Chapter 8: Rain and Sunlight
The rain came as a relief when Sam emerged from the subway, tired from his long night and woozy from the concentration of auras that came with the morning rush.
It was just a light drizzle from flat gray skies, but it was enough to put a damper on auras and wash out his surroundings. Not that he was paying much attention to things around him; all Sam wanted to do was get back to his apartment and assess what they were possibly going to do next.
Gabe's signature car was parked outside, the yellow a bright splash of color in the gloomy weather. A quick glance showed the P.I wasn't inside, which meant he had gone up to wait outside his door. Sam decided to take the stairs as he entered, too impatient to see Gabe to bother with the elevator. He'd sounded rough on the phone, and Sam wasn't sure what state he'd be in. At the very least, he'd be as tired as him.
Hopefully, he's alright, he thought as he burst out from the stairwell.
A figure was slumped outside his front door towards the end of the hall, head bowed. Sam nearly had a heart attack as he took in the familiar golden aura around the person.
"Gabe?" he asked, breaking out into a sprint faster than anything he'd thought himself capable of at the moment.
Had Gabe been injured in some sort of way during his investigation? How could that have even happened? Sam had a first aid kit somewhere in the bathroom, but he'd have to call Lisa if it was serious-
The faint snores made Sam come to a screeching halt in front of Gabe. He wasn't grievously injured as he'd assumed (and rather hastily at that), but instead fast asleep.
His head was tucked down into his chest, arms clutching his messenger bag close to his chest and legs sprawled out in front of him. Every exhale ruffled the messy hair drooping over his forehead. Upon closer inspection, his aura was softened with sleep, slow and languid in every swirl it took around his body.
The sight was so unusually peaceful that Sam just stared for a moment. Then he relaxed, suddenly feeling incredibly sheepish about his overreaction.
"Christ," he said, chuckling breathlessly before tugging on his hair in self admonishment. Honestly, the last few weeks must've really been getting to him if he automatically assumed the worst.
Being Winchester cautious is one thing, but now I'm just getting paranoid.
Gabe slept on, oblivious to Sam's presence. He must've been extremely tired to not have so much as twitched a finger, and Sam was loath to disturb him when he clearly needed some rest.
"What an idiot. I'm the one that's supposed to be the workaholic," the Winchester said softly as he crouched down to gaze at Gabe's sleep slackened face. The shadows beneath his eyes were stark in the harsh light of the hall, but his golden aura softened him enough that Sam found it hard to stop looking at him.
He reached out a hand to tentatively touch Gabe's cheek, enjoying the feel of warm skin. Sam let it drag down to feel the stubble on his jaw (had he ever seen Gabe anything but clean-shaven?) and then down to Gabe's pulled up jacket collar, which was damp.
Sam smiled faintly as he smoothed it back down. He must've popped it up to ward off the rain when it had started so he could make the run inside. Sam could imagine Gabe cursing the weather under his breath, head ducked as he scowled to himself.
"Gabe," he said, gently shaking the man's shoulder. It was too drafty in the hall for him to stay any longer than he already had, and Sam didn't want to spook him by carrying him inside and inadvertently making him wake in a different place than he'd fallen asleep in. If he hadn't thought it'd be an all too likely reaction, he would've just taken him in.
Gabe startled awake with a faint gasp, golden aura going from deep sleep to awake in a frenzied flash of yellow. Sam nearly fell back as his hands lashed out, entangling in his jacket in a knee jerk reaction to being woken.
"Woah, hold on Gabe, it's just me!" he exclaimed, falling back onto his ass as Gabe sat up and forward.
"Oh. Sam?" he asked, frowning in sleepy confusion before looking down at his hands.
"Yeah, you fell asleep outside my door," Sam replied slowly, hoping he wouldn't startle Gabe any further.
"How long have I been here?" Gabe asked, clearly embarrassed as he loosened his grip on Sam's jacket and rubbed his face.
Sam got up from the floor and pulled the P.I up with him before he could get more embarrassed. In fact, he thought Gabe looked kind of cute like this, all flustered and soft with sleep, but he'd never say it out loud.
Not yet at least.
"Not too long," he reassured, telling himself that the arm he'd thrown around Gabe's shoulder was purely for support purposes, "I got here as fast as I could."
"You're still wet from the rain," Gabe remarked as they entered. He had tucked himself into Sam's side, his golden aura soaking into his ribcage faster than the rain ever could.
The apartment was dark, and cold (which wasn't anything new, but Sam had secretly been hoping to return to the sauna again), but the half-curtained windows revealed that the rain had gotten worse. It was coming down in sporadic bursts that beat against the windowpanes, driven this way and that by gusts of wind.
