"...listen, dad… if you ever get these messages please call me back. I don't know what I'm supposed to do now…" Dean pressed the end call button on his cell-phone while letting out a sigh. He looked up from his phone to the house he parked in front of, he had just drove about hour hours from Kansas to Nebraska for the most important call he has ever gotten.
Someone named Diana Clark had called him the night before saying that he has been taking care of his daughter for the past seven years. His daughter. His seven year old daughter who he knew nothing about. Apparently Diana was his daughter's grandmother but didn't go into too much detail about where his daughter's mother was at in the picture. It was getting to a point where Diana couldn't take of her anymore because of her age and decided that it was time for Dean to take over. How Diana got his phone number he would never know, but he was here now and it was time to face the music.
With another long sigh and a tight feeling in his chest Dean decided that it was time for him to go. He walked up to the brightly painted house that was covered in flowers in the front lawn and rang the doorbell. The waiting was the worst part about this since he had no idea what to expect from this experience. Seeing how nice the house appeared to be on the outside Dean felt kinda bad that he was going to take his daughter from a nice home to just living out in motels and his car.
It felt like forever until Dean heard slow footsteps on the other side of the door, it slowly opened to reveal an older woman who appeared to be in her late 60's. That must have been Diana. Diana had a bright smile on her face as she clearly recognized Dean to be her granddaughter's father as they looked extremely alike.
"You must be Dean," she said as she opened the door wider for him.
"And you're Diana? The one who called me?"
"Oh, yes! I'm sure Kylie will be thrilled to meet you!"
"Kylie," Dean repeated slowly as if the name was foreign to him.
Diana welcomed Dean inside the neat little house that did feel homey to him which made him feel worse about taking Kylie away from it. Did he really have to take her away from all this? He looked at the picture frames that lined the walls of the living room while waiting for the little old lady to go fetch Kylie. The majority of the pictures were Kylie when she was younger: her during her fifth birthday party, her wearing a soccer uniform with a huge smile on her face, and a couple of them posing with Diana. She was going to leave all of this. Lord, did she look like him.
Dean turned around when he heard small footsteps entering the room, behind him was Kylie staring up at him with the same green eyes he had. She didn't look too happy though. As if she knew that she was leaving a wonderful home and trading it for a crappy one.
Dean knelt down in front of her holding out his hand, not sure what he was supposed to do in this situation. "I'm Dean… er… I'm your dad." Kylie looked at Dean, down to his hand then back up to him, hell, she didn't know what to do either.
There was an elephant in the room until Diana decided to break it. "Kylie Nyx Clark, don't be rude to your father."
Kylie rolled her eyes before meeting her father's outstretched hand, shaking it. "I'm Kylie," she said quietly. She shifted the backpack to her other shoulder as Dean stood up.
"I love you, Kylie," Diana said to her granddaughter with a big smile on her face but there were tears in her eyes. She hugged Kylie tightly with the tears falling and rolling down her cheeks. She was going to miss that bundle of joy so much. "You take care of her, Dean. Please have her call me a few times a week."
"I love you too, nana."
"I'll make sure it happens. Ready to go, kiddo?"
Kylie shrugged as she shuffled towards the front door with Dean behind her. He took Kylie's backpack from her before opening up the Impala's passenger door. He put the backpack in the backseat before getting into the driver's seat. When he looked over after getting settled in the car he saw Kylie already had her 3DS out and was playing a game with the sound turned up all the way.
"What'cha playing there?"
"A game," Kylie basically snapped as she was so focused on the game, the clicking of the buttons were echoing through the car.
"Look, I don't know what your grandma allowed at her house but since you're living with me now I won't take the attitude." It's been less than ten minutes since they left and Dean was already lecturing her. Nice… Kylie rolled her eyes as she was barely even paying attention to her father and moreso on her game instead. "Did you hear me?"
"Yeah, whatever…"
Oh this kid was going to get it. "Cut the attitude, Kylie. I swear I'll throw your stupid little game out the window."
"Mhm…"
Dean rolled his eyes as he started up the Impala, heading off towards the highway. If this was the way Kylie was going to act the entire time they were going to be together then this was going to be an adventure. He had little to no patience towards people with major attitude problems. Looks like Kylie was going to be one of them.
After driving on the highway for a good ten-fifth-teen minutes Kylie finally paused her game. "So… Where do we live? Nebraska still, or…?"
Dean let out a nervous chuckle. God, she wasn't going to like this answer. "Right… Well… You see I live off in motels."
"Mo-...motels," Kylie repeated. "You're kidding me, right?"
"Unfortunately not."
"Wh-... Then where are we going?"
"You're going to meet your Uncle Sammy."
An entire day's trip seemed more like a week trip because of Kylie. She had to take a rest stop every hour or so and it really threw Dean off since he never made a stop unless it was completely necessary. Finally making it to Stanford University felt like a miracle. Even though it was in the middle of the night.
Pulling into the apartment complex, Dean cut the engine then looked down at Kylie who was sleeping soundly in the seat next to him with the 3DS laying in her lap with the game still on. He groaned because he knew now that he was going to have to deal with Kylie's bitchy attitude. Great.
"Kylie… Kylie, wake up," Dean said loudly as he was shaking her shoulder to wake her from her slumber.
"Uh…. Eugh…" Kylie grumbled something unintelligible under her breath as she was starting to wake up. "Huh?" He opened her eyes and looked around the dark parking lot. "Where are we at? I thought we lived in our car."
"Oh, no no no… There is no our car, okay? It's my car. No, this is where you Uncle Sammy lives."
"Uncle Sammy." A smile crossed Kylie's face as she was extremely excited to meet her kinda-new uncle. "Let's go!" She scrambled out of the car with Dean following behind her. "Hey!" She yelled as her father grabbed her arm. "Let go!"
"Not like this, stay quiet and follow me."
