CHAPTER 4 - One mistake and one misstep
"You really think those cops wont spot the Impala from the road?" Sam asked as he watched Bobby carefully peel back the bandage Dean had placed to cover his wound the night before. Growing up in motel rooms across America and spending much of their time in the Impala, Bobby's house was the only actual home the pair had ever known. Unlike everything else around them, nothing ever seemed to change or even move at Bobby's house. The living room they were in still looked like it did when they were kids.
"She's pretty far down that embankment." Bobby replied, pausing as Dean swore under his breath, his fingernails digging into the old wooden chair he was straddling. "Besides, they're looking in the wrong place which should keep them busy for a while." He continued as he peeled the bandage free.
"But I noticed the tire tracks on the shoulder of the road." Sam continued as Bobby knelt down next to Dean to study the wound.
"Like I said, they're looking in the wrong place." Bobby repeated. "They think the car went into the water, actually, they're pretty sure that the car went into the water." Bobby paused again as Dean tensed up, his back straightening as he braced himself for the worse. "Would you just suck it up?" He asked, their eyes meeting for only a moment. "I haven't even touched you yet." He said as he grabbed the bottle of peroxide from the small table beside him. Dean swallowed hard as he felt the air dragging across his flesh, just like the night before when the soft breeze had felt like pins and needles trailing through his skin. When Bobby pressed the peroxide soaked cloth up to the wound, he couldn't help but let his head drop to his folded arms, his eyes instantly shutting as the pain quickly spread.
"You're lucky you didn't bleed out." Bobby remarked, his voice as rough as his calloused hands. "What the hell did you do to yourself anyway?" He asked, setting the cloth down and leaning in to take a better look at the mess of a wound. "That don't look like no bullet hole I ever seen."
Dean sucked in a breath as he tried to calm his racing heart and keep his eyes from tearing up. "It wouldn't stop bleeding so I cauterized it."
"You did what?" Sam asked, hoping that he hadn't heard his brother just say that.
"I cauterized it." Dean replied with a grin to the corner of his lips as he caught Sam's look of disgust. "I heated a silver blade on the stove and used it to..."
"Dude that's just wrong." Sam cut in as he straightened out, the sight of blood covering the seat in the Impala flashing in the back of his mind.
"Can't exactly go to the hospital." Dean went on. "I am a wanted man and it would have been way to awkward a spot to stitch it up myself."
"You could have come here." Bobby was quick to reply as he caught the young hunter's eyes.
"I might have if I knew where I was heading and there wasn't a cop car on my ass." Dean said, sucking in another breath as Bobby once again pressed the soaked cloth to the wound. "I somehow doubt you'd want a cop show up at your doorstep anyway."
"About that, you want to explain to me how you ended up on their radar in the first place?" Bobby asked, pulling away for a moment as Dean swore under his breath, his muscles tensing as a jolt of pain took over.
"Not really no." Dean muttered.
Bobby cleared his throat. "Let me try that one again." He said, his stern tone of voice hard to miss as it echoed off the living room walls. "How'd you..."
"About a week ago Dad and I worked a case out in some small town, middle of nowhere Wyoming." Dean recalled, looking over to catch his younger brother's eyes. "Half a dozen Shapeshifters we'd been trailing turned up there, ready to take advantage of another small town off the beaten path and then move on."
"I ain't ever heard of Shapeshifters working in groups." Bobby remarked as he studied the wound. Though the concept of Dean cauterizing it himself was almost barbaric, he had to admit, for the kid to have done it with what little he had, he'd done a decent job.
"Yeah that's exactly what Dad said." Dean was quick to reply. "But these things were smarter than any other Shifter I've ever hunted and I mean real smart. They shed their skins just to cover their tracks and they singled out folks they could use to get ahead and get what they wanted. It's like they were using these people's faces as getaway cars, riding them to the next town over and then ditching them for someone else. And I'm not just talking your average Joes here, I'm talking bank managers, doctors, lawyers, cops." He paused for only a moment as the details of the case circles in his head. "They weren't killing anyone at first, just borrowing their looks but then bodies started to surface and every time Dad got a new lead on where they were, they'd be gone by the time we got there."
