A/N: I should have said this last chapter as well, but I do not own Supernatural or the characters in any way. Thank you so much to Katiefall, KeepCalmAndDoItLikeAFanGirl, JBethH, Maeusle, and The Mad Traveler for the reviews, and to everyone who followed and favorited this story!
Those Who Save Us
Chapter 2: Everything is the Same
SPN Episodes: (Are You There God? It's Me, Dean Winchester) (In the Beginning)
"And still everything's the same, even though I did my best to get as far away as I could." – Young-Ha Kim
All four hunters had made their way up to Bobby's library with the orders to cover each other, aim carefully, and to not run out of ammo. They ran into only one spirit on their way there, a man named Ronald that they boys couldn't save. Dean had tried to make peace with him, but as Ronald's anger increased, Bobby's patience did not. Bobby had shot Ronald as he stood up to make his way towards them.
As soon as they made it into the library, everyone immediately went to work. Sam began to lay a line of salt down across the room, Dean lit a fire, and Jo grabbed a bowl for Bobby while he looked up the correct spell he needed. Even though they had made it to the study, some ingredients they needed were still scattered throughout the house. Bobby immediately decided he needed to send Jo and the boys to gather what he needed.
Looking up at Sam, Bobby commanded "Upstairs, linen closet. Red hex box. It'll be heavy."
Sam obeyed the order immediately, running up the stairs to get said box. The next thing Bobby needed he decided to send Jo after. Looking at her, he ordered "Upstairs, my bedroom, small wooden chest. Should be under the bed."
Jo nodded, and started to follow Sam. Dean moved to follow her, his protective instincts towards her heightening as she went off alone in a house full of ghosts hellbent on killing her.
"I need you here, Dean!" Bobby yelled, halting Dean.
As she ascended the stairs two at a time, she could hear Bobby ordering Dean to the kitchen. Jo made it to the top of the staircase, and started to run down the hall towards Bobby's bedroom. She would have to run past the hallway that the linen closet was in – where Sam would be searching for the hex box. She was just about to pass that hall, when she heard a conversation between Sam and another one of the spirits that stopped her. She stayed put behind the wall, careful that neither Sam nor the ghost would hear her.
"You know what really pisses me off, Sam?" a female ghost asked. "You saw how I suffered for months. I thought you must have learned something. I thought I died for something."
"Meg," Sam seemed to plead, as if he knew where the conversation was going. Like he knew what she would accuse him of.
Not liking how the situation was sounding, Jo's heart rate picked up. What was she talking about? What had Sam done? Her questions were answered as the ghost, now known as Meg to her, continued on "But what you're doing with that demon, Ruby? How many innocent bodies has Ruby burned through for kicks? How many girls, just like me? And you don't send her back to hell?! You're a monster."
Jo's blood ran cold. Sam working with a demon? She thought she must have misunderstood. But how could she have? This "Meg" obviously had shaken Sam, enough to make him pause before he shot her with a salt round. Did Dean or Bobby know about this? Jo shook her head. Right now she had to focus on getting that wooden chest back to Bobby so that the angry spirits could be cast away. The rest could be sorted out later.
Bursting through Bobby's bedroom door, Jo immediately saw a blonde haired woman standing in the middle of Bobby's room. "Hi Jo!" she said in a bubbly voice. "Remember me?" Jo studied the woman's face, and a picture in a newspaper clipping popped into her mind. Of course. Jo had poured over this girl's case for days, studying it. It was her first, after all.
"Yeah, I think I do." Jo replied evenly, lifting her gun in defense.
"Well, we actually never met," she confessed with a frown. "But you took a great interest in my story! My name's Rita. I lived in a small apartment in Philadelphia…." She trailed off, hoping to spark Jo's memory further.
"Yep. Rita Myers. The H.H. Holmes case?"
"Yay!" Rita burst, jumping up and down and clapping her hands. "I'm so glad that you remembered me. That way you'll know why I have to kill you."
"Come on, Rita. It doesn't have to be this way." Jo cautioned her, pointing her gun square at Rita.
Rita, on the other hand, seemed completely unphased. "You know, it is a shame that no one took an interest in that case a little sooner. I mean, six blonde girls going missing in the same apartment complex? And over a period of 80 years? You'd think hunters would have shown interest at some point. I mean, you did, but you were too late. And that's not good enough, because I was already in the ground by the time you met up with the Winchesters." Rita explained, a small frown on her face. "But look at me now!"
