SKIN PART 1
Finding a gas station during a long drive was like heaven for Alice. Dean never saw her jump off her bike so fast and stretch out every muscle in her body till her bones creaked and popped.
He pulled up next to her and parked. "You alright?" He called to her.
Alice popped her neck side to side and took in a deep breath filled with fresh air and diesel. "Yeah. Long drives like that really do kill me, you know."
Dean saw an opportunity when she said that and didn't wast a second. "You could start riding in the back with us instead. It probably would be easier for all of us."
Alice scoffed. "That doesn't sound so bad. Maybe finally you can stop looking at my ass while we're driving." She cocked a smirk.
So she actually figured it out. Dean didn't find it to be a big loss. Looking at her ass while driving, but looking at her face while inside the Impala, his baby, honestly sounded better. Two good things in one. Win-win in his opinion.
Alice stuck her head in the window. "I'm not wasting another minute having a topic about my ass." She cased a glance to Dean. "I was thinking we can hit Tucumcari by lunch, then head south, hit Bisbee by midnight."
"You sure you can handle a long ride like that?" Dean raised an eyebrow and tossed her a playful smirk.
"You think you're so funny." Alice rolled her eyes. She smiled and pulled his head back and forth until he cracked a grin. Her eyes fell on Sam and noticed that he hasn't said a word this whole time. "Sammy?" She called out to see if he would react to that nickname.
"It's Sam." He corrected, so he was paying attention. "I was listening, I'm just busy." He said while checking e-mails on his PalmPilot.
"Busy doing what?" Dean asked.
"Reading e-mails."
Alice backed away when Dean got out of the car to fill up on gas. "E-mails from who?" He asked.
"From my friends at Stanford." He called out to his brother.
Dean grinned. "You're kidding. You still keep in touch with your college buddies?"
"Why not?" Sam questioned his big brother.
Alice began to pump gas into her bike since she was about empty. The gas station really was heaven sent. "What do you tell them?" She was generally curious since it was near to impossible to explain their job. Saving people and hunting things.
"I tell them I am on a road trip with my big brother. I tell 'em I needed some time off after Jess." Sam explained.
Dean eyed him. "Oh, so you lie to them."
He looked confused. "No. I just don't tell them...everything." He heard Alice snicker. "What? It's not lying."
Her lips curled up into a smirk. "Yeah but...this ain't a road trip, so you're technically..." She shrugged her shoulders. "I understand where you're coming from though. Can't even imagine telling people about this job."
"How many people have you told?" Sam asked.
"Only a handful. Some not taking it so well and others not believing me at all. Telling me and Aiden that 'We're crazy bastards'." Alice stopped altogether about telling people the truth and reality, lying was the best option. She remembers Aiden jokingly calling her a compulsive liar. It's a bad habit, but it saved the pain she might cause others.
"So, what am I supposed to do, just cut everybody out of my life?" He was a bit dumbfounded that both Dean and Alice shrugged their shoulders. "You're serious?"
Dean scoffed. "Look, it sucks, but in a job like this, you can't get close to people, period."
Sam gave him a long and skeptical stare. "If that was the case then Alice wouldn't be here." His brother frowned at that and actually thought it over. "You're both pretty anti-social enough that it cancels out. You two get along well enough that it's creepy."
"Yeah, whatever." Dean turned around and saw Alice smirking at the corner of his eye.
That may be because of Aiden. His and Dean's personality is strikingly similar so that may be why she and Dean got along so well. The man always liked playing pranks on her and had a constant laid-back attitude, seemingly never taking anything seriously. That was a big reason why Alice was so comfortable around Dean because he reminded her of her brother.
God, she misses him. Not a day goes by that she doesn't have dreams or random memories about Aiden.
Sam's eyes fell over an e-mail he was reading before his face fell. "God..."
"What?" Dean stuck his head in the window.
He scanned through an e-mail. "In this e-mail from this girl, Rebecca Warren, one of those friends of mine."
"Is she hot?" Dean felt Alice slap him on the back of the head. "Ow! Really?"
She looked him dead in the eye. "Ah-huh." She said flatly.
Sam sighed and shook his head, taking his attention away from them. "I went to school with her, and her brother, Zack. She said Zack's been charged with murder. He's been arrested for killing his girlfriend. Rebecca says he didn't do it, but it sounds like the cops have a pretty good case."
Alice snapped her fingers to have a look. "That's unfortunate." She looked over it herself.
"Dude, what kind of people are you hanging out with," Dean said.
"No, man, I know Zack. He's no killer." Sam defended.
