A/N: It's not quite a replication of Ghostfacers, instead it's Dean & Beth's take on what happened, some of it on film, some of it not, and a few backstories
All my friends tell me I should move on
I'm lying in the ocean, singing your song
Ahhh, that's how you sang it
Loving you forever, can't be wrong
Even though you're not here, won't move on
Ahhh, that's how we played it
And there's no remedy for memory your face is
Like a melody, it won't leave my head
Your soul is haunting me and telling me
That everything is fine
But I wish I was dead
Every time I close my eyes
It's like a dark paradise
No one compares to you
I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side
GHOSTS
(3 months ago)
Cicero, Indiana
3 months ago
Beth's POV
"Wow…" Lisa said from where she was sitting across the table from us. "You guys left a message a little over a week ago and now…" she chuckled and shook her head, waving at us. Dean grinned and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, kissing my forehead. His left hand was tangled with mine on the table and I was still, after a week, staring at our rings together. I still had a little bit of a hard time believing any of it had happened.
I looked at Lisa, feeling a little guilty that she'd been away and hadn't been able to make it to the impromptu wedding; we hadn't been able to raise her on the phone and had decided not to wait even though we'd both wanted her and Ben to be there.
"Well, you know, you snooze you lose," Dean said and Lisa snorted, raising an eyebrow.
"Really Dean? Well it's a good thing you didn't snooze any longer… how long did you wait to pop the question?" She asked, leaning forward on the table. Dean looked a little chagrined and chuckled, looking apologetically at me. I smiled and stood up, taking my cup over to the sink and rinsing it.
"I still don't understand what the big hurry was about," she said, shaking her head. "It couldn't have waited a week?" I leaned back against the bench and Dean and I exchanged a look of trepidation.
"What?" Lisa asked, seeing Dean's expression from in front of her. She turned to look at me and I glanced down at my hands briefly before looking up at her.
"There's uh… there's more that we need to tell you," I said softly and she started to look worried.
"Are you all right? You're not sick?" She asked, looking from me to Dean. I shook my head and returned to my seat.
"No, we're not sick, but …"
"You remember when we ran into you, like, almost a year ago?" Dean asked, and Lisa nodded. "Remember how we said we had some stuff going on…and it would be good to get to know Ben?"
Lisa paled a little and looked at him through narrowed eyes. "Well?"
"It kind of relates to all that… strange stuff we do," Dean said.
"Oh."
"Lisa, we didn't tell you sooner because we were hoping that we could find a way out of it, but…" I paused, not knowing how to say it, not wanting to admit that we were down to the eleventh hour and fading fast.
"What? What aren't you telling me?" Lisa asked, frowning.
Dean looked uncomfortably at me and I could tell he didn't want to be here for this conversation, he had a hard enough time talking about it with me. I smiled and nodded toward the backyard where Ben was playing with a ball.
"Why don't you go spend some time with Ben?" I said and he breathed a sigh of relief, almost jumping up from the table and racing out the door.
Lisa turned to me, sighing. I bit my lip and felt the tears come into my eyes unbidden. "What the hell is going on?" She asked, looking confused.
1 Week Earlier
Appleton, Wisconsin
Beth's POV
I was still sulking by the time we got to the old Morton House, Dean was dealing with it by ignoring me and playing We're An American Band up really, really loud. He slowed down and pointed a flashlight at the house as we drove past, not noticing anything out of the ordinary: chainlink fence, padlocked, with the usual warning to keep out. He kept driving down the road, pulling over a short while later into a small wooded area, turning to look at me.
"Come on, you're not going to sulk the whole time are you?" He asked with a sigh. I grumped at him and crossed my arms, looking out the window.
"Really?" He asked again, blowing out a long breath and then taking another one in.
"I just don't see why we have to do this," I said, still looking out the window.
"We don't, but come on, it's the Morton House Beth! This chance only comes up once every four years! I had to beg Jefferson to let us handle this."
"Which reminds me, I need to kick his ass for even bringing it up," I huffed.
"Come on, Beth… don't be like this. We're meant to be having a good time aren't we? Just the two of us?" Dean moved across the benchseat toward me and reached out to stroke a hand along the back of my neck and I shivered under his touch, scowling, that wasn't fair play and he knew it.
"Look, it's just tonight, then we're on our way up to the border and we get to spend the whole week together just doing fun things, no hunting," he promised and I sighed, looking over at him. It was damn hard to stay angry at him when he was circling his fingers along my neck and shoulders, creating a needy ache inside of me for him.
"Promise?" I asked, leaning in to him a little bit.
"I promise," he said, leaning in to kiss my neck and I shivered again.
"God I hate it when you do that," I said with a moan, reaching a hand out to stroke it along his cheek.
"You know you've wanted a shot at the Morton House since you were seventeen," he said looking at me.
"Yeah, well, that was then… things are a little different now," I said, looking down at my hands. I didn't want to risk doing anything stupid and losing him any sooner than was already going to happen.
"They're not that different," Dean argued, putting his arm around me and pulling me closer, his left hand running down over my arm to my stomach where he splayed it across the shirt I was wearing, teasing me in large round circles.
I moaned, shifting under his touch and then moving his hand so I could turn to straddle him in the middle of the car front. "Yes they are… we weren't doing this when I was seventeen," I said with a grin, kissing his lips and lingering along his jawline as he groaned. "And we certainly weren't married."
He chuckled. "Listen to you and dropping the whole married thing whenever you can," he said with a smile.
"Uh huh, well I think I've earned it, don't you?" I asked. "I'm going to make the most of it while I kiss my most gorgeous husband, and caress my husband, and make love to my husband…" this last part punctuated with a gentle grinding against his groin as I caught his lower lip in mine, sucking softly.
Dean groaned again, his hands sliding up under my shirt and stroking my bare back. He glanced over my shoulder at the dash and grinned at me, "so… do you think we have time for a quickie? Or are you deliberately trying to delay things so we can't get into the house before midnight?"
I laughed and glanced at the clock, raising my eyebrow. "How long do you need?" I asked with a grin.
Dean grinned and pulled his t-shirt off baring his chest, pulling me in to him and kissing me hungrily. "How long do you?" He asked, starting to unbuckle his pants as he kissed me again. I groaned and pulled at my own clothes, looking at the back seat. I didn't know about him, but I wasn't going to need long at all to sate my current desires; tomorrow, when we were on our way to Sioux Saint Marie with this hunt well and truly behind us it would be an entirely different story.
An hour later
Dean's POV
I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as we tucked our clothes back in and then I started up the car, heading back to the Morton House. At least Beth was in a better mood, I glanced at her a few times and noted the little smile on her face that always accompanied her afterglow. So maybe this hadn't ended up being the quickie we'd anticipated but we still had plenty of time to get into the house and check things out.
The house was big and cold looking as we collected our weapons and badges. There was definitely some movement in the house now we were back and Beth looked at me with a raised eyebrow, pulling her hair up into a ponytail and slipping on her leather jacket.
"Ready?" I asked and she nodded, looking up at the house.
"We need to get whoever is in there out, and soon," she said and I completely agreed with her.
"Yeah, let's go," I said, climbing out of the car and shutting the door behind me. We crept up to the back door and let ourselves in, there were some talking going on in a room nearby and we headed for it, passing through one door and coming into a hallway. We found ourselves standing at one end, two guys at the other.
"Freeze! Police Officers! Don't move!" I said in my best authoritarian voice. The guys panicked, raising their hands in the air and whimpering.
