Chapter 1:
It had been a long day. A long life, in fact. They'd been gone for three months on a job that left them more bruised up and bloody. The life of a hunter was never ending. There was always some big bad knocking on the door.
"I want a quiet weekend," Dean told Sam as he drove.
Sam scoffed. "Yeah, and which demon are you gonna make that deal with?"
"No, I mean it." The older brother shook his head. "This weekend, we aren't gonna answer any calls. No jobs, no apocalypse, no angels. Just a weekend of being normal."
"What's brought this on?"
"I've been gone for three damn months, Sam. Three months when I've got a girl waiting for me." he sighs. "I need to spend time with her. Real time, not a quick night then off to the next job."
Sam grunted, not bothering to respond. He knew where his brother was coming from. Sam had given up the hunter life at a shot with his girl. Eventually the secrets of the life caught up with him.
It was another four hours on the road before they reached the Roadhouse. The parking lot held a couple of other cars in it. Dean recognized a few as hunters they'd bumped into now and then. The sign above the porch flickered in that familiar pattern. Dean spent a couple of hours the last time he was here trying to get that damned sign to stop blinking. Nothing he did could stop it.
As the brothers stepped into the bar they were greeted by the familiar smell of cigarettes, greasy food, and beer. A few of the regulars were sitting on their favorite stools at the bar. Ash sat in one of the booths typing away on a laptop.
"Hey, Ellen, how about a beer?" Dean greeted the woman behind the bar.
She turned to look at him. "Go to hell, Dean Winchester."
"What the hell did I do?"
"Oh, I think you know good and well what exactly you did." she said, throwing a towel at him. "Sam, get your piece of shit brother out of my bar."
"Whoa, Ellen, just calm down for a minute and tell us what's going on," Sam said, stepping in between them.
"It's Jo-" she starts.
Dean didn't need to hear any more. Despite Ellen's protests, he runs up the stairs that led to the apartment above the bar. He could make his way around that apartment blindfolded. Terrible thoughts kept swimming around his head, drowning him. Visions of her bloodied and bruised clouded his mind.
He didn't bother knocking, he bursted into her room. She lay peacefully on her bed. Her blonde hair tied back in a braid. Dean knew that she hated sleeping with her hair down because it would get all tangled. Looking over her he couldn't see anything wrong with her.
"Jo," he called to her waking her out of her slumber.
"Hmm?" she asked sitting up in bed. The bedding fell down to her waist as she sat up.
That was when he saw it. The reason that Ellen was so hostile. Now he couldn't blame her. The blankets now curved around his girl's noticeable baby bump.
