Chapter 8:
Twenty-four hours later the Impala was driving north out of Texas, headed to Nebraska. Trevor was dressed in some clothes that Jaz had had for him in her duffle and they also picked up some more clothes for him at a local Salvation Army: shirts, pants, socks, and pajamas, as well as some sneakers. They got him some new underwear at a local Walmart.
They'd driven three hours the day they'd found Trevor, just to get out of the area, but then stopped and stayed at another motel overnight. Jaz and Trevor shared a bed and Sam got the other, since Dean had gotten it the night before. The brothers were glad that the kids had shared a bed since in the middle of the night Trevor woke up screaming.
Jaz had instantly turned on the light, as had Sam, and Dean had grabbed his bowie knife off the table beside him. "Trevor! Trevor, it's okay! It's okay, I'm here," she said, taking him by the shoulders. Dean had been surprised to see her go to bed the night before with her gloves on and now he knew why she'd done so. Trevor grabbed onto Jaz's forearms, which were covered by long sleeves, tears in his eyes and his breath coming quickly, holding tightly as he stared into her eyes. It gave Dean the impression that, even before the demonic kidnapping, there had been nightmares; they'd done this before, presumably with the visions. "I'm here. You're safe," Jaz whispered, calming him down. Trevor's anxiety slowly subsided, leaving him simply tired, and he lay back down. Jaz turned the light off, resting her hand on his arm until they both fell back to sleep.
Dean made a mental note: Tell Ellen about nightmares.
They divided the trip into two days, six hours of driving each, since Jaz and Trevor would probably get restless if it was more than that. Surprisingly, they didn't get a single, 'Are we there yet?' or similar questions, which was more than Sam and Dean could say for themselves at that age. Or any age, really. It got very boring in a car very fast when you had only each other to talk to or even, if you were lucky, with a book to read or Mad-Libs.
They arrived at the Roadhouse on a Friday evening, so it was decently busy. Jaz held Trevor's gloved hand in hers, which he gripped back tightly, wary of the new place and unfamiliar people, most of them not exactly oozing friendliness, and Sam and Dean entered after them. Ellen was taking an order from someone and saw the four walk in, gave them a quick wave, and finished up before walking over.
"Hey boys," she said with a smile.
"Ellen, how've you been?" Sam asked, giving her a brief hug.
Ellen gave a hug to Dean as well. "Not too bad. You can head on into the back," she said, motioning to a door to the left of the bar. "I'll put fill this order and be right with you."
Dean nodded and motioned the kids forward. They each went into the back of the saloon, taking a seat on a worn plaid couch and some chairs, Jaz beside Trevor on the couch since letting go of her hand didn't seem like a realistic option at that point. A minute or so later, Ellen walked in, closing the door behind herself. "Alright. So, Jaz and Trevor, I'm assuming," she said, walking over.
Jaz held out her hand and shook Ellen's firmly. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Harvelle."
Ellen cringed. "Oh don't go making me sound old. It's Ellen, please."
Jaz smiled. "Okay. Ellen, then. We really appreciate your hospitality. We've got nowhere else to go, so…."
"It's not a problem," Ellen replied easily, taking a seat on a folding chair. "Like Dean said, I can use the extra help around the Roadhouse. Now…Dean gave me a quick background on you two," she said, her voice taking on a more serious tone. "I've done a lot of thinking over the last couple days about what it means for you two to be setting down roots here. You need to understand that hunters don't always see things in shades of gray. They might see you two with abilities beyond what they understand and consider you dangerous. It's happened before with Sam."
Jaz swallowed and nodded slowly, tightening her grip on Trevor's hand slightly. "Okay."
"It sounds like you've got a good handle on your ability, Jaz, so you can be out and about, working for me, but for Trevor…." Ellen paused, looking at the young boy for a moment. Trevor was very steadily looking at the ground, his gaze looking like he was a million miles away, eyebrows twitching the slightest bit every so often. "Well it annoys me when people talk about someone like they're not in the room, but I'm guessing that Trevor doesn't much participate in conversations?"
Jaz shook her head. "Not so much, no," she whispered.
"Okay. Well he's gonna attract attention if he's always out in the Roadhouse just because he's gonna be the quiet kid who sits in the corner with crayons. Attracting any kind of attention is not good for you two. So hopefully we'll be able to help him out, be there for him, and he'll be able to get a better handle on what he can do. For now, he's gotta stay out of sight mostly, hang in the back while you're working."
"I understand," Jaz said softly.
"Also, I don't know how well he hears things, how clear it is, how much he gets. Do you know?" Ellen asked.
Jaz glanced briefly to her brother. "I really don't anymore. For the last couple days—." She stopped, taking a breath. "He seems really…lost, I guess. They…did things to him. Tried to…. Dean said they tried to make him…more powerful," Jaz whispered. "They pushed his abilities and…it's like they pushed him too far. I just hope he can heal from what they did. I'm scared for him."
Ellen nodded slowly. "Alright. Well, we can't protect Trevor from the world, but if he's hanging back here on a daily basis he's gonna pick up on things," she said quietly. "Whether it's details of a hunt or what, I don't know. It might be violent. It might be scary. A hunter might come in here after a hunt gone wrong hoping to drown his misery in whiskey. I want you to keep tabs on Trevor, make sure he isn't too affected by everything. I don't want to make it worse. If he's too overwhelmed by it all, he can stay back at the house during the day. It's not my first choice, especially if we're going to help him adjust to what he deals with, but making it worse is not something we can afford to do."
