“Home is where you can lay your head down”
Supernatural
Jo, Jo/Dean
NC-17
Setting: After “Born Under a Bad Sign”
Summary: Jo dreams about rain puddles, hospitals, tears, and warm skin.
It’s raining when the door to the bar swings open and he walks in.
Dean, her mind whispers.
The rain has made his hair dark--almost black. He shakes the droplets off his leather jacket, wipes his feet before he approaches the bar.
“Hi, Jo,” he says.
From behind the counter, she looks him up and down. How did
he find her again? She left
She keeps her gaze on him. He wants something. “Hi.” Not her.
He scans the empty bar. “Slow night?”
“Not anymore.”
He gives her a slow smile before it dips. “Listen, Jo, I’m here--”
“Whatever you’re looking for, I don’t have it. I don’t have any information.”
“It’s Ellen,” he cuts in.
Her heart jumps at the mention of her mother’s name. What kind of monster had hurt her?
“Car accident,” Dean says.
In less than five minutes she grabs her jacket and locks up the bar. She gets in the Impala with Dean. The ride home is quiet. The rain follows them.
**
They stop at a rest area at the
She’s crying when Dean returns. He looks at her. There are no words. She doesn’t want to hear them. He reaches over and gives her hand a small squeeze. His hand is cold and wet from the rain. She finds little comfort.
**
Sam’s in the waiting room when they arrive. He doesn’t meet Jo’s eye, only gives them an update on her mother.
“Stable,” the doctor had told him.
It meant things were still up in the air. Anything could happen.
Jo leaves the brothers to find her mother.
Ellen Harvelle lays in bed, machines surrounding her. Her face is scratched, bruised, but she still manages to smile at Jo.
“Hey, baby,” she says.
Tears flood Jo’s eyes again. “Mom, I’m so sorry.”
“For what? Did you make it rain? Make my car slide off the road?” She motions to her. “Come here.”
Jo moves and lays her head next to her mother’s. She can smell the roadhouse on her--cigarette smoke, booze, and the faint smell of vanilla perfume.
It’s familiar, her home.
**
Dean and Sam are still in the waiting room. They stand with their hands in their pockets, their heads lowered, staring at their shoes.
“Thanks,” she says.
They nod and turn to the elevator.
“Wait,” she calls out.
They turn back.
“Stay.” Her voice is soft. Too soft. Almost unrecognizable. “Please.”
**
They stay.
**
Jo dozes off in a hard chair. When she wakes up, Sam is gone and Dean is flipping through a faded copy of National Geographic. The clock on the wall says it’s almost ten. A new day is almost here. It’s still raining.
Dean notices she’s awake and asks, “You thirsty?”
She shakes her head. “Any news on my mom?”
“No.” He looks up at the clock too. “I should take you home.”
Home. Where is home exactly?
“Where’s Sam?” she asks.
“He took a taxi to the motel,” he says. “I told him I’d stay.”
She understands why. Sam wants to be as far away as possible from her. She’s a reminder, a memory that can’t be erased.
“I’m glad he’s okay,” Jo says.
Dean’s quiet for a moment. Then: “Your mom will be too.”
She wants to believe him, but she’s too tired to try. She tells Dean she’s going to check on her mother.
In the room, Ellen is asleep. Jo watches her. Her mother was supposed to be indestructible, powerful--in a way, she still was; she was survived.
Jo kisses her on the forehead. Ellen’s eyes flutter open.
“Go back to sleep,” Jo tells her. “I’ll be back in the morning.”
“Tell the boys thank you.” Ellen smiles as she drifts back to sleep. “I was wrong before. They’ll take care of you.”
Back in the waiting room, Dean’s standing in front of the elevator, waiting for Jo. She pushes the down button. “Let’s go home.”
**
The roadhouse hasn’t changed. It’s doesn’t feel like months to Jo, more like years. She feels it too when she enters the bar.
She knocks on Ash’s door and peeks in. It smells like liquor and sweaty socks. The room is filled with computer parts and empty beer bottles, but no Ash.
She glances at the staircase that leads up to her bedroom. She remembers her bed, the feel of mattress, and cool sheets. She misses it.
Behind her, Dean says, “Are you gonna be all right?”
