Author's Note: Hey again everybody! I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter. Even if it wasn't the best one, I had a ton of fun writing it. Sorry for the delay on this chapter. I got an unexpected visit from my best friend who decided to move her happy ass halfway across the country from me (just because she got accepted to go to a really amazing vet school is no reason to leave me alone, lol). She surprised me by coming for a visit, and my jerk/amazing husband knew and didn't tell me, and I cried, and now my kids think Mommy's a nutcase, and my brain got distracted and not focused on writing, and...wait I think that's it. Anywho, here it is finally! I know that up to this point, I've stayed away from actual hunts that the boys took on back in Season 1. I've done that on purpose because we all know and love the show, and if I was just to re-write it even I wouldn't want to read it. I thought that this one was an important one to keep in, though. Ever since I started writing this story, I've been planning and looking forward to writing this chapter. I needed to make sure I had a good grasp on the characters and the dynamic between them before I took this on, but I think this is a good spot for it. I still made a bunch of slight changes to the episode in order to move the story along, but the important stuff is the same. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and as always thank you all so much for the reviews! Only warning for this chapter is some mild cursing, and the fact that this chapter is extra long, even for my out of control word counts.
SavannahSmiles: Since I can't reply to your review, thank you so much! Six chapters in and I still can't seem to rein in the word count, so it's good to hear you say that you like long chapters. And I'm sure you would be a wonderful writer! I was pretty much scared to death when I wrote and posted my very first story, but I'm glad I did. Plus, the SPN family is so supportive of each other, even when it comes to fan fiction. If you want to write, go for it and don't let anybody (even you!) convince you that you can't!
Flashes of light...a woman screaming...crashes from behind her...
"Sam?"
"Huh?" Sam jerked upright, sweating.
"Baby? Are you okay?" Jess was looking at him nervously in the dim light.
"Another nightmare?" Dean asked. He was already coming out of the bathroom with a glass of water and some aspirin. He handed them to Sam and sat on the edge of the other bed.
"Yeah," Sam quickly took the aspirin. They wouldn't do anything for his headache, but it made Dean feel better if he took them, so he never let on. "Bad one."
He set the glass on the nightstand between the beds and swung his legs down to the floor. He squinted at the clock. 2:00 AM. Too early for him to claim he'd had enough sleep and get up for the day.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Jess asked gently.
"No," Sam shook his head and pain ripped through his brain.
Even though Dean and Jess knew about his visions, they assumed he hadn't had one in a while. Sam planned on keeping it that way. Really, there was no point in telling them, anyway. All he'd seen was a woman screaming and slamming her fists against a house window from the inside. Disturbing, sure. But he hadn't seen a street sign or anything else that he could use to identify the house. Why have all three of them suffer, knowing that someone was going to die and that they could do absolutely nothing about it?
"Can you go back to sleep?" Dean asked. He knew there was something more going on, but two in the morning really wasn't the time to argue about what Sam might or might not be hiding.
"Maybe," Sam answered after a quick glance at Jess.
"Which means no," Dean flopped back onto his bed. "If you're gonna deprive yourself of sleep, at least research us a case?"
"I can do that," Sam managed a small smile.
"You should at least try," Jess held onto his arm. "It's not going to do you any good to exhaust yourself."
"I know," Sam leaned over to kiss her.
They laid back down and he wrapped his arms around her. It made Dean feel better for Sam to take the aspirin. It made Jess feel better for Sam to pretend to go back to sleep. He didn't mind playing along. Their concern for him was comforting and going along with what made them happy was easy and the least he felt he could do.
Once he was sure that Jess was asleep, he slid away from her and out of bed. He doubted that Dean was asleep yet, and even if he was, he was the lightest sleeper imaginable. It didn't matter either way. Dean had known from the moment he woke up to hear Sam writhing and whimpering in his sleep that his little brother would be up for the rest of the night.
Sam considered getting dressed and going over to the motel office with his laptop so he wouldn't wake Jess. She was shaping up to be a damn good hunter, but she hadn't quite gotten to the point where she could sleep anywhere, anytime yet. Sometimes the light from his computer would wake her and then he'd have to come up with some fumbling excuse for why he was still up. Mind made up, he started to creep towards his duffel.
"Don't. Even. Think about it," Dean didn't even open his eyes.
"What?" Sam asked innocently.
"Do not leave this room, Sam," this time Dean cracked one eye open to fix Sam with his "big brother" glare. "It's two in the morning. I swear to god if you even think about walking out that door I will drag your ass back here and...no, better yet, I'll wake Jess up and have her drag your sorry ass back in here."
"I'm pretty sure I can handle any small-town punk wannabe's that might happen to be around," Sam grumbled. "Damn overprotective big brothers."
"Damn irritating little brothers," satisfied, Dean closed his eyes again.
"Yeah, yeah," Sam whispered. "G'night, jerk."
"Night, bitch," Dean shot back.
"Got anything good?" Dean asked the next morning, still half asleep and clutching his cup of coffee like it was a lifeline.
"A couple of possibilities," Sam had to smother a laugh and motioned to his computer sitting on the motel room table. "I left everything open so you could take a look."
"When did you have time to look these up?" Jess asked after clicking through Sam's research.
"Uh, this morning," Sam figured it was only a partial lie. Two AM did still technically count as morning, after all.
"What part of the morning?" Jess demanded.
"The, um, early part?" Sam tried.
"Dammit, Sam," Jess shook her head.
She looked down at the table. Nothing was ever going to stop her from loving Sam, but the love of her life could drive even a saint to drink sometimes. Her gaze fell on the notepad Sam had spent all night doodling on. Something about that tree looked familiar to her, although she couldn't place it. She picked up the notepad to get a closer look, and her gaze fell on the picture that Sam had set as his computer's background.
"The closest one is in...Upstate New York," Sam said, sitting on his and Jess's bed. He dug at his eyes. The lack of sleep had them hurting like hell. "There's a...g-guy there w-who...who...god..."
"Sammy?" Dean was instantly kneeling next to his brother and Jess's head snapped up. "Sammy, what's wrong?"
"My...my head," Sam hunched down into himself and jammed the heels of his hands into his eyes. "Headache. Bad one."
"This doesn't look like just a headache," Jess nudged Dean aside and tried to pry Sam's hands away from his face. "Sam, let me see."
