(A/N- I plan on posting the chapters once every week. Sorry if this one took a little longer. I have about 8 chapters written out but for some reason 3 was just missing something. I didn't want to post it unfinished. Sooo, here it is now. Before I start let me thank EmilyAnnMcGarrett-Winchester, lenail125, and Izech216.)
Chapter Three
"No." Sam stated firmly. He whirled around on his brother and threw him one of his iconic bitch faces. "I don't know why Dean even brought it up, but no. I'm not inviting you to Thanksgiving. If you want, we can have our own here."
Jess pulled a far superior bitch face to compete. "And why is that, Sam?" She stamped her foot down. "Are you embarrassed by me? Do you not want me to meet your family?"
"They aren't family. They're all good friends of Bobby's."
Sam had been dating Jess now for a year. It had been pretty awesome. The only thing was she kept pressing the matter of wanting to know what he wasn't saying. She didn't say it in so many words, but when she coyly would bring up his past, Sam knew what she was trying at. She only got angry when he tried to dance around a subject. Sam knew it stemmed from concern. She didn't want him to be afraid to admit things to him, but this was one thing he couldn't just openly admit.
Dean had come by to visit, and with Thanksgiving a few days away he had brought up Bobby's annual celebration. Every year at Thanksgiving Bobby would host a meal at his place. He invited any hunter who was in the area and usually they would show. Good comforting home cooked meals were hard to come by in that business and they didn't turn it down. Only problem was Jessica had heard and asked if she could join. Her parents were going to visit her older sister and she'd be alone that Thanksgiving.
"Sam, anyone invited over to Thanksgiving is as good as family. And besides your father, and your uncle will be there. I would love to meet them." Jessica smiled and slid her hand into Sam's. "Didn't you say it was about time that I met the rest of your family?"
"Yes but-" She would hear about all the horror stories about the previous hunts. That's all Thanksgiving was anyways, just a perverse show of muscle. One hunter boasting about his hunt to another hunter. She'd get frightened and run. "All they do is talk about hunting game. That's what Bobby's friends do. They hunt everything. I would enjoy it myself if we could just have a quiet Thanksgiving to ourselves. I'd even make the turkey."
Jess didn't let it go. "My dad hunts, and I've seen enough deer heads pinned to the walls in lodges and his friend's homes. I can handle a few stories about hunting."
Sam sighed and rubbed a hand across his forehead. "It's not the same."
"How is it not the same?" Her eyebrow curved upward. "Please tell me."
Sam looked to Dean for help but Dean shrugged. A while ago he'd insisted that Sam give Jessica the talk. The monsters-are-real talk. Sam had violently disagreed. But Dean had held strong. You couldn't be in a relationship based on lies. And Jess was a great girl, but if she couldn't handle that knowledge or didn't stick around afterwards, then she probably didn't need to be in his life.
"Jessica, it's- please don't-" He rubbed at his face.
"It's got to do with your past." Jess scowled. "I know your dad didn't sell things. Every time I ask you change the story. He sold vacuum cleaners. He sold insurance. You cannot get that story correct. I love you, Sam. Unless your dad is a serial killer with a pile of bodies following him, I don't care."
Sam looked to Dean and Dean raised his hands in surrender. This wasn't his battle. This was Sam's.
"You don't want to know, Jessica." Sam insisted. "Really you don't. I want to tell you but, you would think I was insane."
"Look, Winchester." Jessica pressed her finger into his chest. "I love you. Whatever you'd say I wouldn't think it was crazy."
Sam ran a hand through his hair. He didn't want to. This would test everything. He didn't know what to expect when he would enter the crazy discussion of the supernatural with his girlfriend. Between Dean and his girlfriend, he really didn't have a choice. Either he lost his girlfriend because she felt he didn't trust her, or he'd lose her because she thought he was crazy. He wasn't sure which one was worse. "Dean, can you…"
Dean stood up from the desk chair and smirked at his brother. "Call me if you need backup."
Sam shifted on the bed and turned his body to face his girlfriend. He didn't start until Dean had closed the door and left. "I do love you, Jessica." He rubbed her knuckles softly. "And your right, I've been lying a lot about my past. My dad didn't sell things, but we did move around a lot. If I tell you this, you have to hear me out. To the end. You can decide what you want to do in the end."
Jess nodded. She was getting a little worried. Sam was getting a little melodramatic.
"My mother died when I was 6 months old. My dad heard her scream. He ran up the stairs to my crib, but by the time he'd gotten there she wasn't there. He looked up and she was pinned to the ceiling." Sam didn't miss the look of horror on his girlfriend's face. "Then fire shot out from around her body. We barely got out of the house. From there my dad learned that humans weren't alone in this world. That things that went bump in the night weren't just stories."
"Thing that go bump? You mean like- like vampires?" Sam was right. It was starting to sound a little crazy.
