Authors Note: hey sorry guys for taking longer than usual to post an update ... since i took longer i decided to give you two new chapters :-D hope you enjoy :-)

Chapter 12. The Hunt Continues

John yawned tiredly, sitting in Caleb's Charger as the younger hunter maneuvered his way through town towards the local school. He hadn't been able to get much sleep the night before mainly because he couldn't stop thinking about his boys.

It wasn't as if he wasn't use to spending time away from them, quite the opposite. He had often left them with friends such as Pastor Jim, Bobby, Joshua and even sometimes Caleb, even though his young friend wasn't that old himself. He had also left the boys by themselves from time to time when he couldn't get them to one of the said friends and he knew that Sam was quite safe in his big brothers care. But this time his boys were in the care of basic strangers. He knew Dean wouldn't let anything happen to his brother but it didn't stop him from worrying and thinking about them.

He supposed that their current hunt was making him think more about the boys also because so far all the victims that they had come across were around his boy's ages, especially Bradley Kearns. The boy was the exact same age as Dean.

He had also been wondering how Dean had been coping in his new environment. He hoped that he wasn't having a totally miserable time.

"Not that you are usually a ray of sunshine … but that isn't exactly a happy face," Caleb commented keeping his eyes on the road in front of him.

"What?" John asked giving Caleb an annoyed look.

"Why are you frowning?"

"Oh … nothing," John replied shaking his head. He hadn't realized that he had been frowning.

"Okay," Caleb said, "You're worried about the boys."

John rolled his eyes, "Why would I be worried about the boys I'm sure they are perfectly fine."

"You know, John, you are allowed to be concerned about your own sons."

"I know that Caleb and like I said there is nothing for me to be worried about."

Caleb shrugged his shoulders. He knew the Winchesters didn't do to well with chick-flick moments as Dean called them and he didn't exactly like participating in them either. He knew John wouldn't admit if he was worried anyway. It just wasn't his way.

He saw the school coming up and turned into the car park and shut off the engine, "You know all schools look alike no matter where they are," he commented.

John nodded, "Let's get this over and done with huh?"

"Yeah," Caleb agreed getting out of his car.

He followed John into the main hall of the school and they both looked down the hallway to see a woman walking their way.

"Hello Ma'am, could you please direct us to the Principal's office?" John asked politely with a smile.

The woman smiled back at John and Caleb couldn't help but notice that the woman had totally fallen for the older man's smile, "Sure, walk half way down this corridor then turn left, walk all the way down that corridor, the Principal's office is at the very end," she told John.

"Thank you."

"You're very welcome."

Caleb began walking down the corridor alongside his friend. When he was sure the young woman was out of ear shot he looked at John and smiled, "Damn John, you're not so bad with the lady's yourself!"

"You know you and Dean aren't the only ones that pull female attention … I just don't abuse it."

"I can't help it if beautiful woman throw themselves at me. Dean wishes he had as much talent with the ladies as me."

"That's interesting," John commented as they turned left into the other corridor.

"What?"

"Dean says the same things about you."

"Yeah well you know he is delusional."

John gave a slight laugh, "Yeah a lot like someone else I know."

"I don't know who you could be talking about it," Caleb answered innocently.

"We're here," John told him as they came to a stop outside the Principal's office.

Caleb visibly shivered, "Bringing back some memories?" John asked.

"Something like that, although I'll have you know that my whole schooling wasn't spent in the Principal's office."

John snorted at Caleb as he walked up to the secretary, "Excuse me Miss, my name is John Turner, I have an appointment with Principal Caldwell."

"Hold on a second," she said holding up a hand and then she picked up the phone and pressed the extension for the Principal, "Mr. Caldwell there is a John Turner here to see you."

John and Caleb stood waiting as she seemed to be listening to the man on the other end. It wasn't long before she hung up the phone and looked back up at the two men, "He's ready to see you, just walk on in."

"Thanks."

John quickly rapped on the door before he opened it enough for him and Caleb to walk in. The Principal, sitting at his desk, got up as soon as the two hunters entered the room.

"John Turner I presume," Caldwell greeted as he shook John's hand.

