Title: The Curse of Bittersweet Kisses
Chapter 24

~~~~~~~~~~

It was with surprise that Sam realized Morgan was flirting with him. She wasn’t even being particularly subtle about it, either. He glanced at Chuck, who was watching them at the table across the room with something like a fond fatherly grin.

He let Morgan draw him into conversation, quickly understanding that Jo had filled her in on quite a lot over the months. It was apparent in the way she talked to him.

“We should spend time together,” she said. “Since Jo’s my friend and Dean’s your brother.” She tucked her shoulder length dark hair behind her ears. He liked how there was a slight curl to her hair.

“You mean give them privacy.”

“Exactly.” Her smile faded a little and she bit her lower lip before saying, “Jo says you’re like a brother to her. She trusts you.”

“We have a little history,” he admitted.

“The demon Meg.”

“Jo told you about that?”

“She did. She talked a lot about you two once I got her talking. She and Ellen both. Good things, bad things, and the in-between.” She studied him for a few seconds, then asked, “You’ll protect her if she needs it? I mean today? ”

“Yes.”

“Find me if she goes into labor?”

“Definitely.”

“Protect the baby?”

“Of course.” The words were coming out easily today. Usually, talking much was a chore, his mouth not wanting to form the words and voice speak them. Chuck had been right. Today was a good day in many ways. For him, for Dean, for Jo and Ellen.

“Good.” The flirtatious, sassy smile returned. “How about we meet up at dinner in a couple days? You and me alone at a table talking about everything under the sun.”

“You want to have dinner?” He was liking the way she was looking at him, like he was a man underneath all the crazy. It had been a long time since a woman had looked at him that way and Sam stood up a little straighter.

She turned to one side, thumbs hooking in her front jeans pockets. “Would lunch be better? I’d say breakfast, but that implies other things have happened beforehand and I don’t think we know each other well enough for that yet.”

He wasn’t sure what to say at that. Did she not get what crazy meant? Was she really not bothered by it? “Morgan, did Jo really tell you everything?”

“She did.”

“I mean about me. I have --”

“Hallucinations and seizures and you’re so far around the bend you’re meeting yourself? She told me.” Her attention fell to the floor, like she was searching for something there. “She also told me to not make a big deal of it, that you’re still you despite it and you’re a good man.” Her gaze raised to meet his again and he saw that, despite her outward confidence, she was afraid she’d been too forward.

“It’s not just run-of-the-mill hallucinations, Morgan,” he told her in a gentle voice. “I hallucinate Lucifer.”

She raised her brows in question.

He shook his head. “That doesn’t bother you? I mean, I’m nuts.” How many other ways could he say it?

“Sam, you’re on medication, right?” At his nod, she shrugged. “Then let me worry about whether or not I want to get to know you. I do, by the way. The way Jo described you….” She turned her head and, for a second, he was sure she saw Chuck. She certainly seemed to be silently acknowledging him before she looked back at Sam. Was he imagining it, though? “I’m a little bold, I guess. I don’t see the point in wasting time, especially not in this world. So, how about we have that dinner in a couple days, see how well we like each other, and go from there. Would that be more comfortable for you?”

“I think that would be best.” Dean and Jo returned then and when he and Jo were talking later, he asked, “Is Morgan psychic?”

“Not that I know of. Why?” Jo put her feet on the coffee table.

“She seemed to…really….” He sighed. “I don’t know. We had a weird moment is all.”

“Well, she has a really good understanding of the life, but I’ve never heard her mention any abilities. What happened?”

“Remember Darla? How she saw something that day?”

“I do. Are you seeing something here right now and she saw it?”

“The medicine takes care of 99.9 percent of the hallucinations, but it was like that in a way. She seemed to notice that…. Never mind. It’s silly, I guess.”

“You seem pretty good on this one.”

He chuckled. “Today has been an unusual day. Most days, it makes my mind feel numb, like I’m wrapped in blankets. Everything is a little muffled. Today, though, I feel almost normal. It’s weird how it goes. Not consistent.” He gestured at her stomach. “Do you like being pregnant?”

“Like?” Her brows rose. “It has it’s moments, like when I feel him moving. Or her. I don’t know which. What it is is scary, Sam. There are a million things that can go wrong.”

“And a lot that can go right.”

“Dean,” she began, then looked away.

He thought he could guess her concern. “It’s his baby, too. The way he and I are about family? You know he’ll love him. Or her. It just might take him a couple days to get used to the idea that he’s going to be a father.”

“A couple days? It’s taken me months to get used to the idea that I’m pregnant at all, let alone going to be a mom. A couple days might be all he has before the baby comes.”

“Dean likes kids,” he reassured her. “He’s good with them. I don’t think it’ll take long at all.” He actually thought Dean was going to be ecstatic once he got used to the idea.

“But we can’t have happily ever after. It won’t work. Look outside. We all know it’s not there for us.”

“You weren’t going to have it before, back when we thought Castiel was dead, yet you were both making plans to try.” He remembered that. Remembered Dean working out details in mumbles and half questions to himself.

She was quiet a moment. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right.”

“That’s what you and Dean will do. It’s the same thing you were planning on doing before only you have the baby to consider. I think it might even be easier for you because we’re mostly here at the camp these days. We don’t go far now, even for jobs.”

Jo nodded. “I’ll say it again. You’re right.”

Dean returned not long after that. “Ellen’s all settled. Morgan is with her. You want to go, Jo? Visit her?”

“For awhile.”

The cabin Ellen was in must not have been too far away, for Dean was back in minutes. He asked Sam not to let anyone disturb him for awhile and went into his room and shut the door. Sam wondered what was going on, but let the numbness in his mind take him over.

