A/N- Takes place during No Exit. As always, please read, enjoy, and comment.
Dean, Mae, and Sam spent a couple days taking care of routine business before they returned to Harvelle's Roadhouse and ended up taking Ellen up on the offer to spend the night, largely so they could get any other info Ash could give them before they headed out for their next job. As they stowed some of their gear in the trunk of the Impala, Dean proposed a job. "Los Angeles, California."
"What's in L.A.?" Sam asked.
"Young girl's been kidnapped by an evil cult." Dean explained as Mae walked up beside him and he put an arm around her waist, giving her a quick squeeze as he got his key ready to unlock the driver's side door.
"Yeah? Girl got a name?"
"Katie Holmes."
Mae rolled her eyes and Sam laughed. "That's funny. And for you, so bitchy." Sam said.
Back in the bar however, they heard shouting and breaking glass from inside.
"Of course, on the other hand — catfight."
As the three hunters entered, they found Ellen and Jo shouting at each other as they took down chairs from the table and prepped the bar for opening.
"I am your mother; I don't have to be reasonable!"
"You can't keep me here!" Jo screamed.
"Oh, don't you bet on that, sweetie."
"What are you going to do, are you going to chain me up in the basement?"
"You know what, you've had worse ideas than that recently. Hey, you don't wanna stay, don't stay. Go back to school."
"I didn't belong there! I was a freak with a knife collection."
"Yeah, and getting yourself killed on some dusty back road, that's where you belong?"
Jo didn't have a response to that yet. Ellen watched at as her daughter's eye line shifted and connected with something behind her.
Ellen turned and saw Mae, Sam, and Dean. "Guys, bad time."
"Yes, ma'am." Sam said, holding his hands up.
"We were going to have our own screaming match actually." Mae said.
"Yeah, we rarely drink before ten anyway." Dean joked.
"Wait." Jo said, "I wanna know what they think about this. Hey, even Mae's allowed to hunt and she's just fine."
Dean's hand slid down from Mae's waist to her ass, which he gave a firm squeeze. When she looked at him, annoyed, he mouthed 'you are' at her. She rolled her eyes while she tried to hide a little smirk.
Behind them, a family of four wearing bright yellow shirts that read "Nebraska is for Lovers" entered the roadhouse while Jo and Ellen continued to argue.
"I don't care what they think! And she is not my daughter!"
"Are you guys open?" the dad asked.
"No!" Jo yelled.
"Yes!" Ellen countered, at the same time.
The parents exchanged a look, trying to assess if this was even a place they wanted to be. The father wasn't sure what was happening but it certainly wasn't family fun. "We'll just... check out the Arby's down the road." he said as the family left.
The phone rang. Jo turned from Mae, Sam and Dean to glared at it pointedly for a moment then turned her angry eyes to her mother, who stalked over to answer it. "Harvelle's. Yeah, Preacher."
"Three weeks ago, a young girl disappears from a Philadelphia apartment." Jo said as she shook the papers at Dean. He looked down at them, then back to the young woman expectantly. shoved the file at Dean, "Take it, it won't bite."
"No, but your mom might."
Jo didn't back down and Dean finally reluctantly took it, letting go of Mae at the same time. "And this girl wasn't the first. Over the past eighty years six women have vanished. All from the same building, all young blondes. Only happens every decade or two so cops never eyeball the pattern. So, we're either dealing with one very old serial killer, or —"
"Who put this together? Ash?" Dean asked.
"I did it myself."
"Hmm."
"It could be something." Mae said.
"I gotta admit, we hit the road for a lot less." Sam agreed.
Ellen returned. "Good. You like the case so much, you take it."
"Mom!"
"Joanna Beth, this family has lost enough. And I won't lose you too. I just won't."
A day and a half later, they rolled into Philadelphia. They parked in front of the apartment building Jo had identified in her papers. After scoping out the outside of the building, they made their way inside. Sam picked the lock to the apartment the latest girl had rented before she went missing. The door creaked as Dean closed it behind them.
"I feel kind of bad, snaking Jo's case."
"Yeah, maybe she put together a good file. But could you see her out here working one of these things? I don't think so."
"C'mon Mae, you'd be mad if we did that to you."
"I'm not sure how you could, seeing as we're all together."
"But if we didn't take you with us?"
