A/N Hello, and welcome to the next installment of my NoRest!Verse. If you are unfamiliar with said verse, I would highly recommend that you go back and read my first story, No Rest for the Winchesters, and the sequel, Simon Screamed. You don't have to, of course, but they introduce the characters that you will see in this story. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: Abby and Erik are all mine, but sadly none of the other characters belong to me.
The Unusual Suspects
Chapter 1
"Oh, come on. You can't tell me you don't think he's even a little bit hot."
"Abbs, as a straight man who also happens to be your boyfriend, I can honestly say that I am not comfortable obsessing over David Tennant's attractiveness with you."
Abby smiled at Erik, who was sitting next to her on the couch as they watched the most recent season of Doctor Who. She stared at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Okay, fine. He does have fantastic hair, I'll give you that," Erik admitted.
Abby laughed triumphantly. She treasured these moments of peace with her boyfriend, when she was not busy at the hospital or dealing with her brothers. He reminded her why she had chosen to live a normal life. Of course, Erik also reminded her why hunting was so important; it protected innocent normal people like him.
"You want anything?" she asked as she rose to get a beer from the kitchen during the commercial break.
"No thanks."
Abby was about to reenter the living room with her drink when the sound of the phone ringing reverberated through the apartment.
"I got it," said Erik.
Abby sat next to him, glancing at him in concern when his face fell into a grave expression. He held the phone out to her.
"It's for you," he said quietly.
Abby took it, worried.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Hi, is this Dr. Abigail Winchester?" replied a woman's voice.
"Yes. May I ask who this is and why you're calling?"
"Dr. Winchester, I'm Detective Diana Ballard, from the Baltimore Police Department."
Abby groaned internally. It could only be about Sam and Dean, but it wasn't a hospital or morgue calling, so they had to be fine physically. But for the police to be calling about them…
"We're holding your brothers, Sam and Dean here."
"On what charges?" asked Abby. It was not the first time her family had run into trouble with the police. She herself had spent nights in various holding cells after being caught digging up graves or breaking into buildings.
"They were involved in a murder. Dean is our main suspect, but Sam is not being very cooperative in our efforts to get to the truth."
Damn. Pretty much anything could be talked down to a fine, but murder was a tricky one. Leave it to Dean to be the one to get caught.
"Listen detective, if you're looking for a character reference, I can tell you without a doubt that my brothers are not murderers. If you're looking for incriminating information on them, you've come to the wrong place."
Abby's brain had begun to work furiously, trying to figure out a way to free her brothers. If they were in real holding cells, it was going to be difficult.
"Look, Dr. Winchester, I understand that they're your family, but I'm just trying to understand the situation. If your brothers are innocent, you shouldn't have anything to worry about."
Right, because the justice system was always so reliable. Still, if she could head off this cop with a pass, she might be able to help the boys.
"What do you want to know?" she asked.
"How long has it been since you last spoke to your brothers?"
Abby decided to stick as close to the truth as possible, so she answered for the time before her entire family had shown up in her hospital a few months ago.
"Dean and I haven't talked in over seven years, and it's been a little over a year with Sam."
"Why the lack of communication?"
"Dean and I had a falling out when I left for school. Sam just sort of shut down after his girlfriend died. He told me that he was going roadtripping with Dean, and I never heard from him since. I just figured he needed space."
"So you don't have any idea what Dean's been up to in the past several years? Your brother was declared dead, and your telling me that you didn't know anything about that?"
"Dead?" asked Abby, surprised. "When?"
"About a year ago, in St. Louis, he killed one young woman and tortured another. He was shot before the police could take him in."
That must have been an interesting case. Neither Sam nor Dean had mentioned it to Abby, though.
"Well no one told me about that, but obviously whoever told you was misinformed."
"Hm. Well, if you haven't seen Dean in seven years, why were you so sure that he wouldn't be capable of murder?"
"Because I spent the first twenty years of my life with him, and I know him better than just about anyone else on the planet."
"People change," said the detective.
"Not that much," Abby replied firmly. She did not have to lie about this. "Dean is a good man, and he would never murder a person in cold blood."
