Author's Note: Hello again everyone. I want to thank every single one of you from the bottom of my heart for the overwhelming amount of support you've sent my way during this hard time. The SPN Family is so wonderful and I'm honored to be a part of it. So thank you all so so so very much. I know that at the end of the last chapter, I said I wanted to do something funny that would never actually happen, and I did make this chapter somewhat funny (I think), but my other plan wound up falling through the cracks. The boys and Jess just didn't want it to happen yet. It still will, maybe next chapter, but I'll have to consult them on it since they like to change things on me. :)
Additional Note: I added a cover image for this story, so if you have a chance, click on it and take a look. It's an absolutely amazing piece of fan art that I found. I'm not sure who drew it, but it's an absolutely gorgeous piece of work and I feel like it fits the story so perfectly. Whoever drew it is amazingly talented.
Dean smirked as he slowly started to wake up. He had to give Sam and Jess credit. They were trying really hard to keep him from noticing the make out session they had going on in the other bed. If he wasn't a trained hunter there was a good chance he would've stayed asleep and oblivious. He internally debated himself on whether or not he should let them know he was awake. The look on their faces would be hilarious, but at the same time Sam and Jess didn't get many chances to do normal couple things. He had just about decided to keep faking sleep and let them stay oblivious when he heard a soft moan that told him things were starting to get past the make out stage.
"Whoa! Uh-uh!" Dean shot up out of bed. He took a second to savor the mortified looks on both of their faces and then pinned Sam with a mock glare. "Seriously, dude? You could at least have the decency to wait until I go for breakfast."
"We, um, kind of thought you were still asleep," Jess answered.
It took everything Dean had not to burst out laughing at their identically bright red faces. Growing up, this situation had almost always been reversed. He'd be the one trying to sneak around with a girl and Sam would be scolding him. Generally he'd tried to convince them to bring him back to their place, but every once in a while he'd bring one back to whatever motel they were staying at. One thing that hadn't changed in all these years was the look on Sam's face. The horrified, kill-me-now look was still exactly the same.
"I was until you two decided to go at it," he wasn't about to let this opportunity to tease them mercilessly slip by.
"Dean!" Sam didn't think it was possible for his face to get any redder without actually bursting into flames. "We were not 'going at it'!"
"Could've fooled me," Dean teased, pulling his boots on. "Tell you what, I'll take a nice slow ride to the coffee shop up the road so you two crazy kids can have some fun."
"I swear to god, Dean I'm going to kill you," Sam growled.
"Sure you are," Dean laughed and pulled the keys to the Impala out of his pocket. He sauntered over to the door and just before walking out he turned and said, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
He had to duck and slam the door closed as Jess's hairbrush and a motel notepad came flying across the room at his head. Merciless teasing or not, he was actually happy for them. Since getting engaged, they seemed closer, happier. Neither of them had talked about when they were actually planning to get married, at least not in front of him, but that didn't seem to matter right now.
"My brother is a jackass," Sam groaned.
"But he's our jackass," Jess agreed, getting out of bed. The mood was officially killed.
"I don't know about that," Sam muttered. "Is it still illegal to kill your brother in most States?"
"It was last time I checked," Jess laughed. "You were pre-law, though, not me."
"I guarantee I could find something justifying homicide in a case like this," Sam joked.
"Speaking of cases, do we have anything new yet?" Jess asked. "I know we promised Missouri that we'd take it easy for a bit, but I'm starting to get a little bit of cabin fever. How about you?"
"A little," he didn't really want to, but Sam had to admit that he was definitely starting to feel restless. "And I know that Dean's practically crawling out of his own skin to get moving again. No leads on a case, though. I was thinking that if it's good with you and Dean we could head up to Bobby's. He's usually got leads on half a dozen cases at any given time."
"It's been too long since we've seen him anyway," Jess's eyes lit up. "I miss the grumpy old man."
"Don't let him hear you call him that," Sam draped an arm over Jess's shoulders and leaned down to kiss her deeply. "Y'know, Dean might've killed the mood, but he did say that he was going to be gone for awhile."
"And if there's one thing I've learned as a hunter, it's that dead things tend not to stay dead," Jess agreed.
"Which means that we can..." Sam started to move back towards the bed.
"Cease fire!" Dean shouted from right outside the door. Without waiting for an answer, he stumbled in, hand dramatically over his eyes. "I forgot my phone. Try to keep it PG rated until I get back out of here, please."
