The Man in Black
BLB- I do not own Supernatural. I love you and I promise that this finally gets to the point. The doctor's story is finally out.
Chapter four
After they finished their breakfast and Dean made some more coffee. He settled down taking a few sips of the warm liquid before looking at his brother expectantly giving him the 'start talking look'. Sam nodded before flipping open the laptop and going over what he had found with himself one more time. Dean cleared his throat prompting Sam to start talking.
"So I did a search on that name we were given, you know the doctor that nurse Ursula shadowed?" Dean nodded, when Sam paused. "Well, the good doctor's name came up in the local newspaper a few times before his obituary did."
"Why's that?" Dean asked getting slightly impatient with his brother and Sam gave him the 'I was getting to that look'.
"The first was his wife's suicide, then when his children were taken from him a week after their mother's death but it doesn't end there. The children both went missing while they were in foster care, the foster parents were taken into custody for negligence and because they admitted to killing the children and hiding the bodies. No one believed them and the children's father Dr. Arthur Wedsworthe was the prime suspect in his children's disappearance. He was arrested twice, but was released because there wasn't enough solid evidence to hold him on," Sam explained and Dean nodded not getting one thing.
"How does this make Doc a vengeful spirit?" Dean questioned, trying to get to the point already.
"A few months before the disappearances began the doctor took his own life. He doused his house in gasoline and lit it on fire. Everyone that knew him said that losing everything and being hounded by the police lead him to it. He left a note explaining exactly why he did it," Sam paused to read it out word for word from the police file he hacked into on the computer. "It read, 'I lost everything and what death didn't take from me the government did. You took my children, the only thing I had left to live for and when the system failed them like it does so many others, you blamed me. I NEVER SAW THEM AFTER YOU ESCORTED THEM AWAY FROM ME! One day I'll find them and I will find some way to feel better. The people that were taking care of my children will burn for what they've done, just like I will. Everyone will pay.' The letter was signed Arthur Wedsworthe."
"So this guy is killing other people's children, because two idiots caused his children's disappearance?" Dean asked and Sam looked at him in disbelief. "I mean I would get haunting the people that did it, but why someone like Nancy? Children like Tommy? They had nothing to do with it."
"Maybe they turned a blind eye to what happened to him," Sam paused, when Michelle looked over at them, "Or some of them might have supported the Doc's kids being taken away from him. Punishing the community for not helping him get his children back."
"That isn't an excuse, the man was a doctor and a father, he devoted his life to helping people so him doing this makes no sense," Dean exclaimed getting irritated.
"I know, but look at this." Sam turned the computer towards Dean there was a picture of a tall man wearing a long coat on the screen and it looked similar to Michelle's drawing. "That's the doctor."
"And what Michelle saw with Tommy Hicks." Dean pulled out the picture Michelle had drew last night and showed it to Sam once again. "Michelle, me and Sam are going to go outside for a minute okay? We gotta get something from the car." When Sam shot him a skeptical look, Dean just mouthed 'Just go with it Sam'. That is when he got up and walked towards the door hoping that his pain in the ass brother wouldn't try and argue with him.
The brothers stepped outside and stood a few doors down. "What is this about?" Sam asked.
"I wanted to talk to you alone, where Michelle can't hear us." Sam nodded understanding, before Dean continued to explain himself, "I think the doctor has attached himself to Michelle, you remember how Nancy said she felt like someone was watching her every move after her and Tommy were finished at the hospital? Well I have felt that way too, and Michelle feels it too. She woke up in the middle of the night and looked freaked out, like something was after her. I left her in the car for five minutes and when I got back she was hyperventilating in a panic, and..."
"And what Dean?" Sam prodded.
"I put her in this situation Sam, took her into that hospital even after Nancy warned us not to. Something else happens to her it is on me." From the way Dean sounded the guilt was beginning to eat at him.
"She went in there on her own Dean, if she wasn't okay with it Michelle would have told us." Dean opened his mouth to tell Sam that his word choice sucked, but Sam cut him off. "With or without words."
Dean shook his head. "No, the girl went in there because I wanted her too. I convinced her."
"Rationalize it whatever way you want to Dean, still she is a semi-grown woman and she made a choice; doesn't make it your fault. We'll stop this guy," Sam said. "That is all we can do."
"But at what cost Sam? We may lose Michelle," Dean retorted.
"This crush thing is getting out of hand, if you like her just say it Dean. Don't tell me this is just you caring for an old friend, because this goes beyond that," Sam pointed out and Dean shot him a glare. "Remember you told me about Jess?" Dean shook his head. "You told me to stop blaming myself and to blame the thing that did it. That's what you need to do Dean."
"So what is the plan?" Dean asked trying to get off of the subject.
"Since the doctor's corpse was destroyed in the fire, and we don't know what the doctor's ghost is holding onto I would say that we should start by finding his children."
"And how do you expect to do that? If the doc killed them and hid their bodies, I would bet that he isn't going to be up for a little heart to heart about where he hid them." Dean let the sarcasm mask any emotion he had felt moments earlier.
