"There you go. That should do it," a portly electrician said as he climbed down his ladder. Several of the officer workers seated around him watched with nervous curiosity as he closed his ladder up and prepared to leave.
"Thank you for coming on such short notice," their boss said as she helped the electrician to the elevator.
"Oh it's not problem. A bit weird though, something like that happening…" he scratched his head. After a few more pleasantries the elevator doors closed behind him and the electrician was gone. The woman headed back toward her office and let out a sigh of relief.
No sooner did she do this, the office lights began to flicker.
Sam emerged from the bathroom clean from head to toe. At least he would be, once he finished brushing his teeth. Once again Dean and Sam had rented a small motel room for the night. It was cramped and smelled funny, but seemed oddly like home to the traveling brothers.
"Wha' are you doin'?" Sam tried to ask Dean, who was reading something off Sam's laptop.
"I'm chatting with Nikki Charles," Dean answered and began to slowly type something. Sam spit and looked at the back of Dean's head amazed.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Did you know they're from Alabama?" Dean asked simply. Sam rinsed his mouth out and walked up behind his brother.
"Yeah I did. Why are you chatting with her? You don't even like them."
"I like them fine. Besides…" Dean turned around to look up at him, "we could use some friends."
Sam was speechless for a rather long time.
"Friends?" he finally asked. Dean shrugged and turned back around to the computer.
"Seemed about time…" he said, "besides, we don't have to lie to them."
Sam gave him a questioning look, and even though Dean couldn't see it he added something.
"You know, as much. We'll only have to lie a little," Dean said. Sam sighed softly and rubbed his hair with a towel.
"I suppose that's something…"
Later that night as Dean was asleep and murmuring something about pasta, Sam sat watching the late night news. The room's television was small and mostly static, but he was able to discern what was important and what was weather. This diversion proved to be very boring very quickly so Sam turned the TV off. He sighed and looked around at the room once again engulfed in darkness. Once his eyes adjusted he crept carefully over to his computer bag and lifted the manila folder out of it. Still carefully he made his way into the bathroom and closed the door. Flicking the lights on Sam sat down and opened the folder. He pulled out the picture.
There was a photograph of Sam and Jessica in his wallet, and he always avoided looking at it. But this picture, this picture of Jessica in his life, in his world… It was something he had never thought of. He had always imagined himself living in her world. Her normal, happy life. The idea of doing what he'd always done, with her at his side…
He smiled, and he wasn't sure why.
While sitting in the bathroom, Sam could hear something coming through the wall from the room next to them. Because it was a cheap motel and the walls were paper thin, he could easily tell that the sound was a woman crying. She sounded gloomy and lonely, as those who cry so often do. Sam couldn't help but feel sorry for her, even though he had no clue what had made her so sad.
Due to the cheapness of the hotel, Sam didn't pay much attention when the bathroom light began to blink.
Sam took one last look at the picture and stood up, feeling like he might try to sleep again. As Sam reached for the door handle, the light shattered.
He swore loudly and fell to the ground in front of the door as a hundred needles flew into his back. He continued to swear as he kneeled on the floor surrounded by glass. It wasn't long before Dean was pounding at the door.
"Sam! What happened? Let me in!" Dean tried to shove the door open, which only rammed it into Sam's head. Finally Dean was able to get his head and one arm into the room, waving a flashlight around. He saw the shattered light and the glass all over the floor.
"Jesus man, what'd you do?"
"I didn't do anything!" Sam yelled, still crumpled and bleeding on the floor. Finally Dean realized his brother was in pain.
"Okay, okay, come on now, off the floor," Dean struggled around the door and managed to get Sam in a standing position without cutting himself or his brother.
Sam swore a few more times as Dean walked him over to the bed. As Sam sat down Dean turned on a light switch. The light fizzled and then popped softly. Dean frowned in the dark.
"Hang on, I'll go to the car and get some lanterns and the first-aid kit," Dean said using the flashlight to find his shoes and the door key. Sam grumbled something but was too busy trying to find a position that didn't hurt to have any coherency.
