AN: I'm feeling kind of down right now and doubting my ability to write satisfactorily. I don't normally ask this, but for those of you who read this and don't usually leave reviews or haven't left reviews, can you please let me know if you like the Jessie stories and if you want me to keep going? I'm just feeling like a failure right now and I need either some encouragement or the knowledge that it's time to stop. Thanks.

It took us the rest of the day to get to our new house and unload the van. Dean kept an eye on all of us and our surroundings the entire time. He'd switched into active hunter mode right after he and Sam had killed the djinn at the old house, and from how he was acting, it didn't look like that was going to stop anytime soon. He also didn't want to let any of us out of his sight, but he hid that behind a charming façade of concern over getting the packing done and forgetfulness.

For example, Ben was still a little sulky about the move, and Lisa tried to cheer him up by telling him that all she asked was that he give the new place and neighborhood a chance. Ben had agreed and then tried to take his bike out, but Dean redirected him, first telling him that he should help Lisa unpack the kitchen and then pulling him away to help Dean with something. Lisa and I shared looks.

"We're on super-secret lockdown," I murmured to Lisa after Dean and Ben left the kitchen. I was sitting on the floor, unpacking a box and shoving the contents into the lower cupboards. I'd seen how Dean's eyes shot from Lisa to Ben to Ben's bike in the hallway. "He's not letting us out of his sight."

Lisa nodded and gave me a little comforting smile. "Yeah," she said. "I know."

Lisa had told Ben that we'd go out for lunch and check out the neighborhood, but then later, Dean ordered us pizza for lunch. When Lisa confronted him, Dean said he 'forgot' we were going to go out for lunch, giving her a charming, self-deprecating smile.

She didn't buy it, and she let him know that with her short, "Sure. I'll get some plates."

I ignored the whole thing and kept unpacking. What did I care if we were on lockdown? It wasn't like Kara was here.

After lunch, Ben and I were working on the living room and Dean and Lisa were upstairs. Ben set a new box down next to me and went to open it, but he stopped suddenly and ran a hand through his hair, reminding me of Dean for just a second.

"I need a break," he mumbled and turned to leave the room. I raised my head from the fashion magazine I'd gotten caught up in. It reminded me of Kara.

"Just don't leave the yard, okay?" I said, pressing down on the middle of the magazine to prevent it from closing. "Dean'll get pissy."

"I won't," he muttered. I heard the back door close behind him and went back to reading the magazine. Maybe ten minutes later, Dean came down the stairs holding a box full of broken down boxes. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and I looked up.

"Working hard, I see," he said, giving me a half-smile. I closed the magazine and set it next to me.

"I was just taking a break," I said, a little worried about getting in trouble considering how intense he'd been when we were packing the old house.

"It's okay, Jessie," he said, broadening his smile, but it didn't hide the worry behind his eyes. "You're allowed to take breaks. Where's Ben?"

I shrugged and reached into the box Ben had set next to me. "He went outside. He said he wouldn't leave the yard."

"Thanks, sweetheart," Dean said absently. His face tightened a little and he looked at the back door. "Be back in a minute."

I heard the back door shut behind him as I unwrapped whatever knickknack I'd managed to grab. Then I raised my head and remembered the trouble Ben had gotten in the day before. I hurried to my feet and rushed out the back door.

I saw Dean going into the side garage door from the porch and made a beeline to the garage, making it to the doorway right as I heard Dean say, "What the hell? Hey, hey, give me that. What do you think you're doing?"

"I just wanted to see it," Ben replied, more as an explanation than an excuse.

I heard shuffling and then the trunk creaked close.

"Listen to me," Dean said in one of his stricter tones. "Don't ever open this trunk. Do you understand me?"

I blinked. Ben knew that rule because it was one of my rules, but maybe Dean had never actually told him before.

Ben's voice got closer to the door and I moved down a little so he still wouldn't spot me. "Okay, sorry," Ben said, sounding like he meant it, but then he continued. "But I don't get it. You had your own rifle when you were my age, and Jessie told me you and Sam taught her how to shoot a revolver."

Dean's voice became more adamant and impatient. "Ben, mark my words. You will never, ever shoot a gun. Ever!"

Ben didn't accept that, though. "I know what's going on," he countered. "You think something might be coming for us."

"There's nothing coming for us," Dean responded a little too quickly, but Ben rode right over his answer.

"I could do what you do," Ben offered. "You could teach me how to shoot…"

Dean's temper snapped then. "Shut up about the freakin' gun, okay?"

Ben lost his gumption then. "Okay, sorry. I'm sorry." He left the garage, turning the opposite direction from me, not seeing me.

I heard Dean yank the tarp back over the Impala and took a chance on peeking into the garage door to find him standing by the trunk of the Impala, running a hand over his hair, guilt and regret radiating off him. I wasn't sure why. He'd had much longer and more intense conversations with me about hunting.

