94: Integration and Exploration
"What are we doing here again?"
"Uh, neighborhood get together thing…" Jane replied uncertainly, looking around at the other people assembling in the rather large backyard of their hosts. Earlier in the week they had found a flier in their mailbox inviting them to a cookout for the neighborhood. Dean hadn't seemed overly interested in attending but… for the sake of normalcy, they had come. His problem was that he was suspicious of a lot of people, not that she blamed him, but… if Mr. Winchester wanted to integrate properly, and see that not all humanoids wanted to eat him and/or his soul, he'd suck it up. "Please tell me you left your gun at home."
Dean cleared his throat. "I left my gun at home." He looked everywhere but her.
"You-" Jane had to shut her trap because a woman in a white sun dress and a tan not given by the sun was approaching them with a smile so bright Jane felt the need to put on a pair of sunglasses. "Hello." She greeted, her smile slipping into a frown when the woman went for Dean first. She got it, Dean was a good looking guy. He was a good looking, married guy however.
Dean looked both uncomfortable and amused, especially with the way his wife was now considering obviously borrowing his gun. "I'm Dean," He introduced himself, wrapping his arm around Jane and pulling her into his side, forcing the other woman –she said her name was Glenda or something, maybe Gladys- to step back. "And this is my lovely wife, Jane."
Jane kinda wanted the gun she knew he was packing as she was given a very appraising look over, forcing the smile to stay sort of pasted on her face. Once Gladys finally seemed satisfied about whatever and motioned them to follow her, she took a deep breath. "This was a bad idea."
"Oh, I don't know…" He could see the potential for fun here. "Let's give them a shot, besides… don't you smell that?"
"I can hear your stomach, Winchester."
"Barbecue… and pie, those are pies."
"Screw the pies."
He looked offended. "Jane, sweetheart, this is pie we're talking about."
Jane facepalmmed herself. "Lead on, pie boy."
"So, you and Dean have been married how long?"
A part of socializing Jane had forgotten about was the 'getting to know every little thing about you' game women tended to play with each other. "Over ten years." She said after a moment, wondering if it actually counted since for six or seven of those years they hadn't known they were married and spent it apart.
"Oh, wow… really?" Angie looked both curious and amused. "Really? How old are you?"
"Twenty-eight." Jane rather liked Angie, from what she knew of the other woman. She was heavily pregnant, had a camera around her neck, and so far wasn't ogling Dean too much.
"Me too, but I haven't been married that long."
"Oh, where's your husband?"
"At work, he'll be by when he gets off." Angie rubbed her stomach, eyeballing a pair of lawn chairs. "Do you mind if we sit?"
"No." Jane followed, letting Angie sink down first, hovering cautiously. Give her demons, she knew how to act around them. Pregnant women were another story entirely. "How far along are you?"
"Eight months, and I'll be glad it's over." Angie rubbed her stomach in exasperation, though there was also affection in the gesture. "Want the kid, could do without the nine months renting out my body."
Jane had never quite viewed it in those terms. Kids were cute, she obviously knew how they were made, all that… but she'd never given thought to actually carting one around inside of her, it growing in her… that was… food for thought. "Is this your first?" She asked, feebly attempting to distract her mind from awkward thoughts.
"Yes it is, and it's a girl, so she is my first." Angie laughed. "Poor hubby, he thought for sure we were having a boy but… I guess we'll just have to try again."
"Wait, you want to do this again?" Jane could see the swollen hands and feet, and how Angie was shifting uncomfortably, she imagined there was a lot she wasn't seeing but being pregnant looked downright painful.
"Possibly, I always liked the idea of having a houseful of rug rats. I was an only child, it was great but… it could be lonely sometimes." Angie looked wistful, rubbing her palm in slow circles against her side. "What about you? Any kids of your own?" She was guessing not, but… she didn't want to be rude and assume.
"No." She and Dean had briefly discussed children once or twice, the conversations had always been awkward and generally filled with uncomfortable humor in attempts to defuse the tenseness. With their job, with him being a Winchester in general, and her being some love slave robot thing, having children seemed like a pretty dumb idea. "We've… been so busy with our old careers… the timing was always off." That was sort of true.
"Well… you still have plenty of time, and Dean is definitely a looker, they'd be gorgeous babies."
That she couldn't deny.
"That wasn't so bad." Dean announced at the end of the night, looking satisfied at the leftovers Gladys had insisted they bring home with them. Actually, she had insisted he bring them home, and while that might've lit a fire under Jane's pert ass, them ribs were delicious. He had met some of the other 'hubbies', had a few beers, and had a fairly decent time. He had noticed Jane had made friends with one woman in particular, his wife was not a social butterfly.
"It was all right." She shrugged, eyeballing the Tupperware he was holding. "If you're not going to eat it anytime soon, stick it in the fridge."
He nodded, already on it. Jane was being sort of quiet, and contemplative, he wondered what her deal was. "Everything okay, sweetheart?"
"Yeah, fine. I'm just tired. Hanging out with pregnant chicks is rough."
Dean blinked at that. "She was pregnant?"
Jane nodded, arching an eyebrow at him.
"I thought she was just fat."
"Dean!" She didn't know whether to be indignant on Angie's behalf or amused at her husband's lack of tact and poor observational skills. "You… you need Jesus." She said finally, snorting when he sniggered. "You do."
"Think he has the instruction manual on how to operate you?"
She picked up the nearest thing, which was his discarded keyring on the counter, and tossed it at his head.
Laughing, Dean caughtthe keys before they could hit him, throwing them back onto the counter while approaching her. "Now sweetheart," He caught and twirled Jane when she went to attack, wrapping his arms around her and trapping her own arms at her side, her back pressed to his chest. "Enough." He growled, not surprised at all when she did. Every time he used that tone she always ceased whatever she was doing and became docile, subservient, and most of the time, that led to the bedroom because apparently they both had some sexual discovering to do, still. "I remember telling you we were going to… explore this thing you got going, Jane."
Jane tried and failed to repress a shiver, feeling his breath hot against the shell of her ear.
He felt it, a slow smiling crossing his lips as he trailed his fingertips up her side until his hand was gently but firmly wrapped around her throat. She tilted her head back against his shoulder, silently giving into him. "Upstairs."
He didn't need to tell her twice.
