Carry On

After the movie had ended Dean had nodded off too, and Sam wasn’t far behind. He was head-bobbing in a severe way, but something kept telling him he should be awake. He set his laptop down on the coffee table next to Jenna’s, and had hardly closed his eyes when the lights flickered. That was all it took for Sam to be totally and one hundred percent awake, and he shook Dean awake too.

“Holy shit… We don’t even have the windows and doors salted here… what the hell were we thinking?” he worried, gently settling Jenna down on the pullout, opting to let her continue sleeping.
“Dean?” he turned at Sam’s voice, and saw the figure standing just outside of the house. He grabbed his pistol, double-checking it was loaded before moving to go outside.

“Huh? What’s going on?” he heard Jenna quietly ask, and cursed when she sat up and began to actually wake up.

“Jenna, stay there and keep quiet, okay?” he called, and saw her freeze, those big brown eyes full of fear.

“It’s here… isn’t it?” she whispered, and he nodded before opening the door. The front lawn was empty, the figure that had been there moments ago having disappeared. He came back to the living room and told Sam they should check the house, holding out his hand to Jenna so she would come with him.

“Stay close – don’t get out of arm’s reach, got it?” he told her. She nodded, and followed so close he could nearly feel her breath on the back of his neck. The house was clear, there was nothing there, but when the three of them returned to the living room Jenna noticed something different.

“That… one of Jill’s journals is gone. The newest one,” she said, sifting through the box.

“You’re sure?” Sam asked, and she nodded.

“Yeah. I got it for her as her graduation present, it was sitting right there,” Jenna confirmed, and Dean helped her look for it before determining it was in fact missing.

“How much you wanna bet there’s something in there that we need?” Dean asked, and Sam nodded.

“I’ll bet you’re right. We better call it a night and get going in good time tomorrow,” Sam decided, and they put all of the journals in the box before going to the same sleeping arrangements as last night. Without hesitation Jenna crawled in and curled up beside Dean, and he could feel her shaking even still.

“You guys didn’t see it or anything?” she asked, her voice quiet and timid.

“I saw something outside, but when I opened the door it was gone. You’ll be okay Jenna, we won’t let anything happen to you. I promise,” he insisted, and she rolled over, turning to him and curling up to his side. He wrapped his arm around her and felt her relax the tiniest bit.

“I just can’t figure out what it would be… you know, in her journal that it would steal it,” she admitted a few minutes later, and Dean stared up at the ceiling, wondering the exact same thing.

***

The next day proved fruitless as far as their research was going. Considering they still weren’t sure what they were researching, Dean figured they were doing a damn good job; Jenna was safe, and she was prepared, but they had to get rid of this thing. It had showed up again that night, this time when Jenna was awake, and Dean knew it would continue putting in appearances. Jenna had woken up looking like death warmed over, and he knew she would only get worse until they put a stop to this.

“I’m going to need some groceries,” she sighed, and Dean immediately offered to take her down to the grocery store. Sam told them he’d stay back and keep digging, but as soon as they’d left in Jenna’s car he took the Impala and headed back down to the town office, this time looking for Jenna’s files.

He beat them back to her house, but not by much. He wasn’t sure he had anything to go on, and so he didn’t want to bring it to Jenna or Dean’s attention. Jenna would get even more scared, and Dean would get defensive, because as much as he’d deny it he cared about her. So Sam was going to wait until he could go through the files and then find out what he was going to do.

“Here, let me get those,” he took the bags from Jenna’s hands as she came in the door and carried them into the kitchen for her. Dean came in after with another couple of bags and Jenna immediately began putting things away, insisting that she could manage without their help. So Dean and Sam retreated to the living room, and as Dean went for another journal Sam pulled out Jenna’s file to read through it.

The rest of their afternoon was spent fairly peacefully; they took a few breaks from reading through journals with some television and a short walk, before Jenna decided to start making something for supper. Dean moved to get up and help, but Sam put his hand on his brother’s shoulder.

“I need to talk to you for a second,” he whispered. Dean’s brow furrowed as he sat back down.
“How come I get the feeling you’re gonna drop a bomb or something?”

