Carry On

Dean wanted to protect her, and he knew it went beyond just a feeling of responsibility. She meant a lot to him already, from the homey way she insisted on cooking meals for them, to the way that she was so kind yet had no qualms about shooting a snarky comeback when he teased her. It was in the way that she was visibly concerned about everybody else’s safety, the way he connected with her about protecting her baby sister and him protecting Sam.

Basically she was everything he’d never had, and now he was afraid. Afraid that by even allowing himself to believe that he could find all of that in her he’d somehow lose her. An image of Lisa and Ben haunted him then as he shut off the Impala and walked back inside the house.

“So, what’s the plan Sam?” he asked as he walked in the room.

“Well… I think we go and talk to Jenna’s parents. I know she doesn’t want them brought into it, but they’ll be our best bet for finding out about the fire and adoption,” he explained. Dean was sitting in front of the TV, and suddenly the newsflash across the bottom of the screen caught his attention.

“Hold up Sammy – listen to this,” he said, and Sam did so. The young reporter on screen began talking about a second mysterious murder in Ellensburg; no sign of forced entry, no sign of struggle… absolutely no evidence whatsoever of any perpetrator. The short segment concluded with the speculation that the murderer in this case was also responsible for Jill Denning’s death.

“Well, I think we need to go there first,” Dean turned to his little brother, who mutely nodded. They quickly got ready and headed across town to the small house marked off with police tape.

After a fairly convincing spiel about being FBI and interested in the fact that the murders seemed so similar they crossed the police tape and began taking a look inside. Apparently yesterday evening the body had been found, and the police investigating had no leads whatsoever on a motive. They also had no evidence to start looking for the perpetrator, exactly the same as with Jill’s murder.

“Dean,” he turned at the sound of his name, and saw Sam standing near the doorway, yellow dust on his fingertips. He grimaced, before noticing that the floor had quite a bit of sulfur near the doorway, and it was on the bottom of the screen door as well.

“Shit,” he cursed, and after a quick look through the house found more sulfur on the windowsill in the man’s bedroom, where his body had been found. There was still blood on the floor and all over the carpet beside the bed, and Sam made a face as he tried to avoid it. They quickly went back downstairs, and thanked the officers for their co-operation as they exited the house.

“Well, definitely the same thing that killed Jill,” Dean concluded as they got into the Impala and headed back to Jenna’s home. Sam nodded, brooding silently in the passenger seat. It wasn’t until they’d sat back down in the living room in their usual clothes that it all made sense to him.

“Dean, did you realize who that man was?” Sam suddenly asked, and Dean shook his head. Sam started shuffling through papers and files that he had spread out by the chair he’d been sitting in while Dean snorted.

“No – do I look like I’m from around here? How the hell would I know who the poor bastard was?”

“Jasmine’s father. Adopted father,” Sam quietly enlightened him. Dean nodded then, and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well shit… looks like this demon wants to get rid of anybody close to her, doesn’t it?” Sam nodded, and ran his hands through his hair. They sat quietly for a few minutes, not really sure what to do about the whole situation. They still had no real motive for this demon to have killed Jill or be after Jenna, and now this man’s death really didn’t add up for a pattern of any kind.

“Well, I still think we should go to Jenna’s parents. That’s probably still our best bet for finding any kind of motive,” Sam sighed. Dean nodded, and they headed out. It took about ten minutes for them to get there, as Dean took a wrong corner, cursing the layout of the small town, and then Sam’s ability to read a map. He was on edge, and he knew it was because he wasn’t sure that Jenna was safe so far away at the university. All it would take was moments for something to happen to her, and he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if she got hurt or killed after he promised that she would be all right.

They walked up to the front door and Dean knocked loudly. It didn’t take long for the door to open, and a small woman in her early sixties answered.

“Yes?”

“Hi, Mrs. Munn?” Sam asked. She nodded, looking between them.

“I’m Dean, this is Sam. Federal Marshall’s – we just need to ask a few questions about your daughter,” Dean continued, leaving Sam surprised about his introduction. He’d thought that they’d come here as friends of Jenna.

“O-oh… why’s that? Is she all right?” she asked, worry in her voice as she let them into her home. It was small and quaint; homey. He could see why Jenna was happy growing up here.
“Yes, she’s all right,” Sam quickly replied. “We’re just worried that she could be in danger – there’s still no definite reason for Jill’s death, so we’ve been trying to find any connections with their past so that we can try and find a motive.”

“And keep Jenna safe,” Dean added, trying to help ease her concern for her daughter. She nodded and ushered them into her living room, offering them tea and bringing out a tray of baked goods. Dean helped himself to a cookie while Sam began asking questions.

“So, we understand Jenna grew up here… anything really stick out about her childhood?” Sam asked, and Mrs. Munn shrugged.

“Well, Jenna isn’t my biological daughter. I don’t know if this is relevant…” Dean gave her an encouraging nod, his mouth full of food. “But we adopted her when she was three. Her parents died in a terrible house fire – the doctor’s still don’t know how the girls managed to get out alive. Jenna was terribly burned, and the fire department said she carried Jill out of the fire. At three years old she was already looking after her…” she shook her head, gently wiping a tear from her cheek.