"Dude, you're a freakin' idiot," Sam groaned. That was the second time this morning that Dean had killed the mood between him and Jess. At this point, he was at least seventy-five percent convinced that he'd be able to get a jury to see his reasoning. Justifiable homicide.
Peeking between his fingers, Dean grinned when he saw his brother and Jess standing. He dropped his hand and his grin grew even more when he saw the look on Sam's face. He knew his little brother, and knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Well, as long as you're both up now, why don't we get packed and back on the road," Dean stopped and replayed his words in his head.
"Seriously, Dean?" Sam realized what Dean was thinking. "Get your mind out of the gutter."
"Can't. It's perfectly happy to continue living there," Dean laughed. "Anyway. I'm going stark, raving nuts in this motel room. Let's get back on the road."
"We were just talking about that," Jess was already gathering the few things they'd bothered to unpack. "We thought maybe we should head up to see Bobby. There haven't been any leads on a new job, so it seems like as good a plan as any."
"We can do that," Dean agreed. "Let's get moving. We'll stop for breakfast and coffee on the way."
Leading the two younger hunters out to the Impala, Dean smirked to himself. The couple of days they'd been sitting around had him bored out of his mind, and a bored Dean could be a dangerous thing. When they stopped a few miles away to get coffee, he generously offered to go in and get for all three of them.
Ordering four coffees, he added cream and sugar to two of them. He would never understand how Sam and Jess could drink their coffee with all this crap in there, but hey it wasn't like he had to drink it. He laughed to himself as he stared to fix the fourth coffee. Instead of sugar, he dumped a generous helping of salt into it. Then he added a bit of skim milk, which he knew Sam hated. Hiding the cream and sugar coffee, he walked back to the car and handed Sam the disgusting salt and skim milk one. For a second he debated whether or not that'd been a good idea. If Sam spit coffee all over his car he was gonna be pissed. He watched Sam furtively from the corner of his eye as his brother took a big gulp from the cup.
Sam had never tasted anything this nasty in his entire life. He gagged and it took everything he had not to puke at the disgusting taste. For a moment his brain was so overwhelmed by the revolting coffee that he couldn't focus on anything else. Once his head started to clear, he heard Dean laughing hysterically, bent almost double in the driver's seat.
"What the hell did you do?!" Sam choked.
"Aw, c'mon Sammy," Dean said between peals of laughter. "You don't like a little salt in your coffee?"
"Salt?!" Sam yelled. "Wait. Uh-uh. No way. We are not starting this crap again."
"What crap?" Dean asked innocently.
"This stupid, childish, prank war crap," Sam clarified. "It ridiculous and it always escalates! We're not doing this."
"Chicken," Dean accused, handing Sam his real coffee.
"Okay, fine," Sam looked nervously at the new cup in his hand. "Just remember that you're the one who started this and now it's two against one."
"Who says it's two against one?" Jess teased.
"I want it on the record that I'm against this," Sam grumbled. He had a bad feeling about this.
"You three idjits allergic to making a phone call?" a voice cracked across the salvage yard as the three hunters climbed sheepishly out of the car.
"Hi, Bobby," they all said guiltily.
Bobby stalked grumpily towards the Impala, but stopped when he saw the looks on their faces. They were all shuffling their feet, like they'd been up to something.
"What'd you do?" he pinned Dean with a glare.
"Why does it have to be me?" Dean asked.
"Because I've known you since you were six and it's always been you," Bobby replied.
They hadn't been able to do much to each other on the drive up to Bobby's, but all three of them had been thinking very hard about what they'd do when they got there. Sam already knew exactly what prank he wanted to pull on Dean first, Jess had a plan to prank both Sam and Dean, and Dean had decided that Jess would be his next victim.
"It's nothing, Bobby," Sam jumped to his brother's defense. "We're having a bit of a slow week and you know how we get when we're bored."
"Do I," Bobby sighed. "Jess, you must be a damned saint, putting up with these two."
"Sometimes I wonder," Jess laughed.
"Well, since you're here I could use the help," Bobby said. "Sam, Jess, why don't you two get the bags inside? Dean, I got a car over here with an electrical gremlin in it. Why don't you join me and help me suss out what it is."