Dean stepped out of the motel room and closed the door behind him. It was late out and a little chilly for anyone in just a t-shirt and boxers. He heard some commotion from behind the door of the room next to him, and just as he turned his head toward it a woman burst out. She was in a bathrobe and fumbling with a suitcase that had a sleeve hanging out of it. She was young, barely 20, with frizzy red hair and a thousand freckles. Her face was pink and puffy, and she looked frantic and scared.
Dean thought amusingly that she looked like she'd just seen a ghost.
"Are you okay?" he asked, being chivalrous as he is. She turned to him like a squirrel caught in the act.
"What? Why would you ask that?" shot out of her mouth. Dean took a moment to comprehend.
"Because you look like you've just killed somebody," he admitted. Her eyes widened.
"I didn't! I didn't mean to! He'll be okay, right? I'm sorry!" she yelled and ran off, the suitcase bumping along beside her. Dean just stared after her completely confused for a moment before heading down to his car.
It was nearly dawn when Dean pulled the last shard of glass from Sam's back. Sam barely felt it, as so much of his back had gone numb from pain. Not the pain from the glass, but from the rubbing alcohol Dean applied after removing each shard. Sam almost preferred to keep the glass in.
"Oh quit whining," Dean chastised as he dapped some alcohol on for the last time.
"I'll remember you said that when it's your turn to be the pincushion," Sam threatened. Dean didn't think that was very funny, especially since he had once been the pincushion. Just a demon in Santa Monica and an uncomfortable shove into a cactus plant.
Dean winched at the memory.
"Sorry…" he said, kind of meaning it. There was a bit of an awkward silence as Dean put band-aids on some of the bigger cuts.
"So what happened?" Dean asked. Sam shrugged, which he then regretted.
"I don't know. The light just went. I didn't do anything," Sam answered. Dean nodded as he moved around in front of his brother.
He told Sam about his encounter with the former girl next door.
"I think she had something to do with it," Dean said being rather suggestive with his eyebrows.
"That's impossible."
"I know," Dean seemed to be enjoying the idea. That annoyed Sam to no end.
Sam sat in front of his computer, leaning gingerly back onto the pillow between him and the chair. Dean had gone out in search of food with the agreement that Sam would look into the possibility the girl had something to do with this. So, because he was hungry, Sam was doing a search for local electric phenomenon.
It seems people in this area get hit by lightening quite often.
He sighed and hung his head. Either there was nothing going on, or there was nothing worth reporting. But, a Winchester and not to be defeated, Sam started a different kind of search. Instead of local happenings he looked into worldwide happenings, and the electricity of people.
Jackpot.
"In 1986, Erica Newsome was giving birth," Sam started but paused to take a bite out of a very nutritious hamburger from Wendy's. Dean sat in front of him eating a Frosty, which is always a good thing to have for breakfast.
"And…?" Dean was impatient.
"And-" Sam swallowed, "she was electrocuted."
"For what?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why'd they electrocute her?"
"She was giving birth, and she was electrocuted."
"They electrocuted a mother? They even let her finish breast feeding?" Dean asked. He just liked saying the word 'breast' and not sounding perverted.
"She never fed the baby."
"Is that why they electrocuted her?"
"What 'they' are you talking about?"
"They! Them! The people who fry other people. The law."
"How did they get into this?"
"You said she starved her child to death so they executed her."
"No I didn't. I said she was giving birth, and she was electrocuted," Sam said, chewing on a French fry. Dean just stared at him. Finally he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Sam, how was she electrocuted?"
"They don't know. She was there, in the delivery room, a mother, and sudden cardiac arrest. Autopsy showed electrocution," Sam explained. Dean finally understood.
"Did she have a baby girl?" he asked.
"As a matter of fact, she did," Sam said and grinned at the smile that spread over his brother's face.
"Who is she?" Dean asked. Sam took a bite from his burger and flipped through some pages on his laptop.
"Mariah Newsome. She was raised by her grandmother in the area. Mom's mom," Sam explained.
"What about her father?"
"He's not mentioned."
"Okay, so, we're thinking the baby has some kind of electrical power?" Dean asked. Sam shrugged.
"You ever heard of anything like that?"
"Maybe. I dunno. I've heard of a lot of things…" Dean wasn't useful.
"What about Dad's journal?"
"Here, look," Dean tossed the journal to him. Sam flipped through it. If Dean didn't know about it their dad probably wouldn't.
