Disclaimer: See previous chapters
"May I ask who you are?" Madeleine asked the boys.
"Friends." Dean said shortly.
"I'll bet." She mumbled coming through the doorway. She took in the room quietly but with marked disapproval. Her eyes softened a bit when they settled on Jack sleeping on the hospital bed. Sam sat back down in his seat by Jack and regarded the woman with suspicious eyes.
"What happened? And don't tell me that deer hunter story you told the doctors." The woman said facing Dean.
"If you talked to the docs then you already know everything." Dean said smirking at her.
"I want to know what actually happened." She shot back.
"Fine, fine, I'll tell you." Dean sighed and ignored the look of surprise on Sam's face.
"We were down the street and she fell, landed on a bullet." Dean said cockily. Madeleine narrowed her eyes at the man standing between her and her would-be charge hospital bed.
"Great another one." Madeleine mumbled rubbing her forehead.
"You look tired maybe you should check into a hotel in town and we can talk tomorrow." Sam said softly trying his best to sound sympathetic. She didn't buy it for a second.
"I leave, Jack bolts. Probably with some help from the two of you." Madeleine said walking to the chair in the corner by the door and sitting down. She opened up the manila folder in her hands with a gesture of finality.
Jack awoke about an hour after falling asleep to the loudest silence she'd ever encountered. She opened her eyes and saw Sam sitting tensely in the chair beside her bed and Dean sitting on the window sill looking straight ahead at something out of her line of sight. The only sound in the room was the heart monitor. Why the hell was she still strapped to that thing anyway, she thought.
"Jack?" Sam asked quietly seeing her stir and blink around her in confusion.
"Jack!" A woman's voice came from she far side of the room. Jack groaned when she recognized the speaker.
"Son of a bitch." She mumbled.
"Its nice to see you too." Madeleine came to stand at the foot of her bed. She was just as Jack remembered her, brown hair pulled tightly back, pretty for a civil servant face scowling at Jack. Her immaculate blue suit was probably capped off in those sensible shoes the woman loved so much too, Jack thought. And she was holding the ever present file folder cataloguing Jack's misspent youth.
"Hey, Maddy how's it going?" Jack asked in a cheerful voice.
"Cut the shit." Madeleine said sourly.
"How the hell did you get here so fast?" Jack demanded frowning.
"Caught the Red eye when your name popped up on the grid. Where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea how much trouble your in?" Madeleine demanded tersely.
"You owe me fifty bucks." Jack told Dean, who hadn't moved from his post, but was watching the two women intently. He looked like he was close to strangling Madeleine, which meant she'd probably alternately drilled him and Sam about her condition and blamed them both too.
"Girl, I don't have fifty cents."
"I'll take your car then."
"My ass you will."
"I'll take your ass too then."
"Jack answer me." Madeleine insisted. Jack turned her attention back to the irate social worker
"No."
"Why?" Madeleine asked through gritted teeth.
"I don't wanna." Jack shrugged and winced in pain. She made a mental note not to do that again.
"Who are these men?" Madeleine asked indicating at Sam and Dean.
"He's my AA sponsor," Jack said pointing to Dean.
"And him?" Madeleine asked sarcastically.
"Lesbian life partner. Third floor does great work in the sex change department." Jack answered grinning as Sam choked on the water he was sipping on. Dean laughed loudly from his post. Madeleine looked like she was going to snap and hurt someone.
"We need to talk, Jack. Alone." She tacked on glaring at the three.
"Guys." Jack said nodding her head towards the door.
"You sure?" Dean asked not budging.
"Yeah, I think I can take her." Jack said winking at him. As the boys left Jack tapped out a tune on the guard rails of her bed. She was sure they'd be standing just outside the door waiting. She'd make sure to scream good and loud if Madeleine tried to hug her again.
"Jacqueline Annabelle Fontenot I can't believe you." Madeleine's scowl deepened.
"Don't triple name me. I left a note." Jack said biting the inside of her cheek.
"Oh yeah, how could I forget." Madeleine pulled out a piece of notebook paper from her folder.
"'It's been fun, gotta run though. Thanks, Jack.'" Madeleine read aloud putting her hands on her hips.
"I meant every word." Jack joked.
"No, no jokes, not now. You're in a hospital after someone tried to burn down your motel room and shot you." Madeleine said fiercely.
"How do you know it was meant for me?" Jack asked defiantly.
"Because these are the hospital files of girls that match your description from the past year alone." Madeleine said pulling a separate file from her shoulder bag. This one was blue and very thick.
"Baton Rouge, female giving the name Ashley Brown comes in with a fractured skull, disappears three days later. Lake Mary, Florida, female patient going by the name Sarah Moore is brought in with a broken shoulder and has a surgical pin put in, signs herself out in two days. Miami, female Jane Doe comes in with a stab wound to the stomach, disappears six hours later." Madeleine flipped though some of the E.R files she'd collected during her long, mostly off the books search for Jack
"That last one wasn't me." Jack pointed out.
"These are only a few and I know that at least half of them are you, Jack. What does this tell you?" Madeleine said slapping down the files on the bed.
"That I'm a people person." Jack said getting angry.
"If you don't stop you'll get hurt. You could die next time." Madeleine cried out in frustration.
"Well then thank God you were here to save my life!" Jack hissed sarcasm and disdain dripping from her voice.
"If you've got that much of damn death wish why don't you just finish the job yourself!" Madeline said angrily.
"Suicide is for people who have nothing to die for." Jack shot back bitterly.
"Stop it Jack. You can't keep on this way. I've turned a blind eye to a lot since I've known you but this has to stop." Madeleine told her.
"So why break with tradition. Go home. I don't need a caring shoulder to cry on Madeleine." Jack told her.
