Challenge 29 - At least it can't get any worse
Here's part 2 of yesterday's chapter. This one got almost long enough to be a standalone story, but it was kind of fun to write. Angst abounds!
Jody followed along behind Dean, watching carefully for any hazards in the darkened tunnels. She'd done a lot of crazy things in her life, but heading into the sewers in search of a murderous shapeshifter was right up there on the list. If the creature wasn't enough of a worry, the sewers themselves were proving to be a distraction.
The farther they went into the tunnels, the more oppressive the passageways seemed. Jody wasn't exactly claustrophobic, but she wasn't particularly fond of being trapped underground, either. Added to that was the fact that the sewers were full of death traps; sections dropped away at the sides, draining into ditches filled with rushing water. Side-tunnels branched off into murky passageways, any one of which could prove to be the shifter's lair. The ground was slippery and coated with things she didn't want to think about. There were countless discarded items lying around, all of them in various stages of rusting away. She wasn't sure when her last tetanus shot had been, but she made a mental note to update it as soon as possible. The sewer system was like a maze from a horror movie and she knew exactly what that said about the creature who chose to live there.
She didn't want to show it, but Sam's words from earlier had made her uneasy. More uneasy. The younger Winchester wasn't taking the hunt as anything simple, confessing that he was prone to asking questions first and shooting later when it came to something wearing his brother's face. If they were hunting something that gave a Winchester pause, Jody figured she was right to be cautious. As for Dean, he had probably gone into overprotective mode if the strange rock, paper, scissors game the brothers had played was any indication. He had always been overprotective, but there was a lack of subtlety about his actions this time that had her wondering just what was going on. Dean was heading into the tunnels first and keeping a sharp eye on everything around them. Maybe he was being protective, but then again, he might just be out to make sure another shapeshifter didn't get the opportunity to ruin his life. Perhaps it was a mixture of both.
She could understand the siblings' concerns. If their past experiences were anything to go by, shifter hunts were a challenge. How could anyone possibly protect against something that could pretend to be anyone it wanted to be?
Both hunters looked on edge, wary of what might be coming for them. It was an expression that had an almost permanent home on their faces lately and it made Jody wish, not for the first time, that she could have done something to help them earlier. There had been so many times over the years that Jody just wanted to bundle the Winchester boys up and save them from the world. It didn't matter that they were both grown men - she was all but certain they'd never really been children. What kind of life had they had where they were both intimately aware of how it felt to kill something that looked like their brother? Sam had said that there were a lot of things that had used Dean's face over the years. She knew about the Leviathans, of course, but the fact that there had been others . . .
Jody tried to pull her head back into the game. She couldn't afford distraction.
The bobbing of Dean's flashlight was comforting, as was the sound of quiet splashing behind her as Sam followed closely behind. Jody was not a coward by any stretch of the imagination, but she wasn't so prideful that she couldn't admit to being glad the brothers were both there. The idea of taking on something like this alone was daunting. She would have done it, of course, but there was still that little nagging feeling of doubt. What if she made a mistake? What if she shot someone and found out later it was only an innocent sewer worker or something? A silver bullet could kill a human just as easily as it could a shifter. No, Jody was quite happy to have backup for this hunt.
"I think we're on the right track," Dean announced in a whisper, interrupting her thoughts and pulling her back to the present. "It shed its skin here."
He aimed his flashlight at a pile of gelatinous-looking goo on the ground.
"That's shifter skin?" Jody asked in disgust. As she looked down at it, she could vaguely make out the shape of a human ear. There were pieces of hair sticking out of the mound of discarded flesh, as well as teeth. It was disgusting and Jody felt ill at the sight, but she pushed the feeling down. It wouldn't help anything to admit how much it grossed her out.
"If it's shedding here, we're probably pretty close to its lair," Sam agreed. "Stay sharp."
The words weren't likely meant for Dean, but Jody didn't take it personally. She gripped her flashlight tightly and kept her gun ready. The boys were worried and that was more than enough to put her on guard.
They followed the passageway for what seemed like an eternity before Dean stopped again. He leaned down, poking at debris that was piled on the ground.
"Clothing," he said softly. "Hasn't been here long. Parts of it are still dry."
Jody turned to check on Sam, but the younger man was still bringing up the rear with a determined expression on his face. His eyes were in constant motion, sizing up every shadow for threats. Jody peered down a side passage as she walked by, shining her light against the brickwork.
