Set during 5.09: The Real Ghostbusters.
80: The Imaginary Girl
"Sam!"
Jane peered over the rims of her sunglasses as that crazy fangirl came barreling down the steps that led to what she was assuming the hotel. The guys had gotten a text from Chuck with an address and a life or death sentence and came running. Given that Chuck was a prophet of the Lord and privy to some heavyweight information, she got the 'come running' part. However… Chuck had been surprised to see them and denied sending the text. When she had heard the squeal, parts fell into place and she groaned. "Not her…"
"Not her…" Sam echoed, watching out of wide eyes as she came practically skidding to a halt in front of him.
"You made it!"
"Um, Becky, right?"
That was her name and Jane mimed gagging when Becky beamed up at her brother-in-law. She shrugged when Dean shot her a 'what the hell' look, folding her arms over her chest. "Booty call."
Sam had heard that and gave her the dirtiest look he could muster over the top of Becky's head. This wasn't that hard to do as he practically towered over most people.
"It's okay, I can't get you out of my head either."
"Becky, did you take my phone?" Chuck sounded exasperated, and a little annoyed as he watched the one-sided display.
"What?" She whirled towards him defensively. "They're going to want to see it." Her gaze landed on Jane and her brow crinkled. "Oh, and her. Are you sure she's not just some sort of filler?"
Jane's jaw dropped.
"Becky…"
"Well, honestly, all she does is humanize Dean a little and provide some stability. She's a fluff-piece, Chuck."
"Hello, I'm right fricking here, you batshit-"
"Ladies!" Dean stepped forward to clamp a hand over his wife's mouth before she could unleash a torrent of what would very likely be an amusing bitching out. Ever since their episode with Gabriel, Jane had been on edge, and he knew her crisis of faith was continuing. He was still struggling with the decision to tell her about herself, and always found himself wavering on the 'no' side, though he also worried about repercussions if she did find out, from someone besides him. He could remember all the times she had hid something from him, his reaction, and how that played out… he wasn't sure he wanted to be on the receiving end of that stick.
A little confused was an understatement when a guy appeared, telling Chuck it was time, and Chuck began apologizing to them. Dean could feel it in his gut: they should leave. Instead, they followed Chuck and Becky up the stairs.
Once inside, all three of them came to a halt.
"Hey Dean, looking good."
Jane turned to see a larger guy, dressed nearly identical to Dean, her gray eyes widening as she really started looking around. There was someone in a scarecrow costume, a lot more people dressed as… "Oh my God…" These people were dressed like Sam and Dean, and she swore to God, that woman at the bar was wearing the most atrocious black wig Jane had ever seen. When a "Dean" approached black wigged lady and kissed her, Jane recoiled, her mind finally beginning to catch on.
Dean was staring at a table that was filled with merchandise, attempting to spit laser beams from his eyes at the familiar books. The Supernatural books. "What the hell?"
"Isn't it great?" Becky chirped, bouncing up and down on her feet excitedly. "It's a Supernatural convention, the very first!"
"…the 'Homoerotic subtext of Supernatural'."
Jane had to bit on her knuckles to keep from sniggering when the manager made that announcement, knowing better than to look at either Sam or Dean. They were standing at the back of the auditorium, listening to the rundown of this Supernatural convention, and eyeballing all these people who were dressed up as 'character's' from the books. She was seeing some pretty damn impressive costumes, though they were also reminding her of the times they had dealt with the monsters in questions. Not always fun and games.
When Chuck was called up for a Q&A session, Jane's eyebrows threatened to disappear into her hairline. Chuck had never given the impression of bravery, he always seemed to be nervous, and she doubted public speaking was high on his list of things to do. Especially in front of Sam and Dean, who both were still clearly debating on whether or not to kill him. As the session went on, it was obvious the desire to kill someone was increasing, especially as some of the questions were… personal, or painful, in nature, at least for them.
She was in the clear for the most part, at least until the annoying German –after Becky's outburst- basically repeated what Becky had said earlier. About her being a filler, a fluff-piece.
