Jo Harvelle (jo_beth) wrote in lost_world, @ 2013-07-25 23:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | !status: complete, dean winchester, jo harvelle |
The search is on (Dean/Jo, TBC in comments)
Mary was missing. That was the only thought running through Jo's mind as she left the Duchess. Mary was missing and there was a serial killer on the loose. Maybe it was unrelated, but did they ever have luck like that? She had to find Dean. Maybe things weren't great with them right now, but their kid was missing and she'd be damned if he was left out of that. Besides, Jo couldn't think of anyone she would want on the case more than Dean.
Which meant that she had to find where Dean was staying. It was a little frustrating that Johnny had seen him and hadn't gotten an address or phone number of any sort. There wasn't much time to waste, but she just had to hope that she could find Dean quickly.
Before she set off on the hunt for either her boyfriend or her future daughter, Jo stopped in at the boarding house. She could start her search there. There had to be a phone book or something she could reference to find motels and other places that a guy might stay in the area. Didn't there?
----
It hadn't taken him that long to find her, once things calmed down a bit.
Dean was still the golden boy whenever someone saw him in his uniform, and if they saw the Impala, nobody left him alone. The obvious answer was to get some new clothes and find a place to stash the car. That meant money.
Luckily, hustling pool worked the same in the 40s as it did in Dean's time. It took a few days to get enough money to pay for a really good spot to hide the car. He had to be sure no one would drive her while he wasn't around, so that meant slipping the kid at the garage extra and making sure he was afraid Dean might hurt him before leaving the Impala unattended. There was a higher-end gas station and mechanic not far from the diner they'd all first arrived in. She was there, now. And the teenage mechanic's assistant got $150 to watch the car.
That was a damn lot of money for that kid. So he did it. And he took it very seriously.
Now that that was out of the way, and now that Dean had a plain damn shirt (just a simple white button down) and a black vest to go over it, he went looking for Jo and Mary.
Jo was pretty easy to find.
Her face was everywhere.
Turned out that she'd gotten a gig singing, and posters of her were up all over the place. She looked drop dead gorgeous--in the poster, she wore a strapless dress that looked like it was sequined. Her hair was all done, she had long gloves... and hilariously, she was going by the name Jessica Bowles. Dean found the place she was regularly having shows, but it was too early for her to be there, they said. But people there knew where to find her. The cleaning staff told him about a boarding house she'd mentioned, and Dean went there next.
When he got there, the woman who owned it was very polite about not letting him upstairs. A bunch of bullshit about gentleman callers not being allowed in the girls' rooms. Dean sighed. The house wasn't that big.
"Jo?!" It was a bellow. It was a big, low, John Winchester-like bellow. "Can you come downstairs?"
This was just stupid.
----
Jo had just gotten to her room and was starting to look for a phone book or anything else that might help her track down places Dean might have gone when she heard that bellow. She stopped and stared in the direction of her door, a little bit in shock. Was she losing it so much that she was imagining Dean's voice now? She was worried about Mary, but having a crisis to focus on was always when she was at her best. She'd cry and throw things later, but for now she had a clear goal in mind and it was keeping her focused.
So no, she wasn't losing her mind. Which meant that Dean was at the door. Most likely dealing with the gatekeeping of the house matron.
It was almost a funny scene to see how sour the woman looked when Jo made it down stairs. She gave her an apologetic grimace.
"Sorry Martha."
She took one look at Dean and then took his arm and started to jerk him toward the door before Martha could say anything else about the fact that no boyfriends were allowed. Her mouth was set in a grim line, the concern evident, though she wasn't going to say anything until they were out of the boarding house.
----
Dean was not sorry and did not apologize to Martha. The woman gave Jo a nod, though, and dissappeared back into the house.
When Jo grabbed him, he was a little surprised at how much she was pulling, but he didn't say anything. He waited till they were back out on the porch. It was nice, and wrap-around, at least partially. There were benches.
Once they were officially out of Martha's sight and out of the house, Dean put his hand on hers. He wanted to hug her, but it was tough to get a read on Jo just now and Dean didn't want to get smacked.
"It turns out that if you show up in the 19goddamn40s in a decorated Army uniform you don't get a fucking second to yourself," he said. He figured he'd open with why she hadn't seen him for several days. "And also, it turns out that a car from the 60s might as well be a spaceship. I actually think I told the last guy that it was powered by Mr. Fusion."
Dean smiled, just a little.