"Why do you suppose she was here? She has a home," Sam asked. Dean shrugged and balled up his hamburger wrapper.
"She's young. Young people like to run away from their families," he was less than subtle and Sam secretly frowned at him. Dean shot for the trash can and missed. Sam felt slightly better.
"Well, I'll run a search on her, see if I can come up with anything."
"You haven't done that already?" Dean was actually surprised.
"I didn't have time. You weren't gone that long."
"Okay, then. You get to work, I'll go take a shower," Dean said standing up. As much as Sam hated doing all of the work (though he secretly loved doing research,) Dean's plan seemed like a good one. This was mostly because Dean had begun to smell.
"Make sure to clean the glass up," Sam suggested.
"You didn't clean it up?"
"I've been too busy being in agony over here!" Sam defended himself. Dean frowned and opened the bathroom door, looking over what he'd have to do. He frowned, and didn't feel any better when Sam made a basket with his hamburger wrapper.
"You bitch…" Dean mumbled in his brother's direction.
This motel room was so cheap it didn't even supply soap and shampoo. But that was okay, as Dean had 'borrowed' from every previous hotel and had quite a supply and selection to chose from. He stood in front of the bathroom mirror (after having swept up,) and was trying to decide if he wanted to smell like roses or jasmine… One bottle of shampoo was specifically for fine hair. He leaned in closer to the mirror and ran a hand over his head. Did he have fine hair?
He decided he did and stepped into the shower with the jasmine scented soap. The smell reminded him of Eve's candle shop, and that was a nice thing. The water came on cold so he was uncomfortable for a few moments before it was warm enough to hang his head under.
What was he thinking, having friends? And the Charles sisters, of all people? He had to be nuts. Maybe all the years of this were getting to him. Friends… Please! What did he need them for? He was a lone wolf, and there was nothing wrong with that. Hunt alone, die alone, that was for him. Dean sighed and he turned around and started to shampoo his hair.
Sam needed friends. He was always a social, people person. Always a good kid. A little too much common sense, sometimes, though. But he needed people.
Dean felt sorry for anyone who needed Nikki and Alex Charles.
Though, he supposed, they hadn't done anything really bad. Not to him, anyway. They did give him eight thousand dollars, and came to help without question… Maybe they were okay. They could be prettier. No, it's probably better that they aren't. Dean didn't think he could be friends with a very pretty girl. His mind was far too basic for that.
Then he thought about the girl in the picture. The wife of Daniel Winchester. His wife…
The idea sent a chill down his spine.
Dean had pictured himself as a lot of things, but a married man hadn't been one of them. He looked briefly at his left hand, where the noose would go. He could never get married.
He was a lone wolf.
"Are you sure this is it?" Dean asked skeptically. The Winchester brothers had taken a drive down town and (after paying a bundle for parking,) were standing in the lobby of a very tall office building.
"I wouldn't have come here if I wasn't sure," Sam reassured him. Dean figured that was probably true.
"Okay, so, where are we going?" he asked. The men were standing in front of a board listing what offices were on which floors. Sam's hand went to his back pocket where he retrieved a print out. It was an office newsletter, welcoming newest employee Mariah Newsome.
"The law offices of King, Levitt & Lewandowski," Sam told him. They both searched the board closely, Dean repeating the first name several times to himself.
"There, 13th floor," Sam pointed to reaffirm. Dean rolled his eyes as they headed for the elevators.
"Thirteenth, figures…"
After 12 floors of Dean smiling at the pretty lady on the elevator (because he didn't know she was married and the mother of three,) he and Sam entered the law offices of King, Levitt & Lewandowski.
It was chaos.
All of the lights were blinking, the copiers were shooting paper out into the aisles, and workers were hiding under their desks. The brothers surveyed the scene with little surprise.
"Well this is the right place…" Dean said simply.
"Let's see if we can find Mariah," Sam suggested and the two began to walk amongst the aisle. They could hear a woman not far off yelling at someone to do something.
"Watch out for the lights," Dean warned as they blinked violently. Sam wasn't sure if Dean meant that as a joke or not.
"Hey, look," Sam bent over and picked up a piece of paper a nearby printer had shot to the floor. Dean leaned over and read it.
