The doctors weren't discouraging so much as guarded. Dean was in rough shape and it could go either way. He should have seen a doctor sometime during the hunt, but Dean, being Dean, hadn't gone and now he was in a bad way. But they were certain that with the right treatment he would recover.
That didn't make Jack feel any better about it. Didn't make him stop twitching every time someone came to Dean's hospital room door. He knew how dangerous this was for Dean. How likely it was that he could be recognized. But all he could do was wait and hope that everyone kept their noses in their jobs and not on his brother's face.
After a few days, the nurses started getting jumpy, especially as Dean became a little more conscious and with it. It wasn't long before uniformed officers came into the room, federal marshals. Complete with their guns and handcuffs.
"We're...uh...we're moving him to a more secure location." The nurse informed Jack, not taking her eyes off the patient. Just in case he jumped out of bed and decided to cause trouble.
"What? Where are you taking him?" Jack asked. "Am I going to be able to go with him?" He didn't like this at all. Not one little bit. This was the one thing he had feared the most with bringing Dean to the hospital. "I don't understand." Better to play stupid at this point. When in doubt always play stupid. Because that was how he felt right about then and he didn't want to screw anything up for Dean. It was screwed up badly enough as it was.
"We're taking Mr. Winchester to another ward in the hospital." The marshal informed Jack coolly. "Then we'll have some questions for you." He handcuffed Dean to the bed and that's when Dean woke up.
"What the hell?" Dean said as he woke up, clearing his mind. He looked from his wrist to the handcuffs to the bedrail. Wonderful. Then he winked at the marshal. "Sorry, you're not my type." He said with a smirk.
"Mr. Winchester, you're under arrest under federal jurisdiction for murder, robbery, evading arrest and the assault of federal agents." The marshal said. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you choose to say can and will be used against you. You have the right to an attorney..."
"Yeah, yeah. I got it." Dean said as he stared at the ceiling. "Jack, how about you see about getting me a lawyer?"
"Mr. Hsiao might be facing charges as well, harboring a fugitive." The marshal said, looking at Jack.
"Sure, that could work. But he didn't know I was a fugitive. He's not much for googling people he knows." Dean said. He tested the handcuffs. They were easy to pick if he had the chance. Then he'd get out and get on the road, he couldn't drag Jack into this whole mess, even if he was innocent.
"Yeah... I'll make sure about the lawyer... what the hell are you talking about? Fugitive? Dean, don't say another word until that lawyer gets here, you understand me .. not one smart assed word." He knew his brother. "I'll call Ben and get him on it now. Sounds like we are both going to need one." He wasn't under arrest. There was no restrictions on his communications as yet.
He opened up the cell phone and hit speed dial waiting for Ben to answer. If this lawyer route didn't go well then ... well... there was always a fiery exit from the jurisdiction. God, Ben was going to kill him.
"What's up Jack?" Ben said, answering the phone. He had everyone who called him regularly assigned to a specific ring tone. So he knew it was Jack calling, or at least Jack's cell phone.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be a good boy." Dean said as he laid back against the pillow as his bed was wheeled out, flanked by marshals.
"We have one hell of a big problem. Dean is being wheeled out of here handcuffed to his bed. And they think he is some sort of fugitive...and that I have been harboring him. I think we both need a lawyer before this whole questioning process gets started. Do you think you can arrange that for us? " He was freaked and it showed in his voice.
"What? Jack, calm down. Take a deep breath." Ben said as he took one himself. "Great, fucking great. All right, all right. I'll get you guys a lawyer. Your brother really owes me. Okay, don't do anything. Don't go anywhere, don't say anything. Grab a soda, wait in the waiting area and keep your mouth shut. Do not say anything to anyone other than 'I'm fine' and 'my lawyer is coming' until the lawyer and I get there."
"Yes sir." He said. "I'll be waiting." He then hung up the phone. "I would like to go to at least the waiting room by where you are keeping my brother. Our attorney is on her way. " He said politely as he put away the cell phone. There was no way this could turn out good. But Ben would come through for him. He had absolute faith in Ben. Dean wasn't going to die in the electric chair, by lethal injection or gas chamber. Not while Jack had any hope of anything to say about it.
The officer led Jack to the waiting area. They'd invoked the right to have a lawyer so all questioning would have to wait.
Ben hung up the phone and shook his head. "Wonderful." He said and slid through flame to Regan Bruner's office. He knew her, and she was on the up and up of what was really out there. Which was what Dean needed, and by proxy Jack. "Regan. Long time. We need to talk." Ben said. He wasn't really one for small talk.
Regan closed her file and leaned back in her seat, looking Ben over. "And this isn't a social call." Ben wouldn't have shown up in her office in a blaze if it were a social call. A lawyer and a demon went into a bar... there was a joke there somewhere. "So what's going on?"
Ben chuckled a bit as he sat down. "First thing, I assure you I'm not drunk and this isn't a joke." He said. "Okay, Jack, you remember Jack? Well, he met up with his long lost brothers finally. One disappeared shortly after, but that's not important. The one that stuck around, Dean, well, he's in trouble. Apparently St Louis thinks he murdered a few people. Normally I'd say let him fry, but it wasn't him. Shape shifter. So he was on the run, as most wrongly accused are...I think there was a good movie about that a while back. Anyway, then he and his brother, the one that disappeared, got involved in a bank hold up, again, another shape shifter. This one he did kill, but it was a shape shifter. From what I understand, nailed him in the jewels too. For a man, that is a killable offense, all things being equal. So the feds wanted him after that...things went well. Stayed off the radar, until he got sick. My fault, I made Jack take him to the hospital before his brain fried and he died. The feds caught up with him, and are holding him in the lock down ward. Accusing Jack of harboring a fugitive, which, all right, he was. But that's besides the point. So, have any coffee?"
Regan raised an eyebrow and cocked her head a little. "Sure." She said and pressed a button on the intercom and asked her secretary to bring in two coffees and to get a few things set in motion and a local judge she knew very well on the phone. She wanted to make sure they didn't change venues on her, this was now a federal case, they had a perfectly good federal judge locally. "You know you couldn't say this to any other lawyer. That knowledge doesn't come cheap. We go a long way back, but not that far. He screws up once and my credibility goes down the drain. "
"I'll be honest. Dean Winchester is an arrogant, cocky son of a bitch. On top of that, he's a freaking hunter. But..." Ben sighed, "he's Jack's brother. And Jack's attached to him. Did a nice job on my oil change too. But in this instance, he's innocent. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong shape shifter. And if Dean's ever going to fry, I'll be the one to do it, not some judge some place."
"Well, I will be honest, this is a dangerous case to take. Too many things can be blown open wide. I will take the case for now. Meet with him. I will remain Jack's lawyer regardless, if it comes to the point where I feel it's getting too dicey, I'll claim conflict of interest and arrange for Dean to have another attorney not on the state payroll. I won't go down with the ship, Ben, not even for you. Is it at all feasible to claim that Jack and you knew nothing of the federal warrants on Dean?" She said as she pulled up the computer and started to search things out for herself.
"Very feasible." Ben said. "I didn't know until three months later. Jack, he might have known, but I know him. He'll lie for his brother. Dean's had a life of forging different identities. It wouldn't be hard for him to fool anyone if he wanted to. And I'll be an excellent character witness. Because I don't like him all that much to tell the truth. I'll admit that under oath, along with the fact that I don't believe he'd kill a human being. Or even demons that didn't deserve it."
