We collide,
Synchronized;
As I gaze into your eyes.
Feel our souls lose control,
When your body softly glides,
Over mine;
Petrified.
But our hearts feel it's the time.
Won't hold back,
Atleast I'll try.
'Til you end with me,
And show me
Beautiful,
I'll show you wonderful,
As we share the love.
I'll show you everything,
That you've ever dreamed of.
SEX & VIOLENCE
Motel Room
Dean's POV
The blare from a truck horn startled me awake, causing me to jump. I hesitated for a moment as Beth's arm tightened around my chest, and I fought back a slight panic attack as it pulled me back into the darkness of my dreams. Relaxing, I stroked along her hair and she sighed softly, shifting closer to me.
"Yeah," I heard Sam say, and I glanced around looking for him. Who was he talking to?
He was lurking in the bathroom talking on the phone.
"Yeah, that's what I'm telling you. No storms, no bad crops, nothing," he said. I raised an eyebrow, now I really was curious. Who was he talking demon hunts with?
"Yeah, okay. We'll keep looking. You keep looking too, okay?" He paused and listened to whoever was on the other end. "All right. Talk soon."
Sam hung up and I quickly lay down against the pillow, Beth moving in against me while I pretended to be asleep.
I felt the prodding of Sam's toiletries bag before I had to fake waking up. I opened my eyes, faking a stretch and frowning at him like he'd just woke me up.
"Hey. Up and at 'em, kiddo," Sam said and I groaned, rubbing at my eyes.
"You're up early. What are you doing?" I asked, and Beth started to stir at the voices.
"Nothing. I was in the can," Sam said.
"Yeah?" I asked, almost challenging him.
"Yeah," Sam said with a smirk. "You want me to draw you a picture?"
"Nah, I'll pass," I said, looking down at Beth as she blinked sleepy eyes, her hair a mess that had fallen across her face. She brushed it to the side and wrinkled her nose in distaste at the hour.
"What's going on?" She asked sleepily, resting her chin on my chest.
"Found a job," Sam answered. "Bedford, Iowa. Guy beat his wife's brains out with a meat tenderiser."
"Yikes," Beth said with a grimace.
"And get this," Sam said. "Third local inside two months to gank his wife. No priors on any of 'em, all happily married." He handed me a paper where there were two photos of a smiling woman and man; they looked happy.
"Ahhh," I said. "Sounds like Ozzie and Harriet."
"More like The Shining," Sam smirked as Beth sat up, stretching her arms over her head.
"What do you think?" I asked her, and she shrugging, dropping her arms to her side.
"You got a better lead?" She asked with a grin. I smirked and shook my head.
"All right," I said with a shrug. "Guess we'd better have a look."
Police Station
Bedford, Iowa
Beth's POV
I adjusted the blazer I was wearing over my pencil skirt and sat down in front of Adam Benson.
"Why does the PD keep sending you guys?" He asked with a resignation to his voice. "I already said I don't want a lawyer." Dean shrugged from his seat next us and looked him straight in the eye.
"They're lining up the firing squad," he said with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm pleading guilty," Benson said resolutely.
"All right, look, you don't want us to represent you, that's fine... In fact it's probably not a bad idea, between you and me," Dean said with a grin. Sam frowned and cleared his throat, sending Dean a warning glance.
Dean shifted slightly and his face dropped back to serious. "We just want to understand what happened, that's all."
Benson continued to stare at his hands, silent.
"Mr Benson," I said softly. "Please?"
Benson looked up at me and let out a soft breath. "What happened was, I killed my wife," he said. His voice broke a little as he said it, and I could tell he was barely holding it together. "You wanna know why? Because she made plans… without… asking me."
Dean shook his head slightly, and I leaned forward a little on the desk. "When it happened, how did you feel? Disoriented? Out of control?"
"Like something possessed you to do it?" Dean added.
"I knew exactly what I was doing. I was crystal clear," Benson said.
"Then why'd you do it?" Sam asked.
"I don't know," he said. "I loved her. We were happy."
Sam looked over at Dean and raised his eyebrow. It was time to play our ace. Dean nodded and reached into the briefcase he'd carried in as part of our cover. He pulled out a credit card bill – Benson's – sliding it across the table and tapping at it with a pen.
"Nine G's. That's a hefty bill," Dean said. I resisted the urge to snicker, given the state of our fake credit card bills.
"Where did you get that?" Benson asked anxiously.
"Doesn't matter," Dean said dismissively. "We have it. See, certain charges, ones you don't want the missus to know… they show up under shady names like 'M&C Entertainment'."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Benson claimed.
"We just want to know the truth, Mr Benson," Sam prodded.
Benson looked at Sam and then down at his hands again, shaking his head and taking a deep breath.
"Her name was… Jasmine," he said.
"She was a stripper?" Sam asked.
"Dude, her name was Jasmine," Dean said incredulously to our little brother.
"I didn't mean for it to happen, I don't like to go to strip bars. My buddy was having a bachelor party, and there she was," Benson continued.
Not for the first time in my life did I wonder curiously about the bachelor party tradition. It just seemed a bit like setting someone up for failure by taking a man professing to be in love with his fiancée and then subjecting them to a room full of practically naked women who were happy to do any number of things for the right amount of money. I looked at Benson, raising my eyebrow.
"Jasmine?" I asked, and he nodded.
"She came right up to me. And… I dunno, she was just…perfect. Everything that I wanted," he said.
"Well you pay enough and anybody will be anything," Dean said.
"It wasn't about the money," Benson said sharply. "It wasn't even about the sex. It was… I dunno… I … I don't know what it was. It's hard to explain."
"And your wife found out?" Sam asked.
"No, she never had a clue," Benson said with a shake of his head.
"Then why did you kill her?" I asked, feeling the frown come to my face.
"For Jasmine," Benson claimed. "She said we would be together forever. If… if only Vicki was…"
"Muertos…" Dean muttered under his breath.
"Afterwards, me and Jasmine were supposed to meet, and she never showed. I don't know where she lives, I don't know her last name, I don't even know her real first name!" Benson said. "I'm an idiot."
"And you didn't think to tell this to the cops?" Sam asked.
"What for?" Benson asked, looking up. "The stripper didn't do it, I did it. And I know what I deserve. The judge doesn't give me the death sentence, I'll just do it myself."
Hospital
Beth's POV
Dr Cara Roberts, according to the name on her door, looked a little worse for wear as we reached her office. She was sitting at her desk, tipping a couple of pain pills into her hand, which she proceeded to swallow. Sam knocked on the door and let us in, I glanced around for Dean but he was still on his way to meet us.
"Rough night?" Sam asked as the doctor started to rub her temples.
"Fun night. Rough morning," she said with a slight smile. "Can I help you?"
"Ahhh… yes. Um, I'm Special Agent Stiles, this is Special Agent Case, FBI," Sam said flashing his badge at her, and I once again grimaced internally at the stupid aliases that Dean dreamed up for us, while flashing my own badge.
"Are you Doctor Cara Roberts?" I asked.
"Far as I know," she said with a smirk.
"You do some work with the Sheriff's department?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, when I'm not slogging it through the ER. It's a small town. We multi-task," she answered.
"Well, we have some questions about a case. About several cases actually. Do you mind if I sit?" Sam said. Cara motioned to the chair in front of her desk and nodded. Sam took the seat while I moved to stand against the back wall, looking around the small office, choosing not to sit.
"Great," Sam said, glancing back at me quickly and then turning to his notebook which he flipped open, starting to read from his notes. "Adam Benson, Jim Wylie, and Steve Snyder."