"Tracking a Shifter can be pretty hard when they're well adjusted to the way we live" Bobby added as he started to redress the young hunter's wound. "They keep their heads down and stay away from the people they're mirroring they could pass off as almost anyone."
"Till the body count rises." Dean replied, his muttered words almost lost in the moment of silence. "Not sure how he did it but Dad worked out a pattern and sure enough, one town over, they were going through the same motion so we made our move. There was five of them in all; the first one was easy to put down because they had no idea we'd finally caught up to them, but once the others realized we were around... We knew we had to move fast before they shed their skin and skipped town, so Dad and I split up to track 'em down." Dean paused for only a moment as he recalled the one hunt that had gotten away from him. It wasn't the first time but considering all the circumstances involved, it was by far the worse. "Dad of course had his two down within the hour but mine slipped through my fingers and I lost track of them." He explained, still hearing his father's voice ringing in his ears. "That didn't exactly go over well with him."
Sam listened intently, taking notice of the expression on his older brother's face as he trudged through the series of events that had led to the police chase. Their father could be hard on them this he knew for a fact but watching Dean slouch down as he spoke, his shoulders hunching as he revisited what Sam could only assume had been the speech of a lifetime, it was easy to see that his older brother wasn't dealing with their father's constant criticism quite as well as he was pretending to be while they were growing up.
"They traded skins with some of the locals down at some bar I'd followed them into." Dean continued, shaking his head as he analyzed every single detail. "Sons of bitches probably walked right by me." He paused for a moment as he felt the pain begin to spread, lost in his memories he'd almost forgotten that Bobby was still tending to his wound. "Dad and I regrouped at the motel room and decided that I'd hang back to handle the two Shifters that were still in town while he moved on to go check out our next job. So I did some digging around, it took two days but I eventually found out that this one couple was in two places at the same time, footage from a gas station security camera confirmed they were the Shifters. So I tracked them, followed them to this quiet little house on the outskirts of town." Dean swallowed the lump caught in the back of his throat. In his mind it was all still so vivid. "The door wasn't locked so I let myself in, gun in hand I made my way down a hallway, I was hoping to catch them by surprise but I'm the one who was caught off guard. One of them jumped me from behind, I swear it came out of nowhere. I managed to fight it off and it bolted for the back door so I fired a couple of rounds. I know I hit it at least once but it took off into the woods behind the home before I got a clear shot. So I walked back through the house looking for the other one and that's when I found the bodies."
Dean paused again as the grisly scene played out in flashbacks. It's not the murder of those two innocent people that was weighing him down it was the fact that he had been a mere seconds too late to save them. "Two bodies, a husband & wife and one big pile of goo." He continued. "The one I chased out the back door hadn't shed its skin yet but the other one had, so I searched the house to find out what I could about the victim it was mirroring. The woman was a Sheriff and I hadn't realized it yet but while I chased her partner out the back door, she'd slipped out the front and left in a damn cop car that must have been parked in the garage. Like I said, that Shifter was smart. I went back to the motel room and turned my police scanner on, figured that someone was going to place a call about some guy walking around covered in blood and someone did. Police were dispatched to a warehouse on the other side of the wooded area the Shifter had gone into, the alarm system had gone off and a motorist called in about an injured man walking on the side of the road."
"So you went down there to look for it." Sam said as he watched Bobby straighten out from his older brother's side.
