Thanks for the encouragement everyone! Also thanks for the at times multiple (!) reviews from MaddyR, LeeMarieJack, professionalemail101, morgzorg and a guest. You're just all so damn lovely and supportive. Two parts coming up. Here's the first.
It really is a ugly room. Red carpet, red couches, too many paintings of dogs and porcelain figurines of dogs, just too many dogs. He wonders what the point of it is since nobody seems to actually own a dog. Sam leans forward desperate to move his arms. He, Dean, Felicity and Diggle somehow all got sat on one couch like caught-kids. The Police Captain looms near them, his expression stern behind his thick mustache. He's yet to say anything to them and the only sound for the past few minutes have been the tiny whimpers of Bell. She and her sister sit on a larger couch across the room, Arabella crying and Alabaster looking stern, which may in fact be her only emotion.
The Captain sighs. "Ok, who are you again?"
"Uh, I'm Felicity Smoak and this is John Diggle," Felicity begins, hands already waving. "I am Oliver Queen's Executive Assistant and that's his bodyguard. We were - well not we, I- well, myself and Oliver. We were talking to the Shawinigans and Walters, Mrs. Walters, and then we left. But somehow, between here and the hotel, I lost my red pen. And you would think a red pen doesn't mean much, but I've had this pen since - well, for awhile, and let me tell you, you can get very attached to your pen… if it's red… So we came back."
"You were here looking for a pen?"" The Captain says, his face a question mark. Not surprisingly.
In their years of living outside the law, he's become what he considers to be a champion of excuses. He would expect Team Arrow to be at the same level. Apparently not.
"Not here, here," Felicity says, "on the road."
The Captain looks at her, shaking his head, "and you two?"
"We were taking a walk, we saw their flashlights. We were talking to them when we heard the crash… and followed them. I'm Arabella's friend, from school." Sam says with a glance at Felicity. That's how you do an excuse. Simple, effective.
The Captain looks over to where Arabella and Alabaster sit. "Miss Shawinigan?"
"Hmmm?" Arabella says. "Yes, that's Sam and his brother Dean."
"And one of you can vouch for uh, Ms. Smoak's … statement?"
"Her and Oliver Queen were here earlier today," Alabaster says in monotone. Seriously, her brother just died. He expects more. "I have not heard about the pen."
"You wouldn't-" Felicity says. "We're so sorry… not for the red pen. Well, sort of for the red pen. But mostly for your brother."
"So you all heard a crash? That's it? You see anything?"
Everyone shakes their head.
The Police Captain nods, "when did you get into town?"
"Last night," Felicity says.
"Last night," Dean says immediately over her. Which looks immediately suspicious so the minute the Captain looks away, Dean raises a finger to Felicity who narrows her eyes which causes Diggle to tilt his head in warning and Sam to grab Dean's finger to lower it. When the Captain looks back, everyone resumes their position.
"And you're all staying at the hotel?"
Everyone gives a nod.
"You need to stay at the hotel until we can get formal statements from each of you," he says.
Another cop enters, "hey Cap, we need you to take a look at this…"
"Yeah," he says and he looks them over again. "Alright, you all can go… but you stay in town, you got that?"
"Will do," Dean says with a mock salute. Dean turns back to him, "let's get the hell out of creepy dog room, huh?"
Oliver stops mid-pace when the door opens. Felicity and Diggle walk-through, immediately followed by Sam and Dean. Dean whistles when he enters the room, "so this is how the other-half lives… let me guess, your minibar isn't locked."
Oliver gives an impatient look to Felicity and Diggle before he looks at Dean. "You have one minute to tell me what exactly you are doing here or…."
"You go for the arrows?" Dean says. "Scary stuff but this isn't Medieval Times…." Oliver gives him a blank look. "The restaurant? What? Right, you've been... "
"I have to say," Sam interrupts, taking a tentative step towards Oliver. "It's an honor to meet you…"
"You haven't met me. And if it should come out that you have-"
"Yeah yeah yeah, we got it," Dean looks back at Diggle. "Tough stuff and Pepper Potts here already made that clear. We got bigger problems."
