AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I love this chapter a little TOO much, lol.
Hope you guys enjoy it!
WARNINGS: Rated "M" for language, dirty thoughts, sex, innuendo, blood, violence and dark themes.
ENJOY!
=D
xxxx
"Wait a minute…what?" Dean asked me angrily as Sam sighed loudly and put his head in his hands.
I was fairly certain that the second I opened my mouth to explain things to them there was going to be a fight and I really didn't want to fight right now. If there was one thing that I wanted to do right then, it was make-up with Dean for once and for all and try to put all of the bad stuff behind us. On top of it all though, Sam was disappointed in me and I wasn't sure if I could handle that too.
"I wish that you had just told us the truth from the beginning! Why do you feel the need to hide so much from us?" Dean asked me, standing up and looking at me.
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. "I thought I was protecting the two of you."
"Well you're not! You're hurting us!" Dean exclaimed, Sam shaking his head and sighing some more because he really didn't want to get involved in our fight right then—he and I would talk later, I knew it.
"Okay, I made a mistake, all right?" I yelled at him. "My mother is the one that gives me every power that I have! She was the witch! She was the hunter! She was the werewolf, not my father! Are you happy now? What does it matter which one of my parents was the werewolf anyway? She was a hunter and John trusted her! I'm sorry that she was involved with the death of Jo's father, but come on! Why are you mad at me besides the lying?"
Dean ran his hand down his face. "You lied to us, Lanni! Lied!"
"I'm not arguing about this anymore!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up into the air. "I'm done! I'm going to bed!"
Dean growled but nodded at me, and I took a deep breath and went into the bathroom, deciding to take a shower. As I stripped down though, Dean came into the bathroom too and shut the door behind him, making me roll my eyes and get into the shower making a face at Dean when he came to join me. To be fair, I really wanted to be with him, but he was mad at me and he had every right to be and I didn't know how into angry sex I was right then.
"If you want me to be in the mood—" I began, but nodded into the kiss that came to silence me—apparently I was totally into angry sex right then. "Okay, I'm on board."
Dean nodded and hoisted me up, me wrapping my legs around his waist and moaning a little into his mouth at the friction between us when he pressed me up against the shower wall. He was still mad at me, but he knew that part of what I said had made sense, and the two of us were beyond done with being pissed at each other. We wanted things to go back to normal and for that to happen, we had to be pro-active, and I had to keep Sam and Dean away from things involving my past.
"You need to be more truthful with me." Dean explained, pressing his body closer to mine and stroking my hair as I moaned. "It's been quite a while for us, hasn't it?"
I nodded at him slowly. "For us, yes…for me…not for you."
"You're going to upset me again." Dean stated, and I knew that, but I couldn't stop the words from coming out of my mouth.
"Well that's why they call it angry sex." I replied with a shrug.
Dean started to protest but I pressed lips to his, squeezing him with my legs to urge him to just shut-up. He heeded, kissing me lovingly suddenly, which made me pause, and it made Dean pull away, looking me in the eye with dozens of questions—one of which was most definitely 'Why did we stop'. I leaned my head back against the shower wall to get a better look at him and cocked my head to one side, smiling a little when he cupped my face with his hand, his thumb running gently along my wet cheek.
"You're suddenly all sweet." I told him, biting my lip.
He nodded slowly. "Honestly, as annoyed as I am that you lied, Sam and I have past too we haven't spilled to you since its not putting you in any danger, and you don't know everything about your biological mother—you told us that and I believe you…besides…its been a long time since you and I did this and it shouldn't be angry sex."
"I love you." I told him, kissing him softly and helping us to reach the next incredibly satisfying level.
xxxx
The next case we had was amazingly bad—everything that could go wrong did go wrong and we really needed to figure a way out. Sam and I had been sitting in the motel, thinking about where Dean had gone to when we had been arrested and dragged in for questioning. Now we were sitting in the police station, waiting for another cop to come in and question us and I was resting my head on Sam's shoulder, his fingers running through my hair to comfort me. We had been separated from Dean, who had been gone far too long looking into the deaths of some people—a vengeful spirit had killed them, we were positive about that…but you can't really tell cops that, now can you? Yeah, not really something to run around trying to tell the world, unfortunately.
"This is ridiculous." I told Sam and he nodded, looking at me as I crossed my arms over my chest.
He put his fingers under my chin and made me look at him. "Are you okay? You just seem more agitated than normal."
"I think I'll be fine." I admitted, even though I was jittery and my leg was bouncing.
"You sure?" He asked, stroking my hair some more.
I nodded at him and smiled when we made eye contact. "Yeah, I just think that us not being out there, and the spirit still being there, is wrong. I hate when we get detoured like this, and then there's Dean—Dean's innocent."