Mae shrugged as she walked around the room. "Depends on the job, I guess."
"Aren't you supposed to be all 'rah, rah sisterhood'?" Sam asked.
"Do I strike you as the rah rah anything type?"
Dean chuckled. "No but you'd look cute in a little cheerleader get up." Dean and Sam took out their EMF readers and started scanning. "You getting anything?"
"No, not yet."
As Sam ran his device of the light switch outlet, which was missing a cover. The scanner hummed to life. Sam leaned over. "What's that?" He asked peering in.
Mae and Dean moved to his side. "What?"
Sam reached out and touched the goo he found. "Holy crap."
Dean also reached out to touch the mystery substance and examined it on his finger. "That's ectoplasm. Well, Sam, I think I know what we're dealing with here. It's the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man."
"Stop putting your fingers in loose ooze. Jesus." Dean held his fingers up to her, threatening to touch her now. "I swear, if you touch me with that goop, I will punch you hard in a soft place."
Sam rolled his eyes, ignoring the two for the time being. "Guys, I've only seen this stuff, like, twice. I mean, to make this stuff you have to be one majorly pissed off spirit.
"All right, let's find this badass before he snags any more girls."
They exited the apartment and walked down the hallway.
"It's so convenient." Jo said
They paused when they heard voices and hid around the corner to see who or what was being discussed. Dean frowned when he recognized the voice.
"Yeah, it's a great building, fixed it up real nice. All the apartments come furnished, too."
"It is so spacious." Dean frowned when he recognized the voice. "You know, my friend told me I absolutely have to come check it out, and I have to admit, she was right. You did a really good job with this place."
Dean stepped out, with Mae and Sam following. "What the hell are you doing here?" He asked Jo.
"There you are, honey." Jo grabbed Dean around the waist. "This is my boyfriend Dean and his buddy Sam and his girlfriend." Sam put his arm over Mae's shoulder, mostly to remind her to stay in character. He wasn't sure how possessive she might be and if she would act on it now.
"Good to meetcha." The landlord said, extending his hand for Dean to shake. "Quite a gal you've got here."
Dean squeezed her, audibly hard, the only gesture he could make at in the moment to express his displeasure and maintain the illusion of being regular people. "Oh yeah, she's a pistol."
"So, did you already check out that apartment? The one for rent."
"Yeah. Yes. Loved it. Heh. Great flow." Dean said.
"How'd you get in?" the landlord asked, a bit perplexed.
"It was open."
The landlord clearly didn't understand how that was possible but before he could ask further questions, Jo spoke again. "Now, Ed, um, when did the last tenant move out?" Jo asked.
"Oh, about a month ago. Cut and run, too. Stiffed me for the rent."
"Well. Her loss, our gain! 'Cause if Dean-o loves it, it's good enough for me."
"Oh, sweetie." He squeezed her again.
Jo pulled out an impressive roll of money. "We'll take it."
The money seemed to put an end to any further questions Ed might have had but left many others for Sam and Dean.
Mae and Dean trudged back down to the car. When they were safely out of sight of the landlord, Dean draped his arm over her shoulder. Mae felt a hint of suspicion at the timing of the gesture but she let herself enjoy the contact.
"So, where are you registered? Sam and I can go in on a La Crusette for you and your delightful girlfriend."
He frowned. "I-I don't know what that is. You're not gonna let this go, are you?"
Mae laughed, her voice bubbling with amusement, "Oh I'm definitely gonna make fun of you for at least a day or two. You were totally pussy whipped and you didn't even get any."
Dean's face reddened slightly as he cleared his throat. "We make up stories about who we are all the time. I had no idea she was gonna do that."
"Yeah, but that little blond totally steamrolled you when you had a good mad boiling up." Mae tilted her head to the side as she studied him intently.
"She's getting ideas about me." Dean's lips curved further south into more of a scowl.
"I mean, yeah," Mae replied, not totally understanding where he was landing on this situation with Jo. His feelings seemed more complex than normal.
"What's that mean?" There was an edge to his voice now.
Mae shook her head slowly, deciding it was best to let things remain unsaid for now. "Nothin', let's just get our stuff."
Back in the apartment, the three hunters did what they normally did when they started a new job and settled into a new place. They checked and cleaned weapons and supplies to make sure they were ready at the dining room table. Dean perched on the edge while he worked.