Shaking, Sam had to use all of his will to open his eyes and then a little more to keep from slamming them shut immediately. This had only happened once or twice before, but there was no mistaking this pain. He already knew it wasn't just a headache, even before the flashes of light that preceded his visions starting going off like fireworks.
A particularly nasty one broke his resolve. Wrapping his arms over his head, he let himself curl into a ball on the bed. Vaguely he could hear Dean and Jess both scrambling and calling his name, but their voices were quickly fading. He started to be able to see familiar shapes through the light flashes and then the vision hit him full force.
Dean was panicking. You wouldn't think that a 6'4" giant could fold himself into a trembling ball that small, but somehow his little brother had managed it. He pried Sam's hands away from his head and saw that although his eyes were glassy and unfocused, they were darting around like he was looking at or for something.
"Jess, what the hell is going on with him?" Dean tried to keep his voice calm and failed spectacularly.
"It looks like a seizure," Jess's voice shook, but she still managed to look calmer than Dean
"Sam doesn't have seizures," Dean said. "He's not epileptic."
"He doesn't have to be," Jess told him. "In the grand scheme of things, this looks like a mild one. He should come out of it on his own within a couple of minutes."
"Should?!" Dean didn't like the sound of that.
"Dean, you need to calm down," Jess took his hand. "Sam's probably going to be confused when he comes out of this. He might even be violent, so we need to be calm to be able to help him"
Just like she knew it would, that settled Dean down instantly. Jess had to smile at that. The lengths they were all willing to go for each other...it was actually almost intimidating.
"Dean!" Sam shot up on the bed and immediately groaned.
"Whoa, easy tiger," Dean reached out and gently, but firmly, pushed him back down. "Take it easy. Jess says you had a seizure."
"What? No, not a seizure," Sam draped an arm across his eyes. The room was way to bright for his pounding head to agree with. "It was a vision."
"A vision?" Dean asked. "Sammy, you haven't said anything about your visions since the hospital."
"Doesn't mean I haven't been having them," Sam was in too much pain to keep up his charade. "It just didn't make sense to tell you because I never get enough from the visions to help anyone."
"Is this from one of your visions?" Jess grabbed the notepad.
"The one I've been having for the last day or two," Sam squinted at the notepad and covered his eyes again.
Unsure of what he should do, Dean did the only thing he knew how to. He walked shakily to get Sam a glass of water and some more aspirin. He shook a few of the pills out of the bottle, started to put the cap back on, then considered and added two more. Sam had been in a lot of pain. An extra aspirin or two might be necessary.
"Here," he handed the water and pills to him, just like he had last night.
"Thanks, Dean," Sam managed a weak smile.
"So this is definitely from one of the visions?" Jess confirmed. "I thought you said you never get enough from your visions to help?"
"I don't. What do you mean?" Sam asked.
"This tree," Jess pointed to it, and then Sam's computer. "Where was that picture taken?"
The picture was one of the few that had managed to be saved. It was the one of his parents, him, and Dean in front of their house in Lawrence.
"Lawrence, Kansas," Dean said woodenly. "Why?"
"Look," Jess rolled her eyes at how thick they were being. She tapped the screen, pointing to an old tree in the background of the picture. A tree that matched Sam's sketch exactly.
"You okay?" Sam asked cautiously as they rolled to a stop in front of the house from his vision. The house where their mother had died.
"I'll get back to you on that," Dean's eyes were glued to the house. "Let's just do this and get it over with, huh?"
The three hunters walked to the door and Sam rang the bell. A woman answered a moment later and Sam froze. It wasn't that he exactly distrusted his visions, but he'd never had a chance to prove them right. Until now. The woman standing in front of him was the one from his vision. He vaguely heard his brother start his usual spiel and broke in.
"I'm Sam Winchester," he interrupted. "This is my brother, Dean. And my fiancee, Jessica. Dean and I lived here when we were kids."
"Winchester," the woman looked thoughtful. "Yeah. You know, I think I found some of your old pictures down in the basement. I'm Jenny. Why don't you come in and I'll get them?"
"Thank you," Sam said as Jenny led them in.
Dean hesitated a second before eventually following them in. Almost instantly he was assaulted with memories. Other than the differences in furniture and decoration, it looked exactly as he remembered it. The downstairs had been entirely unaffected by the fire, and Dean found it hard to breathe. He followed Jenny on shaky legs as she led them through the living room and into the kitchen.
The kitchen was a whole new barrage of memories and Dean had to blink hard. The kitchen was exactly the same as he remembered, too. He'd spent a lot of time in here with his Mom. She had loved to cook and bake. He could remember spending hours in this kitchen. Mom teaching him how to make a pie. Mom making him a peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Mom letting him try to feed baby Sam and laughing when Sammy spit mashed peas back at him.
"...rats in the walls," Dean finally realized that Jenny was still talking to them and his ears perked up at that.
"Rats?" he asked. "Have you seen them? Or just heard them?"
"Just scratching," Jenny frowned.
"Mommy," a little girl sitting at the table doing homework motioned Jenny over. "Ask them."
"Honey," Jenny sighed.
"Ask us what, Sari?" Jess went over to kneel down next to the little girl. "It's okay. You can ask us anything. Sam and Dean, they're big, but they're actually just big teddy bears."
Sari giggled at that and even Sam managed a smirk as he said, "You're ruining my image."
"I was wondering if it was here when you lived here?" Sari looked up at Sam.
"If what was here?" Sam asked.
"The monster in my closet," she clarified.
"Sweetie, there's nothing in your closet," Jenny assured her.
"Yes there is!" Sari insisted. She looked at Sam and Jess pleadingly. "There's a woman and she's on fire!"
You would've thought that Sam and Dean had been electrocuted by the way they stiffened, Jess thought. Before the looks on their faces could scare Sari, she shot an elbow into Sam's ribs and cleared her throat to get Dean's attention.
"I'm sure it was just a bad dream, honey. You have nothing to worry about," she said to the little girl. "Jenny, thank you so much for inviting us in. Sam, Dean."
The brothers allowed Jess to herd them towards the door. They both managed a stiff sort of goodbye to Jenny before collapsing into the car.
"Are you two okay?" Jess asked after a minute.
