Chapter 28
After completing the second trial, Sam, Dean and Sarah made their way to Garth's houseboat only to find that Kevin had gone awol. They looked around for some type of clue as to where he had disappeared to but came up empty, so they drove back to the bunker to regroup.
Sarah had just finished taking a shower, cleaning off all the dried blood and grime from the last few days, when she walked through the library and spotted Sam about to face plant into his computer from exhaustion.
"Time to go to bed, Sambo." She stated, walking over to him.
"Hmmm?" Sam mumbled, barely noticing her.
"Come on, sleepy head." She said, placing her hand on his arm.
"What? I'm fine, Sarah." He mumbled.
"Right. Well, I'm not going to listen to you when your big head breaks your computer. So you either go to bed on your own or I'm gonna have to drag you."
Sam sighed but got up sleepily and let Sarah lead him to his room. Once at the door, he stumbled in and collapsed onto his bed, falling asleep almost instantly. Shaking her head, followed him and pulled off his shoes before grabbing a blanket and covering him with it. She gently pushed his hair away from his face and placed a light kiss to his forehead. "Sweet dreams, Sambo." She whispered before making her to her room and collapsing on her bed. The long hours since she'd last slept catching up with her.
Sarah woke to the feeling of something heavy and warm weighing her down. Slowly she opened her eyes to find that somewhere in the night, Dean had crawled into bed with her and was now laying half on top of her with his arms holding on to her tightly. His head nestled into the crook of her neck. A smirk spread across her face.
"Go back to sleep." Dean mumbled, nestling into her more. Shifting slightly so she could look at him, his response was to pull her closer. "I thought I told you to go back to sleep."
"And I thought this was my room." Sarah retorted.
He shifted a little so he could look at the room. "So it is."
"Not that I'm complaining, but I could have sworn that I was alone when I went to sleep last night." Sarah said, trying to see what he'd say but when he didn't say anything she asked, "What are you doing here Dean?"
"I… uh… had a bad dream…" he mumbled causing Sarah to laugh.
"Oh, Dean. I would have thought you'd have gotten better at lying by now."
Dean turned his head so that his chin rested on her chest and he could look at her, "Who said I'm lying?"
Another smirk spread across her face, "Just say why you're really here."
"That is why I'm here." He deadpanned.
Still smirking, Sarah whispered, "Just say it."
A slow smirk spread across his face, "And what if I don't."
Sarah quickly used one of her legs to help her flip them so that she was on top of Dean and holding both of his arms above his head. "Now say it." She teased.
He smirked at her then bucked his hips throwing her off balance, wrenched one of his hands free and flipped them over again. This time with him holding her hands with one of his while his other started to tickle her side. Sarah managed to get one of her hands out of his grasp and grabbed a hold of his neck and pulled him into a kiss. After a moment his hand stopped tickling her and grabbed ahold of her side instead.
Dean released her other hand and buried it in her hair as he deepened the kiss. Sarah ran her newly released hand down his back to the hem of his shirt. When her hand touched the exposed skin of his back, Dean let out a low moan. They broke their kiss long enough to remove each other's shirts before Sarah rose up and captured his lips again while running her hands down his chest to the waistband of his boxers.
Dean entered the bunker holding a bag of groceries and a six-pack of beer and a coffee. He placed the groceries and the six pack on the table before handing Sarah the coffee.
"Find anything?" he asked.
"No. Kevin must have learned to cover his tracks better." Sarah answered, staring at the computer. "Thanks for the coffee."
"That all the thanks I get?" Dean asked, taking a seat next to her.
Sarah shifted her gaze to him. "This morning wasn't enough?" Sarah asked before closing the small distance and kissing him.
When she pulled back, Dean mumbled with a smile, "Never." He was about to kiss her again when Sam walked into the room looking sleepy. Dean looked over at Sam's unusually messy hair and said, "Man, I'm telling you, give me five minutes with some clippers, and..."
"Oh, shut up. Uh, what time did I lay down?" Sam asked, using his fingers to flatten his hair. Sarah chuckled at them.
"I put you to bed around noon." Sarah informed him.