Jo couldn't help but do as she ordered, seeing that Rita had pieces of her hair and scalp torn from her head. Her clothes were torn, probably from Holmes grabbing her the same way he had tried to grab Jo. Her nails were bloody stumps, and with sickening realization Jo figured that must explain the scratch marks that she had seen above her in that tiny little box Holmes had put her in.
"That creep took me and put me into this tiny steel box- Oh! Silly me. I forgot that you know exactly what I'm talking about. The only difference is that you were in there for, like, a couple hours while I was in there for over two days. You were so busy trying to prove yourself to that Winchester that you're in love with that you let yourself get caught. And to think that he turned around and just used you as bait. Like father, like daughter."
Jo's anger flared. She wasn't going to waste any more time listening this crap. So she shot Rita with a salt round, grabbed the chest, and ran downstairs to rejoin Bobby.
Bobby's house had turned quite literally into a war zone. Ghosts continued to pop up everywhere – Timmy, Rita, Henriksen, the twins, Meg, Ronald. Jo put the wooden chest on the desk next to Bobby, and turned to put more rounds of rock salt into her shotgun. Bobby began the spell, chanting in a language that sounded like Latin.
The spirits seemed to sense that they were going to be cast back to where they had come from, and so they started appearing faster and faster. Jo and the brothers focused on guarding Bobby while he tried to finish the spell. They were having little difficulty in keeping the spirits away. That is, until the ghost of Henriksen threw Dean's shotgun clear out of his hands while he was trying to reload it. Dean picked up another shotgun, only to find that it wasn't loaded. At a loss, he picked up a crowbar and swung it through Henriksen's torso.
Sam soon ran out of ammo as well, leaving him vulnerable to attack. Meg took this as a great opportunity to shove a dresser into him, pinning him against the wall. Sam struggled to push the heavy object away from himself, but he was no match for Meg's supernatural strength. Dean called out to his brother, alerting Jo to Sam's situation. The twins appeared on top of the dresser, and Jo quickly shot a round of salt into them. Dropping her shotgun on Bobby's desk, she went over to help Sam pry the dresser off. Jo hadn't been helping Sam for even a couple seconds before Rita appeared beside her and shoved her into the wall.
Jo's back slammed into the wall so hard that it knocked the wind out of her. Her knees buckled against the wall, leaving her vulnerable to Rita's next move. As Rita was standing over her though, Dean's crowbar quickly took care of her.
"Are you okay?" Dean shouted. Jo nodded as she took deep breaths, willing the air back into her lungs. She stood straight once again and immediately noticed Timmy standing behind Dean. Jo lunged for her shotgun and emptied a round into him.
Bobby suddenly gasped and then began moaning in pain. Dean and Jo looked over to see Meg with her arm through Bobby's back, gripping his heart. "Bobby!" Dean screamed, concern in his voice.
"Dean!" Bobby called back in warning. The spell bowl was slipping from his hands. Without a second thought, Dean immediately lunged for the bowl, catching it in dramatic fashion just before the contents could spill all over the ground, therefore ruining everything Bobby had done so far. "Fireplace!"
Dean obeyed the command, and threw the contents of the bowl onto the fire. The fire turned blue immediately, and started growing bigger and brighter. All four hunters were able to shield their eyes just in time as a blast of blue light overtook the room, taking all of the vengeful spirits with it.
All became quiet. Sam pushed the dresser off of himself and Dean helped Bobby off of the ground.
Still seated in the study, everyone was quiet, mulling over everything that had just happened and what they'd all been told by vengeful spirits. They were exhausted, bruised, and bloody.
Sam let out a huff. "Well, I need a beer. Anyone else want one?"
He started walking away, and Dean called out after him "Yeah, Sammy, I'll take one." Turning to Jo, he added, "You want one?"
Jo seemed to not even hear Dean. She was still lost in her thoughts, staring straight ahead. Everything she had been accused of had felt like a punch to the gut. Everything that Rita had accused her of had hit a little too close to home. If she knew that much about Jo, that must mean that everything those spirits said was true. It meant that Rita suffered in that box for over two days, and that Timmy's parents really did get divorced – Jo felt responsible for all of it. And if the ghosts had all told the truth, that also meant that Sam was somehow working with a demon. For what, she wasn't sure of yet. She walked outside and stood out on Bobby's front porch with her arms crossed, gazing out into the salvage yard.
Back inside, Dean's eyebrows were pushed together with confusion. He turned to Bobby, hoping that the older hunter would have an answer for why Jo had wordlessly paced outside. "Kid," Bobby said, "I wish I could help ya, but maybe you oughta figure this one out on your own."
