@polyamships multiamory march day 7: "But I don't regret anything"
read on ao3 here, or continue under cut
divider cred
fandom: supernatural (tv 2005)
pairing: charlie bradbury/dorothy baum/jo harvelle
main tags: charlie bradbury lives, pre-relationship, confessions
rating: G
word count: 443
"You should've gave him the laptop." Jo shook her head.
Charlie shrugged, but the motion pulled on the stitches, and she groaned. "Couldn't lose the information." she grumbled.
"You're gonna be fine." Dorothy mumbles, squeezing her hand. Jo nods on the other side of her. For a moment, Charlie almost forgets where she is, but the rhythmic robotic beeping reminds her all too well.
Charlie chuckles weakly. If Jo hadn't gotten there when she did—fuck, Charlie didn't want to think about it. The hospital lights are too bright, but it helps her see her friends. Dean and Sam should be on their way, Jo told her earlier. Charlie wants to stay awake to see them, but she's so tired, she's not sure she'll be able to.
"You should've gave him the laptop." Jo shook her head.
Charlie shrugged, but the motion pulled on the stitches, and she groaned. "Couldn't lose the information." she grumbled.
"You're worth more than some fucking translations, Charlie." Jo swore.
She shook her head. "I signed up for this. I knew what I was getting myself into."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you go on a suicide mission." Dorothy interrupts. "Being a hero also means that means you try your damn hardest to live."
Jo and Dorothy have never met—Charlie didn't want for them to meet like this, next to her hospital bed. She never would've suspected they'd team up on her like this. It makes her smile. If she wasn't still so shaken up, she might even be a little into it.
"Besides, who's gonna help us pull the Winchesters out of trouble when they fuck shit up?" Jo cracks a smile. Dorothy snorted. Charlie chuckled a bit.
Charlie hummed. "I don't regret anything," she mumbled.
"When are you going to get it through your head that you're not alone?" Dorothy hissed. "If you had.. god, Lee, I don't know what I would've done with myself."
Jo nodded. "You're loved, Charlie. You're so fucking loved, don't you get it? You don't get to fucking die on us. I'd make a deal with Crowley myself to get you back if you dare."
Charlie paused. Oh. Dorothy squeezed her hand again.
"This really sounds like a hug moment." she grinned. Dorothy sighed and Jo rolled her eyes, but they both came to her side. Charlie sat up on her elbows as Dorothy bent down cradled Charlie's head against her chest, and Jo rested her head on Charlie's shoulder, wrapping her arm around her back.
"I love you guys," and Charlie says it so quietly, she's not sure they heard it. But Jo's breath hitches and Dorothy hums. There are horrible things in this world, and beyond, but Charlie forgets it all in favor of the love in her chest for the two women in her arms.
Dean is tired of travel by the time the small airplane touches down in the singular Knott’s Harbor airport, the familiar, old as dirt pilot announcing their arrival to Maine. There are five other passengers, and Dean is the last to depart, nodding to the pilot as he steps out and into the warm evening air.
He collects his bag, slinging it over his shoulder, and heads through the airport for the parking lot. Something in his chest eases at the obnoxious red Jeep he finds waiting and the redhead leaning against it, large sunglasses obscuring most of her face. She’s got, for whatever god awful reason, a large posterboard that says ‘SAY IT’S CAROL SINGERS’, in reference of their least favorite Christmas movie, Love Actually, and Dean is already laughing by the time Charlie Bradbury catches sight of him.
“Winchester!” she cries, and then Charlie is launching herself off the car and throwing herself into Dean’s arms, hugging him as tight as she possibly can. Dean can’t help the way he grins, wrapping his arms around the redhead’s lithe body and twirling her in place, burying his face in the curve of her shoulder.
or, the Dean/Castiel (and friends) Happy Place AU.
