Outside the motel

Dean heard the knock at the door, and turned away from Sam, setting the burger down on the bed, in its wrappings. Who could it be at the door? Jenny had said she had gone to bed, or something like that, though she was the only person he could think of that it might be.

Dean walked over to the door, and opened it a crack to see who it was. When he saw Jenny he pulled it open fully, frowning faintly. "Hey," he greeted her, his brows furrowed, "I thought you were getting some sleep?"

"I was." replied Jenny, smiling, hoping that he wouldn't notice her damp fringe, exhausted slouch and darker eyes. Well, he hadn't seen her in a while - maybe she always looks like this? "But, I saw this in my bag and I thought 'what the hell' and decided to bring it over for Sam." She held out the box. "Besides, how long's it gunna be till we see each other again, right?"

Dean's features softened as he reached out to take the flu medication, turning it over in his palm to get a better look at the back. It was ibuprofen, and considering that they had run out of painkillers a couple of days ago it would do Sam good.

"Thanks," he said, and looked back at Jenny, "and hopefully not as long as last time." He glanced briefly back at Sam, who was still in bed, unsurprisingly. "We should keep in contact this time," he added.

Jenny hesitated, wondering if she should remind Dean of the last time she'd left. She couldn't believe that he didn't remember her note. Should she remind him? What if he was going to ask her anyway if she didn't bring it up. "Yeah, we should." Jenny said at last. "I'll write down all my cell phone numbers for you - and Davis'."

She glanced at Sam in the bed in the room behind Dean, who sat up sleepily.

"I thought you said you wouldn't bring women back to the motel anymore, Dean." he groaned. "Why would you do that?"

"This is our cousin, Sam," Dean groaned, rubbing at his eyes. Did Sam seriously not remember her either? This was all kinds of weird. Not to mention how Sam thought he and Jenny... it was bad enough when people thought him and Sam were together. What was it about him that seemed to say he was into incestuous sex with his family?

Dean looked back at Jenny, blocking all thoughts like that from his mind. He really didn't want to think about that.

"That would be great," he said, trying to get back onto the original topic. He stood out of the way of the door, using his foot as a doorstopper, "Hey, do you wanna to come in?"

Jenny laughed. "Yeah, don't tell me you don't remember. Not that I remember you, but still." She slipped through the doorway, looking around the room. She smiled when she saw John's journal on the table, remembering when John had looked through it and told her about some of the things he'd fought before when they'd met.

"May I?" she asked, her hand hovering just above it, not wanting to invade their privacy.

Dean hesitated. He did not really want her reading their dad's journal. It didn't seem appropriate. A lot of the stuff was just information about cases and what information their father had gathered through research, and their dad had been very selective of what he read out of it to them. When Dean had read through it, after he went missing and left it there, he had been surprised by the stuff in there about Sam and him, and about their mom. Not to mention that with Jenny not recognising Sam, and Sam not recognising her, he was starting to think that something was up.

He walked over to her, "You don't want to read that old thing," he said, as he picked it up, shoving it into one of the bags by the table.

"Anyway," he looked up at her, trying to change the subject, "What have you been up to since you left?"

Jenny pulled her hand back, instantly seeing that she'd made a mistake. How could she just walk in and ask to read John's journal? Sure, she was part of their family too, but by blood only. It wasn't like they were close. Hell, she'd run away from them and tried to make it on her own. Yeah... that turned out well.

"I'm sorry." she said, rubbing her hand where it still hurt from when she'd cut it on the glass only a few minutes ago.

She looked down, feeling something moist on her hand, which she was sure wasn't sweat and saw that the blood had soaked through. "Ah... shit." she hissed.

Dean frowned, as he looked down to Jenny's hand. Shit... he hadn't noticed that she was bleeding before. Did she have that bandage on before he saw her earlier?

"Are you alright?" he asked, as he looked around the room. Where was that first aid kit? He saw something green peaking out under a pile of dirty clothes a few feet away. Nice. He walked over and grabbed it, before going back to Jenny.

"It's fine. It's fine." Jenny insisted, unwrapping the gauze revealing the deep cut and then folding it up and applying pressure to try and stop the bleeding. She then hissed again, holding her hand to her middle and bending forwards. "Gah! Damn salt!"

She laughed, standing up properly again. "We meet again after ten years and then I make myself look like an idiot in front of the son of probably the best hunter out there." She looked away.

"Wait, I remember now!" Sam said randomly. "Jenny!"

Dean looked from Jenny to Sam, bemused by what was going on. Sam seemed to remember Jenny, and her cut looked pretty deep. Was she going to need stitches for that? Dean opened the first aid kit, and got out a bandage. The gauze was covered in blood, and Jenny would not be able to use it again.

"Can I?" he asked, hovering my her with the bandage out of its packaging, hesitant look on his face.

"Knock yourself out." she answered simply, holding out her hand and looking over at Sam who was now watching her with some kind of puppy dog look. The way his eyebrows went up and he seemed to just stare... it was quite adorable.

"How are things going?" he asked her.

Oh wow. How Dean could resist pouring out his soul to his little brother, Jenny would never know. Suddenly she just wanted to spill everything to him - like he had somehow put her completely at ease. But no, she couldn't tell him everything, especially not in front of Dean.

"Awesome." she said sarcastically and blinked a few times, trying to get out of the puppy eyes of doom stare. "My god, Sam." she muttered. "How the hell do you get used to that, Dean?"

"You learn to ignore it," Dean said absent mindedly, as he got to work on bandaging her hand, looping the white material around it until it was in place securely, "He's been doing it on me since he learned to talk."

He took a step back and glanced from Sam to Jenny. Sam still had that annoying puppy dog look on his face. Dean looked firmly away from him, not wanting to get caught up in the look in his eyes...