"Well, maybe you know Zack, as well as he, knows you."
Alice leaned against the Impala and read through the e-mail with cynical eyes. It's said that they found his prints and everything, so the chase should be strong against him but... Alice didn't know. Something just seemed off. Like her gut was telling her that this case was wrong and more met the eye.
"Where does she live?" She asked.
"They're in St. Louis." He answered and saw the shift in her intimidating blue eyes.
"Hey..." She handed the PalmPilot back. "If you wanna check up on them then that's fine. We can head over there."
Dean looked baffled. "What?" He blurted out.
Sam was taken back by the suggestion. Yeah, he wanted to go back for Rebecca but Alice was the last person he thought would be the one to suggest it. "Really?" He cracked a smile and felt thankful.
She shrugged her shoulders. "Hell, why not."
Dean was less than pleased. "Ah, Alice? You do realize that St. Louis is four hundred miles behind us, right?" He looked at her like she was crazy.
Alice cocked a brow. "Yeah?"
Dean was now on a stare down match with Alice's unwavering gaze and Sam's puppy dog eyes. This was a losing battle with his crush and brother, a battle he knew he was never going to win.
A minute later Alice and the Impala tore out of the gas station and started to drive in the opposite direction.
Rebecca opened the door when it rang and a smile stretched to her lips when she saw Sam on the other side with Dean and Alice behind him.
"Oh my God, Sam!" Her eyes brightened up.
"Well, if it isn't little Becky," Sam smirked.
"You know what you can do with that little Becky crap." She opened her arms and brought his 6'4 self down into a tight hug.
"I got your e-mail." His voice dropped with concern and there was a change in Rebecca's voice.
"I didn't think that you would come here." She said.
Dean took the silence and stepped forward to shake her hand with his usual charming grin. "Dean. Older Brother."
Sam quickly picked up on Alice anti-socialness when she didn't say anything and stepped aside for her. "And this is Alice. She's a good friend of the family."
Rebecca smiled politely. "Hi. Nice to meet you."
Alice nodded her head and shook her hand. "Alice Cromwell. Sorry to hear about your brother." She offered her condolences.
"We're here to help. Whatever we can do." Sam said and Rebecca smiled.
"Come in." She moved aside and they walked into the rather nicely decorated house.
"Nice place." Dean looked around.
"It's my parents'. I was just crashing here for the long weekend when everything happened." Rebecca led them into the kitchen. "I decided to take the semester off. I'm gonna stay until Zack's free." She explained.
"Where are your folks?" Sam noticed that the house was quiet and no one else came to the door when they rang it.
"They live in Paris for half the year, so they're on their way home for the trial. Do you guys want a beer or something." She gestured to the fridge.
"Hey-Ouf!" Dean began before Alice swatted her hand against his stomach when Rebecca wasn't looking.
"We're fine. Thank you." Alice followed up, cocking a brow at Dean when he gave her a judgmental look.
Sam looked down to hide his smile."So, tell us what happened."
Rebecca swallowed hard and her eyes became a bit glassy. "Well, um, Zack came home, and he found Emily tied to a chair. And she was beaten up and bloody, and she wasn't breathing. So, he called 911, and the police—they showed up, and they arrested him. But, the thing is, the only way that Zack could've killed Emily is if he was in two places at the same time. The police—they have a video. It's from the security tape from across the street. And it shows Zack coming home at 10:30. Now, Emily was killed just after that, but I swear, he was here with me, having a few beers until at least after midnight."
Two places at once. That caught Alice's attention and her eyes widen a bit with suspicion, mind racing if these could be a case she could actually work. It was a bit surprising that her gut instincts were that strong.
"You know, maybe we could see the crime scene. Zack's house." Sam suggested and Rebecca hesitated with the request.
"Why? I mean, what could you do?"
"Well, me, not much. Alice though is a cop." Sam saw Alice's eyes widen with confusion. "Technically, detective actually."
Alice was quiet for a moment for the gears in her head to began turning again. "Off-duty at the moment. I worked in Bisbee, Arizona." She followed up smoothly.
Rebecca appreciated it but was still hesitating. "You guys, it's so nice to offer, but I just—I don't know."
Sam pleated. "Bec, look, I know Zack didn't do this. Now, we have to find a way to prove that he's innocent."
Rebecca thought it over for a moment. "Okay. I'm gonna go get the keys." She said and walked down the hall to fetch them.
Dean whistled when she walked off. "Oh, yeah, man, you're a real straight shooter with your friends."
