Chapter Five: 3 Day Weekend
Sam woke at the sound of the car door slamming shut. He yawned and peered out the window. It was dark out- the interior of the Impala was illuminated by an orange streetlight- and eerily quiet.
John stood at the driver's side for a moment and didn't move until Sam had opened his door and peered out.
"Where are we, Dad?" Sam asked; the first words he had spoken to his father since they had left the diner in Madison.
"Palatine," John answered, "Stay in the car, I'll get us a room."
Sam closed his door and sat back as he watched his father stalk toward the main office.
Palatine? They were in Illinois, then. Sam remembered driving through Rockford in the afternoon and then Elgin in the evening but after that he must have dozed off.
The boy slipped out of the car and leaned against its door. It was cool out but not chilly and the light breeze felt good against his warm skin.
"Sam!" John's voice barked as he stepped out of the main office, room key dangling from one hand.
His son looked up, slightly surprised and nervous. He opened the rear passenger door as his father approached him.
"I thought I told you to stay in the car?" John growled, throwing open his own door.
"I was just out for a second-" Sam began but his Dad shook his head.
Why do I even try and talk to him? Sam slid into his seat as John drove to their room.
W
Sam looked up from the television show he was watching to see John still at the small, scratched table in the corner, talking on his cell phone.
His father was clearly angry; his voice was low and dangerous, his free hand hitting the tabletop with a clenched fist.
"I'm gonna need more than that, Caleb!" he snarled and paused as the fellow hunter responded.
"I don't want excuses, I want results!" John snapped, "I don't care that you're in Alaska! I need-"
His Dad was interrupted by Caleb and frowned, rubbing his beard with one hand.
"No…" he muttered, "No, Dean's up at Jim Murphy's…"
"Yes," John growled, "Alright, alright…"
He peered over at Sam and closed the cell phone with a snap.
"Looks like I'll need you to do research on this shifter," John didn't sound thrilled about the idea of having Sam do anything related to hunting but he didn't see any other option.
Sam perked up immediately, he may not be good with the actual hunting aspect of hunting but he researched better than his Dad and Dean combined.
Maybe this is my chance to redeem myself! Sam thought and couldn't help but smile.
"What the hell are you grinning at?" John snapped and Sam frowned. He turned his attention back to his show.
"Turn that off, I want to be on the road before six," his father instructed and pulled his boots off.
Sam watched his father turn out the lights and climb into one of the single beds. The boy hit the OFF button on the remote and the TV went dark. He got into the other bed and lay down on his back.
When we get to Akron I'll show Dad I'm good at something, Sam thought, I'll make him proud.
W
Sam was barely awake when he stumbled out to the Impala, John marching along ahead of him.
The sun was just a pink smudge on the horizon and the roads were devoid of traffic.
"Hurry up!" John snapped as Sam shoved his luggage into the trunk.
Sam peered sleepily at his father and shuffled over to the passenger door. He let out a loud yawn as John unlocked the car and slid inside.
Instead of buckling himself into his usual seat, Sam lay down on the cool leather and curled up, fast asleep before they had even exited the parking lot.
W
Cities flashed by the Impala's windows but Sam barely noticed. All he could think about was Dean and Dad and what he could do to make them proud of him.
If all I ever do is research then I'll be the best researcher ever! I'll hack into off-limit files and talk to people so they'll trust me, get to know libraries like the back of my hand!
Sam grimaced slightly, he didn't want to be stuck shifting through books and newspapers and articles on computers, he wanted to hunt like his Dad and Dean could!
He felt more like a sidekick than an actual hunter. Even if he knew that research was just as much a part of hunting as going out and killing the monster was.
W
They stopped in South Bend, Indiana at exactly nine a.m. for breakfast. John wanted to get to Akron as quickly as possible so all they did was go up to a McDonald's Drive-Thru window and grab coffees and McMuffins.
Sam wolfed his breakfast down gratefully; John may not care about eating three meals a day but Sam wasn't used to missing his lunch and dinner, like he had the day before.
The silence in the car was almost oppressive. If Dean was with them he'd be chatting away to their father about the latest case, picking on Sam or playing some stupid game like I Spy with him to keep him entertained.
Sam wished John would turn on the radio just to have the background noise.
Maybe I should ask him about the case, Sam thought; let him know I'm interested.
The boy cleared his throat and spoke quietly, "Who's been dying in Akron?"
John didn't reply right away, he stared at his youngest son in the rearview mirror as though trying to decide if he should talk.
"Three couples were robbed and murdered in their homes, they all had kids at the local junior high school who are missing now," John informed him.
Sam's mouth opened in shock, "How do you know it's a shifter then?"