"You must care a great deal for your son to go through all of this for him." She said. Regan wasn't a sentimental woman. Not for a very long time. But she knew how the wind blew in that family. They could call it what ever they wanted, Ben was Jack's father in all ways that mattered. "So we will use that line of defense for your boy, Dean, I will see what I can do but I won't be able to promise any miracles if he was set up that solidly. " She looked up as the secretary came in with two coffees and a stack of legal documents for Regan to go over.
"Thank you, Carin. Just one moment." She looked them over and signed on the appropriate lines. "Run this over to Judge Haraman's office, I will call him to let him know you are on the way. Stay until he signs them, then bring them back here ASAP. No time for errands or speeding tickets, got that? Get there and get back." She handed them over to her and watched her leave the room. Regan knew the water cooler talk. They were currently saying the chick in Devil Wears Prada had it easy compared to them, but that was good. Regan dealt with a lot of powerful people, and generally held their lives in her hands. She didn't have time to be nice or well thought of and she had even less time to coddle employees who would rather be working an easier job.
Ben accepted the coffee and watched her walk out. "After you break her and she quits, send her over to my place." He said with a grin. He knew her reputation with her employees. And he also had a good eye for who would be a good stripper. "I'll tell Dean he can be upfront with you. Should make your job easier. I do appreciate this. But, at least you know my check won't bounce." She didn't come cheap, that was for sure. Thankfully, he had money put away for rainy days, or however the saying went.
"I have hopes that one won't break. But I'll let her know when she starts thinking she is going to that I can give her a referral. That could lead to a lot of legal issues in and of itself. " She opened a drawer and pulled a document out of a file "Okay, this is so that I am on retainer. " She said and marked off where Ben was to sign. Included was a detailed list of her going rates and the exceptions to those going rates.
Ben read it over and signed. Money wasn't an issue with him, Dean was lucky on that aspect. "He's at Memorial Hospital. Jack's in the waiting room. I told them both to shut their mouths until you got there." Ben said. "Hopefully Dean listened, or he drifted back into unconsciousness. He's, well, he's pretty sick."
"Hmm.. Here's hoping he doesn't talk in his sleep. Something to prepare for. If he does I am sure there is a way to make it all inadmissible." There was a knock at the door and Regan smiled. "Come in."
"Here you are. He said that you owe him one, because this is a no win case." Carin said, looking winded, as though she had run the entire way.
"Well, we'll see about that." Regan said as she rose and collected the documents in hand, giving the secretary the copies. " Get started on the research. I don't want to be blind sided by anything. I want to know all there to be found about Dean Winchester. " She looked at Ben. "Shall we go? Or are you not coming with me?"
"I'm going. Told Jack I would." Ben said. "And Dean only talks when Jack's in the room, he sounds like their father. Which is why I told Jack to stay in the waiting room. Besides, when he talks in his sleep, it's due to fever. Any doctor will tell you it's mostly crazy talk, unless you're Dean." He said with a chuckle. Though Dean hadn't given away any secrets detrimental to himself. Except for a serious case of low self esteem. "I suppose you want to drive?" Since he hadn't gotten here by car.
"Ben, I always drive." She said as she led the way out. Regan Bruner was a control freak. Control of herself, her environment and those directly around her was a way of life for her. Had been for most of her life, not merely her adult life. She was demanding, domineering and had a tolerance level in the negative numbers for any deviation from her chosen course.
She entered the waiting room and looked around. "Who would be the senior agent here?" She asked, without bothering to introduce herself yet. There could be no doubt that she was the brothers' lawyer to anyone with a clue.
"That would be me." A black man wearing the standard issue FBI windbreaker said. "Now don't even start. We got Dean Winchester dead to rights. And I'm going to look forward to throwing the switch myself. His brother here," the one he unfortunately didn't even know about, "we'll let him off. Winchester is a master conman, the worst monster you can ever dream of. And no amount of lawyering is going to get him off this time."
"Well, that is for the jury to decide, not you." She said and handed him a set of papers. "This is an order from a federal judge prohibiting extradition from the local area. I don't want anyone anywhere near my client without me present that isn't a relative or one of his medical staff. If I find at any time that one of your special agents has passed himself off as so much as a janitor to get past that, I'll have you pulled back to Langley so fast the concord couldn't beat you there. Am I understood?"
"Ma'am, we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot." He said. "I'm Special Agent Hendrickson. We won't fight extradition. Could be even better here, seeing as Texas has a nice express lane for executions and all. Now how'd you get roped into this case? Lose a bet? Your client is a high flight risk. Guards will be kept on him at all times."
"He can't even get out of bed." Ben said, sitting next to Jack.
"So he says." The special agent shot back.
"You seem to have two of them Agent Hendrickson, wrong feet that is. My client is entitled to his privacy and private conversations with me and my staff. I assume you moved him here because this is a more secure location, and he is hand cuffed to a bed, as is standard operational procedure. Your guards may stand watch outside the door, and how ever many you want to waste man hours on can stand below the windows and look up to make sure he doesn't miraculously sprout wings. Dean Winchester has not been convicted of anything. He is a suspect. He still has the basic rights that you will not be violating in the interest of security."
Agent Hendrickson laughed a bit. "I assume you want to meet with your client?" He said, stepping aside. "Be my guest. I'll clear the room for you. We'll discuss security later, because Dean Winchester is a very, very dangerous man. Most likely crazy, along sociopath lines I'd say."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you had a degree in psychology." She said in what could be an almost conversational tone. "Now you did say you were pressing no charges against Mr. Hsiao? As in there will be no record of them? Or are you holding that one in reserve for later ?"
"We'll hold that one in reserve." Hendrickson said. "Course it's up the US Attorney." But he knew Dean would roll for Sam. He might even roll for Jack. That would be something to consider. "He's in room 107."
"Fine, I will be looking to have those charges dismissed completely once I am through interviewing both of my clients. No speaking with Mr. Hsiao until I am present. Even if you aren't charging him at the moment. Have a good day, Agent Hendrickson." She said as she strode toward room 107. She just looked at the guards for a moment until they parted and she entered the room. "You can leave. I need to speak to my client in privacy." She told those inside the room. The number of guards was ludicrous. For anyone much less a man barely out of intensive care.
The guards looked at each other, but did leave. They'd loiter outside the room. Dean looked at the new lawyer. "You're a lot prettier than the last lawyer I had." He said with a bit of a smile. He, right now, wasn't a danger to anyone. They'd shackled him to the bed by both hands and both feet. "Would it cost Ben extra if you scratched my nose?" He asked. But damn it itched. Hadn't started itching until they cuffed him actually. Go figure.
She gave him a look then sat down and pulled out a pad, having to think about it for a moment before finally reaching up to scratch the man's nose. She made a note to get those restraints fixed. It was over kill. "I'm Regan Bruner. Ben and I are old friends so you can be completely honest with me since he flamed into my office and laid down a heavy duty retainer for me to defend you. "
"Oh thank you." Dean said. "So the flamer does like me deep down. I always knew it." He said. "Okay, where to start? It's a long long story. Let's see, St Louis? Wasn't me. My brother and I were investigating a murder for a friend of his. Got knocked out, next thing I know, a shape shifter is wearing my skin and trying to kill Sam's friend. Course, then I got all the other murders pinned on me. I shot him dead. Even had a quickie funeral from what I hear. Then, we were investigating another case in Baltimore, and got ourselves caught. They tried to pin that one on me too. But, wasn't me. Was a perfectly human monster. Diana Ballard with Baltimore PD might be willing to tell you more on that one. Then we were on the trail of yet another shape shifter, and got caught in a bank hold up done by a complete amateur. The feds killed him, by the way. That's when Hendrickson and I became such close friends."