Sam tried not to read too much into Gabe's proximity, but when it became clear that the P.I wasn't going to detach himself anytime soon, he led them to the couch. He wasn't sure if it was because Gabe was tired and wasn't aware of what he was doing or if he really wanted to, but Sam couldn't bring himself to care. Gabe was warm and a comfortable weight against his side.
They collapsed onto the couch, which groaned dangerously beneath their combined weight. Gabe moved away from him a little as they got settled in, but their legs remained pressed together as they both just sat for a moment and collected their respective minds.
"Tonight…was a long night," Gabe finally said, turning his head just enough to look over at Sam, who mimicked him, "Any chance I can get some coffee before I regale you with the details?"
"In a second," Sam murmured.
He hadn't bothered to turn on any of the lights on the way in, so Gabe's eyes were the brightest thing in the room beside his aura. As always, they managed to draw Sam in, and he gazed unabashedly for a long moment.
Gabe gazed back, quickly going from confused to something more earnest and awake. His aura began to flare with life and shimmery shades of color, eyes sparking to match.
"Like what you see?" he teased.
Sam blinked, then blushed as he realized that Gabe was now more than aware that he wasn't staring accidentally. However, he didn't shy away from the flirtatious comment as he'd done in the past.
"Yes," he replied honestly (and oh God, what was he thinking?), "I'm going to go make that coffee now."
It wasn't quite the way Sam wanted to handle things, but he could feel his ears burning from embarrassment, and he didn't want to see the look on Gabe's face. He wasn't feeling that confident yet, but as he made his way into the kitchen, he took great pleasure in the shock he could feel from his aura.
Did I shock him into silence?
A quick glance up from the coffee machine confirmed that he indeed had. Gabe was staring at him as if he'd knocked the whole world off-balance, a small, dreamy smile on his face. Sam ducked his head like a grade schoolgirl caught looking at her crush.
"Do you want your coffee the usual way?" he asked, voice a little louder than usual to cover up the fact that his whole face felt very pink. This felt like an extreme overreaction on his part, but dammit he couldn't help himself! It had been a long time (maybe too long) since he'd decided to put himself out there.
"Yeah," Gabe replied faintly before the couch creaked, indicating he'd gotten up, "But extra sugar."
Extra what?
"Extra- Gabe, do you want to get diabetes?" Sam asked incredulously.
"I need it to get myself going!" Gabe exclaimed, gesturing to his rumpled clothes and ruffled hair. "I may look like a mess right now, but that doesn't mean I have to feel like one."
Sam tilted his head in confusion, only seeing the cuter aspects of Gabe's appearance. The P.I rolled his eyes and rummaged through his bag before pulling out his black journal.
"I know you have a grungy, plaid and leather style going on, but I like to look a bit more put together," he muttered under his breath.
"You look more than alright to me," Sam replied, feeling more and more confused by the second. He couldn't make heads or tails of the pink pastel hues coursing through Gabe's aura, "But you can always take a shower or something if you want."
Gabe looked up and opened his mouth to no doubt retort with something witty, but before he could, a rumble of thunder cut him off.
The pair looked at the window on instinct, and Gabe sighed, waving a dismissive hand.
"It's alright; we don't have much time anyway," he said, flipping open the journal, "As we speak, the FBI is being called in."
Sam's stomach twisted. Whatever had happened to Olsen must've been bad if the LPD had finally decided (or been forced by higher authorities) to hand over the reins. Running circles around the LPD with their own private investigation was one thing, but working underneath the noses of the FBI?
Talk about going from the frying pan and into the fire.
He busied himself with preparing two cups of coffee as Gabe wrote something down frantically from his phone. John had taught him how to deal with authorities of all sorts and how to work around them if necessary, but it had been a long time since then, and Sam was a lot more apprehensive about the FBI than the LPD. For one, they tended to be more competent and had a long track record of being very unforgiving of anyone mucking up their investigations.
"Hey, don't look like that kiddo," Gabe said, looking up as Sam walked around the bar to sit by his side, "We still have a few cards up our sleeve."
Sam's face must've betrayed some of his doubt because Gabe tsked and turned to face him.
"I've worked with the FBI before," he stated, "They won't take over this investigation automatically, no matter what it looks like on the news. There's always paperwork, and the FBI have to get everything useful from the LPD's taskforce and figure out who to work with before they can really take over. That'll take the whole day at least, maybe even longer if good ol' Bela drags her feet out of pure spite."