"Oh yeah, the men who killed their wives?" Cara asked.
"You handled their work-ups, right?" I asked, looking over at her.
"Autopsies for the wives and tox screens for the perps," she said with a nod. "Two-for-one special."
"You find anything?" Sam asked.
"Not really," Cara said. "I mean, COD on the women was pretty clear. There was nothing unusual in their systems."
"What about the husbands?" I asked, crossing my arms and watching her.
"Can I see your badge again?" Cara asked, looking first at Sam and then me.
I shrugged, pulling my badge from my blazer and handing it to her. Sam followed suit and she took her time looking closely first at mine, and then Sam's fake ID. After a moment she handed them back to us, and I smiled pleasantly at her. The ironic part was that most small town officials had never seen a real FBI badge, so they wouldn't be able to tell the real from the fake, and that point we'd just proven.
"There was one thing," Cara said, looking at Sam. "Um, an anomaly in the blood work." She turned and started to rifle through some files in the cabinet behind her. "And I remember thinking how strange it was that it showed up in all three of the men."
"That what showed up?" Sam asked.
"Oxytocin. And their levels were crazy high," she replied, pulling the files she was looking for out of the drawer and flipping them open.
"Ahh. Oxytocin?" Sam asked.
"Mhmmm," Cara said with a nod. "It's a hormone that's produced during childbirth, lactation and sex." She gave Sam an almost hungry look as she handed him the first file, staring at him in the eyes.
"Okay…" Sam said.
"People call it the love hormone," she continued. "Um, you know how it feels when you first fall in love. The whole weak in the knees, tattoo you on my chest thing? That's oxytocin. Of course it eventually fades and then you're stuck with every relationship ever." She smiled. "That and the painful regime of tattoo removal."
Sam smiled back at her and I breathed a sigh of relief as Dean walked into the room, glancing curiously at me standing in the corner. He looked to Sam and shrugged.
"What'd I miss?"
"Ahhh, this is our partner, Agent Murdoch," Sam said to Cara.
Dean smirked and held out his hand to the doctor. "Please, 'Agent' sounds so formal. You can call me Dean," he said with his best, come-hither grin.
Cara shook his hand briskly. "Dr Roberts," she said curtly, turning back to Sam. "So um, can I help you with anything else?" Cara asked our little brother.
I suppressed the desire to giggle at the dismissal as Dean chafed a little. He turned to throw me a wink before sitting down in the chair next to Sam.
"Uhhh, sure, just one more thing," Sam said. "This chemical, this…"
'Oxytocin," Cara cut in, returning the files to her cabinet.
"Oxytocin. What would cause those high levels that you found?" Sam asked.
"Nothing that I've ever seen," she said with a shrug.
"Okay," Sam said with a nod. "That's it. Thanks Doc."
Sam and Cara exchanged smiles again and then the boys stood up, moving toward the door. I pushed past them, eager to get outdoors, I was itching to start researching the oxytocin link. Dean followed me closely, his hand at the small of my back as he held the door for me. Turning toward the exit of the hospital I started to walk until I noticed Sam hesitate in the doorway, turning back to the office.
"By the way… try a greasy breakfast. Best thing for a hangover," Sam said with a smile. Cara looked up from her paperwork and chuckled.
"Watch it buddy, I'm the only M.D. here," she said with a smile. Sam smiled back and turned, looking at Dean and me.
"Dude, you totally c-blocked me," Dean said with a frown, turning to walk away. Sam laughed and I feigned offense, shoving Dean playfully in the arm as soon as we were around the corner and out of sight of the office.
"C-blocked? Really Dean?" I asked and he grinned.
"Well he did, I might have been trying to get a phone number for the game," Dean said, stopping long enough to pull me into his arms, his hands sliding around my hips.
"Thought we had retired from that," I reminded him and he nodded, kissing me softly.
"True," he said. "Can't blame a guy for trying."
I laughed, shaking my head. "Works both ways you know."
Sam rolled his eyes at the pair of us and stomped past. "Well neither of you were in with a chance there, she was all over me like white on rice," Sam said confidently, and for once, I had to say I agreed with him.
"So how did you go with the other two?" I asked, draping my arms around Dean's neck, resting my forearms on his shoulders.
"One emptied his IRA, the other, his kids' college fun, all on the same day," Dean replied.
"Live nude girls?" I asked as Sam paused nearby to listen.
"A club called The Honey Wagon." Dean said.
"These guys have affairs too, with a stripper also known as Jasmine?" Sam asked.
"Yes, and no," Dean said, pulling back from me and running a hand across his face. "This is where it gets interesting. Each guy hooked up with a different chick."
"So, what?" I asked. "Are the girls all connected somehow?"
"Well," Dean said, nodding toward the door and starting to walk, leading as we followed. "They all described their stripper in the same way, the exact same way. Perfect, and everything that they wanted."
I pondered this comment and recalled the way Benson had talked about Jasmine. "Yeah, at least until dream Barbie convinced them to murder their wives."
"There's that," Dean said with a nod.
"You know, it's almost like they were under some kind of love spell," Sam said.
"Sure seems that way," Dean agreed, reaching into his pocket for the keys as we arrived at the Impala.
"Which caused them to become totally psychotic," Sam mused.
"Absolutely," Dean concurred with a grin.
"You seem pretty cheery," I said with a raised eyebrow, moving to the passenger door of the car.
"Strippers, babe. Strippers. We're on an actual case involving strippers," Dean said, grinning across the top of the car at me. "Finally!"
I laughed and shook my head, getting into the car. "You are unbelievable, you know that?" I asked, looking over as my darling husband slid in behind the wheel of the car.
"Yeah I know, I rock your world," he said with a grin.
Honey Wagon Bar
Dean's POV
Strippers. Finally. It had taken how many years to make this something? I did vaguely remember doing that strip club stakeout when we were following some dude around years ago, and getting frisky with Beth in the back corner, but it had certainly been a while.
As we reached the bar I flashed my badge at the security, they let us straight through. Within minutes we'd been pointed in the direction of the manager, a bald, sleazy looking dude who was loitering near one of the tables where a buxom brunette was gliding around the in a bikini, her hips swinging to the music before she bent over and gyrated her ass in our direction.
"I'm looking for three girls," I said to the manager, sneaking a glance at the woman who had turned to pay attention to the men standing at the other end of the table. "Jasmine, Aurora and Ariel."
"You seriously think those names mean anything to me?" He asked. I glanced around at the various dancers on the table and shrugged.
"One's a redhead about 5'9. The other one's Asian, about…"
"You have any idea how many girls I deal with? Fake names, fake hair, fake…" He interrupted me and I resisted the urge to hit him.
"You gotta have some sort of paperwork. Cheque stubs. Some way to keep track of the strippers," I said.
"Please, exotic dancers. Independent contractors working for cash. I stay out of their hair, they stay out of what little I have left." He gestured to his balding head and I sighed in frustration.
"Three of your customers murdered their wives. You don't think that that's weird?" I asked him.
"Yeah. I think that's super-friggin' weird. But you know what it ain't? My problem." The manager walked off on me.
"Any luck?" I heard Sam ask as he came up behind me.
"No. You? And where's Beth?"
"Uhhh, she's out the back talking to some of the girls who work here," Sam answered. "And, a little. I just talked to Bobby, we officially have a theory."
"What's that?" I asked.
"Siren."
"Like Greek myth siren, the Odyssey?" I questioned, amused at the look of surprise that crossed Sam's face. "What? Hey, I read!"
Sam nodded, impressed. "Yeah, actually. But the siren's not actually a myth, it's more of a beautiful creature that preys on men, enticing them with their siren song."
