InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "You're lucky to have me. "

Joanna Beth Harvelle (harvelle) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2010-08-03 13:17:00

Entry tags:

jo harvelle, mary winchester, sam winchester

Who: Jo Harvelle, Sam Winchester, and Mary Winchester
What: Checking Mary for demon/shifter/ghost-ness
When: Tuesday around lunchtime
Where: Jay's Diner
Rating: TBD - probably clean 'cause if Sam talks like how he wants I'm betting Mary would yell.
Status: Incomplete

Jo wasn't exactly nervous. If anything, after the past week, this? Was normal. At least in her eyes. She doubted it was for Sam, and she could sense his tension. Her dark eyes glanced over to him. Most of her own tension was more from being with him again, since the last time they'd seen each other was when she'd died. And been brought back a few minutes later, but still...things felt a little off.

She forced her mind to focus on the situation at hand as they pulled up outside the diner. They were there to see if the woman actually was Mary Winchester, or if she was a demon. Or a ghost. Or possibly something else. Jo hoped not since this whole thing with bringing people back to life seemed to be a trend, but she wasn't taking any chances. Plus, she was worried that Sam would do something bad in public if it turned out that the woman wasn't his mom. Cutting off the engine, she turned to look over at him, reaching out and after a moment's hesitation, catching his hand.

"Sam. Are you sure you're ready for this? You can wait out here while I check, if you want." Her eyes spoke that she wasn't completely sure he wouldn't hurt someone else in the diner, not just the woman claiming to be Mary Winchester. "I can signal you after I know for sure."

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ex_demonbloo908
2010-08-04 05:45 am UTC (link)

Bela Talbot. Jessica Moore. Mary Winchester. Three names, all entirely unassociated with one another beyond one point: they were all supposedly being brought back from the dead by something. Sam had missed out on the opportunity to check up on Jess himself, but he wasn't about to make that mistake a second time around. If this really was his mom, Sam was going to be the first in line to make sure that she stayed protected until they set her up someplace safe. And if this wasn't actually Mary Winchester that they were dealing with? Sam was going to personally put the thing wearing his mother's face out of it's misery for daring to attempt ridiculing her. Sam may not have held many memories of the woman, but she was still his mother. And she didn't deserve to be made a fool of by some dark, dangerous monster for something sick and twisted.

This was all sick and twisted. Even if Dean's explanation on Jessica actually being Jessica was something that Sam couldn't quite ignore. What if this really was her? What if...?

Sam looked up as the car slid to a halt in the parking lot. Before Jo was even able to turn the car off, Sam already found himself unfastening his seatbelt and reaching for his door. A hand falling upon his own momentarily stilled him. Tensing, Sam turned to look at Jo. "No," he said sternly. "I have to do this. This isn't some random person we're dealing with. It's my mom." He stared at her long and hard for a moment. Jo had to understand. If she were in his position, would she have stood by and done nothing? Sam sincerely doubted as such. Quietly and carefully, Sam slid his larger hand away from her own and pushed his door open. Then he paused again. "I don't want her to know who I am. Not until we sort out who or what she is first. Okay?" It seemed like everything would be easier that way. If she wasn't real, Sam wouldn't have to deal with her pretending that she was his loving mother come home to be with her family again.

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harvelle
2010-08-04 03:23 pm UTC (link)

She met his eyes when he told her he had to do it, and thought about how he must feel for a moment. If it had somehow been her dad's body waiting in that diner, she wouldn't have let anyone test him except her. Hell, she might not have even let anyone come with her. As he opened the door, she bit back a sigh, then nodded. "Got it." She pushed her own door open and slid out of the pickup, shutting the door a few seconds later. In the pockets of her jacket were a flask of holy water, a small iron chain, a silver chain, and a box of salt - everything a Hunter would need to test someone.

She moved around the front of the truck to step up next to Sam, nodded to him again, then headed for the diner's door. She stepped in warily, dark eyes flickering around. After the recent mass-possession, she looked for demons everywhere. The gun tucked into the waistline of her cargo pants at the small of her back was comforting, and she hoped it'd be enough.