Of course, if I'd been the one messing with one of the guns in the trunk, my jeans would be around my feet right now and I'd already have a sore butt. But then, this was Ben, and he didn't push the way I did. Hell, he'd barely pushed at all, just brought the subject up.

"Dad?" I asked in a small voice, rubbing one of my sneakers on the back of the other calf.

He glanced at me, dropping his hand from his head. "What is it, Jessie?"

I took the chance then and crossed the garage to wrap my arms around his waist. "It's okay, Dad," I whispered to him.

Dean closed his eyes. "I love you, sweetheart," he said, hugging me back. "But I really need to be alone right now." He opened his eyes and looked down at me. "And stop eavesdropping. You know better."

"Okay, Dad," I replied, letting him go and leaving the garage to go find Ben.

Ben was in his half-unpacked room, sitting on his bed and staring at his hands. I stood uncertainly in the doorway. "You okay?" I asked, ready to take off if he threw something at me.

"I don't get it," Ben repeated to me. "He taught you. Why can't I know?"

I sighed and sat next to him on his bed, our shoulders touching. "He only taught me because I was on the road with him, and he and Sam thought I needed to know some basic survival techniques to stay with them. Shooting a revolver and a shotgun were important, mostly because they didn't want me setting alive things on fire."

"But he's acting like there is something coming for us. We all need to know," Ben replied and threw himself backwards on the bed. "And he yelled at me like I can't see how he's acting and like I can't help at all."

I turned and looked at him. "Welcome to my life. You're doomed to be wrapped in bubble wrap, protected at all costs from finding out the truth or helping fight the fight until there's absolutely no other option left."

"It's not fair," he muttered.

"I know," I replied. "Believe me. I know."

We sat there for a few minutes before I got up. "I need to go work on unpacking something before your mom or my dad jumps all over my case. You want me to shut the door on the way out?"

"Yeah," Ben said, turning over on his side so I couldn't see his face. "Listen, don't tell my mom, okay? I don't want her to know I was messing with a gun."

I snorted. "Don't worry, kid. I'm not telling her anything, but you'll just have to hope Dean doesn't come clean either."

"I'll deal with it if he does," Ben whispered and I left him to it, closing his door behind me.

I felt bad for him. He'd been ripped out of his old life because we'd been in danger, gotten pulled into this new life despite his unhappiness about it, and wasn't allowed to help protect the house at all. I was going to have to teach him some of the tamer methods, like salting the doors and windows and making devil's traps where they weren't obviously seen. Maybe that would make him feel better, but I'd do that later when Dean wasn't around.

I went back to unpacking, or taking long breaks from unpacking, as it were, but mostly I kept my eyes out in case Dean came in or Lisa went out. A couple hours passed and mostly Lisa just worked around the house. Dean didn't come back in either, which worried me a little.

Eventually Lisa went up to check on Ben and when she came down, her brows were drawn together in worry. She walked right past me in the kitchen and went out the back door. I knew I should leave it alone, but I needed to know if Ben was going to get in trouble. So I watched out the back door until she was at the garage. Then I snuck out and crept over as close as I could get without her noticing me. It was hard because she was leaning in the doorway and not all the way in the garage, and Dean had the front of the garage open because he was putting stuff in his truck. Luckily, that meant I could hear everything.

Lisa told Dean that Ben had locked himself in his room for the last couple hours and asked what Ben did. When Dean told her Ben hadn't done anything, she asked Dean what Dean had done. Dean took a moment to answer, finally resorting to telling her that Ben had gotten into his tools and that he shouldn't have gotten mad.

I snorted quietly at that. Sure, it was true, since Dean's guns were technically tools of his trade, but if I'd tried pulling an answer like that and been caught, I'd have gotten my ass handed to me for lying.

I knew now that Ben wasn't going to be in trouble with Lisa, so my work here was done, but I lingered anyway, because it seemed like Lisa had more to say.

She asked what was going on with how he was acting, yelling at Ben and keeping us in the house. Dean told her that he was trying to keep us safe, and she pressed him, pointing out that he and Sam had killed the djinn and then we moved. She asked him whether he was trying to protect us from a specific monster or monsters in general. Dean told her he didn't know what might come after him. Lisa got insistent then, pointing out that she needed parameters because she needed to work and Ben and I had to go back to school.

Dean got upset then and growled out, "But if something happens on my watch..."

Lisa interrupted him. "I know you're trying to protect us, but you're kind of scaring me a little, too."

I watched her leave the garage, scooting around the corner so she wouldn't see me and basically backed up right into Dean. His hand came down on my shoulder, and he whirled me around.

"Dad!" I exclaimed and my mind went blank. I hadn't expected to get caught, so I had nothing, no excuse or reason, prepared.