Dean walked on ahead of her making his movements as quiet as possible as they walked through the apartment hallway. Kylie stomped her feet down just to piss off her dad and he knew that.
"Will you stop that?!" Dean hissed quietly. "You'll get us both in trouble."
That seemed to catch Kylie's attention. She didn't know what kinda trouble that her dad was talking about but she didn't really want to find out. While Dean was kneeling in front of Sam's apartment door Kylie was on lookout for anyone that may catch them breaking into his house. Even though they don't have much Kylie thought that this was kinda a rush.
Once the door clicked opened Dean turned around to face Kylie. "I want you to go hide behind one of the chairs, okay? And don't come out until I say so. Understand?" He whispered.
"Okay, dad."
Dean watched as his daughter tiptoed through the dark living room and hiding behind an old recliner chair. Perfect. He stood up and walked into the kitchen, closing the door halfway. This was going to be good.
He was focusing more on the plan in his head than watching where he was going. He ran into the kitchen table, cursing under his breath because of all the noise that he had made. That was surely going to wake somebody up.
Both Kylie and Dean heard some floorboards creaking around, yeah, Dean did wake up somebody that was clear. From where he was standing Dean could see Sam's figure standing in the doorway, so he purposely walked across the kitchen doorway covered with beads to get his attention. Dean could hear Sam walking up behind him and was ready for this.
Sam grabbed Dean's shoulder to see who it was, but Dean grabbed his arm in defense and twisted it around. He pushed Sam back into the living room where Kylie was hiding before coming towards his little brother with his fists ready. He punched Sam in the face who stepped back in surprise before kicking towards the mysterious figure who broke into his house. He missed, so once again they started using their fists to fend each other off. Until Dean saw he had the upper hand. He grabbed Sam by the shoulders then pinned him to the dirty living room floor.
"Whoa, easy, tiger," Dean said with a smile on his face. The streetlight from outside the room was shining over his face to reveal to Sam who broke in.
"Dean?" Sam said in a stunned state while trying to catch his breath. His older brother let out a low chuckle. "You scared the crap outta me!"
"That's 'cause you're out of practice." Dean's ego got the better of him, it put him off guard to Sam grabbing him and pinning him to the ground in his place. He chuckled again. "Or not. Get off of me." He grabbed Sam's hand and stood up.
"Dean, what the hell are you doing here?"
"I was looking for a beer."
The brothers were distracted enough that they didn't hear the other pair of footsteps that were entering the room. Suddenly, the kitchen light turned on. "Sam?" A female voice called out.
They both turned to face where the voice came from. It was a girl around her twenties with long blonde hair, a Smurf shirt and short shorts. "Jess, hey," Sam greeted his girlfriend who was sleeping in the next room over. "Dead, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."
"Wait… Your brother Dean?" She smiled as Dean walked towards her.
"I love the Smurfs," Dean motioned towards her low cut shirt. "You know, I gotta tell you, you are completely out of my brother's league."
"Let me put something on."
Hearing the conversation from behind a recliner chair Kylie was hearing this all out of context and had no idea what the hell was going on. Her eyes got wide in confusion, were there naked people in Uncle Sammy's house. Oh God…
"No, no. No, I wouldn't dream of it, seriously. Anyway…" Dean turned to face Sam again. "I gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about some private family business, but nice meeting you."
"No," Sam said firmly as he moved over to Jessica's side, wrapping an arm around her. "No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."
"Okay. Well, first things first…" Dean looked over his shoulder at the chair behind him. "Kylie, you can come out now."
Sam had no idea what Dean was talking about. Who the hell was Kylie? When the seven year old popped out from behind the chair Sam's eyes went wide. He knew exactly who she was now only because she looked so much like Dean. Holy crap.
"W-who is this?!" Sam said, his eyes still wide.
"This is my daughter. Her name is Kylie." Dean wrapped an arm around Kylie's shoulder. "She's joining the Family Business."
"Joining the-"
"And another thing," Dean cut Sam off quickly, "Dad's on a hunting trip, and he hasn't been home in a few days."
Sam got dressed quickly after excusing himself from Jess so they could talk in private. He still couldn't wrap his head around Dean having a daughter. Most importantly, he couldn't understand why Dean would want to bring his daughter into this kinda life. It was tough for them growing up like this and they hated it, why would he do this to Kylie?
"C'mon, Dean…" Sam started his lecture as they were going down the stairs. "You can't just break in in the middle of the night with your daughter and expect me to hit the road with you guys."
"You're not hearing me, Sammy. Dad's missing. I need you to help us find him."
"You remember the Poltergeist in Amherst, or the Devil's Gates in Clifton? He was missing then too. He's always missing, and he's always fine."
Kylie had no idea what words Uncle Sammy was spewing out of his mouth but it sounded like it was important and/or interesting. All she could do was watch them and listen.
"Not for this long," Dean continued the conversation. "Now, are you gonna come with us or not?"
"I'm not."
"Why not?"
"I swore I was done hunting for good."
"C'mon, it wasn't easy but it wasn't that bad."
"Yeah? When I told dad I was scared of the thing in my closet he gave me a .45."
"What was he supposed to do?"
"I was nine years old! He was supposed to say, 'don't be afraid of the dark.'"
"'Don't be afraid of the dark'? Are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid. You know what's out there!"
"W-what's in the dark?!" Kylie almost shouted as she was already afraid of the dark but hearing them say something like that made her even more paranoid. Was it going to kill her or eat her? The possibilities were endless.
"Nothing is in the dark, Kylie. Your dad is just making things up," Sam tried to reassure her. It made her feel relieved at first but then Dean had to open his big mouth.
"Don't lie to her, Sammy. She's gonna know sooner or later what's really out there and I want to make sure that she's prepared. She's going into the Family Business."
"It's too dangerous, Dean! Can't you see that?"
