Meet Me on the Battlefield

Chapter 14

I Can Be Your Sword and Shield

Dean watched as John strode towards them, the shotgun still up and ready to fire again, if needed. He could feel the anger rolling off of his brother in waves, so he did what he could to calm him down.

"It's okay, Sammy," he said as he placed a hand on the man's shoulder.

"It's not okay. What the hell was he thinking?!" Sam paced back and forth on the dock angrily.

Once John made it to the end of the dock where they were, he lowered his gun. "Are you okay, Dean?"

"Of course, he's not okay," Sam yelled. "You just almost took his head off, Dad!"

"I had a clean shot, Sammy. I wouldn't have taken it otherwise." Turning back to Dean, he asked again if he was okay.

"I'm fine, Dad. I just probably won't need a haircut any time soon," Dean laughed somewhat shakily.

"Nothing about this is funny, Dean," Sam growled angrily.

"Come on, Sam… that was at least a little funny."

Sam rolled his eyes before looking at John again. "Why did you shoot? We were making progress, Dad. Now we're probably back to square one with her."

"She had Dean by the throat, Sam. Maybe you couldn't see that since you were hiding behind your brother instead of helping him."

Sam started to argue, but Dean cut him off. "Shut up! Both of you!"

John was shocked to hear Dean talk to him that way. "Mind your attitude, son," he said in a dangerous voice. "You, too, Sammy."

"Dad, please stop! We're not going to get anywhere on this case if we just keep having the same issues over and over again. And in case you didn't notice, the spirit let go of me. She was listening to what I was saying right before you blasted her away."

"And just what were you saying to her?" John asked.

"I told her that we know where her son is."

"But you boys already tried that route with her great-great-whatever. It didn't work, remember?"

"Well, maybe we should try again," Sam suggested. "Maybe we can get him to change his mind."

"What do you know about this guy anyway?" John asked.

"Not a lot," Dean admitted. "I'm thinking we need to check him out a little more, see if we can find something that might help us."

"Okay, then…. Let's head back to the motel and start digging."

Dean and Sam followed John back to their vehicles, each looking behind occasionally to make sure the spirit wasn't going to blindside them in any way. Once they were back to the Impala, Dean stopped.

"Hey, dad? Maybe you could stop and pick up some burgers."

"It's ten o'clock in the morning," John growled.

"So? Burgers are good any time of the day and I'm starving!"

"How can you be starving, Dean? We just ate breakfast two hours ago."

"I'm a growing boy, Dad," Dean answered with a grin.

"Fine. I'll grab some burgers."

"And beer," Dean added. "And Sam probably wants a salad or something."

"Anything else?" John asked, exasperation heavy in his voice.

"Yeah. How about some pie, too? Coconut cream or pecan."

"Your wish is my command, princess," John laughed as he climbed up in his truck and drove off.

Dean rolled his eyes at his dad's words. "I'm not a princess. I just want some pie," he said petulantly.

Once they were back in the motel room, Sam fired up his computer and looked for any information he could find on the spirit's probable great-great-grandson, plus or minus a few greats. The baby that had been abandoned so many years ago had been adopted by an elderly couple by the name of Tom and Evelyn Masters. They had taken the baby boy in a mere two weeks after he had been found, naming him Timothy after Evelyn's father. Timothy had been an only child of the Masters and when they died within six months of each other twenty years later, he had inherited a rather large estate.

No one ever found out where he came from. No missing child reports had ever been filed on his behalf, no frantic pleas from distressed mothers or fathers. Sam could easily trace the man they had talked to the day before to Timothy, but trying to trace Timothy back to the spirit from the lake was impossible.

What he found out about Adam Masters wasn't much, either. The man they had spoken to yesterday was the last living Masters of their line. He had no aunts and uncles, no cousins, and he had been an only child himself. He had never been married and had no children of his own. He worked as a tax auditor, lived in a house that was too big for him, and had no pets other than two goldfish named Sam and Frodo. Sam found some of this information on an old eHarmony account that looked like it had just recently been updated, but hadn't seen much activity.

Dean was working the other end of the problem on his own computer. None of the reports he read on the ghost of Stow Lake had much information as to who the ghost was and the reports were so varied that some even mentioned the ghost being a man. With no name to search for and various descriptions given over the years of what the apparition looked like, Dean had very little to go on.

John returned from his grocery/food run to find both of his boys buried in their computers. They paused long enough to scarf down their food and to guzzle a beer before diving back into the research. John didn't have a computer to use, so he spent his time outside making phone calls to other hunters to see if anyone had ever heard about this particular spirit.

It was Dean who finally stumbled onto something nearly four hours later. He had just been about to give up when he checked one last link. He had been searching the obituaries and the missing persons reports from all over the state of California without luck, but when he expanded his search to include neighboring states, he finally found something that could be related.

A young woman from the state of Arizona reported her younger sister missing in 1919. The police report stated that the young woman, whose name was Annabelle Fitzgerald, had recently lost her husband Johnathan to the 1918 Flu pandemic. Six months later and seven months pregnant, she had taken off on her own. Her sister never heard from her again.

This in and of itself wasn't enough to get Dean's attention, but the police report had a picture of the young husband and wife taken just a few months before his death. Dean stared at the picture for several long seconds before letting out a slow breath.

"I think I found something, Sammy," he said in a weirdly distressed voice. Sam looked up from his own computer to see Dean's pale, drawn face staring at his computer.

