Chapter 24
When the Impala pulled up in front of Spike in the parking garage he could see a teenaged girl in the back of the car. Realizing that no one else was in the car Spike quickly got into the backseat next to her. "Watcher didn't make it?" he asked. Dean shook his head. He really wasn't up to talking about it yet.
"Oh well, this Colt wasn't the one we wanted either. Howell's going to call you with the information we need for our inspection for another one in New York in the," he quickly glanced at the folder in his hands, "New York City Police Museum. Apparently they got the Colt in with a shipment of other guns and are willing to sell it to us if we want it. The trouble is we have to be there in New York tomorrow morning. How are we going to get the kid to Sunnyhell?"
He looked up to see Xander grinning at him. "Oh, no! I've been good about letting you blokes shove me into this bloody suit, I am not going to baby sit! That is completely undignified for a demon and I won't do it!" Xander just gave a bad imitation of a maniacal laugh. Spike slumped against his door muttering about how unfair it was that he should be stuck with the likes of Xander.
"Tell you what Spike, after we hit New York, you and Xander can have a night out, alright?" Dean said. He really wasn't up to Xander and Spike's usual bantering. Babysitting sounded good to him, it would give him a chance to get his head on straight about Caleb and if the girl wanted to know about her Watcher it was best that he tell her in private.
After going to their hotel and changing their clothes they hit the road for New York. Dean had called Sunnydale to let Sam know that the Potential was safe and would be staying with them until they hit New York. He also told him about Caleb. When they got to a hotel, Dawn could come and pick up the girl. "My name is Sarah."
"Hi Sarah, I'm Dean. You've already met Xander and the guy beside you is Spike." Dean said after hanging up.
"You guys sure look different out of those suits." Sarah said. She still wasn't sure about these men. If it wasn't for the fact that she knew Buffy Summers worked with demons on occasion, a tidbit that her Watcher had tried to hide from her, she would have been freaking right about now. "Umm, if you don't mind, what kind of demon are you?" She asked Spike.
Spike grinned. "I'm a vampire luv."
"Are you like Buffy Summers' friend Angel?" Sarah asked faintly.
"Don't worry about Spike, Sarah." Xander said firmly. "He has a military modification chip in his head. He can't hurt humans anymore. He's hell on wheels with other demons though."
The three men settled in for the long drive, Spike and Xander bantering with each other and keeping Dean and Sarah amused with their antics.
Sam sat on the bench watching the other students stream by. It didn't seem possible that Caleb was dead. He had been a part of his family for as long as he could remember. What was worse was that Dean had said that something was using his body and ordering Harbringers around. There was only one thing that could order one of those around and that was the First. How could Caleb have run across the First, and why would the Harbringers sacrifice him to it?
"Hey Sam, how are things going?" Aphra sat down next to her classmate and fellow medic for those who fight the dark.
"Lousy, my family has been in this business for as long as I can remember. We've lost friends before, but they've always been the ones on the front lines like us. They were Hunters, not support personnel." He looked at the sympathetic girl beside him. If anyone even halfway normal would be able to understand, it would be her. She'd been born and raised in Sunnydale after all.
"We just found out that Caleb, he's…he was our weapons supplier, has been killed and taken over by the First. It's a very old demon who has been having its minions kill all of the Potential Slayers that it can find. We've managed to save a few, but not very many. That's how Dean found out about Caleb. We've known for a while that he was missing, but for this to happen."
Aphra put her arm around Sam's waist and held him. It was the only thing she could do. Unfortunately, as she well knew from experience, it was the only thing anyone could do.
Dawn wasn't sure she wanted to go back to New York. The last time she had ended up shooting a cop. It had only been a matter of bad timing, there were no permanent injuries and no charges were pressed on either side, but it wasn't a fond memory. On the other hand, everyone at home was far too upset to be hanging around lately. Without fail, every time people got together, if they weren't patrolling, they fell into depression. So many innocent and not so innocent lives had been destroyed by the Harbringers. That Caleb had not only been killed, but had his body turned into something that was being used by the enemy somehow, had devastated her father and brother. She wasn't sure how Dean was holding up. She opened a Portal to where she could 'feel' where her oldest brother was. She was getting better at finding people over long distances, at least if she was close to them.
