Skin - Part One

Disclaimer – Don't own anything you might recognize. They all belong to their respective owners.

AN – Huge apologies for the wait with this chapter. For some reason, I had more difficulties writing it than any of my others, even though the real work was already done for me by the fact that it's taken from an actual Supernatural episode – Skin.

Skin – Part One

"I still say we head out to Georgia," Faith grumbled around a mouthful of syrupy waffle. "Three guys all drop dead in the space of two weeks, all of them from the same office? Something's gotta be wrong with that."

Dean snorted. "The only thing wrong with that is that the office was full of old dudes over seventy. If they didn't want their employees dropping dead on them then they shouldn't hire pensioners." He signaled the diner waitress for more coffee.

"As much as I hate to admit it," Buffy piped up, pulling a pained expression. "Dean's right."

"Hell yeah."

Buffy ignored him and continued. "These guys were old, and clearly just overworked. It's sad and all, but I doubt it's case worthy."

"Whatever." Faith shrugged and glanced over at Sam, who'd stayed quiet throughout the entire conversation. "Hey, Jolly Green Giant. What's that your messing with?"

Sam didn't even look up as he answered. "Just checking my emails."

She looked at the tiny device in his hands and raised a brow "Jeez, technology just gets smaller and smaller, don't it?"

"I know right?" Buffy agreed. "Willow and Andrew are always messing with these weird gadgety things, and I'm like, 'whatever happened to a good old fashioned letter?'"

"You two are crazy," Dean said, shaking his head. "And from who?" he asked Sam curiously. He wondered if it was another hunter, which would be weird because most hunters were about as technologically minded as...Buffy.

"Old friends from Stanford," he replied, finally looking up at the other three. By the look on Dean's face, he realized he needed to explain. "I like knowing what's going on in their lives. Reminds me of being normal."

Dean rolled his eyes and shook his head. When the hell was Sam going to realize that they weren't normal? That they weren't ever going to be normal?

"That's nice, Sam," Buffy observed. "I think it's good to keep in contact with your friends."

Dean frowned. "Seriously? You're kidding me, right?"

"No. Why?"

"It's just...weird."

"Why's it weird?" Sam questioned, puzzled by Dean's reaction.

Mindful of the way the other three occupants of the table were staring at him, Dean pulled an innocent expression and took a bite of his eggs. "I mean," he started once he'd swallowed. "what do you say to them when you mail them back? You do mail them back, right? Of course you do, you're completely anal retentive." He ignored Sam's offended splutters. "What do you tell them you're doing now? They've gotta wonder why you suddenly just disappeared, you know?"

Sam suddenly became very interested in his so far untouched breakfast. "I dunno." He shrugged. "I guess I just tell them I'm on a road trip with my brother. They understand that I needed time away after Jess."

"Ah." Dean sat back in the plastic bench with an understanding smirk. "Right. So you just lie to them then?"

Buffy shook her head. Why did Dean have to purposely wind people up all the time? Like it was ever going to end well. Numbskull.

"No!" Sam protested. "Not lying. Just...not telling them...certain things."

"Sammy's a bit fat liar," Dean sung gleefully.

"Ignore him, Sam," Buffy said, shooting a scowl over in Dean's direction.. "You're right not to tell them the truth. Most people would freak."

"Exactly." Dean crossed his arms, looking very pleased with himself.

"So I have to lie a little," Sam reasoned. "Buffy's right. People would think I'm crazy if I told them the truth. But what do you expect me to do? Ignore them? Cut them out of my life?"

"Sure."

"Seriously? You think it's that easy?"

"Why don't you tell people the truth, Sam?"

"Because they'd-"

"Freak. Yeah, yeah. I think we've established that. Why else."

"Well...I don't wanna put them in danger..."

"And there you go." He glanced at Sam apologetically, all amusement gone from his expression. "I know it sucks, but it's just what we have to do. You can't risk getting close to people, not with what we do. Not at all."

"What the hell are we then?" Faith interjected.

Dean waved a dismissive hand towards her. "You guys don't count. You already know about all this crap. And you can take care of yourselves. I'm talking about civilians."

Sam shook his head and went back to his emails. "Whatever, man. You do it your way, I'll do it mine."

Dean sighed. Sam would learn eventually. And it would probably be a hard lesson – one he'd rather his little brother not have to go through. But it was most likely unavoidable. Everyone in this gig knew it. It was just one of the most basic rules of hunting. And soon Sam would know it too. Dean just hoped it wouldn't be toosoon.

