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County Sheriff Jody Mills had served the area for a number of years; one of two women in a male dominated department. She had seen it all, she had done it all and nothing had changed since the brothers had moved out to the Singer Junkyard. Jody was probably one of the few that knew that the boys were step-brothers and had different last names. Around town, they were referred to simply as the 'Singer Boys.' Sam might not know that, but Dean definitely did. Bobby Singer had gone positively soft the first time that he heard the nomenclature. The town would have to be blind to miss the love he (gruffly) showered on them. Bobby would come into town every other day –or more- and would 'just so happen to be' somewhere as Dean jogged by. He was checking in on the runner.

That boy ran the outskirts of town like a bat out of hell. He was also silent as a ghost. He kept a sharp eye and reacted to changes. Jody had been very impressed that he had realized something was wrong with Ms. Loretta. Dean ran like demons were nipping at his heels. Then Lauren confirmed the PTSD assumption. She and Ms. Loretta had the most gossip on the brothers since the two families were helping each other out with the harvest. Lauren (and Jody) didn't know where Dean had served, only that it had been the worst of the worst. Dean was quiet, but by his quick, practiced flirtatious smile, she was sure that it was a new development.

Sam had taken a job at the newspaper office. It wasn't long before he was wandering around town, trying to sell e-mail subscriptions. The folks that signed up were pleased with the coverage and so Jody only hemmed and hawed a little when it was her turn to sign up. She agreed to it on the conditional promise to come to her first with any crime. She didn't want to find out about new crimes from her e-mail. He agreed.

Jody figured out with the first e-mail that for the most part, Sam had conned her into paying for a daily summary of her own findings. Damn, that boy would get far on his smile. Though with the webpage he set up, she could do a search of crimes by geography. It turned out to be useful when a spat of burglaries plagued the town. The people on the north end were missing small valuables, like a family brooch and diamond earrings that had been set down on the back porch. The south side of town had thieves breaking into vacant houses to steal the copper. None of the local metal recycle plants were admitting to a buttload of copper and there were no witnesses and a time frame of weeks before someone realized the theft. (In the first cases, it had been the property realtor.) Also there were two inhabited houses that had been burglarized. In the last house, the owner had been beaten severely. It didn't look like she was going to make it. She still hadn't woken from her coma.

After several dead ends, she cornered Dean on the corner of Maple and Park roads, immediately before the man's normal Thursday route traversed the less populated areas. If anyone might have witnessed people out of place in town, it would be Dean. He was good-natured about stopping when she flashed her car red/blue lights at his approaching.

"Am I speeding, Sheriff?" he teased.

"You're a public menace," Jody retorted. "Do you know how many close calls we've had with people watching you and not where they're driving?"

"I could give them more of a show," Dean offered, but he made no move to take off his shirt. The man always ran in pants and combat boots. Jody wasn't surprised; Lauren had glimpsed a couple of nasty scars and a tattoo.

Jody informed him, "You know half the town thinks that you're training for a marathon." Dean rolled his eyes at that suggestion. "And the other half thinks that you should open up shop as a matchmaker. Jim Wedge has been walking on air and telling everyone."

Dean actually blushed. "I haven't done anything," he protested. "I don't know any Jim Wedge."

Jody scoffed. "James? The older EMT when Ms. Loretta fell. Telling Jimmy Lauren's favorite restaurant is a public service. The whole town's known he's been soft on her since he was fifteen and the high school awarded valedictorian to Rob Wilkins over Lauren. He protested in the middle of graduation, but Lauren wasn't going to even get near her little brother's best friend. He was thrilled that she moved closer, as much as he didn't want Ms. Loretta health to deteriorate he likes that Lauren's back."

Dean laughed at the idea. "He was mooning over her constantly. It was ridiculous and they're so old now, age doesn't matter. Every time after Sam and I had been invited to Loretta's house, he stopped me after to ask how Lauren was. I told him to man up and ask her out so that I could run in peace. That doesn't count as matchmaking."

For the 'they're so old' comment, Jody was going to drag every one of Dean's actions into the light. Her and Lauren's birth dates were within weeks of each other and that wasn't old at all. "So what was telling the new guy Espinosa that he really wanted to run the Meadow Trail on Tuesdays and Thursdays at seven o'clock? That was 100% matchmaking."

