What if they met up with Samuel on the case?
"Weird," Sam said as he looked at his cell phone after having received notification of a text.
"What is it?" Dean asked warily. He had a feeling he should have tossed Sam's phone and gotten him a new one after they had gotten his soul back. Less chance of Sam scratching the wall and finding out all he had done in the last year and a half.
"Coordinates," Sam answered.
"From who?" Dean asked. The only person who had ever texted them coordinates was their dad. It obviously wasn't him, so it was probably nothing good.
"I don't know. It says unknown."
"I think you should ignore it," Dean said decisively.
"What? This could be from a hunter who needs help," Sam protested. He started looking up the coordinates.
"Yeah, or it could be a trap," Dean replied. Sometimes his brother was way too trusting.
"The coordinates are in Bristol, Rhode Island. Looks like there have been some disappearances there in the last couple weeks. Three women. And last year a bunch of men went missing."
"That's weird," Dean admitted. "If it's something supernatural what's with the gender switch?"
"I don't know, but I definitely think we should check it out."
"Now, hold on a minute," Dean said.
"We have to help these people, Dean."
Dean was conflicted. On the one hand, he was really glad that Sam had his soul back and had emotions and everything, but on the other hand, this whole thing was suspicious and he didn't like it. "OK, but if seems weird, we ditch."
Sam put his hands up in acquiescence.
SSS
As they were entering Bristol, Sam had a weird sense of déjà-vu. He got some flashes, but nothing he could really focus on. He shook his head to clear it.
"What is it?" Dean asked.
"Nothing," Sam answered. As far as he knew that was true.
SSS
As usual, the first thing Dean wanted to do when they hit town was get food. Sam was comforted by the fact that some things would never change.
They were going over the missing women. There were three of them. "This one looks wild," Dean said, holding up one of the pictures. "It's in her eyes."
Sam rolled his eyes. "Well, besides that insightful theory, I can't figure out why something would be targeting these women. They don't seem to have anything in common."
"Well, I'm going to the poop deck," Dean said, indicating the cheesy themed bathrooms in the seafood restaurant they had stopped in.
Sam was looking over the pictures again when he heard someone approaching.
"What are you doing here?"
Sam had no idea who this guy was. He wondered if that flash that he had had on the way in to town meant that he had been here last year when those men went missing.
"Um," Sam said, unsure how to answer.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Sam heard Dean hiss.
"Looking into the missing girls. Sam and I were here last year when the men went missing. I don't like the fact that women are going missing now.
Sam took another look at the man. He realized it must be Samuel, the grandfather he had spent a year hunting with. It was weird that he didn't feel some kind of family connection.
"Maybe we should take this outside," Sam suggested. Dean had told him that Samuel had served them up to Crowley and he also knew that Dean didn't have much forgiveness for stuff like that. They didn't need the whole restaurant on them.
They walked out amidst some stares, but nothing too bad.
"I told you the next time I saw you, I would kill you. The only reason I don't is because we're in public," Dean said.
"I just want to figure out what's happening," Samuel said. He couldn't really blame Dean for wanting to kill him. He had turned them over to a demon. He regretted it, but he wasn't going to apologize. It wasn't his style.
"What happened last year?" Dean asked.
"Sam didn't tell you?"
"I don't remember," Sam said.
Samuel wondered what Sam was up to this time. "Well, it was an arachni. It was hunting men in their mid-30s. We tracked it back to its lair and killed it. The men had been poisoned and Sam insisted upon shooting them."
"What?" Sam asked, aghast.
Samuel had to admit that seemed real. "You seem different?"
"He got his soul back. No thanks to you," Dean said.
"Well, that's good," Samuel said. "Maybe now you can do things a little more calmly."
"Clean slate," Dean said. "So, if you iced the arachni, what do you think is happening now?"
"I don't know. The one thing I do know is that all the recent victims have something in common," Samuel said.
"What? I've been looking and I couldn't find anything," Sam whined.
"They were all women that we interviewed. Only the ones that were in to you. I think you had sex with all of them."
"So, this is all about Sam?" Dean asked. Why did that so often seem to be the case?
"Why?" Sam asked.
"I have a theory," Samuel said. "We killed the arachni by decapitating it. You killed the victims with a head shot."
Dean noticed that Samuel was willing to share in the credit for killing the monster, but distanced himself from the victims' death. He wondered if he did anything to stop it.
"And?" Sam prodded.
"I think maybe the victims had been turned. So, the shot didn't kill them and they took off. One of the victims was the sheriff that we were working with. He was the right age and you thought it would be a good idea to use him as bait without telling him. He begged you not to shoot him, but you did it. Cold as hell."
"What were you doing during all this?" Dean finally asked. "Sam had no soul. What was your excuse?"
Samuel thought about that. He had often wondered why he had gone along with Sam's scarier actions. "I was afraid to go against him."
"That's bull," Dean said. "You could have plugged him. Or, you could have at least tried to convince him not to do things. I hunted with him for six months with no soul and he never killed anyone on my watch."
Sam felt odd. He couldn't believe what he was hearing about what he had done.
"Look, I'll take care of this," Samuel said. "Sam isn't too popular around here."
"But," Sam said.
"No, Sammy. He's right. Let's go." Dean wanted to get Sam as far away as possible from Samuel and this town. He was afraid of the wall crumbling. Samuel was a lot of things, but there was no denying he was a great hunter. He could take care of it.
"OK," Sam said.
"Really? No argument?" Dean asked, surprised.
"As long as it gets taken care of, it doesn't have to be me. I just wish I could take it all back."
"I know you do," Dean said.
Samuel watched the exchange. He could not believe the difference in his younger grandson. He couldn't believe the disservice he had done him. Then again, this could all just be another act.
"You get a pass this time," Dean said, "But next time, for sure."
"We'll see," Samuel said, but he knew he would never hurt them. He had made that mistake once and Dean had called him on it. Mary would hate him for it and her hatred was not something he could live with.
The End.