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Chapter 14. Chance Meeting

"This it?" Louise said, pulling over across the road from a modest two-storey house. After setting off from Cleveland at five that morning, they finally made it to Andover late that afternoon. Louise had relied on Meg for directions to her house once they hit Andover and now, sitting across from it, Louise felt a strange sense of loss. She'd grown to like non-demon Meg over the past week and a bit and she didn't want to say goodbye just yet.

"Yeah," Meg said quietly. She didn't make a move to get out of the car, instead just remaining in her seat and staring. "I can't believe it. A whole year…I never even thought I'd make it back home."

"Well, you did," Louise said firmly. "And…thanks. Y'know, for being a badass bitch. I don't know if I would've been able to threaten Azazel into leaving my brother…"

Meg just smiled.

"I wouldn't really have killed Dean," she admitted. "I was just trying to scare Azazel into leaving. I'm glad it worked because I don't know what I'd have done if it didn't."

"I'm glad too," Louise agreed. "But what if…what if it hadn't been Azazel? What if it had been Meg? Not you – the demon."

"I would've shot her," Meg said without hesitation. "She's different. She rode around in my body for a whole year."

Louise grimaced.

"Fair enough," she said. They sat in silence for a moment. "Hey, give me your phone."

"Why?" Meg said curiously, handing it over. Louise slid it open and entered Meg's dial pad before punching in her phone number.

"There's my number if you need anything," Louise said, saving the number. "And I'll put Sam, Dean and Bobby's in as well, in case I don't answer."

She saved a few more numbers and then handed the phone back to Meg. Meg smiled brilliantly and it occurred to Louise that this was the biggest smile that she'd ever seen on Meg's face, not counting the demon.

"Thank you so much, Louise. You and your brothers." Her smile faded a little. "When that demon was inside me…I kept screaming and begging for people to realise and help me. But no one did. I thought I was a goner when Tom aimed that gun at me but it wasn't the Colt…and then they trapped you and you managed to exorcise them. Just…thanks."

She leaned over and pulled Louise into a hug. Louise felt warm and fuzzy as she hugged Meg back and then, to her utter surprise, Meg pulled back and kissed her on the lips. It was just a quick, chaste peck and Louise felt a mixture of excited heat and slight disgust. She was speechless when Meg pulled away, looking anywhere but Louise.

"Thanks," Meg said quickly. Before Louise could say anything, Meg pushed her car door open and slid out of the car. Louise watched the blonde cross the road and knock on the door. It swung open to reveal a woman with greying blonde hair, who just froze and stared at Meg like an angel had appeared on her doorstep. The next moment, Meg had been enveloped in a tight hug by the sobbing woman and Louise started the car back up and took off, a small grin on her face.

She'd been kissed by Meg. And…she'd sort of liked it, even if it had taken that to realise that her weird feelings over the past few days hadn't been romantic. Go figure.

-LW-

With nobody to regulate her breaks, Louise made it to Mentor, Ohio, at around midnight in one flat journey. She wanted to continue driving through the night, intent on getting back to Sam and Dean as soon as possible, but she felt her eyelids drooping and knew that Dean would kill her and then salt and burn her ghost if she crashed his precious Baby, so she decided to stop on the side of the road and try and get some sleep, not wanting to waste money on a motel. She had a restless night, only getting five hours of sleep, but it was enough to refresh her and she left Mentor at around five thirty.

It was while stopping in Schaumburg, Illinois, that Louise became side-tracked. She stopped at a small diner for lunch and while munching on a burger, fries and a small salad (because dammit, Sam had corrupted her into at least trying not to drop dead of a heart attack at age fifty) when her attention was caught by the newspaper that the man nearby was reading.

THIRD CHILD MISSING THIS WEEK, the headline read, positioned over the picture of a small blonde girl. Louise frowned. A possible case?

"Excuse me?" she said. The man peered over his paper, frowning. "Could I borrow that?"

She got a weird stare in response but the man eventually nodded and handed his paper over. Louise skimmed through the article, frowning. Three children missing in a week, with no possible clue as to who their kidnappers could be. That sounded fishy enough, so Louise swiped a napkin, borrowed a pen from the man and scribbled down several details, including the names of the missing children.