"Let me guess," I said with a grin. "'Welcome to the Jungle'? No, no… Warrant's 'Cherry Pie.'"
Sam rolled his eyes. "Their song is more of a metaphor, like… like their call, their allure, you know?"
"So they shake their thing and the guys zombie out?"
"Basically, yeah. Sirens lived on islands, sailors would chase them, completely ignoring the rocky shores… and dash themselves to pieces." Sam replied.
"Sounds like Adam and his buddies," I commented.
"Yeah," Sam agreed with a nod of his head. "If you were a siren in '08 looking to ruin a bunch of morons, where would you set up shop?" We looked around and there was certainly plenty of prey. The place was packed, full of men from all walks of life, watching, laughing, and drooling over the women in front of them.
"So whatever floats the guy's boat, that's what they look like?" I asked, starting to feel like we might be slightly in over our heads on this one.
"Yeah. You see, sirens can read minds. They see what you want most and then they can kinda, like, cloak themselves. You know, like an illusion." Sam said.
"So it could all be the same chick?" I asked, looking around the room. "Morphing into, uh, to different dream girls?"
"Yeah, actually," Sam said with a nod. "Probably. Sirens are usually pretty solitary."
"How do we kill it?" I questioned, my mind already racing ahead to the job at hand. We had to move fast before this thing got wind that we were on to it.
"Bobby's working on it," Sam said. "But even if we figure that out…"
"How the hell are we gonna find it? It could be anyone…" I muttered, my eyes flitting from the table top dancers to the waitresses, and then falling on a newcomer.
I looked up to see Beth walking toward me from the back rooms. She looked different and I gazed at her, seeing why as she rounded a group of men.
She'd pulled her hair up into pigtails, and my jaw dropped to see her white shirt tied up under her breasts, pushing them out a little and baring her midriff to the whole world. My cock twitched at the sight of her and I shifted a little uncomfortably as men stopped to take a look. Her stomach wasn't the only thing they were paying attention to.
Instead of the longer skirt she'd had on, she was now wearing a much, much, much shorter skirt that was lucky to cover her ass, and my gaze was drawn to her long, bare legs to her favourite pair of leather boots that hit her mid-calf. She'd finished off the look with a loosely looped tie around her neck, looking as if she'd just walked off the pages of a schoolgirl photo shoot for Playboy.
"Damn," Sam breathed as Beth turned and started to walk toward the manager with another girl on her arm. The girl with her was clearly from the bar, and was dressed in a shiny black vinyl corset that was laced and trimmed with bright yellow that glowed in the dark room.
"What the hell?" I asked, taking a step toward my wife as the two women reached the manager. Sam grabbed my arm and shook his head.
"You wanted an in… looks like Beth just found one," he said with a warning look while watching the girls laugh and banter playfully with the manager. His eyes dropped to Beth's ass as she wiggled it and he nodded, reaching out to squeeze one of her cheeks. I felt my blood start to boil but he dropped his hand and resumed his conversation with the girls.
"Come on," Sam said, this time gripping my arm and pulling me toward the exit. Once outside I paced the sidewalk, waiting for Beth to join us. It took another five or ten minutes before I saw her walk through the door, smiling at us and untying her shirt, letting it drop back down over her stomach. She rubbed at her arms briskly and came to join me.
"Sooooo?" I asked carefully, trying not to appear as irritated as I felt. "You find out anything? Cherrypie?"
Beth laughed and leaned in to kiss my cheek, sliding her hand down my hip. "Mhmmm… I found out you're good at giving but not taking," she said softly, her big brown eyes turning to stare at me. I cringed a little at the outright flirtatious manner I'd spoken to the Doc earlier.
"So you're a stripper now?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Beth laughed and shook her head.
"No, a waitress, but I get all the same perks," she said. Sam chuckled and I threw him a glare I wasn't completely feeling.
"So what's your name then?" I asked with a grin. "Somehow I don't think Bethie is going to get the guys going."
Beth laughed again, and it made me smile. "Hmm, no. It's Cherry," she said with a wink, playing off one of my nicknames for her.
"Damn."
"Uh huh, thought you'd like that." As if on cue, the girl she'd been with earlier stuck her head out of the door, looking at us, Beth with her arms draped over my shoulders.
"Hey Cherry!" She called out. "You forgot this!" The blonde tossed a bag toward us which Beth ignored as she continued to stare at me, and Sam took a second to catch. It was her skirt from earlier.
"Thanks babe," Beth said, finally turning back to the bar. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"You got some action?" The girl asked, her eyes appraising both Sam and me as we stood with Beth.
"Yeah, going to go show these FBI guys the night of their lives," Beth said with a wink toward the girl.
"Dang girl, you do know how to have a good time!" She smiled and headed back indoors while Beth raised an eyebrow at me.
"She's got no idea," Beth said softly and I chuckled.
"Oh Sammy you are so in your own room tonight," I said and our little brother sniggered.
"That much was clear," he said, shaking his head and climbing into the back seat of the Impala, tossing Beth's skirt on the seat beside him.
Motel Room
The Next Morning
Dean's POV
It was sitting there, right there, within reach and I was so itching to touch it, to pick it up, to see what the hell Sam was being so secretive about. I stared at the phone lying on the table, and glanced around the room. Sam still wasn't back from the police station, and I had come in looking for the laptop. I hadn't expected to find his phone left behind.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I picked the phone up and scrolled down to a recently called number that was unidentified. It was from the other morning when I'd heard him on the phone. I hit dial and held the phone tentatively to my ear, waiting for someone to answer.
"Hey, Sam…" My blood ran cold. Ruby. "Sam?... You there?" She asked and I startled at the door opening. Hanging up and putting the phone down quickly, I sat back in my chair at the table, running a hand through my hair, breathing a sigh of relief when Beth walked in.
"What are you so jumpy about?" She asked, sensing my jitters right away.
"Uh… nothin'," I lied, tossing her a grin.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah… it's nothing," I said in a reassuring tone, taking in her current state of dress, or maybe undress was more the word. "Kind of like the amount of clothing you currently have on."
Beth glanced down at the black miniskirt that hugged her hips and barely covered her ass. She was wearing suspenders and stockings and knee high boots that had the least amount of heel on them, compared to the rest of the fuck-me shoes she'd been looking at earlier in the morning. A matching black bra peeked through a see-through pink shirt laced at the front, a shirt which I knew would get tossed as soon as she got to the bar.
"Jealous?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "Don't you like my outfit?"
"Cherrypie, I love your outfit, believe me. It's the sharing it with other men I'm not so keen on," I said, sliding up to her and running my hands around her soft, warm skin. I leaned in to kiss her neck and she sighed softly, her hands coming up and around my shoulders, pulling me close.
"Didn't you get enough last night?" She asked with a chuckle.
"Nuh uh," I said, shaking my head and trailing my lips down to the top of her breasts, kissing and licking the soft skin I found there. "Never."
I was hard as a rock in my pants, and if we'd been in our own room I'd have taken full advantage of that fact, but the door opened in that moment, admitting Sam back into the room who sighed at the embrace he found us in.
"Uh, why are you in my room?" He asked with a roll of his eyes.
"Oh, you know, thought we'd do the rounds…" I teased, but I pulled back from Beth, gesturing to the laptop. "Came to use the computer."
"But didn't get that far?" Sam asked, noting it was still closed on the table.
"Not really," I admitted with a shrug of my shoulders.
"Right… well, Lenny Bristol was definitely another siren vic," Sam said, referring to the police call we'd heard earlier where a young man had beat someone to death.