He frowned at me, then picked me up and set me down so I was sitting on the tailgate of his truck. "What the hell, Jessie?" he demanded. "I just told you a couple hours ago to cool it with the eavesdropping." I bit my lip and didn't say anything. "You've got about two seconds to start talking, little girl," he warned me.

"I just… I mean," I stuttered. Dean tilted his head at me, his eyebrows drawn together. He didn't look angry. I mean, he didn't even sound angry.

"I don't know!" I wailed, bringing my fists down hard on my thighs. "I can't explain it!" I didn't have the words to tell him that I just had this driving need right now to know what was going on with everyone, between everyone, so I could… I didn't know what.

Dean closed his eyes. I watched his expressions anxiously until his face eased. "All right, look," he said, opening his eyes and bending a little so he could look me straight in the face. " I know you don't handle change that well, and a lot of stuff has been happening really fast. I'm betting you're feeling a little overwhelmed."

I dropped my chin and looked to the side, trying to avoid him, but he touched the side of my chin and gently moved my head so I was looking at him again. Heat rose inside me and the insides of my nose started to prickle. I didn't want to cry though, so I tried to push away the feelings.

Dean kept going, still soothing. "I think you feel like everything is out of control and that you need to keep an eye on everything just in case you can stop things if something goes bad. But I've got news for you, sweetheart. Nothing has changed. You are not responsible for keeping the peace between the four of us and you are still not responsible for protecting us. You understand me?"

Tears started flowing then, despite my not wanting them to, and I nodded my head.

"You're gonna have to do better than that, kiddo," Dean prompted. "Out loud."

"Yes, Dad," I whimpered and wiped my nose with my sleeve.

Then his face hardened a little. "And that means cut it out with the eavesdropping. This is your last warning. Not everything everyone says around here is for your ears."

"Okay," I whispered and looked away from him.

He straightened and crossed his arms over his chest. "Uh uh," he told me. "That was my mistake earlier today, accepting an okay out of you like it meant anything. Try again."

"Yes, sir," I said, my face beet red at being called out.

He tilted his head towards the house. "Go on," he said. "Work on your room."

I slid off the tailgate and went back to the house to obey.

The next morning, I woke up really early with one of my headaches and stumbled downstairs in search of some sort of pain medicine. I almost missed Dean and Lisa as I stepped off the last step, intending to turn left into the kitchen instead of right into the living room, but I heard Dean's voice at the last second. That's when I noticed his jacket and duffel hanging from the stair post.

I blinked, trying to clear my head and figure out what was going on, and stepped into the living room. Dean and Lisa were standing in front of the window. Dean was fully dressed and Lisa was in her nightgown and bathrobe, a 9 mm in her hand. Dean was walking her through using it and having her show him what she'd learned. Watching her, it was probably not her first time with a gun, because her hands flew through the motions of loading it, chambering a round, and taking off the safety catch. Or maybe Dean had just been drilling her for a while.

He told her to remember to salt the doors and windows and then suggested that he shouldn't go. She told him that he wanted to go so he should go. When he suggested that Sam could handle it on his own, Lisa told him that if he didn't go, she might shoot him. They shared a smile, then Dean turned and saw me standing there rubbing the back of my neck.

"I'm not eavesdropping," I said. "My head is hurting."

"I'll get you some ibuprofen, sweetie," Lisa said and crossed the room to one of the boxes that hadn't been opened yet.

Dean hadn't moved and he looked like I'd caught him at something. "Dad, where are you going?" I more than half whined. My head was pounding pretty hard.

"Sam's got a case he needs help on," Dean said.

I closed my eyes, my face squinching in confusion. "Sam's here?"

"No, sweetheart. I'm meeting with him."

I opened my eyes again, wincing a little. "Am I going with you?"

Dean took a breath. "No, you're staying here with Lisa and Ben."

Relief swept through me. "I don't…" I started, meaning to say that I didn't want to go with him and I was glad I was staying, but he cut me off.

"See this is the argument I was trying to avoid," Dean said, his voice growing more stern as he spoke. "You're not going hunting with us. You're going to stay here and be a normal little girl. Lisa is in charge and she's got everything under control. Are we clear?"

I wanted to explain that I agreed with him, but my head hurt too much. "I'm not exactly normal," I replied, thinking of the stupid headache and my fire. Lisa handed me two pills.

"Are we clear, Jessie?" Dean growled.

"Yes, Dad. Yeah, we're clear," I answered, still befuddled over his reaction. I closed the distance between us and hugged him hard. "Just stay safe, okay? I love you."

"I love you too," he said, kissing the top of my head. "Take those and go back to bed."

I turned to go into the kitchen to get some water, and moments later the front door closed behind Dean.

Then it was just me, Lisa, and Ben for a while.