The trip to McKinnon was normally an eight hour drive, however with speed freak Dean Winchester behind the wheel they made it in five. For the boys however it felt like barely one hour. If you spend as much time on the road as they do you get used to traveling which makes trips seem shorter.
Dean looked over at Sam. The younger boy was reading that newspaper article for what must have been the thousandth time. Dean didn't mind though. When they were younger it had normally been Sam who would pick up on clues that would end up solving their 'cases'. That boy could read between the lines like no one he knew. Except perhaps for their father.
In Dean's eyes the man was a legend, even if they hadn't seen him since he took off. Sam was the researcher of the family, Dean was the soldier and their father was both. Get Sam to figure out what it was and how to kill it and then just send Dean in, guns blazing.
The older hunter tapped his hands on the steering wheel and nodded his head slightly to the beat of Metallica's Where Ever I May Roam. He glanced at his younger brother and wondered if he was okay. Normally by this song he would have had enough of Metallica and been threatening to burn the tape, and Dean would be reciting his 'Drive picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole' line. But instead Sam was tapping his foot slightly in time with the beat as well. Dean frowned. Why the hell is he so happy? Not that he was complaining. If Sam was happy then Dean was happy, and to Dean no one deserved to be more happy than his little brother. On the other hand, Sam being happy for apparently no reason made Dean paranoid that his little brother was planning something. He wondered if he should be preparing for another prank war. Dude! You're getting paranoid in your old age.
Speaking of paranoid, "Hey Sam, do me a favor and grab my Black Sabbath tape?" he asked his little brother.
Sam looked up, smiled and reached for the box that held Dean's infamous tape collection. He looked through it for a moment before pulling out two tapes, "Paranoid or Sabbath Bloody Sabbath?"
"Paranoid."
The younger hunter took out Metallica's the Black Album, put it back into its plastic case and then put on Black Sabbath. The sound of brutal guitars, powerful drums and the unmistakable voice of Metal God Ozzy Osbourne filled the car.
"So where to first? Hotel or morgue?" Sam asked folding the paper article up and resting it on the seat in between them. He basically knew it off by heart now anyway.
"Food." was the matter of fact reply. Dean moved the Impala into a McDonald's car park.
"Maccas?" Sam asked looking up at the golden M. This was different. They had been eating at small diners lately, not large franchise restaurants like this.
"No. We're going to eat from that bin over there," Dean replied in a sarcastic tone and pointed to a skip at the side of the building, "Come on college boy. Maybe we can get a toy to keep you entertained for awhile." He laughed and walked into the restaurant.
The brothers ordered their meals and sat at a table in the corner. Sam looked around him and into the plastic playground. It had five children in it. From what Sam could tell, three were related and the other two were single children. He smiled as he looked at the other customers in the restaurant. They must have been the children's parents. He remembered playing in playgrounds, if the place had them, with Dean when they were younger. He remembered that his father always kept an eye on them. It was almost as if he took his eyes off his boys, even for a second, that when he looked back they would be gone.
"Remind you of someone?" Sam asked his brother nodding towards the kids. There were two boys in the corner and Sam guessed they were brothers. The younger one was sitting on the ground watching as his older brother put a band aid on his grazed knee.
Dean looked up with the burger still in his mouth, mid bite and stared at what Sam had indicated to. He took the bite and looked back at Sam, "Yeah. It reminds me a lot of how your fulgy ass was always falling over."
"I did not!" Sam said indignantly even though he was pretty sure Dean was referring to the time Sam had came down the slide to fast and ended up on his bum about a meter and a half from the end of the slide.
"Whatever slide boy." Dean laughed and stole some Sam's fries without him noticing. The older hunter smiled his little brother tuned red. Dean remembered that day clearly. Sam had come down that slide as fast as a bullet leaves a gun, he even managed to get air. He remembered his heart stopping when his brother hit the ground and didn't move. He remembered running over to an embarrassed and sulking Sam to find that his brother was okay. The look on Sam's face had made him crack up laughing until he had tears in his eyes. In fact just thinking of the look on Sam's face made him laugh even now.
"Shut up Dean it wasn't funny!" Sam said in a scolding tone but the corners of his mouth twitched up into a smile giving him away, "That slide was possessed. How the hell can someone go down a slide that fast?"
"Aw man that was great. I wish you could have seen the look on your face! It was priceless," Dean paused as his laughing wore out, "Good times."
"Yeah they were." Sam said as he finished his burger and looked down to grab some fries only to find half of them missing. He looked up at Dean who had his I'm-an-innocent-angel-what-you-looking-at-me-for look plastered all over his face.
The Winchester brothers were back in the Impala and on their way to the morgue. McKinnon wasn't a big town but it wasn't small either. If Dean was ever going to settle down somewhere he would like it to be in a medium size town like this. It had elements of the city but was still quiet and peaceful at the same time.
The Impala's throaty engine was cut still when Dean had the car stationary in its new car space. He reached over, opened the glove box and pulled out his small box of fake ids. He pulled out two and handed one to his brother.
