Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far. I didn't realize what an amazing feeling it was going to be to see that people actually like what I wrote and would like to read more. I hope I can live up to your expectations. This chapter is much longer than the first one and explores some of the training that goes into becoming a hunter as Sam and Dean teach Jess what she needs to know. Also, Jess prepares to go on her first hunt with the boys. This chapter wound up being a bit longer than I had anticipated and I still didn't quite manage to get everything in there that I wanted. Hopefully I'm able to find a happy medium between too short and too long for the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy it and it's not too horrible.
Just as an extra note, I have messed with timelines on some things. Characters who don't actually enter the series until later make an appearance well before they're supposed to. The boys may also know things that they probably didn't know until later in Season 1, but I can't quite remember. All things considered, I really am trying to stay as true to the characters and the overall story of Supernatural as I can (hopefully not doing too badly at it).
Thanks again for the reviews and more are always appreciated! Happy reading!
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"I like her," he pointed to Jess, laughing. Then he turned towards her. "If you're actually set on coming with us, there are a couple of things we're going to need to teach you first. Once we get you all caught up, though, we got plenty of work to do..."
One week and nearly two thousand miles later, the Impala rolled under a rusted sign that read Singer Salvage Yard. Jess glanced around nervously, eyeing the stacks of cars that, in her opinion, looked pretty precariously perched. Sam and Dean had told her they were taking her to meet an old friend.
"Bobby was like an uncle to us growing up," Sam had told her. "He pretty much knows everything about everything, and whenever we stayed here he made sure we got the chance to be kids instead of just hunters."
They had spent two more days at Stanford, packing only the bare minimum of what Sam and Jess would need to get by on the road and then Dean had hustled them out the door, eager to be moving. The rest of the week had been interesting as Jess acclimated to life as a hunter.
The first night, she'd stopped dead as soon as she stepped foot into the hideous green and orange motel room. There was a pretty good chance, she'd thought, that she'd never seen an uglier room in her entire life. And that included her great aunt's salmon pink living room that had previously held that place of honor.
Sam had at least had the decency to scowl at the décor, but Dean had walked in and thrown his bag onto the bed nearest the door without even seeming to notice it. He stretched and sat down at the little table to pull an old leather journal out.
Jess finally managed to actually bring herself to move further into the disgusting room and let Sam take her bag from her. He settled onto the other bed and after a second Jess sat next to him, twining their fingers together. Sam brought their hands up and gave her fingers a quick kiss. She was hiding it fairly well, but three days ago she'd been a pre-med student and her biggest worries had been finals and wondering if her boyfriend was going to ever propose. Now she had to worry about monsters and being killed. Finals suddenly didn't seem so nerve-wracking anymore.
"Sammy, why don't you take and show Jess how to break down and clean some of the guns," Dean suggested, still paging through the journal. "Gotta start somewhere."
"It's Sam," he said for about the fiftieth time that day. "And I can do that, if it's okay with you, hon."
"Like he said, I have to start somewhere," Jess shrugged. "I guess if I'm going to be using these weapons, I should know how they work."
That earned a chuckle from Dean, who said, "I'm pretty sure those are almost the exact words that Dad used with Sammy when he decided it was time for him to learn."
The next few nights had gone similarly. They'd get up in the morning, eat a quick breakfast, drive until Dean claimed it was time to stop, and then spend the night in an ugly motel room. Jess quickly learned how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble every gun they had. During the long days in the car Sam would pull out their father's journal and teach her something from it.
Snapping back to reality, Jess realized Dean had parked the car and he and Sam were climbing out and stretching. She followed suit, still glancing nervously at the cars stacked everywhere. She was just reaching back into the car for her bag when loud barking made her jump.
A dog had appeared and was loping towards them, barking for all it was worth. Sam's face lit up and he knelt down to let the big Rottweiler slam into him and lick his face.
"That's disgusting, dude," Dean grumbled.
"This is Rumsfeld," Sam ignored his brother and looked up at Jess. "He acts all mean and ferocious, but he's really just a big teddy bear."