She shook her head, this was not going to be good. "Okay, anything else they could pull up against you?" She asked. This was one huge mine field and she was going to get a real work out trying to get him off. Too bad, he was genuinely innocent. She normally didn't want to know. Made it easier on what was left of her conscience either way.
"Um...grave desecration, breaking and entering, credit card fraud..." Dean said. "If you give me a bobby pin, I'll get out of these cuffs and out of everyone's hair. I never wanted to bring this down on Jack." He might not make it out the door, and it had nothing to do with the federal agents, but he'd give it a good try.
"They aren't pressing charges against Jack at the moment. Holding that in reserve. But whatever they tell you, don't believe it. I can get him off without doing much more than paper work. He isn't your concern. You are. You are looking at the death penalty. Worst that Jack would get if I were to utterly ignore his case would be a slap on the wrist and probation. Are we clear on this?"
"We're clear." Dean said tiredly and closed his eyes for the moment. He was trying to stay awake, he really was. "And I know what I'm facing. Guess I have to do whatever you tell me to do." Not like he had any other way out of this, shackled by all fours in a guarded room.
"Glad to hear it. For now you keep your mouth shut. You didn't do anything. You are the wounded innocent party on the run because you don't want to die by lethal injection. Don't care what you have said in the past or who you are talking to at the time. Nothing that can be construed as a confession. No sarcasm, no flirting, no antagonism. Get into the mindset of the quintessential innocent man. That's your new role. Learn it well. For now when they come in to question you... say nothing. If they get too pushy, close your eyes and pretend to pass out."
"Oh, there's usually no pretending about it." Dean said. "If I could stay awake for long periods of time, they probably would have released me before the feds caught up with me. Think they really need to keep me all trussed up? You know, in case I have to, well, take a leak."
"I was planning on speaking to them about that. Apparently they are intimidated by you, even in your current state. " She said with a smirk as she rose. "I will be back in with them in a moment. " She said and stepped out into the corridor, fully expecting to find Hendrickson waiting, since he was forbidden to speak to Jack. "Don't bother getting comfortable in there. You won't be in there long." She told the guards.
"Okay, you've spoken to him. Are we ready for the questioning?' Hendrickson said. He'd barely refrained from listening in somehow, because that was forbidden. Legally speaking any way. "We have to do it. You know it, I know it. Let's just get this over with." He nodded for the guards to go back in. "The guards stay, twenty four seven except for when he's with his lawyer. You're not getting around that."
"Then you can remove some of the restraints. He is barely conscious most of the time, and they make much more humane shackles these days. " Regan said. "You will refrain from overexerting him for the time being. He is still quite ill. No matter how convinced you are of his guilt, he isn't a convicted felon yet. Only so far you can bend his rights without reprisals. When I say it's done, it's done. If you have enough evidence to be here in the first place you shouldn't need to spend too long interrogating him in the first place."
He smirked at the lawyer and came in. "Mr. Winchester, what hand do you write with?" He said.
"My right." Dean said. And Hendrickson uncuffed his left hand and his right ankle. "Agent Hendrickson." He said with a nod and rolled his left wrist.
"You killed those girls in St Louis."
"No I didn't."
"You killed two people in Baltimore. And somehow got off."
"Nope."
"You escaped from police custody on numerous occasions."
"You should have better coffee."
Agent Hendrickson kicked the end of the bed, jarring Dean and he started to turn green. He took deep breaths so he wouldn't throw up.
"You think this is a joke? I'm going to fry your ass, Winchester."
"Actually, I think I'm going to puke."
"Actually I think this conversation will end and you will find yourself banned from any future contact with my client or this case if you ever pull another bone headed stunt like that again, Agent Hendrickson. It still counts as physical contact. Sit down and ask your questions." It paid to have relatives in congress, an uncle on the supreme court and an old college friend with connections at Langley. Regan knew when to play nice. And it wasn't with a lowly special agent. "Or you can leave."
Hendrickson glared at Regan and sat down. "Moving on." He said.
"No, seriously, I'm going to puke." Dean said and managed to get the basin in time. Amazingly enough. He retched into it before slumping back on the bed. Still dry heaves, still nothing in his stomach.
"That's quite a performance." Hendrickson said and clapped. "You can puke all the way to the gas chamber."
"You know what, dude? I've been poked, prodded, invaded, x-rayed, CAT scanned, and questioned by nicer people than you all day today. Not to mention some of this IV shit burns. The move here wasn't all that gentle either. You also scared the crap out of my kid brother. So not up to talking to you right now." He said and closed his eyes.
"We're going to have this conversation." Hendrickson said.
"Do you think my client would stay in a hospital where he could be recognized if he didn't need to be here? Have you spoken with his doctor about his condition? Of course not. " Regan said. "Now if my client isn't up to continuing right now, you have no one to blame but yourself. So, I think we are done here." She rose. "The next time you come in here, try and leave the Cro-Magon act out side. You can schedule an appointment with my secretary. " She looked at the guards. "Any of you start asking questions, I'll have your jobs faster than John Wayne here can kick."
"We'll be back in the morning." Hendrickson promised. But Dean was honestly asleep before he even got out of the chair. He nodded at the guards that were to remain behind. "Don't talk to him at all. About anything. Rotate out every two hours so he doesn't get familiar with any of you. And search his bed for anything he can use as a lock pick or a weapon."
"No can do. I have appointments until lunch. Soonest I can be here is 1pm. You're welcome to wait in the waiting room. Now, do we need to schedule an interview with Mr. Hsiao or are we done with that for now?" She said. It was true. She wasn't being difficult about her schedule. Truth was she would have to bump two clients to be here at one. But she liked to yank the man's chain. He was too gung ho about seeing her client dead.
"Doubtful he'll give us anything." Hendrickson scoffed. "I do want permission to talk to his doctors, see just how unstable he is. Because the moment the docs give the okay, I want him in a maximum security facility, even if it's in the hospital ward." Preferably in solitary confinement. Winchester liked an audience, it would be good to deprive him of one.
"He is under arrest, the doctors will automatically tell you when he can be transferred. The rest of it isn't really your concern. The doctors look pretty skittish around here. I don't think they want him here anymore than you do. " She said. She wasn't about to hand over rights to Dean's personal medical records. "Once transferred that is up to how the penal system handles things." Not that she wouldn't be keeping notes. "So are you saying you aren't going to be interrogating him tomorrow because I have clients I am shuffling just to be here then, if you aren't really going to question him, I can get on about my business."
"I tried interrogating him. He's being difficult. No, tomorrow I'm going to talk to the US attorney about getting an arraignment scheduled. We can do it by closed circuit television if he doesn't feel up to being there." Hendrickson said, snarkily. "But the sooner he's off the streets, the easier I'll sleep at night."
"No, you can wait until he can be there in person, because I will need to be with my client while this happens. I will fight that one all the way. He is off the streets. I am not fighting the incarceration, but undue stress at this point isn't good for my client's health. So maybe you should take a deep breath, lay off the coffee, and take in the beach. With all due respect you are too involved here. You want it too bad, and that ... borders on making you one of the bad guys Mr. Hendrickson. Then again... it works in my favor."