Nothing.
Dean gave a small sound that had Sam moving forward with his gun at the ready. The brothers were so attuned to one another that Jody had barely had time to turn around before they were already working in unison like a well-oiled machine.
Jody caught a quick glimpse of a large chamber in front of them, but she couldn't see much from behind the other hunters.
"Stay behind us," Dean whispered.
Jody didn't like that at all, but there was no time to argue the point. She simply shifted her stance and guarded their backs as the boys went in.
"Doesn't look like it's here," Sam said quietly after a moment. "Not many places to hide, either."
It didn't take long to clear the room and Jody found herself in the lair of a shapeshifter.
Lair was the only way to describe it. It couldn't be considered much of a home by any stretch of the imagination - there was nothing comfortable about the space. There were multiple side tunnels exiting the room, which no doubt provided a quick escape if needed. Everything from the chains dangling from the tunnel ceiling to the piles of discarded skin heaped on the waterlogged floor indicated that the shifter wasn't particularly worried about appearances. There were flashlights on multiple flat surfaces, and a table near the edge of the room held a large grime-covered mirror.
There was a stack of blankets that probably doubled as a sleeping area. Jody noted that it was as far away from the water as it could get. Apparently even shifters didn't want to sleep in a puddle.
"Check this out," Sam said from his position on the far side of the chamber.
Jody picked her way carefully through the debris to see what had caught his attention.
"Newspaper clippings," he announced, shining his light on them so she could see better. "Every one of them about a domestic assault and some of them are nearly a decade old."
"Not all of these are from Sioux Falls, either," Jody observed. "He's been doing this a long time. Probably gets his kicks reading about it in the paper."
"Do you think it's possible it didn't even know Jim Johnston had died?" Sam asked, turning to Jody. "It doesn't look like impersonating dead people was part of its plan. Maybe it'd already chosen the form, but showed up one day too late."
"And that was enough to put it on my radar," Jody mused. "If it had come a day earlier, I would have had another open-and-shut domestic abuse case."
The thought that something like the shifter could be operating under her nose without her knowledge stoked more than a little anger in Jody. How many other crimes were being committed by monsters in her jurisdiction?
"Okay, I want this guy taken down," she said firmly. "Where the hell is he? I thought you said he slept during the day."
Sam shrugged. "We thought so. Good thing is that we know it'll come back here. We've got all the newspaper clippings and if it's carried them around for the better part of a decade, it isn't likely to leave them here."
"We might still be able to track it," Dean said. "Look for anything that might show us where it's going."
Jody turned back to the table with the mirror. Maybe he had left something there. Dean headed to the bed while Sam remained with the newspaper clippings.
The sheriff examined the small table with a professional's eye, dismissing the obvious garbage while noting the broken comb that had been carefully placed directly in front of the mirror, as though it meant something to the shifter. She saw nothing that would give any indication as to the shifter's next move. Jody sighed and glanced up into the mirror where she could see Sam's reflection as he read through the clippings. Something caught her eye and her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
She was shouting a warning even as she spun to face the threat, but she was going to be too late; she knew that with certainty as she brought her gun to bear on the figure that lurked just behind Sam.
The younger Winchester didn't have time to react as the shifter hit him viciously hard with a pipe. Sam dropped like a rock, unconscious before he even hit the ground, and the shifter was already moving.
Dean was letting loose, firing repeatedly the moment Sam had fallen, but the shifter was incredibly fast. Jody was firing, too, but her shots missed as the creature darted back into the tunnel.
Dean didn't waste a second crossing the room, bending briefly to check his brother's pulse before starting down the shadowy passageway. "Look after him!" he ordered, his voice hard and dangerous as he reloaded his weapon. "I'm going after the shifter."
Jody was already shaking her head. Going alone was a recipe for disaster. "Dean-"
"We don't have time to argue. It's our only chance to kill it," Dean insisted. "Be careful - it might circle back."
"Dean!" Jody's cry might as well have been a whisper for all the good it did. Dean was gone, chasing after a murderous shapeshifter in its own domain.
So much for not splitting up.
It didn't take long for the adrenaline rush to leave and for Jody to once again start feeling the oppressive nature of the underground lair.
