Carry On

“Do you uh, want any help?” he asked, not having realized he’d scared her until she was running her finger under cold water. He saw the burn then, and felt guilty about walking back in from the living room without announcing himself before he got so close to her.

“That’s all right,” she shook her head, but Dean wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
Something about her seemed to be drawing him in, and he needed to figure out what the hell it was. It wasn’t like what he’d felt for Lisa, he knew that, but it was something that was going to keep him from getting sleep at night because he couldn’t find an answer.

“I’m serious. I’m not much of a computer guy anyway,” he insisted, and after she’d decided that her finger was all right got him started on chopping up some tomatoes and mushrooms for meat sauce while she browned the hamburger and kept an eye on the pot of boiling water for the pasta.

“So… you grew up here?” he asked, trying to start a conversation. She nodded, reaching across him to pull a spice shaker from the counter.

“Yeah, ever since I was a baby. I grew up on the other side of town though; we never really had a whole lot of money or anything. One of those little low-rental places you see on the way in,” she answered, and Dean nodded.

“You?”

“Well, uh, from Lawrence, Kansas I guess. We didn’t live there for very long though, and since then I’ve been a lot of places,” he chuckled. They seemed to dodge around each other quite well as she moved for spices and seasoning, Dean able to predict her actions and keep himself out of the way. It was almost as if they’d been doing this for ages, the way they seemed to anticipate each other’s movements.

“Why’d you move?” she asked, and Dean winced, not having realized that this conversation would inevitably lead to this.

“My, my mom died. In a fire, Sam was just a baby,” he quietly explained, and looked up to see those brown doe eyes staring at him, tears welling up.

“I’m so sorry – I can’t imagine,” she whispered, putting her hand on his shoulder for a moment.

“It’s fine.” Was his gruff response, and she knew that it was his way of covering up how he was feeling. Jasmine did the same thing. When she thought about her friend found it strange that she hadn’t seen her since that party.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, noticing the change in her demeanor.

“N-nothing, I don’t think. I was just thinking about how I haven’t seen Jasmine since the party, but she’s probably at her dad’s house is all,” she replied, not wanting to get into it. She sometimes was stupid about over-thinking things, and she knew it.

“That is kind of weird; she hasn’t called or texted you or whatever?” Dean asked, and she shook her head.

“Nothing. She’s probably just really shook up though Dean; she handles things differently,” she insisted, sure this was the source of her friends disappearance. She took the cut vegetables from Dean and added them to the hamburger, browning them before adding tomato sauce.

Unbeknownst to them, Sam had left his research to check on them. He couldn’t believe how, well, domesticated his brother looked. Helping in the kitchen, and now he was setting the table for Jenna. If he didn’t know any better he’d swear it wasn’t really his brother. Dean had asked for Lisa and Ben’s memory of him to be erased, knowing that they could get hurt so somebody could get to him, and while he’d tried to cover it up as no big deal Sam knew that it was killing him. The drinking, the moodiness, it had all got worse after that had happened. So he was glad to see Dean like this, even if she was way too young for him.

“Sam? You almost ready to eat?” Jenna called, making him jump as he realized he’d been caught up in his own thoughts.

“Y-yeah, sure. Smells great,” he walked in, a smile on his face as Jenna drained the pasta and Dean stood beside the table leafing through the newspaper as if he hadn’t done a thing. Typical.

“Thanks – my mom’s recipe,” she shrugged, before urging them to dish up their plates and start eating. They wolfed down their food, and both men had seconds, which made Jenna laugh.

“Wow, I can’t remember the last time I had a real home-cooked meal,” Sam announced, leaning back comfortably in his chair.

“You’re welcome,” she replied, pretending to be all stuffy about it, before both of them began to laugh. He’d noticed Dean get quiet, and then realized that being with Lisa would have been the last time Dean had done anything like this.

“You all right?” Sam asked, and as soon as Jenna turned to look at him Dean pasted a smile on his face and acted like nothing had happened.

“Of course I am – I’ve got a stomach full of good food, I could go for a nap right now,” he teased back, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“No time for a nap – you’ve got more teaching to do,” Jenna reprimanded him, standing up and taking their plates. Sam shrugged, noticing the incredulous look on Dean’s face as he stared after the brunette.

“Dude,” Sam grinned, and Dean made a face at him before standing up and following her to the living room. He knew what his little brother was thinking, and no way in hell was he getting into any kind of emotional attachment. That’s how people got hurt, and that’s how he lost people he loved. He’d lost Sam more times than he’d ever care to remember, Bobby, his father, Lisa, Ben, everyone. So the further he stayed from people the easier his life would be.

They followed her to the living room, where she curled up in her chair and pulled her laptop onto her legs and started it up, before looking at them expectantly.

“Well… get on with it,” she smirked, making the brothers share a look and a grin before sitting down and making themselves comfortable. They began talking about all of the jobs they’d done – excluding Azazel and details about their parents’ deaths, or either of their trips to hell – and the different creatures, spirits and demons they’d encountered.

