"I think we should go to this," Lizzy says to Dean as they walk down the bright white hospital hallway. She's reading over the pamphlet for the support group that Doctor Aquino gave them as they go.

"Aw, I don't want to go to that," Dean complains instantly. "People sharing their feelings and crying and expecting you to talk to them about personal stuff and hugging… sounds like my biggest freakin' nightmare."

"Dude, I'd rather sit through fucking Fever Pitch again than go to this," Lizzy assures him, and it's the truth. This sounded awful. "I hate that movie. So fucking lame. Way to take the Sox winning the World Series for the first time in nearly a century and turn it into the worst fucking chick flick ever. I swear if I ever meet Drew Barrymore I'm gonna slug her right in the face just based on principle."

"Hey, focus," Dean calls her back to the issue at hand. "Then tell me why the hell we would go to that?"

"To find some of the women who've had those strange, symptom free miscarriages," Lizzy tells him in a matter-of-fact tone. "Maybe we can talk to some of them if we go, get some info out of them about what might have happened. I got a feeling these things are all related."

"Yeah, I'm getting that feeling too," Dean answers as they get close to the door for the nursery. "Whatever is screwing with this town is doing one bang up job of it. It's like this thing wants to…"

He stops short when he realizes he doesn't hear Lizzy's heels clicking on the tiles next to him anymore. When he turns around he sees her looking through a viewing window. The softened expression she wears and the longing that's hidden deep in it is clear as day. Shit.

Walking over to her, Dean stands at her side and looks in. He sees the two rows of small, clear plastic beds, each holding a newborn. Some have on pink knit hats, others blue, and all are bundled tightly in warm, soft blankets. They all look so tiny, so innocent, and so damn vulnerable.

"Why would anything want to hurt them?" Lizzy quietly asks with her arms crossed over her chest while shaking her head.

"I couldn't begin to understand it," Dean responds, slipping his arm around her frame.

"They're so small and helpless…. They've never even had a chance to do anything wrong yet." Lizzy turns into his side and brings her arms around his middle with the heaviest sigh he's ever heard from her.

Dean looks down to her with concern. She's worried about their safety of course but it's much, much more than that. Looking into this viewing window is a living reminder of what could have been for them and with their loss so fresh and recent, Dean doesn't want her to have to go in there. It'd be way too painful for her, he knows it.

"I'm gonna go check out the room, ok?" he says to her calmly. "You should probably head back and grab everything from Flores' secretary. She'll have it ready soon."

This is where normally Lizzy would tell him to bite her and stubbornly head into the room first. She hated being weak in any way and showing it. But this is different. She knows he's trying to help her avoid something that might hurt so much to go through and he's absolutely right. She really shouldn't go in there. Not right now.

"Ok," Lizzy answers quietly with a nod and kisses him on the cheek. "Thanks, Hot Shot." Giving one last look in through the viewing room, her heart heavy as she bites back to emotions, Lizzy makes her way back to Dr. Aquino's office.


Ramos' room can be best labeled as gross Sam decides as he walks into the missing man's dwellings. The bed, now stripped of its bedding, is stained and lumpy. The large, floor length curtains framing the one window in the room are dusty and faded and the smell… oh, the smell. Sam is beginning to think Ramos has an issue with bladder control in his later years.

Carefully poking around the room, Sam doesn't find many personal effects left in it. Just an old, weathered bible, a crossword book, and a crucifix on the wall above his bed. Sam then notices the open closet and walks to it. Pushing the sliding door open the rest of the way, the inside is empty save for the few wire hangers left hanging on the bar across the small area and a tiny safe sitting on the floor. Picking up the square safe, he's surprised by its heft. The safe is old, made of heavy metal. It's the real deal and Sam thinks he could get a pretty penny for it at an antique dealers. Come to think of it they have been a little low on cash lately…

"Ramos always was one paranoid son of a bitch," the dark haired, rotund man now standing in the doorway comments, making Sam whip his head in the newcomer's direction. "Thought for sure that we were all out to steal from him but honestly, he had nothing worth taking if you ask me."

"He's starting to sound like quite the character the more I learn about him," Sam remarks to the man. "Agent Page." He holds out his hand in greeting.

"Agent!?" the man with distinct Filipino features responds with surprise. "Wow, didn't think this missing person case was so big."

"It might be," Sam keeps it simple.

"I'm Jason, by the way," he responds, shaking Sam's hand.

"You knew Ramos well?"

"Of course," Jason responds sadly. "He told me I was out to get him every day I volunteered here. Quite the character indeed."