“Because I kind of am, I guess. You know what Jenna said about that fire when she was little? Did she say how old she was when it happened?” he asked, and Dean racked his brain, until he remembered her mentioning something about it when they’d been out for a walk.

“About three and a half, something like that. What’s this got to do with anything? You don’t think she’s behind this do you?” he hissed. Sam shook his head, having expected this reaction from his older brother.

“No, I don’t, but I think I know something else. We’ve went through how many of these journals?” he asked, and Dean shrugged.

“No clue. Half, maybe?”

“And how many times has Jenna just happened to get there in the nick of time?”

“A lot. So what’s your point? I saved your ass a lot when we were kids,” Dean objected, and Sam sighed.

“Dean, Jenna’s adopted too. Her and Jill really were sisters, and if looking between her and Jasmine is any indication Jasmine’s her twin. There were three girls in that fire; Jill was a baby and two twin sisters. They get adopted and split up, but somehow without knowing Jenna still feels like she has to look out for her… Dean I think she’s a Daemone,” he explained, and Dean’s eyes widened.

“There’s no way in hell she’s a demon Sam,”

“No, not a demon; Daemone. Like the Greek kind… they’re basically like a guardian angel. I think maybe she’s Jill’s guardian angel,” he whispered, trying to keep Dean quiet so Jenna wouldn’t overhear them talking about her. Dean’s eyes widened as he tried to take in this new information.

“Shit… that’d make sense. The uncanny sense about what was going to happen, feeling like Jill’s her responsibility… But it still doesn’t explain what happened to Jill.”

“I know, I’m working on that part. You said something the other day about Jasmine getting them into trouble and Jenna getting them out, right?” he asked, and Dean nodded.

“Yeah, that’s just kind of what I got the sense of,”

“Well, what if it’s like the Kiraman Katibin, you know?” Dean stared at him, and Sam rolled his eyes, turning his laptop toward Dean so he could check out some of the articles he’d found. “The angel and devil on your shoulder thing? One is looking out for Jill and trying to keep her on the right path, the other leading her astray kind of deal? It’s mentioned a lot in Islamic and Muslim tradition and faith, maybe that explains it?”

“So you’re saying Jasmine would be the other one? But why would that make Jill a target? That doesn’t fit,” Dean’s eyes scanned over the webpage, and he snapped it closed when they heard Jenna’s footsteps coming toward the living room.

“Supper’s ready… did you guys find anything?” she asked, her eyes bright, and Sam wished he could say something but he knew that she couldn’t know. Not until they were sure.

“Not really, we thought we had a lead but it kind of just died out,” he told her instead, and they both felt bad as they saw her shoulders droop and her smile fade.

“Oh, okay. Well, you may as well come and eat,” she told them, and they followed along behind her. Dinner was quiet, and the brothers offered to do the dishes for Jenna, because she’d been more than neglecting her coursework since Jill’s murder.

She curled up on the floor with the jean blanket that her mother had made for her and cracked open a couple of books. Sam and Dean joined her in the living room not long after that, Sam getting quiet and continuing to research on his laptop while Dean lounged in the armchair and appeared to be asleep. Jenna could only stand about two hours of her History homework before she called that quits, and then finished up her English Lit. essay before deciding she was tired enough to go to sleep.

“I’ll just head upstairs,” Sam offered, and they said a quick goodnight as he grabbed his laptop and notebook and did so. Jenna quickly changed in the bathroom before turning out the kitchen light and after a moment of internal debate the living room light. Dean would wake up and crawl onto the pull out couch; she didn’t want to wake him up, but it did feel weird sleeping on the pull out without him there beside her.

She heard shifting and moving, and didn’t bother to open her eyes, sure that it was Dean, but then the sound stopped, and it seemed like everything had frozen, somehow. She began to feel nervous and had a bad feeling, and so cracked open one eye. A pair of feet that were definitely not Dean’s were just feet from her, and in a split second she let out a scream and all but flung herself backward toward the empty side of the bed and where Dean’s handgun was sitting on the table.