Hours passed, and Dean finally elbowed his younger brother in the ribs to get him to stop reading things off of his laptop; having noticed that Jenna had fallen asleep. She was sitting perfectly still, her chin down on her chest and her hands just off to the side of the keyboard. It was an awkward position for sleeping, but she looked truly peaceful for the first time since they’d met her.

“I think you went to college for the wrong thing Sammy,” Dean smirked.

“Why’s that?”

“You should’ve went in to be a teacher. You’ve already got the whole ‘boring students to sleep’ thing down,” he teased, and Sam gave him a shove before standing up and walking over to Jenna.

“Jenna,” Sam gently shook her shoulder, and at once her head snapped up, her eyes were wide and she was ready to scream before her eyes landed on Dean and she remembered the two men in her home.

“Oh my God! Don’t do that!” she hissed, swatting at his shoulder before leaning back and trying to slow her heart rate back to normal.

“I’m sorry – that just looked really uncomfortable is all,” Sam apologized, looking like he felt terribly guilty over her fright.

“Let’s call it a night. I’ll write down my cell and the motel we’re staying at in case you need us,” Dean said, and Jenna’s eyes widened.

“Y-you’re leaving?” neither missed the waver in her voice.

“We’re just a couple blocks away—”

“What if it comes back? I won’t be able to do anything about it,” she worried, and Dean realized that as well as she’d taken all of this news she was scared shitless.

“Well then, Sam I’ll stay here and you go to the motel – see if there’s anymore leads?” he suggested, and Sam raised an eyebrow at his older brother.

“You can both stay here if you’d like. I mean, the couch folds out into a bed and I can sleep on the love-seat or something,” she quickly offered, but Dean was quick to cut her off.

“It’s fine – you can sleep in your bed,”

“You’re at least six feet tall, and I don’t even want to guess how tall Sam is – neither of you would be comfortable on the loveseat Dean. It’s fine – I fit on it quite well,” she told them with a small, supposedly comforting smile, but she knew Dean wasn’t buying it. She was scared as hell to be more than ten feet away from either of these men when it was dark and she knew that demon or whatever could be coming back.

“Well then, Sam why don’t you go upstairs? I’ll help unfold the couch,” Dean decided, and without a complaint Sam retrieved his bag from the car and then went upstairs to Jenna’s room. She quickly made up the bed for him – she’d been in the middle of washing sheets the day of the party and so had just slept in a pile of blankets that night – before grabbing a pair of pajama pants and a sweatshirt to wear to bed.

“Thanks Jenna, we really would have been fine at the hotel or on the couch or anything,” Sam told her, but she shook her head.

“Thanks for not leaving me here alone.”

After quickly changing in the bathroom Jenna walked downstairs to find the bed unfolded and Dean standing in the living room awkwardly. He offered her a quick smile before following her to the linen closet and taking the sheets that she handed to him. In tandem they quickly made the bed, and she averted her eyes as he stripped off his shirt before emptying his pockets, and placing his handgun on the side table.

“Salt?” she asked as he double-checked that it was loaded. He smiled before handing her one of the bullets so she could see it.

“Rock salt – good job,” he allowed, and she felt a smile on her face as she handed it back. He put it back in the clip before cocking the gun and setting it down before crawling under the covers.

“You know if you want you can just sleep here – I won’t bite,” he offered, making himself comfortable on half of the pull out bed. It was a tempting offer, but Jenna didn’t want to seem weaker than she thought she already did, even though she would have liked nothing better than to have his strong arms around her. He gave her the feeling that he’d do anything to protect those he cared about, and she knew she’d be safe with him and Sam around.

“How do you know I won’t?” she asked, meaning it as a joke but blushed after she realized how it had come out. Dean chuckled before flipping the covers back on the other side of the bed.

“Well, if you bite first I might bite back; but for right now I’ll take my chances,” he told her, sending her a mega-watt smile. She hesitated for a moment before crawling in next to him. It was silent in the house, save for the soft breathing of the man beside her. But every creak or scratch of a tree branch against a window had her jumping and startled, which didn’t escape Dean’s attention.

“It’s okay – I won’t let anything happen to you,” he whispered, and she looked over to find those green eyes watching her. She felt her face begin to heat up, and promptly stared at the ceiling.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you Dean, it’s just… if Jill got murdered for doing nothing how do I know it won’t come after me just because I’m here? What if the house is haunted and it won’t stop until all three of us are dead or gone? I just don’t know what to think anymore… I still think that I’ll wake up in my bed and all of this will have been a bad dream,” she admitted, and quickly fisted away the few tears that had escaped. She was sick of crying and feeling useless, she wanted to do something productive.

“I understand; I really do. It’s scary as hell, but you have to know that Sam and I will do whatever we can to keep you safe; and if you so much as think something or someone’s coming into this house wake me up, all right? Sam’s also a pretty light sleeper, so he’ll probably notice something’s up before we do,” Dean told her, and saw some of the tension leave her shoulders as she took his words to heart.

“Okay,” she agreed, her voice whisper-soft. She made herself comfortable then, and closed her eyes, trying to will herself to sleep. Dean shifted slightly, before letting out a long, slow breath. Tonight was going to be a long night, because now he knew he wasn’t going to get any sleep, not when Jenna was so strongly depending on him to keep her safe.