Dean carried Penny out of Sam's apartment. Sam's interrogation had drained everything out of the poor girl and for what? Nothing. She still didn't remember any of her dreams and Dean was starting to think that maybe it was just a crazy coincidence that she had a bad dream at the same time of the killings. He frowned at himself; nothing was ever a crazy coincidence.
"Dean" Sam called into the hallway
"No" Dean growled; he didn't even want to look at him after the way he treated Penny.
"Hold on"
"Sam" Dean warned and turned to face his brother "I am really not in the mood right now. I have to take her home now, because she's exhausted because you decided to go Guantanamo Bay on a six-year-old girl"
"I just asked her a few questions" Sam shrugged
"Yeah and hell is just a sauna." He grumbled
"Samuel called" Sam waved his phone in the air
"Okay and?" Dean blinked impatiently
"And he asked to see us"
"Okay, what part of 'I'm not in the mood' do you not understand?" Dean hissed and turned to leave again
"He said he found a lead in Penny's case"
Dean stopped in his tracks and turned
"Come on let's go" Sam pulled his door closed behind him
"Okay just let me drop her off at Bobby's"
"No time. She can stay in Samuel's spare room"
"Are you kidding me? The place is like a freaking dungeon"
"Are you serious?" Sam scoffed. "Dean, she'll live for a few hours. Let's go"
Dean was hoping she would've been able to sleep in the car but her eyes remained wide and watchful on Sam the entire ride to Samuel's. Sam didn't seem to notice or if he did, he didn't seem to care. His cellphone vibrated in his pocket. It was Lisa. He silenced it. He didn't know what to say to her, he didn't have any answers or news; there was nothing he could do about their situation. Dean put the phone back into his pocket just as they arrived. Samuel was waiting by the door and held it open for them and Dean wasn't sure but it looked as though Samuel actually caught his breath when he caught sight of Penny. Penny tightened her grip on Dean's hand and her pink elephant as they walked past him and entered the warehouse.
Samuel closed the door and stared at the little girl in awe. "Wow, Sam I can't believe there was a doubt in your mind about who's kid this is. She has Mary's eyes. Gwen will you come over here and put her in the spare room?" He beckoned
Gwen reached for the Penny's hand. It took several seconds for Dean to convince himself to let go of his daughter's hand but when he finally did she seemed comfortable enough walking with Gwen that he relaxed a little bit.
Dean looked back at Samuel and raised an eyebrow "Mom's eyes were blue"
"You think I don't know my own kid's eye color?" Samuel squinted "I'm talking about the shape of her eyes. When Mary was this age all she had to do was look at me once with those big puppy dog eyes and what ever she wanted was hers." He smiled nostalgically
"Must run in the family" Dean agreed cautiously
"I'll tell you this one time we were at this-"
"Sorry, uh, you were saying over the phone? Something about a lead?" Sam interrupted
"Yeah right" Samuel nodded and walked over to a table in the corner of the room to lean on "I sent Christian and Gwen over to Cape Girardeau to see what was going on with those murders. I got to tell you for an experienced hunter you surprise me sometimes" Samuel crossed his arms
"What are you talking about?" Dean asked defensively
"You've been hunting for how many years and you didn't think to check the vic's house?"
"Why? What did you find?" Sam asked before Dean could explain that he had been on his way to do just that when they called him back for the alpha shifter case
"Sulfur in both houses"
"So demons? What the hell do demons want with Penny?" Dean roared
"That's what we're trying to find out" Samuel shrugged "In the meantime I need you two to look into a case. A bunch of girls have gone missing from-"
"Whoa hang on a minute" Dean raised a hand "You just told me that my daughter is being stalked by a freaking demon that is murdering everyone around her and you expect me to work another case right now?"
"Dean, I have other men on it"
"Then send go tell them to work on the missing girls instead because I'm doing this one. It's personal"
"That's exactly why I think you should take a step back. You're too close to the situation; I have people working on it already. I need Sam on this case"
"You know what? Screw your freaking case, I don't work for you"
"Yeah and if it wasn't for me you wouldn't even know what was after her so how about you show me some gratitude"
Dean clenched his jaw and started walking for the door where he saw Gwen had taken Penny. He was taking her home. Now.
"These girls are going to keep being abducted Dean, they're probably getting killed as we speak. Are you really going to let those girls die?" Samuel called after him
"You handle it" Dean shot before flinging the door open
Penny was sitting on Gwen's lap the corner of the room.
"Come on Penny, it's time to go" Penny slid off of Gwen and took his hand. She was exhausted and sluggish so he picked her up and moved for the exit.
