Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way, shape or form with the show.
Sam sat in the diner, his brow furrowed in concentration at his computer screen. Dean occasionally shot glances at him but he hadn't moved for the last ten minutes, so there didn't seem to be any point in disturbing him. All he'd get was a moody reply of 'I'm busy' and Dean would either have to retaliate with sarcasm or storm off and talk to some pretty waitress and leave Sam to his sulk.
So, Dean had decided to by-pass the whole argument and talk to the pretty waitress anyway. Not that he needed it with his credit cards, but he had already been rewarded for his efforts with a free coffee. He was about to try for a sandwich as well when he heard Sam clear his throat for attention. Sighing, Dean left the stool on the counter and slumped himself into a seat on the table. If Sam had decided to talk he had picked the exact wrong moment to do it.
"I think I found something."
Dean didn't know why he still felt a short pang of pain when Sam said that. He felt that he should have given up hope long ago that Sam would say something about Jessica, about how he was feeling, about anything but work. Not that Dean enjoyed chick flick moments, but he didn't consider it healthy for Sam to keep everything bottled up. "Yeah? What?"
Sam spun the computer around so Dean could see. It was on a local newspaper site. The headline read 'murder-suicide' and underneath was a picture of a smiling woman in her late thirties and a man in his early forties. "Doesn't sound like our kind of thing."
"Listen to this though," Sam turned the computer back to himself, reading from the screen. "Fourth murder-suicide in the town in just over two weeks…authorities are calling it an epidemic…residents worried about water supply…"
"Water supply?"
Sam chuckled disbelievingly, "yeah, water supply. Although some of them are saying that it's a curse. On the first of the month a fifty-two year old man, Alan Kerson, shot his wife and then himself. Four days after that, a sixteen year old student, Rebecca Runes stabbed her boyfriend to death and then slit her wrists. Four days after that, a twenty-one year old man, Roger Hedges poisoned his boyfriend with sleeping pills before taking an overdose. And four days after that," he tapped the computer screen, "37 year old Melissa Yeo shot her husband before shooting herself." He glanced over the top of the computer at Dean.
"Any connection between the victims?"
"Only that they lived in the same town and that they were supposedly in love with the person that they killed. Nothing else, they're different ages, genders, religions, sexual orientation. It probably wouldn't have been notable if it wasn't for the date pattern."
"Well it's certainly notable."
Sam closed the laptop, getting up to leave. "Come on then, town's only an hour away from here."
Dean surveyed the table. He had splashed out, buying Sam a tomato sandwich and a triple chocolate muffin. He couldn't remember the last time that Sam had eaten anything, it had to be at least a couple of days. He stayed sat down, looking into Sam's eyes. "Eat something Sammy."
"Don't call me Sammy. And we need to get moving, the last attack was four days ago, which means that two more people are going to die tonight if we don't stop this thing."
Dean opened his mouth, about to say something about Jessica and that Sam should stop punishing himself but he stopped himself. Doing that would jolt Sam out of being moody, but it would send him spiralling into his anger, and that made their missions more dangerous. So Dean settled for stretching out in the chair and shaking his head. "Not until you eat something."
"I'll take them in the car."
"No you won't! That's a muffin, do you really think I want crumbs everywhere?"
"Fine, I'll eat it somewhere else then, when we get to the town." Sam's voice was starting to rise and Dean knew that there was no use in arguing with him. It was better to just let Sam have his way and try to make him eat later.
Leaving the diner Dean climbed into the car after Sam and put on some music at full blast to try and drown out the silence between them. He started to drive, every so often glancing at Sam who was just staring out of the window with a far-away look in his eyes.