Sam agreeably picked up both his bag and Dean's, while Jess took hers. He dropped Dean's bag on the couch and started to follow Jess up the stairs when he suddenly stopped.
"Oh, man," he complained. "We never stopped for beer. You mind staying here while I make a run, babe?"
"Not at all," Jess answered. This worked out perfectly for her. With Bobby keeping Dean busy and Sam running to the store, she'd be able to set up her prank for the boys.
"Awesome," Sam grinned.
He trotted back out to the car, shouting over to Dean and Bobby, and drove to the nearest convenience store. He did pick up a case of beer, but also snagged three small packages of glitter. Dean was most likely going to kill him over this prank, but it wasn't like he hadn't been warned. Grinning widely, Sam drove back to Bobby's house and made sure to park far enough away from the garage that his brother wouldn't be able to see what he was doing.
Working quickly, he shut the car off, dumped all three packets of glitter into the vents, and turned the knobs on the dash up as far as they'd go. He'd have to make sure he was well clear of Dean when this prank went off, but still somewhere where he could enjoy the show. Chuckling to himself, he detoured into the garage to offer Dean and Bobby beers. Purely out of the goodness of his heart, of course. Seeing the look on Dean's face as he tried to figure out what Sam might have done to his beer was, of course, just a bonus.
Meanwhile, Jess had been up to some shenanigans of her own. As soon as she'd heard the Impala rumble away, she'd raced towards the bathroom. Growing up with three older brothers had taught her a thing or two about pranks. On their way up to South Dakota they'd stopped to pick up something for lunch and some snacks for the road. When they had done that, she'd insisted on Life Savers for just this reason.
She unscrewed the shower head and slipped a few Life Savers in before replacing it. The joy of this prank was that it wouldn't smell enough like candy to be noticeable, and the water would still come out clear, but the boys would get out of the shower feeling sticky. With any luck, they'd continue to try and shower the sticky feeling away until the candy finally dissolved the rest of the way.
"Jess?" Sam called up the stairs. "I'm back! You want a beer?"
"Sure, be right down!" Jess yelled.
"So, I have the best prank set up for Dean," Sam grinned and handed her a beer as she trotted down the stairs. "Come here. You gotta keep an eye on the Impala with me. This is gonna be hilarious!"
"What did you do?" Jess laughed at the obvious joy on her fiancee's face.
"Just watch," Sam pulled her out onto the back porch to sit and wait. He settled in one of the old chairs and Jess curled up in his lap.
They wound up not having to wait very long. Less than fifteen minutes later, Dean and Bobby both came out of the garage wiping their hands on rags. Dean scowled when he saw where the Impala was parked.
"Seriously, Sammy?" he shouted, seeing them on the porch. "You know the Impala doesn't belong way down here!"
"Watch," Sam could barely contain himself as he watched Dean get into the car.
"Is this something he's going to kill you for?" Jess asked nervously.
"Yep," Sam answered happily. "Hey, he started it. He knew what he was in for."
The Impala rumbled to life...
"Dammit! SAM!"
Dean flew out of his car, spluttering and covered in glitter. Both Sam and Jess were doubled over, laughing. Sam because he'd been looking forward to seeing Dean's reaction, and Jess because Sam had unknowingly set Dean up to walk right into her prank. Bobby just leaned against one of the stacks of cars and smirked.
"You are so dead!" Dean threatened, stalking towards the porch. "You mess with me that's one thing but you never, never mess with my baby!"
"Payback's a bitch," Sam shot to his feet, still laughing at his brother.
"This is not payback!" Dean raced up the porch steps, and Jess put her arms out to keep the brothers separated. "My baby is off limits for pranks!"
"We didn't talk about rules," Sam taunted. "And this is payback. For this morning. You got me twice. This is only fair."
"I'm still gonna kill you!" Dean threatened. "Move, Jess!"
"Enough," Bobby ordered. "Dean, get your hide into the shower. Sam, go clean up your brother's car."
"Bobby..." Sam started to protest.
"Didn't ask for an argument," Bobby glared at him. "Go. Goes for you too, Dean."
"Fine," both brothers muttered, each stomping off to their assigned tasks.
Jess was starting to question whether or not she should stop Dean from walking right into her prank, but decided against it at the last second. Technically, she hadn't gotten Dean back for teasing them this morning. She was secretly happy that Bobby had sent Sam to take care of the car, though. It would put a nice buffer between Dean falling into her trap and Sam doing the same. She knew she wouldn't have to worry about Dean saying anything. He'd be all for getting Sam back.
