Title: Nothing and Everything

Chapter 7

~~~~~~~~~~

It was time to let reality back into their world and get back to work. At least, it was time for Dean to get back to work. Jo still had a month before the doctor would clear her, which Dean was glad about. He wasn’t ready for that milestone. Getting Jack home and getting used to him had been a big enough one for the time being. He couldn’t very well deal with Jo back out in the field right now, too.

She wasn’t in agreement on that, already making noises about jobs and counting the days to when she assumed she could go back to work. Dean really hoped he could talk her into staying out of the field for six months. Maybe she’d fall in love with motherhood and want to stay safe? Doubtful, but he could hope.

Her fixation at present was that flapper dress. She’d checked and double checked her findings, worrying that it’d be gone when she was able to go after it. Dean wasn’t particularly worried. It was in some rich woman’s collection and not even scheduled to be auctioned for another four months. They had time to retrieve it.

Jo looked down into the diaper bag on her lap, rooting through it. It was practically as big as his duffel bag. “Okay, we have diapers, extra diapers, wipes, extra binkies…. That binkie chain you found at the dollar place was genius. Three changes of clothes for him, burp cloths, extra blanket….” She caught her tongue between her teeth a second. “Hat that he’ll lose in seconds if we put it on him. Socks that he’ll do the same. Various ointments, baggies for used diapers, baggies for clothes, two extra shirts for me, an entire box of nursing pads, since I’m going through them like he is diapers. Damn root beer,” she mumbled the last part. “Am I forgetting anything?”

“Possibly. Maybe.” Dean yawned. He didn’t say anything about the root beer. Jo’s ‘if a little helped, more was better’ philosophy had been disastrous, though he wasn’t entirely certain her overactive milk glands weren’t normal. Jack seemed to keep up with production easily enough. “I think we are, but I couldn’t tell you what. You want to take a bottle and a little formula just in case?”

“In case of what? I about explode whenever he cries now. It’s like a Pavlovian response. Somehow, I doubt he’s going to go hungry.”

“I don’t know, Jo. I haven’t been this sleep deprived for this many days in months.”

“Hah,” she scoffed. “At least you’ve been getting more than two hours in a row. Our kid doesn’t sleep.”

She seemed to think he was getting a full night of sleep every night, when in truth he woke when she did and dozed until she came back to bed. Jo also appeared to have forgotten that he was a little older than she was. His recovery time was slowing down. “Sure he does.” She was exaggerating, but he knew what she was trying to say. Their child did seem to sleep less than all the nurses had said he was supposed to.

“Prove it,” she ordered, brows raising in challenge.

“Easy,” he replied. “He’s sleeping right now.” He jerked a thumb at the backseat, glancing back as he did so with a smug grin. That grin slipped away. “And I know what we forgot.”

Jo’s stare was perplexed and she began to dig in the bag again, yawning wide. “What? We went through the list….”

“The baby, sweetheart,” he said in a gentle voice. “We forgot the freakin’ baby.”

She laughed, talking as she turned in the seat. “No we didn’t…. Crapsticks. We forgot the baby.” Her tongue pushed out her cheek for a few seconds and she frowned. “Where did we put him? God, Dean, I can’t remember where we had him last!”

“Do you remember carrying him out?”

“No. I had the bag and the bag of diapers.”

“I had the pack and play.”

“Is he on the table maybe? Or still upstairs in his crib?” She set the bag on the floor. “I am so not telling my mom about this.”

“Amen to that.” He took off his seatbelt. “Kind of glad Sam and Gwen aren’t here to see this. You stay here. I’ll go get him.”

The carrier was right on the table in the middle of it and Jack was wide awake and looking around. He wasn’t fussing and looked for all the world like he was fascinated by the thin air in front of him.

“Good boy,” Dean told him. “Keeping yourself busy. That’ll be a good skill to have later in life. Let’s go see Grandma Ellen and Grandpa Bobby now.” Bobby had told Dean he’d beat him within an inch of his life if he ever called him grandpa. So, of course, he was going to. Wasn’t like Bobby meant any of those threats.

At Bobby’s house, he got out the pack and play, grabbed the diaper bag and bag of diapers and followed Jo towards the door. She carried Jack. The door banged open, Ellen hurrying towards them. She grinned.

Jo grinned back. “Mom --”

“There’s my grandbaby.” She took the carrier from Jo. “Grandma was getting worried about you sweetie,” she cooed, turning and going back into the house, crooning to Jack all the while.