Leaning over the table, he snagged the last piece of toast off of Buffy's plate, shoving it into his mouth before she could protest.

He looked up in surprise when no such protest was made, only to find her watching him with a puzzled frown.

"What?" he asked, not even bothering to swallow first.

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. "Do you really believe that?" she questioned eventually.

"Believe what?"

"That you shouldn't ever get close to people?"

"Yeah." He nodded determinedly. "It ends up bad. Every time."

"I think you're wrong," she stated quietly.

Of course she did, Dean thought. She was into the whole emotional thing. "And why's that?"

She shrugged and pushed her omelet around her plate with a fork. "I just think that...that everybody needs someone. Someone to keep them grounded, to remind them that they're not just a slayer – or a hunter – but a person, too. I think that you need to have people around you that you love to remember why you fight for the world in the first place."

"People get in the way," he argued.

Buffy shook her head. "My friends have saved my life more times than I can count. Hell, they've saved the world more times than I can count."

Dean pulled a face. "Your friends all have superpowers or whatever. They don't count."

"Back in the old days it was just me and Giles and Willow and Xander."

"Giles is a watcher and Willow's a witch. Once again, they don't count. And Xander is...well, he's just an idiot."

"First of all, Xander's not an idiot. Well, not really. And Willow wasn't always a witch."

Dean was quickly running out of arguments. "I bet they got into a heap of trouble though too, right? And you had to save them?"

"I agree," Faith announced suddenly.

Dean smiled a 'haha' smile at Buffy. "Thank you, Faith," he said smugly.

"I meant with Buffy, ya knucklehead."

Buffy and Dean looked at Faith in surprise, their mouths slightly open. "What?"

"Hey, don't look so shocked." She rolled her shoulders in embarrassment. She should have just kept her trap shut. "I just mean that I used to only look out for number one. Didn't give a damn about no one or nothing, 'cept for getting in a good slay and having a bang-up time. And look where that got me – in a prison cell with a foot obsessed crybaby named Celeste."

Sam lifted up his head in shock.

"Prison?" both he and Dean croaked, at the same time Buffy uttered "Foot obsessed crybaby?" with an amused snicker.

"Story for another time," Faith said dismissively to Sam and Dean before continuing. "Look, all I'm trying to say is that for the past couple of years I've come to rely on a few people. Buffy for one – she kinda wriggles her way in without you even realizing it."

Dean could only ponder about how true that was.

"Hey!" Buffy gasped, offended to be described in such a way. "Or possibly thank you."

"And nerd boy too," Faith went on as if Buffy hadn't even spoken. "He's alright once you get past the annoying bits. And Buffy's little sis', even if she is in England." And okay so maybe she still didn't exactly like the rest of the Scoobies, but whatever. She could deal.

"So what are you saying?" Dean asked, genuinely interested.

"I'm saying that Buffy and Sam are right. Life's better when you let people in. Is for me, anyway." And that was all the soppy crap they were getting from her.

Luckily, before either Dean or Buffy had a chance to reply, they were beaten to the chase by Sam. "Oh my God," he whispered, his head bent again as he continued to read his mail.

Dean threw his brother a concerned glance. "What?"

Sam indicted indicated towards what he'd been reading. "An email I got from this girl I knew, Rebecca Warren. I was pretty good friends with her and her brother Zach. She says Zach's been charged with murder...

ST. LOUIS, MO

"I'm bored," Faith complained, rolling onto her belly on the motel bed and kicking up her feet. "Why couldn't we go with Sam and Dean again?"

"Because they were going to see Sam's friend, Rebecca," Buffy explained patiently as she flicked through a magazine. "It'd look kind of weird if all four of us turned up."

"Oh yeah. Well I'm still bored."

"But still very pretty."

Faith scoffed. "Pretty my ass. Daisies are pretty. I'm hot."

"Uh huh." Buffy wasn't really listening.

Faith slid off the bed and picked up the crossbow she had left lying on the floor earlier. She lifted it up and aimed, pretending to shoot at invisible bad guys.

"Oops!"

Buffy lifted her eyes momentarily as she heard something crash. "You're paying for that," she said, in regards to the smashed up motel clock that now lay in pieces on the floor. A crossbow bolt was sticking out of the rubble. Without another word she went back to her magazine.

