InsaneJournal

Wash Away My Sins: Chapter Five - Supernatural
Title: Wash Away My Sins
Authors: Aratocriel and Jade Blood
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Dean, Sam, Dean/OFC, Sam/OFC, OC!villains
Disclaimer: Supernatural and it's characters belong to Kripke and the CW. Nina belongs to Aratocriel, and Janis belongs to me (Jade), so no using them without our permission. We make no profits from this and are just having fun!
Summary: A year after the events of "Unity in Duality", Janis and Nina are a bit savvier regarding the world of the paranormal, but the resurgence of old enemies has left them needing the help of the Winchesters once more.
Previous Chapters: 1 : 2 : 3 : 4



Chapter Five

Janis and Nina lived in a neighborhood just on the edge of the main city, so the car ride didn't take long. The talk had been casual; Nina pointed out the street she and Janis had grown up on as they passed it. Nina had smiled fondly as she told Sam about the time she and Janis had raced their bikes down the road after a summer rain only to go skidding off the side and end up in the ditch, covered from head to toe in mud. She also pointed out the Eagar Times, where Janis worked, though passing by it and seeing the flowers people had laid near the door on Reg's behalf only served to remind them of the situation they were in, yet neither spoke of it.

"Here we are," she announced as they pulled into the parking lot of Ol' Jim's Supermarket. "I suppose we should be quick. I'd like to stop by my work on the way home, just to check up on everything. If you don't mind."

Sam nodded his agreement to both statements despite his doubts. Already he was feeling that being away from the safe haven she and Janis had built for themselves was a mistake. Dean had been right to call it a fortress, and being anywhere else at a time like this left him feeling somewhat exposed. When they exited the car and made their way inside, he draped his arm casually about Nina’s shoulders. This was partly to deter anyone from approaching and partly to keep her from getting out of his sight.

Once a cart was selected that didn’t make too much noise, they began navigating aisles and picking out food. There were the obvious items they’d thought of before leaving: ice cream, beer, and bacon. Once these were out of the way, they concentrated on essentials.

After placing a loaf of bread among their purchases, Sam offered her a shy smile. “You know, it couldn’t hurt to pick up some things we want to cook together.” He immediately realized how corny that sounded and laughed at himself. “Just because… that might be nice.” And that made it worse.

"That would be nice," she agree. "Well, what do you want? We could pick up steak and cook that if you're up for an actual meal, or we could go get ingredients and bake cookies." She turned a huge cheesy grin towards him.

“If we got steak, Dean would eat it all before we even got the first bite,” Sam joked. “Make it chicken, and we might actually have a chance.”

He took a moment to consider the idea of homemade cookies. Had he eaten one since Jess had died? That was a horrific thought, both in how ill-timed it was and how depressing. It hit suddenly and violently because homemade cookies were associated with the women in one’s life, the little ways they say “I love you.” He’d had no mother in his youth, so Jess was the first one to do that for him. She’d been so astounded by his enthusiasm for something she’d known since childhood, but she’d not questioned it. As much as his heart ached, he knew she wouldn’t want him destroying himself over something that should be meaningless. Yet the symbolism still burned.

“You know what?” he answered softly. “Yeah, let’s go ahead and do that.”

"Alright," she replied, frowning slightly at the way he answered but not questioning it. They continued with their shopping, pausing slightly to figure out which kind of cookie they wanted to bake and finally settled for the classic chocolate chip. They picked up some chicken, as well as steak, potatoes, and a few other odds an ends before starting toward the checkout line.

They rounded the corner at the end of the aisle just as Nina heard someone calling her name. She paused, turning to see one of her neighbors walking in her direction, an older lady who lived a few houses down from her and Janis.

"Hi, Laura," Nina smiled as the older lady stopped in front of her.

“Why hello there, dear!” Laura replied as she drew in closer. She had no cart and seemed to have nothing in hand to buy. Sam tilted his head at this but tried not to jump to conclusions, considering she may have just arrived. “How are you doing?”

"Well enough," Nina replied. "Oh! Sorry, Laura, this is Sam, a friend from out of town." She gestured between them by way of introduction.

Laura nodded to him with a smile then turned back to Nina. "Honey, you haven't seen Jewel, have you?"