"I'll flip you for the sofa." Jo said.
Dean, clearly frustrated asked her, "Does your mother even know you're here?"
"Told her I was going to Vegas."
"You think she's gonna buy that?" Dean asked clearly skeptical.
"I'm not an idiot. I got Ash to lay a credit card trail all the way to the casinos."
He shook his head and he loaded his gun. "You know, you shouldn't lie to your mom. Shouldn't be here either."
Jo looked over at Sam, seeing if he might back her up at all but he gave her an almost as unsympathetic look as Dean had been. The same was true for Mae too.
"Well, I am." Jo said, not quite defiant but as resolute as she could, "So untwist your boxers and deal with it."
Dean still regarded her with judgement.
"Where'd you get all that money from, anyways?" Sam asked.
"Working, at the Roadhouse."
"Hunters don't tip that well." Dean fired back, even more skeptical now.
"Well, they aren't that good at poker, either."
Any further discussion was cut off when Dean's cell rang. Jo dug through her bag on the table. Dean stood, pulled the phone from his pocket, and answered. "Yeah."
"Is she with you?"
"Oh, hi Ellen." He said, looking pointed at Jo.
In the background, Mae and Sam exchanged a 'this is bad' look, knowing Ellen was unlikely to back down and she would hardly give up after just one phone call. That meant they would likely be in trouble with her if Dean didn't just tell her Jo was with them on this job.
"She left a note she's in Vegas. I don't believe it for a second." Ellen explained.
Sam put down his gun and stood, walking closer to Dean.
He held the phone back as he spoke to Jo. "I'm telling her."
Jo and Dean argued in hushed, muttered tones before Ellen's voice called Dean back to the phone.
"I haven't seen her." Dean lied.
"You sure about that?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." He lied again.
"Well, please. If she shows up, you'll drag her butt right back here, won't you?"
"Absolutely."
"Okay. Thanks, honey."
She kept him pinned with an angry stare until he hung up the phone. Then, she grinned.
Dean paced the room, needing to think out the best next steps. Sam, Mae, and Jo sat at the table, blueprints of the building spread out in front of them. She flipped her knife around.
"This place was built in 1924. It was originally a warehouse, converted into apartments a few months ago."
"Yeah? What was here before 1924?" Dean asked, his eyes were fixed the back of Jo's head, judgmental and almost irate.
"Nothing. Empty field."
There was something up with Dean that Mae didn't quite have a bead on yet. This wasn't attraction or interest on his part. And, at least in her experience, he didn't tend to take such a hard edge when they were working through theories and histories.
"So, most likely scenario, someone died bloody in the building, and now he's back and raising hell."
"I already checked. In the past eighty-two years, zero violent deaths. Unless you count a janitor who slipped on a wet floor." She looked at Dean "Would you sit down, please?"
"Well, lots of things could happen in an empty field. Maybe it's not the building at all. Murders, battles...hell, we've seen our share of cursed object, disturbed ground. Hell of a thing if whatever spirit is attached to it is putting out ectoplasm."
Dean sat down. "So, have you checked police reports, county death records..." he asked condescendingly.
"Obituaries, mortuary reports and seven other sources. I know what I'm doing." Jo replied.
"I think the jury's still out on that one. Would you put the knife down?" Dean with an oddly calm but testy tone.
She did but have him an equally dismissive look around his concerns.
"Okay. So, uh, it's something else, then. Maybe" Sam gestured to Mae, "some kind of cursed object that brought a spirit with it."
Jo was more than ready to move forward with this job without being constantly babysat but the other hunters. "Well, we've got to scan the whole building. Everywhere we can get to, right?"
"Right. So. You and me, we'll take the top two floors."
"We'd move faster if we split up." Jo argued.
"Oh, this isn't negotiable." Dean insisted.
Jo and Dean walked down the dim hallway, scanning for anything the EMF readers might pick up that would signal a spirit or cursed object.
"So. You gonna buy me dinner?" Jo asked.
"What are you talking about?
"It's just if you're gonna ride me this close it's only decent you buy me dinner."
"Oh, that's hilarious. You know, it's bad enough I lied to your mom, but if you think I'm letting you out of my sight... I don't know if you've noticed, but you're kind of the spirit's type."
"Exactly."