It didn't help that the chamber was not exactly the most defensible area and now that she was single-handedly responsible for the well-being of an injured man, she was painfully aware of all the ways in which the shifter might sneak up on them. She had taken Sam's gun and tucked it into her waistband at the small of her back, figuring that it wasn't doing him much good and it would save her from reloading if it came down to it. The shifter was unbelievably fast. She was going to need every advantage she could get.
As for Sam, Jody had checked him over as best she could and was fairly satisfied that he would be okay. He'd shown some signs of waking, and she was more than ready to have company again.
While she waited for Sam to join her in the land of the conscious, Jody worried about Dean. He had been gone for nearly ten minutes - more than long enough to get into trouble. More than long enough to get killed.
The agony of not knowing was eating at her, and only the knowledge that Sam needed her right now kept her from storming out into the tunnels after the elder Winchester.
She was starting to hate shapeshifters.
Sam groaned and moved slightly.
"Hey, Sam," Jody coaxed. "Time to wake up. Come on."
She was using the same tone she'd once used to wake her son and the fact was not lost on her. She wasn't old enough to be their mother, but the Winchester brothers inspired that same fierce protective streak in her and she couldn't bear to fight it. But now, one of her boys was hurt, the other was possibly off getting himself killed, and she was stuck in an underground labyrinth with a serial-killing monster.
She wasn't going to say 'at least it can't get any worse'. She knew better than to tempt fate.
There was a muffled sound in the tunnel and Jody had her gun ready in an instant. She peered into the shadows, ready to fire at a moment's notice. Her teeth were gritted in determination. If that shifter thought she was going down easy, it had another thing coming.
"Jody?"
A jolt of relief ran through her at the voice. "Dean?"
"Jody, I'm coming in. Don't shoot me, okay?"
"Slowly," she warned, not lowering her guard.
A figure slowly melted out of the darkness, stepping into the light with deliberate caution. His hands were up in a non-threatening manner and Jody stared intently at him. He had a scrape on his forehead and was covered in what looked like all manner of dirt and grime. Jody didn't want to think about what substances might be covering Dean's jacket. It certainly looked like him, but then again, that was the problem.
"How do I know it's you?" Jody asked.
"It's me," the figure said, a slight edge to his voice. He moved a little closer, letting Jody's flashlight shine on him more fully. "Jody, I swear to you that it's me."
"What about the shifter?"
"Dead. I killed him."
Jody frowned. "I didn't hear any gunfire."
"Decapitation also works." He replied. "Lost my machete down a side drain, though."
"There's gotta be some way you can prove it," Jody said. "I can't just take you at your word, not after everything you boys have told me about these things."
Sam gave another sound at her side and it was everything Jody could do to keep her eyes trained on the man in front of her.
"Sammy? How's he doing?" the figure took a step forward, but Jody warned him back with a jerk of her gun.
"No closer."
"I'm not going to hurt him! He's my brother!" The man protested. He let out a frustrated sigh. "I don't know how to prove it to you, Jody. I'm me, okay? Ask me something, anything. Something only I would know!"
Jody shook her head. "If you're the shifter, you know everything Dean would know."
The eyes that stared at her were Dean's. The hands that were raised in surrender were Dean's. The clothing looked like Dean's, but it was hard to tell under all the mud and slime. If it wasn't Dean, it was an amazing impression.
Indecision swirled in Jody's mind. She was holding a gun on Dean.
Or she was holding a gun on a monster.
"You should have stayed with us," Jody said, a hint of anger colouring her voice. "We shouldn't even be in this situation!"
"We didn't have time. If he got away, we'd never find him again!"
Another moan beside her had her gritting her teeth. Sam had terrible timing. She wanted to check him, but she didn't dare take her eyes off the man who might be Dean.
"Jody, help him, please!"
Well, damn if that didn't sound exactly like the words Dean would say.
She kept the gun trained on the man who might be Dean as she reached down with her other hand to pat Sam's cheek. "Come on, Sam. I could use your help here."
"Is he okay?" Dean's voice asked.
"He'll be fine," Jody said firmly. She stared at the man in indecision. There had to be a way to tell if he was the real one . . .
And then it hit her.
"You said if he got away, we'd never find him again."
Dean's face took on a confused expression. "That's right. He's fast and if he got away-"
Jody's eyes narrowed as she rose to her feet, the gun trained at centre mass of the figure before her. "You're not Dean."
She fired, the bullet streaming from the gun with deadly precision. Even as the projectile struck home, something inside Jody screamed in horror at what she'd just done.