~~~~~~~~~~

Dean Winchester had an abrasive edge, but as Morgan had been told by both Jo and Ellen, he was a hunter, a leader, and had been through literal hell. He was allowed to have an edge. She was tense, her body seeming to absorb all of the tension that had melted from Jo the second she’d seen Dean on that road.

Morgan didn’t want to argue with him, really she didn’t. Keeping her friends safe was a priority and she wanted to make sure he was aware that, while Jo was still strong in all the ways he remembered, there was a delicateness to where she was in her pregnancy. She shouldn’t be upset. Jo needed to stay calm.

She followed them into his cabin. The stab of pure lust she had at meeting Sam Winchester managed to throw her for a moment before she recovered. She knew in a second that she wanted to get to know him, crazy or not. Her flirting was beyond shameless and perhaps a tad too aggressive. She knew it. Her husband Rob, dead now for over five years, had once told her she was far too enthusiastic in it, but that he’d liked that about her.

It made Sam uncomfortable. She could see it in the way his shoulders hunched and he took a step back away from her.

She dialed it back, mildly embarrassed, yet unable to stop herself from a couple more playful remarks just to watch a fresh flush of color paint his cheekbones. It gave him an almost innocent look that intrigued her.

Upon leaving the cabin, she gave Dean the camera Jo had asked her to keep charged. She had two reasons for giving him the camera. The first was so that he could see and hear Jo’s own words about the pregnancy and know how desperately she’d wanted him there with her. He needed to know it all and understand it. The second was a little sneaky and even manipulative, but forgivable under the circumstances.

Morgan wanted him to want Jo close, which would get Jo away from a member in their group that Ellen and Morgan had been trying to shelter Jo from. She wasn’t even sure Jo was aware that Gil had a major thing for her and didn’t seem to care that she was pregnant with another man’s child. He’d taken to watching Jo whenever she wasn’t looking, like he couldn’t wait to have her. Their finding this camp was perfect timing and she hoped Dean would react the way she thought he would.

Dean bristled a little at her words. They hadn’t come out right and she was sorry for that. She didn’t know he’d say or do anything to upset Jo. Morgan was merely afraid he would due to that abrasive edge she’d noticed. Maybe he wasn’t like that with Jo. She’d never gotten the impression he was, not from anything Jo or Ellen had said.

So she tried to be business after that, and only business, to show him she’d be an asset to the camp. She wasn’t expecting to have a free ride. Morgan would work for her room and board and would work hard.

An hour after Jo had left to take a shower and relax with the rest of their group, a feminine voice sounded at Ellen’s cabin door.

