AN: Sorry for the lateness of this, midterms decided to make me their bitch so I had to return the favor, and then I seriously underestimated how worn out I was by all of it and ended up sleeping for most of last weekend. Hopefully the surprise twists in this chapter will make up for its lateness.
I wanna say that the next chapter will for sure be up next Sunday, but I have a lot going on next weekend, unfortunately. So it might be a little late, but I promise to get it up as soon as I can.
Anyway, I went off script at some point during this chapter, and I hope it's as fun for you guys to read as it was for me to write. After all, the main point of this story is how season one of Supernatural changes with Elena's added presence, or rather, the addendum of Elena Gilbert. Sometimes things only change in minor ways, but when considering this chapter, I was surprised (and thrilled tbh) to realize exactly how much this particular chapter would change. Anyway, without further ado, the chapter. Enjoy!
Addendum
(n.)
A thing to be added; an addition.
Chapter Seven
Skin
aka
I Look Like Everyone You Know Now
St. Louis, Missouri: February-March 2018
"All right, I figured we'd hit Tucumcari by lunch, then head south, hit Bisbee by midnight," Dean is saying.
They're stopping for gas, but one glance at Sam finds him glued to his Blackberry.
"Sam wears women's underwear." Dean's just checking to see if Sam's paying attention.
"I've been listening, I'm just busy," Sam mutters, still glued to his phone.
"Busy doing what?" Dean asks as he gets out to pump the gas. On his way there he flicks Elena' booted foot hanging out the window.
She's sprawled across the backseat, looking not unlike a pinup, chewing on her bottom lip as she reads. Dracula, because she's feeling ironic. The scars on her throat itch.
She has a long-standing relationship with Little Free Libraries. She's quick to find them in neighborhoods they pass through, trading out her current collection for something new, but she always keeps a copy of Dracula on hand, her own private joke.
Sam's gotten into them too. He has a feeling Dean is starting to feel a little crowded in a car full of readers. Sam's glad to have Elena's everchanging collection on hand for when he feels the need to check out of reality.
Elena shakes her boot at Dean, amused by Jonathan Harker's oblivious diary entries about his vampiric host.
"Reading e-mails," Sam answers.
"Emails from who?" Dean asks.
"From my friends at Stanford."
"You're kidding?" Dean's voice is full of disbelief. "You still keep up with your college buddies? Elena doesn't even talk to her high school friends and she grew up with most of them."
Elena sighs, puts down her book.
"That's different, Dean, we didn't exactly leave on the best of terms," she reminds him.
Dean makes a face, unseen by the occupants of the Impala.
"Yeah, that was messy," Dean agrees.
Sam pushes aside his curiosity about exactly how messy Elena's departure from her hometown was.
"Why shouldn't I keep in touch with my friends?" Sam asks.
"Well, what exactly do you tell 'em? You know, about where you been, what you've been doing?"
Dean approaches the passenger side, peering down at Sam with a bemused look on his face.
"I tell them I'm on a road trip with my big brother," Sam says, feeling a little defensive.
Dean raises an eyebrow, and Sam instantly understands the question.
"And his girlfriend," he adds.
Elena sits up then, fully abandoning Dracula on the seat.
"Really, Sam?" she asks, her voice dry enough to crack his spine.
Sam shrugs.
"Family friend didn't seem like a good enough term," he says simply.
Elena gives him a look.
"I am a family friend, your dad took me in when my dad died, it's not a hard story to remember, especially because it's true," she says pointedly.
Sam shrugs.
"Yeah, well, what I've said about my brother doesn't really scream family friendly with pretty girls so..." He shrugs again.
Yeah, he's editing the narrative for his friends back in California, but mostly because he's pretty sure by the time he heads back to school Elena will be Dean's girlfriend.
"God, I need a better fake boyfriend," Elena says out loud.
Dean reaches through her open window to pull her hair.
"Ow," she whines.
Or they'd both be dead, because Sam's going to lose it before they get their shit together and kill them both.
Elena starts gathering her hair up, giving Dean a little glare out of the corner of her eye.
"So a road trip with your brother and his girl?" Dean says.
Sam pretends he doesn't notice the way the corner of Dean's mouth twitches up when he reaches the end of his sentence.
"I tell them I needed some time off after Jess."
Dean nods.
"Well, so you lie to them."
"No," Sam denies. "I just don't tell 'em everything."
Dean rolls his eyes.
"Yeah, that's called lying."
He walks back to the pump.
For a second, Sam's mind goes back to the place, he glances back at Elena. Her face is particularly Sphinx-like today. Elena doesn't tell them everything, by Dean's own definition she's lying, but he never tries to make her tell.
Sam wants to ask why he's the one who gets a hard time for doing what he has to in order to keep his friends when his brother lets Elena get away with murder, with lying, in order to keep her.
"Hey man, I get it, telling them the truth is far worse." Dean's still talking.
"So what am I supposed to do, just cut everybody out of my life?" Sam demands, he looks at Elena. "Elena still talks to her brother."
Elena smiles sympathetically at him.
"Sam, my brother's a Gilbert just like me," she reminds him. "This is his world too."
"But he's in college," Sam says.
Elena nods.
"Yeah, but I'm the boss of him," she says bluntly. "He's going to get an education before he decides what to do with his life."
Sam has a dozen things he wants to say to that, he wants to ask why Elena's out here on the road when she has that kind of expectation for her brother. He understands that she's in danger, even if he doesn't know what from, but why does her brother have to live a life that resembles normalcy while she hunts monsters and pretends she isn't in love with his brother.
More than all of that, Sam wishes he'd had an Elena when he was Jeremy's age. What he wouldn't give to have had an older sibling who insisted he get an education before he decided anything. Sure, he'd gone out and gotten it for himself, but how different would it have been if it had been what Dean wanted for him? Would it have changed anything, or would their dad still have told him to leave and never come back?
He turns to look at Dean, waits for the 'you can't get close to anybody' speech he used to get right before every new town, every new school.
Dean's looking at Elena though, and that says it all.
You can't get close to anybody when you have to leave them behind, but he takes Elena with him everywhere he goes.
Dean looks at Sam, shrugs.
"You've got all the friends you need in this car, Sammy," he says, adds, "And you don't have to lie to 'em."
Elena leans forward.
"It was messy when I left, and I don't know if any of it can be fixed, I can't even say that I want to, not now, but I do understand why you might want to keep your friends, even if you can't tell them the truth."
Sam smiles back at her.
He goes back to reading his emails.
Elena opens her book again.
"God."
Dean looks in through the window again.
"What?"
Sam can't tear his eyes away from the horrific story written out on his Blackberry.
"This email from this girl, Rebecca Warren, one of those friends of mine."
"Is she hot?"
Elena puts down her book again to reach through the window and flick Dean in the elbow.
He flinches, glares at her.
Sam ignores them.
"I went to school with her and her brother, Zach. She says Zach's been charged with murder. He's been arrested for killing his girlfriend. Rebecca says he didn't do it, but it sounds like the cops have a pretty good case."
A pause, then "Dude, what kind of people are you hanging out with?"
This time Elena smacks Dean in the shoulder.
"No, man, I know Zach. He's no killer," Sam says insistently.
"Well maybe you know Zach as well as he knows you."
Elena cuts in then, before Sam even has a chance to cut in.
"Or as well as you know me?"
Dean looks back at her, startled.
She gives him a challenging look.