Sam kissed my forehead and I smiled a little more, looking over at the door as the woman walked back in. She had this look on her face like she knew something, and I really hated that that look was followed by glances in between me and Sam—obviously she thought the two of us were an item. Whatever…it wasn't like Sam and I hadn't been mistaken for a couple before—we could pull that off acting if we had to.
"Well that answers one question." She said aloud—score to me for reading people well.
I laughed a little. "Oh yeah? What question is that?"
"Thought you might be thirsty." She said, setting down two cups of coffee and some files, ignoring me and playing her cards the way she thought she needed to.
"Ah, you're the good cop. So where's the bad cop?" Sam asked her.
She looked at Sam. "Oh, he's with your brother."
She looked pretty smug, and Sam and I were pretty unsure about that look and knew one of us had to speak up. Since I was the quickest on the draw when it came to speaking when I shouldn't, I smiled at her and opened my mouth.
"And you're holding us why?" I asked her.
She motioned towards the door. "Well he's being held on suspicion of murder. You two? We'll see."
"Murder?" Sam and I asked at once.
"You sound genuinely surprised." She told us. "Or are you just that good of actors?"
Her fake smile was getting to me and I gave her an annoyed look as Sam spoke up. I liked that he had stepped in this time because I would have tried to wipe the look off of her face, but at the same time I was worried. I mean I knew that there was a chance that we'd get caught, but definitely not for murder…something else was going on here, and Sam and I were not in the loop.
"Who is he supposed to have murdered?" Sam asked her.
She nodded at him. "We'll get around to that."
"Well you can't just hold us here without formal charges." Sam told her and I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed loudly, wanting out.
"Well actually we can for 48 hours, but you being a Pre-Law student would know that." She replied.
I looked up at her. "What the Hell?"
"I know all about you, Sam…you're 23 years old. No job. No address. Your mother died when you were a baby. Your father's whereabouts are unknown…and then there's the case of your brother, Dean, whose demise was, well, exaggerated. Feel free to jump in at any time." She said, but Sam and I just looked at her and shrugged a little. "Shy? Fine, I'll keep going. Your family moved around a lot when you were a kid. Despite that, you were a straight-a student—got into Stanford with a full ride." She said, and then it got quiet and she turned to us as Sam sat with his arms across his chest and I rested my hand on his shoulder, stroking his shoulder softly. "Then about a year ago, there was a fire in your apartment. One fatality, Jessica Moore, your girlfriend. After she died, you fell off the grid—left behind everything."
"I needed some time off…to deal." Sam replied softly.
She nodded and looked at me. "And then there's you, Lana."
"And what could you possibly know about me?" I asked her, knowing full well that she didn't have the information she truly needed on me.
"You're 22 years old. No job, but here you have an address in Kansas. You were good in school, but never went into college. You were never in trouble with the law until these two came into the picture. Occasionally you use your credit card, so we have blips of you on the radar, but most times—most times we have no idea where you are or what you're doing. The only time you even had to speak to the authorities was when your adopted parents were killed in a fire while you were at school—there's no record of your birth father, but your birth mother is listed on your birth certificate." She explained and then motioned to Sam. "By the looks of it, and by the ring we confiscated upon your arrest, it looks to me like you have yourself a boyfriend and a very dysfunctional group to travel with…am I right with any of this? Feel free to chime in at any time and prove me wrong—I mean I could have my facts off."
I narrowed my eyes at her. "If you absolutely must know, the ring was from Dean."
"Well, well, well. You just got close to both of them didn't you?" She asked me, hoping to get more out of me.
"The things we do for love." I shrugged as I rolled my eyes, the sarcasm dripping off of my voice.
"So after this fire with Jessica, you just decided to take some time off?" She asked, turning the attention back to Sam.
Sam nodded at her. "Yeah, so I'm taking a road trip with my brother, and then we met up with Lana along the way and she joined us."
"And how's that going for you?" She asked him.
"Great." Sam said, nodding. "I mean…we saw the second largest ball of twine. Awesome."
She sighed and walked over to the table after Sam and I sat down, really wanting us to stop beating around the bush. For some reason she actually thought we were going to hand Dean over to her, but Dean wasn't killing people—an angry spirit was, and we couldn't prove it from in here. So really, all Sam and I could do was play along, but we didn't have to make it easy on the cops at all…why would we do that?
"We ran Dean's fingerprints through Iafis—got over a dozen possible hits." She replied, leaning towards us.
Sam scoffed at her. "'Possible' hits, which makes them worthless."
"But makes you wonder…what are we gonna find when we run your prints, Sam?" She asked him softly.
