"So what's the plan?" Dean asked through a mouthful of pizza, finally looking up at Sam after inhaling six slices in the course of five minutes. Dean had driven instinctually to the pizza place he and Sam had seen the previous night when they were tailing Bishop, and Sam couldn't help but think about the carnage they had seen just a few hundred feet away. Sam was lost in thought, wondering if anyone had found the women who had been killed, or if they were still lying there, bloody and lifeless.
"Sam!" Dean said louder, looking with concern at his little brother. "You okay?" Sam started and sat up straight, rubbing his eyes and reaching for a piece of the half eaten pizza.
"Yeah, sorry, the plan. I say we go check out this Aidan guys' house. Maybe he'll be willing to help us take down Bishop and the Dutch. I mean, you saw how he fought with Bishop last night." Sam took a bite and thought for a moment, adding, "Let's bring the stakes though, just in case."
Dean held back his coat without looking up to reveal the stake hidden against his torso. "Way ahead of you, Sammy," Dean said, winking and tossing the last bite of pizza into his mouth. He tossed a twenty-dollar bill on the table and stood up, sighing with satisfaction at finally having a full belly and a plan.
Sally had been flitting around the house ever since she and Josh had confronted Aidan in the wee hours of the morning. She paces back and forth in Aidan's room for the fourth time that day, crossing her arms as she pauses to look around the immaculate room, her heart wrenching as she imagines her best friend participating in such horrific things. She doesn't know what those horrific things are, exactly, but she had decided long ago that she didn't want details; the things Aidan had to do to survive as a vampire were better left unsaid. She pops back into the living room when she hears the front door open, a bleary-eyed Josh staggering through the door and collapsing on the couch with a sigh.
"Hey stranger," Sally says tentatively, eyeing Josh from the corner of the room. Josh manages a low "hmm" to indicate that he heard her, but otherwise maintaining his slumped posture on the couch.
"How was our favorite bloodsucker today?" Sally asks in a feeble attempt at injecting humor into tense situation in the house. Josh sits up slightly to flash Sally a look that says Really? and Sally realizes how tasteless her joke was in light of the events at the blood den the night before.
"We passed in the hall a few times, but we didn't speak," Josh says flatly, sitting up to face Sally and rubbing his eyes. "I don't expect him home for another few –" Josh begins, interrupted by Aidan stepping nimbly and quietly through the door, obviously hoping to slip by everyone unnoticed. Josh and Sally bore into Aidan, daggers in their eyes, willing him to announce that he'll be going out with Bishop tonight.
Aidan senses the tension in the room and smiles awkwardly, clumsily closing the door and dropping his keys. It strikes Sally at that moment how similar Josh and Aidan really are when it came to uncomfortable situations – both become painfully awkward and try to play off the tension with a joke, usually making asses of themselves in the process.
"Uh, hey guys, how's, uh, how's it going?" Aidan flounders, trying to figure out a way to get to his room without having to talk about Bishop and the Dutch. "I'm just gonna, I'm gonna head up, and uh, you know…" Aidan trails off, bungling through the room and tripping on the first stair. If he still had a pulse, his heart would be jumping out of his chest; you could cut the tension in the room with a knife.
"Where do you think you're going?" Sally asks a little too loudly, considering the fact that Aidan was right next to her. "If you think you're getting out of here without talking about Bishop and the Swiss – "
"The Dutch," Aidan corrects her under his breath, turning to face her but keeping his eyes on the floor.
"Whatever!" Sally shouts, even louder this time, startling Aidan and Josh enough to look up at her in shock. "I don't know about you," Sally begins, looking at Josh, "but I for one am gonna need a little more reassurance from you that no one is gonna be breaking down our door anytime soon. Because if one of those vampire thugs comes into this house – "
"They can't come in without an invitation, Sally, you know that – " Aidan interrupts, with more confidence this time, trying to console Sally with logic.
