Chapter 11

The next morning, Lexi woke up slowly. Before she even opened her eyes she realized she was holding her breath, tired brain not accepting that yesterday was real. Her fingers closed around the motel blanket, and it registered that she was not in her own bed. She opened her eyes. Sunlight formed a large blurry rectangle on the wall, and though it pained her head to look at it, she couldn't help but widen her eyes—she was definitely in the motel, and yesterday had definitely been real.

"Good morning," Cas said cordially. Even though she was facing away from him, it seemed he could sense she was awake.

Lexi stretched her arms as she twisted around in the bed, groaning in reply. She closed her eyes tightly and reopened them to Cas' grin. "Time's it?" she asked him, sitting up and squinting in the morning light.

"Eight," he replied, then glanced at the clock. "Eight thirty," he corrected himself.

"Did you have a good night?" Lexi's question came out slightly slurred.

Cas tilted his head slightly. "I suppose so," he replied, though he still seemed puzzled by the question.

Lexi was just about to ask if she actually had to get up yet when they heard muffled voices through the wall. "Come ON, Sammy!" Dean was saying. Lexi grinned. "I gotta shower," she told Cas.

"I could put on some coffee," he said helpfully.

"Er—yeah," Lexi responded, surprised. "That'd be great." Cas nodded and stood up from his chair.

Lexi came out of the bathroom with a towel around her hair but fully dressed for the day. Sam and Dean had come over while she was in the shower, and Dean seemed to be arguing with Cas, who was standing over the coffee maker.

"How the hell did you manage this?" Dean grabbed the coffeepot, which had spilled out all over the counter and onto the floor. Cas gave him an aggravated look, but after Dean turned towards the sink his expression became more defeated. Despite this, Lexi couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Dunno why you're laughing," Dean said grumpily. "You're the one who put the angel in charge of the damn coffee."

"Sorry," Lexi said, fighting off a huge grin. She met Cas' sheepish eyes and saw the corner of his mouth twitch into a small smile. Lexi had to bite her lip to keep from laughing again. "Is any of it salvageable?" She walked towards the counter, and as she did the smell of burning reached her nostrils. She gave Cas a perplexed look, and Cas opened his mouth to try to explain, but the look on Dean's face said that it was still too early for reasoning. Lexi started giggling again.

"We can stop on the way," Sam said. He was sitting in the chair Lexi had occupied the night before, and he had his laptop out on the table.

"On the way where?" Lexi asked, drying her hair with the towel.

"Denver," Sam replied, looking up at her.

"And what's in Denver?" Lexi inquired.

Sam glanced up at Dean, who seemed apprehensive. Lexi turned toward Cas for an explanation, but he avoided her eyes. Sam took a deep breath and began to explain.

"There have been a couple… interesting reports coming from Denver," he said.

"Interesting… how?" Lexi asked, though her gut told her she didn't really want to know.

"People going missing, mostly," Sam answered.

"So what do you think it is?" she asked.

Sam swallowed and glanced at the others before he answered, "We think it could be Leviathans."

Lexi's eyes grew wide. "I thought they were back in Purgatory," she said softly.

"Not all of 'em," Dean responded, wiping his hands off on his pants after realizing he'd used the only small motel towel to clean up the coffee.

"Don't you have to have some crazy weapon to kill Leviathans?" Lexi asked warily.

"Yeah, you do," replied Dean, "but if you chop their heads off and hide 'em far away from the rest of their bodies, it slows them down for quite a while."

"We're not sure how many of them there are," Sam said. "Looks like it might just be a couple… but, you're probably going to have to actually stay in the car for this one." He gave her a small, sympathetic smile.

Lexi sighed. "All right," she said, throwing the towel on the bed. "Denver it is."

Denver was about an eight hour drive, though they only stopped once. All three humans were pretty hungry by the time they rolled into town, so they found a motel and got takeout from the nearest Chinese restaurant. They all hung out in one room—Sam on his laptop, Dean impatiently trying to make plans, and Cas interjecting with the occasional logical comment. At first Lexi found their research and ideas intriguing, but she became bored after a while, so Dean sent her on a beer run. Lexi returned with a cheap twelve-pack and a six pack of what the liquor store owner had said was a decent microbrew. Though Dean didn't say anything out loud, she caught a pleasantly surprised look on his face when he started a bottle of the microbrew, which made her smile.

The next couple days carried on the same way. Lexi and Cas took to watching a lot of television, though it made Lexi restless. She returned from a walk Wednesday afternoon just as it began to rain. Sam was packing up his laptop, and both he and Dean were in dressed in suits. Lexi hung up her coat and raised her eyebrows at them. "Found something?" she asked.

"Could be," Sam answered. "There's a woman about fifteen minutes from here who claims an alien cloned her husband—a Charles Hartman—and has been walking around in his skin for the past week. But then yesterday, he disappeared."

"I really don't get how people think you're actually FBI agents," Lexi said, shaking her head. Cas turned off the TV and stood up.

"Wait, you're going too?" Lexi asked.