"'I'm sorry,'" he read, "yeah, that's her."
"Okay, well where is she?" Sam asked dropping the paper. They heard a loud groan and what sounded like metal hitting metal. Without even a glance at each other, both brothers ran in the direction it came from.
They found Mariah in a closed off office, dropping a metal stool to the ground. She walked over to the window she was in front of and pushed hard against the metal lock she must have been hitting, and opened the window. She sobbed as she looked out it.
"Aw hell," Dean said as Mariah grabbed the sides of the window, obviously prepared to jump out. The men ran over, Sam grabbing her around the waist and Dean closing and locking the window.
"Let go of me!" Mariah yelled as she struggled in Sam's arms, kicking him several times.
"Hey!" Dean raised his finger at her, "self defenestrating it not the answer!"
Both she and Sam looked at Dean calmly. Mariah looked at him because she had no idea what he had said, and Sam, because Dean did.
"You don't understand! I'm dangerous!" Mariah began to struggle in Sam's arms again. He was beginning to think he should have closed the window.
"But you don't do it on purpose, right? And you're sorry?" Dean asked. She calmed down again and looked at him, almost pouting.
"Yeah…" she admitted almost reluctantly. Dean shrugged.
"So it's okay," he told her. Mariah remained calm, looking at Dean a little surprised. She had just been ready to die, and now here was this guy telling her everything was fine.
The lights stopped flickering.
"I only had the job a couple of days, then Mrs. Lewandowski started yelling at me, and everything started going insane. The lights, the copiers, the computers… An electrician came and changed all the light bulbs, he said everything was going to be okay, but it wasn't…" Mariah explained. The brothers had taken her out to lunch in some small dinner just out of the city center. She was fiddling with the straw of her Coke and over dipping a French fry in ketchup. Sam was a little disgusted by the fry thing.
"That night I went home and cried to my grandmother. Then, um," she was obviously trying to stay calm, "her pacemaker…"
"Is that why you went to the motel?" Sam asked. She nodded.
"I pass it on my way home," she looked at him, "sorry…"
"Don't worry about it. I've had worse," Sam reassured her. Dean looked at him questionably, as he'd been lead to believe it'd been the worst pain ever.
"It just seems whenever I get nervous, or anxious, things just start happening…" she shrugged and finally stopped dipping her French fry into the ketchup.
"You ever think of moving out into the country? Away from the city?" Dean asked as he gave the waitress a credit card.
"My mom did leave a lot of money in her will, I suppose Gran and I could use it…" she smiled slightly as they all stood up and prepared to leave.
"The city isn't the great of a place anyway. You'd probably do better with a lot of trees," Sam suggested.
"The falls here always have kind of sucked," she grinned.
"There, see. You and your grandmother should go buy a cabin someplace," Dean said unlocking his car. Sam and Dean got in the front and Mariah got into the back as they were going to take her home.
"There are some nice lakes around here," Sam added. Dean turned the key in the ignition. The car made some cranking noises and stopped. He tried again, and still nothing.
"Son of the bitch!" Dean yelled, hitting the steering wheel with his hands, "the battery's dead."
"Hey Mariah," Sam turned to looked at her.
"Yeah?"
"Boo!" Sam yelled. Mariah screamed in surprise and the engine started right up. Sam and Dean grinned, and neither minded when Mariah hit Sam on the head.
"So was all of that our line of work or not?" Sam asked as the brothers continued on their way to Kansas. Dean shrugged.
"Who knows? The doctors didn't understand it, so maybe it was," Dean suggested. Sam was typing on his laptop.
"When do you think we'll get to Indiana?" Sam asked. Dean shrugged again.
"We still have to go through Ohio, so, maybe a day or two. Why? What's in Indiana?" he asked as the computer beeped.
"Nothing. But Alex and Nikki are in Iowa…" Sam answered, figuring that was enough. Dean nodded, understanding.
"Tell her we can meet in Fort Wayne. We can all have, like, lunch or something. What is it friends do?"
"Lunch is fine," Sam said grinning, "can I tell them about Mariah?"
"Only if you mention all the swearing you did. How'd you get such a dirty mouth, anyway?"
"It's the way I was brought up," Sam hid that grin. Dean glanced at him, not entirely sure what to think of the response.