"It's just hunting, Uncle Sammy. Animals can't hurt you that much, can they?"
"That's… not what hunting means exactly…"
Kylie looked up at her dad to give her an explanation but, of course, he didn't give one. It seemed like Dean was filled with secrets and it was very bothersome to her. He was forcing her into something that she had no idea about, that was even scarier than the dark in her opinion.
"Look, dad's obsession to find the thing that…" He paused, looking down at Kylie who was listening to their conversation intensely," the thing that took mom, but we still haven't found the damn thing." Dean rolled his eyes in frustration as he glanced out the window that was to his left. "So we kill everything we can find."
"Save a lot of people doing it too."
Sam scoffed. "You think mom would have wanted this for us?"
Dean didn't say anything, the subject was too touchy for him, so instead he shoved the door opened and walked out of the room with the two following behind him. Kylie was aching to ask more questions but the tension around them was preventing her to do so.
Even though Sam could feel the upset vibes coming from his older brother he kept going anyways. "The weapon training and the melting the silving into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors. Do you really want that for Kylie?"
"What? You just want us to live some normal, apple-pie life? Is that it?"
"No, not normal. She just needs to live a safe life. That shouldn't be too much to ask."
"That's why you ran away."
"I was just going to college. It was dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing."
"Dad's in real trouble right now if he's not dead already. I can feel it. Kylie and I can't do this alone."
"You guys can manage it just fine."
Dean looked down at his shoes to gather his thoughts together before looking back up. "Yeah, I know. But I want you to help."
Sam knew he was going to so regret this decision after he let out a long sigh. He couldn't just turn his brother and niece away after they came so far to find him. Maybe dad really was in trouble since Dean wouldn't come to him unless it was an emergency. "What was he hunting?"
The trunk of the Impala popped opened, Dean lifted up the false floor to reveal all kinds of tools and weapons used during their hunting trips. Kylie was wide eyed as she was trying to comprehend what the hell was going on exactly. There were dozens of guns and knifes just sitting there. She wanted to touch them.
"Alright, let's see…" Dean said as he was pushing things aside to find the papers he needed. "Where the hell did I put that thing?"
"So when dad left why didn't you go with him?"
"I was working on my own gig… this voodoo thing down in New Orleans."
Sam chuckled as he looked back up at his brother. "Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?"
"I'm 26, dude. Alright, here we go. So dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy-" Out of the corner of his eye he could see Kylie standing on her toes to try and reach for one of the knife's inside the trunk. He quickly slapped her hand away causing her to yelp in surprise. "Don't touch that. Anyways, this guy," he handed the paper over to Sam. "They found his car, but he'd vanished. Completely M.I.A."
"What's M.I.A.?" Kylie wondered aloud.
"Missing in action. Maybe he was kidnapped."
"Yeah, well, here's another one in April, another on in December '04, '03, '98, '92." He put each case paper down in the trunk as he was naming them off. "Ten of them over the past 20 years. All men, all same 5-mile stretch of road. Started happening more and more, so dad went digging around, that was about three weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough, and then I get this voice mail yesterday." Dean picked up his phone, pressing place.
The voice was distorted as the voice of Sam and Dean's father played. "Dean, something is starting to happen I think it's serious. I need to try to figure out…. Zzzzttttz ….. What's going on… zzzzttttttzzzzz ….. Be very careful, Dean. We're all in danger…. Zzttzz …."
"You know there's EVP on that?" Sam asked.
"Good job, Sammy. Kinda like riding a bike, huh? Alright I slowed the message down and ran it through a GoldWave, took out the hiss and this is what I got."
"I can never go home, " a female voice then came from the tape that Dean played.
Kylie's eyes went wide in shock and terror. What the hell was that thing? It sounded terrifying and almost…inhuman like? What was her father getting her into? She wanted to go back home with her nana, she didn't want to live out in crappy motels and the Impala. She wanted her old life back even though she hasn't even seen the beginning of her new life with her father.
"'Never go home,'" Sam repeated after the tape.
Looking around to make sure that nobody was watching them, Dean then slammed the trunk of his car shut. He turned to look at Sam. "Y'know, in almost two years, I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing." He said as he sat down on the now closed trunk of the Impala.
Apart of Sam just wanted to let all of this go, to tell Dean and Kylie to scram and to never come back. He wanted to stay on track for his future plans for getting into law school, to put all of this hunting business behind him and to never look back. However, Dean was his brother and he did have a point. He never asked anything from Sam, never not once. God, this was a hard decision.
Finally Sam let out a sigh, he couldn't believe he was gonna say this… "Alright, I'll go. I'll help you guys but I have to get back first thing Monday." He looked over his shoulder then back to Dean and Kylie. "Be right back."
"What's Monday?" Dean asked as Sam started to walk away.
He turned back towards him. "I have an interview."
"What, a job interview? Skip it."
"Then how is Uncle Sammy supposed to live in the real world?!" Kylie exclaimed with actual concern for her newfound uncle. "He's gonna be a bum like you dad! Ow!" Kylie glared up at her dad while rubbing the back of her neck as he had just hit her upside the head.
"It's a law-school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate. Which is why I'm not skipping it because Kylie's right. I don't wanna be a bum like you." Sam smiled at his niece who giggled in response.
"Law school," Dean repeated as if he didn't understand the meaning.
"So we got a deal or not?"
Who knows how long they've been driving for, but it was high morning and the Impala was almost out of gas. While Dean was driving, Sam was in the passenger seat and Kylie was in the back playing with her 3DS. Er… was. She won't be happy to know that the game's battery died while she was napping. Especially since she hadn't saved it in a few hours after just completing a boss battle.
Kylie was startled awake when her father shook her knee to get her attention after pulling up a gas pump.
"What do you want for breakfast?" Dean asked her as he pulled out his wallet.