"You wanna be bait?" It was different with him, Sam, even Mae. They knew what that meant and they knew they could trust each other.
"Quickest way to draw it out and you know it. Mae would do it if it liked bitchy redheads."
Dean scoffed at her assessment.
"What?"
"I'm so regretting this."
She stopped walking. "You know, I've had it up to here with your crap."
Dean turned back to her. "Excuse me?"
"Your chauvinist crap. You think women can't do the job."
"Sweetheart, this ain't gender studies. Women can do the job fine. Amateurs can't. You have no experience. The reason Mae might let herself be bait is she knows what she's doing. She's a damn good hunter and not bitchy. What you do have is a bunch of half-baked romantic notions that some barflies put in your head."
"Now you sound like my mother."
"Oh, and that's a bad thing? Because let me tell you..." He stopped; his guidance seemingly wasted on the young woman. Maybe she just hadn't had enough terrible things happen to her to know what she was trying to trade for a life that he knew was only hardship and loss.
"What?"
"Forget it."
"No, you started this."
"Jo, you've got options. No one in their right mind chooses this life. My dad started me in this when I was so young... I wish I could do something else." Dean didn't know if that was truer now because his dad was dead or because he didn't want to see the same thing happen to Sam and Mae.
"You love the job." She countered.
Dean wasn't sure that love was the right word. He was good at it and it was the only thing he'd ever known. He didn't know how to do anything else, how to forget that he knew what he knew about the world, or how to get past the idea that he had the responsibility to do it. He would have stopped if he knew how to do any of that. "Yeah, but I'm a little twisted."
"You don't think I'm a little twisted too?"
"Jo, you've got a mother that worries about you. Who wants something more for you. Those are good things. You don't throw things like that away. Might be hard to find later."
They approached a grating near the floor. As she stood in front of it, a dark hand slit through towards her legs. With a gasp, she turned around, certain she felt something. But nothing was there.
"What?" Dean asked.
"I'm not sure." She couldn't tell him she had a feeling and it freaked her out. He'd only go on more about how she didn't know what she was doing.
"You smell that?"
She sniffed the air. "What is that, a gas leak?"
He thought, trying to remember what it was. "No. Something else. I know it. I just can't put my finger on it." He looked around for an obvious source, sniffed again and still nothing came to mind.
As Jo crouched down by the grating, her EMF reader jumped.
"Mazel Tov. You just found your first spirit."
"It's inside the vent."
Dean reached inside his canvas coat and pulled out a flashlight. Crouching down beside her, he shined the light inside. Finding nothing notable as he peered through the grade, he handed the light to Jo and reached back in his coat. "Here."
He pulled a screwdriver out of his coat and removed the grating off the wall with a clank as he set it on the floor. He got down closer to eye level and taking the light back, he peered inside the opening. As he looked up, he noted something strange. "There's something in there. Here." Dean reached inside, feeling around for several moments before he found something. Pulling it out, he found a clump of blond hair, with bloody scalp still attached. "Somebody's keeping souvenirs."
Mae and Sam debated splitting up. They both knew Dean wouldn't object. If it had been the three of them, they would have all done their searches solo. Because they knew what the others were capable of and knew they could take care of themselves. They also both knew better than to suggest it in front of Jo. But out of an abundance of caution, Mae and Sam decided to scan the building together.
"You know, I don't think Dean is seriously interested in Jo. He loves you."
Mae rolled her eyes and she made an exaggerated exhaled with a low grumble. "Oh my God. Kill me now, murder ghost."
Sam smirked, amused knowing his brother's reaction would have been the same. "What?"
"I don't want to talk about this with you, okay?" Mae replied as she tried to focus more intently on her EMF reader, which was displeasingly quiet.
"You just seem off and if it's because of Dean and Jo- "
Mae shook her head quickly. "It's not. I trust him. Whatever is going on with them is a mild annoyance at best."
Sam raised his eyebrows, prompting for more details. "Then what is it?"
Mae was quiet, and she let out a long sigh before eventually shaking her head again.
"Okay fine, I just thought you might wanna talk to someone other than Dean."
She did but she also knew Sam had tried and he was in the same position. "He's in a bad headspace, you know? And I don't know how to help him, let alone what he needs to get out of it."
"Oh."