"C'mon Elena," Dean protests. "Of course I know you."
Elena shakes her head.
"You don't know everything about me, I keep secrets, and I'm not going to stop keeping them anytime soon. If you know me then Sam knows Zach."
Dean huffs.
"That's different, Dad's all but said it's for our own protection."
"Right, and isn't Sam trying to protect his friends?"
Dean doesn't have an argument for that.
He circles the car to get into the front seat.
"Thanks Elena," Sam says in undertone.
Elena shrugs.
"You know Dean's just weird about normal friendships, right? He doesn't mean it."
Sam nods.
"They're in St. Louis, we're going," Sam tells Dean as soon as he's in the driver's seat.
"God," are the first words out of Becky's mouth after her and Sam's playful reunion. Their hug had been brief but full of affection.
Becky had then turned to Sam's companions, and her exclamation was her honest first reaction to being faced with Elena Gilbert. Sam can't say he blames her.
Elena looks at Dean, somewhat warily, but he just grins at her. Sam wants to ask what exactly he's supposed to think about them when Dean always acts like this when people react to Elena.
"You look like a model, hi," Becky says to Elena.
Elena laughs.
"Um, thank you, hi," she says, bemused.
"I keep telling her we'd make a killing if she'd just do a Playboy shoot," Dean says.
Elena shoves him off the porch abruptly, then smiles at Becky again.
"That's Dean, I'm Elena."
Rebecca laughs.
"I like her," she tells Sam.
Sam nods in agreement, still laughing at Dean who is swearing at Elena as he pushes himself back up off the ground.
"Yeah, that's the unanimous consensus," he says agreeably.
He gives Elena a fist bump and Dean glares at both of them as he climbs back onto the porch with them.
Elena smiles prettily back at him.
Becky looks on in amusement at the three of them, clearly comfortable with each other.
"Well, you're not exactly what I imagined from Sam's emails about his brother and his pretty girlfriend, but I think I like you better."
Elena raises an eyebrow.
"Is that what Sam said?" she asks, pretending like she's never heard of the idea, despite everyone they've ever met making the assumption. "I'm not his girlfriend, Dean and I are just good friends is all."
Dean nods in agreement.
"The best."
Becky glances between the two of them skeptically but doesn't say anything.
The second neither of them are looking, Sam mouths, "They're in love," to her. She nods in complete agreement.
"I can't believe you came," Becky says.
"We're here to help,' Sam replies sincerely. "Whatever we can do."
"Come in."
They follow her in.
"Nice place," Dean says appreciatively.
"It's my parents'," she admits. "I was just crashing here for the long weekend when everything happened. I decided to take the semester off. I'm gonna stay until Zach's free."
They follow her through the house towards the kitchen.
"Where are your folks?" Sam asks.
"They live in Paris for half the year, so they're on their way home now for the trial." They reach the kitchen, and Becky's inner hostess kicks in.
"Do you guys want a beer or something?" she asks.
"Hey," Dean says, pointing at her in excitement.
"No thanks," Sam says at the same time, giving Dean a look.
Elena rolls her eyes.
"So, tell us what happened," Sam requests.
"Well, um, Zach came home and he found Emily tied to a chair, and she was beaten up and bloody, and she wasn't breathing, and so he…" her voice breaks, she takes a breath and tries again. "So he called 911, and the police, they showed up, and…and they arrested him, but the thing is, the only way that Zach could've killed Emily is if he was in two places at the same time."
Dean and Elena exchange a look.
Becky continues, "The police, they have a video. It's from the security camera across the street, and it shows Zach coming home at 10:30. Now Emily was killed just after that, but I swear he was here with me having a few beers until at least after midnight."
Sam looks back at Dean and Elena.
"You know, maybe we could see the crime scene, Zach's house."
"We could?" Dean asks, skeptical.
"Why? What could you do?" Becky asks, confused.
"Well, me? Not much," Sam straight up lies, but then continues, lying, "But they're cops."
"You're a cop?" Becky asks Elena in disbelief.
She gives her a slight smile, not a hint of surprise on her face.
"It's a family business," she says.
"But you're so…" Becky trails off.
There are at least half a dozen things she could be thinking, 'beautiful' and 'young' being the obvious ones, but Dean beats her to the punch.
"Yeah, well she's gifted."
His smile is strained, Sam's proclamation has taken him more by surprise than it had Elena, but sincere.
Becky concedes with a nod, albeit one not without an ounce of doubt.
"And we're detectives, actually," Dean says, correcting Sam's use of the term cops.
At least it was closer to the truth.
"Where?" Becky asks, mostly out of curiosity, Sam barely talks about his family life.
"Bisbee, Arizona," Dean says the first town that comes to mind.
Elena's mouth twitches but Sam knows the only people who would notice are him and Dean.
"But we're off duty now," he continues, explaining why they're states away instead of doing their job.
"I don't know," Becky finally responds. "You guys, it's so nice to offer, but I just—I don't know."
Sam doesn't hesitate.
"Beck, look. I know Zach didn't do this," he says firmly. "Now, we have to find a way to prove he's innocent."
Becky glances between the three of them.
"Okay," she agrees finally. "I'm gonna go get the keys."
Once she's out of the room, Dean lets out a low whistle.
"Oh yeah, man, you're a real straight shooter with your friends."
Elena raises an eyebrow at him.
"Look, Zach and Becky need our help," Sam says.
"I just don't think this is our kind of problem."
Sam has anticipated this argument, but before he can open his mouth, Elena offers up his exact counter-point.
"Two places at once?"
Sam points at her.
"We've looked into less," Sam continues.
"Man, I hate it when you guys gang up on me," Dean mutters.
Sam scoffs.
"Like you and Elena don't do it to me all the time."
Elena nods.
"Remember when he wanted to watch The Power of Myth and instead we made him watch three straight seasons of Buzzfeed Unsolved?"
Dean laughs and nods in fond reminiscence.
Sam can't even begin to explain why the two of them are so obsessed with a crappy YouTube show about investigating supernatural (and true crime) mysteries when they very rarely went somewhere that was actually – or still – haunted. The guys in it are kinda funny, though.
"Yeah that was a good time." Dean pauses. "I still hate it when you gang up on me though."
Sam and Elena exchange a look.
"Get used to it," they chorus.
"Tell us what else the police said," Sam requests.
They're inside Zach's house now, and Sam can see that Becky is having a hard time, so he tries to give her something else to focus on while Elena and Dean take a look around.
"Well…" she begins. "There was no sign of a break-in. They say that Emily let her attacker in. The lawyers are already talking about a plea bargain."
Becky can't take it, one look around the blood-splattered room and the tears she's been holding back start to flow.
"Oh God."
Sam keeps his focus on their task.
"Look Beck, if Zach didn't do this, it means someone else did."
She nods fervently.
"Any idea who?"
She shakes her head, then stops.
"Um, there was something," she starts. "About a week before, somebody broke in here and stole some clothes, Zach's clothes. The police, they don't think that it's anything." She shrugs. "I mean, we're not that far from downtown. Sometimes people get robbed."
Sam nods, absorbing the information.
He moves over to where Elena is in the kitchen.
Dean has wandered to the partially open door to look at the ferociously barking dog next door.
Becky comes up behind him.
"You know, that used to be the sweetest dog."
Dean gives her a disbelieving look.
"What happened?" he asks as the dog continues to bark at them.
"He just changed."
Dean tenses.
"Do you remember when he changed?"