"Careful lady." Hendrickson said. "Careful around Winchester. He's a master manipulator. And he's dangerous." He said and walked out. Ben came over.
"Looks that bad, huh?" He observed.
"Worse." She said as she started walking. "Your boy is off the hook. For now. They are holding it in reserve, which means they will try and use it against Dean. I told him to ignore them because honestly they don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of making anything stick on the kid. But I don't know how much I can do for Dean other than give him one hell of a ride along the way."
"Then give him the ride, Regan." Ben said with a sigh. "If nothing else, before they throw the switch, maybe he'll get to see the missing brother." That's probably what it would take. Now how was he going to explain this to Jack? It was his idea to bring him to the hospital. Sure, without it, he would have been dead a week ago. But still.
"Don't worry. I don't give in easy. Besides, Hendrickson is an arrogant son of a bitch. I'm not going to give him an inch. Maybe I can get the kid to plead insanity. Get him a cushy mental hospital gig he can recover from later on."
"I told you you'd enjoy this." Ben said with a grin. "You can nearly smell his blood in the water, can't you?" He knew that if Dean went down, she'd have a grand old time bringing Hendrickson down with him. Just because it would make the whole thing worth her while. "Just do what you can."
"What can I say? There is a reason I'm not married." Regan couldn't abide a weak man, and a strong one was too much competition, and her competition didn't fare well in life. "Be careful, get your ducks in a row with Jack, what ever story you have going about why you raised him make it neat and tight because you don't want to give that man anything to dig at as far as Jack is concerned. Mean while I am going to dig up everything I can on Hendrickson. He wants it too badly. There is something going on under the surface there."
"That's going to be the kicker." Ben said. rubbing the back of his neck. "Look at me, Regan. I haven't discernibly aged the whole time you've known me. Haven't really aged since the day I met my wife, and that was long before even your grandparents were born. Jack's nearing twenty one now. I could possibly, maybe, pull off forty. Damn, I gotta be the only person on the planet old enough to drink who wants to look older."
"Well, then we will just have to hope he doesn't dig too deeply. At least he isn't a minor any longer. I think he will be too interested in Dean and dodging me to do too much damage. " Regan said as she got into her car. "Ben... word of advice... don't tell the kid there isn't any hope. Won't do either of them any good."
"I'll be as optimistic as I can be." Ben said as he shut her car door for her. "Keep me in the loop." He said with a sigh as he went back to Jack. "Okay, you're off the hook. And by the way, we're half brothers. Dad married a trophy wife after my mother died, then he died of a heart attack, your mom was THAT good in the sack, then she died. You can make up that reason. I'm older, so I took you to save you from foster care or something. Sound good?" They'd never really planned out the lie. They usually just winged it. Now, they couldn't.
"Step brothers. They know I am Dean's brother... unless you wanna be another closet Winchester but I just can't see it." He pointed out while laughing nervously. "Step brothers is fine, since my mother's family disowned her, there wasn't anyone else. We were always close. " He ran his hand through his dark hair. "This is all my fault. I should have gone to check on him sooner. Hell I should have pinned him down and not let him go on the damned ghost hunt in the first place. Then he wouldn't have gotten that sick in the first place."
"No, chances are he still would have gotten that sick." Ben said. "Because we both refused to bring him to the hospital until it was unavoidable. This isn't your fault. You know that Dean fights dirty, you wouldn't have been able to hold him down."
"He trusted me not to take him to a hospital. He trusted me to look after him. To not put him in this position. " Jack said as he began to pace. "They take him to trial and they'll kill him for things he didn't do. " He ran his hand through his hair. "I shouldn't have made him stay put. I talked him into staying around here. "
Ben stood in front of Jack and put his hands on the younger man's shoulders. Making him stop. "Stop it." He said. "You heard the doctor, if he hadn't come in, he would have died. And if he left before the antibiotics and shit were done, he would have died. Yeah, he's in a bad spot right now, but he's alive. He's alive Jack, and I got the best lawyer on retainer."
"And what if that lawyer isn't good enough. My god... I know that this is all some mixed up messed up crap that has been following him around since before I came into the picture, but it's not his doing. He was out there trying to be one of the good guys... he isn't like the others. Not really. He doesn't deserve this. "
"And worse case scenario we get him to cop insanity, and he gets a nice cushy stint in a psych hospital." Ben said. "We're handling this, Jack. Now I need you to handle this too. I need you to stay focused on sticking with the plan, okay? In spite of the cocky bastard that he is, he's got some good will with people in town. Will play well with a jury."
"What plan is that? Sitting back and watching the show? Cause I don't see what else I can do at this point other than freak out quietly and wait to lose another family member I can't do anything about."
"Pretty much." Ben said. He knew all about Jack's anxiety about any sort of separation. "Then, if he gets death, we all go to an island with no extradition treaty." He said. "Nice and warm, hot even. Probably lots of ghost legends for him to chase down. Work on our tans, open a tourist trap..."
"You really willing to do that?" He asked, not sure such a place existed any more but it was a nice thought. "The thought of Kaylie in a bikini every day of the year is a nice image... but there is only so much I can ask you to do."
"Okay, let's look at it from another perspective. I have at most twenty years left here. Can't pass for sixty, sorry." Ben said. "So, yeah, I leave the club behind, and the friends I've made...but I'm going to outlive them anyway. And most likely leave them all behind anyway. Trade that for a nice equatorial island where there are days I don't have to turn on the heat? Easy, easy choice."
Jack smiled a little at that. "Okay. But I am not breaking it to Kaylie just yet. Then again... I don't know how to break it to her about Dean. She will kill him herself if she finds out I was almost arrested. "
"Well, then, we won't have to wait for the jury, will we?" Ben said with a chuckle. "He's tied down right now, just by one ankle and one hand, but I think right now Kaylie stands a good chance at kicking his ass. Should I bring the popcorn, or are you grabbing it?"
"Tied down?" Jack exclaimed. "A half drowned runt kitten could have kicked his ass this morning. What the hell is he tied down for?" He shook his head. " God this just gets crazier all the time. No popcorn, the fight wouldn't last long enough for the butter to filter all the way though."
"Apparently the highly trained, heavily armed federal agents are afraid of him." Ben said. And that amused him. Highly. "Shame too, I would have liked to see him get his ass kicked by a girl half his size. I would have videotaped it for posterity. And later bribery."
"Dean is lucky your good intentions where he is concerned are based upon me and not him. " Jack said with a laugh. Ben and Dean had an amused tolerance of one another. Jack was comfortable with that.
"Yeah, you remind him how lucky he is too." Ben said with a chuckle. "He's out, right now, let's go grab something to eat and we'll think up something to tell Kaylie when she comes to visit him tonight." Because that's usually where she found Jack.
"Yeah, okay. I guess they have people in with him all the time now anyway. Not like we could really talk even if he were awake and I am too full of questions right now." Jack admitted. "Although I don't know that I am gonna be able to eat right now. How about a beer instead?"
"I was just offering to eat for your benefit." Ben said with a laugh. "I don't need to. But beer, I'm always ready for a beer. Come on, Dean is fine right now. They're under orders to not even talk to him."
"Oh god... I almost feel sorry for the guards during his lucid moments. You don't think he will talk in his sleep, do you? Never mind. He would just go on about how he failed Sammy, so it should be fine."