“You’re Morgan I take it?” A dark haired woman stood there, her arms crossed as she assessed first Morgan, then the cabin. “Cabin looks good.”

“I am. Morgan Burgess.”

“I’m Jody Mills.” She gestured to the bed. “How is she?”

“Starting to rest better already. Another day or so and she’ll be thinking she can run around the camp for hours all the time. You know Ellen?”

Jody came inside the cabin. She grasped the back of one straight-backed chair and brought it to the bedside. “Not well. We met a couple times briefly at a friend’s house. I was there in a more official sort of capacity at the time and my business was with our friend.” She sat.

Official business? That probably meant she’d been a cop.

“I’ll sit with her awhile. Why don’t you go have a shower, some food, and rest with your people? I’ll come get you if she takes a turn for the worse.”

She got the impression that, like Dean, Jody was used to having her orders obeyed. The words were phrased as a suggestion except her tone indicated it was an order. “Did Dean send you?”

“Sam actually. He told me that Jo speaks highly of you, that you worked hard to keep her alive to get here.”

“Jo’s my friend. Of course I protected her. She did the same for me.”

Jody tilted her head slightly to one side, thought a second, and nodded. “Looking forward to working with you later, Morgan. Go take that time to rest. The way things happen here, it might be the last relaxing moment you have for awhile.”

She sat back in her own chair. “Are you ordering me to rest, Jody?”

“Do I have to?” Jody smiled. “I have heard doctors take better care of their patients than themselves.”

“Not always true.” She stood and paused. “Are you sure you don’t mind sitting with her?”

“Not at all.”

The shower did make Morgan feel a little less tense, as did some real food, and when she was done she joined Jo a short ways from the fire. It wasn’t late enough to need it for light, but the warmth was welcome. “So…. Those are the famous Winchester brothers.”

“Yup. I thought you might like Sam.”

“There is something about him and I don’t mean his illness. He….” Morgan thought back to Sam and how she felt drawn to him. “I don’t know. It’s hard to explain it. I’m not sure how.” She pulled her jacket tighter around her. It was beginning to get chilly as the clouds in the sky began to cover the sun.

“I can explain it.” Jo’s glance was amused and her voice a little smug even.

“Do tell then.”

“It’s lust at first sight.”

Morgan couldn’t help but smile at that rather accurate assessment of that second she’d seen Sam. “It’s not just that,” she protested, “though I will admit he’s pretty easy on the eyes.” She poked a finger against Jo’s arm. “You never mentioned that part, neither you or Ellen. You could have at least told me he was cute.”

Jo snorted. “It’s totally lust and I thought you could just decide for yourself without any input from me.” She shifted in her lawn chair. “Sam’s a great guy, but be careful if you decide to go for him. He and Dean are close. Hurt Sam in some way and you’ll make a fast enemy of Dean. They’re a package deal, so if you don’t like Dean, don’t make a move on Sam at all.”

Turning her head, Morgan stared at Jo a long moment. “You know me. You know I’d never hurt him intentionally.”

“I know, but they’re both special to me. They were there the first time I started to grow into being a real hunter and they were there to comfort me when I died. I’m a little protective of them. They’ve been through a lot more in their lives than about ten people combined. Ten hunters combined. Each. Be careful.”

“You be careful, too.”

Jo blinked twice and shot a look towards their group and back, her voice lowering. “You mean Dean?”

“There’s an edge to him.”

“I know.” She nodded. “But under it all he’s the sweetest, gentlest guy I know. He hides it well and he’ll do anything to protect the ones he loves.”

“Will you still be careful?”

“Will you,” Jo countered with raised brows.

“Of course. I’ll even try to like Dean.”

“That may take awhile. You’re a lot alike on some things.”

“I said I’d try. Success may be another story entirely.”

