Dean grunted and rolled over, burying his face in his pillow in a weak attempt to escape the bright sunlight that was streaming into the room. He reached over to the other side of the bed, expecting to find a warm body there, but only found cool sheets.
Sighing, he opened his eyes and looked at the empty space beside him. Of course it was a dream. It was always a dream.
He rolled back over and sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and stretching. He sniffed, a weak attempt to clear his nose, and his eyes clouded with uncertainty. As far as he knew, he was in the room alone, but it smelled like someone was cooking something.
Dean stood up and headed for the small kitchenette. Jaye was already sitting at the table looking through an old book and chewing on her lip. She looked up as he walked in. "Morning, dad."
"What are you doing in here?"
"It's my room," she said, turning back to the book, "I could ask you that question, but I'm an early riser, so I saw. I can't believe you guys did that with me in the next bed. That's disgusting."
"We didn't do anything," Ellen commented as she walked over to the table from the stove, carrying a plate of pancakes, "honestly, Dean what are you teaching her?"
"What did we do last night?" he asked, unable to take his eyes off her as she set the table.
Ellen shrugged. "Nothing. We stood outside and talked for a while, then we came in and went to bed."
"So, you didn't sleep together?" Jaye asked, her book forgotten.
"You know, it is possible for two people to sleep together without actually sleeping together," Dean pointed out, sitting down at the table and helping himself to some breakfast.
"Yeah," the girl scoffed, "sure."
Dean rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to Ellen. "So, what's with the breakfast?"
"Well, it's the most important meal of the day, so I figured we'd better do it right, especially if we're gonna spend most of our time trying to figure out how to save your brother."
"Yeah, but you could have just run out and grabbed something, I mean-"
"You can take the hunter out of the life, but you can't take the life out of the hunter, can you?"
Dean shrugged. "What can I say? I miss the microwave bean burritos."
Ellen shook her head and went to go clean up the stove, making Dean and Jaye promise not to eat everything before she got back.
"It did something to mom, didn't it?" Jaydin asked as soon as she was sure that the older woman was out of earshot.
"What would make you ask that?"
"Dad, come on. She's being nice to you. I know I just met her, but tolerating you doesn't seem to be a strong point of hers. What did it do?"
He sighed. "It sprung it on me," Dean explained, "before I could make the deal. In exchange for Sam, I got you and your mom. You're right. She's different, but it's not my fault. The thing wouldn't let me pick and choose what I got."
"It was a package deal," she nodded.
"Straight from the demon's mouth."
"But why?"
"It's smart. Think about it, Jaye. It wants to keep your uncle, for whatever twisted reason, and it knows that I'll try to get him back. If I'm distracted, though, I won't try as hard."
"Or," Jaydin reasoned, "you'll act like a human being for once in your life and give in to your own wants and needs, pack up the car, drive us home, and pretend that you've always been an only child."
"Excuse me?"
"Face it, dad," she sighed, looking up at him with understanding in her hazel eyes, "the demon did this for a reason. It wants to get us out of the way, and it knew that this was the best way to do it. But I want you to know that if you want to go home now, I'll totally understand. I won't think any less of you or anything. I mean, it's human nature to be selfish."
Dean leaned back in his chair and stared at her. "You're really gunning for that psych degree, aren't you, kiddo?"
"Daddy-"
"I told your uncle we're gonna save him, so we're gonna save him. We're not running off with our tails between our legs just because something came up."
"But-"
"No buts, Jaye."
"Won't saving uncle Sam break the deal? Won't it take me again and undo whatever it did to mom?"
Dean shook his head. "I'm not gonna let it take you again. Don't worry, you'll be safe."
"What about mom?"
The girl's father looked down at his plate and picked up his fork as Ellen walked back to the table and sat down beside him, smiling warmly. "That's not important," he muttered, "eat your breakfast."
o0o0o0o0o
"So," Dean began, spreading out a slew of books on the table in front of him before looking up at the other two people sitting with him, "I'm thinking we can get the gun, have Sammy lead us back to the demon, and waste it."