“We’re fine, Ellen,” Dean called after her. “Good to see you, too.”

Jo took the diaper bag from him. “Didn’t expect that.” She wasn’t upset, the twist to her lips more bemused than anything else.

Upon entering the house, they found Ellen already had Jack from the carrier and was rocking him a little in her arms. She looked over at them. “I haven’t seen my grandbaby in two weeks. I’m a little happy to see him.”

Sam was at the desk, looking over at them, books all around him. A usual day at Bobby’s house, though the stacks appeared taller than normal. He raised a hand in greeting. “Hey guys. Weren’t you supposed to be here half an hour ago?”

Dean shrugged and began setting up the pack and play. “We forgot something.”

Sam was quiet a second, then said in a dry voice, “How could you tell?”

“What about us,” Jo asked her mother as she removed her jacket and hung it up. “Aren’t you happy to see us?”

Ellen laughed a little and stepped over to Jo, giving her a one-armed hug. “You know I’m always happy to see you. What are you feeding this boy, Jo? He’s twice the size he was at birth.”

“Just the usual and he hasn’t grown that much.”

He quirked a brow at Sam. “Are you implying we brought too much stuff? I assure you, Sammy, we only brought the necessary things.”

“I’d hate to see what the load would be like with the unnecessary things.” He got up and came over, crouching down to help. “What’d you forget?”

“Never mind.” He finished putting the pieces together in a few minutes, then squinted at it and the leftover pieces. Something wasn’t in there right. The playpen part looked solid, as did the bassinet section that went over it, but with pieces missing it’d be a matter of time before it collapsed. He sighed.

“Crib thing?”

“It’s called a pack and play and no, that’s not what we forgot.” He took it apart, put it back together, and had one piece leftover this time. Dean closed his eyes, took a deep breath, reopened his eyes, and forced himself to concentrate when his mind wanted to roam.

“Diapers?”

“No.”

“Wipes?”

“No.”

Ellen let out a snort of laughter. “They probably forgot the baby.”

Dean froze in the act of snapping the last piece in place and looked over at Jo, who crossed her arms.

“Mom? How could you possibly know that?”

Sam laughed and stood, returning to the desk. “You forgot the baby? Man, Dean.”

“I’m a mom, too, Jo,” Ellen said, changing Jack’s position in her arms so he was upright against her shoulder. “I once put you and the diaper bag on the ground beside the car, got in and sat there for ten minutes trying to remember where I’d put you, the bag, and my keys. Then there was the time Bill and I actually pulled onto the road from the driveway before realizing we’d left you in your carseat in the living room. It’s not unusual. I think most new parents have a moment like that. Lack of sleep does things, not to mention you’re not used to having to remember a carseat or carrier yet.”

It took awhile to get settled and when they had, Sam brought a stack of books from the desk to the couch and set them down, taking the top one off the stack and holding it out.

“What’s this?” Dean took the book Sam handed him. It was thick and a little musty smelling. His anticipation rose a little. Books like this usually meant something nasty on the loose. “Got a case?”

“No. Nothing concrete anyway.”

“Then why are you handing me a musty old book?”

“We’re going to broaden our horizons.”

Dean opened the book and shot a suspicious stare back at Sam. “Are you trying to make me go to sleep?”

He chuckled and handed Jo a book as well. “Not intentionally.”

She held it up. “What am I supposed to be looking for?”

“Just read.”

“But I’m not looking for anything? No symptoms, no weird happenings….”

“No, you’re not looking for anything.”

She flipped open the book and read a sentence, then stared up at Sam like he was out of his mind. “Are you mental, Sam? How am I supposed to find something if I’m not looking for anything? This isn’t how I work. I find something questionable and suspicious and dive right in using whatever is in the article to pinpoint what could be out there.”

“No, I’m not mental and,” he returned to his chair, “Ellen made a good point the other day that we all keep dealing with the same things over and over. Maybe the reason for that is we aren’t versed in what else is out there, so we miss sightings of creatures we could be hunting down. I know it’s not how you work. It’s not how any of us have been working, but maybe we should take Ellen’s advice and educate ourselves a bit more.”

Jo snorted and tossed the book aside. “Nope. Not gonna do it today. I’m not sitting here reading a dry, boring book for shits and giggles. Give me something concrete to work on, Sam, and I’ll read ten of these, but just to read them? Not right now. Where’s Gwen at? What’s she doing? Why isn’t she down here?”

