AN: The next few chapters will deal with a little bit of violence. Just a warning.
Isabel woke up the next day, called work to say she would not be coming in today and went for her morning run, finding both boys up and ready to go when she got back.
"I'll just shower and change, won't be minute" She said and ran into her room, suddenly chilled as she remembered what they were about to do.
After changing into a pair of jeans and a baby pink turtleneck jumper, and downing two cups of steaming hot coffee, Isabel felt a lot warmer, and a lot better. She wanted to wear her boots, but the blister on her foot still felt otherwise, so instead she settled on a pair of sneakers. The whole outfit made her look a lot younger than she was.
"I assume we're taking your car" She stated as she watched Dean slip a black leather jacket on.
"Why, you don't like it?" Dean asked confounded, as if the mere idea that someone might not like his car had never entered his mind.
"Are you kidding? I love it" She said, and smiled widely when Dean's face broke into a wide proud smile of his own.
"Yeah, she's beautiful" He said staring out the window of the lounge room where he could see his car on the driveway. Isabel's eyes followed his gaze and she almost laughed.
"OK. Dean?" She said smiling "It's just a car"
His eyes flew back at her sharply "Take that back now!"
She rolled her eyes and slipped on her mauve knee-length raincoat. Sam came back from the kitchen with a few pieces of paper on which he'd scribbled the address for the county mortuary and the local police station.
"OK" He said "I say we drop off Isabel at the police station, then we drive to the morgue" He said grabbing his satchel and turning to Isabel "Give us a call once you're done"
"Alright" She said moving towards the door "We ready?"
"Let's go" Dean said stepping out.
"Shotgun!" Isabel yelled as she pushed her body between the boys rushed out the door stopping next to the passenger door of the Impala.
Sam stammered "What? No…I..." He turned to his brother "Dean?"
Dean raised his arms, indicating there was nothing he could do "She called it first, dude"
Sam narrowed his eyes at Isabel, before closing the front door behind him and sulking all the way to the car. They all jumped in the car and pulled out onto the street.
"I'm nervous" Isabel said suddenly when she could no longer stand the silence, save for the roar of the engine and the oh-so-soothing melodies of Metallica.
"Nervous?" Dean asked.
"Like a turkey at Christmas" She said fiddling with the hem of her coat.
Dean turned towards her briefly "Don't be" He said flashing her a comforting smile "You'll be fine. Just try to find out as much as you can"
"Yeah, well" She said looking out the window "I don't know if I want to know"
"They won't tell you all that much Bel" He said "We'll find out more at the morgue"
She shuddered visibly and felt infinitely grateful that she wasn't going with them "How exactly will you find out anything at the morgue?" She asked curiously.
Sam leaned over the front seats and pulled out two ID cards from the front pocket of his shirt. She looked at them closely, her expression sceptical "Medical students?"
"It's worked before" Sam said putting the IDs back in his pocket "All we need is to get into the morgue, once there we can talk to someone and maybe access the reports"
She turned in her seat and looked from Dean to Sam, an unreadable expression on her face.
"What?" Dean asked finally feeling like he was under scrutiny.
"This is what you do?" She asked curiously, yet with a hint of sadness.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked.
"This" She said gesturing to the car in general "Going from town to town, pretending to be something you're not, visiting morgues? This is your life"
Sam was quiet as he looked down at his feet. When she said it like that, it made him miss his stint at a normal life. Dean however, could feel the judgement in her words and he did not like it. His jaw clenched and he took a deep breath through his nostrils, making a conscious effort to keep his eyes on the road.
"Yeah" He said tersely "This is our life. Why?"
"Because it sucks" She said before realising that even though the sentiment was accurate, she should have phrased it differently.
He glowered at her and she swallowed hard cursing herself in her mind, knowing she had hit some sort of nerve, again. She was about to back peddle and apologise, but he spoke first.
"Good thing you didn't end up with us eight years ago then, isn't it?" He asked maliciously.
She flinched and gasped in surprise, almost as if he'd slapped her with that comment. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sam's face snap up and stare at Dean in disbelief, then back at her. Her face paled, and she turned again in her seat to look out the window. That had hurt.
Dean noticed and he sighed deeply, running a hand over his face. He looked at Sam's face through the rear view mirror. He wasn't happy with him and his expression told Dean to apologise, and apologise now.
"Yeah" she said quietly "It worked a lot better this way"
"I'm sorry Isabel" Dean said "I didn't mean it"
"Yeah, you did" She said, still not turning to face him "It's OK, I'm not mad"
"I still shouldn't have said it" He said.
There was silence for a moment as they drove into town.
"Drop me off here" She said finally "The station is just across the street"
Dean pulled over and turned in his seat to face her "Isabel?"