"That would be me," John replied and then glanced at Caleb, "This is Caleb … Brown," John introduced, trying to remember the alias Caleb had decided to use, "he's working on this article with me."

"Nice to meet you,"

Caleb nodded at the man, "Thanks for seeing us, we appreciate it."

"I'm glad to help although I have to say you're lucky you caught anyone here at all being summer holidays. What is it exactly that you two are writing about?" Caldwell asked, making his way to his seat behind his desk and sitting back down, "Please take a seat," he added gesturing to the two seats sitting in front of his desk.

"Well we have heard that a few of your students have fallen ill in the last week and the paper wanted to do an article about it and we thought it would be good if we knew a little about what the students were like," John told Caldwell as he sat down next to Caleb.

"Well like I said I'll be glad to help, they had been good kids."

John reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a notebook and looked back at the Principal, "So they were all good kids?"

"Well they had been."

"What do you mean had been?"

"Well it's hard to explain."

"We have spoken to some of the parents and they have mentioned that they had experienced some mood changes in their kids," John told him trying to prompt the man.

Caldwell looked thoughtful for a moment, "I guess you could say that."

"When did you first notice the difference in the kids?" Caleb asked.

"Well I can tell you that easy. I started having complaints about these students since about two years ago."

"You're sure?"

"The thing is, I have a lot of students and when I start having trouble with some of them, I notice," Caldwell explained.

"That makes sense," Caleb agreed.

"Why do you think they changed?" John asked shifting in his seat.

"Honestly I really can't be sure."

"So there is nothing that you could think of that would make such a drastic change?"

"Not that I can think of at the moment, I'm sorry. What's this got to do with what's happening with the kids now?"

"I just thought that maybe something might have set their change of personality off."

"I guess it's possible."

John leaned forward, "Do you remember any certain events that happened at this school two years ago?"

"Not off the top of my head but I could get you that information. But what does this have to do with a newspaper article?"

"Sir, you can't believe that all these children happen to all off a sudden get bad attitudes and then start collapsing at the same time is a coincidence. It's our job to let people know what's really going on," John told him seriously.

Caldwell seemed to accept that as an answer, "Okay fair enough … well let me think…" he told them looking up in the universal thinking look.

John and Caleb glanced at each other as they waited for the Principal to remember something that would help them in their investigation.

"Well that year, like most years, we had a swimming carnival, a number of excursions, a camp that was held during the summer … umm … we had a few quest speakers come out but nothing out of the ordinary for a school," Caldwell explained.

"Do you have any idea whether all the people on this list all attended at least one of these events?" Caleb asked, leaning forward and handing over the list of names of students and teachers on it.

Caldwell took the list from Caleb and studied the names, "I … uh … I can't really tell you off the top of my head."

"You wouldn't happen to have a list anywhere would you?"

"We might have one somewhere. Leave me this list and I'll have my secretary check it out for you."

"Thanks. That would be a great help."

"Okay. Now what else would you like to know?"

A few hours later found John and Caleb walking to the car. The actual interview with the Principal hadn't last that long but they had thought that while they were there they should check out the school which hadn't been to hard considering the school was pretty much like a ghost town with all the students and most teachers on holiday.

So far the actual school was the only common denominator between the sick kids. Only problem was that they hadn't found anything out of the ordinary. John could tell Caleb was frustrated and he had to admit that he was too. This case wasn't going as fast or as easy as what he thought it was going to be.

"Well that gave us a fat lot of nothing," Caleb complained as he opened the front door of his car and climbed in.

John opened the passenger side door and slumped down next to Caleb, "Not exactly nothing. If we get a match from that list we gave Caldwell we'll have something to go on."

"Until then?" Caleb asked starting the car and pulling out of the car park.

"Well we should get in touch with the remaining people on your list of victims … you know the ones that are no longer living in Rose Creek … see if they are in the same condition."

"Okay, but first maybe we could go see Mrs. Kearns again and she if she remembers anything."

"Sounds like a good idea."

"Well I do have them occasionally ya know."

