Booth, Bones and Sweets walked into the observing room to watch Dean Winchester through the one way glass. As soon as they entered he looked up from where he had been staring at his hands and looked directly at them. Bones took a step back, despite knowing that the glass was one way and the rooms were sound proof apart from the microphones in the interrogation room.
"His perception is much keener than most other people." Sweets noted, crossing his arms.
Booth recognized the coldness in the young man's gaze; he saw it in every man who came home from war, though he had never seen one quite so cold or full of hatred. "Sweets, I need you to stay in here and pay attention to him. Bones, you're coming with me."
Booth sat down across from Dean and put a file between them, Bones standing behind him to his left. Dean barely glanced at the file before obviously dismissing it. "I'm Special Agent Booth, FBI."
"What happened to Agent Henricksen? I was just starting to like him…" Dean asked, completely ignoring Bones.
"He died in a gas explosion just after reporting you and your brother dead." Booth answered.
Dean frowned. "That's too bad. He was good at his job." He shook his head.
"Why did he say you and your brother were dead, Dean?" Bones asked, leaning on the table.
He shrugged. "Finally understood what we were always trying to tell him. He knew we weren't the bad guys but couldn't explain that to the bosses so he signed us off."
Booth nodded. "I've got to admit that most of the facts don't line up with you two being the suspects." Booth opened the file and looked down at it. "Though I didn't think you'd be caught in DC. I thought you would stay away from here."
Dean shrugged. "I've got a job to do, I can't choose when I do and don't do that job."
"Where is your brother? Judging by the file you two don't go anywhere without each other. The FBI needs to know where he is." Bones asked, sitting down beside Booth.
Booth saw a slight flicker of pain before Dean covered it up again with a smirk. "Sweetheart, if you want my brother you're going to have to find him yourself. I'm not going to hand him over to the FBI."
Sweets entered the room slowly. "What's the matter Dean? Did he leave you behind again? He went off to school once before. Where'd he go this time?"
Dean glared at the young psychologist. "What do you know? Hate psychology. That shit would get somewhere with Sammy." He leant back in his chair.
"I think you have abandonment issues." Sweets said, walking closer.
Dean's anger grew. "I think I have an issue with shrinks." He stood up, shifting his weight so subtly only Booth really picked up on it. "Do you have an issue with shutting up?"
"Your father was a Marine who disappeared with you and Sam when your mother died in a house fire. He dragged you and your brother all over the country. You were both entered in school for a couple of months at a time before moving on to another town. None of you stayed in one place for more than two months at a time until Sam entered in college."
Dean took a step toward him. "You keep your mouth shut about my family."
Booth leant forward. He understood the pain in Dean's eyes now. "He's not alive, is he?" he asked softly.
Dean closed his eyes for a moment. "Died about three months ago. If Cas had left me where I was Sammy would have been fine. But Cas pulled me out and that was welching the deal so they took his life back."
"Deal, what deal?" Bones asked, leaning forward as Dean sat back down.
Booth could see the weariness in the young man before him. Not only physical but mental as well. Dean was tired of everything. "Sammy died one year and seven months ago. Some kid severed his spinal cord with a hunting knife." He took a deep breath and looked up at Booth, his eyes haunted. "I went to a cross-roads demon and made a deal. Sammy's life for my soul. She gave me a year instead of ten but…Sammy was going to live so it was fair."
Sweets and Bones frowned, thinking he was crazy. Booth had a vague look in his eyes like he believed him.
"One condition; if I tried to get out of the deal Sammy would die again. The hounds dragged me down to the Pit at the end of the year and I was gone for four months according to Bobby. Cas dragged me out and Sammy died before I could find him."
"Your brother couldn't have been dead. Perhaps he was in a coma and you found a better doctor…" Bones tried to rationalize.
Dean looked at Bones and shook his head. "Don't believe me if you don't want to, doesn't matter." He frowned and looked back at Booth. "Is there anything I can do for you? You have all the facts to put a case together…"
Booth sighed, the guy was smart. "I've got this case at the moment that I can't make sense of. I thought you might be able to help me with it…you'll have to wear an electronic tracking band…"
Dean nodded. "If it's anything I can figure out I'd be happy to help."
xxx
Booth led Dean into the Jeffersonian. He swiped his security pass and indicated that he wanted Dean to follow him onto the platform where his team was working.
"Guys, this is Dean. He's going to help us with the case." Booth spoke as he leant his hips against an empty table. "That's Hodgins, he's the bug and slime guy. Andrew is Bones' grad student. Cam is the flesh person, and the boss. You've met Bones."