"Jewel? Your cat?" she asked.

"Yeah, she's been missing for two days now, and I can't seem to find her anywhere," Laura replied.

"No, I haven't seen her, I'm sorry." Nina shifted a little closer to Sam. "Have you tried the pound? Maybe someone picked her up."

“Well, we did check there,” Laura fretted gently, then shrugged. “Not like her to run off, but we can always get something else to play with.” She smiled disarmingly, and Sam slipped an arm around Nina’s shoulders.

“I’m really sorry to hear that,” he put in. “If we see her--”

“Oh, and how long will you be staying?” Laura interrupted.

Sam smiled and replied as easily as he could manage, “Not sure yet. As long as we need to.”

“We?” she asked, her eyebrows climbing up her forehead. “You wouldn’t be hinting at taking our Nina away?”

"Sam and his brother are in town helping Janis and I with some home remodeling," Nina replied.

"Ah, what are you doing to that beautiful home?" Laura tilted her head slightly.

"Repainting, perhaps adding a back porch," Nina shrugged. "However, I do think Sam and I need to be running; our ice cream is going to melt." She nodded towards the carton of Moose Tracks in the cart with a smile.

“Can’t have that!” Laura giggled, yet she reached a hand out and took Nina’s fingers in a grip that might be a bit too strong. “I worry about you and Janis all alone in that house, honey. I heard what happened to poor Reg up at the paper. Janis must be all to pieces.”

Nina held back a wince, her fingers feeling like they were being crushed. "She's upset, of course, but she's a strong girl."

Laura narrowed her eyes for a mere second, but it was enough for Sam to feel as though they shouldn't linger here any longer.

"Are ready to go, Nina?" Sam asked, plucking her hand away from Laura and finding it took more force than it should.

"Yeah," she nodded and gave Laura a half smile. "Nice seeing you. Take care."

Laura watched them go, and Sam could feel her eyes on their backs. The checkout line wasn’t long, and the woman at the register wasn’t slow, but they still felt like it took far too long before they were outside and stuffing their groceries in the backseat.

When Sam got behind the wheel and started the car, he paused to glance at Nina. “That was no mistake… Call me paranoid, but I’m pretty sure that was another attempt to scare you. I think she might have been possessed. I’m sure you didn’t want to hear that…” He trailed off as he pulled out of the parking lot, not wanting to linger even a moment more.

"No, I didn't want to hear that, though I kind of figured as much." Nina leaned back in the seat and sighed. "She just didn't seem the same. You think she's the only neighbor they've possessed?"

Sam shook his head. “I think they’re getting sick satisfaction from striking you and Janis close to home, and possessing your neighbors is part of that. So you may be seeing more of the same before this is over. Are you sure you still want to stop by work?”

"Yeah, we need to, a quick stop, but I want to check in on everything. Besides, Codi is going start wondering if I've dropped off the face of the earth if I don't check in." Nina gave him directions, and they were off.

A few minutes later, Sam was pulling into the parking lot at Green's Armory. Sam eyed the shop once they were inside, taking in the walls upon walls of various guns, knives, and bows.

He turned to her, smirking. "Somehow this fits perfectly."

She returned his smirk and walked over to the counter where a woman was helping a customer. She looked up when she was finished, a grin passing over her face, the ring in her bottom lip shining.

"Nina!" She propped her tattooed arms up on the counter. "I was going to call you today. I thought you'd dropped off the face of the earth!"

Nina and Sam shared an amused look before Nina answered. "Janis and I have been going through a rough time. Family stuff."

"I hope everyone's alright," Codi's face fell slightly.

"Yeah they are, for now," Nina replied with a weary shrug.

"Hopefully it'll stay that way," Codi said and turned her eyes to her Sam. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Sam. He's visiting from out of town. Came to help Janis and I."

"Ah," Codi winked at her. "Good lookin’ boy, though not my type."

Nina chuckled at this, knowing full-well Codi's type was the complete opposite of Sam. In fact, Nina was closer to her type than Sam was.

Sam smiled shyly. He worried a little about saying too much in front of her, afraid this might be a replay of the nearly disastrous, grocery store trip. While he said nothing of this to Nina, he urged her to stay close to him. “Me and my brother actually. We’re friends from way back.”

