Pairing: Dean x OC (who will become a prophet later in the story)
Starting point: Season 3 Episode 1
LOCAL COURTROOM - LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
"The court will now call Mr. Blake Herring to the stand."
Kerri watched as her client made his way shakily to the stand. Dealing with nervous types was hard. Court proceedings were obviously completely foreign to Mr. Herring, but the gravity of the situation seemed to be setting in nonetheless, and hard. The poor guy was quivering from head to toe as he swore in and sat down. To further complicate things, Mr. Herring's initial testimony to the police at the station made no sense, and the poor interpreter didn't even know how to communicate it. That's why they called her, someone who shares his identity, and who may be able to understand and communicate his account.
Well no wonder he was hard to understand, his hands are shaking like a Richter 9.0 is going on in here. Kerri thought as she stood and placed herself between the interpreter and her client. Time to start the chain.
What happened next may be baffling to some, but to Kerri it was a well-worn and comfortable routine. She watched as the lawyer rose and faced the stand. She saw his lips begin moving, and then flicked her gaze to the interpreter, who began to convey his words in sign language.
"Mr. Herring, you've already stated that you were at another house doing repairs when the anonymous tip for the discovery of the Tyson family's corpses was called in. When was the last time you performed any maintenance or repair services for the Tysons?"
The witness was watching the interpreter as well, and Kerri saw in subtle way his face gradually un-tensed, that he understood the interpreter's message. She continued to watch him as he coughed, then raised his hands and began to sign a shaky reply. She watched his hands move slowly, then rushed, then uncertain, as his message jumped from rabbit hole to unfinished thought.
When he finished, Kerri turned to the interpreter and used her own hands to sign, "He says 'I didn't do anything... I mean, I usually come every month to service the tractor- but not that one month with all the snow. No tractor running then- but then Paul always was a working man; paid me fair... Oh, but I came the 3rd, regular time, they were in the house... then oh God, Jesus help me..."
After lowering her hands, the interpreter nodded, and began to speak Kerri's deductions aloud to the court and the lawyer, who then replied.
"We need to know what you saw, Mr. Herring."
And so the information went into the ears of the interpreter, out her hands, and into Mr. Herring's frighted mind. Finally, he replied. After the story went from him, through Kerri, and back to the interpreter, what came out was,
"There was this black cloud, an awful, dark, smelly thing... it... it crawled inside Jim from the grocer's place. In his mouth! I swear! I watched it happen! He went out to the Tyson's place few days after my run, and now they're all starved to death?! Haven't seen Jim since, Jesus save his soul..."
Wow. Kerri mused to herself as she exited the courtroom hours later. Poor Blake... Takes a special brand of crazy disease to see people eating black clouds... But that whole family just starving to death out of the blue like that? Beyond creepy...
Her train of thought was interrupted when she saw the interpreter wave at her in her peripheral vision.
"Hey, great job in there. That was a tough one... Black clouds and crazy stuff... I just couldn't wrap my mind around what he was signing! Thanks for your help." His hands conveyed.
"No problem," She replied with her signs, "That's what we CDI's are for, after all, to help you hearing folk get it together." She winked.
He chuckled. "Haha, yeah thank God for you Deaf interpreters. See you around!"
As Kerri's car exited the parking lot, she had no idea that she was about to get much more involved in this supernatural mystery than she ever planned.