"A woman on fire?" Sam looked at Dean. "Do you think this could...have something to do with what happened to Mom?"
"I don't know," Dean jammed the keys into the ignition with more force than either Sam or Jess had ever seen him use on the Impala. "We need to stop for gas and something to eat."
He peeled away from the curb and less than a minute later had them at a nearby gas station. Without saying anything, he stormed out of the car and into the little convenience store. Sure that he was out of sight and earshot of his brother and Jess, he pulled his cell phone out. He grabbed snack food absently off the shelf as he scrolled through his contacts to find the right number. Punching the call button he waited for Dad's voicemail to pick up since he knew there was no chance of the man actually answering.
"Dad, it's me," he said when, true to form, he was forwarded to voicemail. "Sam, Jess, and I are in Lawrence. There's something going on at our old house, and we don't know for sure, but it might have something to do with Mom. We just...we need some help on this one, so if you get this either call me back or get to Kansas. Please, Dad."
He gathered a few more things into his arms and headed for the counter. He glanced back towards the car, checking on Sam and Jess. Sam was leaning against the Impala, pumping gas and holding Jess's hand. He paid and walked back outside.
"What's our next move?" Jess was asking.
"I have no idea," Sam ran a hand through his hair. "This isn't just another job. I mean, it is, but it's not."
"Well, if it was just another job, what would our first move be?" Jess tried to steer the conversation and keep Sam's mind working.
"We'd try to figure out what we're up against," Sam knew what Jess was doing and appreciated it. "In this case, we know what we're up against, though."
"Are we sure?" Jess asked. "Absolutely, one hundred percent sure that it's the demon?"
"What else would it be?" Dean finally said, frowning at the fact that neither of them had noticed. He hadn't even been trying to be quiet, so they just hadn't been paying attention. Not paying attention tended to be deadly in their line of work and he made a mental note to make them train at that when they were done here.
"I don't know," Jess admitted. "But be honest with yourself. If this was a normal, everyday hunt, would you even consider going near it without doing some research?"
"She has a point," Sam agreed. "Maybe we should ask some questions before we go in, guns blazing. Didn't Dad co-own a garage or something around here?"
"Yeah, but he didn't know much about hunting or the supernatural while we lived around here," Dean said.
"It's still a start," the pump clicked and Sam replaced everything. "Any other job and we'd make sure we covered every base."
Dean didn't comment, but he did start driving in the direction he thought he remembered was right. He had only been five or six when they left Lawrence to start hunting full-time, so he hoped his memory of the garage that Dad used to own was right. The garage he pulled up to a few minutes later looked like it might be familiar. That was really all he had to go on right now.
"Mr. Guenther?" Dean asked cautiously as he walked up to the open bay.
"That's me. What can I do for you?" a man called from underneath a car.
"I'm, um, I'm Officer Bonham," Dean lied and then motioned to first Sam and then Jess. "This is my partner, Officer Simmons and a new addition to the force, Officer Wilson. The department is re-opening some cold cases and we were assigned the Winchester case."
"John Winchester?" the mechanic pulled himself out from under the car. "What would you like to know?"
"Anything you can tell us," Dean said.
"I can't tell you much about the disappearance, but I can tell you some about John," Mr. Guenther wiped his hands on a rag as he spoke. "He was a good guy. Real family man. Had a wife and two of the cutest boys you'd ever see and he doted on all three of `em. He changed after the fire, though. Losing Mary...well, it would change anyone to lose someone you love like that. He started to insist that something had killed her, though. He was convinced of it. Started seeing a psychic, got some weird ideas in his head about monsters after him, and then he and the boys disappeared."
"Do you know the name of the psychic he was seeing?" Sam asked. "You know, so we can talk them, too."
"No," Mr. Guenther said. "I imagine whoever he was seeing had to have been local, though. His younger boy, poor little thing was less than a year old, wound up being treated for migraines and John didn't like to take him far from home."
"An infant that suffered from migraines?" Sam frowned and tried to ignore the looks that both Dean and Jess were giving him. "That sounds a bit odd, doesn't it?"
"I thought it did, but what do I know, huh?" the mechanic shrugged. "Eventually they started to clear up for the little guy and a couple of months after that all three of them were gone. It was about eighteen months, start to finish. From the night of the fire until the Winchesters disappeared. Wish I had more to tell you."
"We really appreciate your time. Thank you," Jess smiled and the three hunters made their way back to the car.
"Did you know about that?" Sam refused to look at Dean.
"That your migraines started when you were six-freakin'-months old?" Dean asked. "No. I remember you crying a lot more after the...but no, I didn't know. It's not like a four-year-old was going to know what a migraine was anyway."
"Which leaves the question, did it have anything to do with the demon?" Sam slumped down in his seat.
"Focus on one thing at a time, guys," Jess reminded them gently. "We need to look up psychics in the area and see if any of them knew your father."
"Your wife's crazy about you, you hear? You have nothing to worry about," a small, round black woman led a relieved looking man through the front room and out the door. She sent him off, and once he was out of earshot she tsk-ed. "Poor man, his wife is cold-banging the gardener."
"But you just said..." Jess started, but stopped herself. "Oh. Well, I guess people would rather hear good news than bad."
"You got it, honey," according to the phone book and Dad's journal, the woman's name was Missouri. "Now, you three come on back. Been too long since I've had a visit from a Winchester."
Sam and Dean hesitated a step. Both of them reached out at the same time and firmly pushed Jess slightly behind them.
"Oh my god, you two," Jess rolled her eyes and pushed her way past them.
"Well, let me take a look at all of you," Missouri turned with a big smile. "You boys have certainly grown up!"
The short woman reached up and patted Dean on the cheek, and then reached out to grasp Sam and Jess's hands. The moment their hands made contact she gasped.
"Oh, honey! Congratulations you two! Although it took you long enough, boy," Missouri looked up at Sam disapprovingly. "Now, you three must be here about the house. Sit, let's have a chat."
"You know what's going on in our old house?" Dean asked as they sat on the couch, Jess between them. Even though the psychic woman seemed somewhat trustworthy, protective instincts still flared up in both brothers. Instinctively, Dean wrapped an arm around Jess while Sam put a hand on her leg. She rolled her eyes, but didn't push them away.
