The rest of the night was filled with talking, drinking and a few more dances. None as slow or as sense consuming as the first, Dean thought as they paid the bill and readied to leave. Rachel insisted this one was on her and laid her credit card on the table.
The waitress picked it up and thanked "Mrs. Fitzgerald" for her generous tip. Rachel smiled at her and played the part with elegance.
"She probably thinks your Mr. Fitzgerald you know." Rachel smiled at him across the table as she finished up the last of her beer.
"Wouldn't be the first time someone thought such a thing about us." He said. Referring to the time in Toledo when one of the girls they had been trying to save from Bloody Mary thought they were a couple because of their angry banter and scolding looks at eachother. It struck Dean as funny that the first time it was because they seemed to hate eachother and this time it was because they laughed and slow danced.
Maby they just looked right together no matter what kind of repor they showed, even complete opposite ones.
"Yeah, I know." She said with a smile, recalling the memory herself.
I'd be lucky to have her. The thought came without any warning or notice. He had never had any trouble with girls since he was old enough to notice and want them and yet there was only one other person he could think of ever having thought that about in his whole life.
Cassie. Fear tickled into his brain as he tried to push the thought away. Yet he realized with concern that he had thought that about Cassie only after they had made love for the first time. Here, he was thinking about a girl he hardly knew.
It's just because she's another hunter. He tried to rashonalize as they got up and walked toward the door. He watched her slim frame in jeans and a light cotton shirt against the muggy Louisiana night. She walked a few steps ahead of him, fishing for car keys in her bag as they crossed the parking lot toward her car.
He said in his head, realizing that he was comparing her to Cassie and Cassie had broken his heart when he told her who he really was. Called him a liar and said she never wanted to see him again. The true Dean hadn't been good enough.
Rachel knew him for what he was. There were no lies with her because she was his brethren of sorts. They were the same breed. When he talked about the early latin ritual for a blessing souls to rid them of posession she knew what he was talking about and could probably recommend a charm or two that would speed up the process.
He was himself with her. But in a world where attachment could get you killed, and Dean had enough to worry about with his own family, he was going to fight this feeling. HAD to fight this feeling.
They reached her car and she turned to him with an expected look. As if surprised to see that his features were deep in thought.
"You ok?" She said frowning.
"Yeah, just tired that's all." He said with out missing a beat.
"Well, we'll be back soon and you can hit the sack." She said opening her door.
"Yeah, gotta get some sleep. You know, with the long day of scratching our heads in bafflement tomorrow." He said trying to shake off the disturbing thoughts.
She nodded her head and leaned against the car door. They we're silent for a moment as a light gust of muggy air picked up. They looked around to the tall willow trees on the marsh behond the parking lot as the wind ruffled the long hanging leaves, making the sad, ancient looking things seem to dance.
Dean glanced at her as she watched them and saw that her beautiful long hair was doing the same. Caught in the wind the silky black strands danced behind her in a reminiscese of the the willow leaves. Looking as sultry and sensual as the trees which belonged here in the Louisiana bayou with it's simmering heat.
God, how he wanted to kiss her at that moment. How he wanted to reach out and touch that beautiful black mass to pull her in and claim her mouth. He was almost sure she'd respond. Yet he held himself back, afraid for the first time in his life to move on a female.
"We should go." He heard her say.
He saw her looking at him with full knowledge of the fact that he had just been wanting her. His thought betrayed some how. Locked with her eyes he swallowed the lump in his throat with the realization that the words she had just spoken we're her way of saying 'let's go befor this gets out of hand'.
He was about to agree with her when his phone rang.
His heart almost in his throat he took his eyes from her and answered his phone.
"Dean?" Sam said on the other line.
"Yeah, Sammy. We're on the way back now." Dean answered, assuming that that was why Sam was calling.
"Actually you guys can't come back just yet." Sam said.
Dean smiled inspite of himself at the thought of his brother telling him not to come back to the motel room. There could only be one reason for such a thing.
"Alright Sammy..." Dean chuckled into the phone. "So what, did you call a hooker or did you happen to meet a hot maid that came to turn down the bed and decided she wanted you in it instead?"