She shakes her head.
"I guess around the time of the murder?"
Dean sighs, starting to give into Sam and Elena's suspicions.
He leaves her there at the door, heading over to Sam and Elena still in the kitchen.
Sam is looking at a picture of himself with the siblings on the fridge.
Elena is leaning against the counter, giving Sam enough space to deal with his feelings.
Without a word, Dean hooks his fingers into Elena's belt loop, tugging her across the kitchen into a huddle with him and Sam.
Elena gives him a bemused look.
He grins shamelessly back at her before turning to Sam.
He doesn't let go of her belt loop.
"So the neighbor's dog went psycho right around the time Zach's girlfriend was killed," he tells him.
Sam considers that instead of the numerous implications of Dean's fingers tucked in Elena's belt loop.
"Animals can have a sharp sense of the paranormal."
Dean nods.
"Maybe Fido saw something?" he suggests.
Sam smirks a little.
"So you think maybe this is our kind of problem?"
Dean shakes his head immediately, unwilling to admit it.
"No, probably not," he insists. "But we should look at the security tape just to make sure."
Sam and Elena exchange exasperated looks.
Becky walks over to them, raises an eyebrow at Dean's fingers still wrapped around Elena's belt loop.
Dean looks down at it and then back at her, not moving his hand, because apparently he doesn't think there's anything unusual about that at all.
Elena doesn't say a word.
Becky and Sam exchange looks this time.
"So the tape, the security footage?" Dean starts. "Think maybe your lawyers could get their hands on it?" he asks. "See, we just don't have that kind of jurisdiction," he adds quickly, tugging on Elena's belt loop a little at his use of 'we'.
"I've already got it," she admits somewhat sheepishly.
Sam gives her a look.
"I didn't want to say something in front of the cops." She shrugs.
Dean and Elena laugh a little, but somehow neither of them sound nervous.
"I, um, stole it off the lawyer's desk. I just had to see it for myself."
Elena smiles at her.
"My kind of woman."
Becky raises an eyebrow.
Elena shrugs.
"I have a brother too," she explains. "All rules go out the window when it comes to protecting the people you love. Me, personally? I'd do anything."
"Our lawyer hired some kind of video expert, he says the tape's authentic," Becky tells them. "It wasn't tampered with."
On the recording Zach seemingly walks into the house not too long before his girlfriend's murder took place.
Sam considers the images on the screen, then turns to look at his friend.
Already hating himself for what's about to come out of his mouth, but knowing it's necessary, he puts on his best innocuous face.
"Hey Becky, can we take those beers now?" he asks cheerily.
"Oh, sure," she replies, not thinking anything of it.
She gets up, heading for the kitchen, but Sam stops her.
"Hey, uh, maybe some sandwiches too?" he asks, hating himself, but knowing they need her out of the room.
"What do you think this is, Hooters?" she asks laughingly, but she heads for the kitchen.
"I wish," Dean says.
Elena pushes him off the arm of the couch.
Sam gives her another fist bump.
"Stop doing that!"
"Stop being gross," she retorts.
He pushes himself off the ground and back onto his perch, glaring at her.
She gives him an unimpressed look before she turns back to Sam.
"What is it?" she asks, knowing that he must've noticed something he couldn't point out to them with Becky in the room.
"Check this out." He rewinds the video and then slows it down and pauses. Zach is looking directly at the camera, his eyes glowing an inhumane silver.
"Maybe it's just a camera flare?" Dean suggests.
Sam shakes his head.
"That's not like any camera flare I've ever seen."
He turns his back to the television, addressing them fully.
"You know a lot of cultures believe that a photograph can catch a glimpse of the soul."
"Right," Dean mutters in agreement.
"Remember that dog that was freaking out?" Sam gestures at the screen. "Maybe he saw this thing." He continues, "Maybe this is some kind of dark double of Zach's something that looks like him but isn't him."
Dean considers it.
"Like a doppelganger?"
"That would sure explain how he was in two places at once," Sam says in agreement.
Elena shakes her head immediately.
"No, doppelgangers' eyes don't do that on camera," she says with certainty.
They both turn to look at her.
Dean blinks in astonishment.
"Dad has next to nothing in his journal about doppelgangers," he says, reminding her of what they all know.
She shrugs.
"Your dad wasn't the first person who ever taught me anything about the supernatural, Dean," she reminds him. "I know a bit about doppelgangers. Yeah, evil doppelgangers are supposed to fuck with their doubles' lives, but their eyes don't do that."
Dean gives her a look.
"How do you know so much so much about evil doppelgangers?" he asks.
Sure, he knows that she picked up a few things before his dad had even taken her in, but doppelgangers are a mystery to most of the hunting community, his dad included.
"Because I have an evil doppelganger," Elena says dryly. "Except she's not really evil, just self-serving."
Sam and Dean stare at her for a moment, then they laugh.
Elena smiles, giving nothing away.
After they finish their laugh at Elena's deadpan humor, Dean gives her another look.
"Seriously, Gilbert, I've never even met another hunter who's dealt with doppelgangers."
Sam doesn't say anything, but he's insatiably curious.
Elena hesitates, then answers slowly.
"There was…a doppelganger involved in the murder of Alaric's wife, I had a few run-ins with her."
Dean is giving her a look full of understanding, so Sam has a feeling this isn't entirely good. He cocks his head to the side.
"Who's Alaric?" he asks.
Elena inhales sharply as she turns to look at him.
For a second, a terrible expression overtakes her face, the pain in her eyes stops his breath, but then her face clears, smooth as glass.
"He was my guardian," she says. "Another hunter." She pauses. "He was married to Isobel, my biological mother."
Sam nods in understanding, knowing that all of that is messy and painful.
She considers him, seems to understand that he's got more questions.
After all, why would their dad take her in if she already had a guardian?
"He…" she trails off. "It's a long story," she finally says. "Let's just say he was no longer capable of taking care of us by the time your dad came back."
When Sam looks over at Dean, his face is completely serious.
They can hear Becky's approaching footsteps, so they all lapse into silence.
"All right, what are we doing here at 5:30 in the morning?" Dean asks as they step out of the Impala.
They're outside of Zach's house.
"I realized something," Sam starts.
Dean has coffee and a grumpy look on his face, but Elena and Sam have already been awake for hours. Elena had woken Sam up from a nightmare just after two and then took him on the most punishing run of his life. For once, instead of feeling the need to collapse immediately after, he'd had a bit of a breakthrough on Zach's case. He'd insisted on waking Dean up and leaving immediately.
He'd left the actual waking up to Elena though, she's much better at it.
Dean gives him an impatient look, waving his hand for him to continue.
"The videotape shows the killer going in but not coming out," he says.
"So he came out the back door?" Dean replies, not seeing Sam's point. He and Elena are leaned against the hood of the Impala.
"Right," Sam agrees as he crosses the street. "So there should be a trail to follow." He raises his voice. "A trail the police would never pursue."
"'Cause they think the killer never left," Elena says.
"They caught your friend Zach inside," Dean continues.
Sam sticks his head inside of the dumpster on the other side of the street.
Dean and Elena exchange grossed out looks.
"Still don't know what we're doing here at 5:30 in the morning," Dean mutters under his breath, sipping his coffee.
Elena gives him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder and he leans into her lethargically.
Across the street, Sam hasn't found anything in the dumpster, so he begins to look around at other places. It doesn't take him long to find a suspicious stain on a telephone pole.