"Yesterday." Dean added before grabbing a beer and throwing it in Sam's direction. It shattered on the floor when Sam failed to catch it.
"I'm sorry, I, uh..."
"That's why we don't have nice things, Sam." Dean muttered. Sam moved toward the table, stumbling a little. "You okay?" he asked as he stood up, Sarah already rushing out of her seat.
"Yeah, I'm, I'm fine, I just…" Sam mumbled, leaning on the table and rubbing his face, "uh, you know what, I'm gonna get dressed. We should go find Kevin."
"Hey hey, hey hey hey, easy, easy, sleeping beauty. Look, man, I've hacked into every security camera around Garth's houseboat, Kevin's hometown, where Mrs. Tran lived..." Dean stated.
"And?" Sam asked.
"Nothing so far." Sarah replied.
"Guys, we have to find him." Sam grunted.
"I know. I know, but Garth is out looking for him, we got a hunter APB out on Kevin, we will do what we can from here while you get better." Dean said.
"I'm fine. Dean, I can still go out there, I can still hunt." Sam insisted.
"Really?" Dean asked skeptically. Dean took Sam to the shooting gallery to test his aim while Sarah worked on cleaning up the mess from the broken beer bottle. When they returned Sarah could tell that Sam hadn't passed Dean's test. Dean grabbed his beer again when the laptop sounded that they was an email.
Sam walked over to it and said, "It's from Charlie. 'In the neighborhood, found you guys a case.' Found us a case?"
"In the neighborhood?" Sarah asked.
"How the hell does she know where we are?" Dean asked.
"Uh, well, she doesn't. Not exactly, at least. It says she tracked our cells to a twenty mile radius, then the signal went out. Huh. This place must be in some kinda, like, Bermuda Triangle." Sam explained.
"What, are you saying we can make and receive phone calls from here and nobody can track us? Man I love this place." Dean stated.
A while later, Sam, Dean and Sarah stood outside the bunker waiting for Charlie to pull up.
"Your Highness!" Dean declared after Charlie had gotten out of her car.
"What's up, bitches?" Charlie greeted. Charlie then gave Sarah and Dean hugs then hugged Sam, who leaned on the impala immediately afterwards.
"You okay, Sam?" Charlie asked concerned. Sarah and Dean shared a look.
"Yeah, no, I'm, I'm good, yeah. What're you doing in Kansas?" Sam asked.
"Uh... a comic convention. In Topeka."
"In the middle of the week?" Sam asked.
"Girl's gotta get her collectibles. So, are you gonna invite me into your dungeon, or do I gotta answer your "questions three" first?" Charlie joked.
"Allow us— let us introduce you to the Men of Letters." Sam smirked. They took Charlie down into the bunker and showed her around a little before settling around the table in the library.
"Holy awesome. Too bad they got wiped out, though that is what they get for the sexist name." Charlie said.
"Well, anyway, that's our skinny. How about you?" Sam asked.
"Um, made a deal with the yesteryear weirdos, we're gonna team up to stomp the shadow orcs. You guys are still coming to the mid-year jubilee, right?" Charlie asked.
"Wouldn't miss it." Dean answered with a smirk.
"So what about this case you brought us?" Sarah asked.
"When I was in Topeka, I saw this pop up over the wire. Tom Blake, a checkout clerk in Salina, who went missing on his way home from work. He was found dead yesterday, his insides liquefied. Locals have no idea what happened, they tried to bury the report so people wouldn't freak, but I flagged it. I have eliminated the following things that go bump in the night..." Charlie explained, while doing something on her tablet.
"Wait a second. When did you become such an expert?" Sam asked.
"Well, after you guys left, I dug into all things monsters. I'm a wee bit obsessive. If 'wee bit' means completely. I also found this series of books, by a Carver Edlund?" Charlie explained. Sam, Dean and Sarah exchanged awkward looks. "Did those books really happen?" The boys looked away, while Sarah stared at the table, picking at one of her nails. Sam let out a long sigh. "Wow. That is some meta madness. Thanks for saving the world and stuff." She said to Dean then turned to Sam, "Sorry you have zero luck with the ladies." She then turned to Sarah, "Sorry… well, sorry about everything."