----
Jo didn't return the smile, but she didn't take her hand back. It was a comfort having him here right now.
"I was just going to look for you," she said. "Mary's missing."
She didn't say anything more just then. Dean needed the chance to absorb and react to that. Then they could discuss what they knew already, which would take all of thirty seconds because what Johnny had been able to tell her was irritatingly not helpful. Not that she blamed him-or at least, the rational part of her brain didn't.
If anything, Jo was still fighting off the half-fear that the troubles she'd been having with Dean had somehow wiped Mary out of existence because things had gotten to the point where they couldn't just get back on the path they'd been on back in York when Ellen had first shown up.
----
That was just it, though.
To Dean, there didn't seem to be that much trouble. It wasn't his fault or Jo's that they were being tossed around against their will and kept having to find each other. He got the impression that Jo was annoyed with him more often than not for not finding her faster, or not .... he couldn't be sure, but it never seemed like he was doing enough. It wasn't that she wasn't a priority. But there were always circumstances.
Like, big frigging circumstances.
Mary's missing.
"What?"
Dean's eyebrows drew together. "Since when? How?"
It couldn't have been that long. He'd just seen Johnny a few days ago and even though there wasn't an internet here, people talked. He knew there was some crime activity going on. The guys he'd played pool with were talking about it.
He was hoping Jo wasn't going to say it had to do with that.
----
It had nothing to do with Dean not finding her fast enough and everything to do with him lying to her about Sympathy and who knew what else, but now wasn't the time. Jo took her hand back and rummaged in her bag for the newspaper that she'd grabbed on the way over here. She was used to combing whatever news sources she could get her hands on looking for patterns and clues. Unfortunately, this was it and there was only one story that was sticking out like a sore thumb.
"Just last night. She went out and promised Johnny that she'd be back in the morning and she wasn't. She missed her shift at the bar. I stopped by because we were supposed to look into something today and she wasn't there."
Maybe just one of those things-Mary going out and not coming back when she said she would, or missing a shift of work, or missing a potential hunt-maybe one of those things on its own wouldn't be a concern. But Mary was missing out on an awful lot of things she'd promised to do and from what Jo knew of her daughter and what she imagined about Mary's upbringing, it didn't fit.
"Have you been paying attention to the news since we've gotten here?" she asked.
She assumed that he had. After all, hunters had to keep an eye on the news. It was how they knew what was going on around them. You couldn't simply stick your head in the sand and hope that you found the things that needed killing.
----
He didn't like the sound of that. Missing a shift... even though she might be Dean's kid... Dean did not know her incredibly well, but that wasn't Mary. She'd hopped back in time to find her sister, to help out him and help out Jo.
No.
And he'd gotten the vibe from Johnny that they were pretty solidly into each other. He could be sure he didn't raise her to just walk out on somebody without explanation.
The news.
"When people let me breathe, yeah. So last few days I played a lot of pool. So I could get a little money together. Get normal clothes, hide the car... Heard a lot of talking. Saw the front page news... "
He set his jaw.
"Didn't like it."
----
Jo held out the paper to Dean.
"Yeah, me neither."
The serial killer story for the day wasn't front page news. It was buried on page 3, essentially saying that there wasn't any more news on that story. That police were keeping mum about what their next step would be now that the private investigator they'd been working with had been killed in an 'unrelated' incident. Jo didn't buy that it was unrelated, but that was simply her gut feeling. She didn't have anything concrete to go on.
"It could be that her disappearance has nothing to do with the New Dietrich slayer. But I haven't found any evidence of anything supernatural here and right now, this is the biggest source of women about Mary's age going missing. I think we should start by looking into this and hopefully we'll find her."
In time, though that part didn't need to be voiced. Losing hope before the hunt had even begun wasn't going to do anyone any good. Jo had to believe that they'd find Mary alive.
----
His face was darkening more by the minute.
Dean took the paper from Jo and started to leaf through it, sitting down on one of the benches on the porch. The article in here wasn't helpful, although it did give the names of people involved with the investigation, and that was more than enough of a place to start.
"Well," he said, folding the paper back up, "it's a good thing I've got police ID in the car with my face on it. You're gonna be tougher to explain, though. Jessica Bowles."
Now he couldn't help but smile just a little. "That is if you want to go bother the cops until they say something better than this. Anything else to go on?"
Dean wasn't okay. He was just focused. This was also why he hadn't yet asked Jo if she was okay. There'd be time for that, but it wasn't right this second.