Dean offered a nod. "Yeah, beat the cops there too but I had a badge on me just in case they showed up." Dean explained. "I did a quick walk through but I couldn't find the thing, lots of places for it to hide in there. Then I heard a car pull up outside, took a quick look and spotted the marked cruiser behind the Impala. So I grabbed my badge and made my way over, then she stepped out of her car." Dean sucked in a breath as he felt his heart jump back up into his throat all over again. "She took a few steps towards me and all of a sudden just as she reached for her service weapon, I realized that I'd seen her face before, I'd seen her body on the floor of that house. I knew it was the Shapeshifter so I opened fire."
"Which is what her dash cam captured." Sam remarked. Watching as his brother got up and stretched, he couldn't help but notice the cut below his lip, the ones above his eye, the dark bruise across his chest and the scrapes along his knuckles. Now that Dean had mentioned the fight, he could see all the signs but wondered if had been the Shifter or the car crash that had left them.
"How come the cops didn't file a report or release mentioning the two murders?" Bobby asked as he wiped his hands clean. "They don't find it strange that this one woman was killed twice?"
"That house was pretty remote, there wasn't another one on that road for miles." Dean replied as he reached for his duffle bag and pulled out a clean shirt. "Those bodies probably haven't been found yet. Not sure what they'll think once they do find them though."
"You leave that to me then, I've got an old friend who owes me a favor or two." Bobby said with a smile to the corner of his lips.
"I knew it wasn't the best move but it was either her or me and she'd already slipped through my fingers twice. The other one was still inside but I knew better than to wait around. I assume the Shifter I'd just put down heard what I did over the police scanner, so the real cops that were dispatched weren't actually there yet. I didn't know what to do so I jumped into the Impala and got the hell out of there, drove for a couple of hours and then stopped in a small town called Scythe not too far from here. I just needed a drink." He admitted, still struggling to deal with the turn of events that had thrust him into the spotlight. "When I was leaving the bar I walked to the Impala and just as I opened the door to get in, another cop pulled up. He flew out his car with his gun drawn, ordered me to put my hands on my head and turn around. I knew he wouldn't believe a word I had to say, no one would."
"So you took off." Sam replied simply, still trying to put himself in his older brother's shoes. It was easy to think of a better way to handle a situation when you weren't the one actually facing it head on.
"I was already at the Impala, my door was open so I jumped in and took off. He fired a couple of shots and then got into his cruiser to give chase, and well, you know the rest." Dean trailed off as his eyes focused on the blood stained shirt on the floor at his feet, even the jeans he was wearing were smeared red from the night before.
"Well now you're here with us while we figure this out." Bobby started, a reassuring voice breaking the angst filled moment of silence. "You go on and take a shower then I'll switch that bandage again once you towel off, it's still bleeding a bit."
When the phone in his pocket started to ring Sam couldn't help but jump in his seat, the sound catching him by surprise. "Shit, Jess." He muttered to himself, a promise he'd made the day before instantly coming to mind.
"Who's Jess?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow as his younger brother got up.
"Just a friend." Sam was quick to reply. "I told her I'd call but I forgot that I was..."
"Dude if she's calling cause you forgot, that sounds more like a girlfriend than just a..."
"Go take a shower." Bobby cut in, pointing Dean down the hall as he headed into the kitchen to give Sam a bit of privacy.
Pulling the cell phone from his pocket, Sam couldn't help but pause as his eyes caught the number that was displayed. It was a number he recognized but one he never thought he'd see again. "Dad." He muttered under his breath, the flood of mixed emotions overtaking him in an instant. He didn't know where to start or what to say. He knew Dean wanted to keep their father out of it but he couldn't just sit back and keep quiet either. Though still furious with the man over the argument they had the night he announced he was leaving for school and the fact that he'd left Dean alone to deal with a hunt they'd started together, Sam knew he had to keep his cool. Because this wasn't about them or the animosity they shared, this was all about helping Dean. Swallowing hard, Sam picked up the call with a halfhearted but failed attempt to keep the anger and frustration out of his voice. "Where the hell have you been?" He asked, his tone of voice dry as he started to pace the floor of Bobby's cluttered living room. "I must have called you half a dozen times!"