Her gaze settled on a blond woman sitting alone, and one glance at Sam's face told her that that was the woman they were looking for. She headed over to the table and sat across from her without waiting for an invitation.

"Mary? I'm Jo. This is a friend of mine." She nodded her head towards Sam.

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_takeasadsong
2010-08-05 03:34 pm UTC (link)

For a moment Mary hadn't realized she'd left Heaven. This is the day I met John, she'd thought, standing outside the door of Jay's diner, one hand raised to open the door, to walk through and relive the first time she'd ever met her husband. Then she'd realized, rather abruptly, that instead of a waitress uniform she was wearing jeans and a blouse and, more alarmingly, that her nose itched. Mary Winchester's nose had not itched since November 2nd, 1983. Heart pounding (pounding? She'd thought incredulously) she'd whirled around and been met with the sight of the busy main street of the town where she'd grown up...filled with people she didn't recognize in clothes she had to blink a few times to take in.

The normal woman she'd tried so hard to become would have panicked. The hunter she'd been raised as quelled the sour tide of adrenaline rising in her and it was those instincts that took over and kept her hands steady as she accessed the network and contacted this "Jo" to come pick her up from the diner. They weren't entirely effective however, she'd called their old house too, bit her lip as she waited to hear John's voice, unable to believe he wouldn't be here too despite what everyone on the strange computer had said, and then visibly winced when all she'd heard was the beginning of an answering machine message "Hello, you've reach Jenny, Sari, and-"

She'd hung up the phone and gone back to the diner, sat down in a booth and ordered coffee after discovering that she had her wallet with a few dollars in the pocket of her jeans. She didn't understand that, or why she had been brought back (because, against all odds and reason, that seemed to be what had happened) in one of her favorite outfits instead of the nightgown she had died in. She didn't understand much about any of this. If I'm really back, if it's really 2010, Sam and Dean will both be in their twenties, I won't even be old enough to be their mother, I won't even know them. She twisted her wedding ring around her finger uneasily wondering how much they knew about her, about what she'd done. If they're safe and happy I won't care, she promised herself, but they were raised as hunters...goddammit John. There was a rush of anger at the thought that surprised her-- Heaven was fading the more time she spent sitting in this diner getting reacquainted with the sensations of the living, but she remembered forgiving John for that long ago, remembered a pervading feeling of peace, the sense that everything was now beyond their control, that their children would be safe and would join them soon enough. That feeling had stopped her from hunting down every possible piece of information on her sons' lives that she could get, had drugged her into contentment. Now, free of timelessness and faith, she was anxious and irritated and wished she could find John and-- well she wasn't sure if she'd slap him or kiss him. Never entirely was sure which I wanted to do some mornings she thought and smiled to herself-- only to drop that smile as a blonde girl and a giant of a man with a solemn face sat down across from her.

“It's nice to meet you,” Mary said absently, distracted by something about the man Jo had introduced as her friend, something she felt she should just know but that skittered away on the edges of comprehension. She smiled at him uncertainly and then turned back to Jo, schooling her features into a calm expression. “If you knew John then I'm sure you know what...what happened to me. I don't know how I got here either and I'm sure there are tests you have to do. I was raised as a hunter, I understand.” Impatience was creeping up on her but she kept her voice calm, though she was unable to stop herself from darting another glance at the man next to Jo.

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ex_demonbloo908
2010-08-05 11:55 pm UTC (link)

Sam didn't recognize her from memory. The few photographs that Dad had taken with him the night he decided to avenge his wife was all that Sam knew. That and the rare description that he had gotten out of Dean every once and a while. The thing of it was, looking at her now was nothing like staring into a faded photograph or hearing descriptions from another persons mouth. She looked very much the same, but entirely different at the same time. Like there was nothing in the world - not even a picture - that could capture how incredibly beautiful Mary Winchester actually was. Don't, Sam warned himself, body tensing, don't get your hopes up. He had to stick to the plan. Play his cards carefully. Approach the situation as he would any other out of the norm hunt. That was kind of hard to do when his feet were rooted to the ground; body stuck in the abrupt halt that had overtaken Sam at the mere sight of her. Sam wanted to put it off - he'd have liked to go right back out that door, climb right back into Jo's pick-up, and just drive. It didn't matter where he went. He just couldn't be here. He couldn't do this. Sam opened his mouth to warn Jo that maybe waiting for Dean would have been a more sound plan, but the words refused to come out. Someone had put a lid on his voice. Sam couldn't say anything. And even if he did have the voice to do so, Sam didn't think he'd be able to find words for his voice to carry. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real. Sam knew this because good things like this didn't just happen. Particularly not to Dean and himself. Having Mary alive would have very much been a gift rather than a curse. It didn't seem likely when the entire Winchester family, Mary included, seemed to be nothing more than that. A curse. Screwed up, wrong, and destined for horrible things. It was a pattern among them all and Sam didn't see how something like this was possible because of it.

