They limped up the stairs to their motel room, backs sore from lifting the dirt out of the grave. With Jo in the shower, Amelia cracked a beer open, turned on the television, and flopped down on her bed with a grateful sigh. After ten or fifteen Jo emerged wearing a skinny tank top and a pair of shorts that could only be described as cute. Amelia was slightly disgusted, but she took her own shower, and wore her baggy t-shirt and sweatpants proudly.
Jo had started her second beer when Amelia came out, hair dripping. Amelia grabbed her second, and flopped down on the bed again.
"So are you going to go back to college in the fall?" Jo asked after a few minutes of channel flicking.
"Haven't decided yet."
"Do you actually like it?"
What kind of a question was that? "I guess it's alright. I don't have too many friends. No one would really miss me."
"Hunters think college is some sort of holy experience," Jo brooded. "Mom wanted me to go to college, Sam ran away to go to college..." She took a long drink.
"Yea, I think Bobby wants me to go back."
"How is living with Bobby?" Jo asked, blinking at her.
She shrugged. "We get along. Don't talk much I guess."
They watched a segment of some horrible romantic comedy.
Jo polished off her beer. Amelia raised her eyebrow, but didn't judge. When she helped Bobby research a difficult case, by the second day she was pretty much running on alcohol to keep down the headaches from reading for thirty hours straight.
"So tell me," Jo sat up, sitting on the edge of her bed staring at Amelia. "What's it like living a normal life? I was raised by hunter parents, I didn't have any friends, I was always the weird kid with super strict parents."
She received a bitter laugh in answer. "You'd have to ask someone else," Amelia told her. "My family was pretty messed up."
"What do you mean?" Jo was well into her third beer and showed no signs of stopping.
What harm could it do? "We moved around a lot. Longest we ever stayed in a place was like a year. Usually moved every six months or so, to some new dinky small town, another old motel room or crappy apartment. Summers were OK. My brother and I would just leave. Run around town, go swimming, whatever. Half the time we slept outside, just as long as it wasn't too cold or raining. Wouldn't see our parents for days at a time. Mom worked all day, dad worked until he lost his job then he started drinking. Ate whatever we could find, invited ourselves to birthday parties, took food from those food pantry donation boxes. Never really stole, though. Paul would find some way."
"I'm sorry," Jo said. "I guess no one's life is perfect."
"Hell, you have a mom that actually give a damn," Amelia told her. "That counts for quite a bit in my book."
"Yea," she shrugged. "I guess. We fight a lot."
They watched TV in silence for a while.
"So you probably don't know what normal people do in these situations either," Jo giggled.
"Sleep?" Amelia suggested, innocently. "Truth or dare?"
"Ooh, I played that at like the only sleep over I was ever invited to. Didn't end well, the other girls freaked out when I tried to put down a salt line. And when I wanted to play ghost hunter instead of playing with dolls... All in all it didn't go too well."
Amelia laughed at the thought of a little Jo in pigtails bossing the other girls around.
"So, truth or dare?"
"Uh," she tried to think of a way out of the situation, and failed. "Dare."
Jo thought for a few seconds, then, "handstand."
"Easy," smirked Amelia, putting down her beer. She did a perfect freestanding handstand between the beds, and held it for a few seconds before flopping down on to the bed.
"Show off. Go ahead, ask me!"
"I'm horrible at this!"
"Come on," Jo wheedled, "I never got to just hang out like this as a kid."
"Fine. Truth or dare?"
"Truth."
Amelia stared at the TV for a few minutes, then, "I have no idea. Did you have a pet as a kid?"
"Boring," drawled Jo, "I had two cats named Fluffy and Jewels."
"You had a cat named Jewels?" Amelia raised an eyebrow.
"It was a tom," Jo admitted, and Amelia howled in laughter.
"I was five, ok?!"
"Jewels had jewels!" she started to tear up from laughing too hard, and Jo chucked a pillow at her head.
