16. A "Genius" Idea

Even though Sam's accepted me for being a demon, he's still not one-hundred percent comfortable being around me. I didn't expect him to be hugging me like old times.

It's been a little bit since the massacre at Randy's place. Instead of feeling the post-thrill adrenaline, all I feel is disgust. How I just let myself go to town...

I could have done so much worse, I could have been on Dean's level. What I did was practically nothing. Yes, I killed four people, but Dean's total surpassed mine.

I'm outside, leaning against my truck. I haven't interacted with Dean since the massacre. I'm sure by now Sam has talked to him about our conversation, and how Sam finally believes that I'm their sister again.

I peel away from my truck as I see a shabby-looking yellow car park near the Impala. Cas gets out, and I can't help but laugh at little.

"Nice ride, Cassie," I say fondly. But even his nickname doesn't even lighten him up. "What's wrong?"

"Claire."

I quirk my lips into a lopsided frown. "How is she?"

The pain in his eyes says it all. I sigh, pressing his forehead against mine, rubbing his hair with my fingers.

"Thank you for the effort, Josette," he says.

"I don't like you like this," I say, pecking him on the mouth. "And to feel like this because of one girl..."

"She's not just a girl, Josette. She's the daughter of the man whose body I took."

"Right." I look down.

"How are you?" He feels the scabs on my face.

"Sam," I say. "We're okay now. It took some time, and a lot of talking. I will give him props for being the cautious hunter that he is."

"I'm sorry, for—for helping him out."

"I'm not mad at you," I say honestly. "I'm not mad at either of you. I promise."

"At least your interrogation didn't lead to more harm, or an exorcism."

"Has that happened before?"

"There was someone, once, before you came around. Sam and Dean took her in. She had a demon inside of her, and it came out to play. They got it out, but the demon did some serious damage. I wasn't there to witness it. Dean...h-he told me about it. I was hoping that wasn't going to be you, Josette. I couldn't even think...about Sam doing something like that to you."

"He didn't," I tell Cas firmly. "I'm okay, we're okay. This is water under the bridge now. Come on." I move away, grabbing his hand as I lead him to the bunker.

The second we step inside, I lose my grip on Cas's hand. I'm the first down the stairs, hand gliding along the railing. Sam's on his laptop.

"Hey, Cas," he greets my angelic boyfriend. Yeah, I haven't thought about Cas as my boyfriend for a while. Maybe never, actually, before now. "How's Claire holding up?"

I make a gesture for Sam, but it's too late. He's already asked the question. I just got him feeling a little better, Sam.

Cas starts pacing in the library. "She barely speaks to me." Sam takes a seat at one of the tables, and I plant my ass on a table corner. "She's like a wounded animal, just watching me."

"Look, Cas, you know what?" says Sam. "You really tried to do the right thing that night. You did. This guy Claire was hanging out with, Randy, all he did was use her."

"Well, she thought he was kind. And for that, she loved him. Shows how little kindness there was in her life. You know, whatever Randy did, he didn't deserve—"

"No, yeah, I know, I know. I hear you. Dean has had to kill before. We both have. But that was—"

"That was what?" Dean comes into the war room of the bunker. He looks absolutely awful, like he's been through war.

"Dean," I say softly.

"That was a massacre. That's what it was. There was a time I was a hunter, not a stone-cold killer. And I'll bet you're thinking the same, Jo."

I avoid eye contact, pushing my hair out of my face. Truthfully, I'm not thinking that. I'm actually thinking that Randy did deserve to die by putting Claire in danger like he had.

"You can say it. You're not wrong. I crossed the line. Guys, this thing's gotta go." Dean's eyes fall onto the red mark on his right forearm.

"That won't be easy," I state the obvious.

"Well, then burn it off! Cut it off!"

"You really want to amputate?"

"If it gets the damn thing off, why not? It wouldn't be the craziest thing I've done."

"It's more than just a physical thing," Cas tells Dean. "It will take a very powerful force to remove the effect."

"Dean, we've been through all the lore," Sam says gravely. "There's nothing."

"This reaches back to the time of creation. It may pre-date the lore. If we had the Demon Tablet, maybe."