"Besides, anything said under that high a fever with all the drugs he's on...no one in their right mind would take it seriously." Ben said and chuckled. "Hysterical, when you think about it, he's only being completely and totally honest about everything."
Sam turned another page and blinked to clear his eyes. He had been reading since early that morning and was starting to get a head ache. "So... where are we off to this time?" He asked the priest, reaching for the ibuprophen bottle.
"Boston." Father Pavel said. "A poor old woman possessed. And a Bruins game. Do you follow hockey, Sam?" He asked, nearly hopefully. "Hockey was big for boys when I was a child. The Soviet scouts would spy on the ice rinks, looking for talent to develop. Alas, I am a much better spectator than I ever was a player. I prefer the college hockey to your professional hockey. Less ego, more play."
Sam laughed. "No, I was never a sports fan really. I was always the pudgy kid with the book fixation." He said honestly. "Didn't out grow pudgy until I started training more to hunt. I sucked at them so I made a huge show of hating them. I think it was mostly to drive my father and brother insane because they were both HUGE baseball fans. It was pretty scary."
Father Pavel chuckled. Sam had certainly outgrown the pudgy part at least. "Baseball, I do not understand it. Or basketball or American football. But I grew up in a far different time in a far different land. Hockey, now there is a macho sport. I read a t shirt at a game once that said 'give blood, play hockey.' I thought it was...appropriate. So I will take you to a hockey game. Because I like the company. People look strangely at an old priest shouting at the top of his lungs."
Sam laughed then. "Sounds fun. I never understood baseball at all either. Hitting a ball and running in circles." He shrugged. "Football I understand just never got into. Basketball, is a large scale keep away game but one on one can be fun. Dean and I played every so often. Then I out grew him."
Father Pavel chuckled. He could imagine Sam's poor brother. He himself came up to maybe Sam's chest. But he was an aged hunched over man, who came from rather short stock come to think of it. Not the usual image of a Russian, people imagined the wrestlers or the Cossacks. "Then we will go. It cannot be all about our work, all of the time. A lightening of the spirit is always called for. Nothing like watching grown men attack each other with crooked sticks while fighting over a piece of plastic."
"Oh yeah, cause that makes so much more sense than hitting a ball and running around in circles." Sam said laughing then. He was still feeling good after his last encounter with the demon. Still feeling good that there was no longer any evidence anywhere against him or his brother. It was a fresh start. He hoped it was one that Dean didn't undo with his usual lack of concern for his own well being. He didn't understand how that had happened along the way. True, to the outside onlooker it might have appeared that John had raised Dean that way, but really he hadn't. He had loved and protected Dean as much as he could, As much as Sam easily, and in something's he devoted more of himself to Dean, as though he were trying to make up for something. Sam supposed he knew what that was now.
"Yes. Because they are skating in a circle. Much harder than running on foot. Or shoes with spikes, whatever they wear." Father Pavel said. "Come, we can read more on the plane. You look sick of it anyway."
"Yeah, getting a headache." He said as he put the books away and rose to follow the priest. "So with this being an informal catechism... will the church recognize it?"
Father Pavel cast him an amused look. "You believe the Holy Father granted me the authority to cast out demons but not baptize?" He said with a smile. "Any ordained priest can perform the rites of sacrament. In some parishes, I act as a guest father confessor. I am specialized, it is true, but I am a priest. Educated, ordained and trained much in the manner as every other priest for several years."
Sam blushed then. "Ah... well... no... it's just I didn't know if it was one of those things that was... you know...very formalized and maybe needed tracked or something. Especially with ... you know... my heritage."
"Oh it's tracked. I will submit a form saying that Samuel Winchester received the sacrament of baptism, and so on and so forth." Father Pavel assured him. "It's all official. There is just no need for a big ceremony and large classes if you can avoid it. It's hard to learn in a group anyway. Far too many distractions."
"Yeah, there is that. At least in a class where conversation is encouraged." He said with a smile. "What made you want to become an exorcist anyway?"
"I was chosen." Father Pavel said as they made themselves comfortable in the plane. "We graduated seminary, like all priests. And we were given our assignments after our ordination. I was chosen to shadow an exorcist across Eastern Europe. Secretly, as communism still had its iron clad grip on it. He trained me, and during an unfortunate exorcism, he died in the middle of it. In the middle of a prayer. I took over, and I was luckily successful. I then returned to Rome, and was appointed formally as an exorcist. Most priests are trained in the ways of the ritual. Did you know Pope John Paul II performed three exorcisms...while pope? That question may be on Jeopardy, one never knows. My mother decided I should be a priest, the Church decided I should be an exorcist, but that's what the priesthood is all about. Giving yourself over to the ways and means of God. It's hard, sometimes. I wonder what kind of carpenter I would have made sometimes."
"Yeah. I still have day dreams about senior partner in a law firm somewhere." He chuckled. "But a hunter is what I am. Even if specialized these days. Besides... I'd have to cut my hair." He said with a faint smile.
"It is not a bad life." Father Pavel said. "Community service, however that service takes shape, was one of Christ's primary wishes for his followers. Giving more of yourself than you are taking, it's what everyone should try to attain. Imagine the world then!"
"Unfortunately for hunters out there.. the ones with their heads and hearts on straight... they give and give and the world just keeps on taking. Eventually there is nothing but a hollow husk left. Probably why there are so many out there with about as much compassion as a hungry alligator."
"Is that what you fear is in store for you and your brother?" Father Pavel asked. "That there will be nothing left but a hollow husk, following his natural predator instincts?"
"Dean? Never happen. He has always seen it as helping people. Saw our father as a hero. Not like most kids think of their dad, but a real honest to God hero. It's always going to be about helping people to Dean. Me... yeah... I do. Always did fear that really. Resented it too much growing up. It's why I got out."
"And you travel the path of exorcism, where the very cost of it is a little bit of your soul each time." Father Pavel said. "I suppose we can never fully escape the way we were raised."
"I'm losing my soul a little bit at a time anyway. Might as well lose it for a good cause." Sam said pragmatically. He supposed that lessened the sacrifice, but it was how things were. He was going where he was going and that was how things were.
"You are a lot braver than you give yourself credit for." Father Pavel said. He was, even if he felt himself somehow in the shadow of his hero father and big brother.
"That's what they tell me." Sam said.
The bear stirred. "I didn't expect to see you again so soon, boy." She said, gently curling herself around Dean in the recesses of his mind, providing comfort this time, more than physical healing. This time there was no one there to ease the internal hurts, and that was far more important. She was worried about her cub. That was how she saw him, her cub, because he had come to her so young. So very young. Perhaps that was why she used his mother's voice. Or perhaps it was because it was the voice that still soothed him.
"Yeah, well, I didn't expect to be back so soon." He said with a sigh. "Everything's messed up. And right now, I can't fix it. I can't fix any of it. Got a couple of other people dragged down in the whole thing too. Sam took off, can't find him. Not even a trace of him. I taught him too good." He looked at the bear. "The death bear you mentioned, seems like a lifetime ago...wasn't in the form of a chair or a table was it?" He was thinking of his possible execution. Forefront in his mind. How could it not be? He was shackled with armed guards just waiting for him to twitch wrong.