"Mountain Dew, Starbursts, and Cheetos."
"That's not breakfast," Sam pointed out.
"Well, that's what I want."
Dean snapped his fingers at her to get her attention once again. "Stow the attitude. I'm not playing around with that crap. I'll be right back."
Sam waited to ask any questions until Dean went inside the shop in paranoia that he may be able to hear them talking. He'd been wanting to talk to Kylie for a while but with Dean there he knew that it was going to be impossible. At least now he had his chance.
"So, Kylie," Sam started, turning around in the passenger seat so he could face her. "Why after all this time did your dad finally come pick you up?"
"Hmm…" Kylie looked down at the 3DS in her lap, fidgeting with it. "I dunno, I mean, I guess because my nana was getting too old or something. She's moving into a retirement home in a few months."
"Would it bother you if I asked where your mother was?"
Kylie shrugged. "I guess not since you already just asked. When I was six months old she died in a house fire, or at least that's what my nana told me. I don't really remember any of it though…"
Now why did that sound familiar? Was it something that Sam should bring up or should he just keep it to himself? That was a huge coincidence… Hopefully… As much as Sam wanted to bring up his past too he decided against it, he didn't want to freak his niece out or anything.
"I'm… sorry for your loss…" was all that Sam could bring himself to say with a sad smile on his face. Now the real question was if he should tell Dean. He should right? After all, that is Kylie's father…
"Heads up!" They both heard Dean yell as he threw the bag filled with snacks for Kylie through her opened window. "Enjoy your breakfast. Did you want some, Sammy?" He asked his little brother who opened the car door to let in more fresh air.
"No thanks. How'd you pay for that stuff anyways? You and dad still running credit-card scams?"
"Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro-ball career. Besides, all we do is apply it's not our fault they send us the cards."
"Yeah, and what names did you write on the application this time?" Sam closed his door as Dean got back into the driver's seat.
"Uhh… Bert Aframian and his son, Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal."
"Sounds about right."
"Oooh! I wanna do a cred card scam too, dad!"
"It's 'credit-card.' And don't worry about all that, I'll show you how to do all the fun stuff." Kylie stood up in the backseat, leaning forward to see what Uncle Sammy had in the box on his lap. "Ooooh!" She said again when she saw all the different tapes in the box.
"I swear, man, you gotta update your cassette-tape collection."
"Why?" Yeah, Dean sounded hurt. Why? Because those tapes were like his many, many, many children. It's like asking to throw away a pet because they were too old.
"Yeah, why Uncle Sammy? They're cool!"
"Well… For one; they're cassette tapes. And two; Black Sabbath." Sam held up one of the cassette tapes then dropped it back down before shuffling through the dusty box again. "Motorhead, Metallica?" Kylie lunged forward, snatching the Metallica cassette tape from her uncle's hands. "It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."
"Metallica is cool, Uncle Sammy! Play this one, dad."
Gently taking the tape from his daughter removing it for it from the case. "House Rules, Sammy. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole." He plopped the case back into its dusty box where it belonged before starting up the Impala.
"What about me?" Kylie questioned with a smile on her face.
"Correction: driver and drivers daughter picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole, Sammy."
With a grunt Sam rolled his eyes as he sat back in his seat. "Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old. It's Sam, okay?"
Loveless' "A Gift to the World" started to play loudly through the speakers of the Impala. It wasn't a band or a song that Kylie had heard before but she was digging it.
"Sorry, I can't hear you. The music's too loud!"
The engine of the Impala revved loudly as they took off from the gas station and off to find John.
A sign that said JERICHO 7 came up quickly as Dean was speeding down the old country road. Kylie still wasn't sure what she was expecting when or if they did manage to find Grandpa John. Hell, she still wasn't 100% sure what hunting meant but knew that it didn't have anything to do with cute fuzzy animals. Whatever, what happens happens.
She looked up from her game when Uncle Sammy hung up his cell-phone. He had been calling around places for the past hour or so trying to find out where Grandpa John could be, but so far he hasn't had any luck.
"Alright, there is nobody matching dad at the hospital or morgue," Sam announced as he was starting to fidget with his phones antenna. "So that's something, I guess."
"I can't wait to meet grandpa!" Kylie said with a huge smile on her face. "He owes me soooo many birthday presents!"
Sam and Dean looked at each other. They didn't want to say anything about their father to Kylie because they didn't want to disappoint her that he isn't the person that she made him out to be. Kylie was thinking that he was a normal person who went out hunting animals and lived in a cabin.
"What about grandma? When can I meet grandma?"
"We'll talk about that later, kiddo," Dean answered in almost a snappy tone. He didn't like anybody talking about his mother, and the false hope that Kylie had that she may one day meet her broke his heart.
"Dad! Look!" Kylie yelled, pointing outside the windshield.
As a normal reaction without looking, Dean slammed on the break in case he was about to run over someone or something. "What?! What is it?!" He demanded.
"At the bridge!"
"Look at all the cops lined up," Sam added in. "Something clearly is going down."
"Lets check it out." Dean pulled over the Impala so they could get a better look and to also make a game plan of what they wanted to do with these cops. He rolled up the window in case any of them could hear them talking from outside. "How good of an actor are you, Kylie?" He asked as he unbuckled his seatbelt, leaning over he opened the glove compartment in front of Sam to pull out a small cardboard box.
"Real good! I used to play leads in school plays all the time!"
"Dean… You're not gonna-"
"I sure am," he interrupted his little brother. "I even had it made and everything for her."
"What am I pretending to be, daddy?"
"You're Paige Evans. We're Federal Marshals agents."
"Hmm… Okay!" She said happily with a huge smile on her face as Dean gave her her fake ID badge.
"Let's go."