They sat talking awhile longer until Morgan spotted Dean coming towards them again. By the look on his face, she knew he’d been watching the videos she’d given him and prepared herself to run interference when Gil inevitably got in the way.

~~~~~~~~~~

With Morgan and Jo getting Ellen comfortable and medicated, Dean took the camera back to his cabin and his room and sat down to look at whatever was on it. He turned it on. There were no pictures, only videos. He thumbed through the selection, then went back to the first one to play it.

Jo appeared on the screen. She sat in front of it on a chair and took a deep breath. When she spoke, she spoke like she was talking to Dean, as though he was there in the room with her.

“Well…. It’s been a long week. I can’t believe how fast things are going in the crapper. You know, I actually saw a crowd of people taken over today? Scary as all hell. I saw a schoolteacher start murdering her students. They weren’t more than about seven, Dean. I guess you’re seeing that, too.” She cleared her throat. “I feel a little silly talking at the camera like this, but mom says go for it. She says maybe some day I can show all these to you and you can feel like you were here with us.” Standing, she turned sideways, raising her pajama top and little and lowering her pajama pants slightly. “I’m getting a little belly now. Can you see it? It’s not much yet, but it’s there. I can tell.” She slid her hand across it.

Dean found he was reaching to the small screen with one finger, like he could reach through it and touch her stomach. He put his hand back down in his lap.

“Right there. Tiny. Mom says it won’t be little for long and to enjoy my pants still fitting.” She put her pajamas back in order and sat back down. “Please don’t be mad. I’d tell you if I could. You know that, Dean. You know --”

Jo wiped tears from her face and it ended. He moved to the next one, repeating that sequence over and over. Jo would appear, talk for awhile, then it would end and he’d play the next one. Somewhere around what she said was her fifth month, he skipped ahead to the last two.

She patted her stomach. “He’s kicking up a storm now. I don’t know he’s a he, but it feels right. Morgan says we’ll have to wait until I have him to find out. No way we’re chancing a hospital or clinic now, not with the church stepping up their hunt for me and mom.” She licked her lips and glanced down and back up. “I miss you, Dean. I think about you every day. I hope you’re still out there. I remember….”

He went to the last one.

“Hey. I’ll cut right to it today. I’m scared. I don’t know how I’m going to do this. I’m so scared.”

She’d been crying, her nose red and eyes swollen.

“A baby in this world. I’ve got a little silver bracelet ready to put on his arm, but other than that…. How am I going to protect him? The church won’t stop. The PD’s are still running strong. We had an accident yesterday and mom got hurt. Morgan keeps telling me we’ll get to you, but she’s just as scared as I am. I can see it. I hear it. She was crying last night when she thought I was asleep.” She sniffled and wiped her eyes with a hand. “Please be there, Dean. I can’t run much longer. I’m due really soon. I….” She pressed her lips tight together, drew in a long breath, nodded once and said, “You’ll be there. I believe you will and maybe it won’t make everything better, but we’ll be able to help each other.”

He sat back, stunned. Slowly, he booted up the laptop he still had and copied the videos off the card before putting the card back in the camera. Later, he’d go back and watch the ones he’d skipped. Dean didn’t know how to feel about all that he’d watched. They hadn’t been diaries so much as one-sided conversations with him. Jo had shared milestones and her feelings, hopes, and dreams for them and their baby. She’d also shared her fears. She’d poured out her heart to him and now all he could think about was that she should be here with him.

He was out of his cabin and striding to the circle of vehicles before he even thought about it. Dean went straight to Jo, ignoring the way one of the men and Morgan stood as he approached, like they thought he was going to hurt Jo. He gestured at Jo. “Get your things, Jo. You’re coming with me.” Used to having his orders obeyed, he was surprised when she refused, with a slow shake of her head.

“No.”

“I won’t tell you twice.”

“Good, ‘cause then I won’t have to say no twice.” She pushed herself up from her chair.

Why was she saying no? He stared at her a long moment, calculating how best to make her do what he wanted. She had to go with him. “Don’t you think a wife should be with her husband, because I do.”

He heard gasps from those in her group that were near enough to hear and Jo blinked. She stepped close and lowered her voice so only he could hear her. “I thought we were in agreement that his saying it didn’t make it so.”

“We were…until I found out we’re having a baby. The baby makes it so. We’re bound by that.”

