Sam sat back in the chair with a sigh and rubbed his eyes. He'd just realised that he'd read the same sentence four times without actually digesting it, and he'd spent more time with his gaze straying to the clock in the corner of the screen than he had reading.
Getting up and stretching he walked over to the window. Not that he was freaking out that Dean had been gone for almost two hours now.
Nope, not in the slightest.
If he was ok though, Sam was definitely going to kill him when he finally got back to the room.
As if on cue, Sam heard the door open and he crossed the room in two strides, sitting back down heavily and doing his best to look relaxed.
If Dean's slight smirk was anything to go by, it needed some work.
"Hey, research-boy. How's it going?" Dean said innocently and Sam ignored the question.
"Where have you been?" he demanded and Dean raised his eyebrows.
"Dude, you really gotta relax. You do remember the part where I'm a grown up, right? Meaning I can cross the road unsupervised and everything?"
Sam didn't appreciate the sarcasm given the fact he'd spent the last hour thinking of all the ways Dean could have had a relapse or got into trouble. Attuned to Sam's moods as usual, and able to spot a potentially lethal episode at ten paces, Dean held his hands up in surrender before Sam had the chance to launch into one of his speeches.
"Ok, ok – just take a breath, would you? I was at the boat office, just like I said I would be. I talked to the guide and he was a total dead loss. Swore up and down nothing like that had ever happened before, totally perfect safety record, yadda, yadda." he said and Sam sighed.
"So it was a waste of time then?"
"I didn't say that, did I? If you'll let me finish, I was about to say I did have more luck – with Stephanie."
Sam groaned. "Dean," he said warningly and Dean grinned.
"What? Hey, can I help it if she happened to find me cute? I gotta say, the feeling was mutual – she had the best."
"Dean!"
"I was just going to say she had the best smile, Sammy. You know you really need to get your mind out of the gutter sometimes."
There was a thud as Sam dropped his head onto the desk. Sometimes he wondered if he couldn't find something easier to do. Like swim with sharks.
Dean chuckled to himself, entertained as always by his ability to frustrate his little brother. Never one to take it too far though he sat down on the edge of the bed and nudged Sam's leg with his foot.
"If you're done with the amateur dramatics, do you want to know what she told me?" he said and Sam rolled his head to one side to glance at him with one eye.
"You mean you actually got something useful out of her?" he said and Dean bit his tongue. Sometimes Sam really did make it too easy.
Resisting the obvious opening with some effort, he continued.
"Yes, I did. You should have a little more faith in me you know. According to Stephanie, the guide was being a little economical with the truth. She told me that they've actually had three incidents like this in the last two years. First time some guy had a heart attack, which no one thought anything of except for the fact his wife swore he had no history of heart problems and one of the other tourists there at the time talked about seeing the guy looking like he was struggling with 'something' just before he collapsed. Second one was another accident, least that's what the police decided. Young girl on a school trip fell from the top of a wall. She shouldn't have been up there and none of her friends could work out why she had been. The third was two months ago – this time it was a Chinese tourist, fell down the stairs and broke his neck. His girlfriend swore he was pushed but there was no one behind him at the time."
Sam sat up and looked at Dean, surprised.
"You got all that from one conversation?"
Dean shrugged.
"We went for coffee. I told her I was a reporter on holiday and promised I'd give her a mention if the story got printed."
Sam shook his head. Sometimes it was scary just how quickly his brother could have women eating out of the palm of his hand.
"So all of those deaths could have something paranormal behind them, same as our guy." he said aloud and Dean nodded.
"Sounds like it. I reckon there's only one way to find out – we need to go back there."
Sam shook his head.
"Oh no, no way are we running into this blind without knowing what we're dealing with. I'm gonna look up the newspaper reports on those other deaths first. Why don't you lie down for a bit?"
Dean glared at him. "Because I'm 29, not 89! Come on, Sam, I get that you're still wound up over the whole earthquake thing but will you please get it into your head I'm not about to keel over?"