As if to prove his point, the dog flopped to the ground and rolled onto his back, begging for a belly rub. Jess thought that his puppy dog eyes might be slightly more convincing than Sam's, but probably not by much.
"Acts mean, but is really a big mush," Dean laughed. "Sounds just like his owner."
"I heard that, ya idjit!"
"You were supposed to," Dean's smile never wavered. If anything it got even wider at the sight of the older man coming down the porch steps.
Bobby clapped him on the shoulder and then moved to give Sam a quick hug. It was clear to Jess by the way Sam's face lit up that he hadn't seen the man in a long time.
"You boys started kidnappin' pretty girls and forcing them to ride with you now?" Bobby asked, looking to Jess. "Because that's gotta be the only way someone like her would be hanging around the likes of you two."
"Very funny, Bobby," Sam rolled his eyes. "This is my girlfriend, Jessica. Jess, this is Bobby."
"It's nice to meet you," Jess said to him. "They've told me a lot about you."
"Well, don't let that scare you away," Bobby smiled, but then turned serious. "Sam called and told me about what happened. I've been doing some diggin' and I might have some ideas. Let's go inside and we can talk it over."
"You know what it is?" Dean asked.
"What part of 'we'll talk it over inside' escaped your understanding?" Bobby glared at him.
Sam and Jess both had to bite their tongues to keep from laughing. As far as Jess had seen Dean always tried to act like the hard-ass leader of their little group, although Sam had assured her that his brother would lighten up once he got used to having them with him. Seeing Bobby cut through all of that with one sentence was pretty amusing.
"Dean, you'll take the couch," Bobby pointed. "Sam, Jess, you two will stay upstairs in Sam and Dean's old room. It ain't much, but…"
"It's great," Jess broke in. "Thank you, Bobby."
"You get yourselves settled and then make your way back down here and I'll fill you in on what I found," Bobby waved them away.
Sam led the way up the stairs and opened the door to a small room that was just as full of books as every other room in the house. As Sam made room to push the two single beds together, Jess picked up a few of the books curiously.
Norse Mythology…Pagan Mythology…the Bible…Jess smiled a little. If the rest of the books piled all over the house were anything like these, it was no wonder Sam and Dean had said that Bobby was the go-to hunter for just about everything. She set the books down and waited while Sam finished putting the beds together.
"Ready to go back down?" she asked when he straightened up.
"Hang on a second," Sam caught her around the waist and pulled her close. "We haven't had any time to just the two of us since all of this started. How are you holding up?"
"Okay," she shrugged, playing with one of the buttons on his shirt. "It's all still really new, so it'll just take some getting used to."
"I swear, we're going to get whatever this thing is as soon as we can," Sam leaned down to rest his forehead against hers. "Then you and I can head back to school and pick our lives back up where they left off."
"But…" Jess hesitated. "Even if we get whatever this is, aren't there plenty of other things out there to hunt?"
"Yeah, of course," Sam shrugged. "We're not the only hunters out there, though. Once we get this thing I still want to go back to my original goal of a normal life. If something comes to me I'll take care of it, but I don't want to go looking for it anymore."
"You guys save a lot of lives, though," Jess stepped back. "I'm not saying that you shouldn't want a normal life, and I'm still new to all of this, but it kind of seems like once you're in this you're in it for life. Even knowing as little as I do about it, I don't know that I can just go back to school and pretend like I don't know what's out there."
"I did it for four years," Sam reminded her. "It's not easy, but it beats a hunter's life. I'm looking at the bigger picture. As a lawyer I'm looking at a life, a family, and a career. As a hunter I'm looking at crappy motel rooms, bad food, and monsters. Plus, the added incentive of a shorter than average life span that comes standard for just about every hunter."
"I have five nieces and nephews. Monsters are a given in either life, whether you get them in creature form or as cranky toddlers," Jess said with a smile. "Besides, you don't necessarily know that you're going to have a short life span. There's your dad and Bobby and they don't seem like they're going anywhere anytime soon."