“You’re reasoning is skewed. A baby doesn’t make a marriage, Dean. You know that.”

He grasped her arm in a gentle grip, rubbing his thumb along her skin. “Come on. If you won’t get them now, we can come back later for your things.”

“Hey, get your hands off her!”

Dean turned his head, shooting a long, cool stare at the man who’d spoken. He was of medium height with dark hair and a dark growth of beard along his jaw. “Jo’s my wife and I suggest you mind your own damn business. My wife is going to be living in my cabin.”

“Wife?” The man’s eyes narrowed. “You’re married?” His tone was thoughtful and he smirked. “Well now, that’s just interesting.”

“It’s okay, Gil.” Morgan came forward, laying a hand on the man’s arm. “This is Jo’s business. Go back to the fire and leave her to it.”

Dean couldn’t help but wonder if Gil was the reason Morgan had hurried to make him aware of Jo’s diaries. From the way Gil looked at Jo, he guessed the man was interested in her, though it didn’t seem like Jo even noticed him. She seemed unimpressed by his hurry to defend her.

When Morgan had the group distracted, Jo tugged her arm from Dean’s grasp. “You don’t want me in your cabin, Dean. Trust me.”

“I think I do.” After hearing her own words on her pregnancy and becoming a mother, he wanted her close. He’d missed direct experience with her pregnancy and if he could get direct experience now, then he’d take it while he could. He should have kept her there with him and wasn’t going to let her slip away again.

“No, you don’t.” She shook her head several times. “I don’t sleep through the night. I toss and turn and get up to pee fifty times. I’m restless and I can’t stay sitting or anything very long.”

“I get it. Let’s go.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Can you just do what I ask?”

“Maybe if you actually asked instead of ordered, then yes.”

Her words stopped him dead. She was right and he took a long deep breath. He wasn’t asking, he was ordering and Jo didn’t respond well to orders unless she’d agreed to it ahead of time. He should have remembered that and Dean nodded once. “Okay then. Joanna Beth Harvelle, will you pack your things and come to my cabin, making it ours?” Well…theirs and Sam’s.

“If you really want me there, then yes. But if you’re wanting it for any other reason, then no.” Her gaze held his, measuring and weighing whatever she was seeing in his eyes.

“I want you there.”

Jo licked her lips and nodded. “Then give me a few minutes.”

She was back quickly, a bag slung across her shoulder and he took it from her. The walk back to the cabin was silent, but not awkward. He took her hand in his, leading her down the path and walking at the pace she set. His mind kept returning to the last weeks they’d been in each other’s company. He wanted that with her again. Was it possible?

Sam wasn’t there at all when they arrived and he opened the top two drawers of a four drawer dresser. “I emptied these for you.” Dragging over a chair, he set her bag on it so she wouldn’t have to bend to put her clothes away.

“You emptied drawers for me?”

“I did. Yeah.”

“Thanks.”

Dean retreated to sit on the bed and watch as she began to sort clothes into the drawers. She didn’t have any more clothes than she’d had back at Bobby’s. Maybe a few maternity shirts and pants added. “So, what do you think,” he asked, watching her as she worked. From behind, no one would guess she was pregnant. She’d remained slim, all of the pregnancy gain out to her front. “Was it when the condom broke or when --”

“When you waited a little too long to reach for one?” She glanced over her shoulder at him and shrugged. “Don’t really think it matters. They happened the same night. I’m pretty sure it’s ground zero since you’d been gone three weeks before. Timing is perfect.”

They’d been reckless that night. He remembered that about it. Reckless in knowing that they were parting ways the next day and trying to get as much time together as possible. Dean supposed this outcome was what could be expected given their sort of luck. “Right.”

She finished looking the bedroom over and sat on the end of the bed a little ways down from him. “Dean, this is a lot for you to process. I’ve had months to get used to it and you haven’t. I can stay out with my people.”

“No.” He shifted position, facing her. “You’re carrying my kid, you stay with me.”

“Dean, I’m pregnant. Are you getting what that means?”

“Course I am.” She said it like he wasn’t understanding her, but he was. This was going to be hard, he knew it. Nothing in his life had been easy and this wasn’t an exception. Having this camp was going to help, though. They weren’t on the road all the time now. It wasn’t how their life was at present. He was here most of the time, taking care of the people here, going only so far from the camp on jobs they heard about. This camp could give them a chance and one they wouldn’t have had otherwise.

