Sam hid a smile as he watched Jean trying to take a jumper from a row of hangers and make a dozen of them topple. He didn't went helping her: after trying a couple of times and only getting on her nerves more as result he had given up, and was sitting on a nearby chair.

He wouldn't have admitted it at gunpoint, but he was having fun. Going shopping felt like normalcy, and he hadn't gone shopping for years. Since Jess he thought, and his heart skipped a beat. He shook off the memories that had overwhelmed him, and forced himself to pay attention to Jean, who - swearing - had put in place the jumpers, but had also taken what she had spotted, and was now heading towards the dressing room with another armful of items.

Sam got up and took a look at the jumpers; she could have been too proud to accept help, but she knew nothing of clothes, or sizes, so it was better to show her something that did not make her seem like a misfit or a beggar, and hope she'd liked them too. They say dogs take their character after their owners, he thought, shaking his head, maybe it works like that for cars too. Definitely, Jean was as fat-headed as Dean. As if one weren't enough...

" Saaaaam."

Sam approached the dressing room in a couple of strides."Is everything okay?"

"Eeeehm, not exactly. Can you come in for a second?"

Sam pulled back the curtain and couldn't help but burst out laughing. God knows how, she had managed to get stuck in the jumper while trying it on, and now her arms were stuck over her head, with her hair tangled in all of that.

"Go ahead, laugh, Sammy, my arms are just going to sleep!"

"Sorry!" he replied, amused and not even remotely sorry. "Wait, let me do it."

It took him a couple of minutes, but in the end he managed to free her without having to resort to plan B, cuttin her hair (or plan C, amputating her arms. It would have been inconvenient, all that blood to clean up...). "Maybe you should let me help, there's nothing wrong in admitting you're literally born yesterday."

She picked up another jumper, but avoided answering.

Sam rolled his eyes, but he decided to handle her tactfully. "Okay, listen, you're clearly free to do what you want, but I thought we had a target. What's more important: your pride or our mission?"

The girl gave him a crooked smiled, and they exchanged a slightly evil look.

"Sorry, you're perfectly right: the mission comes first. The helm is yours, Sammy - well, the wheel."

Sam winked at her. This is going to be so much fun.

"This is Sam Winchester's voicemail. Leave a message."

"SAAAAAAAM! Where the hell are you and Jean, it's 3 in the afternoon! Didn't you have to simply buy something her size and come back? I rented the car, bought lunch, and came back at the motel. Show your sorry asses here soon, or I'll kick them all the way here."

Dean hung up and put the mobile on the nightstand. His arm reached under the bed to grab another can of beer. It's not like he didn't enjoy some time alone with beer and Sam's laptop, but he was beginning to worry. After all, that comic-con killer was still uncaught.

Another quarter of an hour passed before Dean heard laughters and a key turning in the lock. He leaped from lying to sitting up, ready to give those two a good roasting.

"Dammit Sam, I called you four times!"

"Five to tell the truth." He smiled, still standing on the doorstep.

"And would answering your goddamn phone wear you fingers out? Come on, get in, let's start-"

After his moose of a brother had stepped aside and he had given a good look at Jane words died in his throat. He gulped and grinned, his mood suddenly much better.

"Sammy, if this is what you take me in return you can stay out as much as you want."

"I told you that with the right clothes he would have been much more pleasant, Sam."

"I love when you're right."

"I don't even care that this is some kind of weird conspiracy between the two of you, for me it's enough to enjoy the view. Turn around, let me have a look... "

Jean spinned around, showing her new clothes. Following Sam's advice, she had bought a silk open-back tee, and some pants instead of a skirt - the official reason was that given their lifestyles they would have to run soon, but Sam knew that Jean was a newborn human and she surely didn't master the idea of sitting with her legs closed very well. He didn't want to pull her out of prison after an indecent exposure arrest, or to find themselves in the middle of a punch-up in a pub, or worse, to save her from Dean's clutches. They wanted to manipulate him enough to make him behave, not to raise Hell itself.

"Baby, you're a knockout! Come here- no." he said, his tone suddenly serious. "Sam, come here."

"Dean, I don't know what you're thinking about, but the answer is no."

"Sam, just come here. Look at her: do you see anything strange?"

"What-?" bewildered, Jean looked at them. Sam laid a hand on her shoulder, and Dean shifted her T-shirt a bit on the back.

"Boys... is everything alright?"

"Do you feel different than usual? Than you did yesterday, I mean."

"Well, now I don't have plastic soldiers in places they shouldn't be, but everything's the same apart from this. What's up?"

"The spot. The resin spot that wouldn't go away."

"What's up with the spot?" she asked.

"It widened." Dean replied, rubbing a thumb on it.

In that moment the resin glowed a blinding green, and Jean's eyes did the same. She suddenly lost consciousness. Sam was ready enough to grab the shoulder he had put an hand on, to follow through her falling, and then to bring her on his bed. He checked her pulse, her eyes (now back to normal) and her breathing. Dean was frozen to the spot with shock.

Sam didn't even turn back, but he had sensed what was happening. "Dean, one fainted person is enough for today. Sit down and breathe."

Dean sat down, eyes wide open. His Baby had passed out when he had touched her. Crap. When he finally regained the power of speech he rushed over Sam's bed.

"Whathappenedtoherwhatsupisshesick?"

"No, looks like there's nothing wrong. She just blacked out, her pulse and her breathing are regular. Now all we can do is to wait for her to wake up."