"Well, uh," Sam said, smiling and then pounding his fist into the table playfully, "be sure to let me know, all right? May I?"
She nodded at him when he motioned to the coffee and I had to admit that the smell of it was getting to me. Upon taste I realized that it was actually pretty bad, but it was coffee, and coffee always seemed to actually calm me down. Besides, if Sam and I were going to get through this, then there was no way in the world that we were going to do it without caffeine.
"Sam, you seem like a good kid, and you're going to make Lana a lot happier than Dean ever would—it's not your fault Dean's your brother." She explained to him.
I shot her a look. "Way to pick sides."
"We can't pick our family." She continued. "Right now detectives in St. Louis are exhuming a corpse, trying to figure out how your brother faked his own death after torturing all those young women. Dean's a bad guy…his life is over…yours doesn't have to be."
"You want me to turn against my own brother?" Sam asked her skeptically.
She shook her head. "No—we caught him cold, red-handed at the Karen Giles murder scene. We just need you two to fill in some missing pieces."
"Why would we do that?" I asked, Sam's eyes asking the same question.
"Because I can talk to the D.A., make a deal for you two. You can get on with your lives…Dean's as good as gone." She said, and silence followed until Sam decided to speak up.
"My Dad and Tony Giles were good friends." Sam began and I sighed and drank more coffee. "They were in the service together—we've known him since we were kids, you know? So we came as soon as we heard about his death."
xxxx
"There you go." Sam said, handing Dean some coffee as he sat down with us.
I smiled and looked at Sam. "Anthony Giles."
"Who's Anthony Giles?" Sam asked and I shrugged because I was simply trying to be a know-it-all—it had been Dean who had said the name.
"The Baltimore lawyer—working late in his office. Check it out." Dean said, taking the lid off the coffee and drinking it as I sipped my latte.
"His throat was slit, but the room was clean." Sam read. "Huh. No DNA, no prints."
Dean smiled at him. "Keep reading it gets better."
"Security cameras failed to capture footage of the assailant." Sam continued.
"Either somebody tampered with the tapes…" Dean began.
"Or we have a silent killer." Sam said as I nodded.
Dean clicked his tongue in response. "My favorite kind. So what do you think, Scully? Check it out?"
"I'm not Scully—you're Scully." Sam said, tossing the paper at him.
"No, I'm Mulder. You're a redheaded woman." Dean replied with a grin.
As sexy as I thought it was that Dean was all into X-Files and he was picking on his adorable brother, I made a face when he looked at me. It was only a matter of time before he gave me a name, or he would simply leave me out of it as he did 50% of the time. I actually liked X-Files, so I wanted to be part of it.
"Who am I?" I asked him. "Some alien?"
Dean shook his head. "Nah, you're Dogget."
"Great…I'm a man." I said, and then Sam and I smiled at each other before I frowned as Dean walked away. "Snap! And the fans hated me at first!"
xxxx
Sam scoffed at the cop. "So, it would have been kind of hard for Dean to kill Tony, considering we weren't even in town at the time."
"Okay. Tell me what happened next." She told him.
"Okay, that's when we went to see Karen." I explained to her, wanting his over with and Dean freed so we could take care of the spirit and move on.
Sam nodded his head in agreement. "She was barely holding it together. We wanted to be there for you, you know?"
xxxx
"Insurance…I totally forgot about the insurance." Karen explained to us sadly.
"We're very sorry to bother you right now, but the company has to do its own investigation. You understand?" Sam asked soothingly.
Karen nodded at us. "Yeah…yeah."
"If you could just tell us anything you remember about the night your husband died." I told her with a soft smile, because I genuinely felt bad about her situation, but we had to do what we had to do here to save lives.
"Tony and I were supposed to have dinner. He called to tell me that he was having computer troubles and he had to work late." She said sadly. "That was it."
Sam, Dean and I nodded at her, taking the information in and yet knowing it was time to pry a little more. We needed to know what kind of weird things had happened—if weird things had happened—we still had to figure that in. Really, I was kind of just wanting to finish this up, be with Dean since the two of us were fighting less lately, and check in on Jen…that meant finishing up this conversation so we could finish the hunt.
"Do you have any idea what could have done this to him?" Sam asked her softly, still trying to show concern for her even though he was trying to sound professional too.
Karen shook her head. "No. No. It's like I told the police. I—I have no idea."
"Did Tony mention anything unusual to you?" Dean asked. "The days before his death?"
"Unusual?" She repeated.
Dean nodded at her. "Yeah, like strange?"
"Strange?" She repeated.
"You know, Karen, weird. Weird noises, visions, anything like that?" Dean asked again, trying to keep his cool.