"Of course," Cas replied. "Though it has been requested that I remain invisible." He shot a quick, meaningful glance at Dean.

Lexi glanced down for a second, then gave Sam a curious look.

"What?" he asked, puzzled.

"Can I come?" Lexi asked.

"No," said Dean, who was straightening his tie in the mirror.

"But—" Lexi started.

"No." Dean turned towards her, and caught Sam's eye. Lexi watched for a few seconds as they had an argument in complete silence. She got the impression Sam was vouching for her.

"We don't even have a badge for her!" Dean suddenly exclaimed.

"I could be in training or something," Lexi suggested. Dean glared at her for a second before looking at Sam again.

"Fine," Dean said angrily. Lexi clapped her hands in excitement, and ran next door to put together an outfit with some semblance of professionalism.

Sam, Dean, and Lexi found themselves in a pristine, florally-decorated living room seated across from a dark blonde woman who looked as if she was in her early thirties.

"Are you sure I can't get you anything to drink?" the woman asked for a third time.

"No thank you, Mrs. Hartman," Sam said, as politely as he had the first time. "We'll only take up a couple minutes of your time." She nodded and looked down, wringing her hands.

"Mrs. Hartman," Sam started again, taking a small notebook and pen out of his inside jacket pocket.

"Susan," she said, forcing a small smile. "Please."

"Susan," Sam continued. "Could you tell us when exactly your husband started acting strangely?"

"Yes," she answered. "It was last Monday, when he came home from work. I had fixed up a nice tenderloin, which was always his favorite, but..." She seemed completely bewildered. "But he said he wasn't hungry."

"And that was—unusual?" Sam clarified.

"Oh yes," she responded. "He always ate tenderloin. But he said he was tired, and just went up to the bedroom."

"Mrs. Hartman—Susan," Dean said with a kind smile, "Did you at any point go to check on your husband?"

She nodded. "He was watching television," she said softly.

"Did your husband watch a lot of TV?" Sam asked.

"Sometimes," admitted Susan, "but never all night."

"All night?" Dean said skeptically. Susan nodded again, and blinked away the tears welling up in her eyes.

"He was watching the news when I first came up, to check on him," Susan said to Dean, "and then while I was trying to fall asleep, he kept flipping through channels." She swallowed and looked at them pleadingly. "I kept waking up during bits of movies, and infomercials." She seemed very confused at the last part.

"But he seemed normal the previous weekend?" Dean asked. Susan nodded, and Sam jotted something down. "Where did your husband work?" Dean continued.

She blinked in surprise, then answered proudly, "Well, he works for the government. He's an IRS agent." She paused. "Well, he was," she added to herself.

"Of course," Sam covered, shooting Dean an irritated glance. "And the strange behavior continued pretty much the whole week?"

"Yes," Susan replied. "He didn't eat a thing, just came home from work and sat in bed watching television."

"Which prompted you to call the authorities," Sam said. She nodded slightly, lip quivering.

"Susan," Sam began gingerly, "What happened the night before last?"

She began to cry. Lexi took a box of tissues from a nearby end table and handed it to Susan.

"Did he attack you?" asked Sam.

"No," Susan said hesitantly.

"Did you attack him?" Lexi asked gently.

The woman's eyes grew wide as they met Lexi's. She nodded. Sam and Dean's heads snapped toward Lexi, astonished at her question as well as the answer. Lexi looked at Susan kindly and waited for her to continue her story.

"I didn't… I knew it wasn't him," she said. "I just knew it wasn't Charles. So I confronted him about it, and he…" She choked back a sob, but then Lexi saw a flash of anger in her eyes. "He started laughing."

"Laughing?" asked Dean.

"He just laughed in my face," Susan said breathlessly. "And I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what this thing was, or what it had done with my husband—" She put her hand over her mouth and closed her eyes, barely able to continue. "I stabbed him," she said. "I grabbed a knife from the counter, and I stabbed him in the chest." Susan broke down, putting her face in her hands.

"It's okay, Susan," Lexi said soothingly. "Nobody's blaming you."

Susan finally looked up, eyes moving from Lexi to Dean to Sam.

"Really," Sam said, answering the question on Susan's face. "We just want to know what happened."

"It—it didn't kill—it," Susan continued quietly, staring at her hands. "There wasn't any blood, it was just this—this black…" She looked back up at them, sheer terror on her face.

"Black goo," Dean finished. Susan nodded. "He never stopped laughing," she said. "He just took the knife out, threw it on the ground, and left."

Sam and Dean exchanged meaningful looks while Susan met Lexi's gaze. Lexi's face held a mixture of understanding and apology; she knew there was no hope for Charles.

"He's dead, isn't he," Susan said, but it wasn't really a question.

"I'm so sorry, Susan," Lexi said, and she meant it. Susan nodded and looked down.

"Susan… if you see 'Charles' again," Sam said, "give us a call at this number immediately." He handed her a card and stood to leave.

"Thank you, Agent Anderson," Susan whispered. The boys and Lexi didn't wait for her to show them out.