A few minutes later, she heard the shower turn off. A few seconds after that, the sound of cursing came from the bathroom and the shower turned back on. Bobby glanced up at the ceiling and frowned. Then his eyes narrowed and he looked over to Jess.
"Alright, what'd you do?" he asked.
"Why do you think it was me?" Jess giggled, repeating Dean's words from earlier.
"Because you look like that cat that stole the cream," Bobby cracked a smile.
"Fine, but you can't tell Sam," Jess made him promise. "Life Savers in the shower head. The water doesn't change colors, but it leaves whoever's in the shower feeling sticky. Once Dean's done, I'm gonna go up and put more in there and wait for Sam."
"You're just as evil as they are," Bobby chuckled. "You're gonna want to watch your back, girl. Those boys can get pretty evil when it comes to their prank wars."
"Yeah, I think I remember Sam mentioning something about Nair in his shampoo at one point," Jess nodded.
Another few minutes, another round of cursing from upstairs. This time the bathroom door opened.
"Hey, Bobby!" Dean yelled. "I think there's something wrong with your water filter or something."
"Or something," Jess called back.
"What do you..." Dean started. "Wait. Damn him, I'm gonna kill that kid!"
"That would be sort of pointless since Sam's not the one who did it," Jess bragged.
"Seriously?" Dean almost sounded impressed. Then he hardened his voice. "Okay, you got me. Now tell me what you did so I can get whatever this crap is off of me!"
"Unscrew the shower head, you'll figure it out," Jess laughed. "And hurry up. I want to get that reset before Sam comes in to take his shower."
"Hell yeah, I'm all for that," Dean agreed. He slammed the door and the shower started up for the third time. This time when it stopped, Dean came out of the bathroom laughing even more.
"Good one, huh?" Jess asked, passing him on the stairs.
"I'll give it to ya," Dean said. "Mostly just because I want to see you get Sam with it, too. Who taught you that?"
"Grew up with three older brothers," Jess reminded him. "What? You think you and Sam cornered the market on prank wars?"
"I did until about three seconds ago," Dean muttered. "Hurry up before Sam comes back in."
"Bossy," Jess swatted at him, but he ducked too quickly. "Make sure that you keep him busy if he comes back in before I'm done!"
"Now who's being bossy?" Dean asked.
Jess quickly replaced the candies in the shower head and rushed downstairs as she heard the door open. Sam appeared, almost as covered in glitter as Dean had been. He glared at both Dean and Bobby.
"Don't give me that look, boy," Bobby warned.
"Don't give me that look, either," Dean added. "I have no sympathy."
"Wait till next time," Sam threatened. "This is gonna seem like nothing. Now, does anyone care if I go get a shower? There's glitter in places I didn't even know that I owned."
"Go for it," Dean said, almost a little too eagerly.
"Want to join me?" Sam grabbed Jess's waist just as she was trying to slip past him.
"It's okay, I already got one," Jess lied. "You go, honey."
Sam gave her his best puppy dog look, but she just laughed and shooed him away.
"How many times have those eyes actually worked on me in the past three years?" she teased. "Go. I'm not gonna disappear in the ten minutes it'll take you to get showered."
"Spoil sport," Sam complained, digging his fingers into her ribs, right where she was the most ticklish.
He took his customary, boiling hot shower and started to towel off. He quickly realized something was wrong, though. The glitter was gone, but he was still sticky. That didn't make any sense. Figuring that Dean must have done something to his towel, he exchanged it out for a new one and got back in the shower. Getting out for the second time didn't go any better than the first.
"Dammit, Dean," he muttered. "The hell did you do to all the towels?"
This time he snagged a towel out of Bobby's linen closet, but getting out of the shower for the third time didn't have any better effect than the first two, except that now the water was getting cold. And wait...was that laughing? Now that he was listening for it, it wasn't hard to hear the peals of laughter coming from downstairs.
"Just wait till you see what I come up with next, Dean!" he shouted down the stairs. "Get up here and fix whatever this is!"
"D-don't blame me!" Dean was gasping for breath, he was laughing so hard. "Not my f-fault that your girlfriend outsmarted you!"
