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

[He nods slowly, keeping her eyes on the stars.]

We met her and Ellen not long after my dad died. Apparently he and her dad used to hunt together and Dad was on the hunt that went bad and got Bill killed, but we didn't know that at the time. They had a Roadhouse out in the midwest which basically functioned like a hunter bar. People could drop in, swap information, gather backup for jobs, that kind of thing.

[He sets his jaw.]

Jo always wanted to hunt. And she was good, too. Her mom didn't want her to because of what happened to her father. She would sneak out to join us on jobs and we would get so much shit from her mom but she wanted to do the job. Do the research, solve the puzzle. But she got caught in the tidal wave of bullshit that was our lives at the time and ... it had an undertow most people don't really escape. Both she and her mom died trying to help us, and ... I don't know. The play didn't even work, so it's one of those things where it wasn't even worth trying. I would have rather kept my friend.

[He then shakes his head.]

That year was a bad one. It felt like we couldn't get ahead no matter what we did.

The deck was stacked against the both of you, it sounds like for a long time, even after that terrible year. Dean. And you.

( And that undertow brought everyone else in. )

And you didn't force her to help you. It was her idea, wasn't it, whatever... she didn't escape.

She was dying anyway, at that point.

[Not the main plan, the main plan was all them.]

We were taking a run at Lucifer. He was doing some kind of ritual in Carthage. Murdered an entire town to try and summon Death. We had the Colt, a gun that was said to be able to kill anything. We were going to try and get him with it, and Ellen, Jo and Bobby were backing us up. We got pretty far in, but ... we didn't see the hellhounds.

[You can't see them. They're invisible, obviously.]

They cut Jo up pretty bad. She didn't have a lot of time left. Had a bright idea to lure in the hounds, because once they got your scent they didn't stop until you were dead. Had us build her a bomb that she could set off while we went after Lucifer. Ellen refused to leave her alone.

[He shakes his head.]

We made it to Lucifer, and Dean shot him. Got him right between the eyes. And then Lucifer just got up and laughed it off, and ... there were so many people in that grave next to him. An entire fucking town.

[It's no mystery, when he looks back on that year, why Sam eventually said yes. Why he realized that it was the only way out of the anchor that kept dragging him and Dean down. The real miracle is that Sam managed to do what he needed to do.]

He predicted exactly when I would say yes that night. Like it was inevitable.

( Her eyes find him as he tells the story, letting him finish it before she says anything else. )

He may have predicted when you'd say yes, but he wasn't right about everything. And he didn't win, even if he did then and there. I know there's a lot more and Lucifer kept coming back in one form or another, but he's gone now. And Ellen and Jo are back, whatever that means for them. Jo is a hero. And Ellen died with her daughter. Which was her choice. And Lucifer... got the last laugh then. But, not forever. For what it's worth, I'm really sorry, Sam. Everything I hear about that year... Everything was designed against you. Your failures. Your loopholes. Your last ditch efforts. And the people you lost. But, those people went on their terms. Jo. Ellen. If that isn't one big middle finger.

[Sam nods slowly, hearing what she's saying even if he can't say he feels it. He doesn't feel the guilt his brother does, his own suffering balancing some of those scales. But he can't say it doesn't suck all the same.]

Well, now they're back. And we have to figure out why, but they're them and they're not ghosts designed to fuck with us, so at least that's a step in the right direction.

[He nods.]

It's good. I know it is. I'll get there.

[Once the shock wears off.]

Not loving that that's a thing that happens.

( But, loving that it's not happening. )

You're not under any gun, you're free to feel everything you need to. I'll hold you up while you find your balance.

I appreciate that.

[He glances over to her with a smile, before giving her hand a squeeze.]

I know the year isn't over yet, but you've really been the best part of it.

Right back at you.

( She squeezes his hand back, laying her head down again.

Should that be where they leave things, the group comes together back at the mansion and makes their way to Sam's pin.

While enough rooms are grabbed and everyone says goodnight, Matt's and Jo's rooms are next to one another, and as he tries his key card, he can't shake the energy from the day. Maybe it's from being brought back to life, but he won't be sleeping any time soon.

So, he looks back at her as she inserts her card and points behind him with a thumb.