Sam cleared his throat, and the next couple seconds were filled with looks to get Dean to calm down, and then looks of compassion towards Karen when she looked at us. Dean was jumping the gun a little and it was going to freak Karen out and we all knew it. Still, I couldn't deny that I wanted this over too, and so I just smiled at her and nudged Sam, who nodded at me.
"He had a nightmare before he died." Karen informed us.
Sam cautiously asked, "Uh, what kind of a nightmare?"
"He said he woke up in the middle of the night one night and there was a woman standing at the foot of the bed. Then he blinked and she was gone." Karen explained, weirded out by the question, and I couldn't blame her.
"Did he say what she looked like?" Dean asked.
"What the Hell difference does it make what she looked like?" Karen asked distraught.
Sam and I exchanged looks with Dean as he fumbled for the right thing to say—this was delicate territory. The wrong thing could have us sent out her door without so much as another word, and we really couldn't do that. At the same time, there was no way to avoid this question, so we really just had to get it over with and who better to be blunt than Dean Winchester himself?
Dean smiled at her awkwardly. "Its, uh, just that our company is very thorough."
"He said she was pale and had dark red eyes." Karen replied, a little nastily.
xxxx
"So I gave Karen a hug, and told her to call us if she needed anything." Sam explained to the woman interrogating us. "And that was it. End of story."
"Sam, I am trying to help you here, but you have got to be honest with me—both of you." The woman told us. "Now we have an eyewitness, someone who saw two men and woman, fitting you, your brother's and her description, breaking into Giles' office." She said, standing up and getting testy.
I shook my head at her. "Karen called us later. Said there was some stuff she wanted out of Tony's office but the police weren't letting her in, so we went and got it for her."
"Like a picture of the two of them in Paris and some other stuff." Sam told her, nodding.
I nodded and looked the woman in the eye. "Look, it was wrong to enter a crime scene, we get that."
"But she gave us a key." Sam finished for me, which wasn't actually the truth at all…then again, neither was most of our story we were feeding her, but at least it was the same.
xxxx
Sam, Dean and I went into the office and looked around with our flashlights in the dark room. I really hated it when we had to check out the dark, scary places, but that was just part of the job, so I accepted it. Besides, the three of us were together, which meant that we were going to be protected, and that was the important part.
"Hey." Sam said, shining his flashlight on a bloody part of the floor. "Anthony Giles' body was found right about here. 'Throat slit so deep, part of his spinal cord was visible.'"
I smiled at his ready-to-use knowledge, but cringed. "Gross."
Dean whistled at the bloody floor. "What do you think? Vengeful spirit? Underline vengeful."
"Yeah, maybe, I mean he did see that woman at the foot of his bed." Sam reminded us.
I went over to the desk and picked up a piece of paper, handing it to Dean and smiling because I knew I was being damn helpful. Actually, ever since I had kind of convinced myself that there was nothing that could really harm me, I'd been focusing on hunts a lot more and I knew that as thankful as they were, they missed the old me. In all honesty…I missed the old me too, but I didn't really know how to get her back.
"Hey. Look at this." Dean said, handing it to Sam.
Sam looked it over. "Dana Shulps. What is that, a name?"
"I dunno, but it's everywhere." Dean said, looking at several papers where it was written over and over. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."
"Shut-up." I told him playfully when he chuckled, smacking his arm.
He smiled at me after faking a hurt look, and then I looked at the glass desk as Sam saw what I saw. He leaned his face towards it and breathed his hot breath on it, the word "Dana Shulps" appearing again. That was definitely not something we'd seen before on a case like this, so we were on the right track, surprisingly.
"Wow. I'd say we've officially crossed over into weird." Sam said, looking up at Dean and me.
I nodded at him. "I'll say. I can't get a clear vibe in here either."
"Maybe Giles knew her." Dean offered with a shrug.
"Maybe it's the name of our pale, red-eyed mystery girl." Sam suggested, nodding at his brother.
"Well, let's see what we can see." Dean said, and we all set to looking through papers.
After a long while Dean and I got fed up and Dean waved his arms angry, motioning throwing something down. I giggled at him and then shrugged when he shot me a look for laughing at his obvious failure, and then he looked at Sam. He softened a little when I took his hand in mine, but still had to be his hot little drama queen self.
"There's not a mention of a Dana Shulps anywhere in here." He said exasperatedly. "Or any other kind of frigging Shulps." He added, leaning on the doorframe.
Sam sighed loudly. "Great."
"I take it you have nothing?" I asked Sam.
"That would be correct. No Dana Schulps has either lived or died in Baltimore in the last 50 years at least." Sam replied as Dean and I got more frustrated.