"You get in to see him?" Beth asked, taking a seat on the bed nearest her.
"Yep. He brought home a stripper named Belle. Couple of hours later he offed his mother. Belle, of course, went MIA."
"Wait, he killed his mom?" I asked incredulously.
"The woman he was closest to," Sam said with a nod.
The phone on the table started to ring and everyone looked at it.
"Yeah, you uh, forgot your cell phone," I said, walking over to the table where I proceeded to pick up and toss the phone to Sam.
Sam seemed to give me a worried look before glancing at the display and then answering. "Hey Bobby," he said, putting the man on speaker phone.
"Sam. You find her yet?" Bobby asked.
"Ahhh no. And, uh, it doesn't seem like she's slowing down any. You got anything?" Sam asked.
"Well, some lore from a dusty Greek poem. Shockingly, it's a little vague… it says you need 'a bronze dagger, covered in the blood of a sailor, under the spell of the song.'"
"What the hell does that mean?" I asked.
"You got me. We're dealing with 3000 years of the telephone game."
"Best guess?" Sam asked
"Well, the siren's spell ain't got nothing to do with any song. It's most likely some kind of toxin or venom. Something she gets in the vic's blood." Bobby said.
"And makes them go all Manchurian Candidate," Sam said with a nod. "Uh, what do you think, she infects the men during sex?"
"Like a succubus?" Beth asked, looking up at me.
"Maybe," Bobby said.
"Well, I hope it's not as complicated as what it took to kill that succubus and incubus we came across in Tampa," I said with a frown.
"How did she infect you guys?" Sam asked, looking at us curiously.
"Uhhh…" I looked at Beth who shrugged.
"We're not really sure… blood, body fluids…" She answered, looking down at her hands. She still felt a little awkward to this day about some of the things we'd done that night.
"Supernatural STD," Sam commented and we nodded.
Bobby muttered something we couldn't quite make out and then stated, "Well however it happens, once it's done the siren's gotta watch her back. She gets a dose of her own medicine…"
"It kills her," Beth said.
"Like a snake getting iced by its own venom." Bobby confirmed.
"So we just gotta find a way to juice one of the OJs in jail?" I asked.
"Not that easy. None of those guys are under the spell anymore. Haven't got a clue where you're going to get the blood you need."
"I think I might have an idea," Sam said.
"Be careful," Bobby warned. "These things are tricky bitches. Wrap you up in knots before you know what hit ya."
We hung up from Bobby and I sighed.
"All right, so what do you have in mind?" I asked Sam.
"Blood work from the doc, at the hospital, she had some," he answered and I found myself smiling.
"Good thinking there Sammy…" I said with a grin. Looking at Beth I raised my eyebrow. "But you're gonna need something a little more respectable."
"No I'm not, I'm going to the bar," Beth announced and I felt a panic clutch a little at my chest.
"Uh, Beth, don't you think one of us should be there with you?" I asked, swallowing a little and watching her as she adjusted her jacket.
"Why? I think I can handle a few girls at the bar, Dean. Besides, this thing only seems to be going after men, and I am… clearly… not a man." She grinned at me.
I bit my lip and took her by the arm, pulling her over to the corner and away from Sam who was starting to flip through his messages on his phone.
"Beth…"
"What's wrong?" She asked, a frown touching her soft brow.
"Nothing… well… no it's nothing, I know you're more than capable, it's just…" I stopped speaking. I didn't know how to say it.
"Dean, it's okay," she said, touching my cheek. "I'll be all right. We can't live in each other's back pockets for the rest of our lives; we have a job to do, right?" I nodded unconvincingly.
"Yeah, yeah you're right," I said, a little gruffly as I tried to hide the rising nervousness in my stomach. We hadn't spent much time apart at all since I'd got back from Hell, an hour at most, that having been yesterday while I was looking into the other perps while she and Sam were checking out the doctor.
"I'm nervous too," Beth said suddenly, and there was vulnerability in her eyes when I looked closer.
"Huh?"
"Being apart, I'm nervous about it too," she clarified, leaning her forehead against mine. "I don't like it any more than you, but … well, small steps, right?"
"Yeah."
"It's not about wanting to be apart, it's about needing to prove we can function apart… or how can we keep doing the job? Sometimes we need to separate." Beth said and I knew what she was saying was sensible. She reached out and took my hand, playing with my wedding ring, spinning it on my finger. With a sigh she took her own ring and moved it over to her right hand, slipping it on to her finger and massaging her left finger where it was now bare.
"When did you turn into Dad?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
Beth laughed and pulled back, kissing me softly on the lips. "I love you," she said, ignoring the question. "Believe me, I don't like this any more than you. But I'll be okay, and so will you. A couple of hours, no more, come get me once you're done at the hospital?"
"Yeah, okay, but only a couple of hours," I said with a nod. We paused to look at each other and the air was full of uncertainty and worry, I wanted to tell her right then and there, how I wanted us to get out. To run and find a place to hide away from the rest of the world, to have a family, to get Sam safe.
"We better go," Beth said softly, interrupting my train of thought. "You can drop me at the bar on the way, and hopefully by the time you get back to me we'll have a way to kill this thing so it can't hurt any more people."
Any more people.
I sighed, thinking about how unfair it was that we were always putting other people before ourselves. My mind shifted to the phone call I'd made on Sam's phone. Ruby. She was still about, and he was lying to us, talking to her behind our backs. God only knew what else he was up to, and I'd have to tell Beth later so that we could come up with a plan to figure out what was going on inside his messed up head.
"Yeah," I said, pulling back and turning to Sam. "You ready?" He nodded at us, pretending like he hadn't been watching us have one of our moments, and headed for the door.
Hospital
Dean's POV
We found the good doctor in the emergency room when we got to the hospital. She flashed Sam a smile as we walked in.
"Dr Roberts," Sam said.
"Agent Stiles. Can't stay away, huh?" She asked a little flirtatiously.
"Actually, uh, we're here on business," Sam said, clearing his throat and looking a little embarrassed.. "About the blood samples. The ones with the high… you know… oxytocin?"
"You still have them?" I asked.
"Mm-hmm," the doctor said with a nod.
"Good, we need them," I said.
"What for?" She asked but we were interrupted before I could get to our reasons.
"Excuse me, Dr. Roberts?" A tall young man in a suit asked as he approached her. He looked confident and self-assured, like the pair of us, and let off an air of superiority that I couldn't quite place.
"Yeah?"
"Excuse me, uh, we're a little busy here, buddy," I cut in, flashing my fake FBI badge in the air.
The man turned around, pulling out his own FBI badge. "Yeah, so am I, pal," he retorted. Ah, there was the attitude – just like a Fed.
"Doc, can you give us a sec, please?" Sam asked, jumping to ease the tension that had just risen about one hundred percent all of a sudden.
"Sure," Cara said, backing away from the three of us.
"Thanks."
"What's your name?" I asked the newcomer, putting on my best intimidating and confident voice.
"Nick Munroe. What's yours?" He asked.
"I'm Special Agent Sam Stiles, this is my partner Dean Murdoch," Sam answered. "What office are you from?"
"Omaha, Violent Crimes Unit," he replied. "My SAC sent me down here to see about the murders."
"Hmmm," Sam mused.
"You?" Munroe asked in return.
"D.C. Our Assistant Director assigned us," I replied without missing a beat.
"Oh, which AD?"
"Mike Kaiser," Sam replied.
"What are your badge numbers?" Munroe asked.
