Payment in Kind

Disclaimer - see chapter one

Chapter Ten

"You know," Alan said as the trio made their way from the campus of Harvard to Alan's job study in Downtown Crossing, "I am still having trouble believing ghosts are real."

"Yes, College Boy," Dean sniped. "Ghosts are real."

Alan shook his head, and then looked concerned. "Um, what about werewolves?"

Sam shrugged. "Yep. They are real as well."

"So are vampires, demons, chupacabras, shape-shifters…" Dean gleefully rattled off before noticing how pale Alan had become. Taking pity on the younger man, he gave him the soft smile he usually reserved for Sam. "But angels are real as well."

Alan smiled in return, the faraway look in his eyes puzzling the Winchesters even as the T pulled into their stop. As they disembarked, Alan softly responded, "Oh, that one I never doubted."

They entered an office building, where, to the brothers' amazement, no one questioned their right to be here. Piling onto the elevator, Sam waited until the doors closed before asking, "Are they used to people dressed like we are in here? Frankly, Alan, the building looks a bit too high end."

Alan smiled. "Not when the small print on the sign says the building is owned and operated by Tracy Enterprises. The firm takes up the entire fifth floor. I am doing my work study here for this semester."

The doors opened and they were greeted by a sign reading "Tracy Enterprises: Aeronautic and Mechanical Engineering."

Dean looked over at Alan as they walked down the hallway. "I know one of your majors is engineering, but what can you actually do here?"

Alan smiled once more. "I work in Quality Control." At Dean's look of disbelief, he sighed. "Listen, I helped Scott and Virgil design the new jet for the Air Force on my Summer Vacation. I've learned more from osmosis than a lot of these guys would know if they went to school for twenty years."

Sam looked somber. "Anyone here resent that? A college student, even the boss' son, was checking their work?"

Sighing once more, Alan nodded. "Some have. Most of them got over it when I caught an error that could have cost billions in lawsuits and an undetermined loss of life. Why do you ask? I thought you were sure this had something to do with Jackson Mitchell?"

Dean shook his head. "We can't eliminate anything. Now, if this is a summoned spirit, it may be Mitchell's brother. But it could be someone else. Let's check out this place and get Sam looking for where Mitchell is buried."

"Why do you need to know where he's buried?"

"So I can dig him up, salt and burn the remains."

Alan turned back to Dean, his eyes wide and his hand froze on the door that was the main entrance to the Boston office. When Dean just grinned, Alan turned his gaze to Sam. The younger Winchester nodded. "That is how you get rid of a ghost. Salt and burn the remains."

Shaking his head, Alan opened the door but not before the brothers heard him mutter, "Yuck."

Sam was hunched over his computer in what Alan called the "spare" office. "If someone comes here from another office, they won't dislocate anyone. Dad prefers it, and the office…well, they deal with it." Alan's wry comment made the brothers chuckle. Dean followed Alan to the office he used – one that had a full-time QC person and a small desk area set up for Alan as well.

When the door opened, Sam expected it to be his brother or Alan – or both. Instead a pretty brunette with smiling blue eyes entered. For the life of him, the woman reminded him of someone. "Hi. I'm Mary Ann." Placing a cup of coffee in front of him, she smiled. "I was grabbing a cup and thought you might like one."

Sam took a tentative sip, surprised to find it as he liked it. When he looked up in wonderment, Mary Ann laughed. "I ran into Alan and Dean at the coffee pot. Dean gave me the heads up."

Smiling, Sam took a welcome gulp which he almost spit out when Mary Ann said, "So have you figured out who or what is after Alan?"

"Um, well, I – that is…" Sam stuttering stopped when Mary Ann began to laugh.

"No one told you I am Ann-Marie's niece, did they?"

Sam smiled and relaxed. That she was the niece of Jeff Tracy's long-trusted secretary explained her knowledge of the family's goings on.

"Well, I suspect it has something to do with Jackson Mitchell."