Moments later, Buffy's phone began to chirp, and Faith let out a dramatic, "Thank God!"

"Hello?" Buffy said into the phone, rolling her eyes at Faith's behavior.

"Hey." It was Dean. "Looks like we got ourselves a case."

"Cool beans. What's the sitch?"

"Sam's friend Zach appears to have been in two places at once. There's video footage of him entering his house at ten – about half an hour before his girlfriend was killed – but his sister swears blind that he was with her 'till at least midnight. We checked out the footage and it looks real enough, but when the Zach lookalike glanced into the camera his eyes flared."

"Uh huh," Buffy replied, very slowly.

"So why don't you and Faith meet us at the library and we'll start researching, okay? We need to find out anything we can about things that can maybe take other forms or imitate people. His eyes flashed silver so we can narrow it down."

Buffy paused for a long moment, waiting to see if he was messing with her. He wasn't. Eventually, she sighed and shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "You're kind of an idiot."

"What? Why?"

"Not just you," she said consolingly. "Sam's an idiot too."

"Well, that's true. Wait, why am I an idiot again?"

"So, you can't think what demon could possibly taking the shape of somebody else? Not at all?"

"Like I said, once we've resear-"

"Dean, what was the case that we worked on just a couple of weeks ago? The case that brought you to Cleveland? The case in which we met?"

"What's that freaky ass warlock got to do with anything?" He was sounding very confused. She waited...waited...and then, "Oh!"

"There we go."

"Shapeshifter!"

"Clever boy."

The next morning, Buffy was rudely awakened by the sound of someone shouting 'wakey wakey' in her ear – loudly. She lifted her head up from where it had been resting on Faith's shoulder in the backseat of the Impala. "Jerk," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

Dean smirked and moved back to his seat in the front.

"Where's Sam at?" Faith asked, yawning widely.

"Sherlock's outside looking for trails," he replied.

Faith grunted and climbed out of the car to go and help him. Buffy considered following for a moment, but quickly decided that staying where she was in the warm, comfortable car was the much more appealing idea.

As she slumped back down, Dean handed his coffee through the back to her. "Thanks," she said with a grateful sigh, taking a long sip.

"Sorry for waking you up," Dean said with a barely concealed chuckle.

"No worries, would have had to get up soon anyway." She checked her watch. "At five thirty in the morning! Jeez! I don't even remember leaving the motel room. Remind me to kick Sam's butt next time I have the energy."

"Right there with ya, angel face."

"It's your fault I'm so tired anyway," she grumbled.

He snorted. "How'd you figure?"

"You're the one that made me stay up 'till stupid o'clock so that we could spar."

"I thought you might welcome the chance to brush up on your technique. You've been getting rusty."

"You're such an ass." But her tone was playful and her eyes were sparkling.

"You love my ass. In fact..." He maneuvered himself up so that said ass was in Buffy's line of vision. "you can touch it it you want."

Buffy burst into laughter at his blatant cockiness, and before he had a chance to sit back down, she leaned forward and slapped his butt, hard.

He jerked in surprise and hit his head on the roof of the car, before turning around to cast her a mock glare. "Now that was just mean."

"And yet I feel no remorse."

"You're remorseless. You're clearly the devil."

Buffy giggled and leaned back to look out of the car window. "Why are we parked around the back of the house?"

"The video tape showed the real Zach getting arrested, but didn't show the shifter leave. We figure he must have escaped through the back."

"Makes sense."

"Sam's hoping to find some kind of a trail that might lead us to wherever it's hiding out."

"A trail of what?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. Smarties?"

Moments later, Sam and Faith appeared at Dean's open window.

"Find anything?" Dean asked.

"Blood," Sam replied. "But it doesn't seem to lead anywhere."

"Well that's helpful."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Maybe if you got off your-"

"Shut your cake holes a minute, would ya!" Faith demanded suddenly, holding up a silencing hand.

Immediately quietening down, they too hard the sound of an ambulance siren, not so far away.

"Maybe it's connected to the job?" Buffy wondered out loud.

"Doesn't hurt to find out," Dean claimed.

Faith nodded slowly. "You guys go ahead," she suggested. "Me and B will check out the nearby area. Maybe we'll find something that doesn't leave us with a dead end."

"What was it?" Buffy questioned, when she and Faith met up with Sam and Dean not long after. "Anything to do with the shapeshifter?"