"You're kidding right?" I scoffed. Was this guy for real? Who the hell memorised their badge numbers? I looked at him and realised that he probably did, he seemed the type to stick to the rules and regulations.
"I'm just following protocol," Munroe replied to my incredulous look.
Sam pulled a card out of his wallet and handed it to Munroe. "Look man, whatever. Just call our AD, he'll sort things out."
I smirked and waited as Munroe walked away to place his call. It didn't take long for Bobby to pick up on the other end and enter into a conversation with the man. From the looks of things, Bobby wasn't in much of a mood either because I could have sworn the guy turned a few shades whiter than he had been.
"No, no, no, sir. I'm not questioning…" Munroe said urgently into the phone.
Bobby must have hung up on him after that, but I'm sure it wasn't before a long list of expletives to set young Munroe's ears to ringing. The Agent turned sheepishly back to us.
"I'm sorry, guys," he said.
"Just don't let it happen again," I had to add in, but I knew I was being a bit of a dick about it all.
"Where are you at with this?" Munroe asked.
"Where are you at with this?" I countered, not about to let him start calling the shots.
"Well, I was just about to run the, uh, perps' bloodwork," he answered.
"I already checked, dead end," Sam said. Munroe looked surprised at Sam, clearly not expecting us to be this far along on the case.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah."
"But get this," Munroe started. "I feel like I found something that, uh, connects all the murderers." He leaned in a little conspiratorially toward us and lowered his voice.
"Really?" Sam asked.
He nodded, and added, "They were all banging strippers… from the same club."
"You don't say!" I said in surprise.
"What do you say we, uh, go down there and check it out?" He asked.
"Well here's the thing, Nick. See, we're kinda lone wolves…" I started to say before I was rudely interrupted by Sam.
"You know what," Sam said. "That sounds like an excellent idea. Just… just give me a second with my partner and we'll, uh… one sec." He looked at me and inclined his head. "Come here."
I scowled, not happy with where Sam was going with this, lumping me with the Fed.
"Dude, you gotta stay with him," Sam said.
"What?" I asked, feigning stupidity. I knew exactly what he was getting at.
"Keep him out of the way," Sam said.
"Why me?" I complained, looking back at Nick who was staring at the ceiling, pretending like he didn't know we were talking about him.
"Because I gotta get the blood samples," Sam pointed out.
"What the hell am I supposed to do with him?" I asked.
"Just take him to the strip club… keep an eye out for the siren. You wanted to keep an eye on Beth anyway, she's already there. Just focus on the naked girls…" I gave him an incredulous look for mentioning watching naked girls in the presence of Beth. "Or Beth… whatever. Pretend you take a fancy to the waitress and talk to her. You'll forget he's even there!"
He did have a point. I was already feeling jittery about Beth being on her own at the club, and we still had a good hour or more before I was supposed to go and get her. This way I'd have an excuse to go check up on her.
"Fine. But I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing it for the girls… and Beth!"
Moments later Nick and I made our way out of the hospital and toward the Impala.
"All right," I said. "We're taking my ride, no complaining about the tunes." Nick took a moment to appreciate the curves of the car and shook his head.
"No way. You drive an Impala?"
"Yeah," I said with a nod.
"It's a '67, right? IT's a 327 four barrel…"
I stopped to look at him, feeling a little stunned. "Yeah, actually."
"It's a thing of beauty," he breathed, staring at the Impala. I frowned, now that was rare. Not even Beth got excited about the car like this dude currently was.
"Thanks," I said, walking around to the drive side.
"How the Hell did you talk the Bureau into letting you drive your own wheels?" He asked. I didn't really have an answer for that, so I just shrugged.
Hospital
Sam's POV
Cara looked at me curiously as she flipped through a few files behind her desk. "You want this blood because…?"
"Uh, we'd like to run some tests," I said. She smirked and turned to face me, shaking her head. I couldn't help but notice that she was looking a little tired, her hair definitely could have been neater and it made me want to run my fingers through it.
"You know, I've run every test there is," she said, leaning a little closer to me. "It's, um, my job. Notice the lab coat?" I had noticed the lab coat, and I was kind of wondering what she was hiding underneath it.
"We know a specialist who'd like to try out a theory," I said.
Cara shrugged and moved to the refrigerated cabinet in the corner of the room, saying, "If you say so."
She slid out a tray of test tubes from the top shelf and gasped. "What the hell?"
"What?" I asked.
"The blood's gone," she said, turning back to me.
Strip Club
Dean's POV
Nick and I were enjoying a few shots at a table in the bar while I kept an eye out for Beth without trying to be obvious about it. We were talking music.
"Nobody's Fault But Mine," I said to him and he smirked.
"Zeppelin recorded it in '75. It was a cover of a Blind Willie Johnson tune," he said and I nodded, impressed.
"Nice."
"You Shook Me," Nick challenged and I grinned.
"Oh. '69 debut album, written by Willie Dixon," I said, pointing at him.
"And…?" He asked.
"And what?" I questioned.
"Written by Willie Dixon and J.B. Lenoir," a sultry voice said from beside me, and I turned to smile at Beth as she reached across the table, taking our empty glasses and placing them on a tray. I let my eyes fall down to her chest where she'd lost the pink shirt from earlier, and was now pretty much walking around in her underwear – a bra, panties and suspenders.
"Well… hello…. Cherry pie," I said with a grin, winking at Nick. Beth smiled back at me and tilted her head to the side.
"It's just Cherry, actually," she said with a grin. "Can I get you anything else?"
"Oh there's a whole lot of things you can get for me sweetheart," I said, my eyes running down her legs to the boots she had on. Beth raised an eyebrow and turned to Nick, sliding her arm around my shoulders in a seductive pose that I'd seen the waitresses use here.
"So who's your friend?" Beth asked.
"Uh, Nick, we're with the FBI," I said with a wink.
"FBI huh? You guys working a case?"
"Maybe," Nick said with a smile, taking another shot from in front of him and downing it.
"Well I feel better knowing you two strong, handsome guys are out there, protecting us from all the dangerous criminals in the world," Beth said before leaning in to whisper in my ear.
"Private room, private lap dance?" She asked, stepping back with a wink. I groaned and glanced over at Nick who was shaking his head.
"Dude, come on, you're on the job," he said to me.
"Well, you know, we could use the look out the back…" I said to him.
He shrugged and nodded, leaning back on the table.
"Why don't you go get yourself comfortable?" I said to Beth, smiling at her as if I was a kid in a candy store. I didn't really have to fake it, but it didn't hurt for Nick to see my obvious enthusiasm. "I'll be back there in a minute." Beth nodded and took her tray of empty glasses, sashaying through the crowd. I bit my tongue at the looks she got from the other male customers and tried not to play the obvious jealous husband.
"She's pretty hot," Nick said. "You should definitely go enjoy yourself, maybe see if she knows anything about these strippers…"
"Dude. Dude!" I said with a smile. "You know, for a Fed, you're not a total dick."
"Aren't we both Feds?" He asked.
"Yeah, I know. I just... you know, not a lot of Feds are as cool as us, huh?" I said with a grin, turning to look at a buxom blonde who was currently hanging upside down from a pole in the middle stage just a few yards away.
"So, before you go… what the hell with this case man? How does a girl talk four different johns into murder?" Nick asked.
"It's a crazy world," I said with a shrug.
"I guess," Nick commented with a frown. "Hey, can I level with you?"
"Mmmm," I said with a nod.
"I found something kinda weird," Nick said.
"Well. You have brought your weird to the right spot. Lay it on me," I said.
