-Chapter 1-
Brooklyn, New York - 2002
John stayed in the shadow, keeping his eyes on the window of the apartment he had been staring at for a few hours. He was watching a figure at the window, a girl with long dark hair falling over her shoulder. She had been sitting at the window for a while, looking out, waiting… John knew she waited at the window same time every day. In a while, the girl jumped up, as if she had heard something, and disappeared from John's view… Moments later, he saw her, and a young man, standing near the window… he saw the young man wrapping the girl first in a bear hug, then released her, and rumpled her hair playfully. The girl pouted then giggled, her face lighted up as she returned the hug.
John had seen this scene played out regularly every day. He had been watching them for days. Brother and sister…The older brother was in his mid twenties, tall, bookish with dark brown hair, and soft brown eyes; and the younger sister was in her teens; small in build, thin; long straight black hair, and oval shaped dark eyes. The brother was a student at NYU, he rarely went anywhere, except for classes, and she never ever went out, except back and forth the high school she attended. No one else seem to know them, no family, no friends, they seemed to have only each other.
Something in the way that the young man had rumpled his kid sister's hair earlier reminded him of Dean. How he would tease his kid brother, and smiled that warm big brother smile reserved only for Sammy. They would be about the same age as Dean and Sam, the older brother was two years older than Dean, and the girl he knew was Sam's age…His kids… Sam would probably be throwing a fit right about now, since he had left them a while ago; and Dean would be patiently dealing with Sam, waiting for his dad's call; holding the fort as usual. John sighed, he so did not want to think of Dean and Sam now… it just reminded him that he had left his own kids once again, to spy on someone else' kids.
He had done his research, and he knew he got the right kids. There was the girl… the same age, the same pattern. There was the older brother, who planned his life around his kid sister, making sure she was not alone more than necessary. He had seen the way she waited patiently by the window for him every day, straining her eyes on the same spot where he will be coming from… and her face still and tense, until she saw the familiar figure in the distance… It was like she wasn't sure if her brother was coming home and when he did, her whole world was lighted up. He felt a pang, somewhere in the deep recess where he kept his innermost feeling… Not that his sons would show their feelings so openly like these two kids did, they were both guys after all… but it was the same with them… they almost only had each other, and even if Sam was acting out most of the time these days, he still worshipped his big brother, and Dean was always about Sammy first… just like these two.
John sighed, this particular investigation was taking a lot out of him. Everything about the older kid reminded him of Dean, and how he was with Sammy. There was that air of being in charge around their younger siblings, and watching them without being observed all the time. Dean was the most overly protective big brother there was, and he had practically raised Sam while trying to grow up himself. He knew that his eldest son suffered from lack of attention from him, and Sam probably suffered from over attention, given the fights they had been having more and more lately.
John knew that he couldn't stay much longer in New York. Big cities like this were dangerous, more people, more cops; and he wasn't getting any closer to finding anything by this particular piece of thread he had picked up months ago.
John decided that he would only stayed one more day, and then went back to his boys.
When John returned the next day, he noticed the window was closed. There was no sign of activity, no one sitting by the window… In fact, the apartment looked deserted. John waited until the usual time when the older brother would be returning home, and when the now familiar figure did not show up. He gave the matter some thoughts, then turned around and left.
John stared at the picture. It was an almost familiar face. He was in his motel room, where he had stopped for the night, after leaving New York. He had managed to get some information about the siblings before he left…Not much, because apparently no one in the neighbourhood knew their names, and since the apartment wasn't a rental, there was no landlord, or super whom he can fished information from. The picture was the only thing he had found when he had broke into the apartment earlier…The girl's face stared at him, half hidden beneath long straight black hair… eyes peering up from a half shy head gesture, it was really a childlike face, small delicate face, dark eyes, framed by soft black lashes. Something about her face seemed familiar, like he had seen this same features somewhere, but not that soft, shy expression. He frowned, if he disregarded the shyness in them…someone he had knew a long time, in fact very well at one time… had eyes like that… He drew in a sharp breath… Jasmine!
AN: I know not much action so far, and pretty much all about John's musing in this chapter… so if you are still sticking out with this, thanks for the patience!