He stands up, turning to look across the street at them.
He cants his head in the direction of the stain.
"Blood." He raises his arms slightly into a shrug. "Somebody came this way."
"Maybe the trail ends," Dean says. "I don't see anything over here."
Dean, by now, has his head on Elena's shoulder, not fully committed to the search when he's sleep-deprived.
Before any of them can say anything more, an ambulance rushes down the street.
Dean sighs heavily, sitting up because he knows they have to follow it.
A small crowd has gathered near where the ambulance has stopped. The police are already there, taping off the crime scene.
"What happened?" Elena asks a jogger.
"He tried to kill his wife," she answers. "Tied her up and beat her."
The three of them exchange glances.
"Really?" Dean asks, not expecting an answer exactly.
"I used to see him going to work in the morning," she says. "He'd wave, say hello. He seemed like such a nice guy."
Discreetly they twist their way through the crowd, separating in order to check out the perimeter to see if anything is out of place.
"Hey," Dean says, coming up to Sam just around the corner, Elena at his heels. "Remember when I said this wasn't our kind of problem?"
"Yeah?" Sam says.
"Definitely our kind of problem," Dean affirms firmly.
"What did you find out?" Sam asks.
Dean points at Elena.
"I spoke with the patrolman who was first on the scene," she starts.
By spoke, Sam knows she means she used her considerable charms in order to get him to spill his entire guts to her.
"He heard this guy Alex's story. Apparently he was driving home from a business trip when his wife was attacked," she explains.
"He was two places at once," Dean says, finishing for her.
"Exactly," Elena says. "Then he saw himself in the house."
"Police think he's a nut-job," Dean adds.
"Well that definitely destroys any possibility of the doppelganger theory," Sam mutters.
Elena nods.
"Yeah, well doppelgangers' eyes definitely don't do that and they also can't change the way they look to go ruin someone else's life."
Sam starts to pace.
"They're being attacked in the same way, so Elena's probably right that it's the same thing who did it both times."
Dean considers this.
"Shapeshifter?" he suggests.
"Something that can make itself look like anyone," Sam says, continuing Dean's train of thought.
"Every culture in the world has a shapeshifter lore," Dean replies. He looks at Elena, prompting her to continue.
"Legends of creatures who can transform themselves into animals or other men," she recites. "For example, skinwalkers and werewolves."
Dean nods his head.
"We got two attacks within blocks of each other. I'm guessing we got a shapeshifter problem in the neighborhood."
Sam pauses.
"Let me ask you this, in all this shapeshifter lore, can any of them fly?"
Sam starts moving so Dean and Elena follow him.
"Not that I know of," Dean answers.
"I picked up a trail here," Sam explains. "Someone ran out of the back of this building, headed off this way." He gestures.
"Just like your friend's house," Dean observes.
"Yeah," Sam agrees. "And just like at Zach's house, the trail suddenly ends."
Dean and Elena exchange a look.
"I mean, whatever it is just disappeared."
Dean considers this, but he's thinking of the opposite direction than Sam is.
"Well, there's another way to go," he says. "Down."
Sam follows his gaze down to a storm drain behind them,
Elena sighs.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously?" she demands again after Dean lifts her down next to him in the underground tunnel.
Dean laughs a little at her incredulity.
Wrinkling her nose, Elena follows after Dean as he starts down the tunnel.
Sam comes down last.
"I bet this runs right by Zach's house too," he says.
He walks down to where Dean and Elena are.
"The shapeshifter could be using the sewer system to get around."
"I think you're right," Dean agrees grimly, his eyes on something in front of him. "Look at this."
He kneels down next to a slimy gooey gore, using his pocket knife to scrape a bit up for inspection.
"Gross," Elena says, summing it up for all three of them.
"Is this from his victims?" Sam asks.
"You know, I just had a sick thought," Dean starts. "When the shapeshifter changes shape, maybe it sheds."
Sam and Elena make faces at each other.
"That is sick," Sam replies for both of them. Elena nods her agreement fervently.
"Well, one thing I learned from Dad," Dean says as he opens the trunk to the Impala. "No matter what kind of shapeshifter it is, there's one sure way to kill it."
He pulls out a box bullets.
"Silver bullet to the heart," Sam says.
Dean turns back to Elena.
"Unless," he prompts.
"It's a werewolf," she finishes. "Werewolves are immune to silver, despite what pop culture says."
He nods approvingly.
"Exactly, but this is definitely not a werewolf so we're good to go."
Sam gets a phone call then, so he steps away to take it.
After a moment his face goes grim.
Dean and Elena exchange an uneasy look. Without a word they start to load their guns with the silver bullets.
Not much later Sam hangs up.
"Becky's lawyers revealed you're not cops," he says flatly.
"I'm not a very convincing detective anyway," Elena replies after a moment, trying to lighten the mood.
"Yeah you are, Elena," Sam says, shaking his head.
"I hate to say it, but this is exactly what I'm talking about," Dean starts. "You lie to your friends because if they knew the real you they'd be freaked."
"Dean," Elena says warningly.
"It's just," Dean continues anyway. "It'd be easier—"
"If I was like you," Sam says, cutting him off.
"Hey man, like it or not, we are not like other people." Dean gestures to all three of them. "None of us. But I'll tell you one thing—this whole gig, it ain't without it's perks."
Dean hands Sam one of the guns loaded with silver bullets.
None of them say much down in the tunnels, not wanting to alert their shapeshifter friend to their presence.
"I think we're close to its lair," Dean says after a long series of twists and turns.
"Why do you say that?" Sam asks.
"'Cause there's another puke-inducing pile next to your face," Dean says matter-of-factly.
Sam turns to look at it, moving back in disgust.
Elena makes a disgusted face from behind Sam.
"Oh god," Sam says, overcome with his own disgust.
"Uh-huh, what he said," Elena agrees.
Further ahead they find another pile which includes clothes and shoes.
"It looks like it's lived here for a while," Dean observes.
"Gross," Elena says again, but she inches past Dean and Sam to get a closer look.
"Who knows how many murders he's gotten away with?" Sam asks, his horror muted by the sheer massiveness of the thought.
Sam idly turns back to look around, the beam of his flashlight bouncing off the walls and directly into the silver-eyed gaze of the monster himself, standing directly behind his brother.
"Dean!"
Dean turns just as the shapeshifter backhands him into the wall.
Sam shoots after its fleeing form, missing.
Elena has already moved forward to check on Dean.
"Get the son of a bitch," Dean yells at both of them.
Sam starts after him immediately.
Elena ignores Dean insistent waving off, and wraps her arm around his waist, dragging him with her after Sam.
The open storm drain comes up into a park, and Sam hastily hides his gun from nearby civilians. Elena comes out after him, turning back to help Dean hoist himself up through the hole.
The shapeshifter is nowhere in sight.
"All right, let's all split up," Sam says.
"Shouldn't someone stay with Dean," Elena suggests.
Dean shakes his head.
"No we can all cover more ground separately," he reminds her. "I'll be fine."
She nods hesitantly.
"We'll all meet around the other side," he says, giving her a reassuring nod.
With that, they all take off in different directions.
Sam and Elena are waiting on the corner for Dean, neither of them having found the shapeshifter's trail again.
"Hey," someone calls and they both turn.
Dean is striding towards them, he raises both of his arms in a questioning manner.
"Anything?" he asks.
Elena immediately frowns at him, but shakes her head.