"All right, all right, take it easy boys, let's see some ID," Beth said, shining her light in their direction.
They still didn't move and I sighed. "Come on! Let's see some ID!" I reiterated at them.
"What…are we under… under arrest?" One of the guys, a tall dark haired dweeb asked.
"We are unarmed," said the red-head with glasses.
"Oh, god. Oh, god," I looked at the dweeb again and started to wonder if he was about to have a panic attack as he handed me his ID.
"Want to explain that weirdo outfit, Mr…uh Corbett?" I asked, glancing at his ID. He was dressed from head to toe in camouflage with a light attached to the side of his head. He looked like a hunter cross miner with a video camera.
"I know you," the red-head said and I scoffed.
"Yeah, sure you do. Give me some identification," I said to him, holding out my hand.
"Yeah, ho…whoa, hold on a second! I know the both of you guys. Yeah," he said, nodding in recognition. I glanced at Beth and she was staring wide-mouthed at the pair of them.
"Holy shit!" She said in surprise, looking at me.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Uh, West Texas, six years ago… the… the tulpa we had to take out. Those two goofballs that almost got us killed… the hellhounds or something?" She said, frowning. I shone the light straight in redhead's face, and now that I was paying attention he did look familiar.
"Oh fudge me," I said turning to look at them in disbelief,. That whole damn event had been a bit of a nightmare, first going there because we were bored when Dad took off on us – visiting Cole no doubt now I could look back on it – and then Beth hooking up with that guy, and we got in a massive fight… what a freaking week!
"Yeah, we're not hellhounds anymore, okay?" The red-head said. "It didn't test that well."
"Ed, what's going on?" The other guy asked.
"They're not cops, buddy – no, not at all," Ed said cockily and I sighed. Great, we were never going to get these guys to leave now.
"Ed, Ed…you had a partner, too, didn't – a different guy?" I asked, recalling a tall dark haired dick.
"Oh, yeah, yeah."
"Is he around here somewhere?" Beth asked, looking beyond them.
"He's running around, chasing ghosts," Ed replied.
"Okay, well, listen. You and Rambo need to get your girlfriends and get out of here," I said, putting my hand on his shoulder and steering him toward the exit.
Ed stepped up toward me chuckling and waving a finger at me. "All right. Listen here, chisel chest, okay? We were here first. We've already set up base camp. We beat you." Beth snickered at the chisel chest comment and I looked at her.
"They were here first," I said sarcastically and she rolled her eyes, a grin on her face.
"Mm hmm," Ed said with a nod.
I grabbed Ed and shoved him up against the wall. "Ed…"
"Yeah?"
"…where's your partner?" I finished and Beth smirked, shaking her head. Idiots!
1 week later
Cicero, Indiana
Beth's POV
"He's what?!" Lisa asked, getting up and pacing the floor, looking out the window at Dean and Ben tossing a baseball back and forth. "No... no there's no such thing as Hell. Or demons!"
"I'm sorry Lisa, but there is... everything I've told you is true," I said quietly, remaining seated.
"But..." She stopped, crossing her arms. "No, no, no... how could you do this? Where do you guys get off coming into our lives, developing a relationship with my son, knowing this was going to happen?! How am I supposed to explain this to Ben?!" She snapped, coming over to lean on a chair.
"How dare you!" She said angrily.
"Hey, now that's hardly fair. We didn't come looking for you, and you were the one who told Dean about Ben in the end, don't put that on us," I said, feeling indignation rising in my chest.
"You should never have come back!"
"Well maybe he wanted to!" I said loudly back, standing up to face her across the table. "Did you stop to think that maybe, just maybe he wanted to get to know his own flesh and blood before he ends up in such a horrible place?"
"You should have thought about what you're going to tell his flesh and blood when he dies in a few months! You have no idea what I'm going to go through, you don't know what it's like to be a mother!" Lisa snapped and I flinched, putting a hand to my forehead, willing myself not to react.
Dean looked up from outside, hearing the raised voices and frowned.
"You know what... we're just gonna go," I said tiredly, walking toward the glass door. I paused, looking back at her, "and you're right, I don't know what it's like to be a mother, we lost our baby before we had the chance." I pulled open the door and walked out into the evening, shutting it again on Lisa's stunned face. She hadn't known, not many people did, and I didn't talk about it. I was too upset to care about what she thought about that.
1 week earlier
Appleton, Wisconsin
Beth's POV
Ed showed us to Base Camp his little head flashlight flicking about as he looked around the room.
"What are you doing in the Morton House, Ed – on leap year – what are you thinking?" Dean asked, shaking his head.
"We're here to spend the night, okay? It's for our TV show," he explained and I gaped at him.
"What?! Great. Perfect," I said sarcastically, throwing my arms in the air.
"Yeah, nobody's ever spent the night before," Corbett said with a naïve smile.
"Uh, actually, yeah, they have," Dean said pointedly.
"Uh, we've never heard of them," Ed said.
"Yeah, you know why? 'Cause the ones that have haven't lived to talk about it!" Dean snapped at him.
"Oh, come on," Ed scoffed, "I don't believe you."
"Look," I said, slamming my bag down on the table and starting to rifle through the contents. "Missing persons reports going back almost half a century," I pulled the printouts from the bag and showed Ed. "Uh, John Grant stayed on a dare – gone. Julie Wilkerson – gone. There are tonnes more. All of them came to just stay the night through, always on a leap year. The only body they ever found was the last owner, Freeman Daggett."
"These look legit," Ed said in a marvelling voice, flipping through the printouts.
"They are legit!" I said. "Look, Ed, we haven't got much time here. Starting midnight, your friends are going to die," I said, looking at him. He was a pain in the ass, but he didn't deserve to die.
Yelling sounded from upstairs as three people came running down the stairs. I recognised Harry, Ed's partner in crime from when we met them six years ago. He was with a girl and another guy.
"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!" Harry said, his face flushed with excitement as he rushed up to us, looking around. "Guys! Guys! Oh my god! Oh my god! We got one! Corbett! Corbett, we saw one! We saw one!"
"Get outta here!" Ed said excitedly.
"It was a full apparition!" Harry said. "It was like a class four. It was a spectral illumination! It..."
"It was amazing!" The girl cried out.
Harry noticed us and stopped looking from me to Dean and then back again. I squinted in the light suddenly shining in my eyes and cursed their little headlights. "Hey, aren't those the assholes from Texas?" Harry asked, pointing at us.
"Yes," Ed said with a nod.
"All right, let's have this reunion across the street, guys," Dean said, stepping forward.
"Crap. What are you guys doing here? Where's your brother?" Harry asked.
"Come on, come on. We'll get you ice cream – our treat," Dean said in a patronising tone. "What do you say? Let's go."
"Yeah I say no," Harry said, walking away to where the girl was tapping away on a laptop.
"Look at this. Look, look. Ed, Ed. No. No. Look at this. Okay, honest to god proof, all right?" She said, pointing to a video replay she had just uploaded. They were like kids on Christmas morning, watching the screen in excited anticipation.
"Are you kidding me?" Ed asked, coming around to view the footage. I walked around to look too, curious at what they'd seen.
"Yeah, no, not kidding," Harry said, shaking his head.
"What kind of reading did we get?" The other guy said.
"Uh, it was a 10.9," Harry said.
"10.9?" Ed asked incredulously.
"Yeah, it was 10.9. It was almost 11. I came out, and I was like, 'what's going on?' And I was like – wait, watch this. Oh! He got blasted. It was crazy," he said pointing to the screen where a ghost suddenly fell to the ground, dead. I looked at Dean who was frowning and we walked away.