Tags/Warnings: PTSD, Angst, Canon Divergence, they’re both trying so hard
Written for @femslashfeb
The first time it was suggested to her, Jo shrugged off the idea. It seemed—weird. And she’s weird enough, thank you very much. But with some gentle nudging from her therapist and reframing of everything… it has become, “why not?” There is a ball of trauma-gunk inside her desperate to slither out. She’s avoided it for too long. It’s festering, consuming all the good and has left behind nothing but pain, rot, and ruin.
Jo is so tired. And she’s ready to feel something, anything else.
“Take as long as you need,” Charlie says, quiet and ever-present. Jo doesn’t think she’s ever seen or heard Charlie be this careful but she appreciates it deep down, even if her first instinct is to say “don’t” or “I’m fine.”
Jo isn’t fine. She hasn’t been fine in a long time. Ever since—
No.
No, it’s been longer than that. The demon that wore Sam’s face just demolished any pretense that everything was okay.
Jo inhales sharply. Tries to slow her body down. The frantic fluttering in her throat, the drums in her chest. You’re alive. She wishes it were comforting but she’s not very attached to the concept, yet.
Charlie’s car smells like stale burritos and those cheap little car fresheners you hang from the rearview mirror. It’s starting to make Jo sick. Most things make Jo sick these days, though. She turns in her seat, fumbles for the baseball bat, then slides out of the car, gasping. Her legs wobble and she breathes in, out. In, out. As slow as she can. Pays attention to the wind tickling her bare arms. “Fuck.”
“Should I grab the eggs?” Charlie calls after her and Jo winces.
“Yeah… I don’t know. Maybe?” Her grip tightens on the bat, the veins in her hands on display from the sheer effort. Jo decides that she can’t wait. She sprints thirty feet to the nearest tree, swings, and hears a crack as her blow lands. Fear chokes her and takes over, leaving her as nothing but a passenger, taking her back to—before.
Jo hits the tree over and over, letting out a feral scream. There is a voice calling to her from the edges of reason but she won’t turn back. She can’t stop.
**
They sit together in the grass afterwards, close enough their thighs are touching. Jo tries to smile. It’s a bit too watery, too painful. But Charlie accepts it, accepts her. “Thanks,” she finally says.
“No one should have to do this alone,” Charlie says. “I’m glad I came.”
Jo tilts her face towards Charlie, feeling a surge of happiness. She reaches up and cups Charlie’s cheek. Watches as Charlie melts against her hand. “Can I—”
“God, I thought you’d never ask,” Charlie murmurs, and then Jo straddles Charlie’s lap. They kiss, they breathe in each other’s air, they ask with their bodies and take only what’s freely given.
The rhythm of Jo’s heart matches Charlie’s as trust engulfs her. For a fleeting moment, she’s at peace.
↳ jo harvelle's first weapon was a bow & arrow. it makes her really good at LARPing.
"You know it's fake, right?" Charlie asks, ducking underneath a tree branch littered with yellow and orange leaves. She's wearing her usual gear for these woods, chainmail and red Moondoor cloth that compliments her hair.
"I know," Jo shrugs. She tries not to wince at the crunching noises of their feet against the covered ground. "But it makes me your specialest little knight, doesn't it?" she knocks their elbows together, wiggling her fake bow for emphasis, "Shining armor and everything."
Charlie rolls her eyes and shoves her shoulder back in jest. "You wish."
They come up on the Queen's Royal tent, and they both smooth their features down to concentrated seriousness. It's all for the sake of the fumbling peasants and townspeople that are milling about and pointedly whispering about Charlie's appearance, but it's over soon enough once they duck inside the tent.
Dean turns on his heel, exasperation on his face.
"Finally! The hell were you two? I've had peasants asking for you for the past twenty minutes."
Jo sets down her bow and pulls out her (real, thank you very much) hunting knife to toy with.
"You take this way too seriously, dude."
Charlie sighs, facing Dean. "What is it? Did something happen?"
Pouting from Jo's comment, Dean's got his hands on his hips and looking back and forth between them, debating whether or not to tell them.
"Spit it out!" Charlie waves a hand in front of his face.
"Fine. But just so you know, I take this the perfect amount of seriously." Jo scoffs. "They said something about a scout sighting to the east. Think the enemy's on their way."
