Chapter 9


With questions still buzzing but none and little to do that night, the three hunters decided it would be best to get some sleep. There wasn't anything better to do, not that wouldn't raise suspicion or lead to more infighting. They'd pick the work back up in the morning.

They sat at the small coffee shop now. The morning rush had passed, and they were left with relative privacy. Almost relaxing… if you ignored the young woman who'd been ripped apart by some unknown evil, the slew of mysteries that seemed to keep popping up and whatever was driving Mae and Dean insane.

Sam was busy scanning articles and records for any clue regarding the house or the family. He knew he had to narrow down what he was looking for and the issue they focused on if they were going to get anywhere. Perhaps if they got the small details, they could piece the larger picture together later. He still held out hope that maybe it was something simple. "Dude," he said after reading one too many police blotters about incidences in Twin Falls, "there are a huge number of crimes here."

"Highest crime rate in the state."

Dean grinned at her over the paper he was perusing. "You're like a freakin' Oujia board of trivia."

She smirked back a bit. "There's very little to do around here in the winter."

For a moment, Dean's hazel green eyes met her smoky blue ones and he let the moment ease over himself. She made his heart trip just lightly as her lips quirked. It wasn't the conversation. It was that moment of connection and the noticeable lack of tension. It seemed if they spent a bit of time apart, they could get it to ratchet down, just a bit. He wished it wouldn't break the illusion to mention it or try to figure out how to keep it going. He knew she felt it though, the way her eyes settled on his and softened. Her smirk shifted into a smiled, a small one but a smile nonetheless.

"It could be a vengeful spirit." Sam said with hopefulness.

Dean could have smacked his brother but of course it would have been more unmerited than usual, and it was only a few seconds of prolonged eye contact that would have made onlookers uncomfortable.

With a sigh and a shrug Mae proceeded to deflate Sam's theory, much to Dean's amusement. "What spirit causes some angsty teen witch to end up dead covered in ancient text, miscarriages, and that weird cow thing?"

"Plus, the thing with you and Dean."

Mae frowned as did Dean, but neither could refute the point. "So, that's your spirit Sam?"

His laugh was filled with a self-conscious frustration. "I don't hear you coming up with a better idea," Sam said to Mae before turning to Dean, "Either of you,"

Dean laughed at her incensed 'well fine,' that followed as she rearranged her items to present the notepad she had been writing on as she enjoyed her coffee. "Oh yeah, Mae knows what it is. She's just been waiting for the perfect time for the big reveal. Would you like a drum roll sweetheart?"

"I sure would and then I'll show you where you can shove that drumstick. "

"Um guys?"

Mae offered Sam a reassuring smile. "Oh, not every threat is a fight. This was just…"

"Verbal sparring." Dean finished for her.

"Exactly. Anyway, drum roll aside, it struck me that nothing made sense or explained everything but," She offered up the pad with the chart she had made, "if you break it down… I think I found a pattern."

The brothers leaned in to look at what she had marked down. "See?" she asked, "if you look at the dates and the event…"

"Action and a reaction." Sam concluded.

"Yeah. I think we're dealing with two opposite forces here. Like one negative one and something trying to counteract it. So maybe it could be spirits but two of them. I don't know... I think it magic."

Dean sized up the table, noting that she had remembered the dates and locations off the top of her head to come up with this. Damn, she was good he thought before he asked, "But what?"

"Hey, I came up with this part. You two need to pitch in." She teased.

"Divide and conquer, baby."


On the way back to the motel, Sam and Dean discussed tactics. They had the witch and her house covered already as well as any information gained at the sheriff's office. They had argued most of the way back on how they should go about the next steps of their research.

"I think we should go back to that farm. Maybe Mae can charm some extra information out of that farmer."

"Sam, if the three of us go-"

"We don't need three people. Mae could go by herself."

"Dude, no way. We're not sending Mae out to the middle of nowhere Idaho on her own."

If Dean could listen to himself, maybe he would hear the affection, protective nature, and perhaps even love in his voice, his words. If that happened, maybe he would stop fighting with her. "You do realize how she was raised, that she's probably as heavily armed as anyone in Idaho, and that if anyone can handle themselves in the middle of nowhere, it's her right?'

Dean knew it but that didn't mean he had to like it or accept it. It seemed irresponsible to leave her completely unprotected. "I'm just saying, someone should go with her."

Sam bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at Dean's clear struggle with desire and common sense. "Well one of us could go you know."

"I…" he took a breath, " you. You go."

Every instinct Dean had said he should go with her, but he didn't know why. Obviously, things were so impossibly tense that they didn't stand a chance trying to work together in any kind of close quarters. He felt a little better with the idea of Sam and Mae working together, at least they'd both be safe that way.

"Wow Dean, I'm impressed. You're being an adult about this."

"If we keep fighting like this, I'll kill her. Or she'll kill me. I'm being practical."

Sam let himself chuckle now. "I'm still impressed."

"Bitch."

"Jerk"

Of course, deciding this arrangement between them did not mean that Mae would go along with the plan.

Her pretty face was set in rigid angles once more and as always, it hit her eyes the hardest. Her blue gray eyes iced over with the chill of an arctic lake and what Dean saw there almost made him smile. He wouldn't say exactly he was turned on by her when she was angry, but her eyes became clear and sharp when she was angry. "I don't need a... gigantic babysitter."

Her mouth was set in a firm line after she replied to his proposal. Oddly, Dean didn't want to fight with her about that. He just watched her, almost too contentedly as she paced their room. Something was different, Dean didn't know what, but it was almost… normal. The normal times were amazing now it was almost disturbing.

"The guy's already met us, it's an easy in. Besides this is a small enough town that if we don't stick to our stories…" Sam trailed off when he sensed logic wasn't penetrating her stone defiant face.

"There are a handful of other things to handle. If you want me to talk with that farmer, I'll just go out to the ranch. The two of you can talk with the chicks that miscarried or figure out if there's a secret underground coven."

"I'm not saying we don't have more but I think Dean's right. That's the strangest of the clues we have an we know the least about it."

"Despite the fact that you've already been out there."

In agreement, Sam nodded and hoped his softened expression would win her over. "We didn't know the right questions at the time."

"Fine," Mae relented after terse deliberation, "But I'm going with him." She pointed at Sam.

"Agreed." Both brothers said together.


"You know, we went to Lawrence."

There wasn't any explanation necessary past that point. She'd heard the story enough times growing up too. Her eyes slid from the road to glance at the young man next to her. She caught the sight of his Adam's apple bobbing as he collected his thoughts.

"Yeah?" she asked when the silence became a little uncomfortable. She didn't know what to say, what she should say to Sam. His memories of the time weren't exactly his own.

Sam nodded, looking off into the distance distractedly. "Yeah and… you know."

"Not really Sam, I don't. I mean, I know Dean didn't want to go back but… why did you go back?"

Sam cleared his throat. "Our old house, something was… there. And mom."

"Your mom?" Her eyes widened with astonishment and more than a little shock. That was an unexpected little factoid.

"Her spirit or whatever was. Looking after the people who lived there. And she saved us."

That certainly shone new light on both Dean and their mother's death. "Whoa," was all she could come up with.

"Yeah." Sam cleared his throat again, "So if Dean's acting weird… a lot happened."

Mae's lips quirked endeared a bit by the way both brothers stood up for each other. They were probably better together than apart. But that ghost of a smile fell when she thought of her role in his life. "I'm...This isn't normal weird between us. Dean and I… you know, I get how similar we are and that leads up to arguments alone, but this is different." With a huff and a raking of her hair, she continued. "I don't know. It's not like he and I have spent a lot of time together recently, but we never fought without a reason, at least one that made sense to us. This doesn't."

"Tell me about it."

"But you're okay, after going home and all?"

He shrugged. "I guess. As okay as okay gets."

"Do you want to get some ice cream after this?"

After doing a double take, he laughed. "Ice cream? We just had breakfast."

"Yeah, I know. But... we used to get ice cream when we were little all the time. It was nice."

"But we're not little." He said with a grin.

She did too now. "So not all of us can be giants but still, we're entitled to a little fun every now and then."

"You're not just saying that so you can hook up with a waitress, are you?"

Her eyebrow quirked, not entirely certain what the connection was. "Um, totally not."


Mae cut a rather elegant figure in her dark slacks and crisp white shirt. Elegant wasn't the right word for the woman. Perhaps determined or practiced, even as she told the rancher her line about being a reporter, finding the agents who had visited his farm earlier and being intrigued by the story. She had a way with the older, rough man; a mix of innocence, professionalism and honesty.

She took notes while Sam found himself mostly pushed off to the background. It was better Dean had not come because the woman was slick, charming and slightly flirty. The rancher, Mr. James Sutton, seemed taken with her. It might have been her almost folksy charm or just that approachable beauty Mae possessed. Either way, Sam knew he liked working with her because she made it easy and people liked her.

When she asked Sutton questions about the history of the land, it did not seem strange when she veered off into those select few that seemed odd coming from him. He didn't reveal a great deal of new information until she asked him about rumors of a coven. That was how Sam and Mae found themselves, several miles from the farm, in one of the most bizarre scenes they had encountered.