It was well after midnight before Sam and Dean made it to the motel in Atlanta that they knew their sister had checked in at. Dean parked the car in front of the building and turned to face his brother.
"So do we bribe or pretend like we are FBI?" he asked.
Sam sighed, "This place looks pretty sketchy. I don't think they want law enforcement looking around."
Dean nodded and pulled out his wallet, looking inside, "All I've got is a twenty. What do you have?"
Sam looked in his own wallet and pulled out two more twenties, "Here," he said, "You go, I'll wait out here in case she saw us roll in and tries to make a break for it."
"Good thinking," Dean said as he got out of the car and headed inside of the lobby. There was a man sitting at a desk, more or less passed out, "Excuse me," Dean said loudly, ringing the bell that was on the counter.
The employee shot to his feet and wiped away the drool on his chin, "Yes, sorry. How can I help you?"
Dean smiled, "I'm actually looking for someone who checked in here yesterday morning. Tiny girl, short blonde hair, about yay high," he held his hand up to his chest to show about how tall Imogen was.
"Sorry," the worker said, "I'm not really supposed to give out information-" he stopped talking when he saw Dean lay the money on the counter, "Okay, I might know who you're talking about. You got a picture of her so I can confirm?"
Dean nodded and pulled out his phone, showing the man a picture of his sister.
"Yeah, she's here. Checked in about a week ago."
"A week?" Dean asked, "You sure about that? The credit card was just charged last night."
"Yeah, she was paying with cash up until last night," he shrugged, "What do you want her for?"
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt her. Just been looking for her for a while. What room is she in?"
The man frowned, "Room sixteen. Don't be causing a scene here. People are trying to sleep."
Dean nodded and didn't say another word as he turned and headed out of the building, motioning for Sam to follow him. Room sixteen was on the bottom floor, very close to where they had parked. Sam picked the lock and in a few seconds the two were inside. The room was dark and briefly Sam and Dean wondered if this had just been a trap and she wouldn't be there, but then they turned the lights on and she was sitting up on the bed and looking at the two of them.
"Imogen," Sam said, rushing over and pulling her to her feet so that he could hug her, "You scared the shit out of me."
Imogen didn't fight him off but she didn't hug him either, "Yeah, I figured," when the hug ended she sat back on the bed, "Dean," she acknowledged the brother who hadn't said a word.
Dean slowly came into the room and shut the door behind him, "You don't seem all that shocked that we're here."
"I'm not," she responded.
"Don't you even want to know how we found you?" Dean asked, slowly approaching.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because you two are resourceful. You could find anybody who left any kind of a trail anywhere."
"But you didn't leave a trail," Dean stated, "In fact you covered your tracks damn good. Sam, Bobby, and I, we had no idea where you were. No idea."
"I know," she smirked, "I learned from the best how to hide my ass. Which is why I knew the second I used one of those credit cards you two would come running."
"So what," Dean looked at her, "Did you run out of money?"
"No, I'm not an idiot. I'm not gonna blow through money. Besides, it wouldn't have been that hard for me to make money. I didn't need to use the credit card."
"So you wanted us here… Why?" Dean took another step towards her sister, "Why didn't you just call?"
"Well, I didn't have a phone," Imogen stated, shrugging her shoulders.
"You could have bought one, you've got plenty of cash. So what the hell is with the games?" Dean was obviously annoyed.
"I knew if I called there would just be a big lecture, and I knew you two would get here faster if you thought there was a chance that I could be gone any minute."
"So what, you want a ride home? What's going on? Why the hell did you just take off?"
"Oh I don't know," Imogen got to her feet, standing toe-to-toe with her oldest brother, "Why did you just take off any of the times that you have?"
Dean was silent, staring down at his little sister.
"You explain yours and I'll explain mine. Until then," she shrugged and turned to Sam, "How ya' been Sammy?"
Sam sighed sadly, "A wreck," he said, "So what are you doing here?"
"Yeah," Dean interrupted, "What the hell are you doing in Atlanta?"
Imogen didn't bother to turn to look at Dean, "I found a case."
Both Sam and Dean tensed up, neither liking the sound of that.
"A case?" Sam asked, doing his best to keep his cool, "What kind of a case?" his voice was abnormally high pitched.
"You okay, Sam?" she asked.
"Hey," Dean interrupted, "Screw this case. Let's just go back to Bobby's. He's worried sick."
Now Imogen did turn to glare at her brother, "This is my case, I found it, and I'm gonna work it. You wanna go back to Bobby's be my guest."
Dean flinched a little. He would have had to been stupid to think that was going to work. But he REALLY wanted to get her out of this town.
"What are you hunting?" Sam asked.
Imogen was still looking at her oldest brother, she wanted to torture him, wanted to make him absolutely crazy, "Is there some reason you don't want to work this case?"
"What? No, of course not. I just wanna get you back to where it's safe," Dean tripped over his own words.
"You worried about something, Dean?" she asked, "Because you wanted to take me on the case you found. What's wrong with this case?"
Dean took a deep breath, trying to keep his cool, "You just scared the hell out of me, is all. Had no idea what happened to you."
Imogen smirked and nodded, "It's a shitty feeling isn't it?"
"So what are you hunting?" Dean asked this time, "How can I help?"