I ran my hands down my face. "We've hit dead ends before, but not like this."
"So what now?" Dean asked, reaching out and pulling my body to his as we watched Sam type away at the computer.
"Well, I think I'm pretty close to cracking Giles' password. Maybe there's something in his personal files." Sam replied with a shrug.
Dean nodded slowly. "And by 'close' you mean…"
"30 minutes maybe?" Sam offered to us.
I sighed loudly and then looked at Dean, who looked at his watch and sighed loudly too. We were both rather stumped and bored, and though there were plenty of things we could think of to pass the time together, we had work to do…and Sam could not be left alone to work without us.
"Awesome. I guess that means just get to, uh, hang out. That's awesome." Dean said, and he and I headed other to sit across the desk from Sam, me sitting on Dean lap and making a face when he started making clicking and popping noises and then a farting noise with his mouth.
Sam threw his hands up in the air. "Dude, seriously!"
"All right, I'm gonna go talk to Karen again—see if she knows anything about this Dana Shulps, okay?" Dean asked, getting up with his flashlight when I got off of his lap and going past me.
"Great." Sam said, and went back to typing.
I looked at Dean after taking the chair he had sat in. "I'll stay here, thanks—rather not go talk to Karen anymore, sorry."
"That's fine, Baby." Dean replied and then looked at Sam before heading out the door. "Keep going, Sparky."
xxxx
"Then Dean went back to Karen's place, to check up on her. I mean, you know, she'd been pretty upset earlier." Sam explained to the cop.
"So why didn't you go with him?" The woman asked.
Sam shrugged at her. "I just went back to the motel with Lana."
"I was feeling tired and a bit put out, and wanted the company." I told her.
"A little R&R?" She asked, but she was implying sex and I was annoyed.
I uncrossed my arms and leaned over the table a little. "For the umpteenth time, Sam and I are not together. Stop."
"How did you know we were there, by the way?" Sam asked her, changing the subject before I slapped a bitch.
"We found the motel matchbook on your brother when we arrested him." She said in a voice much more annoyed than mine. "Now let's quit fooling around. You three were together the whole time you were in Baltimore. Why separate now? Because your brother went to go murder Karen."
"He didn't kill anyone." Sam said calmly.
She hit the table with her fist hard. "I heard the 911 call! Karen was terrified! She said someone was in the house!"
When Sam and I just shook our heads and looked at her, she ended up leaving—she knew we weren't going to tell her anything she could use to frame Dean for killing Karen and Tony when he didn't. So Sam and I took the time to try and figure out the 'Dana Shulps' thing before he turned to me.
"They always seem to think we're a couple." Sam told me with a laugh.
I smiled at him. "They certainly do—and lately they jump to us getting down and dirty."
"You know…it kind of annoys Dean." Sam explained slowly, shrugging a little.
"Well, maybe if he didn't turn his flirt on most of the time, then he wouldn't have to worry about people thinking I wasn't his girl. Besides, they like to walk in on you and me in slightly compromising positions—at least of course at first glance." I added, laughing a little. "But back to this 'Dana Shulps' thing. It might be an anagram." I said as Sam said, "anagram" with me.
Before we could deal with it, our lawyer came in and handed us a paper that Sam opened up and showed to me. Dana Schulps had to do with Ashland—a street in Baltimore that we needed to check out, went meant escaping, and acting with this whole Hilts and McQueen thing—Hilts was McQueen's character in "The Great Escape". That way Dean would know what was up and where we were, and Sam and I could be out there to dust this ghost and deal with busting Dean as soon as the job was finished.
"I hope that was helpful." The lawyer told us. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to discuss your case now."
"Sure thing, Matlock." Sam said, motioning him a chair.
"You two really are brothers, aren't you?" He asked Sam with a laugh and I beamed at Sam and his playful attitude. "Now, as you know, the D.A. might be interested in—"
"—we need you in there—with the other one." The female cop told us.
I looked at Sam when the lawyer left Sam and I alone and smiled at him. "Now's our chance…let's go."
xxxx
Once Sam and I got to the first motel listed in the yellow pages, and put the name under Jim Rockford—it's how Dean and Sam found each other when they were separated—Sam and I were immediately trying hard to figure it all out. He was rushing through some things and I suddenly felt like I needed to talk to Sam—I needed to let him know just how appreciative of him that I was because every time something big happened, Sam was always there for me. I mean even when the cops had busted in to get us earlier, Sam had made sure no one hurt me before he gave himself over to their custody.
"I want to thank you." I told him from across the room.
Sam looked up. "For what?"
"For always being here for me…for looking out for me…for loving me." I told him with a slight blush, and I didn't know where it was coming from.