"Thanks," she said, returning the paper and pen. She stuffed the napkin into her pocket, swiped up her burger and left after dropping some bills onto the table. Out at the Impala, she pulled out her phone.

"Lou," Sam said when he answered. "Where are you?"

"Schaumburg, Illinois," Louise replied. "I dropped Meg off yesterday. Listen, I'm going to be a few more days."

"Why?"

"I found a case. Three children vanished in Pontiac, Illinois. There's no sign of their attackers and all of the kids are small, blonde girls and ten years or younger."

"That could just be a normal sicko."

"True. But we've taken cases with less, haven't we?"

"Yeah, fair enough."

"How's Dean?"

"He's…normal. Drinking beer, cracking jokes, being a smartass…I don't know if that's good or not. No one bounces back that quickly, not even Dean."

"You talking about me, Sammy?" Louise heard Dean bellow in the background. She grinned.

"Hold on, he wants to speak." The phone crackled for a few moments.

"What's up, baby sis?" Dean said.

"I'm only six months younger!"

"Details. How's Baby?"

"Not a scratch," Louise reported proudly.

"Good. 'Cause we're stuck with a crappy old camper van that makes me look like a soccer mom, so you'd better treat Baby like a queen. So, you got a case?"

"Yeah. Pontiac, Illinois. You're welcome to come."

"Yeah, no. I ain't driving more than I have to in this bucket of bolts."

Louise heard voices in the background and frowned.

"Where are you?"

"Nebraska. Found a message on one of Dad's old phones from one of his old friends, so we checked it out. Her name's Ellen Harvelle and you do not want to piss her off."

Louise heard a sharp, muffled female voice say something.

"She's got a cute daughter called Jo and there's some guy called Ash hanging around. Apparently, he's a genius."

"That so?"

"Yeah. He looks like a Lynyrd Skynyrd reject but he's rigging up something to help track Azazel."

Louise felt as though she'd been punched in the gut.

"He can do that?" she said breathlessly.

"Yep. He said to give him fifty one hours. His words, by the way. And then once we've found the ugly son of a bitch, we'll get the Colt back out and bury that last bullet right between his eyes."

Louise laughed.

"That's great, Dean! So, are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I just mean, after Azazel and all –"

"I'm fine, Lou." Dean's voice was still cheerful but it suddenly became very frosty. "You toddle off on your little case and we'll see you when you get back. Try not to die."

"But Dean –"

"See ya!" He hung up and Louise stared at her phone for a moment blankly.

"Was that what I was like after Chicago?" she muttered, throwing her phone on the seat next to her.

-LW-

The trip to Pontiac only took an hour and a half and it was around two in the afternoon when Louise finally arrived. Her first order of business was to check into a motel and change into her black skirt and blazer then she pulled up outside the house of the first victim. She sifted through her small box of fake IDs. Who was she going to be? Could she pull off a solo FBI agent? Because they usually worked in pairs, didn't they?

'I could be a reporter,' Louise thought before immediately dismissing it. 'Nah. People hate the media and I can't ask the same questions. Ah, fuck it.'

Selecting her FBI badge, Louise shoved her box back into its hiding place and got out of the car. She walked up to the house briskly, mentally celebrating her decision to never under any circumstances wear high heels; they may have been more professional but they hurt like a bitch. When she knocked on the door, she was answered by a woman with lank brown hair and puffy eyes.

"Julia Freeman?" Louise said. She held up her badge and the woman's eyes bulged. "Agent Urie. I'm here about your daughter, Diana."

Julia Freeman swallowed, nodded and moved aside to let Louise in.

"I didn't know that it was a matter for the FBI," she said hoarsely, leading Louise to the living room.

"There's a similar pattern here to other cases," Louise said smoothly, sitting down in the armchair. "We just want to see whether or not we're dealing with the same person or somebody similar."

Julia nodded and sat down on the sofa.

"What do you want to know?" she said.

"I know that Diana is blonde and nine years old," Louise said, not mentioning that she'd just jacked the information from the article. "And I know that she fits the pattern of young girls disappearing around here. What can you tell me about the day she disappeared?"

Julia took a shuddering breath.