She watched as Dean's eyes flew wide in shock and his body jolted with the impact. For a moment they stared at each other, an eternity in which Jody could only watch as pain blossomed in the features of a man she loved like a son.
What if she was wrong?
What if she had just murdered Dean?
He fell to his knees, his hands already coming forward to cradle his wound. He gasped against the agony he must have been feeling and blood dribbled from his lips as he mouthed her name. When he looked up at Jody in disbelief, familiar eyes clouded in hurt and betrayal, something broke inside her.
Those were Dean's eyes.
She couldn't help it. A sob escaped from her mouth and she dropped the gun, sick dread filling her as she watched Dean's body slump to the side. Her hands shook and she nearly threw up.
She couldn't breathe. She had killed him.
She had killed Dean.
Her vision blurred and it took her a second to realize her eyes were filling with tears. She felt dizzy at the realization of what she had just done. Jody gasped for breath, falling to her knees beside Sam, suddenly aware that he was going to wake up to find that she had shot his brother.
What was she going to say to Sam?
As if on cue, the younger Winchester stirred again, this time managing to open his eyes blearily as he struggled to orient himself. Jody moved to block his view of his dead brother.
He shouldn't have to see that.
No one should ever have to see that.
She wanted to comfort him, to ask him if he was okay, but she couldn't breathe.
Sam seemed to rally a little at her obvious distress, shakily pushing himself up until he was propped against the chamber wall. He stared at her in concern even as he hissed in pain at his head injury. He was clearly trying to focus, but was having difficulty with the task.
"Jody?" he asked shakily. "What happened?"
"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry, Sam. I'm sorry."
Sam's eyes grew wide in alarm. "What happened? Jody?"
The fear in his eyes forced Jody to take a deep breath. She needed to be strong now. She had to be there for Sam, even if he never forgave her for what she'd done.
Her voice was surprisingly even when she answered. "I shot him. I thought he was the shifter and I shot him."
Sam's breath hitched as he stared at her in horror. "Dean? Where?"
Jody moved aside, letting Sam see the body for himself.
"No," the hunter breathed. "No, no, no. It isn't him, it can't be!"
He tried to stand, his shaking limbs barely supporting him. Jody reached out, half-expecting to be pushed aside, but Sam accepted her aid as she helped him to his feet. They made their way to the body where Sam dropped unceremoniously to his knees, heedless of the muck that covered the tunnel floor. He reached out with a trembling hand and touched his brother's shoulder, pushing slightly to turn the body onto its back.
Jody winced as Dean's limp form rolled on the filthy ground.
Sam was silent as he took in the lax features before him. His eyes trailed the length of the body, no doubt taking in the various scars and marks that made his brother uniquely Dean.
The silence stretched out to an almost unbearable length.
"It's not him," Sam said firmly.
Jody felt her heart break. "Sam-"
"It's not him!" The young hunter was adamant. "It's hard to tell about the clothes under all the mud, but those definitely aren't Dean's boots. They're not. It isn't him."
Jody bit her lip, uncertain. "His boots? Sam, I don't know."
"Jody, you have to trust me," Sam's eyes were huge as he looked up at her. "Dean is alive and we need to find him. He's alive. You killed the shifter, not Dean."
She wanted so badly to believe him.
"Please," Sam asked, pain evident in every pore. "Please help me find him."
She was helping him up before she was even aware of moving. The chances of finding Dean in the maze of tunnels were slim. Sam was injured, barely able to stand on his own, and Jody was still reeling from the events of mere minutes ago.
There was nothing else they could do, though. Jody knew in that moment that she would stay down there for as long as it took to find Dean. Or the shifter, if it turned out that Sam was wrong. She needed to know for certain, one way or the other.
She took as much of Sam's weight as she could, propping him up on her left side, and Sam seemed determined to avoid crushing her. They made their painfully slow way to the entrance the probable shifter had used, nearly making it before a sound reached their ears.
Jody reached to her waistband where she had stowed Sam's gun, pulling the weapon and aiming it with a trembling hand. Sam tried to take more of his own weight, reaching out to brace himself on the nearby wall as they waited to see what was happening. He was shaking so badly, Jody didn't dare release her grip on him.
There was the scuffing sound of shuffling feet and then a voice called out. "Jody? You okay?"
"Dean?" Sam called, hope filling his voice. "Is that you?"
