64: Time for An Intervention
Jane had to keep revising her 'top ten strangest things ever' list; it was in a constant state of change. Vying for a spot in the top three was their current predicament, or well… the meat suits. She probably shouldn't have thought about poor Jimmy Novak that way, but she did. She was just so used to seeing him as Castiel, or Castiel as him, whichever, it was hard to reconcile that this man was a vessel minus the dream walking angel.
She was already missing Mexico, missing their time away from this crap. She knew ultimately, there was some higher purpose playing out here, that they were attempting to do some good, but Jane wasn't going to lie. The downtime had been really nice. He had been a bit more solemn near the end of their little vacation, after finding her with Lucia, but he hadn't divulged why. She hadn't pressed him, figuring he would either eventually tell her, or she'd just somehow find out.
Though, with this new development, she had put Dean's moon swings on the backburner. Dean had dragged her and Sam to an old warehouse after some dream he had had, a dream with Castiel in it. When they had arrived on the scene, it looked like a war had been fought, and the only survivor was Castiel. Only it wasn't Cas.
They had sat through a meal with the man, Jimmy, who had scarfed down massive amounts of food at a pace that had Dean looking perturbed, and Dean could pack it away with the best of them. He had told them his story and what bits and pieces he remembered from being 'chained to a comet', and then the three men had gone back and forth about what to do with jimmy.
She, personally, was torn. She could understand him wanting to see his wife and daughter but at the same time… he wasn't safe. Once demons found out he wasn't being inhabited by an angel, they were going to want to get their claws and paws on him. Safety in numbers, and who better to handle demons than the Winchester brothers?
Jimmy hadn't been overly pleased with that and had tried leaving on more than one occasion. It was his attempts at leaving that had kept her up, even after Dean had fallen asleep. She simply lay there in the bed with him, listening to the genuine sounds of him sleeping and fake breathing pattern Sam had going on. She wasn't familiar with Jimmy so she couldn't tell if he was faking or not.
She had no idea how long she had laid there until someone moved. She focused, using her mind to feel the space, hazarding a guess it was Sam because the mass in an otherwise empty area was huge and Sam was a moose. He seemed undecided, or maybe was waiting to see if anyone would wake up, and only after a few minutes of silence did he finally leave the room.
Jane didn't bother waiting for the door to close all the way behind him, she was already throwing back her covers in order to follow him.
"What are you doing?"
It was a pointless question. Jane knew exactly what Sam was doing. He wasn't standing at this vending machine, hunched over himself because he wanted a bag of Dorito deliciousness. When he looked at her, straightening slightly, she caught glimpse of a flask in one hand. His other hand had blood in it, just a little, but it answered her question. Her nose wrinkled in disgust when Sam defiantly lapped it up, his stormy eyes locking with hers.
It really wasn't so surprising, that he would do this right in front of her. He might have felt shame, but they had a 'no secrets' thing going, mainly because she kept busting his ass, or learning about things she didn't need to know. This however… "Sam, you realize that Dean is-" She gagged when he actually licked his palm clean.
"Shut up." He rumbled, a hint of red staining his cheeks though he was sure she couldn't see it, the lighting out here wasn't the best. "Not a word."
She stepped closer to him, really studying him. They, her and Dean, hadn't been back from their little honeymoon all that long, but she had noticed that Sam was acting somewhat weird. Weirder than usual, it was Sam after all. He was tense, on edge, and now she realized what his issues had been. "Feigning are we?" She asked dryly, folding her arms over her chest. "How old is that Sam? I bet it's not as good as the fresh stuff."
"Shut up, Jane." He growled, not happy with her out here, seeing him like this. Yeah, she knew about his… issue, and hadn't said anything to Dean, so far as he knew, but that didn't mean he wanted to share the visuals.
"Sam, you have to stop. You're sneaking out to… to drink stale, nasty… Ugh. Dean needs to know." Jane let out a mangled shriek of surprise, and pain, when his hand was suddenly wrapped around her throat and her toes were now brushing the cement. "Sam!"
Sam was dragging her around the vending machine, away from the motel room door. "Dean doesn't need to know." He snarled, struggling to keep his voice low, and steady. "You promised Jane." He let go of her, watching as she staggered backward, her hand moving to her throat.
"Yeah, and I promised him I wasn't going to keep things anymore." She hissed after a moment, keeping a respectable distance between them. Sam had gotten pissed with her before, he had verbally abused her, gone out of his way to intimidate her with his presence, but this was a first and she knew it wasn't Sam. It was that damn demon blood he kept ingesting; it was turning him into something else, something evil. "This isn't you Sam."
His glare faltered.
"Sam, please…"
He watched as she crept closer, wondering if she was out of her mind given what he had just done to her. He could feel the beginnings of guilt curdling his stomach. "Jane…"
She snatched the flask out of his hand and took off running.
"Jane!"
"Would you hurry up?"
Dean chuckled around the toothbrush in his mouth, ignoring Sam's less than amused look.
"I'm sorry, this is funny for you?"
Dean nodded, spitting before turning on the faucet. "Yeah, it is, Mr. Big Bad Prison guard, letting that mook give you the slip. What the hell were you doing?"
Sam heard Jane in the main room, she was packing up their things, and he swallowed down the truth: Beating up your wife. "Getting a Coke."
"Was it a refreshing Coke?"
"You're not funny."
"He's a regular comedian." Jane said, coming up and standing behind Sam, peering around him to smile at her husband. "Ain't that right, Sammy?"
Dean cocked an eyebrow when Sam flinched, taking in how Jane's smile turned grim. "Uh… everything okay?" He asked, looking back and forth between them.
