After the End

Chapter Fourteen

After they picked up their dinner, Jo continued leading Dean to wherever the hell it was she was taking him. She just kept telling him, "Don't worry, you'll like it!" and that was the end of the conversation each time Dean asked. Dean was still recovering from the conversation with Cas only thirty minutes before, so he wasn't much of a conversationalist when Jo tried to talk to him. He gave short replies, tried to smile sometimes when she looked at him, but otherwise, his head was spinning. As much as he tried not to think about Cas, he couldn't help it. The words "don't go" and "I want you" were playing on repeat in his mind and there was no pause button.

"We're almost there," Jo announced, tightening her small hand around Dean's as they ducked under low hanging tree branches. They were within the walls of the neighborhood for now, but they were getting dangerously close to the edge. "Just past the wall," she continued, which was what Dean was afraid of. He was lucky he had his gun stuffed into the waistband of his jeans more often than not, because it would probably come in handy tonight.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Dean asked, all thoughts of Cas subsiding for a moment as he remembered the last time he'd been out past the wall. Not that he had any kind of PTSD from being shot or anything, but he knew what was out there. He didn't want to put Jo in any kind of danger if he wasn't fast enough to kill something that came after them.

Jo glanced at him with a small smirk. "You scared?" she taunted, making Dean roll his eyes. "Don't worry, I come out here all the time." Despite her reassuring words, Dean still felt a cold chill run down his spine as they crossed over the threshold into the woods, away from the safety of the neighborhood. Jo led him further into the trees, walking for maybe another ten minutes before they came out into a clearing. There was a lake that glistened in the moonlight taking up half the clearing and Dean stared at it for a long time, listening to the sounds of insects chirping around him. Eventually, Jo took his wrist and led him closer to the water where she fanned out a soft blanket for them to sit on.

"This place is nice," Dean said, breaking the silence. They unwrapped their dinner plates and sat across from each other, both on the edge of the blanket to put as much space between them as possible. Dean struggled to balance his plate on one knee while eating with his left hand and momentarily laughed at the thought of Cas offering to feed him.

"I found it years ago," Jo told him, staring off into the distance, over the surface of the lake. "The undead didn't come here, so I spent a lot of time getting to know this area. I told a few people about it. Charlie, my friend Ash, and now you."

"So you and Charlie are friends?" Dean wondered, trying to make conversation that would safely steer things away from thinking about Cas.

"Yeah, my best friend," Jo shared, a small smile lighting up her pretty features. "Kind of like you and Cas. He is your best friend, right?" And of course, if there was any way possible for it to end up being about Cas, that's right where the conversation would go. Especially when he was trying to avoid it the most.

He felt his mouth go dry again, despite his water crushed tightly between his fingers. "I mean- yeah, he is," Dean stammered, hoping it didn't come off as awkward as he thought it did. "But I doubt we've known each other as long as you and Charlie. I'd love to hear more about you two," he tried, giving his best smile as Jo watched him carefully.

"There's not much to tell," she answered, basically like a slap to the face for Dean. "We met here, obviously, like six or seven years ago. We became fast friends. That's it. What about you and Cas?"

Dean groaned quietly, wishing he could get out of this. He could tell Jo his arm was hurting too bad and that they needed to go home, or he could say he was too exhausted, or something. But, he didn't, because he wasn't going to be an asshole and just leave her without a real explanation. "We met a couple months ago, after the end of the undead. I ran into him on a supply run, brought him and Jack in for a meal, and then they left. But- But something told me to get them back, so I went after them and asked them to stay with me and my brother. We've been close ever since." It was the short and sweet version, the one without all of the pining and self-hatred where Dean was in love with his best friend and Cas didn't see it at all.