"Bobby?"
"Shh." He hissed. He motioned to at her to join him and angled the phone so they both could hear.
"This is Dean. I'm going to be unreachable for a while. Call Bobby Singer on-"
The old man hung up and the two hunters looked at each other. "Could be nothin'." Bobby said. "If he had time to record a message like that."
"Or it could be everything. It could mean that whatever this Black Eden is has got them already."
"Or it could be nothing." Bobby said once more, though his tone was highly dubious.
"Bobby, you've known those two for a hell of a lot longer than I have." Jo said. "How many times have they gotten in way over their heads on a hunt now? They aren't invincible, and neither of them can see it."
"Where are you going, girl?" Bobby demanded, still nursing his phone as she slipped into her jacket and went to the door.
"I'm getting sick of those two always ducking out on me." She answered gruffly. I'll call you, all those years ago. Damn you. "I'm gonna find 'em. I'll keep you up to speed."
"Jo-" He looked concerned, but his concern was eclipsed by his annoyance. "You get back here. If they're on a hunt, you can't just storm in there."
"Duh. I'm not that stupid. I'll just track them for a bit, make sure they aren't in any trouble that they can't handle. I wont get involved if it's just a run-of-the-mill job." She looked at him, her eyes wide and innocent. "I swear I'm just going to take a look around."
"Your mother is going to kill me. Get back here right now!"
Jo ignored his commands. She turned back and waved to him.
"Beep me if the world ends."
"Joanna Beth Harvelle!"
Sorry, old man. That doesn't work with me anymore.
For a moment she wished her dad was here. Dammit, those two brothers got into everything, didn't they? And her Mom thought she was a handful. Honestly, she hated it.
She hated the way they could make her care about them after all the crap the pair of them had put her through.
Jo had just left a twenty-four hour diner and truckstop when her phone rang.
"Hello?"
"It's me."
"Babe, I told you not to call me when I'm at work." Jo said to her sometime-boyfriend, the elusive AJ.
AJ used to be an archaeologist back in the day. Doctor Jones, even. But then the death of his young son and the disintegration of that life caused him to fall in with the wrong crowd, stealing ancient artefacts to order.
But he was going straight, now. Helping in the good fight.
Maybe I'll just check his phone later, anyway. Just as a precaution.
"Jo, you still there?"
"Why wouldn't I be? My life's just one long party."
AJ pulled in a deep breath, like he was already regretting what he must say to her, but he spat it out anyway. "I want you to stop chasing the Winchesters." He said this in a firm yet tired voice, like he knew he had already lost the argument.
Jo's hands stiffened involuntarily. "Who told you?"
"Bobby Singer."
"That dick." Jo seethed. "Did you tell him I can look after myself now?"
"He thinks this is dangerous. And I believe him."
"I'm not a kid, mister. I can look after myself." Jo was affronted that even after all this time, everyone thought that she still needed to be locked up where she couldn't get hurt. "I don't believe I'm getting this from you now, especially after all you've done."
"And don't you think there's lots I'd give anything to take back?" He snapped back at her. "Are you driving?"
"So what if I am?"
AJ was silent for a minute, knowing she was getting stubborn because he wanted her to do something she deemed as selfish. "You want to argue?" He asked. "Turn around and come home and we'll have a proper knock-down, drag-out fight, how does that sound?" He hardly stopped to draw breath. "You act this way around those two guys all the time, and that's cool, I know where you're coming from. They're your friends from a long time back, and that's not gonna change. I get that.
"But Jo, because they're your friends, you subconsciously edit out their faults. I mean, everyone does it, but it also means that you stop looking at them objectively."
"Are you saying I'm seeing Sam and Dean through rose-coloured glasses?" Jo asked incredulously. She hated when he deconstructed her. She remembered when she complained to her mom about it and Ellen just laughed and said welcome to the relationship.
"Yes, and I'm jealous because you never seemed to use them on me." AJ replied dryly. "You don't see them the way everybody else does. The way I do. They're dangerous, and you refuse to see that."
"So you're an impartial witness?" Jo sneered.
"I have lost too many people who were important to me over the last ten years, I wont lose you too." She could hear the anguish in his voice. "Please, honey, this obsession of the Winchesters is going to kill you. Just come home, where it's safe."
"You know I love you, right?"
"Don't do that. It makes you sound like you're dying." He said. "But listen, those two are a two-man band. No one knows what goes on inside their heads. Anyway, who needs friends that never phone, never write, and the only time they drop in for a beer is when the next apocalypse-type situation rolls around?"
Jo smiled wanly. That was true. Everything he said was true. That's why she had denied it. She closed her eyes, and that fraction of a second was long enough for the Mack prime mover in the opposite lane to start drifting toward her car.
Her eyes snapped open and she dropped the phone. "Shit!" She yanked the steering wheel to the side, taking her car off the road. The truck missed her back bumper by inches, and she breathed a sigh of relief, before sanding on the brakes.
Unfortunately inertia continued to carry her forward into the trees.
The buzzing of the radio was erratic and fleeting. Dazedly, Jo pushed her hair back from her face. There was blood all over the steering wheel; her nose wasn't broken but it did bend to the wrong side of her face. Shakily she forced the driver's door open.
The truck that had forced her off the road had kept going.
"Bastard!" Jo screamed into the night. "Fucking asshole!"
Her phone was stuck underneath the brake pedal. The LCD screen had shattered and the battery fell out as soon as she picked it up.
