Contact - Prologue
Hey, everyone. It's been a long time since the Sweeds interacted with Dean and Sam in a way that was connected to what's actually going on with the show in any way. That's going to change – somewhat – here.
If you haven't read any of the Stranger and Angels stories before, you'll probably want to do that before you start this story. It's going to assume that you know the OCs and understand the history they have with the Winchesters.
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Jo Sweed eyed the mail that her husband had dropped on the coffee table. She tilted her head, sizing up the stack. Bills, a couple of cards, one of those cushioned packing envelopes, and some fliers. She worked the package out from the bottom of the pile and snagged the cards in their pink envelopes. Mother's Day had been last week and while she'd gotten a couple of phone calls on the appropriate day, other expressions of love and appreciation had not arrived in time. She assumed these were the promised notes of adulation.
Jo smiled at the familiar hands that had scrawled her name and address across the fronts of the envelopes – one was postmarked College Station, the other Houston. She started to open the card from Michael and glanced curiously at the package, wondering which of the boys had gone the extra mile. The handwriting wasn't as familiar as her own children's, but there was something about it that niggled at the back of her brain. There was no return address, but the postmark said Windom, Minnesota. Huh.
Michael's card was typically funny, his dry sense of humor clearly on display. The handwritten note on the inside, though, made her throat ache a little.
Jake's card was an overblown mess – pink and white and gold with actual glitter that sifted into her lap as she pulled it out of its enormous envelope. The sentiment on the front and inside was written in flowing script and was cringe-worthy in its corniness. "What this said" was all Jake had added. She read it again, and this time it added to the tightness in her throat.
"The boys finally get those things in the mail?" Luke dropped down next to her, picking up the remote and pointing it at the television. "We ready to queue this up?"
"Wait for Tommy. I told him he needed to be all the way ready for bed, if he was going to watch with us." She picked up the package.
"You know how mad Jake is that you're letting Tommy watch Lost?"
"Me?" Jo gave her husband a jaundiced look as she worked open one end of the padded envelope. "You're the one who caved." She reached into the package and pulled out two books.
"What are those?"
"I don't know."
The books were stacked so that the covers were facing each other. She turned them to see the fronts, the cover art making her eyebrows go up before she showed them to Luke.
"Nice!" he said, reaching for one. "Home," he read from the book he held. "And Supernatural," he got from the one Jo had. He took it when she held it out to him.
"What in the world?" Jo asked. She upended the envelope and shook it, looking for information. There was nothing. "Is there a note in one of the books?"
Luke shook the books by their spines. Nothing fell out.
"Let me…." Jo took one of the volumes – Supernatural – back from her husband. She studied the cover in confusion. There were two young men in the picture – one bare-chested with flowing hair, the other in a tight t-shirt with a bag of something over his shoulder.
"Marge is always reading this kind of trash," Luke said as he glanced at Jo. "Would she have mailed…?" He stopped, transfixed by the blurb on the back of the volume Jo held. "Uh, babe."
"What?" She turned her book over, skimming the words, shock setting in, and then reading aloud. "'Along a lonely California highway, a mysterious Woman in White lures men to their deaths…a terrifying phenomenon that may be'," she faltered, "'Sam and Dean's first clue to their father's whereabouts'."
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Jo shut off the computer and backed away from it slowly. She thought maybe she needed to go wash her hands. Or her mind.
She had read through the two books she'd been sent in just a couple of days, then handed them off to Luke. She'd recognized the Woman in White story from the first book, Supernatural, as one Sam had told them on the Winchesters' first stay. They'd been sitting out on a cool Sunday evening while Dean had cleaned out the car, the Winchesters telling stories, catching up with each other in some ways (she knew now) and entertaining her and the boys. She'd forgotten about it completely, dismissing the tale as a ghost story at the time, and never thinking about it again even after she and the family had been exposed to what was out there.
