dugindeep | Big Bang 16: Begin to Begin Again: Epilogue

“Is it cool yet?” Jensen asks as he steps into the garage.

Leaning over the Impala’s innards, JJ touches the engine. She makes a face and pitches a shoulder up. “It’s cool.”

In the best father look and voice possible, he checks, “Are you sure?”

“It is!” Then a moment later, “Ish.”

“Ish?” He glares at her until she cracks a devilish smile and her freckled cheeks turn pink. “Well the next time you ask if the pool’s ready, I guess the answer is … ish.”

In all of her teenage glory, she huffs, rolls her eyes, and turns back to the car. “The engine is cool and I was going to take off the radiator cap.”

Jensen sets his items down on the work bench beside them – a drip pan, rags, water, along with a few cold bottles of beer for himself. “And why do we take off the radiator cap?” he tests her.

As if reciting it from a text book, she replies, “to release pressure on the cooling system and to avoid creating a vacuum when you drain it.”

He kisses the side of her head then hands over a water bottle. “That’s my girl. Now what’s next?”

She slowly reaches forward to do precisely what she’s saying. “I squeeze the radiator hose to make sure it’s clean.”

Now he leans in with her, grabbing hold of the right side of the hose while she checks the other. “If it crunches then it could be rust, and then we’re in trouble.”

“Like real bad trouble?”

“Well, trouble … ish,” he jokes then winks at her. She sighs and rolls her eyes again, but she’s still listening to him. “We’d flush it out then put in new coolant.”

“I don’t feel anything.”

“Neither do I. So onto the next thing.” He hands her the drip pan. “We have to drain the coolant.”

“Right,” she nods, “from the petcock.”

“The what now?” Jared asks from the doorway, making his presence known in a most inappropriate manner.

“The petcock,” JJ answers with a grin. Jensen hopes she’s smiling for Jared’s visit and not so much the dirty joke that he won’t touch. Not when his daughter’s here.

“Watch yourself, Padalecki,” Jensen warns, but it’s too late.

JJ hurries over and launches herself into Jared’s arms with a happy cry. “Uncle Jared! You’re just in time.”

He kisses her on the top of the head then settles her back on her feet. “Time for what, pumpkin?”

“For Dad to boss us around.”

Jensen glares. “I was not bossing you around.”

“Ish,” JJ shrugs.

Jensen grabs a rag to wipe his hands from any grime he’s already picked up. Doesn’t bother offering one to JJ because she’s already gotten a swipe of grease on Jared’s cheek, and he’s rather amused that no one else has noticed yet. “So what? You wanna do it yourself?” he offers her with a grand motion of his hand over the car. “Be my guest.”

“What’re you fixing?” Jared asks before smirking. “Besides the petcock?”

Stop it Jensen mouths as JJ and Jared approach the car, Jared blowing him a kiss in return.

“We’re replacing the radiator,” she explains. “But first we have to drain and flush the cooling system.”

“Sounds like tough work. You sure you got it?”

Jensen settles in next to Jared, comforted by the casual way Jared rests his elbow on Jensen’s shoulder as he continues talking to JJ. And he’s wholly impressed by his daughter counting off the next few steps they’d planned. It’s becoming more and more obvious that she did actually read the manual he’d shown her the day before, even when she’d originally tossed it onto her bed without a second glance.

He drifts back to the present with JJ working on disconnecting the radiator hose, telling Jared she wants to learn how to drive in the Impala.

“Uhhh,” Jensen awkwardly laughs, “We’ll see about that.”

“You said I could when we take our road trip.”

“Where you going?” Jared asks.

JJ smiles proudly. “Arizona.”

“Oh yeah? Your dad and I went there.”

“To the Petrified Forest?”

“I don’t think so?” Jared asks while looking at Jensen, who shakes his head.

“Carlsbad caverns?”

”Uh, no.”

“Grand Canyon,” she tries.

Now Jared smiles at him. “You don’t say.”

Jensen shrugs while trying to hide his own smile. “It was her idea.”

“Dad said he’s never been there, which seemed stupid with that giant photo on his wall.”

Jared nods, still while watching Jensen. “Does seem pretty stupid.”

“And he said you’d never been there either,” she says while distracted with the stuck radiator hose.

“I haven’t. Always meant to”

“And I agreed,” Jensen says before clearing his throat. “I mean, what’s the point of the Great American road trip if you never see the Grand Canyon?”

He can’t describe the look on Jared’s face, but he’s pretty sure it’s the same as his own. A cross between giddy and charmed and disbelieving in the most loving way possible.

“Yeah,” Jared says on a rough voice then clears his throat. “What’s the point?”

Jensen has to clear his throat, too, and wills away the emotion building up right here, even when JJ has no clue what kind of avalanche she’s started. The day before, while putting up a few framed photos from the Route 66 trip, JJ had mentioned the portrait in his bedroom. He’d thought it was all so random, a throw-away conversation.

And yet, here he is, dying to ask Jared: “So … you wanna join us?”

Jared blinks away a tear or two and sets his forehead to Jensen’s. “Absofuckinglutely.”

Now he grins and steps up on his tip toes to kiss Jared a proper hello, thank you, and love you that he had planned to bypass with JJ there.

“Oh,” she says softly. “Wow.”

Jared mumbles, “You didn’t tell her yet.”

“I didn’t tell her, no,” he replies, and thankfully doesn’t really have to.

She goes on to ask, “So, are you, like, together now?”

Jensen and Jared share a look until Jensen shrugs and makes a face. “Ish?”

“Does this mean I get double the shopping allowance?”

He's broken from the nerves of explaining everything to her and playfully complains instead. “Just shut up and disconnect the transmission line.”

“Yes sir,” she lazily salutes and gets back to work with Jensen and Jared overseeing her.

Jensen flashes back to a series of yes, sirs tossed out for John Winchester and he has the feeling Jared is sensing the same given the odd look in his eyes.

“This is all kind of crazy,” Jared whispers.

“Well, we are kind of crazy,” Jensen offers.

Jared rolls his eyes with a sigh. “Shut up.”

Now Jensen grins at Jared. “Jerk.”

“Don’t you even ...”

He doesn’t. He just winks and saves it for a rainy day.