"He nearly hurt himself on the Beech Trail. I was giving him other places to run. That was about his safety."

"If you hadn't encouraged Gwen's Terrors to turn into a constantly changing hellish obstacle course, he wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"I am not the only one that enjoys that trail on Thursdays."

True. Anyone that was considering joining the military tried out the trail every Thursday, along with many of the local law enforcement if they were off-duty. Even Jody had run it once. And since the Terrors were working on the obstacle course, they weren't cause trouble in town. This was the first time that the boys hadn't been accused of the local petty thefts. "Yes, but you gave him a place and time that Mia Jackson runs."

Dean grinned. "I told him when the sight was going to be the prettiest. They just happen to have a matching stride."

"Once old Tyrell got over the idea of his precious baby girl dating a Hispanic, he was thrilled. Mia's looking for a job here and will probably stick around. I think you managed to kill the last little vestiges of racism he had. Mia's mom, on the other hand, was hoping that she'd go East and make something of herself."

Dean shrugged. "Then she's not paying attention. The economy's better here and this place is cheaper than anyplace East. She'll get over it once her daughter starts popping out grandbabies."

"Soon, you think?" Jody asked, honestly curious. The runner was three for three on the matchmaking. How far did he see?

Dean shrugged. "Couple years. They're going to have a lot of fun first."

"What about Megan Siegel and Matt Delattre? Are they going to wait until after college?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Dean denied.

Jody laughed at him. "You managed to pry the head cheerleader away from the football captain and into the arms of the geek everyone knows is the next Steve Jobs and you're going to deny it. The Siegels want to put up a statue in your image. Everyone knew that Dennis Karst had a girl on the side–a cheerleader from a rival team…"

"More than that," Dean muttered. "Guy's not picky, but he's not sloppy about it either."

Jody gaped for a moment. "He was good enough that Megan didn't know. Now Megan's concentrating on her studies and has already been accepted at the University in the business department. She and Matt are laying the groundwork for their future company." Jody shook her head at the turn around. "What did you say to her?"

"That football careers end in a moment because of injury and football players don't need help, they need trophies. Geeks won't get their careers off the ground without marketing, no matter how good the product."

Jody knew that it had to be more than that to get through the teenage haze of emotions and hormones, but Dean was looking cornered. "The whole town is waiting with baited breath wondering who you're going to set up next."

Dean jerked his chin her direction. "And you. What do you think? You didn't stop my run for gossip."

Jody reached into her squad car and pulled out the case files. "I brought you some dead-end cases hoping you'll have a lead. You run the whole town, you might have seen something useful."

"Okay." Dean brightened at the idea. He skimmed through the files impressively fast and separated the cases into piles. He piled the home invasions in with the copper theft.

"You think they're related?"

"They're in the same area and both of the home invasion houses look like they're abandoned. They go in for the pipes and they go in in the morning when most people are at work and or running errands. I think they wear uniforms pretending to be from the electric company or whatever. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what I saw in that time frame. For the other two houses, they went into seemingly abandoned homes, found them occupied and tried to grab everything of worth before the owners returned. The one lady got home from grocery shopping too soon."

"What about the individual thefts?" Due to the diamond earrings and the very old emerald Vdhoeven ring, she couldn't call it petty theft. The Pelletier brooch wasn't worth much but it was an antique like the ring.

"I don't know yet."

"These are police files," Jody told Dean. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell your brother about it. Especially about our lack of leads. I don't want featured in his paper."

Dean looked optimistic. "I won't tell Sammy if you don't tell him about, you know, the… eh."

"Matchmaking?" Jody guessed. "Your brother's entire job is wrapped up in talking to everyone in town," Jody reminded him. "I'm sure he's heard already. But if he hasn't, he won't hear it from me."

Dean sighed. "I guess that's the best I can ask for. What's your phone number?"

Jody told him.

He didn't draw out his phone (did he even have a phone on him?) or ask to write it down. He simply paused for a moment and then nodded and then promised to be in touch.

