Disclaimer: I own no one and nothing except Jack and my writing.
Almost before the Winchesters and Co were out the door, Cassie was on the phone, dialing a familiar number.
"Hello, Mr. Hartley?" She asked pleasantly when the other line picked up.
"Yes, speaking?" Dennis Hartley asked in a short professional manner.
"This is Cassie Robinson, we met a few months ago." Cassie responded.
"The reporter, yes I remember." Dennis said.
"Good, I um, I have a favor to ask of you." Cassie said looking out the window at the retreating backs of the three hunters. Her eyes zeroed in the red haired woman laughing at something Dean said, bumping her shoulder into Sam's.
The motel was a few blocks from the garage where Dean's baby would be spending the night, but for all Dan's moping someone would think it was a thousand miles away. He set himself to setting up the cot they'd requested from the manager's office for Jack, a task that she usually would have done herself, but hey, she thought, if the man wanted to cover her chores, who was she stand in his way? Jack snickered, flipping through the channels. Sam snatched the remote from her, using his height to his advantage, even though the two were sitting down on his bed.
"Golden Girls marathon you're missing?" Jack asked with a lopsided grin, poking him in the chest, hard.
"Jackass." His favorite thing to call her.
"So original." Jack rolled her eyes, settling back against the headboard while Sam began to flip through the channels, discovering quickly that there was nothing on. Jack whistled and nodded towards the little cardboard display on top of the tv with the half naked chicks adorning it.
"Casa Erotica? Hmmm sounds interesting, Sammy. We can leave you alone if you want. Or perhaps they have Beach Studs the original." She laughed at his glare.
"I'm gonna go get us some food." Dean said finally finishing up with the bed. "Do the room while I'm gone."
"I think that since we paid today you should do all that, you seem to be having fun with necessities tonight." Sam said smugly. Jack nodded in agreement and ducked as Dean threw one of the motel pillows at them.
"What do you wanna eat?" He asked them. "Burgers?"
"Fine." Sam shrugged.
"Big burgers. Kill a cow if you have to." Jack said.
"Get me a couple of salads." Sam called as Dean opened door to leave.
"Sure thing, Samantha." Dean said over his shoulder.
"Hey," Sam turned to her a few minutes after Dean shut the door behind him. Sam as sure that Dean's going out for some take out was just na excuse to go check up on his car, that would probably take a few minutes but he wanted to get this out as quickly as possible anyway.
"Yeah?" Jack turned to him a curious look on her face, her right eye straying to watch the episode of MASH they'd settled on.
"I know you don't like Cassie, hell neither do I." Sam started. Jack gave him her full attention.
"But try and take the high road for Dean's sake, Jack." Sam implored her.
Jack looked away made a frustrated sound in the back of her throat, looked back at Sam with a question in her expression and made the sound again when he nodded a tired yes, an amused smile playing across his lips.
It wasn't a question of why. That was easy enough and t hey both knew it. Once Dean cared about you, he was hard pressed to stop. It took a lot to get him to stop giving a damn once he did. And unfortunately he still gave a damn about Cassie.
"I don't have to like it though." Jack said defiantly.
"Neither do I, but Dean does." Sam said leaning back to watch Hawkeye being lowered into a foxhole dressed as Santa.
"If she turns evil-" Jack started.
"You can shoot her, but until then, try not to." Sam said, placating her.
Dean woke to a knocking on their door.
"Sam get the door!" He ordered burying his head deeper in his pillow.
"Lazy bastard." Sam muttered stumbling, only half awake, to the door. Sam looked carefully out the window before opening it and saw Cassie standing there, dressed, he presumed, for work.
"Hey." He said in confusion as he cracked open the door.
"Good morning Sam." Cassie said taking in his bed head and shirtlessness.
"Are you going to invite me in? " Cassie asked slowly when the conversation lapsed awkwardly.
"Um, okay. Just hold on a sec." Sam told her. She nodded and he closed the door/
Neither Dean nor Jack had budged from their beds.
"Hey, get up, we got company." Sam said slapping Jack's foot hanging over the side of her bed. She mumbled something that sounding like 'fuck off' and tugged the thin motel blanket over her head.
Sam shook his head, grabbing up a shirt before trying to jostle Dean out of his bed. Nothin doin.
