She let one tear fall; that really ought to be enough…
"Where are you going, Dean?" Jo was truly worried. The one thing they'd always tried to do the past few years was be a team, and now he was shutting her out, like he used to.
"I don't know Jo, but I can't just sit here…I need to go find her."
"Who's Meg?" Sarah asked.
"A demon; she possessed Sam once." Jo said looking at her briefly, then turning to Dean when he corrected her. Jo had guessed almost right.
"It possessed Sam once…We just call it Meg because that's the first person it possessed…Well the first person we know of." Dean said grabbing a shirt from the laundry basket and pulling it on. He turned, grabbing his old leather coat off the hook in front of the door as Jo rushed up to him.
"Dean, wait." she begged, wanting to go with him.
"I can't do it again, Jo."
"Do what?"
"Say goodbye…" She looked up at him confused, so he dropped his head and continued, "That morning before I left to meet the crossroad's demon, I stood watching her. I said goodbye. I felt like I was loosing a part of myself." She put a hand on his cheek and he leaned into it before pulling her onto him so he had his arms around her and her head was laid on his chest. "I can't do that again." he whispered into her hair, "I told you I'd never leave her again…and Sammy? I've already let him down once, and I…"
"We'll get them back." Jo said lifting her head up and staring at him until he nodded and leaned down to rest his forehead against hers, "Together." she promised finally. "Together."
Jo rushed down, heavy boots clunking on every step so that Sarah knew that she was coming and walked to the bottom of the stairs to meet her.
"We'll take you to the hospital on the way there. You should get checked out." Jo said as she pulled her arm through her jacket and shrugged it on. Sarah nodded, but Jo didn't see, she was reaching into a draw in the hallway. "Here's my cellphone. We'll call you when we find them." she said hugging Sarah gently.
They all made their way out to the car and Dean drove them to the hospital. Jo went inside with Sarah, but quickly came back out. She hated leaving a pregnant, stressed woman on her own, but she didn't have time to think what was best for Sarah right now. She didn't have time to think about anyone except Ashley, and Dean was similarly affected by her and Sam.
When Jo got back in the car he was silent. He knew she'd got in because he sped away as soon as her door closed, but he didn't turn to her or speak to her, and she didn't speak to him; she didn't need answers or promises from him. She trusted in him that he was going to take them somewhere they needed to go.
He was taking them to Illinois. Meg left her name for a reason, she wanted to be found, so she'd go somewhere they both knew…the abandoned building in Chicago where they'd first found out the truth about her. Dean just hoped that it was still there, because he didn't know where else to go, and he just hoped he could get there in time. Sure, she wanted him to find her, but he didn't count on the fact that she'd wait for him to get to her before doing anything to Sam or Ashley.
Jo stared out of the window, did her best to try not to think about where her daughter was right now, or how useless it was to hope that Sam was in some sort of position to protect her. She just stared and the lights on the road got fewer as they travelled into the middle of nowhere and then more as they travelled back out again. As the night dragged on at one point she let a tear fall down her cheek for Ashley.
Dean couldn't have seen it, because she wasn't facing him and it was too dark to see her reflection in the window. He couldn't have seen it, but she felt like he must have sensed it, because he reached his arm around her and pulled her into him so that her head rested against his shoulder.
Jo was a woman now, and she was strong, but she held onto his arm with both of hers, wrapped around it just as tight as she'd held onto her father's arm as a little girl. They didn't need words; they had each other to get thought this; that really ought to be enough.