"Any idea what he kept in here?" Sam asks while placing the safe on the bare bed and crouching down until he's eye level with it.

"Not a clue, but he was careful to keep it away from others," Jason explains. "Said it was really valuable. And that we were all gonna take it. Did I mention he was pretty insane?"

"Huh." Sam looks the numbered knob over and knows he can crack it. Looking a Jason briefly, he decides that the volunteer is harmless enough and he leans in. His ear close to the lock mechanism, Sam closes his eyes and listens as he turns the knob. Jason, watching silently for the two minutes it takes for the hunter to get the lock to click open, huffs with surprise.

"Holy crap," Jason says, floored by the display. "They teach you that at the academy or something?"

"Or something," Sam smirks while receiving a very curious and, oddly enough, very frightened expression from Jason suddenly. "Alright Ramos… what were you hiding away in here?"

Opening the old metal safe door with a squeal, Sam look inside with shock.

"Seriously?" he complains as he pulls out a small stack of magazines. "This is what he was guarding with his life? Playboys?"

"Whoa," Jason says, impressed. "Those are old… like collector's items old."

Sam takes a quick look at the covers. 1959, 1962…

"Holy hell!" Jason shouts as he pulls one from the stack. "1953 Marilyn Monroe cover! This is the first issue ever put out." He leafs through the magazine with wonder while Sam stands at his side, growing increasingly uncomfortable with Jason's porn-leering in such close proximity to him.

"Um, you really seem to be enjoying that," he remarks.

"The human body is just so captivating. It's beautiful, really," Jason explains while staring at an early picture of Marilyn with too much happiness before looking up to Sam. "Not always, of course," he gestures to his own out of shape physique.

"Right," Sam comments while gathering up the stack of ten or so old magazines. "Uh, I think I'm good here…"

"Do you mind if I keep this one?" Jason suddenly questions the agent. "It's got to be worth a ton and honestly, I'm a huge Marilyn fan. Curvy chicks are my style, man." He lands a weak elbow into Sam's side while wagging his eyebrows.

"Knock yourself out," Sam tells him, rushing to get out of the home after finding nothing helpful. He tucks the magazines into his jacket as he heads out the door, to save himself the disgusted looks he'd get for carrying porn around.

"Thanks, man!" Jason shouts after him, never peeling his eyes off the glossy pages.


Awkward. Holy fucking awkward. Dean's pretty sure he's never been in a more uncomfortable situation in his life and considering what his life has looked like that's saying a whole lot.

"Relax, agent," the maternity ward nurse says with a smile when she sees his suddenly stiff behavior once inside the nursery. "They're not gonna bite. They don't even have teeth yet."

Dean smiles and laughs it off but he doesn't relax at all. The nurse that escorted him into the nursery, as no one but hospital officials are allowed in unattended, starts doing her usual work checking on the infants in their beds. One of them begins to cry and Dean peers at the tiny human making more noise than he could have ever assumed something so small could make. He doesn't really have much experience with babies, the last one he dealt with being Sam and that was twenty-five years ago.

"Oh, you're alright," the nurse coos as she picks up the little boy, cradling him close. "So much noise, my goodness."

Trying his best to ignore the nurse and screaming baby, Dean surveys the room. Two cameras are perched in two opposing corners of the room and judging by the angles they are aimed they should cover the entire room or close to it. Good. Now he's glad Dr. Aquino is forking copies over.

"You're just hungry, huh?" he hears the nurse say to the crying infant. "Well, let's fix that."

Looking at the two doors in the room he sees that they are locked at all times, needing a keycard to open them.

"Has this keycard system been in place for a long time?" Dean wonders to the nurse.

"As long as I've been here," she smiles back. "And I've been here for years. We all have one, it's part of our I.D.s, see?" She points to her badge clipped to the bottom hem of her scrubs. "I hate to ask, but you mind holding him for a second?"

Dean's eyes blow wide as he looks at her with alarm. "What!?"

"I need to put together his food and I need two hands to do that…" She doesn't wait for an answer to her question and walks to Dean, dropping the crying boy into his unready arms. "He does better when someone is holding him and it's been a while since he's had that kind of contact."

"Oh, no, I don't…" Dean stutters through but before he knows it the infant is in his hands.

"I'll work fast so he won't be howling at you for long," she grins and walks to a counter along the back wall. "His mom's been a bit out of it after her C-section surgery so we get to feed the little guy in here, which is fine by me. He just needs a little human contact here and there, that's all."

