A special thanks to my beta reader Sharlot. Thank you also to my chapter five reviewers Murphy9202, Tristan, Rodneyisgodney, Sharlot, Frenzied Warrior, Dirtdevil76, MQDK, Fanspired, and Baltimoron48. Nine reviews on that chapter it's so awesome, I really appreciate it. Thanks also to my new story followers. I'm happy as a clam with the positive replies I have gotten. In case you didn't know, I don't own Sam and Dean, they belong to Eric Kripke.
Dean shook Sam roughly awake. Sam grabbed his head moaning softly. "Leave me alone Dean. I'm sleeping."
Dean's smile was wicked as he said, "No Sheila I don't know where your bra is. Sammy do you know where Sheila's bra is?"
Sam jerked awake falling off the deck chair and looking around for Sheila. "Not funny Dean." Sam snapped at his smirking brother.
"Come on Sam, you need to change, sober up, and drink some coffee before the party tonight."
"So you want me to sober up to attend a party? How does that make sense?" Sam deadpanned.
"Just so you know, I was scaling a rock climbing wall alone and almost fell to my death while you took a little nappy poo. I discovered nothing, no hex bags, or other signs of witchcraft. We need to know why those men are being targeted. So Sammy, who would be the best people to interview regarding the former passengers?" Dean questioned.
"The crew of the ship." Sam said straightening his wrinkled tuxedo and following Dean to the door.
"Give the man a prize." Dean said, sarcasm lacing his words. "Why don't I head to the café and get us some coffee while you change. Meet me on Deck five. I'll have your half-café, double-vanilla latte waiting." Dean said with a grin.
Sam started heading towards the elevators when he caught sight of Sheila in Boleros. He ducked trying to hide his 6 foot 4 inch frame behind a pole. She was drinking with Mindy and looking around. That's when Sam remembered her offer to meet her at Boleros, the Latin dance club on board. Sam ditched the elevator, worked his way carefully to the stairs to avoid Sheila's sight, leaving behind a laughing Dean.
Dean hit the elevator button, when he recognized the song "Mas Que Nada" being played by the live band in Boleros. He was swaying his hips to the music waiting for the elevator, when Mindy spotted him. She grabbed his hand pulling him from the elevator for a dance. "No really I need to go, I'm meeting Sam." Dean protested as Mindy continued pulling him to the dance floor.
"One dance and I'll let you go. I can see you want to and I'm a much better partner than the elevator doors." Mindy persuaded moving her hips and shoulders to the beat.
Dean gave in and started leading her through a complex set of Samba steps that she was easily able to keep up with. "You're really good." Dean complimented her.
She smiled, "Dancing is a fun way to get all sweaty and stay in shape," her green eyes twinkling. Dean pulled her back to the front of his body as he guided her through a series of Samba rolls that left her breathless.
"I can think of lots of fun ways to get sweaty." He whispered in her ear as the song was ending. "Sadly, right now I need to meet my brother. Thank you for the dance." He said gallantly kissing her hand as he walked away leaving a disappointed, panting Mindy behind.
Dean gave up on the elevators and headed up the stairs to the café on Deck five. It was 11:15 PM and there wasn't much call for coffee so the line was short. Dean was surprised to see Althea behind the counter smiling at him in recognition. "Hi Dean how is you enjoying da cruise." She said in her thick Jamaican accent.
"It's amazing. Everyone is so nice and the food is great." Seeing no one behind him in line, Dean leaned in and said in a quiet voice. "But I was at the rock climbing wall when that man died. It was such a shock."
Althea nodded her head in sympathy, "poor Mr. Ramos, I don't know how dat rope got around his neck." She looked around to make certain no one was listening. "He is being made to leave da ship tomorrow. Tis gal was drugged. Cameras caught him putting someting in her drink. Security found dat gal passed out in the hall. Was date rape drug in her system. He is going to hurt her, but she left while he was in da bathroom. Dat gal is lucky she get away."
Dean whistled in surprise, "She was very lucky. It seems Mr. Ramos got what was coming to him."
Althea agreed, "It is his karma coming back on him. You bring evil in da world evil is what come back on you. What can I get you to drink?"
"Coffee black and a half-café, double-vanilla latte." Dean answered then stopped and reconsidered with an evil smile. "Change that half-café, double-vanilla latte. To double-vanilla latte with three espresso shots."