"Sam, are you coming?" He asked over his shoulder
"No I think I'm going to look into these disappearances" He nodded
"I thought you were with me on this one"
"I am, I just think that a bunch of little girls being abducted is, you know, significant. I'm still going to help, I'm just going to take care of this first"
"Right. Well I guess I'll see you later then" Dean said in cold disappointment
"Yeah. I'll catch up" Sam nodded
Bobby was still awake when Dean got back from Samuel's. Dean walked past him and set Penny down in his bedroom, it's not like Bobby would be using it any time tonight anyway, and then went back down stairs.
"Demons" Dean grumbled as he walked into the study
"Really?"
"Samuel said they found sulfur at both of the houses. It fits, I just don't get why a demon would be following her around"
"Probably trying to get to you." Bobby said filling the bottoms of two glasses with liquor
"Okay, but why all the sneaking around? Why not just show up or if Penny is really what they're after, why wouldn't it try to-" Dean almost said hurt her but he couldn't even fathom it much less bring himself to say it. He grabbed one of the glasses off of the desk and took a long swig.
"Well you got me, it seems like the whole world has gone topsy-turvy these days, guess that means demons too."
"Hey" Dean heard from behind him. It was Sam.
"Hey"
"I thought about it and I'm in" Sam said with a shrug
"Again? What about the girls?"
"They're being taken care of"
"Okay"
"Okay, so before I took the files that Samuel dug up on Penny's family and it turns out that Penny actually had a babysitter, Melissa Baker, who died in a house fire a year before Cassie died." Sam said handing Dean a folder
"Okay?"
"She had a son Penny's age who was at her ex-husband's house at the time of the fire, I say we go down there and interview the father and maybe the kid to see if they remember anything strange, anything that can help us ID the demon."
"So where is he now?" Dean asked leafing through pages
"Limestone, Illinois"
"Ben has to go to school Dean, I have a job, and you have a job. Have you forgotten that?" Lisa asked irritably "Dean, I understood that Penny would change things for us, I didn't know that you were going to uproot us from our home"
"I know. I'm sorry; I just can't let you get hurt."
"So what does that mean? What are we supposed to do now? I can't keep missing work Dean; I'll lose my job. I can't keep doing this Dean, I'm going back home."
"Dean" Sam snapped his fingers at him, bringing Dean out of his memories of the night before and back into reality. "Come on, let's go"
"Yeah I'll be right there" He said and walked into the kitchen. Penny was sitting alone at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal. Lisa and Ben were gone, everything in him wanted her to take Penny too so she could go back to school and at least attempt some form of normalcy, but Sam was right. They couldn't risk the demon showing up while he was away.
"What are you doing sweetheart?" Dean smiled and pulled a seat next to his daughter who currently had all ten of her fingers inside of the bowl
"I like to take out the cereals with the same patterns and put them together" She explained without breaking her focus
"But aren't they all the same?" He said picking up the box of Cinnaswirl Squares
"No see look they all have different patterns like this one has a up squiggle and this one has a side one, and this one- this one has the middle see?" Penny explained excitedly picking the dripping squares out of her bowl and showing him each one
"Oh I see"
"And this one has a loop and this one has a… This one doesn't have a loop, this one has a fish"
"A fish?" He laughed
"Yeah a fish and look at this one" Penny said digging her hands deeper into her bowl spilling milk all around her
"Okay, let's save some milk for the cereal" He said as he reached over for a paper towel to dry her mess
Penny started eating the matched pieces pair by pair.
"Penny, why do you eat your food like that?" He asked as he wiped the table. She froze and looked up at him "Are you mad at me daddy?"
"No, no sweetheart don't-" He said to her quickly as her big eyes glazed over and sparkled with fright
"Don't cry, what's the matter?"
"Dean" Sam poked his head into the kitchen
"Give me a minute"
Sam rolled his eyes and disappeared again. Penny hugged him tightly around the neck, her fingers spilling drops of milk down the back of his shirt.
"It's okay baby, it's alright" Dean rubbed her back gently "What's the matter?"
"Be careful daddy" She whispered into his ear
"I will. Don't worry, I'll be fine" He frowned
Penny released his neck and turned back to her cereal picking up the squares and eating them pair by pair again.
"Dean" Sam called impatiently. Dean watched in confusion as she dug her fingers through the bowl and made three more neat piles, concentrating intensely as she worked as though he wasn't even there.
"I'll be back soon." He said finally still staring at her with his brow furrowed "Have Bobby call me if you need anything, I'll call tonight. Okay?"
Penny nodded but didn't look up. Dean rose from his seat and backed out of the kitchen, half waiting for her to look up or say something to him. But she didn't. He left while she was cramming another pair of cereal pieces into her mouth.