"Why doesn't dad come down and do it?"

"There is no dad," she sadly informs him, making Deans heart bleed a little for the poor little guy. Having a missing parent is tough. He'd know.

He looks down at the continually crying baby in his arms with wonder. The kid couldn't weigh much more than six pounds and he's so small it seems impossible. His little face is angry as his tiny voice screams and suddenly Dean wants to do anything he can to make it better for the kid. He hates seeing him like this even if they're just met. "Come on, dude. Suck it up. You gotta be a man about this."

"You have any of your own?"

"Huh?" he asks, not having heard what the nurse said over the cries. She turns around and grins wide.

"I'm gonna say no," she laughs with his overly ridged posture. "No kids."

"No," Dean grins back. "Haven't even held a baby this small since my brother was born."

"Long time ago?"

"He's like a half foot taller than me now."

"Then I'd say it's definitely been a while," she laughs again, walking his way with a small bottle in her hand. "It's like riding a bike, really. It all comes back to you. You want to do the honors, agent?" She hold the bottle in his direction and waits.

Shit. Should he? Is that weird? He doesn't even know this kid and he's definitely not his father. But the poor dude doesn't even have a father there for him. This is weird, right?

"You're very trusting," Dean wearily says to her. "Especially with what's been going on around here."

"You're a government agent investigating the issue at hand," the nurse says to him. "If we can't trust you, who can we trust?" She holds out the bottle a little closer to him.

Swallowing hard with another quick pause of contemplation, he hesitantly takes the bottle.

"Just give him a second to adjust and latch on. He's still young and learning after all."

Looking down to the little infant still crying, maybe even louder than before, Dean goes for it. What the hell, right? The kid is already in his arms anyways. After a full minute of the hunter's waning patience, the baby starts to eat.

"No shit," Dean whisper to himself as he watches. He vaguely remembers feeding Sam when he was a baby, but it wasn't an often thing and he was never allowed to feed him when he was this small. Watching with total awe, Dean smiles. "There you go, dude."

"He's eating?" the nurse wonders.

"Oh yeah, like a freakin' champ," he grins out, never taking his eyes off of the baby. "I don't even think I eat this fast."

"He has to fuel up for all that sleeping and pooping he's got to do," the nurse laughs back.

After a short time the newborn finishes his meal. Dean watches as he just lays in his arm contented and looks around the room, eyes searching around though never able to focus on anything.

"What's his name?" Dean wonders over to the nurse, wanting to know what to call his new friend.

"That is Thomas."

"Well alright Tommy Boy," Dean says down to the now content baby. "I'm Dean. It's nice to meet you."

Dean takes one of Thomas' small hands that is just peeking out of the top of the blanket bundling him and shakes it with just his index finger once the infant has a weak and tiny grip on it.

"Usually that little bugger is a mover and a shaker," the nurse tells Dean while walking over to check on him. "He must like you to stay still for so long."

"That's good," Dean smiles, the moment getting more and more comfortable for him. "He seems like a good guy."

"He is. And now all he needs is to have his diaper changed…"

"And that's where I make my exit," Dean huffs as he hastily hands Thomas back to the nurse.

"That's what I figured," she laughs right back.

"I think I'm all set in here," Dean tells her as he gives the room one last once over. Nothing under the counters or machinery. Nothing left out in the open. Nothing at all to see. The place was secure and spotless, and now he has to wonder if this was an inside job.

"Who has access to this room?" he asks while heading to the door.

"Just the maternity ward doctors and nurses," she answers while unbundling Thomas on the back counter of the room. "Oh, and volunteers but I guess that's a thing in the past now. Shame really. We could always use the extra set of hands, as you just found out."

"When were volunteers taken off the list of people granted access?"

"Right after Doon disappeared," she says heavily.

"Ok," Dean says quietly. He glances down at Thomas as he kicks his little legs once they're uncovered. What a cool kid, he has to think to himself. Fucking knows how to get what he wants already. Dean appreciates his style. "Thanks for the help."

"Right back at you, agent. Come by anytime!"

Walking out the door and down the hall, Dean heads back to Dr. Aquino's office. A list of people who have access to the nursery would be more than handy right now.

As he passes by the viewing window on his way back, he pauses for just a couple seconds, feeling an odd pull in his heart. He's not a baby kind of guy as it is, the little things freaking him out with how fragile and small they are. But being in there wasn't half as bad as he assumed it would. He actually didn't suck with Thomas either, something that surprised him a bit.

Damn, maybe he shouldn't have gone in there himself.