Chapter 2 – Flesh and Blood
291 Days
Spokane, Washington – 8:45am
Elfin eyes watched as the beat up bronco pulled back into the parking lot of the motel. She swung the teddy bear she carried unconsciously as she watched the truck's driver slip out of the cab. She was fairly certain that her vantage point under the branches of the weeping willow was well hidden from his line of sight, but even still, she unconsciously moved deeper into the shadows that the branches provided.
He didn't even look up towards her, he just tucked a couple of news papers under his arm and grabbed a cardboard tray that he two coffee cups and a tall paper bag resting on it and headed towards the motel room.
Her companion sat further back, resting up against the trunk of the tree as she studied the pages of the magazine that stood open in her lap.
"Its strange." she said quietly to the elfin little girl, knowing instinctively to keep her voice low "I can't feel them anymore, not like before."
The tiny blonde girl turned her ancient eyes towards her travelling partner and scrutinised her for a moment.
"You wouldn't" she said simply "He is shielding their presence."
The girl looked up sharply from her magazine meeting the ancient and fathomless eyes of the child that stood before her.
"I thought that was something only you could do?" She said, a small amount of awe touching her voice.
The child smiled, her soft pink lips bowing in the corner revealing a deep dimple in her alabaster cheek.
"Me too." She said, sounding more pleased than angry "I don't know where he learnt that, but it is a fabulous talent."
"Could you teach me?" asked the teenager looking up with hopeful eyes.
"No" said the girl, her tone broking no sort of argument. The teenager was used to hearing that tone now. She had learnt that arguing and pleading did nothing to help her cause so she fell silent, sullenly returning her gaze to her magazine.
Little did she know that her companion would never teach her the one skill that would enable her to sever their connection. It was now a matter of self preservation. If the 'chosen' were progressing so far with their abilities, in the future she would have to be very careful what she taught her young protégé lest it come back to bite her in the ass.
Without looking up from her magazine the young 'chosen' whispered in a surly voice "If he is shielding their presence, then how did you know they were here?"
The elfin child turned her attention back to the hotel room, with the beaten up Bronco parked outside. The only reason that she had known, was some very careful planning and a whole heap of contingencies put in place well before this time. She had learnt long ago to be extremely cautious and that instinct was now paying off.
"I always know." She replied, trying to put an air of certainty in her voice. It wouldn't pay to advertise any vulnerability and what her young protégé didn't know wouldn't get her killed.
Spokane, Washington – 8:37am
Sam ran a hand agitatedly through his hair as he sat on the step next to his mother. He looked at the stairwell in front of him, trying to make sense of the thoughts in his mind.
"I just wish Mike had given me more to go on Mom." Said Sam in agitation "We've been in Spokane for four days now and I can't find a thing that would corroborate that Rimmon was ever here let alone was here and gathering forces."
Mary Winchester turned gentle eyes on her son and stroked his hair, trying to sooth the tension she could feel within him. The fact of the matter was that he hadn't been exactly grateful for Mike's information, but she thought now was not the best time to perhaps bring that up.
"I think I am going to have to just bite the bullet and tell Dean that I was wrong." He said chewing on his nails in a nervous gesture.
"I wouldn't be too quick to do that Sam." She counselled wrapping her hand around his to stop him worrying at it. "Whatever his motives, Mike sent you and your brother here for a reason. I suggest that you try and find out what that reason is."
Sam turned his large brown eyes back to his mothers face. "Mom, for all I know Mike may have tipped Rimmon off to the fact that we were coming. Hell he could have packed up shop and got the hell out of dodge a week ago for all I know."
"Is that what your gut is telling you?" asked Mary, keeping her tone largely neutral.
"My gut and I haven't been on speaking terms lately." confessed Sam with a sigh.
"Seriously Sam, what are your instincts telling you?" questioned Mary, rubbing her hand gently across Sam's tense shoulders.
"I think he's here" confessed Sam "I just don't know where to look."
Mary smiled and kissed him on the head, pushing his hair away from his face. "You'll think of something. You are your father's son."
"I'm my mother's son too." said Sam smiling up at the pretty blonde woman.
He treasured these moments with her, but the irony of it all was not lost on him. He had lost her to a demon and now another was giving her back to him.
"Maybe I need to push aside my pride and apologise to Mike." He said finally and he smiled as Mary Winchester screwed up her face in distaste.
"Why don't you give it one more day, before you go asking for Mike's help again." She said warmly "I know you don't trust him and personally I think you have good reason not to."
Sam looked at his Mother with keen interest. When it came to the subject of Mike, Mary had often been diplomatic, providing a counterpoint to Sam's clear dislike of the entity, but he had never heard her express her own opinion until now.
"After what happened last time Mom, Mike might not even come back." said Sam watching his mother closely.
"Oh no, I think he'll be back. In fact I'm almost sure he never left, we just can't see him."
Sam's eyebrows rose in surprise "How can you be sure?"
Mary smiled at him again, her corn flower blue eyes filling with an inner light. "Because I'm still here."
Mary held her son's gaze for a moment and then took a deep breath straightening her spine.
"Why don't you try talking to Dean about all this Rimmon business? Perhaps what you need is a fresh perspective on this."
Sam clenched his teeth grimacing slightly as his brother's name. Dean and Sam's relationship was still a little shaky after what happened in Oklahoma and Dean had seemed to go into a strange sort of shut down mode. It seemed to get worse when he received the phone calls from Hannah.
"I don't know if that is such a good idea at the moment Mom. Dean is still pretty raw with me and this thing with Hannah has just made it worse."
"You were right to trust your instincts on that." said Mary, curling her hands together in her lap "I'm almost convinced now that she meant to cause trouble between you and your brother."
