Who:Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Kira Ford if she's still around, Jo Harvelle, and later Cox What: Sam and Dean go to find Jo. When: Just after Sam's message to Dean Status: In progress Rating: Pretty high, probably, given that Dean is involved and Jo is dead. Never in his life had Dean Winchester been so distraught, and it showed. Everything about him was off, from the way he drove his cherished car with careless abandon in the quickest way he knew how to get to the address Sam had given him to the way he stared unblinkingly forward to the way he had not said a single word since he and Sam got in the car. He wasn't listening to the rock music playing dully in the background, or even paying attention to Sam enough to discern whether he was trying to speak over the roar of AC/DC. Dean was focused on getting to Jo with such a single minded focus that there was room for nothing else.
This isn't happening. It isn't real. It can't be. The thought kept circling in his mind like a mantra, one he held tightly to in order to keep the car on the road because he knew if he let his concentration slip for one minute, let the thought that Sam might be telling the truth filter in, that he would lose control of everything. No, Sam would never have told him about Jo's death over the internet, he would have told him in person, or at the very worst over the phone. And Jo wouldn't have gotten shot, she would have been killed by some supernatural thing, something she was hunting alone. None of it made a bit of sense, so it just wasn't happening. Dean barrelled through a red light without blinking.
This isn't happening.
His eyes darted to Sam for a minute. He knew better than to think that Sam would joke about Jo's death, after all, they had both lost a lot lately, but there had to be some other explanation. Maybe Kira was up to something? Sam would never suspect the girl that he still valued as a sister was setting some sort of trap for them, not when she had been loyal enough to agree to kill Sam. Dean rolled his eyes. Fucking Kira. She had been behind two of the more recent awful things to happen to Sam, it made sense she would be behind this. He wanted to ask Sam what was going on, to pry for details, but somehow his voice just wouldn't work.
It isn't real
God, where was Jo in all of this? Dean was certain that she wasn't dead, but she didn't return any of his texts? He shuddered, and turned up the blaring rock music in the car to try to distract himself, but it didn't work. She would have responded if she had been able to. But what if she hadn't been able? Maybe she was hurt somewhere. People got shot every day and recovered. Sammy had, Dean himself had numerous times. Maybe someone didn't know that she was just hurt and told Sam that she was dead. Sam wouldn't have known the difference because he hadn't seen Jo, so it wouldn't be like the cruel joke Dean had thought it was at first. It would just be an awful mistake.
It can't be.
It had to just be a mistake, because if it wasn't the alternative was that Jo was dead. Though Dean had made fun of Sammy's idea of keeping everyone at arm's length to keep them safe, for the first time in his life he saw that perhaps it made a bit of sense. Not that he could ever keep Jo away even if he wanted to now, he cared for her with such a powerful, needful force that it left him frightened at times. Although he didn't talk about his feelings and emotions, they were there and strong, and though Dean would never have dared to say the words to her before, he was beginning to realize that the way he felt about Jo was a lot less like one night stand after another and a lot more like love.
He loved her.
He loved her and for all he knew she was dying alone in some alley.
The Impala went careening around the last turn and stopped suddenly. The rest of the way would have to be on foot. Still silent, Dean all but leaped from the still running car and started trying to find her. The threat that his 'baby' might be stolen was nothing when compared to the thought of the precious seconds that could be wasted in starting it if Jo needed quick medical help.