"I went to the crime scene this morning. Saw them bagging this up," Nick said, handing me a plastic bag that contained some purple flower petals in it. I frowned, taking a closer look. They seemed familiar. "So I went back, uh, through all the files," Nick continued. "It turns out a flower just like that was found at every crime scene."
"Like it was left on purpose?" I asked, glancing up.
"You know, sometimes a serial killer will leave an object behind, like a calling card. But with this case?" He shrugged. "To tell you the truth, I got no idea what's going on."
"I think I might. I've seen a flower like this before," I said, the realisation hitting me like a tonne of bricks.
Hospital
Sam's POV
I stared at the screen in front of me watching as absolutely nothing was revealed on the CCTV to Cara's office.
Cara sighed and looked up at me, saying, "We've watched them twice. Whoever took the blood…"
"Must have tampered with the tapes," I finished with a sigh. "Who has access to your office?"
"Everybody. I don't lock it," she said, leaning back in her chair.
"You what?"
"I've never had this problem before," Cara said with a shrug. "What is so important about the blood anyway?"
"I think someone drugged the men," I said, crossing my arms and staring at her desk. "Made them commit murder."
"What?" Cara asked surprised. "What kind of drug?"
"Ahhh, I'm not sure yet," I answered.
"I don't know," she said cautiously, her dark brown eyes staring at me. "I mean, I interviewed those guys and they had their reasons."
"Yeah but they all loved their victims," I countered.
"I'm sure they did," she replied. She chuckled and stood up. "Come on. Haven't you ever been in a relationship where you really love somebody and still kinda wanted to bash their head in?"
"Sounds like you're speaking from experience," I said with a grin.
"Yeah." She said. An emotion passed across her face and she stood back from me, crossing to a cabinet behind her desk.
"Look, I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry," I said, noting that she had backed right off.
"It's okay," she said, pulling a bottle of whiskey and a couple of glasses out of a drawer in the cabinet. "I was the one who brought it up." She turned back to the desk, placing the two glasses on the surface and uncapping the bottle, pouring some liquid amber into each glass.
"Really?" I asked with a smile.
"It's medicine," she said, handing me a glass. "I'm a doctor," she said with a pout. I gave in with a chuckle and accepted the glass from her outstretched hand, moving to sit on the desk beside her.
"His name was Karl," she said looking at me. "We were married."
We clinked glasses and she chuckled.
"So what happened?" I asked.
"Life happened. I don't know. I mean I loved him," she said with a shrug. "Still do I guess but...I don't know. It's like one day I looked up and I was living with a stranger and...you know what I mean, right?"
"I guess," I replied with a shrug, thinking about Dean and Beth and what it was like to live with them. Sometimes I related to that statement, mostly I think it was them thinking that more about me. "Or, I don't know, maybe," I added, uncertain.
"People change," she said. "I know I did. But it's nothing to feel guilty about. It happens."
"So you two split up?" I asked.
"I suppose that's a word for it," she said, uncapping the bottle again and pouring herself another drink.
My phone started to ring and I glanced down at the display. Dean.
"Do you need to get that?" She asked. I smiled.
"Nope. Not right now," I said softly. Cara poured me another drink in addition to her own and I found myself looking at her with a renewed interest.
"Whatever," Cara said with a smirk. "We've all got our own sad stories, so… screw it. Have fun, no regrets and live life like there's no tomorrow." She held her glass up again and I clinked it with my own.
Cara stepped in closer to me, her lips just inches away from mine. "For instance, I have been thinking about you, all night," she said with a grin. "Well… parts of you."
"Just parts?" I asked playfully, grinning back at her.
"Mmm-hmmm. Like your lips," she said, her breath tickling across my lips as she spoke. "They're very distracting. It's a problem. And I can't stop thinking about kissing them."
"That so?" I asked.
"So…what the hell, huh?" She asked with another little smile.
What the hell indeed? I grinned, sliding my hands around her waist and pulling her up against me, my lips connecting with hers in an urgent, almost hungry fervour. I pushed her back up against the cabinet as her hands reached down, pulling my shirt off and over my head. She giggled as we hit the wall, the metallic clink of the shutters rattling against the glass of the window as we pressed up against them.
I knew as I looked into her eyes that this was exactly what I needed, right now.
Strip Club
Beth's POV
Dean came into the back room with an urgent look on his face, glancing back at the FBI agent who was travelling with him.
"Hey," I said, standing up from the chair I'd been sitting on. "Who is that guy?"
"Oh, him, he's the real FBI," Dean said dismissively, tapping away at his phone.
"What's wrong?" I asked as he held his phone to his ear.
"Sam, that's what's wrong. He's gone and walked right into the devil's lair," he muttered, starting to pace as he waited for Sam to answer. With a curse, he hung up and ran a hand through his hair.
"He's not answering," he said.
"Well I'm sure he has a good reason," I said, hoping to calm him down. "It's Sam, he's capable of looking after himself, Dean."
"Is he? I don't know…" he muttered again, shaking his head.
"What has gotten into you?" I asked, placing a hand on his arm.
"It's the doc," Dean said, looking up at me. "And Sam is there now getting the bloodwork from her."
"Well it doesn't take that long to get bloodwork, he might be back at the motel taking a shower for all we know," I reasoned. "Let me get changed, and we'll go and check it out."
"You can't," Dean said to me and I paused.
"What?"
"You can't, this Fed, he thinks you're a waitress I was just gonna have some fun with," he replied.
"Well, I don't care Dean. Ditch him!"
"I drove him!" Dean said, a look of panic crossing his face. "If I ditch him now, it's gonna look suspicious. And we might need him."
"I can't imagine what we'd need a real Fed for Dean, we should be avoiding them like the plague," I said, shaking my head. I crossed the room and led the way out to the back staff area to where I had a locker for my things. Reaching into the locker I pulled on the pink shirt I'd started the day in, and looked back at Dean who was standing nearby watching.
"Steal a car, there's a bunch out there, no one will even miss one for a few hours. You can meet me back at the motel and I'll ditch Nick," he said.
"Uh… yeah okay, I guess," I shrugged, grabbing my bag.
Dean stopped me and pulled me in to him, his hands grasping either side of my face as he kissed my lips.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"It's okay," I said with a nod. "I understand."
He sighed and nodded back at me. "Follow me as quickly as you can," he said softly. I watched the conflict pass through his eyes and then he was gone, stalking back through the club to where the Fed was waiting for him. They left almost immediately and I felt a sensation of uneasiness settle into my stomach as I watched them pass through the doors and outside.
Pulling my phone out I dialled Sam myself, cursing softly when it went to voicemail. "Sammy, call me when you get this," I said, and then I hung up. It was time to go.
Impala
Dean's POV
I'd dropped Nick off at his own car, and was headed back to the motel when I finally got a hold of Sam.
"Sam! Where the Hell have you been?!" I asked angrily when he nonchalantly called me.
"With Cara," he replied calmly.
"Oh, it's Cara now? And you're not picking up your phone?" I accused.
"We were trying to find the blood samples – someone stole them."
"Yeah, I bet!" I snapped.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam asked.
"Nick found flower petals at the crime scene. Hyacinths," I said cryptically to him.
"So?"
"Hyacinths? Mediterranean. From the island where the whole friggin' siren myth started in the first place," I pointed out to him.
"Okay."
"Sam, Cara had hyacinth flowers!" I snapped at him.
"You think Cara's the siren?" He asked a little surprised.
"Well, I did a little checking up on her. She's only been in town for two months," I said .
"Yeah. And?"
"And she has an ex-husband. A dead ex-husband. Carl Roberts. Dropped like a stone, no warning. Supposedly a heart attack," I pointed out to him, thinking that Nick had done a good job of digging up that information in a hurry while we'd been on our way back to his car.
