Chapter Five – Stealth Mode

Leila quickly shut down the library, stopping to note as she turned off the lights on the fourth floor that it felt distinctly less ominous than it had in previous years. Maybe, just maybe, those guys knew what they were doing. Maybe Johanna was gone after all.

Moving on auto-pilot, her mind in a fog, she locked the library doors, walked across the parking lot to her car, and drove the few blocks to her apartment. Who were those men? How did they know how to get rid of Johanna's ghost? Why did they care? Why did they give her false names? How could she unravel this mystery, find out who they really were? She attempted to stop herself, but her thoughts drifted to Dean's lips. How would they feel against her skin? What could she do to make them curve into a smile meant only for her and no one else? Would they taste as absolutely sinful as they looked?

At home, she only allowed herself a moment to think about what she was doing. Just long enough to get close to talking herself out of it. You're wasting your time. You're just going to see him with tons of beautiful, sexy women, and it's going to remind you of what a loser you are. Don't go out among those people, Leila. You've seen Carrie, they'll probably dump a bucket of pig's blood on you. When she took a moment to realize how stupid that last thought was, she decided to stop thinking, throw on something close enough to what normal people wear that she could at least blend into the crowd, and go find Dean Whatever-his-last-name-is.

She finally found him at the Talon a little after one. He was sitting at the bar, half-covered by a buxom blonde who was obviously drunk off her ass. Leila slid stealthily into a booth in the corner. Years of relentless heckling had forced her to develop the ability to be invisible, so no one spared her a second glance. She was free to observe him, as he flirted with the woman all over him. Like that's even necessary. Don't worry, Dean, I'm almost positive this one's a sure thing. Okay, so he's an incorrigible flirt. That much I could have guessed. But who is he really?

A few minutes after Leila arrived, Dean and his "companion" headed for the door. She casually slid out of her booth and followed them down the street. The blonde was practically yelling every word out of her mouth, she was so plastered. "So, your last name's Winchester? Like the, like, gun?" Leila couldn't hear Dean's reply, but she saw him nod his head clearly enough. Dean Winchester, then. Now we're getting somewhere.

Dean led the ditzy drunk to his car, which was parked in a darkened alley near the bar, and half-poured her into the backseat. Leila considered sticking around to see what happened next, but she figured she could guess where this was going and didn't need to see it for herself. She headed for home, to do a little research.

She quickly found that Dean Winchester had been born in Lawrence, Kansas. His father was John Winchester, and he had a younger brother by the name of Sam. She found all of this from a newspaper article from November of 1983. Apparently, the mother, Mary, had been killed in a house fire. The initial articles intimated that the father might have had something to do with it, but she was unable to find anything else about that, and the fire was officially declared to have been accidental. After a couple of months, all three dropped off the radar. On a whim, she did a general search for Sam Winchester. Stanford University, Poli/Sci/Pre-law. So that's where the little brother is. Sam was 21 and in his third year at Stanford. She figured he must be some smart kid to be at such a good school, and wondered if he was as good-looking as his dad and his brother. Since the other two seemed to be doing a pretty good job staying under the radar, she thought she'd follow up on the Sam lead, and come back later to dig a bit deeper for the other two.

For the rest of the semester, she researched and thanked her lucky stars that this masters degree had been worth something. Leila concentrated on her classes during the week, but spent her nights and weekends following up on leads. She dreamt one night just before getting her degree about the whole Johanna incident, and woke up wondering if this was maybe something that the Winchester duo did for a living. So, she started researching the paranormal again, and found something interesting. A lot of the supernatural incidents that had been going on across the country had suddenly just stopped. Without warning, without any reasonable explanation, had just stopped. It had been happening as far back as she could dig. And she wondered why.

It took awhile, but she finally started to ask herself if maybe there was an explanation, and it just wasn't reported to the major media networks. Started to wonder if maybe it hadn't been people like Dean and John Winchester, doing the dirty work that no one else would have even thought to do. And as good as she was sure the Winchesters must be at their "job," even they couldn't be taking care of all the supernatural incidents going on across the country. There were others out there helping. And if there were others, then maybe they were all connected in some way. Like a network of ghostbusters. That's the way to find him, to get close to him. She had to join the network. Unfortunately, she suspected, it probably wouldn't be quite as easy as going out and getting cell phone service with Verizon.

By now, it was summer. She was done with school, and had gone home to the farm. The animals were all long gone and she had sold off most of the surrounding land when Granny had died, but it would always be a farm to her. The old woman had left everything to Leila, including the house and a sizeable monetary inheritance, so Leila wouldn't have to worry about money for the next decade or so. She elected, then, to spend her time putting together a Plan. Her goal: Snag Dean. It was ridiculous, and she knew perfectly well that it would never happen. But, hell, what did she have to lose? She wanted him. More than wanted, in fact. She needed him. An incredibly sexy man who was a real live hero? It was a no-brainer. She was going to find him, and he was going to fall in love with her. Okay, so maybe this made her a bit of a psycho stalker. Whatever. She was Leila the freak. What more could you expect?