"We need to be heading back, but I wanted to stop by and let you know I'm still here," Nina told her. "I'll call you when I can come back in, if that's cool with you."

"That'll work. Take care, hun." Codi nodded to her and smiled at Sam, "nice meeting you."

“You, too,” Sam replied. As they stepped outside again, Sam leaned into Nina’s ear. “Do you think we should warn her? I could get some holy water… Be sure we’re dealing with the actual Codi, and then try telling her what’s really going on.”

Nina balked at Sam's question. "For one, she's not possessed. She's perfectly normal. And secondly, aside from freaking her the hell out, do you think warning her would help her?"

Sam stopped her short just before they reached the car. “The way that neighbor, Laura, acted back there was sloppy even for a demon. Believe it or not, they can be extremely deceptive, so don’t speak so soon. And… I don’t know her, so I can’t say. How do you think she’d take that kind of news?”

Nina glanced back at the shop. "I actually think she'd take it rather well, to be honest with you." She looked back at Sam with a frown drawing her mouth down. "We should tell her. How do you want to go about it? We can go back and tell her now, or I can call her and have her come over for dinner tonight."

Sam glanced at the car, then at the shop. “Part of me thinks we shouldn’t put it off. But at the same time… Maybe if she saw the house, that could help. Or it could make her feel like she was being kidnapped and indoctrinated with the craziest thing she’d ever heard.” He paused and offered Nina a wince. “I’ve been through this too many times. But truly, there are pros and cons all over the place. I just don’t know…”

"My choice, huh?" Nina sighed. "If we take much longer, Dean and Janis will be coming after us in full force. I'll call her when we get home, and we can tell her then. Sound like a plan?"

Sam nodded and held out hope that their enemy wouldn’t get brave in the next couple of hours.

* * * * *

“You’re sure this isn’t making your legs go to sleep or anything?” Janis asked, wincing at the thought.

Dean shook his head with an indifferent frown. “I’m fine, darlin’.”

She nodded and remained sprawled across his lap, glad to hear that he didn’t wish for her to move. Truly, she was content there, safe and sound. Neither of them minded the silence that had taken them over for the moment, and it was nice to know that they could be comfortable in it, having reached the point beyond pretense and useless small talk.

Yet Janis did have questions and news of her own that she’d held back, and now was as good a time as any to let it go. “What have you and Sam been up to? I know a year is a lot to cover, but… just give me the highlights.” Dean’s eyes widened as he blew an exaggerated sigh, and Janis cackled at his expression. “Loaded question? I’m good at those, if you’ll recall.”

“Nah, just…” Dean smirked at her, and she was reminded of a thought she’d entertained so long ago. That he was rarely as real as he wanted to be. “Like you said, a year is a long time.”

“Oh, trust me, I’m aware,” Janis huffed with a tired laugh. “Nina and I… Well, you get the gist of that.”

“Starting to,” Dean chuckled, looking about himself again. “You seem…” He shrugged. “You know your shit now. I almost feel like you don’t need us.”

“Oh, don’t even,” Janis giggled. “I need the hell out of you.” She paused to cup his cheek, leaning in for a kiss that lingered longer than she meant for it to. “I don’t want to say that this is bigger than last time, but five demons is decidedly more than two. And? No powers for me or Nina to fall back on.”

“This is nothing,” Dean replied with a cocky grin. “Sammy and I butted heads with seven. And I mean ‘the’ seven.”

“Deadly sins?” Janis asked breathlessly. “Greed, Lust, Wrath…”

Dean nodded and shot her with a finger gun. “It was wild. Bobby was there.”

“Bobby!” Janis crowed and planted her hands on Dean’s chest, batting at him in her excitement. “Oh God, how is he?”

“He’s great,” Dean laughed. “Ornery as ever.”

“Oh, I miss him,” Janis smiled. “When you see him again, give him a hug for me.”

“Well… I’ll tell him you said ‘hey’,” Dean grunted, and Janis snorted at the way he brushed off the idea of randomly embracing Bobby. “Besides, you may be doing that yourself before this is over. I don’t want to bug him if we can help it, but if this gets much bigger?”