"What, you thought I was more interested in some petty jealousy than whatever quasi-suicidal bend your brother is on?"
"I guess I was hoping for something easy for once." Sam swept another wall too. "He scares you too?"
She and Sam hadn't really talked about what happened in the hospital, what happened to Dean, and everything since. She supposed they should have. They were partners too after all. "No, he doesn't. What he's doing sometimes does, the decisions he makes are... all over the place and don't always make sense to me. He's looking for something only he can give himself and he's not..." Mae took a deep breath. "I wish I were just jealous."
"Has he told you anything?"
Mae looked over at Sam as they walked side by side but didn't stop. "What do you mean?"
He shrugged. "You two spend most nights together. It can't just be sex."
Her eyebrow raised in challenge, causing Sam to grimace in an expression that fell somewhere between perplexed and disgusted. He gave her a half laugh, half scoff. "He must tell you things he doesn't tell me."
"Sure. But what he's told is right; I do have nicer tits than you, just objectively." She knew he knew it was deflection but was hoping he'd take the hint.
"Seriously, Mae. I just wanna help him."
"You an' me both. Everything he's told you, he's told me." It wasn't a lie. It just wasn't the whole truth. What good did the part Dean hadn't shared do Sam? There wasn't anything he could do about it. Besides, Sam was already worried about the same thing. It wasn't her story to tell anyway. "C'mon, he's told you what's bothering him. This thing your dad did, the demon, what else?"
"Yeah." Sam said, disappointed. "We don't know for sure?"
"Do you legitimately believe that?" Sam's silence was a definitive answer but there was no point in keeping her secret from him at this point ever. "I saw him, with the demon. That yellow eyed bastard was accepting the deal when I interrupted them. So, I don't know exactly what the deal was but you can guess as well as Dean did."
Sam and Mae returned to the apartment. Nothing on their floors registered as out of the ordinary. The apartment was empty but it wasn't alarming yet. It might have been a slower search for the other pair. In another 10 or 15 minutes, one of them would call Dean. Instead, Mae took out her laptop and started typing and reading.
"What are you doing?" Sam asked as he casually reread the articles Jo had printed.
"I'm just gonna look into some things. I'm sure Jo did her leg work here but..."
"Yeah. Good idea. Wouldn't tell her that if I were you?"
"Joke's on you, I love getting yelled at by a 19-year-old who knows everything."
Sam smirked. "C'mon, she's not that bad."
"What bizzarro world are we in where you're her pro-hunting and Dean's against it?"
"I'm not-listen, it would be better is she wasn't involved in something like this at all but can you blame her?"
Mae shook her head. "I don't know enough about her one way or another. Do you?" Sam shook his head too. "Seems like a bad move for someone who... I mean, you and Dean didn't have a choice and even when you tried to make a different one, you ended up back here."
"So did you."
Mae paused her reading to look back at him, a bit of sadness in her eyes. "I made a choice Sam. Even before the demon came slamming back into my life, I made a choice. But I made it knowing exactly what could happen to me. She's never cauterized a wound with a curling iron, never been tossed around like a ragdoll by a spirit or a demon, never had a particularly rapey monster go after her because she's a woman, never had a broken bone from a runaway zombie chick, never experienced any of the myriad of physical and psychological trauma. She hears stories, maybe she likes the puzzle piece, the gear, the illegal shit, I don't know. But she doesn't actually know what she wants to do here."
Mae was right and he didn't disagree but she might have had some kind of deep dark trauma she hadn't shared either. He understood that and knew Mae did too. "So... you're never going back? To a normal life?"
"I don't know that I ever really did normal life right but...what am I gonna do normal? I have no applicable skills or a resume and... it's not like I'm gonna settle down with a partner, 2.5 kids, and a mortgage. I can't put someone through that just because they're stupid enough to feel anything for me."
"Even Dean?"
"Dean's not gonna turn normal." Her eyes shifted away from Sam, "We're- I mean, if something doesn't kill us together, then one of us is gonna go first fighting something. That's as close to normal as we'll get, I think."
"That's grim."
She laughed. "Yeah well, that's life."
When Dean and Jo returned, they debriefed and tried to strategize. The decided they all needed food and some rest before tackling a more in-depth search to figure out who they were after, locate remains, or figure out anything else to put a stop to this ghost's plans.