"One dead eye double-vanilla latte coming up. Here is your cup for dat regular coffee. Da French roast is very good." Althea quickly prepared Sam's special brew while Dean was getting his coffee.
"I hear Rose invited you boys to da party tonight. Is you coming? Crew parties is da best" Althea asked when Dean returned from filling his cup.
"I wouldn't miss it," he replied just as Sam was approaching the café.
"Hello Althea." Sam greeted taking his cup from her.
"Good to see you Sam. Is you coming with your brother to da party tonight?" Althea questioned.
"I'll be there. Are you going to be off in time to make it?" Sam asked.
Althea nodded, "I only have ten minutes left on dis shift. I wouldn't miss it. Dat party is a blast. The DJ is excellent and free drinks. I love the margaritas."
Sam groaned at the thought of more margaritas while Dean smirked at his distress. "We should let you finish up then. We'll see you at the party." Sam said smiling as he and Dean headed to a table towards the back of the mostly empty café.
Sam took a sip of his coffee and looked at it confused by the taste. "You got a half café right Dean? I don't want to be up all night. This tastes pretty strong."
Dean controlled his urge to laugh and instead replied, "Yes, Francis I made sure the coffee was ordered to your complex specifications. Can we talk about the case? Althea provided me with information about the latest victim."
"Of course, sorry it just tastes really strong." When Dean's rarely seen bitch face made an appearance, Sam decided it was best to drop the coffee talk and discuss the new information. He took another sip of his coffee wincing at the strong taste. "What did Althea tell you about the new victim?"
"It seems Mr. Ramos was a very bad man. He was caught on tape slipping roofies into a woman's drink. She left when he was in the bathroom and she was found by security passed out in the hallway. I've said it before and I'll say it again, demons and monsters I get but people are crazy." Dean explained.
Sam nodded his head in agreement taking another sip of coffee thinking 'huh, this is pretty damn good then took a deeper drink, enjoying the bitter sweetness of the coffee. "So our victims are all males. Mr. Castillo and Mr. Ramos were jerks. I wonder if our first victim Mr. Menendez was a jerk, too." Sam asked.
"We should ask the staff at tonight's party about Mr. Menendez, because, besides dying of scurvy we don't really know anything about him." Dean explained.
Sam whipped out his laptop, opening it up on the table. Dean noticed the slight shake to his hands as he quickly pecked at the keyboard. "Okay, I'm into Royal Caribbean's customer database. Let's see what's up with the victims." He said taking another deep drink of coffee.
"That is really good stuff." Sam said as he typed faster hacking deeper into Royal Caribbean's customer profiles.
"So Mr. Menendez was a Florida resident, 35 years old, married five years, late seating for dining, and no kids traveling with them. Ah. It was an anniversary cruise. That's a shame, five years of marriage." Sam's leg was going a mile a minute as he drank the last sip of his coffee.
Dean was amused watching Sam's jittering hand gestures as he spoke. By this point even his face is twitching. "Internet search shows Menendez was known on cruise web sites by the user name 'freebie man.' Here's a post where he's giving tips on how to scam free stuff out of the cruise line. Wow, what a douche! He explains how to pick and choose complaints to get on board credit or things for free. One of his deals is eating at the specialty restaurant and bringing along a bit of old spatula to drop it into his food when he's almost done eating then demanding a free meal."
"So all three victims were asshats. This could be why they were targeted." Dean replied. "Dude it's 12:05 let's stow the laptop in the cabin and head to the party."
Sam's head was nodding like a bobble head Elvis on crack. His hands were shaking and he was sweating like a whore in church. "Damn my heart is going a mile a minute. What that heck was in that coffee?" Sam exclaimed and that was it for Dean, his straight face forgotten. Dean cackles an evil laugh.
"You just drank a double-vanilla latte dead eye dude." Dean barely gets out through his laughing fit. "Want another?"
Sam tries to pull a bitch face, but he can't hold his face still long enough for it to work. "You're a fucking jerk! Why did you do that?" This only makes Dean laugh harder.
"I'm on T.V. dancing around in a Speedo." He said between gulps of air. Sam feels like he could run a marathon in 10 minutes; no way is he waiting for an elevator. In fact, Dean has to run to catch up with Sam who is going up the stairs two at a time.