"You need help, Jack. You need a home. Your a child, you can't-"
"I'm fine, I don't need anyone to save me!" Jack yelled, sitting up ignoring her shoulder's protest.
"You were shot!" Madeleine said in astonishment.
"I'll survive." Jack told.
"Is that all you want? To just survive?" Madeleine demanded.
"More than some people get." Jack answered
"No its not." Madeleine said emphatically, allowing some pity to creep into her expression. Jack saw it and had to check her temper.
"I've know you since I was ten years old Maddy, you're a good person." Jack said after a few careful deep breaths. She spoke looking at her coverlet. She could almost feel Madeleine's surprise at the words.
"You're good at your job, you actually give a shit unlike a lot of other people in your line of work. But you need to be good at it elsewhere. I don't need your help."
"How can you say that?" Madeleine asked quietly.
"I've been dealt a few bad hands but I'll live. There are a lot of people who've had it a lot worse than me." Jack said setting her jaw firmly and looking at the other woman.
"Besides," Jack added smiling mischievously. "Your not here on official business."
"How the hell do you know?" Madeleine asked defensively. Her face had always been an open book, now she looked embarrassed and a little guilty.
"Because if you were, you'd have two or three burly cops with you and I'd be handcuffed to this bed right now." Jack answered.
"I'm betting you used some of your vacation time to come here and talk me back into foster care."
"I'm trying to protect you Jack." The older woman said looking away tapping her foot nervously.
"I'm not going with you." Jack said simply.
"Chris would not have wanted this for you." Madeleine said striking for what she knew was a low blow.
The silence in the room lasted and lasted till the door was opened hesitantly and Sam poked his head inside.
"Nobody's dead in here right?" he asked opening the door all the way and stepping inside.
"Not yet. But there might be if I don't get some food." Jack said waving him into the room..
Sam grinned and picked up the abandoned food trays from the table. He placed one on the bed tray for Jack and kept the other for himself.
"Hospital food." Jack said shaking her head and digging into what looked like an attempt at chicken.
"Where's Dean?" She asked him through a mouthful of food.
"Phone call." Sam said giving her a secret look that meant they were calling for reinforcements.
"Well that's one name down." Madeleine said settling into her old chair.
"This is Sam." Jack said negligently.
"Your manners are overwhelming." Madeleine said rolling her eyes.
"Aren't you kind going above and beyond the call of duty coming all the way out here?" Sam asked her.
"Everything with Jack is above and beyond the call of duty, but at least I didn't need to come up with bail money at three in morning this time." Madeleine answered.
"That was once five years ago." Jack said.
"I was a friend of the family as well as the other things." Madeleine explained to Sam.
"That's convenient." Dean said coming into the room flicking his phone form hand to hand.
"You know your really not supposed to use that in here." Jack told him finishing off her tray. She reached out quickly and grabbed the jello from Sam's tray.
"Hey!" He said.
"That's what you get for giving her my food." Dean snickered walking back to his window seat.
"So you what volunteered for the case or something?" Dean asked Madeleine.
"Something like that. Other workers wouldn't work with Jack and Chris anymore." Madeleine drawled.
"We weren't that bad." Jack said with a smile that said that they were.
"The grief counselor you saw when your grandmother died left the field. She said she'd never work with a child again." Madeleine said.
"Last I heard she took a job in an abortion clinic." Jack said thoughtfully.
"But you weren't that bad?" Madeleine asked raising an eyebrow at her. Jack shrugged. She finished Sam's jello and started eyeing the piece of bread he was holding.
"I'll call the nurse for more." Sam said handing the bread over to her with a martyred sigh.
"Fank you Smmammy." Jack said though of dinner roll. He picked up the bedside phone asked in his best boy scout voice for a tray of food for his darling baby sister. Madeleine gave Jack a questioning look.
"I've been adopted, and they say people only want the cute pudgy ones." Jack said.
"We asked for one of those they were all out." Sam said hanging up the phone.
"Food?" Jack asked.
"In a minute. Damn where the hell do you put all of it?" Sam asked. Dean was looking intently out the window when he suddenly started snickering softly.
"What?" Jack asked swallowing.
"You didn't break into the pharmacy while you were making that call did you?" Sam asked suspiciously. He wouldn't put it past his brother.
"No, I was just thinking." Dean said shooting a dirty look at Sam.
"You're right that is funny." Jack said.
"Smartass. I was thinking that Sammy's portrait skills technically make him a felon." Dean said grinning. Madeleine's eyes widened and her whipped around to look at Sam.
"Dean!" Sam sputtered his eyes darting to the woman glaring a hole in his head.
"What did you do?" Madeleine asked Jack accusingly.
"What? What makes you think its my fault?" Jack asked trying not laugh.
"Because I know you."
"Look at this," Jack said turning to Dean in bewilderment, " I'm being punished for his pervy subconscious."
"I didn't It wasn't…." Sam was turning beat red at the implications.
"Jack what did you do to this poor boy?" Madeleine asked sending Sam a sympathetic look.
"Don't you trust me?" Jack batted her eye lashes innocently.
"No."
"Why not?" Jack said offended.
"Recently?" Madeleine asked looking at her like she was stupid.
"If you can remember that far back." Jack said sweetly.
"Well, for starters the motel "I" was staying at caught fire late last night." Madeleine said crossing her arms over her chest.
"How unfortunate." Jack said fighting a smile.
"You stole my identity!" Madeleine said outraged.
"You weren't using it." Jack told her.
TBC……………………
AN: Whew its been a few days. I realized the other day that I've been putting in almost a chapter a day since I started this little endeavor. I had a bit of block. Jack wasn't talking to me so clear for a few days. I hope this chapter came out okay in spite of that. Let me know what you think. As you know I live for reviews, they're almost better than cake. Almost but not quite.