"Looks like," Dean answered. "Same situation. Guy ties up and beats his wife, claims he wasn't even there at the time."

"He have any proof?" Faith queried.

Sam shook his head. "No, but this is way too similar to Zach's case for it to be a coincidence. I think we're definitely looking at a shifter. What about you? Did you guys find anything new?"

"Another trail, same as we found earlier." Faith indicated towards the evidence.

He frowned. "This one just stops too? How the hell is this guy getting around?"

Buffy looked down at the ground and pouted, kicking at the grate she was standing on in distaste. "I did notdress appropriately for this."

"I know bad guys are like, all grr and evil and stuff, but why do they find it more acceptable to hang out in the sewers than good guys do?" Buffy mused out loud as the four of them picked their way through the underground tunnels. "I mean, just because they're evil doesn't mean they have to stop thinking about hygiene, you know? Because hygiene is very important. Especially if you're evil because really, evil people don't have many good qualities to begin with."

"Is it weird that your strange, crazy person logic actually makes sense to me?" Dean asked.

Buffy said nothing, but smiled up at him sweetly. But all in the same second she had stopped walking and her smile had vanished and had been replaced by a look of complete horror. "Oh God!" Slowly, she looked down at the ground.

The other three paused to glance at her.

"What is it?" a worried Faith demanded.

They all looked down to where a miserable Buffy was pointing. One new, expensive, suede boot clad foot was parked right in the middle of what looked suspiciously like discarded skin.

"That's sick," Faith commented.

Sam, resisting the urge to gag, bent down to take a closer look, narrowing his eyes. "Is that an ear?"

Buffy almost fainted.

"Maybe the blood and guts will wash out," Faith tried to console Buffy, as the brothers rooted around through the trunk of the car.

Buffy hummed sadly. "Honestly, I'd rather burn them."

"Can't blame you."

"What are Sam and Dean looking for? They've had their heads in the trunk for ages."

"They're packing up on silver bullets and all that crap. You know Dean actually wanted to give us a gun?"

"Ew. What does he think we are? Heathens?"

"That's what I said." She pulled out a deadly looking silver dagger and twirled it in her fingers expertly. "You got yours?"

Buffy nodded and pulled out a matching silver dagger. "God bless Andrew and his crazed love of having us use matching weapons."

Faith snorted. "Freakin' dork." She ran her finger along the blade adoringly. "I do love me a good dagger, though."

"Gotta tell you, I am so glad we never saw the shapeshifter change back in Cleveland. I don't think I could have handled watching myself rip chunks off of my own skin."

"That's gross."

"And weird."

"I can't believe that's how he does it, man. Imagine the pain. Why bother?"

"'Cause he's a sick freak who needs the holy crap kicking out of him?"

"Sounds about right."

They both turned at the same time as they heard the sound of Sam's cellphone ringing, and watched in trepidation as he spluttered into it.

"Guess Sam's little friend ain't too happy," Faith murmured, as they heard the gist of the conversation.

"Guess not. Just hope she doesn't get in our way. God! I can't believe we have to go back own into the sewers."

"Yeah. When you spend more time below ground than above it, you know there's definitely something wrong in your life. You wanna go change first?"

"That'd be nice."

"Dean said we're not going back 'till dark, so we've got plenty of time. We've even got time to find a nice spot to burn your boots in if you want?"

"Sounds romantic."

"We could even take marshmallows, make a night of it. Maybe with the shapeshifter guts on your boots the smoke will turn a funny color. Purple or something."

"Here's to hoping." She looked down at her ruined boots another time. "Stupid bad guy is so gonna pay for these."

"We could filch his wallet once we-"

"Not literally. I mean pay in the stabbing and the pain kind of way."

Faith shrugged. "Whatever makes you happy, pussy cat."

Later on that night, the foursome did indeed find themselves traipsing through the underground tunnels for the second time that day. After twenty minutes, the tunnel split off into two directions. Silently, Dean pointed for Buffy and Faith to go one way, and he lead Sam down the other.

The girls hadn't been walking more than a minute and a half when they heard the sounds of conflict and the ring of gunshots.

Sharing a worried glance, they immediately turned back the way they had come and sprinted towards the sound of all the commotion, arriving just in time to find a pissed off Sam and Dean scrambling out of a manhole.

"What happened?" Faith wanted to know, panting as she followed them up.

"Freakin' shapeshifter," Dean answered as he cradled his obviously injured arm.