"I am a psychic, honey," Missouri reminded him. Suddenly she sat forward and snatched a wooden spoon off of the coffee table. Pointing it straight at Dean she warned, "Boy, you put your foot on my table and I'll whack you one."
"I didn't do anything!" Dean shifted in his seat.
"Yeah, well you were thinking about it," the psychic woman waved the spoon around threateningly.
Sam and Jess didn't bother to even try to hold back their laughter. The only person Sam had ever seen who could control Dean that quickly and efficiently was Dad. Seeing Missouri make short work of his defenses was hilarious, in his opinion.
"Now," she set her spoon back down on the table. "I've kept an eye on the place so I know that something's going on in your old house, but I don't know what. You boys have been hunters long enough to know this, but I doubt you've gotten around to telling Jess yet. When something evil visits a place, it leaves it open for other evil to follow. That house is the perfect example. Without going in I can't be sure, but I don't think this is the same thing that killed Mary."
"I don't think it is either," Sam admitted.
"You don't?" Dean raised an eyebrow. "Were you planning on sharing that with the rest of us or were just gonna keep your damned mouth shut? OW!"
"That's for cussin' at your brother," Missouri, re-armed with her spoon, had given Dean a healthy whack on his thigh. "He didn't tell you until now because he was worried about how you'd react. Although if you were thinking clearly you'd know good and well that demons don't walk around on fire."
Dean conceded sheepishly. He did know that, but this job had his head screwed up nine ways from Sunday. Plus, he didn't want to disagree with Missouri and risk running afoul of her spoon again.
"If I can take a walk through the house, I can find out what it is," Missouri continued.
"What are we waiting for, then?" Dean practically leaped off of the couch. "We ran out of there so fast before that we never got the pictures that Jenny said she found."
"Dean, we can't just go tramping in and out of that lady's house whenever we feel like it," Jess stopped him. "She's got two kids. We're lucky she even let us in once."
"Don't you worry, honey," Missouri patted Jess's hand. "I have a feeling that whatever is going on in that house is gonna make her a lot more receptive to hearing what we have to say. Now Dean, help me to that old car that you got from your father and Sam and Jess, you two scrunch in the backseat. My old lady bones are too old to be riding in the back like that."
"Yes, ma'am," Dean had had more than enough of talking back to her for one day. Replaying what he'd just said he quickly corrected himself. "I mean, not that you're old. I just meant..."
He didn't know exactly what he was babbling about, but he was saved by laughs coming from all three other people in the room. Finally loosening his hold on Jess, Dean did as he'd been told and helped Missouri out to the Impala. He couldn't help a smirk as Sam crammed his lanky frame into the backseat, though. Baby might be a boat of a car, but someone Sam's size was simply not made for sitting in a backseat.
When they got back to the old house again, Missouri tensed as soon as they stepped foot on the property. They looked at her in concern, but when she didn't offer anything Dean rang the doorbell. A flushed and clearly upset Jenny answered the door a few seconds later.
"Oh, hi," she clung to her son tightly.
"Hi," Dean put on what he hoped was a comforting smile. "I'm really sorry. We completely forgot all about the pictures you said you had for us, and we were talking with a family friend who said she'd love a chance to see the old house again."
"Um, listen, it's really not a good time right now," Jenny started to step back, and Dean reached out to stop her from closing the door.
"Dean!" Missouri swatted the back of his head. "Can't you tell that this woman's scared half out of her mind? I'm sorry, honey. Dean means well, he just lets his mouth get too far out ahead of his brain. My name is Missouri and I'm a psychic. Am I wrong when I say that you've noticed things that have been out of the ordinary lately?"
Jenny squeezed her son even tighter, which made Jess wince. She was going to squeeze the poor kid right in half if she kept that up.
"No. I...I don't know what you're talking about," Jenny tried to deny.
"Honey, we're here to help," Missouri assured her. "I know you may not fully believe it, but there is something evil in this house. All we want to do is find it and get rid of it before it can hurt you or the precious little ones you have here."
Jenny hesitated for another few moments before finally stepping aside to let them all in. She sat down on the couch in the living room, setting her son on her lap. Jess made eye contact with Sam and Dean and they both nodded. Walking through the house was apt to be difficult for them, especially Dean, and Jenny needed a shoulder right now anyway.
Missouri led them directly up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms. A feeling of familiarity hit Dean again as they climbed the stairs. At the door to the bedroom he stopped, though. This part of the house had obviously needed to be completely redone, but it didn't change the pit in his stomach.
"This is the most likely place for it to be," Missouri started to circle the room slowly.
"Why's that?" Sam looked around. It was clearly the little girl's room, with stuffed animals, dolls, and a pink bedspread. Not exactly what he'd peg as a source of evil.
"Because this used to be your nursery," Missouri shattered his thoughts with just one sentence.
Sam couldn't help looking up at the ceiling. This very room was where his mother had died? Suddenly he couldn't breathe and he finally realized that Dean hadn't actually stepped foot through the bedroom door.
Missouri opened the door to the closet in the room and paused there for a minute or two. She left the bedroom and the boys followed her through the rest of the upstairs. Dean almost immediately recognized the little boy's room as the one that had been his. He had to blink hard to clear his eyes of the tears that wanted to spring up at the memories. He could remember his parents playing with him in this room, and eventually being allowed to play with baby Sammy as long as Mom was around to make sure he didn't put anything small in his mouth. Sam noticed, but wisely kept his mouth shut. He did squeeze Dean's shoulder in a show of comfort, but was shrugged off. He didn't take it personally. Dean didn't like to show weakness of any kind, which frustrated the hell out of Sam because this wasn't weakness.
After making their rounds on the second floor, Missouri led them back downstairs. The boys assumed that she was going to want to tour the first floor as well, but she just walked over to where Jenny and Jess were sitting on the couch. One of them had made tea and both women were holding cups. Jenny seemed to be much more at ease, though.
"So?" Jess jumped up.
"I know what it is," Missouri nodded. "A poltergeist. It's a nasty one, too. But don't you worry," she added to Jenny hurriedly. "I know how to get rid of it. We'll need some time to put things together, but by tonight we should be ready to cleanse the house."
"Should we go somewhere?" Jenny asked nervously. "If this thing is that dangerous..."