Sam smiled and stood up. "Lan, you don't have to thank me for any of that—I'm going o be here to protect you and love you forever."
I blushed a little more. "I just…you don't have to, but you do. Even when I come clean about one more thing I've kept from you guys, you always forgive me first, no matter how mad you are about it. How do you do that? How do you stick by me without thinking that I'm losing it?"
"Lan, I love you." Sam said with a shrug, and as he said that he placed his fingers under my chin, lifting my face up so our eyes met, and then he smiled. "I'm going to protect you no matter what happens, Lan. You're smart, you're beautiful, and Dean has no idea what it is that he's missing when he steps out of line but he loves you too, and you're part of our family—Dean and I are going to keep you safe."
I knew that he had only added Dean back to the conversation because the eye contact was starting to get to him like it was getting to me, and I made a decision. Before I really had the time to think over what I was doing, I kissed him softly. For a second Sam resisted since he had just been talking about how Dean loved me, but soon his lips were moving against mine, and just as he slipped his arms around my waist to pull me closer, something clicked in our brains and we pulled apart.
My hand flew up to my mouth and Sam shook his head and took a step back, both of us trying to figure up what to say when there was a know on the door. Sam moved to answer it and I just nodded because I wanted to have time to think this over so I knew how in the world to deal with what I had just done—me. I looked up to see the female cop standing there and Sam and I exchanged glances as she looked at us, and then showed us her wrists—sporting the same bruises that Tony and Karen had on their wrists.
"They showed up after you saw it?" I asked her, looking at her wrists after Sam did.
She nodded at us. "I—I dunno, I guess."
"All right." Sam told her, looking directly at her. "You're gonna have to tell me exactly what you saw."
"You know, I must be losing my mind. You're fugitives. I should be arresting you." She told us and Sam and I sighed.
I took a couple steps towards her. "You know what, you can arrest us later…after you live through this."
Sam nodded in agreement. "Right now, you gotta talk to me, okay? Okay. Okay, great. Now the spirit, what did it look like?"
"She was uh, she was really, really pale, and her throat was cut…and she had these really deep, dark red eyes. It appeared like she was trying to talk to me, but she couldn't. There was a lot—a lot of blood." She told us, sitting down.
"You know what? Here." Sam said as I handed him the pictures we had gotten before we talked. "We've been researching every girl who has either died or gone missing from Ashland Street."
She looked at them and then looked at us. "How did you get those? Those are from crime scenes and booking photos."
"You've got your job, and we've got ours." Sam said, organizing the pile. "Here, we need you to look through these. Tell us if you recognize anyone."
She took them and I bit my lips because I wanted to focus on this hunt, but at the same time I kept thinking about Sam's soft lips. Dean gets arrested and held for suspected murder, and has to deal with the shapeshifter stuff coming back to haunt him again and I kiss his brother? What the fuck was wrong with me? I was supposed to be holding out for Dean—he and I were pretty damned patched up and now this? Son of a bitch…
"This one." She told us, holding up the photo.
"Claire Becker? 28 years old." Sam explained to her. "Disappeared about eight or nine months ago."
She nodded at him. "But I don't even know her. Why would she be coming after me?"
"Well, before her death she was arrested twice for dealing heroine." I told her, looking over the information about her. "You ever work narcotics?"
She nodded at me. "Yeah, Pete and I did, before homicide."
"You ever bust her?" Sam asked, holding up her picture again.
"Not that I remember." She replied truthfully.
"Says she was last seen entering 2911 Ashland Street. Police searched the place, didn't find anything." Sam read off.
I sighed and nodded. "So we need to check it out ourselves and see if we can find the body."
"What?" She asked, somewhat appalled.
"Well we gotta salt and burn her bones. It's the only way to put the spirit to rest." Sam replied, grabbing his coat as I grabbed mine.
"Of course it is." She said, and the three of us headed over to Ashland Street.
Sam and I started looking around going up the stairs in the warehouse, and her staying below looking around. In the pit of my stomach I knew that Sam and I shouldn't be left alone because what I had done before, and when I opened my mouth to say something, Sam shook his head. You know me though—there was no way I was just going to be silenced when the kiss was the only thing on my mind.
"Look, I know that we should be focusing but I kissed you…what are we going to do about it?" I asked him.
Sam turned to me. "We're not going to do anything about it."
"What are you talking about? We can't just pretend it never happened." I protested.
"Why not? Did it…did it mean something to you?" Sam asked me slowly, and then he shrugged. "I don't want to hurt Dean, so we just ignore it…we don't tell him."
