"Jenny!" Lizzy calls when she sees her friend walk into the bar. She and Dean had just gotten to her place of work, drinks not yet ordered, and she's psyched for him to get the chance to meet some of the people who kept her going during his time in hell. The tall, long-legged brunette walks over to where they are seated at the bar and flashes a huge, genuine smile.
"Dean, this is my old high school friend, Jenny," Lizzy introduces. "She used to cause all kinds of trouble with Louie and me back in the day."
"I think you mean that you two used to get in trouble constantly and then bring me down with you!" Jenny responds brightly. Dean holds out his hand for a formal greeting and Jenny swats it away. "Are you kidding me with that? Bring it in!" She moves in for a hug, surprising him with her forwardness.
"Nice to meet you, I think," Dean awkwardly says once her arms are around him and he hugs her back, looking over Jenny's shoulder to give Lizzy a wide-eyed look of surprise.
"Any dude of Lizzy's is a friend of mine," Jenny says while backing away. "It's so good to finally meet you. I get to put a face with the name and many, many stories."
"Many, many?" Dean questions Lizzy.
"Eh, I miss when you aren't around," she explains, cheeks turning pink.
"And with the way you introduce yourself, it's pretty clear to me now that you two are good friends," Dean comments. It's exactly what Lizzy would have done.
"Yeah, she fit right in with us," Lizzy laughs.
Jenny takes up the bar stool next to Dean and eyes him over. "Nice work, Liz," she winks over to her friend on the other side of Dean.
"Why thank you," Lizzy says across him as if he weren't there.
"Don't make em' much better looking than this," Jenny observes, jerking her thumb in Dean's direction and making him grin with pride at the compliment. This girl's demeanor reminds him of Lou. She used to talk just like this, no concern for how the object of her comments was feeling. It makes him miss her, even if they never truly got along. She had many qualities he found endearing, this being one of them.
"Hey!" Jim calls out with fake anger as he approaches the group. "Watch it wife! I'm standing right here!" He laughs as he kisses Jenny's cheek sweetly despite what he just said.
"Aww, honey," Jenny jokes. "You know you're the best looking man in the whole wide world in my eyes."
"Yeah, yeah," Jim brushes off, used to Jenny's taunts, before turning his attention to Dean. "Hi. I'm Jim. This one's fiancé," he says while nodding his head at Jenny and shaking Dean's hand.
"Dean. Nice to meet you."
"So you're the mysterious ghostbuster Lizzy speaks of, huh?" Jim asks with nonchalance, taking a seat next to Jenny and Dean gives him a nervous look before whipping his head in Lizzy's direction, looking for an explanation as to why this stranger knows his biggest secret.
"Remember I told you about the ghost I took care of for some friends while you were away?" Lizzy says, eyebrows raised in the expectation that he'll recall what she had told him about the hunt and go with it.
"Right," he nods as his memory recalls what she'd told him. "Ah, the angry spirit that popped up with the renovations."
"Yes! Well, these are the friends I helped," Lizzy tells them. "Once I told them about my guy they wanted to know more about you, like how we met and where you were. I explained how you travel a lot, doing the same kind of stuff for people all over the country that I did for them and that's how our paths eventually crossed."
"That's all you told them though, right?" Dean leans forward and whispers, scared of what Lizzy might have let them in on. He knows she's smarter than to tell them too much, but his panicked feelings need confirmation that she indeed didn't.
"Hot Shot, what do you take me for?" Lizzy whispers back and drops her hand on his knee in reassurance. Her comforting smile relaxes him once more.
Dean nods again, accepting the circumstance, and turns back to Jim. "Yeah, I guess that's me then."
"So do you go by Stantz or Spengler?" Jim asks, trying to put Dean at ease as he saw how nervous he became with the comment.
"Neither. I'm much more of a Venkman," Dean smirks.
"Hey, don't worry about it," Jenny adds in, also noticing how uncomfortable Dean looked. "We're cool with it. Hell, we're more than cool with it since the shit that you do helped us from having to move and eat a huge debt. Trust us, you're secret's safe."
"Good," Dean breathes out and calms a bit as a bartender approaches them.
"Hey Lizzy!" the young man says as he leans forward over the bar towards her.
"Johnny!" Lizzy shouts as she pushes up from her seat and kisses him on the cheek. "Thanks again for taking my shift tonight!"
"Not a problem," he responds before turning his attention to the man next to her. "You must be Dean." Another hand shake.