They got out of the car, walking towards the bridge to see what was going on. Was it normal for Kylie to feel a little nervous about this? Probably. She knew that pretending to be a cop or something would definitely get them in trouble of some kind so he had to be convincing as hell. Yeah, I got this, Kylie thought to herself as they got closer and closer.
"Did you guys find anything?" They heard one of the cops call down to the two other men that were down under the bridge.
"No! Nothing!" One of them called back up.
"You fellas had another one like this last month, didn't you?" Dean said to get their attention.
"And who are you?"
"Federal Marshals." They held up their badges to the cop before putting them away.
The cop looked puzzled as if he didn't fully believe them. Especially with Kylie. "You three are a little young for Marshals, aren't you?"
"Are you discriminating me against my height?!" Kylie shouted at the cop sounding as if she was really mad. "I'll have you know I have a growth hormone deficiency!"
"Agent Evans, that's enough. But you did have another one just like this, correct?"
The cop cleared his throat, straightening out his jacket from the scolding he got from Kylie. "Yeah, that's right, about a mile up the road. There have been others before that."
"So this victim," Sam started, "you knew him?"
The cop nodded. "A town like this, everybody knows everybody."
"Any connection between the victims? Besides that they're all men?"
"No. Not so far as we can tell."
"So what's the theory?"
"Honesty… We don't know. Serial murderer, kidnapping ring." Kylie's face turned white with the mention of a murderer being involved. What are they getting her into?
"Well, that is exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of you guys." Sam slammed his foot down on Dean's to tell him to 'shut the hell up' before they were found out that they weren't real Marshals.
"Heh… Thank you for your time, gentlemen…" Sam told them with a forced smile as they walked away. The cop gave them a weird look as they were walking away. When they were further away from the crime scene, Dean hit Sam upside the head. "Ow! What was that for?!"
"What'd you have to step on my foot?"
"Why do you have to talk to police like that?"
"C'mon!" Dean stepped in front of Sam. "They don't really know what's going on! We're all alone on this and if we're gonna find dad, we've gotta get to the bottom of this thing ourselves."
Kylie grabbed onto Dean's jacket sleeve to get his attention to turn around.
"Can I help you boys?" The sheriff asked them sounding very unamused with having to deal with them.
"No, sir. We were just leaving. Agent Mulder, Agent Scully," he addressed the two men in suits who walked past them.
"What's that mean,da-" Dean kicked her heel to shut her up. "Ow!" He grabbed her arm tightly before they started walking away from the scene and back to the Impala. "What'd I do? That hurt."
"Look, whenever we're around cops or whatever don't call me dad, okay? We don't want our covers blown."
"Sorry…"
Next, they wanted to talk to this girl that the three of them overheard the cops talking about. It was one of their daughters, apparently she had been dating the man who recently gone missing and was trying to get all the information that she could to find him. Clearly she had no luck. No surprise there. Just putting up posters all over town won't find him. Not this time.
As the three hunters were walking down the sidewalk, Kylie holding Dean's hand as instructed to do so she 'wouldn't get lost' they saw some girl who was putting up posters. That had to be her.
"Dad, look," Kylie started to point at the girl, but Sam made her lower it.
"Don't point at people," he whispered at her. "It's rude."
"Sorry, Uncle Sammy."
"Are you Amy?" Dean asked the girl as she was pinning up some more posters on a wall.
"Yes?" Amy answered, sounding confused as she had never seen these people in her entire life.
"Troy told us about you. We're his uncles. I'm Dean, this is Sammy, and my daughter Kylie."
"He never mentioned you guys to me." She stuffed some of the extra posters in her bag, turning around and walking off to put them up in other area.
"Ah, that's Troy, I guess. We're not around much. We're up in Modesto."
"So," Sam interrupted, "we're looking for him too, and we're kinda asking around-"
Another woman walked up to Amy, putting a hand on her shoulder. Clearly they knew each other. "Hey, are you okay?" She asked Amy in a caring voice.
"Yeah."
"Do you mind if we ask you a couple questions?"
The group decided to go into a local diner to talk about what was going on. Amy didn't want just anybody passing on the streets to know what was going on or anything. They sat in a booth with a missing poster that Amy made up sitting in between them on the table in front of them. Sam, Dean, and Kylie sat on one side of the booth while Amy and her friend were sitting across from them. Kylie had her 3DS up at full volume while playing a game and drinking chocolate milk through a straw, she wasn't really paying attention to what was going on. That upset Dean a little bit because even though she is young she's supposed to be paying attention to the case details, she'll have to do this on her own at some point in the future.
"Well, I was on the phone with Troy-"
"YES!" Kylie yelled loud enough to interrupt Amy's story. She had finally defeated that pesky boss in her game that she tried, what felt like, hundreds of times. When she noticed that her dad was glaring at her looked back at him with a puzzled expression. "What?"
"Give me the game."
"What. Why?"
"You're being noisy. Give it." This time, Dean held out his hand to show that he was being serious.
"But, dad!" Before she could protest further, Dean snatched the 3DS from her and turned it off before putting it in his pocket. "DAD! I DIDN'T SAVE!"
"Hush."
"Sorry about that, go on," Sam told Amy who smiled at Kylie.
"Okay, I was on the phone with Troy while he was driving home. He said he would call me right back but he never did."
"He didn't say anything strange or out of the ordinary?"
"No, nothing I can remember."
Dean leaned forward in his seat, placing his hands on the table. "So, here's the deal, ladies. The way Troy disappeared… something's not right. So if you've heard anything…" The two friends looked at each other as if they were debating with each other from an nonvocal conversation if they should tell. "What is it?"
"Well," Amy's friend started slowly. "I mean.. With all these guys going missing… people talk."
"What'd they talk about?" The three of them ask together.
"It's kinda this local legend. This one girl, she got murdered out on Centennial like, decades ago." Dean looked at Sam as she was telling the legend. "Well, supposedly, she's still out there. She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up they di-..." She looked at Kylie who was listening intently to the story with wide eyes. "Er… they disappear forever."