Sam sighed and shifted. "Yes. Ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and demons. Crazy as it sounds, are all very real. You know that death that can't be explained. Some guy in the middle of the city mauled by wild animals and left in an alley, missing a heart. Werewolf. Or loving husband one day goes crazy on his wife, and it's all on camera, only he was also recorded at the bar that same exact night, same time." Sam paused. "And no he doesn't have a twin; shapeshifter. My dad travels from town to town and hunts down those creatures that would otherwise come after someone else. Dean does it too. When he's not under a car or woman, he's usually hunting."
"Have you- have you hunted?" She asked a little too slowly. "Have you seen these things?"
"Yes. I've gone on two hunts, but I decided a long time ago that's not what I wanted." Sam sighed and wrapped his fingers around hers. "That's another discussion though."
To be fair Jessica hadn't run away yet. She hadn't called him crazy or thrown something at him and ran off. He hadn't expected something like this to go over so well. "Why isn't this a well-known thing? I mean monsters running around killing people, you would think that would make front page news."
Sam shrugged. "People don't want to see it. They want to live in ignorance, or they just try to find normal reasons that make sense. And it does make front page news, it just so happens that the newspapers that usually get it right-"
"Are made fun of." Jessica said softly. "You mean like those my-wife-gave-birth-to-an-alien newspapers?"
"Yeah, although, most of those stories are crazy. You have to shift through a few of them and read in-between the lines to find a case."
"So after your mom died, your dad dragged you and your brother around to hunt monsters. You're not just fooling with me, are you Winchester?"
"Look I want to keep you around, last thing I'd want to do is give you some crazy story to chase you away." Sam rubbed at the back of his head and looked down awkwardly. "And it is quite a crazy story, if you were to run. I wouldn't-"
Jessica shot a hand out and palmed his cheek. "Hey, I'm not running. I'm just a little confused, and angry." Sam got a confused expression himself. "I want you to trust me. I want to know that you feel like you can talk to me. I'm happy you've told me now but we've been dancing around this for a long time now. And I know it sounds a little out there, but I know you and it took a lot for you to tell me anything."
"You believe me?" Sam sounded shocked. He didn't think she'd still be there.
"I trust you. I cannot stand here and for sure say that everything your saying is a load of crazy. Hell, I don't want to know about this other world. It seems much safer to assume that everything is- well normal. But, I get it. I can see where some stories could have something more behind it. In fact, there's just too much in this world that isn't defined." Jessica's fingers brushed away Sam's bangs. She ignored the stress sweat that had accumulated on his forehead.
Sam frowned. "How are you so okay with this?"
Jessica grinned wide. "Because I love you. And because you have awesome hair." She ran her hands through his soft hair and started to play with the tips of his ears. "And because we have really awesome study sessions."
Sam matched her grin. "Ms. Moore. I'm a gentleman."
There was a bang on the door. "Don't start this now." Dean's muffled voice came through the wood. "I'm starving and we were going to go out and eat."
Sam moved around Jess to call to his brother but she caught his mouth with her own and once she let him go he was breathless. Sam was unable to respond so Jessica did for him. "Why don't you go pick us up something Dean. Something about an hour or two away?"
From the other side of the door Dean could hear the sounds getting more intense inside. So the discussion had gone well, it would have seemed. And for once in his life, he was the third wheel. Usually it was Sam standing awkwardly trying to find things to occupy himself while Dean was with a girl.
"Seriously." He gave one last look at the door before he threw up his hands and walked away keys in hand.
xxxOOOxxx
They'd done the Thanksgiving thing and surprisingly everything went over well. In fact, she'd been over for a Christmas, and joined Sam on a few of the occasional trips he would take to visit his family. Sam even went to go visit her family, and they quickly liked him. Despite keeping his past from her family.
It had been a few years since he'd admitted his past to Jessica. And his past hadn't stalled anything. In fact, telling the truth had solidified practically everything. Of course he had spilled a little later about the demon's interest in him, his family, and the other children. She was a little afraid, but she was supportive. Sam was a fantastic guy, and you didn't run into guys like those. So he had a few literal demons, she'd deal with it. It had taken her a little while to accept everything. And Sam got it. It was hard to swallow that everything in horror stories lived and breathed. If he hadn't grown up in that life, he wouldn't believe it either.
Dean was surprised. Everything was going so well for his brother. Maybe he could share in that happiness. Maybe he could have a girl, and she would understand everything. Problem was after Carmen, there wasn't another girl who hadn't peaked his interest. Sure there were plenty of girls who he was willing to test drive, but he never had a real connection with them.
