Nathan couldn't figure out what was happening. He'd seen some weird stuff. He lived in Haven after all, but never like this. And none of it had ever affected Audrey before. He could see she was still breathing, which frankly was the reason both men weren't already dead. The man in the tan trench coat looked like he was about to try something else, and Nathan was moving his finger to click off the safety when the man in the cell shouted "Cas. Stop! Don't touch him. Come inside the cell and stay in here"
Remarkably the trench-coated man obeyed and reappeared inside the cell. Nathan dropped instantly to his knees to take Audrey's pulse. He had seen her breathing, but he needed to be sure. If he had lost her, he didn't know how he could keep going. He pressed his fingers to her neck and felt her heart beating reassuringly under them. "She's fine" the man in the cell said, "just unconscious. I'm Sam by the way. Nice to meet you" Sam seemed to have given up all attempts at a cover after his strange friend stepped in "And this is Cas"
The man in the trench coat, Cas, shifted uncomfortably "I apologize for incapacitating your partner. She was waving a weapon at me. She will awake in a moment"
Nathan turned briefly and pointed his gun at Cas again "Just shut up and stay where you are" he snapped. He was right though a second later Audrey stirred in his arms "Parker?" he gave her a little shake "Parker?"
"Nathan?" she muttered "What happened?"
He exhaled in relief that she didn't seem harmed "I really have no idea"
Five minutes later the two of them were seated in folding chairs outside the cell, Audrey rubbing her neck where she'd hit during her fall, and Nathan glaring persistenly at Cas. It was Audrey who spoke first, directing her words to Cas, "So, I suppose you've heard of the troubles?"
"The what?" Sam asked.
"The troubles" Nathan said, "You're friend. He's troubled, right? Troubled? Afflicted? Cursed?"
"I suppose you could say that" Cas said "though that seems a rather odd way of putting it"
There was another moment of silence before Audrey said "You have no idea what we're talking about do you?"
Both men shook their heads. Audrey nodded "I think you'd better tell us why you're here. The truth this time"
The conversation proved to be enlightening for both parties, though Nathan and Audrey seemed to have a little more trouble believing what they head. Sam watched as Nathan turned to his partner when he was finished speaking and said "Demons, angels? We're not seriously listening to this guy are we?"
Audrey shrugged "We once met someone who turned dogs into human, and three teen girls who turned into wendigos and you want to rule out demons? Maybe it's some sort of trouble"
"What are the troubles?" Sam asked.
"Nothing" Nathan said, determined not to give this criminal any more information.
Sam didn't let it go "I explained mine, and you seem to be having very little trouble accepting the existence of demons. Also you just mentioned wendigos. I think we're owed a bit of an explanation as well"
After a moment's deliberation Audrey explained "People here in Haven, well some people, can do things. Weird things. We don't really know how, or why, just that it's passed from parent to child and that there's no way to get rid of it, or at least not one we've found. There was a girl who controlled people's minds, a boy who's nightmares came true, a man who mummified people with his touch" It immediately occurred to Sam that these cops might easily be crazy. If they weren't though he sure had a lot of respect for them. Whatever was happening in Haven (trickster maybe? demented angels?) it couldn't be easy to live there.
"So these people," Castiel asked "the cursed, you find them and you kill them?"
Sam watched the Audrey's hand tighten on Nathan's. That was not good. He got the sudden feeling that Nathan might be among these people, maybe both of them were, and that Castiel might have just made a threat. "No" Audrey said firmly "we help them"
Sam liked that. It had been so long since he had gotten a chance to finish a job without having to kill someone, and here these two were holding this town together and keeping the body count low. God knows how, but it seemed to be working as well as anything could.
Cas however, seemed confused by this, he hadn't quite put together the whole humanity and ethics thing yet. He was getting there, but there were times, unfortunately it seemed, times like this, where it still confused him "Wouldn't it be less dangerous to-"
Sam watched the way Audrey moved defensively toward Nathan and cut the angel off, "Cas, leave it", no reason to anger the cops further.
Back in the hotel room Dean was getting impatient. It should have taken seconds to retrieve his brother from the cell and it had been nearly an hour and a half. He was seriously worried. If they'd been caught by the cops his brother could be being shipped off to federal prison while he paced the hotel room. He would have gone down to the station ages ago, but didn't really have much in the way of a plan. He couldn't exactly charge into the police station guns blazing.