Well, that's all the information that they needed. It was time to do research at the local library.
The first website that Dean decided would be the best place to get any information on his legend would be the Jericho Herald that held all newspaper archives and major reports. He was typing away trying to find any information with Sam leaning over his shoulder on one side and Kylie on the other side. Clearly personal space wasn't a thing anymore with them around.
Female Murder Hitchhiking was the first thing that Dean typed into the archive service center.
(0) Results for search "Female Murder Hitchhiking"
Dammit.
He went back to the search bar and deleted the work Hitchhiking and changed it to Centennial Highway.
(0) Results for search "Female Murder Centennial Highway."
Goddamit.
"Let me try it," Sam said as he reached towards the mouse.
He didn't even get a chance before Dean slapped it away. "I got it." Sam pushed Dean's chair out of the way so he could get to the computer. "Dude!" He punched his arm in frustration. "You're such a control freak."
Sam let out a sigh. "So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?"
"Oooh! What if it was… um…" Kylie drooped over Sam's shoulder to get a better look at the computer screen. "I dunno what it's called but it's when people decide that they don't wanna live anymore and make themselves die. What if it's that?"
Sam and Dean looked at each other, they knew that Kylie was onto something here.
"Hmm… You may be moving us in the right direction."
Sam replaced Murder with Suicide in the search bar to see if that would do anything to aid their search.
Result for Search "Female Suicide Centennial Highway"Dean raised an eyebrow in surprise that his daughter actually moved them forward in their case. He felt a sense of pride for her. "Nice job, kiddo."
"Thanks, dad."
"This was in 1981," Sam read. "Constance Welch, 24 years old, jumps off Sylvania Bridge, drowns in the river."
"What?! Why!" Kylie sound rather loudly that a few people turned around to look at her. Dean cleared his throat, picking her up from Sam's shoulder and setting her on his lap instead.
"An hour before they found her, she calls 911. Her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minute, and when she comes back they aren't breathing. Both die."
"Eugh… That's why I'm afraid of water, Uncle Sammy."
"''Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it,' said husband, Joseph Welch.'"
Dean whistled loudly, snapping his fingers to get Kylie's attention while she was looking elsewhere. "You still with us?"
"Yes, why? I was listening, I promise."
"Look." He pointed at the computer screen that now displayed a picture of a bridge. "That bridge look familiar to you?"
Kylie smiled. "Yeah! That's the bridge we were just at."
They waited until that night to go back to said bridge, the angry spirit would be there at night rather than in the daytime. The moon was glistening over the over underneath the bridge, and Kylie being at that age she thought it was the most amazing thing.
"So this is where Constance took the swan dive," Dean joked as they looked down at the rushing water beneath them.
"Do you think grandpa would have been here?"
"Well… he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him." He walked away from the edge of the bridge with the two following his lead. "Now we keep digging 'till we find him. It may take a while."
"Dean…" Sam started. "I told you I've got to get back by-"
"Monday," he finished for him sounding a bit hurt. "Right." He turned to face him. "The interview. "I forgot. You're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just gonna become some lawyer, marry your girl?"
"Maybe. Why not?"
"Does Jessica know the truth about you? Does she know about the things you've done?"
"No, and she's not ever gonna know." Sam walked towards Dean, quickly closing the space between them, leaving Kylie to back up away from them.
"Well, that's healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy, but you're gonna have to face up to who you really are."
"Who is that?"
"One of us."
"No! I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life."
"Well, you have a responsibility."
"Don't you have a responsibility now too? To raise Kylie, hopefully, away from all of this? Doesn't she deserve just that? She deserves to have one living parent, Dean. I was hoping that you would put all of this behind you to dad and his crusade, if it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what mom looks like. So what does it matter? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, mom's gone and she isn't coming back."
Dean grabbed Sam by the shirt, shoving him up against one of the metal beams on the bridge looking like he was about to fight.
"Don't talk about my daughter or mom like that."
"Dad! Stop it!" Kylie shouted, grabbing onto his arm. She tried pulling him away but she wasn't strong enough, but luckily he let go of Sam on his own. "Dad?"
"What?"
"Is… Grandma dead?"
There was an awkward silence between the three of them. He wanted to avoid this subject at all costs, but… what did he honestly expect? He knew it was going to come up eventually.
He knelt down in front of her, his hands on her shoulders. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but I didn't know how you would react." It looked like Kylie was going to cry over the grandmother that she never even met before. She felt like everyone in her life was either dying or had already died. "I'm really sorry, I-" He paused when he noticed that Kylie wasn't even focused on him but on something behind him. "What?"
"D-dad…" She said slowly, her eyes focused on the woman in a white dress standing on the edge of the bridge.
Dean looked over his shoulder to see what Kylie was seeing. He stood up quickly, making sure that Kylie was staying behind him. The woman turned to face them with a scared look on her face as if she knew what her fate was going to be. She only broke eye contact when she jumped over the edge. They ran over to where she jumped to see where she went. But there was nothing. From behind them the engine roared to life from the Impala parked on the other side of the bridge, it caused them all the jump in surprise when the headlights shined on them.
"What the…" Dean picked Kylie up and held her close to his chest in case they needed to move quickly.
"Who's driving the car?" Kylie whimpered, burying her head against Dean's chest.
He fished the Impala's keys out of his pocket, holding them up for them to see. The tires squealed as it was moving towards them at a high speed. They started running as fast as they could, but, of course, there was no way that they could outrun a car. So they did the only thing they could do that would possibly save them from being ran over. They jumped off the bridge. Sam managed to hang on to one of metal beams of the bridge and was holding on for dear life as he was trying to pull himself back up. He looked back down at the ground to see some slight movement.
"Dean!" He called down to the figure, who thankfully was his brother.