Sam opened his mouth to reply but Dean cut him off.
"No buts. You get on with the research thing, if you must. I'll go see about getting us some lunch."
Sam bit his lip but didn't argue. He'd known Dean was reaching the limit on the whole injury thing so there wasn't much he could do without causing a major argument. And that they could really do without right now.
"Fine. Just try and get something decent would you?" he said and Dean grinned.
"Back in a bit."
Sam watched him head out and forced himself to take a deep breath. Maybe Dean was right. Maybe he had been verging a little on overprotective. He rolled his head round, easing the tension in his neck muscles. He'd lay off on the hovering, for now at least. If this thing was going to be sorted without anymore trips to the emergency room they both needed to be on top of their game.
He'd still be watching Dean's back of course. He'd just have to be more subtle about it.
An hour later he was scanning the last newspaper report while Dean flicked through the TV channels. Failing to find anything remotely interesting he gave up, switching it off and throwing the remote onto the other bed.
"You'd think the amount of money they charge for these rooms they could give you some decent channels to go with it." he complained, getting up and walking over to peer at the screen from behind Sam.
Sam glanced up at him. "They probably assume people have better things to do than stay in watching the TV." he said.
"Well, we do, it's just you won't let us get on with it." chided Dean and Sam gave him a mock serious look.
"Preparation is everything, Dean." he said, doing a fair imitation of John.
For once the reference to their father didn't make Dean flinch and he actually smirked a little.
"Yeah, yeah – since when did you become the good soldier?"
"Since we're not exactly at full strength given the fact you're not even supposed to be hunting yet."
Dean held up a hand warningly. "Don't start with that, Sam. We have to sort this out, you know that." he said and Sam shook his head.
"Maybe, but it doesn't mean I have to like it."
Dean rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Did you get all the geek info you needed or should I book the room for another week?"
"Ha, ha. As it happens, yes I did. From what I found out, these 'accidents' only started happening after they did some work at the prison. A couple of the walls were unstable and they were worried about tourists getting hurt." Sam said and Dean snorted.
"Oh yeah, cos that worked out so well."
"Yeah, I know. Anyway, sounds like they pulled down some of the structure and cleared it away – I'm guessing when they did that they must have disturbed something."
Dean frowned.
"You mean like someone buried there? That's a little extreme, isn't it? I know the place wasn't exactly Disneyland but it was supposed to be a prison not a graveyard."
"It's not beyond the realms of possibility though, there's always been rumours about the kind of stuff that went on there. Didn't you ever see Murder In The First?"
"The Kevin Bacon flick? Yeah, I saw it but I got bored before the end." said Dean and Sam shook his head.
"Why am I not surprised." he said dryly. "Point is, there could easily have been a death there that got covered up. And if so, then I'd put money on the bones being disturbed by the builders when they were making that wall safe. I'm gonna try and look up some of the records and see if I can find out who it might have been"
"Well, whoever it is they're definitely pissed. I say we get back over there, toast that sucker and get on with our vacation. What do you say, Sammy?"
"I say it's Sam, and don't go getting complacent just yet. When is it ever that easy, huh?"
Dean grinned. "Don't be such a pessimist. I'm gonna go sort out a few things, why don't you get the stuff from the car and make sure we got everything we need."
Sam frowned. "Sort out what things?" he said and Dean shrugged.
"Well, for one thing how the hell we're getting across there. Unless you developed the ability to walk on water and forgot to mention it?"
Sam blushed a little, realising he hadn't thought of that.
"Alright, but try not to attract too much attention ok? We don't need the cops taking a closer look at us."
"Oh, really? Cos I was gonna go announce to everyone what we were about to do. Is that wrong?"
He ducked as Sam threw a pad at him and left the room, chuckling.
Sam rolled his eyes. Pessimism aside he really hoped Dean was right about this being a simple job.
But, unfortunately he highly doubted that would be the case.
