Blackbird

Chapter 3: Same Kind of Crazy

All things considered, Jessica was taking everything surprisingly well. Dean had seen grown men fall to pieces when they realized that monsters were real but she was holding herself together.

"That wasn't Brady was it?" She asked once they had all piled into the Impala- Sam had chosen to sit with her in the back seat, clearly afraid that she could still bust into flames at any minute.

"No, it was a demon."
"A demon. Demons are real." She gave a small nod as she processed the information, and Dean was eternally grateful that she seemed to have skipped straight over the 'but this can't really be happening' phase and had just accepted the evidence in front of her almost immediately. "What else is real?"
Dean shrugged, pulling onto the highway. "Pretty much everything. Werewolves, Shapeshifters, Ghosts- all sorts of things that go bump in the night. We- my dad and I- we hunt them. Sam used to too, but he quit to go to college."

"Why?"

"Hey, you're going to have to ask Sam that question, not me."
"No, why would you hunt monsters? Isn't it dangerous?"

"Eh, sometimes." Dean shrugged, turning his attention back to the road. "But someone's got to do it."

Jessica fell silent after that so Dean put an ACDC cassette tape into the player and cranked up the volume. He could hear Sam whispering something to Jessica, probably trying to explain his screwed up childhood and Dean made a point of ignoring them. He drove for four hours before pulling into a motel outside of Carson City.

"All right. We all need to get some rest, there's going to be a long day of driving tomorrow."
"Where are we going?" Sam asked, and Dean realizes that it's probably strange that he hasn't asked that sooner.

"Pontiac, Illinois."
"Illinois? That's at least a three day drive- can't Dad just meet us halfway or something?"

Dean winced. Of course Sam would assume that they were going to meet with Dad. "About that…"

"What?"
"Dad's not in Illinois."

"Dean, we need Dad's help on this one! That demon almost killed Jess!"

"I know! And I've tried to get ahold of Dad, believe me, but he's not answering his phone!"

Sams eyes immediately clouded with worry. Dean could see the gears turning in his brothers head and he didn't like where they were headed.

"Dean, do you think… Dad might be…"
"Finish that sentence and I will kick your ass into next week, you hear me Sammy? Dad's fine, he's just busy. You know how he is. He probably hasn't even heard my messages yet."

"But…"
"But nothing, Sam. Right now, we need to focus on finding out what's going on."

"All right, then why are we going to Illinois?"

"I tracked phone guy's number there. And right now, figuring out how he knew what he knew is the best lead that we've got. So let's get some rest and start heading that way tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay." Sam nodded quietly, eyes still full of sympathy. Dean had forgotten how annoying that could be.

Despite everything, Dean found that over the next couple of days the three of them had fallen into a comfortable sort of pattern. Sam continued to insist on sitting in the back with Jessica despite the fact that he clearly needed the extra leg space. Jessica didn't complain about the long hours spent on the road or the seedy motels but instead had begun picking Sam and Dean's brains for information about monsters and how to kill them. Sam kept trying to tell her that there was really no need for her to get involved, that she would be perfectly safe once they figured out what was going on, but she never let the subject drop.

"This is part of your world, Sam. And like it or not, I'm a part of it now, so if I want to be able to protect myself then I need to know what's out there." And just like that the conversation had been over. Dean had to admit, he really admired the girl for that. And the longer he spent with her, the more that it became obvious that she was good for Sam. He was happier with her around, more relaxed.

Dean was happy for him, he really was.

But every once in a while, during the long hours driving, he found himself glancing at the empty passenger seat next to him and felt a twinge of something almost like jealously. He couldn't tell whether he was jealous of Jessica for having Sam or of Sam for have found someone that he could actually settle down with. He pushed it down, focused on the road and turned the music up too loud, smiling just slightly to himself when Sam started complaining.

They made it to Pontiac on Monday morning, and Dean parked the Impala across from a neatly manicured suburban lawn.

"You sure this is the right place? Doesn't exactly have the haunted house feel." Jessica said, peering out the window.

"It is a little Stepford though, don't you think?" Dean shot back, grinning.

Sam rolled his eyes. "So what's our cover?"
"We don't have one. The dude already knows who we are, remember?"
"So what, we're going to just go up to the guy and say 'hey, we're the ones that the invisible voice told you about, can we come in for tea?' Yeah, I can see that going over well."
"Stay positive." Dean said, ringing the doorbell. An exhausted looking man in a rumpled suit opened the door.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I'm Dean Winchester, this is my brother Sam and his girlfriend Jessica. We spoke on the phone earlier."

The man stared blankly at Dean, blinking his blue eyes a few times before shaking his head. "I need to up the dosage on my medication…" he muttered before shutting the door in Deans face.

"Hey!" Dean shouted, banging on the door. "We need to talk to you!"

"You're not real. I'm having a nervous breakdown and you're a hallucination." The mans voice shouted through the closed door.

"I assure you that I am very real. Now open this door before I kick it in!"
"Dean!" Sam shouted, giving him a look that quite clearly said 'you are a Neanderthal and I can't believe that I am related to you' before turning to the door and making one of his patented 'sympathetic Sam' expressions. "Look, I'm sure that this is confusing for you. And I get that you're scared, I really do. But we really need your help."

There was no response. Sam turned to Dean. "What's his name?"
"Huh?"
"His name. What is it?"
Dean opened his mouth to answer and realized that he honestly didn't know.

Sam narrowed his eyes. "Seriously?"
"Look, it never came up, all right? The dude just said 'oh, there's a mysterious voice talking to me and Sam's in danger', I might have skipped the formal introduction stage."

