Title: Nothing and Everything

Chapter 28

~~~~~~~~~~

Jo had actually been looking forward to a spa experience, not having ever had one, so she was surprised when Ellen parked across the street from a retirement home. She waited a minute, thinking that perhaps her mother was going to consult a map or something. “Mom?”

Ellen rolled down the window, letting in a blast of cool air, then fumbled under the seat and brought out a pair of binoculars, training them at the building.

“Mom? Where’s the spa? Why are we parked in front of an old folks home?”

“Because that hellspawn temptress ex of Bobby’s is up to something.”

“Are we or are we not going to a spa?”

“Not.”

Jo blinked. “Mom! You lied to me!”

“I had to make it convincing to see what the hussy wants from Bobby. I need you with me on this.”

“The vouchers?”

“Made them on the computer. Pretty easy once you figure out how.”

“But I looked at the website!” She’d gone over that site with a fine tooth comb, too, showing it to Dean, Gwen, and Sam even. She’d read through the descriptions of the services available and jotted down just what she was interested in. Damn it, she’d become invested in the idea!

“Yeah, it’s a real place. Fancy-schmancy, too. Paid real well….”

“You really did a job there?”

“Sure did.”

Jo sat back in the seat, closed her eyes, and crossed her arms. “Dean was right. Gwen was right. Sam was right. I’d say Castiel was right too except he didn’t actually say anything about it when he was there. He declined to comment, which basically means, he knew, too, and was therefore right as well.” She opened her eyes.

Ellen glanced over her shoulder at her before returning to her spying. “Oh, simmer down, Jo.”

“We’re not private detectives, mom.”

“Pretend you’re pursuing that career option.” She put the binoculars down and started the car. “Gotta move us. Can’t see her office from here.”

“You know where her office is? And who is she?”

“I got the building schematics and a real friendly receptionist told me over the phone how to get to her office. She, by the way, is Gina Travers and I wouldn’t trust her as far as I can throw her.” She pulled out of the parking place, drove a short ways down the street, and turned around, parking along the curb so they had a view of the front and side of the building.

“You know her then?”

“No.”

“Okay. Some irrational hatred there, mom.”

Ellen merely lifted the binoculars and made a satisfied noise. “There she is, the witch.”

Four hours later, Jo really had to pee, but Ellen wouldn’t leave the spot.

“He’ll come out today, I know it, and if I move for any reason, I’ll miss it.”

“My back teeth are swimming here.” She was able to stall the problem however, as she caught sight of the black Impala coming down the street and pulling into the lot. “Is that Dean? What’s he doing here? I thought he wasn’t doing anything this week?”

They watched as Dean got first Jack, then Bobby out of the car. Bobby was doing a pretty good impression of an ornery old guy unwilling to be there. Though to be fair, he could really be an ornery old guy at times.

“They’re walking straight into her clutches,” Ellen replied.

~~~~~~~~~~

What were the chances, Sam wondered, of having two connecting flights both delayed to the point they not only weren’t at the hotel in Florida where they were supposed to be, they also might miss embarkation entirely? The travel agent had arranged it so they’d get there with plenty of time, but here it was, four in the morning, and they weren’t any closer to Florida than they’d been ten hours earlier. He’d been tempted to rent a car and drive.

“Sam.” Gwen got his attention with a hoarse whisper and tapped a finger on the iPad. “It’s demonic omens.” She had a weather site up and had been studying the storm patterns that had waylaid their connecting flights. “I’m telling you, that’s what it is. Something is all churned up in the Midwest.”

Right now, he had no doubt in his mind that it was demonic omens. They were trying to get to their honeymoon (and well-earned vacation) so what else could it be? “Probably,” he agreed, “but we’re on vacation.”

She glanced up at him. “I can still speculate, vacation or not. I’m hardly suggesting we run out and check it out even though the storm is on our way to Florida….”

Tempting, but…. “No. We planned our honeymoon, we’re taking it.”

Handing him the iPad back, she stretched. “We’d be there faster if we drove.”

“We’d get sidetracked if we drove.” It had happened before and Dean and Jo already teased them enough about it.

“True.”