"No, he's gone," Sam says.
Dean sighs. "All right, let's get back to the car," he says, but his gaze is on Elena.
She looks back at him and he gives her a reassuring smile.
"I told you I'd be fine," he says.
She nods, still not speaking.
"Let's get back to the car," he repeats.
Sam starts across the street, and after a moment, Elena follows him.
Dean moves as soon as she does, but an oncoming car forces him to stop. The headlights cross his face, revealing the shapeshifter's silver eyes, with no one there to witness it.
Once it passes he picks up his pace to catch up with Elena, pressing close to her back in a way that usually makes her feel safe. This time, her spine crawls.
"You think he found another way underground?" Sam asks as they approach the car.
Dean looks at Elena, like he usually does, but Elena doesn't look at him. He's kept close to her the entire walk back to the car. Elena can't explain what she's feeling, and even if she could, he hasn't given her the space to voice it to Sam.
"Probably," Dean answers for both of them, since Elena seems to be in her own little world. "You got the keys?" he asks Sam.
Sam hesitates. He's noticed Elena's silence, and that question is enough to prick his own senses.
"Hey, didn't Dad once face a shapeshifter in San Antonio?" Sam asks casually.
Elena holds her breath.
"That was Austin," Dean corrects him calmly. "And it turned out not to be a shapeshifter. It was a thought-form – a psychic projection. Remember?"
Elena lets out her breath, but she's frowning, ever-so-slightly.
"Oh right," Sam says.
Sam sees Elena's expression out of the corner of his eye, and he can't help but wonder despite Dean's correct answer. He has his own sense of unease, and he trusts Elena absolutely, especially when it comes to Dean.
So he shakes his head and says, "Here you go," and then he throws the keys.
Dean catches them easily, focuses on opening the trunk.
Sam takes that opportunity to indicate with his eyes that Elena should move closer to him. She's between the two of them, not as close to Dean as she usually would be, but seeming to understand that the shapeshifter doesn't want her too far from him, for whatever reason.
So she undoes her hair, casually flipping it over to redo her ponytail.
The shapeshifter as Dean gets caught up in watching her perform the action, but doesn't seem to realize that she's moved closer to Sam while doing it. He just seems hyper-aware of her, even more so than Dean normally is.
After she's done she turns to look at him.
"What?" she asks.
"Nothing, just don't understand how such a small person has that much hair," he says, exactly something Dean would say about Elena's massive amounts of hair.
She rolls her eyes and moves to open the door.
Once he's engrossed in unlocking the trunk of the Impala again, Sam and Elena exchange a few quick glances to communicate a plan of attack.
It only takes them a few moments to corner him on either side, guns drawn.
"Don't move," Elena orders.
"What have you done with him?" Sam demands.
He slowly raises his hands, looking between them like they've both gone off the rails.
"Guys, chill, it's me, all right?" Dean says.
Elena's response is instantaneous.
"No, I don't think so."
"Where's my brother?" Sam asks, in complete agreement.
"You're about to shoot him," he retorts. "Seriously guys? This isn't what I meant about ganging up on me." He glances between them. "Both of you, calm down."
"You caught those keys with your left," Sam says.
"Your shoulder was hurt," Elena continues, reminding him of his flawed performance.
"Yeah, it's better," he insists. "What do you want me to do, cry?" he asks derisively. He looks at Elena. "You need to kiss it better before you believe me, Gilbert?"
She ignores him.
"You're not Dean," she says assuredly.
Sam nods in fervent agreement.
"Why don't you pull the trigger then?" he asks Sam, since that's who he's looking at.
Sam hesitates, but Elena undoes her safety immediately.
The shapeshifter kicks back, nailing her in the knee as he lunges forward to slam a tire iron into Sam's head, knocking him out.
He whirls around quickly to deal with Elena, she isn't as hesitant as Sam, after all. She's already up and as she goes for her gun he kicks it away, raising the tire iron to knock her out too.
With no weapon to defend herself or Sam, she takes off, going for the fence behind her, a smart move because that way he can't follow her in the Impala.
The shapeshifter swears and takes off after her, knowing he only has so much time before Sam wakes up.
By the time he makes it over the fence she's disappeared into the next one, he clearly hadn't kicked her in the knee hard enough.
Hopping the fences will slow him down, and she already has a head start. She also has the added advantage of being a young girl, so anyone who comes to investigate the intruders in their backyard will see a young, injured girl and a rather menacing looking man chasing after her. She has all of the advantages, and they both know it.
He instead retreats and goes back to the Impala and Sam's unconscious body.
When Sam wakes up, he's tied up, back in the sewers, but an unfamiliar part this time. He immediately looks around for Elena, finding her nowhere.
He hears approaching footsteps and then sees the shapeshifter still masquerading as his brother. He walks up to him, looks at him for just long enough to make Sam wonder, and then smacks him across the face, walking away.
"Where's Elena?" he asks.
"She got away," he admits reluctantly. Then he smirks a little. "Smart girl, she knew all along. Can't figure out she didn't shoot me as soon as we got away from all the civilians, though." He shrugs. "Maybe she just didn't wanna blow her boy-toy's face off."
Sam tries to not to let his relief show, at least Elena is safe.
"Where is he?" Sam asks next, focusing his concern on his brother now that he knows Elena got away. She can look after herself.
"Where's Dean?"
"I wouldn't worry about him, I'd worry about you."
The shapeshifter walks passed him, gathering supplies to for his bag.
"Where is he?" Sam asks again, ignoring him.
He stops, looks back at Dean.
"You don't really wanna know," he says menacingly. "I swear, the more I learn about you and your family…" he trails off, walking away again. "I thought I came from a bad background."
Sam focuses on only part of what he's saying.
"What do you mean, learn?" he asks.
The shapeshifter doesn't answer him, puts a wicked looking knife into his bag. He stands there for a long moment, then clutches his head. After a moment he drops his hand, turning his head to look at Sam again.
"He's sure got issues with you," he tells him tauntingly. He start walking towards Sam
"You got to go to college. He had to stay home." He drops his bag at Sam's feet.
"I mean, I had to stay home, with Dad." He considers Sam for a second. "You don't think I had dreams of my own? But Dad needed me. Where the hell were you?"
Sam ignores what he's saying.
"Where is my brother?" he asks yet again.
"I'm your brother," the shapeshifter insists, crouching down until they're face to face. "See deep down, I'm just jealous. You got friends. You could have a life. You got everything I ever wanted," he says. He pauses, then adds, "Expect her, of course."
Sam tries not to hold his breath, up until now he's been telling himself that it's all a lie. Now, the shapeshifter has broached the subject Sam wonders about the most. He doesn't want to believe any of it, but he can't help that overwhelming curiosity and frustration when it comes to Dean's obvious but repressed feelings for Elena.
He doesn't want to hear it from a monster though. He wants Dean to open up to him, to say it for himself.
"He thinks about her a lot, you know," he says. "Elena, I mean." He pauses, sees the look on Sam's face, smirks. "Not like that." he pauses again, reconsidering his words. "I mean, yeah, like that, of course, have you seen her?" he asks rhetorically.
He continues, ignoring Sam's discomfort at his implications, even if Sam had gone there first. "But I meant just in general, he thinks – I think about her all the time, it's enough to drive any man insane. And all I can do is think, because Dad made me promise to keep my hands to himself. He's so protective of her, sometimes I can't even believe he left her with me."