Mary Ann's face hardened. "That bastard? Didn't he hurt this family enough when he was alive?"

Sam shook his head. "Vengeful spirits see themselves as the wronged party. Sometimes they are. A man is murdered? A woman driven to suicide? You can see why they can't move on, accept their death. They want justice. As I understand it, Mitchell was an egomaniac who always blamed others for his own shortcomings. Even though Mitchell was killed by Kate when she was trying to protect Alan and Scott, he would still see himself as the victim. And how to better hurt the entire family than going after Alan again."

At the end of Sam's explanation, Alan and Dean walked in. The glare Alan had shot Dean over his shoulder made Sam chuckle. Big brother was obviously taking his "protecting" duties seriously. As the recipient of that for years, Sam could sympathize. But Alan was just gonna have to suck it up and deal with it.

"Hi, Mary Ann. Everything OK in here?" Dean flirted with the woman, who smiled and Alan smirked.

"Hey, Dean. Did I mention Mary Ann used to play field hockey?"

Dean frowned. "Um, you mean, uh…"

Mary Ann smiled broadly. "I play for the other team. Paula and I have been together since college. My aunt is cool with it. The rest of the family – not so much. It's one of the reasons I came to work out East. Paula flies out of Logan for American."

"Any straight women in this city?" Dean grumbled.

The others in the room started to laugh but Alan and Mary Ann froze when another woman entered. A dark-haired woman with cold blue eyes smiled possessively at Alan. "Alan," she purred, leaning forward, attempting to show off her cleavage. Alan looked unimpressed while Mary Ann looked as if she could cheerfully rip the other woman's head off.

"And to what do we owe the pleasure of your company, Judy?" Mary Ann sniped.

The woman's lips pursed and her eyes narrowed. "I believe I have made myself clear, my name is Judith." Smiling at the men in the room, she directed her next words to the Winchesters. "Judith Cofrell. I have the pleasure of working here."

Alan looked singularly unimpressed and actually somewhat annoyed. "Judith? Was there something in particular you wanted?"

Judith's viper-like smile matched her slither-like movements as she walked up to Alan. "Alan, dear, I just signed for a package for you. It's on my desk, if you wouldn't mind stopping by for it?"

Alan tried to answer, only for Sam to speak up. "Actually, Alan is helping us on a project. Maybe you could handle it for him?"

Nodding, Alan gave a small smile. "Yeah, anything that comes here is business. Dad would give me a heads up if there was anything else and anything personal would come to my place."

Pulling herself back, Judith nodded. "Yes. You live in such a nice neighborhood. You must get so lonely with your girlfriend away. If you ever would like some company…?"

With a small smile – and a slight shudder – Alan shook his head. "Um, no thanks. I'm pretty busy. School, here and um, friends…ya know."

Judith strolled out of the office, tossing a smile over her shoulder. Mary Ann rounded on Alan as soon as the door shut behind the woman. "Alan, why the hell don't you tell that little slut to keep her legs shut and her hands to herself? You could slap that bitch with a charge of sexual harassment and get her tossed out on her trampy ass."

Alan shrugged. "I just figure if I ignore her…"

"Yeah, like that has worked real well on the little bitch." Mary Ann's snipe just made Alan even more uncomfortable.

"So, Alan, Judith, um…" Sam started only for Mary Ann to interrupt.

"Cofrell, which I always assumed was an abbreviation for co-worker from Hell."

Dean snickered as Sam continued. "So, has she been, um, pursuing you for long?"

Alan shook his head, muttering, "She really doesn't mean anything…" only for Mary Ann to interrupt again.

"Oh, please, Alan. If you gave her the slightest bit of encouragement, that tramp would have you stripped and mounted in less than a minute."

Blushing, Alan tried to say something only to shut his mouth sharply. Finally, he answered with a sigh. "I love Tin-Tin, and I don't believe, well, in casual sex."

