For Aunt Liz

There are a lot of firsts in the average person's life. Really, the amount of firsts are absolutely endless. Some firsts are more significant than others, like first steps or a first date, but all are important in one way or another. Every first shapes how a person is, the person they become.

Jo could remember a lot of her firsts. Obviously, not the early ones like her first steps or first words, but she there were many firsts that stuck out in her mind, but none of them were very important to her right now because she was currently experiencing a multitude of firsts. Usually firsts came in bundles of two or three, maybe even four, but now firsts were falling down on Jo like raindrops… or meteors.

First one: Jo wasn't alive. Well, she wasn't dead either; she was sort of in between, which was an entirely new area for her. Jo had never not been alive, so this whole not-knowing-what-she-is thing was really starting to get on her nerves.

First two: Her mother wasn't alive. Obviously Jo knew that her mother wouldn't be around forever, but she wasn't expecting to lose her so quickly.

After returning to the hallway with Tessa, the reaper had reassured Jo that her mother was in Heaven and that it really was a "better place". Jo wasn't sure if she believed her or not, but she had no other choice. Well, I suppose she did have a choice, but she just went with the more optimistic option for the sake of her sanity.

Jo had pushed the thoughts of her mother away ever since her death because she just couldn't bear to have one more thing to worry about but, now that she was getting some answers, Jo found that she needed to allow herself time to grieve. Luckily, Tessa had vanished shortly after their return to the hallway, so Jo was able to mourn in peace, although her method of grieving was anything but peaceful. She wept and screamed and cursed the heavens until she was certain her lungs would collapse. Oddly enough, after her grief-filled outburst, Jo felt better. Not healed exactly, more like just putting a band-aid on a wound, but better enough for her to keep going. Honestly what she wanted most was to be with Dean; he of all people would understand what she was going through, but she had to make the best of it, for everyone's sake, so band-aid reapairs it was.

First three: Jo had kind of befriended a reaper, which actually wasn't as bad as it originally seemed. Tessa had patiently answered Jo's questions regarding her mother and whether or not she was in Heaven and she was allowing Jo to spend time with Dean, which was extremely generous considering it could get her smited (or whatever happened to disobedient reapers). Tessa had also left a door up so Jo could watch Dean, Sam and Bobby as they searched for the clues that would lead them to the other Horsemen. She even let her listen in, although Jo still couldn't interact with them, which sucked, but hey, Jo wasn't about to complain.

First four: Jo was loved by none other than Dean Winchester, and she found that, unsurprisingly, this was her favorite first, possibly of all time. Maybe she had always been loved by Dean, but he'd actually told her how he felt and had acted on it, which was absolutely remarkable for any hunter, let alone for a Winchester, so she counted it as a first.

It was difficult being away from him, surprisingly difficult. Jo was under strict orders not to go back into Dean's world until six o'clock which was, according to Jo's new watch, in about five hours. To pass the time, Jo sat by the door and listened to the Dean, Sam and Bobby's foolish conversations as they fought about which town to go to first, or even to go at all. She laughed as she watched the three men attempt to make themselves lunch and wondered to herself how the hell they survived as long as they had. Dean's eating habits didn't really surprise her; he created some kind of meat concoction from a bunch of cold cuts Bobby had stuffed at the back of his fridge. Jo was mildly concerned that he'd get some kind of food poisoning, but she was far more concerned about the other two men.

Bobby was eating just a plain ketchup sandwich and Jo wondered to herself whether or not the man had any taste buds at all. Maybe they were seared off at some point, which was really the only explanation for how on Earth someone could choke down a ketchup sandwich. Then, a far more shocking option occurred to her; maybe he enjoyed it. Jo stifled a shudder as she filed that piece of information away for later mockery/investigation.

Sam, who Jo had always assumed was the healthiest, surprised her by halfheartedly gnawing on an old chicken leg as he created the nastiest sandwich known to man. Horseradish, mustard, ketchup, actual radishes, some ancient deli meat that was probably stolen from Dean, and four hot dogs swaddled in copious amounts of mayonnaise were all put between two pieces of stale bread. Jo watched with a sort-of sick fascination as he stuffed half of the sandwich into his mouth in only one bite.

Maybe it was her inner waitress in her speaking (or her inner motherly instinct) but she felt the overwhelming need to teach these men what was edible and what was not.

Finding Death, convincing him to turn her human, obtaining all the Horsemen's rings, tricking Lucifer to go back into his cage, figuring out how to teach three grown men basic cooking skills and stopping the apocalypse, Jo realized that she had a lot of work to do.