"Well, to be honest I'm not really hunting anything."
"What the hell are you doing here then?"
Imogen rolled her eyes, "Don't play stupid Dean."
"Em," Sam gently turned her around, "What do you think you're going to find here? Is being here gonna somehow make you feel better?"
She pulled away from him, "You know Sam, it's a really sucky thing not knowing who you are or where you come from."
"I'm sure it is," he agreed, "But Em, what are you gonna learn here that you don't already know?"
"The truth," she stated.
"The truth is overrated," Dean stated causing his sister to turn back to him.
"So you admit that you haven't told me the truth all these years?"
Dean sighed, "I admit that Sam and I might have left a few things out, but kid we told you what you needed to know."
She wanted to shoot him right then and there in that motel room, but she couldn't. She had a plan and she was going to stick to it as closely as possible.
"Let's go," she said to Dean.
"Go? Go where? Back to Bobby's?"
Imogen shook her head, "To my house."
"Em, I don't even know how to get there."
"I do," she told him, "It's five blocks away."
'Can't it wait until the sun is up?"
"No, Winchester. I want to go now, and either you take me or I'll find someone else who will."
Sam stepped between the two, "No, it's fine. We'll all go together."
Imogen shook her head, "No, I need it to be just me and Dean. Don't worry Sam, there's something I need to do with just you later," she looked back at Dean, "Are we going or what?"
Dean shook his head and headed out the door, Imogen followed behind him.
"I'll just… wait here then," Sam said to himself, looking quite lost and confused.
Dean and Imogen road to the house in mostly silence, other than the directions that she gave him. Though, truth be told he probably could have found it on his own, he'd been there before. It'd just been over a decade.
"Okay," Dean said, pulling into the driveway, "We're here, what do you want to do?"
"Don't turn the car off, you're gonna have to pull into the garage," she hopped out of the car and ran up to the house to open the garage, which she had just broken the lock on earlier for this purpose. She didn't want Ms. Jenkins seeing the car and calling the police.
Dean slowly pulled the impala into the garage and turned it off as Imogen pulled the garage door back down.
"So what are we doing here?" he asked, grabbing a flashlight out of the car and turning it on so that he could see where he was going.
"I wanna show you something," she said, walking ahead of him into the house.
He followed.
"Come upstairs with me," she requested, going up the stairs and into her old bedroom.
"This place has really gone to shit, huh?"
Imogen nodded, "Yeah it has," the two were standing in her room together, "Did you ever see up here?" she asked, "This was my bedroom," she pointed to the window, "My bed was there. I would wake up early in the morning to look out. Sometimes I would see deer in the backyard."
"You remember that?" Dean asked.
"Yep… Funny how coming back to this place can make someone remember so much."
"What else do you remember?" he asked.
"I remember the first time that I met you."
Dean smiled a little, "Oh yeah? Well, right back at you, sister."
Imogen scoffed, "Sister," she muttered under her breath, shaking her head, "Did you know there's a photo of me at the local Walmart here on the missing children's billboard?"
"No, I didn't know that. But I mean, I'm not surprised."
Imogen grabbed his arm and pulled him into the room right next to her's, "This was my mom's room," she paused, "Well, hell you probably already knew that."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he barked.
"Actually, knowing you, you probably didn't even take her upstairs," she shook her head, "Anyways, I used to come in here at night and crawl in bed with her when I had a nightmare. And even sometimes when I just needed someone to be there, she was there and she never complained," she looked at Dean, "It's too bad that every time I've had someone there who loved me, who wasn't going to leave me, that you've ruined that."
"Excuse me?" Dean narrowed his eyes at her.
But she ignored his question, "Come on. Let's go back downstairs."
Dean walked out ahead of her and was standing at the top of the stairs. She had her opportunity and she took it. Imogen pulled the gun out of the back of her pocket, turning it around so that she was holding the barrel in her hand, and she slammed the butt of it against the back on Dean's skull. He tumbled violently down the stairs, and Imogen was quick behind. She made sure that he was breathing before she slowly drug him into the kitchen. She turned on the lantern she had left earlier and tied him up in a rickety wooden chair. She'd had all this planned and put into place earlier that day.
Imogen disarmed her brother, setting all his weapons out of reach before she pulled Dean's phone out of his pocket and opened up his text messages. He had one from Sam that said, 'You need any help?' sent about ten minutes ago.
Quickly Imogen messaged him back, acting as Dean, 'No, we're good. Em's emotional. Stay put. I'll keep you updated'. And she slipped Dean's phone into her pocket so he wouldn't be able to call for help.
Finally Dean started to stir and he opened his eyes.
"Em?" he groaned, "What the hell happened? Did I trip?" he tried to move and realized that he was tied up, "What the hell is going on?"
Imogen smiled at him, it was even more menacing because all that was illuminating her was the light from the lantern. Like a scary movie.
"No, Dean. You didn't trip. I pushed you... Well, not exactly pushed, but you know what I mean."
"What the hell are you talking about?" he groaned, still not processing everything that was going on.
"Well, first I fractured you skull with this baby," she pulled out her pistol to show to him before laying it on the kitchen counter, "And then you fell."
"Why?" he asked again, his voice almost sounding panicked.
"Payback," she said, "For what you did to my mother."