They sat in silence for awhile, Gwen playing Angry Birds on her phone and Sam checking out the weather patterns for himself. Definitely something going on in the Midwest. He sent Dean a few texts and an email about it because, as he’d indicated to Gwen, it wasn’t their problem. Dean could look at it, assess, then ask around for interested hunters. At nearly six, Gwen went and got them breakfast.

“You think sea monsters exist,” she asked, taking the lid off her coffee and gently blowing on it. Considering their destination, he thought it was a nicely leading question.

“Don’t see why not.” After all, they’d discovered dragons existed, so why not sea monsters, too?

“Mmm.” She took a bite of breakfast sandwich, chewed, swallowed, and poked a plastic fork into a small cup of fruit. “I found a few legends in the ports of call. Not a lot, you understand, just…a couple interesting ones.”

He suppressed a smile. That was his Gwen alright. “Uh-huh. That what tipped the scales on your decision?”

Her glance was coy and she continued to push the fruit about the cup without eating any of it. “Maybe.”

Sam chuckled and set his own empty fruit cup container aside. “Now the truth comes out. What else have you been hiding,” he teased. “Reference books from Bobby’s collection?”

“Like you didn’t find the same legends and you’re one to talk about reference books. I saw the one you packed.”

She had him pegged. Sam held up a hand in a gesture of defeat. “You caught me. Did you find the mermaid story?”

“Are you kidding?” She shoved the remains of her sandwich to one side, excitement sparkling in her eyes. “That was the main one I want to check out. How jealous would Dean and Jo be if we found a mermaid on our honeymoon?”

“Enough to come down themselves and try to find something bigger. I called Rufus and got the name of a friend of his we can look up in Jamaica.”

“You are a most excellent husband.”

“Thanks. You didn’t let on you’d done research, did you?”

Shaking her head, she sat back. “Hell no. After Dean and Jo made such a big deal about honeymoons being for goofing off and having fun without anything work related present?”

“Good. We find something, we pretend it was coincidence.”

“They’ll never believe that. Not from us.”

“They’ll have to.”

Twenty minutes later, they were boarding their flight and within hours, they were standing in line for embarkation.

“We actually made it.” Sam half laughed. Not only had they made it, but they’d gotten there before half of the other passengers. The line behind them had gotten longer and longer as they’d progressed through the stations.

Finally, they were on the upper deck, taking in the ship and the view from the ship. He decided they could consider their honeymoon officially begun.

Gwen turned in a slow circle, frowning. “I thought it’d be bigger. What do you think? Shouldn’t it be bigger?”

Sam did a slow circle too, noting the different decks and the crowd beginning to really form on each one. “It looked bigger online.” The ship had looked huge online. “Want to go find our room?”

Their room was small and compact, but did have a balcony. They set their carry-ons on the bed and stepped outside. It only took two steps to reach the railing. Not the biggest balcony, yet it was theirs. Sam grasped the railing with both hands and leaned over. The bridge was down on the left, the center of the ship on the right. Already, he could hear splashes from the pool.

“This is too cool,” Gwen declared, crossing her arms and resting them on the railing.

“We’ll have to thank Bobby for the recommendation.” He put his arm around her, curving his hand about her waist.

“Definitely.”

He leaned down to kiss her.

From next door came the sound of the balcony door opening and a click. A second later, a cloud of cigarette smoke wafted onto their balcony, catching them both in the face.

Gwen waved a hand to dispel it and coughed. “Let’s explore a little on deck.”