"I saw a bar downstairs," he says, floating the idea. He will probably go there, even if she doesn't come with him. They've each been fronted a little cash. Apparently, Dean and Sam have cash handy. It's a "hunter" thing. )

[Oh, Jo definitely isn't going to be sleeping. The plan was to set up her new burner and try to catch up on everything she's missed in the last decade but when Matt suggests the bar, that seems like a much better option.]

Sure. I could go for a beer.

Great. Dean and Sam are buying.

( He holds up one of their cash stashes.

Downstairs, it's late and the one bartender seems content to give them beers and leave them alone. Better for them, not that Matt cares what he might overhear. What's this guy going to do?

Jo is finishing recounting the last thing that happened to her before - well, they both know, they don't have to name it, do they? )

Osiris, Osiris?

Yeah. He was a real dick.

[She takes a long swig of her beer. God, she missed beer. She's missed everything living, honestly, and is definitely not mad at being solid and human again.]

He's drawn to guilt, and Dean is a walking guilt factory, so Osiris trotted my ghostly self out to push all of his buttons.

Then keep him away from Elena. I love her, but for a long time, she believed everything that happened in Mystic Falls was because of her.

( He fully believes it was Stefan and Damon and whatever happened in the past and doppelgangers and things out of her control. He never once blamed her. He even convinced her once to throw a funeral for the girl lost to her parents' car accident. )

[She smirks.]

Sounds like they're a match made in heaven, then.

[She waves a hand as she reaches for one of the fries in the middle of the table.]

Osiris is long dead, though. At least if what Sam says is true.

Sam doesn't strike me as a liar, but, I just met him tonight. Dean, I haven't got a bead on, but, he seems solid. He and Elena are a thing. And the girl with the bow, she's with Sam. Allison. And I know Jeremy, I grew up with him. He's Elena's little brother.

( He takes a fry, himself. )

That guy Elijah posed as someone for the historical society of our town. He's actually an old vampire. The first of his kind and he has this vampire family.

Yeah, I'm still catching up with a lot of the names. I think I was also introduced to a girl named Buffy?

[The Winchesters certainly surround themselves with such interesting people.]

What about you? Before all this went down were you just hanging out in the after life?

I don't know Buffy, but she's with Stefan, now.

( He missed her hand-to-hand heroics. Or, her attempt at it. Damn dice. )

Yeah, basically. The longer I'm down here, the less I remember. I was going somewhere before I was brought into Elena's spell. Meeting... someone. There were other people there, people I knew.

That must have been nice. Sucks that you're forgetting, but ... being a ghost means you're alone a lot of the time.

[It would have been nice to have other people around. Maybe her mom, maybe Ash.]

Yeah, I know. A uh, spell was performed my senior year and it brought all these ghosts out in the open. I saw my sister. There was this plane called the other side which kept people's spirits that had unfinished business.

( And the original witch sure took advantage of that. )

They needed a special plane for that? Ghosts already do that all on their own.

[Jo doesn't understand magic and more to the point, she doesn't want to. It's not any of her business. As much as she does like to research, that's more Sam's bag.]

They didn't, it was created by this witch, Quetsiyah because she was obsessed with a guy who looks exactly like Stefan, Silas. She wanted to ensure that when he died, he was stuck there with her.

( She was crazy. He missed a lot of that because he'd been abroad, on the run, and then possessed. )

[Jo let out a low whistle before shaking her head.]

Never piss off a witch. That Silas guy probably could have used learning that lesson a little earlier.

He fell in love with someone else, and that may or may not have been based in Traveler magic. ( He shrugs, not actually knowing. ) Anyway, so, I've been there before. But, not like I was at Peace. It was different. Really lived up to its' name.

Sounds nice.

[She pauses, before making a face.]

I probably would have lost my mind.

[Jo is not a girl that's good with not a lot to do.]

I don't know, it kind of came with the territory. People at Peace were at peace.

( You'd moved on, left it all behind. There was no unfinished business and you could watch over your loved ones. )

[She nods, because she supposes that makes sense.]

I never really thought about what would come after. And then when I died, I didn't actually go there, so it all felt moot.

[She shrugs.]

Maybe I'll get a take two - hopefully a long, long time from now.

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