The next day Dean was strong enough to get out of bed, for a while at least. With Sam following closely behind him, Dean walked from his room to a table in the main room of the Roadhouse. He sat down while Sam reached behind the bar to get a pitcher of orange juice and two glasses. Ellen was standing on the other end of the bar cleaning glasses, she eyed Dean carefully. He seemed to be better than he was yesterday. At least he was up out of bed. She smiled, and was slightly thankful for only having one child, as she listened to the boys' conversation.
"I hate orange juice." Dean said, pushing the glass away.
"Tough!" Sam said, pushing it back toward his brother. "You're the one who decided to get sick, so now I'm gonna be the one telling you what to drink."
"Oh cut the mother hen act, would ya. All I want is some coffee." Dean whined.
"Drink this first, then you can have coffee." Sam said, staring Dean down.
Ellen watched as Dean grabbed the glass and took a sip. Just then Jo walked in. She glanced at Dean, who smiled and Jo looked away. Ellen gave Jo a questioning look, but Jo ignored it. The entire room was filled with a somewhat awkard silence for a while, as Jo and Ellen stood by the bar and the boys sat at the table. It was Ellen who spoke first.
"Boys," She said "I believe I owe you an apology."
"For what?" Sam asked.
"For what I told Jo about how her father died. I never should have used what your father did against the two of you. You were just children at the time, you had nothing to do with that hunt."
"Mom…" Jo tried to interrupt.
"No, I never should have made you doubt them, I'm sorry." Ellen said.
"They didn't use me as bait." Jo blurted out as soon as her mother finished. Now everyone was staring at her. "I volunteered, they didn't make me."
"Yeah, but Jo, we never should have let you, we should have found another way." Sam said.
"And that second time, it was definitely our idea. We never should have asked you to do that either." Dean said, and soon all three of the young hunters were talking over each other, trying to make excuses for why it was their own fault and no one else's.
"ENOUGH!" Ellen yelled above the noise, and suddenly the Roadhouse was quiet again. "I don't care who used who, or whose idea it was. What's done is done, and it never should have created such a rift between us."
Sam, Dean and Jo looked like children being reprimanded for breaking a neighbor's window, with their heads hung and eyes averted from Ellen. The barely audible "sorry" from the three almost made Ellen smile.
"Now, I'm going to go back in the kitchen and make some pancakes so you boys can have a decent breakfast for once. You three play nice."
After breakfast, Dean sat around for a while, until Sam forced him to go take a shower.
"Dude, you stink." Sam argued.
"I smell manly Sam." Dean countered.
"Yeah, if manly means a man who hasn't bathed in 3 days, then sure, you smell manly."
Dean simply made a face at Sam before leaving to take a shower. They day was the most normal day the brothers had had since before Dean started getting sick. They hung around the bar all day, bickering with each other and talking with everyone.
Dean played pool with a few hunters and would have had a beer if Sam hadn't snatched it from him and told Dean that he was still sick, which only made Dean whine and gripe more. Dean was almost forced to go back to bed when Sam caught him falling asleep at a table, but after a small argument, Dean went willingly. A few hours later, Sam went to bed and as soon as he walked into the room, he was greeted by Dean's loud snoring. Sam smiled as he lay in his bed, everything was getting back to normal.
Please r&r, thanks.