I just nodded slowly and he nodded too, both of us trying to smile but not being able to—especially when the woman started calling our names, and so we went to her aide. She looked really shaken up and we needed to know what happened, and we had to make sure that she was all right.
"You all right?" I asked her.
She nodded at me. "Claire…she was here."
"Did she attack you?" Sam asked her suddenly.
"No…she was reaching out to me." She replied. "She was over there, by the window."
As she and Sam went over to the window I stopped for a moment and used my flashlight to look around. The fact that Claire's ghost hadn't attacked the woman made me think a little harder about what was going on here…what if…
"Maybe she's not vengeful at all." I said aloud to Sam.
Sam helped the cop move the thing in front of the window, and then we found the letters—and learned why there were extra ones. We were in the Ashland Supplies Warehouse, and as the shadows of the letters hit the back wall—Dana Shulps—we went over and began to break into it, after using the EMF detector, and then Sam seeing something down in there. When we pulled the body out of the wall, we knew it was Claire, and we had to look her over.
"She led us to her body because she's not a vengeful spirit." I explained and nodded as the woman put her wrists up against Claire's. "Her wrists—they'd be bruised like yours."
Sam looked at the necklace on the corpse. "That necklace mean something to you?"
"I've seen it before—it's rare. It was custom made over on Carson Street." She fished something out of her shirt. "I have one just like it—Pete gave it to me."
I nodded at the trinket. "It all makes sense now."
"What does?" She asked me.
"Yeah…you see Claire isn't a vengeful spirit at all. She's a death omen." Sam explained as I nodded.
The woman looked miffed. "Excuse me?"
"Claire isn't killing anyone—she's trying to warn them." Sam added with a nod. "You see sometimes spirits don't want vengeance, they want justice. That's why she led us here—she wants us to know who the killer is."
There was a long pause as Sam and I looked at each other before we looked at the woman as she tried to piece it together. It wasn't long before I couldn't stop the words coming out of my mouth since Sam was still waiting a little to pry.
"How much do you know about your partner, Detective?" I asked her.
She looked like she had just figured something out. "Oh my God…"
"What?" Sam asked, wanting to get the information out of her now.
"A year ago, some heroine went missing from lock-up—obviously a cop. We never found out who did it, but whoever did it would need someone to fence their product." She explained as Sam and I got knowing looks on our faces.
Sam nodded at her. "Somebody, like a drug dealer…somebody like Claire."
Knowing that, we hurried and got into her car, and she called the office. We needed to figure out where Pete was, and we needed to finish this before someone else died—before the cop met her demise. Also, I wanted to know what was up with Dean, and I didn't like the look spreading across her face.
"All right, thanks." She said, hanging up.
Sam glanced at her. "What is it?"
"Pete just left the precinct…with Dean." She replied.
"What?" Sam and I asked angrily.
She nodded at him. "He said the prisoner had to be transferred, and he just took him. Dispatch has been calling, but he won't answer the radio."
"Radio? So he took a county vehicle?" Sam asked and I smiled.
"Yeah." She told him with a nod.
I smiled at Sam and he smiled back. "Then it should have a LoJack."
"You just gotta get it turned on." Sam added, reaching out and touching my hair.
It wasn't normally weird when Sam did that, or when he held me when I was down, or when he comforted me, but it was awkward now. I just smiled at him though, and we turned on the LoJack, getting to the place where Pete had taken Dean. I hurried out, getting to them before Sam and the Detective did, and she pointed her gun at them as we all kept our distance.
"Pete! Put the gun down!" She shouted to him.
"Diana? How'd you find me?" Pete asked her, and Dean looked up relieved, and yet confused.
Diana swallowed. "I know about Claire."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Pete replied to her.
"Put the gun down!" She said more forcefully.
"No, I don't think so." He told her. "You're fast. But I'm pretty sure I'm faster."
I really didn't like that a slightly mentally insane man was pointing a gun at Dean and upset, and I really hoped he would stop. I wanted Diana to get through to him, but at the same time, I thought that maybe I could help…if I tapped into my powers. Would that be in Dean's best interest? Would I be fast enough to get that gun out of Pete's hands?
"Why are you doing this?" Diana asked Pete.
He smiled and rolled his eyes a little. "I didn't do anything, Diana."
"It's a little late for that." She told him.
"It wasn't my fault." He explained to her. "Claire was going to turn me in, I had no choice."
She nodded at him. "And Tony? Karen?"
"Same thing. Tony scrubbed the money, then the got skittish. And then he wanted to come clean. I was sure he told Karen everything. It was a mess I had to clean it up." He admitted to her. "I panicked."