"Poltergeists are usually most active after dark," Sam answered. "It doesn't mean that they can't do anything during the day, but they usually don't. If you have family or friends nearby it wouldn't be a bad idea to go stay with them, but if you don't it's probably safe enough to stay until we get back."
"Once we get here, you'll need to take your babies somewhere else, though," Missouri told her. "It won't take more than an hour or two to purify the house, but I'd like to have you well clear just in case of anything."
"Anything?" Jenny looked to Jess.
"Everything will be fine," Jess patted her hand. "We should probably go start getting things set up. The sooner we do, the sooner we can be back to take care of it."
"Remind me one more time," Jess looked at the bags filled with herbs, dirt, and a whole bunch of other things that she was handed.
"One bag goes in each corner of the house," Missouri explained patiently. "North, south, east, and west on each floor. It'll purify the house."
"Does anyone else find it ironic how much things have changed in just a few weeks?" Jess asked. She took Sam's hand as they walked towards the house for the third time that day. "You two were panicked as hell that my first hunt was going to be a poltergeist and you didn't want me anywhere near it."
"I still don't want you anywhere near a poltergeist," Dean muttered. "Either of you."
"Gotta cut the umbilical cord at some point," Sam teased, which just earned him a cuff on the back of his head.
Jenny opened the door before they even had a chance to knock. Her face was stressed and she fiddled with the kids' jackets that she had clutched in her hands.
"I don't know if this is such a good idea," she said by way of greeting. "I just don't know how comfortable I am with..."
"Jenny," Jess stepped forward and took the woman's hands. "This is the only idea. It's way too dangerous to let this thing stay."
"I know, I know," Jenny hung her head. "Things have just be so stressful with my husband, buying the new house, and moving. Now this. I didn't even believe in this sort of thing until today!"
"Believe me, a couple of months ago I didn't believe in it either," Jess took one of the coats and started bundling the little girl into it.
"How did you come to terms with it?" Jenny asked.
Jess hesitated. While they'd been waiting on the couch that afternoon, Jenny had explained that she'd recently lost her husband. She felt like it would be rubbing salt in the wound if she said that Sam was the one to help her get through it.
"Loved ones," she finally settled for, looking towards Sam and Dean. "I have those two giant children, and you have your two adorable little ones."
The kids finally bundled up, Jess took Sari's hand while Jenny picked Richie up. Jess helped buckle Sari into the car and waved as Jenny drove away. She turned to see Sam standing in the door smiling at her.
"What?" she asked a little self-consciously.
"You," Sam wrapped his arms around her. "You're so great with kids."
"I love them," Jess said. "I was planning on being a pediatrician, you know."
"Yeah, I know." Sam dropped a kiss onto the tip of her nose. "C'mon, let's get this over with."
"So here's how we're gonna do this," Dean announced as Sam and Jess joined him in the living room. "I'll take the basement. Jess, you and Missouri will stick together here on the first floor, and Sam you'll take upstairs. We do this as fast as we can. It's going to figure out what we're doing pretty quick, and things will get violent after that so stay on your toes."
"Yes sir," Sam and Jess snapped off mock salutes at the same time.
"Obnoxious," Dean muttered affectionately as he headed into the basement.
Sam darted upstairs while Jess and Missouri headed for the right spot in the wall of the living room to place their first bag. They all felt a little bad for knocking holes in the walls, but the bags were small so they'd only need to make small holes and they'd brought supplies with them to fix it. Right now the priority was getting the bags placed, though.
Dean got two of his bags into the walls and was working on the third when it hit him. There was a scraping sound and he didn't even have time to react before a bureau slammed into him, pinning him against the wall and knocking the wind out of him. He pushed at it, but it stayed stubbornly stuck for the moment. From almost directly above him he heard twin screams and thuds that sounded like multiple things hitting either the floor or wall.
Jess and Missouri looked at each other with wide eyes from their spot behind the overturned table. Jess silently thanked Sam and Dean for drilling hyper-vigilance into her. She'd acted on instinct as soon as she heard rattling, pushing Missouri down and flipping the table on its side. Not even a second later five or six knives had slammed into the table, the points of some of the bigger ones actually coming all the way through the wood.
"I guess it's figured out that we're here," Jess said unnecessarily.
"Two more to go," Missouri reminded her. "You take one and I'll take the other. That way we'll get this done with faster."
"As long as we don't tell the boys," Jess managed a small joke.
"Honey, you leave them to me," Missouri smiled tightly.
Upstairs, it had taken everything Sam had not to race down the stairs at the sound of Jess and Missouri's screams. He had to force himself to move and focus on the task at hand. They'd trained Jess the best that they could and he had to trust that both her training and Missouri's skills would keep them safe. It didn't mean he had to like it though, so he hurried to place the rest of his hex bags as fast as he could.
Dean flew up the stairs as soon as he had crammed the last hex bag into the last wall of the basement. He spared a quick look at the table, upended with half a dozen knives sticking out of it, and shuddered. A quick look showed Missouri and Jess both rushing back into the living room.
"You two were supposed to stay together," Dean hissed.
"We did at first and you can see how that went," Jess motioned towards the table. "We needed to get the last two done as fast as possible, so we split up. Everything's in place here."
"Basement, too," Dean let it go for now. He glanced up at the stairs leading to the second floor nervously. Sam should be done by now.
"Where's Sam?" Jess was also looking at the stairs, as if willing Sam to come down them.
"He should be done by now," Dean's instincts were buzzing. "Stay here. I'm going upstairs to check on him."
Taking the stairs two at a time, he ran through the second floor looking for his brother. Coming to the last bedroom (and wasn't that always the way) he finally found his brother. What he saw didn't do anything to relieve his panic, though. Sam was lying on his back on the floor, with an electrical cord wrapped around his neck. He was scrabbling at it with his fingers, but his struggles were getting weaker.
"Sammy!" Dean raced to his brother's side and knocked his hands away. He pulled at the cord with every ounce of his strength, but couldn't budge it.
Sam started to go limp and something dropped from his hand. Dean realized that it was the last hex bag and that getting it into the wall was probably his only chance to save his brother's life. He scooped it up immediately and kicked at the wall until he put a hole in the drywall. Shoving the bag into the wall, there was a flash of light, but he didn't care about that. He dropped back to his knees next to Sam and pulled at the cord around his neck again. This time it came loose.
