Thank you all for your interest if you're reading this, after all you did click "next" so you must like it at least a little bit. ;)
And thank you very much to GraceSong for reviewing!
Without further ado, here is chapter 2!
Ah… So nice to have some time to shop. I never get to go shopping for leisure. Kerri thought as she browsed one of the densely packed aisles of the department store. I should find another pair of work slacks, but I reeeallly love this adorable jacket.
The jacket she held was a light-wash denim that contrasted beautifully with her dark skin, and had a large ying-yang patch on the back. Holding up the jacket to herself, she decided that a mirror was needed, and headed for the dressing rooms towards the back of the store.
A few minutes later in the checkout line, Kerri barely registered in her peripheral vision that the door to the store opened, and in walked a pale man with a light brown beard. Being Deaf certainly came with its perks, including enhanced visual acuity, but she paid the man little mind as he approached a woman near the shoe display.
Kerri couldn't have heard what he said to her, nor could anyone from that distance, but the only words he whispered to the woman were, "Those are nice shoes."
And that was all it took.
As she exited the store, already proudly sporting her new purchase, Kerri suddenly felt and then saw a blonde woman push roughly past her, almost knocking her against the door frame!
What the hell…! Kerri fumed, but knew that there was no way for her to confront the woman with the language barrier present, and was in the midst of resigning herself to let it go, when the unthinkable happened. She was glaring daggers at the blonde woman, who was talking to brown-haired woman near a car. Suddenly the blonde woman grabbed the brunette and began slamming her face into the windshield!
With no time to think, Kerri dropped her purse and sprinted to the blonde woman, grabbed the arm that held the brunette's head and pulled back with all her strength. Unfortunately, the blonde woman had a good five inches and at least thirty pounds on Kerri, and easily flung her off, slamming the brunette's skull into the car once more.
When Kerri scrambled to her feet, the blonde woman was jogging away, a brown shopping bag now clutched tightly in her hand. Knowing the injured woman was more important than catching the criminal, Kerri dropped to her knees next to the brunette's still form and turned the her over.
Blood bubbled out of what once was the woman's right eye. Kerri's face froze in horror, and she didn't even see the crowd forming behind her or see the mouths of the frightened bystanders asking her if she was ok.
Oh my God… She's dead…!
"You know what happened outside makes you realize how fragile life really is. You gotta make every second count."
Sam resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he approached Dean, who was in the process of wooing yet another hot blonde in the name of his "impending death." The department store was the scene of a murder for crying out loud. Clearing his throat loudly, he broke up the flirting and soon had his brother's undivided attention. Finally.
"Dean, what are you doing?"
"I'm comforting the bereaved." he countered. "What are you doing?"
"Working." Sam retorted, sass building in his voice. "Dead body, possible demon attack- that kind of stuff."
"Sam, I'm sorry." Dean began, "It's just I don't have much time left and uh" He coughed loudly. "Gotta make every second count."
Sam sighed. "Yeah, right. Sorry."
"Apology accepted." Dean smiled, a little too enthusiastically.
"Woah, looking spiffy Bobby." Dean said with an appreciative whistle as Bobby approached the boys and straightened his tie in the mirror, his suit and grooming completely transforming him into, well whoever the situation called for. "What were you, a G-man?"
"Attorney for the D.A's office." Bobby clarified. "I just spoke to the suspect."
Sam turned. "Yeah? So what do you think? Is she possessed or what?"
"Don't think so, there's none of the usual signs." Bobby continued. "No blackouts, no loss of control- totally lucid. Just, she really wanted those shoes. Spilled a glass of holy water on her just to be sure." He shook his head. "Nothin'."
"Maybe she's just some random wack-job." Dean suggested.
Bobby shook his head again. "If it had been an isolated incident, maybe, but first that family starving themselves, now this? I believe in a lot of things, coincidence ain't one of 'em." He paused, then continued. "You boys find out anything from that girl that tackled the killer?"
Sam seemed surprised, "Well there's no sulfur, nothing. But I didn't know somebody tried to-"
"Stop schizo shoe chic from splatter-painting the windshield?" Dean finished. "Yeah that is pretty gutsy. I mean women and shoes…" he made a face and twirled his index finger around near the side of his head. "Not something you mess with, man. Who did it?"
"Her name's Kerri Omiata. Folks at the station said she was still at the scene of the crime."
"Huh." Sam commented. "Kinda weird. Let's find her."
"Bobby, that her?" Dean asked, pointing to Kerri, who was sitting on a folding chair outside with her back facing them.
"Only one way to find out." was his reply. As the three walked toward glass store door, Kerri happened to turn her head towards them, showing her face.
Dean immediately perked up and with a quick proclamation of "Dibs!" he strode quickly out the door and sauntered up to her. This time Sam couldn't resist the eye roll, and Bobby just sighed.
"Excuse me ma'am, I heard about what you tried to do and I just wanted to tell you how brave that was. I gotta say, I really admire a woman who-" Dean stopped when Kerri turned and looked at him in blank confusion.
"Uh... I heard you saw that woman get killed, and I was wondering-" This time he was cut off by her hands waving in a "stop" sort of back and forth motion. He watched in confusion as she took her hands and covered first her ears and shook her head, and then her mouth and shook her head again.
By this point, Sam and Bobby had come up behind him, sensing his "soft interrogation of the witness" wasn't going as planned.