"Think maybe you're off on this? I mean, that was just a death echo," I said to him quietly.
"Yeah, but what's it doing here? Did anybody get shot here?" Dean asked.
"No, not that Jefferson could find," I said, shaking my head and thinking about the research I'd begrudgingly read on our way here.
"What's a death echo?" A voice asked from behind us and I turned to see a video camera in my face.
"Look, we got a problem here. And that ghost isn't it," I said, pointing my flashlight at the laptop.
"Yeah, that's real. Like that happened," Harry said from behind the guy, seeming to ignore us.
"What's a death echo?" The guy asked again.
"Echoes are trapped in a loop, okay? They keep replaying how they died over and over and over again, usually in the place where they were ganked. It's about as dangerous as a scary movie," Dean explained.
"So maybe the echo's not dangerous, but maybe something is," I said to Dean, as I walked toward the group huddled around the laptop.
"You're right," he said with a nod. "All right, we need to get out of here guys. Come on. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Pack it up!"
"Guys, time is running out!" I snapped when they didn't move, grabbing the girl and starting to push her toward the door.
"What about all of our equipment?" She asked, pointing to the laptop. "What are we gonna..."
"Lots of fun. Let's go," Dean interrupted, herding the others around the table and toward the exit.
"We got more material. We got all kinds of stuff. We'll make you guys recurring guest stars," Harry said, trying to bargain his way into staying.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Ed yelled suddenly, causing us all to come to a dead halt. "Where's Corbett?" He asked, looking around.
Dean shoved Ed toward the door as we all argued. "No man left behind!" Ed said as an anguished cry sounded from upstairs. I cursed as everyone around us panicked. "That was Corbett," Ed said.
"That was Corbett! Corbett!" Harry shouted, moving toward the stairs.
"Corbett!" The girl called out, following Harry. The two of them, along with Ed ran up the stairs and I looked at Dean who was groaning.
"We'll get him! Go back!" He said pointlessly as they ignored us.
"Damn it!" I cursed, sighing. This was all we needed. Bad enough we were in here playing hunt the thing that wants to kill us, but now we were babysitting almost half a dozen amateurs, one of whom had just decided to go on his own tour of the house after we told them it was too dangerous to stay and time to leave.
"Let me go! Guys!" Corbett started screaming again and we moved quickly up the stairs.
"Corbett, you need to come back, Corbett," Ed was yelling into an empty room.
"No!" Corbett screamed and I looked around. It was coming from the walls. I cursed, spirits in the walls always creeped me out, ever since Philadelphia.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Come on," Dean said, trying to get the others out and down stairs again. Corbett's screams continued, becoming fainter with each moment.
"Corbett's... he's not here," I said, circling around and trying to round them all toward the door. "Let's go. Let's go."
"No. No. NO. But that's Corbett. No that was Corbett. Didn't you hear that?" Harry argued. It didn't matter what we'd heard, we had to get out of here, now.
"Go, go, go, come on," Dean urged them.
"Guys," I said, pointing toward the stairs. "Guys. Guys. He's that way. Here we go," I said, pushing them toward the stairs. "Keep it moving. Keep it moving."
"Corbett?" Ed asked frantically as the others continued to talk and look around.
We got back down to the living room and Ed started to panic. "Oh god, what's happened? Oh, god. He's gone. He just disappeared," he said.
"Okay, let's just go through all the angles. Let's go through all the cameras we have," Harry started as I walked up to a door, finding it stuck, we were trapped. I looked at my watch and sighed.
"Well, it's 12:04, Dean. You good? You happy?" I snapped.
"Yeah, I am happy," Dean snapped back at me, glaring.
"'Let's go hunt the Morton house,' you said. 'it's our Grand Canyon,'" I pushed, feeling fear and worry start to pound in my chest and covering it up with blame.
"Beth, I don't want to hear this," he said wearily to me, running a hand across his face.
"You got two months left, Dean. We're supposed to be on our honeymoon. Instead we're gonna die, tonight, and I can't do a damn thing about Hell if I'm dead!" I said, kicking at a chair. That was kind of the crux of it. I didn't mind dying, Hell at least I'd maybe get some rest for a change instead of having to worry about Sammy all the time, but the thought of eternity without Dean while he was locked up in Hell... that was too much to bear.
I looked at the chair and picked it up, starting to bash it against the door I'd just tried to open a moment ago. It felt good to let a little pent up rage out, even if it wasn't accomplishing anything in the interim.
"Whoa!" The guy with a camera following us around exclaimed. "What the hell is going on guys?"
"I'll tell you what's going on!" I snapped, turning to him. "Every door, every window, I'm guessing every exit out of this house – they're all sealed!" I said, looking up at everyone who was now staring at my outburst.
"But w-why are they sealed?" The girl asked.
"It's a supernatural lockdown okay?" Dean said. "Whatever took Corbett doesn't want us to leave, and it's no death echo," he licked his lips, looking at me with a concerned glance. "This is a bad mother, and it wants us scared," he added.
"Or it just wants us," the girl said.
"Uh, guys, the camera's fritzing again," said our personal cameraman as the EMF started to spike.
"Whoa. Whoa. Guys, the EMF's starting to spike. This is a big one! " Ed said.
I took Dean's hand, feeling a little scared, this one was big and we both knew it. "Everybody stay close," I instructed. "There's something coming."
Dean's POV
Beth took my hand which told me a lot about where she was at. She was scared, and when I looked at her, I could see traces of that, even though she was trying hard to hide it.
The room seemed to turn almost hazy and then out of nowhere a man appeared in front of us. "Whoa!" Everyone called out in surprise, reeling back a little.
"Is this the same echo you guys saw earlier?" I asked, not recognising the same spirit.
"No, it's a different guy," Harry said. I frowned: what the hell?
"Multiple echoes?" I asked, looking at Beth. "What the Hell's going on?"
"Beats me," Beth said with a shrug, looking just as confused.
"Okay. All right. All right. All right," I said, taking a deep breath and walking over to the guy.
"Uh, hey, buddy! Hey. Hey. Wake up. You're dead! Hello!" I yelled into his face, hoping to shock him out of the echo.
"What's he doing? What's he doing?" Harry asked Beth and she nodded at me.
"It's rare, but sometimes you can shock an echo out of its loop if you can talk to the part of the ghost that's still human, but usually you have to have some kind of connection to the deceased," she explained.
"Come on!" I yelled. "Wake up! Be dead!"
The apparition flickered and turned around, I followed it.
"You guys hear that?" Harry asked.
"What's that sound?" Ed questioned.
"Snap out of it buddy, huh?" I continued. "Come on, what are you waiting for? You're gonzo! You're dead!"
Suddenly bright lights appeared out of nowhere and a horn blared at me. The apparition flew backwards as if hit by an invisible vehicle and I jumped, swearing I almost felt that ride up my ass. That was close. I looked along where it would have driven, stunned. That had felt a little too real for comfort.
"Where the Hell did it go?" Harry asked.
1 week later
Cicero, Indiana
Dean's POV
Beth was close to tears when she left the kitchen, walking out into the back yard. She sniffed them back when she saw me and I sighed, feeling the usual guilt rise up that I was putting her through any of this.
"Beth!" Lisa called out from the house, opening the door. "Beth, I'm sorry!"
I frowned again, wondering what that was all about. I reached Beth in just a couple of strides and took her arms in my hands, turning her to look at me.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, can we just go?" She asked, clearly lying outright.
