Disclaimer: I own Jack, not Supernatural or Sam and Dean.
One week ago
Jack fidgeted at her desk, watching the clock. Three minutes. Three minutes and school would be out. She took out a piece of paper and started doodling on it till her impatience got the better of her and she looked up at the clock again. Two minutes. The teacher was droning on about that weekends homework assignment. As if the classroom full of ten year olds were actually listening to him. The bell rang and Jack shot out of her seat, the first one out the door.
She left the elementary school and took her time walking home. Her uncle didn't allow her to take the school bus, he didn't like the thought of her in an enclosed space without easy exits and full of bystanders. Jack turned the corner to the slightly rough neighborhood her apartment was in, she adjusted her backpack so the zipper holding her Derringer was within easy access. The supernatural weren't things she had to watch out for.
Nothing could kill Jack's good mood though and she hurried up the tenement's stairs to get to their fifth floor lock up. At exactly 3:30 that afternoon Jack had been at her new school for three weeks. Three weeks straight without a single absence, a new record. Jack smiled at the unexpected feeling of pride that left her with.
Jack unlocked the door to the apartment, smelled the odor of booze and her smile faltered. It looked like her streak was over. She stepped over the salt lines and did up the line of locks on the front door. The small living room was dark, she saw two bottles of alcohol on the table and Chris's form stretched out on the couch, one arm slung over his eyes and the other holding onto a third bottle. Another nightmare. A bad one by the looks of things. Jack sighed. She put her backpack on the kitchen table, slipped the knife from the sheath under her skirt and got a warm, damp washcloth.
She slinked silently back into the living room, took a seat on the edge of the table gently but firmly taking the half empty bottle from Chris's hand. He offered little resistance.
"Jack?" He slurred without removing his arm from his eyes.
"Yeah." Jack said. She placed the bottle on the table, reached up and put her hands on his arm, pulling it down so she could place the cloth over his eyes and forehead uninhibited.
"Bad dreams?" Jack whispered. Chris mumbled an affirmative. She pressed the sides of his temples to ease the pain there.
"Maybe…isagoohing…." Chris mumbled. Jack stopped and leaned in closer to hear.
"What?" She asked.
"Maybe s'good thing your daddy ain't around." Chris said again. Jack frowned, she didn't get it, she wasn't sure she wanted to.
"He wouldn't have been able to handle it. Your fire." Chris was slurring his words. Jack could tell he was to far gone to know what he was saying but it was still a punch in the gut to hear him say that.
Chris started snoring, pulling her out of her thoughts. Jack swallowed and got off the table. She set herself to the task of cleaning things up; first she disposed of the empty bottles, set the half empty one in the fridge and then she did the dishes and cleaned whatever else needed it. When she was finished and covered in a sufficient coating of grime she retreated to the bathroom.
Jack stared at herself in the mirror and thought of her dead parents. She held out her hand and bit her lip pushing out with her mind a little to make a tiny spark dance across her finger tips before it went out. Then she put her fist through the mirror. The blood was a shock, the pain coming seconds later. She bit her lip and pulled out the little first aid kit from under the sink.
The image changed and Jack was looking at herself at fifteen, breathing hard, wiping her mouth from emptying her stomach in a toilet that didn't even flush. She looked down at her fist and slammed it into the dingy, rusty mirror.
Jack jerked awake, unsure of her surroundings at first. Then Sam looked back at her from the driver's seat and she remembered. She was with Sam and Dean, she'd fallen asleep in the back seat of the Impala.
"You alright?" Sam asked.
"Weird dreams." Jack mumbled sitting up and cracking her neck.
"What was I wearing?" Dean asked quoting her from awhile back. She smiled and let out a yawn.
"Seriously. Are you okay?" Dean asked turning around to look at her.
"I'm cool." Jack said she leaned forward to rest her chin on the seat.
"How long was I out?" She asked them.
"About four hours. We're stopping for lunch soon." Sam said.
"Most sleep I've gotten all week." Jack stretched.
"Tucson?" Dean asked looking back at her. She nodded. They were both still feeling the effects of the last job. Jack kept having flashbacks and Dean kept getting fuzzy images in his head that weren't his memories.
"I think we need to call Dr. Phil." Jack said lightly.
"I think that's what we keep Sammy around for." Dean said. Sam had been trying to get a serious answer from either of them about what they were feeling since then. It was a losing battle.
"I'd pay for therapy myself if you guys would go." Sam said.
"Only if you some with us Sammy." Jack said.
"What do I need it for?" Sam snorted. "You guys are the crazy ones.
"Family therapy, we'll say you're traumatized by me and Jack's untimely divorce." Dean said with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"I didn't know you were married." Sam said raising an eyebrow.
"I'm not surprised you were so drunk. You were a beautiful maid of honor by the way." Jack said. "The sister I never had."
"I can't even be the imaginary best man?" Sam said in faux outrage.