"Excuse me, girlfriend?!" the sound of Jess slapping Dean's arm came from downstairs.
"You're all idjits," Bobby shook his head affectionately.
The next day, the prank war was still in full swing. They'd all gotten each other with the usual things. Rubber band around the faucet sprayer. Water bucket above the door. Air horn attached to the bottom of the desk chair. There hadn't been any more really evil pranks yet, though. Sam and Jess fully intended to change that. They'd stayed up last night plotting a trick to play on Dean together.
They woke up earlier than usual the next morning and crept down the stairs. With Dean sleeping right on the couch it would probably be hard for them to get out of the house without waking him up, but they had plans to just say they had woken up early and were going to get something to eat together.
"We are so going to have to watch our backs after today," Jess warned.
"Yes, we are," Sam agreed. "It's totally gonna be worth it, though."
As expected, Dean woke up as they tried to sneak out of the house, but simply mumbled something about it being too early and buried his face back in his pillow when Sam and Jess gave their excuse. Bobby was already up and working in his garage when the couple made their way outside.
"You two are up early," he commented.
"Yeah," they both answered, neither offering an answer to the unasked question.
"Why?" Bobby sighed and asked anyway.
"We might've decided to team up against Dean today," Sam shrugged.
"Might've?" Bobby raised an eyebrow. "Just, do me a favor? Try not to destroy my house. You three are drivin' me nuts with this prank stuff."
"After today, I don't know that Dean's going to want to continue with this prank war anyway," Jess laughed.
"Anythin' I need to watch for?" Bobby asked nervously.
"Umm, everything?" Sam suggested. "Just assume that anything we're trying to get Dean to do isn't safe. I wouldn't really suggest eating or drinking anything today, either."
"Suddenly I feel like I'm gonna need to be out in the garage all day," Bobby waved them away. "Remember what I said. Don't destroy my house."
Sam and Jess set off to start setting up the first of their pranks. Driving back to the convenience store where Sam had gotten the glitter for his last prank, he and Jess gathered the supplies they'd need for today. Even the bored looking clerk couldn't help but smile a little at the snickers that kept bursting out across the store.
"Do you mind if we use your counter over there?" Sam asked, after they'd paid for everything.
"Go ahead, dude," the clerk shrugged. "You're the only ones crazy enough to be out this early anyway."
They both grinned and started setting up the easier pranks. First they took the box of cream-filled donuts that Dean loved and replaced the cream in half of them with mayonnaise. Then they scraped the whipped cream off of the pie they'd gotten and sprayed shaving cream all over it. They also replaced the soda they'd gotten Dean with a soy sauce mixture, replaced Oreo cream with toothpaste, and filled the empty toothpaste tube with orajel. The clerk was openly watching them, the amused look on his face growing with every replacement.
"Man, remind me not to get on your bad side," he laughed as they gathered their things together and left.
Getting back to Bobby's, they put the next parts of their plan into place. Despite Dean's warning from yesterday, Sam messed around with some of the Impala's wiring, making sure that the button for the stereo would now work the windshield wipers, the windshield wiper knob would work the blinkers, and the blinkers would work the stereo.
While Sam tampered with the car, Jess snuck back inside and sprinkled itching powder into the clothes Dean had laid out for this morning. She set the mayo-filled donuts out onto the table, placed the other pranks around the house, and waited for Sam to finish what he was doing and come back in the house. In reality, they hadn't really planned anything overly evil, but every time Dean turned around he was going to be running into their pranks today. They were probably going to have to change their names and go into witness protection, but it would be worth it to see the frustration on his face.
"Ready?" Sam asked, walking in with a blown up balloon. This was the only part of their plan that was probably really stupid, but they couldn't resist.
Pushing Dean's gun outside of arm's reach, Sam crouched near his brother. He had to stifle a laugh as Jess handed him a pin. It was one of the oldest tricks in the book, but it was likely to scare the hell out of Dean and that's what they were going for. Without any more hesitation, he popped the balloon right next to Dean's ear.
"What the hell?!" Dean shot up off the couch, scrambling for his gun before he was even fully awake. Blinking to clear his eyes, he realized that his gun was decidedly not where he'd left it and that Sam and Jess were practically rolling on the floor with laughter. "Are you two trying to get shot?"
"Come on, we're not that stupid," Sam motioned to where he'd moved Dean's pistol. "Time to get up, dude."