"We were at the playground," she said. "I was watching Di and her friends. Then Casey – one of her friends – asked me for a drink. I had a bag of juice poppers in case the girls got thirsty. You know what girls are like."

Louise nodded, waiting for Julia to continue.

"I only turned my back for one second and she was gone! I thought she'd just wandered off at first and I called for her to come back. But she didn't. So I began to worry and when I went to look for her…" Julia started to sob. "S-She was gone."

Louise wanted to reach out and hug the poor woman but forced herself to stay in her FBI guise.

"Two other girls have gone missing in a similar manner," she said, pulling two pieces of newspaper out of her pocket. She smoothed down the articles and handed them to Julia. "Did Diana know these two girls?"

Julia frowned.

"I don't think so," she said. "She's not friends with either of them and she hasn't mentioned them to me."

"One more thing and then I'll be off," Louise said. "Were there any odd occurrences at the playground? Cold spots, odd smells…anything?"

Julia stared at Louise as though she'd been asked to do the tango.

"No. Why would there be?"

"No reason. I just had to make sure." Louise stood up. "Thank you for your time, Mrs Freeman."

Once outside, Louise sighed. That was a big bag of nothing! She was certain that she'd have to check the playground but first, she wanted to question the families of the other two girls.

Verity Smith's family lived a two minute drive away and they were far less cooperative than Julia had been.

"Where's your partner?" Prudence Smith demanded when Louise presented her badge. "You lot work in pairs, don't you?"

"Agent Way was feeling unwell, so he stayed behind in our room while I investigated," Louise lied quickly. "But rest assured, the both of us will be working as hard as we can to find your daughter."

Prudence squinted at the badge before snorting and retreating into the house. The door was left open, so Louise just walked in and closed it behind her.

"Who the hell's she?" Leo Smith said, jerking his head at Louise when she entered the living room.

"FBI," Prudence replied. "Says she wants to talk to us about Verity."

"S'pose you'd better have a seat, then," Leo muttered, nodding at an armchair. Louise sat down, wishing she was questioning Julia again. The lady may have been tearful and distraught but at least she was still polite.

"Your daughter fits the pattern of blonde girls under the age of ten being abducted," Louise said. "I just want to know what happened the day of her abduction."

"She was at a birthday party at the playground," Prudence said. "I wanted to take her home early because Janice had also invited that horrid David Thomas. He and his family…well, they're not the sort that I want my daughter associating with."

Louise nodded, trying not to punch the woman in the face. She hated these kinds of people!

"I called out to Verity to come," Prudence continued. "But she didn't listen. I went looking for her in case David had done something awful to her but I couldn't find her."

Louise resisted the urge to point out that this David was a kid and most likely couldn't do anything worse than pulling little girls' hair.

"So Leo helped me search. But we found nothing, so we went straight to the police. You say that my Verity fits a pattern?"

"Yeah," Louise nodded, fumbling around in her pockets for the newspaper clippings. "I wanted to ask if Verity knew either of these other girls."

"Never heard of that one," Prudence said dismissively, immediately handing an article back. "And I know Diana Freeman's mother. Horrid, impure woman. Why, just the other day, I saw her leaving Harry Jones' house! But then, he's not the first one."

Louise tried not to show just how terribly uninterested she was.

"But no, Verity doesn't know Diana. Is that all? I'm expecting guests in half an hour and an FBI agent in my home will not do wonders for my image."

"Did you notice any cold spots or odd smells or anything unusual?" Louise asked. She got blank stares in response. "Right. Well, I'll be off. If you have any information –"

"Yes, yes, we'll call. Goodbye, Agent Urie. Thank you for stopping by."

Louise couldn't get out of the house quick enough.

"Whenever I think I want an apple pie life…" she muttered to herself. "Okay, last one. Hopefully, these guys are a lot nicer or I'll throw something."

The last house was a ten minute drive away. Louise approached the door and knocked, hoping that she wouldn't get another Smith family. The door was answered by a man with black hair, blue eyes and a grief-stricken look on his face.

"Yes?" he said.

"James Novak? I'm Agent Urie, FBI. I'd like to ask a few questions about your daughter, Claire Novak."