"We don't know that my dad is still alive," Sam reminded her. "One text a week ago doesn't mean that he's okay. Especially not coming from a man who could barely work the phone enough to make a call, let alone a text. You know what? We need to stop talking about this. This life…it's no way to live. I can't let you do that to yourself, Jess."
"Can't let me?" Jess's eyes flashed dangerously. "Samuel Winchester you did not seriously just say that to me."
"No, I didn't mean it like that," Sam backpedaled. "I just mean I love you too much to see you go this direction. The fact is that hunters usually live fast and hard and die young. There are occasional exceptions, but not often. It's next to impossible to get out, but I almost did and I want to go back to that."
"The issue I'm having is the thought of sitting around getting a normal life while people are being killed by things we could've stopped," Jess argued.
"You really do fit right in," Sam ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "I can't tell you how many times I've had this exact argument with my dad and brother. Just because I want out of this part of the life doesn't mean I don't want to help at all. Hunters generally have to use a lot of less than legal methods for things. Most of the time they either don't get caught or manage to get out if they do, but occasionally there are times where one will get into some sort of trouble he can't get out of on his own. As a lawyer I'd be able to help with those cases. I could also get someone who's good with computers to help me set up some sort of program to try and track strange deaths and weird occurrences. There's a lot I can do and still manage to have a normal life at the same time."
"Come on, Sam," Jess said, all of the tension draining out of her voice. "Do you really think that's how it's going to go?"
"Why not?" he asked. "Just because it hasn't happened yet, as far as I know, doesn't mean that it can't happen. Can we please not argue? I'm sorry for bringing this up. I just want a few minutes to spend alone with you."
"I'm sorry too," Jess moved back towards him and let him wrap her up in his arms. "I'm tired and stressed because this is all new and I'm dealing with it by being a bitch."
"You're dealing with it a hell of a lot better than most people," Sam told her. "We don't tell a lot of people, but the ones that we do tell generally don't take it anywhere near as well as you are."
"Most people don't have an amazing boyfriend who can help them with this whole acceptance thing, though," Jess smiled up at him.
"Well there is that," Sam joked lightly as he leaned down to kiss her. He started to deepen the kiss, to actually really kiss her properly like he hadn't been able to do all week.
"Hey, you two!" Dean called from the bottom of the stairs, making them both jump. "Get your clothes back on and get down here already. Bobby's still got something to show us."
"I'll kill him," Sam growled.
"You're not going to kill him. Come on," Jess stood on her toes to give him a quick peck and then headed down the stairs.
"About time," Dean was still standing at the bottom of the stairs with an open beer in one hand and two unopened ones in the other. He offered the unopened beers to Sam and Jess. "Or should I have brought cigarettes instead?"
"Dean!" Sam lunged for him. "Dammit, stop being so immature!"
"You two knuckleheads cut it out," Bobby yelled from the study. "Get in here so I can show you this."
The three young hunters walked over to where Bobby was sitting on his desk with an open book in his hand. Jess couldn't see the title of the book but she could see a weird symbol on the page that Bobby had the book opened to.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing to it.
"Devil's trap," Bobby answered. "You use it for trappin' demons. Get a demon in one of these and he's stuck. No powers, nothing."
"Wait, demons?" Dean asked. "Why are you reading about demons, Bobby?"
"Because ya idjit, that's what you're looking for," Bobby held up a hand to stop the questions he knew were coming. "Based on what your Daddy's told me about the night your Mom was killed and what you boys told me about the night Jess was attacked, I'm sure it's a demon. Flickering lights and sulfur are two big things to watch for if you think you're dealing with a demon."
"Both of which happened at the apartment," Sam's arm snaked around Jess's waist and she let him pull her closer. It still bothered the both of them to think about that night.
"And the night Mom died," Dean said. "Demons, though…that's not our usual thing. I dealt with one once, but I was on a hunt with Dad, so I didn't have much to do with it. What can you tell us so we can get ready to go hunt that evil son of a bitch down?"
"I can tell you plenty about demons," Bobby said, looking at Dean calmly. "There's nothing I can tell you right now, though. This demon isn't your general, run of the mill demon. It's stronger. I don't know why, but I know that it is."
