
SPNSPNSPN
Dean woke up a few hours later when he heard Ami crying and went in and put her in a dry diaper before settling her back down for the night. He smiled as he watched Jo sleeping for a few seconds before he headed towards the library to have a drink.
He was just grabbing the decanter with the whiskey when he heard footsteps approaching and turned to see Castiel appear in the doorway. "Hey how'd everything go? Where's Jack?"
"We got back about an hour ago and Jack is in his room. We didn't want to wake you and the others up." The angel said.
"Ami took care of waking me up, she needed a diaper change. So how did the case go?" he asked as he sat down.
Castiel looked at his friend distractively as he said, " we solved it and saved some people. What about Amara?
"Yeah. Yeah, we got her. I think she's on board," Dean said.
"Good" Castiel said as he started to walk out of the room.
Dean frowned at his friend; something was off. Jumping out of the chair he followed Castiel and grabbed him by the arm, "wait. What's happening? Where are you going?"
The other man turned and looked at the hunter and said, "I'm going to look for another way. I have to."
Dean shook his head in confusion, "what the hell are you talking about?"
Castiel tilted his head slightly, knowing he couldn't keep what he had found out a secret. "Dean, in case something goes wrong and I don't make it back, there's something you and Sam need to know…"
TBC