She stepped through the Portal and into a motel room with two queen sized beds. She found Dean leaning against one headboard pointing a shotgun at her and Spike and Xander standing in front of a girl who looked to be just a little older than she was. "Hi guys." She said. She wasn't up to trying to be perky.
"Hey Dawn Patrol," Dean said and after setting his shotgun down, hugged his little sister. "Ok, guys, Dawnie's here so get lost. Have fun and come back in one piece, we've got to be at the museum at 10 o'clock tomorrow."
"Sir, yes sir!" Xander snarked and gave an insolent salute. Spike just gave him a two fingered salute and followed Xander out the door. "So where do you think we should go to have some fun in the big apple?"
"Well, since I doubt I can convince you to play bait for me, patrolling is out. How about we hit a bar, play some pool?"
"Only if you promise not to get into a kitten poker game. We have to check out the gun in the morning and I don't want to have to haul you out of trouble tonight."
"OY! Who says I'm the one that's getting into trouble tonight? You're the demon magnet, mate!" The sounds of their snarking at each other faded as they headed down the hall.
"As you've probably figured out, I'm Dawn. Dean's my big brother and the two jokers out there are my honorary uncles. Are you a Watcher raised Potential or did you just find out about what goes bump in the night?" Dawn asked, settling in for a long talk. It would be nice to have a talk with someone who wasn't a walking waterworks waiting to happen.
Detective Elliot Stabler was a good cop and like all good cops he hated it when children were the victims of terrible crimes. This crime scene was going to be a doozy. According to the uniforms that had responded to the call they had found a group of men with mutilated faces wearing robes trying to knife a family to death. There were three others at the scene that the family indicated had broken into their home and defended them against the nutcases. That was why SVU had been called in; they had the most experience with religious fanatics. "Officer Jensen, I'm Detective Stabler and this is Detective Benson. What can you tell us?"
"There's a family of five, father, mother, two sons and daughter. They were sitting down to a family game night when these nut cases in brown robes broke in and started killing the family. The father and one of the sons are dead. The mother has a bad knife wound but the paramedics have her patched up and she refuses to go to the hospital. She says that just as her son was killed a young man accompanied by two teenaged girls came through the broken front door and started shooting the guys in the robes. The older girl was armed with a crossbow and the other two were armed with shotguns. The one with the crossbow pinned one of the guys in the robes to the wall. All of the guys in robes are dead. I was here for the end of the fight. The weirdoes weren't giving up, not even when they were dropping like flies. Damned if I know what to make of it Detective."
"Hey Elliot, guess what? One of the girls is your little playmate." Liv teased from where she had peeked into the doorway to the living room. "How are your ribs?"
Stabler hung his head. "You are never going to let me live that down are you?" Liv just shook her head and grinned at her partner. Only Elliot would have the bad luck to accidentally walk in on an armed teenaged girl getting dressed. She had shot him, but due to the fact that the shotgun she had was loaded with rock salt, the only lasting effect was a lot of bruising, that and the teasing from their fellow cops.
"Miss Winchester, a pleasure to see you again." Stabler said as he entered the room. Dean shot Dawn a look; this must be one of the cops she and Dad had run into when they took that trip for Giles a few weeks ago.
"Hello Detective Stabler, how are your ribs?" Dawn asked cheekily.
Dean was immediately in Stabler's face. "That was you?" he growled.
"Hey, accident and bad timing, big brother, nobody was really hurt and no charges were pressed, so water under dam, ok?" Dawn said, deliberately mangling the phrase as she dragged Dean back from the cop. The last thing they needed was more trouble from Dean's mouth. She could get away with the teasing as she was just a kid. Dean would probably end up in jail, again.
"Water under the bridge, Dawn Patrol and you've been spending way too much time with people who mangle the English language." Dean shook his head. He knew Dawn was trying to distract him, but he wasn't happy with the incident and wasn't about to hide the fact.