"So tell us what you know about demons in general then," Dean snapped.
"No," the same calm tone of voice. "If I tell you about demons you're gonna go looking for this thing and get all three of you killed."
"Come on, Bobby," Dean rolled his eyes.
"Don't you roll your eyes at me, boy," Bobby's calm snapped. "Take a breath and think about it. You and Sam have been hunting your whole lives, but Sam's been out of it for four years. That's a long time for a hunter to not be using those skills, so he's gonna be rusty. You also have a brand new hunter with you. She's never done this before. You'd be going into that fight blind, with backup that isn't ready for it, and you would all wind up dead."
"He's right, Dean," Sam pointed out. "I want to find this thing just as bad as you do, but it's not going to do us any good to get ourselves killed. We came here to Bobby's to teach Jess some things, so let's stick with the plan. I'll work on some stuff that I need to brush up on, too. Let's make sure we're ready before we go after it."
Dean nodded his agreement, but still slammed out the door and headed for the garage. Bobby always had plenty of cars that needed to be fixed and tinkering with cars was a great stress reliever for him.
"He'll come back in when he's ready," Sam said. "Bobby, does Dad know that it's a demon?"
"He should," Bobby snorted. "He's been huntin' the damn thing for the last couple months."
"This demon is why he went missing?" Sam was quickly getting angry. "Typical John. God forbid he actually tells us that he's going after the thing that killed Mom. You know, if he'd said something and gotten our help we might have been able to stop this damn demon before it got to Jess!"
"Take it easy, Sam," Bobby scolded. "Your Daddy is doing what he thinks is right. There's more to this than you or I know."
"Right," he snorted. "Like I said, typical John. Giving out information on some crap need to know basis. I know we butted heads and I didn't agree with him a lot, but what he did could have something to do with why it went after Jess and that's something I can't forgive. If we happen to run into him while we're hunting it then I'll work with him, but I'm done."
"Sam," Jess put a hand on his arm. "He's your dad. I know you're mad at him, but give yourself a second. Look at me, I'm fine. You were there to stop it."
"What if I hadn't been?" Sam asked. "I can't even think about what I would've done, how I would've felt if we hadn't gotten there in time. If it'd taken just a little longer to finish with that job in Jericho, or if Dean and I had stopped for that beer there instead of coming home…"
He couldn't finish. He had a brief mental image of himself in the front seat of the Impala, exhausted from lack of sleep, bags under his red and irritated eyes, searching for a job or anything that would take his mind off of his loss. He shuddered and pushed that image away fast.
"We can spend our time arguing the what if's of the situation or we can spend our time talking about what kind of stuff you guys are planning to teach me while we're here," Jess's considerable patience was running thin. "If you want to play the what if game, though, you might as well go find your brother and play it with him."
Bobby raised an eyebrow at her approvingly. The tiny girl standing next to his adopted nephew had just done something he wouldn't have believed if he hadn't seen it himself. In all the years he'd known Sam, the youngest Winchester had never let someone talk to him that way without snapping back. With Jess, he just bowed his head and looked embarrassed at his outburst.
"So, um, what Dean's probably going to want to start with is shooting," when Sam spoke again all the anger was gone from his voice. "Pistol and shotgun, because those are the two we use the most. Back at Stanford you told me that you talked your dad into taking you to a gun range one time, right?"
"A couple of times, actually," Jess remembered. "Not very many, but I think maybe three? We had a pistol and I remember being pretty good with it. I've never shot a shotgun before, though."
"That's not a big deal," Sam waved that away. "There's a bit more room for error with a shotgun because it scatters. We shouldn't have to spend too much time on that, then. We should also work on some hand to hand fighting and lock picking."
"Picking locks?" Jess asked.
"Remember when I said that hunters usually have to resort to illegal methods to do things?" Sam looked down sheepishly. "And then I said they usually manage to get out of it? Well…I mean, that's not all that it's used for. There have been times we've needed to pick a lock to a door we couldn't kick down or a padlock on something. Either way, it comes in handy."