"Yeah, if you want. But, uh, I kind of thought we'd be talking to Ben next," I said, looking back at the boy who was staring at us in confusion.
"Beth, please," Lisa said, walking up to us, guilt in her eyes.
"Just... don't Lisa. I don't want to hear it," Beth said, shaking her head and walking away. She walked past Ben, rifling his hair as she did, and into the back part of the yard.
"What the hell?" I asked, looking at her.
"It's my fault, we were fighting about … well... you know. And I accused her of not thinking about the consequences of your actions because she's not a mother..." Lisa looked chagrined and I cursed under my breath, looking up at the sky.
"Oh Lees!" I muttered, shaking my head.
"I didn't know!" She said urgently, looking at me with worry. "I'm sorry, I didn't know, you guys didn't tell me."
"Yeah I know," I said with a sigh. "That one's even more complicated than the whole going to Hell story," I muttered, looking at Lisa. "Let me go talk to her, then we can all sit down and figure out where we go from here, we'll answer any questions you have, huh?"
Lisa nodded and I breathed a little sigh of relief. It wasn't easy juggling two strong headed women, especially when they were butting heads. I'd been lucky, because until now the pair of them had always agreed on things, gaining a monopoly on me. They had been starting to form a firm friendship, one I hoped was going to continue after I was gone, so I had to fix this: now.
Beth hadn't gone far, she was sitting on a set of swings in the backyard, staring at her feet. I took the swing next to her and silently waited for her to speak.
"I tried Dean, I really did... and God knows it hasn't been easy watching you with Ben and Lisa, seeing what we could have had," she said finally, sniffing back tears.
"I know."
"You deserve this, a family, and a life where you don't have to look after anything other than the normal stuff."
"So do you," I insisted and she shook her head.
"Do I?" She asked with a simultaneous sob and laugh. "I don't know about that Dean."
"Why would you say that?"
"Because everything I touch, everything I love dies," she said, looking at her hands and wringing them together.
"That's not true," I said, moving off the swing and kneeling in front of her, my hands on her hips. "Don't say that."
"It is true!" She insisted, shaking her head. "My mom, my dad, your dad, our baby, Sam... and now you." Tears glittered in her eyes and she bit her lip, running a hand along my face. I closed my eyes and leaned in to the touch.
"Sam's not dead," I said quietly.
"Yeah, and look how I screwed that up!"
"You didn't screw up Beth, you did the mission. It's our job to keep him safe." I said.
"It's my job to keep you safe too," she said quietly, sniffing and wiping at her eyes impatiently. "But … Dean we only have two months, not even that!" I sighed, there was nothing I could do about that, we had been over this again and again, both fully aware that time was running out.
"Talk to me about Lisa," I said, changing the subject. "What happened?"
Beth sighed and looked back toward the house.
"It's not her fault, we never told her about the baby and she has a right to be angry – she's right, we have just waltzed in and made ourselves part of her family, and now that's all about to change."
"Hey, you did think this through, I don't care what she says. I'm the one who pushed for this," I said.
"She doesn't know that," Beth said quietly.
"Well she will." I said adamantly. Lisa had to know that this had been my idea, that getting to know my son had been something I'd wanted to do and that Beth had discouraged it at the start for exactly this reason. I'd just been selfish, and maybe worried, I'd needed to know what this kid could do so that if the time came he would be able to protect his mother. But I had discovered I didn't really know anything about kids. Sammy, sure, but kids? Not really.
After the gun lesson incident, Beth had taken over planning the outings for Ben and me. I'd learned to do fatherly things like go to baseball games, teach him to play a bit of guitar – what I could remember from when I was a teen learning it anyway – and she'd eventually let me take him to archery. Seemed not all of Dad's lessons had left her.
I thought about all the things I could have done with little Patrick if he'd lived and sighed, I wouldn't get to do them with anyone soon enough. I reached up and trailed my hand along her temples and down the side of her face.
"Hey, do you want another baby?" I asked, not sure about how I felt on that. "Because that is one thing we do have time for."
Beth looked at me in surprise and then bit her lip, starting to cry again.
1 week earlier
Appleton, Wisconsin
Beth's POV
We seemed to have developed a fan, the quiet cameraman who'd been filming my little breakdown was now following us as we headed up the stairs to investigate what had happened to Corbett. Dean led the way, followed by me, camera guy, and then all the noise and carry on from the rest of the ghost hunter wannabes.
"This is ridiculous! Let's go to Morton House you said... it'll be fun, you said!" I muttered under my breath, catching the look given to me by the guy. "Look, you try living with him!" I said with a frown. He snickered.
"I'm Spruce," he said, holding out his hand as we walked down the corridor behind Dean.
"Beth, that's Dean," I said, shaking his hand quickly.
"So you guys are like... brother and sister?" He asked.
"Yes," I said as Dean answered simultaneously. "No!"
I stopped and laughed, shaking my head. "Well, yes and no, it's complicated," I said. Spruce looked curiously at us and Dean stopped with a sigh.
"Look, it's not complicated. Adopted sister, also my wife. Not complicated!" He said, shaking his head and then walking off down the corridor again. I chuckled, now look who was dropping the married line.
"No, nothing complicated about that," Spruce snickered and I chuckled. Dean had never really struggled with the whole brother-sister thing like I had, not that I'd really struggled, but I definitely was the one that kept the facade up longest.
"Dude, there's no records of any of this here. No one got shot here. Obviously no one got run over by a freaking train," Dean said as we walked.
I looked behind us and the group was lagging a little. "Stay close," I urged everyone.
"Did the echoes take Corbett?" Maggie, the girl, asked.
"Yes. No. I don't know!" Dean answered in a frustrated tone. "We don't know what's doing what here; that's what we're trying to figure out, okay?" I laid a hand on Dean's arm and he rolled his eyes, his frustration and worry over the people now in our care highly evident.
"All right, stay close. Okay, look, um, death echoes are ghosts, okay?" I said, turning back to the group. "Now, ghosts – they usually haunt places where they lived or where they died..."
"Except these mooks didn't live or die here," Dean put in.
"Right," I said with a nod.
"So, what are they doing here?" Maggie asked.
"Hey, give the lady a cigar!" Dean said with a smile, turning to find Maggie in his face with a camera. He primped a little and I chuckled at the broad grin on Dean's face. "All right, seriously, does looking at this nightmare through that camera make you feel better or something? I mean..." He asked and I kept walking with a shake of my head. This coming from the man who was playing up to the cameras.
"Um... I , uh... well yeah. Uh yeah, I think so." Maggie said after hesitating and lowering the camera for a moment.
"Oh," Dean said, shaking his head and walking away. I looked back at Dean and chuckled.
"Hey maybe we should get a couple of those cameras, strap them to our heads. The things we could put on TV..." I commented. "Our lives would put these guys to shame," I laughed.
Dean paused, raising an eyebrow and following me. "Hey, really? You think?" He asked, "well you know... maybe … whoa!" We'd walked into a room full of stuffed animal heads. I stared around us, every surface on the wall was covered, as well as the tops of file cabinets.
"Ick," I said with a shudder, moving to pick up a broken framed certificate. "Freeman Daggett, house's last owner, officially commended for 20 years of fine service at the Gamble General Hospital," I read out loud.
"Was he a doctor?" Dean asked.
"Janitor," I replied.
"This looks like his den. When'd you say he died – '64?"
"Yeah, heart attack," I said with a nod.