"What!" He called back up to Sam, crawling out of the water and covered in mud.
Something wasn't right… He saw Dean but… "Where's Kylie?!"
"She's right…" Dean glanced around on the land he was on but didn't see his daughter. Oh no. "Kylie?!" He called out but didn't get an answer in return. His heart sunk down to his stomach, his anxiety was starting to kick in. "Kylie!"
"Dean! Look!" Sam pointed in the water where he saw something splashing around.
Dean didn't even ask questions, once he saw that in the water he dove right after it. He had no idea if his daughter could swim or not, that was probably some important information that they should know for the future. Sam just watched helplessly from above, not knowing what was going on down there. He was feeling that same anxiety that Dean was feeling right now.
"I got her!" Dean called back up once more as he carried Kylie out of the freezing cold water. "She's okay!"
"Oh, thank god!"
Kylie was coughing up some water when they were on land. "Daddy?" She said in a weak voice.
"Yeah, princess? What is it?"
"You're all muddy."
Dean narrowed his eyes before wiping some of the mud from the back of his hand onto her face. She giggled, turning away from him. "Gross! You smell like a toilet."
"Thanks."
"One room," Dean told the old man running the front desk of the motel as he threw his credit card down in front of him.
The man looked down at the card name then back up to Dean. "You guys having a reunion or something?" The old man asked them.
"What do you mean?"
"That other guy, Bert Aframian. He came in and bought out a room for the whole month.
Well, since they now knew that information they had to check out the room that their dad had rented out. Dean and Kylie were out keeping watch while Sam picked the lock to the motel room. Sam grabbed them and pulled them into the room where they saw that he'd been busy. There were posts up all over the walls and items scattered all around the room.
The first thing Kylie noticed, however, was the salt ring on the floor. What the hell was that supposed to mean?
"I don't think he's been here for a couple days at least," Dean announced after turning on a light and smelling an old meal that their dad must have had before taking off.
"Salt, cat's-eye shells. He was worried, trying to keep something from coming in." When Sam noticed that Dean and Kylie were too focused on something that was posted on the walls he came over to join them. "What do you got here?"
"Centennial highway victims," they both said together.
"I don't get it. I mean, different men, different jobs, age, ethnicities. There's always a connection, right? What do these guys have in common?"
"What's a 'Woman in White' mean?"
"Where?" Sam asked as he turned around. He read through the articles that were posted on the walls where Kylie was standing. "Dad figured it out."
"What do you mean?" Dean questioned.
"He found the same article we did. Constance Welch. She's a Woman in White."
"Alright, so if we're dealing with a Woman in White, dad would've found the corpse and destroyed it."
"She might have another weakness."
"No, dad would want to make sure. He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?"
"Uhuh…" Kylie muttered. "Why don't we ask her husband? He's alive still though."
"Another great idea, Kylie. Look, you guys find an address I'm gonna take a shower."
"Listen, Dean… I'm sorry about what I said about mo-"
"No chick-flick moments."
"Alright, jerk."
"Bitch."
When Sam and Dean went off to do their own things it was hard for Kylie to not explore the room for herself to see what else was in there. All of this stuff was so foreign to her. Although, the first thing that she noticed was a little picture stuck in the mirror of two little boys and an older man. She turned to face Sam who was sitting on the bed then back down to the picture.
She climbed on the bed next to him with the picture still in hand. "Uncle Sammy?"
"Hm?"
"Who are they?" She held the picture out to her uncle who slowly took it from her.
He smiled. "That's me." He pointed to the younger boy in the picture. "That's your dad." He pointed to the older boy. "And that's… that's your grandfather." He pointed to John who was sitting in the middle.
Sam couldn't help but tell Kylie some of the stories of his and Dean's childhood. She was so interested in the stories that they didn't know how much time had actually passed until Dean came out of the bathroom.
"Hey, I'm starving. I'm gonna grab something to eat, you wanna come?"
"No," Sam said, tucking the picture Kylie found into his coat pocket.
"Aframian's buying."
"Mnh-mnh…"
"Kylie?"
"Yeah!" She hopped off the bed, saying her goodbyes to Uncle Sammy before they left the motel room. "I'm starving, dad!"
"I am too, princess." He adjusted his leather jacket as they walked towards the Impala. He was the first one to notice the cops talking to the old man at the front desk.
"Snitch…" Kylie muttered when she finally noticed.
Dean grabbed Kylie's arm, turning around to quickly walk away from the cops. He pulled out his cell-phone and called Sam to warn him about what was going on outside.
"Dude, Five-O. Take off."
What the hell was that supposed to mean? Kylie thought with a puzzled look on her face.
"Uh, they kinda spotted me. Go find dad." He closed the cell-phone when the cops approached them from behind. Dean moved Kylie to stand behind him, he'll be damned if they lay a finger on her. "Problem, officers?"
"Where's your partner?"
"Partner? Wha- what partner?" The cop motioned towards the motel room that Dean and Kylie came out of to go investigate. They both had a nervous expression on their faces when they saw him going towards there with Sam still in the room.
"So," the cop continued, "fake U.S. Marshal, fake credit cards. Also forced a child into impersonating a Marshal. You got anything that's real?"
"My boobs," Dean said with a smile on his face. Kylie was trying to keep her laughter in, but she wasn't laughing at all when they were both getting arrested.
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."
"So, you two want to give us your real names?" Another cop said as he entered the questioning room at the police station, carrying a box. Dean had instructed Kylie to not say a word and to let him handle it.
"I told you. It's Nugent, Ted Nugent."
"I'm not sure you realize just how much trouble you're in here."
"We talkin', like, misdemeanor kinda trouble or 'squeal like a pig' trouble?"
"You got the faces of 10 mission persons taped to your wall, along with a whole lot of Satanic mumbo jumbo, all while putting a child in danger. Boy, you are officially a suspect."