"Are you... is she, Deaf?" Sam asked Dean, who could only shrug, still looking baffled.
Kerri sighed, and using the palm of her left hand and the index and thumb of her right hand pinched together, mimicked writing on her palm.
Bobby seemed to understand, and pulled out the notepad he used when questioning the crazed blonde woman and slowly handed it to Kerri, along with a pen.
"Thank you." She began to write in crisp cursive lettering. "I am Deaf. I'm waiting for my interpreter to arrive so the police can question me and put down my testimony. Who are you?"
"Oh... Deaf, that explains it then." Dean nodded sagely.
Sam scoffed, "What? Why she didn't immediately fall all over you?"
"Shut up, Sammy."
Bobby had taken back the pad and was finishing writing his response. He handed it back to Kerri. "Hello Ms. Omiata. I'm Bobby Singer, an attorney at law with the D.A's office. These are my two nephews, Sam and Dean. They're in training to become police officers themselves and tagged along today. I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind."
Kerri read the note quickly, then began writing again. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Singer. Unfortunately as I said before, the interpreter is not here yet. The police plan to get my official statement when he or she arrives. I'm not sure I can help you right now, unless you prefer to just write back and forth like this the whole time. Your hand may cramp up." She smiled and passed it back to the three men, who all leaned in to read it.
"That's quite alright." Bobby wrote. "I'll wait with you then and keep you company. We can chat strictly off the record. My boys here just want a little investigating/detective practice of their own. They're such igits."
"Hey!" Dean protested as he moved and read the writing over Kerri's shoulder.
"Well, I suppose that's ok." Kerri wrote. Then handed the pad back to Bobby and stood. With a wave of her hand in a "follow me" gesture, she re-entered the store.
The group of four made their way to the cash register, which Kerri stopped directly in front of. She motioned for the pad and pen again, wrote something down, and then flipped it around and held it in front of her. "This is where I was standing."
Stepping confidently she walked over to the round shoe display and faced it. She wrote again and showed it to the others just as before. "This is where the victim stood."
Then she stepped a few paces away, and pretended to look at some other clothes. "This is where the blonde woman was." her pad said.
All three men watched her with mixtures of fascination and bewilderment as she continued to set the stage and visually place the key players. Their confusion outweighed their sense of wonder, however, when she began to add a fourth player to the scene.
Starting at the door, she wrote, "This is where the bearded man entered." and took on the role of said man, striding forward casually and miming the action of saying something quietly to the spot where she had set up the blonde woman, mouthing soundless words. Then she rotated her body and pretended to become the blonde woman, nodding at whatever the pretend bearded man had just said.
Lastly she wrote, "And that's all I saw. After that i saw the blonde lady speak to and then bash in the skull of the victim outside." Then with a face of sudden realization, she walked through the group of men who were still taking in the intricate re-enactment, and pointed to the ceiling where a security camera sat. "Might help." she wrote, and passed the pad back to it's owner.
Dean was the first to break the silence. "Well that was different."
Bobby reached out and shook Kerri's hand and mouthed a thank you, to which she smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.
"Ah! I remember now." Sam suddenly declared, causing all three of the others to turn and look at him. Raising his right hand with his fingers closed and flat, he brought it to his chin and then straight out, creating the sign for "Thank you." Hesitantly he spoke and asked, "Uh, was that right?"
Kerri let out a giggle, the first sound any of the three men had heard her make, and nodded happily.
"When'd you learn that, nerd?" Dean teased.
"I don't know, I remember looking at a sign language book once. It took me a few minutes to remember, and all i can remember are the signs for 'apple,' 'sorry,' 'thank you,' and uh, 'toilet.'"
"Helpful." Dean snickered.
Not a second afterwards the door opened and in walked a middle-aged woman in a black blouse, who approached Kerri and signed and spoke simultaneously, "Sorry I couldn't be here sooner, I was stuck in traffic. Would you like to go for your questioning now Ms. Omiata?"
Kerri's hands came to life, signing quickly and gracefully, and after a few moments the interpreter turned to Sam, Dean, and Bobby. "She says it was nice to meet all of you, but she has to go now and..." the interpreter paused as Kerri signed a few more concepts, "She says good luck with the rest of your training."
Bobby was first to reply, and the interpreter began signing his words as he spoke them, "Thanks for all your help. We'll be sure to take a look at that security footage." Then turning to Sam and Dean, "C'mon boys, we got work to do."
As Bobby and Sam walked out, Dean lingered for just a moment more. "Hey, uh, Kerri..." he said, addressing the interpreter.
"Oh, you can address Ms. Kerri directly, just pretend I'm not here." She smiled.
"Oh ok." He turned and looked at Kerri's inquisitive face. "Uh, just wanted to say sorry that I kept talking at you at first. Didn't mean to make you feel weird or anything."
When the interpreter finished signing his message, Kerri hands moved fluidly through the air and the interpreter began to voice, "Oh, don't worry about it. Happens all the time. Glad we were able to communicate in the end. But I was able to lip-read the back half of what you said, and your flirtation tactics need some work pal. 'I admire your bravery' is a little obvious. Not to mention cheesy." At Dean's flabbergasted and somewhat offended face she giggled, and brushed past him, giving a last little wave of farewell, then walked out the door with the interpreter close behind.
At that moment Dean just logged the encounter away as just another strange witness interview and left to catch up to Sam and Bobby, positive he would never see her again. And years later, he would reflect on just how wrong he was.