"Are you finished?" Sally says tersely, a warning look in her eye that only a woman can give that will stop a man in his tracks. Aidan freezes, his mouth slightly open, and slowly bows his head dejectedly, eyes to the floor. "Good. Like I was saying," Sally begins again, suddenly interrupted by four sharp raps on the door that sends all three into a cold panic, their eyes shooting to the door.
"FBI, please open the door," a Dean says, looking sidelong at Sam and patting the wooden stake hidden beneath his leather jacket.
Aidan locks eyes with Josh, both understanding that Aidan should be the one to answer the door. Josh quietly crosses to the basement door and ushering Sally in, nodding to Aidan and silently closing the door. Aidan slowly approaches the front door and peers through the window, eyeing the two men on the porch, immediately identifying them as human upon seeing their carotid arteries pulsing in their necks. He opens the door slowly and forces a smile, taking in the two very casually dressed FBI agents before him.
"What can I do for you officers?" Aidan says a bit too formally, addressing Dean. He glances nervously at Sam, whose serious demeanor and stone-faced expression unnerved him.
"May we come in?" Sam asks, softening his expression and addressing Aidan with a calmer and gentler tone than the vampire had thought possible for such a moose-sized man.
"Um, sure, ple-please, come in," Aidan stutters, stepping aside to let the 'agents' into the house. Dean immediately takes inventory of the exits and possible weapons in the room, while Sam puts on his calming charm with the visibly nervous vampire. "Uh, sit, erm, please sit down," Aidan manages, gesturing to the couch. He glances anxiously at the basement door, quickly cutting his eyes back to the 'agents' and following them to the living room.
"Thank you," Sam says, sitting on the couch next to Dean and glancing at his brother. Both hunters had noticed Aidan's nervous demeanor, and they suspected that there might be more people in the house. "Well, we'd like to ask you a few questions about Officer Bishop of the Boston Police Department, if we could," Sam begins, noticing the twitch in Aidan's face when he mentioned Aidan's maker.
"Um, I mean, I don't know how much help I can be. I don't know anyone by that name. Sorry," Aidan says a little too quickly, chuckling through his lie. A thought suddenly strikes Aidan, and he scrutinizes the two 'agents,' wondering how they found him in the first place; he was always so careful. "Sorry, I didn't catch your names, agents," Aidan says, his mood darkening with suspicion.
"Well Aidan," Dean begins, speaking for the first time since he announced his and Sam's presence through the door, eliciting a startled look from Aidan, "let's just cut to the chase, shall we?" Sam shoots Dean a quizzical look, wondering how much information he's about to indulge to the vampire. "I'm Dean Winchester, and this is my little brother, Sam. We're hunters. Now, being a vampire, I'm sure you know what that means, don't you?" Aidan sits back, stunned, every muscle in his body ready to flee or fight.
Josh and Sally could faintly hear the conversation going on in the living room, and when they heard the words 'vampire' and 'hunter,' they knew Aidan was in trouble. They make eye contact, trying to decide if and when to intervene; they both knew that Sally would be little help, except perhaps to scare the hunters, but Josh planned to make a beeline for the fireplace poker.
Sam and Dean could feel the waves of panic washing over Aidan, and Dean's hand instinctually went to the wooden stake hidden beneath his jacket.
"Look," Sam begins, reaching over to steady Dean, "we didn't come for a fight, though you should know that we didn't come unarmed either." Dean opens his jacket to show Aidan the wooden stake hidden against his body, giving him a warning look and daring him to try something.
Hearing the word 'armed,' Josh and Sally count down from three and burst through the basement door, Sally materializing directly in front of the couch, and Josh sprinting to grab the fireplace poker. He points the iron poker at Dean's chest, his face contorted with rage and concentration.