"You look good in peach." Dean said placating him.
"Who caught the bouquet?" Sam asked fighting not to laugh.
"Dad." Dean said and Sam couldn't hold it back any longer.
"He'll make a gorgeous bride." Jack said giggling. "And Sam will get to wear his bridesmaid dress again."
"There's a place up ahead we can eat and gas up." Sam said between laughs as he spotted a rest stop. He really hoped his dad didn't call them for the next couple of days. He wouldn't be able to take anything he said seriously with the image of John Winchester in a pretty white dress. Sam was even able to overlook t hat the two jokers had just successfully avoided talking about their issues yet again.
They entered the small roadside diner and ordered after gassing up the car. Half way through his meal Sam elbowed Dean subtly and jerked his chin towards Jack, who was looking out the window instead of at her meal. Dean frowned and looked at her untouched food. Usually she'd be scrounging for seconds and stealing food from Sam and Dean's plates by then.
"Jack." Dean said whistling to get her attention. He nodded at her plate. "Foods getting cold."
"Oh I'm not hungry right now." Jack said absently. Sam's eyes widened a fraction and he reached out and touched her forehead.
"What are you-"
"No fever." Sam frowned at Dean. Dean put his fork down and leaned forward so no one else would hear him.
"Christo." He whispered. Jack blinked at him and cuffed him upside his head.
"Did you just Christo me?" She asked in astonishment. He gave a boyish grin.
"C'mon you gotta admit you passing up food is like a sign of the apocalypse." Sam pointed out. Jack glared at him then nodded grudgingly. She picked up a French fry and tried to eat it but her stomach turned and she had to put it back down.
"Restroom." She mumbled pushing her plate away and getting up from the booth.
"I was just joking." Sam said looking genuinely contrite.
"She knows Sam." Dean said cringing. They'd been taking it easier the past couple of weeks. Taking easy gigs, a couple of hauntings outside Utah, a love spell gone awry in Kentucky. Nothing too big.
John had called two days ago asking why they were dragging ass, making Dean start to seriously wonder if his dad had the Impala bugged. How the hell did he always know this stuff? Dean had promised they'd get serious, then he set out to finding them a new gig. Now he wasn't so sure. The one he found needed their attention but things were still weird or weirder than usual. He pulled the paper out and reread the article he'd circled in red.
"Do we have a new job yet?" Jack asked when she got back to the table.
"Maybe." Dean said. "Bodies being found dismembered."
"Sounds like a garden variety whack job." Sam said taking the paper from Dean.
"I checked the dates and there's a pattern going back the last two or three months." Dean said taking a sip from his coffee.
"What kind of pattern? And how long have you been sitting on this if you had time to do research without us knowing?" Sam asked.
"A couple of days and I haven't been sitting on it I was just checking to make sure it was our thing before saying anything." Dean replied.
"Pattern?" Jack asked.
"Oh yeah, lunar cycles." Dean said. "All the murders happened around the full moon."
"Werewolf?" Jack asked.
"Too clean.." Dean answered.
"Well lets see what's eating small town America this week." Jack said.
Dean thought about telling them that they could turn it over to someone else, see if Bobby or someone else their father knew was interested. Then he thought of what his father would say and that was enough to make him deicide against it. Better an angry something wicked than any angry John Winchester who's orders had just been disobeyed.
"We'll start that way soon." Dean said taking the newspaper back from Sam and folding it up again.
"Where's our job taking us today?" Jack asked on their way out the door.
"Vinita, Oklahoma." Dean answered. Jack's step faltered before she could catch herself.
"You alright?" Sam asked helping her steady herself. She opened her mouth and closed it again.
"I'm fine." She said.
"You know the place? Vinita?" Dean asked her.
"I've been all across the country." Jack shrugged without really answering him.
"So that's a yes?" Sam asked.
"Lets go, people dieing remember." Jack said brushing past him to claim shotgun seat.
"More personal shit just what we need now?" Dean scowled.
"Maybe she knows someone there." Sam suggested. He was intrigued. Jack's history was an enigma. She traded stories occasionally but for the most part she stuck to funny stories about as she called it her "misspent youth".
"If you guys don't come on I'll hot wire the car and leave your asses." Jack called from the car.
"Like hell you will. You cut any wires in my baby and I'll feed you to a werewolf." Dean threatened walking swiftly to his car.
Sam got into the backseat thinking about their new job. He'd never heard of Vinita, Oklahoma meaning it was probably small. If it was small enough it wouldn't be that hard to trace Jack's footprints in the town if she left any. What he didn't know was that Jack was thinking the same exact thing.
Vinita was a small town, small enough that it wouldn't take long to run into people who would recognize her. Well, she thought to herself, you'll just have to make sure to run damage control and keep them away from certain parts, now won't you?
Duh, she told herself. She could do this. She could keep them away from Brian.
TBC……………