They dropped the laptop off with Sammy chatting the whole way about nothing. He just can't make himself shut up. The trip back down the stairs to the crew party helps take the shakes out of his hands. They arrive at the ice rink/Studio B, the rink is covered and stadium seating surrounds the main floor. A DJ is set up on stage playing dance music and everywhere young hotties are dancing with each other.
Female friends dance with each other as their male admirers encourage the display. Most of the ladies come from countries where nudity is standard on their beaches. Some of the ladies by this point have expressed the opinion that the room was too hot and had removed their tops walking around in fancy lacey bras that both the boys appreciated. Sam spots Rose and elbows Dean in the ribs just a bit harder than necessary. Dean rubs his sore ribs and follows his brother to Rose.
"You made it." She greets with a smile and an affectionate hug for each of the boys." She is clearly in her cups.
Dean is ready to answer but is interrupted by Sam, who just can't keep silent. "Althea told us how great these parties are and we just couldn't pass it up." Sam gives her a big smile that makes her knees weak.
"Let me introduce you around." Sam and Dean are handed drinks and for the next hour they're introduced to other crew members. Rose is a great host and a ton of fun. She's a bit of a gossip and knows all the ins and outs of the ship and its crew. Sam's really hoping she isn't a witch, because it would be a shame to waste her. It's hard to be in the same room with her and not have a good time.
She introduced them to Gavin, her assistant from Wales, "He's the Welsh Tom Jones, but with a better ass." She smirks and grabs his ass, to which he laughs clearly enjoying the attention.
Gavin explains "Rose took the sexual harassment class to get pointers."
"You love it." Rose smiles and it's clear she's right.
A game of drunken truth or dare is being played in one corner of the ice rink. One of the male crew members is streaking naked through the crowd screaming at the top of his lungs. "I love Justin Bieber."
Amongst all the merriment there's a sullen male crew member sitting by himself. Rose followed Dean's gaze. "That's Xavi Torres, he's from Spain. He's one of the cabin stewards and he is been stealing from the passenger's cabins. He's so arrogant and thought he would never get caught. Tonight's his last night on the ship. When we reach port tomorrow he'll being catching a plane back to Spain."
Suddenly the air gets so cold that Sam and Dean can see their breath. They hear a loud eerie voice saying "¿Dónde está mi hijo." The voice is coming from right by Xavi's left side and he jumps at the sudden voice that's easily heard over the loud music. The boys recognize the sound of a whip and start running towards Xavi with Rose on their heels. "Me dices donde es," the ghost says. Xavi screamed out in pain as the invisible whip hits his back. The air around him became solid as the ghost started to manifest. The ghost turned its head towards Rose's evil eye pendant. He shrieked and disappeared. It was as if he had been hit by rock salt. Sam and Dean stood in shock.
The music stopped and medical staff rushed to assist Xavi. Luckily he was only hit once so he wasn't badly hurt. Rose stared shell shocked at the spot where the ghost briefly manifested. Sam pulled her into a quiet spot and Dean followed.
"Rose, where did you get that necklace?" Sam asked in a careful voice. It's clear to Sam and Dean that Rose's necklace has warded off the ghost. They've never seen anything like it. Rose looked confused by the question. She was still stuck on the ghost thing.
"That was a ghost, did you see the ghost?" Rose said answering Sam's question with one of her own.
"Yes, that was a ghost." Sam confirmed, his eyes still on the necklace as he repeated his question.
Rose replied, "Remember when I told you about my crazy grandmother? She gave it to me the day after I saw the witch ghost at St. Nicholas Church." She said holding up a necklace with a large pink crystal.
"What kind of stone is that?" Sam asked still looking at the necklace.
"It's not a stone. It's a pink Himalayan salt crystal. She insisted I wear it. She said pink Himalayan salt is the purest salt on Earth and would protect me from evil. She's nutty as a fruitcake, but she is also the most loving, gentle person I know." Rose's eyes filled with affection for her crazy relative.
"What other 'nutty' things has your grandmother done?" Sam asked trying to confirm his suspicions.
"She won't go to bed until there is a line of salt around all her doors and windows. Under her front door mat she has this weird circular design. She made sure the rest of the family had the same thing under their door mats, too." Rose explained.