"Wha…" Sam started to say then turned to Dean, "We need to find every single copy of those books and burn them."
"They're online now, so good luck with that." Charlie replied.
"Awesome." Dean muttered getting up. Well, you crazy kids deal with that, I will go see if there's anything to this, uh, case of yours."
"I'm coming with you." Sam insisted.
"Sam…" Sarah started when he stood up but staggered, nearly falling over.
Charlie jumped from her seat and grabbed Sam's arm. "Whoa, are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes."
"No." Sarah stated.
"No. You're taking a knee as long as you're off your game." Dean insisted.
"I'll go with you." Charlie chimed in.
"No disrespect, okay, but there's a big difference between reading about hunting and actually hunting." Dean said.
"I'm coming with." Charlie persisted. Sarah began to chuckle at the exchange.
"It might be good for her to go with you, Dean. Give her some insight into what we do instead of the illusion those books show." Sarah chimed in.
Dean gave her an unamused look and took Charlie to the shooting gallery to give her the same test that he'd given Sam. A few minutes later, Dean emerged in his suit with Charlie following behind him. "We'll be in touch." He grumbled.
Sarah spent the day doing research for their case and trying to find some sort of clue on Kevin. She was so enthralled in her research that she didn't notice when Sam snuck out in his FBI suit. She barely noticed her cell phone when it began to ring.
"Shoot." She mumbled after picking up the phone.
"Mind telling me why you let Sam leave?" Dean growled into the phone.
"What? He's right… he's…" Sarah said, looking around for the first time in a few hours. "He was here…"
"Well, he's at the crime scene I just left. I thought I told you to watch him."
"Yeah, you also told me to research the case and find Kevin. I've been a little busy here to watch his every move." Sarah retorted. "So do you want to tell me about the crime scene you just went to or are you going to keep complaining about my babysitting skills?"
Dean sighed heavily, "There was another vic. Same as the other. Liquified insides and all. I'm on my way back to the morgue to see the bodies."
"Didn't you see the first one?" Sarah asked.
"We… uh… had a little trouble getting the coroner to cooperate." Dean mumbled.
Sarah chuckled at him. "Really? The great Dean Winchester couldn't con his way into the morgue?"
"Shut up." He grumbled.
Sarah chuckled again. "Well, tell me what you find out. Hopefully it will help narrow down our search."
A couple hours later, Sam, Dean and Charlie returned to the bunker and after a change of clothes they were all sitting around the table in the library with Sarah.
"Leviathan." Sam suggested.
"No, they consume their prey." Charlie replied, using her tablet to narrow down their suspects.
"Well, maybe the vics were Leviathan." Sam tried again.
"No black goo on either scene in the coroner reports." Charlie stated.
"Dragons, they uh.."
"No signs of burns on the vics." Charlie cut off Sam.
"I hate that thing." Sam muttered. "I want one."
"Wait a second. Djinn." Dean interjected, looking at his dad's journal.
"Djinn vics don't get liquefied." Charlie replied.
"No no no, not regular Djinn. According to this, there's a bastard offshoot. Uh, their eyes light up blue, they pass as humans, all that regular jazz, except these leave their victims with jelly-like insides, and supposedly, when they poison their victims, they leave behind a blue handprint." Dean explained, slamming his hand on the journal.
"I hate that thing. And I want one." Charlie mumbled, staring at the journal.
"Why haven't we heard about these before?" Sarah asked, grabbing the journal and looking at the entry.
"They're not very common."
"So these things die like regular Djinn?" Sam asked.
"Silver blade dipped in lamb's blood, yeah. And now we just gotta find the asshat." Dean said.
"Alright, well, breakthrough means snack time to me, and I wanna just stretch my legs. I will pick us up some grub, and unlike you, Sam, I will not forget the pie." Charlie said, acting a little weird before quickly leaving.
"She seem a little off to you?" Dean asked.
"Since the second she got here." Sam responded.
"You've got that right." Sarah added.
After a long while of not hearing from Charlie, Dean revealed that he had turned the GPS on Charlie's phone. They tracked the GPS to an apartment and found the room tossed.
