"Relieved to be going home?" Caleb asked, as he and Dean completed the last stage of the drive back to their own hometown.
"Yeah," Dean said, as he settled back against the leather anterior of Caleb's car.
The case had been longâ€"first stop had been the county morgue to examine the victim's, and then on to the girls' home to interview their traumatized father and get a better idea of what they were dealing with, with a quick trip upstairs to where the murder had taken place.
"What do you think about that paw print?"
"I don't know," Dean said, shaking his head with a scoff.
At the center of their investigation, was a print that had been found among the blood and gore in the bathroom. The police were baffled, and had no leads as to what could have caused that, and if it was the thing that had murdered two innocent girls.
From Caleb's best estimation, it was an animal of some sort. Whether it had acted alone, or it had been controlled by something, was still up for debate. For the time being, he was focusing solely on getting them home safely. The case had taken the entire day to complete, and they still had to make the trip back in the morning. But in the meantime, he was intent on getting a full night's rest, and pick it up again the next day.
"It could be an animal," Caleb theorized, turning off the highway that was conveniently situated right near their neighborhood. "Or it could be something that a spirit is manifesting."
"Can a spirit do that?" Dean asked, turning his head to the side to look at his guardian.
From what he knew to be true, spirits only inhabited the places they had become stuck in after refusing to cross over. They became vengeful and then the pattern was typically always the same as they moved around the place they had become stuck in, murdering whoever tried to enter it, and always leaving a trail of carnage behind.
"Sometimes. In certain cases, they can possess objects or people, sometimes, or even animals, I guess."
"I learn something new every day," Dean said with a smirk.
"It's rare," Caleb explained, looking at him with the limited amount of sunset light they had left. "I've only run into something like that, like, twice ever."
"Oh. What do you think Sammy's doing right now?"
Dean had been anxious to return home and make sure his little brother was still okay. Not that he had any real worries with Bobby managing the helm, but it still bothered him to leave Sam for extended periods of time like he had done that day.
"Well," Caleb said, as he glanced at the lit clock on the radio. "It's about seven right now, so he and Bobby are probably in the kitchen, and they're stuffing their faces while we're the ones who have been working all day."
"Yeah," Dean said with a rare smile. "That sounds about right."
"Well, we'll be sure to bore them all with every single detail of the case," Caleb said, smiling.
"Yeah, but Sam will probably eat it up. He's the one that found it for us," Dean noted, as they finally pulled into their neighborhood.
Even though sometimes he had longed to escape it just for a day, it still was always a relief to come back to it after a job or school, where he could go to the peaceful sanctuary of his own room, and just chill for awhile.
"True," Caleb said, as they pulled into their garage, which seemed to double as a storage bin. "We have to do something about this garage."
Most of their hunting gear and the boys' stuff had somehow found their way into the inner parts of the garage. The basement and other rooms in the house, were off limits, and the only place to store those things, had been in the garage.
"Yeah, I know," Dean said, as he took in the massive sight in front of him. "But later, right?"
"Yeah, of course."
Both of them were too exhausted to contemplate doing a garage renovation. That would have to wait until they were rested enough, and had recovered from their first day of hunting.
"When do you want to go back?"
"Tomorrow. Early."
"Cool."
Even though they had made significant headway already, they still had to pinpoint what the print meant, and how it was connected to the brutal killings that had taken place at the family's ancestral home.
Predictably when they walked through the door, Sam was thrilled to see them. Running from his place at the table, to meet Caleb and his big brother, he all but jumped into his guardian's arms, so glad to have them back safely.
"Were you good for Bobby, sport?" Caleb asked, as he gave Sam a tight hug before setting him back down, and ushering him back to his place.
"Yes-"
"No," Bobby interjected, with a wry smile, showing he was only teasing. "He about destroyed the place."
"Sam," Caleb said, feigning outrage. "You know the rules, right? To always listen to Uncle Bobby?"
"Y-yes," Sam shrieked between giggles, as Caleb leaned over his chair, tickling his sides. "I did! I did! I p-promise!"
"I don't know, Dean," Caleb said, trading glances with Dean. "Do you think we should let him slide?"
"Definitely...maybe. If he agrees I'm the best big brother ever."
"Alright, Sam," Caleb said with a grin. "You heard him."
"Fine!" Sam yelled between laughs. "Dean is the best brother ever!"
"Thank you," Dean said, looking victorious.
Dinner was a rambunctious affair. Sam, exultant at having the rest of his family back, happily chattered about the events of his day, and what adventures he had outside when Bobby had allowed him out, and the little friend he had adopted.