"No phone," she queried

"Nah. I've finally got to the point where I don't have to check in every hour on the hour. If I took my phone now, Sammy would track me like a migrating bird if I gave him half a chance." Dean sounded more amused and fond then irritated at the invasion of privacy. "The worrywart. Don't worry, I won't forget and I'll text if I see anything."

Jody watched him run off and wondered if any good would develop from her hunch.

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The first contact from Dean was an residential address in a text: 'Four guys. Two guns and a garage full of copper.'

Jody gathered a team to arrest them. The takedown was smooth and without a shot fired. It took an hour to get one to turn on the others and to confess to the home invasions and to point a finger at who had beaten the home owner. It took days to file all of the paperwork and to appear in court to put the foursome away for a very long time.

A week later, Jody was resting her eyes when Dean sent her a second text. It was a town park with some nice walking trails. It wasn't somewhere Dean normally ran since too many other people used it. Dean followed up the first text with a second: 'Wear hiking boots and clothes that can get dirty.'

Okay.

Jody texted back '30 min.'

Dean was waiting at the entrance of the park with a sturdy rope wound around his shoulder.

"What's that for?" Jody asked.

"I'm pretty sure that our opportunist thief is a bird. I'm going to pull you up so that you can look at the nest."

"You're kidding me," Jody said.

"Nah. I'm pretty sure I saw the raven carrying the brooch weeks ago, but it took a while to find the right nest."

Dean was serious. Jody had to readjust her thinking to include a kleptomaniac bird. "I have heard that sometimes ravens will fly off with something shiny, but…"

Dean smirked at her, as amused at the idea as she was. "Yeah. But it rained and it's muddy and off the main trail. We're going to get dirty."

"I can handle dirt," Jody promised.

Oh boy, was there dirt. She had slipped and fallen in the mud several times. Dean had too, but not nearly to the same extent. She was filthy from head to toe by the time Dean stopped at the foot of a tree. Jody wasn't sure how Dean was so sure that this was the place since she couldn't see any tracks of him visiting here. Dean let her rest and knotted one end of the rope into a rather secure foothold. The rest of the rope he threw over a higher branch. Ah. Jody could see a nest now.

"You're sure?" She asked as she put her foot in the rope step.

"Yeah. You'll see in a minute." Then using the branch as a fulcrum, he pulled and pulled until she was level with the branch. Jody reached out and grabbed the nest. Thankful that there weren't any chicks inside. It was a little late in the year for that. She did see several sparkles and so held the next tight as Dean lowered her to the ground.

Once on solid ground, Jody examined her prize. Right on top was a cheap plastic unicorn bracelet, but under it was the brooch. "Interesting taste," Jody murmured.

Dean huffed a laugh and Jody hadn't meant for that to be heard. She had barely said it aloud. Dean reached for the bracelet and he actually examined the toy jewelry closer than he did the real. Those he didn't try to touch. "You know the little black-haired pig-tailed girl four… no five houses from the Pelletiers?"

"Yes. That's the Dorans."

"I think this is hers."

"You're kidding me."

"I could be wrong," Dean said defensively.

"I'll drop it off if it is hers. Only one earring," Jody noticed as she sorted through the raven's treasures. She examined the earring in question.

"Tell Ross to check under her porch. I think it fell when the bird stole the one."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

After the fact that Dean had tracked the jewelry down to a bird's nest, Jody was going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Isabella Ross was not going to be pleased. She had been so sure of theft, even supplied a list of people who hated her and had been jealous of her jewels. Jody resigned herself to crawling under Ross's porch to find the second one. She'd get this muddy again, then. The Lord knew that prissy Isabella wouldn't.

"The Vdhoeven ring isn't here either."

Dean shrugged. "Still looking. Did you know that there's a curse attached to the ring? Maybe it's better that it's lost."

Jody laughed at the joke. Sure the Vdhoevens had had a string of bad luck for years, no one really believed in the curse. The family was merely exceptionally clumsy; every member had been in Lauren's ER annually, and the father at least twice, so it wasn't domestic abuse. Dean unknotted the rope and wrapped it up. He slung it over his shoulder and across his chest easily. "Thank you for this," she said, raising the nest. "No one would have imagined this."