"I'm sorry Sam but I've been hunting a Wendigo out in the backwoods of Colorado, somewhere near Salida. Reception has been hit and miss in these parts." John replied, already feeling the hostility coming in over the line. It had been two years since they last spoke, so it was good to hear his youngest sons voice again, even if the tone of it was sharp. Though he loved both his boys Dean had always been easier to deal with, mostly because he did as he was told, and he never really talked back. Sam on the other hand, well Sam asked too many questions and was so outspoken that they often butt heads. "Are you alright? Something wrong at school?"
"I'm just fine Dad thanks for checking in." Sam was quick to reply. "But what I really want to know right now is why you left Dean behind to hunt down a Shapeshifter on his own."
John couldn't help but let out a sigh, he should have known there was a reason why Sam had called and it wasn't to admit he'd been wrong in going off to school. "Why'd I leave Dean behind to hunt down a Shapshifter on his own?" He asked, repeating the question only to give himself a moment because he knew what was to follow, would surely be an onslaught of words. "Because it was his to deal with, Sam." He simply replied. "This isn't really any of your concern anymore."
"Just because I left for school, it doesn't mean that I left this family!" Sam spat, his anger beginning to seep through as an old wound started to open. "How could you just dump a case like this on Dean!?" He asked without a pause, thinking back to all the times he and his brother had been left behind to clean up the mess and tie off loose ends. "After all the time you spend with him, can't you tell when he needs your help dealing with..."
"He's twenty four Sam and he's been hunting his whole life. He doesn't need my help with every single job." John snapped, his own anger starting to surface as he went on the defensive. "Since when do the two of you talk cases anyway?" He asked, leaving Sam no time to reply. "A Shapeshifter's an easy job, you drop the damn thing with silver bullets. I didn't dump this case on Dean, he's the one who told me that he'd take care of it because he knows he should have handle it the first time around! So don't you give me attitude about what you think I should have done; if you wouldn't have..."
"Oh he took care of it." Sam interrupted, one hand clenching into a fist as the other tightened around his cell phone. "That Shapeshifter was an easy job until it started walking around as a Sheriff." Sam growled, taking a quick look towards the closed kitchen door as he heard Bobby move around in the other room. "Dean dropped it alright, but because of what the dash mounted camera from her car captured, now there's a warrant out for his arrest and his face is all over the news! As far as everyone else is concerned, he didn't put down a Shifter, he shot dead a Sheriff in cold blood. So while you were out in the woods hunting a Wendigo, he was trying to keep the cops off his ass! I know you think that he should handle this on his own because it's his mess, but have you ever stopped to think for a moment that maybe you're putting too much pressure on him?" Sam asked, the bitter words reflecting how he felt after witnessing time and again, how his brother yearned for their father's approval but never really got it. "Dean tries so damn hard to live up to your expectations, to be the man you want him to be, yet you NEVER, EVER let him know that he's doing a good job or that you're even proud of him. Do you have any idea what kind of weight you put on his shoulders? Now he's in way over his head and because of the way you've always treated him, he would drown before he asks for your help. Heaven forbid he let you down or disappoints you in any way." Sam hissed, unable to hold back the anger that had been smoldering for years. Dean may not have been able to stand up to their father and tell him how he felt but he could and he was determined to make their Dad realize that his older brother needed help he'd been conditioned never to ask for. "Dean is so hung up on trying to prove himself that now he's at Bobby's place, against his will might I add, trying to come up with some plan to clear his name or get out of this on his own. He's already been shot once, led the cops on a high speed chase through the woods and..."
"Sammy, what the Hell are you talking about?" John interrupted, finally getting a word into his youngest son's barrage. "Dean's here in Colorado with me."
Those words made Sam stop dead in his tracks, all the anger he'd been harboring instantly turned to both panic and fear. "What did you just say?" He asked, his voice softening as the lump in his throat grew.
"I said Dean's here with me."