"That makes sense 'cause when the first one went missing in '82, I was 3."
"I know you got partners. One of them's an older guy. Maybe he started the whole thing." The cop started shuffling through the box that he had set on the table. "So tell me, Dean…" He threw an extremely heavy leather bound book in front of Dean on the table. "Is this his?" He sat on the table. "I thought that might be your name. And this young lady must be Kylie. See, I leafed through this, what little I could make out. I mean, it's nine kinds of crazy, but I found this too." Dean leaned forward to see what he was talking about. It was his name with a set of numbers. "Now, you're staying right here 'till you tell me exactly what the hell that means."
"I'm telling you that's my high school locker combo."
"Are we gonna do this all night long?"
Another cop entered room to get ahold of the cop that was integrating Dean. "We just got a 911. Shots fired over a Whiteford Road."
"Do either of you have to go to the bathroom?"
"No?"
"Good." He didn't waste any time handcuffing the two before leaving them there.
It didn't take long before Dean noticed the paper clip that was sticking out of his dad's journal. Now they were gonna get somewhere.
"I'm gonna show you how to break outta handcuffs," Dean told Kylie as he bent it out of shape for it to work.
They were now free and huddled up next to the door. Dean was looking out to make sure that nobody was around when they made their escape. There were a few times where he had to move back into hiding because a cop unexpectedly showed up, but they haven't gotten caught. Yet. Once it was all cleared out he and Kylie quickly made it out, going to the nearest phone booth.
Dean punched in Sam's number and was relieved when he picked up so quickly. "Fake 911 phone call, Sammy? I dunno, that's pretty illegal."
"Lemme talk to him!" Kylie shouted at her dad while jumping up try and reach the phone but Dean kept moving her away.
"Listen, we gotta talk…" He listened as Sam was going on about what he figured out when he and Kylie were locked up. "Sammy, would you shut up for a second?" Nope, he kept talking and talking and talking… "Well, that's what I'm trying to tell you. He's gone. Dad left Jericho. …. We've got his journal. …. Well, he did this time. … Same old ex-Marine crap when he wants to let us know where he's going. …. I'm not sure yet."
"Dad! Let me talk to Uncle Sammy!"
"Sam? Sam?!" Dean looked at the phone that had now turned into static. Which means… "c'mon, Kylie!" He scooped up his daughter as he ran as fast as he could towards the house where it all happened.
The Impala was in the distance right in front of the house, Dean put Kylie down before pulling a gun out of his waistband. He shot the driver's side window of the Impala where he saw the Woman in White trying to hurt Sam. She had disappeared only for a moment only to come back seconds later looking like a terrible monster that caused Kylie to scream. Once she was gone again, Sam put the car into drive.
"I'm taking you home," he called out before stepping on the gas.
"Sam!" They watched as Sam drove through the front of the house. That was gonna leave some damage to the car. "Stay back!" He told his daughter as he ran into the partially destroyed house. "Sam! You okay!"
"I think so," he said.
"Can you move?"
"Yeah, help me." Dean grabbed Sam's arm and pulled him out through the passenger side door that he managed to pull opened.
Kylie watched as the Woman in White pick up a huge picture frame that was of her old family. Her and her two children that she had lost due to drowning. She threw the picture frame down as she looked up at the brothers, she pinned them against a drawer and the Impala. No matter how hard they tried they couldn't move it. Electrical currents moved through the house, the lights were flickering, and water was dripping down the stairs that lead upstairs.
When the Woman in White looked up she saw her two children standing there looking down at her. They held hands and said, "You've come home to us, mommy," they said together. They then appeared behind her, wrapping there arms around her as she screamed loudly. The three Winchester's watched the gruesome scene as the Woman in White disappeared back home with her children.
Sam and Dean managed to push the drawer away from them. It was over now. The only thing that was left now in her place was a puddle of water.
"Daddy!" They heard Kylie yell as she ran towards them. She held her arms up to him.
"You were so brave," Dean said, kissing her forehead.
"Is there where she drowned her kids, daddy?"
"Yeah…"
"That's why she could never go home…" Sam added. "She was too scared to face them."
"Nice work everyone." He slapped Sam on the chest who laughed in response.
"Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?"
"Hey, we saved your ass. I'll tell you another thing… If you screwed up my car, I'll kill you."
Kylie was sleeping peacefully in the backseat of the Impala while Sam and Dean were going through their fathers journal trying to figure out where he wanted them to go. Of course, with Sam being the brains he figured it out in no time.
"Okay, so here's where dad went," he started to say, moving his finger with the map he was looking at. "It's called Blackbottle Ridge, Colorado."
"Sounds charming. How far?"
"About 600 miles."
"If we shag ass, we can make it by morning."
"Dean, um…"
"You're not going."
"The interview's in 10 hours. I gotta be there."
"Yeah. Yeah, whatever. I'll take you home."
Kylie was still asleep when Dean dropped Sam back off at home. She wouldn't get a chance to say goodbye to her Uncle Sammy.
"Maybe I will catch up with you guys later," Sam said after getting out of the Impala.
"Yeah, alright. Sam. You know, the three of us made a hell of a team back there."
"Yeah…" Was all that Sam could say before Dean and Kylie drove off.
Even before Dean took off too far he swore that he saw some smoke coming from Sam's apartment. He woke Kylie up in a panic, telling her where he was going. When he ran into Sam's apartment he saw Jess on the ceiling, the place bursting into flames. He grabbed Sam and forced him out of the apartment before he burned to death.
The fire trucks pulled up and put out of the flames not long after that happened. Sam and Kylie were at the trunk of the Impala loading up a shotgun.
"Are you coming with us now, Uncle Sammy?" Kylie asked before Sam threw the shotgun back into the trunk.
"Yep. We got work to do, kiddo."