A/N: Set during 5:12 Swap Meet, still.
86: Normal
"Where did my drunk little brother go?"
Jane shook her head. This entire thing was surreal. They were sitting in a bar, and the boys had been celebrating, something they didn't do often anymore. She had remained quiet throughout the weird little conversation, sipping her beer and just letting her gaze drift back and forth between the two. Everything 'Sam' said, made sense to her on some weird level, because it wasn't Sam. Whoever this was, he, or maybe she, wasn't talking so much about Sam's life but his or her own. She might have felt sad, or pity, for whoever this was, but he had hijacked her brother-in-law. "He's over there."
Dean turned in his seat, eyes widening when he spotted Sam walking towards the door with a woman. "Is that… is that a hooker?"
"Maybe." She couldn't keep the amusement from her tone.
Sam stopped by the door, flashing them a thumbs up, looking entirely too eager. "We're gonna do it!"
Jane let her head drop to the table, beginning to laugh outright.
All things considered, Dean figured at this point in their rather long marriage, Jane would have stopped hiding things from him. Especially when it pertained to Sam. "Why can't we be like a normal couple?" He demanded, pacing the floor of their motel room, staring down at her. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching him, and damn it, she looked like she was having fun. "Why can't you lie about stupid shit? Like overdrawing the bank account or something?"
"One, we don't have a bank account. Two, I didn't lie about anything." She informed him, raising a hand up to examine her nails.
"You…" He had to give it to her, she hadn't. She had just withheld information, and she was acting very unlike the Jane he knew. She was acting like a mega-bitch, and if he were honest with himself, she had been acting like this since… encountering Lucifer. Sam had given him the rundown of what had happened, though now Dean was beginning to suspect little brother hadn't told him everything. Sam had told him to talk to Jane though, maybe instead of blowing it off, he should have listened. "Fine. You didn't lie." He conceded, halting and crouched down in front of her, resting his hands on her knees. "But you knew that wasn't Sam."
"I suspected, and then he confirmed it." She shrugged.
"Psychic thing?"
Her gray eyes held something very similar to pity in them as she regarded him. "No… I know Sam, and that is not Sam. Dean… didn't you realize something was off about him?"
"Sure, but… when isn't something off with Sam? I mean, come on, Jane, he's not the poster boy for normal. Even when he is acting 'normal', for Sam, he's not…" He was an idiot. "How did you not know right off the bat though? I thought your ability…?" He had lost count of the times he had seen her recoil from something, someone, or a situation because of that damn psychic thing.
"It's… been different, lately." She said slowly, wondering just how much to tell him. "Pam taught me a lot, especially on how to sort of use it and control it, to an extent but…" But even with the constant practice and learning new things about her psychic handicap, Jane couldn't explain this new bit.
This new bit being, something Lucifer had done. When they had encountered War, he had knocked Jane on her ass. The pain in her head had been intense enough to make her pass out. It had taken him 'dimming' something to make the pain tolerable enough for her to remain conscious, which hadn't been pleasant at all. Nearly the same deal with Lucifer, only unconsciousness hadn't been provided. It would have been welcomed, her head had felt like… there were no words to describe that pain. No words to describe how sick she had felt in her stomach.
Then Lucifer had… taken away that pain. She didn't feel like she owed him anything, or should be grateful. He was the devil, he wanted Sam's body, and she wasn't going to play into anything Lucifer might be offering. That didn't change the fact that she seemed to now have better control. She could raise a type of shield and lower it at will now, and she wasn't even sure how she did it.
"But?" Dean prompted.
"Nothing. Back to Sam, what do we do?"
"We find him, the real him. Think you can do that?" Back to business, but later, they were going to have words.
Jane considered it and let down all defenses, instantly regretting it. "Yep. I sure can." She groaned. She was going to venture out on a limb and assume Sam was in some kind of trouble. "I have to go…"
"If I let you take Baby…"
"I promise not to back her into a dumpster."
