Author's Note:
I've decided to set this in mid season 4. When Dean is pretty dang set on distracting himself from what happened in hell and ganking monsters. And Sam is pretty dang set on stopping the apocalypse and being broody.
"What's wrong?" Sam sprinted into the living room.
"Sit," Dean instructed, pointing to the stools around Ji-a's kitchen table.
"Why'd you have to wake me up?" Sam asked.
"Ji-a's coming with us," Dean announced.
"I'll need a few days to set up a substitute for my classes and switch my kids over to online but…" Ji-a began, trying to sound reasonable.
"Absolutely not," Sam said immediately.
Ji-a just frowned.
"Why the hell not, man?" Dean asked.
"Because we're trying to stop the literal apocalypse, in case you forgot," Sam replied.
"So? Many hands. Light work. Or whatever," Dean said.
"I won't slow you down," Ji-a interjected, "And if I do just send me home."
"She's got all the anthropology info in here," Dean argued tapping Ji-a's temple with his forefinger, "And she's tough as nails."
"She threw up when we burned the body," Sam pointed out.
"One time deal," Dean assured his brother. Ji'a raised an eyebrow. That was an impressive promise she was fairly sure her stomach wouldn't keep.
"Fine," Sam said through gritted teeth, "She can come."
"Great," Dean got to his feet, reaching out to shake his brother's hand.
"One condition," Sam said.
"Yeah?" Dean froze with his hand extended.
"You teach her the ropes," Sam said, "And I mean that seriously. I don't need some upstart disobeying orders and causing problems for us."
"You okay with a little discipline Ji-a?" Dean asked over his shoulder.
"Um…" Ji-a paused. She thought hard before she answered. She was learning a new skill. That meant new rules. That meant getting in trouble for breaking them. Just like she'd nearly flunked her first graduate archaeology course after trying to be helpful by organizing artifacts at a site. Just like she'd regularly taken hard conditioning bouts after training when she'd been uncooperative during kickboxing class. New skills. New rules. New consequences. Seemed fair enough.
"Okay," Ji-a agreed.
"Deal?" Dean asked.
"Deal," Sam agreed, shaking his brother's hand.