Sam absorbs the information, tucks it away for later.
The shapeshifter hasn't been paying attention to Sam, but he seems to come back into focus, looking at him.
"You got to play at being normal, but me? I know I'm a freak. Sooner or later, everyone's gonna leave me, even her."
He walks away then.
"What are you talking about?" Sam asks.
"You left," he tells him. "Hell, I did everything Dad asked me to, and he ditched me, too." He glares at him. "If I even ask her too many questions about her secrets, all the things between us, she's gonna leave too, she could leave anyway."
He walks back to Sam carrying a canvas tarp this time.
"But still, this life, it's not without its perks." He laughs. "I meet the nicest people." He considers Sam. "Like little Becky. You know Dean'd bang her if he had the chance." He pauses. "Yeah, Elena's the one he really wants, but anyone else will do in a pinch." He smirks. "Let's see what happens."
Without another word, he covers Sam with the tarp and leaves.
Becky doesn't look happy when she answers the door.
Dean is instantly on the defense.
"I know what you're going to say."
She glares. "Oh, you do?" she asks sarcastically.
"Well, no, not exactly," he admits. "But I can take a guess. 'Get off my porch.'"
She laughs a little then, slightly less annoyed.
"Maybe even a little bit of a wish to push me off like Elena did," he adds, smiling good-naturedly.
She fully laughs then.
"That's about right," she agrees, more relaxed now.
"I admit it, we lied," he says. "Thought I'd try to explain myself, Sam and Elena told me not to come. But I thought, 'what the hell, I have to try.'"
It takes barely any time at all for Becky to let him in, just like Elena told her to.
"Damn it," Sam says, still unable to undo his bindings.
A moment later and he hears a cough.
"That better be you, Sam, and not that freak of nature," Dean says.
Sam laughs in sheer relief at the sound of his brother's voice.
"Yeah, it's me," he says. "He's currently looking like you, not me."
"Where's Elena?" Dean asks, more focused on her than the monster walking around with his face.
"I don't know, he said she got away," Sam says.
"That's my girl," Dean says, the relief evident in his voice.
Sam tries not to think about what the shapeshifter said about Dean's feelings for Elena.
"Do you think she could find us here?" Sam asks.
"Probably, but I don't think that would be her first priority," Dean admits.
Sam frowns.
"Why not?"
"Well, knowing Elena, and knowing that she's been trained by Dad, she probably trusts us to get ourselves out of whatever mess we're in because that freak," Dean explains.
Sam has to admit that it sounds logical, but he has to wonder why she wouldn't help them anyway. Dean's next words answer that question.
"Plus, you have a friend in this city who's vulnerable and could be persuaded to let me into her house. Except, of course, that's not me."
Sam sags.
"Yeah, he kinda implied that's where he's going," Sam admits. "So you think Elena's with Becky?"
"It's a good strategy, she could take him by surprise, get it over with quickly." Dean pauses. "Let's just hope Becky was willing to let Elena in."
Sam considers it. "I mean, it's Elena, I doubt Becky's immune to her any more than anyone else."
Dean huffs in agreement. "God bless her charms, I say," he mutters.
"So you're saying that there's something out there that made itself look like my brother?" Becky says, trying to pretend that this is all new information to her. Doing her best to hide her fear.
Elena had promised she'd only be alone with him for a little while. Becky isn't sure why she trusts her so implicitly, but someone capable of making themselves look like anyone made more sense than her brother being a murderer, so she's done as Elena asked.
She pretended to be angry instead of scared, she let him think she was softening at his words, she let him in, and now she's keeping him occupied until Elena is certain that he's relaxed enough to be caught off guard.
"Mm-hmm," the shapeshifter hums, nodding his head.
Becky swallows down her fear, telling herself that Elena won't let him hurt her.
She huffs a little, pretends she thinks he's ridiculous, and it does feel ridiculous. So she channels that into her performance.
"What'd you call it?" she asks innocently.
"A shapeshifter," he answers.
He really does look exactly like Sam's brother.
Becky laughs a little, looking at him like she doesn't believe him.
"Yeah, maybe we're crazy," he admits freely. He looks at her. "But what if we're not?" he asks. "I mean, look, you said it yourself. That Zach was in two places at once. Tell me how that can happen?"
She sighs, remembers what Elena told her. "Okay, so, this thing, it can make itself look like anybody?"
He nods. "That's right."
She laughs, heart pounding. "Well, what is it, like a genetic freak?"
Elena had reminded her that if she didn't say anything that sounded derisive, if she tried to feign sympathy so it wouldn't get mad, it could get suspicious. Her heart still pounds though.
He laughs, clearly to cover up another emotion pretty far off from mirth.
"Maybe," he says. "Evolution is about mutation, right? So maybe this thing was born human but was different."
Becky holds her fear in her chest, wonders how easily it lets the Dean façade slip. There is nothing of Sam's brother in his speech.
"Hideous and hated." He pauses. "Until he learned to become someone else."
Becky smiles at him to cover up her unease, she knows her smile is uncomfortable, but it works for the moment. He takes it as her not quite believing him.
"Yeah, that's the thing," Sam says as Dean listens while he uses the sharp edge he's tied to in order to fray his ropes. "He didn't just look like you, he was you. Or he was becoming you."
Dean gets free and immediately goes to untie Sam.
"What do you mean?" Dean asks.
"I don't know," Sam shakes his head. "It's like he was downloading your thoughts and memories."
Dean considers this.
"You mean like the Vulcan mind meld?" he asks.
"Yeah, something like that." Sam ponders this for a moment. "I mean, maybe that's why he didn't just kill us."
"Maybe he needs to keep us alive, like a psychic connection," Dean says, adding to Sam's thoughts.
"He's probably at Rebecca's already," Sam says as he gets free.
"Elena can handle him," Dean says confidently, but they hurry anyway.
"It's funny," the shapeshifter is saying as he reaches for one of the beers Becky had brought out as a cover for her shaking hands. "I kind of understand him," he continues. "He's all alone. Close to no one. All he wants is someone to love him. He's like me."
"I would beg to differ," Elena says from behind them.
She stands with her feet planted firmly, a gun aimed at his head. She's the most beautiful thing Becky has ever seen in her life.
Becky doesn't pause to let the relief wash over herself, she just throws herself over the couch and behind Elena immediately. Again, it's exactly what Elena told her to do.
He stands slowly, raises his hands up. He looks past Elena at Becky shaking on the floor. He sighs, putting it together quickly.
"You are a lot smarter than I gave you credit for," he says, looking at Elena with admiration and resentment. "I thought he just built you up in his head or something, but no, you really do know what the hell you're doing."
Elena just looks at him, not a trace of emotion on her face.
"Becky on the other hand, was a complete surprise," he continues. "I can't believe she really sat there next to me for so long pretending not to buy my story when you got to her first."
Elena smiles then, perfectly calm.
"Well Dean doesn't know, so you would have no way of knowing either. Becky's a theater major."
He laughs in disbelief.
"Give the girl her Oscar already," he says with grudging admiration.
"This is live, motherfucker, it'd be a Tony." Elena's tone is hard as steel.
The shapeshifter can see that she's done playing question-and-answer-time so before she has a chance to act he leaps over the couch like Becky had, except he barrels right into her. He body slams her to the floor, sending her gun flying out into the hallway and knocking all of the air right out of her body.
Becky screams and before she can even think of going for the gun he gets up off of Elena, grabs her by the throat and throws her into the wall, knocking her out.