"Yeah, Sammy, it's me. I'm coming in. Don't shoot me, okay?"
The words had Jody tensing and as Dean Winchester's form turned the corner and stepped into the light she wanted to cry.
The elder Winchester had his hands up in an non-threatening gesture, though his gun was still clasped loosely in his right hand. He was covered in mud and slime, and was sporting a scrape on his forehead.
It was almost an exact replay of what had happened before and Jody was clenching her jaw so tightly she thought her teeth would crack.
Sam moved to step forward, but Jody held him back with a firm grasp on his arm.
"Wait," she said. Her tone left no room for argument and Sam fell still at her side.
The man with Dean's face stopped in the doorway. "It's me, Jody. I promise. Sammy?"
The figure turned to look at the younger man, his eyes simultaneously appraising Sam's condition and pleading for recognition. It was such a difficult expression to even define, much less replicate. Jody's breath hitched.
"Dean, are you okay?" Sam blinked at the figure, plainly having issues seeing him clearly. Then again, he was already convinced that the shifter had been killed and Dean was alive. Sam wasn't going to be much help determining if this really was Dean and Jody couldn't rely solely on his concussed judgement.
"The shifter is still alive," the man warned, ignoring Sam's question as he turned to Jody. "We fought, but it knocked me out and got away."
Jody's eyes widened. "Say that again."
"Which part?" he asked in confusion.
"The part about the shifter," Jody insisted.
"It got away. It could be coming back here and we need to be ready."
"Oh my God!" Jody cried. She flicked the safety on and stowed the gun in her waistband before holding out her right arm to beckon Dean in. Sam shifted on her left, where her grip had probably turned painful rather than supportive, but Jody kept a hold of him anyway and he didn't fight it. There was only a moment of confused hesitation before Dean was moving into her embrace, bracketed on the other side by his unsteady brother.
Jody hugged him so tightly, she thought she might suffocate him by accident. He was getting her covered in sewer muck, but Jody didn't care.
Dean was alive.
The relief was almost unbearable in its intensity and she felt her eyes tearing up again.
"Next time we hunt a shifter, if you go off on your own, I will shoot you," she said firmly.
"Yes, ma'am," Dean replied evenly. "But right now we need to find the shifter-"
"Jody killed it already," Sam pointed out, drawing out of the group hug so he could lower himself wearily to the floor. Dean reached out to help him down, then turned a surprised look to Jody.
"I thought you thought that I was the shifter?"
"I wasn't sure," Jody countered. "I shot him and for a minute, I was certain it was him, but then when he was dying . . . all I could see was you. The eyes looked so much like yours . . . I thought maybe I'd made a mistake."
Dean's expression was soft and Jody saw the sympathy beneath the knowing gaze. "But you know for sure now?"
"Earlier when you were warning us about the shifter, you said that it could be coming back," Jody explained. "You've always referred to the shifter as it. When the shifter was pretending to be you, it tried to tell us that he might be coming back."
Dean's mouth opened in surprise. "Are you serious? You might have shot me over a misused pronoun?"
"You know what a pronoun is?" Sam joked tiredly from the floor, earning himself an exasperated glare from his brother.
Jody smiled faintly. "It all worked out in the end."
"For what it's worth, Jody, I'm sorry," Dean said softly. "That couldn't have been easy."
Jody bit her lip. She could have gone her entire life without the image of Dean dying in front of her to haunt her nightmares, particularly with the knowledge that it had been by her hand. She had killed the shifter, but Jody couldn't feel any sense of victory at the accomplishment; she just felt tired. Pulling the trigger would torment her for a long time. Though her brain knew that she hadn't murdered Dean, it was going to take awhile before her heart chose to accept it as fact.
Maybe she was starting to understand what Sam had meant when he said that things always went badly for them in a shifter hunt. Even when they won, there was a cost. As long as that cost was just Jody's peace of mind and not a dead Winchester, she could learn to live with that.
"What say we burn that handsome devil?" Dean interrupted her thoughts with a smile. "Then we can get Sammy topside for a CAT scan or something."
"I don't need a CAT scan," Sam protested with a groan.
Dean ignored him, rolling his eyes at Jody with a shake of his head.
Jody couldn't help but smile. That was the real Dean - accept no substitutes.
And when the shifter's body was ready to burn . . . well, she was going to be the one to light that sucker up.
