Dean had come out of the break room with what felt like his seventeenth coffee. It felt like he'd been here for days, when in fact, it had only been two. He could only come home for a couple of hours to sleep before Amara would show up and kick him out. She had said something about looking up interstates. It made absolutely no sense until Charlie brought up a map of all the cases she felt were connected to their missing person causes. Every case was along significant highways that zigzagged across the United States. There would be a few places here and there where a body would show up in the middle of nowhere, but the highways were definitely how their perp was getting across the country. It wasn't much, but it was something. Maybe they would be able to match financials with the body drops.
Dean finished gulping down the bitter and cold coffee when he came across a woman with her hair and a high ponytail looking around.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
"Yeah," the woman said, turning around, "I'm looking for... Hey, you must be Deano."
"How do you...,"
"Oh, yeah, Amara told me about you. She said you were the alpha of an omega that almost got kidnapped a part of our case. We're thankful we were able to get you there so that nothing would happen. Amara was worried that she had been too late."
"Right...," Dean started. "Who are you?"
"Oh, right. I didn't introduce myself. Silly me. My name is Donna Hanscom. I'm usually up in Minnesota, but Amara told me I should come down here. It took me a while, but here I am, and ready to get to work."
"Amara didn't tell me anything about you."
"Yeah, she does that," Donna nodded understandingly. "I think she forgets that not everyone can look ahead and see things like she can. Sometimes you have to remind her to slow down when talking to her, but she's really good at what she does. I'm lucky to be put on a team with her."
"Right...," Dean said, trying to wrap his thoughts together, "Might as well have you meet the rest of the team."
"Okey-dokey."
Dean guided Donna over to his office space. He was met again by Benny and Lucifer, looking back and forth between the case files that they got sent over for different states. At the same time, Charlie was set on the floor, having her fingers fly across the keyboard.
"Guys, it looks like our help has arrived," Dean alerted them.
"Hey, guys. I'm Donna. Amara sent me down here thinking that I could help."
"You're FBI?" Lucifer asked, almost disbelieving.
"Yep. You're surprised, aren't you? Well, that's the point. It's also pretty helpful in human trafficking. No one sees you coming."
"Are you the only one they sent down?" Charlie asked, getting up to get a sense of the beta.
"I'm going to be the only one that's working here. We're still pretty spread out because of all the places this could go. I'll be the main point of contact for everyone else. Amara will do the best she can, but she shouldn't be seen most of the time. She already has a cover in the operation, and we don't want to blow it. She said that she would be here in a bit after taking care of a couple of things. Said she needed to get like a week's worth of stuff for some reason.
"Now, I've been trying to get everything I need sent down here since it will take a bit to fully get our perps. Can you tell me everything you've found out the last couple of days, and I'll try to close some gaps?
Lucifer was the first one who saw Amara walk in with a sharp look on her face. It almost made him feel uncomfortable and feel the need to hide from her view. She looked to be on the warpath, and no one got in her way.
"Look whose here," Lucifer murmured to the group, leading all of them to look up where he was looking.
"Amara!" Donna waved wildly as if she hadn't seen the beta before. "I've gotten all caught up, and we are ready to get new leads. Charlie has been very helpful with her computer skills. She can cross-reference the information we're getting from everyone. We might be able to close this in the next couple of months. Is there anything else you got for us, boss?"
"Not yet, Donna," Amara glanced at the beta before turning toward Dean. "You need to go home. Now."
"But we have work to do here." Dean shrugged her off.
"I thought we had an agreement. You're here until I told you otherwise. Well, I'm telling you otherwise."
"I can't just leave."
"Oh, but you are..." Amara trailed off before calling over her shoulder. "Bobby!"
There was a couple of seconds before the sound of a door slamming open, and Chief Singer walked out, grumbling under his breath. "This is a place of work. Why are you yelling?"
"Dean's going home," Amara explained. "He'll be back after a week."
"Any particular reason why? I already sent him home one day this week on your orders."
Amara didn't verbally respond. It seemed that the two were having a silent conversation, speaking only with their eyebrows and eyes.
"Fine," Bobby grumbled. "Winchester, go home."
"What? Just like that?" Dean asked.
"Yes," Bobby shrugged.
"Baby Omega needs you. Go. Now."
That lit a fire in Dean's butt as he quickly grabbed his jacket and car keys and ran across the bullpen. He barely waved goodbye to everyone before he was out of sight.
"What's wrong with Cassie?" Lucifer asked.
"Huh?" Amara asked, now looking back to the group in front of her. "Oh, nothing. He's fine."
"That didn't sound like he was fine."
"Don't worry about it. It's not like you can do anything anyways. He'll be good hands..." Amara trailed off with a chuckle. "It's best not to get involved."
"How am I not going to be involved? He's my brother, who's apparently in trouble, and you want me to just stay here?"
"He's not in trouble... Actually... he'll be much safer after this."
"I'm going."
"I wouldn't do that," Amara sang with a smirk on her face.
"Son, it's best if you just do as she says," Bobby continued. "It'll save you time and energy."
"I'm going!" Lucifer shouted. "Just try to stop me!"
Lucifer had turned on his heel and was walking away from everyone. Over his shoulder, he heard the soft "Uh oh" coming from Donna. He kept going even when he felt the hair on the back of his neck raise but kept going. Until he walked straight into a wall. Well, it felt like a wall. Lucifer couldn't walk any further, and it took energy trying and failing to continue walking. From behind him, he heard Charlie gasp. He tried to turn to look at her, but he realized that he couldn't move at all. Looking down, Lucifer noticed that his body was encased in black smoke.
"What the..." Lucifer started.
"You did tell me to try to stop you," Amara said, a smirk clearly heard on her face. "Want to join the group again?"
Lucifer opened and closed his mouth, trying to figure out what was happening when the smoke disappeared.
"Did you really have to get your ash on the carpet?" Bobby asked.
"Oh, stop complaining. It'll come right up," Amara retorted. "See... it's already coming up."
Lucifer looked back at the two. Bobby was giving Amara an unimpressed look while she was rubbing at the carpet with her shoe. Scratching at the unmistakable imprint of a wolf pawprint in the carpet.
"You...," Benny started.
Amara looked up with a smirk. "It's always nice to meet a fan. Never realized that the old stories were continued on. Honestly, thought it died out.
"Now, we all need to talk."