"Dean's going to want to work on awareness, too," Bobby pointed out.
"Yeah," Sam agreed. "Being aware of what's around you at all times, scanning a room as soon as you walk in, things like that. I think those are the basics. The really important stuff are all things you can't teach. They're just things that come from experience."
"Do we have to wait until tomorrow to start?" Jess asked. "It's almost dark out there, so obviously we can't go to the range and I doubt Bobby wants us fighting inside, but what about the lock picking? Can you start teaching me tonight?"
"The sooner we get started the sooner we can start hunting this thing," Sam shrugged. "Okay."
"Don't you go practicing on my doors," Bobby grumbled, tossing a plain padlock at Sam. "I'm gonna go out there and check on Dean. See what he thinks he's fixin' this time."
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"Turn and bring your arm up at the same time," Sam coached. "There you go. Watch your profile. Make yourself as small of a target as you can."
They'd been at Bobby's for two weeks now, and Jess had proven herself more than capable of using both the pistol and shotgun accurately within the first few days. They'd quickly moved on to the hand to hand fighting and awareness training, which she was also picking up on quickly. At first Sam had automatically assumed he would be the one sparring with Jess and Dean would coach them, but Dean had disabused him of that notion pretty damn quick.
"You two will spar eventually," he'd said. "But while she's still learning, you're on the sidelines. You're gonna go too easy on her and she won't learn."
"I just want to protect her," Sam had said.
"I know that, believe me, and I know that feeling," Dean had smiled and looked at him a little sadly. "Why do you think Dad wouldn't let me train you to fight? If you really want to protect Jess, let me be the one to teach her."
So here he was, standing at the edge of the grassy area they used for training, watching Jess's form and technique and helping to fine tune it. Every time Dean managed to land a hit, which was pretty often, he cringed and felt a moment of anger at his brother. Rationally he knew Dean wasn't actually going to hurt Jess, but it wasn't that rational part of his mind that reacted when he saw his girlfriend get hit.
Jess was actually holding her own fairly well today. At least she thought she was until she blocked a swing only to realize a split second too late that it had been a distraction. Dean had hooked a foot around behind her ankle and when she blocked him he'd turned it into a shove, buckling her ankle with his foot and landing her in the dirt yet again.
"Gotta be aware of your surroundings," Dean reminded her for the millionth time that day alone. "You're doing well, but you have to be able to judge when you should block and when you should evade. Why don't we take a few minutes?"
"Yes please," she hadn't moved yet.
Dean left her side and disappeared into the house, and a moment later Sam came and sat next to her.
"You okay?" he asked, concern written all over his face.
"I'm fine," she assured him. "I'm going to be black and blue everywhere tomorrow, but I'm fine. This is stuff I need to learn. I just wish I was better."
"Don't let him fool you," Sam told her. "You're doing great, especially for this being your first time doing most of this. Don't let the fact that you can't take him down discourage you. Nine times out of ten I still can't take him down and I've been fighting him since I was eight."
"Well that's just not fair," Jess laughed. "So when is it your turn out here, anyway?"
"To fight Dean or to work with you?" Sam smiled. "I don't know. Whenever Dean says it is, I guess. He's worried I'm going to go too easy on you, so we probably won't be fighting for a little while yet. I'm most likely going to get my turn to fight him soon, though. Much as I hate to admit it, I'm still a little rusty on this stuff myself, and I'm already black and blue everywhere. He doesn't go nearly as easy on me as he has on you."
"You call this easy?" Jess asked. She knew that it was, though. Dean wasn't necessarily being gentle with her, but she knew that he was going easy. The difference between the way he fought her and the way he fought Sam was easily distinguishable.