"Does she have a point? Or is she just there to-"
"Be Dean's outlet whenever he gets pissy?" A woman interrupted, standing up.
Jane recognized that outfit. It was a pair of faded blue jeans, a black flannel underneath a denim jacket. It was the woman with the horrible black wig, a short wig, this woman was dressed as Jane had been when Meg had dragged her back into the Winchester's lives.
The woman ignored the dirty looks she was being given. "Every time something goes wrong, or he gets upset, he takes it out on Jane. What's the deal?"
"It's… complicated." Chuck stuttered, trying not to look at the three actual Winchester's in the back of the room.
"Jane is filler. The story wouldn't change if she was gone."
"She's there to humanize the brothers."
"Make them seem less gay more likely."
"Well that's not working."
Chuck knew he had to get this back on track because it looked like Dean was reaching for a gun in his jacket and he cleared his throat. "I have an announcement to make."
All eyes were on him as people quieted down.
Jane had to stop Dean from actually pulling out and using the gun when Chuck announced that more books were going to be published. "Not in front of so many witnesses, spouse abuser."
"You're first, sweetheart."
She grinned up at him.
"Want a yellow-eyed cooler?"
She was being hit on, in a hotel bar, by a guy pretending to be Sam of all people. The irony was not lost on Jane as she shifted on her stool to study him. Some of the people here looked like what she imagined a typical basement dwelling nerd would, others not so much. Weirdos came from all walks of life apparently. "No thanks." She gestured to her plain shot glass of plain whiskey and her plain soda chaser. The bartender had seemed relieved when she had ordered these things with their proper names and not some Supernatural based theme name.
'Sam' sat down beside her, smiling as he looked her over. "LARPing as Jane? You really pull it off."
"Do I now?" She couldn't keep the amusement from her tone. "So are you on the Jane bandwagon or is she just filler?"
"I like her, she's level and has common sense, something that the guys need."
Hey, someone who didn't think she was a beating post or fluffy filler! Jane flashed him a genuine smile, shaking her head when the bartender went to pour her another shot. "Bud Lite please."
"Let's get into character. Who do you ship?"
She sputtered on the Dr. Pepper she had sipped, feeling her goodwill towards him diminishing. "What?"
"I know Dean and Jane are cannon, but some of us think Sam and Jane would make a great couple, or at least have something on the side. It seems like they might eventually, don't you think?"
"No!" What the blue hell was Chuck writing in those books?
"Really? They have…" Wanna-be Sam considered it, genuinely looking serious. "They have a connection, I think. They have more in common than Dean and Jane, and they can talk about things with each other they couldn't talk about with Dean."
"Jane loves Dean though, you're wrong." She couldn't believe this, she was arguing her relationship with her husband with a guy who thought it was all fictional.
"Dean shipper then? That's cool; we can find a Dean to join us." He wiggled his eyebrows.
Jane took the tall glass of beer that had been placed before her and began downing it. She was not drunk enough for this. "No. The only person I'm doing anything with is Dean, don't be gross."
"But Jane," He leaned in towards her, his washed out blue eyes scanning her face. "Dean's gone. It's hard, but… all we have is each other."
Jane was repulsed when this idiot actually wrapped his arms around her, pulling her off the stool and flush against him. What the hell? She knew he was doing that role playing thing and frowned, trying to think of what he was on about. She was going to hazard a guess and assume book-Dean was in hell. "Get off me!"
"I know you're-"
"Mister, get your hands off my wife before I remove them."
Imposter Sam had no chance to do as he was told because he was forcefully ripped away from her and hurled backwards as a very irate Dean, the real Dean, moved to stand between them. "Janey, you all right, sweetheart?"
"I'm over this convention." She had sought shelter of the real Sam, who definitely had no designs on her, or vice versa, and elbowed him when he quirked a grin down at her. "It's not funny."
He had seen and heard enough to gather the situation, and while definitely not accurate, it was funny. "A little bit."