Over the next year, she laid the groundwork, based on her research. She took a two-week trip to Palo Alto in the fall to do a little digging on Sam. She wasn't foolhardy enough to try to get close to Sam himself. If he was going to eventually become her brother-in-law, he couldn't know that she had been stalking his family. But she had found out that he was a member of the Stanford Pre-Law Society, so she went to one of its meetings. Sam wasn't there. But, she discovered, his live-in girlfriend, Jess, was. This was definitely a best-case scenario for Leila. At the end of the meeting, she introduced herself to Jess as Norah, told her she was a new student. It was one time that Leila was glad she could pass for an 18-year-old, even though she had recently turned 25. She and Jess grabbed a cup of coffee together and chatted. Leila skillfully maneuvered the conversation to Sam, claiming that she had never dated before and felt like something of an outcast, but really wanted to change that persona now that she was in college.

"Do you have a boyfriend, Jess?" Leila asked.

The beautiful blonde smiled. "Yeah. I've got an amazing boyfriend. And, don't tell anyone I told you this, but I think he might be planning on proposing soon."

"Really? Oh my gosh, that's awesome! So, what's he like?"

"Well, he's really good-looking. Tall, shaggy brown hair, incredible soulful eyes. And, Norah, he's so smart. I mean, he scored practically off the charts on his LSAT, he can go to any law school he wants. He's incredible."

"Wow, sounds like a real catch. Does he have a brother?" she teased. Wow, Jess, you totally set that one up for me.

"Actually, yeah, he does. His name's Dean. He's way too old for you, though, babe. And I don't think they really get along. Before a few days ago, I had never even met Dean or their dad, John." Leila inhaled sharply at the mention of having met the other Winchesters so recently, but Jess didn't notice. She continued, "Their mother died when Sam was a baby. Between you and me, I think Sam is probably better off without them. I mean, what kind of family are they to just leave Sam all alone out here? This is our last year of college, and I don't think Sam has spoken to either of them even once since he got here. He never told me why. He just doesn't like to talk about his family."

"Wow. That's really sad. But you said you met them a few days ago?"

"Well, I met Dean. It was the strangest thing, Norah. He just showed up at our apartment late at night and told Sam that John was missing. He was on a hunting trip or something and hadn't checked in for awhile, which is, apparently, uncommon. So Sam went off with Dean to look for him."

"A hunting trip? Odd. So Sam's off with Dean right now?" Jesus. So Dean himself was here just a few nights ago. And apparently Jess doesn't know what kind of hunting they do.

"Yeah. He left me a message this morning while I was in class. Said he'd be back tonight. He didn't say if they'd found their dad, but I guess he must have, otherwise he wouldn't be coming back so soon."

"Yeah, I guess so. Well, what did you think of Dean?"

Jess laughed. "Well, he's no Sam, but he's pretty good-looking himself. I only saw him for a few minutes, though, and then they were gone. I think he must be something of a flirt. He totally perved on me, right in front of Sam. Jackass. Anyway, I'm glad Sam's coming back tonight. I've really missed him!"

The women chatted for a few more minutes before Norah excused herself, saying that she needed to get back to her dorm to study.

"We should hang out together again sometime," Jess said. "I'd like you to meet Sam."

"I'd like that," Norah lied. She couldn't meet Sam yet. "I'll see you at next week's meeting?" Even though she knew full well that she'd be back in Alabama by then.

"Sure thing."

The next morning, she read in the newspaper that Jess had been killed in a house fire the night before. Fuck. Poor Sam. She wondered if Dean was still in town, and figured she had better finish up her work in Palo Alto quickly before they managed to run into each other. She was sure he wouldn't remember her from the library haunting almost a year before, but she didn't want to take any chances. So she quickly located Jennifer Donovan, who Jess had said was her best friend, under the pretense of wanting to console her. Jennifer seemed happy enough to meet "Norah," but had no clue where Sam was. She said he had called her the previous night to tell her what had happened and that he just couldn't be in town right now. He was going off with his brother and didn't know when he'd be back. If he'd be back.

Well, this was interesting. So Sam and Dean were back together, and they had either found or were looking for their father. No need doing anymore research on Sam, then. If he was with Dean now, then they were undoubtedly "hunting." She hadn't really had a word for what they did before, but hunting made sense. Thanks for that bit of information, Jess. She really was sad about Jess's death. The girl had been so happy and in love. She wondered what had caused the…house fire? What is it with the Winchesters' women being killed in house fires? Interesting. Maybe the fire that killed Mary Winchester had been more than just an ordinary fire. And maybe the one that killed Jess was, too. She needed to get into the hunters' network. Now. It was the only way to get to the bottom of this, to really find out what made Dean Winchester tick. And once she knew that, she could find a way into his life.