After saying this, he went picking up his laptop from Dean's nightstand and he put it on the table. Once opened, it let out loud obscene moans; Sam interrupted that din by closing a tab without even blinking - force of habit - and started typing frantically.

Dean still looked shaken, and he was staring at Jean as if he was trying to wake her up with his mindpower, but he didn't dare to touch her in the slightest.

He picked up all the cans of beer left, the weapons' duffel bag and his mp3 player, and he tried to keep busy. He took worried looks to Jean every two seconds during his guns' manteinance.

Nothing and nobody could harm his Baby. As soon as he'd discover what the hell was happening, whoever the jerk responsible for all of that was, he would have got hurt.

When Jean finally opened her eyes a couple of hours later Dean was already anxiously scrutinizinging her. Sam hurried through shortly after.

"Everything alright?" Sam asked, checking her eyes.

"How are you feeling?"

"Have you got any memory lapse, any strange instinct?"

"Do you need anything? Just say a word and I'll supply"

"Strange dreams? Extracorporeal experiences?"

Jean was astonished. "...Guys?! I'm fine. I don't know what's got into you now- Why am I on the bed?"

"You passed out" Sam answered. "The stain lights up, apparently. It reacted at Dean's touch. Wait, let me check..." making sure he didn't touch her to avoid knocking her out again, he slightly leant over and shifted the shirt enough to check if the spot had grown wider.

Dean glimpsed at Jean too, and then they exchanged identical worried scowls.

"Okay, we don't know what this is, or what happened to you, but we can't take risks. So: I'll go buy something for dinner, and you and Dean will test if you two can touch without you slumping around."

"What?! Sammy, no! There's no way I'm making her-"

"Dean, listen: we don't know what this may be, so we have to check. It's better here on a bed than in the middle of a crowd."

Dean didn't seem persuaded at all. "Hey. Don't worry, everything'll be fine." Jean said, reaching out and laying a hand on his arm. Dean's eyes widened in terror, but he immediately realized that nothing had happened and that Jane was fine. "Seen? Nothing happened." She turned smiling to his brother, who was already standing near the door.

"Sammy, go ahead. I'll take care of him, I know how to work on him."

Sam looked half-heartened and half-amused, and closed the door behind him. Jean turned to Dean with her best smile. "So, do you literally make women fall at you feet now?"

Dean finally responded with his usual cockiness "They always have, baby. It was about time you succumbed to my charm too."

Snorting, she punched his arm. Dean sulked.

Jean smiled. "I just executed Sam's orders! Seen? No fainting"

Sam came back after more or less an hour. Jean's smart clothes rested tousled on the only chair of the room, and Jean had returned to Dean's oversized tees, her hair tied up shoddily. At the moment she and Dean were sprawled one onto another while watching an episode of some Latin-American soap-opera.

Dean turned around, hopeful. "Pie?"

"Got it!"

Sam passed them the fast-food bags and landed on his bed. "I deduce everything's fine."

"Yeah, it's okay. Nothing happened, not even touching the stain."

"But Dean found out if he grops my boobs, punches get to his face."

"Sam said to try to touch you, didn't he? I just followed orders."

"I'm pretty sure groping and touching are two different things."

He looked at them with an innocent look, and hid a smile behind his burger. Sam shaked his head, but it was obvious he was amused.

"I thought about it a bit though. Her fainting is a step forward."

"Really, Sam? You call Jean's abrupt collapse a step forward? I almost had an heart attack."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Clearly not the fainting itself, but if you think about it it's fundamental for us. Now we know that that wasn't simple resin, and that whatever it was that brought her to life, it was related to it. The field has narrowed."

Impressed, Dean didn't reply, and Jean casted Sam an appreciative look. Nobody said anything else and they went on ravenously eating their dinner.

The night passed quickly without mentioning the incident again, between some comment on junk programs, several squabbles between Jean and Dean, and various kicks in Dean's direction by both Jean and Sam. It didn't help curbing him, but at least they felt a little satisfaction trying.

When they finally decided to go to sleep Jean was he last one to go to the bathroom. She came out a little hesitant. "Dean... I was wondering... for tonight-"

Dean gave her one of his stupid smiles and he interrupted her. "Wasn't yesterday night enough for you, do you want some more? I know, those are experiences one can't forget. God forbid I denied a woman to go to bed with me, my good name depends on it."

Few minutes later Jean and Dean were in bed together, and Dean was still massaging his aching shin. Jean catched Sam's amused look in the dim light, and she winked at him before closing her eyes.

She might haveonly been alive for a day, and she might be clumsy, but if there was something she could do it was making Dean Winchester toe the line.

For his part Dean glared at Sam, and he answered blowing him a kiss. Yeah, all he needed was those two to join forces. The girl gives steel kicks he thought, finally stopping to massage his shin, and putting an arm out the bed as usual, to keep the guns on hand in case he needed them.

Sam glanced at the two of them one last time. In all of that, Dean's other arm hadn't moved for a second from around Jane's shoulders, not even while rubbing his leg. He thought about Dean's terror from hours ago, and he recalled that time Bela had gotten the Impala towed away. The panic was identical, but at least this time it was justified. Some things never change.

For the first time in ages he fell asleep with a smile on his lips.

Hello! I'm still alive :) I finally managed to translate this chapter! [trumpet blares]

Don't think I don't care about it, most of the nights I fall asleep on he couch. No time, no energy, but I didn't forget this story and I think this could be a Christmas present for anyone who was interested in it. :)

Special thanks to Erin, who is my biggest supporter, and that is every day more awesome.

See you all asap! xoxo