Sam returned and tried to hand Dean the bottle of beer that he had requested, but Dean had other things on his mind. Even as Sam tried to nudge Dean's arm with the bottle, Dean payed him no attention. Instead, he stood up to follow Jo outside. He found her on the porch, looking out into the dark.
As she heard the screen door screech open behind her, Jo braced herself. She really wanted to be alone with her thoughts right now, and didn't need anyone trying to help her. She wasn't about to get her way.
"Jo?" Dean questioned in his raspy voice. "What's goin' on?"
"Nothing, Dean. I'm fine," she answered through a cracked voice, not turning to look at him. "Just need to be alone for a while."
Unsure of what to do, Dean muttered a soft "Okay." and went to go back inside. He was never good at the "touchy-feely crap" as he so lovingly put it, and wasn't sure how to comfort Jo right now.
Jo, however, suddenly felt guilty for the way she had just dismissed Dean. He was just trying to help, after all. The man had just gotten back from Hell and was still checking that she was okay. She had spent the past four months grieving over him, and she wasn't going to push him away now.
"Dean," she called to him. She turned around and saw that he had only made it about halfway through the screen door.
"Yeah?" he questioned, looking at her hopefully.
With his eyes suddenly boring into hers, she wasn't quite sure what to say. A few moments passed where they looked at each other hesitantly, an awkward silence passing between them. Finally, Jo spoke. "Sorry… it's just that those spirits knew exactly what to say to get under your skin."
"Yeah, it's a little unnerving." Dean responded. He shrugged through the door again to stand with her on the porch.
"Is everything they said the truth?" she wondered aloud, staring down at the ground. Suddenly, her mind flashed back to when she was asking Dean if demons told the truth. That night seemed so long ago now. She wanted to know if she had caused Rita and Timmy that much pain, and if Sam really was working with a demon. If that was true...well then, she wasn't sure what she would do.
Dean let out a short laugh, remembering when she had asked him a similar question years earlier. He scratched his head nervously. "Uh, probably. I mean, they knew a lot of stuff about me. They even knew that I had been 'saved' from hell."
"Yeah," Jo murmured. She sat down on one of the porch chairs and started tapping her boot nervously on the floor.
"Hey," Dean said, sensing her discomfort. He sat down in a chair opposite her. "I wouldn't pay it too much mind."
"Yeah, I know. It just… makes you think." she responded. She suddenly felt nervous, letting her guard down in front of Dean. She changed the subject. "So, did an angel really save you from hell?"
Dean laughed. "Yeah, looks like. I even met him. Said his name was 'Castiel'." He said the name with fake bravado, not really buying into the angel crap. "I still can't wrap my head around it."
"Why?" she asked, looking up at him with a small smile. This was one of those rare moments in which you may be able to get Dean Winchester to bare a little bit of his soul to you, and she wasn't about to pass it up.
"Because why would God want to save me?" he said, throwing his head up a little. "I mean, sure, I've saved some people. But me? And if this is the apocalypse, why now? Just so that he can throw me back down?" There was a slight pause as he mulled things over. "I'm not even sure that I believe in angels and God."
"Dean," Jo began, "If you spend the last several months in hell, what makes you think that the other side doesn't exist, too?"
Dean and Jo had talked for a little while longer. She seemed to not be bothered by the spirit stuff so much anymore, and had even got the stoic Dean Winchester to open up to her a little bit. They rejoined Sam and Bobby for a beer inside, and talked about their previous hunts with Jo.
They talked and laughed about some of the weirder hunts they'd been on, but the mood became more somber as they discussed the pressing matter at hand. Was it really the apocalypse? Why was it happening now?
Jo noticed the time, and said that she should get on the road soon if she wanted to find a decent motel. Bobby immediately told her that was nonsense, that she should just crash at his place. Besides, she did have a couple of beers in her. And, he pointed out, if this was in fact the apocalypse, then they should all stay together. Both Winchester brothers agreed wholeheartedly with Bobby.
Jo was immediately relieved, because even though she wouldn't admit it to herself, she was a little nervous about going out by herself if it was the apocalypse. Dean had become agitated too, not wanting Jo out there by herself. Being to hell and back had not deterred any of his protective instincts toward her, it appeared.
Sam and Dean had agreed to give Jo the couch while they slept on the floor. Jo had refused, arguing that she didn't mind sleeping on the floor. Neither brother would hear it.
And, as his brother and Jo slept, Dean was visited again by the angel Castiel.
