Sorry that I haven't posted anything in ages. There is no excuses for that...

This is the first birthday Dean celebrates back at Harvelle's since his injury.

A hand was placed at his shoulder as Dean leaned at the bar, ordering a beer.

"How you doin'?" Dean starteled and was pleased when he saw Joey.

"Dude, you watch FRIENDS waaay too often!" Dean laughed a bit, "I'm fine, leg's getting a bit better and I'm soon completely off my meds!"

The beer came as ordered, and Joey just stared at it, "Soon off your meds, huh?" there was a chill in his tone.

"Yeah!" Dean smiled, then suddenly caught the concern in Joey's eyes, "Relax Joey, I didn't take any today! Drugs and booze ain't to be mixed, I know that much!" Dean then said with a grin.

"Good" Joey nodded "find a seat?"

"Sounds like a plan…" Dean flashed a grin and nodded.

"I'll carry this for you…" Joey said and took hold of Dean's beer, before they headed towards the couches in the back of the tavern. He didn't know that Ellen would have carried it over a few seconds later anyway…

"Thanks, man…" Dean smiled in return, still a little uncomfortable about all the attention he got due to his injury.

SPN

They sat there for a long while, Joey drinking beer and Dean allowing himself to sip of his own beer every now and then. Joey's beer was surely disappearing way faster than Dean's.

But then again, Dean was out of practice… He had barely tasted any kind of alcohol the last year and a half… He was a bit embarrassed when he had to admit to himself that he could feel that just half a beer actually had an effect on him now. He knew one thing for sure, he was going to take it extremely easy tonight.

Another couple of minutes passed as Joey talked about work down at the garage. Dean felt envious, but he knew he couldn't have managed any kind of physical labor. His leg made it impossible to do many things, and it always started aching if he stood for any more than about fifteen minutes.

Joey asked Dean about the rehabilitation of the leg was going and whether Dean was enjoying college. Yup, since there were no way, in hell, that Dean would be able to work as a mechanic, hunter or even in a counter at a grocery shop. Dean had started taking a degree in mechanical engineering…

"Yeah, well… Considering it was a choice that almost was taken for me, it's not all bad…" Dean stated after taking a careful sip of his beer again. "I mean, it could probably be a lot worse, what if mechanics weren't invented…"

"You would have a problem then." Joey smiled back at Dean, his best friend ever since kindergarden.
"Hey, you remember when we first decided to become mechanics?" Joey suddenly applied, a half-wild look on his face.

"The time we stole uncle Bobby's two Yamaha's and we rode them till they died, since nobody had changed oil in those old things for decades or something…" Dean remembered.

"Yeah, and when Bobby found out we both expected the scolding of our lives…" Joey shot in.

"…but instead he taught us to repair them!" Dean finished.

Joey just nodded...

"You boys talk about good old times I understand!" a female voice in front of them said. A voice that had been vacant from both their lives for too long now. A voice they had grown up with, a voice that was tied together with some of the most memorable moments of both Joey and Dean's lives. A voice that belonged to the one and only girl that probably wouldn't have any problem handing both their asses to them. It belonged to Jo.

"Hey!" both the boys cheered in unison.

She was just as sexy as Dean remembered, even though it was almost two years since they last saw each other… Dean felt his heart pump a little more than usual, he felt like he was fourteen years old again, like the first time he'd really fallen in love. And it was the same girl back then.

Jo had always been their girl. She had always been there with them… She was the one who had lived most of Dean and Joey's firsts with them. Their first snowball fight (she had been on Dean's team, against Joey and Kimberly), their first camping trip, first motorcycle crash, first trip to the hospital without parents, Jo and Dean shared their first kiss(amongst other relationship firsts…) they shared many firsts… Both good and bad ones, but all memorable!

All three of them went silent for a few seconds as they all thought back to their mutual history.

Jo was the first to speak again.

"What have happened to your leg?" She asked almost in shock as she suddenly saw the black immobilizing brace fixed around Dean's leg. Well, Ellen was at least not a gossip, that was for sure… But Dean was a bit surprised that she hadn't told her daughter this!

"Errr… Well, you see…" Dean started off, trying to make her understand that it was a hunting trip that had ended rather badly. After years of knowing each other they had learned how to talk around Joey. Jo was a real hunter, in contrast to Joey who didn't know anything about the things that go bump in the night. Dean thought back, what was it he had told Joey? Right! MOTORCYCLE!

"I landed completely wrong after this one jump, and really contorted my knee more than should be humanly possible…" Dean explained almost theatrically.

"Poor thing!" she exclaimed, "How long have you been walking with that on your leg?"

"Well actually I haven't been walking either" Dean said as he gestured to the crutches placed neatly in the corner between the who couches.

Jo gasped as she understood that it was more serious than she first had thought… Dean wasn't the kind to jump around with crutches unless it was really needed.

"How long?" She then demanded, her voice stern.

"July 20." He just said

"Half a year! And this is the first I hear of it!" She half shouted in disbelief.

"One and a half year!" Joey corrected

"WHAT!"

Dean saw how upset it made his best girl, he hated himself for being the cause of it. He should have called, he should, but he didn't want to fright her.

"I'm so, so sorry I haven't told you earlier!" Dean confessed to her

"Why haven't you!?" She asked in disbelief, "We have texted and called each other many times over the past year! Why didn't you bring this up?"

"I don't know, I feel like a JERK for not telling you, but I didn't want to upset you!" his words filled with sincerity.

"Don't pull that crap again! OK?" Jo said, her face in a thoughtful expression.

"I will never do that again! I promise!" Dean half pleaded. "Can you forgive me?"

Jo arranged her face to look like she had to think that over, before she blurted out "Only if you buy me the next beer, AAAAND I get to sit with you two!"

"SURE, but I think you might have to order it and bring it over here yourself…" Dean smirked, "here's the money!"

SPN

As Jo made her way back to their seats, she saw Dean smiling towards her and patting the seat next to him. Giving her the invitation to sit by him. That was all she needed.

When she sat down Dean gave her a quick and cute peck on her cheek. That little subtle gesture made everything all right again she decided as she blushed with emotions.

What do you think about this chapter? Any suggestions about things you want me to put Dean through?

As always I'm glad for any review that might come.