"Okay." The detective was clearly unconvinced, but she must have realized that she would not get anything useful out of that line of questioning. "One last thing; does your father happen to know a man by the name of Tony Giles?"
Abby blinked, surprised by the totally random question. She was not sure how to respond. Giles, whoever he was, must have been involved in the case somehow, but she was not sure if the question was a trick.
"Is that who was killed?" she asked.
"Just answer the question please, Dr. Winchester."
So that was a yes. Dead men told no tales, so the question must have come from the boys' stories, in which case…She took a chance.
"Yeah, they were old friends. I don't think they had spoken in a while though."
"Right." The woman sounded disappointed, so Abby figured that she had made the right call. "Well, I'll call you if I have any more questions. Thank you for your time Dr. Winchester."
"Yeah, sure thing. Have a nice day, Detective Ballard."
She hung up, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Did you just lie to the cops?" asked Erik. "You talked to your brothers two days ago."
"Yeah, I lied. Dean is being held for murder and Sam can probably be pinned with a whole slew of charges, so I thought I could help them better if I wasn't also under suspicion."
Erik's eyebrows shots up.
"You have really got to introduce me to them someday," he said. "Something tells me your descriptions don't do them justice."
Abby rolled her eyes, but she was grateful that he seemed to trust that Sam and Dean were innocent.
"Probably not," she told her boyfriend as she rose from the couch and went to the closet to retrieve the overnight bag that she kept packed for situations like these. "Tell you what, if I manage to keep them out of jail, I'll bring them over and you can meet them."
"You're leaving?"
"Yeah, I have to do what I can. They're in Baltimore. I should be back in a few days."
Erik did not look particularly happy, but he seemed to realize that he did not understand the entire situation.
"Just be careful," he urged, giving her a soft kiss and handing her the keys to her truck.
"I will," Abby assured him with a smile. "I'll call you later."
ooooooooooooooooo
Abby had lived in Baltimore for the eight years she had attended Johns Hopkins, but she had not been back to the city since. The streets and buildings were comfortingly familiar. It did not take her long to find the police station where Sam and Dean were being held. She entered, showing one of her fake IDs to the cop at the front desk. She was going in as a public defender representing Sam, because it was doubtful that anyone would bother checking into her story. She located the door of the interview room where Sam was being held, and entered with a smile. Her little brother was standing by the open window, peering out of it.
"Hey Sammy," Abby said, closing the door behind her and walking over to give her brother a quick hug.
"Abby?" Sam asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?"
"Trying to save your asses. You realize that Dean is a murder suspect, right? That's a big deal Sam."
"Yeah, no kidding. But how did you know about it? We only got taken in last night."
"A detective called me. She wanted me to tell her everything about you two. I said I hadn't talked to you since Jess died, and Dean since I went to school, so I wouldn't be very useful to the cops. But, I figured that you two would need all the help you could get."
"Are you sure? If you get caught, it could mean a lot of trouble for you. You're the only one of us who actually has a real life to lose."
Abby was touched by Sam's concern, but saddened by the fact that he thought that he and Dean weren't worth the risk she was taking.
"I understand that, Sammy, but you and Dean are already in a lot of trouble, and I want to help you out of it. So tell me about this case. There is a case here, right?"
"Yeah. We're thinking it's a vengeful spirit. This lawyer, Anthony Giles, was found with his throat cut in his office, no witnesses, no security cam footage, no trace of the killer. We talked to the wife, Karen, who said that Giles had been seeing a pale woman with red eyes before he was killed. We went to his office, and found the words 'dana shulps' written all over the place. I stayed to hack his computer and see if there was anything else to find out, but Dean got impatient, so he went to talk to Karen again. There was nothing on the computer so I went back to the hotel, but then a SWAT team showed up, and I was brought here. The cops aren't really interested in me, though. They just want me to turn on Dean. I don't know the details, but I'm pretty sure that Karen Giles is dead, and that they think Dean did it."
"And since we know otherwise, we're assuming that it was the same spirit."
"Yeah."
"Okay. Did you figure out who Dana Shulps was?"
"That's just the thing. We ran the name, and when we didn't get anything, we realized that it wasn't a name at all."
"You're thinking something like an anagram?"
"Exactly."
Sam pulled a piece of yellow paper from his pocket and showed it to Abby.