As Sam turned from the balcony, he thought he saw something in the water. He paused, leaned over, squinted, and decided he’d been imagining it. There were hardly whales in the harbor and that had looked a lot like the tail of a whale. He had to be imagining it. Wouldn’t a whale’s tail be bigger than what he’d seen?

~~~~~~~~~~

Dean woke in the center of the bed and stretched. He wondered if Jo had enjoyed her first night at the spa, if they really were at one, and if she had a full day planned of beauty treatments. It was tempting to call her, but he didn’t want to interrupt her relaxing vacation with Ellen if it was a real vacation. She and Ellen both deserved time off. Jo especially.

She’d been a good sport about staying home with Jack and not going out on jobs as often as he and Sam went out, though he knew his panic attack had been a large part of that. She worried he was going to have another one and, despite what he’d told her, he worried, too. He’d thought he would’ve had one the first time she and Gwen had gone out after the accident and he hadn’t. Dean just wasn’t sure what would trigger another one or if he was going to have another at all.

He could hear Jack babbling away in his room, the crib squeaking as he bounced. He’d gotten better at that and at walking. Dean fully expected to see Jack toddle around by himself any day now. Jack wasn’t crying yet, or appeared to realize Dean was awake, so Dean reached for his phone, checking for messages.

Sam had sent seven texts about weather patterns in the Midwest and one long email with links to websites. He groaned.

“Someone tell that kid he’s on his honeymoon already. No work.”

Setting the phone aside, he got out of bed and began the first day of daddy-son time.

They had breakfast and watched a kid show. Dean watched, rather, wondering if the host was high. No one was that happy without chemical assistance. Jack was too busy playing with a toy on the floor to pay attention to the tv. Quickly bored with the show, Dean flipped channels and just when he was about to give up on finding something to watch, he found Dr. Sexy, M.D. on the Soap channel. They were running a marathon.

He glanced around the living room, stretching out.

No one was home, he reasoned. He could watch it in peace without having to change the channel whenever anyone walked in.

Jack crawled to the coffee table, used the edge to pull himself up and steady himself as he went around it, and grasped Dean’s jeans, trying to pull himself up on the couch. Dean lifted him.

“You want to watch, too?” He explained what was going on to his son, who was more interested in using him as a jungle gym, then bed.

It was a relaxing day, one of the best he’d had in a very long time and one that could be described as positively normal. He did no research, didn’t look at any news reports, and when he hadn’t heard from Jo or Bobby by the end of the day, he concluded everything might actually be going okay for all of them.

~~~~~~~~~~

Balthazar pasted on his most seductive grin and approached the eldest Fate. “Clotho.”

She snapped her briefcase shut. “Balthazar.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking --”

“Oh no, not that.”

He blinked. There weren’t many beings that were able to actively intimidate him -- at least that he’d admit -- but the eldest Fate came very close to being on of those beings. He knew the sorts of things all the Fates were capable of. “Excuse me?”

“You thinking is infinitely dangerous for all surrounding you,” she clarified, the slightest of amused twinkles in her eyes when she looked at him.

“Er…I suppose.” She was amused, so should he take that as teasing? He cleared his throat. “Would you be int --”

“No.”

“You didn’t let me --”

“No.”

“You’re not --”

“No.” Her smile was gentle, almost affable even. “I don’t eat, drink, sleep, or otherwise engage in such human activities as you and some others like to partake. What I do, Balthazar, is work, a thing you don’t appear too familiar with these days.”

“I work,” he protested, then tried to remember when his last appointment had been and was thoroughly unsuccessful in pinning it down. Perhaps he had been slightly lax in his duties of late.

“Oh?” At her raised brows, he had the maddening urge to justify himself, even opening his mouth to start babbling excuses at her.

Balthazar forced himself to stay silent and twitch a brow in a way he hoped she found irritatingly impudent.

The twinkle in her eyes deepened. “Then I suggest you be about it and not interrupt vital workings of the world with unimportant requests for my leisure time, of which I have none.” She grasped the handle of her briefcase and lifted it. “You might try Lachesis. She’s usually willing to have drinks with just about anyone.” Clothos walked away.

