El Cajon, California
Present Day

Zoë knocks on the door of room 108 as she looks over her shoulder down at the patio. Its quiet, an elderly man is playing an ukulele in the shadow of the balcony above him. The sky isn't clear blue yet, Coastal Eddy hasn't cleared up the clouds just yet on this early afternoon. The tones of the small instrument don't bring relaxation, but tension, as if it's a soundtrack, building up to the climax. She doesn't feel at ease and even startles a bit when Sam opens the door.
"Hey", he greets her.
She doesn't reply and walks passed him to enter the room, he can't help to follow her with his gaze. She's wearing her sharp suite again, this time with a skirt and black pumps. Her glasses give her a stern look and the FBI badge from her waistband tell everyone not to mess with her.
"Is your room just as crappy as mine is?", she complains.
Sam snaps out of it and shrugs. "It's not too bad. Why are you so grumpy?"
A bit offended Zoë drops her suitcase and gives him a glare, but lets it go. He's right, she's edgy. No wonder with a headache like this one. Not that she would give the boys the pleasure to enjoy that matter. Besides, the headache isn't her biggest concern. It's only now that she notices one of the two isn't in the room.
"Where's Dean?", she wonders.
Sam opens his mouth to answer, but right at that moment Dean can be heard from the closed bathroom, vomiting. The youngest brother doesn't even bother to answer anymore and sighs. Zoë on the other hand grins sadistically, even though that sounded disgusting, it made her day.
"Wipe that smile of your face, I can see it through the wall".

Apparently Dean heard her coming in and figured what her reaction would be, maybe he knows her better than Zoë gives him credit for. He now opens the door and leans on the doorknob. Even a blind man could see that he's feeling sick. He looks pale and his hair is all messy, a typical hangover look.
"Come on, it can't be that bad", Zoë mocks. "You didn't even win the drinking game".
Dean frowns. "There was a drinking game?"
"I think it would be better when you stop as soon as they throw the bottles of tequila in next time, Dean", Sam offers him some advice, with a chuckle of course.
Again that typical puzzled face. "There was tequila?"
Zoë snorts, priceless. This is worth the headache. Sam sighs amused and shakes his head disapproving.
"Lets get down to business, that's what we came her to do", he cuts to the chase. "Zoë, what do you got".
Without words she takes her Macbook out of her suitcase and opens it, handing it over to Sam. It shows a picture of shredded metal, Sam needs a few seconds to see it was once a car.
He looks up from the screen. "This isn't Jay's car, right?"
Dean now glances at the screen as well and tilts his head, trying to figure out what part of a car he is looking at.
"And I felt sorry for the guy ending up in a wheelchair. That dude is a lucky to get out of that alive", he huffs.
With the arrows on the keyboard Sam scrolls through the pictures while Zoë comments.

"There was nothing left of it. Early in the investigation the SDPD found out it was a two car collision, so they took their time examining the crash scene. There were over 400 pieces scattered over several square yards.
"So Jay's not seeing things, there was a second car", Sam concludes.
"Oh, Jay saw something alright. Thing is, all those plus 400 pieces that the police found, were from Jays Mitsubishi. There was not a single piece at the sight that belongs to another car. That's remarkable in accidents like this. When cars collide at this speed, you have debris from both cars, no doubt about that".
"Something's definitely off. So there's not a single clue what caused this?", Dean asks.
"There is. Take a look at the last couple of pictures".
Sam sets the laptop down on a small table and scrolls to the last jpeg file. It's a picture of the driver's door. It's dented and scratched, but something else is visible. In the deep dents there are dark grey marks to be seen; it's paint from the other car.
"That's a lead", Dean concludes.
"Police already looked into it. It's a custom color, samples lead to a paintshop called 2M Autobody at Miralani Drive San Diego. They had one car in their system which was painted that color, a Nissan Fairlady from 2002, owned by a guy named Brayden Garner", Zo continues.
Dean nods impressed, looks like no more research for him. It's not that bad to have two wiz kids on the team.
"Sounds like we're gonna pay this Brayden a visit then?", Sam suggest.
"Hold up, I'm not finished", Zoë interrupts a bit irritated and takes the Macbook from the table and sits down on the bed. With her laptop on her lap she opens the police file records she has access to on the internet and turns the Macbook around. They see a picture of a car, similar to what Jay's Mitsubishi looked like after the crash.