"Sounds pretty easy," Jaye nodded, "But if the demon can read minds, won't it know we're coming?"
"It's cocky, though," Ellen pointed out, "it might just let us get close enough to shoot it."
"Yeah, and it might use the proximity to its own advantage," the girl argued, "no offense, dad, but that's a sucky plan."
"Think you can do better?" Dean challenged.
"As a matter of fact, I do. Everywhere the demon goes, these signs pop up, right? Like, cattle mutilations and electrical storms and big swirly clouds of demon smoke with yellow eyes. So, we take the gun from uncle Sam, come back here, and wait for the signs to pop up in a new town. We go to the town, catch the SOB by surprise, and take it out."
"Yeah," her father reasoned, "that would probably work, but it would take time. I'm betting your uncle doesn't want to spend a couple of weeks with that thing unless he absolutely has to. Oh, and just so you know, abbreviating doesn't make it ok. It still means the same thing."
"You say it all the time."
"And I'm, like, old. So, tell you what, kiddo, when you're my age, you can embarrass all the sailors you want, but until then, please be a clean little girl for daddy. Ok?"
Jaye leaned back in her chair and rolled her eyes. "Whatever."
"You want to add a week onto that summer grounding?"
"No, sir."
"Good girl."
Ellen cleared her throat. "Look, as much as I hate to break up a touching family moment, I think there's something important you two missed."
"What?" Dean asked, turning his attention from his daughter.
"If he calls us to go pick up the gun, it's possible that Sam might not be Sam and I think we need to prepare for that."
"What do you mean, if?"
"Dad, she's got a point," Jaye said, "do you really think it just wanted uncle Sam to look at and occasionally poke? It might possess him. He might give us the gun and then turn on us."
"I'm not gonna shoot my brother."
"I know," Ellen said, reaching across the table and grabbing Dean's hand, "but we've at least got to have a plan. Some kind of back-up. Plan B."
Dean nodded. "What, though? We need to kill the demon and get Sam out of this alive. I'm not seeing many options here."
"What about an exorcism?" Jaydin asked, "one that won't send it back to Hell, just get it out of a body. There's gotta be something like that, right?"
"Something to make it manifest itself?" Ellen clarified, "there probably is, but we'd have to find it first."
Dean stood up and crossed the room, heading to the chair where they'd set Sam's duffle bag. He pulled it open and began digging through it, pushing aside guns and knives, old books and tattered fast food wrappers. Finally, he straightened up and pulled something out, holding it up triumphantly like it was the answer to their every problem.
"What's that?" Jaye asked, wrinkling her nose at the beat-up old book that her father slammed down on the table before sitting back down.
"That would be your inheritance," he grinned.
"An old book?"
"An old journal. Your grandpa's, actually. Everything he knew about every evil thing is in this book. Your uncle and I added a little bit, too, when we came across something new."
"Grandpa's journal? How's that gonna help?"
"It's going to help," Dean said, "by giving us the kind of exorcism you described. See, back in '05, Sammy and I went up against a demon that was taking down planes and killing all of the survivors. The exorcism we used had two parts, one to make the demon manifest, and one to send it back to Hell."
"That's perfect," Ellen said, "we use the first part to get the demon out of your brother and then we shoot it."
"Exactly. The only problem is that by forcing it to manifest, we make it temporarily stronger. Whoever pulls the trigger has to be dead-on."
"Then mom'll read and you'll shoot," Jaye reasoned, "you've got great aim. Last time you took me shooting you hit every target dead-on."
"You took her shooting?" Ellen asked, turning expectant eyes on Dean, waiting for an explanation.
"Well," he stuttered, "um, you see… practice makes perfect?"
She nodded. "Smart move. You're like a boy scout, you know, always prepared."
Dean shrugged. "I try. So, we've got a plan, here? If worse comes to worse, we read and shoot." Everyone nodded. "All righty, then. I guess now we just have to sit back and wait for the phone to ring."