Chapter Text
The email wasn't something Jack looked at right away.
Even though phones were a common thing to have and to look at from day to day, he just never saw the point of constantly looking at it. If someone messaged him, like Dean or Cas for example, then he would answer right away. Why wouldn't he? But when it came to going though his Facebook requests and Instagram tags? Well, he didn't really know what that was. Claire had called him one day to complain about it but if he wanted to talk to her, then why wouldn't he just call? Or text, if they were busy? He just didn't get it. It only got more complicated when apparently he had to set up an email. Sam had to write down his password and account on a post-it note and pin it to his wall. There were a few others hanging on the wall to keep it company, but he rarely used it.
Castiel called it a "process", to go from being something... bigger than could be seen, to suddenly be... confined. Jack wouldn't say he felt confined now that he gave up his powers. He still felt like him, even if he forgot that he can't do the things he used to. That's what he thought Cas meant when he said process. After all, he had been a human for a short time once. Only for a little while, but long enough to know what he was going through. But recently he felt...
He didn't think it was confinement. He could still go where he wanted to when he wanted. Sam and Dean didn't really hunt anymore, but they still did stuff on the side for other hunters that needed the help here and there. But only sometimes. Most times they were out doing stuff they couldn't when they had the world on their shoulders. Going to see road shows, races, going to fairs. Fun stuff that they all did. Just last week they went to some kind of craft show with Donna and Jody. Originally it was just meant to be Castiel and Jack, but somehow Dean had gotten roped into it as well. Despite his grumbling, he had a good time, and so did Jack.
The point was, there was plenty to do. Now that Chuck was gone there was the opportunity for Jack to just be what his mother had always wanted him to be. Normal. Or as normal as he could be, given his situation.
He had all these people around him, a good sized place to live, and so much to see. But he couldn't do it all at once. If he still had his powers then he would take a weekend and go see the world for himself. Maybe take Sam and Dean along with him. It felt better to take it slow, though. It forced him to appreciate everything about the world. Even if he spilled food on his good shirt, or saw liter in the street, it was still part of the earth. The people he was with and around. He wanted to experience it all. The right way.
So when he sat down the brothers and Castiel to tell them to move out, he thought they would understand. Instead he got three confused faces staring at him in silence.
The four of them were in the bunker's library sitting around one of the large rectangular tables. It was the middle of the day and no one had anything to do, so all of them were dressed in their plainest clothes possible. Dean and Castiel were sitting across from him, both wearing matching pajamas despite the hour while Sam sat at the head of the table in a t-shirt and jeans. Jack preferred them sitting like that so he could see all them while he explained his reasoning. He had planned everything out a few days beforehand, using Google to figure out the steps he would need to take to get it all worked out. So he made sure that everyone wouldn't be busy on this day at this time to tell them that he was planning to move out.
When he finished his little speech, feeling pleased with himself, he looked at the three of them expectantly. He figured that they might be a little confused and sad to see him go, but he knew that they were going to be just as excited as him. He had already begun to make a list of all the things he would need when he got it.
Sam's eyebrows raised in surprise, but he had his hand to his chin and was nodding along to everything Jack had been saying. Castiel had shifted in his seat and looked at the table with his hands clasped and his lips a thin line. A look of thought, Jack knew. But it was Dean that Jack couldn't quite read. His jaw was tight and his face hard. His hands were linked together on the table like Castiel's, but his grip was hard enough to look like it hurt. It made Jack a little... concerned, but he was still feeling confident in his decision. He was ready to do this. He wanted to do this.
Castiel was the first one to speak. His voice came out calm and level, ready to give him every word of advice an angel thousands of years old could give him. "Jack," He said. "Do you have a credit score?"
Jack frowned. "A what?"
Sam cleared his throat. He gave Cas a pointed look. "How about we come back to that?" Sam asked, leaving no room for objections. Cas opened his mouth before closing it and nodding his head. He leaned back in his chair, eyeing Dean from the side. He hadn't really moved in a while.