"No...but he is waiting. You will face him many times in your life, he has been chasing you for a very long time, almost having you in his clasp to lose you. Your brother is not lost to you, young one. " She said. "Your quest came so early on in your life... and your brother's was delayed almost too long. He is finding his way. You will be together again. "
"I'd like to believe that. I just don't know how much more I can take." He said. "Not, me. My body. I'm not even thirty yet and I've been pulled back from the dead three times. Just got out of the ICU for the flu. I don't know how much more I can take before the body just...gives out. Like a car that's been driven too hard for too long."
"You will keep going. For as long as there is need." She promised him. "Then I will introduce you to my friend the owl. But that is not today. Things will change for you... so many things will change but you will remain." She soothed "You will see your brothers' lives come to their fruition. Your name will be remembered for generations amongst your people. " Which to her meant the hunters. "You have done and will do great things. But this is the place... the time... where all things change once more. The second of three such turning points in your life. "
"I like chaos, I don't like change." He mused. "Last time I had to make the choice on whether to accept this path. This another choice on whether to continue on it? The answer to that is hell yeah. As long as Sammy's out there, and no one knows what's happening to him...I gotta find him. I need my family to be as whole as it possibly can be." And he was stuck in this bed under arrest. That thought alone got him all worked up again. "I can't just lay here! It's like I'm not doing anything I'm supposed to be doing."
"No this isn't another choice. The choice you made was to set you on your life's path. But that path is not to one destination, but many. You are where you are supposed to be. Even though it seems counter to all that you seek. This is where you need to be. If not, then everything is lost."
"Great." Dean said and sat back down in his mind. "So what am I supposed to do? I don't know what to do. Everything on the outside world is foggy, and everything here is like a storm waiting to break out."
"Enjoy the peace when it comes. You are about to enter the eye of the storm. Even though it may seem that it's raging all around you it is calming. This is where you need to be. Just wait... live... breathe... recover. Because you will need all the strength you have when the battle comes, and it will come to you."
Dean nodded and laid back. "Got it. God, I need to readjust my life if this is what counts as a vacation." He said, with an honest laugh that time.
Sam was in good spirits. The exorcism had taken several days, but he was getting used to that. The game though, that had been great fun. There was nothing quite like watching the priest get excited. It wasn't that it was amusing, well, it was. It was more that their lives were so tightly woven around their work and Sam's studies that it was a rare moment when they both got to just let go and enjoy something so purely. With out thoughts of demons or rituals, or the evil that stalked the world.
They were still laughing and talking about the game when they entered the motel room. "This was a lot of fun." He said, having no idea what his brother was going through in Texas.
"I knew you would enjoy hockey. Or at least the crowd." Father Pavel said with a laugh as he hung up his coat. "Such lust for life. All over a simple game. Well, perhaps not that simple." He said with a chuckle, remembering his own fledgling hockey days. It hadn't seemed so simple a game then. He turned on the television, he liked to keep up with current events, it was so easy to lose track of time in an exorcism.
"And in breaking news, we take you to our Crime and Punishment correspondent." A pretty news anchor said. Then the screen flashed to a grim looking man.
"We've been informed by the FBI tonight that there is now a vacancy in their most wanted list." He said, and it switched to a graphic feed of the press conference.
"We apprehended one Dean Winchester a few days ago in a hospital in Corpus Christi. We are preparing for his trial currently. Mr. Winchester has plead not guilty to murder, attempted robbery, escape from custody and unlawful imprisonment. He's currently being held in a federal maximum security facility, in the hospital ward, for a condition unrelated to the charges or his arrest. We expect him to make a complete recovery so that a speedy, but fair trial can get underway. I'm sorry, no questions." The director of the FBI said.
"And there you have it. America can sleep a little better tonight, knowing there is one dangerous criminal off the streets. Back to you Elizabeth."
"Dangerous criminal my ass." Sam said, feeling a flash of worry, as he picked up the cell phone and called Bobby. "What the hell happened to Dean?" He asked, not bothering with hello. He didn't so much register the prison as the hospital ward. The thought of Dean sick enough to get anywhere near a hospital was enough to tie his stomach in knots.
"He came down with a virus. Spiked a fever. Spread to his chest." Bobby said. He was waiting for this call. "Physically he's fine now. Walked into his arraignment and everything. Doctors just want to keep an eye on him so he doesn't relapse and backslide during this whole thing. "Ben and Jack took him to the hospital after he started seizing. Before that they tried to treat him at home, on request and order from Dean. You know your brother." Concern for Dean. It was a good thing, it really was.
"Okay... he is getting better though... good... good." He repeated and sank into a chair. "The prosecuting attorney has one hell of an up hill battle with that trial. Trust me... so long as he doesn't do anything stupid like confess he will be a free man soon." No evidence, and the only eye witness to any of it conveniently forgot he existed. He hoped she was convincing with that.
"Rumor has it, he'll only confess...to everything...if he has to cop an insanity plea. Then he'll just tell them absolutely everything." Bobby said. "Should make great TV if it goes that route, which I hope it doesn't...what do you mean, Sam? The FBI makes it sound like they have him dead to rights."
"They don't have half of what they think they do." Sam said. "Or any of what they think they do actually." He smiled a little then. "Don't say anything until afterwards. If it doesn't go to trial, then he will never be cleared. It will always hang over him. If it goes to trial and they acquit, he never has to worry about it again."
Bobby chuckled a bit. "Gotta love that double jeopardy thing." He said, shaking his head. "Maybe someday he'll even get to thank you for this." Imagine that, one of John's boys having a chance at an actual life. Was reality coming apart at the seams after all?
"That's not why I did it. So... in the interest of keeping ole yellow eyes out of the know, if I have things to send to Dean... I'll just send them to you first. That is if you don't mind forwarding things on." He didn't want his brother to think he was forgotten or unloved. Normally presents between Winchesters involved weapons or research materials. Tools. Necessary items since there wasn't a lot of room for unnecessary things in their ever nomadic life. If Dean were staying in one place... that could change.
"Sure. Send them on over." Bobby said. Playing middle man. Who would have ever guessed. Then again, who would ever have guessed that Dean would be the son of John, raised by John, to have that nice normal life in the first place. "I don't mind at all. You should know better than that."
"It's only right to ask not assume. So.. he was doing okay there before he got sick right? " It was hard not being able to find these things out for himself. To have to rely on someone else's eyes when it came to the one person Sam care the most about in all the world.
"He was." Bobby said. "Fixing cars, hunting locally." Because he wasn't up to the long distance hunts yet. He was still recovering from Meg when he got it into his fool head to go to that house. "He's trying to find you, you know that."
"I never doubted it." Sam said honestly. "But I can't allow him to do it, Bobby. We both know why. Dean doesn't deserve to go through that. I know what you're going to say and yeah it sucks that he has to be put through all of this alone. But it's better than calling open season on Winchesters just because Dean and I feel a little lost without each other around."
"It's always been open season on Winchesters. Taking one player off the board doesn't change that, Sammy." Bobby said. "Your daddy, you boys, you've made some not so nice enemies on the completely wrong side of things. Human, demon, spiritual, vampiric..."
"Yeah but not all of them are capable and hungry to melt the flesh of his bones... after breaking them all repeatedly. I stay away.. the demons stay away. I'm staying away. They were playing with him in Chicago and you know it."
"I know. I know why you did this, but Sam...what if there was no Jack? What would you have done then?" Bobby said.
