Dani: Later Seasons Part 2 (Jack)

 Second half of my little musings from later Supernatural seasons.  I got behind on the show again in the middle of Jack being sick and haven't picked it up again since that season came to Netflix, so this is all I have for now. 

Dani muted the TV as someone rapped on the door of their motel room.  She went up to the door and cautiously looked through the peep hole.  Her eye brows went up with surprise.  It was Jack.  She opened the door and smiled at him.

“Hey Jack. What’s up?”  She stopped when she saw the look on his face, like was about to cry.  “What’s wrong?”

“Is Adam here?” he asked. 

“Yeah, he’s in the shower.”

“Can I talk to you, alone?”

“Sure.”  She stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her and they walked to a darker section of the parking lot.  “What happened?”

Jack looked down at his shoes.  “I killed somebody,” he said softly. Then the rest came out in a rush. “I didn’t mean to.  A monster was robbing a bank and I, I shoved him with my powers, but there was a guard who was next to him.  I just knocked the monster down but the guard, he hit his head and, and he died.  I just wanted to help, but I killed him.”

“Oh honey.” Dani reached out and laid a hand against his arm. 

“They’re afraid of me now. Sam, Dean, even Castiel. I had to leave so I wouldn’t hurt them. I tried to do good, but I just hurt people.  All I do is hurt people.  I really am just a monster.”

“No you’re not,” Dani said.

“I am,” Jack insisted.  “That man would be ok, he’d be home with his family if it wasn’t for me.”

“Jack, it was an accident.  A big one, yeah, and that doesn’t make it better, but accidents do happen, especially for people like us.  So you learn from it, and you make sure you do better next time.”

“What if I can’t do better?”

Dani held up her hands in front of her, letting her claws out.  “You see these,” she said.  “You know what they’re for? Hurting people.  I got lucky, the first person I went to town on was a monster we were hunting.  But it could have easily Sam, or Dean, or just some innocent person on the street.  I can’t change what these are, or what they’re for.  But I can choose how I use them.  I can help people, or I can give up and just hurt people.” She put her claws away and took one of his hands.  “It takes time to get control, and it’s hard, I know.  You know that I know.  But you can learn to use your powers so it’s safe.”

“You don’t know that.” Jack shook his head, his lower lip trembling.  “You don’t know.  Maybe I am what Dean’s always thought I am.  Maybe I’m evil and I can’t do good, even I want to.”

“No.” Dani tightened her grip on his hand.  “You are not evil, I can promise you that.  If you were evil you wouldn’t care what happened to anybody else.  You wouldn’t care if you hurt people.  That’s how I know that you are good.  Because of how much you care about this, because of how much this hurts you.”

Jack took a shuddering breath and she put her arms around him.  “Come here.  I know it’s hard,” she whispered, pulling him close as he started to cry.  “I know it hurts and I know you’re scared, but I know you can do this.” 

She held him for a few minutes until he pulled away.  He sniffed and ran a hand across his face, wiping away the tears.  “Thank you,” he said.

“I’m here for you anytime, you know that?”

He nodded.  “I should go.  It’s not safe for you if I stay.”

“Jack, it’s late,” she said.  “Why don’t you crash with us tonight, get some sleep, and decide what to do in the morning.”

“There’s nothing to decide.”

“Ok,” she lifted a staying hand.  “It’s up to you, but please, wait ‘til tomorrow.”

“Just until tomorrow,” he agreed.

 

The next morning when Dani woke and looked around the room she didn’t see Jack.  “Adam, wake up” she said, tossing a pillow across at him in the other bed.  “Where’s Jack?”

Adam grunted, throwing the pillow off.  “I don’t know, he was right here.  Is he in the bathroom?”

“No, it’s just you and me here.”

 “Well I didn’t hear the door.”

“Me neither.”

“Wait, can’t he teleport?”

Dani sighed. “Yeah.  I was hoping we could talk him into staying with us for a while.  Until maybe we could convince him to go back to the bunker.” Dani ran a hand through her hair.  “We’ve got to find him, it’s not safe for him to be on his own.”

“Right, well he can’t have that much of a head start,” Adam got out of bed and started pulling on a shirt.  “Let’s hope we find him before anybody else does.”    

                                                                                . . .

 “Thank you for coming,” Castiel said, accepting Dani’s hug.  “Ever since he’s been unwell he hasn’t wanted anything to do with anyone who isn’t myself, Sam or Dean.” They started to walk down the hallway together.  “With this new case requiring all of us we didn’t want to leave him alone, and we thought he might accept you.  I know you’ve been busy-“

“Hey,” Dani cut him off, “just because someone insists on always sending me on jobs that are states away,” she raised her voice so that Sam, standing in the main room could hear, but he ignored her, “does not mean that I am not still part of this family.”

They went to the dormitory hall and knocked on Jack’s door.

“Yeah.” That was Dean.

They slipped in and found Jack sitting in bed, leaning against the headboard.  He looked pale and tired, and the room was tinged with the coppery scent of blood. He smiled when he saw her. “Dani.”

She returned the smile and went to sit on the edge of the bed next to him.  “What have you done to my angel?” she asked, glancing at Dean.

“I’m not an angel,” Jack corrected softly.

“Maybe not literally,” she said, caressing the side of his face. 

“All right, remember what we talked about,” Dean said to Jack.  “Anything changes, you start to feel worse, you tell her, hear me?”

“I will,” Jack assured him.

Dean turned his attention to Dani.  “Call us if you need anything or if anything happens, we’ll get back here.”

Dani nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him.”

“Ok, well we’ve got to get going,” Dean said, but he hesitated before he left the room.

“We’ll be fine,” Dani said.  “Be careful out there.”

He nodded and he and Cas shut the door behind them.

“You want to watch Star Wars?” Jack asked.

Dani smiled. “I always want to watch Star Wars.  Which one?”

“All of them.” Jack grabbed his computer off the bedside table.

“Well, I’ll stick with you until you get to seven.”

“Sam said you were purist.”

“No entirely,” she argued.  “I liked Solo.”

“I haven’t decided where I stand on that one yet,” Jack said. “I understand the complaints about the newer ones but I like Finn.”

“He is the best part,” Dani agreed.

 

Dani and Jack sat on the edge of his bed.  Jack bent nearly double, his body wracked in a coughing fit that seemed to go on forever, spitting bright blood into a towel as it came. 

Dani rubbed a hand across his back as the coughing finally subsided.  “There you go, take a breath.  You’re all right.”

He drew in a deep breath and she could hear it rattling in his chest.  “I’m dying aren’t I?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Dani admitted.  He was getting worse, and they still hardly had any idea what was causing it, much less how to fix it.  “We’re going to figure something out,” she said, putting an arm around him.  “We’ll look through the lore again, we’ll find something.  We’ll figure this out, we always do. You’ll be ok.”  But she knew she didn’t sound as convincing as she wanted to.

Jack nodded and let his head rest against her shoulder.  They sat in silence for a minute until he started coughing again.

 

Dani stood in the doorway of Jack’s room, a large lore book hugged to her chest, as she watched him sleeping fitfully.  What are we going to do? She shook her head and went the rest of the way into the room, kneeling by the bed.

“God,” she whispered.  “I know they say you’re not there anymore, but I don’t know if I believe them.  If you are there, please, help Jack.  I know Nephilim are abominations or whatever, but you know Jack.  He’s kind and good and he can do so much good for this world.  If any of us deserve to live it’s him.  Please,” her voice caught and she took a breath, blinking back tears, “please save him.  Please don’t take him from us.”