"We lost him," Dean announced as he barged in. Bobby and Rufus had already gotten their guns out.
As the three grabbed theirs, Sam asked, "So what's the plan?"
"We stick together," Dean immediately replied, glancing Emily's way. "We got to keep track of this thing – who it's in."
While they walked through the dark factory, Sam suddenly grabbed Dean, shoving him back into Bobby and Rufus. As everyone drew their guns, Sam held up his hands in surrender: "Hold on. Look." He slowly pointed to the tripwire running across the hall at shin-height leading up to a gasoline booby-trap.
"I'll be damned," Bobby muttered, looking up; the five carefully stepped over the string and continued on.
As the electricity buzzed and blinked off, she began to have slight qualms in her gut…something wasn't right. Suddenly, a large, sliding metal door slammed shut behind Sam, cutting him off from the group.
"Sam!" she screamed as they all ran to the door.
"Son of a bitch," Dean muttered, trying to open the door. "Sam!"
Sammy's voice called back, "Dean! I'm gonna go around, okay?"
"All right. Watch yourself!" Dean warned. "Alright, come on." With distracted caress against her lower back, Dean moved to lead the group, navigating the halls to meet up with Sammy. As they walked, Emily felt the same sense of foreboding she had when she left Dean alone…something was going to happen. As a single gunshot echoed through the halls, her heart faltered as an image of Sam lying motionless on a concrete floor invaded her mind. Dean immediately sprinted ahead, calling out to his brother.
As they rounded the corner, an immense weight was lifted from her chest as she saw Sam standing and his grandfather dead on the floor. "Oh, thank God," Bobby voiced her thoughts walking to Sam before his mind went back to the case. "Drop the gun, Sam."
Sam slowly placed his gun on the floor as the four carefully looked on; however, the feeling Emily had in her gut when Dean was possessed wasn't present – she knew Sam was fine. "It's me," Sam breathed.
"Okaaay," Rufus said slowly. "That's great, Sam. Just gotta cuff you, uh, till we can be sure, okay?" He carefully pulled out a plastic tie and proceeded to lock Sam's hands behind his back.
"Rufus, you don't have to–"
"Just to be safe, Em," Bobby cut her off, not taking his eyes off Sam.
"It's in him," Sam explained.
Bobby said slowly, "You sure?"
"Did you see anything come out of him after he dropped?" Rufus eyed him skeptically.
When Sammy couldn't answer, Bobby said, "Alright…let's take Samuel back and see if we can find anything.
Dean, Bobby, and Rufus moved to carry the body back while she walked alongside Sam, Dean refusing to let her help carry his grandfather.
"What if it is in me?" Sam asked, eyes wide.
"It's not, Sammy," she said firmly as she matched his gait.
"How do you know?"
"I just do. I…" she faltered, trying to explain. "Call it intuition, because I really have no idea how." Seeing that this did not comfort him, she continued, "Sammy. It's not in you, I swear."
There was a loud thump ahead of them from the three men dropping Samuel's body on the table in the break room. The two quickly joined the group standing around his boy as Bobby dug for goo. "Tell me you got something," Dean said expectantly as Bobby removed the stick from the dead man's ear.
"Nothing."
"What?" Sam asked, slight look of fear on his face. "S-so you mean he wasn't a monster when I ganked him?"
"Wait a minute – just hold on. We never got to examine someone's ear when the parasite was in them, maybe it only leaves goo when it comes out," she said quickly.
"Well," Rufus began, "one way to find out. Bobby, you got a cranial saw in the car?"
"Of course," Bobby scoffed.
"You're not going alone," Dean said immediately.
Rufus began to push Bobby out the door, saying, "Oh no, he won't. We'll both go grab some tools and wee about getting some power in this place." Spinning around, he continued. "And I want you and you…okay, I want you and you to watch her and him…all right, if anything crawls out of anybody, somebody step on it!"
"Sam will watch Samuel, I'll watch Sam, and Dean'll watch me," Emily explained.
"Yeah…right," Rufus muttered, leaving with Bobby.
After a few moments of silence between the tree of them, Dean said, "You did the right thing, you know."
"You mean you think I did…if it's in him and I'm me."
"It not in you, Sam," she said, annoyed, from her seat on an empty table.
"Fine, but…even through all he put us through…it feels wrong. I mean, Dean…what would Mom say?" Her head shot up as she watched Sam approach Dean; they never talk about their mother.
"You know what I think Mom would say? Just cuz you're blood doesn't make you family. You gotta earn that. She's family," he nodded my way while staring Sam. "He wasn't."
Her heart stopped in her chest and she was sure she had died when Dean, after his short speech, looked straight at her. His piercing green eyes stared into hers and for a moment she was convinced he knew everything she had done since John left her on the side of that road, everything she thought about, everything she felt. In an instant, the connection was gone as the lights flicked on and Dean's gaze left hers. Taking a breath, she closed her eyed for a moment, trying to compose herself as Bobby and Rufus burst through the doors.
"Well then…let's play operation," Rufus said, taking the saw out of a burlap bag.
"You boys wanna take a breather?" Bobby asked.
"We're good," Dean immediately said.
Bobby ordered, "We're about to crack open your grandfather's grapefruit. Take a breather."
"Come on," she said quietly, leading the boys into the hallway. "Dean." He had stopped to look back through the window.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming…"
"You alright, Hercules?" she asked softly.
Dean's head immediately snapped to face her as a small smile graced his features. "You always know what to say, princess." His voice was low as he moved to wrap his arms around her. "How's your shoulder?" his voice reverberated through her body.
"I'm fine, Dean," her muffled voice said though his shirt.