Dean shrugged and led the way back to the parking lot. Jody was going to Isabella's first and digging out that other earring while she was filthy, but she might stop home for a shower after that before delivering the other treasures.

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Little Zina Doran was as thrilled with the return of her cheap plastic unicorn bracelet as Florence Pelletier was with her mother's brooch. She certainly jumped higher, Jody later reported to Lauren.

Jody joked with Lauren that Dean was her unofficial 'consulting detective' and thanked God that he wasn't as difficult to deal with at Sherlock Holmes. Lauren had turned her serious face on Jody and told her that maybe making it official would be a good thing for Dean. She wouldn't let it go until Jody promised to look into it. Jody grumbled but Lauren had always been her conscience.

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After a week of no contact from Dean, she texted him at dawn. 'Meet?'

An hours later, Dean texted back 'noon at the park.'

Jody agreed and was waiting when Dean exited the park trail at a steady jog and stopped at her squad car in the parking lot.

Jody handed him a check.

"What's this?"

"The reward money for the Pelletier brooch and half of the Ross earrings. I'm claiming the other half since I was the one that crawled under Isabella's porch."

Dean sniggered at her, but pocketed the check.

"Any luck on the ring?"

Dean shook his head. "But I'll keep an eye out."

Considering that their big thief had been a bird, Jody appreciated it. She still didn't know how he had figured it out and tracked down the nest. "Let me know if anything develops."

Dean nodded.

"So you solved everything but the Vdhoeven ring." Jody could appreciate that. "I don't suppose you know anything about the Perkins fire?"

"Perkins?" Dean sounded curious.

"Old house to the East. Kids swear it's haunted. It burned down two days ago." She was just starting her investigation. If Dean had a clue, it would speed things along.

"I smelled it," Dean admitted, "but haven't heard anything."

"That's because you make gossip, you don't hear it," Jody accused.

Dean shrugged. "I gotta get going. Unless you want me to look around."

Jody waved him away. She needed to put some effort into doing her own job. Later, when she was researching the Perkins house (and it would be nice if the arson investigator would give her a firm yes or no) she realized that before the Perkins, the house was owned by the Vdhoevens. They had lost it to pay medical bills in a previous generation. She would dig into that possible connection.

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Jim was trying to ignore Blair. The Guide was reading his e-mail and casting scheming and gleefully mischievous looks Jim's way. He was reading something from Sam and Jim wondered what Dean had done now. Subtle, he was not. Blair or Dean.

"Ask, Sandburg," Jim demanded. "No blind studies or leading questions."

"Are you good at match-making too?"

It was a good thing Jim wasn't drinking or he would have made a fool out of himself. "What?"

"Dean apparently matched up three different couples in the last month. I mean it makes perfect sense, as a protector of the tribe, making sure the tribe is strong is extremely important and the tribe had to be made up of strong families. You know, I now that I think about it, I think it was hinted at in both my German and Japanese texts, but do Sentinels do it by scent, you know pheromones or something else?"

Oh, was Jim going to harass Dean for bringing this shit down on the older Sentinel. "It's a combination," Jim threw his partner a bone.

Sandburg perked up like a hound dog on a scent. "Really? Of what? So you can do it?"

"Well, I haven't. But I know which relationships are going to fail and how fast, from the couple's first meeting, by how much they lie to each other and how attracted they are to each other and why they're attracted. It makes sense that Dean could encourage the couples that are going to make it work for a decade or two. People change enough in that time that there are no certainties. Some change faster."

"You know how long my relationships are going to last?" Blair was aghast.

Jim smugly answered, "I'm not allowed to bet in the pool at work anymore."

"Why don't you say anything when I meet them?"

"One, as long as they're not murderers, it's your business. Two, you're not interested in a long-term relationship now."

Blair wanted to protest, but truly, Jim was correct. "How do you know?"

Jim wasn't sure if he wanted to answer. Blair had asked mostly as a rhetorical question. "There's this… settling in a person's scent when they are open to a serious, long-term relationship. I don't know how to explain it."

Blair's face took on the look of someone about to dive deep into a research project. Jim knew what would be occupying his partner's free time for the next month.

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