He'd been working a job in Ohio with his father, and stopped to get a drink at one of the bars. He figured he'd hustle some pool, find a girl, and take her back to his motel, only it hadn't worked out that way. She was at the bar, and alone hunched tiredly over a drink. She was all to certain a student at Ohio State, that was if her hoodie hadn't been lying. Usually the women he'd go for posed themselves on stools and wore tight clothing to get his attention, however there was just something about her, that he had forgotten all about hustling and gone straight for smoozing.
"Get you a drink?" He offered smoothly as he took a stool next to her.
She threw him a casual glance and smirked. "So long as you don't expect anything."
"Just a drink." Dean shrugged. "What harm can come from that?"
"Sweetheart, I am a journalism student." She scoffed. "I've not only heard enough horror stories, I've written a few myself."
Dean didn't get deterred though. He noticed her eyes roving over all he had to offer. She wanted him, just as much as he wanted her. "Then I won't get you a drink." He waited until the Bartender got away from a large group and ordered a beer. He grinned as the bartender walked away to grab a bottle. "So you are in journalism? At Ohio State?" She made a face when he pegged her school. "Not creeping on you or anything, you are kind of wearing the logo on your hoodie."
She tugged the hoodie down. "Oh, I am." She smoothed down the logo before turning her attention to Dean again. "Where did you go?" She questioned, taking a sip from her drink. He tried to figure what it could be.
"South East Technical, community college; you wouldn't have heard of it." Dean shrugged. "Gave me a license to get under people's hoods, though." He looked at her suggestively as he scooped up his beer the bartender had dropped in front of him.
The woman rolled her eyes. "You couldn't come up with anything better?"
Dean shrugged. "I thought it was pretty funny."
"Get me beer and I might think you actually were funny." She coyly shot at him.
"You were afraid of me getting you a drink." Dean pointed out taking a sip. Despite keeping his face neutral, he grinned inwardly. Oh he had her.
It was her turn to shrug. "So long as he opens it in front of me I'm game."
"Sounds like a deal. Except." He positioned himself on his stool so he faced her. "One more problem."
"And what would that be?"
Dean grinned wide. "I don't buy drinks for nameless faces."
The woman regarded him for a few minutes before allowing a smile to come forth. "Cassie. Names Cassie Robinson."
From there he'd gotten her a beer, they had talked and argued about trivial things. Even discussed some of their past, the lighter subjects. By one she was full of alcohol and so was Dean, and they both were willing.
At first it was a one-night stand, Dean didn't expect her to be much else. But he did two surprising things that evening. First he wanted her to stay. Depending on where it was done, the girl or Dean himself would leave. Sure there had been a few clingy ones in the past but then he just felt awkward afterwards. After a wonderful session Cassie moved to slip out of the bed. He put his hand out and took her arm, and asked her to stay. And she did. She didn't even need time to consider. She just smiled warmly and slid back into the warm covers and his arms. Second, they snuggled. Dean Winchester cuddled with the girl. Good thing she was in Ohio State for journalism because the press was needed to be called in. Then the following morning he stated a singular word that he dared not utter for any of those other women.
"So, breakfast?"
She'd lifted a brow at the mention but agreed. So the following morning, rumpled clothing and all they found their way to a diner and had a hearty breakfast and conversation. Of course they argued too. It was over small things and big thigs. Who should be president. Foreign policies. The best kind of pie. They argued over everything. And Dean loved it. It got his head going, and Lil Dean stimulated as well.
In between the job, and her classes, they would find time to hang out. John of course was a little angered that his son's time was divided in a hunt, be he allowed it. The kid was twenty-five. He could hardly tell him what to do. Course he still tried.
The hunt ended in a few days. They'd saved a person, and his father was ready to go. Dean wasn't he glanced at his phone and eyed the fuzzy picture of Cassie. "Let me make a call?"
He couldn't stay. He had an important job to do, and a little brother who needed him. He knew that there had been a time when he'd have to tell her just that. The number was dialed easily enough, he memorized it long before he'd put in the phone. "Hey Cassie."
Cassie sounded cautious. "Hey, what's up?"
"You wanna meet up or-"
"Your leaving, aren't you." Cassie caught him.
Dean scowled and rubbed a hand across his chin. "I am finished with my business in town, yes."
"Why are you calling then?" Her voice went ridged over the line. She'd known this was coming. Dean was a free spirit. She'd known what he was the second she'd laid eyes on him. She'd known he'd leave every blissful second of that week.
"I want to come back, whenever possible." Dean scowled he didn't like her tone.
"You do?" He could picture her face looking shocked.
"Yeah. I mean, I want to." He knew he was surprising her. Hell, he was surprising himself. "Do you want me to?"
"I wouldn't be so opposed to the idea." She stated a little coyly.
"I don't know when I'll be back…" Dean stated a little quietly. "My job kind of takes me, everywhere."
Cassie was quiet for a little while. "That's okay. You'll call whenever your around?"