"What are these, c-rations?" Maggie asked, shining her light on a shelf with a bunch of army issued rations.
"Yeah, army-issued, three squartes – like a lifetime supply," Dean said.
"God, is that all he ate?" Maggie asked.
"One-stop shopping," Dean replied, walking up to a cabinet. "Hello, locked!" He said, pulling on the handle.
"Oh, come on guys. This is ridiculous. I mean, how the hell is this supposed to find Corbett, huh? We should be digging up the friggin' floorboards right now," Ed said, moving around the room, a bundle of tense energy.
I picked up a dusty pamphlet that caught my eye, wiping it clear. "Huh," I said, turning to Dean. "'Survival Under Atomic Attack'. An optimist," I said with a grin and then jumped as there was a loud bang. Dean wasn't listening to me, he we busy prying open a locked cabinet. He pulled out a large metal box from the cabinet and turned around to find Maggie and Ed in his face, stopping when the light his his eyes and throwing them a glare.
"You mind?" He asked, and they scurried out of his way. Dumping the box on a table, Dean started rifling through it.
"Crap. Crap. Taxidermy. Okay," he said with a sigh, turning to me. "You said Daggett was a hospital janitor?"
"Yeah."
"Ewwww. Got three toe tags here – one, death by gunshots, train accident, and suicide," he finished, holding up the tags.
"Ewwwww!" I said, wrinkling up my nose and shuddering.
"What?" Harry asked, not understanding the point.
"Well, that explains why all the death echoes are here." I said. The boys stared at me completely blank.
I sighed. "They're here because their bodies are here... somewhere in the house?" I pointed out.
"Daggett brought the remains home from the morgue...to 'play'," Dean added, looking into Spruce's camera with a stare.
Harry and Ed exchanged a look of horror. "Ewwwwwwwwwwwww! Ugh!"
"That's nasty dude," Spruce said from where he was shadowing me.
"Right," I agreed.
"Wait a minute," Dean said, pausing and looking up. "Where'd the girl go?"
I looked up and sure enough, Maggie had disappeared, just walked right off after we'd specifically told her not to. I groaned. People! They were freaking idiots!
Dean's POV
Maggie hadn't gone far, I found her in the next room over, leaving Beth with the others. She was wandering around looking for Corbett, scaring the crap out of herself when she nearly walked into a mirror. I chuckled, stepping up behind her, startling her again.
"Closer to the herd, okay?" I said, taking her arm.
"Maggie? Maggie?" Harry asked urgently as I steered her back to the group.
"She's fine," I said.
"Harry. Harry, I got an 8.6 and climbing fast. Something huge is coming. Look. Something big is coming!" Ed said, looking at the EMF.
I moved the group into the same room and Harry's voice started to sound panicked again. "It's past 11, you guys."
"What?" I asked, surprised. "Nobody move! Hold on. Hold on. Stay quiet," I said, glancing back at Beth who frowned.
"It's really cold in here," Ed commented, stating the obvious. It was freezing, like a cold snap had just washed through the house.
"Harry?" Maggie asked next to me, breathing hard. I shone my light around doing a head count.
"Beth?" I asked, feeling my heart jump in my chest when I didn't see her right away.
"Some kind of surge," Ed was saying.
"Beth?" I reiterated a little more urgently when she didn't answer me.
"Where'd she go?" Spruce asked, looking around.
"Oh no," Maggie said. I walked back to where I'd seen her last and found her flashlight on the ground, a sinking feeling hitting me.
"Beth!" I yelled, trying to get an answer out of her. "Beth! Answer me!" There was nothing. She was gone, and this was all my fault for bringing us here.
I started walking through the house, going from room to room, ignoring all the fools following me who were screaming for Corbett in addition to Beth.
Suddenly I realised I was alone, and I sighed. Where the hell had those idiots gone this time? I doubled back to find Ed and Harry in what barely passed for a fight, Maggie caught in the middle of it.
"Hey!" I yelled, getting in the middle of it and breaking them up. "What the fuck are you doing?! Cut it out! We're down by two people," and that set me off again. "Beth!" I yelled to no avail. I couldn't believe the idiocy of these... idiots! Two of us, one of them my wife, was missing and they're fighting!
"I'm sorry," Ed said, walking up to Spruce. "Give me my glasses. Did he knock my – my tooth there?"
"Uh, no," Spruce replied, shaking his head.
"I won that right?" Ed asked.
"Yep, you're good," Spruce said encouragingly, I just stared, flabbergasted and then threw my hands up in the air. I had to find Beth. At this point, if the spirit took the rest of them, maybe it'd actually help.
1 week later
Cicero, Indiana
Beth's POV
"A baby, now?" I asked, shaking my head. "It's a little late Dean!"
He crouched a little closer, looking at me with very serious eyes.
"No it's not, it's not for you," he said pointedly. "You know, I don't want you doing this when I... when I'm gone. I want you to get out, go somewhere safe, live a normal life Beth."
"No!" I said angrily. "No, I'm not giving up on you, I'm not just going to leave you down there in Hell Dean, I promised, and I meant it."
He smiled at me, heart breaking in his love for me. "I'm just giving you another option, I just want you to be happy."
"You think a baby will make me happy?"
"Wouldn't it?"
"Yes, but not without you. That's kind of the whole point Dean. I don't want a baby just for the sake of having one, I want one with you, to share that with you as a family," I said, biting my lip.
"So...?"
"So no baby, not until you're safe and sound, and not going to just disappear to Hell, or anywhere else for that matter," I said, kissing him and resting my arms around his neck. "You're more important to me than any baby."
"All right," he said with a nod, taking a deep breath and releasing it. "All right...well, let's talk about now then. And Lisa. Are you going to come talk to her?"
I sighed and nodded. "Yeah, okay, but I don't want to make a big deal out of this. I don't want her fussing or treating me any different than she always has. People lose babies...Dean...it happens. I don't want to be treated like some fragile woman who … who..." I stopped, tearing up again and sniffing, looking away from him.
"Yeah... I know baby," he said, pulling me into him and holding me close. I wrapped my arms around his neck tightly and sighed, breathing in his scent. "It's going to be okay, Beth, I promise."
I didn't believe him, but I wanted to. I clung to him, feeling him pressed in tightly against me and slowly after a while he pulled out of my embrace, leaning his forehead against mine and smiling.
"So what are you going to tell Ben?" I asked.
He looked up at me and shrugged. "He's a big boy, he's seen changelings and knows about them. I'm gonna tell him the truth," he said, standing up and pulling me to my feet in front of him.
1 week earlier
Appleton, Wisconsin
Beth's POV
I woke up to a dark room with the music It's My Party playing. There was the tiniest amount of light coming from Corbett's headlamp, he was tied to a chair at a table and unconscious, it was about all I could see from the angle of his head.
"Corbett. Corbett," I said, trying to wake the guy up. I was tied just as securely to a chair and unlike most people who often made the mistake of tying me like a girl, this spirit wasn't taking any chances: I was stuck, and there was no wriggling out of this one. "Hey, Corbett, hey," I said again.
The young man started to stir, his light flashing around the room as he tried to get his bearings. It flashed across the table revealing cake and confetti on it.
"Beth?" Corbett asked, looking over at me. I squinted in the direct light and nodded.
"Corbett, hey, I'm here, you just got to keep listening to my voice, okay?" I said to him, trying to sound more reassuring than I felt. "I'm right here. Stay awake."