After Castiel had appeared again to Dean, he explained to Bobby, Sam, and Jo what Castiel had told him. It had turned out that Castiel had known about the witnesses, and that the spell that rose them was one of the 66 seals of the apocalypse. Those seals were currently being broken by Lilith.
"Well, what happens when all of those seals are broken?" Sam had asked.
"'Lucifer walks free,'" Dean had quoted Castiel.
"Lucifer...like, the Lucifer?" Jo had questioned, shock showing on her face.
"That's the one," Dean commented dryly.
After recounting the visit, everyone had agreed that the best course of action would to be to search for signs of the apocalypse – seals that they could prevent from being broken by Lilith.
They had stopped at a shabby motel off of the highway, resting before driving the rest of the way to their next case. Jo had finally convinced the boys that they should take the two beds, while she slept on the couch.
As Sam heard Dean and Jo settle down for the night and then quickly fall asleep, he had other things on his mind. Hearing the other two hunters' soft, slow breathing, he gathered up his duffel bag as quietly as possible. He shut the motel door quietly behind him with a soft click, and turned to go meet Ruby in the parking lot.
Back inside, Dean began having a nightmare. And not just any nightmare. This was one of his terror-inducing, cold sweat nightmares about hell. In his dream, he saw the red flashes, and heard the awful pain-filled screams and moans. He would have sworn that he felt Alistair's knives digging into his skin, feel the shackles digging into his wrists and ankles, and feel the blood and sweat dripping down his chest.
Suddenly, he saw a glimpse of blonde, wavy hair through the reddish light, and his heart froze in panic. No. Not her. The image became clearer and Dean's worst nightmares were realized. Jo was shackled to the wall across from him. Her head was hanging forward, and blood was pouring down her arms and legs. Her chest heaved up and down with labored breaths. Look at me, Jo, Dean wanted to comfort her. I'll get you out of here. He couldn't seem to speak in this scenario though, he couldn't get his voice to come out. Slowly, her head rolled back to rest against the wall behind her, her eyes shut with pain and exhaustion.
"Dean," she whispered, and with that Dean startled awake. He sat up in bed with sweat dripping down his back. He looked down towards the foot of his bed, towards where Jo was sleeping peacefully on the couch across from him. Her hair was in waves around her head, and her chest rose up and down with soft breaths. He sighed with relief, rubbing a hand over his face. I won't get your blood on my hands, he remembered telling her.
"Hello, Dean," a new voice next to him startled him "What were you dreaming about?" He turned and saw none other than Castiel sitting next to him. After the adrenaline died down some, he turned to look at Jo, sure that she must have woken up with Castiel's appearance. "Do not worry about her," Castiel said, sensing what Dean was worried about, "she is in a deep sleep."
"What did you do to her?" Dean demanded, angry that the angel would manipulate Jo.
"Joanna is not of importance yet," Castiel explained.
"The hell she isn't!" Dean near shouted, his anger rising. Not of importance? Did this angel even know how protective Dean Winchester was? Especially over the people he cared about? And yet? What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Before Dean could question it, Castiel was speaking again. "Listen to me, you have to stop it."
"Stop what?" But instead of answering him, Castiel raised two fingers to Dean's forehead and sent him back to 1973.
Even though Castiel had put Jo into a deep sleep, she was not free from any dreams of her own. While Dean was back in time to stop Mary's actions, Jo was getting a visit from an angel herself. In this dream, she felt as though she had woken up in the motel room the next day.
Based on the sunlight streaming through the window, she figured it to be early in the morning. She sat up on the couch, the blankets pooling around her middle, and stretched her arms over her head. Jo rubbed her eyes, and then turned to the clock on the table next to her. 7:02. Perfect, she thought sarcastically. It was still a little too early for her.
A new voice startled her out of her sleepiness. "Hello, Joanna."
The unexpected deep voice made Jo nearly jump out of her skin. A man was seated on one of the cheap chairs at the small table in the motel room. He was an older man with white hair, and he wore a neatly pressed suit. She looked to Dean, hoping that he would wake up. "Who are you?"
"They call me Ithiel. I've been ordered to make sure you do what you're supposed to." He replied evenly and arrogantly. Noticing the way Jo's glance kept flickering to Dean, he told her "Oh, don't worry about him. He won't wake up for this." He held a drink in one hand – scotch, it appeared – and swirled the ice around in the glass, observing its movement.
"'What I'm supposed to?' What the hell does that mean? Who are you?!" Jo asked, her voice rising in volume.