"Bobby, that's like asking what if Mom hadn't died." He countered with a sigh. "There is a Jack, and Dean is safe from everyone but himself, and he has Jack to rein him in if he gets too out of hand. "
"Yeah, okay." Bobby said. "He's doing his best with Dean, but your brother is a handful. Wonder how that lawyer's holding out, to tell the truth. You know your brother and authority."
"I don't know. Who is it, anyone? Anyone that can do him some good while they sort it all out or just some public defender he got stuck with?"
"Some broad that Ben knew." Bobby said. "She better be good, from what I hear she costs and all. Course, taking on the Feds, that's an adrenaline rush in of itself I'd guess. I think your brother is in good hands."
"If somehow they manage to screw things up... I have no idea how they could at this point... but if they do... I won't let them execute him. He would stand a better chance against the demons than lethal injection."
"I know." Bobby said. "But let's hope it doesn't come to that. He's been on the run long enough. Eventually something would give." He was sure it was the whole lifestyle Dean was living that ran him down enough to catch that nasty virus. On top of 'miraculous' healings, multiple times.
"Let me know what happens. How it looks. I don't know if I will be near a TV to hear news or not. I am sure a lot of it will be all over Court TV like the Scott Petersen thing was."
"How about we compare him to OJ or Robert Blake?" Bobby said with a chuckle. "At least they got off in criminal court." Whereas Scott Petersen hadn't. Not a very good analogy.
"Dean wouldn't be caught dead in a white bronco." Sam said simply.
Regan settled into the uncomfortable chair in the room where she and Dean were allowed their daily conversations. "How are you feeling?" She asked as she opened her briefcase, looking into his eyes with her own hawk like stare.
"I'm better." Dean said. He'd been told to draw out his illness so as not to be thrown in general population. Where Dean would only get in trouble, to tell the truth. "How does it look?" He asked, trying to cover the worry. But he wasn't looking forward to lethal injection.
"Jury selection is done. Therefore the media circus will begin shortly. I have a feeling the feds are going to want to try this case in the media. There is a short witness list they have given me. Very short to date." She handed over the list to Dean. "Any of those names familiar to you? I need the truth. Who are they, what are they likely to tell the court?" She could handle almost anything including eye witness testimony because the saying 'lies like an eye witness' existed for a reason.
The state had yet to hand over an evidence list, which made her nervous. She needed time to go over the evidence in the case and sort out ways to counter it. It was the whole point of the process, and she suspected the feds wanted to blind side her on this one as much as possible. Which meant she had to go pay the prosecution a visit today to get the ball rolling. Or she had to file for a continuance.
"Also I need to know your measurements, I am arranging for you to have a new suit for court. I need to coach you on your court room behavior, how to act if the media gets past security here, believe me it wouldn't be the first time. This thing is going to be 24/7 for you."
"Suit? Behavior?" Oh Dean didn't like the sound of this at all. But he sighed and looked over the witness list. "Okay, Gordon. He's a hunter, specializes in vampires. Sam and I, well, more Sam, got him arrested when he tried to kill Sam. He'd already killed a bunch of other psychics. This guy also killed his own sister cause she vamped out. He'll come off like a nutcase. Diana Ballard, Baltimore detective, she, ah, arrested me. For two murders, which her partner ended up doing. Then she let us go, me and Sam. Let us...you know...walk right out. This guy's a morgue attendant we paid to get a look at a body."
"Explain that one to me, please." She sighed and pinched her nose. This case was a nightmare. The only good thing about it was she got to pick on Hendrickson on a regular basis. "I need details if I am going to spin that one so that you don't look like a pair of necrophiliacs."
"Okay." Dean said. "Guy died mysteriously, they said it was a stroke. But freak medical things really, they never happen. Usually something more in my realm. So we wanted a look at the body, sure enough, the eyes were completely soup. Pretty gross, right? Anyway, turned out he was killed by Mary Worthington, or more correctly, the stress of his own 'sins' for lack of a better word. She was a vengeful spirit caught in mirrors, you know, that whole Bloody Mary urban legend. So, we needed a look at the body. So we looked. Guy let us in, guy even gave us the police report, in exchange for some more money."
"Lovely." She said. "I'll see what I can do on this." She picked his brain apart for information on the three in question. Ballard was going to be the hardest one to deal with but she didn't imagine all the witness befuddling in the world was going to save this man if they ever produced any hard core forensic evidence. Or for that matter a simple photo. "Now about your court room persona." She began. "I know you think you're charming. But the courtroom isn't a singles bar. You are not there to pick up a date out of the jurors box. You are there to fight for your life. And in that particular arena the way you do that is sit still, keep your mouth shut, and look respectable, innocent... and a little scared. "
"Respectable, innocent and scared." Dean said and exhaled. "Okay, have to work on the respectable part. Mouth shut, I'll do that." Would be hard, but he'd do it. "So they won't be acquitting me, they'll be acquitting some image you've dreamed up? The whole jury idea doesn't make sense at all, 12 strangers and you know they're going by their gut and not their mind."
"Which is why you have to not look like yourself. You sit there as yourself and you come across as a grifter looking for a warm, wet hole. Because everything is larger than life in there. Not like it is on television where it's all dramatic with perfected speeches. If it were, people wouldn't want to shirk jury duty. But they don't have the time to talk to you, to get to know you. So when you flirt, you are suddenly a letcher. When you smirk, you aren't taking it seriously, if you aren't worried, there is definitely something wrong with you. They will be watching your reactions as much as they will the evidence. They will be looking for signs of socially unacceptable behavior. Anything to make them feel less guilty. Right now... my job is to make them feel guilty as much as it is to make you look innocent. Because it's easy to throw the switch on a jackass that can't respect a court of law when his own life is on the line. It's not so easy with a young man that looks like he could be your son or brother."
Dean sighed and ran his hands through his hair. Both, because he was handcuffed. But it seemed like no part of his life could ever be free from the con. "All right." He said. "I'll look everything but disrespectful, flippant or guilty."
"Good. Now... I need you to write down a list of people that can be positive character witnesses for you." She said. "Put an x by them if it's involving the family business, and I will let them know they can speak freely to me. See who we can get to be willing to put a mundane spin on things for you."
Dean sighed again. And took the paper and the pen, under a watchful guard's eye (from outside) and began to write names down. Nearly all of them had the x by their name. Because that's how he came into contact with most of them. "I helped this girl find her brother. I saved this one's son. This family's house was overcome with a bit of a bug problem." He hesitated, but he put down Cassie's name as well. "This one will be hard to find. She's, well, she's a vampire." He said, writing down Lenore before he passed the paper back.
"A vampire. Hmm.. thought they were extinct. Well I guess we do learn something new every day." She said looking over the list. "I will get on this right away. meanwhile, stay down, out of sight and out of trouble as much as possible. Anything goes wrong in here they will use it against you in court." She said as she began packing away her things once more.
"I know." Dean said. "I think Hendrickson's got a man in here, actually. Trying to provoke me. Me? I happen to feel weak and dizzy and have to go to the infirmary. Which means if I am found guilty, everyone's going to think I'm a big giant pansy ass."
"If you are found guilty, you can show them otherwise. In the mean time, there are worse things than being a pansy...at least so long as you are in the infirmary. What do you know about Hendrickson? He has a real hard on for you that I don't understand. It seems almost personal."
"I don't know." Dean said, shaking his head. "But he knows a lot. Not everything, but enough. How we were raised, things like that. Course he thinks Dad is one of those weirdoes that hole up in a shack in Montana and wait for the world to end, when really he was just trying to stop it from ending. I've never met him before."