Dean slid an amused glance at her. For someone who claimed she wanted to get back to work already, she didn’t seem too motivated to work towards that end.

Sam closed one book, then began to rearrange the others. “She mumbled something about a doctor appointment after she came in from her run this morning and left right after breakfast. Said she’d be back this afternoon.”

“What sort of doctor?”

He and shook his head. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”

“Why not? What do you think it is? Doctor as in girl stuff that’s unfortunately necessary or doctor as in she needs a real medical opinion on something and not our guesses?”

“I couldn’t tell you because I don’t know. She didn’t elaborate, Jo.”

“Why didn’t you ask?”

“I figured if she wanted to tell me she would.”

She blinked, “oh,” and looked over at Ellen. “Mom?”

“She was gone before I got here.”

“Hmm. Interesting.” Jo dropped the subject and laid on the couch beside Dean, her head against his leg. She closed her eyes, asleep within minutes. That was a good thing, in his opinion. Maybe she wouldn’t be grouchy when she woke up.

Dean looked down at the book and flipped to the first section. It was an alphabetical listing of various creatures. He skimmed the first page. “Making any progress on Gwen’s nightmares?”

“No.” He glanced up. “I’ve been reading about the creatures and spirits that can cause them and with all of them, the victim either feels pressure on the chest or has paralysis on waking. She’s had neither. I mean, she’s screamed on waking or gasped for breath like she’s having trouble breathing, but she hasn’t been paralyzed or complained of feeling pressure.”

“Unless the reports got the creatures confused and lumped them together. Not everyone has your freakish ability to find the tiniest differences between creatures or cares to look at them that closely.”

“You see this difference, Dean?” Sam lifted his hand, then curled all but his middle finger into a fist.

“Ooh, touchy! Guess you really are getting nowhere.” He flipped a few pages without reading them. “She still having the dreams while you’ve been here?”

“They’re a lot milder, not intense like she has at base.”

“Mmm.” Dean closed the book, dropped it to the floor and picked up the one Jo had set aside. “Hate to say it, Sammy, but it’s probably all in her mind and nothing we can take care of for her. She may just have to suffer through it.”

“I don’t want her to have to though.”

“I know.” He stretched out his hand and stroked Jo’s hair. “You might just have to suppress those white knight instincts.”

He sat back in his chair. “She was laughing at me the other day because I suggested she was having early memory recollection.”

“Early….” Dean licked his lips, considering that theory and tossing it aside as idiotic. “Sam, she would have been a couple weeks old or so when Aaron was killed. Highly unlikely she’d remember that.”

“She pointed that out, laid on some pretty thick sarcasm. I’ve looked into every possible supernatural reason that I can think of and I keep coming back to it not being…. Do you think she’s having prophetic visions?”

Dean stared at him. He was starting to grasp at straws rather than accept that it was probably all in Gwen’s head. An impulse Dean understood fairly well. “No.” He flipped a few more pages. “Why don’t you take her to see Chuck? Pump him for information.”

“There’s an idea…except he might not know either even if he’s still having visions, which we don’t know he is.”

He nodded. “True. Well, have you done all the creepy night experiments like watching her sleep with infrared and black light to see if you pick up anything?”

Sam looked like Dean had clubbed him over the head, gaze almost dazed and mouth opening. “No, I hadn’t.”

He grinned and wagged one index finger at him. “You’re slipping without me the past couple weeks, Sammy. Should’ve been the next thing you did.”

“You’re right.” He half laughed. “I’ve been so focused on researching it…. We’ll do that this week.” Sam laid out a quick plan for setting up cameras and lights when they got back to the house.

The matter settled, Dean made a valiant effort to study the book the way Sam thought he should. He did agree that knowing about more creatures would open up more cases because they’d recognize the signs.

But did Sam have to give them the driest books ever written? Not to mention that Ellen had wrested control over the thermostat from Bobby when she was here (pretty much every day now) and it was warmer in the house than usual. She wanted it warm when she was working on the database and in consequence, Dean began to feel sleepy.

He stretched his legs out and slouched down on the couch cushion. Beside him, Jo stretched and shifted position so she was on her back, legs slung over the arm of the couch. She remained asleep.

The words swam in front of his eyes and he slipped into sleep himself.