"Which way did he go," Sam questioned urgently, his head darting from side to side as his eyes strained to make out the shapeshifter.

"Don't know," Dean replied. "Didn't see. Damn, he was quick."

"Everyone split up," Buffy ordered, slayer authoritativeness kicking into gear. "Keep your cellphones on and meet back up at the car in an hour." And with that she was gone, sprinting away from them at a speed that almost made her seem blurry.

Faith shrugged. "You heard the girl." She took off in the opposite direction.

Sam and Dean glanced at each other quickly before tucking their guns away inside their jackets and nodding to each other before splitting up.

In Dean's form, the shapeshifter looked down at Sam's unconscious body and shook his head in disappointment. That had been all too easy. A quick knock on the head with a tire iron and Winchester was out for the count. He would have liked to have done it with a bit more class but little Sammy had figured out that he wasn't big bro' much sooner than he'd anticipated. Never mind. Though it was still disappointing. The elder brother had put up much more of a fight. Glancing around to make sure there were no witnesses, the shapeshifter hoisted Sam up and threw him, unceremoniously, into the back of the car. Just as he was about to slam the door shut, he heard the unmistakable sound of a cellphone chirping. It wasn't Dean's – he'd left that down in the sewers when he'd chucked the body down there – so it must be Sam's.

"Hello?" he said into the phone after he'd liberated it from Sam's jacket pocket.

"Hey. I'm on my way back. You guys find anything?"

The shapeshifter closed his eyes as a string on Dean's memories filtered into his mind.

Faith. She and Dean were screwing. Or had been. Or were they still? Dean didn't know.

Oh...she was fun!

"Hello? Am I talking to myself?" She was still there.

"Sorry. Uh, where did you say you were?"

"I said I'm on my way back to the car. I didn't find the bastard. Did you have any luck? Where's Sam? Why're you answering his phone?"

"He went to take a leak."

"Oh. Nice. Why aren't you answering your phone? I called it like seven times already."

Jesus. Didn't this girl ever stop with the questions? "It's on silent. Uh, don't come back here."

"What? Why not?"

"Because we didn't find him either. So we're gonna keep looking. You should too." He winced as another onslaught on memories came on. "Call Buffy. Tell her to do the same."

"Yes sir." Her tone was haughty and sarcastic and she clearly didn't like being told what to do. He didn't really give a crap.

"Later Faith." He didn't even wait for her to reply before he flipped the phone shut.

Sam's heart was thudding painfully in his chest. How in the hell had he allowed himself to be captured? He'd known it wasn't Dean. He'd known. He should have taken the damn shot when he had the chance! But the shapeshifter had planted just that tiniest little bit of doubt inside him and he'd found himself unable to pull the trigger.

Which was clearly the dumbest thing he'd done all night. Now he was tied up down in the damp, disgusting sewers. He was weaponless and his head was pounding from where the shapeshifter had bashed it with a tire iron.

And what about Buffy and Faith? Where were they? Were they okay, or had the shifter gotten them too?

"Where is my brother?" Sam demanded evenly, trying not to listen to the words coming from the shifter's mouth. Just because it looked like Dean, didn't mean it was.

The shapeshifter continued to talk, and his words were becoming very hard to ignore. Was this really how Dean felt? Abandoned by him, by dad? Jealous that he'd had opportunities that Dean hadn't?

It grabbed a hold of a sheet of tarpaulin and sauntered slowly over towards Sam. "But still, it's not all bad. There are certain...perks." He smirked evilly. "I meet all the best kinds of people. Like freakin' slayers, man! Wouldn't get the...benefits of a slayer if he'd– I'd have been a regular Joe. Know what I'm saying?" He stepped closer and sighed happily. "Yeah, Dean likes slayers. One slayer in particular, I should say."

"Stay away from Faith-"

"Faith?" The shifter chuckled loudly. "Dean doesn't care about Faith, not really. I'm talking about Buffy. Little. Buffy. Summers. Prettiest girl he's ever seen."

"What are you talking about?"

"Jeez, considering you guys are brothers and all you sure don't like to share. Maybe it's because you screwed him over and left him for your own selfish ambitions." He held up the hand that wasn't holding the sheet and pulled a mock innocent expression when Sam cursed at him. "Hey, just throwing it out there. No need to get nasty." His face became thoughtful. "But I'm surprised you don't know about Dean's thoughts on Buffy. Dean worries that you do. But the rest of the time he's just thinking about her. To the point of obsession actually. It's kind of pathetic, really it is. Always thinking up ways to get her to smile, or to laugh, or to get angry. He likes it when she gets angry. All fiery and flustered and just hot, man! And he's dying to find out what she's like in the sack. He thinks she'd be dynamite." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Let's find out, shall we?"