"Put up the Do Not Disturb sign and leave me alone." Dean said throwing a dirty look at Sam through one cracked eye.
"5-0!" Sam shouted as loud as he could. Jack and Dean shot right the hell out of bed for that. He fell back onto his bed laughing at the bewildered two.
"Ugh, I hate you." Jack groaned rubbing her eyes, annoyed.
"I know. Get dressed, we have work to do." Sam told them.
"Who the hell is at the damn door?" Dean demanded glaring at Sam.
"Cassie." Sam replied, walking to the door to open it for their unexpected guest. Once in a blue moon someone other than the three of them entered their motel rooms, it never happened often enough to take away the unease of the situation. Wherever they stayed became a temporary HQ for all things involving the job, a peek into their day to day lives. John's journal lay beside the laptop on the table, a tin of rocksalt was on the floor by the door, Dean's journal was on the night stand between the beds, open to a page cataloguing the different types of shape shifters he'd encountered. Not exactly the kind of thing you invited strangers to see. Cassie stepped gingerly over the lines and looked around the room with a carefully blank expression, clutching her purse like a lifeline.
"So you share a room." Cassie stated when she saw Jack sitting on the edge of her bed, scratching her head sleepily, her tank top riding up a little showing the edge of her tattoos.
Jack muttered something that wasn't human language and slinked off to the shower to try and blast herself awake with cold water.
"Last room in the place." Dean told Cassie with a yawn he didn't try to stifle.
"What's going on?" He asked her.
"I thought I'd come by and tell you that Melanie will be in meetings today with the editor, so if you want t o go over there now, you can." Cassie said sitting down on the chair not crowded with bags.
"What time is it?" Jack called through the bathroom door.
"8." Sam answered, yawning. Sam heard an annoyed throaty sound on the other side of the door before the shower went on. He couldn't blame her. They'd stayed up late into the night, looking through obits for anything that looked promising for after they left Cape Girardeau.
"Hurry up in there, gotta get a move on." Dean ordered.
Jack rubbed at her sleep sore joints before pulling on a faded pair of jeans. The icy water had done nothing to improve her usual anti-morning outlook, but it had given her brain the jolt it needed until she got some coffee into her system.
"Shower's free." She said opening the bathroom door. Sam was the only one in the room.
"Dean said to meet him and Cassie at the diner next door." Sam explained, grabbing some clean clothes from his bag.
"I'll head over there, make sure Dean doesn't put salt in your coffee." Jack said giving Sam a cheeky smile.
"Who's gonna make sure you don't?" Sam asked on his way to the bathroom.
"My conscience." Jack responded. Sam snorted, closing the bathroom door.
She could see Dean and Cassie sitting in a booth by the dingy windows in the diner, already sipping at coffee, two untouched cups in places across from where they sat side by side. Jack chose to ignore that. She'd picked the shirt she was wearing on purpose, a worn, red hoodie that had taken a claw clear across the midsection. No sense in wasting a good shirt, Jack had just cut the whole bottom half off, showing her tattooed stomach whenever she wore it.
She thought it would fit well with the assumptions Cassie had already made of her. That she a thief, a delinquent and not to be trusted. Form the covert look she got, she knew it had done its job.
"Food?" Jack asked sliding into the seat opposite Dean.
"Waiting for you and Sam." Dean answered. Jack gave him a look. "Tall stack and eggs, Jack."
"And a fruit salad for our healthier half." Jack grinned.
"Don't know where I went wrong with him." Dean replied shaking his head. Sam walked through the front door and spotted them right away
"Food?" Sam asked, parroting Jack, unintentionally.
"You're a bad influence." Dean accused.
"He ordered breakfast for us, gentleman that he is." Jack informed him.
"Yum." Sam said sitting down next to her.
"How long have you three been hunting together?" Cassie asked, reminding everyone that there was a rare fourth at the table.
"Don't even know what day it is. How would we know that?" Dean laughed.
"Its been a while now." Jack said taking a sip from her coffee.
"Goin on a year I think." Sam said yawning.
"Do you travel together or…." Cassie trialed off awkwardly.
"Yeah." Jack answered with a shrug.
"I didn't catch your last name yesterday." Cassie said with a smile at Jack.
"You're a curious woman, aren't you?" Jack asked, her voice hardening.
Sam kicked her under the table. She kicked him back.
"What's your friend's address?" Dean asked clearing his throat.
"Here." Cassie took a pen out of her purse and scribbled down the address in her neat hand.
"That's not far from here." Dean commented pocketing the address.
"You should get back to your office. We'll see if there's anything to this and go back tonight with whatever we might need." Sam told Cassie with a reassuring smile.
"If we need anything." Jack tacked on, finishing her coffee.
The house was a small two story clapboard standing far enough away from its neighbors to afford the illusion of cozy seclusion. Half of the outside was already painted light blue, closed up cans stacked in front of the one car garage. The locks weren't a problem because the doors weren't locked and as Sam often found in these kinds of quiet places, there was no alarm system. It was a thief's wet dream, aside from there being nothing of legitimate value inside.
"I feel like a criminal, doing this is in middle of the day." Dean commented taking the EMF out of his bag.
"You are a criminal." Sam replied without missing a beat.
"I don't feel anything." Jack frowned looking for cold spots with the scanner.
"I'll check for a basement." Sam said.
"I'll get the upstairs." Jack volunteered with a yawn. She already thought this was going to be a bust and just wanted to go back to bed.
Dean strode around the room casually, a bit too bored for his own good. It was usually pretty easy to keep his mind on a potential job, he was used to hours of doing nothing but waiting and watching. He found his mind wandering however as he scanned the front hallway and moved on to the kitchen, not getting much of anything out of the EMF.
He thought about the awkward morning at the diner. How Jack and Cassie, probably two of the most important woman in his life in recent memory, had taken an instant dislike to one another. He scratched his head. A bad feeling was nagging at him.
Its just cause your Baby isn't here, he told himself telling himself to focus on the task at hand.
Sitting at her desk, Cassie brought up the picture she'd taken Jack at the diner as she left to go back to work. It was a clear picture of her profile, it would do just fine. She sent it to Dennis Hartley. The picture should work just as well as a name, Cassie thought, waiting for a reply.
-Will Do Fine- Dennis
Cassie smirked and started going over the proof of her latest piece.
Jack was humming under her breath, seriously contemplating taking a nap in Melanie's bed while she scanned her room. She was so distracted she didn't notice the cold spot till she'd almost passed it by. She back tracked and ran the scan over the dresser once again, whistling when a small brass bell lit up like a bright blue Christmas tree.
Jack snatched it up, tossed it in the air and left the bedroom, taking the stairs two at a time.
"Found something." Jack called out.
"What is it?" Dean asked when she showed him the knick knack.
"Bell." Jack answered.
"Thank you." Dean rolled his eyes at her and plucked it from her hands. "Looks old." He said looking the thing over.
"Do your thing." Jack said falling back onto the couch. Dean opened his mouth to say something when they heard a car come up the driveway.
"Shit." Jack jumped to her feet, gesturing for Dean to find Sam.
Looking through the peep hole, Jack spied a woman in her late twenties, with light brown hair, talking into a cell phone. She thought back to the living room mantle and recognized the woman from the pictures there.
Dean appeared with Dean at his side, raising his eyebrow at her. Jack jerked her chin upstairs and the two men nodded, retreating up the stairs with Jack following closely behind.
"What is that?" Sam whispered furrowing his brow in confusion.
"What?" Jack asked. On the ground level, Melanie had entered her home, still talking on the phone, they could hear her toss her keys on the hall table.
"Dunno, feels like….something." Sam said scratching his head.
"We'll talk about it outside." Dean said. Sam nodded, still frowning.
One by one, the three slipped silently out the bedroom window, without leaving a trace of themselves behind.
"Do you have the bell?" Jack asked as they hopped a fence and cut through a neighbors backyard. They walked at a leisurely pace after that.
"Yup." Dean brought the antique out of his pocket, holding it up for them to see.
"You feel anything, Haley Joel?" Dean asked tossing the bell carelessly to Sam, who caught it, giving Dean a sour look.
"Yeah." Sam said after a few seconds, looking down at the thing. He handed it back to Dean "Think this is what's been disturbing Melanie?" He asked.
"You're the psychic." Dean shrugged, pocketing it again.
"Guess there's no harm in checking if it has a history." Sam said.
