fic: Burn So Bright (Sam/Dean, NC-17) Chapter 5A of ?

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Back to Chapter 4C

Sorry for the slight delay in posting, real life had other plans for me the last couple days. Back on track as of today, but unfortunately I will finish posting a day or so after that great season premiere. And fyi, honestly, I've fallen pretty hard for Jack, so will likely keep the story going longer than I'd originally planned.

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“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”

― Washington Irving

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“Uh, hey guys,” Jody said, stepping into the kitchen.

“What are you—how are you even here?” Dean asked, practically spluttering in his surprise. He was happy to see her of course, but instantly worried about why the hell she was showing up here of all places.

“The nephi-dude, whatever the heck he’s called, Jack showed up at my house and said you guys needed me. And then—bam, here I am. Are you guys okay?”

“And you just went with him?” Dean demanded. “Are the girls all right?” Dean’s stomach sank at the thought of something happening to Jody’s girls. He couldn’t take it if Jack had done something to them.

“The girls are fine, they didn’t even get a chance to see Jack. I went with him because—well, he didn’t seem like the kinda guy I could ignore, or that would take a no for an answer. What’s his deal? He seems new or something,” Jody said, sitting down at the kitchen table across from Sam.

“Yeah, he was literally born yesterday, or maybe the day before, I forget what day it even is,”

Dean said as he pulled another beer out of the fridge and used the fancy opener on the wall, catching himself smiling at the tink-tink of the bottle top falling into the container.

“Whoah, okay then, it all makes a little more sense. I thought he might have been a demon or even an angel, but I didn’t get a chance to ask,” Jody said, accepting the beer from Dean.

“Jack is somewhere in-between, he’s a nephilim, the result of the union of a human woman with Lucifer, who is a fallen archangel which is also pretty close to a demon on the scale of things,” Sam said.

“So where’s his mom then?” Jody asked.

“She’s…uh, dead,” Sam said.

“I see, so what is it that he thought you guys needed me for?” Jody asked.

“We have absolutely no idea. He’s a little new at the whole communicating with humans thing. But he’s wicked smart and very powerful as you just got to experience first-hand. What exactly did he say to you, do you remember?” Dean asked.

“Of course I do, I’m a cop, it’s part of the job. Problem is I remember what he said, but I couldn’t make heads or tails out of it. He said the saisch who are zizop, needed exentaser aziazor,” Jody said pronouncing each unfamiliar word very carefully. "What the hell kind of language is that anyway?”

“It’s Enochian, the language of the angels. He said Dean and I needed the love of a mother? He didn’t say that he needed one himself?” Sam asked.

“Well, I think he said you guys needed one, and he didn’t include himself. But you two have a mom already, where’s Mary?” Jody asked, looking from Sam to Dean during the awkward pause that ensued.

“She’s…uh, that’s pretty hard to explain,” Sam said, looking at Dean with eyes wide with worry.

Dean crossed his arms across his chest tightly and looked down at the table, lips pressed into a thin white line. He found he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud, saying the answer would make it all real instead of the surreal nightmare it really was.

“When Jack was born, the power or whatever it was ripped a hole between our world and another alternative one. She’s stuck in there,” Sam said.

“With Lucifer,” Dean mumbled into his chest, not wanting to talk about this or even think about it. It drove him crazy not to be able to do anything about their mom being stuck.

“What the hell?” Jody asked.

“It’s messed up, we already know. Oh and on the way out, Lucifer killed Cas,” Dean practically growled.

Jody reached out across the table and patted Dean’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, that must be…no I know how hard this kind of crap is. God, you guys have dealt with so much of this shit over the years. And Mary just got back here, I’m real sorry boys.”

They both nodded in unison, thanking her silently. Dean found himself too choked up with gratefulness to speak. He was so glad that they had Jody here at this moment, not that she was a replacement for mom or anything. But she did fill that role of someone who cared about them no matter what, a very rare thing in their lives.

“Jesse was telling me to remember that Jack can read our minds, but that he still isn’t good at figuring out the real meaning of things in human context. A little bit ago we were talking about how were missing Mom and worrying about her where she’s stuck. I’m guessing he was trying to fix things for us as well as he could, because he can’t bring Mom back to us, at least until we figure it out. So he brought us…the closest person in our minds,” Sam said, smiling with still grim eyes at Jody.