She probably would. Sam had never met Bela Talbot, but just knew she'd be the type to hang onto the investigation, and felt his hopes perk up a little bit more.
"But what can we do today?" he asked. He'd long ago learned that a day wasn't ever as much time as one needed when something important needed to get done, and catching a serial killer fell into the 'important' category.
At this, Gabe smiled and gripped his shoulder. It should've been an ordinary platonic gesture, but the warm gold aura that accompanied his hand had Sam paying rapt attention. Neither of them had had their coffee yet, but a burst of energy ran through them regardless, ignited by Gabe's sudden burst of vigor.
"I've got a way into the crime scene," he said almost breathlessly; that's how excited he was, "Jody and Donna can get us twenty minutes, and someone they know might be able to get us information on how The Crucifier is doing all his tech work."
Sam couldn't help it. His curiosity was growing by the second to match Gabe's, and a dash of the old thrill of crime-solving returned. Sneaking into a crime scene? This wasn't going to be like visiting the café Reynolds had been killed in; this scene would still be active no doubt, and they'd have to be careful.
One of these days I'm going to look back on all this and wonder what the hell I was thinking.
However, at the moment, Sam didn't particularly care. Technically, this wouldn't be his first time entering a crime scene he wasn't supposed to. John had covered all of the bases back in the day, and he'd ducked under many a line of yellow tape during his training. Those had been lackadaisically guarded by the LPD though, or crime scenes that had already been mostly processed and just had the tape up to keep nosy civilians out. Sam had never entered a crime scene that was (or would be, depending on how quickly things went) in the FBI's jurisdiction.
Well, there's a first time for everything.
"But first, coffee," Gabe said, already eyeing the sugar jar Sam had brought over just for him.
As soon as his hand left Sam's shoulder, the sense of thrill ebbed away with the P.I's aura. It was still there but lessened to a more rational degree, and Sam found himself missing it as he watched Gabe stir an ungodly amount of sugar into his already sweetened coffee. Life went by at a much more interesting rate when Gabe's aura came into play.
"If you stir any more sugar in, you'll just have a cup of coffee-flavored sugar," Sam said, taking the jar away.
"And what's wrong with that?" he asked. He didn't move to take the jar back though, much to Sam's relief.
"Nothing, except for slow death by clogged arteries."
Gabe grumbled but didn't snark back as he flipped through his journal.
"I guess I should start with how everyone found out Olsen disappeared. She'd gone, against police recommendation, to a late-night staff meeting on campus, and we've pegged the location she disappeared as a side street about halfway between campus and her residence."
"She went by herself?" Sam asked incredulously.
Gabe nodded, "Yup. Apparently, she didn't put much stock into the idea that the killer could be after her, so she gave the patrol assigned to her the slip so she could 'get back to work'. Our guy got her about a block from the subway station she left and did it fast."
"How did he get into the library? Wasn't it being guarded or something?"
"I'm getting there, hold on!" Gabe said, gesturing for him to have some patience. "It took the patrol about 45 minutes for them to realize that Olsen had gone missing, and everyone got mobilized. The library was considered as an option, but since it was being watched by both a foot patrol and some members of campus security, nobody additional was sent. The Crucifier hasn't repeated a crime scene before, so no one thought he'd go back."
"Well, where else would he have taken her? Olsen hardly ever left the place," Sam grumbled, a bit irked by the LPD's logic. He could see their thought process, but any of the officers that had to interact with Olsen would've agreed with him when he said that she only ever thought about work and the WM library.
"Hindsight is 20/20," Gabe sighed, "I found out when Jody called me. She wanted me to unofficially join the search, since finding things, and people is what I'm good at."
"Really?" Sam asked. He'd never thought of Gabe having specializations besides being good at solving homicides. But then, he was a P.I, and P.I's didn't tend to work alongside the police.
"I'm a great tracker. Ever since I was a kid I always had a knack for finding lost things," Gabe said, smiling a bit as he spoke. His aura reflected the pride he had in his skill, "Jewelry, pets, phones. Stolen items, even missing people. I can put together a timeline pretty well, and 9 times out of 10 I can locate whatever's missing. I don't really get a chance to market that skill though, because networking is hard when you're nomadic."
Sam nodded. In a sad way, it made sense. The skill that had most likely driven Gabe to become a P.I in the first place was the one he employed the least. Sure, there were multiple ways he could put it to use when solving more serious crimes, but it surely wasn't the same as finding Fido for a desperate pet owner. Fido wasn't nearly as dangerous as a serial killer.
"Did you track them to the library?"