"You left me with no other option, otherwise I would never get a word in." said Sam, who actually looked really tired.

Jenny took her hand back and held it close to her. It hurt but she'd be okay, she'd gone through worse not too long ago.

"So, really... how has it been?" asked Sam again. If he was gunna continue with that face Jenny would have no chance...

She smiled. "Not great I guess, but I don't think about wanting to kill myself every day anymore if that's what you mean."

"Enough with the face, Sam," Dean groaned, as he watched his brother attempt to interrogate Jenny. He walked over to Sam, snagging the cup of soup from earlier on the way, shoving it into Sam's hands.

"Drink up," he said, sitting on the edge of the bed, watching Sam expectantly. The sooner he could get Sam fed and in bed asleep the sooner he could catch up with Jenny properly, and get round to looking into the circus.

Jenny couldn't think of why she couldn't remember Sam. She was sure that she should have been able to remember those memorable eyes and puppy face. He wasn't really someone who she would be able to forget so easily - and yet she had gone so long thinking Dean didn't even have a brother.

Her smile faded as she realised that she would never have that kind of sibling bond to share with anyone. It had always been her by herself, and that was it. Maybe Davis was there too, but she'd hunted alone most of the time. She'd been alone when she'd watched her mother die in front of her, and she'd been alone when she'd first killed something supernatural. She had to face a lot of the curse alone, too.

When Jenny was sick, she hadn't had anyone be there for her. She had to look after herself, stitch up her own wounds, watch her own back. Sam and Dean could watch out for each other. They didn't need to keep up their strength to the fullest all the time. And their hunting probably wasn't half as lonely as her's was. She watched Dean sitting on Sam's bed, and then Sam take the soup, murmuring a small thanks.

Dean's eyes did not leave Sam as he drank down the soup. Hopefully he wouldn't puke it all back up, which seemed to be the way that most of the food went from the past few days.

He reached into his pocket for the medication that Jenny had given him earlier, grabbing the water bottle from the bed side table as he waited for Sam to finish the soup. He glanced back at Jenny who seemed to be lost in a world of her own. "You want to sit down?" he asked, realizing that she was still standing. With the injury to her hand and her general tiredness he was surprised she had not done sooner.

Jenny's eyes snapped up. "Oh, yeah." she said, sitting down on a chair that was sat around the table which surprisingly didn't have anything sitting on it. She hadn't felt like she belonged there enough for her to sit down. If she did, it would make her feel like she was intruding. She didn't want to impose on them.

Her thoughts wondered to the journal again, and she wondered if Dean would ever allow her to take a look. Maybe, if it was something important. That is... if she did keep in contact with them. Although now, it would be inexcusable for her not to. It would be like she wanted them out of her life. She had just been a kid before. She could have gone thinking Sam didn't even exist. Dean could have been dead and she never would have known, so keeping in contact was the best way.

She leant her elbow on the table, resting her head on her hand. "So, have you got any leads about this freak show thing?"

Leaning back Dean rested his head against the wall which the bed was pressed up to, trying to get more comfortable, though leaning on Sam's legs wasn't exactly the most comfortable position to be in. He couldn't be bothered to move over to his own bed, or to get up, and he needed to give Sam the painkillers before he fell asleep.

Dean shook his head, frowning, "Not really, just that some of the stuff that goes on at the place is a bit out of there," he looked over from Sam to Jenny, "What about you? Have you found anything on it?"

"My police scanner got a few missing persons around so I looked back to where they've been travelling to and the same stories have been cropping up, but that's it. Davis thought it was a waste of time, but whatever." She yawned a little. "Kind of lucky, huh? That we both end up on the same case. What are the chances of that?"

Just then her phone buzzed in her pocket. She flipped it open, looking over the text message. "How'd it go?" Davis was asking.

Dean heard the phone go off and looked over, wondering who it was. He glanced at the time. It was half six, and the circus didn't start till eight, so they had plenty of time.

"Not very high," Dean said shrugging but smiling softly, "Though it's good that we did. It's good to see your doing okay." It really was. They had been worried over her when she had went off, leaving only a note. But it was her choice to maker her own way in the hunter thing.

Jenny smiled back, sadly. Dean could never know the truth about her, because she knew exactly what he would do if he did, or she might have thought about it. There was no way that if he knew about her he would just let her go so easily like before. It wasn't that simple. He wouldn't see her as her anymore, and then she might as well be dead. That would be just how it went if she told him. He would shoot her.

It was weird to know that the guy who seemed okay with her being there now only needed to hear a short explanation and then he would want to kill her. That was how it was with every hunter she ever met apart from Davis.

"Yeah. Okay." she agreed.

When Jenny smiled back at him it didn't look all that happy, and for the life of him Dean had no idea why. He carried on smiling, a little uneasily before looking back down at Sam.

"You finished that soup yet?" he asked, eyeing the paper cup that he was still holding. He himself was still holding the painkillers, which he wanted to get down Sam soon.

Sam put the cup down on the table between the two beds, covered his mouth and legged it to the bathroom.

Jenny watched, unhappily as he left the room at full speed. She looked at Dean as if to ask if he was okay.

Dean pushed himself off the bed, and went in after Sam, giving Jenny a reassuring smile before he entered the bathroom. Sam was leaning over the toilet, spilling the contents of what was supposed to be his dinner. His face was pasty, and he really wasn't looking good.

Dean knelt down next to him, putting a hand on his back and rubbing circles into it. He really hoped that Sam got over this bug soon. It was really bad timing for it, especially now that Jenny was in town. Hopefully they would all be able to have a proper reunion when he was feeling better.