"I hate you," Dean grumbled. "Did you at least bring something back for breakfast?"
"Donuts," Sam motioned to the table. "Jess and I ate already, so dig in."
They tried not to watch Dean too carefully as he pulled his new clothes on and stumbled over to where the donuts were laid out. Bobby walked in to refill his coffee and reached for a doughnut of his own.
"Hey, Bobby," Jess cleared her throat. "Do you mind helping me practice my Latin a bit? I still don't have that exorcism memorized quite yet and it's driving me crazy."
"No problem," Bobby frowned in confusion. "Let me just..."
"Awesome," Jess ripped the doughnut out of his hand and gave it to Dean. "I can get about halfway through it before I start to have trouble."
She pulled Bobby out of the room just far enough that Dean couldn't see or hear them and pointed back in.
"You don't want one of those," she warned. "Watch."
"I swear, Jess has got that man wrapped around her little finger," Dean poured himself a cup of coffee and took a huge bite of the doughnut Jess had handed him.
Apparently his brain wasn't running on all cylinders quite yet this morning because he never even paused to think about the prank war they currently had in place. It was a mistake that didn't last long. He chewed twice before realizing that something was very wrong. Spitting the nasty doughnut out into the garbage he glared as Sam nearly fell over laughing. He could hear Jess laughing from the hall, too.
"Is that the best you got?" he asked. "That's weak, dude. Weak."
"Give it time," Sam grinned.
"Watch it or you'll wind up bald again," Dean growled. "Is there any real breakfast?"
"Here," Sam offered the box with the un-tampered with donuts.
This time Dean had the sense to test them before taking a bite. He scratched absently at his chest while he tried to figure out a way to get Sam and Jess back for this one. As far as pranks went, mayonnaise in the donuts was nasty, but not the worst thing that had ever come out of a prank war. Squirming a little, he stuffed the rest of the doughnut into his mouth and scratched at his arms. Jess had insisted on some new laundry detergent when they went shopping last time and apparently it wasn't agreeing with him. Damn but it felt like his skin was trying to crawl off of his body.
"So Bobby," Dean snagged another doughnut. "You got any leads on a case for us? Sasquatch over here is losing his touch. Can't find us anything."
"Screw you, Dean," Sam shot back, noticing how much his brother was starting to squirm. He winked at Jess and she smirked back.
"I'm sure I got somethin'," Bobby said. "You alright there, boy?"
"New detergent," Dean brushed it off.
"Sure about that?" Sam asked.
"What?!" Dean shot Sam a deadly look and then decided that wasn't quite enough. He lunged for his brother and just missed tackling him.
"Don't be pissed at me because you're off your game today," Sam teased, dodging another attack.
"I'll show you 'off my game'," Dean finally caught his brother around the waist and pinned him to the ground. Bobby and Jess watched them try to choke the life out of each other for a few seconds before stepping in.
"Git off your brother now," Bobby reached down to haul Dean back up by his arm. "I swear, you three are gonna kill me with this prank stuff."
"This is just the start of a long day for you," Sam warned.
"Enough!" Bobby snapped. "Sam, take a walk already before your brother actually tries to kill ya. Dean, take some time to cool off. Get ready for the day. Go for a drive. I don't care."
Sam slunk sheepishly out the door. He was sort of starting to feel bad about the number of pranks they had set up for Dean today. Not bad enough to let him off the hook, though.
"You think maybe we went a little overboard today?" Jess asked, coming up behind him.
"Maybe," Sam admitted. "Let's take that walk and when we get back maybe we should get rid of one or two of them."
"I was thinking the same thing," Jess agreed. "I do sort of wish we were sticking around to see the toothpaste thing, though."
"Crap! I almost forgot about that!" Sam burst out laughing. "Come on. We need to get moving before..."
"SAM!" the yell came from both Dean and Bobby. Dean's shout sounding slurred from his no-doubt numb mouth.
"Go, go, go," Sam urged, racing down the porch steps.
They both ran towards the sparring practice field. Sam judged that at this point they were probably far enough away from the house to be semi-safe. As gently as he could, he caught Jess around the waist and swung her around. At least that's what he meant to do. Instead, he managed to get his arms around her waist and then promptly tangled their feet together, sending them both crashing to the grass.
"You're such a klutz, love," Jess laughed, resting her chin on his chest.