She curled her upper lip at him.
"Uh, Dean, don't kill him." Sam cautioned, taking note that some people were beginning to gather round. That was all they needed, a murder in this place. Given that they had just returned from 'investigating' a situation, he imagined most people here would just assume it was park of the shebang.
"Okay, that's not fair, you can't bring another Sam into this."
Dean watched as the guy who had been manhandling Jane got to his feet, tempted to ignore Sam's warnings. "We are not playing your idiot little game. That is my wife and-"
"Dean, give it up." Jane advised him. "Let's just go."
"Yeah, let's go find Chuck and put a bullet up his ass." Dean turned and reached for her hand, pulling her out of the bar.
"Dude, your friend has some serious anger issues."
Sam looked at his doppelganger, shrugging. "Well, she really is his wife."
"Oh… damn, I'm sorry, I thought she was just playing the game."
Sam managed a quick, awkward smile before hurrying after his brother.
"So where did the guys go?"
"You mean Sam."
"No, I meant the guys." Becky sipped her drink from a very curly straw, her eyes overly innocent as she regarded Jane.
They had been in the process of leaving when two things happened. First, the knowing kicked in and Jane had felt obligated to point it out to the guys and secondly, almost as soon as she had, some man had come into the room talking about a real, "live" ghost to his friend. When Sam had said something, the guy had gotten defensive and left. So now they were out hunting and Becky had 'volunteered' to keep Jane company, which Dean had actually agreed too. Jane suspected Becky just wanted to pump her for information about Sam and win some brownie points by buttering her up. "No idea, hunting, you know that."
"Don't you wish we could go with them?"
"Becky, you volunteered to babysit me."
"Keep you company!"
"You don't even like me."
Becky frowned at that, pausing mid-slurp. "I like you, now that I know you're real."
Considering that Becky had been insisting Jane was filler only a few hours ago, Jane wasn't impressed with this sudden change of heart and drummed her fingertips on the table top. She was ignoring the glass of water Becky had procured for her; she did not trust this woman. Becky seemed crazy.
"And that Sam is still single."
Definitely crazy.
"You stay in here, got me?"
Jane looked at Dean like he was crazy, a lot of people were crazy today. "Are you serious?" She hissed, watching from the corner of her eye as Sam made his way to Chuck, who was on the stage doing another 'session' with the audience. She was tired of being made to sit with these people. Under normal circumstances, she might not have been such a Grinch about it but… this was their lives on parade and it seemed disrespectful on top of annoying to watch people playing at it.
"Yes, I'm serious. Got your nine?"
"Course." It wasn't a new habit, but newer than some, carrying a gun on her at all times. It had been doubly awkward when she had first started carrying it everywhere, like the grocery store. Milk and guns… a little bullet with the butter, she was going to go crazy, crazy was contagious and they were full up. "Why?"
"What's it loaded with?" Dean shook his head at her look. "Never mind. Nobody leaves, those doors don't open. They'll be salted."
"So… Miss Gore legit then?"
"That's our guess." He kissed her quick, Sam coming up to them. "I'll be back, sweetheart. Remember…"
"Nobody in, doors stay closed. I got it."
"And don't shoot Becky." Sam added, glancing at the fangirl who looked like she was having the time of her life, and giving him some 'come hither' stares.
"Ruin my night, Sam, gee thanks."
He nodded at her on their way out and Jane watched as they closed the door behind them, turning to stare at the crowd. This was not exactly how she had planned the rest of her night. Ah well, at least she wasn't Chuck, he looked beyond terrified at the moment and she doubted it had anything to do with the ghost and more like the fact that he had to continue speaking.
"Oh…" He spotted her, relief obvious on his face. "How about a little Q and A with Jane?"
"The imaginary girl?"
She shook her head at him.
"It's just an actress." A woman whispered to her friends a few rows from where Jane stood.
"Jane, if you could come up here?"
Her feet slowly made their way to him, her hands were plotting his demise. She was the imaginary, fluff piece, filler chick.