Dean and Sam exchanged a knowing look. Sam looked around to be sure they were still alone. "Your grandmother's a hunter or knows about hunting."
"She doesn't even own a gun. She's eighty years old; she doesn't go hunting." Rose explained.
Dean took over explaining, "She knows about the supernatural. Those precautions are to keep the house safe from ghosts. My brother and I are hunters. We stop ghosts. That story about Leon Menendez dying of scurvy is why we're here. We need your help. Do you think you can get Xavi to wear your necklace tonight?" Dean had avoided talking about demons, he didn't want to freak Rose out.
She clutched her necklace protectively. "Why would I do that?"
Sam gave her the puppy dog eyes and explained "Your necklace repelled the ghost. It will keep him safe until he leaves the ship."
Rose relented, nodding her head and walked over to Xavi. The boys could see a short discussion between Rose and Xavi; then he nodded his head and put the necklace around his neck.
"Thank you for doing that." Sam said.
"Xavi has always been sweet on me so it was no problem getting him to wear it." Rose replied.
"We only saw the ghost briefly; why don't you tell us what you saw." Dean said.
"He was dressed in a very old military uniform, maybe 1800s or older. He wore a blue jacket that had red lapels and gold lace on the border of the lapels. He had gold stripes on his sleeve. It looked like the stripes were his rank or something. I didn't see any epaulettes on his shoulders so maybe I'm wrong." Sam and Dean were impressed with the detail Rose provided. They had seen the same thing, but were baffled on how such an old ghost was on board this fairly new cruise ship.
Rose went on, "He was speaking Spanish. It's one of the five languages I speak. He said '¿Dónde está mi hijo' which means where is my son and 'Me dices donde es' means tell me where he is."
"Thank you Rose." Sam said. He and Dean decided to call it a night and headed to their cabin to discuss things.
"So, an old Spanish speaking ghost. How the heck did he get on board? I thought you said this ship started sailing in 2006?" Dean said.
"I don't know. It has to be a cursed object." Sam said still bouncing on the balls of his feet. Now not only did he have a caffeine high, but now had adrenaline racing through his system. The combination of both had him wide awake despite the early morning hours. "Tomorrow when everyone is in port we can scan the ship for the object."
Dean nodded sadly; he had been hoping to go ashore. "God I'm exhausted." Dean replied. His adrenaline had worn off and he just longed to rest his head on that comfortable pillow. Sam didn't reply, but he did give Dean an epic I'm going to kill you in your sleep bitch face. This was a new one for Dean so he named it bitch face number twenty-three.
They both changed for bed and it was after 3AM. Sam closed his eyes, but he could still feel his left leg twitching under the covers. He rolled over to a more comfortable position and still nothing. He counted sheep, then he pictured the sheep jumping over a fence. Those hyperactive sheep weren't having any impact on his ability to sleep. So he pictured them as lamb chops. Stupid fluffy white sheep!
He heard Dean snoring softly, in a deep sleep and wanted to smother his brother's face with a pillow. Fucking dead eye at almost midnight. What a jerk! The pillow was making his face hot so he turned it over to the cooler side. Then he rolled over again pushing the sheets down loudly, Dean continued to sleep on. Sam finally gave up with his leg still twitching; sleep was impossible. Maybe a run on the jogging track would help. Sam gave no regard to his sleeping brother. Served him right! Sam even turned on the overhead light. But his annoying big brother slept through it all. As Sam left the cabin he eyed the pillow one more time thinking how nice it would be to smother that peaceful look off Dean's smug face.
Sam took the stairs to deck twelve. The night sky was clear and being out at sea there were stars everywhere he looked. He stopped and admired the beautiful sky before starting his run. Sam ran an hour, the tropical ocean breeze lifting his hair out of his eyes. The peaceful sounds of the ocean relaxed him. Finally his body began to feel tired. He headed back to the cabin, took a quick shower and got into bed. His body crashed after its previous caffeine high. He glanced at the clock before drifting off to sleep. 5:30AM the clock taunted him.
I had some coffee lingo in this story. Here is my research on the subject: A red eye is a coffee with one espresso shot, a black eye is a coffee with two espresso shots, and a dead eye is a coffee with three espresso shots. I don't speak Spanish so I used an internet translator. Sorry if the words are wrong. I really wish I spoke more languages I have a lot of respect for people that do. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.