"I can do that." Dean said smirking. "I can even call you just for the fun of it."
xxxOOOxxx
The two walked through the woods and tried to make as little sound as possible. The thing they were hunting had excellent hearing. The woods were lit up partially with the sun filtering through the canopy. It didn't make it any less creepy though. The only thing assuring the two that there wasn't a creature about to pounce was the A typical forest sounds surrounding them.
John glanced at his son and kept his tone low but audible. "So Jessica is a nice girl." He hadn't spoken too much about Jessica since he'd met her that Thanksgiving. Dean figured his father had seen too much of his mother in the woman. He knew is father would take some time to figure out a lot of things.
"Yeah, she's pretty great." Dean smiled wide but kept his attention on the trees surrounding them. "She's fearless, knows about everything and still hasn't run away from the kid. In fact, I couldn't enter the room for a good two hours after he'd told her."
"I don't want to know what they were doing…" John interrupted his son before he could continue.
Dean smirked. "So you already know."
"I know what they were doing, Dean. I didn't need you to imply anything." He turned his head at the sound of a twig snapping to his left. Instead of a creature with claws and sharp teeth all they saw was a startled deer run off away from them. "So who is the girl that you've taken to?"
Dean took on the look of the startled deer. "What?"
"You know, the girl that you met in Ohio. Your still in contact with her right?" John wasn't messing with his son. He kept his focused gaze on the trees ahead. When Dean didn't speak up, John glanced over at his eldest son again. "Well-"
"Well-" Dean stated quietly. "Yes, I am still in contact with Cassie." He shifted his gaze to the right as a bird hopped off a limb and rushed away. So maybe they were a bit jumpy.
John remained quiet for a little while searching out the surrounding area. "So I take it you like her? A lot I mean. She wasn't just a one-night stand."
"Cassie has her good points." Dean stated vaguely. "And she certainly is pretty."
"And you like her."
Dean rolled his eyes. "And I like her. I don't get the big deal though. I've liked other girls before."
"They didn't last very long, and the one that did- well you didn't recover from that very well." John took the time to put a large hand on his son's shoulder. "I'm just happy that you've found someone to care about, that returns the feelings back."
Dean didn't shake off the hand, but didn't respond. He played off the moment by focusing on the trees above him. Why his dad was bringing up a sensitive subject on a hunt he didn't know. Why his dad was bringing up a sensitive subject at all he didn't know either.
"So have you told her?" John finally asked.
"Told her what?" Dean snapped.
John grinned. "About hunting? About everything that we've gone through…"
"Look, focus on hunting old man." He couldn't believe this conversation was still going. Dean tolerated chick flicks moments with his little brother, Sam was an emotional kid, and would enforce that it would happen one way or another. When he was with his dad however, his father hated those moments just like he did. You go to a bar, you drink a beer, and that was it. No sensitive how's your life going crap. Dean narrowed his eyes and glanced at his father peripherally. "Christo."
"Not a demon." John laughed. "Just curious."
"Why?" Dean asked sharply.
John shrugged. "You are so happy. I like that she's making you happy again." Dean despite all the visits, was still missing Sam. It also didn't help that very clearly whenever there was a visit he was the third wheel. Something Dean wasn't used to.
Dean kept his skeptical gaze.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Beer, boobs, cars." John rolled his eyes.
"Thank God, I thought you were someone else for a little while." Dean smirked. Happy the uncomfortable conversation was over. However, now they were finished talking, Dean listened to the sounds around him and stilled. "You hear that?"
John shook his head, then froze. He didn't hear anything. The birds and insects had all retreated, and all sound was gone. "Shit." John cursed and spun gathering his senses as he scanned the woods. It was still quiet though and nothing moved around them.
Dean scanned the area too, and turned when he heard the crunch of leaves. He raised his gun and squeezed of two shots. There was another firm crunch as something hard slumped down. Neither put down their weapons as they slowly stepped forward, tensed and ready in case something chose to jump out at them. Dean saw the carcass of the chupacabra and glanced back at his dad. Sure his dad had his back Dean nudged the animal with his weapon. When it didn't budge he gave the dog-like creature a swift kick.
He didn't move until he was sure the creature's chest wasn't rising. "Dead."
"Good shot, son." John praised as he spotted the two shots, one in the heart, and the other inches away.
"No thanks to you." Dean smirked. "I mean seriously having a heart to heart on a hunt. You broke one of the unbreakable rules."
John scowled. It was hard balancing as a father and a hunter. "Shut up."
(A/N- So if you have reached the end then please leave me a review or a PM. I also am up for ideas. As mentioned before maybe what you have in mind, and want to see will fit in. Maybe it won't but you don't know if you don't ask. Also if you notice anything off, spelling, or if I contradict myself don't hesitate to say anything. I try reading through the stories to find anything wrong and sometimes I catch them, right after I post them. So no ill feelings if you point something out.)