"Oh thank god," Dean's voice shook slightly as he pulled Sam to a sitting position and quickly unwrapped the cord. Once he had him free, he pulled him into a rough hug, cradling Sam's head to his shoulder for a moment.
"Dean?" Sam's voice was weak and hoarse, and there were nasty raw-looking marks on his throat, but he was alive.
"Yeah, buddy," Dean pulled him to his feet. "That's it. It's gone."
He tried to put one of Sam's arms over his shoulder. He had every intention of helping his brother down the stairs, but Sam shot him his patented bitchface and Dean settled for clutching the younger man's jacket.
"Sam!" Jess rocketed into his arms as soon as Sam's feet hit the first floor. She took in the marks on his throat. "Oh my god, what happened?"
"Poltergeist got hold of me," he managed a weak smile. "I'm okay."
"Does this mean that it's over?" Jess asked, looking to Missouri.
The short woman looked around with a frown of concentration on her face. She stayed like that for several minutes before finally nodding.
"It's gone," she answered.
"Are you sure?" Sam didn't know why he was questioning her now, but there was something in the back of his mind. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, but he felt like he'd missed something. Something big.
"As sure as I can be, honey," Missouri looked at him. "Why?"
"No reason," Sam rubbed at his forehead. "Tired, I guess."
"Hello?" Jenny walked cautiously in the front door and gasped at the destruction.
"Jenny. Hi," Jess looked around sheepishly. "I'm sorry."
"What happened?" Jenny asked.
"Things got a little...rough," Dean explained.
"We'll take care of the mess," Sam offered, starting to head for the kitchen.
"Jess and I will take care of the mess," Dean pushed him down onto the couch.
"I'm going to want to take a look at those when we're done," Jess added, pointing to the marks on Sam's neck. "We don't need them getting infected."
"I'm fine," Sam insisted, but stayed seated. He could deny it all he wanted, but being nearly strangled to death by an electrical cord wielding poltergeist had drained his energy. He still felt like he couldn't quite catch his breath and there was still that damn feeling in the back of his mind that he'd missed something.
"Are you okay?" Jenny was looking at him, still standing just inside the door.
"Fine," Sam repeated, managing a small smile. "The upstairs isn't too bad. If the kids need to go to bed, the only thing that's broken as far as I know is a lamp in the office."
"Is it gone?" Jenny asked.
"Yes, it is," Missouri told her, giving Sam's voice a rest.
"Thank you!" Jenny's whole body seemed to sag in relief. "I'm going to get Sari and Richie to bed and I'll be right back down."
"If there's anything else broken up there, give a shout and I'll come up," Missouri offered, sitting on the couch next to Sam.
The cleanup of the house went smoothly and soon enough they were saying their goodbye's to Jenny and, a few miles later, Missouri. Sam continually fidgeted in his seat, though. Finally, he couldn't keep it to himself anymore.
"We have to go back, Dean," he announced.
"Back? To Missouri's?" Dean asked. "What for?"
"No, back to the house," Sam clarified.
"Honey, we took care of it," Jess leaned forward and rubbed Sam's tense shoulders. "The poltergeist is gone."
"Maybe," Sam said cryptically. "It's just...I have this feeling."
"Another vision?" Jess asked.
"Not a vision," Sam shook his head. "Just a feeling."
"You're gonna have to give me more to go on than that," Dean looked at his brother out of the corner of his eye.
"I don't have more to go on than that," Sam admitted. "I know it isn't over, though. Please, Dean. Just one night. If nothing happens then I swear I'll apologize to you and Jess and we'll move on. Just, please."
He turned his puppy dog eyes on his brother. If there was one thing Dean could never resist, it was the puppy dog eyes. They had worked on him since Sam first learned how to use them at about five years old, and they'd never stopped.
"Damn those eyes," Jess laughed, looking knowingly at Dean.
For what felt like the umpteenth time that day, Dean pulled the Impala up to the curb across from their old house and shut the engine off. He glanced over, looking for anything that might seem out of the ordinary. There was a light on in the master bedroom, but nothing other than that.
"I don't know, Sammy," he scowled. "Looks like everything's on the up and up to me."
"Then go to sleep," Sam shrugged. "If anything happens I'll wake you up."
"Baby, you can't stay up the whole night," Jess scolded. "You've barely gotten any sleep the past few days. You're going to make yourself sick."
"In that case I guess it's a good thing we have our very own doctor," Sam teased.
Jess reached forward and pulled Sam's head back, forcing him to bend backwards over his seat. She kissed him hard and then looked into his eyes.
"Get a room, you two," Dean grumbled.
"When this is all over," Jess ignored him. "You and I are going to find someplace private and have a long chat about you constantly running yourself ragged, thinking that you have to take responsibility for goddamn everything, and acting like you need to make up for something."
"Yes ma'am," Sam said in mock fear.
Over in the driver's seat Dean muttered something else that neither of them caught. He laughed, clearly having amused himself.
"Do I want to know?" Sam asked.
"Nope, nothing to share," Dean laughed. "Except...are you sure that's the only reason you want to find a nice, private place?"
"Dean!" Sam and Jess both yelled. At the exact same time, Sam reached out to punch his brother in the shoulder and Jess slapped the back of his head. Which only served to make him laugh harder.
They all settled and Dean leaned back and closed his eyes. He took a minute to marvel at how much more laughter there had been since Jess started hunting with them. Not that he and Sam had ever been completely serious. They were brothers after all, and you can't put two hyperactive boys together without them getting up to some sort of high jinks. But it had never been like this. Jess was a piece they hadn't even known was missing, but now that they had her, they were finally complete. Dean snorted to himself. Sam would have a field day if he could hear his sappy, girly thoughts right now.
Three hours passed with no sign of anything. Jess had fallen into a light sleep in the back and Dean was dozing in and out, but still woke up every few minutes to check on Sam. On one of these checks, he noticed Jenny finally turn her light out and he sighed.
"Stop whining," Sam rolled his eyes.
"I could be sleeping in an actual bed right now, you know," he groaned, shifting a little.
"Right, like we've never slept in the car before," Sam's was still focused on the house. Specifically the master bedroom's big picture window. That was the window that had featured prominently in his vision and the more time that went by, the more he was drawn to it.