John raised his eyebrows, "Drop me off at the motel, I'll try and locate the other victims while you speak to Mrs. Kearns."

"Okay." Caleb agreed as he steered the car towards the motel.

John sighed as he hung up the phone. He had only been able to get a hold of a couple of the other victims family's to find out that the same thing was happening. It had taken him good while to track down the people he had and he was really tired of being in his motel room.

Caleb still hadn't returned from his visit with Mrs. Kearns at the hospital and John was not known for being a patient man. He slowly stood up, stretched and walked over to the motel room door and opened it. It was good to feel the breeze on his face. It wasn't much of one but it was there. He walked out further and leaned against the wall just thinking about the case.

He could hear the familiar sound of Caleb's Charger moments before he saw the red car turn into the motel's parking lot. Caleb parked the car in front of John and killed the engine.

"Took you long enough," John commented as Caleb got out of the car and sat on the hood.

"Miss my company did ya?"

"Did you find out anything new?" John asked ignoring him.

"I did actually."

"Well?"

"Mrs. Kearns told me that she remembers what Bradley had been doing before she started noticing the change."

John made an impatient hand gesture, silently telling Caleb to continue.

"She said she remembers him going to a camp with the school. She says that he wasn't the same when he came back."

"Camp?" John asked looking concerned.

He knew he was being stupid but as soon as he heard that a school camp might be the connection they were looking for he felt uneasy. He knew the chances of the same thing happening to Dean and Sam was highly unlikely but it still shocked him a little bit. Sam was always telling him lately that there were no coincidences in heir line of work but he was sure that the thought had just crossed his mind because he had already been worried about the boys.

"Yeah," Caleb said, John's concerned look not going unnoticed, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing … so what took you so long anyway?"

"Well while I was there I ran into the kid's doctor and asked him a few questions."

"What did he have to say?"

"Well he seemed baffled, said that he hadn't seen anything like it and that he couldn't find a connection between any of the patients to explain why they are all suffering from the same thing."

"What else?"

"He said that it was like their body's were worn out and shutting down."

"Does he know whether they will recover?"

"He didn't seem too positive. To be honest I don't feel too positive about that myself. If it is a long term possession of some kind then maybe their bodies are just too worn down."

John looked down at his watch and saw that it was 2.30 in the afternoon, "Okay well Caldwell told me that both him and the secretary would be there all day so I'll give the secretary a call and see what she can tell me about the camp, try and get some names of some teachers that were involved that might still be able to talk to us."

Caleb came out of the bathroom as John was hanging up the phone. They had both been surprised to receive a call from the school secretary almost as soon as they had entered the motel room.

"Do we have something?" he asked.

"I think we might. Every single student and teacher on that list we gave them was on that camp."

"So maybe whatever is possessing these kids is at the campsite. Did she tell you where it is?"

"I asked but she said she couldn't find the name of the place anywhere on file."

"That's strange."

"Yeah but she did give me the name of a teacher, a Miss Geyer, that attended the camp. She's on another school camp at …" John told him looking down at the notepad he was holding, "…Fergus Falls it's almost 5 hours away from here."

"So did you get a number?"

"Yeah but I can't seem to get a hold of her so …"

"We're going on another little road trip?" Caleb guessed.

"Well I would rather we didn't waste any time, considering there is another group of kids up there."

"Well you know I'm in … I'm just glad we are starting to get a decent lead."

John nodded his agreement.

"Are we leaving or can we catch some dinner first because let me tell you I am starved."

"Even if we leave now it will probably be a little late to talk to anyone anyway so I don't see why we couldn't feed you first."

"You make me sound like a pet."

John laughed, "Just pack up our gear while I go book us out."

"Are you planning on driving all night?"

"I was thinking have some dinner, then drive to Fergus Falls, then grab a motel get a couple of hours rest and then meet Miss Geyer in the morning."

"Sounds good."

"Glad you approve," John said sarcastically, "I'll meet you by the car." He told the younger hunter as he left the room and headed to the motel reception.

TBC ...

Okay hope that was okay ... drop me a line and let me know what you think :-)

on to chapter 13 :-) ...