"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," said Lara. "Abby, I am freaking out. I am officially freaking out. This cannot be real. But can it?"
"Calm down woman!" Abby grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "This is not the time to panic!"
"Oh I don't know, given that we've just found out that Sam and Dean could very possibly be real people, that we could conceivably just have been talking to them, which means that they are here, on a hunt, in search of actual freaking monsters, I'd say this is the perfect time to panic!"
"SHHHH!" Abby clamped a hand forcefully over Lara's mouth. "We have to…"
"We have to what? What exactly is the default plan for this situation?"
"Think rationally. First, it could be a co-incidence."
"That is a freaking enormous co-incidence, Abigail."
"Well, what then? Ghosts are real? Sam and Dean are real? No," Abby shook her head. "It's impossible. I'll prove it."
"How?"
Abby dug in her pocket and produced the card. "We'll call them."
"And?"
"Test them. Ask them stuff only Sam and Dean would know."
"But if they're pretending to be undercover, they're not exactly gonna just answer us."
"We'll have to be smart about it." Abby got out her mobile, and drew a deep breath. Then her nerve failed her. "I can't!" she exclaimed, and thrust it at Lara. "You do it."
Lara drew a deep breath, then another one. Very slowly, with shaking hands, she dialled the number impressed on the business card that the tall one – Sam? – had given to Abby. It read, 'P L Wethers, Wisconsin Chronicle', followed by a mobile number.
"Hello?" said the voice she recognized from the doorstep after only a couple of rings. A car engine grumbled in the background, and Lara had visions of a sleek, black Impala.
"Who is this?" she demanded.
"Who is this?" returned the male voice.
"This is Lara Brown," Lara said, with all the gravitas she could muster. "You came to my friend Abby's doorstep just now and wanted to talk her grandmother."
There was a beat's pause on the other end of the line, as though the man were communicating with someone next to him. Abby was hopping from foot to foot very slightly with her hands over her mouth.
"Did Mrs Cooper change her mind?" said the male voice politely.
"First tell me who you are," said Lara.
"My name is Peter Wethers, I work for-"
"67 Impala!" Yelled Abby. Then she clamped her hands over her mouth again and squeaked. Lara groaned.
The voice on the line drew a sharp breath, then quickly covered it. "Ex – excuse me?" In the background, Lara heard someone exclaim, 'dude!', then scuffling, then a deeper voice that she immediately placed as belonging to the extremely hot guy demanded, "Where are you? How did you know that?"
"You're not really reporters," Lara said carefully, heart pounding in her chest.
There was a pause on the other end of the line, then the man asked,
"Why would you think that?"
"You're here….because of the ghost," said Lara.
Pause.
"What do you know about the ghost?"
"HOLY SHIT!" yelled Lara. "DID CARVER EDLUND SEND YOU?"
"Argh!" dead air filled the line as it was obviously yanked away from someone's ear. Then,
"What? Who the hell is Carver Edlund?"
"Oh my God," Lara said again. "Look – Dean - we know all about you and Sam. Seriously, we're your biggest fans. We read all Edlund's reports. I kind of hoped – I wondered, sometimes, if he could be writing things that were actually true, but that was totally a fantasy."
"Um," there was a nervous chuckle on the other end of the line. "Let me call you back." And it went dead.
"Oh well done," said Abby crossly. "Now you've gone and made us sound totally crazy."
"Well, this is a totally crazy situation!" Lara sat down on Abby's bed and put her head in her hands. After a moment Abby sat down next to her.
"This is all just a very big co-incidence," Abby said after a moment.
"Right," Lara said. "It's got to be."
"No camera," Dean decided finally, having thoroughly searched the front and back seats of the Impala.
"What did you expect?" Sam snorted from his makeshift seat on the scrubby verge. "High school bugged you?"
"You didn't see how she was looking at me man," Dean said seriously. "Chicks do crazy things for this." He indicated vaguely in the direction of himself.