Normally, it would have been time to unwind a little at they ate carryout from a nearby Chinese restaurant but the atmosphere was quiet and awkward. They exchanged minimal conversation but a number of charged looks. Dean decided though to ease up from his critique of Jo for the time being as she and Sam yet again went over the blue prints and papers. Something was missing. They were missing something.
The pair landed on the idea that perhaps they needed to get inside the other apartments to scan and see if they could identify something more, an object, a source. Could they go door to do? Maybe they needed to convince the landlord to order everyone out. Maybe they needed to come up with a bigger, more complex hoax to get people to evacuate.
Mae stood up as the two brainstormed and Dean watched her but Jo and Sam didn't seem to register her movement. He watched Mae walk through the living area, towards the bedroom and disappear around the corner.
Dean waited several minutes before following her. Discreetly, he tried to bathroom door knob to see if she'd lock it and finding it unlocked, he slipped inside.
"Um, what are you doing here Dean?" Mae asked, looking over shoulder as he closed the bathroom door behind him. It left him standing close to her as she washed her hands at the sink.
Mae turned away from him and he watched her reflection. He frowned a little as he looked at her in the mirror. "Yeah, I guess there isn't a good excuse."
"Well... we all do use the bathroom. I'm almost done here. If you're trying to catch me peeing, you're too late. Unless this is a new thing where you want me watch you. I mean, that's not really my thing but I guess...? This is a weird place to start up."
"It's not. It doesn't bother me but I'm not in to it."
She dried her hands on the nearby towel. "Okay, well thanks for clearing up a question I didn't have... good talk."
"C'mon, don't be weird."
Because he hadn't moved when he came in the bathroom, she found herself between the sink and the man. His presence wasn't threatening or even unwelcome, just a strange place to have it. "I was just using the bathroom dude. I'm not the weird one here."
"Yeah, I guess."
Mae sighed and leaned back against the vanity a bit. "What is up with you? You're in an extra obnoxious mood and you've been in a lot of moods lately." There wasn't cruelty in her voice but it was edged with a hint of concern.
"I guess I have."
Her eyes turned skeptical. "Why are you being so agreeable? What do you want?"
He smiled softly and pleaded with her for a pass on arguing. He knew he was skating close to her limits, especially after her comment at the Roadhouse about something going on between him and Jo - although there wasn't anything real there.
"You came into the bathroom to ask me not to argue with you? What makes you think I'm looking for an argument?"
He stepped closer to Mae, reaching down to take her hand in his. Holding her hand, he traced circles over the soft skin of her inner wrist with his thumb. He smiled when he felt her pulse pick up under his touch. Her pupils dilated as he touched her. Even after all these years, he still had the power to make her heart flutter just by being near her.
"Really? You're being awfully quiet," he said teasingly, knowing full well that she was probably trying to come up with a plan to derail what she saw as his potentially dodgy flirtation with Jo.
"Why do you think me being quiet is dangerous?" she asked.
He sighed before continuing, "I'm pretty sure you're dangerous any time.
Look, I may have flirted with Jo, but it's nothing," he said. "She's not you." Her eyebrow quirked at that in a way that told him he'd misread her signals.
She rolled her eyes and laughed sardonically in response. "Oh, how special for me."
"See, this is the argument I didn't want to have. I'm not saying you don't have a right to be jealous but you don't need to be. I'm not interested in her like that and you don't need to take it out on her."
"You're the one who started down this road, Dean. But for the record I'm not that jealous. I'm not blind but I'm not jealous. I'm not wild about her pretending you're her boyfriend or the weird flirting but I get it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not okay with you hooking up with her. But that's not what's happening here. Here, I'm just trying to work the job. And I'm not the one treating her like an angry dad who found out she stole the car to go joy riding."
Dean let his hand slide up her arm, as much as the sleeve of her button-down shirt allowed him to touch her bare skin. "She doesn't belong out here."
"Agreed. I'm not signing us up to be the Singer-Winchester Finishing School for Wayward Girls either. I mean, honestly, that sounds like it's just going to result in a lot of unplanned pregnancy and knife wounds." She said with a cheeky smile.
Dean laughed. "Oh, I like you so much."
"You know, you're not as upset about me or Sam out there. Why are you so worried about Jo? We barely know her."