Silence on the other end from Sam.
"Are you done?" He asked in a typical montone Sammy voice.
"Yeah, I'm done. What's the deal?" Dean asked.
"I was listening to the police scanner and they found a girl with her throat cut near the park. The police are responding as we speak. I think we should head over there and meet them." Sam said.
Dean looked over at Rachel who was listening to his end of the conversation. Dean got the exact location from Sam and told him to grab their police badges and head over there in the Impala. And said that he and Rachel would meet him there. After hanging up the phone he told Rachel what Sam had said.
"Another one?" She asked.
"Yeah, Sam's meeting us there. Let's get going."
"Might be the break we need." She said as they got into the car.
"Or it just might be a girl that was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Dean said.
She put the car into drive and they pulled out of the lot close to the trees that Dean would always from that point on would associate with her hair blowing in the wind. He watched them and thought that he wouldn't be surprised if the paled in comparison to her and her beautiful mane for the rest of his life.
"You don't really think that. As a hunter I have a feeling in my gut that we're going to find that this girl was killed by the same thing the first one was. And I know your good enough at this to feel the same way right now." She said.
After thinking about it for a moment he knew that she was right. He'd been doing this his whole life and the feeling in his chest told him they were heading toward another grisley, supernatural death that the police wouldn't be able to explain but might hold something for them to digest and figure out. He knew Sam felt the same or he wouldn't have called him. Instinct twitched at every nerve in his body as they drove in the hot Louisiana night toward the scene of the murder.
"In so many ways I hoe your right and I hope your wrong at the same time." Was all he said.
Sam and Dean waited by the Impala and watched as Rachel spoke to a young cop in uniform close to the sheet covered body of 21 year old Michelle O'Day that lay on the black asphalt near the playground of the public park, who had been killed no more than 6 hours before and had been found by a jogger about an hour and a half ago.
Sam, Dean and Rachel had arrived about 20 minuets before and sold the responding officers a story of NYPD investingating the Tara Davvies murder 8 days before and had come here because they feared that this murder was connected.
The police cooperated fully with them, letting them inspect the pretty girl who'd been cut from ear to ear with a somewhat dull blade. Dean almost wished they hadn't.
The girl lay in a pool of her own blood, which was to be expected. Sam was the first to notice that her slender frame was not right. She could have weighed no more than 110 lbs in life but her belly was swollen and mishapen in random spots. Not a beating the officer agreed becuase of the lack of bruising which would have been rushed by her death.
When the coromer arrived to examine her Dean had a chance to get his diagonsis which was that she had not been beaten but that the swelling was reminiscent of blood pooling internally. Major damage inside by the size of her midsection.
She had no other wounds but the slash at her throat. Dean would bet money at the moment that some organs we're missing and no one was going to be able to explain why. Just like with Tara Davvies.
Rachel had been right. This was the work of their demon or what ever it was. The trail had just gotten hot again. They needed to find the connection to her and Tara and figure out what the two had that would make them targets. The trail that had been cold had just heated up again.
So they waited while Rachel spoke to the officer to get as much info on the girl as possible. Finally she shook the cops hand and walked back over to them with her arms crossed over her midsection as if trying to ward off a chill that was nonexistant in the muggy dead of night they stood in now.
"They Id'd her right away. She was 21, lived here for about a year and worked near by." Rachel told them.
"She worked near by?" Sam asked. "We should start there."
"Not to worry about it Sam. It's covered already." Rachel said.
Sam and Dean exchanged a look of confusion.
"Why do you say that?" Dean asked.
Rachel was quiet for a second the answered his question.
"We have a big jump on investigating the place." Rachel explained. "She worked at the same strip club Tara Davvies did."
Dean's stomach bottomed out. The two murdered girls worked at the same place.
Both had a major connectiomn to the same sleezy strip joint. The same one Rachel also now worked in.
"I start tomorrow night. It seems that I'm going to be there longer than I anticipated. At least until we figure this out." Rachel said.
No doubt she was thinking the same thing he was. What ever had done this to these poor girls, cutting them till they bled out and taking their insides out supernaturally was singleing them out from the club. The same club Rachel now worked at.
Rachel was officially a target.