There was a time where he had been less cynical. Sam couldn't remember when that side of himself had faded away.

Quietly, and much more slowly than Jo herself, Sam approached Mary's table and slid into the booth beside her. A very brief wave of conflicted emotion through his gaze, but Sam did well to harden it into a more neutral, calculating expression once he remembered that they were here to do more than gape at whoever this was. His eyes immediately fell downward, focusing on anything but the woman seated across the table from Jo and himself. He decided right then and there that it was probably wise to let Jo take the reigns on the situation for now. She knew what to do and, frankly, she'd probably get it done a whole lot more quickly than Sam could himself. He swallowed hard, long fingers tangling together nervously in his lap.

It had been Jessica. There was a chance that the woman he had spoken to over the boards had been Bela - she certainly behaved as annoyingly as her - and now...now Sam was trying his damnedest not to get his hopes up. What were they to do if this was actually her? Take her on the road to hunt? Get her all mixed up in the apocalypse? Again, he was getting ahead of himself. They needed to figure out who this was before Sam started mapping ideas out in his head. Sam forced his attention to Jo alone, shooting her a pathetic sort of look. Being here was definitely a lot more difficult than he had originally anticipated. Sam suddenly understood Jo's reluctance to bring him along.

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harvelle
2010-08-06 03:12 pm UTC (link)

Jo deliberately did not look at Sam as he slid into the booth beside her. Her dark gaze remained focused on the blond woman across from them, studying her closely - and a little curiously. She could see hints of Sam and Dean in the woman's face, the shape of the eyes, the chin. There was no denying the resemblance. However, resemblance didn't mean that it was truly Mary Winchester who sat across from them.

From beside her, tension flowed from Sam in a steady wave, and under the table she nudged his knee with her own - half in reassurance, and half in 'calm the hell down' gesture. When he didn't speak he figured she was letting her take point, which was for the best in Jo's opinion. "If you knew John then I'm sure you know what...what happened to me. I don't know how I got here either and I'm sure there are tests you have to do. I was raised as a hunter, I understand." Jo gave a slow nod. She could understand and appreciate the woman's impatience, but she wanted to make sure this was done right.

"I met him when I was a kid, but yeah, I know what happened to you." Her mom had actually been the one to tell her that. "I never knew you were a hunter." As far as she knew, her own mother hadn't known either, and she was sure that Sam or Dean would have mentioned it. After flickering a glance towards the diner's single waitress who was currently occupied with a large table full of teenagers, Jo slid one hand into a pocket and pulled out a flask of holy water.

"We might as well get started. Hold out your hand." When she did, Jo tipped the flask to spill a small bit of the liquid onto her hand, and waited for some kind of reaction.

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_takeasadsong
2010-08-08 03:47 pm UTC (link)

"No," Mary said, jerking her glance away from Jo's friend again as the younger woman spoke, "he wouldn't have told you would he? I forgot, he didn't know then, Hea-where I was, it makes things... fuzzy... sometimes." She smiled sadly and twisted her wedding ring again. In a way she was glad Jo was here, testing her, giving her something practical to do. The idea of seeing her sons again, the men they'd become, was an unexpected gift but if she really had been brought back to life and John hadn't...I'm only 29, physically, I'd have years and years without him, maybe more than he had without me. I don't know if I could...

