Mute 𖤐 Sam Winchester

EIGHTEEN

THE nights in the motels were the worst. She missed being at the bunker, where she actually felt safe. Anxiety constantly poisoned her mind about Brandon; worrying about if he was trying to find her.

Sam and Joyce were different since the night they took down Calliope. In a way, Sam had admitted his feelings for Joyce that he held onto for a while.

Joyce knew Sam was better than Brandon; Sam was the real man. But it still frightened her nonetheless.

One morning at a motel, Joyce sat on the floor with her legs crossed. John Winchester's journal sat open in her lap, on the page about Joyce's father.

Hunting trip with Mike Cameron today. The best hunter in the states. I tracked down a Wendigo in Colorado, Mike's taking his daughter Joyce to hunt it down.

The second paragraph was written a week later.

Mike was killed in those woods, the Wendigo got away. Joyce miraculously survived, but the girl is never gonna be the same again.

"Joyce?"

Joyce peeled her eyes away from John Winchester's handwriting and she focused her eyes on Sam. He held a small cup in his hand.

"Checking out the journal?" He asked.
Joyce watched as the tall man sank to the floor beside her and crossed his long legs. He handed her the small cup that contained coffee.

She placed the journal in Sam's hand before pointing at the two paragraphs on a separate journal entry. Sam cleared his throat as he read it.

"Wow." Sam said. "I don't think I've seen this before."
Joyce signed. "It was stuck to another page; about the Wendigo."

Sam sighed. "In a way, I think my dad felt guilty. I mean, he gave the lead to you and your dad."

"I don't blame him for my dad's death."
"I know you don't. But my dad used to feel responsible for a lot of things."

Joyce leaned forward and turned the page to the drawing of the Wendigo. Sam frowned lightly as she pointed at it.

"That's the only thing I blame."

She stared down at her hands by the time Sam closed the journal.

"Have you ever wondered how life would be, if things were different?" Sam asked.

"I wouldn't be the silent freak that I am."

Sam frowned. "Joyce, you're not a freak. At all. You lost the ability to speak trying to save someone you love. And you know what that makes you?"

She looked up at him.

"That makes you selfless. That makes you strong; that makes you a hero."

Joyce watched as Sam signed hero for her, and she grinned. The girl reached out and took his hands before fixing it.

"That was backwards."

Sam scoffed. "But you can hear."

Joyce smiled.

"Connecticut?"

Joyce sat in the backseat of the Impala when Dean explained their new road-trip. She stiffened slightly at the mention, and Dean glanced back at her.