Dean nodded and pulled a handful of necklaces out of his pocket. "I don't care if you believe me or not but I would be a lot happier if all of you would wear these." He tossed one to each of the people standing in front of him.
"What are they?" Angela asked as she slipped hers over her head. She looked at the medallion. "The design is amazing."
"They'll stop a demon from possessing you." Bones made a funny face which Dean saw. "Look, even if you think I'm crazy and ranting, don't you think it's a good idea to keep the crazy guy happy?"
She nodded and slipped hers over her neck. Hodgins looked at Dean for a moment. "What about you?"
He sighed and pulled the collar of his shirt down so they could see his left shoulder. Booth took a deep breath; this guy was very serious about everything. "How long have you had that?"
Dean shrugged, letting go of the shirt. "Bobby gave us a couple of the medallions after Sam got possessed once. We wore them around for a while but when you fight the things we hunt…a necklace isn't likely to last too long." His attention went to the body of a woman lying on one of the tables. "Is that one of your victims?"
Booth nodded and Dean walked over to look at the body. He studied it closely, everyone was shocked to see him so professional and at ease around a dead body.
Cam and Bones walked over to stand a little away from the table. "Her injuries are strange. Some of the fatal ones had started trying to heal and then more fatal ones were made." Cam spoke.
"Judging by the blood pooling and how the skin around it had started to heal, this rib had been sticking through for a month or more." Bones added.
"We have no idea how she was able to survive some of these injuries long enough to start healing." Andrew said, pulling them up on a plasma screen.
Dean picked up a glove and looked at Cam and Bones. "Do you mind?" they nodded and he put the glove on. He opened the mouth and frowned. He carefully pushed one eyelid open and then pushed it back down.
He took the glove off and glanced at one of the computers. "Can I make a phone call?"
Booth threw him his mobile. "Put it on speaker. Sorry, but rules are rules."
'What the hell do you want?" a man answered angrily after a moment.
"Bobby, it's Dean. I'm in DC…working with the FBI. Look, I need you to do some research for me. Need everything you can find on Tagyrt. He likes wearing a meat suit until it's all but dead and then abandoning ship. Strange way for one of them to kill but he isn't exactly sane."
"I'll find what I can. Are you alright Dean? I haven't seen you since we found Sam…"
"I'm fine. Listen, all I really need to know is how he chooses his meat suits. DC's too big to walk around spilling holy water on everyone."
"You want to know how to exorcise him as well?" Bobby sounded slightly worried.
"If the body he's wearing when I find him is dead I'm not exorcising him. I don't want any of them climbing back out. Call me back on this number." He was about to hang up when Bobby spoke again.
"Dean, you were in hell for four months and you got dragged back out just to lose your brother. I ain't normally one for talking but you need to work through it."
"Bobby, I'm fine. Find that information for me as quick as you can, right?" and he hung up and turned to face everyone watching him. "It's a demon called Tagyrt. Not as nasty as they come but he still can cause some major damage if he gets the drop on you."
"Booth," Bones walked over to her partner. "Clearly this man is not in touch with reality. Why are we listening to him?" just at that moment a man appeared out of thin air in front of Dean.
"Dean, you're sick. You need me to fix it." His gravelly voice held no emotion.
"Whoa, where did he come from?" Hodgins asked, taking a step forward.
The man turned to face the others. "I'm Castiel, the angel that pulled Dean from hell."
"Yeah, effectively killing my brother. Go away, Cas, I'm working." Dean walked away from him to look inside a supply cupboard. Castiel followed him.
"Dean, your pride should not stand between you and your health. Let me take your burden. You do not have to carry it." Castiel spoke, placing a hand on Dean's shoulder.
Dean spun. "It's mine to carry and you will not take it. Now, get outta here before I find some way to smoke an angel." He growled.
Castiel disappeared and everyone stared at Dean in shock. Booth cleared his throat. "Are you sure you should have done that? Pissing off an angel can't be a terribly good idea…"
Dean shrugged. "If he didn't want me telling him to leave he should have left me in hell." He frowned. "Got any salt around here?"
"Umm, no. why would we have salt?" Bones asked, frowning in confusion. "And why do you want salt?"
"Very few supernatural things can cross a line of salt. Lay it down across a doorway it's better than ten tons of concrete. I'll have to go buy some I suppose." He turned around; he made it almost to the edge of the platform before turning back to Booth. "Can I have access to my car?"