"Sam… you look… different." So this was the boy who was inhabiting Sam's meat suit, or at least the boy's own sack. "God… you're a dork."
Sam couldn't even form a reply, he was pretty sure he was having an asthma attack.
"Oh Jesus…" She began patting him down, finally producing an inhaler and held it up to his face. "Two pumps, right?"
Glaring at her, he nodded.
She waited while he recouped, working at untying him from the chair. Jane hadn't missed the witchy crap lying about, or the dead body of some teenage boy, she was just choosing to ignore it for now. Once Sam was untied, she stood up, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "So… how have you been?"
He pointedly looked at the body.
"I'm trying to pretend it doesn't exist."
"Well, pretend otherwise, because these idiot kids were bounty hunting."
That explained the body. Demons did not play well with others and she felt a twinge of pity. "And… I'm guessing that didn't go over well…" She shook her head, wondering what the hell was wrong with people. Demons. Anyone with a lick of sense knew better. "Come on, let's get you back to… who is wearing you?"
"A kid named Gary, and we have to go fast. They know he's in… me…" Sam's juvenile face scrunched at that, frowning when he realized he was no longer towering over Jane. It was weird, seeing her face to face opposed to face to hair. "They know that's basically an empty-"
"Sam suit…" She finished, gray eyes widening. "Does it work that way? Can that kid give permission?"
"No idea, let's not find out."
"I lied, that kid's life sucked ass." Sam snorted as Dean backed the Impala out of the driveway. "If that is the normal, all American, apple pie life… we did not miss anything."
"Or we just don't know what we're missing."
Jane, sitting in the backseat, moved forward so she was leaning between them. "Can we leave now? Before anymore teenage wanna-be witches make another deal?"
"She's on a roll tonight, man," Dean said to his brother, nudging her back with his elbow. "So, Jane, Sam… about that night."
"What night?" Sam was lost.
"Lucifer."
"Man, I told you to talk to her."
"I'm talking to you both now. What happened while I was out?"
Sighing, Sam turned to stare out the window.
This was why they could never be a normal couple. They weren't normal people. They both carried secrets, and Dean didn't overly appreciate the fact that Jane was holding out on him, purposefully. Of course, what she was holding out on him, was the same stuff he was withholding from her.
They hadn't remained in the area. Dean had put some serious distance between them and Massachusetts. He had also badgered Sam and Jane until Jane finally told him just what had gone down that night, not the condensed version that Sam had given him, but the full account. He got now why Sam had told him he needed to talk to his wife.
"Jane…"
"What have you been hiding from me Dean?" She interrupted, walking out of the bathroom, finger combing her wet hair. Once they had checked into yet another motel, she had let him dwell on what she had told him and grabbed a shower. She knew Dean wasn't happy with her right now, she had pretty much left Sam hanging in the wind, though she doubted either brother had thought of that yet. Dean's issue was that she had known something was wrong and not told him. "You came back from that… future hiding something from me. What was it? That I'm not normal? Because between Chuck and Satan, I've already gotten that impression."
All he could do was stare at her. He had seen how that future had played out and what Chuck had said 'don't put all your eggs in one basket', that had finally registered with him. What he had learned in that potential future about her, that probably wasn't all there was to it and he wondered what future Chuck hadn't put in those books.
"He called me God's last experiment, Dean… what do you know?" She asked softly, coming to stand directly in front of him.
"Why can't we just be normal?" He whispered, resting his forehead against hers.
Jane closed her eyes, leaning into him as his arms wrapped around her and inhaled deeply. She could feel warmth radiating from him, could smell the scent of leather from his favorite jacket, and God help her, she loved him so much. It physically hurt sometimes, knowing that for them, this was it. This was their life and no matter how much they might wish for that 'normal', it wasn't in the cards. It would always be them, and Sam, with both Heaven and Hell gunning for them. "This is normal, Dean." She said finally. "As normal as it will ever get."