Sam turned around, staring down into his sister-in-law's face, noting she wore her hair down today and a long sleeved shirt with a popped collar. He knew exactly what was under those clothes, and he also knew if Dean ever found out… "Yeah… everything is fine." He lied.
"Peachy keen." Jane muttered, snorting as she turned to walk away.
"Ever consider calling ahead?"
Jane agreed with the sentiment, scooting over to give Anna a bit more room, not that there was all that much room to spare in the backseat of the Impala. They had been on the road, nobody talking, when the angel had appeared. "Did anybody call out for heavenly help?"
"Very amusing, Jane." Anna spared her a look before turning her attention to the brothers. "You let Jimmy get away?"
"Hey, talk to giganticus over here." Dean thumbed at Sam, still a bit on edge over her just popping in like she had. "He's the one who needed a Coke."
Sam grunted, shifting in his seat to look at Anna, avoiding Jane's stare. He immediately regretted it as Anna considered him.
"You seem different."
He frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about. A haircut?"
Anna slowly looked at Jane, her own frown deepening, before glancing back at Sam.
He looked away.
"Dean, we need to talk."
Those were never good words and Dean really wished she wasn't springing them on him now. He was outside, pumping gas, Sam was in the building paying and getting road 'fuel' while Jane remained in the backseat, window rolled down. "Sweetheart, I don't know if you noticed, but we're-"
"It's about Sam."
That had his attention. "What about him?" The look on her face, a combination of guilt and fear was something he was, sadly, familiar with, and it did not sit well with him. "Jane?"
She took a deep, wavering breath.
"Oh my God, no!"
Jane knew that fear, the first time you seen what appeared to be a normal human being and then those eyes… turned black. You knew then, that this was something that shouldn't be, something evil. She could hear the fear, pure terror in the woman's voice, and sympathized, her heart breaking over the thought of what the little girl must have seen.
When they made it to the scene, Jane's first glimpse of Mrs. Novak was of the other woman jumping onto a demon broad, or to be more accurate, a poor broad who had been hijacked by a demon. That was one experience she was glad she had never experienced, and hopefully never would. She knew Dean and Sam had tattoos that prevented them from being possessed, and Dean had offered to pay for her to get one, but she had declined. Fear of needles.
Dean took care of the Mr. Rogers with Ruby's knife and when Mrs. Rogers got back on her feet, Sam was there, hand stretched out. Dean came to a halt, staring at his brother out of narrowed eyes.
Jane swallowed.
"Go," Sam ordered. "Get them out of here."
"Jane?"
"On it." Jane gestured for Jimmy and his little girl, frowning when she didn't immediately spot Amelia. "Let's move."
"…what's going on with your mojo?"
Jane was only half listening from the backseat of the Impala, sitting alongside a very depressed Jimmy Novak. Dean knew damn well what was going on with Sam's "mojo" because she had spilled everything she knew and the prior night's incident with Sam, not about to let this go on any further, not if she could help it.
"Jane, get back here!"
Jane felt her heart pounding in her chest as she both ran like her life depended on it and unscrewed the flask cap, tipping it and shaking as hard as she could. Sam sounded pissed, he sounded insane, and she was genuinely afraid of him in this moment.
"Damn it Jane, no!"
Jane let out her second shriek of the night when she felt his arms catching her and stumbled, falling onto the cement. She felt the pavement scraping her palms, her knees, and Sam landing on top of her.
"No!" Sam scrambled over her, fumbling for the flask and tipped it over his mouth, letting out a sound that could have been the beginning of tears. "Damn you, Jane!"
She could hear him breathing heavily, like an animal, and covered her head with her arms, almost expecting him to slap her or something.
"Damn you."
"Hey, it's your wife…"
She snapped out of her thoughts in time to see Sam passing the cell back to Jimmy.
"Well thanks for shaking a tail."
Jane snorted, ignoring the greeting as Bobby led the way towards his panic room. She was tired and had had enough of angels and their bullshit. She was ready for this, what they were about to do, to be done and hit the hay for a very long nap. Sam had tried talking to Dean in the car, like she knew he would, especially after what Dean had seen him do. Dean hadn't wanted to talk though, which was a surprise. Given that she had revealed all… she figured Dean would be itching to pound someone's head in. Lord knew she deserved him being pissed at her for keeping secrets, again.
She hung back while Bobby opened the door, almost feeling bad for Sam. If he had been feigning the other night… this was going to be pure Hell.
"So, what's the big demon problem?" Sam asked, walking into the room. The room demons and angels couldn't get into, where they could have a 'private conversation'.
"You are."
Jane cringed when Bobby shut the door, Dean helping him.
"Hey guys? Guys, this isn't funny." Sam was at the barred little window.
"This is for your own good, Sammy." Dean said, his voice coming out harsher than normal.
"Dean? Bobby? Jane? Guys?"
Bobby slid the latch over the window shut, turning to walk away, his head hanging.
Jane stood there, watching her husband approach and took in the weary way he held himself.
"Jane…" He sighed, shook his head, and dropped a kiss on her forehead. "You were warned once."
"I know." She whispered, clenching her hands into fists at her side.
"One more time girl…"
She waited for it.
"And we're done." He took her face in his calloused palms, raising her head so she could see just how serious he was. "Sam's needed help for a long time and the only one who knew it was you." He kissed her again. "Damn it Jane… he's my brother… and if you're going to let him destroy himself…"
She got where he was going and it seemed like her heart stopped beating.
"So help me God, I'll send you away and I won't raise a finger to help you when they come for you. Understand me?"
She nodded.
"I mean it Jane, I love you," He loved her more than he ever thought he could love someone beside himself, or Sam. "But if you're not going to be square with me, and your silence hurts my family, I'll-" He crushed her against him, burying his face in her hair, listening as Sam pounded on the door behind them. "Don't make me lose you too."