"What is it?"

"Come here. You have to see it to believe it," Dean answered strangely.

Sam stood up and made his way over to Dean, who turned his computer slightly towards his brother so he could see.

"What the hell?" Sam said breathlessly.

"Well, I think we know now why she's so fixated on you," Dean answered. He stared at the blurry black and white picture on the screen, trying to make sense of the fact that it looked just like his brother's face staring back at him. In fact, the man's whole being looked like Sam.

"That's just freaky, dude," Dean said as he stared up at his brother before looking back at the computer screen.

"How do you think I feel," Sam asked. "What's the story here?"

Dean spent the next several minutes explaining it all to his brother. They both knew that if it wasn't for the fact that Sam's doppelgänger had been discovered, no one would have ever made the connection between the missing person report and the Stow Lake ghost.

"So, what…. She's depressed after her husband dies, so she traipses off across California on her own? Pregnant? Why would she do that?! Especially back then. Women just didn't do stuff like that."

"Who knows," Dean answered. "Maybe she just lost it after he died. Maybe she couldn't stand to be around things that reminded her of him."

"So, why didn't anyone report her missing once she drowned? They never found the body after witnesses saw her walk into the lake, but no one ever came forward to look for her."

"Maybe she just didn't have any ties to the area," Dean offered. Maybe she hadn't been here for too long and hadn't made any connections yet. No one would know she was missing."

"She had to be staying somewhere, though. Don't you think someone would have reported her for not paying rent or something?"

"I don't know, Sam. It was a different time back then. And who knows where she was staying. She could have been renting a room by the day or by the week. She could have been staying in a shelter for unwed mothers. Or a church? There are so many possibilities, but it doesn't really matter, right? At least we know who she is now."

"But how are we going to end this, Dean? They never found her body, so there's nothing to salt and burn."

"Well, maybe we go back out to the lake and try to talk to her again."

Neither one of them particularly liked that idea, but they really didn't have many options.

John returned to the room thirty minutes later to find Sam and Dean sitting on their beds, flipping through the channels on the television and drinking a beer. He didn't look too impressed that they weren't still poring over their computers.

"Giving up already?" he asked as he grabbed the remote out of Dean's hand and turned off the television.

"Hey! We were watching that! They were just about to announce the winner of this week's Star Search!" Dean jumped out of bed and tried to grab the remote back, but John caught him with a hand to the chest and gently pushed him backwards.

"We're on a hunt, in case you've forgotten what we're doing here in this sleazy motel. You can watch Star Search when we're done." John glared at both of his sons, causing both of them to look uncomfortable and slightly embarrassed.

"Dad, we were just taking a break," Dean said. "Sammy and I made a major breakthrough on the case and we were waiting for you to come back so we could fill you in."

"What sort of breakthrough?" John asked as he eyed his sons curiously, giving them the distinct impression that they better have something good or else.

"Explain it to him, Sam," Dean said. "I don't want to go through it all again."

Sam spent the next twenty minutes filling John in on what he and Dean had found, occasionally stopping when Dean felt the need to interject something. John had been just as flabbergasted by the resemblance between Sam and Johnathan Fitzgerald when he saw the picture.

By the time they were done, John had a look on his face that they rarely saw. "Good job. Both of you. That was some fine research you boys did."

Sam was surprised by his father's words and looking over at his brother, he could tell Dean was, too. John Winchester was never the type of man to give praise away easily, even when it was truly deserved. So, hearing those words come out of his mouth was a true surprise. Sam hated that it meant so much to him. He had hoped that he had moved beyond needing his father's approval, but apparently that wasn't true. Looking at Dean, he could tell the same was true for him.

"So, now that we know a little more about our lovely lady, what are we going to do about her?" John asked. He was truly interested to see if his sons had come up with a workable plan, as well.

Sam and Dean shared a look, each hoping that the other one would start talking. When it seemed like neither of them was going to, John spoke up again.

"Dean? Do you have a plan? Or are you waiting for me to come up with one?"

"No, sir. I mean… yes, sir, I have a plan. And no, sir, you don't need to come up with one."

"Okay, then… let's hear it."

"We need to go back to the lake and talk to her again. Maybe we can get her to understand that Sam isn't her baby, all grown up. Maybe once she realizes that, she'll back off. At least long enough for us to figure out our next step. I think by this time, finding her body will be impossible, though, so I really have no idea where to go from here."

Sam sat up a little straighter on his bed. "Maybe we need to pay Adam Masters another visit. Maybe if we explained the situation to him, he'll understand."

"Explain what?" John asked. "That we want him to come with us to confront a vengeful spirit who may or may not want to take him into the lake with her?"

"I don't know, Dad," Sam answered irritably. "Do you have a better idea?"

John stared at his youngest son for a few seconds. "For now, let's go with Dean's plan. Let's go back to the lake and see if we can find her again."

"Maybe this time, you don't shoot her, Dad," Dean said with a cocky grin. "Maybe this time, you show her some of those smooth John Winchester moves."

Author's note: A little bit of a shorter chapter, but I hope you enjoy it. And I hope it all makes sense, lol. Trying to come up with a backstory for a ghost isn't as easy as it looks. Also, I know that some of you were thinking that John was being a little too much of an ass, so I hope this chapter softened him up just a little. What do you all think?

Thanks so much for reading. Of course, I'd love it if you'd leave a review. Take care, all.