Home had broken her heart all over again. She knew the story of their mother's death already, but reading about it again, Mary Winchester protecting her boys from the poltergeist that had taken up residence in their old home, and Dean, shattered, calling John about the case that had taken them back to Lawrence. It had left her aching. And needing to know more.
The books were by someone named Carver Edlund. She'd gotten online to see what she could find and… uh, wow. She'd stumbled across websites and forums and fan fiction, which, again, wow. She wasn't even sure what to do with a lot of it.
Eventually, though, she'd found what she was looking for and managed to order all the books that were currently available and pre-ordered the one to be published soon.
"Sugar, are you OK?" Luke had come in from outside and was looking at her in concern. "You look… unsettled."
Jo laughed unsteadily. Luke didn't need to know what was out there on the internet about the boys. "I'm fine. Just ready for dinner." She smiled at him gamely.
He gave her a hard stare, but when she didn't succumb to his attempt to intimidate her into telling the truth, he grunted and put a platter of steaks on the table. He turned toward the door into the family room and bellowed, "Dinner's ready!"
Jo heard the sound of the television switching off. And moved toward the fridge to put the rest of supper on the table.
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Slowly, Jo turned the pages back to the top one on the sheaf of papers lying in her lap. Tears on her cheeks, she traced her fingers over the words at the top—Swan Song—and placed it to the side. She ran her palms over her face to smooth away the wetness and headed downstairs to start the coffee.
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The envelope was postmarked Cicero, Indiana and stiff, like there was something in it to keep the contents from getting bent.
Curious, Jo slit open the envelope and pulled out two thin pieces of cardboard. In between were two snapshots. In the first, Dean and a boy sat in the cab of a truck. The boy was behind the wheel, grin on his face, hand on the steering wheel; Dean sat at his side, one arm slung over the back of the seat. In the second photo Dean stood slightly behind a pretty, dark-haired girl. His face was tucked close to hers, and they were casually dressed, both smiling happily. Jo imagined that the boy in the other picture was behind the camera.
On the back, the photo with the boy said simply, "Ben." On the other Dean had written "Lisa" and "I'm OK."
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The log in the voicemail said "Unknown," and Jo grimaced. She highlighted the entry, and her thumb automatically moved toward "delete." But she hesitated.
She'd done this before—listened to a message from an anonymous caller, had even answered calls from unfamiliar numbers more often than she cared to admit. Each time she'd been disappointed. But she couldn't seem to stop herself, wondering and hoping….
She hit the "play" arrow.
"Uh. Hey, Jo."
Her breath caught in her throat.
"It's Sam." His voice was hesitant, slightly rough. "It's been a long time, I know. I… I'm sorry about that." He paused, and Jo could see him in her mind's eye, head bent, one hand over his eyes. She could barely breathe around the pounding of her heart. He's alive? "It's been… We've…." He gave a shaky laugh – it was half amused, half broken. He sighed. "Anyway." Jo guessed he'd decided not to explain.
"I don't… I don't know what you know." He stopped again. "But I'm OK. I'm…. I'm with Dean. He's OK, too."
There was silence again—drawn out this time to the point that Jo thought maybe he'd hung up.
"I'm sorry I missed you," he finally said softly. "I just wanted…." He trailed off, but he started again. "I don't… I don't guess you heard from me in the last year or so?" Jo's eyebrows went up. "Things have been… I don't… I don't remember everything, I guess, and I wanted to make sure…." Another pause. "I'll call you back, OK?"
Jo had almost disconnected when Sam started again, speaking quickly like he'd forgotten something. "Oh. And I hope… I hope everything's OK with you guys. I hope…" There was one last stretch of quiet before, "I'll call you back," he said again.
He never did.
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"Luke!" Matt's shout had Luke turning around so fast he got a crick in his neck.
"Crap," he winced, hand coming up to press at the pain. "What?" he called back with more bite than the summons deserved. He'd been headed out for a sandwich, but he hadn't gotten very far down the sidewalk.
"You're gonna want to see this," was the answer. "Now."
Luke gave a heavy sigh and headed back to the office.