"Yes that was me and I'm going to assume that you are one of Miss Winchester's older brothers?" Stabler asked. From the way the young man's eyes had blazed it was a safe bet.
"That's right, and this is Sarah." Dean said, backing down slightly.
"Ok, as Dawn already told you, I'm Detective Stabler. My partner over there, talking to the family is Detective Benson. Now, why are the three of you here and why are you armed and shooting the dead guys?"
Both Dawn and Sarah looked at Dean. It would be up to him to give the detective a cover story. They hadn't planned on needing one, but the cops had shown up before they could finish rescuing the 'lost' Potential that the Harbringers were targeting. "Well," Dean started when the Harbringers began to melt, and not in a pretty or neat fashion.
"Ewww!" Dawn huffed. "Why couldn't they be a little neater if they were going to go poof?"
Everyone (the mother, son and daughter of the family, the two detectives, and the patrolman who was at the door) looked at her like they couldn't believe that was her only reaction to a mess of dead bodies melting into a large puddle of goo. "Don't worry, the mess will disappear soon enough, it just takes a while." Dean said. "We were here to make sure that they didn't kill the little girl. That's who they were after. These are the same guys who pulled off that bombing in London last week."
"How did you know and why are the bodies doing that?" Stabler asked.
"My family is psychic." Dawn piped up. "Dad and Sam have premonitions and visions and Dean here gets impressions from things he touches. As far as why these guys are going all goopy, well that's classified information." Dean looked at Dawn. Dawn shrugged and handed Stabler a card with a number on it. "That number is for the people who are dealing with this group of terrorists."
"Dawn!" Dean said. He couldn't believe she was trying to scam the cops here.
"It's the number for Col. O'Neill." Dawn explained.
Dean chuckled at the thought of unloading this problem onto the senior Jack. "Why were they trying to kill my daughter?" The mother exclaimed.
"Because she will grow up to be a danger to them if she survives," Dean said flatly. "The information on why is classified, but we have a way to get her and the two of you to safety. You'll have the situation explained to you there. Detective, write this up any way you want after you call that number. They're all dead but we have to get the three of them to a safe place before more come for the girl." Dean said. He gave his sister a look and pulled both detectives out into the hall way with the patrol officer. "I don't know how you are going to deal with this and quite frankly, I don't care because I've got a hell of a lot on my plate right now. That little girl and her family aren't the only ones in danger."
Benson looked back into the room to check on their victims, only to find that the room was completely empty. "Elliot!" She yelled and ran back into the room. The corpses were all gone and so were the survivors. There hadn't been enough time for them to have gone anywhere.
"Where did they go?" Stabler demanded.
"I told you, that's classified. But if you are asking how, my sister took them to where they will be safe. All three of them will get good medical care. If you want to hang around with me until someone gets back to you on that number Dawn gave you that's fine with me. Oh and if you're going to run me through the system, you're going to find that I'm listed as a serial killer who's dead and buried in St. Louis." He shrugged at the looks on their faces. "Hazards of the job; the guy stole my identity and I'm still trying to get it back."
It was decided that Dean would go with the detectives while they did their paperwork and called the number that Dawn had given them. Stabler and Benson were more than happy to dump dealing with this group of feds into their captain's lap. After doing so they left the station and followed Dean to a seedy little bar where Xander had said they could meet after Dean had called him. Dean wasn't expecting to walk into a brawl, but considering the last 24 hours he really shouldn't have been surprised.
They found Spike standing over a fallen Xander, laughing his head off and punching anything that got close. Anything being the operative term as this was a demon bar and no one was even attempting to look human. Dean shoved Stabler and Benson against the wall and stood in front of them to make sure that they weren't hurt by the brawlers. He'd worry about their introduction to the night life after making sure that they survived it. He glanced over at Spike who was enjoying himself. He knew they hadn't had any time for fighting lately, but they needed to get out of here. "Spike! Grab Xander and get over here!" He yelled. Giggling the vampire threw the larger man over his shoulder and fought his way to the door. "Let's go." Dean said and followed Spike out of the bar.