"I don't think he killed them, I think the foster parents did and hid the bodies," Sam responded. "Then turned themselves in when the doctors ghost began haunting them, hoping that it would put the spirit to rest but it didn't."
"How do you know he didn't do it? I mean he is spending his time now stalking and preying on children; it isn't a far jump from killing your own."
"He wrote in his note that he didn't see his children after the cops took them away from him, and then that he was going to find them," Sam paused when the realization crossed Dean's face, "he wouldn't have to find them if he was the one that killed them and buried the bodies."
"Okay Sherlock, but how do you expect to find them then?"
"Talk to the people that probably did bury them," Sam answered.
"So we are going to visit them in county jail?"
Sam nodded. "But you aren't going to like the next part."
"What?" Dean asked raising his voice slightly.
"We are going to have to leave Michelle. Here. Alone," Sam said slowly.
"No way," Dean argued. "There is no way I am agreeing to this."
"Then we will ask her," Sam responded before heading back to their hotel room and reentering it.
"Leave her out of this," Dean said following Sam into the room. Michelle looked at them both in shock, wondering why they were arguing now.
"No. It is her decision like it or not Dean. The cops will never let us take a baby into the prison to visit with two people convicted of negligence and homicide." Sam was talking and Michelle honestly had no idea what they were talking about.
Her face warped into confusion as Dean scooped her up off of the floor along with her notebook. "Fine," Dean breathed. Michelle drew a question mark on the page, not sure what the hell they were fighting about.
"Me and Dean are going to follow a lead on this case, but in order to do that we are going to have to leave you here alone for awhile is that okay?" Sam asked staring into Michelle's brown eyes. She nodded at first, before scribbling something on the paper in front of her.
'I'll be fine,' the note read and Sam knew it was more a way to calm Dean's worries than an answer to his question. Michelle handed over her note to Dean before giving him a kiss on the cheek. Both Sam and Michelle knew Dean was far from okay with leaving her alone, but it was either his brother go talk to criminals alone to try and get a confession from them about where the Doc's children are, or leave Michelle alone in a locked hotel room.
Both Dean and Michelle felt eyes on them, but were trying their hardest to ignore it. This was getting unnerving for Dean, being watched made him nervous and since he knew it was most likely a ghost, that made it worse.
"Now I really do need to go out to the car," Dean muttered before leaving the room and going to get stuff out of his baby.
The boys left after Dean and Sam gave her a long talk about how salt deters ghosts. They put a salt circle around the center of the room where Michelle was sitting. Dean shot her a worried glance after Sam had left the room to start the car. "Stay in the circle no matter what, even if you see something it can't, he can't cross the circle unless you break it. As long as you stay there you'll be safe." Dean scooped her up into a hug, squeezing her and even crushing her a little bit. When she struggled a little Dean put her down back into the circle and ruffled her hair, receiving a swat from Michelle. Dean chuckled, before opening the door and stepping out. The door didn't click though,and a second later Dean's head popped back in to tell her, "Don't drink my beer." He was serious, but Michelle gave him the 'seriously?' look. Dean nodded, before shutting the door and leaving Michelle alone with her thoughts.
She just sat there in the salt circle for a while, before the shadows in the room seemed to be watching her. Michelle tried to keep her breathing steady knowing that the ghosts couldn't get to her as long as she sat in the circle. The man in black came out of the shadows followed by two children, he strode forwards until he was at the edge of the circle. The little girl got as close as she could to Michelle and growled, "Come play with me."
Michelle shook her head and stared at them in disbelief it looks like the doctor found his children after all. She wanted to tell them to leave her alone or to just go away, but she couldn't. Michelle still didn't have her voice back. The doctor just stood there staring down at her and waiting for her to snap under his gaze, but his children were not as patient the girl kept trying to coax her and the little boy had motioned for her to come to him so far Michelle hadn't moved. The doctor realized that he would have to change tactics if he wanted to snatch the hunter's child.
"Come on Child," the doctor coaxed. "It is either you, or your Daddy."
"Not my Dad," Michelle retorted inwardly.
"He won't see me coming, because he hasn't been touched. Although now that I think about it his screams may be more entertaining than the cries of a mute and the torture he can endure is far more than you." The doctor held out a hand to Michelle as if he was offering her a deal. "Unless you want to take good ol' Dad's place." Michelle took his hand reaching outside of the circle.
As soon as her hand was in the doctors hand Michelle was ripped out of the salt circle breaking it and pulled into the shadows with the spirit. She was gone and the world around her faded as the cold hand clamped over her mouth. A feeling of lightheadedness engulfed her leaving an emptiness in the place of her consciousness.
As the boys finally made it to the county jail Dean had felt the stare on him falter and dissipate, but he didn't notice as him and Sam were escorted into the interview room where the two former foster parents sat waiting for them. Dean secretly hoped that these people wouldn't need much convincing to just come clean about what happened, but no one would know until they went into the room and talked.
When the boys were let into the room in their classic "monkey suits" that made up their federal agent getups the two people sitting in chair parallel to where they stood looked up from where they stared at the floor.
"We need to talk," Dean stated pulling out the chair in front of him loudly and sitting down.