"Do you think he got all that information from Gordon?" She asked. It was strange. She had never seen an agent that bent on killing a man before. Except in the case of a few specific child murderers but that wasn't even the charge. The hell of it was no profiler in their right mind would pin these crimes on the same person. Which was something she also wrote down because she had an old friend to contact about the case that might be willing to appear on the stand.
"I don't know. Maybe he comes from a disenfranchised hunting family or something." Dean said. "Or he thinks I'm cute. I couldn't tell you." He'd forgotten all about Hendrickson until recently. "He said it was his job to know all about me, like he's a stalker or something."
"You people don't have your own internal police too, do you?" Otherwise it didn't make sense. Unless the government had a task force for the supernatural.
"No." Dean said with a chuckle. "We're not that tightly organized. We didn't even know there was a real community until a few years ago, me and Sam. And if there was, Gordon Walker wouldn't have been arrested by the real world cops. I don't know what his deal is."
"Alright. Like I said, stay out of trouble. This will get going soon. Is there anything you need?" She asked as she stood and straightened her dress.
Dean chuckled. "Peanut M&Ms. I went through the bag Jack got me already." He said with a grin. Hey, he liked his M&Ms.
Regan suspected that the majority of this man's last meal would be peanut M&Ms when the time came. She smiled a little at the boyish request. "I will see what I can do."
And with that she walked over to the door and waited for the guard to open it for her.
"I told you, I first met Dean Winchester when he sought out Jack." Ben told the prosecution assistant patiently. He wasn't charged with any crime, so he was allowed to do this without a lawyer.
"You didn't think it was unusual?"
"Not really. Been expecting it for some time. Once their father told Dean that Jack existed, well, he's a stubborn guy."
"So he just appeared on your door step."
"That's right. Probably tracked him down through DMV, school records, not hard to do. Freedom of Information Act and all."
"And what was your first impression of him?"
"That he was a hooligan. He's got a smart mouth on him. He's cocky, arrogant, flippant."
"Did he ever threaten you in anyway?"
"No."
"I understand he stayed in your house for a time."
"He did."
"What made you decide to allow that?" The lawyer was becoming frustrated. If Ben thought Dean was arrogant, flippant and an all around pain in the ass, well, he'd never tried to interview himself.
"Jack. That's his brother after all."
"He asked you to?"
"Yes." Since, in a way, Jack had, when Dean had been injured in Chicago.
"How did you feel about that?"
"I work nights, sleep days. As long as he picked up after himself and didn't wake me up, I was fine with it."
"You're awfully understanding."
"Thank you."
"I mean, this is a complete stranger we're talking about. One accused of murder."
"I didn't know that."
"And if you did?"
"I would have hired Regan sooner."
Regan got to her feet slowly and walked to the center of the bar separating the jury from the rest of the court. "Is my client an eagle scout? No." She said with a smile. "is he the sort of young man that comes from good stable roots ? No. He certainly isn't the sort of young man that you want your daughter to go out with. But that doesn't make him a monster. "
She began to pace before them. "The prosecution will paint you a picture of life on the run, even as a small child, with a father that was one step away from the Unabomber. That isn't the case either. Dean Winchester grew up moving from town to town as his father took odd jobs here and there to raise his sons as best he could in spite of the trauma of his wife's death. My client wasn't abused, he wasn't neglected, he wasn't taught to live outside of society. He simply didn't put down roots.
"The prosecution would have you believe that my client has fled prosecution from St. Louis . However the city buried the killer there, assuming that it was my client after he and his brother had already left town. The case in Baltimore was closed, another man guilty of the crime. It wasn't until the alleged bank robbery in Milwaukee that Dean Winchester chose to run. And that, ladies and gentlemen is his only crime. Running." She said, pausing once more and looking the jurors in the eyes individually.
"he and his brother were hostages in that bank. It was that situation that first introduced my client to the fact that he was a wanted man. Trapped, with a gunman inside and a federal agent outside telling him that bringing him in alive was optional. Optional. And not his favored option either.
"A young man with no ties to any community, who made his living doing odd jobs and hustling pool was just informed that he was on America's Most Wanted, That he could be shot down and no one would blink. Of course he ran. Was it the legal thing to do... no... but it still doesnt make him a monster.
"My client wasn't apprehended during the commission of a crime because he has committed no other crime than running in fear for his life. He was apprehended barely out of ICU in a hospital bed, where lay with his youngest brother watching over him. He has finally put down roots in Corpus Christi . Made friends, found a home and family. Hardly the actions of a hardened criminal.
"Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, the prosecution will try and convince you to convict my client on the sole fact that he ran when confronted with possible death. They will try and convince you to condemn this man because of how his father chose to raise him. And they will try and convince you to execute my client for murders that are already solved in states far away.
"A young man's life is in your hands today. I'm not asking you to like him. I'm not asking you to approve of how he has lived his life. That's not what we are here for today. I am asking you to weigh the evidence and only the evidence before deciding my client's fate."
With that said, she calmly and serenely walked over to the defense's table and sat down waiting for the prosecution to begin its case.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. My name is Ted Silver, I'm representing the people of the United States. I represent you, your spouses, and your children. Your neighbors. The people you pass in the grocery store." Mr. Silver stood up and casually strode toward the jury box. "Ms Bruner gave quite a speech. That's her job. Her job is to gain an acquittal for whoever is sitting next to her. My job, ladies and gentlemen, is to protect you.
"Is Dean Winchester guilty? The United States of America seems to think so. The grand jury that arraigned him seems to think so. A grand jury made up of men and women, just like yourself. They could see through the scared little boy no doubt Ms Bruner has told him to act like. They could see through the All American good looks. The calm demeanor. And see inside. See the fact that Dean Winchester. Is. Guilty.
"He is guilty of murder. He is guilty of heinous acts, grave desecration, breaking and entering, bribing his way into morgues across America. Where your loved ones might someday lie. We don't like to think of death. It's unpleasant, it's unknown. But men like Dean Winchester, they crave the death of other people. It certainly can't be blamed on his background, according to Ms Bruner. A father raising his two young sons on the road, with no stability, no roots. Had no effect on Dean Winchester at all. Because, ladies and gentlemen, he is a sociopath. He might not even know what he did was wrong in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of civilization. But that does not mean that he will not be punished.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to look beyond the emotional rhetoric of locking such a promising young man away with no chance of rehabilitation. Of what a waste it would be to stick a needle in his young arm and end it right now. Because this isn't a case about emotion. It's a case about truth. It's a case about justice. It's a case about protecting ourselves from people like Dean Winchester. Who prey on the weak, like the women in Baltimore. Who prey on the defenseless, like the corpses he would manhandle. The people like Dean Winchester who make it so we lock our doors at night.
"All I'm asking you to do, as good citizens, as mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and friends, is to find Dean Winchester guilty. Guilty. Guilty. The prosecution rests."
Dean didn't have to fake looking worried and scared. The prosecutor made him out to sound like some sort of sick nut case! But he stared straight ahead.
The trial was being televised on Court TV. So Samuel Winchester was settled in front of the TV, looking over the last of the information on his catechism, when the broadcast had begun. His stomach clenched as the prosecution made his opening speech. He sounded so confident. Sam could only hope that he had managed to do enough to keep his brother out of prison for life… perhaps a very short life.