He paced the hotel room for another fifteen minutes and when there was still no word from either Cas or Sam he decided that that was exactly what he would do. He pulled his gun from underneath his pillow, slipped it into his pocket and drove to the station. He picked the lock and walked in.
Dean didn't really know what he was expecting to find, some kind of demon attack maybe, at the very least his brother being sent off to prison. What he certainly did not expect to find was Sam and Cas seated in a cell having a rather tense but entirely calm conversation with two cops.
"Uh Sam" he said cautiously "what the hell?"
The two cops both turned and reached for their guns simultaneously. Without even a hope of getting to his gun he put his hands above his head and walked calmly into the cell. It wasn't like Cas couldn't get them out at a moment's notice. Jail had become a lot less frightening with the angel around, not that it had been all that frightening to begin with.
He took a seat between Sam and Cas on the bench and studied the two officers curiously. There didn't seem to be anything supernatural about them, though you never could tell.
His brother said cautiously "So now that we've explained, you mind letting us out of here" Dean shot Sam a look, exactly how much had his brother "explained" to these cops, and why on earth would he tell them this stuff. They didn't need local law enforcement on their asses if there was a case here.
The male cop laughed harshly "I think you better just stay there until we have this all figured out" he said, giving Cas a glare that seemed to unnerve even the angel. Oh god, what had the idiot done this time?
Just great. So now all three of them got to share a prison cell until the cops left them alone long enough for Cas to zap them out of there, not to mention the fact that once they did get out they'd have to abandon this case and let some other hunter work it. There was no hiding from the cops in a town this small.
The lady cop turned to the other one, ignoring the three of them in the cell, though not actually taking her eyes off them. "So what do we do with them then? We can't leave them here alone, not with what that one" she made a vague motion in the direction of the angel "can do"
The man nodded. "I could assign a deputy to watch them, but under the circumstances…"
The woman shook her head "Yeah, not the best idea. I could stay here over night while you run their faces" Oh that would be very bad. The minute they read the name Winchester Dean was fairly sure their attitude would change from a bit prickly to downright hostile and they'd have a worse situation on their hands. Not much he could do about it though.
"You need your rest, Parker" He raised a hand to silence her objections "And don't even try telling me you got plenty of sleep. I've worked with you for two years, I know when you've pulled an all-nighter. We could have Vince or Dave do it"
"You really want to explain this to them? Duke maybe?"
The man huffed "You really want to let him in on this"
"There's not another option, Nathan"
"I can think of several, Parker. Many of which involve not calling Crocker"
She laughed and pulled her phone from her pocket "I'll tell him you said hi"
As the woman, Parker apparently, disappeared to make a phone call Nathan repositioned himself in front of the cell and continued to glare viciously at Castiel. Dean decided that whatever Cas had done, he better do his best to fix it now, before the whole most-wanted thing became an issue on top of whatever had happened.
He jabbed his finger into Cas's shoulder to get his attention. "What did you do?" he whispered
Cas looked at the floor, slightly guiltily "I do not know what you are referring to"
"Bullshit" Dean hissed "What did you do to piss him off so much?"
It was Sam who supplied the answer "He knocked out Officer Parker"
At this point Dean was torn between yelling at Cas for knocking her out in the first place, and yelling at him for not knocking out both cops instead of just the one.
Nathan was just starting to give them a suspicious look about all the whispering when Officer Parker returned, phone in hand. "He's on his way" she said happily and Nathan groaned.
"How much did you tell him?"
"Just said we needed his help"
"And?"
"And that's it Nathan. I wish you wouldn't be so damn suspicious of the guy"
Nathan rolled his eyes and then motioned to the chairs "Guess we better keep an eye on them 'til he gets here. After that I'll take shifts with Crocker and you can get some rest. Tomorrow we'll swap out between the three of us while you and I interview the witnesses on the Errons case"
She nodded "Fair enough. But only because I got exactly forty-five minutes of sleep last night" "You know your body does actually need sleep. It's one of those things like food, or water"
"Was looking through old files on the bolt gun killer. I need to use the time I've got"
Dean watched with curiosity as the banter stopped abruptly at that sentence. Both cops took back their places in the chairs and kept an eye on them silently until there was a knock on the door of the police station.
Parker strolled over to the door and opened it to a tall, scruffy looking guy, with his dark hair pulled back into a pony tail. "Sorry to drag you out of the Gull Duke, but we could really use your help on this. If there's anything we could do to-"
"No problem, anything for a friend, though now that you mention it there is that tiny problem with the Gull's liquor liscense"
Nathan transferred his glare from Cas to Duke just long enough to say "Absolutely not"
"And a good evening to you too, sunshine" he turned back to Parker, grinning "so what do you need me to do?"