"You brought in a what?" Dean asked, slowly raising his fork to his mouth.
"A worm," Sam said, with a shrug, as his legs absently kicked the table while he ate. "Ants were about to eat him, and I rescued him."
"Where is it now?" Caleb asked, trading looks with Dean.
"In my room in a box. Can I keep him?"
"Um..."
"Please?"
"I...guess," Caleb said finally, seeing no harm in allowing Sam to keep his disgusting new pet. "Don't be surprised, though if it-"
"Croaks," Dean filled in, when it was obvious Caleb was trying to figure out how to phrase it.
"I know," Sam said simply. "Bugs die, but he's good company for now."
"True," Caleb conceded.
"So," Bobby said, as they began to clear away the dishes. "How was the job?"
"Long," Caleb groaned, as he started the mundane task of loading the dishwasher. "But we managed to get some information, didn't we?" he said, looking over at Dean, who nodded.
"What kind of information?"
"The morgue didn't really reveal anything we didn't already know," Caleb said. "After that, we talked to the girls' father."
"And what happened there?"
"There was this really creepy knocker," Dean said, recalling how perfectly lifelike the lion head knocker had been when they had first stumbled upon it while waiting to meet the father.
"At the house?" Bobby asked.
"Yeah," Caleb said, "it was shaped like a lion's head, and it had these weird eyes that seemed really real. It was pretty bizarre."
"Could be a talisman, something to ward off evil," Bobby said thoughtfully.
"That's what I was thinking."
"Or maybe it's something a little more personal."
"What do you mean?"
"How much do you know about the house before the people moved in?"
"Not much. It was ancestral, it's been in the family for generations."
"Well, it's just," Bobby began, "sometimes when a relative dies, they choose something that signifies their lost relative. Maybe the lion head knocker has something to do with that house itself."
"Or what happened in it," Dean ventured. "Wow."
"So I guess we have to go to the library, see if we can dig up some old archives to do with the house," Caleb said, looking at Dean. "And then we can go back and see if we can match it all up."
"Can I go?" Sam asked, looking hopefully at his brother and Caleb.
"Yeah," Caleb said, "we'll go the library here in town, and then we'll drop you back off."
Caleb knew Sam needed to spend a little time with his family, especially since he and Dean had been gone all day, and was willing to accommodate him.
"Thanks!"
"You bet."
Just as they were about to head out of the kitchen in pursuit of some evening activities before bed, a picture that had been stamped to the fridge, suddenly dropped down without warning or explanation.
Giving Dean a look, Caleb bent down to pick it up. It was a picture of Caleb, Jim, Dean and Sam. It had been taken right after Caleb had gotten home from being gone for three months, and the looks of pure joy and bliss, was apparent on all their faces.
It was a good time. A happy time.
"Look at this," Caleb said, showing the picture to Dean.
"Oh, yeah," Dean said, carefully taking the picture, and staring down at the captured moment. "I remember that, too."
"Right after I got home from the detention center, and I saw you guys," Caleb said, smiling at the memory, as he laid a hand on Dean's shoulder, sensing that seeing memories of Jim like that, was still hard.
"You know," Dean said, as he tore his eyes away from the image and put it back on the fridge. "That was one of the worst times that I can ever remember going through."
When Caleb had been arrested the year before for murder and a stack of fraud charges, the proceedings had resulted in him being taken away from the boys for nearly three months while his case had gone on.
"I remember that."
"And I was so angry," Dean recalled, as he took a seat at the table to stop his frantic pacing that he did whenever something uncomfortable came up. "But he was there for me. He put up with all of my crazy moods, and did his best to make sure I was okay."
Caleb nodded. "I remember us having discussions about you. You wanted to see me so desperately, but we both agreed that it was best if we waited on that. And aren't you glad that we did in the end?"
"Yeah," Dean admitted.
Instead of seeing Caleb in jail, he had gotten the sweetest surprise of his life when he had walked in the door, and had seen him right after he had been let out.
"He really was looking out for you."
"Regardless of if I gave him hell for it," Dean said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Well, he knew it was the best thing for you right then, and it's typical of all kids. They don't understand why you're making the decisions you are, but you do and it doesn't mean you have to explain it, either, but you never stop loving them, no matter what hell they put you through," he said, smiling at Dean.
"I've been okay."
"Yeah, you both have so far."
"Well, I don't know about Sam," Dean said with a laugh.
"Yeah, your brother is another story. He has a more rebellious personality, but even if he doesn't understand why, we're doing it out of love."
"Yeah."
"So," Caleb said, "ready to go kick back until bed?"
"You bet."