She held out her hand when Jo asked her to and found herself letting out a relieved breath when the holy water hit her skin and didn't burn. She felt like herself but she had been raised to believe that if something came back from the dead you should shoot it full of holes until it went back to how it was supposed to be. "I'll be as relieved as you if I pass these tests," she said to Jo with another small, half-sad smile. "I have no idea how I was brought back. I feel like myself but if there's anything wrong I shouldn't be near Sam or Dean." Her gaze wandered back to the man next to Jo, the feeling of recognition in the pit of her stomach growing more insistent but no more helpful. She shook her head again, quickly, "Salt and silver next?"

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ex_demonbloo908
2010-08-10 05:59 pm UTC (link)

Jo might not have known that Mary was a hunter, but Sam sure did. It hardly seemed like something he'd been all that interested in bringing up was all. He found out a good while ago. Dean got sent back in time by Castiel and he mentioned all kinds of things about their parents that Sam hadn't known about before. Mary in particular, had a surprising history. Raised up in a family of hunters. Kind of like Dean and himself. It had been a shock to discover, but Sam had long since learned that tidbit of information about his mother. He didn't flinch when the verification left her mouth. Instead, Sam clasped his hands together tightly along the edge of the table, doing all he could from bolting either at the figure across from him or for the nearest exit. Frankly, he hadn't decided on which of the two options were more preferable. It didn't help him by much when the holy water failed to do it's job. Or, all right, it did do it's job. Just not so much in the way that would have been easier for everyone. Those hopes that Sam had been trying to bury lifted just a tiny bit.

"Yeah," Sam said gruffly, a large hand rising to smooth over his jaw. "Not too sure if -" His voice caught. What he had meant to say was that he wasn't too sure if the silverware was one hundred percent silver and that they might as well try using something that was more guaranteed. Didn't want any shifters poking around. Sam swallowed hard and reached into his pocket. His fingers wrapped around the pocketknife John himself had given to him when he'd been no more than seven. Silver. Sam wanted to offer it up for the silver test, but he didn't think he could bring himself to extend the object to the woman across from them. Sam knew Jo would have had something on hand. It didn't matter. Sam looked down again, not daring to utter another word. She probably thought he was a freak. Couldn't even got a sentence out. We don't even know who she is yet, a voice reminded him. Sam shifted uncomfortably next to Jo. Game face. Had to keep the game face on. It was a difficult thing to manage when he was emotionally ripped in so many places at once. Whoever this was definitely knew that something was wrong with him. It was why she kept looking his way, wasn't it? It was why he felt like nothing would have been more satisfying than for a hole to crack it's way through the ground and swallow him whole. They'd get this over with soon enough.

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harvelle
2010-08-11 01:47 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah." The blond Hunter gave a small nod. Jo's eyes weren't on the hand - they were on the woman's, watching her carefully to judge her reaction to the water. There was no flinch, no hint of darkness, and no burning from the water, which confirmed that it wasn't a demon - not that Jo had really thought she was a demon. The body was honestly too fresh. She recapped the flask and slipped it back into a pocket, then pulled out a silver cross on a silver chain. A lot of Hunters, in her opinion, went a little extreme with the silver and insisted on someone being cut, but all you really needed to have them do was touch it. Since Mary's hand was still extended, Jo dropped the necklace into it. Under the table, her other hand touched Sam's knee lightly in an effort to try and calm him down. She, too, had seen the looks, and knew that they were making Sam uncomfortable.

This was weird for all of them.

After dropping the pendant in her hands, she reached for the salt shaker and slid that in front of the woman as well. "Do you remember much of where you were? Do you even know how much time has passed since?" To be honest, she was curious - especially after having recently died herself (even though it was only for a few minutes and she was fine as she kept telling everyone).

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_takeasadsong
2010-08-12 02:22 am UTC (link)

One of the things that had surprised Mary most about becoming a wife and mother was that there never really came a time when you stopped thinking about what your own mother would have done or said in a given situation. Or maybe that was just if you had been lucky enough to have a mother like Deanna Campbell. Right now Mary, twenty-nine physically and otherwise old enough to have grown sons, could hear her mother reproving her to stop staring so rudely when it was clearly making the poor boy (though really he wasn't much younger than her) uncomfortable. If only she could figure out why she was so drawn to him...

