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The frantic knock on the door brought Jody to her door. As soon as she opened it, her neighbor Jessica Moore darted inside, slamming the door behind her. “I am so sorry to do this to you, Jody, but I need help.”
“Of course.” She’d always liked Jessica, although she didn’t know her well. Her family had moved in down the street a couple years back, and mentioned that their oldest daughter was just starting college. Jessica came home for Christmas and at least part of the summer, and she’d eagerly accepted some odd jobs for Jody – babysitting Jody’s son Owen, helping out around the house, doing yardwork, running errands. Usually, Jessica’s little sister Jenna did the jobs she could around her schoolwork, but she had a summer job and handed the odd job business off to her sister gladly. Jessica had a full-ride scholarship, studying art at Stanford, but it was always nice to get money that wasn’t given to her by her parents or her school and she could do what she wanted with.
Jody had never seen Jessica afraid of anything. Seeing her like this now was heartwrenching, as she moved between windows, closing blinds and drapes and whatever else she could do to hide. Once she was satisfied, or at least couldn’t think of any other way to block the view from outside, Jessica found the cupboard under the stairs and crawled inside. There wasn’t much room, but there was enough for Jody to follow her in with a partially-eaten gallon of ice cream and two purple-handled spoons. Jessica accepted the spoon with a wry smile. “I guess I owe you an explanation, huh?”
“It would be nice, yeah,” Jody agreed. “You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to, I’ll protect you no matter what, but it would probably help to know what I’m protecting you from.”
“Oh, don’t I know it,” Jessica groaned. “I have no idea what’s going on. I was out walking the Smiths’ Yorkie, when the dog started going nuts.” Jody bit her tongue, resisting the temptation to argue that Margie Smith’s Yorkie was pretty much always nuts. True, but not helpful at the moment. “Next thing I knew, the dog was gone and there was this dude standing there staring at me. He apologized to me, and then…” Jessica trailed off, shivering. “This is going to sound crazy, believe me.”
“Don’t worry. I’m a cop. I’m used to hearing crazy.” Jody grinned, hoping it would calm Jessica down a little, but Jessica just shook her head. “I promise, no judgment, whatever you have to say.”
“He said that he regretted his orders, that he would prefer to find another solution, but that in order to protect Sam Winchester, I had to die. He promised to make it quick and painless, unlike the death I was destined for,” Jessica stammered her way through.
“He told me that he was from the future, and that I died burning on the ceiling and bleeding from having my belly slit open but magically kept alive until Sam could realize what was happening and there was no way he could save me.”
Well, Jessica wasn’t wrong. It did sound crazy as hell. “Who’s Sam Winchester? Does that name mean anything to you?”
“Yes, Sam’s my…” Jessica blushed a little. “When the fall quarter starts, we’re going to start dating, see what happens. So he’s not my boyfriend yet, we only just met in May when a mutual friend introduced us and I didn’t want to start something that close to summer break, but I really like him. He’s a really awesome guy.”
“Awesome enough to die for?” Jody flinched as soon as it was out. Bad cop. Jessica needed a friend, not an interrogator or someone to smack sense into her. After all, the only evidence that she was going to die for Sam came from some crazy time traveler. “Sorry, that’s…”
“No, I understand,” Jessica promised. “It’s a fair question. I don’t like the thought of dying for anyone. If I have kids one day, sure. I respect the hell out of people like you who take on dangerous jobs to protect people. But dying for romantic love? Romeo and Juliet were idiots. No one’s awesome enough to be worth literally throwing your life away over. Think there’s a chance in hell Crazy Guy Who Wants To Kill Me will accept it if I tell him that I promise not to date Sam after all?”
Jody shrugged. She could think of several problems with that plan, starting with the fact that convincing him would require Jessica to talk to him. “How would you explain it to Sam?”
“Hey, some crazy dude tried to kill me over the summer and said it was because of you.” Jessica paused and burst into laughter. “Wait, no, that sounds like I’m accusing him of hiring a hit man. Let’s see if I can rephrase that. Someone told me that if I became your girlfriend, someone would try to kill me and it would be a horrible death so they were just going to kill me now and get it over with? It still sounds crazy, but it doesn’t sound like I’m accusing Sam of anything.”
“No, that’s better, but what if he pushes? What if he tries to convince you that you’re being paranoid on the word of someone who’s clearly unstable?”
“I…” Jessica tilted her head, long blonde curls cascading to one side. Jody couldn’t help herself, reaching up to pet her hair. “Look, this may sound weird, but I get the sense that Sam’s past isn’t exactly apple pie and baseball, you know? He doesn’t say much about his family, but I met his brother once, and there was this feel about him. Like he was a serial killer or something. Sam’s got some weirdass skills that he’s never really been able to explain. Like his fake IDs are always the best and he makes good money… um, I probably shouldn’t have said that, should I.”