"Charlie!" Sarah called out after entering the room.
Hey, Charlie, you in there?" Sam called out, following Sarah into the room.
They quickly survey the room but find it empty. Sam spotted her computer sitting on her desk with an open box next to it. "The hell?" Sam mumbled.
"What the hell is this place?" Dean asked as he looked around.
"Whatever it is, it belongs to Charlie." Sam said as he held up her fake I.D.'s. "Or some variation of her."
"Who the hell is she, Jason Bourne? Okay, so we got no forced entry, so either it was somebody that she knew, or..." Dean assessed.
"Djinn." Sarah finished for him.
Dean picked up Charlie's phone from the table. "Here's all our missed calls. You got anything on her laptop?"
"Yeah, um, she's been making donations through her aliases to Shawnee County General here in Topeka." Sam explained.
"What, a charity?" Dean asked.
"A patient. Gertrude Middleton."
"We need answers. I'll take Gertrude, you two keep Djinn-digging." Dean instructed.
Sam and Sarah spent the next hour digging into the history of the town, trying to find a lead on the Djinn.
"So, Sam… how are you doing?" Sarah asked tentatively as she drove them back to the bunker.
Sam sighed heavily. "I'm getting tired of people asking me that."
"Well, if you'd give us an honest answer, maybe we wouldn't ask it so much." Sarah retorted. "And I wanted to know because I don't want to do this if you're not feeling well."
"Do what?" Sam snapped.
Sarah reached over and smacked the back of Sam's head as she drove. "That."
"What was that for?" Sam complained, rubbing the back of his head.
"That's for sneaking out on me earlier."
Sam shifted in his seat. "Sorry." He mumbled.
"And?" Sarah pressed.
"And… I won't do it again…" Sam replied slowly. Trying to see if that was what Sarah wanted him to say.
"Good." Sarah stated.
A silence filled the car until Sam said, "So… you and Dean…"
"What about me and Dean?" Sarah asked defensively.
"Nothing. Nothing." Sam replied, a slight smile on his face. "It's just nice to see you two together again."
Sarah almost swerved off the road at his comment. When she was back in her lane, she asked, "What makes you think we're back together?"
"So I didn't see you two kissing this morning."
"Uh.. I… um…" Sarah sputtered. "Sam… we're not… I… uh…"
"I know, it's complicated, right?" Sam laughed lightly. "I'm just glad to see you and Dean happy."
They continued to drive in silence and caught back up with Dean at the bunker. He explained that the woman that Charlie was paying the medical care for, was in a coma and that he believed she was Charlie's mom.
"So no chance of a recovery, huh." Sam asked.
"No. No, Gertrude seemed like a cool mom, too. Kind, strong, taken from her family way too young — remind you of anybody? Did you find anything?" Dean asked.
"I think so. A John Doe from nine years ago. The original coroner wanted the body sent to the CDC, but the coroner's new assistant 'accidentally' ordered the body to be burned." Sam explained.
"New assistant?"
"Jennifer O'Brien." Sarah replied.
"Coroner's a hell of a cover for hiding kills." Dean stated.
"Now get this. CDC never heard from Jennifer this time either. She faked the reports, burned the bodies to cover her tracks." Sam added.
"So why does she get sloppy again after nine years, start leaving the bodies where they can be found?" Dean asked.
"Well, let's go ask her. According to this, she owns two pieces of property in town, one two-bedroom house about ten minutes from here, and an abandoned shipping warehouse." Sarah explained.
"Course she does." Dean mumbled.
Sam, Dean and Sarah made their way into the warehouse and started to search for Charlie. After clearing the first room they found Charlie tied to a chair, the Djinn nowhere to be seen.
Dean made his way to Charlie first. "Charlie. Charlie! Hey! Hey. Charlie." He called out shaking her slightly.
Sam leaves Dean with Charlie and starts to explore the rest of the warehouse. The Djinn crept up behind him. Sensing her presence, Sam spun around to attack her but she easily overpowered him and started to roll up her sleeve. The Djinn tattoos and her eyes begin to glow blue as she approached.
Suddenly, the blue light in her eyes dies out and she drops to the floor; Dean was revealed from behind the Djinn with his silver blade.