Oliver keeps his eyes on Sam and Dean and his voice low. "Again, what are you doing here?"
"We, uh," Sam pulls a notebook from his backpack. "After we heard about the murders, we did some research. This isn't the first time this place had something like this. Awhile back, a group of French trappers came this way. They set up shop and everything went well, until beaver fur came in and they started trapping at the lake. A year later, a group comes this way and finds a bunch of empty cabins. No trappers. Nothing but a journal that mentions 'a dark spirit that killed like a savage.'"
"Savage meaning Native American -" Felicity says. Oliver gives her a look. "What? Oh right."
"Exactly," Sam says.
"When was this?" Diggle says. "Let's hear them out Oliver."
"1807," Sam says. "The thing is, there's not much historical record. People remember the Lost Colony or the Eskimo Village on Lake Anjikuni, but never Shawinigan. And it gets weirder. There's never been a census taken here and the town wasn't on any formal map until the 1930's when the Shawinigan family put it on the map. A bunch of years after it was incorporated, which by the way, there's no formal record of."
"Just the sign. How'd you find all this?" Felicity says to Sam. "Oh, this is… this is what you guys do, right? Investigate the paranormal? Like Mulder and Scully?"
"I'm Mulder, he's Scully," Dean says, his eyes going to Oliver.
Oliver can feel himself losing patience. He wants to punch Dean. He just really, really wants to punch Dean. "Whatever you think you're trying to pull here will not work. Get your stuff, get in your car, and go back to wherever it is you came from. And if anything about me or my friends comes out, in any way, you will not like what happens next."
"You think you can handle this, huh?" Dean says, moving toward Oliver. "Then why don't you tell us exactly what you saw? If you think this is just your run-of-the-mill serial killer, we'll leave it to you, champ."
Oliver purses his mouth and again, it replays in his mind. The figure in the dark, too far into the trees, and then the sound of the arrows. Oliver had seen things in his life, had even perhaps seen the devil himself, but each time he'd blink and whatever it was would be gone. This time it ended up with a very real dead man with three very real arrows in his chest.
"We do this for a living," Sam says. "I've read about some of the guys you've seen, some of the ones that are popping up since the reactor incident in Capital City. It's easy to call all of this unbelievable but trust me when I tell you it's not. And that we, my brother and I, are legit."
"Prove it," Oliver says.
Sam looks to Dean, unsure of how to do exactly that.
"Cas!" Dean shouts.
Everyone waits for a moment but when nothing happens, Oliver rolls his eyes.
"Cas!" Dean shouts again. "Now's not the time Cas…"
"Ok, we're done here," Oliver says. Both he and Diggle begin to move in.
Sam turns to Felicity, "you were at MIT, right? Ever heard of someone named Ash?"
Felicity looks at him, "Miles? Uh, yeah, the Comp Sci legend/only person ever to be kicked out of MIT for-"
That's it, Oliver thinks. "How did you know she went to MIT?"
Oliver grabs Dean's jacket in his hands and pushes him up against a wall. The gun in Dean's pocket falls to the ground and then Diggle's gun is pointed at Sam. Felicity yelps and scrambles to move behind Diggle. Before anyone can settle, a door opens and Castiel appears.
Everyone turns towards him. Cas steps forward, "this is not a place to act in anger."
Behind Cas everyone can see the small bathroom, white tiles, a sink, a toilet, and no window. Diggle curses under his breath, Oliver just blinks and studies Cas.
"About time," Dean says.
Cas gives him a nod and then frowns as his head tilts upwards, "No, I understand." He looks at everyone. "I have to go." He turns back to the door and then looks back at Dean and Sam. "Do not leave them."
Cas goes back into the bathroom and closes the door.
"Felicity-" Oliver says, breathlessly.
Felicity looks at him, "oh, right" and then quickly opens the door to the small bathroom. The room is empty. She goes in and then turns back, her eyes wide, "uhh… so now I'm freaking out."
"You ain't seen nothing yet…" Dean says to Felicity.
Oliver's eyes move back to Dean, anger apparent.
Dean just smiles, "I believe the words you're looking for are 'I'm sorry.'"