"The one and only," Dean responds, starting to feel like a politician with all the formalities.
"Johnny's the one who trained me when I first started," Lizzy explains. "He's by far the most fun person I work with here. Solid dude."
"Aww, I'm blushing," Johnny jokes.
"Thanks for giving Lizzy the night off, man," Dean tells him. "We don't always get to see much of each other so I really appreciate that."
"Not a problem at all. All the nights she's taken shifts for me, I owe her!" he laughs. "What'll it be guys?"
"El Sol," Lizzy announces with a smile Dean's way, knowing he was about to order that very beer.
"Same," Dean replies.
"Aw, hell," Jenny says. "Same for us and a round of Jameson shots."
"Oh, I like her already," Dean comments with her order as Johnny leaves to get everything.
"Ha, thought you would," Lizzy smiles. She loves that Dean appears to be getting comfortable with the situation she's thrown him into. And she loves even more that she gets to show him off a little for once instead of just talk about the secretive guy she's with. It makes him real to everyone she knows and she's more than proud to be with him so the whole thing makes her simply delighted.
"So, you guys ready for the storm?" Jim asks while waiting for their drinks.
"Uh, what storm?" Lizzy questions, unfamiliar with what Jim mentions.
"The huge, freak October nor'easter that's coming tomorrow afternoon?" Jenny adds, eyes wide. "What, have you been living under a rock, Liz?"
"Guess so," Lizzy shrugs.
"Isn't fall kinda early for a snow storm?" Dean asks, though he knows it has to be.
"It's wicked early," Jenny tells him. "But then again it is New England. It could snow in fucking July."
"Problem is, the cities aren't ready this early for all that snow," Jim adds. "It could be a disaster. Gotta be ready to be snowed in for days straight in case the clean-up is going to be as slow going as they're saying."
"Yikes," Lizzy says. "I'm gonna have to go get some stuff tomorrow. Food and whatnot."
"And beer," Dean adds with a smile.
"Yes, and beer," Lizzy confirms, mirroring his smile. It was a necessity after all.
Johnny places the drinks in front of the group and Lizzy stops him.
"I only see four shots here," Lizzy says to him overly disappointed while tapping on the bar with her index finger. "Ah, where's yours?"
"I'm working!" Johnny complains. "It's so early, Lizzy! You start making me take shots now and I won't make it to the end of the night."
"Boo hoo!" Jenny yells at him while crumpling a napkin and throwing it at him. "Let's go, Johnny. We're celebrating here!"
"Watch it, Jenny," he warns as he swats the napkin away and glares at her jokingly. He grabs another shot glass and pours himself one, knowing it's way easier to give in than fight them. They all raise their glasses.
"To meeting the guy that could actually handle all that is our Lizzy," Jim says exaggeratedly while looking at her.
"Such a douche bag," she mutters to him before they all down their shots.
Jenny makes a face with the offending taste and reaches for her beer. Whiskey wasn't her thing. She only chose it because she knows it's Lizzy's favorite. Johnny is faster than her though and swipes the bottle away, quickly replacing it with a Smirnoff Ice. It's become a running joke at the bar as Lizzy always serves Jenny the disgusting drink that used to be her high school beverage of choice.
"Oh, fuck you dude!" Jenny yells with her change of chaser and Jim and Lizzy start laughing. "Thought I was gonna avoid this crap tonight since Liz isn't behind the bar!"
"Hey, don't make fun of me and I won't fuck with you," Johnny explains while grinning.
"Awesome!" Lizzy laughs hardily as she high-fives Johnny for his quick thinking.
Dean sighs heavily at the easy and fun scene and looks over at his girl. "I gotta get outta here soon," he tells her quietly, trying his best to appear serious.
"Why?" Lizzy asks with sudden concern. "What's wrong?"
"I'm having real, honest-to-God fun. I can't let myself get too used to this." He takes a big sip of beer and Lizzy smiles lightly, glad she could give him this glimpse into how the rest of the world lives. She kisses his cheek and begins explaining to him the origins of the Smirnoff Ice and Jenny.
They spend the night drinking heavily, laughing with friends, and just plain being happy, regular people. No one knew who they really were, no monsters showed up to attack them, and they never used a single fake name the whole time. She was Lizzy Noonan. He was Dean Winchester. It was simple and exactly what Dean needed.
The night was so fun that neither noticed when their phones rang several times.
