The Supernatural characters belong to Kripke Enterprises and the CW, not me. No money is being made from this story. It is for entertainment only.

A/N A good part of this chapter references back to Chapter 5 of Walt and Roy Get What They Deserve where the BAU met the Winchesters. You might want to read that but it is not mandatory.

Hunter's Moon

Chapter 17

Chasing Winchesters

A free bird leaps on the back

Of the wind and floats downstream

Till the current ends and dips his wing

In the orange suns rays

And dares to claim the sky

ooOoo

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage

Can seldom see through his bars of rage

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

So he opens his throat to sing

ooOoo

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill

Of things unknown but longed for still

And his tune is heard on the distant hill for

The caged bill sings of freedom

ooOoo

The free bird thinks of another breeze

And the trade winds soft through

The sighing trees

And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright

Lawn and he names the sky his own

ooOoo

But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams

His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

So he opens his throat to sing

ooOoo

The caged bird sings with

Fearful trill of things unknown

But longed for still and his

Tune is heard on the distant hill

For the caged bird sings of freedom

ooOoo

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou , 1969

ooOoo

'"Oh, crap!" Penny Garcia looked at the e-mail request in disbelief. She tapped her comm link and got Aaron Hotchner, Unit Chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) of the FBI on the line.

"Boss, have you seen the Special Request from the Indianapolis office?" she asked

"No, Garcia, I haven't opened up my e-mail, yet. Hold on a minute." Hotch replied

There were various fumbling noises and then "Oh, crap!" echoed over the line.

"My feelings exactly, Boss." Garcia giggled.

"This has been copied over to the entire team?" he asked.

"Yes." Garcia confirmed. "Everybody should show up in a real good mood. Should I get the conference room set up?"

"That would be really excellent, Garcia. Have General Services set up with lots of black coffee and see if they can get doughnuts in. I think the team is going to need both caffeine and sugar hits for this one." Hotchner replied.

Half an hour later the relevantt members of the BAU were assembled in the main conference room. Derek Morgan was looking grim. Dr. Spenser Reid was sprawled in his chair, already hooked up to his iPod and on his second large cup of black coffee. David Rossi sat alert and scanned his fellow agents, his chin resting on his tented fingers. JJ was there but clearly uncomfortable and finally Penny Garcia arrived in a flashy Halloween themed dress complete with pumpkin colored ruffles.

Hotch looked at his assembled agents. "As you are all aware by now the Indianapolis office has requested our presence in regard to a potential kidnapping or murder of a woman named Alice Conway. The reason we have been requested is because the chief suspects in the case are the Winchester brothers."

Morgan groaned. "I supposed we're listed as the most recent contact for those weirdoes."

Hotch covered his mouth with his hand. It wasn't professional to snort at another agent's description of a couple of suspects. "Well, we did re-activate their "Most Wanted" status and we had to turn in reports from the incident in Nebraska. We and that agent from Omaha, Ray Ellis, are the most current contacts the agency knows about."

JJ pretty much waved her hand in the air. "Hotch, I wasn't on that trip. I know nothing about these guys. Shouldn't I be brought up to date?"

Hotch glanced her way. "Actually JJ, I was hoping that you could stay behind again and act as our liaison with the office. Garcia can bring you up to speed on the details that aren't in the official reports."

JJ raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean details that are not in the reports? I thought everything had to be reported."

"After you talk with Garcia, feel free to come to me and make suggestions as to how we can amend the reports without looking like an entire room full of mental cases." he responded.

Garcia reached over and patted JJ's shoulder. "Don't worry about it right now. I'll tell you all about it later."

Hotch looked over his room full of agents. "I think the real question here is do we want to get involved in the Weird World of Winchester again. Can we avoid it? And if we do decide to avoid it what do we tell the Indianapolis office? I understand that Ray Ellis has already told them that he doesn't want to be involved but will follow his orders."

Rossi spoke up. "Can we do that? This is a valid request based on our acknowledged familiarity with the suspects. Is there any possible reason we could give anyone to deny this request? I think we are stuck with it. If we don't comply we are all going to get put through the wringer by the higher-ups."

Then Derek decided to put in his two cents. "I haven't been comfortable with letting these guys get away with murder, even if what we saw was unexplainable. I understand that Ellis continued to pursue them after we left and I respect him for that. We should have never let them go."

Hotch began to gather up his materials. "I think what I am hearing is that we should, at minimum, go to Indianapolis. I think that we should assist the Indy office as much as we can but step back and let their local agents take the lead. Once they hit the wall of weird that is the Winchesters we can help them re-group and draw conclusions as to how to continue.

As he looked around the table Hotch decided that the team seemed comfortable with the plan. Derek looked annoyed, Rossi looked interested, Reid just went on being Reid and Garcia actually looked happy.

"Alright then, wheels up in about two or so hours. I'll have my assistant make reservations and arrange vehicles." Hotch nodded and dismissed the group, with no idea at all about the mission impossible he had just landed on his Administrative Assistant.

XXXXX

On a chill Indiana morning the group that gathered in the offices of the FBI appeared all red cheeked and rosy, huddling around the coffee station. The out of town visitors dumped their coats and scarves all over the place. There were the 5 visitors from the Quantico office and Ray Ellis, an SSA out of Omaha.

Ray appeared to be a little put out and abrupt, as if he was not really very happy as a member of the group. In addition there were a number of the Indy office SSA's. Chief among them was Indy Unit Chief Harris Williamson.

"Agents," Williamson addressed the room, "we are pleased to welcome you to the Indianapolis office and look forward to working with you. I wish I had been able to get you some warmer weather, but I'm only a Unit Chief and control of the weather is beyond my grasp."

A weak wave of mild laughter went around the office. Derek Morgan's face had "What a tool" printed on it in large letters.

Williamson took note of Morgan's expression and filed it away in his "Matters to be Dealt with Later" file.

Williamson was a wiry, grey haired man who had achieved his current position with a combination of hard work and dogged determination. His mind literally did function like a file cabinet and he rarely lost track of anything. He was not exactly popular with the agents working for him but they all respected him. Hotchner's first thought was this was exactly the kind of man who should not run into the Winchesters.

David Rossi was thinking along the same lines. He recognized the type of agent that Williamson typified. Hard working, unimaginative , and stubborn, he suspected that Williamson would chew at the Winchester world like a bulldog and wouldn't stop chewing until he had made their world into something he could identify.

There was already a sense of defeat and depression in the room. Even Williamson noticed it. He turned to his main SSA. Dietrich Kenny. " Ken, would you please take over the briefing and let the agents know what we have?"

Dietrich Kenny stood and Hotchner was immediately relieved. This was a man he thought they could work with, younger, more mobile; he gave the impression of a quicker wit when he flashed a simple smile at everyone. Such a simple action that put everyone more at ease; it was something that Williamson had not done.

"I am SSA Dietrich Kenny. Most everyone in the office calls me Ken and please feel free to do so. I will be the main field officer for this case and I look forward to getting to know each of you." Kenny was of medium height and dressed down. No FBI dark suit guy, he wore clothes that wouldn't be out of pace in an open field; jeans, a work shirt with the arms rolled up and boots. He was handsome and fair skinned, giving the impression of a good old Indiana farm boy.

Hotch wondered if it wouldn't be a good idea for every else to follow the man's lead and try to blend in with the people attending the festival. He thought he would mention it when it was his turn to speak.

Ken turned to the while board set up at the front of the room. "This is what we know so far." He tapped a picture of a young, dark haired woman. "This is Alice Conway. Two nights ago she disappeared. She lived in a trailer pack in West Lafayette and the neighbors heard some crashing and loud voices coming from her trailer after midnight on Tuesday. When no one saw her leave for work the next morning the park manager took it upon himself to investigate. What he saw when he opened her door lead to us getting a call from the local police."

Ken moved to another picture on the board and he tapped it with a pointer. "You have in front of each of you a folder containing copies of these pictures so you can get a closer look. Her trailer was completely trashed. Even the cupboards were opened and everything thrown down on the floor. There are what look like claw marks on the inside walls and small splashes of blood here and there on the floor."

"There was no body but there are the prints of what looks like a very large dog all around the trailer. We have no idea of what happened here and nothing has been seen of Alice since. The local police were going down the normal paths of investigation; old boyfriends, close friends, family, former employers and all the usual until they received an anonymous tip."

Everybody looked up at the change in Ken's voice. "Someone called in to the Sheriff's office and told them that the Winchester brothers were in town. The caller wouldn't give a name and all we know is that it sounded like a man.

Ken put down his pointer and rested his hands on the table. "Normally we wouldn't get so excited about a tip like this but the Winchesters have something of a track record. They have been accused of something like this before, even if it never was proved and right now the Festival of the Hunter's Moon is happening in West Lafayette so it would make all kind of sense for them to be on the scene."

Spenser Reid perked up. "Why would that make sense? Isn't the Festival something of a cultural and historical event? I thought it involved history buffs and battle re-enactors. Why would the Winchesters be interested in some so….well... mundane?"

Ken stood up straight and rubbed the back of his neck, evidently uncomfortable about something. He glanced at Williamson. "You need to know that a lot of our agents and even the local police don't believe in what I am about to say."

Williamson snorted. "Freaking fairy tales is what this is about."

Ken tightened his lips. "There is only one reason that makes it believable that the Winchesters would come here at this time of year. The Festival has a darker side that is not going to be found in the tourist brochures or the Chamber of Commerce advertising. It is whispered that men called Hunters gather here at this time of the year. They are a violent, hidden fringe group that believe in all kinds of paranormal activity; ghosts, monsters, Gods."

"Just what I said," Williamson barked out. "Fairytales, ghost stories. Nothing to it. Bunch of old women and faith healers pushing snake oil on the unwary."

Ken looked around the table. "No matter what side of the argument you are on, something draws some very strange people to West Lafayette every year and it would not be surprising to find the Winchesters among them. Why they would take Alice Conway and what they would use her or her body for is something we need to find out."

Ken sat down. "The reason we have asked the BAU and Agent Ellis here to help us is your recent encounter with the brothers in the Mid-West. Is there anything you could do for us?"

Hotchner rose to his feet and kept his eves on Agent Williamson. "Yes, we have had recent contract with the brothers. I believe that Agent Ellis has had even more recent contact."

"My suggestion to you is not to chase them. It will only drive them deeper underground and they are very good at disappearing. Even when they were actively being pursued they had the ability to fade away. For the past few years they had been presumed dead and then magically reappear at a bar in Nebraska. A bar that was described to us as a Hunter's Bar."

Hotch glanced around the room to see how his last statement had been received. He believed he could separate the believers from the non-believers by the looks on their faces. He figured the room was divided just about 50-50. He went on.

"It would be best just to join in to the community somehow. We don't have to hide. The Winchesters aren't afraid of us or you. Take my word for it. If we just let them know we want to talk they'll come to us. I think we should all just try to blend in to the Festival and wait. " He sat down just as Agent Williamson rose.

"Well, I can't agree with you there. I think we hunt them down just like any other set of scumbags. We don't swallow all this mystical crap here in Indiana. I'm surprised that you people do. If we get a lead on their location we are going to hunt them down."

He cleared his throat and sneered at the out-of-towners. "You guys can come with us, if you want. We're going to a place called The Old Bar where these people supposedly gather. Come or stay here, I really don't care." He stomped out the room, followed by half a dozen agents.

Dietrich Kenny rose. "Sorry for that. He really doesn't mean to insult you. It's just that we have heard this stuff year and year and nothing ever comes of it. These Hunters don't usually cause trouble. They come and go along with the rest of the crowds. Agent Williamson is under pressure to make sure nothing happens to endanger the Festival's reputation."