----
Of course he had a police ID with his face on it even though they hadn't been in this world all that long. Jo almost smiled, though her cheeks darkened at the mention of the name.
"So you heard about that? Is that how you found me?" she asked.
She hadn't had the time yet to wonder how he'd tracked her down, but she supposed that explained things.
"I had to make money somehow," she said with a shrug. "And we probably should talk to the police first."
She frowned. He was right that it wasn't going to be easy to have a cover story when they went to the police. She was tired of the whole 'women couldn't do...' back home, but that seemed like nothing compared to the way things were on this planet.
----
Dean nodded.
"Posters all over. Your picture, names of clubs... Not hard. You're gonna need to keep that dress, by the way. Like... forever."
And we probably should talk to the police first.
"Yeah. Well... "
Dean sighed.
"They're not gonna like a female cop, but if you wanna try that and say you're undercover, I won't stop you. Other than that, maybe staying closer to the truth is a better lie. Say Mary's your sister, or cousin, something like that. That you demand they do something."
One way made her weird, the other made her a pain in the ass. Either way, this was gonna be hard for Jo.
"We can make you an ID. Got plenty of generic badges. Those haven't changed over the years.... It's your call."
Now was a better time.
"You okay?"
----
Jo almost cracked a smile at the comment about the dress. Almost. Then the conversation moved back to talking about what they were going to do. And then he was asking if she was okay.
She started to move toward the porch stairs to get down to street level because she just couldn't handle standing still anymore. She assumed that Dean was probably the same. She didn't answer the question about how she was doing just yet. She wasn't sure how to answer it.
"I think telling them that I'm Mary's sister works." she gave him a thin smile. "Since I don't think they'll believe that I'm her mom. Hell, I still have a hard time believing that myself some days."
She sighed. There was a conversation that was best left for when Mary was safe and sound. Having the whole future mom thing dropped on her head and not knowing how to deal with having an adult daughter from a future that she wasn't sure was plausible anymore was a whole can of worms.
It was only once they were both walking that she sighed and answered in an almost barely audible voice.
"I'm about as far from okay as I can get. You?"
The question wasn't asked flippantly. She did want to know. Whatever else was going on with the situation, Mary was family, and neither of them were keen on their family members getting hurt.
----
Okay, so sister it was. That wasn't going to let her into as many rooms as it would let Dean into, but he could strong arm people. He'd have to. He'd have to get very noire novel about all of this.
But it was his kid. He could do that for his kid.
You?
"Really not awesome," he said. "I'd fucking love it if people could stop fucking with my family."
The sentence was spat. There was so much contempt in it. "I mean, was it too much to ask that the crazy just tone down a little? That... that... we not get tossed around like weird pieces of salad? I wanna get to know my kid. I want to be able to spend some damn time with you. But no, that's okay. Instead I get that weird Scottish kid and nonstop 'Good job killing the Japs' comments. Oh, yeah. And witches. Let's not forget the witches."
Dean could go ten rounds with the guy in the paper just on rage.
----
Jo frowned. She was even about to say something about what she'd learned from Sympathy, to point out that honesty would be really helpful especially when they were getting shit thrown at them on a regular basis. But then that last part came.
"Witches? There are witches now?" she asked. She sighed and shook her head. "Of course there are witches. Aliens and fairies and witches, oh my. I never thought that anything could make York look like a vacation."
Jo wasn't too far from wanting to go several rounds with the serial killer herself. It wasn't enough to make sure that the asshole was dead. If he'd taken Mary, he needed to really pay for doing this to her daughter.
----
Dean was being very honest. There'd been a small omission. Once. She'd asked how he was doing. This was the honest answer.
Dean snorted. "Pretty sure there were always witches, but yeah, we got one. She zapped me good. She's off to see the Doctor. Or the Wizard. Or who the fuck knows what else. She needs help controlling things. So that's a good time."
He sighed and shook his head. Thing was he really did feel for Annabelle. This was not a good place to be on edge and have bad shit happen that you didn't intend. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm starting to miss York. At least it was less nonstop with the lunacy over there. Had some time. Occasionally went on dates. Like actual dating people."
"I paid the mechanics over near that diner I think we all ended up in to watch the car," Dean said, by way of explanation for why he was turning down this next street. He figured they'd grab an ID for him, and a badge of some kind, and head toward the police station.