He felt very much like a naughty child who’d been disciplined. Not in itself a completely bad sensation…. He was glad no one had witnessed it, however. Turning on his heel, Balthazar strolled off to plan his proposition of Lachesis. Perhaps she’d be more receptive and would loosen her lips regarding Castiel and Abigael.

~~~~~~~~~~

It seemed to take forever until they were underway and once the ship was in motion, Sam and Gwen returned to their cabin with thoughts of changing into swimsuits and joining the throng already in the various pools on the ship. Before they could get their swimsuits out, their steward stopped by and introduced himself, assuring them that their luggage would arrive within a few hours. Gwen wasn’t really worried about lost luggage. When the door was closed once more, and the ‘do not disturb’ sign hanging outside, she opened her carry-on bag to retrieve her swimsuit.

Much to her delight, Sam had other ideas, reaching for her instead of his carry-on.

He was gentle, so very gentle, and Gwen saw a lingering fear in his eyes. Even after the time that had passed, he was afraid of being rough with her, afraid she wasn’t really healed even though all scans had shown she was. She’d fully recovered from the accident and this gentleness was getting tiresome. She missed him grabbing her and the thrill of being picked up and carried to wherever he wanted her.

“Sam,” she whispered, sliding a hand along his chest in a slow caress.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want the gentleman right now. We’re on our honeymoon. I think we can be a little wild here.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You know I don’t mind a few bruises, especially the way we get them.”

“You’re sure?” His arms tightened around her.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything. I want hard and fast with as much emotion as you’ve got.” She recalled saying something similar to him once before.

The fear faded, replaced by that familiar spark he had in his eyes when he’d been holding himself back and was ready to release all of that pent-up emotion. Her heartbeat quickened because that spark meant delivery was going to have her screaming his name very soon.

“Be careful what you wish for,” he said, sliding a finger along her jaw. The words were silky, his voice a bit rough.

“I’ll chance it.”

His kisses were filled with passion and an aching need rose up inside her. They undressed quickly, continuing to kiss and caress as each item was removed. The gentleness was gone, and right then, Gwen was glad. This felt like a new beginning.

In a quieter moment a long while later, Gwen raised her head off Sam’s chest and reached for his watch. “We missed our first dinner onboard,” she said, putting the watch down and sitting up to look out the window at the ocean. Already, she was glad Bobby and Jodie had told them to get a balcony room.

“It was a buffet anyway.” Sam shifted, moving close. A hand swept up her arm and he pressed a string of kisses up her back to her shoulder. “You want to go find something? There’s supposed to be food available all the time.”

“I definitely do. We can explore the ship a bit, too.”

“We have all week to do that.” He sat beside her. “I wonder if our luggage is outside yet.”

It wasn’t, so they showered, used the change of clothes Jo had insisted they put in their carry-ons, and left the room in search of dinner.

~~~~~~~~~~

Returning from a late dinner of some of the best pizza Sam had ever had, they discovered their luggage waiting outside their door. From the clutter in the hallway, they weren’t the only ones who’d missed luggage drop-off. Taking the cases inside, they set them on the tiny couch and became distracted by each other before they could begin unpacking.

It was just after six-thirty when Sam woke up. Gwen was already awake and in the shower. By the time he was done with his own shower, she had her case on the bed and open, but hadn’t started getting dressed yet. Rather, she was holding up a thick magazine, staring at it like it was a disgusting thing she had to get rid of.

“Where the hell did this come from,” she asked, turning it around so he could read the title.

‘In Style’.

Sam laughed. Gwen didn’t read ‘In Style’. She made fun of people who read it, including Jo. He was sure Jo got her own digs in somewhere on Gwen’s choices of reading material.

“Did you do this?”

“No.”

“I don’t read crap like this.” She reached into the zippered outer pocket of the case and pulled out ‘Glamour’, ‘Cosmopolitan’, and tossed them on the bed with ‘In Style’. “Who the hell --”

“Is that even your suitcase?” It had light dresses and things he’d never seen Gwen wear in it.

“Of course it’s my suitcase.” She adjusted the towel around her, then unzipped the lining on the pocket to show him the symbols in marker on the inner lid. “See?”

“Whose clothes are those? They look more like Jo’s taste --”

“We hit a good clearance sale. I didn’t shop just for you, you know. Very little in my wardrobe was cruise appropriate.”

He snagged one tiny sundress and held it up. “You’re gonna wear this?” He knew he’d appreciate it if she did. Probably half the men on board would appreciate it if she did.

“Maybe.” Dropping the towel, she reached for her underwear.

“Wear it today. I dare you.”

“Sam --”

“Double dare you. Double dog dare you.”

“Fine.” She took the dress and pulled it on. “Dare accepted.”

“All day,” he hurried to include, “in public.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

She put her hands on her hips. “You get dressed now.”

Sam opened his suitcase and reached for the first clothes on top, not really caring what he grabbed. Gwen had thoughtfully bought him a few hot weather items he normally didn’t wear, shorts and shirts. Cruise wear, she’d called it. Whatever it was, it was a pile of clothes he was never going to wear ever again after the cruise was over. “I still don’t see why we can’t wear jeans.”

“Too hot.”

He looked at himself in the mirror, plucking at the shirt, then the shorts. “I look like one of those guys Dean makes fun of.”