"We can pawn it if it doesn't." Dean said, ever the optimist.
"We're returning it to her if and when we figure out if its got something to do with the disturbance." Sam lectured.
"Yeah, yeah, you're not a criminal, we know." Dean replied sarcastically.
"Hey Sam, what's the name on your fake Homeland Security badge again?" Jack asked. Dean snickered.
"Fine, make jokes," Sam said casually, smirking at them. "When you end up in jail one day, I'm gonna use my fake badges and id's to pretend I don't know either of you."
"Oh Sammich, don't be that way." Jack said putting on a fake pout.
"He'd be lost without us Jack-Jack. Wouldn't know what to do with himself." Dean assured her arrogantly.
"Yeah, what would I do without my two best felons." Sam laughed.
"Damn right." Dean asserted.
"Found something." Sam said leaning back from the computer a couple of hours later. "Its an antique Melanie purchased at an online auction a few weeks ago."
"Around when she moved into her house?" Dean asked, looking up tossing a ball in the air.
"Yeah, right after, actually." Sam said.
"What's the history behind it?" Jack asked. She was seated on her cot, writing down notes about Black Dogs in her hunting journal.
"At least someone's pretending to work." Sam grumbled, glaring at Dean.
"I'm working on my hand eye coordination." Dean argued tossing the ball up again. Sam lunged forward and caught it before Dean could and set it down next to the laptop.
"You can have it back after school." He chastised Dean.
"Haha." Jack taunted Dean.
"Teacher's pet." Dean accused.
"Children, can we?" Sam asked gesturing at the computer screen.
"Fine." Dean sat upright and Jack put closed the leather journal, both looked at him expectantly.
"It belonged to the last living member of a very wealthy family outside St. Louis. A Rose Bertrand, who passed away a few months ago at the age of 97." Sam read from the page. Dean whistled when he heard the age.
"Anyway, most of her estate was donated to charities and a local historical society there. When the historical society needed money, they put pieces up for auction to raise funds."
"And tragic history with the family?" Dean asked.
"Rose's daughter died of Cholera in the thirties. The bell was a gift at the little girl's birth." Sam said.
"Maybe Rose's spirit fastened on to the bell." Jack suggested. "Probably not even a violent spirit, just a mother who couldn't let go."
"Its likely." Sam nodded.
"So we purify the bell and it should be fine." Dean said.
"I don't know." Sam said with a doubtful look.
"What? We've got the supplies, got the ritual in Jack's book. What's the problem?" Dean asked.
"It wouldn't be too long of a drive to the cemetery the family plot is in." Sam said looking at the address at the bottom of the historical societies information page on the Bertrand family.
"We cold drop the bell off there." Sam said.
"Let her be with her daughter." Jack nodded in agreement.
"That's all well and good now but what if the spirit becomes violent later on?" Dean asked with a 'duh' expression directed at the two of them.
"Then we come back." Sam said simply.
"Well, okay, I guess." Dean said slowly.
"Maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves." Jack said opening her book back up. "Should find out tomorrow if the house is still acting up, before we make a drive to a bone yard."
Cassie invited the trio to her house for an early dinner before her outing with Melanie that she couldn't get out of now.
Most of the evening was scattered with talk between her and Dean, talking about their short time together as a couple. They didn't talk much about what Dean did, no shop talk at all, which was completely unprecedented with them. Every time something came close to the subject Cassie would hedge around the conversation and bring it back to something safe and normal.
"Do you remember when I dragged you to that county fair?" Cassie asked Dean, who laughed embarrassed.
"Didn't I win you some stuffed duck or something?" Dean asked shooting Sam a dirty look when he snorted, biting his lip to keep form laughing.
"It was a stuffed penguin, actually." Cassie corrected him with a smile.
"Whatever, it was one of those shooting games." Dean defended his manliness.
"Cause that's what real men win at?" Jack asked, trying to imagine the situation without laughing.
"He hit every target." Cassie said.
"Of course he did, Dean's been holding a rifle since he was seven." Sam said.
"Seven?" Cassie asked.
"I was a natural." Dean said proudly.
"Thank God for that, its our asses if you miss on the job." Jack chuckled. Cassie took a gulp of her drink, hiding the frown that crossed her face, but not before Jack caught it.