"Well maybe it was a heart attack," Sam said.
"You're kidding me," I said in a deadpan voice.
"Look, I just don't think it's her." Sam said quickly.
"And what makes you so sure?"
"I dunno. A hunch." Sam said in reply.
"A hunch?" I asked incredulously. "I'm giving you cold hard facts here and you're giving me a hunch?"
The line between us fell silent and my brain started to kick into overtime. Sam only got like this when he…
"Did you sleep with her?" I asked, finishing my thought.
"No," Sam denied, but I could hear it in his voice. He had!
"Holy crap!" I said with a shake of my head. "Middle of Basic Instinct and you bang Sharon Stone? Sam, you could be under her spell right now!"
"Dude, I'm not under her spell."
"Unbelievable man. I just don't get it," I muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing," I replied.
"No. Say it," Sam urged and I frowned.
"No, it's just… first it's Madison, and then Ruby, and now Cara. It's like… what is with you and banging monsters?"
"Dean," Sam said. "I'm telling you, it's not Cara. I feel fine."
"I'll bet you do," I muttered.
"You don't trust me?"
"No. Because this could be the siren talking."
"Look, tell me where you are, I'll come meet you and we'll figure things out." Sam said.
"No."
"Are you serious?" Sam asked.
"I wish I weren't. I gotta handle this, Sam. By myself."
"Yourself? Where is Beth?!" He asked and I hung up on him. Beth, right. I frowned and thought about that. She could be at the motel by now, she could be in danger!
I dialled Beth on the phone and she answered almost right away.
"Hey baby what's up?" She asked.
"Where are you?" I asked.
"I'm just leaving the club now, I got delayed," she answered.
"Well, don't go to the motel. Sam's under the siren's spell, it's not good. You need to stay away from him." I said.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"No time to explain, but I have to track down this siren. See if you can find out from Bobby how to kill this son of a bitch," I said, and before she could answer I hung up, dialling Nick almost immediately after. We didn't have a second to lose.
"Hey man, what's up?" Nick asked when he answered the phone.
"I need your help," I said.
"Uh sure. With what?" He asked.
"Canvassing. We gotta find somebody."
Local Bar
A short while later
Dean's POV
Nick had followed Cara to a bar, she was walking inside as I found his car and hopped in beside him.
"She went in just a second ago," Nick said.
"Nice work," I nodded.
"Should we follow her in?" Nick asked.
"No, no, no, I don't wanna tip her off. Let's just wait and see who she comes out with," I said. I knew we had here, she wasn't going to get away with this again.
"So you think… what? She's drugging these guys?" Nick asked.
"Pretty much," I said with a nod.
"Uh-huh," he said, sounding pretty unconvinced.
"I know how it sounds," I said.
"You sure about that? 'Cause it sound like crazy on toast. All these different strippers, they're magically the same girl? But then they're not strippers at all, it's Dr. Quinn." He looked at me with a bit of a crazy gaze and I cringed internally. Now that he'd said it out loud, it did sound a little nuts.
"It's kinda hard to explain, but I have my reasons and they're good ones," I said stubbornly. "So you're just gonna have to trust me on 'em."
"Yeah, okay, I guess," Nick said with a shrug.
I looked at him, surprised to have him not argue. Normally Sam would be arguing until he was red in the face. Come to think of it, even Beth was a bit like that.
As if reading my mind, my phone started to ring, and I looked down at the screen. Beth.
"You need to get that?" Nick asked, looking at the name on the screen.
"Uh… no," I said, shaking my head. I put the phone in my pocket and unscrewed the cap on my flask, taking a sip of the whiskey inside, letting it wash down my throat with a burning sensation. I handed the flask to Nick who took it with a smile and put it to his lips. He took a swig and then handed it back to me and I quickly took another bolt from the flask.
"So let's say she is drugging her vics. How's she pulling that off?" Nick asked.
"She could be injecting them," I suggested. "You know, or passing the toxin through, uh, physical contact."
Nick smiled at me knowingly. "Or it could be her saliva…" he glanced down at the flask. "You really should have wiped the lip of that thing before you drank from it, Dean." Immediately I realised how badly I'd just screwed up.
"I should be your little brother," Nick said softly to me. "Sam. You can't trust him. Not like you can trust me," he said. "You can't trust him with Beth…" I looked at him, feeling a little confused. How did he know about Beth?
'They can read minds…" Bobby's voice echoed somewhere in the back of my mind, before it started to cloud over.
"In fact," Nick said. "I really feel like you should get him outta the way, so we can be a family, you and me, brothers with Beth. Forever."
"Yeah," I said, feeling my heart start to speed up at the thought. We could be a family, we could settle down, Nick would help us … "Yeah, you're right."
Motel Room
Sam's POV
"No Beth, I don't know where Dean is, I haven't seen him, he just hung up on me, he's acting really weird," I said as I put the key in the door. "Where are you?"
"I'm getting a weapon for the siren," she said into the phone and I nodded. "When you see him, keep him there, he left with Nick Munroe earlier… and something's not right about that guy. He's not FBI, that's for sure."
"He's not?"
"No, Bobby looked into him."
"Okay I'll be here." I turned the key in the lock and entered the room. Nick was sitting casually on the bed, and I hesitated in the little foyer.
"Nick," I said casually, hoping my look didn't betray me. "What are you doing here?"
Before he could even answer Dean jumped me from behind. I felt his arm circle around my neck, pulling me back against him as a knife was pressed up against my throat.
"Dean?" I asked, trying to turn to look at him. Nick stood up and walked toward us, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
"I gotta tell ya, you're one butt ugly stripper," I muttered at him. He chuckled, bringing a hyacinth to his nostrils and smelling it.
"Well, maybe. But I got exactly what I wanted," he said. "I got Dean."
Dean was holding me tightly, not speaking, not like him at all.
"Dean, come on man, this isn't you. You can fight this," I said. "Let me go." My mind went to Beth, where was she? She would stop Dean.
"Why don't you cut him?" Nick said to Dean. "Just a little, on his neck right there." Dean obeyed, slicing through the skin and drawing blood. I gasped from the pain and flinched, recoiling back from the knife as best I could. Nick smirked at me again.
"Dean's all mine," he said.
"You poisoned him," I muttered.
"No. I gave him what he needed. And it wasn't some bitch in a G-string. He has Beth for that and he wouldn't go elsewhere. No. What he needed was you. A little brother that looked up to him, that he could trust. Who wouldn't turn on the family he's trying to create as soon as things got bad, who would protect Beth instead of turning on her." I struggled against Dean's hold again, but it was steadfast, I wasn't going anywhere without a hard won fight.
"And now he loves me. He'd do anything for me. And I gotta tell you, Sam, that kind of devotion? I mean, watching someone kill for you? It's the best feeling in the world." Nick said.
"Is that why you're slutting all over town?" I asked.
"Ahhh. I get bored, like we all do. And I wanna fall in love again. And again…and again," he said.
I gasped for air, scowling at the siren. "I'll tell you what. I have fought some nasty sons of bitches, but you are one needy pathetic loser," I said to him.
"You won't feel that way in a minute," he said. I frowned at that statement, but there was nothing I could do. He grabbed my jaw, and then I watched, trying to fight it as he squirted saliva into my open mouth.
I felt things shifting almost instantly, and Nick waved to me. I just wanted to touch him, walking toward him.