"You'd better stay away from Buffy," Sam warned. "Last time she came up against one of you things she beat it down. You won't stand a chance."

But his words didn't even seem to faze the shifter. "Well now, I bet they didn't know the fun tricks I do."

"What tricks? You stay the hell away from her! You hear me? Stay the hell away from her!" Sam yelled desperately, but the shapeshifter wasn't listening and it certainly didn't care, and within seconds Sam's world went dark as the tarpaulin sheet was thrown over his head.

"So you haven't noticed anyone suspicious about in the past couple of hours?" Buffy asked the grocery store guy once more.

He shook his head. "Sorry."

She sighed and thanked him before exiting the store.

This officially sucked.

She must have walked through every damn street in the city and she hadn't found anything. Not even a tiny bit of a clue. And now Dean and Sam weren't answering their cellphones which was causing a horrible squiggly feeling of worry in her stomach. She decided to call Faith to see if she wanted to meet up so that they could look for the boys together. She knew that Faith had spoken to Dean a while ago but she hadn't heard anything since.

But before she could even bring up Faith's number, her phone was ringing and Dean's name was flashing on the screen. "Thank God!" she exclaimed exasperatedly once she'd answered. "Do you know how worried I've been? I've been calling you and Sam constantly for the past gazillion hours!"

"Hey hey hey, princess! Relax. Sam and I went back down into the sewers. We must have lost connection. We're fine though. Dirty, but fine."

"You didn't find the bad guy?"

"No, unfortunately. No sightings."

"Damn, me neither."

"We should probably grab a bite to eat and then head back out again. Do you wanna meet me at the motel?"

"Sounds good. I'm starved. I left my purse back in the room so I couldn't grab anything."

"Well, Sam's gone to meet Faith. He said something about picking up some Chinese food and meeting us at the motel. Sound good?"

"Mm, heaven. I'm only about twenty minutes away so I won't be long."

"I'm closer, but I have to pick something up first. I'll be there in thirty."

Sam nudged off the sheet with his head and struggled as hard as he could against the tight ropes that bound him down.

"Sammy? That you?" he heard a hoarse voice call from somewhere behind him.

He sighed in relief, grinning happily at the sound of his brother's voice. "Yeah, it's me. You okay?"

Dean groaned as he nudged his own sheet off of himself and tried to pull away from his bindings. "I've been better. You sure you're you? Not some freaky thing that just looks like you? 'Cause I'd hate to have to kill you."

"Yeah, I'm definitely me. If I wasn't then these ropes wouldn't be digging into my wrists so much." He tried to turn around in his limited space to look at his brother. "Dean, I think the shifter's gone after Buffy, and he's looking like you now."

Dean ceased his struggling for a moment. "What?" His voice was low and deadly.

"When he left here he was all dressed up in your skin and he said he was going to see Buffy." He neglected to mention the other things the shifter had said.

Dean started struggling against his ropes furiously. "Stupid sniveling son of a bitch!" he yelled ferociously. "When I find that fugly joke of a freak-show I swear to God I'll rip him apart, piece by piece!"

Sam widened his eyes in surprise at his brother's savage reaction. Had the shapeshifter been telling the truth about Dean's feelings for Buffy? Sure, Sam had kinda suspected that maybe his brother had a crush on her, but he'd thought it was a passing thing. Dean didn't do serious. Ever.

And if those things were true, were all the other things he had been saying true too? About him and their dad? "Dean, calm down. Buffy's the slayer. She'll be fine." But he too, was worried. What if Buffy didn't figure out that it wasn't Dean in time? What if he tricked her into thinking she was safe and then...

He redoubled his efforts to escape.

Buffy knew the second that that Dean walked into the motel room that it wasn't really him. His walk was cockier and his smile was sinister instead of cheeky and everything about him was just wrong, even if it all seemed perfectly right. It wasn't him and she knew it. If they'd have been on any other case she'd have just assumed that he was in a weird mood, but it wasn't any other case. It was this one. A shapeshifter. And now the thing that she'd spent the whole night hunting for was here in the motel room, looking like Dean.