"Don't listen," a voice said from the darkness and Corbett glanced around frantically, starting to panic. "It stops hurting, so don't worry."
I frowned, not liking the sound of that one bit. Daggett, the spirit of the man who'd last owned the house stepped into the circle of light from the headlamp, he was brandishing a knife.
"Corbett, stay with me," I said, gulping. "Stay with me, you got it? I'm right here. Hey. Stay with me," I said again, watching as the spirit moved behind the frantic kid. I grimaced. "Don't... please, don't," I begged, but Daggett didn't listen, slitting Corbett's throat right in front of me in one swift motion.
"No! Corbett! No, no. Corbett!" I gasped, watching as blood poured from the guy's throat and then he fell forward on to the table, his light shining in my general direction. I couldn't catch my breath, suddenly terrified of what was going to happen. Dean would be looking for us, but we'd also been looking for Corbett and hadn't found him.
"Dean!" I yelled, my breathing starting to come in short bursts as Daggett moved closer to me. "Oh my God, no. Don't. Dean! Dean! Get away from me," I said, breathing hard.
"This won't hurt," he said to me. "It's okay. It's okay. Relax...relax," he said and I started to hyperventilate a little as he reached out to me. I stilled my breathing as much as I could, if I was going to get through this I had to be thinking straight, I couldn't allow myself to panic. Dean would come for me.
Daggett reached out and strapped a party hat to my head and I frowned, a party hat?
Dean's POV
"Dean, what are you doing?" Harry asked me as I started going through the papers on the desk again.
"Okay, so Daggett was a cold war nut, okay? He was – he was an amateur taxidermist. He liked to slow dance with cadavers, and all he ate were c-rations, so what the Hell are we looking for?!" I asked urgently, looking through stacks of papers that meant nothing to me and slamming the box down that I'd been looking in earlier.
"Horrible little life," Maggie muttered beside me and I nodded.
"Yeah, a lonely life...a cold war life. He was scared. He was scared..." I paused, looking up. "He was scared..." I said again, the realisation of where he'd taken Beth and Corbett coming to me. I didn't take time to explain, running off from the group and heading for the lower floor.
"Scared of what?"Harry asked. "Dean, where are you going?!"
"Wait, don't leave me in here you guys!" Maggie asked, and at least the idiots were following me. I hurried down the stairs, shining a light ahead of me as I explained the plan to the group.
"Guys like Daggett back then, the ones who were really scared of the Russkies – they built bomb shelters. I'm guessing he's got one," I said, reaching the door to the basement. "I'll bet you it's in the basement," I added, opening the door and stepping through with Spruce. The door slammed shut behind us and I could hear the panic from the others on the outside.
"Woah!" Harry exclaimed.
"Whoa! That is not funny!" Ed added.
"Um, who closed the door?" Spruce asked, I chuckled, I liked that guy, he was okay.
"It did. It wants to separate us," I said through the door. "Ed! Listen to me!"
"What?"
"There's some salt in my duffel. Make a circle and get inside," I instructed.
"Inside?"
"That's stupid," Harry commented and I rolled my eyes.
"Inside your duffel bag?" Ed asked.
"In the salt, you idiots!" I exclaimed.
"Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah." Ed said. I didn't wait to hear if they actually did anything, I had to get to Beth and this spirit was active again. For all I knew, I was already too late. I felt my heart skip a beat at the thought and then took a few deep breaths. I wasn't too late, I couldn't be.
"Hey, can I asked you something?" Spruce asked as we made our way down into the basement.
"What?" I asked, throwing a glance back at him. He was still filming for this ridiculous TV show. I had to admit, I might have been playing it up for the cameras earlier, but no one was going to beat Beth's tantrum chair smashing.
"Earlier, you and Beth – she said you had two months left?"
"Yeah, it's complicated," I said, "A while ago, Beth..." I stopped. What was I thinking? "No. No. No. I'm not gonna whine about my damn problems to some freakin' reality show. I'm gonna do my freakin' job!"
"Is it cancer? Are you guys really on your honeymoon?" Spruce asked.
"Shut up," I said, holding up my hand, hearing something through the wall. "You hear that?"
"Is that music?" Spruce asked. I could hear a faint song playing, it was definitely there.
"Yeah, it's coming from behind this wall," I said. There was a cabinet there and I shoved it, the thing begrudgingly pulling away from the wall.
"Wow, you're strong," Spruce said and I looked at him in amazement, shaking my head. I flipped him the bird, what was wrong with these people? Beth could have moved that damn thing on her own.
"Dean!" I heard Beth's voice yell out and I shouldered the door to the bomb shelter. It budged, but only because it wasn't locked. I'd gotten lucky. I shoved at the door again, hearing her talking to the spirit beyond, her voice coming out a little panicked.
The door swung open and I moved in with my shotgun pointed.
"Beth!" The room was dark but there was enough light to see by, the spirit was hovering over Beth and I shot it without hesitation, it disappeared. "Beth! God, are you okay?" I asked as I ran to her side, pulling at the ropes holding her to the chair.
"Dean! Oh that was close, thank God, thank God!" She was breathing fast, and in the light of the headlamps appeared frightened. There was a gash under her left eye that was bleeding, but otherwise she looked unharmed. I pulled her up into my arms, holding her tightly.
"I'm sorry, you're right, we should never have come here, if anything had happened..." I couldn't bring myself to say it, just holding her even tighter as she returned the embrace.
"I knew you'd come, I knew..." she said, burying her face in my neck.
"Oh, no, Corbett," Spruce said and I turned with Beth still in my arms, for the first time noticing the other man dead at the table, the freshest corpse among a group of old skeletons. I looked back at Beth and she shook her head sadly. How close had I come to losing her just now?
"What's this Daggett guy's problem anyway?" Spruce asked.
"Loneliness," Beth said, pulling back and waving Spruce out of the bunker into the basement. I followed closely behind her, my hand at her lower back, I wasn't leaving her again for a second if I could help it.
"What, he's never heard of a realdoll?" I asked
"No, no, no, Dagett was the Norman Bates, stuff-your-mother kind of lonely. I mean," she paused and looked back into the bunker with a shudder. "...that's why he lifted those bodies from the morgue, threw himself a birthday party, except they were the only ones who would come." I looked at her like she was a raving lunatic and she frowned, stopping to dab at the cut under her eye with her fingers and grimacing. "Anyway, so, at midnight, he sealed them in the bomb shelter and went upstairs and O.D'd on horse tranqs," she finished.
"How do you know this?" I asked, handing her a cloth to hold under her eye.
"Because he told me," she said simply.
"Oh. Yeah. Right, so now that's he's dead, what? Same song, different verse, trying to get people to come to his party?" I asked.
"Pretty much, yeah. Stay forever," she answered as I emptied out the shotgun of the used shells, and slid a couple more in, snapping the gun shut.
"Are those real bullets?" Spruce asked, zeroing in on the gun with his camera.
"It's rock salt."
3 days later
Sioux Saint Marie, Michigan
Beth's POV
"Heeeey, how's my favourite girl this morning?" Dean asked, coming into the room, a video camera plastered to his left eye. I peaked out from under the covers and groaned.
"Really? You're still playing with that thing?" I asked, making sure I was covered with the sheet.
"Mhmmm, hey this isn't so bad once you get used to it, those guys might be on to something" he said with a chuckle, he grinned and spun the display around so that he could look at himself, the camera extended out in front of him as he sat next to me on the bed.