"I'm so glad you came through town. I've been thinking a lot about you lately Dean." Cassie said warmly when they were finished eating.
"Yeah, I guess its a good thing we had a job close by." Dean smiled. Cassie's smiled faltered and she rose.
"I'll clear the table, get us some coffee." Cassie said.
"We can help." Sam offered.
"No, please, you're guests." Cassie protested sternly like a good hostess.
She cleared away her and Dean's plates, coming back for Sam and Jack's.
"You can make yourselves at home in the living room." She called from the kitchen.
Dean was the first to take her up on this, leading the way there.
"Yo, where's your bathroom? Jack called. She thought she heard something being mumbled in the kitchen.
"Down the hall, to you right." Cassie answered.
On her way back, Jack detoured at the kitchen. She leaned against the doorway watching Dean's ex fill the coffee maker and turn it on.
Cassie jumped a mile high when she turned to see Jack leaning casually against the door jamb.
"S'okay, just me." Jack assured, tamping down on some malicious part of her that enjoyed scaring the woman.
"Coffee will be ready in a minute." Cassie told her coldly, turning her back on Jack to get some coffee cups out of the cabinets. Jack crossed the room, fast and silent, taking a place behind Cassie.
"You don't like me, do you?" Jack said startling Jack again. Cassie regained her composure.
"And if I don't?" Cassie challenged, taking an unwise step closer to Jack.
"I don't much care." Jack said smirking. "But I do care what happens to Dean."
"I can see that." A spiteful smirk crossed Cassie's lips. "What exactly are you to him?"
"Honey, if I wanted Dean-o he'd be on his back already." Jack said with a throaty chuckle, her deep drawl coming out hiding. She forced down an unwelcome thought that contradicted that claim. Like hell was she jealous.
"See, I know your type," Jack continued. "You think he'll change, that you can fix Dean. You think he'll leave this job behind if you give him the ultimatum. Am I getting close?"
"Dean can change. He doesn't have to be a low life drifter like you. I'll make sure-" Cassie sneered.
"Problem with your theory, bitch," Jack interrupted and closed the tiny gap between them, using her superior height to advantage. She dropped her voice low, "There's nothing wrong with Dean. He's fine the way he is and if you hurt him, I'll hurt you. I'm good at that, being a low life and all."
"Hey is the cof-" Sam stopped in the doorway seeing Jack and Cassie less than a centimeter apart, menace dripping off of Jackie.
"Almost." Jack turned towards him, her voice barely above a growl. She reached around Cassie and grabbed a cup, tossing it to Sam. He caught it easily.
"Everything okay in here?" He asked taking a step forward.
"Good, Sam-I-Am. We were just having a talk. Just 'tween us girls." Jack said taking a mug for herself and walking to pour coffee for herself, a beatific smile on her face. She didn't give Cassie a backwards glance on her way out.
Cassie cut their little visit short, saying she still had to get ready to meet her friend. Jack wasn't surprised, neither was Sam. Dean was, of course, oblivious.
"What did you say to her?" Sam asked in a whisper as they waited in the newly returned Impala for Dean to say goodnight.
"She'll be fine." Jack waved him off.
"She looked terrified." Sam said glancing back at the house.
"I just told her what you or Dean would say on my behalf, hurt my friend you die." Jack said with a smile.
"You couldn't have ignored her, taken the high road?" Sam asked equal parts amused and annoyed.
"I did." Jack protested.
"You have a warped idea of what taking the high road means." Sam laughed shaking his head.
"At least I didn't shoot her." Jack pointed out.
"Too bad she's demonic." Sam said wistfully.
"I'm still not sure about that." Jack said.
"I slipped Holy water in her coffee. She's a bitch but she'd not evil." Sam said. They both fell silent as Dean opened the driver's side door and slipped behind the wheel.
"I missed you, baby." Dean said rubbing his hands over the steering wheel.
"Dude even I didn't get that hands on with Alice." Jack said shaking her head at him.
"Et tu, Brutus," Dean shook his head in faux betrayal and started the car.
TBC……
AN: Next chapter is the last, I intended to finish it with this one, but I decided to split things up. Cassie shows her true colors and we get a nice ending to things. Cross your fingers that my muses will keep the good stuff coming, chickadees.