Dean looked at Sam and I who wanted to do something, but Dean shook his head—one wrong move and Pete could pull the trigger and we wouldn't have anymore Dean. I couldn't live without Dean, so I just nodded but started to say a spell under my breath so the gun wouldn't fire. If the gun didn't fire, then Dean was safe, and that was the most important thing to me right then.
"How many more people are going to die over this, Pete?" Diana asked him.
"There's a way out." He said, and looked at Dean. "This Dean kid is a friggin' gift. We can pin the whole thing on him. No trial. No nothing. Just one more, dead scumbag."
"Hey." Dean told him, but put his cuffed hands up a little as Pete waved the gun more in his face.
"No one will question it. Please? I still love you." He said, and she began to lower her gun. "Thank you. Thank you."
He was about to shoot Dean when Diana quickly shot him in the leg and Dean rolled out of the way and she went over to Pete. I hurried over to Dean and held my hand up to disorient Pete a little, looking Dean in the eye to see how he was—scared, but all right.
"Then why don't you buy me another necklace, you Ass?" She asked, and he lunged at her from the ground, knocking her down and scrambling for his gun.
He got up and began to limp, pointing his gun at Sam as he went to help me help Dean. Sam stopped and put his hands up in the air, Dean getting in front of me when Pete pointed the gun towards me and I smiled a little—Dean always protected me too…what had I just gotten myself into?
"Don't do it! Don't do it!" He told us all, waving the gun around.
I began to mutter another spell when I stopped, Claire showing herself to all of us, and then Diana shooting Pete in the heart. He fell to the ground, and then she uncuffed Dean and we stood there as it began to get light out, and then she came over to us. She looked really upset, but that was to be expected—her boyfriend turned out to be a really, really big jerk.
"You doing all right?" Sam asked her.
"Not really." She replied honestly. "The Death Omen, Claire…what happens to her now?"
I looked at her. "It should be over…she should be at rest."
"So, uh, what now Officer?" Dean asked her.
"Pete did confess to me. He screwed up your cases Royally. I figure there's a good chance I can get your cases dismissed." She said to us.
We all smiled at her and I really genuinely liked her—even though she had annoyed me before. She understood what it was that we did and she was willing to help us to get to continue to do what we did best…help the innocent.
"You could take care of that for us?" Sam asked her happily."
"I hope so. But the St. Louis murder charges?" She shook her head. "That's another story. I—I can't help you…unless I just happened to turn my back and you three walked away. I could tell them that the suspects escaped."
I looked at her. "Wait, are you sure?"
"Yeah, she's sure, Sam." Dean told him, hopeful.
"No, it's just you could lose your job over something like that." Sam continued as Dean just smiled and shook his head, just caring about getting out of here.
"Look, I just want you guys out there doing what you guys do best. Trust me I'll sleep better at night." She replied with a smile. "Listen, you need to watch your back. They're going to be looking for the three of you right now. Get out of here. I gotta radio this in."
We began to walk when the one question I had been waiting for came up—Dean and his car…I loved him so much.
"Hey, uh, you wouldn't happen to know where my car is by any chance?" Dean asked her.
"It's at the Impound yard on Robertson. Why?" She asked and we gave her different looks. "Don't…even think about it."
Sam smiled at her. "It's okay. It's all right. Don't worry. We'll just uh, we'll improvise. We're pretty good at that."
"Yeah, I've noticed." She smiled and then she reached into her pocket and pulled out my promise ring. "I, uh…I thought you might like this back."
I smiled at her, and put the ring on my left ring finger. "Thank you."
She nodded and then we all waved at each other and the boys and I began to walk. We needed to get the Impala out of the impound and then get to the motel and get all of our stuff. After that we could move on, and I could figure out what in God's name I was doing…why in God's name I was feeling the way I was feeling.
"Nice lady." Sam said, trying to make small talk.
Dean shrugged at him. "Yeah, for a cop. She look familiar to you?"
"No, why?" Sam asked him with a smile on his face.
"I don't know…nothing. Hey, you guys hungry?" Dean asked us.
Sam laughed. "No, why?"
"For some reason I could really go for some pea soup." Dean replied with a shrug.
I smiled at my man's appetite and then stared at my ring, wondering why in the world I had kissed Sam when I was in love with Dean…and why in the world I had liked the feel of Sam's lips on mine…
Note: I hope you guys enjoyed this one and the drama in it! Like, "how could Lana and Sam do that? Anyone else notice that the chick who was protective of the boys with the tat on her behind in Chuck's premiere eppy was the SAME actress who played Karen in this one? When I saw her again in Season Four I was all, "It's Karen!" She was fun in both rolls. Anyway, in THIS story, the next chapter is shorter, and it has lots of flirting and a special surprise in it! Hope you like it! Feedback is always appreciated!