"You okay?" Dean asked.
"Where's Charlie?" Sam responded. They hurried back to the other room just as Sarah ran in with the Djinn antidote. Sam grabbed it from her and injected it into Charlie's arm, but nothing happened.
"What the hell's going on?" Dean growled.
"I don't know. Different Djinn, maybe she needs a different antidote?" Sam wondered.
"Possibly. But trying to make a different antidote would take too long." Sarah chimed in.
"Charlie?" Dean called out, touching her forehead. "She's burning up, man, we're not letting her turn to jello."
"Okay, okay, uh. Okay, Djinn poison puts your brain in something like a feedback loop while your blood boils, right?" Sam pondered.
"Right." Dean and Sarah answered in unison.
"Um, if the antidote didn't break the loop, then maybe we can find a way to break it from the inside. I mean, if Djinn take you to your happy place, your happy place is like a dream…"
"African dream root." Sam and Dean said together.
Sam returned with the dream root in a jar and handed it to Dean. Dean tipped a vial of ginger into the jar while Sam plucked a hair from Charlie's head and added it to the jar also.
"Alright, let's do this." Dean muttered before drinking the contents of the jar. "Ugh. Okay. Alright, I'm gonna need to go sleep fast, so, punch me." He instructed Sam. "Look, man, I know you don't want to, okay…" Sam cut Dean off by punching him. Dean staggered backwards a little, while Sam shook his hand in pain. "Well, you're a little off your game there, cause I was— that was pretty…" Sam punched Dean again. This time Dean slumped into the chair next to Charlie.
Sarah and Sam stood watch. Checking Charlie and Dean's pulses and temperature every few minutes.
"I'm gonna go check the perimeter. Stay here." Sarah said to Sam.
"Don't go too far." Sam replied. Sarah nodded then left the room. She was halfway through the next room when she heard a crashing sound from the other room.
"I just came of age, I had to feed. I screwed up." A teenage boy yelled as he punched Sam sending him flying to the ground.
Sarah ran toward the boy and landed a kick to the back of his shin sending him forward but not enough to throw him off completely. He spun around quickly and tossed Sarah across the room.
"Mom knew how to cover her tracks. She always told me not to play with my food." The boy said as he looked down at his mom's body giving Sam time to run up and stab the boy with his knife.
"Yeah, well, you should have listened to your mom." Sam stated as the boy dropped to the floor.
After a while Dean started to wake up.
"Dean? Dean. Hey. Hey! C'mere. You okay? What happened?" Sam asked as he helped Dean out of the chair.
"What happened?" Sarah asked as she placed her hand on his cheek.
"I'm okay." He replied then looked over to Charlie. "Charlie?" Charlie woke up, looked over at Dean and let out a tearful gasp. "I'm sorry. I had to."
Charlie started sobbing again as Dean pulled her into a hug. He then gave Sam and Sarah a sad look.
The next day, after some much needed rest, Charlie decided it was time to head out. They all walked outside with her to say goodbye.
"So... thanks for saving our bacon." Charlie said.
"Any time, your Highness." Sam replied with a smirk.
"You know you're gonna be okay, right? Those books portray you as like, one tough customer. If anyone can get through the trials, Sam, it's you." Charlie replied.
"Thanks. You know, you really should come back and dig through our archives. You are definitely a Woman of Letters." Sam stated.
"I like the sound of that." Charlie said with a smile before hugging him. She then turned to Sarah, "It's been good seeing you, Lady Sarah."
Sarah smiled and gave Charlie a hug. "You too."
"And thanks for loaning Dean to me." Charlie whispered before pulling back.
"Wha… Charlie…" Sarah sputtered. Charlie just gave a knowing grin before turning her attention to Dean. Sarah just shook her head and followed Sam into the bunker.
Dean walked in a few minutes later.
"Okay, look, you were right, I-I should've laid low, I— I know, I should've hung back, but I'm glad I was able to…" Sam started to explain but was silenced by Dean pulling him into a hug.
"What d'you say we find our prophet?" Dean asked before exiting the room and leaving Sam and Sarah there slightly bewildered.