Elena's scrambling up and making for the hallway despite being winded, but he grabs her around the waist, slamming her into the side of the doorway. Her gun is only feet away from them both.
This is exactly how he wants it though, if he's being honest. Just him and her. No Winchesters, no Becky.
"Jesus, you are beautiful," he tells her. She struggles against him, but he easily crushes her into the frame. "I could look at you all day," he says.
She goes to raise her knee between his legs but he easily closes his knees, trapping her thigh between his legs. He has his hands on her waist, ground her there, one of her arms is trapped by her back.
"Yeah, Dean holds back a lot when you spar," he says, smirking at her. "Better for me, though, if you were any better I'd be dead at least twice over by now."
She glares at him.
"Go to hell," she says.
"I like your fire," he tells her. "And so does Dean," he adds. "God, he just likes everything about you." He pauses dramatically. "Except those pesky secrets of course."
He raises a hand to stroke her face.
"So fucking gorgeous," he says in an awe-filled tone. "I don't know why you don't just let him touch you—let me touch you."
"You're not him," Elena reminds him evenly.
"But he's him, so why don't you let him touch you?" he asks, sounding almost tormented. "You only let him hold you after your nightmares. How do you think that makes me feel?"
He smooths his hands down her face, down her throat, traces his fingers along the scars there, gone silvery white with age. He touches her like he can't help himself. He stops at her collarbone, rubs his fingers against her clavicle.
"How could I not love your nightmares when they're the only reason you ever invite me to touch you?"
Elena trembles, but he can see the rage in her eyes, and he knows she's not afraid, she's furious.
"I don't care what you think you know," she says through clenched teeth. "But you can't make me believe anything you say about him. You're not him."
"I know everything about him," he informs her. "Every dark, dirty thought he's ever had, baby."
Elena flinches at the endearment.
He shakes his head.
"Oh no, that's all him," he assures her. "'Baby's,' all him. He's always holding it back. Every time he calls you Gilbert, what he really wants to call you is 'baby,' his baby. But you're not. You're not anyone's."
He looks at her like it's the saddest, most infuriating thing he's ever heard.
He hasn't moved his hand from her collarbone, she's not sure what she'll do if he does. He has his entire body pressed up against hers, holding her in place against the door, her thigh still firmly held between his. Her arm trapped between her back and the doorway aches with all of the weight being pressed against it.
"I don't understand why you won't just be with me. Everybody needs a little human touch, now and then. But not you. No." He shakes his head. "You, you just run around, flirting with everyone, letting them look at you, letting them think they can have you, but you don't let anyone in. Not even me." He grasps her face then, his hand spanning her jaw, holding it just tight enough to make her stomach drop.
"You treat everyone like they're beneath you. You and your perfect face and all that oozing charm. It's sick how much you enjoy playing with them, baby."
Before she can protest he moves his thumb to press down on her windpipe, cutting her off.
"Don't deny it, I know you like it. Do you like making him want you too, baby?" He considers her. "Is that what you're doing? Making him want you when you know he'll never do anything about it unless Daddy says it's okay?" He sneers.
"What a sick little bitch you are, baby."
He smiles then. He slides his hand down her throat to wrap around her wrist, smoothing his fingers over her pulse.
"I like that about you though. It does look fun, the way you twist people up, get 'em to do whatever you want."
He has a new glint in his eye, the sliver of an idea.
It fills Elena with dread.
"In fact, I'd like to try it myself," he admits. "I bet you could even convince someone to hurt themselves, or someone they love."
He's looking at her like he can't even begin to imagine the things she could do to people.
"I could have a lot of fun with you, baby." He smirks, corrects himself. "I could have a lot of fun as you."
Elena slips her wrist out of his hold to slam the heel of her palm up into his solar-plex but there isn't enough space between them for it to have much effect. He grabs her wrist again easily and slams her back into the doorway.
He leans forward, pressing his face into her neck. He inhales deeply, then he licks a long line up her neck, feeling the thudding of her pulse under his tongue, the uneven skin of her scar. He nuzzles his nose against the skin just below her ear, raising his mouth to kiss her earlobe before whispering in her ear.
"I'm thinking, I'll get you somewhere safe, and then I'll come back, all pretty and magnetic, and wait for Beck to wake up. Let's see what you can convince Sammy's pretty little friend to do, baby."
He moves back to look her in the eyes and grin.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure to tell you all about it," he promises. "We're gonna have all kinds of fun together. I don't think I'm ever gonna be able to give you up."
He lets go of her wrist to stroke her cheek again, unwilling and unable to resist the urge that seems to live in this body's DNA.
"Your boy's been fun but, you're gonna be the best thing that ever happened to me, baby, I can tell."
He leans in close enough that they're sharing breath now.
"I can't wait to learn all your secrets."
He lets go of her hip, framing her face with both of his hands.
"In fact, I want you to watch, baby. I want you to know everything about me too. We're gonna be doing this together for a long time."
He's concentrating on her, willing the change, but it all goes wrong so quickly. One moment his eyes are shining shapeshifter-silver, and the next they are bloodshot, within seconds they are blood red to the pupil.
She shakes, watching in horror as his body seems to break down, his bones snapping and tearing through his skin.
"Impossible." He can barely rasp out the words. He lets go of her face to grasp at his throat. She can see that his throat seems to be collapsing in on itself. He looks at her as his eyes begin to bleed, understanding dawning on his face as his skull seems to collapse in on itself.
"Doppelganger," he says, spitting blood all over her face and then he falls to his knees, keeling over at her feet, unmoving.
Shaking, she drops to her knees too, hesitantly she reaches her hand out to feel for a pulse, but before her hand even touches him, his body concaves into another pile of that disgusting goo from the sewer, still wrapped in Dean's clothes.
She rears back, disgusted and bewildered. Before she can fully contemplate his last words—or rather, word, Becky begins to stir in the next room.
Elena finds her legs don't work, so instead of walking, she crawls over to Becky, pulling her head into her lap.
"Becky?" Elena asks quietly. "How do you feel?"
Becky coughs, tries to sit up, but is quickly overcome by dizziness.
"Like a psycho threw me into a wall," she says.
Elena laughs a little.
"Well at least you remember what happened," she offers.
Becky wheezes a little.
"Is he dead?" she asks.
Elena nods.
Just then, Sam and Dean barge in.
Sam stands transfixed at the sight of the pile of fleshy goo in the doorway.
Dean, on the other hand, rushes straight past it to get to Elena.
He practically falls to his knees next to her, checking her over.
"Are you all right?" he demands. He touches his fingertips to the blood on her face. The only reason he hasn't hauled her up into his arms is because Becky's head is still in her lap, but it's a close call.
She nods.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she assures him. "It's not mine," she adds, referring to the blood on her face. "I think Becky has a concussion though."
This finally pries Sam's attention away from the pile of gore. He rushes forward to check on his friend. Carefully, he helps her sit up.
Elena freed of Becky's weight, finds herself bodily hauled up into Dean's arms. She doesn't mind, wrapping herself around him as tightly as she can.
"What happened?" Dean demands. "Did you shoot him? Is that how he got like that?"
Elena shakes her head against his shoulder.
"No, I didn't, I don't…" she trails off, frustrated with what she doesn't know and what she can't tell him. "I don't know what happened," she finally says. It's close to the truth, she doesn't know, she only suspects. "He just – he tried to – he was going to, and then…I don't know." She pauses. "I don't know," she repeats.