"Already?"
"That was fast," Jo concedes, pocketing her knife again.
"Yeah. I was just about to head out to go find you, but you managed to stop your dilly dallying just in time."
A loud crunch of leaves just outside the tent makes Jo whip her head around.
"Hey, we were not—"
"Shh," Jo says, quietly going to her bow. There's a shadow being cast on the outside of their tent, and Jo points to it before pulling an arrow from her quiver and readying her stance. It was a fake bow, sure, but it reminded her a little of the first one her father had given her when she was eight. That, and she and Ash had made some modifications so that it was practically the same as a real bow and arrow, except the tips were styrofoam instead of stone so that they couldn't actually hurt anyone.
It's certainly better than Dean's plastic sword, and equipped with the albeit uncomfortable armor Charlie had insisted she wear, Jo felt like a badass.
No shotguns or handhelds. Just her fingers brushing her cheek, and eyes narrowed on the target.
The tent flap pushes in, and that's when two more shadows appear from either side of the first.
"This isn't possible," Charlie whispers behind her. "They're supposed to have only just sent a scout."
"Fifteen minutes is a long time in Moondoor," Dean quips, and then the figures make their entrance, breaking into the tent.
Jo shoots, ignoring the arm raised towards her wielding an axe, and lands an arrow straight to the forehead. It bounces off, and it takes a second for the guy to register it before slumping to the ground.
Dean's got one of the other ones handled, so Jo turns to the girl currently in hand to hand with Charlie, and aims her arrow. Before she can let her arrow fly, she feels her elbow knock in to something hard. Jo turns and faces the newest jackass in the tent, someone whose face is hidden underneath their hood and stands a few feet taller than her.
She swings with her bow still gripped in her hand, knocking a real punch to their jaw before she can remember to take it easy. These people didn't know how to actually fight it out—this wasn't a hunt—but then they push her back just as hard, and Jo nearly stumbles into Charlie.
Dean, finished with his first opponent, takes the opportunity to go for the person's back while Jo regains her bearings.
"Was that real?" Charlie wonders, eyes wide. She has the girl's back pressed against Charlie's front, one arm loosely around her waist while the other holds a fake dagger to her neck. "We can stop."
Jo shakes her head. "No," she says, "but kill her already."
Charlie frowns. "I was gonna use her as leverage."
"They're the leverage," she nods over at where Dean has the tall person struggling against the ground. Once more, Jo knocks an arrow into its place on her bow, stepping forward to aim it at around the person's chin. It's still too dark under the hood to see clearly.
"Who are you?" she asks, "And why did you attack?"
They're quiet, so Dean jostles them a little, and then spares a glance at Jo before pulling the hood back.
Jo lowers her bow.
"Sam?" the three of them ask. He holds his hands up and chuckles.
"You got me."
Dean gets off of him. "What the hell are you doing in Moondoor?"
Sam raises an eyebrow, sitting up. "You take this stuff way too seriously," he says. Turning to Jo, "And you nearly knocked me out." He puts a hand to his jaw, rubbing a little. "What if I was just some guy?"
Jo rolls her eyes. "Sometimes I forget that this is," she eyes the 'dead' people on the ground, "...Moondoor."
"It was pretty badass though."
Charlie slaps a hand on her shoulder, and Jo beams. "Yeah," Charlie smirks, "she's my knight in shining armor."
OK idk if anyone’s gonna join it but i made a discord server for those who love and appreciate the intricacies of spn femslash <33 come join we’ll have fun
Charlie and Jo moving in together, sharing a little apartment with Charlie’s nerd memorabilia and Jo’s knife collection; Jo making breakfast and Charlie infodumping on her about the newest game releases and comics and Jo is listening while smiling at her fondly; Charlie always feeling safe when she is with Jo; them going to gay bars and community centers and Jo being awkward with other people at first while Charlie is a social butterfly; them regularly going to the Roadhouse to see Ellen and Ash - with whom Charlie naturally bonds because of their hacker skills; them being lesbians and in love <3