Dean let his eyes skim slowly over her pretty face. He took a deep breath. "Maes, you got hurt on one of your first real hunts. It wasn't training or practice or some easy job. You almost died. I was more experience and I could have done more to take care of you. You weren't that much younger than she is. I know it's not the same but... I'm not gonna let another girl whose safety is my responsibility..."
"Dean..." She tenderly as she cupped the side of his face with her free hand. "You're not-"
He let his eyes close a moment at the sympathetic contact. "Don't." he said, voice thick, as he stilled her hand with his. "Just don't."
She nodded as she let her hand fall away from his face but she pressed it to his chest for a moment, avoiding his amulet but touching over his heart. "Listen, she's got enough people telling her what to do and how to do it. Do you think there's anything I could say to her that will stick?"
He knew what she was saying was accurate but didn't want it to be. "Maybe. I recall you being almost as gung-ho about hunting and fighting with Bobby about it."
"I was a teenager, Dean. And he was right. I stopped hunting then because I got fucked up. I started up again because I'm fucked up. Or do I need to take off my pants and show your new girlfriend how I had to be sliced from hip to hip to save my life." She said sarcastically.
He frowned, knowing she wasn't serious but wondering if something shocking would work better. Of course, Mae's pelvis didn't exactly look horrific or imposing with the beautiful floral garden she had tattooed over the long scar from her surgery. It wasn't particularly noticeable now unless you knew where and what it was. "Maybe she needs to see what happens."
"I'm not here to be an example of all the bad things that can happen to you living this life. I don't want to have to tell every girl who has a knife and wants to shank a ghost about all my shit to convince them to go home. That can't possibly be my responsibility. I'm entitled so some privacy."
"I get that. I didn't mean...sorry."
Mae leaned in and kissed him nonchalantly. "Are you sure you're not feeling guilty or something because or whatever you feel?"
He shook his head but tried to consider what she was saying. "I just-I don't want you to worry about her, okay?"
"Okay. We're supposed to trust each other, right? If I can't trust you to keep in in your pants-"
Dean cut her off but hooked his fingers in the belt loops of her jeans and pulled her hips against his. "You're the only one who's even been near my pants for a while now. When it comes to Jo, I feel...I don't know, protective? She's caught up in the adventure of the whole thing."
She looked over Dean's face. "You know, handsome, you can't save someone if she doesn't want to be saved. But as far as you and me go, here's the deal-our lives are too weird and dangerous to add in stupid high school relationship bullshit. I trust you with my life. I trust you to keep me safe. I trust you to care about me, respect me enough to not cheat on me, okay? So, I'm going trust you. You going to trust me. And if I find out that you broke my trust, I'll cut your balls off. Then we'll break up. Cool?"
Surprised, he laughed again. He had to admit, he loved these little moments with her that were somehow meaningful, irreverent, easy, and fun. "I mean, I'm not wild about the ball cutting part."
"That's kinda the point, isn't it? If you're a good boy, then something nice will happen to your balls." She said with a slightly seductive purr.
"Oh, then I'll be a very good boy." Dean replied, pressing his body against hers and leaning in to capture her mouth in a passionate, long-drawn-out kiss.
When they pulled apart for a breath, Mae laughed against his mouth. "You're never a good boy."
"I will be that one way. For my balls."
It was entirely possible that they would have continued making out and far more, ignoring where they were. Except the bathroom door opened again, startling them. At least it was Sam, Mae thought, because they knew what his response would be to catching them.
"What is this? You two are going to the bathroom together now?"
"I mean, we're in the bathroom together. We weren't going to the bathroom together. Why is everyone just opening the bathroom door willy nilly like no one could actually be using the bathroom? Oh, we've said bathroom too many times. It's weird now."
Dean laughed, easing back from her a bit but keeping his hands on her hips. "Mae was just telling me about some nice things she could do to my balls so..."
Mae shook her head, her features pinching together in irritation and embarrassment. "I wouldn't put it that way."
"Oh, but believe me, the ways she would put it-" Mae cut him off with a hand over Dean's mouth.
"Seriously, you two are weird, and gross, and need professional help. Can you get outta the bathroom and go feel each other up somewhere else?"
"I can feel her up anywhere." Dean said, which earned him a playful smack to the chest from Mae and a groan of disgust from his brother as they left the bathroom.