~~~~~~~~~~

Frankly, Jo was glad Dean had come to the clearing for her. It was nice that he came down and wanted her to go to his cabin to live. However, she had to question whether he’d given this action enough thought or if he was acting on sheer impulse alone.

“No, I mean are you getting what that means for you here.” She sighed. “Sweetheart, I’m due any time.”

“Very aware of that, Jo.”

“There’s no guarantee this baby will sleep through the night soon. I’ll be getting up every couple hours to breastfeed, which means you’ll be waking up, too. A crib would need to be in here to be safe. You won’t get rest. And what about Sam? The baby will wake him up, too.”

“Nothing wakes Sam up these days. The meds keep him half asleep most of the time. Hard price to pay for no hallucinations. He’s like a freakin’ zombie. Romero, not real, shuffling around here.”

“It’d be better if I had a cabin, maybe with mom. I could go --”

“No.” He shook his head.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re my wife.”

He was going to bring up Castiel’s proclamation whenever it was convenient for him, wasn’t he? “We’re not married. Castiel said it, but that doesn’t mean --”

“My wife,” he said through gritted teeth. “If you believe we’re not together, then why are you still wearing the rings?”

“Why are you?”

He didn’t answer and Jo understood that what she was seeing in his eyes was a desperate sort of hope. She was a lifeline for a man drowning in problems. He hadn’t removed the ring because he’d been clinging to the idea that she was alive and her appearance had given him something to hold on to that was right there with him. She glanced down at her stomach, then at her own hand. It was the same with her. Finding him had been her lifeline. She understood why he still wore the ring because it was the same reason she’d continued to wear hers. They were twins in this matter. “Okay. I’ll stay as long as you grasp that things will be different with the baby here. We won’t be able to go back to how we were. We’ll have the baby --”

“I know. I get it, Jo. I know you think I don’t, but I do.” He glanced at the door. “You feel like some exercise? I could show you some of the camp, let you stretch your legs. We’ll play catch-up. We need to.”

“Sure.” Exercise would be good and now that they were at the camp, it wouldn’t matter if the walking made her go into labor like Morgan had feared it would before.

She strolled along the fence with him.

“I’ll start with Bobby. You’re probably wondering where he is, right?”

“I was going to ask when we had a minute.” She’d been afraid to ask, to be honest, much like that fear she’d seen when Dean had asked about Ellen.

“He died a couple months after we all left. Castiel didn’t kill him, but his church hurt him pretty bad that day we left. Put him back in the wheelchair and you remember how much he loved that. Church went back a couple months later and finished the job about the time Sam and I were watching Castiel get a spanking by God. That’s what Jimmy thinks anyway. It’s how we got Jody with us. She was down in the panic room. He’d ordered her to go down and get safe while he took out as many as he could. She’d lost her job and I guess she was feeling a little lost anyway. He was teaching her how to hunt.”

She nodded and went directly to what she wanted to know. “Dean…. Why do you tolerate Castiel here?”

“Because it’s not him. I told you earlier. It’s not him. A part of it is, I guess. He peeks out on occasion. Mostly though, it’s Jimmy. Jimmy keeps control.” He squeezed his eyes shut a moment, then reopened them. “We forgot about Jimmy, Jo. Sam and I. We forgot. How could we forget there was a person trapped in there with him?”

“It was only Castiel you saw and talked with, right?”

“No. That’s the thing. Sam and I met Jimmy once. I ever tell you that? We met Jimmy and his family, too.” He stopped walking and leaned against the fence. “Sometimes I wonder about this divine judgment on Castiel. It’s cruel for Jimmy. He’s suffering because of it. I have trouble making sense of that sometimes. How is it justice if Jimmy is suffering?”

“Tell me about Jimmy.”

He shrugged. “What’s there to tell? Jimmy drinks. Not surprising, is it? I think we all do, except Sam and he’s always in la-la land. Jimmy is strange. He feels a lot of guilt for a guy who was sitting back watching, unable to do anything. Sleeps a lot. Sometimes smokes weed that he harvests in the woods. Occasionally, he’ll take a handful of pills from the infirmary and need his stomach pumped. We’ve got locks on the supplies now and he’s not allowed in there by himself.”

“He trying to overdose?”