Not tonight. Not alone.
She licks her lips and tastes rain. She’s covered in it. Her hair is plastered to her face. Her clothes are drenched. She wants out of them. She wants a warm bed.
“Dean,” and her voice shakes a little bit, “will you stay with me?”
**
He stays.
**
Jo makes the first move, kisses him softly, catching him by surprise. Neither one of them know what to do next.
It only lasts a second.
Then, their hands fumble, pull, tear, search. The climb up the stairs is full of teeth clanging, chests rising and falling, tangled legs.
When they make it to her bedroom, she’s topless. Dean’s hands roam her glistening stomach, cup her breasts. She moans in his mouth. She slides her fingers through his rain-soaked hair--black, black hair.
They fall into bed together. Dean pulls back. He pauses as though he wants her to change her mind. Last chance.
She doesn’t plan on changing anything.
She tugs on his arm and pulls him down to her. He kisses her, moves again, this time to undress. Returns to her, lets a hand fall in between her legs and her knees go weak and her thighs spread.
Ready.
She whispers his name and tells him to do it now.
Make her forget about her mother. Make her forget about how lonely she is. Make her forget about her mistakes--maybe even this one. Make her forget everything.
He breaks away to put on a condom, and he’s inside her.
Skipping the foreplay may have been a bad idea. She shuts her eyes at the discomfort. It’s not her first time, but it’s her first time with Dean. It’s different, something she’s not used to.
Dean slows his pace down. She focuses on his rhythm and thinks about the storm outside. Her skin tingles.
Soon, the pain dissolves, and she opens her eyes, lifts her hips to join him. She squeezes his arms, encourages him to speed up. She can take it. He listens and thrusts harder into her, kissing her neck, sliding his tongue up her slick neck, over her chin and into her mouth. She hugs his body against hers and gasps, lets out a small cry. Dean groans and goes slack inside her.
They don’t move for a moment. She’s fine with that.
Lightning flashes across her window, illuminating their bodies. They have one shadow. Seconds later, thunder shakes the sky. It brings them back to reality.
Dean rises off her, cleans himself off, and sits up at the edge of the bed.
They don’t speak.
Jo rolls over in bed, covers her body with the sheet, and closes her eyes. She waits.
A moment later, the mattress sags as Dean falls into bed next to her.
She had asked him to stay, after all.
**
Sometime during the middle of the night, during the rainstorm, Dean makes the second move.
His hand snakes over the curve of her back and waist, finds her thigh and she responds with a sigh, a kiss, a rise of her chest. She gives herself to him again, and he does the same.
She straddles him, rests her hands on his chest as she rides him. Watches his face tighten until he groans and says her name.
She comes with him and falls into his frame. His hands bury themselves in her now-dry and tangled hair. She looks up at him, kisses his jaw, but his eyes are shut. When they don’t open, she escapes into the darkness with him.
**
Jo dreams about rain puddles, hospitals, tears, and warm skin. She wonders if Dean does the same.
**
In the morning, the sky is still gray. They dress in silence.
Downstairs, Dean says, “I’ll take you back to the hospital.”
She lets him.
Dean takes a moment to call Sam. He tells him where’s he at, but he doesn’t explain to him where he was last night. Jo’s not sure herself.
At the hospital, Dean walks in with her even though she doesn’t ask him to.
Ellen is awake, eating Jello and watching The View on television.
She smiles at Jo and Dean. “Guess what? I get to go home today.”
Jo smiles with her at the news. Her mother is going to be fine, just like Dean had said.
She can feel him sneak off behind her. He’s halfway out of the door when she turns to him. She follows him into the hallway.
“You leaving?” she asks, already knowing the answer.
“Do you want me to?” he says.
And maybe instead he’s asking her--Do you want me to stay?
He will.
But, she can’t ask that from him. Not again. Not yet.
She doesn’t say anything. He accepts that and turns the corner, vanishes. She doesn’t go after him.
**
Back at the roadhouse, Jo helps her mother into bed and tells her not to worry about the place. She’ll take care of things until her mother gets better.
“Does that mean you’re staying?” Ellen says.
“Of course.” And Jo is sure. “I’m home now.”
THE END