Hotch replied, "I can understand that. We have all had that kind of pressure applied at one time or another and there is nothing more unpleasant to deal with. I do believe it would be best, however, if we all got on the road and tried to beat him to this bar. And I think it would be good for all of us to follow your lead and lose the FBI suits. I hope we all brought warm, casual clothes. If not, I'll make some kind of accommodations. We should get on the road as soon as possible."

"Oh, goody," Morgan mumbled. "On to spook central. What kind of place calls itself The Old Bar?"

XXXXXXX

In the early evening the SUV's full of agents from both camps pulled up near The Old Bar. Built on a rise overlooking the Wabash River, it was easy to see why it had existed for so long. The elevation allowed the old building to ride out the area's frequent floods. It may even been a colonial period building that had carried on, avoiding the "restoration mania" and remaining a useful gathering place for hundreds of years.

It looked warm and welcoming in the early evening mists and everyone was happy to get in out of the chill dampness into the warm yellow light of the bar. Smoke and chatter, the smell of grilling meat and laughter greeted the new arrivals.

They all scattered, looking for open spaces at tables and tried to insinuate themselves into existing groups where possible. It did no good to gather together when they were trying to pick up gossip. Ken's group and Hotchner's agents all went with the plan. Unfortunately Williamson and his agents stood stiffly together and might as well have waved a huge sign with FBI printed on it.

Williamson's approach was to wait for someone to come to them. He was hoping for a "snitch"; someone with an ax to grind or a desire to cozy up to local law enforcement for some perceived benefit. It was a known tactic and it often worked. Success, however, often was dependent on how closely knit a group was. If these Hunters chose to they could close up ranks and hide their secrets.

Hotchner kept a close eye on the Williamson group and even approved of it; with people focusing on the obvious his agents and Ken's fell off the radar. People might open up more easily. As they infiltrated more and more tables Hotch caught the word Winchester passing through the room more than once.

"Hey Hotch!" He looked around for who was calling his name and found Dietrich Kenny standing across the room at a table with two older men. Kenny waved him over and Hotch picked up his recently acquired beer and moved to meet the other agent.

"Hotch," said Kenny. "These guys are Karl and Earl Montain. They are guys I have met before. They helped out on a kid that went missing in the woods south of here last year."

The Montains stood and both shook Hotchner's hand and offered him a place at the table. The four men all sat down.

"I'm Karl," one of the men said. Hotch called him 'sideburns' in his head. "We understand you would like to talk to the Winchesters."

"Do you know them?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah, we go back a ways with their father, John. They looked us up recently to bring us the news that John was dead and to make themselves known to us. Good kids. I would hate to see anything happen to them."

Ken interrupted. "Do you think it would be possible to get them to talk to us about the disappearance of Alice Conway?"

Now the other Montain spoke up. "I'm Earl, by the way. I guess you figured that out. Who's Alice Conway? Is that a local? What happened to her and why tie the Winchesters into it?"

Now it was Hotch that spoke up. "We really don't know what happened to her. Someone dropped a dime and called the local police to say that the Winchesters were in town and maybe someone should talk to them."

"That's an odd suggestion." Karl said. "As far as I know the Winchesters just arrived here the day before yesterday. You know who you guys might want to talk to…Silas." Karl pointed to a young man behind the bar delivering clean glasses to the racks. "The Winchesters dropped him off here late last night. He might be able to get a message to them for you."

Ken rose and so did Hotchner. "Thanks, gentlemen; you have been very helpful."

Just them Hotch noticed that Williamson was sittin table practically bumping heads with a rat-faced man. Williamson grabbed at one of his associates and pointed their way. The young agent made a bee-line for them.

"Agents," he said. "We have a potential location for the suspects. Agent Williamson wants to leave right away and would like your team to come with us."

Ken shrugged his shoulders and said to Hotchner, "At least we're invited along for the party. He could have left us behind." He turned back to the young agent. "Who's your informant?"

The young man replied "I'm not really sure. A local named Ed Gainer, I think."