"So... day two of the official... honeymoon...and we're about to order a little breakfast courtesy of room service and then I'm thinking, we should try and get out of the motel room, what do you say cherrypie?" I looked at him and smiled, shaking my head in amusement.
"You see that? She said no... no! Well I'm going to have to do something to convince her there's things to see other than the bed," he chuckled, talking to an imaginary audience. He slid in beside me, pushing his face up to me and kissing my cheek, still looking at the camera.
"Do you love me?" He asked, looking at me.
"Godddd! Dean, put that thing away!" I groaned and he laughed, kissing me.
"Well?"
"Well what?" I asked.
"The question... curious minds want to know..." he said with a grin.
I rolled my eyes and looked into the camera, groaning. "Yes... as a matter of fact, I... Beth Winchester love my husband very much," I said with a giggle, turning to slide my hands around him and running them under his t-shirt. "I'd love him a lot more and in a much better way if he'd put the camera away..." I said suggestively.
"Really?" He asked with a grin and I started to nibble along his neck, kissing and sucking the soft skin I found there. Dean groaned and rolled away, putting the camera on the night stand, turning back to me and pinning me to the mattress, hovering over me and looking into my eyes.
"Have I mentioned you're beautiful?" He asked and I nodded with a smile.
"Good," he said with a grin, and he leaned down to start kissing along my neck, drawing a light moan from my throat. "Because you are..."
3 days earlier
Appleton, Wisconsin
Beth's POV
Dean was attempting to break down the basement door with a crowbar we'd found, I stood behind him, out of range as he swung at the door. I looked back to find Spruce and his camera pointed in our direction.
"Seriously?" I asked. "You're still shooting?"
Dean paused and looked at me. "It makes him feel better. Don't ask," he said. I grinned and then Spruce looked alarmed.
"Uh, hell, guys. Get in your ghost-role thing. Something's coming," he said, looking at his camera. He turned around and Daggett appeared right in front of us, knocking Spruce and his camera to the ground.
"OH, my – oh!" Spruce called out as Daggett reached for him. I pumped the shotgun and fired, the rock salt sent the spirit packing. I reached down, helping Spruce to his feet.
"Take it easy, you all right?" I asked him.
"Uh, guys!" Spruce said again as he looked through the camera. He pointed toward Dean and Daggett appeared in front of him, throwing Dean against a wall, then I felt myself lifted through the air, hitting another wall.
"This is bad – very bad," Spruce said, stumbling back as Daggett went for him.
I groaned and shook my head, still lying on the ground, looking for the shotgun which I'd dropped in the attack. Suddenly Corbett's spirit appeared behind Daggett and the spirit turned to face him.
"Corbett?" Spruce asked. I watched as Corbett's ghost suddenly attacked Daggett and they both disappeared in a flash of blinding light.
"You all right?" Spruce was asked me, helping me to my feet. "You all right?"
"God..." I muttered, looking over at Dean who was climbing to his feet. The spirits seemed to be gone, was this over? Were we done here? I really hoped so, because I did not fancy coming back here in four years time to do this all over again. Spruce spun around to look at Dean and he rolled his eyes, covering the lens with his hands.
Three months later (Present Day)
Ghostfacer 'Headquarters'
Beth's POV
"Yeah. Heh heh. And here we were thinking that, you know, we were teaching you and all this time you were teaching us, about heart, about dedication, and about how gay love can pierce through the veil of death and save the day. Thank you, Alan J. Corbett." Ed was saying on the screen as I watched.
"Go well into that starry night, young Turk. Go well." Harry added with a serious nod.
The screen cut to one of the confessional scenes the guys had been talking about and it was Corbett, alive and smiling. "I think tonight, I really do, I think all our dreams are going to come true," he said hopefully.
The credits rolled and I stared at the screen, fighting to keep my composure after having just seen Dean, almost in the flesh, for the first time in over a month. Sam reached out a hand to me, resting it on my shoulder, I glanced at him and smiled, fighting back tears.
The documentary finished and I blinked as the Ghostfacer logo and music flashed up on the screen then faded to black. The four of them, Harry, Ed, Spruce and Maggie were standing around Sam and I who were seated in their editing room.
"So, guys, what do you think? Is it all right?" Ed asked. I looked at Sam and he was smiling, shaking his head. I inclined my head at him and smiled.
"You know, I kind of think it was half awesome," I said with a smile, and Sam nodded.
"Half-awesome? That – that's full on good, right?" Maggie asked excitedly.
"Yeah, um, I mean it's bizarre how you all are able to honour Corbett's memory while grossly exploiting the manner of his death," Sam said with a snicker. "Well done." When they weren't looking he slipped a bag under the table we were sitting at next to the computer.
"Yeah, it's a real tight rope you guys are walking there," I said, standing up.
"Nah, that's reality man. Yeah, Corbett gave his life searching for the truth, and it's our job over here to share it with the world," Ed said.
"Right... well, um, our experience, you know what you get when you show the world the truth?" Sam asked, looking at them. They shrugged, looking back at us.
"A straight jacket," I answered with a grin, looking at Sam who nodded.
"Or a punch in the face," he said, and I laughed.
"Sometimes both!"
"Oh come on guys, don't be 'facer haters just because we happen to have gotten the footage of the century," Harry said to us.
"Well, you got us there," I said with a smile, standing up to leave, Sam following my lead.
"Yeah, so hey, where's Dean? We would have liked him to have seen it," Ed asked, looking at me.
Sam looked at me with a concerned glance and I shook my head.
"He uh... he … he couldn't make it, sorry guys," I said finally, getting it out. They looked disappointed and Spruce frowned at me.
"It's been more than two months," he said. I sighed and nodded.
"Oh," he said, looking at me apologetically.
"Oh!" Maggie said, jumping suddenly and then moving to another table and rifling around for something.
"Dean! He uh, he sent me some footage a few months back, not long after you guys left," she said, pulling out a disc from a drawer. "Asked me to edit it into something you could watch," she added, turning to me. I looked confused at her and she pulled me out toward the door.
"It's … uh... it's kind of private, you know. I made sure the guys didn't see any of it, but, he wanted you to have it, something about you'd need it?" She asked, looking at me. "Is he...?"
I shook my head, tears welling up again.
"Oh," she said sadly. "Well, you definitely need to take this, but uh... watch it alone."
I frowned, what the hell was on this DVD? "Yeah, okay, thanks Maggie," I said, shrugging as Sam came up, sliding his hand behind my neck and looking questioningly at me.
"Well, we'll see you guys around," he said to the others and they all nodded, holding up beers to us.
"Peace out," Spruce said, and I fought back the stab of guilt I was feeling over what we were about to do.
We hurried over to the Impala and Sam glanced back at the house as he opened up the driver door. "We clean?" He asked.
In the distance we could hear the guys start to yell. "No! Are you kidding me?!"
We grinned and climbed into the car, smiling at each other.
"Electromagnet just wiped out every tape and hard drive that they have," I commented, looking at the DVD in my hands.
"The world just isn't ready for the Ghostfacers," Sam said with a grin.
"It's too bad. I kinda liked the show," I said, smiling at him.
"It had its moments," Sam said with a laugh. "'Ed, go be gay for that dead intern?" I laughed and shook my head. "Oh, and the moment where you took the chair to the door after lecturing Dean for taking you there on your honeymoon? Classic!"
I laughed and nodded. "Oh he deserved that," I said, shaking my head. Sam started the car up and pulled out on the road, looking at me.
"Where to now?" He asked, looking at me.