"Truth or dare?" she demanded.
"Truth," Amelia felt adventurous, and Jo was far enough into her beer that any memories would be hazy the next morning.
"Hmmm," Jo stroked an imaginary beard. "Exact opinion of the Winchesters."
"Ahh," Amelia stalled again. "Nice enough. Wouldn't want to get on their bad side. Pretty cute, I suppose."
"Just 'pretty cute'?" Jo prodded.
"Wait," Amelia had hung around with the other track girls enough to spot a crush right in front of her. Plus it would put Jo on the defensive. "You like one of them."
"What?" Jo backtracked, "no, we're just old friends."
"You do!" Amelia tossed the pillow back. "Sam? He seems really nice. Sweet. Hair's a bit long," she studied the girl's face as she spoke. "Nope, you like Dean."
Jo's blush told her that she was right.
"Well I won't challenge you there," Amelia shrugged. "He seems like a player, no offense."
"Yea, well, he's a hunter," Jo defended herself. "A young, handsome hunter."
"With cute little freckles," Amelia teased her, "and a cool car, and a leather jacket."
"You're a dork!" Jo tossed her pillow back. "What about you and Sam, hmmm? You seemed to have plenty of nice things to say about him."
Amelia just laughed, and Jo stuck her tongue out.
"Truth or dare, Jo?" Amelia relaxed back onto her pillow. This really wasn't that bad. Of course, that could be the five beers talking. Oh well.
"Dare," Jo answered.
"Stand on one leg and recite the alphabet backwards?" Amelia suggested.
"What is this, a sobriety test?" Jo grumbled, but hopped off her bed.
"Haha, you probably won't pass," Amelia teased her.
And she didn't. When she hit 'q', Jo teetered, stumbled across the room, and twisted her ankle when she tried to catch herself.
"Ouch!" she exclaimed, grabbing at her ankle.
Amelia launched off her bed and was at Jo's side in under two seconds. "Are you alright?" she asked, crouching down beside her.
"I twisted my ankle," Jo groaned, massaging her ankle.
Amelia looked at it, and did a quick examination. "Doesn't look broken," she said. "Probably just a strain or sprain."
"Ow?" Jo asked.
"Bedtime for you," Amelia sighed, and looped one of Jo's arms around her neck, supporting her so she didn't have to put wait on her ankle.
"I'll get you some ice," Amelia thought out loud, "it should keep the swelling down."
Jo just grumbled away.
Amelia chuckled, softly. "Here, take a shot, it'll knock you out," she dug the flask out of her backpack.
Jo complied, and Amelia wandered out to the machine to grab some ice. The other girl had passed out when she returned, and she bound up Jo's ankle as carefully as possible. Screw the ice melting into the mattress. After drinking a few glasses of water to cut the potential hangover, Amelia tumbled into her own bed.
Jo stirred. "I never had a sister before," she mumbled, halfways into her pillow.
"Well, I'm not wearing one of those BFF heart necklaces, sweetheart," Amelia told her. But a few minutes later, when Jo stared snoring softly, she smiled.
"I never had a sister either."
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
When Jo woke the next morning, her head and foot throbbed, but something deliciously warm wrapped around her ankle, easing the pain out of it.
"Mornin', sunshine," Amelia smiled at her. She was dressed, her hair was neatly braided, and she sat at the table poking at her computer.
Jo groaned. "What time is it?" Except it came out more like, "whattimezit?"
Amelia glanced at her watch. "A little after ten," she said. "Check-out's at eleven. How's the ankle?"
"Hurts," she mumbled.
"It swelled up some," Amelia told her. "Not too bad. If you stay off it for a few days, it'll be as right as rain."
"Mom's going to be pissed," she sighed, and sat up.
At eleven, Amelia drove out of the parking lot. "Want some breakfast to go?"
"Nah," Jo grumbled, curling up in the passenger seat. "Imma take a nap."