"First of all, congrats." Sam said with a smile. Jack nodded, his own smile growing. "But before we go jumping into this, I'm curious about something..."
"What is it?"
"Do you know... anything about... housing? Jobs? Any of that?"
He had been expecting these questions so he said confidently, "I'm willing to learn."
Dean scoffed.
Everyone turned their eyes to him, and both Sam and Castiel kicked him under the table – not at all discreet. Dean looked up for the first time with upturned palms. "What? He has no work experience!"
"That's not the point." Cas said lowly, a warning hidden on his tongue.
"Right!" Sam interrupted. "The point is, Jack," he said turning to him. "Is that this isn't probably what you're imagining." He put a hand to his chest. "Take it from me, I've lived in my fair share of motels, hotels, apartments, all of that. There's a lot of work to get done before you can even think about getting moved in somewhere. I mean, do you know where you want to live?"
"Well, I don't want to be too far away from you guys. I want to take this slow, so I'll still want to live somewhere close to home."
Sam nodded. "Okay. That's a start. But believe it or not, looking for the apartment itself isn't the first thing you're going to want to do."
Jack found himself frowning again. "It's not?"
Sam's head shook. "No." He laughed. "That's actually one of the last steps you're gonna want to take."
"You'll need to have good credit." Cas stated, giving him a nod. "I'm sure Sam can help with that."
"Why do you want to leave anyway?" Dean interrupted again. This time he was looking right at Jack. He sounded mad? Or maybe confused? Jack wasn't sure.
Jack stumbled over his words but managed to squeak out, "I told you. Now that I don't have Chuck's burden on me, I want to live like a normal person. I know I won't be normal. Not like humans are supposed to be, but I want to get as close to it as I can. I want to experience new things, and I think living on my own is a good way to do that." Jack knew that it made sense. And from Sam and Castiel's face he wasn't alone in thinking that. So why was Dean...
"I don't know, don't you think you're jumping the gun on this one?" Dean asked him. "I mean I get it, I do. Living with Sam is a pain in the ass for anyone –" Sam's face went slack at the jab. "– but I mean, come on! Look at this place!" He spread his arms out to gesture at the library and the rooms beyond. He smiled broadly. "We got some pretty good digs here! And you just tell me where you want to go and me and Baby can get you there."
Despite his wide smile, Dean's eyes weren't matching. It was once again one of those emotions of his that Jack just hadn't figured out yet right when he needed it. Sure, Dean was right about having a lot of space here in the bunker, but from what Jack could understand, it wasn't at all the same. From what he had read from blogs and had watched on TV, it was about the freedom and self-reliance that made living on your own so great. Being able to live and move freely in your own space that you worked for was something that Jack just had to understand. Besides, it was common and even expected for people his age (or, the age he was supposed to be) to live on their own. Sometimes people had roommates, and Jack had three of them right now. What he wanted was to just know what it was like.
Maybe because Dean had never gotten that chance or even that opportunity to live on his own was making him hesitant. After all, he had lived most of his life in dirty motels and in the backseat of the Impala. If that was the case then Jack could see why Dean probably couldn't understand why he wanted to leave.
"I think it would be a good thing."
Dean's head whipped over to Castiel, who met his gaze with a cool stare to match Dean's. For a beat the two of them were locked in some kind of silent stand-off. Eventually Cas looked away and pointedly put all his attention on Jack. "I think this will be a good experience for you. I'm not sure how much help I'll be, but I'll do what I can."
"Yeah man, if you need anything, we aren't doing anything." Sam agreed. Dean grumbled something underneath his breath that Jack didn't catch, though from Castiel's glare, he probably didn't want to. Not wanting to ruin his mood, Jack decided to ignore him for now.
"Can we start now?" Jack exclaimed.
Taken back, Sam blinked and stuttered. "Uh, yeah. Sure. But, aren't you forgetting something?"
Jack shrugged.
"You don't have a birth certificate. Shit, I don't even think you have a social security! You won't be able to do anything without those."
