everyonelives | for the rest of us death will be a relief

["Let's not forget the werewolf that showed up with Ellen." Cas makes his way over to join them, getting out of the way of the Harvelle reunion.

That makes four.]

Here, New Orleans, Sioux Falls - there's probably more.

[Sam rubs his eyes.]

We should probably figure out where we're going to pretend to sleep while we figure all this out.

[It's almost morning but they could probably all at least use a few hours.]

Already on it.

( He holds up his phone, shaking it. He's sent up a bat signal. He assumes they'll have some responses in a few hours. Their network's pretty far-reaching now. )

You mean, you don't vote we sleep in the old witch murder house?

Absolutely not.

[The bodies aren't even burned yet, and he wouldn't put it past anything in that house to be vengeful. He glances over their people and starts to do the math. Him and Allison, Jeremy and Matt, Jo and Ellen, Elena and Dean, Buffy and Stefan - ]

Five rooms, give or take?

Six to be safe?

( Something tells him this isn't over. )

Cas mentioned the young werewolf but nothing else. Safe to say they don't have anything to do with us?

If they were in New Orleans, he probably left them with Hayley.

[Which is probably for the best, there are a lot more werewolf-related contacts there.]

Maybe Ellen knows? I'm going to go find Allison and see if we can get the rooms going. I'll send you at text once we find a place.

[Because who knows who's going to have six rooms open at this time of night.]

Edited 2025-10-14 00:23 (UTC)

( He nods, approaching the mother-daughter reunion, but keeping his distance.

Ellen finally separates.

"We've really stepped in it, haven't we." )

Seems like it. I certainly didn't have this on my schedule.

[She also sees Dean, hovering, but before he intrudes again, she wants to make the introductions she narratively promised.]

Matt, this is my mom, Ellen. Mom, this is Matt, another member of the Recently Resurrected club.

[Because she doesn't realize this is another version of her mom. She assumes this is the mom who stayed with her in Carthage, who finished the job when she couldn't. But she's about to find out how wrong she is.]

Hey. Mrs. Harvelle?

( "Don't you go throwing around all that Ms. or Mrs. Crap. Ellen's fine and you'll stick with it, or you'll regret calling me anything else," she says, pointing at him. )

Yes m'am. Ellen.

( She nods, turning back to Dean who's --

"Would you stop being a helicopter?" she asks.

"Sorry," Dean says, clearing his throat. "Just giving you space you need. Sam's hooking everyone up with rooms for the night cause we're not staying here." )

I'd hope not. The bodies aren't even burned yet.

[Jo turns to face him, knowing they need to have a moment, but probably not going to be in front of Matt and Ellen. They have time. They have all the time, apparently.]

So it's not just us? There are just people popping up all over the place?

( Dean needs to have a few moments, he'll prioritize all the needed time, but for now, no, not in mixed company. Not in front of her mother or Matt Donovan. He's barely out of this, he doesn't know if he has it in him to go back into that headspace. He remembers investigating Osiris and the circumstances surrounding it. He remembers Amy. He's a hell of a different person since he was, then. )

So far, your mom, another young werewolf, Matt here, and this other woman, Fred. ( She's down in Sioux Falls. ) She's a friend of a friend and - not dead anymore, either.

( He eyes Ellen, and all the baggage she comes with. The Titanic not sinking. He has half a mind to look out for fate. And, flip, if everyone is coming alive, is she going to be back? It's not one history-changing event. It's -- whatever just happened. )

So we need to figure out the common denominators.

[This feels like research, and this is always the part she was good at. Able to make the connections and find the things that pull the case together. It feels like something to do beyond sitting here and trying to figure out how to be alive again.

She sure as hell isn't going to be sleeping.]

Are we tracking who else is popping up?

Way ahead of you. We got something going between a few of us. Our networks widened considerably since you last knew us. Would you believe we play well with others now?

( Dean, with Elena's influence, anyway. )

We'll get you set up on that, too. Back alive. ( He eyes Ellen again and looks over at Sam, ) Matt, can you come over here with Sam and me?