"Right, whatever. So we're back to square one. How do these kids know who we are?"
"And who is Carver Edlund?" Dean made quotey fingers around the elaborate name. "Get back in the car, its safe."
Sam smirked and repressed a comment about whether Dean was expecting to find a bomb or what. They resumed their usual seats, but Dean didn't start the engine.
"Well whatever," Sam said. "They're our best lead." And he started to get his phone out again.
"Sammy!" Dean grabbed the phone off him. "Don't just - we don't know anything about them, or what they want! They could be - you know – like...Anselm. Or Max." A troubled expression flitted across his face.
"Like me, you mean," said Sam flatly.
"No, like Anselm or Max. Who were murderers."
"Or, they could be like Andy, who pretty much was our best ally back in Olkaholma. It's the most reasonable explanation, Dean. Plus they don't seem to need convincing that stuff is real, and they're willing to help. I'm calling them." He put out his hand for the phone back. Dean hesitated, and Sam glared.
"Stop it."
"Stop what?"
"Stop this overprotective bullshit. You can trust me not to go darkside, so trust me not to be dumb enough to get us killed by talking to the wrong people."
"Alright, Jesus!"
"Don't look at me like that."
"I'm not looking at you like anything! Christ, Sam, is it that time of the month or something?"
Sam flipped the phone open, giving Dean the finger with his other hand, and pressed the button for redial.
"ARGH!" exclaimed Abby and practically jumped off the bed when her phone rang again. "It's them," she looked at the number.
"Answer it!" yelled Lara. Abby took a deep breath, pressed the button for connect, then said coolly,
"You've reached Abigail Cooper."
"Hi," said the now-familiar voice. "So, this is Sam."
Abby covered the mouthpiece with her hand, opened her mouth in a silent OH MY GOD! And clutched Lara's hand her with free one.
"Hello Sam," she said in the same voice. "I'm quite the follower of yours and your brother's adventures."
Lara pretended to shoot herself, mouthing, FOLLOWER?
"Yeah so, how is that?" Sam asked a little hesitantly. "I'm guessing you have visions?"
"No," said Abby, mystified. "I read the books."
"I'm sorry?"
"Carver Edlund's books. You know, the guy who chronicles your hunts."
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Then,
"Abigail, I think we should meet each other. Like, all four of us," he said quickly. "Me and my brother and you and your friend. As you seem to know, there's a ghost-"
"GHOSTS ARE REAL! Holy shit, ghosts are real. I'm sorry, I just need a moment to…."
"Uh, that's okay," Sam laughed a little nervously. "We can get to that. Listen, time is sort of of the essence, so, can you get out tonight. Wait, how old are you anyway?"
"Seventeen," said Abby. "Lara's sixteen." Lara hit her, and Abby rubbed her arm.
"Okay…so are you allowed out?"
"Of course!" Abby's mind raced. This could not, literally be happening. "Listen, there's a diner on twelfth street called George's. Like three blocks from my house. Oh my God, it will be perfect. It's totally the kind of place you would go to. Absolutely mom and pop. Meet us there in twenty minutes."
"Sure," Sam said, and hung up. Abby clicked the off button, threw herself face-down on the bed, and yelled,
"OH MY ACTUAL GOD!" at the top of her lungs, directly into her pillow. Lara flung herself on of Abby and muffled her own exclamation into her hands.
"I just – Abby, it's real. It's all real. We met Sam and Dean. We are going to meet them. World," she exclaimed helplessly. "I love you."
"Yet but," Abby suddenly sobered. "You know what this means."
"What?"
"Hookman? Women in White? Wendigos? Demons? All the bad shit is real too."
They grabbed each other's hands quickly.
"And ghosts," Lara said finally. "And there's a ghost right here, in this town."
"Well," Abby blew out her breath and a strand of her hair out of her eyes. "There's only one thing for it I guess. We got to help hunt it."
TBC.