"So, I know you two have a lot you want to get off your chests. So why don't you discuss it? And whoever survives can be with me forever," Nick said. I felt my heart beat a little faster at the thought. A real big brother, one who loved me unconditionally. A brother who didn't look at me like I was a monster and a burden. I wanted it so badly. But first I had to take out Dean, he was in the way, and I couldn't have that. I turned around to find his staring at me angrily.
"Well, I don't know when it happened," Dean started. "Maybe when I was in Hell. Maybe when I was staring right at you. But the Sam I knew, he's gone."
"That so?" I asked, feeling a surge of rage pass through me. What the hell was he talking about?
"And it's not the demon blood or the psychic crap," Dean continued "It's the little stuff. The lies. The secrets."
"Oh yeah? What secrets?" I asked.
"The phone calls to Ruby for one," he said and I knew instantly he'd been at my phone.
"So I need your say-so to make a phone call?" I snapped.
"That's the point. You're hiding things from us. What else aren't you telling us?" Dean asked.
He had a point, but I was hardly going to let him know that. "None of your business," I replied.
"See what I mean?" Dean asked. "We used to be in this together. We used to have each other's backs."
"Okay, fine," I glared at him. "You know why I didn't tell you about Ruby, and how we're hunting down Lilith? Because you're too weak to go after her, Dean. You, and Beth, the pair of you are so damn co-dependent on each other, you struggle just to separate for a few hours. You're holding me back. I'm a better hunter than you, than Beth. Stronger, smarter. I can take out demons you're too scared to go near."
"That's crap," Dean replied.
"You're too busy sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. Whining about all the souls you tortured in Hell, how you hurt Beth in the middle of a flashback. Boo hoo."
Beth's POV
The Impala had been parked downstairs when I arrived, so I hurried along the hallway carrying the bronze knife that I'd procured from a local antique store, courtesy of a quick lock picking. Well it wasn't my fault, if Walmart stocked bronze knives I'd have been there in a heartbeat.
A great crash occurred and in front of my eyes the door to the motel room exploded outwards, and Dean and Sam came crashing through it in a brawl. They threw a few punches before Dean got the upper hand, smashing Sam against the wall and the youngest of the pair lay panting on the floor.
I froze momentarily as Dean broken open a nearby fire emergency box and pulled an axe out of the wall. Nick Munroe appeared in the doorway, his eyes fixed on the boys, and he smiled as Dean towered over Sam, breathing heavily.
"Do it. Do it for me, Dean," he said.
"Tell me again how weak I am, Sam, huh?" Dean asked. "How I hold you back?" He lifted the axe over his head and I forced my feet to move, breaking into a run. I intercepted the downward swing with some effort, deflecting it from Sam, and Dean looked surprised at me.
"Dean, no," I said. Munroe looked just as surprised as the boys when I stabbed the knife I was holding into Dean's upper arm, drawing blood. Nick startled next to me as I turned to face him and he started to run down the hallway.
"No!" Sam cried out from beside me on the floor. "No… no!" Moving quickly I threw the knife, which was perfectly balanced, after the siren, and it hit him in the back. The effect was almost instant as I followed him, walking down the hall to make sure it was truly dead. He felt to the ground, and the visage of Nick Munroe faded to reveal a withered looking creature with skin like leather.
Spinning back to the boys I was relieved to see they were no longer trying to kill each other. I breathed a sigh of relief and moved back down the hall. Dean sighed and grabbed me, pulling me into his arms and squeezing tight, flinching a little at the pain it shot down his arm.
"I can't believe you just stabbed me," he said with a chuckle and I laughed, wrapping my arms tightly around his waist.
"That's for ditching me at the club," I said with a grin, looking up at him. He smirked and kissed my lips softly.
"Oh I think this little social experiment of separating is at an end," he said quietly, and something in his eyes shifted as Sam climbed to his feet, shooting us a look I couldn't quite read.
"You okay Sammy?" I asked, reaching out to squeeze his arm.
"Yeah," he said, nodding and leaning in to kiss my forehead. "I'm fine Beth, good work."
I smiled as he brushed past us and entered the motel room.
"Are you okay?" I asked Dean, who watching him silently with an unreadable expression on his face.
"Uh, yeah, I guess so," he said gruffly, squeezing me again. "God I'm glad to see you. I'm never letting you out of my sight again."
Laughing I pulled back and rolled my eyes. "But we're being all… co-dependent and stuff," I said to which he chuckled.
"Yeah well, it's not as if we're not already dysfunctional, what's one more thing?" He shrugged and it brought a smile to my face.
We turned and walked back into the motel room. Sam was already packing his bags and preparing to escape the place.
"Thanks Beth, you know if you hadn't known up when you did…" Sam said, his voice trailing off and leaving the unspoken reality of what had just transpired hanging heavy in the air.
"That's what I'm here for, keep you two out of trouble," I said with a smile.
My phone started to ring and I answered it, putting it straight to speaker phone.
'Hey Bobby," I said and the man's gruff voice sounded back at us.
"Hey baby girl, how'd you go? Everyone okay?"
"Yeah, I got here just in the nick of time," I said.
"Good."
"Yeah, thanks Bobby for getting back to us with the information on how to kill this thing," Dean said, coming to stand next to me.
"You'd have done the same for me. Course, you coulda picked up the phone. Only took one call to figure out that Agent Nick Munroe wasn't real," he chided us. Dean and Sam looked a little chagrined at the statement, saying nothing.
"You kids gonna be okay?" Bobby asked to the silent room.
"Yeah, fine," Sam said with a nod.
"Yeah good," Dean added.
"You know, those sirens are nasty things," Bobby continued. "That it got to you, that's not reason to feel bad," he said, trying to reassure the boys.
"Yeah, thanks Bobby," Sam said quietly.
"Okay, well take care, you know where to find me," Bobby said, and we all said our goodbyes before hanging up.
Dean looked over at Sam and frowned a little. "You gonna say good bye to Cara?"
"Nah, not interested," Sam said with a shrug.
"Really?" Dean asked, looking a little surprised. "Why not?"
"What's the point?" Sam asked.
"Well, look at you. Love 'em and leave 'em," Dean said quietly with a sense of awe.
Sam was shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, clearly chewing on something in his own mind.
"Dean, look, you know I didn't mean the things I said back there, right?" He asked. "That it was just the siren's spell talking?"
"Of course," Dean said with a look that didn't quite agree with his words. "Me too."
"Okay… so … so we're good?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, we're good." Dean said. And with that he hefted his duffel on to his shoulder and walked toward the door, leaving me wondering just what they had been through with the siren, what they had said to each other. Whatever it was, I could tell by the look on Dean's face that he was lying – things were not okay – but if he wasn't sharing, there was nothing I could do about it.
I closed the door behind us as we left the room and watched the two boys trudge down the hallway, one after the other. We'd killed another monster, but at what cost? At some point we were going to have to evaluate when the cost outweighed the fact that we were helping people, and I had a feeling that moment was coming sooner rather than later.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Song for this chapter: Forevermore by Broken Iris.
Hey everyone. Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I updated! Sorry about that ! I've been a bit distracted with a lot of other things going on, and I was away for one weekend. I've also been in a bit of a funk and uninspired to write which hasn't helped that I also struggled with this episode and probably now that I'm looking back, I should have just skipped it. But that would have made an even longer break between updates. So here it is, I hope you don't die a slow death reading it. And I hope to have a better chapter for you up next xo Jefferson is pushing me to have his story told too... I just need to get past my overall fatigue to get the story out.
Next up is Death Takes A Holiday.
Sorry I haven't replied to reviews – I do appreciate getting them, and I will endeavour to do so very soon. xo