Gabe looked up sharply from his (now almost empty) coffee cup, gold eyes narrowed and a bit surprised.
"Yeah…how'd you know?"
Sam shrugged, "You don't do things by half, and if Jody believes you're a good tracker, then you must be the best tracker in Lawrence. So, you tracked them to the library."
Making the conclusion was a leap Sam felt confident in. Gabe had impressed him with his P.I skills early on, and every display of his cleverness while they worked only served to increase Sam's faith in his abilities. He may not look or act like most people imagined a P.I would, but that didn't mean Gabe wasn't a damn good one.
Gabe turned a shade of pink Sam had never seen on him before, and he smiled as the P.I hurriedly hid his face with his mug.
"Keep the compliments in check, Winchester," he said gruffly, but Sam could tell by his peachy yellow aura that he was more than pleased by what he'd said.
"I did eventually track them to the library," Gabe said after a dramatic throat clearing, "At first, I sort of just drove outward from the subway station, tuning into the police scanner to see who was where, but…I don't know, none of my P.I senses were tingling, so I decided to give the campus a shot."
"A shot in the dark?"
Sam didn't think it had been, but he wanted to hear what Gabe's process was. His aura was doing something very strange towards his back, right about where his shoulder blades were, and it was making him insanely curious. He could only see a bit of it since the P.I was mostly turned towards him, but when Gabe turned back to set his mug on the counter, Sam could see more clearly.
The colors grew staticky the closer they got to Gabe's back, whirling around in loops of white and gold so tight it made an indistinguishable pattern. Sam only managed a glimpse before Gabe turned back around, but he didn't have to look for much longer to know what it was.
Some people had better instincts than others, and it showed through their auras in specific places. Sam had never seen someone's manifest from their shoulder blades before, but Gabe was one in a million across the board when it came to his aura.
I wonder if his instinct being tied to his shoulder blades has anything to do with the wing thing he has going on.
"Sometimes I'll get this vibe that I should go look somewhere, even though it seems completely illogical," the P.I admitted, rubbing the back of his neck, "Sort of like gut instinct, but not really? It's never failed me before though, so when I got the urge to check the library…"
"You went," Sam finished, settling back onto his stool.
"When I arrived, there was no one in the campus security office, and the two LPD officers they had patrolling the library were knocked out and tied up. And before you ask, no, I have no idea how he got the best of them. Campus security had been lured out to the complete opposite side of campus by a false report of some shenanigans going on at a dorm building."
"Makes sense. Security would be too much for even him to handle personally," Sam commented, "Did you go in?"
Gabe shook his head with a shiver. His aura dimmed, and Sam leaned forward, frowning in concern.
"God, this is going to make me sound like a coward, but…I hesitated," he admitted, dragging his finger along the edge of the counter and keeping his eyes firmly fixed on it, "Something felt very, very off about the whole place. I've never hesitated in breaching a building before when necessary, but this time? Sam, it felt different. It felt evil."
Evil.
This wasn't the first time the word had been thrown around in the investigation before. The Crucifier, or Death, had about as evil an aura as they could come, and the atrocities he was committing could certainly be classified as evil. He never thought he'd hear Gabe say it with such fearful conviction. Hell, Gabe didn't sound like that with anything really. He had one of the biggest backbones Sam knew of and didn't back down from anything easily.
Everyone got scared though, and there was no denying the instinctive fear in Gabe's eyes. It was like that saying about looking into abysses and being wary of the abyss looking back. For Gabe, the abyss was beginning to look back, and despite his incredibly tenacious nature, the responding wariness and fear on his part was inevitable.
Sam wasn't sure how he would've gotten through all the visions he'd had of Death without the sheer amount of willpower he exerted daily, so he didn't blame Gabe for being scared. He never blamed anyone for such a thing, because fear could keep a person alive, and only a completely emotionless person could somehow not fear a serial killer.
He was up and out of his stool before he registered what he was doing, arms looping around Gabe's shoulders and drawing him in close. Gabe didn't hesitate in opening his legs to make room for Sam, his own arms coming up to wrap around his waist.
It was an odd position for a hug with their height difference, but Sam could care less as he carded his hand tentatively through Gabe's hair. His aura was wavery and pale, and Sam hated seeing it like that. Gabe held on tight, clearly not minding being smothered at all.
"There's nothing wrong with being scared," Sam said quietly, bending his head and pressing his cheek to Gabe's hair, light for a moment to let him pull away if he wanted to. He didn't, so he turned his face a bit and tucked his chin properly over Gabe's head.