"Hi," he said, closing the door behind him and walking further into the room.

From her position on the bed, Buffy eyed the jacket she had left by the door warily. She had left both her phone and her silver dagger in there. The rest of her weapons were in the car. How strong was he? Stronger than the shapeshifter she'd faced in Cleveland? And what weapons did he have concealed on him? Could she get across the room quick enough? "Hi," she replied eventually. How long would he go on pretending he was the real deal for? Long enough for her to come up with some sort of plan?

"What a night!" he complained, stretching his arms above his head and yawning.

Buffy's tone was even when she retorted. "It's still early yet."

"Yes it is." He came and sat down next to her on the bed. Close. Too close.

The second she felt one cold finger trail lightly up her arm, Buffy jumped off the bed in a jittery rush. "I wonder what could be taking Faith and Sam so long." As she spoke, she knew her voice was far too high pitched and she wondered if he could tell. "I think I'll call them and see what's up." She hurried over to her jacket, desperate for the knife she knew was in there. She span around quickly when she heard him follow her and raised an arm to strike. But she was distracted by the way he looked, and he was quicker than she had anticipated, and in one fluid movement he had grabbed a hold of her wrist with one hand, and ripped the motel lamp from its socket with the other. Before Buffy could even react, the lamp came crashing down onto her head.

Buffy dropped to her hands and knees, trying to shake away the pain and the dizziness. She looked up, just in time to see Dean's heavy boot swinging towards her face.

The shapeshifter tutted as Buffy's eyes rolled backwards before she dropped to the floor, unconscious. "It didn't have to be like this," he told her still body, before shrugging. "Never mind."

With a smug smirk, he reached into his pocket to pull out a needle and the muscle relaxants he had picked up from a decidedly shady looking character before coming back to the motel. He dropped to his knees next to her and primed the needle, before yanking up her arm. "Bet you wish you'd never told me that eighteenth birthday story now, huh?" he said, before pricking the needle into her skin.

"Thanks," Sam exclaimed gratefully as Dean released him from his restraints. He twisted his sore wrists around painfully and winced. "Did he leave our stuff down here?"

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

"I was hoping he'd left our cellphones. We could have called Buffy and warned her. And we're gonna need Faith's backup."

Dean's face became clouded as he thought about Buffy.

She'd be okay, he told himself. She was the slayer, she could handle herself.

Even so...

"Come on, let's get out of this hell hole. We need to find Buffy."

The first thing that Buffy felt as she drowsily drifted back into consciousness was the fire. It felt as though every inch of her body was covered in it. She dragged her eyes open in alarm. There was no fire. It just felt that way because she was in so much pain.

The second thing she felt was the way the tight ropes tying her down to a stiff chair were chafing into her skin, and how the gag in her mouth was making it very difficult for her to breathe.

In a state of alarm, she struggled helplessly against her ties, but it was to no avail. She whimpered loudly.

"You're probably wondering why you can't just break away from those little ropes," a silky voice spoke up from behind her. "Strong slayer like you. should be able to get through them easy, right?"

Dean...no! It wasn't him. It was the shapeshifter! It wasn't Dean! Because she remembered. He had hurt her, and Dean would never do that. Not on purpose. She cried out as she felt him run a hand over her blood soaked hair as he circled around her chair to face her. She felt so weak, like she could barely move. And she felt as if she'd gone a a hundred rounds with a hundred demons. What had he done to her?

"Muscle relaxants," he confessed, answering her unspoken question as he held up the empty syringe up for her to see. "Genius. I like those watchers of yous. Smart guys."

Buffy gave an animal like grunt and tried to strain forwards, wanting more than anything to rip that slimy expression off of his face. But she could barely even get the ropes to budge.

The shapeshifter straightened and backhanded her. Buffy tried to stop the muffled scream that erupted around her gag, she really did.

Bastard!

How had she let this happen?

He turned his back on her and walked over to where she had left her jacket. He rooted through the pockets and pulled out both her phone and her silver knife. "You know," he said casually, as he dropped the phone on the floor and stomped on it with one large boot. "I kinda like you. Not as much as Dean does, but never mind. Which is why, baby doll, this is gonna hurt me." He held up the silver knife and smiled wickedly. "Not as much as it's gonna hurt you though."

Terrified tears dripped out of Buffy's rapidly widening eyes, and she shrieked in horror as he advanced towards her, the deadly looking dagger held tightly in his hand.