Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.
Jack made the trip in less time then she'd anticipated, she was in Lawrence by nightfall and she'd only had to sacrifice all the feeling in her ass to do it. That and she hadn't stopped for much more than quick snacks at gas stations when she had to fill up her bike. She was exhausted, irritable and was going to hurt anything that stood between her and a bed. She flew through a residential area, gliding past the pretty little houses filled with normal people and their families without so much as a passing glance.
Normal was a vague and foreign concept to her. Not one she felt she would embrace wholly even if her life hadn't taken the turns they had. She glanced at one particular house out of instinct. This house was the reason she'd taken the longer route to finding a motel to crash. As soon as she caught some sleep and got some food in her belly she'd be back to look it over more thoroughly, for now she satisfied her curiosity with a passing glance.
'Pretty.' She thought slowing to a brief stop on the other side of the street to take a look. It was pretty and big. It looked like the kind of place you raised 2.5 kids and had a dog door in the back. Not where demon fires ripped apart lives. She closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment, letting her mind expand to that secret part of herself she still didn't fully comprehend. She tried to feel for it, for the fire. She could feel that in places, feel where flames had touched the lives of people who should never experience that.
She barely felt anything, a fire yes but not the pulse she'd been expecting. Jack opened her eyes annoyed. This was supposed to help her get some answers, she'd ridden her ass for them, not for a brief flicker that let her know something had happened here but gave her nothing to go on as to what. If she didn't know any better she would just chalk the feeling up to a stove being left on inside, that's how faint it was.
The front door opened just then and a pretty blonde woman backed out with a toddler strapped into a carriage and a little girl waiting patiently for her turn to come outside. That was Jack's cue to leave, no use spooking the natives with her presence. She revved her engine and was gone before the woman could even note anything out of the ordinary. Jack shrugged off the passing feeling of someone watching her. She was used to that. All sorts of boogey men had an interest in little Jack Sparks as Chris used to refer to her. And not remembering the nightmare from the night before was driving her crazy, it felt important that she remember it. No method for remembering worked so far.
'Maybe I'm becoming a precog.' Jack mused going at a slow and steadier pace. No reason to rush anymore, she was in Kansas and getting stopped by the police was not how Jack wanted welcome herself into the neighborhood.
'A forgetful precog.' She finished her thought, smiling tiredly to herself. It would be cool to have that ability, she thought, like a little piece of Chris left over. But she knew better, these were the ramblings of an overtired mind. When she left Kansas maybe she could swing by Billy in Alabama to rest for a bit. She missed him and his little brother, though she wouldn't be caught dead voicing the sentiment.
When Jack made it to a small motel walking distance from the suburbs she nearly collapsed onto the bed after checking in. It took all her energy to lay the salt at the door and another circle of it around her bed. Next came drawing the protective charms around the windows in erasable marker fir easy cleanup on checkout. She hung a bag of herds she'd picked up four years ago in Baton Rouge on a short trip to New Orleans to pay her respects on the anniversary of her parents' death. Her and Chris used to go down every year. Her enemies were smart though, she tried a year after Chris died to make it to the family plot and ended up in the hospital three days for a cracked skull and a fake name, it should have been for longer but a sixteen year old girl in the hospital with no papers sounded the Social Services alarm and she had to beat a retreat out of the there before that could happen.
Jack ignored the gnawing hunger in her stomach and force herself to sleep, silently praying for a dreamless sleep.
'Food.' Was the first thought that popped into Jack's head when she woke up the following morning. Rolling out of bed without any nausea or pounding headaches, she decided, was definitely a good sign.
"No burns today either." She congratulated herself aloud. Jack smiled wide and yawned scratching her knotted up hair like a cat stretching after a nap.
Jack rushed through her shower and pulled on a fresh pair of jeans and a light blue v-neck sweater. In these clothes she looked like any other teenage girl on a day off from school. She added a ponytail for the effect and a little light makeup. She judged, or rather her growling stomach judged her appearance fit for scaring up breakfast. Luckily she didn't have far to go to hit a diner.
"What'll it be honey?" A waitress with a quaint southern accent approached her seconds after sitting down in a booth.
"You still serving breakfast?" Jack asked, the prospect of food made her forget to check the time before leaving. She felt her mood lightening up even more at the thought of eating.
"No its lunch time honey." The waitress, 'Alice' her name tag read, said smiling in gentle rebuke to the younger girl. She handed Jack a laminated lunch menu and waited.
"Oh then, uh," Jack picked up the menu Alice placed in front of her.
"A double bacon cheeseburger with extra fries, a Coke and a bowl of chicken soup." Jack answered licking her lips.
"Are you gonna eat all that honey?" Alice asked raising her eyebrow at Jack's lean form.
"Yup." Jack answered brightly biting back an obligatory sarcastic comment about having an imaginary friend with a hell of an appetite. This woman didn't know that this was just to start.
"Alright." Alice said writing it down in her pad looking skeptical. Jack kept smiling, a plan for the afternoon forming in her head.
True, it only consisted of eating and walking back to the house for a better look around. But it was a plan.
AN: Okay I know I promised the fateful meeting in this chapter, but I had to make this one short for now. I promise the next chapter puts my girl face to face with the Winchesters and Missouri and then the interesting stuff is gonna start happening. Bear with me.
AN2: In case it wasn't clear what Missouri felt in chapter 4 was Jack trying to feel the house's history with her mind, but of course she felt nothing because of what happened in 'Home'. But she doesn't know that, does she?