"Hey, Lizzy. It's me again," Sam says into his cell phone, leaving the seventh message of the night for her. "I really need to talk to you. Castiel was on to something. There are omens in the Northeast all over the place, big ones. Whatever's there isn't fucking around. You better be ready, shore leave or not. Someone please call me back!"
Sam ends the call and tosses his phone onto the cot with pure frustration. He's left them each several messages but they continually fail to call back. What the fuck is going on? The rock sitting in Sam's stomach gets heavier and heavier as the time ticks on. He didn't go into detail in the first few, but the last message he leaves for each of them is much more foreboding and he hopes it will get them to call him back.
"Still nothin', huh?" Bobby asks, handing Sam a mug of coffee as he walks into the study.
"No," Sam spits back, getting more and more angry with Dean and Lizzy as the night goes on. It's nearly one in the morning now and no matter how many times he tries neither will answer their phones. "They have to come up for air soon, don't they?" Sam asks, assuming he knows what they've been up to.
"I think you're forgettin' about the time they spent a whole day permanently defilin' one of my rooms upstairs," Bobby reminds him as he takes a seat behind his desk. "That room will never be the same again."
"Yeah, what's that about anyways?" Sam asks, confused as to how anyone could possibly be that constantly motivated by sex. Sure, he's a guy and sex is on his mind a lot, but Dean and Lizzy were beyond the norm. Whenever they were within reach of the other, sex consumed them.
"Ha, have you ever met yer own brother?" Bobby jests. "I'm just glad that for once he's with the same girl every time."
"That's true. And she is just as bad as him," Sam admits. "Hey, what do you think are the chances that Dean was actually able to find a chick to keep up with him?" Bobby laughs at the statement but Sam keeps a serious face. He wonders this out loud for the first time but he's had the thought several times before. It all seemed too coincidental; they like the same music, have the same penchant for food, booze, and sex, have the same profession, lost their parents the same way, hell they even share an adopted father. It's all too much and every time something seemed like a coincidence in their experiences, it never was. Ever since Castiel let them know that Lizzy is someone important, much like Dean is, the thought has nagged Sam constantly.
"Not great," Bobby laughs out. "Said it before, there's a reason I kept those two apart for as long as I did. Though now it seems I was wrong to do so after all."
"Are you sure about that?" Sam questions.
"Yeah," Bobby returns. "I mean, that kid has been a whole hell of a lot easier to deal with since meetin' her. She makes him a happier person and a happier Dean is an easier to handle Dean. We should be kissin' her damn feet!"
"Can't argue there," Sam brushes off. "But have you ever thought that maybe them meeting each other is bigger than just chance?" Sam waits as Bobby mulls over what he says.
"Where you going with this, Sam?" Bobby asks, eyes narrowed curiously.
"Look, Castiel said that Lizzy was 'of import', right?" Sam starts to explain while using his best serious angel impression. "He also said that heaven has a plan for Dean, a job or whatever. You've never once thought that maybe they met because they were supposed to? Like it was…"
"Meant to happen. Huh," Bobby catches on and takes a moment to contemplate Sam's theory. "Quite the concept you've come up with there."
"Scares the shit outta me to think that anyone's lives would be that planned out, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense. I mean, in many aspects, Lizzy's just Dean with a pair of tits. And anyway in which she's different, she's just better than him. Makes her the perfect fit."
Bobby sits back in this chair and takes a sip of his coffee. Sam is a brilliant kid, but sometimes he wished he wasn't so. Bringing up questions like this always put a damper on their lives. And the worst part is that Sam is almost always right.
"Well fuck," Bobby finally says. "I hate to say it, but you might be right, son. Can't come up with a reason for it not to be a possibility."
"Yeah, I know," Sam says, letting Bobby know he's had the same issue. "Can you imagine if this kinda thing was predetermined? That could mean that the people we meet, what we do, where we go…."
"Alright, I get it," Bobby tells him, trying to cut him off early. The idea horrifies him. Does that mean he was meant to meet his own wife and kill her? How terribly unfair and cruel. Life can't be that preset, Bobby thinks. It just can't be. "Sam, I don't think we should tell them this little theory of yours. I don't think that would be a good idea. It'll fuck with their minds way too much."
"Especially when it's only a theory… for now at least," Sam adds.
"Right," Bobby confirms as a heavy silence falls between them. It's a lot to process.
"I'm trying Dean's cell again," Sam breaks in finally, his impatience getting the better of him. He grabs his phone off of the cot and dials for what feels like the millionth time.