"That's the Nissan Fairlady, crashed on the same road where Jay almost found his death. It happened as a result of a streetrace which went bad for this driver. The car took a 60 yard tumble down the mountain before it caught fire", Zoë tells.
"Garner didn't get out alive, did he?", Dean guesses, by the looks of the photo.
She shakes her head. "Died instantly. The point is, this car crashed over a year ago".
Sam frowns, now they're getting somewhere.
"Let me guess, the police investigation stopped there?", he assumes.
"Yep, and it's where our investigation starts".
Zoë gets up and puts her Macbook away after which she takes the tight knot out of her hair an shakes it up a bit. Naturally her short curls fall on her shoulders. Dean looks aside at Sam, he sees his brother gulp.
"So…", Dean clears his throat. "We're dealing with a revenge taking spirit here, we have a name, we have a motive".
"The dude is clearly pissed about something, and he's not letting anyone race that road again", Sam ponders, crossing his arms in front of him.
"But why now, why does he pop up a year later?", the eldest of the brothers wonders.
"Jay was the first racer to enter the road actually, besides the road workers. After Garner's fatal crash they city closed the road and adjusted the crash barriers and renewed the asphalt. It was suppose to open this weekend", she clears up.
"Well that explains it, what's up next?"
Dean sits down backwards on a chair, resting his arms on the back.

"We need to look into Garner's relatives, friends, colleagues. Find out who his enemies are, find out more about his death. But first…", Sam gives Zoë a playful look. "we better grab something to eat, I'm starving".
Zo gets the idea, watching Dean's pale face closely. "Oh yeah, I would die for some peanut butter and wild salmon served up in a dirty garbage can".
Even though Dean doesn't want to, he pictures it and feels sick just thinking of it. He feels a belch coming up and glares at Zoë reproachful.
"I hate you", he muddles as he leaves the living area again and closes the bathroom door behind him.
"Likewise, dear", she replies loud enough for him to hear it.
Sam grins and watches the sparkle in Zo's eyes, but when she looks away, that fades quickly. For a moment she just stares into space, as if something is bugging her and causes her to worry. Then she takes a look at her phone for the time and picks up her stuff.
"Where are you going?", Sam wonders.
She sighs, she's afraid that question might come.
"I need to go some place", she answers vague.
"And where's that?"
It's now it's Dean who's asking as he exits the bathroom, drying his mouth with a towel.
"Just some place, let it go", Zoë replies defensive.
Sam is a bit surprised, why is she getting all jumpy about a simple question. Dean however isn't planning to let it go. In fact, it triggers him.

"Oh no, we're not doing this again. After what happened in Boston we agreed on staying honest with each other", he states firm.
"Staying honest with each other is different from meddling with someone elses business, Dean", Zoë counters. "Where I'm going has nothing to do with the case, it's no big deal".
But he's not letting her leave like that. "If it's no big deal, why don't you just tell us?"
"Because it's personal!", she cries out mad. "Would you back off?"
"No! I wanna know where you're going", Dean makes clear.
Now Zoë huffs in disbelief and stares at the eldest brother with arrogance. "Who do you think you are, my father? I don't have to tell you where I'm going?"
Dean is about to tell her what he thinks of this when Sam jumps in, trying to ease the situation.
"Look Zo, we're just worried that something might happen if you go your own way on this. I nearly died a few cases back", he explains with calm voice. "It's not that strange that all three of us want to know what's going on, I think Dean is just cautious".
It works, because the only female in their presence sighs and looks away. When she replies, she keeps her voice down.
"Look, I understand you want to know, but this is a private matter. I'm gonna visit someone… a relative. I swear it has nothing to do with you guys, nor the case", she promises, with some sadness in her voice. "Give me a break and just let me do my thing here, okay?"
The question is directed to Sam, knowing that she probably won't get the answer she wants from Dean.
"Okay, fine", Sam agrees, after giving Dean a look to shut up.

Zoë gives them both a last look and then walks through the front door, which slams shut behind her. Now that she's gone, Sam turns to Dean.
"Do you really have to be so harsh on her?"
"Harsh? Really? Come on, Sam. Last hunt where we kept things from each other nearly ended up into a fiasco. Dad warned us about her, when she starts to act shady, I wanna know what's going on", he replies without mercy.
"Sure, but she can have her privacy, so do we", Sam speaks up.
"To hell with privacy", Dean clearly doesn't agree. "She needs to be upright, because you know just as well as I do that she's not acting normal lately".
Sam sighs, he's right about that. Ever since she got that call from Danny, she has been acting strange. Edgy, moody and burdened, so it seems.
"So, who's gonna follow her, you or me?", Dean offers.
He doesn't leave his brother many options, so he caves in. He doesn't like it one bit, but since Dean can be as subtle as a train wreck, he'll draw the short straw and find out what Zoë's up to.
A deep sigh and a glare, but he admits. "I'll do it".