----
Jo followed Dean's lead. She nodded at the reason for turning down this particular road.
"So dating is better than waking up naked in the shower with strange pirates?" she asked blandly.
Now wasn't the time to have this conversation, but she also wasn't going to keep sitting on what she was upset about. Once she reached the Impala, she waited silently for Dean to get whatever ID he needed to get. Her expression was stony and she didn't meet his eyes. She was upset but now wasn't the time.
Then again, there never really was a good time for anything these days, was there?
----
Dean was head-into the Impala's trunk, having nodded at the kid that was her temporary keeper, when Jo asked her question.
His gut reaction was to just start yelling at her. This was absolutely not the time to have any kind of serious discussion that didn't have to do with finding Mary. Period. But even aside from that, it was nice that whatever Jo had heard from or about Sympathy, she already seemed to be assuming things.
Dean really didn't like that.
He grabbed what he wanted--a badge, an ID, and two guns, one for each of them, if Jo turned out to need one--and slammed the trunk.
When he turned around, Jo wouldn't look him in the eye. That might've been better, because the look on his face was part hurt and part serious disappointment.
"You wanna have that conversation now? Seriously?"
He did his best to say that calmly. Still, a quiet kind of anger snuck in around the edges. Just a touch of it.
"I suppose Sympathy didn't tell you the part where she threw herself at me and I told her no," he said, putting the gun into a holster and the badge and ID into his pocket. He plopped a fedora hat on his head and looked so appropriate for what he was about to do that it was borderline funny. He'd actually told Sympathy no more than once, if he was remembering right. He'd done it twice. If Jo wanted to be mad at him for a choice he hadn't even made, he didn't know what the hell to say.
"Jo," Dean began, taking the other gun and handing it to her by the barrel to put in her purse, "if you still wanna get mad at me for something I had zero damn control over, after we find Mary, be my guest. But I'm not going to do this with you right now. I love you, and believe it or not, I already love our kid. And I'd really like to find her in one piece."
----
Jo shook her head at the question about whether or not she really wanted to have that conversation now. She already regretted saying it. She bit her lip and considered her answer very carefully because she'd already opened that up.
"She told me that you said no. Which is why I can't figure out why you lied to me about it. Either option one where you're still considering the offer or option two where you just don't trust me to be able to tell the difference between something the aliens did to you and something you chose. If you'd just told me, it wouldn't have mattered."
She sighed.
"But now's not the time and I shouldn't have brought it up. You're right."
She raised her eyes to meet his. "So the question is-can we work together as a team on this or is it better if we go our separate ways. Because if we're going to go back to you treating me like a kid and deciding what I can and can't handle, then we'll be more effective working at this from different angles."
And yes, she did feel like he was treating her like a kid in keeping the Sympathy thing from her. He'd just decided that she couldn't handle it and kept it from her.
----
"Oh, for fuck sake..."
So much for not having this conversation now.
"How about a third option you didn't think about that has nothing at all to do with either of those things. What about that? How about I didn't want to have a conversation like this or for you to feel bad, and since I have no interest in her whatsoever I didn't think telling you was a damn issue!"
A vein in his neck was starting to jump.
"It's got nothing to do with me thinking you can or can't handle something. It's not wanting to fucking hurt you. It's not wanting to have a discussion like this. All I want is for things with us to go smooth." Dean shook his head. That was a little funny, all things considered.
From where Dean was standing, it didn't look like Jo trusted him much at all.
"You gonna take that gun out of my hand any time soon? Help me save our daughter?"
The way he said it, Dean wasn't really giving her an option. He was not doing this alone. Period.
----
Our daughter. It was still surreal, but more than anything that snapped Jo out of whatever comeback she might have had. She silently took the gun from Dean's hand and used her free hand to swipe at any tears that might have spilled over. Now wasn't the time to have this conversation. The trouble was, there never really had been much time to have any sort of conversation about anything. It seemed like they just kept tumbling from one fire to another, struggling to put them all out.
But right now, Mary was missing and all that mattered was getting her back. So Jo shoved aside the fear that somehow her anger over being lied to had been the inciting factor in Mary fading out of existence or something along those lines.
She stowed the gun under her jacket and nodded to Dean.
"Let's go see what the cops can tell us."
The anger had faded just as quickly as it had come and the hurt was shoved aside to be dealt with later. For now, she had her game face on and it was time to track down their daughter and end whatever-or whoever-had taken her.