"It's fine, Dean" She said with a small smile that never quite reached her eyes "There are a lot of things we still need to get off our chests and out in the open. I know that"
Dean just watched her quietly as she got out of the car. Sam followed her lead and stepped out too.
"You sure you're OK?" Sam asked gently.
"Peachy" She said "I'll call you once I get out?"
"See you soon" Dean said as she walked away from the car. She didn't turn to him but raised a hand and waved it towards him.
Sam got into the passenger seat and pinned Dean with a death glare "You have got to stop losing your temper with her" He said wearily.
"She was baiting me" Dean said pulling out onto the busy street again.
"She wasn't baiting you, Dean" Sam said "You just take everything she says too personally. Think about it logically. To an outsider…this life does suck"
Dean looked at his brother angrily "She didn't think so eight years ago when she wanted to live with us! It didn't suck then, did it?"
"She was sixteen Dean!" Sam yelled and Dean looked at him surprised "Her parents had just died and she was alone. She didn't care what we did, she just wanted to be with the only family she had left. You can't see that?"
Dean sighed as he thought about what Sam said "I don't know if we'll ever be able to resolve this Sammy"
"We have to Dean" Sam said determined "She may not be the only family we have, but we are the only family she's got. Put yourself in her place. It's a lonely place"
"She's doing fine" Dean offered weakly.
"I think the antidepressants and sleeping pills beg to differ" Sam pointed out.
"Yeah" Dean said nodding "You're gonna have to talk to her about that"
"Me?" Sam asked.
"You think she's gonna talk about that stuff with me?" Dean asked with a snort.
"Let's just see if we can get through the rest of the day without an argument first. Then we'll broach the serious issues"
No more was said about their cousin as they reached the county morgue. The university IDs worked well. The assistant Medical Examiner took them in and around the facility, telling them about the different instruments and equipment they used.
Sam managed in that way of his, to draw the assistant into an involved discussion as to how one would go about getting into the forensic medicine field and was it anything like CSI. Dean had plenty of time to snoop around, stopping at the dissecting table holding Kelly Richardson's body. A clipboard with her report was resting on a table next to the gurney.
"What are you looking at there son?" The attendant asked, finally noticing Dean.
"Kelly Richardson" Dean said lifting the board "Sounds familiar"
"Yeah" Said the attendant pulling the top of the sheet back slightly to reveal what would once have been a pretty redhead "She's one of the girls that went missing a few weeks back. Campers found her body in the woods last night"
"She was murdered?" Dean asked taking in the bruises marring the dead girl's face and neck.
"Well, yes and no, if you know what I mean"
"I don't" Dean said.
"Obviously those bruises on her face didn't get there by accident son" the assistant said with a smile Dean would have liked no better than to wipe off his face with his fist "Suffered a lot of trauma, but none of it really life threatening"
"Then how did she die?" Sam asked.
"Bled out"
"From the injuries?"
"No, she suffered a hell of a lot, don't get me wrong, this guy tortured her for the entire time he kept her. But like I said, none were fatal. She suffered a massive uterine haemorrhage" He finished pulling the sheet back up again.
"Uterine? How did that happen?" Dean asked not fully following "Was she raped?"
"She was raped alright. Repeatedly" The assistant continued casually. Sam and Dean both winced but he didn't seem to notice "Severe vaginal trauma, but it's really hard to isolate from the post partum trauma"
"I'm sorry, did you say post partum?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. This girl gave birth recently, and by recently, I mean in the last week. She either gave birth or aborted, hard to tell"
"But she wasn't pregnant when she disappeared. It's only been a few weeks" Dean said quickly.
"I would suggest a miscarriage except the kind of internal trauma she's got isn't from a normal miscarriage and like you said, it's only been six weeks. Whatever she was carrying was the size of a six to seven month old foetus. That's what makes this weird." The assistant said shaking his head in confusion then stopped and looked at both men curiously "How did you know she wasn't pregnant when she disappeared?"
Dean and Sam exchanged a look, one that said it was time to go. Dean turned back to the man and shook his head "News never said she was. They would have other wise. OK, well you've been really helpful" Dean started to move towards the door, motioning to Sam to follow him "We better get back to campus now"
"Wait, you have to sign the book at the front desk" The assistant called out weakly.
"We will" Sam yelled back as he and Dean stepped out the door.
They practically ran to the car and pulled out of the car park "Well, one thing's for sure" Dean said "It's our kind of problem"
They stopped at a coffee shop down the road from the police station as the small town was suddenly engulfed with heavy rain. They sat down and ordered coffee while they waited for Isabel to call them.
"It's been over an hour" Sam said looking at his watch "Why hasn't she called?"
Dean rolled his eyes at his brother's over concern "It's raining pretty heavily out there, maybe she melted" He said joking.
Sam shot his brother a withering look, but couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped.