Four Months Later…

Chapter 9:

"Order up!" grunted a voice from the kitchen.

Jaz finished wiping down the table, flinging the cloth over her shoulder and leaving the bottle of Fantastic on the bar counter as she went over to the small window to the kitchen. "Thanks, Billy," she called, taking the basket of fries and bringing them over to the weary man at a nearby table. "Fries and Johnny Blue. Nothin' better, huh?" she asked, her voice even, but slightly low.

"And how would you know anythin' 'bout Johnny Blue, young lady?" mumbled the man, taking a couple of the fries and shoving them in his mouth. His face had passed a 5'oclock shadow a few days prior and his clothes were worn. His jeans that had been stiffened with dirt and then washed many times, a plaid shirt that had once been red and black but had faded to light red and gray, and he donned a comfortable black jacket that Jaz knew probably held several choice weapons.

"I trust your opinion," Jaz replied. "You wouldn't get it every time if it wasn't any good, Bran." He gave an affirmative grunt and took another drink from the bottle, setting it down on the table. "Rough day?" She didn't sit down, just stood beside the table, weight mostly on her left foot, knowing that there wasn't one customer that walked in there wanting a heart to heart.

"Week," he muttered, turning the bottle in his hand.

"Mm. Well, you need anything else, let me know."

"Will do, Jaz."

Jaz turned and went back to the bar, grabbing the spray bottle and tucking it underneath the counter. The bell above the door gave a low ring as someone entered. Her eyes flickered up and a smile surfaced on her face as she saw who it was. "Dean, Sam!" she said, walking quickly around the counter. "I didn't know you guys were passing through."

"We weren't sure. Thought we'd make it a surprise," Dean said with a crooked smile, taking the girl in a hug.

Jaz gave Sam a hug as well, motioning to the back area of the saloon. "Come on, Ellen's in the back. She can cover for me for a while." The two boys nodded and followed her, closing the door behind themselves. "Trevor, you doing well with the math?" she asked. The young boy nodded and smiled slightly to Sam and Dean, who smiled back. "Hey Ellen!"

"Yea?" called a voice from a nearby storage closet.

"These two guys came in, real troublemakers," Jaz said with a smile. "No manners whatsoever, drunk out of their minds…."

Ellen emerged from the closet, tossing the clipboard onto the small table nearby and let out a low chuckle. "Troublemakers, huh? Might have to go get my Desert Eagle," she said, giving Sam and Dean a brief hug each.

"Oh, please don't do that again," Sam said, raising his eyebrows.

Jaz cocked an eyebrow. "May I ask what you did to make her take it out the first time?"

Sam pursed his lips in a smile, taking a seat on a folding chair. "Yea, we never told you that. First time we met. Dean and I came into the Roadhouse—."

"Broke in," Ellen corrected him.

"We didn't break anything," Dean told Jaz. "I picked the lock very carefully."

Jaz snorted. "Right."

"We called out, nobody answered. I came back here to look around, Dean stayed out front, and we both ended up with guns trained on us," Sam said. "Ellen's Desert Eagle on me and Jo's rifle on Dean. Dean grabbed the rifle away from her, but then Jo…punched him in the nose and took it back."

"Huh," Jaz said, leaning back against the wall. "Now I'm sorry, how…how old was this girl…when this happened?" she asked innocently, looking over to Dean.

Dean glared at her. "She was raised by a hunter. Age and sex do not count," he said pointedly.

"Sure, Dean," Ellen said, giving him a clap on the shoulder. "I'll be out front," she told Jaz, who nodded back. Dean glared at her back as she left.

"So how've you guys been?" Jaz asked. She walked over to the couch, taking a seat next to her brother as Dean took a seat next to Sam. "Haven't heard from you in a few weeks."

"There was a series of hauntings we were working on for a while," Sam said. "Then a voodoo zombie thing. But we're boring. Tell us about you guys."

Jaz couldn't help a grin. "Boring. Right. Ah…Trevor's doing real well. Working on his math, as you can see," she said, motioning to the young boy focusing on his workbook. "Still doing well with the school stuff."

"Still quiet as a haunted forest," Trevor murmured, carefully plotting out a math problem.

"Still reading minds too," Sam said with a nod and a tight smile.

Jaz snorted. "Ya. Can't do much about that. But not so much with the nightmares anymore. The last vision was at least three weeks ago. You heard about that from Bobby."

"Yea. Joshua said he took care of it," Dean said.

"We heard. I'm so glad that something good can come out of the visions. It doesn't in the least bit make it okay, but I think it makes you feel a little better about it, huh, Trev?" she asked, looking over to her brother. He nodded, not looking up. "I've been busy with all the book-learnin' too," Jaz said, her gaze moving back to the boys.

"That so?" Dean asked. "You think you could give Sam a run for his money in calculus or something?"

Jaz's smile widened. "Unlikely. But I'm not losing brain cells due to inactivity at least."

"That's good," Dean said. "Always good to keep those brain cells. Never know when you might need 'em."

"You plan anything out past the next couple of months?" Sam asked. "Not that there's any hurry or anything, I'm just wondering."

"I've been thinking on it. Talking to Ellen," Jaz replied. "I really like it here and so does Trevor. Ellen said there's no hurry to leave, so it's really not a top priority. Honestly…we're safe here," she said quietly. "Or as safe as we can be. I'm saving up money if I ever decide to do something with it. I'm learning to protect myself and Trevor. So really, I've got no reason to leave. It's…." Jaz paused. "It's a home. And I think it's more of a home than our trailer ever was."

Sam gave her a smile. "I think that's great," he said. "So how about you show us how your bar-tending skills are coming along?"

Jaz smiled back. "Sounds good." She briefly rubbed Trevor's back before standing up and following the boys out into the saloon.

THE END