~~~~~~~~~~

Dean and Gwen were probably right. Sam had come to that conclusion as days had passed and his studying on nightmares, creatures that caused them, and possible ghost or spirit influence got him nowhere. Gwen’s problem was normal. Extreme, but normal. Unless there was something out there he hadn’t run across yet or Dean was right and the types of creatures had been confused and lumped all together. Wouldn’t be the first time he’d discovered that.

He decided to do the sleep experiments before considering taking her to see Chuck or trying to call Castiel down.

Feeling restless, Sam got up and went to look out the window. Gwen still wasn’t back. He wondered what her appointment had been for. She’d been out talking to Bobby while he worked the previous day. Sam suspected her appointment was with someone Bobby knew. Or maybe she’d had a normal, everyday appointment for a physical.

He snorted. Normal? Everyday? Funny how Jo and Gwen were working those things in when he couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone to a doctor that still had a real license. Or a dentist. When had been the last time he’d gone to the dentist? He made sure to take care of himself physically so he didn’t need either.

Behind him, he heard Ellen singing softly to Jack.

He turned. Happiness was like a fog about her body. “You look happy,” he told her.

“I am.” She adjusted the blanket around the infant, who was very awake and wide eyed, belying Dean and Jo’s claims that he slept all day and was awake all night. “Never thought I’d have grandkids, Sam. Seriously. Didn’t think it’d happen, but now that he’s here, I’m going to enjoy every single minute.” Ellen stepped over to him, voice lowering. “And if you ever have kids? I’ll treat ’em like my own grandkids.”

“I know you will.” She’d firmly adopted he and Dean both long ago.

“You want to hold him?”

He shook his head, “Later,” and started back into the next room. He had to stop and laugh however. Dean and Jo were both asleep on the couch. Dean was stretched out, a book on his lap, while Jo was curled over on her side. “Hey Ellen.”

She joined him at the doorway. “Ain’t they cute?” She patted Jack’s back. “Why don’t you carefully carry Jo upstairs and put her on one bed?”

“I don’t want to wake her.”

“Trust me. You won’t. She’s sacked out.”

Ellen was right. Jo didn’t wake.

It wasn’t long before Gwen was back, telling him that her appointment went well and she was as healthy as she could be.

“It was just a physical, Sam. Nothing big. I wanted to make sure I was still fit. Don’t you do that?” She hung her jacket up and headed for the stairs. He followed her.

“You get a yearly physical?” How did he not know this? After everything else they’d ever talked about, how had this topic slipped past him?

“Every other year for the past few years.” Going into the room they’d taken, she began to pack. “Aren’t you packed yet? I’m ready to go back to base, like right now.”

“But you’re okay?”

She sat on the bed and looked up at him. “I’m fine, Sam. Doctor said so. Blood work will be back in a few days, but he didn’t think there was anything wrong except a little stress. He said to reduce stress as much as possible for awhile, see what effect it has on the nightmares --”

“It’s been having an effect.” At least he thought it was. Seemed to be working anyway. He’d been doing everything he could to relax her right before bed. “I can tell already that you’re sleeping better.”