She'd only seen Sam use his skills once in the three years she'd known him. Once was more than enough for her to realize just how dangerous he could potentially be though, and she suspected that Dean was even more so. She and Sam had been at a bar near campus and three guys had gotten way too drunk. She'd gone to the bathroom and when she came out they were walking down the little hallway that the bathrooms were off of. They'd seen her alone and had decided she'd be an easy target. One yell for Sam had brought him running. She'd always sworn it had taken him less than a second to take in what was happening and react, and now that she knew what kind of training he had she was sure of it. He'd taken all three of them out in less than a minute. He'd broken his hand at some point during the fight, and while they were at the hospital getting it set she'd overheard the nurses talking about the three drunk guys. All three had concussions, one had a broken cheekbone and nose, and another was probably going to need reconstructive surgery for his eye socket. The nurses had been of the opinion that the drunk guys deserved all of that and more, and thankfully the police had been inclined to agree since Sam had been defending her.
The two of them sat in comfortable silence for the next minute or two. That was just one of many things Jess loved about their relationship. They could talk and joke with each other, but they were also so completely comfortable in each other's presence that they didn't need to be constantly talking.
Jess felt like she was only just starting to catch her breath when Dean came back out of the house carrying two bottles of water and a piece of paper. He seemed to be looking pretty intently at the piece of paper.
"Ready to get started again?" Dean asked. He handed one of the bottles of water to her and the paper to Sam.
"Not really," Jess took one more deep breath and stood anyway.
"Dean, is this a job?" there was a warning note in Sam's voice that caused Jess to look up at him with concern.
"Gold star, Sammy," Dean smirked. "Two towns over. A guy was strangled to death in his house. All windows and doors were locked and the alarm was still on."
"It's Sam. Sounds like a ghost, or maybe a poltergeist," Sam glanced down at the paper again. "But why does this concern us?"
"Gee, I don't know," Dean rolled his eyes. "Maybe because this is what we do?"
"Yeah I get that," Sam said. "We're not ready to take a job yet, though. Jess needs more time."
"Then I'll go by myself," Dean said. "Shouldn't take more than a day or two."
"If it does turn out to be a poltergeist you're going to need backup," Sam reminded him. "Going on a hunt alone is just stupid anyway. What about Bobby? Can he go with you?
"He's working on some research for another hunter," Dean shook his head. "He didn't go into too much detail, but it sounded like he's gonna be busy for at least a couple of days with that."
"Well you shouldn't do this alone," Sam argued.
"You two come with me then," Dean suggested. "I'm pretty sure that Jess can handle sitting in the car while we ask a few questions and then do a quick salt and burn."
"Excuse me? Sit in the car?" Jess raised an eyebrow. "What am I, some toddler you can just throw in the backseat and say 'stay here while the adults handle this'?"
"No, but you're not ready for a hunt yet," Dean said. "If we knew for sure it was just a plain old ghost then I'd consider it, but a poltergeist is more dangerous because it's more violent. Not a first hunt type of job."
"Then why don't we head over there and find out for sure one way or another?" Jess said, eyes still showing a clear warning. "It's only two towns over so it's not like it'll be a long trip. If it's a ghost I can help, but if it turns out to be a poltergeist I'll hang back."
"Jess..." the stress in Sam's voice was clear. "This isn't a good idea. Even if it is just a ghost, that doesn't mean that it's going to be simple. Sometimes it's the easy hunts where you let your guard down and they turn out to be more dangerous than the complicated ones."
"Are you saying that you're going to let your guard down while I'm on my first hunt with you guys?" Jess asked.
"No, but…I just mean…I don't think…" Sam couldn't seem to decide quite what to say.
"Dude," there was laughter in Dean's eyes, but he didn't quite let it out. "This is the point where you shut up."
"Fine," Sam glared at Dean. "But I swear to god, Dean, if she gets hurt because you can't handle taking a couple of weeks off I will kick your ass."
"She won't get hurt, and I'd like to see you try," Dean actually did laugh this time. "We still have an hour or two to finish up here before we leave. The guy lived alone, so we can just break into the house after it gets dark and take a look around before we have to start asking questions. We'll have to get Jess a couple of fake ID's and some fed clothes soon."