Gabe inhaled, then spoke in so muffled a voice that if Sam hadn't been listening, he wouldn't have heard him.
"I'm glad I met you."
The words shouldn't have pleased him as much as they did, but his heart skipped a beat in his suddenly swelling chest. A warm feeling rose up and up until he felt as if he would burst, but all he did was squeeze Gabe a bit tighter and whisper back.
"I'm glad I met you too."
A deep rumble of thunder brought an end to the moment, but it didn't feel awkward separating at all. Gabe's aura was back to a lively shade of gold, and Sam felt safe to draw his stool up closer to entangle his legs with Gabe. They'd crossed a physical line with each other, and while they still had some ways to go towards a proper relationship, Sam felt sure he wouldn't be rejected.
"What time was that around?" Sam gently asked, redirecting them back towards the original conversation.
"Around 3. While I busied myself with reporting the downed officers and trying to figure out what the hell happened with campus security, the LPD arrived on the scene," Gabe continued, toying with his mug, "I think Jody and Donna were the first to enter, and I think whatever they saw convinced them."
"Of what?"
Gabe set his mug down carefully and looked at him seriously. It wasn't the most serious he'd ever seen the P.I, but Sam perked up regardless.
"That the LPD needed help. Whether it was me or the FBI; I don't know, but whatever The Crucifier did, it certainly convinced the right administrator to phone the FBI."
Sam frowned, "You don't know what he did exactly inside WM?"
Gabe shook his head, "I could've slipped in easily with all the chaos, and I should've, but-well…"
"The evil feeling," Sam summarized, earning a brief nod from the P.I and a sheepish shrug.
"Jody and Donna are going to let me flip through the files they have and see what I can come up with sometime soon," he said, "They've probably moved Olsen by now, but I've heard they still have a number of people roaming about to try and figure out what route The Crucifier could've taken to get around campus undetected."
"There are a few ways," Sam said with a snort, "Ask the right people, and look in the right places, and it's easy to figure out where the cameras are and aren't. But I guess the options get limited when you've got a corpse with you."
The truth was, Death's transportation method still bugged Sam. He had the sense that it was right under his nose, but whatever it was continued to elude him. Sam wasn't sure if it was as high up on Gabe's priority list to figure out, but with the most recent vision he'd had, the question had resurfaced.
He has a hiding place in the sewers. But why the sewers of all places?
"We've got to get going, Sam-a-lam," Gabe said, interrupting Sam's train of thought (the answer was right there, he just knew it!), "I don't want to get rained on any more than necessary."
As if on cue, thunder rumbled overhead. Gabe shot him a 'see-what-I-mean?' look, and Sam rolled his eyes before draining his mug. He'd give the transportation conundrum more thought later.
"Alright, but if you try to pull any harebrained maneuvers on the road, I'll make you pull over so I can drive."
"Bold of you to assume you can even squeeze those mile-long legs beneath the steering wheel," Gabe retorted with a smirk and a more than noticeable stripe of cherry red in his aura. It didn't help that his eyes were drifting up and down their entangled legs.
Sam couldn't even blame his rising flush on the heat of the apartment (damn his finicky heater!). He ducked his head and stood as quickly as he could, the loss of Gabe's aura tingling across his skin.
"If you don't hurry up, I won't let you duck under my umbrella."
That took the air out of Gabe's sails pretty quickly, and Sam prided himself on winning that particular round of banter between them. It wasn't every day he could shut Gabe up so effectively.
The sweet taste of victory only lasted until they reached the elevator.
"On second thought, you can have the umbrella to yourself Sammo. You're so tall you might make an enticing path for lightning, and while I wouldn't blame it for doing so, because you are pretty enticing, I'd rather not be in proximity for that."
Gabe's face was the perfect picture of nonchalant innocence as he spoke, but his eyes and cherry red aura gave away the fact that he was completely aware of what he was doing.
It's going to be a long car ride.
…
Jody and Donna were waiting for them in the shelter of the same gazebo Sam had met Kevin in earlier that week. The rain was now coming down in a constant sheet of water that had encouraged Gabe to rummage around for an umbrella in the mess his backseat contained (Sam had been too distracted by Gabe's flirting and had forgotten to grab his on the way out). The umbrella was bright red and made them stand out like a sore thumb but invading each other's personal space in an attempt to fit underneath it was enjoyable.
"Give us the deets, o wondrous ladies of the law!" Gabe said once they were in the gazebo, peeling himself from Sam's side to gesture grandly at the women.
"Good morning to you too, Gabe," Donna said wryly. Her peach aura was laced with exhaustion, but she managed a wan smile. Sam didn't think the bubbly detective could go a day without one.