“It is starting to help,” she acknowledged with a slow nod. “So why don’t we stop worrying about it? He said worry could feed the stress and keep it going in a cycle. I’m going to stop worrying and focus on our jobs.”

They returned to the house later that afternoon, following Jo and Dean inside and when they’d unpacked, they went upstairs to start working. Gwen set the files they’d taken to Bobby’s on the table. Dean, or Jo, had cleaned the room at the top of the stairs and cleared off the cork wall so it was ready for whatever new cases they could find.

Sam stepped towards Jack’s room and looked inside.

There were black plastic trash bags all over the walls and floor. While Sam thought he could guess the reason for them, he ventured a question. “Why is there plastic all over?”

Jo laid Jack in his crib. “Because. Every time we went to change him he peed everywhere.”

Sam stared at them. Were they serious? He exchanged a glance with Gwen as she joined him at the door. Gwen laughed and Sam suppressed a laugh. “So…why not try putting one of those cloths right there over him to catch it or something like that?”

The suggestion was greeted with blank stares from both Dean and Jo that slowly morphed into understanding. They must both be really sleep deprived, he decided.

Jo’s cheeks flushed. “I hadn’t thought of that and it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Dean blinked. “I should have thought of that.”

“Now I feel stupid. Thanks, Sam.”

“I’m not trying to make you feel stupid, Jo. I don’t even know if it’ll work. It’s just a suggestion.”

Gwen slid her arm around his waist and leaned against him. “I thought you’d both been reading books.”

“I never got past the pregnancy ones,” Dean admitted.

Jo shrugged one shoulder. “I skimmed the other ones. Too much…reality.”

“Jo.”

“What? I got freaked out every time I tried to really read a chapter. Not to mention Dean kept walking in like he had radar that focused on that book. I don’t even remember where I put it now.”

“Under the couch,” all three of them replied together.

“Can we remove the trash bags,” Sam asked, gesturing around the room with a finger.

“Can you change him without him peeing everywhere yet,” Jo challenged.

“I’ve never tried to change him.”

“Then no, we can’t remove the plastic.”

Two days passed.

Sam bought a few supplies, then worked on setting up the cameras and lights the way he wanted in their room. He did a four corner set-up at the ceiling, then another camera in one corner that would focus solely on her.

She came to the doorway and leaned against it. “Taping me while I sleep. Sam, you naughty boy.” Her flirtatious smile was a ghost of what it had been at Bobby’s house as the nightmares had faded because…her nightmares were returning and with a vengeance.

He was determined to find the cause. It had to be supernatural. Had to be. Something that hadn’t been able to fully reach her at Bobby’s. “I’m going to get this figured out. We’re stopping those nightmares. This week if I have any say in it. ” He checked the wires. “Dean, is that showing a picture yet?”

“Yeah,” came his reply.

“You think you can stop them?”

“I’m gonna damn well try.”

The rest of the day, Dean foraged through boxes and Jo snatched back the flapper dress file, squirreling it away somewhere in the house. Ellen had an explosion of activity on the message board and called to say she’d handed out three files, one to Mick, who’d reported in on the one he’d grabbed, triumphant from solving it and confident he could solve another one. Briefly, Sam wondered what Sophie thought of Mick taking old cases.

Dean dragged a box out from under the table and ripped open the tape. “You finding anything promising on the job front, Gwen,” he asked, pulling out two bulky large manila envelopes and dropping them on the table.

“No.” Disgust was heavy in her voice. “There is absolutely no strange activity in the U.S. whatsoever. Even my civilian contacts have heard nothing.” She shut the lid on the laptop and sighed. “Guess it’s a downtime cycle for everything.”

“Or they’re gathering their strength and will hit us in twenty different directions.” Jo was hopefully cheerful at the prospect, undoing her blouse in preparation for nursing Jack.

Sam looked away until he saw her toss a light blanket over Jack and her chest.

Dean opened the first envelope. “There’s keys in here.” He dumped them out and pulled out a sheaf of papers, glancing through them. “Well, would you look at this.” He passed the papers to Sam. “Addresses.”