Jody smiled back at him and squeezed Dean’s shoulder and Sam’s hand. “Well, I’m here for you guys, of course I am.”

“Jody, we should tell you, in the other place, we met that world’s Bobby,” Dean said, remembering how his heart had been so overjoyed that he got to hear that gruff voice again.

Jody’s eyes flashed with pain and she couldn’t look at either of them for a long moment, staring down into the depths of her beer. “And what was he like there?”

“He was a badass angel hunter of course. That world was fucked-up,” Dean said with a grin at the image of Bobby in desert camo and his angel killing gun. “But Bobby was kicking it in the ass.”

“Dean—language!” Jody said with a wink. “Hey, c’mon if I’m temporarily filling in for your mom I pretty much had to.”

They heard the front door open and two sets of footsteps approached.

“Jesse, come on in here and meet our friend, Jody Mills,” Sam said, leaning back in his chair so he see down the hallway.

Jesse entered the kitchen alone and stood next to Sam. “Hey, Jody, it’s nice to meet you. You’re a sheriff right?” He quickly shook Jody’s hand over the table.

“Yes, that’s right, I am. Why are you asking?” Jody asked.

“Jack, he uh, doesn’t know about our laws and crimes, or schedules that people who work have to keep. And I just wanted to tell you, he wants to learn, pretty much everything, like all at once. And he’s sorry if you get in trouble for missing work now that he knows that’s a thing.”

“Well, thanks for explaining that, Jesse. And Jack’s in luck, this was my scheduled three-day weekend, so no problem there. He gave me time to leave a note, so my girls won’t go searching for me.”

Jack lurked in the doorway, a curious look of hesitance on his face, his hands behind his back. Jesse motioned him forward and turned to speak to the brothers. “Jack wanted to know if he did a good thing for you, bringing Jody here. I told him I wasn’t sure.”

“Well, we’re always glad to get to see Jody. But, it would have been better to ask us first,” Sam said, trying to speak clearly.

“Is she not the mother-substitute that I saw in your minds?” Jack asked, eyes narrowing as he examined each brother closely, almost as if he was checking their minds again.

“She is, you’re right about that, Jack. And you’re also right that we’re sad that our mother is gone in the other world,” Dean said.

“My own mother is dead, not just gone. I saw in your minds that you had a substitute in this world, in Jody. I thought I could, what is it called? Share, I could learn to share her—with you,” Jack said, looking closely at Jody as she sat frozen between the brothers at the table.

Jody looked a little worried, almost panicked really at Jack’s strange words.

“It’s okay, Jody, really,” Sam said in his calming voice.

“You use that voice so well, Sam,” Jack said, smiling that eerie smile that reminded Sam of his  worst memories of Lucifer in and out of the cage.

“It works on both man and beast,” Dean said proudly, trying to get Jack’s attention to pull away from Sam.

Jack’s eyes swiveled over to Dean and he squirmed under the close examination until Jack spoke, “Jody is not in any danger from me, I swear it.”

“Okay, Jack, that’s good to hear. I’m glad I got a free trip to visit the boys here, and meet you and Jesse,” Jody interrupted in her trying-to-put-on-a-happy-face voice.

Jack turned to look at her and slowly smiled. “I am happy that you are happy, Jody. Tell me about the girls you left the note for at your house.”

“Alex, she’s in her last year of high school, looking forward to graduation in the spring. She wants to do a biology degree in college, with an emphasis in blood studies. She came to me after a thing with vampires. And Claire is the daughter of the man who the Winchester’s angel friend, Castiel used as a vessel. He possessed Claire briefly to bargain with him. She’s training to be a hunter, which is—uh, a challenging thing to get used to as a mom.“

“So what’s your story, Jesse?” Jody asked in the subsequent lull in the conversation that left them all peeling at their bottle labels. “No one ever said where you fit in with this motley crew.”

“I’m kind of like Jack I guess. I’m half-human, but my father was a demon. I never knew my birth mother, but my adoptive parents were great people. I met the Winchesters back when I was eleven. And my life has pretty much never been the same since then.”

“Sorry about that, Jesse,” Sam said. “Seems like we’re always around when people are going through their worst day.”