Dean grumbled and shifted again, trying to find a more comfortable position. He was just allowing himself to settle back into a doze when he felt Sam tense. His eyes popped open less than a second before Sam started shaking him with one hand and scrambling for the door handle with the other.
"Dean! Jess!" he yelled. "Look!"
He finally managed to grab the handle and wrench the door open. Dean's eyes shot up to the picture window that Sam had been so focused on and saw Jenny standing at it. She was screaming and pounding on the window with her fists. The three hunters ran from the car to the house as fast as they could.
"Stay here," Dean stopped Jess at the door. "Sam and I will get Jenny and the kids. We don't need anyone else getting stuck in there."
Without waiting to see if she was going to obey the order, Dean followed Sam into the house. Jess considered ignoring him and going in anyway, but finally decided to stay where she was and work on calming herself. Jenny was going to need to see a calm face, and if staying out here to collect herself meant she'd be able to help the woman, she'd stay out here and collect herself.
"Sam, get the kids!" Dean ordered, charging up the stairs.
He headed straight for Jenny's room and after realizing that the door was sealed and he couldn't kick it down, he ordered Jenny to the other side of the room. Pulling his pistol, he shot the lock, praying that it would work and praying Sam wouldn't come running at the shot. Thankfully the door swung open and Jenny raced out straight into his arms.
"My kids!" she shouted.
"Sam's got them," he assured her. "Let me get you out. He'll be right behind us."
Meanwhile, Sam had retrieved Richie from his room and, holding the boy in the crook of his arm, headed for Sari's room. When he slammed the door of his old nursery open he found the little girl sitting up in bed, clutching her bedspread in her hands, and screaming at a flaming figure walking slowly towards her. The sound of Sam coming into the room caused her to look his way.
"SAM!" she sobbed.
"Come here," Sam edged around the figure and pulled Sari into his other arm. "It's okay, I've got you. Shut your eyes tight, okay? I'm gonna get you out of here."
Sliding past the fiery woman again, Sam made his way down the stairs as fast as he could. Clutching both children tightly, he had just reached the first floor and was heading for the door when his feet slowed. Realizing what was about to happen he set the kids down gently, putting Richie's hand into Sari's.
"Sari, take your brother outside as fast as you can," he ordered, just in time. He felt himself pulled backwards and heard Sari scream. He slammed into a wall and was immediately thrown towards the table, which collapsed under him when he hit it.
Jess had Jenny clutched in her arms and was holding the woman to keep her from running back into the house. Dean was standing tensely next to them, and Jess reached out one hand to clutch his sleeve. She wanted Sam out of that house as much as Dean did, but she couldn't let him run back in there.
"We don't need anyone else getting stuck in there," she repeated his words. "He'll be..."
Their anxiety ramped up another notch as they heard Sari's high-pitched scream. A second later Sari and Richie ran through the door and Jenny collapsed to her knees to pull both of them to her. Dean and Jess shared a quick, panicked look and then Dean leaned down to shake Sari's shoulder.
"Sari, where's Sam?" he asked, not even trying to hide the fear in his voice.
"Something got him!" Sari cried. "It pulled him back into the house."
Dean and Jess whipped around simultaneously to run towards the house. They had just gotten to the door when it slammed shut in front of them. Jess tugged at the door handle frantically.
"It won't open!" she yelled at Dean.
Except that Dean was no longer by her side. She looked around and saw him already at the trunk of the Impala. Digging around quickly, he slammed the trunk and raced back for the house with an axe. Without even hesitating he slammed the axe into the door. He thanked everything there ever was that the door was a cheap, thin thing. He'd be through it within the next few seconds and then god help whatever had his brother held captive in there.
Sam was still being thrown around. After the table he'd been tossed into one of the upper cabinets. Then he'd been rudely introduced to the staircase banister, which he crashed right through. Finally, he'd been slammed and held against the wall. The fact that he was now stationary scared him more than when he'd been thrown around. Thrown around meant that this thing was getting its frustration out. Stationary meant that it was done playing.
"Sam!" Dean shouted as he pushed through the splintered remains of the door with Jess on his heels.
"Dean!" Sam yelled back, knowing his brother could find him by following his voice.
"Sam, oh my god!" Jess ran up to where he was still pinned to the wall.
There was a sudden sound of roaring flames as a flaming shape walked slowly around the corner. Dean and Jess both leveled their salt guns at it, but a split second before they pulled the triggers Sam stopped them.
"Dean, Jess, wait!" there was a note of pain in his voice. "Don't shoot."
"Why not?!" Dean demanded.
"Because I know who it is," Sam's eyes were wide and starting to fill with tears. "I can see her."
The figure finally stopped a few steps away from them and the flames grew even higher for a second. Slowly, they started to die down until the flaming figure was just a woman. Dean's eyes went just as wide as Sam's and he let his arm drop to his side. Jess was looking nervously at them, still holding her aim steady.
"Mom?" Dean asked, his voice cracking.
"Dean," she walked closer to him and smiled. That smile, so familiar even after twenty-two years. Dean wanted nothing more than to throw his arms around her and never let go right then. But he knew better than to try. His arms would only go right through her and he didn't know if he could take that total, absolute proof.
She continued a few more steps until she was standing right in front of Sam.
"My little Sammy," Mary looked up at him.
"Mom," Sam tried to pull away from the wall, but he was still pinned.
"I'm so sorry," Mary's smile dropped and she got a pained look in her eyes.
"For what?" a tear rolled down Sam's cheek.
She didn't answer, but turned her head to look at Jess. Her soft smile returned as she looked at the young blonde woman. Mary could sense the good in her and the bond the girl had with her boys, as well as the love between her and Sam. This girl was everything Mary ever could have wanted for her son. She turned back to look at Sam, trying to convey her love and pride. Sam nodded, more tears rolling down his face, but understanding that his mother was offering her approval and instant love of Jess.
"My boys," Mary looked from Sam to Dean. "I'm so proud of you two."
"Mom..." Dean's voice broke again and there were tears running down his face, too.
"I love you," she said, turning away from them. She looked up. "You get out of my house," she ordered. "And let go of my son."