"The only fingerprints found at the crime scenes belonged to the families, the only fingerprints found on the safes, jewelry boxes and wallets belonged to the kids," John explained, "So unless all the teens in Akron have decided to rob and kill their parents, then I'm sure it's a shifter."
Sam nodded.
"How do we find it?" Sam ventured. He didn't know if his father would even want his help looking for the shifter but he had to ask.
"I think it's kidnapping the kids- pretending to be them for a few weeks and then killing the parents," John answered, "I'm going to enroll you into the school there and you'll have to find it that way."
Sam stared at his father- go to a school where any of the kids might be the shapeshifter? Was he crazy?
"How will I know which kid it is?" Sam asked, he couldn't very well go up to every student with a silver knife and cut them with it to see if they reacted.
"You'll figure it out," John answered, not helpful at all.
Sam didn't say anything else. He stared out the window as Toledo, Ohio passed them by.
W
Lunch was handed out of another Drive-Thru window- hamburgers- but Sam did not complain. He knew that his father would not be impressed with any comment he made.
He really could have cared less about what food he ate. Sam was worried. He didn't know how his father expected him to find the shapeshifter.
If that's even what it is, Sam thought glumly as he took a bite of his burger.
They would arrive in Akron a little under an hour and the closer they came to the city, the more nervous Sam grew.
He hated moving all the time, always being the new kid in school but he knew it was necessary. Dean was the one with a passion for learning. Yes, he was a good hunter, but Dean was an A student, sometimes A+ and he seemed to breeze through school easier than Sam did. While his brother got straight As, Sam managed to squeak by with Bs and Cs. It wasn't that Sam didn't like school, he liked learning but he also understood that he was a hunter first and foremost and he often became conflicted between the two. He tried to be the best hunter he could while juggling schoolwork, not an easy task when Sam was often bogged down with researching for a hunt.
Sam wasn't about to fall into any delusions of grandeur about this new hunt. He knew that his Dad was still royally pissed at him for what had happened in Wisconsin and he would have to tread carefully, do exactly as his father told him and not fuck things up again.
W
Father and son arrived in Akron at half past one in the afternoon, about the same time everyone working was rushing out for their lunch break. John maneuvered the long, black car through the traffic, eyes searching expertly for the first motel to come into view.
Sam slid into the door as the Impala turned sharply and peered out to see John had driven into the parking lot of the Summit Motel.
While John went to get them a room Sam stayed in the car. He peered out at the other cars in the parking lot and bit his lip. He missed his brother.
Sam jumped when the front door opened and John slipped into his seat.
"The junior high is a few blocks from here," John said as he drove to his designated parking spot.
"Can we call Dean tonight?" Sam asked tentatively from the backseat.
"We'll see," His father spoke in a distracted tone and Sam was sure John hadn't even been paying attention to the question.
Sam didn't say anything else as his father ordered him out of the car and stood on the curb while John grabbed their bags.
The boy peered somewhat despondently at the motel. He saw the main office was a grey-brick building with a black shingle roof. The grey brick continued to form the exterior of the motel rooms, each with a dark green door and a brass number set in the middle.
John and Sam had room 2B, not the last room, as John preferred and that seemed to affect his mood badly.
Sam's father shoved open the door and looked around the room with a critical eye. He dumped their luggage on the floor and turned to his son.
"C'mon," he gestured to the still-open front door.
Sam, who had just sat down on one of the two beds, looked at John in slight confusion.
"We're going to the library," John told him and Sam slipped off the bed.
"Why do I have to come?" Sam asked. He was obviously way too young to pretend to be a Federal agent or a police officer.
"You need to know who you're going to school with," John told him and locked the motel door behind them.
W
The library, although large, was nearly empty; Sam wasn't surprised and John was quite pleased.
While his father shifted through local papers, looking for any and all information on the recent murders barring a trip to the police station, Sam hacked into the junior high school's computer system and pulled up the student files.
Sam stared at the faces of the boys and girls that made up the students of Ulysses S. Grant Junior High School.
He wondered which of the kids were the missing ones. He squinted at the screen as if by doing so he'd be able to see the shapeshifter in the guise of a pre-teen.
Sam peered up over the top of the large, grey computer as someone nearby coughed. He peered at the library's sparse visitors before turning back to his work.
Sam spent the next two hours trying to commit the faces of the students to memory and wondering how he was going to be able to tell the shifter from the real students.
He sighed in relief when he heard John bark out that it was time for them to leave. Sam hoped his father had more luck in research than he had.
1. Title comes from a Rise Against song of the same name.
2. Thanks to cold kagome, Samstruck, SPN Mum, laurie31, pottyandweezlbe89, samgirl19, SLPikachu, AlxM for reviewing.
3. Thanks to everyone who alerted or favourited.
4. Please review ladies and gents! Reading them always makes my day!