“That’s my theory. He denies it. Insists they were accidents, but how can taking a handful of pills be an accident? It’s like he just doesn’t get the consequences. I don’t know. I wonder if it’s Cas, you know? Whispering to him like the Lucifer hallucination does to Sam, influencing him to do things bad for himself.”

Or perhaps Castiel himself still not understanding that actions had consequences that could hurt him? Jo didn’t say it and had nothing to support that idea save her strong feeling from earlier. She’d have to have a talk with Jimmy and see what came to light then.

“I don’t think I even really care.” He sighed. “Sam…he’s taking his meds and,” leaning his head back, he appeared to weigh something in his mind before continuing, “sometimes his powers are back. It’s sporadic and doesn’t last long, but I never thought I’d see him with those again.”

Powers? Jo vaguely remembered hearing something about Sam and powers yet couldn’t remember what. Dean mentioned it like he thought she knew all about them.

“He can pull those PD’s right out and burn them like he used to demons before killing Lilith fried it all out of him.”

She took a step closer to him.

“Though maybe they only went dormant. Must be the case since they’re back. First time he did that to a PD, it was like a flashback for me only this is all Sam. There’s no Ruby feeding him bullshit and blood and changing him. This is Sam and I don’t know what to think about that. He was pulled clean when Cas raised him, just like me, you…. He shouldn’t have the infection still in him that let Ruby get a hold on him. His powers, Jo. They’re back and if he doesn’t have that infection in him it means they really were his from birth. How do I deal with that along with everything else?” He shook his head.

Jo remained silent, letting him talk.

He leaned against the fence. “It surprised both of us when it happened, too. We were out, him and me, and a PD showed up. Sam moved like he’d seen it before it was even there. Hand raised and boom.” Dean gestured, hand open, then closing into a fist. “Pulled it right out before it could go all the way in and hurt the person. It made this sound like a jackal crying and burned. Left a smoking ashy spot on the sidewalk.” His laugh held no humor to it. “Sam stood there stunned, said it was instinct, that it felt different than when he did it before.”

“Different?” She leaned as well, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

“No sense of power in it. It was merely an ability, like reading or writing. Scared him pretty bad, too. Took several days before he’d say anything about it. I don’t know what to think. Is it something that’ll help us or something that’ll send Sam back down a bad path?” Reaching out, he took her hand in his and studied it, running the fingers of his other hand over it. “How do I deal with it?”

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly, “but I’ll help you if I can.”

He looked her over and released her hand. “You ready to go back?”

Jo nodded. He’d given her a lot to think about. “Yeah. I need to lie down for awhile.” They hadn’t gone very far from Dean and Sam’s cabin. If she hadn’t been pregnant, they would have walked over the entire camp talking, but he’d been considerate to her condition. Strange for a man who was claiming not to care about much anymore.

They started back.

After a few steps, Jo asked, “Morgan showed you the diaries, didn’t she? That’s why you came down to the clearing.”

“She did. She said I needed to understand a few things.”

Jo bit her lower lip. “I wanted to talk to you so badly, to hear your voice. I think your picture is about falling apart. The camera was the only way I had to tell you what I wanted you to know.”

“Has it been too hard for you, Jo?”

“I’ve had friends. Mom.”

“I’m sorry.”

She saw his attention turn to her stomach. “I’m not.”

“You’re not?” He sounded surprised by that.

“No. I’ll admit I was upset at first. Didn’t know what I was going to do. Mom made me sit down and think everything out. I made plans for if we found you right away and if we didn’t, which…we didn’t. And I thought if I never saw you again, I’d have our baby with me. Morgan and mom helped. They kept me talking about you and me, looking forward. So, I’m not sorry.” Reaching out, she took his hand in hers, stopping him. “You said we weren’t done. That night. You said that. Remember?”

“Yeah, but you might not still want me as I am now,” he cautioned.

“Do you still want me as I am?” She pointed a finger at her stomach. “Belly and all? Baby and all?”

“Yes.” Dean stepped close, hands moving to her waist. He slid them around to her back, caressing. “We aren’t done. I meant it.”

“Then I’m holding you to it.”

Inside, she laid down on the bed and quickly drifted into sleep.