Flames burst to life around her again and in a burst of power she disappeared. Sam collapsed as the pressure against his chest finally let him go. Jess immediately dropped next to him, pulling him into a tight hug. After a moment she tugged on Dean's hand and pulled him down into the hug with him. She held both of her boys close while they collected themselves. Surprisingly it was Sam who was the first to pull away.
"Now it's over," he whispered, looking around.
The three of them walked shakily back outside. The screams, Dean breaking down the door, and the crashes from Sam being thrown violently around inside had caused the neighbors to call the police and there were three cop cars and an ambulance parked in front of the house. Two cops and a paramedic rushed forward as they stumbled out. The paramedic, seeing that Sam was obviously the most battered of the three, immediately started fussing around him.
"I'm okay, just some bumps and bruises," Sam brushed the man away.
"This cut might need some stitches," he poked at Sam's forehead and then dragged him by his elbow over to the ambulance so he could see better.
Sam endured the paramedic's hovering as best he could, but all he really wanted to do was find a bed and sleep for about a week. Jess came to sit next to him and comfort him as the second paramedic agreed that the cut on Sam's forehead needed stitches.
"Did you have a recent injury to the same area?" the second paramedic frowned as he looked closer. "It looks like this was stitched not too long ago."
"Yeah," Sam swore to himself. It figured that the damn poltergeist would split his head open in the exact same place that the witch had when she threw him into the mantle. He saw the paramedic's concerned look and sighed as he explained, "I'm accident prone. And tall. Didn't duck low enough and split my head open."
"And this time?" the first medic questioned.
"Fell down the stairs," he shrugged, not caring that it obviously sounded like a lie. He was too tired to make it sound convincing and it wasn't like CPS was going to get involved like they'd needed to worry about as kids.
Dean dealt with questions from the police while Sam was getting his head stitched up. Again. He'd already heard his brother tell the paramedic that he'd fallen down the stairs, and he'd overheard Jenny saying something about a break-in and calling some friends to help. From there it was pretty easy to fabricate his own story that matched close enough to Jenny and Sam's to get the cops away from him with minimal questioning.
When the paramedics were finally convinced that Sam didn't have a concussion and had his head stitched up, they were set loose. Jess hugged Jenny, Sari, and Richie tightly as she said her goodbyes. They may have only known each other for less than twenty-four hours, but both women would miss each other. After hugging Jess, Sari tugged shyly at Sam's sleeve and put her arms around his neck when he knelt down.
"Thank you, Sam," she whispered.
"You were great, sweetie," he hugged her back. "You take care of your mom and your brother for me, okay?"
"Okay," she smiled up at him.
Sam and Dean waved to Jenny as they piled back into the car. They'd agreed that they had one more stop to make before finding a motel. They pulled up in front of Missouri's house a few minutes later and dragged themselves back out of the car. She met them at the door, but rather than invite them to the back, they all stayed standing in the front room.
"We're only here for a minute," Dean told her.
"I heard," she said sadly. "Sam, I'm sorry. You knew that what was going on in that house wasn't over, and I didn't believe you. You're strong. Stronger than me."
"I don't know about that," Sam waved her comment off. "I think maybe I just had a stronger connection to that place."
A frown flitted across his face and he looked quickly around the room. It felt like they were being watched. He didn't see any sign that they actually were, so he figured he was probably just being jumpy after all of this.
"No matter," Missouri said, looking closely at him. "It's over now and you three look like hell. You need to go get some rest."
"For once I completely agree with you," Dean managed a laugh. "We didn't want to leave without saying goodbye first, though."
"If you even thought about doing that I would've known and then I would've felt the need to whack those thoughts out of you," Missouri pulled him down into a hug.
She hugged Jess, and finally Sam. She shooed them towards the door, ordering all of them to hole up in a motel room for a day or two until they were rested. Sam hesitated before stepping out of the psychic woman's house. The feeling of being watched was back even stronger. That wasn't even the weird part, though. The really weird part was that he didn't feel threatened by it. Considering their line of work and the fact that someone hiding in the shadows usually wasn't up to any good, he didn't understand why he wasn't storming through the house searching for whoever was there. He didn't feel the need to, though. There was no ill intent at all, if anything the presence felt comforting, and Sam let it go.
Missouri watched the three young hunters drive away and sighed. She stalked to her back room and stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at the man sitting on the couch.
"That boy is strong," she scowled at him. "Very strong. He sensed you, just like I said he would."
"He couldn't have," John lifted his head out of his hands. "There's no way he would've left without talking to me if he had."
"John Winchester, I could slap you!" Missouri scolded. "He may not have known it was you, but he still knew someone was here. I made them promise to stay put for a day or two and rest up. There's no reason on Earth for you not to go talk to your children."
"I can't," John looked down at his hands. He twisted his wedding ring around his finger absently. "It's too dangerous for them to be around me right now. I came down here because Dean called, but I never had any intention of seeing them. Not yet."
"Your boys' lives are going to slip right by you," Missouri warned. "If it's a choice between revenge and them, you'd just better choose them."
John raised pained eyes to meet hers. He would do anything for his children, but he couldn't give up his hunt for the demon. Not when he was so close to finding it. The boys would just have to understand. He'd bring them in when the time was right, but not before. He couldn't risk them getting hurt, and seeing as they were dragging that poor girl around with them, he wasn't about to put any of them in danger. They had to understand, John repeated to himself, praying that he was right. They were smart kids and in the end, they'd understand.
Additional Note: I can't apologize enough for how long it took to post this chapter. I've been looking forward to writing this one and giving Mary a chance to approve of Jess for Sam (which I know we saw in Dean's djinn-induced dream world, but I wanted it to happen in the actual universe), but it wound up being harder to write than I expected. I hope I managed to do this one justice, as I know "Home" is a very important episode. Since the last two chapters have been pretty serious ones, I think I'm going to make the next chapter a funny one. That should make it easier for me to write, which means the next update should be a lot sooner. I have an idea in the works for Chapter 7 that would never actually happen in the show, but Jess makes the atmosphere so much different that it might be believable. At least that's what I tell myself since I'm basically planning to play Chuck again and change things to suit what I'd like to see. Hope everyone liked this chapter. I'd love to hear what you think of it, whether I did good or bad or just plain shouldn't have used such an emotional episode. Thanks to everyone for the continued support! Love you all!