"FBI?' Sam asked.
"Yeah, well we haven't done that one in awhile." Dean stated and got out of the car walking quickly towards the front door of the morgue, "Isn't Florida supposed to be warm?" he asked Sam as a cold breeze passed through them.
"It is." Sam figured the cold weather in a normally hot zone had something to do with their new 'case'. Not that it was hard to put the dots together. Two guys freeze to death from inside out and the normally sunny weather of where it happened had turned cold. Not hard to find the common denominator.
Sam looked up from his thoughts as he was hit with a wall of warm air. He realized he was now standing in the morgues lobby. Dean was already art the counter flashing his badge to the young teenage male sitting behind the front desk.
"I'm Officer Ford, this is Officer Hamill. We're with the FBI. I believe you are currently in possession of the bodies of one Bob Scott and one Red Hardy. My partner and I are here to see them." Dean said using his most authoritative tone, which to Sam sounded a lot like John Winchester.
The teen nodded, clearly not wanting to challenge what Dean had said. Sam both loved and hated that talent of his brother. Dean was nothing if not an actor. He could probably convince the catholic pope that he was God if he really wanted to. Sam snickered at the thought. Dean a God. Oh the horror! Maybe in his brothers own mind but that would be the only place.
The boy led them down a hallway. When they entered through the door that said 'Cold Room', the temperature dropped. The soundings went from the bleak cream walls of the hallway to the stainless steel, cold look of the cold room.
Dean watched the teen go over to the wall of draws and open two. On each of the trays lay a body covered with a thin, white plastic sheet.
"This is Bob and the guy there," the teen pointed to the body that lay on the right of Bob, "Is Red. Can I ask what interest the FBI has with this case?"
"What can you tell us about the way they died?" Dean asked ignoring the teen's question. He wasn't in the mood for much small chit chat. He had switched into hunter mode and he just wanted to get his information and get the hell out of there. He may have been in hundreds of morgues in dozens of states since he could remember but that didn't mean he had to like it. Morgues gave him the creeps.
The teen pulled back the plastic sheet from Bob's face and shoulders, "Well from what we can tell they froze from the inside out. It sounds crazy I know but that's the only thing we've been able to come up with. The cold started from the mid section and worked its way out. We've never seen anything like it."
Bob was a middle ages man who would have been quite attractive if his face wasn't frozen in the contortion of pain and he wasn't blue. Apparently from looking at the body he was still frozen. Dean could feel the cool air coming off him.
"We?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, my partner and I. She's out to lunch at the moment."
"Who found the bodies?" Dean asked.
"Ah that would be Mr Pryor, he just bought the old Rhodes house. That's where these two were found. They were contracted to work there, plumbers. Poor bastards, have you got any idea how cold it has to be to freeze to death like that?" the teen asked the brothers.
They shook their heads. Dean was starting to get a bad feeling about this case. People who freeze inside out, not something you see everyday even when you do what the Winchesters do for a living. Not only that but whatever it is would have to be pretty powerful to pull a stunt like that.
"At least negative fifty and by the looks of these two it would have been even colder. Bob here was found pointing in front of him and Red was found looking in the direction where Bob had been pointing. We get the idea that Bob was still freezing when he was pointing, because the bones in his arm were splintered from the movement." He paused thinking for a moment then, "Have you guys seen Terminator Two? Think of the T1000 at the end of that, how he just broke apart. I mean this is some freaky shit, they were still frozen when they were found, as you can probably tell. We had to drill a hole into them to get a liver temperature."
"Ouch." Dean said looking at the blue face below him.
Sam looked at his brother, Dean was looking a little pale. He decided that they had enough information from the teen, "Okay well that should just about do it. I didn't catch your name?"
"Greg." The teen replied.
"Well thanks for your time Greg." Sam shook the Greg's hand and Dean did the same.
When the boys were back in the Impala Sam turned to face Dean, "You okay? You looked a little pale in there man."
"Yeah I'm fine. I'm thinking we go stop by this Rhodes house before dark. Give it a once over then come back at night." Dean replied effectively changing the subject.
"Yeah okay." Sam said. He still wasn't convinced that Dean was okay. As the Impala tore out of the parking lot and onto the main road Sam decided that when this hunt was over they would take a break. They were long overdue for one anyway. It would hopefully be something quick and easy like an exorcism or burning some bones. Then they could just go relax somewhere for a week or so. But then again when were things ever that easy for the Winchesters?
Hey guys! Well there's the next chapter. I know not really much happened in it. It was just more of a bridge chapter but don't worry, I intend for the shit to hit the fan in either the next chapter on the one after that. Until then thanks to sudoku, princesspeanut, CharliePace1983, Icewolfblackheart, PowerRangerFreak and vincesbabe for the reviews and keep them coming! Oh and I don't really know how cold it would have to be to freeze a human body so I made that up.
Mishka xXx