Dean shrugged. "So, it's only been, well, your girlfriend." Alan muttered something which drew the brothers' attention. "Huh? Say what?"

Grimacing, Alan looked up, defiant. "I said, Tin and I took the pledge – no sex until marriage. And while we told our parents to make them feel better about us being together – unsupervised - so far from home, we did it for ourselves. We want to make love, not have sex. We love each other and have no need to "explore". And yes, I have taken enough cold showers to flood the Charles River, OK? But it's my choice."

The Winchesters looked at each other, Dean ready to make a snarky comment only to swallow it in the blaze of Sam's glare. Sam smiled at Alan. "Hey, you love your girl. I know how that feels. And something like that is a personal choice. No one should make you feel bad about that. But do you think Judith could be angry enough to be involved in this? A woman scorned and all that?"

Alan looked shocked, but Dean spoke up. "It's not unheard of, Alan. She wants you, you don't want her. She decides if she can't have you, you may as well be dead."

Mary Ann shook her head. "No, Judith is enough of a bitch to do that but she is a more hands on type. Besides, she sees herself as irresistible to men. She thinks that with enough time she can get to Alan."

"Nothing personal, Alan, but you don't seem that irresistible to women." Dean's comment removed the blush from Alan's face, replaced by a grimace.

"The name is probably the biggest turn-on." Alan shrugged, continuing. "I've had it happen since I started college."

"Not in high school?" Dean joked.

Alan and Mary Ann laughed. "Dean, I went to an all-boys boarding school. If anyone was interested in me sexually, they kept it to themselves."

Before anyone could respond further, there was a bone-chilling scream filling the offices. Alan leapt up, running through the door. Dean and Sam were hard-pressed, but did manage to keep up with him. Hurrying through the hallways, the trio forced themselves through the crowd that was blocking the doorway.

The sight on the floor almost caused even the hardened hunters to swallow back their lunches. Alan knelt next to Judith Cofrell on the floor, feeling for a pulse. "Call the police," he huskily said to Mary Ann as she entered the office.

"Someone already called for an ambulance," a voice spoke up from the crowd.

Alan shook his head. "No. Too late for that." Looking down at the burned face, he gulped. He had seen horrible sights when on rescues for the Thunderbirds. But he had never seen someone with their eyes burned out, with blood streaked down her once pretty face.

While Alan sat in horror next to the woman's body, Sam motioned to Dean. The package near Judith's outstretched hand - with Alan's name still partly visible on the outside – was burnt. But it was the demonic-looking icon on the floor that Sam nudged out of the way, hiding it behind a potted plant. That was something that Boston's finest might have some trouble understanding.

A/N - OK, Judith is not a real person. HOWEVER - the name was not a coincidence. When grumbling about annoying co-workers (or cow-workers, as I like to phrase it) one day, Sam1 was getting particullary annoyed by one co-worker. So I promised to do in the co-worker in for my next story. Was that good enough girl or do you still need that order of lyme for body disposal? (Man, if anyone ever read our e-mails...)

Oh, and no implication of sexual orientation for field hockey players. IT IS A JOKE AND ONE THAT IS REPEATEDLY SAID TO ME BY A FIELD HOCKEY PLAYER!!! And no, to that certain someone who PM'd me. I am not promoting certain orientations. But I prefer to judge people by their character. What someone does behinds closed doors is their business as long as it does not break state or federal statutes. Frankly, I don't EVER want to have to picture other people in certain personal activities. Yes, Sam1 - a certain brother's reactions are based on my own.

So, please review. I once more would like to thank you for your patience as I am not responding to reviews as quickly as I would like. I am still working that seasonal job and my regular one. So since reviews are the only rewards we receive here...Please??? A quick thanks to the regular reviewers, the occasional reviewers, Sam1 for her awesome smart-aleck comments (I wish I could include those with the chapters) and Sammygirl1963 who is da best!!! (But Supernatural writers already knew that, right?) More soon...CC