His deputy motioned him toward the corner of the large open room where they kept the television and still managed to gesture vaguely at their desks. "The crime alert came in over email a few minutes ago, but… I saw this on the news and…."
Luke stopped. And stared.
Matt had paused the newscast on a grainy video feed. Dean and Sam were both looking at the camera, guns in hand, smirks on their faces.
"Wha-?"
"Watch." Matt hit play, and the reporter's voice started up.
"… two men, who up until today were presumed dead, locked the doors and opened fire, leaving no survivors. Sam and Dean Winchester are now the subjects of a manhunt throughout the state of California."
"Supposedly they robbed a bank and gunned down all the customers and staff in the vault." Matt had muted the talking head and was watching Luke closely. "They're number two on the most wanted list."
"I don't…," Luke faltered to a stop, brain stuck on the images replaying on the television, the news crawl along the bottom of the screen continuing to scroll through the details. "I mean, it can't…." He looked helplessly at his deputy. "It isn't them."
"I know," Matt said simply. "Can you get in touch with them?"
Luke shook his head. Matt knew that the Winchesters hadn't been to visit in a while. "We hear from them occasionally, but never with anything we can use to contact them in return." He rubbed a hand over his mouth. "Jackasses," he muttered.
"Damn."
"Yeah."
When Luke's phone rang, he knew who it was without looking at the caller i.d. "Honey…"
"Luke, are you seeing this?" Jo's voice was distraught, and her tone was edging into hysteria. "What in the world is going on?"
"I have no idea." He paused. "I don't guess there's any chance you can think of some way we can get hold of them? Is Bobby completely out as an option?"
"He hasn't returned my calls since he told me Dean had stopped hunting after Sam… fell. The last time I even tried, his number no longer worked," she sighed heavily.
Luke's own huff of breath echoed his wife's. "I'll see what I can find out," he said.
"Yeah. OK." She sounded so discouraged. "Call me."
Luke nodded, distracted. He opened his mouth to respond to his wife when his phone chimed to let him know the call had been disconnected. He went to drop the phone back in his pocket when it dinged twice in rapid succession.
Two texts.
From Michael: Have you seen the news? That can't really be D&S. Have you heard from them? What is going on?
From Jake: R U watching this whts ging on callme
Luke shook his. Typical. Of both of them. "Michael and Jakey," he told Matt. "I should call them." His eyes went back to the TV. "Any idea how to find out more?"
"What about the BAU?" Matt offered hesitantly.
Luke grimaced thoughtfully. He hated to call Agent Hotchner when the man had done so much to protect Dean and Sam already. Luke wondered if any of that was coming back on the agent.
"Let's not," he finally said. "At least not yet."
xxxx
Luke never called Agent Hotchner. The news coverage was obsessive and when Luke heard the Winchesters had been spotted at a gas station a thousand miles from a second bank robbery (this one in Wisconsin) with no time to have actually made the trip, he breathed a sigh of relief. Luke had never thought that Sam and Dean were guilty of the crimes they were accused of, but an explanation – even in the "maybe they have evil-twins" genre – eased his anxiety a couple of degrees for some reason.
Even so, the news didn't get any better. The massacre in St. Louis was horrific and the next word they got was that the Winchesters had been captured in Ankeny, Iowa.
Luke had decided to head north and had just finished packing, prepared with a story of crimes committed in his own jurisdiction and a need to see the culprits, when Jo called out from downstairs.
Jo simply pointed at the television as he entered the family room.
"To repeat, Dean and Sam Winchester were killed in a shootout at the police station in Ankeny, Iowa. Both local law enforcement and the federal officers assigned to the manhunt have confirmed the deaths of these two dangerous fugitives."
"It probably wasn't actually them," Luke said roughly.
"I know," Jo said.
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From an unknown number to every phone in the family.
"Don't eat at Biggerson's. Seriously. Don't."
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"Stay away from that high-fructose corn syrup crap, too."
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And then… silence.
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To be continued
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