"You love it," Sam joked. "How boring would our lives be if I wasn't?"
"Pretty boring," Jess agreed. "You're cute, too, which is a plus."
Sam burst out laughing at that. He wrapped one arm around Jess's waist and put the opposite hand on the back of her head, running his fingers through her long blonde hair. Jess snuggled in closer to his chest and closed her eyes contentedly.
"This is nice," she said.
"I feel bad that we haven't really been able to spend time together like this much," Sam admitted guiltily. "Between being on the road and all three of us living right on top of each other and hunting evil and about a hundred other things, I feel like I'm neglecting you."
"Hey," Jess started rubbing his chest in soothing circles. "You're not 'neglecting' me. You're right. You and Dean and I really do live practically right on top of each other. We're always either in the car together or in a motel room together. We get some alone time when we're here at Bobby's, though. And it's not like I don't get how important our job is. We have the rest of our lives to be together, baby. Don't beat yourself up over something that's not your fault."
"God, what would I do without you?" Sam squeezed Jess tighter to him and placed a kiss on the top of her head, starting the first half of their playful way of saying 'I love you'.
"Crash and burn," Jess replied, finishing it.
It was similar to the way he and Dean called each other 'bitch' and 'jerk'. The words might have been a little harsh or sarcastic, but the meaning buried beneath the words was what mattered.
"Love you," Sam whispered into her hair. He didn't care that he was basically repeating what they'd just said. He'd never get tired of telling Jess how much he loved her.
"Hmmm," Jess hummed, eyes drifting back closed.
They hadn't gotten a lot of sleep last night and they were both feeling it now. She knew that the middle of a field was probably not the place to take a nap, but snuggled up to her fiancee with her head pillowed on his chest was just too damn comfortable. It was getting harder to keep her eyes open by the second. A quick glance up showed her that Sam apparently felt the same way. His big hazel eyes had a glassy, far away look, too.
Within minutes they were both passed out. Bobby came looking for them about an hour later. In the past hour, Dean had fallen into one more of Sam and Jess's traps and discovered a second. Trying to console himself with pie, he'd had enough sense to check the whipped cream and caught the switch. The 'soda' hadn't even given him pause, though. Until he'd taken a gulp of it and spit it halfway across the kitchen, that was. Dean didn't look like he was getting anything more than merely irritated at the myriad of pranks today, but it was starting to wear on Bobby's nerves. It didn't seem like his adopted kids were planning on stopping this little battle of theirs anytime soon, so he was going to stop it for them. Once they were back on the road they could torture each other all they wanted.
He smiled slightly when he saw Sam and Jess sprawled out in the middle of the field, dead to the world, and didn't have the heart to disturb them. If Rufus were here he'd be yapping about how Bobby was going soft in his old age right now. Still, he'd like to see Rufus try to resist Jess's charm. That girl was damn good for the boys and she finally gave them something to fight for other than pure, one-track revenge. Sure, they were still technically on a revenge mission for what the demon had tried to do to Jess, but it was more than that. For practically the first time since he'd met Sam at two years old, the boy looked content with his life. Not like he was trying to run from it.
"Aww, aren't they sweet?" Dean mocked, coming up next to Bobby. "Would be a shame for..."
"No," Bobby cut him off, putting a stern look on his face. "You leave your brother and Jess alone for now. I'm gonna need to drink a whole damn case of whiskey to relax after this little visit from you three."
"You're no fun, Bobby," Dean prodded, but let it alone. He had one more trick up his sleeve, but he was perceptive enough to know that Bobby'd had enough of their crap. Good thing this trick was going to happen outside rather than back in the house.
"Let them be," Bobby ordered. "If they're still out here in an hour or so I'll wake `em up."
"Okay," Dean agreed. "I'm gonna go grab some of the guns from the trunk. They could use cleaning."
Bobby nodded in agreement and headed towards his garage. Smirking, Dean did go to the Impala and he did pull some of the guns out with every intention of cleaning them. However, he also took out a package he'd picked up at some point to use for precisely this reason. It'd been sitting in the trunk for god knew how long and he'd been starting to wonder if he'd ever get a chance to use it, but now it was worth the wait. He quietly set up his prank next to his brother and sat a little ways away to watch the fireworks.