Sam shot him a particularly powerful bitchface.

"Let me try." Jessica said suddenly, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'boys' under her breath.

"Excuse me, sir? My name is Jessica Moore. I know how crazy all of this sounds, but all of this is real. I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself, but demons really did attack Sam- I can only imagine what would have happened if you hadn't warned Dean when you did. The truth of the matter is, the three of us are just as scared and confused as you are, but if you let us in, we can all try and figure this out together, all right?"

The door opened a crack, and the man peered out with weary eyes. "I just want my life to go back to normal." He said in a small voice.

"I know." Jessica smiled sympathetically. "We're here to help."

The man opened the door.

Dean glanced at Sam. "What do you know, the girls a natural." He muttered, ignoring Sam's annoyed glare.

The man, who had introduced himself as Jimmy, poured all of them coffee.

"It first started a week or so ago." He said, sounding exhausted. "I was at work the first time it happened. All the lights in the office, they all suddenly exploded and I just collapsed. My coworkers thought that I was having a seizure." Jimmy gave a tired laugh. "And then it just didn't stop. It kept telling me 'Sam Winchester is in danger, you must call Dean Winchester and warn him'. Over and over again- it didn't stop until I did what it said. Once I did, the voice was just gone. My wife, she-" The man paused, a painful hitch in his voice. "She took our daughter to her mothers. Just for a little while, she said, just until I get help…"

"Don't worry." Sam said, sympathetically. "Whatever this thing is, we're going to figure it out. Dean and I- our family deals with stuff like this all the time, and we're going to take care of it."
Dean felt a slight smile appear on his face at that. 'Our family', Sam had said- despite the long separation, despite the seemingly never ending shouting match between Sam and their father, Sam still considered himself part of the family.

"Tell us more about the voice. Did it say anything else?" Dean asked, getting back to the matter at hand.

"There was one other thing- but I don't think you guys are going to like it."
Jessica raised her eyebrows as if to say 'well crap'.

"We're listening."

"I was… trying to ignore it, and there was a moment when it got… I don't know, emotional, almost. It said that if I didn't call you, there would be consequences- terrible consequences."
"It threatened you?"
"No, it was more like… a really urgent warning. That the demons had plans that could not be allowed to succeed or something. And I don't know why, but they all seem to center around you."

Dean and Sam exchanged nervous glances. Jimmy had been right- they didn't like it at all.

"I think I've got a theory." Sam said as soon as the motel door shut behind him.

"Good, because I have no idea what the hell is going on." Dean said, glancing back at his brother. Sam suddenly avoided his gaze and stared at the floor as the motel filled with expectant silence.

"Care to share with the rest of the class, Sam?"

"So say that there's some kind of… supernatural war going on- demons versus… whatever it was that was talking to Jimmy. I mean, we know that the demons were after me- but it wasn't like they just wanted to kill me or anything- that demon had been possessing Brady for a year, and he wasn't doing any of that random chaos and destruction that demons are usually responsible. I think it's safe to say that there was some kind of plan behind it all."

"What are you getting at?"
"I've been having these nightmares, Dean. At least I thought they were nightmares at first, but now I think they might have been more like visions. In the most recent one, Jessica was burning on the ceiling, just like mom. I mean, it's obvious that that's what Brady was trying to…" Sam's voice trailed off, and Jessica placed a supportive hand on his shoulder.

"So what, you're some kind of psychic?"
"All I know is that whatever the demons plans are, I'm connected to them somehow. And maybe Jimmy is… I don't know, connected to something else in the same way. Something that doesn't want the demons plans to succeed."

Dean had to admit, it made a weird sort of sense. That didn't mean he had to like it. "So what? We're all just pawns in some sort of supernatural death match?"

"It's the only explanation that makes sense, Dean."

Dean cursed because damn it, Sam had a point.

"So basically, we now have not just one but two overpowered supernatural forces trying to screw around with our lives. That's just lovely."
"Hey, at least one of them seems to be on our side."
"Sam, hate to break it to you, but monsters are never on our side! If it helped us it just means that it needs us for something, and I can guarantee that whatever that something is, it's not good."

"You don't know that!" Sam protested.

"Yes I do!"
"Boys!" Jessica shouted, ending the argument. "Can we maybe discuss what we're going to do now?"

Sam and Dean both looked at her. Dean had almost forgotten that she was still there. "Well, first things first, we're going to need to get you somewhere safe."
Jessica raised an eyebrow, as if in challenge.

Sam immediately stepped in between them. "Look, Jessica, he's right. Whatever's going on, it's way to dangerous."
"I know that it's dangerous. But you're crazy if you think that I'm going to let you do it alone."
Dean grimaced. "Look, the show of support is nice, it really is, but it's looking like we're going to be going after some pretty big fish here. There isn't really any room for amateurs."

Jessica crossed her arms, narrowed her eyes, and started reciting the exorcism chant from memory.
"What the- when did you learn that?"

"During the car ride." She said, smiling slightly. "So yeah, maybe I don't have any experience with this sort of stuff, but everybody has to start somewhere, right? And I'm a really fast learner."
Sam winced. "Are you sure? This life- it's not exactly easy."
Dean looked up. Holy crap, the dude was actually considering it. "Seriously, Sam?"

Jessica nodded. "Sam, I love you. And if this is your life then I want to be a part of it, whatever that takes."

Sam nodded mutely.

Looks like she's going to actually be sticking around…