Jody smirked, but gave Jessica’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “I don’t know Sam, I wouldn’t know him if someone pointed him out to me, and college kids have been using fake IDs forever. Don’t give me any specific, actionable details of crimes, and I’ll do what I always do when I hear vague things about underage drinking or fake IDs to sneak into clubs.”
“Thanks. Sam really is a good guy, you know? He doesn’t deserve trouble over something that everyone does. Weirder skills, too, like Brady told the story of an archaeology class where the professor asked for volunteers to try to start a fire using prehistoric tools and Sam managed to do it like he knew how. After a barfight – we weren’t involved, he just got caught by a wayward shard of glass – I watched him give himself stitches using dental floss. He didn’t even flinch, just tossed some rubbing alcohol on it and went to work. And the few things he’s said about his dad that I’ve heard… I think he’d believe me if I said someone was trying to hurt me to hurt him.”
Well then. Jody wasn’t going to get her hopes up for that, as in her experience people didn’t just accept that kind of thing, but Jessica was the one who knew Sam at all, although Jody wasn’t convinced she knew Sam as well as she thought she did. “So that’s the long-term problem solved, I guess, if you decide not to date Sam. How do you convince the guy after you that you’re not going to date Sam?”
Jessica didn’t have an answer for that, just kept leaning against Jody while Jody stroked her hair. “I suppose I could use the summer to find someone else, but…”
“That solves the long-term problem, not the immediate one,” Jody finished for her, trying to hold back the impatience. “Unless your plan is to ask him to come back in August?”
Jessica burst into giggles. “No, that’s not going to work, is it. Unless I can find someone in the next few minutes, but even if I could, would he buy it or just assume it’s a fake dating scenario to get him to back off?”
“He’d probably assume it’s fake. After all, pretty much the only person you could find is me, and I doubt he’d believe you wanted to date a widowed lady cop in her thirties with a two-year-old son,” Jody joked. As soon as she said it, though, Jody was faced with the vision of actually dating Jessica, and she found that she liked the idea. Well, it would be a nice fantasy to keep around, at least. Jessica was a little younger than she normally would have considered, but now that the idea was there… if Jessica wasn’t interested for any of the myriad reasons she might not be, she wouldn’t make things weird, but if she was? Why not?
Jessica seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as she laced her fingers through Jody’s free hand. “Certainly not the worst idea I’ve ever had. I get why you brought up the lady part and your age and your son, but a widowed cop? What’s wrong with that?”
“Cops are known for high rates of domestic violence, so some people are hesitant to get involved with one. I promise I’m not like that, but there’s enough truth to the stereotype I’ve always put cop in the potential drawbacks list. There’s also that it is a dangerous profession, where we might get called out at three in the morning and never come home, and some people don’t want to get involved in that kind of relationship.” Jody smirked at Jessica’s eyeroll. “Of course, some people find the danger a huge turn-on, too.”
“Fair enough, although I’ve seen how you are with Owen and I trust you not to be abusive to your partner. That still leaves the widow… if you were still married, that would be weird, but Jenna told me what happened to Sean. Not your fault at all and not something that would make me afraid.”
Jody just shrugged. She didn’t have a good answer for that one. “Some people don’t like that kind of history, that’s all. Figured I’d bring it up.”
“Well, it’s fine by me. I don’t mind.” Jessica peeked up at Jody. “Would you be interested? Nothing else about it’s a problem for me, and the circumstances are kind of weird but the more I think about it the more I like it. I kinda want to at least give it a try now?”
“Yeah. I… me too,” Jody admitted. “And if it doesn’t work out, you still have… whoa!” Jody jumped to a protective crouch in front of Jessica as the cupboard door was blown off. She reached for her gun, holding it on the strange man outside.
“Jessica Moore.” The man looked past Jody, but made no move to try to physically get by her. “My orders have changed. My superiors believe that your recent decisions will serve to protect you, to allow you to live your life instead of suffering a horrible death too soon. As that’s a better solution than simply killing you early but quickly, my orders now are to withdraw and simply observe. The enemy of my enemy is a friend.” He turned his attention to Jody. “Take good care of her. She’s important.” And then he was gone.
Jessica and Jody stared, turning slowly to stare at each other at the same time. “That was weird. But, um, you’re safe now?” Jody offered.
“Seems that way.” Jessica came out of the cupboard, stretching as she straightened up to her full height. “So… time to plan a first date?”