Jess shifted uncomfortably. Sam and Dean had told her that they regularly posed as FBI, or US Marshalls, or any number of other things to get into places and ask questions. She just wasn't sure if she was ready to jump into something quite that illegal yet. The most illegal thing she'd ever done up to this point was get a speeding ticket and now they were talking about her impersonating an FBI agent like it was nothing.
"Why don't I take over?" Sam had noticed the change in her. "I still need some practice before we head out and you've been training hard."
"I still wanted to work on…" Dean started, but was quickly cut off.
"Enough is enough for one day, Dean," Sam interrupted. He was irritated enough with his brother about the upcoming hunt, and now Dean was ignoring some pretty clear signs that Jess needed some time to collect herself before they left. "Besides, you're the one who keeps whining that I'm out of shape."
"That's because you are," Dean teased. "And I don't whine."
"Sure you do," Sam said. Without any more warning, he lashed out and twisted one of Dean's arms behind his back in a hold. "How's that for out of shape?"
Dean just laughed. Sam really was rusty. He was standing far too close and was lined up square instead of staggering his feet. If this had been a real fight all Dean would've had to do was snap his head back and Sam would be knocked on his butt with a broken nose. Instead, he swung his other arm around, elbowed Sam in the ribs, and twisted away.
Jess looked on amused as the boys, who she'd started to affectionately thinking of as 'her boys', fought. She'd seen them practice over the past two weeks, and it never ceased to amaze her how natural they seemed to be at it. When she fought, it always felt forced, like she had to think about what to do next but with the brothers, it was second nature. She knew that shouldn't come as a surprise, seeing as how they had been doing this pretty much their entire lives, but it still amazed her.
An hour passed before any of them even knew it. Both Sam and Dean had quickly become covered in sweat and had stripped their shirts off (which Jess had fully appreciated). The lack of shirts had made it abundantly clear how irritated Sam was, though. Both brothers had bruises forming as they went harder on each other than they had up to now.
As she watched, Sam threw yet another punch. Dean dodged it and snagged his wrist, using Sam's momentum to put him in an arm bar and throw him roughly to the ground. He quickly tried to roll to his feet but Dean was already on him, trying to pin his arms. Sam managed to catch one of Dean's arms and trap one leg. With a twist, he threw Dean off balance and flipped him so that their positions were reversed. Dean again grabbed one of Sam's arms, locked the younger man's elbow, and tossed him away.
Jess glanced at her watch as Sam rolled away and Dean got to his feet and she decided to head back to the house and get a quick shower before they needed to leave. She was starting to get the feeling that she wasn't going to be able to get them to stop anytime soon, and had the further feeling that Bobby had a way to get through to them.
"You three gettin' ready to head out?" Bobby asked from his desk as she let herself in.
"Sort of," she'd come to love and respect Bobby a lot over the last two weeks. It wasn't hard to understand why her boys loved him so much. "I came in to get a shower, but I think it might take some convincing to get them to stop. Sam is pretty upset that Dean found a hunt."
"A hunt?" Bobby looked up sharply. "What hunt?"
"Something about either a ghost or a poltergeist two towns over," Jess told him.
"Dammit!" Bobby got up and started digging through the papers he'd moved from the couch to the floor yesterday to make room for Dean. "I planned on going on that hunt myself until Greg called me asking what I knew about vetalas. Meant to get another hunter on it."
"Vetalas?" Jess asked. She couldn't recall having ever heard of those before.
"Nasty things as far as I can tell," Bobby answered. "Need to do some more research before I can be completely sure what they are. Damn. I guess Dean managed to find that page I printed out on that guy's death."
"He thinks it's probably going to be an easy enough hunt," Jess shrugged. "I convinced him to let me come along. They made me promise to stay out of the way if it turns out to be a poltergeist, but Sam's still pretty mad at him for taking the case in the first place."
"I don't blame him," Bobby looked almost as irritated as Sam. "Damn fool should know better than to take a new hunter on a hunt where he's not a hundred percent sure of what it is."
"I'll be okay, Bobby," she reassured him. "Right now I'm more worried about them being okay if they don't cut it out soon."
"Damn idjits," Bobby muttered. "Go get your shower. I'll get `em straightened out."