Sam looks at Becky but she shakes her head. "The last thing I saw before I got knocked out was him knocking Elena's gun out of her hand. It was all over by the time I came to."
Sam nods. "We should get you to the hospital," he says, worried.
He looks over at Dean and Elena, but they're so wrapped around each other he can't imagine they'll be ready to move anytime soon. So instead he helps Becky to her feet. he'll take her himself, let Dean worry about Elena.
Dean raises a hand to stroke Elena's hair, barely aware of Sam and Becky leaving.
"It's okay," he soothes. "Whatever happened, he's dead, it's over now, Gilbert."
Elena feels a shiver run down her spine at the use of her last name. She closes her eyes, tries to forget everything the shapeshifter said.
"How did you know he wasn't me ?" Dean asks Elena.
They're sitting in the Impala, waiting for Sam and Becky to finish saying goodbye.
Elena's in the front seat for once, Dean can't quite let her out of his sight yet, and Sam respects that.
Elena looks over at Dean.
"Sam says you knew like right away, you acted like you didn't even want him near you," he elaborates.
Elena considers her answer. She could be honest and say it was just a feeling, but she goes for logic instead. "When he was walking up to us he raised both of his arms in the air, not very high, but higher than you could when you left, so," she shrugs.
"Smart girl." He gives her an approving smile.
She shakes her head. "Yeah but as soon as he got close he said something about me not needing to worry about you going off on your own," she reminds him. "I second guessed myself."
"Yeah, but who knew he'd actually have my memories," he says.
Elena shrugs a little.
"I should've shot him as soon as we were away from civilians," she says stubbornly, then shakes her head again. "But I had to be sure it wasn't you, and he wouldn't move far away enough from me for me to let Sam know."
Dean reaches over to squeeze her knee reassuringly.
"I get why you hesitated," he tells her gently. "But if I ever creep you out again, shoot me in the face, please," he instructs, and she laughs, like he hoped she would.
"Seriously, odds are if you're not comfortable with me, it ain't me."
She full belly laughs then.
"What if it is you, though?" she asks once she gains control of her laughter.
He shrugs. "'Lena, if I ever do something to creep you out, I deserve to be shot in the face."
She moves then, curling into his side, and he swings his arm easily around her shoulders.
"Dean?" she asks.
"Yeah?"
"Quit holding back when we spar," she says, dead serious.
He pauses, tries not to think what that means, fails.
"Yeah, okay," he agrees easily enough, his voice gruff with repressed emotion.
"So this is what you do?" Becky asks Sam. "You and your brother, and Elena, you hunt down these kinds of things?"
Sam laughs a little.
"Yeah, pretty much," Sam says, surprised at how freeing it feels to finally admit it to one of his friends.
Becky shakes her head.
"I can't believe it," she confesses. "I mean, I saw it with my own eyes, and…" she trails off. She laughs in mild disbelief. "I mean, does everybody at school – nobody knows that you do this?"
Sam takes a breath. "No," he says simply.
"Did Jessica know?" Becky asks hesitantly.
Sam smiles reflexively at her name, ponders how that's still engrained in him, to smile at the sound of her name.
"No, she didn't," he admits, not without a hint of shame and regret.
Becky considers him for a second.
"It must be lonely," she says, shocking him.
"Oh no," he denies right away. "It's not so bad," he insists.
He looks over at Dean and Elena in the front seat, sitting very, very close.
"Anyway, what can I do? It's my family."
Becky nods.
"I can't believe you got all of the charges dropped against Zach, despite everything," she says.
Sam nods, also unable to believe it.
"Elena called in a favor?" he tells her, feeling like he's asking a question. "To be honest, I have no idea with who or how it worked but, it was all her," he admits.
Becky nods.
"She's brilliant, please, thank her for us again."
Sam nods.
"Yeah she is, and I will."
"Well you know, Zach and me and everybody at school, we really miss you." She reaches up to hug him.
"Yeah, me too," Sam admits quietly.
She gives him an extra squeeze and then steps back.
"Well, will you call sometime?" she asks. "At least to tell me when those two get their act together?" she tacks on hastily before he even thinks of saying no.
Sam laughs.
"Yeah, hopefully that's sooner rather than later or I'm gonna lose my mind," he freely admits.
She laughs but nods her head in understanding.
Becky waves at Dean and Elena who wave back.
She walks back into her house and Sam waits until the door is shut to make his way into the backseat of the Impala.
Elena lifts her head from Dean's shoulder then, to twist around and look back at him. She gives him a comforting smile that he returns.
"So how exactly did your mysterious favor-granter manage to convince the police that the surveillance video was tampered with?" Sam asks, unable to help himself.
"Mind control," Elena deadpans.
Dean laughs.
A few miles down the road, Elena curled up and asleep against Dean's side, he finally voices what he's been thinking since they met Becky only a few days earlier.
"Sorry man," Dean says.
Sam looks up from Elena's copy of Dracula.
"About what?" Sam asks, bewildered.
It takes Dean a second to answer.
"I really wish things could be different, you know?" he admits. "I wish you could just be Joe College."
Sam shakes his head.
"Aw man, it's okay," he says, unable to forget what the shapeshifter had said about his brother's feelings. "You know, truth is, even at Stanford, deep down, I never really fit in," he admits.
It's the truth, but it's also something he wants his brother to know, something that he hopes will make him feel less alone.
"Well that's 'cause you're a freak," Dean says, unwilling to give him the mushy family moment he's craving.
Sam can clearly see Dean's hand entwined in Elena's hair, and that tender act alone takes all the bite out of his words.
Sam isn't ready to fully ponder it, but he can't help but resent their dad for warning Dean away from Elena.
"Yeah, thanks," Sam says, rolling his eyes.
"Well, I'm a freak too," Dean admits. "I'm right there with you all the way."
Which actually does feel like the mushy family moment Sam was looking for.
"Yeah, I know you are."
Dean is quiet for a moment, then, "Elena might be freakier than both of us."
Sam meets his gaze in the rearview mirror, inquisitive.
"I think what she couldn't say last night was that the shapeshifter tried to become her, and that's when it died," he explains. "That's freaky."
Sam considers this.
"I mean, she didn't actually say that?" Sam points out contemplatively. "She started to say a lot of things and then just said she didn't know what happened. She didn't explain anything else."
Dean nods.
"Yeah, I dunno, it was just a thought."
Despite his dismissal of the idea, Sam can't help but wonder. Sam finds he has far too many things to wonder about Elena Gilbert.
tbc.
AN: Chapter title taken from Clone by Metric. The first time I heard this song was on a mix for Alison DiLaurentis of Pretty Little Liars fame.
So yeah, Supernatural doesn't have a lot of mythos about actual doppelgangers. I mean, Sam and Dean have their Leviathan doubles, but real actual doppelgangers don't really come into play, so I thought I'd have some fun. Sure shapeshifters are clearly shown to be capable of shifting into other monsters in later seasons, but I personally don't think they can shift into the double of someone who is by definition already a double. And I also don't think they'd know when someone is a doppelganger since tvd lore has them mostly human (unless they're a vampire, like Katherine who got a shout out this chapter because what's the fun of a chapter centered around doubles if Elena doesn't deadpan about her own double?) This is all just my theory of course, but this is also my story so you know, I do what I want.
Thoughts? Comments? Please leave a review.
xoxo
-Pixie