( Matt frowns, but he doesn't have much to do but be herded around like a bunch of cats, apparently.

He follows and lowers his voice, too, "What is it, Dean?" )

Oh. Nothing, they just need some privacy. Jo's lid's about to be blown a second time today and we shouldn't be there for it.

( And, back with mother and daughter, she comes closer.

"No tears, you hear me? I know I wasn't in this reality, but I am now. We need to focus on this new lease on our lives, if it's a temporary lease or a mortgage deal. Then we go from there." )

[Jo blinks because she doesn't know how to take that statement. She holds up her hands before tipping her head to the side, restudying her mother.]

Wait, wait. What do you mean "wasn't in this reality"?

[She feels an uncomfortable churning in her stomach, as though Ellen is trying to tell her something she doesn't fully understand.]

( Ellen steels herself, and looks back at them. )

So, I see my boys still haven't figured out basic communication in their intervening years. ( She sucks in a big inhalation before turning back. ) Joanna, last I knew, you were in California, and I was in Sioux Falls, at Bobby's. In a reality created by a mischievous angel goin by the name of Balthazar. He saved some big hunk of ship metal goes by the name of the Titanic. Last I knew, he was going to reverse his big faux pas and I was looking at not existing. Not this me. And Castiel told me I don't exist on this Earth. And I know what that means, baby.

[In Sam's defense, he didn't know that this Ellen was the other Ellen.

But yes, blame the other two, they're terrible boys.

Jo takes all this information in and on the one hand it's a relief, to know that there's a world where her mother didn't die brutally and terribly. But then she immediately takes umbrage with that phrasing because:]

You existed.

[She takes a breath before looking down at the ground.]

We just ... died.

( They mean well, they do, but they are walking headaches. And, she's about to curse their namesakes. Something is happening. But this is between her and her daughter. )

Well. ( What do you say to that? ) We both know there are no guarantees in life. ( And they know where their jobs could lead them. ) We go down, guns blazing?

[Jo nods, before swallowing.]

We were in Carthage, trying to help the boys make a run at Lucifer. There were hellhounds, and they cut me up pretty bad. But the boys set up some explosives, and we were going to have me lure in as many as I could. You stayed with me. We went out together.

[As they were always bound to. This is the life they chose, and they were always going to go out guns blazing.]

Thank you for telling me. But, this ain't Carthage. And until we get real answers, I'm treating this like you should. More time with my daughter.

( But swap daughter and mother. It'll be time together. Mor time with Ellen and time with Jo closer than California. )

[Jo nods with a small smile, even if she can't help but feel like another shoe is going to drop.]

I'll feel better when I know that there isn't some terrible price waiting on the other side.

[Once they've confirmed that someone isn't dying on her behalf, she'll feel better.]

We pay for it one way or another. ( She will kick someone's ass if she has to. ) That werewolf we left back in New Orleans, she wasn't kept well. She was weak. Stumbling. I can only imagine how others are showing back up. We're the lucky ones.

[Jo's brow furrows, trying to figure out what the difference was. Why she didn't show up with her shirt covered in blood and jagged holes in her? Is it because she remembers Osiris?]

Is she alright? The werewolf. Is she with safe people?

Cas connected her with other wolves. I can't see him sticking her with a pack he doesn't trust. If not him, the boys. I'll check up on her.

( She'll get around to it. )

How are you? You off at all?

Other than having a heartbeat and occasionally forgetting to breathe?

[Which is off for her normal sense of things, at least from what she can remember.]

I could eat, actually.

[Now that her body has remembered she needs to fuel herself.]

Maybe the boys can take us through a drive through.

Get something greasy under your gills.

( She's getting her sea legs back. )

I had dinner, but I could eat again. Dean!

( Finally, she brings him back into the conversation. )

We're hungry. What's the ETA on leaving this bloody menagerie?

Hopefully sooner rather than later.

[She turns to glance towards Dean, who seems frazzled and tired, so while Jo doesn't think she needs to sleep, she hopes he gets to soon.]

These witches are starting to give me the willies.

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