Thankfully, he didn't need to wait long. Not more than ten minutes after he'd put his little trick in place, Sam started to stir. The kid may have been tired, but his hunter instincts weren't going to let him just pass out in the middle of a field for any extended period of time. Dean set the gun he'd been wiping down aside and crept closer.
Sam's reaction was even better than anything he could've hoped for. He stretched and opened his eyes, immediately scanning his surroundings to be sure he and Jess were still safe. Which meant it only took him a second to notice the huge clown right next to him. He yelped, lashing out at it, and damn near levitated when it bounced back at him. It was one of those inflatable, round bottom punching bags that couldn't be knocked over. Hitting it rocked it backwards, but then it shot forward again. Jess snapped awake, clawing for her weapon until she realized what was going on.
Dean was laughing too hard to even be trying to hide. For a second he still thought that one or both of them were going to shoot the damn clown, but instead Sam looked over at him disgustedly, pushing Jess's hand away from her gun.
"Funny, Dean," he snapped.
"I thought so!" Dean laughed. His phone started to ring and he dug in his pocket for it, chuckling at his brother's continued reaction to the clown that was still there. "Hello...Dad?"
That sobered him up like nothing else could've at that moment. Sam's eyes immediately went wide and in a flash he was standing next to Dean, asking questions at a rapid-fire pace.
"Where is he? Is he okay? What's going on? What..."
"Hush, Sammy," Dean pushed him away and put the phone on speaker. "Dad, we've been looking all the hell over the place for you!"
"I know," John answered. "That's part of the reason I called. You have to leave off looking for me. How much did Bobby tell you about what I'm hunting?"
"Enough that we know you're after the demon that killed Mom and attacked Jess," Sam put in. "Not enough to know much about it, though."
"Good," John knew his boys couldn't see him, but he nodded anyway. "I'm starting to get close, but I don't want you boys...you three anywhere near it."
"That's bullshit, Dad!" Sam yelled. "We're in this just as much as you are!"
"You're staying away from this, and that's final, Samuel," John growled. "I have something I need you kids to look into for me."
"Are you sure you trust us enough for that?" Sam muttered.
"Shut up, Sam," Dean ordered. "What is it, Dad?"
"Take down these coordinates," John said, ignoring Sam's second outburst. "It's a town in Illinois. There have been some weird deaths in that area. People being torn apart in locked apartments."
"Are you serious right now?!" Sam exploded. Jess put a hand on his arm to calm him down, which worked about as well as she expected. Which was to say not at all.
"I'm giving you an order," John's temper was quickly running out. "You have a job to do, so stop wasting time arguing with me and do it! Get on the road within the hour, Dean. Understand?"
"Yes, sir," Dean answered obediently, and hung up. He fixed Sam with a withering glare. "Seriously, dude?"
"Dad's closing in on the damn demon and he's treating us like kids who can't handle it," Sam seethed. "I don't care what he said. I'm gonna track the GPS on his phone and get to wherever he is to help him. "
"Baby," Jess stepped between the two brothers. By the look on their faces, things were about to get ugly. "Think about this. He didn't say that he knew exactly where it was. He said he was getting close. It doesn't sound like there's much we could do to help him at this point. We can help the people in this town he's sending us to, though. Stop it before anyone else gets hurt."
For a second Sam stayed tense. He wanted to continue to dig his heels in and insist they find Dad, but Jess had a really good point. "Getting close" didn't mean "I have it in sight". He'd been a hunter long enough to know that. Huffing in frustration, he stalked back towards the house.
"Where are you going?" Dean demanded.
"To pack. I guess we're going to Illinois," Sam snapped.
He sulkily packed up both his and Jess's things and said goodbye to Bobby. Okay, he was being a bit childish, but somehow his Dad just had that effect on him. Every. Single. Time. He dropped into the front seat of the Impala and Dean and Jess joined him a minute later. He was so irritated that he'd almost managed to forget about his little wiring job on the car. Until about a split second before Dean turned the key.
"SAM!"
Additional Note: I know I said it already, but I want to say it again: thank you all so much for the support during this stressful time. I'm sorry about how long it took to update. Between emotional crap, ridiculous amounts of schoolwork, two toddlers, three horses, two dogs, and a truck driver husband who's gone 4 - 5 days a week, I have started working on Chapter 8. Gonna really try to get these chapters out in a more timely manner, but I apologize if the updates don't start getting closer together. Again, thank you all so much. Love y'all!