"If you want to kill Aidan, you'll have to go through me," Josh says, confusing the hunters, who are still staring at Sally and wondering how she just popped into existence in front of them. Aidan and Josh both relax slightly, looking from the Sam and Dean to Sally, realizing that the hunters can see their ghostly roommate. Sally is also surprised that they can see her, and she suddenly becomes self-conscious, stepping back toward the mantle and crossing her arms.
"You – you can see her?" Josh and Aidan ask in unison, still looking back and forth between the hunters and Sally.
"Yeah, but… is she a ghost?" Sam asks Josh, who has backed off of Dean and put the poker down.
"Hello, I'm right here!" Sally says angrily, putting her hands on her hips and flashing Sam a bitchface. "You don't have to treat me like a wall hanging just because I'm a ghost."
"I'm, uh, I'm sorry," Sam says uncomfortably, glancing at Dean for a clue as to how to proceed, eliciting a shrug from his older brother.
"Okay Sally, calm down," Aidan says, holding out his hand to calm Sally. "So, how can you see her? Unless you're psychic or some kind of creature, like Josh and I," – "Werewolf here," Josh gives the hunters a small nervous wave – "there's no way you could see a ghost."
"Well," Sam begins, "Dean and I have both been to hell," – "Yeah, and I've been to purgatory too," Dean adds – "and I used to drink demon blood, and… I think that's it."
"Don't forget we've both been to heaven too," Dean says, looking awkwardly at the trio before them, staring at them like they have six heads.
"Okay, they're more screwed up than us," Josh says to Aidan, Sally joining them in a nod of agreement. Sam and Dean shift uncomfortably on the couch, still unsure how to proceed with their proposition to Aidan to help them take down Bishop.
"Now that story time is over," Dean says to Aidan, deepening his voice and adopting a more formal demeanor, "we'd like to talk to you about Officer Bishop, if you don't mind." Aidan can feel Sally and Josh's eyes on him, but he maintains eye contact with Dean, intent on finishing this conversation as quickly as possible.
"What do you want to know?" Aidan asks, cutting his eyes to Josh and Sally and tipping his head toward the stairs. Sally pops out of the room, and Josh takes the hint and heads up to his room, keeping his eyes on Aidan until he reaches the stairs.
"We know that he's involved with some powerful vampires called the Dutch, we know about the recent string of murders by vampires, and we know that you went with them to that blood den last night," Sam says gently, hoping to ease Aidan into the idea of helping them. If Aidan had any color in his face, it would drain at the mention of the incident the previous night. He could still hear the screams of the women as they were devoured by the Dutch.
"But we also know that you're not okay with what happened," Dean jumps in, appealing to Aidan's obvious humanity. "We heard you talking to Bishop in the alley, and we know that you don't agree with what he's doing, trying to expand his empire and all that." Aidan gulps, realizing that these hunters want something from him; information he could give, but anything more would constitute betraying his maker, which he couldn't bring himself to do.
"What do you want from me?" Aidan asks quietly after a few moments, looking up at the hunters before him.
"We need your help to stop Bishop, and stop the killings by the vampires he's creating," Sam says. Aidan puts his head down, rubbing his eyes with his palms and sighing heavily. "I can see that you want to blend in and live as a human, and you and I both know that Bishop's plan to go public is going to put you and your friends in danger," Sam says, leaning forward and putting his hand on Aidan's shoulder. "Will you help us, Aidan?"
Aidan sighs heavily, recalling his conversation with Bishop in which he promised to remain loyal to his maker. He also remembers the Saturday night when Josh tried to make chili and ended up setting off the smoke alarm, and the random Tuesday when he and Josh went out for drinks and Sally tagged along, scaring the other patrons at the bar all night. He knows his obligations, boy does he know, but the past few months with Josh and Sally have taught him that he deserves more, and he is capable of being more, than just a bloodthirsty and ruthless monster.
"What do you need me to do?" Aidan asks, looking up at Sam and Dean with a weary but determined expression, ready to do whatever it takes to stop Bishop and the Dutch.