"Dean sent me this through our lawyer," he told her.
Hilts-
It's a street
Ashland.
-McQueen
"I take it this is why you had the window open when I came in," said Abby, recognizing the code for a breakout.
"Yeah," Sam replied. "There's a ledge running all the way to the fire escape. Shouldn't be too hard to get out."
"Okay. I know where Ashland Street is; I can take you there. But I want to check on Dean first. Why don't you go to the motel, and I'll meet you there as soon as I can."
"What are you going to do about Dean?"
"That part I'm not sure about. I probably won't be able to bust him out right now, but I want to get a read on the situation so that we know how to help him later. Now go; I'll close the window behind you."
Abby watched as her little brother climbed out onto the ledge under the window. She did not like seeing him in such a precarious position, but she knew that he could take care of himself. Even so, she did not look away until Sam had made it safely to the fire escape. Then she slid the window shut and went off in search of her twin.
She made her way deeper into the police station, guessing that Dean was being held in one of the interrogation rooms. She saw the door to an observation room being opened, and caught a glimpse of a familiar face. She slipped into the back of the crowded, darkened room, watching her brother through what had to be a two-way mirror.
Dean was cuffed to a table, facing a video camera. Abby knew that the slight smirk on his face could only mean trouble. She was right.
"Talk directly into the camera, first stating your name for the record," said a severe looking man, probably another detective. The poor sucker probably thought that Dean was going to confess to the murder.
"My name is Dean Winchester. I'm an Aquarius. I enjoy sunsets, long walks on the beach, and frisky women." Abby ducked her head to hide her grin. She was torn between amusement and frustration. "And I did not kill anyone. But I know who did. Or rather what did. Of course it can't be for sure, because our investigation was interrupted. But our working theory was that we're looking for some kind of vengeful spirit."
The cops in the room with Dean were clearly not amused.
"Excuse me?" asked one of them, and Abby recognized her voice from the call that she had gotten earlier. Detective Ballard.
"You know, Casper the bloodthirsty ghost?" Dean continued.
The crowd of people in the observation room began to laugh. Abby however, was growing more concerned. The male detective seemed to be getting more and more angry with Dean.
"Tony Giles saw it. I'll bet you cash money Karen did too. But see, the interesting thing is the word it leaves behind. For some reason it's trying to tell us something. But communicating across the veil, it ain't easy. You know, sometimes the spirits, they, they get things jumbled. You remember "REDRUM". Same concept. You know, it's, uh, maybe word fragments... other times, it's anagrams. See, at first we thought this was a name, Dana Shulps. But now we think it's a street. Ashland. Whatever's going on, I'll bet you it started there."
Having finished his speech, Dean spread his hands and gave the cops a cocky smile.
"You arrogant bastard," growled the male detective. "Tony and Karen were good people, and you're making jokes."
"I'm not joking, Ponch," replied Dean unapologetically.
"You murdered them in cold blood just like that girl in St. Louis."
Abby tensed, uncomfortable with how close the angry cop was getting to her brother. And of course Dean could not keep his attitude in check.
"Oh, yeah," he said cheekily. "That wasn't me either. That was a shape-shifter creature that only looked like me."
The detective finally snapped, hauling Dean out of his chair and slamming him against the wall. Abby was at the door in the same second, every instinct telling her to go to her brother's defense.
"Pete, that is enough!" shouted Detective Ballard.
Abby paused, recognizing that it would be a bad idea to rush in there, and that Dean was not in danger if at least one of the cops was being reasonable. She waited, eyes locked on her twin and the man still holding him against the wall.
"You asked for the truth," said Dean softly, meeting the other man's gaze.
After far too long a pause for Abby's comfort, the detective let go of Dean.
"Lock his ass up," he said as he stormed out of the room.
Abby grimaced. They were going to take Dean to a formal holding cell, and her chances of getting him out by herself were not good. It meant that she was going to have to leave him there, and try to figure out with Sam a way to free him later. Casting one last look at her twin, Abby left the room and went to find her little brother.
A/N Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed. I would love to hear what you guys think, especially about Erik and whether or not you care to see more of him, so please leave a review. The next chapter should be up within a few days.