Jack sank into his seat. He really didn't think of that. Realistically he knew that he was only born a few years ago, but somehow all of the finer details got lost in the thought process. He knew that he was going to need a job to be able to pay for the apartment, though any sort of thinking beyond that hadn't shown up in his head. Suddenly the whole thing seemed like a lost cause. How was he supposed to get either of those things with a situation like his? If he had thought of this before he had gotten rid of his powers then this wouldn't be a problem. He would have just been able to make himself a birth certificate and a security thing. And those were only two things that Sam had mentioned. He said earlier that there was a lot more things than just looking for an apartment and job.
"Oh." Was all he could say.
The table fell silent. Jack felt obligated to say something since he was the one that brought them all there, but he didn't have it in him. His mind was drawing blanks. So he sighed and stood up. Before he could leave, Castiel leaned forward and put his hand on the table as if reaching for him.
"I'm sure Sam and Dean can find a way to help if this is really what you want." He said with conviction.
Dean leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. Sam was avoiding looking at anyone by staring at a spot on the table, tapping his finger on the wood. Castiel squinted.
"Right?" He demanded.
Both brothers looked to him. Sam sighed and nodded, though he didn't seem as convinced as anyone else. "I mean, we've forged documents before, so a birth certificate shouldn't be hard, but a social?" He shook his head.
Dean leaned forward on the table. "We would either need to be pulling some serious strings or get a lucky star. But we can't make a promise like that. Sorry, Jack." And he sounded like he meant it.
He nodded, although he had already mentally left the room. "Yeah, it's okay. It was just an idea anyways." Even as he said it, his mind still thought back to the list sitting on his desk. "I'm gonna go find something to eat."
With that goodbye, Jack left the library and went to go find something in the cupboards. As he was descending the stairs, he could hear Sam and Dean's voices. He couldn't make out what they were saying and he didn't really want to. He moved quicker to keep himself from overhearing them.
For the rest of the day and a few days after, Jack felt bummed. He should have figured that this would have been harder than he thought. He didn't blame anyone because it was no one's fault, but he couldn't help himself from feeling like there was still something to do. The list of groceries and furniture had been crumpled up and thrown into a drawer. Jack couldn't find it in himself yet to throw it out. So he stayed in his room for a few days thinking it all over. Dean had been right about the bunker having everything they needed but it wasn't what Jack wanted. How could he tell him that living in the equivalent to a military base wasn't really... his... style? For Dean it might have been paradise, but he and Jack weren't the same. He needed something that was, well, less function and more fun. One of the reasons Jack was looking forward to getting his own place was because he wanted to figure out what his own sense of style was.
He looked around at his room and felt worse. All of the furniture was outdated and old, there was no window to look outside. He didn't have much for personal possessions, either. Although that could be blamed on being "young" and having to deal with one world-ending event after another. He had a few knickknacks on his desk and his nightstand, but beyond the clothes he wore, Jack had nothing.
Looking at the time he decided that he had been in bed longer than he wanted to be. Most of the morning was gone and he still hadn't eaten anything. Pushing himself out of bed, Jack went and got himself a pair of socks to protect his feet from the cold floors before heading out.
Over the last few days he hadn't really talked to anyone. Or more accurately, he wasn't around enough to be able to have a conversation with anyone. He had been in his room a lot of the time since he had his talk with everyone. Castiel would knock on his door every now and then to see how he was doing, but he would leave after Jack told him that he just wasn't in the mood. Cas had kept mentioning how he and Sam were looking into every option they could on how to get him the proper paperwork, but Jack couldn't match his level of confidence. He didn't mean to keep pushing him away – Cas was the one he did want to talk to about all of this. After all, he was the one that seemed the most supportive of Jack's decision. Sam also seemed to be on board with it if it wasn't for the whole paperwork set-back. And Dean? Well, that was another reason he wasn't feeling so great, but he kept pushing it away to keep himself from feeling worse.