Amelia grabbed a burger at a drive through for breakfast, settled back, and turned the radio on softly so Jo wouldn't wake up. The road slipped away under the car, mesmerizing her. She had spent so much time in cars during her life. As a kid, whenever they moved to a new town, there was always a sense of hope. Every time, Paul told her it would be better. They were older, they would take care of each other. They could make it through being the new kids. And every time, in spite of herself, Amelia believed him. So in spite of the new town and the new crap it dished out to them, Amelia loved the car ride to the new town. Their father was usually nicer, the new opportunity helped. He drove his precious Firebird, and their mother drove the kids. Everything seemed new. Maybe car rides were just another way of running from her problems. Maybe she didn't care.
Jo woke up near the South Dakota border with a groan. Amelia tossed a water bottle at her.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Ahhh?" Jo replied, dubiously. "How are you still awake?"
Amelia turned and smiled widely at her. "Ice in the back seat, put some on your ankle."
"What are you Dean now?" Jo sighed. "All alcohol and goofy smiles and misdirections." She wrapped up her ankle with the ice. "Damn that feels good."
"Pain pills and a granola bar if you want them," Amelia told her.
"The hell did you find pain pills?" Jo asked, looking askance at Amelia.
She just smiled again, gazing off along the road.
Jo didn't argue, just downed the pills and munched the granola bar. "How far are we?"
"About two hours from Bobby's, I think."
"You're not tired?"
"I'm good."
"You got like two, three hours of sleep," Jo insisted. "On almost as much alcohol as I had."
"I had a nap yesterday, seriously I'm fine."
"Ok, whatever," she grunted. "God, you are Dean."
She was silent for the rest of the ride.
Amelia pulled up to Bobby's and parked. "Need a hand getting inside?" she asked.
"Um, yea probably," Jo winced as she opened her door and tried to step out.
"Hang on," Amelia hopped out, and walked around.
She gave Jo a shoulder to hang on to, and they made it to the stairs.
"Feel like hopping?"
Jo groaned in reply, and teetered a little bit as she braced to jump.
Amelia tensed, supporting her, then sighed and swept Jo off her feet.
"Really?" Jo squawked.
"You way like nothing," Amelia insisted, and carried her up the stairs.
"It really doesn't hurt that much," Jo argued.
Amelia dropped her off top on the porch. "Well, it hurts less then if you had tried hopping up. You're on the door side, grab it."
Bobby looked up from cooking as they stumbled into the kitchen like an awkward three legged race.
"Have fun girls?"
Jo grunted, Amelia smiled.
"Get hurt on the hunt Jo?"
Amelia laughed, Jo smacked her in the back of the head.
"Couch?"
"Sure."
Between the two of them, they navigated their way to the couch and Amelia deposited Jo onto it without ceremony.
"I'll grab a hot towel for your ankle," Amelia told her, "prop it up."
"You're kind of nice for being such a jerk," Jo told her.
"You're totally high on those pain pills right now, aren't you?"
Jo flopped down on the couch.
"Where's Ellen?" Amelia asked as she walked through the kitchen.
"Rigged up a wheelchair and ramp for her," Bobby said. "Went on a roll outside."
"Nice," Amelia grabbed a towel and ran hot water over it for a few minutes.
"Hunt went well," she told him. "Teenaged kid was goofing around at the elevator a year back, fell to his death. Lot of EMF on the bones."
"When'd Jo dink up her ankle?"
"Uh," Amelia glanced at Jo, passed out on the couch. "Tumbled down some stairs last night after we got back to the motel." Slightly more noble than balancing on one foot then tumbling.
She went back and wrapped up her ankle again. It really wasn't swollen too badly. Jo would be on her feet after two days.
"Don't give her any more pain pills," she told Bobby. "She's had enough for a while. I'm going for a run."
Aw, nice sisterly bonding! Apologies for making Jo something of a lightweight, I thought it would be kind of ironic. :) Hope you enjoyed!