Sam rolled his eyes. "Look, Zack and Becky need our help."
"I just don't think this is our kind of problem."
"So you're just gonna ignore the gears spinning in Alice's head." Sam pointed at Alice who looked a bit dumbfounded that he noticed. "Come on, Alice. You noticed that something was up, right?"
Alice's lips began to quiver when she looked into the eyes of the big giant of a puppy dog. "Well...I worked on less."
The door opened with a loud and ominous creaking noise and the smell of stale blood rushed to Alice's nose when she walked in, greeted by the sight of blood smears covering the whole living room. Looks like a scene out of a horror movie.
Alice's face cringed. "The place would have been nicer if not for the blood." She said and Sam gave her a judging look. "What?"
Alice's lack of empathy aside, Sam noticed that Rebecca was still standing on the porch.
"Bec, you wanna stay outside?" He asked to make sure since he didn't want to put her in an uncomfortable situation.
Rebecca sucked in as much courage as she could. "No. I wanna help." She ducked under the police tape.
Dean and Alice slowly searched around the house and looked over all the blood smears the riddled this one place. Alice could guess that's probably when the murder happened.
She stopped walking and gave an extra long stare at the picture of Zack and his girlfriend. Her eyes fell sadly a little and she looked up to take a glance to Dean.
Sam made to be really gentle when he spoke to her. "Tell us what else the police said.
Rebecca was slowly coming to tears. "Well, there no sign of a break-in. They say Emily let her attacker in. The lawyers...they're already talking about a plea bargain." Her eyes fell upon the mess of a murder scene. "Oh, God..." Her voice began to crack.
Alice picked her head up and looked to the window when she heard the loud and bothering bark of the neighbor's dog. She walked over to the window and saw the poor thing pitching a bloody fit about something.
She frowned. "Rebecca." She called out. "Did anything happen before the murder? Like involving Zack."
Rebecca nodded. "Um, there was something, about a week before. Somebody broke in here and stole some clothes. Zack's clothes. The police don't think it's anything. I mean, we're not that far from downtown. Sometimes people get robbed." She shrugged.
Alice slowly nodded her head but her face began to twist the more information she got. "One more thing. Do you think you can get your hands on the security footage? It's not in my jurisdiction."
"I already got it."
Alice cocked a brow. "What?"
Rebecca smiled sheepishly. "I didn't wanna say something in front of the cop. I stole it off the lawyer's desk. I just had to see it for myself."
Alice stifled a laugh. "Don't worry about it. It's a big help."
They looked through the security tapes back at Rebecca's house and looked through them with close and diligent eyes.
"Here he comes," Rebecca said as Zack showed up on the screen for a second before walking off.
Dean noticed the timestamp. "22:04, that's just after ten. You said the time of death was about 10:30."
"Our lawyers hired some kind of video expert. He says the tape's authentic. It wasn't tampered with." Rebecca said.
Alice's eyes narrowed very slightly when Zack walked off the last screen until he disappeared. She nudged Sam standing beside her and made a gesturing movement to Rebecca.
Sam immediately picked up on her signal that told him that she saw something. "Hey, Bec." He said. "Can we take those beers now?"
She nodded her head. "Oh, sure." She got up to head to the kitchen when Sam called back one last time.
"Hey." He said rather sheepishly. "Maybe some sandwiches, too?"
Rebecca cracked a smile. "What do you think this is, Hooters?" She left the room while Dean laughed.
"I wish." He walked over to Alice and Sam. "What is it?"
Sam handed the controller to Alice so she could rewind the tape a bit, going frame by frame over Zack's face, stopping when his eyes suddenly flared up on the screen. That wasn't normal. Alice saw this enough to know exactly what this was.
"Shit..." She cursed and felt her stomach hit the floor.
"Maybe it's a camera flare," Dean suggested and got an offended look by Alice.
"It's not." She corrected firmly. "Don't you know? It's said that a photograph can catch a glimpse of the soul."
"Right." Dean nodded his head.
"I didn't want to believe it at first when the dog outside when totally ape, but this...those eyes." She let out a sigh that was filled with newfound frustration. "We got something nasty on our hands here." Her voice dropped. "It's a damn shapeshifter."
Author's Note:
Let me explain. I hate that it takes such a long time to post these chapters so I thought it would be better to post half an episode for now and do the rest some other week.
I truly don't know why it takes me such a long time to do these chapters. I have no time is what I think. I have three other stories I post weekly and three other ones I post randomly.
But I think I'm gonna do this method for now on. Just to give you guys something."