"You brought Sam along," Jody remarked, dark eyes surveying him. There was no accusation in her tone, but there was an edge of wariness regardless.
Because she knows who I am, Sam thought, remembering the bombshell Gabe had dropped in Dean's living room about his mother, Donna doesn't really care, but Jody's still a little hung up about it.
Sam couldn't really blame her. From the outside, it probably looked strange that he was working with Gabe on a serial killer case when he already had one serial killer in his past. It was the reason why he rarely told anyone about it. Being involved in any sort of way with a serial killer tainted you in people's eyes, and Sam didn't want Yellow Eyes affecting his life more than he already had.
And yet here I am getting caught up in round 2 of Lawrence vs serial killer. No wonder she's weirded out.
"Of course I did. He's my partner," Gabe responded, still smiling. His aura turned flinty though, reflecting the sudden hardness in his eyes.
Jody and Gabe stared at each other for a long, tense moment. Sam eyed the pair nervously, but Donna didn't seem to be worried much.
"It's good to see you've ditched the lone wolf act," she suddenly said, her ramrod straight back relaxing slightly, "Even if your partner is a civilian."
"He's ten times better than half the people on the force," Gabe retorted, "I'd rather work with him than anyone else, and besides, you know I'm technically a civilian in the eyes of the law too."
Jody grunted noncommittally. Something eased in her dark green aura, and Sam realized that she too didn't really care about his past. She was just testing Gabe's resolve, and he'd passed.
Phew. That could've been bad.
"I know we said we could get you into the crime scene, but it's not looking good right now," she said, changing the subject, "They're taking longer to process the scene than we thought they would."
"They say the chief himself is coming down," Donna added in a hushed tone.
Sam figured they wouldn't see the crime scene on the walk over as the WM library was crawling like a beehive with activity, but he still slumped slightly with disappointment. He could've gotten a read on Death's aura for sure, and while he wasn't sure how he'd go about surreptitiously following the trail without looking crazy to Gabe, it would've been something.
Dammit, now what?
Gabe openly frowned. It was clear he wasn't very happy that they'd driven all this way in the rain just to be told that getting onto the crime scene was a no go.
"What about your contact?" he asked, and Jody jerked her head towards the path behind them.
"Coming in right now."
The duo turned to look as a girl with red hair came jogging up, backpack held over her head in a vain attempt to ward off the rain. She looked vaguely familiar, and as she came closer, Sam recognized her as the same girl that had been outside of the WM the day he'd been trapped inside with Kevin and Adam.
"Am I late? Cause if I am, it's not my fault!" she exclaimed, skidding into the gazebo. She had bright green eyes and a dark teal aura that betrayed her enthusiastic nature. Her Converse shoes were soaked through and she had no jacket, but none of this seemed to bother her at all.
"Boys, meet Charlie. She'll be helping us out today," Donna said with an indulgent smile to the redhead.
"Supposedly. I still don't know how you know what you know," Jody interjected sternly.
Charlie shrugged a shoulder lackadaisically before her eyes slid to Sam.
"Word gets around campus, and my ears are finely tuned to catch all the gossip," she replied while looking at him, "You're Dean's brother, right?"
"You know Dean?" Sam asked, confused. Charlie didn't come off as the type of person Dean would know (she was too young and sweet, and judging by her merch a hardcore geek), but then, his brother knew all sorts of people.
"I've helped him out with computer issues," she replied, her expression turning curious, "He talks about you a lot, but I think you already know that."
If her aura hadn't flared, Sam might've believed her perfectly innocent-sounding explanation. Between that and her clear connection to Jody and Donna though, Sam knew it wasn't too hard to infer that Charlie walked a fine line when it came to the technological world.
She must be a great hacker if Dean's called her up.
"If you know a Winchester, then you're trustworthy enough," Gabe proclaimed before squinting slightly at her, "But it also throws your sanity into question."
Charlie didn't seem too offended by Gabe's blunt assessment of her. If anything, she seemed downright pleased, her smile wide and white.
"I could say the same about you, Gabriel Milton," she retorted, "In fact, you must be more insane than me if you've made Sam your lifetime partner in crimefighting. Winchesters are great, don't get me wrong, but they're definitely something else dude."
There was so much to unwrap in Charlie's words that Sam wasn't really sure what to address first if he was even supposed to address anything at all.
Lifetime?
Gabe didn't seem to know either (his face for some reason had turned very pink), but the crackle of the detectives' radios saved them from having to formulate a response.
"Mills, Hanscum, we need you down here ASAP. Chief's here."
Jody unclipped her radio in a practiced motion and responded with, "On our way."
"It's never good when the chief shows up," Donna remarked anxiously before turning to Charlie, "Do you mind showing the boys what you told us? I know this wasn't what you were expecting…"
"No problem," Charlie interrupted, brushing off the detective's concern, "In fact, it's probably better that I just bring them. They'll stand out less where we're going."
"As long as you don't do anything extremely illegal," Jody said sternly.
"Cross my heart," the redhead responded solemnly, doing just that with her finger. Her aura, on the other hand, flashed a sharper, bluer color that told Sam she was definitely not planning on keeping the promise.
Jody seemed to know this but only threw Charlie one last warning gaze before she left with her partner.
As soon as they were gone, Charlie took off like a rocket. Sam and Gabe barely had time to exchange a befuddled look before they hustled after her, scrambling to duck underneath the umbrella as the redhead forged her way through the rain.
"I love your enthusiasm Charlie, but…where are we going exactly?" Gabe asked as they managed to catch up to her.
"The security office," she said, not slowing a bit. Her pace was impressive considering her footwear, which squelched with every step she took, "I think I know how The Crucifier controlled all the library's systems."
Gabe promptly tripped over a crack in the sidewalk at her announcement, and Sam had to grab him by the collar to keep him from eating pavement. He kept his arm around Gabe's shoulders to keep him from tripping again, and if it pulled them closer, then that was just pure coincidence.
"Thanks, Sammo," the P.I said distractedly, "A little warning next time before you drop bombshells like that, Red?"
"4/10 for the lack of creativity in that nickname," Charlie said without skipping a bit, "But I'm serious! When I tried to get the doors open and couldn't that day at the WM, it got me thinking, because there's only one way he could've done it the way that he did."
The security office was a squat, one-story building set back quite a bit from the main campus paths. It was easy to pass by if one didn't know where it was, but Charlie didn't miss a single step as she began to walk alongside the building.
"Around to the back we go, just in case," she said, pulling out what looked like a completely average student ID. It proved itself to be anything but when it somehow managed to open a door Sam knew students couldn't access.
"Does Jody know about that?" Gabe asked as Charlie shoved the door open, and she shrugged.
"My skeleton key of sorts is a trademark secret. And before you ask, yes, our dude probably has one of these, but no, these aren't very hard to make or obtain."
"Really?" Sam asked as they walked down an empty hall. It was vaguely reminiscent of the main campus office, except this was much smaller and smelled staler.
"If you're a decent hacker, then you can modify a keycard easily," she explained, pausing to peek into a dark room before leading them in, "Administrators even have master keys, and if you can get your hands on one it's even easier to make the necessary changes from there."
Charlie plopped down in front of a computer and pulled up the login system Sam and everybody on campus, both students and faculty, were familiar with.
"The Crucifier killed Reynold and used his login information as a piggyback to get into the system," she said, swinging her ID card, "Before Reynold died, he owned a master key."
"Why? Wasn't he just a professor?" Gabe asked.
"He also taught a lot of classes in different places," Sam said, nearly slapping his forehead as he made the connection, "He didn't have one set classroom, even if he taught in the lecture hall the most. He probably got tired of being locked out of buildings past the official operating hours and bullied the administration to give him one."
"Hole in one, Winchester," Charlie said as she logged in. Beyond that, Sam couldn't tell what she was doing, as it all turned into complicated black screens of technical stuff he hadn't bothered with in years, "With his keycard and Reynold's login, our psycho had an easy way in. Jody mentioned something about an email being sent from Reynold's email after he was dead, and this is how it was done."
"Right. He just logged in," Gabe muttered, pulling up a chair, "So how did this help him turn the library into his personal playground?"
"This is where I tell you that whoever you're looking for, he's no amateur," Charlie said seriously, pale face grave as she looked up from the computer, "From what I can tell, The Crucifier somehow got into the mainframe for the library's security systems and made himself boss. It's not an impossible thing, but to prevent any hacking attempts like mine, he'd had to have taken Reynold's info and really gone to town."
"Is it like a new login?" Sam asked. He thought he was beginning to grasp what Charlie was getting at (he had been the best 'hacker' out of the Winchester clan after all if he could even call himself that).
"Yes and no," Charlie said vaguely, fingers back to flying across the keyboard, "Yes in that it's a new login, and no in that unlike regular logins, it doesn't appear as itself."
"My head hurts," Gabe complained, rubbing his temples, "In English, please?"
"She's saying that he's logging in with his new login, but that it appears in the system as some preexisting login as a masquerade," Sam clarified.
"But it gives itself away when I go to where the login came from," she said, pointing to a line of code on the screen, "See? It says here some poor student logged in around the time the library fiasco happened, but the location is from a computer at the main circulation desk."
"I'll take your word for it," Gabe quipped, squinting at the screen before his face turned pensive, "It can't be just the weird location giving it away though."
"Oh, of course not. I know that he's hiding in the innocuous login, and I could theoretically track him down that way, but I haven't written a program that can pick up his presence yet," Charlie said with a scowl, "I'm telling you, whoever this guy is, he's either been self-teaching for years or he's taken classes."
Someone who's at the very least moderately good with computers and obsessed with using an archaic language. There can't be too many people on campus that check off both of those boxes.
Judging by Gabe's expression, he was thinking along the same lines. A noise up at the front of the building cut their meeting short though, with Charlie hurriedly tidying up after them as they slipped out the back.
"There's one more thing you guys should know," she said, leading them to the shelter of an overhang on the building next door, "It has to do with the cameras."
"You know how he's doing his magic trick on that one?"
Charlie shook her head. A bright streak of peach ran across her aura, showing her confusion and frustration on the subject.
"I actually have no idea, but the way he's doing it is really weird. He definitely has the skill required to take down every camera on campus if he wanted to, but he only takes down the ones he feels certain will expose him."
"Only the ones he's certain about?" Gabe asked, a strange glint in his eyes.
Charlie smirked back, and Sam watched with unease as the two began to grin at each other. Out of context, they looked as if they'd just finished pulling off a mastermind plan.
"I've located a camera that may or may not have gotten part of his face. He didn't take that one out because it's at such a weird angle and because it's such poor quality, but I'm hoping I can clean the image up a bit once Jody and Donna get all the law stuff out of the way."
"Excellent," Gabe said, rubbing his hands together gleefully to complete the evil scientist look, "The Crucifier has to mess up at some point, and we're starting to close in."
Sam, while not feeling as confident as Gabe and Charlie about the possibility they'd caught the killer on tape, still couldn't help feeling anticipatory. They were beginning to narrow down their suspect pool, and Gabe was right; one way or another, they were beginning to close in on Death.
They exchanged numbers with an insistent Charlie before parting ways. The wind had grown gusty enough that Sam had to keep a good grip on the umbrella, and Gabe was pressed so close to him that to outsiders, it probably looked as if they were attached at the hip.
"I hate Lawrence's weather," he grumbled, but his aura was bright and happy as he clutched Sam's arm.
"It can be pretty bad- watch out!" he exclaimed as Gabe tripped once again on the sidewalk.
He once again kept Gabe from falling, tugging him back under the umbrella. It was bound to happen with them walking so closely together and their different stride lengths, so Sam kept his hand around Gabe's wrist.
Just to keep him from tripping again.
"Oops. Guess I'm just in a hurry to get back," Gabe said with a sheepish smile before he slid his hand into Sam's.
Sam's brain came to a grinding halt at the deliberate action. Gabe's hand was warm and softer than his but still callused. His aura made it feel like he was holding pure sunlight in his hand, and he couldn't help but look down at their joined hands to make sure he really wasn't holding a piece of the sun.
"So I don't trip again," Gabe said, attempting to sound confident. There was hesitation in his voice though, as if he thought he'd pushed the boundaries too much and he'd pull away.
Well, I can't have that happening, Sam thought as he smiled reassuringly and tugged Gabe closer.
"You have been pretty clumsy today," he remarked, starting up their trek back once more.
Gabe spluttered with indignation, starting another round of amicable bickering. It was a now familiar routine between the two of them, even if trying to push each other out from the measly shelter of the umbrella was new.
Neither of them mentioned the hand-holding for the rest of the walk. By unspoken but mutual accord, they both decided to just enjoy the small comfort they managed to find amid the chaos they'd immersed themselves in.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
So this didn't get finished before I started college like I wanted, but that's how life goes sometimes. It rained a lot in my area throughout the writing of this chapter, and since I love rain so much, you can see how it affected my writing. Also just want to say that I took extreme creative liberties with Charlie's tech explanations. The fanciest thing I know tech-wise is all the keyboard shortcuts that are useful for writing.
School's going well, but it's very busy for me and I'm not exactly the best at time management, so my posting schedule will probably continue to suffer until winter break. I'm no quitter though, so I'm not going MIA. I'll just drop in at the most unexpected times to post, like a weird fairy godmother of sorts. So mote it be!