Sam took the papers and started to read through them. What he found past the list of addresses surprised him. “And a couple of deeds. Two of these properties they owned free and clear. Gwen, look at this. Did you know about these?”

“Does it look like I knew about those?” She was as surprised as they were, coming to him and leaning over his shoulder to look at the papers. “We own them now.”

“Which means if they’re up on taxes and don’t owe, we can clear them out and sell them,” Dean smirked. “Get some extra cash to run operations.”

“This has been like a treasure trove in some ways,” Gwen commented, picking up the keys and looking at them. “These all have numbers and letters marked on them. Is there a D4 on one of those pages?”

Sam flipped back to the first page. “Right here.” he pointed.

Each place would have to be investigated and Sam wondered what else they might find as they worked their way through the boxes they’d packed from the compound.

~~~~~~~~~~

The excitement of finding the keys stayed with Gwen even after she went back to glancing through some of the reference books they’d unearthed. One was in German and another in what she thought was Old English. She worked on reading the German one, a little sad to find her translation skills very rusty. She’d gotten too used to reading the reference books in English.

Dean and Sam matched keys to addresses, while Jo fed Jack. Gwen thought she was getting used to that by now, casting a glance towards them. Jo was fighting to keep a blanket over herself. Gwen wasn’t sure if it kept slipping because it wasn’t big enough for the purpose or because Jack kept grabbing it with one hand. Sam was studiously avoiding looking at Jo, while Dean kept stopping to look, as though the force of his gaze would make the blanket drop away.

Gwen watched Sam a moment.

She wasn’t sure if he believed her about her doctor visit, even though she’d told him the truth. She’d gone mostly to reassure herself that there wasn’t a physical cause for her dreams. That and it was time for her to go anyway.

She hoped Sam’s plan to tape her revealed something and that it was something they could fight. Back at Bobby’s house she’d started to feel better, but now? She was sliding back into little sleep and it wasn’t from Jack crying at all hours. It was the stupid dreams, the images more vicious than they’d been the first time around. It seemed that the savagery she saw on Mia’s part was almost exaggerated now, the blood a deeper color, the emotions and physical sensations she had while in the dream deepened, like a retaliation for her having left for two weeks.

Gwen got ready for bed at her usual time and put off actually going to bed. Jo had taken Jack to Ellen’s for the night, leaving Dean and Sam to do the experiment and watch over Gwen while she slept.

Sam handed her a mug. “Here. Chamomile tea. Ellen swears by it.”

“Thanks.” It was just the right temperature to drink and she sipped at it, watching Dean check the cameras.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Dean told her, turning in the chair and laying his arm over the back of it. “We’ll be right here.”

The house seemed too quiet without Jack’s cries and she drank down the last of the tea. “Okay. I’m ready.”

She kissed Sam goodnight and went into their room, leaving the door open a crack. The covers were cool, the mattress comfortable, and she tried to pretend they didn’t have five cameras on her.

It took awhile, but Gwen slipped into sleep and into her nightmares.

~~~~~~~~~~

Dean wasn’t hopeful that this experiment would work, but monitored the cameras Sam had asked him to watch. The temperature in the bedroom didn’t drop as Gwen slept, but suddenly, when she rolled onto her side facing away from them, there was…something. He leaned forward, glance turning to the camera focused solely on her.

“Dean, are you seeing this,” Sam whispered.

‘This’ was the thing that seemed to appear along Gwen’s back in slow degrees like a mist coalescing into a solid form. It became a dark, faintly human shape the length of her spine. Tentacle thin appendages grasped her body in what looked to be an almost loving sort of embrace. The malformed head between her shoulder blades turned, a skinny long tongue snaking out and over her neck in a graceful movement.

He turned to the cameras that were at her front and focused as closely as he could. The tongue, or whatever it was, had slid into one nostril. From the bedroom came a slight groan. Getting up, Dean stepped to the door and peered through the crack. He could see her back clearly in the glow of the light from the living room and there was nothing there. Nor was there any sound aside from Gwen’s occasional moan to indicate what it was really doing to her. It could be feeding on her somehow or just causing the dreams. Whatever it was doing, it wasn’t good.