She grasped the cross when Jo held it out to her, clutching it so hard it left marks on her palm, then sprinkled salt on her fingers, even lifted one finger to her mouth to taste a little of the salt. "I'm actually starting to believe this now," she said softly as she looked down at her hand, shaking some of the salt off, before Jo's question distracted her.

"Where I was?" Mary repeated, raising a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear in an unconscious, thoughtful gesture. "I think it was Heaven. At least it was a place where I felt...where everything felt...resolved is the best word I think. You know when you're angry at someone and you want to forgive them but it's more complicated than that? Where I was those complications were just gone. I was reliving the best moments of my life again and again, I was with my husband, and I felt that my family was safe without me..." she shook her head. "But the more time away from it the more it fades. I don't think I'll even remember what it felt like or what I knew while I was there eventually. Other than that I know that it's 2010, I saw a newspaper headline, and that my husband is still dead but my sons are alive, and that there's some sort of apocalypse?" She sighed. "Is that all the tests or are there more?"

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ex_demonbloo908
2010-08-12 11:51 pm UTC (link)

Sam fidgeted his way through each and every test. Holy water? Check. Silver? Check. Salt? Check. Sam had even gone out of his way to slide his spoon off the table and tilt it at an angle to see if the reflection he got in turn out of looking at Mary through it fit. It wasn't distorted and horrific; the reflection came back exactly as it should have, eliminating the possibility that Mary was a Siren. The spoon dropped down heavily onto the table, rattling against it's surface as Sam leaned back in the booth and pushed a large, shaking hand through his hair. Breathe. He had to keep breathing. But God, how could he do that when this woman was....she was - Sam cautiously lifted his eyes to look over at her, expression carrying nothing but a conflicted mixture of shock and worry. She'd passed. That was it. This woman wasn't a monster out to trick them. She was Mary Winchester, just as Jessica had been herself as well. She passed.

"No," Sam said in a hoarse sort of voice. "That's it. No more tests." Now what? What was he supposed to do? What was he even supposed to say? It was one thing to walk into a room with the thought that he was going to potentially have to kill a monster. But this was different. He was sitting across from his own mother and Sam found that the most he could do without coming across like a fumbling idiot was stare. She had been up in Heaven with Dad. Now she was down here, stranded in this apocalypse with the rest of them...that meant that they'd have to protect her. Find someplace safe and secure, make sure it was guarded better than the damned White House itself. Nothing was going to get to her again. She may well have been burned to death on his ceiling when he was a baby, but Sam was grown up now. He could fight back. And he would fight back if anything tried to harm her again.

Sam abruptly cleared his throat, forcing himself from his stunned daze. "We should, uh - we should get you outta here. Someplace safe. If you're really back, that means...that means that other things could know that you're back too. Unless you're hungry? Have you eaten? You gotta be hungry. Uh..." Sam twisted around in his seat, desperately seeking out a server. What was he doing? Panicking. That was exactly what he was doing.

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harvelle
2010-08-14 04:54 pm UTC (link)

When there was no reaction from silver or salt, Jo let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She took the necklace back slowly and slid it back into her pocket, a glance being shot towards Sam when she caught the spoon's movement. Since he didn't panic or pull out a gun, she assumed that Mary passed the final test. Which meant that it really was Mary Winchester sitting across from them.

She was about to answer, when Sam did instead. Under the table, Jo squeezed his arm with her left hand. She could understand a little of how he felt. "First off, I just want to say that it's an honor to meet you, Mary." She offered the woman a smile - much more friendly now than it had been before. When Sam cleared his throat, her dark eyes turned to him, and she nodded her agreement. "There's an apartment complex that's safe. You can stay there if you like, or I have an extra room at my bar." Her eyes were on Sam when she spoke, though, silently asking him which would be better.

When he started to panic, Jo gripped his arm tightly to calm him down. She thought it over a moment, then figured that they should just tell Mary the truth now, before waiting any longer. She caught his eyes for a moment to try and warn him, before she looked back to the woman again.

"One last thing...I'd like to introduce you to my friend. Mary, this is Sam Winchester...your son."

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