"Emmy," Sam said from behind her.
"Gigantor?" she asked, turning to him, Dean's arm still wrapped around her waist.
Gazing adoringly down at her, he said, "Dean's not very good at expressing his feelings, so he probably hasn't told you, but we've missed you. It's good to have you back."
"Thanks, Sammy. I, uh…I missed you guys too," she smiled, leaning back against Dean. Without warning her body went rigid as dread tightened her chest.
"What?" Dean asked immediately.
"Something's wrong."
A sudden thud resounded from the break room as Dean left her and ran to the door. "He's alive?!" she screeched as Samuel's face appeared, snarling, in the window. "Sammy, you shot him in the head!"
"It's the thing!" Dean roared, cutting Sam's restraints. They could only watch in horror as Samuel first knocked out Rufus then Bobby before falling against the wall socket and electrocuting himself. "Get back," Dean ordered, pushing her out of the way so he and Sam could simultaneously kick open the door. God, that was hot.
As her boys revived the two older men, she hung by the door, too nervous to approach the group, sense of dread still present in her chest. "This can't be my afterlife cuz the four of you are here," she vaguely heard Rufus say.
"When we left he was dead on the table," Sam said.
"Yeah…till he wasn't," Bobby stated the obvious.
"So," Rufus asked, "how'd he get double dead?"
Dean quickly explained, "Bobby threw him against that – I guess it was a live wire. It shorted…and he went ape. Then that thing crawled out of his ear."
"At least we know what tickles it…electricity." Once again, Bobby with the obvious.
"Yeah…now the question is, where'd it go?"
As their debate faded from her ears, Dean was suddenly in front of her, snapping her back to reality. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," she said to quickly. "I just…s-something's still not right," she tried to explain. "I feel like something's gonna happen…" she explained, nervously biting her lip.
"Hey, hey. Listen to me," he said, pulling up her chin so she was looking at his green eyes. "I'm right here, alight? I got your back, always do."
"I know, Dean," she smiled slightly.
"Good." With a light kiss to the top of her head, he led her back to the group.
"Okay, then…check for goo," Sam was saying. At his words, the five of us stuck our fingers in our ears; no one had anything.
"Maybe it's just gone," Bobby suggested.
"No. It might've wised up and covered it's trail," Dean said, glancing wearily on the ground.
Sam, with a determined look, said, "Alright, let's settle this. One hundred percent."
"How?" Dean stared him down.
"Electricity."
"Aw, shit," she whined, rubbing her arms.
Sam, with a heavy sigh, stripped the wire from Bobby's saw and disconnected the machine. "You're live," came Dean's voice as he plugged in the wire. Sam experimentally touched the wire to a metal chair, sending sparks everywhere which caused her to flinch and bump into Dean. His arm instinctively wrapped around her waist as they both regarded Sammy. Before any of them went, Sam touched the wire to the back of Samuel's neck causing the dead man's muscles to spasm, but nothing crawled out his ears.
"Alright," Sammy said. "Who wants to go first?"
"Alright," Dean spoke up when no one else would.
Sam looked at him skeptically. "You sure?"
"Hurry up before I start thinki–" Sam pressed the wire to Dean's skin causing him to grunt in pain as his eyes squeezed shut. "Son of a bitch," she muttered, pulling his jacket back on once Sam took back the wire. "Here, want me to–"
Sam cut off Dean put quickly pressing the wire to his own arm before turning his gaze to Emily. "Aw, fuck," she muttered under her breath, pulling up her sleeve. She held on to Dean's arm as she thrust her own arm out toward Sam.
"Em–"
"Just do it." A searing pain burst through her arm as she could feel her muscles jumping under her skin; she was sure she left a bruise on Dean's arm. "Shit," she breathed as she turned away, needing to walk it off a bit. "You good?" Dean's rough voiced asked as his arm caught her hip.
"Wonderful." She let out a breath as Dean grabbed the wire from Sam.
As Dean advanced toward Rufus, the older man began to spurt, "Whoa, whoa, whoawhoa…uh, no, I'm sorry."
"No passes, Rufus," Dean said sharply, waving the wire.
"Come on, I got a damn pacemaker!"
"Well you better hope it's a good one."
"Since when'd you get a pacemaker?" Bobby asked curiously.
As the two bickered back and forth, she asked Sam softly, "You good, Gigantor?"
"I'm good, shortcake," he smiled down at me. "You?"
"Good."
"Come on, just make it quick," Rufus was saying to Dean. As the live wire pressed against his skin, he cursed.
After removing the wire, Dean asked, "You okay?"
"No, I'm not okay!" he exploded. "Give me that!" Rufus snatched the wire from Dean before turning to Bobby.
"My turn. Well, it ain't inside me, so go right ahead," Bobby began cockily, even though he was backing up.
"Alright, well just stand still, Bobby; we'll make this quick," Rufus advanced.
"Alright, sure. No problem."
"Let's do this."
"Uh, just a second, Rufus."
Rufus's eyebrows creased as he said, "Just a second, nothing, whatever you are."
"I'm Bobby."
"Bobby my ass."
As Rufus reached out with the wire, Bobby suddenly plunged a knife deep in Rufus's chest. "Bobby," someone shouted as Sam caught Rufus mid-fall.
"Bobby," Sam's voice said as they cornered him. "There's two of us and one of you." As Bobby moved to attack Sam, he caught and spun him around so Dean could knock him out.
"Sammy, put him in the chair," Dean ordered, wheeling around to find some tape. Snapping out of whatever sort of trance she was in, she grabbed the tape and tossed it to Dean who immediately began to tie Bobby to the chair.