"Friggin' fantastic." She swore once more.
"You know, a good lady shouldn't use that sort of language."
Jo whipped her head around so fast that she heard something crack.
The young girl was standing a little apart from her, looking deceptively innocent. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt despite the chill in the air. "Hello, Joanna." She said in a chirpy voice, one that sent chills down Jo's spine. "Don't you know me?"
Jo took a tentative step forward, highly aware that the only weapon she had was the ruined mobile she was still clutching in her hand.
"Mary… Morgan?" She asked slowly.
She had met the eight-year-old last Christmas on a hunt. The little girl was being used as a tool by the spirit of one of the psychic kids, one that had degenerated so far that there was no other choice but to destroy her.
But Mary was safe. She was supposed to be safe.
"Oh, you are silly." The little girl tittered. "Mary's gone away. I'm Lilith now."
Lilith.
"You're thinking of running away, aren't you? Do you think you'll get far? I don't think so, but you'll still try, wont you?"
"What the hell do you want?" Jo rasped hoarsely.
"You know where he is." Lilith said sweetly. "Up here." She tapped the side of her head. "I want to know what you know."
"Where who is?" She suddenly felt very cold.
"He's hidden from me, and that's not very fair. They've hidden him from me, hidden him away."
"Who? Tell me who you're talking about!"
"You know." Lilith said in an ugly voice. She reached her hand forward. "This may hurt ever so much."
Jo closed her eyes.
"Stop!"
The voice was raspy and male and angry. Jo peered up at him. He was a tall man, with greying dark hair and a black suit. "Begone, whore."
Lilith visibly bristled. Oh, hell, Jo thought.
"Don't try to stop me." The female demon said, the baby talk dropping from her voice. "What I do now is to benefit us all. When he breaks through, he will cauterise this world. The gateway must be destroyed."
The other one shrugged. "It is no business of mine whether the Black Eden rises or not." He said. "I have nothing against Samael." He said this as though if the words were spoken aloud, they would become true. "It is only you, witch, that will burn."
"You are an incorrigible fool, Belial." Lilith hissed. "I must destroy the gateway, for all our sakes."
"You will? And how do you intend to do that when your little bird has flown?"
The human woman, Joanna Beth Harvelle, was gone. Lilith swore frightfully, some of the curses in long-forgotten tongues.
"Oh dearie me." Belial said.
Despite evidence to the contrary, Jo wasn't stupid. As the demons faced off against each other in some sort of ultimate slanging match, she sunk to the ground beside her trashed car and vanished behind the offending tree.
Moving faster than she thought she was capable of, she faulted a wooden fence and sprinted for the far-off treeline.
Once again she sunk to the ground.
They'll find me soon.
Stay quiet and maybe they'll walk past you.
They're going to tear. You. Apart.
It wasn't very heroic, but Jo did what she used to do all the time when she was a child. She curled into the smallest ball possible and prayed to anyone that was out there that the monsters wouldn't get her.
Tears forced themselves out of the corners of her eyes. Please, please…
A hand landed on her shoulder.
"Ah!" She almost jumped out of her skin.
"Be still, Joanna. They will not see you while you are with us."
The man was tall and handsome in an untouchable kind of way. As Jo met his eyes, she was almost overwhelmed by the feeling that she wasn't worthy, him in his spotless shirt and tie, and she in her ripped jeans and bloody tank. There was a feeling emanating from him that said he would not hurt her. Would not allow her to be hurt.
"Who are you?" She whispered.
"My name is Castiel." He said. "These are my companions, Sariel and Elijah."
Jo knew she should try to talk, but for some reason she couldn't get anything out.
"You are indeed lucky, young one." The one called Elijah said. "In mere moments we would have left this place. But Castiel happened to spot your plight."
Jo licked her dry lips. "Why?" She asked.
"And so it was the Good Samaritan that stopped for the wounded traveller on the road to Jericho." He said simply.
"Castiel, you have done your good deed for the day. Do not tell the mud woman more than she needs." Sariel had a sharp face, and cold, calculating eyes. "She knows our names and that is more than enough to endanger the mission."
The mission?
"Samael must be destroyed. No matter how long you continue to delay." Sariel said dangerously. Castiel's face did not betray his emotions, but the hand on Jo's shoulder stiffened.
"You talk about us being frivolous with our speech, and yet your own words fall like teardrops in the rain."
He helped her to her feet. Reluctantly Jo let go of Castiel's hand. He continued to look at her, as if he wasn't quite sure what she was, and she once again began to feel uncomfortable.
"Leave her! We must get to the gateway before he breaks through and the Black Eden comes!" Sariel commanded.
"It's cool." Jo said. He must have had a major hard-on for all that Good Samaritan crap. "I'll…" She looked back at her car. "Hitchhike or something."
"And run the risk of crossing paths with Belial and Lilith once more." Castiel said gravely. "She will come with us." He announced.
"Will she?" Jo raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. Sariel was even less enthusiastic.
"I am in command of this crusade!" He snapped. "The child of Adam will stay where she is!"
"And I am the guardian of this day." Castiel flung back. "This dark day where everything is to be destroyed or changed forever. As the sun rises, so I am the strongest of we three. And I say she comes with us."
"Who are you guys?" Jo questioned, eyes narrowed.
Elijah looked her squarely in the eyes, before answering.
"'Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword'."