Chapter 2
The rest of the afternoon carried on with Ellen, Jo, Ash, Sam, and Dean having a few beers while catching up on the latest news and hunting stories. Occasionally a patron would roll through. Maybe join in on the conversation for a beat or two, or just keep to themselves during their rounds of drinks.
What seemed like hours ticked by as the friends socialized and caught up with everyone's most recent hunting stories. Ash had passed out on one of the pool tables about halfway through their little pow wow.
Dean had almost forgotten about the woman in the corner. Until she got up from her table, walked over, and addressed the group.
"Hey guys I'm going to go grab some food and bring it back, do ya'll want anything?"
She wrote down their orders, grabbed her backpack, and left.
Dean honestly did forget about her. She was very quiet and they had gotten quite loud with their banter as the drinks flowed. He felt slightly bad for that now that he thought about her alone in the corner working with all those books and charts and who knows what else. Maybe she and Sammy should set up a study session. He smiled to himself at how ridiculous he sounded.
"So, what's with that J chick?" he asked.
"Dean! That's not rude at all." Sam clucked at him, only half-way meaning it.
You could tell he was just as interested in either Ellen or Jo enlightening them on this mysterious person as Dean was. Well, maybe not as interested as Dean. She was something different. Dean was allowed to think about that now while she was gone, right?
"She's a loner. She has been coming around here for years. Her and Jo kind of grew up together, you could say. She comes in when she has these 'projects', as she calls them, in this area." Ellen said, looking up at them.
"She's good to have around at times. She is a damn good hunter. Her daddy taught her well. A natural if you'd go that far."
"She has saved my neck in more than a few situations. Hunting or otherwise. On top of that, her predictions and readings are far more accurate than anything I've encountered before." Said Jo. She paused like she was remembering something. Fondly remembering something.
Was it just Dean or did Jo become a little misty-eyed there for a second?
"And no, she cannot read minds. At least not like what we are used to." She snapped at the look on Dean's face.
All he could think of was "I am in trouble." Mind reading in any capacity was NOT GOOD for Dean Winchester. OH, NO! He liked to keep his mind to himself, thank you very much. It's a private place, man! Especially when it came to anyone with eyes like that. The kind that looked directly into your soul. There had to be cosmic rules against this.
Rules against eyes like that. That was one thing about her that filled his mind now that he thought of this stranger. Her eyes. They seemed to see right through him, right into him. He could only now think of it and recall the events of earlier. How cute and dorky she was when she talked to Sammy earlier.
"Yeah, so what's with that?" Sam asked. "I didn't want to ask more earlier because numb nut over here made an ASS out of himself." Sam thumbed towards Dean.
Dean returned it with one of his own legendary Bitchfaces.
"If you focus on something, hard enough, she will be able to tell what it is, usually." Jo sighed. "If she's trying like she was earlier, it's way easier for her. She can read a room as easily as you can see it. She sees images of what's going in insides your head, I guess. But when it comes to the psychic thing, she usually closes herself off on purpose. Shuts that part down. To protect herself and others. She told me she felt it was an invasion of privacy and would hate to have anyone in her head, feeling or seeing any of her thoughts the way she can. That being open all the time also leaves her vulnerable. So, I can promise you your thoughts are safe. Mostly…" Jo said, matter-of-factly.
"If that's what you are so worried about. You must really have been looking to make her see that, Dean." Ellen added. She looked at Dean with a tip of her head to admonish him for being rude to a woman; in her bar.
Dean felt his temperature rise a few degrees under his collar, but you would never be able to tell.
He hoped you wouldn't be able to tell.
Blue Steel. He was Blue Steel.
Sam saved him, again, with a few more questions about J's abilities, and Ellen and Jo's relationship with her. Jo was giggling a little too much when she talked about J, in Dean's honest opinion. Dean didn't think anything else of it. It was probably just the beer.
Before they knew it, J was back with the food.
She put the bags down on the bar, grabbed everyone a fresh beer, and sat down with them. Did she just wink at Jo!? Dean thought he might be seeing things until he saw red creep the edges of Jo's face. NO WAY!
Then J looked him dead in the eyes again. Did he see an echo of a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth? He forgot to breathe for a second and then remembered not to focus on anything too much. He shook his head and grabbed his food.
He cleared his head quickly with the double bacon cheeseburger in front of him. He was starving. When was the last time he ate? And where did J get these burgers, OH MY GOD!
As he dug in, he had another faint thought in the back of his head. Of Jo and J. It was so fleeting he knew she wouldn't be able to 'hear' it. It was kinda hot. He looked from Jo to J quickly so neither of them would notice. Yeah, that was insanely hot.
J finally spoke a little bit more about herself during their meal. Her dad passed on a hunt a few years before. He taught her all about hunting.
She didn't seem to want to talk about that very much. So, no one pressed.
She talked about her aunt on her mom's side that taught her everything she knew about every 'trick in the trade' of being the kind of psychic she was. About how she closes herself off as Jo had said earlier. How it took her years to learn how to "turn it off and on like a switch." As J put it.
Turns out that being able to turn it off and on makes J even better at cards than Dean was when he cheated. He lost $300 that night to her in various card games. He just could not win.
As the night progressed Dean noticed everyone got progressively tipsier. Less beer, more shots. But J never drank anything other than water. Even Sam was joining in on the liquid fun tonight. He vaguely wondered if that's how she swindled him out of all those card games…