I looked out at the grassy fields as we drove and I turned to him. "Can we go to Lisa's?" I asked, he looked surprised and then nodded, doing a u-turn in the middle of the road.
Six Hours Later
Cicero, Indiana
Beth's POV
Lisa had gone to bed, Sam was asleep on the couch, and I sat on the end of the spare bed, DVD in hand as I stared at the TV in the guest room. Psyching myself up, I slotted it into the DVD player, moving back to the bed and sitting on it, curling my legs underneath me, and putting a pillow in my lap as I held the remote.
Pushing play I waited with bated breath for the DVD to start. The screen came to life with Dean's smiling face and he was laughing and talking to me as he filmed us out and about in Sioux Saint Marie. We were walking across the bridge that united the US and Canadian borders and he stopped to kiss me, filming the whole time. I sighed, feeling my heart break a little at the sight.
Several scenes from that trip played and then he was creeping up on me in bed, wishing me good morning and talking about breakfast. I laughed as the look on his face turned hungry for something else and the camera got put aside, but not turned off, as he rolled to pin me to the mattress, hovering over me.
"Have I mentioned you're beautiful?" He asked; I put my hand to my throat, a couple of tears rolling down my face as I heard the same thing he'd told me many times come over the speakers. It seemed almost surreal hearing it now after so long of nothing more than my own memories.
I blushed a little as I realised he'd kept filming the entire time after that, and it was now coming on to the screen. No wonder Maggie had seemed a little flustered and said she hadn't shown anyone. I sat forward, staring as Dean's lips caressed my skin, trailing down over my breasts and off the screen.
Closing my eyes as I listened to the sound of him breathing and moaning and when he came back on the screen I smiled at the look in his eyes, such concentration, devotion and love as he kissed me tenderly; I sat back again, imagining the feel of that on my lips, my fingers pressed to my mouth. Tears rolled down my cheeks, I couldn't stop them, I could barely see the screen yet I couldn't pull my gaze away.
With a thumping heart I turned the volume up a little so I could hear every little moan as he kissed me before hovering over me and looking into my eyes, brushing the hair out of my face.
"I love you," he whispered softly on the screen; a sob pierced my throat, my chest wracked with pain and tears and I brushed them from my eyes, smiling as he continued to make love to me on the screen. I watched the rest, almost embarrassed, but unable to look away as we moved, united in our passion and having everything culminate together, our cries and groans echoing across the room to me. I hadn't heard that in so long from him, almost two months, and it felt like forever. I might never hear it again, and I couldn't decide if this DVD was the worst torture ever, or the greatest gift.
The screen faded to black and just as I was about to turn it off it zeroed back in to Dean in the motel room. He took the camera and zoomed in on me asleep in the bed and then turned it back, sitting in front of it like a confessional.
"Hey," he said with a smile, and I smiled back, I couldn't help myself. "I know this isn't gonna seem like much, but … I hope it helps, somehow, Beth. Because I need you strong, and I need you to know that I love you, and I need you, and I will always feel this way, forever. So, if things go down the way we're expecting them to, be strong, okay? I believe in you, I believe in us, and we are going to get through this, because... well because God doesn't give people these kind of feelings and then just takes them away, you know? I gotta believe that. So, I will see you again. Don't give up on me, because I'm never giving up on you."
I sobbed, and pulled my knees up to my chest, holding my legs. "Don't give up on me, because I'm never giving up on you," his voice played again as I jumped back on the DVD a bit, hitting play again. There was a knock at the door and I paused the DVD, swiping at my face as the tears continued to fall.
"Come in," I said, and Sam's head peeped around the door, looking at me worriedly.
"Hey, Beth, sorry... I just uh, I was going to the bathroom and I heard you... I just wanted to make sure you're okay," he said, stepping into the room and closing the door.
I shook my head, not trusting my voice to speak and I skipped back a little way on the DVD again, hitting play again. Dean came back on to the TV and the confessional played again, Sam stared at his brother on the screen, his mouth hanging open while Dean talked. When it was finished, I turned the TV off, and Sam looked over at me.
"Wow..." he said. "That's what Maggie gave you?" I nodded and he shook his head with a smile. "Wow... Dean... I uh I had no idea he was that..." he chuckled and came over to sit on the side of the bed.
"How are you? Really?"
I sighed and shrugged. "I'm not sure if that just made things better or worse..." I said and he nodded understandingly at me. "God, Sam, I swear he's been gone only a few months but I'd almost forgotten the real sound of his voice. You know, you always remember but it's filtered through your own perceptions, and it's not the same... to hear him again... I … we can't give up Sam, I need him back."
Sam nodded, taking my hand in his and squeezing. "We'll get him back, Beth, I promise."
I sighed and reached out to squeeze his shoulder then mess up his hair like I used to when he was a kid.
"How about you, Sam? How are you holding up?" I asked, for the first time actually checking in.
Sam paused and then nodded, looking down at his hands. "I'm dealing, it's frustrating, and feels like we're going in circles, but … we can't give up." He said, looking at me.
I sighed, sitting back in bed pulling the pillow under my chin, holding it to my body.
"How's the couch?" I asked and he snickered. "That bad? You want to crash in here? I don't know if I want to be alone tonight."
Sam looked sadly at me and then nodded. "Yeah, sure, that sounds good," he said. I moved over to the other side of the bed, there was plenty of room for the pair of us, and it wasn't as if we hadn't shared a bed our entire teenage years more or less anyway. Sam crawled in with me, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling.
"Good night," I said, laying on my side and looking at him. He turned his head and smiled at me.
"Good night Beth, get some rest," he said quietly, and then I smiled, rolling over and facing the other direction. Just his presence, having him in the room helped – knowing I didn't have to go through this alone, that he was missing Dean as much as I was. The three of us hadn't been apart in almost six years before Sam went to college, we were as close as you could expect, and then the fight between him and John had shattered everything. Just as we were getting back to something near what we'd had, Dean was taken from us. It didn't seem fair.
"I love you," Dean's voice echoed in my head as I fell asleep, and for a change I dreamed of him as I remembered him, happy and vibrant, not stuck in Hell in eternal torment.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
The song for this chapter is Dark Paradise by Lana Del Rey
The inspiration for the final scene came from a Weeds episode starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I've never seen the show, but EarthhAngel showed it to me when we were doing JDM video searches :D It's a haunting scene where his widow is watching a home movie of them making love, and it is to me the most beautiful love scene I've seen in a long time on TV (I just wish we got to see more!) Anyway, I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to incorporate it into Dean and Beth's time apart, then when I saw Ghostfacers, well, the opportunity just wrote itself :D So this is dedicated to JDM and Mary-Louise Parker and their beautiful scene. Just look up "JDM in Weeds" on Youtube to see the scene.
I'm in the process of updating Season 1 Highway To Hell too for the PDFs. I'm adding in a few little backstories here and there because I don't think my writing then was nearly as good as it is today, and I don't want people discouraged from continuing with the series when they start at Highway to Hell. On the plus side, it'll give you guys something to check out in between updates! They won't be massive changes, I'm just slotting a few tiny flashbacks in here and there (ie. Wendigo is going to have the first Wendigo hunt Beth went on with John, Dean & Sam, and a little pre-relationship angst) It's not up yet, probably won't be for a day or so, but it'll have the date on the title changed when I do get around to it, so stay tuned :)
I miss Dean, and I promise he'll be back soon! I'm ITCHING to get to Lazarus Rising, but there's a little more story to be told yet.
Hope you're enjoying the story so far. Please leave me a review, it totally makes my day :D