At her flare of anger, Ithiel immediately stopped swirling his drink around. His eyes flicked to hers, and a smug grin spread across his face. "Such anger for a beautiful girl like you. Just like Dean's buddy Castiel, I am also an angel of the Lord." He rose to his feet and started pacing around the room. "Now, I can't tell you exactly why I've been assigned to watch you yet. It's part of a bigger picture. Some top ranking angels ordered it themselves."
"What would an angel want with me?" Jo suddenly found herself in a similar situation with Dean. She empathized with him now, and voiced her concerns to the angel standing in front of her. "Why do you guys need me and Dean?"
Ithiel turned to face Jo directly, and looked down to where she was still sitting on the couch. "Look at you," he said evenly, that smug smile appearing on his face again. "So full of herself…" he mused. "Sweetheart, you're not as important to us as he is." He motioned behind himself towards Dean with his glass.
Jo shook her head, her brain trying to wrap around all of this information. "What do you want from me now?"
"Hey, ten points for blondie." He chuckled. "See, if you notice, something is not right with this picture." Ithiel raised his arms, motioning to the room around him. "And I bet, if you put that pretty little noggin of yours to work, you'll figure it out."
The conversation was getting more and more confusing. What did he mean? There was something wrong with the room? What could be amiss about the room that an angel would get involved, and get her to do something about it? She scanned the room, looking all around, while Ithiel continued to stare at her. Everything was as it should be, except… Sam. The younger Winchester did not seem to be in the room anymore, even though he had been there when they all fell asleep.
"Where's Sam?" Jo asked, her voice dripping with anger. What had he done to him?
"Yes!" Ithiel said excitedly. "That girl you got here is pret-ty smart," he said to Dean's unconscious form. "Exactly, Joanna. Where is Sam? I need you to think again. You overheard a conversation of Sam's the other day. Based on that, where do you think he is now?"
Jo's dream ended there. She bolted upright on the couch, looking around herself frantically for the angel. What did he want her to do? It was still dark outside now, and Dean was still asleep. She looked to Sam's bed slowly, hoping that she would see him sleeping there and that she had just had a wild dream. He wasn't.
"Shit!" she whispered to herself. Jo knew exactly what that meant. It meant that Sam was really working with a demon. She tiptoed over to the window, trying to not wake Dean. The Impala was still parked in the same space, so Sam had either walked or hitched a ride from this Ruby. She crept back over to her bag to grab a couple of ones. She was going to go down to the vending machine to grab a water – and to scope out the area, looking for Sam.
He didn't seem to be anywhere near the motel, either. Jo bought her water, and then headed back to their room. When she got back inside, Dean was pacing around the room, running a hand nervously over his face. As soon as he saw Jo, he said "Jo! Where were you?! I woke up and both you and Sam were gone!"
"Yeah, Dean, listen. There's something-"
But Dean didn't seem to hear her. He walked up to her and hugged her. She noticed that he was a little clammy. Releasing her from the crushing hug, he began saying "I couldn't stop it, I couldn't stop it." He turned around and sat back down on the end of the bed.
"Couldn't stop what?" Jo asked, secretly relieved that she could put off telling Dean that his little brother was working with a demon.
"My mom. Azazel. Any of it."
Even though he had answered her, he still seemed lost. He was tapping his foot on the ground. Jo sat on the bed next to him and grabbed his face between her hands. She turned his head so that he was focused on her. Her actions seemed to work, because his foot stopped tapping and she seemed to have his attention. "Dean, what are you talking about?" she asked slowly.
And so Dean told her all of it. About how Castiel had showed up and sent him back to 1973. He had been confused about what he was trying to stop until he met his grandparents and found the reason Azazel was now after his mother. It was because Mary had made a deal with Azazel to save John that she died in Sam's nursery back in 1983. "And she made the deal and I couldn't kill him in time. And now Castiel is telling me that Sam is 'going down a dangerous road' and I'm not exactly sure what that means right now and-"
"Dean stop." Jo told him. "I know what that means," she admitted quietly, looking at the ground. She wasn't sure if what she was about to do was the right thing, but she needed someone to know in order to help Sam.
"Jo? What do you know?" Dean asked, his back straightening.
"When we were, uh, when the witnesses were after us? I overheard Meg talking to Sam."
"Go on…." Dean prodded.
Jo sighed and looked into Dean's eyes. Looking at him almost made her break. She didn't want to tell him, knowing how much it would hurt him. Seeing him vulnerable like this reminded her of why she cared for him so much. "She said that Sam was working with a demon. Ruby."
While watching from heaven, a slow smile spread across Ithiel's face.
A/N: Thank you all for reading! By the way, if you have a tumblr, you can now follow this story's blog at chestervelle-twsu!