“Actually, you look like Dean when you first brought him to us.” She reached for the ‘In Style’ magazine, studying it like she was looking for clues. “Who put this…trash in my suitcase?”

“Probably Jo.”

“Why would she be so sadistic? I thought she liked me.”

“It’s light reading,” he soothed.

“It’s fluff.” She searched her suitcase. “I had better reading material in here. I know I did. And where are my notes? I had notes on those legends in here.” All she turned up however was a thick romance novel of the bodice ripper historical variety that Sam had seen Dean reading and a puzzle book.

He snickered and looked in the zippered pocket of his case for his own reading material. His amusement at her dilemma faded as he realized his own stash of reading material had been switched as well. He found two car magazines and two books in a horror trilogy about zombies that Jo had finished months earlier. The first one had a post-it stuck inside, bright yellow peeking out. He opened the book to read the note. In Jo’s handwriting was written: what r u doing reading on ur honeymoon?. In the second book was another note: don’t u have better things 2 do? “Son of a bitch.”

“Something wrong?”

Her raucous laugh when he held up his reading choices would have been irritating if he hadn’t already laughed the same way for her dilemma. He dropped them on the bed next to the magazines from her case. Like her case, the research and reference book were gone. He had to admit Dean and Jo knew them well enough to anticipate them on that front. He should have known to check the suitcases before handing them over to the airline. “We’re stuck with crap reading choices. You think Jo did that on her own, or did she have help from Dean?”

“Jo doesn’t need help to be devious. Trust me. The reading stuff is her contribution to our honeymoon.”

“So what’s Dean’s?” He stared at her. “Not like he’d forget to get involved. Not as gung-ho as he was for us to actually go on a honeymoon.” A thought hit him and he shook his head. He recalled that awfully long list he’d seen on the computer. Surely Dean hadn’t…. “Oh no.”

Gwen stared back. Slowly, her lips parted. “Empty out your case. Every pocket.”

“Empty out yours.”

Gwen’s case had nothing aside from her clothes and both their toiletries in it. Sam’s case however….

“Did they just close their eyes and point at things on the pages on that website to choose?” He held up one product with a label that guaranteed ‘she’ll be pleased again and again’. There was a wide variety of products, a couple he had to really think about a minute to realize what they were for.

“Oh, I think they showed some restraint.” She set aside several containers of body paint and one of massage oil. “It doesn’t look like anything needs batteries.”

He picked up one item and flipped the switch. It hummed and a piece of it wiggled. “Batteries are already included.”

“I stand corrected,” she replied. “Wow. They spent some cash.”

“Dean probably gets a wholesale discount.”

She laughed, “probably,” and picked up one of the items he’d had to think about. “Is this for what I think it is?”

Sam nodded. “Yeah.”

“Eww.” She dropped it back on the bed. “Do you think the airline searched your luggage?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a good long laugh.”

Gwen and Sam both sighed, shook their heads, and looked at each other. Sam was in too good of a mood to stay pissed at Dean and Jo, who were hundreds of miles away at present.

“They were trying to help, I guess.” Gwen shrugged.

“I’d rather they didn’t.”

“Their hearts are in the right place.”

“True. We should pull something on them when we get back.”

“Count on it.”

He grinned at her. The two of them could come up with something…. A thought occurred to him and, by the same sudden alarmed expression on her face, it had occurred to her, too.

“Excursion tickets,” they said in unison and scrambled for the envelope.

Sam ripped it open. To his great relief, neither Jo nor Dean had thought to pretend to be them and call and change anything. Although, maybe they had and had gotten caught.

“Okay.” Gwen held up her hands. “Can they possibly have any more surprises in store for us?”

“No.” Though he wasn’t sure about that.

“Good.” She placed all the items back in the suitcase, dumped his clothes on top, and zipped it shut. “Then let’s go have breakfast.” She slid on a pair of sandals, dropped a pair by his feet, and headed for the door.

He put on the sandals and followed her out into the hallway, mildly self-conscious in the unfamiliar clothes and shoes, yet willing to wear them if she’d dress in those tiny dresses the whole cruise. He put Dean and Jo’s pranks from his mind and was determined to enjoy this cruise -- whether they were able to find a hunt of some kind or not.