Jess started up the stairs and laughed as she saw Bobby storm out the door. She felt slightly bad for ratting them out to Bobby, but she hadn't really seen another option.
Bobby, on the other hand, was more pissed than he'd let on to Jess. He'd seen some kind of blowout coming between the boys, but he'd hoped they would manage to settle it without getting out of hand. One look was enough to tell him that things had gone way past the point of 'out of hand' though.
The boys had gone from grappling and training to all-out fighting in the time Jess had been gone. Dean was sporting a split lip and Sam had a small cut on his cheek that had probably been caused by Dean's ring. Bobby knew he had to stop them before they did any more damage to each other.
"Boys! Front and center!" he roared, while simultaneously grabbing Sam's arm and hauling him backwards. He knew that Dean was likely to immediately obey the order, but he also knew that Sam was just as likely to ignore it.
"What the hell, Bobby!" Sam yelled.
"What the hell is right," Bobby gave the younger boy a shake. "Why did your girlfriend have to come and tell me that you two yahoos were beatin' the hell out of each other out here?"
"We were just training," Sam tried sheepishly.
"Just training my ass," Bobby shoved him in the direction of the house and then turned on Dean. "Would you like to tell me why you're taking on a hunt, with a new hunter, when you don't know what you're hunting?!"
"Come on, Bobby," Dean grabbed his shirt and wiped the sweat off of his face with it. "You know as well as I do that it's either a ghost or poltergeist. If it's a ghost it's a simple salt and burn, and that'll be perfect for Jess's first hunt."
"And if it's a poltergeist you're likely to need a purification ritual instead of a simple salt and burn," Bobby reminded him. "A purification ritual that usually winds up pissing the thing off and havin' it trying to kill you."
"We made Jess promise to stay in the car if it's a poltergeist," Dean and Bobby started making their way back to the house behind Sam. "Seriously, Bobby, I'm not stupid."
"Well you coulda fooled me!" Bobby shouted. "You better hope she comes back here in one piece or you're gonna have more than just your brother to answer to."
"Getting attached already?" Dean teased, clearly not having the common sense to keep his mouth shut.
"Damn right I am," Bobby grumbled. "Get your ass in gear."
Thirty minutes later, Dean was checking the weapons in the trunk one last time. All three young hunters were freshly showered and, after a stern order from Jessica, he and Sam had awkwardly apologized to each other. Satisfied that everything was ready, he slammed the trunk and leaned against it to wait for Sam and Jess. They came out a moment later, with Bobby giving last minute instructions to Jess about the hunt and last minute orders to Sam to keep Jess safe.
"You three be careful out there," Bobby ordered as they piled into the car. "Anything goes sideways, and I mean anything at all, you get out of there and I'll put another hunter on it."
"I think we can probably handle a ghost, Bobby," Dean looked up at the older man's face and sighed. "Alright. I swear if anything goes wrong we'll bail. Try to control your mother henning before we get back, huh?"
"That boy just don't know when to shut his mouth," Bobby stressed as he watched them drive away. He didn't know why, but he had a really bad feeling about the hunt. Something just didn't feel right about the ghost or poltergeist theories, even though all signs pointed to it being one or the other. His hunter instincts wouldn't quit insisting that there was something else going on, though. "Those boys just better take care of that little girl."
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Okay, so I had actually planned to include Jess's first hunt in this chapter to get a little bit of action in there, but it was really starting to get long. I'm sorry for another less-than-exciting chapter and promise I'll get the next chapter written and posted as soon as I can and it will have more action than these first two. I'm enjoying developing the characters and figuring out the dynamic with Jess thrown in, though and hope all of you are as well.
A couple of fun facts: the salmon pink living room is actually taken from real life events. When my husband and I bought our house, the previous owners had the living room painted the most hideous shade of salmon pink and you can bet that was the first thing to go. Also, I have a decent amount of weapons and advanced hand to hand combat training myself, being prior military, so the moves described in the training between Dean/Jess and Dean/Sam are all basic descriptions of moves I've been trained in.