“Worst day? Yeah, almost getting killed by an angel, being told I’m the freaking antichrist, seeing a demon almost kill my birth mother and then having to leave my sleeping parents without even an idea of why the hell I left. Worst is an understatement.”

“Why did they not offer you help?” Jack asked in the silence that followed Jesse’s outburst.

“We did, we were there waiting for him to come downstairs and go with us, we had a place in mind for him and a person who would have helped raise him. But he disappeared on us. Dean and I always wished it all had happened differently, you really didn’t deserve that, Jesse.”

Jesse seemed to swallow down his excess emotions and steady himself, he acknowledged Sam’s words with a nod.

“Was that Bobby by any chance that you were going to bring him to?” Jody asked.

“Yeah, we thought the old coot would have done right by Jesse. He did okay with us,” Dean said.

“He sure did,” Jody said. “He always bragged about you guys, just a like a dad would.”

Both brothers smiled at that but didn’t say anything. Dean felt the spot where he kept his Bobby memories warm up just a little bit more with Jody’s comment.

“So where did you go, when you left, Jesse?” Jody asked.

“The first place I went was Australia, it was on my mind since I’d just done a school report on it. I wanted to get far away, to keep my parents safe, to escape what was coming after me. I thought about one of the beaches I had a picture of really hard and just wished myself there. It was pretty wild at first, figuring out what I could do. The hardest thing was convincing grown-ups it was okay I was on my own.”

“You had an advantage in that you led a human life for eleven years,” Jack said.

“I hadn’t thought about it like that,” Dean said. “You’re doing pretty damn well, Jack.”

“I am doing well? I am doing well at what?” Jack asked.

“At learning all the human stuff, and keeping your power under control. It must be really hard to do both at the same time,” Sam said.

“Thank you, Sam. I am doing my best, I do not want to hurt any of you,” Jack said.

“That’s good to know,” Dean said.

“Jack, I’m curious what you’ve got behind your back?” Sam asked.

Jack took his hand out from behind his back and held out a string of fish of various sizes and types. “Surprise, Jesse and I tried fishing.”

“Guess I know what we’re having for dinner tonight,” Dean said.

“Know any good ways to fix up this much fish at once, Jody?” Sam asked.

“I’d say a good old fashioned fish-fry would be the way to go,” Jody said.

Dean rubbed his stomach in anticipation. “We haven’t had a real fish fry since we were out in South Carolina. Remember that place, Sam? It was in someone’s front yard, a trailer all set up for cooking. The fish was good, but it was all the stuff on the sides, ahhh those potato pancakes.”

“What do we need to make a fish-fry?” Jack asked.

“Instead of you manifesting it all here, how about we go out to the store for it? It’s part of the fun of making a big meal,” Sam said. “You want to come with us, Jody?”

Jody nodded and stood up, cracked her back and finished her beer.

Jack also nodded with a small non-creepy smile on his face. It was the most he’d smiled since they’d known him, Sam thought that was probably a good thing. “Is this another human lesson?”

“I guess so, yeah. You can see how to drive to town and shop in a store,” Sam said, finishing off his beer. He stood up and took his plate and bottle to the sink. “Thanks for the sandwich, Dean.”

Dean could tell Sam wanted to give him a kiss or hug or something, but Jody was there. And they weren’t sure if she knew about them, and they hadn’t been brave or stupid enough to bring it up with her. He was pleased when Sam settled for putting his hands on Dean’s shoulders and giving him a double pat.

Dean leaned back against Sam’s stomach briefly, knowing just that contact said thank you. They’d long had to make do with these kinds of subtle communications. He handed Sam the keys and looked at him upside down. He had to restrain himself not to pull him down and kiss him on those perfect lips.

“You’re not bringing the fish with us in the car, Jack. Pretty sure Dean wouldn’t ever get over that. Why don’t you stick them in the sink for now? While we’re gone, Dean and Jesse can prep them for frying,” Jody said.

Dean smiled at being given such a mom directive, and he internally thanked Jack again for bringing Jody to them at this tough time. Having her around was going to make it a little easier for Sam, and maybe himself too.

“You ever gutted a fish yourself, Jesse?” Dean asked as they left.

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To Chapter 5B