“So Jill was actually her sister?” Sam asked, and she nodded.

“Yes… Jasmine and Jenna are actually twins. We’d babysat Jenna a lot as an infant – Jasmine had been sick quite a bit so with her parents trying to juggle her sister and the baby she spent a lot of time here. We wanted to take in all three of them, but we knew there was no way we’d be able to support them. They had no other family, and we found out who the other couples were who’d applied for adoption. We wanted to make sure they’d stay in town so that the girls could still be together,” she explained. Sam nodded, taking notes as she spoke.

“So is Jenna aware of her sisters?”

“We… we never told her. We weren’t sure if we should or not. It’s very hard, because you never know how they’ll react. I know it’s unfair to her to not know, but at the same time what if she doesn’t want anything to do with us because we aren’t her real parents? I can’t lose my baby girl officer,” Sam offered her a reassuring smile.

“I’m sure she would understand, Mrs. Munn. Does Jenna have any recollection of this fire or anything?”

“I think she remembers some of it. We had a fire only a few months after she came home from the hospital, and she believes they’re the same fire. I didn’t have the heart to tell her otherwise,” she nodded.

“I understand your worry about her reaction to being adopted, but where’s this worry coming from? Jenna doesn’t seem to be the type,” Dean cut in, and Mrs. Munn’s eyes dropped to the floor.

“Woods’s – the couple who adopted Jasmine. They told her just a year or two ago that she was adopted. She hasn’t been the same since. After the nasty divorce the two went through, I think it was the last straw. She doesn’t even speak to her mother, her relationship with her father is so strained… I didn’t want to put Jenna through that, or have to lose her like that.”

“I see. Ma’am would you say Jasmine’s… angry, over all of this?” he asked, and Mrs. Munn nodded.

“Yes. She’s angry that they didn’t tell her, angry that her parents split, angry that she feels like her mother’s replaced her by having children of her own… the poor thing’s been through hell and back,” she told them. Sam made a note of that, underneath the picture he was doodling.

“Did Jenna ever have any strange tendencies as a child?”

“No, she was always a very sweet girl. She was very nurturing – she mothered everybody she knew. Especially Jill… I think somehow deep down she might have known subconsciously that Jill was her baby sister. She was always getting her out of trouble or helping her. It was uncanny, really; how she always just seemed to know when something bad was going to happen,” she chuckled slightly, and Dean nodded. That seemed to confirm their guardian angel idea.

“Was it strange, how she was always able to know?” Sam asked, and she shrugged.

“I don’t know, really. I was an only child though, so you have to understand that I never had someone like that in my life growing up. I’m sure if I’d had a younger sister I would have been worrying over her just the same,” she insisted. Dean shifted uncomfortably then, and Sam was reminded of just how much Dean had given up for him over the years.

“Sorry to ask, but that fire – the one that killed her parents – Jenna’s room was right above the fire, correct?” Mrs. Munn nodded, obviously confused by where Sam was going with this. Dean didn’t even know where Sam was going with this.

“So… as a three year old who suffered severe burns… how did she get out of there alive? Let alone being able to carry her baby sister out?” he asked, and Mrs. Munn shrugged.

“To be honest I’ve asked myself the same question many times. Their old neighbor – Mrs. Cleary has passed away now – swears that it was like an angel coming out of the smoke; and then she saw little Jenna come out, coughing and hacking, clutching Jill. She handed Jill over to the first responder who got there and then collapsed onto the lawn; Jasmine had already ran out of the building just a minute or two before. They think that the time difference was how long it took Jenna to get to her sister. She also had the pendant her mother gave her in her little fist. She still wears it to this day; it’s a cross that says Angele Dei on the back of it. That and her sisters are the only thing she has of her real family,” she answered. Sam nodded, before standing up.

“Thank you so much, Mrs. Munn; we really appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions, we know this must be a very difficult time for you,” she nodded and walked them to the door, saying goodbye as they walked down to the car.

“Definitely a guardian angel,” Sam said once they were both inside.

“I think so too… that inscription, what’s it mean?”

“It means Angel of God, Dean. It basically proves that she’s a guardian angel, protecting Jill is probably why she didn’t die in that fire,” he sighed as they pulled up to Jenna’s home. They let themselves in and Dean grabbed a beer from the fridge.

“So then what would be after her? I don’t get it,” he grumped, just moments before his phone rang.

“Hello?” he listened quietly for a moment, setting his beer down and appearing on edge.

“What is it? Are you okay?” another long pause, “Okay, I’ll be there right away, just stay where there’s lots of people all right?” Dean hung up, and motioned to Sam to come with him.

“That was Jenna – she thinks someone’s been following her around all day and she’s feeling really uncomfortable so we’re going to pick her up,” he explained, and sped the whole way there. He was scared for her, definitely more scared than he would be on a normal basis. It wasn’t that he didn’t care when anybody else was in trouble or anything, but it was like he couldn’t breathe, wondering if she was okay. Once he’d parked the car he called her again, so he could find his way over to her. Finally Sam spotted her sitting on a park bench near a group of kids, and someone on the far side of the small park caught Dean’s eye.