"Maybe?" said Sam sounding some what unconvinced "All I know is that every time she calls, Dean gets real quiet and I can feel the sadness rolling off of him. He hasn't yet returned her call so I'm hoping that maybe she'll eventually give up and give him some time to get over it."
"What if she comes looking for him?" asked Mary watching her son intently "I thought you said that she had found him once or twice before."
"I don't think she'll come." said Sam "I'm protecting our presence from anyone trying to find us psychically and I'm fairly certain she had no idea where we were headed."
Mary's smile widened and she looked at her son as if impressed "I didn't know you could do that?"
Sam smiled "I practised it after my run in with Thammuz. I don't ever want to leave myself or Dean vulnerable like that again."
Mary cupped her son's cheek "My son" she said softly "Wise beyond his years."
Spokane, Washington – 8:45am
Dean juggled his arm full of breakfast and coffee on his hip as he wrestled with the keys in the motel room door. He had gone out over and hour ago, and still Sam had not stirred from his slumber.
Dumping his load of food and papers on the small round faux wood table, Dean went over to his brother's bed and shook the long limb that hung out from under the covers.
"Come on Sam…Get up." Dean said, his impatience coming through in his words.
Sam started awake, looking around with bleary eyes at his surroundings.
"What time is it?" he asked, running a rough hand over his face.
"Almost 9" said Dean going back to the table and taking a seat. He pulled one of the tall coffee cups out of the disposable tray and pulled the top off, inhaling the aromatic steam that escaped from underneath.
"I bought back coffee and breakfast." He said as he opened the local Spokane newspaper and started looking through the headlines.
"Thanks" replied Sam pulling himself out of bed and running a hand through his matted hair. He took a seat opposite his brother and helped himself to the other coffee in the tray.
"Have you been up for long?" he asked, watching as Dean resolutely focused all of his attention on the paper he had open in front of him.
"A while" replied Dean absently taking another sip from his coffee.
"What's for breakfast?" continued Sam trying desperately to engage his brother in conversation. Opening the bag, Sam pulled out a couple of bundles neatly wrapped in grease proof paper.
"Egg and bacon roll or jelly donut" explained Dean looking up briefly.
Sam smiled at his brother's selection "Healthy way to start the day." He commented more to himself than anything, but Dean looked up sharply from his paper.
"If you don't like it, you might want to drag your own arse out of bed earlier and get your own breakfast."
Sam looked at his brother and felt the same sharp pain in his stomach he always felt when he was sensing Dean's pain. It was hard for Sam to get his nose out of joint when he could sense the depth of Dean's despair.
"No Man" said Sam, holding up his hands as if in surrender "I'm just grateful that you thought to get me anything."
"Well eat quick." said Dean, his tone decidedly less hostile than before "We need to get to work."
Sam took a large sip from his cup of coffee, ignoring the way that the hot liquid scalded his tongue slightly and then un-wrapping the egg and bacon roll, he unceremoniously stuffed a large bite into his mouth.
It was a quite late in the morning, and he could forgive Dean for being frustrated, so he ate as he organised himself a fresh change of clothes. Sam jumped in the shower, rapidly running through his morning routine, and when he was finished, he went back out to where his brother sat, his damp hair making his t-shirt wet where they met.
When Sam stepped out of the bathroom he noted that Dean was intensely studying a section towards the back of the news paper. Not wanting to intrude on Dean's space and look over his shoulder, Sam went to his bed and began repacking his duffle.
"Found something?" he questioned mildly watching Dean intensely.
"Maybe" replied Dean distractedly. He made a quick note in the journal in front of him on the table, the journal Sam recognised as the one Hannah had given him after their encounter in Iowa.
"Remember when Ash mentioned that every demon presence left signs, sometimes so small that they virtually went unnoticed?"
Sam stopped what he was doing and looked up at his brother, intrigued by what Dean was saying.
"I've been watching the papers since we got here and the weather is listed with the projected, the actual and the average temperatures. Over the last four days the temperature has been 4 degrees higher than average every single day."
"You think that means something?" questioned Sam, moving over to sit back down at the table.
"I don't know" confessed Dean still studying the paper "But I think that it is weird that it is consistently 4 degrees don't you?"
"Maybe?" said Sam, but he knew that he didn't sound at all convinced. "But it could also just be El Nino or something."
"Yeah, I thought of that too." said Dean scrolling down his notes "But there also seems to be a jump in the number of vicious dog attacks in the last week or so. I mean check this out, this article refers to the total number of dog attacks in Spokane for all of last year and it was twelve. In the last week, there were five reported to animal control."
"Dog Attacks?" questioned Sam "Is that among the demon sign we should be looking for?"
Dean looked at Sam across the table, a lot of his frustration showing on his face.
"Demon presence can have affects on cattle and sheep, why not dogs? Dad always theorised that animals where a hundred times more sensitive to the paranormal than humans."
"I don't know" confessed Sam "It just seems a little thin to me."
"Well this is the best I could come up with, so unless you got something else hot shot, we either check out the dog attacks or we move on."
Sam almost winced at Dean's caustic tone. He didn't mean to be a naysayer to all of his brother's hard work, and given what they had to go on there was credence to what Dean was putting forward. Sam just felt that if there was a conclave of demons gathering in Spokane, that there would have been bigger signs than unseasonably warm whether and a few vicious dogs.
"Alright" conceded Sam again holding up his hands in surrender "We check out the dog attacks."
Scowling Dean collected up his things, slipping the keys to the Bronco from his pocket. Sam followed behind him, shrugging into his jacket and grabbing the jelly donut where it lay, still wrapped, on the table.