"But you said it was missing."

"It is." Cas hesitates. "There may be another way."

"Okay, well, what's the way?" I ask.

Cas dips his head a little, like a scolded puppy. "Metatron."

"What?" I bellow, jumping to my feet. "That son of a bitch who killed Dean and me? No, no way. No way in Hell."

"Josette—"

"No, Cas. Bad idea." I shake my head vehemently. "We can't go asking Metadouche for answers. He probably won't give them to us until we put a truth serum down his throat or go through his head to find the answer."

"What other choice do we have? He may be our only source of information."

I lick my lips in irritation. "So, what? You'd go to Heaven and talk to him?"

"We wouldn't be able to do what's necessary in Heaven, with witnesses."

"Well, we're not keeping him here."

"Josette—"

"If you bring him here, I can't guarantee he'll go back to Heaven alive."

"It's a risk we'll have to take," Sam says quietly. "I'm with Cas on this, Jo."

"Dean?" I look to my older brother.

"I hate to say it..."

I groan. "Damn it." I rub my face. "Okay, say we get Metatron here. How do we do that? Wait...how did he even get into Heaven to begin with?"

"I locked him up in prison," says Cas.

"So you want to break him out?" I scoff. "Great plan, Cas. What other genius ideas do you have in that head of yours?"

"Okay, okay, just simmer down, Jo," Dean says calmly. "Look, we may not all like the idea, but it's the only thing we've got right now. We got to buckle down and deal with it, okay?"

I roll my tongue around in my mouth. "Fine, but I'm not going for picking him up."

"I think we can all agree that's a good idea," Cas says carefully.

"I'll go with you, then," Sam volunteers. "Dean and Jo can stay here."

"Sounds like a plan," I say curtly. I stomp off down the bunker halls.

Easy there, big girl. He's not here yet. The real test doesn't begin yet. I stop in the middle of the hall, feeling some relief at having my black eyes exposed. I feel like I'm me now. I don't have to hide this from anyone that I care about. So what if they aren't okay with it? It's not their choice. I chose this, and I'm going to damn well make sure that I don't regret it.

Unlike the first time I sensed something was behind me, I don't swing around to stab them. Instead, I blink my demon eyes away, showing the vulnerable green as I turn to Dean.

"You good?" he asks.

"I'll manage." I clear my throat. "Will you?"

"We'll see. Can I ask you something, Jo?"

"If it's a promise to not shred Metatron into bits, then no."

"It's not that." He shakes his head. "It's about...what happened at the house. At Randy's."

"Go on."

"I lost control in there." He looks to me, hopeful. "Is that what happened to you, Jo? Did you just go a-wall for a split moment?"

I gnaw on the inside of my cheek. I could tell Dean the truth, that it wasn't losing control, that me going Dark Side was me expressing myself. I could also lie to my big brother to make him feel better, since he looks as though that's what he wants to hear right now.

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Y-yeah. The idea of seeing you hurt, and then with those creeps trying to take Claire, and the fact that they were stupid enough to try and shoot me...It just got me overloaded. I...I almost killed Sam because of it." That was the only truth, that I had almost killed our little brother.

"Yeah, uh, Sam told me that." Dean rubs the back of his neck. "And then we went on our usual fight about me keeping it from him, and Cas keeping it from him, and then you hiding the secret. He went off, Jo-Jo. How he didn't believe who you said you were."

I chuckle. "Sounds like Sam. He's always the one who second-guesses everything. In that case, he had good reason to." My hands cup my elbows. "Listen, how about we make a pact, okay?"

"What kind of pact?"

"When Metadouche comes, I'll keep you in line if you keep me in line. As much as we hate him, he could have the key to getting that damn mark off." I nod to the red etching on Dean's right forearm.

"What if we turn on each other? What if it gets messy?"

I purse my lips. "Then we let the chips fall where they may, and hopefully the only casualty that comes out of it is Metatron."

**[rubs hands together evilly] I knew this episode was inevitable. I mean, Metatron is the reason Jo got into this body. (Okay, well, Sam burned her body, technically, but Metatron killed her.)

You know things are gonna be good**