“Understood,” Janis conceded. “I wouldn’t mind another veteran in our midst. Nina and I may know our shit, as you put it, but that doesn’t make us hunters. Far from it. We know just enough to make us dangerous, more to ourselves than them.”

“So… what?” Dean asked gently. “After we split, you just started keeping up with this stuff?”

Janis nodded. “Couldn’t exactly fall back into sleeping awake like everyone else, pretending the world is all candy and roses. So I took a job with the Eagar Times in an attempt to keep up with current events that might seem off. Nina started reading everything she could find on demons and spirits. We fortified this place to the point that… we can’t invite people over or they’ll think us mad. We know how to kick a little tail now, too.”

“Seriously?” Dean grinned.

“Tae Kwon Do,” she nodded. “We’re not that advanced yet, but we’re getting there. Slowly but surely. In other words, no, I won’t fight you.”

“Aww, what a chicken,” Dean snickered.

“You are… what?” she whined. “Six-foot-one? Two? All muscle? Screw you.”

“That’s right,” he replied, tightening his grip on her. “And you love every inch of it.”

“True,” she purred and pressed a soft kiss into his temple. “I do.”

Though he looked entirely pleased with himself, he chewed his bottom lip thoughtfully. There was a subject they’d not broached that he was in no hurry to bring up, yet he was so damn curious. He knew he wasn’t the only man in the world who found Janis hot, as illustrated by the very dead man who had chased her around the office. Small town or not, there had to be others.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Janis asked. “I don’t like suspense, baby.”

“Just… speaking of a year apart,” Dean prefaced with an expectant look.

“The guy situation?” she asked playfully. “Well, I could ask the same of the girl situation.”

“You first,” he said and donned his poker face.

“Okay, so I dated here and there,” she replied truthfully. “Tried to get serious with a couple, but it didn’t pan out. Slept with three of them.” She paused and tried to gauge his expression, but he wasn’t having it. “They weren’t what I was looking for. Not what I wanted.”

“Hmm,” was his non-committal reply.

“Don’t,” Janis breathed, “be jealous. Just don’t.” She set her jaw, then prompted him. “Your turn.”

“Flings,” he muttered and waved his hands back and forth to emphasize his point. “Meaningless.”

“Smooth of you to put it that way,” Janis laughed. “Honey, we didn’t even think we were going to be sitting here like this again. I don’t really think we have any reason to try and justify ourselves or beg forgiveness for things that… don’t count as cheating in anyone’s book.” Yet they both felt a twinge of jealousy, and she knew it. Perhaps the mood needed lightening. “Then again, if you left the house right now and tried to screw the first girl you saw, I might have to go back on what I said about not fighting you.”

“Hey, I’ve seen the heat you pack in this house,” Dean said, putting his hands up in surrender. “I ain’t stupid.”

“No, far from it,” Janis giggled. “Smartest man I know. You liking these ego strokes? I can keep going.”

“Eh, I’ve got other strokes in mind, personally,” Dean growled and dove for her throat.

Janis cackled at the ceiling, mostly at how incredibly cheesy that line was. Her hands moved down the line of buttons over his chest and began sliding them open. Yet before they got too far, she yanked his tie off over his head and ran to the door, opening it long enough to hang the tie from the knob. After pouring more salt in place, she raced back and collided with him, almost toppling the chair as she did so.

She kissed him hungrily, then moaned and broke away again. “Oh wait!”

As she hopped down and crossed the room, Dean’s expression turned petulant. “Baby, come on…”

“You’ll like this!” she promised, flipping the small stereo on the shelf to “CD” and pressing play. A wicked grin crossed her face as Metallica’s Black Album began playing, the intro for “Enter Sandman” unmistakable.

“You’re kidding,” Dean laughed, and he had to do so loudly to be heard above the speakers. “You want to fuck to this?”

She sauntered back over, plopped onto his lap again, and smirked. “I happen to think this is the perfect soundtrack for love making.”

“How’d I get so lucky?” Dean asked, nipping a trail down her throat.

“How did I?” Janis asked quietly in return, yet the music was already drowning her out.

To Be Continued...