"Well I'm going to go home and get some rest, and look through the folders on the case we found these three on" she said jerking her thumb at Dean, Sam, and Cas "And Nathan's going to run their faces and prints to see if he get's any hits. We just need you to watch them and make sure they don't disappear"
"Disappear like escape?"
She shook her head "Disappear like disappear"
The guy glanced over at the three of them through narrowed eyes. Dean glared back. Was this guy even a cop? What the hell was he doing here? Maybe they were demons after all. The guy turned back to Parker and raised an eyebrow "Haven thing?"
She looked over at the three of them, befuddled "I don't know. It's possible, but… I don't know. Just keep an eye on them will you Duke, I'm going to go home now if that's all right"
"You're leaving me here with him already?" Nathan said from where he'd disappeared into the office.
"Love you too Nathan" Duke said from over by the cell. Audrey laughed.
"Night boys" She walked over to Nathan and kissed him goodnight. Oh, so that's why he'd been glaring daggers at Cas. It made a lot more sense now.
Dean settled into the cell, shoving his brother over a couple of inches to make room for him on the bench. Outside Duke adjusted his shotgun to make sure the prisoners knew that escape wasn't happening.
It was going to be a long night.
Duke was quite curious about the three men in the cell. If one of them was troubled they certainly didn't seem perturbed by it.
Though Duke didn't realize it at that point he had dealt with hunter's before. Ritual supplies have got to come from somewhere, and not all of them were exactly lawful. When Duke had gotten the orders he'd always written them off as wackjobs, but the money of a wackjob pays just as good as anyone else's so he'd run the errands anyway.
Duke glanced over at the office door which Nathan had closed against them. He chuckled slightly. He and the cop and been sort of friends (though he hated to admit it) for a while now, but that didn't mean they enjoyed being stuck in a police station together in the middle of the night. He hoped Nathan finished up soon, because he really didn't want to spend the entirety of his night staring at three very strange men in a cell.
"So who are you anyway?"
The tall one with the long hair looked up from the floor of the cell "I'm Sam. That's Dean," he pointed to the guy on his left "and that's Cas" he pointed to the one on his right.
"Sam?" Dean hissed, glaring.
Sam shrugged "What? They're going to know in less than an hour anyways. Why bother?"
Duke ignored the brief confrontation "So what exactly did you do?"
"Fake badge" Sam said.
Duke smiled sympathetically. He'd been there. In other circumstances he might have offered to hook them up with a better counterfeiter, but he wasn't exactly sure how thick Nathan's door was, and it already looked awful crowded in that cell. "All three of you?" he said instead, a little skeptical.
"Just me" Sam replied "These two are here because there idiots"
"Hey!" Dean snarled, and glanced over at Cas for some support. Cas shrugged as if to say if was sort of true, and Sam snorted.
Duke smiled a little, having decided that these guys weren't all that bad. He wasn't gonna let them out or anything, but he could hardly judge them for a little criminal activity. He might have even helped them escape at one point, but these were dark times, between the guard and the bolt gun killer, and you never knew… Deciding to check one of his concerns off his list he spoke up "Hey this is gonna sound kind of weird, but can I see your arms"
Glancing at each other in confusion, the three men shrugged and rolled back their sleeves. No tattoos adorned any of their arms and Duke gave a little sigh of relief. One of them could be the bolt gun killer he supposed, but at least none of them were gonna ring his neck.
"What's that about anyway?" Sam asked "The cops asked me to do that earlier"
Duke shrugged, trying not to let his expression reveal too much, after all these guys were outsiders "There just looking for a suspect with a tattoo on his arm. Guy might be after me so I figured I'd check for myself"
They all seemed to accept this as explanation enough, though Dean narrowed his eyes a little as if he knew there was something Duke wasn't telling them. Really there was quite a lot.
Now for concern number 2. He was trying to figure out an innocent way to ask these guys for a blood sample when Nathan's door banged open. He walked out, and stared at the men in the cell with a renewed expression of curiosity.
"So," he said "the results just came through. I think we have a few more questions for you"
Author's Note:
Sorry I know this chapter was a little bit dull. There will be plenty of action and angst soon I promise, and I'll also be getting back to the case they were working when this started, but I wanted to get this part in. Thanks for reading, and any feedback you can give me (positive or negative) will earn my eternal thanks.