The first place Jack went to was the kitchen. The lights were on but no one was inside. A few dirty bowls were on the table, along with more dishes in the sink. Jack had no idea how long they had been there. He wasn't really in the mood for a meal so he got to work getting the dishes instead. He could tell that Dean had been the one eating because he was the only one that put marshmallows in with his cereal. He said it gave it a better texture, but everyone else had agreed that it was gross. Jack frowned into the bowl and threw the remains of cereal and marshmallows into the garbage. He gathered up the rest of the dishes and took them out of the sink, stacking them up off to the side. From there he worked on scrubbing the inside of the sink of all the dried food before plugging the drain and getting the hot water going. He made sure to get extra bubbles. It might help his mood.
As he got started with scrubbing the dishes, he heard footsteps enter the kitchen. From the heavy thud of boots he knew that it was Dean. He kept his eyes on the bowl and the soap that was coated on his hands as Dean came up next to him. He cleared his throat.
"Need a dryer?" He asked.
Jack shrugged. "Sure."
Dean picked up one of the towels from the table and started to dry off the few dishes that Jack had just finished rinsing. The two of them worked in silence for a while. It felt slightly awkward because of the strangeness of their conversation not too long ago, yet Jack couldn't seem to form any words. He didn't really feel in the mood to talk anyway, though given the situation he felt like he should.
In the end it wasn't him that spoke up first.
Dean shifted on his feet as dried a plate. "So, the apartment?" He started – and then winced. "I mean, you – you're wanting to move out, huh? That's a big step, you know."
"Yeah, I know. I'm not worrying about it anymore, though."
"Cause of the whole, paperwork thing?"
Jack nodded.
"Sorry about that, by the way. I know you were looking forward to it, but if that's something you're serious about, then it's going to need a little more finessing than what Sam and I can do. Might take some time."
"Right."
A beat passed of that same, strange silence. "It might take a while. To, you know. Get all that sorted out."
Jack took in a deep breath, suddenly not wanting to talk about it. Before he could say anything, however, Dean held up his arms in defense.
"Hey, I know. Trust me, this isn't the first time I've had to deal with an angsty teen wanting to leave the nest –"
"I'm not angsty, I'm just... disappointed. I was really looking forward to it. But if there isn't much we can do about it, then, we might as well focus on other stuff."
And he meant it. He just wasn't happy about it, like he said. He knew everything would be fine in the end, but for right now he was pretty sure he just had to sit on this for a while and think it over.
Dean absently nodded his head, not realizing that he had been drying the same cup for a few minutes now. "Yeah. Alright. And uh, by the way –" cough. "I just wanted to apologize."
Jack's hands stilled in the sink. Puzzled, he looked at Dean. "Apologize?" He repeated.
"Yeah, you know, for the other day. The way I was acting. The things I said. It wasn't 'cause I was mad at you or anythin'. It's just." He set the cup down and searched for the words, throwing his towel over his shoulder as he leaned on the counter. "Everything just got settled, you know? Chuck is gone, we've got our lives back, everything is actually okay. I finally have the chance to relax and take a load off – not just with me, but with all of us. As a unit. So when you said that you wanted to move out I just... I don't know. Panicked? Got scared? Look, the point is, I took it more personally than it was. So... sorry."
Well, that made more sense than Dean just being mad at him for no reason. Jack should have known better than to think that about Dean, but he wasn't exactly thinking in the right direction. "I... didn't think you would be that upset over it."
"I'm not. All of us are free now, to do whatever the hell we want. It was just shitty of me to think that we would be doing it together – the four of us."
"I do want that, Dean. You're still my family. But the reason I got rid of my powers is so I can appreciate humanity. All of it."
"Yeah, I'm getting that now." He pulled the towel off his shoulder and got back to work drying the dishes that had piled up while they were talking. "But hey, we've been through worse."
Jack lit up, the excitement plain on his voice. "So you'll help?"
"I ain't making any promises, but, sure. What the hell."
Hands still covered in soap and dirty water, Jack flung his arms out to wrap around Dean's middle, causing the man to shout in protest. "Thank you, Dean! Thank you!"
"Hey, hey! Use the towel!"