Fights, Camera, Action

Chapter Eleven

Dean had gotten out of the shower first, sore and tired, while Novak insisted on staying in the shower a while longer. Whatever, at least it meant Dean could get away from him and then he could get the hell out. Heading out of the bathroom in a towel, the noise of the shower faded and he heard his phone buzzing relentlessly. Heading over to where he had left it, he got dressed while he looked at what was going on.

He had six missed calls from Sam, four from Charlie, and at least seven texts. He felt panic setting in at why they were so urgent to reach him. Hurriedly getting dressed the rest of the way, he was about to call them back when Sam called again. Dean picked up, hands shaking, as he heard the bathroom door open again.

"Sam?" He said, voice shaking. He could hear Sam gulping and crying on the other end, and his heart dropped through the floor. "Sam, what's wrong? What happened?"

"Dean," Sam answered, and his voice sounded shattered in a way it never had before. Dean put one hand on the counter next to him for support, not sure he could stand through what was coming next if Sam was this torn up.

After a few more sobs and choking breaths, Sam finally managed to calm down enough to get the few words out.

"Dean, Jess got into a really bad accident. She's... she's gone," Sam cried, voice breaking off into sobs again.

Before he knew it, Dean was on the floor, tears running down his face as he babbled incoherently into the phone. This couldn't be happening, not to her. She was so good, so sweet. She couldn't be gone. It wasn't possible.

At some point, Novak had gotten dressed too, and had almost left before realizing that something was massively wrong with Dean. He crouched down in front of Dean, eyes far more panicked than Dean would have thought they would be for someone he considered an enemy. Finally, he and Sam said their goodbyes, and Dean let go, sobbing brokenly as Novak sat down next to him and let him lean on him. Dean wasn't sure why he was being so kind suddenly, but he needed it and he wasn't about to ask now.

"What... what happened?" Castiel asked nervously, looking down at Dean where he clutched onto him. Dean hiccuped through tears, finally getting the strength to speak again.

"Jess..." he managed, falling back into sobs. Novak seemed to have gotten the point, though, as his breathing quickened.

"No, no, she can't be. She's not gone, is she?" He asked, and Dean's renewed sobbing was his answer. Surprisingly, Dean felt Novak's arm wrap around him tightly as they sat there, and began to hear him sniffling as well. He could hardly blame him, Jess was incredible, even to people who weren't her favorite.

After about half an hour, Dean finally had the strength to get up, Castiel helping him along the way. Texting his driver quickly and asking Sam where to meet him, he glanced to a red-eyed Novak.

"Thank you," he whispered, and Castiel nodded before turning to leave, the glint of tears coming back to his eye as he vanished out the doorway. Dean let another sob out before heading outside to find his driver. Hopefully, if anyone asked, Novak would tell them what happened and why he'd left. He couldn't believe it, but he really thought he would.

Getting into the backseat of his car, he told the driver to head to the location Sam had given him. The driver had also clearly heard by his red eyes and shaky hands. Jess truly touched everyone she met, he supposed. Looking out the window, he remembered all of the things they had done since they'd met. Thought of her smile, her laugh, her cutting humor, and her kind advice. Thought of how he'd never get to see any of that again. Even as the view started to blur with his tears, he thought of her, wanting to immortalize her every quality in his mind before he could lose it.

Soon enough, they were arriving at a home that Dean recognized as Jess's parents' place. Thanking the driver through a closing throat and stepping out, he took the path up to the house to knock on the front door. If he felt like this, he couldn't imagine what her poor parents felt like. Knocking with a heavy hand, he waited a few seconds before a teary-eyed Charlie opened the door. Instantly, he pulled her into a hug, sobbing as he held onto her like she could vanish any moment. They moved inside and closed the door behind them, Charlie showing him to the living room where the rest of the people in the house waited.

Dean's heart died in his chest all over again at the sight of Jess's parents clutching each other like the world had ended, with Sam next to them on the couch trying to curl in on himself with eyes so dead Dean wasn't sure he'd survived the news himself. At his entrance to the room with Charlie, Sam looked up and instantly stood, practically tackling Dean into a tight hug as they sat down. Charlie sat next to them, and they all sat like that for hours, just comforting each other in silence and going into crying fits.

Finally, her parents decided to go to bed, but told them to stay as long as they liked. They went upstairs, and as welcome as they had been made, Dean found that he couldn't be in the house any longer, not with Jess staring out of every picture frame. Standing quietly, he glanced at Sam and Charlie.

"I can't stay here," he choked out. "Do you want to come back with me so you don't have to be alone?"

Without hesitation, they both stood, nodding. The driver arrived momentarily, having been texted earlier, and they all got in, complete silence falling over them. They had run out of tears to cry, things to say, and were left with an empty space in the car where Jess should have been. Dean stared out the window again, trying as hard as he could to commit his best times with Jess to memory permanently.

They arrived home and got out, still in silence, and went inside. Immediately, they headed straight upstairs, exhausted from crying and being up so late with her parents. Deciding that he didn't really want to be separated from his friends, Dean turned to them as soon as they got upstairs.

"Do you guys just wanna sleep in my bed? I know I don't really feel like being alone," he said quietly.

"Sure, Dean," Charlie said quietly. Sam still hadn't spoken, but Dean couldn't blame him. Just about everyone knew that he and Jess had had some weird romantic tension going on, and that they had possibly even been secretly dating. He was sure that this was hitting Sam harder than either of them.

Giving his friends free reign of his pajama drawer, he stripped down to his boxers and threw on some random pajama pants. As he was getting into bed beside Charlie, who had settled herself in the middle, he heard a quiet sob rip itself from Sam. He turned to see what had happened, immediately wishing he hadn't.

Sam was holding the sweatshirt that he always left at Dean's for himself, the one that Jess always made a point of stealing from him. Without a word, Sam put it on, clutching it around himself like it could run from him. Without a single word, he slid into the bed beside Charlie, and Dean turned the lights off, letting the darkness and the warmth of his friends at his back soothe his aching head and the hole in his chest.

It took him hours to fall asleep, as he kept remembering things about her and quietly letting tears fall, hearing his friends do the same. Finally, it seemed that his mind had succumbed to the exhaustion of his activities through the day and the complete shutdown the news had brought, and he drifted away into a sleep filled with blond hair and brilliant smiles that he could never see again.