Jaz nodded. "I agree."
"As for the visions…when Sam got them, I know they hurt like the dickens. Is that the same with Trevor?"
Jaz narrowed her eyes, slightly confused, and shook her head. "No. Ah…he just seems to…go somewhere else. See through someone else's eyes, I guess. He'll react to what he's seeing; usually it's pretty scary, whether it's the visions during the day or the nightmares. He's woken up screaming the last few nights. That's much more often than he did before. This isn't from visions though. This is just nightmares from…." Jaz swallowed. "Anyway, some of the visions…. Well, really all of them have something to do with something supernatural. He's told me about things he's seen and it's just…. Some of it doesn't make any normal sense. Others it sounds like something out of a horror movie."
Ellen pursed her lips. "Do you know if the things he sees have happened yet?"
"Mostly it's seeing things as they happen," Jaz said.
"Well, if you can give me the details of anything he's seen, I can pass them on to Sam and Dean and they can see if it's anything they can do something about," Ellen told her.
Jaz blinked. "That'd be…great. For Trevor to know that he's helping people…. That'd be a big thing I think."
"Alright. I can afford to pay you $6.00 an hour working tables and such. I wish I could give you more, but—."
"That's fine," Jaz said quickly. "Really. I mean with only $200 a month for rent, you're taking a big hit for us and I appreciate it."
Ellen smiled at her. "You're welcome. So you can put in however many hours a week you want, I'll take out $200 for rent and the rest is yours to save up or whatnot." She glanced back to Trevor. "Do you home school him?"
"Trevor was a real great student up until his abilities started getting too much for him. He's pretty smart, but just keeps it bottled up inside now. I do read with him; teach him math, science, the basics and such. I didn't want him to get too far behind if he did ever get a chance to go back to school. But if I'm working for you, I'll be able to get him some decent home schooling books. He loves to read, mostly because it distracts him from everything else. It's like reading in a crowded room, he told me; everyone talking kind of blurs together and he can block it out."
"Okay. That sounds like a plan, you getting him some books and doing what you can to help him keep up with a normal curriculum. Same goes for you too, you know."
Jaz nodded. "Yea, I know."
"I did manage to get a bunk bed for you two. I put it in Jo's old room. Her old bed is a town or two over being used by a twelve year old," Ellen said. "I'm assuming most of what you've got is in Dean's car?"
"All of it, actually," Jaz replied. "I lost most of it when they grabbed me. I knew I couldn't go back to the apartment in New York City cause they'd find me there. There's nothing there that'll make a trail though; I burn anything that could give someone a hint of who we are." Her expression tightened. "There was a good thousand dollars there though. I'd been saving up. I'm sure it's still there; even if the door was left open and the whole apartment was cleaned out, I keep it under a floorboard in my room."
"Well I'm sure we could get someone to pick that up for you," Ellen said with a nod.
Jaz blinked. "Really?"
"Yea. Hunters are always on the move. I'm sure someone'll pass by New York City and could stop in at your apartment, pick it up, bring it back here the next time they drive through."
Jaz let out a long breath. "Wow. That'd be so great," she said. "You sure you trust the hunters you might call well enough to pick it up?"
"Well…the main thing you should know about hunters is that they're real good at lying and conning when they want to," Ellen said, "but that's when it's necessary or when dealing with civilians. They don't like alienating other people who know what we know because they're hard to come across. In this world, you don't make friends; you make allies. Hunters who don't get that don't last long. Whether you actually go out there and fight this stuff or you grow up with a dad who does it, like my daughter Jo, or you have a husband who did it, like I did, we're all stubborn and loyal to a fault. Though sometimes that can be a bad thing, as long as you're paying attention it makes it pretty easy to know who you can trust and who you can't." Ellen paused. "I think that's everything I wanted to say. There anything else you wanted to mention?" she asked.
Jaz slowly shook her head. "No. I think that's it."
"Alright." Ellen stood up and walked carefully over to Trevor, crouching in front of him. He looked up to her, blinking twice, as if he'd been jarred from deep concentration. "Hey, Trevor. Looks like you're gonna be sticking around for a while. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask," she said. "You can call me Ellen, okay?" Trevor blinked again in response. "Can you say Ellen?"
Trevor pursed his lips, lowering his eyelids, saying in no uncertain terms how patronizing he felt she was being. "Ellen," he stated.
Dean snorted slightly, covering it up with a cough, and Ellen smiled. "Okay, right, you're just quiet, you're not three." She pushed herself to her feet. "I've got to get back to the customers. I'll close early tonight so we can go back to the house, get you settled in."
"Oh no, you don't have to—."
"My saloon, my rules," Ellen told Jaz. "None of my customers are gonna be putting up a stink. I never close early, so when I do they know it's something important. We'll head out of here in about two hours. You kids can stay back here. I'll rustle up some food for you. Sam, Dean, come help me out."
The two young men nodded, getting to their feet and following Ellen back to the saloon.